Name: Twig
Author: Wildbow
Genre: Undetermined
Rating: M
Status: WIP
Link: https://twigserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/24/taking-root-1-1/
Summary:

Spoiler

The year is 1921, and a little over a century has passed since a great mind unraveled the underpinnings of life itself. Every week, it seems, the papers announce great advances, solving the riddle of immortality, successfully reviving the dead, the cloning of living beings, or blending of two animals into one. For those on the ground, every week brings new mutterings of work taken by ‘stitched’ men of patchwork flesh that do not need to sleep, or more fearful glances as they have to step off the sidewalks to make room for great laboratory-grown beasts. Often felt but rarely voiced is the notion that events are already spiraling out of the control of the academies that teach these things.

It is only this generation, they say, that the youth and children are able to take the mad changes in stride, accepting it all as a part of day to day life. Of those children, a small group of strange youths from the Lambsbridge Orphanage stand out, taking a more direct hand in events.

We have a new entry from Wildbow now that Pact is finished. We don't have a genre for it, but from the summary I'd go with biopunk; one of the options Wildbow gave us for the next story after Worm ended. Looks pretty creeptastic so far and we've got an inkling of a strong protagonist group to start off with, which would cover the worst failings of early Pact quite nicely.

 

This story isn't ready for review yet.

 

This guy has a serious fetish for weird as hell settings.

 

Is this what Boil became? I think it's definitely more interesting, if that's the case.

 

Dunno what to feel yet. Don't like the time period and I didn't like the POV character much but it is literally the first chapter, so, time will tell.

Since this is Wildbow, there is no doubt that this will get more, regular chapters, so, well see.

 

Whoa, Pact is done?
I've got some catching up to do.

 

New chapter's out. I'm enthralled by everything. Amazing worldbuilding, characterization, writing.

 

I think I've found the point of divergence between our world and the Twigverse. I'd put a good amount of money on it being the year 1818.

 

I think you've got the wrong thread.

Do tell? Something to do with Charles Bell?

 

Oops thanks for the clarification.

 

Notably, that was the year that Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" was published anonymously by the small London publishing house of Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones

 

Yak has it. This seems to be a verse where Frankenstein's Monster would be the first successful reanimation project.

 

Current link is just to the serial in general (so most recent post). Here is the link to the first chapter.

 

Oops. Updated the first post to link to the first page.

 

The first chapter already draws me in more then pact did, I feel like this shall be brilliant.

 

Plot's kicked off now. I think this is my favourite of Wildblow's works already.

 

I'm loving Sly's character. He reminds me a lot of Locke Lamora.

 

I like this much better than Pact, but the characters seem so off to me. They read more like college students bantering than high schoolers interacting. My friends and I were pretty smart for our age, but weren't quite that subtle.

 

I think it's because they're experiments and grew up with the Academy researchers as their primary contact with regular humans. They've also been engineered to think in certain ways; Sy is suspicious and manipulative, Helen is the Queen Bee (possibly with some in built adaptability when it comes to social situations), Gordon a natural leader, etc.

 

Or it could be his inexperience writing such young characters. Skitter and Blake were a fair bit older.