Hey, Daniel New sub here, I wanted to ask if using the 'green' bg & 'green' channel thumbnail etc. Etc.. Is a pun on your name. I.e. Daniel "Green"e Cuz i get distracted rEal quick & the questions pop up like bullets being from a machine gun in my mind. Love your content btw (Keep em comin 💜💜)...
Is NOBODY else going to mention the fact that the book is backwards?! The spine is on the wrong side? or the cover is? What is happening here? Please, it’s killing me....
WHY IS THIS NOT NUMBER ONE COMMENT lol. It's annoying me so much. I even showed my husband and I'm like AM I CRAZY as I hold up a normal book :P That said, freaking this guy has me wanting to try this book even though I'm not the biggest Mark Lawrence fan! His reviews tend to be pretty good even when I don't agree with his amount of liking the book haha EDIT: i just got to the point where he kind of flips it and it's ALMOST the same on both sides! Also - I should clarify that he has me wanting to try some more stuff by this writer even though I wasn't a huge fan of Broken Empire (I thought the plot was really random and....deus ex machina at times even though the writing itself and the characters were good).
Most likely because Daniel has a pre-release version, notice how it says the release date "30.04.20" and "uncorrected proof copy" on it as well. The released version of this cover (not the thumbnail one) does not have that date and also has the protagonist on it.
I’m still sad you didn’t like Prince of Thorns, but its cool that you are a fan of Mark Lawrence. I love his writing style and philosophy he weaves into his stories. So many great quotes from him.
I liked the broken empire and the girl and the stars series haven’t read the holy sisters series yet but one thing I found with both the broken empire series and the girl and the stars was how good the start and finish were but I always got a bit lost right in the middle of the book like it just didn’t line up right for me or dragged a little two long but they are both good books.
Damn now I’m really curious about Mark Lawrence, he’s got to be good if Dan says such high things about him. I’ll definitely check it out! I loved reading the oppressive monotony of The Final Empire, so this sounds like my cup of tea exactly!
I agree. I'm around 60% in and it's waaay too much action. I was excited about learning about new places she's in and get to know the characters but you get to one place, you're there for 5 seconds and then *action* and it moves on because they're on the run or whatever and then it repeats itself again. Pretty frustrating. Especially bc I was so hyped for this one and wanted to know more about the world since I adored Book of the Ancestor.
I liked it and can’t wait until next year for the second book. I know it’s the same “world”, but it’s a bit unfair to compare it to the perfection that is Book of the Ancestor.
This has been on my nightstand for a while now, but thanks to a newborn reading is out the window right now. I have faith that ML will pull this one off. I have liked every trilogy he has written better than the previous so far, Book of the Ancestor will be hard to beat though.
Got my copy sitting on my shelf for when I finish Book of the Ancestor! It will definitely be interesting to read another story in this same setting. Great review Daniel.
Would absolutely love to see you sit down and chat with Mark. Not sure how much promotional stuff or interviews he does but would love an insight on his creative style and his views on his worlds.
I was eagerly awaiting your review for this, as I felt the same way you did about this book when I read it about a month ago. The book read very 'YA' to me because of the special snowflake protagonist and the love square. Yaz was quite unlikable as well, because of all the moralizing she does and how selfish she is. I do like the world but I don't know if Yaz can carry the trilogy.
Daniel- have you read Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft? Mark Lawrence calls it one of his favorite books of all time and I'd love to see a review from you! I just read it and loved it.
Balancing a review, explanations and tempered positivity. Really useful and valuable. Still planning to embark on reading this book but will rein in the expectation a little.
Thank you for introducing me to Mark Lawrence. I just started reading Red Sister and yeah the guy makes awesome introduction. I hope I enjoy the rest of his books.
Bought Red Sister recently and it's very high up on my TBR! I'm sure I'll get to The Girl and The Stars down the line too. He has such generic titles though!
Almost like he focused on his prose and his publishers were like, "cmon, we need a title for the book!" "..Girl and Stars!" "What about the series?" "....uh Book of Ancestor! now leave me 'lone!" 😁
Sir, I have great respect for you. I constantly watch your channel and learn a lot on writing. I have recently started to write a book and watch your channel for reviews, book recommendations. Also, thank you for saving me from reading Terry Goodkind.
I think you're spot on. I am a great fan of Mark Lawrence having read and enjoyed Princes of Thorns and Fools and the Book of the Ancestors serieses but I too was left with a massive hmmmmm! Hope book 2 is a little more Yazz, the Only Way is Up (80s pop song reference showing my age....)
All I've read of Mark Lawrence is the Broken Empire trilogy. Jorg is one of my favourite protagonists of all time, of any medium and any genre, but I had quite a few issues with that series as a whole (I recommend it to anyone looking for a very in-depth character study of a person who is essentially a villain). So can someone tell me, someone well-read in Mark Lawrence's work, if he's improved since that trilogy?
Each of his series is very different. He knows his main characters very well so each story feels very different even if they are in the same world. I probably preferred The Red Queen's War to The Broken Empire.
