|
Some thoughts on The Wandering Inn having gotten through 3/4 of Vol 1: Ryoka is really getting on my nerves. I don't think she's necessarily badly written or anything, but she's extremely unlikable and we spend a lot of time in her head. I really hope she has a significant arc that is impactful with the story to make all the time we spend with her justified. I just got to where she just burned literally every bridge she had by picking a fight with every adventurer around her. Erin now has like 2 factions (Gazi and the Gnolls) looking to take advantage of her now, and she has no idea. Pisces is also on the radar of Gazi like Erin is. I really like Pisces even though he's obnoxious in a lot of ways, you can kind of feel like he really wants to be helpful and a good guy even if he's really smug and awkward about it. Now that Klbkch is dead he's probably my favorite supporting character. There's basically no way that the skeleton he gave Erin isn't worth like tens or hundreds of gold. It's so absurdly valuable it is incredible overkill for any tab he's got at her inn. He's doing her an enormous favor. She has no idea, but he's clearly worried about her safety and trying to protect her in his own way, but he can't help but still act smug or self-important while doing it heh. I have a feeling Erin, despite not having any aptitude for magic, is going to display skills in miracles. That's been introduced but nothing done with it yet. Finally, THE Necromancer has a name that certainly sounds like someone from Earth. Going to be shocked if he's not from our world. Ryoka didn't pick up on that at all oddly enough.
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2023 04:46
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 8, 2024 20:46 |
|
|
Bremen posted:Yeah. Ryouka is probably a realistic depiction of how people are emotional and don't always make good decisions, and I'm sure some people love that. But as a rule if I'm mentally screaming at a protagonist for making bad decisions I'm going to be dropping the story in short order, and The Wandering Inn was no exception. I'll take my unrealistically levelheaded protagonists along with my unrealistic powers and unrealistic hero's journeys, thanks. Yeah, I don't really have an issue with how she's written. I absolutely find her obnoxious as of now, but so long as her arc is done well that's not an issue really. What would really be a problem is if she's this incredibly obnoxious toxic rear end in a top hat who both never gets her comeuppance and never starts turning it around and becoming a better person. You have to choose one or the other if she's a major POV character. But this is vol 1. I'm willing to give her time to get fleshed out.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2023 05:55
|
|
|
Well I finished Vol 1 (not the re-issued version) of The Wandering Inn. In general, I really liked it. I'm glad to see the author was willing to kill the Horns crew. I thought there was going to be a deus ex machina that would come in and save the day, but thankfully nothing like that happened. Being willing to kill a character or two early on to establish there are stakes is important. Especially now that the Queen has resurrected my favorite ant boy Klbkch toward the end. I felt a bit bad for Ryouka come the end of the volume as she came around and had overcome both the magic forcing her to search for The Necromancer and her own mental bullshit to go back and apologize only to have them already dead. Having her actually suffer permanent consequences for her being an rear end in a top hat to people is significant and should hopefully give her an opportunity to grow (or I guess could be a seed to turn her into a villain). Erin was sufficiently badass toward the end and the last stand of Knight and crew was touching. Though not to the extent that Klbkch's death earlier in the book was. I'd figured that the miracles introduced earlier in the book would have been paid off here at the end to resolve things, but I guess not. Though I think the author did a good job of bringing together all the things they'd set up throughout the book in the end. From the acid to Rags' magic training and even chess. Pisces continues to be great. Love that guy. He's my favorite supporting character still even though Klbkch is back. It's good to see that Erin whole chess thing paid off in the end in that it was (primarily) the relationships she developed and friends she's made that saved the day rather than her own personal combat capabilities as the “king” of the game. I'm sure her skeleton grabbing that red orb will surely have no future consequences. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Mar 6, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 6, 2023 03:26
|
|
|
Having started volume 2 of The Wandering Inn: Ryoka is already like 100x better, though it could be just her proximity to Erin's "good vibes" field doing that. I guess we'll see if that changes when/if they separate. Not sure why Gazi felt the need to take on half the watch and make Erin hate her when she could have just waited for her to go back to her inn and snatched her up there easily. Least she lost an eye for that dumbass move.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2023 01:08
|
|
|
I'm hoping for a Nyneve (from the Wheel of Time) transformation where she goes from the most obnoxious character to one of the best characters over the story. Erin is such an innocent angel so far though so it'd be hard to beat that gem.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2023 02:20
|
|
|
For The Wandering Inn: Okay, I got to the second trip to the dragon by Ryoka in vol 2. I started to wonder how the hell Erin teleported to him on her arrival here and managed to not die immediately in the passes and stumble upon the inn. Reading a part of the redone Vol 1 (no way I'm going to re-read that whole thing) and it seems like he was right by the inn and just got spooked by her arrival and teleported off to the passes. That makes way more sense. Also, Erin's inn looks to have earned its name now that it's “wandered” around the flood lands after getting blown up and rebuilt I'm wondering if I should make a thread for this series. I don't want to clutter up this thread with my thoughts as I read. Edit: Also I'm sensing a pattern with the Ship of Theseus references in this vol with both the yarn girl and now her rebuilt inn. I wonder if that will be a theme for this vol. I really like that alchemist. She's such a unique and novel kind of non-human that you don't really see in fantasy. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Mar 7, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2023 21:27
