Reading the title and thinking: "Light of the Jedi... Sufficiently Advanced Magic... Of course it's sufficient... It's the freaking Force" Watching the video: "Oh... It's another book... Oh, erm... Sorry for the rant Master Goblin! Crap! I am never gonna go up the ranks of the Clan like this!"
THE DARN FORCE lol Welp, it happened again. I thought I’d gone crazy ... again 😂 “... but I never commented on this video 🤨 ... I’m crazy ... that’s it ... wait ... wait, ohhhhhh” I love when this happens though hehe 😜
Unpopular Star Wars opinion:Maybe it will take people many years for them to fully understand and appreciate the sequel trilogy. They bashed on Return Of The Jedi at first, too. Any comments?
Pleasantly surprised to see that the author of Sufficiently Advanced Magic also wrote How To Defeat a demon King in 10 easy steps. Got it off audible and it was a pretty fun light story aimed at fans of rpgs and d&d, particularly Zelda.
I love that Daniel acknowledges both that he doesn't have a passion for Star Wars while recognizing the passion that lives in the community. As a reviewer, I give him a 9/10.
@@jasonschmucker ???? No diversity in types of writing... like when GoT was popular, publishers wanted books like it. Idc for sjw types but you are assuming a lot.
I loved Significantly Advanced Magic. And if it were a game I'd play it. I also enjoyed On The Shoulders of Titians and the Six Sacred Swords series too.
I think I love the Six Sacred Swords the most so far. And yes, War of Broken Mirrors is the same world, and they all tie together in some ways, but to me it was the weakest part of the whole so far.
@@Jrabney4 Probably because it's shorter and then you can go into SA? Honestly, IDK if Will would go against Brandon like that - he knows what he's doing.
I won't go so far as to compare it with stormlight, but it's definitely my most favourite self-pub book. I just wish booktubers would try out eastern fantasy, eastern inspired fantasy and web-novels more.
I have read A LOT of Star Wars books in the past year and after getting really deep into the books you can really start to pick out author voices. Charles Soule I feel really focuses on the humanity of character, making the Jedi feel relatable in a way I haven’t really seen, whereas someone like Timothy Zahn is much more tactical, military writer, focusing so much on combat and vectors (I still don’t understand it) 😂 it’s one of those things if you read a lot of Star Wars books you’d be able to tell.
@@jasonschmucker I have a RUclips channel of barely 300 subscribers, I don’t get paid anything? My opinions are my own and no type of money is going to sway my opinion on what I like and don’t like.
@@ImJaredRoss Come on mate, I love Timothy Zahn but it's not that hard to understand his "tactical" approach, at least not compared to other Scifi properties.
@@kingkusnacht oh that wasn’t meant as a slant against Timothy Zahn, I love his Star Wars book, Dark Force Rising is my favorite Star Wars books. I just get lost in the technicals of how he describes stuff with space battle. If you can that’s great, I just have a hard time understanding it because that’s stuff I don’t necessarily know. I just meant to say reading through a bunch of Star Wars books and becoming familiar with those writers you can see authors voices.
I love Zahn's writing. But, for me, Claudia Gray and the author of "Kenobi" that i forgot his name is very relatable, and makes we "feel" the story, rather than just "see".
@@solomonkenji5611 People would argue that anything else is better? (Of course they would, it's the internet, but I agree with you that this, or Zahn's duology, is the high water mark of Star Wars novels.)
Yo Daniel. Read Cradle by Will Wight please. If you loved SAM,you have to take cradle for a ride. The name of the first book is Unsouled and is easily the weakest book in a completely awesome series.
I third this. Cradle is amazing, and yes, Unsouled is actually the weakest of the books, although I enjoyed it. They get progressively better and better. Wight also wrote the House of Blades series, which has one of the most original magic systems I've ever read. He is amazing.
Cradle is a good read. It reads fast and full of actions. However, it's too plot convenient. The Characters are either very strong or weak depending on what the plot at that moment demands. This reminds me of comic books and annoys me to no end.
@@HQofrandom Whilst I haven't read it yet, I do follow the author pretty closely and from what he's said, he knew the third book would probably not be as eventful as the last two but its kind of like a summer vacation story rather than a major addition to it's main story if that helps put it in perspective.
Something that needs to be said about Sufficiently Advanced Magic y way of praise (and all Rowe's books, really) is that he is pretty good about dealing with things like remembering to have characters that are not just straight dudes. Literally his main characters's primary romantic plot is another young man and it's handled really well and without baggage. His world just naturally includes LGBTQ characters. Also, he does a great job at not really glorifying violence, which is hard in a world full of violence. I was really impressed with his ability to believably give us characters who fight, even for a living, without reverting to RA Salvatore levels of action movie tropes.
A note on SAM: Rowe is a game designer. The books are set in a world he wrote for a tabletop/LARP system he designed, so it is technically a LitRPG, but since he's removed all the trappings of that genre it doesn't read like one.
"The dialog can get cringey at times" Yeah I can agree with that. This book holds the weird paradox of having poor dialog and also containing some lines that made me genuinely laugh out loud (i.e. "I briefly contemplated the safety of removing my own hand")
I think the dialog gets somewhat better throughout the sequal books, however it isn't a lot of improvement. I do however feel like the dialog problems add a little bit to the awkwardness of Corin's character.
@@bribli2177 He means Progression Fantasy which is a new genre of fantasy. Go look it up in reddit. Its essencially focuses on characters getting stronger over time
@@bribli2177 I think he meant progression fantasy, not progressive. I think its also referred to as Lit RPG. Progression fantasy is a genre were the main characters show change and improvement by gaining new abilities and increasing their “power level”. Kinda like an RPG or some shonen anime/manga.
Just an FYI: The next major Adult/YA high republic book comes out on febuary fifth and is called “Into the Dark”, by claudia gray, and the next adult book that is at least being marketed as the Light Of the Jedi sequel is The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott coming out in July.
I really enjoyed light of the jedi. It was exactly what I was looking for in a star wars book. It was a fun fast paced read that set up an interesting era, though there were too many characters. I really want to read SAM now!
Imo, Charles Soule is one of the greatest comic book writers, and this was his first prose novel. Aparently, he and the other High Republic authors all took a creative writing trip a few years ago, to figure out what kind of star wars stories they could tell next. They all got together and bounced ideas off each other, and they decided the High Republic would be a great setting where they could start fresh. Disney never told them to set the story there, they just worked it out as a group of writers. The High Republic is (so far) purely the result of this group of writers trying to tell fresh stories.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic was a pleasant surprise. I split my reading between traditionally and self-published books and I'm pleasantly surprised by the quality of self-published fantasy. The trick is to pick well-edited books that try to do something new. Thanks for the review and I can't wait to see what self-published titles you'll try next!
Oh I LOVE Sufficiently Advanced Magic!! Andrew Rowe low-key becoming one of my fav authors cuz the extremely in depth magic system is my absolute favorite thing! And yes your criticisms are valid, the prose do be like dat
Sufficiently Advanced Magic series as audiobooks are also.. soooo good! Nick Podehl is amazing for this genre as a narrator. (Also Columbus Day by Craig Alanson which I saw is on your TBR list - I can highly recommend giving the Audiobook with R.C. Bray a listen too)
My thoughts on Light of the Jedi: We are All the Republic! Also, I don't think it's classic Star Wars. I get vibes of Firefly, a little bit of 40K and generally, a more... fresh take? I quite like it, but you're right, it's not 5/5
If you want a real treat the Audiobook for Sufficiently Advanced Magic is absolutely ace. They give each character a particular voice and it's almost like listening to a good audio drama. -Highly- recommended.
