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This is the new adventure I have discovered by Stephen Lawhead. It is a different type of book, involving lots of the characters views and perspectives. For instance, Sherlock Holmes is a journal, and it is also different from Fight Game, where you only get your information from “Fred”. This new book is very much like The Lord Of The Rings, with dragons, death, sorcerer’s, and everything with that kind of action.

This adventure begins when Quentin volunteers for the fallen solider, Rosard. Rosard was a bodyguard of the king, carrying a message from the queen. There is a couple thing that I must point out for this to make more sense first. This book takes place on a large island, with lots little islands surrounding the big one. But this is also taking place during a time of war, the is divided into territories. The evil king controls a littler part, the good Dragon King controls the other. In the midst of all of this land, there is also forests, with lots of dangerous outlaws. The jealous, deceitful, back-stabbing Prince Jaspin hires those outlaws to carry out his will. No one knows that he’s an evil one, yet. Not only does he have the outlaws, he has the sorcerer, Nimrood following behind. So, for a highly skilled bodyguard o the king to die can leave us in question. But Rosard stumbled into the right spot for the prince. Straight into a temple where they are not allowed leave he falls. If it wasn’t for the train-e Quentin, this magnificent journey would not of happened.

In The Hall Of The Dragon king. So where’s the dragon? I haven’t read far enough yet, but I come to believe that this Prince Jaspin has obtained the power to unleash a dragon. He has a miniature pyramid in his room. It is constantly glowing, and he believes that some days it gives him strength. I am absolutely sure that the glowing pyramid is going to play a key part in this book, either to bring destruction, or good health.

Is Quentin capable of finishing his quest? First, lets take a look at his size. The fallen warrior’s horse is carrying him to the Queen. This horse picks him up effortless, and is capable of tolerating lots of pain. This is one of his strong perks, the horse. Second, he is a monk in training. He knows what the Gods are able to do. But being a monk also means you must be trained to handle medicine. So being able to work his “Doctorous” magic is probably his next strong perk. His weakest perk that comes with being a monk is being weak. He has never left the temple, and he has doesn’t even have a clue about the war that’s going on out doors. So you tell me, do you think he can make it?

After Quentin accepts this quest, he must go to the house in which the head priest tells him. Staying true to his vows, the head priest stays behind, and does not leave the temple. Quentin finally gets to the house, and meets his to new friends, Theido and Durwin. They too have been priests of other Gods. Quentin tells the two about Rosard, and they are the ones that told Quentin who he was, and what Rosard did. They are now on their way to the Kings fortress, not the castle, the fortress. The King himself is fighting on the front lines. They have decided to stay at a near by Inn, which acts as a shelter from the terrible outlaws who lurk outside. The owner is very kind, and insists on them staying the night. The evil Prince is plotting. Will the three friends be able to deliver the message?

Alice quoted “after you’ve had it, there isn’t even life without drugs… ” She is a 15 year old girl who is losing interest in everything. Wonderful news, Alice said they were moving. Her Dad has been invited to become the Dean of Political Science. They are all excited to have fresh start. They have settled in their new home, its a large old spanish-type house. Alice is worried to go to school, and wishes her little brother Tim was in high school, so that they could be together.
It was miserable, It was the loneliest, coldest place in the world. A few days later Alice found a friend, Beth, She’s cloddy and misfitting as Alice is. Alice got invited to a party, by a few people from her new school. The day after the party she asked Jill, a girl who was there what happend last night. Jill said 10 out of 14 bottles of coke had LSD in them. No one knew about it. For two days now, Alice tried to convince herself that using LSD makes her a ”dope addict”. She said she can’t wait to try pot, but only once, she promised.

Alice went on a date with a boy named Bill. He introduced Alice to ”torpedos” and ”speed”. Alice quoted ”They are both like riding stars through the Milky Way, only a million, trillion times better”. Speed was a little scary at first. Bill had to inject the needle into her arm. Alice said she can’t wait to try it again, she could hardly control herself. Gramps had a heart attack. Poor Gran is pretty much beside herself, but she’s staying calm on the outside. Alice did all the cooking and cleaning and everything so Gran could just stay with him all the time They really appreciate it, and she apprieciates them. Jill called Alice and invited her to another party, but Alice said she was committed to her grandparents until things got better. Alice said ”Im glad I had an excuse for not going”. Bill had six kids over last night, his parents werent home, so they decided theywould trip up on acid, and since Alice has been cooped up for some time now, she decided she might as well take ”one” last trip too.

Alice went to go see Dr.Langley this morning, because she’s having problems sleeping. He gave her some pills to try, and if it didn’t help to call back another time. Alices mom called Dr.Langley and asked if he could prescribe Tranquilizers. Alice said that Tranqillizers are the greatest. She is abusing them.

Alice had to go to a mental hospital for a few weeks, because she got addicted to drugs and would go crazy. She couldnt control herself. But she eventually got herself back together and stayed off the drugs. When she got back home, a few days later her parents decided to go to a movie. When they got back Alice was dead. They called the Police and the Ambulance , but it was too late.

