 Hey guys, it's Leanna and I'm here today with Amanda, which is unusual. I know. I'm not sitting where I normally sit. I'm not alone. Forever alone. I have whiskey instead of coffee. Yay. So today we're going to talk about how I made Amanda read the blade itself, but it was in retaliation because she made me read two which turned into three bodice rivers. Well, two of them were bodice rivers. One of them had magic and stuff. True. It did kind of start as me being conniving and being like, I want to force Leanna to read these books because I like them because our reading styles are similar a lot of the time. It was a Venn diagram, but there's a lot on the outlying sides of this Venn diagram that don't match. I'm accurate and I force Joe Abercrombie on a lot of people and she forces Tessa Dare on a lot of people. So we just decided as friends to pleasantly force one another. Yeah. Just like she forced me to drink wine on her channel and the link to that video is down below on the Naughty Librarian and I'm making her drink whiskey. I like never drink hard liquor. So I feel like things are about to get real weird. Cheers. Yay. Yum. Maybe a lot of that face. So hopefully you didn't make that face when you read the blade itself. She's been real secretive. I know some of her thoughts, but not like complete thoughts. So Amanda, how did you feel about, it's not even on camera. I had, I pulled out every edition of the blade itself that I own. This is the one I read. So let's play with this one. All right. Okay. This is the one I read this edition because I bought the fancy one because I did like it. I liked it enough that I went out and bought it from Book Depository. So it came from like Europe. From Europe, guys. From Europe. From Europe. Which is where Lord Grimdark lives. So it's true. I ended up giving this four stars. I'll say that. Let's just start top. Four stars. I gave it four stars instead of five stars because I don't know what the plot is. I don't think there was one. Probably fair. I also gave it four stars. So I felt better when you said that at the end of the day. I was like, oh, me too. Like my secret. I'm like the Joe Abercrombie girl that like people tell me. It's like one of the top things that I hear from people is like, I read this because you recommended it. And I'm always like, it's like my all time favorite four star read. I love the shout out of it. Four stars. It's a very long prologue to what I'm assuming in the next two books is the actual plot. Seven, eight hundred page prologue. I feel like in general, because like the trilogy, like it's like, it does get to like, there's like a reason for everything on a plot and like by the end of it, like you get it, but it does like kind of meander and the other books kind of do that a bit too, which is why I praised kids on the camera. I don't know if you can see, but best serve cold is the standalone that comes after the trilogy. And like it's like all of the like punch of this trilogy condensed into a single book. So it's just like like all of that no meandering, no time for that is just like nonstop action. Stabbing. And it's the main character is the female, which is refreshing. Is it is it like a character we met in this? There are characters, the main female character you didn't meet in the trilogy, but there's like a lot of other characters in it either that are like working with her on because it's a revenge story. So she assembles a crew to like kill seven men. And so some of the people in her crew are from the trilogy. And then some of the other people that are like adjacently mentioned or appear like you kind of recognize from the trilogy. So it's like not a direct sequel, but it's like in the same world. Yeah. Okay, got it. But that's not the one you read. That's not the one I read. We did this with the romance books yesterday, all of the segues. So the blade itself, which I'm not going to keep holding up like a weirdo. So we just know what we're talking about. We want to hold close the things you love. It's true. It is a pretty book, but play itself. I think the best way to describe like my thoughts about it is just to go by character because like I said, there's not really so much of a plot. A lot of things happen. To start with the fuck boy. Amanda has named and I will forever refer to it. So there's this character named Zell. I was swallowing at the same time and they said that. Did that help? No. So there's this character named Gizal without swallowing during saying his name. And he is like the fuck boy of all fantasy fuck boys. And I remember texting that to you like immediately. I'm like, what kind of fuck boy is this? Maximum fuck boy. Because everything about him is just so fuck boy. And then like, but like by the end of the book, you still feel like, okay, like maybe there's hope for him yet. And then you're like, oh, maybe he does like have some real feelings and he's going to get better. And then I'm like, no, that's how fuck boys get you. Yeah. So at the end of the book. This is an Abercrombie book. So anytime you think that a character is like redemption arc. Oh, they murdered someone again. Okay, that's just kidding. That's another thing. I feel like that a lot of the humor in the book is just like, isn't that the most fucked up thing you've ever seen? Oh