Book Reviews: Legend, Words of Radiance, Resistance, & Golden Son

I'm starting a new thing around here. I'm going to start just posting reviews on books I've read in the week every Sunday - that way my other end-of-week post won't be book reviews every time. This week, I have four books to talk about: Legend by Marie Lu, Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson, Resistance by Jaye L. Knight, and Golden Son by Pierce Brown. (Covers link to Goodreads. Reviews also on Goodreads.)

Four stars. There was nothing I didn't like about this book: I loved both June and Day, the plot was solid, and the writing was easily understood and portrayed setting well. So why didn't it get five stars? It just left me feeling sort of "well, that was good." No crazy rushes to grab the next book, no end-of-book revelations that left me stunned. Emotionally, it just didn't really get me, and that is what I'd expect from a five-star book.
I'm not complaining though. As I said, there is nothing wrong with Legend. I quite enjoyed it.
One thing I really did admire was how well the double point-of-view was carried off. Oftentimes when there are two narrating characters, one will be more exciting than the other, resulting in my wanting to skip reading about half the book. Legend successfully avoided that - Day was a very sympathetic, intriguing character with lots of goals, and June was a very complicated girl who possessed traits which were almost opposites. Precise yet daring. Intelligent, but not just academically. Obedient to her superiors yet willing to break the law for what she believes. Day was intriguing in other ways. Mysterious past and motives, apparent selflessness despite his outward attitude, etc. I enjoyed reading about both of them.

That being said, the end was somewhat predictable. Maybe that comes with the genre, but I feel like there could have been something different about this dystopia. Evil government? Check. Oblivious people? Check. Revolutionaries? Check. It had a sense of deja vu about it. I was happy about the main character though. Instead of the typical girl who stumbles into the ugly truth about her big bad government, Legend gives you June (actually part of the big bad government) and Day (who already knows part of the ugly truth about the big bad government). That, at least, was refreshing.

So while I'm not jumping up and down because of this book, I was happy with it, and I do have the next book on order at the library.

TOO MUCH HAPPENED. Seriously, like a highstorm, you could feel the tension and stakes building as you read this book. Yes, it was long. Yes, it takes longer than normal to finish, even for a speed-reader. But don't doubt that this story is worth it. Several places made me breathless from excitement! Ugh, there is no possible way to express how much tumbled through my head because of this book. It makes you try to figure things out, who characters are, how the world works. But not in a bad way - a way that keeps you reading as if your life depended on it.
The plot was so complicated, with so many threads and point of views which wove together to create a masterpiece. All the characters changed in some way, helping to accelerate the plot. I think one of the most beautiful things about Words of Radiance (and The Way of Kings) is how intrinsic character arcs are to the plot. The plot moving forward depends so much on the changes that need to happen within each character and it is gorgeous. And the world the story is set in breathes, it is so alive. You don't have to force yourself to envision the plants and animals and highstorms and Parshendi. Sanderson is a genius with words and does it all for you.
Ah, and the climax. The CLIMAX. The Way of Kings ended in a spectacular way that still has me floored, and Words of Radiance was absolutely no different. I can't even form a single cohesive thought to describe it. It was just stunning.
For years I've been a Harry Potter fan - it's the only series I've ever truly been obsessed with for so long. But . . . I think I love this series more. It is so rich that it will steal your breath with anticipation, prod you to laugh with wit, force you to gasp in horror with dread and disbelief, and wriggle and squeal on the couch with excitement. I promise that if you have the patience to commit to reading this book (after its predecessor, of course), it will be one of the best (if not the best) stories you'll ever experience.

Unquestionably five stars.

Eheheh . . . I guess you could say I like Brandon Sanderson.

