Read more here. Will the desert ever cease revealing the world of the ancients? Delve deeper into this ancient land with the audio class, Great Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt.
Author Archives: Darrick Dean
The Telling
Small quiet town. Dark secrets. Mysterious, strange people. Terrifying legends. Unspeakable experiments in shadowed places. Hideous beings. Evil ready to take over. Sounds like an H.P. Lovecraft story? (If you said Stephen King, well, he was inspired by Lovecraft, too.) No, this is Mike Duran’s book The Telling.
Definitely in the vein of Lovecraft, but set in the Southwest rather than New England. A story of how evil manifests in the least likely of places because that is the last place people would expect it to. The novel explores the idea that some are called to stand against the worst of evil. And some of those who would make the strongest stand are the most attacked and suppressed.
I like how Duran gives just enough detail to let your imagination take off. Some authors overwhelm us with every little minutia. Their books become tedious to read because our minds are given nowhere to go. Others lecture us and try to impress us with all their years of great research. Depending on your interests, some readers of The Telling may wish the author elaborated more on the government conspiracy or the science of dimensional portals (yep, there’s a little of everything in there). But that’s what sequels are for. And this story would be a prime candidate.
I would label this a horror novel, but the publisher labeled it suspense. I suspect that this is due to the modern perception of horror being gory and graphic (thanks to movies) and that this was published by a Christian publisher (not a niche known for horror). Fans of Lovecraft, Poe or Hitchcock know this not to be what all horror is about. Others may label this book the sub-genre of supernatural fiction. Though when does horror (or fantasy) become supernatural? Or vice versa?
Of course, you might be wondering why there is a special Christian fiction section in bookstores. That’s another discussion, but this book breaks down any stereotypes. It’s not about sermons or Bible verses. Most all writers bring their religion, or worldview, into their works one way or another. Duran’s book is like most of those, allowing his beliefs to inform and inspire his writing. There are those who want nothing contrary to their beliefs in a book. Others want explicit confirmation. Nothing wrong with these, everyone has a preference. I find Duran’s approach more realistic.
So if you are looking for a creepy diversion, or just something new, then take a look at The Telling. It cuts a path between the norm in secular and religious fiction of this genre. Part of a new trend? Time will tell.
Ancient Seal of Sampson
This relic may relate to the Sampson account. Far more interesting than anything you probably watched on television tonight.
Mars: A New Hope
NASA’s most ambitious Mars probe is set to land late today (or early tomorrow, depending where you live). NASA is one of the few government programs that actually invests in a major — and important — industry that supports high-tech jobs and science and technology advancement. However, the geniuses in Washington has been throwing NASA under the bus as of late. They’d rather bailout unsuccessful ventures. But I digress. At least NASA is finally relying more on the commercialization of space. Now if they only would do that with the International Space Station.
Man’s obssesion with Mars has been detailed by many authors in great fiction. Ray Bradbury’s classic The Martian Chronicles showed us the ruins of a dying world.
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ swashbuckling John Carter series is an amazing adventure series decades ahead of its time.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy is a detailed epic on man’s settlement and terraforming of the Red Planet.
There are many others, but these are of the best. Even though Mars is a dead world, it still draws us to it as one of the most dynamic — and mysterious — worlds in our Solar System. As unfolds in Robinson’s novels, it’s the most likely world for humans to colonize if we can ever begin to look further than next week. Robert Zubrin’s The Case For Mars explains the reasons and means for exploring the Red World.
In an era where the politicians lack any vision, and most people wander aimlessly through life, maybe Mars will inspire a few to raise the bar.
Especially in this election year with the same empty promises and waves of deception, Mars could be just what we need.
Categories: Books, Fiction
Tags: Curiosity, John Carter, JPL, Mars, Mars Direct, Mars rover, Martian Chronicles, NASA, Red Planet, space probes, terraforming, vision, Zubrin
Leave a comment
The Land of Shannara
Middle-Earth and Narnia. Two of the best known worlds in fantasy. Are there others as good? After first reading Lord of the Rings and everything else Tolkien wrote, I was hooked and wanted something else. Someone recommended the fantasy series by Terry Brooks.
And that was it.
Starting in 1977, Brooks has written over 20 books in the series. Stand-alones. Trilogies. Prequels. Duologies. One could start just about anywhere, but I always recommend starting with the first, The Sword of Shannara, then work your way forward. Then go to the very beginning for what would become the prequel series, The Word and the Void (it was first written as a seperate series and later led to the Shannara books via five other volumes).
