I'll try to cover everything I want but the summary is this: Worm is a mixture of well written to serviceable and creative storytelling up to about the end of the slaughterhouse nine. It then...
I'll try to cover everything I want but the summary is this:
Worm is a mixture of well written to serviceable and creative storytelling up to about the end of the slaughterhouse nine. It then mostly devolves into garbage tier writing wherever the main character is concerned, which is extra odd because some of the interludes are super well written and of course, are about OTHER characters.
Taylor is a mary sue
You already mentioned it, but yeah, taylor can do no wrong and is killing god by 18. Anything that might be perceived as wrong, is not wrong. She seldom, if ever, faces consequences for her actions, and frequently gets big moments that rightfully should have belonged to someone else in the story. You can generally tell if something is going to succeed just by if taylor is doing it or not.
The best example of this, as you mentioned, is making her go BLIND, and then making me FORGET she's supposed to be blind. Why make her blind in the first place if you're literally going to have her handle it so easily that no one notices or cares....even the reader?
Interesting plot points are dropped:
The good parts of worm are addressing some interesting "what ifs" of the superhero world. Oops you've wound up on the wrong side, but at least they understand you, and yeah it turns out good guys can be assholes too. Oops your little gang now runs a city that's literally falling apart. What do you do, how do you run your sector? Oops your boss is TOO evil, how are you going to handle that? Oops you're dealing with people WAAAAAAAY beyond your power level (....when that wasn't the standard yet), how do you handle this/protect people/etc.
In short, basic plot structure stuff. You need conflict.
You know what's good conflict for a team that's been "goku'd" and left in the dust? What if the sister of the main love interest/co leader, who is the most important thing in the world to him, started hanging out with/fell in love with objectively the most problematic member of team?
Oh this could be really good. We've been so hyper focused on world ending events, it'll be nice to see some inter-team issues. Gives you a chance to better develop them. What a perfect friction point between grue/imp/regent with no obvious "who's right" and hell just the entire issue of regent being the main ally who, yes also has a somewhat sob story, but has objectively done horrible things repeatedly in his past and doesn't really feel any remorse. And lets not forget that his even more evil father will drop everything and come for his son should he find out where he is, let alone if he is harmed in any real way.
Wow this should be interesting and give a lot of much needed content! We've got elegant drama all over the place that feels like it naturally progressed from things we saw. You have interpersonal dram between what are essentially crime lords at this point in several different directions, and the next major threat set up in the mix with Regents dad. We can flesh out all these characters, delve into some interesting ethical quandaries, pit taylors pragmatism against her ethics and her emotions, and have the looming threat we've alluded to forever ago finally take the stage.
Oh Regent is dead so we don't have to do any of that..... uhhh..ok...well at least that means we'll get the dad thing going annnnnnnnnd he's dead off screen.
This is one of SO MANY EXAMPLES of things like this. Most of it tied around the timeskip at which point it clearly felt like the author just wanted to be done.
We're FINALLY going to get to see taylor get what she wanted all those years ago, and maybe work with people who will actually call her out on her crazy overstepping, and see what she thinks now that she's older and more powerful. Nope time skip AND none of it mattered. Not even pretending we missed interesting stuff, just literally wrote "yep it sucked and changed nothing". Wow.
Rehashing old stuff
For a world that thrives on interesting ideas, having MULTIPLE arcs revolve around threats that reuse previous enemies felt super underwhelming/lazy. Namely Echidna/Slaughterhouse 9000.
Stupid timelines
If you take the story of worm and stretch it over a decade (and let someone else actually solve a problem besides taylor) instead of 3 years it would just make so much more sense. It's not a big flaw in comparison to everything else, but god the danger creep feels extra absurd when you won't even just say "it's been 1 year since the blah attacked, here's the little thing's that have changed, but oh shit blah will soon happen!"
Rage quit
To be clear, by the end of the story, I dreaded any section that was taylor internal monologue. It was almost always awful, pointless, and predictable. So when I finally got to the final chapter, and it became clear it would basically be nothing but that, I stopped. I literally just said "i don't think I can do this" and dropped it at the finish line. That's how much I despised reading about taylor, and how little I cared about any other possible resolutions at that point. It was clear nothing I found interesting (that was left) would be touched on or handled, and it would just be "Taylor does the thing" yet again.
Side comments:
I find the Panacea thing whatever, and wonder if anyone would care if she wasn't gay? Its not like anything around her would be better if she were straight. I think it's more just bad and edgy writing than any major issues. I think the actual concept of the start of her issues, that she's the daughter of someone supremely fucked up (although also, potentially interesting) AND has the ultimate cheat code in "fucking with brain chemistry" and dealing with that temptation. Of course it became a problem, but the handling of that problem was just "ooh how horrible can we make it" and with no actual nuance.
I feel like extending the term racist to include someone who might have preconceived notions about what someone looks like under a mask is stretching the term to the point of losing its meaning. If you're using the same word to describe the people who will literally kill or go out of their way to harm others based on skin color, but also people who maybe aren't thoughtful enough to assume that someone might be of a different race, you're really diluting the term. That's doubly so when it's just conjecture based on what is, already, objectively bad writing, which strikes me as the much more likely candidate.
It's a shame that worm become the mess it did. The concepts and the short stories for the interludes are still top notch. There's some really great stuff in there, and hell one of the BEST payoffs in the book is an interlude chapter that shows just how fucking awful the Simurgh is. It's just unfortunately all mired in the kind of power ramp and character assassination that makes Bleach look well written. At least it's willing to give other characters cool moments sometimes.
