I imagine Brandon Sanderson having enjoyed Shad’s videos, had good conversations with him, then read his book and been like “dude wtf this guy is a freak”
And at least Linkara has gone on record as saying "yeah, I was very full of myself and did *not* take criticism gracefully back when I made that comic, also you're absolutely right, it IS hypocritical that I complain about women getting fridged in comics but all my anniversary specials have involved a woman or woman-coded character getting fridged/semi-fridged, I'm going to make a point to not do that anymore."
The only two good things that I can say about this book are: 1: That is the perfect example that just because a character is the protagonist doesn't mean they are the hero. 2: It's the best reference to use for a psychopath.
Not even a functional psychopath though. The only reason the character won't die when he should is because reality itself bends the knee to him every time.
My biggest issue with the whole bit about him being supposedly redeemed is that apparently only HE is deserving of being redeemed. What about the people he murdered like blackheart? Why can't they be redeemed too? Why is the main character so special that he gets to be "redeemed" despite doing far worse things but nobody else does?
Daylen has ASPD for sure, the scary stereotypical kind we see in a lot of media. The fact Shad has admitted he doesn't think of him that way is a bit worrying
@@zenbear9952 Same. And I can't help but be disappointed at the missed opportunity for some really interesting character introspection and development if things were handled differently. You have this former power-hungry and self-indulgent tyrannical dictator who is now trying to be a better person but has no idea how to do so. As a result of his own misconceptions he constantly passes judgement on others because, having only seen "heroic" behavior from the outside, he THINKS that's what a hero does and that his problem before was simply that he targeted the wrong people. And it's only through seeing his usurper - who (in this hypothetical scenario) he had very little personal interaction with, but whom he knows is admired by the people and looks to as an example - showing compassion and humility that he realizes the problem is WHAT he's doing rather than which "side" he's doing it for, and that genuine justice (as opposed to his self-righteous, self-indulgent view on right and wrong) can be far more complex than he'd realized. He begins his tale seeking redemption not because he thinks he's done something immoral, but because he thinks that he targeted the wrong people with his cruelty and believes that he can be "good" by directing it towards other "bad" people who haven't reached that same realization. He ends his story realizing that his own arrogance and cruelty - his very worldview, rather than who suffered as a result - is what needs to change, and that if he ever hopes to even attempt to atone then he needs to reexamine his own mindset rather than just trying to find people that he thinks are more "acceptable" recipients of his wrath.
Honestly, I feel like Shad wanted to write his very own Redo of Healer, only he thought that wasn't just a vehicle for porn but an actual serious fantasy novel.
This is how it feels when I see people trying to say Redo has a plot when all it accomplished was a revenge porn fantasy for money (the author admitted that it was just for money lol, it was never good fiction, basically slop)
@@Aedlmonrlyup, and it is mostly a story that women love. Author himself the slop he wrote is vastly popular with women more than men...which kinda tracks if you read any of booktoks books. Filled with rape and sexual assualts.
@@Aedlmonrllol yup, he did redo as a quick "fuck you, here you go editiors, enjoy my slop" and it became vastly popular. Even more so, the majority of readers for redo a healer are women, women love the rape fantasy slop shit. I shouldn't be suprised because 50 shades of gray is the same type of shit. Rape fantasy
@@Aedlmonrl I mean it does have a plot, you just described the plot. It's not a _good_ plot, but the _Death Wish_ franchise and its numerous imitators managed with the same plot for a decent stretch of the 80s.
That was a great discussion! Yeah, Shad's "world building", something he is often adamant about, is as narrow as his world view. I followed him from the early days of his channel. Before his first "castle videos". He was great when he filmed "what ifs", on fantasy monsters. But as time went on and he gained more fame, he showed more of himself. He can't be wrong, ever, and will reply to actual experts with his loops of "this is why I'm objectively correct". His newer fans are from a very shallow and narrow pool. To him, women who do not dress like women, are forced to suffer something unnatural to them. That religion in the book, where women are supposedly worshiped, is one in which women have the right to bear children and the men have a right to do anything else to sustain them. Shad calls is a matriarchy, which is bs, of course. Shad has something very arrogant about himself, and it wasn't like that back in the day. In the early days, it was kept in check. The big shift started close to his archery fascination. I was still a very close follower. But the way he aroused with an archery expert, gaslighting his arguments and seemingly being ok with his fans obliterating the poor man, that was strange. If got worse when he published this book. And when he bought and wore his brigandine. His "war on nunchaku" was the saddest: he received insanely detailed replies from martial arts experts, who debunked all his bias. But he cherry picked videos from tiny channels, and ripped them apart. When he jumped on the "critique" wagon, he has already completed the transformation to something very different, than the Shad of old. Some of his critique, I agree with. But more often than not, he is just doing anything in his power to gain new followers, and will attack everything, no matter if he's wrong or not. The company he has on his second channel is worse, though. It sucks, because Shadiversity used to be a really fun channel, when he has 50k subscribers, 60K...
@@Sukhoi_01 A great comment. Australian Quartering, pretty accurate. Although The Quartering has no good sides: the man is one of the biggest scumbags you can find. A cockroach. In comparison, Shad is an angel.
@@Sukhoi_01yeah man. I do hope Shad will no go that far. But it is true that he went far enough. Nothing of the old Shad remains online. She became shameless in his grifting and radical in his bs and arrogance.
Being in a similar situation (watching his channel since his sword typology vid something like 8 years ago) I agree ith the thought just not with the examples. Shad definitely has a problem with letting go of bad ideas and is overly fixated with his world view. His SciFi concept has the same problems as Everfall has to an even worse degree (it's amost the same premise just with "all" instead of "light") and I'm not looking forward to it.. He asked his audience for their opinion and then just ignored it when they disagreed with his idea. Making it pointless to ask in the first place.. Whether it is arrogance, overconfidence or projecting his idealogy/religion onto things doesn't really matter in the end. Not letting go of nonsense is. Where I disagree with you are examples like the archery debate. The diagrement as about as whether shooting a bow with arrows on th right side is viable/historical. Shad had demonstrated it and had mutiple experts agreeing with him. His argumentation was poor and needlessly condesending and confrontational. Agreeing with that. He was still correct. It is possibe and there is proof of it being done historically. He's just obsessed with showing everyone how correct he is about something that was extremely rare and has no relevance to anybody not obsessed with it.. Same with nunchaku. This stance that it is a poor weapon by the standard he uses is correct. He never stated it an unusable but requires more effort to be as effective as a much simpler choice that needs much less effort to use. Others like Skallagrim had the same conclusion. But just like every time Shad engages in this kind of thing he goes overboard and is downright aggressively pushing his views on others.. which I why I still agree with your criticism despite disagreeing with the examples. Bringing this back on the topic of the book. He just put in a lot of stuff he likes with no rhyme or reason. And much less proper research or editing, probably just discarting any disagreement. There is no other reason for the superhero stuff, the not-jedi order, constant random and brutal murder or many other things in the book other than he just likes the stuff and wanted it in. Which is ironic since he is constantly bringing up Brandon Sanderson as his inspiration while going against his "rules of magic" (which are honestly just rules of good writing in general). He isn't even subtil about it. DAYlen is a teenage power fantasy that justifies himself by a chosen one trophe with self-pity as stand-in for remorse, taking an interesting concept und being as blunt as mighty stick to the head (stick reference for cringe humor). The book really needed someone he respects editing it, hammering out the obvious flaws to get the good stuff to shine. Worst of all of this is how he is not refering to himself as an author and using his success as proof of him being qualified to evaluate others. Despite even admitting himself not to long ago, that he wouldn't had the success without his youtube fame.. So right now I see little reason to belief his writing is get any better in the next book.
