Karl's Reading List

Published by Dragonsteel Entertainment/Tor Books: New York, NY, 2008. The third book in the 'Mistborn' trilogy: ' The Final Empire '; ' The Well of Ascension '; ' The Hero of Ages .'   It wasn't long until I got out book three (spoilers for book two will follow). The Hero of Ages wraps up the first Mistborn trilogy, following Elend, Vin and their allies as they seek to defeat the ever-expanding reach of the mists, as well as facing the increasing power of Ruin, a dark 'god' who Vin inadvertently released from its prison in the second book. Now that Elend is a Mistborn Allomancer as well, he is finally able to be more hands-on in the warfare side of the struggle, and the dynamics between he and Vin are more complicated than before, but also more trusting. This is particularly important because Ruin is able to hear whatever someone speaks, meaning that the duo must occasionally keep their plans secret even from one another. Between books two a...

Published by Tor Books: New York, NY, 2006. The first book in the 'Mistborn' trilogy: ' The Final Empire '; ' The Well of Ascension '; ' The Hero of Ages .' Brandon Sanderson is an author I have heard about for a long time, without ever having read his books, until now. With fantasy fiction - and particularly fantasy fiction written for adults - some books can get quite dark or sordid, and so I can be wary committing to a large book by an untested author. However, recently YouTube began recommending to me a series of lectures about writing given by Brandon Sanderson, and as I have been listening my way through them (very interesting and helpful advice for a wannabe author like myself) I have become more interested in giving his books a go - particularly once I learned he was Mormon and therefore has relatively conservative morals. So I got out Mistborn from the library. And I really liked it. Set in a world where the 'Lord Ruler' has reigned for ...

Published by Puffin Books/Penguin Group: London, England: 1994 (1990). First published in French, 1872. My second Jules Verne book on this blog. I began reading this one, was surprised by the level of humour involved, and decided to keep it to read with Elise once our previous book had been finished. I'm glad I did. Most of us probably have some idea of the plot of Eighty Days , probably through having seen a movie version - the most recent one being the Jackie Chan one - and there are certainly a number of the major beats of those films in the book. But, as is the case with many adaptations of older adventure books, a movie is developed to be more 'cinematic', and therefore bigger in scale than its source material. In terms of Eighty Days, that means that the movie versions cram in more locations and more modes of transport, whereas the book mostly focusses on passenger liner ships and trains. Phileas Fogg also has carefully plotted his course to be the most direct route ...

Published by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd: London, 2007 (1912). A good friend of mine is an avid reader of Westerns and has recommended Zane Grey to me as an author he enjoys, but this is the first time I have read any of his works. The story of Riders of the Purple Sage is fascinating to read in our modern world, as it chooses the make a Mormon community the villains - something that feels like it would be less acceptable today. Indeed, the movie versions that have been produced from this book (none of which I have seen) have almost universally changed the villains from Mormons to a more "acceptable" group of people. There are two main storylines going on in the novel. In the first we are introduced to Jane Withersteen, a woman attempting to keep her ranch operating after the death of her father, who has to fend off the advances of the local Mormons, particularly Elder Tull, who wants Jane to become his third wife. Jane gets help from the infamous Jim Lassiter, known for...