I'm seconding this - Nick Podehl is one of the strongest narrators I've heard, I'm impressed with his range of voices. (I got the book on Audible, in the UK. I don't know if its available on Audible in every country.)
Arcane Ascension quickly entered my "fun re-reads" category of things that I listen to, over and over, on audible, while I'm doing other things like commuting. The other of these series that I continually go back to is Will Wight's Cradle, and we really need Daniel to dive into that particular rabbit hole :)
Bro, you have no idea. The arcane ascension book series is so immersive. The best part about this series is that there are currently three thickboy covers out right now. So say you lile the first book, you'll have plenty more to read. I'm not even counting the other two shorter books seprate from the arcane ascension book series that are a part of the same setting.
My favorite of the new canon Star Wars books have been Claudia Gray's. She especially does wonderful things with characters, I love 'Bloodline' which is about Leia and the decline of the New Republic before Force Awakens.
Claudia Gray is IMHO the best SW writer right now and her High Republic book (Into the Dark) is coming out next month. I only decided to read this one because I wanted some back story for that one but ended up liking Light of the Jedi quite a bit. 8 out of 10 (for Star Wars). Just a couple comments on the pacing Daniel mentions. The first part is a series of short stories revolving around a single catastrophic event. Part two is where it really starts feeling like a novel. Personally I think this made the first part feel faster paced than the rest, but I see where Daniel is coming from especially since some of the characters in Part 1 don't appear again outside their short stories except in cameo roles.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic was already high on my TBR and considering how similar my preferences are to yours (basically we're the same except I care less about prose), this review rocketed this book even higher on that list.
The writer was a developer for Blizzard. He basically wanted to write a book that felt like you were reading a classic JRPG like Final Fantasy. That's why there are basically "classes" and dungeons.
@@Jrabney4 well ..... yes. But quite literally, arcane ascension was a larp. I npc'd in it for years! You can ask about it in the official discord i think. Tell them Mr. tealights sent you
Hiya, Daniel! So I identify as a hobgoblin, and it stresses me out to have my favorite RUclipsr be a goblin. I usually floss with goblins. Are goblinoids goblin-like enough to join the clan? And what kind of clan doesn’t have a theme song!? Might I suggest “Piggies” by the Beatles? Just some thoughts.
In regards to your comments on voice, I think the issue here is that Charles Soule's voice just happens to line up incredibly well with basic Star Wars. He's arguably the best Star Wars comic writer to date and this is his first foray into Star Wars novels (he's written only two standalone novels previously). Charles writes Star Wars right, but yeah he's not breaking new ground in writing Star Wars so I can agree. For me, this novel has a vast majority of things I want in a Star Wars story, which is mostly that it's not just a tie-in and that it touches on the question "well how DOES the Force work?"
Very much disagree with the idea that Star Wars books have diluted authorial voices. Crack open Chuck Wendig's Aftermath trilogy and it's obviously Chuck Wendig. Same with most writers, I think. I always appreciate your reviews and hearing your thoughts!
The High Republic is technically a new era being explored for the first time. It is only a couple hundred years before the movies, whereas the Old Republic is still not technically canon anymore and was thousands of years before.
I have never been into Star Wars and I always thought I didn't like Sci Fi, but I realize now that not all Sci Fi is the same. The Martian was very enjoyable, book and movie.
Sci-Fi comes in about as many flavours and tones as fantasy. Try some Star Trek, or Cowboy Bebop. It’s fun watching people try to answer the questions of where science will take us.
Stumbled upon Sufficiently Advanced Magic totally by accident, it was a freebie on Kindle a few months ago. Was very surprised by how much I liked it -- I usually don't have high hopes for the self published freebies, but this one was definitely a cut above the rest. Looking forward to reading book 3 in the series.
I loved Sufficiently Advanced Magic. The entire series is light, fun, and enjoyable. I hope you read and review the rest of the Arcane Ascension series!
I think I actually agreed with everything you said on LOTJ but would probably bump that rating to an 8.5 because I'm a fanboy and my love for SW is just a hair deeper. Great review, love your content.
@@jasonschmucker because I really enjoyed it and I really enjoy Star Wars? Why would you go on the internet and be a dick to someone you don’t know. Sounds like you’re a massive douche.
@@jasonschmucker Listen dude, someone can come into a product with different starting points, have the same critiques, but one person enjoy it more because of where they started.
I would totally watch this video right now, but Light of the Jedi is sitting on top of my TBR right now and I want to go into it unbiased. 😅 When I'm finished I will return! 💪💪
Daniel, what is you favorite Star Wars book? I personally love the Darth Bane trilogy because I love Sith and Ban in general XD. They are also great books, so that doesn't hurt ;-).
Me to! Very underappreciated! People recommend the Thrawn trilogy or Plaguise, but Drew Karpyshyn did a much better job by showing another side of the events.
Looks interesting, I might read it. It does remind me a lot of some of the most popular japanese Light Novels (Overlord, Log Horizon, Danmachi, SAO, That time I was reincarnated as a Slime, etc) and Korean manhwa (Solo Leveling, Survival Story of a Sword King in a Fantasy World, The Gamer, etc). But watching the review, gives me hope it'll be better than those.
Light of the Jedi will be the first Star Wars book I have because it’s the chosen book for a book subscription I’m a member of. I don’t plan on reading any of the earlier books and I hope I won’t be lost. My only exposure to Star Wars is the movies.
Saw this notification pop up when I was on my lunch break and saw Light of the Jedi and then went to B&N after work and saw Light of the Jedi and knew but hadn't watched the video yet. My hand reached out but I paused and thought to myself...next time baby, next time... maybe. I read The Oracle Year by Charles Soule and really loved it I'd recommend checking it out.
The author Daniel keeps mentioning while reviewing Light of the Jedi is Charles Soule... I know the extended universe and owner of the IP are important but just thought that was worth mentioning.
I enjoyed SAM quite a bit. Really need to read the rest in the series next time I get chance. However, Daniel I need to level with you. You need to read Cradle by Will Wright. Seriously, that series is like fantasy cocaine! I got threw the whole thing within a week ...... It was not ok....... And I trust you to give it a fair review. The series could really use with some high profile coverage!
Sufficiently advanced magic isn’t technically a Fantasy novel, i’s a LitRPG. The magic system is basically something you would expect in an RPG game (whether video or tabletop). You literally level up :-) i thought I would struggle with it, but listening to the audiobook and the great narrator helped.
I think it can be qualified as a lit rpg because of the way mana was numerically valued and the work to level it up. Also the author wanted a game mechanic feel which lends credence to that idea. If a LitRPG is defined as the protagonist knowing it is in a world with game mechanics then I can understand why some would not qualify it as such, but beyond that it fits the bill pretty well.
I really liked sufficiently advanced magic- Though I often get old sitcom / dad joke vibes from the interactions. It's endearing at times and cringey at others. If you're sensitive to that I'd recommend skipping Six Sacred Swords. It's non-essential to the main series and reads as an excuse to squeeze out maximum quipage that really misses the mark for me.