@@Errtuabyss I think that is the main point of why I dislike his archery video. He came across as a condescending prick. Its one thing that he wants to educate about things proper, its another where he makes an ass out of himself who doesn't want to lose face. But yeah going back to the novel, I don't like how he is using that novel as a cudgel on others. Just like the more recent trend of him doing the exact same thing about "See I'm an artist and I endorse Ai generated art, its not theft, because look at my skills! Also I don't like drawing. But Ai art makes me a better artist!" His writing and actual art skills give me the vibe of someone whose talents haven't gotten past high school. Reading the novel myself, the flow of the writing feels so clumsy, it makes my brain feel like its on a river rapids as it gets hit by random rocks.
@@goblintechies4396 and he is still making nunchaku videos for no other reason than bashing it.. He made the same points so many times now, there really isn't any reason for a dedicated video about every single aspect other than rage baiting. Which seems to be bad only when others do it.. So there is no denying that he is kind of a prick about it. Just like it was infuriating how he had the balls to suggest in the book that Daylen was redeemable because of his good intentions when he is constantly calling it vile and evil when anything even implies "the end justify the means" in any media he is commentating. Either it is luciferian and evil or it isn't. You can't pull the "pure heart" crap with someone doing the most despicable things and show now real remorse or will to change. Even if he had shown remorse you can't pull a 180° with a few "good deeds", especially if those are basically just self-righteous murders. On the AI/artist topic I am kind of on the fence. On the one hand he has a point. AI tools are just tools and are not producing art without the guidance of someone with artistic skills. At least Stable Diffusion is not theft, some of the Apps are bordering on it since they are using existing pictures not just for the learning process but as a basis for generating new pictures (so not generating something new but changing up something existing) but that's a much to complicated topic for a single comment. The question is how much of what he does is artistical instead of just artisanal. He has skills in using AI better than most. But all I ever saw him using it for is making self-endorsing pictures of himself, his wife and his characters.. That's not really art. It's borderline narcissism and at the very least just using AI as crutches for self-fulfillment. It's the equivalent of photoshopping your own face on a bodybuilder.. Far from high art I would say. So once again, even if he is technically correct, he is not holding himself to his own standards. Being far from a role model.
As someone who has acquired the graphic novel, I have a conspiracy theory. I think Shad is going to scrap writing the series as novels. He has revised Dayless' past dramatically. Dayless is no longer a rapist, much less a pedophile. His crimes now merely include Mass-Murder, Communism, and the curtailing of personal freedom. We got a snapshot of his former relationship with Lyra, in which he slept with her, but then spurned her affections because his enemies would use her against him if they ever found out that he truly had feelings for her, so anyone wondering if a future romance for the two was intended, the answer appears to be a resounding yes. It's definitely a 2.0 version of the story, clearing up certain issues people had with the original book to make Daylin more forgivable and likable, though he's still an overconfident, guileless ass. I think the graphic novels are what he's going to continue the story through going forward, since he doesn't have to contend with the protag being quite so despicable in the first place, and has already laid the groundwork for the future romance without all the baggage that he saddled that avenue with in the book.
Interesting. I'd have much more respect and grace for this if Shad actually said that he felt like he made some mistakes on how far he took Daylen, that he's learning, didn't realize the ramifications of the choices, had a poor understanding of how rape effected people, etc etc etc, so he drew it back. Instead, he does cope videos saying how all the critical reviews are wrong, while retconning his character. That's just dishonest. New writers get their choices wrong with their own work. They get overzealous in a lot of ways, which is fine, learn from it, but it's the ego boosting copium mixed with his insulting everyone who brought up crits that make it just gross. Thank you for the info!
"The world is a giant continent in the sky where, if you go too far in any direction, you come out the other side." My brother in Christ, you literally described the overworld map to Final Fantasy III
@@pyerack That aspect would actually be a good way of creating internal tension if a good writer took hold of it. There's only so much land to claim and prosper from, what kind of conflict does that generate, how common would wars be as nations require expansion/contraction?
Reading this book, I sympathize with Shad. I can see the enthusiasm in the writing: that unrestrained-everything-and-the-kitchen-sink writing. "oh i want my main character to always win, but he needs to vulnerable too, and he's really old at one point too, but wouldn't it be cool if he still wins against a super bad*ass when he's old? Oh he's learned a lot from his mistakes, too, but he's still just as cool now as when he was a jerk so people don't hold it against him, etc" And man, it must have hurt to get back reviews for the enthusiasm that must have gotten him through the writing. But it's fun to see how to make it work., because it has potential. I think I've settled on splitting Dylan into at least two characters. Husband/wife tyrant couple, maybe. That way, one can still learn the lesson while the other one doesn't. To me, Dylan seems burdened with multiple characters inside him, or another way of putting it, Dylan is on multiple character paths in this story. He's on the road to redemption and on the road to realizing he's too cool for redemption and on the road to realizing he can decide the terms of his own redemption.
This is like the fifth video I’ve watched on Shad’s book, as someone who used to watch him it’s enjoyable seeing his complete downfall in all his forms turned into content.
From what I've been able to gather from both of your reviews on this book... The world building is horribly inconsistent, and that's being generous. I'm not even talking about the stuff where he runs through the math on abilities or air ships, that stuff is fine (if it's consistent every time.) But Daylen himself is a contradiction in the magic system. The whole Light thing is supposedly based around belieing you're right in what you do. If that's true, then Daylen should have the lowest light level in the world, because he starts off planning to end himself out of guilt... Has several scenes where he cries about how bad he feels... So he KNOWS he's wrong... But his Light doesn't change... Which means that either The Light doesn't work as explained in the book, or he contradicts the whole thing.
The best part about this ist how Shad jerks of about his book being hard fantasy and that's the best form of fantasy, but he absolutely fails to deliver to the premise :D
@@leichtmeister Also the simple fact that he didn't write a redemption story like he thinks he did. He wrote a self forgiveness story where everyone still hates the guy but they're willing to overlook that because he's useful. Honestly, the trial should have ended with "Okay, you say death would be a reward? Then as a reward for your heroism, *stabs with Darkstone knife*"
Honestly, I had the same thought when I read his book. I wanted to really rip and tear into it. Never happened, but hey, give it a shot, you never know what kind of opportunities life might throw at you if you do.
You do that. I personally think that you should start by reviewing really good and really bad products first. Get familiar with extremes so you can measure stuff between them more accurately.
If I wanted a powerful chosen one, I'd read Wheel of Time for Rand Al Thor, The Dragon Reborn, The Lord of the Morning, Prince of the Dawn, Let the Dragon again ride on the winds of time. Now that book series is how you do a likable chosen one
Eh, Rand spends a lot of that series being a bit of turd but, in his defense, the distilled essence of metaphysical evil was burning literal holes in his brain the whole time.
Conan Doyle didn't hate Sherlock Holmes as a character. He just grew tired of writing Holmes stories and tried to stop, but the public demanded more. Doyle also considered his other writings to be better, and, I have to say, I agree. Holmes stories aren't that good. Even Brigadier Gerard stories are, IMHO, better, they are excersizes in deliberate stupidity that's just great.
I've known Shad for a while and never really cared about his book but recently I discovered that he's actually a very hateful, homophobic and misogynistic person so I figured his book would be a sad power fantasy and quite interesting for all the wrong reasons. Hypothesis confirmed.
Huh... It's odd if you are a religious person... And grown up in a traditional fashion. Your a homophobic and misogynistic bad bad person.. If you don't wanna be gay.. or aren't gay... You are suddenly a homophobe. Come on.. Come back in 10 years... You'll see how wrong you used to think
Spoken like a true Marxist tyrant. To be fair, this book absolutely sucks. Brooks is not a good writer, however it has nothing to do with his Conservative world view. Degenerate Leftists are the true hate mongers.
Yeah, I watched very little of knight's watch before I realized Shad disgusted and disturbed me. So I unsubscribed and told the recommendations not to show me his channel anymore. I don't want to support a deeply hateful person who thinks I should die...
