r/WanderingInn

So I just caught up with the audio book and instead of ralking about how much I love this series, I am going to complain about my least favourite character. It's not entirely rational but smth about him just ticks me off.

Specifically about him co-winning the Titans tournament.

Iiiii didn't care for that tbh. The reasoning why he won, I mean. And I get it. He didn't just win because he is a rich kid, but also because he is a logistical genius.

But that everyone keeps telling him that's it's totally fine that he gets to use his vast wealth to get an advantage over the other kids kinda ticks me off more than it should.

If I was a poor kid who had to work my ass off to get into this academy and then plan for weeks for a small chance to win a tournament just for the Titan to give the rich kid an extra win because he is smart or whatever, I would be pretty pissed.

And yeah, boohoo, he wants to do it for his family, which he owes to ask a question now...... NOPE rich kid Will gets away with that too and gets to go on a fun adventure because his Professor likes him.

He lost and got rewarded twice???? I mean I get that the Titan felt bad but at least let him give that important information to his family, let him have *some* struggles.

......okay I might irrationally hate Will. Sue me. The only noble I tolerate is Lyonette. And maybe Magnolia an Tyrion but my judgment is still open on that.

I mean he even gets his ass saved on his adventure! By that Pirate lady! Should have let him be skewered by a pirate skeleton, smh. At least the necromancer pirates could have turned his bourgeoisie ass into smth more useful, like a skelleton.

Sure, the undead released after Pisces raided her bones caused loads of chaos, but all things considered it didn't do that much damage. Archmage Nehkret was *the* necromancer in an era of necrocracies, where Khelta was just one small fry among many. You'd think her resting place would be on par with the Village of the Dead at the very least.

I've been racking my brain for a while now, and I think if I was able to get an alchemist or a blacksmith to take me on id likely never go hungry. And with how much we'd level compared to others, I think i could become a master work forger since id actually have ambitions and passion for the work. Then again the best cooks in the world are also on a similar level imo, and I can imagine Magnolia taking me in just because of this.

I'm currently reading through the book in full on the website and so far I'm at 7.22D, so please don't spoil anything past that.

So far, I find that despite the extreme length of the novel, the individual chapters and arcs are quite well paced, I'm especially fond of Volume 4 and 5's Goblin chapters and Interludes.

However, this falls apart entirely specifically for K-lettered/Flos Reimarch chapters. Good god, they are so slow, there was a block of seven Flos chapters in a row where literally nothing happened, I cannot stress this enough, I did the math, 7 chapters of this book is the size of an entire average novel, Wistram Days was 7 chapters and so much happened in that interlude it's one of my favourite parts so far.

On top of being slow, I am halfway through book 7 out of 10, and they still have yet to have any relevance to the rest of the world - Flos announced his return, then nobody anywhere did anything about it, and it doesn't even get mentioned anymore.

On top of that, all the characters other than Gazi are unlikeable and shallow, Trey and Teres are annoying at the best of times, and Flos himself seems to be renting out the Baki narrator with how hard the universe bends over backwards to glaze him.

Also this is it's own thing, but the Flos chapters have a really strange approach to the topic of slavery.

I once stopped reading for months because I couldn't handle another Flos chapter they're such slogs, eventually I decided to just start skimming/skipping them.

Anyway the rest of the book is peak but I had to get off my chest just how gruelling the Flos chapters are, I think Volume 7 in particular hasn't lived up to the first 6 books in my eyes because of the high density of Flos chapters as well as all the major groups currently being in "downtime" such as the goblins being scattered and recuperating.

Is Fierre still a level 7 assassin? Did she level/got more levels after drinking blood?

Terandria is the Human continent, but before the Hundred Heroes conquered it, it was considered a wild land. Where did all the humans come from before they took Terandria?

“Time has power, as does place.”

Winter Solstice is the fourth book in The Wandering Inn and by now I think someone reading these books is either in, or they’re out and me personally, I’m firmly in the former camp. I can honestly say that I’ve fallen in love with The Wandering Inn as a series, and I’ve been enjoying myself immensely with every entry and of course Winter Solstice is no exception to that, but I do have to admit that this one is my least favorite so far.

I feel as though up to now, despite the slice-of-life nature of the story, The Wandering Inn has been building momentum towards the next large story beat, but it Winter Solstice departs from that and feels more like a long side story, which it basically is.
I’m not necessarily complaining that the plot here is more focused on the characters just existing, and I do enjoy the Wistram days chapters but it does feel like a lot mor “relaxed” than I had personally expected. So for me at least the plot is lacking.

The good news though is that the characters continue to be the strongest part of this series and despite the plot being less interesting, I can’t say the same about the povs we get in this entry. From seeing the backstory of Ceria and Pisces, to more from Rags, to Erin’s return to the Inn, all of the characters are immensely enjoyable to follow throughout the novel. I again found myself grinning like an idiot at several parts and near emotional devastation at others, which to me highlights the strength Pirateaba has as an author for getting you invested into the world they are creating.

