As soon as I finished the first book in this series, "The Name of the Wind" while we were in Hungary I bought the second one as soon as I finished the first one.  So, this is the second book in The Kingkiller Chronicles. 

Okay, the synopsis:

Our young Kvothe is at the University. He is studying Naming as well as other important things an Arcanist would use (sygaldry, sympathy, languages, medicine etc). No, I must go back, this is a frame story. Kvothe is a mild mannered innkeeper who goes by the name Kote. He is in the second day of his telling of his life story. The Chronicler is recording everything, and Bast (a demon), Kote's attractive assistant is listening to the story of his teacher, a story he has never heard before. Kote continues the story of Kvothe at the University. That's where it starts. It doesn't stay there. This story follows Kvothe through some local trials, through a year off from the University, through the high court of Severen, through learning from the Adem, a trip to the Faerie realm, ... and learning the name of the wind. 

It's so hard to write a proper synopsis of long books because so much happens and I don't want to give anything away. There are so many important things to mention, but at the same time, I need to keep those secret until you read them. 

Le sigh. Let's move on to the review:

Love. I am in love with these books. I want to reread them. The third one is scheduled to come out in 2014 and I don't know if I can wait that long. I may have to reread the books before the third one comes out. I mentioned this in the review of "The Name of the Wind", but it bears repeating. I love the way he describes very specific feelings. Here are a few examples: 

Sometimes it is a very specific instance, but sometimes its so simple. Not only that, he uses a lot of examples from nature. 

It is not often that I highlight sections of a book I'm reading for fun, but there are just some wonderful gems. I want to write them out for you, but I would rather have you read this book. 

I love the characters. Even when I don't like them, I love them. I am just so enthralled by Patrick Rothfuss' story-telling abilities. I want to read everything he has ever written. Mostly, I want to read the third book in this series. I love that Kvothe is this charming and well intentioned young guy, but he has this darkness about him that people can see.  

I love the language in the book. I especially love the importance placed on words and names. It's more than just knowing a name. "To name a thing, you must understand it entire. A stone or a piece of wind is difficult enough. A person..." I would love to believe that I would enjoy learning the Adem language, but I think I would have a really hard time. It is a nuance based language. One word could imply so many different things. It would take an impressive amount of time to become even reasonably conversational. 

I could go on and on about what I liked. Maybe it would be easier to talk about what I didn't like. The problem is that I can't think of anything off hand. The closest I could come to putting something on the "didn't like" list is when I knew Kvothe was walking into trouble of his own doing. Those moments I had to put the book down because I didn't want to see the trouble he was causing himself. That's not really a con for the book. That's actually a pro for the book. The author made me love the characters so much that  I didn't want to see them being self-destructive. I just love these books. 

I'm not going to say if I would recommend it or not. I'm going to tell you to read it. That is all. 

This is the first book in the Kingkiller Chronicles. 

I love discovering people who have similar book interests as me. When I was in Minnesota, I got to stay with a good friend of mine, and her husband and I had some good book chats. He recommended that I read this book. I believe I had mentioned books that place an emphasis on the power of words. I think I had just finished reading "The Wretched of Muirwood". 

Let's break it down:

This is a frame story. The frame is the story of an innkeeper, Kote, and his assisstant, Bast. A Chronicler comes into town searching for the legend known as Kvothe. Kvothe has so many legends and so much history... 

Kote is Kvothe, and his assistant is a demon. The Chronicler agrees to spend 3 days to fully write Kvothe's story. The first day is the first book. It follows Kvothe's childhood and his influences. He traveled with his family and a caravan of musicians and performers. He learned to play the lute and knows all the great tales. Tragedy strikes the caravan, and Kvothe is the only one left alive. He struggles to survive and lives on the streets of Trebon for a while. He decides to enroll in the University to become an Arcanist. He meets a girl on his way to the Arcanum (University) named Denna. Though she is not always present, she is always in Kvothe's mind. Kvothe is forever hungry for information, especially information concerning the Chandrien, the murderers of his troupe. He is also impatient and often gets into trouble because of it. He is clever and intelligent. The story itself contains Chandrien, dragons, drugs, feuds, music, and laughter. I won't ruin it for you.