my gosh, like that's the joke. Or it's just like characters that you think you have like a good grasp of who they are. Like Logan, I kind of got the feeling towards the end of the book that Oh, Logan is this guy who keeps getting forced into these violent situations, but he's very much tired of violence. He just kind of wants to live his life. And then he's like, it's true. But joke Abercrombie is just like, fuck you. He's going to headbutt a gun to death and have a ball. Nope, he just likes killing. He's not like tired of it really. So I mean, every character you think you know, it's just like, fuck you. Or like, again, any character like other fantasy books would be like, but beneath it all, there's like a hidden like story of trauma to like redeem how bad they are, except usually the story of trauma, you're like, Oh, that makes them worse. Just kidding. No, there's nothing like explaining their behavior. They're just like, yeah, we just fuck up. They're just the people that other fantasy books are usually making the bad guys. And here we're like, nope, we're going to follow them. Them heroes. Or like West. Yeah, he's like the most heroic-ish. That's what I thought. But I was reading the whole time, like, Wes, I think I have a grasp of this character. He's like genuinely like kind of like a hero character. Like he's trying to do his best. And he's like a good guy. And he's like, Oh, really? Hold my beer. He's about to beat up his sister. It was just one thing after another. It's just like he like lulled me into the sense of like feeling safe. And he's just like, I'm about to fuck shit up. So who hurts you, Joe Abercrombie? It's probably like in interviews, like people have like asked him that before. Basically been like, do you have like a really traumatic background that like all of this is just catharsis for? And he's like, I live the most vanilla boring middle class average life. He was like, so that's where all this comes from. It's like all of like, my life is the most boring thing ever. So he's like every like depraved thought he's ever had puts it into a story. Yeah, I mean, there's the violence is like intense. Like, well, there's no sex in the first book, right? Is there? No. Okay. I mean, Giselle wants to with that one girl. This is like he does. Joe Abercrombie does put like sex scenes into the thing, the trilogy. I think it's in the second one. Is it with Logan and that that wild lady? Spoilers. But point me, I feel like they're gonna bang like they just are. Point being the banging is just as grimdark as all the violence. I can see them banging in it not being good. My favorite word which encapsulates it is squelching, much squelching. I like to read some fluffy rom-coms every once in a while and there's no squelching. In my video where we discussed the bodice represent made you read, you actually kind of liked a couple of them. Yeah, I did. So that's like a preview if you want to see Liana read outside of her comfort zone and actually like it. Yeah, I actually did. No squelching involved. No squelching. Well, like and we did totally talk about this in another video that like some of like the like the scarred hero type person in the rom-com. I'm used to the scarred hero being like the center of a grimdark fantasy like Logan nine fingers. So like it was so weird for me to basically have Logan but like he's a duke with like a wife and they're banging and making jokes. I'm just like, but I know he's like a grimdark tragic hero. But also comedy. Basically. Lovey-dovey. It's taking one of these characters and putting them in a completely different context. Basically. The sex had zero squelching. Very very romantic. It was it well I mean sometimes it was just fucking but it was like good fucking. Yeah, it wasn't Abercrombie fucking. I'll save myself here. Acquire the taste. Eventually when I drank it up I was fine. But okay. So now tell me about my favorite character. Sand and Glockta. How did we feel about Sand and Glockta? I kept thinking the whole time that dentures existed. But for every other tooth? Yeah. Someone can figure that out. Like he had something to else to spend his money on. Like I'm just saying. Dentures existed in this like time period. They could have figured it out. Maybe not in the world of the first law. They didn't invent dentures. Then no one gets teeth. That's like the one thing I'm just like he could have fixed this. That's like a fixable thing. The rest of his body's pretty damn broke. I mean you can't fix the rest of it and that's unfortunate. But like teeth were fixable. I guess it may have been just like a why bother when everything else is also broken. But then he could chew. I guess. I mean it's a fair point. Yeah so that yeah. But anyway Glockta likes to grin at people with his horrendous missing teeth grin. His jack-o-lantern smile. So like it's kind of like also a thing he uses on purpose to like unsettle people. Yeah well Glockta I think used to be Giselle when he was young. And now he's just like I am a creature. I like to always say that Glockta is like Jamie Lannister. If Jamie Lannister got like broken AF and came back and was like well. Well I'm missing most of my teeth and a lot of other parts. I don't know good. I don't like oh no. I'm sorry. Then I just started thinking about what