The Alloy of Law

Brandon Sanderson has recently decided to embrace a direction that makes his books rather unappealing to me. I don't want to be constantly reminded of the raging culture war while reading a fantasy novel. Dawnshard may have been a watershed moment. However, I have yet to read many of his works published before 2020, like most of the second set of the Mistborn series.

New Spring

I had completely forgotten about New Spring until I happened to come across it in the local library recently. New Spring is the prequel novel to the epic fantasy series, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. It was originally published as a novella just before The Path of Daggers but Jordan later lengthened the novella to a full-size book which was released after Crossroads of Twilight. Despite that it's not even half the size of the usual Wheel of Time novel.

The Grace of Kings

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu is another literary awards winner that to me doesn't seem worthy of such recognition. A quick google search for reviews gave me a Reddit post that described the novel as cliff notes of itself, which I found a humorous yet accurate depiction.

Dawnshard

Dawnshard is the second "novella" (56k words) in Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive, set between the series' third and fourth volumes. Its protagonist is tradesmaster Rysn Ftori who sets out on an expedition to Akinah, a lost city on an island shrouded in storms.

Oathbringer

Like the second novel in The Stormlight Archive, took the third one too an enormously long time for me to get through. It didn't help that, unlike with the previous two, there was no 2-volume print of Oathbringer available: just holding a nearly 1300-page hardcover brick is unpleasant every time. It was mainly the content that made the book a struggle to read though.

Last Argument of Kings

Unlike with the names of the previous two novels in The First Law trilogy, this last one's origin I was familiar beforehand: There's a roguelike in development called Ultima Ratio Regum -- Last Argument of Kings -- which are the words King Louis XIV had had cast on his armies' cannons. The novel's title is again maybe somewhat relevant to its plot but I feel it's again mostly there just because it's cool.

Legend

I borrowed Legend by David Gemmell (1948 – 2006) from the local library because I remembered reading one of his novels a couple of decades ago and wanted a refresher on how his heroic fantasy was like. There's a pretty high chance the novel was this one because only two of Gemmell's works have ever been translated into Finnish. The other one would be the second volume of this same Drenai series, called The King Beyond the Gate whose Finnish title for some reason was quite liberally set, instead meaning 'prince of shadows' (Varjojen prinssi).

The Blade Itself & Before They Are Hanged

Fantasy author Joe Abercrombie's name has been popping up whenever I've searched for new books to read. I finally decided to check his stuff out: his First Law trilogy is available here in libraries as Finnish translations. I've already read the first two novels.

Words of Radiance

It took me almost half a year to read Words of Radiance, the second book of The Stormlight Archive. That's not entirely because of the novel; I was simply doing other stuff for entertainment (mostly playing games). However, there is definitely a good two to three hundred page section that I found outright boring. Only when someone else reserved the library book (or books -- a two-volume Gollancz print again), meaning I had to return it finally, I managed to power through it.

The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings begins Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic, The Stormlight Archive, which is currently at four published novels out of ten planned. The series has garnered a lot of praise but I personally went in with low expectations, kind of anticipating typical Sanderson cast of characters, same old traits shuffled around a bit.

The Wise Man's Fear

In the second book of Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle, titled The Wise Man's Fear, innkeeper Kote continues telling about his life as young Kvothe. While I still wouldn't call this would-be(-maybe?) trilogy one of my favorites, I wouldn't mind reading its conclusion one day.

Assassin's Quest

In an unexpected turn of events, The Farseer Trilogy improved in its final volume. I wouldn't say Assassin's Quest was good though, just better. And the book definitely doesn't begin as such: I would compare the misery of the experience to watching Logan which I truly hated.

Wizard's First Rule

Probably because I've watched so much of Brandon Sanderson's stuff, YouTube started recommending me videos by one Daniel Greene who does fantasy book reviews and such. One of Mr. Greene's videos is a "blistering review" of Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. He also has another discussing why the author is so controversial. Or was -- Terry Goodkind passed away in September.

Assassin's Apprentice & Royal Assassin

Robin Hobb is kind of an obvious pen name though I didn't realize it until my sister pointed it out. I pretty much never guess when an author is using a made up name and when not. Based on the name I also assumed Hobb (Margaret Lindholm Ogden) is a man even though that's not at all clear from just Robin.

Tales of the Otori Trilogy

I have had the first volume of Tales of the Otori trilogy for many years but never had sought to read the rest. I guess I hadn't been impressed. Then the second and third part happened to be shelved in library and I borrowed them if only for the sake of closure or something. I also re-read the first one to refresh my memory since it had been so long.

The Name of the Wind

Before starting The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss, one should be aware that the series's completion seems uncertain at this time. Its first volume came out in 2007 and the second was published in 2011 but third book is still on its way. In this year's July, Rothfuss's editor, Betsy Wollheim, wrote that she has never seen a word of book three and she believes the author has not written anything for six years. Her words may have been colored by her frustration but Rothfuss sure has been taking his time.

Elantris

Elantris is the 6th novel Brandon Sanderson wrote and the first one he got published. Sanderson had written 16 novels in total before that in fact, or so I've learned from watching his Youtube videos. Elantris is not his best work, I have to say. Sanderson's beloved magic systems don't come into play until very late and plot twists were kind of predictable, or at least didn't evoke a similar sense of astonishment like in the Mistborn books.

The Day Watch

I wonder why Sergei Lukyanenko co-wrote the second Watch book with Vladimir Vasilyev. I think it's pretty odd to bring another author in all of a sudden. Like why was Vasilyev needed? The novel seemed similar to the first. Also, the English cover of the novel doesn't seem to mention Vasilyev, which is curious. In fact this picture of the Finnish cover I found doesn't include him either even though the print I read with otherwise identical cover has both authors' names on it.

The Night Watch

The back cover of The Night Watch (Ночной Дозор) claimed the book, and the series it's a part of, are more popular in Russia than The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. That might very well be the case -- hell if I know. The Harry Potter series is a good comparison though. Similarly to it, The Night Watch is low/urban fantasy (not to be mistaken with low and high magic) and the relationship characters have with magic and supernatural is the same way sort of relaxed: fear is not the first reaction to magic and even seemingly grievous injuries can be healed and undone.

Warbreaker

Since Mistborn's world was so bleak and gray, Brandon Sanderson wanted to write something more colorful after it and thus Warbreaker came to be. He also released the novel for free on his website much to his publisher's dismay. The novel's still there though now it's available as multiple webpages rather than a PDF file. Good thing I grabbed the latter when I first heard about it: I think it felt more proper to read something that looked like an actual, printed-on-paper book.