Namorat and I forgot to add that for some reason, it felt like Harry Potter but with tech instead of magic. The factions are prettymuch the four houses + a drab one if you think about it, protagonists are ‘daring’ and ‘brave’ and I’m sure there are a TON of other similarities u could think of if u tried
Catching Fire is my favourite in the series and the movie version is one of the best adaptations of a book I have seen. It's so close to the book that it's like I'm reading it again every time I watch it.
They aren’t really sequels, although I can only attest to The Giver and Gathering Blue, as those are the only two I’ve read. They are separate stories set in the same universe. Gathering Blue mentions a boy that is supposed to allude to Jonas, but that’s it. The entirety of the story is completely different focusing on a girl protagonist named Kira.
@@UltimateKyuubiFox No, Gryffindors were just brave kids, the Dauntless were brave sure, but that wasn't their trait. They were thrillseekers and fighters, mostly paranoid assholes. The only Harry Potter kids I could see being Dauntless are Malfoy, and maybe Harry, Fred, and George
@@jac0736 I can't really see Malfoy as a thrill seeker. Paranoid asshole, yes. And I say this knowing full well that Draco is one of my favorite character.
Lovely video! Here are the timestamps for the series mentioned. Divergent - 0:50 Hunger Games - 2:15 Raven Cycle - 3:17 The Giver - 4:42 Selection - 6:11 Vicious - 6:55 Name of the Wind - 7:45 Let me know if I got something wrong.
I’m definitely in the minority here, but I loved Mockingjay. I felt like the contrast of the slow beginning and then the rushed middle/ending really added to the story. Peeta was one of my favorite characters and though I didn’t enjoy what he went through in the third book, I’m glad it wasn’t just a thing that happened and actually had an affect and played a role in how things progressed. I haven’t read the books in like 5 years, so perhaps after a reread I may feel differently, but I honestly remember really loving Mockingjay. 100% agree about Divergent though. I loved the first book so much and was disappointed with the direction the 2nd and 3rd book took. I didn’t even read the companion novel.
I'm not sure why everyone feels in the minority here? Probably a vocal minority that dislikes the book, but for a 3rd book it has done fairly well in ratings. 4.04 on Goodreads after the first had 4.33 and the second 4.29. On Amazon it sinks from 4.7 to 4.4. That is quite normal for a the last book in a series, not everyone will like the ending. Whatever you may think of the book, this is far away from a majority disliking it. Imho, if you subtract the people who dislike it solely because she wound up with the wrong guy, there aren't many dislikes left. (btw i think i'ts perfectly fine to dislike the book because of that, just wanted to point out, what could be the reason for the lower rating)
@@BoredMarcus I don't think that Katniss enders up with the wrong guy, Peeta is a pretty good person. But I can see why what they did with gale would be seen as a lazy way out the triangle.
lisagna me too I thought it was great! I loved the exploration of the problems with the rebels and I was so satisfied with the ending (unpopular opinion I know)
"Katniss, have you heard of character development?... Me neither, but you are a fictional character so you are supposed to have some." I am choking on my saliva...hilarious AF
I've read that the reason why some series fail is because the setup in the second book is so different from the first one that readers feel "disconnected" from the story, and honestly, I agree. I loved Maze Runner but Scorch Trials was so different, that I got bored halfway through and I had to force myself to read the third book. It just wasn't the story I fell in love with.
Same! I literally gave up on Scorch Trials on about chapter 4? The problem with having a setting that establishes a structure in the first book (the maze in Maze Runner, Dauntless in Divergent, the arena in the Hunger Games) is that once you break out of that setting/structure, it turns into a totally different story.
This is how I feel about the Outlander series. I keep stalling out in book 5 because the setting and the characters have changed so dramatically that it isn't really even the same series anymore.
musicflower79 yeah I think that’s how to get into it. I didn’t like any of the characters (Ronan was okay) and the actual storyline is so boring and anticlimactic... it’s definitely a character driven book and if you don’t like the characters you won’t like the books pretty much 😄
I feel like it's a common theme for YA to have weak sequels. Most authors just can't do series but reaaally want to make money P.S. Can we talk about how beautiful Merphy's eyes are???
