This was a good video! As someone who read all the original books through high school and bounced off the Travis and Bear stuff, I've been looking to jump back in 10+ years later. Have you read the Kelly Gay or Troy Denning stuff since the upload? I'm curious to hear your thoughts!

I have the hardcover of Ships of Merior but I had no idea that it was later split into two books. Nice list! I love that you listed Feast for Crows here.

13:49 Sure, it’s interesting to explore, but the issue is how the exploration occurred. Traviss created new issues to attack Halsey over rather than what Halsey was already doing. To the point that Traviss was contradicting pre-established plot points. For example: Halsey made it a point to never lie to the Spartans, something ONI explicitly disagreed with. Yet her conflict with Naomi in these books is because Halsey lied to her. There is also simply uneven criticism. Mendez was just as involved as Halsey with the Spartan IIs, and then even made the IIIs without Halsey. Yet he’s presented as being on some moral high-ground with his criticisms of her. Parangosky was the overseer of the project and had to sign off on everything the project did. Obviously the same issue with Mendez is present, but she also apparently didn’t know about the flash clones that she presumably signed off on and her agents distributed. Do I expect her to know all that? I think she should’ve considering the importance of this period as you’ve outlined in the beginning. But ultimately, I don’t expect her to know any of that: because she openly boasts about how she didn’t do any research into the universe she’s writing in. 17:15 Traviss has gone on record to claim she doesn’t like Halsey. The other characters in this instance are acting as the authors voice. Traviss has done this in other properties for the record. She’s hated by Star Wars fans for doing the same thing to the Jedi. 23:07 “what’s so wrong with that?” It becomes wrong when you essentially strawman the character you’re attempting to vilify. Even contradicting pre-existing canon in the process. 27:56 Using this tools is fine, again though Traviss didn’t use tools. She broke them then decided that they should be used a different way. This is the issue with that series you seem to somehow miss. Final In conclusion, fuck Karen Traviss and I wish her drivel was vaulted as fanfiction. Truly this defense was a failure as it lacked any meaningful research into what people really take issue with in this series. Halsey is oft cited as the most prominent example of the issue, but it certainly exists with others as well. Not to mention the ableist depiction of Lucy. I thank you for your time, but this was lacking any real substance.

yay warhammer less goo

Good luck with your pursuits Alex! I definitely empathize with the hyper fixation on new things, when I rediscovered Incredible Hulk comics I bought an Omni of a Peter David run (the "Claremont" of Hulk if you will) and began collecting solo issues with a vengeance. I've cooled off with the solo comic collecting because reading novels reasserted themselves haha. Finished Fugitive Prince last month, and a short sci-fi book you may find interesting called a Case of Conscience by James Blish. I hope you get to Thomas Covenant they are very unique books, and the two sequels I think are worthwhile and improve in some ways. Again good luck with your academic goals man.

Congratulations on starting your PhD, Alex! The research you’re proposing sounds fascinating, and there will be some great books to support it. I’m grateful that The Prophet of Edan was among your summer reads and glad that it worked well for you!

My Ranking of The Vampire Diaries Universe Shows 1: The Originals 2: The Vampire Diaries 3: Legacies My Ranking of The Vampire Diaries Season’s 1: Season 3 2: Season 2 3: Season 6 4: Season 1 5: Season 5 6: Season 4 7: Season 8 8: Season 7 My Ranking of The Original Season’s 1: Season 3 2: Season 1 3: Season 2 4: Season 5 5: Season 4 My Ranking of Legacies Season’s 1: Season 4 2: Season 2 3: Season 3 4: Season 1

Great interview!

Yay! I love seeing more people get into warhammer books, some of them are truely great! My faveourite authors are Dan Abnett and Aaron Dempski Bowdan.

I'm so excited for you to read more warhammer!

Mira is a treasure, and I'm excited for you as you start your Warhammer journey!

Great video, man!

You mentioned The God's Themselves, also worth checking out is one of Asimov's other stand alone books, though it is possible to view as a precursor to all the Robots and Foundation books, The End of Eternity. And if you still need more Foundation then there is the Second Foundation trilogy written after the death of Isaac Asimov by Gregory Benford, Greg Bear and David Brin.

No icarium?

Kruppe is a wind bag showcase of how many big words you can put together in a string.

