D10 Chick book(s) review: Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn" and "Elantris"

Hello fellow book lovers, literary nuts and travelers of the internet!

I hope as the last vestiges of summer pass us by you are all getting in some memorable adventures before winter traps us all (at least for those of us in the colder hemispheres).  I myself have been playing a bit of softball, prepping my child for school (first grade, here we come!) and plotting fall activities.

However, I am also committed to staying on course for my reviews and sifting through the horrors of popular reading to recommend books that I think are certainly worth a trip to the library, or at least downloading on to your tablet, kindle, or whatnot device.

To say the least, I am fully convinced anything by Brandon Sanderson is not only worth a car trip to the library, his works are also well worth paying full price at the most exorbitant stores. I adore the  Fantasy and Science Fiction genres,however any fan will tell you they are filled to the brim with books that I like to refer to as aerodynamically sound: perfect for launching into space and little else. Brandon Sanderson however is a stunning example of how a talented author can weave a beautiful, intense, character driven story that will make a book into a treasured possession.

 If you cannot tell, I am a fan.

Sanderson published his debut novel, "Elantris" in 2005 and was praised by Orson Scott Card, who wrote "Elantris is the finest novel ofthe fantasy to be written in many years. Brandon Sanderson has created a truly original world of magic and intrigue, and with the rigor of the best science fiction writers he has made it real at every level." While Scott Card and I do not agree on LGBT affairs, I trust his opinion in terms of the Science Fiction genre and absolutely agree with his assessment on Sanderson.

Due to the fact that I want everyone to immediately go out and read this novel once they have perused my post, I won't give much of the plot away, save that it is about the once great city of Elantris, a city of near gods who are suddenly cursed by the shoal, a disease that leaves its victims withered, covered with lesions, tortured with continual pain and yet seemingly unable to die.  At first the plot follows Raoden, the prince of Arelon, who is struck with the Shoal and exiled to the city of Elantris. There he tries to piece together the mystery of what happened to the Elantrians to save himself and his home. That said, he is far from being the only main character. There is Sarene, who is his betrothed from other country, and Hrathen, a high level priest sent to convert the country of Arelon to his religion.

All of the aforementioned characters are impressively written, and even those who are side characters are as well done. Everyone in Arelon and Elantris has a life and a soul one can connect with through the text. Sanderson has a tale for every character and no one is just a simple place holder. It's also impressive how he can weave multiple plot points and keep the reader interested and from being completely confused.  He is also an expert on keeping plot twists from being obvious. His books have  a roller coaster effect. The events, coups, and tension builds and builds until suddenly there is the anticipation of the drop followed by a roaring series of events that finally come to an organized stop.

"Mistborn" accomplishes the same feeling. The first book in the Final Empire's trilogy, "Mistborn" takes us into the world of the Final Empire - a world that is continually covered in ash, and the people known as Skaa are subjected to indentured servitude by the nobles, and all serve The Lord Ruler. It is a world where a great hero was supposed to save them all, and that hero failed.

We follow Vin, a Skaa who has been abandoned by her brother and being used by a thief crew leader to manipulate victims into his schemes. Through a series of events, she ends up in the rebel crew of a man named Kelser, and discovers she is a Mistborn, an individual who posses the ability of Allomancy, and  can ingest metals to gain extraordinary abilities. Kelser is not only a Mistborn, but he is known as the only individual who has ever survived being sent to the Lord Ruler's mines and escape with his life. Vin becomes entangled in Kelser's plan to destroy the Final Empire and works as a spy amongst the younger noble society to learn what she can to help the cause.

As I said before, Sanderson is a master of character development. "Mistborn" is almost a book you dread reading through because of what could happen to the characters. As I fell more entranced with Vin and Kelser, and the other characters, I couldn't help having to put the book down just so I could prepare for the next eventual danger they would encounter. Like his debut novel, Sanderson puts you on a roller coaster and doesn't let you off until the ride has left you gripping and wanting more.

Beyond just character development, Sanderson has creates worlds where magic has rules and feels tangible and reachable. Magic is not there " just because". Magic in each of his worlds has a very specific set of rules and limitations, and if a practitioner doesn't adhere to those rules, the worst will come to them.

I also have to say that Sanderson is also able construct character romances that are beautiful, heart wrenching and sincere. It's not often a writer has such a grasp of love that they can invoke the joy and tragedy it can bring in a believable, genuine sense. He does not fall for the trap of being melodramatic and instead gives the characters a chance to have the type of love few people can ever have, as opposed to the hyper sexual romances we see on T.V.

Brandon Sanderson is a writer that I can easily see standing the test of time in the Science Fiction Canon and he gives me hope that the genre is not lost to cheap plots and bad writing. I am confident that his books and stories will stand up against the ever waning test of time.

As an aside, he not only writes fiction, but also essays on science fiction and other rules.

If you love science fiction, or fantasy, I suggest you pick up one of Sanderson's books so that you can lose yourself as I did in his worlds.

