Play by Stuart Brown

This post is extremely long. I am working on my master degree and am trying to show that creativity and play is something important to be teaching students. Therefore this is more of a in depth look at the book than a review. If you are interested please read the whole thing, but I understand if you just skip to the bottom. I do suggest that you pick this up and give it a read.


Chapter One
The Promise of Play
“[C]onsider the world without play. It’s not just the absence of games or sports. Life without play is a life without books, without movies, art, music, jokes, dramatic stories. Imagine a world with no flirting, no day dreaming, no comedy, no irony. Such a world would be a pretty grim place to live.” Pg 6
Brown uses this chapter to talk about what play has to offer us. Everyone starts out their lives playing. Where is it that we draw the line? When do people stop playing? Why? He gives examples of adults that at some point give up playing. These people eventually go back to playing again and the positive things that result in their life is significant.

“This book is about understanding the role of play and using it to find and express our own core truths” pg 13

Chapter 2

What is play and why do we do it?

Stuart describes that he is hesitant to define play. Each person’s idea of having fun is different. I like to play boardgames others like to watch baseball games.

He then lists these Properties of Play:
Apparently Purposeless (done for its own sake)
Voluntary
Inherent attraction
Freedom from time
Diminished consciousness of self
Improvisational potential
Continuation desire (pg 17)

The rest of the chapter focuses a lot on what animals do when they are playing. Many examples are given. One thing really seemed to stick out. He points out that play has to have some type of evolutionary benefit. The reason being is that we still do it. Playing can be dangerous. He gives the example of Mountain Goats that jump around on the side of mountains. Occasionally, goats die from falling when they are playing. The playful goat has survived this long therefore the benefits from play must outweigh the risks otherwise only the non-playful goats would have passed on their genes.

Chapter 3
We are built for play
Borwn starts this chapter discussing the Sea Squirt. Apparently, this sea creature has a tiny brain and uses it to search for nutrients and eventually attaches itself to a boat, or rock or dock. At this point it devours its own brain and gets all of its needs from the water that passes by.

Humans are not like this. Mammals in general are the most playful of animals, humans more so than others. Our juvenile development lasts a minimum of 15 years. Our brain continues to develop into our 20’s. But they don’t stop there. Our brains are constantly changing during our lives.

“I would say that the impulse to create art is the result of the play impulse. Art and culture have long been seen as a sort of by-product of human biology, something that just happens as we use our big, complex brains. But newer thinking is that art and culture are something that the brain actively creates because it benefits us, something that arise out of the primitive and childlike drive to play.” Pg 61

He continues with describing the eight personality types:
The Joker
The Kinsthete
The Explorer
The Competitor
The Director
The Collector
The Artist/Creator
The Storyteller pg 65-70
“When we stop playing, we stop developing, and when that happens, the laws of entropy take over – things fall apart” and then “When we stop playing, we start dying.” Pg 73


Chapter 4 Parenthood is Child’s Play

This chapter focuses on play and its role in parenting. In recent years teaching to the test, and getting the right after school activities and everything of that nature has taken precedence so we can get into the “right school.” Some benefits of this is that more now than ever people are accepting children as a part of the world. Kids have a closer relationship with adults than at any other time in history. This is mainly because kids are acting more like adults than ever before.
Play begins before we are even born. This play in the womb is the beginning of the development of our bodies. Once born a baby is constantly in a state of play. Everything they do is an exploration of their surroundings, constantly feeding information to the brain teaching it what is going on around the baby and figuring out the world.

Stuart goes on to describe different forms of play.

Imaginative Play starts when we are around 2 and is when kids make up silly stories that don’t have to start or end.

Social Play is a beginning of working with other people. This is where we learn as humans how to act in social situations and is a huge part of what makes us who we are.

Around 4-5 kids start to form friendships. Before this we have parallel play. This is where children will sit together and do the same thing but will be playing by themselves. Once friendships form we get the ability to have empathy for others.

Rough and Tumble play is shown to be a needed act. Parents typically try to put an end to this. Hitting, rough housing and wrestling will cause kids to get hurt. Brown along with Anthony Pelligrini and Joe Frost have all studied rough and tumble play. It is shown to have significant impact on our mastery of social growth. In a study of murderers in Texas the prisoners were shown to have a lack of rough and tumble play in their youth.

Celebration and Ritual play. This is the play that is most approved by parents and society. Signing Happy Birthday and Take me out to the Ball game. We have rituals that as a culture we do at specific times in our lives. This gives a sense of belonging to your culture and gives everyone an “official” excuse to play.

Narrative Play or Storytelling is a huge part of our history. In fact it is our history. It tells us about who we are and what has come before. We learn about right and wrong and allow everyone to enter a state of timelessness.

Creative play or Fantasy is something that can be enjoyed at any age. It can help us move forward through hard times, it can help us have new ideas and it can give us a break from hard times.

In August 1966 Charles Whitman climbed a water tower and shot a number of people. Brown was a part of studying “why” this happened. Although there were many factors it was significant that Charles was never allowed to play as a child. His father was very militant and was constantly making Charles do things that were “worthwhile”.

“Once kids enter the school, the importance of free play doesn’t end. All the patterns that induce states of play are present and remain important for growth, flexibility and learning. Unfortunately, we often forget this or choose not to focus on play’s necessity under intense pressure to succeed. NO Child Left Behind is a perfect example. While it is an admirable goal to make sure that all children attain a certain minimum level of education. The result is often a system in which students are provided a rote, skills and drills approach to education where “non-essential” subjects like art and music are cut. In many school districts even recess and physical education have been severely reduced or even eliminated.

