A Memory of Light Review (spoiler free)

Well it's all over now. More than 20 years and thousands of pages later I now have the full story of the Wheel of Time. The epic fantasy series by Robert Jordan and finished by Brandon Sanderson is the longest continuous narrative I will probably ever read. I have read other series like Robert Adams' The Horseclans novels and the Dresden Files, etc. that already stretch over more books (or eventually will), but those series don't feel like a single story told in 14+ parts.

Often the journey is more satisfying than the destination (or in this case the end). A Memory of Light is a satisfying end to a long complex tale. It isn't the same end that Robert Jordan would have given us in that the pieces are put together in a different way, but the pieces would most-likely have been the same.

A Memory of Light (AMoL), as promised ends the story begun in The Eye of the World but does leave some minor questions for us to ponder regarding the future of this world. One that we will only see in our imaginations after this point. Brandon Sanderson and the team behind this book have done a great job of tying together this long narrative and seem to take special efforts to link in even some of the smallest hints and events in prior books and make them relevant and important to the end of the story.

AMoL is a long book with a staggering number of points of view with many chapters featuring two or more POV. The book has many of the epic moments that has defined The Wheel of Time and many are given quite a bit of space while others come in a single sentence or paragraph leaving you re-reading to make sure you caught what just happened.

Not everything is perfect with the book or the story. Some points are drawn out and tiring to read through while others are rushed and don't feel like they are given enough time or focus. That aside, we get closure - perhaps not in the way we thought it would be or as we hoped but fitting nonetheless.

I recommend AMoL to anyone interested in epic fantasy and contend that the journey is worth investing in the several million words that is the Wheel of Time. It will take a while for it to settle in that the story is now done, but I am happy to have read it. A Memory of Light gets 4 and a half Mick Happies. I hope you take a ride on the winds of time someday (if you haven't already).

My Wheel of Time Collection

P.S. I did get the answer to my RAFO question about Mat and the Deathwatch Guards. (see Towers of Midnight review below for more on that).

iPad Mini Review

Say hello to my little friend. My wife bought me an iPad mini for Christmas and we have been inseparable ever since. Our house has had an original iPad since about a month after their initial release. That iPad has been my wife’s boon companion at bedtime to watch tv shows off Netflix for a while now, but I wasn’t really interested in it very much.

You see my main problem with the iPad (in all its various versions) has been the size and weight. In my opinion, the iPad is too big to easily carry everywhere without planning space to put it and too heavy to hold up for long periods of time while using it. However, I love my little iPod Touch for reading books and checking the web, etc. (though I thought it should be bigger for the web-surfing to not be so frustrating). Enter iPad Mini.

The mini is really nicely sized and feels like it weighs next to nothing when compared with even the iPad 4. While there have been lots of complaints that Apple didn’t give the mini a retina display, I can tell you it probably won’t matter to you unless you already are used to a retina display. Even the sound isn’t bad for a tablet. Another bonus is iPhone/iPod games don’t look as bad in 2X scale on the iPad mini as they do on older iPads.

I have loaded my iPad with several games including Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition, Plague Inc., Strikefleet Omega, Deepworld and Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer to name a few. Most of my time has been in Baldur’s Gate, but I have also watched Netflix on demand, read magazines and browsed websites. Everything works well on the iPad Mini and there is plenty of real estate on screen for games and websites. The only drawbacks I have found are more in the touch interface on games than with the mini itself.

The iPad Mini is the right blend of iPad versatility and usable size. It fits in one hand, allowing you to do everything else with the other hand. If you are considering a tablet, look at the mini before anything else. Especially if you already have a lot of iOS apps from your iPhone or iPod touch. Yes, it costs more, but it seems like a bargain over the other iPads. The iPad Mini gets 5 Mick Happies.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Movie Reviews

You can figure that someone has made it in Hollywood when they are in just about every movie you see. Three movies in the past week have demonstrated this to me about Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  Here are their mini-reviews:

The Dark Knight Rises

I have watched the previous two Christian Bale/Christopher Nolan Batman movies and enjoyed them both. This one continues the Batman’s story eight years later with us seeing an older Bruce Wayne who hasn’t been the Batman in a while. We are also introduced to a new villain: Bane. Along the way we meet an idealistic police officer, John Blake played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Selina Kyle (Catwoman) played by Anne Hathaway.

The best parts of the movie included Blake and Kyle (separately as they don’t share screen time). They really delivered on their roles and the result left me wanting an Anne Hathaway Catwoman movie and a sequel for Blake’s character. The Dark Knight Rises does run on a little long and you are annoyed with some of the plot twists as everything has to go wrong before they can start going right again. I give Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anne Hathaway four Mick Happies and The Dark Knight Rises 3.5.

Movie Trailer

Premium Rush

This is the story of a bike messenger in New York, Wilee, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who picks up a letter to deliver. The letter happens to be of interest to a particularly nasty crooked police officer that spends the movie trying to get it from Wilee. This is high adrenaline chase through New York with thrills and spills. I fast forwarded a couple of the chase scenes, but particularly liked the bicycle police office (not the crooked one) who runs across Wilee several times and tries to catch him for causing an accident. It gives some of the few comedic moments of the film.

Premium Rush is fun and will have you on the edge of your seat at times. Michael Shannon, who plays the bad guy, is particularly nasty at times (in a well acted way). Premium Rush gets 3 Mick Happies.

Movie Trailer

Looper

I like Time Travel movies. Looper is a Time Travel movie where (in the future) some people are hired by seedy underworld types to be Loopers. Loopers are assassins who kill people sent back in time from the future by organized crime bosses. Since time travel is outlawed, the Loopers eventually have to kill themselves when their future selves are sent back in time to maintain the secret that time travel is being used. The pay-off for doing it is a lot of money to live on for the next 30 years until they catch you and send you back in time to die. With me so far?

This somewhat interesting premise eventually devolves into Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character Joe meeting his future self and not closing the loop (killing him). This leads to a must kill someone in the past to save people in the future plot that is the second half of the movie. There are some interesting questions posed by the film: would you take a rich life now knowing you have to die in 30 years? If you met yourself from the future – would you care more about your current needs or listen to your future self about what is the best thing to do?

I would have liked a different plot to the second half of the movie and thus a different ending, but the movie is okay as is. Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a really good impersonation of a younger Bruce Willis including some of the right facial quirks. The movie also stars Emily Blunt. Looper gets 3 Mick Happies.

Movie Trailer