 Not as many as in October. Hot take I know. Song of Ways of Fire is great. This is stop for me. I was excited for it but it was just like me for all the reasons better. So I read a lot of books in November. Not as many as in October but you know, a respectable amount. I also read the shortest books first so since I stack my books as I read them the bottom of this stack has some very tiny books. It has been um it is not structurally sound my leading tower of books so I've been living in fear of it toppling all month so I'm delighted to be finally filming my wrap up so that that doesn't happen anymore. So we're gonna do in reverse order just like I did for October because I don't feel like reversing the stack. I just scratched myself. So yeah we're gonna go from the latest the last book that I read to the first book that I read. Let's do this before they fall. The last book that I read technically I finished it on December 1st but I did read like probably half of it in November and that was half the world. Actually this is terrible to do in reverse order because I did also read half a king um so we're gonna talk about that after. A half the world is the second book in the Shattered Seriality as I mentioned in my TBR at some point whatever. I have mentioned that having now run out of first law books it occurred to me that I could actually in 2021 read all the books Abercrombie has written if I squeeze in the Shattered Seat. So we're squeezing in the Shattered Seat and I am I have not been especially impressed with the Shattered Seat. I reread half a king because I actually read that a few years ago and there was the patron buddy read which we'll get to that one and I think I liked half the world better. It only started out with me thinking that I liked it better but as it went on it didn't hold my interest any better than half a kingdom and partly it is the audiobook narrator. So even though I have a crap load of books on my December TBR I'm gonna try do my best to read physically uh have a war that's the third one just to see if that changes anything because there are so many times when I've been like listening to the narrator and then like instead of continuing to listen to the story I just think to myself wow he just read that line like it was just a line but that was in fact like really dry sarcasm and he didn't read it like that. So I just I feel like I don't think the Shattered Seat could ever compete with first alone no matter who was reading it but if you know Steve and Pacey was reading this there are a lot of moments of dry wit that the narrator just reads straight and so he's not a bad narrator in the sense of like sounding bad or stupid or ridiculous or having a bad voice he just reads everything very straight and so much of it is sarcasm and so I feel like that is a lot of the charm of it because the story itself it's a it's a pretty good story brought some pretty good twists and turns got some good action it's an arbor crummy book but a lot of I think the charm of it what it does have is missing when the audiobook narrator just doesn't bother to read humor in a humorous way so yeah I will try to read half a war I said that about half the world and then I just ran out of time and I was like I got to finish so I will try at least for some part of it for half a war to read it physically and see if that changes anything I think I won't hurt it anyway so yeah I can also give this three stars originally I thought when I started it because I gave half a king three stars both time that I read it first I read it and now I get when I rewrote I guess still three stars and half a half the world when I started it was like oh this might be like uh 3.5 verging on a four but by the end I was like no no it's a three which might be the narrator's fault but yeah they're not bad but they're they're not they very much pale in comparison to the first law and yeah like they're they're fine you don't know what they are at all they are abracame is sort of like viking inspired ya series it's quite mature for ya but it is definitely you know less mature because it is way than first law and it's it's it's fine it's fine next up I have a clash of kings by George R Martin as you are well aware I should think I am one of the co-hosts of the song wise and fire read along and in November we read clash of kings and our chat this time wasn't three hours it was only like two and a half so you know we had so much less to say about clash of kings I mean we talked about it for two and a half hours so if you want to hear what we all we had to say about clash of kings that's available to you um but suffice to say we're all just kind of like gobsmacked by just how dang good these books are because it's it's one of those things you kind of like I don't know if take for granted is the right word but you just sort of such a such a fact you know that like these books exist everyone knows what they are you know there was a show made of them that it feels I don't know tried to mention them it feels like an obvious opinion to think they're good so to the point where it's like it's past the point of you acknowledging they're good and it almost doesn't feel like they're good anymore I don't know if that makes any kind of sense I feel like you know what I mean and like to pick the books up and actually like read them again and sort of like reacquaint yourself with the actual text and and we're