9:52 you’d be unconscious 15-20 seconds if you get picked up within 90 seconds you should survive with minimal brain damage if you you exceed 2 minutes your dead

I can’t believe you didn’t talk about the weirdest part of the book. I found the Wizard of Oz but to be so off-putting, I almost quit.

I pictured Oy as Speak from the Tick

Review begins at 2:45

The books amazing. My interpretation of the end really comes to "we can't just take these alien technologies and imprint our DNAs on it, we have to do it ourselves or we will lose our identities". The idea of the "vote" one of you guys said is just a facett of the problem. The "point of it" is that technology, or the expanse, can't end our social, inner questions, and that conflict is what makes us human.

Great podcast

Im holding out for a Darrow/Roque reunion. Kind of the opposite outcome as with Cassius in that they were once brothers and their relationshio was irretrievably broken, i think that Darrow ans Roque will rejoin due to a common enemy. They may not repair to brotherhood, but something of their kinship will remain (I Hope!!)

So glad to come across this video. I just finished this book last week and I left it unsure of whether I liked it. My complaints were very similar in that the "romance" was not compelling, the nuances of a lot of the politics/tribal/non-human relationships were hard to understand, and Nahri doesn't...do anything. I left it unsure whether I'd finish the series, but I think i will after watching this. Thanks!

If they had a name reference in the back of his book it would have been much easier like in the Riyria Chronicles by Michael Sullivan.

I prefer the longer summaries yes. 20 minutes is perfect.

Rip Van Winkle

I can't help thinking about the other worlds cut off from Earth how they got by

haha, air sick low landers

I'm reading it now and up to page 90. I am having trouble following all the characters and plots. I wish John Gwynne would list all his characters with a brief description of each at the beginning of the book.

Thanks for this! I read this months ago and am finally picking up Valour and NEEDED a recap

Just started reading this. After the second chapter I was all in on all 10 books. 4 chapters in im more hooked than ove ever been on any series.

Blushweaver's character is written in that way because she is the goddess of lust. Obviously it doesnt do anything for the plot, but i think brandon just wants to really ephasize the Gods' and goddesses' roles, lighsong also ignoring her; because that how he is

"they should have called it Blushing" HAHAHAHAHAHA FOR REAL

Just finished Book 1, phew yes it was and I was trying to keep up with characters and events, but I actually ended up liking it after passing 40 chapters into, I'm looking forward to Book 2! 😊

This is brilliant!

DS9 is far far superior to TNG (once it gets going)

Please do more of these books. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Sellswords trilogy

I liked this book way more than it seems you guys did. The dreamer chapters were amazing and not like anything else in the series. You have to really read them over and go back after the explanations that are given after they take Cara out. Any time we get a lot of protomolecule stuff or ring entity stuff, I'm all in and this book had a lot. I wasn't really into the Free Navy books and think they dragged a little. The TV show did a good job of abridging that content even though there was still too much Naomi struggling on the Chetsumouka.

The Laconians only think in military think, so they have to fight against whatever they think is their enemy. They also can't use their superweapon on their flagships because it causes everyone to black out and results in the bullet entities showing up. Otherwise they could have waited longer to fight against the entities when they were more advanced and Duarte was fully formed or whatever his final form was supposed to be.

Regarding the ending: I think that you missed that hive mind humanity would cease to exist and taken over by the builders backup from the diamond. holden doesn't even like the give mind idea until he takes the protomolecule, which is influencing his views (as it did with Duarte)

Funny how everyone pronounces these names differently. I read “Veradis” as “Ver-uh-dis” (like “verdant”) and “Fidele” as “Fuh-dell-ay”. Almost like a root of fidelity. Thanks for the recap! I’m about to start book 4 and I needed it to remember where everything left off. I like the series a lot more than the two of you, I think, but we all have our opinions and preferences. Take care!