Review time:

I am in love with this book... no, this series! As soon as I finished this book, I bought the second one. There is a word aspect in this story. There is definitely a power in words in the story. Kvothe tries to learn the name of the wind, and it is not as simple as he thinks it will be. Maybe his impatience will ruin his chances at learning it. Anyway, I love frame stories, but usually I find that I like one part of the frame than the other. Not so with this book. I love both parts of the story. I love Kote as an innkeeper with a hidden past. I love learning about young Kvothe and how the legends were made. I am 100% in love with how he describes feelings. When he says something feels like something else, he is very specific. Here's an example: 

I had a hard time putting this book down, this was difficult because we were in Hungary while I was in the middle of the book. I'll be honest with you, as we wandered around the city I would occasionally think of this book. Would I recommend it to people? Wholeheartedly. I love this story. I want to share it with people. I want to talk to people about it. My plea: Read this book so I can talk to you about it. Thank you. 

"The Great Hunt" is the second book in the "Wheel of Time" series. There characters are much the same in this book as they were in the last one. The first book in the series is "Eye of the World", and I have already reviewed it. 

In the first book, the Horn of Valere (when sounded, the dead heroes will come to the aid of he who sounded the horn, "The grave is no bar to my call") is located. The story starts out in Fal Dara where our characters rest. The Amyrlin Seat, the woman who is in charge of all aes sedai (women who can channel the One Power), rides to Fal Dara to meet with Rand, Mat, and Perrin (a wolf brother, which is a man who can communicate with wolves). These three boys are ta'veren, which means that the pattern of time and its events are woven around them, and they can even change the pattern if they are strong enough. While in Fal Dara, the Horn is stolen and so is Mat's tainted dagger (from Shadar Logoth, a place so corrupted that even the trollocs fear to enter) by Padan Fain, a darkfriend. Once Padan Fain takes the dagger, the evil of it seeps into him and he becomes an abomination. Without the dagger, however, Mat starts to get very sick. There is a bond between Mat and the dagger that only the aes sedai can break, but Mat must go to Tar Valon (the white tower, where aes sedai are trained). Rand, Mat, and Perrin go searching for Mat's dagger and the Horn of Valere. Egwene and Nynaeve go to Tar Valon to be trained. 

While in the tower, Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne (Daughter Heir of Andor), and Min are sneaked out of the tower on a "secret mission" and lead through the Ways by an Aes Sedai named Liandrin. On the other side they are ambushed. Egwene is captured and put into an a'dam, which acts as a sort of collar that is controlled by the sul'dam (leash holder). The idea is that women who can channel are to be controlled or destroyed. The woman in the collar cannot do anything that the sul'dam does not want her to. Nynaeve and Min escape capture, so they try to rescue Egwene. 

Review:

Well, this was a fun read... or rather listen. I am listening to the audiobook. I find it easier to get through the descriptions. There is a lot of talk of clothes and locations, and I enjoy it. Sometimes it can be a little too much. That being said, the story is fantastic. There characters are relatable, engaging, and fun. I want to learn what happens next, and I want to see what the characters will choose. I can only imagine that a writer would have a hard time trying to capture the lives of so many different characters. I am wondering why I never finished the series. Maybe this will be the time. I really enjoy the way that Robert Jordan writes. I like how he uses analogies that relate to the characters he's written. I'm always confused by the titles of the books. I have a hard time telling the books apart based on the titles. 

I think Robert Jordan's attention to detail is wonderful, but can be distracting. I love his loyalty to the characters, and how he keeps them true to themselves. I love the whole side story of the Seanchan and am interested to see how this story will progress. 

