Hobbitmania

I've already seen it and incase you wonder if it's good I have to answer yes. You have another good film in The hobbit 3 but not a masterpiece like The two towers or The return of the king. You're hearing it loud and clear, a fan of  The Lord of the Rings criticizing the hobbit films. As I see it the hobbit saga is much more focused on the special effects made by computer instead of the old fashioned handcrafted ones used on the previous trilogy. As you may notice I'm a very old fashioned guy in this aspect and I really value the work of the people that search for the scenaries or the people that made the swords and the make up etc... And in my opinion that was the thing that made the difference in the lord of the rings, by removing it the only thing that they've achieved is to make me wonder if they've sold their soul to the market in order to get a few more views or if they were doing the things this ways because they had no choice. I really hope it's the second option.

                                                      VS

Freaking nervous

Yup the most relaxed and laidback person in the world it's actually under pressure (just to make sure; that person it's me). This is NOT one of my usual reviews but I needed to chill out a little bit.

Startng from the beginning (obviously) this week I've face more pressure than what I'm used to handle. I had to finish my portfolio (the easy part) and to hand out my project but one of my mates had a little memory lapse and didn't put the parts of the project together (he did it in time but so close to the deadline  I almost had a heart attack). That was the easiest part to manage now comes the real deal. I was training for the world karate championship (in the team category) when I found out thet my brother, who had almost left karate aside, had signed with the USA team (thing that we promised not to do since we were both born in Spain), but the issue doesn't end there we've both passed to quarterfinals and in a week or so we'll have to fight. A face to face! With my brother! And with our parents watching!. If anyone knows how to get out of this one nice and safe please say something.

Valerio Massimo Manfredi

Valerio it's not a very known author, but his work it's as good as any other in the hall of fame of fantastic literature. Mr.Manfredi isn't, as I said before, very known in the fantasy area and that is probably because he waks in the border of two major genres; the historic novel (In which he is very well known for his novel "The ides of march") and the fantasy novel ( In which he is little known because he is at the limit of the genre).

He has a very polished and very vivid way of writing, plus his knowledge as an historian. He is not like Paul Kearny, Paul uses aleternative worlds and makes enough metion of real historical facts to make you recognice them. Valerio it's the opposite of that, he uses myths and parts of history that are not very clear to add them the fantasy part that makes his novels so interesting.

This author has also a unique way of approaching his characters, he makes them more human and less mithological (like in the case of  Alexander the Great and Odiseus). He totally neglects the god part of the characters bringing them to a more human context, without stealing their epicness. 

I'll attach here some of  his work so you can read it if you want.

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Hotel dusk

Today it's about videogames. Yup this game might be a little bit old and yup it might not be very famous, but I'm mentioning it for a particular reason. The game it's a freaking interactive novel, and not a normal novel but a mistery one. 

The thematic it's a very big large and known cliche a detective who loses his partner and changes his job. At the begining of the game you find a girl ( not going to make spoilers about her identity) and you stop in a pretty crappy hotel, and that's when the murders and the real fun start. The most notorious thig about the game it's the black and white comic cartoon approach, it totally fits the story and it gives a very gangster-like atmosphere (I personally think that it's super cool). 

I f you want to play it you can do it free just by downloading a NDS emulator and the rom (But shhhhh I didn't say anything),it's the most direct way to get it because it's old and they don't sell it anymore at usual videogames shops. 

GIVE IT A TRY

Yahooo

It's been a while since my last post due to some issues (mainliy work issues) but I'm back for round 2. And  for today I bring you a movie (actually a book saga but I haven't read it completely and I don't want to review it without having a complete idea).

Maze runner

I've been introduced to this movie thakns to my brother Hector, we're not really into "teen garbage" movies but I'm hooked to this particular one, because it's out of the "big hit" formula ( the formula is basically boy meets girl or girl meets boy in an action movie envirorment), this film adds something new to the equation; lack of knowledge. That lack of knowledge it's what leads to curiosity and that to action it really reminded me to the experiment with the apes an the electrified ladder. 

I can't really make a strong affirmation about this film an that's what makes me so curious about it. 

will it be a new beginning to the genre or will it get stuck into the formula like soooo many other movies? 

I guess we'll see, stay tuned.

Pros and cons of fan fiction

As everyone should no by now fan fiction is a very extended activity nowadays. Now I'll proceed to open a debate:

Arguments for

Fan fiction is the perfect way to make the readers contribute to their favourite works,and also is a good chance for the readers because it's an opportunity to keep reading good sagas even if the author is'nt writing them anymore. There are a couple of cases where fan fiction feedbacks the story and the world that they're inspired in( Dragonlance), and that's a prove tha fan fiction can work.

