"... “The part the stories leave out," Tress said as the Sorceress's runes formed into a vibrant wall, "is everything that comes before.*** 3.44 ***
"... “The part the stories leave out," Tress said as the Sorceress's runes formed into a vibrant wall, "is everything that comes before. You see, I've discovered that it's all right to need help. So long as you've lived your life as the kind of person who deserves to be rescued.”... "
I had to give myself a couple of hours to gather my thoughts as to why I felt let down by a book from an author whom I adore... I think I went into it with my usual high expectations from Sanderson's work and I didn't realize he had written this as a little homage to The Princess Bride and a nod to his lovely wife. That is great, but I also didn't realize it was very middle grade targeted, with the cadence of a fairy tale told by our favorite Cosmere Universe character - Hoid. I absolutely love Hoid, he is marvelous in all of his world hopping incarnations, and I love his Wit and his bard-like bigger than life persona. The story he tells is about a young woman, Tress, and her love Charlie, who gets kidnapped and she sets out to rescue him. I think the world building is the strongest point of the tale, which is typical for Brandon, and he peppers the story with references to other worlds and characters of the Cosmere Universe. In that manner, it is fun to hunt for those Easter Eggs. However, the story itself is cosy, but very bland. For the first time while reading a BS book, I was having a hard time staying engaged and the reading started dragging... Usually I inhale every word, every sentence, and here I was just hoping to get it done, so I know what might have given us clues to other stories...
I am not trying to be a bummer. I see most of my fellow readers have loved it, and I only wish I had been one of them... No matter, I still think Sanderson is a genius and we are lucky to live in a world where we get to enjoy his brilliance and I am looking forward to everything that follows...more
“Space is Elysium, Lanna. The place where heroes go when they die. The Varvax and the others, they’ve fought and bled, just like we have.*** 4.65 ***
“Space is Elysium, Lanna. The place where heroes go when they die. The Varvax and the others, they’ve fought and bled, just like we have. They finally overcame all of that—they paid their price and have earned their peace. I want to make certain their paradise remains such.”
But is it really? Or is it all just a smoke screen????
So good! Short, but packed to the brim with everything you need to question the message......more
Every one of the three novellas has been a pleasurable treat! A wonderful insight into the lives of Spensa's friends, who have been left b*** 4.69 ***
Every one of the three novellas has been a pleasurable treat! A wonderful insight into the lives of Spensa's friends, who have been left behind, trying to survive and protect their people, while struggling with their own inadequate abilities to keep themselves together... Under the most dire of circumstances, The Skyward Flight and its new allies find what they need within themselves and each other, in their stand against The Supremacy and the survival of the human Kitsen species... (Who are absolutely adorable...more
Much better the second time around!!! I recommend it to everyone!!!
"... “Weakness can imitate strength if bound properly, just as coward*** 4.75 ***
Much better the second time around!!! I recommend it to everyone!!!
"... “Weakness can imitate strength if bound properly, just as cowardice can imitate heroism if given nowhere to flee.”... "
Once again, my tendency to read Epic Fantasy has lead me to a conundrum - how does one go about writing a satisfactory review of a book over 1000 pages long, bursting at the seams with characters and plot arcs??? I think it is almost impossible to do such creation a justice, and I know for sure I don't have the talent to express once again, how lucky I feel as a reader that we live in a time when such marvels as"The Stormlight Archive"are being created! For those who love the genre as much as I do, this is The Golden Era in which we can binge on Epics, temper that with some Grim-Dark, and clean the pallet with UF temporarily, while those who miss the heavy romance can veer into PNR for s and giggles:):):) How lucky can a Fantasy Fan be?!?!