else he's missing. So then I just went down that rabbit hole. I'm like everything. He did something wrong to his junk. Play his. I don't know if he has it anymore. You find out. He kept saying he has to sit down to pee. So I'm like oh well sorry. Cheers to your junk Glockta. Yeah so you can tell I read a fair amount of romance if like the first thing you're thinking like but does his junk work. I mean especially if I feel like even in a grim dark fantasy or like any kind of like man centric fantasy that does like frequently come up also. Yeah. His dudes like pairing. He comes up. Not for Glockta. Not for Glockta. Moment of silence. But like like I said I read so many romances. I'm just like where's his like who's gonna love him anyway. Why did I think to myself like when I first read it that Glockta because like okay for people who don't know. Sandan Glockta is basically like Jamie Lanister like a attractive young like extremely like successful night type dude who's a complete prick and then he gets captured by the enemy in war and they torture the shit out of him which is why his missing habits to eat body is broken. He's like a mess and then he comes back from the war because he survived that and the government's like what do we do with you. So they make him a torturer. So he like tortures confession. An inquisitor. An inquisitor. And so when people like he's like he knows how to torture people because it's been done to him. Yeah he learned firsthand. Yup and so when people try to threaten him he's like make my day. What could you possibly do to me? That was not already done to me. But I feel like if this was not Joe Abercrombie like if this was written by like Terry Goodkind or if it was in a romance novel Glockta would be like kind of broken but like some part of him would still look good and then you'd have that like redemption like female seeing that he's like fine and he'd like. Yeah or you'd have it be like in Treat Me where the guy is like literally a freak show. She's like listen I've seen corpses so I've seen worse. Glockta like doubles down on being awful. He likes to torture people that's like his thing and I mean it's kind of the only thing he has going but then he has that one scene with West. He's like oh like I'd like to have a friend again and you're like he's like the Grinch in his Parker three sizes too big. When he came back from the war like because he was popular and then when he came back all like tortured and broke and like no one wanted to have anything to do with him so he was just like fuck all y'all. But it turned out like his friend did try to come see him. West who I thought was a nice character who then like horribly beat his sister and like strangled her. Speaking of how did you feel about Artie West? Artie West um like the main female character of the story. I am so I would want to read a whole spin-off where she's the lead of it. She's definitely in like more. Fascinates me endlessly because I don't know what her angle is. What's her fucking angle here? Her fucking angle. I know everyone got like a boner for her apparently. Because she's also like because she's kind of lower class not like the total like delicate pasty white female but she's ballsy and you know. Yeah but then like and then just all would go on and on. He's like well she's not really conventionally attractive but like I'd banger and then like he starts to like really really like her eventually. And then all those pasty like delicate females is like God you're boring compared to Artie. So like I don't know I don't know. Anyway Artie I don't know what her angle is yet but I'm so fascinated. Oh I can't wait for you to read the next books. I ordered the next books I tell you. And I ordered these editions so they match. They're so pretty too. Friendship. I want her and Glock to like team up on stuff. No comment. Well they were teaming up at the end of it. Mm-hmm. But then oh but Glock is leaving isn't he? Yeah yeah okay. Anyway everyone's leaving at the end of the books. Everyone's going off in different directions. True. But Glock does just like listen I don't care who you fuck. I just need you to not like die because like your brother's cool. Pretty much. I love one of my favorite things is Glock does internal monologue because like have his corrupt bosses and he knows exactly how stupid and corrupt they are but he also knows that he has to like nod and smile and like bow and scrape. But his internal monologue is just like so snarky and sassy and just like having none of it and live for it. Like anyone who's ever been frustrated at work is like I feel you Glock. Yeah I feel you. I like the wizard. I can't remember his name right now. Oh Bayez. Bayez. He's like the only character that like didn't like shock me you know what I mean? Like I understand that character. Do whatever come he didn't fuck with him yet. I said yet. I said yet. He's like well he's kind of like the conceit of the trilogy is kind of taking traditional fantasy arcs and tropes like the hero's quest, the wizard, the like broken hero, like the broken knight kind of thing and kind of shitting on all of them. So like Gandalf type who's Bayez. He's not exactly like wise and benevolent and like you know he doesn't really make you feel. He's like R rated Gandalf. He doesn't really