Lots of people are saying you should review Cradle and I agree. I love the series. You also need to read Iron Prince. It has thousands of 5 star reviews and is very fun.
Light of the Jedi was an amazing book. That first part had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I don’t understand why you didn’t like the characters at first because while there were too many we get to see how each of them react to a huge crisis erupting out of nowhere and I found myself really caring so I’m interested why someone didn’t feel that bond to them. I think you might have a bias towards the brand right now I’d recommend just trying to let that bias go and judge it for what it is without all that baggage you hold against the brand.
For me, I liked the opening of the book because even though I didn't connect with any of the characters, the multi-layered scenario of the hyperspace accident was gripping in and of itself, and it was such a huge sweeping event it couldn't have been captured with limitations of character POVs. The problem is once the initial hyperspace thing ended, Marchion Ro was the only character who really interested me. I really want to see what he's up to next. But I wasn't invested in any of the new Jedi we met
Disney didn't de-canonize anything. This misunderstanding has absolutely plagued the Star Wars community since they bought the IP and I don't really know why. The old Expanded Universe was never canon, it was fan-fiction. Lucas acknowledged a couple things from the EU that got popular, and he did add a couple things from it to canon by including references to them in the Prequels, but the only things that were Star Wars canon prior to the Disney era were the six films and the Clone Wars tv show - nothing else. None of the books and none of the games were ever part of the Star Wars canon. All Disney did upon buying the property was reaffirm that "all this fan-fiction is, in fact, just fan-fiction" to avoid creating confusion. Just like George however Disney has also used the old EU as a source for some ideas and characters to bring into canon, such as Thrawn. It's essentially the same set up as when George owned it and nothing has really changed there.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic is the nerdiest school of magic book I have ever read. I am totally there for the RPGLIT open and close of the book and if anything I wish there was more. My one criticism is that there is hardly any class room instruction and the main character seems to be left to try and figure out how things work mostly on his own. If I had a dime for how many times he says "I wonder....." and "Interesting...." I could buy another book at least haha. I struggle to know who to recommend this book to even though I liked it a lot myself.
I was very exited about the new era, right because it's don't connecting to anything what we seen before. That may have been the issue for some people in the community, the absent of validation from previous events, like the New Sith Wars or the Old Republic. But people forget that wasn't new, the Clone Wars crew de-canonized the Republic Commando novels of Karen Travis as well long before the "Disney takeover". I optimistic for discover a new era which isn't try capitalizing nostalgia, but give as something new and they own fresh take on the setting, specially by Claudia Gray and Charles Soule.
This is a year late but I hope you try both more Star Wars canon and Legends books in the future. I really liked the High Republic main Trilogy of adult books.
I know you've committed to reading some self published fantasy this year. I strongly recommend Michael r. Fletcher. City of Sacrifice series. The first book had a few editing issues with seems to have been solved in the second. Mesoamerican fantasy for something completely different. Well written. Great character development. Fun, easy reads.
Hi Daniel! You should really give Cradle by Will Wight a shot. The first book is named "Unsouled". It is self-published and the latest book (#8) in the series managed to get rank 1 spot on Amazons fantasy section when it was released. Highly recommended, tho the series starts a bit rough but get better in time.
I agree about SAM, it was a lot of fun. I was about ready to drop the book when the OP character follows that frustrating, annoying trope of not killing, BUT his logic was so sound I kept going (I didn’t start the series with this book, it might have been explained in one of the others). And I was glad I didn’t give up on it. Ive been listening to his books, he’s got an excellent narrator for them, Nick Podehl. I believe, rather than lit-RPG, it would be considered a cultivation story.
@@gups4963 Yeah, I agree. I still like Thrawn’s character he’s just different. I only recommended the canon books because that’s what he’s reviewing here.
Thanks for the review of Light of the Jedi, I'm looking forward to doing my own once I get the book :) Have you tried Star Wars: Bloodlines? I feel like it is the strongest Star Wars book in terms of political and philosophical themes. And it almost fixed episode VII for me.
I was pleasantly surprised by Sufficiently Advanced Magic as well. I thought it was a very well done, fun read and I have the rest of the books in this series in my TBR. And after looking into Andrew a bit (since he's self-published and I like seeing how people do it since I'm just going down that road) he is big into TTRPG, so that does come through quite a bit, but since I am into that as well, I appreciate how well it was done.
I love Andrew Rowe, I've read all his books. I agree with your criticisms of SAM and the score as well based on the standalone book. In my opinion Rowe really shines in the way he does worldbuilding, and how he delivers a standalone plot in his books but weaves it into a larger plot that's happening across all three of his book series in a Sanderson-esque way. I highly recommend reading all three series to really see what his world-building is capable of, any individual book might be a 7 or an 8, but as a whole I'd give the world a 9!
Have really enjoyed his work as well, according to a recent blog, his most popular pieces are actually his offshoots, SAM wasn't intended as the "main" story. I loved all the tongue in cheek of how to defeat a demon lord
Sufficiently Advanced Magic, yes! I read it a few years ago and loved it, but for some reason I forgot it's name and the author, so I couldn't look for the rest of the series. Now I can, thanks! It felt like it sprang from a TTRPG campaign, but not so much that it felt like the novelization of a game.
Why do I get my kicks watching your reviews of books I have already read and have strong feelings about? I do not know. Sufficiently Advanced Magic (and On the Shoulders of Titans) are sort of guilty pleasures of mine. I feel like every character is kind of "samey," they are all min/maxing munchkins trying to gain power in the most efficient way possible and more likely to look on another person as a means to an end first and friend second. Also, as you touch upon, the whole exercise kind of reads like a series of one context-less puzzle after another, much like an RPG game. But something about the power levelling that Corin is trying to do just interests me. That said, I really started writing this intending to recommend The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington, the first book in his Licanius trilogy. When you mentioned good self-published books it popped to mind as my favorite self-published fantasy book. It did eventually get picked up by Orbit (they are on fire!), but that just goes to show how good it is.
SAM is a book I have put off for a long time because if there are two settings I am sick of it's Magic Academy and Tower Climber so seeing them combined is not super appealing. Will keep it in mind if I ever feel like dipping back into that sub-genre.
I’m a bit confused by this review. A few months ago I tried to read Sufficiently Advanced Magic on my kindle and I couldn’t make it past page 20. The prose was 1st person present with a stilted voice and riddled with errors. Was the copy I read later revised in some way? I just don’t see how anyone could make through what I encountered. I’m really not trying to be a jerk or snub indie authors. I just wonder how people are actually enjoying the prose I encountered. Was there a later edition??
Overall I enjoyed SAM, but I immediately had the impression the writing was a tier below what I expect from traditionally published. I don't remember many true errors, but lots of awkward prose. Also when I inserted into my head canon that the POV character has Asperger's, I connected better with the book. His world view, especially regarding relationships and communication, are so different than mine and that idea helped bridge that gap. Also since this is such a video game inspired book, I just told myself that the dialog was actually really good for a video game haha. Anyway there were lots of fun elements of the plot, worldbuilding, and magic so I enjoyed the book but I think there are a lot of people that would bounce off it in the first few chapters like you did.
