Saturday 18 August 2018

Review: Mistborn Book 2: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (Spoilers for Book 1)

I finished Book 2 of my new favourite series the other day and literally the next day got Book 3 out of the college library so yeah it's pretty damn good.

 ⚠️ ⚠️  ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️ MAJOR SPOILERS FOR MISTBORN BOOK 1 ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️

Some very minor spoilers for Book 2 also, but nothing big.


Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Dystopian fantasy
Pages: 781
Source: Local library
Rating: ★.5

Blurb: Vin, the street urchin who has grown into the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and Elend Venture, the idealistic young nobleman who loves her, must build a healthy new society in the ashes of an empire. Three separate armies attack. As the siege tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.











At the end of Book 1, Vin has defeated the Lord Ruler, the seemingly invincible God-emperor who ruled the land for a thousand years. The skaa (peasant) people rose up from under crushing oppression to take back the Empire, and now the land is to be ruled by King Elend Venture, with skaa and nobles as equals. But then three armies turn up outside the gates of the imperial city, political turmoil reigns within, as Elend's attempt to foster democracy backfires, and Vin struggles with her place as a Mistborn and feels a mysterious force calling her to determine the fate of the world itself. 

For a refresher on how Allomancy and Mistborns work, take a look at my review of Book 1.  The other major magic system in the Empire, Feruchemy, gets some time in the sun in this book as well, so basically Feruchemy involves storing things up so you can use them later. For example, Feruchemists called Keepers store thousands of books worth of knowledge in bits of metal (wait, these just sound like computers) so that they can restore lost knowledge to the people. There are many other Feruchemical abilities, like storing up weight so that you become lighter (and later tapping that weight if you need to become heavier), storing up vision by living with poor vision for a while so you can have enhanced sight later, etc. 

Character Development:

In my opinion the character development is really good in Book 2. Elend Venture, the new King, gets a lot of the attention, as he develops from dishevelled, idealistic scholar to authoritative king under insanely high pressure. I thought it was really interesting seeing him trying to navigate politics while introducing (semi) democracy to a land that hasn't seen it in at least a thousand years, and I really respected how noble he was in allowing the people to make their decisions even when they weren't good for him, and refusing to find loopholes in the laws he'd written. He's a good man. 

Vin changed a lot in Book 1, from a street urchin with barely apparent Allomantic powers to the Mistborn who slew the God-emperor. She's feeling uncertain of who she is, all the while acting as a knife on behalf of Elend's kingdom. One day, another Mistborn comes along, a guy called Zane, and starts sparring with her at night. He's the first equal opponent she's had in a long time, and he starts telling her she's just being used as the kingdom's knife, and that Mistborns like them deserve to be free, not just tools for some ruler. Is Elend using her as a tool? Well, yes. But does he love her? Also yes. 

Either way, I related enormously to Vin's identity struggle, though perhaps for a mundane reason. It's that whole idea of being with someone like you and can understand you, or someone who loves you and trusts you even without being the same as you. I loved reading those bits because it's very similar to how I feel about my scholarships and things; hanging out with people at Commons (for Trinity Scholars) or Laidlaw scholar events is thrilling and super intellectually stimulating, and it's cool being with people who love scholarly work as much as you do, but it's nice to come home to something more down-to-earth, to come home and just be you, not what you can do. Both are great. 

[There are also fun, chill times with people I know from my scholarships, don't fret. We do talk about other things. And note that I'm not talking about intelligence specifically here; there's a difference between intelligence and loving scholarship.]

I could relate to Vin in other ways, too; you can still see the mark of her traumatic childhood on her, and again it was great to relate so strongly to a character (although she does become awfully morally grey). Now if only I had magic powers...

I think a lot of people didn't like the second book because it had a lot more political maneuvring and soul-searching than the previous one, but I really enjoyed that, perhaps because I could relate to a lot of it so much.

Sazed, the former Terrisman steward and Feruchemist, is a pretty major character in this book, and provides an interesting perspective in contrast to the younger protagonists. After the fall of the Lord Ruler, it's time for the Keepers to travel the land, telling the people the stories from a thousand years ago so they may know the information the Lord Ruler once stamped out - but he is disheartened to learn that the villagers aren't particularly interested in hearing about suppressed religions, and really just want to know how they're going to feed themselves. In fact, a lot of them miss the Lord Ruler. Things certainly aren't perfect after the overthrow of the first book, and it shows how complicated human reactions to things, even things that seem obviously good like freedom, can be. Also, we get to see Sazed being super badass with his Feruchemical abilities, which is a fun thing to read from the subdued scholar.


Plot:

The plot is quite wide-ranging, but mainly focuses on the three armies laying siege to the central city of Luthadel, on Elend's political machinations, and on Vin's identity and gradual realisation of the larger problem facing the world, plus a bunch of other vignettes from around the society told through the eyes of secondary characters like Breeze and Sazed. Breeze's sections are really interesting because he's a soother, i.e. he practises emotional Allomancy to manipulate people's feelings, and so his perspective is a way for us to see how everyone else in the story is feeling. 

