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The Wandering Inn: Volume 5
“No killing Goblins.”
So reads the sign outside of The Wandering Inn, a small building run by a young woman named Erin Solstice. She serves pasta with sausage, blue fruit juice, and dead acid flies on request. And she comes from another world. Ours.
It’s a bad day when Erin finds herself transported to a fantastical world and nearly gets eaten by a Dragon. She doesn’t belong in a place where monster attacks are a fact of life, and where Humans are one species among many. But she must adapt to her new life. Or die.
In a dangerous world where magic is real and people can level up and gain classes, Erin Solstice must battle somewhat evil Goblins, deadly Rock Crabs, and hungry [Necromancers]. She is no warrior, no mage. Erin Solstice runs an inn.
She’s an [Innkeeper].
So reads the sign outside of The Wandering Inn, a small building run by a young woman named Erin Solstice. She serves pasta with sausage, blue fruit juice, and dead acid flies on request. And she comes from another world. Ours.
It’s a bad day when Erin finds herself transported to a fantastical world and nearly gets eaten by a Dragon. She doesn’t belong in a place where monster attacks are a fact of life, and where Humans are one species among many. But she must adapt to her new life. Or die.
In a dangerous world where magic is real and people can level up and gain classes, Erin Solstice must battle somewhat evil Goblins, deadly Rock Crabs, and hungry [Necromancers]. She is no warrior, no mage. Erin Solstice runs an inn.
She’s an [Innkeeper].
3660 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2019
54 people are currently reading
858 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
November 23, 2023
Larken, you are now barely above the MUST die list... but on STRICT probation.
Drakes of Liscor -- I am VERY DISAPPOINTED on you. For a minute I had hope.
I don't think Erin is going to be able to compartmentalize this betrayal.
Drakes of Liscor -- I am VERY DISAPPOINTED on you. For a minute I had hope.
I don't think Erin is going to be able to compartmentalize this betrayal.
June 9, 2021
06/09/21 Notes:
The wrap up for Vol5 is probably one of the best for this series. Most of the other endings are not as well balanced.
07/30/20 Notes:
The ideas behind this series are great. If there were less grammatical errors and plot holes, it would be easy to toss 4-5 stars for rating.
If you had asked me in Vol1 if I liked Erin, I would have shrugged. A goblin's shrug. =) Now? She's one of my fav characters.
I was pretty sure while I chomped on Vol4, but Vol5 is where I've come to really love the Wandering Inn. =D
The wrap up for Vol5 is probably one of the best for this series. Most of the other endings are not as well balanced.
07/30/20 Notes:
The ideas behind this series are great. If there were less grammatical errors and plot holes, it would be easy to toss 4-5 stars for rating.
If you had asked me in Vol1 if I liked Erin, I would have shrugged. A goblin's shrug. =) Now? She's one of my fav characters.
I was pretty sure while I chomped on Vol4, but Vol5 is where I've come to really love the Wandering Inn. =D
August 2, 2019
Overall this series has been pretty great and I love the main Erin story line... I’ve spent over a week devouring the whole thing (well bk 1-5)
But around book 3 I noticed I’d started skipping entire chapters because the characters, arc or side-storyline just bore me or depress me. Goblins yep skip.
Not sure if it’s a reflection on the quality of the writing (I did it in game of thrones when grrm randomly introduced a bunch of irritating characters) or more a reflection of my headspace..
The series started off a bit bubbly/lighthearted lit-RPG (which I loved) but it’s going over to the dark side big time. I think a lot of people would love that - but it’s bumming me out too much to carry on. Sorry!
These are big big books and free to read via pirateaba’s blog, but I think better read in the way it’s published - one chapter at a time - rather in the dense chunk of reading. (My husband barely saw me for a week)
Hope pirateaba publishes to get it out there more (maybe fixing the first few chapters of book 1) Definitely deserves more attention!
But around book 3 I noticed I’d started skipping entire chapters because the characters, arc or side-storyline just bore me or depress me. Goblins yep skip.
Not sure if it’s a reflection on the quality of the writing (I did it in game of thrones when grrm randomly introduced a bunch of irritating characters) or more a reflection of my headspace..
The series started off a bit bubbly/lighthearted lit-RPG (which I loved) but it’s going over to the dark side big time. I think a lot of people would love that - but it’s bumming me out too much to carry on. Sorry!
These are big big books and free to read via pirateaba’s blog, but I think better read in the way it’s published - one chapter at a time - rather in the dense chunk of reading. (My husband barely saw me for a week)
Hope pirateaba publishes to get it out there more (maybe fixing the first few chapters of book 1) Definitely deserves more attention!
