So first of all, I must apologise for the lack of activity on this blog. If a select view of you are subscribed to my channel on YouTube (hello by the way!), then you will know that I have had quite a few personal matters to deal with over the past month. Hence my absence on-line and not being able to access the internet. However, I am now hoping that this turbulent point in my life is over and I can focus on delivering more reviews and a lot more posts!

So again, as the title suggests; this is my third book review for The Wheel Of Time series: The Dragon Reborn.  There is so much that I wanted to cover in the video review – I had to edit the recording at least several times in order to coincide with YouTube length allowance. Even though the book is one of the shortest in the series (so far), this is a heck of a lot crammed into those 699 pages and I think in the video, I barely scratched the surface!

So where to start!? I will begin with one character I did want to cover in the video, and that character was Mat. Good ol’ Matrim! By far, one of my favourite characters in the series, who I personally feel hasn’t had chance to ‘blossom’ and grow. However, I have to keep reminding myself, I am only three books into a series of fourteen – there’s time yet! Any-ways, back to Mat. He was out of action a lot during the events of the second books, this being due to the illness caused by the ruby dagger he ‘acquired’ in the first book. Well, in this book he is finally cured of this corruptive substance by the Aes Sedai of the White Tower and is made to rest there. Of course, Mat being Mat (and probably the reason I like him so much!) , it doesn’t take long before he grows weary of being waited on hand and foot. A series of events leads him to deliver a letter, along with Thom the gleeman, to Queen Morgase in Caemlyn, letting her know of her daughter’s well-being. Her daughter of course being Elayne. I particularly like the way Robert Jordan gave Mat a purpose in this book. In the past books, I feel he was kind of just ‘hanging around’ the other primary characters. He didn’t really have any goals or aims – until now. His character is explored even more during the end events of the book in which he begins to develop some kind of ‘secret luck’, this being that he wins lots of games of stones/dices in the local taverns and inns. This earns him a vast amount of money which proves handy when he finally ends up in Caemlyn. I won’t spoil it too much for you though!

Upon thinking of what to say in this review, I was going to go in depth about the character, Elayne. However, having already read the forth book; I want to leave her character until then. I will however speak about Rand. Poor Rand a’Thor! He has a lot on shoulders at the moment! This book sees his personality change dramatically. He goes from being the happy, easy-going shepherd from Two Rivers; to a secluded and pardon the pun – but a shadow of his former self. (See what I did there viewers?) But all this time on his own leads to a climatic scene in the city of Tear, which Rand reaches the fortress called the Stone of Tear, where he claims the sword Callandor. This legendary sword is said to be untouchable by anyone except the Dragon Reborn – hence why Rand can now use it. I love that this actually proclaims Rand as actually being the Dragon Reborn – Robert Jordan does a fantastic job of keeping the reader guessing constantly as to whether Rand is or isn’t the Dragon Reborn. This book clarifies the prophecy in an anticlimax of a chapter at the end of the book.

One more thing I adored about this book is the whole aspect of the secret group of Aes Sedai, the Black Ajah. The actual prospect of secret members of these followers of the Shadow, not knowing who to trust – I love it! It adds to keeping the reader on edge as to what will happen next, the constant element of surprise!  Robert Jordan had this down to a tee and I love him for it! And of course on a final note, I have to discuss briefly the amazing revelation that is the discovery (or rather not in this case!) of who Ba’alzamon truly is. The fact that we the readers have been lead to believe that Ba’alzamon is the Dark One throughout the first three books and now we discover we have indeed been misled! Another victory for Robert Jordan right there!

So all in all, I have to say I truly adored The Dragon Reborn. I have to say after reading the first three books, that the series is getting better and better. We are getting introduced to even more sub-plots, more characters, more enemies, more friends… I could go on!

So here is my third review. I must apologize again for the lack of focus – I have a new camcorder and I’m still getting to grips with it!

As ever, I appreciate all the feedback I receive, it’s that what keeps me going!

I shall be back soon with a new review of the forth book in the series.

Until next time….

As you can clearly see by the title, this is the second review in The Wheel Of Time series, The Great Hunt.

I have been incredibly busy getting my video logs up and running on my YouTube channel, whilst making sure that I am not neglecting my blog. Who’d have thought it? Little old me being able to multi-task!

But enough of that, I must press on with telling all you lovely people about this quite amazing book. I feel that I did a little bit better on this review. That’s not me blowing my trumpet by the way! I know I have quite a long way to go before I manage to maintain a good level of recording experience before I even start to class myself as decent. But what I do mean, is that I had a topic with this book that I wanted to discuss. My last review, I felt, restricted me from actually discussing and talking about pretty much anything regarding story-lines, characters, places, events… I had decided after that review that I would not hold back any longer and go spoiler crazy on my next video! Well, not that crazy..

