Book Review: A Memory Of Light - Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson (Scott and Chris Review)

SCOTT:

This is going to be a rather shortish review since to do a long one would require spoilers and I’d rather not spoil anything.

I came on board The Wheel Of Time late. I began the first book sometime in 2003-04 but didn’t actually get around to finishing it till probably 2007-ish. Slowly over the course of the next few years I caught up. So I have only TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT and (now) A MEMORY OF LIGHT in hardcover as books I awaited for release on. Everything else was already out and in paperback when I read them. I’m not going to go into the particulars on the series that everyone knows. The bloating of the story, the books where nothing happens, Jordan’s sad premature death, Brandon Sanderson finishing the series ect. It’s all common knowledge. So 23 years (and fourteen books) after the story was begun, we finally have an ending.

Was it worth it?

I’m a little under a week removed from finishing the book (which immediately afterwards I found I’d enjoyed it more than I realized I actually did now in hind sight), and in those few days I’ve gained some perspective, and the resounding answer to that question is…no.

A lot of that has to do with the fact that the story (initially meant to wrap up in 3 books) became an unwieldy behemoth with a thousand plot strands (some worthwhile, some not) that for all intents and purposes slowed to a crawl and should have been edited far better. It’s basically (in my head) a six book series bloated to fourteen unnecessarily. Perhaps it’s the fact that I recently finished Steven Erikson’s Malazan 10-book series and the fact that for the most part Erikson kept everything arrow straight and headed towards the ending he gave us (even with multiple plot strands and a thousand characters)…that the meandering of The Wheel Of Time ends up causing me major issues. I don’t truly know why.

Was it a good book? Yes, absolutely. Was it worth reading? Yes…to finish the series and put it behind me.

Let’s get down to it. The book is (for the most part) a 900-page battle. The Last Battle. Is it good as a battle? Err…yes and no. It has a few heroic moments (only a few), but more often than not you saw the words “trollocs”, “weave”, “gateway”, “channeling”, “exploding earth” simply repeated ad nauseum. It was one battle section after the next in which small things might be slightly different on a character level, but it was still just hordes or trollocs, evil channelers, and one or more of the Forsaken causing our heroes further problems. The character stuff ends up either falling short of what one might wish as a fan (some characters get throwaway deaths or unresolved abrupt endings), or ends up being something abhorrent to serve the story (ie. Tuon and the Seanchan not changing their slavery/torture ways and Rand and Co. having to accept this for the help the Seanchan will be against Shadow) which I find convenient and horrible.

Everyone gets a bit of the spotlight in this book, and while some characters sing in their roles, others kind of flop lifelessly around on the page. Like Boba Fett showing up in the re-mastered STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE, they are only there to say “Look, here I am!” or fulfill some other needed plot point which was left hanging by RJ and Sanderson needed to tie up. The main characters get the most screen time and that is fitting of course, but once you’ve waded through 500 pages of these activities, even their plotlines become more of an “Okay, let’s move this along now please?”

The one thing I find really works in AMOL is the use of the Forsaken in a subverted way to try to win against the armies of Light. I enjoyed how that was accomplished and resolved in the book and it’s probably one of the things I came away from enjoying most. It's a small thing, but it seems more than plausible and in character, aside from the armies of Light not expecting it.

Does the book resolve things? Yes and no. Like I said, the book is nearly 900 pages of battle. That includes the fact that the only epilogue we get is one chapter, and it takes place right after the battle and concerns one event. So where I assumed we might have gotten through the Last Battle and then had a hundred or so pages of wrapping up (this is the finale a fourteen book series FFS!), we instead finish the battle and get a short chapter after that explaining one immediate aftermath event, and that’s about it.

Are. You. Kidding. Me?

Consider me disappointed by that. Jordan can take like six WHOLE books to tell us about every damned Leatherleaf tree and hummock of ground surrounding our heroes as they wander around aimlessly...but we don't get ANYTHING after the biggest Battle in history? Right. Good. I see.


Ugh.

So what should have been a book that was full of win, ends up being just a book that finishes. It wraps up enough overall to be satisfied, but I am FAR from impressed. Where THE CRIPPLED GOD (the final Malazan book) left me bereft, emotional, impressed, and basically cradling my own brain and heart from the excellence (leaving me with a book hangover that lasted nearly two weeks)…A MEMORY OF LIGHT on the other hand felt like a petered out, final ending that I enjoyed, but it did not impress, it did not stun, or leave me with a book hangover of any kind. It just kind of IS.

“But Scott…” you say “The battle scene’s must have been worth it, right?”

Eh.

Yes and no. There was some VERY cool stuff, very heroic charges and last stands…but a lot of it was posturing and action with stolen payoffs. In fact I think Perrin says things to himself along the lines of “Once more into the fray” or “here I go, one last time” about 4 or 5 times. The second time he does it, I remember thinking, “Oh, he’s doing this again.” It’s kind of a thunder stealer. The same can be said for Lan who has more than one heroic final charge. Demandred seemingly existed as a rock for heroes to throw and break themselves against. And while that plotline was amusing to watch, it also felt like a way to carve some characters out of the final book…but then again kind of steals something from them in the process. That is one of the worst offenses in the book; the stealing of emotional beats. It's rife with that sort of nonsense, and always felt like "chickening out" to me. Don't chicken out. This is book fourteen; big stuff is GOING to happen, be okay with that and let it happen.

A MEMORY OF LIGHT is not the ending I think I expected or wanted from this series, and even though it began well (the first 200+ pages absolutely SANG by) I felt it drew on far too long, ended too  abruptly and became a manic tying up of loose ends instead of the dovetailing it should have been.

It’s not the ending I expected or wanted, but it was AN ending. Let’s leave it at that.

And now I can sell the books to the used book store.

CHRIS:

You can review A MEMORY OF LIGHT as a standalone novel, in and of itself, or you can view it in the larger context of the Wheel of Time saga.  Both approaches are equally valid and both will spit out some pretty interesting conclusions.

Regardless of your approach the end result is, unfortunately, supremely unsatisfying. The WoT story has been a going concern now for nearly a quarter of a century. It’s reached powerful highs, equally formidable lows, had an aborted prequel, lost its author (Robert Jordan), found another (Brandon Sanderson) and finished with a 900 page bang.

As time wore on and the series ground closer to its conclusion readers met new entries to the saga with a snazzy set of emotional baggage and an increasing amount of fatigue at having to remember all the ins and outs of an incredibly expansive story with a growing range of characters, settings and increasingly convoluted plot points.

Somewhere around book six or seven I started to lose track of some of the C-listers swirling around Perrin, Rand, Mat and their chummy fantasy entourage. And I didn’t have the patience to start from the beginning every time a new book came out just so I could find the two paragraphs buried a third of the way through some early novel that summarized everything I needed to know about a particular character.

But I knew that the WoT series was in trouble when some of the original three characters stopped appearing in the books entirely.

It’s a failing common to any long running narrative. As our principal heroes travel to new places and have new adventures they quite naturally meet new companions who have their own ongoing stories. To his credit Jordan refused to take the easy way out, embracing these new characters and enfolding them into his increasingly ambitious chronicle. But with so many new faces clamouring for the reader’s attention the pacing of the story started to buckle and the whole damn thing threatened to derail.