The ending was a shocking twist, and honestly it annoyed me because I didn't see it coming at all and it didn't feel like we were getting enough foreshadowing for it.

Themes:

I think the major theme of the book is probably trust, and what it means to really love someone by trusting them to do what they need to do. It comes up quite a lot - my favourite way was with Vin's decision about Zane, but for a less spoilery example, there's Vin's relationship with her kandra, OreSeur.

The kandra are creatures created by the Lord Ruler than can digest the bones of an animal (including humans) and take on their form, imitating them perfectly. They're impossible to kill by normal methods, can rearrange their muscles at well to e.g. put a pouch in their shoulder, and they must completely obey the human who has their contract. OreSeur is Vin's kandra and follows her around, obeying her but clearly disliking her. Finally, it opens up and we learn more about the history of the kandra and why they're compelled to obey absolutely, and it's really interesting seeing that trust form.

Another theme is leadership, and what sort of things constitute good, effective leadership. People don't follow you because you are good; they follow you because you are authoritative, and they trust you. Some of the skaa farmers missed the Lord Ruler's oppression, because now their lives and world had lost predictability. 

What bothered me: 

Sexism - there are so few female characters in this book, it's insane. Yes, Vin is an incredibly powerful warrior, but you still can't have just one. We get a couple more by the end but it's still massively disproportionate. It's strange, because it's not just armies - there are just so few women around at all. the Assembly Elend had elected is entirely made up of men, even though it contains a third nobles, a third merchants and a third skaa peasants, and that really bothered me - if you can make it equal by class, why does equalising by sex always get left out? Similarly, the noble houses are all patriarchal. 

It doesn't make any sense, because this is fantasy. People can use magic - why shouldn't there be some matriarchal societies? Why are there zero women in the parliament or (basically) in society in general? Representation really matters, dude. 

Secondly, there was kinda a love triangle. It didn't go super far, but I would have preferred if the author had explored the identity issues of being with your tribe or not without making it a semi-romantic thing. 

Thirdly, as I explained above, the twist ending seemed to come almost out of nowhere.

In short: Fabulous series, with characters whom I love with all my heart and amazing worldbuilding. On a larger scale than the first book and with fewer up-close-and-personal fights (though still plenty), it's apparently quite unpopular compared to the first book but apart from some niggles I loved it. 

Monday 6 August 2018

Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Author: Elizabeth Wein
Genre: YA Historical Fiction (WW2)
Pages: 452
Source: Local library
Rating: 

Code Name Verity is the story of two British girls in the war effort: Maddie, a pilot, and Julie, a wireless operator, but really it's a gorgeous story of friendship. 

'It's like being in love, discovering your best friend.'

We start the story from Julie's perspective, as she's being tortured as a prisoner of war by the Gestapo in occupied France. You'd think that would be very dark, and it is in a sense, but her voice shines through and makes it funny. Like her constant protests that she's not English, she's SCOTTISH YOU NAZI BASTARDS. It also helps that we don't get many direct descriptions of the torture. What we read is a sort of confession that she's agreed to give to the Gestapo in exchange for an end to the torture; she has promised to sell out and give them the codes to the wireless sets and all the information she has on Britain's war efforts. Only she decides to give the information as a kind of novel, weaving information in with the story of her and Maddie's unlikely friendship - a Scottish royal and a mechanic's daughter brought together by war. They were brilliant characters - Strong Female Characters, but Julie was still feminine and Maddie still had her fears and vulnerabilities.

'There is only one reason I did not go down in flames over the Angers, and that is because I knew I had Julie in the back. Would never have had the presence of mind to put that fire out if I hadn't been trying to save her life.'

So the book is her confession, and goes between the present tense (what's currently happening to her as a prisoner of war) and the information she's providing. She's told to talk about British planes, so she tells the whole long story of Maddie's love for planes, and how she moved from motorbikes to flying and up through the ranks in the RAF and the Air Transport Auxiliary. The author is a pilot herself, so there are a lot of details about planes, which I thought was kinda cool but may not work for everyone.

'FLY THE PLANE, MADDIE.'

Some criticisms:


  • It seemed a bit unrealistic that the Gestapo captain would just allow her to give the information in novel form rather than punishing her for all the irrelevant information. The captain (Hauptsturmfuhrer von Linden, I think) is shown to be a lover of literature and a school headmaster outside of war times, but even still. 
  • It took me ages to get into the book, though once I did I really liked it. I'm just glad I'd heard so many good reviews that encouraged me to push through.
  • I just looked at a Discussion guide I saw online and I feel like there's so much I missed out on! OK this maybe isn't a criticism of the book (though perhaps some of the things are a bit too subtle) and I should just do a re-read....

