u/I_Am_Hella_Bored

Let's be honest, the best writing in the series was v8. There was a clear goal throughout the entire volume. We knew where it started and where it was all leading to, but since then it's been all over the place.

Trust me, I have loved every chapter in v9 and 10 but it's undeniable that the pacing has been all over the place. With v9 we at least knew that it was leading to the solstice but there really is no consistency in v10. We are jumping back and forth in the timeline and I really have no idea where v10 is leading to.

Especially with the palace arc having concluded. I can picture how much better it would have been if paba took the slow burn approach with the palace and having the conclusion be the end of v10 with v11 picking up from Erin making it to baleros.

I love the v10 chapters a lot but as a whole, I've gotta say that it really is not great.

I'm a former destiny and D2 player, and there's a YouTuber, datto, that summed up destiny's problems, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Bungie"s great at building horizontally but don't build on top of that" and I think that's the same problem with TWI, paba is so great at writing new things, Characters, locations, arcs, etc, but they add so much new stuff that we are often left waiting months or even years to revisit plots.

There is no verticality. And that can really only change if paba moves on from the weekly release format and just sits down and writes a book and releases it all at once with help from editors. Otherwise we're just stuck in this zone of paba adding new characters while just straight up not sidelines once important characters. (Selys, olesm, calruz, anand for example)

Ignoring the fact that the series is actually good with great humor and interesting characters(so many fun characters that I genuinely can't pick a favorite). Also ignoring that sound booth theater and Jeff Hays are just the best(I seriously wish they did every audiobook).

But the biggest reason I say Chrysalis is the best audiobook adaptation is the "press the skip button if you don't want to hear the stats"

Chrysalis shows how poorly other litrpgs are adapted for the audio format. Listening to a new series now and it's so annoying hearing an almost 2 min status every chapter or every other chapter. If I have to hear "name *static*" one more time I'm gonna lose it.

And I know "you don't want to hear the status? Do you even like litRPGs and progression fantasies?"

I do. I love them but when I'm listening to an audiobook, I don't want to listen to the entire status after the MC gets a single skill or just a minor upgrade.

That's why I love the system in The wandering inn so much. No stats or stats screen, just the important bits like skill and class accusations, consolidations and changes and levels up. Especially love that there isn't an actual status menu. It's so simple and minimalistic but still allows for a lot of creativity.

Anyways, I really hope more audiobooks follow Chrysalis' example.