A Nerd And A Book

Simple thoughts on some of my favorite things.

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Help out a great cause!

Its not often I get up on a soap box but today Im breaking it out. There’s this amazing group of people hosting Zeldathon Wild which is a gaming marathon of all the Legend of Zelda games to raise money for charity, please come check them out because they really are amazing and if you like what you see spread the word, get this out there, THEY NEED OUR HELP! Zeldathon.net

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Logan Review (spoilers)

I want to do something interesting with this blog, and while it will predominantly be book related I do want to spread out to other types of media as well. So with that in mind I am presenting my review of Logan, the last outing of Hugh Jackman as the (seemingly) immortal Wolverine.

The movie starts off in 2029 to there being no more mutants being born. Apparently that evolutionary branch has finally snapped and were left with the stragglers of a dying race. Enter Logan, also known as wolverine, our “hero” who is found in the company of an aging and mentally ill Professor X and a young, silent girl who seems to have the same abilities as Logan. They are being chased by a government agency that created the girl named Laura using Logan’s DNA and trained her to be just as vicious as he was in his prime. Together they search for someplace safe from their potential captors.

I was hit by a wave of sadness as all the characters started to make their appearances. You are hit very quickly with the knowledge that these are physically old characters, even Logan is pushing 400 years at this point in time and he definitely feels it. He has a limp, his claws dont extend as easily as they used to and he just is generally tired. He is shot a few times early on and while he can still shake off the hits, you see it taking the better part of an hour for him to fully heal from the trauma. Professor X isnt much better, at this point he is suffering from a degenerative brain disease which for a person like him means that without knowledge or even really trying he can kill everyone around him within a mile radius. As such they must keep him constantly drugged to dampen his abilities and keep him calm. Two of quite literally the most powerful beings on the planet are reduced to a state that most people wouldnt want to keep living in and it only gets worse from there. In fact we find out that Logan is carrying around an adamantium bullet so that if he wanted to, he could end his life.  This can be considered a small spoiler but not really much of a surprise so Im comfortable saying it here, the reason Logan is so worn down and dying is because of the adamantium in his body. After so long it is poisoning his body and again causing it to deteriorate faster than he can heal himself. Another thing I was not ready for was the language in the film. When I popped the film in I forgot that it was an R rating. The first time he drops a serious F bomb I was very taken aback and for some reason i never really got used to it. Something about these characters that have been around since my childhood suddenly not holding back shocked me. That being said if Logan acting so catches you off guard, hearing Charles dropping F bombs will really send you reeling. Im not one to be sensitive to profanity but it felt a little like they were given free reign of it and because of that over used it a little bit. Just my opinions.

MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING!!! PRETTY MUCH THE WHOLE PLOT OF THE FILM!! 

So Logan, Charles and Laura are on the run from an agency that uses Mutant DNA to create soldiers similar to what the weapon X program did to Logan.... because it is the weapon X program helmed by Stryker’s son and doing the exact same thing (sans the horrible deadpool attempt like in “The Wolverine”, at least he learned from his fathers mistakes.) Turns out he has made X-23 who again is technically Logan’s daughter and X-24 who is an exact clone of Logan except subservient to Stryker’s wishes. After a fight that leaves wolverine injured, a family and Charles DEAD and Laura desperate to reach her friends (the other kids in the weapon X program) wolverine caves and agrees to bring her to them and they can head to Canada where they hope they can be safe. A lot of stuff happens but in the end of course they beat the bad guy, Laura uses Logan’s adamantium bullet to kill X-24 but the fight has left wolverine mortally wounded and as he finally begins to understand what it’s like to have someone who cares for him and he care for them in return, he passes away leaving Laura alone to grieve over his body. 

All in all this was all this was a great movie and I enjoyed it a lot. It was a great close to two very endearing characters while introducing a few new ones to carry on the legacy. As I said in the beginning, mutants are no longer being born so the result of the new weapon X program is a new generation of mutants to carry on into the future. I felt that Charles’s death was too sudden, it was something they could have given a little more time to seeing as how this is one of the most important characters in the entire series, but alas it served its purpose and gave him a proper send off. Logan’s death was not unexpected but nontheless upsetting as he finally finds a bit of happiness and a family that he never really allowed himself to have and just like that it’s taken away from him and even sadder, Laura. I’m excited to see where the franchise will go in the future, however it will never be the same without these two. I believe next up is the Dark Pheonix story which should be interesting.... I’ll see you all again forthwith!

