Poll

What is your favourite book ?

Mistborn: The Final Empire
16 (23.5%)
Mistborn: The Well of Ascension
7 (10.3%)
Mistborn: The Hero of Ages
19 (27.9%)
Elantris
7 (10.3%)
Warbreaker
17 (25%)
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians
2 (2.9%)
Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 68

Author Topic: Favourite book  (Read 12105 times)

Chaos

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #30 on: September 07, 2009, 04:22:41 AM »
Am i the only one who's favorite characters in Mistborn are Vin and Spook? The first book was the best but it was much more than Kel the whole thing of thieves being heroes was awesome! Elantris is 2nd, then HoA then WoA.

Oh, Vin was great. I love her. Spook is awesome, too.

But for me, top honors goes to Elend ;)
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Curious

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #31 on: September 07, 2009, 05:57:20 AM »
I personally think Elend was too much of a fool when it came to his mistakes in book 2, but he was quite interesting in book 1 when he'd sit with Vin and read. I loved his development of leadership skills, but Tindwyl dying sucked. I liked Sazed but I couldn't completely relate to him. Vin was so special because she was good at everything and she was like a cat: independent, solitary, quick on her feet, wary, smart... Out of all the Mr S books, I'd have to be unoriginal and say that Lightsong was my favorite, but I really, really liked Sarene too, and if I'm not mistaken, she's supposedly the least favorite of the three main characters in Elantris.

I'm not normally a romance person--it's always good as a side-plot but never as the main plot--but the epitome of good character development is when you can trick the reader into falling in love with both characters who fall in love with each other, and Mr S has frustratingly done this to me with every book and it just melts me. Siri coming to realize that Susebron wasn't as evil as the priests had painted him to be and her befriending of him, and eventually her falling for him, was one of the most magical stories I've ever bought into. Mr S said he wrote Warbreaker during a very happy time in his life (when he got married to Ms S) and I really think that feeling sank heavily into that one work.
« Last Edit: September 21, 2009, 02:28:31 AM by Curious »

tipbruley

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #32 on: September 11, 2009, 06:37:21 AM »
For me the best book has to be WoA.

**Spoilers**

I actually started off disliking the book. I thought the internal conflict was drawn out. It reminded me of the second book of the twilight series (my wife and I decided to do a book series swap-don't judge   ;)  ) in the fact that the same emotions were drilled to the reader throughout the whole book. I understood that Vin was having some doubts about her relationship with Elend and the crew, I do not think that Zane needed to come in every couple chapters to take Vin back to square one in her character development.

That all changed in the end. Finding out that Ruin had been changing the prophecies to guide the people to believe that the hero needed to give up the power was the best plot twist I have read. The fact that there was some evil god slowly manipulating . I was actually creeped out by this plot development (the first time I have been creeped out while reading).

The complete misdirection of the book becomes obvious. Vin, Elend, and the reader were caught up in the politics of the time that we were completely forgetful of the true danger that the world faced (ignorance in this case). Only Sazed tried to figure out what truly happened, and what he should do, but you realize that he is being manipulated by Ruin as well.

I also loved the sacrifice that Vin had to make. Usually, when a main character is at Death's door, you just know that somehow they are going to be saved. When a character has to make a choice between someone they love and the greater good somehow they work around to have both happen. However, when Vin gave up the power, I in all legitimacy believed that Elend was going to die. When I read the line with Vin's thoughts that she was going to respect Elend's wishes by letting him die, I thought BS was letting us know and justifying Vin's sacrifice . When Elend was saved, I was truly suprised

Skywalkered

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #33 on: September 23, 2009, 11:28:41 PM »
I liked Warbreaker the best. I love the Mistborn Trilogy but for some reason Warbreak struck home with me. There was a good mix of humor, romance, character development, action, mystery, and Brandons ever present twists. He had an amazing cast of characters too. Vivenna was very vivid to me, and Lightsong was the most humorous character i have ever read. Vasher of course takes the cake. he reminds me a little of Dustfinger in Inkheart. i loved the magic system as well. Allomancy was a great concept but it was, in a way, simple to grasp. Brandon started off little. In Warbreaker he made it more complicated, more complex. I can't wait to see his next magic system, most likely bigger and better (and more complex) then the last.
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Patriotic Kaz

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #34 on: September 24, 2009, 03:48:57 AM »
More complex? Warbreaker had the most simplistic magic system of all the worlds put forth so far. You give life to the inanimite by use of breath and colour....how is that complicated? Allomancy and Aeon Dor are exact sciences Awakening is approximation.
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Troubadour

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #35 on: September 24, 2009, 04:20:02 AM »
Well, you've gone and drawn a lurker out of hiding. Well played.

