Hello, kids! Welcome back to the Book Report.

In 1984, James Oliver Rigney, Jr. began his work on a series of novels that he would continue working on for the rest of his life. In 1990 he published the first novel, using his familiar pen name Robert Jordan, titled The Eye of the World.

The series was called The Wheel of Time, and over the next seventeen years, Robert Jordan released ten sequels and a prequel, and had just one more book to write to finish the series. Unfortunately, in Mid-September of 2007, James Oliver Rigney, Jr. died of a rare heart disease with the series unfinished. I was devastated. His loss to the literary world is profound, but what got to me even more was that I’d never get to know what happened.
I spent just about half my life following the trials and tribulations of the characters in these books, and right before the final culmination of one of the greatest fantasy epics of all time…the author dies. I know that perhaps it sounds like I’m being insensitive, but I do recognize that a real person, with friends and family, died. It’s just that the only parts of him that I knew were his creations, and so for me, it was they that had died.

Three months after Jordan’s death came the announcement that an author had been chosen to finish the series: Brandon Sanderson. While I may have read a lot of science-fiction and fantasy, I recognize that I have only read the merest fraction of authors from these genres. Still, I couldn’t help but think to myself, when I read that Brandon Sanderson was to take up the mantle left by Jordan: “Who?”

So I picked up one of his books. Well, to be fair, I picked up a trilogy of his books.

The premise of the Mistborn Trilogy certainly sounded promising. A lot of fantasy plots are about a hero, drawn from a lowly past, tasked with saving the world from a great evil. Frodo Baggins (Lord of the Rings), Rand al’Thor (The Wheel of Time), Shea Ohmsford (The Sword of Shannara, though I suppose you could count the entire Ohmsford clan), the Pevensie children (The Chronicles of Narnia), Lyra Belacqua and Will Perry (His Dark Materials), and Harry Potter (really?) a have just such journeys to save the world. What Mistborn does is imagine what a fantasy world might be like after the epic hero already had his journey — and failed. What would Middle Earth look like 1000 years later if Sauron had won? That idea is where Mistborn begins.

What follows is a great tale of revenge and redemption, politics and power, love and loss, magic and murder. And also death and deception. Not everything is as it seems in this world. Each book ends with some shocking realizations, and the finale of the last book literally had my jaw dropping in amazement.

By the end, I not only felt that Brandon Sanderson was aptly able to finish The Wheel of Time, but I also was intrigued to read the rest of his work. If that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is.

Until next time,
Still paddlin’ the old knew…
_-Akatzen-_

Hey kids, it’s Akatzen with another Book Report for you!

Today I want to talk about a particular device authors use when they wish to hide or mask their identity for any of a variety of reasons: the pseudonym.

Pseudonym: n, SU-doh-nim. A false name. (Derived from the Greek, pseudonymon)

Sometimes an author uses a pseudonym to separate their personal life from their work. Sometimes, a pseudonym is created because more than one author worked on the book, such as the detective novelist Ellery Queen, actually authored by two cousins: Daniel Nathan and Manford Lepofsky. Their work covered 42 years of detective writing, heavily influencing the genre. The cousins also wrote four novels about detective Drury Lane using the pseudonym Barnaby Ross.
A group of 20th Century mathematicians created the pseudonym Nicolas Bourbaki to publish their work as a collective.

Two of the most famous pseudonyms, or pen names, are Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll (covering for the identities of Samuel Clemens and mathematician Charles Dodgson, respectively)
Charlotte Bronte originally published Jane Eyre (and also Shirley) under the pseudonym Currer Belle. Her sister Emily originally published Wuthering Heights under the name of Ellis Belle. Many of their characters were inspired by neighbors, and so they published under the pseudonyms to avoid embarrassing them.

One popular French author, Romain Gary, started publishing books under the name Emile Ajar to see if people liked his books because they were good or because he was popular. Turns out they liked his books no matter who was writing them.

Who else uses pseudonyms?
Stephen King published his early non-horror novels as Richard Bachman because he wasn’t sure readers would accept his break from genre.
Popular storyteller O. Henry was a pseudonym used by William Sydney Porter.
Jane Austen published Sense and Sensibility using “A Lady” as the author.
Eric Arthur Blair is more recognizable as George Orwell.
Alisa Zinov’yevna Rosenbaum published as Ayn Rand.
Fantasy author Robert Jordan was the pen name of James Oliver Rigney, Jr. He also wrote under the names Reagan O’Neal and Jackson O’Reilly.
And, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, when Dave Eggers writes with his brother Christopher, they use the names Dr. and Mr. Doris Haggis-On-Whey

And, I’m sure you’ve noticed one or two of the writers on Semantink use pseudonyms.

Pseudonymitry is a time-honored practice, and while a reader may sometimes wonder, “who are you, really?” most often the mystery is part of the appeal.