This was based on a true story. The subject of this book died three weeks after her decision not to keep another diary. Her parents came home from a movie and found her dead. They called the poilce and the hospital but there was nothing anyone could do. Was it an accidental overdose? A premeditated overdose? No one knows and in some ways, that question isn’t important. What must be of concern is that she died and that she was only one of thousands of drug deaths that year.

PEAK

My book was about Mountain climbing book named ( PEAK ). It is full of crime to climbing and every thing in between. Even a kid trying to get to the top of the highest mountain in the world (Everest)

I am not a big fan on reading but PEAK was a really good book. And the author Ronald Smith is a good author. And I will be reading more of his books as the time passes on.

The thing a like about this book was that you never know what is going to happened next and that kept you thinking. Many time I did not wont to put the book down because it was getting good. But the for the most part it was really good. And know i might be getting that book for myself.

In the book there was a lot of people climbing the mountain and then die ing on the mountain. The there waspeak climbing the skyscraper and got his face frozen to the side of it and the cops arrested him at the top of the building. He was going to be the youngest kid to be on top of the highest mountain but he let and his friend Sun-Jo to be the youngest person on top of the highest mountain. When Peak got caught at the top of the sky scraper the cop said “Get this moron to emergency” because his faces was all cut up. And the other one he said to Peak was “What are you thinking”. Because he got caught climbing the sky scraper.He had many names after he got caught at the top of the sky scraper and they were “Spider Boy”, “Fly Boy” and “The gecko kid” were all the names that the reporters said to the public.

I think this is a very good book to read because it is full of entertainment. PEAK is the name of the main person in the book then there is Sun-Jo, Zopa and many more people in the book to. If i had the chance i would like to met the author of this book because it was very good.

A mystical Journey to Middle Earth!

In the book The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien. In his book there is a bunch of fighting and exploring going on. In the book there are 21 chapters all together.When I first started this book it felt slow but as I read more and more of it. It gets more interesting and fascinating. The roles the characters play are very important to the book. If even one of these characters were out of the book it would wreak the whole story line.

The book is about a bunch mystical rings that the mighty all powerful lord Saruman demands to have. He wants to use the power of all the rings to make everything his and evil. A young hobbit named Frodo from the Shire was given the ring. His quest is to go to Mordor and destroy before Saruman gets a hold of the rings powers.At the being of this book there was  a fighting scene already. Aragorn ran up the hill searching for the hobbits he was tracking them down but it was really tough to find there little foot prints cause they were so light and small that they hardly made them. He heard the horn of Boromir and yelled “he is in need of help”. He ran down and saw poor Boromir laying against a tree and dyeing his last words were about how he tried to steal the ring from Frodo. Frodo and Sam escaped and Merry and Pippin got captured by the orcs. The orcs thought that young Merry and Pippin had the ring so they were going to bring them back to there master and kill them and take the ring. One orc was trying to steal the ring off of one of the little Hobbit. As he was trying to take it the Hobbit was trying to make him a deal so they could escape and during the deal the Hobbit started saying “gollum gollum” (page 67) as he said that he felt the goblin’s fingers twitch. Gollum was once a good person who became evil cause his obsession for the ring and its power. Gollum would try to do anything to get his hands on his “precious”.
Merry and Pippin were climbing a huge tree in the forest to view the sun but at the moment they got up there the tree became a live. The great tree is a powerful but old being who has be a life for hundreds of years. The great tree said that they could call him Treebeard cause they don’t know the old ent language and his name keeps changing as he gets older. Treebeard also knew gandalf just like Merry and Pippin do but sadly the boys think and tell him that he has died.
Eomer and Theodenr two men from Rohan is giving the evil Wormtongue even after he bares his teeth and hisses at the king but they show him campion ship and let him have a horse and leave the kingdom with out being punished other then he cant never come back to Rohan.
Aragorn and Eomer are fighting to protect the a great city from an enormous orc army the humans are being driven back to the deeps where they have little survival. But they have a better chance of living down there instead of the walls cause at the walls they are being fought from both sides and are getting giant rocks thrown at them from a great distance. During all of this the young elf Legolas and the dwarf Gimli are having a contest of who can kill the most orcs at this moment Gimil is at 21 and Legolas is at 24 its a very close contest but usually Legolas always wins it.
Gimil beat Legolas at the game by getting one more kill then him the score was 42 to 41 it was a very close game. The battle has now ended and the humans killed the orcs once the great Gandalf the white appeared on the battle field he cast a spell that scared the orcs and then a bunch of men came out and killed all the orcs from the rear end when they were scared they tossed all there weapons and then got destroyed.
Gandalf and his men are arriving at the gates of Isengard and their hearts are heavy now cause a giant tower black cruel looking tower has appeared and as they got closer more and more thing appeared like houses, armouries, smithies, and great furnaces. The goblins used these to help create new weapons and armor for when they go out to battle against the humans, elfs, dwarfs (ext).
Gandalf and his army along with the king of the Mark have overtaken Isengard with the help of the ent’s. The ent’s flooded Isengard entrapping Saruman and master wormtongue in the tower in the center of the flood it was like a giant bowl being filled with water. There is no escape of it.The book is about a bunch mystical rings that the mighty all powerful lord Saruman demands to have. He wants to use the power of all the rings to make everything his and evil. A young hobbit named Frodo from the Shire was given the ring. His quest is to go to Mordor and destroy before Saruman gets a hold of the rings powers. One orc was trying to steal the ring off of one of the little Hobbit. As he was trying to take it the Hobbit was trying to make him a deal so they could escape and during the deal the Hobbit started saying “gollum gollum” (page 67) as he said that he felt the goblin’s fingers twitch. Gollum was once a good person who became evil cause his obsession for the ring and its power. Gollum would try to do anything to get his hands on his “precious”.
Merry and Pippin were climbing a huge tree in the forest to view the sun but at the moment they got up there the tree became a live. The great tree is a powerful but old being who has been a life for hundreds of years. The great tree said that they could call him Treebeard cause they don’t know the old ent language and his name keeps changing as he gets older. Treebeard also knew gandalf just like Merry and Pippin do but sadly the boys think and tell him that he has died.