I personally thought that character development was key to this book in the series. From the first book, you have an idea how you want to perceive each character and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Well, just throw all that out of the window once you reach book two! What you thought certain characters were and what they may become is totally turned on it’s head. And that’s what I’m adoring about this series. It’s the unexpected aspect of ‘you don’t know what is around that corner’. That constant element of surprise that has you gripped every time you reach the end of another chapter.

Dwelling more onto the character development, I think a lot of characters ‘blossom’ more in this book, particularly Rand. He is quite naive and innocent when we first meet him in the first book. However, as he gets more involved with the main plot, you start to see him grow, both mentally and physically. He becomes quite the sword master come the end of the book, not mention what he accepts in the final chapter. Acceptance is a running trait with Rand and I think that’s why I like that aspect to him.

I could go in real detail about each and every character in this book, but I think I will leave that for future reviews. I don’t want to dwell too much on one character and then feel I have to make it up with another one. I just personally felt that Rand had the biggest influence on me whilst reading The Great Hunt. Of course one of the major plots is that of the hunt of the Horn of Valere. This precious item has a key role in the story and plays an even bigger part towards then end. If you watch my video review, I tell you quite literally why!

So in a nutshell, I think The Great Hunt was a fantastic read. I found it quite difficult to put down some nights, maybe even reading 100+ pages an evening. It was indeed that addictive. More so, the fact that now I was aware of the character’s behaviours and mannerisms – I think that helped me to ‘flow’ through the book without having to think that much about what some characters meant. That is not to say it did not keep me guessing! This is one series where you can finish a book with even more questions than answers! But that’s a positive point with me. Robert Jordan did an incredible job of getting readers of the series to come back for more.

So here it is guys, my second review.

I hope you enjoy and as always, I appreciate all types of feedback, the more the merrier!

I shall be back soon with a new review and more ramblings from Yours Truly.

Until next time…..

So I have finally put some time aside and recorded my first video review for The Wheel Of Time series, which includes the first book, The Eye Of The World.

There are a couple of things that I want to point out about this video. With me very new to world of blogging as well as vlogging, I feel I didn’t do as good a job as I hoped with my first review.

One of my main concerns was the issue of spoilers. I feel that there is nothing worse that reading a review for a movie/video game/book that you have genuine interest in; to then see a massive spoiler thrown in by the reviewer. It’s this point I am bringing up because I found it incredibly difficult not to reveal any of the book’s secrets and give any of the story lines away. With The Wheel Of Time series, I’ve found that there are a good handful of ‘revelations’ that occur throughout the books; and with me now reading book four, I’d hate to spoil or ruin the series for someone who was looking into starting them. I have however decided to include a disclaimer in my future videos, so as to make viewers aware of potential spoilers. So then I am free to embellish more with the series.

My second issue was with the fact that as I just stated, I am now at book four. It has been at least five months since I read The Eye Of The World and to now recall on all the events that happened after reading book two and three; it’s quite perplexing not to get the books confused with one another. I’m hoping this will be a temporary issue and as I get the first few reviews done, I will be up to the present reading and my reviews will be a lot more in-depth and less brief.

So here’s my first review guys.

I hope you enjoy it and I welcome all feedback. I’m really looking forward to doing my next video and shall be back soon with the next review.

Until next time….

It’s been such a long time since my last post on here and for that I am truly sorry! I have had quite a lot of personal problems to solve, those which I will not discuss on this blog as I want to stick mainly to what I’m here for! But in future, I am hoping I will updating my blog much more often as I now have a plan!

A plan? I hear you cry. Yes, and it is this. I have been recently subscribing to quite a few fantasy-based channels on YouTube and making a few select friends who share very similar interests to me. It is while I was doing this, that I had a thought. (Scary I know). What if; instead of having to type out my book/video game/movie reviews – why not upload a video and then post the video on my blog? Now I know quite a lot of people out there will be thinking that isn’t really a unique plan and a great group of bloggers do this on a day-to-day basis. But for me, it will make actually getting onto my blog a lot easier , as well as being a lot more convenient.

So here’s what’s going down. I shall be uploading a video very soon on my channel on YouTube. I shall be reviewing The Wheel Of Time series by Robert Jordan. At the time of writing this, I am currently approaching 1/3 of book 4. I will however be reviewing each book respectively, therefore reviewing books 1-4 and then review each book after that as I have finished reading them. I understand this is a confusing way of doing things but life’s little problems do get in the way, so I can’t be control of everything!

