But I Digress | Baby's First Audiobook

Confession time, folks: I'd never listened to an audiobook from beginning to end till 2014. Till this autumn, even.

In my defence, I had tried at various points in the past... but the time I have to spend simply listening is limited. Plus I suck at it, utterly: I have restless hands, so to listen to something I have to be doing something else at the same time. The dishes, for instance. Or driving. 

But I only do so many dishes; I only drive so far.

And there are things I listen to as often as possible. I've been a podcast fan for many years, as long-time TSS readers will recall, so between the Bombcast, Idle Thumbs, Rocket Talk, and the Skiffy and Fanty Show, there's been, before now, more than enough to keep my ears occupied—and I haven't even mentioned BBC Radio 4! There's always something fascinating on there, so on those rare occasions when my podcast supply ran dry, I tended to tune into Woman's Hour or whatnot.

But my circumstances, of late, have changed. Since the Summer I've been commuting to and from work—whihc is an hour and change away—twice a week. Then, sometime in September, the radio in my car broke, and no-one that I've taken it to in subsequent months has been able to identify why.

I ran out of podcasts stored on my phone pretty much immediately, and whilst I did waste an age looking for a few new ones, I came to my senses eventually. I tried streaming some radio, too, but I have a silly small data allowance, and I realised this was going to cost me a small fortune. 

So I bought myself an audiobook. More Fool Me by Stephen Fry, and read by said. He hasn't come up often on The Speculative Scotsman at bottom because he isn't either of those things—speculative or Scottish—but I'm a huge fan of the man, and I'd enjoyed the bits of his autobiography he shared at his live book launch.

More Fool Me lasted me a couple of weeks, and though I had significant problems with it as an autobigraphy—it's repetitive, incomplete and unbelievably brief—to my surprise, I enjoyed the experience of hearing it hugely.

So I doubled down when, all too quickly, it was finished: I bought the audiobook of Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson, which I'd been meaning to read since its release.

It's proven to be a completely different experience from More Fool Me. In the first instance, one of the two speakers reads his chapters with such bombast that his voice has been hard to get past. Other problems: this audiobook is fifty-odd hours in full, with long-ass chapters and few suitable stopping points. As such, I frequently find myself flabberghasted by the narrative, picking up as I must in the middle of a chapter. 

I've gone from one extreme to the other, I fear, and so you see: baby's first audiobook may well be baby's last... unless you lend a helping hand.

What I want from an audiobook, it seems, is something accessible. Sometimes that dovetails with my tastes. Something not too long overall, and read without the intrusion that's ruined (the audiobook of) Words of Radiance for me.

Recommend a friend?

Book Review | Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Buy this book from
Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com
IndieBound / The Book Depository

Or get the Kindle edition

Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.

Nobody fights the Epics... nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart — the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning — and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

***

"It's always dark in Newcago," (p.21) declares David Charleston, a decade on from the death of his fearless father at the hands of Steelheart. The darkness shrouding the city has been gathering since that fateful day, as if to help keep some deep secret... but it's always darkest before the dawn, isn't that what they say?

As well they may. But the dawn of what? Why hope, of course.

For the moment, though, there's none. Humanity has been almost completely defeated, and the night's spiteful cycle is constant reminder of our fall from prominence.

The only thing you can see up there is Calamity, which looks kind of like a bright red star or comet. Calamity began to shine one year before men started turning into Epics. Nobody knows why or how it still shines through the darkness. Of course, nobody knows why the Epics started appearing, or what their connection is to Calamity either. (p.21)

Forgive me for trotting out another expression in such quick succession, but knowledge is power, is it not? Would that it were so simple! After all, our protagonist, poor dear David, has a whole lot of knowledge — he's spent his entire adult life assembling it — but precious little power.

Alone, he's as helpless against the Epics as he was when one murdered his father in front of him — his father, who dared to dream of a hero. Alone, he might be better informed than most about the whys and wherefores of Steelheart's army, however he's no match for even the weakest of these superbeings. Alone, David's store of knowledge is unto nothing... which is why it's his heart's desire to join the Reckoners, a cell of rebels who have dedicated themselves to the death of the Epics. So when he figures out that they're in the city, he puts his life on the line to manufacture a meeting.

