The Wheel of Time: The Eye of the World Comics, By: Robert Jordan, Chuck Dixon & Chase Conley.

The Wheel of Time

The Eye of the World Comics

By: Robert Jordan, Chuck Dixon & Chase Conley

10 words: Epic story meets stunning visuals, worth the read... or re-read. 

Wheel of Time was a large part of my high school years, along with The sword of Truth, (and Harry Potter...). The sad part is that my interest in following the epic long book series (14 books...) ended way before the books came to a conclusion (the last one being released last year).  The last one I read when it was released was new Spring... and I think I only got as wad as the path of Daggers... though I am not completely sure... to be honest I started getting tired and frustrated with the series and started to feel that a lot of words were used to describe nothing happening... 

That was years ago, and I still believe that there was something important being told by the series, as well as something to it that I enjoyed. That was why when the first book came up as a comic apart of the Humble Dynamite 10th Anniversary Bundle I felt like it would be a good use of $15. 

The Comic did not disappoint me. It told the first story of the series very well, showing the events in a beautiful way. At the start I had a bit of trouble telling which boy was which, but I feel that was intentional... we are confused the way the dark one is confused. The looks of the Three Rivers boys are so similar, that its there actions that distinguish each boy from each other. Making them the person they are more than the way they look. 

Book one doesn't explain itself, it doesn't have any problems with tossing you into the confusing world of Andor. It keeps you, the reader as in the dark about the situation the characters are in as the main characters are themselves. This feels right to me, the characters are seeing the world they live in for the first time and we are as well through there eyes. There is no pre-required knowledge to this story and it doesn't attempt to throw that at you in any way. You never feel like you are missing something, or that things are being over explained it has a good balance. The Comics follow this balance, with the added benefit of being able to show you and not having to tell you things. Like the differences between the different towns or grand places they travel to. 

The Wheel of Time is an Epic read, 14 books in total. I have added them to the giant list of things I wish to read (which seems to increase every two weeks or so when new Humble Book Bundles come out...), but its definitely one I suggest at least book one is (I do kinda remember it not keeping its pace well... but we will see how it goes as I read the next book). Also if you feel like reading a story in a different kind of way, this comic does the book justice.  

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Beloved 

by Toni Morrison

Read as Apart of Crash Course Literature 

10 Words: Dark actions stemming from dark actions, consequences will always haunt.

     Beloved is the story of an African American Lady named Sethe who escaped slavery. Adventualy though  her masters found her and her children, in an attempt to protect them from being returned to life as a slave - which she felt was no life at all -  Sethe attempted to kill her children, and actually managed to killed her 2-year old daughter. 

     This act meant that there was always a missing place felt in the home. Her sons never forgot the fear she felt of the slavers and the fear they felt of her and so as soon as they were able they left the home. They all feel that a ghost of that child lives with them in their home. 

     This story goes on to express the way those surviving this event, and there past as a slave do the best they can do to honor the past but to continue onto a new life as time moves on. 

   This book shows the pain and mental trouble someone who is treated as the slaves were treated goes through. It shows the love that a mother can have, and the pain she went through to keep her children safe from the worst possible life she can imagine. The book  is doing its best to show us how the unstable lives slave had took a toll on the people that lived them. 

Maze by J. M. McDermott

Maze

By: J.M McDermott

10 Words: Lost, Confused, and Wondering. The end is never in sight.... 

... and I mean that for both the reader as well as the characters. This book really didn't make sense to me. It jumped between the lives of different people as they just tried to survive in a strange and confusing place that those living in know as The Maze. The stories reflect different events that happen over many different years in the maze. 

     The book is built strangely, and is non cathartic, which is a complicated thing to attempt to do... but left me lost reading the story and I probably wouldn't have bothered finishing it, if it wasn't for my determination to give it the best try I could because I was given it for free. 

     Yet given that the story doesn't make sense the writing is well done, the world described well and you can see that things are happening, that the world exists and that there is something strange but important going on here... its just disappointing that you are never really able to tell what that is...