I really appreciate your channel. I just picked up reading again after almost a decade of not reading a single book. I used to read a book or 2 a week until I got to college. Your book interests seem really closely aligned with my own, so I have my good reads open while listening to books you recommend. I am currently on book 5 of the Wheel of Time and have been enjoying the series. Now I have a mountain of titles to choose from when I finish this series thanks to you! :)
Jealous of someone reading the Wheel of Time for the first time! It reignited my love of reading after I'd stopped for a decade or so. All I'll say is book 11 is amazing so keep that in mind if you find yourself struggling through 9&10 🫣
Just an opinion here mate but I’ve noticed something about booktubers, instead of actually giving a proper hard negative opinion you sort of dance around it. As someone who is trying to find out what to read, I want to here your opinions and every time I hear “I wanted to love it but it wasn’t for me” it feels like you’re walking on eggshells. I would greatly appreciate if you would just say I found it very boring because of the following reasons
I am an author that follows your content. I write satire and I know you will never like my humorous work. You and Mike's Book Reviews are my favorite author tube reviewers and probably always will be. His tastes are more in line with mine, but I still always enjoy your content. Also, I appreciate how your new editor segments the videos. Sometimes I want to skip the sections by want to take things all in. Satire!
Thank you for following me and for the kind words! I love Mike's Book Reviews as well! I find that if you are too positive then people do not trust your opinons. I try my best to be respectful when a book doesn't work for me but to pretend I love everything that I read is simply not true!
Im 1/4 into Golden Son and its so good. Love the way Pierce Brown goes into detail of characters emotions. I dont read much and just started readint as a hobby last year so there may be better authors but Im enjoying it and Red Rising was so action packed and never boring.
I like how your up-front and honest without being offensively opinionated like some other book reviews. I read the Witcher series about 15 years ago and was enthralled by it. The characters, the worldbuilding, the lore, the stories - it all just clicked for me. It's really nice to be able to find people who have differing opinions who still respect the works they don't like, for what they are.
The Expanse: Leviathan Wakes was the book that got me back into reading late last year. Blasted thru it and Caliban's War in November, finished Abaddon's Gate a few days ago, about to start Cibola Burn... I'm confident I can read most of the series by the time James S.A. Corey's new book comes out in August, which will be a triology. I'd say it's worth reading book one, and if you love it, I'd reccommend you to continue.
Just finished malazan and its tied with realm of the elderlings for best characters in fantasy. I think if u read for character and prose, malazan is a must
21 points. I'm afraid I have to disagree with this list. Pretending 15 of these books are better than Black Company, the Elric Saga is a major stretch to me. And seriously, as much as I enjoy Witcher, putting Elric below The Witcher Saga is like ranking the Star Wars novels ahead of the Dune novels. :P How can something be better than the story it's totally ripped from?
21 points is impressive! Yeah I get your point. The Reddit list heavily favours popular work at the moment and doesn't really take into account a lot of older work!
@@libraryofaviking Good fantasy is hard to write. I appreciate the extreme effort of the writers on this list, however, I do feel that too many of these books are rushed and unpolished. Most publishers put profit over really getting into the weeds, and writers do burn out. Many of the later series books on this list, feel rushed to me. Especially the Expanse. Later books get very thin and convoluted. In Robert Jordan's case, it's understandable, as he was so ill. I spent 45 years writing my own series -- developing the world, throwing the first trilogy away because it wasn't there yet, so new characters, new plot! Ignoring my friends when they said I should publish back in 2008 because, again, I wasn't satisfied. I didn't want just a fantasy series but an all-time one. That's been my goal since I finished LOTR at nine years old. I've been deep into the process with DAW and almost signed a bad contract with another publisher. I've finished the first four novels of the series and am now editing and re-editing. Rewriting and trying to get all four books down to 1200 pages each. The first novel should be out this September. My cover artist, who has done covers for other major series (some of the books on this list, in fact), tells me he's utterly lost in it and wants all my covers going forward. Beta readers are going crazy for it. That's all nice and well, but there are no guarantees. It will probably take me 2 to 3 years to find an audience (whatever size it is). Tolkien finished LOTR at 57. I just turned 57 myself. Now, I'm ready to go. All my life has led to this moment, and I cannot wait to unleash this thing.