all three of us and I think everyone who's participating is sitting there going you know what there's a reason these books were the sensation they were the game changer for the genre they were that they got an hbu adaptation because that you know what they are freaking good they're freaking good George R. R. Martin is a good writer so yeah we've just been we've just been wowed on this reread going you know what you know what it's so great hot take I know song wise and fire isn't great next up I have the dragon republic by RF Kwong barely got the sin under the wire this is the second book in the poppy war series and one of my goals for the year was to finish this series so like I'm trying to make that happen gotta read burning god next month or this month and I I mean I give it the same rating I give poppy war four stars and I also give this four stars in terms of how it compares to poppy war I think I liked poppy war a little bit better hard to say there is a more overt sense of structure and shape to the story in the poppy war you have the that's the really the only way I can say it there is a form to the story that you can recognize here I mean there's a lot of things that happen but that's kind of what it feels like there's things happening and there's no recognizable kind of arc to it no recognizable trajectory for it and so I guess I mean this is what I I very often like middle books best in trilogies but this is one of the situations where like I get why middle book syndrome is a thing because this book feels like what people complain about with middle books which I rarely feel that we're not really starting anything we're not really finishing anything there is no shape to this there is it's just the middle bit it's just stuff happening to get us from the beginning that was the first book and then what presumably will be the epic conclusion in the third book this book again tons of stuff happens lots of stuff happens reveals happen character development happens but it doesn't have this propulsive shape to it and then what I also came to sort of came to the conclusion about the series like why I just don't connect with it as much as I do other books or stories it's not actually to do with how dark it is because it is really nothing dark but it's just the characters I don't think characterization is our long strong point and that's why I don't mean to say they're bad because I've read books where characterization is actively bad the characterization is adequate but the characters are kind of one note is the best way I can put it and so there's sort of a lack of variety and nuance to the characters and again they it's not like they feel like cardboard cutouts they don't feel like caricatures they don't feel like plot devices but they don't feel like there's a lot to them they're pretty one note and so it's just very bleak and very dark and they're all kind of like yeah so like I feel like I'm being I feel like it's not very hard to still get a four stars I still think it's a remarkable book but it's hard for me to feel passionately about it for these reasons and that disappoints me but I'm looking forward to reading Burning God and I would absolutely recommend this series if all of the darkness of it does not um concern or put you off. Next up I have The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding this was the book that my patients chose for me to read and vlog for them so I did and this was not a win for me no actually like I forgot it was a back to back but like when I was complaining about the characterization in Dragon Republic and in that series in general and then I said there are books where characterization is like kind of actively bad I was kind of thinking of Ember Blade because Ember Blade I think is just a lot of potential that it's squandered so I at its core I like kind of the type of story it's trying to tell the type of characters that it's attempting to portray but I think it's done badly I think the prose isn't very good I think the world building isn't very good I think it's delivered in an extremely info dumpy expository way that feels unnatural and makes it feel fake for that reason makes the characters feel fake for that reason and everything is just so over explained all the time and I tend to prefer things to be under explained if anything so this is not for me I can see why it's so popular like honestly I feel like if you love The Faithful and the Fallen by John Gwynne people it says on here you know if you like Brandon Sanderson you're gonna like this I mean I think so and those are a lot of the similar complaints that I had about those books and those books are extremely popular people love The Faithful and the Fallen people love Brandon Sanderson so clearly people are not having these issues so I think like it's not that surprising to me that this book is as popular as it is or it came so highly recommended because I feel like the people who are recommending it are the same people that would recommend The Faithful and the Fallen and the Cosmere and that's just obviously like we have we have learned together that that is not me I am not a fan of this so it's not the worst thing I've read I liked it better than Malice I did so like if people are like really like Malice and they think this is even better I mean I would agree I just think that Malice is not good and this is okay so if you are a fan of those other books