Title: Anathem
Author: Neal Stephenson
Publisher: William Morrow
Date Published: 2008
Pages (Hardcover): 937

First Line: “Do your neighbors burn one another alive?” was how Fraa Orolo began his conversation with Artisan Flec.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been putting off this review. I’m egotistical enough to firmly believe that I’m smarter than the average bear. I’m no genius, mind you, but I tend to pick things up rather quickly, especially abstract concepts, and I can usually generate what my geeky friends consider interesting (if not altogether plausible) extensions of those concepts. So when I say that there were many times over the course of Anathem‘s 937 pages Mr. Stephenson made me feel rather stupid, understand that I mean that as the sincerest of compliments. I love books that really work my imagination and intellect, and Anathem does that on every… single… page. I needed time to digest the book, and even re-read a few sections, to make sure I wasn’t jumping the gun and going with a gut reaction.

There is much to talk about with Anathem, but I am going to force myself to focus on what I think are the two most important elements of the novel. If I didn’t this could easily turn into a review with seven or eight installments. And since it took me this long to get to just this one… well… you know.

The mastery of Stephenson’s world-building is the strength of Anathem. It’s humbling, in a way, the kind of detail he builds into this alien civilization, and the parallels he draws between their culture and history and the varied cultures of Earth are both subtly historical and oddly predictive. The precarious balancing act between the two provides an undercurrent of tension that is present through almost the entire novel, as Stephenson never stops revealing new details about the history of the planet Arbre.

The problem for me, however, is that the story of Anathem, what actually happens to our protagonist, is overshadowed by all the detail of Stephenson’s worldbuilding. Overshadowed is actually being a little generous, as there are instances where the story simply vanishes, completely overwhelmed by the attention to the philosophical, sociological, and anthropological analysis of Stephenson’s narrative.

There are moments that shine, however. When I think of Anathem now, some three weeks after I initially closed the cover, two scenes stand out above the rest: the gunfight in the streets and the volcano. These two more than any others are rooted in the “now” of the story and are devoid of the philosophical-treatise-type banter nearly all the characters rely upon. In the end, however, regardless of how much I admire the intricate world Stephenson creates throughout the novel, his story isn’t compelling enough to make it rise above all of this detail. Too often I found my eyes wandering over long passages of description or theoretical dialogue between characters because, quite simply, there was nothing happening! I am a firm believer that, in fiction, talking is not an action. Characters can spend all the time they want talking about an obstacle, but until they actually get out of their chairs and try do something about it, then there isn’t any conflict. Stephenson relied too heavily on his characters standing around talking “theorics” or discussing problems. The reason the gunfight and volcano scenes stand out is that there is no talking about potential outcomes and probable scenarios. Something happens, characters react, and the story moves forward.

So although I think the world-building in Anathem is unparalleled in its intelligence, detail and complexity, its story ultimately failed for me (in more ways that I have allowed myself to go into here) . The result is a hefty novel that is a difficult and at times boring read.

Afterthought:
Ok, I’ll talk about one more thing, because I would be remiss if I didn’t. The final chapters of Anathem are, unfortunately, the most disappointing in the novel. More than just cliche, it’s as if Stephenson was trying to turn this massive, complex, intelligent tome into nothing more than a fairy tale. The final chapter alone is why I wanted to wait to write this review (actually, it’s why I wanted to throw the novel across the room, but at 937 pages it would likely have punched through the drywall and landed in the bathtub). I wanted to make sure my gut reaction to the resolution wasn’t tainting the preceding 900 or so pages. I’m glad I did, because there really is quite a bit of good stuff in there.

No… really… where did it go? I haven’t felt particularly busy, and yet I find my Things To-Do list with a growing number of things undone. Including the last couple of posts here on rfdc. My goal is to get them both up by Sunday at the absolute latest:

Book Review: Anathem by Neal Stephenson
In all honestly I let this one slip a bit on purpose, as I needed more time to think about it. What’s the final verdict? Come back and see in a couple days!

The rfdc Short Story Club: “The Nonesuch” by Brian Lumley
No excuse. Just haven’t written it yet.

