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i love this series so much its such a comfort read for me (ive read it like 8 times), i think a lot of your critiques are really good. the thing is that most of the problems are fixed/developed in the later books in the series. its really unfortunate that if you want to actually understand and enjoy the story you kinda need to read it all

The first time I read a song of ice and fire (ten years ago) I thought it was a metaphor for climate change- while we all squabble amongst ourselves, “winter is coming”, meaning larger, global issues we choose to ignore in favour of the easier and more accessible infighting. That was just my take! It obviously didn’t end that way haha.

Live this review, your tales are great! I think the last fantasy series I read that got politics down pat was the Mistborn trilogy- especially the second book. The Lies of Locke Lampra tried something similar in their third instalment and I didn’t love it- but this one was done so well. Personally, I think what makes the politics so engaging are how Ali is a human example of the various loyalties, beliefs, and values present play out. I found his internal conflict between his values and his family to be some of the strongest parts of the book.

The problem with most fantasy is that fantasy nerds dont bother reading anything else than fantasy

I don’t think the book was the best writing in the world but I don’t agree with all of your critiques. A lot of it feels like nitpicks. The reason she wanted to go home was because she was concerned about her family.. she doesn’t find out right away that he has provided for them. Also, home is home. Miserable life or not. The second trial actually showed that she isn’t perfect, and gave her more characterization. The third trial was my favorite; I was shocked that the main heroine in a book like this would even do something that dark. I actually found the first trial the most generic and boring. And a lot of your complaints about the middle section of the book being boring were just strong character building moments. I don’t consume media primarily for plot, I like characterization, and I feel like this books characterization was actually pretty decent. Feyre absolutley had a personality. Maybe you didn’t like her (I didn’t at first!), but the personality was there. I also thought the Beauty and the Beast retelling was obvious. I figured it out within a few chapters. Some of the stuff with the curse was definitely really contrived and dumb, I’ll give you that. I also agree that the Alis exposition chapter was awful. I think this authors strong point is definitely characters and not plot.

This book read like a horny teenager with no common sense, experience or writing prowess wrote it. It was so boring that I wouldn’t have finished it, but I was listening to an audiobook, so I made myself listen to the whole thing.

My sister forced me to read Red Queen, it was fine in the start it just didn’t live up to my expectations. It was quite hard to finish the book properly since I’m not the biggest fan of dystopian books and the troupes used in the book. It was not my taste but I think it would be a lot better if someone else read it.

This was surprisingly interesting!

Because they're writen by white Americans and Europeans under capitalism. Next question

I'm currently researching and watching as many videos as possible on how to write political systems. This was a great video! These topics on political systems doesn't seem to be talked about much, which seems crazy to me as it's such an important aspect which is gonna effect the characters if they go do anything in the world. The main system in my story from the beginning will be a democracy, although like all are, flawed. And keeping the magic from becoming the big bad at the end is definitely something I gotta watch out for.

You ruin everything everything for me girl. You share much more than you need to. Uhhh.

I enjoy when politics must come to a head to defeat a certain monster at the end of the book (be it actually a monster, or an event threatening everyone), and everyone has to rally together, despite their differences, to defeat a common enemy. This was done in Mass Effect, where over the course of the game, you get everyone's help to launch an assault on the Reaper invasion of Earth. Depending on how many people you convinced to join you from various galactic powers also suffering their own invasions, the better the event plays out (albeit, it's a largely hopeless situation to begin with, but at maximum readiness, you get the best ending).

I remember really liking how The Queen of Blood series by Sarah Beth Durst ended. It didn't end in Democracy (wow!) because the magic system literally restricts that from being an option, so it was interesting to see how it all came together.

Totally agree. I had to quit after 2hrs cos it just didnt make sense to me and I didnt like the main character.

This was amazing. Great message. What camera was used for filming?

I lost it when they turned Feyre into a High Fairie.... like: WTF! Now she is boring...and immortal

To me the Beauty and the Beast retelling was so obvious in this novel, that it was bothering me while reading the story. It felt like such an obvious copy (!!). (I didn't know this novel was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast when I got it) I also thought the last part of the novel (the trials) was pure Hunger Games, but in a bad way (and if I want to read The Hunger Games, I will read these, please don't repeat here!!). And Tamlin + several parts of the story seemed too much like Twilight in a bad way. I enjoyed Twilight a lot when I read it many years ago, but now I just was seeing the bad parts of the Edward character and relationship dynamics (obsessive protection, etc.). I enjoyed the 1st part of the book (so the more idyllic story, even if there were parts bothering me quite a bit) until all the gore & sh¡t started to really happen - "the action". Then I was truly disgusted. I also thought Feyre's family was really shitty (but for some strange reason they become cool when they're rich?!!! Didn't make sense to me...), the beginning of the novel with the poverty situation seemed Dickensian to me too. And like you, it didn't make sense to me at all that the Fae wouldn't be upset at Feyre for killing one of them.

