Worms the serial

June 16, 2016 10:26 AM

I just got into this and it's so addicting. You can read the whole thing here. Here's the MeFi post for it. I'd like to have a discussion topic for this, and I suppose this can work, or maybe someone can create a Book entry for it?
posted by numaner (13 comments total)

Well, how would this work? Because I started reading it awhile back, but hoo boy, am I not caught up over years of work. Would the thread be only for people who've completely finished it? How would "spoiler" issues be handled?

My theoretical suggestion would be to have posts per arc, and people can start reading them after they've finished each arc without worrying about spoilers for the next. So have one post for Gestation, one for Insinuation, etc. I'd be down with that.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:00 PM on June 16, 2016

+1! I also just started reading this a few days ago and whether we do it as a complete thing or by arc or by sets of arcs, I'd love to see the discussion here.
posted by jdherg at 8:49 PM on June 16, 2016

I keep meaning to read this; a FanFare post might be the kick in the pants I need.
posted by Etrigan at 7:29 AM on June 17, 2016

The whole thing seems like a lot for one post, and going an arc at a time feels like too many posts. I think a pretty reasonable first chunk would be the first eight arcs (Gestation through the end of Extermination) + their interludes.

I think creating Book posts requires a mod and I don't know what criteria they're using.
posted by jdherg at 3:41 PM on June 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

Yeah I hadn't thought about that, but good idea jdherg, some of the arcs definitely flow together better, especially the first 9 (erm, not entirely sure how spoilerific it would be to point out why, even in terms of just POV).

Also, if you don't want to lose sleep like I do, I would recommend printing out sections you plan to read at a time to avoid keep hitting the "next chapter" link for like 5 hours straight. The way he writes is like every clickbait headline ever, but in a good way where you want to keep clicking.
posted by numaner at 6:35 PM on June 18, 2016

I would be delighted to participate in a Worm fanfare thread, but what I feel like I really need is a Lurker's Guide.
posted by phearlez at 9:30 AM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

There's a wikia, which is pretty spoilery though, because characters are listed as deceased or not on there, even when you're just skimming around it's hard to avoid. There's also a spoiler-free cast page, which I've used often, and it's detailed enough without giving too much away in terms of plot. Whatever is left out of there is intentional.
posted by numaner at 9:40 AM on June 20, 2016

Yeah I'm aware of it, but what I always want in my serial entertainment is what the Lurker's Guide or, to a lesser extent, something like a Fanfare post gets me - a snapshot into that episode and no further. The LG had the added bonus of identifying and linking backwards to past events, so when there's some vague description of a character they'd let you know that was actually Bibityboop from back in episode Blippityblah.

Perhaps it's silly to want someone to hold my hand through references and callbacks that are there for smarter folks who are capable of noticing them, but man that made B5 watching fun.
posted by phearlez at 12:43 PM on June 20, 2016 [3 favorites]

Yeah, I agree about how useful that is. It's what makes the Supernatural Wiki so great. I think there's kind of an equivalent here though, in that the way each of the shows' episodes get their own wiki entry that don't spoil further than the current episode, the Worm wiki have distinct entry for each arc and chapters. The only lacking thing is that while B5 and Supernatural have callbacks and trivia for each episode, the Worm community hasn't filled out the arc pages with that info, and the chapters are just stubs with only links to characters involved.

Once I finish this whole thing, if I can, I might actually go fill it out!
posted by numaner at 3:38 PM on June 20, 2016

There's a fan-made audiobook that might be nice to link to for podcast-using people. I started listening recently when it was announced as complete.

(1.6 million words!)
posted by sourcejedi at 12:34 PM on June 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

oh thanks! I was using auto-generated site readers, but those are always buggy and you don't get the same sense of certain pronunciations that an audio-book has.
posted by numaner at 12:44 PM on June 28, 2016

I audibly gasped when I saw this. I read the series as it was coming out. Every installment left me OMG I NEED THE NEXT ONE NOW NOW NOW NOW.

I was actually thinking about it again recently so I may actually re-read the entire thing as many of the finer points are lost to me now.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:53 PM on June 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

There's a lot of great little world-building details in the series, I guess because he had the time to think through it all.

And great quotes too, like the interlude with a certain therapist.

Perhaps spend less time looking for the answer, and keep an eye out for opportunities to learn the answer.

I really wanna turn that into one of those cliches image quotes people post on FB, except the image somehow relates to the serial. Any ideas?
posted by numaner at 8:51 AM on July 1, 2016 [1 favorite]