Books

[Shale]

So I discovered my local library's e-book lending system last month, and as a result I have a lot to get through here.

Firefight: The second part of Brandon Sanderson's dystopian YA where the world has been taken over by supervillains. It does the middle-chapter-of-a-trilogy thing pretty much to a T, but it's a fun, quick read. Plus as you'd expect from something with "Brandon Sanderson" on the cover there are good action scenes and a complex magic (-slash-superpowers) system where figuring out the underlying logic is key to victory. Reading the third installment now.

Caliban's War: Second volume of The Expanse, which is not a trilogy so it doesn't hit the same Part 2 beats as Firefight, thankfully. Some parts feel like a retread of Leviathan Wakes but the new perspectives are well done and it's overall solid bleak-ass space opera.

Underground Airlines: A really, really strong entry in the "what if the Civil War didn't turn out like it should have" alternate history genre. It's an engaging noir story, but also a disconcertingly accurate study in how people, and the American culture in particular, can rationalize and adapt to what ought to be an unthinkably cruel state of affairs. Bonus points for possibly-unintentional timeliness on that front!

Veronica Mars: The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line: And speaking of noir. This is a direct sequel to the movie, and returns to episodic storytelling along the lines of the TV show. Or at least what the TV show would be if it got a new season on cable, since the mystery revolves around spring break in Neptune and they don't exactly defy the stereotypes on that one, with a few scenes that would definitely not fly unedited on networks. They mostly get the characters' voices right, and while the ending falls apart somewhat it's not enough to ruin the overall experience. I'll pick up the second (and apparently final?) one sooner or later.

Ancillary Sword: Sequel to Ancillary Justice, which was an excellent, unconventionally told space opera/revenge story that won the Hugo and Nebula a few years ago. Sadly, it's a letdown, failing to meaningfully follow up on the first book's premise or ending and instead throwing the hero into her own version of Deep Space Nine. It's a decently done DS9 ripoff, but that's not even close to what I wanted from this. Luckily there's a third book...

Ancillary Mercy: Okay, that's more like it. Lots of stuff introduced in Sword that was pointless at the time is used well here -- it doesn't quite rise to the level of paying off all that stuff, more like salvaging it, but it still makes for a good book. It also manages to keep the story personal for the protagonist while still involving the larger plotline that Sword used as window dressing. I wouldn't recommend Sword on its own, but it's worth reading to get to Mercy.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Had to read a couple of books for the program I'm starting in January.

The Short Bus by Jonathon Mooney- A book about a guy who travelled around the country chatting with people with different learning disabilities and observing how they were treated by people and the education system. Very informative and insightful. One of the stories is about a young girl who is both deaf and blind (or mostly blind at least, she can understand sign language if you do it inches from her face). The author says, despite his own disability, that he didn't really think of her as an actualized human being because of her deformity and disability, but she just experienced the world with her own sensory feelings; touch, taste, smell. I definitely think it's a good book to read if you want to understand how people with disabilities are treated in our society, but a bit sad at times.

The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King - An account of the history of Native relations in both Canada and the US by a Cherokee author living in Canada. Much like the previous book, focuses heavily on the dehumanization of a particular group of people, but takes a very different approach. This book is quite acidic and sarcastic in its assessment of North American society's treatment of native people. The narratives about civilizing Native people by taking their children and extracting them from their culture is utterly infuriating and cruel, and its effects on Native society as a whole are quite terrible. I think this book gave me a much better understanding of how far we still have to go to, as a society, treating all people with kindness and respect. Also of interest was that it mentioned Trump being someone who tried to infringe on Native land, but of course it was written before the whole election cycle.

Also decided to tackle other stuff once I finished that.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov - I decided to read some classic sci-fi, and it's decent. Even though it's relatively short, it covers a long period of time and follows lots of different characters, clearly going more for setting building and psychological analysis of the human condition and tech than any character analysis. Very male-dominated in a way that would make Tolkien or Shakespeare blush.

