OVERRATED FANTASY BOOKS 

Does anyone else just squint into the background and try to figure out what books the person has instead of actually looking at the person😂😂

I read the Six of Crows duology without reading the Grisha trilogy, and I enjoyed them immensely

I truly don't understand people comparing Sanderson and Martin (or the weird theory that if Martin dies before finishing the series, Sanderson will complete it.) The ONLY similarity between their books is that they both write fantasy, but even then, their style of fantasy are........ Not the same. At all. Their writing styles couldn't be more different, and the actual content is incomparable. Such a weird comparison to make, imo

I love Name of the Wind. But I would never sit there and say "this book is for everyone!" It is clearly not and because of that aspect I can understand why people would say its overhyped.

I read Six of Crows first and had no trouble understanding the magic system. Of the two series, Six of Crows is my favorite.

Here I am just figuring out Smh means shake my head.

Wherever anyone talk about overrated book they almost always talk about The Name of The Wind and that really hearts. But I THANK YOU for just sharing opinion like a mature reader and not trashing any books like many other RU-vidrs do...

I love SJM’s books but I completely agree, they should NOT be marketed as YA.

i read six of crows first and completely understood it???

The list 1:47 The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss 2:14 Circe by Madeline Miller 2:25 Anything written by George R. R. Martin 2:47 Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan 3:22 The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin 3:44 The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon 4:03 Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling 4:24 The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King 4:32 Throne of Glass of anything else written by Sarah J. Maas 5:15 The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie 5:36 The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch 5:46 Mistborn: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson 5:52 Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi 6:00 Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard 6:10 A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab 6:42 Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo

Ok I've read the Six of Crows Duology before the Grisha trillogy, and I reread it again after reading the Grisha books... for me I did not miss the info about the Magic in Six of Crows, and I loved it. But also on the reread afterwards I only noticed how many things about the Grisha books were actually mentioned in Six of Crows.

You should also do one on "Underrated" books! Great video.

I understand not liking First Law, but saying its badly written... smh

i agree with the harry potter statement hahahaha not because it's middle grade but because I'm literally just SO tired of hearing about it 24/7

About GRRM - I like Sanderson but I was much more emotionally invested in ASOIAF than in any of the Sanderson books I’ve read.

There's about one character I can think of from the First Law trilogy who the readers are made to know is lesbian. She is quite literally forced into secrecy based on the the medieval standards of her era and all of her behavior makes sense according to that fact. The book doesn't center on her relationship with her girlfriend either but you are supposed to feel bad because of what happens to her at the end. Not sure what people were expecting when she is not supposed to be the focal point of the story?

I agree with the person who talked about The Priory of the Orange Tree. I thought it was overwritten, light on plot for the first 500 pages, and had side quests that had little to do with the main plot. I could have put it down 200 pages from the end and not wondered what happened. I was just stubborn enough to finish it.

I'm so glad I read A Song of Ice and Fire many years before the tv series came out - It was pretty special in my opinion - such a variety of well portrayed and interesting characters, story lines and cultures. And I didnt watch the series until I'd read all of the available books so there was no interference. For me the series isnt complete - and that's ok actually.

Idk i didn't read the first grisha trilogy and i absolutely loved the six of crows duology. It did bug me and i wasn't that interested at first, but it kind of made sense as I went along.

That comment about Hero of Ages... I have to strongly disagree with hahahaha! Also, maybe this is not what that person meant, but I do not think that being LGBT should mean you have a shield in the character where they can only be good and whatnot...

I personally really enjoyed "The Priory of the Orange Tree". The beginning was a bit hard to get into, but the rest was nearly fantastic. I didn't find it boring at all, I actually thought there was a ton happening. You should definitely read it in my opinion.

The Wheel of Time being overrated REALLY hurts my heart... I mean... Jordan always did get into too much detail with his world and scene building, but it's a quirk I grew to love since it helped paint ridiculously detailed images in my mind, lmao. To each their own, I suppose.

You should finish Fifth Season, the payoff is worth it

How is the Sword of Truth series not on this list!?

Thank God 'Lord of the Rings' was not there.

You should read Game of Thrones. I read the first three books before the tv show came out so I was stoked for the show when it came out. I think the books are *a lot* better, but glad the show gave it exposure and it was a good adaptation (before they had to make stuff up).

Please don't let her say Earthsea, please don't let her say Earthsea

I 've known people who have read The First Law and didn't quite like enjoy it but none of them would dare say that Joe's a terrible writer. The man is excellent at dialogues. Easily one of the best right now. Which is why I find it a little weird for someone who has read an entire trilogy of this grim dark fantasy to come up with offensive LGBT depictions as the biggest concern.