Edit-
Oh Oh oh, more stuff
Agency
When you have SO many characters who see the future, sorta see the future, can predict things perfectly, or can control things perfectly, it suddenly feels like almost no one actually matters. This is a huge issue for Worm where in part because of the insane power creep you win up with basically 90% of the cast's actions feeling "pointless" because they're not in the category of characters who are canonically allowed to succeed at anything. It's a very neat concept in some writing, but it's so overused and used so poorly in combination in Worm that it just robs so many scenes of any real weight.
I'll preface this by card-tabling that Worm is one of my favorite things ever. I found your review interesting, though I didn't agree with much. Your review explains effectively to me why you...
I'll preface this by card-tabling that Worm is one of my favorite things ever.
I found your review interesting, though I didn't agree with much. Your review explains effectively to me why you didn't like it, so I'd say it's a well written review, in that way amongst others (it reads well and is thought provoking).
It does sound as though the story was ill suited to your tastes in many ways, and I could understand someone who shared your sensibilities coming away with a similar review.
I'd want to touch on two specific criticisms more closely. I'll use two separate comments to delineate the two potentially disparate lines of discussion (should one develop).
Is White Default? The Creed Consideration I come at this as a mixed race fella - with a Jamaican mom - who grew up in an unusually white town for its size (200,000ish) in the UK. She's halfsies,...
Is White Default? The Creed Consideration
I come at this as a mixed race fella - with a Jamaican mom - who grew up in an unusually white town for its size (200,000ish) in the UK. She's halfsies, rendering me a quarter, just to provide the shape of my perspective.
For a white pov character surrounded by mostly white folks - which I think is Taylor's experience - white is the default.
There's the classic joke of identifying someone not white across a room and breaking your back to avoid saying "Sam's the darker one". "The dude, stumpy lil legs, short hair, no not him, next to him, holding the guiness." Well meaning but <amused eyeroll>.
If race isn't mentioned in Taylor's inner monologue about a character, I'm guessing they're white, and I'm not sure that's problematic. I believe that's how her inner monologue would work, and I don't believe it makes her racist?
My reading of the story finds it very egalitarian in its treatment of different races within the explicit text, and I don't see an issue in this aspect either, personally.
It's not something I've paid particular attention to, nor something that jumped out at me. I may have missed some nuance that did exist, but I've read worm a lot and never seen these issues as described.
The Amy Dallon Dilema I'm not sure panacea is in any sense a uniquely bad villain, in some sense representing a negative view of lesbianism. Heartbreaker, and his son - the very central character...
Exemplary
The Amy Dallon Dilema
I'm not sure panacea is in any sense a uniquely bad villain, in some sense representing a negative view of lesbianism. Heartbreaker, and his son - the very central character - regent, are both highly sexually deviant (read: criminal) straight main characters.
The things bonesaw or greyboy do are - to me - vastly worse than what any of these 3 characters do. Sexual violence doesn't for me inhabit a separate plane to other forms of violence, where it's somehow inherently worse. I think it'd be a glaring and jarring omission to ignore this category when other forms of torture feature constantly throughout.
Agreed - and the closest figure to superman in the story, in terms of powers and ethics (Legend), is gay. (This in a story written a couple of years before gay marriage was legalized in the US)....
Agreed - and the closest figure to superman in the story, in terms of powers and ethics (Legend), is gay. (This in a story written a couple of years before gay marriage was legalized in the US). As far as I can recall, there's not a single line in the story that's critical of homosexuality, and Panacea being a lesbian is not what makes her a monster. (And other lesbian characters - like Flechette - are not monsters.)
I think we should be really cautious of levying accusations of homophobia against works in which some of the bad people happen to be queer, you know? That doesn't serve anybody.
I always had an understanding of what Amy did to Victoria as being an accident. She had feelings for her and had an impulse that she physically could not control, like a freudian slip. I'm sure...
I always had an understanding of what Amy did to Victoria as being an accident. She had feelings for her and had an impulse that she physically could not control, like a freudian slip. I'm sure we've all had impulses that we're glad could not have physically manifested - burning a hole through the head of the person talking to you in the movie theater, for example. Amy just had the misfortune to be physically capable of manufesting that impulse, and not reactive enough consciously to stop herself from doing it. Through this lens she's no more of a villain than Of Mice and Men's Lenny. She's just not as in control as someone with that strength should be, but that's not her fault.
Of the people I've talked to about Worm no one else sees it that way, and I'm wondering if I'm reading something into that isn't there, or if it is open to interpretation and my interpretation is just unpopular.
I'd agree with you. Nobody is more horrified by what happens than Panacea herself. What she did was monstrous, but she's not a monster. With great power comes great responsibility, and she's...
I'd agree with you. Nobody is more horrified by what happens than Panacea herself.
What she did was monstrous, but she's not a monster.
With great power comes great responsibility, and she's failed herself and her sister in that regard, to her enduring regret. But she didn't plan for it. Sort of one of those tragic villains where she's simultaneously her own victim.
This was something that I remember divided the community after Worm was finished, but before Ward got going (if you haven't read it, Ward is mostly from the perspective of Victoria Dallon years...
This was something that I remember divided the community after Worm was finished, but before Ward got going (if you haven't read it, Ward is mostly from the perspective of Victoria Dallon years after the events at the end of Worm). Ward adds some detail and perspective to the events between Amy and Victoria that both provide a little nuance but also paint what Amy did as much, much worse than some folks initially interpreted. And the evidence of that is there in the text in Worm, but it's easy to read over and not realize how bad it was because the language wasn't explicit. In Ward it's spelled out much more plainly and it becomes obvious that while things might have started with a lack of impulse control on the part of Amy, she continued to victimize Victoria over a period of time and essentially had to be forced to undo what she did.
Intriguing. I've allowed ward to remain at the back of my reading list in case it has a matrix 2 and 3 effect on my feelings about worm. I'll get there but I'm in no rush to risk it.
