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As strong as the Cruciform tale was, this is where i immediately felt my interest in the story slipping. The soldier's tale, in my opinion, is so terribly cheesy and dated. It screams 80s Heavy Metal comic vibes. The sex scenes are so unbelievably cringe to read. It's like a D&D fan that never talked to girls wrote this fantasy. It literally ruined the book for me lol. Then there's the Weintraub connection that makes it even worse imo. I realize that I'm not being particularly kind here but I must express this is simply my feelings for the story. If you enjoyed it, by all means, laugh at me and tell me I'm wrong. I recognize I'm probably in the minority here as this issue never comes up when the book is praised.

Rothfuss is a bum who takes money from his fans and doesn’t deliver what was promised. Kingkiller will NEVER be finished but this will. Even tho it’s “ heavily influenced “ by rothfuss, it’s still a good story. I look forward to reading what he puts out in the future. To be angry about it is pathetic

Wow I read almost every series in Tier 5 🤣🤣🤣

That would explain why Shallan and her family are the way they are and all what's happening. Love it

Ulciscor also has a mark on his arm because he was always pulling down the sleeve on his left arm thru out the book. Doctors want to sample Vis's blood straight away to make sure he was not from another Realm. Letting you know that blood changes once you have made it thru the labyrinth. Callidus was my favorite character. He knows his Dad is being pressured due to foul play. Once the realm conquered every faction, it tried to synchronize and split?

Was a set-up book, was a bit short for my tastes. Liked Alex Verus series, so yeah I liked this first book, still good storytelling. Good point in needing a better secondary character to bounce off of, instead just the cat. Was bit of cliffhanger ending, where it would been nice for the next book to come out closer, but Jacka seems to have pretty consistent releasing 1 new book per year, which is appreciated.

Dark Age felt like a misstep to me, and Lightbringer a return to form. Best book in the series since the original trilogy. Almost DNF'd Dark Age. Lots of looong chapters about characters I didn't care about. Just didn't hold my interest.

My “worst of the best” was definitely Vis’ temper 😭 I understand that that was part of his character development, as he got it more under control by the end, but man did he go off at the worst times sometimes 😭😭

Poltergeist (1982) had the evil clown doll too... scary clowns were in the zeitgeist in the 80s

Ulciscor blew that anguis' head by throwing an imbued rock at him, same way Emissa imbued the dagger to push Vis out of the tower. I think will usage is something literal, you imbue objects with your will so they move as your willpower commands it giving inanimate objects some "life" with your want. They make themselves stronger by imbuing themselves with others' willpower, there's a section where Ulciscor talks about his stylus being sub-harmonicalt locked to his borther's stylus making them operate at the same time so this is another way to will an inanimate object. They can make them complex enough to operate machinery and saving willpower, I think this is more like using will in obejcts to create some kind of perpetual engine that better uses willpower. Another property of will is "conditional" that means the imbued object is only activated by a condition (the alarms systems, traps, how the stones and medallions work on the iudicium) this resembles how the magic system works in Lev Grosman's The magicians series in which the magic laws have "circumstances" that you have to account for every time you cast a spell like the Altitude, Age, Position of the Pleiades, Phase of the Moon, temperature, humour, position of the sun, moon, direction the caster is facing, dew point etc etc. I think it will get more and more complex in the next book when Vis is forced to go to the columns and start using will.

What is the synchronism ? I am so confused. Is there a clone ? How did bellie reach the dome? Or why? For the Indicium nobody tan the labyrinth then why were they practicing it? Am I missing something. What does the tainted blood mean?

