Post-Mortem; Elantris(low spoilers) and Thrimidge 10th

Post-Mortem and super light on spoilers

ELANTRIS

by Brandon Sanderson

(Original unabridged post from my media blog)

Brandon Sanderson is known right now as the hand picked successor to Robert Jordon, chosen to write the last books of the Wheel of Time series using Jordon's notes.  I almost passed on Sanderson's entire body of work due to this, an unfair and now admittedly stupid thing to think.  Elantris had me after reading its back cover.  Gods reside in a magical city for all eternity; except eternity ended ten years ago.  Yes, its a story of demi-gods that had fallen from grace.  They did not become evil, they became some sort of living zombie creature, too pitiful to die and too insane to live normal lives and one of the main 3 voices in the book had just become one.  It is a hell of a start, and proper bait for me to bite at when it comes to describing a book.

Sanderson's style won me over immediately.  I am not a fan of writers who write "smart" to prove they are smart, yet I am not fan of drab and boring writing either.  Sanderson is a great example of people taking inspiration from The Hobbit more so than from The Lord of the Rings when it comes to plain exposition.  The character of the Princess was the next thing that won me over.  She is a really great protagonist, good example of "a princess that's not a lady" arch type, something about her made me like her.  Unlike the first Shrek's Fiona, Repunzel in Tangled, and a few others; Princess Sarene does not grate on my nerves with her insistence on proving to an audience that she's crude.  Un-Princess-like can mean more than burp and fart jokes.

The book really bursts open and will leave you wanting more of the world.  Seriously, while being a great stand alone novel, and self contained, it sure could be the opening of something grand.  The world, the veil of a fantasy world with only a few bits of fantastic things, and a legend, gets blown wide open toward the end and you almost wish immediately for a book that expounds on it all.  Oh, and that "burst" is not exactly what you've been waiting for from the start, its not as obvious a veil lifting as you think of from the very beginning.  Again, Sanderson knew what he was doing.  The bold princess is bold.  The magic is truely magical.  The suspense is paid off.  The epic story ends epically.  I could only hope certain ongoing series that I am reading right now has this sort of pay off(lookin' at you Patrick Rothfuss).

It gets my highest rank; I recommend it to anyone the claims to like Fantasy.  Usually if asked for book recommendations I'd ask about sub-genres, or books they've read in the past.  If they simply said "Fantasy", The Hobbit and Elantris would be the only two I'd say without needing to dig deeper.

10th of Thrimidge, 2014

As you can tell, I finished Elantris yesterday in a marathon of getting through the last half of the book.  This leaves me with an open slot for media of the prose archetype.  I am thinking of finishing my entire slate before choosing a new round to begin with.  Well... I'll spend days deciding which to choose, but I'm thinking of starting them all only after I finish what's there now.  So what is there now?

Watching: Star Trek: Enterprise(I'm almost done with Season 2)

Enterprise has not really surprised me.  I can't say I like it more than before I watched it.  For being explorers they sure do a hell of a lot of nothing in the show.  The characters, particularly Plox, are memorable enough, but they don't seem to have anything to personally overcome.  By the end of Season 2, they all have the same flaws they had at the start of episode 1.  Next Generation and Wrath of Khan started a tradition of the show focusing as much on personal accomplishment and growth through exploring human nature as there was in the human race expanding by exploring.  Enterprise does not seem to care much for the former, trying to be more like the original series TV show, and it just ends up being fogettable in plot detail.  Also the way all Vulcans are full of emotion and spite is like the worst sin against Star Trek ever, even worse than what Jar Jar Abrahms has done to it.  The treatment of the Vulcans by the writers is garbage.

Playing God of War 2

It is not like its a long game, and its not like its not interesting.  I have loved this game like the first the whole time I've been playing it, despite it losing a little bit of its Metroid feel in this sequel.  I just seem to have an attention span for it at 3 hours a week.  I want to finish it, not because its not done, but because I'm really interested in the story.  Great game, wonderful looking, and the gameplay is still the best example of 3-D action gaming that there is.  I have no real reason why I have not beaten this long ago.

Listening to: ACDC

Another one I have no real excuse for it taking this long.  During the Mutt Lange albums, I listened to them repeatedly as it was what I was most interested in.  I really could have moved on by now, but I am in an era of what's regarded as ACDC's worst and its hard to motivate me to listen to it while really LISTENING to it.  I want to get through it and move to the next band.  I do have to say that listening to ACDC while still in my early developement as a guitar player has helped immensely.  I almost can not recommend a better band for learning to play rock.  I know the Beatles taught many people how to play music of all styles, but learning ACDC is like the perfect place for a beginner to not get in over their head, yet play stuff EVERYONE knows.