Book Cover I like

Posted by Unrepentant Escapist


November 5, 2009 -- 11:06 p.m.

Here's another book cover I like. Though there are parts of it I don't like (the font is too Harry Potter), I like the expression of the king, the eyes looking right at you, and the ravens/blackbirds/whatever, which add a little element of action to the scene. It would catch my attention, even though it's Y.A. I also like the wallpaper border--for some reason, it works for me, though it would work even better for me if it were celtic knotwork.

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Book Review -- Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone

Posted by Unrepentant Escapist


November 5, 2009 -- 12:12 a.m.

"Aspar White smelled murder. Its scent was like a handful of autumn leaves, crisped by the first frost and crushed in the palm.

Dirty Jesp, the Sefry woman who had raised him, told him once that his perculiar sense came from having been born of a dying mother below the gallows where the Raver took his sacrifices. But Dirty Jesp made her living as a liar...."
-Greg Keyes, the Briar King, pg 21. (Showing a good example of a first line...well, if you don't count the prologues)

Where did the mysterious colonists who vanished from Roanoke go?

They were kidnapped by monsters, of course, and taken as slaves to a land of dark magic!

That has nothing to do with these books. Or not much, anyway. It's just fun to know because you can see some of the languages evolved from corrupted English. There are enough little easter eggs in these books to keep a reader engaged...it took me an embarrassing long time to realize that the word "d'Ef" is, well...

Greg Keyes' series, called "The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone" is definitely a winner and one of the most underappreciated sagas in the fantasy genre. At the end of the age of men, a small group of heroes is fighting to save the land from the unnatural evil looming. I got into this series a few years ago, but added two more books to my collection during the orange and black buy-fest. This is one of those sets of books that makes young writers groan, because there is no way you could ever replicate such wonderful prose.

Then you sigh and remember that Keyes has been writing professionally for much longer than you have, and the voice saying "I wish I could write like that" is quickly drowned out by all the wonderfulness of these books. They hit all the right old notes--buxom barmaids, snarky princesses, rapscallion fighters, and knights with big ass swords--with enough new twists to keep you interested. Monks with ninja-like powers! How awesome is THAT? Not to mention six-nippled albino gypsy people...

Besides a hefty helping of palace intrigues and a viewpoint character fatality rate reminiscent of George R.R. Martin, Keyes also does some wonderfully inventive things with religion. Now, I'm re-reading the series from scratch at the moment and my memory's a little patchy, but I believe I'm accurate in saying that the church has been calling the local spirits into "Saints" -- just like the Christian church of medieval Europe did in places like Ireland. By folding the local deities into their religion, they make it more easy for the locals to convert.

In this stories' case, if you walk through their sacred places, you get mad magical powers. Of course, each walk requires strength, and not all Saints are good...

Besides memorable characters, wonderful description, realistic languages (heroes actually have bad grammar and syntax errors when they switch tongues) and interesting religions, Keyes also plays with contrasts in weapons and culture. For example, one of the fighters is trained with a rapier, which works, although not always very well, against men with plate mail and cleavers.

Another wonderful part about this series is that it is done. No waiting for books. Just grab and go.

I've read all but the last book, the Born Queen, so I can't say whether the series' end is as good as its beginning, but these are books you won't regret buying, in my opinion--it's even available in e-book form. This is a sophisticated fantasy. As delicious as it gets.

My only complaint is that every chapter ends with a cliff-hanger, which, occasionally, can seem a bit forced. But it's a small flaw compared with so much goodness packed into these pages.

I had to add this snippet from the Briar King, too, just because I love characters bantering with each other and the reference to Gimli/Legolas.

" 'I killed a hundred, before the gate,' Thaniel asserted.
" 'I killed a hundred and five,' Carsek replied.
" 'You can't count to a hundred and five,' Thaniel retorted.
" 'Aye, I can. It's how many times I've had your sister.'
" 'Well,' Thaniel mused, 'then my sister had to have been counting for you. I know that after two hands and two feet, I had to start counting for your mother.'
" At that, both men paused.
" 'We are very funny men, aren't we?' Carsek grunted.
" 'We are men,' Thaniel said, more soberly. 'And alive, and free. And that is enough.'"
- Greg Keyes, The Briar King, pg. 10

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Word Count: Chapter 2

Posted by Unrepentant Escapist

November 4, 2009 -- 11:53 p.m.

