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Pact by Wildbow

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Rated 7.16 out of 10 Statistics

Information

Genre: Fantasy / Horror

Audience: New Adult

Updated: Completed

Content Advisory

Occasional Sexual Content

Frequent Coarse Language

Frequent Violence

Statistics

Overall Rating: 7.161

Average Rating: 9.5 (Guests), 7.29 (Members)

Ranking: #458

Rating Count: 8 (4 Guests, 4 members)

1 indicates a weighted rating.

Pact by Wildbow product Read This

"For Genre Save Readers"

Rating: 8 / 10

PAct breaks the format in a lot of ways. The magic system is very unique, the main character is a grey hero, may be an antihero, and the sense that he has any control over what is happening in the series is minimal.

It's a constant cascade of action, frantic pacing, skin of the teeth escapes, and then diving immediately into the next issue caused by whatever hair-brained bad idea saved you from failure at the last juncture.

A non-human main character becomes a thing and I adore how well and reasonable that character's motivations end up being written.

If you have read enough to want something fresh and to love a subversion then this is perfect for you.

The intense pace, highly conceptual and fluid magic system, intense cascade of consequences, and general complexity of the story may be rough for new readers.

I imagine people who enjoyed the Dresden Files or Twenty Palaces Series would like this

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Pact by Wildbow product Read This

"For Genre Save Readers"

Rating: 8 / 10

PAct breaks the format in a lot of ways. The magic system is very unique, the main character is a grey hero, may be an antihero, and the sense that he has any control over what is happening in the series is minimal.

It's a constant cascade of action, frantic pacing, skin of the teeth escapes, and then diving immediately into the next issue caused by whatever hair-brained bad idea saved you from failure at the last juncture.

A non-human main character becomes a thing and I adore how well and reasonable that character's motivations end up being written.

If you have read enough to want something fresh and to love a subversion then this is perfect for you.

The intense pace, highly conceptual and fluid magic system, intense cascade of consequences, and general complexity of the story may be rough for new readers.

I imagine people who enjoyed the Dresden Files or Twenty Palaces Series would like this

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Pact by Wildbow product Read This

"A Magical Experience"

Rating: 9 / 10

Pact is Wildbow's second serial, and is an urban fantasy novel. I love fantasy, myself, and so I enjoyed Pact even more than the writer's first serial, Worm. Pact is the story of Blake Thorburn, a young man who is made the caretaker of a house that was owned by a diabolist. And the diabolist was his grandmother. Needless to say, hilarity ensues. Setting: The setting of Pact is truly a work of art. It contains fascinating magic, a well developed invented town (Jacob's Bell), and history that is an integral part of the story. Prose Quality: Wildbow has greatly improved his prose since the start of Worm. The sentence structures are varied enough to keep the reader interested without being unclear, and they also help communicate the mood and tone of the story. One minor complaint about the prose: toward the end of the serial, the author starts italicizing words for emphasis up to 80 times in one update (16.10, I counted). Plot: There are things that are truly wonderful about the plot. Foreshadowing is everywhere, twists are difficult to predict but make sense, and there is far more to conflict than hack-n-slash. But there are parts in the first half of the story that drag on for a ridiculous amount of time. Character Development: This is where the story is most likely to fall flat with readers. Very few characters are given any character development until the second half of the serial. So many characters are introduced but minimally characterized that the reader likely won't remember who they are. In conclusion: The first half of the serial has significant problems, but the second half is pure gold. Do yourself a favor and check Wildbow's writings out. If you fear large archives, the author also started a new serial: https://twigserial.wordpress.com/

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