The Hammer of God by Karen Miller - I haven't finished this one yet, but it's my favorite of the three Godspeaker novels thus far.

[SnowFire]

I liked the first half of Ancillary Justice, for all that it was a weird book.  Just...  stopped, after the drug addict escaped.  I should get back to it.

Re Foundation series: I'm probably being unfair, but I could never bring myself to buy the fundamental conceit of the Foundation series.  Like, space samurai wield laser swords to fight over the Galaxy?  Sure.  An alien has laser vision which inexplicably means stuff like reading a book behind a door but doesn't work on lead and can burn stuff on command?  Why not.  But human behavior is something we know a lot more about, and according to Foundation, predicting one random supergenius is hard, but predicting a whole group of people is easy.  Wat.  No it's not.  You can at least research a single person and get a guess of their values, their desires, their habits, and so on.  Mobs do things that any one person wouldn't do, and further, are very chaotic based on semi-random things that instigate them - a charismatic leader, a sudden surprise event, a random outburst, etc.  Controlling groups is hard.  (Heck, it's pretty easy to see that from democratic elections which are close...  predicting 2017 America from 2015 requires a good guess about whether JEB or Hillary will win, for example.  Or even some crazy random unexpected thing.  Let alone predicting 2117 America.)

[Captain K]

Yeah as much as I love Asimov's other works, I've never been able to get into Foundation.  Tried to read it twice and dropped it twice.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Posted this on Facebook, but I will repost for fun.

I'm doing a book reading challenge for the year, meeting some random criteria in order to get out of my comfort zone / just read some cool stuff.

Book 1: Karen Miller - The Hammer of God (Godspeaker #3) (A book over 500 pages long) *Note that I started this in 2016 but read the majority in 2017

Hammer of God is probably the best book in the trilogy. It features the rich and diverse cast of the previous book but ups the stakes of the story, having the two primary factions meet head-on. There’s lots of character conflicts and other fun character pieces, and the action keeps the story flowing. It also has some pretty awesome female characters.

Book 2: Elie Wiesel - Night (A memoir)

This is a book about the Holocaust, a subject which makes me introspective on the nature of humans and the cruelty of humanity. It goes into graphic details of the dehumanization of Jews in Nazi Germany, and follows a teenage boy’s struggles with the physical hunger and stress, the mental weariness, and the emotional distress of grappling with having faith in your religion despite what you’ve been through (and features a lot of different point of views on the subject). The end talks about how to look at these events in a modern lens and the importance of standing up for injustice.

Book 3 is Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach, which I am a little over 1/3rd through. It's about a Native girl living in northern British Columbia and how their experiences have been altered by residential schools and alcoholism. It also has a mystical and mysterious element to it, which is also interesting.

[NotMiki]

A Borrowed Man, by Gene Wolfe.  Sci fi think piece about the clone of a famous author who is treated as the disposable property of a library, to be consulted and checked out by humans, and to be destroyed once interest in his life and work has passed.

Naturally, naturally! it is a Raymond Chandler-esque noir detective story, and a pretty good one at that.  I say Raymond Chandler-esque - it seems to me that Wolfe went out of his way to try and match the narrative flow and writing style of Chandler, although he lacks the poetic one-liners.

[superaielman]

Legion 1/2- Brandon Sanderson short stories. They are delightful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_(series) The wiki review covers what matters here. It reminds me just how fun Sanderson is when he plays with an idea, rather than trying to constantly worldbuild and fit everything into the cosmosphere.

[AndrewRogue]

The Lies of Locke Lamora

A bit schlocky, but exactly my kind of schlock. Lots and lots of fun character stuff and con artist shenanigans. A little disappointed in how some of the turns went, but overall a very strong recommend.

[dunie]

Hillbilly Elegy is trash. I'm exhausted trying to live in the same world as my white liberal colleagues. Putting this parallel movement to the side for a bit.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I decided to catch up on my reading journal today.

