 Welcome to a reading vlog. Isn't that right, Kaz? Kaz with speed. She's on the mend. She's almost done with her comb, but got a little bit more comb life left, so that'll be lots of fun. I haven't done a vlog in a while. Hey, stop that. I haven't done a vlog in a while because I mean I've been very busy and also like vlogging for my patrons kind of like gets all of like my vlogging energy out, so I just like don't feel like doing any additional other vlogs, but I do like doing regular channel vlogs as well. So now that I'm done with my ridiculous October TBR, I have a little bit more time in November, although not a ton, because like that is what's still on my TBR this month. That and three books next to me that I'm about to go over and then like I finished those already. Still a lot. It's just come October. It's like oh no. Any hoosies. Yeah, so today and tomorrow, Saturday Sunday, this is a weekend vlog. So can you tell I haven't done this in a while? I don't know what to say anymore, but yeah, I'm gonna be vlogging. So currently, I just started this morning while I was like tidying up because the house is a mess because Kaz got spayed, and so there's just like a lot around from her being on the struggle bus, and like she keeps getting like litter stuck in her cone, and then spilling that litter all over the house. And yeah, it's just been a lot. So like I kind of like left things because I'm like she's just gonna ruin it all again in two seconds. So like why bother? But it was getting ridiculous. I was tidying this morning, which is getting to the afternoon because I went to bed at 3 a.m. last night. Do not recommend. So I woke up a little later and then did some tidying, and I still haven't had coffee or breakfast yet, and we're getting to the time of it. It's almost 11 o'clock, so I guess brunch is a thing, yes, on weekends. But while I was tidying, I started listening to Half the World by Joe Abercrombie, which is the second book in the Shattered Sea. I already finished my reread of Half a King, which is the patron buddy read for October. That's that stack over there. Yeah, the second time through. I do, I will say, even though I'm listening to Half the World, and it's the same narrator, I feel like the narrator doesn't do these books justice. He's not bad. It's just like the Shattered Sea as compared to First Law feels so dry and boring and dull and flat, which sounds very harsh. But I mean, it's as compared, like it's not bad. It's just as compared to First Law, you're like, where's the pizazz? So that said, some of it's to do with the narrator, because like if you really listen to what he's saying, a lot of it is like quippy and sarcastic and witty, but he's reading it really like dead and dry and like not sarcastic, that makes sense. So like while you're going through it, you're like, this feels very serious and dry, but you're like, no, he's just all these things that are actually like sarcasm and bits of wit. He's just not reading them like that. So I kind of recommend not doing audio. It's not terrible. It's just very dry and on. I mean, he's no Stephen Paisley. That said, a lot of people said that the other books in the series are a lot better than Half a King. And I was like, well, maybe it's just the narrator, but I'm still listening to this on audio because I have it from the library and, you know, it's efficient while I'm cleaning until something to listen to. So I thought I might, you know, flip back and forth and read some of this instead of just listening to it. But even though the narrator is still the same and he still has the same kind of problems, he, this book is already a lot more interesting to me. And I barely started it this morning. I'm not referring to it. It follows the main character from Half a King is still in it, but he's not the main character. It's a different main character. There's more than one main character. We have multiple perspectives now, which Half a King didn't have. And I'm already liking it more. So yay for that. I always had hopes when people said the rest of the series is better. I was like, what for hope so? Anyway, so Half the World just started it today. Then I am rereading The Name of the Wind this month. I just barely started. As you can see. And yeah, this is my third time reading The Name of the Wind. November seems always like a good time to be reading The Name of the Wind. Because it's not an October rebook. It's like, it's not like a spooky book and it's not a Christmas book, but it is very much a fall book. So November's a good time for that. So I'll probably chug along through a bit of Name of the Wind. And I need to film some regular channel videos today. And one of those videos I need to, I mean I'm not going to try to reread Name of the Wind before I film it. And I don't need to. But Name of the Wind is going to be relevant to that video. So I kind of want to like read a bit and like get my brain heading to the halls of my mind palace where the Name of the Wind stuff is stored. So Name of the Wind. And then it's time. I think just start the wheel of time. The show comes out November 19th I think. So I want to start reading this now. And I was thinking maybe of just vlogging separately this and then my reaction to the show. But I've obviously decided to get to that because I'm considering starting it here. That said, I might vlog again later this month when I'm watching the show. And then then you'll get my thought there. So anyway I'm hoping to start the Eye of the World this weekend as well. So I have kind of a lot going on and I've got a late