fill you with a sense of like everything will be fine because Gandalf's here. You're just like uh I'm glad Bayez is on our team. Yeah but that's the thing like he's like as a character I understood because he's always just like kind of snarky and like cheating and being in thick and like that's his like thing because he knows when it comes down to it. He's gonna win any fight he gets into because like he's also horrifying when his magic comes out. I was gonna say like that was one of the things that like I don't think I really ever talk about when I talk about the books or like with people who I convinced that like Huey Joab probably writes magic it's not in it much and when it is it's like really unsettling and you're just like yeah oh don't use it. It's like you're fucking with nature and I'm not comfortable with it kind of like vibe which I felt. Bayez also talks about that too it's just like hey you know don't fuck with some shit that's some shit like because if you start eating people or something I don't know there's also people who eat people in this and like that's also a joke too in it because they find like a body that had been eaten and they're like the whole joke of that scene is like isn't this fucked up? Yeah and they're kind of trying to like convince him it was dogs he's like but it was the people so he's like a person of undeterminate sex or age was eaten to death by another person that's all you know. That's like become like a magic thing too where like it's sort of like the cost versus payoff of like if you're willing to do something that horrible and unnatural as eat humans then you get power out of it but it's like a really fucked up power that like messes with you so there's just like the sense of like anytime you're doing something that's magical you're like fucking with the natural order of things and that is like not right like and you don't feel right about it even if you're like they like Logan when he's near Bayez using magic just like being adjacent to it he's like I don't feel comfortable right now like I feel that things are being fucked with that should not be fucked with. Kind of like Logan say whole thing he's just like listen I don't want to fucking know I know a lot of shit and it's never done me any good I just want to just do what's happening right now don't tell me about your epic plans I don't give two shits. Doesn't pay to know. But then he goes full berserker you forget that Logan is a berserker like that's his thing he calls they call him Logan nine fingers or the bloody nine because he's a fucking berserker he's known for like murder. There's a reason the North men are like the bloody nine is like oh shit oh shit yeah because you kind of forget because we see him trying not to be in violence and violence just keeps coming to him but he's always defending people he's trying to save people so you kind of get the sense of him they're like oh he's like he's kind of like legit like the Hulk where like when he's like normal scientist man he's like I'm just trying to like live my life just like peaceful whatever like I don't want to get in your shit but if you trigger him holy shit he will headbutt you to death he headbutted someone to death like he he he burst the other guy's head with his head that takes like a lot of headbutting yep berserker and a lot of he had the best time doing it too it was like a lovely Sunday afternoon yep so lack of plot aside fun experience yeah I gave him four stars I thought it was well written I I even if like the things that like are very violent and we're bothersome there's just like just Joe Abercrombie spitting in my face basically but he wrote it really well so I'm like fine to spit on me I guess I just feel like I don't like you can tell me if this is your experience but like did you I feel like even though the subject is really dark and the people are like not good the magic is dark there's blood and violence I never really feel like super depressed or weighed down like the writing style is just kind of like that's just how it is like I don't ever feel like like gross like I don't know I feel like other like Grimnar fantasies I'm just like this is like heavy whereas with Joe Abercrombie I'm just like that's some fucking shit that's like the general tone but he does have a few moments in there where he lets it be fucked up without the joke like uh the end of part one where Logan has to sorry these are all spoilers but I'm assuming everyone who's on Leanna's channel has probably read this but like spoilers there's a like horrible Grimnard violent thing that happens in the book like who you know um like Logan when he has to kill that guy who he like respected yeah and the end like the last line of part one is just like like he's tired of it he just I wish the violence was over like I'm tired of living this way yeah so that's like a moment where you're like oh that's heavy and then several children get murdered in this and they let that be heavy too they're like yeah that was fucked up yeah they don't make a joke out of that even like um Logan's friends like they show up every once in a while too which I really want them to all get back together no comment I'm sure they will at some point they're both going in the same direction they're gonna cross paths but um I really