I'll start with the one complaint I have about Resistance, though it is more about the marketing than the actual book. From the back-cover-blurb, and from other places online, Jace is said to be the main character. And while he does get some chapters written from his point-of-view in the beginning and at the end, throughout the middle of the book it was nearly entirely written from Kyrin's point of view. I feel like Kyrin should have just been named the main character instead - it would have been less misleading.
Despite that, I can't find much fault with the book itself. Actually, I read it for about six hours straight last night, staying up until 3:30 AM trying to finish the thing. It definitely grips you and doesn't let you stop reading. I did love Jace and couldn't wait to hear more about him - but unfortunately for me, there weren't many sections from his point-of-view and so I spent quite a lot of time impatiently reading through Kyrin trying to find more Jace. Kyrin wasn't bad though. I quite liked her too, in the end. In the beginning she cried a lot, and that got on my nerves after a while (I mean, she cried in pretty much every single chapter at first - I get that she had some major scary life changes going on, but she couldn't have had one tear-free chapter?), but I suppose it contributed to how much she changed over the course of the story. By the end she was much stronger, more confident, more independent, and I liked that.
I was also intrigued by the chief religion of Arcacia. Usually fantasy religions involve either an entire host of gods or just a single god. This one worshipped only two gods - not two major gods with a load of less-important gods under them, but just two gods. I wanted to know more about how this religion came to be. Also, I found it interesting how the followers of Elom seemed to be converted only through word of mouth. There was no equivalent to the Bible. I wondered how the followers even knew what they knew, what exactly their beliefs were. It would have been easy, with no text, for them to stray from the true original teachings over the years, and there were no places where the details of following Elom were explained. Knowing that Resistance is a Christian allegory, though, it was pretty easy to fill in the blanks. I've also heard that the sequel deals with the King's Scrolls, which sound like the equivalent of the Bible. I'm looking forward to that.
Also, I loved the concept of the ryriks. Why are they the way they are? What was all this about them leading a rebellion against Elom? Is it true that they have no souls, or does it just appear that way? I love this kind of worldbuilding, because it feels so complete despite not telling the reader everything. You can sense that there is more behind the hints dropped by the author, but you don't end up with a fantasy history lesson, and you discover things bit by bit. 

On the topic of ryriks, can I say again how much I love Jace? Poor guy! His struggle over the question "do I have a soul?" was something I've never read about before and it was refreshing. He wasn't just a Christian struggling over whether of not God's grace covered him - he was a Christian struggling over whether or not he even fit into the class of beings able to have any sort of afterlife at all. That, I think, was what really stood out about Resistance. I saw that the series is intended to be six books long and that makes me so happy. :) I can't wait for the rest of it! Five stars for Jace's struggle, Kyrin's character arc, and the ability to get me to forfeit sleep in order to read it.

Sorry for that last long-winded review. It was an intriguing book, and yes, you should read it.

My first thought when I finished reading this was "oh GOSH." Then, "NONONONONONONONONO." When I found out that the sequel, Morning Star, hasn't been released yet, I nearly started pulling my hair out. So the first thing to take away from this review is: don't read yet unless you're prepared for a MASSIVE cliffhanger. *shakes fist at Pierce Brown*
I gave the book five stars because of how it ended. Like any good book in the middle of a series, it left me practically dying for the next book and wailing because it isn't available yet. However, there were some things that bothered me while I read Golden Son. One, the amount of killing going on. Yes, it was realistic. Yes, all the characters (except possible Darrow) seem to have next to no moral standards. But most of the deaths were in sheer brutality and vengeance killing. Don't read unless you can stomach some brutal violence. I especially disliked Lorn when (view spoiler) I despite that character. It ruined one of the most morally clean moments in the entire book.
Speaking of the death toll in the story, remarkably little time is spent grieving. Apart from Darrow's grief over Eo, no one seems to care much about anyone else who has died for more than a day after the death. And that bugged me.
I can't deny that I enjoyed the story, though. Golden Son is a definite page-turner and doesn't leave you relaxed for a moment. The ending is still blowing me away. WHY. I feel like it is more of a plot-driven story, so the characters aren't the most developed I've ever seen, but they're not bad at all. Cassius, Darrow, Sevro, Roque, and Victra were the ones with the most personality, I think, and were the most unique. Notice that the protagonist is in that list? What a relief to have a well-developed and multi-layered narrator.
In short, if you can take some brutality, violence, and swearing, and really want a riveting and intense book, go ahead and read Golden Son. You probably won't be able to put it down.

