You, Too, Can Be a REAL Jedi!!! REALLY!

So, how does one become a Jedi? Aren't I, "Too old for the training?" Well, it turns out, I just have to read this book (and the three after it): http://newilluminatiprotocols.com/media/TheBookOfJedi-np.php?RSID=1146&r=jedi2

The thing is, these people are SERIOUS. I mean, SERIOUSLY serious. Here's what is says from the New Illuminati Protocols website:

"The Book of Jedi is a free publication that prepares the Initiate for training in a Jedi Academy. It has been imbued with specific thought seeds and a secret internal rhythm that will awaken an awareness of The Force within you. Simply by reading through this document in it’s entirety, certain inner preparations will be made within you. The Jedi Order has existed quietly on Earth for centuries, awaiting for this moment in history to come forward and make our training available to many more who qualify to learn the ways of The Force. In the final pages, instructions will be given to you should you choose to request additional information about formal training in one of our academies."

So look out, bullies who picked on my in high school. I'm a JEDI now and I don't take no gruff from nobody! Man, it was easier to become a Jedi than it was to bulk up on muscle like that Charles Atlas ad on the back of comic books promised me! Sweet!

Undead Pride

Every once in awhile a great idea comes along. The wheel. The lightbulb. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

             

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a re-imagining of Jane Austin's original 1813 novel. Just based on concept alone, this one is a winner. What if Zombies suddenly walked into a classic Regency-era England storyline? Sheer wonderfulness, that's what.

This novel has been so popular that there is a prequel (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls), a sequel (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After), an upcoming movie, an upcoming video game, a graph novel adaptation and plenty of imitators. Other novels released in this same genre include Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters; and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

I can't wait for The Body Snatchers in the Rye.

    

You've been SteamPunked!

SteamPunk'd

Cost: $7.99

Edited By:

Jean Ribe

and

Martin H. Greenberg

Steampunk...

The term was keyed in the late 1980's, this genre throws itself in the Victorian era's Industrial age. With heavy influence from Mark Twain, Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells and shows like Wild Wild West (1965-69) it often places the characters upon a back drop of the incredible machines, heroic men and delicate ladies (if they play a role at all) that filled the stories of these authors of the past.

Let me preface this with the fact that one of my favorite genre's is Steam Punk. I do not dress up in steam punk clothes and goggle. I do not attend Steam Punk conventions. But even before I bought my copy of the 1994 release of the role-playing game Castle Falkenstien (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Falkenstein_(role-playing_game) ) I've been enamored by the idea of massive steam powered engines of gears and pistons driving great dirigibles, submarines, spacecrafts and burrowing machine into the unknown wilds. Wilds where men, idealist like Nemo and Robar or horrid cowards like Flashman brave for God, Country and Crown or to push away these same ideals. Well....

Even though SteamPunk'd was given the Top Choice Award by Flamingnet I think theres not enough Steam here. As for being Punk'd that was me, for buying the book. Classic archetypes define this genre as much as the settings and paraphernalia. Most of these stories fell far short in there attempt at conveying these things. They either drowned us with one thing or starved us of another. We want our characters to live in the genera not live as an excuse for the genre.

As much as I love the Steam Punk genre the book was painful. I am not one to put a book down, unfortunately, I will hold out and work my way through it in hopes that at some point the book/ story will come to some great ending and maybe I can gleam some little bit of wisdom or entertainment out of it that will have made the trip worth while. It only happened once in this book

Scourge of the Spoils by Matthew Mayo

This is one of the best short stories I've read in a long time. The setting is given directly, letting you know what the world is like without being overstated. Your left wanting to hear more but give everything you need for the story. Characters, in the story, feel real. Their introduced as needed and, like the setting, your given enough of their background to see where their motivations lie and left wanting to know more about them too. By the end your left amazed by the twist that you know you should have seen coming but, I'm sure, you didn't.

Bravo Matthew Mayo, I'll defiantly be checking out some of your other work.

For more about Mr Mayo and list of his works check out his Webpage: http://matthewmayo.com/

As for SteamPunk'd if your looking for a good example of the genre this is NOT the book you want. Save yourself $7.99 plus Tax.

Sam