Unfortunate typo in your title. Unless you were making a soil/earth metaphor that I missed

No fid? Consider my heart broken

I know I'm very late to this video but I'd still like to weigh in. I hate these books with a passion and it's not because I like the Spartans or Halsey and can't stand criticism towards them but because i was never given a compelling argument. Serin has good reason to hate Halsey, she's a washout and was crippled by the augmentations designed by her and she was taken from a family she can't even remember that's a fair personal bias from a Spartan program insider. The troopers are outsiders looking in and should, in my opinion, be the driving force for an indecision on these ethics while Naomi, another insider and fully fledged Spartan who survived the augmentations and became the best thing she could possibly be. The opinions of many of the successful Spartans are similar across all halo books: they recognize the controversial things done to them but they also recognize that they have reached the full extent of their potential because of it and they are grateful. The Spartan IIs are so grateful that most of them even view Halsey as a mother a fact that basically destroys her. In the previous books Halsey is so racked with grief over the callous approach to the Spartan IIs and so many of their deaths (it's insuated that had something to do with her abandoning her actual daughter) that she kidnaps an injured Spartan II and goes to find the next generation of IIIs in order to save them from being indoctrinated into fighting to death for the UNSC like her Spartans were. All of this is ignored in the Kilo five trilogy and Halsey is instead portrayed as an arrogant old woman nobody likes. The Spartans who have previously treated her with deference and respect are not given time to portray their thoughts and what should been an ideological clash between the successful spartan and the failed spartan became one character shoving her opinion down everyone elses throat and the other only getting a couple sections where we could actually see into her head wrangling with the decisions. For three entire books Halsey is portrayed as despicable by the people who signed off on her atrocities and there is nobody who portrays the very real counter arguments. Nobody should be arguing the inception of the Spartans was good but neither was anybody in the books saying things along the lines of The UNSC was on the brink of collapse with a organization so frought with terrorists that the military had to patrol our own colonies. If we had not gone to war with the covenant the possibility that we would have become divided in our own territory and wipe each out as our technology advance is undeniable. When the alternative is genocides to come dubious become justified and justified becomes necessity. That would have cemented a characters conflicting opinion and caused the members of Kilo five to question both arguments. Instead every character, lacking an actual opinion to fight with, tend to bicker with each other over the thing they already agree on and that's why i think a writer should never let their personal opinions influence their works. They shouldn't be prohibited from including and expressing their true opinions but if you write where everyone shares your opinion, and nobody in the book counters it, it will come across as shoehorning your own personal opinion into diverse characters. You must stand on the line and acknowledge both arguments to create compelling encounters. While I know Karen Traviss could be a great writer, her concepts are fantastic, ONI would absolutely arm rebels to fight their allies, political infighting between the UNSC leadership and ONI, the parent of a Spartan seeing their child after over 30 years and what happened to them. Amazing concepts that could have carried this trilogy to greatness weighed down by characters who are written to have basically the same opinions and to make sure you the reader know those every other sentence. And then there's also the fact Halsey is literally beaten up by a Spartan and just walks it off like she just bumped her head on a door frame. And a traumatized Spartan III who developed selective mutism after seeing 298 of the people she grew up with die at once who instead of giving up and calling quits went on to train the next generation of IIIs and even when she saw one of her best friends and mentor about to sacrifice himself to save all of them she couldn't utter a single word instead only whined weakly. Yeah she started speaking again because Halsey was being mean to a squid she just met and is also the spartan who beat her up, was then taken down by an unaugmented human with a chokehold, cause Spartans definitely wouldn't know how to counter that, and is treated like a delicate flower who is a detriment to the team for the entire book. Anyways, I hate these books but i would love if someone could present an argument that would make me think I'm wrong because I love halo and I want all of the books to be as amazing as the games were but in my opinion the Kilo Five trilogy is a glaring failure amidst gems. Thanks for reading my ted talk. (Sorry about the grammar)

I may need you to point out a good reading order for all these 😂 I’m about to start midnight tides and then I was going to go with Night of Knives to go published order. What’re your thoughts?

