A Review: The Rithmatist

This is a new thing I'll be doing, now that I'm updating the blog more regularly. Once a month (possibly more) I'm aiming to review a book I've either just read or an older favourite of mine. I'm kicking it off with The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson.

Brandon Sanderson is the author of more things than you can shake a stick at, and I know a thing or two about stick shaking. He's a fantastic writer with such claims to fame as the Mistborn series, co-authoring the last 3 Wheel of Time books and an endless stream of ongoing series. He's like the .

Anyway, on with the review.

The Rithmatist follows a young boy named Joel, who is (as Brandon described) 'the muggle at Hogwarts'. I first heard it mentioned on an episode of Writing Excuses (Brandon's weekly podcast) in which he described it as being about a boy learning all the tricks of the trade to become a Rithmatist (magician) who had no actual magical ability.

It was well-written. I'll say that in simple terms, because I feel it's a given that Brandon's works are well-written. The first thing I noticed about it is that, compared to his other works, it reads more like a book for younger readers. It's not a children's book by any measure, but it's definitely best suited for someone on the lower side of 15. It was enjoyable to me in spite of this, possibly because I noticed the book was for a slightly younger audience and didn't lose my suspension of disbelief at the more 'young adult' parts of the book (such as when the protagonist becomes involved in a major federal case with little hesitation about his age being an issue).

One of the book's most impressive features was it's magic system. Brandon is excellent at writing magic systems, and has explained in great detail what makes a 'good' magic system in the literary sense. The joy of the magic used in The Rithmatist came from the fact that it is set in a school of magic. The students are learning these fundamentals of the system, which means you the reader are learning it in the same depth and detail as them. It added so much to the story that I understood very intimately, due to actual diagrams explaining and demonstrating the fundamentals of the magic system, how the system worked. It also made the main character, a non-Rithmatist who knew the workings of the Rithmatic arts, much more believable because in essence I had the same level of skill and knowledge as him.

The story itself deals with Joel's involvement in an investigation into a series of disappearances. It plays out like a pretty standard 'murder mystery' with its red herrings and twist-reveals, but then I'm not asking it to be the best mystery novel I've ever read. It's a fantasy novel at its core, and I'm more interested in the character himself and the way he navigates his world without having these magical powers he so craves. The fact that he's doing that in among a crime case is what makes it interesting to follow his journey. Don't get me wrong though, I enjoyed the plot of the story too, and the resolution was satisfying. It wasn't some major never-before-seen Shyamalan-esque twist but it was still good and unpredictable, and that's what matters.

I don't want to be giving the things I review a 'x/10' rating, because different books are for different people and you shouldn't have me tell you whether or not to buy a book.

If I were you, I'd buy this book.

It's Here!

It's been a good two weeks.

So first up, I'm now about 9,000 words into Beyond the Horizon, and I'm starting to come to terms with how much longer than Maiden Voyage it's going to be. Looking at what I've planned out plot-wise compared to how far through I am, I'm feeling this could easily hit some 120,000 words. Awesome, big numbers look good.

I also got down to business (to defeat the huns) and started writing a story in my new universe. The world is as-of-yet unnamed, but the story itself is called 'Lifebringer', and is based off the first of the three prompts I posted last week. Already it's at about 7,000 words, and I'm really enjoying it. It's a different beast to The New Age of Steam so far, but I won't go so far as to say it's better.

But then maybe you'd say otherwise, so here's the first chapter. I'd love to hear what you think, and if you leave a comment you can almost guarantee I'll respond.

Chapter 1

Among Thieves

     It was a sunny day in Aegis, not that the Priests cared. They were content to stay within the confines of their high walls and vaulted ceilings. It was well-lit in there, and one could feel the semblance of sunshine, but it just didn't quite feel the same as being outside.