Intriguing. I've allowed ward to remain at the back of my reading list in case it has a matrix 2 and 3 effect on my feelings about worm. I'll get there but I'm in no rush to risk it.
That's fair. I think it was better than Worm in a lot of ways, but it was pretty polarizing in the community, especially among folks who were really into Worm fanfic.
That's fair. I think it was better than Worm in a lot of ways, but it was pretty polarizing in the community, especially among folks who were really into Worm fanfic.
Fair point. I guess Amy’s crimes hit harder for me because they don’t sound as far fetched as Bonesaw and Grey Boy’s, which are sort of inconceivable because of their superhero nature, whereas at...
Fair point. I guess Amy’s crimes hit harder for me because they don’t sound as far fetched as Bonesaw and Grey Boy’s, which are sort of inconceivable because of their superhero nature, whereas at its core Amy’s thing is just an abusive relationship, and therefore can hit much closer to home, but I see and understand your point.
Are their behaviours - at their core - more fundamentally supernatural? Panacea's behavior does tie in closely to RealWorld™️ abusive relationships, but don't those other two's behaviours tie...
Are their behaviours - at their core - more fundamentally supernatural?
Panacea's behavior does tie in closely to RealWorld™️ abusive relationships, but don't those other two's behaviours tie similarly into the RealWorld™️ crime of, say, serial killing as popularly understood via TrueCrime docs? People can be violently tortured in the absence of superpowers.
That being said, abusive relationship dynamics are more common in people's day to day lives I expect, and are therefore more likely to - as you observe - hit closer to home. But I'm not sure that's the fault of the author nor should guide his writing. As you pointed out in your review, he warns that there'll be no trigger warnings which is itself a blanket trigger-warning.
I'm keen to reiterate that I enjoyed reading your review, and would hate you to think otherwise. Imagine me as a helicopter parent whose precious little darling you've just very vaguely besmirched and you've probably got a good mental picture of what was going on as I read the last segment of your review this morning! 0 to 100 in 0.1 seconds, knuckles cracked, keyboard warrior-mode activated. Thanks for engaging in good faith even though I came in a bit hot!
I've finally gotten around to reading Worm, which was recommended to me many times, but I just have too many issues with the work to let it get away with 1.6 million words without me commenting on...
I've finally gotten around to reading Worm, which was recommended to me many times, but I just have too many issues with the work to let it get away with 1.6 million words without me commenting on it. I'd also like to know what you thought if you've read it, and if/how/why you agree/disagree with my review.
I did not read Worm. Way too dark and grim for me. But I am very happy it exists, because the Worm fanfiction universe is massive and it has some of the best ever works of literature I've ever...
I did not read Worm. Way too dark and grim for me. But I am very happy it exists, because the Worm fanfiction universe is massive and it has some of the best ever works of literature I've ever read.
Edit: I should say, I clicked on the link... and I noped out 5 seconds later. The very bright background and text color combination is very harsh on the eyes. The site also didn't load right the first time, so the formatting wasn't, which wasn't ideal. So I did not read the review either
That’s the default, yes. It passes WCAG accessibility standards for contrast, but I guess there’s always reader mode in the browser if that doesn’t work for you.
That’s the default, yes. It passes WCAG accessibility standards for contrast, but I guess there’s always reader mode in the browser if that doesn’t work for you.
Worm was cooling its heels in my audiobook/podcast queue for ages purely because of its size. When I eventually started, I had forgotten where I'd picked up the recommendation and what I was to...
Worm was cooling its heels in my audiobook/podcast queue for ages purely because of its size. When I eventually started, I had forgotten where I'd picked up the recommendation and what I was to expect. I was initially disappointed to discover it was very clearly a YA superhero story. However, I reminded myself that my typical audio fare is mostly TTRPG podcasts, and perhaps I shouldn't be the one casting stones. I forged on.
Your assessment is fair. I'd recommend it to Marvel fans and more broadly to the nerd fandom crowd. I had fun with it, but I didn't take it too serious. The serial nature of the chapters lead to a lot of episodes ending in a dire cliffhanger, with the next episode resolving the issue immediately via deus ex machina... But we're talking superheroes, so... That's fine.
Hah, I'm not sure I can agree with that. YA in terms of the difficulty of the writing, maybe, but - spoilers I'm not sure you could describe that as being for a YA audience.
very clearly a YA superhero story.
Hah, I'm not sure I can agree with that. YA in terms of the difficulty of the writing, maybe, but -
spoilers
He’d been partially flayed, the skin stripped from his arms and legs and stretched over the walls around him. His ribcage had been opened, splayed apart. An improvised metal frame held each of his internal organs in place, some several feet from their intended position, as if they were held out for display, others placed on the shelves of the freezer. Cases covered in a ceramic shell seemed to be pumping him full of water, nutrients and other fluids that must have been helping keep him alive.
His head was untouched. He looked up at us, and he looked harrowed. The look in his eyes was more animal than person, his pupils mere pinpoints in his brown eyes. Tiny beads of sweat dotted the skin of his face, no doubt due to the warmth of the room, but he was shivering.
I'm not sure you could describe that as being for a YA audience.
I don't know how far in advance the author had the particulars of that scene planned out, but it comes pretty deep into the work. The readers first impression will always be about the teenage girl...
I don't know how far in advance the author had the particulars of that scene planned out, but it comes pretty deep into the work. The readers first impression will always be about the teenage girl dealing with bullies while exploring her burgeoning superpowers, and it doesn't stay too far from that for awhile. It did get darker as it progressed, but I'm willing to give the reader credit that it doesn't go too far for too long. I was also a child when Gremlins and Indiana Jones came out, so maybe there's a bit of desensitization there.
Hm. I'm not a huge fan of Worm myself, but I also don't think I agree with this review very much. Spoilers I'm not sure whether Taylor being unlikable is the reviewer's impression or something...
