Daniel's Blog

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Paco — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 03:18:45 +0000

This book from the start has been just plain creepy and disturbing. I haven’t actually got through it yet, but this book reminds me of 1984 as a warning to others of what COULD happen. From pages 1 it begins with a “doctor” kind of person. He is is lecturing a bunch of young interns as he tours them around a facility. The whole time they are talking about the tour. You realize that they are talking about farming human beings for doing certain work and certain specialty in what they work. They talk about how they make alphas, betas, and gammas. How Alphas are the elite with Gammas being the bottom. Alphas run government offices and help make the world a better place were as Gammas do the sweeping and mopping of the floors. This whole book so far has just been simply mind-blowing. I really can’t wait to continue reading and to find out more of what is going on! So far, so scared!

Filed under: Fiction

1984 by George Orwell

Paco — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 02:01:46 +0000

1984 is an amazing book that i read about a guy named Winston. Winston is unfortunately in a place called the “United States of Eurasia”. You find out so much about this corrupt and scary place throughout the book. Basically put, the whole population is indeed very brainwashed. They are all told to worship Big Brother and his saying “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength” with this Big Brother literally controls all of the U.S.E. Winston however isn’t buying into all the stuff Big Brother says. He slowly goes from brainwashed to enlightened to the fact that Big Brother doesn’t actually exist. He is just there to give everyone an icon to worship while the secret police actually control everything. he meets a woman, they fall in love and together they try to find a way to bring down Big Brother. They get caught (not surprising at all) and they are both taken away to never see each other ever again. Winston is taken to tons of differn’t cells till he finally enters the torture room, where he is then tortured and brainwashed repetitively until he finally admits he never loved the girl, and that he in fact loves Big Brother. Now for me. this books ending was SCARY. It showed that under whatever system of government they were under. You cannot cheat it or anything. It will find you. It will crush you. An d it will make you love it. That was scary as well as they could do what they did to Winston to anyone. And the scariest thing of all is that George Orwell himself said that 1984 was a book that was made as his prediction of what the United States would turn into by the year 1984.

Filed under: Fiction, Review

Brisingr

Paco — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:31:49 +0000

Brisingr is the third book in the Inheritance Cycle. It starts off at the end of Eldest, right after the battle of the burning plains. I suppose that Christopher Paolini is doing that on purpose for cliff hangers. But it starts with the moarning of the King of the Dwarfs named Harothgar. Eragon is forced into this huge political thing with the drawfs and it gets kinda crazy confusing. Although I do enjoy the part of how you get to learn a lot of the Drawf lore and how Drawves think. You also learn of drawf politics, which in itself could be another whole book. Anyways, after Eragon helps elect another leader for the Drawves, he is able to meet his old trainer “The Cripple that is Whole” so that he may discuss some things and get some answers. The first thing that he learns while he is there is shocking beyond anything. His father is actually Brom. I myself had to read, and then reread that part of the story so that i could grasp it completely. Then Eragon gets his own riders sword, these swords can never break and Eragon’s sword is pretty sweet. it’s name is Brisingr and whenever you say its name aloud. it burst into flames. What more could anybody want? Then the new big shot goes to the varden. When he at last gets back to the varden, they are in the middle of the siege of a city. Eragon helps get to the top tower where the leader of the opposing army is. he finds there that the leader really isn’t in control, a bunch of magicians are. They make another shade. which i thought was kind of ridiculous because this shade was like supposed to be 100x harder than the original shade that Eragon killed in the first book, yet he dies in like 5 seconds. It wasn’t exactly “epic battle” material. After they kill the shade they take the leader captive and the battle is won. then the book basically ends with a huge cliffhanger of what might happen next. All in all a great read, can not wait for the fourth and last book of the Cycle.