The neuroscience of play has shown that this is the wrong approach, especially considering that students today will face work that requires much more initiative and creativity than the rote work this educational approach was designed to prepare them for. IN a sense, they are being prepared for 20th century work, assembly line work, in which workers don’t have to creative or smart- they just have to be able to put their assigned bolt in the assigned hole.” Pg 99

Learning is enhanced by play. Good teachers know this. When you get to experience and idea you are much more likely to remember it than having a person tell it to you or being tested on it.

Children are now shuffled from one parent run acticity to another and are rarely given the chance to learn for themselves. Make mistakes, get in trouble or learn things the hard way.

“Trying to suppress free play or rigidly control kid’s free play poses, in my long-term experience, a far greater risk to their future health, success and happiness.” Pg 108

PE4Life is a program set up to add more PE into the schools. In Naperville, Ilinios this program has been put into place and academc pefromance has increased dramatically. Pg 113

He ends this chapter talking about how you can allow you childhood to be a part of your adult hood.

Chapter 5 The opposite of Play is not work.
This chapter starts out with examples of people that had successful lives from an outside view but they had all given up the things they enjoyed about life and that lead them all into a state of depression. Brown says that the opposite of play is not work, it is depression.

The rest of the chapter focuses on how play in the workplace is essential to having productive happy workers.

“Production matters now, but creativity is the source of all growth – the new products, the new techniques, the new services, the new solutions to old problems that mark the difference between a company that will thrive and one that will soon be deader than an 8-track tape.” Pg 134

“To become a master, the pupil has to go beyond what is known, has to learn what has not been shown by other in the field. Those who study the history of the arts and sciences have many examples of discoveries that came about not though the progression of a planned series of experiments.” Pg 141

He continues focusing on examples of people that are the best at what they do. In most cases these people are not the ones that have “kept their nose to the grindstone” often we find that the people that excel in their field are the people that do it because they like doing it because they have fun doing it.

Why do people stop playing? Because “adults” see play as something as childish. The things that we do as an adult show that we have a place in society and standing. Doing childish thing is bad in the eyes of others because our society doesn’t see the value in play. Essentially we are “shamed” into giving up play.


“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure , his mind and his body, his information and his recreation , his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply purses this vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he’s always doing both.”
Pg 155 James Michner (autobiobraphy)



Chapter 6 Playing Together.
This chapter focuses a lot on Adult and play. Specifically, Love, romance and sex. This really doesn’t have a lot to do with what I am focused on for this project. Towards the end of the chapter he does bring this up though.

“Play allows us to embrace and even sculpt the contours of our fates with an ironic humor and a sense of sharing in our common humanity. The lifelong player remembers this and can feel it even in the moments of grief, loss and suffering.” pg 174

Chapter 7 Does Play have a dark side?

So far the book has focused on all of the great things about play. Now we start to look at what negative things can happen. He looks at video game addicts and people with gambling addictions.

He gives examples of murders and beating that happen when kids were “just fooling around”. Stuart gives the argument that when these things happen the people involved are NOT playing. He argues that play has a desire to continue the play. That in real play situations when one person is stronger they will self-handicap so that all players can have fun. Since this is not happening in the case of beatings than regardless of what the people involved say this was not “play”.

He continues with play that involves screens such as TV, video games and cell phones. He is concerned with the fact that humans need to interact with the world around them and video games do not allow this. Take a bunch of kids in a room playing then turn on a TV and all play stops. Apparently, our brains react differently to things that are 3d and things that are 2d even if it is the same object. Say a person holding ball versus a picture of that same hand and ball.

Commenting on gambling addiction Brown brings up that just because play can be used in a bad way doesn’t mean that play is bad. Just because drinking beer, eat fried food and candy bars all day would make us sick doesn’t mean that eating is bad. He insists that the “better” way to play is to have three dimensional physical and social play.

He also talks about bulling and picking on one another. He has a conversation with his cousin where they insult each other whenever they are together. I personally have this happen. Whenever I am with a group of guys we typically pick on each other and have fun at others expense. This is more common in men, but I like to say, “You can only pick on the people you really care about”. We never take it too far. Once you are really hurting someone that you aren’t playing anymore.

Chapter 8. A world at play.

Here he discusses how play is healthy for the country and for the world.
“Play sets the stage for cooperative socialization. In nourishes the roots of trust, empathy, caring and sharing. When we see another human in distress, that distress becomes ours. Games, sports, and free play between kids set the foundation for our understanding of fairness and justice. “ pg 197

Stuart brings up the point that in the early 20th century we educated folks to run assembly lines. But as time went by we realized in order to keep up that we had to work harder or smarter. It is easier to work smarter so that is what we have done.
“Nations that remain economically strong are those that can create intellectual property – and the ability to innovate largely comes out of an ability to play.” Pg 200

He ends the books with some suggestion to increase play in your life:
1)Take your play history
2)Expose yourself to play
3)Give yourself permission to play, to be a beginner
4)Fun is your north start but you don’t always have to go north
5)Be active
6)Free yourself of fear
7)Nourish your mode of play and be with people who nourish it, too.


Brown writes a fantastic piece on Play. No one could read this and think that play isn’t a significant part of what makes us human. This books really gets into what play does for us personally as well as a society. His writing is to the point yet lighthearted at the same time. It is interesting how serious he takes play.