It isn't giving the game away to tell you that in time, the team takes him in. According to David's new boss, Prof, it seems his study of Steelheart might indeed be the key to defeating the evil overlord. Though many have tried and failed in the past, only he has seen Steelheart bleed, and this could be the piece that unlocks the ultimate puzzle.

But if the Reckoners are going to stand a chance of putting our protagonist's plan into action, they'll have to work out what Steelheart's unique weakness is. Every Epic has one.

The problem was, an Epic weakness could be just about anything. Tia [the Reckoners' in-house hacker] mentioned symbols — there were some Epics who, if they saw a specific pattern, lost their powers for a few moments. Others were weakened by thinking certain thoughts, not eating certain foods, or eating the wrong foods. The weaknesses were more varied than the powers themselves were. (p.118)

So begins Brandon Sanderson's new novel. Broadly speaking, at least. In actual fact I found Steelheart's first act rather lacking. The several action scenes it revolves around are absolutely adequate, but the plot punctuating them is predictable, the prose unpolished and the characterisation bland. Add to that — and this disappointed me most of all, given Sanderson's knack for knocking up neat new milieus — a great many of the specifics of this particular post-apocalypse appeared arbitrary. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the Epics' strengths and weaknesses; nor does the author attempt to address what caused Calamity.

Lots of people did have theories, and most would be happy to tell you about them. The Epics were the next stage in human evolution, or they were a punishment sent by this god or that, or they were really aliens. or they were the result of a government project. Or it was all fake and they were using technology to pretend they had powers. 

Most of the theories fell apart when confronted by facts. Normal people had gained powers and become Epics; they weren't aliens or anything like that. There were enough direct stories of a family member manifesting abilities. Scientists claimed to be baffled by the genetics of Epics. (pp.209-210)

So what is going on? Where did the Epics come from, and what do they want? These are just a few of the fascinating questions Sanderson asks but declines, for the larger part, to answer... which brings me back to my issues with the beginning of this book. Early on, there's a certain sense that the author is making it all up as he goes along — not a negative in itself, but taken together with everything else, I wasn't what you'd call keen to read the rest.

But here's the thing: I'm glad I gave Steelheart a chance to redeem itself. Admittedly, it mightn't have the best of beginnings, yet Sanderson finds his feet in time to make the remainder of his tale sensational. The aforementioned problems are still problems, but only with one small part of the entire narrative, because when the pace picks up, it rarely relents; the characters, including our protagonist, only really come into their own when in one another's company; whilst the story gathers such force as it goes that the reader can't help but be swept up, up and away with it.

It doesn't hurt that Sanderson is so self-aware. He draws attention to his own dreadful metaphors, going so far as to fashion a neat character beat from these; a decent deal sweetened by the earnest sense of humour he adopts to tell what turns out to be a pretty terrific tale. What Steelheart lacks in polish and initial impact it more than makes up for in terms of energy and affection. In the final summation, it's actually fantastic fun: a love letter of sorts to the superhero, though these are few and far between... and for good reason, in this instance.

What we have here, it becomes clear, is a very clever realisation of the idea that power corrupts.

Epics had a distinct, even incredible, lack of morals or conscience. That bothered some people, on a philosophical level. Theorists, scholars. They wondered at the sheer inhumanity many Epics manifested. Did the Epics kill because Calamity chose — for whatever reason — only terrible people to gain powers? Or did they kill because such amazing power twisted a person, made them irresponsible? 

There were no conclusive answers. I didn't care; I wasn't a scholar. Yes, I did research, but so did a sports fan when he followed his team. It didn't matter to me why the Epics did what they did any more than a baseball fan wondered at the physics of a bat hitting a ball. [...] Only one thing mattered — Epics gave no thought for originary human life. A brutal murder was a fitting retribution, in their minds, for the most minor of infractions. (pp.73-74)

This theme, at least, the author pays off in spades... unlike various other essential elements of Steelheart's premise.

It's hard not to see Sanderson's back-catalogue in terms of major and minor works. In the past, he's even discussed this description, explaining that novels of the latter category represent "refreshers" from the big epics which are his true love, but can be very demanding mentally. "I like to be very free and loose when I write them," he adds — and sadly, that practice is apparent in Steelheart. That said, this is much more satisfying than a paltry palate-cleanser.

