Summary: Steampunk biotech intrigue thriller
Format: Web serial (aka a prose fiction series published for free online)
Author: Wildbow, also famous for the superhero series Worm
Related Works: Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, Ghost in the Shell

Reasons to read it:

• The most inventive fictional biotech of all time.
• 'What if Victor Frankenstein had as much impact as James Watt?'
• Complicated relationships between 5 characters, each of whose brain has been upgraded in a different way.
• Wait, the British Empire is doing what in this timeline?
• The (many) superintelligent characters use strategies that are rarely seen in fiction yet often universally applicable. Fictional characters in other stories could really learn from Twig!
• Lots of fun stagecoach heists, spycraft shenanigans, battles of wits, & mid-battle plot twists.
• A unique mix of very abstract psychological plotlines & very grounded, tactile presentation.

Reasons to skip it:

• The whole series sums to 5,000 pages. (HPMoR is 2,000.) Perhaps start with just the first arc.
• Some of the monsters & exotic forms of torture are terrifically gruesome.
• The main character is a jerk.

https://twigserial.wordpress.com/