Hm. I'm not a huge fan of Worm myself, but I also don't think I agree with this review very much.
Spoilers
I'm not sure whether Taylor being unlikable is the reviewer's impression or something they are asserting about the canon. Taylor is certainly likeable in canon - characters fall over themselves and quit their jobs to help her out, and her sheer charismatic power is compared to that of a cult leader. She's certainly a terrible person at the same time, and the book rather explicit about this. As far as impressions go, yeah, whether she's likable to the reader is ambiguous. I find her a bit annoying as the POV because she perfectly analyzes the situation at hand and perfectly reflects on her mistakes, and I find that uninteresting.
Some other notes: "Godzilla with the serial numbers filed off" is certainly treated as a match for the protagonists. The standard Endbringer situation occurs here: many people die, the local area is devastated, and the Endbringer slips away not dead, and so to all intents and purposes unscathed. None of the main protagonists die, and I think that is an accurate observation of this review - the Undersiders overstayed their welcome, for sure.
The in-story explanation for why Gold Morning occurred was because Jack asked Scion if he had ever considered being evil. Jack has the Broadcast Shard, Jack has the ability to influence other parahumans and para-thingies. I'm also not sure why Jack Slash coming back is treated as surprising. This is kind of the underlying stress of a large portion of Worm - the world's most wanted terrorists say they're going to begin a campaign of terror in two years, and then vanish.
I'm also not sure how "Jack Slash doesn't lose to Parahumans" is connected to or circumvents the Manton Effect? And I don't think it's boring. You have a large number of characters with "unfair" powers. A fun part of Worm, and something I think it does well, is pitting these characters with unfair powers against each other and having things play out, especially when these unflawable powers are held by very flawed characters. I'm also not sure how the flaws of Taylor as a person vanish when she puts on the Skitter mask (or cape). This also seemed like a bit of a non sequitur.
I really don't think Cauldron is a subplot. It's kind of, the plot. A shadowy organization working behind the scenes is alluded to throughout almost the entirety of Worm: and when finally revealed, serves to tie up a number of unresolved plot threads. (That was another thing - I did not think that Worm actually left much of anything unresolved? At least, that was not left unresolved explicitly to set the stage for Ward.) I'm not really sure why the presence of Cauldron would serve to de-emphasize the intricacies of powers, also. They don't have a choice over the powers they trigger: they're mostly just making more parahumans.
With regards to Panacea: Yeah.
With regards to Taylor's sexuality: I don't remember there being disparaging comments towards lesbians, but I do remember reading somewhere (found it) that Wildbow wrote he struggles with writing gay and specifically lesbian characters as specifically as the protagonist, and didn't want to do so and leave the door open to misinterpretations of the straight-guy-writing-lesbian-mc variety while he was still a novice author.
All very fair points, thank you for reading. I personally have a problem with Jack Slash getting plot armor for the same reason I don’t like its made canon that not everyone can be a parahuman,...
All very fair points, thank you for reading. I personally have a problem with Jack Slash getting plot armor for the same reason I don’t like its made canon that not everyone can be a parahuman, and it’s more or less random if someone has the potential to trigger. It seems like an arbritrary fact of the world that just exists to be easily abused by the author if they write themselves into a corner.
I also don’t think Cauldron should be cut. Not at all, I think it’s a great idea for a story. I just do not think that in this story, in Taylor’s story, it’s presented in the best way. It should have gotten its own story, with other characters, other stakes, other themes. Again, smaller stories that show more aspects of the universe rather than one that needs to go through Taylor at all costs.
It’s backwards writing or whatever. You think about a good point waaaay far into your story (how in the HELL is Jack alive) and then go oh welllllllllll see the thing is. I’m not sure if that...
It seems like an arbritrary fact of the world that just exists to be easily abused by the author if they write themselves into a corner.
It’s backwards writing or whatever.
You think about a good point waaaay far into your story (how in the HELL is Jack alive) and then go oh welllllllllll see the thing is.
I’m not sure if that actually happened in worm. Just in general I believe the foundation was laid early for the eventual Jack reveal.
That said it still FEELS like that, even when you plan it, if you don’t execute well.
Worm does have one of the farthest call backs I'm aware of. Near the beginning, Taylor dog-ears a book, and it's only near the very end, more than a million words later IIRC, that she finally...
Worm does have one of the farthest call backs I'm aware of. Near the beginning, Taylor dog-ears a book, and it's only near the very end, more than a million words later IIRC, that she finally admits to herself that she's a monster.
I tried reading Worm several times and I always bounce back a few arcs in, primarily because of the writing style. It just feels like I'm reading someone's fanfic on a forum. Maybe it gets better...
I tried reading Worm several times and I always bounce back a few arcs in, primarily because of the writing style. It just feels like I'm reading someone's fanfic on a forum.
Maybe it gets better later on, but it's really bad in the beginning, and it's so long you can't just breeze through it to get to the meat of the story.
IMO the work desperately needs a good editor (and rewrites in certain parts) to make it feel like a well-written cohesive story.
Yeah the author is very forthright about it being his first published work and having a lot of rough edges. He's talked a lot about how each of his serials has taught him something new about...
Yeah the author is very forthright about it being his first published work and having a lot of rough edges. He's talked a lot about how each of his serials has taught him something new about writing, which is really interesting.
I read it back in like 2012 so my memory is a bit hazy, but I remember being absolutely unable to put it down. That said, today, pretty much everything I remember is from the first few arcs. It...
I read it back in like 2012 so my memory is a bit hazy, but I remember being absolutely unable to put it down.
That said, today, pretty much everything I remember is from the first few arcs. It came back to me as I read through the article but before that I didn't even remember how it ended.