I also thought the "I became aware of every pore in my body" was completely out of place and thought to myself, "seriously?! WTF??" And remember stopping my reading for quite a bit (I was so put off), thinking she should have written "inch" instead of pore (so simple...).

It’s so interesting listening to your review and I agree with a lot of your points. But the reason I believe I liked this book, it was my first fantasy book and I didn’t have much expectation.

night watch terry pratchett. The best political fantasy

Well, I just like … stay there at first book lol 7:00

This is what I love about red rising! The first three books are about dismantling the society and our main characters eventually taking power. But then the next three talk about how the transition to democracy was hard and brutal, and our characters change over time. New characters come up that have been wronged by our main characters and the new democratic system

This book is a piece of trash.

i think the probleme is that the first book isn't an accurate repressentation of the rest of the series i think you came in to this book with wrong expectations for this book but they will be meet in the thirth book and the ones after

Political Fantasies seem to need the journey, twists & outcomes to be satisfying, and they should more often start without monarchies but instead small councils, where it isn't about setting up a democracy or monarchy, but instead seeing who is left standing and who has joined by the end. Perhaps setting it up in a similar vein to a murder mystery (like a less brutal version of "And Then There Were None").

I think describing the art the character makes is a distraction, focusing on the result rather than the process. Imho it doesn't matter what the piece looks like or if it's good, just what it means to the creator. Is it a place to be themself? Is it frustration and failure? Is it purely to chill out after a long day? The sensory wonder of paint and charcoal and inks and clay would do far more to put me in the story than the result. Details on their personal style is fun, but risks over describing.

Wow, I miss this and a few other writing channels. It seems like a lot of them fell off during my huge few-years writers block. I hope everybody is doing well.

there is no such thing as a "good" ending cause it always depends on humanity... and humanity is not only flawed, but corruptible, selfish and too often evil. No matter what you build, someone will be there to try and destroy it.

I thought I was the only one who was thoroughly put off with Feyre. Her decisions, her thoughts, her character as a whole was just extremely… annoying to me. Most times, it was like I was reading from the perspective of a literal child. To me, she was someone who was immature and just incredibly dumb for no apparent reason other than to prove everyone else right. You couldn’t get me to like her if you tried. Someone said she was like a wannabe Katniss Everdeen except she’s dumber and lacks common sense. You really hit it on the nail, though, she’s a very unlikable character.

miss your book videos hope you are doing well!

Aldous Huxley influenced me the most as did Hollywood since 1982.

Solar agricultural farms and rail transit track locomotive trains trolleys are dystopia.

i said the same thing about it being like beauty and the beast, happy i’m not alone on that.

I am reminded of Clark from The 100 who is introduced drawing in her prison cell. Awesome! Really cool characterization with a unique person to lead the story. We end up seeing her draw a total of what? 3 times over the course of 5 seasons? I don't blame her because she is literally fighting for her life in a post apocalyptic setting and what is she going to do? Carry a sketchbook and charcoal or a knife and ammo? That's the problem with artists in fantasy settings. Artists don't usually do art when they are traveling and fighting for their lives. lol I say this as an artist who brings my sketchbook with me whenever I travel but I just never have the time to take it out. My artwork is done in my house 97 percent of the time at the end of the day. I think an artist can make a great protagonist when they aren't necessarily making art but when they perceive the world around them. Artists have strong opinions on visuals, big appreciation for new scenes and landscapes, high praise for anatomy and form. Seeing them obsess over something highly specific is a great way to characterize them and give some idea to what they create. I never heard this advice about telling about the world through the art mediums and styles present. Brilliant world building tool! Loved this video and its extensive research and awareness. Earned my subscription from this video alone!

