I'm quite liking it. But then, maybe it's because I haven't read worm and thus may not be turned off by it not being of the same quality. I'm not saying that is what's going on, but it seems a possibility.

Who knows?

 

I still follow.

I wonder what it was that Rose saw that had her looking so put off at the beginning of the chapter?

 

Yeah. I'm definitely feeling the same way. The universe is vaguely interesting, but the characters and their skill sets just aren't there (yet).

 

So far the story has just been about exposition and world building really. It's hard to imagine where Wildbow will take this as Blake and Rose get more competent - I imagine there will be a larger plot bigger than just fighting off the other local families.

Been just keeping my interest so far though.

 

Is it just me or is Blake prissy and a little bit of a diva. I don't know, sometimes he seems like the kind of peripheral character that the protagonist would talk to but still find annoying.

I think I'm going to give this a break wait for at least three full arcs to conclude. I'm still not sure if I'd have stuck with worm if I'd found it just as it was starting.

 

I think it's just you. :-\

Given the shit he's going through, Blake seems to be taking everything in stride and approaching everything quite level headed. I'd hardly say he's being prissy or being a diva.

Though I can kinda understand on the peripheral character bit. He feels a bit too emotionless in his narrative you struggle to get a strong first person connection to him. Worm in comparison had a lot more internal monologue.

 

Adding to this thread to let everyone know that Wildbow will return to the practice of posting bonus chapters starting tonight.

 

Where Worm had a lovely balance of character and worldbuilding, Pact is unfortunately really heavy on the worldbuilding so far and isn't getting there with the characters. Blake and Rose are dull, though Blake is showing some signs of life. The lawyers are interesting to read about, but they're the first characters in this story that have actually grabbed my eye. The magic feels vaguely interesting but it's all being held back behind a 'maybe-this-is-too-great-for-us-mere-mortals' veil, and that really kills my magicboner.

The most recent interlude really drives that home for me. I don't want to read a textbook about magic, I want to read about the awesome people that populate this interesting world. A world can be amazing, but without good, interesting characters and storylines, it's pointless.

Take Harry Potter, for instance -- seeing as we are on DLP. HP's magic is whimsical and fun, and the world is awesome. But backing up that great setting are some fantastically unique and interesting characters and a million fascinating plotlines. Think about it this way: there were so many characters in Harry Potter, yet very few of them are not memorable.

In Pact, not even the main characters are particularly memorable yet. What distinguishes Blake and Rose from the herd? We haven't really been shown yet. I guess I just wish there was some sort of definitive characterization going on. I don't even know why I should root for Blake aside from this being his point of view. Maybe it's just too early for it...

 

I think the problem is that Worm threw you into the world; you instantly had conflict, characterization, interaction, so on and so forth. Pact's first few parts were great, the whole escape from the plague doctors, running around the wilderness, the feeling of mystery. It's just gotten bogged down under the worldbuilding. I don't really care that much about people holed up in a house reading about magic. I don't really want action; the best parts of Worm were the talky bits, not the fighting, but I want conflict.

Pact's just kind of boring right now. I'll probably go back to it in a few months, but it just isn't worth my time to read until it picks up

 

The problem with comparing it to Worm is that as a universe, in Worm you could understand what was going on without too much knowledge of the world. At the start you didn't need to know the ins and outs of how Skitter controlled her bugs - just that she went fought Lung and that was it. The world exposition was more a consequence of the direction the story went.

With Pact, it seems like to even understand the impact of certain actions characters take or the reasoning behind those actions, we're required to have an intimate knowledge of the rules of the world. Wildbow certainly hasn't chosen an easy concept to write.

I kinda think we got into the action too quickly to be honest. At the end of chapter 1, we already have Blake being chased by others. I think it could have benefited with a longer time spent just being introduced to Blake, and interacting with people (not Rose). That'd have probably have made us more connected to him when this shit started happening (though, at the same time I suppose readers would want the plot to get a move on).



I am starting to enjoy it a bit more now. The prediction that Blake is going to die a horrifying death has set a bit of a pressure for him to work against. I like the way it's humanizing and to some extent, normalizing some of the characters (like Maggie and the Dupache girls). Worm did that a lot - under their masks, most Capes were normal people. And it's part of what made interactions so interesting to read.

Completely agree with Mutton that the best parts of Worm were the 'talky bits'.

Still not seeing Worm-level potential in the concept, but I also don't think I was really that engaged in Worm at the start either (wasn't that interested in the whole superhero thing), so took me a while to get into it.

 

So, in other words, Worm was written by wildbow!Neil Gaiman. Pact is being written by wildbow!Brandon Sanderson.

 

There's not nearly enough 'Hey-look-at-how-fucking-clever-I-am-for-lampshading-a-fantasy-cliche-LOL' for it to match Sanderson.

Seriously speaking, though, not a half-bad comparison.

 

I think the thing that's bugging me is Blake and his friends. He ran away, then developed a really tight knit group of people who cared about him (the tattoo artist for example). I would've liked to have been introduced to some of them before he left, or at least have him think about them a bit more than he is.

Not going to lie, I couldn't get myself to read this latest interlude. Just not my cup of tea.

 

You're not the only one. I put it off for quite a while before I actually got through it. It was mildly interesting I guess, but not much beyond that.

 

Yeah agreed. Really hope they play a part in it and don't just forget about them.


Regarding the interlude, the interviews were kinda interesting, the rest was fairly dry. Interesting to see some of the weird shit people get themselves into as practitioners.

 

I'd have preferred more from Grandmother Rose's diary.

 

Everyone needs to stop what they're doing and go check the latest update. I'm really starting to like this World that Wildbow has built.

 

I did enjoy the update quite a bit, but I'm not sure I really want to read an entire arc of people not named Blake this early in the story.

 

I think Wildbow's still a bit uncomfortable writing a male main character, and this is him returning to his comfort zone.

 

Things are getting more interesting, and Blake is close to displaying some actual personality, so I'm definitely liking these latest updates a lot. I do have to admit that I'm not a big fan of how ridiculously underpowered Blake and Rose are compared to, well... everybody. I'm hoping they start learning some cool stuff soon, because they're spending a lot of time just floundering around trying to get their footing.