This last one was really good. Looks like we're getting the final calm before the storm, because the author said that February will be the last Patreon extra chapter, meaning the story will wrap up before March. I am really looking forward to doing a full read through will all of it there in a few months. Such a good story, and I've been following it for ~4 years now. Kind of insane to think about.

 

Well. Not an entirely unexpected event, but very satisfyingly handled, IMO. I've been skimming through some earlier books for favourite scenes this week, but I'm already looking forward to doing a proper reread, and if, as I believe is the plan, it gets properly published some day, I'll definitely be purchasing.

 

Overall the story's been worth reading. I'm not jumping for the moon due to the ending, but I'm not disappointed by it.

That said, they did my girl Yara dirty.

In terms of lasting effects, this change really does chip away at the possibility of good ever truly getting the upper hand.

 

I’m happy with the ending. It’s established a fair status quo in the future for names. I’m interested to see how the Age of Order is shaped. Will names be as adversarial?

 

For those who don't know, the story is now completely finished and the second (and last) epilogue has been released.

It's a bittersweet moment for me as I've been following this story for years now.
I'm glad the story ended when it did - At a humongous size it was starting to drag out a bit. One can only read so many twists and turns before they begin to tire.

Some of the epilogue felt a bit sidetracked or wishy-washy to me, but overall it was overall enjoyable and a fitting end to a great story.

Spoiler

Poor Abigail.. She only wants to retire and live the good life!

It looks like the Author is bringing out a new story in not long - Excited for that

 

Loved the final scene. The only bit I've had any real issue with in the epilogues is

Spoiler

that Cat and Cordelia become lovers, kinda randomly? Like, I can see arguments for the whole Cat/Akua romance not being the best set up strand, although it worked for me, but the thing with Cordelia seemed more like EE throwing a bone to the shippers than anything else.

Not a big thing, just brought about a raised eyebrow.

Looking forward to the release of the extra chapters.

 

... I'm a little shocked by how much my dislike of the Cordelia/Cat pairing soured me on the entire work. All the politicking and so on I think worked out great, and I overall really liked the ending, but the incredibly complicated relationship between Cat and Akua became one of my favorite parts, and I was really looking forward to seeing where they ended up and then rereading with that endgame in mind.

... And EE made her the fucking side hoe? I feel suprisingly betrayed. I didn't think realize how invested I was in the pairing until I sat down to think about why it was I just had a four day weekend and I didn't even consider starting my reread. I feel like even if I like the rest of it, seeing their dynamic build up while knowing it'll get tossed out at the last second feels like such a drag I genuinely don't know I'll ever actually reread now that it's complete.

 

Heh. I'm rereading at the moment, and just got to this point in an interlude early in book seven, which sums up how out of the blue it was quite nicely, I think. From Cordelia's POV.

Also, this line, which I don't really feel has been backed up by the text from Cat's POV previously - she definitely notices how Cordelia looks a few times, but even rereading knowing what's coming, I've not really felt there's much hinting at even surface level attraction.

That said...I don't think it's really accurate to say that Cat/Akua gets tossed aside, or that Akua gets treated as a side hoe. There's one scene in one of the epilogue chapters devoted to Cat/Cordelia, and most of that conversation is about Cat's feelings for Akua - and Cat specifically says that she'll always be in love with Akua, that it's more or less a fundamental part of who she is now, even if it's not something she pines over. At first pass, it actually feels more like Cordelia going "fuck it, I've had a bad day, wanna hook up?" than anything meaningful. When the Cat/Cordelia relationship is next mentioned, it's in purposefully vague terms, and explicitly establishes that Cat still sleeps with Archer anyway. In universe, most people aren't really sure whether Cat and Cordelia are just very good friends or actually involved (presumably the Woe know, but we're never enlightened).

And then Cordelia is never mentioned again. We don't know how long she lives, or how she dies. Hell, we don't know if she is dead, although it seems a reasonable assumption. Whereas Akua, for all that the last scene is - rightly - focused on the Woe and their friendship is the last character to be mentioned other than Hakram, Cat's oldest friend.

