Title: The Gunslinger
Author: Stephen King
Themes: The Pursuit of Knowledge
Quotes: "The trap had a ghastly perfection. If someone told you you’d go to hell if you thought about seeing your mother naked (once when the gunslinger was very young he had been told this very thing), you’d eventually do it. And why? Because you did not want to [...] Because, if given a knife and a hand in which to hold it, the mind would eventually eat itself. Not because it wanted to; because it did not want to.”
Reading/Listening Time: August 20th to Sept. 2nd.
Review:
I only finished this book so fast because my train broke down and my cell phone was running out of battery. Really I found the writing style quite dry, which is a shame because I think it introduces some really interesting ideas.
It's about this guy named Roland and how devoted he is to his search for truth behind the mysteries of the multiverse.
I was reading it as a fantasy, but really I think it has more in common with H.P Lovecraft's stories. It never quite achieves Lovecraft's sense of cosmic horror (Although it does have some disturbing moments) but it does play off a lot of the same themes: namely that truth is something big, and scary, and not meant for people to understand.
One of the interesting aspects of this story to me is how Mr King infuses everything with a sense of ambivalence:
SPOILER ALERT The main character in this book performs an abortion on a woman impregnated with demon spawn as casually as if he'd been asked to do an oil change. The graphic description of a little boy's violent death, foreshadowing another violent end, the little boy's corporal ghost knowing he's going to be "killed" yet again, and the nonchalant slaughter of an entire village. Mr King doesn't really seem to be trying to convince us that any of this actually matters.
END SPOILER
I kinda feel like this was intentional. Roland's brutal and ruthless: willing to go to such lengths to get what he wants and yet as a reader you can't help but wonder if his search (like any of his other actions) has any real significance at all.
Really I think that that is a concept Mr Lovecraft would have enjoyed, but it didn't do a whole lot for me.
Rating: 2/5 Stars. (It introduces some interesting ideas, but none that are worth exploring the rest of the series for.)
Monday, January 22, 2018
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Year of Epic Fantasy 2017: Day 21 (Dragons of Autumn Twilight)
Title: Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Authors: Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Themes: Teamwork
Quotes: “You know," he said with unusual somberness, "I asked my father once why kenders were little, why we weren't big like humans and elves. I really wanted to be big," he said softly and for a moment he was quiet.
"What did your father say?" asked Fizban gently.
"He said kenders were small because we were meant to do small things. 'If you look at all the big things in the world closely,' he said, 'you'll see that they're really made up of small things all joined together.' That big dragon down there comes to nothing but tiny drops of blood, maybe it's the small things that make the difference.”
Reading/Listening Time: 19 hours, 59 minutes
Review:
For some reason all my life I thought there was an actual book series called "Dungeons and Dragons" based on the game, and I wanted to read one last year. I found out there isn't a particular fantasy book or book series called "Dungeons and Dragons", which was kinda disappointing, but there are a lot of books inspired by the game and this is one of them.
The story itself has two listed authors, but I'm pretty sure there was a whole group of people involved in the creation of this story. Usually I'd think of that as a bad thing (like the new star wars trilogy, or that campfire game where kids take turns telling their own story and by the end it makes no sense), but here they're clearly held together by a coherent vision. They're not trying to make the story their own, and interestingly they end up making something that is greater than the sum of its individual parts.
I don't want to suggest that this novel is perfect, it's a little episodic and some of the dialogue is a little cheesy, but it is one of those books that you read and you feel like any one of the characters could have held a compelling protagonist role all on their own. That's something I really admire in a story (especially when you get to see that the "episodes" really are building on each other, it's like uncovering a mystery).
My favorite character in the story was Tasslehoff. I think he's the type of character that would have been really easy to write as a simpleton and I'm so so glad they didn't choose to do that in this book.
Rating: 3/5 Stars.
