Book Review: The Eye of the World (Vol. 5)

If there's a series of fantasy novels that could supply an almost never-ending series of graphic novels, it's the Wheel of Time series.

A sprawling series, it was started in 1990 by Robert Jordan and was only recently concluded by Brandon Sanderson in 2013. Eye of the World Vol. 5 is barely into the first book of the series and there were 13 chunky novels so the current output of the graphic novel means the last book won't arrive until 2035... if the world exists in a form that makes socio-economic sense to still be dealing with, ahem, comic books.

A lot of that has to do with the fact that the graphic novel sticks very close to the original source material -- there appears to be no artistic license taken when it comes to the dialogue and pacing of the overall story. That's another way of saying, "It's a real page-turner!"

Book Review: Words of Radiance (Book Two of the Stormlight Saga)

What's most amazing to me about Words of Radiance, Book Two of the Stormlight Saga is just how much I remember of Book One, which I read four years ago. In the intervening time I read most of the Wheel of Time books, including Brian Sanderson's completing volumes, and so much else I was expecting to spend the first few hundred pages trying to recall details of the opening of what is shaping up to be an epic book series.

That was not the case.

The broadstroke details of the conflict on the Shattered Plains and the major players are easily remembered and Sanderson does a good job filling in the minor details or prompting the reader a bit to jog a memory loose. It speaks to how well Sanderson has been able to flesh out the fantasy world of Roshar. Besides the main plots, there are a number of seemingly unrelated interludes interspersed throughout the novel that pad out the page total but also offer significant details about how the world functions. It's not all about conflict with the Pershendi amid violent highstorms. There's insight into trade and the extent of the Spren crossover allowing regular humans to take on superhuman abilities by absorbing stormlight and involvement and the importance of Surgebinding.

Book Review: A Memory of Light

When a book series sprawls to 14 books over 20 years and outlives the original author, to describe the whole thing as “epic” feels a bit of an understatement. Such is the case for the Wheel of Time series, which Robert Jordan began in 1990 and Brandon Sanderson finished off with concluding trio of books, including the latest, Memory of Light.

Book: Blue Magic

I love a good Fantasy yarn. Spun correctly, the characters, no matter the crazy names and dialogue, or what they're involved with, come off the page as believable on some level.

I like to use the Beer Scale for Fantasy novels. Would I buy a beer for this character? Would I sit down and drink all night with this character? It's not scientific, but that's the gauge I use when reading the genre.