I just finished Broken Earth trilogy (the Fifth season) and I too felt quite uncomfortable reading in second person. But I strongly suggest pushing through, because the story that get's told through the books is beautiful, though provoking and by the second book I was toatly into it.

The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Bad one dimensional characters and plot dead ends that take up almost entire books. So many encounters just blew my suspension of disbelief out of the water.

No book is for everyone, and likewise no book is for no-one. We can just be mature about it and respect an opinion 👍 Currently reading The Magicians by Grossman.. holy smokes what a dumpster fire 😂 Had to get that off my chest. Dark Tower is weird in many ways - only devout King readers might glean the meaning out of it.. and even many of them might hate it. I liked it . But I'm weird. Martin is definitely overrated, but then I feel the same way about Sanderson - comparing the two doesn't add much. Harry Potter was a beloved book read by many impressionable youths who are now active on platforms like this, and has been overhyped for so long - along with the movies. I never got the hype, but if people love it, let them. I do think it got a lot more people into reading fantasy, and that's always a win in my book.

Year: 2031, "Well guys i can finally say what I think about Winds of Winter" but ill wait till the rest is out

I have to say that of all Sanderson's books, I enjoyed them all, that I was the least impressed by mistborn. Interesting concept and all, bad guy wins builds evil empire, but if I'm being honest it felt like most of the book was just a description of the magic being used.

The original Mistborn trilogy, I don't understand why everyone is so over the moon about this series, the characters are often frustrating and each book is more of a slog than the previous one. Another one is Malazan Book of the Fallen. It started ok, had some great books in the middle, then by the end it left me feeling completely robbed, I can't talk about that series without becoming physically upset.

Anything by Sanderson. I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I think his dialogue is sometimes cringeworthy and his prose is terrible. I like his magic systems and worldbuilding, but overall his books are average at best. Again, just my opinion.

this is why im reading grisha triology before six of crows. the world building is so immense in this series i cant imagine her repeating everything in six of crows which is why im surprised people say you dont HAVE to read it before. Plus, its not a terrible story or characters.

Anyway who is thinking of picking up Circe I highly recommend the audiobook!! The narrator has a beautiful voice and does a great job. Completely changes the experience.

I agree with some of these, Name of the wind was so disappointing. Hero of Ages was actually my favorite of the mistborn series and I LOVED The Fifth season. I do get why some people didn’t like The Fifth season at first it was hard to get into the writing style but once I got used to it it was really good. Very unique plot, world and characters, o thought it was outstanding. I also really liked The Priory of the orange tree, a few places were slow but overall I thought it was a fun read.

I do agree with the Wheel of Time, haha. It's just that at some point the characters start moving from one place to another and the story never moves forward until Sanderson comes in to finish it.

I'm at book nine of WoT, and my feelings are a bit mixed. There's some characters I LOVE, some that's a bit meh, and others again that I absolutely hate (and not in a love-to-hate way). The cringy love quadrangle should also have been cut completely...

A few series that I think are overhyped: Harry Potter. Fun series, definitely enjoyed them, so many plot holes and deus ex machina. Not the absolute best thing ever. Sword of Truth. In my honest opinion, these books got worse and worse as it went on. And the first book was pretty crap. Song of Ice and Fire. First book was awesome. Downhill from there. It took me a year to get through the five books that are out. Dragged so much. And let's mention that the tv show came out after book 5, completed eight seasons, and book 6 is still not out.

I probably shouldn't comment on The Blade Itself (since I'm only 1/4 of the way in). But wow, this is tough going. The dialogue is generally just bad-if one more character says "Argh..." I'm going to have to put the book down for a bit. The descriptions are odd, or sometimes completely contradicting-even within the same paragraph. I'm hopeful that it improves, but that's mainly because I got the First Law trilogy at a really good price. Otherwise, I probably would have given up. The Logen chapters are approaching terrible. Does it get better...ever?

I tried to read Shannara, but quickly found that I didn't care, at all, about anything that was happening, and I gave up on it.

I never read the Grisha trilogy before Six of Crows, and I was never confused. I love the SoC duology so much. I’m trying to get into the Grisha trilogy, I don’t know what’s holding me back though, I’ve really liked what I’ve read of Shadow and Bone.

Sadly the HP one. I feel like i can't even bring myself to enjoy it because its so overhyped and maybe it's just in my personal experience but most of the time the people that overhype it are the ones that only saw the movies and didn't read the book. *waiting for the hate comments 😣*

I honestly feel Andrzej Sapkowski is still underrated

A Song of Ice and Fire isn't for everyone. It's long, dark, brutal, and at times there are too many characters and plots going on at once (some of them are even boring). But to say Sanderson is a better writer than GRR Martin is an atrocity.