Eomer and Theodenr two men from Rohan is giving the evil Wormtongue even after he bares his teeth and hisses at the king but they show him campion ship and let him have a horse and leave the kingdom without being punished other than he cant never come back to Rohan.
Aragorn and Eomer are fighting to protect the a great city from an enormous orc army the humans are being driven back to the deeps where they have little survival. But they have a better chance of living down there instead of the walls cause at the walls they are being fought from both sides and are getting giant rocks thrown at them from a great distance. During all of this the young elf Legolas and the dwarf Gimli are having a contest of who can kill the most orcs at this moment Gimil is at 21 and Legolas is at 24 its a very close contest but usually Legolas always wins it.
Gimil beat Legolas at the game by getting one more kill than him the score was 42 to 41 it was a very close game. The battle has now ended and the humans killed the orcs once the great Gandalf the white appeared on the battle field he cast a spell that scared the orcs and then a bunch of men came out and killed all the orcs from the rear end when they were scared they tossed all there weapons and then got destroyed.
Gandalf and his men are arriving at the gates of Isengard and their hearts are heavy now cause a giant tower black cruel looking tower has appeared and as they got closer more and more thing appeared like houses, armouries, smithies, and great furnaces. The goblins used these to help create new weapons and armor for when they go out to battle against the humans, elfs, dwarfs (ext).
Gandalf and his army along with the king of the Mark have overtaken Isengard with the help of the ent’s. The ent’s flooded Isengard entrapping Saruman and master wormtongue in the tower in the center of the flood it was like a giant bowl being filled with water. There is no escape of it.

As Frodo and Sam were climbing down this cliff they saw an evil creature in the night. They identified it as gollum an evil creature who was following them for a long time. t was climbing down the cliff side it found a tough place and fell Sam quickly jumped on it they fought and bawled on the floor the creature bite into Sam’s neck the slimy yellow teeth sunk in. He yelled and frodo quickly grabbed his knife. The creature slowly got off him and they realized that it was Gollum.

Politics go better with a side of superhuman.

The Nightbringer. An ancient god, that fed on the power of stars. It was eventually defeated by an indiscriminate ancient race, cast away into oblivion.

10 million years later, it returns. The Nightbringer is a great novel, full of intrigue, mystery, and grittiness. The books author, Graham McNeill, is one of the top selling authors for the Black Library.  I have always found his books to be some of the most interesting in their Publishing.

The book has a surprisingly deep layer of politics involved, something that not a lot of authors can accomplish. The politics on the main planet this book is based around, Pavonis, are very complicated, convoluted, and full of deceit. It is based around things known as “Cartels.” Each of these Cartels are made up of a rich family, one who owns large amounts of the Manifactorum Districts(areas where people work to build the resources of the imperium.), and are rich because of this. The main Cartels that the current leading governor of the planet, (a woman of the Shonai Cartel, and one of the only honest people in the politics of this planet), needs to worry about, are the Vergen Cartel, the De Valtos Cartel, and the Vergen Cartel. Each of these are using their own backhanded tactics and alliances to work towards there goal. The amount of treachery and deceit, as well as suspicion that this adds is very beneficial to the over all book, adding such a layer of the workings of the planet the story revolves around that you would think you lived there.

The big ideas in this book, are loyalty, personal gain, and vengeance. The main character of the story, Uriel Ventris, is a Space Marine Captain. Considering the absolute loyalty and duty one needs to be a Space Marine, the workings of this planet are very hard for him to understand. While he is completely loyal to the Emperor, and the Inquisitor that was dispatched to this planet that he was designated to guard, he does not enjoy the treatment they give him on the planet, trying to bribe him into siding with a cartel. One of the most serious of the Cartels, the De Valtos, has a leader working for his own gain, as well as vengeance. Kasimir De Valtos, the leader of the Cartel, has been tortured by the marauding Dark Eldar raiders. In a bid to destroy his torturers, (although he is even in an alliance with them, showing just how twisted this man is.) he plans to awaken an ancient being known as the Nightbringer.

