Review Archive

I am nearly caught up on Sanderson. The guy just had to go out there and release the monstrously large Words of Radiance, sequel to Way of Kings, which I am rather impatiently waiting to devour. I tell myself that I need to read something else, and so I have! I’ll review that one next. Spoiler alert: it was also very good. But to address the matter to the left here, I’ve recently finished reading Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker. It represents a rarity for Mr. Sanderson in that it is a standalone novel, but it holds up to his serialized work (and to his other standalone, Elantris.) He has, yet again, built a world so fantastical-yet-believable that the color-changing hair of the royal line seems perfectly reasonable. I would venture that this is why I like his work so much. He consistently creates such grand visions that, to me, read like the

Mr. Sanderson is in top form in his most recent YA novel, Steelheart. This 400 pager is the first book in the Reckoners trilogy, with Firefight, the second book in the series, is currently nearing completion and will most likely release some time in 2014. For a change, this series’ setting is a little closer to home, in that it takes place on Earth, albeit a slightly different one than we inhabit. A massive, bright red spectral body by the name of Calamity appeared in the skies, granting a selection of the population magical powers–this seems to be a clear connection to the Cosmere–which completely changes the world, and not for the better. Practically overnight, humans who’ve been given powers by Calamity–known as Epics–have destroyed society, rendering the USA into the Fractured States, where nearly all of the population is living at the mercy of one or another super-powered feudal

The Way of Kings is the first book in The Stormlight Archive, which will be a 10 book series that shall compose the main body of Brandon Sanderson’s legacy. This 1007-page monster is Sandersonian in every way. It is direct (at times,) entirely alien yet believable, exciting, visual, and addictive. It’s a fantastic read, and I eagerly anticipate the upcoming release of the second book in the series, Words of Radiance. (I have already preordered my autographed copy.) I may have mentioned this previously, but Sanderson is doing something very interesting with his work, and it bodes mentioning in this post, since it appears more obviously in this book than in the others I’ve read thus far. Sanderson is constructing a large-scale epic fantasy which will be composed of his complete body of work. Each of the stories takes place on a different planet in Sanderson’s connected universe, called the

My eyes open with a snap, and I sit up much too quickly, frantically reaching for my phone, fingers fumbling to quiet the melodious clanging of the “harp” alarm on my iPhone. I slide the phone into snooze and fall back against my pillow–also much too quickly–and the world I see spins violently once before I close my eyes and fall asleep for another blessed eight minutes. My eyes open again, slowly this time, and with a smooth arc, everything I see twists and falls to the left. Reset. Everything I see twists and falls to the left. My eyes catch and reality lurches back to center. Reset. With a smooth arc, everything I see twists and falls to the left. Reset. Everything falls. Reset. I stare at the gap in my ceiling where the skylight is, and for a fraction of a second it remains stationary before it too falls

Like many others, I heard about Naoki Higashida’s The Reason I Jump on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I was moved by David Mitchell’s emotional praise of the book, so I picked it up on my Kindle that day and read the introduction. Sure enough, Mr. Mitchell’s passionate endorsement of the book won me over, but it didn’t prepare me for the way that Naoki Higashida’s captivating words, the depth of his understanding, and the conversational delivery of his incredible pain. The book is structured as a series of straightforward questions (“Why do people with Autism do ________?”) followed by a short answer . Many of the questions are similar to one another, and the answers end up feeling identical to others from time to time, but there is a constant thread that binds them; it is tremendously moving. Naoki is fully aware of his condition. He is aware that

Marion Zimmer Bradley is a somewhat interesting figure, in my opinion. She boasts an enormous catalogue of published works, The Mists of Avalon being her best-known work. What I find particularly interesting is that it is called a “feminist” work, but I think that label is inappropriately applied. I’m not certain this book is all that empowering. It’s a tough subject for me to write about, as I have just about no right to comment on it, but I can at least attempt to justify my reasons for thinking the label of “feminist fiction” has been misapplied here. In essence, I think that Feminist literature would be work that portrays powerful female characters who are empowered not by their nature as women, but by the strength of their characters. For example, The Mists of Avalon follows the tales of Arthur from the perspectives of the women associated with him, but

Look, I know it’s redundant at this point. I read books by Brandon Sanderson. Well, dear reader, I’ll have you know that I read other stuff, too! “But this is getting ridiculous!” You surely scoff. “What have you read lately that wasn’t by Brandon Sanderson?” Proudly, I puff out my chest and announce in a clear, melodious tone: “other stuff.” I’ll get to reviewing the other stuff on the blog later. We amicably continue our walk down my imaginary promenade while I regale you with my feelings on yet another excellent book by Brandon Sanderson: The Rhithmatist. The Rithmatist is the first book in (what I believe will be) a trilogy adventure designed for a younger audience. Not only does it depart from Sanderson’s standard fare of more “mature” fantasy novels,  it’s also a Steampunk(ish) book. When I first heard this, I imagined to myself that Brandon Sanderson was sitting at his computer and

I am on a plane and have literally just finished Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man. There is within me a burning immediacy, a furnace of response and emotion that is bubbling to the surface and simply *must* get out. I hadn’t read Bradbury since high school, and I had only engaged with the requisite Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, though I remember both being very, very good. What I want out of life is to write, and to write well. In order to write well–at least according to many authors, bloggers and the relative wisdom of my personal experience–one must read as often or more often than one sits with pen or at the keyboard. Insert pause here, wherein I deplane, get a ride back to work, hop in my car, drive home, unpack, relax, get completely distracted reestablishing myself at home, then wake up the next morning to

About two weeks ago I reached into the mailbox and shuffled through the pile of adverts and trash, extracted several bits of actual mail and entered the house. There was a bill for a roommate, a Netflix DVD for another, a bill and New Yorker issue for me, and an unexpected interloper; a small brown envelope addressed to Mr. Alan Samuel. The envelope was not marked with a return address, and was postmarked as having departed from Seattle. This was an unexpected oddity. The first strange thing about this envelope is that it was clearly intended for me, but the sender misspelled my first name. My immediate thought was that this was intentional, and a return to an old moniker applied to me by my good friend Tony. Tony is one of my many friends who just absconded away, moving to Seattle and starting a new (and very exciting) life