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@@mv9653 I didn't think of that, but you may be right about Sylvia. I didn't draw more parallels than the obvious Yevani-Jewish, especially because the author didn't really focused on the religion or the diversity of the different regions. In any case, I also agree that doing this kind of narratives it's dangerous. I'm also not sure the author was aware of what she was supporting (I'm pretty sure she was just focused on the forbidden romance), but that's so irresponsible.

The Yevani-Jewish thing isn’t even a metaphor. Like, they use the word “kosher,” and everything. With Sylvia, it’s not as obvious a parallel, but between the descriptions of wide open green fields with supposed magical properties, Ludwig’s joke about pubs, the Catholicism (or at least Saint-based religion) combined with the fae-folk legends, and being an epicenter of rebellion against the king, it was hard for me to ignore the connection. Regardless, it definitely felt like Zionist propaganda that a Yevani effigy was burned along with the king’s effigy. Like the assumption that decolonization is inherently antisemitic. I don’t think it was purposeful, but it’s hard to ignore regardless. There’s a chance that Alison Saft grew up with the same Zionist brainwashing I did and just didn’t unlearn it. Maybe she does think like Lorelei, that being “one of the good ones,” will keep her safe…or maybe she just didn’t think and, like you said, just liked the more generic trope aspects and didn’t think. Regardless, it’s so uncomfortable.

@@peerlesscucumber9522 ohhh my... I'm both worried and excited LOL thanks for the info!

@@bookswithlau meatbun's whole shtick is angst so yeah. its gonna be a journey alright. and i recommend rereading erha when yoy have the time after you've finished the whole series bcs its such a different experience from reading it the first time.

​​@@peerlesscucumber9522i probably will (as long as nothing terrible happens in the last books that makes me change my mind), because i LOVE rereading my fav romances and plus erha seems like very to reread!

Also, given that Alison Saft is Jewish herself, the colonialist rhetoric is particularly problematic. Is this subtly Zionist propaganda? (I’m Jewish and antizionist if that matters.) Also, knowing that white savior Sylvia stays this delicate Mary Sue that everyone adores and is never taken to task is ick.

@@mv9653 yes, you're definitely not alone on that! I hope you finish it soon so you can go read something good next ;)

@@drowndrawn8836 hi!! I personally don't usually like dark romances, but this is also my current favorite danmei series 😂😂 i think so far (I've read until vol.6, included) it's actually sweeter than I thought it was going to be. I think book one set the tone, if you weren't bothered by everything that's implied that happened in vol. 1, you won't have problems with the rest (at least until vol. 6). I was very very concerned that it was going to get darker with each book, because i LOVED book one but, as I said before, dark romances aren't usually my thing. But yeah, this is so good, I'm glad you love it too!! 😊

@@ΓιωργοςΠαπαδατος i hope you enjoy it!! I thought it was sexy and fun!✨

@@ΓιωργοςΠαπαδατος thank you so much 💛

If you haven't, there's a female youtubers who made a reaction Jeanet Henning, she react on other place/pplat, If you can I was hoping you could maybe also react to the donghua like her? If you don't mind and haven't watched It though😅, I say It too late)

@@Lin-JhBx hii! No, i haven't watched it yet! I didn't forget, it's the first thing I want to watch but I haven't watched anything on my own since you recommended it to me. I usually feel like watching something when I'm too mentally exhausted to read, and this year college has been easy so far 😂😂 so yeah, I've only watched anime/donghuas when I'm meeting this friend who likes them, and we are already in the middle of too many series 😭😭 I'll watch it soon though, I've been lately missing watching something! As for reacting to it, it's a good idea but i need to think about it. I've been tempted to do videos about anime/donghuas i liked it (recommendation type of videos), but it's a channel for books so I'm still not sure. I mean, donghuas and animes are related to books but I'm not sure if i want to do videos reacting to anime/series because I feel like that's another type of content. Also, in reaction videos you have to be very careful to avoid copyright so I'd have to learn about that first. Anyway, yes, I'll watch it but I'm not sure about reacting to it, we'll see. But thanks for the input and the recommendation 💛💛💛

@@bookswithlau I was actually trying to find where to buy the audio drama but I can't, for some reason alipay won't let me exchange my money to yuan even It already accepted my card registration? 😩 Why!!

@@Lin-JhBx 😭😭😭😭 i hope you can find a way to make it work soon!!

