did you see the illumicrate special editions of arc of the scythe? the actual books under the dust jacket are just so gorgeous!

one of the reasons I didn't enjyo was the captain. Neal Shusterman tries to add virtual signalling to LGBT stuff when before there he didn't mentioned at all (this is the same time as the metoo and all of this stuff from LGBT was exploding). He also use racism stuff when again, before he never did (this was written amidst BLM movement). The other problem is that our main protagonists from book 1 and most of book 2 are almost side characters on the third being supplanted by others.

Great review. Scythe was an enjoyable surprise to me when I first read it in 2023. I thought it would be very emotion forward like most YA books, but it wasn't at all. I'm glad you liked it. 😊

Hi bedankt voor de video,. stond gister nog met deel 1 in mijn handen te twijfelen of ik het mee zou nemen aangezien SF niet zo mijn genre is. Na de review te hebben gekeken, lijkt het me toch wel waard om eens buiten mijn comfort zone te gaan

Sounds interesting!

Orphan of The Sky was a teen book but deserves more mention. And one of his best imo.

You should read Dragonsdawn. which is the PERN origin story. Dragon Eye is origon of harper hall and the dragon stones. The second half of Renegades explains the seven year investigation of landing and the discovery of AIAVS. All The Weirs Of Pern chronicals the removal of the threat of thread .The 4th book of the harper hall trigoly is The Masterharper of Pern. This is the history of the main character in the Pern story.

I recently picked up 19 Shusterman novels on a Humble Bundle deal for ebooks. Glad to hear you enjoyed this trilogy, as I look forward to working it into my TBR later this year. I will probably try one of his stand alone novels first. Mike's Book Reviews take on book 3 did give me pause and probably delayed me getting to this. Now I am confident to move it up again! Thank You.

Wow! You are having a great reading year! Mine has been good so far, too. A year of nothing but good reads would be wonderful, wouldn't it?

Errand plays such a major role in The Mallorean... he's more important than Belgarian himself.

So glad you enjoyed these!

I've just finished the second book in this series. Thanks for the non-spoiler review on the third. I look forward to reading it next month. 💜

Such great books, I actually prefer them to Feists solo work. Resd em when I was a teen and have gone back to them a few times since.

Love the way you did your review. It is very captivating the way your passionate description of each books come through. 😊

Alright, time to put it on my tbr!

I just finished rereading this series for the first time in more than 30 years. For me, the first book was a clear five-star read. It was tightly plotted with excellent character writing and good world design*. It's a clear 5-star read for me. The second book was a step back, with plotting that struggled to match the timing of the Midkemia side of the story, resulting in significant parts that didn't forward the plot much. Also, the character work was less consistent. The book was still very good, but only a 4-star book. The third book had similar problems to those in book 2, with the addition of years passing without action by the protagonist in spite of reasons for her to feel great urgency. In addition, the personal quests of the protagonist felt forced and inconsistent with her previously established personality and her conflicts with her husband to also be rather out of character. I found myself struggling with the pacing significantly during the middle of the book, though the ending was brilliant. I have this as a 3.5 star read. I do like this series, but other than Daughter of the Empire, I like the Midkemia books more. Tastes vary, of course. * Note that this book is set in a world that was _heavily_ influenced by a roleplaying game by M.A.R. Barker**, The Empire of the Petal Throne, just as Midkemia was based on the RPG world published by Midkemia Press (before the books were written). Feist was an artist and writer for Midkemia Press before he became a Big Name Author™. ** Barker, who was a terrible human being, but a rather gifted designer of worlds, a linguistics professor, and a serious conlang creator, was also an author and wrote several rather mediocre books set in his Tsolyani Empire (from the Empire of the Petal Throne RPG). He also tried to get his publisher to sue Feist's publisher for copyright infringement, though I suspect that his case was weak at best.

Daughter of the empire is one of my all time favorites

Bought the first book because of you! going to read it soon but gotta get through some other stuff first. Also excited to read tigana and dreams of the dying soon.