Busy day! Christmas shopping takes the blues away! I wrote two new chapters in Godsplay yesterday and I think they turned out all right. It's funny, because when I do so much revising, I don't write much new stuff. It's like working muscles that are cramped with disuse. It takes me a couple of days to find the proper rhythm again, especially if its a character viewpoint I haven't done in a while. Go, Thaya!

But I ended up adding a few new named characters. I think we've spiraled up to 47 total, now. And made one minor character have a viewpoint right before he gets chomped.

One of the things I struggle most with is coming up with new metaphors. I love metaphors, but ugh, I tend to reach for the same ones time and time again.

Word Count for today (this is a short chapter): Sathain 24, Iysifae 8, god 7, eye 7 -- I do love my eyes... -- blood 7, black 7, sister 7, one 7, left 6, "I 6, mortals 6, gods 6, Sathain's 6, eyes 5, face 5, smiled 5, said 5, back 5, lips 4, down 4, born 4, beautiful 4, thought 4, created 4, create 4 -- odd, the repetitions -- enough 4, void 4, years 4, wouldn't 4, did 4, Iyusifae's 4, mortal 3, smooth 3, again 3, still 3, skin 3, beneath 3, watching 3, way 3, dark 3, flesh 3, divine 3, away 3, centuries 3, deep 3, throne 3, past 3, under 3, sense 3, pain 3, Lomari 3, burned 3, though 3, looked 3, course 3, fingers 3, behind 3, lost 3, because 3, around 3, taste 3, hair 3, fought 3, world 3, first 3, brightly 2, many 2, thousand 2, gods' 2, tied 2, much 2, insane 2, quickly, withered 2, hurts" 2, change 2, flame 2, certain 2, mouth 2, ago 2, cold 2, less 2, truly 2, bright 2, died 2, person 2, hated 2, temptation 2, impossibly 2, neck 2, white 2, socket 2, ability 2, without 2, fifty-six 2, power 2, fit 2, old 2, fingertips 2, savoring 2, draw 2 -- ha! Uno! -- twisted 2, red 2, millennia 2 -- why does that come up on my spellcheck?-- feel 2, mind 2, break 2, wasn't 2, must 2, body 2, smoke 2, below 2, hot 2, since 2, ever 2, pathetic 2, needed 2, deluded 2, chance 2, her" 2, watched 2, "it 2, die 2, dried 2, humans 2, voice 2, deity 2, mad 2, god's 2, fire 2, Erratha 2, asked 2, husky 2, times 2, blue 2, above 2, empty 2, Ewah 2, air 2...

Not going to type the one word ones. It's funny you can tell the tones of the chapters by the words. Blood, cold, red, twisted...

Well, most of the chapters will probably have similar word rosters. Ah well.


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TV Goodness (Or not)

Posted by Unrepentant Escapist


November 3, 2009 -- 3:22 p.m.

Modern Marvels did an episode on "Barbarian Battle Tech." Though even the show seems to acknowledge that "Barbarians" to cover everything from the Celts to the Huns is perhaps not the best word, the info about the weapons will be interesting to any fantasy enthusiast. I had no clue that the Celts had chariots, though I wonder if they really did use them in the way described. It seems--un-Celtic. It also says that there is a surprising advantage to fighting naked except for blue paint--though mail is still a more effective protector.

Anyway, you can watch it here.

Tonight, ABC is premiering their latest hyped series--"V," which is apparently a remake of an earlier science fiction series with the same name. The first eight minutes of the show are available for free online.

Although I wouldn't waste your time on it, honestly. Unless you want to learn how not to tell a story.

It's just too formulaic. I can picture executives sitting around in a studio, ticking off demographic groups--there's the rebellious teen. The hard-worked single mother. The religious guy. The person being overlooked at work. And the black man.