Authors: Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Themes: Teamwork
Quotes: “You know," he said with unusual somberness, "I asked my father once why kenders were little, why we weren't big like humans and elves. I really wanted to be big," he said softly and for a moment he was quiet.
"What did your father say?" asked Fizban gently.
"He said kenders were small because we were meant to do small things. 'If you look at all the big things in the world closely,' he said, 'you'll see that they're really made up of small things all joined together.' That big dragon down there comes to nothing but tiny drops of blood, maybe it's the small things that make the difference.”
Reading/Listening Time: 19 hours, 59 minutes
Review:
For some reason all my life I thought there was an actual book series called "Dungeons and Dragons" based on the game, and I wanted to read one last year. I found out there isn't a particular fantasy book or book series called "Dungeons and Dragons", which was kinda disappointing, but there are a lot of books inspired by the game and this is one of them.
The story itself has two listed authors, but I'm pretty sure there was a whole group of people involved in the creation of this story. Usually I'd think of that as a bad thing (like the new star wars trilogy, or that campfire game where kids take turns telling their own story and by the end it makes no sense), but here they're clearly held together by a coherent vision. They're not trying to make the story their own, and interestingly they end up making something that is greater than the sum of its individual parts.
I don't want to suggest that this novel is perfect, it's a little episodic and some of the dialogue is a little cheesy, but it is one of those books that you read and you feel like any one of the characters could have held a compelling protagonist role all on their own. That's something I really admire in a story (especially when you get to see that the "episodes" really are building on each other, it's like uncovering a mystery).
My favorite character in the story was Tasslehoff. I think he's the type of character that would have been really easy to write as a simpleton and I'm so so glad they didn't choose to do that in this book.
Rating: 3/5 Stars.
Friday, January 19, 2018
Year of Epic Fantasy Reading 2017: Day 20 (The White Dragon)
Title: The White Dragon
Author: Anne McCaffrey
Themes: Entitlement
Quotes: "So...the boy had discovered that flying a firebreathing dragon was not enough to keep him content with his life."
Reading/Listening Time: 13 hours, 6 minutes
Review:
I found this book while looking for another one that I'd bought a while back and lost. All I could remember about it is that had a white dragon on the cover. That book ended up being "Swords of the Six" by Scott Appleton. I'm only a couple of chapters into it, but I can't imagine it being dumber than this one.
The dragons in it are basically a glorified cleaning crew, they're not particularly intelligent but for some reason they're just so majestic that the main character becomes sexually aroused by watching them mate.
The humans are not a whole lot better. I really had a hard time caring about Jaxom because I think he's kind of creepy. He makes me think of this guy:
He's childish and entitled, and if for some reason he doesn't get what he wants he just takes it and eventually everyone comes round to congratulate him for taking initiative.
I would have really loved it if we saw Jaxom start to become this really horrible villain, and he was so powerful because he was willing to be ruthless and just take what he wants. This story admires those qualities though. It reads like it was written in at the height of the British Empire: people rule the world by acting like it already belongs to them. There are aspects of that mentality that I think are worthy of recognition and investigation, but this book doesn't even do that. It just assumes that we're gonna somehow relate to this awful person just by virtue of him being the main character.
It's a really bland story with horrible characters and it uses dragons, the one thing that could be really cool about it, like they're just cool looking dogs...
I was not overly impressed.
Rating: 2/5 Stars.
Author: Anne McCaffrey
Themes: Entitlement
Quotes: "So...the boy had discovered that flying a firebreathing dragon was not enough to keep him content with his life."
Reading/Listening Time: 13 hours, 6 minutes
Review:
I found this book while looking for another one that I'd bought a while back and lost. All I could remember about it is that had a white dragon on the cover. That book ended up being "Swords of the Six" by Scott Appleton. I'm only a couple of chapters into it, but I can't imagine it being dumber than this one.
The dragons in it are basically a glorified cleaning crew, they're not particularly intelligent but for some reason they're just so majestic that the main character becomes sexually aroused by watching them mate.