I think the biggest problem is that the author has to write it in order as he went. It's an extremely complex world and story to try to write when you can't go back and edit anything.
Did anyone read any of his other works? I remember a modern day magic setting that was pretty good, and a sort of bio-punk Victorian Frankenstein A-Team thing. But I didn't get super far into either of them. I think I just got tired of reading giant novels on my tiny iPhone 4.
I read Pact, the modern day magic setting you mentioned. It has many of the same strengths and weaknesses of worm. A great deal of worldbuilding, full of the mechanisms of how the supernatural...
I read Pact, the modern day magic setting you mentioned. It has many of the same strengths and weaknesses of worm.
A great deal of worldbuilding, full of the mechanisms of how the supernatural world fits together, probably the part I enjoy most in both. I think I have far more appetite for that than delphi and probably a lot of readers, and will happily listen to the documentary on your made up world thank you. Though I think it is overall a weaker setting than worm. Keeping the magic grounded requires inventing even more explanations.
A protagonist who as far as I remember is psychologically invincible and does not change much emotionally. The interest is in how he will solve the latest puzzle.
Some really messed up stuff. I don't remember it as viscerally nasty as worm, but things in it disturbed me for longer, though your mileage may vary.
Spoilers
Particularly Maggie getting most of her identity stolen and the blood hags stealing their children's lives. I don't remember anywhere there was nastiness without enough of a plot justification, as I agree with other commenters the Panacea thing is.
A long but gripping story that (I think an author's note admitted) ran out of steam eventually and required some questionable escalation to a final crisis. The ending seemed reasonably satisfying though was not as memorable as worm.
Actually that highlights one the things that really got old to me. The idea that magic users can't lie, but they're all the most conniving, two-faced, pack of bastards you've ever met, is actually...
Actually that highlights one the things that really got old to me. The idea that magic users can't lie, but they're all the most conniving, two-faced, pack of bastards you've ever met, is actually pretty neat. But after the first few times someone says "well actually, I only said I'd wouldn't do X, but that technically doesn't mean I can't do Y" it just kind of became exhausting.
Long time since I've tried Pact, and I agree it was less gripping and this analysis might be a large part of why.... It felt as though - more so even than worm - the main character was never not...
Long time since I've tried Pact, and I agree it was less gripping and this analysis might be a large part of why....
It felt as though - more so even than worm - the main character was never not reeling.
The 19th century biopunk story Twig is easier to get into than Pact. I'm listening to a fan made audio book that's incomplete as yet, so dunno how it plays out, but a few arcs in it has me salivating for more. If the actor weren't so fantastic I'd return to actually reading the damn thing.
I'll try to cover everything I want but the summary is this:
Worm is a mixture of well written to serviceable and creative storytelling up to about the end of the slaughterhouse nine. It then mostly devolves into garbage tier writing wherever the main character is concerned, which is extra odd because some of the interludes are super well written and of course, are about OTHER characters.
You already mentioned it, but yeah, taylor can do no wrong and is killing god by 18. Anything that might be perceived as wrong, is not wrong. She seldom, if ever, faces consequences for her actions, and frequently gets big moments that rightfully should have belonged to someone else in the story. You can generally tell if something is going to succeed just by if taylor is doing it or not.
The best example of this, as you mentioned, is making her go BLIND, and then making me FORGET she's supposed to be blind. Why make her blind in the first place if you're literally going to have her handle it so easily that no one notices or cares....even the reader?
The good parts of worm are addressing some interesting "what ifs" of the superhero world. Oops you've wound up on the wrong side, but at least they understand you, and yeah it turns out good guys can be assholes too. Oops your little gang now runs a city that's literally falling apart. What do you do, how do you run your sector? Oops your boss is TOO evil, how are you going to handle that? Oops you're dealing with people WAAAAAAAY beyond your power level (....when that wasn't the standard yet), how do you handle this/protect people/etc.
In short, basic plot structure stuff. You need conflict.
You know what's good conflict for a team that's been "goku'd" and left in the dust? What if the sister of the main love interest/co leader, who is the most important thing in the world to him, started hanging out with/fell in love with objectively the most problematic member of team?
Oh this could be really good. We've been so hyper focused on world ending events, it'll be nice to see some inter-team issues. Gives you a chance to better develop them. What a perfect friction point between grue/imp/regent with no obvious "who's right" and hell just the entire issue of regent being the main ally who, yes also has a somewhat sob story, but has objectively done horrible things repeatedly in his past and doesn't really feel any remorse. And lets not forget that his even more evil father will drop everything and come for his son should he find out where he is, let alone if he is harmed in any real way.
Wow this should be interesting and give a lot of much needed content! We've got elegant drama all over the place that feels like it naturally progressed from things we saw. You have interpersonal dram between what are essentially crime lords at this point in several different directions, and the next major threat set up in the mix with Regents dad. We can flesh out all these characters, delve into some interesting ethical quandaries, pit taylors pragmatism against her ethics and her emotions, and have the looming threat we've alluded to forever ago finally take the stage.
Oh Regent is dead so we don't have to do any of that..... uhhh..ok...well at least that means we'll get the dad thing going annnnnnnnnd he's dead off screen.
This is one of SO MANY EXAMPLES of things like this. Most of it tied around the timeskip at which point it clearly felt like the author just wanted to be done.
We're FINALLY going to get to see taylor get what she wanted all those years ago, and maybe work with people who will actually call her out on her crazy overstepping, and see what she thinks now that she's older and more powerful. Nope time skip AND none of it mattered. Not even pretending we missed interesting stuff, just literally wrote "yep it sucked and changed nothing". Wow.
For a world that thrives on interesting ideas, having MULTIPLE arcs revolve around threats that reuse previous enemies felt super underwhelming/lazy. Namely Echidna/Slaughterhouse 9000.
