Hi! We're Carlos and Yolanda, currently based in Ireland. We love stories, regardless of medium: books, movies, comics, tv shows, you name it. We're looking forward to sharing our love of stories with you!
Follow us on Goodreads: Yolanda: www.goodreads.com/yolandacarhell Carlos: www.goodreads.com/user/show/13542884-carlos-day-pomar
We have a new discord with some fellow Booktubers of the Class of '23: discord.gg/w5HkNwS8
Awesome update guys! Jealous that you got to meet the Nutts lol. I’ve been wanting to eventually read some Le Carre. One day perhaps. Recursion and the Tainted Cup were my best reads for August.
I genuinely love how much you guys support the comfort reads, I feel like I need to treat myself like that way more often as well!! Definitely going to check out Lady Audley's Secret and bump Giovanni's Room up the TBR. Also, so fun to hear your differing experiences with that first book, the beauty of reading haha. My faves of August were Asunder by Kerstin Hall (new no. 1 fave of the year!), Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle and Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors 🤩
We love that you love it Esmay! Oh I haven't heard of Asunder (or maybe I know it to see).. and I've been seeing a ton of Coco Mellors in the bookshop lately.. clearly it's popular
@@storytoob Asunder was only just released 2 weeks or so ago, so maybe that's why. I need more people to join my hype train hahah And yes, Coco Mellors definitely deserves the hype!
You always read an interesting range of books 🙂 "Day of the Triffids" by Wyndham is one of my favourite books. I first read that as a teenager 40 🤯 years ago. I then read all the Wyndham books that my public library had - which included "Chrysalids". I really enjoyed it and the concept stuck with me since then but for a long time I didn't know what its title was. Then the WWW arrived and you can find these things out. So I recently reread "Chrysalids" on audio (Audible UK has a lot of Wyndham books for free) and I enjoyed it just as much 2nd time around. That creeping sense of menace of being found out, the off page horror of what happened to those who are - which your brain can imagine better than any written gore. He might get dismissed as "cosy apocalypse" but he's very good at it usually. I've also reread "Midwich Cuckoos" - very good, and "Kraken Awakes" - which I enjoyed better now (I found it boring as a teenager) but it has real pacing issues. I still haven't read his other most famous book which is "Chocky" so I need to get around to that, plus all the free stories on Audible keep tempting me 🤗 Looking back at my reviews, I can see that I was a bit "it was just OK" on the conclusion of the 2nd arc of "The Expanse" too. However I have just finished the final arc of the series which I really enjoyed - so I agree with all those people who say it's the best part of the series.
Cheers Sarah! I'm looking forward to more Wyndham, I really enjoyed his style. Triffids, Cuckoos and Chocky are probably all on my list now! And good to know about The Expanse! C.
Thanks to you both, in August I read my first Dennis Lehane novel, Small Mercies. It was wonderful, and I plan to read more by him. Emily Henry is top tier. Book Lovers is also my favorite from her.
Persuasion is a slow burn, so I support taking it…slowly. 🤣 Giovanni’s Room might be a perfect novel? Yeah, I think it is! I finished the Black Company series with Soldiers Live, finished the Gormenghast series with Titus Awakes, and continued the City Watch subseries with Men at Arms. Safe to say my August reading was a success! 💜
Sounds like a cracking month! 1984 is my all time favourite book, so clearly Carlos is misguided for not saying so too. Also a big Wyndham fan but haven’t read the Chrysalids! The Day of the Triffids is excellent. I’ll be doing a dystopian and apocalyptic books video soon. If you ever want to do a gloomy readalong I am there.
Great recap 😊 Wyndham is one of my favourite authors (so happy you’re trying him - lots of authors were influenced by him such as Atwood and King) and Wilkie Collins. Lady Audley is very good but The Woman in White is even better! P.S. lots in RL and started working part-time as a bookseller too 😉
The Expanse short stories are also excellent. Not sure how they slot into the bigger timeline because I'm reading them after the series. But they are excellent.
Carlos, you might not like C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner then, but Yolanda will love it!!! 1984, when I read it back in the day, was awesome and scary! A must read even today, at least for a reference point, since it is so influential to the dystopian genre... Malazan is the🐐!✨🐐
@@storytoob Hahaha! I hope so! She is one of my favorites 😎. She develops her stories slowly, and in the Foreigner series in particular, she leans heavily into the meaning of culture and translation of language between people who are alike, but very different... I find it awesome, but it takes its time 😊
Oh yeah she sounds amazing! And we're into languages and philology, both being multi-lingual... That sounds right up my alley! Out of curiosity, what makes you think I wouldn't like it? C.