I’m just about finished with A Long Way Gone. Since I always have trouble trying to figure out what to read next (I have more books in my “To Read Bookcases” than I do in my “Have Read Bookcases”), I figured I’d put up a poll and see what you all want to read about come review time. I don’t promise to read the book that wins (hell, I don’t promise to read a book that’s even on the list!), but I’ll certainly give the vote-winner some serious consideration. Here it is:

Spent some time this weekend working out the route for my road trip in August. It ended up, as I kind of figured it would, a bit more substantial that I was initially thinking. Yay! Basically, it’s a loop around New England, hitting all the NE states and then throwing in NJ, DE, MD, and PA just for good measure. All told, it’s coming in at just over 2200 miles:

I have a few places to stay along the way lined up already, and my eye on a potential campground/motel or two, but I thought I’d check to see if anyone out there has room for a boarder for a night, or even a spot in their yard I could throw up a tent during the 3rd week in August. Specifically, if you’re somewhere around numbers 2-5 in the above picture (cities/towns listed below) I’d love to hear from you!

Here are the areas I’m looking for snooze space. Anything within about 60 minutes or so would be damn near perfect.

Messena, NY > Champlain, NY (Canada is fine… I’ll have my passport, and the KOA I’m looking at is halfway to Montreal)
Colebrook, NH > Rangely, ME
St. Stephen, ME > Bar Harbor, ME
Boston area – My route takes me around the city on 495 to avoid traffic.

If your not in one of those areas but want to hook up for coffee or lunch or something, that would be awesome! Shoot me an email through the contact page and we can work out the details.

Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Originally Published in the Doubleday anthology New Dimensions #3 (1973) and in Le Guin’s collection The Wind’s Twelve Quarters (1975)
Errata: Winner of the 1974 Hugo Award for Best Short Story

This will only touch on one small aspect of the short story (because I don’t want to write an essay on it, but rather start a discussion).

Perhaps what I like most about short stories is that there is a certain amount of freedom with standard storytelling conventions that aren’t typically found in longer works. In this piece, Le Guin exercises that freedom by presenting, among other things, a situation as opposed to a more formal plot. The plot is there, to be sure, but what happens, the events that unfold, are of secondary importance to the circumstances which propel them and, in the end, remain incomplete as the situation overwhelms them.

When asked what the story is about, most often the responses revolve around the suffering child locked away in the basement. But that is all description and backstory. The description of the child and its impact/influence on Omelas is what consumes the action of the story, and eventually the plot, the action, is lost without being able to play itself out.

The action I am referring to is, of course, the beginning of the “Festival of Summer” and the events that lead up to the horse race, and is introduced in the very first paragraph:

“All the processions wound towards the north side of the city, where on the great water-meadow called the Green Fields boys and girls, naked in the bright air, with mudstained feet and ankles and long, lithe arms, exercised their restive horses before the race.”

The narrator follows the horses all the way to the starting line, describing the town and the people along the way. Slowly this description begins to take precedence as the narrator struggles to make the reader understand the utopian society of Omelas: “Joyous! How is one to tell about joy? How describe the citizens of Omelas?” The narrator goes so far as to say that there is little difference between the people of Omelas and “us”:

“…I repeat these were not simple folk, not dulcet shepherds, noble savages, bland utopians. They were not less complex than us…How can I tell you about the people of Omelas?…They were mature, intelligent, passionate adults whose lives were not wretched. O miracle! but I wish I could describe them better. I wish I could convince you.”

This shift ushers in a new tact in which the narrator begins to make suppositions of things that “should” or “could” be the case with the population. We move from the plot and what is known to what the narrator thinks about specific aspects of Omelian society:

“Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids…how about technology? I think that there would be no cars or helicopters…I think that people from up and down the coast have been coming in to Omelas during the last days before the Festival on very fast little trains and double-decked trams…But what else should there be?…I think there out to be beer. What else, what else belongs in the joyous city?”

This new tact the narrator takes runs the risk of casting doubt on the previous descriptions of the city and its people. The concrete facts of the previous description and backstory are replaced by an almost anthropological evaluation of society with reasoning behind each component that is thorough and logical. The narrator covers the “big issues” that society faces even today – technology, drugs, sex, and government. Through it all, the plot, the story of the Festival of Summer and the horse race, are forgotten, only to be ushered back to the forefront with the most abrupt shift in the piece. It’s as if the narrator realizes that focus has been lost, and hurries to catch up to the action not only by shifting back to the plot, but by shifting from past tense to present tense:

“Most of the procession have reached the Green Fields by now. A marvelous smell of cooking goes forth…The faces of small children are amiably sticky…a child of nine or ten sits at the edge of the crowd, alone, playing on a wooden flute.”

