Ancient Christian Books?

I saw a report this morning about a battle heating up in Jordan about returning some apparently ancient relics that some scholars believe were produced by early Christians.

The report contains some interesting stuff that explains why some professors believes they're authentic:

The books, or "codices", were apparently cast in lead, before being bound by lead rings.

Their leaves - which are mostly about the size of a credit card - contain text in Ancient Hebrew, most of which is in code.

And . . .

He believes the most telling evidence for an early Christian origin lies in the images decorating the covers of the books and some of the pages of those which have so far been opened.

Mr Elkington says the relics feature signs that early Christians would have interpreted as indicating Jesus, shown side-by-side with others they would have regarded as representing the presence of God.

"It's talking about the coming of the messiah," he says.

"In the upper square [of one of the book covers] we have the seven-branch menorah, which Jews were utterly forbidden to represent because it resided in the holiest place in the Temple in the presence of God.

"So we have the coming of the messiah to approach the holy of holies, in other words to get legitimacy from God."

It is the cross that is the most telling feature, in the shape of a capital T, as the crosses used by Romans for crucifixion were.

"It is a Christian crucifixion taking place outside the city walls," says Mr Davies.

Margaret Barker, an authority on New Testament history, points to the location of the reported discovery as evidence of Christian, rather than purely Jewish, origin.

"We do know that on two occasions groups of refugees from the troubles in Jerusalem fled east, they crossed the Jordan near Jericho and then they fled east to very approximately where these books were said to have been found," she says.

"[Another] one of the things that is most likely pointing towards a Christian provenance, is that these are not scrolls but books. The Christians were particularly associated with writing in a book form rather than scroll form, and sealed books in particular as part of the secret tradition of early Christianity."

Philip Davies, Emeritus Professor of Old Testament Studies at Sheffield University, says the most powerful evidence for a Christian origin lies in plates cast into a picture map of the holy city of Jerusalem.

"As soon as I saw that, I was dumbstruck. That struck me as so obviously a Christian image," he says.

"There is a cross in the foreground, and behind it is what has to be the tomb [of Jesus], a small building with an opening, and behind that the walls of the city. There are walls depicted on other pages of these books too and they almost certainly refer to Jerusalem."

It's a pretty wild story and, if authentic, could shed a lot of light on early Christianity.

I, for one, am a bit hesitant to jump up and down with joy over this discovery for two reasons.

First of all, as a commenter on another blog pointed out, we see stories like this come out around this time every year. Remember how, a few years back, James Cameron found Jesus' family tomb? And how, a few years ago, the Gospel of Judas went viral? I wonder if this isn't another case of over-sensationalism since Holy Week is fast approaching.

The other thing that has me worried is the fact that these books weren't really found in an actual archaeological find. The opening paragraph of the BBC article, while implying that they were, really reveals that they weren't:

A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007.

A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol.

A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity.

That is certainly the view of the Jordanian government, which claims they were smuggled into Israel by another Bedouin.

The Israeli Bedouin who currently holds the books has denied smuggling them out of Jordan, and claims they have been in his family for 100 years.

Jordan says it will "exert all efforts at every level" to get the relics repatriated.

So we have one Bedouin describing how he found the books and another claiming his family owned them for a century. This wasn't found by archaeologists. There will be no photos of the books in situ. And yes, while this sort of parallels the discover of the Dead Sea Scrolls, until real archaeologists examine the supposed discovery site, I won't be holding my breath.

Still, it is a pretty cool story.

The Ice Cream Theory

So what flavor are you?

Steff Deschenes, a self-proclaimed ice cream guru, has come up with an interesting theory regarding ice cream flavors and people. As she puts it, there are dozens if not hundreds of different flavors and nobody likes them all. People's tastes change. What was a favorite becomes bland and boring. A flavor you never thought you'd like turns out to be really great. There are combos that make your skin crawl and good old stand-bys that you'll always like because of the comfort they give.

Well, Deschenes believes that people are often the same way. Some friends you outgrow. Some people might surprise you at how much you like them. There are people you just can't stand, even though on paper you should be uber-compatible. And then there are the friends that are always there for you. That is the central premise of her book, The Ice Cream Theory.