@@storytoob Because of your comments on the slow development of the first book you talked about in this video. It has political intrigue, and it seems like nothing is happening, and when it does, it feels confusing, but she is a master in creating tension out of nothing, so I find it great, but I can see how some people could find it boring 😊. I wasn't in any way implying that it would go over your head or anything, just stylistically it might not be your cup of tea ... I have not yet gotten to her other series, so I have no idea if they are written in the same manner...
Oh no I'm usually fine with slower political intrigue and subtle tension! It's quite my jam actually... The Le Carré just didn't click for me! And no worries at all, was just curious.. appreciate the recommendation! ❤️
You did finish The Chrysalids first. Now I need to know what we are reading next and why is it Night of Knives 😎(please not in September, I have too much to read 😭). If you read Wilkie Collins let me know. I would like to join in. Book Lovers is my next Emily Henry read. I'm looking forward to it! Yay Happy Place! My wife read it a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I'm really struggling with the concept of "book of the year". I have read too many amazing things this year. Great wrap up!
Glad to hear you liked Book Lovers! I just grabbed that to be my first Emily Henry read when I’m in the mood for something different. And yeah Carlos Babylon’s Ashes is them doing something way different with a truly large ensemble POV cast, which allowed us to get eyes in all sorts of relevant places we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. It’s not about caring about these one-off POVs so try not to let that get in the way of enjoying the exciting climax of the first arc - it’ll be back to the usual POV style for the last three books don’t worry!
That's great to know Ben! Cheers man.. oh yeah I'm still really liking this one, I think I'm just more into the contained POV structure of the others.. but I'm more than happy to venture outside of that routine for this one. Cheers, C.
YES! I'm so glad you loved this book properly. I'm not surprised, but I'm glad :) Yes it's absolutely critical of capitalism. One of my favorite bits in that regard is the Drownings in Letheras. You know the phrase "drowning in debt," of course. Well... this makes it LITERAL. The money you owe is strapped to your back in the hopes that it'll drown you. In WATER. Talk about a metaphor made real... I love it so much. **SPECIFIC SPOILERS FOR THIS BOOK** - - - Regarding Seren and the rape: other commenters have said helpful stuff I agree with so I'll focus on something that hasn't been said: Erikson does a lot of mirroring/echoing, which I believe you've commented on in previous books. But it's series-wide, not just contained within each book. And rape is one of those things -- every time you see it happen, it's handled differently. And as usual, Erikson isn't saying "these ways of handling it are bad and these ways are good" -- he's simply presenting different options and it's up to us to judge as we will. Fair warning, there are other instances of this coming in later books, and again it's extending the mirroring out further. More instances and more different ways of handling it. And of course that's not to say you have to like it -- you absolutely don't. Even if you understand multiple reasons for its inclusion, that doesn't mean you HAVE to think it's effective. BUT, I wanted to share some more reasoning for its inclusion, considering your (understandable) comment about thinking it was just unnecessary. But anyway, there's so much great stuff in this book: Tehol/Bugg (and all the other funny shit with Shurq, Ublala, etc.), Trull being a sometimes-annoying-but-generally-standup-dude, the Crippled God really doing some evil shit to Rhulad, all the crazy magic stuff... it's so epic! And yet as you say, it comes down to a familial drama in the vein of a Shakespearean tragedy. Which was absolutely intentional, as you might have guessed -- Steve knew what he was doing lol On to the Bonehunters!! Looking forward to how much you're gonna love that one :)
Declare by Tim Powers was partially influenced by Le Carré’s novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. But djinn and other fantasy stuff get involved. Very worthy of its World Fantasy Award (tied with Galveston by Sean Stewart, both very worthy winners!) It’s one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.
I really enjoyed the ramp up at the end of Spy Who Came in from the Cold. All the maneuvering, and plausible deniability, until things come to a head. The ending pulled the whole thing together. James Baldwin is such a beautiful writer. Persuasion is a true classic, and Spear Cuts Through Water is destined to be. I'm looking forward to the new Mariana Enriquez.
Dawg... Giving us the setting and context of the FINAL SCENE in a Malazan book IS a spoiler. 😐 Issokay though. I am on to Midnight Tides next though and am very excited. Enjoying House of Chains right now very much.
@@storytoobHeard, the "all these brothers"' part is what seems spoilery to me. I might be talking out of my neck because I haven't read it yet, obviously. But now I know not only is there going to be a last minute betrayal, but I also know it is among brothers, apparently. That's like saying "the end of Deadhouse gates involves a crucified war hero and a mercy kill." No real context but if I knew those details going in, the scene wouldn't hit as hard. Not even mad, it's just a book, I'll survive, and I love your videos regardless but I was like "noooo, not that kind of info, storytoob!'' haha. Just pointing it out so that you will be a little more mindful in the future.
