Micro Mention "The Halfling's Gem"

 

I know—I know, high-minded ideals dictate that schadenfreude isn't laudable, and after all, it was precisely that impulse that makes Pasha Pook in "The Halfling's Gem" by R.A. Salvatore so odious. But still, when he got what was coming to him…

Well, let's just say this book has a very satisfying conclusion for a story where the heroes are on their heels for most of the narrative.

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Author's Website: http://rasalvatore.com/

"Talia Heir to the Fairy Realm" by Joel C. Flanagan-Grannemann--Fiction Review

Today Obscurists, we’re going on a magical journey with some fairies—through enchanting vistas and sublime locales. Oh, and there will be blood, murder, betrayal, and mayhem in this fantasy novel about statecraft in “Talia Heir to the Fairy Realm” by Joel C. Flanagan-Grannemann. 

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

At first, I thought this book would primarily be about Talia’s affair with the human prince, Bastile, but it turns out that event is really just inciting action, which surprised me. I liked that the book surprised me, especially because the outsider’s perspective looking into the fairy realm would have been a far easier way to do world-building. But the book is called “Talia Heir to the Fairy Realm” and not “Bastile,” so I appreciate that Flanagan-Grannemann stuck to his guns.

The whole story reads like mythic fiction like “Jason and the Argonauts” or the “Odyssey,” but with fairies, and frankly, in terms of numbers, Talia is much better at keeping her people alive than old Odysseus. What I’m driving at is Flanagan-Grannemann’s story has an episodic quality that I enjoyed regarding Talia and her ladies’ adventures. 

Flanagan-Grannemann manages a large number of protagonists as well or better than anyone else I’ve read. There are 19 fairies in Talia’s traveling group, and it was genuinely amazing, to me at least, that he managed to give most of them their time in the sun with their own little backstories.

What I don’t love about this book:

It’s a long book that still somehow manages to end feeling like it’s in the middle. I get it is part of a series, and there is a bit of a cliffhanger ending, but I expected some of the sub-plots to have seen some resolution as opposed to nearly none of them.

There is also the equivalent of a fairy Auschwitz in this story which was distressing to discover. I assumed that when the characters were visiting this particular location, there would be some sort of moral lesson—you know, other than rape and systematic murder are terrible. I’m not putting this observation here because I dislike per se that Flanagan-Grannemann would discuss such topics in a fantasy story. I think that any topic can be examined within the scope of fiction. It’s here because I’m horrified by the idea of forced labor or concentration-like camps, which is, I believe, the intended effect.

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Author’s Website: https://servantsofthemoonandsun.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

Talia, and the fairy court at large, are hosting a contingent of humans led by the human prince, Bastile. There has been a war before between the fairy and human realms, so tensions are high during these diplomatic visits. Despite the apparent strain, Talia manages to forge a connection with Bastile and rapidly falls in love with him.

"Assault on Devil's Den" by Eric Balch--Fiction Review

We’re on a road trip to hell today, Obscurists—or, well, hell adjacent. In any case, today’s book is Eric Balch’s “Assault on Devil’s Den,” a sword and sorcery hack and slash fantasy adventure.

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

This will come as a complete shock, but I’ve been known to play a little Dungeons and Dragons here and there—nearly every week. So, “Assault on Devil’s Den,” which reads exactly like the setup and execution of a D&D campaign, is right up my alley. I love the adventuring, the sword and sorcery aspect, and generally the whole aesthetic. It’s important to note that“Assault on Devil’s Den” is like D&D in many ways, but it isn’t officially a D&D book, and it very much does its own thing with its own lore.

One of the things I really liked about this novel is how Balch dealt with one of the queasier aspects of old D&D, which is how it dealt with race. Spoilers it didn’t do it well. The central problem is in any Dungeons and Dragon’s setting, a lot like Tolkien’s Middle Earth setting, there are various intelligent races other than humans, like elves, dwarves, orcs, and so on. That in itself isn’t bad, but, both in Tolkien’s fantasy world and the game inspired by it, there is also the conceit that there are goodly races and not so goodly races—which is a fictional form of racism. Balch eschews all of that in his novel. There are plenty of trolls, orcs, and goblins who aren’t evil because of genetics. In his fantasy world, whether a person is good or evil depends largely on individual personal character traits, not inherited by race, you know, like the real world. There are even examples of demons who aren’t evil just because they’re born a demon.

