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Worth the Candle #1-9
Worth the Candle
From the age of nine, Juniper Smith began filling notebooks with his worlds, at first places of fantastical imagination, but later with each as an expression of some theme or idea that momentarily grabbed his interest. Over the course of eight years, he shared these worlds with his friends through twice-weekly sessions of tabletop gaming. Now at the age of seventeen, he finds himself in Aerb, a world that appears to be an amalgam of those many notebooks, stuck trying to find the answers to why he's there and what this world is trying to say. The most terrifying answer might be that this world is an expression of the person he was back on Earth.
Words:1654265 complete
Words:1654265 complete
5199 pages, ebook
Published August 7, 2021
143 people are currently reading
1097 people want to read
About the author
cthulhuraejepsen
11 books34 followerscthulhuraejepsen is a pseudonym of Ben Friesen. Ben is a writer and stay-at-home dad located in Duluth, MN with his wife, their son, and cat. Alexander Wales is another pseudonym of the same author.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 95 reviews
June 1, 2025
June 1, 2025. Second full read:
It boggles my plant-based starchy mind how a book can be so good and so bad at the same time.
The books I hate the most are those that had the most potential and yet had also fucked it up the most. And this book might just be the most colossal fuck up on my list so far.
Ignore the 3 stars. It means nothing in this case. Also, scroll down for my original review.
It's a book of extremes, taken to the extreme. Parts of it are among the best stuff I've read in fiction, and some parts of it are among the worst. The worst of the worst is: the author is highly analytical and highly self aware, and yet he seems to lack some critical understanding of human beings and of stories. Which, in a story all about human beings and stories, is about as ironic of joke as a joke can be.
I could probably write a book about this book, but I'll settle for the three reasons I hate this book: The sex stuff, the morality stuff, and the meta-meta stuff.
Oh, you wanted to hear about the good stuff? Then either scroll down to my original review, or go somewhere else. Sorry.
The sex stuff: It's cringe. Juniper blames his "Midwestern upbringing" for his hangups about sex and women, which extend to the world, but though the author presents this aspect of the story as a way for Juniper to deal with his issues, in truth there is no real dealing with any of it. Even worse, the author himself seems to have not grown at all since fourteen.
Juniper meets Amaryllis and Fenn. Amaryllis is reserved, cold, hyper-rational and extremely mistrusting. Fenn is emotional and cheery, but under that she is scared and traumatized. Hours after meeting, Amaryllis and Fenn start sleeping together platonically, cuddling, and do so every night in front of Juniper. It makes zero sense.
They both also undress in front of Juniper, because that's just the cultural norms on Aerb. Sure. Then all three go to a unisex public bath together. and this is all during the first few days these characters spend together, in the very beginning of the book.
A certain character is potentially asexual. She really wants to sleep with Juniper, and they are both in love with each other, but since she might not enjoy it, Juniper refuses. She is highly competent, individualistic, and intelligent, but Juniper says that if he gets more from it than she will it would mean he took advantage of her and that's morally wrong. This must be the best of all time nice guy "I respect women too much to sleep with them" moment I have ever come across. Honestly, it's a masterpiece.
Another character, who's also asexual, wants to sleep with Juniper, and the argument repeats (though this one came first, I think). Yes, I'm serious. Wales apparently liked the scene so much he wrote it twice, with two different characters.
Did I mention how all of Juniper's companions are women (or non-binary), and it's presented as a way for him to overcome his hangups, but then it's just horny weirdo stuff, without him overcoming anything?
And did I mention how all the women antagonists are traumatized and/or misunderstood and are potentially redeemable, while all the male antagonists are psychopathic, irredeemable villains? Good stuff.
I could go on. And on. And on. It's a long book, and anything remotely about to sex and gender is just pure cringe.
The morality stuff: Where to even begin? By far the most shallow aspect of the story, so laughably bad I had to force myself through. And discussions on morality happen very often in this book. Honestly, I wish Wales had just cut it all out. All of it. The book would have been so much better.
Every “good” person in this story would give up their life if it meant saving two innocent people, because two is a bigger number than one. And anyone who would do otherwise is either evil or morally confused. At one point there’s a mention of “moral calculus”, used in all seriousness. That’s just how shallow the morality of this book is. Seriously, EVERY character on the side of “good” thinks this way.
I don't even want to write about it. Wales has some very basic and very childish axioms about morality which he never questions. Not only that, but not a single character questions it. The good guys are good, and the bad guys are bad. Wales thinks the story is "morally gray" because Juniper has difficult choices to make, somehow completely missing the point that "morally gray" doesn't mean "black and white morality which is sometimes difficult to implement".
It feels exactly like reading a book by a devoutly religious person, who thinks "religious questioning" means asking "what does God want me to do?", "I followed God's commands but bad things happened. What is he trying to teach me?", but never once asks themselves if God exists and if their religion is true, because the question itself is beyond their comprehension.
It’s the same with Juniper and his childish moralizing. There is an objectively correct, unquestionably true moral answer to every moral question, which just happens to be the one Juniper grew up learning, which just happens to be what is taught by the average American Christian culture. But of course, it’s not just Juniper: this is true for the entire book as a whole, meaning it’s not an intentional character view written by Wales, but simply how Wales genuinely thinks the world works. Though he is intelligent, creative, and highly analytical to the point of attempting to dissect every corner of his own psyche, Wales seems utterly incapable of penetrating beyond surface level.
There are tons of example, at varying levels of shallowness. For a simple and straightforward example, take Zinnia: Juniper fights her, and decides to knock her out. (Then he brainwashes her, braking some of his most sacred taboos. But that’s not why I brought it up). Then he learns that keeping her alive would most likely cost him his life and the lives of his friends, but since she is physically bound, it would be morally wrong to kill her. He says the only morally correct thing to do is to give her to the authorities, who would then hopefully punish her (killing her, most likely). Had he chosen to kill her in combat it would have been fine, he says, but since he chose not to, he is no longer allowed to kill her, and even after learning the authorities will simple set her free which will, again, cost him everything. Lets go over it again, more slowly:
Juniper had a choice of killing her or knocking her out during combat, and both would have been “morally correct” – why? If he could have knock her out in combat, then choosing to kill her would have been simply murder. The whole point for why we are taught it’s okay to kill in self defense is when there is no other choice. That’s the whole point. But Juniper never asks himself that. He was taught that killing as part of combat is okay – so it’s okay. There is no nuance, no understanding whatsoever of WHY he was taught that.
And why is he not allowed to kill a subdued opponent, but if a court does it then it’s okay? We are taught this because we want a high standard when it comes to the rule of law. We want to make sure that a person is only punished when they are guilty, and when the punishment is agreed upon by the people. If a person cannot be judged by the authorities, and if released they will murder again for certain, and if under the circumstances their guilt is beyond doubt, should they still be set free? I’m not making any claims on a correct answer, but Juniper doesn’t even comprehend that there’s a question. He was taught he must not kill outside of combat, no matter what. Why was he taught that? He never asks. He was taught that unlike him, a court of law is allowed to kill a person outside of combat. Why is that okay? He never asks. All he does is follow his moral programming, all the while claiming it to be the universally and objectively correct choice.
And honestly, I wouldn’t mind it if it was just Juniper. I wouldn’t mind it at all. As long as the author was capable of comprehending the simple fact that other people can think differently without being psychopaths. Shocking, I know. But sadly, incomprehensible to Wales. And it breaks my tiny, starchy heart.
Juniper and the gang eventually start doing horrific stuff, but it’s all okay because they know they could just undo everything once Juniper is God. In the history of Aerb, the Second Empire did terrible things “for the greater good”, and it is seen as an important cautionary tale, which comes up many times in the story. Is this a lesson to Juniper, teaching him not to do the same? Nope! It’s entirely different, because unlike them, Juniper is correct and all the bad stuff he did is retroactively undone after he fucking becomes God, so it was the right call to do anything and everything he wanted as long as it kept him alive and made him powerful enough. Why all the stories about the Second Empire being evil for doing the same? Who knows! It’s just some worldbuilding. It’s not related to what Juniper is doing, because that’s how actual writers write stories, but Wales thinks they’re all fakes for giving the readers “lessons” in morality, especially when you can just do some moral calculus and know exactly what the true moral answer is to every question.
Wales doesn’t understand stories. In his story, Juniper can fix everything by becoming God, so that’s both the morally and rationally thing to do. Seriously. In those words.
The meta-meta stuff:As you probably know, this is a meta story. What you might not know, is that it’s also a meta-meta-story. In short: it’s not just a story about stories (meta-story), it is also a story about meta-stories. The first layer is great, even brilliant. The second is terrible.
The first layer is Juniper finding himself in a world made out of worlds he had created, following narratives he had written. This is a brilliant vehicle for self exploration, where Juniper (allegedly) comes to terms with the loss of his best friend, his friend group, his girlfriend, and the worlds they have all created together and played in together as teenagers. So far, this is a ten out of ten story idea, and even the execution is sometimes great.
But then there’s the other layer: Wales, as the DM, is part of the story. This story is a story even in-story. The DM implies and then confirms to Juniper that he is a character in a story, but while the world is fake, the characters are “real”. It repeats several times, both implicitly and explicitly: Wales either thinks or pretends that his characters are real. Not in the story, but from his perspective as author. He claims they are making heir own choices, which he doesn’t rewrite. He retroactively removes suffering so that unnamed characters only “pretended” to suffer, and didn’t “really” suffer. He blurs the lines not in a way that makes the reader feel like the story is real, but in a way that makes the reader feel like Wales thinks the story is real, but sometimes not, but sometimes yes. And it’s bad. He could have made it just a meta-story, and it would have been brilliant. But he couldn’t. Having read this book twice (and it’s 1.6 million words long), I feel like I know Wales a bit. And in a way that is a direct continuation and the logical end-point of his massive (yet self aware) narcissism, he can’t just write a story: he has to tell the reader that it’s a story. And he has to tell the characters that it’s a story. And he has to punish himself for putting the characters through hardships. And he has to let them take revenge on him for it. And he has to let them rapture the universe into heaven where Juniper is God so he wouldn’t feel bad for what he did to them, including retroactively changing the story as part of the story, so there wouldn’t be such terrible suffering in this fake story that is also very real because Wales is God so his characters are real people.
Juniper hates stories about people who want to go back home, because anyone who gets superpowers and hot magical girlfriends wouldn’t want to go home, so all these characters are “irrational”, unlike the “rational” Juniper. And Juniper was correct to do whatever it takes for his own sake, because he can fix it once he’s God, and so for him to learn a lesson that would make sense in the real world is “irrational”, because in the story the “rational” choice is to do what makes sense to do in a megalomaniac narcissistic fantasy, because that’s what’s real in the story.
Only nothing is real in the story, because it’s a story, and it’s not real. But for some fucking reason that’s too complicated for Alexander Wales to understand. And I’m not even trying to insult him. I honestly think the man has a critical gap regarding a basic understanding of reality.
Fuck this book.
I’ll probably read it again.
---------------------------------------------
September 2024:
More than a year after finishing the books, and this story is still with me. The flaws are still very significant, but I mostly remember the good parts. More specifically: I remember how good the good parts really were. Upgraded from 3 to 4 stars.
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May 14 2024, added full review:
This book is special, but it's so flawed I can't recommend it to most people.
It's not a 3-star book. Most aspects of it fluctuate sharply between 2 and 4 stars, with a few portions deserving of 1. I gave it 3 as an average, but that will likely mislead you about the book's true merits and faults.
I read the first two edited parts (reviews are here and here) before continuing with the original full version (read the story for free here).
Why this is a 4-star book:
It's a highly personal meta-story used as self therapy. That alone makes it worth the read, flaws and all. It's a story about a boy who lost his best friend, and was soon after transported into a world created from an unnatural mixing of the many D&D campaigns the protagonist created and played with his friends.
The world is very disjointed, and yet amazingly rich. It feels like a real world created from years of real-life D&D campaigns -- and perhaps it really was. The amount of details is almost intimidating, and the way they all fit together is an achievement worthy of note.
