I love overpowered heroes, too! I might have to check out The Pariah.

Sons of Darkness was incredible! I'm thrilled to see it on this list.

I'm going back to physical media. Ownership is the big one for this, but it's also the tactile aspects. The smell of a book, especially as it gets old, rereading old books...a real comfort as if seeing an old friend after a long time, the act of turning pages, the sound and weight of the book. Similar with DVDs. There is a ritual in reading, just as there is ritual in DVDs. As someone who grew up with no option but physical media, there is a nostalgia in physical media as well. For example, in 1993 I received, as a gift, a used copy of Belgarath the Sorcerer. Just now, writing this, I can remember the person who gave it to me, and what I was doing. I still have that copy on my shelf, though needed to purchase a new one as it's so well read, it was my annual book. The Kindle doesn't invoke such feelings in me. Edit: I should note he passed away in the late 90s, but an aspect of this person lives on through my memories associated with that book.

Is there any way to express yourself without using the word "like" over and over again?

But you can read books on the kindle in airplane mode. Doesn't that mean it's downloaded forever? And can't you download the books onto a SD or USB from the laptop?

Hey now, Nicole: Your reviews are much appreciated.I am agreement with The Demon of Unrest. I really wondered about the nature of the title until I was submerged in Mr Eric Larson’s storytelling. It turns out it was the best and maybe only good title based on his comparison of 1860 to the January 6th storming of the Capitol a few years ago in Washington, DC. I wonder if you could review The Book of Letters: American Correspondence, by D H Fortin and Rev Les Seto, Westbow Press, Indiana, published 4/2019. A lot of people are just now discovering how wonderful American History writers are amazing and generationally cherished by the young and the old. Thank you for your interest and all your efforts. I can listen to your amazing way of teaching all day long.

I have enjoyed reading The Demon Of Unrest so far I am on page 111.

Have you read By Blood, By Salt? I think it fits nicely into this category and it is currently a competitor in the SPFBO X competition. Slightly less action and low magic, but set among an emerging uprising against an empire.

You are absolutely right about anything digital has the possibility of being taken away, that's a huge disadvantage

Both have their ups and downs. The biggest advantage of physical books is its easier to scroll through pages

Just finished listening to this in hope that it would be better or the story to pick itself up. But it was terrible compared to the trilogy

Beautiful make sure to remember any lies u ever told and to share food with the homeless and never lie reverse all lies ever told very important for you. Be a food servant for the poor and do it in person

I loved the beginning two thirds of Tress. The last third for whatever reason didn't land for me perhaps because of the narration and increased worldbuilding/references to the Cosmere but overall it was very fun.

The Chubby Dragon is the single greatest scene in all of cinema history!

Always great to see somebody who also loves Elantris!

Hi Nicole. I totally agree. I love having physical copy of books but I love my kindle. Very convenient to read on. Only had mine a month so far im reading faster and more. I said i would never buy a kindle. But i went to the darkside 😂. I fear the same with the world we live in books are changed. I recommend anyone to buy a physical copy of George Orwell's 1984.

I've been intrigued by this series for a while now but your video just sold me on it. You're insights are really good and you have a great way of getting across what the series is like, without spoiling anything. [Just subscribed and I'm looking forward to watching more of your content. You're awesome.]

I keep hearing such fantastic things about The Grace of Kings. I'll have to make room on my ever-expanding TBR!

Good review! My thoughts on this largely mirrored yours: a lot of build-up, generally quite derivative story and world-building, but the characters were generally winsome and the story was well-plotted.

It is a looooong wait ! Hurry up Mr Cahill.

Read all but guns of dawn! Would recommend the Judas blossoms too!! GRACE OF KINGS WOOO

Wait so these are like history novels or like David McCullough style non-fiction book?

I don't even have to watch the rest of this video... physical book all the way!!! No Kindle. No digital books, just... no!😂 Holding that beautiful book in your hands, smelling those ink laden pages, and flipping to the next page brings so much satisfaction and stimulation to me. I just cannot fathom sitting there... scroll... scroll... scroll... nope. I'll still watch the rest of the video, maybe you will make some valid points and change my mind. Love your content!!!!

Great topic!!! I agree with pretty much most of these. I will however be a little contradictive here, especially with two of your peeves... those two being multiple editions and annotating books. I generally do not annotate my books, instead I write in a notebook. Multiple editions of books is usually not my forte either, having 100% agreeing with your point about buying other books. However, with certain books (mainly LOTR.... I am a HUGE Middle Earther!!!), I have quite a few editions, and one of those editions is heavily annotated because, well, I'm just a fantasy geek. Thank you, Nicole, for the Goodreads friendvite!!! I love your book collection, and I'm really enjoying your KZbin channel as well!!!

Great review and glad I found your channel, new sub. Just finished this myself and wanted to see if others had read it. I've only read Dead Wake of his a long time ago but I think I may look into trying some more of his stuff as well. Glad you enjoyed it too

Thanks for putting Larson on my radar! I like history books so I'll definitely check him out!

Thanks for the recommendation, my wife likes Larson's book.

You re-read the series and find all the little hidden nuggets you missed your first time. Then you join us a JordanCon and WoTCon and nerd out hardcore

Nice

I read the book and about an hour later watched the movie. It was a very confusing experience. The book I read was called haunting in Venice, not holloween Party. I could not understand the connection with Venice at first. All the choices in the movie seemed to go against the book and characters. It seems to me that they had a screenplay and needed a big name to promote it. Sincerely, it seems a little disrespectful. I don't want to criticize the movie, though, but i would accept better an original story based on the characters, instead a total deconstruction of a book to promote a film. An odd choice.

