I'm beginning to wonder if I've made a mistake picking up the Jade trilogy by Fonda Lee. I've read her fantasy novella, Untethered Sky. While there's nothing particularly wrong with it, I found it to be too YA for my reading taste, and the story didn't go deep enough to satisfy me. Your comments on Jade City give me pause. I'm not a fan of Mafia fiction, YA, or plain writing, and martial arts. This might be a road I don't want to travel down. Thanks for your insights. Happy reading.
Is the character development in Jade City like that in the Painted Man with detail, or more like the God of War? I’m having trouble getting through the hunger of the gods because I’m finding the character development lacking compared to the Painted Man or Brando Sando characters
@@puppies983 There’s more development than Bloodsworn for sure (there’s none in that aye), crazy to think how much character development is in John’s other series. But i wouldn’t say the character journeys are stand outs in Jade City, but bigger fans would probably disagree with me
I loved Sword of Kaigen until the end. The story feels like it's just beginning and introduced stuff at the end that gives the feeling like a greater story is still yet to come Except it states in the beginning that this is a standalone with no sequel. Why even put teases into the book at the ending if it's the end? It just left me really disappointed. Want to give Wurts shot. Do you think it's okay to start with Gallant or should read Curse of the Mistwraiths first?
@@souljang That really irked me with Sword of Kaigen, I completely agree. I would say start with The Gallant, it’s 120 pages whereas CotM is 800. I haven’t read it yet myself, but it should let you know if Janny is for you or not
@@tommytommy7535 Exactly right! It’s hyped up at too much, it’s perfectly fine, but with how it’s talked about, I was expecting so much more. Jade War has been on a similar level for me, but because I’ve been able to adjust my expectations, it’s been a better experience
I 100% agree with your thoughts on Will of the Many, I could not care about the characters and basically found the whole novel boring and did not for me meet the hype.
Haven’t read anything that was overhyped but I do feel that Correia’s saga of the forgotten warrior is underrated. I haven’t heard enough about that series so I’m going to keep talking about it. If you love a good thriller/action packed fantasy series then I highly recommend it. Plus the books are short and can be good for palate cleansing.
@@jaishans That’s a great point, I think you’d appreciate may be right. I’m on Jade War right now and although it’s not a personal favourite of mine, I can definitely see what makes it so well loved
Green Bone Saga is one of my fav series of all time.I agree I wasn’t huge fan of Jade City it was good but Jade War truly blew me away,it’s my book of the year just slightly topping Words Of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson.also Jade Legacy is amazing and perfect ending imo!side note you wear all these awesome babe shirts like Led Zeppelin,Iron Maiden so how is it you got NOTHING from Kings Of The Wylde?! It’s literally all about classic 70s hard rock and tons of rock n roll Easter eggs..
@@irishknight6893 Dude, I had such high expectations for Kings of the Wyld, trust me I thought it was going to be my favourite… I really wanted to like it. What about Jade War made it your favourite??
@ here’s my spoiler free review I gave good reads”O-M-G!O-M-G! This book! This book! This book was absolutely fantastic and one hell of a roller coaster ride and I was here for it all! The UPS and the DOWNS!! I can’t believe what I just read ?! After enjoying The First book Jade City,I was optimistic for the next book Jade War.. but holy hell did Fonda Lee blow my expectations out of the damn universe…This book ramps up everything the first book had going and then some! Pretty much fixed every little nit pick I had.Lets just say I liked the characters in Jade City but now I absolutely love them and am ready to Join and shed my blood for The No Peak clan at any moment they need me! Because “the Clan is my blood and its Pillar is my Master”.This is a friggin masterpiece!! It will have you on pins and needles one scene and then crying your eyes out in another scene....Please to any of you just thought Jade City was “okay “try this book Jade War(2nd of trilogy) I guarantee you will want to be a new member by the time you are even 100 pages in.I am so excited and sad to Read The Next and Final book in the Green Bone Trilogy “Jade Legacy” next.If it sticks the landing it will most likely be my new favorite trilogy!6/5 Stars!
