Brandon Sanderson saves the best for last. The Hero of Ages concludes the first Mistborn series, and this book by itself makes the whole series worth reading.
The story of Vin continues as she continues toward her destiny, which you know is going to have plenty of fighting, running, standing, and magic. With the end of the world approaching, Vin must learn what must be done to save the world, but is she up to the task?
Again, I can't say much without spoiling, but I can still talk in generalities.
One thing I didn't say about the first two books: each one has short excerpts from someone's journal. In the first two books, they are very cryptic ... you're not really certain who's writing, and the writings raise many more questions than they answer.
However, in this last book, the introductory writings are much more direct, and ... get this ... every single chapter has a major reveal. When I read the first one in the first chapter, I was taken by surprise, and was a little concerned that the author was giving away too much too early.
But nope ... I was wrong.
And I hope you enjoyed reading the first two books, because the third is entirely about how everything you thought was true was only the tip of the iceberg. I was amazed at how rich the first two books were, and then the third one blew me away. Think of starting with The Hobbit and then finishing with Lord of the Rings. Practically every question is answered, and the entire book is possibly one of the most satisfying conclusions I've read in a trilogy.
While the first two books had boring parts, this book had none. Now with the world entirely established, Sanderson could focus on pushing the story to its end. And my favorite part: many of the original team who played more minor roles in the past played much bigger roles here, as this book takes on a divide and conquer route. I think one of everyone's favorite story is the growth of Spook / Lestibournes, who ... well ... I'll give you a nibble ... picks up another skill of magic.
And like I said before, after having read two books of A Song of Fire and Ice, and that really bad book about EMPs, it was a great pleasure to read this trilogy -- much lighter reading and much more reward. If you haven't read it yet, I highly encourage it.
I was somewhat excited to hear about Away on Netflix ... a story about Earth's first manned mission to Mars, captained by a mother who needs to leave her family for three years. I really get a kick out of these nearly hard-science TV shows and movies that have been coming out lately. So, I figured I had to try this one out.
The first episode clued me in that I was in for a bumpy ride. I was a little put off by the fact that it contained more drama than science. And it was telling the story out of sequence for dramatic effect -- trying to see it from the mission control lady on Earth interviewing each of the astronauts in space. Some parts worked, while other parts not so much ... and many of the drama parts were ... BORING!
I suppose if you love family drama and predictable plots, you may love this show. I may be a little negative because I was looking for something different.
But wait ... let's talk about what worked. I loved the space scenes -- being on the moon, space walks, getting closer to Mars. Those were done pretty well. And I think they had gravity (caused by spinning of the crew quarters) moving in the right direction. Some scenes had me on the edge of my seat.
They had a fun diverse crew, with plenty of character development, so you get to know all of them: the American captain, a Chinese astronaut who's chosen to be first on Mars, a Russian cosmonaut who's an expert at everything space, a Jewish black guy from Ghana - but raised in Britain through adoption, and an Indian good with medicine. I loved some of the depictions of different cultures ... probably a good reason to watch.
However, a lot of the plot felt convoluted, predictable, and sometimes forced just to get in some good drama. It seem unbelievable that there would be so much drama among the team as Hilary Swank is forced to earn their trust. I mean ... they trained together for years ... how could she not already have their trust? And Hilary's character seems too willing to turn around and come back home because it's too hard or she wants to be with her family again, only to then snap out of it. We should ask actual astronauts ... does this type of thing really happen in real life? Do teammates always work to undermine their superiors? Do captains always second-guess themselves all the time?
And, really with all the stereotypes? One scene had the Chinese astronaut talking to her family, and her husband was chiding his son about making a 98 on his test. I mean ... did they really need to bring in the Angry Asian Dad? And the Chinese head on Earth was unbelievable throughout the whole first season. Of course there were also some not-so-obvious Russian stereotypes going on with the cosmonaut. But then again, maybe this type of stuff really does happen, and I'm clueless.