The Nightbringer is what we call the reaper, a being of true fear. Being near it means the possibility of losing your sanity. This story tells us more about the creature, at least to the point of what it does and how it lives. (It is better explained in the Necron Codex, the faction which the Nightbringer belongs to.) When Uriel finally comes to the Nightbringer to face him, it is truly only a Space Marine that could face such a thing, without losing his sanity. After a grim and bloody fight, the Nightbringer simply vanishes, unharmed, but without it’s powerful craft, probably the reason it stayed to fight him. (It had the ability to drain stars, to feed the Nightbringer.)

In the end, I would definitely give this book a high rating, and recommend it’s reading. While some of the scenes may be too graphic for a few, the ones who can read through such things will find a wonderful story line, developed characters, and some riveting action.

I’ve been reading a book about Vince Neil, the singer for the rock & roll band Motley Crue. The book is called Tattoos & Tequila-Vince Neil, it was written by Mike Sager. What does Tattoos & Tequila mean to you? To me it just means drinks, and tattoos. To these rock stars it is their lives. I chose to read this book because I’ve previously read Nikki Sixx’s book, The Heroin Diaries-A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star. Nikki’s book really inspired me, I felt as if I could really relate to his insanity, I liked the style that his book was written in. It was the best book I’ve ever read, I’ll probably read it again this year. For those who don’t know much about Motley Crue, Nikki is also a member of the band. Anyways, back to this book. It personal preference of what kinda of books that you like, but personally I like these kind of books, I mean, I love Motley Crue, they’re an awesome band who have went through a lot together.

Vince Neil never was a big heroin addict like Nikki was, no one in the band was as bad as Nikki. I mean, don’t get me wrong, they’d shoot up heroin here and there but Nikki just crossed the line. Vince said his drug of choice was always alcohol, he was not an alcoholic he said, but personally I think he was. Even if Vince was not an alcoholic he probably would not admit it in the book, but he is all cleaned up now, he’ll have the odd glass of champagne tho. Most people don’t know that Vince Neil’s real name is; Vince Neil Wharton, another interesting fact is that he was born with a disease (I can’t recall what it was called) but it made it hard for Vince to read, which made it hard for him to even learn, he said he didn’t even read The Dirt, which is another great book about Motley Crue, he also said he probably won’t even read this book.

You have to give these guys a lot of credit for sharing their life stories with the whole world, some good and some bad happenings. I know I would have to get paid a lot of money to do that, it’d be tough to let the whole world know personal facts about you and you’re life. These books can really relate to young kids who are in the stage that they’re partying. Nikki became a monster, he knew what he was doing was wrong, and he could not do anything about it, the drugs were just to good. The Motley Crue band is still able to rock and roll today, they’re getting older, but that just means there getting wiser and better. Nikki says he thinks he still has 10 years left in him. I hope they keep on rocking because they are my favorite band. The band Black Tide really reminds me of Motley Crue, Black Tide is a very young band but are getting famous very quick, they were actually seen in Vermilion at the Shell gas station while they were on tour. Back to the book tho, Vince has had 4 previous wife’s, and he has a couple of children too, his boy says he does not see his dad very often cause he is always busy, but he still respects his dad, I mean, what do you expect he is just doing his job right?

Vince actually was not a part of Motley Crue, they were fighting and Vince ended up leaving the band. He started driving race cars, just like the quote from the movie Talladega Nights ”I like to go fast”. Vince loved driving race cars, he loved the intensity and the speed. The band’s manager had called Vince a couple months after the Motley break up and had wanted him to join the band again, Vince didn’t want to, he was still so mad, but he went and had a meeting with the manager anyway. The manager ended up convincing him to reunite with Motley Crue, thank god he did because if he didn’t Motley might not have been here today, they wouldn’t of been the same. If you listen to the band’s songs, each and every one of there songs has meaning to it, for example; the song Kick Start My Heart, they really did have to kick start Nikki’s heart, and as well as some of the lyrics; There is nothing like a funeral toy make you feel alive, like these guys actually experienced all this and they write songs about it, it is absolutely amazing music I think.

If you enjoy reading about books like this, or about Rock & Roll, this would be a great book to read. Other suggestions would be; The Heroin Diaries with Nikki Sixx, The Dirt, and there are many other books about band or musicians like Ozzy Ozsborne, ACDC, and many more. My best suggestion to give to you is The Heroin Diaries, it was an absolutely amazing book. At the very end up the book Nikki overdosed on Heroin, his heart stopped beating, he was rushed to the hospital and the proclaimed him dead, Nikki said he could see everyone around his dead body, he could see it all, then he came back to life, he then walked out of the hospital and two young girls were there and they said they’d give him a ride home. These girls were a big fan of Nikki and the band, they said they did drugs too, Nikki told them his story and the girls promised they’d never ever do drugs again.