I fall into the LOVE IT section for The Dream Thieves, and I actually thought The Raven King was really good! I understand why people didn’t like it, but I thought it was good and wrapped up well. (But I’m also not a critical reader AT ALL so that probably has something to do with it)
Wheel of Time 1-7 - yes, so good, cant wait for more Wheel of Time 8-10 - please end, make it stop make it stooooop! Wheel of Time 11-14 - thank you Brandon!
While books 7 through 10 are considered slow, you have some of the most important points in the entire series happening in those books. I do thank Sanderson for finishing the series due to the untimely death of Mister Jordan, but I actually think Mister Jordan would have written the characters better and finished the series better. And yes Victor is correct. Book 11 was Jordan's last hurrah.
you kind of need a tracking notebook for major characters for WoT around the middle, so that you can remember where they went in the map. I read somewhere around book6 and go like, "Huh? I cant remember where ______ was before this!"
I'm at book 9 now, and Elayne, and her stupid drama, makes me want to tear me hair out. I don't get why she got so much pagetime compared to the actually interesting characters (where's my boy Logaine at?!). I still love (or at least like) the majority of the characters though, and the good parts are so great they pull me through the dull ones.
I loved Catching Fire more than Hunger Games too! I liked seeing more of what was going on in the characters' awful lives Hahaha book 2: "A sticky mess"
To All the boys I've loved before was not that good of a book according to me but it was fine, kinda liked it but the next two books omg what the heck even were the sequels, I hated both of them and I hated myself for still reading it. Tbh I don't even properly remember what happened in book 2 and 3, I just remember hating it.
I highly disagree with Wise Man's Fear. I really enjoyed it. I thought that it delved more into Kvothe's character and helped build up for the next book. However, I do agree that I would have to read book 3 before in order to get a better view of the book.
Same, I loved Wise Man's Fear even more than the Name of the Wind. I thought it was Fantastic. We're looking at the account of his life, him going on exploits and doing things was exactly what I expected. And any character I liked in NotW I grew to absolutely love in WMF.
I love to follow so many booktubers and see so many different opinions on the same book. For example, Merphy hated Vengeful, by V. E. Schwab, but other booktuber I love loooved Vengeful and said it was 17648x better than Vicious. To see so many different opinions, points of view and the (civil) discussions that can come from reading and being in the community is what makes it so fun. :)
Personally for me, I had mixed feelings about the wise mans fear also. I didn’t like the first half of the book and honestly can’t remember much besides the stuff kvothe did to ambrose. Besides one part(the felurian) I LOVED the second half of the book. The fight, THE FIGHT, the adem people and their culture, the spinning leaf, denna, and a lot more at the end truly kept me entertained. I also got a lot more excited when I started looking up the lackless theory and more on RU-vid after the fact. Still very excited for book 3.
I'm really looking forward to the third Kingkiller installment just to know how in the name of God he is gonna try to end that story, I think it's impossible...
I know right? The first book was so good, but I don't even want to think about book two, it just feels like a big mess in my head so now I can't even tell you exactly what happened in it, I think my brain just tried to erase it, too disappointing...
Completely agree about THE HUNGER GAMES! The premise of the Hunger Games themselves is interesting and all the best scenes are inside the arena itself, but once the focus shifts to the rebellion of the Districts, you stop caring. Mostly because the Districts are boring as hell. MOCKINGJAY stopped being about the arena, and that was a huge mistake.
