Hello I'm Holly and today I'm going to
be finding out how many of the top 100
fantasy books on Goodreads that I have read.
If you've been following my channel for
a while you might remember that a few
months ago I did a video very similar to this.
So a couple of years ago Goodreads
created this top 50 fantasy list
and they've done like a sci-fi. They've
done a horror. I'm sure they've done more
and one of my long-term reading goals
was to read all the books off those
lists. So I created three videos where I looked
at the books I had read so far from those lists
and then it was kind of going to be
something that I reflect on every now
and again. See how many I've read
and then in July they released some new
lists, particularly a fantasy and sci-fi list
and a lot of the original books on the
top 50 lists were in that
top 100. Of course they're still the highest rated
but obviously there was also a lot more
books on those lists
and I still want to do this series but
now I have a lot more books to read.
So in today's video and then I think
there's also going to be the sci-fi one
hopefully next week,
I'm going to be looking at the
books that I've read
so far on those lists and I thought
because I know that not everyone would
have seen
those original videos. I will link the
top 50 fantasy video
in the description box but as I said a
lot of the books on the top 50 list are
also on the top 100 list,
so there are quite a few books at the
beginning that I thought I would briefly mention
that I talked about in that other video.
So I definitely recommend going to check
out that original video.
So in that original video I talked about
A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab,
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin,
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The
Princess Bride by William Goldman,
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson. The Song of
Achilles by Madeline Miller,
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss,
The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien,
and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by
C. S. Lewis. This is a bind up of all of them
but the first published book in the
Chronicles of Narnia series
and then the next lot of books are ones that were on
that original top 50 list that I have
now read
and the first one of those is Good Omens
by Terry Pratchett
and Neil Gaiman. This has a Goodreads
rating of 4.24 and I gave it four stars.
I really enjoyed this.
I think it has a lot of British humour so
like sarcasm and irony and stuff like that and as a
British person I really loved the humour that was in
this. For those who don't know
this follows an angel and a demon who
are friends and they are trying to stop the
apocalypse from happening. So the
antichrist has just been born
and they're trying to stop him from
destroying the world basically.
This was recently made into a TV show.
That's how I found out about this
and I loved the TV show and I think that
was a really good adaptation of this
book, so I really enjoyed this book too.
I think what really let it down
is the ending. I did find the
ending a little anticlimactic
but I think if you're looking for
something really fun I would definitely
recommend this one.
The next book is The Final Empire by
Brandon Sanderson.
This has a Goodreads rating of 4.45 and I gave it 4.5.
So very very close. This is the first
book in the first mistborn era which is
set in this world
where there are these people who can
consume different types of metal to get
different abilities. At the start of this
book the dark lord, the evil villain, has won and
because of this life for the majority of
people is pretty rubbish.
So you're following a group of
individuals in kind of the criminal
underworld who are coming together to
try and take this evil guy down
and there's a lot of epic fight scenes
in this. There's a lot of really cool
magic scenes in this. I really love the
characters and I think that Brandon
Sanderson has a really accessible
writing style
so if you're trying to get into adult
fantasy I think this is a really good
place to start.
Then we have Assassin's Apprentice by
Robin Hobb. This has a Goodreads rating of
4.16 and I rated it 4 stars, so again I
rated it pretty highly. I really love
this book and I've really loved the rest
of the Farseer trilogy.
Both of the other instalments I've
given five stars to. I absolutely
love this series and this is the first
book in the Farseer trilogy which
follows this boy called Fitz who is the
bastard son of the King-in-Waiting.
When Fitz is a young boy his grandfather
on his mother's side takes him to the
keep and says that his father needs to
take responsibility for him but before
Fitz even meets his father, his father
abdicates his position and Fitz ends up
getting raised by the stable master
and then he becomes enlisted by the king
to become an assassin.
I just love this series. I love the
characters. I love the world. I love the magic. So
there's these two branches of magic in this.
You have the Skill which is very revered.
That's kind of what's in the royal
family and that enables people to communicate
with each other through their minds,
so they can communicate over really long
distances and then our main character
Fitz also has a magic
called the Wit which is incredibly
looked down upon. If he got found out he
would be executed
and this enables him to have these kind
of connections with animals, to have
these kind of bonds
and oh. I just ... any kind of animal magic I love.
If you have any great recommendations of
books that do have this kind of animal
bonding magic I would love to know.
I don't really have much more to say about
this. I love Robin Hobb. I can't wait to
read more of her books and
just follow more of Fitz and all the other
characters in all her other series. I'm
just ... I'm so excited to continue with this author
and then the final book of the original
list that I have read
is The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin. This
has a Goodreads rating of
4.29 and I gave it five stars.
I absolutely love this book.
