Exalted Novels

Most recently I finished a series of novels based on the White Wolf role playing game, Exalted.  Exalted itself is well described on the page linked previously, but in short:  the gods had previously exalted humans to do their work on earth, but over time this power corrupted the Unconquered Sun’s Solar Exalts and so the lowliest Exalted caste, the Dragon-Blooded, took it upon themselves to bring the Solars down.  A thousand years pass and the Dragon-Bloods have gotten distracted from their mission thus allowing the reincarnating Solar Exalts to begin to return to the land.  The initial intent of the RPG seemed to be to have the players form a circle (one of each of the 5 castes) of Solar Exalted with which to take on the major problems of the world.  But the RPG included details on more than just the Solar Exalted so that players could be one of many different types of Exalt.  The style of the game included Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon style martial arts with Exalted who were so much more powerful than the regular humans in the world.

I had hoped this series of novels would be an introduction to the creation of a circle of Solar Exalts with an overarching storyline, but they were more or less a bunch of unconnected stories of a few Solars’ minor exploits.  That’s not to say they weren’t entertaining and didn’t really make me want to play, however!

The first novel, A Day Dark as Night by Carl Bowen, was about Night Caste Harmonious Jade.  She travels to Nexus to get revenge on a former mentor who betrayed her, and in the process meets several other Exalted, including Dawn Caste Dace.  They help to put a stop to a Yozi plot to take over the city.  This one was my least favorite of the set.

Relic of the Dawn, by David Niall Wilson, tells of Dace and his mercenary company’s exploits in a allied city against an Abyssal (the Underworld’s counterpoint to Solars) and his undead army.  Dace’s story also includes him working together with a Lunar Exalt and them both trying to find out about their past.  I like Dace as a character, but for whatever reason, this novel was also not one of my favorites of the series.

In Northern Twilight by Jess Hartley is about Twilight Caste Arianna and Eclipse Caste Swan.  Interestingly, this is the first of the novels to describe each character’s Exaltation.  They travel together almost haphazardly until events bring them together to help save a forest lord from the destruction of his forest caused by a battle instigated by their traveling companions.

Panther, a Zenith Caste Solar, is the focus of the fourth novel, Pillar of the Sun by Carl Bowen.  Formerly a pit fighter, Panther, earned his way to freedom until he was Exalted after realizing he didn’t really have anything to live for.  He treks across half the world to find a mission for himself fighting some Wyld mutated barbarians lead by a Lunar.

Swan returns in A Shadow over Heaven’s Eye by Tim Waggoner.  He travels to a city he had helped before as diplomat.  While there he discovers that the daughter of his royal family friend seems to be ready to Exalt herself.  However, she turns out to be a Sidereal Exalt with powers of predicting and affecting the future.  Together they stop another Sidereal’s plans to take over the world.  As cheesy as my summary sounds, and in spite of the fact that I hate the idea of destiny, which is a thread that runs strongly through the story, this novel was one of my favorites.

And last, but not least, was The Carnelian Flame by Aaron Rosenburg.  This novel was my other favorite.  Arianna returns this time to help Grendis Lam, a newly exalted Zenith, destroy the Abyssal he helped to put on the throne of Ortense.  Their mix of brains and brawn form a true picture of how the complementary aptitudes of the various castes are supposed to work together.

Order of the Stick Kickstarter Project

I like to read a few webcomics, and plan to maybe blog about a few of them here over time.  The one that gets to go first, because of an event they’re having, is OotS, or The Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew.  (Start the comic from here.)

OotS, to quote the author, “… tells the tale of the eponymous band of heroes living in a fantasy roleplaying game world as they struggle to overcome their enemies, their environment, the rules of the game, and their own crippling incompetence (not necessarily in that order of importance).”  It’s a comic made up of stick figures, and it’s hilarious.  As also mentioned in the author’s summary, the comic starts out a bit heavily with the RPG references and gradually loses that focus as time goes on.  The stick figure art even gets a bit more polished.  I’ve played a few RPGs in my time, but never D&D which the story is based on, so take it from one only partially experienced; you can still appreciate the comic, even if you don’t play the game.

Besides trying to get you to read the comic (if you don’t already), if you’re interested in supporting webcomic artists, or if you already like OotS and randomly don’t know about this project, I wanted to let everyone know about the OotS Kickstarter reprint drive.  I’d never heard of Kickstarter before, but it bills itself as the “world’s largest funding platform for creative projects”.  A person with a project/concept can use the site to set up a drive where people pledge money, but they never get charged if the project goal isn’t met.  Pretty neat concept!  In any case, the OotS project has far surpassed their original goal (see the update page for details), so if you want to pledge you’ll definitely get charged, but again, if you like to see webcomics in print or just want to support a webcomic artist, you might try pledging to the project which ends just after noon EST on Tuesday Feb. 21.