Eldest is the sequel to Eragon and is written by Christopher Paolini. The book is about a sixteen year old boy named Eragon. Eragon finds a dragon egg and becomes a dragon rider when the egg hatches. After that, his uncle is killed by these foul beasts called Ra’zac, so Eragon takes off with an old man named Brom, who turns out to be a former dragon rider, and they search for the Ra’zac. Brom gets killed when they are captured by the Ra’zac. Some good comes of this encounter with the Ra’zac, when another young man named Murtagh saves Eragon and Saphira and proceeds to help them. Later Eragon is captured by Urgals and questioned by a Shade (a person who is being controlled by demons.) Eragon escapes and saves and elf’s life, who was also a captive of the Shade. Then through use of the elf’s memories, Eragon, his dragon, Murtagh and the unconscious elf go to the Varden. The Varden is a group of rebels who resist the Empire. Murtagh reveals that he is the son of a man who betrayed the dragon riders to Galbatorix (the insane king.) They reach the Varden and a little later are enslaved in a battle with Urgals and the Shade. Eragon kills the Shade but gets a permanent injury in his back. Murtagh disappears, with the two most powerful Varden spell casters. Eragon and the elf, Arya, travel to the elves home where Eragon meets a dragon rider called Oromis and Oromis’s dragon Glaedr. The two of them are injured beyond repair and can no longer fight, but they begin to teach and tutor Eragon and Saphira in the ways of the mysterious dragon rider’s magic. Meanwhile Roran, Eragon’s cousin, refuses to be taken by the king’s men, to be used as a weapon against Eragon. Roran takes his whole village and they tramp across the land to try to find refuge in Surda, a country who secretly helps the Varden’s resistance. This book is filled with all sorts of emotions and presents different ideas on religion and uses many clichés. It is a book of adventure and fantasy. Eldest teaches its readers lessons both positive and negative, doesn’t do a good job of brining across the romantic emotions but does do a good job of convincing readers of frustration and pain, and provides little insight on new ideas.

There are topics broached in Eldest that provide some questionable ideas of what is right and what is wrong. Christopher Paolini, seems to use the feeling or want of revenge to drive his characters most of the time. To me this isn’t a good lesson to be teaching because what I would take away from reading parts of this book is that it is ok to act revengeful towards those that hurt you. I disagree with the idea presented there. Yet the Dragon Riders are made out to be these great heroes, and everyone looks up to the hero, but then Saphira, Eragon’s dragon says that he should get revenge on his uncle’s murder because that is his job as a dragon rider. When trying to convince Eragon to pursue the Ra’zac and get revenge, Saphira says,”I thought long and deep the past few days, and I realized what it means to be dragon and Rider:It is our destiny to attempt the impossible, to accomplish great deeds regardless of fear. It is our responsibility to the future,” page 92-92. So in this book, is Christopher Paolini trying to teach us that we should get revenge on those who wrong us? I disagree with the way this was handled. This wasn’t the only time that revenge was brought up either, Roran endangers his whole village because he wants his vengeance for his father’s death. As a member of the village says, “It’s all you fault…they will torch our houses and murder our children because of you,”page 124-125. Roran’s want for vengeance put all these other families at risk. The message that is getting across here, is that it doesn’t matter who gets hurt as long as you get what you want. Again I disagree with this opinion. Another moment in this book, had one of the men of Carvahall slaughtering the soldiers alongside Roran, and both showed a fierce enjoyment to kill and seemed to regard the killing as a sport. “Shall I gut and hamstring you?”page 137. This was a ‘clever’ play on words, as the man who said this is the butcher of Carvahall. However this is just sick. The taunting and joking about death and murder is just so wrong and this is one of many times this type of sick humor is mentioned and I think it’s just wrong. Paolini uses the emotion of anger to be a driving force behind what many characters do. I think he could have used different emotions to invoke action from his characters, especially as anger is a dominant emotion. I feel that although anger is a great emotion to use to drive the characters into action, it is again one of the many negative emotions that is present in his writing of this book. To get Carvahall to travel with him to Surda, Roran tries to instill in them his anger. He does this by reminding them of all the negatives, “He [Galbatorix] seeks to poison all of Algaesia, to suffocate us with his cloak of misery,” page 250. However at the same time I understand why Paolini uses all of these negative emotions. For this is the story. The story is about people getting murdered and brutality and slavery and torture. It is about hurt, revenge, hate, anger, demons, pain, and suffering. The story wouldn’t come to life without these emotions. For, although I think it very wrong that the Dragon Riders, the heroes, are portrayed as getting revenge on those who do wrong, the want for revenge was a driving force behind all that Eragon did. Also under the circumstances, there wouldn’t have been another better emotion. The feeling of hate and anger and revenge that Eragon had, was felt by the reader and probably no other emotion would have had the same effect. Roran’s endangering the village had to happen because Paolini had to stay true to the character of Roran. Roran wouldn’t just run away in the face of danger. He would stand and fight and try to hold his ground. Roran’s determination is seen when he is faced with the daunting task of raising a home and barn from scratch, “Considering the situation, it seemed to Roran that the only option available to him was to rebuild his farm, even if he had to raise the house and barn himself,” page 31. His determination carries on to all tasks in front of him. Never is he wanting to give up and he has a pride that he doesn’t want ruined. As for the sick humor, it had to be in there. For again it was sticking with the character of Sloan, who was the butcher. He is a cruel character that we aren’t really supposed to like. Roran also might’ve been with him, but both Roran and Eragon, who are characters that we are supposed to like and look up to, don’t really approve of murder. Roran in fact feels sick at the thought that he killed, “He could still feel the visceral shock of muscle and bone giving…crunching…pulping under his hammer. His bile rose and he had to struggle not to be sick in full view of the village,” page 127. In the first book called Eragon, Eragon shows strong distaste for Murtagh killing a slaver. I dislike the overuse of negative emotions, yet I also understand the importance of their use to bring out the emotions in the book.