Book 3 - Eden Robinson - Monkey Beach

The book is a mostly realistic book about life in an Indigenous community in northern British Columbia with some supernatural elements from traditional Haisla stories sprinkled in. I am traditionally not that fond of mixing supernatural elements with stories set in our world, but because it was based on tales and legends, I thought it was actually insightful and interesting. It’s definitely a slice of life with a bit of a dark twist, and it definitely brings into focus the modern Indigenous experience in Canada and how it is both similar and different to my own life experience. It’s part teenage coming of age novel and part dark commentary, and I think it works pretty well.

Book 4 - Carmine Gallo - Talk like TED

I decided to pick up a self-help book to help me be a more engaging public speaker. To be honest, the book was pretty corny and full of advice that seemed pretty obvious, but I felt like some of it still needed to be reinforced. It felt like one of these manufactured stories of people just to sell books. (i guess it worked?)

Book 5 - Robert Jordan - A New Spring

This book is the prequel book to the Wheel of Time series, set around a monumental event in the backstory. It is a story that primarily revolves around Moiraine, the mentor character of the Wheel of Time series who is a widely beloved character in the original story by most readers, including me. I don't think the book is an essential part of the Wheel of Time experience, but it was an enjoyable read, especially to learn more about a couple of my favorite characters, as well as some insight into the the White Tower and how a 'normal' pre-WoT Tower would have looked. And not that it is all that surprising, but it also shows a case of White Tower meddling in the politics of other countries. It spends a lot of time talking about dress color and dress design which is one of the quirky things about Jordan.

Book 6 - John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men

It's one of the classics, and it's short and sweet. It's a very evocative story, and from a modern lens it reads as a little strange, but I think it is a valueble insightful into the way that migrant workers during the Depression lived and I can resonate with the sadness associated with having nowhere to call your own. Very sad end to the story.

Book 7 - Nina George – The Little Paris Bookshop

This was a random recommendation that I decided to try out, especially since it's not my usual type of book - I usually lean away from sentimental stories because I often find them insincere. This one is pretty good - it has a bit of an unreliable narrator, lots of great life lessons, and a sincere sentimental feeling and a feeling of seizing the moment that I really enjoy. I think the main character is a bit of a weirdo - lying to yourself about something as important as what he did is quite interesting and weird - but it works well anyway. He’s on a journey to stop being a recluse and living again after so long of being heartbroken. I also always think it’s interesting when stories build up the suspense and interest in meeting a character for a whole book and then you finally do. 

[Grefter]

New Spring came originally from a short story that was (from memory I read it in high school, Super?) the start and the end of the book essentially.  It absolutely is a story for fans, especially from when it was released (before book 8 I think? Edit - just after book 10), when you had not had any Moiraine for a long time and a bit of retrospective went a long way.

Definitely the book that I don't give enough credit and has aged better in my memory than others.

[superaielman]

It was based on a short story that came out pre 9-11 yeah. The new spring novella expanded upon it. There were supposed to be three, the second was centered around Tam finding Rand and his rise in the Illianer army, and the third about how how Moiraine and Lan's journey to The Two Rivers before The Eye of the World. It's a very good look at the White Tower and the world in general before Rand changes everything. RJ put a lot of things in there that he wasn't planning on putting in the main books. (Sanderson ended up reusing the Aes Sedai test for Nynaeve but hard to blame him; he wrote something like 90% of the last three books).

It's also the first POV from Lan that I can recall. Moiraine had been gone for a long time by that point too yeah.

