Liadan’s Mes

I finished reading this book several weeks ago, and currently am reading the third book of the series, The Dragon Reborn. I have decided to write reviews of the first two books, and once I finish the third book, write a review as well. There are thirteen books in the series including the prequil (A New Spring), and the 12th book which is being finished by Brandon Sanderson, whose works Elantris and Mistborn are also reviewed on my blog.

This is the first book to The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

We start the book meeting a young man named Rand al’Thor. He lives on a farm in the West Woods near a town called Edmonds Field in the Two Rivers area of Andor. Rand is traveling with his Father Tam, to the village of Emonds Field for Bel Tine.

Little does he know that this the night before Bel Tine, will change his life. The events of the night change the lives of 5 young people from Emond’s Field.  Rand, Perrin, Mat, Nynaeve and Egwene. Rand as I mentioned before is a farmer and a shephard, Perrin is the blacksmith’s apprentace and friend of Rand, and Mat is the son of a man who raises and trades horses. He is also a friend of Rands. Nynaeve is the Wisdom of Emond’s Field, and her journey is to follow and rescuse the 3 young men and Egwene who has decided to leave to travel to Tar Valon to train to be an Aes Sedai, as she has learnt from speaking to Moiraine, that she has the ability to touch Sadar.

Emond’s Field which generally has few visitors, not only boasts the presence of Moiraine whom we met in A New Spring, but also of her warder Lan. Additionally a Gleeman named Thom has come to the village to perform for Bel Tine. Shortly after the arrival of Rand and his father in the village, the traveling peddler Padan Fain arrives with news of a False Dragon (Logain), who has yet to caught by the Aes Sedai (women who can touch the Sadar, the female half of the power) to be gentled. (Men who can touch Sadin, the male half of the power, tainted which leads them to maddness must be cut off from being able to touch it. This process is called Gentling. When done to women are cut off from touching Sadar it is called Stilling).

The adventures of the 5 youth whose lives change with an attack on the Village, take them not only to the edge of the Two Rivers but nearly across the entire world, into the blight, the land of the Shadows. Along the way we meet 4 young people whose lives change by meeting the Emond’s Field youth.

The First we meet, is a young lady named Min who works at an Inn where our group stays. Her life changes when the Inn is burnt down, and she is summoned to Tar Valon because of her talent to see auras. The last 3 youngsters we meet are Elayne, The Daughter-Heir to Andor, and her brothers Galad and Gawyn. Rand trying to get a glimpse of Logain as he is taken to be presented to the Queen of Andor falls off the wall he has climbed and into the garden where Elayne has gone to take a look as well. Elayne is soon to be sent to Tar Valon, to train to become an Aes Sedai.

Robert Jordan is a masterful storyteller whose imagination is captivating, and draws you into the world he has created. I highly recommend this book to anyone whoenjoys the fantasy genre of books, or anyone looking to get into them.  If you have not read A New Spring, I strongly recommend that you read it prior to reading this book.

This is the prequel to one of my favorite series of all times. The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

This book focuses on Moiraine, at the time that she becomes Aes Sedai. At the time when prophecies are being fulfilled. The Dragon has been reborn. This book starts Moiraine’s quest to find the Dragon Reborn, and her struggle to find this young man prophesied to save the world, and to break it, before the Dark Lord does.

Robert Jordan’s vision of a world where people place blanket stereotypes on groups without ever trying or wanting to know these people mirrors some of the political tensions we face in our day to day life. Jordan masterfully used the cultures of not only the present day world, but of ancient cultures to bring about a world that the reader is drawn into, and wants to keep going back to.

Even being my 9th or 10th reading of the book, I am always finding something new that I missed before in reading. It is books like these that I enjoy re-reading every 18 or so months.  I would deffinately recommend this book, and the books that follow to any fantasy savy reader, or someone who wishes to start reading in this genre.

So I finished Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson this afternoon. The book is written posing the question “What if the prophesied Hero failed to kill the dark lord?”

1000 years ago, The Lord Ruler defeated the deepness which was killing the world, in doing so he became a sliver of god, immortal, however not omnicient or omnipotent. To punish the people for not believing in him, he caused that the ashmounts spew ash. In a world where plants struggle to grow, and buildings are stained black by the ash, we meet our hero on a plantation, trying to build a rebellion of the slave class the Skaa who had been the people who didn’t support the Lord Ruler when he first made his trek to banish the deepness.

