Warbreaker (Tor Fantasy) for $4.32

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I had been toying with reading some of Brandon Sanderson's other stuff since reading his first foray into the "Wheel of Time" and I recently picked up the "Mistborn" trilogy, and now this. I think I see a theme so far - a particular fascination with coming up with different ways to do "magic", and defining very clear rules for them. It's as if you can have magic, but it can't be the "and then a miracle happened" kind. Oddly, this is making me think of Terry Pratchett as I write, because although his stories are very different, they are all about action and reaction be it from a magical or a moral point of view. Anyway, enough meandering.

This story is fascinating. It has a pretty original kind of "magic", which engenders "gods" under certain circumstances, and creates a very powerful nation that chooses to worship said "gods". The story centers (mostly) around two princesses from a small neighboring nation, one of whom was trained all of her life to become the bride of the head god in an act of appeasement, and her sister who was not. It all begins to get interesting when they are switched at the last moment.

The other key character is Vasher, who opens the story and we quickly realize is not all he seems. It takes a long time to figure out exactly who he is, but then what would be the fun if it were given away early in the plot?

My key points are that I have found Brandon Sanderson's own novels to be very engaging. The characters are all very well realized and absorbing, and the concepts and scenarios are new and refreshing to me, who has seen a lot of fantasy if I do say so myself. I might add that it was the author's breath of life (sorry Robert Jordan) to the Wheel of Time that attracted me to him, and I have not been disappointed.

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Narcissus in Chains for $22.95

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The entire Anita Blake series is addictive. This book is the same. You just cannot put them down.

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Zathura, a beautifully illustrated picture book Science Fiction

Zathura is a rare picture book of science fiction, then one of the most interesting reading, continuations Allsburg of his idea of a board game which causes real-world effects. In Zarthura a little brother play the game, which is located under a tree. The board sends the boy and his older brother and his home in the room where the cards are real difficulties. If her for the role of a meteor shower hits of his house when they are attacked by space pirates inAlien Invasion game in their home.

A funny story with a little 'Zathura good hour challenge is a must read.
Illustrated in black and white ticking like the sound of a distant TV residue of the Big Bang that the universe of this picture book is created, a series of double, opening with an angry older brother and little brother wounded, and a mother who developed scold the older brother and say goodbye. Mothers face is only the back of the head is hidden, as they saw the picturesthe image on it is only an object of definition in this story, a fact to say that parents often framing the objects around and have in common seems to be the world of childhood, but not necessarily an impediment, not the least in the hyper-real world created Allsburg.

In the background a ship that allows us to see the interest in space, which will lead to other problems later. The picture book is the older brother pushed the younger brothers from the nose through the parkthe lower left corner of the double page, you can see the board game Jumanji.

Allsburg is able to separate the brothers in the images throughout the book, from a distorted perspective and objects. In one picture, the elder brother is sitting on a big chair, his face distorted by perspective. The younger brother is facing away from him in a hidden corner in his little world. In another image, the body acts as a barrier to brothers who revolve, of course, on its face,is a power up perspective, but it is connected with his body visually separated from him, which stuck with her pictures, holding the younger brother still in his little world.

It is not until by robots and many other things that we see how they are connected in the same context, attacked, like sitting at stake in order to attack the space pirates.
You should connect visually and emotionally to each other as brothers, at the end of the book as well as connectedgo home, the younger brother of knowing exactly no memory of what happened, and the oldest, what had happened. Although this last photo, only a small part of the structure, which in this picture is just a small part of the wider universe.

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A science fiction Modern Classic

I'm a fan of science fiction since the movie Star Wars came from. I also saw a fan of Kevin Spacey, the film were the usual suspects. So when I have the Sci-Fi movie K-Pax with Spacey, I felt, I knew I had observed.

It turns out that the movie K-Pax is based on the novel, Brewer. It is the story of an alien named Prot, space and time travel. He comes to earth and lands are in the Manhattan PsychiatricInstitute.

Of course, nobody believes that Prot is an alien. But then Dr. Powell found with knowledge Prot surprised by how fast to travel at speed then the speed of light. Prot also has a surprising knowledge of the constellations and shows where the planet is in every detail. This makes it all begin to wonder where this is really Prot, and how functions have this capability. In the film, played by Kevin Spacey is Prot and the doctor is played by JeffBridges.

This story is both funny and touching. You really appreciate the wonders and magic of this world we live in I found that reading the book or see the movie is not the only way to enjoy K-Pax. A good way to enjoy K-Pax, is heard as an audio book.

Audio books are great for everyone. You can enjoy almost any time. They are listening, as you drive, take the train, walk the dog, or just sit in large only around the house. My personalfavorite time to listen to audio books while driving to work or travel.

Today is the best way is to get an audio book download from the Internet. Audiobooks as MP3 files can be played on computers that can be burned to a disc or downloaded to an iPod loaded. Audiobooks for download from the Internet at prices much better, then buy pre-packaged as audio books on CD.

K-Pax is definitely a great modern classic sci-fi would be a welcomeEdition to any collection. And not just for fans of science fiction, history can not be enjoyed by Prot

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A Galaxy Unknown

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The tags for A Galaxy Unknown read adventure aliens, epic, future, science fiction, space, Action & Adventure, Sagas, and War & Military. A fairly standard set of tags, but being comparatively tame subject matter has never stopped me from a purchase before and I wasn't about to let it now; and if I were you I wouldn't let it stop me either.
I liked the cover art, and yes I'm one of those. (In my opinion the cover is one of the first things you see about a book, and isn't there a saying somewhere about the importance of first impressions and all that?)
And the synopsis got a chuckle out of me with Gloria's interpretation of Jenetta's battle plan. (Again a little overdone, but why invent a new wheel when you can make the old one work like new?)