|
|
|
Whew this uh... mating chapter (The Wandering Inn Vol 2) is something else.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 8, 2023 00:07
|
|
|
Big fan of how bumbling the dragon is as I watch Ryoka get her memories back. TWI Vol 2. I especially like that he has to have her leave and reenter the the cave a couple of times to redo entire conversations because he screwed up so bad. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Mar 8, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 8, 2023 18:34
|
|
|
At Ryoka's 2nd magic training session, and I'm glad she's at least thinking about why the heck the world is so weird with levels and skills. Isekai often just gloss over stuff like that and just use it as a convenient and understandable system that they don't have to think much about and their audience will intuitively understand from games. Having a character who specifically refuses to adopt any skills/classes and questions the whole system leads me to have some hope that the author has some deeper plans for the background of it. TWI: Vol 2 Edit: continuing my thoughts rather than double post. Erin's strange mood to make her artifact fairy feast was kinda neat. The fairy's trick of the gold seemed pretty obvious to me even without her skeleton pointing it out. They continue to be jerks but hey at least she got like 3 or 4 innkeeping levels out of it. She's only a few levels away from Relc's in his main class now I think and has only been in this world like a month. I can't really parse what all was going on with her dream a bit earlier exactly, but I imagine that'll be important. Getting to the Gazi chapter I'm not sure how I feel about Flos. He doesn't seem like a *bad* guy since he's obviously concerned about his subjects, but at the same time has been incredibly selfish over the last 10 years by letting his people starve to death because he got bored with his world conquest. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Mar 9, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 8, 2023 23:29
|
|
|
Hah, that was a good conclusion to the whole ordeal. (The Wandering Inn: Vol 2) Ryoka traveled across maybe a quarter of a continent, braved fairies trying to kill her. Weaved her way through two armies at each other's throats, and evaded the 3 champions of The Necromancer to deliver…. A trinket and a letter of well-wishing for Az’kerash's 200th birthday.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 10, 2023 02:44
|
|
|
Hmm… not sure if a religious Pawn and (potentially) religious Colony is a good or bad thing. Maybe it will reduce/eliminate the creation of aberrations when making individuals? At least it gave him some purpose. I also wonder if collective belief in a deity will go about creating one or more in this world. Maybe this will herald the return of the miracles mentioned last book? TWI: Vol 2
|
|
#
¿
Mar 10, 2023 14:58
|
|
|
Look at you Ryoka, going from an absolute selfish bastard last book to sacrificing two fingers to save a child in this one. Quite the turn around. TWI: Vol 2
|
|
#
¿
Mar 11, 2023 00:08
|
|
|
I'd probably say I'm enjoying The Wandering Inn more than any other web novel that I've read so far. A lot of it is due to the relentlessly innocent and positive Erin. Unlike a lot of Isekai stories where the MC is a broody loser, she's just a really personable person. She keeps building up her collection of lost souls who find their way to her inn and who find their life turned around for it. I'm just getting to the part where she visits Lady Magnolia and she is somehow thawing the hearts of her butler and maid with her childlike wonder.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 11, 2023 04:25
|
|
|
TWI: Vol 2. Not really an enormous fan of this Antinium info dump chapter here. It's pretty dully written with Ryoka just sitting there slack jawed with "and my heart stops" interjections while Klbkch monologues for thousands of words. It could really use the characters moving around or… something. Anything other than the literary equivalent of shot-reverse-shot for 40 minutes. The revelation of a sleeping god the Antinium are fighting is really undermined by the otherwise really dull writing here. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Mar 12, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 12, 2023 03:38
|
|
|
I've finished The Wandering Inn: Vol 2. This volume felt kinda aimless and the hints of a possible plot line only starting in the last 20% of it. There were several parts of it that kind of dragged on like Ryoka visiting the dragon for the last time. There it felt like they kept saying their goodbyes only to turn around and awkwardly continue the conversation. The absence of my favorite guy Pisces for most of the book also lessened my opinion of it. Overall this felt like the start of a 2 or 3 part book arc, so perhaps my opinion will change with the next vol. That said, with how long this vol was (60 hours of audio) I really feel like there should have been a complete story here, and it shouldn't have just been a setup. I'd say I probably liked the last vol more than this one even with Ryoka being far less obnoxious here.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 12, 2023 23:26
|
|
|
TWI: Vol 3 I'm a big fan of this emperor guy, and it's neat having a POV from an entirely blind person and only getting things described with the other senses. A strong start to this book.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 13, 2023 01:23
|
|
|
