Tag Archives: War

The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive, Volume 1) by Brandon Sanderson

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Synopsis:
The first installment in a planned 10-book series set in a world where the remnants of long-forgotten magic may prove to be the undoing of all mankind.

Review:
My brother has been begging me to read The Way of Kings for ages, and he finally went and bought it for me. I’m ever so glad he did because it was a highly enjoyable read and a cut above Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, which I enjoyed but found a bit flat. I am going to have to thump my brother one for getting me into a series that (a) is going to be 10 books and (b) only has 1 of those 10 books written so far. The next one is supposed to come out in November and Sanderson does seem like a fast writer.

The Way of Kings follows three main characters. Dalinar is an Alethian prince, brother of the murdered king and uncle to the current king. He has been plagued by crippling visions that come upon him during the high storms of Roshar. These storms ravage the land and kill anyone caught in them, and also infuse gems with Stormlight, which can be used to perform small bits of magic. Dalinar holds a Shardblade and Shardplate, Stormlight-infused weaponry that make him nearly invincible. Winning any Shards in battle automatically lifts any man up to nobility in the Roshari caste system, where the light-eyed rule the dark-eyed. I think if you win Shards your eyes change color but I was a little unclear on that point.

Anyway, Dalinar and the other princes are waging a war on the Shattered Plains against the Parshendi, a people with mottled red and black skin who sing as they fight. The Shattered Plains are home to chasmfiends, who lurk the deep crevices between plateaus. If you find and kill a chasmfiend in its chrysalis, you can rip out its gemheart and those hold a lot of magic. The princes want to get the gemhearts before the Parshendi can, and the king has them competing against each other instead of working together. Dalinar’s visions tell him that he is supposed to unite them all, but since everybody thinks he’s crazy that doesn’t seem very likely.

Kaladin is a bridgeman in another prince’s army. Sadeas isn’t honorable like Dalinar. He enslaves men to carry heavy bridges so the soldiers can quickly cross the chasms. A bridgeman’s life basically sucks, but Kaladin isn’t the kind of man to just suck it up and die. A former soldier, he’s haunted by the idea that he’s doomed to survive, unable to save anyone around him, starting with the battlefield death of his younger brother. Kaladin decides to rewrite the bridgeman’s script, and in so doing, unleashes Sadeas’s anger. However, he discovers a strange connection with Stormlight that links him to heroes of old called Radiants–the same ones who may be speaking to Dalinar in his visions.

Lastly, Shallan is a noble girl charged with stealing a powerful Soulcaster from a noteworthy heretic, Jasnah, who is also sister to the king. Here is where the book really shines–the theology is complicated, deep, and well thought out enough that the heresy makes sense. I felt like there was a lot to discover about the belief systems in the book and I appreciated that not everyone was on the same page, religiously speaking. Needless to say, Shallan’s plans go tragically and terrifying awry.

There’s also a scary guy who can walk on walls while he kills everyone in sight. This bit reminded me too much of Mistborn, but I’m curious to see where it goes.

If you have read this far, you’re either a fantasy nerd who will probably like this book if you haven’t read it already, or you are just amazed at the depths of my geekery. I am the real deal, okay? I am really and truly an epic fantasy nerd and I don’t care who knows it!

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth E. Wein

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Synopsis:
When her plane goes down in Nazi occupied France, a teenage Scottish spy known only as Verity has just one chance to write her confession before her captors send her off to a concentration camp.

Review:
Code Name Verity was the best read I have had all year. No contest. (Well, maybe The Devil in Silver.) I seriously just want everyone to feel how I feel when I think about “FLY THE PLANE MADDIE.” I am about to cry and I might just have to go back and re-read the book immediately.

The book is ostensibly the confession of Verity, a British spy (“I’M SCOTTISH”) who has been captured by the Gestapo. Asked to confess, she readily gives up 11 wireless codes and is eager to tell all that she can. She’s given paper and ink and begins to write–but instead of a dry listing of facts, she begins to tell the story of Maddie, a girl with a knack for mechanics and a dream of flying planes. Maddie’s dream came true when she’s enlisted to fly errands over England. There, she befriends a posh upper class girl named Queenie, and the two of them make a stupendous team.

I just can’t tell much more about the plot without revealing spoilers, so I’ll just tell you that if you’re at all interested in brave girls fighting Nazis in WWII, then you have to read this book.

“Kiss me, Hardy!”

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks (Lightbringer, Book 1)

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Synopsis:
Color is magic and war is imminent, and when a corrupt leader discovers his bastard son, the game may change forever.

