I don't understand book titles. I've noticed this with a lot of books I've read recently. Maybe it's just the books in series. Generally, the book title references the things that will be happening in the next book. The Sum of All Men is not really what this book is about at all. I feel bad because I can remember the names to some of my favorite fantasy books. I remember them as Book 3 or Day 2, never by their titles because the titles are confusing. This particular book is the first book in the Runelords Series. 

Anyway, let's talk about this book. I  have read it before, and I love the world. The idea is that each person can give a part of them to another person. Examples of this would be gifts of wit, stamina, metabolism, hearing, sight, grace, brawn, glamour, voice, etc. When a person has given an endowment of something, they lose it in themselves. If I were to give an endowment of voice, I would no longer be able to speak, but the person I gave my endowment to would have twice the power of Voice (volume, distance, persuasion, etc). I would not regain my voice until the person I had gifted my Voice to died. If I died, the person with my endowment would no longer have the extra power from me. You can't force someone to give you an endowment. The stronger your bond with the person you are doing this for, the stronger the gift. You can take an endowment from an animal, but it is frowned upon because you lose a little humanity when you do so. However, taking an endowment of scent from 1 dog would be far less damaging than the equivalent of taking endowments of scent from 50 people. The people that take endowments from dogs are called Wolf Lords. The people who take endowments from other people are called Rune Lords. An animal may also receive endowments. A horse can be given an endowment of stamina from another horse. Horses with endowments are called Force horses (generally stallions). This doesn't sound so bad, right? Wrong. Each endowment has a downside. If you give up your metabolism, you fall into a deep sleep until the person with your endowment dies. If you receive endowments of metabolism, you would move so fast that the smallest things could break your bones. Without extra stamina to heal you faster, you could die very quickly. So, it's not just a walk in the park. 

On top of this whole endowments thing, we have an "element of magic". I think I'm clever. What we really have is elemental magic. In this world there are Earth Wizards and Wardens, Water Wizards, Flameweavers, and I haven't discovered Air yet... if it is a part of these books, at least. Some people serve the Earth, some serve the Flame. You can only serve one. The two main elements in this book are Earth and Fire. Water makes a few appearances, but those are the main players. 

So, what is this story about. This story follows young Prince Gaborn Val Orden in his attempt to win the hand of the beautiful Princess Iome Sylvarresta. Unfortunately, a Wolf Lord, Raj Ahten attacks Sylvarresta's kingdom and romance is put on hold. Raj Ahten and his army of nomen, Invincibles (with numerous endowments each), frowth giants, Force Mastiffs, Force Stallions, and Flameweavers attempt to conquer the northern kingdoms before the reavers can attack. Reavers are strange spiderlike creatures that are quite large, some of which are capable of magic. Raj Ahten has taken thousands of endowments in an attempt to become the Sum of All Men. His hypothesis is that the Sum of All Men will live forever and his endowments will never fail, even if the dedicates (people who have given endowments) die. Well, the kings in the north aren't too fond of this idea. The problem is, one look at Raj Ahten and you would do anything he asks because of his numerous endowments of Glamour. So, our average looking prince ends up on an adventure. Death happens. Love happens. Earthy things happen. Underworldy flamey things happen. Castles fall. Death happens some more, and so does love. I won't go into too much detail because it's a fun read. 

Let me just get to the review. That's part of the problem with fantasy books, some can take a really long time to explain. It's worth it, and it really isn't as complicated as it sounds. For those of you that have the fortune of knowing me IRL, you know that for the last 6 months, I have been living in a book hangover. After reading the Kingkiller Chronicles, I haven't been able to get into another book. I think 6 months off is what it took to recover.  The downside to this is that the third book in that series hasn't come out yet, so when that comes out I will probably have another book hangover to deal with. Worth it. 

The writing in "The Sum of All Men" is good. There are moments when I really like it and moments when I don't. If anything, I find that the writing is a little too shallow. With a stronger word choice, I think it could have been a bit better. The story is excellent. It is engaging and kept me guessing. The world is wonderful. It's very relatable yet wondrous. I love thinking and talking about this world with other people. The romance... needs work. It's very fawning/frank. On one side it's very fawning and on the other, it's frank. An argument could be made for the fawning side, that the fawn-er is being influenced by greater powers. I'd accept that, sure. It's just a bit over the top for my tastes. 

There are a few series that I have no desire to continue though I enjoyed the first book. If I told you which series they were you would probably rend your clothes and cry out in anguish that I did not enjoy the series that is your favorite. Don't judge me and I won't judge you for saying that your favorite book is something like "The Giver". Just because I may not like a book doesn't mean I will think any less of you for liking it. I ask that you not think any less of me because I don't like a particular series. In fact, we could probably have an awesome conversation about the series that I don't enjoy and you love (or vice versa), so tell me about it. Just don't judge me. Back to the Runelords. This is a series that I would continue reading. I have to step away from it for now, but I would like to pick it up again soon. 