want them to get back together and be like a friend group again because there are all this a bunch of berserkers going around killing bad guys in the countryside and occasional children which is horrible but I think you see it more than later books but like the interaction of the northmen who are kind of you get this like sort of like Vikingy pagan like they're kind of more wild vibe from them and when they interact with sort of the civilized empire forces when they like anytime those paths cross the way that people are just like oh my god they're just like so uncouth and these guys are like yeah well this is war so we're effective at it you guys are less so but like when Logan's in the capital he's just like they're always finding ways to make easy shit harder like why are they eight steps to doing this like can't I just have a chamber pot no I have to go down the down the like this hallway to the privy where my junk like sways in the wind uncomfortably like he's just like I couldn't just eat in this bowl what's going on guys but even the title of the book kind of like what you were saying about how this like over like tone and theme of sort of like everyone not just Logan more probably than other characters but a lot of the characters like Glokta he's like the victim of war that everyone's kind of like over it when it comes to violence it's not like something that everyone's just like I'm so excited to go to war no one is excited to go to war everyone just like I guess and like the name of the book the blade itself comes from that quote the blade itself incites to violence and how like all these men like half weapons are around weapons are in like a war-centric political and like geographic culture and area and they all just like there's like no option to not engage your violence when you're surrounded by it and they're all like this sort of this ennui that I feel like I resonate with because it's not I feel like a lot of fantasy books are like war and honor and like fight the battle for the battle and these guys are just like oh war war there's also no clear good guy or bad guy so it's just all just people fighting each other for seemingly stupid reasons yeah and like it's a lot of the boots on the ground being like why are we in this war like someone told us to fight I guess I'm fighting now yeah so I mean it does do some like cerebral interesting things and has like you know some interesting thought experiments in it too but also it's just horribly violent it's quite violent because I do tend to like warn people like it's very violent like don't just like pick it up and read it like be sure you want to read something that my own and grim and probably I over like warn people because both I think Mara and Jade were like it wasn't as dark as I expected after you had said it was so so dark and I was like that's better than the way around if I'd been like read it and they're like oh my god this is so dark it was as dark as I expected it to be which was pretty dark I think I don't know why like they wouldn't find it as dark maybe because I read more fluffy rom-coms but for me it was just it's a complete opposite of what I'm used to but it's just it's very dark and I think if you I don't know I feel like I just connected to the characters a bit and I felt that darkness with them well again like I think it's also just the fact that his like tone is more sort of like like it's a lot of like sarcasm and a lot of like that's just how shit is as opposed to like something really like constantly philosophizing and being like how depressing and dark it is that I have must kill and kill again it's more just like I have to kill so that I can live okay how it is yeah and I don't know I felt like just having to live like that and that's like their normal existence to be extra sad so like I don't know maybe I felt like a bunch of hamlets running around being like what is life yeah it's like stamp either I die or you die and I'm picking you yeah although okay so when I first started the book my favorite character was Logan just because he's kind of sarcastic and he just like by the end of the book though like I'm like a little horrified of him though I think you're meant to be yeah I think I'm not like trying to like over exaggerate like oh no like he also literally doesn't remember what he does when he like yeah because he switches in turn becomes a completely different version it's like hulking out yeah literally like when the Hulk's like I don't know what I did as the Hulk because I became the Hulk yeah so we're a little horrified of him at the end but like when you first meet him he's just like how am I still alive like I fell off a cliff I feel like I like that too that that um it's a thing he does like throughout his books um and I've seen this book as well where like not every character but a lot of his characters kind of develop what feels like a mantra so like with Logan 9 fingers it tends to be like I'm still alive I'm still alive I'm still alive like you just like cannot quite believe that he still is but he's like that's the bar like I can't expect more than that and then with Glock it's why do I do this because like his whole life is pain his job is to inflict pain and he's like why why do I even bother to get up like why do I do this why