It beggers belief a bit that Ryoka didn't pick up when the fairies called the leveling system the "game of the gods" in vol 2 of TWI. That's been bothering me ever since then but she just glossed it over. On a positive note she has an official fairy friend now, though I'm not sure if I like obsequious Ryoka very much. I kind of hope this passes after she gets over the honeymoon period.. TWI Vol: 3
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2023 01:06
|
|
|
I just love (TWI: Vol 3) Lyon. Just an absolute awful person with some tiiiiiny hints of a good heart buried in her miserable sense of superiority.quote:The Drake looked indignantly at the bulging pack of supplies he’d brought. What a fantastic chapter lol Edit: haha serving that hotdog water. quote:He snapped at her as he drank some of the hot water she’d boiled and grimaced at the taste. It was the same water she’d used for the noodles, and he pushed that back on the table as well after another sip. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Mar 14, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2023 06:08
|
|
|
Reading through the Pawn chapter now, and I can't help but notice the re-invention of religion by the Antinium on the continent that sounds like "Israel" when spoken aloud. TWI: Vol 3
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2023 23:28
|
|
|
The Gang reinvents Romeo and Juliet TWI: Vol 3 Hah, what a lovely chapter. The narrator for my audiobook was clearly enjoying a chance to do a fantasy version of Shakespeare. Edit: Also, I'm having a hard time believing Magnolia is really a villain despite Ryoka's misgivings. I don't know if she's really a good person, but she does seem to at least not be actively trying to conquer the world or do terrible things writ large with tech from Earth. She's certainly a more fleshed out character now after Erin and Ryoka's visits to her. Plus, the history book's rendition of her impact on the first Antinium war paints her in a very forward-looking and positive light. Though I guess that historian was sponsored by Magnolia, so they would. Double Edit: My favorite bag of bones is really turning into a villain huh? Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Mar 17, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2023 18:35
|
|
|
Well, it looks like love can bloom on the battlefield. I see this little battlefield romance has drawn on a few elements of the Romeo and Julliet story from the previous Erin chapters. This book has been pretty light on Erin and Ryoka's adventures so far, but I've liked all these side stories so far.. TWI: VOL 3 Not done yet but so far I think I like this book more than the last one. Edit: Actually, I didn't really find myself taken by the Horns chapters, so maybe not all of them. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Mar 18, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2023 01:08
|
|
|
Glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought of the incredible utility of the two-way teleporter at the end of The Wandering Inn Vol 3. I can easily see Erin setting up copies of these doors all around the world and having her inn be a hub for people anywhere to visit. I'm liking the goblin storyline so far in Vol 4, and my worry about Rags going to the dark side seems to have been put to rest with her having just freed the human woman from the mountain. Lyon has really made a complete change from her state at the start of the series. Now she is absolutely a likable and hard-working young girl/woman, if still not at Erin's caliber as an innkeeper. Having the older sister or mother role for Mrsha has really helped her grow up.. TWI: Vol 4
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2023 22:33
|
|
|
I've got a sneaking suspicion that the goblins are either the "devolved" gnomes or elves of yore given a passage in this vol quote:There was no one to care. The Goblins lived and died. The other races paid little attention to them, save for when the Goblins became a threat. No one remembered who the Goblins had once been. I would tend to favor them being gnomes given their small size and "tinkerer" classes. Their lack of significant magical aptitude also tends to disfavor the possibility of being an elven offshoot IMO. I believe guess the fairies called the goblins... "the children" and "the youngest" last volume, so that lends some credence to the idea that they are offshoots of those lost races to me.. TWI: Vol 4
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2023 22:59
|
|
|
Ah, I'd figured the image on the cover was Erin's inn teleported to the middle of the sea. I guess it's quote:“I appreciate that we are being fed immediately upon our arrival, but are you sure there’s no welcoming speech? No introduction?” Throwing some shade on the sorting hat TWI: Vol 4
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2023 21:41
|
|
|
I'm certainly getting some Wistram fatigue 5 chapters in the 7. It's kinda hard to get super invested when I know both of them are going to get expelled from statements earlier in the series, so I know the general outline of how things will go. Nothing has really been a surprise for me so far in the plotting either. It's all been pretty predicable. I guess I'll keep slogging through these last two chapters, but I honestly kinda feel like just skipping them. TWI: Vol 4
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2023 23:13
|
|
|
Wow, I never thought I'd see Erin like this, but she was an ENORMOUS jerk to Lyon at their reunion. I'm glad to see Zel had a talking to her because she was rapidly depleting the good will I'd built up toward Erin over the past few vols. TWI: Vol 4
|
|
#
¿
Mar 21, 2023 13:24
|
|
|
Well I completed Vol 4 of The Wandering Inn. I really enjoyed the whole Winter Solstice dealio.. That was probably my favorite part of the book. Though the portal door shenanigans are pretty high up there too. The Wistram portions were probably my low points of the book. Ryoka really needs to get that loving spell book back to Krshia and stop dicking around hundreds of miles away. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Mar 22, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2023 22:05
|
|
|
Pirateaba needs to get a thesaurus to find synonyms for “bemused.”
