 Hello and welcome to the first regular video I'm filming for this channel in this new location. Hopefully it's not too echoey or anything. Feel free to let me know if it is. I'm also very sick today, so if I sound weird or anything that that also might be part of it. But, you know, today I'm here to talk about Arclight, which I have here, and it's not very good. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. You know, I can't say that nothing happened in the story. I can say that absolutely nothing interesting happened in the story, at least in the first book. And I have read the second one that's a little bit better, but there's also a third book, which I will not read. You know, like there is nothing worth experiencing here. Like, even though there's a few bits scattered throughout the books, which are kind of enjoyable, the rest of it is just so nothing that there's not even much to complain about, really. Like, I can't even point to it and say, yeah, that character moment was kind of stupid, or that makes this person look like an asshole, or this bit of the world building doesn't make much sense. Like, there's just nothing there. And I think a lot of other people agree with me. Like, other people who read at least the first book just decided not to go past that. Because on Goodreads, the first book has 4200 ratings, which is not bad, actually. That's a moderately successful number. I think that's a moderately successful number of readers who have came out and read your book. And even if it's not super highly reviewed, people were intrigued enough to pick it up. But the second book has 742 ratings, and the third book has 11. Not 1100. 11 people read the third book and rated on on Goodreads. My God. That is an insane drop. Like, even with the setup for this book being as good as it is, because I do genuinely think the setup here is really enjoyable, there's just nothing to make it worth slogging through, because so much of it is, like I said, it's just nothing. It's not that nothing happened here, it's that nothing interesting happens. So the story here is about this place called the Arc Light. Now sometime before the story began, like a long time before the story began, these creatures called Fades appeared. And Fades are basically like ghosts, at least they seem that way at first, because when you look at them, they have like pale dead skin, they look almost like humans, but they're wearing like rags, so you can't really see them very well and their eyes glow, and they also, bright light hurts them, so they only come out at night. So they're kind of like ghosts or specters or poultry guys, whatever you want to say like that. And they appeared and they just destroyed the world. Like they, but like I said, they are hurt by bright lights, so some people manage to create this place called the Arc Light, where there's just constant bright lights all over the place, all around the perimeter, all inside the inner walls of the settlements, everything, so no Fades can get in and they've managed to survive for generations. Like I think six or seven generations by the time the book begins. So it's been a long time since the apocalypse. And the last humans live there, or at least as far as anyone knows, they are the last of humanity. And enter the main character who was a girl named Marina, and she is actually not from the Arc Play. Like they went on patrol because they heard a weird noise and they found her outside and she has amnesia. She doesn't know who she is, she doesn't know her real name. Like they named her Marina because they found her on a dock. And I hope the heater isn't destroying my sound. I apologize if it is, but they found her on a dock by a lake. And so that where the name Marina comes from, but she has no memories and a lot of people are wondering, well, who is this girl? Where'd she come from? What does this mean for us? And then the story begins. And I think that is a pretty good setup. Like we have this main character who instantly has motivation to try and figure out what's going on. All these people around her who want to help her on her journey and also think that she can help them on their journey. And we have this unique apocalypse. Like I've actually wanted to see something a little bit more supernatural in the apocalypse genre for a while because that doesn't happen very often. So what went wrong? It took me a long time to figure out. In fact, I think I was partway through the second book before I realized what exactly was wrong with both the first and second books. And like I said, nothing interesting happens here. It's not that nothing happens because sometimes books are really bad because just there's no plot. So there's nothing that happens. Like this is particularly noticeable in romance novels or novels where romance is meant to be a subplot but the subplot kind of overtakes the main story. And so it's just kind of characters, I don't know, yelling at each other and getting into petty arguments and then saying, I'm never going to talk to them again and then brooding for a little while and then coming back and saying, okay, I love you. Like, you know what I'm talking about. There are a lot of books like that that are bad because just nothing happens. But in Arclight, there are events, you know, things do happen, like characters go out and do stuff. It's just that none of these events like tie together and they don't really seem to be leading towards anything. And I realized after a while that that's because there is no conflict in this book. Like none at all. Based on the setup, there's a lot of different things that the story could have been about. You know, like a character has to want something and they have to go and try and get it but there have to be obstacles in their way, whether those obstacles be other people or some force of nature or just like their inner turmoil that they're trying to get past. Like that's what a story is. Like that's what conflict is and that's what makes stories work. But characters trying to struggle against whatever is stopping them from reaching their goal. And based on the setup, you might think that the story is about Marina going out and trying to discover her memories and find out who she is. But that's not really the point of the story. Like she does find it out, but that seems more incidental. It's not about finding a safe place. You know, like you might think, okay, the arc light is dying somehow and there's something going wrong so soon it won't be a safe haven for the fades. So they need from the fades. So they need to go and find a different place to stay which is, you know, kind of a cliche in the post-apocalypse genre. But that would be fine. But no, that's not what happens here. It's not about them going out and trying to end the threat of the fades once and for all. And it's not even really about the romance because there is a romance between Marina and a boy named Tobin and a little bit of a love triangle with another character. But it's made pretty clear early on that Marina's not really into that other guy. So it's really just Marina and Tobin. And sure, there is some time devoted to their romance but like again, there's not anything really standing in their way. So there's not a conflict there. It's just the two of them get to know each other better. They fall in love. Great. And so because of this lack of conflict which is like, again, it's