The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson…

This review is rather late, but the vast reading list I had during later half of 2011 and the release of Battlefield 3 game caused this delay. I was able to finish The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson during my vacations.

Absolutely amazing.

The Alloy of Law takes place 3 centuries after The Well of Ascension in the Mistborn universe. World has changed and Kelsier, Vin, Elend, Sazed, Spook, and the rest are now part of history or religion. Mistborns (Allomancers who can burn all metals) are now found in legends and stories. Mostly, the world now has Mistings (Allomancers who can burn only one metal) or Feruchemists (who can use the metal to safe keep few traits); and few rare individuals who are both (Twinborns). The line of the allomancy is getting thin in bloodlines.

The cities are on the verge of modernization, railways are coming, horse carts will soon be things of the past. There are beaurocratic governments and few nobles have bigger hand in the government. Things have started to slip; nobel houses are competitive (similar to Lord Ruler’s times, as in Mistborn) and corruption has been creeping in.

The lands beyond the cities are called Roughs. The Roughs is where crime and criminals escape the law (and the cities). Few nobles give up the competitive life of the city, and become lawmen of the Roughs to bring these criminals to justice to create a better safer world.

One such is Lord Waxilliam Ladrian (or Wax), a twinborn of reputed nobel house. The predictability of the Roughs makes him feel safe there. His righteousness and honesty has brought many criminals to justice and that makes him a legend in the cities. An unexpected accidental death of his whole family forces him to retire as a lawman, and return to the city to take the reins of his house, which is undergoing financial troubles. In order to get his house of financial trouble, he starts to consider a mutually beneficial matrimonial alliance with another house.

But the past somehow catches up to him. The curtain is lifted from some criminal activities that are dramatically mysterious and circumstances brings him closer to one of the crimes. The lawman inside him prevails, and in order to solve the mystery of these crimes, he takes alliance with an old ally from the Roughs, Wayne, an allomancer, and a new one, Lady Marasi, a cousin of Wax’s to be betrothed. As they investigate the crime, Wax comes face to face with another lawmen from the Rough, Miles, whom he has worked in the past and who has gone rogue. Needless to say, the soup gets thicker.

Couple of familiar characters from the Mistborn universe makes their tiny appearances towards the end. I won’t tell you who they are, but keep a look out for them. It is almost nostalgic (I felt like going back to Mistborn series one more time).

Once again Sanderson weaves a story which is worth reading. In the traditional Sanderson-esque style, the details are aplenty and as the story progresses, readers get pulled in. The story reads like a fantasy and mystery set in steampunk era. There is allomancy and then there are guns, cranes, steam engines.

The Alloy of Law stands among my top 5 books of 2011, and from the author who is among my all time top 5 writers. The book does fall short – in words. The length of the book is not typical of Sanderson’ books; in fact it is almost a third of his standard books. This was something he wrote to get his mind “cleared” before going back to The Wheel of Time.

The story provides a satisfactory ending, a story set in post-The Well of Ascension, and a great introduction to the upcoming steampunk trilogy set in Mistborn universe. It does leave few strands untied.

If you are a fan of audiobooks, the book is read by Michael Kramer, who has read previous Mistborn series and the Wheel of time series. Michael does a great job and it feels natural continuation from original series. Personally, I like to listen to the book at 1.5 to 2 times the speed, because I find them a bit slower (Apple devices allow you to do that).

If you have not read Sanderson before, and are scared to pick one of his thick books, this is a great book to explore this author (be sure to read the appendix in the back to understand how the magic works in this universe).

In conclusion, I would say this is a great story, and a great book that now finds it sitting next to the other Sanderson books on my bookshelf. A must read, listen, or both for fans of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Steampunk, and Mystery genres.

Click here to visit Brandon Sanderson’s The Alloy of Law portal.

Click here to visit Brandon Sanderson’s site.

Please comment, share, and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.

Jatinder PS Nagi
December 26, 2011.