Storywise, Cat/Cordelia is basically meaningless, which was always my main issue with it - it comes kinda out of nowhere, and doesn't really add anything to the epilogue. In universe, it's true that depending on your interpretation, Cordelia gets a long, if vague relationship with Cat, but in story terms - which is the Guide's bread and butter - it's barely a foot note. Cat and Akua might not get much time together, but it's infinitely more important.

 

To me it felt like all of Cat’s partners were emotionally or spatially unavailable, in the end.

I feel the same that Cordelia felt largely story-irrelevant, but it didn’t bother me because it came across(to me) as a relationship to fill the void that other people left.

Cat will never really be able to be able to be with Akua or Indrani in a partner/relationship sense. Indrani because of her wanderlust, and Akua because... well, we know why.

So in a world where monogamy doesn’t really seem to be that prevalent, her finding someone to fill that gap didn’t particularly irk me or strike me as unusual.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/PracticalG...ical_guide_will_be_removed_from_wordpress_as/

The Web version of the series is going to be pulled at the end of the year, due to a contract with an app called Yonder, which a) only seems to be available in North America and Canada, and b) is apparently publishing it in short chunks that you pay about 70 cents a piece for. Which sounds kinda crap, to be honest.

Apparently there is some progress being made on a traditional version too, which is more promising, but we'll see.

 

Welp, time to try and figure out how to download the entire thing. if/when it comes out in hard cover I'd definitely buy it, but I hate the idea of paying for each chapter piecemeal

 

Yonder seems to have bought up the rights to multiple good stories on RoyalRoad too. I really don't think their strategy will pay off considering the absence of marketing I have seen for the app and what has to be large amounts of money paid upfront to authors. Otherwise I would think it would make more financial sense to put the completed Guide on Amazon.

 

I tried installing Yonder because the version on there is apparently edited and has new stuff related to Callow, but it demanded I give it the ability to ability to place phone calls for "Digital Rights Management" reasons (pinky promises to not actually place calls). It can fuck right off lmao.

Highly recommend ripping a copy off of wordpress before it goes offline, I didn't confirm the math but someone in that reddit thread is claiming the full series would cost ~$500 given the sheer number of chapters.

Hope we eventually get a normal Kindle edition, or even physical copies. I'm sure as hell not putting that app back on my phone.

 

Yeah, that price is a bit much. If/when it comes out on Kindle, I'll buy it but in the meantime I found a person who compiled the seven books into an epub file, which I then used a third-party program called Calibre to convert to mobi format. I don't want to link directly, since I've been scolded for things like that before, but Google "github gabbeynew apgte scraper" and you should find the file.

 

I gave up on aPGtE at some point during the Dead King arc, I think when they're in the research station? I couldn't keep up with everything that was going on, and work patterns changed.

Always meant to pick it back up, especially as it's finished.

I wouldn't mind paying for a copy of an ebook, so long as it's not hardback priced. But I'm not downloading an app to get an in-app copy of it.
Especially when that copy is being re-written, and released piecemeal. Unless the story gets actively changed, the only things that can happen would be either 'invisible actions', where what happens doesn't impact the plot at all (like a Simpsons episode); unseen scenes, where we actually get things onscreen that previously happened offscreen; or extra viewpoints of the same scenes (like every Worm or GOT fic).

I actually kind of expect the rewrite to either fall apart, or be ghost written. But I'm prepared to be wrong on all counts here... I just won't pay to re-read it on a dodgy new app.

 

The projected price is certainly high, but I'd happily buy hardback copies of the series, and given the length of it even before you factor in potential new stuff (can't remember whether it's in that thread or elsewhere, but I've seen it suggested that EE has another book or two of material he wants to write to better explain/explore things), that could easily run to 15 books, so I don't think it's quite as outrageous as I did at first glance...or wouldn't be if it wasn't being published on a questionable app on a microtransaction model.