If you take the story of worm and stretch it over a decade (and let someone else actually solve a problem besides taylor) instead of 3 years it would just make so much more sense. It's not a big flaw in comparison to everything else, but god the danger creep feels extra absurd when you won't even just say "it's been 1 year since the blah attacked, here's the little thing's that have changed, but oh shit blah will soon happen!"
To be clear, by the end of the story, I dreaded any section that was taylor internal monologue. It was almost always awful, pointless, and predictable. So when I finally got to the final chapter, and it became clear it would basically be nothing but that, I stopped. I literally just said "i don't think I can do this" and dropped it at the finish line. That's how much I despised reading about taylor, and how little I cared about any other possible resolutions at that point. It was clear nothing I found interesting (that was left) would be touched on or handled, and it would just be "Taylor does the thing" yet again.
Side comments:
I find the Panacea thing whatever, and wonder if anyone would care if she wasn't gay? Its not like anything around her would be better if she were straight. I think it's more just bad and edgy writing than any major issues. I think the actual concept of the start of her issues, that she's the daughter of someone supremely fucked up (although also, potentially interesting) AND has the ultimate cheat code in "fucking with brain chemistry" and dealing with that temptation. Of course it became a problem, but the handling of that problem was just "ooh how horrible can we make it" and with no actual nuance.
I feel like extending the term racist to include someone who might have preconceived notions about what someone looks like under a mask is stretching the term to the point of losing its meaning. If you're using the same word to describe the people who will literally kill or go out of their way to harm others based on skin color, but also people who maybe aren't thoughtful enough to assume that someone might be of a different race, you're really diluting the term. That's doubly so when it's just conjecture based on what is, already, objectively bad writing, which strikes me as the much more likely candidate.
It's a shame that worm become the mess it did. The concepts and the short stories for the interludes are still top notch. There's some really great stuff in there, and hell one of the BEST payoffs in the book is an interlude chapter that shows just how fucking awful the Simurgh is. It's just unfortunately all mired in the kind of power ramp and character assassination that makes Bleach look well written. At least it's willing to give other characters cool moments sometimes.
Edit-
Oh Oh oh, more stuff
When you have SO many characters who see the future, sorta see the future, can predict things perfectly, or can control things perfectly, it suddenly feels like almost no one actually matters. This is a huge issue for Worm where in part because of the insane power creep you win up with basically 90% of the cast's actions feeling "pointless" because they're not in the category of characters who are canonically allowed to succeed at anything. It's a very neat concept in some writing, but it's so overused and used so poorly in combination in Worm that it just robs so many scenes of any real weight.
I'll preface this by card-tabling that Worm is one of my favorite things ever.
I found your review interesting, though I didn't agree with much. Your review explains effectively to me why you didn't like it, so I'd say it's a well written review, in that way amongst others (it reads well and is thought provoking).
It does sound as though the story was ill suited to your tastes in many ways, and I could understand someone who shared your sensibilities coming away with a similar review.
I'd want to touch on two specific criticisms more closely. I'll use two separate comments to delineate the two potentially disparate lines of discussion (should one develop).
Is White Default? The Creed Consideration
I come at this as a mixed race fella - with a Jamaican mom - who grew up in an unusually white town for its size (200,000ish) in the UK. She's halfsies, rendering me a quarter, just to provide the shape of my perspective.
For a white pov character surrounded by mostly white folks - which I think is Taylor's experience - white is the default.
There's the classic joke of identifying someone not white across a room and breaking your back to avoid saying "Sam's the darker one". "The dude, stumpy lil legs, short hair, no not him, next to him, holding the guiness." Well meaning but <amused eyeroll>.
If race isn't mentioned in Taylor's inner monologue about a character, I'm guessing they're white, and I'm not sure that's problematic. I believe that's how her inner monologue would work, and I don't believe it makes her racist?
My reading of the story finds it very egalitarian in its treatment of different races within the explicit text, and I don't see an issue in this aspect either, personally.
It's not something I've paid particular attention to, nor something that jumped out at me. I may have missed some nuance that did exist, but I've read worm a lot and never seen these issues as described.
The Amy Dallon Dilema
I'm not sure panacea is in any sense a uniquely bad villain, in some sense representing a negative view of lesbianism. Heartbreaker, and his son - the very central character - regent, are both highly sexually deviant (read: criminal) straight main characters.
The things bonesaw or greyboy do are - to me - vastly worse than what any of these 3 characters do. Sexual violence doesn't for me inhabit a separate plane to other forms of violence, where it's somehow inherently worse. I think it'd be a glaring and jarring omission to ignore this category when other forms of torture feature constantly throughout.
Agreed - and the closest figure to superman in the story, in terms of powers and ethics (Legend), is gay. (This in a story written a couple of years before gay marriage was legalized in the US). As far as I can recall, there's not a single line in the story that's critical of homosexuality, and Panacea being a lesbian is not what makes her a monster. (And other lesbian characters - like Flechette - are not monsters.)
I think we should be really cautious of levying accusations of homophobia against works in which some of the bad people happen to be queer, you know? That doesn't serve anybody.
I always had an understanding of what Amy did to Victoria as being an accident. She had feelings for her and had an impulse that she physically could not control, like a freudian slip. I'm sure we've all had impulses that we're glad could not have physically manifested - burning a hole through the head of the person talking to you in the movie theater, for example. Amy just had the misfortune to be physically capable of manufesting that impulse, and not reactive enough consciously to stop herself from doing it. Through this lens she's no more of a villain than Of Mice and Men's Lenny. She's just not as in control as someone with that strength should be, but that's not her fault.
Of the people I've talked to about Worm no one else sees it that way, and I'm wondering if I'm reading something into that isn't there, or if it is open to interpretation and my interpretation is just unpopular.
