Writers are Amazing

I read a pretty eclectic mix of stuff, ranging from supernatural romances to adolescent lit to humor.  However, my all time faves are big, juicy, science fiction/fantasy series.

It all started when my freaky physicist father threated to disown me if I didn’t read “The Hobbit”.  Jeez!  I was only 4!  Then, when I went through a chubby phase in high school, he put me on a desert island with a suitcase full of Lean Cuisines and “The Lord of the Rings”.   Hello, Mr. Physicist.  No microwave.  Doy.

I ended up reading “The Lord of the Rings” seven times.  Nowhere near my dad’s 13 times, and he still gets disgusted when I don’t know the names of certain battles.  In the last few years I’ve discovered the decadent pleasure of listening to audiobooks on my ipod.  It’s sick, but incredible.  The only fly in my ointment is that I need to be on an ADA diet and can no longer listen and eat Haagen-Daz at the same time.   (Though it’s still better than that desert island.)

My newest audiobook is “The Final Empire – Mistborn” by Brandon Sandersen.  It is blowing my very last brain cell.  How the hell did this guy think this stuff up?  His brain is so far on another plane that I feel like a slithery worm here on earth, albeit a happy worm, eager for more.  I won’t bore you with too many details, because I hate book reviews that tell you tons of stuff you can’t really understand without reading the book.  But I have to tell you just a little, to give an idea of how freaking creative this guy is.

In a land where something bad once happened, (we know this because there are no  flowers and black ash is always falling down), a class of noblemen oppress an underclass, known as the Skaa.  It follows the adventures of a girl named Vin, who find out she is “mistborn” and joins a group plotting a Skaa rebellion.

Mistborn people have special powers, that they get from swallowing metals.  They “burn” the metals in their stomach, and it gives them certain powers.  Burning copper makes them able to manipulate other people’s emotions, burning steel gives them strength, etc.

OK.  That’s enough.  Maybe you’re bored already.  But, Gah!  Can this guy write!  Not only does he create an intricate and magical new world with plots and subplots, but his prose is fabulous!  I can’t wait for a break in work/family/stupid crap, so that I can get back to the story.  When Vin was attacked by an Steel Inquisitor, I almost had a stroke.  Those guys are scary dudes.  They have steal posts rammed through their eyes.  No one can even figure out how they live.  Ugh!  I had to take two pepsid washed down with a swig of Milk of Magnesia for that scene.

Tolkein created an entire world, populated by races that popped out of his imagination.  Yeah, yeah he was a scholar of philology and studied Norse Mythology.  Whatever.  He was a freaking genius.  And so is Sanderson.  No offense to my dad and all.  Physics professors are smart enough.  But they can’t burn metal in their stomachs and get special powers.

OK.  So maybe I’m still a little bitter about the whole desert island incident. . .