Overall Winter Solstice is a good entry into The Wandering Inn, even though I didn’t love the plot in this one as much as pervious entires, I did still find immense pleasure in just getting to be with the characters. I continue to be amazed by how good these books are and I’m very much looking toward to seeing what happens next. 8.5/10

Piesces one's in Roshal. It was like looking at the abyss with no escape. But true character's who shine the most were not our hero( Piesces) but others like Cawe, Eloquoa and others. This story shows that low level people are the greatest and they always tell there is more than misery. That is why I hate Flos, it's like giving a child,all the strength.

Still waiting for the chapter to come out free but anyone else see the word "interlude" and groan at the pacing? Right now Erin's story feels like it's in a holding pattern, the inn is ahead in the timeline, and the horns are mostly just hanging out before they move on. The POVs I feel will move things forward are Rabbiteater/Seraphel as the Hareld is tracking them down, Nerin as opening that city will have consequences, and Niers can intersect with either of them. I find Liska a fun character but after the Silver Swords made tracking the timeline hard I want to see the story move forward to definitively smooth out timeline issues

OR THE SIXTEEN MONTHS OF THE YEAR

ALSO WE DON'T KNOW IF LEAP YEARS EXIST

“So adventuring’s bringing in money?”

Vok stared at a spinning eyeball someone was gingerly picking up, and the Drake laughed.

"'Course it is! Even brings in food, although you have to cook everything from the dungeon twice as long. We're getting plenty of customers from all kinds of cities with the magic door."

Railand has a tough time against Mother Of Graves...

Tetriarch says it’s not a real revolution in magic and that he is embarrassed to use Thersk’s magic. But the beast of Albez was said to exist before the long night when magic and levels were at their peak. Also the legend of the Kofte tribe seemed very old but it had to be after Albez because the beast of Albez was killed there. Also the power level of the mages in Albez is very inconsistent.

[Arcmages] were not uncommon before Zelkly’s time which is recent history. Despite this the best mages in Albez like Thersk and Udatron were not [Arcmages].

Both the turnscale community and the wider populace.

For not-turnscales I assume they hardly know of her. In the beginning of volume 10, Fae!Onieva speaks with some representatives who want to talk with Saliss, and they only recognize her name when she talks about delivering Saliss' potion of temporary youth. Understandable with Onieva only existing for six to nine hours every two weeks or every week at best. In the watch, Quissa identifies her as the "Drake with the club" from raids on turnscale bars. (Brief aside: Saliss/Onieva really deserves [Barfighting] or [Favorite terrain: Bars] as a - possibly learned - skill with the amount of fighting in bars we see!)

Now, in the turnscale community, Onieva is a known fixture, an architect, known even in other cities such as Oteslia. But what does the common turnscale think she is? We hear a lot of her discussions with Mirn, which would tell any listener that Saliss=Onieva, but since both are very secretive, with Saliss nearly always employing privacy spells, I don't believe that is common knowledge. So would Pallassian turnscales think she's simply a lesbian? An ally willing to risk life and limb? Compounding that issue is Saliss at one point pondering that the Eyes of Pallass might know about Onieva=Saliss, but Onieva refusing to distribute potions that could only be made by Saliss in the turnscale community. So Onieva=Saliss being known in the turnscale community remains unclear.

Thoughts?

EDITED to add (+fixed spelling): Also, what is Onieva's legal identity? Does she legally exist, has a passport, is perhaps even registered as an alchemist in the guild? Do we know anything about that? I think Chaldion could easily have a passport created for Onieva, but it seems unlikely he'd acknowledge her that way.

Sometimes characters say something, smart competent and powerful characters, that makes it seem like they forgot how leveling works. Flos dismissing guns cause he can shut off combustion and Magnolia treating guns like just another weapon are one big example I can think of. Guns can be enchanted to make interference harder and skills would come to exist for specific types of guns

Another big example was the creation of the bloodbank. They looked at the number of blood types and called it "not practical but a useful thing to have" I look at the issue and my thought is they need to train blood healers. Skills tend to deal with need, desire, experience, and deed (even more so for capstones). Train blood healers and I expect skills that would create more blood than you draw, purify blood, or allow blood types to change

In addition in feudal countries with leveling I would expect to see lords/ladies designed from birth to either fix an issue or embody a specialization. From what we've seen that appears to be the exception, not the rule. Like with the blood banks if I were a King I'd go to one of my nobles and tell them to have a kid raising them as a lord/lady of blood healing. For how much freedom characters appear to have they sure like to mock democracy a lot, makes it easy when the biggest difference appears to be taxes. A king ordering a noble something like that makes sense but a democracy ordering something like that sounds silly

How powerful is the King of Kelt? I feel of all the people in the world he would have insight into what's going on In Noelictus.

We've been told that immortality/long life limits the rate that you level. Goblins are apparently exceedingly long lived. Antinium (or atleast centenium) are functionally immortal based on Klbkchs age.

We've been told that healing potions reduce experience gain.

Antium have healing gel and ressurection.

We've been told that level 30 by 30 is prodigious and 50 by 50 is generational talent.

Yet we have Gary a 2 year old baker that is now level 45, we have Redscar an 8 year old goblin that is level 52.

I feel like weve been repeatedly told that leveling is hard and high levels are extremely rare but what weve been shown doesn't line up.

Anything stated in the story that might outline their characteristics, culture or powers. Or even speculation based on the novel or just D&D rules.