Geek of Oz

It's difficult to discuss Joe Abercrombie's excellent The First Law series without treading on George R.R. Martin's toes via the expected Game of Thrones comparison. It's true that both writers adopt the term 'grimdark' in similar ways, presenting European-influenced medieval fantasy that's light on the magic and heavy on the shock-value gore festivals. It's also true that both sets of narratives are sprawling exercises in superlative worldbuilding, where stories can be told at the farthest points of the world and still feel like they're all interconnected. Also, both authors really like their swearing characters. I would, however, argue that Abercrombie has this realm of writing locked down far better than Martin does. Most of that's because Abercrombie has a penchant for well-drawn and investing characters, while Martin relies a lot more on plot movement and external circumstance to shape our understanding of the main characters. Pit someo...

Part of the problem I've always had with Star Wars: Episode I  is its inability to live up to its potential. It'd be easy to love or hate a film that's entirely awesome or terrible, but dealing with one which lies somewhere in the middle is a little tougher. The trailers and marketing made it seem like a spellbinding sojourn into the prehistory of popular culture's most beloved space opera franchise, showing a vibrant world before Darth Vader's Empire. Then the final film came out, and all those gorgeous visuals and intriguing characters were wasted, not given the space they needed to develop into something iconic or matching the potential implied by the trailers. Whatever else you could call it, Episode I  was, in every sense of the word, a letdown. I could say the same of Down Station , a quasi-modern-day fantasy with a premise that's almost entirely squandered on lacking characters and a wafer-thin plot. It's a shame, because the book's premise and ...

The world lost a writing legend in 2011, when author Robert Jordan - born James Oliver Rigney, Jr. - passed away from amyloidosis, midway through penning the final volume of his decades-long The Wheel of Time series. While the story was eventually finished by Brandon Sanderson it was a bittersweet thing, especially since Jordan did not to live to see the end of his magnum opus. Whatever The Wheel of Time 's flaws - and believe me, there are a few - it was still a formative series for me when I was beginning to get into reading fantasy doorstoppers. I first read The Eye of the World at the age of 13; though the beginning was a slog, I eventually grew to love the world of Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene and all the others. It's the kind of narrative that has stayed with me even as I've explored the likes of Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Patrick Rothfuss and others who've built upon what Jordan started. Even though I tapered off the series a little towards the end...

If there's one thing Brandon Sanderson is a master of, it's world-building. If there's a second thing, it's genre-mashing. If there's a third, it's probably something obscure, like mini-golfing or cake decorating. Picking up a year after where The Alloy of Law left off, Shadows of Self  continues fleshing out the wild west-styled world of Mistborn, centuries after the climax of the original trilogy. It's the same kind of 'swallow metal and gain superpowers' schtick, but alongside bowler hats, carriages and magic-aided revolvers. Kinda like that awesomely terrible Wild Wild West  film with Will Smith, except the giant metal spider is replaced by people in evening wear who can fly and slow time. So, y'know, better. Nobleman and part-time law enforcer Waxillium Ladrian has a problem; namely, his uncle, who's secretly the head of an evil crime syndicate controlling the city of Elendel in the middle of a protracted period of civil unrest. Whi...

Ever had an imaginary friend? Stephen Leeds has several, but they're not quite imaginary. Working as a contractor for tough jobs whilst evading eager journalists and psychologists in a house built for forty, Leeds - known colloquially as "Legion" - has it tough. Mostly because he has a strange kind of multiple personality disorder; different parts of his mind - or "aspects" - spin off and form separate people, which he can then see as hallucinations. The aspects have distinct personalities and backstories, formed fully in his brain either whenever he requires a certain skill, or when the aspects just feel like it. His mental state is so fragile that he has to imagine his aspects as real people, otherwise he'll go completely crazy rather than just partially. That makes him perfect for a job hunting a stolen corpse that contains the secret to human DNA memory storage, right? Despite being a humungous Brandon Sanderson fan, I'd never checked out the o...