So sad to me how the best science fiction series of all the time, The Culture by Iain M. Banks, somehow is always exlcluded. As a complete series, it's much better than Dune
21 points! I was worried through the first half 😂 but I’m literally reading First Law now and will get another point in like a week lol. I also think I should get more than 2 points each for Malazan and WoT?????
See, I have a hard time understanding what people come from when they say they can’t “connect” with a book or its characters or its story or themes, etc etc. I guess to me, what’s important is the quality of the writing first and foremost, like dealing with plot holes, contradictions, poorly thought out / built world building, inconsistencies, and all the other things. I’ve never felt I can’t “connect” with a book because that’s not how I view reading books. I guess im always connected regardless of what I read as I focus on the quality of the material. I think the biggest part is engaging with what’s in the text more directly than my general emotions of the material.
I got 16 - but, as I understand it, for one point we have to have every book in the series (she just said "own the books"). As I've been collecting books as I find them I have incomplete collections of most of these, but I'm not sure if that is worth a point - I do have significant shelf space for Discworld and I figure that shows some commitment...I just don't want to read it yet! 😅 1 point: Dark Tower (have them all + slowly reading every King book), Earthsea (read and love one & have all), Dune (read one twice (love it) & have all), Dresden (read 2), Kingkiller (have both), Gent Bastards (read 1), Malazan (complete set), Wheel of Time 1 pt. (have them all and I've started it _a couple of times_ ), A Song of Ice and Fire 1pt. (have them all and have read Fire and Blood/Dunk and Egg), 2 points: Piranei (only one not a series, that was easier), Harry Potter and Middle Earth (read Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, the Lays of Beleriand, the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings - I think that gets me 2 despite not yet reading all 13 histories of Middle Earth). Silly, diverting metric...so do I win? Do I love Fantasy?
Grand total of 7 pts. But a lot of the list is on my radar. I'll finish the Faith and Fallen series in a week or so and I'm debating between Dresden, Black Company, or First Law as my next series. My coworker is trying to push me to Mistborn, though.
I got 12 points! Way more than I thought I would. But there's a lot of unfinished series on this list and since being burned with GRRM and Rothfuss over a decade ago, I refuse to read any unfinished series now.
I’m so glad somebody else didn’t vibe with Cradle. I feel like I’m being gaslit by the fantasy community! Flat prose and bland characters. I stopped after book two as well. I’ll keep going if you will…
Only 12 points for now, but this year's TBR will be a whole lot of fantasy for me, so I'll get there. Kind of sad to not see Dandelion Dynasty there, really a masterpiece, and I'll throw the Poppy War in there too
I don't even want to mention how low my points are...I've so far only read the whole of ASoIaF & Harry Potter, I am in the middle of Mistborn 2 but I still have a few of the books listed...or at least partially. For example I only have Stormlight Archive 1, Mistborn 1-6, First Law 1-3, Red Rising 1-5...but yeah, I only really started reading again last year so I have a bit of catching up to do ^^ My plan for this year is to finish Mistborn era 1 + 2 (era 2 later this year), First Law, Poppy War, Red Rising and a few standalones/ novellas in between, like Project Hail Mary and Arcanum Unbounded (except Edgedancer). Stormlight archive is planned for next year.
You should try some of le guin's scifi. I never really enjoyed Earthsea but The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness are some of my favourite classic sci fi books.
Dang. My score was 45. I never read Piranessi or Broken Earth. And I own the Witcher books but never read them. I have read everything else on the list. Crazy.
I cant agree more about that I dont enjoy books that are primarily made to be fun, like Murderbot and others. I loved reading for example Mistborn and jokes were in it, or even I liked Project Hail Mary which is more based on some funny points, but it is never the foundation for the plot
When it comes to the Witcher - you need to start from blood of elves - this would be #1cin the series. Lat wish and another book consisted of short stories would be something like #0.5 #0.6
awesome video! Now I want to make a video of this list, commenting on your reactions to her reactions. Booktube Inception! But seriously, I liked the video :)
What book would you recommend for someone who has not read books in a long while? I tend to listen to audiobooks and consume lots of information sporadically (in a tech field) but sitting down to read a book has eluded me for quite sometime...
