Life, the Universe & Everything or Dinner with Dashner.

PoseySessions has been ranting and raving for an entire year about LTUE, and to be honest for most of that time I had no idea what she was talking about.  Only as it grew closer did I bother to check out the website.  From the get go it looked pretty good and I started to get excited about it. Tracy Hickman was going to be there and I figured the highlight of the experience would be meeting him and getting a few of my books signed.  While that was definitely one of the cooler moments, LTUE just got better and better the longer it went on, and capped with one of the coolest experiences of my life. (skip to the bottom for that)

I attended several panels during LTUE, the first was Mormons and the Paranormal.  This panel was interesting, but the panelists (Blake Casselman, Eric Swedin, Nathan Shumate, Scott Parkin)  Spent way more time talking about Mormons and vampires and werewolves than anything I was interested in.  I thought they would address something about spirituality and hauntings, nope, nothing at all so I left a little downtrodden.

The next panel was one of my favorites: Writing Action with Larry Correia.  I had never heard of him until his name came up in the previous panel.  then I saw him talk about writing action ( and have since read his book and realized he was perfect for that presentation)   Larry put on a great presentation, a lot of what he had to say was pretty straightforward (as in “action would be awesome”) but there were a few gems.

The next panel, and the one from which I felt I took the most information was How to Scare People with Dan Wells.  Wells laid out some basic techniques for writing horror and displayed them with clips from famous horror movies.  Some of them had pretty dirty words and situations for BYU, I couldn’t believe it.

Friday morning was a presentation by Tracy Hickman a deconstruction of The Lord of the Rings as a way to display elements of a story and literary theory.  It was excellent.  Tracy laid out the Campbell Monomyth and the 8 character archetypes.   I took so many notes in this presentation and I learned a lot about story and characters. I also loved this quote.

It is nothing to be published. It is everything to be read.

- Tracy Hickman

Then Saturday morning was Killer Breakfast, which was NOT breakfast.  It was a session of Dungeons and Dragons run by the legend that is Tracy Hickman.  This was a fantastic experience. Tracy was extremely charismatic as he went on a murderous rampage killing players left and right in his Dungeon Master bloodlust.

I also attended a tutorial on using photoshop to draw fantasy maps, a presentation by David Farland on self-editing, a panel on plot and foreshadowing, and a blast of a panel about story ideas with Correia and John Brown (whose debut novel Servant of a Dark God I am reading right now.)

Another great part of LTUE was the author signings.  I got books signed by Farland, Correia, Hickman, John Brown and James Dashner.  All of the authors were very friendly and seemed happy to be there.  We had a chance to talk with James Dashner for a few minutes as he signed our books.  He told Megan and I that we were a perfect couple, that made me happy, and it set the stage for what would happen alter that evening.

So, the cool experience?

LTUE concluded with a banquet which Megan and I attended.  We entered the mostly empty ballroom which held about 20 round tables with seating for 6.  We picked a table on the left side of the room and settled in watching as people filter in and choose their seats.  James Dashner (the guest of honor)  walked in with 4 women.  I tracked him to see where he would sit. He hung his coat on the back of a chair then turned and looked at Megan and I.

“Lets sit with these guys it should be fun”

And he walked over and took a seat right next to me, for a moment I was twitterpated.  I guess I should tell you about Dashner.  he is the author of The Maze Runner, which will be a major motion picture directed by the woman who did the Twilight movies (hope it is better!)  The sequel The Scorch Trials released last year, and the final book of the trilogy, The Death Cure is due out later this year.  I read The Maze Runner and quite enjoyed it.  I have also read the first book in his 13th Reality series, which I also thought was pretty good.

So there we were, Me, Megan and a New York Times best-selling author sitting at a banquet table in a room in the BYU conference center.  I am usually pretty calm when meeting famous people.  I think I did well, I tried to be respectful, we said hello and I thought we would probably spend the night listening to him talk to the 3 other people who entered the room with him.  Not the case.  He engaged us in conversation almost immediately and we spent almost 2 hours chatting about books and movies.  At one point he asked me about my writing and I told him some of my story ideas.  He responded sincerely saying some of them sounded very interesting.  Then he told me something that I will not soon forget.  “You have what it takes, you are a good storyteller.”  Or something along those lines. I don’t think he knew how much that meant to me.

All in all it was a fantastic evening.  Later he tweeted about it, and made Megan and I feel even more special.

Even though Brandon Sanderson was not there LTUE was an amazing experience and I cannot wait for next year!