The Urban Fantasy… Zodiac?!

My friend Kiara over at Waiting for Fairies started off February with a fun new meme to try.  Instead of the Chinese Zodiac, she presents the Urban Fantasy Zodiac.  It’s lots of fun, and after thinking about it a bit, at least mostly accurate in my case!  ;)  Here’s mine:

Shape-shifter

You love change and get bored easily. You have a hot temper – be sure to watch it so you don’t lose control!  You don’t make friends easily, but when you do there couldn’t be anyone more loyal.

2012 Off the Shelf Challenge

And now for this year’s Off the Shelf Challenge.  I was originally going to go with the same level as I did last year with the “Trying” at reading 15 books off the shelf (which I didn’t even make last year) but I think this year I’ll try the “Making a Dint” option of 30 books off the shelf.  That may be stretching it, but hey, I’ve already read four, so I’m feeling optimistic!

Just as a side note, I’ve got many books on my Kindle (all of them actually) that would technically qualify for this challenge, and even a few audiobooks, but I tend to not keep track of when I bought those.  So, primarily, unless I go on vacation and happen to read something on my Kindle, these will all be physical books that I’ve finally gotten the chance to move from my TBR bookcase to their real spot in my collection.

And to make sure I don’t forget to include them, I have already read the following this year:

Exalted 2: Relic of the Dawn by David Niall Wilson, completed 01-04-12
Exalted 3: In Northern Twilight by Jess Hartley, completed 01-14-12
Exalted 4:  Pillar of the Sun by Carl Bowen, completed 01-25-12
Exalted 5: A Shadow Over Heaven’s Eye by Tim Waggoner, completed 01-31-12

Wish me luck!

Random It Is!

The people have voted, and a random, atypical for me book won the next up type of reading poll by a landslide with a whopping 4 votes!    So, the following are the options I’d like for you to choose from this time.  Instead of going for a poll, I’d appreciate it if you’d just leave a comment as to your preference this time.  It’d be especially great if you’d tell me why you chose what you did!  I think I’ll also read a random small book from this set as well, just to give me more time to prep for the next what to read poll, and of course, to help aid in cleaning off my to be read shelves!

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

”Beginning and ending with some of English literature’s most famous lines, Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities thrives on tension and conflict, all set against a bloody backdrop of the French Revolution . . . . Through the senses, Dickens transports us deeper and deeper into another era with each turn of the page. Smell the acidity of red wine as it spills on the streets and ominously stains the faces, hands, and feet of peasants who lap it up in desperation; feel the competing emotions of heartache and hope as one of Lucie’s suitors stands trial; hear the cries of the raging mob and the clangs of their weapons as they storm the Bastille; see the glint of the guillotine as it falls swiftly to its victim below. The novel’s sense of urgency and intimacy will draw you in and propel you through one of the most tumultuous times in history.” –Oprah’s Book Club

We’ve all heard of this one, most likely you’ve read it.  I had to read this in high school, I think it was, and I distinctly remember enjoying it at the time, but beyond that?  I’ve basically got nothing.  Hence the desire to reread it!

 Rum & Razors by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain

Learning about the financial troubles of inn owners Laurie and Walter Marschalk, Jessica tries to enjoy her lagoon vacation anyway, until Walter’s untimely death causes the sleuthing author to investigate a rival hotelier.  –Fantastic Fiction

Ok, so this one’s a little cheating, as mysteries have generally made it onto a typical for me reading list.  But as it’s the only one I think I had on my shelf that wasn’t strictly sci fi or fantasy, it ended up here.  It’d be the fun choice of all these, most likely.

 

The Blood Runs Like a River through my Dreams (ARC) by Nasdijj

The son of a Navaho woman and roughneck cowboy, Nasdijj grew up among Native American migrant laborers, far from the call of world literature. His writings crafted over twenty years, have only recently appeared in print: In June of 1999, Esquire ran the signature piece of this memoir. “I decided that I had to use the emotions that have been inside me,” the author explained. Touching and lyrical (Nasdijj’s name is Athabaskan for “to become gain.” Apt.) –Goodreads

This one’s an ARC I randomly picked up at a bookstore back when I was in college.  Besides that and the blurb, I don’t know much about it, but I will read it eventually!

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do by Tom Vanderbilt

“Based on exhaustive research and interviews with driving experts and traffic officials around the globe, Traffic gets under the hood of the everyday activity of driving to uncover the surprisingly complex web of physical, psychological, and technical factors that explain how traffic works, why we drive the way we do, and what our driving says about us. Vanderbilt examines the perceptual limits and cognitive underpinnings that make us worse drivers than we think we are. He demonstrates why plans to protect pedestrians from cars often lead to more accidents. He shows how roundabouts, which can feel dangerous and chaotic, actually make roads safer—and reduce traffic in the bargain. He uncovers who is more likely to honk at whom, and why. He explains why traffic jams form, outlines the unintended consequences of our quest for safety, and even identifies the most common mistake drivers make in parking lots.”  (From the author’s website.)