December 30, 2022
this is easily the best of the series. i read this online and i can't believe i managed to finish this volume. this volume is everything that was lacking in the last two volumes and the characters become endearing. the adventures are fast and quick, dialogues are snappy and witty and its so easy to get lost in this world.
sure there are plot holes and some grammar issues but i couldn't care less. a good way to end the reading year.
sure there are plot holes and some grammar issues but i couldn't care less. a good way to end the reading year.
March 8, 2025
De schrijfster pompt er dus elke week een chapter uit. En verontschuldigt zich dan aan het einde van een boek omdat ze een pauze neemt van twee weken. Echt damn. Chick. Ga chillen hoor want dit is wel beetje the Amerikaanse praktijken.
Editie vijf was een met nieuwe karakters, vriendschappen, en een verhaal hoe een soort humanoids (goblins) door iedereen uitgemoord wordt terwijl ze alleen maar op zoek zijn naar een veilige thuis.
Thema's als genocide, kookwedstrijden, goed doen voor je naasten, het loslaten van vooroordelen, en personen in verbinding brengen, allemaal verwerkt tot een episch boek waarbij we ook afscheid namen van veel karakters. Had het idee dat ik alles als een soort LOTR film in me hoofd zat af te spelen met verschillende boromir gaat dood momenten.
Meest creatieve karakter was een goblin die gitaar leerde spelen en toen shreddend bliksem kon laten inslaan op zijn vijanden. Very fun.
Editie vijf was een met nieuwe karakters, vriendschappen, en een verhaal hoe een soort humanoids (goblins) door iedereen uitgemoord wordt terwijl ze alleen maar op zoek zijn naar een veilige thuis.
Thema's als genocide, kookwedstrijden, goed doen voor je naasten, het loslaten van vooroordelen, en personen in verbinding brengen, allemaal verwerkt tot een episch boek waarbij we ook afscheid namen van veel karakters. Had het idee dat ik alles als een soort LOTR film in me hoofd zat af te spelen met verschillende boromir gaat dood momenten.
Meest creatieve karakter was een goblin die gitaar leerde spelen en toen shreddend bliksem kon laten inslaan op zijn vijanden. Very fun.
January 20, 2024
Kad pirmajās trīs Wandering Inn sērijas grāmatās iepazīti pavisam galvenie varoņi kā Erina un Rioka, laiks tiem piepulcēt klāt citus, iepazīt jaunus tēlus un vispār vēl vairāk paplašināt pasaules uzbūvi un horizuntu. Jāsaka, ka autors gana labi iepazīstina arī jau ar iepriekš zināmiem tēliem, lai arī salīdzinošs jaunpienācējs sērijā nejustos pavisam apjucis.
https://poseidons99.wordpress.com/202...
https://poseidons99.wordpress.com/202...
October 23, 2021
So for quite some time I've been running into a personal issue about this series. The writing is excellent and the stories quality is up there with some of the best but I just can't bring myself to actually like it and I've only recently understood why that is.
For me it feels as if the more we learn about the world and the more we know the worse everything is for all characters, for every humorous or semi hopeful moment there is a constant stream of misery that permeates the world and after 5 volumes worth of this it is depressing to keep reading.
Not sure if I'll continue past this point as despite the quality writing personally the idea of learning more about the world and continuing with the story feels me with a hopelessness for the characters and that truly drives me away.
For me it feels as if the more we learn about the world and the more we know the worse everything is for all characters, for every humorous or semi hopeful moment there is a constant stream of misery that permeates the world and after 5 volumes worth of this it is depressing to keep reading.
Not sure if I'll continue past this point as despite the quality writing personally the idea of learning more about the world and continuing with the story feels me with a hopelessness for the characters and that truly drives me away.
February 7, 2025
I love and hate these books. Love them because they're amazing and engrossing and all-too-good. Hate them because they're sooooooooo long! I never want them to end, but at the same time, I need to take a breath once in a while.
April 30, 2019
I’m sad that I’m all caught up on this absolutely fantastic series.
April 5, 2020
The best volume of Wandering Inn so far. The more I read this series, the more I enjoy it. I am continually impressed by the author's immense world building and amazing characters.
April 17, 2020
Mainline the next volume directly into my blood please and thank you. I've never had 3300 pages fly by so quickly.
November 14, 2022
14.08.20 I like that this is a fully explored world and people who would be minor characters in other things get a bit of screen time to expand. I do think though, that it could do with some editing here and there. There are a few inconsistencies with names and I think, points where a single line of dialogue has been changed and the response hasn't been, things like that, not to mention the constant tiny reiterations. I don't mind, they're generally like a sentence or a phrase but like, now is the time to start trimming that sort of thing, when you're heading into the 3000+ page mark. There are almost larger inconsistencies as well but thanks to the writing style, pirateaba being aware of the mechanics of a webnovel released as a serial and written each week, it generally works out. Just the little niggling doubts when there's something that doesn't quite fit. A good 90% of the time there are clever things like "No that's a common misconception" or "Yeah but that person was wrong because of this and they had this experience". Never the same excuse each time and it's seen as an opportunity to add to the character or the world.
