// very fiction-addled currently. post really geared at the small fraction of readers who’ve also read the work in question, because I’m in must-spew-excitement mode
I’ve been reading Worth the Candle for the past five days – I’m 80% through, which means I’ve been reading… ~150K words/day on average. It’s rationalist fantasy fiction, and also has amazing emotional arcs, a combination I don’t think I’ve encountered before. It’s got a core cast that goes from “fine, whatever, I guess you’re working together” to “wow, you’ve got rich, high-def group dynamics that I want another half-million words of” somewhere around the 30% mark.
Also, pacing and worldbuilding feels much less bloated than Worm’s, with comparable wordcount.
I’m sure I’m more interested in the player-thinking-about-hacking-their-narrative, player-trying-to-outguess-DM stuff because I haven’t read much like it before (and have no particular interest in seeking it out, I suspect I’ll find most of it poorly executed); I’m also sure I like the worldbuilding more than I would if I knew more about D&D.
Also, entertained to notice myself thinking, “okay, you’re trying to say stuff about this tired gendered trope by reproducing the gendered trope* within the story and then piling other stuff on it, and it’s not working for me” and when I look at myself having the thought, it’s usually right after the fic failed to deliver on a kink I have (related to the gendered trope) when I’d been hoping it would; author’s id and mine diverged on some crucial point.
* Mainly: the protag is living in a narrative that (initially) wants him to have a harem, he’s not on board with this but also has annoying romantically/sexually tinged interactions (to varying degrees) with three of his companions, none of which I enjoy except the ones with the ruthless, ace, control freak group member, which I’m pretty sure I’d hate the moment it became canon. I only like it because the UST loads more angst on her, which makes her hotter to me. Sorry.
Ahhh, the emotional arcs are so good. Imperfect people with baggage working with each other, sometimes failing to work with each other, sometimes hearing but not listening, listening but not understanding. All sketched out by a delicate, empathetic author. While maintaining a good sin(x) + x/3 shaped tension/stakes curve. And being enjoyable ratfic. Ahhh.
strongly agree with this, and amused by your outrage at discovering it in the cultural wasteland that is my goodreads :P