It's obvious that the show is trying to invoke Lost--which I finally got around to watching--even the title minus theme music fade dramatically into the foreground. The show does try to hang a lampshade on it by joking that the movie Independence Day "is merely derivative of its other science fiction predecessors." But as far as I can tell, this series isn't going to be anything new.

The commercial where the alien asks the news reader "not to ask any questions that might portray them in a negative light" is amusing, not because of the obvious, overplayed menace in the question, but because the television news guy is all "what?" It's humorous because obviously, the writers haven't been involved in journalism, to act as if this stipulation is unusual or even unthinkable. Anyone who's worked with established politicians knows that in some cases, there are limits to the questions you can ask--which often have to be submitted in advance, no less. So how this request should surprise him...

Though, of course, the wisest politicians will field any question, because chances are, they know more about it than the reporter does. I was often pleasantly surprised as a newspaper editor at how intelligent the politicians were. They are not all spotlight seekers with good hair, strangely.

Anyway, "V" starts too slowly. It has none of Lost's in-your-face slashes of temporal displacement, a brilliant type of storytelling that should have obsoleted the "info-dump" in V's intro. Also, V's focus on so many characters dilutes any chance of me empathizing with one. You just can't flash cliches on the screen and expect me to identify with them. Either sink your teeth into the characters, or get to the special effects, else you leave me yawning.

Anyway, perhaps I'll be pleasantly surprised by the rest of the episode. There was a series, I think it was on sci-fi in the late 90s, that played with the same premise. But instead of this show, where the aliens were obviously bad guys, you never quite knew whether the visitors were good or bad. They offered human beings all this advanced technology, but the humans were still suspicious, and there were alien hate groups and all sorts of interesting, advanced themes. Too advanced, perhaps, for viewers. It was V's premise done right.

Looked up the show I liked: It was called "Earth: Final Conflict." I don't think I watched all five seasons, though. Either I quit watching after they killed off all the people I liked or they quit broadcasting in my area.

Anyway, speaking of Lost...

I was watching an episode with Rousseau and I suddenly realized, "That's Ambassador Delenn!" I was surprised it took me so long to notice--must be the lack of a bone plate. So I had to wikipedia it to make sure I was right, and it turns out that not only does Mira Furlan play both characters, she's also Croatian. Which means something to me because I did my college thesis on Yugoslavia. The ethnic cleansing there inspired the racial aspects of the novel I'm working on--as well as providing some of the motifs. Furlan is a Croatian who married a Serbian, and who fled Zagreb after she was harassed for attending an International Theater Festival in Serbia, making her, supposedly, a national traitor. She had agreed to do the performance before the war broke out.

It's a hard situation. On the one hand, you have this chance to remind the Serbians that their enemies are human, too -- something many soldiers obviously forgot during the war. Dialog between the two very similar cultures who had been living in peace together since WWII could have been a bridge to solve the genocidal rampages. Art should continue despite war.

However, at the same time, by participating in an event, no matter how international, in Belgrade, capital of your worst enemies, you are bringing legitimacy and helping, at least economically, the people who are massacreing you. Art may be beyond borders, but it can also be twisted. Politicized.

It must have been a tough decision. I cannot even begin to speculate what was the "moral" action was or what I would have done in Furlan's place. I wasn't in her situation, I haven't heard both sides of the story, etc. I strongly suspect I would have been out with the Croatian nationalist army, wielding whatever primitive weapon I could have against the superior armed Serbs, because if someone hurt the people I love, I couldn't not fight back. Whatever the rightness of her decision, Furlan's goodbye to Yugoslavia--written in response to the death threats she received when she got home, shows a woman of intellect and courage. And should be required reading for any writer whose characters are about to make "The Speech."

It's here in full, but an excerpt:

"It seems that I've been chosen for some reason to be the filthy rag everyone uses to wipe the mud off their shoes. I am far too desperate to embark on a series of public polemics in the papers. I do, however, feel that I owe myself and my city at least a few words. Like at the end of some clumsy, painful love story, when you keep wanting, wrongly, to explain something more, even through you know at the bottom of your heart that words are wasted; there is no one left to hear them. It is over...