I'm not going to state if I would recommend this book or not because it is the second book in the series. Perhaps at the end of this series I will state if I recommend it or not. I already started listening to the third book, and it's kinda hard to keep them separate in my brain. 

What is a "serial story"? It's a story that has been broken down into different sections. This was written as a sort of online journal. The reader is supposed to read a different entry each day. The story is about a group of bushwhackers who get lost in the northwestern United States wilderness. They are forced to survive through bad weather, sickness, injury, loss, death etc. At the end of the entries there was some online discussion included that was directed at the authors of the entries. 

Oh goodness... the review:

You never actually find out if the story is true. I don't think it really matters. I like survival stories, but was not interested in reading this in segments. The story, if you look at it as a story, is an interesting read. It was really hard for me to tell the gender of the narrator at the beginning. I had a hard time separating which person belonged to which name. The writing was supposed to be written like a journal, but it ended up reading like a novel. I feel like the whole concept of this serial story defeated itself by not being what the writer wanted it to be. All in all, I would say that this was confusing to read and it would be much better as a novel. I appreciate the idea and the creativity that goes with it, but I just don't think it worked. If you are interested in reading a survival story, give it a go. I won't recommend it, but I will talk about it. It's not a go-out-and-read-it-immediately story. It's a if-you-really-have-nothing-better-to-do-with-your-time type story. 

This is the third novella in the Kali McAlister series, The Flashgold Chronicles. 

The series follows a young Kali McAlister around. She is an inventor and mechanic extraordinaire. Her late father held the secret to making flashgold, which is  a programmable metal. Programmed correctly, a small piece of flashgold can make a hammer strike without anyone holding it. A larger piece can be programmed to do far more complex tasks. Unfortunately, the secret to flashgold died with Kali's father. So, this installment of the Flashgold Chronicles tells the tale of Kali and Cedar. Kali is trying to build an airship, and Cedar is a bounty hunter looking for the man who framed him for murder, Cudgel Conrad. Kali helps Cedar in his search, but something else starts happening in town. Tribal women start getting murdered. As they search for Cudgel, Kali is kidnapped by the murderer. Shenanigans ensue. There are some awesome steampunk contraptions and inventions, there's action, adventure, and angst. 

Review time:

Like the other novellas in the series, it is not written well, but it has all the elements to be entertaining. There is one thing I love about these stories: they are not romances. There is attraction and angst between Kali and Cedar, but for the most part, they don't even kiss. They flirt, but it's not over the top. 

I also still love that the stories take place in Canada. I love northern stories. I feel like there aren't enough of them in the world. 

As usual, the contraptions are one of my favorite parts. There are always new ones, and clever ways to use the ones we've seen before. I would like there to be more novellas in this series. Sure, I would recommend this series to people who are looking for a short,  entertaining read. If you're looking for substance, this probably isn't the place to start. It's fun and creative, though, and it's worth a look. 

I don't really know what to say about this story. Let's start with the rundown:

The story is in a Victorian type setting, which is why I think they called it "steampunk". It's not steampunk. The main character is a woman who runs a photography studio  with a box camera (you know, the one with the drape that goes over the photographer and the flash stand etc). She starts noticing these ghostly figures showing up in certain pictures. The figures focus around certain individuals in the picture, and within days, that person dies. She writes to her wealthy and powerful uncle who sends someone to investigate the phantoms. There is some alchemy, magic, supernatural elements, and romance. 

Now to the review:

I was not looking forward to this review. I was surprised to find that this story was leading up to a bawdy romance. I was hoping for steampunk contraptions and inventions, but there weren't many and they weren't focused on. I feel like the romance was forced and that the male lead was difficult to understand. I think he was supposed to be the strong and silent, Mr. Darcy  type, but there were strange moments in the story when he would giggle. It was very strange. I wouldn't really recommend this story to people unless they were looking for a Victorian set romance with some supernatural elements. Since that doesn't really come up in conversation often, I can't imagine recommending this to anyone.