I still cant understand how anybody could like The Children of Gods----, I thought it was awful. The characters were cartoonish, the budding romance was cringe and the battle was confusing. However Project Hail Mary was great fun, I never even noticed the math except as a part of the plot. and it has the best interspecies bromance ever. It takes all sorts
Sword of Kaigen was suchhh a big let down to me, felt like the climax happened half way through the book and the second half was just so boring I could die lmao
Over hyped books this year, A Name of the Wind as number 1. Was told its one of the best books written in the fantasy genre. I rated it a 1/5. I hated it, it didnt impress me at all. Had it not been over hyped, maybe I would have just liked it enough to read, but I ended up hating it because of how subpar of a perfect book it was. Piranesi also over hyped. It was an ok book, but nothing really that special. Still enjoyed it, but the way it was talked about, i thought I was gonna get something really magically, and that's definitely not what you get. Between Two Fires - Not super enjoyable and definitely not what i was anticipating for a post apocalyptic horror fantasy. It could have been really really cool. Same with Daughters War. Sub par from all the chanting for these books. Christopher Buehlman isn't for me. I gave 3 books a chance, and suffered for all of them. Last over hyped, you know it. Disquiet Gods. Every book up till then, 5 start rating. DG just fell from the moon straight onto its face with the plot reveal that I hated and felt like it was a cop out for what had been easily one of the best series of my life. It was claiming that title....and then it did that. 🤦. Under hyped are more rare, but they are out there. Id start with Orconomics. It's basically never even talked about and its one of the better books I read this year. I only had one complaint and it was pretty minimal as far as complaints go. Story, pace, character development, world building all S Tier. A nonfiction, Nuclear War: A scenario is 100% under hyped. No its not fixtion and going to have this amazing plot and character development. But as a non fiction, and what it sets out to do, it does perfectly. I think it should be mandatory reading. How deterinental nukes are to the world. Last, hmm. Maybe Murderbot? It's a great simple and quick story being told. It does it well, its not going to blow you away, but it does what it sets out to do really well. I think its underappreciated in the sci-fi standings. P.S. high agree with Kings of the Wyld - only book I DNFed this year. Zero stakes like you said. I could tell within a few chalters, i was absolutely bored.
@@Dugrath I couldn’t even get through 50 pages of Name of the Wind so I’m with you there. I haven’t tried those other two yet, but as you said, they both are hyped up a lot. Murderbot is good fun, very nice and easy reads, and hopefully Christopher save Sun Eater with the last one 🤞
Most overhyped for me were Dandelion dynasty, Farseer and Red Rising. Gave up with Grace of Kings a third in. God awful prose that feels like it was translated from Chinese, the disconnected weird narration style and zero character development. Just a list of random events. A truly terribly written book, probably the worst I have ever read. Read two and a half Farseer books and then gave up because absolutely nothing happened, like honestly nothing. Beautifully written though and the character work is superb, but the story went nowhere and did nothing. Red Rising was good up until it become another YA Hunger Games story, can’t get through this section. On a plus note, I finished all the following S tier books…. First Law (all 9) Between Two Fires Malazan (main 10) First two Mistborn Books I thought were good/ok were… Faithful and the Fallen Expanse Prince of nothing (first two books) Empire of Silnce
@@christopherspriggs4179 Malazan and Mistborn both in S Tier, you sir are a rare breed. The first Red Riaing book is not great aye, though I do Farseer and and will continue to overhype the hell of it hahahahah
@ predictable-ish plot. Characters were kind of engaging but mostly it felt like the story was just starting which is totally fine for a first book. Like you said my expectations were too high because of the hype this book gets
@ not yet. Finished up sun eater (best series ever) and throne of glass instead. Stormlight is up next for me. Will probably pick it up at some point in the future but wasn’t sold entirely after first book
As soomeonw who watches anime all the time, I can tell you Yumi was the most overrated book of the year, imo it is one Sanderson's weakest. I genuinely believe that if anything has Japan labed on it, it will be an instant 10/10 before a person tries that thing. It's funny how I had a rated the same as you 😂😂😂😂
"Just a guy, doin' math" 😂 nearly spat my coffee out on my lunch break 😅
We need more Jay Kristoff level jokes in our life
@@middle-earth-ashleigh I swear that’s all it is, a boring guy math teacher, doin maths 🤦♂️
We definitely do! More Kristoff humour is a requirement
@SpacedOutReads I was actually enjoying seeing how much you hated it and King's of the Wyld 😅
@@middle-earth-ashleigh ahaha it was fun to make, I usually have to edit a ton, but my brain had rants to spill in this one
@@SpacedOutReads and we love to hear it
Got to agree with you on jade city. Jade war probably my book of the year
@@craighatto Cheers! What was it about Jade War you loved so much?