I really can't say much at all about the book because there are several major twists, but they are great twists and I recommend reading. With those restrictions in mind, my highlights:

  • The friendship was beautiful. It was so lovely seeing them stick together against the fear and terror they felt.
  • The mentions of sexism - it's strange to call this a highlight because I didn't enjoy it, but it was good to see it addressed. I do wish something had happened to Paul, the groping French Resistance guy.
  • Maddie's love for piloting shone through in the details and the way she talked about it. 
  • There were so many details in general! The author must have done an incredible amount of research. 
  • The French resistance were cool, and a nice symbol of hope.
  • The twists really got me.
  • I cried a little (on the train) but honestly I cry at lots of books and it's easy to cry superficially. More than that, it just really got to me, made me feel sort of hollow and sad. It was worth it to get that insight into the war, though. 
  • The writing is quite beautiful at points. It's not the main star of the show, and mainly just serves to get the story across, but at points there are some gorgeous quotes.
    • It can be a bit over the top sometimes but I guess that's just Julie's voice. She is known for being dramatic. 'Maddie took the top of her egg off. The hot bright yolk was like summer sun breaking through cloud. The first daffodil in the snow. A gold sovereign wrapped in a white silk handkerchief. She dipped her spoon in it and licked it.'

There's a really poignant moment where Julie mourns because the whole reason she started studying German at university was because she loved the language, because she wanted to visit and see the beautiful country - but her knowledge of German instead proved useful to the war effort. and now the Nazi bastards are ruining the beautiful country she loves. 

'I am no longer afraid of getting old. Indeed I can't believe I ever said anything so stupid. So childish. So offensive and arrogantBut mainly, so very, very stupid. I desperately want to grow old.'

It is a terribly sad story - it's war, and no one is left without blood on their hands. It really drove home the horrors of war to me more than a history book ever could. That's what I love about stories; they let you see into different lives. Code Name Verity was great at giving that peek into a different time, and at showing what unthinkable things people will do for their friends.

'We make a sensational team.'

Saturday 4 August 2018

Review: July 2018

WORK: I went back to work in mid-July after three weeks off (the rest of the lab was going to a conference in Japan) and had to sort of start over with a new approach to the project because there wasn't enough data out there for the original approach. I'm now 3 weeks into that (5 weeks into the project as a whole) and it's going grand; I'm looking at codon usage bias in ohnologs and copy number variant genes. By the end of July, I had mostly finished setting up and filtering my datasets for this part (which turns out to be sooo much of bioinformatics) and could start analyzing them. I also got a bit less scared to talk to my labmates, which was nice.

MODERATORSHIP: I found out that I'd got into Genetics! Thankfully because I found out a month before that I'd done really well in my exams, even I wasn't worried about whether or not I'd get in because it was unlikely that many people would get higher than 86%. Also, I was told later by a professor there that I came 'top of the class by a country mile', woo. So glad I didn't get ambiguous results as I thought I might.

WATERFORD HOLIDAY: Leon and I went on a spontaneous 2-day holiday to Waterford and stayed in the Woodlands Hotel & Leisure Centre. You can read my blog post about the trip here but basically it was really nice, and it showed us how much we love swimming..... 








SWIMMING: So then when we got home we took up swimming, which we get to do for free at the Trinity pool. We've now gone swimming about twice a week for three weeks and hope to keep going! I love that I'm finally exercising and find it fun, and it's really helpful to do it with a partner for accountability, support and enjoyment.

LIBRARY: Leon and I finally got a lease, so we went to the local library and signed up! We'd been waiting to do that for ages but couldn't without a lease. Here's our first book haul:




READING: Obviously very related to 'library', but books I read this month include:


  • Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett (from Netsoc library, ★★☆☆)
  • Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (from college library, ★★★★.5)
  • We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (from local library, ★★☆☆)
  • Implanted by Lauren Teffeau (eARC from Netgalley, ★★★☆)
  • I Have No Secrets by Penny Joelson (from college library, ★★★☆)
  • Code Name Verity* by Elizabeth Wein (from local library, ★★★☆)
*Technically I finished Code Name Verity on August 1st.

You can find reviews for all of those except Code Name Verity (at time of writing) if you go back through July's posts on the blog.





LEON: As well as going to Waterford and taking up swimming together, we went on a few froyo dates (to Mooch and Scrumdiddly's) and also went to see Ocean's 8 in the cinema.





ART: I did some more watercolour painting this month.




LAIDLAW SCHOLARSHIP: We Trinity Laidlaw Scholars got to get in contact with some Laidlaw Scholars in Tufts University, Massachussetts, which I thought was really cool.

FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP: I went to lunchtime Commons every day for about three weeks and met a bunch of new people.

FRENCH: I've taken up French again with Duolingo and am currently (as of 4 August 2018) on a 35-day streak of doing (at least) 2 lessons per day. Back in 5th and 6th year of secondary school I got through the entire course so hopefully I can do it again as I've gotten very rusty.