(see George R.R. Martin’s struggles with the same expanding cast problem in his A Song of Fire and Ice series for context)

AMOL isn’t like any previous entry to the WoT story. The bulk of the ongoing sub plots and character development came to a close at the end of Sanderson’s previous entry TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT. With a clean slate to work from Sanderson has changed genre gears in AMOL, moving from a dramatic epic fantasy to a higher octane action adventure with fantastic trappings.

Essentially AMOL is one long battle scene, punctuated by short intermissions to pull back the curtain and check in on our ever dwindling cast of lead characters. If that set up doesn’t sound like your flavour than you probably won’t find this book to be your speed. If you’re a dedicated WoT reader like myself then you’ll definitely have to jigger a couple mental switches or two to get on board with the new mood.

AMOL has some failings. It’s hard to keep the workings of what is essentially 900 pages of a pitched running battle fresh and interesting. Sanderson tries his best switching rapid-fire between locales, switching up characters, strategies, tactics, threats, whatever it takes to help the reader escape the monotone nature of the material. And I think he succeeds for the most part. The ebb and flow of an ongoing battle with multiple fronts is going to result in the overuse of some awfully familiar plot motifs. (Seriously, how many one on one sword fights is Demandred really going to have in this story anyway? I’d think awfully hard about doubling my honour guard after the first one slips through.) And yes, Sanderson does stumble occasionally here, putting characters on a treadmill of repetitive story actions. But thankfully the rapid swift cutting between scenes ameliorates the worst of this ongoing déjà vu and quickly deposits us in another scene before too long.

Sanderson uses the Last Battle as a background to finally experiment with new uses of the One Power in earnest. Whereas new uses for the One Power used to be teased out over the course of book suddenly anyone who can channel a lick is testing the limits saidan and saidar in order to save their lives.

It’s fascinating to see the transformative effect these new weaves have on the WoT world, turning tried and tested military tactics on their head. Like everything else in AMOL these new additions to the One Power tool box come fast and furious, tumbling out fully formed onto the page.  Although I’m sure the odds are stacked against it I couldn’t help but wonder what a WoT sequel would look like now that the Age of Legends had seemingly been rediscovered, perhaps a less traumatic version of Aviendha’s vision of the future.

It was nice to see almost every surviving character from the entirety of the WoT saga get a paragraph or a moment in which to shine. Supporting players who’d been waiting in the wings for their part to play in the Last Battle are almost too numerous to mention. Some get only a passing reference, others get whole chapters. Readers will surely argue amongst themselves about whether Character A deserved more screen time than Character B.

But on the whole I think Sanderson respected the material and the characters who populate it as much as he could. There are simply too many ongoing characters in the WoT saga to give each one their proper due and it’s inevitable that some of them will be given short shrift. Having said that I was impressed how Sanderson was able to give some of the smaller characters moments to excel that could have easily been given to one of the central protagonists.

The ending was a bit disappointing, but not very surprising. AMOL suffers under the expectation of a thirteen book lead in and regardless of Sanderson’s interpretation of this epic showdown the end result was always going to be vaguely unsatisfactory. I think Sanderson did his level best to portray Rand’s final showdown with the Dark One in the only way that made sense. And his cute little time dilation trick was an interesting hook that allowed him to spread out a short conflict over almost the entirety of the book.  

Final thoughts? I’m just glad the series is over to be honest. Good, bad, indifferent – at one point or another the Wheel of Time saga embodied all of these aspects. There’s just so much real estate to the story that at times I feel buried under the weight of it all. It was still possible to enjoy the finished product, but more and more reading it felt like work that I was lucky enough to enjoy. But no matter how much you like your job, work is still work and it takes something out of you in the end.

I’ve suffered through the bad parts, been swept up in the good stuff and slogged through endless pages of unneeded description in order to get to a paragraph of actual content. It’s the first serialized fantasy story that I’ve ever liked and at one point I used to fret for years between new books. I’ve paid my dues.

A MEMORY OF LIGHT perfectly encapsulates the extreme swings of WoT saga, a somewhat flawed but ultimately enjoyable read.  I’m glad to know that, even if it was unfulfilling at times, the story has come to an end and I feel like I can move on to other tales that don’t have so much mental baggage to weigh it down. So I doff my hat to Rand, Mat and Perrin. A trio of lads of whom I have many warm memories but I don’t think I’ll be checking in with them again anytime soon.

Book Review: Allow Of Law (A Mistborn Novel) - Brandon Sanderson

Probably one of the books I was most looking forward to reading this year was Brandon Sanderson’s new steampunky Mistborn novel ALLOY OF LAW. Well it came out last week and like you might expect I got right down to devouring it. 

Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way first. Is it good? You’re damn right it is. If you liked his previous Mistborn novels at all, then you are in for a treat here as well. Both Allomancy and Feruchemy are evenly used within the pages and add the aspect of guns and iron and girder 1800’s style city and you have the makings of a blast of a good time. Are there some flaws? Yes, albeit very minor stuff that didn’t bother me too much.

Basically this is the story of Waxillum Ladrian (descendant of Breeze’s house from the original series) and it takes place 300 years after the end of HERO OF AGES. The heroes from those books have passed into legend and even days of the week are named for them (Vinuarch), or cities (Elendel). The society is again split into nobles and not-so-nobles, and various religious sects based around the events in the first trilogy. Wax, after having been unable to prevent a death early on in the book, ends up leaving his home and job as a Lawman in the Roughs (wild west-ish style setting on the outskirts of civilization) to come to the huge prospering city of Elendel . The city is coated in railways and large buildings, lavish estates and caters to any city-dweller’s need. Wax is meant to try to bring the bootstraps up of his House, that his Uncle left in shambles and poor, by marrying into a richer family and giving up life as a Lawman. Everything seems to be going according to plan until Wax’s old friend Wayne shows up from the Roughs, the woman he is meant to marry is too serious, there is a spat of robberies by a group of people known as the Vanishers, and someone is trying their damndest to kill Wax. Thus begins the rollicking good time that is ALLOY OF LAW.

For those who love Sanderson’s magic systems, and especially alomancy, shouldn’t be disappointed as not only does he give us allomantic gunfights, but he adds an ability here and there that is new. Wayne, for example, is able to make time bubbles in which he and Wax can have private conversations, or allow them time to organize themselves. It’s really nice that Sanderson found a way to add some new stuff to classic alomancy and I will say that Wayne’s ability especially made for some breathtaking moments during action sequences.

Wax as a main character is very well laid out, in a way I wasn’t expecting. He’s roguish and his metal vials are filled with whiskey or some other alcohol. That made me chuckles, because I mean how else would a cowboy lawman ingest his metals? Whisky! He does a good job at playing the line between Rough’s guy and noble without sacrificing who he is in the process. He’s also incredibly honest with himself about just what is going on in his life. Wayne is probably my favourite character. Always ready with a hilarious quip or comeback. The cockney-accented deputy is a barrel of fun all the way through, is on the ball in every situation, and is even a master of disguise. A great addition to the story and a perfect foil for Wax’s more serious nature.  A true duo in every sense of the word.

