I loved Jade war for the exact reasons you didn’t love it! The political maneuverings were absolutely fascinating to me and that tends to be one of my favorite aspect of books!
Orlando is one that gets better the more Woolf you read. It really echoes with the rest of her oeuvre in ways only perspective shows. Hopefully you manage to continue with her!
I read Jade War. The pacing felt off for me. Also were the time skips really nessascary? The thing that keep me invested was the politics of the book which in most others I find super boring. Also the other thing that kept me invested was the characters. A solid 4 and a half star read for me since I did enjoy the big moments and the political aspects.
The way you've described "Orlando" piques my interest. Until today the one Virginia Woolf book on my TBR was "To the Lighthouse", but I think I'll prioritize "Orlando" to see how she (with her famously leisure pace of prose) packs a potentially epic narrative into a short book.
It is soo weird for me when people talk about this series, since my name is Jade, though in my language it is pronounced differently, some people still use the english version when they first meet me, and it feels odd for people to say my name so often, and read it so much in thw comments
Thank you so much. I read Woolf’s To the Lighthouse in high school. I had to reread it several times before I found a hook for my paper. Not impressed, will not read more from her. I dnf’d Jade City, waiting for reviews on the series to see if I should try again. I think there are so many other series that I will give this a hard pass now ;)
But why does Jack trade his mother's cow for magic beans? But why do they grow into a giant ladder into the sky? But why does the goose lay golden eggs? sometimes there is no why, there is only is. Thx Merphy - as usual enjoyed.
I think when we we're reading it, you said that it was more if a "Cold War" then an actual "Active War". ALOT of behind the scenes scheming, moving, politicing with a few explosive moments every so often. The character profiles and interaction was the best part. Same wave! Thanks for buddy reading this with us!
Orlando's long sleep was supposed to mimic the metamorphosis of insects. But since the novel is mostly literary satire, Woolf wasn't trying to 'make sense' in the classical style. While it's recommended as a fantasy, it's not really fantasy. It's its own thing - which I know describes most of Woolf's work.
My expectations for Jade War were similar and I would have liked it more without the hype cause I expected it to be much faster paced. Super excited for Jade Legacy though!
Yep, the hype is what let me down on these books too. They are good books but the "praise" on the cover is so blown up, describing it as fast paced, action flicky, and even better than the godfather. I would've probably enjoyed the series more if I hadnt read all the blurb on the cover in hindsight
Orlando seems like is Magic Realism... if it is, then fantastical things are acceptable and are rarely explained. 100 Years of Solitude is amazing, but it took a while for me to wrap my mind around what was happening in the story.
It's interesting because like you said most people I know hype jade war so much. I'm still at the beginning of jade city and I'm really enjoying it so far but based on your review I think I'm not going to enjoy Jade war as much 😂
I love listening to her, but I'm so invested in her One Piece journey that I can't fully focus lol I'm liking and letting it play to support the channel though
I am yet to read Virginia and from what I heard I think I would love her. Jade War worked for me and I thought I enjoyed it more than the first book and I am excited for Jade Legacy.
I liked Jade War only because I found the characters interesting to follow around, but it didn't hit the mark the way Jade City did. If you didn't love Jade City, stay away from Jade War. It's like what Wise Man's Fear is to Name of the Wind. SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER Two parts of this book frustrated me to no end. One was that the duel between Shae and Ayt Mada was built up as this enormous, climactic, cathartic moment that would permanently change everything and lead to huge fireworks... only to end with pretty much the status quo ante. It was important to Shae's character, but I felt cheated as a reader because the story seemed to promise a lot more consequence than what happened. The second part of the book that irritated me was Anden's story, until the very end. The brave, thoughtful character so rich in potential from the first book spent so much time in this book moping, feeling sorry for himself, and not growing as a character. His parts of the book were the real speed bumps.
that's kind of what i liked about it . you can see how strong the status quo is. in real life politics change doesnt happen that easily. also i was suprised but ended up liking the way Anden has to grow up as a normal person instead of a jade warrior. my only problem with the books were the number of time jumps that happen.(i love slow stories)
I’m at 40% of jade war and still not really into the book .. considering DNFing it … but a part of me wants to keep going to see what the hype is all about !
Jade City was SO GOOD and I was hyped for the other two. All the other reviews are strong and claim this as better than the first. Where it falls down for me is the dilution of the family dynamics and immediacy of the story. All the characters are split up, and the other countries and political maneuverings are nowhere near as interesting as the inner Janloon stuff. I'd have loved to see the conflict spread but stay within the country, and escalate in emotional intensity instead of scope. I wanted this to stay a small story- it didn't, and I couldn't get through the third one.
