Books, Movies & Games

Dark Tower - Not so Grand Finale

2007-09-02T02:49:00.000-07:00

Finished reading Dark Tower, ending was quite unexpected & I didn’t like it much. Roland deserved a better fate although I can understand why Stephen King was forced to an ending like that. Any other ending would have led to many questions since The Dark Tower was supposed to be the axis of all parallel universes. If Roland was not shunted back to the beginning of the story after his completion of the quest King would have to find some explanation to what would happen to Roland after that. Be omnipotent? Anyway the ending took care of that conveniently. But that doesn’t make it anymore acceptable. Although I enjoyed the series immensely, after finishing it didn’t get the usual satisfied feeling. More like an unfinished tale, just like Roland’s life.

Anyway back to reading ‘The Neutronium Alchemist’ of Peter F Hamilton, which I have paused after I got the Dark Tower series. Which is the second book of The ‘Nights Dawn’ Series, preceded by ‘The Reality Disfunction’ . Currently searching for the 3rd & last book of the series ‘The Naked God’. Looks like I will have to wait for sometime until it surfaces here in Sri Lanka. Which is frustrating because it kills the whole fun of reading.

Dark Tower Series - Stephen King

2007-08-25T04:07:00.000-07:00

Hi..... After long time decided to update the blog again. Many thing lead to this long absence, getting a new job being one of them. Now the work is settled & have a bit of time free to write.

Two months back I bought something which had being eluding me for one reason or the other, the thing being 7 books of “The Dark Tower” series by Stephen King. The main 2 reasons were they were quite hard to find at one single location & money. I didn’t want to buy 2 books here & search for other 5 all over Colombo. Finally at Vijitha Yapa Bookshop I found all of them together & couldn’t resist buying them. I have read III & IV books of the series (The Waste Lands & Wizard and Glass )previously, when I was a member of the British Council.

The series include

The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (1982)
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987)
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991)
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997)
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (2003)
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004)
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004)

Now I’m down to the last book (The Dark Tower ) of the series where Roland, Susanah & Oy are the survivor of their Ka-Tet & they just confronted the Minister of State of the Crimson King. It a fascinating story with vivid characters & fantastic situations. Although all of the books are quite good I like the first 5 of the series better. In 6th & 7th the Author himself becomes a character of the story & I think that it spoils the story somewhat. His real life accident becomes a major part in the books & I think that distract the whole plot of the story.

Anyway the whole series can be compared to the “Lord of The Rings” series by J.R.R. Tolkien. Which Stephen King describe as a inspiration for his story. Just like the Fellowship of the LOTR, in Dark Tower there is a collection on individuals who are on a quest. Although unlike LOTR, here Roland the Hero (or is he an Anti-Hero?) have two different groups called Ka-Tets to help on his quest at different time. In the beginning he has his childhood friends & afterwards here draws vastly different characters from different time planes of New York ( a white Heroin Junky- Eddie Dean, a Black activitist with two amputated legs – Odetta Susanah Holmes & a teenage boy – Jake Chambers ) & this last Ka-Tet include a animal special to Rolands world called Bumbler, who looks part dog, part raccoon & can speak or mimic .

In his quest for the Dark Tower, which controls the existence of all the parallel worlds, Roland is willing to sacrifice anything including his members of the Ka-Tet to achieve his goal. Although he doesn’t do it intentionally his or their actions lead to demise of many of members of the Ka-Tet. Story mainly moves between New York of different times, Roland’s world & Keystone world, where the Dark Tower resides. In other worlds Dark Tower takes shape of a Rose or some other thing. Books contain many sub stories of the history of people Roland meets along his way. And quite a few of these characters are from other novels of Stephen King!

I have around 200 pages to finish of the last book. Hopefully I may be able to finish it within this weekend. And I look forward to it too.

Find Me Guilty.... I'm not a Gangster..I'm a Gagster

2006-08-15T02:07:00.000-07:00

No posts for sometime. The excuse ? can’t think of a one. May be I was busy or lazy or whatever..

Finished reading thief of time by Terry Prachett, Angels & Demons by Dan Brown and currently reading Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds. And watched so many movies including Superman Returns, Inside Man, RV, Fanaa, Water & Final Destination 3. Currently playing Oblivion, Star Wars – Sith Lords & Battling with black list number 8 in Need for Speed – Most Wanted.