[Shale]

I'm reading Mercury Falls for book club and it's.....Good Omens fanfic, basically? But also the first part of a series? It's a dark comedy where a disaffected mortal working for a weird group that knows exactly enough to be dangerous about the coming apocalypse works with an angel and some demons/fallen angels who've gotten attached to this whole "Earth" thing to try and stop Armageddon, and also there's a mortal Antichrist who has no idea what he's getting into. There's even a bunch of references to bands that were big in the 70s, and one of the angels has a classic car that explodes. Sadly it comes off way more as a ripoff than an homage.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Book 8 - J.R.R. Tolkein - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Remarkably, I have never actually read the Lord of the Rings before, so I decided that this is the year. Extremely good book with some fantastic setting and character work, and engaging and enjoyable from beginning to end. Despite being the genre setter in many ways, it has a couple of things about it that I think work to its great advantage relative to many other books in the genre. I think Frodo is a well-written character who isn’t the boring Big Damn Hero trope that plagues many newer fantasy novels; his strengths lie in his thoughtfulness and morality rather than in his fighting ability, and he is never portrayed in a way that really over-glorifies the character. I also like that it is pretty combat-light, as I find that is a part of fantasy that I am extremely bored by. It has some psychological fuckery aspects, but not much hand-to-hand fighting.

Obviously the story has some problems from a feminist and racial diversity perspective, but I’m rarely going to ding an author too much for writing in a way that is in line for his time period. There are some definite luddite and anti-industrial aspects to the story which I’m a little bit uneasy about, for all that I understand the sentiment. I’m excited to read #2!

[Luther Lansfeld]

Book 9 - H.G. Wells - The War of the Worlds

Ah, the classic story of aliens from Mars invading. It’s not a bad book, obviously feels a bit dated since it was written in 1898, but it is really not too bad. It’s a little characterization-light for my tastes, but the action is pretty intense. I liked its commentary on British imperialism (making analogies of the way the Martians invaded to the way Europeans invaded Tasmania and wiped out all of the populace) and its references to how Martians simply treat us like we treat other animals (comparing their destruction of human cities to boys kicking over anthills, and his commentary on how rabbits would probably be horrified by humans’ consumption of animal flesh if they were intelligent enough to care). It’s not a bad book, but it has a little too much disaster-porn for me and it is quite depressing and has very few uplifting moments.

[superaielman]

So I discovered my local library's e-book lending system last month, and as a result I have a lot to get through here.

Like a scrub I just found out about this too. FX has a fantastic selection of ebooks. I've been reading tons for my bookclub.  It's a bookclub focused around YA/adult fiction. Twist is that the group is predominately female and tends to focus on modern books (IE Mistborn is a 'classic' to them) so it's very different than my usual selection of books. Still fun. Every single book we've read has a female lead and author.


The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley- Decent YA from the early 80's. Plot's not amazing but the character work is good and it is very differnet from the other books of that era that I've read. 6/10ish.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik- This was legit good. Uprooted's got a heavy Slavic/Polish influence; the main character is partly inspired by Baba Yaga. Setting's good and so is the plot, but where it really shines is the character work. The replacement between the main and her best friend is one of the best friendships I've read in a book, and the main romantic relationship's amazing too. Marek deserves credit as well. He's too complex a character to get into without spoilers but I enjoyed his work as well. Everyone's motivations in the book make complete sense, this is something really rare in a novel. 9/10ish.

At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen- Ugh. This is set in the Scottish Highlands which is one of the coolest places in the world, at the end of WW2 which provides a compelling backdrop... and it's still awful. Unlikeable cast, weak plot (I call the male characters Angus Mcshirtless for a reason), and the most unlikeable duo in a relationship since Shion and Kevin. Complete dumpster fire. Oh well, not every book will be a hit.

Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier- Much better. Just finished this last night. Set in 9th century Ireland, the book follows a wise woman on her quest for revenge against a corrupt chieftain. Her sidekick Grim is a lot of fun; definitely a dark knight type which fits considering the main character. Somewhat dark at times but that doesn't bother me. 7/10

[Luther Lansfeld]

Book 10-1 - Lois McMaster Bujold - Shards of Honor (first part of Cordelia’s Honor)

This book is very fast-paced an enjoyable, and has a lot of action and love and intrigue packed into a small number of pages. Both of the main characters are quite endearing, and that is really what makes the book tick.