Filed under: Fiction

Eldest by Christopher Paolini

Paco — Fri, 21 May 2010 17:52:40 +0000

Eldest is a the second book in the Inheritance Cycle. It starts off immediately after the fight of Farthen Dur with Eragon in his bed with his wounds. The whole beginning of the book is basically about Eragon’s search for Oromis, an elf that lives in Du Weldenvarden. Then once he finds Oromis. He is taught to become a true dragon rider, as well as recover from his wounds. What I absolutely love about this part is you get to learn so much about the cultures and history of Alagaesia and the people within it. You even get to learn of Galbatorix’s rise to power and the fall of the dragon riders. Watching Eragon slowly recover from the wound he received on his back was very fun to watch. starting out as a weak little kid that has muscle spasms to becoming a strong man that has grown a resistance to the back pains. The elves themselves were quite fascinating in how they act and how they think. Even their ability to make things such as swords, and use those weapons as well. amazing. No human could stand against an elf in combat without extra help from anything. But then, of course, the drums of war thunder once again and Eragon is needed in battle. So he must leave the elf forest to fight at the battle of the Burning Plains. Turning the battle of the Burning Plains, Eragon comes in contact with Murtagh. Murtagh was thought to be dead after being dragged off during the battle of Farthen Dur. Now, he is back and as a dragon rider himself! now he and Eragon are having go agains one another head to head. I found it quite amazing that this happened. Murtagh was taken to Galbatorix and he just so happens to have a dragon hatch for him. Now two friends must fight each other to the death… not all that good. Eventually Murtagh wins the fight but is able to leave Eragon without having to bring him to Galbatorix. All i all the book itself was amazing and didnt take me near a long to read as Eragon. Thanks for the great read and now i’m moving on to Brisingr!

Filed under: Fiction

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Paco — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:58:33 +0000

Eragon is quite an extraordinary book! It is basically about a teenage kid in a mythical world who is hunting in the woods one day and stumbles upon a egg. This egg turns out to be a dragon egg and Eragon is soon forced to leave his life as a farmer’s son to become a dragon rider. Sadly though, the government that is in place is a dictatorship put in place by the last functioning and healthy dragon rider. This healthy dragon rider however. Rules his subjects with an iron fist and has caused a decent amount of them to turn to going to war against him. The whole first book is basically about Eragon’s travels though Alagaesia to the city of Farthen Dur in the mountains. The path the he and his guardian Brom take is both dangerous, and deadly. I thought it was a decent book. Not a bad plot at all. Loved Brom’s comments on the stupidity of Eragon, and i absolutely enjoyed the development of eragon as a dragon rider over time. Over all the book was kinda short and i finished it in about 3 days. I quite enjoyed it and got Eldest to read next! thanks C.P.!

Filed under: Fiction

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Paco — Sat, 08 May 2010 01:31:33 +0000

The Hobbit is a great book all around! Great story line and characters and helps to understand the lord of the rings and how the events happened to lead up to the lord of the rings. The story of Bilbo is quite interesting mainly because if you read the Lord of the Rings books first, you will find that Bilbo had been through all of the same places that are in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy in his one little book! That by itself shows just how adventurous the little hobbit was! His companions including Gandalf and a ton of drawfs were a great mix to the book and added to the fun and excitement of what was happening. It also showed what a hastle a large group can be and all that could possibly go wrong in that group. All in all not a bad book at all, it’ll probably turn into a multiple read for me! Got love Gandalf.

Filed under: Fiction

The Book of Revelations

Paco — Sat, 01 May 2010 21:12:48 +0000

I have been interested in the stuff like the apocalypse for quite some time now. So I decided, why not read The Book of Revelations, which is about the end times, or “Apocalypse”. The most amazing thing about the Book of Revelations is the importance of the the number seven. Seven seals, Seven angels, Seven horns will be blown, causing seven stages to bring about the end. The number seven is clearly very important to the end of days. Also, another very shocking thing is the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The first is Conquest, who comes and conquers supposedly everything. Then comes War, who pits man against man in all out war and destruction. With the coming of War comes Death, Death’s role is rather obvious..Then comes Famine. Famine’s role in the end is supposed to be the most destructive of all of the horsemen. His role consists of wiping out a third of the human population through disease and starvation. Then things get progressively worse and worse until all of those who are left are the ones that God has chosen as his own, and he will wipe the tears from their eyes and there will be no more death and no more destruction.