Leviathan Wakes…

A leviathan indeed wakes in Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey, and stays awake.
James S. A. Corey is a pseudonym for the team of Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank, George R.R. Martin’s assistant. The team weave their first tale of The Expanse Trilogy. And what a tale they weave.

This book bridges the gap many sci-fi books leave between leaving the Earth and colonizing distant stars and galaxies – humans have colonized the solar system; Mars, Moon, and the Saturn’s asteroid belt.
Jim Holden, first officer of The Scopuli, an ice miner that is hauling ice across to the Belt, is forced to become a captain of small crew in an escape vessel when their ship is taken down. Upon investigation, the clues point to Martian Navy as having engineered the attack. This enflames the Belters (residents of the Asteroid Belt). Martian Navy denies the attack and feels that a third force (Earth?) is trying to cause a divide between the Mars and the Belt.
Detective Joe Miller, a belter has seen glory days as a detective, but that is past now. He is tasked to find a rebel Earther (resident of Earth) girl. Her rich parents wants her to be shipped back to them, so that she does not get caught up in the events in the solar system.
Needless to say, that there is some link to the destruction of The Scopuli and the girl gone missing. As both Holden and Miller investigate, they start to see that there is more to it than what seems at the surface. Can’t say more without telling the story.

Book has some strong characters. Jim Holden is a righteous guy, emotionally driven. He tends to do the right thing, and many times at a great cost to himself and people around him.
Miller, a detective seasoned by the criminals of the Belt, works logically. His is stubborn and once has his brain wired with his logic, he imparts quick justice.
Together they form the heart and brain of the story. The chemistry between them is depicted extremely well, and their relationship is that of love, hate and respect.
Fred, another strong character, has his own agenda. He sometimes help and at other times use, both Holden and Miller. He seems to be a nice guy, but keeps readers guessing what his intentions are.
Rest of the characters provide the perfect support to taking the story ahead, although you wish to know more about them.
All characters cross paths and before long you get to see everyone making an attempt to survive in dangerous world.

The narrative moves at a brisk pace, the language and the terminology makes it a believable space opera. There are intelligent and unexpected twists & turns which keeps readers attention in the story. And towards the end, things get hairy as story progresses. As you turn the last few pages of the book, the things go from believable to interesting. Ending gives you a satisfaction of good read, but leaves a lot more open questions like – what happened to few characters, and what happens next. In other words, a perfect ending to story that is going to span a trilogy.
The author(s) have taken a page from George R.R. Martin’s page. Tie few loose ends, leave other open for the next book.

The story has big space battles, hand to hand combat, near death experiences, some love stories, and the big bad evil lurking around. All in all, everything a good story should have.
Personally, I loved it, however there were few things that were farfetched for me. One may ask “like the whole colonizing the Solar System is not?”; still few things didn’t work out for me (can’t say without spoilers).

The novel has a great narrative (this is how books should be written) – fast pace, keeps readers attention, a good sprinkle of action, and many wonderful twists and turns.
And it is a good story with a potential to become great as the series progress.

Do I recommend this book? Hell, yes.
I got the eBook and 10 chapters into the book, I knew I should get analog. I have shared the real book with 4 of my friends and they could not put the book down till it was over. In fact all of them finished it before I did. It is a must read for a sci-fi fan.

As George R.R. Martin puts it, it is a “kick ass space opera”. We just have to wait to see where the story goes from here.

Click here for the James S.A. Corey’s website.

Jatinder PS Nagi
September 18, 2011

The Other Tolkien…

We all know the JRR Tolkien as an author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Many, including me, never knew that Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien, JRR’s younger brother, as an author. At least, he was when he was young.

In 2008, a small 88 page book was released titled Black and White Ogre country: Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien. This book is edited by Angela Gardner and Illustrated by Jef Murray. Hilary’s grandchild discovered an old tattered notebook with some stories and it was quickly determined that it is a good idea to get them published.

