He always refers to himself as “The Writer” in the introduction. He mentions that Alice Cooper wanted a “concept album” on 1994. So, both Gaiman and Cooper started working on it and thus came out both The Last Temptation CD and The Last Temptation Graphic Novel, which is a nice complement for the CD.

As I read the graphic novel first, I couldn’t help but realize how some of the wording in the story would sound off like lyrics, so, after hearing the CD, I understood that I was right. These two should definitely go together and I am happy to report I got them both!

Being a “normal” teenager in the U.S. is never easy, or so it seems. Who wouldn’t want to join a circus? Or have fun in a new way after all your “friends” turned your back on you, mock you and make you unhappy? You’re in a shitty town, where no one cares and here is the right place, and the right moment for The Last Temptation to occur.
Go on, hear it, read it…it’s pretty interesting!

Rudi, the son of Chief McKenzie, is all grown up. Since he was born there has been a big prophecy surrounding his life. This time, the prophecy comes true, and he has to get out of Oregon and the Willamette Valley, out to travel to Nantucket. A man from Nantucket had the vision of his prophecy and traveled walking and by horse, to Oregon, and now Rudi is going back with him, along with the usual childhood friends.

This is the first part of a second trilogy. I guess the first trilogy was about the parents getting used to the change, and settling in. This trilogy is now about people used to being part of the change. There’s still old people, of course. I am interested in the fact that Signe Larsson, while Juniper McKenzie and Sandra Arminger are ever present in the book. This time around, it’s their children who are at different risks, however, parents and older people are also part of this book, even if just at the beginning.

I’m still impressed at how people have “grown” to learn how to use other stuff instead of what we have been used to. Here I am, writing to you from a computer, when I couldn’t do it if I was living their life. I would, though, definitely take up archery lessons if I had time!

All in all, this was one book I couldn’t put down. I finished it in a week! Usually took me around a month. I blame The Boy for that. Making me read the Hyperion series was a difficult read, and now, everything else seems easy enough to finish quickly!

I… I really don’t know what to say about this awesome step by step guide on how to become a ninja and part of the I.O.N. (International Order of Ninjas). I’m not sure if the I.O.N. will come after me for mentioning I read it, but they will probably do something to me if I do reveal any of the details in it, so, go ahead, and read it.

Either that or don’t read it. There’s always the possibility of the book killing you. It, or the tasks you need to go through to become a ninja.

Me? A ninja? Probably. I’ve read the book. The book didn’t kill me. The I.O.N. hasn’t killed me as of yet and I’m always on my toes, so this is probably as good as it gets. I’ll keep on working my nice little normal job, but you’ll never know, when looking at me, I might be a deadly ninja ready to attack if you piss me off. And if I don’t attack you at that precise moment, beware, I might just be taking my time.

I personally enjoy it because I have been in the city. I DID find Jar City somewhat more interesting, however. Even so, having read it 5 years ago I can’t exactly recall the details.

What’s Voices about? A guy who lives in a hotel basement, and works as a doorman, has been found, half naked, stabbed to death. This doorman had been a “child star” but, sadly, grew up and could not continue with that life. However, we can find a few people who both loved his music or wanted to get their hands on his (now exceedingly pricey) vinyl recordings.

Erlendur (the main detective in Indridason’s novels) decides to stay in the hotel for a week, trying to find out more about all the different people that worked, lived and knew our main – dead – character.

*Sigh* I wish I knew enough Icelandic to read the original. The English version was pretty good, I admit, but I have this thing where I would’ve liked to read DeSade’s Juliette in French, or Voices or Jar City or Angels of the Universe or Reykjavik 101 in Icelandic.

Maybe it’s time to take the dust off my two Angels of the Universe books (one in English, one in Icelandic) and try to start and understand a bit more….

So I had already read Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things, which has the story of The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch. This time around, I’m just talking about the graphic novel, which of course, doesn’t add a lot of detail, however, gives you a different picture of what you had already seen.

And excuse me, if I don’t write much about this particular graphic novel, but… as when people say “the book was better than the movie”, well…. “The story was better than the graphic novel”.

This is the “lost entry” from when everything was erased. Hooray for backups!

The Rise of Endymion is the conclusion of the Hyperion series, which we can all know for sure took me a LONG time to read, however it was worth it.

It left me with a few questions unanswered and I’m wondering if I didn’t read a tiny little paragraph that might explain one or two of those questions, but I’m not going to re-read all four books again to find that out.

I can tell you it’s wonderfully written, you get excited about what will happen in the end, you don’t want to put it down, you want to go on and on until you finish but your eyes are closing and, damn you have to work tomorrow.

However it all comes back to Religion, Power and Love in the end. Hasn’t the church been powerful enough in our lifetime? Imagine a future where you HAVE to convert to be helped with the greatest medical advancements, to be able to travel and not be persecuted.

