It’s literally in my school library, I’m old enough to have seen cheap smut like this over and over again. But the younger years in my school are aged 11-12. Literal children, and you just have this book out on the shelf for any kiddie to flick through and read “boob” for the first time or some shit.
As a ballet dancer, I honestly have deep issues with the fact that a random assassin girl could perform a ballet dance “perfectly” or even convince literally anyone that she was a dancer. Professionals train for years, sometimes dacades, to master ballet technique. It’s incredibly difficult and requires high strength in all areas of the body, high stamina, balance, and focus. On top of that, you have to always look beautiful and trick the audience and make the performance look easy. All they see is you moving gracefully across the stage without all the effort it really takes.
You know, this could have been an interesting opportunity to drop some backstory, like say that the physical training aspect of her assassin training was actually ballet, because it’s so physical, and that she’s able to blend in somehow using that prior knowledge. It would still be a stretch but if she’d been improvising something that seemed to match, or establish that this is the Swan Lake of this universe and any self respecting dancer would know it to at least an extent, it would have been at least SLIGHTLY more believable. But I don’t see why even make it a dance instead of choosing something this chick is already good at, seems like there’re plenty of those 🤦🏻♀️
I read that book a long time ago, but if I am not wrong it does give some backstory, the woman who is the ballet teacher used to be Celaena's dance teacher for a long time in her life, there's something related to her learning to be a smooth assassin and the dance moves. It's not enough to explain how she does it perfectly but it's an attempt.
she actually doesnt perform the dance at all. she dips out and puts on a different disguise at the beginning so trained ballerinas are the ones doing the dance while aelin moves through the crowd during the distraction
About Celeana always hooking up with every guy; SJM could have spun that into a pathological need that Celeana has to be loved, and loves anything that loves her back. Would have been a cool vulnerability for her to overcome whilst also being an excuse for trashy romance with the man of the hour. Idk, still shit series, but it’s the little things
kieran hockey that would actually make sense, considering she was raised in an abusive environment and all this junk. But that would require for SJM to think of Celaena/Aelin as a three dimensional character, not a self insert mary sue.
ktelle It’s ridiculous because every man who lays eyes on her is immediately obsessed with her, and she goes through 3 relationships and gets married in under a year. It’s simple wish fulfillment and sloppy writing.
The only reason why prophecies worked well in Percy Jackson (and trust me I do hate prophecies in stories as well) is because they were SUPER vague, in some cases to the point where they made Percy paranoid. Also they rhymed... I guess that helped...
That's kind of the point of thw original prophecies in ancient Greece. Rich people going to an Apollo's priest to tell if they should buy this or marry that, and getting ambiguous answers to fit the wey they feel pleased. Writers who introduce prophecies should try to avoid being very specific. They sorta forget that telling people that your hero is the chosen one to defeat the dark Lord is like spoiling your own story.
@@goblinsinc.8274 yeah but I don't really count him on that because he was too young, so most part of the mistery was between Thalia and Percy because they have the same age and they were about to turn 16, so if it wasn't them it kinda had to be him?
I didn’t really like how she jumps from guy to guy it comes off like the author got bored of her own characters or realized that they were not fleshed out so she just makes hotter guys to replace them.
@@ElectromagNick An author who actually has a 15-year-old mind. Celaena has practically everything the classic self-insert Mary sue should have to be one.
She says she allows her characters to go through multiple relationships and sexual partners, which is fantastic, but she can't seem to end a relationship healthily (idk if that's even a word). She mostly resorts to villanizing or killing love interests, to less-than-stellar results. Maybe it wouldn't be such a problem if she didn't do it so often or could execute it well. Plus, there's that creepy-ass Fae mating system.
This series is actually really inspiring to me. I always worry that my writing isn't very good, that I'm very amateurish. Self doubt, you know how it is. But man, if *this* stuff can get published, can get an entire 5+ book series while being a poorly thought out first draft, surely my stuff that's barely "meh, okay" can get on shelves!
Honestly, Empire of Storms would be so much shorter if SJM cut out all the sequences where the fae bang each other and allegedly cause natural disasters while banging. Also, I would like to be the first person to ask James if he intends to read the disaster that is the ACOTAR series or the upcoming, inevitable hot mess titled Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood, which is going to be released this March.
@@zur137 ACOTAR is the abbreviation for A Court of Thorns and Roses, which is SJM's other series featuring a young human woman as the protagonist, a world where magic has mostly died out, and a whole bunch of unusually attractive fae. Is it uncannily similar to Throne of Glass? In some ways, yes. Is it better than Throne of Glass? Well, SJM manages to write some literary elements better in that series, but also sacrifices other important literary elements for the sake of the story she really wants to tell. Or for the sake of fan service. I have no idea at this point. The only thing that hasn't changed is the inclusion of "fae bang each other and inadvertently cause natural disasters with their vast magical powers when they climax" sequences.
Self-insert fantasy with a growing obsession with smut, poorly written and seemingly a first draft? Given this series started on FictionPress and was later removed when Maas decided to make a profit off of it, color me shocked.
"And then they killed everyone in this Eyllwe city!" "Oh no, how horrible! Obviously they must be stopped!" "But fuck Eyllwe they're not as important as Terrasen anyways!"
I was actually a fan of these books, but it literally took me years to read because they keep dragging on. I have so much respect for you for reading them so fast while not even liking them.
I used to be a fan of these books as well, but I read them all in like, a month or two, because I was a dumbass 11 year old. it basically got me back into reading, and it was my 1st experience with YA literature, so I loved it a lot. I only realized it was a really bad book when every single book I read after that was so much better.
In the prequel novellas, Arobynn's weird thing for Celaena is emphasized more and at that point she's 16/17. He literally gets jealous that she is dating a guy her own age (the infamous Sam) that he sets them up, gets Sam horrifically murdered, and gets Celaena sent to prison. Because she chooses a guy her own age over him. Yeah, it's hella gross. (Lysandra is also featured in the novellas. So are the pirate king and Ansel. In fact, you'll meet Yrene in the next book. She's also from the novellas. You almost have to read the novellas to fully understand the series which is... certainly a choice.) Also, Manon and Elide should've been together but SJM doesn't know what gay people are.
In a court of thorns and roses and crescent city there are gay realationships but I get what you mean. For the case that someone read a Court of thrones and roses, I totally would have shipped Manon and Mor...
It's because SJM wrote a shitty series that doesn't make sense, so she had to write shitty novellas to rectify all the parts that don't make sense Also I agree Manon should have been gay
Olivia Jones Lol I don't know if that's the reason she wrote the novellas, but it definitely is bad writing that you essentially have to read them to understand the later books.
I never understood how someone could stretch a travel between two cities out to 100+ pages, I can barely write 3 or four on a journey between two places
I honestly could do that, just think of random conflicts. Say, some highwaymen attack and kidnap a member of the band and now the band has to go get them, or put in some villages and stops. Heck, those aforementioned highwaymen could be cronies for a future villain.