5 intellectual/emotional: This book really hits on both points. It intellectually shows us how play is important, but it is emotionally involved because this is really about who we are.

4 Style/Readability: Anyone interested in this topic will find this a pleasure to read.

2 Long Term Impact: I would like to say this book will have a huge impact. I honestly believe that if we focused more on what Brown is writing about our world as a whole would be better. Unfortunately, it is hard to believe that this will happen.

11 out of 13. This could be a 13 but only for the fact that this book goes contrary to what or society teaches us. I don’t see a lot of people picking it up to read, but I encourage anyone reading this to do so. We can all use more play in our lives.

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A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech

This book was suggested by Mark Rosewater who designs a game for a living. He is the lead designer of Magic: The Gathering. Magic is a card game that has 1000’s of interacting cards. Every three months they release a new set of 100-300 new cards. He writes a weekly column all about the creation of the game. He has mentioned this book as being the most influential on his ability to continually come up with new ideas.
The book is broken up into a series of ideas that the typical person has been taught is correct. He then goes to show how that is stifling our creativity. These ideas are as follows.

The Right Answer
That’s not logical
Follow the rules
Be practical
Play is frivolous
That’s not my area
Don’t be foolish
To err is wrong
I’m not creative

Oech focuses on how these ideas are the basis for what we learn as we grow up. When we are a child we don’t succumb to ANY of these ideas, but as we get older we are trained that this is the correct way to think. Our education system focuses on having a right answer. You must think logically. You get in trouble if you don’t follow the rules. Playing has no use. Stick to what you know. Acting silly will get you nowhere. Being wrong is bad. I have no creative skills.

He gives numerous examples on how being creative is the way to go. He repeatedly gives exercises to boost creativity. He encourages you to find the second best answer. The book is filled with many different ways to give you a new point of view on anything. There are word associations, puzzles, problems and games. Each one gives you a chance to take a “Whack to the side of the head” that allows you to be more creative and get out from whatever rut you are in.

The book is well written and an easy read. I always have felt that I am one of the more playful and creative people I know. This book gave me plenty of opportunities to be more creative so I think it would be beneficial to anyone who would read it.

5 Intellectual/Emotional: This book’s focus is to encourage you to try new things and look at them from a different point of view. Honestly, just reading it will have you looking at things in a new way. If you put the ideas to work anyone will be able to benefit from it.

4 Style/Readability: The book is very straight forward and easily digested. It is presented so that you are being written to. The book is written just the way it should be.

2 Long Term Impact: This book has a very specific goal. So if you are interested in this it is great, but most people probably won’t care to look at this book.

11 out of 13. If you find yourself stagnant in a job, unhappy with the way you are doing things or are just looking for a way to jump start your life this book is well worth your time. It can give you the chance to look at anything in a new way and in the end be a more creative person.

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Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon

306 pages Hardcover (Non-Fiction)

I have read two of Chabon’s other books. I REALLY loved The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. The Yiddish Policeman’s Union was sort of a letdown. I just didn’t get into it even though I can appreciate the writing style. This book is totally different from those two books. It is semi-autobiographical. The book is broken up into many small chapters that focus on a small part of his life. In most cases he tells about something that has happened to him and how it might relate to other people. The book certainly focuses on men and what it means to be a man in modern America, but I think it has enough to make it worthwhile for women.

He talked about the adventures of being a boy. He writes about answering the “drugs” question that came from his 14 year old daughter. His love of baseball comes up a number of times, but relates in a way that made it enjoyable, even to me, someone that finds watching baseball less fun than watching paint dry. There is a lot about being a father and also what is means to be a son.

Chabon has a way with words that is delightful to read. I always take joy reading his interesting similes and metaphors. The presentation of this book is much like a father talking to a son. Here are the things that I have learned. This is what makes life worth listening. Listen to me, it will be worthwhile. And it is.

5 Emotional/Intellectual: The book focuses on what it is to be a man. It resonated with me on almost every page. This could be different for a lady.

3 Style/Readability: Easily read and enjoyable, but nothing groundbreaking.

2 Long Term: Chabon has been critically acclaimed since the late 80’s and earned the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. There is no fear of him fading away. That said his other books are what are going to keep his work popular, I feel this will always be a side note.

10 out of 13. I really enjoyed this book. From the first page to the last I was really engrossed. Any reader with children will certainly find this worth a read and any woman looking to see things from a man’s point of view would be rewarded by reading this.

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Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

844 Pages Hardcover (Fantasy Fiction)

I was convinced to continue the rest of The Wheel of Time series and after finishing Towers of Midnight I am now only one book from being done. You probably know that the original author Jordan died. Brandon Sanderson was given the hefty burden of finishing a much loved series. Personally, I think he has done an amazing job and has revived what seemed to be dying series.

There have been a ton of characters, storylines, and crossing over that it is impossible to cover them all. Towers of Midnight does focus a lot on the Two Rivers folk. Enormous hordes of Trollocs have started to flow out of the blight. Rand has accepted that he will die and realizes that he can be a human. Perrin deals with the problems of being a lord. He also struggles to balance the real world and what is happening in the wolf dream. Mat leads a band of mercenaries and gets pulled into a deal with an Aes Sedai. He finds out that Moraine may not be dead and that he has a chance to free her from her fate.

