Firefight is the second book in prolific wunderkind* Brandon Sanderson’s YA series, The Reckoners, which is about what would happen if the world suddenly developed superheroes, only the superheroes were all of them evil, power-hungry, maniacal psychopaths. The Reckoners are a group of normal people (well, mostly) dedicated to bringing down those superheroes, called Epics in this world. Nineteen year old David is our protagonist and POV into this world. When he was a kid, he watched as infamous Epic Steelheart killed his father, and he […]
This anthology is so inside baseball.
I think we can consider this experiment a success. I would definitely read more anthologies with insights into the writing and editiing process. It’s fascinating. Writing Excuses is a podcast hosted normally by writers Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells and Howard Tayler. (Sometimes they have other guests.) It’s a pretty cool podcast. They give writing advice, talk about all the different processes of writing, and even workshop stories on air. Some of the excerpts in this book were podcast segments. I haven’t listened […]
More Than Just Fantasy Tropes
I promised myself last year that I would finish a few of many, MANY series I’m currently in the middle of before I start something new, so most of my reviews may not be very helpful to people that haven’t yet started a particular series. This is one of those times. I also won’t bore you with my simplistic summary of Sanderson’s world created in the Mistborn series; Sanderson created such a unique and well-crafted place that I can’t do justice to it in a […]
Multiple personality disorder as a superpower.
Stephen Leeds is a truly unique individual. There are forty-seven people (and counting) living in his house, each of whom specialize in different things, like botany, biology, security, psychology, handwriting analysis, etc. These people have personalities and talents and fears and all come from different cultures and religious backgrounds. And all of them are hallucinations. Stephen doesn’t really have multiple personality disorder, because he is completely aware of and actively participates in the maintaining of his aspects. He uses them as a sort of extension […]
#10 – The Emperor’s Soul: Quick and quite delightful!
The emperor is not dead, but he is certainly not alive. In order to stay in power, Gaotona and the other four Arbiters must resurrect their emperor, bring back his mind and his memories. To do so, they enlist the help of Shai, a Forger – a criminal and a thief – to Forge the emperor a new soul. This was a fantastic novella. It was my first Brandon Sanderson book, and I very much enjoyed it. Shai and Gaotona are both great characters – […]
So, the exact opposite of ‘Ancillary Justice,’ basically.
Next stop on the Read Everything Brandon Sanderson Has Ever Written train: the novella, Legion. It’s a short read (as implied by it being a novella), but an interesting one. So interesting, actually, that I don’t think the story was well-served in this shorter format. I had too many questions upon finishing. Luckily, a sequel is being published later this year, but for now it’s really my one complaint with the story. Legion follows Stephen Leeds, nicknamed ‘Legion’ (who saw that one coming!) because of […]