Looking through all the comments here, I really appreciate this is a place people can state their different opinions without everything spiraling into hateful, attacking comments. Not many spaces like this online anymore 🙌
I typically don’t like “purple prose” but it worked for me in this book. I think your explanation that it works for these characters makes sense on why I can go along with the prose and why it’s believable for them. Although I agree it’s not a book for everyone. Glad you both enjoyed it!
I understand the criticisms of this book. And I loved it anyway, maybe even because of those criticisms. It knows what it is and runs with it. Also, the concept was just very interesting.
When Richard said the first part of Dune was confusing I felt so validated LOL It was my first sci-fi read and I was like 'wow, I really don't understand what the hell is going on.' I pushed through it and it ended up being amazing though.
I feel like giving the PLOT of the book a high score is honestly wild, the going on in between the letters aren't super relevant to the contents of the letters. Its just a change to play with words and different settings (time periods and places) and setup the reading of a letter. Characters I feel the same way because there are no real characters and both of them are barely described.
Plot for us (or at least me, austin) was such a unique read and rly interesting way of delivering a message we all have read hundreds of times and rhat definitely was a big part of why I appreciated it. But fair point 🫡😁
I liked this book and loved it a lot :) There’s not really a plot I’d say, so I’m pretty surprised on their scores. Unless you count the development of their love story as the central plot. But I loved this book! The messages about letters and just the concepts of letters as a communication medium was explored wonderfully here and inspired me to start writing people more. I think with the capacity for instant communication these days, we lose a lot the romance of communication
Yea definitely considered that in my (austin) rating - the execution of the epistolary love-notes during a time war sequence to portray the message was just so inventive/new to me. The “hey we are now in atlantis” stuff was rly just secondary and I felt like it was there just to show their relationship grow which makes sense why people would feel plot isnt a standout portion here !
I'm in the no-thanks camp. I don't mind a bit of confusion in a book (love Dune, just started Malazan), but Time War's prose didn't work for me. The way you were reading it when you burst out laughing is the way it sounded in my head. Even if it fits the characters, setting, etc, I had to DNF. Great discussion, though, and congrats to the authors for their achievement!
I loved that line about poets so much!! Hmm for recommendations in the same genre as ACOTAR and Fourth Wing, I’m gonna say From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout as I couldn’t finish that one either 😂
I had a hard time with the prose, but I stopped reading the brackets and it got better. I finished this so I could hear your spoiler review and I’m really glad i did. The ending was really fun
So I saw your short that basically said “don’t research this book, don’t read the summary, just go and read it” and I went to Barnes and noble and bought it, and read it, and…..I am disappointed lol. I was not too crazy about it. However reading a book is never really a bad thing in the end and over all and for that I am happy I read it 🤷♂️
I had fifty pages left and was not enjoying it so I stopped reading… mostly because America got a reprint of The Liveship traders and Robin Hobb is my favorite author. Anyways, I meant to come back to this book but I felt no urge to return also I’m in a mood where I don’t think I can read and enjoy a romance for at least the next half a year. Edit: The big reason is I HATE Blue because she seems to have a family and be married to a guy who seems to love her and yet she is pretty much apathetic and it disgusts me.
Curious if you ever get back to the book (definitely dont recommend since your feelings are already pretty clear and last 50 pages wont change much of that) - but I get your point!
@@2ToRamble I think I might try it again in a couple years. I hope that my thoughts and views on the book have changed by then because I would always rather enjoy something than dislike it.
I love the premise, and at some points I was hooked, but at the end of the day, all I could think about is this is Brian Griffin falls in love with Brian Griffin, and I'm Quagmire, seething at the self importance of it all. Giggity.
2 star read for me, but fun to hear your thoughts guys. While i appreciate themes of love in my books, i just couldn't immerse myself in red+blue. It felt more like an A.I. writing a love story to itself, and was told to do so in a flowery fashion. The time travel aspects were NOT complicated at all to me tbh, in fact i found it too formulaic. I appreciate the novelty of writing love letters through time. But I cant say I enjoyed the execution.