Just some comments from a fan of The Wise Man's Fear (SPOILS): I'm only going to address "no progress has been made." I do get what you mean - at times thinking about the book I feel that no progress has been made, but on the other hand, one has to actual lay out what progress needs to be done. In the 'prophetic blurb' of book 1, we complete the following: "I have spent the night with Felurian and left with my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the university..." This is about 1/3 of the summary, only 1/3 of which was clearly completed book 1. We learn from snippets in book 1 that Kvothe is excellent with a sword, and learn how this is so in 2. We also have hints he learns the Lithuani in 1, completes in 2. The major mysteries in book 1 include: The four plate door, naming, the other countries (Modeg, Vintas, Ceald, Yll), the fae realm, The Adem, The Amyr and The Ciridae, Waystones, Auri, Denna's patron, and of course, the Chandrian. Of these, almost every one is further understood by the end of book 2, expect perhaps some countries and the four plate door. Obviously, very few of these are 'resolved,' but Vintas, the Adem, and the Amyr are especially given a ton of new light. Auri is much better understood. A bunch about the Chandrian is revealed through the pottery imagery, especially in connection with the myths of the Amyr laid throughout. Naming is 'explained' and used much more deeply. I know it feels like there is a ton left to do, but in many ways, Rothfuss did explore a ton of ground in just book 2, and most, if not all of Kvothe's known skills are now in place.
I love those books. To me they don't really have clear boundaries. With much of it I'd struggle to tell you if much of it happens in Book 1 or 2 despite having read them both several times. For me the weakest/most boring park is Kvothe's extended period being homeless and that happens in the first book.
Totally agree. It's important to remember that the story of Kvothe is just as much the point of the books as anything else, so while some major plot points may have not progressed, there was a ton of essential character development. I really enjoyed the book despite the many questions we were left with.
Totally agree with Mockingjay! After two AMAZING books, this one really was a disappointment. I do think a reason for this was also because the whole 'Hunger Games' element wasn't there anymore, but still. I did find it really interesting reading about the PTSD of the tributes, but overall, book 1 and 2 were WAAAAY better. Loved this video!
The name of the wind has more books, its only a beginning. After the 3 nights(books) he is going to continue with more books. He said he hopes people arent mad when they find out these books are just a prologue to another series lol love these books.
@@eodico true, but i think most stuff will be answered. What happens to Dena, how he kills the king, how the war started. Stuff they'll have to answer after will probably be about the 7, and ending the war.
People will be mad if they not get a book 3 and thats much more likely than Rothfuss making his bold statement about the first 3 books being a prologue come true.
I feel like everyone’s favourite is catching fire,but I just love the first one. Don’t get me wrong catching fire is amazing but there’s something about the first
THIS! I was about to comment this. Ryan changed how the pov from strictly the main character's POV in the first book, to POV all over the place. Then the ending. I was like WTF! That was your plan?! No stratagems or tactics or any semblance of military strategy. It was Deus Ex Machina to me. Terrible plot. Ryan created a huge problem he had no way of solving convincingly.
Sooooo I realised more recently that I've owned the box set of the hunger games (for like 5-6 YEARS), and all this time I just thought I'd read them... Nope. Read the first one. Never even opened the other two 😂😂😂. Need to fix that at some point lol. Also, when I read the divergent trilogy way back when, I remember loving it (post partum me seemed to be a lot less picky about books lol). I did hate how it was all ended though (I mean, I cried 😂 but I haaaaated that ENDING). I never read four's book. But I don't think I'd ever reread them because I don't think I could let the little things slide the second time around lol. AND THE MOVIES WERE SO HORRIBLE.
I completely agree with the Divergent series and the Selection (btw your description of those books was spot on) From the Hunger Games my favorite is Catching Fire too! And yeah Mockingjay was another mood entirety (but I still love the series). OMG the Raven Boys' ending is sooo underwhelming, personally I'd recommend not to read the last one. I recently read The name of the wind and loved it, but now I'm scared to pick up The wise man's fear... Great video as always!!
While I don't agree with your review of The Wise Man's Fear, I do agree the Felurian sextion (I actually just mistyped "section" but it seems oddly appropriate so I am leaving it there) is the weakest part of the book. It felt forced, like Rothfuss needed a way for Kvothe to meet up with the Cthaeh and he couldn't think of any other means to do it. I also fear (wisely or not) that Rothfuss has no intention of writing book three. He just can't come out and admit it as that would kill the sales of the first two going forward.