The characters, while not fully fleshed out as people, are all unique and interesting. The action is good, the weirdness is entertaining, and the story manages to combine the surface plot of looking for a missing person in a fantasy world with the psychological journey of the protagonist coming to terms with his best friend's death. The idea of it, at least, is perfect.
Why this is a 2-star book:
Where to begin? If you follow my reviews, you know I have an issue with self-obsessed self-insert authors who portray themselves as really smart and powerful while clearly lacking real-world experience. But unlike stories like the Kingkiller Chronicle, this one almost works. After all, it's presented as a world created by a nerdy teenage boy, and therefore the flaws are very fitting. Still, it lacks a mature author's introspection, and therefore gives off the impression that the author has experienced very little growth in real life.
The morality of the author is jarring for me, and almost made me quit the story a few times. It's distinctly Christian-culture, distinctly teen-male, and distinctly immature. It tries to present itself as complex, but the complexity is artificial. The human drama in general is often too edgy to feel realistic. The author tries to explore big moral ideas, but lacks any real understanding of human nature and psychology.
The book is long, but structurally it should have been longer. Much of the world is spoken of in passing but is never explored. There is a noticeable point in the story when the author decided to give up and speed-run to the ending, resulting in a much quicker pace and glossing over events in a way that was never done in earlier chapters. But I can't really judge the author for that. The book is very long as is, and if the author grew tired of writing it then jumping to the final arc was the better choice. The ending, flawed as it is, is satisfying and fitting to the story. Though, going back to my point about morality, the epilogue arc is as ignorant and childish as they come.
Should you read this book?
If you were never a nerdy teenage boy, you probably won't enjoy this book. Then again, if you're interested in exploring the mind of a nerdy teenage boy, this might be one of the best books for that purpose.
One of my favorite Nietzsche quotes is: "Of all that is written, I love only that which a man has written with his blood." And although this book is at times too flawed to enjoy, it was undoubtedly written with the author's blood -- and for that I will never regret reading it.
It boggles my plant-based starchy mind how a book can be so good and so bad at the same time.
The books I hate the most are those that had the most potential and yet had also fucked it up the most. And this book might just be the most colossal fuck up on my list so far.
Ignore the 3 stars. It means nothing in this case. Also, scroll down for my original review.
It's a book of extremes, taken to the extreme. Parts of it are among the best stuff I've read in fiction, and some parts of it are among the worst. The worst of the worst is: the author is highly analytical and highly self aware, and yet he seems to lack some critical understanding of human beings and of stories. Which, in a story all about human beings and stories, is about as ironic of joke as a joke can be.
I could probably write a book about this book, but I'll settle for the three reasons I hate this book: The sex stuff, the morality stuff, and the meta-meta stuff.
Oh, you wanted to hear about the good stuff? Then either scroll down to my original review, or go somewhere else. Sorry.
The sex stuff: It's cringe. Juniper blames his "Midwestern upbringing" for his hangups about sex and women, which extend to the world, but though the author presents this aspect of the story as a way for Juniper to deal with his issues, in truth there is no real dealing with any of it. Even worse, the author himself seems to have not grown at all since fourteen.
Juniper meets Amaryllis and Fenn. Amaryllis is reserved, cold, hyper-rational and extremely mistrusting. Fenn is emotional and cheery, but under that she is scared and traumatized. Hours after meeting, Amaryllis and Fenn start sleeping together platonically, cuddling, and do so every night in front of Juniper. It makes zero sense.
They both also undress in front of Juniper, because that's just the cultural norms on Aerb. Sure. Then all three go to a unisex public bath together. and this is all during the first few days these characters spend together, in the very beginning of the book.
A certain character is potentially asexual. She really wants to sleep with Juniper, and they are both in love with each other, but since she might not enjoy it, Juniper refuses. She is highly competent, individualistic, and intelligent, but Juniper says that if he gets more from it than she will it would mean he took advantage of her and that's morally wrong. This must be the best of all time nice guy "I respect women too much to sleep with them" moment I have ever come across. Honestly, it's a masterpiece.
Another character, who's also asexual, wants to sleep with Juniper, and the argument repeats (though this one came first, I think). Yes, I'm serious. Wales apparently liked the scene so much he wrote it twice, with two different characters.
Did I mention how all of Juniper's companions are women (or non-binary), and it's presented as a way for him to overcome his hangups, but then it's just horny weirdo stuff, without him overcoming anything?
And did I mention how all the women antagonists are traumatized and/or misunderstood and are potentially redeemable, while all the male antagonists are psychopathic, irredeemable villains? Good stuff.
I could go on. And on. And on. It's a long book, and anything remotely about to sex and gender is just pure cringe.
The morality stuff: Where to even begin? By far the most shallow aspect of the story, so laughably bad I had to force myself through. And discussions on morality happen very often in this book. Honestly, I wish Wales had just cut it all out. All of it. The book would have been so much better.
Every “good” person in this story would give up their life if it meant saving two innocent people, because two is a bigger number than one. And anyone who would do otherwise is either evil or morally confused. At one point there’s a mention of “moral calculus”, used in all seriousness. That’s just how shallow the morality of this book is. Seriously, EVERY character on the side of “good” thinks this way.
I don't even want to write about it. Wales has some very basic and very childish axioms about morality which he never questions. Not only that, but not a single character questions it. The good guys are good, and the bad guys are bad. Wales thinks the story is "morally gray" because Juniper has difficult choices to make, somehow completely missing the point that "morally gray" doesn't mean "black and white morality which is sometimes difficult to implement".
It feels exactly like reading a book by a devoutly religious person, who thinks "religious questioning" means asking "what does God want me to do?", "I followed God's commands but bad things happened. What is he trying to teach me?", but never once asks themselves if God exists and if their religion is true, because the question itself is beyond their comprehension.
It’s the same with Juniper and his childish moralizing. There is an objectively correct, unquestionably true moral answer to every moral question, which just happens to be the one Juniper grew up learning, which just happens to be what is taught by the average American Christian culture. But of course, it’s not just Juniper: this is true for the entire book as a whole, meaning it’s not an intentional character view written by Wales, but simply how Wales genuinely thinks the world works. Though he is intelligent, creative, and highly analytical to the point of attempting to dissect every corner of his own psyche, Wales seems utterly incapable of penetrating beyond surface level.
There are tons of example, at varying levels of shallowness. For a simple and straightforward example, take Zinnia: Juniper fights her, and decides to knock her out. (Then he brainwashes her, braking some of his most sacred taboos. But that’s not why I brought it up). Then he learns that keeping her alive would most likely cost him his life and the lives of his friends, but since she is physically bound, it would be morally wrong to kill her. He says the only morally correct thing to do is to give her to the authorities, who would then hopefully punish her (killing her, most likely). Had he chosen to kill her in combat it would have been fine, he says, but since he chose not to, he is no longer allowed to kill her, and even after learning the authorities will simple set her free which will, again, cost him everything. Lets go over it again, more slowly:
Juniper had a choice of killing her or knocking her out during combat, and both would have been “morally correct” – why? If he could have knock her out in combat, then choosing to kill her would have been simply murder. The whole point for why we are taught it’s okay to kill in self defense is when there is no other choice. That’s the whole point. But Juniper never asks himself that. He was taught that killing as part of combat is okay – so it’s okay. There is no nuance, no understanding whatsoever of WHY he was taught that.
And why is he not allowed to kill a subdued opponent, but if a court does it then it’s okay? We are taught this because we want a high standard when it comes to the rule of law. We want to make sure that a person is only punished when they are guilty, and when the punishment is agreed upon by the people. If a person cannot be judged by the authorities, and if released they will murder again for certain, and if under the circumstances their guilt is beyond doubt, should they still be set free? I’m not making any claims on a correct answer, but Juniper doesn’t even comprehend that there’s a question. He was taught he must not kill outside of combat, no matter what. Why was he taught that? He never asks. He was taught that unlike him, a court of law is allowed to kill a person outside of combat. Why is that okay? He never asks. All he does is follow his moral programming, all the while claiming it to be the universally and objectively correct choice.
And honestly, I wouldn’t mind it if it was just Juniper. I wouldn’t mind it at all. As long as the author was capable of comprehending the simple fact that other people can think differently without being psychopaths. Shocking, I know. But sadly, incomprehensible to Wales. And it breaks my tiny, starchy heart.
Juniper and the gang eventually start doing horrific stuff, but it’s all okay because they know they could just undo everything once Juniper is God. In the history of Aerb, the Second Empire did terrible things “for the greater good”, and it is seen as an important cautionary tale, which comes up many times in the story. Is this a lesson to Juniper, teaching him not to do the same? Nope! It’s entirely different, because unlike them, Juniper is correct and all the bad stuff he did is retroactively undone after he fucking becomes God, so it was the right call to do anything and everything he wanted as long as it kept him alive and made him powerful enough. Why all the stories about the Second Empire being evil for doing the same? Who knows! It’s just some worldbuilding. It’s not related to what Juniper is doing, because that’s how actual writers write stories, but Wales thinks they’re all fakes for giving the readers “lessons” in morality, especially when you can just do some moral calculus and know exactly what the true moral answer is to every question.
Wales doesn’t understand stories. In his story, Juniper can fix everything by becoming God, so that’s both the morally and rationally thing to do. Seriously. In those words.
The meta-meta stuff:As you probably know, this is a meta story. What you might not know, is that it’s also a meta-meta-story. In short: it’s not just a story about stories (meta-story), it is also a story about meta-stories. The first layer is great, even brilliant. The second is terrible.
The first layer is Juniper finding himself in a world made out of worlds he had created, following narratives he had written. This is a brilliant vehicle for self exploration, where Juniper (allegedly) comes to terms with the loss of his best friend, his friend group, his girlfriend, and the worlds they have all created together and played in together as teenagers. So far, this is a ten out of ten story idea, and even the execution is sometimes great.
But then there’s the other layer: Wales, as the DM, is part of the story. This story is a story even in-story. The DM implies and then confirms to Juniper that he is a character in a story, but while the world is fake, the characters are “real”. It repeats several times, both implicitly and explicitly: Wales either thinks or pretends that his characters are real. Not in the story, but from his perspective as author. He claims they are making heir own choices, which he doesn’t rewrite. He retroactively removes suffering so that unnamed characters only “pretended” to suffer, and didn’t “really” suffer. He blurs the lines not in a way that makes the reader feel like the story is real, but in a way that makes the reader feel like Wales thinks the story is real, but sometimes not, but sometimes yes. And it’s bad. He could have made it just a meta-story, and it would have been brilliant. But he couldn’t. Having read this book twice (and it’s 1.6 million words long), I feel like I know Wales a bit. And in a way that is a direct continuation and the logical end-point of his massive (yet self aware) narcissism, he can’t just write a story: he has to tell the reader that it’s a story. And he has to tell the characters that it’s a story. And he has to punish himself for putting the characters through hardships. And he has to let them take revenge on him for it. And he has to let them rapture the universe into heaven where Juniper is God so he wouldn’t feel bad for what he did to them, including retroactively changing the story as part of the story, so there wouldn’t be such terrible suffering in this fake story that is also very real because Wales is God so his characters are real people.
Juniper hates stories about people who want to go back home, because anyone who gets superpowers and hot magical girlfriends wouldn’t want to go home, so all these characters are “irrational”, unlike the “rational” Juniper. And Juniper was correct to do whatever it takes for his own sake, because he can fix it once he’s God, and so for him to learn a lesson that would make sense in the real world is “irrational”, because in the story the “rational” choice is to do what makes sense to do in a megalomaniac narcissistic fantasy, because that’s what’s real in the story.
Only nothing is real in the story, because it’s a story, and it’s not real. But for some fucking reason that’s too complicated for Alexander Wales to understand. And I’m not even trying to insult him. I honestly think the man has a critical gap regarding a basic understanding of reality.
Fuck this book.
I’ll probably read it again.
---------------------------------------------
September 2024:
More than a year after finishing the books, and this story is still with me. The flaws are still very significant, but I mostly remember the good parts. More specifically: I remember how good the good parts really were. Upgraded from 3 to 4 stars.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
May 14 2024, added full review:
This book is special, but it's so flawed I can't recommend it to most people.
