The Alloy of Law and Shadows of Self (Mistborn: The Alloy Era #1 and #2) by Brandon Sanderson

                    

fantasy, mystery, action/suspense


Amy's Reviews

The Alloy of Law (Mistborn #4)

Another great series start by Brandon Sanderson! I enjoyed his Mistborn trilogy very much so I decided to try the continuation of that series, The Alloy of Law, which takes place in the same world but 300 years into the future from the first Mistborn trilogy. This one felt like it was set in a parallel universe to our own cowboy era with gunslingers and trains and the emergence of electricity. Even the cover art shows them dressed for the American West. Waxillium has had to return to his family home in the city because he is the inheriter of a family estate that requires management and oversight. Unfortunately, this pulls him away from his vigilante law enforcement adventures in The Roughs. However, due to circumstances, he finds himself pulled into a mystery in the city, hunting down lawbreakers, and slipping back into his role of enforcer along with his trusty “sidekick” Wayne. (Wayne? Sanderson is so excellent at creating unique names for his characters and then he comes up with something familiar like Wayne? Oh well, the name certainly does fit him and he is probably my favorite sidekick ever! I love him! And I did not miss the “wax and wane” sound-alike.)

The references to all the old characters from the Mistborn trilogy were heart-warming and the “modern” interpretations of history and religion were interesting given the fact that the series reader knows exactly where those stories originated and can imagine how they’ve morphed over time. The characters were fun, there was a lot of action (although, the fighting scenes went on a bit long for my taste—this is my biggest criticism of the novel which is the only thing lowering my rating), the pacing was great, and the story pulled me in right away and kept me there. I will gladly continue reading the series.

Michael Kramer continued as the narrator for the series and, again, he tends to get too monotone when he’s not actively voicing a character. But, oh, when he IS voicing a character, he’s wonderful. I’ll give him an A for not only doing a great job with accents and different voices, but coming up with an almost entirely new cast of voices for this novel instead of recycling old voices of characters now gone. Bravo!

Shadows of Self (Mistborn #5)

As much as I love the characters in this series, I'm probably done with it at this point. In the fifth Mistborn installment, which is the second novel of the new generation, our story picks up about a year after the events in book #4 ended. Not much has changed during that time and Wax and his friends once again find themselves doing investigative work while chasing after a murderer.

The good: Oh, how I love Wax, Wayne, Marasi, and Milan. They're all great characters and the interaction between Wayne and Milan was especially entertaining. They had me laughing out loud a few times.

The bad: The religion. Sigh. This is what I didn't like about the original Mistborn series. It got too heavily religious at the end. Granted, it's based on fantasy religions but it's still involving higher powers with the ability to speak to humans and interfere. It just doesn't do it for me. This is not what I want from the fantasy genre.

The ugly: The newspaper sections. I see what Sanderson was trying to do and applaud his creativity, but it was forced and, frankly, took me away from the action in the storyline for too long. Since I was listening to the audio book it was especially painful because I could not fast forward through these parts that did nothing to carry the story forward.

The narrator was, once again, Michael Kramer and he really outdid himself this time. The section where Wayne and Milan were showing off their abilities to speak using different accents was nothing short of genius! What a talent to be able to change to different voices and dialects with such high skill. I wondered if Sanderson was thinking about how much work he was setting up for Kramer, knowing he would be reading the audio version. I'm sure Kramer's stellar work here is appreciated by the author. He has finally earned an A+ from me!

Bridget Jones's Diary (Bridget Jones #1) by Helen Fielding

Amy    

women's fiction

I know it’s surprising but I had never read Bridget Jones’s Diary nor watched the movie. So, after my 2017 book-a-day calendar recommended it and then another book (The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, Katarina Bivald) recommended it, I decided it was time. Bridget Jones is a 30-something year old single woman trying to find love and happiness in a world where most people her age seem to be paired off already and the cards appear to be stacked against her. The novel is written as diary entries (as one would expect from the title). I’m sure I would have enjoyed this novel more in my younger days but it was cute. Although, my life has been nothing like Bridget’s, I could certainly relate to a meddling mother, separated parents, and the wish to find my place in life. The reader can’t help but pull for Bridget.

I did not love the forced stand-up comedy sections when Bridget goes off-storyline to tell us her opinions on some facet of life. For some reason, I’ve never loved “comedic novels”. I prefer to watch my comedy live or acted out. So, I tended to skim those sections. I also skimmed all the pre-entry statistics (weight, number of alcoholic units consumed, number of cigarettes smoked, etc.) because that is the kind of stuff I have no patience for and why it’s hard for me to love this novel. I just wanted Bridget to buck up and take control of herself. But, I do totally understand how tough it is for people to get settled into post-college, pre-relationship life. There’s a lot going on and it’s tough to meet new people.