I think the reason that Shad focuses so much on sex crime is because ppl on that part of the culture war right tend to fixate on stringing up pedos, whilst also having troubling views on consent in general and regarding age themselves. It’s a performative moral stance, not based on any empathy for or understanding of the victims or related trauma.
idk thats a bit of a stretch. It's probably just because his goal was to make the protag an irredemnable POS but he doesn't have the talent or experience to properly write about this stuff. Even though murder is obviously the most impactful crime I personally and I think a lot of people do have a far more visceral reaction to sex crime as personally I would forgive a murdered before a rapist as I can imagine a scenario where I may be pushed to murder however sex crime especially against kids is purely evil and has no possible justification or reasoning other then selfishness and sadism and I could never see someone like that as human.
Explaining difficult things, yes please, dear fellow authors remember. People who realy understand how something are able to break it down and explain it in very simple terms. Like using an apple to explain how night and day work. Explain it like you would explain to a child. Not all your readers are able to understand technical terms or very intersted or invested in those things. Normal reader will understand that simple explaination expert will be thankfull if you provide an example to explain it simple to others. Teleport. Bending the edges of a sheet of paper together. Genius idea to explain. everybody and their aunt uses it.
When you first said he cuts the island in half i thought it was a joke. Also this makes me fear for his family in real life. This type of writing didn't come from nowhere. Hopefully there won't headlines about shad doing something wild someday.
Am I the only one who figured out how Daylen got his powers? He put a darkstone and a sunstone together as he jumped off the edge of the continent. Daylen goes on to talk himself out of it, thinking it can't be that easy. (I don't see that as easy, but whatever) The transformation he went through wasn't skin deep, it turned him into a kind of light generator or battery. That's why Arek kept seeing him as full of light, and how Daylen would look at someone else and not see as much light as he had. In essence, Daylen was an insta Arch Knight. I suspect this is how Arc Knights are made--using a made up ritual controlled by whomever--they are given just enough of each stone to transform, but not quite enough to turn into superman. There was nothing spiritual about it. That was the big reason I had a rough time with the rest of the book. He over geeked the tech and how powers were gained to the point there was nothing amazing to it. Arek came off as an idiotic enabler, not a priest. Every time he told Daylen he had more light in him than anyone else it rolled my eyes. Overall, it was a frustrating read, and I won't be continuing with this series. If Shad writes a different kind of story, I'd give it try, especially if he has more sword work in it than this one had.
@@mckenzie.latham91 as a major guideline, many writers make sure that when they make a horrible person, they disagree with what their character has or will do, but to me, with Shad's book it screams "I WANT TO BE HIM" like some crappy Wattpad story and low quality fanfiction. It seems that he has yet to go above the level of junior high fanfiction level into senior high level
At least Alucard in hellsing was defeated and made subservient to the hellsing family, but you could tell he wanted to serve sincerely and was looking for someone strong enough to get rid of him.
It's hard to say right now what Shad is doing with the book. There's little indication of a sequel (so far) and the graphic novel(s?) are just the book but visual. My understanding is the criticism this book received may have hit Shad pretty hard and dissuaded him from writing more, at least for the time being. What I *do* know is he's working on another book that has nothing to do with this one. The one snippet I saw on Twitter is not promising, but it's a draft 0 so I'll give it a pass. He's also writing some sort of science fantasy super hero type graphic novel in the future. A comment on the feedback issue: His beta readers were from his fanbase, I'd be SHOCKED if he had good feedback. No developmental editor either.
Shad's book taught me the value of critiques and multiple edits. (There was so much potential in that book.) I enjoyed the world building, the steampunk airships, the weird ports and docking bays, though I did have a hard time visualizing how Everfall's continents functioned. I read a lot of sci fi fantasy--and it seemed that he got bogged down in gamerisms around how powers worked. It shortchanged other areas of the story. Overall, he tried to do too much in one book, and IMO, it didn't pan out well.
@@spookyfirst9514 I agree completely. This book was a big ask for a debut novel. He was trying to take on an extremely difficult challenge (making the audience care for a terrible person and see them as redeemable) while also doing significant world building. The result was a character everyone hated and a world that is broader than it is deep. I want to see him take the story to another book and take the good elements and work with them, but I have a feeling that after the graphic novels he focuses on other projects.
Late to the reply wagon, but, if I remember right, from how he talked about his Science Fantasy idea is that it is meant to "Be Star Wars, but better and more accurate, with real energy swords, and a Conan-like main hero" Which...I just...Wow
@@brokenentertainment327 As could I. It's been a while since I watched him talking about that. Used to love his monster videos, but... Those days are long gone
Thanks for the stream! After reading the book, I was left kind of confused. I thought it had a very awkward ending, but it was OK. After going through the plot with the stream, I find myself remembering all the little things that bothered me, and I let them slide. And it actually accumulates a lot for this book. Thinking about it, I find more and more issues. This makes me feel like this book is not good at all and is kind of bad. In whole, the concept itself seems like a very hard writing task to do that he didn't have the skill to realise. I have one thing I disagree with. I personally didn't find the exposition that burdensome, this might just be a subjective point. I do enjoy shows like "How It's Made?" and do have a technical background, and I like math. I guess that explains why. xD
Honestly, while I can get that, a show like "How It's Made" gets away with it because that's its express purpose. When it's a book and there's just so little to chew on already before you just continue to dump exposition chapter after chapter, it's gets really impersonal really fast. You get nothing on how the characters view or feel about these things, which is why you go into a story like this to begin with.
It seems that Shad's self-insert gary stu-protagonist would be great Darklord of Ravenloft. Instead of being rejuvenated in his suicide he gets transferred into Ravenloft and gets all subtle powers darklords have. He also becomes capable of changing his appearance and his previous form erasing from memory when he does that. Whatever military conquest he tries is doomed to failure as his realm is orderly and well-governed by egalitarian peasants. If he tries to indulge in his "hobby" of SA he will always be defeated by woman real bad and in everything else physical he loses to women, but just barely. In feminine crafts like sewing or decorating he is doomed to be better than any woman is. In short: he will fail trying to be what he was and wants to be again and will succeed being more feminine than woman are. Also all men will be at least somewhat attracted to him. As final insult in case of getting some pity-nookie his "manhood" has nickname of "Broken Needle" and his endurance has nickname of "Rabbit".
8:54 - that's accurate to real life. I'lf you look at the strongest kendo master in the world, he needs help getting almost carried to the ring, but is invincible once the sword is in his hand. Then needs help to walk away from the arena again.
I mean the most popular author currently Sarah J Maas, writes sex content thinly veiled as fantasy. The 2nd most popular is probably Colleen Hoover who writes straight up sex crimes masquerading as romance.
Just a little factcheck on Alex here: "At least Hitler built the roads" is more or a less a clichéd statement that Germans said in the 50s and 60s, before "De-Nazification" had fully picked up. It is kind of the ultimate copium of old Germans, and nowadays never heard outside of Satire - in part because it's mostly wrong. The first Autobahn was constructed by an Italian engineer and picked up as a project by the SUpreme Mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer, during the days of the German Republic - before Hitler came to power. Adenauer was under arrest for much of the Nazi dictatorship as a political dissident, but survived and became the first democratic Chancellor of the New Germany. Hitler may have modernised German infrastructure itself to some extent, but he certainly didn't start that process; nor was it a "European" process, but mostly just in Germany and mostly before the war fully satrted.
I know Shad has done at least one live stream with Brandon Sanderson, but I think he's done several... so... how did Shad manage to screw up a magic system this badly when he has access to Brandon Sanderson himself?! You know... Brandon Sanderson... the guy who created the 'Laws of Magic', draws a distinction between hard and soft magic systems, and is basically 'the' guy to go to to learn about how to write magic systems!
What is crazy to me is that idea of his book is just like one from 'The Husky and His White Cat Shizun', or '2ha', that is Chinese gay fantasy story lol the imperior that has everything and gets overthrow and goes to k ill himself, but in the case of this story he actually had the balls to do it, and then come back to life in his sixteen years body, but also come back in time. Even the part that he gets paired with his r victim is the same! This story is very popular and I think it would be very funny if it all wasn't a bunch of coincidences but Shad actually took inspiration directly from it haha Btw, I don't recommend 2ha, stay away from it!
