What I Am Reading

Last week I finished the Mistborn Trilogy for the second time.

I am very boring in that I continue to read and re-read the same books over and over when I find something I like, I think this must be genetic.

Anyways, I loved this series even more this time. I have Drew to thank, again, for getting me to read this. I am dedicating myself to reading all 12 books in The Wheel of Time series. I have finally come to grips with the fact that Drew knows what he is talking about when it comes to fantasy books.

Having just watched the utter crap-fest that was Percy Jackson and the Olympians I have little faith in Books to Movies adaptations right now, but the talk of a potential "Mistborn" movie gets me very excited. The way the action in this series is written would translate beautifully to film, it is sort of Harry Potter, meets LORT, meets the Matrix meets Awesome.

One of my favorite things about reading fantasy books is checking out other people's interpretations of the characters in Fan Art sites. My favorite Harry Potter site is Acciobrain!

Some of the best stuff I have ever drawn/painted has been the Wheel of Time stuff I did for Drew (which I should have him take pictures of so I can post it...Drew, are you reading this?)

The Mistborn artwork that is out there is limited at this point. I have sketched out some Inquisitors, but haven't had the time to really work on them. I will post a few of my favorites that Google Images was able to pull up.







Sweet Koloss transition




















Vin doing her Misborn thing





















And finally, my favorite of Vin, hauling around a way-too-big-but-still-bad-ass Koloss sword.

Time Bomb

Live from the Beacon Theatre

I am feeling this today.

Late softball game last night, couldn't fall asleep until very late.

On a side note, it dawned on me that I am much, much funnier when I write then when I speak. This was brought to my attention recently. I need to write more, I just struggle to come up with things that are the least bit interesting.

The conclusion I drew was to just writer whatever the hell came to my mind, regardless of relevance.

I finished "Mistborn: The Final Empire" last night, for the second time. Sweet book. Read it.

Here Lies Dobby, A Free Elf

Location filming of the "Shell Cottage" scenes for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows are underway.

Above is a shot of Harry digging *********SPOILER READ THE BOOK ASSHOLE******** Dobby's grave.

I actually teared up writing the title of this post. The section of the book that takes place at Shell Cottage, to me is among the most powerful in the series. While digging Dobby's grave Harry makes a decision that will directly effect not only his life but the lives of all that he loves and cares about.

Horcruxes or Hallows? Harry, for the first time in the series, has no one to turn to, no Dumbledore, no Sirius, no Hagrid to help him with his choice. Horcruxes or Hallows.

I recently finished reading book 7, and this scene was more powerful this time than any time previous. I was never a fan of Dobby and actually found him a bit irritating. Until he sacrificed his free life, to save Harry and his friends.

A Free Elf Indeed.

Book 12

A MEMORY OF LIGHT to be Published in November 2009
Posted by Jason on March 2nd, 2009 in the A Memory of Light, Brandon Sanderson, Tor Books category

Tor Books, the US publisher of The Wheel of Time, is now suggesting that A MEMORY OF LIGHT, the 12th and final novel in the series, may be published in November of this year.

The publisher has published a “widget” that anybody can post on their website. This widget (seen here below) counts down to November.

www.createyourcountdown.com
No official word has come yet from Tor about a more specific release date, or even whether or not November is just when they hope the book will be ready by.

Brandon Sanderson, the up-and-coming fantasy author who has been selected to complete the novel, frequently blogs on his website about the progress that he is making. From what he has said so far, it seems unlikely that the entire novel would be ready in time for a November release.

The idea has been discussed several times that A MEMORY OF LIGHT may be broken up into two parts. Brandon has discussed this possibility in great depth both on his website and in a podcast interview he did with Dragonmount’s 4th Age Podcast team. Although the decision to divide the book into multiple parts has not been made (or at least not made public), if this were to happen, a November release date for the first installment would become much more possible.

It should be noted, however, that most novels require several months of lead time from the time they are “turned in” the authors to the time they show up in stores. With Robert Jordan’s previous WoT novels, Tor has always expedited that process and published them in about six weeks, which is an extraordinary speed. With that in mind, if Brandon has a deadline of late September to finish the entire novel, a November release date for A MEMORY OF LIGHT may still be possible.

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For those of you who have no idea what this means, it means a lot. It means I have a lot of reading to do this summer because I am somewhere in the middle of book 7.

You will notice the sweet countdown to November widget on the right hand side.

I have done this in the past and I am going to announce once again, I have been known to be wrong about things.

That is a pretty big deal for me to admit too.

I can think of three specific instances where this has happened. My dad travels a lot for work. In the summer/fall of I think 2001 he came home from a trip with a new book in tow. It was some crap about a boy wizard or some other crap. I distictly remember a drive in the van with him where he was explaining to me and mom, as we looked with bored eyes, how there were only supposed to be three names to come out of the "Goblet of Fire" whatever the hell that was. He went on to explain in excited tones how a fourth name came out of the cup, and wait for it...it was Harry Potter's. At the time I remember thinking how absolutely stupid the book sounded.

He kept this up until November, when we as a family went to see "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", and I fell in love with a bespeckeld 11-year old boy. I had read the first four books by Christmas that year. I was wrong.

The second instance of being wrong involves Chili. I was totally wrong about Chili being disgusting. My thinking was: "who the hell mixes meat and vegtibles?" I was wrong. Chili is delicious.

The third instance involves my brother, and is pretty similar to the big "Harry Potter" incident.

Drew is a fantasy "geek" and loves graphic novels and fantasy fiction. He had read a few fantasy series after he completed "The Lord of The Rings", which I thought was about a circus in middle school. He found that many of the more contemporary fantasy series out there failed to live up to the bar that Tolkien had set. Then he found one, "The Wheel of Time", which just sounds stupid.


At the time there were 10 books in the series I believe, and they were quietly the most popular book series in the world that no one had ever heard of. Drew flew through them and loved them. He informed me I had to read them. After much complaining and teasing of him for being a dork, I finally picked up "The Eye of the World" the first book in the series.

I found the first section of the book to be a little boring, a little confusing, and very much similar to the beginning of Lord of the Rings.

Then I began to fall in love with the characters (and there are an effing ton of them!) and the story telling. The action scences literally wash over you in a way that completely imerses you in the story. The imagery is incredible. And the books are really long.

It takes serious commitment to get through just one of them, let alone 11. The author died last year of a very rare blood disease prior to completing the series. Robert Jordan (the author) had Brandon Sanderson (the author of my other favorite fantasy series, "Mistborn") finish the 12th book which is scheduled to be released later this year. I have yet to finish the books that have already been published, mostly because I am lazy. Which brings me to the purpose of this long, boring post.


TOR books along with the Dable Brothers are releasing the series in Graphic form:

http://www.dabelbrothers.com/index.php?categoryid=16

I seriously could not be more excited about this. I have pictures in my head (and my brother's walls) of how I see this series, but to be able to read it in this form is going to be amazing. Well done.