I can hardly believe I'm saying this, given the failings of Steelheart's first act — not to mention its lack of clarity as regards certain crucial concepts — but I can't wait to see what Brandon Sanderson does with the rest of the Reckoners trilogy this short, sweet book about superpowers begins.

***

Steelheart
by Brandon Sanderson

UK Publication: September 2013, Gollancz
US Publication: September 2013, Tor

Buy this book from
Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com
IndieBound / The Book Depository

Or get the Kindle edition

Recommended and Related Reading

Guest Post | Mieneke of A Fantastical Librarian Reviews The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

I may have wondered a bit beforehand, but once the emails went out to all the folks I hoped would help keep The Speculative Scotsman awesome whilst I sunned myself in the States, and the guest blogs started trickling in, there was never any question whose post was going to lead the pack.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the marvelous Mieneke of A Fantastic Librarian!

To begin with, she was the first to submit a something. And this in spite of the fact that her extenuating circumstances were surely amongst the worst: at the time, she was mere days away from having this beautiful baby girl.

I am of course immensely grateful to everyone who took a little time - or indeed a lot - to help a brother blogger out, but I expect we can agree that Mieneke went above and beyond to inform and entertain and I don't doubt delight you all in my absence.

In the following review, she offers her unique perspective on the vast first volume of The Stormlight Archive, which - as she generously mentions - I also reviewed way back when. Actually, it was one of the first, if not THE first review someone paid me actual money to publish.

But I digress... from America!

Over to you, Mieneke. :)

***

Buy this book from:

Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com

IndieBound / The Book Depository

"According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms. And the Voidbringers followed...

"They came against man ten thousand times. To help them cope, the Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical weapons, known as Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of knights known as Radiants, mankind finally won.

"Or so the legends say. Today, the only remnants of those supposed battles are the Shardblades, the possession of which makes a man nearly invincible on the battlefield. The entire world is at war with itself - and has been for centuries since the Radiants turned against mankind. Kings strive to win more Shardblades, each secretly wishing to be the one who will finally unite all of mankind under a single throne.

"On a world scoured down to the rock by terrifying hurricanes that blow through every few days young spearman forced into the army of a Shardbearer, led to war against an enemy he doesn't understand and doesn't really want to fight.

"What happened deep in mankind's past?

"Why did the Radiants turn against mankind, and what happened to the magic they used to wield?"

***

One of the most buzzed about releases of 2010, The Way of Kings is the first in a projected ten book series called The Stormlight Archive. And to be honest, I wasn't planning on starting this series, not until there were at least several installments of the book out and a reasonable chance of the series being finished. Because, let's face it, big name epic fantasy series running over a trilogy are challenged these days – *cough* George R.R. Martin *cough* Peter V. Brett *cough* Scott Lynch *cough* – not the least of which is The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, which Sanderson is finishing after Jordan's far-too-early passing. In fact, the only series of the same door-stopper scope and number finished in recent years is Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. So, no wonder I was hesitant to start another series, no? And then we visited London last year and, completely unexpectedly, had the chance to attend a signing by Sanderson for the paperback edition of The Way of Kings at Forbidden Planet.

And having gotten the paperbacks signed and at home, of course I had to read them, regardless of any reservations. And I read both parts of the paperbacks back to back over the course of five days, so that should be an indication of how much I enjoyed this book. 

The Way of Kings is a fascinating work, mixing several different viewpoints into a whole that reads like the epic fantasy of old. Combine this with some excellent battle scenes, political intrigue and an interesting magic system and Sanderson definitely had my attention. Before I turn my attention to the story, a bit about the physical copies themselves. The original hardback has been split into two paperbacks, due to length. All the chapter headings are illuminated with lovely headers and each has a sort of badge with identifies from whose perspective this chapter is written. Interspersed throughout the book are illustrations of sketches, purportedly taken from Shallan's sketchbook, maps and other relevant documents which enrich the story and were very pretty to boot.

Sanderson is known for his world building chops. It is no wonder then that The Way of Kings is filled to the brim with world building, without being overtly info-dumped. From the little epigraphs at the start of most chapters, to Shallan's research into the origins of the Plains war, to Kaladin's flashback chapters, Sanderson manages to give us a grounding in the history of Roshar. One of the world building aspects that garners Sanderson a lot of praise is his magic system. However, it doesn't take so much of a front seat in The Way of Kings as I'd expected. Yes, there are some magic workers, such as the White assassin, who can defy gravity, and the Princess Jasnah, who works a magic named Soulcasting and of course there's the magic of the ancients that produced the artifacts called Shardblades and Shardplates. But none of these is actually explained.