Review:
Wow. The Black Prism completely blew me away! I had heard absolutely nothing about it before buying it thanks to a $2.99 Kindle deal. I figured I could risk it. I had a little trouble getting into it at first, mostly because I have started and given up on so many bad fantasy novels that I’m primed for disappointment. I wasn’t sure about it but I was interested enough to keep reading–and then all of a sudden I was totally hooked.

I can’t judge the story because this is only book 1 of a trilogy. So who knows, maybe it will totally fizzle out. But I will say I am DYING to read The Blinding Knife because Gavin Guile is on par with Tyrion Lannister as one of the most multi-faceted, intriguing characters I’ve ever come across in a fantasy novel. Weeks does a masterful job of creating such slippery moral edges that I have at least two opinions of every character, and when it comes to Gavin I’ve got 7–one for each color of the rainbow.

The basic premise is this: magic works through colors. Each color has a different fundamental character and solidifies in a different way. Blue makes hard, sharp structures, where orange is slippery and oozy. Magicians can manipulate one, two, or many colors, and this is a skill you are born with. Almost all magicians need to be able to see a color in order to work with it, but Gavin Guile is an exception. He can split light himself, and that is why he is the Prism, the religious leader of the realm. He used to be the military leader but gave that up.

Gavin Guile’s reign is haunted by the circumstances surrounding his installation as Prism. He fought with his younger brother, also able to split light, and killed him in a war that tore the land asunder. 16 years later the echoes of war are still being felt, and revolution is brewing in a satrapy that has been occupied since the war. Gavin has also just learned of a bastard he fathered while betrothed to Karris White Oak, a powerful magician who serves as an elite warrior in service to Gavin. This bastard, Kip, has great powers–but is running an agenda of his own.

The intricate politics, deft characterization, and suspensefully crafted narrative make this book a must read for all epic fantasy fans. I can already think of a dozen people I need to recommend this to.

Brent Weeks just earned himself a new fan. A big new fan.

Spoiler Edition: A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 5)

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Synopsis:
Tyrion becomes a slave, Dany pines for Daario while marrying someone else, her dragons eat children and incinerate a prince, Jon Snow upends 8000 years of tradition, a couple of no-goodniks get baked into a pie, Stannis can haz teh dumb, Theon Greyjoy lives the worst version of a Lifetime movie thanks to the Bastard of Bolton, Arya kills time, Ser Barristan the Bold displays mad skillz, Davos is not dead, Victarion rows his boat, Asha picks the wrong fort to defend, Cersei and Jaime don’t get back together, everyone eats something called “neeps” and Bran turns into a tree.

Review:
My second read of A Dance with Dragons was the audio version, narrated by the no-longer-incomparable Roy Dotrice. Unfortunately, he turned Daenerys into a ninety-year-old Irish crone and gave Cersei almost the same voice as Tyrion. But I forgive him because he still brings incredible thespianship to his reading and I was definitely excited to take any chance I could get to listen.

Many have complained that Dance is just A Feast for Crows part two, complete with aimless wandering and annoyingly resurrected characters. However, I forgive Martin, too. I am too invested in this world to give up now. When we get to the end is when I’ll decide if it was worth it. For now, I’ll just assume that it is.

Oh, and I am in love with A Podcast of Ice and Fire.

A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 5)

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Synopsis:
You really need to read the first 4 books.

Review:
I have never anticipated a book the way I anticipated A Dance with Dragons, not even Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This will be a spoiler-free review. I plan to listen to the audio book next month and that review will be spoiler-filled.

I was thoroughly entertained and satisfied by the book, and loved what happened in the new POV characters, especially Reek. I am impressed by Martin’s manipulative abilities–he is in such control of the reading experience and I love him for it. I loved the Cersei chapters, wanted one more Jaime chapter and was sad that another A Feast for Crows POV was missing from this one. I was totally wrong about the identity of the Ghost in Winterfell. I felt like I was tracking everyone’s location throughout Westeros, the North, Slaver’s Bay, and the Free Cities, which is a testament to Martin’s abilities. I’m also grateful for the hard work of the folks at Tower of the Hand for all their essays that helped me keep all of the houses and politics straight going into the book.

Very happy and very sad right now…

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, Book 2)

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Synopsis:
Mistborn Vin and her lover the scholar-king fight to carve out a new society in the wake of the end of the thousand year reign of the Lord Ruler, but enemy armies amass on their city, and Vin herself becomes haunted by an ancient prophecy.

Review:
I honestly don’t know why I like these books so much. Brandon Sanderson is a pretty terrible writer and his characterizations are pretty thin. But I really love what he has created in Vin, a street urchin with the ability to burn metals inside her body to give her extraordinary powers. Even though she’s pretty much a superhero, she’s not invincible or invulnerable, and Sanderson does a good job of conveying what her efforts cost her.