The love story is very interesting, and while I’d rather not give anything away I want to congratulate Brandon for not shying away from doing something that makes sense. The complexity of Wax’s character comes to the forefront for the love story and went in a few directions I wholly wasn’t expecting and that made it utterly fresh and engaging.

Now, what would a Sanderson story be without twists and revelations. Are there any? Yes indeed, some doozy’s. Am I going to tell you anything about them? No way! As Sanderson is wont to say you need to RAFO (ReadAndFindOut) that.

There is a very minimal expositionary bit in the middle that slowed the pace down a tad, but it really is not that long and is worth getting through. There are some repeated phrases or words that end up in the overused territory, and a few bits that seemed superfluous to the overall story, but in the end my complaints are VERY minor and truly didn’t affect my reading experience much at all.

If you want to see how Brandon’s Mistborn world has grown in 300 years, then you really need to get this book, as it is pretty much an absolute treat from beginning to end, and it will certainly leave you wanting more. It’s quite nice to have read the previous trilogy and have that base to work off of while the world grows up around you. It will be awesome as time moves forward even further in the two future trilogies (one in urban modern time, and one in the future) and how technological growth will affect the planet of Scadrial, and then to go one further and see how that affects the overall cosmere that Brandon has created. I’d be lying though if I didn’t want at least one more book starring Wax and Wayne, as they are a stellar duo that are a joy to read.

Go out and get this book. You know you want to, and you won’t be let down by it. I'd also like to point out how hardworking Brandon is. The man is a machine. He is currently finishing the WOT series, he wrote his first in the ten book Stormlight series, and found time to write this book as well. And the best thing is the consistency in his writing. I can't say I have ever not enjoyed anything he has written. He is easily one of my favourite authors.

Book Review: HERO OF AGES by Brandon Sanderson

The third book in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy.

HERO OF AGES was also previously reviewed by the Scottness, those of you who are interested in balanced reviewage can read that review here.

(Those of you who are interested can get your click-on here and here to read my opinion on the first two entries.)

By using the Well of Ascension and relinquishing the power it contained Vin has released the dark god Ruin into the world.

A chaotic force, Ruin’s sole desire is to destroy the entire world and all those who live upon it. His freedom causing chaos and anarchy to ripple across the land.

Crops are failing, buried under a blanket of ash, kings and heads of state are infected by madness and Steel Inquisitors stalk the earth, leaving only death and destruction in their wake.

Meanwhile, the remnants of Kelsier’s thieving crew (for whom it takes a Herculean amount of effort for me not to refer to them as ‘rag-tag’) and newly minted emperor, Elend Venture, are racing across the Dominances shoring up defences and searching for the former Lord Ruler’s hidden caches.

Each cache contains clues about various Allomantic metals and provides supplies to be used by the populace in case of an emergency.

In the struggle to unite the disparate parts of the Empire under a single banner the crew find themselves flung across the Dominances, each trying to beat back Ruin’s influence in their own little corner of the world.

Damaged in body and soul Spook, the former thief, prowls the streets of the canal city of Urteau in search of a hidden cache and keeping a watchful eye on the dangerously unbalanced leader known as the Citizen. When Spook is caught trying to assassinate the Citizen he finds himself visited by the ghost of Kelsier and mysteriously able to burn pewter.

Sazed, the eunuch Terrisman, disheartened after the death of his lover Tindwyl (just roll with it), scours the teachings of ancient religions in the hopes that one of them will provide the answers that he needs to bring closure to his grief. But as he continues to eliminate religions he falls deeper into a dark depression.

In the secret homeland of the kandra, TenSoon tries to convince his brethren to take up the fight against Ruin. Imprisoned and abandoned his task seems hopeless, especially since the Second Generation seems so determined to maintain their isolationist stance by silencing him forever.

Elend may have taken the role of emperor reluctantly, but that’s not going to stop him from doing everything he can do protect his subjects. With an army of koloss at his command he throws himself into his duty, risking life, limb and the woman he loves in order to unravel the mysteries left behind by the Lord Ruler and defeat Ruin.

Vin is trapped in the city of Fadrex by the upstart King Yomen. Her supply of metals are exhausted, Ruin whispers constantly in her ear, a constant reminder of her own failures, and time is rapidly running out as the very planet seems to be dying around her. Out of time and out of options Vin must make a choice between giving up or fighting with her last breath.

Yowza! Pretty heavy stuff.

Unfortunately I don’t have much to add for the actual review portion of this summary sandwich.

If you liked the previous entry in the Mistborn trilogy, WELL OF ASCENSION, then you probably won’t find much here to put you off. By building on the sturdy foundation of his previous two novels Sanderson is able to cut right to the chase and do away with any unnecessary setup. This book has a faster, more action oriented pace here and considering Sanderson’s tendency to overwrite a bit the two forces counteract each other to set up a well paced story.

And there’s some good payoff here, the biggest of which has to do with the heretofore unknown secret origins of the kandra. But there are other little treats layered in throughout the book about the true motives of the Lord Ruler, the balance between Preservation and Ruin and mysterious history of the planet.

I just wish that Sanderson had been able to maintain this pacing throughout the previous novels.

I’ve touched on the emo-elements of the two main characters, Vin and Elend, in my previous reviews. But in this novel, Sanderson tweaks the relationship slightly, creating lovers tortured by circumstances beyond their control rather than TWILIGHT style romances based on teenage angst and hormones. It’s a subtle change but one I whole heartedly embrace. I’m fine with conflicted protagonists, hell, I embrace them, I just don’t need them to remind me of that fact every time wander off alone.

And again, I give the Sanderson props for not putting his characters up on pedestals, protected and untouchable. It makes for much more interesting reading to know that any character, big or small, could suddenly find themselves shuffling off their mortal coil when faced with a stabby situation. No one is safe.

Quibbles? I have a few. I still think Sanderson spends too much time laying out the ground rules of HOW THINGS WORK (big booming god-like voice optional) and he often gets bogged down in describing what characters are thinking and feeling and ruminating about. He also has an unfortunate tendency to slow the story down a bit by unnecessarily describing everything around his characters.

(Yes. I know. They are living in a world beset my mist and falling ash. But if the aforementioned mist and ash are so bloody important at least bust out a thesaurus and use new words to describe them, like fog or cinders or something. Once you’ve described one ash choked landscape you’ve pretty much described them all.)

On the whole I enjoyed the series, was interested in the series; but I wasn’t particularly engaged in the series. While I can point to individual elements of the books and say, these things didn’t really work for me, in truth none of them were so egregious as to prevent me from enjoying the story or recommending it to others. There were things present here that I was genuinely interested in, it was just the execution and presentation that tripped me up.

I guess there was just something about this trilogy that just didn’t resonate with me. In the end I think I was reading it out of habit and not out of a burning desire to know what comes next.

Book Review: WELL OF ASCENSION by Brandon Sanderson

WELL OF ASCENSION (WoA) is the second novel in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy.

Those of you with enough time on your hands can read my review of the first entry, MISTBORN, here.

WoA picks up roughly a year after the events of MISTBORN.

