Just finished watching Tombstone (1993) and Under Siege (1992)...

 

Chrono Cross Review

 

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/chrono-cross-review/1900-2545933/

Square's Chrono Trigger got everything right. The self-proclaimed "dream team" of scenarist Yuji Hori (Dragon Quest), producer Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy), and character designer Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball Z) created a quirky, enjoyable romp through time with a cast of endearing characters, memorable environments, solid RPG gameplay, and unparalleled presentation. Needless to say, fans have clamored for a sequel ever since.

Which is why, after nearly five years of silence, the announcement of Chrono Cross drew so much ire. Where was the legendary dream team? (Only Sakaguchi contributed to Chrono Cross.) Where was the cast of characters we had grown to know and love? And who the hell was that Thundercats reject named Lynx? Things looked grim for the Chrono Trigger faithful. When Chrono Cross was revealed to have over 40 playable characters, many lost faith in the game entirely. Had Square thrown all pretense of a coherent story out the window?

But fortunately for series fans, Chrono Trigger's dream team doesn't have a monopoly on RPG innovation. As with the first SNES title, everything in Chrono Cross "clicks" in a way most games wish they could imitate. The different parts combine into an instant RPG classic.

The story begins with the hero, Serge, who is thrust into a parallel world where he died under mysterious circumstances over a decade ago. He teams up with a rowdy adventurer, Kid, and sets out in search of the mysterious Frozen Flame, an artifact that lets the holder reshape time and space on a whim. The enigmatic Lynx, a regal man-cat who hunts the Frozen Flame for his own purposes, opposes them. In his quest to return home, Serge will accrue both allies and foes, and he'll find himself thrust into an adventure that reveals his heritage, purpose, and ultimate destiny. Only by crossing between the two dimensions can Serge find the answers to his questions.

Without revealing any more of Chrono Cross' excellent storyline, it can be said that it successfully pulls off the difficult balancing act every sequel faces. It's not a rehash of the original Chrono Trigger, but neither does it exploit the characters and setting of Chrono Trigger for name recognition alone. Instead, it sets up an equally valid, separate, and well-developed world, then slowly and responsibly weaves in elements, characters, and events from the first title. It doesn't continue the original Chrono Trigger mythos so much as it expands it. Gamers will be stunned by the resolution of the disparate plot threads. And with features like a unilaterally taciturn hero, an accommodating attitude toward interdimensional travel, and a new game+ mode, Chrono Cross manages to maintain the ineffable Chrono Trigger feel.

The battle system deviates slightly from the RPG norm. The traditional "active time bar" has been replaced with a bar of seven stamina points. While the engine is still ostensibly turn-based, any character can take a turn at any time as long as they have at least a single stamina point remaining. Enemies can even interrupt your characters' attacks. Party members can unleash weak, medium, and strong attacks, which require one, two, and three stamina points, respectively. Even though the game pauses while waiting for input, the ability to start and end a character's turn whenever you please makes for a more frantic, "real-time" experience.

Elements, Chrono Cross' magic system, is divided into six colors: black and white, red and blue, and green and yellow. The characters all have a "color alignment," which determines their affinity to certain elements. Once you obtain a spell, you place it in an acceptable empty slot on a character's element grid. For example, a spell with level "5+/-2" is a level five spell, but can be placed in any slot from three to seven with the expected drop or rise in effectiveness. Successfully landing a weak, medium, or strong attack adds one, two, or three bars to a characters' element grid. A character with sufficient element bars can cast a spell, but the cost is seven stamina points, temporarily dropping him or her out of action. Combine building element grids and plummeting stamina bars with the dynamic nature of characters' turns, and battles become a constantly shifting endeavor - yet always remain under the player's total control. Once you understand the intricacies of the battle system, encounters are always over quickly.

Two other features of the battle system are dual techs and the color field. As in the original Chrono Trigger, characters can combine their special techniques for dual attacks; while dual techs are not as prevalent as you might expect, they are there to be discovered. The color field keeps track of the color of the last three spells cast. If the field becomes a single color, characters with that color alignment gain a statistical boost. Moreover, a monochromatic field is the only time when one of the game's mighty summons can be unleashed. Manipulating the field to a single color is trickier than you might expect, as the interference of your opponents' spells can't be ignored.

