Gardens of the Moon review

I am still a couple hundred pages off from finishing this book, but I can already tell that I am hooked. I didn't feel this way for most of the book, however.

Gardens of the Moon, the first book in the Malazon Book of the Fallen series, is by far the most confusing book I have ever read. The author, Steven Erikson, even admits that it's confusing, and it's exactly what he intended. He didn't want to have to lead the reader by the hand through the book, and decided to plop them right down in the middle of everything. All the while, the time skips forward every couple hundred pages or so, and it's difficult to tell what side everyone is on, if they're on a side at all. I don't know whether to applaud his bravery at trying this, or toss the book across the room.

I'm glad I kept with it though. I have experience with books like this, and I trusted that it would get better. It did. A lot of this book relies on the reader to figure stuff out on their own. It treats them like an intelligent thinking being, and after my initial irritation, I really appreciated this.

One reason for this confusion is the narrator. It's so far in the third person omnipresent that it jumps from mind to mind within a single paragraph. Most of the time that I see this in a novel, it's sporadic and unintentional. It's when the chapter is in the POV of one character, but a few times we get the feelings or thoughts of another, just because it's handy for the plot or to keep the reader informed. In Gardens of the Moon, if there is a character mentioned, we know how it feels. This can be both very confusing, as most people are not used to it, but also very handy. We get most of our information this way, either from direct thoughts from characters, or by being able to see the connection between two characters. The narrator is so deep, that it's very rare to actually hear the narrator's voice. I would say that 95% of the story is told by the characters. This includes plot, for what is going on now, and what has happened thousands of years before the story even started.

Gardens of the Moon is meant for an advanced reader, one willing to take on a challenge. It starts off being very difficult and confusing, but once the reader starts to understand, the book is very enjoyable.

Eragon Review

Get ready for a whole ton of reviews as I try and catch up on them! First off, the Eragon series!

I've been interested in this book series for many years, but I finally picked it up a few month ago. It is a young adult novel, so I went in knowing this and expecting much less than I actually got.

Eragon, the first book in the series, was the first book by the author, Christopher Paolini, which he started to write at the age of fifteen. For a first novel, at the age that he wrote it at, it is very impressive. The writing itself improves as the series continues and the plot is developed and thought out (to an extent). The first book reads as if a teenager wrote exactly what they wanted to read, which since it's aimed toward a younger reader, is for the best. For anyone used to more sophisticated and elaborate novels, this series is not for them. It's an easy and enjoyable read, without the headaches that accompany the novels that require a flow chart to follow.

However enjoyable the book is though, it's also predictable. The series is heavily influenced by other high fantasy novels and tropes. It barely deviates away from the stereotypical creatures of fantasy: The humans, the elves, the dragons, the dwarves and the humanoid beasts. It reminds me a lot of Lord of the Rings in this way, but makes up for it with the plot.

The plot itself is not original. It's the basic "unexpected hero becomes extraordinary, and is expected to fight and defeat the villain". What makes it different is that this is not the whole story. When one thinks of dragon riders, if they have even heard of the Eragon series, it will likely pop into their head. This is part of the over arcing story, but under the front cover are unique characters, exciting adventures, and unexpected turns, all of which are tied up in a neat ending, which, I admit, tugs at the heart strings.

Eragon is a great series to read as a child or young adult. It rounds out the high fantasy that Tolkien started, but with a much more immersive world and relatable characters.

Five Things (Almost) Every Fantasy Novel Has

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, it's been another long week at work. Finals are in progress, so a couple co-workers took the week off. But that's okay, most money for me! At least everyone else is eager for hours, so we're not too desperate.

Anyway, I've been reading the Inheritance Series (Eragon, Eldest... ect.) and I've come to notice a few things that a bunch of fantasy novels seem to share. And I'm not talking about the races of creatures, like elves and dwarves, as those are uniform and not expected to change. I mean small details.

1) If there is a blacksmith, he's a good guy. The more muscles, the better.

2) If there is a large mountain range, they have to have the word Mist in them. Like the Misty Mountains, or the Mountains of Mist.

3) If it starts off with an average person living in a small village tucked into the middle of nowhere, that person is the savior of the world, and that village is actually the ancient site of a once grand and very important city, which almost everyone just conveniently forgot about.

4) A character is going to get married? Better do it before that hoard of monsters come knocking at your door. (which happens to be a small village tucked into the middle of nowhere)

5) If a character needs to know something, they will not only learn it within a month, they will be a master of it, because it's 'just in them'.


Most of these examples stem from three series; Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, and Inheritance. I'm guessing that Robert Jordan and Christopher Paolini both read Tolkien, and took a lot of examples from him. Not to say that they're bad books (Wheel of Time is still very far up on my favorite books list), but they do tend to follow a predictable path on these five points.

Warbreaker Review

It's been a while since I've done a review. Not because I haven't been reading, but just because I've been lazy. You really shouldn't expect much else from me...

But I recently finished a really good book, by none other than Brandon Sanderson. It's a stand alone book called Warbreaker

The magic system in this book revolves around something called Breaths. Every human is born with one, and it's basically their soul. People can live without one, but it makes the world dull and drab for them. In fact, those that have given their Breath away are called Drabs. People can collect Breaths, and use them to animate objects made from organic materials, such as twigs, grass, clothing, even corpses and bones.

As I've come to expect from Sanderson, the book is full of plot twists and unexpected surprises. You'll start to think you understand what will happen, or think you can trust one of the characters, then Bam! Everything changes. It really keeps you hooked on the book.