     But the Priests weren't everyone, so everyone but the Priests was out enjoying the weather on their empire holiday. The streets surged with crowds as they wandered from park to park, searching for an empty spot of grass to lay down on and bask in the sun. Others made for the arena, queuing in their hundreds in the hopes that someone would leave and they could get in. Outside the palace a giant orkestra pounded drums and blasted trumpets, as though celebrating a great victory.

     Only a few stayed and watched. The sound could be heard almost all through the city, so most only passed by for a few minutes just to see the players. Which was convenient, as it took a good ten minutes to cross the palace square through the throngs of people.

     The shop owners that had chosen to stay open made money hand over fist. They would close after lunch and enjoy the afternoon, but for now the grocers laughed the morning away as their purses grew heavy. Even as their wares grew sparse people piled up to their counters to buy the freshest of foods.

     The quietest place was the docks. No cargo came in or left for the islands down south, but even then a hundred boats came downriver carrying tourists from further up the continent. They were the sorts of people that could take a week to celebrate a day, so most had arrived nights ago. Still, there was a near-constant stream of partygoers disembarking. Normally the empty boats would turn and head back upriver, but today even the ferrymen stepped onto dry land to join the celebrations in Aegis.

     The night would bring to life a thousand lantern-lit parties, the next morning being a workless holy day. Holidays then holy days, that's what the Argin people loved most. It was the perfect day for a celebration, the perfect day for admissions and the perfect day for Wrinlett Leeve to finally get what he wanted.

     The ten of them huddled around a cluster of crates that acted as a table. It was once dark down in Alleyend, but Wrin's boys had turned the place into a relative palace over the years and nowadays it was bathed in the light of a dozen ticker lanterns. It was Wrin who'd found Alleyend, of course. He was just a boy, scared and alone in the giant city, and all he'd wanted was a safe place to hide and sleep the night. When he crawled through the gap in the wall where a winding alley ended he'd hit the jackpot. In the years that followed, Wrin built the spacious hidey-hole into what could almost be called an apartment.

     The crates were covered with sheets of paper, which were in turn covered in diagrams and drawings. Wrin went over the plan one more time, readying himself for the third round of questions.

     "..and then we're out. The book comes to me, I take it across the river to our buyer in Jagiston and we walk away with heavy purses." he finished.

     They stood in silence. For a moment, Wrin thought they'd finally got it. Then one of the boys, the youngest, piped up.

     "Sounds awful convenient dunnit? How's we sure you're comin' back with the money?" said Fork. He was a weed of a boy, named for his three-fingered left hand.

     "By the Impeller, Fork, he's always paid us. When has he not bloody well paid us?" snapped Gerry, another boy about Wrin's age.

     "We'll be cursing no Gods here Gerry, even foreign ones." Wrin reminded. Gerry grumbled, but his point had been well made. No-one else spoke up.

     He could understand Gerry's frustration though. Fork had been the first to whinge each time he'd had the plan explained. At least the others had proper questions about the workings of the escapade, Fork was just a damned pain. Half the time he was more hindrance than help with his crippled hand. If he weren't the younger brother of Knife they'd have long since abandoned him on the streets. That was the sort of power Knife had here. Where Fork was skinny and weak, Knife was all meat and muscle. More than once someone had asked Knife where he got his name, and had been answered with the name itself thrust into their belly. He was a good one to have on your side, Wrin reckoned, but damn did Knife scare him sometimes. Still, he was useful, and so he and Fork stayed.

     "So we're clear? At long damn last we're all understood?" asked Wrin, meeting the eyes of everyone one by one. He was met with nods, some slower than others, but none hesitant. "Good. This'll be easier than the time we screwed the clothmonger, you'll see."

     That was met with more trepidation than he'd hoped. Normally the boys were thick as an oak trunk, but Wrin had misjudged them. The empty spot left by the clothmonger job where Trace normally stood was still obvious. None of the ten had quite filled that space around the table yet.