My copy is two years old and is written in past tense. I didn't notice any errors (nor terrible prose), so you probably have the book confused with a different one. :-)
Have read like 50 Star Wars books. Usually prefer Legends stuff though. Might pick this one up, not sure though, perhaps I'll wait until the whole series is over and read it the if people are still enjoying it.
The thing that puts me off is how horribly SW has been handled by Lucasfilm beneath Kathleen Kennedy. Based on almost all of her direct statements she genuinely doesn’t seem to know or care about SW. The Mandalorian and Rebels were handled be Favereau and Filoni who know and care about the brand. The High Republic is still somewhat under Kennedy’s control so I’m extremely skeptical.
@@jasonschmucker I know that but her track record is still inconsistent at best, and that’s without considering exactly what impact she has had been on each piece of media. Let’s not forget she made the decision to discard the EU, discarded the story ideas for the sequel trilogy given by George Lucus, hired JJ and Rian Johnson who ended up going forward without a proper plan (as confirmed by John Boyega and Daisy Ridley) was confident in giving the video game rights to EA, and specifically instructed the construction of Galaxies edge to not have anything from the previous trilogys. I honestly question how much she actually cares and I’ll admit I’ve seen her name in the credits but of those shows and movies but I have no way of knowing what would have happened without Filoni and Favereau. The point is she is “involved” with all of those and I don’t know exactly how much good she has actually done, but given the rest of her track record and statements specific to her I don’t like it. TLDR: I do not know for certain what she has done and I could be wrong but I do not like the vast majority of her track record even if you include Mando, Rebels, CW7, and the rest. So salt intended, I’m not trying to start a flame war. I just have strong opinions after doing some research.
I enjoyed the part of Sufficiently Advanced Magic where one of the characters asks the main character out and both are male and there was literally nothing made about it other than whether the main character wanted to date the person or not. No big deal made, just, this is a romantic decision. I feel like this was unique enough that no big deal was made that it stuck out to me and it was refreshing.
It's just another feature of the world and the character. Some authors just love using fantasy as an excuse to write romance, so its good seeing it being treated as a mundane thing. And that people can be mature about things without blowing them out of proportion, as is the case with shipping and plot derailment by sudden romance arcs.
I wholeheartedly agree with you on Sufficiently Advanced Magic. I’m just about done with it and it has flaws, but overall it’s a fun read. I would add that it’s a solid blend of Harry Potter and Final Fantasy. The author even says Final Fantasy was an influence. If you read a lot of YA fantasy, and you want to read more adult fantasy, Sufficiently Advanced Magic is a really good middle ground of the two.
I’m so glad you enjoyed sufficiently advanced magic! I added it to my tbr back when you first got it in a mail video bc I was like damn I have a good feeling about this one. Feels good to be right!
I picked up the Sufficiently Advanced Magic purely because of the title. And while I really enjoyed the book I think it was completely different from what the title referenced. I got clickbaited by my own expectations but also don't regret it.
I picked up Sufficiently Advanced Magic two years ago and really liked it, so I read the rest of Andrew Rowe's books and liked them as well. However, I feel that Rowe is consistently bad with character dialogue and his prose. If you are looking for other good self-published authors I recommend Will Wight's Traveler's Gate trilogy and his Amazon best-selling Cradle series. Will Wight and Andrew Rowe have both referred to their books as being progression fantasy.
I think it's interesting that you said Charles Soule's prose lacks an authorial voice. His Star Wars comics definitely do not have that problem, especially the Darth Vader ones.
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Reading the title and thinking:
"Light of the Jedi... Sufficiently Advanced Magic... Of course it's sufficient... It's the freaking Force"
Watching the video:
"Oh... It's another book... Oh, erm... Sorry for the rant Master Goblin! Crap! I am never gonna go up the ranks of the Clan like this!"
THE DARN FORCE lol
Welp, it happened again. I thought I’d gone crazy ... again 😂
“... but I never commented on this video 🤨 ... I’m crazy ... that’s it ... wait ... wait, ohhhhhh”
I love when this happens though hehe 😜
@@siennaluprano8573 Hey there twin 🤣
Same... I was so confused at first 😂
I did the exact same thing 😂
Unpopular Star Wars opinion:Maybe it will take people many years for them to fully understand and appreciate the sequel trilogy. They bashed on Return Of The Jedi at first, too.
Any comments?
Pleasantly surprised to see that the author of Sufficiently Advanced Magic also wrote How To Defeat a demon King in 10 easy steps. Got it off audible and it was a pretty fun light story aimed at fans of rpgs and d&d, particularly Zelda.
Nice
SAM was pretty good to me, but Defeat a Demon King was amazing.
He comes off as a huge weeb to me. Game recognize game
@@kaemonbonet4931 It sounds like an isekai/light novel title lol.
@@SunGawdRa I loved Demon King as well. Such a fun time. Demon King is what I like to call a "funtasy". :oD
I love that Daniel acknowledges both that he doesn't have a passion for Star Wars while recognizing the passion that lives in the community. As a reviewer, I give him a 9/10.
Some of the best fantasy books I’ve read in the last couple months have been self-published
Brings diversity into what is published. Since a lot of publishers follow trends homogenizing the market.
Ofc
Could you give me some recommendations out of those you read?
@@jasonschmucker ???? No diversity in types of writing... like when GoT was popular, publishers wanted books like it. Idc for sjw types but you are assuming a lot.
@@nthnthms1212 Lol some people are always itching to slam the woke left. The joke's on him though :p
I loved Significantly Advanced Magic.
And if it were a game I'd play it.
I also enjoyed On The Shoulders of Titians and the Six Sacred Swords series too.
The War of Broken Mirrors series is amazing as well. Definitely check it out, it's the same world as well
I think I love the Six Sacred Swords the most so far. And yes, War of Broken Mirrors is the same world, and they all tie together in some ways, but to me it was the weakest part of the whole so far.
The author actually had a background in game development and has shown interest in creating a table top game based on his world!
I read SAM and the two sequels earlier in the year. SSS felt really bad to me, I just couldn't get into Keras' story
The third book came out recently too, it’s great also
I never read the book so the internet told me that makes me qualified to be very judgemental about it.
JUDGEMENT: Probably a good book 💞
I hope we get a Cradle review sometime this year. For me it's right up there with Stormlight as my favorite ongoing fantasy series.
If Stormlight and Cradle released books on the same day I would have a real conflict on which to read first. I think it would be Cradle tbh
@@Jrabney4 Probably because it's shorter and then you can go into SA? Honestly, IDK if Will would go against Brandon like that - he knows what he's doing.
@@Ash-qp2yw Oh yeah he's outright said he wouldn't release at the same time as Brando.
Cradle is so bad.
I won't go so far as to compare it with stormlight, but it's definitely my most favourite self-pub book. I just wish booktubers would try out eastern fantasy, eastern inspired fantasy and web-novels more.
I have read A LOT of Star Wars books in the past year and after getting really deep into the books you can really start to pick out author voices. Charles Soule I feel really focuses on the humanity of character, making the Jedi feel relatable in a way I haven’t really seen, whereas someone like Timothy Zahn is much more tactical, military writer, focusing so much on combat and vectors (I still don’t understand it) 😂 it’s one of those things if you read a lot of Star Wars books you’d be able to tell.