I read this pretty recently so you're
probably sick of hearing me talk about
it but I'm gonna keep talking about it
because it's absolutely brilliant.
This is set in a world where there are
these apocalyptic fifth seasons,
so earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, that
kind of thing and at the beginning of
this book a fifth season has
just happened. This is the worst one yet.
This could be the end of the world and you're
following a number of perspectives but
the first one you're introduced to is
this woman who returns home to find that her
husband has killed her son and kidnapped
her daughter
so she goes on this journey to kind of
track her daughter down
and while this is happening the world is
pretty much ending. People are trying to
escape to safer places and then there's also a
couple of other perspectives that I don't
really want to delve too much into.
I think the actual construction of this
book is masterful.
I think N. K. Jemisin just the way that she
structured this book
so so good and I have heard that some people
find it a little bit confusing at times.
One of the perspectives is in second
person which I personally really enjoyed
but I know that some people
have struggled with that so do be aware
that maybe you have to put a bit more
time and effort into it but it's definitely
worth it. The payoff
is so good. Also the magic system in this
is kind of earth-based and people with
this ability are incredibly oppressed
and that does play a big role in this
novel as well. So oh just read it. It's so
good. I'm so glad that I've read it and I
cannot wait to continue with this series
and now for all the books that have been
put onto the top 100 list that I've read.
Some of these I've read a long time in
the past. Some of them are pretty recent reads and
the first one of those
is The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett.
This has a Goodreads rating of
3.99. I gave it four stars so again I
really enjoyed this one
and this is the first book in Terry
Pratchett's massive Discworld.
If you are looking
for something that is just nonsensical
and a lot of fantastical fun I think
this one is really good. The writing
style is definitely unique and I don't
think it's going to be for everyone.
It's a little bit all over the place and
the chapters are incredibly long
but I do want to continue with this
series. I have ... I read this
was it last year? Maybe. The year before
and I haven't continued the series yet
but I do think that is something that I
want to read at some point in my life.
The next book that I've read is Stardust
by Neil Gaiman.
This has a Goodreads rating of 4.09
and I gave it two stars. I didn't really
enjoy this book.
I think that my major issue with this
book is I think it wasn't sure
who its demographic was. I might have
gone into it with the wrong expectation
of it being a
children's book and actually a lot of
the writing in it is very simplistic. The
story is pretty simplistic but this book is
not for kids. There are graphic sex
scenes. There is graphic
violence. Like do not give this book to a
child. It just didn't
have the depth I expect from an adult
fantasy. It still felt very
childlike and these kind of sex scenes,
this violence,
for me it felt completely unnecessary.
I don't know why it was included.
It just didn't really gel with me. I know
that a lot of people love Neil Gaiman
and obviously I loved Good Omens. I don't
think I've read any of his other books
so I definitely want to try some more.
See what I really think but this one it
wasn't the best. I didn't love it
but clearly it still has a high rating
on Goodreads so a lot of people do.
You might enjoy it but I didn't. The next
book that I've read
is Circe by Madeline Miller. This has a
Goodreads rating of 4.27
and I gave this 5 stars. I love this book.
I love Madeline Miller. I love The Song
of Achilles too. That was her first book.
I think Circe was the first book that I
read by her and this is kind of a
retelling of the goddess Circe.
So I believe that Circe was the
first witch in western fiction or something. I'm not
entirely sure.
I could be getting that wrong but she is
a goddess. She is a witch
and it's basically her life story.
The kind of trials and tribulations that she goes
on. The relationships that she has with
Odysseus
and other men in her life and something
that I really
loved about this is how vapid and
I don't know the god world is. They truly
don't really care about humans but
Circe
she does care. She is kind of an outsider
in the kind of god world.
I can't remember what it's called. I'm so
bad at mythology so I'm very sorry but I
loved Circe.
I love Madeline Miller's writing
style. I think it is quite slow and for some people it just
doesn't have the action
that they want but there's just
something like quietly resilient about Circe.
She has all these great powers but
her strength is very inner and
oh she has like a lion. I love it. I love
Circe so much and I definitely need to
get myself a copy
and re-read it at some point. Then we
have Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.
This has a Goodreads rating of 4.18 and
I gave it a 4,
so again very high ratings for a lot of
these books. They are pretty good in my opinion.
This is a standalone fantasy. I do
believe there might be a sequel coming
but when it was created it was a standalone.
This is set in this city that is on the border
of the city called Elantris which was
home to these kind of
god-like inhabitants but before the
beginning of this novel - I believe it's
ten years before -
Elantris has fallen and the god-like
inhabitants. They've got this kind of
disease that I don't want to tell you
much but they have this disease and anyone
who starts to show signs of having this
disease are pretty much thrown in
Elantris and abandoned and left to rot and you're
following a bunch of characters. I think
you're following the prince.