start. But yeah so I need to be reading those books and get as far as I can get in them. And film some regular channel videos. Vlog for y'all. And you know do some you know eating sleeping this sort of thing. Yeah I mean I feel very tired from going to bed so late. So I kind of just want to sit on the couch drink coffee. I watched Great British Bake Off for like five hours. But no we are reading. And that's part of the reason I'm vlogging. Because you know I'm vlogging and I can't just be a couch potato. I have to actually read. So I can do it. I can and I will and you shall see it. Anyway I probably should make some breakfast or something. Coffee at the very least. So let's us do that. So I'm still very much in the beginning. In this beginning bit of Eye of the World. And it's just this little girl like flapping around her town so that she can info down about us about her town and who inhabits the town and what they're like and what the town's feast days are. And what a water carrier is. And it's just like okay not exactly like an exciting start to this book. Well whatever. Older fantasy books. Older books in general. Weren't too worried about like wowing you on the first page. Like I get that. But um when people say that Robert Jordan Strongster does not characters I already think I feel like I know why. Because right this is like you know a close third person. So like it's in third person but we're clearly seeing things from the perspective of this little girl who is worried about people thinking of her as a little girl and like wants to be seen as one of the big kids but she doesn't get why like the older kids would like look romantically at each other like you know. So she's like very much a little girl. So she thinks about things kind of in a silly way which is kind of annoying but also like that's that's actually fine. That's what makes this like unbelievably the perspective of a little girl. But since we're also info dumping about the town this little girl thinks a lot of things to herself and I'm like well little kid things like that. So like for example um she's looking at this kid that she knows is a little bit older than her and she's watching him um she's observing like how he's swinging his water bucket around and um that it's probably empty the way he's swinging it. You uh and it said that she this little girl she frowned. The furtive was the only word to describe it as she was like trying to figure out what he's up to. What little girl thinks that someone is furtive? No no little girl that's who. And then similarly she's observing this other boy's mother. She says Jocelyn Abara was a pretty woman and when she smiled it seemed the sun might hide its head in defeat. I'm sorry a little girl's perspective is saying the sun might hide its head in defeat about some adult woman's smile. Like this doesn't feel like it's genuinely this kid's perspective. I mean it does because she says a lot of silly things like when she's complaining about how the kids treat her and how she's you know she's older than that whatever and she's annoyed with them and she's like proud of herself for like bringing up dolls to one of the girls and being like haha what's the great comeback and I'm like yeah that makes you seem like a kid. So this stuff doesn't so like either make this a close third person narrative from this kid's perspective or don't. But this halfway between the two is just it's weird info dumping and inconsistent character voice so far that I am. This is my introduction to this so we're off to a good start. So I'm basically editing this book in my head as I go. It's just never a good sign. But like okay so I don't like the writing style which no one is surprised. There's so many times when like yes it's overly descriptive and people plenty of people warned me about that so I went in and expecting just copious amounts of description from which there are. But the thing about even copious amounts of description like the efficient use of words is appreciated and not just because I mean like description is arguably extraneous in any amount but when you belabor the point then it's it draws the attention even more to it. You're like you're already doing description which is like again like more flavoring than actual meat and when you overdo it and you duplicate your efforts now you're wasting my time twice over if that makes sense. Like I don't want to make it sound like description is always a waste of time but it is like you know like I think I'm making sense. Anyway so I've just been generally an authoritarian style but I just felt like the perfect example of like why did no one catch this on an edit or maybe they did and he was like I like it like that which you know you know how men be. But um okay so this feller is walking around we're getting tons of description of his clothes and his quiver arrows and his bow which is in his hand and he knows how to use it because of this and such person teaching him and you're like okay that's a lot of information or whatever. So we get to hear about all the different weeds and things that he's walking on. So only trees that kept a leaf or needle through the winter had any green about them. Snarls of last year's brown bulls spread brown webs over stone outcrops under the trees. Nettles numbered most among the few weeds. The rest were the sorts with sharp burrs or thorns or stinkweed which left a rank smell on the unwary boot that crushed it. Stinkweed is a really uninspired name but I mean naming it that at least you know you don't have to explain what it is because it's a dumb