There are seven viewpoints throughout the five parts that make up the book. Four of these are the main points of view: Kaladin, a slave/soldier who is leader of one of the bridge crews in Dalinar's army, Shallan, a young girl seeking to learn at Princess Jasnah's feet, Dalinar, uncle to the king and one of his main commanders and Adolin, Dalinar's son. The three others only have a few chapters to their names: Navani, the Dowager Queen, Szeth, the White assassin and Wit, the King's jester. In addition there are several characters who have points of view only once in the interludes. While I found all four of the main point of view characters sympathetic, my favourite has to be Kaladin. He's the one we spend the most time with and I'd argue he's was the true heart of at least this first book of The Stormlight Archive. He's clever, resourceful and a consummate soldier, who cares deeply for the welfare of his men, even if they are considered nothing but the lowest rabble in the army and plain cannon fodder during plateau assaults.

I really enjoyed The Way of Kings, admittedly more than I'd expected to. I know this isn't a very in-depth review for the very hefty tome that these two paperbacks make up, but a combination of pregnancy brain and having read this book over six months ago – it's one of the first backlogged books due to my being sick in the early part of my pregnancy – mean that I don't really feel qualified to say more on this book. If you'd like to read some more in-depth reviews, you can find some at The Wertzone, Stomping on Yeti or The Speculative Scotsman's review at Strange Horizons.

[So you were saving the best for last, then? :P - Niall]

All that is left for me to say is that I'll definitely be around to see where Sanderson takes Kaladin, Shallan and the rest in the next book, which is tentatively scheduled for early 2013. Let's hope that after Sanderson finishes A Memory of Light, the final Wheel of Time book, he'll be able to dedicate himself fully to The Stormlight Archive and we won't have to wait as long between books, as we know that he's a very quick and prolific writer.

*** 

From the bottom of my heart, Mieneke: thank you for getting this whole thing off to such a great start. Here's hoping life with bookish baby the second is going absolutely fabulously for you, and that one day in the not-too-distant you'll have time to read another book! :)

Remember, you can find Mieneke blogging over at A Fantastical Librarian, and you damn well should, too. She's tremendously talented, and without doubt one of the very loveliest of us. And to my mind that counts for a lot in this day of faceless blog conglomerates along the lines of io9.

That's it from me and Mieneke for the day, anyway, but do drop in on The Speculative Scotsman and Friends again tomorrow for another something special!

Video Game Review: Dead Rising 2 - Case Zero

In the United States, publishing monolith Macmillan has released pay-per-prologue ebooks for each installment of The Wheel of Time series since the turn of the millennium. The latest, Distinctions, just hit electronic shelves everywhere: $3 will net you a few thousand words meant to set the scene for Towers of Midnight, volume thirteen of Robert Jordan's sprawling fantasy saga.

Now. I'll confess to an utter dearth of interest in The Wheel of Time, even given Brandon Sanderson's involvement - pillory me if you will - so I don't suppose I can say with any certainty that Distinctions and its decade of antecedents are the calculated cash-ins they appear to be; certainly fans of the series eat them up, or else we wouldn't be seeing one for every new novel in the saga, would we? My raised eyebrows aside, I can see the purpose such premium taste-tests serve: the better to whet one's appetite (that is presupposing one has a hankering for such a dish) for the main course to come.

In literature, then, paid previews - at least for giants of the genre like Jordan (and Sanderson, evidently) - are old news. In other media, however... not so much. Case Zero, for instance, is something of a first in gaming: a payquel, they're calling it, though I've heard a few pundits bandying about the term "pre-DLC," too. It's a short, standalone experience, in any event; perhaps three hours in length - though your mileage may vary dramatically, depending on whether you mean to accomplish everything Case Zero has to offer or just to power through the story - it takes place, in narrative terms, a full three years before the events of Dead Rising 2, the belated sequel to a fan-favourite game due for release later this month. It introduces us to Chuck Greene, former motocross champion and DIY enthusiast, as well as his daughter, Katey.