I think if you're confused at why people would want to read this math-magic thing he's doing, then the best way to understand it is that he's conciously emulating Brandon Sanderson's 'hard magic systems' but he's doing it badly. Sanderson specialises in intricate magic systems where all the bits connect, for example some of his books have 'Allomancy' which is metal based - eating iron powder makes you telekinetic or eating tin heightens your senses. It's one of the things his fans wax lyrical about. Sanderson is good at building interesting magic systems, and therefore Shad is making a poor attempt to ape his style.
Mao is not a worse dictator than Hitler by any means. And I think neither of them were worse than Genghis Khan in terms of their tendency to cause violence. And you also really gotta throw the Japanese Empire into this, although they didn't have a centralized authority figure who can be blamed for everything.
I know exactly how this will sound but I'm still worried about 'Shad's' wife. The guy thinks women should be obedient, a property. He is a mormon. He likes sharp weapons and owns them. I'm also worried about his children, if at any point they identify as women or LGBTQ. And then he writes a book. A book which pretty much shows at what state of mind he is. He is a misogynist, very probably a homophobe and a transphobe. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a racist too.
He's friend with Carl Benjamin "Sargon of Akkad" and has collabs with him, so yeah, he's clearly at least a racist if one can tolerate Carl Benjamin to that point.
Maybe you should be more worried about your lack of critical thinking. Assuming things about people based on fiction is a character assassination. You making accusations of him of this ism or that phobia is poisoning the well. And as far as being worried for his family. Just apply some critical thinking. It will blow your mind. Are you worried for everyone who has different views than their family members? Are you worried for a pro lifer in a family of pro choicers, for one example? Or are you worried just when it suits your narrative?
@@Wlof25 He's literally said homophobic things, called people "vile degenerates" who don't follow his rigid tradwife gender roles, and talked about wanting his children to share his exact views, so i'd at least be worried how it affects their emotional health in the future
@@myxini It’s like you people are contractually obligated to poison the well. You literally did the very thing I criticized. And you ignored my question. How convenient.
wouldnt it be better if the character failed, eveyone ended up hated him and kill him altho he was a changed man? That would at least force some empathy in me.
How he was capable of fight and win as old man? first - Ahrek give him blessing, so his pain was relieved for some time (after fight he feel pain again). Second - swordmaster can do thoose things like pushing himself, also experiences make him more efficient. Third - young guy was maybe young and strong, but in fencing was nowhere nearby Daylen First meeting between Daylen and Ahrek and why they didnt recognize each other - Daylen never see his nemesis. He only know his name. In Ahrek case its different - he knowes how Daylen looks like, i m sure there were lot portraits of him, but he thought that Daylen is dead, so he didnt try to find him anymore and when he met him, he didnt expect that he can see him (so even if there were some similarities between man on his peak and veeeery old man he probably didnt pay attention to them at that time) Math and technical things - english is not my native language so i just read that passages without understanding - i just go with main point - his powers had scientific foundation and Daylen understand them and he was capable of upgrading them thanks to his understanding. I have no big problem with that. Ship engeneering was - hard. But okey.. now i know how ships in that world work bonds - he can do bond with senses too u are little bit mistaken about traveling throught continent - that flat continent has edges, behind edge is - lets say abbys, because my english have limitations. Also there is some mostly invisible Barrier (u are right Sun is outside barrier). If person jump into that abyss he will fall endlesly (NOT TRAVELING TROUGHT CONTINENT endlesly). (everfall) . When he jumped and fall with 2 stones throught the Barrier TWO things happend . 1 - usual thing - after reaching DOWN point of barrier he was moved into UP point where he continiued with his fall to the DOWN point..... 2. - unusual thing - because of stones he gaind his new powers. Also u can see yourself through Barrier.
He doesnt jump off or climb a mountain... He throws himself off the literal face of the world because the world in this universe is flat. The reason is he wants to obliterate himself. Which I can get around to, after all, hes sorry, right? right??? yeah... naaah not quite...
Thats definitely a fair assessment. And honestly it wouldnt be a bad thing if it was written for a male audience. The problem is its just also badly written, and the way SA is handled is, to put it frankly, kind of disgusting. It was like it was written for a guy audience but went so far off the rails of what Shad believes that even guys were like "ayo wtf is this?"
@@joetheschmoe1066 Yeah there is definitely something off when alarm bells start ringing in a MAJORITY of male readers' heads rather than just thinking "I don't love this, but I'll keep reading and see where he's going with this", it's just "this should have been cut out of the book" from moment 1.
@strydyrhellzrydyr1345 I just realized youre the dude who commented like 6 times on that other video about Shad you either his alt account or you deadass wanna fuck him or something LMFAO.
Mao is bad but yeah, he was not Hitler The 50 million he killed was because of plain stupidity and poor planning and evidence for why a central planning economy always fails
@jadencrawford2772 again no, while moa was a bad person he never ordered executions or starvation, the Chinese Red Guard was a non-governmental group of armed peasants that the carried our retributive punishment, and the famine was more the fault of poor agricultural practices and lower level pride
@@_S.T.A.L.K.E.R._ The estimates for how many deaths Chairman Mao was responsible for are at the lower ends 20 million and at the higher ends 45 million. Hitler was not responsible for deaths anywhere even close to these numbers. Chairman Mao was many many times worse that Hitler was. You are defending him because you have been brainwashed into the woke ideology who admires and encourages evil.
I imagine Brandon Sanderson having enjoyed Shad’s videos, had good conversations with him, then read his book and been like “dude wtf this guy is a freak”
I can't hear Lightbringer without associating it to LInkara lol
It only makes it worse knowing Shads OC is being enabled by linkaras the lightbringer.
And at least Linkara has gone on record as saying "yeah, I was very full of myself and did *not* take criticism gracefully back when I made that comic, also you're absolutely right, it IS hypocritical that I complain about women getting fridged in comics but all my anniversary specials have involved a woman or woman-coded character getting fridged/semi-fridged, I'm going to make a point to not do that anymore."
@@ecyor0 Ask him what he thinks of Oney Plays.
@@Ya_Mosura I mean, given the clips I've seen where they're just relentlessly shitting on him, I don't imagine he has much positive to say.
Shard is on a similar path, politically on the other side of the spectrum. But a similar kind of personality.
The only two good things that I can say about this book are:
1: That is the perfect example that just because a character is the protagonist doesn't mean they are the hero.
2: It's the best reference to use for a psychopath.
Not even a functional psychopath though. The only reason the character won't die when he should is because reality itself bends the knee to him every time.
My biggest issue with the whole bit about him being supposedly redeemed is that apparently only HE is deserving of being redeemed. What about the people he murdered like blackheart? Why can't they be redeemed too? Why is the main character so special that he gets to be "redeemed" despite doing far worse things but nobody else does?
Daylen has ASPD for sure, the scary stereotypical kind we see in a lot of media. The fact Shad has admitted he doesn't think of him that way is a bit worrying
@@zenbear9952 Same. And I can't help but be disappointed at the missed opportunity for some really interesting character introspection and development if things were handled differently. You have this former power-hungry and self-indulgent tyrannical dictator who is now trying to be a better person but has no idea how to do so. As a result of his own misconceptions he constantly passes judgement on others because, having only seen "heroic" behavior from the outside, he THINKS that's what a hero does and that his problem before was simply that he targeted the wrong people. And it's only through seeing his usurper - who (in this hypothetical scenario) he had very little personal interaction with, but whom he knows is admired by the people and looks to as an example - showing compassion and humility that he realizes the problem is WHAT he's doing rather than which "side" he's doing it for, and that genuine justice (as opposed to his self-righteous, self-indulgent view on right and wrong) can be far more complex than he'd realized.
