Posts in category 'books'
- Finished Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive #3.0) by Brandon Sanderson (9780765326379)(https://b-ark.ca/ei6gK8)
- Currently reading Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive #3.0) by Brandon Sanderson (9780765326379)(https://b-ark.ca/4QSWw2)
Review: Words of Radiance
Review of Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive #2.0) by Brandon Sanderson (9781429949620)★★★★
(https://b-ark.ca/Ug_CC_)Book two of a two part pentology, Words of Radiance follows directly from The Way of Kings, in plot, structure, and pacing, but provides a satisfying climax for the first major act of this epic series.
Expected by his enemies to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived to be given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status "darkeyes." Now he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers that are somehow linked to his honorspren, Syl.
The Assassin, Szeth, is active again, murdering rulers all over the world of Roshar, using his baffling powers to thwart every bodyguard and elude all pursuers. Among his prime targets is Highprince Dalinar, widely considered the power behind the Alethi throne. His leading role in the war would seem reason enough, but the Assassin's master has much deeper motives.
Brilliant but troubled Shallan strives along a parallel path. Despite being broken in ways she refuses to acknowledge, she bears a terrible burden: to somehow prevent the return of the legendary Voidbringers and the civilization-ending Desolation that will follow. The secrets she needs can be found at the Shattered Plains, but just arriving there proves more difficult than she could have imagined.
Meanwhile, at the heart of the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi are making an epochal decision. Hard pressed by years of Alethi attacks, their numbers ever shrinking, they are convinced by their war leader, Eshonai, to risk everything on a desperate gamble with the very supernatural forces they once fled. The possible consequences for Parshendi and humans alike, indeed, for Roshar itself, are as dangerous as they are incalculable.
This review is coming many days after I finished this book, and having already started Oathbringer, I have to admit the plot is already blurring in my mind. But, I’ll do my best!
And, of course, it’s already been nearly a week since I started this review, so the book is blurring even more in my mind… oh well.
Continue reading...- Finished Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive #2.0) by Brandon Sanderson (9781429949620)(https://b-ark.ca/MOc_A6)
- Currently reading Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive #2.0) by Brandon Sanderson (9781429949620)(https://b-ark.ca/CQyUIs)
Review: The Way of Kings
Review of The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1.0) by Brandon Sanderson (9780765326355)★★★★
(https://b-ark.ca/YsGa0A)The first of a two part pentology, The Way of Kings is slow burn high fantasy that mixes standard tropes with a deeper mystery to create something fun and compelling enough to justify the investment.
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.
The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.
I was a bit reticent to begin The Stormlight Archive, if only due to the massive investment I knew it would entail. Sanderson is a prolific writer, and the volumes in the Stormlight Archive are… substantial. And there’s going to be ten of them. Oh, and he’s only just finishing book four now. So, as with The Expanse, I knew I’d find myself waiting.
However, given I absolutely loved the first Mistborn trilogy, I knew I would probably enjoy Sanderson’s writing and world building, and it’s been a while since I’ve been hooked by a large scale, high-fantasy series (and before you ask, no, I haven’t started A Song of Ice and Fire… someday!), so I decided to take the plunge.
The Way of Kings is a long, slow burner that, I think, is better thought of as a set of four interwoven novellas–Kaladin and the Bridgemen, Adolin and Dalinar, Jasnah and Shallan, and Szeth–set against the backdrop of a grand mystery of the past and a prophesied cataclysm to come. This structure means the book requires a bit of patience from the reader, as rather than taking us through a single character journey Sanderson must set up and execute multiple plots simultaneously. However, I found the overall setup sufficiently interesting, and the final third compelling enough, that I’m definitely going to be continuing on to book two.
Continue reading...- Finished The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1.0) by Brandon Sanderson (9780765326355)(https://b-ark.ca/mU60Ck)
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Taking back control of my content, I’m pulling my (modest) book reviews from Goodreads back to my blog. An underrated favourite of mine is Last Chance to See by the astounding Douglas Adams.
- Currently reading The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1.0) by Brandon Sanderson (9780765326355)(https://b-ark.ca/uMwYus)
- Finished Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse #8.0) by James S. A. Corey (9780356510330)(https://b-ark.ca/A8W80_)
- Currently reading Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse #8.0) by James S. A. Corey (9780356510330)(https://b-ark.ca/UgeG6A)
Review: Thud!
Review of Thud! (Discworld #34.0) by Terry Pratchett (9780060815318)★★★★(https://b-ark.ca/I6M8yw)Once, in a gods-forsaken hellhole called Koom Valley, trolls and dwarfs met in bloody combat. Centuries later, each species still views the other with simmering animosity. Lately, the influential dwarf, Grag Hamcrusher, has been fomenting unrest among Ankh-Morpork's more diminutive citizens—a volatile situation made far worse when the pint-size provocateur is discovered bashed to death . . . with a troll club lying conveniently nearby.
Commander Sam Vimes of the City Watch is aware of the importance of solving the Hamcrusher homicide without delay. (Vimes's second most-pressing responsibility, in fact, next to always being home at six p.m. sharp to read Where's My Cow? to Sam, Jr.) But more than one corpse is waiting for Vimes in the eerie, summoning darkness of a labyrinthine mine network being secretly excavated beneath Ankh-Morpork's streets. And the deadly puzzle is pulling him deep into the muck and mire of superstition, hatred, and fear—and perhaps all the way to Koom Valley itself.
“What kind of human creates his own policeman?”
“One who fears the dark”
“And so he should,” said the entity, with satisfaction.
“Indeed. But I think you misunderstand. I am not here to keep darkness out. I’m here to keep it in.”
In Monstrous Regiment, Terry Pratchett explored the insanity of war. Here Pratchett shows us the insanity of hate, hate that even our hero Sam Vimes falls victim to. It’s a brilliant turn, showing that even the best of men can be consumed by hate if the circumstances are right. But far from fatalistic, Terry reminds us that there is an antidote: justice.
Review: Flowers for Algernon
Review of Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (9781857989380)★★★★★(https://b-ark.ca/aceg_m)When brain surgery makes a mouse into a genius, dull-witted Charlie Gordon wonders if it might also work for him. With more than five million copies sold, Flowers for Algernon is the beloved, classic story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In poignant diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment seems to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon begins his sudden, unexpected deterioration. Will the same happen to Charlie? An American classic that inspired the award-winning movie Charly.
I was pretty sure I knew how this book was going to end when I started it, but that didn’t stop it from breaking my heart.
This is the book I would hand to someone who was new to Science Fiction. Beautiful, insightful, and incredibly powerful.
Update (2020-02-26):
I’m writing this long long after originally writing this sparse little review. Two years after reading this book, it continues to haunt me as one of the most emotionally powerful, affecting books I’ve ever read. I suspect if I read the last page or two, I’d start crying once again (after the original read I was sobbing uncontrollably). This book is truly remarkable.