read the first 10 plus 3 NOTME, now reread GOTM & DHG

Yeah I’m pretty certain the next witness book is next year and the one after not long after that one

good video, cant wait to get into kharkanas etc

I love this idea. Mine 1. Book of the Fallen. The emotional moments are what I read it for and it pays off in spades. Helps that the ending is the best I've ever read 2. Kharkanas - even though it's not finished, I considered putting it #1. The style is one of the biggest reasons I love this. (Just damn Lasa Rook keeping it down). Incredible moments and characters all around with lines that just make you ponder over and over 3. Paths to Ascendency - I think this is where Esselmont really comes into his own. Despite thinking that Kellenveds Reach is not very good, the rest of the series is so much fun and exactly what I want from Esselmont. After the newest installment was delayed I was worried but it ended up being one of my favorites in the entire series 4. Witness - this has so much potential. I am eagerly awaiting the next book to come out but damn, it makes me cry and Rant must be protected. Erikson doesn't skip a beat. 6. Novels of the Malazan Empire - still very good. My favorites are OST, SW, and B&B. I like them all but the first two I find a little lacking, with Return of the Crimson guard much too big. (The opposite problem I had with Kellenveds Reach) 6. Bauchelain and Korbal Broach - I love them but there isn't much there outside of Crackt Pot Trail but if someone wanted to argue that Crackt Pot Trail is the best thing Erikson has written, I wouldn't argue with them

I’m loving path to ascendancy. Also have the first three of empire heading my way. Also can’t wait for the next witness book. Rereading books of the fallen but this time I’m reading empire mixed in. Just finished forge of the high mage and loved it.

Great video! I'm glad you found this book!

if you ponder whether or not art should be considered separately from the artist - u've already decided. in fact all of ur "rationalisations" and interpreteations of "what he really meant" are 1:1 what soviet union party bloodhounds were doing in order to publically shame, mark, ostracize and eventually destroy (often literally) the wrongthinking public individuals. the only difference is you say "anti-lgbt" and they were using the term antisovietchik. convergent evolution of the leftists.

May you please review The Diamond of Dandasterton?

Personally, I enjoy finding out what people did day to day. I’m doing a slow re-read of the entire series… having just completed “Go Tell the Bees…” I am getting so much more from DG’s amazing writing. I don’t skip a single word.

I totally agree about the sex scenes. They became a bit too much. I’m getting ready to read Crescent City…took a bit of a breather with a re-read of Outlander and Voyager by Diana Gabaldon. I probably should read House of Earth and Blood, as it’s the first of the two. However, I’m just gonna for it. After this reading, I’ll be moving on from Maas. I want to try some other novels you’ve recommended. I enjoyed your review. Thank you.

Haven't finished the video, but I just wanted to say that I find your voice very pleasant and soothing. 🙂

Karsa numbers one for me tbh

Nice video!

It takes a while to pick up on all the lore of the universe. Some of the Heresy books might help understand how the marines and the patriarchal fit in. If you latch o to a chapter, there are likely books based on them and some from a chaos pov as well. Although they do start to blend together after a while.

So glad you’re getting WH40k books

I really loved dead house gates doesn’t get enough love I recon.