It's not a 3-star book. Most aspects of it fluctuate sharply between 2 and 4 stars, with a few portions deserving of 1. I gave it 3 as an average, but that will likely mislead you about the book's true merits and faults.
I read the first two edited parts (reviews are here and here) before continuing with the original full version (read the story for free here).
Why this is a 4-star book:
It's a highly personal meta-story used as self therapy. That alone makes it worth the read, flaws and all. It's a story about a boy who lost his best friend, and was soon after transported into a world created from an unnatural mixing of the many D&D campaigns the protagonist created and played with his friends.
The world is very disjointed, and yet amazingly rich. It feels like a real world created from years of real-life D&D campaigns -- and perhaps it really was. The amount of details is almost intimidating, and the way they all fit together is an achievement worthy of note.
The characters, while not fully fleshed out as people, are all unique and interesting. The action is good, the weirdness is entertaining, and the story manages to combine the surface plot of looking for a missing person in a fantasy world with the psychological journey of the protagonist coming to terms with his best friend's death. The idea of it, at least, is perfect.
Why this is a 2-star book:
Where to begin? If you follow my reviews, you know I have an issue with self-obsessed self-insert authors who portray themselves as really smart and powerful while clearly lacking real-world experience. But unlike stories like the Kingkiller Chronicle, this one almost works. After all, it's presented as a world created by a nerdy teenage boy, and therefore the flaws are very fitting. Still, it lacks a mature author's introspection, and therefore gives off the impression that the author has experienced very little growth in real life.
The morality of the author is jarring for me, and almost made me quit the story a few times. It's distinctly Christian-culture, distinctly teen-male, and distinctly immature. It tries to present itself as complex, but the complexity is artificial. The human drama in general is often too edgy to feel realistic. The author tries to explore big moral ideas, but lacks any real understanding of human nature and psychology.
The book is long, but structurally it should have been longer. Much of the world is spoken of in passing but is never explored. There is a noticeable point in the story when the author decided to give up and speed-run to the ending, resulting in a much quicker pace and glossing over events in a way that was never done in earlier chapters. But I can't really judge the author for that. The book is very long as is, and if the author grew tired of writing it then jumping to the final arc was the better choice. The ending, flawed as it is, is satisfying and fitting to the story. Though, going back to my point about morality, the epilogue arc is as ignorant and childish as they come.
Should you read this book?
If you were never a nerdy teenage boy, you probably won't enjoy this book. Then again, if you're interested in exploring the mind of a nerdy teenage boy, this might be one of the best books for that purpose.
One of my favorite Nietzsche quotes is: "Of all that is written, I love only that which a man has written with his blood." And although this book is at times too flawed to enjoy, it was undoubtedly written with the author's blood -- and for that I will never regret reading it.
May 3, 2018
This was my third webfic series, after HPMOR and MoL. I would rank it above HPMOR but below MoL.
Worth the Candle reads very much like a self-insert male fantasy. It was definitely not written for me.
I enjoyed aspects of the plot, and I was entertained reading it but I don't think this is a good series and a lot of it bothered me.
Its worst offense is that Juniper is not a well written character. He truly lacks a sense of wonder or excitement, or even fear being thrust into this new world. He keeps his composure to a fault, such that it feels unrealistic. There is a difference between being an analytical person and having little/no emotional response to anything, even the death of a companion.
Juniper is not a likable character. He reads like a horny teenage boy who is full of excuses for everything. I suspect that if you were once a teenage boy you might not be bothered by this as much as I was. He is constantly making excuses for himself, his actions don't align with what he says, he never feels an ounce of remorse or self deprecation for anything. I don't mind characters who are flawed, but I hate characters who are flawed but think they're awesome and are portrayed by the author as awesome, and of course they're the chosen one with awesome powers and everyone loves them and everything they do works out for them in the end without consequence.
Speaking of that, I kept hoping that the harem plot would be inverted or something, anything to happen to redeem it. First of all, it took WAY too long for Juniper to realize what was going on, and that was super annoying. But honestly why was this a thing at all? It was incredibly cringeworthy seeing Juniper collect women who all fell in love with him and went out of their way to get naked in front of him/ express their sexual availability to him. This should not have been in the book period, especially given that there has been no significant trope payoff this far in.
Also I hate zombies. Yeah this book really wasn't for me.
All that said, I did enjoy a lot of it and I made it through this far so that says a lot! I mostly enjoyed the mystery surrounding Juniper's circumstance and unveiling secrets in this world. I also enjoyed theorizing about Arthur's role. WtC can be pretty hilarious at times - I loved little things like the fact that the gold mage was named Aumann - and of course Drak and Fenn are gold mines.
So I guess I can see why people would like it, especially if they can relate to Juniper in some way. But if you're anything like me, it's probably best to stay away.
EDIT: The author is incredibly prolific, and many (>20) chapters have come out since the writing of this review, and I want to address it. I definitely spoke too soon when I wrote this. My biggest complaint was that I didn't like Juniper, but Juniper's character really does develop in time and he's a much more likable character now. I started noticing a shift around the time he meets the DM; he positively surprised me in that chapter. More importantly, I can understand why the character's trajectory was written this way, and I couldn't see it before because I wrongly assumed that it had already reached the end.
I'm going to continue reading this series because I'm enjoying it a lot, even though maybe not everything was written for me. I want to point out the fact that I kept reading it despite my initially negative feelings towards Juniper is proof that there is a lot to value in WtC for anyone who is a fan of the genre. Bumping up to 4 stars.
Worth the Candle reads very much like a self-insert male fantasy. It was definitely not written for me.
I enjoyed aspects of the plot, and I was entertained reading it but I don't think this is a good series and a lot of it bothered me.
Its worst offense is that Juniper is not a well written character. He truly lacks a sense of wonder or excitement, or even fear being thrust into this new world. He keeps his composure to a fault, such that it feels unrealistic. There is a difference between being an analytical person and having little/no emotional response to anything, even the death of a companion.
Juniper is not a likable character. He reads like a horny teenage boy who is full of excuses for everything. I suspect that if you were once a teenage boy you might not be bothered by this as much as I was. He is constantly making excuses for himself, his actions don't align with what he says, he never feels an ounce of remorse or self deprecation for anything. I don't mind characters who are flawed, but I hate characters who are flawed but think they're awesome and are portrayed by the author as awesome, and of course they're the chosen one with awesome powers and everyone loves them and everything they do works out for them in the end without consequence.
Speaking of that, I kept hoping that the harem plot would be inverted or something, anything to happen to redeem it. First of all, it took WAY too long for Juniper to realize what was going on, and that was super annoying. But honestly why was this a thing at all? It was incredibly cringeworthy seeing Juniper collect women who all fell in love with him and went out of their way to get naked in front of him/ express their sexual availability to him. This should not have been in the book period, especially given that there has been no significant trope payoff this far in.
Also I hate zombies. Yeah this book really wasn't for me.
All that said, I did enjoy a lot of it and I made it through this far so that says a lot! I mostly enjoyed the mystery surrounding Juniper's circumstance and unveiling secrets in this world. I also enjoyed theorizing about Arthur's role. WtC can be pretty hilarious at times - I loved little things like the fact that the gold mage was named Aumann - and of course Drak and Fenn are gold mines.
So I guess I can see why people would like it, especially if they can relate to Juniper in some way. But if you're anything like me, it's probably best to stay away.
EDIT: The author is incredibly prolific, and many (>20) chapters have come out since the writing of this review, and I want to address it. I definitely spoke too soon when I wrote this. My biggest complaint was that I didn't like Juniper, but Juniper's character really does develop in time and he's a much more likable character now. I started noticing a shift around the time he meets the DM; he positively surprised me in that chapter. More importantly, I can understand why the character's trajectory was written this way, and I couldn't see it before because I wrongly assumed that it had already reached the end.
I'm going to continue reading this series because I'm enjoying it a lot, even though maybe not everything was written for me. I want to point out the fact that I kept reading it despite my initially negative feelings towards Juniper is proof that there is a lot to value in WtC for anyone who is a fan of the genre. Bumping up to 4 stars.
January 9, 2019
A slow, slow grind; as I write this, the author is closing in on chapter 150, and we may not be even halfway through the plot. Still, I've seen enough to justify five stars.
The prose is strong throughout, and the characters feel like people, but the book's real strengths are:
* A world where people take extinction-level threats very seriously. Perhaps the best example I've ever seen of this essential characteristic of rationalfic. A world where the laws of physics can be broken is a world where many new forms of disaster become possible, and in Worth the Candle, many of those have happened already. Nations have been subsumed by dark magic, or beings too powerful to fight, or cracks in reality so dangerous they need to be kept apart from the rest of the world. And those parts of the world that have survived now devote enormous effort to preventing this from happening ever again. This is extremely satisfying to read about.
* Extraordinary worldbuilding. The story takes place in a fantasy world which is (I think) larger and more populous than Earth, with hundreds of years of history, and it feels that way. There are dozens of races; a score of schools of magic; countless competing powers, all planning and plotting at the same time. Juniper, for all his gamebreaking abilities, is far from the strongest force in the story. Despite his achievements, he is still a single piece on a gigantic chessboard, and you really feel as though he could be crushed at any moment. This is what it is to be an individual in a world of billions, to be the hero of one story in a world with a million stories.
* A character who becomes more intelligent and charismatic over time, chapter by chapter, and whose behavior and thoughts match this transformation. The author convincingly portrays what it might look like to go from INT 12 to INT 18, one point at a time, and I'm not sure I've ever seen that before. Too many stories show someone growing stronger with no change in personality, or a change that can be described as briefly as "more courage" or "more empathy". Juniper grows stronger in many ways, and his personality also shifts in many ways.
Worth the Candle is the absolute pinnacle of the "getting stuck in an RPG" genre. If you've ever rolled a 20-sided die, you owe it to yourself to read the first few chapters.
The prose is strong throughout, and the characters feel like people, but the book's real strengths are:
* A world where people take extinction-level threats very seriously. Perhaps the best example I've ever seen of this essential characteristic of rationalfic. A world where the laws of physics can be broken is a world where many new forms of disaster become possible, and in Worth the Candle, many of those have happened already. Nations have been subsumed by dark magic, or beings too powerful to fight, or cracks in reality so dangerous they need to be kept apart from the rest of the world. And those parts of the world that have survived now devote enormous effort to preventing this from happening ever again. This is extremely satisfying to read about.
* Extraordinary worldbuilding. The story takes place in a fantasy world which is (I think) larger and more populous than Earth, with hundreds of years of history, and it feels that way. There are dozens of races; a score of schools of magic; countless competing powers, all planning and plotting at the same time. Juniper, for all his gamebreaking abilities, is far from the strongest force in the story. Despite his achievements, he is still a single piece on a gigantic chessboard, and you really feel as though he could be crushed at any moment. This is what it is to be an individual in a world of billions, to be the hero of one story in a world with a million stories.
* A character who becomes more intelligent and charismatic over time, chapter by chapter, and whose behavior and thoughts match this transformation. The author convincingly portrays what it might look like to go from INT 12 to INT 18, one point at a time, and I'm not sure I've ever seen that before. Too many stories show someone growing stronger with no change in personality, or a change that can be described as briefly as "more courage" or "more empathy". Juniper grows stronger in many ways, and his personality also shifts in many ways.
Worth the Candle is the absolute pinnacle of the "getting stuck in an RPG" genre. If you've ever rolled a 20-sided die, you owe it to yourself to read the first few chapters.
July 23, 2021
My rating of this massive webserial is weighted mostly by the thirty or so last chapters (of 246), which reflect my span of reading after picking up the serial where I'd abandoned it a few months ago. I started reading again on hearing that it was finally finished, though my expectations at that point were lowered -- I'd stopped reading because I felt like the serial had entered a rut.
This is a hard book to summarise, because there is so much metafictional commentary within its pages -- indeed, the entire purpose of the story, including its main arc, is metafictional -- that attempting to talk about the work risks either repeating a conversation from within the book or contradicting the author's own explanations. The simple way to frame it is that a tabletop RPG designer gets trapped in a videogame version of all the games and settings he's ever imagined. The main character is, of course, the author, and the entire project is a sort of public therapy.
