 Hi everyone. This is Chih-chou. Welcome to my channel. Now what I want to do in this video is give you a review of a couple of books that I just recently read. And if you recall, in spring, I guess a few months ago, at the beginning of this year, I put out a video showing you my fantasy and sci-fi novel collection. And I gave you sort of a review or recommendations of some of the books that I've read here. So while we're going through all these books, and I showed you almost all of these books, I sort of skipped some of the books here for some reason. Terry Moore, I jumped from here to here, right? But I showed you all these books and I gave you recommendations of some of the books that I've read. And I haven't read most of these books, right? I sort of inherited these or these books found their way to me, right? But I do plan on reading most of these books and I asked you guys while I was showing you these books, if you had any recommendations for me from this collection or any other recommendations that you had, may it be science fiction, fantasy or, you know, a mix of the two, right? And there was a lot of recommendations that came to me from that video. There's a lot of comments there and I looked up all those recommendations. And there are some amazing books there that I hadn't even heard of, right? And some of the writers that I didn't even know. So I made myself a nice reading list that I plan on, you know, tackling throughout my life. And that reading list is going to take me a long time to go through at some point, hopefully, you know, my two-read list. The odds are I'll never get to all the books that I want to read, but I'll try to tackle as much as I can, right? And recommendations and continue to come on that video. So thank you very much for all of you guys who've been recommending books and authors to read. And one of the recommendations that came from that video I decided to read, which was Raymond Feist's Rift Wars Saga, right? And what I wanted to do is give you my review of the first two books from that series, right? And initially it was released as a trilogy, right? It was called Raymond Feist's Magician. And then book two and book three were book two was Silverthorn. And I sort of started this. I sort of, when I do, when I read a trilogy or series, I usually read one book and take a little pause, you know, maybe a week, a couple of weeks, maybe three weeks up to a month. And then I tackle the next book in the series, right? So I sort of started reading book three. This is book three, which is Silverthorn, right? And book four is the Darkness as at Sethanon, right? So this is the conclusion of the trilogy, the original trilogy that came out. I will definitely give you guys a review once I go through these two books. But right now, what I've done is I read Raymond Feist's Magician Apprentice, okay? And Raymond Feist's Magician Master. And originally the series was published in 1982 and it was published as one book. And a lot of, you know, I don't know how much of the content wasn't included because when this first came out, this was his, I believe this is Feist's first major work. And when it was first published, when he first gave it to his editors, they took out a whole bunch of stuff and they condensed these two books into one book, right? And I can't even imagine what they took out because whatever they took out, this shouldn't have taken it out. And I think that's one reason, in 1992 when Feist became well-known, he revisited the series and split these up and included what was taken out by the editors. And they broke this up into two books, right? And there's sort of a gap between what happens with Apprentice and when it leads into the Master, right? The Magician Master. So there's a sort of a few-year gap here in this series. These two books span like around a 10-year period, right? There's a few years taking place and there's a lot of characters in play. There's a lot of things happening, right? And I really don't want to give too many... I don't really want to give any spoilers with this review, but all reviews contain some kind of spoiler, right? So if you don't want to hear the spoiler coming up, because all I'm going to do is going to give you one thing that happens in Apprentice that got me hooked on the book and something that happened in Master, which is related to what happened here, which was amazing, really. It brought, like, me and my eyes watery, okay? But if you don't want to hear the review, my review for this is a read-it, really. It's amazing. It's fantastic. It's a must-read when it comes to fantasy read, and I wasn't sure if this was going to be a must-read with all the reviews, all the recommendations that came in from the previous video. I looked up all the recommendations, right? And this one, Raymond Feisbuck, this trilogy, or this saga is called The Rift War Saga, had a lot of recommendations for me to read, so I focused on this and I decided to read this first, and I wasn't sure if it was going to be as epic as all the recommendations were coming in or as a must-read as all the recommendations, as all the comments were saying, but after reading this, it's a must-read if you're a fantasy lover, right? And it's got, you know, I don't know if it's got a certain element of sci-fi. There is a certain element of sci-fi in it as well, but it's mainly fantasy, right? And it is definitely a must-read. It's very epic. The characters are endearing. Like, really, you fall in love with the characters. And there is, you know, it is the fantasy genre, so there are some certain element of things that we would have seen before if you've read fantasy books. You know, there's elves, there's doors, there's dragons, there's magic, but there is a slight difference between this series, these two books, anyway. I haven't read the other two, but I will definitely be reading the other two, no matter what. Before I read anything else, there's a few other books that I want to read as well, right? But before I tackle anything else, the other two books is what I'm going to finish up. But there are, you know, I don't want to say cliches, but