Book 10-2 - Lois McMaster Bujold - Barrayar (second part of Cordelia’s Honor)

The second half definitely has more character work and ends up being more politically intriguing and helps you understand Aral, Bothari, and Kou a lot better. The first part is a little on the slow side, but the book really picks up after the first attack on Aral. Overall, though, a very fast-paced, nice book that captures some themes about both feminism and disability/mental health acceptance. Kou struggles with depression because his disability makes him outcast by society. Bothari kind of reminds me of Lenny from Of Mice And Men, except that he is taken care of better and ends up with a happier conclusion to the story.

On a side note, the degree to which the back of the book spoils the story is hilarious.

[Hunter Sopko]

Yay! Ciato now knows about epic shopping trips. ::Nods::

[Grefter]

Book 10-1 - Lois McMaster Bujold - Shards of Honor
Book 10-2

I see what you did there.

Edit - I like it.

[superaielman]

Book 10-1 - Lois McMaster Bujold - Shards of Honor (first part of Cordelia’s Honor)

This book is very fast-paced an enjoyable, and has a lot of action and love and intrigue packed into a small number of pages. Both of the main characters are quite endearing, and that is really what makes the book tick.

Book 10-2 - Lois McMaster Bujold - Barrayar (second part of Cordelia’s Honor)

The second half definitely has more character work and ends up being more politically intriguing and helps you understand Aral, Bothari, and Kou a lot better. The first part is a little on the slow side, but the book really picks up after the first attack on Aral. Overall, though, a very fast-paced, nice book that captures some themes about both feminism and disability/mental health acceptance. Kou struggles with depression because his disability makes him outcast by society. Bothari kind of reminds me of Lenny from Of Mice And Men, except that he is taken care of better and ends up with a happier conclusion to the story.

On a side note, the degree to which the back of the book spoils the story is hilarious.

Barrayar was written several years and books after Shards of Honor and it shows. Bujold does a good job mixing modern social issues in with the scifi, you are going to really dig the books.

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams- Stephen King short story collection. I prefer his short stories to his actual books nowadays because he has to cut the shit and actually write a coherent plot in them. It's a fun read; the short story on pain is outstanding.

[dunie]

Attending one of Roxane Gay's readings of Hunger tomorrow. Kinda psyched, kinda not. I hope I am pleasantly surprised by those who show up. It'll be the first reading I go to and since I enjoyed her audiobook and my own partial readings of Bad Feminist some time ago I'm looking forward.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Book 11 - Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid’s Tale

Great book with some great feminist themes and wonderful mystery and suspense. The lack of knowledge that the main character has and thus you don’t have much knowledge either. It works pretty well. The sex in this book is absolutely gross and definitely reminds of what what sex might be like if it were only used for a purely utilitarian, and slightly creepy, purpose. The whole society is so loveless and sterile and it’s hard to see what even the people at the top get out of it.

Book 12 - Leanne Simpson - Islands of Decolonial Love

This is a series of short stories about a variety of things; relationships between people (both platonic and romantic), relationships between Indigenous people and white people in Canada, interspersed with some short stories about spirits and other stories from the Mississauga Nation. At times, a very dark set of stories, but very powerful and enjoyable.

Book 13 - Brandon Sanderson - Infinity Blade - Awakening

This is a novella by Sanderson that is a prequel? to some game that came out for the iOS, and it’s short and pretty shlocky, but enjoyable. It has some prerequisite Sanderson plot twists and lots of witty banter, but it certainly is not an all time great book.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Book 14 - Mercedes Lackey - One Good Knight

Another pretty fluffy and light book about a princess who is not as beautiful as a princess should be and thus is rejected by her mother. The story mixes humor (The Tradition, a set of rules dictated by what is ‘supposed’ to happen in fairy tales) and seriousness together, and it ends up being a pretty good story with some very sweet moments. It has some pretty cute plot twists. I am always a sucker for the ‘dragons aren’t actually evil princess kidnappers’ plot twist which I have read in a couple of stories now. The female knight who disguises herself as a man plot twist is also quite cute and well done, and the ending is very odd but fun.

