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 would, however, like to review this book for men.

After all, what man wouldn’t like a book about Vampires, right?

This book is so utterly devoid of anything that a man would find interesting that it might actually be impossible to write something more polarizing between the two genders than what Stephanie Meyer has managed to create.

She does a decent job of making a man think that it might finally become interesting at some point. She starts out with vampires. She introduces a legend of werewolves who are not friendly at all towards vampires. She displays brief flashes of vampiric powers (modified quite extensively to fit into a love story). She introduces a powerful and evil vampire as the nemesis. She builds up to a climax where the good vampire is going to have to defeat the evil vampire to rescue the damsel in distress.

And then the climax never actually happens.

Well, it does happen, but we don’t actually get the action shown to us in the book because the main character, through whose eyes we are witnessing the action in the book, is actually unconscious for the final battle.

She wakes up and hears that it has happened. And that’s when we find out that we are going to get absolutely NO action in this book.

Is there any mystery or intrigue?

Not really. It’s pretty easy to guess what is going to happen, except for the part that there isn’t actually a climax that is written down in the book. I didn’t see that coming.

What does it have then?

Teenagers feeling out a relationship with a lot of dialog, most of it very similar to what we hear from our own teenage daughters. This isn’t Harry Potter. It would be more akin to High School Musical with quasi-vampires and no songs. Or maybe the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants with quasi-vampires.

What self-respecting man would want to read a book about teenage conversations and relationships and no actually interesting plot points or action?

None, I would guess.

Is the movie likely to be any better?

It has to be, doesn’t it? They’ve added in the action that had been so callously removed by the author, but I have to think that we’ve seen all of the action in the trailers. What’s left is most likely all of the silliness of high school adolescents that we would probably much rather avoid anyway.

Author’s Note: Thanks to all of those who noticed the typo. It has been fixed. It is certainly refreshing that some readers today can still spot a typo when they see it.

(In fact, I am privileged to have an autographed copy of the book.)

Enders Game originally started as a novelette. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, I think he wrote the original story while he was still a student at Brigham Young University. Orson Scott Card later changed it into a full-length novel. Not long after garnering a lot of praise and awards for Ender’s Game, he wrote more books about the same characters including another award winning novel and another novel, Ender’s Shadow, where Ender’s Game is retold from another point of view.

Ender Wiggin is a third, the third child in a family where families are only allowed to have two children unless they receive special permission from the government to do otherwise. The government is constantly fighting against a group of insect-like aliens called Buggers, and Earth is constantly training children up from a young age to be able to fight against them. Earth has already survived two invasions and they are expecting the Third Invasion at any time. The rest of the book recounts his time at “Battle School” where he and his teammates have to compete in a variety of different exercises first against other teams and later against computer-simulated Bugger squadrons.

If I had to pick two words to describe Ender’s Game, I would pick “real” and “entertaining”.

All of the characters in the story are so real. From Ender himself to his siblings to his teammates to the other people at Battle School, you feel like you actually know these people — that you can understand what they are doing and why they are doing it. The way Ender Wiggin grows and figures things out is one of the most well-told “growing up” stories that I have ever read. Set to the backdrop of a very entertaining story line and a very enjoyable and surprising ending, this novel becomes one of the best Science Fiction books ever written. It is certainly the best one that I have ever read.

But you don’t have to just take my word for it. It has one various awards including the top awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. (He won those same awards the next year as well for the sequel, Speaker for the Dead, which I enjoyed, but not nearly so much as Ender’s Game.)

Sometimes these awards are given to books that are technically very good, but not quite so fun to read. Critics often get a little full of themselves in this regard as we often see with the presentation of awards in just about any genre (e.g. the Academy Awards)

But trust me when I tell you…

You will REALLY enjoy Ender’s Game. In fact, I’ll be very surprised if you don’t think it is the best Science Fiction book that you have ever read too.

She asked me to read them, and I agreed.

I enjoyed the first book, the Dark Hills Divide, more than the next two books. The Dark Hills Divide stars a girl who lives in a group of three cities. The three cities have been completely surrounded by a large wall through the efforts of one of the founders of the cities. This wall is meant to protect the cities from the outside and does so rather well, limiting trade with the outside to that which can be tightly managed and keeping the villagers safe. The girl, Alexa Daley, however is a wanderer and does not enjoy being kept within the walls. When she manages to escape, she finds that she is missing out on a magical but dangerous world.

This book is excellent. Patrick Carman keeps the story to a manageable level, not “biting off more than he can chew” so to speak. The characters and the plot are very enjoyable. What is most impressive about the book, however, is the fact that the story is very original. If I had to compare it to a similar book or books in the fantasy genre (or in any genre for that matter), I don’t know if I could.

The Dark Hills Divide stands well on its own. You don’t need to read the next two books in the trilogy to get a complete story. The ending of the first book is satisfying enough on its own.

On the other hand, the second book, Beyond the Valley of Thorns, and the third book, the Tenth City must be read together to get a complete story.

Beyond the Valley of Thorns takes place immediately following the Dark Hills Divide. Without giving away anything that happens in the first book, the second and third books take up with Alexa again. This time her quest takes her far from home, away from the relative safety of the three cities and out into the wondrous and dangerous Land of Elyon with some old friends and some new ones.

Whereas the first book seemed like a long short story with a smaller plot and a more confined area and set of characters, the second two books detail a much richer world with a much greater history. It’s hard to tell if Patrick Carman had this in mind to begin with, but the second two books paint a much richer picture and have a much more involved plot. We find out that Alexa Daley isn’t just a simple girl with wanderlust. Alexa Daley has a destiny — a very dangerous quest that she has been chosen to fulfill by Elyon himself.

Beyond the Valley of Thorns and the Tenth City are much darker than the Dark Hills Divide. The Dark Hills Divide might be slightly scary for young children, but the evil in the next two books are much darker and more gruesome. Be advised of this before allowing your children to read them. If I were to compare it to well-read books, your children should be prepared for situations like those of the Harry Potter books.

That’s not to say that the books are not worth reading. I had a hard time putting them down. With them being books written for younger readers, I was able to finish the second two in a matter of a couple of days.

All in all, the trilogy was very original, very well-written, and in all ways a great series of books to read, for adults and for young adults.