I truly appreciate you if you’ve made it this far as this is the first movie review I’ve ever done. It will take me some time to get fully accustomed to it and I do want to do the best I can with these. So if you’ve made it this far I truly appreciate you and I hope you’ll check in again next time... Till then...

Nautilus, 

Suravye ninto manshima taishite

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11/22/63 (Stephen King) review, minor spoilers

I’m rather excited to talk about this book, I cant go into detail about much of it without spoiling much of anything.

11/22/63 is a novel by Stephen King revolving around the Kennedy Assassination. A schoolteacher named Jake Epping is shown a portal into the past. The thing about this portal is that it always takes you to the same day, time and place , most importantly the year 1958. He gets talked into a plan wherein he goes through it and lives in the past until 1963 when he would then try to stop the Kennedy assassination. And that’s about it… The book is as much about his story as it is about the assassination, in truth I prefer the goings on in his life than the “main” plot line. I put main in quotations because I eventually stopped caring about it. There’s a lot that happens in the book, much more than what I have mentioned here and while it isn’t exactly spoiler territory it is something I would prefer someone learn about and experience by reading it rather than by me telling you about it. What is most unfortunate for me is that I can’t tell you about the ending, it again would negate the whole don’t disperse details thing I was saying before. Prepare yourself for a little bit of cheesiness and a little cliche because I’m about to lay it thick. The ending is perfect for a book having to do with time travel, here’s why… It is a great ending to the story while at the same time (at least in my opinion) is wholly unsatisfying. Its a duality that somehow works, like to paths in a timestream… It made me feel emotion for characters in a way that not many books have. I do get emotional and or attached to characters but not on a level like this. In a way I felt what they felt and that more than makes up for the way it ends.

One thing I do feel I need to mention is that this story felt, for lack of better words, like a grown up Steven King book. Anyone who has read more than one of his books knows that he has a way of describing and writing certain things that can come across as a bit harsh or disturbing or downright vulgar to some people. While this books certainly has some of those essences (it wouldn’t be a King book if it didn't) it seems toned down. As he is getting older Ive noticed that his writing is becoming a little more reserved and it really is a noticeable difference. When it comes down to it, it lends a smoother reading experience that just flows and you can really lose yourself in the pages. 

This book quickly became one of my favorites and I’m pretty comfortable saying my favorite King book. It’s the first one I have ever read that I reread in less than 6 months. I remember finishing it and moving on to the next book in my list and halfway through I found myself missing this story. By the next book I was itching to go through it again and so I found myself less than 2 months after turning the final page ripping through it again and finding myself as satisfied as the first time. I dont think I have to give much more of a recommendation than that so I’ll close off here. 

Thank you for spending some time with this blog and have a good day. I hope you’ll stop in again. 

Nautilus,

Suravye ninto manshima taishite

P.S. I forgot while writing this to mention the show that was put out a year or so ago. I didnt have the opportunity to watch it so I cant really relate it to anything here, I just know of some of the minor changes that they made for it. If you enjoyed it and didnt read the book I suggest checking it out because I heard it does take its time a little more with the story. Farewell!

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“You can never know everything, and part of what you know is always wrong. Perhaps even the most important part. A portion of wisdom lies in knowing that. A portion of courage lies in going on anyways.”

As said by Lan Mandragoron in “Winters Heart” the 9th book in Robert Jordan’s Wheel Of Time series.

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Wheel of Time Series

I read the other day that the Wheel of time books were getting a television adaptation. Truth be told we’ve been hearing this for years and at one point there was even an unofficial pilot that aired on tv, but due to legal reasons was shut down. We truly live in exciting times ladies and gentlemen, so many things are being adapted to movies and television that I’m fairly comfortable with them attempting this now because we as fans know there’s going to be some challenges.

