 Hello everybody, E here. E here. Welcome back to another book review. Today we are talking about The Winter Road by Adrian Selby. I didn't like this one at all. Before I get started, hopefully I catch you before you're down there, internet rage machine, down there in the comments going but E, I thought you didn't like fantasy or I thought you didn't read fantasy. I don't... That is one of the worst questions that it also is a question that I get all the time. If you only ever read in your comfort zone you were never going to find anything new or amazing. Well, maybe not never. But you're going to struggle eventually. You're going to get tired of your genres. Also, if you read one book and I've read dozens and dozens of fantasy novels I've liked maybe two out of it. I've tried all the popular guys. Sanderson, Sykes, Martin, the list goes on Abercrombie who is constantly constantly being recommended to me. I can't stand his writing. Awful, I think. That's my opinion. But so much of fantasy is the same thing over and over and over again. You can joke and say horror is too but fantasy is. Every single fantasy novel is built the same way. Exposition battle well, exposition leading up to a battle battle, licking wounds exposition. It is the same thing over and over and over again. And people have told me if you don't like those tropes why are you still trying this stuff? Because I'm looking for the diamond in the rough. I'm looking for the needle in the haystack that is for me a good fantasy novel. This one is very very basic. It is an obvious, obvious, either ode or ripoff however you look at it of Game of Thrones. There is one scene in here that is almost the exact same as the red wedding from Game of Thrones I was actually blown away by the audacity of the author for doing almost the exact same thing that Martin did. There's also some very there's also one very weird point in here and it's never talked about again. It is one paragraph. Now there are, there is a tribe called the white boys in the book. I don't know if he did this other tribe as like a balancing act for calling one of them white boys but there's only, it's either one page or a paragraph I can't remember and they're never talked about again. He mentions a tribe called wait for it, the blackies. I just, I don't understand why you would use that term and then he goes into weird details like their leather was died black so that's why they called them blackies but yet the white boys are the white boys because their skin is white. It felt like he was trying to cover up instead of just changing that for me is why even bring it up to begin with? Why even talk about this tribe when you never talk about them again? If you have an answer for me, if you've read this book and you have an answer for me, please tell me down there in the doobly-doo because I didn't think I didn't think it was worth anything I didn't think it needed to be there whatsoever and it's it's not really so much about offense it's like why was it even there? Why did he put it in there? Now I'm going to go into spoilers here because everything else I have to talk about that pissed me the fuck off and yeah, I am mad that made me mad after finishing this book or while I was reading it is a spoiler so spoilers in three two one anyways so what my biggest issue with this is the repetition like I said tier T-E-Y-R Amonson would get into trouble get out of trouble get into trouble get out of trouble and I know that's pretty much just the notes for all fiction like the building blocks of all fiction but it became so repented 500 pages of the same exact thing there's exposition about a world we're never going to see again because this is a standalone fantasy novel I think it went way too deep into that it wasn't good world building there was some silly stuff in there about the choice of words that was supposed to harken back to other things like opias obvious opia is supposed to be opium droopers drug or dopers so many things in here that just read very very silly like the names of plants and things like that excuse me the only thing I really did enjoy about this book were the fight bruise fight bruise are basically just like meth for these characters they drink a brew and all of a sudden they're just cracked out and they can do amazing things or they think they can do amazing things but the spoiler, here comes the spoiler this book is 450 pages of story the last 50 pages, if you look on Goodreads it says 500, the last 50 pages of the book is actually previews of other books so at page 400 everything comes to a screeching halt up until that point there is a load of action the action is good so I'm going to give this two stars there's a load of action and then it comes to a screeching halt page 400 and the next 50 pages to wrap up the book is literally just letters back and forth from one character to another explaining everything that happened instead of showing us and telling us what happened in the narrative it's what is it epistolary? epistolary? I don't know I'm sure Patrick will let me know but it's just letters back and forth and it became so monotonous and so boring I was like why who decided to do this? I was literally mad while I was reading it was like something else has to happen there has to be some kind of twist something else had to happen but no, nothing happened the last 50 pages is literally these two people writing for a while it's love letters back and forth and then nothing this is the end comes it's like what was the point of all that? with the ending? why would you do this? I don't understand I don't get it anyways so another thing is the final fight with the big bad um Kieson Kielsen, what are the hell his name is is so anti-climactic you finally get there's so many great battles up until that point and then you get to the final battle with Tyr and Kieslyn whatever the hell his name is that's another reason why I can't stand talking about fantasy I can't pronounce normal names on a good day I don't know how to pronounce any of these people but you get to this final fight and she cuts his leg off and I think stabs him in the side and it's over that's it and then because the author knew that that was so boring he brings in a herd of buffalo to chase her down ok now I really don't want this review to be a shout out or asking for recommendations because I have read all of your favorites I promise I have but I'm still looking for that one fantasy novel that modern fantasy novel that I'm going to fall in love with and I still haven't found it and yes I have read all the I've tried all the classics most of the modern stuff man I can't even finish I get maybe 50 to 100 pages into it and it's all the same thing the last time I enjoyed a new novel was and I only gave it 3 stars and that was The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss it was ok I liked it enough to finish it I was almost planning to get the other one but then I hear all the messages in the wind that we probably will never see the third book it's whatever but if you do have if you have a recommendation I know I'm putting this in the spoiler section probably for a reason if you have a recommendation of a lesser known fantasy author who is killing it or who is doing very weird concepts and doing something different with the fantasy genre please do leave it down there in the doobly do but what did you think of The Winter Road by Adrian Selby let me know down there in the comments let me know if you loved it or you hated it or just kind of met about it but until next time I have been E you have been U talk to you guys later