Cameron Recommends: The Wheel of Time

I just finished this. and in a word, amazing. I was left feeling "Wow, this was it. The end of the Wheel of Time." Man it has been an adventure. I started The Eye of the World back in February of 2012, about 20 months ago. The Wheel of Time has been a somewhat constant thing for me over that time. I did take time between books to read other books, I feel that was key to really enjoying the series, especially during some of the slower books (I'm looking at you Lord of Chaos, Path of Daggers and Crossroads of Twilight). I'm honestly a little sad that I don't have anything more of these characters to look forward to.
So is a a short summary. The Wheel of Time tells the story of many characters (at times you get a little lost, like in book nine where a character from book 4 is brought back and you have to strain your memory to remember all that they did), but mainly it is about Rand, Mat and Perrin. These three youth are ta'veren, people whose have an increased influence on events and people around them. 
Rand is the Dragon Reborn, a mythical hero whose destiny is to fight the Dark One at the Last Battle, Tarmon Gai'don. He can channel, a man who can weave magic using the male half of the True Source. However, the male half is tainted by the Dark One, any man who uses it will eventually go mad.  Rand's character goes through several transformations as he battles with who he has to become to win the Last Battle.  This part, the mental battle, was probably my favorite of his arc. It made him so much more real.  At times I wondered if he would make it. The fear of hurting those around him was real and it made for a much more dynamic story.

Mat is the reluctant hero, the man who wants nothing but piece and quiet but is incredibly loyal, putting himself in danger to save those he cares about. He is a hero, but doesn't consider himself one. He's also a gambler, and he can twist luck in his favor.  Many of my friends love Matrim Cauthon. His attitude is great, and there were many times during his POV chapters that I chuckled.  His complaints about the men of the Red Band being a bad influence on Olver, while simultaneously doing the very things he complains about are great.  Also his battle scenes are some of the best in the series (especially in the Tower of Ghenjei).   

Perrin is large in stature, but gentle in heart. He wants to do what is right. He doesn't want to make rash decisions or hurt anyone by being brazen. This makes him slow to speak and slow to action. he becomes a wolfbrother, a man who is able to communicate with wolves and gains some wolfish characteristics. There were a lot of times in the series where I wanted  Perrin to interact more with the wolves, but the end of the series, where he learns to master the wolf dream are some of the most exciting and visually stunning scenes in the books.  In the beginning of the series Perrin was my favorite. Then he hit a rough patch in the middle of the series, most people really disliked him during this time, though I was still hoping for wolfy awesomeness. Then he got there and was awesome again. Despite what many people think he might still be my favorite character in the books, but that spot is so close between these three.

The other heroes of the story, Lan, Moraine, Egwene, Nynavae and Elayne are also heavy players in the saga. While there were times that I wanted them to shut up (How many times are you going to complain about being pregnant? I don't want to hear it anymore) I really did come to care about these characters and their parts in the story. Especially Egwene, from book 11 onward I really enjoyed her story. 
Many other characters have major arcs in the story. Some of my favorites are Tuon, Noal, Verin, Talmanes, Egeanin, Androl, and Moghedien, just to name a few.
Reading this series is a commitment, as it is 14 books, all averaging about 750 pages. At times I wondered if it would all be worth it. I'm telling you, IT IS. Read it, even if it takes almost 2 years like it did me.  I am so happy that I did.  During the end of the series there were so many "That was AWESOME!" moments along with several "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap" moments. 
The epilogue to the series left me very satisfied, though not at first. At first I was like, wait what happened later? How did it all turn out? I want TO KNOW. But after contemplation, I was happy. The characters have their destiny in their own hands now, and that feels real. 
Again, this was great. I am SO happy I started this endeavor(and yes it was an endeavor). The end was perfect, I loved it!

Cameron Recommends: The Emperor's Soul

I know, another Brandon Sanderson, but I love him and his books.  

This book recently won the Hugo Award.  For those of you who don't know, the Hugo Awards are a set of awards given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The awards are named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories.  One of the most prestigious science fiction awards, the Hugo Awards have been termed as "among the highest honors bestowed in science fiction and fantasy writing".

The Emperor's Soul is a novella, only 200 pages long, and a really quick read.  It tells the story of Shai, a forger.  Forger's can change the history of an object, thereby changing it.  Sounds weird but man is it one of the coolest magic systems Brandon has done.  Oh man, so good.  For those who have read Elantris this story actually takes place in the same place (but you don't need to have read Elantris to enjoy this). 
So go pick it up. It's only 4.99 for the ebook version. SO GOOD.

