As the school year progresses and the email piles up, the stories become more and more entertaining and funny. This book shines a bright, multi-colored light into the deep, dark recesses (no pun) of the classroom and the emperor and serfs thereof. From the drop-in eye care lady (“I think glasses are SEXY!”) to the drill-down preparation for the dreaded TAKS tests, Pearson carrys the reader through a school year of fun and mayhem. And don’t think there isn’t a climactic finish. I practically blew out an O-ring waiting to see if the students passed the math part of the TAKS test. I won’t give it away here, but the results were quite surprising.

So, if you’re looking for a book that will stick to your fingers and keep you awake until you can finally learn the academic fate of these kids who are so (and some not so) eager to learn from their well-meaning and sometimes misplaced teacher, this is the book for you.

Pick up a copy

In a nutshell, the plot of Mistborn is simple. A street urchin with magical powers (known in the Mistborn trilogy as allomancy) is befriended by the resistance in hopes of her helping to overthrow a ruthless and immortal dictator who has governed and enslaved the peoples of the world for a thousand years, and, unless something is done, is likely to continue for many millennia more.

Like Sanderson’s first novel, Mistborn is refreshingly unique in its plot. Its characters are likable, especially the supporting cast of resistance fighters. It’s ending is superb, both in originality and in excitement.

There was absolutely nothing in this book with which I could find fault (a rarity for someone as critical as I). Mistborn was a joy to read from the very beginning to the final exciting and surprising climax. You couldn’t ask for anything more from a novel, even from a seasoned author.

It has probably been done before, but I have to admit that I have never read a book where the main character is a zombie. It was nice reading a fantasy novel with a fresh perspective on it, and Elantris definitely had it. The magic system, the protagonist, and much of the plot were all quite refreshing. At points when I thought I had things pegged, Sanderson went a different direction. In a genre where it feels like much of what we read is just a rehashing of things which have gone before, Elantris really is a breath of fresh air.

Still, the novel was very good, especially for it being Sanderson’s first. I would certainly recommend it to fans of Epic Fantasy, especially as a good example of how to write a rich and engrossing epic within a single pair of covers.

I recently finished re-reading the book (it was a long time since I had first read the book), and I was still amazed at how much detail Terry Brooks can place in his books and how good the story was.

The first book has Shea and Flick Ohmsford in search of the legendary Sword of Shannara helped by a few other heroes from the four lands including the forbidding and mysterious druid Allanon. The Sword of Shannara, the druid tells the brothers, is the only item which can defeat the Warlock Lord, an evil entity who is trying to take over the four lands.

The characters were very likable, as are the majority of the characters in the Shannara books, especially the host of characters who could best be called the supporting cast. In fact, if there can be any knock on Terry Brooks’s characters, it would be the fact that the supporting characters are often more exciting, fascinating, and complex in nature than the protagonists.

I only really have two problems with the Sword of Shannara.

The first is that the story is too similar to the Lord of the Rings. The companions of the two Valeman are eerily similar to the fellowship of the ring. Allanon is similar to Gandalf. The Warlock Lord is similar to Sauron, and his Skullbearers are similar to the Ring Wraiths. There are things which are different, like the fact that the Sword of Shannara is much more interesting to read, but the similarities are many.

The second problem that I have with the Sword of Shannara is that the vivid description sometimes gets a little tedious. It’s nothing like the tedious and boring descriptions found in the Lord of the Rings, but there are a few places in the story where I thought a little less description might have helped it move along a little better.

Later novels by Terry Brooks don’t have either of those two problems, but if you are planning on reading any of them, you really have to begin with the first one.

I’m honestly surprised that the series of Shannara novels haven’t been made into movies, especially since they are far better than the Lord of the Rings, which were very boring and tedious, or Eragon, which was just recently made into a rather disappointing movie.

I was first introduced to Remo Williams and the Destroyer Series through Marvel Comics. I bought a large-format comic book that said “Destroyer” on the front and featured a wonderful drawing of a man in his mid 30s being crushed against a wall by a large, blue, human-like creature. Immediately I thought that the blue creature-thing was the Destroyer, and I was anxious to start reading a new comic book that wasn’t the mainstay of all other comic fans. Once I got a few pages into the book, I realized that the Destroyer was in fact Remo Williams. A faint, flickering light bulb went on inside my brain. I’d heard the name before. Remo Williams. Oh yeah, there was a cheesy movie made about him in 1985. More of an A-Team sort of story, it showed how Remo was turned into the world’s ultimate assassin.

There have been hundreds of books written about Remo Williams. The story was created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir. Here is the basis:

The United States of America was corrupt. Politicians were buying their way out of scandal and criminal punishment. Law breakers were getting a slap on the wrist for even the most heinous of crimes. Taxpayer dollars were going unaccounted for. The more the President of the United States looked into the corruption, the more he realized that the corruption was all around him, even in his own people. He decided to take action. Known only to him, the President created a super-secret organization known as CURE. There were to be only three members (although the movie had four): Smith, the head of the organization and caretaker of the supercomputers that gathered worldwide information; Chiun, the Korean master assassin; Remo, the strong arm of CURE, student of Chiun.

Remo Williams was found as an orphaned beat cop who served time in the military and already had a little bit of self-defense training. CURE thought he would be perfect to take on the role as its enforcer. After a few keystrokes into the world’s most powerful supercomputer, Remo is framed for a murder he didn’t commit and sentenced to the electric chair. But CURE had rigged the chair. Remo passed out, but didn’t die, and was taken into custody by the super-secret organization.

Remo was then given an ultimatum: Work for CURE or die. He accepted the offer, and Chiun was appointed to train him in the deadliest of martial arts: Sinanju (named after Chiun’s Korean village). The training was to take 15 years, but CURE needed Remo immediately. He was sent on various “jobs” to kill corrupt people and try to bring a small amount of civility back to the great US of A.

The books are actually a fun read. Chiun’s character is priceless in his quips and bigotry — to Chiun, anyone who is not Korean is deemed nothing more than a lower life form. He reluctantly trains Remo, only doing so because his “Emperor” — Smith — is sending huge crates of gold to the poor people of Sinanju. Remo learns quickly and soon becomes the world’s greatest and most deadly martial artist. His senses are keenly developed. His technique is perfect. It is quite an adventure to read.

The books don’t necessarily need to be read in a given order. I started with #64 and didn’t feel lost. Each book gives a short history of Remo and how he came to be; and each book also reveals a little more about Remo’s history than the other books.

On this site, I will give reviews for the Destroyer books I’ve read. Some are better than others; some are just plain horrendous. But together, they are epic adventures that espionage fans will long enjoy.