(wandering inn thoughts below. no significant spoilers, but if you want my truly spoiler-free review: close this post. open this. read The Wandering Inn.)
i’ve been a bit blocked trying to write a positive review of wandering inn, because the structure wasn’t really letting me say what’s on my mind. i remembered this review
and thought about it.
this is a list of reasons not to read wandering inn. every reason on this list
a. is not sarcastic at all; i really think these are good reasons to consider not reading wandering inn (for some people).
b. i consider, for my preferences and my situation, to actually be a positive thing.
it’s a gripping story that’s 11 million words long or so. it may take a while and if you’re very busy, you may not want new interesting things on your mind!
the strength of Wandering Inn is that it has built up many, many characters into an interconnected lattice, and every new chapter can be both setup and payoff, revealing a new aspect of how the relationships between people change those people, and, in turn, the world. however, in the beginning, the building up itself had to happen. that is not the strength of TWI
if you take a step back you can see how the events fit into place, how what happens - not what happens when the pieces come together, but where the pieces are placed to begin with - was designed, how the little whims of random chance are not random but rather make the story interesting, etc. i am not the type of person who has my immersion broken by this, but i think it drives some people insane?
all the people are people. not just the humans, not just the demihumans. the world is full of.. people. some of them grew up in very strange environments have become very strange, but none of them are fundamentally alien, even the aliens.
it touches on everything in the world - trafficking and slavery, horrific experimentation, racism, homophobia, transphobia, dysphoria, suicidal ideation, etc. it almost never gets to a point that i would expect almost anyone to find disturbing (and the exceptions are clearly marked with content warnings). some people are not almost anyone
it’s a LitRPG Isekai work. it’s a really good LitRPG Isekai work, and it avoids the genuinely problematic parts of those genres, and it’s fascinating and powerful in a way that transcends genres. but. “girl from Earth lands in a world that works like a video game” is still the plot, especially in the beginning.
bonus reason to read wandering inn: it has, by far, the most interesting worldbuilding mechanics i’ve ever read, with its Classes, Skills, and Levels. they manage to interact in a fascinating way with the sociological nature of the world, while also being an incredibly compelling system I could fantasize about optimizing for hours, while also serving as a wonderful not-quite-allegory for training in our mundane world
i really like wandering inn, and frankly i think it shaped a lot of who i am - i think i would be a less empathetic person if i hadn’t read it, especially when i did.
if you read it - i hope you like it too.