"I know that it may seem out of place to swear t0 pacifism, to swear to love and brotherhood of all peoples while people are dying, while children are dying, while young men are returning home crippled and mangled forever...But I have no other way of thinking. I cannot accept war as the only solution, I cannot force myself to hate, I cannot believe that weapons, killing, revenge, hatred, that such an accumulation of evil will ever solve anything. Each individual who personally accepts the war is in fact an accessory to the crime; must he not then take a part of the guilt for the war, a part of the responsibility?

In any case, I think, I know and I feel that it is my duty, the duty of our profession, to build bridges. To never give up on cooperation and community. Not the national community. The Professional community. The human community. And even when things are at their very worst, as they are now, we must insist to out last breath on building and sustaining bound between people. This is how we pledge to the future. And one day it will come...

It is terribly sad when one is forced to justification without having done anything wrong. There is nothing but despair, nausea and horror. I no longer have any decision to make. Others have decided for me. They have decided I must shut up, give up, vanish; they have abolished my right to come home...

Can the horror of war be used as a justification for every single nasty bit of filth we commit against our fellow man? Are we allowed to remain silent in the face of the injustice done to a friend or colleague and justify our silence by the importance of the great bright national objective?...

To whom am I addressing this letter? Who will read it? Who will even care to read it? Everyone is so caught up with great cause, that small personal fates are not important any more. How many friends do you have to betray to keep from committing he only socially acknowledged betrayal, the betrayal of the nation? How many petty treacheries, how many pathetic little dirty tricks must one do to remain "clean in the eyes of the nation"?

I am sorry, my system of values is different. For me there have always existed, and always will exist, only human beings, individual people, and those human beings (God, how few of them there are!) will always be excepted from generalization of any kind, regardless of events, however, catastrophic. I, unfortunately, shall never be able to "hate all Serbs", nor even understand what that really means. I shall always, perhaps until the moment the kind threats on the phone are finally carried out, hold my hand out to an anonymous person on the "other side", a person who is as desperate and lost as I am, who is as sad, bewildered and frightened...

I reject, I refuse to accept such a crippling of myself and my own life. I played those last performances in Belgrade for those anguished people who were not "Serb" but human beings, human beings like me, human beings who recoil before this monstrous Grand Guignol farce in which dead are flying. It is to these people, both here and there, that I am addressing my words. Perhaps someone will hear me...

I am sending this letter into a void, into darkness, without an inkling of who will read it and how, or in how many different ways it will be misused or abused. Chances are it will serve as food for the eternally hungry propaganda beast. Perhaps someone with a pure heart will read it after all.

I will be grateful to that someone."

(Mira is apparently currently working on a film with Oscar winning director Danis Tanovic of "No Man's Land" called "Cirkus Kolumbia" which is tentatively slated for release in 2011. Not much info on it yet, but it looks interesting. Filming just started, so I wish her the best of luck!)

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Posted by Unrepentant Escapist


November 2, 2009 -- 5:10 p.m.

Oops: I forgot to add my Halloween picture. I was an Avant Garde French fairy for Halloween, complete with beret and all.

Look at all the cuteness that's still single. Bah!

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Writing Prompt #9: Halloweenies

Posted by Unrepentant Escapist

November 2, 2008 -- 4:38 p.m.

I don't blog on weekends, so I missed the chance to wish my readers a Happy Halloween.

I must admit, I spent my Halloween in suburbia so it was disappointingly dull. Better than a Halloween two years ago I spent on assignment for the first day in a new town and a kid wearing oversized overalls, oversized flannel and a hat about to droop into his eyes came to the counter for candy. I asked, "Are you a Redneck for Halloween?"

And he said: No.

Welcome to Montana. And coincidentally, foot-in-the-mouth-ville.

Anyway, I've been hiding from my novel for the past week but I'm out of excuses so I guess I have to work on it again. I'm two-thirds of the way through--missed deadline but it will definitely be done before Thanksgiving. Hopefully.

