This Week in Fandom: Mistborn, Time Travel, and the Magic of That Screen Crawl

Welcome to the first weekly installment of "This Week in Fandom," in which I'll briefly explore what I'm currently into and hopefully synthesize my divergent interests into some sort of coherent life. This Week in Fandom is somewhat modeled after Sanderson's yearly "State of the Sanderson," in which he outlines his year and the progress he's made in various projects. However, instead of outlining my own accomplishments, I intend to outline the ways in which I'm enjoying the accomplishments of others.

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson.

The second book in the original Mistborn trilogy picks up about a year after The Final Empire. Last week [link] I started a series on how belief plays out in this series. So on this, my third time through, I'm digging in and exploring the ideas that have captured my attention on previous reads. This reread is also the start of another pass through the whole Cosmere for me, since we officially have a Stormlight 4 release date. More on what's going on with Vin and Sazed later as I have a few more Mistborn and belief posts in the works.

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

I just cracked into this one, but I'm pretty excited. I read Newitz's debut novel, Autonomous, last year, and it was great. I veer toward more fantasy than sci-fi, but the approach of Autonomous left me ready to open myself up to the genre. In her first novel, the ramifications of A.I. and bioethics drove the plot forward, so it will be great to see how Newitz takes on geological time travel.

Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, Vol. 6: Unspeakable Rebel Superweapon written by Si Spurrier
Doctor Aphra is yet another Star Wars IP that is a dividing line between fans. Aphra is an archaeologist who plays by her own rules and lives by a "play or be played" philosophy. Her early adventures kept her perilously close to Vader, but these last few books have gone deeper into her back story and her absolute brokenness. Aphra is an absolute mess, but we just can't look away. Sadly, I believe that Aphra is wrapping up with one final book, but I have found her to be a consistently great addition to the SW universe.

See my review of the latest Aphra book here.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Speaking of Star Wars, I was able to catch the final entry of the Skywalker saga again this past weekend. There is so much to say about this film, it's place in its trilogy, and it's place in the SW universe, but for now I'll settle for just how great it was. I loved this movie. No spoilers here, but Kyle Ren's *moment* atop the Death Star just wrecked me the first time I saw it. I am so satisfied with this film and remain so glad at the Star Wars revival. It's not that there weren't aspects of Rise of Skywalker that I didn't appreciate, but the Star Wars opening screen crawl just has a certain power. It's magic draws me in and ensures that I am about to generally enjoy whatever happens next. That is my bias that I don't care to hide at all.

Other Various Media

I don't think I've binge-watched a show since before my two-year-old was born, but I believe that I'm binge-watching The Good Place. I had heard this show was good, but I can now confirm that it is really good. The show pushes the "sitcom" boundaries and manages to ask deep ethical and metaphysical questions while staying in the comedy lane. Considering the other shows that creator Mike Schur has worked on (The Office, Parks and Recreation), it's unsurprising what absolute gold this show is.

Currently on the back burner is The Silmarillion. I've been intending to take the plunge into Tolkien's Legendarium since I read The Lord of the Rings as a kid, but have never been able to make it work for me. In order to shake things up, I checked out the thirteen (!) disc audio from my local library an have been listening off and on in the car. To be completely honest, I'm four discs in and can only vaguely describe what I have heard so far. That being said, the audio version is having it's intended effect. The narrator, Martin Shaw, engages the material in a way that is enchanting and enticing. While it's been a joy discovering the complexity and depth of Tolkien's world, I think I have been most captured by the sense of beauty that he attempts to convey. The Silmarillion is rife with wonder.

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I'll sign off with a selection from The Well of Ascension. I have always loved Elend's journey in this book. Elend finds himself as king of the central dominance. Though he believes in the government that he helped create, he does not believe in himself as king. It takes the catalytic tough-love of Tindwyl the Terriswoman, a specialist in the lives of the great leaders of the past, to get him there. From one of their tutoring sessions:

"Is that all it is, then?" Elend asked. "Expressions and costumes? Is that what makes a king?"

"Of course not." 

Elend stopped by the door, turning back. "Then, what does? What do you think makes a man a good king, Tindwyl of Terris?"

"Trust," Tindwyl said, looking him in the eyes. "A good king is one who is trusted by his people--and one who deserves that trust."

The Well of Ascension, 186 

Belief in Mistborn, Part 2: "I believe them all"

*This post contains mega spoilers for the original Mistborn trilogy and the "Era 2" Mistborn novels*

"...You said their prayer--is this the religion that you believe in, then?"
"I believe in them all."
Vin frowned. "None of them contradict each other?"
Sazed smiled. "Oh, often and frequently they do. But, I respect the truths behind them all--and I believe in the need for each one to be remembered." 

This brief exchange between Vin and Sazed in The Final Empire encapsulates the cosmere-ic take on religion. Sazed holds to the importance and even the truth of all beliefs, and these beliefs are deeply important because they are central to what it means to be human. I wrote recently on the Kelsier story as a counter narrative to the Christ story. Kelsier is shown as the flawed savior perhaps too in touch with his humanity. In a way Kelsier was driven by the same spirit as Sazed, seeing the deep importance of faith itself in the lives of story-telling beings.

There is really a sort of humanism at play here. In the Cosmere, one can truly value various beliefs because no religion can play a trump card against the others, since all of them are important because of how they both feed and manifest the human spirit. It is the affirmation of some beauty, goodness, and truth out there without affirming one specific source of beauty, goodness, and truth. This sort of plurality scares people. It's scary to think that the source of truth for my specific group might not be *the* source of truth.

Yet part of what drives Sazed in his devotion to all religions is the fundamental lack of the Terris people--that they do not remember their own religion.There is a pleasure in enjoying other religions that heals even as it provokes the existential pain of the Terris people. But on Sazed's journey toward truth and the faith of his people, he makes perhaps shocking discoveries about the nature of the divinity.

The great move in the Mistborn series is that Sazed, Luthadel's resident expert in the divine, essentially becomes God. When Sazed picks up the power of Ruin and Preservation, he becomes Harmony, at once becoming a god but also realizing that he is only a piece of Divinity. In the Cosmere, there once was a God, Adonalsium, who was at one point shattered, it's power taken up by sixteen individuals. As a lover of belief and the search for the divine--of the truly human--Sazed is uniquely suited to take on this power and uncover the deeper secrets of the universe.

Sazed discovers an impotence in divinity. In Mistborn Era 2, Wax, maintains a trust in Harmony as "God," until Harmony royally effs up his life. Though I would say in some ways Sanderson prepared readers for this with Kelsier, the flawed savior. In the Cosmere, there is power that people can access, and there are new heights of awareness which people can reach. These powers are understandably associated with the Divine, but it is becoming clearer that the "gods" are fighting their own battles and often playing the same games as humanity. What this means for the "God beyond" or the source of ultimate reality is unclear.