I preferred the red queens war trilogy as it was set in same world but with a likeable first person protagonist and nice themes of friendship with the same levels of ancient mystery
I really enjoyed your review and I think I’ll be picking it up once I’ve finished BOTA series. I will say though I had to watch this video on mute with auto-generated subtitles as the background music is really distracting and makes it difficult to hear you. I’m hard of hearing and really struggled with it. Sorry to be negative, love your channel!
Did you change the lighting for this video? If so, it helps a lot : ) You mentioned that viewers who leave the video before it is done hurts your analytics. Does that mean leaving during the end credits?
One issue I had with this book (among a few mentioned here) is... it didn't really seem to contribute all that much to the setting it's placed in. And considering how Book of the Ancestor story ends, I'm not sure if there is any need for further stories in this setting...
I think that the book is laying much of the groundwork for the rest of the series, so I have to say that I found it enjoyable to read, especially because I had just read the other three trilogies playing on that world. It just has so many little nods to aspects and figures established in them.
Hey Daniel I saw one of your previous videos where you said paperbacks are better than hardbacks. I disagree. I prefer 1 hardcover and one paperback for every book I own. My hardcovers last a long time and my paperbacks are great for travel while also owning my books and my ebooks are great for being on the go if I don't know weather I necessarily want to own a physical copy of the book or if it being.licensed to me is enough.
I have recently read The Girl and the Stars and I agree with you: too much action, too many characters, too little depth. The book is fine, but that's all. I found Yaz frustrating on her moralistic side and overall, the story has felt very convenient (even though we have that plot twist in the end). The Book of the Ancestor trilogy is one of my favorites and I really wanted to dive into this new book set in the same world. However, as I have read in some reviews, this work leans more towards YA (especially on the romantic side). That said, the story has potential. I hope that in the next books Mark will fix these little problems so that I feel more invested in the story and its characters.
Finally I've been waiting to hear ur opinion on this I loved Nona and Yaz is amazing I agree the start is a bit slow but I think it was a great novel RED QUEENS WAR!!!
Hey! What do you think about starting to read The girl and the stars without reading the Book of the Ancestor trilogy first or any of Lawrence's fantasy book? What do I miss? IS there any point?
I DNFed this recently. I went into it without reading Book of the Ancestors (it was advertised that you can read it like this) and I completely disagree. It felt like a lot was dropped on me, the magic came out of nowhere and I was neither knowledgeable nor interested in figuring it out on my own. Yaz was a special snowflake and the love square was comically unbelievable. And sadly the writing style gave me a headache, those descriptions just were not for me. I do agree that the worlbuilding itself is top notch, very atmospheric. I was very sad to have this experience and would advise anyone wanting to pick it up to read Red Sister first!
I liked the first book in the Broken Empire trilogy. I tried another series by him that had something like a spoiled and disowned prince or something. Didn't like it, but I plan on trying it again.
I know you didn't like Prince of Thorns, but the ending of that series might explain some stuff. Haven't read this one myself but Emperor of Thorns drops some answers.
I actually really liked the world and setting, but I might be in the minority when I say that I didn't really enjoy Nona as a character. I have only read the first book so far though, I can see that maybe she becomes more likeable to me, based on the last part of Red Sister, in subsequent books.
This is a book channel right...Anyone got any good dark fantasy/post apocalypse series? I'm reading Daniel Black series right now but it's a bit too much fan-fictiony for my liking, enjoying it but not really into it. Something maybe like Night Angel?
Spoiler Warning For Book of The Ancestor (though I will try to be as vague as I possibly can be) Daniel Greene, as always I found this review to be quite interesting. I have not read this book yet but I have recently completed my first read of 'Red Sister, Grey Sister, and Holy Sister'. I really loved Mark's prose, his world building, how his character work pays off, and his use of themes - but there were some aspects of his writing that I did not love as much. This may be a controversial opinion (or possibly not) but I found 'Red Sister' and the epilogue in 'Holy Sister' to be the weakest parts of the trilogy. Regarding 'Red Sister', I found it to be by far the hardest book in the trilogy to read; I believe I have many of the same likes and dislikes of it that you appear to be expressing of this book here. You mentioned that you felt like ‘The girl and the stars’ suffered as a standalone novel due to the size of its cast. In 'Red Sister', Mark introduced a lot of characters from Abbess Glass, Nona, Nona's friend group, the Nuns, the other Novices, the other kids from 'the cage', the host of characters from the city, the church officials etc. I found that there were some characters like Abbess Glass who had a very strong presence in the first part of the book and a weaker presence later in the book. I found Nona's group of friends to be in general well written. But I found one of those characters fixation on coins to be a bit of a give-away of a particular plot point later in the book. Moreover, in ‘Red Sister’, the characters outside of that group felt less solid to me as Mark was juggling such a large cast of characters. Yet, despite this, most characters got quite a few subtle moments which took up page-time. For example, one of my favourite scenes with Apple was when she administered the truth poison to Nona and then asked Nona what was the question that Nona most feared being asked? I just remember being captivated that when Nona responded in the way that she did that Apple frowned and asked Nona who she had crushes on instead of the question that Nona raised. Despite this