I have a vague memory of WoT book 10 being painful with little advancement of the story. So, by comparison, the next one seemed much better. I vaguely recall that Matt just gets more and more interesting. Perrin doesn’t start to get more interesting until the last couple of books. I believe book 10 has Elayne’s bath, so book 11 is awesome by comparison.

I think I’m going to re-read this in a couple of weeks. The second book is the best in the series and the rest are a mixed bag of I recall. But I have to read them again to make sure.

So, this series is all over the place. It was very readable and has some cool, but inconsistent, magic. There were times, however, that I thought the author was completely winging it - not thought out and going down a path just because. It was hard to accept some of the “twists”, if that is what you could call them. No spoilers, but there were some truly dumb choices at the end as well. But, hey, I cruised through and enjoyed it enough.

I need to re-read this series again, I think 2014/2015 was when I went through the series, I remember liking the series mostly as a whole and that the first book took a while to set things up and get going. The series does get better, and IIRC Kip does 'mature.'

Book 10 (Crossroads of Twilight) was the only struggle read for me I enjoyed the rest.

If I recall, the Hobbit was a pretty good read, although a little strange at times. The Lord of the Rings books were a real slog to read, 20 pages describing walking through a field and one paragraph about a huge battle. As for the movies, LoTR was amazing, Hobbit, each one was just a little too long.

congratulations now you can get into the deep dive, and fan theories, with no worries about spoilers. enough content to last you a turning of the wheel

Took about a year for me to read, pretty much was fully committed (reading on phone while in lines, etc). Finished it about five years ago and would love to revisit, but just don’t think I could handle all the descriptions of clothing (and, if I ever have to read about Elayne debating whether to get back in the bath tub again I will freak out). Still, it was an amazing story, and great characters who all grew. Matt went from my most despised character to my favorite. Perrin went from boring to a commanding presence. Anyway, I am glad I read it and it is up there on my list of reading accomplishments. Besides the epic battle at the end, there is also Dumai’s Wells. Pretty amazing stuff. And, the magic is great.

I finished book 9 a month or 2 ago. Right now I am reading the prequel New Spring but am really bored with it. I love the magic system, the world building, and most of the characters. The over describing tendencies of Jordan drives me crazy, but I am excited to see how the story ends.

The best part of completing TWOT is that it's finally OVER. The last 3 seem SO much better not so much because Brandon did them, but because they weren't as awful.

This series is 100% on my list to start this year! And you've sold it even more 😊

The Twilight books were so good and the movies were just okay. I agree with you about the characters. They are different from movies. I pictured them differently. I'm glad I read all the books before the movies came out.

I agree about The Hobbit movies. They are different from the book but I enjoyed them for what they were. The Lord of the Rings movies followed the books exactly. I loved them.

I agree with you that A Haunting in Venice is dissimilar to its source material, but I love The Halloween Party. That is one of my favorite Poirot stories and I was disappointed with the movie. I think I would have enjoyed the movie more if I didn't know that it was based on The Halloween Party. I'm slightly disappointed in Kenneth Branagh now.

Thanks, you have excelent taste. 👍

You almost had me convinced to give it a try. :) But I've had more than enough frustrating reads of late. :) I'll add it to my list anyways and let you know.

Mort is exactly the book I'd recommend to start with, for two reasons: Firstly, because while it's the fourth book in the series, it's the first "proper" Discworld book. There's a bunch of characters, places and ideas that change between the first three books and the rest of the series, so that can be kinda jarring. Secondly, while it's a fun book, Pratchett keeps improving and evolving as an author as the series goes on, so it's only uphill from there!

I'm so behind on watching and commenting, so this one is a little late. As always I've smiled through the whole video seeing how excited you are for reading. If I ever need to point someone to a video that shows how much excitement and love for reading people can have, your videos come to mind. :) And this one was another great reminder that at some point I need to re-read the first two Dandelion books and finish up the series. With Wheel of Time there is still a lot of ground to cover for me as I'm only through the first 5 books and I only tend to read one per year.^^ I've read Blood Song probably 10 or 11 years ago, right when indie publishing became a bigger thing and Michael J Sullivan and Anthony Ryan were always the shining examples, so this was basically required reaing at the time. And I made a similar experience. I really enjoyed Blood Song, but Tower Lord didn't grip me as much. I also never finished the series up with the third book. Normally I'm a multi-pov kinda guy, but I think the transition from Vaelin's intense story in the first book to a multi-pov second book never really worked for me. Luckily I've read The Awaking Flame by Anthony Ryan, which is also multi-pov from the get-go and that worked way better for me. I've also read Pariah and Martyr, so I only need to get to Traitor and finish the series. Regarding Django Wexler, sometimes books just aren't the right fit and that's totally okay. What I've found interesting is that you mentioned that the character couldn't be killed. I've recently read The Shadowthrone by Django Wexler, the secon book in his Shadow Campaigns series and my favorite character there, the princess Raesinia, also has this capabaility. I love the series so far and, if you ever wanted to try out another Django Wexler, and The Shadow Campaigns isn't a series with sexual innuendo. Have fun with all the wonderful books from your haul and thank you for an entertaining video. :)

Yes, it’s better than Stormlight. But not better than Malazan Book of the Fallen. 😁It’s still the top1. 🤷‍♂️😂

My favourite series!!