Wandering Inn: Tears of Liscor (spoiler review) by pirateaba

[@jennyking1773]

One of the things that I love in this series is how much time and space you are given to deal with the consequences of major events - you saw it after Zel and you get it after this book. I think I spent so much of the next book crying!

[@Valdonkis]

The city is Liscor, the continent is Izril (or Issrysil if you're feeling fancy). On the matter of Tyrion's retreat. He was using the goblins as a pretext to invade Liscor. But then the goblin army is destroyed and that pretext is gone. However, he's still committed to the plan and willing to attack without the pretext on the belief that he can hold Liscor afterwards. But then Magnolia appears. And while Tyrion is willing to call her "bluff" the other lords who form his army are not. So at that point Tyrion accepts that he can't take Liscor. However, he still wants to hurt the Drakes. So he calls the traditional Bloodfield conflict so he can bloody them there and basically vent his rage.

[@WitchyWater]

Andrea is amazing. She gives 100% of herself. And has continued to get better each time I listen to her work. On top of that she is such a genuine and kind person.

[@miawithahat7218]

I am literally only here for the TWI content. This series is criminally underrated.

[@Archonsx]

wdym bro, its so long, no one has time for that

[@reatter]

It's about 40 books long. I know people who have read more than 40 books.

[@orepoutanes]

​@@Archonsxif something is worth it, you can find the time

[@oscarteixeira3954]

Rains of liscor, blood of liscor and tears of liscors make up Volume 5, thats why it felt like a trilogy

[@jessezigg]

And all three were SO incredible and SO intense!

[@MiguelArguelles]

It's funny, because the baseball was a top... well, at the time, it was definitely a top ten chapter for me, but there have been too many top chapters now and at this point keeping a list's become futile. But I like that it's got something for everyone, and that not everything is for everyone--at this point in the series, I really wasn't interested in Flos, for example. Anyway, I was one of those excited for you to get here, because this is where for me, the story went from "this is a fun story to distract me for an hour a week" to "oh god I gotta get more people reading this book", for all the reasons you said. Like, when the Halfseekers survived the showdown just before the actual showdown, I was like "oh come on", but then that ending came and... wham. I'm glad you mentioned wanting the story to go more global, because I actually came in here to mention that the next volume onwards is where the people who are a bit too married to Erin start to get worried that her presence is diminishing in favor of the world expanding quite drastically--it sounds like this won't be a problem for you, thankfully. In terms of the next overarching and globe-spanning story, there's definitely one and it's vaguely hinted at in the next few volumes, but it won't truly take shape until much much later; fortunately, most if not all of the stories where you learn about the future major players (who are based all around the world) are engrossing enough to read on their own despite having no obvious throughline or connection to events in Izril. I mentioned not liking Flos, but in the next couple of books, Chandrar-based chapters in particular start (slowly) working their way up from being my most disliked chapters to some of the highlights of the series.

[@marilise1987]

I love that you talk spoilers! And I absolutely love this series, mostly because of the characters and world building. Amazing!

[@soulofshukaku]

I actually adore the baseball chapter. In my mind, it is more of a 'calm after the storm' than a 'calm before'. Coming from the web serial, the Baseball chapter comes right after the Raskghar arc, which was long, tortuous, and terrifying for everyone involved. Bringing out baseball is so in character for Erin as she brings up everyone's spirits and tries so hard to normalize goblins at the same time. It is also a lighthearted palette cleanser after the tough fighting the day before, story-pacing-wise. I actually really enjoy Erin's propensity to bring Earth-things to Innworld. I think mayyyybe it can be a bit cringey at times, but that's because the reader (likely) has tons of baseball context, and so the explaining and demonstrating can get a bit tiresome. But I still love it. There's one short scene with Erin and Selys (i think it was selys) where the Drake asks Erin about her own experience playing baseball, and Erin shoots back with: "I don't really like baseball that much. My game is chess" and Selys is so surprised that Erin has spent all day on a huge production and organizing games and bringing everyone together for a sport she's just 'meh' on. But she knows what a field day feels like, the comfort and joy of a day just spent hearing a ball go crack in the background while you eat a hotdog and chat with your friends, and she recreates it with some extra rules regarding invisibility and flight. And pitches so hot they burn through the gloves. Any way I can convince you to like that chapter a bit more? It really is perfectly placed at the end of an arc, not at the start of one, like occurs in the audiobook.