being a small moment, I think it says a lot about both of their characters. My point is this, as a trilogy Mark's character work was phenomenal. But as a stand-alone novel I personally found some of the character work to be a bit confusing and hard to track at times in ‘Red Sister’ due to the sheer amount of groundwork that he was trying to do in a single novel. In regards to the magical system in ‘The Girl and the Stars’, having not read it yet my thoughts here may be completely off the mark, but your comments seemed to resonate with my desire to want more at the end of ‘Red Sister’. I found that each book in the original trilogy slowly introduced more elements to the magic system and the world at large. We were gradually introduced into these aspects of the world through the three books as Nona learnt to more fully appreciate the world she lived in. Could Mark be trying to do a similar thing here to try to keep up the mystery while slowly giving us answers so that we keep on wanting to know more? Similarly, I cannot speak to the plot convenience, the action, or the love square in his more recent work. I personally found his work on tension/stakes, the action, and relationships in the ‘Book of the Ancestor’ to be really strong. If they are lacking in this book hopefully he develops them in later entries to this series. But ‘Red Sister’ did leave me wondering where is this story going and will it pay off? (it did pay off) Anyway, having completed this ground work I wanted to ask a question of the fandom who have read more of his work than I have. A quick google search shows that most if not all of his published work is part of trilogies (The Red Queen War, Impossible times, Book of the Ancestor,). I get the impression that as a writer he is a meticulous planner. He seems to have a tendency to introduce a whole lot of characters and mystery in the first book of his trilogies; while using mystery to keep the reader engaged. In book 2 of his trilogies, he appears to further flesh out the world and his characters while giving some answers. Whilst, the third books in his trilogies appear to be dedicated to pay-off. I was wondering whether this somewhat formulaic perception of his writing style is applicable to his broader work? If so, it would seem to me that while he is great at character work in general that he is not necessarily great at writing first books in a trilogy because he is just trying to do so much work in such a limited amount of pages that aspects of his writing like characterisation take a hit. Thus, whilst ‘Red Sister’ was a great book, part of its potential greatness was sacrificed to allow books 2 and 3 to soar to greater heights. Could Mark possibly be doing the same thing here? And had just ended up writing a book that was not as strong as ‘Red sister’? If you compare a trilogy to an extended series like the Wheel of Time than it is clear that in a longer series authors have more space to gradually introduce their 'big cast', themes, the world etc so that the reader is not overwhelmed. This is not always possible in a trilogy due to space restraints. Having read the Wheel of Time, I cannot imagine it as a trilogy. But if it had the same story at that length I think the story quality would suffer greatly. I will be interested to see how Mark continues to develop as a writer and whether he experiments with dedicating more than three books in a series. I honestly believe that his world building, character work, themes etc are great but that the depth of his series could potentially benefit from 4, 5, or 6 books so that he can gradually introduce elements (as he does) without entire books needing to be primary dedicated to setup- while also allowing even more space for payoff. This has been a long post so I wanted to summarise my thoughts here. Firstly, I think that Mark Lawerence is a great author and I love many aspects of his writing style. However, I believe he is not necessarily as great at writing the first books in a given trilogy because it almost seems that his primary intention in those specific books is setup.Secondly, to those of you who have read his work more widely than I have (though, I will certainly be checking out his other works) I wanted to ask whether this interpretation of his style is somewhat plausible or just my ramblings? Thirdly, I will be really excited to see how his writing style continues to develop. Fourthly, I wanted to restate that obviously this entire post is subjective and it is not my intention to disrespect his phenomenal work or anybody else’s love of his series. If anybody has read this in its entirety thank you for taking the time to read it.
Red Queen's War, definitely. Jalan and Jorg cross paths a couple times in RQW and it's a very fun series. Also explains more things about the Broken Empire world
Really loving the simplicity of that cover, veeeeerrrryyyy sexy. I have the same problem with books that have amazing world-building but then don't explore the world at all?? Looking at you Shadowscent...
I still don't know if I liked the Ancestor trilogy. It was very much hyped and the first book was about a 3 star for me, the second a little better but the last one was still not a 5 star. I'm not sure why but probably I had some problems with the writing style and now I'm afraid to try this one.
Maybe the author is just intentionally trying something different for this character and this story? 🤷♀️🤷♀️😹💜 I'm definitely curious enough to put this author on my TBR list now, for sure, though!!!! ~Thank You!
Yeah this book is really good, but definitely not perfect in most areas... I felt pretty similar in my review, but this was my first Lawrence book so I had a different perspective for sure
This was actually my first introduction to Mark Lawrence and I agree that character was probably the weakest point of this book but I’m interested enough in the world to keep going.
Dude please stop putting more stuff on my TBR. I only recently got back to reading again, I am on Book 6 of WoT, I read Cosmere because of you, and now Mark Lawrence is added to my immense list, of dresden, malazan, first law, poppy wars, lightbringer, kingkiller, gentleman bastards and many more, I only have so m7ch time to read!!
I just saw Victoria Schwabs tweet that after she critiqued one of his books he encouraged his fans to after her calling all sorts of shitty names sooo I'm probably going to pass on his books moving forward.