I'm beginning to wonder if I've made a mistake picking up the Jade trilogy by Fonda Lee. I've read her fantasy novella, Untethered Sky. While there's nothing particularly wrong with it, I found it to be too YA for my reading taste, and the story didn't go deep enough to satisfy me. Your comments on Jade City give me pause. I'm not a fan of Mafia fiction, YA, or plain writing, and martial arts. This might be a road I don't want to travel down. Thanks for your insights. Happy reading.
@@curtjarrell9710 Yea, I can’t say it’ll be the best time for you, sorry
How did you manage to explain the title of the video for over 3 minutes 😂 bros hitting the word count every time
@@Jearrod 😅😅😅😅😅 Complete lack of script, complete lack of train of thought
Just finished jade city 100% agree I was expecting greatest book ever, got a plain gangster plot
@@thebeersofsigmar Sorry to hear you had the same experience as me
Is the character development in Jade City like that in the Painted Man with detail, or more like the God of War? I’m having trouble getting through the hunger of the gods because I’m finding the character development lacking compared to the Painted Man or Brando Sando characters
@@puppies983 There’s more development than Bloodsworn for sure (there’s none in that aye), crazy to think how much character development is in John’s other series. But i wouldn’t say the character journeys are stand outs in Jade City, but bigger fans would probably disagree with me
I loved Sword of Kaigen until the end. The story feels like it's just beginning and introduced stuff at the end that gives the feeling like a greater story is still yet to come Except it states in the beginning that this is a standalone with no sequel. Why even put teases into the book at the ending if it's the end? It just left me really disappointed. Want to give Wurts shot. Do you think it's okay to start with Gallant or should read Curse of the Mistwraiths first?
@@souljang That really irked me with Sword of Kaigen, I completely agree.
I would say start with The Gallant, it’s 120 pages whereas CotM is 800. I haven’t read it yet myself, but it should let you know if Janny is for you or not
Wars of Light & Shadow is superb so far.
@@thatsci-firogue Just elite right!
i am 300 pages into jade city but it still hasn't hooked me in, happens ig. its okay don't get me wrong but it isn't wow like I see in the reviews
@@tommytommy7535 Exactly right! It’s hyped up at too much, it’s perfectly fine, but with how it’s talked about, I was expecting so much more. Jade War has been on a similar level for me, but because I’ve been able to adjust my expectations, it’s been a better experience
I 100% agree with your thoughts on Will of the Many, I could not care about the characters and basically found the whole novel boring and did not for me meet the hype.
@@JLo1701 The hype is pretty crazy aye
Haven’t read anything that was overhyped but I do feel that Correia’s saga of the forgotten warrior is underrated. I haven’t heard enough about that series so I’m going to keep talking about it. If you love a good thriller/action packed fantasy series then I highly recommend it. Plus the books are short and can be good for palate cleansing.
@@abnushagnasty805 I’ve only just started hearing about this one recently I am going to have to look into it more closely now
Jade City is overhyped I agree. Jade War is my most favorite book of all time. I think the hype is coming from how good the series is..