there are generalizations as far as fantasy goes. But the way Fyce tackles magic in this series is absolutely brilliant. It was very unique. It was very different than other fantasy books that I've read, the way they've tackled magic. And it really brings it all together with Master. Because what happens with Magician Apprentice, we sort of get a feel of what's going on. And there's a certain, the way the magic plays out, there's a certain epicness to it, right? There's a certain twist to the magic that I hadn't seen in another fantasy book, I hadn't read in other fantasy books, right? And we really don't get a feel of how grand this magic is until we get into Master, right? And once we enter this story, all of a sudden the magic is just all encompassing it. It really is everything, right? So that's my little recommendation review of this book. It is a must read, as far as I'm concerned, if it was a rating of, you know, if we're rating it from 1 to 10, I would give this as a 9.5, right? A 10 for me, well, we won't get into what I've read as a 10. A 10 for me would be, well, let's get into it. A 10 for me would be The Deathgate Cycle by Margaret Wise and Tracy Hickman that I mentioned in the previous video, right? And it's a seven book series and it is absolutely magnificent. This for me, right? The Deathgate Cycle is a 10 out of 10. This for me is a 9.5 out of 10. And I'm only giving 9.5 out of 10 because I haven't read the other two books, right? I'm pretty sure by the time I read the other two books, it's going to be a 10 out of 10, okay? As far as if you've read this series and if you've read this series, one thing I like to know is what did they take out from the original publication, right? They released the first book in 1982 and this is the revised edition where they included what the editors took out in 1992, right? So these were released in 1992. The original came out in 1982. I can't even imagine what they took out. And if you've read both, if you've read the original release and the re-release that split these up, please let me know which part of the books, which part of the story they didn't include because as far as I'm concerned, when I was reading this, I wish they were the larger. I wish this was split up into three books where they were explaining more things because I found the time gaps a little disorienting when I was reading one section to the other section, right? So I know I keep on giving you guys a little bit more from this review because I really loved it. Really, thank you very much for recommending this. And if you've read this series, let me tell you the two parts that really have stuck with me, that really, again, made my eyes water a little bit and just made me fall in love, right? The first section was an apprentice and I mentioned this in a previous video. I can't remember, it was sort of an update, right? But if you haven't seen that video, the section in this, an apprentice that really got me hooked on the book, it occurs fairly at the beginning of the book and once I read that section, I went and read the description of this and this thing gave me a little bit of spoiler so I was a little upset for reading the description of the book at the back of it, just, you know, two paragraphs, right? For giving a little bit of spoiler because I really don't like spoilers before I enter into something in general, right? But this thing happens at the beginning of the book and the thing that really got me hooked, the story, little section that really got me hooked on reading this trilogy or reading the Rift Wars saga was when Pug and Caroline were going on a horse ride, right? and their interaction, right? It was a beautiful development, like the interaction between Pug and Caroline was amazing, like the way Feist built up the characters and the way the dialogue, the interaction was between these two characters really made them, for me anyway, central characters for the story and when they went out on the on the ride, on the horse ride and the snobbiness of Caroline and the humble and just the genuine love of Pug and the way he communicated, the way he interacted the way he took everything that Caroline was throwing his way and not getting angry in the conversation and just being mesmerized by her and being confused by her character and not appreciating well, to a certain degree appreciating where she came from, but not really understanding why she was so defensive and so harsh with her words, right? and then when they sort of Pug was sort of tasked with making sure she takes care of Caroline making sure that nothing happens with Caroline sort of being her guardian to a certain degree on this little outing and then when he leaves her alone and she does her little picnic with the food and with the food was absolutely brilliant where they sit down to have a meal and Caroline says, okay, I'm going to eat and then you go take care of the horses and come back and you can eat afterwards that just blew me away where Pug was expecting for them to sit down and share a meal together and Caroline was sort of, no, I'm going to eat first and you eat later, right? that was brilliant take on it and how Pug dealt with his emotions and when he went out to water the horses and when I guess the trolls attacked and how he dealt with that situation was just really showed his character of how honourable he is, right? and the way the magic played out and that was totally different than the way I've read other fantasy books where magic plays out, right? so that little section just blew me away it was very, very unique it was very unique and I got hooked on it and I sort of just zoomed through this every opportunity I was getting I was sort of reading this not as fast as I could because I was a slow reader I was savoring every word but every opportunity I had I was sort of sitting down somewhere and read, right? so that's the first little section that happens at the beginning that sold me on the book, on the series and once that happened with everything happening in these two books there's a lot that goes on in here I won't give you any spoilers of what's going on