D10 Chick Rant: Books I Just Have To Hate -Part One

So upon writing this post, I have a feeling I will raise someone's bibliophile rage (its like nerd rage, but over books). We all have authors we adore, and conversely, we all have novels we hate.  Some of us  just have broad sweeping hatreds of  genres, and for some its simply specific authors or series.
I love most books, and I attempt to give every book a fair shot. I've read my fair share of everything: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Crime, Mystery, Romance, Horror, and so far I haven't found a genre I hate, and I've found many authors that I either love, like or can categorize under " need to be in mood for".

There are very few books and even fewer authors I can honestly say I hate. However, when I do hate a book, it does not come in the form of  garden variety "not my taste". What I mean when I say hate is the feeling one has when something  makes you want to become a head injury patient so you might forget ever reading a specific book. When I say hate, I mean the sensation of feeling so utterly disgusted, repulsed or insulted that you would gladly set fire to to the source, and then burn the ashes just to be certain. For me, that is what I feel towards books I loathe.

The first book that I ever truly despised was "A Separate Piece" by John Knowles. While I realize the novel is considered classic literature and featured in many high school classes, I also believe that those that chose books for an academic curriculum occasionally suffer from poor taste.  In the case of "A Separate Peace", perhaps I should blame my high school teacher for my hatred and not Knowles. That said, after the unit on this particular book past, it took me an entire summer vacation to not froth at the mouth when someone mentioned " Christ figures".

I could mention the "Twilight" series, but that seems to be too easy of a target. Everyone who actually appreciates individuals with writing talent and despise those that just can sell trash hates "Twilight". That said, I think we are well past it. I am sure it will not be too long before Meyer cooks up another series that will need to be tested for aerodynamics (because bad books deserve being thrown) , but at this point, I'm not going to waste much time on that.

No, the next series I  will mention that raises my ire is one that I admit to feeling ambivalent about. It also illustrates why I prefer to not know too much about an author when deciding my feelings about a series because I hate when an author seems like a really nice person, but I absolutely hate their writing. This is the case I have with Laurell K. Hamilton.

My problem with Laurell K. Hamilton is this: first, I love her setting. Her ideas behind how a society where monsters are real and how it would react are spot on. I like her ideas of people who can animate the dead. I even liked her ideas about fae in "Merry Gentry Series". I also have a feeling she would be a great person to have over for dinner.

That said, I still find myself unable to read any of her books. I have tried, I managed my way through "Guilty Pleasures", " The Laughing Corpse" and a few of the graphic novels. I also tried to read "A Kiss of Shadows" but I was unable to finish it. Why? Let me give you the main reasons chronologically:

1. I cannot get over her style of writing and how dialogue occurs. She can be quite descriptive, however I've seen passages where literally the paragraph reads something akin to " I wanted to tell him all that had happened. He asked what happened. I told him". Okay, Succinct yes, but not really skillful. Its frustrating when you have a setting that is so awesome, but the writing is so poor it just detracts constantly from the setting and plot.

2.  Maybe its just me but in the two series I've read, the main character is always vertically challenged, sexy, and everyone in creation wants to ride her like a kinky amusement park ride. The other characters of the book are either allies you see briefly and yet might make far more interesting main characters, are villains, or are the individuals who want to be the riders on the main characters vaginal park ride. I realize sex sells, but one book "Incubus Dreams" features the most bizarre rape/voyeur/half orgy I've ever seen, and worse yet, it was boring and I just wanted to get past it as quickly as possible. That does not speak well for sex scenes.

3. Beyond the aforementioned, the characters also seem to be impossibly dumb. The side kicks, or side characters, seem reasonable, but I swear everyone in the main plot seems to have the IQ of a sack of potatoes that have become sentient and lascivious.

4. Lastly,what bothers me the most is how good these series could be if the sex and love plots were just cut down a notch.  I feel like if the fatty romance and cheese bits of these works could be cut down just a bit, and the writing was tightened up just a tad, then these series could be far superior. Instead, I just feel like they are quite mediocre.

So, with that said, I wish Laurell K.Hamilton the best, I am quite sure she is a sweet woman, and I am glad she has made her fans happy. However, if anyone out there decides to gift me with any of Hamilton's books, please include lighter fluid and matches for me.


Until next time folks when I get back to more serious book reviews and writing!


Chao.

Review: The Dark Heroine: Dinner with the Vampire by Abigail Gibbs

 

Hey hey literary lovers. I hope everyone out there in the blogosphere and intertubes are finding the final days of summer enjoyable. I have been caught up in the midst of back to school shopping, sales, and finding a bed for my growth spurt suffering child.

                That said, I have managed to fit in more reading in the last few weeks then I have done in the entire summer. I have taken time to brush up on my literary pedagogue vocabulary, read a new best seller and finish up a book by an author who has become a favorite of mine.  I still wish however I had Hermione’s time turner so that I could satisfy my book lust and still meet all my 9 to 5 obligations.

                First on my recently finished book list is The Dark Heroine: Dinner with the Vampire by Abigail Gibbs. I’ll admit I was not expecting too much when I picked up this book at my local library. I was perusing the new nonfiction when I saw it and it was the title that caught my attention at first, but I immediately became dubious at review statement “ The sexiest romance you’ll read all year” on the top of the cover. I’ll be quite blunt: I don’t tend to read much “sexy romance” but I still set the bar rather high: I want good story telling, characters I can relate too, and intimacy without descriptions right out of a bad porn.  All the same, I decided to give it a shot as I do enjoy urban fantasy novels, and I keep hoping that someday we will vampire series outside of Anne Rice’s novels.