I hope he writes more in this world, though I expect that he's going to keep this as a stand alone novel. However, many of his books are connected, either by the same world or with characters. I feel like he's planning just one massive world, or somehow he's going to connect nearly every book he's written. He's already started to do this by having one character make a cameo in several of his books. I would be surprised if he didn't do something with this.

So in the end, I would definitely suggest Warbreaker for anyone who likes a thrilling book, that'll keep you thinking and constantly guessing about what will happen next.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar children review

I just finished reading another fantastic book, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. From now on, I'll just called it Peculiar Children, because the whole title is a mouthful.

This is a book that I saw once and found it interesting, but didn't buy. My friend happened to have it though, and offered to lend it to me when she was done. Thinking it would just be a quick read and a nice break from the large books I normally read, I happily accepted.

I went into it thinking it would be a young adult novel, aimed more toward children than actual young adults. After only a few chapters though, I realized this wasn't the case, as an child reading this would have nightmares. You see, this is a picture book. Each picture relates to the story, and many of them are of peculiar children. This means, quite often the pictures are creepy. The very first one you see inside the book is of a face behind a small flame. That's like opening your eyes at night and seeing nothing but darkness and a pair of eyes staring at you. Despite these pictures, the writing style is still aimed more toward a younger reader. Not that that's bad, of course. It's beautifully written, with the details being fleshed out and vivid, but not to the point of being boring. However, this also means the monsters in the story are very vivid too.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

The moment the grandpa died is when I realized that this book is much darker than I thought. It's one thing to kill off a character, but another to describe it so clearly. This is seen again near the end with another corpse.

So no, not a children's book at all, unless the child is mature enough to no longer be afraid of the dark, or see monsters in the shadows. Peculiar Children was, as I expected, a fast read, but after that it blew all my expectations. It's no wonder I'm suddenly seeing the book being sold everywhere. I would definitely recommend it to any of my friends.

Mirror Sight review

A long time ago I did a review on the Green Rider series, prior to reading the fourth book, Blackveil. Now I've just finished reading the fifth book, Mirror Sight, and I'm very excited to review it.

If you've read the previous review, you'll know that Kristen Britain is not my favorite author when it comes to prose and her actual writing. I love her because of her plots. This most recent book, however, was significantly better. There still are parts where I was mentally correcting and editing her work, but I tend to do that with most books.

And again, like in her previous books, the plot was the significant factor. She definitely upped her game in this recent book too, just as she did her writing. There is rarely a down moment, keeping her readers hooked until the very last page. Although I always believed these books were meant for young adults (ages 13 and older), I can see that it's progressed more into an adult fantasy. Not to say it's anywhere near in graphic sex scenes as George R. R. Martin, but it does include more romance than the average book I read.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
And on the topic of Martin, this book is a close contender when it comes to character deaths. I don't think it's even possible to have as many as Martin, but it's the few that just want to make you cry. I'm not an emotional person. I'm normally happy when an author takes a different path and kills off nearly all the characters, or the main character. However, with every death in this book my heart dropped. Britain did a great job at connecting the reader to the characters, even if they were just a small element.

This book was full of surprises for me, but by far the biggest one was just finding it. Normally Britain takes forever to come out with new books, but either I wasn't paying attention to the time passing, or this one came out much sooner than I expected. I suppose she's getting more serious about writing now.

Dragons and Singing

I guess I promised an update on my friend's birthday party, didn't I? Well, it's still Tuesday! Let's get this going.

Saturday was my friend's birthday. The first thing we did was go see How to Train Your Dragon 2. It was amazing! Some of my friends who do animation were complaining about it, something to do with trying to make it look real? I don't know, I don't care about that stuff. The plot was what mattered to me, and I loved it. Though really, I'm not much of a critic, and just about anything fantasy I will love. I can't say if I like the first or second better, all I can say is that I would definitely watch them both again. And again. And again...

After the movie we stopped by the mall to waste some time before karaoke. We had lunch/dinner at a restaurant there, then went to look at nerdy stuff in a game store. I very nearly bought myself a master sword, but it was too long to be practical (because you know, a sword sword is definitely more practical in real life). Not to mention what I really want is a Hylian shield, and they only had Dark Link shields there. The last time I found a Hylian shield at the store though, it was $140 dollars, which is about $60 more than I'm willing to pay.

Then after we wasted enough time, we headed across the street to the other mall, where the karaoke was. I sang one song along with a couple other people. It was 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman' from Frozen, because that's one of the only songs I actually know. This place never updates their main bulk of songs, but will constantly add and take away the Disney songs, so that there may be one or two songs I know, but they'll be gone by the next time I go. I'm still disappointed that they don't have 'I'll Make a Man Out of You', which my friend insists that they still have somewhere.

So that was my Saturday! Lot's of fun with lots of great people. I gave my friend a necklace that looks like the container from the silent realm in Skyward Sword, which I wrapped up in a tiny little Legend of Zelda chest.

Words of Radiance review

I just realized that I didn't do a review on one of my favorite books! Words of Radiance is the second book in the Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson. If you go back almost a year, you'll see a review for the first book. My opinions are basically the same; amazing plot, fantastic world and great characters.

The plot is, under everything, the basic 'save the world from the Apocalypse'. There is the time limit to get everything in order, and to train people for what is to come. This was seen only a bit in the first book, and now is the most important theme in the second book.

