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I really want to read this series, but I’m a bit hesitant because English isn’t my first language. I’m worried it might use difficult words or complex language. I’ve mostly read YA fantasy, so I’m wondering if I should give this series a try. What do you think?

I know this is an older video but I’m about 100 pages in and just cannot get into this book. I wasn’t really aware that this was/is more a YA series. It has an interesting premise and ideas that I like but the writing is so stale. It feels worse than harry potter in terms of its simplicity. Literally within the pages I’ve read I feel like it’s just handing me the premise without any level of subtlety. Its allegories are comically obvious. The prose of the writing hasn’t done anything to impress me, as someone who likes to highlight passages that are beautiful or though provoking, I haven’t highlighted a single thing with the first parts of this book. Darrow being thrust into this word and basically being told you need to become the most capable and important person in the world, when 5 minutes ago he didn’t even know it existed at all, but here’s some surgery and training over the course and 10 pages and you’re ready, and he accepts it like ok cool, I’m mad I was a slave so I’ll do it. Idk maybe it gets better but unlike Harry Potter or dune he’s not a chosen one. He literally is created to fake it til you make it and something about that, again so far, feel inauthentic and weird. Going to try and finish the first book at least but came here looking for some reasoning as to why these book are so popular.

I made a decision decades ago not to start a series until it has been completed. I don't care for unfinished stories whatever the reason my be. Looks like GRRM is going to save me a lot of time. My money is on him dying before he finishes this series.

I just finished The Wind Through The Keyhole. So far I believe the series is incredibly overrated, especially Wizard and Glass Idk, I started reading King around 85. Perhaps if I started them earlier, I would like them more. Ii am going to see things through though and finish the series

I was like bro really spent a dozen $Gs on the Malazan hardcover set and then the plot twist 😂

Oh my, who is cutting onions? Thank you for this incredibly important and amazingly done video. This made me tear up, but it also gives me hope today. ❤

All of your criticisms fail to take into account how this is a first person recounting of events from long ago. Of course someone you make themselves look smarter, forget about awkward interactions or leave them out, make their enemies look flat and one-dimensional. Of course a teenager would find women unpredictable, etc.

Man...a shame that it's mot written in a more accessible way. More might be willing to dive in and stay the course 😊

Great content!

I am a big fan of the Shin Megami Tensei video game series that features a post-apocalyptic world where most of humanity has been wiped out and the world is overrun with demons. I've been looking for a book series with this same setting and this seems like a good one!

Bro I legit thought those were actually books on your shelf XD

I was 7,8,9 when the movies came out and tried to read the books after watching the movies but it was such a hard read at that age. Never got back to it :(

I feel like magicians nephew and lion witch and wardrobe are ok but man horse and his boy and last battle did not. The kids do blackface in last battle and 99 percent of the calormen who are pretty much stated to be Arab are all portrayed as evil

02:06 I'm not sure I'll agree... Having heard Dan Vasc's cover! That's a tough act to follow... I think I just will listen your take on the books.

🤚 I'm one of the 2 who've never heard of this 🤓😟😔🙃

I had the great opportunity to play Granny Weatherwax in Wyrd Sisters. We played for a week. It was a fabulous experience. I treasure the memories. 🤓🌻

I subscribed for the intro alone

“He’s been gone half a century and still publishes more often than George RR Martin.”

Really hope youll give The Black Company Chronicle s try one of these days! Try ro make it halfway through the second book before giving up if you do!

You gotta do the Three-body Problem Series next year!

I find funny how you put picture of Neuschwanstein Castle, build by Gay King with 0 actual power and no interest in ruling. While somehow dont mention British monarchy, especially you being Australian and since British Monarchy still acutaly claim to have divine right to rule.

If Sanderson is writing in three acts rather than five that would explain rather a lot

It's not worth reading. One of the worst book series i had unfortune to read.

What kind of question is that? OF COURSE YOU SHOULD READ THE BOOKS!!! Think of the films as illustrations.

In regards to reading muscles: I wasn't much of a reader, read the odd book here and there but it definitely wasn't my hobby. then I watched the first season of the TV show and after I couldn't wait to find out how it continues, so I grabbed the books - oh boy, I sped through them, never having read anything so fast. it was literally my gateway into reading and I've been chasing that ever since (read some great books but the only series that could capture that feeling again for me was the expanse)

Inb4 Doors of Stone

I read the stand and saloms lot. And loved those books. I am ready I hope lol

I wish the book was written in the way you are describing it XD I couldn't even get through the sampling of this book, I just couldn't get over the writing. When I reached a whole page dedicated to describe how hot the main character was that she glanced over for like 2 seconds, I couldn't go further.