Wheel of Time like the first book does this as well when they are going from the starting town to the next one it's like 15 pages describing the horse journey 😂
@@zoebrugg7594 in Lotr the main objective is destroy the ring and they had a journey but lots of stuff happened in the journey is not only riding horses and having s3x
Abi Chace You’re right. He only gets away with the shit he does because he’s hot. The thing that pisses me off the most is that it’s tageted towards teenage girls. “Oh he drugged you and made you strip and dance half naked in front of complete strangers? It’s only because he was trying to protect you.” Miss me with that bullshit. The most disgusting thing is that Sarah J Mass tries to make him into some kind of bastion championing feminism in the next book by saying he created a safe space for victims of sexual assault. Like no fuck off. I’m so sick of authors pulling this shit. They create such deeply sick characters and THEN ROMANTICISE THEM. stop doing that!!!! You’re normalising abusive behaviours and telling your extremely impressionable audience that their abuser is just misunderstood.
I am so happy to see someone review these books in-depth. A lot of reviews I've seen focus on things they like about the books, and will mention some of the issues they have. But you go all in and rip it apart, pointing out stuff with logic and it's greatly appreciated. I stumbled across this series when I was 15 years old and didn't know much about fantasy, and I thought I was reading something epic. But then when I was 16 and Queen of Shadows dropped, I got traumatized from Morath and the raping/torturing witches part, I had no idea something like that would be in this series (oh yeah, and the sex was a shock but I thought it was funny so whatever). Then, at 17, I forced myself to read the fifth book since I wanted closure, but I decided I loved myself too much and ditched the series entirely. Years later I'm looking back and wondering why the fuck Sarah J Mass made this series so much more graphic partway through. It's YA, I didn't need to learn about sex from a bunch of horny fae. My point is, your reviews make me feel better about all the hours I wasted on these books as a teen, so thanks. We owe you one my guy
Yeah, I kinda feel the same. As a teen this series starts out fine. I did see some flaws, but it was mostly entertainment. Then I got older while more books came out. It just kept getting weirder. I needed closure and read the last book. It was so stupid to have all the 'pretty' characters a happy end. So real death or big sacrifes in the oh so big war. The few, who died, get full closure. I was not even sad, just disappointed.
I actually liked Tower of Dawn (the one you're skipping) the most out of the entire series because it was cool to get a fresh perspective (with a new kind of interesting character) who then appears in the last book. Also, there's WAY less sex and the relationship between Chaol and the new character I feel was pretty well done
@@micahclark3606 Yeah definitely I thought the Heir of Fire stuff with just Rowan and Aelin was good in showing their early relationship and I actually really loved the dynamic between Elide and Lorcan throughout Empire of Storms
Yeah ToD was also my favorite book, even though there could have been a little more action. But I really like Chaol as a character - to me he makes the most sense out of all the characters and I could really connect to him with his inner struggles.
ToD really surprised me in a good way. Just fun development and I liked the new characters introduced. Just wished they had more time in the final book, but there was so much shit that happened in the last book that it didn't have time left, lol. EoA would have been better in two books. Honestly I know this series is trash but it's one of those turn your brain off and have stupid girl fun for a bit and sometimes I just need that dumb fuckin distraction. I have zero shame.
And once you are done with the "great" series that is Throne of Glass there is always A Court of Thornes and Roses that I bet we'd all love to hear your take on!
Spare the poor man. Christ, I enjoyed ToG (honestly sometimes I need dumb easy reads I can blast through with my brain running in the background on like 2% power) but ACOTAR is AAAAAUGH. Like shit I got through them but I wasn't happy about it 😂⚰️
@@evies.1018 tbh I sorta liked the series, I was pacing thru the pages and didn't bother analyzing anything as there's too many descriptions of everything and the plot is slow paced, I endured what I could from all the dresses in ToG, and the dumb love triangle, and all the smut ft Rowan, now that I reached tower of dawn, and after seeing this video, I just.... Don't feel like it anymore. Switching to the name of the wind for a while
On the issue with allies coming out of nowhere: Ansel actually did appear in the books before, but it was in a novella collection (The Assassin's Blade) and, having read the novella Ansel appears in, I firmly believe Ansel has 0 fucking reason to ally herself with Aelin, so her appearing out of nowhere is still very stupid. You shouldn't have to read the novellas to understand what's going on in the main fucking series. SJM just,,, *really* doesn't understand the purpose of a novella. Edit: Hey, James? Tower of Dawn (Chaol's book) drops a bunch of information about Maeve at the very end so I wouldn't say it's *completely* irrelevant. It's just, like, 90% irrelevant instead of 100% irrelevant. Maybe look up spoilers? I'm of the opinion that the reason some of the bigger TOG stans don't like Tower of Dawn is because a lot of them tend to dislike Chaol and hence don't enjoy a book centered around him.
@@allynracki6932 The sad thing is that you're absolutely correct. Characters do complete 180s to prop up her Mary Sue-gesty Calaena Aelin Sardothian Galablahblahblah.
26:06 lol you just described the plot of 6 books with one phrase. She just wants Aelin to be the smartest person in the room so 90% of the time it’s just Aelin doing shit that magically solves problems that didn’t exist until then so it looks like she predicted it all. I think the most egregious examples came in the 5th book but the 6th was when I was crying with anger at how cheap this makes all conflicts SJM writes
oh God no oh please no I was in high school when reading Empire of Storms, and I wish that I could've gotten a warning from someone, because now I wish I had never read that sequence and am still attempting to bleach the memories of those smut scenes from my mind. Middle school? I pity that seventh grader.
"tries to be dark but ends up being edgy, tries too much" that's the perfect sinopsis for these books... James, will u review Malazan? i think u need some healing
He did review Gardens of the Moon. Didn't like it. Please don't pressure him to get invested in that series. IMO either the first book grabs you or it doesn't. If it doesn't grab you it's not worth putting in the effort to let it because it is impenetrable by design.
@@ValensRenvhaggel and the Malazan Book of the Fallen is ten books, all around 1,000 pages of dense epic fantasy with hundreds of characters, gods, races, and places. And he already reviewed the first book and said no thanks.
OsirisLord Can you really judge such a long series on one book? If I bailed on series because I disliked the first one I’d be missing out on amazing series. My point is more often that not you should stick with things.
I’m so glad Six of Crows exists. It’s a perfect example of a well written, well thought out YA novel that is easily accessible to young readers that also respects their intelligence. The world building is great and it has a diverse cast of characters. It’s proof that not all YA novels are cheesy, edgy smut.
@@kayhaych05 Yeah and I love how each character has their own unique purpose or goal that is shown to be equally valid and important and doesn't involve choosing whom to marry by the end of the book. I'm so glad this book outlined that, yes, love is important and wonderful to have, but it needn't define your personal goals and objectives in life. Characters shouldn't be defined by the people they end up with.
Personally if it's a romance subplot I expect consistency. Like you make a good point of how falling in and out of love is something that happens in real life but in a book I get invested in the characters and would stop caring about the future love interests because I just would expect them to break up too. But that's just a personal preference of mine.
