I don't know why but I seriously love the way you say "Rassan", very sophisticated, sir 🤌 You're getting me very excited to give Rage of Dragons a re-read myself, I have been waiting for book 3 to do a full series binge read, but we'll see if I can resist the urge that long 🤣And YES to all you said about The Kiterunner, I felt so conflicted but I also devoured it!!
Awesome wrap up! I totally get what you mean about The Kiterunner being emotionally manipulative while still being excellent lol You're really selling me on Ada Palmer 😅
I'm reading Lions next month. I really looking forward to it. I need to figure out when I can start reading Terra Ignota. I really want to read that series. Great wrap up. Evan Winter is on my radar now. I really want to read those books.
Yessssss Prentice Onayemi is a god tier narrator, so happy you could experience the story through him this time. Those books are great and I can’t wait for my own reread before the next book comes out whenever that is. Allen’s complaints about RoD are all awful takes 😅 You make me glad I saw the movie of Never Let Me Go compared to slogging through the book, and love getting hyped to try a new series with the Palmer one!
I also like Rage of Dragons a bit better than Fires of Vengeance, they're both good books though. Your thoughts on the Kite Runner were very interesting too; I largely agree.
In July I read: «The Stone of Farewell» (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #2) by Tad Williams (Epic Fantasy, a key influence for George R. R. Martin's « A Song of Ice and Fire») «Tiamat's Wrath» (The Expanse, #8) by James S.A. Corey (Space opera) «The Warrior Prophet» (The Prince of Nothing #2) by R. Scott Bakker (Grimdark/Dark Epic Fantasy inspired by the Crusades, Silmarillion & Dune) I really have a hard time picking my July book of the month between «The Stone of Farewell» & «The Warrior Prophet»!😅 Currently reading «To Green Angel Tower» (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #3) by Tad Williams.
Looks like a pretty good reading month Jake with the one exception. Which strangely enough mirrors my reading in July also. Regarding Edge Of Tomorrow have you read the book it is based from? All You Need Is Kill (Hiroshi Sakurazaka), it's a good read, but quite different from the film. I will have to move Too Like The Lightning up my wish list. So in July I managed 4 comic books: Annihilation - Books 1 to 3 (re-read) Judge Dredd Complete Casefiles Vol 24 6 books: Thornhedge - T Kingfisher The Rage Of Dragons - Evan Winter (which is awesome) To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee The Bookstore Wedding (The Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories) - Alice Hoffman Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata (which was the exception) Crow Girls - Charles De Lint Book of the month is a hard pick between Rage Of Dragons and To Kill A Mockingbird so I'm not going to.
Hey I also finished Never let me go this month. And maybe it helps to know that it’s a dystopian instead of sci-fi set in our world. And it’s more of a tragic story and the question on what’s morally wrong or right and how unfair the world can be. But it also took me some time to get through, but the ending hit me so hard that I closed the book and needed a two full long minutes to ugly cry and process what I’d read.
I can see how it happened, I think I almost felt the emotion at the end despite really dragging through the book. Kind of a strange type of tragedy in that there was no real tragic moment, it kinda all went as they expected it to, and was unavoidable
It’s good to hear Fires of Vengeance improves the world building started in Rage of Dragons. That’s the one thing I felt was lacking in that book, but otherwise enjoyed it. Look forward to revisiting it in the future. It was great to hear your thoughts on Kite Runner. I just learned about that book a few months ago when a fellow Booktuber participated in a banned book challenge. You made it sound even more compelling.
I agree with you on Never Let Me Go being meh and Rage of Dragons > Fires of Vengeance. Do you know anymore action books as addictive as Rage of Dragons?
Great hearing your thoughts on all these! I loved the Rage of Dragons! In Fires of Vengeance, I felt like Winter addressed every criticism or shortcoming readers had about book 1, and it didn’t work me. So many people complained about Tau being 1-note, but that single-minded fury is what propelled me through book 1. He became boring to me in most of book 2. 😅
Jake I’ve heard people put Rage of Dragons in the same camp as Red Rising classifying them both as basic revenge fantasy type books. How do you think they compare and why do you think RoD is divisive?