Oh that's fair! Cheers, I will be more mindful! I think it's more just the conceit of the novel from the offset is all the brothers betraying each other in cycles (or betrayal in each one's perception) from the get go.. they're all the main POVs of the book too (it's more contained than the rest) so it's not really a spoiler, more a set up. So having even more backstabbing at the end is just compounding it all. But I didn't mention specifically who does what... There's like 10 of them haha Your comparison with DHG is way more spoilery imo, having read both.
@@thefantasythinker Hahaha! I just read a LitRPG that makes an Amazon/eBay like AI entity take over our planet, and apparently has taken over most of the galaxy. It is the " Shoppcalypse Saga Series" and has that concept, only gone a tad absurd. If you are interested, you should check it out, but read it for the concept, not so much for the quality 😉
I see what you mean about Le Carre, though one of the points of his spy novels is that espionage is rather pedantic, even boring, work. Where the tension comes from is the paranoia. Who do you trust in a world where everyone has their own interest or could be spying on you? Glad to hear you enjoyed 1984. It is one of the greats of dystopian literature, even if I think Brave New World is the scarier dystopia. Also Giovanni's Room is a masterpiece. One of my favorite books about the LGBT+ experience. Keep up the good work guys!
The Toob. And books! ☝️ Wait, Steven Fry is the narrator of 1984? Have to check it out. The man is a legend. Emily Henry. I put it in the category like the sitcom tv. It’s fun to watch, we know the end but there are some twists. She is a pretty good writer. Malazan is Malazan. One of the best book in the series. Tehol and Bug are the best. The Expanse. Good but a bit overhyped. Not the sci-fi of the era.
Oh okay, I guess my brain always expects some humour or irony in satire, whereas 1984 is very dour - I suppose with some irony - and those aspects are not very present C
Midnight Tides ❤ I guess I'll start reading Emily Henry with Book Lovers. I've only read 2 LeCarre. Looking Glass War (I think thats what its called?) as a teenager but a lot of the satire went over my head and his debut 2 years ago I think, it was fine. I think Night Manager and Constant Gardener will be more in line with what I'm looking for from LeCarré. I've been meaning to read a Star Called Henry for years too. In August I read: *Comics* Green Lantern Book One Written by Geoff Johns | Art by Ethan Van Sciver - I think Hal Jordan become my fav DC character. He shuts Batman up with 1 punch 🤣 Hawkeye Volume 1: My Life As a Weapon Written by Matt Fraction | Art by David Aja - He's lame in the films but I adore Hawkeye in the comics. Thor God of Thunder: God Butcher Written by Jason Aaron | Art by Esad Ribic - Fantastic! *Fantasy* Rain Wild Chronicles 1: Dragon Keeper - Really liked it. Wars of Light & Shadow 2: Ships of Merior - I'm in it for the long haul now! With the exception of Dakar, I really enjoy these characters and this world. I'm a mood reader anyway, especially with this series. I achieved my weight loss goal for the year so I'm taking it easy now, and treating myself to some comics and books 😊 So far in September I've read: Criminal Volume 1: Coward Written by Ed Brubaker Art by Sean Philips - Read in a sitting and I've bought the next 3. I'm currently reading too many things 😅: *Comics* Astonishing X-Men Complete Collection 1 Written by Joss Whedon | Art by John Cassaday New Avengers Complete Collection 1 Written by Brian Bendis | Art by David Finch *Fantasy* Rain Wild Chronicles 2: Dragon Haven - NGL, this is shaping up to be my least favourite book in Realm of the Elderlings so far... *Historical-Fantasy* A Song for Arbonne / Guy Gavriel Kay *Mystery* Mystic River / Dennis Lehane - Really enjoying this.
Every single comic you mentioned I absolutely adore! Banger after banger! You're also reading some great novels. And a huge well done on the weight loss. Fair play, keep it going Cheers lad! C.
Hi Yolanda, I would like to amend my initial comment on this as looking back I think I've phrased it incredibly poorly. When I said I appreciate that Bakker was shining a light on the sexism of older Fantasy, I should've made that its own sentence and not have had that in the same sentence as Bakker's examination of sexual violence. I don't enjoy reading sexual violence (nor do I think its necessary to be described in detail) I'd rather get a fade to black instead. What I tried to say was I appreciate that Bakker tried to tackle the sexism and systemic oppression of women in the past and in Fantasy fiction. However, it can be very gratuitous which is why I'm glad he got less reliant on it as he goes, its still there but not as prominently as it was before.
Great video. You’ve included many of my all time favorites on this list and may have convinced me to give The Infernal Devices a try. I had sworn off Cassandra Clare after absolutely hating City of Bones, but I’ve been reassured her writing improves with later series.