and like I just feel like this like recurring theme with each of them where it's not like some heavy-handed super philosophical theme it's just more of like a yeah like the situation there and where they're like this is the level we're working with. What was Giselle's name? Fuckboy? I mean I also really like appreciate how and you'll see more of obviously Giselle's character in the second and third books he probably has the most thorough like actual character arc where like he's not the same person from the beginning as he is from the end um but that said like I just I'd like how like you're in the headspace of him where he feels totally righteous and justified in being better than everyone else around him he's like how dare you waste my time I'm attractive I'm rich why should I have to do anything I don't want to do. I'm gonna get my G-raggin and drive away like it's like that. Like when he's expected to train for a tournament he's just like why? Why? Haven't you seen me? I'm handsome. Yeah like you expect like your handsome heroic hero like hero to like when he like has to meet Glock to be humble and like sweet and he's just like no fuck y'all like in another book there's a scene where he meets Glock to and they're like sitting and talking and in another book you would expect that scene to be one of like a come to Jesus moment where Giselle's like man like I'm looking kind of in a mirror of like just like Glock to is who I could become one day like because that's sort of the path I've chosen and I should have more humility about whatever but no that is not the reaction so and Glock is like I hate you for being what I used to be I used to be attractive and an asshole and I hate you because you are me. That's some real self-loathing right there. Glock doesn't like himself now but he doesn't like. He didn't like himself even then either. It's like but the ladies liked me and I missed that. Yeah he was a fuck boy too but the chicks were great. We're gonna have it in this book or a later one where like someone is like asking making him get out of bed and I think he's shat himself again and that's in this one. Well probably again. He like sings a song about eating oatmeal and it's like this like like moment of like kind of like slightly off your rocker where he's had it with like acting normal so he just like does this thing songy little dance about how much he loves oatmeal even though he like fucking hates oatmeal and like his like practicals don't know what to do about that because they just like their job is to get him up and out of bed and he was just like lost in for a second. I don't remember if that happens in this one or not but I remember he does shit himself regularly. That probably happened. That happened and I think he does do weird things in here to his practicals who are just like we don't know what to do now. They're not smart but they're fairly reliable. Yeah. I feel like the way Glokka talks to his practicals is a little bit like in the book of Harry like the Harry Potter books the way that Harry talks to Dudley when he knows he's making jokes that Dudley doesn't get to insult Dudley. That's how Glokka treats his practicals. He's like I know you don't understand what I'm saying and I'm insulting Don't worry I'm hilarious. So yes I did just compare Sand and Glokka to Harry Potter. To future Harry. I don't think anyone's ever done that before. You're welcome. Logan, Sand and then Dissol and then the Wizard those are like the main characters already in West but they're more like tertiary characters I think and then like Logan's pals. Who else? I don't know I'm just gonna talk about the wizard. He's the only character that I really genuinely kind of like. I feel like his condescension. That's the exact word I couldn't think of. He's just like had it with these like because he's clearly like really ancient and very wise but in that Sherlock way where he's just like oh you small-brained little fools. I don't know why I waste my time with you I know so much more than you. Yeah he's always like so comfortable in every situation he's in and he'll say like weird stuff and just be a complete jackhole like to everybody but he's just like in the end like I'm going to win this fight like he's like so comfortable with everything so I just like his vibe and he's also like and then he like he blew up a wall naked and I was like that's a lot. He'll like come across as like chill and like he'll totally talk to you and be like really relaxed and calm and like yeah he would like smoke a pipe with you and then if you say something like if it's all been leading to like something else or if you're disagreeing with him and he like flips the switch and he's like he goes full like full wizard like when um what's your face in Lord of the Rings which he's like I'll have an evil queen he's like that's a flip. That's how like little Gandalf's like really chill but then when he's in in Bilbo's house and he's like all of a sudden like darkening the house and being like Bilbo Baggins. Yeah is that but like it's scarier because like you're not sure he's on the side of good anymore and you're like this stuff is about to get fucked up and your hope and it's not you essentially. It's beyond my team still plays to him. Like his magic is like you were saying early