Novel: Warbreaker

Warbreaker by: Brandon Sanderson

What I love about fantasy fictional universes is the time and effort taken to create entirely new languages, magic, religions, social structures. It’s such an interesting way of trying to understand how we view our own world, by trying to develop problem ridden worlds (problems for dramatic effect, but problems nonetheless). In particular, I loved the two ‘magic’ based systems developed both here in Warbreaker and the Mistborn Trilogy had very subject based concepts with rules and understandings that made them expansive arts and yet precise science. The concept here is that everything is based on color and biochroma which is a part of everyone’s lives, but also can enhance the very senses from being able to perceive absolute color to having perfect pitch.

Warbreaker looks at the problems with assuming. It’s a solid stand alone book that develops an entire history and really shows the issues with how we can get caught up in a single view, how beliefs can be manipulated, and how faith can exist even in disbelief.

Novel: The Stars My Destination

The Stars My Destination by: Alfred Bester

From the prologue about how jaunting (teleportation) can into existence this book hits no wrong notes. The world building is fantastic. Every facet of society from how jaunting changes things to the war between the inner planets and the outer satellites just fits. But where most of the space opera type novels fail miserably (for me) and The Stars My Destination succeeds is in the characters. Because as cool as jaunting is, this book isn’t about teleportation. It’s about Gully Foyle, the stereotypical common man and what happens after he’s left marooned on a drifting spaceship and he’s forced to become extraordinary. It’s about revenge, madness, love and war. It’s about a burning man on the Spanish Steps. It’s about limits of power and what happens when someone can break through them.

Gully Foyle is hands down my favorite fictional character of all time. He’s part hero, part villain, half mad, and lusting for revenge. People view him as close to a monster and at times he looks it. Foyle’s a mass of contradictions, gets things done by brute strength as often as smarts. He betrays people and is betrayed, falls for the unobtainable and does the impossible.

Novel: Anansi Boys

Anansi Boys by: Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is one of those writers where if you know his work, you will understand what I’m talking about, and if you don’t, you should pick up any of his books right away and find out.  He writes in a way totally unlike anything else I’ve ever encountered - endlessly hilarious, flowing, with a train-of-thought, almost psychedelic style, yet in a way, which seems simple and modest.  His strange prose and subject matter feels completely normal when you’re absorbed in it, and if you do notice it at all it only enhances your enjoyment.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of this book is the way he effortlessly blended a slightly hopeless, resigned, ordinary main character, living in our ordinary world, with a series of increasingly insane mythologies and legends.  I love when writers use existing mythology and bend it to their own story, as I feel like it includes the reader in the journey - like they have a jump start on knowing the characters - and Gaiman has done an incredible job of that here.  It’s impossible to pin down what the novel is really about - family, in a sense, in that most of the trouble is caused by the protagonist’s brother and father, both of whom are magical beings who seem to live off their own charm and wit.  But it doesn’t really seem to matter that I left the book almost as confused as I began it.  I was in hysterics for most of the novel, at the situations, descriptions and dialogue in equal measure.  Every sentence seemed to be laced with hundreds of layers of meaning in a way that completely delighted me.

All in all, I would say this book is a must read for anyone who likes a mixture of extreme, on-the-nose events, and subtle nuances of humor.  Like me, I’m sure you’ll be hanging on with tight fingers until the very last page.

Film: Harry Potter 7

Harry Potter by: J.K. Rowling

The latest Harry Potter film picks up where the last left off: Voldemort has just recovered the Elder Wand from Dumbledore’s grave, while Harry, Ron and Hermione plan their next move in Shell Cottage. They theorize that the next Horcrux- a series of items which hold a part of Voldemort’s soul- is in Gringotts, a bank where the only even remotely successful robbery so far resulted in the theft of nothing. Factor in the fact that said Horcrux is in the vault of Bellatrix Lestrange- Voldemort’s most devoted and deadly follower- and it becomes nigh-impossible. All of this leads up to a final battle in Hogwarts- A battle that takes up the bulk of the film.

What always makes a Harry Potter film enjoyable is the balance between drama and comedy. Even in this- the darkest of the series- there are moments of comedy and- by and large- they feel natural. Even the usually stern Professor McGonnagal has her moment, joyfully remarking how she’d always wanted to cast a particular spell which brings an army of statues to life. These moments do an amazing job of relieving the tension.

Simultaneously, it’s also the saddest of the eight films. Beloved and hated characters die left, right and centre and- while their deaths will come as no great surprise to those who have read the books- still have the same effect.

The acting is impressive, with Matthew Lewis, Alan Rickman and Emma Watson standing out. Helena Bonham-Carter once again displays her skills to amazing effect, and in this film she plays both as Bellatrix and, briefly, Hermione, and inhabits both roles perfectly.

The weakest point in the film- as with Part 1- is deviations from the books: One glaring example is the mirror which was introduced in the fifth book, but suddenly appeared in Harry’s possession in the seventh movie. Rather than coming up with a new escape from Malfoy Manor which wouldn’t require a mirror, they instead bring it up again with a lazy explanation that the mirror belonged to Sirius and leave it at that.  Other minor inconsistencies- such as characters the year above Harry being Hogwarts students- are distracting, but ignorable.

Despite this, this is probably the best of the Harry Potter films, and a fitting finale to the series.