Book IV

Worth the Candle #4

by cthulhuraejepsen, Alexander Wales

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.

Contents:
53. A Tiptoe Through the Tulips (2017-10-25)
54. Looper (2017-10-25)
55. Bond Girl (2017-10-30)
56. Vacation Vocations (2017-10-30)
57. Place Your Figs (2017-10-30)
58. Panopticon (2017-11-06)
59. All the Myriad Ways (2017-11-06)
60. Aggressive Negotiations (2017-11-12)
61. Animus (2017-11-19)
62. Drift (2017-11-27)
63. The Chemical History of a Candle (2017-12-02)
64. In Which Juniper Stares At His Character Sheet, Again (2017-12-07)
65. A Kindred Soul (2017-12-15)
66. The Long Night (2017-12-22)
67. A Helping Hand (2018-01-10)
68. Seeing Red (2018-01-10)
69. In Mutual Congress (2018-01-10)
70. Moral Agency (2018-01-18)
71. The Soul of Discretion (2018-01-26)
72. Tripartite Talks (2018-02-07)
73. Amaryllis (2018-02-07)
74. The Mouth of a Long River (2018-02-07)

Genres: Fantasy

265 pages, ebook

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

cthulhuraejepsen 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.

Reviews

[Петър Стойков · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ролевите игри са доста популярни - и нямам предвид само тия в спалнята. Даже не и компютърните, а настолните - Dungeons&Dragons и всички останали мега разнообразни. На мен не са ми любими, но съм играл няколко пъти. Не е зле, забавно е.

Това, което дори не съм подозирал е колко се вживяват в тях някои хора и колко голяма част от живота и приятелствата им са свързани с тия игри, колко голяма часто от размишленията и личната им философия са резултат от игрите.

Серията Worth the Candle те пуска направо в дълбокото на ролевите игри, през погледа на един младеж, който ненадейно се озовава в реален свят, базиран на измислените от него през годините светове за ролевите игри, които са играли с приятелите му.

Книгата е не само доста дълга (към 3 хил страници), ами и е далеч от приключване и авторът продължава да я дописва в интернет с по една глава на всеки няколко дни.

Освен това, книгата е и може би най-видният представител на стила "Rational fiction", при който авторът обяснява подробно и логично защо и как се случват нещата в книгата, а героите като цяло вземат обмислени, рационални решения, от които не ти се иска да се плеснеш по челото. Което доста кефи.

Въпросният младеж има доста тежък емоционален багаж и постепенно го разопакова с напредване на действието, което може би е (за мен) скучната част от книгата, безкрайните диалози между героите, изясняващи отношенията помежду им. Даже има една част (между 50-65% от книгата) дето практически нищо не се случва, освен приказки, което почти ме накара да я оставя с досада. За радост, после екшънът става по-съществен и действието се забързва.

Това ревю е същото за всички (за сега 8) части от книгата.

[Sebastian H · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a banger of an entry, starting with the prison break, and wrapping up a single-volume arc filled with extreme paranoia product of subverted loyalties.

I’m not too much of a fan on how the whole thing ends up resolved, what with the kinda-sidechapter showing Mary’s self-rescue and her unexpected bonding with our newest (unexpected?) kharass member, nor how the author keeps throwing new things at our heroes without necessarily spending too much time developing them, other than right little snippets of Joon’s regular D&D sessions with his mates back on Earth, but I’m guessing this pace is going to become way more common now (what with all the unresolved quests hes accumulated so far).

The narrative meta theorycrafting was a nice addition though, so I’m hoping we’ll get to delve deeper into it.

All in all, it still kinda has its hooks on me so I’ll keep this candle alight and see where it goes from here.

[Sterling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book four is my favorite in the series thus far. It's starts a little slow which lulls you into a completely false sense of security. The thrust of the story is an attempt to cure Joon from his self inflicted and potentially fatal malady (from the Barren Jewel arc). The Soul Mage arc is so much more than that though. We get our first deep look into the minds of Juniper's party members and it's so re-warding.

The villain of this arc is by far the most compelling & nuanced of the series. The issues faced here aren't just deadly but psychological & all the more terrifying for that. The party expands again with an incredible addition who quickly became my favorite character (though they have been dethroned). Some of the best chapters of the series are found here & I burned through these pages faster than any of the others.