Also, as a fan of a good old-fashioned fantasy dust-em-up, that last fight at the end of this book was a real knock-down-drag-out fight that the story had been building the entire novel. After the wait of nearly the whole book, I found it very satisfying.

What I don’t love about this book:

It is exactly like reading a D&D campaign setting. I know, I just praised this, and I pulled a somewhat similar trick in a review recently about another independent author. Part of the problem this time around is how involved Balch gets into his world-building. A story device I’ve become less and less enchanted with the more books I read. Suppose story should be primary, followed then by characterization. In that case, world-building is third in elements—maybe—but when it’s the primary element of a book, you get into odd moments where you know more about things and places in a story than the people going to those places to retrieve those things. 

For instance, a whole aside in this story takes place at a blacksmith’s shop in a town where the heroes buy new equipment. It’s lovingly rendered down to such fine detail of how much the equipment costs, how long it will take to create, the materials used, et cetera, et cetera. How much does this impact the narrative? Very little. The time and words could have been used to develop the characters more through interaction, or maybe we could have got more background on them with insight into why they are who they are. 

The thing that grounded on me the most, though, was the combat dialogue. There are rarely any good conversations during a pitched battle for nearly exactly the same reason there are seldom any good interviews with players immediately post-football game. The same things get said—a lot. Balch’s word is “impressive” or “impressed,” and it happens in nearly every fight scene if not all of them—there are also a lot of “final form(s)” and “you have no chance(s).”

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Author’s Website: https://ericbalch.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

Pelagius, an old adventurer, sits despondently in a tavern with his best friend, a bird person hybrid, and a powerful sorcerer named Bojan. Why Pelagius is despondent is because after a long adventuring career, he fears he’s lost his mojo after freezing up in a fight, and it might be time to hang up the old adventurer cloak. Bojan tries to cheer him up and shake him from his melancholy but what really snaps Pelagius back is the town he and his friend are resting in gets attacked by some notorious soul hunters led by a green-eyed man.

"Aurora's Angel" by Emily Noon--Fiction Review

What a way to start this year off with Indie reviews! “Aurora’s Angel” by Emily Noon is a dark fantasy romance novel that is revelatory. It’s also an LGBTQ+ sort of novel, so it’s nice to see a good book serving an underserved audience.

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

Right from the beginning, this book is intense. There is an escape scene with lots of shooting, and then it shifts quickly into a survival story. Noon leans into the dark descriptor of her fantasy pretty hard, and there is a visceral quality to her combat scenes that is equal parts satisfying and disquieting. That intensity isn’t just present in the fantastic elements of this dark fantasy romance, either. The romance is a real grip you by the heart—claws first sort.

It’s worth mentioning it’s a romance between two women, and if that’s going to be a problem like I said in my review of “The Song of Achilles,” how about—try growing up? Ok? Ok. 

How Noon realizes her principal two characters of Aurora and Evie is sublime. They’re deeply complex women with distinct character voices who have many admirable qualities. But they also have defects and blind spots to their characters that make them feel authentic. It’s effortless to fall into the suspension of disbelief with them and mentally treat their story as if it were happening to a real person that you know. Plus, they make for exciting chemistry in a romance.

There are virtually no introduced elements—no detail so small—that aren’t impactfully used in the plot of this story. Overall the plot is very tightly organized. Story problems are introduced in immediate, short-term, and long-term flavors, and solutions are then rendered at the appropriate times.

A lot of attention to detail was given to the dialogue in this novel—and each conversation shines with that effort. When the characters talk, it feels as natural and intimate as any good conversation I’ve had in my life.

What I don’t love about this book:

So there is something that I call the cotton candy effect—or well, there is now, I now call this the cotton candy effect—and the surmise is simple. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Which yes, I get that I just added an extra layer to a cliché, and this seems like stalling because it is—but there is a lot of talking in this book—like—a lot, a lot. 

