One of my favorite series this year! I'm so glad you did this one. I hope more people read it. I also like that she wrote all the extra chapters and published River of Silver instead of adding extra chapters to all different editions.
I'm so glad you covered this! It's one of my favourite series ever, and while it's fairly well known I think it's SO underrated and more people should be reading it.
I loved this series. I thought it was interesting to have a main character whose magic was healing, a fairly uncommon choice in fantasy. Usually we see more flashy abilities. The character arcs were so interesting. Especially Dara and Ali. Also wanted to say I appreciate what you said at the end about how male authors typically get billed as high fantasy while women are relegated to YA. I think a lot of new female authors buy into this divide and self-id themselves as YA
I'm so happy that the library I picked this series up from had it shelved in the fiction section. I'm not a huge fan of YA books anymore, but I ate them up when I was 11-13. I respect the genre, and am happy that ppl love it, but it's just not my thing. This series however is fantastic.
Great review! I really love this series, especially Nahri and Ali. Both develop a lot as characters throughout the series and I adore their interactions with each other. The cyclone and thunder in the background was also kind of a spoiler for one scene in Book 3. You will see when you are there :D
Thank you so much for getting me to read this series! I am currently sitting here, only a view dozen pages left in The Empire of Gold and I am crying so hard. I looooooove this series so much, it just has everything that I love and more. Dara and Nahri are now one of my favourite characters of all time. And all just because you got me hyped for it, thank you so much !!!!
Just got into Sci-fi and Fantasy reading (bcs of Red Rising ofc), and found this channel(amazing). It would be great if u were to have a video with a guide for newcomers in these genres, maybe what series to try
Thanks friend! that's an interesting suggestion. I'm planning to do more young adult and middle grade fantasy books this year, as starting points for the genres. But I could do something more specific for total newcomers. I'll think on it.
Appreciate this review and preview. I read the first book last year and can now launch into Book 2 without a reread of Book 1 🙂. Will prioritize this series in 2024.
I picked up the first in this series from the library and wasn't sure if it was for me, but your video has made me decide to at least read the first one now. ❤
YA is usually represented by its worst novels. You could give any genre a bad rep by selective examples. Unfortunately negative reviews get more views on TH-cam and Tiktok 🤷🏼♀️ Thank you for your continued effort to awknowledge the diversity of gender/ethnicity/religion/sexuality in your videos 🙏
As a Bedouin descent, Knowledge of Djinn is still carried on, I remember watching my grandfather while camping drawing a large circle on the sands around our sleeping bags to block Djinn and snake possession. I don’t believe in this but I’m always interested where did this odd practice started from?
An other great video 🌻 this one was already on my tbr and am more excited for this one once I finally get through my tbr 🙃 which is long bc of all the great tips thank you for that! 😊
If you had to pick one of the two fantasy series: The Middle-earth books or The Chronicles of Narnia, which one do you like the most and why it's your best pick?
Great overview. Your video gives me more motivation to continue with the series (after being a bit disappointed with City of Brass). It's good to hear that the other books will be better and more mature, because (even without knowing that it was marketed as YA), I found the first book to feel kind of YA. It's not for the reasons that you mentioned, exactly, but more for Nahri's attitude, which seemed immature. The way her feelings for Dara were described made her sound like a starry-eyed teenager pining for the school quarterback (the audiobook narrator didn't do much to dispel that impression either). She also comes across as rather petulant. And while there were a lot of other aspects to the story beyond the romantic (i.e. the politics or mythology), the romantic aspects kept coming up a lot -- especially once the love triangle formed. That contributed substantively to making this book feel YA. Personally, I enjoyed it most whenever we got to the history of Daevabad and the tribes of djinn. I wish that was more the foreground of the story, and I hope there's more in the subsequent books. Thanks again for reviewing this series.
The graceling series by Kristin Cashore is another one marketed as YA, but I found it very enjoyable as an adult. Particularly, Bitterblue is an exploration of the trauma the two books before it resulted in.
I agree with you on the YA categorisation, I also felt like this is pretty clearly adult. For example, I feel like Mistborn is far more YA than this series, if we are comparing. I really enjoyed this series after avoiding it for a long while, because I thought it was “just about a love triangle” (It really is not) and apart from that has no plot (absolutely wrong, as you wonderfully described). Apart from this, I absolutely love how you construct these videos, thank you :)
I'm so happy for these discovery decembers, but i'mma hit you with a spoon for the R.F. Kuang suggestion. The books were droll and the characters dialogue, and actions just weren't well written. Ken Liu's The Grace of Kings, or Delilah Waan's Petition would have been better suggestions imo. I've already got The Daevabad Trilogy sitting on my shelf for when I finish up the Broken Empire trilogy
lol hit me with a spoon? Has someone been watching the horribly slow murderer with the extremely inefficient weapon? 😉 By all means, disagree with me, my friend. I stand by my recommendation of the Poppy War, but it doesn't have to be for you. I'll check out your other recommendations though! Thanks for that.