Book 15 - J.R.R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers

The Two Towers is quite a downer novel compared to the previous couple, but it is very good. I think the adventures of Sam, Frodo, and Gollum are the single best part of the series, even if the stuff with some of the other characters isn’t as great (Aragorn always makes everything more boring). I absolutely loved the section with Merry, Pippin, and Treebeard and I am not sure why they eliminated so much of that from the Two Towers movie. I think Fellowship is a bit of a better novel just due to being a little more consistently well-written and not having parts without the hobbits, who I feel like collectively drive the story, but I still really enjoyed it.

Book 16 - J.R.R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings - Return of the King

The weakest of the three LotR novels, I feel like it unravels a bit at the end of the Frodo/Sam/Gollum section which ends on a weirdly unexciting note, and the Aragorn stuff is still very uninteresting but he feels like a very central character of the novel (hence the name ‘Return of the King’). It’s not like it’s a bad novel; I really enjoyed Merry and Pippin’s points of view, and Denthor is a weirdly effective semi-antagonist of that book, but it could have been done better. I am not sure how much I liked the post-Sauron stuff with Saramun either; it felt weirdly short and anticlimactic.

Book 17 - Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451

I can definitely see why this book is well-received, and I did enjoy its themes of anti-intellectualism and book burning, but it feels very old and reinforces stereotypes about women that they are vacuous and only think about stupid, unimportant things while the men of the story are the movers and the thinkers. I understand that it reflects the time that the story was written, but from a modern lens there are better novels to get your fix on similar themes (hi, Handmaid’s Tale). I think the novel is at its best when it’s exploring the psychological horror and mild insanity of the main character, but after a while, the story seems to devolve into weirdness.

Book 18 - Angela Nagle - Kill All Normies

This is a novel which focuses on how the Internet has been used as a force of political chaos on the right, laying down the foundations to which the alt-right has risen. It talks a lot about the rise of Milo as a figure who represents everything that traditional conservatism isn’t, but rather this new trollish, outrageous aesthetic taken on by the new right/reddit/4-chan culture. It explores how the corresponding online movement from the left’s oversensitivity to criticism was exploited by people like Milo on the right for their own political gain (by making themselves the heroes of the anti-PC movement and daring the left to challenge him). It also documents how the manosphere and the alt-right are intertwined (not necessarily one and the same, but there is a lot of overlap). The book does take a shot at gaming which i thought was totally unnecessary, but otherwise I enjoyed it. The parts of the novel about alt-right confirmed most of my worst fears about the toxicity of the Internet while the parts about the far left and its distaste for free exchange of ideas was just depressing. I have found myself no longer saying things that I think around people who are part of the far left in fear of saying something that doesn't fall in line with ideology, which... yeah. (I'm sure this book isn't very popular among these people.)

[Captain K]

Binge-reread the whole Wheel of Time series.  Not much to say that hasn't been said before, but holy fuck does Jordan have a hard-on for Elayne.  I think she gets more screentime than any of the ta'veren.

Best character is Rodel Ituralde.  He kicks Seanchan ass while looking fancy.  And resists Graendel's compulsion.

Let's play which Forsaken *actually* deserved to be Nae'blis!  Based on their contributions (or lack thereof) to the Shadow in the modern day.

14) Lanfear/Cyndane:  Messed with Rand's head a bit.  Perma-shielded Asmodean so he would have to be subject to Rand.  Did a bad job of using Compulsion on Perrin.  Last Chance really was a good name for her.  I think she only got a pass because she opened the Bore in the past.

13) Moghedien:  Led a group of Black Ajah that couldn't even win with a bunch of ter'angraels.  Got her ass kicked by Nynaeve.  Got captured and forced to teach weaves to Elayne, Nynaeve, and Egwene.  Snooped around dreamworld a bit.  Got captured by random Seanchan.

12) Aginor/Osan'gar:  Got his ass kicked by noob Rand.  Made an unsuccessful attempt to kill Rand.  Got his ass kicked by a random Aes Sedai.

