I have been supporting Piratebea on Patreon, so I'm actually one chapter ahead. I've stopped supporting her this month, because of the frustration I've already expressed.

The latest chapter is Laken returning to Riverfarm. It's an okay chapter. Piratebea used the "then he told her his plan" without actually telling the reader, and then just showing the reaction. I find this way of writing annoying, especially in a story like this, where you have to wait a week or more to find out what the plan actually is. It was used two times in the chapter and the chapter ends on a cliffhanger. Very annoying.
Ryoka have a few good moments, but it is soured by the end of the chapter.
Another huge mystery is added, that I really hope ties in to some of the other plot points, because the amount of open plot points is stupidly high.

 

Someone on Reddit described Pirateaba's writing as several novellas being written concurrently, and it shows at times.
I don't mind a few open plotlines, but we have the Flos, Erin, Rags, Baleros, Laken etc.
Cutting down to Erin, Flos, Ryoka and Laken would help being a reader a lot, as I don't have to remember things that happened 500k words ago.

I haven't read the Patreon chapter yet, but in general I found the witch arc dissatisfying. The author loves portraying the wicked and evil as nuanced, which is great in some sense, but if

Spoiler

Belavier had turned out to be good at her core

I would've been very annoyed. Laken chapters in general makes me want to pull my hair out.

 

If anyone liked this story in the past I strongly suggest reading the latest chapter. Its another huge monster chapter and imo I dont think there any really spoilery parts in it so you can just pick up this chapter and read it without needing to know prior arcs. The only thing that might be confusing is Grimalkin, hes a very strong and high level mage from Pallas.

Spoiler

The Horns of Hammerad are my favourite characters of this story if they survive

 

The status quo finally went off the rails and it seems we’re about to hit the start of a big “bystander reaction” by the wider world regarding Erin.

And of all the reasons for it...

Spoiler

it’s Bird’s fault.

My sides.

 

Pretty much as soon as we left the Laken chapters behind, the story started getting more enjoyable again.
My recommendation: Skip the Laken chapters. They don't really matter all that much, and they almost killed my interest in the story.

 

the last few chapters have felt a bit depressing. i get how some character/plot development is needed for a story to flourish but it feels like several characters have taken a few levels in [Jerkass]

Spoiler

magnolia for one. though she was always manipulative and dead set to vilify the antinium her latest appearance threw oil onto the fire. that said, she’s never been portrayed as ‘nice’ really, and whilst the readers have seen the free antinium as naive but ultimately well-meaning, that’s just one hive and the species as a whole is certainly xenophobic and dismissive of izril in their quest to rearm, grow, and return to their homeland. i have the least issue with this.

it did lead to erin, however, finally losing her shit and all but throwing a skill-assisted tantrum in her own inn. she obviously did not want to be calmed down, and eventually she did remove herself to let her customers enjoy themselves, though i question her decision to go to pallas whilst still doped up on magical hate-fire. a bit more leery of this decision.

finally the latest interlude chapter, geneva. geneva, geneva, geneva... i get she’s stressed out; she thinks she’s the only smart person in a dumb city, but she actively ignores well-meaning advice to *rest.* (i’m no med student, but avoiding burn out seems like something that would be taught within that profession). her deal with okasha certainly displayed the power imbalance there, which the author couched as consent issues. i even think okasha really did overstep and deserved to be slapped down. but not like this... so many things are about to go wrong and geneva is *happy* about it, if i’m reading the last few lines correctly. what a closed minded vindictive bitch.

 

Starting this story from the beginning has been a real trial for me. Part of me loves the story. Most of me. But, after a month of reading, I'm halfway through the third arc. In particular, the Wistram flashbacks where there's apparently 5 of the chapters in a row... and I just completely burnt out on the story. I even tried skipping them, but I was told that there's some important stuff in there for later. This might be the single most bloated story I have ever read. My main problem is that a lot of the characters that are introduced (like Magnolia) I just don't care about, and then they start having a bigger and bigger role in the story and the author is trying to force me to care about this character and I just still don't fine them particularly interesting. Same thing with Ceria and Pisces, and now I'm faced with like 100,000 words of bullshit, and I have to read like 30k of some other character just to get back to another character that I actually like. It's like the pacing of Game of Thrones on steroids, and that's not a good thing.