I know I just said I like the dialogue in this book, but I wish there was less of it. Let me explain; much like my favorite carnival confection—after funnel cake and deep-fried Oreos—I love cotton candy but only for about a third of the bag, maybe half if I’m going wild. I’m not saying that half of the dialogue could be dropped, that would be too detrimental, but still, it feels like there could have been more streamlining. This isn’t just with the talky bits, either. There are plenty of elaborately detailed meal scenes, too, more than enough. Other elements get overused beyond those examples, but I feel that the point has been made: there is a lot of indulgence in this novel. 

This leads me to the length of this book—for a twenty-hour experience, there are actually very few locations explored by the characters. To use another fantasy author as an example, Noon has a very Brandon Sanderson-Esque meander about her. If you like that quality for its intimacy, then this is great. I, on the other hand, am very much the kind of fantasy story reader that is constantly asking, “Hey, what’s over there? Are we done here now?” 

While the protagonists of this book, and their orbit, are fleshed out with nuanced and sometimes contradictory motivations and backstories—the antagonists are not. They’re all mustache-twirling dickheads. Except for one avian woman, who, lacking a mustache to twirl—an assumption—is given more of a treatment and, while still eighty percent villain, manages to be sympathetic.

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Author’s Website: https://www.emilynoonbooks.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

Aurora discovers a band of black market traders in a mine, known as cutters, that do precisely what they sound like they do. They cut people up and sell their body parts. Well, specifically, they chop up shapeshifters. Aurora, a powerful shapeshifter, has a special hatred for cutters, the details of which are revealed later in the story. Anyway, she exacts some vengeance and frees some captives, including an avian woman named Evie.

"The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss--Fiction Review

Time for some fantasy, Obscurists. This week I’m talking about “The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss, a sweeping heroic fantasy novel, and the first of “The King Killer Chronicle.”

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

If you’re a fan of fantasy worldbuilding, Rothfuss is your guy. “The Name of the Wind” has richly detailed settings, people, cultures, and a rigorous magic system that is all intricately planned out by the author. It also works one of my favorite angles in fantasy: magic as science or technology—there are rules and limitations that are to be discovered, and it isn’t just handwaved.

Rothfuss is also really good at character voice, and his characters, like the world they inhabit, are well designed—on the protagonist side of things and also with the more neutral characters. I can’t say there was ever a character in this story that I thought was poorly conceived. The antagonists are certainly scary but scary the way lightning is when you’re out in a storm and not under any cover.

There are big exciting action sequences at the beginning of the book and the end that were a lot of fun. They act as tent poles on either side of the story. There are conflicts in between but smaller in magnitude.

The musical angle in this book is something I have always admired in books when they’re pulled off well. I think it’s because I can read music and hold a tune, but I’m still a pretty dreadful musician. I was a clarinetist of middling natural skill in school, coupled with an appalling lack of motivation—but that never stopped me from admiring people of great talent and dedication to music. I just wish I was better in that regard. Anyway, through his main character, Rothfuss injects so much passion for music that it’s arresting in a wondrous way and creates a whole new dimension to this guy.

What I don’t love about this book:

So I’ve been hedging on whether or not to write a review of this book. It’s one of those big fantasy books that I’ve been told by multiple people that it is their absolute favorite book, and I should totally read it and love it like them. I thought it was ok. It’s really long, and the framing story is actually the story I’m more interested in, which robbed a lot of my enthusiasm for the actual main story. 

Kvothe, other than persistent poverty, is also a bit of a male Mary Sue. He’s inexplicably naturally talented at anything he decides to take up. This doesn’t make him immune to mistakes, which is why I qualified “a bit of,” but he always tends to be leaps and bounds better than he ought to be at his age, regardless of the task. His most significant character flaw seems to be his arrogance, but I’d be arrogant too if I were a master swordsman/magician/musician/scholar/adventurer.

