The Final Empire (Mistborn Book 1)

Recently I purchased a nook (one of the best purchases I have ever made) and after reading The Final Empire on it I can honestly say that most of my book reading will now occur in digital form!

The first book that I decided to read on my nook was The Final Empire, and what a book it was! Although this book was published some time ago (2007) I had never heard of it and after reading the synopsis I was drawn to it by its innovative presentation of the "mystical" powers in the book. Allomancy, an ability that allows users to "burn" metals in their stomach to gain superhuman abilities, is one of the most original ideas that I have ever been presented with in any book that I have read, simply fantastic.

...For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the “Sliver of Infinity,” reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler’s most hellish prison. Kelsier “snapped” and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark....

The Good

 It's been a while since I've read a book that I simply could not put down, for any reason whatsoever. I was literally shushing people and moving from room to room because people were bothering me while I read this book. The story and the action is so brilliantly captured that it almost brought a tear to my eye while I read it. Allomancy is the most innovative and original "magical" powers that I have come across in any book. 

The characters in The Final Empire are some of the most likable characters you will ever meet, even the psychologically damaged Vin and the self absorbed manipulative Breeze. I felt like I actually know these people in real life, or at least I want to know these people in real life.

The Bad

Other than the fact that it ended eventually and that the end was extremely heart wrenching, I found nothing wrong with this book whatsoever. 

Actually, that's not true, the author uses the word "Maladroitly" way too often. Who cares though right?

The Verdict

Go out and buy this book immediately if you haven't already read it, and if you have already read it recommend it to all of your friends and family. It's that good. You'll enjoy every action packed page of this book, Blogger's Promise (however much that's worth). Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be reading the next book in the series.

Review: Always Forever (Age of Misrule Book 3)

Well I finished this book several weeks ago, and I'm finally getting around to writing a review for it, and I'm glad that I am because it's helping me remember exactly how good this book, and this series, is. It's not often that I find a book that seriously makes me think at the end, a book that makes me care for the characters, even after the last page is turned. In my review of World's End (the first book in the series) I mentioned that I struggled through the first book because the beginning of the book turned out to be nothing like the end of the book the events had changed things so much. I think my initial struggle with this series lay in the fact that I have no knowledge of English topography and so many of the places that are mentioned in the book went right over my head, as well as the highways and street names in London. Once, however, I got on Google earth and looked at many of the places, I began to see the events transpire a lot easier and learned something in the process. O.K enough prattle, let's get on with the review. 

The eternal conflict between the Light and Dark once again blackens the skies and blights the land. On one side stand the Tuatha de Danaan, golden-skinned and beautiful, filled with all the might of angels. On the other are the Fomorii, monstrous devils hell-bent on destroying all human existence. And in the middle are the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, determined to use the strange power that binds them to the land in a last, desperate attempt to save the human race. Church, Ruth, Ryan, Laura and Shavi have joined forces with Tom, a hero from the mists of time, to wage a guerrilla war against the iron rule of the gods. This is the stunning conclusion of a powerful fantasy saga by one of Britain's most acclaimed young writers.

The Good

The final book in the Age of Misrule series ended in the way that every good series or stand alone book should end, leaving more questions, and the possibility of more events to come (not necessarily a sequel though), it should leave of making you think, and that's exactly what Always Forever did. These three books weave an epic tale that every good fantasy fan should read, the story is nothing new to the fantasy genre, but it is presented in a way that makes it a fantastic and a thrilling read. Set in a world where technology and the age of science have failed, the events are presented in a way that really make you think "what IF all the technology in the world were to stop working?" 

The Bad

As a series I found absolutely nothing wrong. There is, however, something about this book that makes me cringe, it's a little thing but it irks me none the less. The characters, lovable as they are, seem to have the same interactions over and over again; dreading what is to come, talking about what they miss about technology, and disparaging the state of the world as it was before the start of the book. It just all seemed very repetitious in some points. Although this took almost nothing away from the story itself, I feel that there could have been a lot more depth to these books if the character interactions were tweaked a little. 

The Verdict

Overall a brilliant not so modern day fantasy series capped off by a thought provoking ending that left nothing to be desired, except for maybe another book. I would most definitely recommend this book for fantasy fans.

Review: Darkest Hour (Age of Misrule Book 2)

Back Cover
The eternal conflict between the Light and Dark once again blackens the skies and blights the land. On one side stand the Tuatha de Danaan, golden-skinned and beautiful, filled with all the might of angels. On the other are the Fomorii, monstrous devils hell-bent on destroying all human existence. And in the middle are the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, determined to use the strange power that binds them to the land in a last, desperate attempt to save the human race. Church, Ruth, Ryan, Laura and Shavi have joined forces with Tom, a hero from the mists of time, to wage a guerrilla war against the iron rule of the gods. But they didn't count on things going from bad to worse ...this is the stunning continuation of a powerful fantasy saga by one of Britain's most acclaimed young writers.

Ok, I’ll admit it, as glowing as my review for World’s End was I was not sure if I would be able to get through the second or third books in the series, but after reading its successor Darkest Hour, I can now invariably say that I am hooked on this trilogy and will probably end up reading this series from beginning to end a second time.


The Good
Maybe it’s because I’m an emotional sap, maybe it’s because I read it in the middle of the night when the moon was full, or maybe it’s just because Mark Chadbourn is a great writer; whatever the case this book was filled with just so much emotion and descriptive language that it was almost painful to read at some points. There are several points in the book where I was actually scared for the characters, the raw feeling that Chadbourn is able to portray and the skill that he has at doing this is incredible. Dark corridors, claustrophobic spaces, and an increasing sense of dread are just some of the things that you’ll encounter when you read this book.