I think the issue with ending a political fantasy is that politics don't work like fairytails, and many fantasy books, even if they try to be more gritty, have very fairytail structure, where there has to be "and then they lived happily everafter" -ending. There's no end point to politics. There's no point when the work is done. I think only good ending for political fantasy has to be more or less open ended. Another problem that also comes from the fairytail tradition, is the individualism inherent to a hero of a story. The hero has to have the agency and has to be the one making the change, but real politics don't work like that. Real political change is not reliant on the agency of one person, it's collective work done for many generations. So like to actually write a story about overturning monarchy, or any other political system, it can't be the achievement of the one hero, it has to be something that started long before the story. Imo, to actually make a political fantasy interesting and satisfying, you have to strip a lot of agency from the main character(s) and give everyone, even those not named, agency. Writing the masses as mindless followers of anything the important characters tell them will rob the story of the actual dynamics of politics, which is chaotic, unpredictable and very complex because it's millions of people with real agency making decisions of their own. Political fantasy ending needs to be unsatisfying and anticlimactic in standards of traditional fantasy, where there's not full closure and the main characters aren't the ones making it all happen on their own. That's why I think political fantasy shouldn't be only about the politics. The central goal of the story and the characters should be different from their political aims (though connected to them), it should be more personal to them and smaller in stakes, so they could actually achieve it with their own agency and have satisfying ending even when the political situation is left open ended and mostly out of their control. Maybe they want to overthrow the monarchy because under the monarchy they can't achieve their goal, which could be gaining justice against some lord or monarch who is protected by the monarchy, or marrying their love interest which they can't because of political marriage, or freeing themself from an abusive political marriage, or gaining back their home which was given to a lord by the monarchy, etc. Firstly it makes the political stakes less abstract and more personal, and gives a much more achievable goal to cover in one story. That should be the a-plot, and the b-plot can be the larger political struggle for change. The b-plot then can end with a win for the larger movement, it can be a portion of the monarchy gaining independence, but it should be left open what will be the political system, because establishing that is a whole different story that takes a lot of time and a lot more political struggle. It could be disposing the monarchy, but again, what comes next is yet another wholly different story that doesn't fit the last chapter of a book, so should be left open. It could be forcing limitations to the monarch's power, for example establishing a parliamentary monarchy. Important thing imo to make the open endedness of the political plot satisfying and make it make sense, is to form the beginning establish that there are people advocating for different political systems and ways to go about them. Then the ending won't come out of nowhere and there's established some potential ways that the story would continue after the end.

Good summarised presentation - thanks.

Great interview!

I love the colour harmony of your thumbnail - so satisfying!

These books are soooo boring. I have tried and tried and feel I should admit defeat. The first book could not grab me at all - so I opted for a dramatic audio book. It helped me finish the book but I found myself fading in and out so often. The descriptions are unfathomably boring and try hard and absolutely do not paint a vivid picture in the head. My mind couldn’t create any imagery for most of the overly wordy pages. I’m trying to get through the second and finally just accepting that this author is not a great writer nor does she excel at world building or character development.

So the whole "shes doesn't have a personality, I don't know who she is" I dunno if it was purposeful but thats very much how persistent long term (and event) trauma survivors feel about themselves. So to me and like the subsequent story line following that made it more realistic/poignant. Also being the primary care giver and then being pulled from that is a very good reason to keep wanting to go home, you can love and hate your family at the same time. Also got more "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" vibes from this than "Beauty and the Beast", maybe it was a mix?

I hope you come back someday, Jordan. :( I really miss your videos. Hope you're doing well.

War and politics are interlinked and attempting to divorce the two breaks the emersion. The problem is when the politics of war get set aside for epic battles.

late finding this, but this is exactly the discussion of fantasy i want. awesome video!

I love this book you’re not talking it away from me because you’re just terrible future reference. Keep your comments to yourself delete the video goodbye and don’t bother commenting because I won’t be responding. You make me sick.

Aww it’s ok you don’t know but people loves this book so nope you don’t like it because you don’t know what romance is get Over it

Based on what you said, you would probably like The Legend of the Galactic Heroes A LOT (they have two main characters in opposite sides of a war, it is a democracy fighting a monarchy, and neither is portrayed as a "good" system, and you are not led to root for the democrats by default).

The magic and the politics need to be interwoven and interdependent for it to work well. You don't have to prioritize one over the other. Most authors just don't do that well--that's the real problem. And it's weird that writers haven't figured that out yet when the solution is pretty straightforward. That is, make the fantastical element(s) a stand-in for technology or militarization or theocratic power, etc., and then have the politics incorporate or contend with the fantastical according to how it would with these real world concepts. For example, as a starting point, you could have a world with competing fantastic superpowers who each had a sealed up ancient monster they could unleash on each other at any moment (basically Cold War era Russia and USA with their nukes). Then in your fantasy story you can explore all the political machinations these nations would engage in with the knowledge of the power they wield

New idea: keep a tally of every time you see a trope in this book that was done better by lunar Chronicles or by hunger games. I bet it'll be at 500 by page 100.

Thank you. You're a good book reviewer.

Lloyd Alexander's Westmark series is a pretty good depiction of transition from monarchy to parliamentary democracy.