Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up this book. I have really enjoyed Brandon Sanderson's Adult books however I did not know what to expect in his young adult fiction. This book again surprised me. I was actually expecting something like Leven Thumps or The Sisters Grimm or maybe even Fablehaven. It was nothing like any of those. True there was a story that was fairly entertaining but the real intriguing part of this novel if the narration with it's constant asides, critiques of writing and self deprecating humor.

He narrator that is actually sharing the story is Alcatraz Smedry but in his moments of reflection he details all of the "evil" things that authors do to "torture" readers. All of these "evil" things are exactly some of the author tricks that have become so blatant and obvious that they are now common place in literature.

As much as I hate the narrator making comments that pull me out of the story, Sanderson does this intentionally to make points about writing. This also happens to be the most laugh out loud funny book that I have read in a very long time. These funny moments come from both the actual story and the asides the narrator uses. In reality the narration was still a little annoying to me but the humor in the book more than made up for it. When the nest books are available I will read them, though they are not that high on my list.

Catching Fire

After having read the first book in this series I was not sure exactly what to expect from this one. I did remember not liking the present tense point of view in which it was written but it was a quick read and an exciting story. Catching fire lives up to the previous book and present somemore in depth information about the world in which these stories take place. Another good quick read and a great young adult book.

Elantris

After reading Warbreaker I was a little less excited about Elantris. I was afraid that I had already read Sanderson's best books in the Mistborn Trilogy. However as I started Elantris I was immediately drawn into the story and the Mystery surrounding the city of Elantris. I did not like this as much as Mistborn but it was much better than Warbreaker. This book still had many of the traits I had come to expect from Sanderson (plot twists, deep history, unique magic system, even a little mystery) yet I came to notice a little more about his writings. In all of Sanderson's book that I have read so far there is a heavy emphasis on Religion and religious history. Also in each of these books there are characters who achieve great powers and are considered Gods. These characters are ordinary people who usually through no particular effort of their own, become Gods. I find this theme in Sanderson's books to be very interesting especially considering his belief system (he is LDS).

The emphasis on religion is refreshing especially when we are constantly bombarded either anti religious or just plain irreligious attitudes in most pop media today. Some authors hint at it but no one I have read (beside regional or niche authors) has detailed religious beliefs as thoroughly as Sanderson. And as a person of strong religious beliefs I really do enjoy seeing characters who display such faith.

The Lost Symbol

For as much as I enjoy Dan Brown's books I also despise them. The Lost Symbol did not change my perception of Brown's writing abilities. The strength of Brown's books are his research and his ability to extrapolate from that information a world that is so close to being real that many people take his "fictions" as "facts." This is in the purest sense science fiction (which is probably why I still enjoy these books).

What I do not like about Brown's books are the way he cheats to create urgency. Brown writes his novels in the Third person all knowing point of view, however even though the narrator knows everything he does not reveal this very promptly. This is prevalent through out Brown's books and it continued to bother me in this one. Brown could still create this same sense of urgency by using a third person limited point of view (similar to Orson Scott Card, Brandon Sanderson, Shannon Hale, Stephanie Meyer, JK Rowling and many other). By using third person limited and shifting characters (as Card, Sanderson and Hale do) an author can create just as much urgency as Brown creates without making the reader feel as if he is being cheated information.

If I were to compare this to Brown's other books I would place it third behind Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code but well above his other two (the one nobody has ever heard of).

Warbreaker

After reading the Mistborn trilogy I was excited to try another novel by Brandon Sanderson. The first one I was able to get was Warbreaker. I had not heard anything about this book before I just knew the author, but the way this book came about also interested me. Sanderson wrote this as an online book. He would write a chapter and then post it online with a new chapter coming out every week. This is reminiscent of many previous books that were originally published as serials in magazines or newspapers (i.e. Asimnov's Foundation, Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo and many others).

I really did enjoys this book. Sanderson creates another unique world with a detailed magic system and a rich history that is hinted at throughout the book and revealed more in-depthly towards the end. Twists that should have been expected yet floor the reader are ever present and the conclusion is very fulfilling.

If there is a fault with this book it is in the lack of details that I was expecting. Motivations of some peripheral characters is not very clear and I was hoping for a more detailed explanation of the magic system that is in effect in this world. For whatever faults there are it was still a good book to read.

The Book Thief

I don't know what I expected when I picked up a book narrated by Death but I was hoping for a little bit more of a happy ending. Happy isn't even the right word. Many books that have depicted World War II can be uplifting. Stories of triumph in depressing times are inspiring and there can be many things that we can take out of these stories. The Book Thief had all of that potential but the conclusion of this story fell very very flat. (Spoiler Alert:) EVERYONE DIES, and there is absolutely no resolution after the fact. This young girl who makes tremendous strides after losing her parents and watching her brother die then loses everything and everyone she has come to care about and that is the end of the story. How does she deal with it? That is the real struggle, that is the story I want to read about, everything else is a set up for this.

The other thing that I really did not like about the book was how the Narrator continually inserted him self into the narration even though he had very little to do with it most of the time. He adds excessive foreshadowing and opinions on what is happening that pulled my so far out of the story that it was very hard to get back into it. When I read I just want to immerse my self in the story and enjoy what is going on. When an author does something that pulls me out of it, I enjoy the story so much less.

The actual story was very good but I hated the ending and the narration was awful.

Ender's Game

This was my fourth time reading what I still consider my favorite book. And it is still as good as ever. This should be on the list of books that everyone should read.