Besides going to a really lame Halloween party, I also spent my Halloween in the nerdiest place possible: a Book store! My local store offered 25 percent off on any book with orange and black on the cover--and I was surprised how popular black shadows with orange lettering is nowadays. So I went on a book-buying spree, amazing all around me by coming home with $75 worth of paperbacks I'd read were excellent in other places.

Why? Market research.

I realized after talking with fellow WoTimers at the cons I went to that some of us are hideously out-of-date. Most of my favorite fantasy serieses are from the 80s and early 90s. With exceptions based on friends' recommendations, after that I only started buying books by authors I'd already known and loved.

This means that I am some 10-20 years behind on other fantasy readers. A whole generation has grown up, and they are more familiar with Harry Potter than Dragonlance. With Twilight than a Song of Fire and Ice. With Mistborn than Robert Jordan. Well--I'm probably exaggerating a little, but the point is, I hardly recognize any of the author's names adorning the book shelves, and so I decided I needed to do a little about it.

Thus I bought almost every book by a 'new' author I'd heard or seen reviews of. I realized a couple of things.

1) Dave Wolverton/Farland was absolutely right. I need a psuedonym. Between all the McCaffery and the McKillip and who knows what else, who will see a McBride?

2) The majority of the big splash authors are male. Which I find odd because the majority of readers are female. This could indicate a hole to be filled involving female characters and female issues.

3) What's hot in the Y.A. fantasy market may be predicted by trends in what's hot in the adult fantasy market. Think of it this way--the Southern Vampire series came before Twilight. Orphaned mages were the rage long before Harry Potter. So--if there's something missing in the y.a. market that's in the adult market, can you write a Y.A. novel on its greatness and beat the trend?

In other words, if everyone in the adult market is in love with assassins, should you write an assassin Y.A. book? Granted, this might be difficult because parents might not want to buy a Y.A. book that has "assassin" right on the cover. But I don't know.

Speaking of the Y.A. Market, I finished Twilight. I suspect I'm the only person who liked the series better at the end, because there was less emotional threat and more physical threat. Bottom line: I'm not a romance person and I'm not a big fan of reliving my years of adolescent angst.

Still, I found the Twilight Saga strangely compelling. I'm not sure why. I was also somewhat--disappointed when it was over, though also relieved, because reading another passage about Bella's own self-doubts would have made me want to go choke myself on razor blades. Bottom line: I didn't hate it. Even if I read it as an excuse not to be writing myself, I finished the darn thing.

I suppose what I enjoyed most was how the vampires' gifts combined to solve problems. I enjoyed how Alice's gift worked and the weaknesses. I'd probably enjoy a vampire spin-off about Alice and Jasper more than the original books themsevles.

Though it really annoyed me how inconsistent Bella's fear of blood seemed to be. It seemed to vanish sometimes and then come back in later books.

But enough about that. John Scalzi has a blog post about how sci-fi nerds need to get over their whine about how sci-fi is mainstream now, which has a picture of Barack Obama wielding a lightsaber. Even if I've been disappointed about how ineffective he's been in office, the picture is cool.

And Scalzi is right. No one should be saying "woe is me!" except middle school students. And that's less about the nerd thing, and more because you're a socially inept middle school student.

Don't worry, you're grow into a socially inept adult someday, and then you'll rule all the jocks with your leet skillz. And you'll have a large community of people around you who also love sci-fi, in part because of the mainstreaming.

WRITING PROMPT #9

TITLE: Halloweenies
GENRE: Paranormal
TYPE: Character

Halloween is a time for scary demons and other denizens of the Nether realm. I want you to think of what scares you the most. Horns? Chains? For me, its images connecting to pain. The sound of skin crackling as it burns. Needles sticking out of fingertips. Blood. Long heights.

Now, create a demon that has all these characteristics--except one thing: he's scared of you, too.

That's right, the most terrifying demon in the world is terrified of you too. Or frogs. Or something.

