I just want to inform people who watch this video that the novel can be read for free in the website, Daniel did put a link to the site in the description
As long as my Rifts TTRPG books collection huh... Ouch. Honestly it might be longer but point is that collection is like 35+ DnD PHG in size minimum. Lots of words so close enough... assuming its less than thought then I add my DnD collection and that should do it. I have seen it around and the title seemed boring to me, so was waiting to hear someone mention it and sell me on how it could be interesting. It being so long and it being the notable journey of the writer(s). That hooks me. I had a similar idea for a story of mine where I story teller it on you tube a chapter at a time and use the constructive comments and the community as a whole to tweak or shape it as I just give the roughest of draft versions each vid. I know roughly how to get from A to Z in that story so a bare bones overview draft style could work. Wandering Inn could in turn show me a written form of that or an audiobook version or whatever. Thank you for covering this and letting me know whats what with it in so far as Vol 1 is.
As a long time Wandering Inn reader, I can absolutely confirn that the writing gets so much better, the characterisation deeper, and the world more nuanced. But wow, yeah, there's so much writing, some of which is thoroughly at most fine, to reach where we are with that at the moment.
I'm at the end of Volume 8 (not book 8, millions of words in) and I'd say that while all of these things get better especially compared to the very early volumes, there are still some badly written passages or characters. There is also an increasing number of secondary or tertiary plotlines that take over the main one. Imho the writing varies a lot ang goes up and down, and only in Volume 8 iirc the author gets a proper editor. It's a series that I love but I feel its lows are extremely low and while its highs are really high, it's too much effort for me to recommend it to anyone really
I hope you will take a look to see if they do publish a refined version and a review separate from this one. I have fancied the series, but I can't commit to such a long series if it just mid.
@@DanielGreeneReviews I love how you spot on identified that we would be cool with criticism lol We will spend hours talking about how insane it is that theirs so many characters that are all memorable, the foreshadowing, etc but we also spend a lot of time talking about people we don't like, seections we don't like. Hell skipping entire character POV's and getting summaries from other people is VERY COMMON.
I remember when I begun to read this behemoth years back. I remember it being quite bad at start but for some reason I kept reading until at some point I remember consciously thinking "whoa that was actually pretty well written chapter" the fact I witnessed the writer noticeably improving from chapter to chapter was at least partly the thing that hooked me in. At first the "good chapters" were few and far between but now, currently there are definitely more good chapters than bad ones.
I don’t usually leave comments. But I feel like I need to say something - I think you missed what wandering inn does very well - it makes you feel like you were that character at some point in your life. Erin stumbling around clueless in new world was very much how I felt when I first moved to new country as an immigrant. May be that’s why I could relate to it. Even when everything comes together for Erin, the way she misses her home, family and that dread of homesickness setting in. I have felt all that and some. Pirateaba has captured this and mental health aspect of it so well, that at times I felt like crying. Because I was that person trying to find my way in a new place. But I understand not everyone could relate to characters bumbling around like an idiot. Obviously wandering inn is much more than just Erin but that’s the lynchpin for me that keeps me glued to the chapters.
Yes!!! I’m so excited to see this review! I’m the audiobook narrator and it’s really been an incredible ride! I absolutely love this series 🥰 The first book has been re-recorded and is awaiting release, and I can confidently say both Pirate and I have improved since the first recording ❤ Thank you so much for your thought out and very kind (and fair) review!
That is absolutely true. The first few books in the series were...rough. But it has been fun to see the author improve over time. It's a good idea to redo the first couple of books. If I didn't have a job that gave me more time than I know what to do with to listen to books, I probably wouldn't have made it past the first one. You've always been a pretty solid narrator. At least in everything I've heard you in.
I think people are being a little too critical of the first book. I went into the series blind and enjoyed every bit of the first book. I am only through book 2 so far (just about to start book 3) and I really love the story so far. That said, your narration is so, so good. I listen to a lot of audiobooks. A lot. You are killing it with this series and are one of the best in the business.
I'm about 9 books now and I have to say you truly do an incredible job. The different species having different mannerisms of speech, but then also being able to differentiate the characters within those mannerisms is a great show of skill. Drakes from Liscor are noticeably distinct to those from the walled cities. With all sincerity, you are excellent at your craft and I wish you the best.
@@Rendref iirc the original Gollum as presented in The Hobbit was just a weird little man that challenged Bilbo to a riddle contest. When was figuring out what he wanted to do for a sequel, Tolkien realized that it should be about the Ring, but both it and Gollum should be more threatening in The Hobbit to make it work. So he rewrote “Riddles in the Dark” to what we all know it as today. Don’t quote me on that. I might have some details wrong.
The Wandering Inn has been my favorite series for years, and this video cracks me up - all of this is true and valid 😂 Erin's naevite and her messing up over and over is why I LOVE her so much. She's gentle and silly and a bit dumb. I also absolutely love the stream of consciousness and lack of editing. I love how it rambles like I'm in someone else's head. I also love that its unweildy and unrestrained. I LOVE that nothing is cut. The writing is better, but it's still pretty uncut.
I understand daniel's criticism. but i really enjoyed the early chapters. she fumbles hard, but it's entertaining and realistic in a way. erin's naivete and general incompetence fits in with a sheltered young adult with little life experience and zero practical skills. additionally, it serves to highlight how the world's Skill and levelling system works and how a lot of people don't develop actual skills. for example, erin's immense improvement at cooking, in no way matches her enthusiasm or knowledge of the discipline.
I stumbled over the Wandering Inn when I was at university. I was broke and wanted an audio book that would bridge as much time as possible with just one audible credit. Even under these circumstances I hated the beginning and was confused why it someone paid to have it made into an audiobook, but I am glad that I stuck with it. Thirteen volumes deep it's still improving. It's current biggest strength are the ongoing plots and the worldbuilding, while the prose only marginally improves every so often. It's crazy how much the author seems to have learned even after the first volume (I always assumed that they were still very young, when they wrote the early parts). Tbh. Today, I'm more excited for the next Wandering Inn Audio book than some of my favorite main stream authors. Even so, it's hard to recommended it to anyone.
@@joshuagodson6460 Sorry! Audiobook volumes. I continued reading from the 12th one so in my head I'm reading volume 13. It's actually volume 6 in webnovel-terms.
Coming back to say this, but a large part of the Wandering Inn's magic are the long term set ups and pay offs. Due to the length, there are threads set up in volume 1/2 that are still being played out. The world building is insane as well, with numerous continents and cultures being captured. It also stretches across genres, and pirate is actually a god-tier horror writer later on in the series. All-in-all, the wandering inn gets deeper and more complex the longer you stick with it, and the journey is incredible
As a fan of The Wandering Inn who has been following it for a few years now, I completely understand having issues with it, especially the beginning and the only reason I probably got past the start was because it was an audio book and I could listen while doing other things and ignore the boring parts. Now though, I think Pirateaba is writing some of the best scenes and story arcs I have seen in fantasy. There are still some issues like parts that could be cut if you were trying to trad publish and had to fit to certain word counts and whatnot. I do think that a lot of the extra stuff that is in now, is the kind of stuff that would be thrown into novellas and side stories that would be released on the side of the main story with other stories. For those that like cozy fantasy or like you said, anyone who wants to watch an author develop and grow over the course of their career, it is a great piece of work to do so with.
I'm not sure about recommending TWI to people that like cozy fantasy. It has a lot of cozy moments, sure. But, for example, ending of volume 1 just isn't something that could happen in cozy story.
I understand the description as cozy fantasy, and it is that, too, but I want to push back a bit, because the series gets waaaay less cozy as the breadth of the world expands. The Titan of Baleros, which was two releases ago, is literally just a giant war game. The most recent release gets even darker. Honestly the best way I can describe it is that Erin is doing her best to be cozy fantasy despite everyone around her
@@Secondhelix I've never cried so much from a series before. It's soooooo good. But every time I try to get someone new to give it a try they never even finish the first one. Even though to tell them it gets so much better.
Please please please continue As a long time one piece fan, and a long time wandering inn fan (been reading weekly for almost 6 years now) it’s one of the only stories that gives me those long term pay off depth you can only get from a long written work And as a DM I can mine this work endlessly. It’s so damn rich and different while being similar
Agreed, can confirm that TWI gives you payoff after payoff while still introducing more and more as the story progresses. It's because it's unwilling to cut away from the "boring" parts or not just montage it's way through character development. Characters don't exposit themselves. you learn about them from the concept of how they interact with others as well as their own plot points. Even the antagonists of one volume can get their own light in the sun which makes you think about the whole series. Quoting Super Eye Patch Wolf's love of Pro wrestling as it's a story told in multiple levels week after week after week. It's amazing and wonderful and painful and bittersweet and something nice to come home to.
@@JudgeIsWright I’ve read through a good amount of it When it started you eat more of the blonde girls motivations and such. Def some cool stuff and characters It started today drain on me. Maybe I’ll pick it back up. Love the alligator dude.
When I started reading The Wandering Inn, I hated most of it and Erin was so obnoxious, stupid and incompetent I actively rooted for her to die. Then I hit some fragments I enjoyed, especially the parts about Toren. I thought 'okay, let's not drop it and see where it goes.' Then the finale for Volume 1 happened and I was like 'okay, the author at least gets what it means to tell a story, this is okay, I can keep with this.' After Volume 5 I was genuinely convinced this might be one of the better fantasy works I've seen and it improved immensely. Erin has slowly become one of my most favourite characters, period. Since Volume 6 I've been unironically sure the author, Pirateaba, might be once-a-generation unhinged genius that may actually pull it off, write one of the best fantasy stories ever seen. There are more flaws or problems with TWI than a single multi-hour video essay could handle, but at the same time its quality and wondrous storytelling combined with endlessly creative world-building makes it one-of-a-kind experience that cannot be find anywhere else. I don't agree with the low ratings of the first volume wholeheartedly, it's not THAT bad in my opinion, but starting with Volume 4 the story finds its footing and gets better than you could possibly anticipate. After Volume 5, it's great and getting even better. Now, at Volume 10, almost no one would say TWI is weak, and world-count is the least of its strengths. If you are looking for a true Epic Fantasy that keeps giving you exactly what you want then look no further. It will last you for a while.
Wandering inn is not my favorite book, not my favorite story and not even my favorite series but it is my favorite thing. I have been reading it for couple of years now and only caught up with the ebooks early this year and I had to start reading the web novel. I cannot really describe just how much this series has brought enjoyment to my life.
The chapters where “nothing happens” are my favorite, when characters just play chess or make food. It is different than most stories centered around conflict all the time. Props to understanding what is good about it even when you personally didn,t cared about it. 👍
This is the truth. These chapters are what keep me addicted to the story. It is where you see the humanity in the characters, as well as how this is reflected across the species in the books, those little breaks and pauses, the small acts of everyday life that speak to the shared experience of being alive no matter background and appearances. It gives you a more rounded view of people and where they come from. So many books lack the depth of character to really explore the human condition in the detail this series does, and it can only do that because it slows down the way it does. It might have its flaws (mostly some minor inconsistencies at the beginning), but I love it, and I lover the audiobook narration. I do not reread a lot of books, but this is on that list of books I fall back on and reread once a year or so since I discovered it during the pandemic.