The pace is a lot slower. That was going to be inevitable in this sort of thing where less-central characters are fully fleshed out, and I acknowledge the necessity in order to make it a better work but it still *feels* slower.
There are a few words that annoyed me when they popped up. I didn't make a list though; off the top of my head, the worst ones were less instead of fewer, discrete rather than discreet, quietus used for quiet, things like that. And maybe two times where a unique word was used a couple of times, rather than once? It's a delicate operation to include words in a work for the purposes of expanding the reader's vocabulary and I can't really think of anyone apart from Terry who does it smoothly. I kind of appreciate Miles Cameron's approach in The Red Knight, like my approach to chocolate in biscuits. See how much you can fit in before it becomes less a biscuit and more a slab of chocolate. A lot of the time I read online stuff and self-published stuff and I think "you published this yourself because no editor would touch it" but here it's more like "you published this yourself because of the ridiculous system of do the work for years first before you see a cent". Editing this book would make it near perfect, I think, and would be incredibly easy.
Now just to be clear, I don't hate Americans. But there are aspects of the country that I think need to be either updated, cast aside, removed, criminalised, exterminated, humanised, exposed, or even just acknowledged as a problem so that a solution can be designed. And I think that there are aspects of the culture that have bled into the work in less obvious places, along with the more overt things like food and pastimes. This might be more obvious in the next book and I'm picking up the precursors here because it's a reread, but it makes me uncomfortable at times. I get that it's easier to write from the country you're familiar with (I mean I'm assuming, I haven't done my author research). I think it lessens my enjoyment of the story, even though there are things that have been acknowledged and rightfully spoken out against inside the story.
Generally I think the thing's got darker in tone. I have trouble finding a character I admire; not in a well-crafted sense just in a... personal(?) sense. It's more like, there are aspects of people to admire. Apart from Erin maybe, though she has her faults. I think that might have been the aim, to have balanced realistic characters, in which case, for the most part, well-done, objective achieved. But also like, yeah sure but can I have one that's perfect? Just one? :P
Not a fan of that trope like where the plan doesn't get revealed until it's enacted, but I can live with it when it's done well and there was one instance (out of many well-done ones) where I thought the ball was dropped, but it was a big plot point/pivot/whatever you want to call it, so I think I noticed it more.
I don't play or enjoy or enjoy watching or hearing about chess but that's not been an issue so far (throughout the entire series), due to the way those scenes are written and explained to whomever it needs to be explained to.
I find a particular part of the story concerning the Goblins to be potentially disturbing but I'm not going to go into it here because any proper discussion of it would involve going into detail which I will not do in a review. It might be a problem of like, exposition, rather than of characterisation or story, or it could just be me unable to empathise with them in that particular moment. And again, it's so well-written that it's more a feeling than anything concrete.
I realise that me listing every single thing I don't like about the book might make me sound a bit down on it, so I should probably try and state clearly here: this is an incredible book and I would call these things I'm picking up on imperfections and pet peeves rather than deep flaws, as in, these are things that stop it from becoming perfect not something inherently wrong that makes it a bad book. I don't believe in giving a five-star review to something that's more than a few millimetres off perfect and this is what's happened here; alone these things are minor but they just keep stacking up. Finish the story, edit it, and turn it into a physical actual book that I can hoard and I would seriously consider upping my rating. Which would be a 4.5 but goodreads has ever been years behind with things like that. It's clever, intelligent, funny, well-developed, well-written, with a wide array of characters, viewpoints, and moralities, and it's got a devotion to fleshing out and fully forming everything, the world, the characters, the story, the backstories of characters. And there's enough that I won't run out easily. I like the people in it, the world, the themes, the tricks and nuances and 93% of it.
Overall, I want more, though I feel a little empty. Whether that's just me or that there's slightly less resolution within the novel that I think there should be,... no, it's the resolution. There are still a bunch of things that aren't fully explored by the end of the book. I guess that's par for the course. Book 6 is like 5500 pages I think so it might have to wait a bit.
Oh and, nothing to do with book 5 but I looked at getting the audiobook for a friend who doesn't do well with written stuff and the fucking ignorant one star reviews were at the top of the list marked as 'most helpful'. Seriously? I saw some redditor saying the same shit the other day, that they read the one star reviews to see if a book is worth reading. You people need the non-religious equivalent of Jesus. The business end of a flamethrower perhaps.
That's probably a bit harsh. Maybe just an education in critical thinking skills. Still. Judge something by the worst things people say about it and you're gonna have a bad time.
