Deathworlders Home of Space Australians

[Sivarias]

Hello.

I was wondering if anyone here followed the web serial deathworlders by hambone.

https://deathworlders.com/

He updates a chapter a month. For those unfamiliar, in the early 2010's there was a rash of nerdy hypotheticals. Namely, what would it be like if we find out that we are the supermen of the universe. What if humanity isnt the weakest species in the galaxy. What if humanity is physically the strongest?

Well someone got inspired and wrote a green-text (wholesome for a change). That short story inspired and entire subreddit (hfy), and when hambone found out here continued the story.

So has anyone read it, or is anyone interested in starting it?

[InvisibleBison]

I read some of it a few years ago, and found it to be mediocre. The basic premise is quite interesting, but the worldbuilding was fairly shoddy - in particular, the stories really embraced the 'monocultural alien species' trope - and there was a rather extreme variance in the quality of the work, which I believe was due to there being multiple authors contributing to the project.

[Rynjin]

I read a fair bit of the original Jenkinsverse stuff. Got a few stories into the guy that gets picked up as an alien pet (and then rapidly escalates into being basically a strategic military weapon) before calling it quits. The last story I remember in any detail involved some of the aliens "quarantining" Earth by putting some kind of technobabble net around it that prevented space travel in or out.

I'd agree with InvisibleBison; premise is good, worldbuilding is shoddy due to its nature as a multi-author shared universe, and writing quality varies wildly.

Feel free to try and sell it to me though, if this version somehow ascends beyond the original work in some way.

[Razade]

I found a lot of it to be less than mediocre and just kinda people not understanding how basic technologies wouldn't seem all that shocking to an alien race with space travel. Like aliens not understanding why a species might want to change how hot or cold their food is and thus having technologies to change those states.

[Sivarias]

I read some of it a few years ago, and found it to be mediocre. The basic premise is quite interesting, but the worldbuilding was fairly shoddy - in particular, the stories really embraced the 'monocultural alien species' trope - and there was a rather extreme variance in the quality of the work, which I believe was due to there being multiple authors contributing to the project.

It starts off that way somewhat. I've gone back and re-read from the beginning and was surprised at how bad some of the writing was, but I can truthfully say it gets MUCH MUCH better.


I read a fair bit of the original Jenkinsverse stuff. Got a few stories into the guy that gets picked up as an alien pet (and then rapidly escalates into being basically a strategic military weapon) before calling it quits. The last story I remember in any detail involved some of the aliens "quarantining" Earth by putting some kind of technobabble net around it that prevented space travel in or out.

I'd agree with InvisibleBison; premise is good, worldbuilding is shoddy due to its nature as a multi-author shared universe, and writing quality varies wildly.

Feel free to try and sell it to me though, if this version somehow ascends beyond the original work in some way.

Sounds like you read Human's Don't Make Good Pets. Which was a fantastically satirical story based in the same universe. The Earth being quarantined is part of the main hambone story-line though. Honestly, if multiple authors are ruining it for you, I would just read the Hambone sections. It's the main story, and any side characters from other authors that become players on the galactic stage inevitably end up being folded into the main story-line. The Xui-Chang saga is an excellent example of that. That being said, you get brought up to speed pretty quick, so if you find you don't like a particular author, just skip his bits. It's why I never read the "Human Disaster" story-line. It was just too much.


I found a lot of it to be less than mediocre and just kinda people not understanding how basic technologies wouldn't seem all that shocking to an alien race with space travel. Like aliens not understanding why a species might want to change how hot or cold their food is and thus having technologies to change those states.

I have no idea what you are talking about. I'm wracking my brain here for what story line that might be from, but I'm coming up blank. Are you sure it wasn't just some side story on the HFY subreddit you're thinking of?