Chrono Cross has to be the most battle-friendly RPG ever released. All opponents are visible onscreen before the battle sequences begin, making battles easy to engage in or avoid. Even more pleasantly, every battle can be escaped whenever you like with a 100-percent success rate. Even boss battles. Don't like the way the battle is going? Your three red magicians hopelessly doomed against a blue powerhouse? Don't reset your console - just run away, regroup, and re-engage. And last but far from least, the option to automatically heal at the end of a battle is a boon from the RPG gods. Don't misunderstand; the game doesn't cure your party for free. But it will intelligently dig through your available spells and stocked inventory and use the necessary elements to return your party to fighting shape. So long, post-battle trips to the status screen, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Chrono Cross also features a list of key items that can be selected and used on the overworld map and field screens. These items advance the plot, bypass obstacles, and recruit characters to your cause. While no one will fall head over heels in love with this gameplay "innovation," it does add an old-school adventure game feel and an element of interaction with the environment that most console RPGs lack.

Surprisingly, Chrono Cross' seemingly endless supply of characters works to its benefit, not its detriment. The secret to its success? Every last one of the 40-plus members is a unique, story-driven, and valuable contributor. Unlike many cast-of-thousands RPG epics, each character in Chrono Cross is an interesting and worthy addition to your team. Everyone has a beautiful character model, excellently animated attacks, and three unique "limit break" type special skills. There's even a miniquest or special requirement for every character's best skill - that's a lot of extra adventuring! While you'll certainly have your own handful of favorites, you'll never add someone to your party and wonder, "Why is this character in the game?" There are no disposable placeholders in Chrono Cross.

Even more surprising is the amount of unique text in the game. There is no dialogue spoken by "assorted other party members." Every character has his or her own reaction to and take on the story's events, expressed in his or her own special dialect, speech pattern, and dialogue style. Moreover, many exchanges are only found by having certain characters in your party. If your opponent has a history with one of your members, the two of them will hash it out before you fight. If one of your members has had an experience they feel pertains to the situation at hand, they'll share it with you.

Square's localization team has done an incredible job with a comprehensive set of uniquely English dialects. The Japanese language has a broader base of vocabulary with which a writer can express a character's social class, self-perception, politeness level, maturity, and so forth. It would have been easy to dismiss maintaining the dialects as "impossible" and just do a straight translation - but Square did not. While some choices may seem odd at first (Kid as a foul-mouthed Australian sheila? Harle as a compassionate French belle?), the richness of the language soon becomes as much a credit to the game as the diversity of characters.

Graphically, Chrono Cross is nothing short of stunning. While Square's Final Fantasy is glossy and polished, Chrono Cross has an organic feel lacking in the former's "perfect" environments. Vibrant color, creative design, and just the right amount of ambient effects bring the settings to life. Again, while Final Fantasy drops your characters into a small subsection of a large, epic environment, Chrono Cross lets you explore every nook and cranny of scandalously detailed towns, buildings, and dungeons. While we don't intend to slight Final Fantasy's excellent graphics and design, many gamers will prefer the more down-to-earth, personal, and "gritty" feel of Chrono Cross. The environments are well worn and lived in, not just-constructed movie sets.

The battle graphics are also excellent. Characters and enemies are universally well modeled, textured, and animated. Camera movement, for the most part, always offers a great view of the action. Special accolades should be given to the spell effects - while they're impressive and suitably over-the-top, they're also short and fast.

Thankfully, the sound and music more than match the graphics. Sound effects are varied and always match the situation at hand. The music is, in a word, gorgeous, and it will undoubtedly be many players' favorite part of the Chrono Cross experience. Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mitsuda has returned and crafted a masterpiece. Composition and sample quality are both outstanding, and the soundtrack runs the emotional gamut, presenting everything from playful mambo jams to sorrowful violin solos. While many songs are new and unique to Chrono Cross, the influence of Chrono Trigger can definitely be heard. Some songs are rearrangements of Chrono Trigger tunes, while other songs tactfully reference a three- or four-note phrase that only the most devoted series fans will recognize.

With Square agonizing over every detail of its flagship property, the Chrono Cross team was apparently left mostly to themselves. Consequently, the game shares an all-out enthusiasm and joie de vivre found in the best 16-bit titles - back before games became multimillion dollar properties that had to answer to glaring shareholders. Chrono Cross may not have had the largest budget, but it has the largest heart.