it's unsettling what happens when he uses it so he's just like because Logan's like hanging out with him he's kind of like a bodyguard and he just he burns down the entire forest he's just like Logan's like speechless and that boy's like all right pretty much. Like guess let's go. I feel like that's Logan's attitude towards life most of the time. What have I got myself into? What is happening? Okay so like I said there's not like a ton of plot here yeah that's a lot of like there's all set up pieces and yeah little like pieces so I don't really know what the story is about at all yet. I know it has something to do with these north the king in the north guy who's going to invade I forget all the character's names like immediately. There's a lot of characters. There's a lot of characters. Like what we call you like the forehead guy and the forehead guy and then like the lizard boy. Anyway they're not from this book they're from something else. They're from Teen Wolf. It's totally relevant. Teen Wolf really likes this show friendship. Anyway so king of the north guy. King of the north guy. He's planning some shit. He's like I'm going to invade England or whatever. It's England instead of England. I'm like okay he's like are you going to invade over there? He's just like no that should be mine. They do. Yeah and the fantasy story is more land. Must be mine. And he sent that like weirdo guy who's like stabbing himself saying I'll duel you for it. I'll duel you for England. He sent like this demon guy so I assume that has something to do with something and then the wizard guy he's just like oh we got to get in that tower. I got to grab this thing the seed and then there's this like who's that the slave woman? Oh um I forget her name. I'm pretty sure her and Logan are going to bang and it's going to be terrible but anyway we could find out. Anyway he keeps saying something called the seed and I'm assuming she's related to like the maker somehow and he's he's going to do some magic with her. Like I read the book. I'm trying to figure out what's going on with it. Okay I'm trying to find her name. I swear it starts with a V. We're going to find it. We're going to find it. Keep talking. Oh look. Oh I'm thinking we must guess her name. I've read this book more than once. Oh it's a pharaoh. Yeah that sounds right. I'm in the one called the bloody nine that chapter. That's the berserker chapter and I know he's with her so I'm like yeah because even she's like holy pharaoh. Yeah you're right pharaoh. She's like move pink. She calls everybody pinks because like I'm assuming she has brown skin and everyone else has pink skin so she just calls everyone pinks. She's she's not very friendly. Yeah she's pretty prickly. She's like female Logan I'd say you know slightly less terrifying like she doesn't go berserker at any point. But she was cool with it when he did. I mean it worked out to her advantage and it got them out of there. They're kind of friends now. It's handy. I just feel like they're going to bang and it's going to be terrible. Squelching. Much squelching. They would never have good sex with each other. It's going to be bad. I don't think anyone has ever had good sex in the Ever County book. I mean if anything like that does happen you're like the only reason this is happening is because something more terrible is about to happen. The only reason this is like anytime anything good or seemingly good is happening you're like this can only mean bad things. There's no way he's letting this actually be like happiness. No. Does Giselle ever get with Arty? No comment. Just tell me. I'm going to watch it. I didn't want to google it. Well to find get with. Like she said she would wait for him. I don't think she's going to wait for him. And then I don't know if he's going to like she's probably going to have sex with him but not like want to be with him. Correct. Knowing these characters I'm just guessing. I'm really going to guess in the future. It's not like redemption in wedding bells if that's what you're watching. Is he just going to be really disappointing in bed? And she's like I don't need to be tied down to that. It's more Ever County than that. No comment. Oh poor guy. No enough poor guy. He's a fuck boy. He keeps getting me. This is how fuck boys get you. Because he's so pretty. Oh one of the these like mass mic so this is Logan on the cover. UK mass market paperbacks. They have this is a glockta on the cover. Okay. I want to see. And then I like I feel that's like kinder version of glockta that I wouldn't be smiling. No I'm just like that's even like not horrible. Like I picture like he's gollum. Pretty much like that looks like he's a human. You know what I mean. He's like very cut off though. So the gollum part is yeah no like his face. He doesn't look like he has like a mudflap for a face. Like I feel like that's like kind version of glockta. I feel very vindicated in comparing like well I guess I mean like compare glockta to the Jamie Lannister but Giselle's kind of Jamie because this is Giselle and he looks just like Jamie Lannister. I don't picture Giselle like that either though. But he's definitely like yeah like you know I picture well like this is not going to make any more sense to you but like whiskey um so whiskey makes sense to