The nobility who are the heirs of The Lord Ruler’s supporters, were granted the gift of Allomancy. Allomancers are able to use one of the 8 basic metals, Iron (Lurcher: grants the ability to pull on nearby metals), Steel (Coinshot: grants the ability to push on nearby metals), Pewter (Thug: Enhances physical abilites), Tin (Tineye: Enhances sences), Brass (Soother: Soothes Emotions), Zinc (Rioter: Riots emotions), Copper (Smoker: Hides the use of Allomancy) and Bronze (Seeker: Allows you to see the use of Allomancy). Most Allomancers can use only one of the 8 abilites, however quite rarely an individual is born who is able to use not just one, but all 8 these abilites. These people are called Mistborn.

I found this book to be well written, and the allomancy (magic) used to be quite refreshing. Finally an author who creates a magic based on physics. I loved the explanation given to our Heroine by the hero training her to use her abilities… You can not make things turn and twist (speaking in regards to ironpulling and steelpushing), because that’s not how physics are. You can only push things in straight lines from you or pull to you in straight lines. If you push or on something weighing less than you, the item moves, unless it is pushed up against or attached to something weighing more than you, in which case you would move.

I also found it refreshing that the allomancy powers have a reasonable realistic range based off the person’s strength. If you push yourself off a metal object you can only go so far before you have to push or pull with another. People who were soothers or rioters, could not read the minds of the people they tried to enfluence, and so they had to watch to make sure that when they tried to push or pull on emotions, that they didn’t go against what someone thought, because the person if you tried too hard to drastically change their mood would rebel and sence what you had done. Even with special abilities when the metals ran out, the hero and heroine were far from immortal. They could while burning pewter, withstand wounds that were fatal, but once the pewter was used, if they had not had the wound delt with, they would die. 

What I enjoyed the most was that all of the people were individuals that you could relate to because of their faults and imperfections.

I highly recommend this book to those who like Fantasy books. Again I will not spoil the story, as you will need to read the book to find out how this book ends.

I now find that I am anxiously awaiting the release of the paperback The Well of Ascention which comes out next month the second book of this series. For now I will return to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series which I am currently re-reading the series. I will write reviews on these books as I move through them.

So I saw this on a different blog (Imagic Reflections), where the blogger puts up a review of books when she reads them. While the genre of books I read is much different, I figured I could review the books I read and let others know what I am reading.

This past weekend I finished Reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.

I picked up the book, because I started getting interested in the author that was chosen to finish Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series after he passed away. I have to admit I was quite impressed by his first book.

Elantris is a city that died 10 years ago. It was a city of gods. The Elantrains were taken by the Shaod a transformation that made their skin silvery and their hair white, and they were a people who glowed. But now it has been cursed by the Shaod. Now when the Shaod takes people, their skin turns grey, and has black splotchy spots. They loose their hair, and they die. Not like you or I die, but their hearts stop beating, their bodies don’t repair when injured, and they don’t need to eat, although they are always hungry.

Our story starts with Raoden, the Crown Prince of Kae, being taken by the Shaod, and being thrown into Elantris. The people of Kae are told that their beloved prince has died.

The next person we really meet in the story is Sarene. A princess of Teod. She arrives in Kae to find out that the she is now not only married but a widdow due to the passing of Prince Raoden. The marriage contract is binding that if one party passes away before the cerimony, that the other is legally bound in marriage, and can not remarry.

The third person we meet is Hrathen, a high preast of the Fjordell. He has been given 3 months to convert the people of Kae, to the Shu-Dereth religion from the Shu-Korath religion, before the King of the Fjordell (also the profet of Jaddeth (God to the Shu-Dereth religion)) sends his armies to destroy them. Hrathen sees himself as the savior of Kae.

The book follows these three people, through aproximately 2-3 month period. There are unususal twists and turns in the book. Their meetings, and their battles with eachother.

I won’t ruin the book for those who wish to read it, but I recommend Elantris to anyone who enjoys Fantasy works.