Katey hasn't been keeping so well, sadly. In the aftermath of the outbreak in Santa Cabeza chronicled in the original Dead Rising, her mum fell tragically afoul of the zombie horde and bit - the beast - her own little girl. Chuck and Katey have been on the run ever since, the former stalling the onset of the undead plague in the latter with injections of Zombrex every twelve hours. Thus, they stop off in the unassuming little town of Still Creek to replenish their supplies of such, only for some opportunistic git to steal away in Chuck's truck, stranding the father and daughter in a town the military (read: evil authority figures) mean to blockade when night falls that very day.

The plot is so much stuff and nonsense, of course. This isn't The Reapers Are The Angels, by any stretch. At best, in narrative terms, it's Land of the Dead... but no-one's coming to Case Zero for its gripping storytelling, anyway. What plot there is serves singularly to justify an array of gameplay mechanics you'll either love or utterly loathe: the small, if surprisingly fully formed area in which you can face off against the never-ending zombie menace; the dreadfully oppressive march of time which inhibits you, as Chuck (in, for instance, a beer hat and a repurposed cocktail waitress' dress), from doing everything there is to be done in this Dead Rising payquel. The acquired mechanics of that Xbox 360 launch game are back in full force in Case Zero, you see. Three hours will get you from start to finish, yes, but only if you ignore the twelve Still Creek survivors, who each have their own demands on your limited time and resources, and leave off the new core mechanic, which is to say fashioning ridiculous new weapons out of the scrap abandoned around town.

For each new weapon you craft - from the hilariously unhelpful drill helmet through to the paddlesaw, with which you can carve a bloody path through the horde - Chuck will earn PP, and thus level up, gaining a largely random buff to one of his abilities. You might win more health, an additional inventory slot (and inventory management is as high a priority as ever it was in the original game), a new move, or else a combo card, which multiplies the PP you get for each kill with a particular combination weapon. There are a few other ways to earn PP - by saving a survivor, say, or completing a chapter of the short story - but combination weapons are your prime source of income in terms of experience. There are nine on offer in Case Zero alone... well, eight and a handy beer hat!

And it's great time. Scouring the streets of Still Creek for cast-off equipment and making something supremely fun out of a traffic cone and a tin of spraypaint - if lamentably unhelpful - easily supplants the photography component of the original game; those who feared Blue Castle Games would lose what essentially defined Dead Rising in so doing should be pleasantly surprised. There's more depth, I dare say, and certainly more flexibility to the workbench action in Case Zero than there ever was to Frank Castle's old Kodak.

For myself, I don't S-Rank many games. I play a whole lot of the things - love you LoveFilm! - but I'm mostly in them for the fun, and the glazed-eye grind to kill however many thousands of enemies for some paltry gamerscore is not often that. Initially, in fact, I wasn't even sure I'd part with my hard-earned for Case Zero, but the pittance Capcom are pushing it for - 400 MSP (spacebucks to the value of $5 or just shy of £4) - made the sale a no-brainer. In terms of value for money, then, there's so much game in here that the publishers are practically giving Case Zero away, and though the quirky mechanics of Dead Rising return in full force, once the initial frustration over having to drop your spiked bat to pick up a shiny new broadsword wears off, it feels... it feels like coming home. Technically, this ballsy payquel is far from perfect: there are wonky animations, dodgy textures, a bit of framiness and load times a touch too long. That said, what Case Zero is, from top to bottom, is fun - and isn't that all that matters, in the end?

Dead Rising 2, here I come!

The Way of Things

That sound you hear? Or rather, the sound you don't; the absence, let us say, of the one-man hubbub-band you'll find here on The Speculative Scotsman most days - well. It isn't radio silence. It's the sound of me being published.

Can I hear a hell yeah? :D

Now the canny amongst you may have spotted my review of The Way of Kings already. It went up yesterday, over at Strange Horizons, an online magazine I've been reading for years. Years! The notion that one day the esteemed editors might see fit to publish a review of mine alongside criticism from the likes of Yellow Blue Tibia author Adam Roberts and fiction from (this week alone) Lavie Tidhar... well, it was an idle one at best.

But there I am, right there on the front page of Strange Horizons, and damn it all, I couldn't be happier. So it's a pleasure to break the news to those of you who've been tolerating my burbling since I kicked TSS off on new year's day, eight months ago. The latecomers, too. I couldn't - I wouldn't - have thought to submit a thing to professional forum I hold in such high regard (and I'm hardly alone in that) were it not for your support. So thank you.