I agree I'm away, but what I liked was him falling into the fairy world. And us actually seeing that it exsists and a bit of it. I also felt it was very in character if he's telling his own tale to languish in the, sex parts like of course he did. I live that book tho I liked it even more than three. I think he definitely has book three, my theory is that Kvothe just don't actually get answers. He's chasing something almost intangible, he's barely gotten any clues thus far. And that it was part of the story he, fucks things up, probably kills, someone we would hate him for and never gets anywhere really. And I think he can't quite bring himself to make it satisfactory, because it wasent supposed to be, and is trying to see if he comes up with some answers.
I'm currently reading insurgent, mainly because it's been on my TBR for years. I read Divergent just after the film came out and books 2 and 3 have been sitting on my shelf ever since. Knowing how the series ends (I goggled it) and having seen the films they released so far, I have a feeling I'll unhaul both after finishing them, but I just want them read and get them off my shelves. I also read (and loved) all three hunger games books last year, but I agree with you about Katniss' character. I kept wanting to tell her off for not working out well signposted things and not trusting people.
Mockingjay is a guilty pleasure. I know it has a lot of problems but I love Katniss' descent into madness, which I feel should have had more development
Katniss's madness was one of the better things about Mockingjay but uh that book was such a let down. I will say one thing about the movie though here, I think the movie included Effie into Mockingjay's plot perfectly (because I'm 90% certain she wasn't really in the book right?) And I think her character could have really helped lighten certain parts of the book and tie Mockingjay together with the other books. I don't think she would have saved it but I 100% believe she would have made it better than it turned out. I also think being tied to Katniss's PoV is also what really hampered Mockingjay. There was almost this rivalship going on between Katniss and Snow but because of the PoV restrictions we only saw her side of it when we really would have benefited from understanding Snow (and the subsequent happenings of the war) better. Plus I think it could have helped the really poor pacing Mockingjay had overall. Also, that ending... boy it was rushed. (And my boi Finnick... :/ I'm still salty about that all these years later. )
I actually made an edit of the two Mockingjay movies into one movie and cut out a lot of the boring parts and of course the Gale romance. It works a lot better because to me it was clear at the end of Catching Fire that she had chosen Peeta. So it gives more impact to her desire to save Peeta that much.
I agree with every single one of these. Some stories start with such a great premise and then they just crumble. I didn't hate Vengeful as much, but I see how you felt that way. Mockingjay was just a disaster...
Okay u just want to mention this, but I adore the selection so much. Like I love it with all my heart (back in 8th grade...) and when you mentioned it I was like « YES! » because even 8th grade me thought that the elite was just..two stars. I found a lot of America’s actions unnecessary and I remember rereadig the selection and the one while skipping the elite, just because I really did not like it and didn’t care that I’ve forgotten important plot points that happened in it. The story about her daughter was a miss for me too
Glad you started with Divergant. My grandmother loves reading, I couldn't find anything for Christmas for her, saw this on the shelf, read a blurb, saw sequels were coming out and got it for her. Low and behold she loved it, asked me to read it, I loved it. Then I saw noting but horrible reviews for the next two. I feel like I might have liked the second one but I know I would've hated the third. My grandmother passed before having the last book I bought her ruined by sequels. Only good thing about her passing is she doesn't have to endure the two Divergent sequels.
The Giver is probably my favorite book of all time. It is the only book that I even like to reread. I haven't read the companion novels because I really like the ambiguous ending.
The Hunger Games sequels were better than the Divergent sequels, in my opinion. I mean, the romance in Mockingjay felt a bit shoved in, but I could easily see it coming since it seemed like Collins was leaning towards that relationship since the near end of Hunger Games. However, the love triangle was dumb because guys and girls can be just friends.
Shadowdance by David Dalglish had me HOOKED until I got about a quarter of the way through book 3, out of 6. There was just something about the way the author described how the protagonist fought, like his signature technique that helped him win in a fight against the bruiser bad guy in the last book, that just lost me. I forget how he put it, but it immediately made me picture our hero loosening the clasp on his cloak so it can spin around his neck and then he starts spinning in place like a toddler pretending to be a helicopter. Once that mental image popped in my head, I *immediately* stopped reading and put the thing down, never to be read again. Which makes me really sad, because he was building up such amazing relationships and conflict for the protagonist and his father, only to blow it on a poorly written fight sequence.