I've said this with all of Sanderson's works, and Words of Radiance is no different. The world building is just baffling. There is so much that's new and different from our world, but it all makes sense. Everything is beautiful and described with just enough detail to form an image, but not to lose the reader. It helps that many of the more important or detailed images are followed by pictures. So yes, this book has pictures.

And finally the characters. All of their voices are great, down to the smallest characters, who only appear for one chapter. In fact, I think it's those characters that have the best voice (though I have to admit that sometimes those characters can be a little boring.) There isn't to much development in the characters between the beginning and end, but most of that development was shown in the first book. What's more, in this book there are some chapters that go back to look at the past of one of the characters. In the first book it did the same with a different character. So I suppose you get the character development that way.

There are only two things I am a little nit picky about. The first one is something that I noticed in the first book, and that's when Sanderson slips into the omniscient narrator, meaning one chapter will be about one person, but once in a while the opinions of a different person will enter the narrative. This can be as simple as just noting the feelings or intentions of someone who isn't the main character at the time. It's not something that would be too obvious by most readers.

And then something I only noticed in this book. This one versus one battle scenes are... lacking. I think it was three times in the book, he said that the character just 'felt' what to do. I understand that battle scenes, especially one on one, can be very hard to write unless you actually know how to fight with a sword, or a spear, or whatever other weapon is being used. I'm just surprised, because I never saw, or at least never noticed it, in his other books. I think this might actually be the first time that he's done the one on one combats in a book.


All in all, a fantastic book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that likes fantasy. It's similar to high fantasy, with a tiny bit of steampunk thrown in.

(I should also mention the humor. There were several times that I nearly burst out in laughter, and only stopped myself because I was in public.)

The Blinding Knife Review

I realized there was a bit of a gap a few month ago, where I was reading books, but not reviewing them. I'm going to try to catch up with that, though my memory might not be perfect. First up, The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks!

This is the second book in the Lightbringer series. Weeks is actually one of my favorite authors, right behind Sanderson, but unfortunately he's only written a few books. Even though it seems to take forever for each book to come out, the read is well worth the wait. Weeks forte is in characterization and voice. Each of his characters are distinct and strong, even down to the smallest character. It's through his characters that the world and the history is revealed, along with moving the plot along.

The book itself has a very creative idea. The magic system is based off of colours. Certain people can use one, two, three, sometimes even four or more colours to create things. Each colour has a different property, some creating more solid structures, some being purely liquid. Which of course means that each are used as a different weapon. However, for someone to use this colour, they first have to have the ability, and they have to have access to something of that colour. If someone wanted to use red, they would have to be looking at something red, like a red cloth or something. If someone uses their colour for too long and too much, it starts to drive them mad, called 'Breaking the halo', which is just the colour in their eyes bleeding into the whites of their eyes.

Now the plot rotates around someone called The Prism, who can use all the colours in the spectrum, and if I remember correctly, he doesn't need to be looking at a colour to use it. A war is breaking out between the regular colour users, and the ones that have broken their halo and gone insane. Normally those that have broken the halo would be killed before they went insane, but now they're fighting back for their freedom to live after.

You can see the complexity, and that's just the very basic. The book is marvelously written so that the reader is never confused. My descriptions cannot do it justice.

Dangerous Women Review #2

I've just about finished reading the rest of Dangerous Women. You probably remember the first part of my review, which was probably the longest post I've ever written. This one shouldn't be as long.

1) Virgins by Diana Gabaldon
I was only halfway through this story when I did the last review, and I said I didn't like it too much. After finished it, I liked it much more. The females came in later in the story, and there was a lot of extra that I feel could have been cut out without hindering the story. However, that extra did help, if not to move the plot along, at least to make it interesting. After reading this story, I might be more interested in reading the book series that it's based off of.

2) Hell Hath No Fury by Sherrilyn Kenyon
I've read a couple of Kenyon's books, and they're definitely heavy on the romance. This one was lacking that, mostly, so that was a relief. However, it read like a teen fiction, and anyone who knows me, or has been following this blog for long enough, knows that I hate teen fiction. It was tacky, and worst of all, it used modern references. This isn't so bad for now, but in ten years those references won't make any sense. I like reading stories that mostly don't age.

3) Pronouncing Doom by S. M. Stirling
This story was very confusing and hard to get into. I read like it was the second book in a story, or like the first few pages had been omitted. Normally I don't care for a while spiel on the history of the world and what events happened to bring us to this point, but I think this story needed a bit of this to start off with. We are eventually told throughout the story, but it doesn't help if I've already read five pages and then find out what happened to throw the world into a post apocalyptic setting. The characters were great out, even if their culture confused me a bit.

4) Name The Beast by Sam Sykes
Yet another very confusing story, and this one barely got better as it went along. For the majority of the story I thought that it was written in the present, then going into flash backs. At the very end I learned it was always in the present, but switching between two places. Throw in a whole other species that is only briefly described, and it's just too much with too little explaining.

5) Caretakers by Pat Cadigan
Normally I don't care for modern stories, but this one was fairly entertaining. Not speculative fiction, with magic or anything of the sort, so really not my cup of tea. It was closer to a comedic drama. Not much else to say.