The humans are not a whole lot better. I really had a hard time caring about Jaxom because I think he's kind of creepy. He makes me think of this guy:
He's childish and entitled, and if for some reason he doesn't get what he wants he just takes it and eventually everyone comes round to congratulate him for taking initiative.
I would have really loved it if we saw Jaxom start to become this really horrible villain, and he was so powerful because he was willing to be ruthless and just take what he wants. This story admires those qualities though. It reads like it was written in at the height of the British Empire: people rule the world by acting like it already belongs to them. There are aspects of that mentality that I think are worthy of recognition and investigation, but this book doesn't even do that. It just assumes that we're gonna somehow relate to this awful person just by virtue of him being the main character.
It's a really bland story with horrible characters and it uses dragons, the one thing that could be really cool about it, like they're just cool looking dogs...
(I almost feel bad comparing them to dogs, because dogs are generally more endearing and less creepy. But maybe that would be different if we could read their minds.)
I was not overly impressed.
Rating: 2/5 Stars.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Year of Epic Fantasy Reading 2017: Day 19 (Howl's Moving Castle)
Title: Howl's Moving Castle
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Themes: Insecurity and Vice
Quotes: "It was very odd. Sophie had always thought she was nearly as strong minded as Lettie. Now she was finding that there were things she could only do when there were no excuses left."
Reading/Listening Time: 8 hours, 36 minutes
Rant:
About a month ago I made a post comparing the movie and book versions of this story, I want to talk about the book particularly here though because a lot of people assume that just because they've seen a movie based on a book they know the characters and they know what the book is about. And, guys, that's just not the case with this one. They are completely different. So if you've seen the Studio Ghilbi film I would highly encourage you to check this one out, but I would also caution you not to expect them to be exactly alike: this book is it's own thing, it has a completely different message and Book!Howl and Movie!Howl are completely different people.
Review:
I think this book is real sweet and smart. It's about a girl named Sophie trying to make her way in the world. At the start, she's kind of neurotic and every time she wants to do something she always thinks all the reasons why she can't do the thing. It gets so bad, she has a hard time even going into town on a visit. Her normal routine bores her, but anything out of that routine fills her with terrible anxiety.
And then one day a witch walks into the shop where she works and curses her...into an old woman.! And you know, it's a curse...like it's not a good thing that happened to her, but really it kind of liberates her from everything that's been keeping her from doing the things she'd like to do with her life. I find it delightful that everything fearful and uncertain about her life suddenly becomes an opportunity; because she feels like she has nothing to loose, she's ready to make the most of it.
There's a lot to like about this story, but this was my favorite aspect of it.
At first the plot itself seems kind of oddball, like "The Wizard of Oz" or "Alice in Wonderland". Just a bit of random occurrences and obstacles kind of thrown together loosely for our protagonist to encounter, but there's actually a pretty substantial mystery behind it and there ends up being a satisfying resolution to it all and how it all fits together.
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Themes: Insecurity and Vice
Quotes: "It was very odd. Sophie had always thought she was nearly as strong minded as Lettie. Now she was finding that there were things she could only do when there were no excuses left."
Reading/Listening Time: 8 hours, 36 minutes
Rant:
About a month ago I made a post comparing the movie and book versions of this story, I want to talk about the book particularly here though because a lot of people assume that just because they've seen a movie based on a book they know the characters and they know what the book is about. And, guys, that's just not the case with this one. They are completely different. So if you've seen the Studio Ghilbi film I would highly encourage you to check this one out, but I would also caution you not to expect them to be exactly alike: this book is it's own thing, it has a completely different message and Book!Howl and Movie!Howl are completely different people.
Review:
The story takes
place in an alternate reality where everything's vaguely Victorian,
but there's also wizards and sorceresses. They can be good or bad,
but most of the time it just sounds like they work their trade like
everyone else.