Sci fi - Ten Lo - fast paced with big Mad Max Fury Road vibes. Really fun Slaughterhouse 5 - surrealist anti war story with sci fi elements. A classic. Fantasy - A Dead Djinn in Cairo is a fun novella, only like 50 pages (I didn't love the follow up full length novel) Piranesi - slow start but second half of the book is really gripping. A great standalone (rare in fantasy with so many series) Anything by Terry Pratchett if you enjoy humour in your writing (which the viking doesn't) Small Gods is a good standalone introduction to disc world
24 points for me (at least at the time I watched the original video (Dresden Files and Locke Lamora). And only two series I would actively recommend as complete series. (LotR has the Unfinished tales and Dune has God Emperor of Dune, so I can't recommend either entire series.) There are others there that I've started but haven't spent the effort to finish and several series that I want to read but haven't even started; they might be great. The match to my top series list is quite poor. Aside: You were too young for ASOIAF? Apparently I was too old. I think you have to be 36.4 years old when you start it. 36.5 is dangerous and 36.6 is right out. 8-)
Don't want to be too negative because I think that most of the stuff on that list actually is worth reading. But to be honest it also makes me realise how much I hate those click-bait titles like from the original video. Doesn't make me want to watch your vids like at all, young lady.
wow.. Patrick Rothfuss.. smh. If I ever were interested in his work (never have been) I would promptly remove it from my TBR.. why does nobody else say what he's done? From all other reviewers all I ever hear is "the series isn't done and not sure when it will be" ..
idk if its me but a few series on this list i thought sucked ass lmao idk if its me but a few series on this list i thought sucked ass lmao. Also scott lynch, patrick rothfus, george rr martin etc are authors that i will never ever read a single page of because of scummy things all 3 have done in their personal lives not to mention going decades between books
Whyyourushthrougheveryreviewwithouttakingabreath? Captions don't match. Holding the book up for 2 seconds while waving it around is less than helpful. Drink less coffee?
😂 Sorry you don't like lists. Out of the past 20 uploads I had 12 videos that were not lists. Don't worry, the next video will be a book review 😂 Thanks for watching.
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Happy to see you again! One of my favorite booktubers
Yay, thank you!
I really appreciate your channel. I just picked up reading again after almost a decade of not reading a single book. I used to read a book or 2 a week until I got to college. Your book interests seem really closely aligned with my own, so I have my good reads open while listening to books you recommend.
I am currently on book 5 of the Wheel of Time and have been enjoying the series. Now I have a mountain of titles to choose from when I finish this series thanks to you! :)
Jealous of someone reading the Wheel of Time for the first time!
It reignited my love of reading after I'd stopped for a decade or so.
All I'll say is book 11 is amazing so keep that in mind if you find yourself struggling through 9&10 🫣
You did so good 🙌👏!! Thank you so much for doing this reaction! Loved to hear your thoughts!
Just an opinion here mate but I’ve noticed something about booktubers, instead of actually giving a proper hard negative opinion you sort of dance around it. As someone who is trying to find out what to read, I want to here your opinions and every time I hear “I wanted to love it but it wasn’t for me” it feels like you’re walking on eggshells. I would greatly appreciate if you would just say I found it very boring because of the following reasons
Check out Mike’s book reviews, he won’t bs you.
Mike's book reviews is goof for just being honest.
I am an author that follows your content. I write satire and I know you will never like my humorous work. You and Mike's Book Reviews are my favorite author tube reviewers and probably always will be. His tastes are more in line with mine, but I still always enjoy your content.
Also, I appreciate how your new editor segments the videos. Sometimes I want to skip the sections by want to take things all in. Satire!
Thank you for following me and for the kind words! I love Mike's Book Reviews as well!
I find that if you are too positive then people do not trust your opinons. I try my best to be respectful when a book doesn't work for me but to pretend I love everything that I read is simply not true!
Im 1/4 into Golden Son and its so good. Love the way Pierce Brown goes into detail of characters emotions. I dont read much and just started readint as a hobby last year so there may be better authors but Im enjoying it and Red Rising was so action packed and never boring.
I am glad you are enjoying it!
20 points for me! Great video - love the content!
Brilliant video, got back into fantasy because of your videos!!