I can't picture having to go through the beach scene while listening to it on an audiobook. Like several people have already said, the ACOTAR series is much more sexually graphic than TOG. These books were offered at my high school library. Thinking back now I'm kinda embarrassed that I checked them out from my school library.
Fun fact I'm 15 and writing a book I'm on the rough draft and I swear it sounds better then throne of glass that was written by what a 26 year old lady
So many of the characters at the end of Empire of Storms are from the short story collection The Assassin's Blade which are stories from before Celaena was imprisoned and her going on adventures meeting them but for people who did not read that book or any of the short stories, like me, the book just throws all these characters at you and thinks you will just know them and be excited and not confused as fuck. Which is something I hate to me novellas/short stories should not be required reading to understand the ending of what is basically the penultimate novel but that's just me.
honestly that sounds like just bad writing and failure in part of the writer to me lol. (and perhaps their editor as well because, why in the fuck would you let that happen?!) novellas and/or short stories specific to a series should be a complementary, something extra for the fans, not required reading.
For real, I refused to read assassins blade, imagine having to essentially errata your story with an entirely separate publication to make it make sense and introduce important characters
Ok I was thirteen when I got into this series and I really enjoyed the first two books at the time because it was my gateway into high fantasy. But by the time I got to book 3 I just got increasingly frustrated at how sloppy the writing had become. When I was 15, Tower of Dawn became a thing and when I heard that it was supposed to be a novella but became obligatory reading that's when I realised how thought out the whole thing wasn't. I've been planning / writing a series myself for a while now, so I am very aware how important it is to map things out at the very least. My only thought was **Bitch, what happened? How did you get so far with so little?** So anyways I can't be asked wasting more time on this author. Perhaps if she gets good in ten years I'll give her a second chance. We'll see.
Imagine writing a shitty YA fantasy novel and having it be the same length as Jame Joyce’s Ulysses, an absolute timeless classic and the height of modernist literature
As someone who is writing a novel I actually don't get this. Whether they're Sarah J. Maas or Robert Jordan I don't get the trend for fantasy writers to just spin their wheels in the mud and have the story do nothing for hundreds of pages.
Yeah Queen of Shadows was the one where I fell off the ToG hype-train completely. I was there from day one, way before it blew up. I was bugging my school library to stock them every week. And then SJM yeeted every previous characterization of her characters off a cliff. Years of my love I will never get back.
Lol, I really enjoyed Throne of Glass, especially books 3-5 😂 And yeah, it has A LOT of flaws but somehow... I still had a lot of fun reading them xd And I still enjoyed listening to you shit on them too, so idk what kind of effed up that makes meXD
Actually, the author goes off on so many tangents with various characters that you really don’t know much about them at all. However, you do know almost all of the information necessary to digest a story. 😀
Honestly it's strange how much I enjoy those videos of you despite the fact that after all they just consist out of you talking about a book I haven't even read and which I also won't ever read as you found it as horrible to read it as I imagine it to be while listening to you describing it. So I keep wondering what exactly is so nice about these videos even when they deal with bad books. I think after all presenting these books conveys one motivating truth for everyone who is writing a book. When you see how easily it can be figured out how bad they are while still having in mind that they were actually published you doubt no longer for even a second that your own manuscript can make it one day, knowing that the literature market obviously published that willingly expecting you to spend your money just to experience such seemingly flawed content.
If this book series gave you depression and cancer, I wonder what book series would be the zoloft and chemo you need...without the side effects of course?
This series is dragging up so many memories that I didn't know I had repressed. I'm living for your deadpan commentary and how absolutely done you look
@@jim-bob3093 seriously though. I was recommended this after telling someone about my own lady assassin character and her journey to redemption. I listened to 5 of the books and was waiting for it to be revealed Celaena wasn't actually an assassin. She NEVER does anything remotely assassin in nature. The telling and not showing drove me nuts. My favorite part was when Rowan called her pathetic! After each book people told me "it gets better". Bitch where?! I drew the line with the assassins blade when she vowed to retrieve the body of her mentor then they cut to 6 months later and all you get is "she had retrieved his body". How?! Show me how?
@@PetalsAndPlague no, go for it bro!!! I know how you feel. I hate how the assassin parts for little more than "such wow, much cool" excuses to fawn over this pancake character. Because when im sold a book on the promise of sneaky and cool assassin what i want is for anything to do with assassinations but shoved in the closet so the mc fan talk about balls and boys. I remember when i read the first book and i couldn't get over how often Celena would talk about how cool and badass she was, but do literally nothing to back it up.
when i was a kid my dad told me that american writers get paid by the page, and i don’t know if that’s true, but throne of glass really makes it seem like it is....
47:50 On Diana being just the Roman name for Artemis, well yes but actually no. Diana was an anagram god from the many tribes which lived in Italy at the time, like many Roman Gods were. Of course it was influenced by the Greeks, but the misconception that she’s a direct translation is false. The reason it came around is due t the Roman practice of syncretism, AKA, when they conquered a new people or culture, one of the ways they integrated them is by “combining” the mythologies per se. Or more accurately, they would just say “Hey, your gods are our gods. Like see that guy over there? The old traveler with one eye and a walking stick which you call Odin? Yeah, that’s Mercury.” (Yes, they did that). So what happened was the Greek pantheon was syncretized with the Roman pantheon, and when Renaissance artists and scholars started relearning all of the Greek and Roman pagan stuff, tada
Tou should try Tamora Pierce's books about Alanna. Girl don't want to become a nun/magician so she trades place with her twin brother to become a knight. The best part is that she doesn't end up tall and beautiful and bad-ass, but rather a short, stocky woman who's really good at fencing through a lot of getting defeated.
TheRealmBetween Ohhhh, I loved Alanna! (Are there several books? I only ever read one, but it was basically her entire life story and it was really big? Maybe a collected volume or something...) But yeah, seconding this recommendation!
@@samiraansari5686 I was reading them as the books came out. The people at the bookstore kept rolling their eyes and said they'd keep me updated. Every day 🤣
As someone who read all the way to EoS I feel all those "Ok cool" everytime the plot just gets so full of bs. You should totally read ACOTAR, I haven't read it but I've seen some people saying is messier than ToG
It is. SJM tried with the worldbuilding in throne of glass. She did not in ACOTAR it is literally an unmitigated disaster from start to finish and somehow she sold three more books in the series making it six books long with the fourth coming out next year. You wanna talk about something dragged out, ACOTAR should have been one book.
@@nootnewt9323 She literally wrote a 200+ page (Closer to 300 IIRC) Novella for the series with no plot and just slice of life (Which is mostly sex scenes)
Readwithcindy reviewed all the series, in case you want to check it out! She's not half as serious as James, but her videos are quite funny if you like the "sassy" kind of humor!
Watching this is like listening a cool and very condensed audiobook with an awesome plot described by a super salty narrator. Since stuff that's happening in between of the mentioned points is omitted, one can imagine an actually good plot tying everything together. So the whole thing is very enjoyable Initially I came here to check if I as a writer get into pitfalls described by James, but stayed for the meta-audiobook experience
45:20 I read this series a while back and Aelin doing stuff off screen seems like a pretty accurate way to describe her character and the plot simultaneously.