May be I will post something on them or may be not. But What “Find Me Guilty” starring Vin Diesel was a nice surprise. Although I have seen Diesel doing comedy in “The Pacifier” this has more to it than comedy. This film was based on a real life mobster Geocomo “ Jackie” Dinorscio from New Jersey. How he almost single handedly won a huge criminal trial, where he & his fellow acquaintances were facing severe punishments. Jackie successfully convinced the jury that they are not the monsters portrayed by the government by making jokes & making shrewd observations while representing himself as the lawyer. Many hilarious incidents follows, where he seriously piss off the government representatives, the judge & his own mob boss. But the jury laughs with him & in the end sympathies with him. Which results in a not guilty verdict for all the defendants in the longest criminal trial in America’s history.

The important part is Jackie does all this while serving a 30 year sentence for drug trafficking. He gets offered a deal to turn government witness where he his prison sentence is greatly reduced. But “ Jackie D never rats on his friends”. After the monumental victory he returns to the prison while his friends return home to celebrate. The real Jackie D was releases after serving 18 years of his sentence & died while the movie was in progress.

While the film is quite different from the standard Hollywood ones, it keeps the viewer interested by showing the emotions they go through while on the trial. The conversation between Jackie & his wife shows a glimpse of his personal life, where he was a very contradictory & complicated man. While he is not superb by any means Diesel does a creditable job of portraying the mobster. It is quite a deflection from his XXX or Riddick movies.

PC Upgrading

2006-07-21T03:08:00.000-07:00

I made a huge errors in my quarterfinal predictions for the Football world cup, with Italy winning it in the end. Brazil made complete fools of them & Argentina somehow got beaten. From the 4 semi finalists I think the best team won. Anyway I never liked France. It’s now back to club football & cricket. With South Africa in Sri Lanka for a test series & a triangular ODI series which includes India, we are in for a couple busy months. Hope we can repeat the performance in England against them too.

Since we (me & my roommates) finished call of duty 2 sometime back we bought a couple of new games. Namely Oblivion & Devil May Cry III. To make a long story short, my pc crawls when I try to play Oblivion on it. I want to upgrade it but somewhat clueless about what the best option is. PC configuration is as follows

Processor 2.4GHz-Pentium

RAM 768MB

VGA 256 GeForce 5500

Motherboard Asus

Any suggestions about what should I upgrade since I cant afford to go for a new PC ??

Cricket, Football & More Sports

2006-06-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

All my recent spare time has been devoured by sports. This led to be no new post in the blog. With Sri Lanka virtually stomping over England in One Day International Cricket & Football in full flow I could be hardly blamed. Pommies has been bashed like they have never being before with Lankans going to the fourth ODI today with unassailable 3-0 lead. Mahela Jayawardena has led the team (which was suppose to be in transition & internal rife) admirably & most importantly led from the front. His magnificent Test century at Lords signaled his intentions which England seems fail to notice. His fabulous century at riverside sealed the ODI series with such emphatic style which left England side in disarray. At the beginning of the tour our team was supposed to be cannon fodder to England team. But now they have routed the injury depleted England side by such big margins the only excuse England have is the injury list. But with such a strong county cricket setup they should have been able to cover those injuries with ease. But it was Sri Lanka who coped with losing their regular captain Marvan Atapattu to injury & strike bowler Muralitharan to family reasons. The future bodes well for Sri Lanka with the only question being who will be the captain after Marvan returns. But right now many wants Mahela Jayawardena to stay as the captain, which I think is right. On the other hand England is clueless about how to cope without their captain Vaughn & talisman Flintoff . To them the future looks quite bleak.

And Brazil has just won 3-0 over Ghana who played quite well except their strikers. It could have been 3-1 or 3-2 easily. Or 2-3 even. Thankfully Ronaldo & co survived to fight another day. Brazil are slowly but steadily are coming to their best & the Ronaldo (whose waist lien attracted so much attention & criticism) looks more & more threatening. Now they will face France in quarter finals which should be a very good match. I think Brazil have more than enough fire power to over come France who stuttered though qualifying & somehow beat Spain. With England Vs Portugal & Germany Vs Argentina matches coming up it is going to be a feast of football. I’m going to stick my head out and say that Brazil, Itlay & Argantina will win their matches while England & Portugal match is too close to call. Will Scolari triumph over Ericcson again? Or will England fine any sort of rhythm to their play & shooting boots for Lampard ? With Deco & Costinha absent from Portugal midfield & Ronaldo doubtful after that horrendous tackle Portugal are up against it. Anyway should be a wonderful round of football for all the fans of the beautiful game.