** PoseySessions and I took a ton of pics but she has them all on her computer, so these google image pics will have to do**

MHI–Larry Correia

I knew about 20 pages in that Monster Hunter International was going to keep me turning pages until I finished it. It is a 700 page book I started on a Sunday and finished on a Wednesday. Now that is not my personal best, but it comes quite close. This book is an addicting thrill ride from page 1 through 700. Corriea takes horror action to the next level and I appreciate how he broke tropes of the Urban Fantasy genre.

I am going to make a comparison between this novel and The Dresden Files, it is probably not a really good or fair comparison but it is going to happen anyway. from the get go some of this story reminded me of Butcher’s accounts of Harry Dresden. Our world, plagued by monsters, overbearing authority with lots of complex rules about what the protags can and cannot do when fighting them, etc. Where MHI diverges is in one small but extremely important area. Correia never cripples his characters. I appreciate the fact that the good guys are rough and they are tough and they are capable of fighting anything that comes their way. They don’t simper and complain, they don’t spend pages of the book whining. They kick in the door and kick monster butt. Too many authors today think the protag has to be vulnerable or weak to get people to identify with them. Not Owen Z Pitt, he is a straight BAMF from the first page to the last, and I loved it. Sure he gets beat up, sure he loses some fights, and sometimes monsters get the best of him. But I never felt that he was getting through every encounter based solely on his luck. Pitt made his own luck. As opposed to Dresden who spends the whole of each book barely escaping from events by happenstance, then complaining about it. I loved reading about the good guys fighting evil with nearly limitless resources. There was very little of the “omg yay we are getting saved by something out of nowhere that we never thought would happen” bullcrap and a whole lot of “empty your shotgun into its face then cut off its head” moments. I can never help but sigh when Dresden is captured by a couple of weak easily killable monsters, those monsters don’t have a chance against Pitt and MHI.

Corriea makes the danger come from the strength and power of the evil dudes. Rather than writing one semi tough vampire being fought by a few unprepared sheep not ready to face its strength, Correia gives us 7 amazingly powerful vamps facing off against the collective might of modern weaponry carried by the Army, the Feds and MHI. This feels so much more epic to me.

I did have a slight problem with a bit of the wacky magical stuff toward the ending, and the way Pitt ended the threat (not a spoiler there is already a second book out) I don’t like that “magic saves the day” stuff, but Pitt did all he could with his guns, knives and fists before he resorted to it, so I am not gonna complain much.

Monster Hunter International is rip roaring good read. it is so much fun that I could not put it down. I highly recommend it if you like horror or action.

Mistborn: The Final Empire–Brandon Sanderson

I will say this right now, up front. The Final Empire is hands down the best fantasy novel I have ever read.

Ok so I have that out of the way, what more is their to say right? Well, I guess I should tell you why I loved it.

First off, amazing, fantastic, deep rich character development. Kelsier, Vin, Dockson and the rest of the gang stood out to me as individuals, I worried about each of them and pulled for them through the entire story. I could say more about it, but suffice it to say this was really well done, but not the best thing in The Final Empire, not by far.

Sanderson is a smart man. He is nearly fanatical with the care and level of detail he puts into the systems in his book. Not just that magical systems for which he is highly acclaimed but the political systems and the bureaucratic systems as well. At its heart Mistborn reads like a political novel. It repeatedly brought the tales of Charles Dickens to mind as Sanderson described the bleakness of the world, the harsh social realities of the ska and the drudgery of everyday life in the Final Empire. Smokey, grimy Luthadel often reads like the London of a Dickens novel. It is a familiarity that brings Luthadel to life in the mind of the reader. I admire the painstaking way in which Sanderson details such a hopeless society, there is no wiggle room left for the underclass, they are trapped and they know it.

The first time I met Brandon I asked him about The Final Empire, I wanted to know if he considered it a dystopia, and his reply was an emphatic yes. Fantasy readers have encountered many bleak, terrible places in their journey through various novels, but Sanderson is the first person that I have read who has really treated his work like a dystopia. The political elements are strong and well thought out. There are distinct class elements in The Final Empire and they intertwine so well with the fantasy story that is happening among them.

Along with politics, I was enthralled by the economic system in the novel and how it hinged on a single precious commodity that was basically the lynchpin of the entire system. I was fascinated with the idea of the way the Lord Ruler controlled the substance and the consequences for the nobility if that supply were lost. Sanderson does something that so few do: he gives us reasons. He tells us why everything matters, he makes everything important. Mistborn is the story of a seemingly impervious empire built on the backs of an oppressed underclass and funded by a single precious element.