Well of Ascension ends with a cliff-hanger that pretty much guarantees that I’ll be listening to the next book when it comes out.

A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4)

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Synopsis:
The aftermath of the war of the 5 kings leaves Westeros in decay and despair, with Cersei the scheming queen and her twin brother the Kingslayer watching all they dreamed of shatter into pieces.

Review:
So I totally boycotted the audiobook for A Feast for Crows because the good folks at Random House didn’t think we’d care that they couldn’t make it work with Roy Dotrice. I couldn’t stand to listen to anyone else voice Jaime’s distinctive Lannister lilt, or Samwell Tarly and Brienne of Tarth’s harsh consonants. Good thing Tyrion the Imp is lost somewhere in the Free Cities or beyond because imagining some other actor try to do justice to his acid turns of phrase just gets me mad.

I remember we all felt disappointed when this first came out, mainly because it didn’t have any of the stars. No Jon Snow, no Daenarys Targaryen, no Tyrion Lannister. Instead we were disappointed to find POV chapters from Brienne, the Maid of Tarth, a hideous horse-faced woman who wants to be a knight, and Samwell Tarly, the fat and craven man of the Night’s Watch who cowers and whines. Arya and Sansa appear but don’t do much except move from place to place. And then there were the new POV chapters with random characters who haven’t played into things until now, whose stories felt like filler, like so many pieces being shuffled into place for the real story.

But having reread (via Audible and the incomparable Roy Dotrice) the first 3 books, knowing that the 4th was going to go in a different direction, I paid attention to Brienne and Samwell and the Greyjoys and the Martells. And so in rereading this book 4 I discovered that there was way more story there than I’d given it credit for. I noticed for the first time the depth of the connection between Brienne and Jaime Lannister, and my curiosity about the differentness of the Greyjoys was whetted. And a lot of the Beric Dondarrion stuff went over my head the first time so all of that was much more satisfying this time around.

Perhaps having a better map in my mind of the characters helped. Listening to the audiobook forced me to pay attention to the character names in way that is hard to do when you’re engrossed in a story. Everything stuck more completely. I tracked the Freys and Lord Roose Bolton, could tell the Kettleblacks apart, and fully appreciated the meaning of valar morghulis and valar dohaeris. I’m beyond ready for the next book.

And hey! George RR Martin announced that A Dance With Dragons will definitely be on the shelves in July! As soon as they post the Kindle format I’m pre-ordering it so I can have it same day.

A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3)

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Synopsis:
The war of the Five Kings heats up, with intrigue, conspiracy, regicide, betrayal, and black magic abounding.

Review:
First of all, I am outraged beyond belief that Random House couldn’t get Roy Dotrice to perform the audiobook version of fourth installment of this series. It’s breaking my heart that I can’t continue listening to his incomparable narration. His work is masterful, bringing all the intensity of the plot and subtlety of the characterizations to life. It’s really depressing to me.

A Storm of Swords is book three of a proposed 7-part series. As most fans know, it remains to be seen whether the series will be completed, which is a source of great stress. However, I’m all for George RR Martin taking as long as he needs to complete A Dance With Dragons (book 5). This second encounter with the series is proving to me how deeply layered his work is. He stints on nothing. If he needs time to get it right, so be it.

The emotional impact of the key sequences in the story–the Red Wedding in particular–are all the more heightened because I know they are coming and I can see how Martin is preparing the way for the devastation. I’m also able to track the characters so much more easily because the names are familiar to me.

I remember loving Sansa so much the first time through. This time, I’m loving Samwell Tarly in a big way. He’s such a great character, so brave despite his protestation of cravenness.

Traitor’s Gate by Kate Elliott (Crossroads, Book 3)

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Synopsis:
The conclusion to a trilogy about a world at war.

Review:
If I were not the exhausted mother of two small children, perhaps I might be inclined to spend more time writing about Traitor’s Gate. But as it is, I am bummed that I spent my precious reading time on a trilogy with such a lackluster conclusion. I just really feel like I wasted my time.

Clash of Kings by George RR Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 2)

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Synopsis:
With four kings fighting for control of Westeros and a dragon queen rising in the south, the scattered children of the executed traitor Eddard Stark try to survive the perils of civil war.

Review:
Continuing to love re-reading this series. I am just so in love with the complexity that Martin brings to his characters and the world. Yes, A Clash of Kings gets really dark, but the second time around I noticed how much hope he puts into the story. Martin is a master of structure and pacing, and I wish his imitators would learn how to infuse their works with as much depth as he does.