1 The wheel of time 2 The wheel of time 3 Anything by NK Jemisin 4 Wise Man's Fear 5 First mistborn trilogy 6 Dark Shade of magic 7 children of meh and meh (Did not finish that trash) 8 Oatbringer 100 The wheel of time Did i mention the wheel of time

GoT books are far better than the cluster **c* that is the show. Among the best character driven narratives I have read... do not wait read the 5 books and join the fans breathing down georges back to finish it before hes 120 years old.

As a resident Tower junkie, I'm surprised to find it in here. Maybe it's the internal "language" of the books, the concepts like khef, ka, and ka-tet that annoy the person who posted that, but that was one of the biggest draws for me! I've gotten a friend who hasn't even touched the books to understand these concepts, because it basically amounts to the "found family" trope, and the "blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb" ideal. Am I alone in that? Is it really that annoying?

I love children of blood and bone but something was just unnecessary like the romance. Its feel like evey fantasy I'm reading have romance in it(which isn't wrong I like a good romance) but its seem like the romance takes over and the war that's happen right now come second. My opinion but I feel like not ever fantasy need a romance or end game is everybody end up with everybody in the group. Can I just have a good fantasy with some romance but the main character don't have to lose themselves or start doing dumb thing the minute they get with someone or just a strong friendship or a strong brother and sister relationship with parents involved

Throne of Glass series is definitely overhyped, it’s not awful though. The books do get much better as the series goes along, I admit I struggled with the first book because I found quite a few elements frustrating and also forced to move the plot along. Glad I stuck with it though, it’s fun but not the masterpiece the hype says.

Regarding First Law Trilogy: each book is better than the one before, and the standalones are masterpieces.

The Song of Fire and Ice(Game of Thrones) is EPIC!

I read SoC without reading the Grisha trilogy and I was able to catch onto the magic system after about 100 pages. But I did almost dnf it in those 100 pages because i was so lost. 😂

Coming from Malazan, I couldn't get past the first 300 pages of way of kings. Simple uni-dimensional characters. Not enough pov. Childish politics. Also stopped mistborn midway.

Wheel of time for me, I gave up on it after book 3. All 3 of the first books could have been half the length and it would have made them better imo. No way I was putting the time into reading another eleven, thousand pages books. The only reason I even read 2 and 3 after the eye of the world was because it had such a following, I read them more to see what all the fuss was about rather than because I wanted to keep reading the series. Which kinda sucks because I liked the world Jordan created but I just wish he had had an editor that told him to cut the word count by like 30%, to hurry the hell up and move the plot along quicker.

Going to be upfront: I kind of hated Name of the Wind. Only book I've ever tossed across the room.

I haven’t read ACOTAR yet, but it was originally marketed and sold as New Adult, not YA so it was geared towards older people (think college-aged). However, New Adult never took off like publishers were hoping, so instead New Adult books ended up in the romance section or YA section despite being its own genre/age category. This is why, despite the sexually explicit scenes on Mass’s books, they technically aren’t YA and are meant for readers over 18 years old.

I think once enough people say that something is ‘overrated’ it’s not really ‘overrated’ anymore. Example: throne of glass. Literally everyone says that book is overhyped but the ratio of people on booktube who didn’t like that book to people that did is like 10:1.

Omfg I’m a big Harry Potter but I definitely agree. I saw someone crying over something Laini Taylor tweeted about Slytherins and I just felt like, seriously? It’s a pretend school house from a children’s book. It’s not real, why does anyone care so much? It’s like people who get mad when you talk crap about scorpios or someone’s MBTI personality.

I tried reading lot of the rings in HS and that shit was SO BORING I got to the part where they met beorne and quit it. Since then I've found that Silmarillion is more my style. Lore and Mythos style writing is definitely my favorite out of all others

I didn't read the Grisha trilogy before Six of Crows and I was able to follow along just fine. Maybe I would've had a more in-depth understanding if I had, but I really didn't feel like I was missing anything.