This book is one I decided to put on my wishlist after looking for books on traffic in downtowns.  So, while it’s kind of a work-related book, the description of what all is reasearched here actually sounds pretty fascinating to me.

Mapping our Genes by Lois Wingerson

Eye-opening and mind-expanding, “Mapping Our Genes” tells of the experts who are brightly hopeful about using genetic mapping and engineering as weapons in the war against the many incurable genetically inherited maladies.

As you can probably tell from Goodreads’ blurb, this book has been on my shelf for a long time, and is possibly a bit out of date content-wise these days…

Off the Shelf 2011 Conclusion

So, how’d I do? I wasn’t too optimistic in my predictions, as mentioned in the start up post, and here’s the conclusion to the story. Did I make it? I’d planned to try and read 15 books that had been on my shelf before 2011 started. Near as I can tell, these are the ones that counted. I cheated a little maybe with the Song of Ice and Fire books as they were on my regular shelf for truth, but I always knew I’d reread them when the next book came out, so they were ghosts over there too… Anyway, I read in no particular order…

1. Lord Valentine’s Castle by Robert Silverberg, review
2. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, review
3. Imager’s Intrigue by L.E. Modesitt, Jr., review
4. 4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie
5. Exalted 1: A Day as Dark As Night by Carl Bowen
6. Eight Skilled Gentlemen by Barry Hughart
7. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
8. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
9. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
10. A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin

Well, I didn’t quite make it, but 2 out of 3 isn’t bad!  And my reviewing capabilities were even worse, so there’s something.  ;)  Here’s to hoping I make it farther this year!

What Next?!

I started the year (or technically ended last year) by starting a series of 6 books off my shelf (which I will hopefully review all at once when I’m finished).  And while I’m still reading those, but before I move on, I’m looking to you for help deciding what I should read next.  I’m going to break this down into two parts, since it’ll still be a little while till I  finish these last 2.5 books.  The first part, what type of story should I read next?  That is, should it be a collection of short stories?  Should I read the most recent novel(s) of a series?  Should I read all of a series I have the books for, but that aren’t associated with something I’m already reading?  Should I start a completely new series and broaden my horizons a bit?  Should it be a stand alone novel, or something that’s generally completely outside my normal genre preferences?

 

I plan to choose 5 options in the chosen category once this poll’s complete.  Let’s go till January 30, first thing in the morning to choose this part of the process.

Hello Again!

Well, it’s certainly been a while.  As usual, I’m a horribly inconsistent blogger, but, at least for a bit, I’m back again.  (Man, that was a LOT of commas!)  This is just an update post, probably nothing really interesting to most people, which may not be a big deal since I do this mostly for myself…  Anyway, in the near future, I’m planning to: update my TBR list, discover how close I got to my 2011 Off the Shelf goal, set up a 2012 Off the Shelf goal, update my 50 Book Challenge page (I’m contemplating switching it over so that I’m no longer trying to figure out what I read from May to May and instead just making it per year, like normal people), and maybe if I’m motivated, putting up some new reviews, such that they are.  Oh and of course, updating my side bars, though mostly for my own benefit.   There you have it!  Welcome to 2012!

The Way of Shadows and Shadow’s Edge

Well, my intent was to do these one at a time, but I was too slow with the posting and too fast with the listening, so here’s a twofer.  Some (hopefully mild) spoilers follow after the blurb for the trilogy:

The Night Angel Trilogy is a fantasy series written by Brent Weeks. The story follows the life of Azoth (later Kylar Stern) as he struggles as a guild rat to become the ultimate wetboy (an assassin with some magical talent) then tries to leave it all behind and finally becomes the avatar of retribution: the Night Angel.

Brent Weeks’s Night Angel Trilogy starts off with The Way of Shadows and goes into Shadow’s Edge as book 2.  I’m glad I didn’t have to wait in between books, these are grippers!  I can’t really think of a part of these I wish he’d skipped.  There was a bit more detail in the descriptions of the action with the ferali than I was enthusiastic about, but that’s as close as I could come to dissatisfaction.  Well, almost.  The ending of book 1 was decidedly dissatisfying.  (Though definitely not bad, if that makes any sense!)  Kylar was obviously not supposed to be riding off into the sunset with his girl at that point in time.  It’s a trilogy, man!  Don’t give us our cake only to take it away!  That’s just mean!  Anyway, I hope I got my point across there.  ;)

I should mention, since I did listen to the books, that Paul Boehmer, after about 20 minutes of getting used to him, was kinda awesome.  In the beginning, his narrating seemed slightly over-the-top to me, but having gotten used to his style, I could see how he got all the right inflections at all the right moments.  I’ve not had tears in my eyes (if not outright falling) in quite a while.  Granted, a lot of the credit should go to the author, but Boehmer definitely does the books justice if you can get used to his style.