And then one day a witch walks into the shop where she works and curses her...into an old woman.! And you know, it's a curse...like it's not a good thing that happened to her, but really it kind of liberates her from everything that's been keeping her from doing the things she'd like to do with her life. I find it delightful that everything fearful and uncertain about her life suddenly becomes an opportunity; because she feels like she has nothing to loose, she's ready to make the most of it.
There's a lot to like about this story, but this was my favorite aspect of it.
At first the plot itself seems kind of oddball, like "The Wizard of Oz" or "Alice in Wonderland". Just a bit of random occurrences and obstacles kind of thrown together loosely for our protagonist to encounter, but there's actually a pretty substantial mystery behind it and there ends up being a satisfying resolution to it all and how it all fits together.
I'd written a whole character analysis for Howl, but I don't want to include it because I think focusing on him too much gives you the wrong impression of the book. It's like Iron Man in the first Avengers movie: he's a big part of it, but the story is more about the ensemble, and how their lives intertwined. It could have focused on Suleiman, or the General, or even the evil sorcerors and it would have been just as interesting because of the way it explores the characters motivations.
Rating: 4/5 Stars.
Rating: 4/5 Stars.
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Year of Epic Fantasy Reading 2017: Day 18 (The Mists of Avalon)
Title: The Mists of Avalon
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley
Themes: Paganism vs Christianity
Quotes: “The older I grow the more I become certain that it makes no difference what words we use to tell the same truths.”
Reading/Listening Time: 16 hours, 1 minute
Review:
This is basically a retelling of the King Arthur legend from Morgaine's perspective, and surprisingly it doesn't make her out to be the villain. A lot of people kinda see it as a revisionist work for feminism....which I probably would have enjoyed, considering how I felt about Thomas Mallory's Le Morte D'Artur...but it's really more about the struggle between the people of two different religious groups, personified by the half-siblings Morgaine and Arthur.
It starts out seeming like the women are all liberated as Pagans, but as the story goes on you kinda see that they're as tightly bound by their beliefs as the Christian's are.
Both Morgaine and Arthur are under the thumb of their respective religious establishments, and they eventually get manipulated into engaging in ritualistic sex.
If that sounds really weird, it kinda is. But if you're familiar with the King Arthur Legends, their relationship is kinda a staple of it, and the explanation as to why and how it happened in this book is actually the one that makes the most sense to me.
I also liked that The Ladies of the Lake actually have an explanation for who they are, exactly. Why they exist, and what is their beef with Arthur and Co.
I mentioned in my "Le Morte D'artur Vol. 1" post about how I felt that that I felt that story was fragmented. It didn't feel like it was complete. Well this story fills in those gaps so magnificently that everything feels whole, and coherent, and complete. It's really quite masterful.
Notes:
I remember reading the first few pages at my grandma's house, as a kid, and came away feeling it was pretty hostile towards Christianity. Later on, though, it goes into a really thoughtful discussion about spirituality, and the theology of the two religions and why some people would prefer to believe one or the other.
It was especially cathartic for me because it reminded me strongly of the types of conversation I with my paternal grandmother when I was younger.
I will never forget the last meaningful conversation I had with her was shortly after I'd read this book and I was able to talk to her about it, and about faith, again. She was quite elderly and she didn't remember reading it herself, but she admitted "I read everything." I remember it was pretty prominently displayed at her house, so I'm pretty sure she did. I will always wonder if and how it may have influenced her views on faith and spirituality.
Rating: 4/5 Stars. I need to read it again...
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley
Themes: Paganism vs Christianity
Quotes: “The older I grow the more I become certain that it makes no difference what words we use to tell the same truths.”
Reading/Listening Time: 16 hours, 1 minute
Review:
This is basically a retelling of the King Arthur legend from Morgaine's perspective, and surprisingly it doesn't make her out to be the villain. A lot of people kinda see it as a revisionist work for feminism....which I probably would have enjoyed, considering how I felt about Thomas Mallory's Le Morte D'Artur...but it's really more about the struggle between the people of two different religious groups, personified by the half-siblings Morgaine and Arthur.