Why no guards? At least we have a plausible explanation of Criston sleeping on the job, possibly tweaking around with the guards to not be seen. Larys almost certainly moving the guards around. In the book the Tower of the Hand, the residence of the second most important person in Westeros, is never guarded and people keep getting killed. That stretches credibility a lot more. How did Cheese know? They drove home the point how common ratcatchers are in the palace. No one pays them any attention, the royals treat them as wallpaper. So one would assume Cheese has been inside royal quarters & has routinely seen Helaena's odd behavior & nervousness. That's how he knew she's incapable of being duplicitous. What's missing from fans is the ability to imagine characters as fully formed ppl with experiences & interiority, & then extrapolate meaning from that. How will they justify criston as kingsguard? It's simple. We saw clips of Aegon being absolutely enraged. He will lose common. He will go "spill blood not ink". All his hatred with be geared towards Otto. So he will naturally gravitate towards Larys, who will slyly tell him to remove Otto and put Cole in charge. So he can blackmail Alicent via her relationship with Cole. The show already planted the seeds of that in the first episode When Larys warned him to not be "pliable" under his grandad's thumb. Aegon won't be the first king to make a self-destructive impulsive decision out of pure rage.

they are not dumb, retard. They kuilled a son for a son

Show B&C makes more sense. Aemond killed Luke. Why would Rhaenyra want to kill an innocent child instead of the person who killed her son. I'm glad changes were made.

I understand the comparison with The Name of the Wind but I think this was done much better.

Grown ups talking about fairy tales

This was really the only book so far I've felt was a slog. There were parts of other books that were slow, but this entire book was meh

I really tried getting into this series. I like the Canterbury Tales format used but that's about it. Maybe it's a bit dated for my tastes, but i fell off after the second book. I barely remember what I read other than thinking "more cruciform stuff, less Barbarella". The tacky sex scenes are just cringey lol

From what I know: Book 18: White Court Book 19: Evil alternate universe Harry Book 20: Denarians and something to do with wrestling Book 21: Time Travel Book 22: Dragons Book 23: Kaiju Book 24-26: Apocalyptic Final Trilogy

so so good. i love you guys pointed out going to suus. reminded me of darrow from red rising returning to the mines and Odysseus coming home

I liked that Rand at the end of the book started to sound like Lews therin. He finally at dragon mount understood his failure (acknowledge the death Ilyena)and accepted his advise. At the end of the book both Rand and Lews therin stop being so self center .

I appreciate the recap, and lot, but guys, if I’m allowed a suggestion, try to stick to recapping next time, as you spent more than half the time bouncing between half baked reviewing, random trivia and general going on tangents that made this really hard to listen to for the purposes intended. Honestly, tuis feels like a “drunk history” version of a book summary 😂 - still appreciate the recap!!!

I think this was explained in the book. I’ll put some carriage returns in case it’s spoiler. Edit I think it’s a spoiler for the next book so I’ll remove this just in case

So excited for book 14, really dreading the post wot depression tho and your guys reactions saying “it’s tough it’s real” has me scared!!

From your description it’s obvious I don’t remember a single thing from 6th of the Dust 😂😂

If u liked the first book more then the second u clearly became depressed in-between Jesus get ur emotional state in order before u review a masterpiece inacuratrly

Gimme the prize an do the witcher books next

Cannibalism, incest, throwing a puppy in an incinerator, a snuff film, a man nuking his wife, organ harvesting, bestiality, a jelly mold, a pregnant lady getting her eye taken out, getting branded, having your finger chopped off after biting someones finger off. Yeah its great. Sigh

Shoutout for another smaller channel! Good stuff. I loved it and have been endlessly speculating on season 2 lately

I went into the show completely blind and had no problem understanding Ye's decision on answering the msg. I started reading the trilogy after the show and I think they did just enough for Ye's back story. If they did all that's covered in the books it would have felt way too draggy. I do agree that they should have dragged out the mystery a little bit longer. I also think them changing the characters was a good idea because the book format would feel too distracting and confusing for nonreaders to watch on screen. Anyway I think they did a great job so far and I look forward to the second season.

I loved t his book, a great start loads of threads left to explore can't wait for the next book.