100%. in most stories it's one or the other. slice of life or epic fantasy. in the wandering inn you spend so much time on the mundane moments that when it comes time for shit to hit the fan, it's whale shit hitting wind turbines and the subsequent changes in the new mundane are actually felt. i love the "bloat".
i've never heard of this series before. i've read a number of web novels and fanfics in the 1.5m+ range, but nothing this long. i like stories that never really end, they just change. i'll have to give this a try. the experience of seeing the author improve as you read happens a lot with web novel and fanfic. it is awesome. when you related it to telling stories at a campfire is something i've thought about as well. oral story telling is almost collaborative. i always change up the telling based on the listeners and how they are reacting. i feel like web serials have the chance to do this by guaging the reaction from each chapter and how the community is reacting. it's as much old as it is new, and i'm here for it. thanks for the video.
Just want to say that.. I read a lot of books. Fantasy, scifi, the classics, the new stuff, the self-publishes and the indie. Out of all I have read, nothing has made me FEEL so strongly, so vividly as The Wandering Inn did and does. Volume 1 is the worst it ever gets, it only improves from here on and improves strongly. If you are willing to put in the time, this world is *alive*, is *real*. Nothing quite hits the mark like TWI does.
Agreed. Book 5 (audiobook), first half, has some of the best writing I ever experienced. The long form also does something that only long form can - they payoffs are HUGE.
I agree, the long form really shines in The Wandering Inn because it does not have qualms about exploring the characters, cultures, and settings as much as it can
Easily one of my favorite series. I love the world and characters. The only thing I hate is the length but I also love that too. I don't think of it as one story anymore, Pirate will write whole books following side characters within the series. It's basically an anthology of stories she wishes to tell. The side characters are deeply well written and the only time I really get tired of them is when I miss Erin. Pirate is amazingly talented, especially aside from output, this story means so much to me in terms of Web Fiction success and capitalization on a new form of publish. Glad you reviewed it, looking forward to seeing what you say.
Hands down my favorite fantasy series of all time (currently at volume 6). I listened to the first 9 books and I can confidently say the narrator is in my top 3. She has incredible number of voices and you will recognize every character, thus making it super easy and enjoyable to listen.
@@OrionSupergan Did you finish all of book/volume one? It absolutely sets the stage. Starts out local and small with limited characters but significant stakes (like... continued survival is pretty significant) and by the end of book 1, it has a ton of new characters and a wider scope and larger stakes. Each volume/book adds to it, but the pattern is absolutely there in book 1.
@@Kalyahna I'm caught up to current patreon. I've re-read book 1 a few times and while yes it has those hints, a lot of books try that and never pull through. So until you actually see it I'd say it's not expected.
@@bhall I can totally see the reasons. The volume 1 was all over the place imo. But (as Daniel mentioned in the video) Pirateaba grows and finds her um. The main perk for me is how she managed to blend slice of life with action. In some books "downtime" may feel sluggish and boring, but in Wandering Inn (esp. in volume 6) I immerselly enjoyed the casual stuff.
I say this as someone who started reading Malazan 20 years ago, and holds it as the best series I've ever read. The Wandering Inn is solidly the 2nd best series I've ever read. It shares a lot of what I love about Malazan, while being completely different. The first book is weak in TWI. But the world starts opening in books 2 and 3, and the quality keeps going up. The series is 45 books long right now, and I do not think it is bloated, it's telling a story that needs that much room.
I think 45 books is the definition of bloated. Whether you like it or not is a different topic. I hardly doubt any story needs that much room. Considering, as Daniel said, nothing gets cut basically.
@@Rendref If you would like to read them and keep that opinion after catch up, fair. I would say it's bloated in the same way Malazan is bloated. Why are 10 books needed, it could have been written in a book or two. But I've read the entire series, and am in the process of re-reading it now. I would say that after reading TWI I consider most books constipated. They are so limited, unable to explore other paths or side characters, forced to move the plot along quickly because there simply isn't enough pages for them to let things evolve or diverge. It was SO REFRESHING for all these side characters to be explored, or plots to evolve and change vs being wrapped up tidily. Really, I hope you do read TWI. The first book is rough, but it grows into the most wonderful, amazing and epic story.
@Rendref no offense, but he read about 1/45th of the story. Also the part that is 100% not anything like the rest of the story. His opinion is extremely limited. It is the equivalent of watching 1 episode of game of thrones from the last season and deciding the show is trash and terribly written.
@scottlogan8293 it is very hard for anyone to read a series of 45 books, amongst others, unless you a very very fast reader. So imagine he or me reads all 45 books and it takes 10 years, and then he says "Well, it is bloated". If I have to read 45 books in order to make a judgement, it is crazy. It will take me like 10 years to read this. It took me 9 months to read Malazan and I was pretty much only reading Malazan. This is the craziest investment there could be
@OrionSupergan so maybe they explore every possible character. That's fine. I, however, very often struggle when no things of value happen in books, when I don't feel like book is progressing (whether it is character development or plot). The way Daniel described it (nothing gets cut) really sounds like the definition of bloated. And maybe this goes away with book 3, but it is still extremely big books. And the rest of the series is still 43 books (so far). I don't think "bloated" is a wrong word. I am, however, a very slow reader. I cannot allow to read 45 books of one series, especially if I will struggle with first 2. If I was a super fast reader and could do it in 4 months, like others can, I sure would have tried it.
The series really starts to become so good that you start to separate it into early and modern TWI in your head, with around the middle ofbbook three and onward being on the same level as Malazan or WoT. By the time you reach The Siege of Liscor it really is cemented in your mind that this is some of the best fantasy out there. I hope you decide to continue a book here and there.
The moment you said 3000 words a day on average- as someone who writes for a hobby and tries to keep a consistent pace of 400 words a day (with holidays, exam days and editing days NOT included) and gets very proud if I make that- I was going to be impressed no matter what. If someone managed to produce anything above straight-up unreadable garbage at that pace, they have my deepest and utmost respect.
I do kind of the same 500 words a day but lately I have been procrastinating and skipping days due to life stuff. In general though, wow anything above 1000, maybe 1500 a day, being GOOD, is NUTS!!!
@@lunaverse4977 they stream it all on youtube aswell, the wildest day they ever did was like 13-14 hours and was in a flow state and wrote 37k words, they will tell you how bad this is for your health too
I do not know how they organize this in their head as they write, other than that they usually have notes of scenes or plot points they need to cover. They've got an AMA coming up, if you want to pick their brain: On September 17th at 9pm EST / 6pm PST, pirateaba will be doing an AMA on r/progressionfantasy.
I’m also a wandering inn fan and I will say that not only does it get supremely better in terms of characterisation if not writing, the stakes get SOOO much higher and unlike other fantasy series you are given a lot of space to deal with trauma and grief, and consequences of conflict.
As someone who is up to date on the series, I really wonder if you can call it cozy fantasy anymore. There's definitely been a huge switch as the series goes on into more serious, adult territory. And there are also multiple overarching plots involving a huge cast of characters that are tied to each other. After a point, the verbose manner in which pirateaba writes just starts making sense 🤷♂. Every event involving the various PoV characters, their actions and the consequences of their actions have more weight to them since you have known them for hundreds of thousands of words. There really are no side characters in TWI. I can say that almost all of the side characters from Vol 1 have arcs dedicated to them (without going into too many spoilers). TWI really shines at injecting life into its characters. It's really unfortunate that Vol 1 is not a good representative of the story as a whole (If I remember correctly, in Vol 1 we barely know where Liscor is and who the major players around are. Klbkch was just some random side character!). Even after comparing TWI to my favorite series like The Wheel of Time and Sanderson's works, for some reason, TWI still feels more magical and real to me than those series (which is crazy I know). The author is really good at writing a story that tackles themes of true horror, trauma, death and loss while still managing to bring out a sense of awe, wonder and hope. The world is brimming with magic and history that dates back thousands of years. It feels lived in and the current political landscape a direct result of those years of history. There are amazing, unique characters with fully fleshed out storylines. Of course, none of this is evident in the first couple of volumes which is really unfortunate 😓. I think I fell in love with the series after the events at the end of Vol 4, which is funny since I had to take a break for a couple of months at the beginning of that volume since I kinda hated the PoV character for the first couple of chapters.
it was never fully cozy fantasy. I mean, Skinner was far from cozy, and there were some really tragic moments. but yeah, it's definitely lost a lot of coziness the past few volumes.
I didn't know about The Wandering Inn before this video but the concept is really intriguing. It's a lot like fanfiction. Sometimes I want to read a super polished novel, but other times I just want to read about a world or characters I love and I don't really care about it being super high quality. Things like The Wandering Inn show how finding the right audience can be a game changer. If you're making something you're passionate about, someone out there will love it. Great review!
Volume 1 is quite rough, even with some improvements in the rewrite. The characters are extremely rough, especially our two main characters. As a new reader, you should understand that Pirateaba was YOUNG and this was reflected in her story. The plotlines, dialogue, prose, and characterization are all immature and it shows. I first started TWI after a recommendation from Scarra (League streamer/ex-pro) years ago and dropped it after several chapters and didn't touch it for years because of how much I was turned off from the weak writing. When I gave it a second shot, I stuck around until the end of Volume 1 which was an amazing horror sequence imo. After catching up, the evolution Pirateaba has demonstrated not only in her own writing style; she has improved on EVERYTHING imo--dialogue, characterization, plotlines, using beta-readers and an editor, etc. She has created a world which dozens and dozens of characters in which even characters you hate have depth. I would say keep going, there will always be chapters and characters that interest you less but you can move past them. If you choose not to continue because you didn't like Vol1 like I did once, it's understandable; but I would say you're selling yourself short on an epic ride.
As someone who is fully up to date on the wandering inn, I always loved the start as I feel that it truly builds as someone who did get dumped on a new world, who had no experience of that sort of life, how many 20 year olds have caught, filitid and cooked there own fish? It is more realistic than a person gets it together quickly and has the right skills for every moment and adjusts quickly to the new world with little to no mental impact. In a normal book you deal with that in 3 chapters, in TWI it's all there.
I’m 22 hrs into book 12 on audible. I promise it gets so much better! I found it back in 2020 and have been hooked ever since. It definitely has its issues especially in the first couple books, but it just keeps getting better from there!
Okay Daniel, I have been with you since The Wheel of Time, I am telling you that this feels so much like when you first reviewed Berserk, you have not even tapped the tip of the iceberg on this one to judge it yet, I hope you give it a chance until maybe volume 5 and get back to us with more thoughts because I think you will have a fun ride
Man, I'm a huge fan. I've been subbed for years now. You sort of stopped the review around chapter 20 or so though. And to call TWI *cozy* is absolute insanity. Anyone who's read to the end of book 1 would mention the ending at the very least. (And you generally do that in your non-spoiler reviews) It's fair to say it's not your cup of tea, and all of your criticisms felt fair- but it honestly doesn't feel like you finished the entire book. That's just speculation- and I am not trying to dig at you. But it does feel like it simply wasn't your thing and that you failed to finish it. (Which, again, is fine. But if that was the case, I'd rather have had that disclosed.) If you *did* finish the whole book, then I am afraid you've misrepresented it grossely and this would be the first review of yours I would consider poorly done. The ending is important, and truly introduces you to TWI and its tone. Whichever it is, I'm left mildly dissatisfied- but I still love you. 😁 I only say this in the spirit of providing honest feedback.... At nearly 3am. Half dead. 😅 Forgive the scattered thoughts and half-coherent post please. 💙
I do understand why people might not like the beginning of the wandering inn, but I honestly really liked the beginning. I enjoyed seeing Erin as a person who has no knowledge of survival tactics or really much practical knowledge having to figure out how to survive.