@@jasonschmucker I have a RUclips channel of barely 300 subscribers, I don’t get paid anything? My opinions are my own and no type of money is going to sway my opinion on what I like and don’t like.
@@jasonschmucker Would you please stop talking out of your ass? Thanks.
@@ImJaredRoss Come on mate, I love Timothy Zahn but it's not that hard to understand his "tactical" approach, at least not compared to other Scifi properties.
@@kingkusnacht oh that wasn’t meant as a slant against Timothy Zahn, I love his Star Wars book, Dark Force Rising is my favorite Star Wars books. I just get lost in the technicals of how he describes stuff with space battle. If you can that’s great, I just have a hard time understanding it because that’s stuff I don’t necessarily know. I just meant to say reading through a bunch of Star Wars books and becoming familiar with those writers you can see authors voices.
I love Zahn's writing. But, for me, Claudia Gray and the author of "Kenobi" that i forgot his name is very relatable, and makes we "feel" the story, rather than just "see".
Please try out the OG Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn, it might not be “canon” anymore, but a good Star Wars story is still good.
Arguably the best Star Wars books out there.
The new Thrawn trilogy holds up too!
I came to the comments to see if anyone else mentioned Zahn. I'd be really curious to see how Daniel reacts to those
@@solomonkenji5611 People would argue that anything else is better? (Of course they would, it's the internet, but I agree with you that this, or Zahn's duology, is the high water mark of Star Wars novels.)
I'd love to get Mara Jade into canon.
Yo Daniel. Read Cradle by Will Wight please. If you loved SAM,you have to take cradle for a ride. The name of the first book is Unsouled and is easily the weakest book in a completely awesome series.
I second this. Cradle is awesome and it only gets better from the first.
I third this. Cradle is amazing, and yes, Unsouled is actually the weakest of the books, although I enjoyed it. They get progressively better and better. Wight also wrote the House of Blades series, which has one of the most original magic systems I've ever read. He is amazing.
Cradle is a good read. It reads fast and full of actions. However, it's too plot convenient. The Characters are either very strong or weak depending on what the plot at that moment demands. This reminds me of comic books and annoys me to no end.
Commenting to add to the "DANIEL, TRY CRADLE" train! Book one is Unsouled and it's such a sweet fantasy series!
I support this message! And give it at least 2 books, the first is quite a bit slower, still great but the story really ramps up.
Agreed but really gets good during Ghostwater
I love the arcane ascension series so much, it’s just incredibly fun
I remember I couldn't stop reading that book it was soo fucking addicted
I'm 70% through the third book and gotta say it doesn't feel as exciting as the previous one, sadly a little let down with it
@@HQofrandom no, I haven’t read that one yet, I’m waiting for the audiobook to come out 😢
@@HQofrandom Whilst I haven't read it yet, I do follow the author pretty closely and from what he's said, he knew the third book would probably not be as eventful as the last two but its kind of like a summer vacation story rather than a major addition to it's main story if that helps put it in perspective.
loved it, got the next book in the series, enjoyed that one too. Started following the author based on those two.
Something that needs to be said about Sufficiently Advanced Magic y way of praise (and all Rowe's books, really) is that he is pretty good about dealing with things like remembering to have characters that are not just straight dudes. Literally his main characters's primary romantic plot is another young man and it's handled really well and without baggage. His world just naturally includes LGBTQ characters.
Also, he does a great job at not really glorifying violence, which is hard in a world full of violence. I was really impressed with his ability to believably give us characters who fight, even for a living, without reverting to RA Salvatore levels of action movie tropes.
A note on SAM: Rowe is a game designer. The books are set in a world he wrote for a tabletop/LARP system he designed, so it is technically a LitRPG, but since he's removed all the trappings of that genre it doesn't read like one.
o hey!
He did it, he finally reviewed SAM
Now Cradle!!
@@Jrabney4 Now that's some Sage wisdom right there
"The dialog can get cringey at times"
Yeah I can agree with that. This book holds the weird paradox of having poor dialog and also containing some lines that made me genuinely laugh out loud (i.e. "I briefly contemplated the safety of removing my own hand")
I think the dialog gets somewhat better throughout the sequal books, however it isn't a lot of improvement. I do however feel like the dialog problems add a little bit to the awkwardness of Corin's character.
I agree with this comment 100%
It does get cringey at times but the cringe often fits Corin's character and it isn't so bad it ruins the story.
Hey Dan. Could you add Cradle by Will Wight to your indie author TR pile. His progresive fantasy is best there is.
What do you mean by “progressive”?
@@bribli2177 it's the new word for left wing politics.
@@bribli2177 He means Progression Fantasy which is a new genre of fantasy. Go look it up in reddit. Its essencially focuses on characters getting stronger over time
I think he would need to read unsouled through blackflame in order to get into it tho
@@bribli2177 I think he meant progression fantasy, not progressive. I think its also referred to as Lit RPG. Progression fantasy is a genre were the main characters show change and improvement by gaining new abilities and increasing their “power level”. Kinda like an RPG or some shonen anime/manga.
Just an FYI: The next major Adult/YA high republic book comes out on febuary fifth and is called “Into the Dark”, by claudia gray, and the next adult book that is at least being marketed as the Light Of the Jedi sequel is The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott coming out in July.
I'm pumped for both but especially the Gray book. That woman deserves her own movies. Tied for best SW writer IMHO.
@@ReaderReborn tied with Timothy Zahn I hope?
I really enjoyed light of the jedi. It was exactly what I was looking for in a star wars book. It was a fun fast paced read that set up an interesting era, though there were too many characters.
I really want to read SAM now!
@@jasonschmucker yep! I am! 😎
@@megravitt33 I envy your optimistic life perspective.
I hope to get my hands soon on Light of the Jedi.
Really sad that these types of videos don't get that many views, so this one's for the algorithm
#goblinclan
Imo, Charles Soule is one of the greatest comic book writers, and this was his first prose novel. Aparently, he and the other High Republic authors all took a creative writing trip a few years ago, to figure out what kind of star wars stories they could tell next. They all got together and bounced ideas off each other, and they decided the High Republic would be a great setting where they could start fresh. Disney never told them to set the story there, they just worked it out as a group of writers. The High Republic is (so far) purely the result of this group of writers trying to tell fresh stories.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic was a pleasant surprise. I split my reading between traditionally and self-published books and I'm pleasantly surprised by the quality of self-published fantasy. The trick is to pick well-edited books that try to do something new. Thanks for the review and I can't wait to see what self-published titles you'll try next!
Oh I LOVE Sufficiently Advanced Magic!! Andrew Rowe low-key becoming one of my fav authors cuz the extremely in depth magic system is my absolute favorite thing!
And yes your criticisms are valid, the prose do be like dat
Sufficiently Advanced Magic series as audiobooks are also.. soooo good! Nick Podehl is amazing for this genre as a narrator.
(Also Columbus Day by Craig Alanson which I saw is on your TBR list - I can highly recommend giving the Audiobook with R.C. Bray a listen too)
It's magnificently Skippy
Podehl is a treasure
Nick Podehl is my favorite narrator. He’s the only reason I even started reading SAM
My thoughts on Light of the Jedi: We are All the Republic!
