Nacido de Niebla

I'm not sure if that's the best translation, or even a very good one, but hey.

Anyway, sorry for the late post this week again. I have a VERY good excuse though: Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson. I've been reading it a lot. It is, without a doubt, one of the best books I have EVER read, and the reason I hadn't posted anything. It even pulled me away from playing City of Heroes.

Now, I loved Elantris. I could hardly put it down. Mistborn I just plain could not put down. I havn't had a book keep me up til 1 in the morning since the first time I read The Lord of Chaos. (my favorite book of the Wheel of Time series.) And even then... well, let's just say that I personally think that Mr. Jordan isn't quite as good as Brandon.

I use his first name because I do know the author. Not very well, but I have met him on several occations, and he and my brother were in at least one club together in college. He's a great guy, real nice.

But that's not the reason why I give such a glowing review. This book really is that good. The characters have depth; the action is quick-paced but not forced; the fight scenes are among the best I have ever read; etc. and so on. Much like in Elantris, the magic systems are well fleshed-out and are much like chess: Simple to learn, yet difficult to master. (For the characters in the story, not real people.) Plus the book has a little of everything: Thieving crews, fights between magic-users, plotical intrigue, suspense, and a cool little twist at the end. It took me to page 499 to figure it out, but I'd already been given all of the clues. But I'm slow that way. I'm sure other, more smarter people could figure it out faster than I did. (Yes, that was an intentional joke, not a typo.)

I figured Elantris would make a decent movie, I still do... but Mistborn, if done right, (like say, kinda what Peter Jackson did with LotR,) it could make for one of the best movie fantasy epics ever. I add the caveat because it's far too easy to take great source material and then completly violate it in the worst ways in order to turn it into a movie. (See any movie based on a video game, especially if "Ooh-Vey Bowl" is the directer. He's so horrible that I refuse to write his name correctly.) Anyway, Often when I read books I kind of "see" it in my mind as I read. Most books crate a bit of a fuzzy image and it just is something that accompanies the book. Other books, usually books I really like (not always, but usually,) invoke a much clearer image in my mind. Elantris is one of those books. But Mistborn... Mistborn felt like I was watching a movie, and the words were really just more like subtitles. You know? It's hard for me to describe, and it seems a bit paradoxical, but to me, the words created the images so clearly in my mind that it was almost like I wasn't even reading said words, but peering into Brandon's mind*. But that's just the way I read books.
(*disclamer: individual results may vary.)

If I were to give numbered results to my reviews, Mistborn would get the rather cliched "11 points out of a possible 10." But since I DON'T give numbered results, I'm just going to say: "Go out and buy as many copies of this book as you can. Then, if you don't want all of them, give some away to friends, so they can also share in the wonderful awesomeness that is this book."





So, did you hear about Pluto? A bunch of eggheads voted to make it no longer a planet. What's with that? What am I supposed to do with my Mnemonic "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" phrase? End with "Nine"? Whatever happened to tradition? Sure, I don't think that they should be adding all of those extra "mini-planets" even though one of them is bigger than pluto. It's our solar system too! Don't we get a vote? I never voted to take out Pluto. I never even had the chance! Why not bring this up to a vote of the people, not eliteist eggheads who never give us a chance. We may not get everything they talk about, but I think we can understand talk about planetary size and whatnot.

Freeking eggheads. Think they knows everything. Thinks they's smarter than I is. I'ma show them! (Yes, once again this was a joke. Crud, ain't nobody can take a joke anymore.) (Well, the last paragraph was a joke, not the whole "voting about Pluto" thing.)