Elend Venture has freed the skaa, brought stability to Luthadel and the Central Dominance and managed to cobble together a working government with himself as King.

Most days Elend has enough problems just trying to keep his government from tearing itself apart due to its own naked self interest. When two warring armies deposit themselves outside his front door he finds himself struggling to keep control of his Assembly, who would rather quietly surrender then fight for it. But who should they surrender to, the bloodthirsty Straff Venture, who just happens to be Elend’s father, or the crippled and enigmatic Lord Cett. Elend cobbles together a plan with the help of the remnants of Kelsier’s former crew to keep the Assembly occupied and play the two besieging armies off against each other.

Meanwhile Vin continues to develop her own Allomantic powers, honing them on her nightly patrols of Luthadel. Burning pewter to stave off exhaustion she still manages to spar with the mysterious Watcher who haunts the rooftops of the capitol city. Vin senses a change in the mist and all around her she perceives a great Allomantic pulse rippling through the city.

In the Southern Dominance Sazed, Vin’s former teacher and steward, is approached by Marsh to explore an abandoned Canton of Inquisition building. The two men find the building deserted, but Sazed locates a metal inscription that purports to be the chronicle of Kwaan, the Terrisman Worldbringer who first predicted the rise of the Hero of Ages.

(Look, I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that you’ve read the previous book, because all the recappery in the world isn’t going to help that last sentence make sense unless you’ve got previous experience with the story.)

Leaving Marsh behind Sazed decides to return to Luthadel. On his way he notes a pair of disturbing observations, that the ubiquitous mists are now coming during the day and that an army of koloss, bloodthirsty semi-human savages, are on the march towards the capitol city.

Back in Luthadel Elend has been deposed because of his refusal to surrender the city. Freed from the restraints of royalty he casts about for other ways to serve his people and begins to fortify the city against the attack that he knows is coming. But time is running out, the armies are growing restless and it seems that no one has the will to stand-up for the skaa.

Beset by enemies both inside and outside their walls Vin, Elend and their allies must work quickly to put a plan in place that will return Elend to the throne and protect the people of Luthadel.

This is a much better book then the first entry into the series. Gone is the idiot primer that helped readers understand the properties of Allomancy. This leaves more real estate to actually tell a story.

Unfortunately, the romance novel motifs from the first book are still at play. Vin and Elend spend a LOT of time staring off into emo-space, questioning their abilities, their partner’s love for each other, their place in the world and so on and so forth. A little self doubt and uncertainty make for flawed characters and good readings. Too much self doubt makes Vin and Elend sound like whiny emo crybabies and bring the story action to a halt.

(It’s clear why Sanderson makes such a great replacement writer for Robert Jordan’s WHEEL OF TIME series, some of his inner monologues could be lifted directly from the Rand ‘al Thor school of self doubt.)

There was more than one occasion when I wanted to shout ‘Just get on with it’ as we evidenced, for the umpteenth time, just how conflicted these characters were. A little more restraint on the depiction of their inner turmoil would have gone a looong way to heightening the inter-character drama.

I also feel that a lot of conflicts for the main character group smacked of similarity. One invading army is tense, two invading armies has the potential for multi-pronged conflict, but throwing a third invading army into the mix, no matter how scary and frightening, just seems repetitive. Especially when you consider that for the bulk of the novel the armies just sat there and didn’t DO anything.

But I have to give Sanderson kudos for not being afraid to shake up his supporting characters. A number of his larger second tier characters, ones I would normally identify as being safe from any real harm, actually end up dying in the book’s final conflict. Rather than using the threat of death as a toothless danger he lets readers know that no one, well, almost no one, is safe. Seeing supporting characters dispatched in these numbers is a rarity for an ongoing series and I admire him for the choices he’s made. A lot of these deaths will clearly have ramifications for his surviving characters and could make for interesting growth in the next book.

An interesting read and I’m looking forward to the series final entry.

Book Review: MISTBORN by Brandon Sanderson

A thousand years ago the Lord Ruler fought against The Deepness at the Well of Ascension. He won and in his victory he retained a tiny sliver of Godhood for himself. But the battle changed the Lord Ruler from a cautious, but decent, warrior into a vicious, bloodthirsty tyrant.

Uniting all the kingdoms of the world under his banner the Lord Ruler burnt religion from the land and turned many of its people, the skaa, into slaves.

Today the skaa are beaten down and trodden upon, afraid to lift a hand against the God who rules them or the gathered nobility who carries out his every whim.

That is until Kelsier the Survivor of Hathsin arrives. Kelsier, along with a skaa thieving team, begins to put together an ingenious and seemingly impossible plan that to overthrow the Lord Ruler and free the skaa.

The team slowly cobbles together an army, fabricates a war amongst the nobility and plans for the day their people will finally be free.

Tasked with infiltrating the nobility in order to acquire valuable intelligence is Vin. Raised from the slums of the Lord Ruler’s capital Vin discovers she has the power of Allomancy, which allows her to ‘burn’ certain metals and temporarily acquire unique physical or mental abilities.

Vin attends the balls put on by the nobles and monitors the shifting alliances and loyalties of the Great Houses. It is here she meets the disillusioned Elend Venture, heir to the Venture seat. Elend is bored with the nobility’s endless politicking and yearns to change the world, but how?

MISTBORN, the first in a trilogy of novels, sets the foundation for a well thought out fantasy universe. The author, Brandon Sanderson, has clearly put in a lot of time constructing a universe with a rich and detailed history where every story element has a purpose.

But in the rush to make sure every tree in the forest fits into the overall narrative just so, Sanderson at times loses track of the dramatic thread of his work, needlessly explaining back story when he could be developing events in the here and now.

Show, don’t tell, is an essential truth when writing for the screen and it’s a lesson that would serve Sanderson well in this book. Essentially MISTBORN is an extended heist story that morphs into a standard swords, sandals and sorcery book by the end. Sanderson spends a considerable amount of time early on in the book laying out Kelsier’s plans. Plans are mad and remade and contingency plans are layered overtop just in case something unexpected to happen. But, by the time you make it out of this planning session the general thrust of the novel has been laid bare and any air of mystery about the heist has faded like the mists that permeate this world.

Adding to the aura of too much information is Vin’s training in the Allomantic arts. As a lifelong breaker of electronics, and analyst of everything, I enjoy delving into a number of mysteries in order to understand how they work. But when nearly every known element of Allomancy is explained in horribly intricate detail I got little frustrated.

It’s a little bit like sitting down to read a book you’ve eagerly been waiting for but being forced to read a two page executive summary first. Let me find out on my own! Let’s have some trial and error. Potential dramatic subplots about Vin’s Allomancy discoveries were seemingly tossed aside in favour of narrative expediency. Vin never gets to discover much about Allomancy on her own as its force fed to her in uninteresting information dumps.

I also found character lacking in this book. It seems inevitable that a collection of characters, who are defined by the single Allomantic trait they possess, would end up being one note individuals. But when the lead character’s development is so seriously flawed and contradictory it begins to strain reader suspension of disbelief.

Initially Vin is characterized as being a very repressed, low born thief with deep seated trust issues and anti-social tendencies. Seemingly, with little resistance at all, she casts off her former personality and quickly blossoms into a courageous, well-spoken Allomancer with scant evidence of her traumatic upbringing.