@@jaishans That’s a great point, I think you’d appreciate may be right. I’m on Jade War right now and although it’s not a personal favourite of mine, I can definitely see what makes it so well loved
I enjoy salty Dylan 😂 Sometimes booktube can be a little echo-chambery so it’s nice to hear some against the grain opinions.
@@kareenaconn5043 Hahaha Thank you!!!
Expectations can definitely make or break a book. Great video!
@@Marzy_Marz Perfect way to phrase it! Thank you 🙌
Green Bone Saga is one of my fav series of all time.I agree I wasn’t huge fan of Jade City it was good but Jade War truly blew me away,it’s my book of the year just slightly topping Words Of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson.also Jade Legacy is amazing and perfect ending imo!side note you wear all these awesome babe shirts like Led Zeppelin,Iron Maiden so how is it you got NOTHING from Kings Of The Wylde?! It’s literally all about classic 70s hard rock and tons of rock n roll Easter eggs..
@@irishknight6893 Dude, I had such high expectations for Kings of the Wyld, trust me I thought it was going to be my favourite… I really wanted to like it.
What about Jade War made it your favourite??
@ here’s my spoiler free review I gave good reads”O-M-G!O-M-G! This book! This book! This book was absolutely fantastic and one hell of a roller coaster ride and I was here for it all! The UPS and the DOWNS!! I can’t believe what I just read ?! After enjoying The First book Jade City,I was optimistic for the next book Jade War.. but holy hell did Fonda Lee blow my expectations out of the damn universe…This book ramps up everything the first book had going and then some! Pretty much fixed every little nit pick I had.Lets just say I liked the characters in Jade City but now I absolutely love them and am ready to Join and shed my blood for The No Peak clan at any moment they need me! Because “the Clan is my blood and its Pillar is my Master”.This is a friggin masterpiece!! It will have you on pins and needles one scene and then crying your eyes out in another scene....Please to any of you just thought Jade City was “okay “try this book Jade War(2nd of trilogy) I guarantee you will want to be a new member by the time you are even 100 pages in.I am so excited and sad to Read The Next and Final book in the Green Bone Trilogy “Jade Legacy” next.If it sticks the landing it will most likely be my new favorite trilogy!6/5 Stars!
@ Absolutely thrilling ride of a book aye, there’s a lot to it isn’t there
Really hope You will love Jade Legacy.☺️
@@noname3609 Thank you, I hope so too, which was your favourite of the trilogy?
@SpacedOutReads I think JL is a masterpiece,its my favourite Fonda Lee book.☺️
@ This is good to hear it continues to improve!! I’ll finish Jade War today, it’s been a lot of fun
@@SpacedOutReads im so happy to hear that.Fonda Lee deserve our love !!!☺️
@@noname3609 She’s pretty great!
Best wishes and happy hunting from Lancashire, England. Good luck in 2025! Happy hunting out there.
@@ReadingIDEAS.-uz9xk What will we be hunting??
Didn't like sword of kaigen but liked her new book blood over bright haven
@@rhyleygrant5660 I have seen a lot of love for that one
I still cant understand how anybody could like The Children of Gods----, I thought it was awful. The characters were cartoonish, the budding romance was cringe and the battle was confusing. However Project Hail Mary was great fun, I never even noticed the math except as a part of the plot. and it has the best interspecies bromance ever. It takes all sorts
To each his own I guess, how people like Project Hail Mary is beyond me
This is reason # 37382993 why I need to read Janny Wurts
@@JoshReadsBooks12 Haha you definitely do Josh, I think you’d appreciate her works
Sword of Kaigen was suchhh a big let down to me, felt like the climax happened half way through the book and the second half was just so boring I could die lmao
Hahahah yea, it’s a bit different
Over hyped books this year,
A Name of the Wind as number 1. Was told its one of the best books written in the fantasy genre. I rated it a 1/5. I hated it, it didnt impress me at all. Had it not been over hyped, maybe I would have just liked it enough to read, but I ended up hating it because of how subpar of a perfect book it was.
