Sanderson’s the Rithmatist book review

The Rithmatist is a high fantasy that is set in the 20^th Century with the idea of wild chalkings as baddies.  These chalkings are of mysterious origin and the only way to fight them is to have those that are chosen to create their own chalklings to fight back.  These are the Rithmatists and they are the soldiers.  They are held to a higher standard and given a stipend, but the unchosen question whether they are actually needed.  Like any good high fantasy, this is reflective of real life.  The Rithmatists are seen as on par with nobility even though they are not born to it.  It is similar to when the nobility were first being made as such.  They were the chosen ones to be held above others and yet to be taken for granted once the system started to fail them all.

The main character, Joel, is a fascinating young man.  He is not one of the chosen, but he takes what they do very seriously and is absolutely fascinated by it.  The Rithmatist students are very much a separated and pompous group, but a lot more is expected of them.  Joel is a genius in his own right and just trying to find out more about the history of the Rithmatists, so that he can become a sort of scholar on them.  The plot starts to unfold from there.  In his search for knowledge, he is instrumental in an ongoing investigation of missing Rithmatist students.  Joel started as someone simply seeking knowledge and ends as someone actually using his knowledge for good.  Suddenly, this book becomes something monumental and not to be contained within one book, but that of a series.  

Hobbit review

Book review of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit

What kind of a point was Tolkein making when he invented Hobbits?  Was he exploring the base nature of what makes a human uncorrupted by pressure and royalty or was he just advocating a nice lazy lifestyle?  He was doing what no one else was at the time and what they still do not dare to do with his characters.  A regular author would have made Thorin Oakenshield the leading character or even Gandalf.  This would have been done because they are heroes in their own rights.  They start out and end as heroes and as the same people.  To take a character through a journey that didn’t just provide a great character ark, but to actually bring out characteristics that had been hidden even to the one in question was unprecedented. 

It is intriguing to see such a great array of characters.  Thorin with his greed and haughtiness.  Gandalf with his ways of seeing through people while still being utterly suspicious.  Bilbo with his inability to see the important and great within himself.

The hobbits are a fascinating race because of what they represent.  They are simply short people that have not been overtaken by greed and are still at one with the ground beneath them.  They do not look beyond their own lands, but instead stay at home and curl up with a nice plate of food while reading by the light of a full hearth.  These are simply folk.  They are the uncorruptable because it is not in their nature to be corrupt.  This begs the question of whether Tolkein was arguing that people/men are only corrupt because we feel we must and it is, in fact, not in our nature.

Bilbo is so wonderful a character because he is the epitome of the potential that everyone wants to see in themselves and those around them.  He has the constant dreams on the journey that come true because his intentions are far more pure than the dwarves. (Even though, Bombur does dream of a feast.  This is a simple and base need and so the dream happens.)  Bilbo also finds it within himself to pity the creature Gollum when he considers how his life would have turned out if the same things had happened to him.  His capacity for understanding another’s world view and having empathy for them is what makes his character remarkable and a true hero.