[@marcustecarro720]

Always happy when a new wandering inn review of yours drops, and welcome to the 2nd arc of the Wandering Inn! This one goes up until the end of Volume 8 (in my opinion, others might disagree). The latest audiobook that just dropped (14, hells wardens) has my absolute favorite chapters of the series, can't wait for you to catch up!

[@1957DLT]

Volume 8 was so much! So.Much.

[@Chilled_wind]

Congratulations for being done the first total “arc” of the first 5 volumes and now moving into the second/current arc! Also time for even more of what you like but better !

[@ColdfFlare]

... I'm pretty sure there's one more arc before he gets to the current one... don't you consider *spoiler* A certain person on ice and kaligma to be the next arc?

[@danryyu9638]

@@ColdfFlare Volume 1-5 is the first arc, Volume 6 is an Interlude, 7-10 (etc) is arc 2.

[@pau5781]

Liscor is the city, Izril is the continent. Flos is the King of Destruction

[@Chandichada]

I had to laugh out loud by some of your thoughts on the future storyline! You have seen nothing yet. It gets better, bigger, more dramatic, more epic!

[@kaelin5778]

Honestly, this series is quickly becoming one of my favorites in all of fantasy. I have read ALOT of fantasy

[@UnsureNope]

Thanks for the review! Can confidently say that it keeps getting better. Would be interested to see a video of your top 10 characters up to this point (and why Bird is 1)

[@orepoutanes]

Finished this one and going straight to the next! What am amazed at, is the world building... From where it started, to multiple crazy things going on, the nations involved, the multiple characters and the possibilities of how they might interact with each other and how they will go up against the "final bosses" of the world...

[@arymuhammad7549]

Just FYI the wandering inn is the longest fantasy that is originally published in English, If you count other languages some Chinese novels are longer like (martial god asura) is more that 6000 chapters and I think it's estimated to be more that 15 million words as of last year and it's still ongoing, another one is " bringing the farm to Live in another world" is an ongoing Chinese novel that is over 15000 chapters and over 20 million words

[@nluu8132]

Martial God Asura is absolutely garbage though lol

[@arymuhammad7549]

@nluu8132 no argument here

[@eletronfinale1866]

Ergenverse as a whole has over 8k chapters, and Soul Land expanded also has more chapters than I can count

[@ApinofArc]

@arymuhammad7549 oh, so twi will be the longest in about 2 months? 😂

[@tea1722]

One simple rule of a thumb, is that when Wandering Inn books coincide with the end of Wandering Inn volumes one should be ready for fireworks. They may not always be perfect, in fact they rarely are, but they always will contain events that pack the strongest punch.

[@johnsparegrave5996]

OMG you even have the sweater!

[@MattsFantasyBookReviews]

The frying pan is hiding on the shelf behind me :)

[@Alkemisti]

My interest in these books is growing all the time, sub-consciously on the back of my mind. I guess I have to put them on my reading list.

[@thenecator4791]

Man I'm the complete opposite in terms of wanting a global threat lol. I feel like every damn fantasy book just HAS to have a world ending threat that makes our heroes go global and travel the world to save it or some shit like that. What got me addicted to TWI was that it's mostly focused on this one city and this inn and the life of everyday citizens there with the occasional city destroying threat thrown in 😅. And we get a few PoVs of other Earthers that are really good too, like the geneva one! But i guess this volume showed us that this series can't stay a cozy book about an innkeeper forever :/.

[@TheConnor712]

Couldn’t click fast enough. Half way through Wind Runner and it’s my fav so far. You got me hooked!

[@OrionWolfGaming]

It just keeps getting better and better. :)

[@soulofshukaku]

The 'flower seller' you're thinking of is our dearly departed [Florist], who died in the company of the Redfang Warriors during the last defence of Esthelm. No name was ever given - only the [Florist].

