Too bad about not being able to order TaT directly, AJ! But I know things work that way sometimes; my family has had to order things the other direction before (including books by a Canadian author!).
What authors did you have trouble finding in Canada? I know there were some books that we read and enjoyed while in the UK that can't be found here...
And Mel's right - I liked a number of things about
The Outlaws of Sherwood but the ending, not so much.
Re: McKinley's
The Hero and the Crown: I'm in the minority as I read
The Hero and the Crown and hated it so much that I never picked up
The Blue Sword. AJ, I think you might be the first person I've come across who disliked it too (though for different reasons, it sounds like).
*reads with interest Arwenel's and Mel's discussion on logical vs. intuitive storytelling* I think you all have clarified something that perhaps gave me pause on 100 Cupboards, so thank you.
Mel, do you think Ashtown is more logical, or is still rather intuitive?
Mel, you'll have to let me know how the Miss Silver series progresses; a mix of Buchan and Wodehouse sounds delightful! It looks like I can get at least some of the books from the library - but only as e-books, so that may be no good. :/
Arwenel, it's been ages since I read
The Chesnut King but I think you've nailed down some of the same things that bugged me about it. I wasn't really a fan of the epilogue, either. :/
*waves to Adeona* Still waiting for a family copy to free up (and time, though now that I've finished the tome that is
Words of Radiance, there's a bit more time), but I'll be curious to see if TaT falls above or below ACoK (my current least favourite).
OOOOH, DOT!
Enjoy
Beren and Luthien! I'll have to look into getting it at some point, but for now I need to work my way through some more unread-books-I-own, including some more Tolkien.
Arwenel wrote:I mentioned Sanderson's First Law earlier, and that basically sums it up -- if something is going to be an important part of your story, you need to explain it to your readers, even if it's based off of something pre-existing.
OH. That makes sense, in light of some things I've read in his series that seem important but I don't have the info to make connections.
The stories and characters still make sense, there's just a sense that I'm missing something.
I finished
Words of Radiance.
Overall, I liked it; there were some moments that I really loved and some I rather didn't, but that's about par for the course.
THE CHASMS. I
KNEW there was going to be more of a relationship between Shallan and Kaladin than boot-stealing and snide insults (as humourous as those were
) and wow! That was a life-changing field trip even Toph would've approved of.
I loved how they spent the entire time thinking they had somehow saved the other using Stormlight and then completely missing when the other used/tried to use Stormlight.
That said, by the end Kaladin was rather suspicious, but that probably had a lot to do with Shallan playing her cards by giving him the Shardblade.
I was amused to realize that Shallan, Kaladin, and the chasmfiend setup was reminding me of the R.O.U.S.S. scene in
The Princess Bride, albeit the timing was different: "And the chasmfiends?" "I never saw one. They're not as common as people claim." *cue impending chasmfiend attack*
They also played off and complemented each other well, and I hope we see more of that in the future books. I don't know Sanderson well enough to tell if we're heading for a horrible love triangle, some angsty pining, a crush turning into pure friendship and camaraderie, an established relationship, or all of the above, but I hope it goes well anyhow - I'd like them both to just be happy. XD
I was so glad Kaladin sorted things out FINALLY and realized part of honour and protecting people included protecting those you hate and disagree with; that is part of honour and justice. I was so focused on a Renarin-Tien comparison that I completely missed the fact it was going to be an Elkohar-Tien comparison we got instead.
In my defense, I had completely forgotten what exactly had happened to Tien... But the entire final sequence with Kaladin defending the king, speaking the words, and then showing up to save Dalinar et al. was great.
Also, happy that he is starting to recognize at least the Kholins beyond them being lighteyes; I was also happy when he admitted that Adolin was a good man, "not just for a lighteyes".
Oh, yi, Shallan.
I knew she'd killed her father and suspected she'd killed her mother (and the friend of the mother, maybe? It's still unclear whether her father killed the friend or if she did), but yi... I was prepared for the poison, but not for the second way in which she had to kill him; it's something I'm still trying to sort through. It was sort of defensive, but it was so clinical and cold... That said, I enjoyed seeing her come more into her own, although I'm rather nervous about her entanglement in the Ghostbloods. XD She (and, well, Kaladin) will need to learn how to trust people and not carrying things alone... And I'm hoping her brothers and Eliyat (please!) do arrive safely and can start healing... (HAHA! Does anything come so easily for anyone???
)
Renarin! How long was he a Radiant for??? And was he responsible for
all the glyphs then, not Dalinar? That seemed to be implied but no one really said so... I am glad he's sorting a few things out and that he was fitting in with Bridge Four.
Hopefully becoming a Radiant hasn't set that back...
And Adolin! I was so proud of him for sticking up for Kaladin and the growth he showed in trusting Kaladin (!!!) AND in controlling his temper. Also, his "I knew there was something" when he found out Kaladin was a Radiant was great.
BUT THEN! He snapped, rejected his father's statement of him being a good man, killed Sadeas. and then just walked away, covering it up.
GAH... :/ It, along with everyone else's secrets, will probably out at some point and I don't know how that will play out. It's disappointing, though.
I do wonder how he will react, though, to being the only family (...and friend, depending on how you count Shallan and Kaladin) member who isn't a Radiant (yet?).
At least he can always go hang out with Elkohar and Navani if he wants some non-Radiant company.
And Dalinar...Dalinar just bullied the Stormfather into bonding with him so he could be a Radiant. o_O Dalinar had his better moments (his resolution of the Amaram-Kaladin conflict), but a lot of worse ones (his entire handling of the Amaram-Kaladin conflict until that point, his talk of honour while having huge flaws of it, his blindness in certain areas, etc.)... I don't know if I liked him any better than I did in WoK...
And HA! I
knew Jasnah wouldn't stay dead.
She drives me crazy... She has her good moments, yes, but I find her irritating more than anything else. Still, a break was nice.
Lift was a bit annoying in the beginning of her interlude, but I became rather fond of her and Wyndle by the middle and especially at the end.
SO, a question now for anyone who knows: Can I read the collection of Cosmere short stories without having read the other series (besides the two Mistborn series)? And is
Mistborn: The Secret History a short story collection or something else (I would think one of the three libraries/library systems I have access to would have it!)?
Edit: Or is
Secret History in the Cosmere collection?
I'm currently reading
The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers and so far it's good. I know it's supposed to be a reflection/discussion about God by comparison to writers and the act of creation in writing, but I must confess I've been a bit more focused on what it illuminates about authors and how a story is created.
Not sure yet what else I'll be reading. I looked into a local library reading program and was shocked to discover you only had to read 4 books to complete the adult level. o_O My mom reminded me that that's a good challenge for a lot of adults
but I can't help comparing it against the children/teen reading programs I did growing up, where you didn't get entered into prize drawings until you'd read at least 5-10 hours (or 500-1000 pages, depending on which way they were tracking that year) and you only completed a program when it was finished.
I signed up anyway and have challenged myself to: only count new books, only count adult (no YA or children's) books, and to only count books I started after I signed up (so,
The Mind of the Maker is out because I read the preface before I started, and so is WoR because I started a day or two before the program did). We'll see how it goes.