OMG YESS thank you, it was sooo bad!! Good luck with your exams!! I'm cheering for youuu girl 💛🤗 happy holidays!! x

@@its_just_seb LOL to be fair i should have used capital letters (MM), but sometimes i like the aesthetic of the lowercase letters more 😂😂

@@mm17427 you're welcome <3

@@domoniquesweeting1477 edenbrooke is sooo good!! The other book i read by the author, Blackmoore, is amazing too. I'd also recommend Lakeshire Park if you want something really good with no spice 😊 i will someday do more slow burn recs! Thank you for watching 💛

@@riakm921 i LOVEEE tehol and bug!! I'm so excited to read the next one 😊 I also enjoy the Bonehunters a lot, it's great to follow characters you already know and care about meeting each other ✨ Yeah, i thought the empress was going to be more clever but she made very terrible mistakes and, instead of trying to fix them, she's getting more in trouble because she's desperate. I'm so ready to see tavore putting her in place.

@@nazimelmardi Thank you so much for the recs! 💛 I didn't think about Three Musketeers!

@ well, a lot we have in movies. Three Musketeers is one of them. I read it in high school. Les Miserables also a great book. An obvious one is War and Peace. Pride and Prejudice. To Kill a Mockingbird. Count of Monte Cristo. Oliver Twist. Dracula. Frankenstein. Crime and Punishment. Some that are great books to read and adapted.

If it makes you feel better, I also thought it was dark academia but in reality I wouldn't classified it like that. You only have the first scenes in the university. Even though they are students, they are doing a quest in the middle of a fantasy forest (among other places). I actually discussed it with a friend who complained on her review about the blurb being a bit misleading.

@@ariaslibrary GIRL ME TOO 😭😭 i was like: how do you expect me to care about the romance when they are on the wrong band??? Everything was addressed in a superficial way that showed a lack of understanding from the author or that they just didn't really care about the topics (when they are really important topics to talk about!). It was awful 💀😤😤 I haven't read that one! I think I'm going to stay away from fantasy with romances for a while. Besides danmei, I never find one that I enjoy 😭 hope you have better luck! 💛💛

@@Kashiblood hope you enjoy it!!! I LOVED the couple in that series. It was really refreshing having MCs with actual flaws that were trying their best to survive a very difficult situation. It's also a bit angsty because of that, but I love that it has a lot of romance and they are absolutely perfect for each other 🥺😊

@@dlasis i always feel it's not enough lol There are so many books to read out there!!! But it depends on the month, what I'm reading (it took me three weeks to read the bonehunters) and how busy i am in life. Right now I'm only studying, so I have free time ✨

Hi!! ohh I'm aware it wasn't the correct order (i only said that Changing the Game was her debut, I should have made sure to explain my reading order wasn't the correct one!). Personally, I prefer picking up the book I'm the most interested in even if it's not the first book in the series, because in romance I don't mind if you see other couples already together (I don't consider it a spoiler). Here I was interested in SCU Hockey series, so I started with that one. But yeah, you're completely right, The Offside Series comes first and most readers like to read it in the right order. I'm so so glad to hear that you enjoy them too!! I'm obsessed with this author! 🤗💫

I KNOWWW but I love Tavore so i'm greedy for more! yeah, it was time for her to appear, she's ever present so it was cool having her in this book. I've just watch an interview (dom recommended it) where Steven Erikson explains how to defeat Icarium... Really cool!!

@ yes, I know that channel and interview. I don’t follow it closely because they go slow and I have now many things to do but I am subscribed there.

Hi, Dom! i've watched it and it's so cool! It makes a lot of sense. I need to check those interviews, it was really interesting! thank you so much!😊💛

@@bookswithlau It's amazing how he used the Eres'al to pacify Icarium.

aww i appreciate the support 💛🤗yes, it takes me a while reading them but I'm enjoying the ride. I specially liked this one because I didn't have to struggle with the introductions at the beginning 😂I still have a lot of books left! but that's good, I don't want them to end 😭😂

i'm glad to hear that, thank you for letting me know! 💫

​@@Lin-JhBx hi!! Thank you so much for the rec 💛 priest and I don't have the best relationship, I really struggle with her writing style 😭😭 I may still give it a try though, I'm glad you enjoyed it so much!

@@bookswithlau Thank you for the reply! If you have a trouble with the novel, I hope you can give the Donghua/Anime a try and watch It, I really like It, the two main character and side character are really Interesting and funny! I especially love the chemistry between the two main character 🙏🥺♥️

​@@Lin-JhBx I LOVEEEE donghuas, I will do that for sure! I didn't know there was one, thank you so much for letting me know! It's a great option for when i struggle with the writing style, I can always try the books afterwards. Thank you 💛😊

@@bookswithlau ♥️♥️♥️ It also has an audio drama and ep 1 - 11 s1 with translation are available on RUclips

@@JoleCannon I'm sure your book is already in the top 50 of someone! 😌

@@susanross1651 i LOVE yan wushi too!! He's so attractive, I adore seeing him (even if he doesn't always treats shen qiao fairly 😂). In the donghua he was amazing too. I'm going to start book four soon, hope you enjoy it!!