I have already read the first of these books, but this video did incline me a bit more to watch _Deep Space Nine._ I have been too deep in the _Babylon 5_ camp to seriously consider the competitor. Suleiman is absolutely King Solomon. Middle Eastern cultures have a lot of folklore about him, for example I have read that he had a ring that made him control spirits, and he made the spirits to build the temple of Jerusalem. There is also a lot of stuff about the Zoroastrian religion in this trilogy which is a very rare thing to see in western fiction.
I wasn't a huge fan of the first 2 books but loved the 3rd. I think it could have been a duology rather than a trilogy. Looking forward to reading more of Chakraborty's work I liked Nahri as a character but didn't really care for Dara until the last book. I think I actually liked the female characters in the book the best
I'm not trying to be one of those people who just comments to request something (especially since this was a very nice video and this trilogy sounds very interesting) but I do want to know - have you read the How To Train Your Dragon books? They seem juvenile at first but the series really builds momentum and has some of the best overt moral messages I've found in fiction. I love that series to death but it's quite different from the movies and I've never been able to talk people into reading it, I'd love a Book Guy video discussing the strengths and weaknesses :)
This is a really good suggestion! I've had the books on my mind for years, cause I love the movies so damn much! I'm adding them to my reading list now, just for you. ❤
Seeing what ppl think about Dara has been interesting. Me personally I absolutely love him and see myself in him especially during his cringe moments lol. He's very confused about what role he needs to play but i love how passionate and expressive he is. Very very brave but he needs the djinn equivalent of lithium. Nahri was fantastic and was inspiring due to her ability to poke holes thru ppls logic and use their words against them. All of the characters were well written even Muntandhir who is scum especially for ridiculing Ali during their competition. 😂😂
I'm not someone who needs to agree 100% with someone to enjoy their content, but this is the *second* time I have heard you spew the DS9 being the best star trek blasphemy. Three strikes and I'm out! 😂 (baseball referrance).
it seems like the author is putting hindu and islamic culture in the same basket. That's quite offending. Daeva are hindu gods and they don't exist in islamic culture. Jinns don't exist in hindu culture aswell. Hindu and islamic cultures don't come from the same cultures. hindu culture is one of the branches of indo european culture while islamic culture is part of the semitic culture
See, when I heard that there were some usage of Hindu terms and maybe even inspirations drawn from Hindu culture, and then mixed with Islamic culture I was only all the more curious and more eager to ead the book.... So can you tell me why the mixing or the inclusion of Hindu terms offensive to you. Was it done in poor taste? Or was there anything particularly discriminatory in nature or cultural appropriation? Just want to know your line of thought? Cuz to me these two groups have lived and ruled so close to one another that the culture being intermingled only seems natural... So please don't take my comment as an attack and do tell me why you feel like the author might have done something bad.😊
Ok that's fair, it does take place in Africa and not anywhere near India, so I do understand but I really hope you're not too offended and still give the book a try! Since I don't have a deep understanding of neither cultures, I can't defend or oppose anything, but I still wish you'll give this book a shot. 😊
Also, I might be wrong, but the book uses 'Daeva' which has it's useage in Persian folklore for basically fiendish spirits, so maybe that's what the author meant. Especially so, cuz the spelling, the general location of the book was probably constructed with middle East and north Africa as reference, also the general negative connotation the 'Daeva' term has in the book.
Cronk, you're such a thoughtful person. I appreciate you throwing in a couple of homages to Andre Braugher.
Glad you noticed! Andre's work meant a lot to me. Couldn't help including some clips. ❤
@@cronkthebookguy Same. Gideon's Crossing was one of my favorite shows back in the day.
One of my favorite series this year! I'm so glad you did this one. I hope more people read it. I also like that she wrote all the extra chapters and published River of Silver instead of adding extra chapters to all different editions.
I'm so glad you covered this! It's one of my favourite series ever, and while it's fairly well known I think it's SO underrated and more people should be reading it.
Hard agree!
Thanks to this vid, I'm gonna read it this year
I loved this series. I thought it was interesting to have a main character whose magic was healing, a fairly uncommon choice in fantasy. Usually we see more flashy abilities. The character arcs were so interesting. Especially Dara and Ali.
Also wanted to say I appreciate what you said at the end about how male authors typically get billed as high fantasy while women are relegated to YA. I think a lot of new female authors buy into this divide and self-id themselves as YA
Unrelated but the thunder in the background of this video is such a vibe haha 💛
I'm so happy that the library I picked this series up from had it shelved in the fiction section. I'm not a huge fan of YA books anymore, but I ate them up when I was 11-13. I respect the genre, and am happy that ppl love it, but it's just not my thing.