I like how your up-front and honest without being offensively opinionated like some other book reviews. I read the Witcher series about 15 years ago and was enthralled by it. The characters, the worldbuilding, the lore, the stories - it all just clicked for me.
It's really nice to be able to find people who have differing opinions who still respect the works they don't like, for what they are.
Thank you! I really appreciate that!
Thanks for the fun exercise! I was surprised i scored a 30 as well!
The Expanse: Leviathan Wakes was the book that got me back into reading late last year. Blasted thru it and Caliban's War in November, finished Abaddon's Gate a few days ago, about to start Cibola Burn... I'm confident I can read most of the series by the time James S.A. Corey's new book comes out in August, which will be a triology. I'd say it's worth reading book one, and if you love it, I'd reccommend you to continue.
Just finished malazan and its tied with realm of the elderlings for best characters in fantasy. I think if u read for character and prose, malazan is a must
Thanks for another enjoyable video. I personally scored 26.
Give the expanse a try
21 points. I'm afraid I have to disagree with this list. Pretending 15 of these books are better than Black Company, the Elric Saga is a major stretch to me. And seriously, as much as I enjoy Witcher, putting Elric below The Witcher Saga is like ranking the Star Wars novels ahead of the Dune novels. :P How can something be better than the story it's totally ripped from?
21 points is impressive!
Yeah I get your point. The Reddit list heavily favours popular work at the moment and doesn't really take into account a lot of older work!
@@libraryofaviking Good fantasy is hard to write. I appreciate the extreme effort of the writers on this list, however, I do feel that too many of these books are rushed and unpolished. Most publishers put profit over really getting into the weeds, and writers do burn out. Many of the later series books on this list, feel rushed to me. Especially the Expanse. Later books get very thin and convoluted. In Robert Jordan's case, it's understandable, as he was so ill. I spent 45 years writing my own series -- developing the world, throwing the first trilogy away because it wasn't there yet, so new characters, new plot! Ignoring my friends when they said I should publish back in 2008 because, again, I wasn't satisfied. I didn't want just a fantasy series but an all-time one. That's been my goal since I finished LOTR at nine years old. I've been deep into the process with DAW and almost signed a bad contract with another publisher. I've finished the first four novels of the series and am now editing and re-editing. Rewriting and trying to get all four books down to 1200 pages each. The first novel should be out this September. My cover artist, who has done covers for other major series (some of the books on this list, in fact), tells me he's utterly lost in it and wants all my covers going forward. Beta readers are going crazy for it. That's all nice and well, but there are no guarantees. It will probably take me 2 to 3 years to find an audience (whatever size it is). Tolkien finished LOTR at 57. I just turned 57 myself. Now, I'm ready to go. All my life has led to this moment, and I cannot wait to unleash this thing.
@@ZedulI can't wait to read your books! Just need to figure out in September, what book it is 😅
40k congrats.
Thank you so much 😀
34, love this content, please repeate it next year
Thank you!
16. Lot of partially read series, but I’ll finish them all eventually!
I haven't read Dresden Files, but I've read other things from that author and quite enjoyed them.
Fun video man! Keep it up 😁
Thanks mate!
So sad to me how the best science fiction series of all the time, The Culture by Iain M. Banks, somehow is always exlcluded. As a complete series, it's much better than Dune
21 points! I was worried through the first half 😂 but I’m literally reading First Law now and will get another point in like a week lol.
I also think I should get more than 2 points each for Malazan and WoT?????
See, I have a hard time understanding what people come from when they say they can’t “connect” with a book or its characters or its story or themes, etc etc.
I guess to me, what’s important is the quality of the writing first and foremost, like dealing with plot holes, contradictions, poorly thought out / built world building, inconsistencies, and all the other things. I’ve never felt I can’t “connect” with a book because that’s not how I view reading books. I guess im always connected regardless of what I read as I focus on the quality of the material. I think the biggest part is engaging with what’s in the text more directly than my general emotions of the material.
Amazing list… 😊
34 and I did get te 2 points for Discworld :-) Read ik for quite some time with just 1 book a month and learned to love it more and more.
I would like to see top 25 not well known fantasy and scifi books you should read
Oh fun suggestion!
