Flowers For Algernon

A science fiction epistolary written in 1st person is not something I would normally read, being the fantasy-lover that I am. Of course, exceptions exist for all, and Flowers For Algernon is an oddball for me.

Indeed, when I first heard of the novel, I did not think I was going to read it. But then I stumbled across an excerpt, a very brief one too, and my fate was sealed.

Without spoiling anything that the back of the novel won’t spoil anyway – the main character is intellectually deprived. And the whole novel is his own diary (a.k.a. epistolary), and the author did his best to make it realistic. The diary is as you would expect a dumb person’s diary to be – full of nonsense, grammar and spelling mistakes, and just things that make you laugh (at the person, of course).

That’s why I had to read that book! It was a challenge. It was something new. It was a world different yet the same, recognizable and not, predictable though unexpected.

At first that was enough to get me through the pages. After all, it’s not all the time that you need to think on every sentence just to get what it means. But of course, it got annoying. And most conveniently it stopped.

Arthas: Rise Of The Lich King

Expanded universes are... interesting things. While they cut some room for creativeness and originality, they give you a nice head-start by covering setting, characters, and sometimes plots.

Indeed, some expanded universe novels are nothing more than the video game storylines put on paper.

Fortunately and unfortunately, that is the exact situation with Arthas: Rise Of The Lich King.

Let me get one thing straight – I loved the book. Not once, not even in parts where I will express concerns, did I put the book down. And you shall all see why.

The book is divided into 3 parts. The 1st part (and the shortest one) takes place before the game (WarCraft 3) and is taken from WarCraft lore. The second and third parts are re-tells of the main campaign from Arthas’s point of view (for the most part), complete with actual quotes from the game, and completely deprived of anything new. Is that good or bad? Well, I can’t answer that. This really varies from person to person, and you choose for yourself what you like.

Now, to analyze the writing itself.

Warbreaker

In a land where magic is fueled by breath and colour, war is brewing. Only a diplomatic marriage can keep the peace, but the king of Idris is hesitant to give up his daughter to a court of gods. If he does, his lands will be safe and his daughter married to a divine ruler. If he doesn't, his people will be conquered. The decision seems simple, but the king has two daughters.

The story follows two princesses, Siri and Vivenna, as they're thrown into  the politics of Hallandren, the land of Returned gods. While Vasher, a mysterious man, seeks his own goals, and  Lightsong, a Returned, seeks to find out about his past.

Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson, is more colorful (pun intended) than his previous series, Mistborn. It's also more lighthearted, more funny, and a very different kind of book in general.

The magic system, as in all of Brandon's books, is once again unique and fascinating. It allows its users to animate objects by draining colour out of the inanimate and breaths out of the people. Confusing? A little, but Brandon manages to explain the mechanics of his world in the prologue, (meaning the very start,) making the magic system easy to understand as well as intricate and realistic.

The Blade Itself

For the first book review on this site, I chose something that sounded almost as bloody as Writing Wars itself. Which is...The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie.

Now if you haven't heard of Joe, you're either living in a bunker still reading Tolkien (there's nothing wrong with that,) or you haven't been reading fantasy for around the past four years. Or you have, in which case you've been reading the wrong kinds of books. Why?

Because The Blade Itself is a book that expands genre conventions. How?

Well...by mixing dark comedy, and the sort of grittiness and brutality you would expect from authors such as George R.R Martin, brewing the two together into a book that is stuck somewhere between a Dark Fantasy, and A Sword and Sorcery one, (Some of you may know this as Heroic Fantasy,) Joe manages to create a unique stew, worthy of anyone who reads fantasy. However, it tastes bitter sweet.

 What makes The Blade Itself, (for lack of a better word,) so awesome, is its characters. An old torturer, a shy barbarian, an arrogant noble, I mean when has ever such a unique interesting cast been assembled? I think never, but there might be a reason for that.