For those who don’t know, The Wheel Of Time is a series that spans 14 books from two authors each book composed of several hundered to a thousand pages. I highly recommend the series however be ready for the long haul as it does take some time to get through and some of the middle installments become dry, bogged down with politics and the like. The final 3 installments were written by a different author due to the passing of the creating author Robert Jordan. This is where the series really picks up as Sanderson has many of the same qualities as Jordan but moves at a much faster pace regarding the story. Again I highly recommend it.

What most concerns me and other fans that I’ve spoken to is how the show will be worked out. The books at least in my opinion have both enough and not enough content to warrant a season. The first four books would do fine in a series format but the middle books as I said before are a bit dry and they would struggle to come up with enough content (ignoring any changes of course that will be made for television. Also they can’t exactly just expect that the show will go for 14 seasons now can they. All in all it’s going to take some finesssing and I’m both concerned and excited to see how they’re going to do it. Here’s hoping they do their jobs right! As always thanks for reading, hope you’ll check back again.. Nautilus Suravye ninto manshima taishite

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Dark Tower movie trailer!

Its finally coming!! At the time of this writing the trailer for The Dark Tower has been approved to be viewed which means we have very little time to wait! Dare I hope that before next Sunday rolls around we will have seen what we Stephen King fans have been patiently waiting for for a long time. There have been so many setbacks to this movie that many (myself included) didn’t think it was going to happen… Once I got a look at Idris Elba in costume it finally began to feel real. I’m being cautiously optimistic seeing as how they’ve made so many changes to the main story line, I don’t think that Eddie or Susannah are going to be part of it at all, at least at first. Maybe as the series goes on (assuming it doesn’t bomb… Say It ain’t so, I really really really want this to be successful!) they may find room to introduce them, but for now they want a more intimate story between Roland, Jake, and The man in black. There in lies my most concern. I’ve never been a big Matthew Mcconaughey fan so I don’t know how good of a villain he can do. That being said I’ve only seen two or three of his movies so I’m not the best judge either. Lets talk about Mr. Elba for a second as the main man of the Hour, Roland of Gilead. So many have had issues with him being cast (besides the pea brains disliking the fact that he’s black) that I just don’t see. Roland is supposed to be a worn down grizzled bad ass and in my opinion he’s got that in the bag. He pulls off the scruffy Vagabond cowboy thing rather nicely, to put the final nail in the coffin the only thing left to see is him moving in the role, speaking, being Roland. Either it’s going to click or its going to fall flat there’s no in between. I don’t know much about who they’ve cast as Jake, to be truthful I haven’t seen much about him so we’ll see how the actor does when the trailer arrives. So here we are guys, we await this with baited breath, you’ve had the time to get this right, put up or shut up! Time to dazzle. At this point I say thank you for listen to me ramble for a while and I hope you’ll check back again from time to time. I usually end these with a little of the old tongue from the Wheel Of Time series but I have something a little more appropriate this time… In the words of Roland of Gilead, last of the Gunslingers… Long days and pleasant nights…. May you always remember the face of your father… Nautilus

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And so, does the destination matter? Or is it the path we take? I declare that no accomplishment has substance nearly as great as the road used to achieve it. We are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us. Our calloused feet, our backs strong from carrying the weight of our travels, our eyes open with the fresh delight of experiences lived. In the end I must proclaim that no good can be achieved of false means. For the substance of our existence is not in the achievement, but in the method.

An excerpt from Brandon Sanderson's novel The Way of Kings as read by the character Dalinar Kholin from the book The Way of Kings.

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Mistborn Review, Brandon Sanderson (minor spoilers)

When I started this book, I didnt have very high expectations but I had come to enjoy Sanderson’s writing and thought I would give it a try. I had already read his books finishing up Robert Jordan’s Wheel Of Time series and his Stormlight Archives books and was really impressed. That being said it is a shorter book so it’s a good one to start with if you want to check out his work, not too much of an investment it you aren’t feeling it.