6) Lies My Mother Told Me by Caroline Spector
Near the middle I was forcing myself to read this story. It' about superheroes, and although the idea is good, the way it's put into action is tacky. The whole idea is that a virus infected humans that gave some of them super powers. The ones who received good or helpful powers are called Aces, while the ones with bad or unwanted powers are called Jokers. The problem is that it goes into the old style comic type superheroes, with tacky names and tacky powers. Near the end it really picked up though, and despite everything, it was pretty good.

7) The Princess and the Queen by George R. R. Martin
I'm only halfway through this one, but it's shaping up to be decent. Just like another story in this collection, it reads more like a history book than a fictional story. There is very little dialogue, so it's basically all descriptions of what had happened, rather than what was happening. But of course, it's Martin, so no matter what, it's entertaining to read... And there are dragons. It's also interesting because this story takes place before the events in his series A Song of Ice and Fire, so I can relate back to the series and understand what is going on.

Much shorter this time, right? Martin's story is the last one in the collection, but I would love to read more short stories. I'll probably pick up something from Value Village from time to time, since short stories are (mostly) easy to read and easy to review.

Dangerous Women review

I cut myself on a binder today. It hurts...

But anyway! I'm about halfway done reading an anthology of short stories by well known authors. It's called 'Dangerous Women', and each story is supposed to feature a dangerous woman, obviously. What I've come to notice though, is that according to half these authors, a dangerous woman is either a stripped, prostitute, or heavily leaning on a man for support. It really makes me wonder why people can be so bad at writing women.

I'll give a quick blurb about each story I've read so far:

1) Some Desperado by Joe Ambercrombie
I loved it! It was a great way to start off the book. The main character was a feisty and scrappy young woman who was at the perfect spot between too powerful and just powerful enough to hold her own.

2) My Heart is Either Broken by Megan Abbott
I hated this one. It reminded me of 'Play it As It Lays'. I wanted to punch the female character because all she did was mope around the house, watch TV, go to bars. There was no action, and most definitely no danger. The only time anything happened was in the last page or so.

3) Nora's Song by Cecelia Holland
Simply beautiful! This story followed the young daughter of Eleanor of Aquitane. The voice was perfect, sounding like a twelve year old girl, but also like a princess. The point of view never switched, which is hard to do when you have two real and very powerful characters like the King and Queen. The main character, although young and rather helpless, showed bravery and the ability to grow into something dangerous.

4) The Hands That Are Not There by Melinda Snodgrass
This one was okay, but it's the first one where the female is a stripper. What annoys me more about these 'strong' females are strippers is that all the writer has to do is say that they had 'enchanting grace and were lithe as a cat, with a glimmer in their eye that spoke of danger'. Or something along those lines. It's all about image rather than actions. It doesn't matter if they're dancing naked for the enjoyment of men, as long as they look confident.
On the other hand, this story was well written.

5) Bombshells by Jim Butcher
This story follows the series 'The Dresden Files', which is a supernatural suspense/mystery book/show. It's actually a rather complex short story, and reading the preceding books would definitely help, but most readers should still be able to understand what's going on either way. It was good, but not one of my favourites. It was witty, and used a very strong voice with a first person narrative, so that worked well. Something about it though turned me off slightly. Not sure what...

6) Raisa Stepanova by Carrie Vaughn
This was another great story! It's about a Russian female pilot in WWII who is trying to get her five kills to become an Ace. It shows a ton of emotion, not between boyfriend and girlfriend, but between brother and sister and between friend and friend. It's adorable, and actually quite heart wrenching. Definitely one of my favourites.

7) Wrestling Jesus by Joe R. Lansdale
This was another story where the female was more like a side character or a background character. Even worse, she was basically an object. The whole story revolves around to men who get together every five years to wrestle. Whoever wins gets the female. The only redeeming part is that the female apparently chooses to go to the winner, rather than being passed around.

8) Neighbors by Megan Lindholm
I'm not sure about this one. The main character is a sixty year old woman who is in the early stages of alzheimers. She puts up a fight and shows a lot of guts, along with some danger. I think I would have really enjoyed this story, but it's confusing. I suppose if you're writing from the point of view of an alzheimers patient it would be confusing though...

9) I Know How to Pick 'Em by Lawrence Block
*SPOILER ALERT*
I cannot talk about this one without explaining the whole thing. Because it was so bad I have to rant about it. First off, the woman dies! The story is in the point of view of a man in a bar. Bad choice when for a book about dangerous females. Then a woman comes in and shows interest. They go back to a hotel and bang. All the while, the writer gives this man way too much power. He is able to guess just about everything about her by her looks and mannerisms. Think Sherlock, but with a trucker in a bar. When he guesses that she wants him to kill her husband, he kills her. She shows no danger except in the fact that she's cheating on her husband and may want him dead (This isn't actually confirmed, because she doesn't have much of a voice, and he's putting words into her mouth. but she doesn't deny it too much...)
So far, my least favourite story.

10) Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brandon Sanderson
This is so far my favourite story! (Makes up for the last one) Sanderson is my favourite author too, so I expected nothing less. There are two, maybe even three strong and very dangerous females in this story, but it's not over the top or overly feminine. Like the first story, the females in this one are more smart than powerful. They use what they have, and if that doesn't work out, they try something else. They fight 'till the end and don't fall back to using their looks and charms to get what they want.

11) A Queen in Exile by Sharon Kay Grossman
This one was okay, and had potential to be great. It's written a lot like a textbook, with the occasional break to play out a scene better. There are massive time skips that start with 'for many years' or 'a few years later'. In addition, this story is basically true. It follows a real queen and real events. it's hard to slip out of textbook mode when writing a historical piece with all real people, as you don't want to get something wrong or historically inaccurate, but something things need to be embellished a bit.