These three reasons lead me to the purchase of this engaging piece of work( the .99 special didn't harm it either), and I don't think I could have picked a better introduction to my recently delivered kindle. I started the book just intending to try it out to get the feel of weather I would like the kindle or not, and nine hours later I had just finished the book with two and a half hours left till I had to be at work. Needless to say I enjoyed the book immensely. While allot of the subject matter wasn't wholly original it didn't feel plagiarized or beaten to death by previous incarnations. In all the book just worked as a coherent whole that practically begged to be read.

Now for the criticism. *spoilers*
There are only 3 things that ever really pulled me out of the story.
The first being that the dialog between Gloria and Jenetta seemed to become a little strained once Jenetta became Captain.
Secondly, the conversations that Janetta has with other ships could get kind of jarring with them having to "wait" between correspondences. (I realize that non-faster-than-light communications is part of the setting, but it seems there must be some way to make the long distance conversations not so fitful.)
Finally, at the beginning of the novel it was stressed that Jenetta was such a clutz with little self confidence while in training, but as soon as that first attack starts she is all action. Where did all of those doubts and second guesses go? I realize that all of those battle simulators that she played while in the escape pod could have played a large part in dispelling those doubts, but they seemed to be passed off as something inconsequential when mentioned.

I give this book 5 Stars and recommend it to anyone who happens to find their way to this page.




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Themes of Science Fiction Book Reviews - by Asimov's Robot Series

I read recently wrote I, Robot, a collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov in 1950. The film, which held a few years with the same title is loosely based on a few themes of the stories are based, do not follow a particular action in the stories. Although I did enjoy the film, could not, in my opinion, the depth the original script and try Asimov was able to capture and communicate the issues. Asimov's body of work is considered a cornerstone of science> Fiction, and his series of robots is in some of his best work. If you have not read, I recommend you do. And if you do not want to spoil, I order you to stop reading now.

I, Robot tells the story of the creation of a race of robots, for lack of a better term, initially created as a labor force for the people and problems that arise in this race integrated humanity. For safety, each robot is programmed with three basic laws,

A robot may not injure any person orallow, through inaction, that a person is hurt.
A robot must obey all orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law Protection

Search the whole web of stories such as robots, which are further advanced to interpret these laws and how these interpretations of the world. As the stories toward the end, a handful ofPeople recognize, must be considered the robot more control over the world, politically and economically. Everything has become more efficient. Better rules. Less poverty. The world is indeed a better place, because the robots have become much more advanced and less corrupt than men. In one of the last scenes, we discover that the robot was done intentionally, just to satisfy the First Law. They took control because they know that people are holdingours. However, go to great lengths to hide the fact that they Have taken over, because our awareness of our loss of control would hurt emotionally, and that would be a violation of the First Law. In essence, the men would never have known that were not under control.

Why Asimov is a genius. He understood something deeper about the human race. It seems that we prefer to run our lives, even though we know that its not the best life possible.

If you have children, probablyuses the expression "This is for your own good." This rate is usually from the parents makes the child was not something they want to do, like eating vegetables. The child probably understands that the parent is right even if he does not understand why. But they will fight until they can. Why? Because they are made to do so. You are fighting for control, although this control is to keep nothing later from unnecessary pain and difficulty.

In many ways we have never grownI find this theme in my life. I collected for the control and combat often understand things completely beyond me. So do not call the wisdom or knowledge of records in my life, but still do anyway. I know what it means to trust and see if They would make my life use, but it is still difficult to bring myself to do it. I tend to much more willing to make if something is my idea.

This is what made it great Asimov. In these stories, decided to useRobots to study the human condition. He has woven creativity and intuition of the most fascinating and entertaining stories that challenge us to think.

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Kitty Goes to War (Kitty Norville, Book 8) for $4.37

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This was the eighth book in the Kitty Norville series. Last I heard there are 10 books planned for this series. I didn't like this book quite as much as the last book "Kitty's House of Horrors" but it was still an enjoyable and engaging read.

Kitty has a couple problems on her hands. First she is being sued by the owner of Speedy Mart stores after she does a radio show on suspicious supernatural happenings that are going on at Speedy Mart stores across the country. Second she gets a call from the government about a group of werewolves that have returned from service in Iraq and are a bit crazy; the government is wondering if there is any hope for their rehabilitation and if Kitty will help.

Vaughn does a very good job of seamlessly juggling the two separate plot lines. The story line about the werewolves returning from war to be integrated back into society is politically timely and interesting; it is something that is unique to consider. Overall the book was very engaging and well written. I enjoyed the addition of some of the new characters that were introduced with the ex-military werewolves.

The best part of this book is seeing Kitty act on her own and make decisions like a strong leader. If you think back to the first couple Kitty books, Kitty has come a long way as a character and I really enjoyed seeing that in this book.

The majority of the story deals with the ex-military werewolves. The second plot dealing with the Speedy Marts was interesting but I was at a loss at what it had to do with the overall story. It seemed like this second plot might be part of something bigger that we don't fully understand yet. Also Cormac returns to the story, but the direction his character takes is kind of unexpected. I am not sure I enjoyed the character changes in Cormac, but I am sure that it has something to do with the overall story.

Overall this was an excellent installment in this series. I enjoyed it and look forward to Vaughn's future books. Next to read by Vaughn is her new book Steel that is due out Spring of 2011.

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