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2023 23:48
|
|
|
Every vol I see Pirate describe Antinium “blinking” a few times, and I'm sure they intended to describe this But forgot the ants don't have eyelids.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2023 12:41
|
|
|
Okay, I think I finally figured out why these Flos chapters at the start of Vol 5 of TWI are bugging me. He doesn't feel like a real character at all. He's so over the top that it feels like he's an actor playing the role of a king, badly. Not really a fan TBH.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2023 02:18
|
|
|
AgentHaiTo posted:I felt the same way. I think I'm further along than you, and I still don't know what Flo's motivation is besides "I'm the King of Destruction". If the twins were a little more interesting, or if there seemed to be some good reason why people are following him like he is some kind of cult leader, maybe I'd like him more. Yeah I agree totally. Nothing about him really sells how Gazi et al are so all in on him. I don't see any real goal for him other than an "I wanna conquer the world." But even then I just got to a part where he says “I would declare war for a child. I would burn a country to ash to avenge a fallen comrade. But I would never declare war for petty things like land or coin or treasure. A [King] should wage war for his desires, yes, but never for greed. And despite my feelings, that is how I view a war to take back my lands. They have other rulers. To take it is greed at this moment. It is a fine line. But I will not cross it.” and I'm here thinking "The gently caress were you doing 20 years ago friendo??? Meanwhile, all his servants are nodding in agreement like it's the most obvious thing. I feel like he's just playing the part of an over-the-top space marine from a cheesy Warhammer 40k audiobook. While that has its appeal in short bursts, this is uh, a bit much. I dunno if this is supposed to be intentional and it's all just a [skill] of his to get people to follow him (it surely is in part) or if this is mainly Pirate's reach exceeding their grasp in writing a believable king. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Mar 24, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2023 02:43
|
|
|
At least the end of the Flos chapters gave Gazi some character depth and made her more likable in her shared distaste for slavery. She'd been, up to now, just a villain. TWI: V5 Learning that Magnolia also banned slavery in the human parts of Izril also boosted my opinion of her quite a bit. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Mar 24, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2023 23:33
|
|
|
This scientific investigation of the portal door is really tickling my fancy. The Toren chapter earlier was kinda cool and maybe a prelude to him (her? They were flipping gender pronouns constantly through it) developing an actual conscience. I don't know what the general fan base thinks, but I think Toren could easily still be salvaged from villainy. They were essentially a baby with no understanding of morals. It'd be like decrying a toddler who someone gave a gun to and started shooting people. Like yeah, it's not good, but also you can't really expect the baby to understand what they were doing was wrong.. TWI Vol 5
|
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2023 22:46
|
|
|
Gotta say, Durene is starting to become somewhat annoying. I still have no issues with Laken despite the rabid hatred that many people seemed to have for him. But I just started his group of chapters this book, so maybe he'll fall apart. I really enjoyed the Doctor chapters. I like the crew over there, even if their new "United Nations" company has a bit of a cheesy name. They seem like good folks. I'd figured Luan was gay personally and that he was in a relationship with his Olympic rowing partner, not that he was married and had a kid though. I'm gonna be shocked if Miss Agnes doesn't try to pull something to kill or harm Erin and her friends. The undead bone gal and her tracking buddy really are 2/3 of a Three Stooges troupe huh? How are they the primary agents of The Necromancer? The keep getting lost like rank amateurs TWI: Vol 5 Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Mar 28, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 28, 2023 01:15
|
|
|
Wow, Ryoka's making a return to being a huge rear end in a top hat suddenly out of nowhere. Not sure what stick got up her rear end, but I don't like it. Didn't think to mention that the Lord of the Wall's retainer was threatening to have Erin assassinated to Relc either which seems like a dumb miss from her. I'm liking this Niers and Foliana chapter. I hope we get more of them. TWI: Vol 5