The Witchland series by Susan Dunnard: Took me a minute to understand the magic system, but I loved the first book, TruthWitch, and could hardly wait for WindWitch to be delivered to my door. Popped it open immediately and started reading aloud, using character voices and such, as I do for fun when reading to my husband. Something happened within the first few pages and I was praying for change clear through the next 100 pages. It never was repaired and the characters had changed. I shut the book and have never looked back. Maybe someone can talk me into enjoying the series again. I dunno.
I loved Dream Thieves because Ronan was my favorite character and it was great seeing more in depth on his family life. But as a second book in a series, it made no sense to halt everything and focus on him.
I listened to the audiobook of Catching Fire and I feel like all I remember from that book was the line "All that mattered was keeping Peeta alive." Every. Other. Line. That was the only thing going through Katniss's head through the last half of the book and it drove me nuts through the entire road trip
As a kid I didn't know books could HAVE bad sequels until I started to read the Maximum Ride series and BOY that series took a sharp turn for the worst and just steamrolled ahead.
I completely disagree about The Raven Cycle. Incredible sequels. I loved how each book was different from the others like each member of the Gangsey was different from the others, and the plot totally built to the epic finale of TRK. I thought the fact that (spoilers!) the ending wasn’t your typical “and then everything they were dreaming about came true!” bullsh** ending, but actually required some twists and turns and reinventions of the plan.
Maybe because the children of flesh and bone sequel wasn't out yet, but that sequel... It hurt my very soul that something so BEAUTIFUL ended up so terrible.
I absolutely love Wise Mans Fear. The book contains so many secrets and intrigues within its language. But where i do agree is that it really seems odd how Rothfuss can wrap up the story in only one final book. It seems to work so little that we might never get a book 3.
The Maximum Ride series has this. I loved books 1-3, book 4 was basically a PSA about global warming, book 5 wasn't memorable(I forgot everything, haha), and I quit partway through book 6 because I was just done with this series.
Definitely agree with most of these. I hated Mockingjay soooo much. Didn't even finish the 3rd Raven Cycle book because it got too weird and complicated for me, and I didn't even try to read the 3rd Divergent book. I will also throw in the most recent Shatter Me book (#4). I loved the first three so I was SO excited for it, but I could not even believe what I was reading it was so disappointing compared to what I was expecting. It's such a shame when they take the story places it just doesn't need to go.
My worst series sequel was in the Harry Potter series. I rated the first five books five Goodreads stars, the next two four Goodreads stars, and then came the Cursed Child. I rated it two Goodreads stars. I can tolerate the script form and it's kind of a fun read, but nothing makes sense. Time-traveling has completely changed. OOC syndrome everywhere. Voldemort and Bellatrix having a daughter. A thousand other complaints you've heard somewhere before. So much has been ruined and changed to the point CC can't even be regarded as a part of the canon. Unbelievable.
I'm not surprised you didn't like The Raven Cycle. I love it, but there's basically no plot. 😂 I wouldn't really recommend the fourth one if you didn't like two and three.
There is plot but it definitely takes a back seat to all the characters and relationships. Honestly, I loved it, the characters were so well developed, Blue and Gansey’s dynamic was so interesting, Adam’s character development was to die for, Ronan is a total badass (the dream thieves is definitely my favorite book), and Noah’s story was so heartbreaking. Honestly there wasn’t a second that I felt bored reading these books.
My least favorite sequels would be all the WoT books after book 3: I know a lot of people love the series, but I just couldn’t get back into the rhythm after the third one.
I think that Tree's fraction was called dauntless and I know that from the movie because I don't plan on reading the Detergent series. Funny thing how even Jennifer Lawrence got critiqued about her performance in the Hunger Games being emotionless and stoic by people that probably never read the books. Katniss rarely smiles and constantly has what they call a "resting bitch face". I thing that after the first book Susanne Collins didn't knew how to end the story so she did what most sequel writers are going... She took the best elements from the first book, raised the stakes and kinda rewrote the original with some new characters. The third book was s train wreck and the they decided for the film adaptation to split MockingJay into 2 movies.