Now then. Clicky here, if you will, and see what I had to say about Brandon Sanderson's designs on The Wheel of Time. You might need snacks; it's a long 'un.

Go! Go! Joe Abercrombie Excerpt

Now I don't make a habit of posting blurbs and cover art and excerpts. These things, they have their place on the blogosphere - I wouldn't question it - but by and large, those places aren't here. If you want all that jazz to factor into your daily reading, the aforementioned Aidan's got you covered, with class, concise commentary et al.

Which isn't to say I don't ever repost publicity materials: only that it takes a special case for me to make an exception. For the record, China Mieville and Brandon Sanderson (more on whom soon) are the only authors whose excerpts I've pimped out via intravenous TSS. Two excerpts in six-and-some months... not bad going.

Well, make that three. Yesterday, in their newsletter, Gollancz released an exclusive excerpt from The Heroes - Joe Abercrombie's still-a-ways-out next novel, due in the new year - to subscribers. And with everyone's favourite Uncle nodding permission from the comfy chair I set up for him in the corner, I'm reproducing it here for those of you who don't subscribe to the monthly email loveliness. Which you almost certainly should. In fact, let me introduce you to a link to ease the very thing.

Anyway. The excerpt:

Chapter 1 of The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

Splattering Brain Matter Starting January 2011

I haven't been able to read it myself yet - my pesky computer keeps choking on the URL - but, and this should come as no surprise to (love you) longtime readers, I'm something of an Abercrombie devotee. Though I was a touch disappointed by the unrelenting and often rather rote violence of Best Served Cold - the full review is here - The First Law trilogy represented a refreshingly frank and realistic new direction for fantasy at the time of its publication. I did it, too, something of a disservice, stopping and starting throughout despite having the whole saga to hand; by the time I came to read it in full, the style of storytelling Abercrombie pioneered had already been imitated ad infinitum. Despite that, I have a great deal of respect for the author, and high hopes for The Heroes, which is set to go back to the well in terms of setting and a couple of returning characters.

Here's the blurb, in case you haven't perused it yet:

"War: where the blood and dirt of the battlefield hide the dark deeds committed in the name of glory. The Heroes is about violence and ambition, gruesome deaths and betrayals; and the brutal truth that no plan survives contact with enemy. The characters are the stars, as ever, and the message is dark: when it comes to war, there are no heroes...

Meet the heroes.

Curnden Craw: a ruthless fighter who wants nothing more than to see his crew survive.

Prince Calder: a liar and a coward, he will regain his crown by any means necessary.

Bremer dan Gorst: a master swordsman, a failed bodyguard, his honor will be restored - in the blood of his enemies.

Over three days, their fates will be sealed."

Roll on January, right?

Meantime, I'm going to see if I can't get that excerpt working for myself...

Excerpt Emporium: More Free Brandon Sanderson

An except of the prologue through to the third chapter of The Way of Kings marked my first taste of Brandon Sanderson's fiction - read about my experiences here if you missed them first time out. In short, I had a fine time. I don't know that I yet love Sanderson's work, but I certainly came away from the excerpt over at Tor.com hungry for more.

My proof - one of but a few to have made it all the way across the Atlantic, I'm given to understand - arrived in the mail a few days after I put up the aforementioned post. I still haven't picked it up.

I think that might be symptomatic of the book malaise I've been suffering from these past few weeks. I've read little of note since The Passage, to be perfectly honest. Johannes Cabal the Necromancer left me largely nonplussed; I didn't love The Holy Machine as much as I'd expected to; and my current read, The Unit, is (in the early-going at least) a bit too gun-porn for my liking.

It's nothing to stress about, mind you. The best and the worst of us feel this kind of fatigue once in a while. The Speculative Scotsman won't be taking a sabbatical, my stubborness alone will see to that - reviews of each and every one of those books will make it onto the blog shortly, have no fear. For the last little while I've feeling a bit meh about reading; it's as simple as that.

So let me tell you what perked me up. Following in the footsteps of the excerpt of The Way of Kings that graced Tor.com a few weeks yonder, a second selection from Brandon Sanderson's mammoth new novel just appeared on the site. This time in audio form. It's Kate Reading and Michael Kramer starting where the last except left off, narrating chapters four through six of The Way of Kings, and their reading got this bookworm's blood pumping all over again. I'm particularly enjoying Kalladin's perspective on the slave caravan.