This series is not perfect in any way, shape or form, but boy is it engrossing and entertaining! Thank you for the really encouraging review! 😊

No violence in the first book??? The end of the first act sees a whole community of people brutally slaughtered. One woman is raped to death and her husband crawls 20 feet with his intestines spilling out just to be next to her when he dies. To be fair the rape is implied but still extremely violent

violence is very natural. life is violent in its nature, to survive means to consume other life. And no life wants to be consumed, so it is inherently violent.

Im laughing at the review because its so true. Loved the criticisms. The ending was such an anti-climax considering the build up. The whole series was still enjoyable but could've been done in 15 books. Some of those last books I wondered if I stumbled into some other story and author lol.

Just finished the Corwin cycle and was wary on starting the Merlin books. But you’ve sold me on them :) Cheers!

Shut up about your stupid DEI crap.

I would love to see your review of the shatter me series!

I'm going to share my trouble with reading just as message to other people who may be struggling. I'm from the US (one of the green states on that map), and I have struggled with dyslexia my entire life. Reading has ALWAYS felt like a chore to me. But I have just recently jumped back into reading books at the ripe old age of 32, and only having read 2 or 3 books in all my life prior. The key for me with reading was finding out the rest of the storyline being more rewarding the not reading because its can be hard for me. I happened to get sucked into The Licanius Trilogy and now I'm hungry for more. Those first 100 pages were tough but once I got into the groove it became easier.

I mean, yeah King rarely does series, but Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch were a trilogy

wheeloftimeisms

Hilo is among my favourite characters ever. To go from my most hated to my most loved over the series shows how excellent Fonda's character writing is

I'm not gonna lie, I don't get it. I've read the entire series, and for me, it was worth reading--once. I sincerely wish I could enjoy this series as much as so many other people seem to, but for me, it barely came out on the side of justifying the time it took to read. I felt that the characters became repetitive and boring (not to mention some of whom were, in my opinion, insufferable,) slow, painful narrative that felt like a protracted, written narrative of Breath of Fire II and a magic system that was slowly degraded from something wonderful, powerful and mysterious into a system that was way to OP but accessible by too many characters. Having said that, there are spaces in the books that are definitely imaginative and impressive. Just not my cup of tea.

Tolkien's work is not what limits fantasy, it is simply imagination (or lack thereof) that creates artificial limitations. For artists who feel entrapped by Tolkien's legacy, do what Tolkien himself did and find the boldness to find your own world or space with its own rules.

Here's my overview: read the first 3 books, then read the synopsis for books 4-11, then read the last 3 books. you're welcome.

That was a great series overview. I've read most of them and I agree broadly with most of what you say, particularly the love for the Empire trilogy, that's among my favourites across all genres. Very few disagreements with your conclusions generally. I think this series is a great example of no-strings-attached adventure narrative without subtext, allegory, political message, hidden agendas or anything (yeah, the sexism, but it's surely inevitable given the faux-medieval setting...), just universally enjoyable escapist entertainment. The 'tropiness' is I feel a very postmodern criticism, given the concept of tropes didn't exist when Feist was creating the basic world of these books; it's a valid criticism for a certain type of audience, sure, but like tropes in general it's not necessarily bad. The observation on the flatness of the prose is a really good point, and again not necessarily a bad thing; it makes them simple to read and get into, and if the books weren't such doorstops I'd encourage people learning English as a second language to read them as a way to improve multiple skills.

Amazing video. Haven't heard of this series before but now I'm very interested and I'm surprised that I haven't heard about this series before

Wonderful! Thanks a lot!

I started reading the first book in rehab when I was completely cut off, finished it in infantry osut, still my favorite book series

I loved the first three books and hated the fourth and fifth. The end of the series may end up being great but I think it has lost me. I would need to read the whole thing again in preparation for the reading the last book. I don’t want to have to read A Feast of Crows and A Dance with Dragons again.

You forgot the British mini series that came before the books and way better than the movie

OMG, I love the curious case of the dog in the night-time!!

I have read the Demon Cycle, I enjoyed them .... To a point. Thought they were quite repetitive. Enjoyable enough though.