Have you read any of these? What did you think of them? Are you going to try reading any of them now? (Sandersooonnnnnnn....read iiiiiiitttttt...The Stormlight Archives....yeeeesssssss...) Do you have any recommendations for me based on these?

Character Interview: Tempe is Taking Questions!

I WAS hoping to be publishing the June Beautiful People today . . . or even better, yesterday. Alas, it does not yet appear to be up, and I didn't want to wait any longer to give all you wonderful people another post.
So, I'm starting another character interview, as promised - just a week early. Unfortunately, when I asked who you guys would rather see interviewed (Tyv or Tempe) I got one vote for each. They're both quite flattered but unfortunately, that did not help me choose. So I put it to my mother, and she said Tempe. My mother has spoken: Tempe it is.

Photographs and artwork not mine. Quote from Shadows and Light by Annika Smith.

Here's some of her personality and backstory:
Tempe Margaret Donoghue serves as the one true villain in Shadows and Light. She plays antagonist to Ace but mentor to Mara for the majority of the story, and to a great extent she engineered the major events that take place in both Ace and Mara's lives. She's a manipulator through and through, and isn't scared to use any tool at her disposal to achieve what she wants. She uses makeup, magic, clothing styles, and even facial prosthetics to alter her appearance in order to get what she needs. She enjoys the playacting and is good at faking accents and altering the vocabulary she uses. She's also a flirt, but only because she enjoys trying to wrap men around her finger and then having them under her power.
She does have a couple quirks. She's a huge environmentalist and will only eat non-processed organic foods. No chemicals. Most of what she eats is grains, vegetables and fruits, and red meats. She doesn't like sweets, but would drink a cup of lime juice (which is quite bitter, if you've never tasted it). She owns two horses (according to her, she actually bought them) named Bella Donna and Blackthorn and loves them to bits. She rides whenever she can.
Tempe is thirty-two years old, and was a Mage until roughly age thirty. In her twenties it was discovered that the records for her Destiny had been falsified. Truly, her Destiny was to commit a great betrayal. She found out her father was responsible for the lie, and the Mage League, scared of what Tempe was Destined to do, reassigned her to a backwater town and refused to promote her, despite her considerable abilities. Hatred for the Mage League and her father grew in Tempe until she eventually betrayed the position of a Mage League secret base in order to win the trust of her lover, a sorcerer named Zak Sullivan. They collapsed the base with all the employees inside, and then spent a year on the run together, hitting Mage League targets all over the country. It ended when they were ambushed by Mage League teams. Zak was killed, and Tempe was arrested. She escaped some months later during her trial, when her overwhelming grief and hatred pushed a massive wave of magic out from her. It killed at least a dozen people. When Shadows and Light starts she has been on the run for a few months, continuing the war she and Zak started on the Mage League by herself. Recently, she's taken to carrying a black scorpion she named Sebastian on her shoulder - a living representation of the birthmark signifying her Destiny of betrayal.
Her MBTI is ENTJ.

I hope you guys think of lots of questions! Ask anything you want in the comments, and don't be afraid to write an entire list of questions if you can think of that many. With enough questions, I'll post the interview two weeks from now.

Blurring the Lines: What Are Anti-Heroes and Anti-Villains?

This post is a sequel to my posts "The Difference Between Villains and Antagonists" and "The Difference Between Heroes and Protagonists." If you haven't read them yet, please go check them out first.
The last two posts of this trilogy have been all about defining terms and making things clear. Now I'm going to throw a wrench into the system and talk about all the blurriness I haven't really mentioned yet: anti-heroes and anti-villains.

Image not mine. Found at http://meolliseo.tumblr.com/post/26161612400

These two things are the grey between the black and white of villains and heroes. And it isn't all defined stripes distinguishing the black, grey, and white, either - they all blend into each other, making it hard to tell them apart.

So unless you're prepared to deal with some uncertainty, forget trying to figure this out with me.

