Harry Potter

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     A series of books that I am sure you all know of is Harry Potter. Harry Potter has become so big over the past years that I often see kids sporting shirts saying that they are in Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or even Gryffindor. Although this is not my favorite series of books I do greatly enjoy pouring over its contents every-so-often. Even though this book series is a series of movies now, I still feel that reading the book is endlessly better then actually seeing it. Not that I dont enjoy the movies, as I am looking forward to Deathly Hallows, but the movies leave out large amounts of information that were essential to making the books loved by all.

     In case you dont know of the fad known as "Harry Potter" then here is a quick summary for you. Harry Potter grew up living in his aunt's and uncle's house. He was always unloved and cast in the, rather large, shadow of Dudley, his cousin. However all of this changes on his 11th/12th birthday when he is told that he is a wizard by a half giant named Hagrid. At first Harry doubts Hagrid, but then when they walk into Diagon Alley, all of his doubts vanished. He is suddenly engulfed by robed figures that say he is famous for "being the one who lived" and vanquishing the Dark Lord, Voldemort. As he walks through buying all his school supplies, spell books, an owl, robes, a wand, and a cauldron, he realizes that he is the center of the wizarding world. Harry is then whisked off to Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft and wizardly, where he is surrounded by young wizards and witches just like him.
    
     Harry faces many challenges throughout his years at Hogwartz starting with the sorcerers stone, the basilisk, Sirius Black, the Triwizard Tournament, and the prophecy about him. However, Haryy overcomes all of these hurtles and many more in his seven books.

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

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Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins takes place in New York City with an 11 year old kid, named Gregor, as the main character. Gregor lives in a small apartment with his mother, 8 year-old sister, 3 year-old sister, and his grandma. Gregor's father had disapeared about 2 years ago making his mom, a secretary, support the whole family with her monthly salary. However now, Gregor's family is about to fall apart as Gregor and his baby sister delve into a strange realm miles below the city.

     It was a hot August day as Gregor sat at the table wishing he had gone to camp. However, when his father had mysteriously disapeared Gregor had inherited a lot of extra chores, like watching his grandma and Boots, Gregor's 3 year-old sister. Looking for something to break up the monotinous day Gregor decides to take Boots and all the laundry down to the basement where four squat washing machines resided. Down in the basement Gregor watches as Boots runs inbetween the washing machines and thinks of the last time he had been happy." The last time I was truly happy was...before Dad went missing,"thought Gregor. Suddenly a scream drags him back to reality and he races to where he saw Boots last just in time to see Boots fall into a large grate in the wall.

     Gregor and Boots fall for several minutes finally landing softly on the stone floor. As Gregor takes in his surroundings he notices the only way out is through a large tunnel so he picks Boots up, and starts to jog down it. After jogging for 10 minutes Gregor begins to see a light ahead and as he runs through it he is deafened by the roar of a large crowd. Looking around, Gregor realizes he had stepped into a form of stadium and is greeted by an elderly man, named Vikus, who says he is in Regalia, city of the humans, as he leads Gregor to a palace built entirely of stone. Once at the palace Vikus tells Gregor of a prophecy about an overlander, a child from above ground, would come to the underland in search of his father.
     Gregor, convinced that he is the child, goes on a quest to rescue his father. His father is being held by rats, which are 6 feet tall, and Gregor is forced to befriend giant cockroaches, spiders, and rats if he will be able to rescue his father. As Gregor travels across the Underland he is urged to hurry by the memory of his mother, waiting for her children to come home after days of waiting. Will Gregor be able to make it across the dangerous Underland and save his father in time?

Within the genres of fantasy and science-fiction is a sub-genre called "steam punk." This genre is based around a world powered by steam very similar to ours. Many of the books in this genre are based on true events like World War I or non-fictional characters. These elements add to the depth of the story by tieing it into our history.

Recently steampunk has become highly popular in Europe. There are people who dress like steam punk people and people who attend conventions just for one sub-genre. Steam punk is being colaborated into everything, from books, to buildings, to clothing, to devices, like guitars and watches.

Even in America people are becoming more aware of this interesting sub-genre. Reading about what the world would be like if we had followed the path of steam instead of modern technology.

Demonic Discoveries

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Demons and mythological creatures are often thought of as fairy tales. Obviously fake creatures that we tell stories about to our children for enjoyment. However, what if these tales are true and elves, dragons, and demons exist/existed in parts of our world but just in hiding, afraid of coming in contact with humans? Dragons may have been dinosaurs that survived the meteor/other theory, reptilian, winged, dinosaurs that lived till the first of humans.

Elves, fairies, and dwarfs could easily live in an unknown cave somwhere in a mountain range. They could have colonies of themselves but be hidden somewhere we have yet to explore. Perhaps they as oblivious to humans as we are to them, and if they do exist, after all they are tiny while we are fairly large and it would be easy to miss them.

Although there has yet to be proof of them living on Earth, there is no proof of them not living somewhere else. We have never seen another creature that has come from a planet other than ours, therefore it is theoretically possible that they may be smaller versions of ourselves similar to our interpretation of dwarves, elves, fairies. Humans may be only a beginning link in a series of humanoid beings that have evolved faster then us on similar planets to ours that we have yet to discover.

The prospect of mythological creatures being alive on a distant planet or somewhere on our own is unlikely but possible. However if we believe that they don't exist then they will not, but if we have an open mind about them, then it is possible that they might show up one day. So keep an open eye out for small, scurrying, human shaped creatures and we may find yet another inhabitant of this world.