|
|
#
¿
Mar 28, 2023 23:31
|
|
|
RBA-Wintrow posted:When Ryoka has a good day, everything's fine. When she has a bad day, everyone else needs to have a bad day to. Ryoka really can't help but talk poo poo huh. She's kind of the definition of "gently caress around and find out." Just got to her mouthing off to the Necromancer when she was about to be let off scott free only to be hit with a curse that will kill her instantly if she speaks his name.. TWI Vol 5 Edit: Poor Brunkr Edit: Whew the end of vol 5 is kinda a bummer, huh? The Goblin Lord is on the march. Griffon Hunt is shattered. Many blame Ryoka (and to a lesser extent, Erin) for bringing down doom on them. Several named side characters are dead or lost for the (presumably) the rest of the series even including Ivolethe. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Mar 30, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 29, 2023 19:12
|
|
|
Argue posted:Minor correction, that's the midpoint of volume 4--starting with volume 3, the kindle/audible releases have been split into multiple books for the health and sanity of poor Andrea Parsneau. So the next book is the end of volume 4, while the three books after that cover volume 5. Oh, when I say "volume" you can assume I mean the published volume number. I didn't realize there was so much left "in the hopper" as it were for the webnovel versus published stuff. I'd assumed since it was already English it would have kept up pretty closely aside from some editing that might need to get done. I kinda like the clown chapters, and it's neat to have the sudden shift for the POV from Tom to Tom. For all that Tom is real loony, I don't think he's done anything evil though. The Blighted King though, that guy's pulling major yikes. TWI: Vol 6 Edit: I feel like this emperor plotline is going in the direction of the Defense of the Two Rivers from Wheel of Time Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Mar 31, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2023 02:28
|
|
|
Wow, I didn’t expect Pirate to make the Goblin Lord… admirable in many respects. I mean obviously he is merciless in his fights against the humans and drakes. But the undead goblins that others pointed to as evidence he didn’t care about his people as mere than tools turned out to only be warriors who agreed to be raised if they die. And his ultimate goal doesn’t seem to be world conquest but to carve out a city where the goblins can live without being hunted. Not at all the BBEG he was painted as so far. I’d figured Rags was going to obviously defeat the Goblin Lord, become one herself and make a home for her people, but the current Lord seems to be performing that function and she’s being really listless. I’m not sure what her ultimate function in the story is going to be. Also the Wall Lord finally sat down in Erin’s inn and got over his grief. Erin’s power is truly terrifying. He couldn’t intimidate her, even outside her inn. Magnolia’s goals seem to be admirable but I suspect that the budding [Emperor] and “United Nations” company will will probably be the ones to pull off her lasting peace she so desires. TWI: Vol 6. This is probably my favorite book in the series so far.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2023 05:35
|
|
|
Well, I finished Vol 6 of The Wandering Inn. RIP Zel. Now that Goblin Lord (Reiss) has a name he's gotta have a degree of plot armor eh? Pirate has already set him up as a potential foil to The Necromancer, so I can see that happening. I'm a *bit* concerned that Pisces has apprenticed himself to The Necromancer though. Given his sudden spike in necromatic ability this volume. I'm sure that won't come back to bite anyone in the rear end later. I liked the lack of Ryoka this vol. Very refreshing. Edit: Hah, Two-Face Toren is great TWI: Vol 7 Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Apr 4, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2023 13:40
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 8, 2024 20:46 |
|
|
TWI: Vol 7 Having seen the Emperor of Sands now, I have to wonder how the stitch people reproduce. Do they make a cloth doll? How do they handle growing up? I don't think a child of their kind has been shown so maybe they start off with adult bodies? Also having an end of the world-like battle versus moths in the first 1/3 of the book is an odd choice. That seems like the sort of thing you lead up to in the climax. I'm still enjoying these Emperor chapters too. They've all been hits for me pretty much. The real stand out chapter in this book so far was "Mrsha, the Great and Terrible" though. One of the best in the series so far.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2023 00:28
|
|