Filed under: OLD STUFF

Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth/ Review

Paco — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 03:56:46 +0000

In 1867, two years after Abraham Lincoln was shot and Andrew Johnson took his place as President of the United States, a boy by the name of Nathaniel Cade comes to shore on a boat one night. He is the only one that remains alive on the ship. All of the other sailors have had all of their blood sucked right out of them, not a drop is left. Cade is imprisoned until the President comes and forces Cade to agree to a blood oath. This forces Cade to follow any orders of the President and all of his staff.

Along comes a man named Zach Barrows. Zach was once a part of the White House staff but has been put unexpectedly with Cade as his partner to fight against forces that no human could fathom. Nobody can imagine how tangled and complicated what seemed like a simple investigation could turn into.

As the book progresses, the reader learns of a man named Konrad. Konrad has lived for a VERY long time and has found the secret to an endless life, or “immortality”. He has even found a way to bring the dead back to life for short spans of time. When Cade and Zach find a crate in the United States full of dead human limbs, they think Konrad is trying to raise the dead once again. But when they go to find out if Konrad is involved, things get wild.

Blood Oath is a great book for any vampire lovers and anyone who like action and gore like the Jason Bourne books. I loved the plot the most, plugging the vampire into the history of the United States and adding in other mythological beings such as Frankenstein and werewolves. The characters had great personalities that I could really relate to: Cade is a silent, all serious, no playing around kind of person. Zach is the smart, young, ignorant man that has no clue what he is getting into, let alone the responsibilities he has gained after becoming Cade’s partner. I also found Konrad a very amusing character. He is extremely smart; he thinks up everything in advance and considers all possibilities. He is also disturbing at times which really helped clarify if he was the true bad guy or not.

Another thing I absolutely loved was the little briefings throughout the entire book at the beginning of each chapter. They helped in explaining things about Cade from a human’s perspective while still giving information about Cade; such as how strong he is and how fast he can run or move. One of them even gives an explanation of an “18 minute gap” in a taped meeting between H. R. Haldeman and President Richard M. Nixon. Even the general structure of the book was great — Giving you what’s going on in real time, and then suddenly going back to Cade’s past and how he became who he was! As well as giving more information to how Cade and Konrad had a history between the two of them. The book over all is something exciting and new and I absolutely cannot wait for the next book in the series to come out!

Many thanks to the publisher and my English teacher for allowing me to read and review the ARC of this book!

Filed under: Fiction, Review

A little more about Navy SEALs

Paco — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 03:26:36 +0000

Ok. So i’m reading one night and I get to this really interesting part about the Navy SEALs code, what they go by and how they operate. “I am always in the fight, If I get knocked down, I will get back up, every time.” I just thought that that was an amazing part of their code. It also helps in understanding that Navy SEALs know that they are in a league of their own. They also think that they are omnipotent and the best there is. No one can or will beat them. The way that Marcus talks throughout the book so far shows just how much that they believe it. I believe it myself after all of the stories from my grandparents about the Navy SEALs. Some of the things i have heard they have to do just to be a SEAL is astonishing beyond belief! I’m just now getting to the part where Marcus is going to start explaining what everything is that you have to do to become a SEAL. This should be good!

Filed under: Non-Fiction, OLD STUFF

Lone Survivor

Paco — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 15:40:08 +0000

I have decided to start a new book called Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. It is about a navy SEAL named Marcus Luttrell and when he went on a mission to take out a notorious al Qaeda leader. And how less than 24 hours after they were sent out. Only one was left alive. I picked this book because of how it has a lot to do with what goes on in Afghanistan and Iraq. My grandfather was also a Navy SEAL and went through all the same training and qualifications that Marcus went through. So i’m interested in what he had to do to even become a SEAL. Also, i saw Marcus on the news a while ago. Some teenage punks were going around shooting peoples dogs, and they shot his dog (his dog was part of his rehab. from the shock of the loss of his team). He went after them and called the police, he was going after them at over 110 mph. Eventually he caught up to them and they got caught. The newscaster then talked about his book of his story. I became interested. Thats why i picked this book.

Filed under: Non-Fiction, OLD STUFF