Alex C. Telander's Blog, page 56
July 18, 2013
“The Rithmatist” by Brandon Sanderson (Tor, 2013)
To spend a day in the mind of Brandon Sanderson would be a truly awesome adventure. It’s good that he’s such a hard-working writer and brings out multiple books a year, so readers get to enjoy his complex and fascinating story ideas. He does it again in The Rithmatist, creating a unique world, with an incredible magic system, some compelling characters, and a story that quickly becomes a favorite.
This is not the United States you are familiar with; this is a different world. There is the United Isles, consisting of a massive collection of many islands, each named with their own peoples and ways; some names are familiar like Texas, Wyoming and Montana; others are enticingly alien, such as the Californian Archipelago, Crockett, Georgiabama, Canadia, and New France. On a number of these islands are Rithmatic Academies, where Rithmatists train and are taught to become skilled warriors to join the battle, and defend against The Tower on the island of Nebrask. Our story takes place on the island of New Britannia, at the Armedius Academy.
More than anything in his life, Joel would like to be a Rithmatist, but during his inception ceremony, things didn’t go right and he wasn’t given the Rithmatic power. Rithmatists are those who have the power to give life to chalk shapes, and chalk drawings known as chalkings. A Rithmatist’s first line of defense against enemy chalkings is a perfect circle drawn around them which the chalkings will attack, but the more perfect the circle is, the stronger defense the Rithmatist has. If a portion of the circle isn’t perfectly curved, it is a weakness that the chalkings soon tear through it. There are many circles of defense that can be drawn to aid and protect a Rithmatist, named after their creator.
As for chalkings, they can be just about anything the Rithmatist can conceive of: a spearman, a tiger, a unicorn, a monster; the more detailed and complex the chalking is, the stronger it will be. They answer to simple commands, usually movement, a direction, and to attack. And when a Rithmatist is in a duel, which is an important part of training at the academies, it becomes a complicated trial of choosing the right defense that will protect the Rithmatist, but also give him or her a strong offense with chalkings.
The first chalkings began many millennia ago, it is thought from cave drawings, but then there were the wild chalkings, of unknown creation, that attack, harm and kill anyone, be they Rithmatist or ordinary human. The United Isles was a scary place back then, but now these wild chalkings have been kept secured within The Tower, but it’s necessary to have a formidable army of Rithmatists to keep up the defenses to hold these chalkings back. This is the most important role of the Rithmatist.
But getting back to Joel, he isn’t a Rithmatist. He spends his days at the academy, doing his regular classes at a mediocre level and wanting to learn as much about the world of Rithmatists as he possibly can. His father was a chalkmaker who had supposedly discovered a new form of defense, but this information was lost when he died, and whenever Joel asks his mother about it, she ignores him and continues her job of janitor at the academy.
The problem is that students have started disappearing, important Rithmatists from rich families, and nobody knows who is doing it and whether they’re even still alive. A single professor is chosen to solve this mystery, working with the police, and Joel is helping as he’s the professor’s assistant for the summer. This is his chance to learn more about Rithmatics and to hopefully help these kidnapped students.
The Rithmatist is one of those great stories that just sucks you in and never lets go. Together with the unique topography and fascinating magic system in a quasi-steampunk world using steam and other unusual forms to make everything run smoothly. It is a believe world, one in which the reader may be happy to live in, but also fear that distant island of Nebrask where The Tower stands, as the many wild chalkings attack and claw at the weakening defenses, looking to break through and kill everyone.
Originally written on June 12, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.
To purchase a copy of The Rithmatist from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
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July 16, 2013
BOOK NEWS: Rowling’s Psuedonym, EBook Clubs, Gaiman Goes For Gold and More!
“The Cuckoo’s Calling” Secret Author
Turns out J. K. Rowling has secretly written and published another book under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
Truly Novel Bookstores
The WSJ on some of the greatest bookstores on the planet.
B&N Shakeup
Barnes & Noble gets a new CEO as time becomes tougher for the remaining bookstore chain giant.
“Mortal Instruments” Clothing
Hot Topic cashes in on young adult fantasy series with tie-in fashion line.
July 13, 2013
Bookbanter Column: Sanderson’s Laws
You know you’ve made it in your genre when you have laws of magic named after you, and Brandon Sanderson does have two laws of magic, though in his case he came up with them and has written essays and made recordings about them, they have gone on to become popular and accepted laws for magic systems in the fantasy genre.