name but it's clear to any reader what the stinkweed is. But no we named it something obvious and dumb and explained it. Stinkweed which left a rank smell on the unwary boot that crushed it. Do you see what I mean? Like stinkweed is already descriptive enough so just leave it at that. Or if you want to give it an actual kind of proper sounding name like an actual name for the plant make up a random jumble of syllables that sounds like the name of a plant and then explain that it's stinky. But to say stinkweed which left a rank smell on the unwary boot that crushed it I'm just like yeah no duh why are you wasting my time with this. So I don't know that it's necessary to tell me about all the weeds at all. And then you named it stinkweed which is like okay well it's very obvious what that is so. And then you explained what stinkweed is which you know what stinkweed is it's exactly what you thought it was. It's a stinky weed. So like do you see like that's why I'm like this this needs an editor because it's constantly stuff like that where I'm like I mean already the POV doesn't really match the voice because of what is being called attention to by the person where I'm like this kid wouldn't be thinking about that this kid wouldn't think those words this kid wouldn't have that perspective. And then these over descriptions were again like multi-fold. Don't need to know about the weeds but okay you told me about the weeds and then you explained the weeds. Okay okay so I don't think I'm gonna like this book but we're gonna crack on. I have spent the morning catching up on where I hoped to get to yesterday in Eye of the World because last night I ended up just finishing Luther like or calling it Luther, Lucifer. So I did I finished like the whole like what was left of this series like it's done as over so I won't just the desire to binge watch it won't allow her to distract me just got it over and done with. So yeah I'm a little over 100 pages into Eye of the World and oh my god it's so bad it's so bad that I could feel you know meh about it like I thought it extremely unlikely that I would love it and I was like maybe I'll just feel like it's it's fine like not my cup of but like it's whatever it's honestly so painful to read. It is a pointless and bad and aggravating simile and the whole time like nearly every it's exhausting to read because nearly every sentence my brain is wanting to edit it wanting to rewrite it wanting to cut it out entirely like I'm not wanting to proof it I just my brain can't stop from editing it as I go it's just I can't turn it off um and I keep thinking too about like you know Abercrombie's thing I've always asking about whatever he writes is that true and like again with all the similes like no it's not true this is why is this here this is not helping to illustrate like visually what's going on it is not helping to flesh out the characters it is just the author thought that this made it sound cool but really it just like wasted even more time and didn't help to flesh anything out and oh my god okay so one that like really operated me okay and so like they've been attacked um I guess my own spoilers but I'm hardly into it and it's like it seems very clear that that's going to happen that too like these first hundred pages almost nothing happens and I'm not just talking about like you know plot-wise nothing happens because also plot-wise almost nothing happens but I don't mind if plot-wise nothing happens if we are still really getting like a deep dive into the characters really getting to know them or getting I don't know a lot of lore or something like that but this is just so service-level and painfully so and I don't care that it's derivative I really don't care if things are derivative I don't even have to be original you just have to do it well you have to be writing a story that feels real and compelling and immersive and again like you can have a village and you can have a dark evil force that people are afraid of that's become the stuff of like I mean yeah like 10 billion books do that but if you do it well it doesn't matter this is not doing it well oh my god okay anyway so yeah they get attacked and uh okay all of the similes that are in what's his name ran's mind about what's going on I'm like who in the middle of panicking about being attacked by a creature that he thought was out of myth and lore would be coming up with similes in his head about how he's sneaking around like a mouse in a hawk's nest and I'm like uh and just like all of this thinking to himself things that just feels like a narrator trying to flesh things out in a way that takes all the tension out and doesn't make him seem like a character or if it is like a really dumb character and um and then so like his father and him like sort of like reconvening uh in the woods and uh you know the like the things that attack them are still nearby so they're like you know trying to like speak in hushed tones except having like a full-on expository dialogue where I'm like and at one point like he even draws attention to it he like tells him to hush and keep his voice down and then as soon as he said hush keep your voice down then has like a paragraph of like talking about what they need to do next and I'm like cool like crouching in the woods afraid that these crazy animal beasty demon things trollocks so they're all just they're just called trollocks anyway would come they came and attacked you and you barely escaped and think they're still around and you're crouching and hiding and you're like panicking about it we're