After telling the ladies in my book club that I was reading this book, they told me that Hugh Grant played Daniel and Colin Firth played Mark in the movie. So, the funniest thing about this novel to me was that both actors are named within! I suppose that the author, Helen Fielding, was in heaven when actors she clearly had been envisioning actually took major roles in the movie of her book! How fun!

Tool of War (Ship Breaker #3) by Paolo Bacigalupi

Amy   

science fiction, young adult, action/suspense, post-apocalyptic

Paolo Bacigalupi is back! I had not even realized a third novel in the series was in the works and, then, there it was! I like this series that is brutal and scary and makes me think. This is more of an actual sequel (and continuation of the story arcs) for the first two books in the series whereas the second book (The Drowned Cities) was less of a sequel/continuation and more of a new story set in the same future world as the first one (Ship Breaker). Tool of War fit well with the base stories established by the first two to make a true trilogy.

In this installment, the war is over and Tool (a genetically altered half-man) has led his troops to victory in the Drowned Cities. However, Tool’s past has caught up with him and he must fight for his life while chasing after those trying to destroy him. Coincidentally, he meets up with Mahlia, the girl around whom The Drowned Cities centered, and Nailer and Nita, from Ship Breaker. These coincidences were too convenient but I enjoyed the reunion with the characters so much that it didn’t bother me a lot. Tool has been the one constant —the only character appearing in all three novels. However, this novel features Tool as the main character instead of a secondary character. It was a nice way to grab my interest immediately.

Bacigalupi’s writing in this one is wonderful. He continues to be descriptive and violent while forcing the reader to think about how the characters got into this situation. In this one, we did not have to face, so directly, the consequences of global warming and technological advances that have caused more harm than good to human life. However, the environmental undercurrents set up in the first novels of the trilogy still existed in this setting. This novel was more about the characters than the harsh future. And that is probably why I liked it so much. Bacigalupi did not have to spend as much time painting a picture of society, the Earth’s condition, and the cities themselves. Although, I will say that the only slow sections of the novel were those where Tool was ruminating to himself for long periods of time. They dragged. They could have been cut by 50% and this reader still would have understood Tool’s motivations sufficiently. Stop the monologuing! :D

Seriously, this is a great read and it makes me want to go back and recommend this series to anyone who enjoys post-apocalyptic fiction, action, and a fast pace.

I listened to the audio book and was pleasantly surprised that Sunil Malhotra was the narrator. He also narrated the male sections in Eleanor & Park (Rainbow Rowell) and he’s fantastic! He exhibits a great variety of voices and is an amazing voice actor. He earns an A+ for this one!

The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1) by S.A. Chakraborty

Amy   

fantasy, action/suspense, young adult

Nahri is a street urchin in Cairo, stealing and swindling to make a living.  She accidentally summons and gets herself involved with strange people and must flee the only home she has ever known in order to save her life.  Magic, action, and political intrigue ensue. 

The adventure in The City of Brass was fun and the tribes of people and the different types of magical creatures were all creative. But this novel had plenty of flaws. It was never explained how Dara’s initial opinion of Nahri changed and developed from finding her an obnoxious brat (which she was) to respecting and liking her. Yes, she did get less annoying later but the reader never benefited from seeing the gradual growth. Instead, she was suddenly treated differently and acting differently at the change of a chapter and without explanation. Additionally, the politics were often difficult to follow and understand. People’s opinions and actions were inconsistent. There were too many tribes to keep track of. It sometimes felt like S.A. Chakraborty had realized she was in a hole and needed to create some sort of back-story to make the current situation work so she just declared that something had happened earlier without actually taking the time and making the effort to weave that circumstance into the previous storyline. However, despite its flaws, I enjoyed the ride overall and hope the sequel will be less clunky and the characters better developed. I also liked reading about Egypt and learning a little about the culture and belief systems.  I also like the cover art.

The Alienist (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler #1) by Caleb Carr

Amy  

mystery, historical fiction

The Alienist by Caleb Carr is a murder mystery about serial murders set in 1896 NYC. I read (well, listened to) this book because a TV show based on this novel was being released soon (update: it is now on the air!) and a friend had previously recommended it. However, the description did not interest me when the friend recommended it and I would not have read it if not for the TV show. I figured if it’s being made into a show it must be good. Well, I was correct with my first assumption that I would not appreciate it. I’m not a lover of murder mysteries in the first place but I especially don’t care for those that get into the mind of the killer. Thankfully, it was a quick audio book—around 4 hours. So, I muddled through despite taking a break from it in the middle due to boredom. It’s a grizzly, sad story but did have smart characters. I also enjoyed the historical setting. But, it’s just not my kind of novel. 

The voice actor, Edward Herrmann, has a voice that sounds like a combination of Gene Hackman and Dick Van Dyke. I like his voice! He did a great job with different accents and vocal tones and, while his reading was sometimes too quick, his voice acting was good. I’ll give him an A-.