There was no set definition for "anti-villain" online. I did, however, get one for anti-heroes, so we'll start with that and move from there.

Let's tackle the easy thing first. What sets an anti-hero apart from a plain old hero? If you remember from last week's post, a hero is a character type and not a plot role and always has some noble, admirable qualities. An anti-hero, on the other hand, lacks those traditional noble qualities and is a main character. This means he can be anything between an average Joe and a psychopathic serial killer, as long he is a protagonist. According to TV Tropes, some common anti-heroes are loners, or are unfriendly, cynical, or willing to kill. Anti-heroes which immediately come to mind are Batman, Jack Sparrow from The Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Sherlock from BBC's Sherlock, Nathan from Half Bad, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games trilogy, Kaladin from The Stormlight Archives, Nix from Nobody, and Vin from the Mistborn trilogy. In support of TV Tropes, a lot of those characters I just mentioned are unfriendly loners. Some anti-heroes are a little darker, though, actually fitting into the character type of villain - though I've never watched it, I'm told Dexter from Dexter is such a character. I talked a little more about villain protagonists in the post from two weeks ago. 

Okay, so anti-heroes are basically protagonists who don't match the classic hero description. But what are anti-villains? Are they any different from anti-heroes or villains? How?

As I mentioned above, the term doesn't seem to have made it into dictionaries yet. The word is being used by other bloggers and authors, though, so it is becoming something a writer should know about. Urban Dictionary had two definitions which were interesting, saying that an anti-villain "pursues undeniably villainous goals, but employs arguably noble methods to achieve them" or is "an antagonist who isn't entirely evil nor entirely unsympathetic -- a character who doesn't seem to deserve being cast as the villain." Villains Wikia says that "the anti-villain plays a villain's game, but for a noble cause... at least in their eyes. They may be more noble or heroic than an anti-hero, but the means to achieve their ends are are often considered immoral, unjust, or evil."

Quite a few different opinions flying around. The one thing every source seems to agree on is that anti-villains are anti-heroes' polar opposites. That would mean that anti-villains are always an antagonist, but don't fit the description of a classic villain. I like what TV Tropes says:

 "Their desired ends are mostly good, but their means of getting there are evil. Alternatively, their are evil, but they are far more ethical or moral than most villains and they thus use fairly benign methods to achieve it, and can be heroic on occasion." 

Simply, anti-villains are antagonists who don't have the entire classic villain package: they're missing either the evil actions or evil motives.

Shadow from Sonic X serves as an anti-villain in several episodes, as does Knuckles. Loki from Thor could be an anti-villain - he's got the whole "misguided" thing going on - but I think he may have strayed into being a classic villain by the time Avengers rolled around. Szeth-son-son-Vallano from The Stormlight Archives is an anti-villain, as well as Marshall Gerard from The Fugitive, Inspector Javert from Les Miserables, Sohrem from The Follower, and Carl Hanratty from Catch Me If You Can. As I mentioned before, some common anti-villains are in law enforcement, are brainwashed, or are misguided. The Write Practice has a wonderful article on the four types of anti-villains, which I highly recommend reading. 

Both anti-heroes and anti-villains are character types, but neither fits into the description of a classical villain or classical hero. They're always something in between. This is why they are difficult to tell apart. However, you can tell them apart by determining their plot role: anti-villains are antagonists and anti-heroes are protagonists.

In short, an anti-hero is:

1. Always a protagonist.
2. Any kind of character type which does not fit into the classical hero description. They are often loners, or possess traits such as unfriendliness or a readiness to kill.

And an anti-villain is:

1. Always an antagonist.
2. Any character type apart from a classic villain. They don't match the description of the classically evil villain, either in their motives or actions.

Things can get very complicated when dealing with these characters, who are neither black nor white, but rather a mix. I hope that this helps to clarify things a little bit. 

I am back to respond to comments! Tell me: had you ever heard of anti-villains before? Do you have a favorite anti-hero or anti-villain? What is your understanding of their definitions? Do you think I classified any of those characters incorrectly? The comment section is right there. Go on. Tell me what you think.