The tales are flights of fancy put together by the Hilary, inspired by adventures brothers had as young boys. There are stories about black ogres, white ogres, black witches, white witches and many other curious folks, likely based on many of the people the brothers encountered. It is also an introductory journey into the minds of the young boys, one of whom was going to develop a world that we now know as Middle Earth.

Like Ronald, Hilary shows in interest in the all things natural. With time, the stories depict the changes in the countryside around them. There are reminiscences of something that may have influenced the tales of Middle Earth many years later. This is a small book that includes introduction to the notebook, the stories (edited and illustrated), and a brief biography of Hilary Tolkien.

This book also had a mention in Humphrey Carpenter’s Biography on JRR Tolkien.

After their mother died, John (10) and Hilary (8) were under the legal guardianship of the church priest who arranged for their Aunt to take the kids in. The arrangement fell out, and as the time passed, kids grew up moving from home to home. Hilary joined his uncle’s business and later British Army during World War I. After the war, Hilary got a home in Blackminster, near Evesham, maintained a Plum Orchard, married and had family. His house also became one of the venues for family get reunions. He kept in touch with his relatives, as well as his brother during their lifetime.

Hilary kept his creativity alive, with paintings and drawings. Some of them he used on the cards he used to send his relatives. He died in 1976.

I recently acquired a copy of this not so easily available book. The copy I got is the first edition and is signed by the editor – Angela Gardner and the illustrator – Jef Murray. Jef has also made a small windmill doodle as a part of his signature.

Here are few more photos of the book.

Signature on the inside cover

Jef Murray’s Windmill Doodle in Pencil

Notebook of Hilary Tolkien

Returning Home by Jef Murray on the back cover of the book.

JPS Nagi
July 2011

Enjoy Fuzziness …

Audible Frontiers did a shared universe stories called METAtropolis with John as one of the authors and the editor of the anthology. That was my first encounter with John’s writing and I enjoyed it. So when Powells Books announced John’s visit to their bookstore, I was there.

He was amazing, as I have already mentioned in this piece here.

John was on the tour of promoting his new book Fuzzy Nation, which is rebooting of H. Beam Piper’s Little Fuzzy. I finally got to the book last night (I have a long reading list).

The story is retelling of the 1962 tale, so overall the story has classic Sci-Fi written all over it. Jack Holloway, a debarred lawyer, is a loner. He works as a contractor for an “evil” mining corporation that generally mine on planets across the galaxy, till the planet has nothing to offer. The mining company, by law, can only mine on the planets which do not have sentient life forms. Jack is on the verge of becoming very rich since he helped discover the largest mine of the rare gemstones on any planet. He has also discovered a new sort of “animals” on the planet (which Jack names Fuzzy). This poses a threat to the company who will not be allowed to mine, if proven that these beings are “people” (natives). Jack undergoes an ethical crisis.

The story take a legal turn and the battle between three parties – Jack who wants to get rich, the Biologist community who are excited about this new discovery (who are employed by the company) and want to study these new species, and the future CEO of the company, who wants to stall the legal battle and get the minerals out before anyone can sneeze & to prove to everyone that he is ready to take over the company.

And in this tussle, is suspended the fate of the Fuzzies, that no one has yet decided if they are “animals” or “people”.

A gripping story of legal drama, action, emotions, in an all updated Sci-Fi classic.
Fuzzy Nation is one of those books which I finished in a single sitting in a long time. I generally take my time, and finish the book in couple of days.
Fuzzy Nation was something that gripped me right from chapter 1 and 3.5 hours later, I was done. I could not put it down. The flow of the story maintains the pace, and subtle twists and turns keep the reader guessing.

Audible.com released the audio for the book read by Wil Wheaton, who does an amazing job. After finishing the book, I realized, there is no one else who could have read it better.
Audible book also includes the original H. Beam Piper’s Little Fuzzy.

I never read H. Beam Piper’s Little Fuzzy. And after reading Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi, which is a sort of rebooting the series, I think I should have (maybe I will listen to it on the audiobook).