You're following his like betrothed who
by the time she turns up
he's died. He's been put in Elantris but
she doesn't know that.
She just thinks he's dead so she's kind
of married this man and then she gets
there and he's dead but because of the
treaty that's in place she kind of has
to become the princess
and then you're also following this
religious figure who is trying to bring
a certain religion to this place.
Obviously it sounds a bit complex and
there are a lot of story lines going on
but I really do love that kind of
fantasy that you can sink your teeth
into. That you can really appreciate the
interweaving of all these plot lines, all
these storylines, all the characters.
It really really is good. I didn't give
it five stars. It didn't
hit a five star level for me but it's
still a fantastic fantasy
and I would definitely recommend this
one. Then we have Vvicious by V. E. Schwab
and in my personal opinion I wouldn't
really categorise this as fantasy.
I think this is more science fiction
but this has a Goodreads rating of 4.23
and I gave it 5 stars
and I love V. E. Schwab. If you don't know
that I really do love V. E. Schwab.
I have a whole V. E. Schwab shelf which
is like at the top. You never see it
but I have a whole shelf and this is a
superhero story.
It follows these university
roommates, Victor and Eli,
who are researching
extraordinaries who are people who have
acquired superpowers
through near-death experiences. So they
start experimenting.
They start trying to kill themselves and
bring themselves back so they can get
powers and then you're also following them 10
years in the future I believe where
Victor has just escaped from prison and
now they're arch nemesis and they want
to kill each other.
I just ... I love V. E. Schwab and I love the
concept of this book.
Superheroes and super villains, they are my thing
and this is no different. I don't have
much to say. I love V. E. Schwab. I love her
writing. I love her characters.
So yeah just read this! The next book is
another book by N. K. Jemisin
and that is The Hundred Thousand
Kingdoms.
This has a Goodreads rating of 3.86 and
I rated it four stars. Again I really
really enjoyed this one
and this is a pretty hard book to
explain. So you're following this main
character. I can never pronounce her
name. I think it's like
Yeine or Yeine or something like that
and she found out that her mother was
the daughter of kind of the king-like figure in this
world. He's not referred to as the king
but he is the ruler of these kingdoms
and because his daughter married below her station
she kind of got disowned. When her mother
dies, the main character is summoned
by her grandfather who tells her that
she is one of three potential heirs to
rule the kingdoms
and there's kind of ... like she's trying
to survive basically against these other people
and something that is very present in
this story is that there are
gods and the gods.
I really love them. They are pretty much
controlled by Yeine's family
and kept on a leash. They have to do
whatever they're told and
this I believe was N. K. Jemisin's first
series of books. If i'm wrong let me know
but I think these are fantastic. The
world is incredibly interesting. I loved the gods
aspect of this story and I think if
you've liked Strange the Dreamer
you might really like this. I think there
are a lot of similarities. Obviously this
one came first.
If you like this one I'd recommend
Strange the Dreamer and vice versa.
There was a lot of intrigue in this
story and kind of unexplained
things which personally I really enjoy
but I know that some people
don't like that but yeah I really, really
enjoyed this book
and it's another series that I cannot
wait to continue.
Also before I forget there is a sex
scene in this which is just the most
mind-boggling thing I've ever read.
So if you want some really strange sex scenes
this is ... this is the book for you. Then we
have Rivers of London
by Ben Aaronovich. This has a Goodreads
rating of
3.87 but unfortunately I didn't love it
as much
and I only rated it 2.5 stars. This
is a British urban fantasy following
this detective or policeman or something
who goes to this murder and when he's
there he sees this ghost
who may have seen what happened and he
kind of gets drawn into the kind of supernatural
element of London's police force and I really
did love the premise of this but I did think the
writing wasn't the best.
There were some passages that I found a
bit confusing. I didn't really understand
what it was trying to say
and the chapters were also incredibly
long which personally I just really
don't like long chapters. This was a
series that I was intending to continue
with but it's been ... I'm sure it's been about a
year or two years
since I read the first book and I'm not
sure if I'll continue.
I am somewhat interested. I know that
this is an incredibly popular urban
fantasy series in the UK.
I don't know how popular it is in the
rest of the world. Maybe I could pick it
up for some kind of like
second chance video. That's an idea.
I could do you know like
book series or books that I'm not sure
about but we'll see.
We'll see if it happens. Then we have
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo and this
has a Goodreads rating of
4.06 and I rated it three stars.
I think when this book came out it was
incredibly divisive. Obviously Leigh
Bardugo is very well known for her
Grishaverse, so Six of Crows and Shadow and Bone.