and those other authors and you've heard great things about this you'll probably like but if you're like me and a picker of knits and and feel about world building and prose and characterization the way that I do I doubt you will like this very much next up I have Wondersmith by The Calling of Morgan Crow the second book in the Nevermore series by Jessica Townsend I've already read this with Vish from Books with Thee we are loving it as I already said my TBR video we are super stoked to read holopox in December this is just an absolutely charming wonderful whimsical middle grade series and I I love the main character Morgan Crow because she is so sassy and snarky and the world itself is full of wonder and whimsy the magic in it is quite cool and I do think that this is a much better replacement for Harry Potter than um well I mean it says a poignant a harry potter-esque adventure I mean it is because it's you know it's got that kind of portal fantasy element to it it has something of a chosen one element to it the way that Harry Potter does the main character unlike in the films Harry Potter in the books is quite snarky and sassy and kind of dry-witted so is Morgan and the the world itself is you know it's just kind of strange and and fun and cool but you know in that slightly dangerous way and the sort of mysteries for the larger plot and the big band that this sets up and the the questions this one begins to ask um the first one really kind of sets things up this one sort of begins to delve a bit and sort of the implications of some of these magics and these identities and and what it means to hold these powers etc etc so I just I thought it was very excellent and I loved it more than the first one I'm super stoked to read hollow box next up I have a declaration of the rites of magicians by hg parry I loved this like I hopes that I would and that's how it really happens for me 99% of the time and I'm stoked about a book I'm like well I was excited for it but it was I guess maybe because I did go into this sort of being like I hope it's good but it probably won't be even that helped it this was everything that I hoped it would be and I I also definitely see why it's not got a very high rating um just broadly speaking and why Bethany didn't like it that's why she sent it to me she was like are you gonna have it uh and it's it's not for everyone but it is definitely for me and I think if you're a reader like me so what do I mean by that so if you I talked about what this was about in my tbr but for a refresher this is the Enlightenment sort of era and it is a historical fiction fantasy or a fantasy retelling alternate history fantasy um so it we follow like actual historical figures like um Robespierre and William Pitt and Toussaint la Bouture and they are in a world in which there is magic and they individually may or may not be magic users themselves so we are sort of following the events of the Enlightenment of um abolitionist uprising or abolition abolitionist movements their French Revolution and following like those historical events but they are being shaped and altered and or explained by magic so it was quite reminiscent to me of like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell which does is more focused on Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and less on history but it does play with like retelling the Napoleonic war era with magic uh so this is like if the project of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was more focused on actually like retelling the Napoleonic war with magic so I I thought it was excellently well done it is quite um a lot of years past in this book so like it took some getting used to how quickly we were zipping through history because there's a lot of events to cover and it kind of wants to introduce us to these characters and to where they're set up uh you know how they're what kind of powers they have what they have access to who they are and then we just we have these like time jumps where suddenly you know three years have passed you know two years have passed a year has passed so that was that was a bit jarring at first but then I got used to it and for that reason it kind of did remind me of reading a history book or a nonfiction about history because that's kind of what nonfiction about history does it kind of is like there's this important event and this historical figure's life and then we move on to the next important event which might be three years later and of course we zip around also like geographically like we're we've got our folks in England we've got our folks in France we've got our folks in in the colonies so it's it's doing a lot with a lot and if you don't like people messing with history and adding magic to history probably won't like it if you don't actually like more historical fiction type of narratives where it's a little more dry uh you probably won't like it but if you do think that it's fun to add a magical twist to historical events and how that can like maybe serve to explain something or then how that should be altered to fit now with magic or how that can be reimagined to include magic uh I see that sounds good to you I think you will really like this I think it is excellently well crafted and researched and executed and I did actually like even though it's a little more arm's length and kind of that historical fiction feel of like telling you about