 Yeah I tricked you. Here's everybody else. It is over here. Can we just all be together? Hey guys it's Leigh-Anne and I'm here today to talk about my favorite trilogies. My rule for myself with this is that the trilogy both has to be finished and I have to have finished it. Necessarily there are things that are not on this list because they are not completed trilogies by the author. I have not completed reading them or needless to say some of my favorite books are not trilogies. I have a list of 10 and I did actually rank them this time so instead of my usual there are no particular order they are in a particular order. It was really tough to rank them so some of the middle of this ranking is uh like could be you know the order could be shifted. I'm not 100 on kind of the middle portion but the top and the bottom the bottom of my top 10 are pretty set. So we're gonna start with 10th the least best. Number 10 on my list is The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Klick. Don't click away. I have other series on this list. I unironically, unapologetically love The Infernal Devices. Is Cassandra's Claire writing style kind of ridiculous? Yeah that is. Is this book series kind of ridiculous? Yes it is. Is it the best thing that I've ever read? No it's not. That's why it's counting the list but credit where it's due I've rarely read anything more compelling. My feelings were very feeling-y. I bawled my eyes out when I was reading in particular the third one. To this day I would die for Demcar Stairs and to this day I have never read another love triangle that is really a true triangle like this that I found compelling and well written and believable. And a true triangle in the sense of all three of these people love each other. It's not a girl choosing between one bad boy and another slightly different bad boy. It's not a girl choosing between the bad boy and the friend that was always there for her. No these two boys love each other. These two boys love her and she loves these two boys. It's a lot of selfless love. What they want for each other is happiness so of course the one wants the other to have the girl and be with her because he loves his friend and he loves this girl and he wants them to be happy and the other feels the exact same way and she loves them both and loves that they love each other and doesn't want to come between them. So there's a lot of pain. So much pain. Mainly I kept thinking why can't all of y'all just be a threple? Why can't y'all just be together? All three of you because y'all love each other so much. No one has to lose. Just get a big house and live together. But no. Set in a Victorian era so we didn't do that. So much pain and I mean I like Will too. I don't dislike him but Gem, Gem, Gem, Gem. I mean I was rooting for Tem. I was mainly rooting for all three of them and I was like can we just all be together but no we can't because why I don't know. But if we can't all three be together which is my favorite option. But if that's not an option which apparently it's not then I'm rooting for Gem. So should you read it? I mean if you like pain I do think the characters are compellingly written. The magic stuff, the political, political stuff, like the plot stuff is it's it's ight. It's not the best kind of some of it doesn't really make a lot of sense. You know random MacGuffins and silly magic rules and arbitrary things like it's it's not great but the emotional journeys of these three characters wrecked me. Wow that's my number 10 on the list. Number nine on my list is The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Yeah you heard me that's correct. It is allowed to be on my list because the majority of that trilogy I enjoyed the heck out of and thought was tip top quality. I really really enjoyed The Final Empire. I gave The Well of Ascension five full-hearted. Full-hearted is that a phrase? Full-hearted? Why can't you say full-hearted? It means the same thing. Stars. I didn't love the way that it ended which is why my notorious now taken down video was made because as always as I've said many times I post so many rant reviews because I like to like what I read and I expect to love everything that I read and I get very upset and angry when I don't love what I read hence the ranting because it's not an emotional reaction of immense disappointment. I can't be disappointed by something if I didn't expect great things. It's because I expect great things that I am so disappointed and therefore angry. So because I really really liked Final Empire and really really liked Well of Ascension I felt quite let down by the end of the trilogy but nevertheless for the majority of the runtime I really really enjoyed it and I still think a lot of its strengths are there. They're not entirely ruined some of it a little bit. It's not like all that great work it's not like all of the things that I did think were original and compelling unique and thought-provoking are just gone because of how it ended because of the answer to some of the questions posed by the beginning and just a middle of the trilogy. Would I have preferred it to end differently? Would I have preferred the message to be a bit different? Yes, hence that video but I did really really like that trilogy. I just preferred to ignore how it ended. The second book in particular, Chef's Kiss. That was incredibly compelling and unique and immersive and I'm very proud of myself for guessing the twist. Number eight on my list is The Winner's Trilogy by Mary Rutkowski. Part of the reason this is on here, a large part of the reason why this is on here is that I have seldom read anything that was as just compulsively readable. Every time I picked up one of the books in that trilogy I just could not put it down. The unputdownableness of those books I don't know why or what it is or how it is or anything but something about Mary Rutkowski's writing style is unputdownable and it's not because like every page ends with a cliffhanger or anything. I mean there is some of that. I just I'm just