You should review Gravesong. It's set in a different part of the same world, but it's its own story. You won't get spoiled on anything in the Wandering Inn, but it was written much more recently, so you get an idea of the sort of directions the story and the quality of the writing is going. It's a medium-sized stand-alone book. I think the audiobook was 25ish hours.
Thanks for taking the time to spotlight The Wandering Inn Daniel! I really loved the overall themes pirateaba explored and the parallels to our own world. Would also encourage you to continue with Fae and Fare, even if its just slowly.
I got first volume on release because it was 1000 pages for 4 dollars which on kindle is a steal. First half of volume was not great but holy shit the climax had cheering and crying and i wanted more. Then i found out they were on Volume 5 and started reading the webnovel. One thing that should be mention about PirateABA starting this whole venture of The Wandering Inn as whimsical idea. From what i understand they decided they wanted to try being an artist and made a blog post every day for a year of their art. They then decided to try writing and created TWI. So yeah the first couple of chapters are really bad, but as you said you can see it get better and by volumes 3-9 its like reading a normal fantasy author with kind of slice of life/cozy settings with random dungeon crawls and fighting (and occasional traumatic stuff). Right now you only have POV Ryoka and Erin but the cast gets so much better past Volume 1. I love the redemption arc for the girl calling everyone a peon. I beg you to try to get to volume 3 or reread the remade volume 1. And if you do go down the Webnovel rabbit hole, try reading Worm, Beware of Chicken, and Beneath the Dragon Eye's Moons (this one is publicized and i don't know if you have read the series)
The Wandering Inn is what kept me going in very very dark times and has influenced the games I make right now, it truly is my favorite series, beating out Stormlight Archives 😄
I remember my teacher of Literature in high school telling us about this famous Brazilian author (Machado de Assis for those interested) that would publish each chapter of his book on the newspaper and then later his book was finally published. So I think this type of storytelling, chapter by chapter, before something is finished could be more common in history than we might think. Love the channel ❤️
Yup, your review is exactly what I expected from you, Daniel, knowing a little of your taste and personality. This is a unique series, and even with all the baggage it has, I found the fanbase is bigger than I thought, with a lot of praise for the series online. Other people have summed it up better - how much the series improved, how it goes from cozy fantasy to epic fantasy from time to time. Its highs are HIGH, with such emotional impact I just didn't expect from this series. The lows are LOW, but those lows become fewer with every chapter I'm reading. One thing I can absolutely guarantee: the narrator fucking slams. I thought Steven Pacey was the GOAT of audiobooks... damn, the competition is high there. Also loved the intro!
The best way I could put it is this series is comparable to Malazan. The start is so inauspicious to where it ends up that it throws people off. But at the same time, it's so easy to start reading and eases you into the massive world that it's like Malazan-lite. It holds your hand and gently eases you into everything.
Ah, its a pity you decided to start with the audiobook- though Andrea's voice is excellent and the TWI community appreciates her, it covers the first volume before it was rewritten with some professional guidance. Either way, I do not think the first volume pre-rewrite suffered quite to the extent you think it did, but it is something I've heard a few times of it so I'm divided on that. I'm very glad you decided to check it though and i love hearing anyone's genuine opinion on it and other stuff i enjoyed. I hope you decide to continue the series, you're in for a ride!
If you end up reviewing Worm, it's widely accepted that arcs 1-8 make up the first "book" at around 300k words total, and will really give you an idea if you want to continue or if it's not your thing
Reading Worm arc 8 for the first time is a unique experience. Twig and Pale are still better though, and Pact is what I would recommend to specifically Daniel in 2024.
@@Halrax_38 Worm is technically his worst written series, as it was the first, and that's especially true in the early parts, but Worm is still my favorite of his books.
The Wandering Inn isn't like any other series I've ever read. It's kind of like a cozy fantasy story in an epic fantasy world. Where the main character mostly stays out of the big wars and giant monster fights until she doesn't. There is a big, high-stakes series of events going on and the main characters are usually only connected to it peripherally most of the time. It serves to make the whole thing feel so realistic and relatable. It does start rough, but it has grown to be my favorite running series, tied with Stormlight Archive. The Tears of Liscor fucking BROKE me. If you get into it, you HAVE to go the audiobook route. The narration is by far one of the best I've ever heard. Andrea Parsnau (spelling?) manages to voice dozens of characters of several species and regional accents. You can tell INSTANTLY from a new voice what species is talking and what part of the world they are from. And if it's a character you've met before, even if it's been 3 million words since you saw them last, you'll recognize the voice. And everything about her delivery and emotional depth are all just masterful.
I've never heard of this series before, but I find it fascinating that this project seems to basically be written and published much like many multichapter fanfics.
THIS was the comment I was looking for. Daniel doesn't have much of a history in reading fanfic, but the way he's talking about this series sounds exactly like longfic on AO3.
This series shapes up to be a masterpiece IMO - sure the first volume is rough but its like any debut these days. Author really comes into "sanderson" level prose around volume 2-3. PLOT is amaaaazing.
Thank you for a thoughtful and very complete review. As a reader of a substantial amount of fantasy and science fiction over decades I do agree with a lot of your observations. I will say that I got into the wandering in through the audiobooks. And Andrea Parsneau has done such a wonderful job with the audio books that I didn't even engage with the written word until after I've gotten through the 12th audiobook. That being said I have found this work to actually be remarkable. As the author went on the world building, the character depth, the exploration of so many aspects of story, have become really a new benchmark that I would think other authors will now have to examine and see if they would like to explore those aspects in the depth that this author has. Does that make sense? All in all this is a joy of a story to read, and listen to.
I'm super glad i haven't watched your review before starting wandering inn, I might have never started... so much hate. It's become my favorite fantasy story, and i never want it to end
Hey Daniel I started reading the wandering inn earlier this year, and I read the rewrite and compared it it to the original while I was reading and from what I got from it, is that the really good chapters (climaxes, lots of Ryoka scenes, interludes, some other pov chapters) added some dialogue for continuity and some better prose, but mostly it was the same. Especially early on, most of that content was kept. I also dropped it multiple times in the beginning but I enjoyed it later and enjoyed enough to continue. Hope you do as well, I hear a lot of good things later.
Would be so fun to see daniel go down the rabbit hole of online publishing. watching him experience Beware of chicken, Mother of Learning, A Journey of Black and Red, The Perfect Run.... cant think of others that are mostly highly regarded atm. Beware of Chicken would be my recommendation to anyone though, its as close to universally loved as anything in art can be.
Eh. The first few books are good enough that it's remembered fondly, but it just gets so up it's own ass later on, with 25 Proper Names for places we don't care about and nobles we don't care about and the implications of the rebellion over here and...blegh.
It sneaks up on you but their prose writing improves to the point where I was reading a traditionally published book by a well established writer and found myself thinking "this writing is quite bad compared to wandering inn) . It did not start off this way. There is nothing else like this series for me in fiction. Pirate has crafted what feels like looking in on a real fantasy world and then watching it happen in real time.
@@DrunkenGyarados I had a similar experience, but more so when it comes to the depth of the world and side/background characters. After TWI the worlds of many traditional novels feel like cardboard cutout backdrops.
My opinion about The Wondering Inn is it is an amazing story to listen to. The woman reading it is fantastic. I was captivated listening to it. I have listened to the first five books. I have taken a break to listen to other things because I have a feeling this story is going to go on forever and I have known problem with that. I haven’t experienced anything like it before. It’s very unique.
Reading The Wandering Inn is hands down my favorite thing to do with my free time. Nothing else comes close. It may not be the best written thing ever but when I read it I feel like I'm there in that world.
So the update for the first vollume is avalible online for free and fixes a mixture of continuity errors and includes a couple of addition chapters to flesh a few people out and set some things up
I reccomend it to everyone, it is a masterpiece, I hate both cape shit and the "The MC's life is suffering" tag with the passion of a thousand suns, just not my cup of tea, but I love Worm, the Parahuman series by Wildbow is so damn addictive, super active community that isn't dying down at all, massive pile of fanfics for it, etc If you have not read it, read it! Warning though, the trigger warning for the series is not a joke, I do not care for trigger warnings, but this series legitimately made my horribly depressed, so if you are sensitive or young, seriously do not take the trigger warning lightly.
I’m five volumes into The Wandering Inn. Yes, it gets better. Yes, it gets a LOT better but, for me, it’s kind of zen. When I’m stressed and everything else seems like too much I listen to TWI on audio. Stress is long and life can be tough. Other cozies are short but when I really need it, there is TWI. In that way, it’s perfect.
as a fan of the wandering inn since 2019 i'm very happy with your review. I might never have noticed those problems you talk about, probably because i consume so much poorly written webserials to start with. But i can say that since i started reading it, it has became my most favorite piece of media i have ever consumed. Its chapters become longer with time, the stories mingle and grow, characters dissapear for millions of words to return with stories we might never heard the full account. The world is living growing and extensive. For the last year or so, when I finish reading a chapter I'm left with the feeling "gosh this was the best chapter so far" and I will probably say the same the next chapter too. But to reach that point you need to have lived in this world for millions of words. And it is understandable if you are not willing to commit to that, it takes time and energy that you could be putting onto anything else. If you have your favorite media that you want to engage then I would suggest you do that. TWI is amazing and great and I think it's the best thing i've consumed in my life. But you don't have to put force yourself to read it if you don't enjoy it. I hope that a lot of people give TWI a chance thanks to this video :) and maybe a few will love it as much as the rest of us ducks do, paba doesn't stop feeding us bread, so there's plenty to share
I am up to date on the webnovel and I can't describe my enjoyment of this story adequately enough. Yes, not one piece of it can be described as a literary masterpiece (tho some of the newest chapters are at least close) but the sheer volume of the great content is absolutely unmatched for me. It's like an unending pizza that later evolves into an unending buffet. If you ever encountered a situation where you foud a new, ongoing story (comic/novel/manga/whatever) with an interesting premise, got up to date and discovered that the author releases like a chapter a month and after like 5 or 10 years they just introduced a new continent/multiverse/time-travel/progression system, and you had to drop it because you knew that either you won't see the end before you retire, or the story will be rushed into oblivion - this is your salvation. I am a One Piece fan, this is better than One Piece for me. It is my only Patreon subscription.
Oh man, Wandering Inn has been one of my favorite series to follow over the past few years! ESPECIALLY in audiobook form with Andrea Parseau narrating! She is just....amazingly talented. Hope you continue listening. It really does just get better and better! Ive always considered this more of a slice of life series with spurts and spatters of action and emotion throughout. Some of which are VERY brutal and others that had me snuffling and sniffling at work while listening!
I would absolutely recommend that you continue, and that you should probably read the volume 1 rewrite (which fixes most of your quality complaints) that is currently on the website. Remember, every chapter of the Wandering Inn on the website (except the most recent one at any given time) is free.
I found Wandering Inn on Audible and have to premise this by the fact, i avoid books under 20hrs. I currently have the next two books on preorder. I love this series, i love the voice acting and the descrptive worlds. Yes Erin is annoying...but in some ways, its refreshing that you do want to smack the main character round the back of the head and scream "get a grip"....it makes me feel more in control lol. The story gets, bigger, better and more in depth....in some ways, its also the story of Pirate Aba, and many of us during covid. Starting something new and getting better as we practice more. Those of us who love it, were happy with a free weekly book on Royal Road and dont really care about the correctness of the writing. Whilst it is cozy...its also terrifying, violent, laugh out loud funny and heartbreaking....ive never cried over a single book series so much
My favorite written work I've ever read😊 yeah there are some rough spots, but WOW the world building and character growth pops OFF. Has made me laugh and cry more than any other work of media in my life. Horns of Hammerad V.2 for Life!