It starts out seeming like the women are all liberated as Pagans, but as the story goes on you kinda see that they're as tightly bound by their beliefs as the Christian's are.
Both Morgaine and Arthur are under the thumb of their respective religious establishments, and they eventually get manipulated into engaging in ritualistic sex.
If that sounds really weird, it kinda is. But if you're familiar with the King Arthur Legends, their relationship is kinda a staple of it, and the explanation as to why and how it happened in this book is actually the one that makes the most sense to me.
I also liked that The Ladies of the Lake actually have an explanation for who they are, exactly. Why they exist, and what is their beef with Arthur and Co.
I mentioned in my "Le Morte D'artur Vol. 1" post about how I felt that that I felt that story was fragmented. It didn't feel like it was complete. Well this story fills in those gaps so magnificently that everything feels whole, and coherent, and complete. It's really quite masterful.
Notes:
I remember reading the first few pages at my grandma's house, as a kid, and came away feeling it was pretty hostile towards Christianity. Later on, though, it goes into a really thoughtful discussion about spirituality, and the theology of the two religions and why some people would prefer to believe one or the other.
It was especially cathartic for me because it reminded me strongly of the types of conversation I with my paternal grandmother when I was younger.
I will never forget the last meaningful conversation I had with her was shortly after I'd read this book and I was able to talk to her about it, and about faith, again. She was quite elderly and she didn't remember reading it herself, but she admitted "I read everything." I remember it was pretty prominently displayed at her house, so I'm pretty sure she did. I will always wonder if and how it may have influenced her views on faith and spirituality.
Rating: 4/5 Stars. I need to read it again...
Year of Epic Fantasy Reading 2017: Day 17 (Le Morte D'artur Vol. 1)
Title: Le Morte D'artur Vol. 1
Author: Thomas Mallory
Themes: Misogyny
Quotes: "And so every knight thinketh his own lady fairest."
Reading/Listening Time: 15 hours, 50 minutes
Review:
I kind of went back and forth with this one: wondering if it's more of a legend, or a fairy tale, or a fantasy story...
I kinda came to the conclusion that it depends on which version of the story you read. This one, I think, very much reflects the views of the time it was written just like a lot of contemporary fantasy does in our day. For that reason, I prefer to read it as a fantasy story.
The whole book is supposed to have been transcribed by Mr Mallory from a french book that he translated into English. I like to think that 'The French Book' reflected a bit of prejudice that the northern people may have had at that time, in regards to their southern counterparts, because I think a lot of it does not reflect positively on them. (I don't know if that was intentional, but there are definitely several bits that are quite laughable to readers of the modern persuasion.)
I didn't really feel that Arthur was the primary character in this story. It starts with him, but then it branches out to all these colorful figures: knights and ladies, sorceresses and Merlin...and what they're all going through. I particularly enjoyed Tor, and the whole story of how he was discovered. It just paints a delightful picture in my mind to imagine Tor and his siblings standing side by side in front of the royals and Arthur goes:
It's also interesting to me that almost all of the sorcerers in this book are female, and unless they happen to be romantically attached to one of the knights, or to the sole male sorcerer (Merlin), they are almost invariably malign.
There's this whole ridiculously hilarious scene where this knight comes upon a group of women who are really pissed off at this other knight guy cuz apparently he was really disrespectful or something...
The Knight automatically get's all defensive and goes into #NOTALLKNIGHTS mode...
And it turns out he's completely justified in that reaction because the women are actually sorceresses. and they vaguely intimidated that other knight guy so obviously they're bad news...