Would I recommend that you read this book? Sure, why not. I enjoyed it. You might too. If you don't, we can still have a conversation about it. Maybe we didn't like/liked the same things!

Since this is the fourth book in the series, I won't go into explanations of characters or places. There will be spoilers (especially if you haven't read the first 3 books). Let's see if I can sum this up for you. To make things fun, I'm going to do it in list form. 

Rand al'thor:
Callandor
Lanfear
Trollocs
Aiel
Aviendha
Rhuidean
Car'a'carn
Al'Cair Dal
Origins
Asmodean


Mat Cauthon:
Tear 
Trollocs
Aiel
Rhuidean
Door
Hanged
Tinkers
Al'Cair Dal

Perrin:
Tear
Trollocs
Faile
The Ways
Two Rivers
Wolf Dreams
Lord Goldeneyes
White Cloaks
Wedding
Trollocs

Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne:
Tear
Black Ajah
Tanchico
Thom Merrilin
Egeanin
Ter'angreal
Moghedien

Min and Siuan Sanche:
Tar Valon
Elmindreda
Violent Visions
Elaida
Siuan Stilled
Elaida Amyrlin
Escape
Gawyn
Logain



To be honest, I'm pretty pleased with my list. I think I covered most of the main points. Let me know if you think I should add any others. 

Now on to the review:

Robert Jordan still has my attention. I want to know more about these characters and their particular paths. I have read the first 7 books before, but I am only remembering certain images and plot arcs. I'm missing chunks of the story. Rereading the books has been wonderful because it's mostly new again. One thing I really liked about this particular book is that you hear a lot about the main character, but you hear it from other people. Rand doesn't have many chapters where he is the voice. It's a nice change of pace. 

As I've mentioned in previous reviews, I have a problem with the women of books like these. The haughtiness in particular is a bother. With romances changing sides and new love interests being introduced... I don't think it's ever going to go away. Oh well. 

I remember the last time I read these books, I was in college. I was taking an history class about ancient Asia. The parallels I saw in that class and this book were really exciting. The Aiel are like  Mongols. There is even a Silk Road. I recommend looking in to it. It's really quite fascinating. 


Really enjoyed this book, looking forward to the next one! 

I love things that tell stories. I love paintings that tell you a story, and I like songs that tell you a story. I like stories. I even like stories that tell you stories (big fan of frame narrative). "Foxfire" is a compilation of stories and instructions for different tasks. The stories are those of the mountain folk of the Virginias. The instructions are for things they have been doing their whole lives without power or running water. Want to learn how to make soap from scratch? Want to learn how to build a log cabin or make a basket from oak splits? Want to learn how to make moonshine or plant crops by the signs? This book covers all of those topics, but it also includes general life stories from these folks. It is wonderful. If you are at all interested in homesteading, you should read this book (and the rest of the series, but I haven't gotten that far yet). There is even a section in there on quilt making. I am in love with this book and want to share it with everyone... but I don't want to lend them my book. I guess they'll just have to come over to my place and read it there and afterwards we can make soaps and cheeses. 

As for the review of this book, let me just say this: 

If you are interested in living off the grid, homesteading, or old mountain stories you should read this book. I want everyone to read it, but I understand that not everyone wants to live in the middle of nowhere with no electricity. To each his own. 

This book came at a bad time in my reading queue. I had a pretty bad book hangover from the Patrick Rothfuss' "Kingkiller Chronicles". It took me a long time to actually get involved in a different story. I chose this because it is a stand alone novel in the fantasy genre. You'd be surprised how difficult that is to find. I also read this because he was the one who finished writing the Wheel of Time series when Robert Jordan passed away. I haven't finished the WoT yet, but that's a blog for a different day. Lets move on to talking about the book, "Elantris". 

First impressions: It's about zombies. 

Second impressions: It was really hard for me to get into this book. As I mentioned earlier, I was recovering from a pretty serious book hangover. The writing didn't help anything. The sentences were pretty simple, and I am not really accustomed to that. The comparison in my brain is "The Fall of the House of Usher" vs. "Dick and Jane". If you're not familiar with "The Fall of the House of Usher", here is the first sentence:

The first sentence is complex; it contains fun punctuation that people today are afraid to use. The rest of the story is no different. "Elantris" didn't have many of these complex sentences, and that was a difficult adjustment. 

Though the writing was simple, the plot, characters, world, and economics of the book were far from simple. Let's take a moment to look at each of these:

Plot - Whenever I consider The Song of Ice & Fire series (also known as Game of Thrones), I wonder how on Earth George RR Martin is planning to tie up all those loose ends. Seriously. There are so many threads that have to come together before the larger tapestry can be completed. "Elantris" is a stand alone novel, and it also had many threads to it. I found myself wondering how he was going to wrap it all up. Surprise of surprises, he did!... kinda. I'll get to that later. 