Would you recommend his previous trilogies? I loved book of the ancestor and am currently liking this one well enough. I've heard his other books are different though
I read the first two books of book of the ancestor trilogy yet and I loved the first one it was just awesome. But frankly i was disappointed by the second one. There was nearly no character growth or character diversity in my eyes, it seemed liked every character was just another shade of Nona. Blonde Nona, tall Nona, small Nona, angry Nona... That frustrated me a lot. Nevertheless I will read the third part soon (it will be translated into German this month) and hope for the best 😅
Nicolas Cage makes a return in this video! Apropos to sad Nicolas Cage meme from last video on the anniversary edition of Eye of the World. Face....Off!
This is why I _very_ rarely start a series that isn't fully published. Re: you rating system; is there a way to quickly view the books you've given top marks (or any number) to? Perusing your reviews, it seems like you haven't been using the "_/10" since the beginning, so maybe it's not that organized, but I did wander what exactly your books of perfection were - if any.
I thought Red Sister was really, really lame. I wanted to like it, but by the end I thought it was a huge waste of my time. Just couldn't get into it at all.
I read all three of them because the pacing of the action was really good, but I couldn't keep the characters straight except Nona and that girl from the Ice World, and frankly I didn't care about most of them. Its like a 3/5 stars for me. Solid, not great.
There is another trilogy by Mark Lawrence called the impossible times and I have a strong feeling that it will somehow be connected as well. I have only read the first book though.
Sometimes advanced copies (which is what he is holding) have the title on the back and lots of blurbs/praise/etc on the front. ARCs are weird like that 🤷🏼♀️
You have such a good way of identifying (so to say) faults of a story, Daniel - do you ever do beta reading for people?? Because honestly I think you'd be brilliant at it.
I expected a lot more from this book to be honest. I feel like Daniel is being gentile because he is still somewhat in love with Nona ;). There is also a huge plothole in the end --> SPOILER below! There is a reveal in the end which breaks the world for me. We find out that the hunters are working for the priests not the city. I is a glaring plothole when you think a bit longer about it. Since the priests want to capture Yaz, but the hunters never did so. instead they guided her to the heart of the city. Doing the bidding of the city.. Also a few backwards ice wizards having terminator robots while Nona's civilized world with countless mages does not even have lightbulbs feels a bit world breaking.
The first 1000 people who click the link will get 2 free months of Skillshare Premium: skl.sh/danielgreene7
You know what other book has both girls and stars? Chronicles of Amber, probably.
Hey, Daniel
New sub here,
I wanted to ask if using the 'green' bg & 'green' channel thumbnail etc. Etc.. Is a pun on your name. I.e. Daniel "Green"e
Cuz i get distracted rEal quick & the questions pop up like bullets being from a machine gun in my mind.
Love your content btw
(Keep em comin 💜💜)...
'You should limit your characters' Laughs in Malazan
Lol
Is NOBODY else going to mention the fact that the book is backwards?! The spine is on the wrong side? or the cover is? What is happening here? Please, it’s killing me....
I didn't even notice that!🙀🙀😅🤣 buut, then again, I'm used to manga....ssooo.😹
I think the title/cover is the same on the front and back! I noticed that too and I felt like I was losing my mind
WHY IS THIS NOT NUMBER ONE COMMENT lol. It's annoying me so much. I even showed my husband and I'm like AM I CRAZY as I hold up a normal book :P That said, freaking this guy has me wanting to try this book even though I'm not the biggest Mark Lawrence fan! His reviews tend to be pretty good even when I don't agree with his amount of liking the book haha EDIT: i just got to the point where he kind of flips it and it's ALMOST the same on both sides! Also - I should clarify that he has me wanting to try some more stuff by this writer even though I wasn't a huge fan of Broken Empire (I thought the plot was really random and....deus ex machina at times even though the writing itself and the characters were good).
Most likely because Daniel has a pre-release version, notice how it says the release date "30.04.20" and "uncorrected proof copy" on it as well. The released version of this cover (not the thumbnail one) does not have that date and also has the protagonist on it.
I really like Mark Lawrence, but I don't think he has ever topped 'The Broken Empire'. That story stuck in my head for years.
Liking the shirt
Reading Holy Sister right now, MUAH! Chef's kiss.
i have a doubt. is the cover right?
like cover in back?
Keep it going man, you're one of the few things that's kept me going in this time and during the lockdown
Dainel: reviewing a book professionally
Me: (Sweating profoundly) Why is the WOT books are not in order
Hahaha. I notice those WOT books too. Eye of The World is in the middle.
*profusely
@@sidaz22 *profoundly
I’m still sad you didn’t like Prince of Thorns, but its cool that you are a fan of Mark Lawrence. I love his writing style and philosophy he weaves into his stories. So many great quotes from him.
Exactly!
The Broken Empire is the best... It's a scientific fact
@@slowlyred2082 😂😂
Broken Empire has finally clicked for me just took me not liking Malazan I guess lol
@@slowlyred2082 I actually think it took reading Hobb for me to like it. I think it had to do with it being in first person to be completely honest.
I liked the broken empire and the girl and the stars series haven’t read the holy sisters series yet but one thing I found with both the broken empire series and the girl and the stars was how good the start and finish were but I always got a bit lost right in the middle of the book like it just didn’t line up right for me or dragged a little two long but they are both good books.