Even though this book is billed as a "self-help book," it really isn't, not really. Instead, it's more of a quirky memoir. Deschenes dissects many of her own relationships and compares the people she meets to different ice cream flavors. There is an over-arching point that she makes at the end of the book that can be applied to anyone, but by and large, the book is mostly about her own relationships.

And that's just fine, don't get me wrong. Deschenes has an engaging and quirky style to her prose. The people-to-flavor connection never felt forced and most of them made me chuckle at how clever they were. The book engaged me the most when it was the most heart-rending. The chapters on Chocolate Oatmeal Raisin and Soy "Ice Cream" Sandwiches captivated me (especially the former).

In terms of craft, the book suffered only a little from what can best be described as "wandering apostrophes" (some words needed them, others didn't). But all in all, this was a very satisfying and quick read. Definitely one that I would recommend.

Between the Rivers

I know, I know, I know. The last time I read a Harry Turtledove book, I said I was pretty much done with the author. His latest books have been overlong and repetitive. And yet I can't quite quit the guy. He's written some great stuff in the past and, wouldn't you know it, I had another of his novels lurking in my to-be-read pile. And the amazing thing is, part of the reason why I liked this book is the repetitive nature of the text.

The book I'm talking about is Between the Rivers which, as the cover proclaims, is a fantasy novel set at "the morning of the world." More specifically, it's set in a fictionalized Mesopotamia during a time when gods walked the Earth and directly controlled their subjects.

At least, most of them do. The exception is Engibil, the god of Gibil. The people of his city have wrested a bit of independence from him, mostly thanks to the smiths who work in a new metal called "bronze" and the scribes who have developed this new-fangled "writing" business. Engibil still lives in his temple and can still influence his people, but by and large, the people of Gibil are free to do as they please.

This frightens the other gods of the region, something that Sharur, a merchant, discovers to his loss. For some reason, the mountain gods of a region have forbidden their people from trading with the men from Gibil, which could mean economic ruin for the entire city. Worse, for Sharur, it means that he will be unable to wed Ningal, his childhood friend. Sharur must decipher why the gods have suddenly shunned Gibil, a mystery that will take him deep into enemy territory and put him in direct opposition to the gods.

I really enjoyed this book. Granted, it's not as "fast" as some fantasy novels, but given the setting, this worked out okay. It's pretty clear that Turtledove put a lot of thought into his worldbuilding and for the most part, the world of Gibil felt alive and very consistent. This is especially true of the "voice" of the people. They often repeated themselves in a parallel fashion (i.e. "Father, I do not know if Engibil will permit this. I do not know if the city god will let this be.") that, at first, threw me for a loop. I figured I would get sick of it after a while. But I didn't. It actually put me in mind of the way some of the Proverbs are structured and made the world feel "right," so to speak. I could envision ancient people talking like this. Unfortunately, Turtledove wasn't always consistent with his voice. A few modern phrases crept in at odd times. For example, at one point, someone spoke of the gods "scoring points" off of each other.

The story itself bothered me theologically, not so much for the pagan gods running around; that was part of the story and I knew it going in. It more had to do with the freedom the men of Gibil sought to hold on to and gain more of. But even that aside, I enjoyed the story.

I'm not saying it was enough to make me come back to Turtledove. But it made for a nice send off.

Pay no attention to this post!

Seriously. Don't pay any attention to it. I do not want you to read it. So go away.

I mean it. Shoo.

What's that? You want to know what it is I don't want you to know? Nothing. Nothing at all.


Hey! Do not read the words on that eye-catching banner! I mean it!

Okay, fine. I'll explain. You can win an autographed copy of Kathy Tyers's excellent Firebird trilogy from Marcher Lord Press. You can know that, but in no way do I want you to know that all you have to do is say, in exactly 100 words, why you love speculative fiction to be entered into a drawing to win said prize. So if your brain would kindly not imprint these words into your short-term memory, that would be fantastic, thank you very much.

Why am I being so weird? Because I just entered and I don't want the increased odds.

So go away.

CSFF Blog Tour: "The Resurrection" Day Three

So here's the thing. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to blog about today regarding Mike Duran's The Resurrection. That Easter-related post I mentioned on Monday? Yeah, I pretty much made it up. I got nothing along those lines.