As for what goes on down on Earth, the captain's daughter takes up with a boy who likes to ride bikes. Any guesses as to what happens to her? That was the most irritating episode in the whole season ... practically no science, all drama, and I'm not sure if it even progressed the story along. BORING!
And the science? I guess they tried their hardest, but some things were dumb and changed for dramatic effect. As one starts to move away from earth, communications is supposed to become more difficult because it takes longer for the signal to travel. From the moon, itself, it takes about 2.5 seconds for a round trip signal -- meaning -- after you say something, you have to wait 2.5 seconds to get a response. But we got none of that for the first few episodes. However, they had to address it eventually. How did they do it? They made up this phenomenon that when you get past a certain point, face-to-face communications just cut out, and the lag magically jumps from less than a few seconds to 20 minutes or so. All so they could have a Hollywood moment for when a transmission gets cut off mid-sentence, and then there's waterworks everywhere. Give me a break. It's possible to have good drama with accurate science, but they decided not to ... lazy writing.
I have more complaints, but don't want to give too many spoilers. You might like it. I finished the season just so I could write a full honest review, but I probably won't watch season 2. It was a nice try, but nowhere near as organic as I would have liked.
I finally got to see Tenet. It was released on 9/3, and yesterday was 10/12 -- more than a month later. Yeah, I had to wait for our theaters to open, and then I had to plan a good night where I could watch in IMAX with a minimal number of other watchers. I'll explore more of this next week when I do a quick report on movies during the pandemic.
But for now ... it was really worth watching it in the theaters. In fact, I hope it gets rereleased after the pandemic so more people can enjoy it. It's one of those movies where you could watch it over and over and still catch new things, and it's very difficult to spoil. It's also one of those movies where if you stop thinking, you'll have no idea what's going on. In fact, I think several have complained: "What did I just watch?"
And you know what? I'm glad the writers pulled no punches. Christopher Nolan is pretty good at that. None of this bringing it down to the level of 100 IQ ... but rather, putting 100% into the plot and letting people come up to that level and figure it out themselves at their own speed. I think overall it makes for a better product. (I, myself find it very difficult to write simple music ... there's enough of that going around. Let other people write at the 100 IQ level.)
10 years ago, I don't think this movie would succeed, but Christopher Nolan had been preparing us with Inception, and then Interstellar, plus a little playing around with time in the story telling of Momento and Dunkirk.
However, this movie isn't without issues. You may notice that I haven't given any quick non-spoiler plot synopses -- because I'm not sure what to latch on to. It has time travel? Some Protagonist is recruited to a special project to save the world? That's because this is more of a movie built around an idea more than your typical Hollywood formula.
After having seen the movie, I know absolutely nothing about the Protagonist. He doesn't even have a name (except for perhaps a fake name when he does some spy work). I don't even know how he got to where he was at the beginning of the movie. He's like a nondescript placeholder that's intended for each of us to insert ourselves into the movie ... kind of like Indiana Jones. The only interesting characters are the husband/wife duo of Sator and Kat. Everybody else is just a pawn in Nolan's big game of time chess.
It really does mess with your mind, though. I'll say this much. After we got home, I got out of the van and watched my wife backing it up into the garage, and I was really freaking out.
Is the plot scientifically possible? I don't want to spoil too much here, but I can say how impressed I was about how much they got right. There are some things they got wrong, but the main idea is basically correct. I may do a spoiler-filled discussion in a separate blog entry about the whole mechanics.
In fact, almost a decade ago, I wrote my own short story that uses the same exact ideas: When Time Flows West (which won Honorable Mention three years ago in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest). Maybe that's one reason I like this movie so much ... because as I watched, I thought, "This is my story! Just a different setting." I also know that they didn't steal my idea, because as a mathematician, I know that if you incorporate physics into a time-travel idea like I (and Christopher) did, you're going to get the same plot. So, I'll publish the story here on my blog as soon as I get enough energy to pull in the text and format it all.