I have re read this series a few times, old enough to have first read them as each released. I am doing an audio re read at the moment, first time trying the audio. It is excellent. A series and characters that has stayed with me always. Glad some of the younger booktubers are also finding it and others as I was getting fed up of the “only modern fantasy counts” when pre 2000 has some incredible books. The Deverry Series by Katherine Kerr was another one I enjoyed from back then. Compare Mara to the awful females Sanderson or current YT darling Ryan Carhill. Not even any competition. I was so excited to read Mistborn, but started it same time as a Daughter re read. Mistborn didn’t fair well. Then there is the Carhill hype, tropes but with a modern twist, I couldn’t find any modern twists.. and was fed up of every female with her “high cheekbones” and completely lack of originality or viable plot. Apparently book 2 is a huge step up, but I’m still recovering from how incredibly boring book 1 was. The Empire series just stands so high up against just about any modern fantasy. Character arcs, world depth, politics, plot, heartache, violence, beauty. Its depiction of slavery and many other themes is everything compared to the clunky characterless and plot hole riddled darling that is Babel.

Wonderful series with a strong female protagonist. I notice Curse of the Mistwraith is finally available as an audiobook; something Janny has been fighting for, for thirty years.

Oooh, they sound wonderful! More chunkers 😵‍💫. I need to move Magician up on my TBR... Thank you for the visit!!

which moment is better: 1. Picking up a new book, or 2. Finishing a book ??

Read 'em all. Liked hers better than her son's. Reread 'em twice; enjoyed 'em that much. If you like the series, I recommend you read the Belgarion & the Mallorean series by Eddings.

Always fun to watch these updates

What a fun ride! And sharing it with you has been a delight!! 92 books, many of them huge, over 2 years is a lot. And there's little better than still enjoying the genre with more in the future 🙂. I am learning that I enjoy stories with fantastical creatures (dragons and were things, etc) and magic more than those about territorial/political battles in imaginary worlds. But likable, fun characters can often overcome those tedious subjects. Have you a favorite sub-genre? Or are you just loving them all?

Glad you found this series. I got to meet and talk to Anne twice. She is as legendary as you might think. I bought Dragonsong and Drogonsinger on a school trip, and had finished Dragonsong on the way home.

I've only read Starship Troopers, which i don't remember well. But I remember enjoying the basic training sequence, but not as much the war vs the bugs. I've been wanting to read Friday, did you ever get to it?

I loved Skallagrigg too. Wonderful read. I have never ever heard anyone talk about it, except for you. A book that made a big impression on me.

I view my KZbin income as part funding my book habit. Like you I didn't start a booktube channel to get rich! In fact I don't think i even realised it was possible to make even a little bit of money to start with anyway. I was monetised in Oct 2023 and it was slow going at first, but if you keep putting out the content, the watch time will mount up. Keep going!

That was beautiful, thank you. I haven't read The Darkest Road but I had the same feeling when I read a particular section of Tigana. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the book yet, so I'll just say that it was the last section of Chapter 6 / Part 1 - in the jail cell. I wept and wept. But it is a tough read. So even though I love it, I've re-read that section only once more afterwards. Have a blessed day :)

I only read the first of the NK Jemisin trilogy and I really liked it. Must try to read the other ones

I’d be happy just to have that money for a book budget. 3 years in and most of my views are probably from me 😂

Dutch, if I may call you Dutch, while I do not like the being asked for money two or more times a video, I also think that people find value in your content-I’d honestly say you’d be fine to enable tipping on your channel. While I don’t watch all of your videos, I have watched a few that I thought “dang John, that was easily worth a dollar”. I’m not saying push people to give you money(please don’t). Just leave them the option, what’s the worst that can happen? You make a few extra bucks?