12) The Girl in the Mirror by Lev Grossman
If you're a fan of Harry Potter, you'll probably like this story. It's written like a young adult book, from the point of view of a young and very smart witch who goes to a very prestigious school. It's playful and fun, with very little seriousness. A nice light read.

13) Second Arabesque, Very Slowly by Nancy Kress
This one was very well done. It's in a post apocalyptic world, where women are treasured. At some point a virus went out that made 90% of the female population infertile. Because of this, girls are forced into sex as soon as they've had their first period. After my rant about sex and strippers earlier, you would think I would hate this. But the main character is infertile, and is only in this band of survivors because she's a nurse. This story was just really well written.

14) City Lazerus by Diana Rowland
Another story where the female character is a stripper. And once again, she's enchanting and beautiful and the main character cannot help but love her. Basically the same as the first one that did this. I wasn't impressed.

15) Virgins by Diana Gabaldon
I'm only about halfway through this one, and so far there has been one female, and mentions of one other. I have no idea where it's going, but I'm not too happy with it so far. The voices are great though. The two man characters are Scottish, ad Gabaldon put a lot of effort into the accents. Can be a little hard to read, but I'm more than happy to have a Scottish accent in my head.


Sorry for the length, I guess I had more to say than I thought. and there's still more! I have six more stories to read, ad I'll post another review on them when I'm done. Going over these ones now, I realize I actually like at least half of them, but it's the bad ones that really stuck out. It's as if some of the authors really wanted to be part of this book, but had no idea how to write a strong female character. So they used a strong male and made him weakened him with 'feminine whiles'. I would like to remind people that females are not all about their bodies and using them to get what they want. Most authors seem to understand this, luckily.

Once Upon a Time Review

Over the past few days I've started watching Once Upon a Time. It's far past the time that I started watching it. In fact, the moment it came out, I wanted to start watching it, but I'm terrible at keeping up with TV shows on the actual TV. So I've been watching it on Netflix, where I can easily watch mass amounts in one sitting. (Yes, I am that lazy)

First off, I think I love this show. I now understand why so many people talk about it (especially girls). What I love most is the fairy tale element, obviously. It's the parts that go into the actual book though, in the fairy tale world that I love the most. Sure, I love seeing the modern representation of the characters, but I've always found reality and the modern world fairly boring. It's mostly why I don't watch much TV unless it's a comedy. Even dramas are boring, because they're all the same. This show may be a drama, but it's definitely unique.

It is a little slow, however. In the modern world, I just want to scream at the characters for not believing in the kid. It's so obvious to a watcher that it's almost painful. But of course, it is a TV show, and they have to stretch everything out as long as possible.

I'm very impressed with how well they can weave different fairy tales together though. How Snow White might appear in Cinderella's tale, and Belle appears with the dwarves, or Red Riding Hood appears with Snow White (Okay, Snow White is pretty much everywhere...) It's masterfully done, and gives much more depth to the old fairy tales. It really makes it seem like there is a world where all the fairy tales live, or at least a book that contains this world.

I'm still in the first season (Nearly done!) and I'm very excited to continue with this series.

Luck in The Shadows Review

I finished this book on Saturday night, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. Luck in The Shadows is the first book in the Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling, and was written in 1996 (three years younger than I am!) I admit, with books written over fifteen years ago, I get a little tentative. You can see changes in writing styles sometimes, such as in the last book I read (The Gilded Chain). I believe books these days are less likely to sugar coat details such as sex, nor do they spare the reader the heart-rending deaths of characters *coughGeorgeMartincough*. Now this is just based on books I have read, comparing older to newer. But onto the review!

I think what I loved most were the characters. The main character, Alec, is an adorable young man that you can't help but think of as a twelve year old (probably not the aim of the author though...) He borders on being a perfect character because of his quick learning skills, but Flewelling made him perfectly flawed. You see, he's being trained to be a spy, but he's scared of heights, revolted by corpses, hesitant to kill anyone and not all that great with a sword.

The other main character, Seregil, is much closer to being a perfect character. He is basically Alec, but fully trained and without the faults. The only thing that makes this acceptable is that he is thrust into situations that he cannot control, reminding the reader that although he may be damned near perfect, he is not a god. I should add that he's also some of the comic relief.

Now of course the story itself has faults. The biggest one that annoyed me was the beginning. It kind of reminded me of some spy movie, like James Bond (which I'e never seen, so I could be completely wrong). It was tacky, and used pretty much to set up the relationship between Alec and Seregil. *MINOR SPOILERS*The beginning starts out with Alec in a jail cell. This is actually the darkest part of the whole novel, and sets up a false tone for the rest of the book. It's clearly stated that Alec has been tortured many times, and that he is likely to be sold into slavery. Now I've never been imprisoned or tortured, but I'm fairly certain this would scar someone for life, both mentally and emotionally. However, the only time the prison is ever mentioned after the first couple chapters is when Alec is remembering how he escaped, not the experiences during his imprisonment.

Other than that, the plot is enthralling, the character are (mostly) believable, and I would definitely like to read the rest of the series if I can get my hands on it.

And here are some additional cover arts, which I just found to be beautiful.

The Rithmatist review *SPOILERS*

I just finished reading another book by Brandon Sanderson, this one about four times shorter than the last. It's called The Rithmatist, and is 370 pages long, so a nice quick read. I would say it's for a younger reader though, probably suitable for a middle school student or early high school.