11) Balthanel/Aran'gar:  Got his ass kicked by a tree.  Killed three random Aes Sedai in Salidar.  Gave Egwene headaches.

10) Be'lal:  Took control of Tear.  Got wrecked.

9) Sammael:  Took control of Illian.  Got wrecked.

8) Rahvin:  Took control of Andor.  Got wrecked.

7) M'Hael:  Turned most of the Black Tower and still managed to lose to Androl and Logain.  Was ineffective in the Last Battle and got his shit beat by Egwene.

6) Asmodean:  Gave tattoos to Couladin which led to the Shaido rampaging across the world.  Taught Rand how to saidin good.

5) Ishmael/Moridin:  Gave bad dreams to the three boys.  Permanently wounded Rand.  Killed Lanfear so she could be resurrected.  Got the Dark One sealed because he True Powered too hard.

4) Graendel/Hessalam:  Took a vacation in Arad Doman.  Compelled some minor leaders but not who she really should have.  Got Aran'gar killed.  Killed Asmodean.  Successfully messed with the heads of three of the four Great Generals.  Got her ass kicked by Aviendha.

3) Semirhage:  Convinced the Seanchan to invade.  Permanently wounded Rand.

2) Mesaana:  Put the Black Ajah in control of the White Tower.  Put a puppet leader over the Aes Sedai.  Split the White Tower in two, and maintained control of both halves.  Pissed off Rand by putting him in a box.

1) Demandred:  Took control of Shara.  Wiped out most of the Aes Sedai in the Last Battle.  Orchestrated the Last Battle, and was beating Mat.  Killed 2 blademasters, third time wasn't his charm.

Some of these are kind of tossups.  Like Graendel was really terrible, but her contribution to the Last Battle was very major.  Likewise, despite betraying the Dark One, Asmodean was responsible for the Shaido.  Which was a pretty massive accomplishment.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I'm also re-reading the series, currently in the middle of Book 3. Great Hunt is the best of the first three by a lot but we already knew that.


Nobody gets more screentime than Rand. And much as I wish Elayne had gotten more screentime than Perrin, I really don't think that's the case either (Perrin builds up a lead on her in the early books and has a crapton in both 10 and 13 to boot). Mat... yeah maybe.

The ta'veren thing is kinda nonsense anyway, and every time I re-read the series it bothers me more. Egwene is both more important to the books and more important to the world than either Mat or Perrin. It's just a handy label to trot out when the plot needs to do something contrived and one of the boys are involved.


Regarding Forsaken rankings:

-Man, I just can't see Demandred as #1. The Shara thing is quite a coup but it comes out of nowhere (i.e. it isn't accomplished against impressive opposition), and the way he goes out is just so pathetic.

-I have relatively more respect for M'Hael. Both bring a big crop of shadow-alligned channellers to the Last Battle. Demandred's is bigger I guess? I don't remember the numbers. But M'Hael gets more points to me because Demandred converted some neutrals to his cause, while M'Hael took something which should have been a great asset for the good guys and converted it to the shadow instead.

-If you're going to give Asmodean credit for the Shaido, you should remember it was a plan he and Lanfear came up with together. Also, Sammael and Graendal did a lot to further the chaos the Shaido caused (which should also elevate Sammael above Be'lal and Rahvin). Asmodean should be very low unless you feel that Rand learning to channel was a good thing for Team Shadow (and there is a case to be made for this!), but since you also have Lanfear low you clearly do not.

-I know you said "modern day" but Ishamael is the reason that the world is so shitty and in such a bad position to fight the Last Battle. The Black Ajah and the network of Darkfriends in general are his baby. He's also the only true ideological supporter of the Dark One. Him being made nae'blis was an obvious choice.

-Graendal/Semhirage/Mesaana are all good, yep. I tend to underrate Mesaana because she's rather personally unimpressive but splitting the White Tower is a super-huge accomplishment. Semirhage also deserves note for causing Rand to channel the True Power (= getting him close to turning), though since it wasn't deliberate, YMMV on credit there.