 I already filmed this once and I'm kind of annoyed. I have to do it again. That said, Del TorreQuest is still pretty good. It is one of the big kids fantasy book series that was out in the 2000s. And a bunch of my friends read it back then. And I only read the first couple of books when I was a kid, but I finally just went back and read the whole series and start to finish. And yeah, it's pretty good. It deserves its popularity. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. So at its core, this is a very simple Lord of the Rings style quest where a couple of characters have to go around this crazy magical kingdom and gather up a couple of magical items so that they can save the world. It's, you know, nothing really new or original or anything. And hell, there's even a Dark Lord, which you never really see, but has crazy magic powers and has cast a land in darkness and all that. But it is a very good way to introduce kids to this idea and this concept, which I think is pretty great. And so the setup, like I said, 16 years before the bulk of the story begins, like there is a chunk of it that happens before this, but we'll get to that later. 16 years before the bulk of the story begins, this guy who was just called the Shadow Lord comes into the Kingdom of Deltora and he took this item called the Belt of Deltora, which was preventing him from coming in and it had these seven magical gems in it and he took the gems and scattered them all over the place so that it couldn't ever be used again. And now, many years later, the heroes, Leaf, Barda, and Jasmine have to gather them back up and complete the belt. And each book, they find one gem up until the final book where everything's all together and they still have to put in a little bit more effort to defeat the Shadow Lord. It's not like the instant they place the last gem into the belt, it's okay, everything's fixed. Like there's a little more to it and I actually did enjoy that because, well, it just, it made the whole journey seem a bit more difficult. So every book in this series follows a formula. Basically, the heroes travel for a bit and they get to a new area and this area they observe for a little while has been corrupted by the Shadow Lord and so it's all evil and dangerous and stuff. They run into some trouble while they're there. They meet some new companions while they're there. They find out where the gem is. They go through some trials to get to it, which usually involves killing the gem's guardian because each one has a guardian, and then they finally place it into the belt and then say, okay, we're on to the next place. And a formula is not a bad thing by any means, but that's what it is here. Like, every book is pretty similar in that sense. Now, at first I thought it would be much more episodic. Like I thought each book would be very self-contained and it would just be slowly, okay, we know in the back of our heads that they are making some progress, but we aren't really reminded of that much. But no, actually in later books they do bring in some overarching plot threads, which do play a role going further down. Like, for example, they meet this guy called Doom, who is a leader in this rebel group fighting against the Shadow Lord, and it's made clear from the beginning that the heroes don't think he is going to get very far with it. Like, they just think, okay, the belt of Del Torre is the only way we're gonna get rid of him. We need that magic power. And so when they first meet him and then part ways, I figured, okay, that'll be the last we ever see of him. But no, he comes back later and actually plays a role in the later stories and is actually kind of a big character at the end. So I actually did enjoy that. It makes the whole thing feel, like I've said this before, I just prefer having overarching stories to episodic ones. And it just makes the whole story feel like a bit more of an epic fantasy, which is really great. That said, the main characters don't really change much. In that sense, it does feel very episodic. Now, none of the main characters are bad, I don't think. But the way that they are at the end of the first book, once we've gotten to know them a little bit, is pretty much how they are at the end of the series. Like for instance, Jasmine is just the wild girl who lived out in the woods for a while and can talk to animals somehow and doesn't really understand social niceties as much as she should, but that also doesn't really cause her trouble. But she is still very intelligent and resourceful. Barda is the oldest one in the part. He's the only real adult there because the others are about 16. He is stoic. He is mostly pretty wise. He's smart and knows things, but he is still... Well, he makes mistakes sometimes. But he is still a valuable member of the party. He helps him out. And then of course, there's Leif, who is the main character. And he's pretty smart and determined to rid the world of the Shadow Lord, I guess. But there's not a whole lot to him. But again, he's likable enough guy that I was fine with it. None of them are bad. They're just very static. And in fact, because this is a kid's series, everything is very surface level. All of the characters say their thoughts and their feelings directly out loud. There's no subtext or anything saying with the world. All aspects are stated outright. Like, hey, it used to be like this, but then Shadow Lord did this or some other evil thing did this. And, you know, it's just, it's very straightforward. There's no real room for interpretation or reading between the lines or anything, which, again, it's not a problem, I guess. It's just some people might be a little disappointed when it's just in your face like that. The dialogue in this series is kind of evocative of fairy tales, I suppose. Kind of like The Hobbit, you know, where the characters speak almost super fancy, almost like poetry. And, you know, obviously, no real people talk like this. It's just meant to make this feel like, yes, this is a magical land and this is where the people just talk like this, you know, normal humans don't, but these guys do. And I'll admit, this isn't my cup of tea, you know, like this isn't a style that I like. It is a style which can be done well or poorly and I think it's done well here, but it's just not something I'm personally into. If you are a fan of that type of thing, then you'll probably really enjoy that. And, yeah, you know, it's a thing I felt like mentioning because I take some small issue with it. But another thing that I really, really