This only barley touches the surface of what is going on. A good deal is spent on a borderland army holding off the attacking Trollocs. Every so often we get to see the beginnings of Lan’s army. Egewene now sits as head of the Aes Sedai and has to deal with a series of killings happening within the tower. While there are inklings of things going wrong within the Black Tower.

Before Sanderson had taken over the series I had given up on it. The first 6 books were great and I wanted to find out more. With each book after that it seemed to get more drawn out and less interesting. As a reader I had become connected with the Two Rivers folk a lot of the story had strayed away from them. It had gotten bloated and uninteresting. All these promises of fantastic things were being doled out in small doses. Unfortunately, for Jordan all the exciting and cool things we readers we hoping for are now being told by a different author.

I really got into this book and read through the book in record time. Some days I was reading 100 or more pages I was so interested in what happened next.

3 Intellectual/Emotional: The characters that we care about are what this whole book focuses on. It was a joy to finally get back to them.

4 Style/Readability: I felt like Sanderson finally just started to write like himself. Instead of just writing like Jordan I now get to enjoy it in his style. In past books there were times I felt Jordan’s writing was immature and I didn’t feel that in this book.

4 Long Term Impact: This must be judged as a whole series. The Wheel of Time is a part of fantasy fiction and will continue for a long time. I am glad that Sanderson is making this shape up nicely. Now he needs to go back and condense books 7-10 into one.

11 out of 13. If at some point you read this series and got up through the 9th book I think it is worthwhile to come back and read from there. If you haven’t started this series, I still cannot recommend you start.

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

221 pages Trade Paperback (Realistic Fiction)

Christopher is Autistic. Christopher finds the neighbor’s dog, Wellington, impaled on a pitch fork in Mrs. Shears backyard. Christopher picks Wellington up and holds him because he likes dogs. Dogs are nice and easy to understand. Not like people. Not like Mrs. Shears who is standing on the back porch yelling, “What the fuck did you do to my dog?!”

Haddon has produced a wonderful book. It is all written from the perspective of being in Christopher’s head. We get to understand his every thought and see everything that he can see.

Christopher decides he is going to be a detective like Sherlock Holmes. He is going to solve the mystery of Wellington’s death. The book follows his adventures of following rules to the letter and figuring out who the killer is. While doing this he gets to know himself, his neighbors and his family in ways that he nor the reader expects.

I found the presentation to fun and exciting. It was extremely easy to read since it is all very straight forward and written out. I really couldn’t put it down and finished it in 2 days.

4 Intellectual/Emotional: The unique perspective of being in the kids head coupled with a feeling of closeness makes this easy to give a 4.

4 Style/ Readability: Again this book was easy to digest and easy to get into. I think most any reader would get involved. I would say the level of reading is probably around middle school, but it was engaging enough for an adult.

3 Long Term Impact: It has already been a large success and I think it holds nice place to keep its popularity for while. I think this is a great book for someone to read if you are dealing with Autistic folk. It gave me a perspective into seeing how they think.

11 out of 13 and well deserved. This book is well worth your time. Any reader should be able to pick it up and finish it in short time.

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Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

320 pages Trade Paperback (Non-Fiction)
Blink is a very interesting book that focuses on the power of our subconscious. Specifically, it focuses on the ability of our brain to do fantastic calculations in the blink of an eye. He refers to this split second decision making as “thin-slicing”.

The book starts out with an example that was very intriguing to me. The Getty museum is looking to buy a famous Greek warrior sculpture known as a kouros. They take it and study it and test it and check its paperwork and eventually buy the work for millions of dollars. They have an opening show to display this newly displayed work. It is supposedly been in a private collection for a hundred years. They invite renown Greek sculpture experts. At the unveiling the experts, within seconds of seeing it, conclude the work is a fake. Further investigation into the history of the ownership seem to show it is a fake. How is it that scientists can study a work for months and not see what experts can see in a few seconds? That is what the book proposes to find out.

Gladwell continues to bring up many examples of our subconscious at work. We look at marriage counselors being able to predict marriage outcomes from one session, gamblers bodies knowing how a game is working before their conscious mind does, a closer look at speed dating and how the Pepsi challenge was really set up in Pepsi’s favor. These and many other examples give the reader a closer look at how our mind can help us, but it can also trick us.

The book is broken up into chapters that focus on our subconscious and conscious mind. It also looks at the different ways in which we use that and how it works against us. Our society prides itself on the amount of information we have at our fingertips, yet sometimes we function better with less. It was easy to get into and I found it very compelling. I was constantly looking for a chance to pick it up and read a bit more.

5 Intellectual/Emotional: This book is a perfect example of a fully intellectual book, but since it tackles a subject important to all, it has an emotional element as well.

3 Style/Readability: For the most part this book is very easy to get involved in. Everyone would find something of interest. That said, most would find something they don’t care about as well.

3 Long Term Impact: Blink’s ability to inspire others and draw their attention to how our brain works is very real. Plus, the information here is always going to be worthwhile.

11 out of 13 and well deserved. I think most anyone would enjoy this book. Give it a read.

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The Dark Tourist by Dom Joly

279 pages Trade Paperback (Non-Fiction Humor)
I stayed in hotel on the island of Santorini, in Greece, this summer and this book was sitting on a shelf. After reading a few pages I was drawn in. I had no idea who Dom Joly was and knew only what was on the book. Joly is a comedian and is apparently quite famous in England. He has had a few hit TV shows. At some point Dom sees a photo of women skiing in burkas in Iran. He decides it would be funny to go visit a bunch of places most people would never visit and treat it all like it is a big vacation.