I got 16 - but, as I understand it, for one point we have to have every book in the series (she just said "own the books"). As I've been collecting books as I find them I have incomplete collections of most of these, but I'm not sure if that is worth a point - I do have significant shelf space for Discworld and I figure that shows some commitment...I just don't want to read it yet! 😅
1 point: Dark Tower (have them all + slowly reading every King book), Earthsea (read and love one & have all), Dune (read one twice (love it) & have all), Dresden (read 2), Kingkiller (have both), Gent Bastards (read 1), Malazan (complete set), Wheel of Time 1 pt. (have them all and I've started it _a couple of times_ ), A Song of Ice and Fire 1pt. (have them all and have read Fire and Blood/Dunk and Egg),
2 points: Piranei (only one not a series, that was easier), Harry Potter and Middle Earth (read Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, the Lays of Beleriand, the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings - I think that gets me 2 despite not yet reading all 13 histories of Middle Earth).
Silly, diverting metric...so do I win? Do I love Fantasy?
Grand total of 7 pts. But a lot of the list is on my radar. I'll finish the Faith and Fallen series in a week or so and I'm debating between Dresden, Black Company, or First Law as my next series. My coworker is trying to push me to Mistborn, though.
The Witcher books that aren't short stories are really friggin good
I will have to say that with the red rising saga you might not be a fan of the fourth book but book five and six are absolutely phenomenal!
I got 39 points. A lot of them are series that I haven’t finished yet or are ones I DNFed because they didn’t work for me.
I got 12 points! Way more than I thought I would.
But there's a lot of unfinished series on this list and since being burned with GRRM and Rothfuss over a decade ago, I refuse to read any unfinished series now.
I’m so glad somebody else didn’t vibe with Cradle. I feel like I’m being gaslit by the fantasy community! Flat prose and bland characters. I stopped after book two as well. I’ll keep going if you will…
Only 12 points for now, but this year's TBR will be a whole lot of fantasy for me, so I'll get there.
Kind of sad to not see Dandelion Dynasty there, really a masterpiece, and I'll throw the Poppy War in there too
The Dandelion Dynasty definitely deserves to be so much more popular!
I don't even want to mention how low my points are...I've so far only read the whole of ASoIaF & Harry Potter, I am in the middle of Mistborn 2 but I still have a few of the books listed...or at least partially. For example I only have Stormlight Archive 1, Mistborn 1-6, First Law 1-3, Red Rising 1-5...but yeah, I only really started reading again last year so I have a bit of catching up to do ^^
My plan for this year is to finish Mistborn era 1 + 2 (era 2 later this year), First Law, Poppy War, Red Rising and a few standalones/ novellas in between, like Project Hail Mary and Arcanum Unbounded (except Edgedancer). Stormlight archive is planned for next year.
You should try some of le guin's scifi. I never really enjoyed Earthsea but The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness are some of my favourite classic sci fi books.
41, that was fun, but I feel like I've started or read most of the series. Thanks for the content!
41 🤯 That is mad impressive!
Dang. My score was 45. I never read Piranessi or Broken Earth. And I own the Witcher books but never read them. I have read everything else on the list. Crazy.
Wow, 45! Well done
23 points! Pleased to not be that far behind you!
This was really cool. I think 30 pts is a very good score!
I cant agree more about that I dont enjoy books that are primarily made to be fun, like Murderbot and others. I loved reading for example Mistborn and jokes were in it, or even I liked Project Hail Mary which is more based on some funny points, but it is never the foundation for the plot
48 points for me. Read all available books for all of them except the Locked Tomb.
We have so different tastes in books
I got 21 points. I am happy with that haha
I got 17 points! I need to do better. And I also don’t mind the list videos lol 😂 keep up the great work!
17 points is impressive! Haha thank you!
I love your videos . Don’t listen to the haters
When it comes to the Witcher - you need to start from blood of elves - this would be #1cin the series. Lat wish and another book consisted of short stories would be something like #0.5 #0.6
What is the book on the right side of Alloy of Law & Shadows of Self? It's beautiful.
awesome video! Now I want to make a video of this list, commenting on your reactions to her reactions. Booktube Inception! But seriously, I liked the video :)
What book would you recommend for someone who has not read books in a long while? I tend to listen to audiobooks and consume lots of information sporadically (in a tech field) but sitting down to read a book has eluded me for quite sometime...