liked about this series, which helps to set it apart from a lot of other fantasy, especially kids' fantasy, is that very few situations that the characters get themselves into are resolved with violence. And especially when you're considering that they're constantly getting into all these different scrapes, if they were just fighting their way out every time, it would get old pretty quick. Like, they pretty much always have to use their wits, they have to think quickly, they have to observe their surroundings and be clever about it because they just don't have the powers to power through everything. Like, the gems on the belt do have a little bit of magic on them, which helps them out occasionally, but it's never like just, okay, some enlightening and then destroy whoever's there and they can never just like fight their way through a tide of foes or anything. Like, the closest we get to that is when they're going to this abandoned city that has just been overrun with millions and millions of rats and they're outside the city and then at night time the rats just come out looking for food and this horde is about to swarm over them so they have to fight their way through it. And even then they have to use some clever tactics, I don't want to give it away here, in order to get out of there, but they do have to fight a lot. So that's the closest we get that I can think of off the top of my head at least. And most of the villains, especially the guardians who are like the big bads of every book, most of them are defeated using the clues that they found earlier in the book and even then they usually don't realize that they're clues to their weakness before they find it. And even then it's not as simple as just knowing his weakness and okay, cool, we're good. Like, no, there is a little bit of they still have to work to exploit it, which I think is really, really great. Like, it's just so easy to write your characters in such a way where they can use their magic or their sword skills or whatever to just power through whatever's in their way. And the series doesn't do that. It takes the high road. It's not just lazy about it, you know? And that's why even though it's a kid series and even though I do have some problems with it, it's still pretty good because yes, I am going to give it a little bit more leeway in some aspects for being a kid series. But that doesn't mean I'm saying like, okay, kid series are allowed to be bad, you know, there's still a good way to do kid series and a bad way to do them. And this is a good way of doing it. This is showing kids that in order to get through obstacles, you don't don't always resort to violence, you know? Like, even in real life, obviously, you can't usually do that. You have to think your way out of things. And I just, I just, I really like that. It's a good way of doing it. I'm sorry, I keep repeating myself, but I just, I liked that. It was really cool. I also really loved how the world genuinely feels like it's been taken over by evil. You know, everywhere they go, the environments are just described as being really dark and depressing. And there are still people ecking out a living out there, but you get the feeling that if the Shadow Lord rules over Del Toro for too much longer, there's just going to be no one left. Like there's so much disease and famine and everything else going around that people are just going to die out in this area. Like they're going to go extinct almost. And it's, it's not pleasant. You know, it feels like the whole world's been taken over by despair and there's monsters everywhere. There's witches that have taken over places. Even just traveling down the road is super dangerous. And I liked that because it manages to make everything feel more dangerous and more tense without actually, without just being gory, you know? Because sometimes that's what people do, especially in the horror genre. If they want to make things feel more dangerous, they just make it gorier. You know, they make it so that the monster doesn't just stab you. He stabs you and pulls out your guts and eats them while you're still alive and then peels the skin off of you and wears it as a cloak. Like you know, they just go over the top with it. But you obviously can't really do that with something aimed at kids. So they just, it found a smarter way to do it. You know, like this is a series that while it has its flaws is smarter than a lot of adult fantasy, if I'm being honest. And it's also made very clear in the first book actually that even before the Shadow Lord took over everything, things were already getting pretty bad because the kings of Del Torra were puppets. You know, they were little more than puppets. They had no real idea what was going on outside. And so things were just getting worse and worse and worse until eventually the Shadow Lord was able to strike. And I know that sounds like a bit of a spoiler, but I really can't talk about the bulk of the series without doing that. And you find it out pretty early on. So it's not too big of a deal. And it's especially impressive that they're able to make the world feel this big and this real and this lived in. Because I mean, they go to a different location in every book and each of them feels very distinct from the last one, even though they're all, you know, dangerous and evil, they all still are dangerous and evil in their own way, which is really great. And they also mention a lot of like lands outside of Del Torra that the Shadow Lord is also going to try and conquer or the original place where the Shadow Lord came from. And there's all these crazy creatures and stuff. Like this world feels really big and deep and complex, but it's even more impressive that they were able to do that because this is a relatively short series. I mean, there's eight books, but each book is fairly short. I think the copies I got were all around 200 pages. So you can get through them pretty quick. I got through one of them in just one night. So it's, you know, they're not long book series, but they're still able to make this world feel so big and so real and lived in. I liked that. It was really impressive. And I thought a little while about how exactly I was going to go over this, but I can't really think of a way to do it without spoilers. So I'm just not really going to go into a lot of detail, but I will just say that there are some pretty good twists near the end of this series, you know, like for the most part, it is very straightforward and all that. Most of the twists come in