It is all held together by the awesome power of the Lord Ruler. Never in my life have I read a more interesting, and downright scary bad guy. Another way in which Sanderson excels, the Lord Ruler is a mystery, a figment, a secret font of dark power, never flaunted, but always felt, like a beating heart at the core of the Empire, the only thing giving it life. He is the shark in Jaws, scarier because we never see him, and when we finally do it is concludes one of the strongest scenes of action I have ever read in any novel.

Sanderson is a master of nuance, The Final Empire reads like the masterwork of an author who has perfected his craft. Ok was this review glowing enough? Shall we wrap it all up by saying I loved this book? Ok? Good.

I cant stop reading this!

I don’t care who you are, this book is friggin fantastic. Ok yeah, if you do not like the diea of big bad beasties getting blasted into little flying bits of goo and jelly, maybe it is not for you. But if you are looking for an ass kicking fun romp through a monster infested world, buy this, read this now. I have not in many long years been this caught up by a book. This is what reading is meant to be, FUN! Give me this book over any action flick ever made (just me not a big action movie guy) I find myself up at all hours of the night looking for one more page.

AND, its SCARY!!!! There has been a couple scenes so far that have had me shaking, and when I got up to go to the bathroom last night I literally checked my ceilings for anything crawling after me. I cannot say enough, this is fantastic!

Just had to drop this quick blurb on ya, more info on LTUE and everything else coming soon.

Brandon Sanderson–A New Favorite.

Brandon Sanderson has shot up quickly to the top of my list of favorite fantasy authors. At one point in my life I was reading 60+ fantasy novels a year. that point ended in 2006. Elantris, Brandon’s debut novel, was released in 2006. It is not by happenstance that I had never heard his name uttered (even as the man who would finish the WOT series, even as a local author, even as a professor at a school which several of my family members attend). I stopped reading fantasy around 2005/6 because I returned to school full time and it left me no spare moment to read anything other than textbooks, philosophy, memoirs, histories or political treatises. Not always was I reading them for school, but it had become something I did for fun and felt like if I was reading something it should somehow correlate with my education. Then I met PoseySessions, she reminded that reading was a way to explore our imaginations, she got me excited to once again crack open a fantasy novel. her passion is infectious, if any of you know here, even through the internet, you probably know what I am talking about.

Within a month of meeting her she began telling me about a story she was reading, Elantris. I was at the tail end of East of Eden (John Steinbeck) and was not sure about speculative fiction, something about years in university had soured my imagination for flights of fancy. So I listened patiently as she told me about this book that I thought I would never read. Then I did read it (review below) and it ignited a spark in me.

Sanderson is a masterful story teller, sure I found a few flaws with Elantris, maybe I was being hyper critical with my freshly scrubbed brain, but for the most part I stick by my review. I wanted to read more fantasy. I went searching and strange names were popping out at me like road signs in the dark flying past at a hundred miles an hour. Names I had not heard before. Bakker, Erikson, Butcher… and many more. I thought I was versed in the genre, but the years had left me behind. One name that kept popping up was Brandon Sanderson. I knew him from his debut work and decided if I was going to jump headlong back into fantasy he would be the place I started.

That was an excellent choice.

I cannot say too much about him as a writer without spoiling the way I feel about the other books I have read, which I will be reviewing this month. I know I am late to the party here, but Sanderson is probably in my top 3 favorite fantasy writers of all time. And I could not order the list if you asked.

After having met him I can say, without hesitation, the guy is legitimate. He speaks about the fantasy genre with passion. He understands what he is writing and the audience to which he writes. He grew up reading what we read and he is writing stories for those of us who can relate. He is also just a fantastic writer. He formulates stories that are spectacular. He interweaves his books with so much substance that they transcend a single genre.

Long after growing tired of Robert Jordan (He is a legend, may he rest in peace) and the Wheel of Time the injection of Sanderson into the series has brought me back around and I have just started my own reread, very excited to finish the series with him at the helm. So stick around for a couple more reviews of his works and a post concerning some things he said while speaking at Teen Book Fest.

Elantris - Brandon Sanderson (Repost)

*** In honor of an upcoming slew of posts focusing on the writing of Brandon Sanderson I am reposting my review of Elantris for context and your reading pleasure.***

I love fantasy. I was about 8 years old when my dad read me The Hobbit, and around 12 when I finished my first read through The Lord of The Rings. Ever since I have sought out and enjoyed many fantasy series. In one year, I read 60 fantasy books, 40ish being my average. However, lately my fantasy reading has stalled, I have found very few new and worthwhile fantasy authors, and have read so much of the genres back catalogue over the past 15 years that I feel like I am caught up, waiting desperately for something new and exciting to come out. That feeling has dropped me out of the fantasy mainstream for the past couple of years, and I have instead been reading academic history and politics books in order to round out my education. It is rapidly approaching time for me to graduate college, and with a light semester upon us I have been searching high and low for new and interesting fantasy to read. Poseysessions introduced me to Brandon Sanderson and Elantris.