Links:

Wisden Cricinfo

FIFA Worldcup2006

The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-15T02:15:00.000-07:00

When I started this blog I decided not to write about the books or movies which are getting plenty of coverage. Even when I like them a lot. So I didn’t write about The Da Vinci Code. Because everyone is bound to hear or read about them. But I came across this blog entry when I was surfing for credits in blogexplosion & quite liked it. So I’m linking that post as my entry about The Da Vinci Code.

honeymooning: The Da Vinci Code

Cantury Rain - Alastair Reynolds

2006-05-05T02:16:00.000-07:00

Bought Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds & The Traveler by John ‘Twelve’ Hawks. Finished both of them, but liked Century Rain better. May be because The Traveler was mentioned as the next “Da Vinci Code” & it is nothing of the sort. More about it later.

Century Rain is basically a Science fiction with romance & thriller mixed in. The main character Wendell Floyd is an American a musician acting as a private detective to make ends meet who lives in Paris. Much to his surprise Wendell & his partner is hired by a man to investigate a murder of Susan White who felled from the apartment she was living which belongs to him. Paris police thinks it is an accident while the landlord thinks otherwise. And in quite a different Paris, where it is covered from snow & made inhabitable by nano wars Verity Auger is searching for a old newspaper. This Paris is in the future, while Wendell’s Paris in not exactly in the past. It is not in a parallel universe either.

Story keeps changing back and forth until these two meet in Wendell’s Paris where Verity is forced to come to collect belongings of Susan White. After that it becomes a race against time to collect information about Susan’s death, who was an agent from Verity’s world & survive against the killing machines masquerading as kids.

While the end leaves the reader somewhat unsatisfied it is a good book, with Hard SF mixed with romance & thriller aspects. Reynolds explains hard physics stuff with relative easiness & clarity. I bought another one of his “Redemption Ark” after reading this. But since I have been busy changing my boarding place & other stuff, still I’m unable to start reading it. May be this weekend I will get the chance. But with “Call of Duty 2”, “Tomb Raider – Legend” & “Half Life 2” also demanding my attention I don’t think I will be able to finish it.

Links:Trashtron

SF Site

Wikipedia - Century Rain

Amazon.com

FIFA 06

2006-04-21T02:01:00.000-07:00

Finally, finished FIFA06. Actually, the first season of it. After the first season as the manager of Aston Villa, I have done way better than Mr. David O’leary. Which many would say is nothing to boast of. But they finished 5^th in English Premier League & they managed to reach both Cup finals. Although they lost Carling cup to Arsenal 1-0 & FA cup to Manchester United 3-0, they were quite good. Arsenal managed to sneak in through a Jose Antonia Reyes goal in 80 minutes while Roy Keane (he is still playing for them in my PC) & Rooney double won the match for Man Utd.

The game is better than it’s predecessor FIFA 05. It allows the player to select a team from the top division whereas 05 didn’t(FIFA 06 has few Top division teams plus teams from lower divisions). Last time I had to choose Wycombe and guided them to EPL, where when they reached it I defected to Manchester United job. :-)

Anyway I need to buy a decent left back (only got one right now) & some midfielders. Bought Joe Cole from Chelsea (Yes! They sold him, but as a central midfielder) & Michel Morientes. Sold Kevin Phillipes & another 2 midfielders. Altogether not a bad first season. I should try to finish the second season & try to win EPL before FIFA07 comes out. Because when it does I would have to start all over again. Which I have been doing since FIFA98.

Links:

EA Sports - FIFA 06

Wilt in Nowhere - Tom Sharpe

2006-03-23T01:55:00.000-08:00

This is the forth book of the Wilt series by Tom Sharpe. As usual Henry Wilt faces absurd & outrageous problems which at the same time are of his making & beyond his control. Namely an aristocratic pervert, his lover, greedy wife of a shadow cabinet minister who is an ex-prostitute & the combine forces of British & American police. Author Tom Sharpe uses Wilt to expose the farcical realities in small town to hilarious effect.

