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The Man Who Was Thursday

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GK Chesterton (the man that I have written so much about) has a great gift. He can use paradox in such a way that it makes sense.

Innocent Smith is a man caught in the perfect paradox. He is married and yet always chasing a woman. He is peaceful yet shoots at his closest friends. He is honest, and yet breaks into his own house and covets his own goods.

If that alone doesn't sell you on the book, there isn't much more I could add. Except the following.

Chesterton wrote at a time like we have now. The world was moving and changing, becoming smaller and men and women felt that so much of it was old, so much of it was no longer new or interesting. And yet, how much more interesting is the world everyday?

Innocent Smith's journey is the kind of journey every man should take, at least once in his life. His only great envy, is for the things that he has already. It is this envy, which is by no means to be mistaken for satisfaction for he is not satisfied, which powers him, and grants him the greatest of freedoms.

The ability to enjoy life.

JZ

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Robert Jordan

September 17th 2007 13:15

Robert Jordan, author of the much loved and widely read Wheel of Time series died today.

It doesn't seem to say everything that I really want to say about this, however accurate it may be. Robert Jordans WoT series is considered one of the back bones of most serious fiction readers book cases.

It also doesn't feel as if the series will be truly finished. I know that he was halfway through the last book and had all his notes and things ready to go, but still, in my case, I will buy it and read it, but I don't think I am going to feel that sense of completion about it.

I don't have enough to say about it, still kind of in shock to be honest.

JZ

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Snow Crash

September 3rd 2007 12:15

This is the best Cyber punk novel I have ever picked up. In all honesty, I had never thought much of the genre. I think that the closest I got to it was to read the odd kind of sci-fi novel wasn't based in either the Battletech or Star Wars universes. Now I am wanting to read a whole bunch more of them. Warning, there are a few spoilers in this.

Neal Stephenson writes with edge, power and a highly addictive sensation that destroys your brain cells in a flash of wonderful goodness. It's like snorting coke that's been covered with powdered glass. Not that I have ever done drugs, but hey, that's a pretty good similee. This little gem, describing a car, is written on the first few pages:

The Deliverator's car has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the asteroid belt. Unlike a bimbo box or a burb beater, the Deliverator's car unloads that power through gaping, gleaming, polished sphincters. When the Deliverator puts the hammer down, shit happens.

I stopped for five minutes after reading that, just to recover.

But the crafting of the words is hardly the only reason to read the novel. After a few chapters, one might think that you were only reading a good sci-fi novel, complete with awesome internet (metaverse) sequences, sword fighting and bad motherf%^&erdom. Thankfully, Mr Stephenson proves us wrong.

The novel branches out into history, religion, philosophy, ethics and pretty well everything else. Imagine this, a virus is going through not the computers of the world, but through the heads of the people that program the computers of the world. They start having religious experiences and speaking in tongues.

Personally, I haven't picked up a book this good in a very long time. I want more.....MORE!! That being said though, the ending is exactly what it should be. Everyone gets whats coming to them and it is open enough that the reader can use their own imagination to do the rest of the work.

JZ

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Looking For Group

September 3rd 2007 11:55

Heh,

This is funny, but it is funnier if you go and read the comics that they have done first. Then it is hilarious

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He Died With a Felafel In His Hand

September 1st 2007 12:18

I can honestly say that I have never watched an episode of the following programs. Big Brother, Australian (or any other country) Idol, Survivor, Popstars or any other "reality" TV show.

But I HAVE read He Died With a Felafel With In His Hand. It's weird to consider why I read it. I saw it on my younger brother Dominics shelf and thought "You know, I've heard that's a funny book. I might read that." And yes, it is a damn funny book. The reason it is funny is because it is lot like the aforementioned programs (more like Big Brother than anything else) except for the fact that the author is not pushing any kind of product on the reader. He isn't trying to win any competitions, he isn't trying to make how he lived glamourous either. Which is kind of refreshing

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In Every Shadow

August 19th 2007 14:16

Well, for anyone that is interested this is the prologue of a fantasy novel that I have been working on for some time now. Just trying it out, testing the waters, see how people like it. Tell your friends or people that like the Genre. Enjoy.

Graud extended his arms slowly, his form taking on the postures and positions of the crane and snake as his mind came to relax within movements. He was not tall nor short for a human, yet his shoulders were broad and his body lean and well muscled. His hair was white, despite his youthful features. The colour of his hair was called a winter mark by his people. The winter mark was worn by those who had to leave their nation, to learn and travel among humans. It was a mark of loneliness, of solitude. His eyes glowed burnished gold. It was because of these things many men and women would fear him. For they marked him. As a werewolf. His tunic was cut short, baring his shoulders and a blue tattoo was clearly exposed on his bicep. Here in the grove of oak trees and among the buzzing of life was his chosen place for the forms. The birds would sing and fly through the trees, as the sun would travel above him. Yet he was oblivious to time as he continued to practice. The forms were ancient, even for one aged as he. He who had seen more than five hundred years of life. The snake and crane turned slowly into the monkey as his movements changed from serene into movements such as one would make when drunk and yet to them there was still a graceful and lethal air. He had been young then, he remembered, only a hundred or so, if he recalled correctly, which was almost middle aged by the standards of his race. A slightly off-key note of a birdsong warned him before anything else. His ears pricked and yet his movements did not stop. An intruder so subtle could intend violence against him, and yet there were many that feared the warnings that the town people had spread about this place. For one to journey here meant that they were potentially an enemy of great power. Or a friend, but Graud chose to prepare himself for the worst. The technique of monkey steals the peaches flowed smoothly into the roar of the dragon as he summoned up his reserves of inner power, preparing to deal with the intruder. A small triangular dagger with each side measuring four inches across flew out of the undergrowth and embedded itself into a tree, neatly flying through the space that had been occupied by Graud mere moments earlier. Graud turned quickly, a light throwing knife in his right hand and then relaxed

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Computer Games as Art

August 13th 2007 03:32

I first thought about this when I found out that my youngest brother Ethan told me that he wanted to use a video game as a text in an English assignment. Fallout. He did this (and remarked to me about a young lad named Cameron and the doubts he has about his origins, whether his parents were married or even human) and it seems to have gone down well. And it made me think about the kinds of video games that I think have actually gone and done more for me than give me a few hours of mindless destructive fun.

A letter from a gamer like myself is evidence that I am at least, not alone in this. Really Long Link
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FUTURAMA RETURNING SOON!

August 2nd 2007 08:12

Yes, for all you nerds and Benderphiles out there, the news has been announced yesterday on slashdot.org that a new series of Futurama is in the works.

The release is going to be drawn out in a new made for TV movie, and a bunch of smaller episodes

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Sorry

August 1st 2007 03:51

I would like to apologise to everyone that I haven't been posting on either blog for awhile. A few things have been creeping up on me and keeping me away from you guys.

1.The fact that somehow, we are exceeding our download limit. We are arguing with Bigpond over this because, quite simply, we can't have

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Harry Potter Leaked On The Internet!

July 18th 2007 12:23

Oh, and the new book is available for downloads as well.

Seriously though, I am against this. Writers work long and hard, trying to write a good book (unless you're Brian Herbert in which case you simply take a crap between two covers and call it a prequel) and to have this happen to them is a crime

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September 2007

5 Posts