This shift in tense brings a sense of immediacy with it. This is happening now. The child is playing the flute. People are smiling. The horses rear on the starting line. The narrator brings us to that pivotal moment, the starting of the race that begins the Festival of Summer. But then the narrator rips it all away without ever starting the race:

“Do you believe? Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy? No? Then let me describe one more thing.”

The final third of the story is all description. The festival is never mentioned again. The plot is lost in the situation. This loss is important, however, as it mirrors the questions that Le Guin is posing within the descriptions, the primary question being: Is the suffering, or loss, of one child acceptable to preserve the Omelian way of life? It’s one of those biggies that dates all the way back to Corinthians: “If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts share its suffering. If one part is praised, all the others share in its happiness.” Is this the case? Or is there a “greater good” that must be considered? Are there truly “acceptable losses”? This becomes an especially pressing question when you take into account when it was written (~1973) and what was going on in our own society.

More questions to consider/discuss. Some I have an idea about, some I still puzzle over:

1. Le Guin hints that the horses (and other animals) have developed an advanced intelligence: “…they were vastly excited, the horse being the only animal who has adopted our ceremonies as his own.” Why?
2. Who is the narrator? Not from Omelas, as he refers to the people as “they” and lumps himself/herself in with the reader through the use of “us.” How does the narrator know all this, and, considering the supposition and guesswork, why doesn’t the narrator know more?
3. What is the connection between the child playing the flute and the child locked away in the basement?
4. How long has this been going on? How does the Omelian society “choose” the child that will suffer? What does this kind of extended thinking imply about the people of Omelas?
5. What is gained by those who choose to leave Omelas? What effect does it have, if any, on the situation within the city?

Recommended works by Le Guin:

The Earthsea series (beginning with A Wizard of Earthsea)
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Dispossesed
The Word for World is Forest

There are others (specifically Lavinia and The Lathe of Heaven) which I have yet to read but are multiple award winners that have been on my “To Read” list for years now.

Next up on the rfdc Short Story Club:

July 18: “The Nonesuch” by Brian Lumley

I’m planning a between-semester road for mid-August. Nothing huge, probably not going to wander more than 300 miles from home, but I’d like to unplug for a week or so on the new bike and wander a bit. If you’re a friend somewhere in the shaded circle and want to get together (or have a couch for me to crash on!) let me know. Right now I’m sort of leaning towards circum-navigating Lake Ontario, but in reality I have no clue as to where I am going yet, so please don’t be offended if I turn you down. It just means I ended up traveling in a different direction, and as you can see from the circle, I have lots of directions to choose from! Oh, even though NYC and LI are inside the circle, I’m not all that interested in such a… cosmopolitan destination. Maybe next time

Well, I’ve culled through a few of my various collections and notes and come up with a bunch of potential stories for discussion. Not surprisingly, I’ve had a difficult time trying to find some of the ones I’d love to discuss online, especially the stories that are more “literary” than genre. But that’s ok. Like me, I think that most of you that visit rfdc prefer genre stories, especially Science Fiction. That being the case, I’ll start out with a few genre stories first.

What follows are the first 4 stories I’ll talk about, and the date I hope to begin the discussion:

Sunday, July 4, 2010
“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin is easily one of my favorite authors, and this story, from her collection The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, is, perhaps, my favorite short story ever.
You can find it here.

Sunday, July 18, 2010
“The Nonesuch” by Brian Lumley
I first discovered Lumley back in the ’80s with his Necroscope series and have been a fan ever since.
You can find it here.

Sunday, August 1, 2010
“2BR02B” by Kurt Vonnegut
It’s Vonnegut. If you think about it, that’s all that really needs to be said.
You can find it here.

Sunday, August 15, 2010
“I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison
Even if you don’t read short stories, if you are a fan of speculative fiction, chances are you know Ellison’s work, as, in addition to his novels, novellas, short stories, and articles, he’s also written for television (Star Trek, The Young Lawyers, The Flying Nun, The Outer Limits, The Man from U.N.C.L.E, and others). He even wrote some erotic fiction under the pseudonym Cordwainer Bird. With 23 published collections of short stories, it was difficult to choose just one to talk about!
You can find it here.
Alternate location.
*note: neither of these online copies is formatted all that well. Choose the one that won’t end up driving you nuts to read. Personally, I found the alternate location easier on the eyes when I C&P it into a text doc and adjusted the font.