                The novel details the story of Violet Lee, who is the daughter of Michael Lee, who is England’s Secretary of Defense. In a seemingly random series of events, she is kidnapped by Kaspar Varn, prince of the vampiric Varn family and practiced womanizer. Due to the fact that Violet witnessed the killing of vampire hunters by Varn family, the Varn’s are unwilling to let her just go on her happy way, and are also unwilling to kill her due to the fact she is Michael Lee’s daughter who apparently is a known enemy of vampires. (It’s one of those the government knows about vampires but keeps it hush hush). During the course of the novel Violet is in the middle of a love square (It can’t be called a triangle because four people are involved), and is also revealed to be a “dark heroine”, one of nine women who will help save reality and the world as the characters know it.

                So I will say that while the plot is not overly original, a lot of the ideas Gibbs uses are fresh and enjoyable. I am glad that instead of mutating the vampire myths she stuck with what I feel best is part of the vampire myths canon: the vampires acknowledge being killers, they drink blood (from people), they do not sparkle nor do they attend high school endlessly. That said, the main plot between Kaspar and Violet is fairly typical: each have other individuals who are in love with them, Kaspar and Violet start off hating each other, but soon find to appreciate and lust after each other, and then find out they are destined for one another. There is of course conflict outside of their love/hate relationship: the vampires do not want to kill Violet for fear of her father having an excuse to start an assault on them, but they cannot allow her to remain human and thus want her to become a vampire. Other vampires are personally offended at the premise of Violet being a dark heroine as she is just a mere human, and attempt to kill her, and meanwhile there are other hunters that want to take down the Varn Family. Of course, everything ends happily with the lovers being together. The end!

                As I said, it’s not the most original plot, but it is also not the worse either.  In a lot of ways, I almost feel like The Dark Heroine is the novel that the Twilight Series should have been ( I am not a fan of Stephanie Meyer, but I have endured the movies for sake of riffing the films).  Violet is a likeable character in the fact she does have a lot of backbone (standing up to vampires is fairly gutsy) and she obviously cares for people outside herself. She and Kaspar do have a few points where their mutual verbal sniping is enjoyable and the novel allows for other characters to come across as well rounded.

                That said, it’s also pretty obvious that this is the authors first novel.    While Gibbs style isn’t horrible, Gibbs needs refinement. The scenes I was likely supposed to find sexy were actually fairly bland and while the romance between Kaspar and Lee actually makes sense in the end, there are points in the plot that just seem to be there to make more chaos then actually drive the plot along and at times, create plot holes. For example, Violet becomes the object of affection for a vampire named Fabian, a friend of Kaspar. This incites the jealousy of Kaspar’s sister Lyla and Kaspar (and thus we have our love square). However, Gibbs creates a plot hole in this when she has Lyla acknowledge she can read minds, but still is jealous over Violet – that said, wouldn’t she be able to tell that Violet has no real interest in Fabian? Maybe this is just a point where I am thinking too literally to be reading a romance novel, but it just seems the vampires end up being petty and really, fairly stupid. While I can imagine vampires being possessive, that entire sequence of events just makes me lose my ability to keep up my suspension of belief.  There are also other elements of the supernatural world Gibbs creates that seem fairly superfluous, such as the concept of other realities where vampires and humans exist and but seem to be sort of “opposite world”. It’s an original concept, it just seems unnecessary when the plot already has enough to carry it on.
                That said, I really can’t bring myself to state that this is a “bad” book. I enjoyed reading it, and I honestly think that as the plot turns its focus on the prophecy, that this series has a chance of being very intriguing. The next novel promises to focus on a character named Autumn Rose, who is the first of the nine heroines, and I’m hoping that Gibbs will be able to branch out her skills in character development and tighten down the plot to how the heroines will be able to change the course of reality.  It’s not a life changing novel by any means, but it is a fun light read when all you really want to do is be told a story that has a reasonable happy ending.

                So on this novel, if you are expecting Anne Rice- don’t read this. You will be disappointed. If you want something far better than anything Stephanie Meyers produced, go for it!

Until next time folks, Chao!

               

Up up and...Summer's Away?

Hello folks!

So I admit I have been a bad bad bad blogger.  I haven't been writing on my blog nearly as much as I intended to and my only excuse is:  Reality Bites. That said, I have been reading, and working on getting my writing in order, and I think that I am back on track. Additionally, I am still a contributor on Papa Kenn Media so be on the look out for my articles there as well.

I will have a few new book reviews coming up in the next few weeks:

"Mistborn" and "Elantris" both by Brandon Sanderson

"The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire" by Abigail Gibbs

"The Crimson Pact" By Danielle Delise

In addition I'll be posting some thoughts I've had on writing and literature. I've been working on refreshing my knowledge of literary theory and discovered  that my knowledge of esoteric vocabulary has dwindled over the years.


Until later literary nuts!

Chao