Nolan did consult Kip Thorne again, but not to the degree that he did with Interstellar.
And finally -- I loved the music, but come on Nolan! You don't need to make the music louder than the talking. Since I saw it in IMAX, I swear they installed the subwoofers right under our seats. I mean, I now know what "drop that bass" means because I've lived it and survived so I can tell the tale. I do think the movie would be significantly improved if the music weren't so loud, and if the talking editing was done a little more clearly.
For my final recommendation, I'm torn, because I want to say, "You need to see this in the theater," but I also want to say, "Don't go! It's too dangerous." I really hope they rerelease it later. It's only made just over $300 million worldwide over six weeks, but it could make so much more. I have friends who don't have a theater anywhere close to them that's open, and lots of people who have resolved not to go until the virus is under control. How about I put it this way: If you have a theater showing it, and you have the risk tolerance, then this movie is worth seeing.
The second book of Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn" series, The Well of Ascension, continues the story of Vin, who is a tiny bit older now. Forces are surrounding the city of Luthadel, and Vin must work with Kelsier's team to protect the city.
It's impossible to say too much more without spoiling the first book, but I can say this much: While in the first book Vin was in training, she is much more refined in this book. That is, she has much more control of her powers, but there is so much more to learn. And she feels something calling for her -- the Well of Ascension, where it's prophesied that the Hero of Ages will save the world. We also learn a lot more about the mistwraiths, who were mainly mentioned in passing in the first book.
Even though I enjoyed reading most of the book, there did seem to be a 100-page stretch of reading where nothing much seemed to be happening. I'm not sure if it's the usual curse of the "middle" book, or if it was just boring setup of the craziness that happens the second half of the book.
Just like in the first book, I was pleasantly surprised with the progression of events. It remains difficult to predict, and the characters always remain constant. That's something I didn't mention in the first book review: I'm impressed with the characters. There are many of them, most of which are believable. It makes for a rich reading experience.
At the book's end, I sat thinking about it over and over -- trying to figure it all out.
So, if you haven't tried these book yet, give them a try -- it's an excellent fantasy series.
I think I would have totally missed this documentary if I hadn't had several of my friends tell me I had to watch it, and wow ... did it blow me away!
The Social Dilemma is an impressive, comprehensive, and scary documentary on how social media, a force for good, has caused much of the problems we're suffering from today: increased polarity, increased depression and suicides among children, increased mistrust, and increased addictions.
The creators of this documentary interview several of the pioneers of what we now call the internet ... top bigwigs from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, and other big name tech companies. And many of these people are famous people whose names we don't know, but whose products we use every day: the Like button, the infinite scroll, the monetization schemes we see, and so on.
And they talk about how they worked very hard, and very scientifically to addict us to their products. The goal was to get as many people as possible to use these apps, and to help us to want more -- not even realizing they were working to create a new generation of junkies.
At one point, they compare social media to a bicycle. When you look at a bicycle, it just sits there and waits. It's simply a tool so that when you want to take a ride, you grab it and use it. Facebook, on the other hand, does its best to never leave you alone ... it wants you to come back and doesn't wait. In a sense, you become the tool or "product."
These social media giants also talk about how they would conduct real-time experiments with people. Change the font slightly, or the colors, layout, and sounds -- and take note which changes caused the most addictive results.
It also talks about how artificial intelligence algorithms help to give you exactly what you're looking for. Sometimes, even search suggestions and results can change according to your history ... something that has bugged me for years.
For one thing, this show has convinced me to turn off practically all of the notifications on my phone, We can choose to master these "tools" and use them as we see fit. One of the best documentaries I've ever seen.
Though, it does err a little on the side of "oh noes! we're all doomed!" However, I do think that we will figure it out. After watching this documentary, I can see exactly how we have all been manipulated ... and even how 2020 came to be so bad. Overall, I think we will learn from our mistakes and become much stronger and smarter as a civilization.
At least I hope so ... some people say I'm a hopeless optimist.
