Harry Potter World

If you don’t like Harry Potter and visit my blog regularly, I apologize, because you’re going to hear me geek out about it endlessly until I go visit the new Harry Potter attraction at Islands of Adventure in August. Last year, Jen and I went to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Disney World for a vacation, and we’re going back again in 2010 just to see the Harry Potter stuff. It’s totally dorky, I know, but I can live with it, especially when I’m doing totally sweet stuff and you aren’t.

Anyway, it’s hard for me not to geek out about it when I see stuff like this YouTube video, where a wand chooses a kid at Ollivander’s. How awesome is that? Continue reading →

Winter is Coming and it Has Boromir

I’ve written about a couple of books on here before, but my all-time favorite fantasy series as of this moment is A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin. It’s not exactly hard to quantify why I love this series in words. It’s a bloody, visceral thrill ride of a high fantasy story full of three dimensional characters, gritty and fantastic writing, and an engrossing political/revenge plot that so far has spanned four epic and fast-paced books.

Perhaps the most intriguing thing about this great series is that there are lasting consequences for characters. Whereas other series might see the heroes in the face of danger time and time again, only to ultimately come out unscathed, A Song of Ice and Fire eliminates main characters liberally. Seriously, every time you think you’ve found a new character, Martin Whedonizes them like Wash and completely yanks their thread out of the story. It’s shocking, hard to read and totally refreshing. Continue reading →

Books That Rule: The Magicians

The MagiciansThese days, I’m often too busy to do all of the things that I love. Between hanging with the wife, writing, watching awesome TV shows, reading and playing video games, one of these items will unfortunately be forgotten. Since ignoring one of those could end in divorce, right now that particular neglected past time is reading. However, every now and then I do get to read something so I try to make it count. In recent months, I’ve read the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, and I’m currently working through Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson, which is book one of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series.

While those books have made their own impressions and are great reads in their own right, one title that I got to read around the end of last year really stuck with me: The Magicians by Lev Grossman. I suppose I’ve been thinking about this one a lot since I recently heard that Grossman is working on a sequel. Continue reading →

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