A great book, I highly recommend this to anyone – Sci-Fi lover or not.

Check out John Scalzi’s Blog – Whatever.

JPS Nagi
July 2011

We’re more than animals …

Remember those classic Sci-Fi stories you used to read as a kid where robots are alive and they have turned evil.
Robopocalypse brought those memories back for me!

Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse is man-versus-machine tale – the story of how the robots turn against the humans. The author weaves a modern and plausible tale, which can happen in next 20-30 years, considering how many smart machines we have in our lives.

The robotic apocalypse is orchestrated by a single central super computer, Archos, who takes humanity by surprise all around the world. Archos takes control over the entire ensemble of machines in the world – smart phones, smart cars, bi-peds, domestic robots, telephones, satellites, machines – anything that has a computer or controller in it. And they start to work against human civilization and start evolving (the learning bots).

The entire novel is in flashback and told from points of views of several survivors from across the world. These survivors start to work on their own in Tokyo, Afghanistan, London, New York, and Oklahoma. As the story progresses, homo sapiens find ways to collaborate against the single enemy that they have created.

The story works at many different levels. Part 1 is grim as humans start to suffer, but engaging. As the story progresses, the action starts to come in. Then the survival instincts kick in, and finally collaboration. But more importantly, it is a tale of humanity and how pressure brings the best (mostly) and worst in people.

I enjoyed the book, because it brings back memories of the Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, the stories I grew up with and stories that fired my imagination as a kid.

This is also the first book I have read that is written in this style – each chapter is written in first person perspective of different characters. You can open any chapter in part 1 or part 2 of the book and read it. It is later, that all these threads start to come together. Many reviewers mention that this style has been used in few other books, but this was my first book in this style, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Daniel H. Wilson is a Robotics Engineer, a television host and a PhD. So many of the robots used in Robopocalypse are based on (or variant of) real world robots that exist today.

The audiobook is read by Mike Chamberlain who takes the book to whole another level. He changes accents based on the character being a Texan oil driller, a British telephone hacker, or a Native American from Okhlahoma among the few. A very well done audiobook. Available from Audible.com.

I enjoyed this book a lot, a fun to read, and to listen. I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of science fiction or to anyone who enjoys reading.
It is available from all major resellers as a book or an eBook.

Lastly, you may want to read this book before Steven Spielberg’s movie based on Robopocalypse comes out in 2013.

Check out Daniel H. Wilson’s blog.

Here is Daniel H. Wilson’s interview on YouTube.

Magic is magic … Bramble is bramble …

In Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Alchemyst and Tobias Buckell’s The Executioness we meet characters from the world where bramble has taken over fertile farm lands and use of magic is punishable by death. Once a glorious and prosperous world, where magic was practiced freely; now has bramble everywhere. Bramble has strange affinity to magic; it roots itself where it senses magic has happened.
People are now poor and they live under fear of bramble whose needles are fatal to humans. The governance of the land executes anyone caught doing magic to make an example of.

Paolo Bacigalupi introduces us to Jeoz, in the book The Alchemyst. Jeoz has seen better days with magic, but now uses a small un-noticeable magic to cure his daughter’s cough in a hope that no one finds out. He is a scientist and finds a solution to solve the problem of bramble. It tells a story of ethics of science, a story of a father whose daughter is chronically ill, and an evil “creature”. Jonathan Davis voices the varied cast created by Bacigalupi.

Tobias Buckell opens up a story of Tana in The Executioness, set in the same world. It is a story of a mother, a daughter, and a wife, who stands up when her world is turned upside down. She stands up for survival and to bring her family back together. On the way, she meets raiders, traders in caravans, and a ruler who is a religious zealot preaching that salvation from a bramble infested world is possible only by following path he preaches. The woman and her axe becomes “The Executioness”. Katherine Kellgren brings an exotic acceted performance in this fantasy world.