"..." What does the story mean, then? " "It means what you want it to mean," Hoid said. "The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon. Too often, we forget that.”... "
I have read many Brandon Sanderson creations, so I was somewhat prepared for what I was getting into and I was not disappointed! Straight away we had weary warriors tired of the cost they are paying for war, an assassin, using powers based on light, killing a very important man, and a battle where a young boy experiences a real battle... It seems random, but every sentence has its place and it will come into play eventually. For all those who tend to feel confused in such situation, the best advise I can give is to be patient. Trust in the author to know where he is taking you and give the story time to develop and blossom while enjoying the anticipation. I know how it is, we want to know and we need to know right now, but some foreplay always makes the following much more fun and gratifying:):):)
"... “And so, does the destination matter? Or is it the path we take? I declare that no accomplishment has substance nearly as great as the road used to achieve it. We are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us. Our callused feet, our backs strong from carrying the weight of our travels, our eyes open with the fresh delight of experiences lived.”... "
In the case of this first book of what we expect to be a grand series, the path is unbelievably beautifully imagined and we are given the basic building blocks for a world full of different races, fantastic plant and animal life, and characters with complex personalities and ambiguous motivations. The social structures, as related to the current Roshar residents, their mythology, religion, Magic system and G-ds, are fascinating and so vast, that we have only dipped our toes in them by the end of the book. Can you imagine, the class ranking in the Alethi culture, the one from which our three main POV characters come from, is based on Eye Color??? This struck me as funny, since one of the psychology classes on racism I went to in the early 90's, gosh, I am old!, referenced a study that if given all other variables are equal, including race, socioeconomic and overall physical and age characteristics, large groups of people still find something, usually visible, to discriminate over. And in this study in particular, the groups chose the rarer eye color as the divider... I wonder if SB didn't take the same class:):):) But I digress.... So, the Light-eyes are on the top of the food chain and most dark-eyed people are either secondary citizens or slaves. The enemies of the Alethi are a race of marble-skinned humanoids, the Parshendi, and the bulk of the book is about that war.
"... “All the world does as it is supposed to, except for humans. Maybe that's why you so often want to kill each other.”... "
As I mentioned earlier, the story is told by three main POV's and couple of secondaries, which I believe are not going to be that secondary as the story unfolds. In this volume we get to spend some time with a smart-moth young woman from the light-eyed nobility, Shallan, who has some nefarious reasons to want to apprentice to a royal Scholar and my favorite character so far, the atheist-and-proud-of-it Jasnah, sister to the King and a scholarly genius. I loved the girl's wit, but at time it was self-indulgent and I loved that Jasnah called her on it:)
"... “But it’s unseemly for a young woman to speak as I so often do.” “The only ‘unseemly’ thing is to not channel your intelligence usefully. Consider. You have trained yourself to do something very similar to what annoys you in the scholars: cleverness without thought behind it—intelligence, one might say, without a foundation of proper consideration.” Jasnah turned a page. “Errorgant, wouldn’t you say?” Shallan blushed.”... "
Dalinar is a High Prince, the uncle of the King, and a grizzled warrior of renown. He is grieving the loss of his beloved brother and after some life-changing events in the past has chosen to live by the Old Codes of conduct and the examples given in the book, THE WAY OF THE KINGS. Being honorable and working for the greater good of the Kingdom turns out to be a very difficult proposition when most of the people in it are all for themselves... I hope he can whip all of them into shape eventually:)
"... “A man’s emotions are what define him, and control is the hallmark of true strength. To lack feeling is to be dead, but to act on every feeling is to be a child.”... "
And last, but not least, we come to Kaladin, the Medical-Surgery Apprentice turned warrior, turned slave, turned Bridge Runner for the army in the Bridge Four Brigade. He is only 19 years old, but life has been rough and he has gathered a lot of resentment and mistrust on top of the foundation his family had given him of honor, thoughtfulness, and care for those who can't care for themselves. He undergoes some very interesting changes and believes they all started when he met an energy-spirit like creature, a Spren named Syl. The different spren are some of the coolest creatures to me, and the small details we get to explore about them are amusing and fun, as well as completely fascinating!!! I love Syl very much!!! Kaladin has a lot of potential, but for now I am enjoying the female characters better, although that could be purely my kink:):):)
"... “What responsibility are you avoiding... He wasn't avoiding responsibility... Though there was one thing he clung to. An excuse, perhaps, like the dead emperor. It was the soul of the wretch. Apathy. The belief that nothing was his fault, the belief that he couldn't change anything. If a man was cursed, or if he believed he didn't have to care, then he didn't need to hurt when he failed. Those failures couldn't have been prevented. Someone or something else had ordained them.”... "
I will be remiss if I do not mention Szeth, the Shin assassin, through whom we get to learn most about the magic system and quite a bit about the politics of the word... I love this character, despite him doing some very bad things and always finding a way to despise himself for it while blaming others for his actions... This is one very memorable and hopefully long lived player, a wild card for sure, and I can't wait to see where his story goes.
"... “Kill. Kill as you have never killed before. Lay the innocent screaming at your feet and make the Lighteyes weep. Do so wearing white, so all know who you are. Szeth did not object. It was not his place. he was Truthless."... "
Overall, this is a wonderful beginning to a series and I would recommend it to all Epic Fantasy fans and those who still hope for some shards of Honor to live on in our literature and our world!!!