Even though I've read a bit of classic literature over the years, and I've become a lot more accustomed to antiquated language, some parts of this book were a bit confusing and I had to work through them. There are some words that they used back then that clearly had a bit of a different meaning than they do today. If you're not familiar with the more archaic word use, or perhaps even if you are, I would recommend reading an annotated version of this book.
Rating: Oddly enough, I didn't rate this one after I'd read it. I guess I kinda had some mixed feelings about it. Several parts were funny to read, but mostly I felt like it was so fragmented that it was kinda hard to figure out the chronology of events. A lot of that was fixed (or at least explained) later in the year when I studied and read more about Medieval England.
So I'd give it 3/5 Stars.
Author: Thomas Mallory
Themes: Misogyny
Quotes: "And so every knight thinketh his own lady fairest."
Reading/Listening Time: 15 hours, 50 minutes
Review:
I kind of went back and forth with this one: wondering if it's more of a legend, or a fairy tale, or a fantasy story...
I kinda came to the conclusion that it depends on which version of the story you read. This one, I think, very much reflects the views of the time it was written just like a lot of contemporary fantasy does in our day. For that reason, I prefer to read it as a fantasy story.
The whole book is supposed to have been transcribed by Mr Mallory from a french book that he translated into English. I like to think that 'The French Book' reflected a bit of prejudice that the northern people may have had at that time, in regards to their southern counterparts, because I think a lot of it does not reflect positively on them. (I don't know if that was intentional, but there are definitely several bits that are quite laughable to readers of the modern persuasion.)
I didn't really feel that Arthur was the primary character in this story. It starts with him, but then it branches out to all these colorful figures: knights and ladies, sorceresses and Merlin...and what they're all going through. I particularly enjoyed Tor, and the whole story of how he was discovered. It just paints a delightful picture in my mind to imagine Tor and his siblings standing side by side in front of the royals and Arthur goes:
It's probably the happiest of the stories, at least it was to me.
There's this whole ridiculously hilarious scene where this knight comes upon a group of women who are really pissed off at this other knight guy cuz apparently he was really disrespectful or something...
The Knight automatically get's all defensive and goes into #NOTALLKNIGHTS mode...
And it turns out he's completely justified in that reaction because the women are actually sorceresses. and they vaguely intimidated that other knight guy so obviously they're bad news...
Even though I've read a bit of classic literature over the years, and I've become a lot more accustomed to antiquated language, some parts of this book were a bit confusing and I had to work through them. There are some words that they used back then that clearly had a bit of a different meaning than they do today. If you're not familiar with the more archaic word use, or perhaps even if you are, I would recommend reading an annotated version of this book.
Rating: Oddly enough, I didn't rate this one after I'd read it. I guess I kinda had some mixed feelings about it. Several parts were funny to read, but mostly I felt like it was so fragmented that it was kinda hard to figure out the chronology of events. A lot of that was fixed (or at least explained) later in the year when I studied and read more about Medieval England.
So I'd give it 3/5 Stars.
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Epic Fantasy Reading 2017: Day 16 (Mistborn: The Final Empire)
Title: Mistborn: The Final Empire
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Themes: Religion
Quotes: "Well, that's what trust is isn't it? A willful self delusion..."
Reading/Listening Time: 24 hours, 25 minutes
Review:
The Final Empire takes place in like a post-apocalyptic world. I don't think it's exactly our world, but kind of similar. Aesthetically everything about the world is kinda eerie and muted: like there are these volcanoes that don't erupt lava they just spew ash out all the time. And at night this "mist" (which actually sounds a lot more like smog to me) comes out and for some reason it's creepy. The leaves of plants are always some shade of brown (never green), and the only flowers anyone has ever seen are in pictures.
There are even these primal-type creatures that take the form of whatever living thing they consume, so if your dog died and then you saw it walking around again...it *might* not actually be your dog, it might be a mist-wraith.
I would have loved it if they'd explored this aspect of the world a bit more. I think it has the potential to be very atmospheric and evocative, unfortunately it's not really used to that effect. There's not a whole lot as far as descriptions or feelings of that nature. Which is unfortunate, because as a world I felt it could have been absolutely enchanting.