I’m a fan of this series (it’s kind of YA junk food) but I do like this review. It brings up mostly valid criticisms, which are things that even I thought were wrong with it.
youre entertaining in the bob ross way (almost no viewers actually painted the pictures, it was just nice to watch him do it). i dont have to read the book to enjoy hearing u talk about it.
Finally another part! Personally I think this series had a lot of potential but the characters feel flat to me. Also a lot of plot potential is executed really badly. If I may recommend try Nevernight.
TBH the sudden smut and 'this was a first draft'-ness from QoS on is pretty much because of ACOTAR. The whole thing is a badly written beauty and beast vehicle for 'trauma fixing' smut...
I actually like tog. But I have issues with it, especially the sex/romance side of things. It takes itself too seriously for what it obviously wants to be--romance. Or smut. And you shouldn't really market that stuff to YA audiences bc there are people as young as 11-12 who are in that demographic and it's not a good introduction to sexual themes in books. Also hated how there was always some twist or mastermind plan. And the fact that you have to buy tower of dawn and the assassins blade to understand the full story is obviously a money grab. I feel like ACOTAR and Crescent City (latter of which I haven't read) are the same. I can enjoy these books as trashy fantasy but those are my issues--the deceptiveness of it, I guess, that makes other fans hail it as a masterpiece.
Unpopular Opinion: This being the first fantasy series that I read when I started getting into reading, I loved it lol. And still love it lol brings back a ton of memories. Still love this review, think it’s absolutely hilarious and I’m sorry James that you had to read it lol My only request now is for you to read the absolute garbage that is the ACOTAR series
i feel like the whole witch kingdom thang is tryna be the dothraki of this series ya know what i mean? like it sorta feels disconnected but so did deanerys' story in the first season
The whole name thing reminds me of the Night Angel Trilogy, except in that name changes in narration are used to represent the change in the main character's personality and his mental state.
![Jack Harlow - Hello Miss Johnson [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q86_nlRoIGw/mqdefault.jpg)
I still do not know what possessed that woman to write smut into her YA books half way through the series
I was horrified when I read that as a 14 year old
Demons
@@ryanhong9291 Horny demons!
It’s literally in my school library, I’m old enough to have seen cheap smut like this over and over again. But the younger years in my school are aged 11-12. Literal children, and you just have this book out on the shelf for any kiddie to flick through and read “boob” for the first time or some shit.
Honestly same! It was shocking
As a ballet dancer, I honestly have deep issues with the fact that a random assassin girl could perform a ballet dance “perfectly” or even convince literally anyone that she was a dancer. Professionals train for years, sometimes dacades, to master ballet technique. It’s incredibly difficult and requires high strength in all areas of the body, high stamina, balance, and focus. On top of that, you have to always look beautiful and trick the audience and make the performance look easy. All they see is you moving gracefully across the stage without all the effort it really takes.
Yes true
You know, this could have been an interesting opportunity to drop some backstory, like say that the physical training aspect of her assassin training was actually ballet, because it’s so physical, and that she’s able to blend in somehow using that prior knowledge. It would still be a stretch but if she’d been improvising something that seemed to match, or establish that this is the Swan Lake of this universe and any self respecting dancer would know it to at least an extent, it would have been at least SLIGHTLY more believable. But I don’t see why even make it a dance instead of choosing something this chick is already good at, seems like there’re plenty of those 🤦🏻♀️
I read that book a long time ago, but if I am not wrong it does give some backstory, the woman who is the ballet teacher used to be Celaena's dance teacher for a long time in her life, there's something related to her learning to be a smooth assassin and the dance moves. It's not enough to explain how she does it perfectly but it's an attempt.
Mônica Minieri interesting! I never made it this far into the series so had no idea they actually did have a slight explanation.
she actually doesnt perform the dance at all. she dips out and puts on a different disguise at the beginning so trained ballerinas are the ones doing the dance while aelin moves through the crowd during the distraction
Vividly-described brothels, sex scenes, and weird predatory relationship dynamics, just what every YA novel needs.
Fun for the whole family!
Yes 😭😭
@@indumatipngtuber2790 Gotta keep it in the family
Oddly enough the brothels are the only thing not commonly found in them. Just look at twilight and the divergent series
About Celeana always hooking up with every guy; SJM could have spun that into a pathological need that Celeana has to be loved, and loves anything that loves her back. Would have been a cool vulnerability for her to overcome whilst also being an excuse for trashy romance with the man of the hour. Idk, still shit series, but it’s the little things
kieran hockey that would actually make sense, considering she was raised in an abusive environment and all this junk. But that would require for SJM to think of Celaena/Aelin as a three dimensional character, not a self insert mary sue.
That would have been cool. Something like James Bond, with a different hottie each book
Del R. Wow didn’t think of it THAT way but I can’t say I’m not intrigued! Would definitely love to see a series like that though
Delphini You need to leave, this is not the right comment section for you....
ktelle
It’s ridiculous because every man who lays eyes on her is immediately obsessed with her, and she goes through 3 relationships and gets married in under a year. It’s simple wish fulfillment and sloppy writing.
The only reason why prophecies worked well in Percy Jackson (and trust me I do hate prophecies in stories as well) is because they were SUPER vague, in some cases to the point where they made Percy paranoid. Also they rhymed... I guess that helped...
That's kind of the point of thw original prophecies in ancient Greece. Rich people going to an Apollo's priest to tell if they should buy this or marry that, and getting ambiguous answers to fit the wey they feel pleased.
Writers who introduce prophecies should try to avoid being very specific. They sorta forget that telling people that your hero is the chosen one to defeat the dark Lord is like spoiling your own story.
And also, the prophecy could be about Thalia and not him, that messed up the characters a little bit
@@dandan2602 and nico
@@goblinsinc.8274 yeah but I don't really count him on that because he was too young, so most part of the mistery was between Thalia and Percy because they have the same age and they were about to turn 16, so if it wasn't them it kinda had to be him?
@@KLawrence-mn7gh my only exposure to prophecies was Percy Jackson, and the prophecies were also extremely specific yet vague. Lines set up twists.
"I really don't like prophecies. The only series I read that did it well was Percy Jackson."
damn right
The whole time I was wondering...
Prophecy you say?!
Forgot Mistborn???!!!🤪
You mean *dam right of course!
@@platyperri oh my gosh YEAH how could i let that slip by me
@@platyperri I was about to say this but you beat me to it dam it
59:45
it’s like someone saw Game of Thrones, then Berserk, didn’t understand what made them so good, but wrote a book anyway
Oh so the writers for Game of Thrones wrote a novel.
it's being touted as on the same level as Game Thrones...like ugh?
@@strega0 well, maybe "inspired by" is a better way to put it. like how the last shit I took was inspired by a really delicious fish dinner
I mean to be fair it's pretty much the same level as season 8, only we don't have the actual good character development of seasons 1-4
Be grateful good ol Dutch gave you your 100th like.
Or I'll cry.
....your sacrifice was unnecessary, but we appreciate nonetheless.
