December 2017 - Common Touch of Fantasy

The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman

The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Magicians Trilogy ends on a high note as I realize how much this series has made an impression on me. This series gets dirty. Grossman could have written a much more epic and planned series but he chose to create a portal fantasy series, like many of the ones that came before, on randomness. Grossman uses that randomness to highlight the turmoil and random acts of life that happens to individuals in their 20’s. This is a portal fantasy for adults learning how to adult. Quentin is very much a child at the beginning of this series. He has no idea what he wants in life and he goes from one horrible decision after another. In this third installment of the series, Quentin becomes more comfortable with who he is, and what life has to offer him. No longer does he expect things from life but he now lives with it.

The world of Fillory is dying and our Magicians must save it. There is a heist like portion in this book set in the real world and we have a new character introduced named Plum that is a great character. Finally, Quentin has a female friend that he doesn’t sleep with, in Plum. Quentin shows much more maturity in this book and that is exactly what I needed to finish out this series.

I was close so many times during this series to write all these books off but there is a depth to them that I just couldn’t escape. At times there is a strong literary style showing through with Grossman’s writing and that is what kept me in the series. It gave me hope that the character growth I so desperately needed would happen and it did. I struggled on if I should give these books as donations to the library after I finished but I think that they will actually be good to reread in a handful of years. I mostly read these on audiobook, so I think next time I’ll read them from the page.

4/5
17/25 Possible Score
3 – Plot
4 – Characters
3 – World Building
4 – Writing Style
3 – Heart & Mind Aspect

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Warbreaker is a court intrigue, political story with magic based on breaths of people turning inanimate objects to life. Color plays a large part of the magic system and world too, as bright colors symbolize strength, and color gets drained when the magic is used. The more breaths individuals have, the stronger they become, and the more advantages they acquire, including becoming somewhat of a god to others. Breaths can be passed on from one person to another and you can live without a breath but your life then becomes duller. This is a basic fantasy story of one kingdom that was thrown out of power by a more powerful, magical uprising, and the former kingdom is in exile but might go to war.

The kingdom of Idris must marry off one of their princesses to the God King Susebron of Hallandren in order to stop a possible war. Vivenna, the oldest daughter, is supposed to be the princess that is sent to Susebron because she was bred to be the wife of the God King since she was small. The father, instead, thinking that was is imminent anyway, sends his youngest daughter Siri, who has no formal training, and is very opinionated. When Vivenna finds out her sister is sent instead of her, she goes to try to rescue her and has to use the help of some nefarious mercenaries. While all this is happening, there is a powerful magic wielder that uses a magic sword that talks people into killing others, and he has his own goals.

Like most Sanderson books, this was a lot of fun. The magic system is unique and the way the social classes are built upon breaths that individuals have allow for corruption to take place. There is much more court politics in this book than other Sanderson books. If you liked the court politics in the Mistborn sequels, then you will like this book. Even though there are fighting and magic being used it is more isolated and the scale is less grandiose. There is definitely some solid character development as characters are thrown into situations where they have to either change or die. One of my favorite characters is actually the god Lightsong. He has a noncommittal and noncaring personality that comes into conflict with his newly founded desire to help and figure out a mystery.

I think a lot of fantasy readers would like this book. I think there is some confusion that he wrote this before Mistborn but he actually wrote it after he wrote the Mistborn Trilogy. This is very familiar with his other works, so if you didn’t like his other books, you probably won’t care for this either. A solid book when and if you are wanting some Sanderson like world building in your reading.

4/5
16/25 Possible Score
4 – Plot
3 – Characters
4- World Building
3 – Writing Style
2 – Heart & Mind Aspect

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is no surprise that I loved this book. These type of epic fantasy installments, everyone learning what their powers do, learning about each other, and getting an insight into the overall conflict is something I get excited about. This installment of Stormlight really reminded me of what Jordan did in The Great Hunt, heroes learning who they are. There were about three scenes in this book where I got super into it and it provoked a physical reaction of me nerding out. I started to write a bunch of sentences defending my love for this book and Sanderson’s other books but I’m not even going to go there. I shouldn’t have to apologize and defend why I enjoy a popular author’s books. I’m really looking forward to jumping into Oathbringer next week. I think I want to read Warbreaker before Oathbringer though as I hear there are some nuggets of info that connect the books.