This book is the next to last book in the series and the word from Brandon Sanderson, the LDS author and BYU creative writing instructor hired to finish the series after Jordan’s death, is that the 14th and last book in the series, A Memory of Light, will be out around March of 2012. 

Which means that this current book is essentially the middle book in a trilogy that Sanderson has been writing as the conclusion to this overgrown series.  Cue alarm bells. 

The good news is that, as he did in the last book, Sanderson performs a yeoman effort at searching out and tying down the plethora of flailing strands of character and narrative that Jordan left him with.

The bad news is that Sanderson can’t completely escape from the trap that writing the middle book of a trilogy places him in, partly, I assume, because this trilogy is  one that is both highly anticipated and fraught with enormous deadline pressure and fan expectations.

This means that the book is concerned primarily with moving all of the chess pieces to the required locations so that the scene is set for the last battle and other scenes that are to take place in the final volume.  Which makes it far less interesting than, presumably, the final book will be, and yes, less exciting than the previous one as well.  It also seems slightly less well-executed.  There is a bit of a “rushed” feel to it, like Sanderson didn’t get a chance to flesh out all of the scenes as well as he would have liked.  I actually noted a few of typos as well, which is uncharacteristic of Sanderson’s work and this series.  These issues make me think that Sanderson and the publisher are pushing hard to get these books done in order to meet a predetermined schedule, rather than just getting them out at the time they are truly ready. 

That’s a shame, because although this series has dragged on way too long, it’s worthwhile at this point to take the time to wind it up in the right way.  My hope is that Sanderson will do that on the last book and really finish things off right.

Having said all of that, there are also a lot of good things going on in this book.  As the ebook cover art (above) shows, much of the book is concerned with the character Perrin Aybara, a blacksmith by training and one of the three friends who fled their small farming village of Emond’s Field in the beginning of the story.  I’ve always thought that Perrin was probably the least interesting of those three characters, having neither the romantic destiny of Rand al Thor nor the swashbuckling panache of Matrim Cauthon.  But this book proves me wrong in some ways. 

The most interesting thing about Perrin has always been his supernatural connection with wolves, a connection which causes his eyes to turn a wolfish yellow hue, getting him nicknamed “Goldeneyes.”  This book spends a lot of time delving into Perrin’s conflicted feelings about this supernatural gift, his recent marriage, the things he has had to do in rescuing his wife from his enemies, rumors of infidelity, his reluctant leadership of his people and his army, and his power over his dreams, his distatste for killing and violence, among other things.  We learn a lot about this character and, though not all of it is stellar storytelling, the things we learn and the action that takes place between Perrin and his arch-nemesis Slayer holds your attention for the majority of this long book.

Speaking of bad guys, the Forsaken don’t fare very well in this book, even compared with the defeats they’ve been suffering at Rand’s hands in the previous volumes of the series.  We find out that Graendal’s still alive, but Aran’gar is dead.  Then Graendal is tasked with killing Perrin and, when she fails, gets a visit from ubercreep Shadar Haran.  Makes you wonder how villains stay motivated.

I do have one major quibble with one of the plot devices in this book.  One of the things that Verin Sedai does before she dies in the previous book is give a letter to Mat that he’s not supposed to open.  We spend most of the last book and nearly all of this one wondering what’s in that letter.  Turns out that it’s pretty critical information that Verin actually wanted Mat to know about and act on.  That being the case, her actions with respect to this info are completely inexplicable.  The whole thing makes no sense whatsoever.

All in all, however, I enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to the final volume in the series.  In the meantime, Sanderson is doing a reread of the entire Wheel of Time series and tweeting about it as he goes along.  You can follow him @BrandSanderson or use the hashtag #wotrr to see all tweets on that subject.

[Spoilers Below]

In short, I get the impression that the author, Suzanne Collins, decided to pull a little bait and switch on us. She set us up with a rewarding, happy ending to The Hunger Games. Collins set us up further with the massive cliffhanger at the end of Catching Fire. We then expect Mockingjay to reward us with a redemptive ending on an even bigger scale. But it doesn’t. Rather Collins lays some heavy handed anti-war message on us… or something. So in the end all of the heroes in the book lose.

If it is not a bait and switch then maybe Collins just ran out of ideas. The final section of the book is where everything falls apart for Mockingjay. The entire section is garbled and confusing and seems rushed. Was Collins on deadline? Was she just feeling angry and depressed when she wrote it? Who knows. But rather than delivering on a tremendous set up it fizzles in a big way. It is too bad too. As I was reading I held out hope until the bitter end that this book would really deliver for me. But then the book was over. Readers are left with a bunch of dead protagonists and a perma-victim of a hero who apparently remains severely damaged and tormented for the remainder of her days.