If you're interested in what webserials have to offer thanks to the particulars of their publishing method, I'd recommend Pale by Wildbow and Supper Supportive By Sleyca. Also, people are going to recommend Worm a lot, but Pale is from the same author and it's his most recent completed work.
I woud love to see a review for each volume, like a series of your own. Hope you continue and enjoy it just as much as I did, each volume getting immensely better than the last.
I'm a webnovel author and I'm making like 1.5k$ a month. But it's hell of a lot of work, with how much needs to be written everyday. ( for USA citizens 1.5k$ is not much, but for me it's quite a lot, just saying )
But the reworked Volume 1 is available. It's not in eBook or Audio book form but it is updated on the website. I started reading the series like 6 months ago and I am reading it on the website. I thought it was well written and didn't get the complaints (at the time I didn't know I was reading the reworked version) I actually noticed a dip in quality with Volume 2, though by the end of Volume 3 the quality was good again.
You say “by the 10th volume” but I am an audiobook only and it is only on volume 6. I was locked in after the first audiobook and have not been dissappointed
I read this, in 2018. Love the growth of writer. I respect her consistency and her struggle to write and mental health. Waiting to get back as I stopped in 2022. ❤ that's it is being appreciated.
The updated version on the website is the way to go, if youre able to. But i would really suggest finishing book one. It gives you a tiny peek at some of the curveballs to come.
Your description of this series reminds me of my experience reading webcomicsand watching the artist improve over the course of several years. It's fascinating and your description of community reminds me of Homestuck and how that evolved into such a big property over time.
Yeah I was thinking of Homestuck as well based on what he described. Except this seems like it has much higher and much more consistent output. Not sure if I consider that a good or bad thing. For for me at least Homestuck was enjoyable right from the start.
The first volume is rough, especially if you're reading the original version, but from there it's only getting better, pirate is learning, the world is richer, more complex, more creative, the cast becomes larger and larger, characters grow with each trauma and delight they experience. By the 5th volume it became my favorite series and now I can't help but to scream with wonder and sorrow every time there is a new chapter. One thing you probably won't expect is that almost 14 million words is not enough. We get multiple storylines on multiple continents, from multiple perspectives, that are happening simultaneously and unfortunately they can never be developed enough and there are stories that will never see the light of the day. I can only hope that pirate someday in far, far future will write more books like Gravesong, a spin-off about a character that is important to the plot but not necessarily to Erin, that let us experience those untold tales. Though the best aspect of reading TWI was for me visiting reddit after each chapter and reading through comments on community discussions or even those directly below the chapters + each pirate's blog post or author's note brought me joy. The community is simply put thriving because of how it's published also it allows many exciting opportunities to appear fanart sections, hidden paragraphs by letting the color of the text match with the background, embeding next parts of the chapter or other easter eggs behind hyperlinks like that one time shenanigan in volume 9th, special classes being different color to signify their importance and many more that are only allowed because of the format and the genre. So please don't stop there TWI is the best example of progression fantasy there is. Each and every element of the series is advancing in quality, in scope, in nuance, in hilarity, in misery and with that the series grows on you, the author matures, you by the time you've finished the series would grown too. So please if you delight yourself in stories about the journey not necessarily the destination, then The Wandering Inn will give you the best journey you've ever had filled to the brim with complex characters that you'll care about even the most minor ones, deep and through* worldbuilding (*through in that some things are just utter bullshit but everything has logic behind it, everything has a right to be the way it is) and community that exists because we love the story of our little slice of life with a sprinkle of war crimes on top. And I hope that you'll get through the many flaws of the earlier parts and get the true Wandering Inn experience "...a slice of cake and a punch to the guts. Then, if you were lucky another piece of cake".
As someone who started listening to the audio version last year, I will confess that it is hard to get through the first half of book. Yet, once I got to the dungeon scenes, I became hooked and was enjoyably stressed the hell out for the characters. The series gets soooooo much better and I am now to the point that I am emotionally invested in all the characters and really empathize with their pain.
Daniel this hurts me. With wheel of time being your favorite fantasy series with it massive 14 books. You didnt give the wandering inn its time to cook. It took me 3 years to finish the first wheel of time book but after that i tackeled the rest in a year. The first books in each series have the same problems. So im sad you did this video.
not gonna lie, i feel the same as a long time subscriber who got to daniel because i love wot, and then one piece too. both super long and worldbuilding dense. i feel like he didn't give time for the story to cook. and then skipped the later parts of book 1 with a copout of it being spoilers. I also feel that he should have too the offer of reading the rewrite because the rewrite is available on the website for free anyway so his reasoning of it not being available for public readers isn't correct.. Kinda bummed he didn't dive deep into the characters of any themes or anything and focused on the length and medium instead.
I was legit just thinking about picking this up 😂 growing up reading fanfiction and wattpad, this is completely normal for me tbh people online just sharing stories
I read the rewrite for book 1 on their website and it was great and based on this I’m happy I did lol. I’m on volume 3 right now and it still great for me btw.
It's kind of weird hearing people talk about serial online fiction specifically with Wandering Inn as their introduction to the format. It's definitely one of the most successful native English texts, but as someone who's read: 1. translated webnovels (especially Korean and Japanese), 2. works on author's blogs and RoyalRoad, 3. fanfiction... the format itself doesn't wow me. pirateaba's writing output absolutely does though. It's an IMMENSE amount of words to regularly release and makes The Wandering Inn a stand-out in the field. We joke about how much Stephen King writes, and his total published word count is around 5.8 million. That's so much!!! Stacking all the books at the start of the video was a great way to visualize it.
Sounds like the _Nancy Drew,_ or _Sherlock Holmes_ of our generation.. I am quite happy that the legacy of the "continuous adventures of..." has managed to transcend the passage of time and the changes of media and settle in none other than my favorite genre. Thanks for shading a light on this, I've never heard of this series before but am now eager to get to know it.
Im surprised no one has mentioned gravesong, which is a single book that takes place parallel (and inside of) TWI. If you want to get a glimpse at what modern TWI looks like without reading literally millions of words, gravesong is definitely something to check out at ~160k wordcount.
As a long time reader of the Wandering Inn i feel the need to point out two things. 1. it is a Web novel with an audiobook adaptation. Meaning it takes advantage of that fact that it is written on a web page. Links to sub chapters, different color text, and other things that will be lost in transitioning to audio format. 2. The litrpg aspects are very well done especially in relation to the knowledge base of the world. Tangential activities that level people, massing buff skills, and counter leveling are all quantities that the inn world people know and understand. (People who read alot of litrpgs know the rarity of this). Sidenote the edited volume is up on the website.
This one is super interesting to me. It feels almost like old school forum-esque while being on the cutting edge of storytelling (potentially) now? Forum RPGs (I know you kinda touched it) and just "creative writing" subforums amongst forums were places where people would write out their first drafts, vomit words, and people would react, edit and encourage/discourage. This feels a lot like that, but that was in the early 00s. Pre-reddit, pre-twitter etc. It's an interesting idea come back. Places where you just put the words down and fumble your way through. I might have to check this out
Honestly, for a series that has goblins as a main plot point I’m kind of surprised you haven’t gotten to it until now. This series is such a guilty pleasure.
Big thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring today's video. Be sure to checkout www.squarespace.com/danielgreene
If you are going to read more webnovels, I would suggest "Ave Xia Rem Y", "beware of chicken" and "mother of learning"
I just want to inform people who watch this video that the novel can be read for free in the website, Daniel did put a link to the site in the description
@@ky_kartikey ya I have read mother of learning the ending was kinda of a let down
Because of you,The Mythos Archives,and Generic Entertainment,I'm reading Wheel of Time for the 1st time,currently 80 pages into book 2.
As long as my Rifts TTRPG books collection huh... Ouch.
Honestly it might be longer but point is that collection is like 35+ DnD PHG in size minimum. Lots of words so close enough... assuming its less than thought then I add my DnD collection and that should do it.
I have seen it around and the title seemed boring to me, so was waiting to hear someone mention it and sell me on how it could be interesting.
It being so long and it being the notable journey of the writer(s). That hooks me.
I had a similar idea for a story of mine where I story teller it on you tube a chapter at a time and use the constructive comments and the community as a whole to tweak or shape it as I just give the roughest of draft versions each vid.
I know roughly how to get from A to Z in that story so a bare bones overview draft style could work.
Wandering Inn could in turn show me a written form of that or an audiobook version or whatever.
Thank you for covering this and letting me know whats what with it in so far as Vol 1 is.
As a long time Wandering Inn reader, I can absolutely confirn that the writing gets so much better, the characterisation deeper, and the world more nuanced. But wow, yeah, there's so much writing, some of which is thoroughly at most fine, to reach where we are with that at the moment.
I 100% believe you. 13 mil is a heck of an amount to time to hone a story down to its max potential.
I'm at the end of Volume 8 (not book 8, millions of words in) and I'd say that while all of these things get better especially compared to the very early volumes, there are still some badly written passages or characters. There is also an increasing number of secondary or tertiary plotlines that take over the main one. Imho the writing varies a lot ang goes up and down, and only in Volume 8 iirc the author gets a proper editor. It's a series that I love but I feel its lows are extremely low and while its highs are really high, it's too much effort for me to recommend it to anyone really
I hope you will take a look to see if they do publish a refined version and a review separate from this one. I have fancied the series, but I can't commit to such a long series if it just mid.
@@DanielGreeneReviews I love how you spot on identified that we would be cool with criticism lol
We will spend hours talking about how insane it is that theirs so many characters that are all memorable, the foreshadowing, etc but we also spend a lot of time talking about people we don't like, seections we don't like. Hell skipping entire character POV's and getting summaries from other people is VERY COMMON.
I remember when I begun to read this behemoth years back. I remember it being quite bad at start but for some reason I kept reading until at some point I remember consciously thinking "whoa that was actually pretty well written chapter" the fact I witnessed the writer noticeably improving from chapter to chapter was at least partly the thing that hooked me in. At first the "good chapters" were few and far between but now, currently there are definitely more good chapters than bad ones.
I don’t usually leave comments. But I feel like I need to say something - I think you missed what wandering inn does very well - it makes you feel like you were that character at some point in your life. Erin stumbling around clueless in new world was very much how I felt when I first moved to new country as an immigrant. May be that’s why I could relate to it. Even when everything comes together for Erin, the way she misses her home, family and that dread of homesickness setting in. I have felt all that and some. Pirateaba has captured this and mental health aspect of it so well, that at times I felt like crying. Because I was that person trying to find my way in a new place. But I understand not everyone could relate to characters bumbling around like an idiot. Obviously wandering inn is much more than just Erin but that’s the lynchpin for me that keeps me glued to the chapters.
You can read every chapter written on their website for free, as well as the updated edition of volume 1. For people wanting to try it.
Shame the audiobook is not going to be updated, because I got that and yeah it's rough,
@@KatamuroTheFirst it will be updated it's just the next 2 books are currently in production
Yes!!! I’m so excited to see this review! I’m the audiobook narrator and it’s really been an incredible ride! I absolutely love this series 🥰
The first book has been re-recorded and is awaiting release, and I can confidently say both Pirate and I have improved since the first recording ❤
Thank you so much for your thought out and very kind (and fair) review!
