Archive for March, 2012|Monthly archive page
Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Paul
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2012/03/30
date added: 2012/03/30
shelves: fantasy, novel
review:
I’ve been listening to the Writing Excuses podcast for close to a year now, hearing Brandon Sanderson talk about his writing process and taking advice from him. What I haven’t done is read anything he’s written. I suppose Sanderson is most well known for being the writer tapped to take over the Wheel of Time series after Robert Jordan passed away. I tried WoT and it nearly broke me—after five and a half books—of ever wanting to read epic fantasy again. (Well, that and the initially good but increasingly awful Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind)
But last year I picked up A Game of Thrones and good ol’ George R. R. Martin restored my faith in fantasy a bit, enough for me to suck in my gut and give Mistborn (and Mr. Sanderson) a try.
Boy, am I ever glad that I did.
It’s going to be hard to talk about this book without gushing like a The Hunger Games fangirl, because I loved it so very much. The set up, while perhaps a bit overstated in the book jacket copy and some synopses I found online, is pretty refreshing in itself: A thousand years ago a hero of prophecy went on a quest to drive a dark force from the land. But instead of heralding an age of freedom and hope, that hero became a tyrannical oppressor, immortally ruling with an iron fist, segregating the populace into pampered nobility and downtrodden, broken peasant class.
In a way, then, this book isn’t your typical epic fantasy. There isn’t a lengthy, continent-spanning voyage. There are no prophecies to fulfill. There is no mysterious, plot-busting macguffin. That stuff has already happened by the time the book begins. Instead, this is more of a heist novel, full of political intrigue, elaborate schemes, subterfuge and grifts on top of grifts. But the setting is shifted to this semi-familiar fantasy realm and instead of your usual “it does whatever the author wants” magic to provide convenient escapes as needed, Sanderson has created Allomancy, a ridiculously well-crafted system of metallurgic-oriented superhumanity that, in practice, facilitates a very Matrix-like vibe to the action, of which there is plenty.
The struggle of the principal cast to execute their plan to overthrow the evil Lord Ruler combined with this clever magical construct might, perhaps, have been enough to create a gripping tale by themselves. But Sanderson isn’t content with that. He also creates a rich and detailed world, revealed only in part through the central location of Luthadel, and then populates it with at least a dozen memorable characters, plus plenty of compelling backstory for each. I absolutely love it when it seems like authors dumped every good idea they ever had into a single work and it brims over with fresh concepts, new twists on old ideas and fun little details.
On top of this, Sanderson writes with an assured voice, capturing the distinct personalities of his two main characters (the lovable, mistrusting protagonist, Vin, and the master to Vin’s apprentice, the flawed but inspiring Kelsier) in their respective point of view chapters. Even more impressive is that he is able to inject life and vitality into secondary characters, both with and without direct POVs, such as Sazed, Vin’s wise and surprisingly capable steward, and Elend, Vin’s nobleborn object of affection. Most impressively in the writing is Sanderson’s ability to block out and describe action sequences in a clear, exhilarating fashion. Many writers struggle to get the pacing and detail just right to convey combat (especially supernatural combat) in a way that doesn’t leave the reader confused and Sanderson comes as close as you could ask to creating a high-octane special effects sequence from a movie in your head. It’s really a treat to read, especially since he applies this same cinematic flourish to every corner of the book, from stuffy noble balls with their political subterfuge to training sessions to exposition about the history of the empire.
There are maybe a few extremely minor quibbles (Sanderson seems overly fond of the word “maladroit,” for example) but they don’t matter. The only thing better than reading this book is knowing that there are two sequels waiting for me. I adored this book and I’d recommend it to anyone who likes gripping, exciting, character-driven stories with strong writing. I have book two on my To-Read list already and it’s going to a challenge for me to select anything else to read next.
Cowboys And Aliens (2011)
Cowboys And Aliens
★★★☆☆
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Written by: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus, Steve Oedekerk and Hawk Ostby
Based on the Graphic Novel by: Scott Mitchell Rosenberg
I like the premise of Cowboys And Aliens: Take a fairly stock alien invasion story and set it in an unexpected historical timeframe and watch the sparks fly. Of course, the movie isn’t as straightforward as that, and it seems to suffer badly from too many writers syndrome. Included in the fairly simple, promising premise is an amnesic hero, a mystery woman who can handle herself, a grizzled war veteran with a grudge against the hero, an unlikely buddy-cop formula, a young boy in a coming of age tale, several different rescue-the-beloved-family-member subplots, a proxy-son/proxy-father dynamic coupled with a real-son-who-is-a-disappointment and a burgeoning love story. If it sounds like a ridiculously over-complicated plot, it is, unequivocally.
It’s not that Cowboys And Aliens is bad, it’s just that with so many secondary characters and overlapping plot lines, the movie spends an insane amount of the two full hour running time dealing with backstories and relationship hassles and standoffs and squabbles that the titular aliens only seem to ever show up when the writers didn’t want to have to sort any of it out for real. As such, the aliens become sort of a plot macguffin, conveniently timing their attack at market-research-driven intervals when the audience starts to get bored realizing that there isn’t all that much mystery to Jake Lonergan (played with full-on damaged hero solemnity by Daniel Craig) and there’s not that much interesting about Colonel Dolarhyde (played with gruff, Air Force One stateliness by Harrison Ford). As in Tron Legacy, the standout is the surprisingly watchable Ella Swenson (played close to the vest by a confident Olivia Wilde) and Sam Rockwell makes the best of a necessarily under-developed Doc in his few real scenes, but by the time we learn the truth about Lonergan and find out the secrets Ella is hiding, the movie has started to wear out its welcome and I found myself slipping into impatient summer blockbuster watcher mode, hoping for something to explode again so I could stop pretending to truly care about it.
In the visceral, violent, special effects department, Cowboys And Aliens delivers eventually, but it’s only in aggregate until the final confrontation. The real problem is that Cowboys And Aliens misses the mark on two key points that it could have focused on to much better effect. One is that the film takes itself too seriously. I realize that with a semi-campy premise the risk of becoming a big, stupid action movie like Men In Black is high, but Cowboys And Aliens is far too somber for its own good. It’s hard to have fun watching a movie that isn’t itself a lot of fun. The other is suspense, which the film comes close to generating a couple of times but mostly sidesteps in favor of ever more inclusions from the vast database over at TV Tropes.
In the end, Cowboys And Aliens was okay. It wasn’t great, it was definitely overwrought and missed the mark a bit, but it has potential as a franchise and a follow up with less talking heads and more Shootout At The OK Corona would be something I’d love to watch.