Oh well. I guess it makes me appreciate the skills of someone like J.K. Rowling all the more. Taking a series all the way to the finish line without petering out is apparently very difficult to pull off.

The Gathering Storm, Book 12 of the successful Wheel of Time series was recently released, which is a neat trick, considering the fact that the author of the series, Robert Jordan, passed on some time ago. Jordan’s widow asked Brandon Sanderson, a successful author in his own right, to complete the series. Sanderson intends that the series will be complete with book 14.

I have mixed feelings about The Wheel of Time series. I have by turns been a big fan and completely frustrated by the ever-expanding, often-rambling nature of the story and cast of characters. I despaired of ever seeing a satisfactory end to it in my lifetime long before Jordan died. Turns out, however, that Sanderson is a steady hand on the tiller and may actually be able to see this bloated ship safely into the harbor. If you haven’t ever read any portion of this series, don’t expect me to summarize it here. for that, the best place to go is one of the many fansites, like this one, or this one  or the wiki page. 

The best things about this book are that it’s entertaining in a way that this series has always been when it was at its best, and it cuts out a lot of the agonizing dross that had come to characterize the series at its worst.  Sanderson has shown himself to be well in control of the characters and plot of the series, which is saying a lot.  The only negatives are that we are now at book 12 and the end is still two (large) books away.  Book 13 is due sometime late in 2010 and book 14 the following year.  My guess is that those projections are optimistic.  Still, if you’re looking for an entertaining, engrossing read and you have some free time on your hands, the world of this series can be a fun place to hang out.

Here’s mine:

First my albums aren’t necessarily my favorites. But I’d almost be afraid to take my favorites since I’d only be listening to these 8. I have some great albums I’m not sure would stand up as well as some of these.

In no particular order

1. Joshua Tree – yeah this is a favorite. But it’s also one I always associate with the wilderness. We used to love playing this album after work in Los Alamos while driving down to White Rock to climb. For me, the suicide song on the album has nothing to do with suicide but everything to do with rock climbing in a storm. (Which might be suicidal according to some people)

2. Miles Davis – The Birth of Cool. How could you not have this one? It’d mellow you out no matter what.

3. Pink Floyd – A Momentary Lapse of Reason. An other album I associate with driving through the wilderness. My favorite album by them even though it’s just a live album from after the post-Rogers reforming of the band. It’s a great live album though.

4. Strauss – the Waltzes. There are dozens of different collections of this. I just love his waltzes though and play them every now and then to cheer up. To me its oddly closely associate with Miles Davis although I couldn’t tell you why. Of course my favorite of his is the Blue Danube waltz, although I love the Emperor waltz as well.

5. Robert Plant – The Principle of Moments. OK, this one will be controversial. It’s over all a so-so album. But I love, love, love the song Big Log (which sometime people call My Love is a Freeway since that’s the refrain in it). It’s the song I just associate with lounging at the beach on at a pool. It’s the perfect song for a desert island even if I have to take the rest of the album to get it.

6. Nirvana – Unplugged. I don’t care about you doubters. This is one of the greatest albums of all time. And even if I didn’t think so I’d take it just for his cover of Leadbelly’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night.

7. Elvis – The Essential Elvis Presley. How could one go without the King? Come on.

8. Johnny Cash – The Legend of Johnny Cash. A good album just because it includes his latter stuff that a lot of collections don’t include.

Of course if you are allowed boxed sets then the above would be much easier. Still, it was hard. I really had to think about why I had no Roy Orbison or Led Zepplin. Or Mozart for that matter. And I came really, really close to replacing Nirvana with Eric Clapton.

For best book that’s somewhat hard. Probably The Essential Peirce (he’s a favorite philosopher of mine) although Heidegger’s Being and Time was a close second. A good text on mathematical physics would be a third choice. But with only one it’s the Peirce book.

For a luxory item I’d get a toilet with a combo bidet. (And preferably an unending supply of toilet paper)

Sports autobiographies generally occupy a rather sad, narcissistic, ghost-written corner of the literary bookshelf. It’s the obligatory thing to do after you hang it up; write a tell-all memoir (with a proven co-author) that is part reminder to your fans of how great you were and part pot shot at all those a-holes who gave you insufficient adoration during your halcyon playing days.

And then there’s Agassi’s contribution to the genre (written with Pulitzer Prize winner J.R. Moehringer), which I just finished. I was doomed to read this book from the first second I heard about it, and not because of the sensationalistic pre-sale revelations of drug use, which almost deterred me from even picking the book up. Rather, I had to read it because Agassi’s always been my guy. You know, that athlete you always root for no matter what. The guy you’re willing to get up to watch live at ungodly hours, or stay up late for or travel to see in person, because you secretly want to be there for him; you think he needs your support.

