An Element of Mystery

Posted on 06 February 2010

So, I just finished Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, and in the process of reading, I started to wonder what was it about this book that is drawing me in so much?  The questions broadened as I considered what it was about my favorite books, from Wheel of Time to Lord of the Rings to Memory, Sorrow, Thorn, to even several Michael Crichton novels.  What I have decided is that, secretly, all of them are mystery novels.

Now, I’m not saying they are “who-dun-it” crime novels.  I’m going down a little deeper in the meaning.  They all have a mystery of some sort, sometimes as simple as “how do I destroy the ring?” to “what is the vast conspiracy in a society full of backstabbing liars?”  The questions are all seemingly simple and yet played with often enough to make you realize they aren’t.  After all, one does not simple walk into Mordor.

(Funny side note.  Crichton’s last name is recognized by my spell check, but Mordor is not.  Silly Microsoft.)

Anyway, the big questions.  The best of plot is the one that draws you in slowly, makes you think all these questions will have neat, simple answers, and then betrays you, tosses the simple plans to the rocks like a wave near shore, and then only with fast thinking and luck does it work out in a way that still is satisfactory and makes sense, but was unknown to you until the last moment despite the author having paraded facts and foreshadowing.  Those stories, where, as one hobbit once said, get so dark that you can’t bear to read on, for how could a happy ending ever come from it.  Those are the ones that stay with you.