Now I wish you all Happy Reading and may you always find what you Need in the pages of a Good Book!!!...more
“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”
“And so, does the destination matt*** 4.76 ***
“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”
“And so, does the destination matter? Or is it the path we take? I declare that no accomplishment has substance nearly as great as the road used to achieve it. We are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us. Our callused feet, our backs strong from carrying the weight of our travels, our eyes open with the fresh delight of experiences lived.”
“A man’s emotions are what define him, and control is the hallmark of true strength. To lack feeling is to be dead, but to act on every feeling is to be a child.” ― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings...more
The eight story,"“Sixth of Dusk” (First of the Sun),reads like many a sci-fi stories I have read growing up. We are on a World far behi*** 3.44 ***
The eight story,"“Sixth of Dusk” (First of the Sun),reads like many a sci-fi stories I have read growing up. We are on a World far behind in technology than ours and an Island not unlike those in Polynesia. A boy named Dusk is a trapper, but in a sense a caregiver and guardian to the very specific Avion creatures who can mentally communicate with humans and are the primary source of finances for the people living on the islands. A big company decides to take over the birds by mapping out their habitat with a machine left over from a visiting Peoples of another planet, who are many times more advanced than the locals. Following the rules of the Universe, an advanced society is not allowed to trade with one just in the beginning of its progress. They are also not allowed to mess with their progress. This story is an ethical question as to what is better for a just developing, but very curious culture, should it follow its own path of development, or should it be pushed on its way, and what is the ultimate price the budding culture would end up paying in the end.
"... “The world is progressing. One man cannot slow it, no matter how determined he is." He stopped in the path. You cannot stop the tides from changing, Dusk. No matter how determined you are. His mother’s words.”... "
Interesting, but just too short and although it makes an impact, it leaves you wanting more......more
This ending broke my heart for all involved!!! I might come back to write a real review, but at this moment the only thing I want to do is*** 4.66 ***
This ending broke my heart for all involved!!! I might come back to write a real review, but at this moment the only thing I want to do is jump on the next book, because I am dying to know what happens and how things will go from here on out... I love the easy way Sanderson makes us fall in love with the characters and makes us root and care for them, even when they are really flawed, and in some cases, love them because of their imperfections and obsessive compulsive behavior...more
Wow! This was very unexpected!!! This story is“Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell”and it takes place on the shard world of Thre*** 4.75 ***
Wow! This was very unexpected!!! This story is“Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell”and it takes place on the shard world of Threnody, where vast Forests contain shades and monsters, inciting the natives of the world to link them to Hell... In this place you have to be tough, and if you chose to live close to the Forests you have to be even tougher. Madam Silence is one of the toughest, being a proprietress of an Inn on the border with the land of the Shades. She is a widow and together with her daughter and a small orphan girl whom she fosters, they feed the weary travelers who stop in the place for the night. They also use their unique situation to note rode bandits and lawless men who stop by, and eventually find a way to turn them in for bounty, leaving no evidence of who the bounty hunters actually are.
"... “She swept her knife through the first shade, as Grandmother had taught. Never creep back and cower before shades. You’re Forescout blood. You claim the Forests. You are their creature as much as any other. As am I....”... "
This story had a very spooky feel to it and send shivers through me for all kinds of reasons. No wonder many are afraid of the Forests - generation after generation have created legends and stories to craft the image of monsters in their debts, and this is Brandon Sanderson's addition conjured for our time...
"... “What would it take?” she asked. “For you to see a miracle instead of a coincidence?” “It would take a miracle, obviously," Silence said, picking up her knife. "Instead of just a coincidence.”... "...more
This story is a very, very short 25 page one, is also from the World of Elantris and is called "The Hope of Elantris". It has some spoilers f*** 3 ***
This story is a very, very short 25 page one, is also from the World of Elantris and is called "The Hope of Elantris". It has some spoilers for the Elantris main book, but it is almost impossible to read and understand outside of the book's context. The main character is Matisse, who is charged with taking care of the children in the City of New Elantris while they are under siege. Nothing much new, just a slice of someone's life at that time. Not essential to the overall arc. Just a question for Ashe: "" Where were you during those last hours before Elantris was restored? "Raoden asked." I don't remember anything of you for most of the night. "Still, it adds texture to the original:)...more
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