You summed up the Divergent series for me - personally, loved the first movie, strongly disliked the second and didn't even bother to watch the third... The worst part is that I told my mom how amazing book 1 was and she actually bought me the set and I haven't read them because... Well, I'd probably sell them, too, if they weren't a gift!!! (>.
I'm so glad to hear someone else agrees with me on Name of the Wind and A Wise Man's Fear. I thought WMF was such a freaking letdown. Plot development? Nope. New and deeper understanding of the world, the magic, the characters, or the villains? Again, nope. Character relationships? Friends and mentors and family? Not really seeing those. Ah! so, like, there's romantic development at least? Nope, just a lot of sleeping around with side characters we'll never know anything about or even care to wonder about. I absolutely loved NotW, and Rothfuss' prose is some of my favorite, but WMF really really really dropped the ball.
I think the issue with The Giver as a series is that the books were not a series initially. They were published decades apart. I love Gathering Blue and like The Giver. I read them separately around when Gathering Blue was first published. (Giver was read in class.) They were great individual books exploring different communities in the same world. You can read them individually. The other two books were terrible and unnecessary. I liked all three books of the Hunger Games. I thought Katniss's reactions and ptsd were honest.
'they just move on' (mocking Jay). I don't think so at all. In the epilogue it's actually made pretty clear that the character's never fully moved on from the deaths and horrors they experienced. Also I know Katniss lacked some big character development but I appreciate that Collins at least didn't make her become the 'usual' hero. She didn't magically decide that today is the day she wants to start being the mocking Jay, didn't suddenly accept her role and just role with it. Idk I think it was nice to see the main character not accepting their horrible fate because the, have to, because they are the main character and the y 'have to' be the chosen one.
Rothfuss isn’t claiming that the first three books are going to be a prequel series. He has to finish the first trilogy before he can move on to the next one.
The hunger games has a good ending that dosen't suite the theme of the first and second book. It get's pretty heavy on PTSD. And i mean the third book is a good representation of what would happen to characters that went through stuff like they did. Peeta's story is nightmare fuel. The thing is a lot of people including me were not ready nor looking for this there. We wanted a sci-fi fantasy that followed on the first books. Looking back it's one of those books that dosen't FEAL good but has good morales that make the books heavy.
The worst literary sequels I’m aware of are Brian Herbert’s Dune books. YE GODS. Not even fit for... worms. The worst movie sequel is The Last Jedi; the closet thing Ive seen to a cinematic hate crime. The worst TV sequel is the entire second season on Twin Peaks. How something so good went so bad in just one season is more of a mystery than anything on the show. Finally, the worst sequel overall is me. My Dad was an amazing man and I’m pretty much worthless.
One of my most disappointing series is the Gold Seer’s trilogy by Rae Carson. The first book is Walk on Earth a Stranger, and I really enjoyed it. I kind of wish it had just been a stand-alone, because the second book was ridiculous and the third book set fire to all of the characters and the story up to that point. You know when you’re supposed to be rooting for a character/characters and then they do some truly awful things but it’s never framed in the book as an awful thing and you’re still supposed to be rooting for them? Yeahhhh.....nope. No thanks.
I was SO excited for Vengeful. Vicious is one of my favourite books and I still pour my heart out when suggesting it to people. That said, I've sat on Vengeful for ages. One of the new characters' POVs put me off and I lost enthusiasm to read it. I got it out the other day to try to convince myself to read it, but now my sister has convinced me to start a book club with her and we're reading Empire of Sand so... unlikely.
Wise Man's Fear can't be called the "worst" anything. Was it worse than Name of the Wind? Yes. Worst Patrick Rothfuss novel? Considering he's only got the two, then yes. But P Roth on his worst day still beats out most of modern fantasy just by virtue of prose and time spent crafting.
Woahhh you don't like Wise Man's Fear?? That was my favorite one. It opened up the world a ton, Kvothe went to a bunch of different places and met a ton of new characters with new cultures. And yeah it doesn't answer every question, but that's why it's a trilogy. Mannnn that is SURPRISING!