gobbling it up like I'm gulping it down. I can't read it fast enough so credit where it's due. That's impressive. I mean I really hate the covers both versions the original hard covers on the paperbacks because I think they do an immense disservice to the impression they give people of what this trilogy is like. The covers make it look like I don't even know. They make it look like it's like The Bachelorette or Throne of Glass. It is like neither. This is serious with a lot of political intrigue, quite a bit of war particular by the end of it. Very low magic. There's a really clever heroine who is not some badass assassin going around killing people. She's also not a flighty flirty girl wearing ball gowns every goddamn day. She's an intelligent and savvy political thinker. She's not a Mary Sue. She's not amazing at everything. Gee there is something she's good at. It's a sort of enemies to lovers but it's not a tropically shea one. These are two people coming from very different political social backgrounds and so that makes this awkward. It creates real problems because of where they've come from and what their priorities are and how they would ordinarily be in opposition to each other. But because they respect each other as humans and they respect each other in terms of intellect, personality, and even morality, they find common ground but nevertheless because of where they've come from this is really very tricky and creates a lot of misunderstanding, miscommunication, and impossibility between them. Which is a political impossibility. So there's a lot of political maneuvering and political navigating on both their parts. And they're really complex layered individuals with compelling stories and you really root for them, at least I did. And I think that again the readability of it, I mean I was just chewing my way through it and I just had to keep going. I thought they were really really well done and I really feel like those covers need to go. Number seven on my list is The Winter Night Trilogy by Catherine Arden. This I just finished. While I did find the ending to be less than completely satisfying, I do think it's an immense achievement and a really great trilogy. The work that she has done to research and to include really... I mean I'm not an expert on this but as far as I can tell and then my impression of it is it is fairly authentically Russian. Transliterated Russian words, Russian names, Russian history, Russian politics, Russian culture, Russian food, Russian vibes to the max. But it's not just you know a grand old mishmash of Russian-ish stuff. It's a really compelling story with an amazing main character. I love Vasya so much. Vasya is an amazing main character. She's not typical in any way. She's not the most beautiful maiden in all the land. She's not like a stabby assassin. She's not wildly flirtatious. She's not super sassy and sarcastic. She's just strong and independent and knows her own mind. She is flawed. She makes mistakes. She pays for those mistakes. Her strong will can turn into stubbornness. She's not. By no means a perfect character but she is a confident and compelling and independent and fantastic character. And like a lot of the strengths of this trilogy is just how amazing Vasya is as a character. And then I mean all the Russian folkloric elements are just so lush and so wonderful to be immersed in. There's a lot of other characters in it as well, not just Vasya. Her family and the magical creatures around her are also heartwarming and endearing and interesting to read about. The love story element of it is not my favorite. Even that is handled in a way that like I'll allow it. I think it's done as good as I guess it could be done in this situation. I would just prefer it to not really be a thing but if it's gonna be a thing that's as good as I could really hope for it to be. And not yeah it's just it's lush and evocative and beautiful and it's fantastic. So good. Number six on my list is The Far Serial Trilogy by Robin Hobb which also I quite recently finished. And Robin Hobb where you've been on my life girl. You've been writing books but why wasn't I reading them? Robin Hobb's storytelling is also incredibly compelling, immersive. She writes characters in a way that has your whole heart. I think I've said a lot that a lot of characters have my whole heart. My heart belongs to so many. But as I've said also now a few videos and I've talked with a few people about this that like there is a sort of grim dark quality to the stories and the worlds that she's written. And yet because it's told from the perspective and through the lens of a really naive and idealistic character then the books themselves could never really be shallowed in grim dark because their tone is not grim dark. But the occurrence is what goes down what people are up to around Dear Sweet Fits is pretty freaking grim dark on par with anything you'd read in an Abercrombie book. It's just that there's this sort of uplifting quality to having the story told from the perspective of Fits that makes it not grim dark. But it is layered and complex and it is thought provoking. The characters are three dimensional and the world feels truly lived in and lush and so it's so good. I'm quite staggered and I mean everyone has been praising Robin Hobb so I expect you good things but I wasn't ready for how good her writing is and I am so excited to read more from Robin Hobb but the parts of your trilogy which I have completed most excellent. Five on my list is the Conqueror Saga by Kirsten White. This I haven't talked about in a minute. This is a reimagining retelling alternate history about Vlad the Impaler. If Vlad the Impaler had been a girl Lada Dragulia and Lada has a lot in common with Vassia honestly. If you like Vassia from the Winter Night trilogy then I recommend the Conqueror Saga because Lada is just definitely got Vassia vibes. This is also just a staggering achievement in terms of again this research that was done into the politics and history surrounding the life of