and stuff like this but the name sort of gives it away Rift War Saga and I really didn't appreciate what that meant until reading these but this story the ride that Pug and Caroline go on, Carline in my mind when I read the name I say Carline but it's Carline, I guess from the beginning of this this happens at the beginning there's no doubt in my mind when I was reading this no matter what was happening that Pug and Carline were going to meet again for some reason I wasn't sure what was going to happen with all the other characters if they were going to survive, if they were going to disappear and come back in the later issues or the later books but for me I knew that to a certain degree nothing was going to happen to Pug and nothing was going to happen to Carline and I was anticipating their meeting again because they sort of again I'm giving a spoiler but they drift apart they drift apart but at some point I had no doubt that they would meet and they end up meeting towards the end of Master almost at the end and it was something that I was anticipating I was waiting for I almost wish I could skip to where they would meet again which I wouldn't have done even if I knew where it was I wouldn't have skipped it, I would read through the whole thing but it was the anticipation was so powerful for me to see what would happen once they met and how the dialogue and how the interaction would go and how they would feel about each other when that happens at the end really it brought it made me all sort of teary-eyed because it was so brilliant Raymond Fleiss the way he approached that meeting and the way the conversation took place and the way the other characters were involved in this and Pug's I'm going to give a spoiler but Pug's wife and her love Pug and the way she treated Pug and the way Pug interacted with Carline and the way Carline interacted with Pug and the way she interacted with Pug's wife and the people surrounding them it was absolutely brilliant and that's just one of the interactions in this in these books that's just one of the series which is one of the stories that takes place here and there's multiple stories going on here there's a lot of characters here sometimes I had a hard time because of the time gaps between the books what was taking place sometimes I had a hard time remembering who a certain person was and then once you read a few paragraphs all of a sudden you realize oh yeah it just happened few chapters ago where they were talking about this so it was a very epic brilliant story arc highly recommended and it is quite relevant to our general society our civilization right now because the rift war saga is really a war of resources which is sort of to large degree the way our world functions so it covers a lot it reflects it's a mirror of what happens in our society minus the magic the elves and the dwarves the dragons I guess but it's it's absolutely brilliant and one thing I found out when I was looking at this looking this stuff up because after I finished this I sort of went online and read some stuff about it without I didn't read anything associated with the other two books because I don't want any spoilers for the other two books but what I found out was there's a comic book series 12 issue comic book series based on raiment feis magician and it came out in the mid 2000s I believe I believe the first few issues were published by an independent company and then marvel took over and marvel published the rest of the book so there's 12 issue comic books set I guess maxi series based on raiment feis magician and I've looked it up online it's available it's available on the cheap I'm not going to get it right now because if I get it right now I'll probably end up reading it and it'll give spoilers for the books and I don't want any spoilers for the books but I've put it in my search that's going to give me notices if the whole collection comes up so I'm going to try to get my hands on the comic book series as well okay and that's sort of my take on it I sort of made little notes here but I really don't want to give any more spoilers than I already have if you've watched this video to the end but if you've read it one thing I'm very curious about is what they took out from the original release that came out in 92 when these two books were one book and certain sections were taken out because I can't even imagine what would be taken out everything in this was crucial must read and as far as the next book goes I've sort of read a few pages on it I've read our stories so far there's a little part at the beginning that says our story so far and it gives you a recap of what's going on and I've read a few pages from chapter 1 I haven't read the back, I don't want to know what's going on and then what I'm going to end up doing is going back from the beginning and reading from page 1 again except for what the stories happened so far because I know it, I've read the two books and I've read it again to give me a recap of it so I'm going to re-read this from page 1 from chapter 1 and once I finish the next two books I'm pretty sure I'll give you guys a review of those as well because I think I'll have a lot more to say about the Rift Wars saga by Raymond Feist and again, thank you very much for everyone that recommended this it's a fantastic read it was exactly what I was looking for to read right, so very, very much appreciated and thank you again for all of you that recommended the other books, the other authors to read and I will be looking up some of those I guess throughout my life because I'm going to keep on going back I made a list but I'm going to keep on going back to that video and looking at the recommendations and see what's being uploaded and maybe start tackling those recommendations by whatever is being uploaded the most, right a midgetian a Rift Wars saga was one of the top ones that got a lot of I guess likes or comments and seconds and thirds and fourths saying that it's a must read I guess I guess that's it for now and if you do plan on reading it I hope you enjoy this amazing fantasy saga I'll see you guys in the next video bye for now