Also, I don't think it's classic Star Wars. I get vibes of Firefly, a little bit of 40K and generally, a more... fresh take? I quite like it, but you're right, it's not 5/5
If you want a real treat the Audiobook for Sufficiently Advanced Magic is absolutely ace. They give each character a particular voice and it's almost like listening to a good audio drama. -Highly- recommended.
Is it audiable production?
Or from somewhere else ?
I'm seconding this - Nick Podehl is one of the strongest narrators I've heard, I'm impressed with his range of voices.
(I got the book on Audible, in the UK. I don't know if its available on Audible in every country.)
Arcane Ascension quickly entered my "fun re-reads" category of things that I listen to, over and over, on audible, while I'm doing other things like commuting. The other of these series that I continually go back to is Will Wight's Cradle, and we really need Daniel to dive into that particular rabbit hole :)
Nice! Sufficiently Advanced Magic seems like an good book to add to the TBR!
Bro, you have no idea. The arcane ascension book series is so immersive. The best part about this series is that there are currently three thickboy covers out right now. So say you lile the first book, you'll have plenty more to read. I'm not even counting the other two shorter books seprate from the arcane ascension book series that are a part of the same setting.
The title alone is pure genius. And it is well focused on what it wants to do, that is so satisfying.
My favorite of the new canon Star Wars books have been Claudia Gray's. She especially does wonderful things with characters, I love 'Bloodline' which is about Leia and the decline of the New Republic before Force Awakens.
Claudia Gray is IMHO the best SW writer right now and her High Republic book (Into the Dark) is coming out next month. I only decided to read this one because I wanted some back story for that one but ended up liking Light of the Jedi quite a bit. 8 out of 10 (for Star Wars).
Just a couple comments on the pacing Daniel mentions. The first part is a series of short stories revolving around a single catastrophic event. Part two is where it really starts feeling like a novel. Personally I think this made the first part feel faster paced than the rest, but I see where Daniel is coming from especially since some of the characters in Part 1 don't appear again outside their short stories except in cameo roles.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic was already high on my TBR and considering how similar my preferences are to yours (basically we're the same except I care less about prose), this review rocketed this book even higher on that list.
It is a good start on the boarder of Litrpg, I love the character because i have crafter brain so i get his thoughts.
I read sufficiently advanced magic last year, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It did feel d&d as hell to me
its a larp actually!
The writer was a developer for Blizzard. He basically wanted to write a book that felt like you were reading a classic JRPG like Final Fantasy. That's why there are basically "classes" and dungeons.
@@Jrabney4 well ..... yes. But quite literally, arcane ascension was a larp. I npc'd in it for years! You can ask about it in the official discord i think. Tell them Mr. tealights sent you
Hiya, Daniel! So I identify as a hobgoblin, and it stresses me out to have my favorite RUclipsr be a goblin. I usually floss with goblins. Are goblinoids goblin-like enough to join the clan? And what kind of clan doesn’t have a theme song!? Might I suggest “Piggies” by the Beatles? Just some thoughts.
In regards to your comments on voice, I think the issue here is that Charles Soule's voice just happens to line up incredibly well with basic Star Wars. He's arguably the best Star Wars comic writer to date and this is his first foray into Star Wars novels (he's written only two standalone novels previously). Charles writes Star Wars right, but yeah he's not breaking new ground in writing Star Wars so I can agree.
For me, this novel has a vast majority of things I want in a Star Wars story, which is mostly that it's not just a tie-in and that it touches on the question "well how DOES the Force work?"
Very much disagree with the idea that Star Wars books have diluted authorial voices. Crack open Chuck Wendig's Aftermath trilogy and it's obviously Chuck Wendig. Same with most writers, I think. I always appreciate your reviews and hearing your thoughts!
The High Republic is technically a new era being explored for the first time. It is only a couple hundred years before the movies, whereas the Old Republic is still not technically canon anymore and was thousands of years before.
I have never been into Star Wars and I always thought I didn't like Sci Fi, but I realize now that not all Sci Fi is the same. The Martian was very enjoyable, book and movie.
Sci-Fi comes in about as many flavours and tones as fantasy. Try some Star Trek, or Cowboy Bebop. It’s fun watching people try to answer the questions of where science will take us.
The Darth Plaguesis novel is a very good Star Wars novel as well as the Darth Bane trilogy.
even the kenobi book was quite good
As someone who seems to have a lot of the same reading tastes as daniel. .
The darth bane trilogy was so so bad.
Stumbled upon Sufficiently Advanced Magic totally by accident, it was a freebie on Kindle a few months ago. Was very surprised by how much I liked it -- I usually don't have high hopes for the self published freebies, but this one was definitely a cut above the rest. Looking forward to reading book 3 in the series.
I loved Sufficiently Advanced Magic. The entire series is light, fun, and enjoyable. I hope you read and review the rest of the Arcane Ascension series!
Agreed. The second book was even better. The third was not bad
I think I actually agreed with everything you said on LOTJ but would probably bump that rating to an 8.5 because I'm a fanboy and my love for SW is just a hair deeper. Great review, love your content.
@@jasonschmucker because I really enjoyed it and I really enjoy Star Wars?
Why would you go on the internet and be a dick to someone you don’t know. Sounds like you’re a massive douche.
@@jasonschmucker Listen dude, someone can come into a product with different starting points, have the same critiques, but one person enjoy it more because of where they started.
Just read the Thrawn Trilogy, Daniel, regardless of its legends status... it is worth a read.
Hey man, I love the original thrawn trilogy!
Legend Star Wars is the best!
The new Thrawn trilogy is great too
Oh shit. I've never really seen any tattoo's that I'd want, but I kind of want the One Ring text on my arm like that...
Agreed! btw - do you (or anyone) know where his wrist crescent tattoo comes from?
I love the graph thing in the end of the first half
Yes! I love Sufficiently advanced magic! I can’t wait for Daniel to read the rest of the series. As well as series that are similar like Cradle
I would totally watch this video right now, but Light of the Jedi is sitting on top of my TBR right now and I want to go into it unbiased. 😅
When I'm finished I will return! 💪💪
Soo glad you read Sufficiently Advanced Magic! I've been loving the series as well!
Daniel, what is you favorite Star Wars book? I personally love the Darth Bane trilogy because I love Sith and Ban in general XD. They are also great books, so that doesn't hurt ;-).
Me to! Very underappreciated! People recommend the Thrawn trilogy or Plaguise, but Drew Karpyshyn did a much better job by showing another side of the events.
Thrawn (New canon and the legends trilogy), Lost Stars and Darth Bane are best
@@supremeleadersmeagol6345 Lost Stars is great!
Looks interesting, I might read it. It does remind me a lot of some of the most popular japanese Light Novels (Overlord, Log Horizon, Danmachi, SAO, That time I was reincarnated as a Slime, etc) and Korean manhwa (Solo Leveling, Survival Story of a Sword King in a Fantasy World, The Gamer, etc). But watching the review, gives me hope it'll be better than those.
Read all those manga and manhwa. Even manhuas!
I was glad to see you review and enjoy Sufficiently Advanced Magic. I also quite enjoyed the book and the Magic.
Light of the Jedi will be the first Star Wars book I have because it’s the chosen book for a book subscription I’m a member of. I don’t plan on reading any of the earlier books and I hope I won’t be lost. My only exposure to Star Wars is the movies.