Some complain his first book was too much of a Tolkien clone. Maybe, but he quickly came into his own and created one of the great fantasy mythos. I have found them to be much more readable than some others in the genre. Those go on and on and often have massive, tedious books. Each of Brooks’ books, or groups of books, stand on their own, while drawing on others and leading you to a conclusion. Sometimes I wish the gaps in the timeline between each series weren’t so large, but from his perspective it makes it easier to create new stories and characters. Still, fans hope he will revisit some of the classic stories. Once you become hooked, buy the companion reference for a guide to this ever-growing world.
Will you choose to go on this adventure or continue on your boring path?
Easter Island Still Unsolved
The Navel of the World it is called. A speck on a map in the endless Pacific. Yet ancient people found it and erected some of the most iconic statues of the ancient world. Mysterious and solemn, the Moai stare, not out over the ocean, but inward. How the people of Easter Island – the Rapa Nui – built them and what happened to their culture has been debated for decades. The current issue of National Geographic details the current state of theorizing over this lost past.
In Jared Diamond’s Collapse, he championed the theory that Easter Island’s civilization collapsed largely due to their destruction of the island’s environment. Once forested, it is nearly empty of trees to this day. Other researchers, as chronicled in The Statues That Walked, lay out evidence that the environmental destruction wasn’t intentional, nor as widespread and not the final nail in their coffin.
As in the end of any culture, many factors were at work. It can be hard to pin the blame on any one as primary, as they often work in tandem.
Of course, the real question is will we learn from the past or suffer the same fate caused by the blindness of hubris?
Ray Bradbury, Legendary Writer, Dies
Few authors write for as long or as much. Fewer still become legends in their lifetime and see their works regarded as classics.
Ray Bradbury, author of the classic Fahrenheit 451, unforgettable stories like The Martian Chronicles and Dandelion Wine and thousands of short stories, died yesterday at age 91.
In an era where many authors come and go, an American Original has been lost.
Categories: Books, Fiction, Writing
Tags: Fahrenheit 451, Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
Leave a comment
Mayans: Engineers of the Ancient America
Whereas many are focusing on the Mayan calendar’s supposed world-ending climax in December, others are using this focus on the Mayans to educate on this lost civilization. Engineer and explorer James A. O’Kon has written The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology, a fascinating look at the technology of these people who were for so long considered Stone Age folk.
From pyramids, to grand cities, irrigation and bridges, the Mayans matched and often surpassed civilizations of the Near East and Asia. They didn’t follow the standard model of emerging along riverways, use of animals and stayed relatively isolated from the rest of the world. Yes, they were preceded by the Olmecs, traded and eventually ruled by the Aztecs, and some suggest had at least some transoceanic contact. Yet, they largely seemed to develop on their own the technology that supposedly the primitives of the New World were too simple to figure out.
Eventually, drought and overuse of the land would lead to their downfall. Their cities already abandoned by 1492. Like many peoples, they couldn’t predict the future and thought time was on their side. In their success they felt invincible and they thought their world would never end. It did, as many before and since.
Will humans ever take seriously the history of those who fell before us?
Categories: Ancient America, Native Americans
Tags: Mayans, Mesoamerica, Mesoamerican
Leave a comment
Vikings in America…More Evidence?
For decades, rumors and sagas of Vikings in America before Columbus were ignored as fantasy. One of these evidences routinely dismissed was the Kensington Rune Stone, found in Minnesota. Even after remains of a Viking settlement in Canada, there was still a fierce reluctance to revisit this and other Viking evidences. Now geologist Scott Wolter has presented a detailed and scientific defense of the Kensington Rune Stone’s authenticity.
A potentially history-changing find.
Not the whimsical, logic-leaping theories of a revisionist, Wolter outlines the flaws in the arguments of hoax-claimers and the very serious and difficult-to-deny evidence of his position. (However, Wolter hurts his cause when he brings in the Templars into his theorizing – which wouldn’t be bad by itself, as they may come into play in all of this – but he includes many of the bizarre, untrue fancies that have been following them in recent years. Please, how many historians have to refute these things before people stop repeating them?)
Will the Viking presence in America continue to be ignored? Will these people, whose exploration skill was legendary, still be left on the Canadian coast?
Or perhaps we will finally let history tell its story.
Ancient Mayan Astronomers
I’m sure 2012 fanatics will like this: “Ancient Mayan workshop for astronomers discovered.” The Mayans are well known for their sophisticated calendars which are at the root at 2012 fascination. This particular set of finds may extend their calendar beyond the Big End this December. Like many cultures, their science and religion were strongly linked and time keeping was needed for worship purposes. Yet all their knowledge didn’t keep their civilization from ending.
Perhaps something for our own to ponder.
Categories: Ancient America, Ancient Sites, Native Americans
Tags: 2012, Astronomy, Mayans
Leave a comment
Darrick Dean 