Joly travels to Iran, Cambodia, North Korea, Assassination sites in America, Chernobyl and finally returns to Lebanon to revisit the home of childhood. The book focuses mainly on his misadventures and the trouble he has getting through airport security. Then we experience the constant questioning as to why he would want to be visiting the places he is visiting. We laugh at the strange looks he gets when he claims to be going to Iran to ski. We sweat it out during the interrogation he goes through in the USA when he tells them he really was going to Iran to ski. The reader is amused by the bizarre rules that must be followed as he goes on a guided tour in North Korea. We feel uncomfortable with his group as they are all tested in the radiation machine coming out of Chernobyl.

Dom’s style of writing is straight forward and humorous. It feels as if we get to know him as we continue on his trip. He is likable and his desire for adventure in forbidden places becomes a bit infectious. Honestly, I don’t see myself making plans to visit any of these places anytime soon, but seeing these sites from his eyes gives the reader a chance to see that around the world we are all very similar. We all are just trying to make it in this crazy world.

4 Intellectual/Emotional: I found out a lot about the places Dom visits and it really allowed me to see the people as people rather than strangers or enemies on the other side of the world.

3 Style/Readability: The book is light reading and with its lean towards humor I burned through it in just a few days.

2 Long Term Impact: I imagine this will get lost in the mountain of travel books, but I found it worthwhile for more reasons than it just being a “travel book”.

9 out of 13. If you are looking for a quick, humorous, read that will give you a little insight in the “darker” side of travel this book is perfect. Some may find it a waste of time.

Either way…

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A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

1040 pages Hardcover (Fantasy Fiction)
This is the 5th book in Martin’s A song of Ice and Fire series. Ever since I was introduced to A Game of Thrones I have been a huge Martin fan. The latest installment continues the story. However, it continues where we were left at the end of the 3rd book, A Storm of Swords. The fourth book, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons follow the same time line. At the beginning I was a little confused as some characters seem out of place. Martin uses this to tell some of the story that we didn’t know yet, but already know what happens.

A Dance with Dragons point of views focuses on Jon Snow, Tyrion, Daenerys, Bran Stack, and Devon Seaworth. Once we get towards the end of the book you see the timeline of the 4th and 5th book start to blend together and we see chapters from a few characters most readers were excited to read about. Most interesting is one character is not mentioned at all and that left me wondering what happened with that person.

Tyrion has traveled across the sea and now on the run because of the murder of his father. He starts the book with Magister Illyrio. He soon is shipped off with others and his adventures take him across the world. Jon Snow is now Commander of the Night’s Watch. He struggles with forming alliances with Stannis as well as the wildlings. The threat of the others is imminent and he is looking for anyway to protect the Seven Kingdoms. Daenerys has taken Meereen, but with eneimies on all sides within and without the city she struggles to control what she rules. Her dragons have grown almost large enough to ride and eat enough food to show it. Bran continues past the wall in search of the three eyed crow. Devon Seaworth, at the order of Stannis, sets out to find support for his king.

It is easy to compare this to A Feast for Crows. Both books follow the same timeline and both have a similar feel. It seems as Martin is setting us up. All the background and movements and relationships and alliances are all being developed. Honestly, this has the reader feeling as if it is all a bit slow paced. Happily, as the book goes on and the timelines remerge the things we are looking forward to start to build up and we can see major things are right over the horizon. Characters that we haven’t heard about in 2000 pages start to reappear. And then the book ends.
I truly enjoy Martin’s writing. His ability to get inside so many different people’s heads and allow you to “think” with them is what makes this series appealing. By itself this book is disappointing in that it is telling the “story in between the story”, but it is well written and I feel we’ll be rewarded once we have the whole series in hand…whenever that will be.

4 Intellectual/Emotional: Seeing the continued story of my favorite characters was great and Martin is fantastic at getting the reader to become involved with his characters.

3 Style/Readability: Martin’s style is still great and we continue with each chapter representing one point of view. However, the first part of the book is slow moving.

3 Long Term: This part of the story needs to be told, but in the future, when I have no doubt this series will be acclaimed as one of the greatest fantasy series, this will be a book people burn through to get to the next one.

10 out of 13 and well deserved. This series has been fantastic and is now getting to the point that expectations are going to be hard to live up to, but I hope that in the end we will all be wonderfully treated.

As always,
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The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson

1201 pages Paperback (Fantasy Fiction)

The Bonehunters finally starts to take the stories that have been told in the previous 5 books and starts to weave the stories together. That isn’t to say that there isn’t any new characters or new things, but by the end of this book I started to feel like I had a decent handle on how a large part of the story is connected. That said is still isn’t easy to put it into a concise easy to read summary.

Erickson excels at taking little bits of a story and making that small scene something a joy to read. When one of the main characters meet a random stranger and a small conversation happens it can be as engaging as an enormous army lying siege to a city. In this book we continue with Karsa the Toblakai barbarian as he finds himself vowing to kill the leader of an army. We also see a bit of Icarium and Mappo and follow their journey of memories. Ganoes Paran, now the Master of the Deck of Dragons, is trying to help his army avoid the chaos that has been set upon Seven Cities by a plague that seems to have quickly spread everywhere.