The Bartimaeus Trilogy, THE AMULET OF SAMARKAND

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THE AMULET OF SAMARKAND by JONATHAN STROUD starts off with a newly selected magician's apprentice named Nathaniel who is abused by his master's friend Simon Lovelace, and decides to take revenge. Summoning a potent demon he steals an amulet from his enemy Simon Lovelace to smite him. However when Simon comes to Nathaniel's master's home and burns it to the ground, Nathaniel is forced to hide in an abandoned library while he makes a plan to ruin Simon's scheme of killing all the members of parliament. While hiding in the library Nathaniel reads in the newspaper that Simon is holding an event in Heddleham Hall and Nathaniel goes there for the event. However when Simon gets all of parliament into a room to make a speech, Nathaniel realizes that Simon is summoning an entity from the amulet of Samarkand capable of destroying cities. While the ministers of parliament cower in a corner, Nathaniel takes on the duty of sending the demon back to the darkest reaches of the "Other Place."

pull of a summons he attempts to withstand for a few seconds but knowing it is futile he allows himself to be sucked to Earth and appears in a "grotty town house in the congested city of London." Being charged with retrieving the Amulet of Samarkand from Simon Lovelace he quickly goes on his way and breaks into Simon's villa, conducts snappy conversation with an old rival named Faquarl, and nearly gets burnt to a crisp by a red-skinned jackal all in the time of trying to steal the amulet. As Bartimaeous returns to his master, Nathaniel, Simon Lovelace arrives at Nathaniel’s home and burns it down in search of the amulet. With no-where else to go Bartimaeus flees with Nathaniel and takes shelter in an old library only to have to trek all the way to Heddleham Hall where Simon Lovelace performs a scheme to kill all the members of the government with a forgotten demon entity.

The secret of magicians is that all of their power lies in demons. They bend them to their will, making them do their conniving business while the magicians themselves grow fat and corrupt in their secluded villas. Even though London is the strongest power in the world and has colonized Prague and America, civil unrest among the "commoners (non-magicians) is rooting itself deep into the foundations of London's society along with corruption rising into the seats of parliament

This book portrays demons differently. Demons are usually thought upon as hell spawn that serve the devil while here they are peaceful society that live in a different dimension, and it is only when they are summoned is it that they are violent. Demons are the tools of magicians, being used in everyday tasks or in large-scale wars so the magicians themselves do not actually have to participate in such tasks. Without demons, magicians would not have any source of magic or power and would be the same as commoners. This book is an interesting portrayal of demons and reason enough to read it, but with an outstanding plot and amazing characters, this story is truly fantastic.

Is there such a thing as Godly Science?

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As we learn about the origin of humans more people start to question the possibility of there being a god. If people have originated from Africa then how can we have come from The Garden of Eden? The majority of people are now able to poke holes in all of the stories about religion that even rabbis and priests cannot justify. However, there are still countless countries that follow religion, refusing to believe that human skeletons millions years old have been found. However, even with science showing that religion may be completely fiction, perhaps there can be a balance between the two.

Perhaps the Garden of Eden never truly existed except in the heart of man, and maybe the Ten Commandments were actually just laws that Moses thought that man should follow. Even if religion is completely falsified the reason it exists is because of the message it sends out. It gives humans a set of laws that they should live by that still complies with today’s society. It tells us that every person is equal, and that all of our sins and mistakes are forgotten. It gives us a reason to be kind and good along with an ultimate goal in our life.

Wars are fought over religion with millions of people dieing, but in the center, through out time the reason is always the same. Live a good life by following these rules, believe in god, and all of your sins/mistakes will be forgotten. By killing each other over religion, we are breaking the sixth commandment, "thou shall not murder," and going against our religion, revoking that we are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, etc. Therefore, if we were truly religious then we would all live at peace in the world.

Science and religion can co-exist because religion, even if all the stories are false, religion is a moral barometer for our lives, telling us what to do and what not to do. Although science does not give us the guidelines to live our life, it does give us new inventions making our life better in a different way. Together, religion and science increases the quality of life by making every moment of our life better.

Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan revolves around the fact that the Egyptian gods exist. The humans are only pawns that are constantly being used by the gods so they can live on Earth. However, human magicians do not agree with the motives of the gods so they banish them into the "duat." The "duat" is a kind of spirit realm where the gods and various demons take residence when they are not on Earth. Over the years, humans forgot about their punishment to the gods and slowly, some of the evil ones begin to appear, starting with Set.

The two main characters are Carter and Sadie who are siblings but live in different parts of the world. Carter and Sadie's mom died in a mysterious accident so Sadie was sent to live a normal life with her grandparents, while Carter travels the world with his father who is an archeologist. However, on the one day Carter sees his sister Sadie, something goes horribly wrong. The sibling’s father takes them to the museum and tries to set free Osiris, the god of the dead, however in doing so, releases four other gods as well.

Osiris and Set along with, Horus, Isis, and Set's wife are all unleashed at once each one finding a different host while Set flies away to cause mayhem. Carter and Sadie's world drastically changes as they have to run away with their long-forgotten uncle Amos whom they haven't seen for 10 years and learn how to control the gods Horus and Isis which they are hosting within them. Carter and Sadie never find a moment of peace as they run from their mansion in New York, to Egypt, all the way to Paris, teleporting to Washington D.C., only to have to drive all the way to Arizona.

Carter and Sadie barely survive the attack of gods and monsters alike, as they travel from city to city, eventually going to Arizona to face off against Set. They search for a way to defeat Set and, they join up with multiple allies including a cat goddess and a magician named Zia that had been hunting them. This book is a never-ending adventure allowing the reader to be enveloped in impossible situations. Buy this book today!