14.11.22 The thing with the Goblins still bothers me. I don't understand the motivation at a certain point.
The trope where a plan isn't revealed beforehand is feeling a bit more overdone at this point, like you don't have to include so many preparations with parts hacked out.
Maybe we're just hugely different people but... yes fantasy is unrealistic, but it doesn't have to be unrealistic in more ways than one. That's always felt like a flawed argument to me. The more unrealistic things are the harder you have to work to maintain willing suspension of disbelief, unless of course this is a separate force acting on the world to make it a slightly more successful and happy place. To distill an accurate representation of life into art you have to represent all depths and darknesses as independent things rather than as part of the conflict on the way to a resolution. There are a couple steps in the right direction here, moments, but still overall I think things like... the amount of unnamed and minor and side characters dying, the way certain people succeed at everything, the reversal of consequences or contrivances to get around them; it detracts from the seriousness and value of a sacrifice, or punishment, or what-have-you. The amount of humour squeezed into just about every aspect of the story.
It's not hysterically funny, I don't laugh out loud when I read it. I've also found that some things feel like comic relief when they should maybe be taken more seriously? This is most noticeable with the Goblins, certain scenes seem to be written from a comedic point of view despite depicting tragic or senselessly violent acts. Not that senseless violence can't be funny, but the contrast is jarring at times, implicitly stating one thing while explicitly stating another. Maybe I just laugh at the wrong things.
Some of the exposition on things that have already happened (is that still called exposition? imposition?) could probably be cut. I feel like the chapters with Laken are the worst at this but it crops up in other places too.
I am fairly critical I realise this, but I like to think it's a separate stage of the process of reading and that I can appreciate works for what they are, and that intelligent, considered criticism has inherent value.
In general I feel as if things could be edited for length more harshly, that fewer words in certain places might have the same or greater effect. There is an occasional tendency towards melodrama, attempting to milk moments of all their worth, and maybe going a teensy bit overboard, as well as repetitions, tipping hands, and taking baby steps to reveal something rather than trusting the readership to keep up.
The swearing is weird, especially around the non-American English speakers. It's one of the many things that make me think pirateaba is American, partially because of the seeming lack of familiarity with how other people swear but I feel like censorship is more of a thing in the USA than elsewhere.
I have a theory about... Goblins as a race, their origins, "purpose".
I did skip the non-canon chapter, sue me, and the Depthless Doctor bit, because of how the character really felt shoehorned into the world.
Not that I'm qualified to comment, on anything.
The pace is a lot slower. That was going to be inevitable in this sort of thing where less-central characters are fully fleshed out, and I acknowledge the necessity in order to make it a better work but it still *feels* slower.
There are a few words that annoyed me when they popped up. I didn't make a list though; off the top of my head, the worst ones were less instead of fewer, discrete rather than discreet, quietus used for quiet, things like that. And maybe two times where a unique word was used a couple of times, rather than once? It's a delicate operation to include words in a work for the purposes of expanding the reader's vocabulary and I can't really think of anyone apart from Terry who does it smoothly. I kind of appreciate Miles Cameron's approach in The Red Knight, like my approach to chocolate in biscuits. See how much you can fit in before it becomes less a biscuit and more a slab of chocolate. A lot of the time I read online stuff and self-published stuff and I think "you published this yourself because no editor would touch it" but here it's more like "you published this yourself because of the ridiculous system of do the work for years first before you see a cent". Editing this book would make it near perfect, I think, and would be incredibly easy.
Now just to be clear, I don't hate Americans. But there are aspects of the country that I think need to be either updated, cast aside, removed, criminalised, exterminated, humanised, exposed, or even just acknowledged as a problem so that a solution can be designed. And I think that there are aspects of the culture that have bled into the work in less obvious places, along with the more overt things like food and pastimes. This might be more obvious in the next book and I'm picking up the precursors here because it's a reread, but it makes me uncomfortable at times. I get that it's easier to write from the country you're familiar with (I mean I'm assuming, I haven't done my author research). I think it lessens my enjoyment of the story, even though there are things that have been acknowledged and rightfully spoken out against inside the story.
Generally I think the thing's got darker in tone. I have trouble finding a character I admire; not in a well-crafted sense just in a... personal(?) sense. It's more like, there are aspects of people to admire. Apart from Erin maybe, though she has her faults. I think that might have been the aim, to have balanced realistic characters, in which case, for the most part, well-done, objective achieved. But also like, yeah sure but can I have one that's perfect? Just one? :P
Not a fan of that trope like where the plan doesn't get revealed until it's enacted, but I can live with it when it's done well and there was one instance (out of many well-done ones) where I thought the ball was dropped, but it was a big plot point/pivot/whatever you want to call it, so I think I noticed it more.
I don't play or enjoy or enjoy watching or hearing about chess but that's not been an issue so far (throughout the entire series), due to the way those scenes are written and explained to whomever it needs to be explained to.