Damn now I’m really curious about Mark Lawrence, he’s got to be good if Dan says such high things about him. I’ll definitely check it out!
I loved reading the oppressive monotony of The Final Empire, so this sounds like my cup of tea exactly!
You said the magic word: "Stakes!". We don't always need them. We can enjoy the journey without loss-in-the-name-of-stakes.
The last line in this book had me go EXCUSE ME?!?!?! WHAAAAAT
There's so many books in "The Girl" saga that I don't even know where to start anymore.
I agree. I'm around 60% in and it's waaay too much action. I was excited about learning about new places she's in and get to know the characters but you get to one place, you're there for 5 seconds and then *action* and it moves on because they're on the run or whatever and then it repeats itself again. Pretty frustrating. Especially bc I was so hyped for this one and wanted to know more about the world since I adored Book of the Ancestor.
I liked it and can’t wait until next year for the second book. I know it’s the same “world”, but it’s a bit unfair to compare it to the perfection that is Book of the Ancestor.
This has been on my nightstand for a while now, but thanks to a newborn reading is out the window right now. I have faith that ML will pull this one off. I have liked every trilogy he has written better than the previous so far, Book of the Ancestor will be hard to beat though.
Just wanted to comment and kindly request that you read (and review) Hyperion. Hope other people can upvote if they agree.
Great book.
"Come on, give me more!" Is probably exactly what Lawrence was striving for. Heh.
Got my copy sitting on my shelf for when I finish Book of the Ancestor! It will definitely be interesting to read another story in this same setting. Great review Daniel.
Would absolutely love to see you sit down and chat with Mark. Not sure how much promotional stuff or interviews he does but would love an insight on his creative style and his views on his worlds.
I was eagerly awaiting your review for this, as I felt the same way you did about this book when I read it about a month ago. The book read very 'YA' to me because of the special snowflake protagonist and the love square. Yaz was quite unlikable as well, because of all the moralizing she does and how selfish she is. I do like the world but I don't know if Yaz can carry the trilogy.
The a protagonist being selfish, tbh, seems like the kind of thing that would potentially change through development in future books.
Daniel- have you read Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft? Mark Lawrence calls it one of his favorite books of all time and I'd love to see a review from you! I just read it and loved it.
Keep up the great work Daniel, honestly been binging all your videos again instead of starting The Wheel of Time 🤣😅
Balancing a review, explanations and tempered positivity. Really useful and valuable. Still planning to embark on reading this book but will rein in the expectation a little.
just finished Book of the Ancestor series - great timing to hear this review - nicely done
The t-shirt is ❤️❤️
What are the rules of Stephen King?
Thank you for introducing me to Mark Lawrence. I just started reading Red Sister and yeah the guy makes awesome introduction. I hope I enjoy the rest of his books.
Gotta say, I absolutely love your new office and background!
I have a galley of this book and have been meaning to read it, so I'll definitely keep your thoughts in mind as I pick it up. Great review.
Thank you for the free skill share months! I'll see if there are some good photoshop tutorials on there to help me improve my cover designs.
Bought Red Sister recently and it's very high up on my TBR! I'm sure I'll get to The Girl and The Stars down the line too.
He has such generic titles though!
Red Sister was actually originally called The Narrow Summer.
Almost like he focused on his prose and his publishers were like, "cmon, we need a title for the book!" "..Girl and Stars!" "What about the series?" "....uh Book of Ancestor! now leave me 'lone!" 😁
Sir, I have great respect for you. I constantly watch your channel and learn a lot on writing. I have recently started to write a book and watch your channel for reviews, book recommendations. Also, thank you for saving me from reading Terry Goodkind.
Amazing review man, as always... Also love this author that I discovered thank to your channel
I think you're spot on. I am a great fan of Mark Lawrence having read and enjoyed Princes of Thorns and Fools and the Book of the Ancestors serieses but I too was left with a massive hmmmmm! Hope book 2 is a little more Yazz, the Only Way is Up (80s pop song reference showing my age....)
All I've read of Mark Lawrence is the Broken Empire trilogy. Jorg is one of my favourite protagonists of all time, of any medium and any genre, but I had quite a few issues with that series as a whole (I recommend it to anyone looking for a very in-depth character study of a person who is essentially a villain). So can someone tell me, someone well-read in Mark Lawrence's work, if he's improved since that trilogy?
It depends on what you view as better..
The Broken Empire is his darkest series.
Each of his series is very different. He knows his main characters very well so each story feels very different even if they are in the same world. I probably preferred The Red Queen's War to The Broken Empire.
@@TheAnnimusprime Oh, interesting. Thank you for the response. And, just like that, the rest of his stuff is on my tbr.
I preferred the red queens war trilogy as it was set in same world but with a likeable first person protagonist and nice themes of friendship with the same levels of ancient mystery
@@marshalllozon8042 well, likable to a point. He's a bit of a dick... 😂
I really enjoyed your review and I think I’ll be picking it up once I’ve finished BOTA series. I will say though I had to watch this video on mute with auto-generated subtitles as the background music is really distracting and makes it difficult to hear you. I’m hard of hearing and really struggled with it. Sorry to be negative, love your channel!