     "Look boys," Wrin began, trying to soften his face, "Trace knew the risks, and he'd always had the most dangerous job. There's no need for someone like Trace on this job, so none of yous'll be dying today. Besides, they're healers, not killers."

     That seemed to ease a few of them, but one or two of the older boys, the ones showing signs of beards and muscles, still looked at Wrin with caution.

     "If one of you sods dies I'll bloody kill you." Wrin said, a smirk twisting his mouth upwards. A few laughs slipped out, and the tension seemed to be dispelled. "We're good at what we do, this place is a testament to that. This could be the one boys. If it doesn't go off we lose nothing, if it does then we're out of this dump. We'll have a house, a real damn house here in Aegis. We'll have beds, and robes, and a pair of shoes for each day of the week. You want it all, boys? Then let's go and take it!"

     The room cheered, or at least cheered as loud as a clandestine gathering could. Everyone stepped away from the table, chatting among their teams of two or three. Some would talk about the job ahead, getting the tiny details hashed out. Some would talk about everything but the job, trying to keep the nerves down. The first team of two left, Knife and a lad in his mid-teens called Orvin. They were security for this job, as they so often were. Knife wasn't good with words, except for one; his name. The rest had to wait for a set number of minutes to avoid arousing suspicion; there was nothing normal about ten ragged boys leaving an alleyway together. It was Wrin's care and caution that had kept eyes off Alleyend for some 12 years, and in the last 2 when the crew had used it as a base of operations it was this same caution that had kept them safe.

     Wrin himself sat down on his mattress, tucked into a corner in the main room with the crates. There was only two other rooms in Alleyend, and one was really just a square with an open hole that led to the plumbing system so they could shit with privacy. Most of them slept here in the main room. The third room was storage, and it was where the crates were now being moved to by Alleyend's four other permanent occupants. Wrin watched the goings-on with a sense of achievement. This was it, this was what he had built. It wasn't much by the standards of most, but for kids like him it was more than most ever hoped for. It was one in a million that dragged themselves out of the streetside life, and now at 18 years Wrin was going to become that one.

     "You're impressed with yourself." came a voice from above him.

     It's owner, Khol, sat down beside Wrin on the mattress. Khol was almost the same age as Wrin, only a year younger, but they shared the same bushy black beard, long, hard jaw and forest-green eyes. At a glance some would call them brothers, and that uncanny likeness was something they'd used to their advantage over the years.

     "When am I not impressed with myself Khol?" Wrin replied with a wide grin.

     "Just because you're all well-spoken with a liking for theatrics doesn't make you the best of us." Said Khol, a tone of grandfatherly warning in his voice.

     "Sure it does." said Wrin, smile still wide as ever. Nothing could hurt his mood today. "If it weren't for this brain," he pointed to his head, "and these giant balls," he grabbed his gonads, "we wouldn't have half the cash we do now."

     "Aye, and don't I know it best..." said Khol. He paused for a moment, looking almost contemplative. Then he turned to Wrinlett and matched his confident smile.

     "Wrin." called someone from across the small room.

     "Aye Purzhy?" said Wrin, getting up and leaving his friend for the moment.

     "I can't find me daggers. Bloody Knife's got 'em again." said Purzhy.

     "That's a shame, maybe you could've used them to shave off that awful scruff." said Wrin, smiling at first, then levelling Purzhy with a hard expression. "I highly doubt Knife took your stuff. We don't operate that way here. Never have. Pull your fucking head in and look for them yourself. If you can't find them, I hope you throw a damn hard punch."

     Purzhy nodded slowly, eyes cast downward, then scurried off. Odds were he'd just left them in his own sleeping hole and was trying to scam Wrin out of a spare blade. Wrin wandered back over to where Khol still sat, rejoining him as the second team left. It was Fork, Gerry and another lad Gerry's age called Jurd. Jurd the turd they called him after he shat on the floor of Alleyend five years ago. The three of them were greasemen. Small, wiry, flexible. They made it in and out of passages most would get stuck in. They were invaluable.