As always Erikson’s writing is superb. I was fortunate enough to read the whole book in two weeks. Being able to immerse myself in the story for long periods of time gave me a chance to really get into it. It was easier to see the connections between the different story lines. This book seems to up the momentum of the series and it feels like the following books will continue to chug right along.

3 Intellectual/Emotional: Since the story does jump around a lot it is hard to “get involved” with any particular character, but during the book a group finds themselves in a very “tight” situation and it was easy to find yourself stuck with them.

4 Style/Readability: With each book Erikson proves that he is a great writer and in this book starts to fulfill promises made in the other books. Erickson asks a lot of his reader, nothing is hand fed to you, and this can be both frustrating and fascinating.

3 Long Term Impact: Erickson is on the fringe of the fantasy scene. Unfortunately, the massiveness of the storyline may keep him from getting mass popularity. Even so, I think anyone with the dedication to read a huge fantasy series like this owes it to themselves to try this series.

10 out of 13: Although not my favorite this book had plenty of interesting scenes and was a great addition to the series. There is no doubt that Erikson is a great writer.

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A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin

978 Pages Paperback (Fantasy Fiction)

This is the fourth installment in the Song of Ice and Fire series. I re-read it because of the 5th book’s release just a couple weeks ago.

**Spoilers of previous books. Just read the series**

The two books are tied together as they happen simultaneously. Feast mainly follows characters such as Brienne, Cersei, Arya, Sansa, Jamie, and Sam, as well as, other minor characters.

Cersei, following the death of her father at Tyrion’s hand, has no taken control of King’s Landing in all but title. She tells her son Tommen what to do and rules in his place. Jamie has been sent out to start to establish control over the war torn landscape in the river lands. Brienne is fulfilling the vow she made to find Sansa and protect her, but has no way to know where she is. Meanwhile, the reader knows that Sansa has changed her looks and “become” the “daughter” of Littlefinger who know rules over the Eyrie. Arya finds herself in a House of Black and White. Here she is encouraged to give up herself and become no one. Sam has been charged with taking a young wildling and an old maester to Oldtown.

At times the book does feel somewhat lopsided since there are all these characters that you care about that “nothing” is happening with, but Martin’s writing is as always enjoyable. Even when you are reading about characters that you don’t like the story and writing still keep it interesting and worthwhile.

3 Intellectual/Emotional: Not quite as exciting as the other books, but feels like story that needs to be told to tell the WHOLE story.

4 Style/Readability: I think Martin one of the best living authors. I enjoy his writing for it’s ability to be complex without losing the reader.

4 Long-term impact: It seems that Martin has moved to the forefront of the fantasy genre and it doesn’t look like this will pass soon, rightfully so.

11 out of 13: I could go on about how much I love Martin. But I think I have already made that clear.

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Midnight Tides by Steven Erickson

617 Pages Trade Paperback (Fantasy Fiction)
**This is the 5th book in the series. I won’t attempt to spoil much, but references to past things may reveal unwanted info from the other books.**

Midnight Tides takes a jump away from the other stories of the Malazan Empire. At the end of The House of Chains Trull starts to tell a story. Midnight Tides is the story of his people and the events that happened before we meet him in that book. The book describes the conflict of the Tiste Edur and the Letherii. It begins with the Tiste Edur tribes having been unified under the Warlock King. He seems to want to expand the control that the Edur people have. In order to do this he sends Trull and his two brothers, Fear and Rhulad, as well as a few other warriors to claim a sword in the icy wastes to the north. **Skip the rest of this paragraph to avoid spoilers** Rhulad is the first to touch the sword and is struck dead. Upon returning to his people his comes back alive and in doing so sets himself up as the new emperor of the Edur people. The sword gives him extraordinary skills in battle and also the ability to come back from the dead.

In Lether our main interaction is with two humorous characters, Tehol Beddict and his man servant, Bugg. Early on Tehol is hired by three female warriors to make a lot of money. Tehol apparently was extremely rich at one point, but lost everything and currently resides on the roof of his house. Seen as a crazy person that lost it all, he really has a lot more going on than he lets anyone know.

The main force of the story is the Edur attack on Lether, and the events leading up to it. Lether is known for its greed and treachery. The Letherii break treaty with the Edur by seal hunting on their land. This leads to an advance of the Edur people to take Lether. We see a lot of the political maneuverings in Lether, particularly, how Tehol and Bugg seem to have their hands in almost all dealings within the city.
My favorite parts of the book are the interactions of Tehol and Bugg. They eventually get involved with a thief that was killed, but still lives on, and a little girl with a similar problem. The lives of the three brothers Trull, Fear and Rhulad also make for an interesting read. Some of the politicking that doesn’t involve these characters gets a little boring, but I can see the importance of it as the book goes on.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and find Erickson’s writing to be as fantastic as ever. This book really doesn’t do much in explaining the mysteries of the other books, but I feel like I have a wide view of everything that is going on in the world. In a way this book could stand on its own in comparison to the previous books, although there is certainly more to tell. I feel as if each book has been setting us up for grand things to come as if we are in the 1st act of a play. I look forward to the second act beginning.

3 Intellectual/Emotional –It is easy to get involved with the above mentioned characters. But other parts were a bit stale.

4 Style/Readability- It is a true joy to read Erickson’s writing. His characters, though fantastic, seem very real and easy to “like” even if you don’t like them.

3 Long Term Impact – I think it is only a matter of time before Erickson is
recognized for his great contributions to the fantasy genre. He keeps the fantasy feelings alive without allowing you to foresee what is going to happen.