I’m over halfway through Jade war after the first really big moment and agree it’s just too slow and meandering for most of the book … so far. I still love it but preferred Jade city . Hoping legacy will be the best yet
Jade City is going to be my next read. The hype hasn’t given me super high expectations, I’m just hoping I like it! It’s longer than the books I’ve been reading lately and I’ve been struggling through longer books for a little bit now so hopefully this doesn’t make that worse!
i think you would really like the author named nisioisin his most famous work is the monogatari series ( his zaregoto is also really really good ), he is THE biggest author of novels in japan
I watched a few episodes of the bakemonogatari series and then wanted to read the book, got until like page 12 before I put it aside cause it's literally just panty descriptions and the protagonist being horny, the writing seemed pretty bad to me, is the beginning just rough and does it get way better or is it just not for me? Cause at this point I really don't get the hype. Maybe you'd have to read it in the original japanese to get the good writing?
@@cybersketcher1130 in my opinion book 1 feels more like an introduction to the world. Book 2 gets a lot better. Who is your favourite Chracter so far?
This might not be a very fair comparison but "slow not interesting build up" is what I feel when I read Brandon Sanderson. That is because to me his characters rarely feel like real people and I dont care about people who dont feel real. In Jade city and Jade war everyone feels real to me and therefore as a whole I did enjoy build ups in this series. It felt like real things are about to happen to real people. When I read a book about gangs/war I feel that it has to feel dark because gang fights and wars are horrible and they tend to bring out the worst out of people. If you give me anything other than that in a book like this I would feel disappointed. That being said there could have been a bit more action and a bit less politics but it was interesting never the less. Jade War is 10/10 for me.
I have a few questions, I would post to your disord, but I don't have a link. So I post them here. Have you done a video on how to recommend books? I have a book that I'd like to recommend to someone but I don't know how I should sell it. How do you feel about series that transition in the genre: For example: Book 1 might be: Children's novel, Fantasy novel, detective novel, comedy novel, adventure novel And the series as a whole has: dark fantasy, children's literature, young adult fiction, war, horror, thriller, coming-of-age, comedy, dark comedy, satire Have you ever read books too fast? I read a few Dan Brown Books, and while the stories are interesting I don't care about the art/buildings etc. Now I catch myself again and again skimming over details on my favourite books because the story is so addictive and I have never learned to take my time. I noticed this when reading Misborn. I never got confused with the plot, but I feel like I could have enjoyed the book more if I could just take it slower.
Hi Merphy, I am sorry that I was wrong to judged you on Red Rising when I read halfthrough the book,but you are right on Red Rising that isn't a great book after I had read it.😒 ...Btw, I brought The Way of Kings for my birthday with my gift cards. Brandon Sanderson isn't my favorite author,but you said that Storm archives is way better than Mistborn and so I got the first book. You should check out this Dark Fantasy called Among Between Razor's Edge by Rob J. Haye, you would love the main female character in it.😆...And Merphy, I had read Orlando awhile back. I thought it was pretty good.🙂
I feel a bit bad making a comment about The Farseer trilogy/Robin Hobb books when this review was about different books, but I wonder if Merph will keep reading the Realm of the Elderlings after she finishes Farseer. Because all the other books feel like such different reads, and most all of them are faster paced than Farseer, imo. I don't want her to read something she doesn't want to read, but since it's my favorite series I just like seeing people talk about it, especially youtubers like Merphy and Daniel who I feel like are my friends (even though they don't know me), because it feels like recommending a book to a friend and having them not read it is still disappointing, even if you understand why they don't want to. If that makes sense lol
so what you're saying is what i've always suspected from hints i'd get from other people talking about Orlando, which is that this is possibly the first magical realism novel. hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhYES Y E S
Reading Wolf in general is a wild ride. You never know what to expect, you usually don't know how to deal with what you got and often have to research about it. It's not easy. However, it's an experience.
i was confusing the poppy war books with the jade books, i had to drop the poppy war series at book 2 becaause i hated the main character and it only got worst when she really go into her powers. ill have to check out the jade books to see how they are.
Reading is so subjective. No need to sound apologetic for not loving a book that others loved. I appreciate your honest reviews as they have introduced me to so many new authors and worlds. Thank you for doing what you do!
You should read the manga death note and attack on titan. dn is a cat n mouse story about what happens when someone hets the power of a god to kill ppl and uses that power to kill criminals vs a detective who tries to stop him saying that someone cant be judge jury and executionor. aot is about humanity trapped behind a wall where man eating monsters live on the other side and its a big mystery of how things started. Essentially its the maze runner but 100 times more intense
Hey, we are trying very hard not to spoil Merphy and therefore your second comment giving her advise on how to read OP as been deleted due to you talking about events in the future and where it will happen. To assure you, she does have plenty of people telling these kind of things when she's at the appropriate place :)
Yeah i also don't understand the hype. I read Jade City which is called fast paced and action packed...i feel like this is objectively untrue when compared to any random fantasy you can think of. The final fight of Jade City was by far the best scene, but 90% of the book was just the definition of a slow burn. The characters were alright but I don't love any of them. I'm not surprised to hear Merphy saying stuff like "nothing happened for over an hour" about Jade War. I do want to know what happens, but not enough to spend the time and money after hearing confirmation that War is just as slow if not slower than City. I just don't get it.