This time around Wilt goes on a walking trip around his county while his wife & the kids go to meet the aunty in US. Wilt cleverly avoids making the trip with them pretending he has work to attend to & goes on his trip the moment his family leaves England. Although Wilt intends to enjoy the normal older England as usual he falls in to trouble. He gets drunk & finds himself at the hospital. Where he claims that he has no idea what has happened. With the police suspecting Wilt to be an accessory to the burning of a manor house things get complicated pretty fast. His family been suspected of carrying drugs to US does not help the matters either. Things get pretty confusing & amusing while involving Inspector Flint, Shadow Minister, His wife & the wife’s lover- The burned manor owner before they get untangled.

Although it has the familiar feel of the previous books, I couldn’t help feeling that there was something missing. It doesn’t felt like the previous Wilt books. Of course this book has the usual jokes & outrageous behavior of the quadruplets. It felt drawn out. Like Sharpe was trying hard to be funny. All in all I would say that it is a amusing read, but not to the standard you would expect from a master satirist like Tom Sharpe.

About Tom Sharpe

Tom Sharpe was born in 1928 and educated at Lancing College and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He did his National Service in the Marines before going to South Africa in 1951, where he did social work before teaching in Natal. He had a photographic studio in Pietermaritzburg from 1957 until 1961, when he was deported... From 1963 to 1972 he was a lecturer in History at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. In 1986 he was awarded the XXXIIIeme Grand Prix de l'Humour Noir Xavier Forneret. He is married and lives in Cambridge

Wilt in Nowhere Links

Amazon.com

Random House

Guardian Unlimited Books

Rang De Basanti

2006-03-15T00:31:00.000-08:00

"I always thought there were two kinds of people in this world, the kind that go to their death screaming, and the kind that go to their death silently, and then, I met the third kind"

This wonderful film is about those people who fall in to the third category. People who go to their death smiling, because they know they accomplished what they wanted. Rang De Basanti means Color of Patriotism (at least as far as I understood. I’m a Sri Lankan. My Hindi is just above nil.) It is about a gang of contemporary Indian college students who are persuaded act in a documentary by young English women. She is lacking in funds & she recruits the young men with the help of her Sonia, an Indian girl who is part of the gang. She wants to make a film on Indian revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and their contemporaries and their fight for freedom from the British Raj, with the help of her grandfather’s diary. Which describes his meeting & dealing with these revolutionaries. They go through some wild & funny moments as well as some intriguing & bitter moments. Sue's film makes DJ and his friends stop and stare at themselves for being the actual descendants of these great men and never recognizing and celebrating their courage and spirit.

In the second part of the film it takes a more serious attitude with the eternal struggle & misunderstandings of Hindus & Muslims in India highlighted. Then it reaches the climax with the crashing of an Indian fighter plane which is piloted by Ajay, the boyfriend of the Sonia. The gang is devastated by the incident. And the politicians try to blame Ajay who has heroically stayed with the aircraft to steer it away from a city. At this point the documentary has started to change their perception about life & the react like the legends they portray in the documentary. Although the film ends quite violently, it is not an unnecessary violence. You feel they are justified.

And the way the film is presented with both the documentary & the life of the gang been shown side by side enhances the film. It highlights the changes of the gang goes through with the flow of the documentary. Finally it is a very good movie. And a different one too. All the actor justify their roles brilliantly. The music & directing is the same. But what standout is the editing. Which greatly enhances the look & feel of the film. And which makes a movie that would have been just good to a great one.

Cast:

Aamir Khan	....	DJ/Chandrashekhar Azad
Siddharth	....	Karan/Bhagat Singh (as Siddharth Suryanarayan)
Kunal Kapoor	....	Aslam/Ashfaqullah Khan
Sharman Joshi	....	Sukhi/Rajguru
Atul Kulkarni	....	Laxman Pandey/Ramprasad Bismil
Soha Ali Khan	....	Sonia/Durga Vohra
Madhavan	....	Ajay Rathod (as R. Madhavan)
Waheeda Rehman	....	Ajay's Mother
Anupam Kher	....	Karan's Father
Om Puri	....	Amanullah Khan/Aslam's Father
Kiron Kher	....	Mitro/DJ's Mother
Lekh Tandon	....	DJ's Grandfather
Cyrus Sahukar	....	Rahul

Directed by
Rakesh Omprakash Mehra

Links:

Official Site

Rang De Basanti

imdb.com

Games & Movie

2006-03-01T21:32:00.000-08:00

I promised to write about books, movies & games in here. But then I realized that there are so many sites dedicated to movies & games. So I was bit reluctant to write about them. So I will not write about every game I played or every movie I watched. For the record in the last few weeks I watched Aeon Flux (Yuk!) , King Kong ( for the 3rd time), Pacifier, Formula 51, Serenity & Final Fantasy. And since I finished assembling the new PC, most of my spare time is spent by gaming. I have installed Star Wars- Jedi Outcast-II, Quake 4 & NFS Most Wanted. Outcast is some what an old game. But I wanted to play it for sometime & it is quite good. I just got the light saber in it. And Quake 4 is a very good FPS game, although not as good as Doom III which I had played in my cousin’s PC.
The best them is Need For Speed Most Wanted. It has incorporated features of Hot Pursuit & Underground to very good effect. The cops make the game much more interesting. And the movies are pretty cool too. Currently I’m 14th in the Black List.

Links:
Need for Speed: Most Wanted Tweak Guide

NFS Cheats & Forum

Quake 4

Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

Jedi Outcast Walkthrough and Strategy Guide ...

Polgara, The Sorceress

2006-02-09T01:06:00.000-08:00

I finished reading this few days back. But couldn’t write about it because of the unbelievable workload. This is basically a prequel. It tells the story which leads to the events of The Belgariad. But this is the first time I read a book of this series & it didn’t stop me enjoying the book at all. Polgara is the daughter of Belgarath. She narrates the story which spans thousands of years. Her father tells his view point in the book “Belgarath the Sorcerer”. But Polgara claims that her father didn’t know the whole picture & he embellished some facts. Anyway since I haven’t read “Belgarath the Sorcerer” or any of the The Belgariad and The Malloreon series I have no idea.

The story mainly explains how Polgara influenced the politics of Arendia and Sendaria. And how she becomes Duchess of Erat. Eventually she becomes the protector of the line Rivan Kings who are descendants of her sister Beldaran. Where one of them will be the ‘Godslayer’. Since she is virtually immortal she has to deal with loss of loved ones quite often. The gentle & some times not gentle rivalries which exists between Polgara & other characters ( specially her father) is quite enjoyable.

Although it does make a few assumptions about the reader's knowledge of events in previous books “ Polgara, The Sorceress” can be enjoyed as a separate book. Since it doesn’t exactly finishes in the end, but begins the main story it left me wanting to find the other books of the series. Sure hope they are available here.

Book Description

She soars above a world of warriors, kings, and priests. The daughter of Belgarath and the shape-shifter Poledra, she has fought wars, plotted palace coups, and worked her powerful magic for three thousand years. Now, Polgara looks back at her magnificent life, in this fitting crown jewel to the saga that is the Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean cycles.

Her hair streaked white by her father's first touch, her mind guided by a mother she will not see again for centuries, Polgara begins life in her Uncle Beldin's tower, and in the prehistorical, magical Tree that stands in the middle of the Vale. There, she first learns the reaches of her powers. There she assumes the bird shapes that will serve her on her adventures. And there she starts on the path toward her destiny as Duchess of Erat, shepherdess of the cause of good, adversary of Torak the One-Eyed Dragon God, and guardian of the world's last, best hope: the heir to the Rivan throne.

Here is the legendary life story of a woman of wit, passion, and complex emotions, a woman born of two majestic parents who could not have been more unlike one another. Ordained to make peace and make war, to gain love and lose love, Polgara lives out her family's rich prophecy in the ceaseless struggle between the Light and the Dark.
Polgara is the epic culmination of a magnificent saga, and a fitting farewell to a world which, once experienced, will never be forgotten.

Links:

www.belgarath.com

Wikipedia

Shogun - James Clavell

2006-01-10T00:13:00.000-08:00

First of all this is probably the biggest book I have ever read. I found it in my usual place, the second hand bookshop. And fortunately it caught my attention. Although at the beginning I had doubts whether I made a mistake of buying it because it was a little slow paced. But soon the pace picked up and I was total captivated by the story of English naval pilot Blackthorne who get stranded in medieval Japan with some of his shipmates.

Clavell depicts a medieval Japan with great details. The main characters Blackthorne, Toranaga, Omi, Mariko & Yabu are characterized with loving detail. The transformation of barbarian Blackthorne, who is self centered & with filthy habits to a person of intelligence who can appreciate beauty & who will stand up to himself. He becomes a person the samurais respect & he understands Japan’s philosophy of life is totally different from his culture. He falls in love with a Mariko & he liege lord Toranaga covets Blackthorne’s knowledge of warfare & guns.