I can’t quite come to terms with how many different directions my mind and heart have been jerked to while listening to these books.  It’s simpler to say that I think these two books have been stupidly awesome (stated that way because unbelievably, amazingly, and other such words don’t describe how I actually feel about it), and I’m glad I finally decided to listen to them!  Please, go out and grab yourself a set of Night Angel books!  There’s even a prequel called Perfect Shadow that you can get for your favorite e-reader right now.

Fahrenheit 451

I finally listened to Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.  It (among many others) is a classic I’ve been wanting to read for a really long time.  Interestingly enough, it was listed as recommended reading for young adult males in a fairly recent (and possibly already infamous) Wall Street Journal article.  (I can only speculate on why it was only listed for boys, though I suspect it was partially because of the male protagonist, and partially because almost every female character in it is completely insipid, and not exactly today’s idea of good female role models.)  But before I get to far, the blurb:

The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning, along with the houses in which they were hidden. Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires, and he enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for 10 years, and never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs, nor the joy of watching pages consumed by flames. He never questioned anything, until he met a 17-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid, and a professor who told him of a future in which people could think. Guy Montag suddenly realized what he had to do.

The WSJ writer in the article linked to above comments on how today’s Young Adult fiction …”can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is.  There are of course exceptions, but a careless young reader—or one who seeks out depravity—will find himself surrounded by images not of joy or beauty but of damage, brutality and losses of the most horrendous kinds.”  And yet this writer recommends Fahrenheit 451 to YA boys.  I’d like to know how a book full of depressed characters, where it’s fun to go joyriding people down in your car because you have nothing better to do isn’t full of depravity and is full of images of joy and beauty.  And how can a book about a world where all books have been destroyed be a hopeful message to people who’ve been convinced to read at least this one book?  There are so many other ways that Fahrenheit fits that quote above exactly, that I can’t even express how wrong this whole article was (with the exception of the last line).  The rest of the article primarily seems to condemn cursing and explicit sexual and/or violent behavior in current YA fiction.  I have to admit that Fahrenheit has less of these particular themes, but overall the mood and the message of the story and the behaviors of the majority of its characters is more along the lines of what Gurdon quotes as “horrendous” above.  There’s plenty to learn from here, as I’m sure there is in today’s literature that’s geared for the Young Adult audience.  The lessons are just different, that’s all.

I also wanted to comment on the irony of a journalist encouraging book banning.  It’s one thing for parents to do so, and and entirely different thing for it to be encouraged on a larger scale.  And then to recommend Fahrenheit 451 in the same article, the book that tells what comes of mass book banning (and it started out on a much smaller scale even in this novel’s history)…  ::shakes head::

Back to Fahrenheit 451 though.  This novel creeped me out.  I don’t read proper literature, not since high school anyway.  Mostly just fantasy, mystery, and sci-fi.  I’m primarily interested in reading for entertainment, not necessarily for the deep messages and fancy writing.  (Though that’s not to say my prefered genres can’t have either of those!  For me it just doesn’t have to.)  Anyway, Bradbury’s characters lament primarily the losses of literature and history (and for good reason), but whether I read these or not, the idea of a world without books is truly scary.  People in the story are “entertained” by nothingness on their TV screens or in their earbuds.  I’m a TV watcher; I admit it.  But what I watch still at least has a story.  The TV in 451 is literally nothing, there’s no plot, no character, no conflict, nothing.  It’s a wonder to me that the characters in the story could still exist at all.  

The war whose tension underlay the whole novel most likely spelt the doom as well as rebirth of a culture in Fahrenheit 451, and all I can say to that is thank goodness!  ::shudders:: 

I’ve also wondered if the Wachowski brothers got a bit of their inspiration for the Matrix from this book.  There’s a brief mention of how the computers tried to create a utopia for the humans to live in the Matrix, but it didn’t work out, so they went back to what real life had been like.  Well, that seems to be what people were trying to do that caused them to get to the future in Fahrenheit 451.  They decided to destroy books because they contradicted each other and caused people confusion, they caused people to feel strong emotions that weren’t always good, etc.  So with “their” idea of what made people happy, they went forward with their idea of utopia, and in reading (or listening to) the novel, you find out just how well that worked out.

Well, that’s enough rambling for now!  After listening, I went and bought a copy of Fahrenheit to keep on my shelf.  It’s definitely something everyone should read at least once.