I first picked up the novella Legion when it was offered free as an audiobook a few months ago. Unfortunately I soon found that my mp3 player didn’t handle audiobooks, so I owned a book I couldn’t read. But now that I have an mp3 player that will, I decided it was time to dust off the file [...]

Continue reading about Book Review: Legion, by Brandon Sanderson

I’ve been hearing about The Wheel of Time for quite some time now (no pun intended). I’ve always been put off by both the size of the individual volumes and the number of books in the series. But as audiobooks they’re a bargain! Nearly a full month of drive-time entertainment! So when I signed up for [...]

Continue reading about Book Review: The Wheel of Time – The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan

I picked this book up largely as an impulse buy while attending a large authors-signing event at our local Barnes & Noble. The author made it sound interesting. A couple month later we finally got around to reading it (Sorry, but Brandon Mull’s “Beyonders” series came first). I read it aloud to my kids, and [...]

Continue reading about Book Review: The False Prince, by Jennifer A. Nielsen

David Farland, aka David Wolverton, has been making a living as a writer and writing consultant for quite a few years now. Here in Utah he’s best known as a teacher, having taught creative writing at BYU for years, and frequently offering workshops, both for money and for free. This book is a distillation of [...]

Continue reading about Book Review: Million Dollar Outlines, by David Farland

For my kids and I, this was the most highly-anticipated book of 2013. We weren’t disappointed. Brandon Mull has written not just one of the best mid-grade fantasy books I’ve read, but one of the best fantasy books I’ve read, period. The series has been fantastic, as I’ve mentioned before. In Lord Maldor, Mull has [...]

Continue reading about Book Review: Beyonders – Chasing the Prophecy, by Brandon Mull

I’ve been debating whether to say anything or not about books I abandon rather than finish. It makes sense to review a book I completed. I’m not so sure it’s kind or fair to review one I didn’t. But I ultimately decided that, should I ever get any kind of following from authors or would-be [...]

Continue reading about Abandoned: The Dervish House, by Ian McDonald

I’ve been wanting to read this book for awhile now, though at the same time I’ve been a little hesitant. The novel is by Brandon Sanderson, whose podcast Writing Excuses I’ve really enjoyed. Sanderson is a fairly good teacher, and I’ve learned much from listening to him. But when it comes to his books I’ve [...]

Continue reading about Book Review: Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson

I watched a fascinating documentary last night. I’m not normally a documentary-watcher, though I suspect if I were ever to sign up for cable and get the History Channel I’d probably not surface for several weeks at least. I’m a sponge when it comes to history and learning in general. But I can’t say I [...]

Continue reading about Documentary Review: Reclaiming the Blade

My brother loaned me this book to read a few months ago. I’d hoped to like it more, but truth is it took me a while to get through it because it just didn’t keep me engaged. This seems to me to be more of a concept novel that had a plot added in later [...]

Continue reading about Book Review: Voyage From Yesteryear, by James P. Hogan

I know Brandon Mull is supposedly a writer of children’s books, but this is far from what most people think of when they hear the term “children’s books”. Not that there is anything unfit for children (okay, the worm zombies are a bit creepy), it’s just that this is not a simple book. The plot [...]

Continue reading about Book Review: Beyonders – Seeds of Rebellion, by Brandon Mull