Toranaga makes friends with Blackthorne. Although the war lord does not hesitate to manipulate people aound him, including Blackthorne & Mariko. The title of the novel Shogun means Supreme Military Dictator. Toranaga aspires to become the Shogun. But many other province rulers lead by Lord Ishido violently oppose him. But Toranaga cunningly make pacts with some of his rivals & scarifies some of associates & people under him to get to his target.

It is a wonderful historical novel with more accuracy in details than usual in that genre although it is not historically accurate.

It is a good book which will delight the reader & educate him about the Japanese culture & way of their thinking.

Links:

Reviews on Amazon

Shogun- Movie

The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum

2006-01-06T01:53:00.000-08:00

Robert Ludlum is one of my favorite authors. I can’t remember which book I read first, but I think it is Bourne Identity. I did it before the movie came & I liked the novel more than the movie (movie is good, but book has more details & it’s a bit different story). This is story about a man with amnesia (he doesn’t remember the past). He is rescued by a group of fishermen who takes him to a shady doctor. Doctor revives him & he begins his quest for his identity. He finds out that he has quite a lot of money in a Swiss account. From the bank he gets to know he is one Jason Bourne. And the problems start to escalate from that point onwards.

Jason Bourne is supposed to be an infamous assassin for hire. Interpol & many security agencies are after him. But the main threat is that the Carlos the Jackal is also wants him dead. With no one to help him he gets a Canadian diplomat to help him. With her knowledge & his skills he uncovers a plot which involves a top secret American organization & Carlos. The plot is quite good and the pace is maintained quite well. The main character is hunted by good guys as well as bad guys. And his inability to identify the good guys from bad guys makes it a riveting read. Although I think it is a quite a good book, the sequels to this one ( Bourne Supremacy & Bourne Ultimatum) is better since they have more action & less baggage. Anyway this is a good novel from a master thriller writer.

Links:

Bourne Identity - The Movie
Book @ Amazon

Cry Once Alone - E.V. Thompson

2006-01-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

This is an old book, which was written in 1984. I read it first time around 1997, when I was in school. I liked it very much & bought it from a second hand bookshop. It is a historic adventure, set in the wild, lawless republic of Texas in the 1830s. Where, the settlers have to battle with the nature & red Indians. It portraits the difficulties faced by the both sides. An Englishman Adam Rashleigh joins a group of Irish settlers to gather information about the newly independent Texas. There he meets Frontiersman Eli Varne, who leads the settlers to their lands. Two of them become good friends & they have wild & exciting adventures. They battle red Indians, befriend red Indians & battle with rogue Texans. And Adam falls in love with a Cherokee girl & marries her.

But with the massacre of red Indians he looses his pregnant wife & her whole family. When red Indians retaliate & kill the crippled son of a wealthy Mexican landlord who Adams was fond of he joins Eli to battle the Red Indians. By that time Eli’s wife is also been killed by the Indians. It is a good western novel. Although not a classic, it keeps the reader well entertained with action, jokes & tragedy. All though this is one of my all time favorite books unfortunately I have not been able find any more books of EV Thompson. May be I will get lucky someday.

Links:

Fantastic Fiction - EV Thompson

Redemption of Althalus by David & Leigh Eddings

2006-01-04T00:49:00.000-08:00

Althalus is a thief whose uncanny good luck has suddenly left him. He is ready for any job & quite an easy one comes along his way. Or he thinks it is an easy one. Althalus has to steal a book from the house at the end of the world. But the problem is some far more powerful people are also interested in the same book. Actually two of them are Gods! And they are brother & sister. But while brother want it to change the world to his likening (and his likes are decidedly unpleasant), Dweia (sister) want to protect the book (which is written by their elder brother) & the world from her sibling.

Althalus is captured in the house by Dweia & she trains him for the mission, Namely the epic struggle between the three gods--of creation, fecundity, and destruction. Although trained by a God Althalus remains a thief. He cheats, lie & steal to accomplish his noble mission. But at first he has to assemble a crew with widely differing abilities under the guidance of Dweia.