Piranesi also over hyped. It was an ok book, but nothing really that special. Still enjoyed it, but the way it was talked about, i thought I was gonna get something really magically, and that's definitely not what you get.
Between Two Fires - Not super enjoyable and definitely not what i was anticipating for a post apocalyptic horror fantasy. It could have been really really cool. Same with Daughters War. Sub par from all the chanting for these books. Christopher Buehlman isn't for me. I gave 3 books a chance, and suffered for all of them.
Last over hyped, you know it. Disquiet Gods. Every book up till then, 5 start rating. DG just fell from the moon straight onto its face with the plot reveal that I hated and felt like it was a cop out for what had been easily one of the best series of my life. It was claiming that title....and then it did that. 🤦.
Under hyped are more rare, but they are out there. Id start with
Orconomics. It's basically never even talked about and its one of the better books I read this year. I only had one complaint and it was pretty minimal as far as complaints go. Story, pace, character development, world building all S Tier.
A nonfiction, Nuclear War: A scenario is 100% under hyped. No its not fixtion and going to have this amazing plot and character development. But as a non fiction, and what it sets out to do, it does perfectly. I think it should be mandatory reading. How deterinental nukes are to the world.
Last, hmm. Maybe Murderbot? It's a great simple and quick story being told. It does it well, its not going to blow you away, but it does what it sets out to do really well. I think its underappreciated in the sci-fi standings.
P.S. high agree with Kings of the Wyld - only book I DNFed this year. Zero stakes like you said. I could tell within a few chalters, i was absolutely bored.
@@Dugrath I couldn’t even get through 50 pages of Name of the Wind so I’m with you there. I haven’t tried those other two yet, but as you said, they both are hyped up a lot.
Murderbot is good fun, very nice and easy reads, and hopefully Christopher save Sun Eater with the last one 🤞
Most overhyped for me were Dandelion dynasty, Farseer and Red Rising.
Gave up with Grace of Kings a third in. God awful prose that feels like it was translated from Chinese, the disconnected weird narration style and zero character development. Just a list of random events. A truly terribly written book, probably the worst I have ever read.
Read two and a half Farseer books and then gave up because absolutely nothing happened, like honestly nothing. Beautifully written though and the character work is superb, but the story went nowhere and did nothing.
Red Rising was good up until it become another YA Hunger Games story, can’t get through this section.
On a plus note, I finished all the following S tier books….
First Law (all 9)
Between Two Fires
Malazan (main 10)
First two Mistborn
Books I thought were good/ok were…
Faithful and the Fallen
Expanse
Prince of nothing (first two books)
Empire of Silnce
@@christopherspriggs4179 Malazan and Mistborn both in S Tier, you sir are a rare breed.
The first Red Riaing book is not great aye, though I do Farseer and and will continue to overhype the hell of it hahahahah
Jade city was not great for me very meh
@@charliemessano2128 Yea, what was it for you that didn’t work?
@ predictable-ish plot. Characters were kind of engaging but mostly it felt like the story was just starting which is totally fine for a first book. Like you said my expectations were too high because of the hype this book gets
@@charliemessano2128 Completely agree with you, did you decide to continue the series?
@ not yet. Finished up sun eater (best series ever) and throne of glass instead. Stormlight is up next for me. Will probably pick it up at some point in the future but wasn’t sold entirely after first book
@@charliemessano2128 That’s very fair, they are much better reads
As soomeonw who watches anime all the time, I can tell you Yumi was the most overrated book of the year, imo it is one Sanderson's weakest. I genuinely believe that if anything has Japan labed on it, it will be an instant 10/10 before a person tries that thing. It's funny how I had a rated the same as you 😂😂😂😂
@@mohammedzawia1054 😅😅😅 I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one, I literally haven’t seen anything but praise for Yumi