That is absolutely true. The first few books in the series were...rough. But it has been fun to see the author improve over time. It's a good idea to redo the first couple of books. If I didn't have a job that gave me more time than I know what to do with to listen to books, I probably wouldn't have made it past the first one. You've always been a pretty solid narrator. At least in everything I've heard you in.
I think people are being a little too critical of the first book. I went into the series blind and enjoyed every bit of the first book. I am only through book 2 so far (just about to start book 3) and I really love the story so far. That said, your narration is so, so good. I listen to a lot of audiobooks. A lot. You are killing it with this series and are one of the best in the business.
@andreaparsneau5926 Just have to say that you did a fantastic job narrating this book. Seriously, you have quite a range of voices.
I love it from the beginning and still do. Please don't stop, you both a great!!! :D
PS: Thank you!
I'm about 9 books now and I have to say you truly do an incredible job. The different species having different mannerisms of speech, but then also being able to differentiate the characters within those mannerisms is a great show of skill. Drakes from Liscor are noticeably distinct to those from the walled cities.
With all sincerity, you are excellent at your craft and I wish you the best.
If authors weren’t allowed to change their books after release, we wouldn’t have Gollum as the iconic character he is today.
What was changed in Gollum after release? I don't know that information
@@Rendref iirc the original Gollum as presented in The Hobbit was just a weird little man that challenged Bilbo to a riddle contest. When was figuring out what he wanted to do for a sequel, Tolkien realized that it should be about the Ring, but both it and Gollum should be more threatening in The Hobbit to make it work. So he rewrote “Riddles in the Dark” to what we all know it as today. Don’t quote me on that. I might have some details wrong.
Yes, the best argument for why retcons can be good!
@@NarfiRef lol, I just now imagine Gollum as an underground bum who likes riddles too much. That is one awesome rewrite for sure
@@NarfiRef And he even lamp-shaded it in the Lord of the Rings. The original version is the lie that Bilbo told everyone else what happened.
The Wandering Inn has been my favorite series for years, and this video cracks me up - all of this is true and valid 😂
Erin's naevite and her messing up over and over is why I LOVE her so much. She's gentle and silly and a bit dumb. I also absolutely love the stream of consciousness and lack of editing. I love how it rambles like I'm in someone else's head.
I also love that its unweildy and unrestrained. I LOVE that nothing is cut.
The writing is better, but it's still pretty uncut.
I understand daniel's criticism. but i really enjoyed the early chapters. she fumbles hard, but it's entertaining and realistic in a way. erin's naivete and general incompetence fits in with a sheltered young adult with little life experience and zero practical skills. additionally, it serves to highlight how the world's Skill and levelling system works and how a lot of people don't develop actual skills. for example, erin's immense improvement at cooking, in no way matches her enthusiasm or knowledge of the discipline.
I stumbled over the Wandering Inn when I was at university. I was broke and wanted an audio book that would bridge as much time as possible with just one audible credit. Even under these circumstances I hated the beginning and was confused why it someone paid to have it made into an audiobook, but I am glad that I stuck with it.
Thirteen volumes deep it's still improving. It's current biggest strength are the ongoing plots and the worldbuilding, while the prose only marginally improves every so often. It's crazy how much the author seems to have learned even after the first volume (I always assumed that they were still very young, when they wrote the early parts).
Tbh. Today, I'm more excited for the next Wandering Inn Audio book than some of my favorite main stream authors. Even so, it's hard to recommended it to anyone.
Thirteen volumes? 😲 Are you...from the future? Quick what year is it? Got any tips to share?
@@joshuagodson6460 Sorry! Audiobook volumes. I continued reading from the 12th one so in my head I'm reading volume 13. It's actually volume 6 in webnovel-terms.
This sounds more like sunk cost fallacy than anything, but if you are happy then that is good :)
@abcrasshadow9341 the book is a free webnovel. What sunk cost? It's on audible because it's popular, not the other way around.
@@UnrealPower113229 i think they mean the sunk cost here is time, not money.
Coming back to say this, but a large part of the Wandering Inn's magic are the long term set ups and pay offs. Due to the length, there are threads set up in volume 1/2 that are still being played out. The world building is insane as well, with numerous continents and cultures being captured. It also stretches across genres, and pirate is actually a god-tier horror writer later on in the series. All-in-all, the wandering inn gets deeper and more complex the longer you stick with it, and the journey is incredible
As a fan of The Wandering Inn who has been following it for a few years now, I completely understand having issues with it, especially the beginning and the only reason I probably got past the start was because it was an audio book and I could listen while doing other things and ignore the boring parts.
Now though, I think Pirateaba is writing some of the best scenes and story arcs I have seen in fantasy. There are still some issues like parts that could be cut if you were trying to trad publish and had to fit to certain word counts and whatnot. I do think that a lot of the extra stuff that is in now, is the kind of stuff that would be thrown into novellas and side stories that would be released on the side of the main story with other stories.
For those that like cozy fantasy or like you said, anyone who wants to watch an author develop and grow over the course of their career, it is a great piece of work to do so with.
Cozy... till he starts dropping warcrimes.
Agreed. I hear the start is getting reedited now that the author is fantastic. I'm on book 5 and I'm amazed by how good it is.
@@CrushedGearsyeah, not sure how cozy chemical weapons, mass murder and genocide is. That and thousands of covert, magical, forced abortions.
I'm not sure about recommending TWI to people that like cozy fantasy. It has a lot of cozy moments, sure. But, for example, ending of volume 1 just isn't something that could happen in cozy story.
I understand the description as cozy fantasy, and it is that, too, but I want to push back a bit, because the series gets waaaay less cozy as the breadth of the world expands. The Titan of Baleros, which was two releases ago, is literally just a giant war game. The most recent release gets even darker. Honestly the best way I can describe it is that Erin is doing her best to be cozy fantasy despite everyone around her
100%
@@Secondhelix I've never cried so much from a series before. It's soooooo good. But every time I try to get someone new to give it a try they never even finish the first one. Even though to tell them it gets so much better.
Please please please continue
As a long time one piece fan, and a long time wandering inn fan (been reading weekly for almost 6 years now) it’s one of the only stories that gives me those long term pay off depth you can only get from a long written work
And as a DM I can mine this work endlessly. It’s so damn rich and different while being similar
Give it 1 more volume!
The world starts opening up in books 2 and 3. Though I wouldn't call the world expansive until after book 15
Agreed, can confirm that TWI gives you payoff after payoff while still introducing more and more as the story progresses. It's because it's unwilling to cut away from the "boring" parts or not just montage it's way through character development. Characters don't exposit themselves. you learn about them from the concept of how they interact with others as well as their own plot points. Even the antagonists of one volume can get their own light in the sun which makes you think about the whole series. Quoting Super Eye Patch Wolf's love of Pro wrestling as it's a story told in multiple levels week after week after week. It's amazing and wonderful and painful and bittersweet and something nice to come home to.
Tower of God if you want to diversify into Manwha/webtoon
@@JudgeIsWright I’ve read through a good amount of it
When it started you eat more of the blonde girls motivations and such.
Def some cool stuff and characters
It started today drain on me. Maybe I’ll pick it back up.
Love the alligator dude.
When I started reading The Wandering Inn, I hated most of it and Erin was so obnoxious, stupid and incompetent I actively rooted for her to die. Then I hit some fragments I enjoyed, especially the parts about Toren. I thought 'okay, let's not drop it and see where it goes.' Then the finale for Volume 1 happened and I was like 'okay, the author at least gets what it means to tell a story, this is okay, I can keep with this.'
After Volume 5 I was genuinely convinced this might be one of the better fantasy works I've seen and it improved immensely. Erin has slowly become one of my most favourite characters, period. Since Volume 6 I've been unironically sure the author, Pirateaba, might be once-a-generation unhinged genius that may actually pull it off, write one of the best fantasy stories ever seen.
There are more flaws or problems with TWI than a single multi-hour video essay could handle, but at the same time its quality and wondrous storytelling combined with endlessly creative world-building makes it one-of-a-kind experience that cannot be find anywhere else. I don't agree with the low ratings of the first volume wholeheartedly, it's not THAT bad in my opinion, but starting with Volume 4 the story finds its footing and gets better than you could possibly anticipate. After Volume 5, it's great and getting even better. Now, at Volume 10, almost no one would say TWI is weak, and world-count is the least of its strengths. If you are looking for a true Epic Fantasy that keeps giving you exactly what you want then look no further. It will last you for a while.
I just caught up to the website releases about a month ago, and this experience matches mine almost exactly!
I really want Daniel to go down the webnovel spiral xD
yup, his take on a Practical Guide to Evil or to Beware of Chicken would no doubt be interesting to hear.
Oh hell nah 😭
If he goes the western xianxia webnovel route with Beware of Chicken, then I hard recommend 'Forge of Destiny' / 'Threads of Destiny' by Yrsillar
That Time an American was Reincarnated into Another World
By Sp4de
@@Nioclas64 based recommendation
Lol I paused the wandering inn to check youtube, and this was posted a minute ago.
Wandering inn is not my favorite book, not my favorite story and not even my favorite series but it is my favorite thing. I have been reading it for couple of years now and only caught up with the ebooks early this year and I had to start reading the web novel. I cannot really describe just how much this series has brought enjoyment to my life.
The chapters where “nothing happens” are my favorite, when characters just play chess or make food. It is different than most stories centered around conflict all the time.
Props to understanding what is good about it even when you personally didn,t cared about it. 👍
This is the truth. These chapters are what keep me addicted to the story. It is where you see the humanity in the characters, as well as how this is reflected across the species in the books, those little breaks and pauses, the small acts of everyday life that speak to the shared experience of being alive no matter background and appearances. It gives you a more rounded view of people and where they come from. So many books lack the depth of character to really explore the human condition in the detail this series does, and it can only do that because it slows down the way it does. It might have its flaws (mostly some minor inconsistencies at the beginning), but I love it, and I lover the audiobook narration. I do not reread a lot of books, but this is on that list of books I fall back on and reread once a year or so since I discovered it during the pandemic.
Tbh these are the chapters I re-listen to when I go back to the other audiobooks
100%. in most stories it's one or the other. slice of life or epic fantasy. in the wandering inn you spend so much time on the mundane moments that when it comes time for shit to hit the fan, it's whale shit hitting wind turbines and the subsequent changes in the new mundane are actually felt. i love the "bloat".
Yes. I like how the series is a slow burn of slice of life combined with isekai with just enough of a splash of litrpg.
Agreed. This is part of the charm within the story.
Keep going man, volume 2 has some of the most iconic moments in the story
And the story has so many moments that make me cry is insane
Love Erin
i've never heard of this series before. i've read a number of web novels and fanfics in the 1.5m+ range, but nothing this long. i like stories that never really end, they just change. i'll have to give this a try.
the experience of seeing the author improve as you read happens a lot with web novel and fanfic. it is awesome.
when you related it to telling stories at a campfire is something i've thought about as well. oral story telling is almost collaborative. i always change up the telling based on the listeners and how they are reacting. i feel like web serials have the chance to do this by guaging the reaction from each chapter and how the community is reacting. it's as much old as it is new, and i'm here for it.
thanks for the video.
Just want to say that.. I read a lot of books. Fantasy, scifi, the classics, the new stuff, the self-publishes and the indie. Out of all I have read, nothing has made me FEEL so strongly, so vividly as The Wandering Inn did and does. Volume 1 is the worst it ever gets, it only improves from here on and improves strongly. If you are willing to put in the time, this world is *alive*, is *real*. Nothing quite hits the mark like TWI does.