I will jump right in and say Ioved I Elantris, it was the best, and most original fantasy novel I have read since Michael Moorecock's tales of Elric of Melnibone. Sanderson writes with a dry narrative style that allows the stark reality of his world penetrate the reader imagination. Elantris is refreshingly free of flowery embellishment, or sappy emotional overtones. While the characters in the story suffer, it is a dignified, humble suffreing that shines through in Elantris. Along with a masterful use of the invisible style, Sanderson is a genius worldbuilder. Because Elantris is a standalone novel it made sense that Sanderson did not bog down the story with unneccesary details about the world. Arelon and Elantris are wonderfully portrayed, as theya re the focus of the story. The rest of Sanderson's world feels real and definite, each culture is explained well inasmuch as it affects the story at hand.

The Magic in the story is one of the biggest assets to the book. Sanderson created a magical system that is based in reason, yet remains mystical. The payoff regarding Elantrian magic is simple and that simplicity lends credit to Sanderson's imaginitive process. I thoroughly enjoyed Raoden's discovery , especially because Sanderson made the magic based in notions of science that allowed me to solve the problem regarding AonDor pages before the main character. This is consistent with Sanderson's view that magic in his books is always based in the natural laws of the worlds he creates. As a reader I appreciate the fact the there is no Deus Ex Machina in Elantris. It makes the reader (me) feel like Sanderson is an author who has faith in my ability to reason.

Elantris was not a book without its shortcomings. For a fantasy book I felt it suffered from a lack of action, especially a climbing story arc. The first 500 pages felt like a continuing arrangement of point counterpoint by the Sarene and Hrathen. The only point of view that seemed to have a rising storyling was Raoden's and even that was broken midway through the tale, only to be restored later on. The climax finally came in the last 10% of the book, yet it felt totally unconnected to the previous pages. Sanderson end-loaded the book, a huge chunk of the movement of the story happens after page 500. There are very few "carrots" for the reader in the first three quarters of the book, and without story movement, or action, the reader is left with (the very well written) political intrigue. Which was more than enough for this reader to fall in love with Elantris.

My final gripe with the book was the lack of character depth, while I did grow fond of Hrathen, Raoden, and Sarene, I felt the latter two lacked depth and cahracter development, there were both very one note. Hrathern, however, was extremely well written and developed, his inner struggle was a point on which the story hung for me, that along with the mystery beind him made constantly wonder how he would turn the tale.

Elantris was a good, bordering on great fantasy read, while I did have a few technical gripes with the story I felt myself slowing down my reading as I reached the end, soemthing that is common for me when nearing the end of a book I love. I just do not want it to be over. I wish Elantris was a series and not just a standalone novel. I am impressed that Sanderson fit so much lore and intrigue into a single volume, especially for a debut work. It speaks to Sanderson's place among the top tier talent of fantasy writers.

Reality is Broken–Jane McGonigal

Poseysessions was kind enough to volunteer me for the Reality is Broken book tour. We both have a shared interest in gaming and before I even read the book she wanted to interview me about my experiences as a gamer. I would like to preface this interview and all my following statements by saying while I enjoy many computer and console games, I would not consider myself a hardcore gamer. For me it is more about the enjoyment than about the triumph.

Q: McGonigal starts her book by saying “Gamers have had enough of reality.” As a casual gamer would you find yourself agreeing with this statement?

A: Yes and no, gaming provides a temporary escape, but personally don’t feel like it is meant or able to supplant reality.

Q: What motivates you to play a game? What kind of games do you like?

A: Relaxation, challenge, and escapism are all motivating factors when I feel like gaming. I prefer RPGs and strategy games, and games with a high level of customization for the player.

Q: Have you ever thought that aspects of your life would be more enjoyable if they were more like a game you had played?

A: No not really, but I have thought that a game would be more fun if it was less like real life

Q: Do you feel socially connected through any of your gaming experiences?

A: Very little, with the exception of socially oriented games like MMORPGS, with any other game not at all.

Q: What would you change about your life to make more like a game you played?

A: I think games are enjoyable because they are separate from reality. A reality that was like a video game, or a video game that became reality would soon suffer from the same sense of banality that we prescribe to real life.