[@EruIluuvatar]

I've only just finished tome 3 (flowers of esthelm), and cannot wait to move forward in this incredible story.

[@kaelin5778]

I just finished hells wardens, and im "bummed" that i am going to have to start physically reading now.

[@OrionWolfGaming]

My wife is an audiobook only reader, so you could just wait. But i'm with you, I couldn't and had to read what happens next.

[@ApinofArc]

I actually read those chapters myself. I plan to go back and listen to the audiobook soon. Because I ~need~ to hear the ending to volume 6 acted out by Andrea.

[@OrionWolfGaming]

@@ApinofArc I'm personally waiting for the volume 1 re-write to come out on audiobook to start my re-listen of the series.

[@ApinofArc]

@@OrionWolfGaming interesting. Not sure when that's happening. I can already see the pre-order for garden of sanctuary. So it might be a bit of a wait for you.

[@OrionWolfGaming]

@@ApinofArc The book 1 rewrite has already been recorded, over a year ago actually. So just waiting on the 'release'.

[@genariohh389]

my god, i really need to start this series 😅

[@MattsFantasyBookReviews]

Yes, yes you do!

[@terrencedoiron-francis2617]

please read it it's great. listen to the audio books they are soo good

[@jessezigg]

I really, REALLY wish I had a friend IRL who was reading this series. I'm absolutely desperate to be able to just chat about it mindlessly! 😂 I've done ALL of the books on audiobook, and it just doesn't get any better! Her Antynium just absolutely blow me away!! I follow along with the audiobooks online with the web serial, mostly because I enjoy seeing the spellings of the names & places.

[@MattsFantasyBookReviews]

Come join my discord, there are a ton of friends there to chat about it with!

[@orepoutanes]

Same here.. 😭 She is TOP tier in the audiobook and consistent with every character voice

[@myfirstnovel]

I have actually been reading NOTHING but TWI for the past year… not even kidding. Now on book 14, so caught up with ebooks and moving on to website soon. Tears was amazing and aptly named. I thought the next one a big letdown personally, no spoiler here, and maybe you won’t. I read somewhere that they are maybe interludes that were gathered here in one volume to help the narrative along, which is maybe why it felt like running in place? But don’t give up, because the next 3 pickup again. Still don’t know where she’s going though… 😅

[@braillemasterjustin]

Yeah the problem with book 10 is that’s it’s not even the first quarter of volume 6. So we’re building toward something but that doesn’t work as a stand alone section.

[@pau5781]

The latest audiobooks are shorter, so we can definitely catch up (I'm also in book 9). Hopefully

[@ApinofArc]

Not sure if you've read the webnovel, or if you're strictly audiobooks. But something in this review made me laugh so, so, so hard. Oh, it'll be glorious when you reach that volume. (Hopefully no one in comments spoiled it)

[@m3gatrelos77]

You'll rue this day... so disrespectful to Brunkr.

[@JDJETS]

That’s so funny I loved the baseball chapter haha, there’s so much in this series I’m sure everyone has stuff they love and hate

[@velcrocee7886]

It’s a shame I can’t get past the first book. I never feel compelled to pick it up and continue reading. Then u put out a glowing review like this and I start the cycle of reading it again and leaving it lay for months without picking it up. Any suggestions?

[@MiguelArguelles]

