Check out my follow-up video where I read the top 3 books from this video and if they lived up to expectations or not: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wk33ZLpXg3o.html
the hard part of the first chapter challenge with fantasy books is that you either get a bunch of world building or you just don't know what's going on
Heaven Official's Blessing is one of those novels where it just builds and builds on itself, each volume giving you an ever clearer picture of the themes of the story, and it comes together in the end like a beautiful puzzle where so many things youve wanted to happen come to fruition. But it is a BIG time investment at 8 volumes. One of my favs for sure.
You described it perfectly! I love this series, and the slow build of the intrigue, characters back stories, relationships etc is one of the main reasons
I agree watching the show first can really help contextualize the story, esp if it’s your first experience with Danmei. Plus The Untamed is a great show on its own 😊
i love heaven official's blessing and mdzs (the grandmaster one) wei wuxian is actully one of my favorite characters from the genre as a whole tbh. i find the mdzs book openbing with "rejoice, wei wuxian is dead" was quite a fun hook to get you into that first chapter. i highly recommended the animed shows for both, theyre really well animated and i found with heaven official's blessing especially it helped me get more into the world
@@GavinReadsItAllwith danmei the stories are more slow and more intricate, it's better to get a visual image first through the adaptations to get into the thing because is so different and the romance are very slow burn too, maybe because of the censorship things happens more in the extras, but there are explicit scenes in the novels
@@morganarosana true. With tgcf I found the first book very slow to read through but watching the show along with it really helped because I could visualize what I was reading. Mdzs has the fun issue of...all the adaptations can be a slog because they basically dump what is essentially a long flashback on you that takes up half the run time, when in the novels the flashbacks were more dispersed
your reaction to kitty swatting at the camera had me choking on my salad. (i know, eating salad, my first mistake i know) also ugh we better agree on where sleeping girls lie because i just paid full price for that one!
I'm so excited Ascension is at the top! It's a really good novel and the tension held my attention the whole way through. Can't wait to see how you like the full thing 😊
Group read of “A Fate Inked in Blood” during the Norway trip?! 😜 I am just so excited for it haha! Can’t wait to see how you feel about all of these books in the end! 💜
I found Mo Dao Zu Shi (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) through the anime and live action TV shows. (Yes, this series was so popular that it got adapted in both formats. The live action name was changed to The Untamed, and the gay content could only be hinted at because of censorship.) It's absolutely amazing and I'm so frustrated that the first chapter of book 1 is so short because otherwise I think you would have loved it as much as Heaven's Official Blessing. Edit- There's awesome fanvids of The Untamed on RU-vid if you want short teasers to give you an idea of the chaotic slowburn romantic madness that is this series. But the books definitely win since the romance was front and center rather than hinted at.
Firstly can I say the thumb nail is Chefs Kiss And secondly another amazing video, I’ve read a few on your list and Godkiller was in my top 10 of best books last year. Hope you enjoy it.
This was a fun idea and I liked your vlog. Interestingly, it seems like I am sort of doing my own version of this duel of books because I have recently begun reading several books, and I read until I feel like changing things up. Some books held me for one or two chapters, and some for longer, and one until I completed it in one sitting and started the next in the series (the short story prequel to the Murderbot Diaries). That edition of Hurricane Wars is stunning, Godkiller and Voyage of the Damned as well.
I was going to say the first one you said about Halloween horror night houses, All Hallows reminds me of that - then you whipped it out 😊 I really enjoyed it! Couldn’t put it down!
Love the video! I definitely recommend starting with Heaven Official's Blessing before you get into Grandmaster just because I think the story is a bit easier to follow for your first danmei novel ❤
That's also why I'm sad there wasn't the first volume of Scum villain's self-saving system, since it's the shortest and I feel it's even easier than HOB to follow
This was so fun to watch. The Book of Most Precious Substance is very smutty you’ll like it. I totally want to see a vlog of you reading some of these.
ok serving us jawline realness in the thumbnail 💅🏻 also not calling yours the poundland version of the video 😂 so interested to see if you like butcher & blackbird 👀
Loved this video concept so much! Can we get a follow up video with your actual ranking of the 21 books after you finish all? I would love to know if you think the first chapter was actually reflective of the book itself or not!
Loved this style of video! In my year of trying to dnf books I’m not enjoying, I think I’m also going to read a chapter or two and then decide if I want to continue!
I am currently reading Where Sleeping Girls Lie, it's good but also surprisingly long. The first chapter of Godkiller was a lot, I really liked it, too. Can't wait to read the 2nd book in the series soon.
thats a crazy thumbnail gavin! Also hehe im glad you're giving danmei a shot! Highly recommend the liveaction for grandmaster of demonic cultivation!!!
Really fun video! ❤ Would be fun to have these in the Slice of live vlog. Maybe the first 3 and then if you have time you can read some random ones as well Salem's lot is my favorite SK book. Hope you enjoy it when you read it
I just wanted to recommend the re:zero series of novels to you about a boy that gets sent to a fantasy world and discovers he has a power “return by death” after he dies he reawakens at a safe place in a death loop it’s a character driven series that I just love
I’ve read All Hallows and I loved it. There’s a lot of criticism that it’s slow moving and that’s true at the beginning, with a lot of time spent setting the scene and introducing characters, but then it really takes off.