also like trying to like figure out what to do who speaks in paragraphs at each other like this like is ridiculous it doesn't feel real it doesn't feel tense like like they're they're doing like info dumps about like what they believe about trollocks and why you know they thought they were from myth but obviously they're not and what to do next and I'm like this is not the time for this like this what why are they having this conversation right here right now can you imagine crouching and hiding from beasties and having a full-on conversation about them and about what to do no no you wouldn't you would do that later when you well and truly made your escape like having like a brief moment of just like oh my god I can't believe they're real like that would be enough that would be enough to convey to the reader that like this is something out of stories and you can't believe you're encountering them not full sentences about how like you thought they were from myth and legend but like oh wow I guess they are real like you wouldn't say all of that you just wouldn't um also you know dad got injured he got you know I guess stabbed or hurt in some way he's bleeding but also so this happened like a minute ago right you know they've just made it to the forest and they're still crouching and hiding the things that did them and his son notes that you know he's like really hot like he has a fever and I'm like who would have a fever I'm not an expert on wounds or wound care or like body's reactions to wounds but I'm pretty sure you don't develop a fever a minute after getting stabbed I'm pretty sure if you have a fever that is caused by a wound it is because that wound has has become infected so this whole he's feverish like one second after getting like if he's feverish because the blade that struck him is magical in some way well then now's the time to be thinking paragraph long thoughts Rand about how people don't get a fever when they get stabbed immediately so there must be something more to this blade maybe the blade is poisoned maybe it's a magic blade that is hurting him in some way but no he seems like it's you know upsetting that dad's been injured but it seems in no way out of the ordinary that he'd have a fever immediately immediately and I mean feverish dad who got stabbed was also able to have this paragraph long dialogue with his son about what's going on and what to do next like I just I just cannot with this I just cannot oh my god so these first 100 and what are we doing 114 pages could have been 20 pages and they could have been paced so much more economically like there I cannot even tell you how many times the village the towns people said the same thing over and over to each other in different versions of it just so you could like get a bunch of names of towns people and then get the vibe that they all think and feel this way like I mean you do not need to do that for 100 pages you don't a few a few sentences could convey this very effectively and it wouldn't like if you're worried about telling instead of showing it's doing tons of telling so if you're going to be telling anyway because the whole point of like going through it down like this and hearing what everybody has to say would be I guess in theory to show rather than tell instead of saying everybody's talking about this you know you want to show everybody time of this there's tons of telling and people just constantly speaking in expository ways that no one ever would and just the similes the constant similes that are stupid like oh my and this isn't even a simile but it annoyed me for the same reasons that the similes do but uh Rand is you know crawling around on the ground trying to like hide and get away right and uh he crawled on across the farm yard keeping as low as he could but trying to watch every direction too he had never thought he would envy an earthworm who would okay that's stupid but who would think that who would think that while they're trying to crawl away and hide from these things that attacked you wouldn't be crawling around trying to hide and be like oh never thought i'd envy an earthworm like do you see what i mean that's not like it's not helping to flesh out the character because no what character would think this way none none uh it's that line you could just cut it it doesn't serve any purpose the fact that he's crawling around got it he's crawling around makes sense what purpose does the earthworm sentence serve other than to annoy me and it well if that was the purpose it succeeded now i just mean the amount of times that people say things that are meant to make it sound old-timey or like make it sound like fantasy even though the pros and the dialogue is quite modern and basic but then they'll say things like you know oh but that is just for myth and legend or those are stories of the olden days and i've heard it told like that kind of thing where i'm just like uh-huh uh-huh great um also the number the sheer number of nouns that have been capitalized of like just regular nouns that have been capitalized to make them like a thing like people make fun of uh white dystopians for doing that white dystopians ain't got nothing on the eye of the world i should have counted how many not just how many times those words appeared because then that would be like in the hundreds but how many different just regular nouns got capitalized to mean a thing that's like special in this world oh my god i don't think i could do this like i'm really considering just dnfing this because i know it's not gonna get better i know that in fact i