He begins his tale seeking redemption not because he thinks he's done something immoral, but because he thinks that he targeted the wrong people with his cruelty and believes that he can be "good" by directing it towards other "bad" people who haven't reached that same realization. He ends his story realizing that his own arrogance and cruelty - his very worldview, rather than who suffered as a result - is what needs to change, and that if he ever hopes to even attempt to atone then he needs to reexamine his own mindset rather than just trying to find people that he thinks are more "acceptable" recipients of his wrath.
Honestly, I feel like Shad wanted to write his very own Redo of Healer, only he thought that wasn't just a vehicle for porn but an actual serious fantasy novel.
This is how it feels when I see people trying to say Redo has a plot when all it accomplished was a revenge porn fantasy for money (the author admitted that it was just for money lol, it was never good fiction, basically slop)
@@Aedlmonrlyup, and it is mostly a story that women love. Author himself the slop he wrote is vastly popular with women more than men...which kinda tracks if you read any of booktoks books. Filled with rape and sexual assualts.
@@Aedlmonrllol yup, he did redo as a quick "fuck you, here you go editiors, enjoy my slop" and it became vastly popular. Even more so, the majority of readers for redo a healer are women, women love the rape fantasy slop shit. I shouldn't be suprised because 50 shades of gray is the same type of shit. Rape fantasy
@@Aedlmonrl
I mean it does have a plot, you just described the plot. It's not a _good_ plot, but the _Death Wish_ franchise and its numerous imitators managed with the same plot for a decent stretch of the 80s.
That was a great discussion!
Yeah, Shad's "world building", something he is often adamant about, is as narrow as his world view. I followed him from the early days of his channel. Before his first "castle videos". He was great when he filmed "what ifs", on fantasy monsters. But as time went on and he gained more fame, he showed more of himself. He can't be wrong, ever, and will reply to actual experts with his loops of "this is why I'm objectively correct". His newer fans are from a very shallow and narrow pool.
To him, women who do not dress like women, are forced to suffer something unnatural to them. That religion in the book, where women are supposedly worshiped, is one in which women have the right to bear children and the men have a right to do anything else to sustain them. Shad calls is a matriarchy, which is bs, of course.
Shad has something very arrogant about himself, and it wasn't like that back in the day. In the early days, it was kept in check.
The big shift started close to his archery fascination. I was still a very close follower. But the way he aroused with an archery expert, gaslighting his arguments and seemingly being ok with his fans obliterating the poor man, that was strange.
If got worse when he published this book. And when he bought and wore his brigandine. His "war on nunchaku" was the saddest: he received insanely detailed replies from martial arts experts, who debunked all his bias. But he cherry picked videos from tiny channels, and ripped them apart.
When he jumped on the "critique" wagon, he has already completed the transformation to something very different, than the Shad of old.
Some of his critique, I agree with.
But more often than not, he is just doing anything in his power to gain new followers, and will attack everything, no matter if he's wrong or not. The company he has on his second channel is worse, though.
It sucks, because Shadiversity used to be a really fun channel, when he has 50k subscribers, 60K...
@@Sukhoi_01 A great comment. Australian Quartering, pretty accurate. Although The Quartering has no good sides: the man is one of the biggest scumbags you can find. A cockroach. In comparison, Shad is an angel.
@@Sukhoi_01yeah man. I do hope Shad will no go that far. But it is true that he went far enough. Nothing of the old Shad remains online. She became shameless in his grifting and radical in his bs and arrogance.
Being in a similar situation (watching his channel since his sword typology vid something like 8 years ago) I agree ith the thought just not with the examples.
Shad definitely has a problem with letting go of bad ideas and is overly fixated with his world view. His SciFi concept has the same problems as Everfall has to an even worse degree (it's amost the same premise just with "all" instead of "light") and I'm not looking forward to it.. He asked his audience for their opinion and then just ignored it when they disagreed with his idea. Making it pointless to ask in the first place..
Whether it is arrogance, overconfidence or projecting his idealogy/religion onto things doesn't really matter in the end. Not letting go of nonsense is.
Where I disagree with you are examples like the archery debate. The diagrement as about as whether shooting a bow with arrows on th right side is viable/historical. Shad had demonstrated it and had mutiple experts agreeing with him. His argumentation was poor and needlessly condesending and confrontational. Agreeing with that. He was still correct. It is possibe and there is proof of it being done historically. He's just obsessed with showing everyone how correct he is about something that was extremely rare and has no relevance to anybody not obsessed with it..
Same with nunchaku. This stance that it is a poor weapon by the standard he uses is correct. He never stated it an unusable but requires more effort to be as effective as a much simpler choice that needs much less effort to use. Others like Skallagrim had the same conclusion. But just like every time Shad engages in this kind of thing he goes overboard and is downright aggressively pushing his views on others.. which I why I still agree with your criticism despite disagreeing with the examples.
Bringing this back on the topic of the book. He just put in a lot of stuff he likes with no rhyme or reason. And much less proper research or editing, probably just discarting any disagreement. There is no other reason for the superhero stuff, the not-jedi order, constant random and brutal murder or many other things in the book other than he just likes the stuff and wanted it in. Which is ironic since he is constantly bringing up Brandon Sanderson as his inspiration while going against his "rules of magic" (which are honestly just rules of good writing in general). He isn't even subtil about it. DAYlen is a teenage power fantasy that justifies himself by a chosen one trophe with self-pity as stand-in for remorse, taking an interesting concept und being as blunt as mighty stick to the head (stick reference for cringe humor). The book really needed someone he respects editing it, hammering out the obvious flaws to get the good stuff to shine.
Worst of all of this is how he is not refering to himself as an author and using his success as proof of him being qualified to evaluate others. Despite even admitting himself not to long ago, that he wouldn't had the success without his youtube fame..
So right now I see little reason to belief his writing is get any better in the next book.
@@Errtuabyss I think that is the main point of why I dislike his archery video. He came across as a condescending prick. Its one thing that he wants to educate about things proper, its another where he makes an ass out of himself who doesn't want to lose face.
But yeah going back to the novel, I don't like how he is using that novel as a cudgel on others. Just like the more recent trend of him doing the exact same thing about "See I'm an artist and I endorse Ai generated art, its not theft, because look at my skills! Also I don't like drawing. But Ai art makes me a better artist!" His writing and actual art skills give me the vibe of someone whose talents haven't gotten past high school.
Reading the novel myself, the flow of the writing feels so clumsy, it makes my brain feel like its on a river rapids as it gets hit by random rocks.
@@goblintechies4396 and he is still making nunchaku videos for no other reason than bashing it.. He made the same points so many times now, there really isn't any reason for a dedicated video about every single aspect other than rage baiting.
Which seems to be bad only when others do it..
So there is no denying that he is kind of a prick about it.
Just like it was infuriating how he had the balls to suggest in the book that Daylen was redeemable because of his good intentions when he is constantly calling it vile and evil when anything even implies "the end justify the means" in any media he is commentating.
Either it is luciferian and evil or it isn't. You can't pull the "pure heart" crap with someone doing the most despicable things and show now real remorse or will to change. Even if he had shown remorse you can't pull a 180° with a few "good deeds", especially if those are basically just self-righteous murders.
On the AI/artist topic I am kind of on the fence.
On the one hand he has a point. AI tools are just tools and are not producing art without the guidance of someone with artistic skills. At least Stable Diffusion is not theft, some of the Apps are bordering on it since they are using existing pictures not just for the learning process but as a basis for generating new pictures (so not generating something new but changing up something existing) but that's a much to complicated topic for a single comment.
The question is how much of what he does is artistical instead of just artisanal.
He has skills in using AI better than most. But all I ever saw him using it for is making self-endorsing pictures of himself, his wife and his characters.. That's not really art. It's borderline narcissism and at the very least just using AI as crutches for self-fulfillment. It's the equivalent of photoshopping your own face on a bodybuilder.. Far from high art I would say.
So once again, even if he is technically correct, he is not holding himself to his own standards. Being far from a role model.