I find a particular part of the story concerning the Goblins to be potentially disturbing but I'm not going to go into it here because any proper discussion of it would involve going into detail which I will not do in a review. It might be a problem of like, exposition, rather than of characterisation or story, or it could just be me unable to empathise with them in that particular moment. And again, it's so well-written that it's more a feeling than anything concrete.
I realise that me listing every single thing I don't like about the book might make me sound a bit down on it, so I should probably try and state clearly here: this is an incredible book and I would call these things I'm picking up on imperfections and pet peeves rather than deep flaws, as in, these are things that stop it from becoming perfect not something inherently wrong that makes it a bad book. I don't believe in giving a five-star review to something that's more than a few millimetres off perfect and this is what's happened here; alone these things are minor but they just keep stacking up. Finish the story, edit it, and turn it into a physical actual book that I can hoard and I would seriously consider upping my rating. Which would be a 4.5 but goodreads has ever been years behind with things like that. It's clever, intelligent, funny, well-developed, well-written, with a wide array of characters, viewpoints, and moralities, and it's got a devotion to fleshing out and fully forming everything, the world, the characters, the story, the backstories of characters. And there's enough that I won't run out easily. I like the people in it, the world, the themes, the tricks and nuances and 93% of it.
Overall, I want more, though I feel a little empty. Whether that's just me or that there's slightly less resolution within the novel that I think there should be,... no, it's the resolution. There are still a bunch of things that aren't fully explored by the end of the book. I guess that's par for the course. Book 6 is like 5500 pages I think so it might have to wait a bit.
Oh and, nothing to do with book 5 but I looked at getting the audiobook for a friend who doesn't do well with written stuff and the fucking ignorant one star reviews were at the top of the list marked as 'most helpful'. Seriously? I saw some redditor saying the same shit the other day, that they read the one star reviews to see if a book is worth reading. You people need the non-religious equivalent of Jesus. The business end of a flamethrower perhaps.
That's probably a bit harsh. Maybe just an education in critical thinking skills. Still. Judge something by the worst things people say about it and you're gonna have a bad time.
14.11.22 The thing with the Goblins still bothers me. I don't understand the motivation at a certain point.
The trope where a plan isn't revealed beforehand is feeling a bit more overdone at this point, like you don't have to include so many preparations with parts hacked out.
Maybe we're just hugely different people but... yes fantasy is unrealistic, but it doesn't have to be unrealistic in more ways than one. That's always felt like a flawed argument to me. The more unrealistic things are the harder you have to work to maintain willing suspension of disbelief, unless of course this is a separate force acting on the world to make it a slightly more successful and happy place. To distill an accurate representation of life into art you have to represent all depths and darknesses as independent things rather than as part of the conflict on the way to a resolution. There are a couple steps in the right direction here, moments, but still overall I think things like... the amount of unnamed and minor and side characters dying, the way certain people succeed at everything, the reversal of consequences or contrivances to get around them; it detracts from the seriousness and value of a sacrifice, or punishment, or what-have-you. The amount of humour squeezed into just about every aspect of the story.
It's not hysterically funny, I don't laugh out loud when I read it. I've also found that some things feel like comic relief when they should maybe be taken more seriously? This is most noticeable with the Goblins, certain scenes seem to be written from a comedic point of view despite depicting tragic or senselessly violent acts. Not that senseless violence can't be funny, but the contrast is jarring at times, implicitly stating one thing while explicitly stating another. Maybe I just laugh at the wrong things.
Some of the exposition on things that have already happened (is that still called exposition? imposition?) could probably be cut. I feel like the chapters with Laken are the worst at this but it crops up in other places too.
I am fairly critical I realise this, but I like to think it's a separate stage of the process of reading and that I can appreciate works for what they are, and that intelligent, considered criticism has inherent value.
In general I feel as if things could be edited for length more harshly, that fewer words in certain places might have the same or greater effect. There is an occasional tendency towards melodrama, attempting to milk moments of all their worth, and maybe going a teensy bit overboard, as well as repetitions, tipping hands, and taking baby steps to reveal something rather than trusting the readership to keep up.
The swearing is weird, especially around the non-American English speakers. It's one of the many things that make me think pirateaba is American, partially because of the seeming lack of familiarity with how other people swear but I feel like censorship is more of a thing in the USA than elsewhere.
I have a theory about... Goblins as a race, their origins, "purpose".
I did skip the non-canon chapter, sue me, and the Depthless Doctor bit, because of how the character really felt shoehorned into the world.
Not that I'm qualified to comment, on anything.
February 13, 2024
The main Erin storyline is still by far my favorite - the rest of it ended up rather grim, although I can appreciate the deep world- and character-building. I was tempted to skip some chapters, but the completionist in me didn't want to miss any details if it was sequentially presented to me, so I slogged through stories with Garen's history with the Halfseekers, the Goblin tribe drama, etc.