characters over large periods of time I did feel connected to the characters more so than I have in a lot of just straight-up fiction books and I just thought it was very very clever very clever and I'm super so sherry in the second book which is a radical active free magic because I also have some ideas about where this is probably gonna go and how magic is going to be affecting the part of history that we are now entering in that book so I'm super pumped for it but like I guess I would say I recommend it if that all sounds good to you but like I wouldn't just say like it's great everyone should read it like I get why it doesn't appeal to everybody I thought it was fantastic next up is a book that I uh for now have dnf'd and that is Eye of the World by Robert Jordan I made it to I took my bookmark out I made it to chapter 10 so that far I did request the audiobook from the library of course there's like a 10 million year hold on it or 10 million year wait on it because of the show so whenever that comes in I'll finish the book that way so I can just say I've done it so that I know this first installment at least but I I dnf'd it unlike a lot I'm very rarely dnf people even friends of mine are like you should dnf more and I have reasons for not doing that but this was a situation where like I don't think I'm gonna change my mind I don't think this like I've seen enough and I'm not gonna like this this is not for me and I don't see that changing or improving or something happening to to compensate for its failings like I just I don't this is I'm not gonna like this it's not gonna happen and I don't think I also have that much to say about it like it's not a situation where like I need to finish this because like there's just so much to unpack for why I don't like it I just the reasons for why I don't like it are pretty straightforward those being that I think the prose is bad and I think the real building is like nothing right home about characterization is nigh on non-existent so that's I don't have a lot to say about that other than like nope next up I have Magnus Chase and The Sword of Summer which is the first book in the Magnus Chase books by Rick Grarodin this was the blades and bodice first pick for the month so the live discussion on this book was on Mara's channel as it was her pick but if you want to see the replay of that that is available to you I didn't love this I didn't hate it but again if you if you saw our live if you're gonna see our live basically I just I was like the jokes are pretty good but this book is entirely composed of jokes and I find that exhausting frankly I also found like the aging a little weird like the main character 16 and he certainly does not sound or behave like a 16 year old which I give a lot I tend to give more leeway when it's the other way around where younger kids act older because you know I can you know that that is more forgivable to me because people can mature at a young age um or at least that's something that it's a positive change but like he acts like a 12 year old me 16 and I'm like well so I just yeah I I yeah I just felt kind of meh about it um I definitely would say that I like the Nevermore books better in terms of a magical whimsical little great story so I just don't think this is for me next up I read the box in the winds by Maureen Johnson this is another truly devious novel it is set in the same world as truly devious and though it's not like a magical fantasy world but so the truly devious trilogy is complete that mystery is wrapped up but so the main character from truly devious is now solving a different mystery and this is a standalone book and I thought it was pretty good I think if you like the truly devious books you will like this but funnily enough while the truly devious trilogy felt a little bit like this mystery is being dragged over three books like I mean I still really enjoyed truly devious it wasn't a huge problem for me but there's a little bit of a sense of like we're still not solving this mystery like to like stretch it out so that you don't get the resolution of that mystery until the third book and then this book is a standalone so I felt the I mean I guess maybe I just got used to the slower pacing the dragging of the truly devious books where this one I was just like oh my god we're already getting the answer to the mystery that's too fast so I think the answer is it needs to be duologies truly devious was a trilogy and that was slightly too much this was too short duologies if she writes more I wanted to be a duology but anyway if you like the truly devious books I think you'll like this it's a pretty good mystery it's still got the like quirk and humor of the characters from truly devious so if you like the characters they're in it again the mystery is decently interesting and atmospheric and it was a good time next up I have tar and wanderer this is the fourth book in the chronicles of predame by Lloyd Alexander this is the penultimate book and I really enjoyed this I mean I've been enjoying all the predame books as I've said so many times I feel like I'm a broken record this book does get a little bit more serious it's a little more mature than the other books have been it's not just like a whimsical fun adventure I mean it is a whimsical fun adventure but it's less of that and more of a story of sort of finding self finding meaning it's got that kind of hero's journey