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afa · 08-15-2010, 04:28 AM

Finished The Hero of Ages, the final instalment in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy.

Good book and a good series overall. It's not on the level of excellence of Abercrombie, but I did like it. A couple of negatives are that there aren't really any 'grey' characters; pretty much everyone who looks like a good guy is a good guy and everyone who looks like a bad guy is a bad guy. Also, Sanderson has a tendency to drop in info-dumps now and again. They're not, thankfully, the multi-page monologue sort of info-dumps, just a paragraph or two, but some of them are unnecessary. Some of them (like the explanation of the Allomantic metals) are things which the reader would already know from reading the first two books, so I don't think including them was required; how many people, really, would be reading the third book without having read the first two?

Other than those minor quibbles, though, it's a well-written series. A good story (that reminded me, in parts, of Lost) and while the characters are not unpredictable, they're not caricatures either, and you do find yourself caring what happens to them.

All in all, I would probably give the series an 8/10.

So now I am, for the first time ever, reading two books concurrently. I generally prefer not to, to avoid any overlapping of stories in my mind, but I'm reading one in digital format which should help 'separate' them. Interestingly, they're both anthologies:

The New Space Opera (Paperback) - edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, this anthology of SF stories is my first foray into the world of Sci-Fi. I hope it's a good one, as my decision of whether to bother with SF novels in the future will be at least partly based on my enjoyment of this collection. Should be good; supposedly, ten out of the eighteen stories were on Locus's recommended reading list for 2007. Includes contributions by the likes of Peter F. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds, Dan Simmons, Robert Silverberg, and others.

Swords & Dark Magic (eBook) - edited by Lou Anders and Jonathan Strahan (again!) this is, as is obvious from the title, an anthology of Fantasy works, specifically Sword and Sorcery. Looking forward to this. Includes contributions by Steven Erikson, Glen Cook, Michael Moorcock, Scott Lynch, Robert Silverberg (again!), Joe Abercrombie (whose presence largely decided my purchase) and others.

08-15-2010, 04:28 AM	#5983
afa The Forgotten Posts: 1,136 Karma: 4689999 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Dubai Device: Kindle Paperwhite; Nook HD; Sony Xperia Z3 Compact	Finished The Hero of Ages, the final instalment in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. Good book and a good series overall. It's not on the level of excellence of Abercrombie, but I did like it. A couple of negatives are that there aren't really any 'grey' characters; pretty much everyone who looks like a good guy is a good guy and everyone who looks like a bad guy is a bad guy. Also, Sanderson has a tendency to drop in info-dumps now and again. They're not, thankfully, the multi-page monologue sort of info-dumps, just a paragraph or two, but some of them are unnecessary. Some of them (like the explanation of the Allomantic metals) are things which the reader would already know from reading the first two books, so I don't think including them was required; how many people, really, would be reading the third book without having read the first two? Other than those minor quibbles, though, it's a well-written series. A good story (that reminded me, in parts, of Lost) and while the characters are not unpredictable, they're not caricatures either, and you do find yourself caring what happens to them. All in all, I would probably give the series an 8/10. So now I am, for the first time ever, reading two books concurrently. I generally prefer not to, to avoid any overlapping of stories in my mind, but I'm reading one in digital format which should help 'separate' them. Interestingly, they're both anthologies: The New Space Opera (Paperback) - edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, this anthology of SF stories is my first foray into the world of Sci-Fi. I hope it's a good one, as my decision of whether to bother with SF novels in the future will be at least partly based on my enjoyment of this collection. Should be good; supposedly, ten out of the eighteen stories were on Locus's recommended reading list for 2007. Includes contributions by the likes of Peter F. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds, Dan Simmons, Robert Silverberg, and others. Swords & Dark Magic (eBook) - edited by Lou Anders and Jonathan Strahan (again!) this is, as is obvious from the title, an anthology of Fantasy works, specifically Sword and Sorcery. Looking forward to this. Includes contributions by Steven Erikson, Glen Cook, Michael Moorcock, Scott Lynch, Robert Silverberg (again!), Joe Abercrombie (whose presence largely decided my purchase) and others.