New game on the block is Diablo 3 RPG

I've recently started playing the RPG game Diablo 3 through Battlenet.net.  I must say, it's impressive.  The world is very full of lore described by the characters through their conversations, books & journals, and letters to each other.  The only thing that I'm having a hard time with is the crafting system.  It might be because I'm just 20th level (max level in Diablo 3 is 60 I believe).  To help me out, Lord Rcane started writing a description of the Diablo 3 crafting system.  I hope he adds more information on crafting soon. 

The only feature I wish I could change about Diablo III is the gore level.  It is really yucky!  I remember playing City of Heroes about 10 years ago when I was expecting our first daughter, the game made me sick to my stomach.  Diablo 3 isn't quite so bad, but it's up there.

Dinner of stuffed peppers

Adding a HTML advertisement

I've had someone ask me if they can add their affiliate code to Blogspot. So I'm trying this out. It seems to work well.

The Expected One

I've been putting off this review for a week now. The novel is The Expected One, by Kathleen McGowan.

"History is not what happened. History is what was written down."

First off, this novel is VERY similar to Da Vinci Code. Very similar. It starts off in the modern world with a murder. A man is murdered and decapitated. Then it jumps over to the heroine, Maureen, and her research on Mary Magdalene for a book about female historical figures. She does wonderful, first person research for her book, visiting most of the important locations in person. Her book is widely accepted.

During her research she has experiences. While in Jerusalem she sees the 8th Station of the Cross. If you are familiar with Christian beliefs, that is where Jesus sees Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary on his walk before crucifixion. It is here that Jesus is reported to say (New Testament) "Weep not for me, daughters of Jerusalem, weep for yourselves and for your children."

I liked this novel. I like the idea of thinking about Christ's children. I know that he is a father as a matter of my own belief system. But it was hard to read parts of this book. I flew through the modern era part, which is really all but about 300 pages of the 400 or so pages. When it got to the Arques Gospel, the reading to a bit tougher. And writing this became harder.

There are some things about Jesus' life that we don't know because it isn't in our copy of the Bible (KJV). We do know that the religious translators left things out of the Bible when they were working on it. That is all part of my religious beliefs.

I'll leave it there and not go on preaching. If you want to pick up this book to think about, below is a link to the paperback version.

How to be a Geek Goddess

We went to the library last night to return our dozen books and get a dozen more. My husband found this for me: How to be a Geek Goddess. It's been entertaining, and I'm only on the first chapter. It's a "Practicle Advice for using computers with smarts and style" . It goes over the fact that buying a Mac computer is an emotional experience, which is how women shop, versus buying a PC is a mind-using experience, which is how men usually shop (my husband gets excluded from that, he's quite the shop-therapy emotional man).

After I finish a few chapters I'll write a more detailed review. But for now it's off to the job that pays the bills.

The Adept Series, Katherine Kurtz

There are five novels in this series, The Adept, The Lodge of the Lynx, The Templar Treasure, Dagger Magic, Death of an Adept. I've only read the first three so far, but I've requested the last two from the library.

I came across these books after reading Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I was looking for other books that might talk about the family of Christ or of secret societies like the Masonic Lodge or the Knights Templar.

The stories follow Sir Adam Sinclair, an aristocrat in the UK. The adventures include fighting evil that is raising the dead, seeing monsters in lakes, making magic, seeing the past and future, a starving artist, a love interest, a eccentric old man, and of course defeating the evil in the end.

From Rhemuth Castle, Ms Kurtz' own site:

The Adept series integrates a magic somewhat reminiscent of Deryni magic into a modern day setting. Adam Sinclair and his fellow adepts live in Scotland, but travel a good deal around the UK giving the reader a travelogue and history lesson embedded in an exciting tale.

Meet Adam Sinclair, a psychiatrist, a nobleman, a scholar, and "Master of the Hunt" who possesses intriguing "magical" powers along with the ability to recall past lives. With help from his friends Peregrine Lovat, the artist, and Noel McLeod, the detective, Adam embarks on a series of adventures in which he attempts to right situations involving historical items and to keep the dark from conquering his beloved Scotland and more. These fascinating characters will take you on a breathtaking journey through the UK which might inspire a trip and brings history to life.

There are many things in the first three novels that held interest for me. First of all is the dramatic views described. I've never been to any of the areas discussed, but they sure sound beautiful. I'd love to go on a jaunt around Great Britain and see the sights.

Some of the happenings though were just too unbelievable, but thats what makes it fiction, right?

Book Review - Ancient Shores and Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt

I read Ancient Shores on my Dell Netbook. I used Adobe Digital Editions and borrowed the book from my local library. I have to say it was a positive experience. I've read books digitally before, much to the chagrin on my husband. He thinks nothing beats paper.

The book itself was good enough that I checked another book out from Jack McDevitt, Eternity Road. Out of the two I enjoyed the second better.

Ancient Shores is the story about technology and government. It starts out with a man and his boy finding a futuristic boat in their fields in rural, modern America. This boat is made of materials we haven't seen before, materials that our science is unable to replicate, but something to strive for. The boat was buried in the field ages ago when a lake was still in that area, like our own Lake Bonneville here in the Utah area. The book is filled with political strife and a desire to save the future of humans, and to not let government interfere. Some very famous men and women lent their likeness to Mr. McDevitt for the finale of the book. I was proud that I didn't hardly need the explanation of who these people were (I'm such a geek). The ending was complete and well written.

But Eternity Road on the other hand I loved! I'm not sure what I loved more, my ability to identify with characters in the book, or the thoughts of how our future would be if we had a major catastrophy that destroyed our existance. The book starts out with an excentric old man and his life. A virus or "plague" has destroyed civilization as we know it. There are only a few outposts of humans left. One of these areas is the "south" in North America. The area between Mississippi, Geogria, Alabama, Tennessee. People wonder at the "Road Makers" of old and what wisdom and knowledge they left buried with their deaths. The old man led a group of adventurers to find "Haven", a place where books were saved from destruction. Only he returned, and he was not very sane. Books are very prized, only a few survive. There are no working computers, no TVs, no cars. Life back at its basic. Yet these people want the knowledge of old, why/how people died in the "plague".

After the death of the old man, he gives one of these prized books to a little known woman. She is the sister of one of the adventurers that died on the first expedition. The son of the old man holds a grudge, this book was never before revealed.

She goes against her fiance and starts a second expidetion. They find a "dragon" and a "voice in a closet" on their way to find "Haven" and where this book came from.

It leads me to wonder, how will we be viewed if suddenly we all died and someone years down the road found our civilization?