There’s a strain of torrid romance novel that runs through this story. Despite years of conditioning by her abusive brother, about the danger of trusting anyone, Vin almost immediately begins to fall for Elend Venture after a chance meeting a party. It’s the kind of forbidden affair that Harlequin novels and TWILIGHT aficionados thrive off of and it sticks out like a sore thumb. Vin’s character seems to be as pliable and flexible as Sanderson needs her to be, developing new personality traits seemingly at a whim.

These timely coincidences are unfortunately rampant in MISTBORN. In the build-up to the story’s climax Vin discovers heretofore unknown ways to maim and injure Steel Inquisitors, not using her Allomantic powers in a new and interesting way, but by simply MacGyvering common objects. Which is pretty amazing when you consider that Kelsier had been apparently been studying Inquisitors for years and hadn’t managed to come up with anything similar.

Brandon Sanderson is the author handpicked by Robert Jordan to carry the torch on his blockbuster WHEEL OF TIME series. Reading MISTBORN I can see why that might be the case. There are definite parallels between the two series that lend themselves well to a sympathetic treatment of Jordan’s work. In fact, Sanderson’s first two novels of in the WoT universe are some of the strongest and most accessible in recent years.

I can understand if you get the impression that I wasn’t big on MISTBORN. And that’s not the case at all. I enjoyed the book and the obvious affection Sanderson has for the characters and the world they live in. But too often I found myself distracted by the structural choices the author made in his writing and how it impacted my overall enjoyment of the finished product.

It's kind of like sitting down with a bunch of friends after movie night and saying “I think the film was great, but…” or “That was a really great sequence but that actor totally didn’t work for me.”

While I don’t believe MISTBORN to be the indicative of the quality Sanderson is capable of it is an interesting and enjoyable story nonetheless. I look forward to reading the next two books in the series to see if they can expand and develop the strong premise that Sanderson has set up here.

Upcoming: Sanderson's steampunk Mistborn book, Alloy Of Law Cover & Synopsis Emerge!

My affinity for all things Brandon Sanderson does not (as one might assume) derive from his finishing of the end of the WHEEL OF TIME series for Robert Jordan, but rather from his own books. The MISTBORN series is chief among those. It is a stunning trilogy that contains everything that I love about a world, not to mention a series. Unique, thrilling, emotional and action-packed, Sanderson's original books pack a punch!

Well, it is time for that punch to have allomancy and feruchemy to apply to guns. The details on the forthcoming short-story-turned-novella-turned-full steampunk-era Mistborn novel, THE ALLOY OF LAW have surfaced, not to mention a Chris McGrath (I love McGrath’s work TBH) drawn cover. 

I'm so beside myself with excitement for this book, you have NO idea!

PLEASE NOTE: Since some folk may not have read MISTBORN the synopsis may contain spoilers of a type, so I have made it white…swipe it to see it.

So without further brouhaha: (swipe now)

Three hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Scadrial is on the verge of modernity, with railroads to supplement the canals, electric lighting in the streets and the homes of the wealthy, and the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds.

Kelsier, Vin, Elend, Sazed, Spook, and the rest are now part of history—or religion. Yet even as science and technology are reaching new heights, the old magics of Allomancy and Feruchemy continue to play a role in this reborn world. Out in the frontier lands known as the Roughs, they are crucial tools for the brave men and women attempting to establish order and justice.

One such is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn who can Push on metals with his Allomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will. After twenty years in the Roughs, Wax has been forced by family tragedy to return to the metropolis of Elendel. Now he must reluctantly put away his guns and assume the duties and dignity incumbent upon the head of a noble house. Or so he thinks, until he learns the hard way that the mansions and elegant tree-lined streets of the city can be even more dangerous than the dusty plains of the Roughs.

Book Review: THE TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

I’m going to give you the Reader’s Digest summary of events for the TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT. I figure if you’re reading a review for book 13 of a 14 book series then...

a) you don’t want me to be spoiling too much of the plot for you and
b) you’re probably pretty familiar with the characters involved and where things are heading anyway.

So, let's recap shall we? In this book, Perrin continues to struggle with his new found station as lord and commander over one of Rand’s ragtag armies, Egwene works to bring the fractious splinters of the White Tower under her control, Mat stalks the dangerous assassin known as the Gray Man through the streets of Caemlyn and Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, works feverishly to prepare his forces for the Final Battle he knows is sure to come.

(and much, MUCH more)

It’s clear now that what Robert Jordan hath sewn, Brandon Sanderson is reaping.

This both saddens and elates me.

On his own, Robert Jordan wrote the first eleven books, as well as a prequel title, in the wildly popular THE WHEEL OF TIME series. After Jordan’s untimely death in 2007, battling cardiac amyloidosis, Brandon Sanderson picked up the literary torch with the blessing of Jordan’s widow and has been working steadily at wrapping this lengthy series up.

And I have to say, for the most part, he’s been doing a bang up job.

When I read his first foray into the WoT universe, 2009’s THE GATHERING STORM, I couldn’t help but scrutinize the pages for signs of Sanderson’s personal literary voice.

I was concerned that a new author might not be able to inhabit or seamlessly channel the characters of this distinctive universe without accidentally putting their own stamp on it. After all, Jordan had 12 WoT books under his belt (yes, I’m counting the prequel) and was the sole architect of this expansive world. How could an outsider ever hope to fill those shoes?

But, credit where credit is due, Brandon Sanderson was able to absolutely and unequivocally nail it…kinda.

Before you break out the tar and feathers hear me out.

I think you’d be hard pressed to find a WoT fan who wouldn’t cop to the fact that somewhere around the fifth or sixth book the pace of events started to slow down a lot. This was a result of expanding the series beyond its initial ten books*. Suddenly the same amount of material was expected to be streeeeetched over a greater number of novels.

Presumably Jordan filled the empty pages by padding the development of his central characters. And I couldn’t help but notice that secondary characters suddenly gained a greater prominence in the series, with a large number of chapters being devoted to the resolutions of their own personal sub plots.

Whatever the reason, a series that was previously characterized by its blistering pace suddenly got bogged down in wet cement. Important characters would disappear from entire books, significant plot points would be spun out over multiple novels and rather than actually doing ANYthing, everyone seemed to be content to just sit around and talk about doing SOMEthing.

Now, to be fair, it’s not as if the whole plot came to a screeching halt. Major significant events continued to be portrayed throughout the series. Only now there were far fewer of them and they seem to be confined to climax\cliffhanger type endings, intended to whet reader appetites for the next book.

I’m sure that the ever expanding continuity of the series also played a part in slowing things down. That’s one of the dangers of a maturing literary world, when you’ve got that many story threads on the go it’s impossible to give each one the attention they deserve. So Jordan spread the love around, focusing a little bit of time on developing each one, but not significantly advancing the story of any of them.

It was painful.

The first half dozen books in the WoT series were notable because things kept HAPPENING. (And not just in the climax either.) New characters were always being introduced, interesting story elements were being tossed into the mix and characters would noticeably develop and grow over the course of a single book. The series was addictive.