I'd agree with you. Nobody is more horrified by what happens than Panacea herself.
What she did was monstrous, but she's not a monster.
With great power comes great responsibility, and she's failed herself and her sister in that regard, to her enduring regret. But she didn't plan for it. Sort of one of those tragic villains where she's simultaneously her own victim.
I've always read her sympathetically.
This was something that I remember divided the community after Worm was finished, but before Ward got going (if you haven't read it, Ward is mostly from the perspective of Victoria Dallon years after the events at the end of Worm). Ward adds some detail and perspective to the events between Amy and Victoria that both provide a little nuance but also paint what Amy did as much, much worse than some folks initially interpreted. And the evidence of that is there in the text in Worm, but it's easy to read over and not realize how bad it was because the language wasn't explicit. In Ward it's spelled out much more plainly and it becomes obvious that while things might have started with a lack of impulse control on the part of Amy, she continued to victimize Victoria over a period of time and essentially had to be forced to undo what she did.
Intriguing. I've allowed ward to remain at the back of my reading list in case it has a matrix 2 and 3 effect on my feelings about worm. I'll get there but I'm in no rush to risk it.
That's fair. I think it was better than Worm in a lot of ways, but it was pretty polarizing in the community, especially among folks who were really into Worm fanfic.
Fair point. I guess Amy’s crimes hit harder for me because they don’t sound as far fetched as Bonesaw and Grey Boy’s, which are sort of inconceivable because of their superhero nature, whereas at its core Amy’s thing is just an abusive relationship, and therefore can hit much closer to home, but I see and understand your point.
Are their behaviours - at their core - more fundamentally supernatural?
Panacea's behavior does tie in closely to RealWorld™️ abusive relationships, but don't those other two's behaviours tie similarly into the RealWorld™️ crime of, say, serial killing as popularly understood via TrueCrime docs? People can be violently tortured in the absence of superpowers.
That being said, abusive relationship dynamics are more common in people's day to day lives I expect, and are therefore more likely to - as you observe - hit closer to home. But I'm not sure that's the fault of the author nor should guide his writing. As you pointed out in your review, he warns that there'll be no trigger warnings which is itself a blanket trigger-warning.
I'm keen to reiterate that I enjoyed reading your review, and would hate you to think otherwise. Imagine me as a helicopter parent whose precious little darling you've just very vaguely besmirched and you've probably got a good mental picture of what was going on as I read the last segment of your review this morning! 0 to 100 in 0.1 seconds, knuckles cracked, keyboard warrior-mode activated. Thanks for engaging in good faith even though I came in a bit hot!
I've finally gotten around to reading Worm, which was recommended to me many times, but I just have too many issues with the work to let it get away with 1.6 million words without me commenting on it. I'd also like to know what you thought if you've read it, and if/how/why you agree/disagree with my review.
I did not read Worm. Way too dark and grim for me. But I am very happy it exists, because the Worm fanfiction universe is massive and it has some of the best ever works of literature I've ever read.
Edit: I should say, I clicked on the link... and I noped out 5 seconds later. The very bright background and text color combination is very harsh on the eyes. The site also didn't load right the first time, so the formatting wasn't, which wasn't ideal. So I did not read the review either
You get a different colour combination every time you load the website, but I should probably remove the low vision ones, sorry about that
Unless you've changed it, that might be browser/setting dependent? I get a burnt red solid background with gold text everytime
That’s the default, yes. It passes WCAG accessibility standards for contrast, but I guess there’s always reader mode in the browser if that doesn’t work for you.
Worm was cooling its heels in my audiobook/podcast queue for ages purely because of its size. When I eventually started, I had forgotten where I'd picked up the recommendation and what I was to expect. I was initially disappointed to discover it was very clearly a YA superhero story. However, I reminded myself that my typical audio fare is mostly TTRPG podcasts, and perhaps I shouldn't be the one casting stones. I forged on.
Your assessment is fair. I'd recommend it to Marvel fans and more broadly to the nerd fandom crowd. I had fun with it, but I didn't take it too serious. The serial nature of the chapters lead to a lot of episodes ending in a dire cliffhanger, with the next episode resolving the issue immediately via deus ex machina... But we're talking superheroes, so... That's fine.
Hah, I'm not sure I can agree with that. YA in terms of the difficulty of the writing, maybe, but -
spoilers
I'm not sure you could describe that as being for a YA audience.
I don't know how far in advance the author had the particulars of that scene planned out, but it comes pretty deep into the work. The readers first impression will always be about the teenage girl dealing with bullies while exploring her burgeoning superpowers, and it doesn't stay too far from that for awhile. It did get darker as it progressed, but I'm willing to give the reader credit that it doesn't go too far for too long. I was also a child when Gremlins and Indiana Jones came out, so maybe there's a bit of desensitization there.
Hm. I'm not a huge fan of Worm myself, but I also don't think I agree with this review very much.
Spoilers
I'm not sure whether Taylor being unlikable is the reviewer's impression or something they are asserting about the canon. Taylor is certainly likeable in canon - characters fall over themselves and quit their jobs to help her out, and her sheer charismatic power is compared to that of a cult leader. She's certainly a terrible person at the same time, and the book rather explicit about this. As far as impressions go, yeah, whether she's likable to the reader is ambiguous. I find her a bit annoying as the POV because she perfectly analyzes the situation at hand and perfectly reflects on her mistakes, and I find that uninteresting.
Some other notes: "Godzilla with the serial numbers filed off" is certainly treated as a match for the protagonists. The standard Endbringer situation occurs here: many people die, the local area is devastated, and the Endbringer slips away not dead, and so to all intents and purposes unscathed. None of the main protagonists die, and I think that is an accurate observation of this review - the Undersiders overstayed their welcome, for sure.