As someone who has acquired the graphic novel, I have a conspiracy theory. I think Shad is going to scrap writing the series as novels. He has revised Dayless' past dramatically. Dayless is no longer a rapist, much less a pedophile. His crimes now merely include Mass-Murder, Communism, and the curtailing of personal freedom. We got a snapshot of his former relationship with Lyra, in which he slept with her, but then spurned her affections because his enemies would use her against him if they ever found out that he truly had feelings for her, so anyone wondering if a future romance for the two was intended, the answer appears to be a resounding yes. It's definitely a 2.0 version of the story, clearing up certain issues people had with the original book to make Daylin more forgivable and likable, though he's still an overconfident, guileless ass. I think the graphic novels are what he's going to continue the story through going forward, since he doesn't have to contend with the protag being quite so despicable in the first place, and has already laid the groundwork for the future romance without all the baggage that he saddled that avenue with in the book.
Interesting. I'd have much more respect and grace for this if Shad actually said that he felt like he made some mistakes on how far he took Daylen, that he's learning, didn't realize the ramifications of the choices, had a poor understanding of how rape effected people, etc etc etc, so he drew it back. Instead, he does cope videos saying how all the critical reviews are wrong, while retconning his character. That's just dishonest.
New writers get their choices wrong with their own work. They get overzealous in a lot of ways, which is fine, learn from it, but it's the ego boosting copium mixed with his insulting everyone who brought up crits that make it just gross.
Thank you for the info!
Ah yeah, communism, the capital sin, crime of crimes, straight road to hell....:facepalm:
"The world is a giant continent in the sky where, if you go too far in any direction, you come out the other side."
My brother in Christ, you literally described the overworld map to Final Fantasy III
it's most likely based on the Everfall from Dragon's Dogma, which he is a big fan of
Ngl that's a pretty mid world map. Makes it sound small and claustrophobic.
@@pyerack That aspect would actually be a good way of creating internal tension if a good writer took hold of it. There's only so much land to claim and prosper from, what kind of conflict does that generate, how common would wars be as nations require expansion/contraction?
This is the Edge Chronicles and that had superior art and story
And you do NOT want to be compared to the worst Final Fantasy game.
Wow...
I'm 2 hours in and still can't believe you're talking about a real book. This sounds absolutely delirious!
It would’ve been hilarious if this was all a fake book for April fools but sadly…
The "light" should have taken his powers and made him immortal until he helps at least 28 million people lol
Reading this book, I sympathize with Shad. I can see the enthusiasm in the writing: that unrestrained-everything-and-the-kitchen-sink writing. "oh i want my main character to always win, but he needs to vulnerable too, and he's really old at one point too, but wouldn't it be cool if he still wins against a super bad*ass when he's old? Oh he's learned a lot from his mistakes, too, but he's still just as cool now as when he was a jerk so people don't hold it against him, etc" And man, it must have hurt to get back reviews for the enthusiasm that must have gotten him through the writing.
But it's fun to see how to make it work., because it has potential. I think I've settled on splitting Dylan into at least two characters. Husband/wife tyrant couple, maybe. That way, one can still learn the lesson while the other one doesn't. To me, Dylan seems burdened with multiple characters inside him, or another way of putting it, Dylan is on multiple character paths in this story. He's on the road to redemption and on the road to realizing he's too cool for redemption and on the road to realizing he can decide the terms of his own redemption.
This is a good comment. But I am replying because "he's too cool for redemption" genuinely made me laugh.
All the ideas are shit.
This is like the fifth video I’ve watched on Shad’s book, as someone who used to watch him it’s enjoyable seeing his complete downfall in all his forms turned into content.
His "the truth about my book video" is telling and insightful. Not because he is those things, but because of the front he puts on in that video.
From what I've been able to gather from both of your reviews on this book... The world building is horribly inconsistent, and that's being generous.
I'm not even talking about the stuff where he runs through the math on abilities or air ships, that stuff is fine (if it's consistent every time.) But Daylen himself is a contradiction in the magic system.
The whole Light thing is supposedly based around belieing you're right in what you do. If that's true, then Daylen should have the lowest light level in the world, because he starts off planning to end himself out of guilt... Has several scenes where he cries about how bad he feels... So he KNOWS he's wrong... But his Light doesn't change... Which means that either The Light doesn't work as explained in the book, or he contradicts the whole thing.
The best part about this ist how Shad jerks of about his book being hard fantasy and that's the best form of fantasy, but he absolutely fails to deliver to the premise :D
@@leichtmeister Also the simple fact that he didn't write a redemption story like he thinks he did. He wrote a self forgiveness story where everyone still hates the guy but they're willing to overlook that because he's useful.
Honestly, the trial should have ended with "Okay, you say death would be a reward? Then as a reward for your heroism, *stabs with Darkstone knife*"
Reading his book has made me want to do media reviews on youtube because I have so many thoughts and no one to discuss them with.
That is exactly why I started doing book reviews!
Honestly, I had the same thought when I read his book. I wanted to really rip and tear into it.
Never happened, but hey, give it a shot, you never know what kind of opportunities life might throw at you if you do.
You do that. I personally think that you should start by reviewing really good and really bad products first. Get familiar with extremes so you can measure stuff between them more accurately.
If I wanted a powerful chosen one, I'd read Wheel of Time for Rand Al Thor, The Dragon Reborn, The Lord of the Morning, Prince of the Dawn, Let the Dragon again ride on the winds of time.
Now that book series is how you do a likable chosen one
And an over powered one at that. Because he earned his power and struggled
Eh, Rand spends a lot of that series being a bit of turd but, in his defense, the distilled essence of metaphysical evil was burning literal holes in his brain the whole time.
Conan Doyle didn't hate Sherlock Holmes as a character. He just grew tired of writing Holmes stories and tried to stop, but the public demanded more.
Doyle also considered his other writings to be better, and, I have to say, I agree. Holmes stories aren't that good. Even Brigadier Gerard stories are, IMHO, better, they are excersizes in deliberate stupidity that's just great.
I love this dude's "booze hobo" intro! XD Already better narrative than what I've heard from Shad.
‘Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.’ As true today as it was when Elmore Leonard first said it.
This book would make for an incredible adult comedy. Would barely have to change the plot.
I've known Shad for a while and never really cared about his book but recently I discovered that he's actually a very hateful, homophobic and misogynistic person so I figured his book would be a sad power fantasy and quite interesting for all the wrong reasons. Hypothesis confirmed.
Huh... It's odd if you are a religious person... And grown up in a traditional fashion.
Your a homophobic and misogynistic bad bad person..
If you don't wanna be gay.. or aren't gay... You are suddenly a homophobe.
Come on..
Come back in 10 years... You'll see how wrong you used to think
he is?
Spoken like a true Marxist tyrant. To be fair, this book absolutely sucks. Brooks is not a good writer, however it has nothing to do with his Conservative world view. Degenerate Leftists are the true hate mongers.
Yeah, I watched very little of knight's watch before I realized Shad disgusted and disturbed me. So I unsubscribed and told the recommendations not to show me his channel anymore. I don't want to support a deeply hateful person who thinks I should die...
You're spreading misinformation.
I think the reason that Shad focuses so much on sex crime is because ppl on that part of the culture war right tend to fixate on stringing up pedos, whilst also having troubling views on consent in general and regarding age themselves. It’s a performative moral stance, not based on any empathy for or understanding of the victims or related trauma.
idk thats a bit of a stretch. It's probably just because his goal was to make the protag an irredemnable POS but he doesn't have the talent or experience to properly write about this stuff. Even though murder is obviously the most impactful crime I personally and I think a lot of people do have a far more visceral reaction to sex crime as personally I would forgive a murdered before a rapist as I can imagine a scenario where I may be pushed to murder however sex crime especially against kids is purely evil and has no possible justification or reasoning other then selfishness and sadism and I could never see someone like that as human.
No but right wingers and personal biases. I must make it make sense in my mind because conservatives are monolithically evil.