The worldbuilding, like I said before, is excellent. You can easily tell that Rothfuss has spent a lot of time thinking about and intricately planning out how his fantasy world looks, feels, and operates. I wish there was a bit more of that planning evident in the plot. I say this because “The Name of the Wind” is actually several subsequent stories that just sprawl and spread out, taking a while to focus in on what’s happening next in the story.

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Author's Website: https://www.patrickrothfuss.com/content/index.asp

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

The story starts with a frame story, set in a typical small fantasy farm town and centered on the local tavern and its keeper—a man named Kote. Early on, the villagers and a traveling scribe called Chronicler are threatened by giant demon-like spiders. Chronicler is only saved by the mysterious Kote, who Chronicler correctly deduces isn’t just a simple tavern owner but the legendary figure named Kvothe, who has gone into hiding since the whole King killing business he was involved with apparently.

Micro Mention "The Name of the Wind"

“The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss was recommended to me thusly, need a gritty fantasy story to fill that “Game of Thrones” hole in your heart? Upon finishing this book, I feel this first novel is like a fusion of “Game of Thrones” and a gritty version of Harry Potter.

This is one of those books that I wanted to love more than I actually did. It's a great story, and I get why people love this book. It just didn't resonate with me. It certainly had the scope of some of my favorite epic fantasy stories. Still, as one long origin story for its protagonist Kvothe, it often feels directionless, like a series of short stories where you're not certain where any of this is going—rather than a novel.

The listless feeling I got reading this book wasn't helped by the fact that interesting and exciting things are afoot in the frame story. There are monsters about, and this mysterious tavern owner, who is more than he seems, knows about them, but then we leave that story for that tavern owner to tell his literal life story to a scribe. And as interesting as that life story can be, I kept thinking, yeah, but what about the demon spidery things?

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Author's Website: https://www.patrickrothfuss.com/content/index.asp

Micro Mention "Crooked Kingdom"

"Crooked Kingdom" by Leigh Bardugo is a fantastic sequel to "Six of Crows" everything I loved about the first, and more. It's also single-handedly made reconsider the duology as being just as valid as the more traditional trilogy.

Without having to establish the core six protagonists again, Bardugo is freed up in this book to hit the ground running through the streets of her fictional city of Ketterdam, which is probably my favorite location in her stories. "Crooked Kingdom" isn't just another heist story but an all-out shadow war between thieves, merchants, assassins, nations, and most of all—Grisha.

I wrote a full review of this novel: HERE

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Author's Website: https://www.leighbardugo.com/

Micro Mention "The Six and the Crystals of Ialana"

“The Six and the Crystals of Ialana” by Katlynn Brooke is one of those epic fantasy books targeting a YA audience where a band of scrappy teenagers uses the power of friendship to fight an evil tyrant. That aside, it also has some interesting world-building ideas too.

I call it YA, but I feel like that other than a few PG-13 moments of fantasy violence, it's a great book for the niche of working as a bridge between middle-grade readers transitioning to young adult readers. If you want my full review you can get it here.

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Author's Website: https://katlynnbrooke.com/

"Crooked Kingdom," by Leigh Bardugo--Fiction Review

So for this review, Obscurists, we’re returning to Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse in her dark epic fantasy “Crooked Kingdom.” Characters from which will be featured in a new Netflix show “Shadow and Bone” coming out this April.  

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

Sometimes sequels don’t quite match up to the first story, like “Ghostbusters 2,” for example. In trying to recapture the original’s magic, they end up telling the first story again, but slightly different. That is emphatically not the case with “Crooked Kingdom,” which, in my opinion, addresses all of my minor issues with “Six of Crows” and tells a whole new story. Again—in my opinion—it is a far superior book to its predecessor.

I felt that the city of Ketterdam is a far better setting than the Ice Court and was thrilled that this is where all the action of this story takes place. Ketterdam has all the intrigue and political machinations on both sides of the law. It’s a dynamic place, a melting pot of a variety of peoples created by Bardugo. Whereas the Ice Court, in Fjerda, certainly had a lot of ice—that—and blonde-haired blue-eyed barbarians. As a blonde-haired, green-eyed barbarian, meself, I know these people already, I’d rather hang out in Ketterdam.