You know way back when I said I didn't have many examples of historical speculative fiction books? Well, here's one! It's a steampunk type idea, set in a Victorian era United States. Except, the states include lower Canada, and are separated into large islands, so instead of being called the United States, they're called the United Isles. Furthermore, there are mentions of going ons in Europe and South America that do not match with history. So although it's a world that we're familiar with, it's been changed just enough to be speculative fiction.

Now the magic comes from chalk. That sounds strange, but it's kind of like the idea of witchcraft and the pentagrams, except in this book it's circles. If someone is chosen as a Rithmatist, they have the ability to bring 'life' to chalk. It's actually fairly hard to explain, but Sanderson does it very well. As in the previous book I read by him, he incorporates drawings, which is very handy when it comes to explaining all the chalk drawings that are possible.

Although I loved reading this book, it's not Sanderson's best work, by far. There was something that annoyed me every time I came across it, but I can't seem to remember what it was, so obviously it wasn't too big. But I suppose it was written for a younger reader, so there are bound to be things that I don't like. However, it was a pleasure to read, and I would definitely suggest it as a light read over a weekend.

And another beautiful cover:

Digging a Little Deeper Part 2

(So I'm not feeling all to well. I think I'm probably dehydrated still, but no matter how much I drink, it doesn't help my headache. I guess I should be drinking water and not juice or pop though... Anyway, because I'm feeling uncreative today, here is another few paragraphs from my first attempts at writing.)

Arica woke up gasping, sweat trickled down her brow. Damien was staring at her, concern filling his green eyes. As soon as he saw she was awake he sighed and leaned back.

“Finally your awake, you woke me up with all that talking, and the scream at the end, before you woke up. What were you dreaming about?” He asked and shook his head as if he would rather not know. Arica sat up from where she had fallen onto the ground.

“I- I don’t really know…” She stuttered. A beam of sunlight danced across the floor through the open window. All signs of the night's showers were gone, replaced with twittering birds and fluttering butterflies.

“We're almost there.” Damien said and point out the window. Arica joined him and smiled. It was true; they had arrived at a large white farm house. Acres of green grass rolled along the hills, showing off well muscled horses as they grazed in large paddocks. At the large oak doorway stood a well dressed woman, waiting patiently with an old butler. The wooden wheels of the carriage crunched along the gravel path as the house got closer. Finally it halted and the door swung open. The old butler was walking off towards the back, where Damien and Arica had thrown their bags.

“I can’t believe it!” Damien said as the woman walked over. She scowled at their rumpled clothes then turned towards the butler, who was dragging both heavy bags around the carriage.

“Bring those bags inside and tell Cecilia to take them to the rooms.” She said then turned back to the cousins. “I am Annette, Lady of the house.” She said briskly and turned around. “Follow me.” With a wave of her hand, Annette strutted up the driveway. Arica and Damien exchanged amused glances before racing after their aunt.

“Wow.” It was the first thing Arica said as they entered their new house. Damien stood at the entrance, mouth open wide in shock.

“Come on then, don’t just stand there. Lars is waiting for you in the study.” Annette said and led them into a well lit room. Three walls were covered in large wooden bookcases while the remaining wall had an oak desk against it. Behind the desk was a rather large man, who looked up from the fat book he was reading when they entered.

“Ah, yes, the children. I am Lars, the man of the house. I do hope I’m guessing correctly when I say you are Arica?” Lars said and took Arica’s hand into a firm handshake. She winced at the pain and managed a weak smile. Next he turned to Damien and gave him the same warm welcome.

“Now, I hope you don’t mind, but I’m pretty busy here.” Lars said and shuffled back behind the desk. Annette turned around and hustled the kids out the door, where they were instantly turned up the stairs and towards two doors.

“This is where you two will be sleeping; your bags should already be inside.” Annette said. Once their aunt had gone downstairs and was out of sight, Damien and Arica rushed to their rooms. 

The Way of Kings Review *SPOILERS*

I've finally (almost) finished it! This is the book I mentioned forever ago, the one that's 1,252 pages long. I'm almost done it, with a little less than 100 pages left, but I got a little excited and decided to do the review now. I highly doubt my opinion will change in the last few chapters.

I think we might have the beginning of a series that will be a contender for my favourite book series. This book is amazing, but definitely not for anyone who hates world building. The Way of Kings is unique because of the new world that Brandon Sanderson has created. The biggest detail is something called the Highstorms, which are pretty much hurricanes that come every few days. The world also includes massive exoskeleton creatures, plants that are either made of rock or disappear into the ground at the slightest wind or touch, seasons that last only weeks, and of course magic. Of all of Sanderson's books, this is definitely the best example of world building.

Of course, creating a new world can be confusing for the reader. I love it, as it gives you the chance to use your imagination and see old things at new angles. However, I know there are plenty of fantasy fiction readers who hate it. They don't like trying to figure out what a simple thing is, and don't understand why it has to be given a new name. For example, the end of a year is called a Weeping, money is called spheres, and devices that use some sort of electricity are called fabrials. But the best part is how Sanderson shows all the new details. Of course he uses words, but in addition he created a character who is very skilled at drawing. It's through many of her drawings that we see things such as Chulls (large lobster-like creatures with a thick shell), skyeels (basically flying eels...) and the many plant forms.