And there’s the first four. I have, roughly, another dozen or so bookmarked, both recent stories published within the last year or so, and a few more… established stories from the 40′s and 50′s. If it goes well, perhaps I’ll even bump up the postings to a weekly schedule. We’ll see what happens.

Happy reading, and I’ll see you next week!

I’ve always been a big fan of the short story, and it surprises me that, in this age of short attention spans, instant gratification and electronic media, that it hasn’t become a more popular form. Well, I’m going to do my part to rectify that.

I stumbled across an old post over at io9 in which they tried to form a “Weekend Short Story Club.” It doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere, as I can’t find any sort of discussion on the 4 scheduled stories, but I think it’s a great idea. So much, in fact, that I’m going to steal it, with a few modifications, and see if I can spur some discussion on various short stories.

Beginning this Sunday (27 June) when I’ll post a reading lineup/schedule, every other Sunday I’ll begin a “discussion” on the scheduled story. I already have a few stories in mind, but I need to make sure they are accessible on-line. If you have a favorite story you want to discuss, feel free to link to it below, and I’ll add it to the list. I make no promises about sticking to a particular genre, as my reading habits are varied and many of my favorite stories fall outside my preferred genres for recreational reading.

Hopefully some of you lurkers out there will de-cloak yourselves and talk about reading and writing with me!

It’s been a rough summer. Lots of little things seem to have been conspiring against me in one way or another, and I just haven’t been able to get into the swing of summery-type things that I usually live for. Add in the oh-so-typical employment stress of being an adjunct professor in perpetual search of a full-time teaching gig, and the result has been me sequestered in my little basement man-cave not really doing what I want to, or know I should be, doing. I haven’t been depressed, mind you, just… blah.

But then that proverbial final straw fell upon the camel’s back.

One of the things I look forward to most is riding my motorcycle. I got my first bike – a Yamaha YZ 125 dirt bike – back in the ’80s, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Since then I’ve owned 2 Hondas, another Yamaha, and my first true “dream bike” – a 2000 Indian Chief. That Chief has seen me through a freak early-August snowstorm high in the Rockies, tar-melting June heat in Indiana and Missouri, nickle-sized hail in Utah, and floodwatch rain in Pennsyltucky and Maryland. It’s been to the top of Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks and circumnavigated each of the Finger Lakes. I love that bike.

But the last few years have been difficult ones, and it’s spent a total of 15 weeks in the shop for various ailments over the last 36 months… not a happy ratio considering the limited riding season I get here in upstate New York. Then, last week, it had to go into the shop again when one of the slider covers on the front forks sheered off. I’ve known I needed a new bike for a while now, but have been putting it off. When the mechanic told me last week that I was foolish to trust the bike for anything more than a brief day trip, well, my summer pretty much bottomed out.

I’ve had my eye on the BMW R1200GS for a while now, but it’s an expensive bike. Having recently unburdened myself of all debt, I had no desire to jump back into it, especially since I knew the BMW dealer here (Country Rode Motowerks) probably wouldn’t accept the Indian in trade. Plus, I just don’t want to get rid of the Indian! Even with stuff falling off it, I still think of it as a great bike.

Not expecting much, I stopped by to see what they had in stock last Tuesday. I’ve been popping in on and off for over a year now. Not enough to be a pest as I dreamed and test rode various GS bikes, but enough to become, I think, at least a somewhat familiar face. They are great folks at Country Rode, riders all, and host rides in the summer and various events all winter long. Anyway, I stopped by mainly to see what they thought the chances were of finding a used GS, one maybe a couple years old.

“Not very good.”

Pretty much what I expected. But then I noticed a 2009 GS on the sales floor. What’s more, they had just uncrated it! It was brand new, and there was a big ol’ promotion going on for all 2009 bikes. So I sat down with Ron, and for the next 45 minutes we ran numbers through various spreadsheets. And then I went home and built my own spreadsheets and ran my own numbers. And I sat on the decision for a couple days. I’ve learned (the hard way, if the truth be told) to sit on big financial decisions for at least 48 hours, and the weather helped me out.

Wednesday it rained.

But Thursday it didn’t rain.

And Friday, June 11^th, I picked up my cure for the doldrums:

I only put about 100 miles on it today, but I’ll easily triple (and then some, in all likelihood) that by the end of the weekend. Regardless, I am already in a better mood than I have been for the last 2-3 months. Even Griffin, my nephew who never really cared for the Indian because it was so loud, likes the GS and is already bugging me for a ride (which he never, ever did with the Indian).

