The Dread Crew by Kate Inglis

Plot Summary

Pirates. Yes, a children's book about pirates. Pirates who ride an earth-ship, a giant, noisy, stinking barrow that can cut its own trails through the woods and travel much faster than the average automobile. And it's set in Nova Scotia. So, it surprised me that the pirates never set out to sea and that there was no reference to Oak Island. At all.

Anyways, on with the plot summary. Eric is a little boy who becomes a pirate tracker when he finds some pirate artifacts in the debris left behind by the barrow as it rumbled through the woods. He collects clues to the whereabouts of the pirates. Little does he know, however, that the pirates are holed up at the farm next door.

Meanwhile, Eric's old friend Joe is hosting the pirates on his farm. They hide their barrow next to his barn and he teaches them good manners and they teach him how to collect junk. Because, you see, the pirates don't plunder and murder and steal... they collect junk and bring it to a pirate depot in downtown Halifax, where they get paid for it. At least, I imagine they get paid for it, but it never really mentions it.

What I liked
The Dread Crew is a very imaginative book and that always scores points with me. It was also very well written. Kate Inglis is a phenomenal story teller and writer and I admire her (and her editors at Nimbus Publishing) for that.

The pirates are also cool. She gets more points for creating wonderful characters.

What I didn't Like
Hmm. The only thing I didn't like was that I had to suspend disbelief way too much. I could be brought to believe that there is a crew of dread pirates that cruise the backwoods of Nova Scotia. But... that they don't harm anyone, and all they do is collect junk, and they have a union... it just wasn't what I was expecting.

Also, the back cover said the story was about Eric, tracking the pirates. But it turns out that Eric is nothing more than a minor character and Joe and the Pirates are actually the main characters. I think a story about Eric would have been more interesting.

Conclusion/Recommendation
An excellent children's story for anyone who likes adventure. And bad mannered, stinky pirates.

It just wasn't what I was expecting. (And I reserve the right to deduct points for that.) So, 4/5 stinky pirates.

the violence of the sun

from we deal in dreams by live:

don't you feel so very pointless
in the feelings of the rain
and the violence of the sun
i must confess that i feel graciously
bigger than the rain
and hotter than the sun
what did you do
what do you say
when the blood spilled is of your loved one
and the kremlins of the world fall around you

oh fearful crying people
the fool is by the river
watching but not swimming
it takes energy not to get used to it
and fall into this place
where everything runs together and dies
this quiet kingdom she is now
forever will she be, in silent celebration

a few years ago i was talking with a classmate, Ran. he was telling me about a short story that he wanted to make into a movie and he compared the violence of a one night stand to the violence of a rape. i asked him what he meant by the violence of a one night stand. and i don't think i understood his answer until a few moments ago.

in december i read rob bell's book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, in it the authors talk about the myth of redemptive violence. redemptive violence, if i understand it correctly, is when a person commits violence to prevent further violence. they call this a myth because violence is cyclical, violence only begets more violence. therefore, there is no such thing as redemptive violence.

so, just a moment ago, i finished downloading Wolfmother's album, Cosmic Egg and noticed one of the song titles: The Violence of the Sun and recognized it as a line from Live's song: We Deal in Dreams. and i had a bit of an epiphany. the word 'violence' is the noun form of the word 'violate,' which is a verb. violence is the same as violation, so to do violence is to violate.

my little epiphany was this: violence is inherently evil. the only 'good' way to respond to violence is to absorb it, to respond with grace. like Jesus.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

This is probably one of the best books I've read in a really long time. The story absorbed me so that I felt what its characters felt. It was sad and hopeless, but very moving.

They say this book is supposed to be McCarthy's masterpiece, and I can see why.

The writing is very simple and very clear. It's perfect.

The story isn't epical or even fantastic or wonderful. It's a simple story of a father and son in a hopeless post-apocalyptic wilderness. They are the only real characters in the story and they're traveling south, hoping to find a warmer climate but they're in the middle of a nuclear winter and just about all the food everywhere has been scavenged already and they're barely surviving one day to the next.

I'm kind of eager to see the movie. (It came out in november or october or something.)

 I don't recommend the book to everyone, it's kind of disturbing in a lot of places. For example, there's some cannibalism and the kind of stuff you might expect from people who have no food and no hope. But there's also a lot of goodness and wonderfulness and it's really awesome.

Tuck by Stephen Lawhead

This is the third and last book of Lawhead's King Raven Trilogy. It concludes the escapades of Rhi Bran and his band of merry men in the primeval forests of the Welsh Marches.

The story was very engaging. It never seems rushed and no parts of it seem glossed over or ignored. There's plenty of adventure, and all the elements that made the previous two books so enjoyable.

The writing was solid, dense, but beautiful and poetic. I enjoyed the development of the main characters, although many of the secondary characters seemed flat and static but the story didn't suffer much for that. The only disappointment that comes to my mind is that the role that Baron Neufmarche plays at the end doesn't seem to deserve all the build-up his character has been given. That was a bit of a letdown.

I especially liked how all the political drama that was introduced in book one, Hood, played themselves out to conclusion in this book.

So, here's my conclusion: this is a solid and enjoyable series and I recommend it to one and all. It's got just about everything a good story needs, intrigue, romance, action, adventure, suspense, and pretty fantastic writing. Like I've said before, Lawhead is a fantastic writer, his work is very enjoyable to consume, if a little tough.

Zombieland

So, I just finished watching Zombieland and it is my favourite movie of all time. It even surpasses Shaun of the Dead, which, until now, was my favourite zombie movie of all time.

Speaking of which, I want to write a spoof of the Twilight books, except, instead of being vampires, the Cullens are a family of Zombies called, The Burtons. And Edward's name is Pickle. And he wants to eat Bella's brains.

And there'll be a character called Barry Trotter or something like that who introduces himself as a Wizard... but he's actually a lizard with a widdle bit of wisp.

Yeah...