The in-story explanation for why Gold Morning occurred was because Jack asked Scion if he had ever considered being evil. Jack has the Broadcast Shard, Jack has the ability to influence other parahumans and para-thingies. I'm also not sure why Jack Slash coming back is treated as surprising. This is kind of the underlying stress of a large portion of Worm - the world's most wanted terrorists say they're going to begin a campaign of terror in two years, and then vanish.
I'm also not sure how "Jack Slash doesn't lose to Parahumans" is connected to or circumvents the Manton Effect? And I don't think it's boring. You have a large number of characters with "unfair" powers. A fun part of Worm, and something I think it does well, is pitting these characters with unfair powers against each other and having things play out, especially when these unflawable powers are held by very flawed characters. I'm also not sure how the flaws of Taylor as a person vanish when she puts on the Skitter mask (or cape). This also seemed like a bit of a non sequitur.
I really don't think Cauldron is a subplot. It's kind of, the plot. A shadowy organization working behind the scenes is alluded to throughout almost the entirety of Worm: and when finally revealed, serves to tie up a number of unresolved plot threads. (That was another thing - I did not think that Worm actually left much of anything unresolved? At least, that was not left unresolved explicitly to set the stage for Ward.) I'm not really sure why the presence of Cauldron would serve to de-emphasize the intricacies of powers, also. They don't have a choice over the powers they trigger: they're mostly just making more parahumans.
With regards to Panacea: Yeah.
With regards to Taylor's sexuality: I don't remember there being disparaging comments towards lesbians, but I do remember reading somewhere (found it) that Wildbow wrote he struggles with writing gay and specifically lesbian characters as specifically as the protagonist, and didn't want to do so and leave the door open to misinterpretations of the straight-guy-writing-lesbian-mc variety while he was still a novice author.
All very fair points, thank you for reading. I personally have a problem with Jack Slash getting plot armor for the same reason I don’t like its made canon that not everyone can be a parahuman, and it’s more or less random if someone has the potential to trigger. It seems like an arbritrary fact of the world that just exists to be easily abused by the author if they write themselves into a corner.
I also don’t think Cauldron should be cut. Not at all, I think it’s a great idea for a story. I just do not think that in this story, in Taylor’s story, it’s presented in the best way. It should have gotten its own story, with other characters, other stakes, other themes. Again, smaller stories that show more aspects of the universe rather than one that needs to go through Taylor at all costs.
It’s backwards writing or whatever.
You think about a good point waaaay far into your story (how in the HELL is Jack alive) and then go oh welllllllllll see the thing is.
I’m not sure if that actually happened in worm. Just in general I believe the foundation was laid early for the eventual Jack reveal.
That said it still FEELS like that, even when you plan it, if you don’t execute well.
Thank you for writing! I love reading people's takes and thoughts on media, especially when I disagree with them.
Worm does have one of the farthest call backs I'm aware of. Near the beginning, Taylor dog-ears a book, and it's only near the very end, more than a million words later IIRC, that she finally admits to herself that she's a monster.
I tried reading Worm several times and I always bounce back a few arcs in, primarily because of the writing style. It just feels like I'm reading someone's fanfic on a forum.
Maybe it gets better later on, but it's really bad in the beginning, and it's so long you can't just breeze through it to get to the meat of the story.
IMO the work desperately needs a good editor (and rewrites in certain parts) to make it feel like a well-written cohesive story.
Yeah the author is very forthright about it being his first published work and having a lot of rough edges. He's talked a lot about how each of his serials has taught him something new about writing, which is really interesting.
I read it back in like 2012 so my memory is a bit hazy, but I remember being absolutely unable to put it down.
That said, today, pretty much everything I remember is from the first few arcs. It came back to me as I read through the article but before that I didn't even remember how it ended.
I think the biggest problem is that the author has to write it in order as he went. It's an extremely complex world and story to try to write when you can't go back and edit anything.
Did anyone read any of his other works? I remember a modern day magic setting that was pretty good, and a sort of bio-punk Victorian Frankenstein A-Team thing. But I didn't get super far into either of them. I think I just got tired of reading giant novels on my tiny iPhone 4.
I read Pact, the modern day magic setting you mentioned. It has many of the same strengths and weaknesses of worm.
A great deal of worldbuilding, full of the mechanisms of how the supernatural world fits together, probably the part I enjoy most in both. I think I have far more appetite for that than delphi and probably a lot of readers, and will happily listen to the documentary on your made up world thank you. Though I think it is overall a weaker setting than worm. Keeping the magic grounded requires inventing even more explanations.
A protagonist who as far as I remember is psychologically invincible and does not change much emotionally. The interest is in how he will solve the latest puzzle.
Some really messed up stuff. I don't remember it as viscerally nasty as worm, but things in it disturbed me for longer, though your mileage may vary.
Spoilers
Particularly Maggie getting most of her identity stolen and the blood hags stealing their children's lives.
A long but gripping story that (I think an author's note admitted) ran out of steam eventually and required some questionable escalation to a final crisis. The ending seemed reasonably satisfying though was not as memorable as worm.
Actually that highlights one the things that really got old to me. The idea that magic users can't lie, but they're all the most conniving, two-faced, pack of bastards you've ever met, is actually pretty neat. But after the first few times someone says "well actually, I only said I'd wouldn't do X, but that technically doesn't mean I can't do Y" it just kind of became exhausting.
Long time since I've tried Pact, and I agree it was less gripping and this analysis might be a large part of why....
It felt as though - more so even than worm - the main character was never not reeling.
The 19th century biopunk story Twig is easier to get into than Pact. I'm listening to a fan made audio book that's incomplete as yet, so dunno how it plays out, but a few arcs in it has me salivating for more. If the actor weren't so fantastic I'd return to actually reading the damn thing.