Reality Is Broken has a lot of things of interest within it’s pages. One thing I liked thinking about was the way that gaming connects with ideas of economy. I had never really given it much thought before but the things that draw us to gaming in a way become there own currency. So much so that in 2009 China was forced to regulate the use of virtual money for fear that it would begin to devalue yen. "The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services." The dynamic that has been created by gaming that makes it so that this type of regulation has to be is fascinating. People want virtual money more than they want physical items present in their life.

In the book McGonigal makes reference to economist Edward Castronova who sees a “mass exodus” of people out of their life and into gaming worlds. People are finding so much value in the virtual and digital world that the moments of reality of increasingly devalued. Reality Is Broken suggest that gaming provides and excitement that is lacking from real life, even within work and school settings productivity could be improved if there were a more game like atmosphere.

One of my favorite sections of the book was the chapter called “Leveling Up In Life.” In this chapter McGonigal presents different ways that we can take gaming concepts into the real world. One amazing idea came from Clay Johnson who created plusoneme.com after hearing McGonigal speak. The tagline of the site is “gold stars for grownups.” The concept of the site is to use a gaming term “plus one” and use it as a way to compliment friends, family, and coworkers in a fun and unusual way. And in a way this gaming concept again becomes like a currency to those that use it. The currency of gaming can be very validating and that is why we need more of it in our every day life.

In Reality Is Broken the author goes on to say, “Systems that help us level up in real life, by providing us with voluntary obstacles related to our real-world activity and by giving us better feedback really can help us make a better effort.” A lot of people feel undervalued and invisible in their working life and that is why they turn to gaming for escape. Throughout the book McGonigal suggests ways that we can use gaming concepts to fix real world problem. This chapter is the home for Fix #8: Meaningful rewards when we need them most. And too me it makes quite a bit of sense.

I have even set up a plusoneme.com account for PoseySessions and myself, so if you feel like giving us any gold stars just head on over there! (You may need our email addresses so just leave a comment if you want them.) Because after thinking about it I don’t think it would be so bad if there was a little more reward in every day life.

Oh, and one more thing. The Penguin Press has been generous enough to offer me one copy as a giveaway. Just leave a comment saying you would like to be entered. Contest closes 2/12/2011. Sorry US/Canada only. Please make sure you leave a way to contact you if you are the winner.

What to Read!

I have so much more time to read now that I am basically between finishing my education and finding a job. I am in a strong fantasy mood and have decided to check out a slew of fantasy books that I have not yet read. I am really excited to dig into some of them. But, first things first:

LTUE is this month, and it will be my first time attending. James Dashner is set to be the guest of honor. I have read (and not yet reviewed) most of the first 13th Reality book, but did not entirely enjoy it, so I decided to give Dashner one more shot. Right now on the nook I am reading The Maze Runner. Tracy Hickman will also be at LTUE so I plan on reading the first book in his Dragonships of Vindras series before attending as well. I am very excited for the event and look forward to hearing what many great fantasy writers have to say about their craft. There will definitely be at least one post, maybe more, from BYU this month!

Next up for fantasy is going to be something from this list. Granted I have read a lot of the books here, but there are a few I have only heard of in passing and cannot wait to jump into. I think after LTUE I will start The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erickson, and after the first book in that series I am queuing up The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (a suggestion for the Book Safari by Shanyn) having failed to find this used I will probably see about getting an ebook version. That is as far as I can go ahead, because any one of the previous mentioned books has at least one sequel, if they are good enough I might be sucked in!

As far as other readings go I am finding myself caught up in a whirlwind of great reading regarding one of my other favorite topics; Science and the paranormal. PoseySessions found me an amazing book, Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death, it is currently sitting at her house with about 40 pages read, cant wait to finish this one, and another book that reads like a sequel, Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory. Both books are very similar and document closely related subjects happening 40 –80 years apart. Ghost Hunters chronicles Harvard psychology professor and pragmatic philosopher William James’ (whom I am enamored with) search for scientific proof or disproof of ghosts or spirits. Unbelievable is an account of Dr. J.B. Rhine’s search for ESP ( I found a first edition of Rhine’s New Frontiers of the Mind on the book safari, woot) I plan to finish these and maybe do a series of posts on them and my own philosophy on the topic.

Contest Winner!

It has come time to announce our contest winner!  And since I have all of twelve followers, one being myself (tee hee) and one being PoseySessions I will then choose one of the remaining ten (doing it as I type this) by rolling a ten sided dice and counting upward in chronological order, 1 being my first follower and 10 being my most recent.

 

Drumroll:

 

the result is follower Kade Hendricks. Congrats! and a huge thank you to everyone who follows and took part, even though things did not work out the way we wanted them too.

 

*will attempt to contact winner regarding prize, if not claimed a new winner will be awarded.