May your brain cells rest in peace
Press F to pay respect
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I didn’t really like how she jumps from guy to guy it comes off like the author got bored of her own characters or realized that they were not fleshed out so she just makes hotter guys to replace them.
That's kind of SJM's MO. Check ACOTAR, her other terrible YA fantasy series.
The whole series seems to be pure author wish fulfillment, so make of that what you will
@@ElectromagNick An author who actually has a 15-year-old mind. Celaena has practically everything the classic self-insert Mary sue should have to be one.
She says she allows her characters to go through multiple relationships and sexual partners, which is fantastic, but she can't seem to end a relationship healthily (idk if that's even a word). She mostly resorts to villanizing or killing love interests, to less-than-stellar results. Maybe it wouldn't be such a problem if she didn't do it so often or could execute it well. Plus, there's that creepy-ass Fae mating system.
Add to that her compulsory need to put every single character into a relationship. It is apparently a crime in her books to be single, or gay.
This series is actually really inspiring to me. I always worry that my writing isn't very good, that I'm very amateurish. Self doubt, you know how it is. But man, if *this* stuff can get published, can get an entire 5+ book series while being a poorly thought out first draft, surely my stuff that's barely "meh, okay" can get on shelves!
lmao
good luck with writing though!
Sameee😂
This is my exact mentality
You're a genius! I never thought of that before. Thanks for that pep talk!
All it really proves is that quality means nothing. If your stuff isn’t conventionally marketable it won’t go anywhere.
"Will try to make it shorter but we'll see how that goes"
It didn't go.
(I'm not complaining, i quite enjoy listening to you talk)
ANOTHER hour long honest and well thought out review about a book I'll never read? Sign me up!
You look great. Dunno who told you that you looked bad.
You’re a simp and so am I. You look handsome james
He looks a lot better groomed in this one compared to the first video
Honestly, Empire of Storms would be so much shorter if SJM cut out all the sequences where the fae bang each other and allegedly cause natural disasters while banging.
Also, I would like to be the first person to ask James if he intends to read the disaster that is the ACOTAR series or the upcoming, inevitable hot mess titled Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood, which is going to be released this March.
Clarity Art1 the what do what now?
Isn't that the reason people read it in the first place tho?
Like the horrible series challenge.
@@zur137 ACOTAR is the abbreviation for A Court of Thorns and Roses, which is SJM's other series featuring a young human woman as the protagonist, a world where magic has mostly died out, and a whole bunch of unusually attractive fae.
Is it uncannily similar to Throne of Glass? In some ways, yes. Is it better than Throne of Glass? Well, SJM manages to write some literary elements better in that series, but also sacrifices other important literary elements for the sake of the story she really wants to tell. Or for the sake of fan service. I have no idea at this point. The only thing that hasn't changed is the inclusion of "fae bang each other and inadvertently cause natural disasters with their vast magical powers when they climax" sequences.
@@gingerkatherina Not really seeing as how until really EoS the books were smut free there were mentions of sex but nothing was ever graphic.
Self-insert fantasy with a growing obsession with smut, poorly written and seemingly a first draft?
Given this series started on FictionPress and was later removed when Maas decided to make a profit off of it, color me shocked.
Eyllwe is just SJM's favorite punching bag every time she wants to show how bad Adarlan/Erawan is.
"And then they killed everyone in this Eyllwe city!" "Oh no, how horrible! Obviously they must be stopped!" "But fuck Eyllwe they're not as important as Terrasen anyways!"
I was actually a fan of these books, but it literally took me years to read because they keep dragging on. I have so much respect for you for reading them so fast while not even liking them.
I used to be a fan of these books as well, but I read them all in like, a month or two, because I was a dumbass 11 year old. it basically got me back into reading, and it was my 1st experience with YA literature, so I loved it a lot. I only realized it was a really bad book when every single book I read after that was so much better.
@@annakordikova4120 LOL. They're fun, not good.
She should have called these books the 'Velvet Steel Chronicles'.
Your stars are out of center
I laughed at this for straight 5 mins🤣🤣🤣
I am now having war flashbacks damn you
In the prequel novellas, Arobynn's weird thing for Celaena is emphasized more and at that point she's 16/17. He literally gets jealous that she is dating a guy her own age (the infamous Sam) that he sets them up, gets Sam horrifically murdered, and gets Celaena sent to prison. Because she chooses a guy her own age over him. Yeah, it's hella gross. (Lysandra is also featured in the novellas. So are the pirate king and Ansel. In fact, you'll meet Yrene in the next book. She's also from the novellas. You almost have to read the novellas to fully understand the series which is... certainly a choice.)
Also, Manon and Elide should've been together but SJM doesn't know what gay people are.
oh they absolutely should have. like, I thought she was setting it up the whole time, and was super disappointed when lorcan showed up.
In a court of thorns and roses and crescent city there are gay realationships but I get what you mean. For the case that someone read a Court of thrones and roses, I totally would have shipped Manon and Mor...
clary watherbe Yeah, but they're relationships between minor characters and not mains.
It's because SJM wrote a shitty series that doesn't make sense, so she had to write shitty novellas to rectify all the parts that don't make sense
Also I agree Manon should have been gay
Olivia Jones Lol I don't know if that's the reason she wrote the novellas, but it definitely is bad writing that you essentially have to read them to understand the later books.
I never understood how someone could stretch a travel between two cities out to 100+ pages, I can barely write 3 or four on a journey between two places
I honestly could do that, just think of random conflicts. Say, some highwaymen attack and kidnap a member of the band and now the band has to go get them, or put in some villages and stops. Heck, those aforementioned highwaymen could be cronies for a future villain.
Wheel of Time like the first book does this as well when they are going from the starting town to the next one it's like 15 pages describing the horse journey 😂
Ever heard of Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit?
@@zoebrugg7594 in Lotr the main objective is destroy the ring and they had a journey but lots of stuff happened in the journey is not only riding horses and having s3x
“Creepy but not in a good way” perfectly describes every romance in this series lmaooo
"she almost died but she didn't" basically sums up throne of glass and aelin.
I know it's selfish to ask but GOD I need you to read A court of thorns and roses series too!
oh god, readwithcindy did reviews on that and... good luck. just good luck
@@nunyabusiness776 I watched every upload when she was reading them. They were epic
nunya business I kept up to date with her videos on ACOTAR as well and holy shit. There’s a shit tonne of sexual abuse in that novel isn’t there?
@@kayhaych05 i have a friend who thinks the abuse is goals and okay because they're both bad and I'm just... I couldn't even finish book one
Abi Chace You’re right. He only gets away with the shit he does because he’s hot. The thing that pisses me off the most is that it’s tageted towards teenage girls. “Oh he drugged you and made you strip and dance half naked in front of complete strangers? It’s only because he was trying to protect you.” Miss me with that bullshit. The most disgusting thing is that Sarah J Mass tries to make him into some kind of bastion championing feminism in the next book by saying he created a safe space for victims of sexual assault. Like no fuck off. I’m so sick of authors pulling this shit. They create such deeply sick characters and THEN ROMANTICISE THEM. stop doing that!!!! You’re normalising abusive behaviours and telling your extremely impressionable audience that their abuser is just misunderstood.