@@dlasis hi, dom!! Yes, it's crazy that I've reached the bonehunters! I'm SO HAPPY to hear that I'm seeing Tehol and his crew in another book ✨😍😍 It's cool because i think I'm appreciating House of Chains a lot more now that I'm reading the Bonehunters 😂😌 thank you 💛💛

@@bookswithlau you’ll get to read Reaper’s Gale and Toll the Hounds (which is my favourite book of them all because of the powerful theme) very soon.

@@dlasis glad to hear that! I've heard great things about The Bonehunters but the other books didn't seem so loved, it's cool that the seven and eight are amazing too 😍

@@bookswithlau they are all amazing. Just follow the themes and you’d love them all.

i need to finish this series and reach that one!

yeah, erikson is really good at writing characters. I still don't know how he's able to have so many characters living in his head! I loved the Beddict brothers for that, I wished the Sengar brothers were that way too. I felt it would have made the whole thing more heartbreaking. With Felisin, for example, she was a brat but I cared for her because the poor girl had been through a lot. I didn't feel that pity for Rhuland, but maybe we weren't supposed to pity him that much. Also, yeah, I saw the capitalism comentary. I was actually thinking, as I was editing this video, how unrealistic it was that they managed to 'win', specially that there was someone (tehol) that was part of that society yet decided to use his power to destroy it, instead of getting super rich himself. It would be really hard to find someone like him in real life. It's true that he had strong motivations moving him to destroy the system. It was really cool to watch for sure! 💫💫

LOL i think i'm going to first finish this series, then read the other series set in this universe, and then re-read this series again... I hope I finish someday 😆😆

@@bookswithlau I suggest the Malazan Wiki advised reading order this time (including Ian’s books) there u will find the full list how they fit together. (And what you can just leave if you want from the Book of the Fallen story line)

@@nazimelmardi thank you for the tip! I would check it out when i finish this main series 😊

@@bookswithlau that’s also good for you because you don’t do notes. It has every single chapter noted and every character and so on. 6000 pages. Basically everything you are interested and not spoilers. Page by page.

Yeah, I didn't talk about it in the discussion of House of Chains in case someone didn't read Midnight Tides and wanted to go completely blind. But yeah, reading Midnight Tides made me change my opinion about House of Chains. I tried not to take Midnight Tides into consideration, because I like discussing this books as a first time reader, without knowing what comes next. It also happens with the Malazan Army, there was 'no point' for us to spend so much time with them in House of Chains when they didn't do anything, but it was an introduction for the Bonehunters. I didn't want to include it here (I said it, then decided to cut it), because, again, maybe someone wants to not know that (even if I don't consider saying it's an introduction for bonehunters a big spoiler, some people may think otherwise). STILL, as you said, Erikson likes to do it his way. I think it makes it harder to read it when it's your first time. Personally, I wouldn't have made this series so difficult to get through on a first read, but I'm not saying it's the wrong way to do it. It definitely worked for him, a lot of people love this series and I respect his view. But yeah, reading House of Chains wasn't my favorite experience for things like this. Then you read Midnight Tides and The Bonehunters and it makes sense... But it doesn't change the fact that I suffered House of Chains. Also, Karsa is in the Bonehunters too, so I'm guessing Erikson let him have so much space in House of Chains because he's going to be a really important character in the rest of the series. But, again, I didn't enjoy following him, specially in book 1.

@@bookswithlau well, it depends. Some days they adore House of Chains. Everyone has different favorites and very different tier lists. The fact is: You have a definition how a modern story should go down. That could be Lord of the Rings, First Law, whatever we chose. We meet the characters, we get familiar with them, those go to somewhere, do something, done. During that we have a structure of world, countries even, set of people, set of plot, set of political parties, etc. Now : what you see here is: At the very beginning we challenge the ruling party, the emperor then the empress herself. The magic is not gender specific but instead it challenges the power structure. Women are equal because of magic. They can literally do what men can do. The skin color is not a thing, in the Malazan power almost nobody is white. LGBTQ is strongly represented but!! not really talking about. -> nobody cares what you do. Perfect. Different races are integral parts of the society instead of separated like elves should be in Lord of the Rings or anywhere else. You don’t just go to a journey. There is no plot. There are MANY plots because the world is working like this. You meet characters then you meet new ones. As you just saw time jumps back and forwards because it’s not necessary to follow a certain time frame in history to get a picture about what happened in the world in general about a grandiose event. But you need small events from the past and present too. There are internal and external factors for the Malazan Empire to push it to the events we will see at the end. Not just 1 character group. We don’t follow some people we follow the events. That’s how this works.