The point is, he's a total wuss. So what are the most frightening physical attributes he can have and combine them with the least frightening personality traits that you can think of. Maybe he's a klutz. Maybe he faints at the sight of blood. Whatever.

Just write about a non-scary, scary demon and what could possibly motivate him to overcome his fears and come to the human world.

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Return of the Kings Continuity Errors

Posted by Unrepentant Escapist

October 30, 2009 -- 3:04 p.m.

Continuity errors!

I finished up my Lord of the Rings re-watch last night and was astonished to see two major continuity errors. In one scene, Frodo and Sam borrow Orc armor because Frodo can't find any clothes. Yet next scene, they're back in their adorable overalls!

And when Aragorn screams: "Come out Sauron" at the black gate, he and his party are all riding horses. Yet a few minutes later, the horses have vanished and Aragorn and company are charging forward sans mounts.

Well, I suppose, technically, Aragorn could have dismounted. And all the other horses vanished too... But why on earth would the Riders of Rohan abandon their mounts?

Anyway, the changes made me laugh. Especially "Oh, my clothes all vanished so I'm going to dress like an Orc! Oh, I found Shire-style overalls sitting in a pile in the middle of Mordor! Awesome!"

Maybe they're the magic pants of finding--always return to their owner, no matter what the circumstances :)

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More Horrible Covers

Posted by Unrepentant Escapist


October 29, 2009 -- 5:23 p.m.

A new reader to Jenn's World (welcome!) pointed out a pretty good example of U.S. v. U.K. cover art. I've mentioned this a couple of times--they're so often completely different.

This is one example of where the U.K. cover kicks our collective butts. To the left is Final Empire, the first book in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series.

Honestly, this cover is so awesome, I'm thinking about ordering it from the U.K. (along with my missing Janny Wurts book...curse you U.S. publishers!)

While I like some of the hardcover art from the U.S. release of Mistborn, but the paperbook art...ick. I saw it and literally said: "That cover must be from a Buffy the Vampire spinoff novel."

Because that's what it looks like. Honestly.

Anyway, I now reference what must be one of my favorite author poems about the horribleness of their covers. Coincidentally, it is not only the best, but the only one I've found...

There's a bimbo on the cover of my book
There's a bimbo on the cover of my book
She is blonde and she is sexy, she
Is nowhere in the text, she
Is the bimbo on the cover of my book

— Mike Flynn


(Have I posted that one already? If I have...suck it up)

Normally, or rather sometimes when I'm not buried in my own book (Godsplay) revising it, I do a Monday writing prompt. I missed that this week due to the signing party for the Gathering Storm (awesome! Buy it! Read it!) so I'll do one now.

WRITING PROMPT #8

TITLE: Cover it
GENRE: Any
TYPE: Description

Pick a story, any story, any genre: and describe the WORST cover imaginable that would be possibly created for it. And then describe the author's horror when he opens the box. 100 words or so. Post it in comments or keep it to yourself and snicker.

M example: J.R.R. Tolkein/Fellowship of the rings: A line of blonde, nubile elven dancers form a congo line with Tom Bombadil (complete with yellow hat/coat) and the Barrow Wights on top of the Prancing Pony's bar. Yes, Arwen (who looks like Pamela Anderson) is hanging from the ceiling in a cage.

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Word Count, Twilight

Posted by Unrepentant Escapist

October 28, 2009 -- 7:57 p.m.

Ah, the rosy daze of finishing the book begins to fade. but I woke up happy. I was thinking about the complexities of the Wheel of Time world and noticing both the Seachan and the Aiel use handtalk (at least among the Maidens). I wonder whether there was some hand language in the Age of Legends? If what's come down is a corrupted form, or if both cultures developed it simultaneously?

In the meantime, I've finally gotten around to reading Twilight. So far...I don't hate it. I don't like it either, but I don't hate it. Hate requires you to have passion, mostly I'm apathetic. I mildly liked it up until the appearance of Edward, but Edward is just so...dull. And so obviously meant to be "Dreamy" that I find myself opposed to him on general principle. And there's no stakes. I don't really care whether Bella gets Edward in the end. I am jealous of Bella's her boys, however. Where were all these guys when I was new in town? The only guy who talked to me on my first day of High School in a brand new city told me he was a mafia hit man and later got kicked out for having a threat list.