Laken was one of my favorite characters in previous volumes, but he was such an ass for most of the book. >:( I hope he redeems himself in future volumes.
It was exciting to see most of the stories finally meet up, and some of the deaths were quite tragic. ;_; Pisces has a lot of explain, and I hope that isn't too evil. :(
Ryoka unfortunately wasn't featured in this volume at all until the last chapter - I hope we find out what she's been up to soon.
Laken was one of my favorite characters in previous volumes, but he was such an ass for most of the book. >:( I hope he redeems himself in future volumes.
It was exciting to see most of the stories finally meet up, and some of the deaths were quite tragic. ;_; Pisces has a lot of explain, and I hope that isn't too evil. :(
Ryoka unfortunately wasn't featured in this volume at all until the last chapter - I hope we find out what she's been up to soon.
September 26, 2022
I found the first section, about the King of Destruction, to be a drag. 11 hours!!! But the rest of this book gripped me all the way through. What a spectacular ending! 🤍
November 27, 2020
Fun story, fun characters, but SO wordy. Pirateaba is determined to narrate every second of every character’s life, and it gets old.
October 23, 2021
Probably my favourite one so far. I've got mixed feelings about the end, but not enough to overshadow the other chapters. In the previous volumes I dreaded most of the interludes and not-main-character chapters. This time they were fine, and I even enjoyed some of them (especially the Pawn - Lyonette one and Bird's interlude). I loved the relationship between Erin and the Redscar Five.
That's why it's probably not surprising, that my favourite characters besides Erin were Headscratcher, Numbtongue, Pyrite and... well most Goblins really.
That's why it's probably not surprising, that my favourite characters besides Erin were Headscratcher, Numbtongue, Pyrite and... well most Goblins really.
July 28, 2022
So many goblins died. But now we know more of their story. Of their purpose. Of their dream. From Reiss, the Goblin King, who wished to build them a home. Garen Redfang, who wished for forgiveness, to stop betraying, and find his place. Of Rags, who still leads so that their dream may find purchase, so that the cycle may end. What will become of the Goblins Laken has taken as prisoners? What good can come of this mercy? And which of the Five still live. Rabiteater, and Badarrow surely. But is Numbtongue truly dead? How will the growing distance between the surviving goblin masses affect their future?
What of the Humans? Magnolia Reinhart and her faction of ladies has shown her will for peace. Gained ground with similarly minded Drakes, and bred strife within their own masses of nobility for their daring threats to end the injustice of a third terrible war..
The Drakes and Gnolls have much to celebrate. But I cannot support veneration for their deeds. The goblins defended their walls, and yet they cut them down... To stop Lord Tyrion Veltras' machinations from coming to fruition maybe. But they still are blind to their own deceit...
And yet there is still the Antinium and their almost betrayal to account for... The uncertainty of their secret plots and if they will truly build to another war...
The Blighted Kingdom will call more Earthlings to fight his war. And more will be pulled in beyond his borders; like the Doctor, Ryoka, Erin, Laken, Trey and Teres. They will shift the fates of this world more and more... so much uncertainty, and the untenable hold their introduction into these fractured societies will place.
We still yet wait for the Gnolls to gather...
And we will hear Erin's thoughts. What has wrought against goblin-kind in her presence will shift even more...
Niers will finally come to meet his hidden appointment. She is the center of so many shifting forces. What power can person have? What can one person accomplish? Let us see!
What of the Humans? Magnolia Reinhart and her faction of ladies has shown her will for peace. Gained ground with similarly minded Drakes, and bred strife within their own masses of nobility for their daring threats to end the injustice of a third terrible war..
The Drakes and Gnolls have much to celebrate. But I cannot support veneration for their deeds. The goblins defended their walls, and yet they cut them down... To stop Lord Tyrion Veltras' machinations from coming to fruition maybe. But they still are blind to their own deceit...
And yet there is still the Antinium and their almost betrayal to account for... The uncertainty of their secret plots and if they will truly build to another war...
The Blighted Kingdom will call more Earthlings to fight his war. And more will be pulled in beyond his borders; like the Doctor, Ryoka, Erin, Laken, Trey and Teres. They will shift the fates of this world more and more... so much uncertainty, and the untenable hold their introduction into these fractured societies will place.
We still yet wait for the Gnolls to gather...
And we will hear Erin's thoughts. What has wrought against goblin-kind in her presence will shift even more...
Niers will finally come to meet his hidden appointment. She is the center of so many shifting forces. What power can person have? What can one person accomplish? Let us see!