hero's quest element to it and it has a definitely so like I was reading this and Magnus Chase around the same time and I was just thinking to myself because I mean this is written for predame books are written for kids well they're obviously older and they're not you know a contemporary setting like everything about the predame books is obviously more archaic but I just thinking to myself how much better these books are at balancing like fun whimsy and magic and and humor they actually have a lot of humor in these books with still more poignant moments and darker themes and the story about maturing and beginning to take responsibility and finding your place in the world and finding out who you are and what your priorities are and it has a very sort of like fairytale structure like especially this one in terms of like it felt extremely like a fairytale in so far as it's sort of like a series of trials a series of teaching moments kind of that it just if you've read a lot of kind of like folklore and fable and fairytale and folk story it feels very much in keeping with that style kind of like when you read the winter night trilogy by Catherine Arden like it evokes that vibe and like you know that you know these moments they aren't meant to be read so literally because that's unrealistic that like you go from place to place to place where you learn a thing but it feels like it's just sort of a nod to that type of storytelling very intentionally and I just thought it was really really beautiful and I'm really excited to read the final book in December. Next up I have the Starless Sea by Aaron Morgenstern and I liked this even less than The Night Circus. I'm real sad because this book is real pretty so pretty honestly like 10 out of 10 cover design um but I feel like the book the cover of it is very indicative of the book itself because the book is also all show and no substance. I felt the way about The Night Circus but The Night Circus didn't at its core have a story with an arc and kind of the shape of things like that. The Starless Sea it's it's it's literally just the author like wanting to design vibes and just was like I will weave that together somehow. I mean honestly reading The Night Circus on the Starless Sea I'm just like you know what Aaron Morgenstern? I don't think being an author is your calling. I think being a party planner an event planner a wedding planner that might be your calling because when you're describing the various places the various events the various parties that occur the circus that occurs in The Night Circus but in here as well you know there's an epic kind of more literary event and it sounds fabulous. It sounds like a wonderful description on Yelp. Cool Vibey Places does not a story make especially when like those cool vibey things aren't actually serving any greater purpose of significance meaning symbolism or whatever and before you at me like I've I'm aware that there are people that think that there is deeper meaning to be had here and I frankly just disagree. I think if you're finding deeper meaning in here I'm really happy for you but I think you are you know putting that on it. I don't think Aaron Morgenstern is responsible for any deeper meaning if there is meaning to be found it is incidental or accidental um sorry. Next up I have Skyward by Brandon Sanderson which I gave five stars to I mean technically I gave it four and a half which I whenever I give a half star I almost without the exception round up. I really loved this and I flew through it it was so fast to read and I really think that because I complain frequently about Brandon Sanderson's writing style being plain being very telly the dialogue being very plain and modern particular in high fantasy I'm I can't with the kind of dialogue that sounds like it could be between like two called roommates but you know you're in armor and holding swords and talking about your nation I'm like I just I cannot with that but a YA book that is a space adventure where a teenage girl has like classmates that she quips with I mean that is where that style is on point that's what it's called for here being slightly simpler and how you explain things and presenting it very clearly to the reader it's a YA space adventure that's where we want that so like I just feel like Brandon Sanderson's writing style even the things that I'd generally regard negatively just work so much better in this context like here here it's fine here it's great here it's what you want so I thought this was compulsively readable a great time I almost knocked at an entire star for scud and scudding being the in-universe cursing but whatever um yeah I just yeah I really really enjoyed my time with this and I'm excited to read Star Sight and Psytonic which I fully intend to do very soon next up I have Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare I've been meaning to read The Dark Artifices for forever ever and I kept hearing people say The Dark Artifices was like her best work to date and I kept thinking like I mean I guess I believe you I just find that hard to believe but all right because I love the infernal devices and I haven't really liked anything else that I've read by Cassandra Clare since only the infernal devices so I was excited to find another infernal devices but I just I this is way too long and a lot of it is like I mean a lot of the infernal devices is mopey drama but it's