Sci fi - Ten Lo - fast paced with big Mad Max Fury Road vibes. Really fun
Slaughterhouse 5 - surrealist anti war story with sci fi elements. A classic.
Fantasy - A Dead Djinn in Cairo is a fun novella, only like 50 pages (I didn't love the follow up full length novel)
Piranesi - slow start but second half of the book is really gripping. A great standalone (rare in fantasy with so many series)
Anything by Terry Pratchett if you enjoy humour in your writing (which the viking doesn't) Small Gods is a good standalone introduction to disc world
Although anything in the top 6 would be a great place to start... Big chunky series but so engaging that you can find yourself hooked in!
A respectable 35 for me and I am reading Assassin's Fate to finish Elderlings now.
24 points for me (at least at the time I watched the original video (Dresden Files and Locke Lamora). And only two series I would actively recommend as complete series. (LotR has the Unfinished tales and Dune has God Emperor of Dune, so I can't recommend either entire series.) There are others there that I've started but haven't spent the effort to finish and several series that I want to read but haven't even started; they might be great.
The match to my top series list is quite poor.
Aside: You were too young for ASOIAF? Apparently I was too old. I think you have to be 36.4 years old when you start it. 36.5 is dangerous and 36.6 is right out. 8-)
This list is a little wonkey. No Black Company? No Books of the New Sun? The order seems odd too.
I made it to 26 but mostly through books i own that are on the tbr 😂
In spite of the list's recency bias, I surprised myself with 34
17 points did better then i thought
38.. I'm going to have to finish some more books
38 is mad!!
No John Gwynne,kinda sad. 😊
Sad indeed :(
26 points for me!
hmm lucky 13.
i'll have to get reading.
Man im about to dnf the gunslinger lol gonna finish though and do a review on it, oh and dnf'd witcher one as well lol
The Gunslinger is definitely the weakest in the series!
@@libraryofaviking maybe I'll continue after we will see
28 points not bad I'd say
That is quite impressive!
Don't want to be too negative because I think that most of the stuff on that list actually is worth reading. But to be honest it also makes me realise how much I hate those click-bait titles like from the original video. Doesn't make me want to watch your vids like at all, young lady.
If the only standalone is Piranesi and there's no other, especially no Neil Gaiman, idk how much I can even trust that list.
I got 17, i need to read some more😅
Only 4 points for me. Guess I better stop telling people I enjoy fantasy and scifi, haha!
14 points, could have been better
So true, if they say a novel is humorous I will probably not going to like it :D
Up until 8min mark, I was wondering if I even read fantasy and sci-fi (which I do almost exclusively) 😂
21pts for me!
Haha! There is definitely a pretty significant recency bias in the Reddit Top series list!
@@libraryofaviking I was prepared with my Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms, but NOPE! Haha
wow.. Patrick Rothfuss.. smh. If I ever were interested in his work (never have been) I would promptly remove it from my TBR.. why does nobody else say what he's done? From all other reviewers all I ever hear is "the series isn't done and not sure when it will be" ..
idk if its me but a few series on this list i thought sucked ass lmao idk if its me but a few series on this list i thought sucked ass lmao. Also scott lynch, patrick rothfus, george rr martin etc are authors that i will never ever read a single page of because of scummy things all 3 have done in their personal lives not to mention going decades between books
4k 4⁴⁴144hz
Whyyourushthrougheveryreviewwithouttakingabreath? Captions don't match. Holding the book up for 2 seconds while waving it around is less than helpful. Drink less coffee?
wheel of time is literally the most overrated fantasy series
I hear this a lot haha!
That's an original spelling of "under"
I only got 6, how shameful 🤣🤣
25 😂
Don't waste time reading Kingkiller Chronicles it's the most overrated series ever.
Is this all you do, man? Make lists?
😂 Sorry you don't like lists. Out of the past 20 uploads I had 12 videos that were not lists. Don't worry, the next video will be a book review 😂
Thanks for watching.
Technically he didn't make the list. Also I don't blame him. Lists are fun!
@@AndrewFrancisIlyrianDude what are you 12? Chill the fuck out.
You must be new to TH-cam. If you're not a list fan, it might not be platform for you.
Is this all you do man complain?