At best, what I have is a gut-level reaction to Duran's afterword regarding the existence of ghosts. He acknowledges that most Christians don't believe in ghosts, but then raises the possibility that they could exist. Maybe. Duran even cites some Biblical evidence for the potential existence of ghosts.

His three examples? The appearance of a post-mortem Samuel to Saul and the witch at Endor, Moses and Elijah chatting with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, and the fact that, when the disciples think Jesus is a ghost, He corrects them but doesn't tell them to stop thinking ghosts are real.

After reading the afterword (after the afterword?), I was less than impressed with these examples. Sure, Samuel and Moses show up after they died, but who's to say that God didn't grant them a temporary release from their heavenly rest? As for Elijah, he didn't exactly die, now did he? Unless "taken up into heaven by a fiery chariot" is some weird Hebrew euphemism I'm unaware of.

As for his final example, I don't buy it. Here's the passage in question:

³⁶ While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

³⁷ They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. ³⁸ He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? ³⁹ Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” (Luke 24:36-39, New International Version, ©2011)

On the surface, it might seem like Jesus is allowing the possibility of ghosts. After all, if ghosts didn't they exist, why wouldn't Jesus say, "It is I myself! Touch me and see. Oh, and while we're on the subject, ghosts don't exist, so get over it."

Except . . .

Except this isn't exactly what you would call a teachable moment. The disciples have just received a pretty major shock. Seeing dead people come back to life can do that to people (i.e. Chapter 4 of this month's book). This isn't exactly the time to confront faulty beliefs regarding life after death. Instead, the point of Luke 24 is that Jesus is simply, really, completely alive. The point isn't that He's not a ghost. That's only secondary. The point is resurrection.

Duran's evidence of a maybe is sketchy, and that's a best-case assessment. I realize that's not the point, but this was sort of the cherry on the top of a less-than-impressive book.

Now does that mean that I'm against ghosts in Christian fiction? Believe it or not, I'm not. It didn't faze me at all when . . . well, what prompted Duran's afterword to come after the story. Sorry. Spoilers and all that. Anyway, speculative fiction is all about dancing on the end of a tree branch. If someone can skillfully jig without losing a step, I'm all for it, especially if it can provoke some thoughts in the old theological corners of my brain.

Go and see what the rest of the tourists have to say:

Noah Arsenault
Brandon Barr
Red Bissell
Book Reviews By Molly
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Melissa Carswell
Jeff Chapman
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Wanda Costinak
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Janey DeMeo
Cynthia Dyer
Tori Greene
Nikole Hahn
Katie Hart
Joleen Howell
Bruce Hennigan
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Emily LaVigne
Shannon McNear
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Joan Nienhuis
Nissa
Gavin Patchett
Sarah Sawyer
Andrea Schultz
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
Donna Swanson
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
Nicole White
Dave Wilson

CSFF Blog Tour: "The Resurrection" Day Two

As I said yesterday, there was one factor in Mike Duran's The Resurrection that kind of bothered me throughout the story, and it had to do with the way people doubted whether or not the titular miracle was real. But before I delve into that too deeply . . .


Just to be on the safe side. I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but better safe than sorry, y'know?

Okay, so let's review. Faithful Ruby Case goes to the funeral of a young man named Armando Amaya, held at Goldman's Mortuary. It's conducted by a Roman Catholic priest (I'm assuming) and afterward, Ruby goes up to the coffin to pay her respects. She briefly touches the body, praying for Mondo and his family, and after she turns away Mondo comes back to life.

When Pastor Clark finds out about this seeming miracle, the first thing he does is go to the cops to find out if they've learned anything. And they haven't. Nobody seems to know what to make of this event, if it's real or a hoax or what.

The whole time, though, I kept grinding my teeth because, from where I was sitting, there was a question that someone should have asked, one that could have easily settled the whole real vs. fake debate right away. But before I ask it, let me explain my background and why I thought of this.

As my bio says, I'm a Lutheran minister serving in Minnesota. This past June, I hit my 10th ordination anniversary. In those 10 years, I've done more than my fair share of funerals. I think I did somewhere around three dozen or so while I was at my first parish (I don't keep track of the actual number; that'd be kind of morbid). As a result of my track record, I got to know one of the funeral directors pretty well and every now and then, I'd talk shop with him and he shared some techniques for preparing a body for burial.