it's shorter and I also do think the characters are better this was I don't know maybe I'm just too old for this maybe if I reread the infernal devices now maybe I wouldn't like it I don't know that that scares me a lot because I have fond memories of reading it this was too long and too mopey and too much of just like things that could be resolved people would just talk to each other for so long and like the magic side of things the like actual events of the book a plot isn't a very good plot it's clear that we are here for the relationship drama which any infernal devices is also true I just think the relationship drama is better and it is something that I'm more invested in and I think is I don't know I just like the infernal devices better maybe it's people in suits and corsets having relationship drama that is just like yes people in the modern day I'm like get a life uh I don't think it was bad I definitely liked it better than um the mortal instruments what I read of that and that I just cannot with but so like as comparing it to the mortal instruments I'm like yeah this is a step up from that no doubt and there's a lot of good representation and inclusion and diversity etc that I appreciated but not from like a I'm having friend reading this standpoint I just like observed it going on and I was like good on you for having that in there but it didn't like that does not make it a good story that doesn't make it you know I'm just like I'm like I'm glad you're doing that but I'm you know it doesn't improve the reading experience so I don't know if I'll I mean I want it I in theory wanted to read this before reading the new series which is again historical fiction like the infernal devices I might just give this I'll just look up the Wikipedia summaries because if there's any chance of me linking another Cassandra Claire book I think it's going to be when we hit back to the old timey times because that works way better for me next up I have half a gang of my driver crown me which I already talked about this is the first book in the shatter at sea I think it's of the two I think it is the weaker of the two you cannot skip it and again I do think that I probably would like it better if I physically read it myself and wasn't getting it from the the dry boring humorless narrator because there is a lot of dry wit there is actually a brief nod to first line here which is it's a game again it doesn't actually mean anything it's not like he's Joe Abercrombie's building a Cosmere but it's fun if you read the first law to be like that's like the highlight of the whole book though yeah it's very meh I kind of already explained that when I talked about half a world so um it's okay next up I have redwall by Brian jakes I said jakewies in my tvr video because I was pretty sure I remembered and my from my childhood watching the cartoon they did the the Saturday morning show they did based on redwall and Brian himself often appeared after the show or before the show whatever to talk about it and I remembered him pronouncing it for what I thought was a weird way to pronounce it at the time and then I now thought I remembered him saying jakewies but apparently he says it jakes whatever redwall which I hadn't read since I was probably in middle school elementary school middle school I don't know how old I was it all blurs together I read a bunch of these books when I was at the age that they are meant for and it was honestly it was just so nostalgic it is such a cozy perfect book for fall especially because the setting of redwall abbey itself and all of like the gathering of the harvest and the foods they're making and this like cozy collective living where this little community and the facing the like darkness it's just so sweet and nostalgic and cute and nice and I love redwall and I think I'm going to read some more of these redwall books um reread these redwall books because you know it's just like a hug it's just real cozy and last which was in fact first are the merchant of venice and childlock is my name which were the hogarth uh Shakespeare retelling of and the Shakespeare play that it is a retelling of that me and heather chatted about we had a great discussion if you missed the live the replay is available if you are interested in seeing it um this is probably my favorite of the hogarths that we have read there are only two that I have not read and I talked about this early on and and was already telling how that I thought it'd be my favorite but the style of the retelling it there's something Abercrombie asked about the style of the writing itself which like I don't explain what's my favorite but it does almost have this feel of like if if Joe Abercrombie decided to do a modern retelling of the merchant of venice it would feel like this so if that appeals to you I would actually recommend this I don't recommend reading it if you have not read or seen merchant of venice because it does not stand on its own if you have not read merchant of venice you will not understand this book just like flat out but I very very much enjoyed this and those are all the books that I read in November let me know in the comments down below your thoughts and feelings about my thoughts and feelings whatever you want me to know I post videos on saturdays other end times as well but on saturdays so like and subscribe join my patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you bye