Did you change the lighting for this video? If so, it helps a lot : ) You mentioned that viewers who leave the video before it is done hurts your analytics. Does that mean leaving during the end credits?
Those fucking sound effects man. Keeps making me giggle.
One issue I had with this book (among a few mentioned here) is... it didn't really seem to contribute all that much to the setting it's placed in. And considering how Book of the Ancestor story ends, I'm not sure if there is any need for further stories in this setting...
0:01 book slap ftw ;)
I think that the book is laying much of the groundwork for the rest of the series, so I have to say that I found it enjoyable to read, especially because I had just read the other three trilogies playing on that world. It just has so many little nods to aspects and figures established in them.
Saw the thumbnail and was like "oooh this is gonna be good"
Hey Daniel I saw one of your previous videos where you said paperbacks are better than hardbacks. I disagree. I prefer 1 hardcover and one paperback for every book I own. My hardcovers last a long time and my paperbacks are great for travel while also owning my books and my ebooks are great for being on the go if I don't know weather I necessarily want to own a physical copy of the book or if it being.licensed to me is enough.
I have recently read The Girl and the Stars and I agree with you: too much action, too many characters, too little depth. The book is fine, but that's all. I found Yaz frustrating on her moralistic side and overall, the story has felt very convenient (even though we have that plot twist in the end). The Book of the Ancestor trilogy is one of my favorites and I really wanted to dive into this new book set in the same world. However, as I have read in some reviews, this work leans more towards YA (especially on the romantic side). That said, the story has potential. I hope that in the next books Mark will fix these little problems so that I feel more invested in the story and its characters.
Finally I've been waiting to hear ur opinion on this I loved Nona and Yaz is amazing I agree the start is a bit slow but I think it was a great novel RED QUEENS WAR!!!
Gotta say, I love the new setup man!
Hey! What do you think about starting to read The girl and the stars without reading the Book of the Ancestor trilogy first or any of Lawrence's fantasy book? What do I miss? IS there any point?
I DNFed this recently. I went into it without reading Book of the Ancestors (it was advertised that you can read it like this) and I completely disagree. It felt like a lot was dropped on me, the magic came out of nowhere and I was neither knowledgeable nor interested in figuring it out on my own. Yaz was a special snowflake and the love square was comically unbelievable. And sadly the writing style gave me a headache, those descriptions just were not for me. I do agree that the worlbuilding itself is top notch, very atmospheric. I was very sad to have this experience and would advise anyone wanting to pick it up to read Red Sister first!
Do you have any plans on starting King of Thorns? (trust me, Jorg grows A LOT as a person... but he´s still a terrible though 😁😁)
I liked the first book in the Broken Empire trilogy. I tried another series by him that had something like a spoiled and disowned prince or something. Didn't like it, but I plan on trying it again.
I much preferred Broken Empire to Red Queen's War. I didn't like Jalan much.
The second book in broken empire (king of thorns) is AMAZING.
If you've read Prince then PLEASE READ the next book.
The mistborn tattoo is amazing!
Dude I was just reminded about this just last night and tried to find it on your channel lol.
I know you didn't like Prince of Thorns, but the ending of that series might explain some stuff. Haven't read this one myself but Emperor of Thorns drops some answers.
2:12 you went a little M. Night Shyamalan on the pronunciation of that among there. 🤣😂😂
U always do honest reviews!! Wish u all the best and success in life!! Keep safe
I actually really liked the world and setting, but I might be in the minority when I say that I didn't really enjoy Nona as a character. I have only read the first book so far though, I can see that maybe she becomes more likeable to me, based on the last part of Red Sister, in subsequent books.
This is a book channel right...Anyone got any good dark fantasy/post apocalypse series? I'm reading Daniel Black series right now but it's a bit too much fan-fictiony for my liking, enjoying it but not really into it.
Something maybe like Night Angel?
Mr Wheel of Time is saying there are too many characters?
Mmmm “rock salad foundation” tasty...
Spoiler Warning For Book of The Ancestor (though I will try to be as vague as I possibly can be)
Daniel Greene, as always I found this review to be quite interesting. I have not read this book yet but I have recently completed my first read of 'Red Sister, Grey Sister, and Holy Sister'. I really loved Mark's prose, his world building, how his character work pays off, and his use of themes -
but there were some aspects of his writing that I did not love as much. This may be a controversial opinion (or possibly not) but I found 'Red Sister' and the epilogue in 'Holy Sister' to be the weakest parts of the trilogy. Regarding 'Red Sister', I found it to be by far the hardest book in the trilogy to read; I believe I have many of the same likes and dislikes of it that you appear to be expressing of this book here.