I think they are vaguely similar except in Red Rising Darrow just gets to become OP in like a sentence, while Rage of Dragons is kinda about Tau becoming OP I don't think it is that divisive, I think it just had like 5 people in our circle who didn't like it, like it has a 4.31 rating on goodreads.
I remembering really liking Rage of Dragons and Fires of Vengeance when I read them a few years ago, and never understood the levels of criticism it gets compared to a lot of other Fantasy (aside from the romance, that was pretty bad from what I remember). Its not a favourite of mine, but I'd also happily re-read them. Also people nitpicking the title and complaining about the lack of dragons got old and annoying fast. Only novels I finished were Don Winslow's The Winter of Frankie Machine and Guy Gavriel Kay's The Last Light of the Sun, which i agree with you is underrated. Everything else I read was comics. I'm currently reading Dragon Keeper and A Song for Arbonne.
I really disliked 'never let me go' as well, it felt like such a waste of time and just put me in a bad mood by the end. I appreciate a good melancholy feeling at the end of a book, but not when it feels like I trudged through 500 miles of mud just to get slapped in the face and spit on.
Very subversive to write a book where there is really no twist or shake up at all, but maybe like....books have twists, shakeups, catastrophes, and eucatastrophes for a reason
Good work on the Palmer promotion Jake, very cool to see everyone else in the comments getting excited!
Very happy my favorite booktuber agrees with my opinion on Never Let Me Go
I'm glad I could make you happy
excited for terra 🙏
Excited for you to read Terra
I don't know why but I seriously love the way you say "Rassan", very sophisticated, sir 🤌
You're getting me very excited to give Rage of Dragons a re-read myself, I have been waiting for book 3 to do a full series binge read, but we'll see if I can resist the urge that long 🤣And YES to all you said about The Kiterunner, I felt so conflicted but I also devoured it!!
This is the first time any commenter has ever complemented my pronunciation
@@jakebishop7822 i am honoured to be the first
Awesome wrap up!
I totally get what you mean about The Kiterunner being emotionally manipulative while still being excellent lol
You're really selling me on Ada Palmer 😅
Gotta make sure I earn the check from the Ada Palmer estate
I'm reading Lions next month. I really looking forward to it.
I need to figure out when I can start reading Terra Ignota. I really want to read that series.
Great wrap up. Evan Winter is on my radar now. I really want to read those books.
Where we fight.
The world burns.
Hope you enjoy Lions!
Yessssss Prentice Onayemi is a god tier narrator, so happy you could experience the story through him this time. Those books are great and I can’t wait for my own reread before the next book comes out whenever that is. Allen’s complaints about RoD are all awful takes 😅
You make me glad I saw the movie of Never Let Me Go compared to slogging through the book, and love getting hyped to try a new series with the Palmer one!
I mean who knows maybe you will be immersed in the book, people are saying that style is very immersive
I also like Rage of Dragons a bit better than Fires of Vengeance, they're both good books though. Your thoughts on the Kite Runner were very interesting too; I largely agree.
In July I read:
«The Stone of Farewell» (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #2) by Tad Williams (Epic Fantasy, a key influence for George R. R. Martin's « A Song of Ice and Fire»)
«Tiamat's Wrath» (The Expanse, #8) by James S.A. Corey (Space opera)
«The Warrior Prophet» (The Prince of Nothing #2) by R. Scott Bakker (Grimdark/Dark Epic Fantasy inspired by the Crusades, Silmarillion & Dune)
I really have a hard time picking my July book of the month between «The Stone of Farewell» & «The Warrior Prophet»!😅
Currently reading «To Green Angel Tower» (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #3) by Tad Williams.
Looks like a pretty good reading month Jake with the one exception. Which strangely enough mirrors my reading in July also.
Regarding Edge Of Tomorrow have you read the book it is based from? All You Need Is Kill (Hiroshi Sakurazaka), it's a good read, but quite different from the film.
I will have to move Too Like The Lightning up my wish list.