Mistborn is set in a world that is being buried day by day under mountains of ash. The Final Empire is controlled by the Immortal Lord Ruler who oversees all and rules with an iron fist. In this word there are people who use a magic called Allomancy, the digesting of metals to give them powers. Depending on the type of metal they ingest, determines the type of power they obtain. There are two types of Allomancers, the mistings who can only use one metal and therefore one power and Mistborn who have control over all the metals and powers. They range from telekinesis of a sort (only affecting metal) increased strength, increased senses amng other things.

The Book starts with a character named Kelsier and the wish to achieve his goal which is the usurping of the Lord Ruler. Him and his band are basically thieves who pull off Robin Hood esque heists. Theses bands are not uncommon in the empire, however what makes theirs unique is that they are all Mistings or Mistborn. They meet a girl named Vin who also has Allomantic abilities and they plan their great heist to bring down the Lord Ruler. 

If any of that sounds really vague and bare bones, thats because it is. Unfortunately not much can be said about any one aspect without it taking away from another part of the story. As such I have to keep all descriptions and explanations to a minimum so that if you like, you can experience it yourself which I highly recommend. This is a series I am really looking forward to delving deeper in to. As of this writing I have only read the first book but I finally acquired the next in the series and am about to dive into that as soon as I’m done with my current book. All in all I highly recommend this book and probably the series, can’t say for certain as I haven’t read any more than the first one. Give it a try, I think you’ll enjoy it. As always thanks for your time and hope you’ll check back in later Nautilus, Suravye ninto manshima taishite

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The hammer is broken!!

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The Martian review (minor spoilers)

This book was lent to me by a friend at work, We shared many interests and she thought that I might enjoy it. I’ve never been a big fan of science fiction… Hell The Dune series has been on my to read list since freshman year in high school. I’ve tried a few times and just could never get into it. I haven’t seen the movie that the made based on this book and that was what decided me. I wanted to check it out before I got around to seeing the film and thereby soiling my experience before i had a chance to make an unbiased opinion. I’m so glad I did.

So in this story, Mark Watney is an astronaut on what are quickly becoming routine missions to Mars. It’s a very Apollo 13 type of story, I realized that just now as I was typing away and surprisingly to me, it doesn’t take anything away from it. A storm kicks up some debris and nearly kills Mr. Watney, and damages his suit so his companions dont know that he is alive. The protocol is very clear, abort the mission. They get back on their ship and head back to earth, a trip that will take them a few years to complete. For the sake of the story I dont think I have to tell you that Watney is alive. He is alive and has around half of the supplies that they were going to use to live on Mars for the next few years. He has no contact with earth or his companions, they have no way of knowing what happened to him and even if he did wait for the next batch of astronauts to arrive which would be about 5 years into the future, he’d have to travel hundreds of miles to their planned landing location…. And GO! Will he survive? Will he die?? GO READ THE BOOK. This is one that I really had no idea what the outcome would be until the end and I absolutely loved that. Here’s all you really need to know.

Watney is a Botanist and a engineer and using these skills and the equipment available he fights for his life. The story is written in a biographical sense and the character is written with a nice sense of sarcasm and wit. Nothing he ever does is boring even if it’s some technical jargon that no one missing a mechanical degree would understand… You wont understand half of what he is saying he’s doing but at the same time you will never be lost. There’s always an underlying explanation to what is happening so that you know the goal, you know the quest at hand. I say all this because like me, some people will be put off from the book because of the genre and what it usually consists of, and with this you dont really have to worry about it. In regards to his wit, there’s more than one occasion that he succeeds in whatever task he is working on, the chapter will end with him feeling good and celebrating his latest achievement, usually saying something along the lines of “I may actually live”…. Next paragraph, “Well I’m fucking dead, I killed myself, I’m fucking dead” and it every time it happens the reader is just sitting there like WHAT NOW WATNEY?!?! I got so engrossed in it that I was actually surprised to find myself on the last hundred pages, it was that good.

I’ve rambled on a bit with the one more than the others I’ve done so far and truth be told all I can say to finish this off is, try the book… Even if you’ve seen the movie (which as of this post I have not seen) give it a try, it’s worth it…. I promise

As always, thank you for your time, precious though it may be and I hope you check back sometime if you enjoyed this.