So one night while reading this book, I asked myself what I would do if I were in Pastor Clark's shoes. And I realized, I wouldn't go to the cops first. No, I'd go to the funeral director and ask one question:

Was the body embalmed?

That's the key right there, and it's a question that's never answered in this book and, I think, should have been. To doublecheck my hunch, I actually spoke with two other funeral directors on the way back from a committal this past week. I told them about the book, explaining about the titular resurrection, and asked what they thought.

They were pretty skeptical, because they explained that in Minnesota, a body has to be embalmed if it's going to be an open casket funeral. It's actually state law. One of them put it this way: "By the time people get to us, they're dead. And if they aren't, they will be by the time we're done."

And that's what bugged me about this book. I don't know if whatever state Stonetree is in has similar laws, but if Mondo had been embalmed, then this is definitely a miracle, no doubt about it.

Now I realize that would take away some of the mystery around Mondo's resurrection. But the guys I spoke to actually mentioned two possibilities. A body can be refrigerated instead of embalmed. And in Mexico, apparently the tradition is to do no embalming unless the body is going to travel somewhere else for burial. Given Mondo's name, it's possible that he wasn't embalmed for that reason, thus allowing for the doubt to continue.

So why am I bringing this up? Because it's a massive question, one that I think should have been answered. The whole time I was reading, I kept thinking, "Why isn't anyone (other than reporters) talking to the guy who prepared Mondo's body? He'd be able to settle this matter once and for all!"

Just kind of bugged me. That's all.

Go and see what the other tourists have to say:

Noah Arsenault
Brandon Barr
Red Bissell
Book Reviews By Molly
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Melissa Carswell
Jeff Chapman
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Wanda Costinak
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Janey DeMeo
Cynthia Dyer
Tori Greene
Nikole Hahn
Katie Hart
Joleen Howell
Bruce Hennigan
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Emily LaVigne
Shannon McNear
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Joan Nienhuis
Nissa
Gavin Patchett
Sarah Sawyer
Andrea Schultz
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
Donna Swanson
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
Nicole White
Dave Wilson

CSFF Blog Tour: "The Resurrection" Day One

Maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking that this month's book should have been scheduled for next month. I mean, I did the math last week and realized that April's blog tour will fall smack in the middle of Holy Week. What better time to discuss Mike Duran's book, The Resurrection? I mean, I could have discussed the connection between Easter, this book, and 1 Corinthians 15:12-21, thus giving me some "warm up" for Easter Sunday. But no, this had to fall in the early days of Lent, when my mind is befuddled from my yearly caffeine fast. Sigh. Missed opportunities.

Okay, so I'm only kidding. Truth be told, there's no way I'd be able to participate in a blog tour during Holy Week. Stress levels and all that. Hence why I'm abstaining next month. So instead of wallowing in might-have-beens, let's discuss the book instead (which I received for free for reviewing purposes).

This story centers around two people in the small west coast town of Stonetree. The first is Pastor Ian Clark, a young minister who is struggling with his faith. He's faced some pretty difficult crises before landing at Canyon Springs Community Church and now he's had enough. He's ready to quit it all and leave, but one thing stops him from carrying out his plans, namely the person of Ruby Case.

Ruby is a faithful church member, fairly ordinary in most regards, but one day, something extraordinary occurs. She somehow resurrects a dead man through a touch. It's not something she planned. It's not something she understands. But this one act forces her and her reluctant pastor on a collision course with primal forces that control the area, forces that will demand death before they are satisfied.

In many ways, this story reminds me of This Present Darkness only without the angelic warriors zipping all over the place. And in my eyes, it actually pales in comparison a little. While I enjoyed reading this, I couldn't shake a feeling of "almost." The story almost makes it. The conflict almost completely engages me. While Duran writes the story with a great deal of passion, it seems like he doesn't quite make it from "okay" to "great." It's an okay read and that's about it.

I think part of the problem is that Duran doesn't quite focus on one aspect of his story. Is this a story about spiritual warfare? Is it a story about the place of miracles in modern-day faith? Is it a story about maintaining faith in the face of difficulties? The answer is yes to all three questions, and that only muddied the waters of the story just enough that it kept me from being completely engaged. Plus there was a problem that I realized with the story, one that I'll discuss at length tomorrow.