Arguments against

Fan ficion is considered in many circles bad or disrecpetful, they say that because  it's obvious that the fan fiction works are not the same as the original saga, and because ih these days the fan fiction writers dare to tell the original authors what to do or what to write next, like "A song of fire and ice" case ( and that in my humble opinion is unacceptable)

Here are my arguments for and against fan fiction  the conclussion as always is up to you

My favourite Place

Yes, I'm a bit late but I didn't know that we had to upload this practice until last week.

My favourite place in the world is probably Astoria. It's not a beautiful place but It's the home of almost all my known family (and mine too if I have to be totally sicere). I've lived there for almost three years (actually almost six but I was too young and I don remember anything) and my closest friends are still there. The only curious thing about the town is the bridge  tht crosses the Columbia River (not a river but if the people says so I can't say it's wrong). The one and only curious fact that I know about the town is that  the film The Goonies was filmed there. I'm not sure why this is my favourite place but I can't change the fact that it is.

The town location it's perfect, between Portland and Seattle. It has some amazing beaches but the most important things are the woods. Astoria is really a quiet place with a lot of amazing views and natural sites that are really worth a walk. The city isn't big but you can have almos anything you expect from a metropoli. I really want to end this here.because I suck at describing things, I prefer to show them to people rather than writing about them.

I'm back

I couldn't write for a couple of days due to  some issues with my internet connection but now that they're solved I'm back to business ( I'll post a lot this week cause I have some practices to upload). I'll be doing a non literary post today so brace yourselves.

 The topic selected for today is...

Biffy Clyro

Biffy Clyro is an scotish band that's hitting hard the charts right now. They started with some EP'S that weren't really a big success ,even if they were good. Their big boom took place a few years ago with their album Only revolutions.

I can't really clasify them in any stablished style, and the main reason to that is their unusual  rythm changes in their songs. Thy really have an exotic sound but they haven't lost the rock roots. They're really worth a try.

Two for one

This is going to be a double review one for the opinion paragraph and the other for the weekly post

Chronicles of the dragonlance Extension (Opinion paragraph)

This ultra mega hiper long saga is an special case inside the fantasy genre. The actual reason for this, is that the authors in general are very possesive with their work. But in this case that unwritten rule doesn't apply because of the following points:

1. This saga is written by two writers. Their name is Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

2. This saga has been completed by a huge number of other authors that have been authorized by the original owners of the saga.

As I see it this can be for good or for bad due to the extension of the books that started being 6 but their number has grown up to fifteen (more if you count the expansions). That can be a really frifhtening feature for the newcomers and it might drag them away from this fantastic world. The positive point is that the world has been explained in full detail and you can actually know almost anything about it.

If the saga is good or bad it's up to you. Read it!

Chronicles of the Match

This trilogy has been brought to us by (in my opininon) the only man who can put a fight for the crown of the best fantasy writer to George R.R. Martin. This man is no other than Paul Kearny (I'll probably write about his other books later so I won't mention them here).

In these books he achieves a thing that I haven't seen befote; that thing is to find the perfect balance between the historical accuracy and the creation of a fantasy world.

The writer mixes a totally original world with the perfect ammount of historic research. What I mean by this is that he uses historical facts and in the particular case of this trilogy the greek mithology to create an invented world that is also credible.

Appart from this achievement we have to point out the narrative style of the fighting scenes; it's so vivid so fluid that you can almost feel the war in your own skin. Althought the story is a bit predictable if you know the basic greek miths I totally recommend to read it

Hugh Laurie

Yup this week I'm out of inspiration too so I decided to talk about what I'm listening to. Although you may know him as Dr. House today we're here to talk about his hidden skills.

Hugh's hidden talent is no other than beeing an amazing musician and singer ( he's also an amazing actor, he's so talented that I can't help getting angry each time I recall it). Dr. House plays the piano and the guitar,and he has released two albums ("Let them talk" and "Didn't it rain?") that have nothing to envy the clasic blues and jazz records. I'm pretty impressed Mr. Laurie and very angry....

I'm here today to explain what I'm going to post in this blog. The blog's main theme is going to be..... Reviews (mainly book reviews but not exclusively). I couldn't  find any inspiration so I decided to talk about the things I like (and the ones I don't) about the books I've read. That's pretty much all about the blog's main purposes so i'll proceed to review the first book.

Wild Cards

"Wild Cards" Is a saga written by one of the most renowned fantasy writers of our time; George R.R. Martin. These books are one of Martin's masterpieces. He uses a very extrange narrative style mixing the interview with the storytelling seen in "A song of ice and fire". This novel opened a huge world to me because I tought  the Mr. Martin was a fantasy writer (I obviously didn't know that he wrote some sci-fi stories) but he has surprised me with this "alternative reality" story . Although the plot it's nothing special (it has been used many times before) Martin's unique style gives the story a more adult and darker view of the normal suprehero movies and that makes a huge change in the way I see superheros.

I want to make this post short because it's the first one and because I dont't want to spoil anything so I'll end it here for today.