I think the reasons they put Singh in charge of Medina was for a few reasons. 1) They wanted a civilian in charge so that it looks less like a military occupation even though it is. 2) They have a guy that isn't that important that could either do a good job or screw up (more likely) and then they can come in an punish him to make themselves look better. Duarte and Trejo didn't expect him to screw up so bad that one of their ships was captured, so their plan didn't really work out. The Association of Worlds was an organization of all the non-Laconian systems that was made by Laconia. Before Laconia, the Transport Union was in charge of gate transit and all the systems were independent. Everyone knew some Martians defected and occupied Laconia. There was a beacon by the gate warning people not to go through it or they would be destroyed, and I guess because everyone was recovering from the meteors and the Free Navy, they didn't have the ability or will to test them out.

Nightblood destroys evil. It cannot determine what is evil however so it uses the perspective of its wielder to achieve this. If the wielder thinks they are evil then nightblood is allowed to destroy them. Nightblood is so volatile when drawn it goes mindlessly after the nearest point of evil. People without the proper level investiture are going to be more easily seduced by nightblood to be drawn as well. Using nightblood as a weapon trap is probably how he lost it. Someone who didnt see themselves as evil just picked it up and Vasher had to run or die (possibly)

If you want ‘everything’ I suggest the comic adaptation, it expands and fills out the story and tells everything from Roland’s initiation through to the end of the novels in chronological order, including Jericho Hill.

The “miners open a hole and find a corrupting evil” aspect of the Skinwalker is a twinner to the inciting incident of a King book on another level of the Tower.

There are stories about what Roland was up to before he entered Tull, the comic books fleshed out and expanded the entirety of his time as a youth not covered in the books, and continued to adapt the books themselves as well, and constitute a different ‘cycle’ than the books themselves. There is also a short story in the collection “Everything’s Eventual” about Roland called ‘The Little Sisters of Eluria.’ I absolutely love the showing of Roland having different character in his ‘new’ loop at the end via having the Horn. The book talks about how it would have “only taken a second” to pick it up at Jericho Hill, but he was already looking ahead towards the tower, but a Roland who cared enough to stop for the Horn might also not drop Jake.

Another difference between the situation Jake posited in helping River Crossing, and in the Ka-Tet helping in Calla Bryn Sturgis, is that the people of the Calla *asked* for help in an official way that the Gunslingers were bound by, and the old’uns of River Crossing explictly *didnt* put their problems on the Ka-Tet’s shoulders.

There is actually a *third* side story with more Roland backstory. ‘Little Sisters of Eluria’ is set before The Gunslinger but well after the Battle of Jericho Hill, and is in the collection “Everything’s Eventual” that also includes the story 1408.

1:12:02 Laymen's/blue collar space opera. Genius. The spectacle would be ruined by specificity...

Great discussion! I think the Belters are the classic exploited & policed community. The consequences of empire... Thry have to be made invisible... bc they do essential work with little choice, for minimal compensation & stay at bottom of the scrap heap.... Their work makes life possible / comfortable for the rest...

Great review

Wee need some fuckers to finish the show!

Lot of people, lot of names, no developed personalities. Thats why its so hard to separate them, all the characters are just vague tropes and cliches. Worst written fantasy series I have read. Did you know the gods war is coming. Don’t worry they will remind you constantly. Combat isn’t bad. Unless you start thinking about it too much. Then that falls apart to.

What ever happened to Part 2?

Appreciate the great discussion

Well I read the book and I've listened to your (appreciated) recap and I still don't know what's going on. I struggled through not knowing who anyone is in the hope that there will be a pay off in the next book. I doubt it though. The problem was, the more muddy and confusing it became the more the chapters passed without my full attention and it spiraled from there.

Did the podcast stop?😢

That Shallan chapter with the shadows was so cool, one of my favourite parts of the whole book!

Thank you for the discussion , I really enjoyed

Love this! And yes, smash. 100%

Can you please tag the people you are doing the episodes with so that I can find them?

Thank you for the recap ❤

I was hoping to see where you would rate the Percy Jackson series. Also is there a list of all the books and the rankings. It's hard with the picture of book covers.

i would’ve loved a longer book for a tad bit more clarification. thanks for getting me prepped for book 2. i waited too long to pick the next one up.

Amos calls her Peaches because she used the name Melba. There is a dessert called Peach Melba.