Wednesday Whimsy

By: Caelrona

Heya fellow geeks! It is Wednesday again, which means I’m back with another geeky blog for ya’ll. Nothing exciting has been going on this past week; well nothing exciting that I haven’t already covered like a hundred different times. New Walking Dead, new Vikings; but I’ve talked about those things already. So anyway, I thought that this week I would talk about something new. I went over my old posts and I noticed that I’ve seemed to totally skip over something I love to do; read. I mean, I’ve posted about manga, but that’s about it. So this week I thought I’d bring you some great and geeky books. Some of these I’ve loved for a long time, and others are recent reads that really caught my attention.

The Harper Hall Trilogy

The Harper Hall Trilogy was written by the amazingly talented Anne McCaffrey. It takes place in the world of Pern, and ties in with her Dragon Riders of Pern series of books. However, this trilogy breaks away from the Dragon Riders a bit, instead giving us a perspective of Pern from someone who is not a Rider, but more or less a normal person. The entire trilogy is brilliant, but then I am a huge fan of Anne McCaffrey. I literally learned to read with her books, and I truly believe that they played an integral part in my love of literature as I grew up. Her world is so beautiful and vivid, her characters so real and the stories so full of emotion and life that I will finish a book feeling like I’ve truly lived another life. It isn’t just the Dragon Riders series that I love; Anne McCaffrey was truly a talented woman and her other works (such as The Ship Who Sang, or The Rowan,) and those of her son Todd McCaffrey are excellent as well. If you’re into fantasy or science fiction then you should check her work out. I can guarantee that they will not disappoint!

Rot and Ruin

Rot and Ruin is the first in a series of four books by Jonathan Mayberry. They take place in a world 14 years after a zombie apocalypse ravaged the planet. People have banded together, cobbled together small towns and learned to live with the undead. So far three of the four books in the series have been released, though I have only read the first one, Rot and Ruin. It is a really excellent book if you are in to zombies, which I totally am. The world Mayberry creates of a post-zombie-apocalypse is really close to how I would picture it actually being. The different people, the towns and outposts, the paranoia and cult-like belief following that sort of disaster are really believable. I am really looking forward to reading the rest of this series, and if you are a zombie lover like me then I highly recommend this series.

Harry Potter

Harry Potter was written by the brilliant J.K. Rowling, but most people already know that. This 7-book series became so amazingly popular that it spawned 8 movies, countless video games and even a theme park! While I’m not particularly impressed with the movies (blegh, the second one was so bad I couldn’t bring myself to watch anymore) the books are incredible. There is a reason that these books have developed a cult-like following, and if you’ve not read them then I highly suggest you give them a chance. I re-read these books at least once a year, usually in a 2-day marathon that leaves me exhausted, but it is totally worth it.

Reading is something that I am really passionate about. I really enjoy reading because reading is not only a great way to learn and grow as an individual, but it can take you to so many places and be anything you want to be. It is a really fantastic way to expand your mind, and to escape reality and do things you may never get the chance to in real life. I read a lot of different things, even though I pretty much focused on Fantasy-fiction and Science-fiction works with this blog. In particular, I also read a lot of romance, but I figured that wasn’t quite geeky enough for a blog (although for those geeks who do like romance, try Gena Showalter, Christine Feehan and Jayne Castle. Their paranormal romance books are awesome!) Anyway, I’ll see you next week!

Until next time,

Caelrona – signing off! ❤

Pottermore

By Geeky Gem

For most of last year you would have read my page vs picture blogs, all of which has included one set of books. Harry Potter that comes from the pen and mind of J.K Rowling. Pottermore is a website from J.K Rowling and Sony where you get a whole new reading experience.

There are so many wonderful things that you can do on Pottermore from brewing potions to dueling other players. You can explore each book and each tab and collect things from around the world of Harry Potter. Things like chocolate frog cards to Berty Bots Every Flavour Bean, you even find exclusive new parts written by Rowling just for Pottermore that add to the details of certain parts of different books. So for you can only explore up to the first few chapters of Prisoner of Azkaban.