There doesn't seem to have been half such a hew and cry over the audio excerpt as accompanied the release of the first selection, so consider yourself well and truly on notice, ladies and gentlemen. The Way of Kings only gets better. If you haven't already, read the first three chapters here - you only need register at Tor.com - and then go listen to the second excerpt. Doctor's orders, you hear?

How I Lost My Brandon Sanderson Virginity

Brandon Sanderson is a name that's been gaining traction in fantasy circles for years now, like a pebble let loose down a slope quilted in soft snow: the further he's travelled, the bigger he's gotten. Exponentially so. He's accumulated such staggering momentum going from Elantris in 2005 through to Warbreaker and the much ballyhooed-about Mistborn trilogy... and it wouldn't do to forget his contribution to the last movements of The Wheel of Time, would it? In terms of awareness - and no doubt sales - that latter alone has seen Sanderson accelerate from mach five to faster than light in such a short space of time that he has to be the envy of every gradually rising genre author on the face of the planet.

Now I tend to read all the big genre releases - just to keep up with the scene, such as it is. But... I really don't care for The Wheel of Time. I'm sorry, guys; nothing the late and oft-lamented Robert Jordan wrote in his lifetime spoke to me at all. And though I'm more interested in the series now that Sanderson has taken the reins than I ever have been before, I'm not one to jump into a multi-volume epic fantasy on book twelve, nor can I foresee an occasion when I have the time to catch up on the multitude of doorstoppers before it, so I passed on The Gathering Storm, as I'll skip Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light. I mean no slight on either author in so doing, but The Wheel of Time just isn't for me.

Sanderson's original work, however, is another thing entirely, though I'll 'fess up here and now: despite owning a complete set of the beautifully rejacketed Mistborn trilogy, he's another of the long list of prolific fantasy authors I've somehow managed to miss. Courtesy of #bookfail, a new feature I'm working on for The Speculative Scotsman about the gaping holes in my own experience of genre fiction, you'll soon have the opportunity to learn which other speculative greats I am ignorant of. George R. R. Martin, anyone? Richard Morgan?

But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

Because over the weekend, I made a move towards remedying one such glaring oversight: with the generous excerpt of The Way of Kings posted on tor.com - the equivalent of 50 pages in length - I finally popped my Brandon Sanderson cherry. You'll know about this promotional blitz already, I'm sure. Aidan covered it on A Dribble of Ink; as did Patrick, Werthead and everyone's favourite albino carebear, along with near enough every other blogger. And don't think I wouldn't have too, had it not been for Mark Charan Newton week.

As is, I'm coming late to the party, but I'm coming armed to the teeth. See, I've actually read the excerpt - and this, I would add, isn't something I usually do. The sheer frustration of starting a story via such a thing and then having to wait months to read the rest of it usually wins out, in my case. But I'm told there's a galley of The Way of Kings winging its way to me as I write this, and so I thought, what the hell, and dug in.

And it's a curious thing, this excerpt. It's taken from the very beginning of the book - indeed, from the very beginning of a series that Sanderson has said could last for ten volumes - and it's a huge book at that, clocking in at just shy of 400,000 words. Suffice it say, then, that it's all about introductions. In the prelude to The Stormlight Archive, we meet Kalak, one of ten immortal men caught in a seemingly endless cycle of death and destruction. In the aftermath of an horrendous battle with a thunderclast, an "enormous stone beast... with unnaturally long limbs that sprouted from granite shoulder," another of the immortals informs Kalak that they have decided to end the centuries-old Oathpact that binds them together. They go on their way, vowing not to seek one another out...

And from prelude to prologue, set 4500 years later. In To Kill, Sanderson introduces us to Szeth, a Truthless, which is to say an assassin, tasked by the Parshendi with the murder of Gavilar, the Alethi King. There's talk of stormlight, shardblades, magic, culture and uprising, and then there's a huge fight during which gravity takes a backseat.

In the three brief chapters which follow, three more narrators: Cenn, an anxious and inexperienced new recruit caught in a brutal border skirmish; Kaladin, Cenn's former commander, now a particularly dangerous slave with designs on his freedom; and Shallan, the last hope of a once-great family, who hopes to become the ward of a heretic Princess.