So in the end, I guess I'd have to say that this is an okay story. Not phenomenal but not awful either. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks that, but there's only one way to find out. Go and see what the other tourists have to say:

Noah Arsenault
Brandon Barr
Red Bissell
Book Reviews By Molly
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Melissa Carswell
Jeff Chapman
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Wanda Costinak
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Janey DeMeo
Cynthia Dyer
Tori Greene
Nikole Hahn
Katie Hart
Joleen Howell
Bruce Hennigan
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Emily LaVigne
Shannon McNear
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Joan Nienhuis
Nissa
Gavin Patchett
Sarah Sawyer
Andrea Schultz
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
Donna Swanson
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
Nicole White
Dave Wilson

Portal 2 TV Ad

It's time to have fun. With science!



Just a month away. I've already got my pre-order in.

Atom Zombie Smasher

It would appear that I'm becoming more and more a fan of the undead. Scary, I know. First it was Plants vs. Zombies, then it was World War Z, and most recently Ex-Heroes and the occasional game of Left 4 Dead 2. Now, this past week, I found the simple pleasure of an indie game called Atom Zombie Smasher.

It's a pretty simple game, all things considered. You're in charge of a fictional city called Nuevos Aires in 1960. It's the zombie apocalypse and it's completely up to you to defend its citizens. You have a variety of forces at your disposal, from an evacuation helicopter to infantry who can protect a small area to blockades, all the way up to satellite bombardment.

What's really surprising is the simplicity of the interface. You control your forces from the top down, civilians represented by moving yellow dots, zombies by pink.


For each section of the city, you have to rescue so many civilians to achieve victory. That's not easy, since the zombies will chase and infect as many civilians as they can, swelling their ranks with each passing second. You only have a short time for each section, because when night falls, the zombies swarm the streets, making your job much more difficult.

The game is constantly changing, with new maps made at random. You're essentially in a race against the zombies, trying to "redeem" as many parts of the city as possible, scoring points for each civilian rescued and each section cleaned out. At the same time, the zombies are trying to claim as many sections as well and they definitely have an advantage. As the game progresses, the outbreaks become worse and worse. They score points for every civilian they infect and for every part of the city they hold. Either the player or the zombies win if they reach a certain total.

I'm going to put this bluntly: this is not an easy game. The first game I played on normal difficulty ended in a resounding loss for humankind. I switched the difficulty on easy and lost the second time as well. I finally won on the third time around. It took some time to figure out how all the mercenary units work together and you don't get to pick what you take along, making the game even more challenging.

There are a few things I don't like about this game. For starters, the tutorials are permanently switched on. I've searched for how to deactivate them but I can't figure it out. And the vignettes, supposedly to the tell the story, don't make sense to me.

I haven't examined all the features, like the mods and the on-line play, but this was a fun game, especially since it's on sale via Steam this week. It's a good buy for nine bucks.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

So it's a little late, but let's remember what the day is really all about:

Happy Pi Day!

In honor of this mathematically auspicious occasion, I offer a song:



And it is also my little brother's birthday today. So I offer a song for him as well:

Help settle a debate, will you?

So tonight, my wife and I somehow got onto the topic of cremation diamonds. Don't ask me how, I'm not even sure anymore. Anyway, we tried to figure out what would be the creepiest use of a cremation diamond. We came up with three possibilities and we can't decide what's worst. So I figured I would come here and ask what few people trickle through my little corner of the web what they think. Here are the options we came up with:

1) A widow gives a cremation diamond made from her deceased husband to her new beau so he can use it as an engagement ring.

2) A widower uses a cremation diamond made from his deceased wife to his new sweetie as an engagement ring (with or without telling her the gem's origin; that's up to you).

3) A son uses a cremation diamond made from a deceased parent as an engagement ring (with or without telling his girlfriend; again, that's your choice).

Or did we miss some other soul-chilling, inappropriate use for a dead loved one's earthly remains? Let me know in the comments. I'm almost afraid to look.

Federations

Another day, another sci-fi anthology read and done. This time, it was Federations, edited by John Joseph Adams. All the stories were set in vast, interstellar governments. The authors tried to discuss how such conglomerations of worlds and cultures might actually work.