I am so happy you mentioned the Wheel of Time, I started to feel like everybody likes those books, and I just don't get it. And I don't even wanna talk about all the repetition of descriptions, and the constant rehashing of the same running gags, that were maybe kinda funny in the beginning but lost their charm quite soon, imo. Interesting characters that by the end felt like just wasted story lines that never came to any satisfactory conclusion and such predictable events overall. What recently bugs me a lot about it, is the fact that they praise it for its strong feminine characters, when some of my biggest cringes while reading it, came from overly sexist messages. And while worth mentioning, I do not mean the thing about every ritual for women having to happen in the nude, while that was never a part of their male counterparts. I am talking about described thought processes and planning that happened. When one of the male protagonists hatched some plan, it was mostly hidden from the reader, and then played out ingeniously. We saw that they included every eventuality in their planning, and it went just perfectly. While almost every plan that the women came up with, was hidden from the men, because they could not be trusted. They mostly even thought of things that might go wrong, but dismissed them because they felt superior to that situation or they just felt it unlikely to happen. And in a lot of those cases, said untrustworthy men, spied on them, because they knew they would need to help them, and it was happening just like that. Men saving unthankful, overly petty and proud women from otherwise certain death or similar fate. And this happened a lot. I do realize that there were probably exceptions that deviated from that formula, but overall that was the tone I was getting from the books. And while I hear so many good things about Brandon Sanderson, I kind of can't bring myself to pick up any of his books, because of WOT. Also there is a certain RU-vidr who does a lot of fantasy book content, and I just can't bring myself to take his opinion seriously, because of his love for WOT... While I don't wanna name him, I'm pretty sure it's quite obvious who I mean. So, really sorry man, I am actually trying to like your content, because I learned about a few books from you that I really liked. Doing my best to get over my WOT induced prejudices, give me time.

I have never read a Harry Potter book. I don't feel like I am missing much.

about the Broken Earth trilogy, I’ve read them twice. The 2nd person narrative was jarring but kept me intrigued because I knew there had to a purpose for it and the book was well written enough -and different from most of what I had read recently-that I wanted to know. Who is this speaking? There’s a few interesting possibilities. The main characters are heartbreaking and beautiful and stronger than many.The books are dark, and sad, and that may not be everyone’s thing. I’ve read many hundreds of sci-fi/fantasy books and hands down have never read a book about a woman/mother who had been thru SO much, maybe gone a little crazy (just read the first few pages-2nd person, yes of course, she’s dissociating from trauma, and I don’t know how anyone could not be sucked in. ) Maybe it’s because the main character is a middle aged woman-def. not YA written. The MAGIC system is amazing! Such good reading, but the first few pages had me crying the second time -but I have children, maybe that’s what did it.

Calling First Law poorly written seems kind of absurd to me - you don't have to like it, you can even detest it, but it's just not poorly written by any stretch of the imagination.

How the hell was Brent Weeks "Way of Shadows" series not on this list. I know people loved it, but I was seriously going to LOSE MY MIND if I read "Life is empty. Life is meaningless." One more God damned time.

I love A game of thrones but it's definitely not for everyone. You can get confused with the huge cast. And if you don't like details than it can get boring for you. I personally enjoyed everything about it. Some also don't like how he describes violence detailed and how he does not describe every single tree. His writing style is hard to get through for some people but I think it is great because I was able to read it fluently. While Tolkien (adore his work) describes the world, martin tells us more about the characters and creates a huge character development. Also their is no character who is good or bad. everyone has flaws and strength and acts realistically. In the first book there are 8 povs and for me everyone was very interesting and I love them all (even though Sansa is spoiled but she is supposed to be annoying 😂) Also the turns are so unpredictable and they get more unpredictable from book to book. That is what I love. but the best thing is to set your expectations pretty low because it isn't really happening that much in the first half of the book but it is the most important part and you really have to be concentrated or you'll miss important information. And don't worry that much about those many characters. There is a glossar where the history and characters get explained shortly. It helps me a lot Thanks for reading this huge comment😂☺xx

My biggest issue with "Throne of Glass" wasn't that it had romance... It was that it had a protagonist who was supposed to be the ultimate bad@$$ assassin, and instead ran around behaving like a spoiled, clothes-obsessed teeny-bopper. Seriously. Other than annoying readers to death, I had a hard time imagining her being a legitimate threat to anyone. LOL! However, I have to say the Maas' other series, Court of Thorns and Roses, was immensely better. The plot was far less flat, the protagonist wasn't useless, and the series was actually an enjoyable light read.

I’m totally with your husband when it comes to Harry Potter.

I had an issue with Throne of Glass too, I bought the first 3 on a recommendation but have only managed to get through the first one, I feel like i probably would have loved it as a teen but being older I felt that it read like fanfic, I actually liked most of it, the world/story and other characters I didn't mind... it was the main character who was just so typical of so many OCs in fanfic. I think it has a place, and I can see it being popular with some people but it just wasn't for me personally

Your commentary was fantastic. Each example you used was good.