To switch gears from a story that was characterized by its dynamism and energy to one that seemed to be full of endless talking heads and pointless descriptions was disheartening. (Watching my favourite characters vanish in smoke for entire books, even more so.)

For awhile there I was reading the WoT, not because I was actively enjoying it, but because I had invested so much time and energy in the series to date that I just had to see how things finished. And that is the wrong reason to be reading anything.

So the point I was trying to make, before I got caught up in a painfully long diatribe, was that Sanderson’s work on THE GATHERING STORM sure as hell sounded like Robert Jordan, but it didn’t really feel like him. And I think that can all be traced back to the fact, finally, things were happening again in the series. I’d gotten so used to having the WoT spin its wheels that I’d forgotten what it was like to actually to be excited to read these books again.

So well done, mission accomplished.

Now, I believe I was supposed to review the TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT?

The biggest problem with batting clean up on a series like this is that a lot of time and energy is being expended just wrapping things up. You get an idea of just how out of control things were and how many dangling plot threads were kicking about by the fact that its going to take three giant ass books to deal with them all.

It should be clear to even the most cursory WoT fan that Sanderson has done his homework with this book. The man seems to have an unparalleled grasp on all manner of forgotten WoT lore. He resurrects obscure story devices and plot threads that even I’d forgotten about. On the one hand, it’s great to see the author going the extra mile to be true to the WoT world by trying to tie everything together. But the flip side of that argument is with so much material to cover I’d actually forgotten that some of these story points were unanswered in the first place and even needed resolving.

I wasn’t thrilled to see so much time spent on the resurrected Aelfinn and Eelfinn subplot. Even though it had a guaranteed fan approved payoff I’ve always felt that the world of the Aelfinn\Eelfinn was a bit of an anomaly in the WoT and didn’t really fit into nature of things.

It’s also frustrating that in many ways, Sanderson’s work on the series is restricted to wrapping up Jordan’s story. There is an underlying sense in the book that he knows where the characters are supposed to end up for the Final Battle, so he spends his time moving the characters around like an elaborate chess game in order to get them there. So while reading the book I never really felt a sense of threat or danger, as all the central characters seem to have been given a hall pass that guarantees they’ll make it, mostly undamaged, to the final book.

(Now having said that, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the final chapter in this series turns out to be a bloodbath of sorts, with many of our heroes being killed during the course of the Final Battle.)

Yet despite these limitations Sanderson does his level best to ramp up the physical and emotional stakes for our characters. He may be tasked with bringing the whole thing to a close, but damned if he isn’t going to try and earn that standing O in the process. The stakes are for keeps and no one can accuse him of plodding along. Just because these characters might be getting a free pass doesn’t mean he’s not going to make them work for it.

If its seems that I’m only focusing on the parts of the book that were unsatisfying its only because no one wants to read 2,000 words of never-ending effusive praise.

There are so many things that are done right in this book.

The exquisite plotting, the painstaking research, the spot-on representations of a diverse cast of characters and the sheer skill needed to reconcile 20 years of storytelling into 800 pages is awe inspiring.

To point out some of the shortcomings of the book is not meant to tear it down. Rather, given the scope of the endeavour, it is testament to Sanderson’s ability as a writer that there isn’t more to criticize.

Brandon Sanderson has done something for me that I thought was nearly impossible, he made reading the Wheel of Time fun again. And for that, I owe him my thanks.



*My google fu appears to be broken. I can’t find the reference that backs me up on this. Maybe someone else can step up and point me in the right direction.

WOT First Reads: Book Review: The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson (AKA buckets of awesome)

THE GATHERING STORM is the first book in the Wheel Of Time series since the 5^th book THE FIRES OF HEAVEN to really knock me over. I have liked the volumes in between, mostly (see TPOD and COT as ones I didn’t), but none of those really had the impact the first few, and now the 12^th have had on me.

The main benefit here is one of plot threads tying up. So many of the main plotlines that have been running through books 6-11 are wrapped up, or abandoned for useless in TGS that I nearly clapped every time one did that. Basically this novel is a cleaning of the house for the series. Sweep the front walk clean of debris so that the soldiers have no obstacles when they head off to war.

Beyond that, this book kicks the action into high gear, and everything you have come to love about the series flies right to the forefront. Certain characters go from being awesome to being flat out amazing. Egwene, for example, finishes the transformation she began way back when she was raised as the rebel Aes Sedai’s Amyrlin. By novels end she becomes something of a legend, and her chapters and scenes in the last 200 pages are likely to be remembered as some of the most stunning of the series. Rand spend most of the book kind of annoying me, as he not only hasn’t changed in books and books from being a jerk, but he also gets even worse here. However, this character progression is also one that ties up/comes to a head and Rand’s plotline FINALLY makes sense to me so in the end I can’t complain, but I am actually excited to see what Rand can do now! Cadsuane is another character that goes through a series of chapters where I can’t stand her, but her progression is one that has a point too. The Aes Sedai in general get paintyed better here methinks. Not as many pepper the scenes and for the most part they are much easier to read IMHO. Verin Sedai’s plot thread here is probably one of the most impressive in the book aside from Egwene and Rand. The aftermath of Semirhage’s capture is dealt with for a number of chapters and finished in a way that I wasn’t expecting at all. The deal with Siunae and Bryne is finally tackled and comes to bear fruit we’ve been waiting books for. Perrin and Mat are only in the book for a chapter or three each…but I’ve heard tell their stories get dealt with in TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT which I have to assume will bring everyone up to date for the final volume if I am not mistaken. Basically though, this book belongs to Rand and Egwene, and aptly so as I don’t think all the characters could have been done this sort of justice in one book, so good on the powers that be for splitting it with ToM.

So, plot points tie up and some in such satisfying ways that I can’t even explain their awesomeness. It’s hard to sing the praises of this book without spoiling too much for anyone who hasn’t read it. Sufficed to say Sanderson really does begin the rescue of this series from the chasm of plodding boredom that it started to descend into. The writing is succinct, enjoyable and the pace moves along at a great clip. In fact, I don’t think that at any point I had to slog. Most chapters had a point to the overall arc, and if they didn’t then they moved along fast enough to not have to worry to much. Is it overlong? A tad maybe, but I honestly can’t really see much of what could be removed. I think the only part that I felt lacked some purpose was Rand’s attempt to save the folk of Arad Doman from the Seanchan AND themselves. In the long run it really only served to deal with one of the Forsaken, and add to the tension that Rand’s personality really begins to alienate his friends and the people around him.

The action sequence at the end of the book is, for lack of a better word, glorious. Honestly, if I was there and witnessed it, that is how I would describe it. It is a pull-no-punches, head smacking, saidar-wielding, Raken blasting night of chaos. Which is then followed by a set piece involving Egwene and a bridge into Tar Valon that was, for me at least, one of the most beautifully descriptive passages in the series evoking quite stunning imagery.

The final chapter (before the epilogue) made everything I’ve endured as to a certain story thread up until this point worthwhile. It is quiet, telling, and deftly handled by Sanderson.

THE GATHERING STORM is worth the wait, and is the book I think a fair number of WHEEL OF TIME fans were waiting for. I don’t want to say it is perfect, but like I said above I enjoyed this book on level with the first few books in the series and my state of wonder and enjoyment with this series is rekindled with it.