The best parts were the concepts. The settings, species, items, magic systems were often inventive and surprising, and the author thought through their applications in impressive detail. The kludge-like nature of the metaworld was an excellent excuse for getting too bogged down, but there were great exposition sequences (yes, I enjoyed exposition!) where the consequences of minor details were extrapolated out at length. Much of the book reflects on worldbuilding, the philosophy, the pitfalls, and so on, but it gets to do that with authority because the author actually demonstrates that he can do it well.
The elements that dragged for me were, firstly, the later levels. I tend to lose interest in RPGs once a certain character power level has been passed, because gigantic piles of resources make a lot of challenges less interesting, and the sorts of problems that slow characters down tend to become, well, boring. I think this happened around the time of the zombie pirate captain (don't ask), and the author recognised it part-way through and skipped many of the obstacles he'd been preparing. Secondly, the more overtly therapeutic sections were a bit tiring. If you've ever talked to an intelligent depressed person you may recognise some of that in these sections -- there's an impressive ability to analyse and verbalise their problems, that nonetheless does nothing to stop them repeating their dysfunctional behaviour, and in fact might be part of it: endless conversations about emotion and the symbolic significance of this or that action, numerous frames taken in and then later discarded. It's not quite as bad as in real life, because you don't need to care about the author/protagonist's mental state in the same way, but it can still be exhausting to tread this territory with someone, and I'm dubious about its therapeutic value (to either readers or the author).
There were other blemishes -- sections that didn't really establish themselves well enough, companions that just weren't that interesting -- but given the sheer volume of the work the rate of hits was admirable. I enjoyed the references, the snide game-layer commentary, and even parts of the author's wrestling with questions about sex were overall worthwhile for their honesty. It's a big hot mess of a book that could probably be edited, but the raw nature is part of its charm.
This is a hard book to summarise, because there is so much metafictional commentary within its pages -- indeed, the entire purpose of the story, including its main arc, is metafictional -- that attempting to talk about the work risks either repeating a conversation from within the book or contradicting the author's own explanations. The simple way to frame it is that a tabletop RPG designer gets trapped in a videogame version of all the games and settings he's ever imagined. The main character is, of course, the author, and the entire project is a sort of public therapy.
The best parts were the concepts. The settings, species, items, magic systems were often inventive and surprising, and the author thought through their applications in impressive detail. The kludge-like nature of the metaworld was an excellent excuse for getting too bogged down, but there were great exposition sequences (yes, I enjoyed exposition!) where the consequences of minor details were extrapolated out at length. Much of the book reflects on worldbuilding, the philosophy, the pitfalls, and so on, but it gets to do that with authority because the author actually demonstrates that he can do it well.
The elements that dragged for me were, firstly, the later levels. I tend to lose interest in RPGs once a certain character power level has been passed, because gigantic piles of resources make a lot of challenges less interesting, and the sorts of problems that slow characters down tend to become, well, boring. I think this happened around the time of the zombie pirate captain (don't ask), and the author recognised it part-way through and skipped many of the obstacles he'd been preparing. Secondly, the more overtly therapeutic sections were a bit tiring. If you've ever talked to an intelligent depressed person you may recognise some of that in these sections -- there's an impressive ability to analyse and verbalise their problems, that nonetheless does nothing to stop them repeating their dysfunctional behaviour, and in fact might be part of it: endless conversations about emotion and the symbolic significance of this or that action, numerous frames taken in and then later discarded. It's not quite as bad as in real life, because you don't need to care about the author/protagonist's mental state in the same way, but it can still be exhausting to tread this territory with someone, and I'm dubious about its therapeutic value (to either readers or the author).
There were other blemishes -- sections that didn't really establish themselves well enough, companions that just weren't that interesting -- but given the sheer volume of the work the rate of hits was admirable. I enjoyed the references, the snide game-layer commentary, and even parts of the author's wrestling with questions about sex were overall worthwhile for their honesty. It's a big hot mess of a book that could probably be edited, but the raw nature is part of its charm.
May 15, 2018
Definitely the most self indulgent story I've read in a long while. If you too enjoy modern fantasy, video game systems in real life, overly detailed worlds and hyper rational characters then you will enjoy this book.
Writing is pretty tight and enjoyable, characters are likeable enough and it legitimately made me laugh out several times which is always a good sign.
Writing is pretty tight and enjoyable, characters are likeable enough and it legitimately made me laugh out several times which is always a good sign.
July 12, 2018
While I'm a sucker for "suddenly in a game" stories, I dislike most, because they're typically really bad. This one isn't. It gets meta (well, not fast, but it does), and addresses most things you'll point out as ridiculous in the beginning. Still ongoing, and very good.
March 20, 2023
I think there's a good chance you'll either love this or hate it, and other reviews seem to support that claim. The trouble is, it won't necessarily be obvious which it is before you're ~30% of the way through, and WtC is megafiction. For the first couple books, it's mostly an unusually well-written LitRPG (a genre in which The Battle for Gobwin Knob is still king, IMO), and doesn't do much more than foreshadow and set the stage (with some excellent worldbuilding, it must be said) for its true nature, which is two-pronged.
First, it is the most meta metafiction that ever meta'd. The protagonist is aware that he is the protagonist in a story, insofar as he knows the world he's been isekai'd to was created by a godlike DM who set up a bunch of plot points for him and then left him to do as he will (both the protag and the DM are author insert-ish). So far, that's not especially unusual for a LitRPG, but this is the second time the DM has done such a thing. The first time, the protagonist's friend (previously believed to be dead) was isekai'd to the same world, centuries past, and starred in a series of traditional hero's journeys. This second iteration is instead focused on postmodern deconstruction of the hero's journey (explicitly so - there are scenes in which the characters discuss the postmodern nature of the story they're in and try to use narrative analysis to guess at the DM's intentions). Common tropes are subverted - e.g., there's a harem setup, but the protagonist knows it was arranged for him by the DM and is uncomfortable with the whole thing. The protagonist becomes OP, but finds that many of the problems he has to deal with can't be solved with overwhelming firepower. The story sometimes doesn't do what would normally be expected - the arc just before the ending is infamously rushed and unsatisfying, and I'm not clear on whether that was the author using postdmodernism as an excuse or whether it was the plan all along (but I'm personally of the opinion that it was fitting either way).
Second, Wales wrote WtC as therapy, and holy fuck, it goes to some dark and uncomfortable places, which I thought were handled maturely. Notable themes include suicide, sexual consent and rape, and dealing with a growing awareness that one was previously a cringey asshole.
January 29, 2021
Just finish book 1 of this series, and the major thing I don't like is the main protagonist is a passive protagonist. The plots are the one that pushed him throughout the story. The reason Rational Fiction genre books fast becoming my favorite genre because it's has an active protagonist.
July 20, 2021
'Worth the Candle' has been recently completed, it's an incredible achievement of nearly 6000 pages written over the course of years by a talented author with a masterful command of imagery, tension and narrative.
A work which you should absolutely not read under nearly any circumstances.
Have you gotten hooked by the mystery and energy of the blurb and first arc? Stop. Now.
Put it down and just forget it exists.
Have you already trundled on and met the diverse and mostly well characterized ensemble cast?
Save yourself and just close your eyes right now, imagine an ending, or imagine a whole array of potential endings. Savor them, enjoy them, and move on with your life without ever looking at another page of this... collection of words purporting itself to be a story.
Have you ventured further and persevered through the wallowing in philosophy, meta narrative navel gazing and introspection?
Turn back now, or abandon all hope all ye who enter here.
Appreciate the skill that's enticed you along so far, bid a fond farewell to the world of aerb and all it's secrets and spectacles.
Really, this is the best it will ever be.
Yes it's incomplete and unsatisfying currently but you will find none of that ahead.
If, sadly, you have already continued deeper in to the darkness, and started to experience the slash and burn of sweeping narrative strokes that wholesale invalidate your emotional investment in the setting, characters, and their progress.
S.T.O.P.
Don't rely on the trust and goodwill the author has built up to this point and assume he will pull off some masterful stroke of genius that justifies the increasingly haphazard and unnecessary slash and burn of what has been accumulated and built so far. It never happens, it's never justified, it really is just arbitrary.
Wherever you are, however invested you feel, in fact MORE SO the more deeply you are emotionally invested. DO NOT CONTINUE.
Even if you imagine the very worst most deus ex machina / it was all a dream ending you can possibly come up with, it will still be better than the authors stab at it.
If you haven't started this.... journey, Don't.
The more you care about it the more important it is that you don't walk in to the authors deliberate, malicious, slash and burn and direct invalidation of everything they lured in to you investing your time, attention and emotion into... that escalates more and more as the story winds down but climaxes in the most direct, and spiteful repudiation of their own narrative I have ever witnessed.
Do not read this collection of text.
A work which you should absolutely not read under nearly any circumstances.
Have you gotten hooked by the mystery and energy of the blurb and first arc? Stop. Now.
Put it down and just forget it exists.
Have you already trundled on and met the diverse and mostly well characterized ensemble cast?
Save yourself and just close your eyes right now, imagine an ending, or imagine a whole array of potential endings. Savor them, enjoy them, and move on with your life without ever looking at another page of this... collection of words purporting itself to be a story.
Have you ventured further and persevered through the wallowing in philosophy, meta narrative navel gazing and introspection?
Turn back now, or abandon all hope all ye who enter here.
Appreciate the skill that's enticed you along so far, bid a fond farewell to the world of aerb and all it's secrets and spectacles.
Really, this is the best it will ever be.
Yes it's incomplete and unsatisfying currently but you will find none of that ahead.
If, sadly, you have already continued deeper in to the darkness, and started to experience the slash and burn of sweeping narrative strokes that wholesale invalidate your emotional investment in the setting, characters, and their progress.
S.T.O.P.
Don't rely on the trust and goodwill the author has built up to this point and assume he will pull off some masterful stroke of genius that justifies the increasingly haphazard and unnecessary slash and burn of what has been accumulated and built so far. It never happens, it's never justified, it really is just arbitrary.
Wherever you are, however invested you feel, in fact MORE SO the more deeply you are emotionally invested. DO NOT CONTINUE.
Even if you imagine the very worst most deus ex machina / it was all a dream ending you can possibly come up with, it will still be better than the authors stab at it.
If you haven't started this.... journey, Don't.
The more you care about it the more important it is that you don't walk in to the authors deliberate, malicious, slash and burn and direct invalidation of everything they lured in to you investing your time, attention and emotion into... that escalates more and more as the story winds down but climaxes in the most direct, and spiteful repudiation of their own narrative I have ever witnessed.
Do not read this collection of text.
May 23, 2022
This book starts out as a LitRPG (a genre I'd never heard of), in which the main character, Joon, is suddenly transported from his life on Earth to some hybrid of a video game and a tabletop RPG. He levels up and gains experience points by engaging in real fights where he risks his life. Injuries, from sprained ankles to lost limbs, are healed when he levels up or can be healed earlier by magic items. He also has a harem of companions marked by the game interface, who show varying levels of romantic desire for him. I said the book starts as a LitRPG. That doesn't really change, but by the end the focus is much more on how the characters respond to being part of an obvious narrative and what they think the nature of their reality is.
I thought LitRPG as a genre caused a lot of problems for the story. As the characters point out when discussing the narrative, in many ways they're in more of a tabletop RPG narrative than a book narrative. For example, overpowered game mechanics can be suddenly excluded going forward by an act of god (or an act of DM). The problem is that tabletop narratives are what they are because they're fun to play, whereas fiction narratives are fun to read. The exclusion mechanic sounds like a decent way to play-test a rules system, where the players get to have some fun with their broken combo, then figure out how to move on without it. It's less fun to read about, since you get the downsides of Deus ex machina without the fun of being part of the story. Similarly, fiction is often satisfying when it holds up a mirror to real life. Worth the Candle often holds up a mirror to games instead, and "wow that sounds just like a real game" isn't as exciting as "that sounds just like real life", given that I don't get the fun of actually playing the game.
The meta aspect of the story works out better for me, and manages to turn some of the downsides I've just finished complaining into interesting subjects of discussion. It does get pretty repetitive, though .