A minor complaint but the High Republic is not the Old Republic. They are 2 different settings divided by around a thousand years.
Saw this notification pop up when I was on my lunch break and saw Light of the Jedi and then went to B&N after work and saw Light of the Jedi and knew but hadn't watched the video yet. My hand reached out but I paused and thought to myself...next time baby, next time... maybe. I read The Oracle Year by Charles Soule and really loved it I'd recommend checking it out.
The author Daniel keeps mentioning while reviewing Light of the Jedi is Charles Soule...
I know the extended universe and owner of the IP are important but just thought that was worth mentioning.
Oh no, they’re throwing us in the deep end too. Nobody knows anything going into The High Republic. But that’s kind of the appeal for some of us.
Didn't even have Sufficiently Advanced Magic on my radar yet, so thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Yeah man, its one of my favorites out of my collection 130ish books.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic is a very cool book title, picked it up with some of kindle credits.
I enjoyed SAM quite a bit. Really need to read the rest in the series next time I get chance.
However, Daniel I need to level with you. You need to read Cradle by Will Wright. Seriously, that series is like fantasy cocaine! I got threw the whole thing within a week ...... It was not ok....... And I trust you to give it a fair review. The series could really use with some high profile coverage!
Sufficiently advanced magic isn’t technically a Fantasy novel, i’s a LitRPG. The magic system is basically something you would expect in an RPG game (whether video or tabletop). You literally level up :-) i thought I would struggle with it, but listening to the audiobook and the great narrator helped.
I think it can be qualified as a lit rpg because of the way mana was numerically valued and the work to level it up. Also the author wanted a game mechanic feel which lends credence to that idea.
If a LitRPG is defined as the protagonist knowing it is in a world with game mechanics then I can understand why some would not qualify it as such, but beyond that it fits the bill pretty well.
Also, I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed the way you did the editing for your ratings. It looked really nice!
FYI you get the author's voice in Timothy Zhan's SW Thrawn Trilogys
I really liked sufficiently advanced magic- Though I often get old sitcom / dad joke vibes from the interactions. It's endearing at times and cringey at others. If you're sensitive to that I'd recommend skipping Six Sacred Swords. It's non-essential to the main series and reads as an excuse to squeeze out maximum quipage that really misses the mark for me.
Lots of people are saying you should review Cradle and I agree. I love the series. You also need to read Iron Prince. It has thousands of 5 star reviews and is very fun.
Please do the Cradle series by Will Wight!!
Light of the Jedi was an amazing book. That first part had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I don’t understand why you didn’t like the characters at first because while there were too many we get to see how each of them react to a huge crisis erupting out of nowhere and I found myself really caring so I’m interested why someone didn’t feel that bond to them. I think you might have a bias towards the brand right now I’d recommend just trying to let that bias go and judge it for what it is without all that baggage you hold against the brand.
For me, I liked the opening of the book because even though I didn't connect with any of the characters, the multi-layered scenario of the hyperspace accident was gripping in and of itself, and it was such a huge sweeping event it couldn't have been captured with limitations of character POVs. The problem is once the initial hyperspace thing ended, Marchion Ro was the only character who really interested me. I really want to see what he's up to next. But I wasn't invested in any of the new Jedi we met
I randomly picked up SAM and it was so much fun. It’ll be fun for you to see how his previous series connects
Disney didn't de-canonize anything. This misunderstanding has absolutely plagued the Star Wars community since they bought the IP and I don't really know why. The old Expanded Universe was never canon, it was fan-fiction. Lucas acknowledged a couple things from the EU that got popular, and he did add a couple things from it to canon by including references to them in the Prequels, but the only things that were Star Wars canon prior to the Disney era were the six films and the Clone Wars tv show - nothing else. None of the books and none of the games were ever part of the Star Wars canon. All Disney did upon buying the property was reaffirm that "all this fan-fiction is, in fact, just fan-fiction" to avoid creating confusion. Just like George however Disney has also used the old EU as a source for some ideas and characters to bring into canon, such as Thrawn. It's essentially the same set up as when George owned it and nothing has really changed there.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic is the nerdiest school of magic book I have ever read. I am totally there for the RPGLIT open and close of the book and if anything I wish there was more. My one criticism is that there is hardly any class room instruction and the main character seems to be left to try and figure out how things work mostly on his own. If I had a dime for how many times he says "I wonder....." and "Interesting...." I could buy another book at least haha. I struggle to know who to recommend this book to even though I liked it a lot myself.
So glad you liked it. I went in with similar expectations but fell in love with the series and the entire world he's building
I was very exited about the new era, right because it's don't connecting to anything what we seen before. That may have been the issue for some people in the community, the absent of validation from previous events, like the New Sith Wars or the Old Republic. But people forget that wasn't new, the Clone Wars crew de-canonized the Republic Commando novels of Karen Travis as well long before the "Disney takeover". I optimistic for discover a new era which isn't try capitalizing nostalgia, but give as something new and they own fresh take on the setting, specially by Claudia Gray and Charles Soule.
This is a year late but I hope you try both more Star Wars canon and Legends books in the future. I really liked the High Republic main Trilogy of adult books.
I know you've committed to reading some self published fantasy this year. I strongly recommend Michael r. Fletcher. City of Sacrifice series. The first book had a few editing issues with seems to have been solved in the second. Mesoamerican fantasy for something completely different. Well written. Great character development. Fun, easy reads.
Hi Daniel! You should really give Cradle by Will Wight a shot. The first book is named "Unsouled". It is self-published and the latest book (#8) in the series managed to get rank 1 spot on Amazons fantasy section when it was released. Highly recommended, tho the series starts a bit rough but get better in time.
I agree about SAM, it was a lot of fun. I was about ready to drop the book when the OP character follows that frustrating, annoying trope of not killing, BUT his logic was so sound I kept going (I didn’t start the series with this book, it might have been explained in one of the others). And I was glad I didn’t give up on it. Ive been listening to his books, he’s got an excellent narrator for them, Nick Podehl. I believe, rather than lit-RPG, it would be considered a cultivation story.
Star wars books I highly reccomend are any of the ones by Timothy Zahn.
Also Darth Bane trilogy by Drew Karpyshyn.
Especially the canon Thrawn books if he’s all about the characters.
@@ImTheReverse Legends blows canon out of the water, they pretty well neutered thrawn to make him work within the new canon
@@gups4963 Yeah, I agree. I still like Thrawn’s character he’s just different. I only recommended the canon books because that’s what he’s reviewing here.
Thanks for the review of Light of the Jedi, I'm looking forward to doing my own once I get the book :) Have you tried Star Wars: Bloodlines? I feel like it is the strongest Star Wars book in terms of political and philosophical themes. And it almost fixed episode VII for me.
I really enjoyed Light of the Jedi and I’m looking forward to seeing more of the High Republic era
I was pleasantly surprised by Sufficiently Advanced Magic as well. I thought it was a very well done, fun read and I have the rest of the books in this series in my TBR.
And after looking into Andrew a bit (since he's self-published and I like seeing how people do it since I'm just going down that road) he is big into TTRPG, so that does come through quite a bit, but since I am into that as well, I appreciate how well it was done.
I hope you've kept up with the series because all of your critiques get better. And the world as a whole is so rich and well developed.