Bring on TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT…and Scott will finally be caught up with everyone else.

Book Review: The Hero Of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

I have spoiler-ized the description below so as not to spoil for those who haven't read the first book (swipe it to read)...but if you haven't yet read it I would recommend doing so first.

Vin, after taking the power of the Well of Ascension at the end of the previous book, released it into the world instead of saving Elend. 

Elend, however, survived by consuming a bead of metal which made him an extremely powerful Mistborn. However, the entirety of the Terrismen prophecies were shown to have been changed by the god, Ruin, to escape from the Well. Now Ruin has been released and is already beginning to destroy the world. 

The Lord Ruler, in his wisdom, created storage caches containing valuables such as food and water in cave complexes beneath certain cities, each one providing directions to the next. Even as Vin and Elend struggle from cache to cache, the world itself begins to crumble, ash spewing forth in greater quantities and the mists claiming more and more people. 

Will humans be enough to stop their own destruction?

When I finish a really good book, I close it up and put it down sighing “Man that was a good book!” I do this out loud, whether people are present or not. It’s actually better if there is no one around because then I know I needed to express my wonder aloud regardless of audience.

When I put down THE HERO OF AGES, final volume in the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson I was by myself. I closed the book and put it down exclaiming aloud “Holy **** that was a GREAT book!”

I started the Mistborn series years ago after I became a fan of Sanderson with ELANTRIS (btw Brandon, we’d love to see more take place in that world sir!).  I rocked through the first book and loved it. It was a great inventive world, characters and magic system. It read like wildfire and would appease even the most discerning fantasy fan. The second book THE WELL OF ASCENSION, restarts things sort of. The world-building jumps in scale and the tone of the piece is a little different from the Heist/overthrow the Lord Ruler plotline from the first book. I’m not afraid to admit I had trouble with it the first time I sat down to read it. I put it down, and about a year later I came back to it and read it in a different mindset and succeeded. It was not quite the ride that the first book was, but it was awesome nonetheless with a few sizeable revelations that I enjoyed. It took this second try to bring me back to the Mistborn series. After this I had gone off and become a stalwart Sanderson fan when I read WARBREAKER and enjoyed it and then THE WAY OF KINGS came along to steal my best fantasy read of the year (and my first proper review here at Iceberg Ink!). THE HERO OF AGES went on my Christmas list months ago as I finally decided to finish the series.

To use an expression from the books, Lord Ruler! That was one hell of a read!

This third volume takes characters we know and love and adds even more depth and emotion to them. He also takes characters we didn’t like and adds SO much depth to them that he is once again able to modify our view of them and spin us 180.

I am literally in awe.

This book is for every other final volume in a trilogy that didn’t make it. This is for all those series that didn’t end how you wanted them to. This is for a story that is so heartfelt and powerful that just the telling of certain sections of it gave me gooseflesh. Once again we have the little pre-scripts before each chapter from someone’s writings and each one is told from the point of view from someone looking back over the whole of the affair. They know the outcome and how it all most of it relates. They are revealed in tantalizing little bits that push me on. Seriously, those little pre-scripts are almost as important to me in this series as the main text is.

Another thing that instantly stands out here in this volume. Elend commands here. Instead of the slightly impotent king of Luthadel he was in the second book, trying to be kind, even-handed and balanced he finally realizes that his world is dying. It requires not a king, it needs an emperor with a firm hand to force it into submission for its own good. From the outset in this book he is wholly believable in that role. His presence is tangible, and therefore he seems more evenly matched with Vin and her nature now too. Both characters benefit from this change. TenSoon and the Kandra storyline COULD have been (in another authors hands) boring, but here it is endlessly entertaining and mysterious. I loved reading every ounce of it. Then you have Spook’s storyline, and at first I wondered about it, as he didn’t start out doing too much and questioned himself a bit too much.  However, as it went on he started to embody and capture a little of the Kelsier personality, and his plotlines too became really interesting, not to mention heroic which was nice to see him grow into that. Marsh, poor Marsh. Marsh here is our window into the big baddie Ruin, and it’s a nice one. Sanderson is such an adept hand here that Marsh only stays in scene long enough to give you the little inklings you need about Ruin and his effect on the world and the nature of the third magic. That is hard to do, and Sanderson achieves it in spades.

The story never feels bogged down. In the middle there is a number of chapters where there is a bunch of exposition, and the characters spend some time discussing things but it wasn’t boring at all, and again it COULD have been. Nothing feels extra. You know how sometimes you read a book and think, man they could have left “that” out or “this” out and the story wouldn’t lose from it…well there is none of that here. I think this is where we can agree that this is why the pacing is so good in his books.

Somewhere around the middle of the book the pace shifts forward into light speed. You can hear the mechanical, standard race car gear shift go "KACHUNK!" I literally was only halfway done when I got home last night and I just couldn’t stop reading. I HAD to find out how it all ended up. The second half of this book should be called “How many revelations can you handle?” Seriously, every time something else was revealed to me I was like “No way! I had no idea!” The man is a sheer genius when it comes to red herrings and I bow to that skill. I love being surprised. Make no mistake, you will be surprised by the like 10 different revelations in the last half of the book. It was one thing after another, and after every revelation I’d sit there and think…sweet merciful crap…he set ALL these up in the first book and I had literally NO idea!

The Epilogue for this book is, for lack of a better world, amazing. It resolves things in such a great way and leaves you feeling not only content, but also happy.

I can’t express enough the love I have for this series, these characters and this world. There are only a few trilogies I would recommend to people on the whole. I feel that the Mistborn trilogy pretty much leads that pack.

I have only half of KNIFE OF DREAMS left before I get to dive into his two entries in the Wheel Of Time series and I can’t wait.

 

I also am VERY excited by the prospect of later this year getting to get back into the Mistborn world with the new novel set like 300 years later, and will have Allomantic Gunplay. Man I can’t wait.

Upcoming: TOR acquires two new Brandon Sanderson novels

From the press release:

Tor Books is proud to announce the acquisition of two new novels by acclaimed fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, whose recent book Towers of Midnight, Book Thirteen in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time®, recently debuted at #1 on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and ABA National Indiebound bestseller lists. Sanderson is also the author of New York Times bestselling novels The Way of Kings, The Gathering Storm, The Mistborn Trilogy, Warbreaker, Elantris, and the middle grade “Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians” series. He is currently working on A Memory of Light, the 14th and final volume in The Wheel of Time, and planning a sequel to The Way of Kings.

Sanderson’s first new project will be an original, standalone short novel set in the universe of his Mistborn trilogy (Mistborn, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages). Sanderson previously announced plans for a sequel trilogy set in the far future of that world, and the new novel, entitled Mistborn: The Alloy of Law, is set during a frontier era where “allomancy” meets gunplay. The Alloy of Law will be published in late 2011.

Sanderson’s second project, titled The Rithmatist, was first drafted in 2007 and perfected this year. Set in an alternate-history America where magic users (called “Rithmatists”) battle wild chalk creatures, The Rithmatist introduces Joel, a student at the Rithmatist academy with great interest in but no ability to use the magic. But when students start vanishing, it’s up to him to expose the sinister figure behind the disappearances. The Rithmatist will be published in 2012 after the publication of A Memory of Light.