Nice review! The artwork on these covers of the Edan Trilogy are very unqiue

Glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, back when Professor Chase first revealed his map, I made an analysis that the fact that there was a “need” for a wall (“Sirukinn’s Wall”) next to the MASSIVE Mountain Range between the Wildlands and Sildharan, suggested a less than friendly relationship between the two nations… Some other interresting nuggets I caught back than: With names such as "The Sundering Sea" and "The Savage Sea", along with the big Mountain Ranges of Osham and Marar, the "Anglo Saxon" nations of Torrland and The Mark and the "Norse" Nation of Grimrik are somewhat boxed in by rough-sounding seas and mountains, with only the Balnor Pass, the Mikla ("The Great/Big") Sound and Ellond as natural crosspoints. As such, I was not surprised by Professor Chase’s statement of Ellond as a Multicultural Nation/Border Kingdom between Torrlond and Sildharan. On the other hand, the "Celtic" Nations and "Indian" Nations had a lot of cross-cultural connections on the map: 1) With only a couple of named Gulfs between them, sea travel for trade/cultural exchange between the South-Western and the South-Eastern looked highly plausable. 2) Most of the forests on the whole continent have "-wyn" endings (which have multiple meanings in several Germanic and Celtic languages: "Wine", "White", "Joy" etc.), even in the "South Asian" Southeastern Nations (The Mark being one partly exception, were they had been replace with the more Anglo-Saxon "-weald" (hinting on a change of culture, as Chase have mentioned, which makes sense with it being more cut off by Torrland from the other nations as mentioned), another being the Ironwood in the Wildlands, sementing their isolation from the more "civilized nations"). 3) My first thoughts upon seeing Asdralad, having visited the Hebrides and having a few friends from Sri Lanka, was a) "Dirgal could be the name of both an Island between Irland and Scotland, and an Indian Ocean Island" and b) “that looks like the lovechild of the Hebrides and the Maldives”! Slightly less serious: The Sea of Morthul's lawyers might want a talk with the Professor, as from of the map it should be a natural trading (and possibly turist location), as a natural crosspoint between several cities with its connecting rivers. But, everybody knows, that in fantasy, people and places with "Mor(t)” in their name, has a rather, oh what is the word, oh yeah, "bad" reputation... 😅 I must admit that at the start I got major “Empire Strikes Back” vibes, and for a couple of pages I was a bit afraid that our dear Dayraven would morph into a Luke Skywalker/Frodo Baggins Haversack-Young Grasshopper clone, but I ended up thouroghly enjoying the story, especially after the Council of Kiriath: Loved seeing the “Gang” back together, even for just a few pages! While I would have loved to see even more of Sildharan, Sundara and Golgar, Thulhan was a highlight of the story: The Dual Temples of Oruma & Anghara (representing Death & Life) reminded me of the Taj Mahal (& the “Proposed Black Twin Taj Mahal” Myth that I heared when I visited it). The Mix of Domes and life-like statues, I found similar to a fusion of two Indian periods: the Early Modern Age Muslim Mughal Empire India (famous for it's dome-architecture, Taj Mahal being a prime example, but also ban on human likeness in its style) mixed with the Indo-Greek Kingdom of Antiquity (Successors of Alexander the Great, famous for introducing life-like statues into South Asia). Dayraven’s Travel through the Osham Mountain was another highlight, taking me back to being on tracking in Nepal, could literally hear the Lonely Planet/Globetrekkers Theme! And I don't know what line made me laugh the most: The line about Tiran’s Mother or Jhaia's weapon of Guilt! 😂 Urd and Faldira felt to me as if Gandalf/Radagast and Galadriel had been envisioned for “Earthsea” by Ursula K. Le Guin! Even before the Torrlonder attack on the Asdralad, the white clothes of Asdralad reminded me of how white symbolize purity, but also death in many Western and Asian Cultures! Similar, I could not help but think of the Asdralad Army's Black & White uniforms, as a nod to the Ying-Yang of Daoism, again tying Asdralad as a love letter to Le Guin's “Earthsea” and as a counterpoint to the grey kirtels of the Torrlonders, a colour used by “Historical Badguys”, such as the Confederate States and Germany during in both WW1 & WW2, on their uniforms. Turning to the Torrlonders: I caught Eofor, “Boar”, the name of a Geat warrior in “Beowulf” and slayer of Swedish King Ongentheow (Egil Vendelkråke in Norse Sagas) and Duke Uwain to Ywain/Owain, the Knight of the Round Table, based on Owain mab Urien, King of Rheged, from the poems of the bard Taliesin. The Lingworms was a nice nod to our Scandinavian Lindworms, and added to the “Beowulf meeting the Vietnam War” feeling from book #1: Aerial supremacy, King Balch, aerial supremacy! That said, Munzil has to be my favourite new addition to the series in this book: While I would not quite call myself “Pro-Ilarchae”, I definitly would say that the chickens came home to roost for Sildharan! I understood a fair bit of Ilarchae as German-ish, I believe Hochna is German for “Snotty” 😆. Skuld, like Urd, is the name of a Norn/weaver of destiny in Norse Myth, Gorm is the name of a Danish Viking King, Erzil hints to both Etzel (the name Attila the Hun in German Myth) and Özil (a Turkish last name) and Surt to Sutr, the Fire Jotun causing Ragnarok and the destruction of Asgard! Furthermore, the character of Surt reminded me of Attila the Hun, but also as a darker take on Beowulf (his tribe being named the Fire Dragons, and his focus on glory combined with the loyalty he fosters among his men as a “Ringgiver”), and of Darth Vader/Kylo Ren from Star Wars in his dark armour: Especially when Kung Fu Catching a spear in midair(!), which reminded me of Richard Wagner’s «Parsifal», were the evil wizard Klingsor throws the Holy Spear at noble Parsifal, only for it to stop and float above Parsifal’s head, before he grabs it and destroy Klingsor and his Castle by making the Sign of the Cross! I talked to the Professor about it, and he mentioned “The Saga of Njål” as more direct reference for the midair spear catch! Other tidbits: The Norse Execution Method Blood Eagle! Wolfhides: The “Ulfhednar”, the berserker bodyguard of the Viking unifier of Norway, King Harald Hårfagre/Finefair. And the Grey Wolves are a sacred symbol in Turkic Mythology. The White Dragon for Torlond: A nice nod to the Saxon White Dragon fighting the Celtic/Welsh Red Dragon in «Historia Brittonum»! Turning to the Religions: The Realm of Origin brought Plato’s “Theory of Form”to my mind, while Imharr Silverhand was a cool nod to Nuada Airgetlám of Irish Mythology and Tolkien's Celebrimbor (as well as Johnny Silverhand from “Cyberpunk”)! The World Tree Laeroth with 9 worlds is of course a nod to Yggdrasil in Norse Myth, while Hringvolnir the First Dragon and mother of monsters is a mix of Norse Nidhogg, Mesopotamian Tiamat, Greek Typhon, Christian Lucifer and Tolkien's Morgoth! The Battle of Bolthar (according to Agon) or Regnor (according to Orvandil) vs Hringvolnir, is a nice reference to the many versions of Chaoskampf, a thunder/storm god fighting a dragon, found around the world, with added elements of poor Ymir's fate in Norse Myth. The Andumic Chthonic God Orumo/Orm being replaced by the Ilarchae Sky God Regnor/Roknar as head deity for the (early) Torrlonders, Ellonders and Men of the Mark, reminded me to how maybe an early Chthonic version of Poseidon (as a God of Death tied to those that drowns at sea and by earthquakes) in Mycenaean Greece, was after the Bronze Age Collapse replaced by the Sky God Zeus as the Head God in Greek Mythology. Similarly the Ilarchae Chthonic Psychopomp God Seidvar (Charon the Ferryman of the Dead with hints of Heimdal as Father of men) seems to have fused with the Andumic Chthonic God Orumo and then split into a Traveller’s God (Sithfar) and a Chthonic God (Orm) for the (early) Torrlonders and Men of the Mark, in a fashion similar to how Hermes and Pan from Greek Myth have a common origin as one Proto-Indoeuropean Diety.