Vlad the Impaler. It is a really sweeping epic story and it's not just told from Lada's perspective, it is also told from the perspective of her brother Radu. There is a queer romance in it. The world I mean I hesitate to say I hesitate to say world because this is an alternate history so it's not a fantasy world invented by Kirsten White but the setting she places you in her writing is very lush and evocative. You really feel like you're placed in Wallachia and in Constantinople and you like a lot of it is it is just so viscerally written. All the feelings are at the surface and it's it's passionately written and there is violence and there is heartbreak. There is betrayal. Cities are falling and our armies are sweeping across the land. People are being impaled but she's written a character in Lada that is far from perfect. It's definitely not a cleaned up version of Vlad the Impaler. Lada does some truly reprehensible things but this added element of a woman in a man's world kind of not justifying a lot of the barbaric things that Lada does but it gives it a new flavor because there's this added element of what a woman has to do in order to make it in a man's world that she cannot choose the benevolent path because that is regarded as weakness in a woman where a man would be seen as being kind a woman would be seen as being weak and so that does change things in terms of like if Vlad the Impaler had been a woman it would kind of change the why of why these things how this is going down why those choices would be made. So that does affect it and in a way that is compelling and thought provoking and it is well done it is so well done and frankly the end of the conquer saga the third book is one of the best endings to a trilogy that I've read. I frequently said that the second books of trilogies are often my favorite but in this instance Kirsten White stuck the landing. The end of the conquer saga is a perfect ending. That trilogy is just so so fucking good. Number four on my list is the daughter smoke and bone trilogy by Laini Taylor. It always astounds me that there isn't a name for this trilogy. I wish it had a name I don't know what I'd call it the chimera trilogy that's what I'd call it. Um Laini Taylor's writing is just wow you want beautiful prose Laini Taylor's your gal daughter smoke and bone in particular the first book I have rarely read something that is just such a immersive mind-body experience. When I read daughter smoke and bone I felt like I ahead like lived a thing coming out of that book felt like I was like coming up for air. It is such an intense experience the way her writing puts you not just in the headspace of a character but in the feelings of that character where like you are feeling the feelings and that's even more staggering because the things going on you couldn't possibly relate to. They are the most whimsical magical bizarre otherworldly things honestly if anyone adapted this it would probably look stupid as hell because it would be really difficult to make this amount of magicalness not look stupid the most extra and magical and yet the feelings in it are so raw and so human and so deeply felt and so incredibly viscerally described to you the reader that you can't help but feel like gut punched by them and it's all but it's also so beautiful you just like can't look away. It just grips you and then squeezes your heart. It is fantastic and the back of the international edition there's a blurbed quote from Patrick Rothfuss that just says I wish I had written this book from Patrick Rothfuss. I don't think you can get really a much higher accolade than that and a second that sir that book is an achievement and the trilogy is really good. I think the third book in the trilogy is the weakest which is often what I think but it's still the trilogy as a whole is fantastic and the second book is is really really really good the first book is probably my favorite but it is an excellent trilogy and I highly recommend. Number three on my list is The Ravensmaric Trilogy by Ed McDonald. This series is so underhyped and underrated I never see anybody talking about it like ever at all breaks my heart. I've talked about it a few times because I will keep talking about it well mainly I just talk about things I love but also in particular that because like freaking reading guys what are you doing? The Ravensmaric trilogy is is grimdark as all hell. If you don't like grimdark or you're on the fence about grimdark or you only like to dip your toes in the water of grimdark a bit maybe don't read Ravensmaric trilogy. It's pretty grim as grim as grim gets really but I think it is excellent and it has an element that a lot of fantasy doesn't have and that is a really true political conspiracy not espionage but yeah conspiracy kind of plot that is reminiscent to me of like a genre carat kind of plot. Blending grimdark with this sort of political intrigue is just it's so compelling it's so great. You have your rough main character who works for this godlike entity Crowfoot who is one of the nameless ones. He's got a raven tattooed on him. Whenever Crowfoot has instructions for Raihull Gal Harrow an actual raven bloodily explodes out of his tattoo to squawk instructions at him. Day to day Raihull Gal Harrow's job is faring I say faring but guiding people across this like nuclear fallout vibes zone called the misery which is this like death magic zone that was left over from like a sort of godlike war that occurred where it's very much that like nuclear vibes where like we pulled out all the stops and land suffered for it and now the reason there isn't war anymore is because there's mutually assured destruction because there is an engine that is like this basically doomsday device that's keeping the other side at bay but you still have this nuclear fallout zone that people have to get across and there are creatures that are warped by the toxic magic that is like seeped into the land there so crossing it is dangerous for your health so Raihull is like feeling the wear