I am so happy to see someone review these books in-depth. A lot of reviews I've seen focus on things they like about the books, and will mention some of the issues they have. But you go all in and rip it apart, pointing out stuff with logic and it's greatly appreciated. I stumbled across this series when I was 15 years old and didn't know much about fantasy, and I thought I was reading something epic. But then when I was 16 and Queen of Shadows dropped, I got traumatized from Morath and the raping/torturing witches part, I had no idea something like that would be in this series (oh yeah, and the sex was a shock but I thought it was funny so whatever). Then, at 17, I forced myself to read the fifth book since I wanted closure, but I decided I loved myself too much and ditched the series entirely. Years later I'm looking back and wondering why the fuck Sarah J Mass made this series so much more graphic partway through. It's YA, I didn't need to learn about sex from a bunch of horny fae. My point is, your reviews make me feel better about all the hours I wasted on these books as a teen, so thanks. We owe you one my guy
Yeah, I kinda feel the same. As a teen this series starts out fine. I did see some flaws, but it was mostly entertainment. Then I got older while more books came out. It just kept getting weirder.
I needed closure and read the last book. It was so stupid to have all the 'pretty' characters a happy end. So real death or big sacrifes in the oh so big war. The few, who died, get full closure. I was not even sad, just disappointed.
I actually liked Tower of Dawn (the one you're skipping) the most out of the entire series because it was cool to get a fresh perspective (with a new kind of interesting character) who then appears in the last book. Also, there's WAY less sex and the relationship between Chaol and the new character I feel was pretty well done
I feel like SJM is good at doing certain characters in an isolated setting.
@@micahclark3606 Yeah definitely I thought the Heir of Fire stuff with just Rowan and Aelin was good in showing their early relationship and I actually really loved the dynamic between Elide and Lorcan throughout Empire of Storms
Yeah ToD was also my favorite book, even though there could have been a little more action. But I really like Chaol as a character - to me he makes the most sense out of all the characters and I could really connect to him with his inner struggles.
ToD really surprised me in a good way. Just fun development and I liked the new characters introduced. Just wished they had more time in the final book, but there was so much shit that happened in the last book that it didn't have time left, lol. EoA would have been better in two books.
Honestly I know this series is trash but it's one of those turn your brain off and have stupid girl fun for a bit and sometimes I just need that dumb fuckin distraction. I have zero shame.
And once you are done with the "great" series that is Throne of Glass there is always A Court of Thornes and Roses that I bet we'd all love to hear your take on!
Spare the poor man. Christ, I enjoyed ToG (honestly sometimes I need dumb easy reads I can blast through with my brain running in the background on like 2% power) but ACOTAR is AAAAAUGH.
Like shit I got through them but I wasn't happy about it 😂⚰️
Chaol's desire to save Dorian was also heavily motivated by the fact they were friends and Chaol simply didn't want to lose him.
They could've been gay and really cute (plus, diversity points) but Sarah was a coward
@@zoharamitai8719 there is this thing called friendship just saying...
There was a whole novella regarding Ansel and Illeas in The Assassin's Blade, and the plot shouldn't depend on Novellas. It's ridiculous
Ali Rafih
Novellas should add to the story, not be required reading to understand them, it really is super ridiculous.
@@evies.1018 tbh I sorta liked the series, I was pacing thru the pages and didn't bother analyzing anything as there's too many descriptions of everything and the plot is slow paced, I endured what I could from all the dresses in ToG, and the dumb love triangle, and all the smut ft Rowan, now that I reached tower of dawn, and after seeing this video, I just.... Don't feel like it anymore. Switching to the name of the wind for a while
finding out they have a power they didn't have before during a fight? did you say every shounen battle manga ever?
You are cappin. Not every shonen is Black Clover
@@animeator5580 that really isnt exclusive to black clover
Why not? It's classic to pull an 11th hour superpower out of thin air!
@@animeator5580Mid fight powerups are a trope present in almost every shounen you could name.
I love people ranting about TOG series and if it's 1 hour long, all the better
On the issue with allies coming out of nowhere: Ansel actually did appear in the books before, but it was in a novella collection (The Assassin's Blade) and, having read the novella Ansel appears in, I firmly believe Ansel has 0 fucking reason to ally herself with Aelin, so her appearing out of nowhere is still very stupid. You shouldn't have to read the novellas to understand what's going on in the main fucking series. SJM just,,, *really* doesn't understand the purpose of a novella.
Edit: Hey, James? Tower of Dawn (Chaol's book) drops a bunch of information about Maeve at the very end so I wouldn't say it's *completely* irrelevant. It's just, like, 90% irrelevant instead of 100% irrelevant. Maybe look up spoilers? I'm of the opinion that the reason some of the bigger TOG stans don't like Tower of Dawn is because a lot of them tend to dislike Chaol and hence don't enjoy a book centered around him.
allyn racki
Yeah, if the last time I saw someone was when they ditched and betrayed me, I would never count on them to give me aid. It’s ridiculous.
@@evies.1018 At the end of the day, this series just comes down to everyone worshipping Aelin, character motivations be damned.
@@allynracki6932 The sad thing is that you're absolutely correct. Characters do complete 180s to prop up her Mary Sue-gesty Calaena Aelin Sardothian Galablahblahblah.
i fucking hate chaol so yea
The amount of times you say "...but whatever" and "okay, cool?" is killing me
26:06 lol you just described the plot of 6 books with one phrase. She just wants Aelin to be the smartest person in the room so 90% of the time it’s just Aelin doing shit that magically solves problems that didn’t exist until then so it looks like she predicted it all. I think the most egregious examples came in the 5th book but the 6th was when I was crying with anger at how cheap this makes all conflicts SJM writes
Oh good I'm not the only one who listens to porn at the gym
how do you listen to audibooks at the gym? I have to listen to music
I saw a seventh grader reading Empire of Storms yesterday....🤢😣
Oof that's not good
oh God no oh please no
I was in high school when reading Empire of Storms, and I wish that I could've gotten a warning from someone, because now I wish I had never read that sequence and am still attempting to bleach the memories of those smut scenes from my mind. Middle school? I pity that seventh grader.
Clarity Art1
I made the mistake of reading the ACOTAR series at 14....😣😣😣
@@evies.1018 omg poor you I read it at 14 too
Mistory
My school even had a copy of ACOMAF, and there were 8th graders there!
"tries to be dark but ends up being edgy, tries too much" that's the perfect sinopsis for these books...
James, will u review Malazan? i think u need some healing
So much this! Malazan is my favorite fantasy series, it's unbelievably good imo.
He did review Gardens of the Moon. Didn't like it. Please don't pressure him to get invested in that series. IMO either the first book grabs you or it doesn't. If it doesn't grab you it's not worth putting in the effort to let it because it is impenetrable by design.
@@OsirisLord Please don't pressure him? he reviewed Twilight for god's sake...
@@ValensRenvhaggel and the Malazan Book of the Fallen is ten books, all around 1,000 pages of dense epic fantasy with hundreds of characters, gods, races, and places. And he already reviewed the first book and said no thanks.
