Eating metal can give you magical powers....

Being a fan of the Wheel of Time series, I wanted to make sure I sampled Brandon Sanderson’s writing before The Gathering Storm (part one of the Memory of Light trilogy-finale to the Wheel of Time) is released this November, to see if Sanderson really was a worthy choice to conclude the late Robert Jordan’s epic masterpiece. And so I decided to read Mistborn: The Final Empire. Mistborn is the story of Vin, an orphaned teenage girl who is trapped in the criminal underworld and seemingly consigned to a life of thievery and abuse. However, all that changes when Vin meets the infamous adventurer-thief, Kelsier “the survivor of Hathsin.” But Kelsier is no ordinary rogue. He is an Allomancer – a person who can burn certain ingested metals giving them supernatural powers. Kelsier recognizes that Vin has the same gift and recruits her to participate in a mad scheme to overthrow a virtually immortal tyrant, one who has ruled the world for a thousand years, oppressing Kelsier and Vin’s people, the Skaa. Thus begins a rich fantasy drama that introduces a freshly original system of magic and an intriguingly dismal post-apocalyptic world. Mistborn could be the perfect fantasy-fiction novel, complete with emotionally involving characters, an expertly mixed dose of humor, exciting action scenes, and an intelligently organic plot. I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this book and was thoroughly impressed with Sanderson’s writing ability. Thus I am pleased to report that the future of the Wheel of Time series is in good hands. On a scale of 1-10, Mistborn: The Final Empire gets a perfect 10!

Star Trek do-over

Ok, this will come out sooner or later so I might as well confess it here and now. I am a Trekkie. Surprise! Mom and dad are crying and blaming themselves, and the wife now knows where I’ve been secretly spending all my free time. It’s been a long time since we had new Trek, so I’ve been excitedly drooling over the trailers for the past six months. This can be dangerous as hype is a double edged sword, sometimes raising expectations to impossible levels. But in this case, Star Trek paid off the promotion, and for the most part I was pleased with J.J. Abram’s interpretation. First, let me say that Star Trek’s special effects are glorious! Gone are the days of stationary space battles where two ships have to be facing each other at point blank range in order to trade blows. All the ships, planets, phasers, and torpedoes look amazing. The score is emotionally charged with an epic flavor, and the new actors are all topnotch. The added dose of humor will help general audiences swallow the geekier elements of the movie, and the action and pacing are artfully executed. Yet as much as I enjoyed Star Trek, I did feel let down in a few areas. My biggest problem with the film is Abram’s deliberate abandonment of the hallmark Trek techno-babble and scientific approach to problem solving. I know, I know. That’s part of the barrier that kept Trek from previously being this widely accepted. However, that element of intelligent science fiction that is the very spirit of Star Trek was all but eliminated, leaving me feeling like the geeky friend who gets snubbed when his other friends want to impress the cool kids (yes, that analogy is autobiographical). Another thing that disappointed me was Leonard Nimoy’s surprisingly terrible performance. I realize that he’s never been an Oscar worthy actor, but he seemed to be at a personal worst, his lines sounding read from cue cards. And then there was the weak plot line (the recycled premise of the Star Trek Enterprise series), with its two dimensional villain, Nero, who seemed like a re-hash of old Trek bad guy Khan Singh. I do have to give Paramount and Abrams credit for their brilliant marketing strategy of using the alternate timeline template to clear the slate, making possible a total Star Trek re-invention. And although I am as attached to the old Trek history as I am to my wife and children, I am interested to see where Abrams will take the franchise. Three stars for the dumbed-down, yet thoroughly entertaining Star Trek!