“Crooked Kingdom” turned me around on Wylan and Jesper’s relationship. In the first book, I felt it was tacked on, but in this, I thought it might have been the healthiest romantic subplot of the bunch. This further development of the characters was really done well, and Bardugo doesn’t try to re-review old territory with her characters. Since she didn’t have to introduce her characters, she had far more time to develop them further and deepen their individual arcs.    

What I don’t love about this book:

One character in this book I didn’t like and didn’t feel contributed much in the narrative, despite becoming the central McGuffin at the end of “Six of Crows,” and throughout this novel, was Kuwei Yul-Bo. Kuwei is vital to the plot because of what he might be able to do—not because of who he is as a person, which is mainly an ungrateful catty prick. I get it—he wants his freedom to go where he chooses and resents Kaz for using him as a chip in the big game of nation-states—see how I didn’t say thrones there? Oh, shit, I just did—damn it. 

But anyway, back on topic; why I don’t like Kuwei is because he annoyingly goes on about how he’s being treated by the dregs. He complains incessantly, without really acknowledging that without the dregs and Kaz, he’d be back at the Ice Court, in a cell, forced to create what amounts to a weapon of mass destruction for a bunch of people just one shade away from Nazi. 

This is a minor quibble, and it’s more my fault than anything, but we get introduced to characters from a previous story in this novel, from a different trilogy, and I get the sense that there is a lot of depth to them that I’m missing because I haven’t read those stories yet. This is the crux of why I don’t like reading things out of order. I want to understand each character’s story in precisely the manner and order it was intended. But again, this is what I get for having read the “Six of Crows” duology first before the “Shadow & Bone” trilogy, and I really only have myself to blame.  

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as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Author's Website: https://www.leighbardugo.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

“Crooked Kingdom” starts off right where the last book left off, Kaz and crew have just pulled off an impossible heist, and their employer betrayed them, kidnapping Inej, who is Kaz’s love interest from the first book. The merchant gives Kaz and the dregs an ultimatum, give him Kuwei, which really means the secret of Jurda Parem, the most dangerous substance in the world, for Inej. 

Micro Mention "The Silmarillion"

The original master of worldbuilding for its own sake, J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Silmarillion” is a must-read for any Epic Fantasy nerd or any LOTR uberfan. It reads more like a combination of a history book and a series of short stories, but its primary function is to deepen the world that “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” is built upon.

Tolkien was a professor in his day, and his fiction is an outgrowth of his scholarly pursuits. He was known for using actual Celtic and Norse myth to inform his fiction. If you ever have the chance to read the “Poetic Edda,” which is a collection of Norse poems and stories, you’ll quickly notice the overlaps, especially when it comes to the dwarves.

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"The Six and the Crystals of Ialana," by Katlynn Brooke--Fiction Review

Alright, my obscure readers, today we’re talking about a YA fantasy novel by Katlynn Brooke, “The Six and the Crystals of Ialana.” Other than fantasy violence at the same level as “The Hobbit” or “The Lord of the Rings,” this book might be a good pick as an introduction to fantasy for younger readers.  

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

This book has a similar feel to it to Leigh Bardugo’s “Six of Crows,” which was a novel I rather quite liked. Like that story, you can see that Brooke spent a lot of time developing the world of Ialana. There is a robust feeling of place and description of all of the various settings that the characters pass through throughout the book. Furthermore, Brooke has the knack of making these different places and societies feel like they continue on with their own motives and plans even when the lens we view the world through moves on to somewhere else.  

The whole narrative is a bit of a mystery, there is this reincarnation angle to it, and you’re gradually figuring out what original mission the six were on, before their untimely deaths, with them. It’s an interesting spin on a coming of age story to also have the characters deal with the idea they were reincarnated, and it didn’t go well last time. 

I like the lost advanced civilization motif in my fantasy and extra points to shifting the style toward the end of the story from a straight sword and sorcery fantasy to a more science fantasy angle. Some of my favorite stories from my formative years go that direction. I seriously could listen to a set up of magic as a technology for ages. 

What I don’t love about this book:

Unfortunately, the character work is one of the weakest parts of the story to me, especially with the antagonists of the story. 