You mentioned that you felt like ‘The girl and the stars’ suffered as a standalone novel due to the size of its cast. In 'Red Sister', Mark introduced a lot of characters from Abbess Glass, Nona, Nona's friend group, the Nuns, the other Novices, the other kids from 'the cage', the host of characters from the city, the church officials etc. I found that there were some characters like Abbess Glass who had a very strong presence in the first part of the book and a weaker presence later in the book. I found Nona's group of friends to be in general well written. But I found one of those characters fixation on coins to be a bit of a give-away of a particular plot point later in the book. Moreover, in ‘Red Sister’, the characters outside of that group felt less solid to me as Mark was juggling such a large cast of characters. Yet, despite this, most characters got quite a few subtle moments which took up page-time. For example, one of my favourite scenes with Apple was when she administered the truth poison to Nona and then asked Nona what was the question that Nona most feared being asked? I just remember being captivated that when Nona responded in the way that she did that Apple frowned and asked Nona who she had crushes on instead of the question that Nona raised. Despite this being a small moment, I think it says a lot about both of their characters. My point is this, as a trilogy Mark's character work was phenomenal. But as a stand-alone novel I personally found some of the character work to be a bit confusing and hard to track at times in ‘Red Sister’ due to the sheer amount of groundwork that he was trying to do in a single novel.
In regards to the magical system in ‘The Girl and the Stars’, having not read it yet my thoughts here may be completely off the mark, but your comments seemed to resonate with my desire to want more at the end of ‘Red Sister’. I found that each book in the original trilogy slowly introduced more elements to the magic system and the world at large. We were gradually introduced into these aspects of the world through the three books as Nona learnt to more fully appreciate the world she lived in. Could Mark be trying to do a similar thing here to try to keep up the mystery while slowly giving us answers so that we keep on wanting to know more? Similarly, I cannot speak to the plot convenience, the action, or the love square in his more recent work. I personally found his work on tension/stakes, the action, and relationships in the ‘Book of the Ancestor’ to be really strong. If they are lacking in this book hopefully he develops them in later entries to this series. But ‘Red Sister’ did leave me wondering where is this story going and will it pay off? (it did pay off)
Anyway, having completed this ground work I wanted to ask a question of the fandom who have read more of his work than I have. A quick google search shows that most if not all of his published work is part of trilogies (The Red Queen War, Impossible times, Book of the Ancestor,). I get the impression that as a writer he is a meticulous planner. He seems to have a tendency to introduce a whole lot of characters and mystery in the first book of his trilogies; while using mystery to keep the reader engaged. In book 2 of his trilogies, he appears to further flesh out the world and his characters while giving some answers. Whilst, the third books in his trilogies appear to be dedicated to pay-off. I was wondering whether this somewhat formulaic perception of his writing style is applicable to his broader work? If so, it would seem to me that while he is great at character work in general that he is not necessarily great at writing first books in a trilogy because he is just trying to do so much work in such a limited amount of pages that aspects of his writing like characterisation take a hit. Thus, whilst ‘Red Sister’ was a great book, part of its potential greatness was sacrificed to allow books 2 and 3 to soar to greater heights. Could Mark possibly be doing the same thing here? And had just ended up writing a book that was not as strong as ‘Red sister’?
If you compare a trilogy to an extended series like the Wheel of Time than it is clear that in a longer series authors have more space to gradually introduce their 'big cast', themes, the world etc so that the reader is not overwhelmed. This is not always possible in a trilogy due to space restraints. Having read the Wheel of Time, I cannot imagine it as a trilogy. But if it had the same story at that length I think the story quality would suffer greatly. I will be interested to see how Mark continues to develop as a writer and whether he experiments with dedicating more than three books in a series. I honestly believe that his world building, character work, themes etc are great but that the depth of his series could potentially benefit from 4, 5, or 6 books so that he can gradually introduce elements (as he does) without entire books needing to be primary dedicated to setup- while also allowing even more space for payoff.
This has been a long post so I wanted to summarise my thoughts here. Firstly, I think that Mark Lawerence is a great author and I love many aspects of his writing style. However, I believe he is not necessarily as great at writing the first books in a given trilogy because it almost seems that his primary intention in those specific books is setup.Secondly, to those of you who have read his work more widely than I have (though, I will certainly be checking out his other works) I wanted to ask whether this interpretation of his style is somewhat plausible or just my ramblings? Thirdly, I will be really excited to see how his writing style continues to develop. Fourthly, I wanted to restate that obviously this entire post is subjective and it is not my intention to disrespect his phenomenal work or anybody else’s love of his series. If anybody has read this in its entirety thank you for taking the time to read it.
Hmm so Dan,after someone finishes with The Broken Empire trilogy,do they go with Red Queens war or book of the ancestor?👀
Red Queen's War, definitely. Jalan and Jorg cross paths a couple times in RQW and it's a very fun series. Also explains more things about the Broken Empire world
Really loving the simplicity of that cover, veeeeerrrryyyy sexy. I have the same problem with books that have amazing world-building but then don't explore the world at all?? Looking at you Shadowscent...
I still don't know if I liked the Ancestor trilogy. It was very much hyped and the first book was about a 3 star for me, the second a little better but the last one was still not a 5 star. I'm not sure why but probably I had some problems with the writing style and now I'm afraid to try this one.
Maybe the author is just intentionally trying something different for this character and this story? 🤷♀️🤷♀️😹💜
I'm definitely curious enough to put this author on my TBR list now, for sure, though!!!! ~Thank You!