Felt that the Alex Veras series was pushed into writing when the books really completed at book 9...the rest were torturous to plow through, and the end wasn't very satisfying unfortunately. Not sure about reading the new debut with the cat being damaged.

Hello. My favorite version is indeed the Lynch adaptation. If you are not aware, there is the fan-made 2012 Spicediver alternative cut that you can find here on youtube. Find the 4k-upscaled version on GW's channel. This alternative cut brings the Lynch version a bit more closer to the book, even with the artistic liberties from the movie still in it, they are just rearranged a little bit to align a little bit more to the novel. The alternative cut also now brings it up to 3 hours, when the original 1984 theatrical release was only 2.25 hours. This was basically Universal Pictures' fault to condensing the movie to that tiny length, when the initial plans were to have it in 2-3 separate movies. It was indeed rushed & Lynch was saddened by that. Imagine a 400-page book crunched down into only 2-3 hours. Universal was worried about the budget & also the patience of the audience. This was made in the days when realistic mature 3D CGI was not yet a thing & could have reduced the expenses overall, because hiring carpenters, masons, painters & electricians to create backdrops & objects on set was tremendously expensive. There just wasn't enough faith by Universal (producer/distributor) for this project. This is the reason Villeneuve said in an interview that he would not direct Dune unless it was split into parts, as he knew what Lynch faced 40 years ago. Villeneuve basically redeemed the movie-splitting concept that was planned for the 1984 movie but did not happen due to concerns by Universal. Also, if you did not know, Ridley Scott was the original director, but had to bow out early due to family matters. I think you should also review the 2000 Harrison version of Dune. That one was supposedly more faithful to the book. I have not watched that one in, well, 2 decades, so my memories of it are hazy. The special effects & stuff like that were a bit more subdued/subpar in the 2000 version, because this was a lower-budgeted project meant for the small screen as a mini-series, thus as a mini-series it had more time to flesh out the book details. Some critics did not like the campy silly outlandish costumes either in the 2000 version, but if we were to suspend belief, we have to remember that this story takes place 10 thousands years into the future, so costumes, fashion, fads & everyday wear can be so different than today's. Anyway, if you watch the Spicediver edit, it may help you get just a fraction more respect for the 1984 version, recut in the modern age. And yes, Lynch did sort of disown his Dune because of what Universal did to the movie afterwards as they did not give Lynch a chance to make a final cut. You were also discussing the exposition scenes in the movie, & I actually liked it. It helped explain many details. This was designed to help audiences understand the story better because 99% of the movie-going public had/have not read the book. And after 40 years, I still have the 2-sheet handout given to theater audiences to help understand some of the Dune words better. I also read the book around 1982, for a school book report, but had no idea a movie was being made, so I was pleasantly surprised a couple years later to watch it, with the story in the book still fresh in my mind. Finally, Frank Herbert understood & was aware that film adaptations are not/never going to be accurate to the source material. In this case, it's a book of words interpreted into a visual graphical medium. This has been proven hundreds of times, you even gave the Monte Cristo examples. It has been said that Frank incorporated some of the stuff he saw in the Lynch adaptation into his later books, such as for the Navigators, although by that time, he only had a couple years left to live before surgical complications from cancer took over. Frank also liked seeing the Baron float all the way to the ceiling, something he never thought of when writing Dune. But we can all thank Frank for visiting the sand dunes of the Oregon coast in the mid 1950's, or else Dune ... & all subsequent knock-offs, e.g. Tatooine ... would have never existed. And there is no doubt a new Dune adaptation will come again, decades from now. And then another one after that etc. The movie, TV & Internet technology are really only a century long or less, so we still have ways to go for continuing the recycling of the same story into visual mediums. Maybe one day, as viewers, we will be inside the story of a future Dune film re-adaptation, like in some kind of VR or Holodeck, & not just sitting in front of a screen. 04/19/24

i think weeks' major strength is world building and politics. thats prob. why i like the way of shows more than any other book in the series, cause the world felt inposing and mysterious, and the inroduction to talent was really cool. but the characters have no rigidity to them. kylar is constantly swinging from prude hornball to psycho killer with flexible morality, but its done in a non-believable way. like the scene on the ship where vi tried to seduce kylar, i just didnt believe that either of them would act that way, despite all the nuances that made the scene complex

