Yamato

Hmm. I really, really wanted to like these books, since I want to support all self published authors as much as I can, but this book just grated on me for some reason. Probably that the chracter voices didn't differentiate that much. It felt like the author wasn't shifting his writing style when writing different characters. All plot issues usually go over my head until I read a book the second time, which explains why I don't remember them here.

MIIIINNNNNEECRRRAAAFTTTTT!!! I havent played for a while, might pop in sometime.

Fot some vaguely strange reason, I cannot stop playing Lego LOTR co-op with my brother. There's just something so funny about hearing Gandalf's voice come out of a lego person. Plus, Gimli and Legolas have even MORE of a bromance in this game. (It's based off the movie, not the book) Really pleasantly surprised with the Halo 4 Community Forge test Playlist too. Some really great maps.

I'm rererererererere-reading Wheel of Time. Just astounding how much beter it gets every time. I actually understand stuff now!

Hmm. I really agree with you on most of the points here. I personally think that immersion comes form consistency, as much for the reader as the writer. The characters must be consistent for the world, the world must be consistent for the world and the characters must be consistent for the characters. In my opinion, world consistency is more important, I can kind of forgive characters sounding like modern people, because it's easier to identify with, and hard not to do. Of course, this is only one vastly important part of writing, a consistent book with cruddy characters and a terrible world will always suck, but for me, I have never loved a (fiction) book that was not consistent as much as one that was. That doesn't mean that I dont like books that are not consistent, it just breaks the immersion for me. EDIT: HM looking back, this seems rather obvious... what I meant was it all has to mesh. The second thing is behind the scenes stuff. One of the reason I love huge epicifyingly awesome doorstopper fantasy is because the behind the scenes stuff makes it feel like a real world. Books that feature the plot too heavily over the world are cool, but they make the world feel like a construct, which is never good for me. Sure, the plot can pull you in, but for me at least the world is what makes me feel like the author has crafted something important, or created a world in the pages. With a plot overmuch based book, it can be an awesome book, with a well constructed world and things happening behind the scenes is what gives the book a sense of magic, and a sense of reality. One of the reason I like Mistborn so much is that it focuses on plot, but also features a superb world that has tons of stuff going on if you really look. (This is all my opinion. I may have stated it a little to much like it was fact.)

How long was the book, Reader? I'm hoping not Way of kings, otherwise you are a new species that will dominate us puny humans with your speedy excellence.

That's a very interesting point Straff, I totally agree with you. Didn't mean to sound argumentative. My parents named me what they did through a process of elimination, so no real meaning there. Zenith, I didn't mean 6000 as a specific date, I was just saying it to mean a long time ago. Still awesome that you know that though.

Straff, what I mean is, probably 6000 years ago, all of our names probably had meaning. Tribes named things to have real meanings, right? Correct me if i'm horribly wrong. Observer, it sounds like it would be awesome if it worked. Same kind of idea as not telling your kid their gender so they don't grow into stupid gender roles.

Our original names probably had more meaning initially; when names are first created they have more meaning, since you can always remember the reason for naming it what you named it. Even if the name is random, you still have the reason for the juxtaposition of syllables used to create it, or the fact that you know it is random..

I have a weird story about this. First of all, I am s SUPER japanese obsessive, so I knew I wanted a Japanese term. I love the game Okami, a japanese mythology videogame, so I also wanted something from that. (my picture portrait is from Okami). In Okami, there is a place called the Ark of Yamato. I looked up the meaning of Yamato, and figured out that it stood for 4 things: a battleship in WW2, a sense of "japaneseness", the name of Japan before the year 672, and the province in ancient Japan where then imperial family first came from. Naturally, having figured out that this was the ULTIMATE term of japaneseifosity, I was obliged by my own obsessiveness to choose Yamato for my username.

I have the power to eat vast quantities of food without getting fat. Also, the power to randomly spout vast quantities of information that is completely irrelevant to the topic at hand.

I read it in the store, then bought it just to have. I just couldn't wait until I was at home, since my parents left me there for an hour, but I wanted a copy anyway.

I just read it today in my local Barnes and Noble, and I was very impressed. I love asian stuff, so the really cool cultural things were the highlight for me. TONS of easter eggs for the Cosmere aware, everything from country shape in magic, actual descriptions of Realmatic theory, The Imperial fool, and those rocks that fell from the sky. Some really cool anecdotes on art and the ethics of magic, loved that. Forging is absolutely brilliant. I read the acknowledgments, and it seems like Brandon really did get the idea from ancient Chinese stamps, just like I thought. The one piece of art in it was beautiful, the symbols in the top looked like chinese characters do when used on a stamp. Just a thought, are MaiPon and Jindo like China and Korea? It's interesting to get some tantalizing details about the larger cultural world. Maybe the Tull... something are like the Japanese? Strong warriors in a harsh culture? Or maybe i'm just extrapolating because i'm trying to fit Japan into this, just like usual. Anyway, I am a little peeved that this isn't longer. FAR more interesting than Elantris in my opinion, and I liked Elantris. I'd absolutely love some travel in the Elantris sequels. , Anyway, If Mistborn is 47/50 and Elantris is 40/50, this is 42/50. I hate novellas, because their too short, so a score this high from me is really quite amazing. I might have liked it as much as Mistborn if it had been a full size book. Kudos to Brandon for making me like Sel 500 times better.

Well, They also use chemicals, and not all of the companies use paper from legitimate companies, paper is obtained from illegal loggers and companies who disregard the environment. It's impossible to tell which is worse, so I use some of both, since I don't want to stop reading.