Review Archive

It seems like all I’m doing these days is talking about Brandon Sanderson. Reading The Wheel of Time and Elantris started me on a journey through Sanderson’s work, and I’m finding it hard to catch up. The man writes so much it’s unbelievable. He’s a machine. Since my last post about Brandon Sanderson, I’ve read 2 novellas by him (Legion and The Emperor’s Soul, both of which were excellent) and 4 books (the trilogy-plus-one herein reviewed). I’m currently reading yet another novel of his and have (not joking here) 4 more, just of Sanderson’s, in my “next reads” list. Anyway, I’m here to talk about Mistborn. The first book of the trilogy, The Final Empire, was his second published novel and is, in my opinion, truly unique approach to fantasy literature. To begin, this story takes place in a world consumed by darkness, overruled by a tyrannical god-king, where ash rains

                  I was first introduced to the Wheel of Time Series by my old boss, Brian, when I worked at Berkeley Tuolumne Camp. I was stubborn in my assertions that I “knew” fantasy because I had read Tolkien, which was woefully ignorant. I had almost no relationship to the wider world of fantasy literature and was, as a result, completely unprepared for the experience of reading “The Eye of the World,” the first book in the series called The Wheel of Time. Fourteen (that’s right, 14) books make up the series. Each is roughly one thousand pages long, and they are (for the most part) jam-packed with action and intrigue, magic and mystery, light and shadow, and love and hate. They are compelling, addictive, and without a doubt my favorite fantasy books. Ever. I read the first four that summer, and now have an

The first question a person might ask of me when seeing the title of this book is: “Hey, Elan? Did you only read this book because your name is in the title?” Partially, yes. There’s more to it than that, though. Brandon Sanderson is a pretty well-thought-of fantasy author who is currently finishing a series I am particularly passionate about: The Wheel of Time. Book 14 is scheduled for release 1/8/13, and I’m somewhat eager to get my hands on it. Since Robert Jordan–the author of the series–passed away in 2007, Brandon Sanderson has been working toward finishing the series using Jordan’s notes and the editing help of Jordan’s wife, Harriet. It’s incredible that, after releasing his first novel (this one) in 2005, by 2007 he had enough notoriety within the fantasy community to be tasked with this demanding responsibility. He is, in my opinion, doing the series justice. He’s able to

Per my last entry, I scoped out the scene and after much effort, managed to acquire myself a Nokia Lumia 900. It was difficult to come by, and I ended up using it for about a week. While I enjoyed it immensely, some things didn’t work out and I ended up returning it. What follows is a letter to the Lumia.

I just finished reading Steve Jobs. My feelings on the story of his life were unexpected, and where I stand now on the philosophy of Apple’s products is most assuredly not where I was expecting to be after finishing the biography. As a book, the story reads quickly, remains exciting throughout and is, honestly, pretty riveting. I hadn’t known much about him (aside from the basics everyone knew,) and reading about him was fascinating, inspiring and educational for many reasons. “How novel,” I thought to myself at first, “that I’m reading the Steve Jobs biography on an iPad.” It seemed an appropriate way to achieve total immersion with the story. I found myself immersed indeed. Steve Jobs’ life is a fascinating tale of an adoptee caught in between the world of silicon valley in bloom and the hippie idealism that many believe ultimately resulted in his death. I wasn’t surprised by

I suppose I’ve always wanted to go skydiving, but never went out of my way to arrange it. It seemed like the kind of thing that would be difficult to forget. Turns out I was right about that; since I’ve gone I’ve been able to talk about little else, though more often than not I find it hard to accurately describe the experience. It’s just too difficult to express the complete experience. I will, however, attempt to do so in today’s edition of the Warbler. The great thing about tandem skydiving (and 99% of the reason I was able to feel calm about the process beforehand) is just that: it is tandem. Because of this our job as first-time jumpers is limited to simply enjoying the experience. A trained individual whose profession is to safely jump out of planes with people that are way, way more frightened than you are. That’s what I

I’ve been reading a bit. Not as much as I’d like, sure, but definitely no small amount. Some of the things I read recently blew my mind, some others not so much, but c’est la vie. What a wonderful life I live, that I get to read my to my heart’s content. I’m still reading a few books, but having just finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I felt I couldn’t wait any longer and jot down my thoughts so that you, dear friend, might read them. So, without further fluff or embellished warbling I present to you, dear reader, my thoughts on these four books.   Wildwood It comes as no secret to many of you that I have something of a passion for The Decemberists, accompanied by a voracious thirst for any gleanings from the delightful mind of Mr. Colin Meloy. Naturally, when I’d heard that

Friends, I have not forgotten you! I have several warblings planned for the near(ish) future, but I must finish the books I aim to review before reviewing them, foolish as it may seem. I took some 1500 photos while in Israel on Birthright, most of which didn’t make the album I uploaded to flickr today. There are 394 of them online; I hope you enjoy them. Please view the album here.

So it begins.   Another foray into the blogosphere, but this time with a variety of motives. I would like to improve my css-fu as well as my php-fu, so I intend to fully build my own WordPress theme from the ground up. This, of course, takes a back seat to my day job, which is why this whole process is taking so long. That being said, I fully intend to finish this project, but I’m not giving myself a deadline. I see friends of mine with incredible design/code chops and I want to develop my own stuff. Of course, once the design is finished the blog will need content, will it not? That being the case, I’ve decided that the “substance” of this exercise will be collected ramblings covering anything and everything current. A real blog, if you will. Music, movies, food, drink, games, books and everything under the