Explaining difficult things, yes please, dear fellow authors remember. People who realy understand how something are able to break it down and explain it in very simple terms. Like using an apple to explain how night and day work. Explain it like you would explain to a child. Not all your readers are able to understand technical terms or very intersted or invested in those things. Normal reader will understand that simple explaination expert will be thankfull if you provide an example to explain it simple to others. Teleport. Bending the edges of a sheet of paper together. Genius idea to explain. everybody and their aunt uses it.
When you first said he cuts the island in half i thought it was a joke. Also this makes me fear for his family in real life. This type of writing didn't come from nowhere. Hopefully there won't headlines about shad doing something wild someday.
So... by that logic, GRRM is obscesed with incest and rape?
Am I the only one who figured out how Daylen got his powers? He put a darkstone and a sunstone together as he jumped off the edge of the continent. Daylen goes on to talk himself out of it, thinking it can't be that easy. (I don't see that as easy, but whatever) The transformation he went through wasn't skin deep, it turned him into a kind of light generator or battery. That's why Arek kept seeing him as full of light, and how Daylen would look at someone else and not see as much light as he had. In essence, Daylen was an insta Arch Knight. I suspect this is how Arc Knights are made--using a made up ritual controlled by whomever--they are given just enough of each stone to transform, but not quite enough to turn into superman.
There was nothing spiritual about it. That was the big reason I had a rough time with the rest of the book. He over geeked the tech and how powers were gained to the point there was nothing amazing to it. Arek came off as an idiotic enabler, not a priest. Every time he told Daylen he had more light in him than anyone else it rolled my eyes.
Overall, it was a frustrating read, and I won't be continuing with this series. If Shad writes a different kind of story, I'd give it try, especially if he has more sword work in it than this one had.
Every early review of the book I saw mentioned that. Well the ones that covered plot points.
Never mind the rape and genocide apologia
Which made me have to shower after reading it.
For a book by Shad, you'd expect the book to be only at its best sword fighting with magic
@@mckenzie.latham91 as a major guideline, many writers make sure that when they make a horrible person, they disagree with what their character has or will do, but to me, with Shad's book it screams "I WANT TO BE HIM" like some crappy Wattpad story and low quality fanfiction. It seems that he has yet to go above the level of junior high fanfiction level into senior high level
@@Aedlmonrl don't dis our jr high fanfic like that. Fucking Wattpad has so much better work that Shad's novel
At least Alucard in hellsing was defeated and made subservient to the hellsing family, but you could tell he wanted to serve sincerely and was looking for someone strong enough to get rid of him.
This was very fun!.
It's hard to say right now what Shad is doing with the book. There's little indication of a sequel (so far) and the graphic novel(s?) are just the book but visual.
My understanding is the criticism this book received may have hit Shad pretty hard and dissuaded him from writing more, at least for the time being.
What I *do* know is he's working on another book that has nothing to do with this one. The one snippet I saw on Twitter is not promising, but it's a draft 0 so I'll give it a pass.
He's also writing some sort of science fantasy super hero type graphic novel in the future.
A comment on the feedback issue: His beta readers were from his fanbase, I'd be SHOCKED if he had good feedback. No developmental editor either.
Shad's book taught me the value of critiques and multiple edits. (There was so much potential in that book.) I enjoyed the world building, the steampunk airships, the weird ports and docking bays, though I did have a hard time visualizing how Everfall's continents functioned. I read a lot of sci fi fantasy--and it seemed that he got bogged down in gamerisms around how powers worked. It shortchanged other areas of the story.
Overall, he tried to do too much in one book, and IMO, it didn't pan out well.
@@spookyfirst9514 I agree completely. This book was a big ask for a debut novel. He was trying to take on an extremely difficult challenge (making the audience care for a terrible person and see them as redeemable) while also doing significant world building. The result was a character everyone hated and a world that is broader than it is deep.
I want to see him take the story to another book and take the good elements and work with them, but I have a feeling that after the graphic novels he focuses on other projects.
Late to the reply wagon, but, if I remember right, from how he talked about his Science Fantasy idea is that it is meant to "Be Star Wars, but better and more accurate, with real energy swords, and a Conan-like main hero" Which...I just...Wow
@@CalebMcCartyA.A.P I totally forgot about that. I think it's a separate project, but I could easily be wrong.
@@brokenentertainment327 As could I. It's been a while since I watched him talking about that. Used to love his monster videos, but... Those days are long gone
Thanks for the stream!
After reading the book, I was left kind of confused. I thought it had a very awkward ending, but it was OK. After going through the plot with the stream, I find myself remembering all the little things that bothered me, and I let them slide. And it actually accumulates a lot for this book. Thinking about it, I find more and more issues. This makes me feel like this book is not good at all and is kind of bad. In whole, the concept itself seems like a very hard writing task to do that he didn't have the skill to realise.
I have one thing I disagree with. I personally didn't find the exposition that burdensome, this might just be a subjective point. I do enjoy shows like "How It's Made?" and do have a technical background, and I like math. I guess that explains why. xD
Honestly, while I can get that, a show like "How It's Made" gets away with it because that's its express purpose. When it's a book and there's just so little to chew on already before you just continue to dump exposition chapter after chapter, it's gets really impersonal really fast. You get nothing on how the characters view or feel about these things, which is why you go into a story like this to begin with.
Really liked this breakdown/ discussion!
It seems that Shad's self-insert gary stu-protagonist would be great Darklord of Ravenloft. Instead of being rejuvenated in his suicide he gets transferred into Ravenloft and gets all subtle powers darklords have. He also becomes capable of changing his appearance and his previous form erasing from memory when he does that. Whatever military conquest he tries is doomed to failure as his realm is orderly and well-governed by egalitarian peasants. If he tries to indulge in his "hobby" of SA he will always be defeated by woman real bad and in everything else physical he loses to women, but just barely. In feminine crafts like sewing or decorating he is doomed to be better than any woman is. In short: he will fail trying to be what he was and wants to be again and will succeed being more feminine than woman are. Also all men will be at least somewhat attracted to him. As final insult in case of getting some pity-nookie his "manhood" has nickname of "Broken Needle" and his endurance has nickname of "Rabbit".
8:54 - that's accurate to real life.
I'lf you look at the strongest kendo master in the world, he needs help getting almost carried to the ring, but is invincible once the sword is in his hand.
Then needs help to walk away from the arena again.
lol yeah that is just fake theatre my guy.
I would assume he got an editor but he disliked their ideas
Am I the only one deeply uncomfortable with how central sex crimes and sexual content are to the plot/setting of this book?
It's the most taboo thing to a Mormon so there's a weird fascination with it
I mean the most popular author currently Sarah J Maas, writes sex content thinly veiled as fantasy. The 2nd most popular is probably Colleen Hoover who writes straight up sex crimes masquerading as romance.
Everything made sense when I learned this was a fringe Mormon morality fable. I get it now.
To be fair they do talk about it later in the book that daylan never met or seen alric before so he wouldn't recognize him
This book sounds identical to tge copy paste chinese regression manhwuas that litter the internet. I've read this exact story plot 10 times minimum.
Wait, how did Dylan do all he did pre his powers? He just got them and would make sense had he have them before.
Just a little factcheck on Alex here:
"At least Hitler built the roads" is more or a less a clichéd statement that Germans said in the 50s and 60s, before "De-Nazification" had fully picked up. It is kind of the ultimate copium of old Germans, and nowadays never heard outside of Satire - in part because it's mostly wrong. The first Autobahn was constructed by an Italian engineer and picked up as a project by the SUpreme Mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer, during the days of the German Republic - before Hitler came to power. Adenauer was under arrest for much of the Nazi dictatorship as a political dissident, but survived and became the first democratic Chancellor of the New Germany. Hitler may have modernised German infrastructure itself to some extent, but he certainly didn't start that process; nor was it a "European" process, but mostly just in Germany and mostly before the war fully satrted.
So he did do it, then.
Can you just kill one person today?
Well that's just unrealistic!