I would say the strong points of the book are the character development and the page-turney-ness. It's easy to get wrapped up in since something exciting is always happening, and the fights are good illustrations of smart people using the book's many magic systems. The characters start off fairly one-dimensional, but I enjoyed them a lot more starting about a third of the way or so into the book.
I thought LitRPG as a genre caused a lot of problems for the story. As the characters point out when discussing the narrative, in many ways they're in more of a tabletop RPG narrative than a book narrative. For example, overpowered game mechanics can be suddenly excluded going forward by an act of god (or an act of DM). The problem is that tabletop narratives are what they are because they're fun to play, whereas fiction narratives are fun to read. The exclusion mechanic sounds like a decent way to play-test a rules system, where the players get to have some fun with their broken combo, then figure out how to move on without it. It's less fun to read about, since you get the downsides of Deus ex machina without the fun of being part of the story. Similarly, fiction is often satisfying when it holds up a mirror to real life. Worth the Candle often holds up a mirror to games instead, and "wow that sounds just like a real game" isn't as exciting as "that sounds just like real life", given that I don't get the fun of actually playing the game.
The meta aspect of the story works out better for me, and manages to turn some of the downsides I've just finished complaining into interesting subjects of discussion. It does get pretty repetitive, though .
I would say the strong points of the book are the character development and the page-turney-ness. It's easy to get wrapped up in since something exciting is always happening, and the fights are good illustrations of smart people using the book's many magic systems. The characters start off fairly one-dimensional, but I enjoyed them a lot more starting about a third of the way or so into the book.
December 15, 2021
Writing reviews can be quite difficult. I serve three masters: the friend or stranger looking up this review on GoodReads to see if they should read this massive book; the googler who finds this entry on my blog because they want to read more about this great book that they've just finished; and future me, who wants to remember and keep track of some of the better books that present/past me reads.
So, in the spirit of the metafictional story Worth the Candle, I'll take each of these in order.
Alexander Wales' epic is both the greatest Isekai novel and the greatest LitRPG novel I have ever read. Juniper is rudely transported in media res from school to a strange world of magic and soft fantasy in the opening lines, and his subsequent adventures in the plane of Aerb plays out like a tabletop role-playing game, complete with HP, skills, and leveling up. Juniper is young, but has a passing understanding of rational-adjacent tropes, mostly because his childhood friend was a fan of learning about rationality online (as much as a teenager could). This means that the narrator, Juniper, is able to talk lightly about rationality using rationality language, even when it's clear that it's just a teenage-level understanding of the tropes. This results in a highly exciting adventure with believably flawed characters who try to do their best in the situation they find themselves in. The novel works at the level of the action, at the level of the narration, and at the metafictional level of the author, Alexander Wales, who writes in such a way that we get to see glimpses of what seem to be highly creative nonfictional elements behind the structure of the text.
Worth the Candle is long — very long — but if you're comfortable with reading a sprawling epic that weaves LitRPG with Isekai with metafiction all in the genre of Rational Fiction, then I highly recommend that you read this book.
However, despite my five star rating, I do have several complaints about the book. (It would be hard not to, given its epic length.) What follows from here are spoilers, so if you haven't read Worth the Candle yet, go do that first.
Jesus Christ, Wales. I don't know how much of the text came from working out your personal issues, but Gods damn I hope it helped to write through this story. It's unclear just how much the Dungeon Master in the story should be identified with Wales the author (do you really have a Dice Girls shirt?), but, to the extent that this is played straight, I honestly hope writing this book has been therapeutic.
I get that everyone has their own sex hangups. Maybe it's difficult for me to relate because I'm asexual, but the way that the DM kept pushing things made me feel uncomfortable. Yet this is on purpose; canonically, the author himself seems to be uncomfortable with his own desires of what to put on paper here, which makes for an extremely interesting expression of cognitive dissonance that we can see enacted diegetically.
What I liked most (and what I think the author himself may have liked most) was the setting. Aerb is such a mismatch of all kinds of weird rpg tropes, but it honestly feels like everything ties together well. We read about dangled threads early on which, when later explored, appear to fit in the world properly. Not seamlessly, of course, but that's on purpose: Aerb itself is not seamless, which is itself a plot point. I am disappointed that more of the threads weren't explored, but I wonder if here, too, that is intended: that these aspects only get fleshed out if the text needs them to be, yet ensures that they retain continuity with the whole nevertheless. This says something important, I think, about the ending: that Juniper will not actually get to go on. The life breathed into Juniper's existence, in the end, only happens when we (Thargox?) read it. This is not what the DM claims. It's unclear to me if the intended reading by the author is that the DM is honest here, or if we are supposed to notice that point of view does really matter. (I think it's the latter, but there's additional evidence of the former: the multiple Dahlia copies that we never see, the offscreen fleshsmith fight, and the timeskip post-Fel Seed all point to the diegetic characters experiencing events not in the POV.)
The ending feels rushed. A four year work like this must be hard on the author; I'm sure burnout was a real threat. But when so many threads started getting dropped, I at first blamed the author. Later, I saw that it was partially justified in-story, but even later that started to feel like lampshading to me. Yes, it made sense to skip things, and there were plot-relevant reasons for doing so, but also this is a fig leaf, created so that the author could rush through parts that (IMO) did not deserve to be rushed through.
If I were Wales' editor, there are several parts I would point out as needing additional attention. Some are minor, like both devil Fenn and Grakhuil keeping an arrow displayed in their home. Why the unnecessary callback here? It seems like it is because the weaker version occurred first, then the author decided not to stray from using the stronger version later since it made sense that that's what Fenn would do. If so, then this is a pure drawback of writing serial fiction, and should ideally be fixed. And some issues are major, like deviating from established point of view rules for no good reason. The vast majority of the story is told from Juniper's POV, even to the point where the author himself laments from not being able to write from Larkspur's POV, making him a weaker villain. When we occasionally do get the POV of non-Juniper characters, it always seems to be in the form of a letter than Juniper reads, or a narrator's explicit retelling from after the fact. And yet, at one point, we start to see several scenes (and chapters) from someone other than Juniper, and it's never explained why. Did the author forget? Was it a mistake that wasn't fixed because the author is committed to serial writing? Or perhaps was this another piece of evidence aimed at showing the ending would be as the DM claimed it would be?
I enjoyed the story immensely, even if I did think the harem concept was cringey. I think the author thinks it is cringey, too, which is why I think I'm okay with it. I really liked the exploration of unexpected rape; it felt real to the characters, even if it meant that Bethel got relegated to the background where we couldn't see her progress as much as I would have liked. But most of all I enjoyed the weird combination of explained and unexplained that caused me to tag this book on GoodReads as both hard fantasy and soft fantasy. Alexander Wales is an awesome worldbuilder, just like the DM, even more than he is an awesome narrator, just like the diegetic narrator. Now if only he were willing to write non-serially so we could get some of these amazing texts edited!
So, in the spirit of the metafictional story Worth the Candle, I'll take each of these in order.
Alexander Wales' epic is both the greatest Isekai novel and the greatest LitRPG novel I have ever read. Juniper is rudely transported in media res from school to a strange world of magic and soft fantasy in the opening lines, and his subsequent adventures in the plane of Aerb plays out like a tabletop role-playing game, complete with HP, skills, and leveling up. Juniper is young, but has a passing understanding of rational-adjacent tropes, mostly because his childhood friend was a fan of learning about rationality online (as much as a teenager could). This means that the narrator, Juniper, is able to talk lightly about rationality using rationality language, even when it's clear that it's just a teenage-level understanding of the tropes. This results in a highly exciting adventure with believably flawed characters who try to do their best in the situation they find themselves in. The novel works at the level of the action, at the level of the narration, and at the metafictional level of the author, Alexander Wales, who writes in such a way that we get to see glimpses of what seem to be highly creative nonfictional elements behind the structure of the text.
Worth the Candle is long — very long — but if you're comfortable with reading a sprawling epic that weaves LitRPG with Isekai with metafiction all in the genre of Rational Fiction, then I highly recommend that you read this book.
However, despite my five star rating, I do have several complaints about the book. (It would be hard not to, given its epic length.) What follows from here are spoilers, so if you haven't read Worth the Candle yet, go do that first.
Jesus Christ, Wales. I don't know how much of the text came from working out your personal issues, but Gods damn I hope it helped to write through this story. It's unclear just how much the Dungeon Master in the story should be identified with Wales the author (do you really have a Dice Girls shirt?), but, to the extent that this is played straight, I honestly hope writing this book has been therapeutic.
I get that everyone has their own sex hangups. Maybe it's difficult for me to relate because I'm asexual, but the way that the DM kept pushing things made me feel uncomfortable. Yet this is on purpose; canonically, the author himself seems to be uncomfortable with his own desires of what to put on paper here, which makes for an extremely interesting expression of cognitive dissonance that we can see enacted diegetically.
What I liked most (and what I think the author himself may have liked most) was the setting. Aerb is such a mismatch of all kinds of weird rpg tropes, but it honestly feels like everything ties together well. We read about dangled threads early on which, when later explored, appear to fit in the world properly. Not seamlessly, of course, but that's on purpose: Aerb itself is not seamless, which is itself a plot point. I am disappointed that more of the threads weren't explored, but I wonder if here, too, that is intended: that these aspects only get fleshed out if the text needs them to be, yet ensures that they retain continuity with the whole nevertheless. This says something important, I think, about the ending: that Juniper will not actually get to go on. The life breathed into Juniper's existence, in the end, only happens when we (Thargox?) read it. This is not what the DM claims. It's unclear to me if the intended reading by the author is that the DM is honest here, or if we are supposed to notice that point of view does really matter. (I think it's the latter, but there's additional evidence of the former: the multiple Dahlia copies that we never see, the offscreen fleshsmith fight, and the timeskip post-Fel Seed all point to the diegetic characters experiencing events not in the POV.)
The ending feels rushed. A four year work like this must be hard on the author; I'm sure burnout was a real threat. But when so many threads started getting dropped, I at first blamed the author. Later, I saw that it was partially justified in-story, but even later that started to feel like lampshading to me. Yes, it made sense to skip things, and there were plot-relevant reasons for doing so, but also this is a fig leaf, created so that the author could rush through parts that (IMO) did not deserve to be rushed through.
If I were Wales' editor, there are several parts I would point out as needing additional attention. Some are minor, like both devil Fenn and Grakhuil keeping an arrow displayed in their home. Why the unnecessary callback here? It seems like it is because the weaker version occurred first, then the author decided not to stray from using the stronger version later since it made sense that that's what Fenn would do. If so, then this is a pure drawback of writing serial fiction, and should ideally be fixed. And some issues are major, like deviating from established point of view rules for no good reason. The vast majority of the story is told from Juniper's POV, even to the point where the author himself laments from not being able to write from Larkspur's POV, making him a weaker villain. When we occasionally do get the POV of non-Juniper characters, it always seems to be in the form of a letter than Juniper reads, or a narrator's explicit retelling from after the fact. And yet, at one point, we start to see several scenes (and chapters) from someone other than Juniper, and it's never explained why. Did the author forget? Was it a mistake that wasn't fixed because the author is committed to serial writing? Or perhaps was this another piece of evidence aimed at showing the ending would be as the DM claimed it would be?
I enjoyed the story immensely, even if I did think the harem concept was cringey. I think the author thinks it is cringey, too, which is why I think I'm okay with it. I really liked the exploration of unexpected rape; it felt real to the characters, even if it meant that Bethel got relegated to the background where we couldn't see her progress as much as I would have liked. But most of all I enjoyed the weird combination of explained and unexplained that caused me to tag this book on GoodReads as both hard fantasy and soft fantasy. Alexander Wales is an awesome worldbuilder, just like the DM, even more than he is an awesome narrator, just like the diegetic narrator. Now if only he were willing to write non-serially so we could get some of these amazing texts edited!
January 18, 2025
9/9/22 to 1/17/25
this is the first ever book I've read for my first ever book club. and after two and a half years, we've finished it! and what a LONG read.
