one hundredth monkey

observing the world from afar

Posts Tagged Books

game of thrones

Mar 6

Posted by shawndagan in Books, fantasy, fiction | No Comments

George R.R. Martin’s series A Song of Ice and Firehas captured the world of fantasy fiction’s attention, giving a genre that is used to manipulating a tired storyline over and over something fresh albeit dark. And as we await the fifth book of the series, the long anticipated A Dance with Dragons, we can also begin to look forward to the miniseries that is due from HBO. To wet that anticipation, they’ve just released one of the first screenshots from the upcoming pilot. Let’s hope it lives up to the books, and the quality that HBO has shown in some of its other projects in the past.


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legend of the seeker

Dec 26

Posted by shawndagan in Books, action, fantasy, video | No Comments

It’s been my experience that everyone has a dirty little secret. Some of us read US Weekly, some really like toy trains, and some watch really bad reality TV. Mine, since I was young, has been the fantasy genre. I can count on one hand the number fantasy novels that I would say are actually good literature, and yet I’ve read far more than a handful in my lifetime. Formulaic? Yes, in general they are. Corny? Oh the heights of corniness I have seen. Fun? Yes. This and the sense of escapism that they bring makes me keep coming back to the genre. It is with this being said, that I present to you Legend of the Seeker. It’s a fantasy series based on the books of Terry Goodkind, that follows the prototypical Hero through the gorgeous landscape of New Zealand (oddly I think that I’ve seen this before), as he fights baddies with beautiful women and a wise wizard. The acting? Questionable. The story? Good to passable to laughable. Do I watch it every week despite all of this. Yes.

Legend_of_the_seeker___LJ_head_by_Sterennkey_art_legend_of_the_seeker

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a soldier of the great war

Dec 15

Posted by shawndagan in Books, fiction | No Comments

As long as we’re talking about favorites, I may as well bring up one of my favorite books of all time. A Soldier of the Great War
is a beautifully written book by Mark Helprin that follows an Italian soldier as he lives, breathes, and experiences World War I. The scene where he rides in a small gondola with a dying man as a child in the Italian Alps, being mistaken for a guardian demon when he arrives on the other side of the chasm, is reason enough to read the book. Believe me, read this book. You’ll be glad you did.
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