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My Favourite Fantasy Books

2019-06-20 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 16:35 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books and reading · mode: Review and recommendation · tags: Sponsor segment present, His medical past, Family

Ali recommends three fantasy series he discovered last year and loved: Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn, Patrick Rothfuss's The Kingkiller Chronicles and Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive; he tells newcomers to fantasy to start with the faster-paced Mistborn and says he savours fiction as Audible audiobooks.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Intro: three fantasy series he discovered last year

  • ★★★ Ali recommends three fantasy series he discovered last year (2018) and loved: Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn, Patrick Rothfuss's The Kingkiller Chronicles and Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive. — 00:00:00 · Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson

00:00:29 — Audible sponsor read

  • ★★ The video is sponsored by Audible, of which Ali says he has been a paid subscriber for about the last 18 months. — 00:00:29 · Audible

00:00:55 — The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson: the Final Empire, the metal magic system, Vin and Kelsier

  • ★★ The Final Empire, the first Mistborn book, is set in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by the Lord Ruler, where the farm girl Vin and the thief Kelsier, both of the downtrodden, try to overthrow the Final Empire. — 00:00:55 · Mistborn
  • ★★★ Ali likes Mistborn's magic system: people eat metals and burn them for powers, such as pewter for strength, and everyone is bound by the world's laws of physics, which makes the fights clever. — 00:01:25 · Mistborn
  • ★★ In Mistborn, the rare Mistborn are born able to burn all the metals; Vin finds out she is one and the experienced Mistborn Kelsier trains her, in a coming-of-age story. — 00:02:23 · Mistborn
  • ★★ Ali says Mistborn has adventure, action and political and moral questions, such as whether the poor are justified in attacking the rich, building to a very interesting climax. — 00:02:52 · Mistborn

00:03:26 — The Name of the Wind and The Kingkiller Chronicles: Rachel's recommendation on the GP placement, the innkeeper's story, start with Mistborn

  • ★★ In January 2018, having finished the Mistborn trilogy and its three later books, Ali was on his GP placement two hours' drive from Cambridge and did not know what to read next. — 00:03:26 · Mistborn, Cambridge
  • ★★★ His housemate Rachel recommended The Name of the Wind as the best fantasy book she had read; Ali bought the Kindle book and the audiobook at once and read for about eight hours in their cottage on the Norfolk coast. — 00:03:56 · Kindle, Audible
  • ★★ Ali calls the audiobook narration of The Name of the Wind stellar and says he is a sucker for coming-of-age stories. — 00:04:18 · Audible
  • ★★ In The Name of the Wind, a mysterious innkeeper, a wanted man, tells the Chronicler his life story as Kvothe from the age of five: a circus troupe, an arcanist, a tragedy and a university of magic. — 00:05:18
  • ★★ Ali enjoys the mix in The Name of the Wind of lectures, banter, rivalry and a little romance, and the mystery of how Kvothe went from circus performer to a wanted man in a demon-ridden world. — 00:06:46
  • ★★ Driving eight hours to a wedding in Manchester and back while his mum and grandma slept, Ali listened to The Wise Man's Fear audiobook, which made the time fly. — 00:07:17 · Ali Abdaal's mother, Ali Abdaal's grandmother
  • ★★ Ali is glad he used the Audible narration to draw out his enjoyment of The Kingkiller Chronicles: he wants to savour such books on Audible rather than devour them on Kindle. — 00:07:46 · Audible, Kindle
  • ★ Ali hopes the Audible narration of the third Kingkiller Chronicles book, The Doors of Stone (he is unsure of the title), comes out alongside the book. — 00:07:46 · Audible
  • ★★★ Ali tells readers new to these books to start with Mistborn, which is faster-paced; The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear can be slow at times, which experienced fantasy readers will savour. — 00:08:15 · Mistborn

00:08:41 — The Stormlight Archive and Sanderson's shared universe: The Way of Kings, Kaladin, the books still to come

  • ★★ All of Brandon Sanderson's books are set in the same universe, the Cosmere, on different worlds, with characters who reappear in other books and recurring mysteries. — 00:08:41 · Brandon Sanderson
  • ★★ From Brandon Sanderson's interviews and website, Ali understands that the Cosmere books will tie together over the next 20 years or so in a planned way, which he loves. (hedged) — 00:09:10 · Brandon Sanderson
  • ★★ Ali has listened to The Stormlight Archive only on Audible, starting around September 2018 he thinks, to savour it; each book takes about 50 hours, and the physical books are huge. (hedged) — 00:09:37 · Audible, Kindle
  • ★★ The main reason Ali now listens to the Stormlight Archive books only on Audible is that it encourages him to go to the gym. — 00:10:35 · Audible
  • ★★ The Way of Kings is a more standard fantasy book, like Game of Thrones, told from several characters' perspectives; Ali finds its start slow but says it becomes incredible after the first chapters. — 00:10:35 · Game of Thrones
  • ★★ In The Way of Kings, Kaladin, a surgeon's son trained as a surgeon, is conscripted into the army, becomes a slave and tries to lead his fellow slaves to freedom. — 00:11:18
  • ★ Another character of The Way of Kings, a girl keen on art and history, goes to apprentice with a famous scholar but is there to steal from her and restore her family's name. — 00:11:44
  • ★★★ Ali calls The Way of Kings probably the most exciting of all the books he read last year (2018) and this year (2019): he would listen for eight hours at a stretch and had tears in his eyes. (hedged) — 00:13:05
  • ★★ After The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, Ali is now listening to Oathbringer, the third Stormlight Archive book; Brandon Sanderson is writing the fourth and fifth. — 00:13:34 · Brandon Sanderson
  • ★★ Ali says another five Stormlight Archive books will come out over the next 20 years or so, so a reader starting now has 20 years of entertainment ahead, because Brandon Sanderson will deliver. — 00:13:34 · Brandon Sanderson

00:14:15 — Audible sponsor read: most valuable purchases, fiction on audio and nonfiction on Kindle, a waffly book review

  • ★★ Ali says he will make a video at some point on the purchases that added most value to his life: his camera, his Kindle and Audible, probably third. (hedged) — 00:14:15 · Kindle, Audible
  • ★★★ Ali reads nonfiction on Kindle so he can highlight, but takes fiction as audiobooks, to savour it over a long time with good narrators doing the voices. — 00:15:14 · Audible, Kindle
  • ★ Ali finds his book reviews waffly, as with his earlier video on three nonfiction books that changed his life, but enjoys explaining a plot to the camera without spoiling it. — 00:15:43

00:16:08 — Recap: start with Mistborn; sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked by a viewer whether he has read The Wheel of Time, the channel replies that it is on book 7. — creator comment · The Wheel of Time

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Mistborn · The Kingkiller Chronicles · The Name of the Wind · The Stormlight Archive · The Way of Kings

Also: People: Ali Abdaal's grandmother · Ali Abdaal's mother · Brandon Sanderson · Patrick Rothfuss · Rachel

Works: Cosmere · Game of Thrones · Oathbringer · The Doors of Stone · The Final Empire · The Wise Man's Fear · Words of Radiance

Places: Cambridge · Manchester · Norfolk

Characters: Chronicler · Kaladin · Kelsier · Kvothe · Lord Ruler · Vin

Products: AirPods · Audible · Kindle

Only in the description or credits: The Wheel of Time

Also centred on The Kingkiller Chronicles: Monthly Favourites #2 - Ali Abdaal · Answering personal questions - 50k subs Q&A

Also centred on The Stormlight Archive: Monthly Favourites #6 - Ali Abdaal

Also centred on The Way of Kings: Monthly Favourites #6 - Ali Abdaal

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