 

For those who haven’t been keeping up, Vol. 7 finally came to a conclusion and... a lot of things have happened. I don’t even know how to feel.

To summarise, to my understanding at least:

Spoiler

• Erin is (mostly) dead.
• The Gods of Innworld (which is now canon!) have made their reappearance, being all eldritch and spooky trying to convince others to WITNESS remember them. Because they’re those types of Gods. Thanks to the magic of technology... they succeeded.
• The faerie courts, which apparently helped to drive them off the first time at great cost, were powerless before the might of mass media.
• Ryoka’s deuteragonist status is under threat of evolving into full-fledge protagonist, vague prophecy and all.
• On the plus side, faerie waifu has returned... only to have the door slammed back in her face cuz eldritch beings and the like.

Am I missing anything? So... yeah.

 

Spoiler: One thing

The Blighted King has committed mass infanticide to summon many more Earth natives. Also he did a street preacher rant through a hole in reality about defeating the demons.

 

Spoiler

Gods? Ressurected.
Ryoka? Full protagonist.
Erin? Temporarily dead.
Plot? Excessive.
Gnoll Meet? Forgotten.
Sharks? Jumped.

I really feel the story has taken a turn for the worse. It was always a guilty pleasure but these days it's pretty much Pirateaba trying to 'outepic' themselves. Gods, fairies, witches and self-sacrifices without consequences around every corner.
Every second phrase is about how many people Erin know and how vague acquaintances define their existence around a woman they've met twice.

The worst part is that there are no consequences. In such a 'brutal' world nothing ever seems to happen to the main characters.
Ivolethe was the closest, and she was a minor character. Toren got 'revived', Calruz got revived, Ceria survived, etc.

It was better in the early books but these days there are no stakes.

Spoiler

We know Erin is going to survive as the series would not be able to continue without her. It's literally the one character that has infinite plot armor. Why not go for Ryoka dying? Then we at least have a little doubt whether she will be revived

.

TL;DR: I'm angry with everything but I still read it.

 

My biggest gripe about this series is the author lays out a future plot and then doesn’t come back to it for years. The Gnollmoot was first mentioned like millions of words ago back in the first or second volume. We were told the meeting was “Happening Now”like 200,000 words (4-5 chapters) ago and we’re still probably not going to see it until the summer solstice or some shit. I don’t even think Erin has been living in Innworld for a full year yet. Pacing what is thy name.

A few dozen chapters ago, one of the interludes in Westram, we found at that time on Earth is moving farther ahead, like Erin came from 2016 but there are ppl who are appearing from 2019 and such. They said that Earth has begun to notice people disappearing in thin air more and more. So I’m wondering if the Earthers the Blighted King summoned are going to be wild eye religious fanatics who think they are being raptured? Gonna have a bunch of crusaders on Innworld soon enough, I think.

Also the summoning of Oberon was just a big case of blue balls.

 

Volume 8 has started and it perfectly showcases my main complaint of this story. You had all that crazy shit go down at the Summer Solstice and it hasn’t been mentioned once. No reactions. It’s as if none of it happened. As if finding out the gods are alive doesn’t matter. It drives me nuts.

 

It will probably be shown in the next chapter, where 17 different POVs react with shock and omg's.
That said you'd think the author would be able to fill in a few words about the most important thing to happen to the Innworld in thousands of years in a 26k chapter.
Pirateaba has the ability to churn out 100s of pages with no thought given to pacing. Makes me rant internally all the time too, lol.

There are still some gems hidden in the quantity. Wistram Days was amazing and I can read non-Ryoka chapters with little issue.
It's all about the small things in this story.