(This is my second long reply in this comment section; hope I'm not being weird about it.) Depends what your problem is--if it's the awkwardness of pirate's beginner prose in v1, then you can switch to the website version, where v1 has been professionally edited (counterintuitively, the kindle version has NOT been professionally edited). However, if your problem is the pacing, that doesn't fix things and in fact paces it even slower, because the bread and butter of TWI is immersing the reader in the world, not in delivering a tight and succinct three act story. I would say there are two major milestones in v1 for judging the book--the first is when she meets the people capable of conversing with her; pirateaba's biggest strength is strong, well-defined character voices and fun interactions between them, so a lot of the early stuff of Erin surviving by herself is admittedly not the author putting their best foot forward. She meets people relatively early, so you can rest assured that she's not going to be spending fifty chapters trying to cut open a fish, but the stakes do remain pretty low--at this point it's carried by how much you enjoy reading about the characters, and by the humor, rather than any big plot events. If you're not enjoying this part by the time that she's teaching people about the "immortal game" (and don't worry, that's not a big spoiler despite how it sounds), I'm sorry to warn you that much of TWI is very much this kind of thing. Yes, it definitely grows out of that and they start having to concern themselves with bigger and bigger things... but I'm not the kind of person to tell you to read an absurd number of books to get to that point. The other milestone is the climax, where Big Serious Things happen, and you also start to get a better sense of what the story intends to deliver to you--if you like this part, then rest assured that the story goes HARD when it does something serious, and it does a lot of serious things. But again, keep in mind that TWI never really becomes a high-octane 24/7 adrenaline rush; it's as much about forming bonds and rebuilding after bad things happen, as it is about fighting the bad things.

[@spyroskampanos7965]

​@MiguelArguelles thank you for your comment.I read about 50 chapters before acknowledging that this series is not for me

[@pau5781]

Try the audiobooks!

[@orepoutanes]

The audiobook is AMAZING!!

[@orepoutanes]

​@@MiguelArguellesthe only thing that I had to power through (and thank God I continued) was Erin in the first book and her behavior, I REALLY hated her!! But the characters developed quite nicely

[@Vradica]

Mostly a silent viewer, and I didn't really have a comment for this one.. I did however want you to know that I enjoy the spoiler reviews, and you get a view and a like for that :)

[@deso3673]

These audiobooks can't come out fast enough. Your discussion about the big bad made me wonder... what if Rags becomes the goblin king and Erin sides with her? Does that make Erin the big bad? So far the only characters that have made me feel uneasy is that Emir from Roshal, the Blighted King and the Grand Queen.

[@ambdubs]

SPOILER- I am so surprised you didn’t mention Garon Redfang or Pyrite dying! At the end of the book, after Pyrite and the three red fang hob goblins died, ngl, I cried a little 😢

[@olevam1]

I have started reading in September and have just finished book 5 on the Web novel (this book) - well, truth be told I am well in book 6 now oopps - it's a great series!! As per global conflicts, I think the main final villan will be in the land of demons, rihr - the antium at their strongest ran away from there...

[@1957DLT]

Tears of Liscor, huh? Keep reading, Matt...and buckle up.

[@Vojtechsroub]

Glokta is great, but Gorst in Heroes...) Anyway, I am recommending Wandering Inn to everyone...still think I will be among , probably, few guys who read it in Czech Rep.

[@Edog1337]

How is it you can read and love it, and most of Booktube reads book 1 for five minutes and says “not for me”? I say this as someone who is caught up and sees this as one of the top fantasy series ever written. My booktube is a dead trail of booktubers saying they will read it…and crickets 5 months later. Cant remark on your speculation 😮 Tyrion did nothing wrong

[@MattsFantasyBookReviews]

I dunno, but it's not everyone who says that. I know of 3 to 4 booktubers that are still regularly reading and reviewing it

[@myfirstnovel]

By the way, not to make you cry, but just came across a second baseball game in later books. Spoilery not spoilery. ;)

[@Henry-jp3mc]

Never read these but really should start I suppose 😂

[@PsychoticGamer115]

Man you have to catch up

[@TheBerserkerninja42]

Don't worry there will be plenty of global threats

[@MerkKrem-e3z]

Politics become a bigger thing and there are some global threats, keep reading!

[@koalaNerd1]

You’ve finished volume 5, so 23% of the current story. Don’t worry, global threats happen in the upcoming 75%. 😊

[@victorkarlsson5183]

I really can't stand the goblin stories, except the ones with the emperor. Otherwise Wandering Inn is so much fun. I really enjoy how it can switch from being silly and slice of life, to something grand and exciting, to very serious. Addition of emperor was so cool, but maybe it's because it's the only main char (so far) that's male and I'm biased to infrastructure and trebuchets lmao.

[@MattsFantasyBookReviews]

Laken is also male.

[@victorkarlsson5183]

@ yeah, he is the emperor. It was him i ment :)