Characters - The characters were well written, and they each had their secrets. They were not very subtle, though I think they were meant to be. I'll be honest, there weren't many characters that I really liked. I liked a lot of them, but I didn't really  like them. I had a problem with the main character, Sarene. Maybe it's that Brandon Sanderson hasn't really captured the female voice. I'm not sure, but there are a couple really good characters, they just didn't get a big role in the book. I feel like I'm not being clear about the characters. Some characters are excellent and complex, but they don't have a big role in the books. They also have secrets that maybe make them more interesting. The main characters are pretty obvious and not subtle. 

The World - The world, I think it is safe to say, is based off our world. The different people of the world reflect different cultures in ours. For example, the Fjordells (even the spelling of the name) resemble a Norse culture with fair hair and fair skin. The Jindo resemble an Asian culture with dark hair and martial arts. It was fun to try to figure out the different cultures and who they could represent. 

Economics - If I enjoyed economics more, I would have adored this book. For my economics minded friends, I would recommend this book. That aspect of it, however, did not appeal to me at all. I appreciate that he wrote about it and thought it out and put a lot of effort into it. I just didn't enjoy that part of it. 

Now let's get to the part that I mentioned earlier about wrapping things up. I am not giving any spoilers here. At the end of the book, all the loose ends come together and you finally get some answers (not all the answers). I wish he would have just stopped there. He didn't. He spends the next couple pages asking a ton of new questions, which would be totally fine if this was a series, but it's not. It is a stand alone novel. I wish I could unread those questions. It ruined the ending for me. It's not that I don't like being asked questions like that, but I want to ask myself those questions. I want to want to think about the characters and where they go from there. I don't want the author to ask me those questions because then I feel like the author owes me some answers. 

Would I recommend this book to others? Sure. Maybe not wholeheartedly. I enjoyed it. If they're interested in economics and fantasy books, probably. I don't know if I would read an entire series if they were like this book, but it was a good book to break the hangover from the Kingkiller Chronicles. 

Update 11/16/13:  I forgot to mention this in the original text, but I really like it when authors emphasize the power of words. This book did a really good job of it, and I wanted to give credit where credit is due. 

Gosh, these are getting more and more difficult to relate. Since this is the third book in the series, I am not going to summarize the books from here on out (Spoilers!). Since this book is titled "The Dragon Reborn" and assuming you have read the first two, I'll give you two guesses what this book is about. If you answer "the dragon reborn" you will be right.  Anyway, let's move on to the review. 

Review:

The story is not as connected as it was, not to say that the writing is not as connected, but each of the characters gets to go their own way, even if it is for only a short time. I like that the characters can come back together, but I enjoy it more when they go off on their own adventures and then come back together. 

I'm still listening to the audiobooks and am enjoying them immensely. When my attention wanders, the story progresses and I can pay attention again when I realize I haven't been. I was trying to figure out what I liked about this book so much. I think it may have something to do with the lack of story from Rand's point of view. I enjoy most of the characters stories, but when it comes time to tell Rand's, I'm just not that interested. This book actually tells the same story from many different sides. You keep getting updated about Rand, but it doesn't spend much time inside his head. 

One thing I love about these books is the parallels to our history. My brother has mentioned to me that he considers the different ages to be what we would consider a parallel universe. Things may be similar in some ways, but they are never quite exact. You can see this in the heroes of legend, Artur Hawkwing, Brigitte (who could totally be Sif). My brother also postulates that Matrim Cauthon could be Odin. There are many parallels, but it's too early in the series to mention all of them. As I get farther into the series I will come back to this point and my ideas about different characters. The point of this is that it is fun to try to puzzle out and I really appreciate that Robert Jordan took the time and the effort to put all those little details in place. 

Blood and bloody ashes, I don't know how I feel about the language in this book. There are times when I consider the analogies and comparisons to be unique and clever, but some things are completely overdone. If I hear Mat say, "blood and bloody ashes" one more time... ugh. Normally, I love the creativity in language. This book didn't have very much of that. I know that it changes with the different people groups that come in with different languages. So, I can't base my liking of the language on just one book. 

The idea of Tel'aran'rhiod is explored more in this book by several different characters in different ways. It's like introducing a completely different world to explore with different rules. It's almost as if Robert Jordan had several different stories in his head and he wanted to be able to make them all happen, but they couldn't because of the "rules" of the world he created. So, he created another world where all the stories could be told. I'm a fan. 

So, my response to this story. I liked the third book better than the first two. I have a feeling crazy Rand stories are going to take up a lot of the next book and I'm not sure I'm ready for that. We'll see. 

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.