also know that if i was to continue in the series which i absolutely will not happen um there are books that are considered bad by the people who love this series the slog this is supposed to be one of the not sloggy ones but good ones so i would say the first hundred pages of this was a slog a slog a bs exposition content telling over showing just like absolute nonsense just oh my god oh my god has robert robert jord never meet human beings does he think people talk like this because they do not oh my god i cannot with this i'm so angry i just i just i mean i'm gonna read a little further before i decided to nf this also that yeah so like since i stayed up and watched lucifer lucifer not lucifer instead um i don't think i'm gonna film any regular channel videos today because i would like actually like to get some reading done all the reading that i didn't get done yesterday because i watched lucifer and lucifer why do i keep calling it lucifer i know lucifer's also a show a show that i like but um yeah so i think my new method is going to be because i these are all if you are wondering why i have tabs when i clearly have not gone that far in the book yet um these are just like goal chunks for like when i sit down to read so i'm not like oh my god i have to finish this whole book i can never uh with longer books i often put like reading checkpoints in so like my goal is and to finish it my goal is to get to the next sticky i guess roughly like a little over a hundred pages for each sticky but anyway yeah so i think my new method is going to be to uh treat myself to a chapter of name the wind after each sticky uh it's like a reward for getting through it however that might be a terrible idea because i already think that this is badly written and then to juxtapose it so immediately with the prose of patrick roffus might be unduly cruel to the eye of the world which never had a chance in hell of measuring up to patrick roffus even at its best so maybe i won't do that but i need something some kind of carrot to get me through anyway so that's how i'm doing with this i hate it i hate it so much i hate it so oh wow very rude child so i originally planned to make it to my second checkpoint not quite gonna make it i don't think um i'm at page 174 i finished chapter 10 i might read a bit more today but honestly i hate it so much um so yeah like i don't care that it's derivative i really don't i i almost never care that things are derivative like that's never gonna be the thing that i complain about it might be a thing that i point out um i'm more likely to apologize for it in something that i like than to complain about it in something that i dislike um but so well hello cans yes precious when i say hi to everybody they're really here to see you not me everyone thinks you're way cuter especially what you're called are you the cutest little baby kitty black my face that's who you're here to see i know what's going on baby yeah you're okay anyway um yeah back to the eye of the world um there's just so many things okay so i've already already complained about the sim i think i complained about the similes there's so many similes and they're not good similes and they're they're both not good in terms of like describing or helping to describe the thing they're also not good in terms of developing characters they're just like extra what's the matter baby you want to reunite the world and then there's just like a ton of little things that like make the world not actually feel like it's well built or well thought out um it's just like been oh what's like an old-timey vibe without actually like making any kind of sense like there's like white linen napkins at the inn in this backwater town and they have a a down comforter using the word comforter and i'm like do they have comforters in like koala medieval villages i don't think so and i think like it's really really like they have like a goose feather pillows and whatever and i'm like i don't know this seems a bit fancy for this tiny town but whatever and then there's this whole thing of uh so they're leaving the town now right because like because this is the fellowship of the ring so they've been attacked by trolleycks you know now they're leaving to go on the grand adventure the grand quest and they need a horse and so rand his dad's like doing better now he's on the mend but he was interviewed leaving his dad no on his own because he's going off on this quest and the horse that like fled when the trolleycks attacked it actually went to the town so the horse is there and that's the only horse that i am as far as i can tell that rand and his father have and so now this like girl from the town wants to go with them on this quest and she's basically doing a marion tip in where she's like i'm coming to where are we going and they're like we're being attacked by trolleycks and she's like that's ridiculous you just want to go see the world i'm coming to no one disabuses her of this like i don't i guess it's being played for last but i mean like she doesn't believe her peers when they say this is happening but the ace to die moraine is standing right there and she doesn't go like no mean they're serious like they are really being pursued by trolleycks so just you know if you do still want to come with us that's important to know no she doesn't she just let this girl think that this is just a for fun adventure which is just irresponsible and stupid and just really stupid but anyway so they need another horse now for this girl that wasn't supposed to go on their quest so rand volunteers