Sanderson has been writing epic fantasy since he was a teenager, and wrote a large number of books before he got his first one published. He has gone on to publish a number of standalone novels, as well as a trilogy and the first tome in an epic ten-book series. He has also written young adult series and novels, as well as short stories and novellas all set within the fantasy genre.
So he’s put down a lot of words in the world of fantasy, and has also talked a lot about the genre and writing, and has brought a wealth of experience and knowledge to it, easily making him one of the more respected and best fantasy writers writing today.
July 11, 2013
BabyBanter: Lets Get This Thing Started
I have a little one on the way; he’s due at the end of the month, though we have feeling he might arrive a little late. I was born nine days late, but then being born after your due date is just fine, as it means you’re getting that much more nutrition and goodness from mommy.
My life is about to go through some big changes and once our little guy is born, I’m not sure what my blogging schedule is going to be like, but I’m hoping that if I have to cut down on posts due to lack of sleep and time and looking after a new little bundle of joy, it will be down from three to one post a week. We’ll just have to see.
I’m entering an entirely new chapter in my life and have little experience in it other than what I’ve read and studied so far; I’m sure the real thing is going to be a shock (both surprising and wonderful) in every way, but I’m hoping this reading gives me a solid base to work with, plus with what I’ve learned from pregnancy classes.
So I thought wouldn’t it be interesting to blog about, thus BabyBanter.
I’m not sure how frequently I’ll be posting to BabyBanter, and whether the little guy will always let me, but I know I’m going to learn a lot from this and its going to be a wonderful, amazing journey, and if I can impart some of what I learn along the way, I figure it can only help.
As well as sharing plenty of embarrassing, hilarious occurrences and circumstances at my expense that our little guy no doubt finds greatly amusing.
Let’s see how it goes.
July 9, 2013
Book News: 100 Greatest American Novels, Orwell Explains ‘Animal Farm’, Fictional Hot Spots & More!
Who Spends in the Most Time Reading in the World?
The answers are quite surprising. Yes the United States is on there; there’s hope yet.
China Scolds Amazon
China is scolding Amazon for selling counterfeit books through it’s site.
Why Apple is Still Fighting the DOJ
Apple Inc. is the only one still fighting the Department of Justice over ebook price collusion. Here’s why.
Paper Books vs. Ebooks
Another interesting article on paper versus machine.
July 4, 2013
“Homeland” by Cory Doctorow (Tor, 2013)
After the traumatic events of the bestselling Little Brother, Cory Doctorow returns with the sequel in Homeland, as Marcus Yallow finds himself in a harsh world where the government is always watching and waiting. His time being detained has scarred him in some ways — though not as bad as some of his friends — so that he is now less trusting than ever. But he also knows that while the truth may not set or keep him free, getting it out to the masses is more important.
Homeland opens with an entertainingly fantastic chapter where Marcus is at Burning Man for the first time in his life, which Doctorow describes with such detail that it seems as if he may have been once or twice himself. It culminates in a Dungeons & Dragons session with the founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and actor Wil Wheaton. Marcus also comes across an old enemy and comes into possession of a flash drive with some very incendiary information.
Back in San Francisco, life is the same with Marcus’s parents out of work, as well as himself, with everyone trying to get by in this terrible economic climate. Marcus gets a job offer he can’t refuse: working as the webmaster and tech guy for a candidate running as an independent for the California Senate, looking to change the world and make it a better place. So things start to look up for a little while, but Marcus has to make the decision about what to do with the flash drive. It contains a torrent address and password that lets him download gigs of information on the corruption in the government, hard proof of what they have perpetrated, how they have tortured, under the guise of protecting the American people. Marcus will have to decide if his safety and health are worthy sacrifices for getting this information out to the people.
Doctorow keeps the thrill running just like he did with Little Brother, putting Marcus into tight spot after tight spot, using his friends when he can, but also knowing the risks of putting them in danger. Doctorow also does a great job of using cutting edge technology to make the story feel a little futuristic, but at the same time completely plausible. Fans will be sucked into Homeland and kept going until the last page, hoping for a possible future continuation to this chapter in the story of Marcus Yallow.
Originally written on April 27, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.
To purchase a copy of Homeland from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
July 2, 2013
Book News: Locus Winners, Stephen King Talks Two Domes, Remembering Richard Matheson, & More!
Stephen
Stephen King on why Under the Dome TV show is different from the book and how he feels about it.
When Kickstarter Goes Bad
The right move in taking down a terrible Kickstarter campaign.
Is it Catcher in the Rye?