I love Andrew Rowe, I've read all his books. I agree with your criticisms of SAM and the score as well based on the standalone book. In my opinion Rowe really shines in the way he does worldbuilding, and how he delivers a standalone plot in his books but weaves it into a larger plot that's happening across all three of his book series in a Sanderson-esque way. I highly recommend reading all three series to really see what his world-building is capable of, any individual book might be a 7 or an 8, but as a whole I'd give the world a 9!
Love Andrew Rowe's books, definitely read the Demon Lord one.
Have really enjoyed his work as well, according to a recent blog, his most popular pieces are actually his offshoots, SAM wasn't intended as the "main" story. I loved all the tongue in cheek of how to defeat a demon lord
I'm glad that the Star Wars universe is being put back into actually capable hands
Indeed with a proper directions no less
@@mcpics4448 it really is a new year
Sufficiently Advanced Magic, yes! I read it a few years ago and loved it, but for some reason I forgot it's name and the author, so I couldn't look for the rest of the series. Now I can, thanks!
It felt like it sprang from a TTRPG campaign, but not so much that it felt like the novelization of a game.
Why do I get my kicks watching your reviews of books I have already read and have strong feelings about? I do not know. Sufficiently Advanced Magic (and On the Shoulders of Titans) are sort of guilty pleasures of mine. I feel like every character is kind of "samey," they are all min/maxing munchkins trying to gain power in the most efficient way possible and more likely to look on another person as a means to an end first and friend second. Also, as you touch upon, the whole exercise kind of reads like a series of one context-less puzzle after another, much like an RPG game. But something about the power levelling that Corin is trying to do just interests me.
That said, I really started writing this intending to recommend The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington, the first book in his Licanius trilogy. When you mentioned good self-published books it popped to mind as my favorite self-published fantasy book. It did eventually get picked up by Orbit (they are on fire!), but that just goes to show how good it is.
SAM is a book I have put off for a long time because if there are two settings I am sick of it's Magic Academy and Tower Climber so seeing them combined is not super appealing. Will keep it in mind if I ever feel like dipping back into that sub-genre.
I do recomend Darth Banes trilogy from the cut EU. From the author Drew Karpyshyn. For me these are the Best star wars books i have read.
I'm glad to see you doing a review of one of Andrew Rowe's books. I've read all of his novels now and they have never let me down.
I’m a bit confused by this review. A few months ago I tried to read Sufficiently Advanced Magic on my kindle and I couldn’t make it past page 20. The prose was 1st person present with a stilted voice and riddled with errors. Was the copy I read later revised in some way? I just don’t see how anyone could make through what I encountered.
I’m really not trying to be a jerk or snub indie authors. I just wonder how people are actually enjoying the prose I encountered. Was there a later edition??
Overall I enjoyed SAM, but I immediately had the impression the writing was a tier below what I expect from traditionally published. I don't remember many true errors, but lots of awkward prose. Also when I inserted into my head canon that the POV character has Asperger's, I connected better with the book. His world view, especially regarding relationships and communication, are so different than mine and that idea helped bridge that gap. Also since this is such a video game inspired book, I just told myself that the dialog was actually really good for a video game haha. Anyway there were lots of fun elements of the plot, worldbuilding, and magic so I enjoyed the book but I think there are a lot of people that would bounce off it in the first few chapters like you did.
My copy is two years old and is written in past tense. I didn't notice any errors (nor terrible prose), so you probably have the book confused with a different one. :-)
@@zakcole1558 thanks for replying. I might have to give it another shot with this in mind and keep my expectations about the writing low.
@@Maren617 I definitely had the right book but could be wrong about the tense. Taste is subjective but I’m glad you and many others liked the book.
Have read like 50 Star Wars books. Usually prefer Legends stuff though. Might pick this one up, not sure though, perhaps I'll wait until the whole series is over and read it the if people are still enjoying it.
The thing that puts me off is how horribly SW has been handled by Lucasfilm beneath Kathleen Kennedy. Based on almost all of her direct statements she genuinely doesn’t seem to know or care about SW. The Mandalorian and Rebels were handled be Favereau and Filoni who know and care about the brand. The High Republic is still somewhat under Kennedy’s control so I’m extremely skeptical.
@@jasonschmucker I know that but her track record is still inconsistent at best, and that’s without considering exactly what impact she has had been on each piece of media. Let’s not forget she made the decision to discard the EU, discarded the story ideas for the sequel trilogy given by George Lucus, hired JJ and Rian Johnson who ended up going forward without a proper plan (as confirmed by John Boyega and Daisy Ridley) was confident in giving the video game rights to EA, and specifically instructed the construction of Galaxies edge to not have anything from the previous trilogys. I honestly question how much she actually cares and I’ll admit I’ve seen her name in the credits but of those shows and movies but I have no way of knowing what would have happened without Filoni and Favereau. The point is she is “involved” with all of those and I don’t know exactly how much good she has actually done, but given the rest of her track record and statements specific to her I don’t like it.
TLDR: I do not know for certain what she has done and I could be wrong but I do not like the vast majority of her track record even if you include Mando, Rebels, CW7, and the rest.
So salt intended, I’m not trying to start a flame war. I just have strong opinions after doing some research.
I loved the fact that the main character is anxiety ridden and super awkward around people.
I enjoyed the part of Sufficiently Advanced Magic where one of the characters asks the main character out and both are male and there was literally nothing made about it other than whether the main character wanted to date the person or not. No big deal made, just, this is a romantic decision. I feel like this was unique enough that no big deal was made that it stuck out to me and it was refreshing.
The next book has a genderless character.
It's just another feature of the world and the character. Some authors just love using fantasy as an excuse to write romance, so its good seeing it being treated as a mundane thing. And that people can be mature about things without blowing them out of proportion, as is the case with shipping and plot derailment by sudden romance arcs.
I wholeheartedly agree with you on Sufficiently Advanced Magic. I’m just about done with it and it has flaws, but overall it’s a fun read. I would add that it’s a solid blend of Harry Potter and Final Fantasy. The author even says Final Fantasy was an influence. If you read a lot of YA fantasy, and you want to read more adult fantasy, Sufficiently Advanced Magic is a really good middle ground of the two.
I’m so glad you enjoyed sufficiently advanced magic! I added it to my tbr back when you first got it in a mail video bc I was like damn I have a good feeling about this one. Feels good to be right!
100% agree with your take on sufficiently advanced magic. It's a solid choice and fun read but it's not doing much new so far. Very close to litrpg.
I picked up the Sufficiently Advanced Magic purely because of the title. And while I really enjoyed the book I think it was completely different from what the title referenced. I got clickbaited by my own expectations but also don't regret it.
Love the t-shirt and the timing of the sentiment.
I picked up Sufficiently Advanced Magic two years ago and really liked it, so I read the rest of Andrew Rowe's books and liked them as well. However, I feel that Rowe is consistently bad with character dialogue and his prose. If you are looking for other good self-published authors I recommend Will Wight's Traveler's Gate trilogy and his Amazon best-selling Cradle series. Will Wight and Andrew Rowe have both referred to their books as being progression fantasy.
I think it's interesting that you said Charles Soule's prose lacks an authorial voice. His Star Wars comics definitely do not have that problem, especially the Darth Vader ones.