Robert Jordan (1948-2007)

Another grim news related to books. Robert Jordan, author of The Wheel of Time series, died on September 16, 2007 (US time) from complications from primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy (cardiac amyloidosis), or in short words, rare blood disease. He was doing the twelfth and final instalment of the Wheel of Time series (i just halfway through the eighth book). No word on wether the book was going to be released or not, but it is said that even in his deathbed he worked relentlessly on the book while fighting the disease, and had shared the important plots to his family member not long before his death. But really, is it going to feel the same? Anyway, rest in peace, sir, The Wheel of Time series would remains a prominent series in the fantasy literature world. I know many who will definitely mourn for the loss.

Final whisper of hope: Oh, i wish he really DOES shared the FINAL important plots.

Edit (several minutes after this post): Damn it! I can't believe it, i hope the news is all but a hoax made to fool the fans (though apparently that it's genuine). Damn it! Why am i feeling so sad? I don't even know the guy (save for his books, that was certain). But still....

The Children of Hurin

JRR Tolkien's great trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, had a significant value in me. Both in films, and literacy. I was stunned when i saw the first instalment of the Lord the Rings, and immediately went to a book store to bought the book. The love went on until now. In addition to the original trilogy, i also bought The Hobbit and my favourite, The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion held a significant value since it's probably the book that i've read many times over and over again. If you think you love The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the book, not the films, i suggest you to stop doing anything and read the Silmarillion instead.

Furthermore, i also went on and bought all twelve volume of The History of Middle-Earth which compiled by Christopher Tolkien from unfinished materials that has been written in notes and annotations by his father (JRR Tolkien) during the writing of The Lord of the Rings. Of those twelve volumes, i just read three of them. Since you know, it was a significantly harder reading materials than the other works, and many of the stories written in the History of Middle-Earth were an early conceptions of the mythology found in the Silmarillion and the Lord of the Rings. Thus, i had to read the Silmarillion over and over again.

Now, when i was browsing some random facts at Wikipedia, i stumbled upon the news, that on Spring 2007, Christopher Tolkien was about to publish a new book based on his father's note, entitled 'Children of Hurin'. You can read more about who is this Hurin on ever trusted Wikipedia. I had to read The Silmarillion again. And oh, i'm definitely going to buy Children of Hurin should the book available in the store. It would also serve well if you'd like to... ah, you know, bought the book as a present for me.. :D.

Well, like i said, i'm going to read The Silmarillion again.

52

For the last a year and a half, i've been interested in collecting US Comics and taking deliberate side with DC whose known for it's colorful legend men-in-cape such as Superman, Batman, and so forth instead of Marvel whose hip-ness, represented by young and dynamic superheroes such as Spider-Man, and X-Men.

Why DC? well, you see, there was this event called Infinite Crisis which aftermath re-vamped a whole DC Universe, restarted it, killed some of them, altering some of their superheroes' power, and introducing new superheroes. In short, the DC history was rewritten. The Infinite Crisis spans 7 series (7 months) and interlinked with several DC specials that in one way or another, supported the event.

After the Infinite Crisis' conclusion, the whole shelf of DC products experiencing a time-jump called One Year Later. As it's title suggests, One Year Later describes the story One Year after the Infinite Crisis. Now, what happened between the Infinite Crisis and One Year Later? How does these heroes lost their ability? Why does this guy is still alive? Doesn't he get killed during the Crisis? and so forth.

To answer that question, DC came up with a solution that came with a weekly serie called 52. The serie should be delivered weekly and depicted the event for the current week, until it reaches week 52, where all the stories should continue logically correct with its appropriate One Year Later continuation.

The latest issue was #14, i just recieved it this Thursday. And so far, this serie has yet to fail me, for fourteen weeks, this serie has been delivered on time and features some lesser super-heroes (wasn't it nice?) such as Questions, Booster Gold, Steel and even Batwoman (i dont know where she does coming from, but red hair? Barbara Gordon?).

** Spoiler alert **

And still, Superman remains loses his power, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Robin were still nowhere to be seen.