their horse fella and as far as i know that's the only horse that he and his dad have he's leaving his dad now with like a farm that has no more sheep in it because the trolleycks killed them all and there's like other mastic cleanup and his dad is still recovering from this like life threatening injury that he had and now he's gonna not have a horse because rand was just like i'm offering our horse not asking dad about it just we're digging the horse too and he uh mentions or like he's thinking to himself that he usually when he does ride bella which isn't often because i guess they use her to like pull the cart um he usually rides her bareback she's not used to having a saddle so when he grabs a saddle to put on her she's like weirded out by it and i'm just like who's saddle are you using like if you don't regularly use a saddle for this horse presumably you don't own a saddle for this horse so who's saddle are you taking because in a small village like this where you're complaining about the fact that your crops are failing as the sheep are being killed and you're like a very small town out in the middle of nowhere like the just end of the world you don't just have like extra saddles lying around like that's an expensive thing to have so like did you you wouldn't just like casually have one lying around like oh no one's using this let me just take this saddle like that belongs to someone and this isn't addressed and it's like stuff like that where i'm like i wouldn't have questioned it if they had just said well to use our horse and like i got her saddle on her and we're going to go like i'd still question him taking the horse away from the dad probably needs it but i wouldn't question the saddle thing but you've gone out of your way to tell me that you don't use a saddle with this horse but you're just grabbing a saddle and playing it on his horse and i'm like who's saddle so like felt like that just completely rips me out of the story all the time because like the characters are thinking things that they wouldn't doing things that like i'm like have more questions than answers about that like we get tons of info dumps about how they shear their sheep and whatever hey stop that cuz um but then there's like a whole saddle situation and i feel like i'm making a big deal about the saddle but it's still like that where i'm like it's the little things that like if you're gonna constantly throw bullshit detail at me that i know what asked for about like the names of the weeds in the forest that you're trampling on well then you can't not think about the details when it comes to something like a saddle because like honestly that is immersion breaking because if you want me to feel like this is a real lived in world then the having or not having a saddle would be important to this person's life it would be more logical it would be more reasonable for ranch to be thinking about where he's going to get a saddle from when his horse doesn't have one then for him to be comparing or saying that he never thought he'd envy an earthworm when he was trying to run away from the Trollix what baby what i have a similar problem with like the mayor or you just like tossed out the fact that you have a mayor and i'm like is the mayor elected is the is this is a hereditary position are you guys paying taxes to any kind of like central government or are you out on your own here and there is no central government because that is not been addressed we get a lots of info dumping about other things but i'm like i don't actually know how this world and economy works so like again if you didn't say that he was a mayor if he was just like a town elder then i'd be like sure a town elder but a mayor that's a very specific position so i'm now asking how do you have a mayor who chooses the mayor who made him the mayor does the mayor answer to a governor like how does any of this work so you're going off on this quest to this wider world and i'm like i don't even understand how this like little microcosm works because you've told me a lot of bullshit detail about stuff that i didn't need to know about but then neglected to consider the details when it comes to other things so like you kind of have to do all or nothing if you're going to bother with that amount of detail so i hate it basically i hate it the pros is bad characterization is bad frankly the real building is at least poorly described um and of course then it is extremely derivative and like it being derivative is not it's major crime that's just like doesn't help like because at the very least if everything else that i just said was true but there were some really original world building ideas i'd be like all of that is still true so like if you need to fix it but at least you've got some fresh ideas so like at least we can say that for it but we can't say that either because it's completely derivative so i cannot think of a single positive thing to say about this book like literally like i can't do a compliment sandwich because i cannot think of a single compliment to pay it i hate it i hate it i hate it i hate it so much so excited to crack on with it oh it killed me now anyway um i gotta feed this little hellion who's whimpering and winding at me is that what you want you want food you can hear that but anyway um thanks for watching if you're still here um and let me know all the things in the comments down below i post videos on saturdays other random times as well definitely saturdays so like and subscribe join my patreon if you want to see more vlogs and i'll see you when i see you