The six break down to three boys, three girls—and yes, they all pair off in some way, which I find annoying—and one spare guy named Blaidd, whom I wouldn’t trust on a walk to the local coffee shop, let alone across a continent. It continually strikes me as weird that they let him keep on with them, and the explanation is: well, he’s Adain’s friend. Ok, but why? Well, they just were since they were kids, and it seems like he was always a narcissistic sociopath then too, but there you go. 

Now, this is going to be a weird thing to say in this section for some, get your pitchforks ready, but this novel’s start reminded me a whole lot of “The Eye of the World” first book of the “Wheel of Time” series. So—I am not in love with “The Eye of the World.” In fact, it’s one of the only books I stopped reading for years before going back to it and finishing it. I know—I know, but the “Wheel of Time” is foundational for so many people? Brandon Sanderson himself finished the series! How do you sleep at night—you monster!? But you know, the good news is if you like that whole set up of the farm boys and girls, with a magical destiny, like “The Eye of the World,” then you might like this book—and I might just have something wrong with me.  

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as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Author's Website: https://katlynnbrooke.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

So, much like “Eye of The World,” this book opens with something violent happening to people we don’t know yet. There is a torture bit, some telepathy, and some talk about setting a backup plan in motion. Then the perspective character catches an ax to the brainpan. 

"The Final Empire," by Brandon Sanderson--Fiction Review

Good Morning dear obscure readers of the interwebs, how about we talk about an epic fantasy by one of the best in the business, “The Final Empire” by Brandon Sanderson. It’s got a whole complex mythos and rigorously detailed magic system.

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

As the first book of the Mistborn trilogy, “The Final Empire,” serves to introduce this sweeping epic world and its strange magic called Allomancy. As one of the all-time best world builders I’ve read, how Brandon Sanderson sets up the world of the Mistborn is immensely impressive. There is a depth of world history and a complexity to not only how that world works, but he builds fine-tuned cultures that inhabit this world. 

Sanderson’s character work is also first-rate, this skill, combined with his talents as a worldbuilder, is what makes him one of the best fantasy writers of today. Each of the characters, from the primary protagonist Vin, her mentor Kelsier, to Kelsier’s crew of thieves, are all exquisitely fleshed out and polished to a gleam. No two characters sound the same, and they all have their distinctive roles within the narrative. 

I find the antagonist of this novel, the Lord Ruler himself, to be the most interesting character of the story. The protagonists find the journal of this malevolent figure, who once held ultimate power and changed the very world itself with the power of a god and created the first allomancers. He’s a figure that has lived for thousands of years, enslaved generations of people, and ruled as a tyrant since the beginning of his reign. But in the journal, the Lord Ruler seems like a kind soul. He’s a man who doesn’t shrink from violence but wants what is best for all. It’s an interesting mystery of how the past idealistic man in the journal became the despot tyrant of the present.  

What I don’t love about this book:

More a critique about all of Brandon Sanderson’s epic fantasy work, then just this novel specifically—but he has a way of meandering in one location for way, way too long. Sanderson creates sandboxes the size of continents, populated with diverse and exciting people, and then—especially in this novel—we spend almost all our time in the same twenty square miles of that continent-sized sandbox. Luthadel, where we spend most of that time, is an interesting city, don’t get me wrong, Sanderson packs so much into it it’s like a fantasy version of old New York City—but it is still just one city, and the Final Empire covers a whole planet.   

For me, the revelation of how the Lord Ruler became the way that he is, felt like a massive cop-out and was ultimately disappointing. It’s the main reason I didn’t enjoy the ending of “The Final Empire” as much as I thought I would. Well, that’s not entirely true, at the time that I read it I thought I liked the ending, but then I stewed on it for a few days and was horrified to realize that I didn’t like the end. Horrified because I enjoyed the rest of the book so much, and endings are my favorite parts of stories—so how could I not love the ending? It was a whole existential crisis for me, well, as first-world reading problems go, that is, I mean, it’s no scavenging for food in the wilderness kind of problem.   

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Author's Website: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***