Two different Derek Sandersons wrote autobiographies
350832
But this is the only one worth reading. His first book, "I Gotta Be Me," was a load of tripe by a egotistical kid enjoying his first taste of success. "Crossing The Line" was written by a wise, mature man who experienced the rest of life's peaks and valleys (some very dark valleys at that). Don't waste a minute on the first try at a life story, but don't miss the second try.
1715804
The author did an amazing job of following in Robert Jordans writing style.  A true tribute to Mr. Sanderson's abilities as a writer.
3132265
It's rare that I encounter a book in English that I need to read with a dictionary handy. Anthony Burgess' autobiography is the first book which has forced this in quite a while. The life itself was rather fascinating, covering primarily that portion of Burgess' life before he became a writer. This is the point in a writer's life which is interesting. After they settle into the task of actually writing, their lives tend to become dull as dirt.
2887749
This is a collection of seven short stories about the Black Templars, all by Guy Haley. Several are related. Three follow each other with the same main character, an Initiate who fails in his test to become a Sword Brother for reasons that I would let you discover and who only succeeds after five hundred years. He is over six centuries old by the time the last two consecutive stories take place on Armageddon. Other stories feature the same character at two different points in his career: as a Castellan and when entombed as a Dreadnought.

My favourite of the set is  by far  the Glorious Tomb, the one about the Dreadnought, simply because it is the most moving with the main character wanting to continue to serve and live, and live to serve, even after death and even when he no longer fully understands what is happening. The uncanny Crusader  one of the two stories featuring High Marshall Helbrecht of the (somewhat fanatical) Black Templars is perhaps the strangest story of the lot, with the Black Templars hunting a Xenos enemy and ready to exterminate it only to be confronted by another and even more deadly specie.

Potential readers should note that while they might appreciate some of the stories more than others, they are not any real weak ones, and I happen to believe this although the bombastic Black Templars are not exactly my favourites among the Space Marines. Four stars for a good set of short stories.
4265856
Fantastic book. I have and will be a fan of Brandon Sanderson for years to come. I recommend stormlight archive and the mistborn trilogy to everyone I meet/know that enjoys fantasy books.
2584451
This book was very good, I read it compulsively from cover to cover.  Unfortunately it's not the best of the series or the best of Sanderson's work.

Throughout the book I found annoying coherency problems.  From what I have read the final trilogy was originally meant to be one book, then two, then finally split in three.  I think this book as the middle book got roughly split, and the timeline and sequence of the book were muddled as a result.  People seemed to move between locations and their movement was not mentioned in conversation with other characters who would have noticed and more than likely brought it up.

Really not major problems, but frustrating from an Author as talented as Sanderson and in a series as complex as the wheel of time.

A good read overall though, if you have read the rest of the series, the above problems are no reason to stop.
817060
A great read from one of the writers that influenced C.S. Lewis' writings.
3657635
This is one of the two opening volumes in a group of five books. Sharon Green initially started with the intention of writing two individual novels, of which this was one, but the tale grew in the writing into an unusual double trilogy.

Green herself described it in the afterword to the final book as an "odd series" organised into "two crossed trilogies in the form of an X."

The first trilogy tells the story of the sorceress Chalaine and the sorcerer-prince Bariden. This trilogy starts with "The Hidden Realms", shares the middle book "Dark Mirror, Dark Dreams" with the first trilogy, and is concluded in the final book of the quintet, the appropriately named "Game's End.

However, another part of the same broader canvass is the story of Princess Alexia and the mercenary captain Tiran d'Iste, both of whom are shapeshifters. Their adventure, which includes both a romance and a quest for a kingdom, starts with "Silver Princess, Golden Knight," and continues as the two stories come together in "Dark Mirror, Dark Dreams", which is the middle book of both trilogies. The story of Alexia and Tiran is sort-of concluded in the fourth book in the quintet, "Wind Whispers, Shadow Shouts". The double titles denote this second trilogy.

The linkages between the two stories are clearest in the middle book, where all four characters work together, and at the conclusion of "Dark Mirror, Dark Dreams" each of the two couples become the rightful King and Queen of their own Kingdom. In the final two books, each couple has to defend their newly-gained realm and its' people against attack by powerful evil from beyond the worlds.