Anyway, Bella's no Sookie Stackhouse. That's all I'm saying.

Here's today's wordcount on Chapter One. My obsession with eyes continues.

Rachell 51, Bearatia 20, said 13, Mel 11, dark 9, eyes 9, "I 8, Elv 8, mud 8, Ravke 8, around 8, thought 7, smell 7, hair 7, Rachell's 7, face 7, trees 6, felt 6, fingers 6, Mel's 6, over 6, made 6, see 6, don't 6, Elvs 6, skin 5, behind 5, want 5, down 5, hand 5, through 5, snapped 5, feel 5, still 4, shrugged 4, matter 4, race 4, told 4, last 4, shoulders 4, father" 4, though 4, black 4, seemed 4, ears 4, blue 4. "but 4, "what 4, twilight 4 (really?), away 4, king 4, under 4, take 4, "you 4, hands 4, Lomari 4, just 4, smiled 4, human 4, teeth 4, back 4, "the 4, two 4, head 4, did 4, people 3, good 3, blood 3, think 3, rich 3, curled 3, blink 3, "my 3, inside 3, old 3, looked 3, falcon 3, something 3, soft 3, tongue 3, mad 3, because 3, lip 3, caught 3, asked 3, you're 3, skirt 3, roots 3, air 3, tangled 3, grandfather 3, moment 3, being 3, every 3, cheek 3, cold 3, sound 3, across 3, Amor 3, long 3, Weeper 3, night 3, time 3, grandfather's 3, "this 3, second 3 (huh, I didn't know I liked that word), words 3, father 3, didn't 3, I'm 3, one 3, bush 3, look 3, thin 3, fluttered 2, rain 2, knew 2, cool 2, Esculiar 2, top 2, dress 2, traced 2, breath 2, fresh 2, come 2, least 2, "if 2, thorn 2, sun 2. tall 2, Aehl-Darenn 2, stuck 2, dripped 2, flash 2, died 2, tickled 2 (odd juxtaposition), hit 2, swamp" 2, burning 2, glistened 2, cat 2, raised 2, grace 2, smelled 2, "stop 2, need 2, tooth 2, else 2, hiding 2, heir 2, forced 2, brush 2, Elvs' 2, girl 2, flinched 2, fresh" 2, mind 2, doing 2, know 2, emperor 2, boy 2, hours 2, weepers 2, dangling 2, sounded 2, worthy 2, except 2, healing" 2, we've 2, wanted 2, that's 2, moss 2, dreams 2, hungry 2, shoulder 2, feet 2, strange 2, knees 2, distaste 2, frantically 2, never 2, lips 2, ground 2, man 2, beneath 2, pushed 2, withered 2, soil 2, doesn't 2, dreamed 2, wouldn't 2, family 2, hard 2, managed 2, wasn't 2, how 2, say 2, maybe 2.

Looks like a fairly balanced set of words.

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Spoiler-Free WoT Review

Posted by Unrepentant Escapist

October 28, 2009 -- 6:47 a.m.

Finished the the Gathering Storm. In about 12 hours. Fantastic. There are minor quibbles, minor disappointments, occasional steps out of character, and definite jolts of stylistic choice that left me blinking, but nothing that denies the basic greatness of the work itself. There is no question that Tor chose a worthy heir. I think most of my annoyances would have existed even if Robert Jordan had written the work, so they don't stem from a new author.

I was right about the character POV swaps though. That was a little distracting. Felt like a water droplet being jolted around on a hot griddle. I wanted to nail the POV to the ground and FOCUS.

Still, he did a phenomenal job. This book will make you fall in love with the Wheel of Time all over again. I laughed, I cried (well, not really), I cheered.

I will have to pick up Brandon Sanderson's other books now and read them. That is the highest compliment you can give an author.

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