Husband & wife team of David & Leigh Eddings create a fascinating world, where Gods take an active part in the proceeding in the mortal world. Where they use humans for their purposes without any moral restrains. Although the novel spans thousand of years and sometimes the plot is bit hurried & feels lightweight it is quite a witty & interesting read. Redemption of Althalus was the first novel I read from Eddings couple, which I borrowed from British Council. And since I like their style of writing so much I bought “ Polgara the Sorceress” last week along with Terry Pratchett’s “Feet of Clay”. Still haven’t finished reading it yet (In fact just startrd to read it). So after I finished it I’ll say what I think about it.

Other's on Redemption of Althalus:

My Previous Post on Me & My Thoughts

Barnes and Nobel

Science Finction & Fantasy World.com

Pandora's Star - Peter F Hamilton

2006-01-04T00:20:00.000-08:00

First of all this is a massive book. I haven’t read a book of Peter Hamilton. This was the first. The story begins with the first human landings on the Mars. Although it should have been a monumental achievement for NASA they get the rug pulled away from their legs. Two young, cocky scientists develop a wormhole technology which makes space travel redundant. They use it to travel to Mars before the NASA group on the same day. Needless to say that NASA crew was less than enthusiastic about the new invention. Anyway inevitably wormhole technology brings an end to space travel as we know.

And with the life extension technology which guarantees a virtual immortality these two inventors change the whole human life as we know it.

By 24^th century, where the story mainly unfolds, humans have colonized many star systems & encountered several alien species. Although, most of them are not advanced as humans. But then astronomer Dudley Bose witnesses a seemingly impossible envelopment of the Dyson Alpha planetary system by some kind of artificial shielding system, an event repeated at the sister star Dyson Beta. Since this points to a hugely advanced civilization beyond human capability, they launch a spaceship towards the Dyson star system. The interstellar ship is captained by the same Wilson Klime, who piloted the first Mars landing. From this comes the title of the novel. In wanting to know whether this unknown civilization represents threat or opportunity, the mission unwittingly unleashes, as the title suggests, a catastrophic series of events. The only question remaining is who is responsible?

But bear in mind this is not simple as it looks. There are multiple plot lines with so many characters, events in this massive sci-fi novel. And this is just the beginning. The second part of this novel is “Judas Unchanged”. So at the end of “Pandora’s Star”, nothing is revealed. All the plotlines are unfinished. But it is not boring. Although some times you wish there were less description, the constant action & the differing plotlines kept me entertained until the end. The one downside is when I get to read “Judas Unleashed”, I may have to read “Pandora’s Star” again to get myself updated on those plot lines. But I guess that there would be sort of a summary in the beginning of the second part. It would be interesting to see how he summarizes such a huge & complicating like this novel to a few pages.

Others on Pandora's Star:

Barnes and Noble.com

amazon.co.uk

Feet of Clay

2006-01-02T23:44:00.000-08:00

Let's start with a Discworld Novel. I came across them at British Council. And after reading all the available books of the series I was searching for them at many book stores. Finally I found them & bought Feet of Clay. As most of the Discworld series it is centered on Ankh-Morpork & its inhabitants. There has been a murder in Ankh-Morpork, infact three murders! Readers who are familiar with City of Ankh-Morpork will undoubtedly know that this is no big deal.

Actually it is almost a daily happening since Assassins literally have the license to kill. But these are quite different from Assassin’s work. And Watch Commander Sir Sam Vimes is worried. Mindless but tirelessly industrious Golems are getting targeted because of the tracks of white clay found at the murder sites. As usual the highly placed inhabitants are trying to force their own agendas in these troubled times. Such as try to find a successor for the leader of Ankh-Morpork Lord Vetinari, who is bed ridden because of a suspected assassination attempt. Vimes have to solve all these puzzles & tangles before they disrupt the every day life of the city.

It is quite an interesting read. Although it may not as funny as some of the other discworld novels it has good plot line & a mystery angel. With several clues to solve the mysteries & few red herrings thrown in to it “Feet of Clay” keeps the reader entertained until the very end. It shows that Terry Pratchett is also a good novelist as well as a brilliant humorist.

Not Another Review

2006-01-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

Who would have thought it? Now I have two blogs. 7 months back I had none. My first one Me & My Thoughts is going well. I make sure I regularly update it. I posted whatever I liked. Movies, Books, Sports, Jokes & Rants. But since I read books & watch movies whenever I get free time ( that means I usually fall asleep with a book or on my chair) I thought having a separate blog for them might be a good idea.
Here I plan to post my thoughts about the books I read & movies I watch. And the games I play ( since I'm getting a new PC by end of this month, there will be plenty of them too).