Nautilus

Suravye ninto manshima taishite

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Book 4 here we go (a little rough looking, it's one of my older books and been through it about 6 times)

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Who are you? (I really want to know)

That’s a lyric from The Who by the way… Just want to throw that out there. Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled programming…

Ever since I was a young child I would make up stories in my head as children often do. I had a character I would use, I called him power man and he was the strongest person in the whole world! He was a cross between a DBZ character, a power ranger, and a digimon with a dash of other superheroes here or there. I would create battles and stories all the time until something happened…. I grew up. As I got older I was saddened by the thought that something I was so proud of and entertained me so much was being lost. I could no longer come up with interesting enjoyable scenarios (which is my theory as to why I suck at any type of creative or fictional writing… I lack the imagination for it) and as such I let that character fade away… Put him on a back shelf if you will, just another knick knack to be looked at but rarely thought of or used. I mention all that because I did end up picking him back up again, just in a way I never expected. As I got more into video games, movies and of course books, I wasn’t satisfied with simply seeing how the story played out, so I decided to inject my own character into the story that I could use vicariously to enjoy it more. It doesn’t work with every story of course, but enough of them.

First I have a basic frame, a character with set personality traits that has room to be molded to the story I inject him into, with a few simple rules I have an good fit for nearly any series… It goes like so

1. (MOST IMPORTANT) He cannot change the laid out course of events, minor changes only. 2. He cannot be more powerful or more skilled than the main character(s) 3. It must make sense for him to be in the given situation. 4. Being in multiple locations with different characters is ok, enjoy the story 5. Have fun 6. He is not immune to injury or death I feel that I have to explain #4 a little bit. A lot of the stories, movies, games that I read watch and play have multiple threads going on with multiple characters at once, because of that I couldn’t decide where I most wanted my character to be and fit in with the narrative. After going back and forth several times and not knowing where I ultimately wanted him to fit in, I decided it was ok to put him in several places at once. It felt wrong for some reason to do so but I can’t really say why, it felt like going against the natural law of things…. Again in a fictional story with a fictional character I felt it was wrong to move a character around where I wanted to. It took me a long time to get over that by the way… Still feels weird sometimes…. Allowing him to be killed off in certain circumstances is how I bring them back together again when they eventually do meet back up. I know that this is by no means a unique thing to me. I’ve asked different people I meet what they do when they read and I can usually tell what they’re stance is based on our conversation leading up to the question. People are broken up into three groups… The person who just reads and doesn’t really interact with the story, the person who drops themselves into the shoes of the main character and sees it through their eyes and the person who like I said an over uses a character they’ve created to take part in the story. I enjoy the interactions and I enjoy seeing what other people feel and do with their stories because it makes me feel closer to others, learning how they interact with their favorite tales and movies gives me a better insight than anything else could… I hope you found something interesting here. As always, till next time, Nautilus Suravye ninto manshima taishite

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A place for pages

Where do you like to read? Seeing as how I don’t even know if anyone is going to read this I Will just answer the question myself. I will read anywhere that I have enough time to flip through a page or two no matter where that may be. There are the common places that everyone does… In between classes, on break at work, at the doctors office and yes even in the bathroom ( though I limit that to as little as possible as it always feelers strange and in some ways wrong to do it in there). My interests lie in some non conventional places that people go through a book. I swear I saw a mother and child going through the grocery store one day and she told the child what to grab while she was reading some book going through the store. Now I will go through a few pages whenever I find the time, but there’s a task at hand in that situation, maybe concentrate just a little bit.

Even more interesting than where people read is when people read. I always like to spend a little time just before bed like a lot of people, again, during my lunch break at work and depending on what phase I’m in just sitting at home in my spare time. I say phase because I really do go through a complete cycle and I’ve come to see the pattern in it. I don’t know if it’s only me who goes through this or if it is common and people just don’t talk about it. I will go through a couple of months, maybe as much as 3-4 up to as much as 6 where I will chew through books like they’re nothing. I’m talking 7-800 sometimes even 900 page books every 3-4 days (which while going to School full time and pulling 40 hours at work and taking care of the house is a lot in my opinion) non stop. Eventually though it does peter out and then I move on to the next phase whether that be movies or video games or what have you. The two certainties to this are that A. I never fully stop reading, just slow down and B. I always circle back around again.