@@nazimelmardi i realized that about the queer rep, it appears several times and nobody really mentions it, it's set as an ordinary thing. I really appreciated it, i hate that a lot of authors when they write fantasy they never put any kind of queer character, not even as part of the background as something that can happen in their world. Nowadays there are authors adding queer characters, but you can see that some times it's just to please the audience and not because they wanted to put a queer secondary character. It's interesting because Erikson wrote this before queer fantasy was a thing, he did it because he wanted to and that's awesome 😊 About races and different species, I also liked how they are all part of the society. There are groups that are treated worse but it's because of politics or because they lost some war (for example, the tribes indebted to the letherii), but it's not about color skin or race.

@@bookswithlau exactly. That also demonstrates a different approach to fantasy. Usually these people would attack each other’s empire or be allies. Here they are integrated parts of the society being oppressed or not. That’s where Sanderson fails in Stormlight. He gets a very good point on the parsendi being slaves then they are the same as the opposite party. But how they are represented that undercuts the theme. He gives the same tools into their hands. In Midnight Tides you see the very difference between two levels of advanced civilizations. If they clash it won’t end well and not just in the sense of war. That’s proved in history. Again: the indigenous peoples in America as recent examples. What happened to them is not just war. Culture (that’s why great read Banks - Culture in any book)

what you just said about Tavore not having a POV... I'm really excited. I have high hopes for her, I've been dying to meet her since Paran talked about her in book one so that's why I was so crushed when we didn't see a lot of her. Still, I know it will come!!💫😍 As for this being post-modern fantasy, I get that war is not only the battle but I was so bored 😂😭😭😭 I really like to see the aftermath and I don't necessary love battles that much. I love POVs like Tehol's and Shurq's a lot, even more than battles. I had the same problem in Memories of Ice, there was so much waiting involved. I respect Erikson's style, I just don't think I'm the biggest fan of military fantasy and this is a work of military fantasy. So there are scenes, like the ones in House of Chains, that I'm not interested in. But it's still worth reading it because I love a lot of other scenes. Karsa... I have to admit I like following him now that I'm in Samar's POV. I hated his POV, but seeing her commentary on his actions is really fun. I also love the way she handles him, they make a good team and Karsa seems to respect her... As much as Karsa can respect someone.

@@dlasis that's great! I was hoping it would be connected somehow ✨

@@bookswithlau it really is. But you still have to enjoy the mini stories within each book. Don’t think about the bigger plot yet because it’s a big jigsaw puzzle that will definitely be clearer as you reach the final chapters of the last book.

@@astrohunch thank you!! Malazan is AMAZING, but maybe you can follow my advice and read an easier fantasy first 🙃😂 but if you want to start strong, you have my full support 💛

@@nazimelmardi ohhh I'm so glad to hear that!! Midnight tides was a rough start, but i have to admit at the end it was worth it. But we have so many characters, I'm sure it's going to be more special being able to follow people you know already. Also, i didn't know that the three last books were part of the ending. I need to make sure to read them next to each other. Thank you!!!

@@bookswithlau 2 last books. 2 are one book supposed to be. Dust of Dreams and Crippled God are one book basically.

@@nazimelmardi ohh okay, thank you for the info 💛

@@andre_p hope you enjoy them 💛💛😊

@@h.s.l6875 better late than never! And thank you, that was a really nice compliment 💛

I've just finished Midnight Tides and you are SO RIGHT. Tehol and Bugg are my new fav malazan duo, they are hilarious but also interesting and unique. The book gained so much for me thanks to them, I adored reading their POVs. It was also nice to read something a bit more lighthearted 😊 I've actually tried Emily Henry! I love that she always makes her heroes human, the books tend to be pretty balanced💫💫 Thank you so much for the recs!!💛💛 yes, I think i would need more than a year to read all of them 😂but i'm adding them to my tbr. When I finish malazan I would need another big series to read 🤗

@@bookswithlau yes. But there is what’s in the Malazan world now: ruclips.net/video/YEvTTG5ONPo/видео.htmlsi=ayDJf8QpHZbmpw4a

Dom, you are so right! I've just finished Midnight Tides and it was a lot of fun. Still has very hard topics and difficult scenes, but it was a bit more lighthearted if you compare it with the others (for example Deadhouse Gates was a lot more tragic). I LOVEEEED Bugg and Tehol, they are my new favorite duo. They were hilarious and so easy to follow, yet interesting and misterious as characters, SE did a great job!

@@bookswithlau OMG. I'm so proud of you that you have officially finished halfway through the series.

@@dlasis thank you so much 😊💛i'm also very proud!! LOL

I'm really curious about Stormlight Archive. Part of me also thinks I'm going to be really picky but I also hope I still love it; I remember having a great time when I read it for the first time. I'm glad you are enjoying Red Seas Under Red Skies, I LOVED the first one. I liked the second but for some reason not as much. I think I missed some of my boys 😭😭😭 I KNOWW!! but those classics are HUGE LOL I think they aren't really hard to read (i hope so), so maybe we should ignore the length (easier to say it than to actually do it). Thank you so much, Mehta 💛💛