It's a lot to take in, all told, and without the context of what comes after, I fatigued a little each time Sanderson introduced a new perspective to the narrative. And yet each of the tale-tellers holds their own. Each serves to illuminate a different aspect of the world of The Stormlight Archive, and though, come to that, there's a fair amount of worldbuilding, Sanderson filters it well. Shallan's arrival in Kharbranth, after following in the wake of the Princess for six months, is as good a reason as any to show off the so-called City of Bells, just as Cenn's recruitment is an ideal means to introduce the reader to the wars which rage to this day.

And there's nary a lull in the action. From the prelude through to the first chapter, there's no short supply of fights and flights, adeptly told and brutal in their way without ever erring on the war-porn that's come to be so prevalent in modern fantasy - Sanderson even dispatches a major character in that time, though I won't say who. Kaladin and Shallan's chapters, meanwhile, are less literally action-packed, but even in these sequences there's movement, a sense of purposefulness that keep you interested. And hardly a page goes by without Sanderson introduction one fascinating new aspect of his world or another: from sprens, tiny creatures that are essentially externalisations of elements and emotions, as the daemons were to the soul in His Dark Materials, to marble-skinned parshmen and the aforementioned thunderclasts, the flora and fauna of The Stormlight Archive appear by all accounts rich, detailed, and moreover, intriguing.

The word on the street is that Tor will make more excerpts from The Way of Kings available as we close in on the release date in late August, and were it not for the ARC I have on the way - you do not need to tell me how lucky I am, incidentally - you could be sure I'd read them as and when they appear. This excerpt mightn't have been the best introduction to the work of Brandon Sanderson, what with all the (mostly necessary) scene-setting and the lack of any further context against which to measure the (somewhat overwhelming) cast of characters introduced herein, but I can say with certainly that I'm desperate to read more of The Way of Kings.

And isn't that exactly what excerpts such as this are supposed to achieve?

And Unto All Good Things, An End

From the reviews of Nights of Villjamur on Monday and City of Ruin on Friday through the behemoth of an interview than ran in two parts across Tuesday and Thursday, not forgetting Mark's guest post on six of his literary influences and the giveaway of a signed proof, it's been quite a week, hasn't it?

I tend to suspect there've been a good few new visitors to The Speculative Scotsman in the interim, too. Well... I say suspect, I do have Google Analytics you know, and the hits - shall we just say the click-through rate has been astonishing? I don't suppose it's such a great surprise. Mark's been pimping the articles every which way, gentleman scholar that he is; near-enough every article has been retweeted to hell and back (thanks guys!); Pat from the ubiquitous Fantasy Hotlist posted a link, much to my surprise; and the interview made it into SF Signal's daily tidbits round-up.

So to all those of you who've just now found the blog, a very warm welcome; it's a pleasure to have you here. I do hope you'll stay a while. And in case you're wondering, I do write about other stuff too. Next week, for instance: video games (one in particular), Seamus Cooper's dead dog blues, my thoughts on Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings excerpt, and more. Yes, more! What a busy little blogger I am...

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I hope you'll agree, the first themed week on TSS has been a huge success - so much so that I'm tempted to make it a themed month, but alas, Mark has only written so many books. Speaking of whom, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the man. Let's be honest here: what with the interview, the giveaway and the guest post, he did a whole lot of the heavy lifting. So thanks, Mark. Same bat-time, same bat-place next year, when book three of The Legends of the Red Sun comes out, alright?

In case you missed any of the shenanigans, here's a handy little collection of links to all the stories from the past week:

A Whole Week of Mark Charan Newton

Book Review: Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton

The Speculative Spotlight on Mark Charan Newton (Part 1)

Mark Charan Newton on Six Influences on The Legends of the Red Sun Series

The Speculative Spotlight on Mark Charan Newton (Part 2)

Book Review: City of Ruin by Mark Charan Newton

And that's not even including the giveaway posts - nor this little round-up!

Sadly, though, that's that. But it's been heaps of fun, hasn't it?

So who's up for another themed thingummy? What with The Passage coming out shortly, I'm rather of a mind to get a bit of a vampire weekend on the go. All I have to do is get through the rest of that beast of a book first...