10 out of 13. This isn’t my favorite of the Malazan Series, but I enjoyed it for what it was. I do highly recommend this series. It is a challenge to put it all together, but I can already tell that I will reread these books.

As always,
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The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall

337 pages Trade Paperback (Realistic Fiction)

I was in a used book store and as I looked around I found this colorful looking book. Having a lot of interest in Art I bought the book. As soon as I started reading it I was completely transfixed. It has been a while since I have been so engrossed in a book. I was carrying it with me everywhere, using every spare moment to pick it up and read a few pages.

The book focuses on the life of Cy in the early 1900’s. Cy’s father, a fisherman, died in a storm right before his birth. His mother runs a hotel that specializes in helping people with sicknesses, especially consumption. Hall weaves a tale of a small town and growing up in it. The village of Morecombe becomes a character on its own.
Although Cy is the main character and the story follows him, it goes deeply into the lives of those around him. It starts with his mother and what she goes through to support her son and the town they live in. It continues with Riley. This strange old man jumps into Cy’s life and leads him into the life of a tattoo artist. As time passes Cy eventually moves to America and sets up shop on Coney Island. As he becomes engrossed in strange life of a tattoo artist he meets a lady named Grace.
Sarah Hall is a fantastic writer. Her use of metaphor and simile are among the finest I have read. The characters are real and you get to see them from all sides. Cy is surrounded by strong people and his quiet nature keeps him from being fully known. Only after reading the whole book do you start to see the complexity of this main character.

Anyone with interest in literature will be engaged by this book. The writing, the characters, the story and the picture of the times makes each page worthwhile.

4 Emotional/intellectual: Each character in the book is interesting and in depth. I found myself being as involved with the “unlikeable” characters as the likeable ones.

5 Style/Readability: Considering I don’t know anyone that has heard of this writer I was blown away. Her style is fantastic and I was constantly engaged.

3 Long Term Impact: Hall isn’t a famous writer…YET. She has 4 books to her name and as time goes on I feel she will be more and more recognized for her great work.

12 out of 13: For a virtually unknown writer this is fantastic. Although this book may be slightly dense for some readers I think most will find this book very much worth their while.

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Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

369 Pages Trade Paperback (Fiction)

Good Omens is a collaboration by Pratchett and Gaiman written before either of them had really hit it as authors. The book starts out 11 years before the Apocalypse. An Angel and a Demon are at a hospital to witness the birth of the Anti-Christ. A quick switch by satanic nuns leaves the pair looking after the wrong child. Both characters think they are better off with the world staying as it is and think raising the child with an equal measure of good and evil will lead to a longer existence on earth.
11 years later we join with Newton Pulsifer and Anathema Device. Anathema is the distant relative of Agnes Nutter. Agnes is the only fully accurate witch to see into the future. Anathema ancestors have all been keeping track of and cross referencing Agnes’ predictions. Ananthema has realized that the end of the world is near. Newton Pulsifer just wants a job and soon finds himself working to rid the world of evil witches. This eventually leads him to Anathema and they soon are working to save the world.

The book is a lot of fun. The quirkiness of the characters makes for interesting things at every page. The Angel and the Demon make for the most fun using minor miracles to make their lives easier. It reads very easily and I was encouraged to keep reading whenever I had a chance.

After the story is done the writers both comment on how the book was made. Each wrote different parts. Then they would work over the phone finishing ideas and tuning other parts. It seems as if it was a true collaboration through and through.

Overall, it was a quick and enjoyable read. It was funny and engaging throughout

2 Intellectual/Emotional – It was a fun exersize in seeing the end of the world, but I never felt that invested in the book.

5 Readability/Style – Both writers are great and this book shows it on every page.

3 Long Term – Giaman and Pratchett are both famous writers. This collaboration will stand the test of time. That said, both authors have works that stand better on their own keeping it from earning a 4.

10 out of 13 – I think most readers would find this book worth their time. If you haven’t read either author I suggest this as a lead in and then check out their other books.

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The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan/ Brandon Sanderson