This entry wasn’t really anything special, just a little insight into the interesting little piece of grey matter known as my brain. I hope you found something interesting here and who knows, maybe You can relate.

Suravye ninto manshima taishite Nautilus

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God's among us (American Gods review) minor spoilers

Seeing as how there's a show premiering soon based on this book, I thought now might be a good time to talk about it. American Gods was the first book I ever read by the author Neil Gaiman... Truth 've told it was the first I ever heard of him, that didn't last long however as that book while not listed as one of my top favorites was good enough for me to read through a few times and got me interested in other works he had written... Neverwhere in particular struck my fancy, in case you haven't heard that is a book based on a television show that he wrote, completely backwards to the normal.method of doing things... I recommend checking it out. The books main character is a strange gentleman by the name of shadow who is released slightly early from prison after learning of his wife's death. While on a plane ride back home he meets an old man who calls himself Wednesday and offers him a job. It turns out this man is a god... In the world, everything that has ever been worshipped has taken on substance in the form of a god. It turns out that Wednesday is Odin the Allfather and through a complicated (yet interesting set of circumstances) he drags shadow into a war between the gods of old and the New gods of today. That is all I will say on the subject other than that the modern gods are really disturbing not because the characters are written disturbingly, more that as you learn what makes a god and fuels a god... You can't argue with the fact that these things would actually exist in pur real world and that's a scary thing, but hey a little self reflection never hurt nobody. The ending has a nice little mystery to it that to some people May seem a little obvious and to others May seem a bit of a surprise. In my opinion it could have been done better but I have no complaints with it. There's a lot of Lore to this book, definitely don't take this one up unless you're ready to do a little research. O read through it the first time just at face value with what was in the pages and I got lost fast and for some things unrecoverable. Were talking about being a whose stories are thousands of years old in some cases and if you do not know their history... You will be missing a lot. I actually sat with google open next to me my second time through and while it took much longer to get through the book (not overly long btw, only 5-600 pages if I remember correctly) you definitely get a richer experience. All that being said, if you have any interest in older cultures and mythology, particularly Norse Mythology (Have to pick up his new book by the way, it looks fantastic) then this is definitely a must read... Go check it out and don't be daunted by first impressions, look a little deeper... Take your time and enjoy the story put forward here. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you give me another chance in the future... Till then, Suravye ninto manshima taishite Nautilus

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IT

THE WAIT IS OVER!!! Today marks a very special moment in the lives of horror fans, we’ve been waiting for this trailer with bated breath for months, if not years!! Finally, after what seemed to be a lifetime of patience, we get our payoff.I’ve watched it a few times now and there’s some ups and downs but overall its a positive experience. The original scared and scarred me as a child to the point where I was afraid to use the bathroom let alone shower out bathe. Once, I crashed my bike and one of the tires got stuck in a storm drain… It was at least an hour before I found the courage to pull it out. Despite all that, it has since become one of my favorite movies and definitely one of my favorite books ( messed up though out may be…). It looks like they’re taking some chutes from more recent horrors and that definitely helps ground the movie in the Times we live in. My biggest complaint is that the kids don’t impress me. I don’t know if I’m just so used to the original actors our what, but I hope that future footage is able to change my mind. My only other complaint is that while old Bob Gray (pennywise for you non book readers) looks good and scary, that’s all he seems to be… Scary. I think the trailer would have been much better had they had some clip ( even if we don’t see him, only hear him) where he was the joyous fun loving clown…all in All it passed my first test, we’ll talk again when we see some more… As always thanks for spending some time with me.. Nautilus Suravye ninto manshima taishite