March 26, 2022
It's clear pirateaba knows how to write, but I feel like I'm much too nitpicky and critical a reader to really enjoy the story. I feel like the author is more of a 'rule of cool' style writer which isn't necessarily bad, but it tends to break my own immersion of the story a lot. There are many points where the writer introduces an interesting concept, but then upon thinking on it a bit, you question why only one person/group is exploiting this idea when it's something that's either not too difficult to attempt or think up. Some actions that certain characters get away with as well just completely break my brain as they seem to accomplish the impossible or have way too many conveniences occur for the task to succeed (I am mainly referring to a certain assassination that occurred).
Also, too many people feel guilt over shit that's not their fault (this is not only a failing of volume 5).
In the end, I'm 1/3 of the way through the series in terms of word count and I'm much too deep in my sunk cost fallacy to stop now. The story's enjoyable enough to keep going, and I'm sure most less-critical readers will have a really great time with the series but I expect to be complaining to my friends half the time while getting through it.
Also, too many people feel guilt over shit that's not their fault (this is not only a failing of volume 5).
In the end, I'm 1/3 of the way through the series in terms of word count and I'm much too deep in my sunk cost fallacy to stop now. The story's enjoyable enough to keep going, and I'm sure most less-critical readers will have a really great time with the series but I expect to be complaining to my friends half the time while getting through it.
June 19, 2021
Superbly engrossing, character-driven fantasy world, full of incredible complexity, the depths of tragedy, great fun to make you laugh, outstanding plotting and detail, and all delivered by a mighty skilled author. DESPITE me not liking blow-by-blow battle accounts and horror, there is enough to offset that for me, and even in the most depressing and violent scenes, there is a humanity that wrings your heart and conscience. Just love the writer and the amazing web serial. I am deliberately taking as much time as I can but I had trouble putting this down to sleep on many occasions. Like all of Pirateaba's readers, based on the comments at her web site, there are things I "hate" (in my case the Clown, Flos, horror and too much battle/fighting) but the quality is so fine...and the author gives me all I want elsewhere. Second to Tolkien, this is my author. Okay, maybe tied with Barbara Pym, but that is not fantasy :D. I can hardly wait for more of these to make it to Audible, where the narration is astounding. Thank you for giving us Erin and her Wandering Inn and the class system.
August 7, 2022
I need a break from this story.
Don’t get me wrong, I am going to go back to it, it is interesting. But as always, there are too many characters and some of them are truly boring.
The king of distraction! More like the king of brooding. I am sad to be a king, I don’t deserve to be a king, I don’t know why my subjects like me… boo hoo. And then we get to read for like 25% of the book saying he is a king and that he is a king and also did you know he is a king?
Same goes to our kinda likable semi-interesting emperor. He is declaring his title to himself every damn minute. It's semi-tolerable because he says it mostly to himself, but then he goes around and tells people to not act like he is anything important. Well an emperor is kinda is buddy… so which one is it?
Between these two and all of the random characters who get their own POV chapters, this book was about 60% boring tales from less interesting people.
3/5 I'm invested by now, so I will go back to the next one after a break.
Don’t get me wrong, I am going to go back to it, it is interesting. But as always, there are too many characters and some of them are truly boring.
The king of distraction! More like the king of brooding. I am sad to be a king, I don’t deserve to be a king, I don’t know why my subjects like me… boo hoo. And then we get to read for like 25% of the book saying he is a king and that he is a king and also did you know he is a king?
Same goes to our kinda likable semi-interesting emperor. He is declaring his title to himself every damn minute. It's semi-tolerable because he says it mostly to himself, but then he goes around and tells people to not act like he is anything important. Well an emperor is kinda is buddy… so which one is it?
Between these two and all of the random characters who get their own POV chapters, this book was about 60% boring tales from less interesting people.
3/5 I'm invested by now, so I will go back to the next one after a break.
May 30, 2019
The author continues to improve as a writer, though the chapters in this volume were increasingly longer. This is probably the darkest of the volumes in tone so far, but it also pays off a lot of long-running storylines in really satisfying ways. I might prefer if it didn't also set up even more other storylines for the future, considering that I'd like to see more resolutions and less open story threads.
Still, this remains of my favorite ongoing stories to read, and each chapter is usually very satisfying on its own.
Still, this remains of my favorite ongoing stories to read, and each chapter is usually very satisfying on its own.
May 7, 2019
Oh boy... you'll understand when you read it.
November 14, 2019
That took a long time. Enjoyable, lowbrow and cheesy. But really too long.
April 14, 2020
Great book. Another powerful and effective ending. The Wandering Inn continues to be one of my favourite works of fiction.
May 30, 2020
Mostly slow. Some great parts.
More Erin. Less crap characters.
L is dead to me. At least he gets it.
More Erin. Less crap characters.
L is dead to me. At least he gets it.
