I am a character reader. I like themes; they add a lot to the messaging and ideas of a book. Worlds are awesome, I love closing my eyes and imagining slinging spells and exploring unknown wilds. But, at the end of the day, the real reason I show up to read a book, and the…
Continue reading ➞ Five Characters I Can’t Stop Thinking About
"Nice bird, arsehole." Out of context, that quote is just fun to say. In context, nestled into the pages of Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora, it's one of the single funniest lines in any book I've ever read. The Gentleman Bastards series holds countless laughs among its pages, and the story is more fun…
Continue reading ➞ The Book Rookie – The Gentleman Bastards Sequence
If there ever was a piece of media that acted as my editorial/sexual awakening, Mad Max: Fury Road would be it. It wasn’t the first film to make me think critically about movies and their themes and messages. But It was the first one that made me really want to understand media (be it books…
Continue reading ➞ Mad Max: Fury Road — Blossoming In The Desert
Are you a fantasy die-hard? May I introduce you to Survivor? In 2001, families across America glued their eyeballs to the screen as Survivor revolutionized reality television. 16 Americans hopped off a boat and onto a beach, where a full production crew awaited and Jeff Probst introduced the very first season of the show that…
Welcome back to The Book Rookie, everyone! Last year, we kicked off a series aimed at getting me, the eponymous Book Rookie, up to speed with some of the biggest fantasy and science fiction books available. We started off the series with Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. Here are the first three installments of The Book…
Continue reading ➞ The Book Rookie – The Kingkiller Chronicle
Welcome to part 2 of The Quill to Live’s roadmap to Amber, a guide to reading The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny. If you are just joining us for the first time, we highly encourage you to take a look at part 1, which covers the first five installments of The Great Book…
Continue reading ➞ Your Guide To The Great Book Of Amber Part 2: The Merlin Cycle
Joe Abercrombie is an excellent writer. I welcome dispute, but I think you’re playing a losing hand if you disagree. He’s one of the easiest examples to point to when people mention Grimdark, and the only other king I recognize in that field is Glen Cook. They both write delightfully gritty fantasy stories about power…
Continue reading ➞ An Open Mind is… Well You Can Finish the Rest
We're back with another installment of The Book Rookie! This time, Alex and Andrew join cole to discuss The Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson's thrilling conclusion to the original Mistborn trilogy! Just catching up? Listen to our discussions about Mistborn and The Well of Ascension before you dive in. And enjoy our shiny new musical…
We are back with part two of The Book Rookie - Mistborn. Today we're talking about the second book in the series: The Well of Ascension, by Brandon Sanderson. Unlike our discussion of the first book in the series, this discussion inherently needs to have some spoilers - but we tried to minimize them as…
Today, we kick off a new series: The Book Rookie! The Book Rookie is essentially a book club in which Cole (the eponymous rookie) reads flagship fantasy and sci-fi books, then discusses them with readers who have more experience with the genre. This isn't a book club for niche reads. We're talking big series: The…
Continue reading ➞ The Book Rookie – Mistborn: The Final Empire
