Blood of the Fold is the third book in the Sword of Truth series, written by Terry Goodkind.

This was definitely the most entertaining book in the series that I have read so far. Right from the beginning it has enough action and a very good plot to entertain almost any reader.

Perhaps the most enjoyable part of this book was the irony between it and Wizard’s First Rule. In many ways, Richard has become like Darken Rahl. In Wizard's First Rule, Darken Rahl sought domination over the Midlands, much like Richard does in Blood of the Fold. Although their goals may be different from each other, their means of accomplishing them are very similar.

My only flaw was that events in the story seemed to be too coincidently helpful to the protagonists though this was very miner.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Blood of the Fold. Definitly worth the read.

Today my 1TB hard-drive died. God damn that is a lot of data lost.

Stone of Tears is the second book in the Sword of Truth series, written by Terry Goodkind.

In many ways, Wizard’s First Rule is what hurt this novel the most. Wizard’s First Rule is the first book in the series and was one of the best novels I’ve read, however it ties up all of its loose ends. Because of this, Stone of Tears seems to be forced at the beginning; however it quickly fell into its own.

The A-plot of the story did seem very cliché and altogether corny. To me it was just a stereotypical good vs. evil, God vs. the Devil plot. The part of the story I enjoyed most was the B-plots and character development. The A-plot quite simply was that the keeper of the underworld was attempting to conquer the world of the living. (Yes; it really is that stupid.) The B-plots however, are what truly saves this novel. I would love to go into further detail about the B-plots but I can not without spoiling the novel.

Overall, Stone of Tears was good. I would not say it was great but it is worth the read just to get through it and onto the next book in the series which was truly great to me. I will be reviewing that one shortly.

Today my alliance came under attack. This is not an uncommon occurrence but I thought it might be interesting to share with those who are not familiar with EVE or null-sec.

I was sitting on the border to Tenal from Cobalt Edge when one of our scouts reported a large hostile fleet heading our way. We quickly withdrew our fleet of about 5 ships into our own territory were we proceeded to form a homedefence fleet. Within minutes we had 50 ships to combat the hostile fleet enclosing. Our fleet then proceeded to monitor theirs and set up a gate-camp for them in one of our southern-most systems. Unfortunately, their intelligence warned them of this and they turned back toward their home. We then used a titan to jump our fleet right in front of the hostile fleet.

Shortly thereafter, the hostile fleet was forced to engage us. As soon as our FC began calling targets however, I was primaried by the hostile fleet. Despite my Megathron (battleship) tank of having 150,000 effective HP, I went down relatively quickly. Here is a link to the killmail. Then I lost my pod too. Thankfully, my death clone was in the same system so I bought a new one and jumped right back into the action. I returned in a Harpy (assault ship). Knowing I did not have enough DPS to take out the primary, secondary, or tertiary target, I began targeting the stealth bombers and interceptors of the hostile fleet. After an interesting few minutes, the hostile fleet grew tired of my harassing their frigates and I was targeted by many of them again. I lost that ship too, but this time, my pod got away. I warped to the nearby station to get another ship and then returned to the fight yet again, this time in a Thorax (cruiser). Again, I began targeting their smaller ships, however I was too slow to be a threat to them, but by this time the battle was nearly over.

Even though I lost 2 ships and a pod, it was still fun. A semi-complete list of ships involved in the battle can be viewed here. We destroyed 67 ships and lost 59. I am referring to this battle as the Valentin's Day Massacre.

By the way, if any of this sounds fun to you and you would like to join, send Anargirou an EVEmail. I am always looking for PVP players to join me.

I had hoped to write a review for Star Trek Online before the game came out as I participated in the beta but as my deadline approached I found I did not have enough to write an intelligent, in depth review.

This game is my biggest gaming disappointment in a long time. The gameplay is mediocre at best. When on the ground it plays almost exactly like Guildwars or WoW. Not that I am saying Guildwars or WoW are bad but they have been done to death already and I was expecting something new. When in space it plays nearly identically to Star Trek Tactical Assault. To those of you that don't know, Tactical Assault is a PSP game and not a good one at that. For a PC game to play like a bad PSP is just pathetic. Cryptic Studios should be ashamed to have created such a let down of a game.

I guess you could say that I had my hopes set too high for this game but I would not pay the initial cost of the game, and that's not to mention the monthly fee.

I apologize for how short, opinionated, and altogether unprofessional of a review this has been but I really did not know how else to put it. But hey, this isn't professional so I have an excuse.

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