I do have a lot of good praise for the books I have read so far and I do look forward to getting my videos on here for anyone who is interested in the series or indeed looking to start reading them.

The link to my YouTube channel is here
Bear in mind, it was four years ago since I first joined YouTube, so apologies first hand for the hideous choice of channel name!
If however, any of you kind and generous people do feel the magical urge to subscribe to my channel, then please do! I shall be sure to return the favour.

That is basically it for my post today. I shall be sure as to not leave it as long next time!
Stay tuned for my upcoming video for the review of Book 1 of The Wheel Of Time: The Eye Of The World.

Until next time….

This is my very first post, so I do apologise before hand if I come across as not knowing 100% what I am doing. Because quite frankly I’m very much still learning!

But I would like to welcome any visitors out there to my site and I hope you enjoy your stay.

As the title of this post indicates, I would like to take some time to briefly introduce myself and slightly touch on the subject of my blog and why I am doing it.

My name is Mart and I am currently residing in Manchester, which is a city located in the North-West of  the United Kingdom. I live in a converted church which I adore as I’ve always been interested in fantasy/gothic themed establishments. Which brings me perfectly onto the theme of my blog.

Since I was a young child, I have always been fascinated by the wonderful world of dragons, witches, wizards etc. I was introduced to my local library when I was around 5 years old by my mother dearest and began to immerse myself into faraway lands where I could escape the reality of the modern world. Of course at that tender age, the pictures were enough to feed my appetite for adventure, but gradually as I grew up and matured (that’s debatable!), I then found myself visiting the library on a regular basis and searching for adventure novels like Treasure Island or the Narnia Series. However, not to say they are not, but I felt that they did not stimulate my yearning for something more in a book. It was then that I discovered Fantasy.

My first introduction to the very brief realm of fantasy was a series of books called the Redwall series by the now late author Brian Jacques. These involved a series of adventures by the villagers of an abbey known as Redwall. What appealed to me about this series was the fact that the characters were all mainly animals. Mice, rats, weasels, badgers and many more. The reason I was drawn to these books was my age. I was roughly maybe 11 or 12, so I did still have that air of innocence around me which I feel is good to have when you are reading about a warrior called Martin (something else that appealed to me!).

It was after Redwall that I then discovered the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. As I was entering my teens, I am really pleased that I discovered these stories when I did. The Discworld novels did require a certain level of maturity to thoroughly enjoy them, whether it being comical young-adult like jokes or the use of now longer and more knowledgable vocabulary of words. It was during one of the most important turning points in your life, child – teenager, that I was reading these books.

My love for Fantasy does not just lie with reading. I am also a lover of Fantasy within the gaming world. This is probably more commonly narrowed down to RPG’S (role-playing games).

This dates right back to 1993 (heaven knows why I remember the year, I just do), when I received The Legend of Zelda – Link’s Awakening for the Nintendo Game Boy as a Christmas gift. This was my first introduction to the Zelda series and to RPG’s and from the moment I began playing it, I was captivated. Roaming around a mysterious land yielding a sword and shield, battling ferocious monsters and beasts, exploring deep dark dungeons, solving troublesome riddles and puzzles in order to progress… I really could go on. This encouraged me to then play the other Zelda games which then in turn got me searching magazines for the latest games that fitted this genre. The Secret of Mana, Dragon Quest and of course the legendary Final Fantasy series which I am still currently playing – all these games and I’m sure many more were fuelling my fantasy role-playing habit!

So the reason for the blog?

I was encouraged recently to put my thoughts and reviews of certain books, video games & movies to good use. And when in the 21st century, what better way to do that then to blog about it. As well as sharing my views and opinions, I am looking to meet and converse with like-minded individuals, maybe even make some friends. So here I am.

So like I stated at the beginning of this very long introduction (my bad), I am brand spanking new to the world of blogging and am very much chomping at the bit to learn more about it and hopefully post more in the future. I am currently reading a fantasy-themed book and will shortly be typing up a review on that. I have just finished playing the latest in the Final Fantasy series – Final Fantasy XIII, which I would like to write a review about and maybe share some opinions with. If however you are reading this (and I thank you!), and are interested in the books and games I have mentioned, by all means – check them out! If you love fantasy-related books/games as much as I do, you may have beat me to it and played/read them before me.

I’m going to wrap my first post up as my fingers are starting to turn numb. I hope I have intrigued you to keep checking my blog for future posts and that I haven’t bored you too much. If you want to leave me a comment or even subscribe to me, I would be eternally grateful. As I get more used to this site, I will be searching for similar bloggers out there and subscribing myself, so if you see me , say hi!

Until next time….