Great discussion! Well said 🙌 I appreciate what the book is but I will take Brandon Sanderson (for example) style of storytelling a thousand times over this
I read it a couple of months ago and gave it 3 stars but as time goes by that feels generous. As much as I'm usually someone who loves lyrical prose (like Patricia McKillip, Ursula Le Guin, Guy Gavriel, Kay, etc.) and obscure texts that don't make sense on first glance, this didn't work out as well as I would have liked. Ultimately, I think my issue with it is that everything (the relationship, the prose, etc.) felt very style over substance and the characters sounded much too similar. The other day I saw someone on Reddit say it reads like ChatGPT wrote it and you know...I don't totally disagree with that assessment 😆 Wish I liked it more but it is what it is 🙃
I have THROUGHLY enjoyed this entire channel and especially this review lol I’d love to see yalls take on A Short Stay in Hell by Steven Peck. Another short and interesting read
I agree with the definition of camps here I hated the book, and I prefer fantasy over sci-fi, I am uncomfortable with being confused by a book, and this book were so promising and it read so high and mighty in their high horses Wished a could at least like it, I was intrigued by the promise
One that I think is way more enjoyable than the acotar and fourth wing is Dance of Thieves with that romance the world is still very interesting and more politics
This book was: impenetrably overwritten (and I love elaborate prose), really repetitive (like yeah there's infinite ways you can 'write' a 'letter', I get it), the characters weren't that disintguishable (I always had to check whose letter I was reading) and their love wasn't believable (they've never even met), the reveal about the Seeker was cheap, and the ending was unsatisfying (what about the Time War that was meant to be Lost...). However, it was very imaginative and I can recognise the artistry in the book, it just wasn't for me.
I saw this video in my recommended when I had already planned on reading it last Sunday, and I have been looking forward to watching this ❤️❤️❤️ This book had been on my mental tbr since another booktuber (Riley Marie) praised it to high heavens. I was prepared for it being confusing etc. but also that this would be wicked good. Needless to say I was very proud of seeing the twitter hype, had the book on my tbr shelf, and when I read it on Sunday, got blown away 💖💖 I too want a tattoo ahahah not sure yet what, only that the section "kill all the poets" has to be there. I'm so happy with yalls opinions and that you two lkked it. Also, I've joined patreons before where I pay money to support but I hardly look at the content 😅😅 I might join your patreon (at last!!) and do the same 🤣 (Also if Austin does most of the work...is he also the one liking / replying to comments 🤭🤭 if so, then Hi 🫶 If Richard helps out here and reads this then: back to the gym Richard 🤣🤣❤️🔥).
please review the "Lunar chronicles" series by Marissa Meyer - it's YA fantasy, but i think it's closer to sci-fi, than fantasy and the romance is ACTUALLY a sub-plot, for once :D (the sci-fi elements don't hold a candle to "hyperion", but for a less-experienced reader it's sci-fiying hard)
@@2ToRamble it’s a sci-fi retelling of Cinderella, about 1000 years after us. The main character is 70% cyborg and a mechanic. She was adopted into a semi-rich family, but the mother never really liked her, because she’s a cyborg. The father dies and everybody turns against her except one of her sister, who dies from this mysterious illness that’s spreading insanely fast (like the bubonic plague, but worse). After that things happen real fast, but eventually she finds her birth family and overruns the government😆 Oh, and the moon is colonised, but the people evolved and have the ability to intercept people’s perception and override it (make them think they are seeing something else, or thinking something else and if they are more powerful - do things involuntarily)
This is the only book I've had to DNF in a long time. I hated the writing style of the letters, dislike romance, and despised both of the characters, so yeah it wasn't for me and is one of my only 1 stars on goodreads.
This book is awful, but I can see why people like it... I guess. Its not confusing. The problem with the book is that its super pretentious and thinks its telling a confusing story.