Cameron Recommends: The Cardturner

Many of you may know Louis Sachar for his incredible youth book Holes, which is a great read. He took a relatively simple idea and made an excellent story out of it.  In Holes you get to really know many of the characters without a whole lot of text.  Well, take that ability and multiply it and apply it to the game of bridge.  Yep that is right. Bridge.  The stereotypical game we assign to old people.  The Cardturner is the story of a boy learning the game of bridge with his rich great uncle.  That is the main of it.  I know, it sounds boring, but please TRUST me.  My friend Susan was skeptical but decided to give it a try.  Here is what she said " The narrator is a relate-able teenager, but isn't snarky or melodramatic. The plot moves smoothly back and forth between sections on how to play bridge and the actual story line. By the end, you know a surprising amount about bridge and you feel thoroughly entertained."
This book is amazing. Read it. You can easily get through it (since it is at a middle school reading level). You won't regret it.

Cameron Recommends: Rush

The classic rock band from Canada, Rush. Rush is the power house trio of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neal Peart.  Geddy Lee sing lead vocals has a very unique quality to his voice.  He also plays the base and keyboards.  Listen to the song YYZ and you can hear some of his base solos which are fantastic, I mean awesome.  Alex Lifeson plays lead guitar and does backup vocals.  He has to be one of the best in the business.  And Neal Peart, simply put he is the best drummer who has ever lived. Period.  Watch one of his solos, it sounds like 3 people are jamming, but nope, it's just him.

I was first introduced to Rush by Tyson Lyons back in middle school.  He had their greatest hits album (at least their hits up to that time) and we listened to it in his basement while playing Metal Gear Solid.  Needless to say I asked for it from my parents shortly thereafter and received the same album, Chronicles (which apparently is out of print now).  I got my little brother Chandler into Rush as well and he got their album Moving Pictures (in my opinion their best).  He started to love them as well.  Just last month, on July 31st, Chandler and I got the chance to see them live on their Clockwork Angels tour.  And man, are they AMAZING live.  I daresay that this is now the best concert I have ever attended.  I mean wow.  These guys are 60 years old and they performed so well.  I was super impressed, and I had a lot of fun.  Thanks Chandler.

Cameron Recommends: The Book Thief

I usually don't get very emotional. It is rare, very rare, that I get teary eyed. I shed a tear over this book. It was beautiful.
I am usually a fantasy reader. I read this because I trust the opinions of a few people when it comes to books. I'm glad I did. This book is historical fiction. The characters, while fictional, felt more real to me than some people I know. The descriptions of people, places and emotions are poetic and, given the narrator, prefect.
The story is told from the unique perspective of Death himself.  He has a very visual voice, describing things in interesting ways.  The story revolves around a young girl named Liesel during the height of World War 2.  The story is very compelling and a perfect balance between sweet and bitter experiences.  The story is mostly about the goodness of people, which is even brighter when held against the backdrop of evil that prevailed during this time in history.  When talking about the human race, Death describes it perfectly  ". . . the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant."
I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

Cameron Recommends: Goodreads.com

Ever since I read Mistborn (see Cameron Recommends: Mistborn for my review of that), I have become an avid reader.  My Kindle e-reader helped a lot, increasing my books read per year from 10 to 25ish.  The other tool that I have used to help out my reading hobby is Goodreads.

Goodreads is a social site for people who love to read, and the designers made it great.  First of there are the bookshelves.  You can look up books you have read and rate them, this adds them to a shelf labeled "read".  You can then go to books and assign them to custom bookshelves that you create and you can write your own review of the book.  This makes it super easy to organize what you have read.  Then there is the "to-read" shelf, a true wonder.  With this shelf you can list and prioritize books that you'd like to read once you finish gobbling up your current book.  Have a friend mention a book at a party that sounds intriguing? Use the website, or the handy mobile app, to save it for later.  

Then there are the book look-ups.  Heard about a book that sounds interesting? Look it up on Goodreads.  It shows you the average rating the book gets, a short description of the book and then below that it lists the ratings and reviews of any of your friends that have read that book, followed by the most popular reviews of the book.  SO NICE!

Speaking of friends, that is the penultimate point I'd like to make. You can add friends on Goodreads (I use facebook to sign in to Goodreads and used it to see what other friends also use it).  You can look at your friends favorite books (which is simply a list of their highest rated ones) and their reviews.  Then you can compare books, to see how your tastes mesh with theirs.  It is super useful.  Have a book club? You can create or join groups on Goodreads and see what others are reading.

The last point I'd like to make in Goodreads' favor is the challange.  They have a challange on there to set goals for # of books read in a year.  With that you can look at how many total pages you have read in a year that you did this challange and what books you read.  It has some other cool plotting tools.  

So all in all, I love Goodreads.com.  I highly recommend it to the avid and casual reader.

Happy reading, 

Cameron

Wow it has been a while, probably the longest I've gone without writing in this thing.  Sorry about that to the whole 5 people that might read this.

So I have made a decision about this blog.  It will now be entirely a "Cameron Recommends" or "Cameron Doesn't Recommend" style blog, with maybe an occasional insert of news on my end.

Mostly these will be books, movies, television or products that I like or dislike.  I guess that is one way that people can get to know me better.  I have often thought what the purpose of a blog like this is, where I don't do any advertising.  I think I want to use this for just getting my thoughts out of my head, as a kind of winding down exercise.  So let me know what you think.  I'm going to make an effort to do this more.