And for the most part, this turned out to be an excellent book. There were a few duds scattered through the pages, stories that didn't really engage me or left me scratching my head. But by and large, the stories were unique and wonderful. A few of my stand-out favorites:

Twilight of the Godsby John C. Wright, a weird blend of fantasy and sci-fi set on a generations ship. Pardon Our Conquest by Alan Dean Foster, a funny tale of a war-like race that lost a war, right? 'Cuz it sure doesn't seem that way. The Shoulders of Giants by Robert J. Sawyer (although why I like this one, I'll explain in a little bit). And especially The One with the Interstellar Group Consciousnesses by James Alan Gardner, a rom-com about the gestalt consciousness of an interstellar government looking for its soulmate. Seriously, it's awesome.

The only real downside to this book is that it basically made me realize that a short story I wrote a few months back has to be thrown out completely. See, I had written a story about a generation ship that I thought would be fun and kind of a wild ride. Small problem: if you take Twilight of the Gods and mash it together with The Shoulders of Giants, you basically get my story. And the two original stories are a lot better than mine.

grumble grumble grumble

Oh well. That happens, I guess. But if you're a fan of sci-fi, this is a good read. Highly recommended.

Harley Quinn: Preludes and Knock-Knock Jokes

Ah, Harley Quinn, my guilty little pleasure from the Batman universe. For those of you not in the know, Harley Quinn is the Joker's long-time "girlfriend." Or sidekick. Or punching bag. It's kind of complicated. She first appeared on Batman: The Animated Series and proved to be so popular that DC added her to the comic books. I've been fascinated by her, especially after the Harley's Holiday episode where she tried to leave her life of crime behind, and especially since Harley Quinn: Mad Love. So naturally, when I saw Harley Quinn: Preludes and Knock Knock Jokes at the aforementioned closing Borders, it went into the pile.

I'm glad I grabbed this one. The story starts with Harley busting the Joker out of prison and trying to pull of a caper for him because he's "too hurt" to do it himself. In reality, Joker wants her to fail (their relationship is a bit complicated). In a bizarre twist of events, Harley breaks up with the Joker and declares her independence. She spends a caper trying to "hench" for Two Face before she has a sleepover with other villainous women (Catwoman, Poison Ivy, a bunch of ladies I didn't recognize), and then decides to form her own criminal gang. All the while, Harley is being hunted by two bodyguards and a former FBI profiler at the behest of a Mr. Happi, a multimillionaire who almost died at Harley's hands at the beginning of the book.

Complicated? A little. A fun read? Absolutely. Harley's capers are hilarious. Nine times out of ten, they don't really work and, in some ways, it seems like the writers are setting her up as an unintentional hero. Sure, she's trying to commit crimes, but she never quite makes it.

Which helps explain one of the oddities of the book: the complete lack of Batman. You'd think he'd be all over Harley (in the "busting a criminal" kind of way) but he never shows up (except for once in the background). But that actually works since nothing Harley's done so far has risen to the level of "must be stopped by the Dark Knight."

It's clear from the end of the book that there will be other volumes in this series. You know I'll be watching for them. I can't wait to see what Harley does next.

I must be stopped

I cannot be allowed near a Borders again, especially not if they're having a going out of business sale. I spent an hour in one today and bought way too many books. My to-be-read pile has pretty much exploded. Here's what I mean:


No, I didn't buy all of those today. Maybe only a quarter of them. But those are all the books that I have lurking on my dresser that need to be read.

Worse, sitting on top of the right hand stack is my Kindle, which has at least eighteen more books that need to be read as well.

To top it off, I know that Marcher Lord Press's spring list is coming out in a month.

Wow. Good thing I like to read.

Yars' Revenge!?!?!

So this takes me back. I'm surfing around to some of my favorite websites and what do I learn? They are remaking Yars' Revenge, an ancient Atari video game.

Wow. That takes me back. If I remember correctly, Yars' Revenge was the first video game I ever bought with my own money, the first step down a long path that I'm still walking today.

To make matters more interesting, they included a video of gameplay from the reboot. Somehow they've gone from this:



To this:



Wow.

But I will say this. In my hunt for the reboot's homepage, I did stumble across an emulator that let me play the original on my PC. Ah, memories.