When reading fiction books, especially fantasy books, it is important for the author to really bring in the reader and make them feel the emotions of the characters and feel apart of the book, however sometimes in the book Eldest when trying to bring in the audience, parts end up sounding cheesy. In any of the romantic scenes or when describing the love of two characters, Paolini’s attempt comes across as uncomfortable and too formal. When Eragon is with Arya he says, “How tall the trees, how bright the stars… and how beautiful you are,” page 473. Firstly Eragon doesn’t strike me as the formal poetic type. Until now Eragon is portrayed as being anything but an artist. He is not portrayed as being able to be sweet or cute with words, but now all of a sudden he is being all sweet and poetic. To me Eragon is a bit harsh, a farmer, and all tough and rough traveller. So where did the sudden sweet, poetic, and cute words come from. I also am not a fan of the overly sweet and cute speeches like this. It all sounds very formal and too good. I prefer a less formal and more awkward approach. Although this is very awkward. I think that is because these words don’t seem to fit Eragon and they don’t go with the harshness of the story. Although I don’t find Paolini particularly good at writing about romance, I do like much of the other emotions that he really made me feel and become apart of. Roran’s anger and slow turn to madness definitely convinced me. There was something very effective about Roran’s continuous chant in his mind of, “Katrina,” page 251. I also felt very apart of what Eragon was feeling and going through when describing to Saphira how pain was should actually be called the obliterator. To me Eragon’s description of pain was very effective, “The obliterator. Because when you’re in pain, nothing else can exist. Not thought. Not emotion. Only the drive to escape the pain. When it’s strong enough, the Obliterator strips us of everything that makes us who we are, until we’re reduced to creatures less than animals, creatures with a single desire and goal: escape,” page 400-401. In Eragon’s small speech this was an effective way of making me feel his pain and troubles that he was going through. There was also a point in Eldest that really brought across the relationship and companionship between Oromis and Eragon. It is after Eragon has had another bout of mind numbing pain, then Oromis reminds him who he is and all he has to fight for. Oromis says, “Don’t abandon hope…never that…we are the Riders. We stand between the light and the dark, and keep the balance between the two…Now rise, Shadeslayer, and prove you can conquer the instincts of your flesh!” Page 401. The companionship between the two that particularly came from Oromis was really touching and I thought that this emotion was brought across really well with the few words exchanged. Paolini isn’t very good at romantic scenes or portraying true love, but he is good at describing pain, anger, companionship, hate, and revenge.

Sometimes, to really stir things up and make a successful book, you’ve got to delve deep into topics and explore new ideas. When reading books it is always fun to see an author come up with a new idea. Something crazy, that comes completely from his/her imagination. Or, it is fun to see them suggest, in their writing, a new thought or revelation about Earth and humanity. I didn’t see this happen with Paolini’s writing. He didn’t explore new thoughts, he didn’t really have any new ideas. All of the thoughts have been explored before. To start with, dragons. Dragons are a common theme in books and in movies. In ‘The Hobbit’ there was the use of a dragon. Harry Potter also used a dragon in the Goblet of Fire, when Harry had to fight the dragon to get past the first task. It isn’t even a new idea to have dragons portrayed as friendly either, as the movie How To Train Your Dragon showed. So, the idea of dragons as the good or the bad guy aren’t new at all. A rivalry between elves and dwarves isn’t a new idea. Although it was quite funny when Orik (a dwarf) came to the sparring field and says that he won’t spar because , “I already got in a bit o’ax work with an elf who took a rather fiendish delight in cracking me over the head”page 531. It was definitely seen in Lord of the Rings. As was the relationship between dwarves and mountains and jewels, and elves and forests and nature and fair folk. If anything, the Ra’zac in Eldest, sound a lot like the Black Riders of Lord of the Rings. They are described in Eldest as, “To the east, a shadow detached itself from the horizon…The black creature opened its beak and uttered a long, piercing shriek…” page 416. It is also described as, “And hunched in their midst were two twisted black forms,”page 41. They both have these creepy, flying, evil animals that they fly on. They are both hooded creatures that don’t show their faces. They are both stronger in the dark than the sunlight. Neither race like water, and both shy away from the water. Just by looking at you, they both can immobilize you with fear, and their cries are almost lethal. The Urgals in Eldest are more like goblins or Orks than anything else. The idea of a nobody, poor kid becoming an all important character with all this power and strength and admirers is also very common. A romance between two characters that was never meant to be, or never could work out, is used frequently. The most obvious example being Romeo and Juliet. For in Eldest, Eragon is in love with Arya. Everything points to that not working out. Arya is almost a hundred years older than Eragon. She is also an elf, and their positions in society don’t allow them to be together. Although, a mix of all these cool ideas is really fun and makes for a great fantasy novel, there is a lack of his own imagination coming out. Paolini has shallowly began to explore the question, Does God exist? He has brought it up a couple of times during the course of the book. Eragon, himself, doesn’t seem to really believe in anything, although there has been a few times that he has expressed curiosity at the subject. Mostly Paolini has brought up the idea of their being more than one god. That is what the basis of the dwarves religion is. The elves don’t really believe in gods at all. They just believe in having a strong connection with nature. There has definitely been hints that Paolini will discuss more about the subject of religion later in the book. I don’t see much creativity from Paolini, however he does try to go deep into some subjects such as religion.