and tear of that he has a background that is obscure at first so there's obviously more to him and how he came to both work for Crowfoot and also be working as this guide there's more to him and his story and how he ended up here but in his job faring people and working for Crowfoot he comes to realize or is made aware of the fact that something is up with the government things are not as they should be people are up to things or not up to things or basically something's up so he because no one else will do it is basically investigating this and there's people that don't want him investigating this and so having this kind of like conspiracy plot which again feels very Sean Le Carré where like the government like who is doing what in the government and who can you trust and why are things shady meanwhile like horrific nightmarish creatures from the misery it's just it's so good it's so freaking good what is not to like about that tell me what is not to like number two on my list is Red Rising by Pierce Brown no one is surprised I love Red Rising I don't know if it's in a frame but I have like more additions than any human should have of the Red Rising books I've met Pierce Brown three times I intend to meet him again when the next book comes out which I very much hope it will come out soon and I very much hope that pandemic life will allow for events again Red Rising what can I even say that I haven't already said about Red Rising it is compelling it is immersive it is unique it is a space opera that feels like a Greek tragedy and also a fantasy it has some of the most compelling characters it has some of the most shocking twists and turns in particular Golden Sun is one of my it's on my top 10 list my list of top 10 books of all time the experience of reading Golden Sun is an experience I love how he weaves in all it's very apparent like his influences his interest in politics and in geopolitical history and in Roman and Greek history and in Greek classics and in dune dune comes into the new books more definitely influences from dune I recently read Shadow and Claw which is the first two books in the book of the new Sun by Gene Wolfe which I know is an influence on Pierce Brown and now having read that I can see those influences as well in Red Rising it's just it's kind of a unique project I've never read anything like Red Rising it's amazing and it's kind of an amazing fandom too and the just like the excitement and diehardness of the fans and Pierce Brown himself is like very good with the fans so it's just like it's like a lot of fun to be a part of in so much in so far as you can be a part of you know a fandom it's just great it's great and number one on the list say it with me now first law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie do I need to explain this I have an entire playlist on my channel that has all the videos that I've made that pertain to Joe Abercrombie and the first law the first law trilogy is the best so far I mean the new trilogy is not complete and the rules for this list were that it has to be complete and then I have to have completed reading it if I make this list again in you know a few months or a year very possibly the age of madness will first law trilogy often replace it because it's new books much like Pierce Brown's new books I mean it's not a new trilogy it's just a continuation of the saga so Pierce Brown situation is slightly different both Pierce Brown and Joe Abercrombie have impressed and delighted me with the fact that their writing craft has only improved I'm just like oh I'm so glad you guys didn't like shoot the wad on your early work you guys are improving and growing and it is a delight to see but yeah first law trilogy Glockta Logan Giselle Artie Farrell I love love love love the first law trilogy of all the books on this list I've read the first law trilogy the most I've read the first law trilogy in its entirety three times and I've read the blade itself four times I love the fuck out of it of course it's number one on the list and god tier yeah I tricked you there's 11 on this list but I've said multiple times about this that it shouldn't go on lists that it can't be compared to other things that it's on its own level it's in its own category it's it cannot be discussed with other things and that's why it couldn't be one through ten on this list it doesn't belong on a list it is god tier and that is the broken earth trilogy by nkjemisin I have a whole video on the broken earth trilogy I was recently on world hoppers um where we talked about nkjemisin I know I just said that you know red rising is really unique and it is but broken earth I have literally never in my life read anything like broken earth it defies comparison it defies explanation it defies it it defies everything I was completely gobsmacked by that trilogy I remain gobsmacked by that trilogy I question whether nkjemisin is an ordinary mortal human because she's written that and I'm just like wow wow wow wow wow wow I don't have words most of my video on broken earth was me being like I can't explain it because it can't be explained I can't describe it because it can't be described it has to be experienced and uh since then I haven't come up with anything it's not like since then I'm like oh you know I finally come up with a way to explain it nope have to read it it is just if you want to talk about groundbreaking boundary defying just amazingness broken earth on its own list its own tear it is over here and here's everybody else broken earth over here so let me know in the comments down below how you feel about the trilogies on my list if you agree or disagree with me if uh there were any surprises so you could have definitely predicted this whole list maybe not the precise order but like you're like yep if you were playing bingo you've got them all whatever you want to let me know I post videos on saturdays other random times as well but definitely saturdays so like and subscribe join my patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you