This was so cool. I loved seeing where the books would fall. My sis got me the grandmaster book last year and it was so fun to start reading it and watch the show after.I could not get an arc of where sleeping girls lie but still hope to read it. I put ascension on my tbr after this. hope you enjoy what you pick.
"This is the poundland version of that video" 😂 The underjacket for A Fate Inked in Blood is GORGEOUS 😍 Oh my Ascension. Amazing opening but I was meh the rest of the time.
Of this list of books I've only read Heaven Official's Blessing and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully you enjoy it as well when you get to it. I am planning to read Butcher and Blackbird soon. I'm excited to get started.
Seems like I'm on a same wave as Gavin - I was equally inspired by Kayla to read first chapters of my unread books. Sort of a taste test - most of them come from book boxes after all and I didn't actively pick them based on synopsis or reviews.😸
Oh Voyage of the Damned was SO good! Once they are on the ship, it turns into a murder mystery with magic and a lovely queer romance!! If you haven't gotten around to it, I definitely recommend you do!! :D
I think you would really love A River Enchanted and it’s sequel A Fire Endless (duology light fantasy with romance and amazing characters/magical setting)
If anyone is interested and it hasnt been mentioned yet. Im pretty sure the haunted house Gav is talking about is McKamey Manor operated by Russ McKamey and the video i watched about the haunted house was WILD by the youtuber Primink
The List of Suspicious Things sounds soo good. Loved this video, it would be interesting to do a vlog for top few then a vlog for bottom few and see if you would change the ranking
Heavens official blessing has my heart ! specifically when sang lang is around. He’s just one of those characters you just get bored and sad when he’s not there. Especially with his “I hate everyone but you” attitude. I wholeheartedly believe I didn’t enjoy the first volume very much just because xie Lians bf wasn’t there a lot 😂
The Book of the Most Precious Substance is one giant heated lust-fest in the very best way, it just goes further and further with each chapter 😂 also All Hallows had a great atmosphere, really addictive!
I absolutely loved Godkiller and just bought the sequel Sunbringer which I'm super excited about. I've also never read Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation but I watched the Chinese drama, and it broke me. It is amazing!
The thing about Danmei is it’s a full story split into many parts since it’s been translated so you have to really still with it and they’re pretty slow burn
I actually really loved Voyage of the Damned. Ganymedes is so EXTRA and funny and his personality shined off the page which to me feels rare nowadays. I can see how people wouldn't like him, but to me the exact opposite. Absolutely adored him. I really liked the mystery of this too and it didn't pull punches. I have also read Heaven's Official Blessing and it's definitely slow moving. I don't know if the romance even felt there in the whole first book? Maybe I need to reread it but I don't remember anything really romantic happening? It seems to be a slow slow burn. I definitely want to keep going though.
I love this idea, I need to try this too when I cant choose what to read again. But what if I like all the first chapters? 🙈 And what are the odds of undulate coming up in a first chapter, that was so funny.😂
It would be very interesting to see, once you’ve read all the books, whether their position in your stack changes at all and why… sort of like a reflection of did the first chapter of the book give you a solid prediction of the overall enjoyment of the story. Could be a long term project 🤷♀️
I also thought at first I was reading like a bad cringy sitcom at the beginning of Voyage of the Damned. However it turns deep and shows everything he is going through underneath his facade and I started liking Ganymedes a lot more. You should give it a try after the first few chapters it turns good once you get to know him deeper and even emotional 😢 I liked the book a lot, maybe because I am a sucker for books that leave me wrecked 💀
As someone who has read a book about a serial killer in their home town who was friends with my grandpa and knew my dad, I gotta say it's wild when the story is about people you now.
Highly recommend Last to Leave the Room on audiobook. I tried reading it physically first but set it down. I ended up listening to it over the span of 2 days and omg I have never gotten such a visceral feeling of anxiety and dread from a horror novel before. It’s slow to get into I admit, but boy does the author know how to build up from mildly-zany-and-unsettling into straight up horrific-down-spiral.
For Voyage of the Damned, character definitely doesn't change style for the entire book and it remains very silly for the whole story - the murder mystery is super fun, but the MC is definitely a very specific kind of MC lol
Grandmaster of Demonic cultivation is an amazing story. You should definitely give it a real go They made a live action show called the untamed, a dongua thats 3 seasons, a radio drama, comics, another spoof dongua Its a huge story, and 100% deserve all the attention For heaven officals blessing, they have 2 seasons dongua currently, and did start on a live action (cancelled), and also a comic series Its also an amazing story, and as you said it starts out better than Grandmaster, the authour just got better with every book
😮The Chinese romance sounds really interesting 😊I've seen Chinese dramas about gods and other beings that live in heaven and travel to earth back and forth ... Don't remember names 😅They're always really magical so that book could be wonderful! I'm interested in voyage of the dammed too, that sounds intriguing and the sinking city one
Prologues shouldn't count 😅 you should read the actual 1st chapter after the prologue as well 😂 Just read "Heaven Official 's Blessing" for god's sake and if you don't become obsessed I'll shut up and never tell you to read a book again 😂
I wish I liked All Hallows more. It should have been perfect for me. But I finished it and felt like I should have watched Trick R Treat instead and had a better time
The warm hands of ghosts I thought it was about seances? Lol Im so tired of world wars settings in books 😢 not interesting at all (even tho i have heard so many good reviews about it).