     "What'd he want?" asked Khol as Wrin rejoined him.

     "I dunno, a sword or something."

     Khol studied Wrin's face for a moment. He knew Wrin better than anyone, they'd been scamming grocers since Wrin's first days in Aegis.

     "You're nervous." said Khol.

     "I'm always nervous, underneath it all." said Wrin in a hushed tone. He didn't want anyone to hear the slightest hint of weakness from him. Anyone but Khol, of course.

     "Not the last few times. After the clothmonger job you kept it together, you still had the confidence we all lost." said Khol. Wrin still didn't meet his eyes.

     "That was easy stuff. I kept the jobs simple. It was just basic lifts and four-man scams. This is the first big one we've done since the clothmonger." said Wrin. He was eager to end the discussion, but he knew his friend well. Khol wouldn't stand to be left in the dark when it came to Wrin's feelings.

     "This is something different. I'm guessing you don't have the words to say what you mean just yet, and that's fine. But don't for a second think you can convince me you're nervous about the heist." said Khol, standing to leave with Purzhy and Kim.

     Wrin smirked to himself as Khol left. His trio was on the set-up team. Khol was Wrin's lookalike, and that meant Wrin could have two of himself in one place. It was on this deception that most of their plans hinged. Khol had his part to play while Purzhy and Kim went off to do the dirty work, and Wrin would come in later. For now, Wrin was alone in Alleyend with Maggie, the drop-man. Though perhaps drop-woman was more correct. When the boys got out with the book, Maggie would be out on the streets moving it from one set of hands to another with lightning speed. It made them impossible to track, and even if one of them got caught by a city guard there'd be no stolen goods on him. She would leave last, long after everyone else was gone.

     At the centre of it all was Wrin. He would leave alone, work alone and come back alone. Only this time something was different. This time, Wrin didn't plan on coming back.

A Collection of Prompts

Last week I said I'd post with some ideas I have for stories set in the world I've been building over the last few weeks. First, though, I thought I'd put out an update on how Ambervale is going.

I've finished Part 1, or at least have it at the point where it can't be improved until the whole story is finished. Even then, the changes will be minimal. Part 2 is approaching a similar place, and Part 3 will be written as soon as I'm comfortable with Part 2's standard. Overall, I feel the story is fairly strong, the prose is solid and the structure is inventive enough to be memorable without being so outlandish as to be awkward or difficult to read. I won't go about posting Part 2 here, not yet.

As far as the new world goes, I have yet to do more on the worldbuilding side of things. The names of things like nations and lands come to me as I write, so that's the place for all that to happen. I've fleshed out each individual magic system, but writing about each will be time-consuming and would ruin some of the intrigue of the story or stories that come out of this world.

The first idea (and keep in mind that these are vague) is as follows:

A young man has always dreamed of being a Priest, but The Protector has never chosen him. Not to be dissuaded, the man goes to study the arts of being a Priest, bluffing his way into the order's school by pretending he has in fact been chosen by The Protector. The Protector, faced with the possibility of having the reputation of his Priests besmirched by this imposter, is forced to teach this man the ways of his magic.

Idea number two is similar, but would instead follow a man obsessed with finding a Chronist or even The Watcher themselves. The adventure takes him to all corners of the world, and what he finds will likely be far from what he expects.

Idea number three takes a different approach. Instead of following a mortal person, it would follow The Former herself as she teaches and nurtures her small number of students. I still need to think of what exactly would happen in this story, but I like the idea of writing from the perspective of a God rather than of a person.

Obviously, the first idea is the most fleshed-out, and would likely be the first to get turned into a novel. Still, it's good to have options, and whatever one I'm not working on actively will sit on the backburner and become more fleshed-out as time goes by.


Now to address the burning question: What does this mean for The New Age of Steam?