Thank god there weren’t any Cassandra Clare books mentioned. I would have flipped my lid and locked myself in my room for the next week watching funny videos just to try and forget that people think Cassie Clare is overhyped 😶😶 Side note: I’ve read both Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom (and LOVED them both- the duology is definitely in my top 10 list of favourite books 😋), and I haven’t read any of the Grisha trilogy yet because I’m quite wary of having seen more negative reviews than positive ones. I had no issues with getting fully immersed in SoC and CK though, and I could understand all the essential pieces of information about the Grishaverse. But that’s just my personal opinion 🤷‍♀️

Wheel of Time series. 14 books long, 7 of those could be condensed down to just skirt smoothing and braid tugging.

Harry Potter is not overrated, simply because fantasy readers usually do not consider it such a masterpiece. I love it as the series I read as I grew up and it's a good, but I admit that there are several other better works. Usually readers that claims it is the GOAT are casual non fantasy readers, who simply don't know better.

I'll be honest I agree with the wheel of time! I wanted to love it but I could not stand a single female character and I got 7 books in! I just couldn't do it anymore and gave up

Farseer Trilogy. Well written, and still want to see more of the magic system, but for someone who enjoyed Robert Jordan, holy cow does nothing happen in a lot of this book. Maybe its still me expecting something else from the book (some assassination), but especially with all the hype around the book I was expecting a lot more, I left feeling like "that was fine".

I loved name of the wind.Felt like reading harry potter again.

I really enjoyed Priory of the Orange Tree! I think I would qualify it as more character driven than plot driven at times, so maybe that's why the person who responded didn't feel like anything happened? I would definitely recommend it!

ASOIAF, most definitely overrated for me. Couldn't even finish the first book, fell asleep reading it. Went back to the wheel of time and never looked back. PS. She's gorgeous.

I agree about Name of the Wind. it was OK, but I didn't understand why it was so highly rated. Then again the same person who recommended it to me also recommend Mistborn-which I loved

Consider my feathers ruffled 😂 Name of the Wind is my favorite book of all time. But I’m curious to see if that could possibly change as I’ve been delving into more adult fantasy!

Currently struggling with Hero of Ages :( Final Empire and Well of Ascension were so good though

"A Song of Ice and Fire" not "Game of Thrones"

I don't agree with the Sanderson > GRRM opinion at all. However, the one whining about First Law is off by a mile and then some.

honestly I’ve always though of Maas’ books as smut disguised as fantasy :---)

It is a little unfair to compain that the Priory of the Orange Tree doesn't focus enough on the dragons because the book never promises that. Just because so many other books throw dragons in every scene doesn't mean all books that feature dragons need to include them an obsessive amount. And I personally don't have a problem with second person and while I also don't mind exposition dumps, I really enjoy books that don't explain everything. Just finding things out natrually through reading about people living in a world is a lot of fun. And if a book also can engage me by purposefully deceiving me and trusting my knowledge of this world to keep up, I can fall in love with such a book. This is why the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir is my current favorite book series. Overall even if it creates a higher chance for me to not like it, I want more books to play with perspective, structure, etc. to create more unique experiences.

I just wanna read a great book without everyone being so offended because there is no lgbt, poc, or female leads... I mean not every situation involves every group. It sickens me to see that really good writers are stressed and strained over this. I mean if you want all of these categories in writing then become a damn writer and do it yourself, but these writers now should have the freedom to write about whatever they want to...

I read six of crows and I didn’t feel like i missed anything, it was more about the characters anyway🤷🏼‍♀️

How is RA Salvatore not on this list? Don't get me wrong, I love the Drizzt novels but going back and rereading them 20 years after middle school is a bit rough.

I would elaborate on "the wheel of time": if you exaggerate, everyone is a stubborn idiot who is secretive about their plans and motives to the point of even the reader not knowing them sometimes. If you watched the first season of Stranger things and enjoyed the final team-up and collaboration, this is the series where across 10 books the direct opposite is happening to the point that the only thing stopping you from rooting for the bad guys, is that they are just the same.

I have to agree with Harry Potter. Not a day goes by that I don't see an HP post and I'm just on the verge of eye rolling now 😂

I bought Grisha trilogy just because I did not understand what was going on in Six of Crows (never got back to reading Six of Crows again)!

Mistborn = overrated.... it's alright but I just don't get the hype.

You didn't comment on The Dark Tower at all! Does it not hit your radar?

First law isn't offensive to lgbtq. Lgbtq community itself is so sensitive that when gay, lesbian etc. character isn't perfect and has flaws, they get offended

Tbh if you wait unitl ASOIAF is finished you probably never gonna read it

I 100% agree with the Name of the Wind comment!!

I must admit. I really struggled with 'The name of the wind'. No idea why, just didn't gel with me.