Recent content by Brithel

Well Christopher Tolkien has now stepped down as head of the Tolkien Estate, so we can't say what works they have the rights to. I expect they'll stick to young Aragorn though, like the end of the accursed Hobbit trilogy hinted at.

On the non-fiction front I have started reading the second volume of John Romer's History of Ancient Egypt. So far it has been quite interesting, its is good to actually know something about Egypt beyond the limited slice that is Pyramids and mummies. Fiction wise I have Vladimir Nabokov's Pale...

Wouldn't that be explained by the large quantities of snow and ice that would reflect the light? People going to Antartica have to where sunglasses due to the bright glare of the ice. Also at extreme lattitudes for half the year there the days are extremely long, sometimes so that the sun never...

According to a brief wikipedia search the answer is no. It seems the reason that air movements last so long is mostly down to the lack of friction that comes from solid ground, with help from a layer of colder surface clouds preventing energy loss via radiation. Since Earth is mostly solid with...

There are ghosts present in the world, but none (save one special case) that could be conceived as a unique character. Most would manifest as mere half heard whispers in the wind or slight poltergeist activity. Now the special case; in my world there is a race of subterranian Lizard-ish people...

Finally finished The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien. It took two tries to get into it but otherwise was a rather good read (bar the chapter of Beleriand and its Realms which displays Tolkien's love of geography at its worst. So many pages spent on what could've been shown on an anotated map, which...

Just so you know swearing was more common than you thought, especially in the army. The reason we think otherwise is probably due to the lack of written swear words in books and newspapers, which wouldn't be allowed to include these words under obscenity laws. Here is an interesting...

You could look at the channels Aweme and Michaelcthulhu as they both do 'nerdy' weapon builds.

I finished Dune by Frank Herbert a week or so ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I quite liked how the setting had this strange mix of arabic and eastern with more familiar things. The middle section was a bit dissapointing as it lost some the politcal intrigue of the first section, but it picked up...

Northern Lights (or the Golden Compass for you yanks) by Phillip Pullman Lyra and her dæmon moved through the ddarkening Hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of site of the kitchen. The three great tables that ran the length of the Hall had been laid already, the silver and the glass...

"The Unity will bring about the master race. Master! Master! One able to survive, or even thrive, in the wasteland. As long as there are differences, we will tear ourselves apart fighting each other. We need one race. Race! Race! One goal. Goal! Goal! One people . . . to move forward to our...

Since the world is 80's inspired you would obviously have the Eastern Bloc in a state of turmoil as people use the apocalypse to break free from communism and the USSR's attempts to maintain it's territory. Or you could remove the communism from the picture entirely as it is entirely possibly...

I've just started FFIX, literaly only the first 20 minutes or so up until the first moogle save point as the Black Mage. I haven't had the time to play it what with christmas and my birthday, but now they're over I should be able to carry on. I have previously tried to get into Final...

Finished the Hogfather Yesterday. Very good - the wizards (Ridcully and the Dean and such), along with Death are my favourite characters in Discworld so I quite liked this one. The ending was a little weak but Death provided a solid ending "speech" to wrap it all up. Also started 'The...

You mention that many readers will pronounce it stranj, how 'should' it be pronounced? Strang? If that is so you could just put a small authors note at the beginning, though it may just look like you are just trying to skirt around the issue and you'd probably draw more attention to it than if...