Review: The Way of Kings

Last Updated on Monday, 10 December 2012 11:55 Written by Kadomi Saturday, 8 December 2012 12:15

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the kind of high fantasy I love best: epic scope, fantastic world-building, interesting characters. My favorite Sanderson for sure. Just as in Mistborn, the first book of the Stormlight Archive shines when it comes to the development of a magic system. The use of Stormlight is just as interesting as Mistborn’s Allomancy.

The three main characters of the story couldn’t be any more diverse: we have Kaladin, dark-eyed soldier and slave, Dalinar Kholin, highprince and uncle of the king of Alethkar, and the one female main protagonist, Shallan, who apprentices as ward to Jasnah, sister of the king of Alethkar and renowned heretic scholar. The world is set up in an interesting fashion. Women are the learned ones, the scholars, the ones who can read and write, as opposed to men who mostly seem to focus on warfare and trade, assisted by the women. The eye color seems to determine the leaders, and lighteyes are supposed to be men full of honor. Only it isn’t so, as especially Kaladin who really appears to be the hero of the story has to find out. We learn a lot of his personal history through flashbacks as his story progresses.

I know that all of Sanderson’s stories share one universe, the Cosmere, and it’s mentioned in the story, but I can’t grasp the bigger picture yet. All I know is that The Way of Kings is a huge book and still only scratched at the surface of all the things I want to know. Who were the Heralds? What caused the fall of the Radiants? What are spren? What’s the real story behind the Parshendi? What is Szeth’s backstory? I want moooooore.

Waiting for book 2 to actually be written will suck. I hate starting new series that get you hooked and then you wait forever, and fear it will never be finished. Yup, I am looking at you, Melanie Rawn.

Highly recommended!



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Review: Ready Player One

Last Updated on Tuesday, 6 November 2012 02:17 Written by Kadomi Monday, 29 October 2012 01:17

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is light, almost fluffy reading, but above all, it is incredibly fun reading. I think in order to fully appreciate this book the reader needs to meet one major condition: a) enjoy video games. If this condition is met, there are further conditions that can enhance the enjoyment: b) having grown up in the 80s and c) having played arcade video games. Also probably d) love old Japanese anime like Supaidaman and e)a sweeping love for anything related to SF and fantasy etc.

Lucky for me I grew up in the 80s and have played a couple arcade games, and I generally do enjoy me some video games. The story is set about 40 years ahead in the future, in a world with no oil left, where people are poor and flee into OASIS which is basically a virtual reality version of what we know as MMOs today. They go to school there, live there lives there, and level their characters to be super-powerful. When the founder of OASIS dies, he leaves behind a riddle that leads to an Easter Egg he planted in OASIS, and whoever finds it first, will inherit all of his wealth. Around the world, the hunt for the egg begins. The protagonist of Ready Player One is Wade, an 18 year old boy who lives in a trailer park in Oklahoma. In the OASIS he is known as Parzival, and he is one of thousands of ‘gunters’, short for egg hunters. When he is the first one to make any progress in the egg hunt after years of the hunt being in progress, his life spirals out of control, as he has to try to stay ahead of fellow gunters, especially Art3mis, and the evil corporation IOI who is trying to take control of the OASIS and turn it into a profit business.

It’s not a long book and it’s compelling enough to be a very fast read. I had a fantastic, enjoyable time reading it. Interestingly enough, everytime I tweeted a Goodreads update on my reading progress, people would get back to me how much they loved this book though they usually don’t read much. It’s that kind of a book. For me it’s mandatory nerd reading, just like Chuck is mandatory nerd watching for me. Thumbs up from this nerd!

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Review: Proven Guilty

Last Updated on Tuesday, 6 November 2012 02:17 Written by Kadomi Tuesday, 23 October 2012 11:05

Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4 to 4.5 stars. Once again, another Dresden file that was highly entertaining. Harry Dresden, now a Warden of the White Council, gets alerted that there might be black magic afoot in Chicago, and gets sucked right into it at a horror movie festival. Evil creatures thrive on the fear at the con, and Harry has to get to the heart of this matter. At the same time he has to help Molly, the estranged daughter of his friend Michael. There are some interesting twists and turns, and it involves some of my favorite elements of the Dresden universe, the warring Sidhe courts of Summer and Winter.

By now the series is definitely not standalone anymore. Anyone who picks this book up without having read previous Dresden Files will not be able to follow the plot and the many many characters well. But for those people who have read since Storm Front, you meet just about every familiar person from the books you can imagine and get tantalizing hints that maybe every single previous book and villains are connected by some kind of evil alliance behind everything.Interesting stuff for sure. Looking forward to future installments, to read more about Harry, Molly and co. I am dying to know what Thomas has gotten involved with.

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