Wandering inn is not the finest of dinning in the beginning, it is bred and Pirateaba BAKES
@@barometer4467 that is a lovely way to put it.
Agreed. Book 5 (audiobook), first half, has some of the best writing I ever experienced.
The long form also does something that only long form can - they payoffs are HUGE.
I agree, the long form really shines in The Wandering Inn because it does not have qualms about exploring the characters, cultures, and settings as much as it can
Book one has been mostly rewritten as well.
@@barometer4467 as soon as i saw the familly guy meme i was like noooooo, we needed the duck memes from the discord
Easily one of my favorite series.
I love the world and characters. The only thing I hate is the length but I also love that too. I don't think of it as one story anymore, Pirate will write whole books following side characters within the series. It's basically an anthology of stories she wishes to tell. The side characters are deeply well written and the only time I really get tired of them is when I miss Erin.
Pirate is amazingly talented, especially aside from output, this story means so much to me in terms of Web Fiction success and capitalization on a new form of publish.
Glad you reviewed it, looking forward to seeing what you say.
Hands down my favorite fantasy series of all time (currently at volume 6). I listened to the first 9 books and I can confidently say the narrator is in my top 3. She has incredible number of voices and you will recognize every character, thus making it super easy and enjoyable to listen.
I would say that The Wandering Inn has an inauspicious start. There is no clue or inkling in book 1 for what the series will be.
@@OrionSupergan Did you finish all of book/volume one? It absolutely sets the stage. Starts out local and small with limited characters but significant stakes (like... continued survival is pretty significant) and by the end of book 1, it has a ton of new characters and a wider scope and larger stakes. Each volume/book adds to it, but the pattern is absolutely there in book 1.
@@Kalyahna I'm caught up to current patreon. I've re-read book 1 a few times and while yes it has those hints, a lot of books try that and never pull through. So until you actually see it I'd say it's not expected.
I did not like the book at all. But the narrator was really good. She was the best part about it.
@@bhall I can totally see the reasons. The volume 1 was all over the place imo. But (as Daniel mentioned in the video) Pirateaba grows and finds her um.
The main perk for me is how she managed to blend slice of life with action. In some books "downtime" may feel sluggish and boring, but in Wandering Inn (esp. in volume 6) I immerselly enjoyed the casual stuff.
I say this as someone who started reading Malazan 20 years ago, and holds it as the best series I've ever read. The Wandering Inn is solidly the 2nd best series I've ever read. It shares a lot of what I love about Malazan, while being completely different.
The first book is weak in TWI. But the world starts opening in books 2 and 3, and the quality keeps going up. The series is 45 books long right now, and I do not think it is bloated, it's telling a story that needs that much room.
I think 45 books is the definition of bloated. Whether you like it or not is a different topic. I hardly doubt any story needs that much room. Considering, as Daniel said, nothing gets cut basically.
@@Rendref If you would like to read them and keep that opinion after catch up, fair. I would say it's bloated in the same way Malazan is bloated. Why are 10 books needed, it could have been written in a book or two. But I've read the entire series, and am in the process of re-reading it now. I would say that after reading TWI I consider most books constipated. They are so limited, unable to explore other paths or side characters, forced to move the plot along quickly because there simply isn't enough pages for them to let things evolve or diverge. It was SO REFRESHING for all these side characters to be explored, or plots to evolve and change vs being wrapped up tidily.
Really, I hope you do read TWI. The first book is rough, but it grows into the most wonderful, amazing and epic story.
@Rendref no offense, but he read about 1/45th of the story. Also the part that is 100% not anything like the rest of the story. His opinion is extremely limited. It is the equivalent of watching 1 episode of game of thrones from the last season and deciding the show is trash and terribly written.
@scottlogan8293 it is very hard for anyone to read a series of 45 books, amongst others, unless you a very very fast reader. So imagine he or me reads all 45 books and it takes 10 years, and then he says "Well, it is bloated".
If I have to read 45 books in order to make a judgement, it is crazy.
It will take me like 10 years to read this. It took me 9 months to read Malazan and I was pretty much only reading Malazan. This is the craziest investment there could be
@OrionSupergan so maybe they explore every possible character. That's fine. I, however, very often struggle when no things of value happen in books, when I don't feel like book is progressing (whether it is character development or plot). The way Daniel described it (nothing gets cut) really sounds like the definition of bloated. And maybe this goes away with book 3, but it is still extremely big books. And the rest of the series is still 43 books (so far). I don't think "bloated" is a wrong word.
I am, however, a very slow reader. I cannot allow to read 45 books of one series, especially if I will struggle with first 2. If I was a super fast reader and could do it in 4 months, like others can, I sure would have tried it.
The series really starts to become so good that you start to separate it into early and modern TWI in your head, with around the middle ofbbook three and onward being on the same level as Malazan or WoT.
By the time you reach The Siege of Liscor it really is cemented in your mind that this is some of the best fantasy out there.
I hope you decide to continue a book here and there.
The moment you said 3000 words a day on average- as someone who writes for a hobby and tries to keep a consistent pace of 400 words a day (with holidays, exam days and editing days NOT included) and gets very proud if I make that- I was going to be impressed no matter what. If someone managed to produce anything above straight-up unreadable garbage at that pace, they have my deepest and utmost respect.
It’s(depending on how Much time they write in a day) on average I wanna say 15K a day now, with the 1 chapter a week schedule
@@MrAcdk4 I just physically had to sit down. WHAT. WHAT??? Yeah that's inhuman. Holy shit.
I do kind of the same
500 words a day but lately I have been procrastinating and skipping days due to life stuff.
In general though, wow anything above 1000, maybe 1500 a day, being GOOD, is NUTS!!!
@@lunaverse4977 they stream it all on youtube aswell, the wildest day they ever did was like 13-14 hours and was in a flow state and wrote 37k words, they will tell you how bad this is for your health too
I do not know how they organize this in their head as they write, other than that they usually have notes of scenes or plot points they need to cover. They've got an AMA coming up, if you want to pick their brain: On September 17th at 9pm EST / 6pm PST, pirateaba will be doing an AMA on r/progressionfantasy.
Your little inputs and questions in the car are answered very, very directly in the story.
I don't think it got mentioned here wandering inn is free to read on the website wanderinginn
I’m also a wandering inn fan and I will say that not only does it get supremely better in terms of characterisation if not writing, the stakes get SOOO much higher and unlike other fantasy series you are given a lot of space to deal with trauma and grief, and consequences of conflict.
As someone who is up to date on the series, I really wonder if you can call it cozy fantasy anymore. There's definitely been a huge switch as the series goes on into more serious, adult territory. And there are also multiple overarching plots involving a huge cast of characters that are tied to each other.
After a point, the verbose manner in which pirateaba writes just starts making sense 🤷♂. Every event involving the various PoV characters, their actions and the consequences of their actions have more weight to them since you have known them for hundreds of thousands of words. There really are no side characters in TWI. I can say that almost all of the side characters from Vol 1 have arcs dedicated to them (without going into too many spoilers). TWI really shines at injecting life into its characters. It's really unfortunate that Vol 1 is not a good representative of the story as a whole (If I remember correctly, in Vol 1 we barely know where Liscor is and who the major players around are. Klbkch was just some random side character!).
Even after comparing TWI to my favorite series like The Wheel of Time and Sanderson's works, for some reason, TWI still feels more magical and real to me than those series (which is crazy I know).
The author is really good at writing a story that tackles themes of true horror, trauma, death and loss while still managing to bring out a sense of awe, wonder and hope. The world is brimming with magic and history that dates back thousands of years. It feels lived in and the current political landscape a direct result of those years of history. There are amazing, unique characters with fully fleshed out storylines.
Of course, none of this is evident in the first couple of volumes which is really unfortunate 😓. I think I fell in love with the series after the events at the end of Vol 4, which is funny since I had to take a break for a couple of months at the beginning of that volume since I kinda hated the PoV character for the first couple of chapters.
it was never fully cozy fantasy. I mean, Skinner was far from cozy, and there were some really tragic moments. but yeah, it's definitely lost a lot of coziness the past few volumes.
I'm nearing the end of Volume 2, and loving it so far. What I'm hearing from people about where this is heading, makes me incredibly excited.
I think that the story still has sometimes a cozy feeling to it, but the undertone has drasticly changed.
Her Flames are mostly blue now.
Oh yeah especialy since volume 8 and 9 the cozy vibes start to become less and less frequent
I didn't know about The Wandering Inn before this video but the concept is really intriguing. It's a lot like fanfiction. Sometimes I want to read a super polished novel, but other times I just want to read about a world or characters I love and I don't really care about it being super high quality. Things like The Wandering Inn show how finding the right audience can be a game changer. If you're making something you're passionate about, someone out there will love it. Great review!
@@sarash8002 def try it out - it’s so fun. Just read the updated volume 1 which I hear is a lot better than the original.
Volume 1 is quite rough, even with some improvements in the rewrite. The characters are extremely rough, especially our two main characters. As a new reader, you should understand that Pirateaba was YOUNG and this was reflected in her story. The plotlines, dialogue, prose, and characterization are all immature and it shows. I first started TWI after a recommendation from Scarra (League streamer/ex-pro) years ago and dropped it after several chapters and didn't touch it for years because of how much I was turned off from the weak writing.
When I gave it a second shot, I stuck around until the end of Volume 1 which was an amazing horror sequence imo. After catching up, the evolution Pirateaba has demonstrated not only in her own writing style; she has improved on EVERYTHING imo--dialogue, characterization, plotlines, using beta-readers and an editor, etc. She has created a world which dozens and dozens of characters in which even characters you hate have depth. I would say keep going, there will always be chapters and characters that interest you less but you can move past them.
If you choose not to continue because you didn't like Vol1 like I did once, it's understandable; but I would say you're selling yourself short on an epic ride.
As someone who is fully up to date on the wandering inn, I always loved the start as I feel that it truly builds as someone who did get dumped on a new world, who had no experience of that sort of life, how many 20 year olds have caught, filitid and cooked there own fish?
It is more realistic than a person gets it together quickly and has the right skills for every moment and adjusts quickly to the new world with little to no mental impact.
In a normal book you deal with that in 3 chapters, in TWI it's all there.
I’m 22 hrs into book 12 on audible. I promise it gets so much better! I found it back in 2020 and have been hooked ever since. It definitely has its issues especially in the first couple books, but it just keeps getting better from there!
Okay Daniel, I have been with you since The Wheel of Time, I am telling you that this feels so much like when you first reviewed Berserk, you have not even tapped the tip of the iceberg on this one to judge it yet, I hope you give it a chance until maybe volume 5 and get back to us with more thoughts because I think you will have a fun ride
Man, I'm a huge fan. I've been subbed for years now. You sort of stopped the review around chapter 20 or so though. And to call TWI *cozy* is absolute insanity. Anyone who's read to the end of book 1 would mention the ending at the very least. (And you generally do that in your non-spoiler reviews)
It's fair to say it's not your cup of tea, and all of your criticisms felt fair- but it honestly doesn't feel like you finished the entire book. That's just speculation- and I am not trying to dig at you. But it does feel like it simply wasn't your thing and that you failed to finish it. (Which, again, is fine. But if that was the case, I'd rather have had that disclosed.)