Those kind of series
and this was her first foray into adult
fiction, so I think she had a lot of pressure put
on to her and personally I didn't love this. I have
loved some of her other books but the
writing style in this for me was just
really confusing and convoluted and
there are a lot of characters that I
couldn't keep a track of
and the kind of reveal at the end it
just ... it wasn't like as thrilling as I wanted
it to be. Also for those who don't know what this is
about this follows this girl who kind of
gets this - is it like a scholarship or
something to Yale University and at Yale there are
these kind of secret societies. So she has been
employed to kind of keep a watch over
them and the premise of this is
incredibly interesting to me. I know that
it's - is it a five book series?
So I definitely will continue with this
series. I am still intrigued to see
how that develops in the further books
but yeah I didn't love it. I gave it
three stars. That's not a bad rating for
me. That means I did enjoy
parts of it but there were just some
bits that I wanted to be a bit more
polished and I think the pacing
wasn't the best but yeah those are my
thoughts on Ninth House
and then for I think my most hated book
on this list we have Year One by Nora Roberts.
This has a Goodreads rating of 4.02 and
I rated it one star.
I despised this book and this is
set at the beginning of a pandemic that
pretty much wipes out
most of the world and I can't even
remember what this is about but I'm sure
you're following
a bunch of characters. There's far too
many characters to keep track of and
none of them have distinct personalities
but you're following a bunch of
characters trying to survive and
something that this
pandemic or whatever has encouraged is
that there are all these people with
powers, so magic and stuff. Now I read this
for the Goodreads choice awards and that
was one of my goals for 2020.
I wanted to read some of the Goodreads
choice awards winners in the top fantasy
categories and the top YA and sci-fi category and I think
I would never have read this book right
if it wasn't for that because
books about like the apocalypse and
pandemics and stuff just aren't for me
but the reason that I have rated it so lowly
is that I think the writing is absolute trash.
First of all the dialogue is stilted and
rubbish. It doesn't sound like normal
people and then second of all I think this
author really struggled
with telling the reader where to look.
I think the term for that is like narrative
focus. It's making sure that your reader
knows where to look. So for example, if
say there's dialogue
and it doesn't say he said this. She said
this. He said this. You can kind of just have
the dialogue and your reader is able to work out who
is speaking. Does that make sense
but there were fight scenes and there
were just scenes where I had
absolutely no clue what was happening.
You would have like a fight scene or
something be going on and then suddenly
some character would speak and you'd be
like I didn't even know you were here.
You didn't even give me the description
that you're even in the room
and then you suddenly pop up out of
nowhere and then you have to like go
back and read it and be like oh maybe
that's their point of view or whatever.
I don't even know how to explain this
but I hated it. I think the writing was
rubbish. I just ...
I'm never gonna read Nora Roberts
again and then the final book that I
have read
is The Priory of the Orange Tree by
Samantha Shannon.
This has a Goodreads rating of 3.86 and
I gave it four stars. Again it's a book
that I really, really enjoyed and this
is an adult epic fantasy - it's very
chunky - that is set in this world that is
divided into the east and the
west and I believe the east kind
of revere dragons.
They're seen as gods and they're
worshipped and then you have the west
where dragons are despised
and there are dragon slayers and stuff
like that. You're following a bunch of
characters
and it's very much like a fantasy thing
where all these people kind of have to
come together to defeat this
greater evil. I really loved this fantasy.
I think it was beautifully constructed. I loved the
whole world. You had a very diverse cast
of characters. There's a female/female
relationship in this
and I think Samantha Shannon was able to
balance all those things
incredibly well. As I said this is a
massive book. It is a standalone
and I did think because it was a
standalone there were some plot points
that I found a little convenient.
I felt some things kind of slotted into
place too easily
and if it had maybe been split into two
books of maybe a little bit longer
length that could have been fixed a bit but I
still really enjoyed this. I love
Samantha Shannon. I really love her Bone
Season series and I definitely want to read
whatever she brings out in the future
because this was fantastic and I'm
pretty sure I read this in three days
which considering the size of it I think
is pretty amazing. It definitely kept me captivated
and I would highly recommend this one. So overall
out of the top 100 so far I have read
24. I think that's not bad. Like 24%.
Obviously it's going to take me a very
long time to read this top 100
but personally I do want to be reading
some of the older classics and kind of
seeing the books
that are the foundation of fantasy as
well as obviously
the ones that are coming out. There's
quite a few recent books on that list.
Are you interested in reading the top
100 fantasy list or
I'll leave a link to the blog post in
the description if you're interested to
go and have a look.
See how many you've read. I'm sorry if
this video has been quite long.
I feel like I've been filming for quite a while
but I hope you've enjoyed this video.
Thank you for watching and to everyone
out there, stay curious, bye.