OsirisLord Can you really judge such a long series on one book? If I bailed on series because I disliked the first one I’d be missing out on amazing series. My point is more often that not you should stick with things.
I think you need something to soothe your brain after this. Might I suggest Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows?
Aania Shah That one helped me out of my reading slump after reading City of Bones
Keeley F
Same
I’m so glad Six of Crows exists. It’s a perfect example of a well written, well thought out YA novel that is easily accessible to young readers that also respects their intelligence. The world building is great and it has a diverse cast of characters. It’s proof that not all YA novels are cheesy, edgy smut.
@@kayhaych05 Yeah and I love how each character has their own unique purpose or goal that is shown to be equally valid and important and doesn't involve choosing whom to marry by the end of the book. I'm so glad this book outlined that, yes, love is important and wonderful to have, but it needn't define your personal goals and objectives in life. Characters shouldn't be defined by the people they end up with.
Personally if it's a romance subplot I expect consistency. Like you make a good point of how falling in and out of love is something that happens in real life but in a book I get invested in the characters and would stop caring about the future love interests because I just would expect them to break up too. But that's just a personal preference of mine.
Chaol's book was actually my favorite in the series, even though I agree that the rest was a garbage fire.
eww, tower of YAWN.
I can't picture having to go through the beach scene while listening to it on an audiobook.
Like several people have already said, the ACOTAR series is much more sexually graphic than TOG. These books were offered at my high school library. Thinking back now I'm kinda embarrassed that I checked them out from my school library.
Fun fact I'm 15 and writing a book I'm on the rough draft and I swear it sounds better then throne of glass that was written by what a 26 year old lady
He started writing it when she was 16
@@magggmae yeah I know but what I'm say is that it took her ten years and it is still bad
@@SharkbaitWhohaha16 v true
Shes like 34.
Recommend good books for this man he needs a spiritual cleansing. Recommend a Good book save a life
I reccomend the deltora quest series
Alex verus series for urban fantasy. The moon is a harsh mistress for classic scify
Six of Crows for some quality YA.
Gone is a decent series
it's not something in ya but The Kite Runner has always been my favorite book
So many of the characters at the end of Empire of Storms are from the short story collection The Assassin's Blade which are stories from before Celaena was imprisoned and her going on adventures meeting them but for people who did not read that book or any of the short stories, like me, the book just throws all these characters at you and thinks you will just know them and be excited and not confused as fuck. Which is something I hate to me novellas/short stories should not be required reading to understand the ending of what is basically the penultimate novel but that's just me.
honestly that sounds like just bad writing and failure in part of the writer to me lol. (and perhaps their editor as well because, why in the fuck would you let that happen?!) novellas and/or short stories specific to a series should be a complementary, something extra for the fans, not required reading.
I read the novella and I was still confused when they showed up so you're all good :)
Guess she took a note from Disney Star Wars. Using time travel. Probably
For real, I refused to read assassins blade, imagine having to essentially errata your story with an entirely separate publication to make it make sense and introduce important characters
Every time I he says Duke Perrington I think of Duke Ellington
Ok I was thirteen when I got into this series and I really enjoyed the first two books at the time because it was my gateway into high fantasy. But by the time I got to book 3 I just got increasingly frustrated at how sloppy the writing had become. When I was 15, Tower of Dawn became a thing and when I heard that it was supposed to be a novella but became obligatory reading that's when I realised how thought out the whole thing wasn't. I've been planning / writing a series myself for a while now, so I am very aware how important it is to map things out at the very least. My only thought was **Bitch, what happened? How did you get so far with so little?**
So anyways I can't be asked wasting more time on this author. Perhaps if she gets good in ten years I'll give her a second chance. We'll see.
Imagine writing a shitty YA fantasy novel and having it be the same length as Jame Joyce’s Ulysses, an absolute timeless classic and the height of modernist literature
As someone who is writing a novel I actually don't get this. Whether they're Sarah J. Maas or Robert Jordan I don't get the trend for fantasy writers to just spin their wheels in the mud and have the story do nothing for hundreds of pages.
@@OsirisLord “more words = more epic story”
Yeah Queen of Shadows was the one where I fell off the ToG hype-train completely. I was there from day one, way before it blew up. I was bugging my school library to stock them every week. And then SJM yeeted every previous characterization of her characters off a cliff. Years of my love I will never get back.
Review Alice in Zombieland pls, I'd love to see if you either start fuming because of edgy romance, or get into it because of a fun magic system
Lol, I really enjoyed Throne of Glass, especially books 3-5 😂 And yeah, it has A LOT of flaws but somehow... I still had a lot of fun reading them xd And I still enjoyed listening to you shit on them too, so idk what kind of effed up that makes meXD
Drinking game - one shot for each "Here's the thing!"
Sorry :D
Isn't it sad that i have never read this book series and yet i know almost everything about the plot and characters
Actually, the author goes off on so many tangents with various characters that you really don’t know much about them at all. However, you do know almost all of the information necessary to digest a story. 😀
Honestly it's strange how much I enjoy those videos of you despite the fact that after all they just consist out of you talking about a book I haven't even read and which I also won't ever read as you found it as horrible to read it as I imagine it to be while listening to you describing it. So I keep wondering what exactly is so nice about these videos even when they deal with bad books. I think after all presenting these books conveys one motivating truth for everyone who is writing a book. When you see how easily it can be figured out how bad they are while still having in mind that they were actually published you doubt no longer for even a second that your own manuscript can make it one day, knowing that the literature market obviously published that willingly expecting you to spend your money just to experience such seemingly flawed content.
If this book series gave you depression and cancer, I wonder what book series would be the zoloft and chemo you need...without the side effects of course?
IIRC Shadiversity wrote a fantasy novel, perhaps that could help
@@GlareanLiebertine I seem to recall James reviewing that book and at best it was OK, if I remember it correctly.
This series is dragging up so many memories that I didn't know I had repressed. I'm living for your deadpan commentary and how absolutely done you look
As the only goblin at my work that loathes this book series. I finds this very justifying
I wish people disliked this series as much as I do.
@@PetalsAndPlague yaaassss let your anger flow though you!!!
@@jim-bob3093 seriously though. I was recommended this after telling someone about my own lady assassin character and her journey to redemption. I listened to 5 of the books and was waiting for it to be revealed Celaena wasn't actually an assassin. She NEVER does anything remotely assassin in nature. The telling and not showing drove me nuts. My favorite part was when Rowan called her pathetic! After each book people told me "it gets better". Bitch where?! I drew the line with the assassins blade when she vowed to retrieve the body of her mentor then they cut to 6 months later and all you get is "she had retrieved his body". How?! Show me how?
@@jim-bob3093 sorry. That was unnecessarily passionate.
@@PetalsAndPlague no, go for it bro!!! I know how you feel. I hate how the assassin parts for little more than "such wow, much cool" excuses to fawn over this pancake character. Because when im sold a book on the promise of sneaky and cool assassin what i want is for anything to do with assassinations but shoved in the closet so the mc fan talk about balls and boys. I remember when i read the first book and i couldn't get over how often Celena would talk about how cool and badass she was, but do literally nothing to back it up.
when i was a kid my dad told me that american writers get paid by the page, and i don’t know if that’s true, but throne of glass really makes it seem like it is....