Yeah this book is really good, but definitely not perfect in most areas... I felt pretty similar in my review, but this was my first Lawrence book so I had a different perspective for sure
This was actually my first introduction to Mark Lawrence and I agree that character was probably the weakest point of this book but I’m interested enough in the world to keep going.
Dude please stop putting more stuff on my TBR. I only recently got back to reading again, I am on Book 6 of WoT, I read Cosmere because of you, and now Mark Lawrence is added to my immense list, of dresden, malazan, first law, poppy wars, lightbringer, kingkiller, gentleman bastards and many more, I only have so m7ch time to read!!
Awesome review but wierd lighting lol
Wow I'm here at 1 view lol, congrats on the move!
Hmmm, did you flip the camera vertically? the way you're holding the book gives it away :P
Hi Daniel! Can you do a guide to read Mark Lawrence?
I am confusion- is the title really on the back?😂😂😳
probably mirrored the camera for some reason.
TheRaccoonGhost I was thinking the same thing but the Stephen King tops letters are spelt the right way
It's an arc I think? Arc's are weird sometimes.
Has Lawrence stepped into writing manga? :P
I just saw Victoria Schwabs tweet that after she critiqued one of his books he encouraged his fans to after her calling all sorts of shitty names sooo I'm probably going to pass on his books moving forward.
Would you recommend his previous trilogies? I loved book of the ancestor and am currently liking this one well enough. I've heard his other books are different though
I’ve never read any of these books but makes me think of you talk about game of thrones
Lawrence is fast becoming a favorite. Ancestor trilogy was great, but the last book felt rushed. Still, Mark is a beast of a writer.
I read the first two books of book of the ancestor trilogy yet and I loved the first one it was just awesome. But frankly i was disappointed by the second one. There was nearly no character growth or character diversity in my eyes, it seemed liked every character was just another shade of Nona. Blonde Nona, tall Nona, small Nona, angry Nona... That frustrated me a lot.
Nevertheless I will read the third part soon (it will be translated into German this month) and hope for the best 😅
Nicolas Cage makes a return in this video! Apropos to sad Nicolas Cage meme from last video on the anniversary edition of Eye of the World. Face....Off!
Notif. Squad where are you at lmao. 😀 That shirt tho
Awzum rev! 😎🤘
Hey dan can you do a video about good horror books? My wife loves horror and I never have any good recommendations for her!
This is why I _very_ rarely start a series that isn't fully published.
Re: you rating system; is there a way to quickly view the books you've given top marks (or any number) to? Perusing your reviews, it seems like you haven't been using the "_/10" since the beginning, so maybe it's not that organized, but I did wander what exactly your books of perfection were - if any.
Aot season 2 review coming soon?
I thought Red Sister was really, really lame. I wanted to like it, but by the end I thought it was a huge waste of my time. Just couldn't get into it at all.
I read all three of them because the pacing of the action was really good, but I couldn't keep the characters straight except Nona and that girl from the Ice World, and frankly I didn't care about most of them. Its like a 3/5 stars for me. Solid, not great.
Just reading this... Has anyone else noticed that this book and the book of ancestor trilogy take place in the same universe as the broken empire?!??
Yes! I think I actually screamed when I found out in Holy Sister 😅
There is another trilogy by Mark Lawrence called the impossible times and I have a strong feeling that it will somehow be connected as well. I have only read the first book though.
Why is the title of the book on the back side of the cover like manga?
Do I need to read the other books in this world before this? I got a copy of this but have never read any of his books before.
Bro you need a skull in the book case. Also love the shirt
Do you plan to finish/review the other books in his Red Queen series? I recently finished it and would love to hear your thoughts
Is Daniel holding the book wrong or am I going mad because the book look reversed to me
Sometimes advanced copies (which is what he is holding) have the title on the back and lots of blurbs/praise/etc on the front. ARCs are weird like that 🤷🏼♀️
Oh glad it wasn't just me. I was like - is this a manga?
Same!!
Daniel: ....shall we.
Me: i am going to pretend he said my name.
I love the shirt.
Make the Empire Broken Again
You have such a good way of identifying (so to say) faults of a story, Daniel - do you ever do beta reading for people?? Because honestly I think you'd be brilliant at it.
Do you have Mark lined up for an interview yet? That might let you secure yourself that confidence of what's to come you're looking for...
Any plans on reviewing the rest of the First Law standalones?
I expected a lot more from this book to be honest. I feel like Daniel is being gentile because he is still somewhat in love with Nona ;). There is also a huge plothole in the end --> SPOILER below!
There is a reveal in the end which breaks the world for me. We find out that the hunters are working for the priests not the city. I is a glaring plothole when you think a bit longer about it. Since the priests want to capture Yaz, but the hunters never did so. instead they guided her to the heart of the city. Doing the bidding of the city.. Also a few backwards ice wizards having terminator robots while Nona's civilized world with countless mages does not even have lightbulbs feels a bit world breaking.
This will all make sense upon reading the second book.
I want that T-Shirt
Haven't read book of the ancestor yet, is it the same world as mark's previous trilogies?
YOUR SHIRT = FACTS