Guardians of the West

Guardian's of the West is the first book in the Malloreon, a sequel series to David Eddings' Belgariad. This is one where it is best if you read the Belgariad first otherwise there are major spoilers.

The story starts with Polgara, Durnik, Errand, and Belgarath travel down to the Vale. Now that the Evil God Torak has been defeated and the prophecy of the Child of Light vs the Child of Dark has been completed, things can become peaceful. They are able to live, for the first time in millenia, in peace without having to worry about Kal Torak waking up and ruling the world in darkness. However, small things begin to happen. People appear, have mysterious and odd conversations, then vanish. The East is very unsettled and in the midst of internal conflict and wars on a mass scale. There is talk of a strange dark stone and evil forces moving again. But their lives have been so focused on Torak and the Mrin Codex's prophecy that maybe they missed something. Is there something more moving out there now that Torak is dead and gone? Garion and Ce'Nedra are in Riva with trials of their own, marriage conflicts (brought to you by a clash of personalities), and the country grows restless without an Heir to the Rivian throne. There have also been murders in the castle and attempted assassinations, each time with so little information to go off of. Who is doing this? Why are they after the baby? What is this newly discovered prophecy that is throwing this world into an upheaval again?

This book starts off very slow. I started reading it years ago but I got through about half the book and nothing "super exciting" was going on so I put it down. (Apparently right before things really got interesting. This is the first book in a large series and so needs a bit of introduction. It also sets up the fact that years are passing between the death of Torak and the wiggling changes that this new prophecy and the workers behind it are implementing. This book goes to show that sometimes it just takes time for real dangers to hit and that sometimes those dangers, if left unnoticed or unchecked, can suddenly grow into all wars.

It also brings back the love of old characters. All of them I have loved throughout the whole Belgariad series many make their appearances here and seems will continue to do so as the series goes on. By the end, we are informed that many more new characters will find their way into the story and we're left with wondering "who are they?"

This book is written rather like The Hobbit where there isn't much in the way of description of surrounding areas. Hardly any at all. Much of the book is conversations and dialog with funny, snarky comments. Much is left to the imagination of the reader in terms of setting and other descriptions. This, I think, is mainly do to the time in which is was written, where Edding's lets the (now considered) cliches run themselves. He's not trying to break the troupe or cliche because fantasy was still fairly new and weren't considered cliche much.

I do really like the fact that women (in the very male ruled society) are still able to put their foot forward. Polgara is highly respected. A king dies and his wife takes over until their son can grow up and claim the throne, where she runs more of the campaign than the rest of the men do so it seems, and she is very prominent in all of the counsels that they have. Vella makes a return and has a fowl mouth that made some gentlemen blush yet can stand on her own feet and defend herself while being sold (which is Nardak custom). But then we also have many other different women throughout the books, casting different personalities and none of them were looked down on or belittled because some where more compassionate or powerful or sneaky or overcome by sea sickness. I think it would be interesting to read articles based on the women in his stories. There is a lot that could be said here.

In the end, now that things are moving forward a bit more dramatically, I'm very interested on where the rest of the story is going. Where it's not just black and white, good vs evil, one big bad guy where we know where we're going. But there is more of a mystery too it which can make it more exciting. I'm ready to read on.

Elantris

While Brandon Sanderson is probably my favorite author, Elantris is not my favorite book. Good book, especially towards the end, but not my favorite.

The city of Elantris was once a shining beacon to all the surrounding countries. The walls glowed. The people glowed. They had magnificent powers to heal, to teleport, to do anything it seemed. They were Gods! Until they weren't. Suddenly, one day, Elantris fell. It darkened and the Elantians seemed almost like zombies. Their hearts stopped beating, their hair fell out, their bodies covered with bruise-like abrasions, and they stopped glowing. The Gods fell.

Ten years later, people still enter Elantris but only those who have been touched by the Shoad. Those who would have turned into glowing Elantians now turn into bodies that have died who's minds haven't realized their dead. Prince Raoden wakes up on morning and finds that the Shoad has taken him and he is forced to go to Elantris where the dead walk. Princess Sarene travels from her home country to marry Prince Raoden only to find his funeral happening later that day with her marriage binding and complete. She is married to a dead man she's never met. (Hooray for her.) Hrathen also come to the city just outside Elantris with orders to convert all of the heathen and do so before three months or his home country will come to slaughter them all. Not happy prospects for anyone.

Between political intrigues, survival, and crazy priests the people of Kae have their hands full, whether or not they know it.

I found that buy the end of the book I really like all of the characters. Raoden was the one that got me through the slower parts toward the beginning. Hrathen was a very intriguing character because of the internal battles he ended up fighting and I did enjoy his playing with Sarene in their own verble chess matches.

This book was one where you had to jump into it and start treadding. Brandon is much better at this in Mistborn and is far more quick at it. Some people said that you can maybe skim through the first half and by the time you get to about 55% to 60% really start focusing, and I found that to be pretty much the case.

Especially toward the beginning, I was very confused to the whole bunch of characters that were thrown at me and I wasn't sure who I was supposed to be remembering. They seemed to be just names that flew past my eyes in a blur. It took a good portion of the time to get people fully impressed in my brain or even figure out who they were for the most part. Kiin was easy and Roial easier later on, but many of the others were hard.

I think Elantris, the place, is a very interesting one full of mystery. I think that is why I liked Raoden so much. The people he interacted with and the city itself drew me in very much. The Aeo's were interesting and as we went on they made far more sense, though they were still simple.

I did have some questions toward the end. It is part of the Cosmere so "There is always another secret." If you have more questions, check out coppermind.net and it should help you out a lot. Though Spoilers, you are warned.

This will be one that I'll reread again probably because I missed a lot and it took me forever to actually complete the read. (Life can suck at times.)