To say the books are amazing, could be an understatement.
Audible Frontiers once again brings exclusive audio release of these two stories under the shared world experiment (similar to the METAtropolis series, where Tobias contributed too).
The world is dark and grim. Hope and life are fading fast. And bramble is taking over.

The real books are very difficult to come by. The audiobook is available as a set from Audible.com.
A good read, rather a good listen, for the lovers of sci-fi and fantasy genre.

Here are the covers for the two books:

Check out Paolo Bacigalupi’s site here.

Check out Tobias S. Buckell’s site here.

Check details of the set at Audible.com.

JPS Nagi
June 27, 2011

Keep writing John, and they will come …

Few years back, Audible Frontiers did an experiment – METAtropolis. This was a collection of 5 novellas about our future. John was the editor for these five stories.
That was the (audio)book that introduced me to John Scalzi.

Needless to say, I enjoyed his story. So when Powells Books event showed up on my calendar that John was visiting Powells, I thought, well let’s just see what he has to say.

John was a lot of fun. Very very very (did I say very?) funny guy …
Once he took to the dais, he offered the audience what to read “I can read from the new book Fuzzy Nation, or I can read chapter 1 of my upcoming book which has a working title, and that will be published in 2012, and which I think is amazing, and I will also give you a chance to guess the working title.”

“No pressure”.

“Let me see the hands of people who want me to read from Fuzzy Nation.” Only one (or maybe two) hand(s) went up.

“Who wants me to read from my upcoming book?” All the hands went up.

He started reading and before the sentence was up, he stopped and made everyone swear, that they won’t divulge what he is going to read, and also requested to turn off recording devices (really, I could record that, damn!).

“Raise you right hand, and say with me. I, insert your name here …”.
Audience, “I, insert your name here … “

After the oath swearing ceremony, he did read from his upcoming book, and someone did guess the working title correctly (although I could not hear it, as I was sitting in the back row).
And dude it was awesome !!! (also that he told us, this is how we explain it to the folks who missed his reading).

A quintessential reader; he did the voices, the antics, brings variations and emotions to his reading.
All in all, he made it a lot of fun (John, have you thought of doing your audiobook yourself?). For the next 25 minutes, he kept people laughing, and there was never a dull moment. I felt like I was in a comedy show.

After the reading he gave another anecdote – Tor.com did a survey of best Sci-Fi books of the decade and they found that the books with following words in the name come to the top and catch reader’s fancy – shadow, war, night, dragon, dead, city …
So on April 1 (Ahem!!!), it was announced on Tor.com that John Scalzi was going to write a book called “The Shadow War of the Night Dragons – Book 1 – The Dead City”.
During the Powells book signing, he read the first three sentences, the first sentence is 155 words long, and uses the word black 11 times (you can read it in the link below).

He was contacted for an interview by a well known daily to talk about his switching to Sci-Fi to Fantasy. And his agent was contacted by a well known Hollywood studio who wanted to make the movie on the Shadow War series.

John came out as a genuinely funny person. His anecdotes from his life and family and giving them a funny twist was commendable. He talked about his family, daughter, three very important cats in his life, and his blog – Whatever.
He related an anecdotes from his parenthood (which resonated with my own experience) that kids would pick up anything that they would hear as they are starting to speak.

All in all it showed how much fun a good author can have while doing the thing he or she loves – writing.

I am a fan John, an now I am going to read your works … right after I finish The Wheel of Time (I am more than half way through).

Check out John Scalzi’s Fuzzy Nation …
… and as he wrote on my book Enjoy Re-fuzzyness …

Thanks for a great evening, John. Keep writing, and they will come …

Here is a link to the “The Shadow War of the Night Dragons – Book 1 – The Dead City”
http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/04/the-shadow-war-of-the-night-dragons-book-one-the-dead-city-excerpt
I have to be honest here and tell you that I did not know any of this and the links were searched while writing this.