This series however is fantastic.
DS9 is my favorite too!
These books sound unique and fun, thanks for sharing them.
Great review! I really love this series, especially Nahri and Ali. Both develop a lot as characters throughout the series and I adore their interactions with each other. The cyclone and thunder in the background was also kind of a spoiler for one scene in Book 3. You will see when you are there :D
Thank you so much for getting me to read this series! I am currently sitting here, only a view dozen pages left in The Empire of Gold and I am crying so hard. I looooooove this series so much, it just has everything that I love and more. Dara and Nahri are now one of my favourite characters of all time. And all just because you got me hyped for it, thank you so much !!!!
@gloamony YES!!! I love this! So happy for you. Thank you for letting me know!
Just got into Sci-fi and Fantasy reading (bcs of Red Rising ofc), and found this channel(amazing). It would be great if u were to have a video with a guide for newcomers in these genres, maybe what series to try
Thanks friend! that's an interesting suggestion. I'm planning to do more young adult and middle grade fantasy books this year, as starting points for the genres. But I could do something more specific for total newcomers. I'll think on it.
Definitely going to give this series a try! It sounds very interesting. Thank you for your videos, they are very helpful.
Appreciate this review and preview. I read the first book last year and can now launch into Book 2 without a reread of Book 1 🙂. Will prioritize this series in 2024.
Todd here. Nice video Book Guy! One of my favorite books is The Tales of the Arabian Nights! Happy Holidays to you and your family!
I picked up the first in this series from the library and wasn't sure if it was for me, but your video has made me decide to at least read the first one now. ❤
The rain in the background is actually very soothing
Thank you for the thoughtful review!
YA is usually represented by its worst novels. You could give any genre a bad rep by selective examples. Unfortunately negative reviews get more views on TH-cam and Tiktok 🤷🏼♀️
Thank you for your continued effort to awknowledge the diversity of gender/ethnicity/religion/sexuality in your videos 🙏
Great overview!! Loved the Deep Space Nine reference. Definitely the best Star Trek
As a Bedouin descent, Knowledge of Djinn is still carried on, I remember watching my grandfather while camping drawing a large circle on the sands around our sleeping bags to block Djinn and snake possession. I don’t believe in this but I’m always interested where did this odd practice started from?
An other great video 🌻 this one was already on my tbr and am more excited for this one once I finally get through my tbr 🙃 which is long bc of all the great tips thank you for that! 😊
Could you do a video like this on Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series please?
Thanks for a great review!
If you had to pick one of the two fantasy series: The Middle-earth books or The Chronicles of Narnia, which one do you like the most and why it's your best pick?
Great overview. Your video gives me more motivation to continue with the series (after being a bit disappointed with City of Brass). It's good to hear that the other books will be better and more mature, because (even without knowing that it was marketed as YA), I found the first book to feel kind of YA. It's not for the reasons that you mentioned, exactly, but more for Nahri's attitude, which seemed immature. The way her feelings for Dara were described made her sound like a starry-eyed teenager pining for the school quarterback (the audiobook narrator didn't do much to dispel that impression either). She also comes across as rather petulant. And while there were a lot of other aspects to the story beyond the romantic (i.e. the politics or mythology), the romantic aspects kept coming up a lot -- especially once the love triangle formed. That contributed substantively to making this book feel YA. Personally, I enjoyed it most whenever we got to the history of Daevabad and the tribes of djinn. I wish that was more the foreground of the story, and I hope there's more in the subsequent books. Thanks again for reviewing this series.
Where I live (province of Québec in Canada), this serie is considered adult.
The graceling series by Kristin Cashore is another one marketed as YA, but I found it very enjoyable as an adult. Particularly, Bitterblue is an exploration of the trauma the two books before it resulted in.
I agree with you on the YA categorisation, I also felt like this is pretty clearly adult. For example, I feel like Mistborn is far more YA than this series, if we are comparing. I really enjoyed this series after avoiding it for a long while, because I thought it was “just about a love triangle” (It really is not) and apart from that has no plot (absolutely wrong, as you wonderfully described). Apart from this, I absolutely love how you construct these videos, thank you :)
The real question is am I going to watch Aladdin this afternoon…..?