If you are going to read this series, it helps to read each trilogy in order and to read "Game's End" last. Hence the sequence is

1) and 2) "The Hidden Realms" & "Silver Princess, Golden Knight"

(Either can be read first)

3) "Dark Mirror, Dark Dreams"

4) "Wind Whispers, Shadow Shouts"

5) "Game's End"

This quintet of fantasy novels, written between 1993 and 1996, is rather more mainstream than some of the author's earlier works. Sharon Green has put a lot of effort into creating the personalities and magic powers of the heroes and heroines, and some of the other major characters. The plots - in both senses of the word - are also quite intricate.

Rather less effort appears to have been put into creating the worlds where the stories take place, the minor characters or most of the villains, who tend to be fairly two-dimensional and thinly sketched out - to such an extent that many of the places in the stories and many of the characters do not even have names. In places there is good use of humour but there could be rather more.

Overall as fantasy novels go this is average, by which I do not mean to damn the book with faint praise. It's not the best fantasy story you will ever come accross, but it's not the worst either.

The main thing going for this series is that it is such an unusual way to build a story as to make it interesting to see how Sharon Green put it together.
4616902
The second book in the Stormlight Archive is a brilliant and masterful work.  I enjoyed this book even more than The Way of Kings.  Brandon Sanderson shows his storytelling wizardry yet again.  I can't recommend this book enough to any fans of science fiction or fantasy.  It's part of what will be Brandon Sanderson's masterpiece in my opinion.
561264
This collection of 3 short stories comes from the same author of the fantasy novel "Sacred King". I found the author's writing style to be improving and her gradual shift from fantasy scenarios (the first tale is still a ghost story) to more realistic descriptions of some details of Richard III's real life episodes as recorded in the historical documents made me enjoy the reading more. I found the short story on Anne and Richard in Scarborough after their little son's death particularly touching, probably just a few steps away from similar chapters I read in "Sunne in Splendour" by Sharon Kay Penman and above all "Some touch of pity" by Rhoda Edwards.

I am looking forward to reading the next 2 collections of short stories on my kindle and especially her announced "real-to-life" novel "I, Richard Plantagenet, which I understand should be published by late summer/autumn this year
4556970
I have enjoyed all the books if have read by Brandon Sanderson.  He has such a great way of telling a story.
4241027
You can really notice the difference between Sanderson's and Jordan's writing. But hey, you gotta read to the end. Some anachronistic choice of words. Sometimes Sanderson inserts stuff that is almost pure Sanderson, like a couple of characters that i felt were designed by him. Overall, it reads more like Mistborn or Way of Kings rather than WoT.
581369
A good book about two famous people who lives crossed similar paths and both interesting in their own right.
3000162
Sanderson shows his readers that his writing only becomes better as his story progresses. While some may find this addition somewhat slower and more conflicted than its predecessor, Sanderson sets the stage for a grand and diabolical production that the reader had no idea was even in town.

With more mystery and rising stakes, Well of Ascension has me asking for book 3 of the Mistborn Trilogy
3188353
I didn't realize at first that this was a novella. Given the elaborate nature of Sanderson's I figured it would be a glossary or a collection of lore predating the first book. Excellent writing as always, and funny at times as well.
634431
CLAUDIUS THE GOD is the second part of Robert Graves' two-part fictional autobiography of the Roman emperor Claudius. I, CLAUDIUS was the first. Unlike the first book, which concentrated on the long chain of events that ironically brought Claudius to the throne, the second volume is more concerned with Claudius' own personal feelings on how he should reign, and events in the Near East and Britain which affect his rule.
Two things, however, stand between this book and a five-star rating. The first is that the initial 100 pages of the book are about the life of Herod Agrippa. As interesting as Herod is historically, concentrating solely on him for so long takes away from the focus on Claudius. The second gripe is that the last few years of Claudius' life, after his marriage to Agrippina, are glossed over in a few pages. This may be inspired by the historian Tacitus' comment that in his final years Claudius was merely the puppet of his slaves, freedmen, and wife, but it has a most disconcerting effect on a reader who up to that point has become used to hearing about things in detail.
I would recommend this series to anyone, and the two books do a wonderful job of bringing ancient Rome to life, but CLAUDIUS THE GOD is not quite as wonderful as I, CLAUDIUS.
For those who enjoyed this series, I would suggest reading Michael Grant's translation of Tacitus' ANNALS, published by Penguin.
2852473
My book group read this book along with Sonia Sotomayor's book and it was interesting to see how the lives of these two high-achieving women were alike and not alike. I don't really enjoy reading political autobiographies, but I got some insights from this one (maybe not the insights that were intended) by reading between the lines.