Heh, funny money. Nice seeing your stats

I think this is the first time I've seen something like this on the internet. I really admire your willingness to be open and honest about these things

i'm impressed how your channel has taken off. i think i subscribed when you were hovering around 500 subscribers. i admire your consistency, especially because your content is so thoughtful. i know how much work it is to put these videos together in a cogent, meaningful way, and i think you're doing great. yes, a youtube channel about books is probably capped at a certain plateau, but there are a few channels out there doing really, really well. Books may not be for the masses, especially in these times, but those of us who have made reading core to our existence HUNGER for community, and that's why we find ourselves at Dutch Greybeard, and other far-flung islands of adventure, expression, and hope. Keep going Dutch, and damn the torpedoes!

Interesting! 120+ euros will buy a few books, maybe? Or pay towards your electric bill 😄. My copy of Arbonne is supposed to come by Saturday, the 18th. Can't wait to get started!! I also ordered some Kate Elliott, Benedict Jacka, Sébastien de Castell and a "lot" of legal thrillers. 🤯. I need to stay away from ebay!!!

Off to a great start! Good job. Just watching BookTube has changed my reading and challenges me. I love my smaller channels because there’s more interaction with the creators.

Australian Aboriginal people can take great offence when secret or sacred knowledge is publicised without permission.

What a timely video to come across my recommendations! I literally just re-read this series last month and completed my collection of hard-copies (including the graphic novel). Anne McCaffrey was, hands-down, my favorite female fantasy/sci-fi author when I was in middle school and she was instrumental in sparking my live-long love of reading. I am passing down this series to my grandchildren in hopes that she will inspire a love of reading for yet another generation. Thank you so much for this video! **EDIT:** A word of caution; I'm sure Anne loves her son, but his work is really sub par, despite taking place in the same universe and with her blessing. And I say this as someone who has collected and read all of his contributions to the series in addition to Anne's books. It's really disappointing when children of authors try and capitalize on their parents' work instead of branching out on their own. Brian Herbert is another example of this cringeworthy trend.

The King of Elfland's Daughter, and other pre-Tolkien fantasies, are more like fairy tales and folklore than anything that came after. It's fine if you don't like them, but I think there was a mismatch of expectations. Nevertheless, I always enjoy your videos and this one was no exception! (P.S. Glad to see someone else that also doesn't like The Little Prince 😆)

I like to read the books (only the ones by Anne herself, don't care much for those by her son) in chronological order. There is an online site that gives a list I found very helpful.

I know you’ve read Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin, but have you read Left Hand of Darkness? I’m reading it right now and the sheer amount of weird/interesting ideas and dense worldbuilding all fit into 300 pages is unbelievable. And she writes it all in such a beautiful way. This book has the single greatest/most beautiful passage of prose I have ever read. And this book came out in the 60s! I did have to use LitCharts (a chapter-by-chapter summary/analysis website) just to fully understand what was going on; it is certainly a challenging book. But so worth it as well. If you’re ever in the mood for a hard science fiction book/speculative exploration of gender/bizarre love story/you just want to read more Le Guin, I super recommend this one. It seems right up your alley in my opinion. Happy reading Ed!

So glad you enjoyed the Empire trilogy!

Another fun video! The non fantasy selections are very enticing. A visit to Australia in 1991, which included a short trip into the outback, puts the Morgan book on my radar. Feist is already on my TBR. There are so many wonderful reads in my future!! The montage of your fantasy journey at the end of your wrap-up is an impressive visual! So glad you are still having fun 🙂.

The arc of a scythe series is one of my favorite, I thought the ending of The Toll was incredibly interesting and I loved the book so much I read it in like 2 days. I’m also currently reading Red Seas under Red Skies, and love it so far

Have you finished the series yet? It's my favorite series. The ending is beautiful.

Do you prefer Piranesi of Jonathan Strange & Mister Norrel?

I read the little prince as a kid and I had the same impressions I was "wut that's it????". But then I saw the movie from the 70's and I liked it because the little prince actor is actualy very cute almost baby like <3

Brilliant video. I just found this channel today. Now I'm going to watch a few of the older videos.