Besides that I really started to care for the characters, (even that bi*ch Laura) and I started to feel that, like the Tuatha De Danaan, that I had known these characters for my entire life. They became as real and as relatable as my best friends. In a way, I guess, they did become my best friends while I read this book. But that’s enough sentimentality out of me, on to the bad.

The Bad
Oh wait, there was none! Apart from the fact that the main character, Church, didn’t feel like he was as powerful as his compatriots, There were no flaws to find in this book besides the fact that it had to end.

My conclusion
Obviously I found Darkest Hour to be a great book! Rife with Celtic mythology and mysticism my previous gripe about there not being enough "magic" in the story was completely washed away by this tidal wave of a book, everything that I disliked about the previous installment was rectified by this fantastic continuation. If you haven't picked up the first in the series, World's End, then you're really missing out on a great book and a great writer. I know that I'll be looking for other books by Mark Chadbourn in the future.

Triond

A few of you might have seen my Widget on the sidebar titled "other articles", in that widget are links to articles that I've written for a website called Triond. Triond is a publishing website that is the owner of several aggregate websites that publish content from viewers. Think of it as a blog about anything that's spread out over many websites.
Writing for Triond is easy and, actually, fun, but the best part (in my opinion) is that Triond pays you for your submissions. See, the way it works is that Triond publishes your work on their websites, and on those websites Triond has placed several ads, usually pertaining to what your article is about. When readers click on ads placed on your content you get 50% of the ad revenue generated by that click. What I've found is that this is a great way to sort of get my name out there on the internet and at the same time being compensated for my efforts in writing the articles that I do. Now, you're not going to get rich on Triond (unless you work REALLY REALLY hard) and it is by no means a get rich quick scheme, but I do highly recommend signing up if you like writing.

To sign up, visit the Triond website




Just a note: The links in this post are referral links, and by signing up by following the links provided I will gain a 10% commission on anything you publish. This does NOT mean that you make 10% less, you earn the same amount as you would had you signed up normally. So by all means, please click my links to sign up! :)

Why I will probably not buy an iPad

I love my iPhone, it does everything that want it to do and it does everything that I want it to do well, but that does not mean that I am willing to buy basically a bigger version of the iPhone so that I can have a bigger screen. I'm currently writing this blog post on my netbook in a Barnes and Noble cafe, and again, I absolutely love my netbook (thank you mommy, merry christmas!) and I bring it practically everywhere with me and, essentially, never without access to my files and the ability to use the internet. I understand the appeal the iPad presents for people who are interested in having, basically, a laptop and an e-reader in one package.

And here's where we get to the relevant part. I probably will not be buying the iPad for multiple reasons: I already have an iPhone, I'm broke...you know, the usual stuff. But there's one major factor that has affected my decision. My interest in the iPad started a few weeks ago when I was reading a few speculation articles about Apple's next big 'thing' and one of the things that stood out to me was that people thought it was going to be a great e-reader, capable of competing with the nook and the kindle. While I'm sure that anythng that Apple can produce that is capable of being an e-reader will be able to at least compete with the nook and the Kindle, I do not think that the iPad's functionality as an e-reader will have people beating down the doors of Apple looking to get one, and it seemed to me that that was one of the best features about the iPad, I mean it's basically a huge iPod touch right? And it especially won't be a great e-reader with a battery life of just 10 hours (the Kindle can go 2 weeks with wi-fi turned off)

It just seems that with me already having a netbook and an iPhone, there really is no point to buying the iPad, because it's basically just a fusion of the two, and for a fusion, it really doesn't save that much more space. I mean, how much space does a netbook and an iphone really take up? And as for "holding the internet in my hands" I seem to be able to do that just fine with my netbook, thank you.

Here's the iPad promotional video (which is extremely obnoxious by the way, another reason I probably won't buy it, shallow right?)




and here's an interview with Walt Mossberg about the iPad

Cornucopic Contemplation: Literacy

I'm in high school (or rather I'm just out of high school, taking classes at the community college to fulfill my senior year) and it has always struck me as shameful that the reading ability among high school students should be as low as it is. I recently joined a group on facebook entitled "I hate it when people volunteer to read in class...and can't read". I thought it was just a funny little group until I was doing a homework assignment today. I realized that although I try and surround myself with "intelligent" people, the kind of people who take AP classes and are on the honor roll, there are millions of high schoolers who indeed "can't read.

Being raised on books and loving everything about books and what they stand for I've always been appalled when I met someone who said they didn't read much or didn't like to read, in fact (being the vain jerk-face that I am) that is usually where the conversation ended because I didn't feel like we'd connect on any level. I struggle with the idea that somebody should "not like books" I guess it's so second nature to me that I could never imagine not being introduced to books.

I can attribute my love of reading to my parents, and although forcing books on children is probably not the way to go (go figure) I think that parents really should make an effort to read to their children because reading is a gateway to immense knowledge and imagination.

I really don't know where I was going with this, but I would like to invite my readers to post ways that they promote literacy in their community, be it by donating books to the library, or by giving a donation to a literacy foundation, I don't care just post!

Keep on reading!

Interesting Interview with the Author of Angel Star

Hey guys, if you haven't already then I highly suggest that you head over to Mindful Musings to check out this post. It's a very down to earth interview with the author of the upcoming book Angel Star (pre-order it on amazon here). I'm really excited and grateful to Natalie at Mindful Musings for turning me on to this book, it looks like its going to be a smash hit and I've added it to my TBR list!

In other news I'm a fair ways through The Black Jewels Trilogy and I'm super stoked to read the rest of it as even 100+ pages in it feels like only the surface of the story has been scratched. It really is a captivating read.

Once again I really want to stress that I am sorry about the lack of posts lately, The Black Jewels is a thick book and I've been busy with school, I PROMISE that I will post more in the days and weeks to come!

Keep on reading!