She definitely does improve! But be warned, she still likes a good dose melodrama 😂 but I think it works better in a Victorian setting than in a contemporary one
So, I tried reading Gardens of the Moon years ago. There were 2 things that really put me off within the first 50 pages that kinda made me stop before I barely started. The first is this tendency to end chapters with these weird little quips like 'He walked out of the room afraid of what was to come. He did not know true fear'. And then there was the laziness of naming a character WhiskeyJack. I just could not take this book seriously at the time. However, so many people I respect say they love this series. My curiosity grows
While not my favourite setting or cast of characters in the series (more of a 7 Cities guy), as its own story this is my favourite book in the series. Great review as always, Carlos. Now onto Bonehunters, my 2nd favourite in the series.
@@storytoob No worries at all, great to see more discussion of these books. I read through them last year, and found that they had a profound impact on how I think about a lot of things. The best stories are the ones that challenge us!
Five books in? You are in for a treat. I picked up Dust of Dreams for a re-read yesterday, and I am all "what did just happen?" every time I finish a chapter. It's crazy how stuff keeps ramping up.
Bruh-damn what a great ending. His ability to use the first 70% and setting up the back 30 is unparalleled. Emotionally I agree, tehol and Bugg just stepped it up. And the whole concept of who bugg is and how much joy tehol brought to him really made it so endearing. Although we don’t know much about iron bars-and from what I hear won’t really (besides in esselmonts work) he shot up to be my favorite character. It mostly had to do with the scene with the wraith and the pity they felt for his past. And then of course him facing off against 4 giant gods like it’s a minor inconvenience.
You have these epic moments as well as incredibly intimate scenes. Tehol has a lot of comic relief. However, much like Kruppe, there is often a lot righr below the surface.
great video, Malazan has been on my list and after stormlight 5 ill probably start. i keep distracting myself while watching your video because your voice/accent reminds me of someone from a movie/series that i cant put my finger on and its driving me crazy !
@@storytoob SE has said he wrote it to be spoken rather than read, so no sentence should be more than one breath. I can't imagine how difficult that would be to write...
Great review, I mostly agree with you and on the points I disagree with I totally understand your point of view. On the topic of female representation in fantasy, have you read any Joe Abercrombie? I bet you have! His novel "Best Served Cold" has a badass female main character that I (admittedly a male) thought was interesting, strong and multidimensional.
I actually still haven’t read any Abercrombie! I did try The Blade Itself a few years ago and DNF’d it (not the book’s fault, it just wasn’t the right time for it). Do you think one can start with the standalones?
"What is Malazan about?" The best I could come up with, without spoiling anything, is: "The experiences of powerful and mundane people in a sprawling fantasy world, which are connected via broader themes." ... which really does not tell you anything at all. xD
Tehol and Bugg ❤ I think the fact that the world of Malazan was forged in the tabletop RPG fires of friendship between two archeologists means that it's just in the DNA of Malazan that all duos are going to be super fun. I think MT is when I finally realized that another level to Erikson's incredible range is that each book has a slightly different tone and style. It never gets boring reading these 10 very big books, because he's always changing it up and tweaking things in subtle ways to keep the writing interesting. In this case, he really cranked up the humor (to offset all that tragedy!) Best Malazan reviews on RU-vid, as always. Cheers!
As usual mate, your enthusiasm alone would convince me to read it, if I hadn’t twice already. Great review, and such a pleasure to relive the book through your experience. 😀
During my read-along with others last year, we were slightly convinced that Midnight Tides could be the entry point to Malazan. Lether as a continent has been frozen by the Jaghut in the Prologue. As a result, the olden rules of magic, political and military structures have been preserved. It's like a mini reset of everything we know about the realm from the previous books. I love the info dump about Warrens in Chapter 21 by Iron Bars and Seren -- patience finally paid off. In the end, Gardens of the Moon is still a great entry to Malazan.
The Bonehunters is a two-in-one book. You get the first climax as early as Chapter 7. Erikson, man -- he's just one-upping himself over and over -- it's mindblowing how he does it.
I'll give you a tip about "Return of the Crimson Guard" by Esslemont (NO spoilers): if you want to know what exactly happens to Laseen, you need to read this book (story wise chronologically right after "Reaper's Gale"). Otherwise it's just mentioned for the rest of the Erikson's books. I'd say it's the one book outside of the og series that you actually need to read and is not a side story. But you have two more books to read to get there. Just keep it in mind: might be a bit irritating to wonder about some, well, important stuff. RotCG can also come to you as a "break" from Erikson's higher and heavier style, which the next two books will evolve even more into. 🍺