There are lots of reasons why you might feel this way about a particular athlete, but they usually boil down to the same thing:  you see yourself in him.  You feel a connection.  Agassi came onto the tennis scene when I was in college and because I was a tennis geek, I noticed him right away.  It was hard not to.  He transormed the game instantly, and he wasn’t nice about it.  He hit harder than anyone ever dared to before.  He returned serve unlike anyone before or since.  He wore denim shorts on the court.  He had crazy hair.  He refused to play Wimbledon.  He gave hilarious interviews.  Though he offended a lot of people and made others generally sick (you could almost feel the collective eye-rolling of the tennis establishment that accompanied his early appearances), to me he was a much needed breath of fresh air in a sport that seemed on the verge of dying of terminal dullness.

But what I really connected with was his backstory.  Agassi grew up with one of those dads.  The stories have become well-trodden ground by now, but the book makes them live in technicolor detail like never before.  This was an abused kid, no question about it.  My childhood was nothing like his, but yet, my dad was one of those dads too.  I remember being screamed at on a tennis court until I hated the game and hated my dad, but still being forced to play.  In some tiny way, I identified with Andre and always wanted him to succeed on his own terms.  My dad preferred rooting for the steadier Pete Sampras whom he always referred to as a “matinee idol.”  He called Agassi a “head case” and said he would never win a big tournament.  I just rooted for Agassi even harder.

And, as the book documents, he won.  Despite constantly battling the ubiquitous Sampras, horrific demons, a rebellious lower spine and more emotional ups and downs than most manic depressives can account for, Agassi is able to somehow will himself to eight grand slam titles covering all four grand slam events, countless lesser tournament victories and an Olympic gold medal.  That’s a haul even Sampras can’t claim.  What the book makes you wonder, more than anything, is what Agassi might have accomplished if he was actually physically and emotionally healthy.  Was the tortured upbringing more responsible for his amazing skill or his fragile psyche?  Is it possible that he could have had the one without the other?  Probably there is no way to know.

The hallmark of this book is its brutal honesty.  Agassi is going out of his way to claim that he is portraying the absolute unvarnished truth about his life for the first time.  He spares no one, including himself, and the portrayals of most of the people in his life are far from flattering.  Brook Shields comes off as mostly a distant, self-absorbed, dilettante,  but it’s more than clear that Andre bears as much responsibility for the demise of their marriage as she.  Other tennis players are not friends, but are either benign robots (Sampras, who is also basically called a terminal cheapskate) or devils in tennis togs (Connors, Becker).  He reserves his only undiluted praise for the members of his tennis entourage, the people who help him to accomplish his goals on the court year in and year out, especially his strength coach and bodyguard Gil Reyes.  If these people are actually as unflinchingly loyal and tirelessly dedicated to Andre as they are portrayed, they should definitely be candidates for sainthood.

The end of the book documents Agassi’s redemption, as he finally retires from tennis, the last of his generation.  He has married the woman of his dreams (Steffi Graf, probably the greatest tennis player in history), has kids of his own (whom he swears will never have to play tennis), and builds the finest charter prep academy in the country for at-risk youth.  In the end, therefore, the book is an unapologetic ray of hope that even the most unlikely, ragged, bizarrely-coiffed street kid can eventually make himself into something successful and good.  Though Agassi’s story may be the most unlikely of them all, after reading it I just want to say: I was rooting for you all the way Andre.

I enjoyed the book—it really drew me in. But I thought the ending was sort of lame.

I just found out it’s been made into a movie, coming out in December. Directed by Peter Jackson, it looks pretty dang awesome.

I’m hoping they change the ending a bit, but I’m guessing they probably won’t. But this might be a case where I like the movie better than the book.

It’s clear from the beginning that this novel is going someplace different. The alternate-reality setting (the year is never mentioned) is a city populated by people who drive steam trucks, use manual typewriters and wake to wind-up alarm clocks. A third of the way through, things go from odd to weird to downright surreal, but by the end, everything makes sense, the pieces of a puzzle fit together perfectly. Early in The Manual—a title which also refers to the book-within-the-book, an instruction guide given to Unwin to train him for his new job—we learn about the importance of distinguishing details from clues. By the end of the book, I realized that Berry was remarkably efficient in maintaining the detail to clue ratio; all the strange little facts aren’t there for just atmospherics, they are essential plot points. And Berry’s prose, which carefully shifts as the tone of the book changes, is really impressive.

If you think you might enjoy a mystery with dry humor and a twist of surreality, check out The Manual of Detection.

This is one of the best books I have read lately and now it is a movie starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana(?). I have no idea if it will be a good movie, but I’m looking forward to finding out. In the meantime, I recommend the book highly.