Good books should teach us good lessons, they should bring us into the world of fantasy and get us experiencing the characters experiences along with them, the author should also try to come up with new ideas and examin new topics that haven’t been discussed before. Paolini taught both good and bad lessons. Some were very unethical and other were good lessons that reminded us of the values of bravery and courage. Although Paolini was able to convey the more negative emotions to his audience quite well, he lacked the ability to stay true to his characters and still have a romantic scene or two. Paolini also stole some ideas from other books, such as when he made the different races of creatures in his book. He does go into and explore some of the bigger questions, like, Does God exist. I do enjoy the book, and I feel that mostly it was well written, however Paolini lacked creativity and being able to convey romantic emotions to his audience.

I think that persuasion can be a good thing.  If for example, a person had not wanted to go to and event because he or she felt that the would look like a lesser being than someone else, persuasion can be a good thing.  But if a person were to be persuaded to drink and drive for example then I think that it would not be good.  In the book that I am currently reading this is easy to relate to.  There are other books that I have read that this could relate to.  There are also examples in the holy bible of  persuasion.

Persuasion could be many thing.  For example if a person was thinking of going to a dance, but he/she did not want to go because he did not want to appear as a lesser person for going to the dance with the wrong people.  I think that this is a good time for a person to intervene and persuade the person to go to a dance with whom ever he/she wants.  In this case I think that persuasion is a good thing.  But on the other hand I think that if a person were persuaded to drink and drive, that this would be a bad thing. Drinking and driving could be fatal.  So in life persuasion can be both good and bad things that can occur.  But in these cases the person is faced with a choice of what he will do.  He can ether do or do not there are other types of persuasion.

I recently read a book called the The Way of Shadows. In this book a man named Derzo Blint is told that if he doesn’t hand over one of the magical items that he has in his Passion, all of the people that he holds dear to his heart .  In the end he kills him self  and gives the magical item to his apprentice. In a different book called Eragon The CharacterEragonis told that if he doesn’t join the varden all of the land will fall to the evil king Galbitorix.  In these examples the persuasion is very strong and the person doesn’t really have a choice in the mater.

In the bible there is a story of a man called Samson. In the story he is said to have inhuman powers.  When Samson was a child his mother was told by God that if she didn’t cut the child’s hair he would have inhuman strength.  Later when Samson was a older man, his wife came to him and asked him the Truth of his strength.  First he told her that if he was bound with a new bowstring he would lose his strength.  Later that night while he was asleep he wife bound him with a new bowstring and the philistines tried to capture him.  Samson easily broke the cord and killed all of the philistines.  The next day Samson tells her the truth of his strength and that night the philistines attack.  they capture Samson and the kill him.  In this story persuasion is a bad thing and it ends up killing a man.

So in our world, persuasion can be either a good thing or a bad thing.  It can even be in the middle. But I think that it is mostly a good thing.  I also believe that if there was no persuasion the there can be no god.  Or if there is a god that the bible stories cannot be true because in all of stories god or satin persuade the people to do what he wants .  So overall I think that persuasion is a good thing.

The King, pop culture, a little crazy.

For this book review I chose the focus questions: How does being the member of a particular group affect our identity and sense of self? and What is a happy life?

1. Everyone is part of at least one group. Students are in a school group. People who have jobs belong to that particular group. Being part of a group can greatly affect our identity and how we view ourselves. For instance, let’s say you belong to the Glee Club. And you’re excelling greatly. This is obviously going to give you a self-view of great singer and possibly even dancer. You’re going to create a certain image for yourself. The real conflict comes when you belong to many different groups. It’s harder to create just one image for yourself. Like me, I belong to so many different groups I couldn’t even begin to tell you what my identity is. When I’m out with one group, I’m one person. But, the next day, when I’m out with an entirely different, I’m an entirely different person. Maybe it’s a positive, maybe it’s a negative. I really don’t know. I guess it all depends on who you talk to.