If you *did* finish the whole book, then I am afraid you've misrepresented it grossely and this would be the first review of yours I would consider poorly done. The ending is important, and truly introduces you to TWI and its tone.
Whichever it is, I'm left mildly dissatisfied- but I still love you. 😁 I only say this in the spirit of providing honest feedback.... At nearly 3am. Half dead. 😅 Forgive the scattered thoughts and half-coherent post please. 💙
I do understand why people might not like the beginning of the wandering inn, but I honestly really liked the beginning. I enjoyed seeing Erin as a person who has no knowledge of survival tactics or really much practical knowledge having to figure out how to survive.
You should review Gravesong. It's set in a different part of the same world, but it's its own story. You won't get spoiled on anything in the Wandering Inn, but it was written much more recently, so you get an idea of the sort of directions the story and the quality of the writing is going. It's a medium-sized stand-alone book. I think the audiobook was 25ish hours.
Thanks for taking the time to spotlight The Wandering Inn Daniel! I really loved the overall themes pirateaba explored and the parallels to our own world. Would also encourage you to continue with Fae and Fare, even if its just slowly.
I got first volume on release because it was 1000 pages for 4 dollars which on kindle is a steal. First half of volume was not great but holy shit the climax had cheering and crying and i wanted more. Then i found out they were on Volume 5 and started reading the webnovel.
One thing that should be mention about PirateABA starting this whole venture of The Wandering Inn as whimsical idea. From what i understand they decided they wanted to try being an artist and made a blog post every day for a year of their art. They then decided to try writing and created TWI. So yeah the first couple of chapters are really bad, but as you said you can see it get better and by volumes 3-9 its like reading a normal fantasy author with kind of slice of life/cozy settings with random dungeon crawls and fighting (and occasional traumatic stuff). Right now you only have POV Ryoka and Erin but the cast gets so much better past Volume 1. I love the redemption arc for the girl calling everyone a peon.
I beg you to try to get to volume 3 or reread the remade volume 1. And if you do go down the Webnovel rabbit hole, try reading Worm, Beware of Chicken, and Beneath the Dragon Eye's Moons (this one is publicized and i don't know if you have read the series)
The Wandering Inn is what kept me going in very very dark times and has influenced the games I make right now, it truly is my favorite series, beating out Stormlight Archives 😄
love the visuals representation, my god so many words!
I remember my teacher of Literature in high school telling us about this famous Brazilian author (Machado de Assis for those interested) that would publish each chapter of his book on the newspaper and then later his book was finally published. So I think this type of storytelling, chapter by chapter, before something is finished could be more common in history than we might think. Love the channel ❤️
Yup, your review is exactly what I expected from you, Daniel, knowing a little of your taste and personality. This is a unique series, and even with all the baggage it has, I found the fanbase is bigger than I thought, with a lot of praise for the series online.
Other people have summed it up better - how much the series improved, how it goes from cozy fantasy to epic fantasy from time to time. Its highs are HIGH, with such emotional impact I just didn't expect from this series. The lows are LOW, but those lows become fewer with every chapter I'm reading.
One thing I can absolutely guarantee: the narrator fucking slams. I thought Steven Pacey was the GOAT of audiobooks... damn, the competition is high there.
Also loved the intro!
The best way I could put it is this series is comparable to Malazan. The start is so inauspicious to where it ends up that it throws people off. But at the same time, it's so easy to start reading and eases you into the massive world that it's like Malazan-lite. It holds your hand and gently eases you into everything.
Ah, its a pity you decided to start with the audiobook- though Andrea's voice is excellent and the TWI community appreciates her, it covers the first volume before it was rewritten with some professional guidance. Either way, I do not think the first volume pre-rewrite suffered quite to the extent you think it did, but it is something I've heard a few times of it so I'm divided on that.
I'm very glad you decided to check it though and i love hearing anyone's genuine opinion on it and other stuff i enjoyed. I hope you decide to continue the series, you're in for a ride!
If you end up reviewing Worm, it's widely accepted that arcs 1-8 make up the first "book" at around 300k words total, and will really give you an idea if you want to continue or if it's not your thing
Reading Worm arc 8 for the first time is a unique experience. Twig and Pale are still better though, and Pact is what I would recommend to specifically Daniel in 2024.
@@Halrax_38 Worm is technically his worst written series, as it was the first, and that's especially true in the early parts, but Worm is still my favorite of his books.
worm was my entry into webnovels and it more than delivered. i haven't gotten around to reading more wildbow but worm is already one of my favorites.
The Wandering Inn isn't like any other series I've ever read. It's kind of like a cozy fantasy story in an epic fantasy world. Where the main character mostly stays out of the big wars and giant monster fights until she doesn't. There is a big, high-stakes series of events going on and the main characters are usually only connected to it peripherally most of the time. It serves to make the whole thing feel so realistic and relatable.
It does start rough, but it has grown to be my favorite running series, tied with Stormlight Archive. The Tears of Liscor fucking BROKE me.
If you get into it, you HAVE to go the audiobook route. The narration is by far one of the best I've ever heard. Andrea Parsnau (spelling?) manages to voice dozens of characters of several species and regional accents. You can tell INSTANTLY from a new voice what species is talking and what part of the world they are from. And if it's a character you've met before, even if it's been 3 million words since you saw them last, you'll recognize the voice. And everything about her delivery and emotional depth are all just masterful.
DANIEL HAS DISCOVERED WEBNOVELS 🗣🗣🗣🗣
Technically he already did with Dungeon Crawler Carl
I've never heard of this series before, but I find it fascinating that this project seems to basically be written and published much like many multichapter fanfics.
THIS was the comment I was looking for. Daniel doesn't have much of a history in reading fanfic, but the way he's talking about this series sounds exactly like longfic on AO3.
Welcome to the world of webnovels
fanfics, webtoons, webnovels
This series shapes up to be a masterpiece IMO - sure the first volume is rough but its like any debut these days. Author really comes into "sanderson" level prose around volume 2-3. PLOT is amaaaazing.
I think Flowers for Esthelm (Volume 3) is where it really stops being just a fun story and becomes something with a lot of depth
@@robertrader4181 Yeah , your probably correct on that one. I am only up to vol 13 (ebooks) and it rocks.
Outshines Sanderson. 🤷♂
Thank you for a thoughtful and very complete review. As a reader of a substantial amount of fantasy and science fiction over decades I do agree with a lot of your observations. I will say that I got into the wandering in through the audiobooks. And Andrea Parsneau has done such a wonderful job with the audio books that I didn't even engage with the written word until after I've gotten through the 12th audiobook.
That being said I have found this work to actually be remarkable. As the author went on the world building, the character depth, the exploration of so many aspects of story, have become really a new benchmark that I would think other authors will now have to examine and see if they would like to explore those aspects in the depth that this author has. Does that make sense? All in all this is a joy of a story to read, and listen to.
I'm super glad i haven't watched your review before starting wandering inn, I might have never started... so much hate. It's become my favorite fantasy story, and i never want it to end
I started the series especially because of his review lmao but I read the updated version so I don’t share any of his complaints it’s great to me
Hey Daniel I started reading the wandering inn earlier this year, and I read the rewrite and compared it it to the original while I was reading and from what I got from it, is that the really good chapters (climaxes, lots of Ryoka scenes, interludes, some other pov chapters) added some dialogue for continuity and some better prose, but mostly it was the same. Especially early on, most of that content was kept. I also dropped it multiple times in the beginning but I enjoyed it later and enjoyed enough to continue. Hope you do as well, I hear a lot of good things later.
Would be so fun to see daniel go down the rabbit hole of online publishing. watching him experience Beware of chicken, Mother of Learning, A Journey of Black and Red, The Perfect Run.... cant think of others that are mostly highly regarded atm. Beware of Chicken would be my recommendation to anyone though, its as close to universally loved as anything in art can be.
First volume for sure beyond that ehhhhh
A practical guide to evil PLEASE , I AM BEGGING YOU
Eh. The first few books are good enough that it's remembered fondly, but it just gets so up it's own ass later on, with 25 Proper Names for places we don't care about and nobles we don't care about and the implications of the rebellion over here and...blegh.
@@benjaminhartsock3281 I personally liked the later books more than the earlier ones, just wasn't your cup of tea I suppose
@@FadyButSpookypersonally the middle ones were my favorite, but i think the story still holds up as a whole.
The author also streams what they write
Oh really? On twitch or RUclips?
@@DanielGreeneReviews on RUclips they used to do it on twitch too their channel name is pirateaba
@@DanielGreeneReviews On youtube, under the account @pirateaba
@@DanielGreeneReviews RUclips. Channel name is pirateaba.
On RUclips now they used to write on twitch too their channel name is pirateaba
It sneaks up on you but their prose writing improves to the point where I was reading a traditionally published book by a well established writer and found myself thinking "this writing is quite bad compared to wandering inn) . It did not start off this way.
There is nothing else like this series for me in fiction. Pirate has crafted what feels like looking in on a real fantasy world and then watching it happen in real time.
Who was the well established author? Tell ussss
@@DrunkenGyarados naomi novik - but i really enjoyed her Scholomance books anyway.
@@DrunkenGyarados I had a similar experience, but more so when it comes to the depth of the world and side/background characters. After TWI the worlds of many traditional novels feel like cardboard cutout backdrops.
My opinion about The Wondering Inn is it is an amazing story to listen to. The woman reading it is fantastic. I was captivated listening to it. I have listened to the first five books. I have taken a break to listen to other things because I have a feeling this story is going to go on forever and I have known problem with that. I haven’t experienced anything like it before. It’s very unique.
Reading The Wandering Inn is hands down my favorite thing to do with my free time. Nothing else comes close. It may not be the best written thing ever but when I read it I feel like I'm there in that world.
So the update for the first vollume is avalible online for free and fixes a mixture of continuity errors and includes a couple of addition chapters to flesh a few people out and set some things up
WORM! If we are going to be going down this web serial rabbit hole, do the Worm web serial next!
It's a legend in the space!
Oh my god, yes! We need someone big like Dan to talk about Worm. Shit is peak superhero fantasy.
Second the recommendation for worm, would love to get more people aware of it. also the audio book you can find online is quite good.
Yes, yes please. Wildbow cooked way too hard with it. Daniel would have a field day
Def! The characters and world is just chefs kiss.
I reccomend it to everyone, it is a masterpiece, I hate both cape shit and the "The MC's life is suffering" tag with the passion of a thousand suns, just not my cup of tea, but I love Worm, the Parahuman series by Wildbow is so damn addictive, super active community that isn't dying down at all, massive pile of fanfics for it, etc
If you have not read it, read it! Warning though, the trigger warning for the series is not a joke, I do not care for trigger warnings, but this series legitimately made my horribly depressed, so if you are sensitive or young, seriously do not take the trigger warning lightly.
I’m five volumes into The Wandering Inn. Yes, it gets better. Yes, it gets a LOT better but, for me, it’s kind of zen. When I’m stressed and everything else seems like too much I listen to TWI on audio. Stress is long and life can be tough. Other cozies are short but when I really need it, there is TWI. In that way, it’s perfect.
as a fan of the wandering inn since 2019 i'm very happy with your review. I might never have noticed those problems you talk about, probably because i consume so much poorly written webserials to start with. But i can say that since i started reading it, it has became my most favorite piece of media i have ever consumed. Its chapters become longer with time, the stories mingle and grow, characters dissapear for millions of words to return with stories we might never heard the full account. The world is living growing and extensive. For the last year or so, when I finish reading a chapter I'm left with the feeling "gosh this was the best chapter so far" and I will probably say the same the next chapter too.
