For those who don’t know – Pale is a finished webnovel about three younger teenage girls, magic/voodoo people, a big wolf that really was gone and everyone’s sad about it so the girls have to pretend to be Poirot and it spirals from there for about 3.5 million words. Some themes are growing up, otherness and normality, feudalism/colonialism, tradition – but it’s very long, so there’s a lot of stuff. Very wholesome, not at all gruesome or dark – surely.
I’ve been reading it (I’m on arc 7) and there are certainly things to like about it – such as… the creatures. The magic system’s probably the best I’ve ever seen. Characterisation is enjoyable.
And there are things I didn’t enjoy as much: I think human characters kinda have rather similar voices, and I can’t stand him trying to write the accent of that one spooky ghost. And beyond that, I don’t know why, but sometimes it’s just hard to get through, hard to read – maybe I’m just not in the mood in those times and the writing is not gripping enough, maybe something else.
So, for those who read it – what do you think about it?
by Le_Creature
2 Comments
I enjoyed Worm, but tbh, I dropped it after she switched to a new team. Too much setup with not enough payoff. So I opted not to read Pale.
Wait Pale is Finished!!!!!!!!!!! I was waiting to read it but in general Wildbow is impressive. Worm was the starting gun for the web serial rennaisance we are in now.
While there was good stuff before it. Evidence that by letting your editing and prose take a hit and fully embracing the extreme volume end of serialisation you can pump out a narrative that is absolutely massive in scope and creativity in just 2.5 years. It’s not surprising that a lot of other authors took up the pen and tried it.
Worm impressed me deeply as a grand experiment in what is effectively a novel written medium, the web serial.
I skipped Pact, but Twig was interesting as less grand experiment by the author to pull back and focus on a smaller scope and tighter core narrative. While it failed at times it was overally not bad at all and had a lot of great writing in it.
Ward impressed me on every front as a surprisingly drastic maturation as a writer. I could probably write and essay on why I was sceptical that a direct sequel to Worm would be a good basis for interesting writing and how unlikely it would be to stand up to the Worm due to the it’s unique structure. But my expectations where wholly subverted by how high the highs were even if it’s a slow burn at times.
The one thing I don’t find Wildbow’s work is, is hard to read. Actually web serials in general tend to be both very easy to read and deeply gripping in a way that’s surprisingly independent of their quality or subject matter. Wildbow for example writes almost universally dark stuff but somehow rather than being emotionally exhausting it just kinda pulls you along for the ride.