I've learned that this story falls under the genre of rational fiction. i have consequently realized, that rational fiction might not be for me. i totally understand that however, i think that it made for a lackluster story because it required a godlike, hyper-competent, and aggressively logical main character and a world tailor-made to accommodate his heroics. it never felt like there were any true stakes because juniper always felt powerful enough to overcome them. i don't even want to touch the depiction of asexuality and the heteronormative relationships with a ten-foot pole.
but still, worth reading if only for the friends made along the way (and valencia the red)!
this is the first ever book I've read for my first ever book club. and after two and a half years, we've finished it! and what a LONG read.
I've learned that this story falls under the genre of rational fiction. i have consequently realized, that rational fiction might not be for me. i totally understand that however, i think that it made for a lackluster story because it required a godlike, hyper-competent, and aggressively logical main character and a world tailor-made to accommodate his heroics. it never felt like there were any true stakes because juniper always felt powerful enough to overcome them. i don't even want to touch the depiction of asexuality and the heteronormative relationships with a ten-foot pole.
but still, worth reading if only for the friends made along the way (and valencia the red)!
December 22, 2021
This is getting close to finished so I will post this review and update later.
I'm really enjoying this WIP, which someone on Reddit described as "literary RPG", and that is accurate. The premise is the main character, a young man named Juniper, finds himself in the world of an RPG game that he created with/for his friends. He has to complete quests, meeting avatars of old friends and finding new comrades to team up with. Along the way he learns about himself, his past, and the present that he's living. It's very well written and the relationships are interesting. the world building is familiar in the use of gamer tropes, but still seems fresh.
ETA:
So, I am going to stop following this as a WIP and will finish it up when complete. I don't like it as much after 200,000 words. There is a certain amount of sexist character building that I can't deal with. A male reader might not notice, but as a mature/experienced woman of color, there are some conventions that I can't read with enjoyment. The POV character is too disparate from my core beliefs and experience for me to like him. So, I don't have sympathy for his trials
I'm really enjoying this WIP, which someone on Reddit described as "literary RPG", and that is accurate. The premise is the main character, a young man named Juniper, finds himself in the world of an RPG game that he created with/for his friends. He has to complete quests, meeting avatars of old friends and finding new comrades to team up with. Along the way he learns about himself, his past, and the present that he's living. It's very well written and the relationships are interesting. the world building is familiar in the use of gamer tropes, but still seems fresh.
ETA:
So, I am going to stop following this as a WIP and will finish it up when complete. I don't like it as much after 200,000 words. There is a certain amount of sexist character building that I can't deal with. A male reader might not notice, but as a mature/experienced woman of color, there are some conventions that I can't read with enjoyment. The POV character is too disparate from my core beliefs and experience for me to like him. So, I don't have sympathy for his trials
December 14, 2023
It's so not worth the candle! The MC, for those who care, has no agency whatsoever. Things constantly just happen around him, and nothing is his decision. He literally finds a girl on his first day, who takes command over the story. He doesn't even decide how to level his character in a litrpg ?!!?! Also. the MC is constantly doubting himself, talking about his lost friend(s) on Earth, and describing the current world like it's a DnD game, which constantly breaks immersion. The world is stupid, the system is boring, and the story is about a low IQ idiot hanging around people, learning skills with no more than 5 minutes of effort, and constantly having plot armor to carry him around. Like most of the readers, in fact. That's why they like it. Idiocracy is real, and it's already upon us :>
February 23, 2018
Through chapter ~75. Great rational LITRPG read
July 22, 2021
Inspired me to run my own campaign! Extremely coherent world and characters.
August 31, 2019
Plot is fine but reads like a self insert edgy power fantasy. You can really feel the self insert when it comes to how horny the teenage main character is.
June 10, 2023
4,5
Whew. That was long! I feel kinda empty, knowing it’s over and I won’t have it waiting there for me to return to to continue reading.
There are certain characters who I have become a bit attached to or at least find so interesting that I will miss reading about them. Amaryllis is the major one here, but the Locus and Grak are also examples.
Ravens epilogue almost brought tears to my eyes.
For how long it was, it always managed to stay interesting. I do think it was maybe a bit too long. But at the same time I couldn’t really say what should be left out because it all has some form of reason for being there and everything does make the story richer in some way or another. But there was never really a point to „come up for air“ in the sense that the different quests etc. always flowed into each other and overlapped without any distinct seam to really separate them.
The epilogues definitely stretched out a bit too long tho in my opinion. I liked it when heaven was a bit more obscure in how it functioned.
I do have to say, the character of Juniper came close to feeling like a real person in a way that I haven’t experienced with any kind of protagonist before. There are obviously a few things that I wouldn’t recognise as realistic, e.g. how Juniper and the others can become/be so self-reflective or self-aware about so many things in so short time frames or how they talk about profound feelings in such a coherent manner and to people they haven’t even known for very long and sometimes don’t even like! But this didn’t take away from the immersion too significantly and was often still super interesting, content wise.
Lastly: Freaking awesome concept of why and how Aerb exists!!! Also surprisingly coherent, smooth and comfortable explanation for being so abstract!
All in all a very interesting and creative story!
Whew. That was long! I feel kinda empty, knowing it’s over and I won’t have it waiting there for me to return to to continue reading.
There are certain characters who I have become a bit attached to or at least find so interesting that I will miss reading about them. Amaryllis is the major one here, but the Locus and Grak are also examples.
Ravens epilogue almost brought tears to my eyes.
For how long it was, it always managed to stay interesting. I do think it was maybe a bit too long. But at the same time I couldn’t really say what should be left out because it all has some form of reason for being there and everything does make the story richer in some way or another. But there was never really a point to „come up for air“ in the sense that the different quests etc. always flowed into each other and overlapped without any distinct seam to really separate them.
The epilogues definitely stretched out a bit too long tho in my opinion. I liked it when heaven was a bit more obscure in how it functioned.
I do have to say, the character of Juniper came close to feeling like a real person in a way that I haven’t experienced with any kind of protagonist before. There are obviously a few things that I wouldn’t recognise as realistic, e.g. how Juniper and the others can become/be so self-reflective or self-aware about so many things in so short time frames or how they talk about profound feelings in such a coherent manner and to people they haven’t even known for very long and sometimes don’t even like! But this didn’t take away from the immersion too significantly and was often still super interesting, content wise.
Lastly: Freaking awesome concept of why and how Aerb exists!!! Also surprisingly coherent, smooth and comfortable explanation for being so abstract!
All in all a very interesting and creative story!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 1, 2023
Damn, did I really spend 18 months reading this book? I'm feeling dizzy now... Well, anyway, that was a good ride. Not great, sadly, which is probably because of some unnecessary arcs (from my perspective) or longer than needed arcs (again, in my view) or arcs where the pace slacked (again, y'know). That might have or might have not had anything to do with the author's focus on self-[REDACTED] which might have been difficult to reconcile with how the reader perceives the narrative. But scrap it, let's get to the good parts!
Worldbuilding. It is simply great, I can only emit huge amounts of praise for it. It's inventive, smart, and inspiring — in case you want to create your own fictional universes.
Characters. They are alive and relatable. There is just the right amount of drama happening, there is enough self-reflection in the main troupe, there are moments of humble self-irony (both on the characters' side and the author's).
Levels of meta. It's tasty. The [REDACTED] — I haven't seen it coming, I'll give you that.
All in all, if the book were half as long, I would have given it 5 stars for sure. But with all the rhythm unevenness, especially in the second half of the book... I really had several moments when I almost dropped it. I'm still glad I managed to finish it. In the end, that was Worth the Candle.
(Really, a great name for a book.)
Worldbuilding. It is simply great, I can only emit huge amounts of praise for it. It's inventive, smart, and inspiring — in case you want to create your own fictional universes.
Characters. They are alive and relatable. There is just the right amount of drama happening, there is enough self-reflection in the main troupe, there are moments of humble self-irony (both on the characters' side and the author's).
Levels of meta. It's tasty. The [REDACTED] — I haven't seen it coming, I'll give you that.
All in all, if the book were half as long, I would have given it 5 stars for sure. But with all the rhythm unevenness, especially in the second half of the book... I really had several moments when I almost dropped it. I'm still glad I managed to finish it. In the end, that was Worth the Candle.
(Really, a great name for a book.)
February 8, 2022
This is something I never would have picked up on my own volition, LitRPG of about 6000 pages. But I did it anyway upon a recommendation of a person I generally trust and, although at times sorely tempted, never put it down to the very end. The book that long requires a lengthy review, but I am lazy and it would of necessity involve spoilers. I’ll be as brief as possible. The author is way above the usual fantasy level, he is thoroughly professional, mature, and sophisticated. The main characters, while still teenagers, are very well educated, they discuss philosophy and morality on the level unusual for their age and the genre. What’s more, they are intensely psychological, they wear their teenage traumas on a sleeve and constantly discuss them - often engagingly, sometimes tiresomely. The world-building is a veritable storm which is of course a necessity in such a long book, but even that did not strike me most - what did is the author’s ability to create people for whom the reader ends up caring. As a teaser: their mission is to save the world, and in a way they do it in the end. And if you wonder what Hell and Heaven are like, it is all here, very realistic. On the tedious side were constant excursions into the D&D nitty-gritty, well above my job description, but I read those cursorily. It isn’t often that the characters of high fantasy discuss postmodernism and mention Deleuze - these ones do. Come to think of it, the entire thing is sort of Matrix on steroids, although with the opposite vector. And yes, they do mention Matrix. Few things amaze me at my age, but this one did.
Currently reading
June 30, 2020When I started this back in May I had no idea how important it would become. For the last month its been a refuge, waiting for me at the end of the day. Knowing that there isn't another chapter written and ready for me to click on helps bring home how incredible this work has been. I'm super grateful to you for making this available. Book nine has been fun so far, my working name concept is currently the exlusion arc, but I have no idea what the step past Cpt. Blue will be.
November 14, 2025
I gave 5 stars because I 'was obsessed' reading it and this book lasted MONTHS (or a month?) for me to finish so it best have been good for me to spend all that time.
Ok here's the truth this book (series?) Is a giant giant tome, I finished a months ago but its so long I have been intimidated to even try to write a review. But as per usual lately I have enlisted ChatGPT to help me and we will form some sort of hodge podge review of opinions and summary.
Quick initial thoughts
- This book is Long, long, so long. I recommend to "avid readers only"
- Havent read anything like this before, I dont know anything about D&D except its kindof role-play-y and about dungeons and dragons, presumable.
- Liked how you are always wondering whats going to happen, at some point (fairly early on) it becomes clear Juniper is just giving up on 'Earth' as a... reality? Or rather option to go back. Its clear he's full-on invested in Aerb and only wants to stay and live in Aerb and do the stuff there. This creates some nice back ground tension as 'he could just wake up at any moment' and end his fantasy life to which he is extremely invested in.
- There were a lot of times a lot of peopel were really leacture-y (esp Amaryllis.) and Juniper was like.. annoying in some way its hard for me to describe. Like 'Saint-y' almost or like... idk on his high horse. Lots of "I acknowledge that I have not been thinking about you and your feelings and its something I'm trying to do better at now and be a better person" like him going on and on like this at length to people. Idk. Like thinking he's so great and moral because he's working on himself
-I liked the ending and also the epilogues i went and read tied it up nicely actually. Without the epilogues I wouldnt have liked the ending as much idk?
Thoughts / Impressions – Worth the Candle
-Reading this was fun but also exhausting — intriguing, felt like bingeing a long season with tons of episodes.
-Characters: honestly, I didn’t really like anyone hahaha.
Juniper: annoying in a specific way — constantly patting himself on the back for personal growth but still missing obvious needs of everyone around him.
Amaryllis: boring, over-analytical, almost personality-less.
Fenn: too playful, over the top.
Everyone felt “too everything,” which honestly made it frustrating at times.
-Meta / narrative stuff: HATED it. Too much talking about “The Narrative. THE NARRATIVE” — every second. Overkill.
-Worldbuilding: loved it. So creative, so many adventures, creatures, places, and magic systems.
-Pacing: most arcs were interesting! Dark world, lots of heavy stuff.
-Emotional impact: intrigued by Juniper’s assault by his house/a girl — rare to see male characters experience this and see the emotional aftermath; felt like a fresh perspective.
