Saturday, October 17, 2009

Rise of the Horde

In the effort to explain why things are like they are in World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment has authors writing deeper stories for the story of the game. Rise of the Horde shows the betrayal of whole groups of people as the Horde begins its descent into demonic rage.

Rise of the Horde begins with the orcs living as clans who fight over disputes but were generally at peace. The story is mainly seen through the eyes of the father of Thrall, Durotan. Durotan witnesses the misguided Ner'zhul persuade the orcs to destroy the draenei. With the destruction not progressing fast enough for the true commanders, Ner'zhul is overthrown by his apprentice, Gul'dan. Gul'dan works with the demon Kil'jaeden, who was the one giving orders to Ner'zhul, to give the orcs the power of the demons. This power gives birth to warlocks and the crazed bloodthrist of an orc warrior. With the destruction of the draenei and power of demons, the Horde is born and quickly requires expansion into a new world.

Rise of the Horde showed the sadness of the orcs with self-control as they saw their brothers and sisters become demonic monsters bent on destruction and the reasoning behind the orc and draenei hatred. I recommend this book to anyone who plays the game series and is interested into why the orcs are so savage with their brown brothers being peaceful.

355 pages

Arthas: RIse of the Lich King

With the release of their top MMO's second expansion, Blizzard Entertainment begins to tell more about their expansion's main antagonist. Arthas: Rise of the Lich King expands on the existing story with deeper emotions from the characters to show why each does what they do in World of Warcraft.

Arthas, the main character of the book, begins his life as the Prince of Lordaeron. He dredges through his studies and prayer sessions as he's molded into a paladin of the Light and king of Lordaeron. All the events of the original games happen during Arthas' childhood. Arthas meets Jiana Proudmoore during her journey to study at Dalaran. Later in their life, the two fall in love with Arthas destroying the relationship only to further destroy it during the events at Stratholme. Arthas: Rise of the Lich King shows the reasoning behind Jiana's wanting to purify Arthas to the way he was as a paladin of the Light.

Arthas: Rise of the Lich King broadens the emotional ties of the lore in Warcraft. I recommend this book for anyone who plays the Warcraft games and takes an interest in the story of the game.

308 pages

Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Time Machine

The novel, The Time Machine, gave inspiration to science fiction to the writers in the last century and this century. When The Time Machine begins, the novel accelerates into a desperate struggle for survival in a bizarre and twisted future.

The main character, the Time Traveler, makes a massive claim to his colleagues in his own time on the idea of time travel. With his knowledge of technology, the Time Traveler tries to prove his ideas and jumps to the year 802,701 A.D. The setting of the story looks alien to the Time Traveler as he finds the decaying of society with 2 groups of devolved humans. The Eloi show interest in the Time Traveler and welcome him to eat and sleep with them. The nocturnal Morlocks come out of their machine filled caves to feast on whatever meat they find. The Time Traveler becomes lost in this time after his machine is lost to the Morlocks. The Time Traveler finds himself alone until he meets a Eloi named Weena. Though a language barrier prevents communication, the Time Traveler lets Weena cling to him as he works to find a way to his time machine.

The Time Machine changes from the current of his time and creates a story that helped change and create a entire genre of books. I recommend The Time Machine for any science fiction fan or someone wanting a book that drifts from their normal genre.

"Scar Tissue"

The book I read tells the story of Anthony Kiedis's life, the sing of The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Anthony Kiedis's Scar Tissue renders a picture of the life of Anthony Kiedis with its successes, failures, and renewals.

Anthony Kiedis used drugs for years and truly wanted to quit during the later years of use as he saw what the drugs did to him the next day and what the drugs did to those around him. Anthony Kiedis lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan until he was 13 and moved to Los Angeles, California. Anthony's drug life began while living with his dad. Anthony met the original line-up of The Red Hot Chili Peppers as he went through school. The band began after everyone graduated out of high school. With a surrounding of drugs, Anthony clung to his sanity as he switched drugs to keep from becoming completely useless. The band went through the years with band mates leaving and rejoining. Anthony's life changed drastically as he committed to sobriety after the dead of guitarist Hillel. Anthony, though tempted after every show, kept himself sober to this day even with the constant use around him as he toured and lived in Los Angeles.

Scar Tissue pulled me into Anthony Kiedis's past. The book should be a great book for fans of The Red Hot Chili Peppers or anyone who wants into the life of an ex-drug addict.

465 pages