Grade: B+

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this book. Was it an homage to Pride and Prejudice? Was it a sequel of some kind? Turns out it was neither. Pride and Prejudice is now a public domain book so the new book is literally the original book with all kind of kung fu, zombie killings, ninjas, and general ultra-violent mayhem overlaid and integrated into the original text. It is quite literally Pride and Prejudice… and zombies; with a bunch of teenage-boy-style violence and jokes added.

The results, while fairly uneven, are pretty amusing.

Pros

I had never read Pride and Prejudice before but I knew the story fairly well. I’ve seen like four movie versions of the story including the six hour Colin Firth A&E extravaganza. Pride and Prejudice is a classic for a reason. So much so that the original story and storytelling hold up very well hundreds of years after the book was written. Heck, a new movie version with Keira Knightley came out just a couple of years ago for cryin’ out loud. So having such a classic as the core of one’s book is a solid foundation.

The primary difference between the stories is that in the PP&Z version England has been stricken with a zombie plague for many decades. The Bennett girls have all been trained extensively at the Shaolin temple in China and are masters of the “deadly arts”. They are locally well respected as warriors and slayers of the “sorry stricken”. The beauty of this addition is it takes otherwise boring aspects of the original story, like simple journeys to town, and make them mayhem filled zombie slaying adventures. The nice thing about the war on the undead is it gives a reason for all sorts of soldiers to be stationed near Longbourn whereas the original story is silent on details like that.

The other things it does is provide plenty of laughs. The various zombie killing sequences are funny at first because they seem so out of place in this story. But over time the shock of that contrast fades. Grahame-Smith gets a lot of mileage out of having Elizabeth’s friend Charlotte being bitten by a zombie just prior to marrying the insufferable cousin Mr. Collins and then slowly descending into zombie-hood over the next few months without anyone noticing. The audiobook was especially funny here because the woman reading the story used a progressively more zombie-ish voice for Charlotte. (You know — the “braaains… mooore Braaaaainzzz” zombie voice).

Another amusing addition is that in PP&Z Elizabeth doesn’t just quietly become furious with Mr. Darcy early on. In this version Elizabeth fully intended to literally rip Mr. Darcy’s still beating heart from his chest when she discovered he had helped break up the burgeoning romance between her sister Jane Bennett and Mr. Bingley. In the scene where Darcy first proposes to Elizabeth she doesn’t just turn him down, she delivers a devastating roundhouse kick to his head (or something along those lines) and attempt to kill him before he fends her off.

In a later scene when the horrible Lady Catherine De Bourgh comes to berate Elizabeth about her intentions with Mr. Darcy the two warrior women have more than a verbal sparring match like in the original, they launch into an awesome martial arts duel to the death where Elizabeth kills two ninja body guards before narrowly defeating the wiley old gal.

So in many ways, I suspect the zombie version may be better than the original. Well at least for people like me it may be better.

Cons

The problem is that the new additions are uneven. Some of the additions are nicely integrated into the story and other parts are so over the top and cartoonish that they simply don’t fit all that well. In addition some of the attempted jokes are more annoying than funny.

A couple of parts stood out to me a really not working. For instance in the original there was a paragraph about how Elizabeth’s aunt was visiting in her home town and renewing the “intercourse” she had with old friends. Grahame-Smith apparently could not resist converting this now-archaic word into meaning sexual intercourse. I thought that did real damage to the character for one cheap joke and was more off-putting than funny.

Sometimes the cartoonish violence didn’t work either. One example is the scene where Lady Catherine wants Elizabeth to show off her skills in the deadly arts by sparring with three of her hired ninjas. This seemed like a pretty good replacement for the original where Elizabeth is asked to play piano for the group. But Grahame-Smith went over the top with it and had Elizabeth kill her three sparring partners in gruesome fashion (strangling one with his own intestines for example). I know the idea is amusing but it was far more over the top than most other sequences and frankly I thought it made little sense. The problem is that deeply incongruous sequences like those immediately gave way to long untouched passages of the original book as if they never happened. I found myself wishing some of the new pieces could have fit a little better.

Final thoughts

I liked having a reason to read this classic even if it had been messed with. It was frankly sort of fun to read a version where the awful Mr. Wickham had every bone in his body broken by Mr. Darcy rather than getting off easy like he does in the original (though the recurring joke about Wickham soiling himself later was overdone).

There are a lot of public domain classics out there to mess with so no doubt we will see many copycats of this concept in the future. I have heard the movie rights to this book have already been sold so maybe a PP&Z will be in a theater near you soon. If not I recommend giving it a read (or a listen).

This year there are 40 free comics being offered. Here’s are some recommendations of what’s worth picking up:

Pop Candy
MTV’s Splash Page
Bureau 42
Comics Worth Reading

Anyone have recommendations of their own?