So I just finished reading the web-serial novel Worm and it's probably the best superhero fiction I have ever enjoyed across any media.
For anyone who don't know it's a novel released weekly over the course of two years between 2011 and 2013, since then I believe it has been edited and rewritten a bit but I'm not sure about the extent of it, It is also known for being very long.
This is a fascinating book that manages to have some of the coolest most clear and expansive world building I've ever seen, supporting a story that is engaging at every turn with a huge cast of characters that are all deftly drawn while relying on the nicest most accessible language possible.
The story follows Taylor who gets her superpowers through a traumatic event, and follows her early quest to become a superhero while infiltrating a new up and coming supervillain group. What follows is a story that continually builds on itself in a natural but often surprising way and keeps you hooked from fairly early on.
I mentioned the accessible writing, personally I like a more dense literary style but Wildbow opts for a much much more simple and straightforward voice, probably because it works better in a serial format. But with that style he manages to clearly paint all characters and locations and most fantastically, action set pieces, in a vibrant and direct way that just works so well. Action scenes is a hard thing to do in writing I think, often risks feeling muddled, But Wildbow has easily the most creative superpowers maybe in the genre, only rivaled by things you'd see in mangas and anime like JoJo or One Piece or something like that. And it's an absolute joy to see all the powers in motion, how they work with each other, how they work in this world with the mystery of how ALL powers function, simmering in the background, waiting to be explored. And action is balanced with really satisfying moments of just characters talking and discussing things with very interesting dialogue and it sometimes feels as exciting as things exploding to just see two characters sitting in chairs discussing their motivations or the politics of this world.
Wildbow is also absolutely allergic to cliches or boring tropes and refuses to have a predictable story, this is without relying on whiplash plot twists at every turn and instead manages to just write a plot that always goes places that feel natural and interesting but is not what you'd probably expect.
I would recommend this to anyone interested in superhero fiction, and still recommend it to anyone else who just likes a good story that just keeps going forward continually.
It comes with a warning that it is often very dark and bleak, but more of a consequence of a grounded sense of realism without relying on mere moustache twirling villains (although there are a few interesting twists on that idea too) Maybe having a more sober look at what evil or just morally grey characters are.
Another warning is of course that the book is generally only available as a read on the blog website, which can be annoying if you are like me and like a good physical book or a well edited Kindle version. Although there is a fan made audiobook that I don't know if it's good or not.
Well, as the title says, I dont know how this is not a movie, tv series, and a videogame already. It's an expansive phenomenal work unlike anything I ever read and it's a crime that Wildbow and a publisher have not been able to at least publishh it as a book series yet. It deserves to be known as at least THE benchmark for superhero novels and should be found in any bookshop.
Please give it a chance!
by Firvulag