Anyway, in this world society is separated into these two classes: the noble class (many of whom have these superhuman abilities where they eat different metals and gain the particular ability associated with that metal) and the skaa (who are like regular humans who are basically slaves). This whole social set up has been going on for quite a while, and while the occasional rebellion will flair up among the lower classes (and "House Wars" among the upper classes) it hasn't really amounted to anything in terms of positive social change.
This is largely because all the people (skaa and the nobles) have the same religion: they all worship their-apparently immortal-Lord Ruler as an aspect of divinity and they can't bring themselves to try to kill something that deep down they actually worship.
The story deals extensively with what it means to love someone, and what it means to have belief or faith in a person or a cause. I agree that love and conviction are powerful forces in a person's life, but I'm a but unnerved at some of the implications he's drawn in this book.
The only thing I can compare it to is "Avatar: The Legend of Korra" in that cartoon series they explore concepts like spirituality and connectedness through the POV of a character who not very in touch with their spirituality at all.
This book deals similarly with the concept of religion. It explores the idea of how significant it is to have a sense of purpose and devotion in life through the POV of these characters who don't really have any grounding beliefs. Their exploration of belief isn't so much in service of truth, rather more as a means of social control...which is exactly the same thing the villain of the book does.
So basically, religion exists to control people. Thanks Mr. Sanderson.
Rating 2/5 Stars
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Themes: Religion
Quotes: "Well, that's what trust is isn't it? A willful self delusion..."
Reading/Listening Time: 24 hours, 25 minutes
Review:
The Final Empire takes place in like a post-apocalyptic world. I don't think it's exactly our world, but kind of similar. Aesthetically everything about the world is kinda eerie and muted: like there are these volcanoes that don't erupt lava they just spew ash out all the time. And at night this "mist" (which actually sounds a lot more like smog to me) comes out and for some reason it's creepy. The leaves of plants are always some shade of brown (never green), and the only flowers anyone has ever seen are in pictures.
There are even these primal-type creatures that take the form of whatever living thing they consume, so if your dog died and then you saw it walking around again...it *might* not actually be your dog, it might be a mist-wraith.
I would have loved it if they'd explored this aspect of the world a bit more. I think it has the potential to be very atmospheric and evocative, unfortunately it's not really used to that effect. There's not a whole lot as far as descriptions or feelings of that nature. Which is unfortunate, because as a world I felt it could have been absolutely enchanting.
Anyway, in this world society is separated into these two classes: the noble class (many of whom have these superhuman abilities where they eat different metals and gain the particular ability associated with that metal) and the skaa (who are like regular humans who are basically slaves). This whole social set up has been going on for quite a while, and while the occasional rebellion will flair up among the lower classes (and "House Wars" among the upper classes) it hasn't really amounted to anything in terms of positive social change.
This is largely because all the people (skaa and the nobles) have the same religion: they all worship their-apparently immortal-Lord Ruler as an aspect of divinity and they can't bring themselves to try to kill something that deep down they actually worship.
The story deals extensively with what it means to love someone, and what it means to have belief or faith in a person or a cause. I agree that love and conviction are powerful forces in a person's life, but I'm a but unnerved at some of the implications he's drawn in this book.
The only thing I can compare it to is "Avatar: The Legend of Korra" in that cartoon series they explore concepts like spirituality and connectedness through the POV of a character who not very in touch with their spirituality at all.
This book deals similarly with the concept of religion. It explores the idea of how significant it is to have a sense of purpose and devotion in life through the POV of these characters who don't really have any grounding beliefs. Their exploration of belief isn't so much in service of truth, rather more as a means of social control...which is exactly the same thing the villain of the book does.
So basically, religion exists to control people. Thanks Mr. Sanderson.
Rating 2/5 Stars
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