Worm

What a crazy, crazy adventure. This is one of the most “epic” books I've ever read– and I mean epic in the literal sense of the word, not the buzzword it's become. I want Worm 2 right now. This book had a kind of scale I haven't really seen in any other kind of book. There were certain chapters... certain arcs where I went “Oh, shit, this is one of the most intense things I've ever read”. It's such an intense story. Full of emotional parts. It's on par with A Song of Ice and Fire, with the Stormlight Archive, etc–

I'm not really sure I can put into words how amazing Worm was for me. Worm is a kind of grand epic that you either drop after a few chapters or it becomes a part of your daily life. When it ended, it felt like I lost something very important.

I'm not a big fan of superhero stories. No, wait, let me rephrase that– I absolutely hate superhero stories. Especially superhero movies. They feel so generic to me, the good guy always wins, the superpowers aren't really that creative at all. The only superhero movies I've liked are the Batman movies by Nolan. Apart from that, if anything even remotely contains superheroes I'm instantly turned off.

Worm is all about superheroes. But unlike other superhero stories, it feels extremely creative. A good example is the main character: The basic idea of her power is that she can control bugs. That's it. At the start, I thought her superpower was sort of crap. But by the end, without her power really changing at all (except for her mastering it) she was legitimately powerful and terrifying. After Worm, I just groan even more when I see other Superhero comics and movies with their boring use of powers.

Worm completely avoids everything I hate about superhero literature. The actual function of powers is explored (kind of a Sanderson-esque ‘hard-magic' system that has actual rules and works consistently). The powers are properly explained, there's an internal logic, intelligent usage.

I wouldn't say it's... consistently good. There are some parts which felt off to me, including a timeskip which I thought was very poorly done, but it's still far more consistent than most books I've read. Worm is the same length as A Song of Ice and Fire but that entire time is packed with action and character development and a Brandon Sanderson-like inability to put the book down.

It might be too soon for me to say this since I'm still reeling after having finished it only about an hour ago, but I think I can safely call Worm one of my favorite ‘books' of all time, mainly because it just feels so real. One of WIldbow's greatest strengths is that you can really get into the head of each of the characters. The Interludes were some of my favorite parts of the entire story.

Malazan has its good and bad parts, ASOIAF has its... ‘dull' streaks, Wheel of Time has the famous issues with pacing, particularly around books 7-10, I could go on– My point being, Worm somehow manages to draw you in the entire time.

God, this was such an amazing experience. Such an amazing journey.