I begin with Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. In short, it is a good series; if you wish for a more thorough description than delve into the next paragraph. First though, despite the often-horrendous cover art the adorns books of the fantasy genre, I provide you with an image anyway, mainly to break the monotony that text can bring (a good way to remember how to spell "monotony" is that it gets rather monotonous typing all those "o"s).

Without spoiling any of the extremely compelling and often surprising plot, I shall try to give a decent and fair review. Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy is set in a vivid and interesting world full of intrigue and magic. Much of the first book is spent fleshing out the magic system (eating metals!?), which I think is one of the series' strongest points, the other being the aforementioned excellent setting that the author has provided. The weakest part of the series is that many of its characters are forgettable fellows that cling to a single attribute in hopes of being remembered or impactful in that one way; only three or so of the cast have any real depth. Luckily the main character, Vin, is one of these. She's extremely interesting as a protagonist and is at once exotic and believable. I think I've mentioned before that Sanderson is really good at endings. This is due mainly to his ability to combine mental and emotional catharsis with a thrilling climax to the story; the mental component comes from the sudden comprehension of all the subtle hints he loves to drop in the course of his narrative (he does this in every single book of his I've read, and yet still manages to surprise me) and the emotional of course steams from ties that the reader has developed with his characters. The first and third books showcase this talent especially; in each case I forwent sleep in favor of finishing the particular volume. I can't say the same for the second iteration, which I found a mediocre prelude that was necessary to set up the far superior third. To summarize, I recommend the series to fans of fantasy.

My next fantasy novel will be Patrick Rothfuss's Wise Man's Fear, the second in his own proclaimed trilogy. It is set to be released on the first of March.

The 61st One Piece volume was released in Japan last week to ludicrous sales and acclaim. What caught my eye though was the cover; the nostalgia brings a tear to my eye.

One Piece Volume 1 juxtaposed with One Piece volume 61

And now dear readers saunter, jaunt or even promenade with me from the realm of fiction to wide world of sports. I haven't talked much about baseball here on the Blog of Many Things, but that has been due mainly in part to the entirety of its existence having been during the offseason. Since Spring Training has officially begun, so too will my commentary on the Orioles' season.

The O's have been quite busy during the Winter months trying to build a team around their young prospects. The main acquisitions have been infielder J.J. Hardy, slugger Mark Reynolds, veteran Derrek Lee and hitter of renown Vladimir Guerrero. Since they will be competing in the ever-excellent AL East, all I want to see is the team reach a .500 record for the first time since 1997. Of course given the vast improvement to their lineup, they could do more if the young pitching staff can throw as well as they did at the end of last season. If nothing else the season will certainly be interesting enough for me to get an MLB TV subscription.

Camping prospects seem bleak at the moment. The weather (everywhere on the West Coast) has suddenly taken a turn for the worse, and even in low-lying, land-locked Davis, rain and highs of 50 are expected for the weekend. Coastal and mountainous regions appear far worse. Alternatives are currently under discussion, but it looks like the outdoorsmanship will have to wait for another week. Luckily my new computer arrived today, so at least that will work out nicely.

I would love to use the Lord Ruler from the Mistborn series as today's villain, but basically anything I wrote about him would be rife with spoilers. So instead I'll introduce Count Cagliostro!

Villain of the great Hayao Miyazaki's Castle of Cagliostro, the Count is sly, fiendish and cruel to a fault. A classic antagonist to the end, the count runs an international forgery ring, has a secret ninja attack force at his disposal and best of all locks a princess in a tower to force her to marry him! And just look at that pompous smirk! It's actually quite unusual for Miyazaki to include such a straightforward villainous character in his work; usually some great force or idea is the enemy in his movies, if there is even a villain at all. Straying farther off-topic, I absolutely love the main theme of the movie. Anyway, in grandiose and climactically classic fashion, the Count is defeated in a thrilling swordfight with the protagonist atop a mysterious clocktower (where else?).