It's been a while since my 23rd read-through and I had made some important name changes, so I wanted to see how things flow now. As far as I can tell, all the name changes were positive and fit in naturally. The fictional character hall of fame is better than ever. It's remarkable how the 10th generation of kids have as good names to call upon as the 1st. There's really no apparent dropoff in quality as the book proceeds.
As new series with new good characters come out, it's always possible to improve the name gallery further, but even as things stand I'm perfectly content. The book could never change again and it would still be the best book ever written.
On my 24th read-through I still caught some spelling and arithmetic errors, which are now mercifully corrected, but it's always been my stance that I need to keep re-reading the book until I make it to the end without having to edit anything. The 24th try failed at this goal as well, which means there will have to be a 25th. Oh well, 25 is a nice, rounder number anyway.
I love every chapter, scene and sentence in this book. (Go figure after polishing them all 24 times.) Ridiculously, the sex scenes are still as erotic as ever, and the heartfelt confessions are still as touching as ever. Even though I know exactly what's going to happen every step of the way it still hits like a brick. The only comparison I can make is to divine writ. It's long since surpassed all other fiction.
When I compare how much is quickly mentioned in passing in this book, versus how every single event was narrated in torturous detail in the recent Sword of Truth series, I can't help but luxuriate in what superior writing this is. The reader is assumed to be an intelligent person who can grasp connections and read into things and figure stuff out for themselves, it doesn't all have to be ploddingly described at 0 miles per hour for them to get the picture. And due to this, '100 Waifus' is able to cover such an enormously larger amount of content -- real, meaningful, heartfelt emotions and moments and people -- than Sword of Truth, even though it's written with far fewer words. And for a book titled Sword of Truth, it sure lies to the reader a lot, letting them think people are sick or dead when they're actually fine, just to create a bunch of fake drama. Meanwhile my book actually deals honestly with the reader and never shies from describing exactly what Christopher thinks. It treats the reader like an adult, a partner to be reasoned with, not a mark to be conned.
Chapter 55 really struck me this time as being a standout homerun. I managed to cover so many characters in so short a time, with a deep enough peek into their psychology to leave a powerful and lasting impression. The density of emotion to words, insight to words, characterization to words, is unmatched. I came out of it feeling like every waifu, all 100, had been given a chance to shine, and it was okay to end the book now.
Maybe someday I'll continue the adventures of '100 Waifus,' I'll suddenly have more to say and plop in more adventures into the timeline, but I can't think of what. It feels like all the truths of the universe can already be found in the story as written. Forget kindergarten, all I need to know I learned in '100 Waifus.'
For those who still haven't read the series yet, here are the helpful links to get started:
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