me. Whiskey is making my brain make connections because I picture um what's his face Giselle. I picture him the same way I picture Cassius from Red Rising. Okay. They're like the same face to me kind of like a curlier blonde head. I just feel like Cassius is actually like like good like stuff and Giselle is like possible but also rich and attractive. But he's like good at stuff too. But he's not that good because he like he was totally like going to lose his duel and he doesn't want to train like he's like ight. But then he's like won all those battles in the end. But well the wizard did cheat. The wizard did cheat. But like fighting against that like behemoth guy I'm like no one's going to win. He held us out though. Not relevant. Sorry we went off on another series of lives. You watch my channel you also read Red Rising or you should expect to hear it reference. That's in our center of our Venn Diagram. We both literally have Abercrombie and Red Rising books like mushed together in one section right there. That's in the center. You know that's like a commonality book. But yeah so he's like Cassius to me. I see that. Because Cassius is a fuck boy too when you first meet him. But more of a fuck boy. Cassius is the better of the two men. But like I feel like they're similar. The way I picture Cassius is the way I picture Giselle. By the way I'm going to bring this up because I sent you this text when I was reading Giselle. I was going to ask you about that. So there's this song by Lizzo called Because I Love You. Go watch that video. Listen to the lyrics. Tell me that's not fucking Giselle. It's basically his fucking theme song towards the end of the book. When I reread the blade itself again it will 100% be fuck boy fuck boy fuck boy. I will have that sound like song playing in the background. When he finally changed my Abercrombie experience. He decided he's like in love with Addy. Not that he knows what love is really. But like that song is like perfect. I'd play it but you have monetization so let's not get demonetized. Okay we'll look it up. You have homework. We'll put a link. We'll put a link to it in the description. You'll do that. For Amanda's video followed by the soundtrack you need to listen to when you read Giselle's chapters in the book. You're gonna have a lovely Saturday. Changing your life fact. One book at a time. Yeah so I mean this has pretty much been a success because you went out and bought the trilogy and I ordered like two of the three books that I read from the video down below. So Amanda made me read. Yeah you know read something you're not usually wanting to read. Sometimes you find something really cool. You didn't think you're like find a friend who will make you read their favorite because it can work out. Leon has gotten me to read a lot of books so this was kind of me being a Slytherin being like I'm gonna make you read these. I did and bought them so there you go. I bought a lot of them. You maybe read Radiance. Which Radiance. Radiance. In Treat Me. I read a lot of books I know that you said like you're not reading this Jack of Ape. Well it's because you read romance and I have like two romance books that I know. Here you go. Read those. Now we have something in common. Yay. Now okay so the books I made you read are by Tessa Dare and I will say and Alona Andrews but you didn't like that one so we're just gonna pretend like that didn't happen even though this is one of my favorite books. Anyway Tessa Dare. I talk about Tessa Dare a lot on my channel. She writes historical romances but they're legit very funny. They're very funny. Like for someone that reads Grim Dark to go read that and still think they're funny and kind of good. Well also like as I told Amanda like one of my favorite things in the book that she tricked me into reading because it wasn't one of my assigned reading books but it was like the next book and she was like I brought it with me. Kate you want to read it and I was like I did kind of slide the book at you and be like so. She was like the Duke and it is more of a fuck boy and I was like I don't think I'm about that. She's like but his wards are like Wednesday Adamses that are obsessed with death and kill their dolls and have funerals for them and I was just like okay I will read this. I'm intrigued. You've had me Wednesday Adams. So if that's a trope wards that kill their dolls give me more of those please creepy children. This is a fantasy romance trope that I'm I'm here for. So yeah I think that does it. So moral of the story read outside your comfort zone for real like you too Liana do it more but also read the first lot trilogy. I'm going to finish it. Yeah check out the video down below which is on Amanda's channel us doing wines and bodysurpers. I did drink a lot of wine like it was like we finished the bottle and then I spilled by wine at 1.2 like it's kind of messy. She did not finishing it. One for the homies you know. So anyway yeah check out Amanda she's fabulous. She posts videos way more often than I do so if you want like regular content not like months a week if we're lucky then definitely subscribe to Amanda. I post videos on Saturdays so like and subscribe and I'll see you next Saturday. Okay our brilliance. I'm going to do intro talking. Yes we know what we're doing.