Just ordered this book it’s coming in a week. I had to wait for the paperback edition so it fits into my Malazan collection. Loved the first three on a re read of book of the fallen and now have to get esslemonts other books to read in the main story

Congratulations!

Todd here. Nice video Brotha! I want to read The Prince of Nothing Series by Canadian Author R. Scott Bakker.

The Shining (during stay at The Stanley Hotel) Golden Son Guns of the Dawn We'll see what else

Big Asimov fan. The Stars like Dust is wack 😂

Nice List!

Nice video! I tried to get into the Warhammer table top game years ago I bought a couple of space marine kits, and found it fun to paint them. But I gave up on it for a few reasons. I gave up on it because I found it to be too expensive, I didn't have any friends that wanted to play with me, and I went to the Games Workshop store a couple times and I found that half of the people that play the game don't shower on a regular basis. But the books might be fun to read.

Where to begin....can't go wrong with Abnett. There is a lot of lore to get into so some of the books get a little repetitive. A lot of the adeptus astartes books are non stop action. The Heresy books are good but not for a starting point until you get a grasp of the history, what the Heresy is, the chaos gods (Slaneesh is who you were thinking of), the Primarchs, and the various chapters. I liked the Souldrinkers series as they go against the grain of the other astartes. There are some decent blood angel series and also can't go wrong with the Wolves. There are a few from the Chaos perspective. But they all run together. Caiphas Cain is about as comedic as they get. Reminded me of Bill the Galactic Space Hero. Never played the tabletop. Have played the Fantasy Flight ttrpg a few times. Have painted miniatures but they are freightfully overpriced but will buy their paint, although Vallejo is my second choice. If you look up some Golden Demon winners, white amazing, they probably kit bashed several hundred dollars in mimis. But at least you can now talk about grimdark.

I like your presenting style

Is the action as God awful as it is in the book of the fallen? Because that's my main issue with BoF so far.

Awesome video! It’s crazy how much different everyone’s top 10 books are, so fun to see

Great video - as others have mentioned, you've convinced me to start Malazan!

I am an old guy (also American) who speaks (American) English but can read a little Spanish and French in a pi9nch. I've been a reader all my long life. I've read exactly ONE of the books on your list (you can probably guess which one). I assume (from your discourse) that you're cultured and educated. Isn't it amazing that there is so much reading content to be consumed that I've have read almost nothing from your best/favorite list? Do we have an embarrassment of riches? Say yes. Thanks for the content and the introduction to many fantasy/SciFi works that I've never heard discussed or even mentioned. I read two volumes from ASOFAI, but not the one you featured.