It was HoA that got my vote in the end, with Warbreaker following a close second. Just the sheer scale on which Sanderson operates is itself amazing, but the way everything hinted at in the past two books comes in to play -- Reen and God's voices are revealed to be Ruin's, the mists themselves are Preservation's body (which, by the way, I thought contrasted very nicely with Ruin's smoke-body), even something as innocuous as Vin's earring -- is masterfully done. I'm a sucker for seeing loose ends get wrapped up well.

happyman

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #36 on: September 24, 2009, 02:13:43 PM »
More complex? Warbreaker had the most simplistic magic system of all the worlds put forth so far. You give life to the inanimite by use of breath and colour....how is that complicated? Allomancy and Aeon Dor are exact sciences Awakening is approximation.

That description of Awakening only really applies to one of the four types of awakened objects.  There are apparently many more methods and tricks available!  The simple fact is that of all the systems, we know the least about awakening, but it is pretty clear that, given the number of questions about the Returned and Nightblood, as well as the complexity of commands, Awakening is not simplistic.  In fact, I feel that it really is more complex than Allomancy, at the very least, although perhaps less complex (or maybe simply less-understood in-world) than Aon-Dor.
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Patriotic Kaz

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #37 on: September 24, 2009, 03:11:50 PM »
Both Aeon Dor and Allomancy are based off the laws of physics....and because of the complexity of physics i see them as much more detailed magic systems than Awakening
"Words are double edged blades. Only the great and the foolish play with knives." - Kaz the Buddah

"Take off your sandals, for you are posting on holy ground." -  Yahweh Kaz

"Chaos, go to your room!" - Momma Kaz

happyman

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #38 on: September 25, 2009, 04:25:40 AM »
Both Aeon Dor and Allomancy are based off the laws of physics....and because of the complexity of physics i see them as much more detailed magic systems than Awakening

If Aon Dor and Allomancy are based off the laws of physics, then Awakening is based off the laws of biology.  I'll give you two guesses as to which of those two fields is actually more complex, and you can't choose physics, 'cause that's not it.  That's something I can state with absolute certainty.
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Aranfan

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #39 on: September 25, 2009, 02:39:07 PM »
Actually, Biology is a subset of Chemistry which is a subset of Electromagnetics which is a subset of physics.  It's just that doing chemistry or biology from first physical principles would require so many calculations that even our greatest supercomputers would have trouble with even the most basic problems.

Patriotic Kaz

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #40 on: September 25, 2009, 05:39:11 PM »
Biology- study of life
Chemistry- study of composition of things
Physics- study of the laws that govern the universe

Biology is a specific field based off of chem which in turn is a field based off of physics so my argument stands.
"Words are double edged blades. Only the great and the foolish play with knives." - Kaz the Buddah

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #41 on: September 25, 2009, 05:45:14 PM »
Hooray for pointless bickering over semantics!
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Patriotic Kaz

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #42 on: September 25, 2009, 06:11:31 PM »
If you weren't recovering i would invite you to join in!
"Words are double edged blades. Only the great and the foolish play with knives." - Kaz the Buddah

"Take off your sandals, for you are posting on holy ground." -  Yahweh Kaz

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happyman

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #43 on: September 25, 2009, 07:36:05 PM »
Biology- study of life
Chemistry- study of composition of things
Physics- study of the laws that govern the universe

Biology is a specific field based off of chem which in turn is a field based off of physics so my argument stands.

I would argue that the opposite is true.  The more things that interact in order to produce the macroscopic laws that we see, the more complex it is and the more rich the resulting behavior.  The fact that biology is (technically) derived from physics through two (roughly) intervening layers gives it a richness that raw physics cannot achieve, and introduces much more subtlety, not to mention allowing more exceptions to the strictly heuristic laws found.  Thus I would expect awakening (which imitates life) to be much more subtle than Allomancy, certainly, and possibly Aon Dor as well.
Nature hates being reified.

Patriotic Kaz

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Re: Favourite book
« Reply #44 on: September 26, 2009, 04:50:04 AM »
Buffalo Feathers!!! Physics can explain any phenomna that occurs in the natural world...breathing, blood circulation, whatnot. The problem that arrises is that by using something overly complex to explain a basic principle is that it becomes cumbersome, thus the birth of the other sciences. Basic Biology and Chemistry are cake walk classes Physics kicked me around...it ended up alright, but it kicked me around.
"Words are double edged blades. Only the great and the foolish play with knives." - Kaz the Buddah

"Take off your sandals, for you are posting on holy ground." -  Yahweh Kaz

"Chaos, go to your room!" - Momma Kaz