This series is so good
I'm so happy for these discovery decembers, but i'mma hit you with a spoon for the R.F. Kuang suggestion. The books were droll and the characters dialogue, and actions just weren't well written. Ken Liu's The Grace of Kings, or Delilah Waan's Petition would have been better suggestions imo. I've already got The Daevabad Trilogy sitting on my shelf for when I finish up the Broken Empire trilogy
lol hit me with a spoon? Has someone been watching the horribly slow murderer with the extremely inefficient weapon? 😉
By all means, disagree with me, my friend. I stand by my recommendation of the Poppy War, but it doesn't have to be for you. I'll check out your other recommendations though! Thanks for that.
I have already read the first of these books, but this video did incline me a bit more to watch _Deep Space Nine._ I have been too deep in the _Babylon 5_ camp to seriously consider the competitor.
Suleiman is absolutely King Solomon. Middle Eastern cultures have a lot of folklore about him, for example I have read that he had a ring that made him control spirits, and he made the spirits to build the temple of Jerusalem. There is also a lot of stuff about the Zoroastrian religion in this trilogy which is a very rare thing to see in western fiction.
Oh I didn't know that! Thanks for sharing. 😊
I wasn't a huge fan of the first 2 books but loved the 3rd. I think it could have been a duology rather than a trilogy. Looking forward to reading more of Chakraborty's work
I liked Nahri as a character but didn't really care for Dara until the last book. I think I actually liked the female characters in the book the best
You would probably enjoy Master of Djinn.
I love non-European settings. I am going to check it out.
I'm not trying to be one of those people who just comments to request something (especially since this was a very nice video and this trilogy sounds very interesting) but I do want to know - have you read the How To Train Your Dragon books? They seem juvenile at first but the series really builds momentum and has some of the best overt moral messages I've found in fiction. I love that series to death but it's quite different from the movies and I've never been able to talk people into reading it, I'd love a Book Guy video discussing the strengths and weaknesses :)
This is a really good suggestion! I've had the books on my mind for years, cause I love the movies so damn much! I'm adding them to my reading list now, just for you. ❤
@@cronkthebookguy Thank you so much!!
Bruh, that's his family's name going back to like his grand grand grand father or something like that, his name is the first 3 words 4:49
Seeing what ppl think about Dara has been interesting. Me personally I absolutely love him and see myself in him especially during his cringe moments lol. He's very confused about what role he needs to play but i love how passionate and expressive he is. Very very brave but he needs the djinn equivalent of lithium. Nahri was fantastic and was inspiring due to her ability to poke holes thru ppls logic and use their words against them. All of the characters were well written even Muntandhir who is scum especially for ridiculing Ali during their competition. 😂😂
I'm not well-versed in Star Trek, I'm more of Doctor Who fan, but of the Treks I've seen DS9 is my favourite that I've seen and its not close.
Sounds interesting
Is it going to be YAnuary?
Nice! I was thinking JanuarYAY. Either way, it'll be a BAAAAAD pun.
I'm not someone who needs to agree 100% with someone to enjoy their content, but this is the *second* time I have heard you spew the DS9 being the best star trek blasphemy. Three strikes and I'm out! 😂 (baseball referrance).
DS9 is the best trek by far, no comparison. 😎
Also it's funny because I'm literally referencing DS9 in my next video too. 🤣
@@cronkthebookguy Agreed.
Oh😮😅😮
I kept hearing "Dagobah". Nerd alert!
it seems like the author is putting hindu and islamic culture in the same basket. That's quite offending. Daeva are hindu gods and they don't exist in islamic culture. Jinns don't exist in hindu culture aswell. Hindu and islamic cultures don't come from the same cultures. hindu culture is one of the branches of indo european culture while islamic culture is part of the semitic culture
See, when I heard that there were some usage of Hindu terms and maybe even inspirations drawn from Hindu culture, and then mixed with Islamic culture I was only all the more curious and more eager to ead the book.... So can you tell me why the mixing or the inclusion of Hindu terms offensive to you. Was it done in poor taste? Or was there anything particularly discriminatory in nature or cultural appropriation? Just want to know your line of thought? Cuz to me these two groups have lived and ruled so close to one another that the culture being intermingled only seems natural... So please don't take my comment as an attack and do tell me why you feel like the author might have done something bad.😊
@@hinatavilasini569 because they are from different cultures and ethnicity. It's like saying all brown people are from the same culture
Ok that's fair, it does take place in Africa and not anywhere near India, so I do understand but I really hope you're not too offended and still give the book a try! Since I don't have a deep understanding of neither cultures, I can't defend or oppose anything, but I still wish you'll give this book a shot. 😊
Also, I might be wrong, but the book uses 'Daeva' which has it's useage in Persian folklore for basically fiendish spirits, so maybe that's what the author meant. Especially so, cuz the spelling, the general location of the book was probably constructed with middle East and north Africa as reference, also the general negative connotation the 'Daeva' term has in the book.
@@hinatavilasini569 persia is also indo-european, not semitic.
Tbh most fantasy is YA