But to reach that point you need to have lived in this world for millions of words. And it is understandable if you are not willing to commit to that, it takes time and energy that you could be putting onto anything else. If you have your favorite media that you want to engage then I would suggest you do that. TWI is amazing and great and I think it's the best thing i've consumed in my life. But you don't have to put force yourself to read it if you don't enjoy it.
I hope that a lot of people give TWI a chance thanks to this video :) and maybe a few will love it as much as the rest of us ducks do, paba doesn't stop feeding us bread, so there's plenty to share
I am up to date on the webnovel and I can't describe my enjoyment of this story adequately enough. Yes, not one piece of it can be described as a literary masterpiece (tho some of the newest chapters are at least close) but the sheer volume of the great content is absolutely unmatched for me. It's like an unending pizza that later evolves into an unending buffet. If you ever encountered a situation where you foud a new, ongoing story (comic/novel/manga/whatever) with an interesting premise, got up to date and discovered that the author releases like a chapter a month and after like 5 or 10 years they just introduced a new continent/multiverse/time-travel/progression system, and you had to drop it because you knew that either you won't see the end before you retire, or the story will be rushed into oblivion - this is your salvation. I am a One Piece fan, this is better than One Piece for me. It is my only Patreon subscription.
Oh man, Wandering Inn has been one of my favorite series to follow over the past few years! ESPECIALLY in audiobook form with Andrea Parseau narrating! She is just....amazingly talented. Hope you continue listening. It really does just get better and better!
Ive always considered this more of a slice of life series with spurts and spatters of action and emotion throughout. Some of which are VERY brutal and others that had me snuffling and sniffling at work while listening!
I would absolutely recommend that you continue, and that you should probably read the volume 1 rewrite (which fixes most of your quality complaints) that is currently on the website. Remember, every chapter of the Wandering Inn on the website (except the most recent one at any given time) is free.
I found Wandering Inn on Audible and have to premise this by the fact, i avoid books under 20hrs.
I currently have the next two books on preorder.
I love this series, i love the voice acting and the descrptive worlds. Yes Erin is annoying...but in some ways, its refreshing that you do want to smack the main character round the back of the head and scream "get a grip"....it makes me feel more in control lol.
The story gets, bigger, better and more in depth....in some ways, its also the story of Pirate Aba, and many of us during covid. Starting something new and getting better as we practice more. Those of us who love it, were happy with a free weekly book on Royal Road and dont really care about the correctness of the writing. Whilst it is cozy...its also terrifying, violent, laugh out loud funny and heartbreaking....ive never cried over a single book series so much
It's a shame you listened to the original book because Pirateaba has already rewritten volume 1 on the page improving most of its amateur problems
My favorite written work I've ever read😊 yeah there are some rough spots, but WOW the world building and character growth pops OFF. Has made me laugh and cry more than any other work of media in my life. Horns of Hammerad V.2 for Life!
If you're interested in what webserials have to offer thanks to the particulars of their publishing method, I'd recommend Pale by Wildbow and Supper Supportive By Sleyca. Also, people are going to recommend Worm a lot, but Pale is from the same author and it's his most recent completed work.
I woud love to see a review for each volume, like a series of your own. Hope you continue and enjoy it just as much as I did, each volume getting immensely better than the last.
I think webnovels format is what gonna save new self published writers
I'm a webnovel author and I'm making like 1.5k$ a month. But it's hell of a lot of work, with how much needs to be written everyday. ( for USA citizens 1.5k$ is not much, but for me it's quite a lot, just saying )
But the reworked Volume 1 is available. It's not in eBook or Audio book form but it is updated on the website. I started reading the series like 6 months ago and I am reading it on the website. I thought it was well written and didn't get the complaints (at the time I didn't know I was reading the reworked version) I actually noticed a dip in quality with Volume 2, though by the end of Volume 3 the quality was good again.
Just wanted to say I’ve been watching your videos for a few years and appreciate your content greatly. 🎉
Worm! Please read Worm! I would pay to see you review it, it's the best super hero/ villian novel I've read in a very long time
Worm!!!
If he starts reading WB he should start with Pact, but Worm is more likely to get video views.
I love the wandering in. I’ve listened to all of them on audiobooks and they never stop being great. 2 more books out this year and I can’t wait.
You say “by the 10th volume” but I am an audiobook only and it is only on volume 6. I was locked in after the first audiobook and have not been dissappointed
Book vs Volume argument is silly. I've started to only refer to the book number, as without a spreadsheet it's going to be silly.
I read this, in 2018. Love the growth of writer. I respect her consistency and her struggle to write and mental health. Waiting to get back as I stopped in 2022. ❤ that's it is being appreciated.
I respect your right to a surface level take! But TWI story is probably on a level with one piece. Cheers for bringing light to this wonderful story
The updated version on the website is the way to go, if youre able to. But i would really suggest finishing book one. It gives you a tiny peek at some of the curveballs to come.
Your description of this series reminds me of my experience reading webcomicsand watching the artist improve over the course of several years. It's fascinating and your description of community reminds me of Homestuck and how that evolved into such a big property over time.
Yeah I was thinking of Homestuck as well based on what he described. Except this seems like it has much higher and much more consistent output. Not sure if I consider that a good or bad thing. For for me at least Homestuck was enjoyable right from the start.
The first volume is rough, especially if you're reading the original version, but from there it's only getting better, pirate is learning, the world is richer, more complex, more creative, the cast becomes larger and larger, characters grow with each trauma and delight they experience. By the 5th volume it became my favorite series and now I can't help but to scream with wonder and sorrow every time there is a new chapter.
One thing you probably won't expect is that almost 14 million words is not enough. We get multiple storylines on multiple continents, from multiple perspectives, that are happening simultaneously and unfortunately they can never be developed enough and there are stories that will never see the light of the day. I can only hope that pirate someday in far, far future will write more books like Gravesong, a spin-off about a character that is important to the plot but not necessarily to Erin, that let us experience those untold tales.
Though the best aspect of reading TWI was for me visiting reddit after each chapter and reading through comments on community discussions or even those directly below the chapters + each pirate's blog post or author's note brought me joy. The community is simply put thriving because of how it's published also it allows many exciting opportunities to appear fanart sections, hidden paragraphs by letting the color of the text match with the background, embeding next parts of the chapter or other easter eggs behind hyperlinks like that one time shenanigan in volume 9th, special classes being different color to signify their importance and many more that are only allowed because of the format and the genre.
So please don't stop there TWI is the best example of progression fantasy there is. Each and every element of the series is advancing in quality, in scope, in nuance, in hilarity, in misery and with that the series grows on you, the author matures, you by the time you've finished the series would grown too. So please if you delight yourself in stories about the journey not necessarily the destination, then The Wandering Inn will give you the best journey you've ever had filled to the brim with complex characters that you'll care about even the most minor ones, deep and through* worldbuilding (*through in that some things are just utter bullshit but everything has logic behind it, everything has a right to be the way it is) and community that exists because we love the story of our little slice of life with a sprinkle of war crimes on top. And I hope that you'll get through the many flaws of the earlier parts and get the true Wandering Inn experience "...a slice of cake and a punch to the guts. Then, if you were lucky another piece of cake".
As someone who started listening to the audio version last year, I will confess that it is hard to get through the first half of book. Yet, once I got to the dungeon scenes, I became hooked and was enjoyably stressed the hell out for the characters. The series gets soooooo much better and I am now to the point that I am emotionally invested in all the characters and really empathize with their pain.
Daniel this hurts me. With wheel of time being your favorite fantasy series with it massive 14 books. You didnt give the wandering inn its time to cook. It took me 3 years to finish the first wheel of time book but after that i tackeled the rest in a year. The first books in each series have the same problems. So im sad you did this video.
not gonna lie, i feel the same as a long time subscriber who got to daniel because i love wot, and then one piece too. both super long and worldbuilding dense. i feel like he didn't give time for the story to cook. and then skipped the later parts of book 1 with a copout of it being spoilers. I also feel that he should have too the offer of reading the rewrite because the rewrite is available on the website for free anyway so his reasoning of it not being available for public readers isn't correct.. Kinda bummed he didn't dive deep into the characters of any themes or anything and focused on the length and medium instead.
@FlameGarnet I know there's a huge World War Brewing with every book we meet more big players and the build up.
Been reading web serials for years. Love seeing you bring attention to the craft!
I was legit just thinking about picking this up 😂 growing up reading fanfiction and wattpad, this is completely normal for me tbh people online just sharing stories
At volume 10 it's still getting better. It's never stopped getting better. Pirateaba is insane.
Really glad to see this series getting more attention.
I read the rewrite for book 1 on their website and it was great and based on this I’m happy I did lol.
I’m on volume 3 right now and it still great for me btw.
It's kind of weird hearing people talk about serial online fiction specifically with Wandering Inn as their introduction to the format. It's definitely one of the most successful native English texts, but as someone who's read: 1. translated webnovels (especially Korean and Japanese), 2. works on author's blogs and RoyalRoad, 3. fanfiction... the format itself doesn't wow me.
pirateaba's writing output absolutely does though. It's an IMMENSE amount of words to regularly release and makes The Wandering Inn a stand-out in the field. We joke about how much Stephen King writes, and his total published word count is around 5.8 million. That's so much!!! Stacking all the books at the start of the video was a great way to visualize it.
Sounds like the _Nancy Drew,_ or _Sherlock Holmes_ of our generation..
I am quite happy that the legacy of the "continuous adventures of..." has managed to transcend the passage of time and the changes of media and settle in none other than my favorite genre. Thanks for shading a light on this, I've never heard of this series before but am now eager to get to know it.
Im surprised no one has mentioned gravesong, which is a single book that takes place parallel (and inside of) TWI. If you want to get a glimpse at what modern TWI looks like without reading literally millions of words, gravesong is definitely something to check out at ~160k wordcount.
This is such a good series.
As a long time reader of the Wandering Inn i feel the need to point out two things.
1. it is a Web novel with an audiobook adaptation. Meaning it takes advantage of that fact that it is written on a web page. Links to sub chapters, different color text, and other things that will be lost in transitioning to audio format.
2. The litrpg aspects are very well done especially in relation to the knowledge base of the world. Tangential activities that level people, massing buff skills, and counter leveling are all quantities that the inn world people know and understand. (People who read alot of litrpgs know the rarity of this).
Sidenote the edited volume is up on the website.
This one is super interesting to me. It feels almost like old school forum-esque while being on the cutting edge of storytelling (potentially) now? Forum RPGs (I know you kinda touched it) and just "creative writing" subforums amongst forums were places where people would write out their first drafts, vomit words, and people would react, edit and encourage/discourage. This feels a lot like that, but that was in the early 00s. Pre-reddit, pre-twitter etc. It's an interesting idea come back. Places where you just put the words down and fumble your way through. I might have to check this out
Honestly, for a series that has goblins as a main plot point I’m kind of surprised you haven’t gotten to it until now. This series is such a guilty pleasure.
Communities are what keep me going with any hobby so this is awesome to see
Never thought Daniel would cover this series. I’m so hyped
The Poor Goblin's gonna need to go to his own inn after this review 😆
W.o.W😮
3.000 thousand words a day???? On average?????!!!!! For 8 years?!?!?!!!!!!!! .0. EXCUSE ME?!?!?! ... holy hell 😮...
That's... wow. Just, wow.