realizing like, oh, that's what the villain's weakness is. Okay. But the last book, like I said, they, even though they have the belts, they still have to figure out exactly how to use it to defeat the Shadow Lord, and they have to bring it to the rightful heir of Del Torre, like the heir to the throne of it. And it's, there's some good twists surrounding that. I like, I thought I saw the twist coming from like book two, but I wound up not seeing it. It did catch me by surprise. So I liked that or rather multiple twists that I thought I saw coming, but I didn't see them. So without giving too much away, that's it. And I do want to end on just my biggest single gripe about this series. And that is the first book, which is possibly the most important if you want to get people to read it. Like it would be very easy for people to read part or the entirety of the first book and then just not like it because it has a severe issue here and then just not go through the rest of the series. And if you're one of those people, I will tell you it gets a lot better. But basically, the first third of the first book is just a long extended prologue, which is explaining everything leading up to the Shadow Lord taking over Deltora. So basically, it starts off with this character named Jared, and he's like a servant in the palace of Deltora, and he's friends with Prince Endin, and it's right as Prince Endin's father, the king dies. So Endin becomes the king, and then Jared realizes, hey, there's something weird going on here. So he does some research and realizes, hey, the Prime Minister is using you. Actually, he's not called Prime Minister, but that's essentially his role. The Prime Minister is using you. He's using you as a puppet. He used your father as a puppet. We need to get you the belt of Deltora. And then he winds up having to flee the palace. And when he does, he goes outside and he realizes, oh, okay, I thought it was all nice and prosperous out here, but it's actually shitty and everyone is poor and starving. And then he just starts a new life out there and it skips forward seven years and now Jared's all grown up and he's married and his wife is pregnant. And then he sees his friend Endin ask for help. So he goes back into the palace and that's when Shadow Lord strikes and he takes all the gems from the belt of Deltora. And then Jared and Endin have to flee and then they say to themselves, okay, well, we're just going to have to find a way to get all the gems back and restore the belt and then we can defeat the Shadow Lord, but we can't do it right now. And then it skips forward another 16 years and then we get introduced to the real main characters of the story, which is Leaf and Varda. And then a little bit later, we run into Jasmine. And we also, while all of this is happening, we have to see how the world has changed since the Shadow Lord took it over and how it's gotten so much worse. And we have a little bit of an idea of how normal people live under these circumstances. And then Jared, who is Leaf's father, tells him, hey, I have the belt of Deltora here. We need you to go get all the gems. I would do it myself, but I hurt my leg in an accident a couple of years ago and now I can't do it. So it's all up to you son. And then the journey begins. And then this is when like the formula kicks in where Leaf and Varda are going off looking for the gem and then they run into some trouble and meet new companions and stuff. But this time when they meet new companions, they meet Jasmine. And because she's not just a side character, she's one of the main heroes, they have to spend more time with her than we do with the others. And so what this all means is that the actual like dangerous part of the book where they're going into the forests of silence and going after the Guardian and having to defeat him, like that goes by much quicker. And so it doesn't really have time to sink in. And without going into too much detail, the way they defeat the Guardian just makes him seem much easier to kill than he should. And it also makes Leaf and Varda seem kind of useless. And I was afraid that, oh, okay, Jasmine's just going to be the one that does most of the stuff in this series. And it wound up not being true. Like all three of the heroes are useful some of the time. And they do save the others at multiple occasions. Like it's, it's, it's fine in that regard. But yeah, basically the first book does break the formula, but it doesn't do it in a good way. Because like, we're getting attached to Jared, this main character who is honestly a little bit more complex than Leaf, and a little bit better set up than Leaf. Not that Leaf is a bad character, but just he would work better as a hero, I think. And that's what I was expecting him to be throughout all of this. But then we just have to start over basically once we get through that. And I think that the Del Torrequest anime, which yes, there is an anime, it's been playing in the background this whole time. The Del Torrequest anime actually skips over that whole prologue and then just goes straight to Leaf being handed the belt. And honestly, I feel like that would have been a better, just a better way to start the story. Like we could have found out some of the stuff that happened in the backstory in the prologue later through like flashbacks or something like that. But at the same time, I feel like some of the stuff that happens near the end of the series wouldn't hit nearly as hard if that happens. So I just, I don't know. I don't know if there's a good way to fix that problem, but it is a pretty substantial problem and I felt the need to address it. But you know what? All that out of the way, Del Torrequest is a very good, fun series. You know, I surprisingly really liked it more than I thought I did. After all these years, I wound up reading it more out of curiosity than anything. But no, it is genuinely a good, fun series. It doesn't, it doesn't hit as hard as like the great adult fantasy that I'm used to because, you know, this just isn't aimed at me anymore. But I think if you are someone who is looking to get like a gift for your nephew or something or you're trying to read something with your kids, I think you could read this. You would both get a lot of enjoyment out of it. And yeah, now now I know everything about Del Torrequest, or not everything, but I have read Del Torrequest many years after I was supposed to and it was a lot of fun. And that's about all I have to say goodbye. 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