So in July I managed 4 comic books:
Annihilation - Books 1 to 3 (re-read)
Judge Dredd Complete Casefiles Vol 24
6 books:
Thornhedge - T Kingfisher
The Rage Of Dragons - Evan Winter (which is awesome)
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Bookstore Wedding (The Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories) - Alice Hoffman
Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata (which was the exception)
Crow Girls - Charles De Lint
Book of the month is a hard pick between Rage Of Dragons and To Kill A Mockingbird so I'm not going to.
I have read read the book it's based on, is it a manga?
The book was released first then it was adapted into a manga version. I keep meaning to get the manga.
Hey I also finished Never let me go this month. And maybe it helps to know that it’s a dystopian instead of sci-fi set in our world. And it’s more of a tragic story and the question on what’s morally wrong or right and how unfair the world can be. But it also took me some time to get through, but the ending hit me so hard that I closed the book and needed a two full long minutes to ugly cry and process what I’d read.
I can see how it happened, I think I almost felt the emotion at the end despite really dragging through the book.
Kind of a strange type of tragedy in that there was no real tragic moment, it kinda all went as they expected it to, and was unavoidable
It’s good to hear Fires of Vengeance improves the world building started in Rage of Dragons. That’s the one thing I felt was lacking in that book, but otherwise enjoyed it. Look forward to revisiting it in the future. It was great to hear your thoughts on Kite Runner. I just learned about that book a few months ago when a fellow Booktuber participated in a banned book challenge. You made it sound even more compelling.
Of course Kite Runner is a banned book somewhere, this is why we can't have nice things
Can't believe Jake is out here not saying Edge of Tomorrow
@@readbykyle3082 i usually do, randomly forgot
I agree with you on Never Let Me Go being meh and Rage of Dragons > Fires of Vengeance. Do you know anymore action books as addictive as Rage of Dragons?
Sadly if I did you would hear about it a lot, maybe like....late Dresden books?
Great hearing your thoughts on all these! I loved the Rage of Dragons! In Fires of Vengeance, I felt like Winter addressed every criticism or shortcoming readers had about book 1, and it didn’t work me. So many people complained about Tau being 1-note, but that single-minded fury is what propelled me through book 1. He became boring to me in most of book 2. 😅
I feel that except like....still loved both
Big range this month, hopefully Ada Palmer works for me. You should try Remains of thr Day by Ishiguro next time
It’s ok it not every author works for us 😅
Mayhaps I will eventually
Jake I’ve heard people put Rage of Dragons in the same camp as Red Rising classifying them both as basic revenge fantasy type books. How do you think they compare and why do you think RoD is divisive?
I think they are vaguely similar except in Red Rising Darrow just gets to become OP in like a sentence, while Rage of Dragons is kinda about Tau becoming OP
I don't think it is that divisive, I think it just had like 5 people in our circle who didn't like it, like it has a 4.31 rating on goodreads.
@@jakebishop7822 that makes sense. I’ve had this on Audible for about two years now but have just been putting it off.
I remembering really liking Rage of Dragons and Fires of Vengeance when I read them a few years ago, and never understood the levels of criticism it gets compared to a lot of other Fantasy (aside from the romance, that was pretty bad from what I remember). Its not a favourite of mine, but I'd also happily re-read them. Also people nitpicking the title and complaining about the lack of dragons got old and annoying fast.
Only novels I finished were Don Winslow's The Winter of Frankie Machine and Guy Gavriel Kay's The Last Light of the Sun, which i agree with you is underrated. Everything else I read was comics.
I'm currently reading Dragon Keeper and A Song for Arbonne.
It would make a lot more sense if book 1 was Fires of Vengeance and book 2 was Rage of Dragons
I really disliked 'never let me go' as well, it felt like such a waste of time and just put me in a bad mood by the end. I appreciate a good melancholy feeling at the end of a book, but not when it feels like I trudged through 500 miles of mud just to get slapped in the face and spit on.
Very subversive to write a book where there is really no twist or shake up at all, but maybe like....books have twists, shakeups, catastrophes, and eucatastrophes for a reason