Here's a fun fact! A four book series is called a tetralogy! "Logy" comes from Greek meaning idea, story, or speech, and "tetra" means four. A five book series is a pentalogy, and a six book series is called a hexalogy. 😊
Divine Rivals another fantastic favorite series of mine so good and love the characters so much and love the author 💜💜❣️❤️❤️❣️🩵❣️💝💝💝🌈🌈💛💛🌸📚🌸🌼🌼💚🥀🥀🪻🌷💘🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🌻🌹🌹💚💚🌻🌻📚💚💚🌸🩵❤️❤️🩷💕💖💙🦋💙💙💙💙💙📙
You’re the first person I have ever heard mention the Demon King series. It is severely underrated. So so so so good! Glad it’s getting some recognition 💚 Can’t wait to read some of your other recommendations
I'll pick up the praises for Fireborne for you! It made me weep and made me question my own morality. I loved this political fantasy and I don't understand how this is a YA book. Amazing 🔥
I’m in line at the library for Cruel Prince! A friend loved it and I’m looking forward to it. The original Shades of Magic is my favorite ever, though.
I 100% agree with you on Arrows. That really series surprised me in how it played out, definitely looking forward to more Valdemar as a result! Also on Bartimaeus, it might be packaged as middle grade for marketing purposes but it's one of those series written for all ages to enjoy.
Elliot, please do a Middle Grade faves for one offs, duologies, trilogies or several title series! I'm wanting to suggest some fantasy recs for my 11 soon to be 12 year old neice, but I fear all my suggestions will be YA and not appropriate just yet. She starts a new school soon, and I'd love for her to have some books she can lose herself in during a potentially unsettling time. Thank you !
Two completed middle grade fantasy sseries that I really enjoyed are Fablehaven by Brandon Mull and The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddle.
I actually enjoyed The Witcher TV series, it’s not the book just like the games aren’t the book, I can enjoy them all as their own little things, now none of these are perfect but I enjoy them all just the same. I would love to see more books within the universe doesn’t even have to center around the main cast of characters.
I really love the chinese historical fantasy because it's somewhere between adult and ya pretty consistently-- really detailed worlds and doesn't shy away from really dark topics(call me a masochist, but i love reading dark things), but also generally doesn't go into explicit sexual detail (no 15 page sex scenes, either non-explicit ones, or fade to blacks where you know something happened but its not shown. there are exceptions, but its refreshing to not have gross levels of detail lol.) they also tend to be more focused on the actual relationships between characters which is a big plus for me, i quickly get fed up with stories that will say 2 characters are in love, but never show them spending non-sexual moments together, it's not love if sex is the only thing you do together. show me them enjoying hobbies, teaching/learning skills, and working together through problems- heck, even dates where their walking around a street market are great. additionally, i love the costumes, the court politics, and the setting as a whole, like you said, it's vibrant and ethereal, they don't feel like normal people its like a beautiful dreamscape. Rn I'm reading: Stars of Chaos (priest is brilliant, i adore the steampunk vibes) the dumb husky and his white cat Shizun (i am currently bracing myself for pain, thanks spoilers lol) remnants of filth (I've never cried so much reading anything beyond this series and the last one listed below) the scarlet alchemist (waiting for book 2, October is so far away) Black Moonlight holds the BE Script (if anyone knows where i can find the full book translated, please tell me. i've read all that's available on the site i found... i need to know the ending.)
Honestly, is Bartimaeus middle grade?? I read the books as an adult and i thought they were YA. Whatever they are, they're incredible and funny and emotional and written so well.
Have you read The Fetch Phillips Archives? By Luke Arnold? They are so good! Those touch on the idea of what happens to a magical world if it loses that magic.
Oh look another opportunity to mention my favorite trilogy, Empirium by Claire Legrand lol. Also Vampire Academy and its spinoff series, Bloodlines are amazing, I’m still a bit shocked at much I love them. The Lunar Chronicles is another great series. I recommended it to a friend and she loved it, I was so happy lol. Also by Marissa Meyer, the Renegades trilogy. I could probably list a million other series I’ve read but I’ll stop there 😅 I’m currently reading A Darker Shade of Magic because the majority of the recs I’ve gotten from Elliot have been great and the library had it so I figured I’d give it a go. I’m liking it so far but my god, Lila was being so dumb and childish when she met Kell. I can only hope she gets it together because characters like that can very quickly ruin a book for me.
In the Folk of the Air series there is that one standalone installment How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories too. I think it might have been written after the first trilogy before any other installment groups.
The witcher is really complicated for me, loved the game (but mostly because of the gameplay... not the characters), hated the TV series and absolutely hated the book, stopped at the first one, the female characters felt like basic stereotypes written by a male author, lots of them were the same, and I couldn't take it. I really didn't like Geralt in the book (well kind of like in every depiction of him)... So I'd say it's a hit or miss, always found people loving the book series of really hating it lool
Love the video, El! Why is it so hard to find Fireborne in American bookstores..! I try to pick my reads organically by coming across them physically. I scour a lot of bookstores but never see the series 🥲 might just finally have to order it