Winterset Hollow was great, it was like Wind in the Willows meets Five Nights at Freddy’s

I predict Raj will play the Zhang Behai role from Dark Forest

Random commenter here. I just finished this book today (4/13/24), and thought it was very good. But one thing that occurred to me as I was listening to you guys, and as I was reading, is that unless I missed it in the book, I don't think Islington explains exactly what happened to Vis's family. I mean yes, they were killed, but why, and what lead up to that. Obviously there was some sort of uprising against his family, but there wasn't much detail on that. We get the little flashback at the very beginning when Vis's dad lets him go, and he falls, but after that, we just go right into the main story, and it felt like we were missing something. Or I was, anyway.

The chinese version "three body" is superior. The adaptation made by the same guys who did game of thrones, Daniel and David also known by "Dumb and Dumber", is ...welll... a dumbed down version. They made a science fiction show for those who don't like science and probably barely understand it, because some of the changes are so ridiculously stupid that they make no sense at all. It is well produced and it is entertaining. I did enjoy watching it, but with a sour taste on my mouth thinking the whole time that the most baffling parts were probably an adaptation by the writers. And they were. If you love less science and more drama this one is for you because god damn there are lots of pointless dialogue and interactions. The main cast is heavily adapted from the original and it shows, since they feel like aliens trying to mimic human beings. Most are useless and pointless in their interactions. Not that they don't tell otherwise, several characters go to great lengths to say how other characters are awesome, even though they don't do anything. "Show, don't tell" is basic writing and cinematography.

As a non reader I found it was pretty easy to follow young Ye’s logic. I thought they showed how she felt humanity needed help. Even before her encounter with the woman who killed her father. So when episode two came I was expecting she would invite a potential hostile alien race.

Love the Kingkiller Chronicle, actually a pretty recent discovery for me, but this book just felt... flat. There wasn't the same LIFE in it that flows through the other books. Hate giving a mixed review to a series I love!

1 - Abhorsen trilogy (YA) - Garth Nix 2 - Hobbit + LOTR - JRRT 3 - A Song of Ice and Fire - GRRM My own introductory fantasy series was Wheel of Time but the series is way too long and plodding in the middle and it's hard to recommend to newbies. Which is too bad because the first five are perfect adventure fantasy

For the record, the new series is one of the best debuts I've ever read.

On my reread of MurderBot my order is 4,2,1,3. I found myself laughing a lot in 4

The fear of AI has been around as long as computers. Star Trek 1966-1969, 2001 A Space Odyssey 1968, War Games 1983, Terminator 1984, Terminator 2 1991.

I highly recommend experiencing the books via audiobook. Kevin R Free really nails the humor.

Characters from the first four novellas return in later books. Similar to how Dresden starts and changes.

Murderbot 🎉🎉

Chun Xin (can't remember the exact spelling) pretty much ruined the last book for me. She just had me pulling my hair out at every climax ooohh my GOD. The really meta ending wasn't my thing either. It strikes me as a flaw of science fiction: No one seems to know how to end their stories. Think 2001 a space odyssey or carl sagans contact, etc. Dark Forest remains the ultimate science fiction novel, at least from what I've read. Nothing even comes close to the mind bending science and thought provoking ideas. Also it's kind of a crazy coincidence (or maybe not) that you guys are jumping from 3 body to Malazan. I just started reading Garden of the Moon after the netflix adaptation of 3 body re-sparked my interest. There must be something about these two book series that appeals to certain types of people.

I hope lots of people find this series.

Amazing sequel I saw 3 times in theaters