April 29, 2021
Still needs proofing/editing awful awful grammar sometimes/often. But I'm enjoying the story despite that and the fact there are so many story lines that keep wrenching me away from story to story.
May 20, 2021
Lots happening but if you liked the goblins this is a rough chapter for you.
May 10, 2022
Some of these characters break my heart. I needed months to get over the end of volume 4.
January 31, 2025
So, I'm well beyond hooked on this. It just has the right pacing and the fearlessness to go far out afield to develop brand new characters over grand stretches of story, get me to love them, and fill me up with an entirely different view of this world. Funnily enough, each time this happens in the previous books, there's no switching back and forth between our other established characters until much later, but IMHO, this is a great feature. I feel grounded at all times. I care. And in this one, I seriously cared. I even teared up more times than I can count.
I'll tell you a secret. It may not be a huge secret, but it's one that is probably a huge, huge secret when it comes to those in charge of the normal publishing industry: I, and quite a few like me, absolutely ADORE huge books. I'm not talking about huge series, of which this is also one, but huge single books, as well. There's something very special about wandering in an absolutely enormous world, getting to know every aspect of it, falling in love with each character that shows us, and settling in for that potentially epic betrayal that might come with the obvious conflict to come.
In that respect, it's just like Wheel of Time. Staying away from your core characters isn't a bug. It's a feature. And going back over important scenes from their points of views, with all their secrets, is actually all kinds of wonderful. What seemed rather innocuous in one moment gets blasted with intense meaning and danger the next.
And best of all? We get to take our time. We're allowed to FEEL the slow, inexorable danger, know the vast motivations of the the great evils and all those who would oppose or at least be obliquely belligerent. And I'm talking about whole armies, here. Many armies. And single runners, innkeepers, grizzled old war heroes, ant queens, drakes, and gnolls. The small and the big events are given equal care here.
I'm frankly rather impressed. All along, I've been enjoying the hell out of this, all the silly bits, the slow comfort bits, as much as the grand danger and action bits. I think this series is simply filling my heart.
Or my stomach. With cake. Great fluffy cake with icing so sweet. But it's not an everyday cake. Oh, no. I feel like I've waited years, years of missed birthdays, and now Erin has come to me with something really special. Wondrous, even.
:)
Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to DM requests. I think it's about time I get some eyes on them.
Arctunn.com
I'll tell you a secret. It may not be a huge secret, but it's one that is probably a huge, huge secret when it comes to those in charge of the normal publishing industry: I, and quite a few like me, absolutely ADORE huge books. I'm not talking about huge series, of which this is also one, but huge single books, as well. There's something very special about wandering in an absolutely enormous world, getting to know every aspect of it, falling in love with each character that shows us, and settling in for that potentially epic betrayal that might come with the obvious conflict to come.
In that respect, it's just like Wheel of Time. Staying away from your core characters isn't a bug. It's a feature. And going back over important scenes from their points of views, with all their secrets, is actually all kinds of wonderful. What seemed rather innocuous in one moment gets blasted with intense meaning and danger the next.
And best of all? We get to take our time. We're allowed to FEEL the slow, inexorable danger, know the vast motivations of the the great evils and all those who would oppose or at least be obliquely belligerent. And I'm talking about whole armies, here. Many armies. And single runners, innkeepers, grizzled old war heroes, ant queens, drakes, and gnolls. The small and the big events are given equal care here.
I'm frankly rather impressed. All along, I've been enjoying the hell out of this, all the silly bits, the slow comfort bits, as much as the grand danger and action bits. I think this series is simply filling my heart.
Or my stomach. With cake. Great fluffy cake with icing so sweet. But it's not an everyday cake. Oh, no. I feel like I've waited years, years of missed birthdays, and now Erin has come to me with something really special. Wondrous, even.
:)
Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to DM requests. I think it's about time I get some eyes on them.
Arctunn.com
June 20, 2023
This is the best story, I've read in over fifty years. Long ago when I'd read LOTR it's been my favorite ever since the only thing that approached it for me was Abercrombie's First Law series but after reading this 5th volume the Wandering Inn has become my 2nd favorite story of all time and I've read lots of fantasy as it's now my favorite genre. This volumes arc was thrilling, heartbreaking, madding, and incredibly long, this volume alone is twice the length of all three books of LOTR, but I was so captivated by the story, I spent every free moment I had reading it. I'm looking forward to starting the 6th volume soon and I'm even happier that it's over 1.6 million words, so I'll have plenty more fun watching where this story goes.
If you haven't read any of the story, you can read it for free online at https://wanderinginn.com/table-of-con... Eight Volumes have been completed so far and a large number of chapters have already been posted for volume 9.
If you haven't read any of the story, you can read it for free online at https://wanderinginn.com/table-of-con... Eight Volumes have been completed so far and a large number of chapters have already been posted for volume 9.
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