766 Pages Hardcover (Fantasy Fiction)

This is the 12th book in the series of The Wheel of Time. If you are a regular reader of my blog you will probably notice that none of the first 12 books are on the blog. I started reading this series about 12 years ago. I was very interested in the books and the series especially up through the 6th book. After that I lost interest overall, but continued to read the series. After the 11th book was printed Robert Jordan died. He knew this was happening and Brandon Sanderson was hired to finish the series. Jordan had written a large part of the final book and the rest was written out as notes. After his death is was decided to break the book into 3 volumes. This is the first of those books.
If you haven’t read the books up to this point and care about spoilers skip to the end where I grade the book. In fact most of this review won’t make sense since it will assume you know most of the story so far.
A great storm is growing across the land. Everyone is covered in a cloudy sky that never goes away. Everywhere you look bad things are happening. The taint of the Dark One is revealing itself across the land. It is springtime, but crops aren’t sprouting, food is rotting unnaturally fast and buildings rearrange themselves overnight.
The book focuses on two characters. One is Egwene. In the previous books the White Tower, home of the Aes Sedai, has been split in two. A rebel force has a standing army at siege with the tower. Elaida, a crazy Red Aes Sedai, has been raised to the Amyrilyn Seat and has disbanded the Blue Ajah. Egwene was seated as Amyrilyn in the Rebel camp, but was then taken captive by the White Tower. A large part of the book focuses on her struggles to gain power within the tower. Egwene also finds out information regarding the Black Ajah and attempts to bring their existence to the light.
Rand Al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, struggles with pretty much everything. His main goal is to get the Seanchan to stop their war with him so that they can focus their efforts on the Final Battle. He must also feed his armies. Most importantly, he must prepare himself for the final battle. The pressure continues to build and the only option he sees is to make himself hard. By hardening himself he starts to give up the things that he hopes to defend. Besides this he must deal with two of the forsaken. Semirage has been captured and attempts at getting information are hindered by Rand’s veto on torture. Greandal has been eluding Rand, but he works hard to eliminate her. His friends and advisors do what they can to show him how to feel again. Rand feels that if he gives in to his emotions than he won’t be able to do what is required of him.
Sanderson has done a great job of taking over this series. Personally, I think this has been the best book since the 6th. Jordan had added so much to the series and all this political intrigue had gotten bloated and uninteresting to follow. Sanderson had the benefit of bringing the story to a close. So many things had been left undone and he is the one that gets to present the problems being solved.
The style of the books continues in the vein of Jordan. Sanderson takes things from Jordan and makes it a part of his writing. Examples of this are Women “sniffing” when they are annoyed or men “knuckling” their mustache when uncomfortable. Unfortunately, this leaves a reader with a feeling like the book is somewhat immature. By this I don’t mean immature writing, but that it is written for younger readers. When making comparisons to other writers such as George R.R. Martin and Stephen Erickson the characters don’t seem as real. This is a fantasy series and I may have been spoiled with other more realistic fantasy writers.
3 Emotional/Intellectual: This book was a page turner and I was mostly invested in Egwene struggles. Her inner monologue made for the best part of the books.
3 Style/Readability: This is a tough one. The style of the book was somewhat annoying at times, but I feel like this was a compromise of Sanderson’s to continue with Jordan’s legacy. That said, I did get into the book and looked forward to reading more.
3 Long Term Impact: This series is already set as a major part of Fantasy Fiction. Regardless of how I feel about it is going to last for quite some time. Also this is one of the better book s of the series. Realistically, I feel that as time passes The Wheel of Time is going to be overshadowed by better series.

9 out of 13. From my perspective the whole series should have gone like this: Take books 1-6, then take the events of books 7-11 and put them into one or two books and cut out a lot of the unnecessary chaff. Then continue with this book and finish out the series. I plan on reading the rest of the books. I have gotten this far so I’ll finish it. That said, I wouldn’t recommend this series to a new reader. If you have read a lot of the series it is worth your time to continue. If you haven’t started pick up another writer.

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House of Chains By Steven Erikson

1015 page (Paperback)
Fantasy Fiction

This is the 4th book in the Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. The first section of the book follows the adventures of Karsa Orlong. As the book continues Erikson adds to the tale that was told in the second book, Deadhouse Gates.

Karsa Orlong comes from a history of warriors. He plans on returning his tribe to glory. He is joined by two other warriors, Bairoth Gild and Delum Thord. The three young men start a trek across the lands of their enemies leaving a trail of blood in their wake. As they continue on they see that much of the lands have been abandoned. After furthering their travels they are lead to places they never expected.

As the book continues we are drawn back to the conflicts laid down in Deadhouse Gates. Adjunct Tavore has been given the lead of the Empress’ army that consists mostly of new recruits. Her goal is to walk into the Whirlwind and take on Sha’ik’s Army of the Apocalypse. Much of the book focuses on the interactions of the various characters and the buildup to the impending battle.

Crokus, now known as Cutter, and Apsalar search for the Throne of Shadow on a mysterious moving island. Two new characters, Trull Sengar, a Tiste Edur, and Onrack, a T’lan Imass, quest through various warrens of magic. A friendship seems to form as their story starts to intersect with the other characters in the book.

This book takes a lot of the elements from the previous three books and startes to tie things together. We experience The Crippled God manipulating to come to power. The other gods also been use their influence to set themselves up to an advantageous position.

Erikson fills his writing with promises of returns in the future. He gives the reader tidbits of information to help flesh out the whole, but never gives you enough to really know the whole story. His writing is superb and easy to get involved in. Although, I am close to 4000 pages in I can’t claim to know even half of what the story is, but at the same time I feel as if a promise has been made that will be fulfilled by the end of the books. The characters have been much more fleshed out. Karsa, who was previously an unnamed character in the series, goes through enormous growth throughout the three years that passes in the book.

I felt as if this book was in some way filler in between the other books. That isn’t saying that it wasn’t worthwhile, but that a lot of the back story needed to be told to tell what is going to happen in the future books. Roughly three years have passed and that time shows us how we get to the confrontation of the two armies.

So far as the fantasy genre goes this series is one of the best I have read and I am excited to see how the rest of the story plays out.

3 Intellectual/Emotional: Karsa seems to be the main character of the book and his growth is a highlight of the book.

5 Style/Readability: Erikson’s ability to draw you into the story and create a world that seems real is fantastic.

3 Long Term: Eventually Erikson will be added to the greats of fantasy writing and this series will be towards the top of the list. That said, this book probably won’t be considered the “best” of the series.

11 out of 13. If you think you would enjoy a fantasy series that you can devote a year to, you should be reading this series. Those that are looking for some light reading may want to look elsewhere. Erikson writes for those that are willing to devote themselves to a book for awhile.

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