Tag: the stormlight archive

News round-up

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book news round-up
Hello people! I hope you’re all well.
This week, I found out about some book news/updates that I’m excited about and I just have to post them here! I also got some news regarding my blog so stay tuned for that too.

Book News & Updates

First of all, The Stormlight Archive update. It’s not exactly news, but an excerpt has appeared in the wild. During his Shadows of Self tour, Brandon Sanderson has graciously read a part of an ongoing Dalinar chapter in Book #3 of The Stormlight Archive. It offered us a view of younger, more bolsterous Dalinar, hungered for the Thrill, and very very good at battle. Read it or hear Brandon read it to you here. Anyhow, Book #3-currently titled “Oathbringer”-should be released some time in 2016 even though I need to read it now.

Another thing I’ve learned about this week was “A Gathering of Shadows” Fanart Contest. You can send in fanart in form of painting, drawing, sculpture, or even cosplaying. What’s the prize you ask? Why, it’s only a SIGNED ARC of A Gathering of Shadows, among other wonderful things. Unfortunately for me, it’s only open to US and Canada residents (not like I’m going to win anyway). Learn more about the contest here. A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab will be out on February 23, 2016.

Speaking of wonderful things, the lovely Cassie Clare has announced that the first book in The Dark Artifices, Lady Midnight, will have special first edition. These first edition books will have stamped rune on the first page and an exclusive short story about the characters from TMI and TFTSA. Lady Midnight’s release date is currently set for March 8, 2016.

Blog Updates

Because of I am so excited for A Gathering of Shadows, I have decided to re-read A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. It is one of my favorite books in 2015 and since I never gave it proper review, I will instead do a weekly re-read post on my blog. I am thinking to do it by part and there are 14 parts in ADSOM which means I will have finished it on the first week of February (just in time for the second book!). I am going to post a short summary and a short (or long) commentary rambling about each part starting next week.

You are very welcome if you want to join me reading A Darker Shade of Magic. I promise not to post spoiler for future chapters so you can join in even if it’s your first time reading the book.

I will be posting my pick for November releases and TBR tomorrow. See you!

8 Reasons Why You Need to Read Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive

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I was writing a review for The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, an epic fantasy series set in the world of Roshar. Three paragraphs in, I realized that I was just raving about how great it was, so I decided to make that list of awesomeness instead.

1. The characters.
Sanderson has a knack to create characters you would not only root for, but also love or hate passionately. And it’s not limited to the main characters. In fact, many people, including me, have secondary character as their favourite.

2. The number of pages.
If the earlier books in Game of Thrones series felt too short for you, or if you’re unfazed by the number of pages in the whole Lord of The Rings series, good news! Each book in this series (there are two books out so far) has over 1000 pages. ONE THOUSANDS. Even better news? There’ll be 10 books in the overall series, which means we could expect over 10.000 pages of awesomeness. *cries tears of joy*

But, if the number of pages seem scary to you, please do not let it stop you. You wouldn’t even realize that you’ve read that much, it’s THAT good.

3. The secret. The revelation.
Sanderson drops secret on you casually. Fall asleep on one paragraph and you might miss it until you encounter it again 500 pages later. Casual, sneaky revelations that blew people minds were revealed passingly. Good news is there are many of those. Good luck spotting all of them.

4. The theories.
How do fabrials work? How does one bond with a shardblade? If you like discussing theories and plot twists, you’re in luck. There are many Sanderson fans out there, and they even have an online forum where you can discuss plot twists and characters, and found answers to many of your questions. And believe me, you’ll have many of those when you finished reading the first two books.

5. The rating on goodreads.
I don’t know about you, but I tend to trust my fellow goodreads-er (goodreader? goodreadser?). Currently, the first book is sitting comfortably sipping wine on its shelf with 4.61 stars rating from over 100.000 votes, while the second one is a 4.76 star book from over 60.000 ratings. Sure, not all the reviews are positive, as in all things in life.

6. The multiple POVs.
Multiple POVs is definitely not a new thing, but rarely it’s executed as well as in this series. Besides the main characters, you also get interludes from other characters’ POVs. It’s said that these interludes provide introduction to characters that will play major roles in upcoming books.

7. The flashbacks.
In the beginning of every chapter, Brandon inserted a short paragraph which acts as citation from references in the series. Through these citations, you could learn a lot of things not mentioned in the main story, such as the different types of knights radiant (if you’re not interested to know about this, it’s because you haven’t read the book *winks*)

8. R.A.F.O.
a.k.a Read and Find Out
RAFO

On the other hand, I must warn you. The first couple of chapters might daunt you. There are so many new terms you have no idea of and these are just mentioned passingly without any explanation. My suggestion: keep calm and read on, you’ll understand these in time (or not. I still haven’t understood much of it, but it doesn’t make the series any less awesome).