As for the Indian, it’s still in the shop. I plan on turning it into a project bike, a bike for cruising around town and showing off. Or, perhaps I’ll end up getting it to a point where it’s trustworthy again and then selling it come springtime.

But after my brief riding today, I absolutely love the GS and am looking forward to taking off this weekend and just disappearing somewhere into the Finger Lakes region and leaving those damned doldrums far behind.

Simultronics’ DragonRealms (henceforth referred to lovingly as DR) wasn’t the first online game I played. That honor goes to, if memory serves, Federation by ibGames, which may end up with a post all its own one day, but probably not. DR was, however, the first game I was addicted to.

It’s important to note a couple things at the outset… First and foremost, when the average person today hears the term “computer game,” they do not think of a game like DR. And when your average computer gamer thinks of an online computer game, they don’t think of a game like DR either. They are thinking about games like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy. If they are a little older, they may even think about games like Ultima Online or Everquest. They certainly don’t think about DragonRealms. And here’s why:

DR is a MUD (multi-user dungeon) with no graphics, so it’s no wonder that today’s gamers probably don’t even know games like this still exist. But they should. Those games they play today and will end up playing tomorrow owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Simultronics and similar companies for games like DragonRealms. They were the precursors to the mega-blockbusters from Blizzard and Origin and Sony and all the rest. Aging gamer-geeks like myself can track advances in technology and graphics through online worlds the way a US Marshall tracks a fugitive:

Federation > Modus Operandi > Gemstone > DragonRealms > EverQuest > Asheron’s Call > Dark Age of Camelot > Anarchy Online > Star Wars Galaxies > EverQuest 2 > World of Warcraft

That list dates back some fifteen years or more. Back then, Federation, Gemstone, and DR were all on AOL and $400.00+ phone bills were commonplace because AOL charged by the hour (which eventually led to DR moving off AOL). I skipped over, of course, all the games I kept going back to while “transitioning” between games. EQ I returned to a couple times. AO as well, because they have (had?) a free version. Even WoW I went back to for a bit, although I have recently abandoned it yet again. DR though, I returned to time and time again. In between almost every change in games I returned to the first game that really and truly sucked me in.

And now I am back again. Usually I just reactivate my old account and pick up where I left off. But it’s probably been 10 years since I last played (hell, I didn’t even know if it was still around!) so this time I fired up a new character on a free, 30 day trial account. I figured there must have been a ton of changes (I was right) that would confuse me and send me packing by the end of the first week (I was wrong). By the end of my first play session, I was remembering all the reasons I got so hooked on the game 15 years ago.

First and foremost, I said it back in the 1900′s (ok, I’ve been waiting for 10 years to say that) and I believe it still holds true today, the various systems incorporated into DR are, without a doubt, the most complex systems available in gaming. Combat, magic, healing, weather, tradeskills, commerce, justice, character advancement, it just doesn’t matter. No graphic-based MMO can touch not only how each individual system works, but how they all work together. The mechanics of these systems are what brought me back this time. I can crunch numbers and try to determine the most effective way to increase my skills and “circles” (they have circles in DR as opposed to levels), or I can just go off exploring, sneaking through the woods, searching for wood to make a new bow or herbs to heal wounds. Either way, the skills I use all contribute to my “advancement” through the ranks because so many of them are connected to various systems. Perhaps most importantly (in my mind, anyway), character advancement is skill based (you need to raise your skills in order to raise your “circle”), as opposed to games like EQ and WoW which are experience/level based (you need to raise your level in order to raise your skill). In theory (and I’m sure that after 15+ years someone has done or at least tried this) you could never join a guild (e.g. declare your class… ranger, barbarian, thief, etc) and stay a commoner, thus never actually gain a single “circle” while maxing out several skills.

But while the systems are what brought me back, they’re not what may end up getting me hooked all over again. You see, I have thrown away the spreadsheet I started to track my progress (see? Spreadsheet = Gamer-geek). I hadn’t travelled more than 3 or 4 steps my first day in game, and I had another player come up and ask if I was lost. Not five minutes in game, and already I was roleplaying. I had my character sketched out before-hand… made his name similar to what my old character’s was in the event I saw anyone who might recognize it from the old days (no one has). She took me to a little courtyard where we sat and chatted about stories “my father told me” and how I was looking for him because he disappeared on his way home from the Gorbesh Wars (a huge, GM run event a long time ago that lasted… gads weeks I think). She introduced me to a couple of her friends, and we all spoke “in character” for over an hour. They gave me some advice on where I might find “my father” and even told me of some others who might actually remember him, though they are probably off in another part of the world my little character has no business even trying to get to.