May 2011
JPS Nagi / Sonu

The Mighty Mountain

The Himalayas – the highest mountain range in the world. The place where the temperatures drop way below what humans can endure. The survival becomes a challenge, yet the life sustains under such harsh conditions.
A wonder of the world, the home of the highest mountains of the world.
Take a deep breath and join on a ride that traverse through the Great Himalayan Range and appreciate the sheer geographic diversity – from the verdant, forested valleys to the tropical jungles.

This is my audio-visualization of when I think of the mountains.
Welcome to the roof of the world.

Click Here to listen to The Himalayas (WMA for Windows)

Click Here to listen to The Himalayas (MP3 for Mobile)

April 2011
Copyright JPS Nagi

How Did Tesla Electrocute Himself and Live?

When 10-year-old Nikola Tesla, growing up in Croatia, saw an engraving of Niagara Falls in 1866, he envisioned a giant waterwheel harnessing the water’s power. In 1895, Tesla realized that vision. He helped George Westinghouse, founder of the Westinghouse Electrical Company, build a power plant at the falls. It transmitted electricity using a system that Tesla designed and that made electric power a feasible source of energy for the world.

Thomas Edison was the first person to transmit electric power to homes and businesses, but he relied on direct current, which can only go about a mile before losing potency. To power an entire city, Edison had to build generators for every neighborhood, and often for individual buildings. With that much equipment in operation, power failures and fires were common. Tesla pioneered the use of alternating current (AC), which could be transmitted hundreds of miles from centralized generating facilities, making the transmission of electricity safer and more efficient.

AC posed a threat to Edison’s generating business (soon to become General Electric), so he tried to portray it as unsafe. After one of Edison’s colleagues provided a Tesla-Westinghouse motor for the first electric-chair executions, Edison joked that the prisoners had been “Westinghoused.”

At the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, Tesla and Westinghouse fought back. Tesla displayed the world’s first neon signs, which were powered by AC and shaped to spell the names of famous scientists. He also shot two million volts of AC through his body, and came away unharmed–partly because he wore rubber shoes and partly because he used a high-frequency current; it danced harmlessly across his skin and bathed him in a blue halo of electric flame. His demonstrations convinced the public that AC was safe, and since then more than 80 percent of the electric devices sold have used alternating current.

The Mysterious Death of Pyotr Tchaikovsky

I am starting a new series - anecdotes from the lives of some famous people. Small snippets that I have collected over time. These are musicians, scientists, inventors - many that you know. Here is an mystery surrounding the death of famous Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
According to official reports, Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) died in his brother Modest’s apartment on November 6, 1893, just days after drinking contaminated water and contracting cholera. But rumors soon circulated that Tchaikovsky committed suicide after a homosexual affair threatened his reputation.

The rumors first surfaced because Tchaikovsky was not treated like a cholera victim. Health laws demanded, for instance, that the body be quarantined and sealed in a coffin as soon as possible. But a composer colleague reported viewing Tchaikovsky’s body at Modest’s apartment while choirs sang requiems and throngs of people looked on. Conflicting medical reports added to the suspicion that friends, relatives, and doctors were hiding the truth to shield Tchaikovsky’s legacy.

An unofficial account of Tchaikovsky’s death suggests that he’d become involved with the nephew of a powerful duke. Incensed about the affair, the duke denounced Tchaikovsky to Czar Alexander III, who convened a “court of honor.” The court, many now believe, sentenced Tchaikovsky to death by suicide, probably by poison.

Homosexuality was illegal in Imperial Russia. It was tolerated if accompanied by discretion, but public exposure could carry harsh consequences. Although Tchaikovsky’s closest friends and relatives knew he was gay, they guarded this knowledge carefully. The composer confided to his brother Modest, for instance, that his sexual desire for other men brought him inner torment, but only later did Modest characterize these illicit passions as the driving force behind his brother’s music. He claimed, for example, that unrequited love for a former classmate inspired Tchaikovsky’s rapturous adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. That same classmate would eventually serve as a judge on Tchaikovsky’s court of honor.

Planet Nagi

Welcome to My Mind !!!