-Ending: satisfying and as good as it could be. Godhood / ascension made the plot feel “real” in-universe, even if abstract.
-Recommendation: yes, for readers ready to commit to a long story, something different and immersive.
Time for the massive massive plot sumary fo rmy records- ChatGPT, GO! (NOTE rest of review may have full spoilers so stop reading here if you want.) Chat GPT will talk [and I will write my own comments about what it said in brackets. ]
________________
Plot Summary:
From an early age, Juniper Smith filled notebooks with world-building: fantastical settings, rules, magic, campaigns played with friends. These notebooks evolve into tabletop gaming campaigns.
[World buildling and making up these complex worlds and systems seems to be something he's talented at, but also appears to be possibly the only thing he's talented at. ]
At age seventeen, Juniper is transported (or finds himself) in the world of Aerb — a setting that feels like the merged results of all his previous creative campaigns and notebooks. [A world he made up in his D&D games he narrated. He 'wakes up' falling from a plane and then has to fight zombies but all around his vision is basically a game interface/ stats ] . He must navigate this world, figure out why he’s there, how it works, and what role he plays in it. The world of Aerb is huge: many races, deep history, layered magic systems, zones of exclusion [zones where its the only place on the planet a type of magic can be practiced], hidden meta-narrative layers (the idea that the world has been influenced by storytellers, by campaigns, by game-masters).
Juniper finds allies: among them Amaryrllis Penndraig (a princessly figure connected to one of his old campaign characters), Fenn (an elf companion), Grak (a dwarf), and more. His friend from Earth, Arthur, is thought dead but may be involved. [ So right before all this Junipers best friend Arthur was killed in a car crash. Juniper went through a huge bought of depression and suicide attempst and basically pushed away all his friends and at the time girlfriend Tiff, did other 'rude stuff' like sleeping with his friends 'kid' sister even though she was 14? or whatever old enough to consent with a 17yo/knew where she stood. In this story there is evidence Arthur went here after 'Earth' and his quest is basiclaly to find Arthur/he's trying to find his best friend who he thought dead after a car accident, but its clear he 'grew up here' /became an old man with family and stuff and was 'like Juniper' / had a game interface probably and was stronger than everyone multi-mage multi talented able to just 'learn to use weapons/stuff by touching them without formal teaching' etc. But as Juniper meets more people it becomes clear ARthur was sometimes a D-bag, or rather, human. He took advantage of people or things, esp this 'sentient' house that he ignored its wishes and kindof forced hismelf on (sexually) after getting it to appear like Junipers exgf Tiff who Arthur alos had a crush on haha weird. ]
Major arcs include:
Juniper escaping a dangerous exclusion zone filled with zombie-like creatures (early in the story)
Meeting a princess Amaryllis Penndraig ['his hottest fantasy looking girl ever] and teaming upwith her. They escape to a next town on a soul-powered cycle. In the sewers its found that ] Mary (Amaryrllis) has the “Rat Rot” disease and needs a cure. [They are seperated. Juniper meets with a 'gang' plus contracted Fenn, and he and Fenn defeat the gang who were going to kill them and get to Amaryllis at the top of a building where she was getting a teleporation key. They then make a plan to go to this Penndraig family cache ] of magical items in a desert region ['walking' to avoid magic detecting 'Veloceraptor dog lke things. but at the Cache, Mary gets kidnapped by ] ,a rich man [ HAHAAH to ChatGPTs description although I also forgot his name now, 'the Gold Mage'] . Then they have to get back and rescue her from him. They meet Grak the dwarf in this attempt. Whole book there is weird back story/tension about Grak being genderless and liking Juniper but not reciprocated bc J pictures him as a guy.
Soul damage: Juniper harms his own “soul” in metaphysical ways and must recover from this [drains magic from his own ribs, has to find a way to fix the damage. The fix is become a soul mage- and edit his own.. internal stats i guess. They do this by rescuing this crazy ancient bad Elf guy from 'Alkatraz' like prison where he's taken over everyone and re written tehm to clones of himself. In getting him out they also get out this non-anima basically 'devil puppet body' girl but with glitches via Juniper she becomes able to instead control the devils/demons that used to posses her and she just kills them in the hells at her liesure. This is valencia. ]
A college for special people like Juniper -“Main Characters” in the narrative sense- who are central to the world’s story structure [ LMAO what Vague summary is this!? I guess referring to Juniper trying to go to an athanaum, He goes to 'sound and silence' to learn vibration magic but bla bla altercations peopel get trapped in the basement during a grad ritual thing... then this giant magical being comes Juniper has to defeat- a giant Kaiju type thing, Mome Rath.]
[Oh. Pretty big deal but we skipped over how Juniper and Fenn were in a romantic relation ship but then she died. ]
Meta-narrative revelation: Juniper and friends understand that the world is shaped by narrative systems, by “game master” forces, by what one might call the author/God-figure. The characters struggle with being in “the story” and what that means.
Further arcs: freeing Arthur, battling existential threats, eventually Juniper ascends to godhood (or near-it) and remakes reality. [Also Arthur is kindof a jerk at the end when they find him, he's super over it. Juniper has to explain to him why he was rude to his sentient house/ liek slave-owner-y inapporpriate w/her not to mention the sexual relations with her. Ugh this summary skipped so much stuff, so at the end the biggest 'boss' they have to fight is Fell seed , this weird 'rapey' horrible world Juinper made up after Arthur died and I guess ehs just trying to disturb everyone? Well they go and lose and he ends up in hell, but then Fenn is down there and Amaryllis and co/Valencia have a plot to 'escape them' from the hells. They get out, I guess defeat Fell seed but i forgot how . They go find ARthur in these corridors (the entrance of which is in fell seeds domain) and as they go on and on magic starts disappearing/ more characters cant continue until its justJuniper and Arthur- they find him in there frozen in his own bubble but hes kindof a jerk. He wants to go to Earth so Juniper walks him to the end then goes back to Aerb and becomes a God/the one in charge of the world and he tries his best to basically make it a fantasy/ what everyone in it would want/they can choose what levesl they want to live in/what amount of 'magic' they want to do stuff for them. He even makes clones of himself or has clones so each one can be with Fenn, Amarylis, or the 'game master' one and he can play games against himself. And everyone has families who wants. ]
By the end of many books, Juniper emerges not just as a “player” in Aerb but as a pivotal figure in reshaping the world. The story blends high fantasy action (magical battles, macro-threats) with deeply introspective personal arcs (his emotional baggage from Earth, his old friendships, loss, identity). Reviews describe it as “a story of how a storyteller tells a story” and characters increasingly aware of narrative mechanics.
Some Key Themes & Features
The “RPG/world-you-built becomes real” trope: notebooks → campaigns → living world.
Meta commentary on narrative: characters evaluate their place in the story, question the “Dungeon Master,” question fate vs. free will.
Emotional baggage: Juniper is not just gaining power; he carries loss (Arthur), mental health issues, and a lot of introspection about self, story, and purpose.
Massive worldbuilding: countless races, magic systems, planes, zones of exclusion, historical backstory.
Variable pacing and tone: some readers find the middle slows, with long introspection and meta-discussion.
Reddit
The protagonist moves from “kid in new world” to “powerful figure reshaping world,” while still wrestling with his old self.
Ok here's the truth this book (series?) Is a giant giant tome, I finished a months ago but its so long I have been intimidated to even try to write a review. But as per usual lately I have enlisted ChatGPT to help me and we will form some sort of hodge podge review of opinions and summary.
Quick initial thoughts
- This book is Long, long, so long. I recommend to "avid readers only"
- Havent read anything like this before, I dont know anything about D&D except its kindof role-play-y and about dungeons and dragons, presumable.
- Liked how you are always wondering whats going to happen, at some point (fairly early on) it becomes clear Juniper is just giving up on 'Earth' as a... reality? Or rather option to go back. Its clear he's full-on invested in Aerb and only wants to stay and live in Aerb and do the stuff there. This creates some nice back ground tension as 'he could just wake up at any moment' and end his fantasy life to which he is extremely invested in.
- There were a lot of times a lot of peopel were really leacture-y (esp Amaryllis.) and Juniper was like.. annoying in some way its hard for me to describe. Like 'Saint-y' almost or like... idk on his high horse. Lots of "I acknowledge that I have not been thinking about you and your feelings and its something I'm trying to do better at now and be a better person" like him going on and on like this at length to people. Idk. Like thinking he's so great and moral because he's working on himself
-I liked the ending and also the epilogues i went and read tied it up nicely actually. Without the epilogues I wouldnt have liked the ending as much idk?
Thoughts / Impressions – Worth the Candle
-Reading this was fun but also exhausting — intriguing, felt like bingeing a long season with tons of episodes.
-Characters: honestly, I didn’t really like anyone hahaha.
Juniper: annoying in a specific way — constantly patting himself on the back for personal growth but still missing obvious needs of everyone around him.
Amaryllis: boring, over-analytical, almost personality-less.
Fenn: too playful, over the top.
Everyone felt “too everything,” which honestly made it frustrating at times.
-Meta / narrative stuff: HATED it. Too much talking about “The Narrative. THE NARRATIVE” — every second. Overkill.
-Worldbuilding: loved it. So creative, so many adventures, creatures, places, and magic systems.
-Pacing: most arcs were interesting! Dark world, lots of heavy stuff.
-Emotional impact: intrigued by Juniper’s assault by his house/a girl — rare to see male characters experience this and see the emotional aftermath; felt like a fresh perspective.
-Ending: satisfying and as good as it could be. Godhood / ascension made the plot feel “real” in-universe, even if abstract.
-Recommendation: yes, for readers ready to commit to a long story, something different and immersive.
Time for the massive massive plot sumary fo rmy records- ChatGPT, GO! (NOTE rest of review may have full spoilers so stop reading here if you want.) Chat GPT will talk [and I will write my own comments about what it said in brackets. ]
________________
Plot Summary:
From an early age, Juniper Smith filled notebooks with world-building: fantastical settings, rules, magic, campaigns played with friends. These notebooks evolve into tabletop gaming campaigns.
[World buildling and making up these complex worlds and systems seems to be something he's talented at, but also appears to be possibly the only thing he's talented at. ]
At age seventeen, Juniper is transported (or finds himself) in the world of Aerb — a setting that feels like the merged results of all his previous creative campaigns and notebooks. [A world he made up in his D&D games he narrated. He 'wakes up' falling from a plane and then has to fight zombies but all around his vision is basically a game interface/ stats ] . He must navigate this world, figure out why he’s there, how it works, and what role he plays in it. The world of Aerb is huge: many races, deep history, layered magic systems, zones of exclusion [zones where its the only place on the planet a type of magic can be practiced], hidden meta-narrative layers (the idea that the world has been influenced by storytellers, by campaigns, by game-masters).
Juniper finds allies: among them Amaryrllis Penndraig (a princessly figure connected to one of his old campaign characters), Fenn (an elf companion), Grak (a dwarf), and more. His friend from Earth, Arthur, is thought dead but may be involved. [ So right before all this Junipers best friend Arthur was killed in a car crash. Juniper went through a huge bought of depression and suicide attempst and basically pushed away all his friends and at the time girlfriend Tiff, did other 'rude stuff' like sleeping with his friends 'kid' sister even though she was 14? or whatever old enough to consent with a 17yo/knew where she stood. In this story there is evidence Arthur went here after 'Earth' and his quest is basiclaly to find Arthur/he's trying to find his best friend who he thought dead after a car accident, but its clear he 'grew up here' /became an old man with family and stuff and was 'like Juniper' / had a game interface probably and was stronger than everyone multi-mage multi talented able to just 'learn to use weapons/stuff by touching them without formal teaching' etc. But as Juniper meets more people it becomes clear ARthur was sometimes a D-bag, or rather, human. He took advantage of people or things, esp this 'sentient' house that he ignored its wishes and kindof forced hismelf on (sexually) after getting it to appear like Junipers exgf Tiff who Arthur alos had a crush on haha weird. ]
Major arcs include:
Juniper escaping a dangerous exclusion zone filled with zombie-like creatures (early in the story)
Meeting a princess Amaryllis Penndraig ['his hottest fantasy looking girl ever] and teaming upwith her. They escape to a next town on a soul-powered cycle. In the sewers its found that ] Mary (Amaryrllis) has the “Rat Rot” disease and needs a cure. [They are seperated. Juniper meets with a 'gang' plus contracted Fenn, and he and Fenn defeat the gang who were going to kill them and get to Amaryllis at the top of a building where she was getting a teleporation key. They then make a plan to go to this Penndraig family cache ] of magical items in a desert region ['walking' to avoid magic detecting 'Veloceraptor dog lke things. but at the Cache, Mary gets kidnapped by ] ,a rich man [ HAHAAH to ChatGPTs description although I also forgot his name now, 'the Gold Mage'] . Then they have to get back and rescue her from him. They meet Grak the dwarf in this attempt. Whole book there is weird back story/tension about Grak being genderless and liking Juniper but not reciprocated bc J pictures him as a guy.