Most people who frequent the blog know that I am a huge fan of Brandon Sanderson's work. His standalones (Elantris, Warbreaker), his series (Stormlight Archives and Mistborn series) and I am sure I'll like his WOT books as well. Basically, for me this is GREAT news, as I pretty much devour anything this guy releases.

The Mistborn book...has the first ever Allomantic gunfight. That ought to have fans of that magic system salivating! Oh man, how awesome is that?

The second one sounds pretty damn cool too, and I look forward to hearing more about it.

Can't wait for both really. :)

In the Days After: Towers Of Midnight, 13th volume in Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time series released 2 days ago

Unless you have been living under a fairly large sized rock, in the past few days you know that this book has hit bookstores.

Droves of fantasy fans have either checked for their pre-order in their mailbox, or have ventured out into the lovely fall weather to go to their local bookstore to pick up Jordan/Sanderson's new book.

The penultimate story in (what will be) a fourteen book Epic High Fantasy series, marks the first time in many years that WOT fans have had the glorious pleasure of having the newest volume come out a mere year after the previous (2009's THE GATHERING STORM) one did. Before Robert Jordan passed away, the time between release dates stretched to years and fans had to accept that they would have to wait. Well no longer, as new fantasy IT boy Brandon Sanderson (the man chosen to finish the series after Jordan's passing) has been consistent and is banging the books out as fast as he can.

I am personally only at book eight (THE CROWN OF SWORDS), so I can't yet comment on the two Sanderson penned volumes, but sufficed to say, word of mouth has it that the series is in the best hands to finish this immense tale.

At any rate, if you haven't yet done so (and you have read the first 12 books) then get out there and score yourself a brand spankety new hardcover of TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT, grab a cup of joe and settle in by the fire.

Note: Chris has the book and will be at work on it soon. The review should be up as soon as he finishes. He promised. ;)

...and my head just exploded from the awesome...

Jim Butcher sits next to Joe Abercrombie who sits next to Peter V. Brett who sits next to Naomi Novik who sits next to Deborah Harkness who sits next to Brandon Sanderson....and my head exploded from the collected awesome of this panel at the New York Comic Con over the weekend. Man, I would have LOVED to be in that room!



NYCC Panel Video: Fantasy Authors from Suvudu on Vimeo.

NYCC Panel Video: Fantasy Authors Part II from Suvudu on Vimeo.

The Way Of Kings (The Stormlight Archive Vol. 1) - Brandon Sanderson - Review

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.


Brandon Sanderson is one of those names in the fantasy arena that we heard a fair bit of buzz about just after he released his debut novel ELANTRIS. Then more buzz as he released his first trilogy MISTBORN to a whack of good reviews and kudos. Though it can be argued that the mainstream audience of casual fantasy readers didn’t have a clue who the man was prior to him being chosen to pen the remaining three books in the popular WHEEL OF TIME series. Chosen by Robert Jordan himself (and his widow Harriet) to finish the series that Jordan knew he wouldn’t finish due to his terminal illness, Sanderson had gotten some pretty high praise just by being that choice. I only ever got five books into the WOT series, so I can’t weigh in on Sanderson’s addition to the series with the 13th volume, THE GATHERING STORM, released last year to fairly decent reviews. I believe Chris read it, so he could weigh in.

At any rate the man has been given a daunting job to do, finishing a series that has polarized fantasy fans and casual readers alike for nearly twenty years. I have enjoyed his writing since I first picked up a hardcover ELANTRIS in 2005 and took a chance on a new author, and I was blown away by the cleverness he showed (with ELANTRIS) and the promise as a worldbuilder and magic systems (with MISTBORN). Somewhere after he accepted the WOT gig from TOR, they commissioned him to begin his own epic high fantasy series (One that’s been gestating in his head for like ten years), and he actually found time to write the first one, THE WAY OF KINGS.

The first book in a proposed ten book series called THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE is a monstrous 1001 pages hardcover. To call this a doorstopper is being generous. It is a behemoth, and is filled with maps and drawings the calibre of which I’ve not seen in any other book. In short, the book is bloody gorgeous inside and out (the cover art is done by the splendid Michael Whelan, who Sanderson says always did the best art in the 80’s covers). I knew I wanted to read this book, and when I came upon it in the bookstore I snapped it up immediately and started in on it the next day.

Oh my gods this is a stunning book. It was odd to me to be so entirely involved in a book this large from the get-go and not stopping. I read it every last chance I got. I recall the first time I read Steven Erikson’s Malazan series and how I was pretty enthralled by their scope and story...but most of the books had portions that slowed a bit for me, or were tougher to get through. That, surprisingly, didn’t happen with THE WAY OF KINGS. I was tucking my nose inside it everyday and by the midway point I found that I preferred to sit down and read a few chapters than do anything else. It became one of those volumes where it’s 3AM and you keep saying to yourself “Okay, one more chapter” and then something happens and you have to keep going. Thus losing precious sleep, but I wasn't complaining.

The characters are well fleshed out, and you care about each of them in their own way. What’s reall remarkable, however, is that Sanderson seamlessly integrates the plots of POV characters Kaladin, Dalinar and Adolin whose story is the war side of Roshar and the fighting of a vengeance pact on the shattered plains (which are...exactly what they sound like and let me tell you battles have NEVER been done so interestingly and brilliantly) attempting to revenge for something that happens in the prologue, and the POV plotlines of Shallan and Jasnah which follows a much different historical mystery study of Roshar and the great thing is that all these storylines are each compelling on their own, but as they sit as disparate parts of the world Sanderson creates they are also unified by relations, and even as a whole to what is transpiring. It’s like seeing all the pieces on a chess board arranged, and though you can’t tell who is going to win, it is unendingly interesting to watch the players make expert moves that you can tell are leading to something very big.

I think we are in for a significant treat with the rest of THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE. Roshar is incredibly realized and vivid, with its highstorms and adaptable plantlife, its various kingdoms and human lives, not to mention the huge historical backstory that is thousands of years old, but never feels like too much to handle. Sanderson has a deft hand at giving us that which we require to push forward but it never feels like he overwhelms us. He knows exactly how human beings interact and how things like love, honour, and betrayal can build from nothing to a crescendo. How the human spirit is at once a gloomy thing as well as a splendid thing. I won’t say too much about specific plot points, but sufficed to say that the last 400 pages or so of this book the pace went from fast to bloody lightning burning through my hands. The ending was a triumph that I can even explain properly in words, and left me completely salivating for the next in the series. I was sad there wasn’t any more to read, and decided that I read it too fast. I found myself wishing I could be at the beginning all over again.

This is Sanderson’s most accomplished work to date, and has all the trappings of catapulting him into the stratosphere of new fantasy authors. I actually went out on a limb when I finished it and called it the BEST BOOK I’VE EVER READ. Weeks later, as I sit writing this review, that is still true. Hands down the best.

I stand in awe of this man’s skill.

If I get you to read one book in 2010, please let it be this one. I can’t recommend it highly enough.