Every author and book has flaws though. There were several grammatical or spelling errors that I noticed, but the those were easy to pass over. The largest thing I noticed, and one that may have been deliberate, was the use of the omnipotent narrator. Normally this'll mean getting into the mind of several characters, but being separated by a page break or a chapter. He does this, but in the same chapter, and even in the same paragraph, he'll switch between two or three different points of views. It's very distracting, but probably not that big for someone that reads, but does't write.

Despite the flaws, this is definitely one of my favourite books. Anything by Brandon Sanderson has been amazing, and I would suggest any of his works to other fantasy fiction readers. He's one of those authors that you might have heard of a few times, but never thought to pick up his books. Do it! You'll never regret it!


And some additional art:

Digging a Little Deeper

As I mentioned on Monday, I have a copy of the first story I began to write. Actually, it's the second copy, the first is still in my little black notebook, which I also have, and may share later. Anyway, bear in mind this was started probably at least eight years ago...

Vivid green eyes stared into their exact double. They blinked at the same time, their eyelids drooped simultaneously and snapped back open without a pause. When two rain drops slithered over one set of eyes, the other pair shifted their gaze to the tousled up golden hair. The reflected eyes followed. With a sigh of annoyance, Arica pursed her light pink lips. Rain pounded down on the window, speckling her reflection, her only companion in the small carriage, aside from her cousin. Lightning burst from the dark rain clouds, followed closely by a loud peel of thunder, accompanied by her cousin's loud snore. With a roll of her eyes, Arica threw her pillow at him.

            “Damien, shut up that racket!” She hissed and bent down to scoop up the pillow. When she glanced back at Damien, his green eyes were open and staring at her.

            “You know, you're not exactly a silent sleeper either.” He commented before shifting in his seat in a vain attempt to find a comfortable position on the rock hard carriage seats. After a few seconds of squirming around, he settled down with his back to Arica. The snoring started up soon after. Sighing again, Arica placed her pillow under her head. She closed her eyes and her reflection copied without hesitation.

            Darkness engulfed Arica as she looked around wildly. Where was she?  Slowly shapes emerged, trees, boulders, grass, a brilliant red… sky? She looked up into the slow swirling flames. No heat emitted from them, not a wisp of smoke or the crackle of flames. Wind swirled around Arica, whipping her hair around.

“Hello…” It seemed to say in a breezy voice.

“Who are you!” Arica called into the air. No reply. She started to call again when the world started to shake. Trees crashed down, dirt was flung everywhere and the sky, so calm before, seemed to rage to life. A tree fell down close to Arica, sending another toppling over, right onto her. Her scream caught in her throat as branches covered her like a hard and prickly blanket.

A Glimpse at the Past

I didn't forget this time! I just kind of procrastinated... Anyway, I'm tired, so I'm going to treat you to the first several paragraphs of a novel I had started years ago. You should know that I've scrapped this version and started working on a newer one not too long ago (Okay, a couple years ago...), but it's always fun to go back and look at what I used to be. I have stuff from even farther back, but that's even more embarrassing.

            Thick black smoke curled around the floor just outside a large wooden door, followed a few seconds later by a loud bang. A serving girl scurried past, apparently not all that surprised by the explosion. The door slammed open, and a young man stumbled out, coughing hard. The smoke settled on everything it touched, forming a thick layer of soot. Another serving lady appeared around the corner, holding a wet towel in her hands.

            “For you, my lord.” She said quietly, and then hurried off once the man had taken the cloth. With a sigh, he scrubbed his face clean.

            The young man had dark brown hair, just long enough to brush his shoulders, without having to be pulled back. His dark blue eyes were red from lack of sleep, and no doubt from the black dust flying around, and his clothes could have come from a wealthy merchant, with a plain white shirt embroidered at the cuffs and collar, and brown tight fitting breeches, with even more embroidery.

            “Again?” An amused voice asked from down the hall.

            “I just can’t seem to get it right, father.” The younger man said in a resigned tone. “Everything I try, it blows up or does nothing. Every combination I can think of. It just does not work.”

            “Don't give up, Tanlar; I'm sure you will get it soon.” The older man, Lord Eiad, patted Tanlar on the back and gave him a joyful smile.

            “But it’s hopeless! I have been trying and trying for over a year now. Nothing I try has worked!” Tanlar threw the towel onto the ground, where an unseen servant hurried to pick it up. Already there were maids running around the two men, cleaning the walls and floor from the black dust.

            “You know you can’t say that!” Lord Eiad said growled as he let his anger get the better of him. Tanlar pursed his lips and looked pointedly at the mess around him with a raised eyebrow.

            “Fine, I will work on it for one more month, if I haven't finished anything by then, I will give up.” Without waiting for a reply from his father, Tanlar stormed off back into the room, slamming the door shut behind him and raising another small cloud of black dust.

Meet the Characters: Arica

Sorry for the late post, it had completely slipped my mind yesterday. 

For the next couple weeks, I'm going to do another instalment, this one to introduce the characters that I have created for short stories or ideas for novels. If you remember way way back, I posted a character conversation. I'm going to be doing similar ones for the rest of my characters.

The first one is Arica. I'm trying to maser her voice, which is supposed to be a farm girl from Victorian England, which means mostly uneducated and not very cultured. This conversation also takes place before any events in the novel, so any hints to the plot are kind of buried ad hidden.

Why don’t you being by introducing yourself.

I’m Arica Mason, daughter of Claire and Andrew Mason.