Soul damage: Juniper harms his own “soul” in metaphysical ways and must recover from this [drains magic from his own ribs, has to find a way to fix the damage. The fix is become a soul mage- and edit his own.. internal stats i guess. They do this by rescuing this crazy ancient bad Elf guy from 'Alkatraz' like prison where he's taken over everyone and re written tehm to clones of himself. In getting him out they also get out this non-anima basically 'devil puppet body' girl but with glitches via Juniper she becomes able to instead control the devils/demons that used to posses her and she just kills them in the hells at her liesure. This is valencia. ]
A college for special people like Juniper -“Main Characters” in the narrative sense- who are central to the world’s story structure [ LMAO what Vague summary is this!? I guess referring to Juniper trying to go to an athanaum, He goes to 'sound and silence' to learn vibration magic but bla bla altercations peopel get trapped in the basement during a grad ritual thing... then this giant magical being comes Juniper has to defeat- a giant Kaiju type thing, Mome Rath.]
[Oh. Pretty big deal but we skipped over how Juniper and Fenn were in a romantic relation ship but then she died. ]
Meta-narrative revelation: Juniper and friends understand that the world is shaped by narrative systems, by “game master” forces, by what one might call the author/God-figure. The characters struggle with being in “the story” and what that means.
Further arcs: freeing Arthur, battling existential threats, eventually Juniper ascends to godhood (or near-it) and remakes reality. [Also Arthur is kindof a jerk at the end when they find him, he's super over it. Juniper has to explain to him why he was rude to his sentient house/ liek slave-owner-y inapporpriate w/her not to mention the sexual relations with her. Ugh this summary skipped so much stuff, so at the end the biggest 'boss' they have to fight is Fell seed , this weird 'rapey' horrible world Juinper made up after Arthur died and I guess ehs just trying to disturb everyone? Well they go and lose and he ends up in hell, but then Fenn is down there and Amaryllis and co/Valencia have a plot to 'escape them' from the hells. They get out, I guess defeat Fell seed but i forgot how . They go find ARthur in these corridors (the entrance of which is in fell seeds domain) and as they go on and on magic starts disappearing/ more characters cant continue until its justJuniper and Arthur- they find him in there frozen in his own bubble but hes kindof a jerk. He wants to go to Earth so Juniper walks him to the end then goes back to Aerb and becomes a God/the one in charge of the world and he tries his best to basically make it a fantasy/ what everyone in it would want/they can choose what levesl they want to live in/what amount of 'magic' they want to do stuff for them. He even makes clones of himself or has clones so each one can be with Fenn, Amarylis, or the 'game master' one and he can play games against himself. And everyone has families who wants. ]
By the end of many books, Juniper emerges not just as a “player” in Aerb but as a pivotal figure in reshaping the world. The story blends high fantasy action (magical battles, macro-threats) with deeply introspective personal arcs (his emotional baggage from Earth, his old friendships, loss, identity). Reviews describe it as “a story of how a storyteller tells a story” and characters increasingly aware of narrative mechanics.
Some Key Themes & Features
The “RPG/world-you-built becomes real” trope: notebooks → campaigns → living world.
Meta commentary on narrative: characters evaluate their place in the story, question the “Dungeon Master,” question fate vs. free will.
Emotional baggage: Juniper is not just gaining power; he carries loss (Arthur), mental health issues, and a lot of introspection about self, story, and purpose.
Massive worldbuilding: countless races, magic systems, planes, zones of exclusion, historical backstory.
Variable pacing and tone: some readers find the middle slows, with long introspection and meta-discussion.
The protagonist moves from “kid in new world” to “powerful figure reshaping world,” while still wrestling with his old self.
September 9, 2021
When you want to write a novel but you also want to write the literary analysis, but you also want to write an rpg and do a deep dive into the mechanics and a meta-analysis of every single role playing system, so do a passable job of all of them rather than a good one of one.
December 14, 2020
Okay, I did not exactly finish this one - in my defence, it's not finished by the author either. But I am going to write a review and have some closure, because I am not sure if I'll be returning to it in the nearest future. It's already 2.5 of Stormlight Archive books long - and let's be honest, it's far from being that good.
Don't get me wrong, I liked it. I got so infatuated with this book that I even drew character cards with first seven members of Council (and really enjoyed this art project).
https://imgur.com/gallery/fsQjSM3
But at some point it started to feel like.. like a long, long TV show. Without real plot, just with the theme.
That's the thing I am finding the most unfortunate about web-published books - they tend to be too long and really need and editor and a lot of cutting. The plot is evolving in more-or-less finished episodes, and half of them could be dropped, not contributing to the overall story. I felt exactly the same with Worm. It's like the author keeps forgetting what their initial plan was. And some things that seem important at a time (e.g. Ropey's story) eventually turn out to be absolutely meaningless.
I liked how this book reminds an unfolded DnD game, and it goes really meta about it. E.g. the characters have kind of primitive diversity between them - different races, backstories etc - but overall a bit flat and onesided. But what makes it good is that main hero actually understands it, foreseeing who his next companions could be according to the rules of a game. This book has a looot of such meta-exercises for brain. We literally have glimpses of DnD sessions, where different plot-wise, game-wise, social or moral problems are discussed, and then they are incorporated in a game/plot. Main characters are aware that there is a Dungeon Master and the plot, they analyze how they should act in this reality so that not to "upset" the narrative. Main hero notices that one of his friends becoming less interesting plot-wise, and he is scared that he would be killed off. There is a constant flow of meta-stuff like that. Some things weren't that good - e.g. all this setup with "all the girls like Juniper" is a bit dull. Yeah, it is explained on meta level - that this world/game is built for him, and Juniper himself realizes and doesn't like it - but still this "harem" made me cringe. Anyway, all the things with leveling up, stats, skills etc are very well thought of and described - rational fiction at its best. Also, I often complain about worldbuilding, but here it was exceptional. A lot of thought went into it.
But now I see that some new chapters were published.. and I am hesitant to come back. Because it would be more and more of the same thing. Some new bosses and challenges that wouldn't matter. Maybe when it's finished I would return to learn who the Dungeon Master is, whether this word is real, what happened to Arthur etc. But for now I am putting the stop on this.
[read until Chapter 205. A Bloody Mess ]
Don't get me wrong, I liked it. I got so infatuated with this book that I even drew character cards with first seven members of Council (and really enjoyed this art project).
https://imgur.com/gallery/fsQjSM3
But at some point it started to feel like.. like a long, long TV show. Without real plot, just with the theme.
That's the thing I am finding the most unfortunate about web-published books - they tend to be too long and really need and editor and a lot of cutting. The plot is evolving in more-or-less finished episodes, and half of them could be dropped, not contributing to the overall story. I felt exactly the same with Worm. It's like the author keeps forgetting what their initial plan was. And some things that seem important at a time (e.g. Ropey's story) eventually turn out to be absolutely meaningless.
I liked how this book reminds an unfolded DnD game, and it goes really meta about it. E.g. the characters have kind of primitive diversity between them - different races, backstories etc - but overall a bit flat and onesided. But what makes it good is that main hero actually understands it, foreseeing who his next companions could be according to the rules of a game. This book has a looot of such meta-exercises for brain. We literally have glimpses of DnD sessions, where different plot-wise, game-wise, social or moral problems are discussed, and then they are incorporated in a game/plot. Main characters are aware that there is a Dungeon Master and the plot, they analyze how they should act in this reality so that not to "upset" the narrative. Main hero notices that one of his friends becoming less interesting plot-wise, and he is scared that he would be killed off. There is a constant flow of meta-stuff like that. Some things weren't that good - e.g. all this setup with "all the girls like Juniper" is a bit dull. Yeah, it is explained on meta level - that this world/game is built for him, and Juniper himself realizes and doesn't like it - but still this "harem" made me cringe. Anyway, all the things with leveling up, stats, skills etc are very well thought of and described - rational fiction at its best. Also, I often complain about worldbuilding, but here it was exceptional. A lot of thought went into it.
But now I see that some new chapters were published.. and I am hesitant to come back. Because it would be more and more of the same thing. Some new bosses and challenges that wouldn't matter. Maybe when it's finished I would return to learn who the Dungeon Master is, whether this word is real, what happened to Arthur etc. But for now I am putting the stop on this.
[read until Chapter 205. A Bloody Mess ]
May 30, 2021
I stopped at the end of Book III. This story started out decently, but like the proverbial boiling frog, gradually and unnoticeably got worse and worse, until the end of Book III broke my little camel back. I feel like if I continue reading, the rating will drop even more, and I'd better cut my losses now.
The story was recommended to me as "rational fiction with a good magic system", but it didn't seem to live up to either count. The "rational fiction" part was more like "walls and walls of text on overanalyses of minor details", while major decisions and mistakes went unexplored and left me blindsided and puzzled. And as for the "good magic system", the main character had
Another major thing that bothered me:
I could gripe about a lot of other things, but in summary, the story has so far just been decent-webfiction-level sound and fury. Apparently it gets more philosophical later on, but nope, not staying to find out. It started out really promising though. Sigh.
The story was recommended to me as "rational fiction with a good magic system", but it didn't seem to live up to either count. The "rational fiction" part was more like "walls and walls of text on overanalyses of minor details", while major decisions and mistakes went unexplored and left me blindsided and puzzled. And as for the "good magic system", the main character had
Another major thing that bothered me:
I could gripe about a lot of other things, but in summary, the story has so far just been decent-webfiction-level sound and fury. Apparently it gets more philosophical later on, but nope, not staying to find out. It started out really promising though. Sigh.
May 27, 2019
Second attempt at reading (May 16-26): This book doesn’t feel like it has any story progression. For the first 80 or so chapters it’s just leaping from one fight to the next without any real substance. Then (when I was just about to give up on this story) it slows down and character begin to have real depth; and the romantic subplot between the main character and Mary gets fleshed out a bit more for a few tens of chapters. After these chapters the story once again becomes shallow. It is all about the narrative of the DM, stagnated character development, and a needlessly complicated romantic subplot that keeps getting brought up and dismissed without any decisive action or progression. I stopped reading when I was all caught up at chapter 160. This web serial isn’t worth reading month to month and, even if it was, I likely would’ve dropped it if there weren’t any meaningful changes to the way this story was written.
-Dropped Ch 160
-Dropped Ch 160
November 14, 2023
After reading books 1 to 3, I sadly wouldn't recommend this series. It needs heavy editing. There's a large amount of uninteresting detail and scenes that would make most people drop in the middle (a whole book about a pregnancy.) And that's a shame, because...
This is a brilliantly told story, with convincing world building and characters. The author conveys their adventures, challenges, and personalities in a way that stays interesting throughout! There's a lingering sense of mystery, and I look forward to the final chapters being released on audiobook. But I don't look forward to zoning out during the half of it that will be a drawl.
This is a brilliantly told story, with convincing world building and characters. The author conveys their adventures, challenges, and personalities in a way that stays interesting throughout! There's a lingering sense of mystery, and I look forward to the final chapters being released on audiobook. But I don't look forward to zoning out during the half of it that will be a drawl.
April 9, 2020
This book is awesome, my only problem with it is I could not stop reading, consistently finding myself still with a book at 6am
August 26, 2022
Worth the effort.
April 21, 2023
Beautifully self-aware. I'm quite literally obsessed
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