You start off just as the book does and you get you letter telling you have been expected to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, you then go on to shop at Diagon Ally. Where you can get your wand and then on the Hogwarts Express and on the Sorting Hat. Where you answer a series of question in order to find out which Hogwarts House you should be placed in.

When I answered the questions from the Sorting Hat I was unsure which House I would like to be place in. Any Harry Potter fan more than likely wants to be placed in Gryffindor, or you have a feeling for another house. I didn’t have any of theses feelings however I was sorted just like every ne else and the Sorting House thought I should belong to Hufflepuff.

When you get Sorted you can not go back and this is the house you will stay in for all of you Pottermore life. I like Hufflepuff but never thought I was one, turns out I am more like a Hufflepuff than I think. Pottermore is a great experience for fans of the books it gives you a whole new level of Rowling’s world to enjoy. There are so many things to do and enjoy at theis website and it is ony going to get better as more and more of the chapters and books open for people to enjoy.

Page Vs Picture

By Geeky Gem

Over this past year I have told you how I feel about movies that were once books. Now I know I have spent nearly all of these telling you about Harry Potter and as much as I would like to say this one will be different it won’t. However it will be the last time we visit the boy wizard and his friends as we enter Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In this blog I will cover the book and the two movies that came from it so when I give my score at the end I am looking at both part one and two as one epic movie.

This was J.K Rowlings last tale of the boy wizard and she finally let it go with a bang, I waited for this book for ages and got it the day it came out and as usual vanished for a few hours. I now have all the books displayed on my book shelf and I am just re-reading them now, I am currently on Goblet of Fire. Any way the thing about this book is the epicness of it, this is where we find out which one can live while the one dies. Harry and his friends are on a mission to find the remaining Horcruxes and break Lord Voldemort down piece by terrifying piece. The only thing that got to me while reading this book was that for a good chunk of it it’s just Harry and his friends on a camping trip and I know you had to go through this in oder to get to really good stuff and believe it was worth the wait. This book answer’s all the question that have been building up, you followed Harry and his friends for years and this will bring everything to an end and I think J.K Rowling finishes the series in the perfect way.

The way the book flows is fantastic, you just go on the adventure with them hoping that they will be able to defeat Lord Voldemort. After all that is the big question Can Harry Beat him?

If you have never read these books at all then you really have to, it’s not just hype they really are good books and well worth losing a few hours too, Just ask my cousin u until this year she had never read them and had only seen the movies, she too like me is rereading them. Time to move on to the movies then.

Now with the movies Warner Brothers decided to spilt it into two-part and now this seems the norm, for big book adaptations with a few movies following suit. The director was the same for both movies as was the writer. David Yates and Steve Kloves team up to take on the final chapters of Rowling’s books. From The Gringotts Wizarding Bank raid to the epic Battle of Hogwarts.

These two movies back to back make for one great conclusion of Harry’s big screen adventure and the did a brilliant job. This isn’t because they have an epic looking Dragon in te movie oh no this is because they took Rowling’s words and ran with them, ever part was something new. From the calmness of Bill and Fleur’s wedding to the one of the biggest on scene fights I have ever seen, that’s right Mrs Weasley vs Bellatrix. Oh did you think I meant Harry vs Voldemort? Will i guess that was a big fight, wasnt it?

My favorite part is when Professor McGonagall tells Seamus and Neville they can blow up the bridge into Hogwarts its was brilliant and played out so will and there were just so many goods points throughout the two movie run. Plus it has a dragon, did I mention that? Oh I did. If you havent seen any of movies then please watch them even if you never pick up the book you will enjoy the story that unfolds.

Well I guess we better answer the question that I try to answer all the time was the book better than the movie. Now as it stands Book is winning 4 – 2. That being said I think this time I will award the point to, the movie. I just think it did ever thing right, that’s not to say the book wasn’t fantastic it was but the movie just had ever thing I had in my head when I read the book there on the screen. Well done movie you finally pulled one back and the score is now Book 4 – Movie 3.

Join me again soon for anther page vs picture where I will finally move away from HArry Potter and on to another hot bit of Hollywood property.

Untill next time Happy reading and watching.