Does anyone else think this sounds a lot like Shadow of the Torturer? Maybe a little Name of the Wind in there?
That math professor seems to be a fun type.
I know Shad has done at least one live stream with Brandon Sanderson, but I think he's done several... so... how did Shad manage to screw up a magic system this badly when he has access to Brandon Sanderson himself?! You know... Brandon Sanderson... the guy who created the 'Laws of Magic', draws a distinction between hard and soft magic systems, and is basically 'the' guy to go to to learn about how to write magic systems!
"(Daylan is) condescending, to everyone."
So is Shad. It's why I stopped watching his channel.
What is crazy to me is that idea of his book is just like one from 'The Husky and His White Cat Shizun', or '2ha', that is Chinese gay fantasy story lol the imperior that has everything and gets overthrow and goes to k ill himself, but in the case of this story he actually had the balls to do it, and then come back to life in his sixteen years body, but also come back in time. Even the part that he gets paired with his r victim is the same!
This story is very popular and I think it would be very funny if it all wasn't a bunch of coincidences but Shad actually took inspiration directly from it haha
Btw, I don't recommend 2ha, stay away from it!
Why don't you recommend it? I'm finishing up Grandmaster of demonic cultivation and was going to pick up that series next. lol
How has nobody used the title "Shad Brooks Bad Book"?
They are probably waiting until they have more than one book to talk about.
The only positive review I have seen of this book went into zero detail of the story.
This book is like YIIK he never got his birth certificate or the groceries.
I think if you're confused at why people would want to read this math-magic thing he's doing, then the best way to understand it is that he's conciously emulating Brandon Sanderson's 'hard magic systems' but he's doing it badly. Sanderson specialises in intricate magic systems where all the bits connect, for example some of his books have 'Allomancy' which is metal based - eating iron powder makes you telekinetic or eating tin heightens your senses. It's one of the things his fans wax lyrical about. Sanderson is good at building interesting magic systems, and therefore Shad is making a poor attempt to ape his style.
Ya daylen is right. Letting him live is the worst outcome. He knows what will happen. This world is legit asking for him to come back to power haha.
Mao is not a worse dictator than Hitler by any means. And I think neither of them were worse than Genghis Khan in terms of their tendency to cause violence. And you also really gotta throw the Japanese Empire into this, although they didn't have a centralized authority figure who can be blamed for everything.
Mao waged war against birds, causing a massive famine for his population....
AGAINST BIRDS!!! FFS.
I know exactly how this will sound but I'm still worried about 'Shad's' wife.
The guy thinks women should be obedient, a property. He is a mormon. He likes sharp weapons and owns them.
I'm also worried about his children, if at any point they identify as women or LGBTQ.
And then he writes a book. A book which pretty much shows at what state of mind he is. He is a misogynist, very probably a homophobe and a transphobe. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a racist too.
He's friend with Carl Benjamin "Sargon of Akkad" and has collabs with him, so yeah, he's clearly at least a racist if one can tolerate Carl Benjamin to that point.
He has in the past accused Hollywood of "blackwashing history" by depicting nonwhite Roman legionnaires
Maybe you should be more worried about your lack of critical thinking. Assuming things about people based on fiction is a character assassination. You making accusations of him of this ism or that phobia is poisoning the well. And as far as being worried for his family. Just apply some critical thinking. It will blow your mind. Are you worried for everyone who has different views than their family members? Are you worried for a pro lifer in a family of pro choicers, for one example? Or are you worried just when it suits your narrative?
@@Wlof25 He's literally said homophobic things, called people "vile degenerates" who don't follow his rigid tradwife gender roles, and talked about wanting his children to share his exact views, so i'd at least be worried how it affects their emotional health in the future
@@myxini It’s like you people are contractually obligated to poison the well. You literally did the very thing I criticized. And you ignored my question. How convenient.
wouldnt it be better if the character failed, eveyone ended up hated him and kill him altho he was a changed man? That would at least force some empathy in me.
How he was capable of fight and win as old man? first - Ahrek give him blessing, so his pain was relieved for some time (after fight he feel pain again). Second - swordmaster can do thoose things like pushing himself, also experiences make him more efficient. Third - young guy was maybe young and strong, but in fencing was nowhere nearby Daylen
First meeting between Daylen and Ahrek and why they didnt recognize each other - Daylen never see his nemesis. He only know his name. In Ahrek case its different - he knowes how Daylen looks like, i m sure there were lot portraits of him, but he thought that Daylen is dead, so he didnt try to find him anymore and when he met him, he didnt expect that he can see him (so even if there were some similarities between man on his peak and veeeery old man he probably didnt pay attention to them at that time)
Math and technical things - english is not my native language so i just read that passages without understanding - i just go with main point - his powers had scientific foundation and Daylen understand them and he was capable of upgrading them thanks to his understanding. I have no big problem with that.
Ship engeneering was - hard. But okey.. now i know how ships in that world work
bonds - he can do bond with senses too
u are little bit mistaken about traveling throught continent - that flat continent has edges, behind edge is - lets say abbys, because my english have limitations. Also there is some mostly invisible Barrier (u are right Sun is outside barrier). If person jump into that abyss he will fall endlesly (NOT TRAVELING TROUGHT CONTINENT endlesly). (everfall) . When he jumped and fall with 2 stones throught the Barrier TWO things happend . 1 - usual thing - after reaching DOWN point of barrier he was moved into UP point where he continiued with his fall to the DOWN point..... 2. - unusual thing - because of stones he gaind his new powers.
Also u can see yourself through Barrier.
I'm surprised shad didn't write because of his abuse he made her infertile. Just to drive home the point further.
He doesnt jump off or climb a mountain... He throws himself off the literal face of the world because the world in this universe is flat. The reason is he wants to obliterate himself. Which I can get around to, after all, hes sorry, right? right??? yeah... naaah not quite...
Whelp anti communism and you're at Shad's level
It sounds like he likes it... At least a lot more than her...
I can tell... This book is much more for a male audience... More than female
Thats definitely a fair assessment. And honestly it wouldnt be a bad thing if it was written for a male audience. The problem is its just also badly written, and the way SA is handled is, to put it frankly, kind of disgusting. It was like it was written for a guy audience but went so far off the rails of what Shad believes that even guys were like "ayo wtf is this?"
@@joetheschmoe1066 Yeah there is definitely something off when alarm bells start ringing in a MAJORITY of male readers' heads rather than just thinking "I don't love this, but I'll keep reading and see where he's going with this", it's just "this should have been cut out of the book" from moment 1.
@strydyrhellzrydyr1345 I just realized youre the dude who commented like 6 times on that other video about Shad you either his alt account or you deadass wanna fuck him or something LMFAO.
No one likes this book
But it is clear that the guy is being more generous to Shad more then likely cause he liked his old vids and channel
@@mckenzie.latham91 I thought the book was fine, no need to cast such a wide net.
If you think Shad's book is awful, you should listen to his take on AI art. Good grief. 🙄
Some of the worst writing ever. Absolutely hilarious. The Battlefield Earth of shakespearian tragedies
This is a bad adaptation of Rurouni Kenshin.
No, Mao is not worse than Hitler
Mao is bad but yeah, he was not Hitler
The 50 million he killed was because of plain stupidity and poor planning and evidence for why a central planning economy always fails
Mao was many many times worse than Hitler.
He's in the Stalin class of not worse but just below on really bad
@jadencrawford2772 again no, while moa was a bad person he never ordered executions or starvation, the Chinese Red Guard was a non-governmental group of armed peasants that the carried our retributive punishment, and the famine was more the fault of poor agricultural practices and lower level pride
@@_S.T.A.L.K.E.R._ The estimates for how many deaths Chairman Mao was responsible for are at the lower ends 20 million and at the higher ends 45 million. Hitler was not responsible for deaths anywhere even close to these numbers. Chairman Mao was many many times worse that Hitler was. You are defending him because you have been brainwashed into the woke ideology who admires and encourages evil.
Mao was not worse than Hitler.