That moment, and others like it, are the reasons I just may stay longer than the 30 day free trial. They are inherently creative and must share the spotlight with the game systems. They are what set DR apart from graphical MMO’s like WoW and EQ that force acceptance of someone else’s vision through animation and illustration. Yes, AO and Fallen Earth are stunning to look at, but it’s still someone else’s vision, someone else’s imagination. And the fact that there are people left here on the net that enjoy using their creativity and imagination is alluring. It’s not about owning the biggest, baddest house (which you can) or the most deadly bow in the game (player made). It’s not about maxing out your circles (currently… 90 I think? Not sure). Or, at least it’s not only about those things. It can be, I suppose, if that’s your thing. But the DR staff, which, at one point long ago I really wanted to be a part of, has taken great care to foster their little community, and it has paid off with a user base that, even 10 years ago, for the most part polices itself and maintains a roleplay environment.

Will I keep on going after my free month is up? I still have 2 weeks to decide, but I just might. At $15.00 a month, it’s a bit steep for a part-time teacher. Then again, I can’t even go to a 90 minute movie for $15 anymore, so who knows. I’m having a blast, though, and am very happy that DragonRealms is still around and kicking in an industry so overwhelmed by over-simplified eye-candy.

Title: Mistborn: The Well of Ascension
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Tor
Date Published: 2007
Pages (Hardcover): 590

First Line: I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted.

After plowing through Mistborn: The Final Empire, the fist book in Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, I couldn’t wait to get started on The Well of Ascension. That first book was fresh and exciting. It moved and flowed, constantly building momentum until the inevitable showdown. Indeed, the pacing was, perhaps, the single most accomplished aspect of the novel, and it hid, or lessened the impact of, some of the flaws. Characterization in particular, I think, is something that Sanderson wrestled with in the fist book, but his accomplished sense of urgency throughout the novel didn’t really give me time to worry about it too much.

Not so with The Well of Ascension.

The biggest issue for me was that this second book seemed… unfocused. The Final Empire had, if I recall, just two point-of-view characters: Vin and Kelsier. In TWoA, there are at least 6 (although I am sure to be forgetting someone), and while I didn’t have problems following their individual storylines, much of the cohesiveness of The Final Empire was lost. I was probably close to 200 pages in before I felt as if things were finally starting to come together. Some writers can pull off this kind of expansive, epic-style storytelling (George R.R. Martin leaps to mind), but Sanderson fell a bit short of the mark, I think.

Part of the problem is that this is a very, very different style of book than TFE. It is much broader in scope, and the narrative voice, unlike TFE, is focused not just on the crew from the first book, but also on their adversaries. Gone is the wonderful sense of not knowing what is going on with the crew’s primary targets. There is still mystery, to be sure, but because we are allowed inside the heads of characters on both sides of the conflict, it seems as though it is information the author is intentionally withholding, especially, for example, when the point of view character makes only vague references to the hidden secret only he knows… even when thinking to himself.

It’s important to point out, however, that even though I think Sanderson wrestles with characterization, something I specifically pointed out in The Final Empire write up, here in TWoA it is much, much stronger. Vin, especially, I found quite compelling this time around, especially in the scenes with OreSuer. There were moments that were quite touching, and the forging of that friendship takes on a new, special meaning in the final chapters. It was good to see Sanderson really let go and let us see a softer, unguarded side of Vin. Even though I figured out (guessed? whatever) “the big secret” long before it was revealed, I think that actually made those moments even more effective (and I wonder if we were supposed to figure it out before the characters in the book because of that).

Finally, The Well of Ascension is most definitely the middle novel in a trilogy. It even ends on a cliffhanger! Oh, the conflicts and storylines are all resolved, but there is absolutely a rather dissatisfied feeling when that final page is turned and a whole new problem is looming just beyond the printed page. Additionally, don’t make the mistake of reading this book before The Final Empire. It may take place a year after book 1 ends, but the majority of the novel not only references what has come before, but depends upon it. And the third book will, I imagine, be completely dependent on this one. I’ll let you know when I get there.