The Hero of Ages

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Lately I've been trying to clean up all the unfinished series I have hanging around. So first up is the third volume in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, The Hero of Ages. Hagelrat, with the benefit of having read the first two novels, reviewed the book a year or so ago and quite liked it. Would I have the same impression with the added knowledge of 1,400 pages of back story under my belt?

Of course I would (was there ever any real doubt?). Sanderson continues to place his emphasis on character over action (although there are some fantastic battle sequences, including a massive smackdown in the opening chapters), and moves the story of Vin, Elend, and the creeping Deepness to a somewhat unexpected conclusion. Small items from the first novel suddenly become massively important, and when the Hero of Ages is finally revealed, it's the last person I expected it to be.

One of the (many) standouts of the book and the series in general has been the development of Vin as a protagonist. Sanderson paints a female character and refuses to allow her to become a cliche or follow a trite, compressed path to her ultimate realization. Like John Scalzi did in Zoe's Tale, Sanderson never forgets that Vin is a young girl, new to the powers she has inherited and the feelings she's experiencing for Elend. It's a slow, gradual fleshing out of a character, and it makes for one of the most satisfying heroes (or heroines) I've come across in traditional SF/f literature.

Okay - so I wouldn't recommend jumping into Hero of Ages like Hagelrat did (she is cheeky, and wont to do things like that ;-)), although Sanderson is very adept at catching you up on all the action from the previous two novels, I would definitely recommend the series as a whole as one of the high point in modern fantasy. Great job, and it actually makes me interested to dive into his sections of the Wheel of Time to see what he can bring to the table.

Under the Dome

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One of the things I wondered about after reading Stephen King's latest 1,000 page novel Under the Dome is how he became so popular, especially in a global sense? Each one of his works is so deeply rooted in a kitchy Americanism that is particular to King's own experiences being raised in New England it can be disconnecting to American audiences.

Let me point out, before continuing, that I am unapologetically a fan of Stephen King. Even so, Under the Dome more clearly shows King's age and small town peculiarities as a fault rather than a gift to the storytelling. Outdated slang, references to culture and technology that are recent but not so recent to be current all go towards making Under the Dome something that reads like lightning, but leaves no taste afterward.

 

Started in the 70s but left off for bigger and better novels, Under the Dome is the story of a mysterious invisible barrier that completely isolates the town of Chester's Mill from the rest of the world. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out - and that includes air, which is getter harder to come by as the days go on. It's a chance for King to put people under a microscope and observe how a town tears itself apart. Chester's Mill is filled with your typical King characters - there's the blow-hard Town Councilman, the corrupt and lazy police, the psychotic dude, the devout and insane church leader - they're people we've come to know in dozens of other King books, but here they feel just as tired and listless as the air trapped in the Dome.

 

The truth behind what's happening to the town is an enormous joke - you probably won;t see it coming, but that's because you don't think King would ever do something so silly. He does, and while Under the Dome was a fun enough read, it doesn't have any staying power, and feels like a big disappointment after some of King's later, more mature work.

The Collected Essex County

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The three graphic novels that make up Jeff Lemire's The Collected Essex County weave around each other, entwining to tell a singular story of life in a small Canadian province.  But it does something more than that (although that is enough): the combination of words and images (everything is done by Lemire) turn each story into an experience, as if you're living the dreams, failures, and complete lives of the interconnected people who inhabit Lemire's world.

The first story, Tales From the Farm, recounts the story of Lester, a young boy living with his uncle on a farm, and his friendship with Jimmy LeBuef, the ex-hockey player who runs the town's general store.  First meeting over the purchase of a comic book, Jimmy begins to show up down by the river where Lester plays, and what at first sounds like the beginnings of a sinister story turns into something quite different, as we learn of the connections between Jimmy, Lester, Lester's uncle and his mother, who died years ago.  The centerpiece of the book is the second section, Ghost Stories, about two brothers: Vince and Lou LeBuef, who move to the big city to become hockey players.  The story moves back and forth in time, showing their lives connecting and fraying through sports, love, family, and eventually loss.  It also manages to throw new light on both the previous Tales From the Farm and beautifully sets up the last entry in the collection, The Country Nurse.  That story again directly relates back to the first two, this time focusing on a minor character from Ghost Stories who winds up tying everyone's lives together.

If I seem somewhat short with details of the actual plot of each story, it's because The Collected Essex County is best discovered fresh, with as little known about it as possible.  It's also because as wonderfully moving and clever as the writing is, this is a graphic novel, and the words wouldn't mean a thing if they weren't coupled with strong art, and Jeff Lemire's stark, B&W inks are mesmerizing to behold.  Pencilling, inking, and lettering everything himself, Essex County is at once both highly stylized yet intimately familiar, each line on a face marking emotions so clearly you fall under its spell without having to read the words.

The book itself is a handful: 510 pages and slightly smaller than a typical comic trade paperback and sporting a thick sturdy cover and heavy, high quality paper.  Any way you look at it, The Collected Essex County is a gorgeous book, and my pick for Book of the Year for 2009.

Keeping Your Head Above Water

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I'm not what you would call a lazy person when it comes to work, but I've always prided myself on my ability to get everything done at a consistently high quality, and still find time to surf the Internet and get a few posts in a week.

That's all changed with the new job.  I'm still striuggling to balance everything, but right now the blog's definitely taking a backseat to learning the ropes of the new position and taking care of things at home (besides the holidays we're in the process of putting a new roof on the house as well as re-siding the garage - things normally not done during Christmas).

With any luck the banner/head music post will be up tonight, along with other fun tidbits.  In the meantime, I hope whatever you're doing is fun.

* The image above is called Head Above Water by Tristan Henry Wilson, and can be found by clicking here.