No, I really didn't. It's honestly pretty bad at this point! The extra chapters actually play to the author's strengths, so maybe once this is all done and collected I'll shell out or if they were writing them more often, but the main story went to crap

 

Lmao let me get this straight then, you kept reading 8 chapters of "pretty bad" regular story every month, so you could have the context for the 1 extra chapter of good stuff?

Your brain is a strange place my dude.

 

Meh, at that point I had read enough that just having it with coffee was a thing. Not sure why this has brought out the defensiveness, it's just an easy breaking point with the story for me

 

Change of subject:

Spoiler

I can't see how the Grand Alliance is going to turn things around.
Cat took her armies to the east while they already had a hard time holding against the armies of the dead in Procer.

How will they hold for half a year or however long it will take to go to Praes and negotiate/fight/whatever for diabolists?

Edited for spoiler

 

So we've not talked about apgte in ages here. Nothing at all since the last book started, and why?

Is it not as great as it once was? No, it's the best it's ever been.

Are the stakes not as high? No, the stakes are higher than ever.

Surely after such a long series and no chatter we must be missing payoff? No, goddammit no. Everything is heading to a crash course.

"Is there romance?" Yes.

"Is there romance?" No.

"I've heard this is really a series about Gods acting through mortal proxies and continually getting fucked over by their own advocates, is that true?" Yes.

"I haven't read this but the summary and prologue kind of leave me feeling empty." Just... Please. I said the same once. It's so much more than whatever you're expecting.

"There's too many chapters describing tactics." Wrong. There really aren't.

"There's too many chapters describing the battle of the main character cheating her way through the story through good luck." Yes, that's the point. It's not luck though, she's planned damn near everything and made it all look like luck because that's a good story.

Basically. Why the fuck are we not discussing that WARLORD IS A THING?

 

Halt and I have been chatting about it on Discord lol. Headed to the airport in a bit but will write down some thoughts on the recent events later.

 

Honestly I just forgot about it after the last book and never picked it up again after Errata's break. We've gone back to guide being genuinely good I take it?

 

There are a number of scenes that place among the high points of the series, but the pacing has been awkward in some parts. I expect that to be smoothed out before publishing, but it's still not bad in the context of most web serials.

These latest chapters are definitely worth catching up on.

 

Latest book has dealt with some pacing issues. Ironically, blocking bonus chapter access has reduced the interlude-and-reaction madness thay dragged out some earlier books. I'm still salty with Wildbow for (introducing?) popularising these, people use them as a crutch.

The main structural issue that still bugs me is that there is both namelore and magic, that none of the viewpoint characters understand or explain magic, and that magic is frequently used to do complicated, technical, plot-relevant things to the namelore that we readers do mostly understand. To me it feels cheap every time some incomprehensible Masego-Dead King interaction is used to "explain" what powers Cat has in a given book.

 

Before the end of the current arc, I would like to say that I hope that goodness wins or rather that someone trying to be good comes out on top. Akua has undergone such change as a character that I can't help but root for her during the current crisis. However, I've found that the characters I tend to root for in this serial end up either: losing, suffering a fate worse than death, or simply fading into irrelevancy.

I would, just this once, like to be on the right side of history.

 

I'm giving this story a go, but you're right that reading on Wordpress can be quite annoying. Have you tried converting it to an ebook? I'm quite happy with WebToEpub. Just use it on the table of contents and it will create an Epub that is much nicer to read than the Wordpress version.

 

So, the Praes arc reached its climax..

Spoiler: Thoughts on chapter

I'll be honest, I was a tad disappointed with Cat's name. I'm still not sure if it was the Bard's plan to get her to be Warden of the East instead of something more universal or if it was intended by Cat all along and she just wanted to avoid being Warden of the East (geographical East).

All of Below's stories are now gone. This leaves me with to burning questions that I dont think can be answered satisfactorily.
1. Would there be any realistic chance against the Death King if he decides to zerg rush Calernia now?
2. How can the Above still make use of stories involving villains if villains are no longer bound by stories?

Hopefully EE will wrap the story up in a believably manner but I'm wary for now.

RIP Amadeus. Biggest simp on his side of Calernia but he was nice

 

Spoiler

I... don't know how I feel about this. Stories having narrative weight in universe was the most interesting bit of worldbuilding in my opinion. Below not being bound by them by Above remaining so feels absolutely bizarre, and like teh set up for them to break Above's too and 'free' everyone from stories. Even if the stories say you win, one side being bound and the other not feels like the set up for one side going in looking to play a part in the play and the other side shooting them in the face because fuck you. Don't see how having stories on your side is helpful if the other side isn't bound to them.

Also, the Bard having the power to do that feels insane to me. It's one thing to have your finger on the pulse, quite another to be able to unmake it all entirely.

 

Spoiler

Hm. So, the Chancellor Election scene? There's a lot I like there. It's a nice resolution scene for Black. But I would've liked to see it from somebody else's perspective, maybe even up through Black's death. Hakram's or Amadeus's perspective, maybe? Probably Black, because he can believably guess at Cat’s motives when she attacks and you do need that so it isn’t a major wtf. Like, killing Amadeus is a major scene that Cat certainly has license to be the POV for, but as she becomes more Bard-like I think there is a real value in seeing her do this shit from somebody else's perspective. Or maybe you just swap to Cat when she enters, and have somebody else beforehand. The whole End of the Tower scene just loses something from being from Cat's outsider view. Better to be from somebody active in the scene.

Then the end bit with the Bard was... eh. Like, yes, there's some "oh shit, the Dead King is really off his leash" consequences there, but there's a lot here that just doesn't follow clearly. Too much explanation, not enough set up. The Bard can just kill the power of stories? Fucking what?

 

Spoiler

Once again some unexplained Name (Bard can kill roles) and Magic (silver harpoons can siphon the Bard's power but only if Cat and Masego do it) interaction shows up and determines the main direction of the plot. Also the bits around Black dying are clearly just written to get that one scene to work, and the Alaya "but you still need me to rule" thing has become ridiculous and untenable by now.

What really winds me up is this follows on from a genuinely decent and well set up resolution of Praes using Black as Chancellor, sweeping the rug out from it. Also some decent development of Akua has gone precisely nowhere. Drags this otherwise quite good final book down to the other "meh/5 some good lines" later series ones.

 

That’s great and all, but my boo is the Warden now. I’m literally creaming my booty shorts.

 

I dropped this sometime during book 3 - post Summer, but before the second Liesse. I think the constant battles were getting to me, from what I remember, but it's been a while. I've picked it back up over the last couple of months though (starting from scratch, because I couldn't really recall the finer detail), and what an awesome chapter to finally get back up to date on!

I do think binging through it helped, as there were a few points where, had I been reading update to update, I might have got bored again - the Everdark arc comes to mind - but on the whole I've thoroughly enjoyed it. Looking forward to seeing how it all wraps up.

 

I shed a few tears this last chappie…