An interesting article from the Atlantic on how every new coming of age literary book doesn’t have to be Catcher in the Rye.
Remembering Richard Matheson
On the passing of one of horror’s greats, Richard Matheson.
June 29, 2013
“The World Until Yesterday: What We Can Learn From Traditional Societies” by Jared Diamond (Viking Press, 2013)
After the bestsellerdom of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs and Steel and the popular Collapse, the talented anthropologist Jared Diamond returns with his long-awaited next book, The World Until Yesterday. But things have to be long-awaited for Diamond, as he doesn’t just keep churning out non-fiction books, but decides on what message he wants to tell and teach to his readers. He also spends a lot of his time lecturing, giving talks, and traveling around the world, as well as most importantly, to New Guinea where he does his research and has been visiting since the 1960s.
In The World Until Yesterday, Diamond goes into detail about what a number of traditional societies from around the world do and how they act and react when it comes to things like raising a child, religion, conflict resolution, treatment of the elderly and many other important subjects we all have to deal with in our lives. The traditional groups Diamond focuses on are: New Guinean tribes, Australian tribes, Eurasian tribes, African tribes, North American tribes, and South American tribes.
As with his other books, Diamond is not looking to tell the reader what to think or believe, but merely to illustrate what these traditional societies have done for many centuries, and what they continue to do, and what we can possibly learn from this. This includes the subject of child rearing and always keeping the child close in a skin to skin contact in the early years of birth, instead of putting the child in a stroller and away from the parent; or treating the elderly in a more respected manner, than putting them away in elderly care home; or having a detailed system to deal with conflict situations so parties that have suffered harm can be correctly compensated. Again, Diamond is not saying that the first world should adopt all these measures to better their society, but to learn from these and perhaps apply some of the techniques to help improve their lives.
As with any Diamond book, The World Until Yesterday is not an easy read, and takes some long focus and concentration to read through, but at the end of it the reader is filled with a new understanding about the world and how many traditional societies live and breathe in their own lifetimes. Diamond uses a poignant framing device of his boarding a plane in Los Angeles to New Guinea and talks about the world he is about to leave, and the one he is about to enter; and then does the opposite at the end of the book, leaving this traditional society he has become a part of for some time, and returning to the modern one in California. As with any Diamond book, it is an enlightening and fascinating story that is well worth the read.
Originally written on June 12, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.
To purchase a copy of The World Until Yesterday from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
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June 27, 2013
“Penny Arcade Volume 9: Passion’s Howl” by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (Oni Press, 2013)
The dynamic duo Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, aka Gabe and Tycho, aka Penny Arcade are back! In volume 9, Passion’s Howl, they collect all their strips from 2008, plus lots of extra goodies, and of course, Jerry’s frothy, wet commentary to each strip that just adds to the experience.
In 2008, Penny Arcade was firmly established as the gurus of video game critique and commentary. In this collection it also becomes apparent that they don’t just need to be talking about video games to be funny, but their humor works on many levels and subjects, whether it is ordinary everyday things, or the fact that these men are adults now with families and responsibilities. Penny Arcade also has the knack to comment on cutting edge Internet developments, such as the strip “Le Twittre” from April 23 about Twitter and why anyone would ever want to have a Twitter account. Now, five years later, Gabe still doesn’t have one and stands by his decision.
The comic also gets meta at some points, as the pair happily make fun of themselves and their world with “Operation Myriad” on October 31, with a host of new video game releases and a new expansion to World of Warcraft, forcing them to create an elaborate schedule to get all these new games played. Or the fact that ping pong is an important game in their lives and at their work with the rest of their staff, competing with rival staffs from other companies, and in the artistic and hilarious “Paint the Line” series, they were able to address this.
Fans will have to add this latest volume to their collection, and if you pick this up, wanting to try Penny Arcade for the first time, you will be quickly swept away on a great and long journey that is still continuing to this day.
Originally written on June 11, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.
To purchase a copy of Penny Arcade Volume 9: Passion’s Howl from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
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June 25, 2013
Book News: Unique Libraries, Most Hated Books, DRM Doom & More!
Truly Unique Libraries – Part I & Part II
See the libraries of your dreams and some you never could’ve imagined.
Remembering Vince Flynn
On the sad passing of bestselling mystery author, Vince Flynn.
Kobo Chases Nook Down
In the UK there is an ebook pricing war going on between Nook and Kobo.
Musings From the Margins
Famous authors’ notes in the margins of their own books.