Michael Jackson belonged to many groups, but the one that really shaped his identity and sense of self was Hollywood. Belonging to Hollywood is what made Michael who he was. It wasn’t Hollywood all by itself that shaped his identity. We powered his reactions to Hollywood. Every time something crazy happened in his life, we were all over it like white on rice. When something good happens, we weren’t so excited to read about it. That’s why he made up the stories he did. To please the public and gain fans. The craziest story he ever came up with was when he tried to purchase the Elephant Man’s Bones for millions of dollars. This caused great controversy in both London, England and The U.S. The paparazzi couldn’t get enough of this juicy story. It would’ve been a more outrageous story if they had actually sold the bones to him.

2. We all strive to live “the perfect life” or “the happy life”. But really, what IS the “perfect” or “happy” life? This differs from person to person. For me, the “perfect life” looks like this: a husband, a child or two, nice three-story house, a dog, a cat, a well-paying job. You know, the basics.

But, for Michael Jackson, it was a totally different picture: all he wanted was to have a real childhood and he would’ve been happy. In his early childhood, while all of his friends were outside playing baseball, Michael was in a recording studio with his four brothers and father. He just wasn’t happy. Maybe if his father wasn’t abusive, his childhood would’ve been happier. The only parental love he ever received was from his mother and in the 60′s, women weren’t exactly as accepted as they are nowadays.

I’m pretty sure this is why he turned out the way he did; because he wasn’t properly “trained”. He wasn’t taught how to properly love another human being or how to function as a regular member of society.

So, all in all, we as a people are condemning Michael Jackson for all the crazy things he did. But really, we are the ones to blame. We demanded outrageous stories and crazy stunts and we got what we wanted. Unfortunately, we didn’t just drive him to this mentality, we drove him right to his death.

Skater Stunt boys is one of the books in the Extreme Series made by the Canadian author Pam Withers. Pam is able to clearly discus’s many issues and focus on ideas that young adults have to face every day and what the characters are able to do about their problems. This is a for teen readers as they can relate themselves to the story and understand the emotions brought forward by this book. I was able to relate to the feelings that Pam wanted the readers to understand which made the book that much more interesting for me. I really got sucked in by this book and I quite enjoyed this novel. I believe everyone could relate themselves to this story somehow and enjoy what it has to offer. The ideas that are expressed in this book such as depression, intimidation, and competition are well thought of and executed by Pam.

Pam wants readers to understand that even though life continually drags you down, you must stay positive and life will get better. Jake and his friend Peter are working at Sam’s Adventure Tour and they are fantasized about skate boarding. I actually tried to skateboard once myself and I crashed pretty bad, so that was the last time I skated. There was a multi-million dollar skate park being built called Xtreme Sk8, Jake and Peter couldn’t wait to go and skate there and show off their skills to everyone. However, a group of mean wanna-be BMXers wanted to ride on the park, everyone knows that BMX bikes cause to much damage to skatepark due to their pegs and pedals scraping up the boards. The leader of the group then threatened Jake and Peter but they didn’t allow them to use Jake’s custom made Half-Pipe. Like Jake and Peter did, you must always stand for what you believe is right.

Pam wants all teen readers to understand that you must push yourself to your full potential and that anything you put your mind too you will accomplish. Jake and his family had been heartbroken since his dad took off about 3 years ago on his birthday. He felt his game wasn’t up to par and his memories of his dad made him somewhat depressed and he couldn’t focus on any of the stunts and tricks with Peter. Jake and Peter, even though they were the best of friends, they always had little competitions and Peter would usually be victorious which angered Jake. I would be lost and devastated if I lost one of my parents and this age, especially when you need the most guidance when you are teen becoming an adult. Jake and Peter were also excited to compete in the movie competition, were skaters from all around would show there stuff and the top two would be in a action movie. Jake felt that something was wrong but he ignored his feeling and participated anyway. The competition was being held at Xtreme Sk8 where they have been practicing at so they had the advantage over any out-of-town skater.

Pam tells us, through her writing, that even when the odds are against you, you must try your best and you will shine. Jake believed that he didn’t have a shot at this because he wasn’t good enough, Peter on the other hand couldn’t be any cockier. I myself would be nervous but I would be confident, negative thoughts only bring you down. When Jake was performing his tricks a mental Sk8 park worker jumped on the ramp making Jake crash. The mental was telling Jake that someone is messing with the screws and he must fix them. Marco wanted the mental fired before he fixed the ramp. I don’t want to spoil what happens so I am going to stop there. This is a great book to read for all ages and I recommend this book for all to read. The action is high-paced and the conspiracies are what drive the book forward, a great read to anyone.

Ideas of trust, depression, corruption makes any book great and interesting to read. This is definitely the case with this book, I never have gotten this interested with a book before. I actually wanted to read it and finish it. From start to finish I was interested, this novel has no boring segments, and action is present all throughout the book. The plot teaches us how to react with feeling of depression and trust. This is my favorite book, along with Sunrise over Fallujah, and I highly recommend Skater Stunt boys to everyone.