Think of us humans and the inevitable fear of death. So the church takes away that fear. You can die, but you’re resurrected, as easy as 1, 2, 3. You just have to add this thing to your body, which will help you to be, as Captain Jack Harkness, of Doctor Who and Torchwood fame says “the man (or woman) that can’t die”. Oh, but you can’t accept the church and not take the thing it’s all or nothing!

And one girl helps set it straight. She does not consider herself a messiah, even when everyone does. However she helps people realize you don’t need to live forever. You don’t need a thing strapped to you, and if the church was REALLY following what God/Jesus/Buddah/, they would care for EVERYONE not just those that accepted your favorite brand of religion.

Have I enticed you enough to read all four of those books? Good, go right ahead! You won’t be disappointed.

Extrapolating this book to the Emberverse universe which I have also been reading for some time, it would be a very useful book, in the case there’s no more electrical and everyone has to fend for themselves.

The Zombie Survival Guide showed me how to fend myself, how to get myself ready literally for an apocalypse where we would have to defend from something that could kill us in seconds.

This book is serious. Gives you how much food, what kind of places you can and can’t live in and how you can defend yourself. Shows you how you HAVE to trust the people you have survived with and who might be in charge of carrying/working on what.

I do recommend it, even when we would probably never afford to find the kind of fortresses and the kind of weaponry we would need to save ourselves from zombies.

However, humans always find a way to keep on living.

Seems to me ( and Marvel fans can correct me ) that these guys were here since the beginning of time and they can’t remember. I have no clue what happened for them not to remember, however, I can say it was an interesting story, and that I was glad to read it, however I am going to comment on something completely different than the story itself. The characters, or, their evolution.

The Eternals were originally created by Jack Kirby and, at the end of the book, you can see the “originals” Some of the ladies in those old comics actually had hips! and were not exceedingly thin! Our vision of beauty has sure changed, and I’m unsure to say if it’s a good or a bad thing.

However, to me, it was interesting to see the contrast from Jack Kirby’s Eternals to John Romita’s Eternals. 70′s… 2k’s…

A good story, I would like to understand actually who/what Sprite was, and why he couldn’t grow up.

As usual, thank you, Mr. Gaiman, for doing such wonderful Graphic novels.

Endymion is the third part of four in the Hyperion series. This was the simplest yet, as it was a pretty straightforward adventure. Go here. Go there. Stuff happens.

I was mostly impressed by Aenea ( and I still can’t pronounce her name correctly, I swear), how mature she could be at times, being that she is only 11, and how she would misplace her own time. Apparently she has seen all she will be and all she has been, so she knows most of what will happen next, and I think that will be what I’ll see in Rise of Endymion.

Raul Endymion and A.Bettik are strong characters, but Raul is there just because the poet wanted him there… or was it already written that he had to be there? He protects and cares for Aenea, while A.Bettik cares for both. Being that Bettik (the A. Stands for Android) is not entirely human, it’s very interesting to see certain emotions and interests in him.

I’m wondering about the PAX. If it was started by one of the Hyperion travelers, why would they create such a universe? Definitely, Religion manages to keep a stronghold even in the future. I guess people need to have something to believe in always.

All in all, Endymion was the easiest to read of the first three books. I wonder what the last one has in store for me. However, as usual, after a “difficult” book, I am taking a small break and reading The Zombie Survival Guide, by Max Brooks and Eternals, by Neil Gaiman.

Fast forward to about 2 or 3 years ago, when The Boy mentioned that he played Dungeons and Dragons with his friends, live, not online. After having played World of Warcraft for a bit, I wanted to try the real thing. So, along with The Boy, Aldar, Said, Kezzerdrix, and a few others we began playing. I do NOT regret it at all.

I also had to mention the guys because this book was written in the Forgotten Realms setting, which is our setting. The places and several characters were recognized the moment I read about them in this book.

I had to give this bit of a prologue because Pool of Radiance is a book based on a Dungeons and Dragons game, mostly written from the Thief (or Rogue)’s point of view. Kestrel is a thief, and a good one at that, however she is extremely egotistical and only thinks of herself.

Getting herself drunk was a mistake. She agreed to get into a party of people who would face a dracolich, in order to help repair the Mythal of Myth Drannor. She doesn’t trust anyone… at first. After a while she begins trusting each and every one of them, except for the Paladin. Corran would be someone I, personally, would also hate. He seemed, at the beginning, so very much conceited and worried about himself that he would put Kestrel to shame. After a bit you start understanding a bit more about Corran, and about each of them. You don’t get to see all the aspects of every one of them, but I can say each of them has good qualities (yes, even Corran).

The characters meet with different, problematic, foes, everytime getting to a point where Kestrel will despair a little and rethink what she’s doing there, however she keeps at it.

I can’t mention many details about it, as usual, because I REALLY would like people to read it. I can’t lend it to anyone because this was one of those books that The Boy lent to me (I’m cleaning up, reading HIS books first because I REALLY need my space), but it’s definitely an easy read for anyone who wants to get into the D&D thing… though it’s better if you just play it on your own first, and find out about different characters after you’ve grasped a bit of it!