Very nice. Are you descended from masons then?

I think, but we don’t have any records of our family past my grandpa on my papa’s side.

How interesting. What about your mother’s?

Nothing past my mama and aunt.

So you have an aunt? Is she like your mother?

I’ve never met her, but my mama doesn’t like to talk ‘bout her.

And who do you take after?

My mama, of course. She raised me to be a good girl.

Not a Lady?

My aunt is the lady. I’m just a farm girl.

Where is your farm?

Southern England somewhere. It’s in the middle of nowhere.

And what makes your aunt a Lady?

Well she wasn’t born into it, if that’s whatcha think. She married a rich man.

Does that make her a Lady?

Donno. My mama is always calling her 'Lady Annette', then rolls her eyes and throws her hands in the air.

Tell me more about your mother.

She’s beautiful, even after mucking out the barn. I have her gold air, but mine is never as shiny as hers. She says it’s made of sunshine, and that mine’ll be the same when I get older, and that hers’ll turn silver and be made of moonbeams instead.

She sounds like a poet.

Nah, she just likes things like that. She made me a song once, and sings it to me every night.

Like a lullaby. Aren’t you a little old for that?

I’m only fourteen. ‘Sides, she keeps telling me to remember it. Maybe so I can sing it to my kids when I have them.

How sweet. Do you plan on having kids then?

Need a husband first, and all the boys around here are gross. They’re immature and rude, and half of them are chickens.

Are you saying you’re braver than them?

Course! I can ride any horse, and I once chased a raccoon away from our coop.

How brave of you. What about when you’re older?

Maybe. He has to be strong and courageous though. Maybe he’ll be a swordsmen, and take me on adventures. We can find dragons and elves.

There is no such thing as dragons and elves.

Who says?

The Art of Imagination: Medieval Fantasy

While listening to the radio on my way home today, my mom turned to a station that was talking about books. Now you would think this would peak my interest, but every time I listen to this radio show, or any other talk show or media that has anything to do with books, I never know the authors or the books, and most of the time I have no interest in them. The truth is, I'm rooted in speculative fiction. I hate non-fiction, especially biographies, I don't have much interest for teen fiction (though you don't find that being talked about much either), and my interest in literature has been in a steep decline ever since entering college. I find myself fascinated when someone does not like the same genre as I do, as I have grown up reading such things as Chronicals of Narnia, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Ranger's Apprentice, Tamora Pierce, and all number of other YA fiction. Furthermore, it seemed like back then everyone I talked to back then knew exactly what those books were (to a degree). They had all read them, enjoyed them, and kept reading similar books. At some point this ended. people 'matured' and grew out of these 'childish' novels. I am going to advocate for these overshadowed pieces of art.

Speculative Fiction is a genre that means the subject matter could never be real, or has a 99.99% chance of never coming true. It is dragons, unicorns and magic, wizards and superhuman knights. It's flying cars that run on nothing but air and humans with super powers. It's extra terrestrial beings that look suspiciously similar to humans and long dead creatures coming back to life. It is the real escape, because with anything else, there is always that possibility that the fiction will become non-fiction. Speculative Fiction is the only genre where you can truly escape from reality. 

Now that I've caught your attention, I should steer you in the right direction. I personally like medieval fantasy the best. I would say that 90% of my book shelf is medieval fantasy. This sub genre is, obviously, set in a medieval era world, whether it's Earth or otherwise. 

One of the most well known examples is George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire (adapted into the TV series A Game of Thrones). This series is good for getting the realistic effect while combined with a tad of fantasy. In fact, I think it would be better if the dragons were taken out completely. It's well written and the plot makes you think, but it's not my favourite series. 

For something more high fantasy, definitely go with Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. With this one you have to be careful that you're not too used to the movies though, as that was severely affect your opinion of the books. I'll admit that I was never able to finish the books, because I could not stop thinking about all the differences between the books and the movies. 

If that difference turns you off, then I would suggest Robert Jordan's A Wheel of Time series. It's much like Lord of the Rings, but almost five times longer, with a more complicated plot that branches out several dozen times and (mostly) comes back to tie into a neat bow at the end. Many people who have read it will say that it's not worth it past the sixth book. This is definitely untrue. I highly suspect those people never bothered to finish reading the series, as by the twelfth book it definitely picks up. This is also when Brandon Sanderson took over the series after the death of Robert Jordan.  The Wheel Of Time is one of my favourite series, and although it may get a little slow at some points, by the end of each book you will be itching to pick up the next.

Those are the top three Medieval Fantasy series that I have read, but there are definitely plenty more. Medieval Fantasy is defined not only by the time era, but by characterization. These books will typically portray knights, kings, queens, royalty, thieves, assassins, farmers, shepherds, mages, and any number of people associated with medieval times. Along with them will often (but not always) be mythical creatures, such as dragons, unicorns, Minotaurs, elves, dwarves, mermaids, centaurs, and so on. And finally, to truly make it a speculative fiction piece, is the magic. This can come in unexplained forms (such as in Harry Potter), or in ways that are attempted to be explained using religion or science (such as in Elantris). Not all cases of speculative fiction need to have magic though, as Tolkien proved in his books, which although contain mythical creatures, never really had magic (aside from the wizards, who were rare and kept magic very exclusive, to the point that it was part of being a race, rather than a knowledge, much like immortality to elves.)

Anyway, enough of my babbling! I'll continue on Wednesday, going over another sub genre of Speculative Fiction.