I'm not even like reading book but your book review are so good and on point , SUBSCRIBED
Honestly seeing this trainwreck really puts all the "controversies" about The Last Jedi and GoT S8 in perspective.
Good God. Velvet Steel? Really? I... have no words.
47:50 On Diana being just the Roman name for Artemis, well yes but actually no.
Diana was an anagram god from the many tribes which lived in Italy at the time, like many Roman Gods were. Of course it was influenced by the Greeks, but the misconception that she’s a direct translation is false.
The reason it came around is due t the Roman practice of syncretism, AKA, when they conquered a new people or culture, one of the ways they integrated them is by “combining” the mythologies per se. Or more accurately, they would just say “Hey, your gods are our gods. Like see that guy over there? The old traveler with one eye and a walking stick which you call Odin? Yeah, that’s Mercury.” (Yes, they did that). So what happened was the Greek pantheon was syncretized with the Roman pantheon, and when Renaissance artists and scholars started relearning all of the Greek and Roman pagan stuff, tada
Tou should try Tamora Pierce's books about Alanna. Girl don't want to become a nun/magician so she trades place with her twin brother to become a knight. The best part is that she doesn't end up tall and beautiful and bad-ass, but rather a short, stocky woman who's really good at fencing through a lot of getting defeated.
TheRealmBetween Ohhhh, I loved Alanna! (Are there several books? I only ever read one, but it was basically her entire life story and it was really big? Maybe a collected volume or something...) But yeah, seconding this recommendation!
@@samiraansari5686 I was reading them as the books came out. The people at the bookstore kept rolling their eyes and said they'd keep me updated. Every day 🤣
As someone who read all the way to EoS I feel all those "Ok cool" everytime the plot just gets so full of bs. You should totally read ACOTAR, I haven't read it but I've seen some people saying is messier than ToG
It is. SJM tried with the worldbuilding in throne of glass. She did not in ACOTAR it is literally an unmitigated disaster from start to finish and somehow she sold three more books in the series making it six books long with the fourth coming out next year. You wanna talk about something dragged out, ACOTAR should have been one book.
@@nootnewt9323 She literally wrote a 200+ page (Closer to 300 IIRC) Novella for the series with no plot and just slice of life (Which is mostly sex scenes)
@Logan Short I had the misfortune of reading it. At risk of ranting about it I’ll just say it’s exceptionally bad.
Readwithcindy reviewed all the series, in case you want to check it out!
She's not half as serious as James, but her videos are quite funny if you like the "sassy" kind of humor!
I would like if you could review "my boyfriend Merlin" trilogy
Holy i didn't make half way into that dumpster fire
I have never heard of much less read this series, but from the title I know exactly how bad it is.
I actually like this series. Is one of my guilty pleasures.
I love these books, I find them so entertaining and fun to read, and yet I completely agreed with almost everything you said
Velvet steel is my favourite thing from this series
That line is spectacularly awkward.
Surprised at your dedication to the series to be making a part 3, but naturally I'm going to watch it anyway.
So I'm stunned that you actually read this series
Watching this is like listening a cool and very condensed audiobook with an awesome plot described by a super salty narrator.
Since stuff that's happening in between of the mentioned points is omitted, one can imagine an actually good plot tying everything together. So the whole thing is very enjoyable
Initially I came here to check if I as a writer get into pitfalls described by James, but stayed for the meta-audiobook experience
This whole series sounds daunting to get through even for YA standards.
I honestly really like longer videos like this! very entertaining commentary! Thank you for suffering through this book series!
45:20 I read this series a while back and Aelin doing stuff off screen seems like a pretty accurate way to describe her character and the plot simultaneously.
yay James asmr for the night
An hour long review video? Awesome! I listen to these while I cook.
I’m a fan of this series (it’s kind of YA junk food) but I do like this review. It brings up mostly valid criticisms, which are things that even I thought were wrong with it.
you give me "gay kid who stared thriving literally the second high school ended" vibes
youre entertaining in the bob ross way (almost no viewers actually painted the pictures, it was just nice to watch him do it). i dont have to read the book to enjoy hearing u talk about it.
I would love to see you drag her other series “A Court of Thorns and Roses” but I don’t want you to lose brain cells
Throne of Glass is the YA equivalent of Wizard's First Rule change my mind
Always enjoy listening to your expertise 👍
Finally another part! Personally I think this series had a lot of potential but the characters feel flat to me. Also a lot of plot potential is executed really badly. If I may recommend try Nevernight.
To address whether Aelin and Rowan have telepathy: Yes. Yes they do.
I've never heard of these books and I'm happy that i found out about them before I picked them up
TBH the sudden smut and 'this was a first draft'-ness from QoS on is pretty much because of ACOTAR. The whole thing is a badly written beauty and beast vehicle for 'trauma fixing' smut...
Is this Christmas?
Me: Oh James is looking pretty stylish today...
James: Hi there, I know I look like shit to today I know...
Me: *Oh Poor Baby*
There are so many ass pulls that you might think the author put used toilet paper into a binder and called it a day.
I actually like tog. But I have issues with it, especially the sex/romance side of things. It takes itself too seriously for what it obviously wants to be--romance. Or smut. And you shouldn't really market that stuff to YA audiences bc there are people as young as 11-12 who are in that demographic and it's not a good introduction to sexual themes in books. Also hated how there was always some twist or mastermind plan. And the fact that you have to buy tower of dawn and the assassins blade to understand the full story is obviously a money grab. I feel like ACOTAR and Crescent City (latter of which I haven't read) are the same. I can enjoy these books as trashy fantasy but those are my issues--the deceptiveness of it, I guess, that makes other fans hail it as a masterpiece.
I think LIssandra was one of the only characters that had cool fights from what I remember. Although I've forgotten most of this series so idk
I just knew QoS and/or EoS will break him.
Unpopular Opinion: This being the first fantasy series that I read when I started getting into reading, I loved it lol.
And still love it lol brings back a ton of memories.
Still love this review, think it’s absolutely hilarious and I’m sorry James that you had to read it lol
My only request now is for you to read the absolute garbage that is the ACOTAR series
When you mentioned that it feels like a first edit, I have to agree when hearing you talk about it.
I have a book recommendation that I think you’ll like!!! It’s called Rangers Apprentice, it has proper rogue characters not just a level 1 😂
i love that they’re an hour long!!
also love the new hair style! looks so good
James everytime he's explaining why something's bad: which... *~sigh~* whatever
i feel like the whole witch kingdom thang is tryna be the dothraki of this series ya know what i mean? like it sorta feels disconnected but so did deanerys' story in the first season
The whole name thing reminds me of the Night Angel Trilogy, except in that name changes in narration are used to represent the change in the main character's personality and his mental state.
Thank you for doing the hard work for us.
Well, I like your shirt.
And I had just finished part 1 XD