I like the main characters' characterizations; I meant the normal kids in the academy still seemed way mature.

 

Note that they are supposed to be the educated high class, and probably acting more adult is a point of pride for them. Also, the school seems to have a wide range of ages attending it.

 

We’re two and a half arcs into Twig, so now seems as good a time as any to give a full review. I’m approaching the point where I’ll love Twig as much as I love Worm. Sly is a fun POV character, the pacing is excellent and the writing quality is top notch.

The Lambs have delightful moments of childishness, acting as a nice reminder of their physical ages. Helen creeps me out, though probably not as much as Wildbow intends, and Sly, Mary and Jaime are absolutely adorable. The overall group interactions are among the best parts of the story so far. They’re also the main reason this story feels lighter that Pact, despite the fact that protagonists are pretty damn villainous.

As always with Wildbow, there’s complex and fascinating world that can be expected to gradually unravel. The interludes hint at interesting goings-on in the rest of the world and some truly fucked up bio-punk things to come.


This is an easy 5/5.

 

This had a much better start than Worm and Pact and has managed to keep my interest to the point of actually reading the chapters when they come out (as opposed to the others which I read in chunks, or in the case of Pact didn't even finish). I think I prefer this to Worm and I'm attached to all the main characters and even a few side characters whereas in Worm the only people I cared about at volume 3.5 were Taylor and Tattletale. What'll really decide this stories fate though will be the villains. None of them so far have been particularly interesting except for Mary. The Reverend could have been really cool if Sy'd had more direct interactions with him. I expect we'll be seeing a lot of him later on though.

Easy 5/5 for now, subject to change if quality degrades.

 

Helen is best girl. One moment she's utterly adorable, the next she's choking someone into unconsciousness. Her swiping Jamie's cake when he wasn't looking was great.

Just don't call her annoying.

 

Does anyone have an estimate of when Twig will be done? (whether from Wildbow directly, or as an extrapolation of how many arcs there are left)

My experience from both Worm and Pact - Wildbow's stories are most enjoyable when there's full immersion, from reading it all at once.

 

Is anyone still keeping up with this? Wildbow's really hit his stride imo. The past couple of Arcs have been as snappily written as any of the high points of Worm.

---------- Post automerged at 08:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:03 PM ----------

Wildbow is on record as saying roughly Pact's lengths give or take a few months. So I'd guess 15-17 Arcs total, with Twig soon finishing up its 7 Arc.. Merry Christmas 2016 for you!

 

I ended up dropping Twig for non-specific reasons some time around arc 4 or 5. I can't even remember why. It might have been just that I felt like we'd already seen a hyper-tactician protagonist before. The lambs and their interactions were enjoyable, but a lot of the action tended to blur.

Have things improved a fair amount since we ran into our Wyvern double?

 

I actually prefer Twig to even Worm. In purely technical terms it's his best work, and I'm a sucker for the genre.

 

I still follow Twig. I quite enjoy it. It doesn't grip you as Worm or sometimes even Pact did, but it's more enjoyable for me. I found the pacing in the last few chapters questionable, but whatever. I like the episodic nature. Would recommend.

Warning: Standard Wildbow Bodyhorror

 

I like Twig much better than Pact. Pact's ending was too... pointless.

I'm really hoping there is eventually a time skip and we get to see a older Slyvester. It's unlikely though as the story does seem focused on them as children. Still a older more independent SLyvester would be awesome.

 

I tried to get into this, but I couldn't get past the first chapter for whatever reason. I'll try again when it's finished.

Considering how the last two stories ended, how likely does it seem Twig will continue the trend? I don't want to spoil Worm/Pact for those who haven't read them yet... but the way the protagonist in either is handled at the end of their respective stories... it feels to me that those endings were written similarly. Is Twig heading down that road too?

 

Spoiler

All of the Lambs have an expiration date. It's established in one of the early chapters and makes up one or two of the more prominent plot points later on.

So I'd go with a significant chance of there being a downer ending.

In any case, it's well worth you giving it a chance. The first chapter may not have hooked you, but I'd argue that over the course of it all Twig is better written and paced than Worm was.

 

I also probably wouldn't have stuck with Twig if I wasn't such a huge fan of Worm. I'm super glad I did though because the story is great and I love it, but if it has one flaw it's that the first few chapters don't really hook you all that well. They're a little too confusing or something.

 

That dump you into the world with little to no explanation
You don't get to know what Stitched are until a few chapters in, despite them being almost everywhere. It's things like that that make it a bit hard to follow, as well as Wildbow's habit of not describing characters/things much.

Helen is blonde, for instance, which I recall noticing about 10 arcs in.

 

Damn -- Twig is really, really good. If you guys aren't following it, you're missing out.

 

How does it compare to Worm?

 

I think it's better. Different, but the episodic structure, with each arc being more separated, allows for a less...intense/unrelenting pace. The writing is undeniably better, too.

The worldbuilding is at the same level. Different, but very much his style. One interesting thing about it is that whilst the world is unveiled to us at the same pace, where in Worm we followed a cape establishing herself, in Twig the protagonist has been operating for a while already, so it's more about filling in the blanks as they come up than it is exposition. There's a lot more 'mystery' to his past, too - inasmuch as there's a fair bit Sy knows that isn't discussed for a while, whereas for Taylor it's basically just the locker sequence, which comes out quickly.

I find the humour and relationships are handled better, with the group as a whole captivating me more than Worm, where it was the world and story that I followed.

 

Cheers, I think I might pick it up then. I've been eyeing it, but wanting to wait until a decent chunk of it was released. Cheers for the summary.

Also, wrong thread I know, but has there been any word on the polished published version of Worm? I know he was planning to have it done in 2 years, but it seems to be taking longer than that.

 

No date given, and it seems like it's low on his priority list, but that he's working on it regularly. He has said that some RL things that came up when he was working on Pact meant very little was done during that time. So I'm optimistic that it will happen, but not in an imminent sense.

The other side of things - getting a publisher - we know less about, but he's regularly indicated that an ebook release is far more likely than not.