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Dark Comparisons

One thing that always interested me is the cliche of the dark force and darker (and more dangerous) leader. In many series that I’ve read and I’m sure even more that I haven’t read the heroes of the story must have dispensible villains to fight against and somewhere along the way it just became the norm. The earliest that I have personally heard of and read is of course The orcs and the Ringwraiths from J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings. The orcs were strong as a force and something to be feared and with only a few exceptions, not much in the way of characters. The wraiths were a little more fleshed out but ultimately ended up The same way… Used as an evil force when something more menacing was needed. Of course there was The witch King of Angmar (and another whom I can’t recall the details of…) who had an actual story if you dug a little deeper into the source material. Next up I’ll talk about my favorite series which is The Wheel of Time. The two forces in this series are the Trollocs, nearly mindless beasts that think only of killing and have no characters or plot whatsoever seeing as how they are merely an obstacle for the heroes to cut down from time to time. The other creatures are called Myrddraal. Myddraal are creatures of The shadow that I spire fear in all that look upon them. Expert with swords they are cunning, hard to kill and do not die easily… Sound familiar? They also have a dominant character, a Myrddraal known as Shaidar Haran who is stronger, faster, deadlier and more powerful than any other. Moving on to the Inheritance cycle with the Urgals and the Shades. The real difference here is that the Urgals actually get a redemption story, they stand alone in that category at least as far as I have read. On to A Song of Ice and Fire with the Wights and White Walkers, The mistborn trilogy with allomancers and the Steel Ministry, The stormlight Archive with the Parshendi soldiers and then Parshendi war forms and on and on and on… All unique in their authors perspective yet wholly the same and ultimately, in my opinion…. Uninspired. That’s not to say that any of these series are wrong to use them or that the characters and creatures themselves are bad, more that its been over done. I’m sure there are series out there that have what I’m looking for, I just haven’t found it yet, so till then I will take what I can get and take it gladly. Now comes the most interesting part of this article… I want to talk about my personal choices of which is strongest. In the category of underlings that are just there to be fought by the heroes I’m torn between the Urgals from The Inheritance Cycle and The Orcs from LOTR. They both are intelligent for the type of forces that they are, have fully fleshed out cultures and characters and are organized in their fighting abilities. Seeing how the Urgals are in that special little category where they get some redemption I’m going to ultimately go with the Orcs… For the other more powerful forces again I have to lean towards LOTR with the Ringwraiths… In the entire series only one of them is killed and their power is never fully explored. They are in my opinion the strongest of the group. And….that’s that. I plan on doing these from time to time, coming up with different topics to talk about and giving my honest thoughts about them. Hope you enjoyed It and again if you are reading this far thank you so much, and I hope you come back to check my blog out again… Nautilus Suravye ninto manshima taishite

[nerdandabook]

Review (I Am the Messenger, Marcus Zusak) Minor spoilers...

*Small disclaimer at the beginning here for anyone that happens to come across this. My reviews and talks will be very minimal, as minimal as I can make it and have it still make sense. Even when telling the smallest of details, larger things can bleed through. Think of every piece of information as a puzzle, as I spoon a few to someone here, they may only need one or two more to come to a massive realization. So in conclusion, minimal points, simple thoughts, good books.

This is a book I was given during the second month of a book club I was in at one point.... the first book was decidedly underwhelming so I was hoping that this one would be better, funnily enough it turned out to be one of my favorite books I’ve read. The book is about a young man by the name of Ed who one day in a spur of bravery stops a bank robber from escaping. This leads to him being chosen by an unknown person or persons to make a difference in the community he lives in one act of kindness at a time, how he does this is something that I dont want to mention here not because it’s a spoiler, more that is better told by the author than I can ever hope to. Ed is decidedly boring, but that is his whole point... he’s so boring that he’s interesting and his friends are much the same. They all start out as one note characters, not very interesting until later on when they all get their moments and you see just how subtle this author really is. The clues to their stories are throughout and you never notice it.

This isnt a very long book however it more than makes up for it in emotion and feeling. The main character is just a normal person, not extraordinary in any way, and that’s important because he could be anyone.... me, you, the neighbor down the street... and that frankly is the point. The ending is a little strange, not convoluted or some amazing reveal, just strange and it fits this book like a glove. I hope that you will give it a chance, I do believe it is certainly worth it.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for giving me a chance, I hope you’ll do so again. I dont have much of a gift for words, but I enjoy sharing my experiences with people. As I go along I hope my skill will improve and in turn make these more interesting and entertaining.. Till next time,

Nautilus

Suravye ninto manshima taishite