Well, The New Age of Steam has not been abandoned. In fact, far from it. The Ambervale story is set in The New Age of Steam universe, and Beyond The Horizon is still my main project as far as novels go. If I complete a story in this new universe, it'll be a long time from now. That said, I may start writing something in this new universe soon. There's no reason I can't have multiple projects on the go at once.

Next week, I recount the story of the time I wrestled a bear in Latvia.

A Brave New World

So I had an idea, but that doesn't mean anything. Writing isn't about ideas, it's about writing. Still, I like this idea, so I'm getting around the aforementioned issue by writing about my idea. See? Clever.

The idea began with the desire to write in a world with magic, ideally with two or even three magic systems (for a challenge, if nothing else). From there I established a mythos of the world, and began to shape it with that as a starting point. This is what I have so far:

The six gods created the world, the product of all their talents

The Former, God of the elements, gave the world pieces of substance
The Maker, God of construction, bound these things together
The Grower, God of nature, gave the world biological creations
The Impeller, God of energy, gave these creations life
The Protector, God of vitality, gave living things the ability to heal and mend
The Watcher, God of time, gave the world the only thing he could; the ability to die

And so the world was. As time went by, men began to favour one God over all others, and began to group themselves with those who were like-minded. The Gods rewarded their followers with a further gift: the gift of magic.

Each God gave their followers a form of magic. The Former gave her followers command over the elements, the Maker gave his followers the ability to bind objects together, the Grower gave his followers the ability to shape the plants and wildlife, the Impeller gave her followers the ability to transfer energy, the Protector gave his followers the ability to heal, and the Watcher gave its followers the ability to control the flow of time. For a while, things were good this way. But all the Gods knew the truth; That this would be short-lived. They had made men too powerful, and so they began to hurt the world. First it was small things, new lakes made to support settlements, giant walls to keep their lands safe. Then the most powerful began to disrupt the lives of thousands, creating constructs of war, turning cities to stone that crumbled at the wind. Then a powerful Chronist stopped time itself.

His intentions were good. He gathered the Gods and brought them out of their growing denial. The world could not continue this way, and the powers of men had to be curbed. But the Gods saw the danger of such a powerful Chronist, and soon they struck him down.

Still, his words worked, and the Gods agreed to limit the magic in the world. Each God must select the men who would wield their magic, and each must lock it in an art of casting that would take time to learn. The world was repaired as best as could be done, and the passage of time was restored. In among this, though, the Watcher fled the world. No-one has seen or heard of them since. No-one even remembers what they looked or sounded like. With them, the Chronists disappeared.


So that's the mythos, and it leaves me with a lot of freedoms and just as many limitations. The net effect is that I have a world with magic, practiced my Arcanists, divided into 6 distinct systems. These systems are roughly as follows:

The Former's magic is practiced by Mages, and a Mage will learn one element at a time with only the most powerful ever learning more than 3, let alone all of them. They are able to use these elements at their will.

The Maker's magic is practiced by Enchanters, and they can bind objects in various ways through the use of glyphs and sigils inscribed onto objects. They are able to construct things like unbreakable buildings.

The Grower's magic is practiced by Shamans, and they can alter the biology of new lifeforms. They are able to do things like grow fruit trees that are harvested year-round.

The Impeller's magic is practiced by Sorcerers, and they are able to transfer energy from one thing to another, or create and destroy energy through the use of complicated diagrams imbued with magic. They would be able to take the heat from a fire and boil a body of water.

The Protector's magic is practiced by Priests, and they are able to heal lifeforms through the use of Hymns. They would be able to heal a cut, cure a cancer and prolong a life, but the Hymns get more complicated as the healed becomes older.

The Watcher's magic is practiced by Chronists. No-one knows what they are able to do, and no-one knows how.

Next week I'll likely be bringing up some of the fledgling ideas I have for stories within this world, and hopefully by then I'll have a name for the place too.