David Farland has created a world where rulers take advantage of a magical process by which they acquire one or more of the attributes of their subjects, such as strength, stamina, glamour, metabolism, grace, etc. The person that gives up such an endowment is known as a "dedicate" and they are now crippled in that capacity for the rest of their lives, all so that the receiver can be enhanced. Those who receive endowments are known as Runelords, and they each approach the ethics of receiving endowments from different moral perspectives, which adds to the richness of the characters. Some are ruthless in their thirst to improve themselves for their own purposes, while others pledge their lives to making the world better on behalf of their dedicates.

Anyone who has ever played a character in an online game or assumed any kind of persona in a virtual world will identify with this book. Serious MMO players in particular understand the challenge of managing the demands of the real world versus a virtual world and know the perils of trying to live in both at the same time. The two have a way of bleeding together with each having the ability to negatively impact success in the other. Ernest Cline take this concept and creates a virtual utopia known as the OASIS and juxtaposes it against a dystopian society that is in near ruins. Many people live in poverty in the "stacks", which are trailer homes vertically stacked on top of each other, and the only grass they ever see is virtual grass when they are online.

​​​​​​​The Riyria series has an interesting publishing history that is not very typical. Michael J Sullivan self-published 6 books in this series on his own and they were successful enough to land him a publishing deal with Orbit Books. These 6 books were then re-packaged into a trilogy containing 2 original books each and known as the Riyria Revelations. This is a great trilogy that has a strong story arc containing well written and entertaining characters and it all wraps itself up nicely at the end. What more could you want?

Promise of Blood is what is known as "Flintlock Fantasy" which means it contains a world where guns (musket/flintlock era weapons) exist alongside swords and sorcery. This book introduces the concept of Powder Mages, who are gun using sorcerers that rely on gunpowder to fuel their abilities. Powder Mages are able to enter a powder trance by ingesting gun powder which allows them to manipulate and control bullets as they fly, or even explode nearby gun powder being carried by their enemies. It is a unique magic system and executed pretty well by Brian McClellan. That concept, combined with an interesting story arc, carries the series and make up for the characters which I found to be a little uninteresting as a whole.

Mistborn is an excellent series and I thoroughly enjoyed every book in the original trilogy: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages. I was completely drawn into Sanderson's world of Allomancers and all of the interesting things they could do right from the start. For the uninitiated, Allomancy is the art of "burning" an ingested metal to enhance your own physical and mental abilities. One of these metals let you mentally push yourself off of nearby metal objects and another lets you pull the metal towards you. With each metal having a unique ability Sanderson is able to create a society where Allomantic powers are used in very creative ways and the magic system alone makes this series a win. There are 8 metals that can be ingested/burned and most Allomancers can only burn a single one; however, there are rare individuals who can burn all 8 and these are known as Mistborn. All 8 powers in one person - that's when things get really interesting.