so basic and so foundational that I didn't even really think to look for it. And I was wondering like what was wrong with the story. And I was thinking like higher level stuff and I realized, no, it's just this very, very basic issue. So there are events that happen. You know, characters do discover things and they do go out and occasionally find themselves in danger and stuff. But none of these events are leading anywhere because there's not really any goal because there's not really any conflict whatsoever. Like for example, the first book starts with a fade incursion into the arc light. Like a couple of fades attack and they get all the kids in school including Marina and just tell her, hey, get to the safe area while we try and fight these things off and we get our first glimpse at a fade and admittedly they do seem like mysterious and powerful and kind of scary. And so I think this opening bit is good when viewed in a vacuum. But other than showing the danger of the fades it leads nowhere. You know, like you think, okay, why are the fades attacking now when they haven't before and they do give an answer for that later but the thing is later on a single fade comes through and gets captured and it is looking for Marina. So you realize, okay, like at the beginning they were looking for her for whatever reason but like those two things are just redundant. You know, like that attack at the beginning was just meant to be an exciting opening and it didn't need to be there. It didn't lead anywhere. Now, about halfway through book two a new villain appears and this new villain does create Huzzah, an actual conflict. And so because of that the second half of book two is alright. You know, I kind of liked the sequence and for whatever reason on Goodreads Archelite is only shown to have two books in the series so I thought the second one was just the end of it but if you actually go to the author's page and look at the book she's written you can see one called Horizon which is very clearly labeled the third book in the Archelite series and the second one ends on a cliffhanger as well. But anyways, like that's part of why I liked the sequence was because I thought, okay, things are wrapping up and coming to an end and even if I wasn't super into this story it did at least end in a satisfying way. Like there is a thrilling climax against a threatening foe. Heroes have to use their wits and they barely scrape their way out of danger. Like, okay, yeah, it's not a bad sequence. But then I realized that there's a whole other book and I just gave up, you know? Because even if I enjoyed that bit it just was not worth going through all the crap I had to go through before. And so even if the third book ends in an amazing way or even if the third book itself is amazing it just wasn't worth going through all this other nothingness because that's what it is. There's nothing going on here that I care about. There are some other issues though. I don't mean to make it sound like this book is perfect except for this very basic foundational thing which prevents the rest of it from being enjoyed like no, it's actually, there are other issues here. Like for example, the Fades at first seem like supernatural entities but they're actually science fiction ones. Like the apocalypse was caused by science fiction and that was actually revealed pretty early in the book so it's not a spoiler. I think like what 40, maybe 50 pages in they just and it's not a plot twist added. The characters already know this. It's just like exposition for the audience. Like basically the Fade are actually created by Nanites. Like, you know, small tiny little machines, nanomachines, whatever you want to call them that were created in order to like go inside the human body and fight cancer cells and stuff. Like somehow they just got out of control and they turned humans into Fades but the Nanites are also susceptible to bright light and so that's, I don't know why they're susceptible to bright light but like that's what caused the apocalypse and honestly I was not a fan of that. Like I was saying, I wish they were supernatural because we don't see that a whole lot and I just think it would have been, I just think it would have been a better story. Like not just more original but just better, more fun, cooler, whatever you want to say. I just, I don't know, it would make more sense that light would hurt them as well if it was supernatural because I'm not sure why nanomachines would be damaged by bright light but whatever. So yeah, this is not a good series. It's not actively terrible. You know, I'll give it that much. It's not the worst thing I've ever read. Like the characters are all fine. You know, none of them are annoying or anything. They all do have at least a little bit of personality. They all do have a little bit of complexity to them and like, you know, multiple facets to them. That has not a lot to say but you know, they're fine. The prose, for the most part, like the way the book is written, it's just kind of average but once in a while there's a good line in there. You know, there's a couple of them. They're not a lot but there's a couple. Like, I kind of liked them. They gave like some vivid imagery and gave me a really good sense of how the characters were feeling in that moment and stuff. I liked it. And as I said, the climax of book two is genuinely really good. Like it's them fighting against these creatures. I want to give it away because if someone actually still cares then they can go read it. But they're fighting against these creatures which are not the fades they know and they're genuinely really powerful. And really threatening and kind of scary. Like it reminded me of the fades at the very beginning of the first book before they kind of made them lame as time went on. And so, again, I genuinely enjoyed the climax of book two. It's just not worth going through all of the nothingness to get there. It's just not. So at the end while I wouldn't say this book series is horrendous, it's kind of written for no one. You know, like there's just very little here for anyone to enjoy. Like if you're looking for a specific niche like post-apocalypse, like there's much better ones for you and this one is not a very good example of it. If you're looking for romance, it's not focused on that much and it's not particularly good when it is focused on. If you're looking for supernatural stuff, it's not here. Like in the end, it's just not written for anyone even though it sounds really cool from the start. So I, yeah, I don't know if I can recommend this to a single person, but, you know, I've read worse. So that's all. Goodbye. Oh my goodness. People are still watching this. I'm not sure why I thought most people clicked away before the credits started, but yeah, these are all my Patreon people and my $10 up patrons are Oppo Savalane and Olivia Rayan, Brother Santotis, Buffy Valentine, Carolina Clay, Dan Anceliovich, Dark King, Dawn, Dio, Echo, Flax, Carcat, Kitsune, Lexi Dalarme, Liza Rudikova, Lord Tiebreaker, Microphone, Nist Boy, Peep the Toad, Robi Reviews, Ruby-ish Male, Sad Martigan, Silyr the Vixen, Stone Stairs, Tesla Shark, Vaivictus, and Wesley. All of you are great and if you want your name on here, then consider becoming a patron. You get early access to my videos as well. It's a great deal. I promise. 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