A Brief History of German Prewar Television

 

https://www.earlytelevision.org/german_prewar.html

The German government and several electronic firms (Telefunken, Fernseh AG, Loewe, etc.) backed the development of electronic television almost at the start of the Nazi regime.  A 180-line system was developed around 1933 or 34 and was field tested around the Berlin area. The Germans pushed for a public system to show off during the 1936 Summer Olympic games, which were also held in Berlin. This activity was all part of the "race for television" where England, the USA (RCA, Don Lee and Philco) and Germany all wanted to be first to introduce an all electronic television system. The Germans used (with permission) the technologies of both Philo Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworykin in their TV system.

By the time the Olympics rolled around, the Germans were still only transmitting 180-line pictures. These were fuzzy and could be considered a technological bridge between the obsolete mechanical systems and modern television. But the Germans did offer regular service with a broadcast schedule from this time until well into the war. The German's regular TV service remained at 180 lines until February of 1937 when it was increased to 441-lines, curiously only a few weeks after RCA had also increased to 441 lines.

 The German service using 441 lines remained in service at the Witzleben transmitter site until 1943 when it was hit during an American bombing raid. Curiously, or should I say bizarrely, the Germans took their TV system and service with them to occupied France. They transmitted off the Eiffel Tower from about 1942 until their retreat in 1944.

From 1936 until 1939 Germans in the Berlin area could watch a variety of programming by paying 1 Reichsmark admission to a special television theater (called "Fernsehstube" in German). A few sets were placed in these theaters which usually were adjacent to German post offices (the post office usually administrated broadcasting in European countries). After the war started, TV sets were placed in military field hospitals (Lazaretten) so that wounded soldiers could watch programs. This was the primary function of the German-run Paris station as well. The soldiers usually saw cabarets and newsreels.

 The "Volkfernseher" (People's TV) was made by several companies simultaneously: Fernseh AG, Lorenz, Radio AG D.S. Loewe, Tekade, and Telefunken. It was officially called "Einheitsfernseher E1" (Einheitsfernseher would best translate as Standard TV or Universal TV. Einheit means unity). Only 50 E1 TVs were actually made. The E1 was supposed to be the first set offered to the public for the advertised price of 650 Reichsmarks (About $170), quite a good deal considering the price of the 5 inch vision only RCA TT-5 was $199.95. The first date of sale was to be September 1st, 1939. These "sales" never happened since the Nazi regime invaded Poland instead starting the Second World War.

The E1 looks identical to the Philips model 2405, sold in England.

German sets that still exist (consoles etc.) were never released to the public for sale. Only engineers, the official Post Office viewing rooms and some high-ranking Nazi Party officials got them.

Glenn Beck: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Will ‘Kill Everybody’

 

https://theredphoenixapl.org/2012/02/19/glenn-beck-occupy-wall-street-protesters-will-kill-everybody/

Glenn Beck made several gruesome predictions about where the Occupy Wall Street movement is headed.

Speaking on his radio show Monday, Beck made his already-crystal-clear disdain for the protests, which have spread across the U.S., even more plain. He took a slightly surprising turn, though, in warning establishment Democrats like Nancy Pelosi (who has voiced her support for the movement) as well as any rich backers of the protests not to trust anyone in Occupy Wall Street.

“Nancy Pelosi, you really think these people are your friends?” Beck asked. “Are you that stupid? People around Nancy Pelosi, are you this stupid? Do you really think that you’re going to be able to somehow or another control these people?”

Beck then made the first of his dark analogies. Saying that the only thing that could control the movement would be a forceful crushing from “the top,” he added, “It will be the Night of Long Knives. It will be a purging of this country.” This was a seeming reference to the political murders carried out by the Nazis in 1934.

Beck then turned to “capitalists,” and here his warning was even starker and more graphic:

“Capitalists, if you think that you can play footsies with these people, you’re wrong. They will come for you and drag you into the streets and kill you…they’re Marxist radicals…these guys are worse than Robespierre from the French Revolution…they’ll kill everybody.”

Knight by Konstantin Vasilyev, 1970.

 

Soldiers killed by Finland or Stalin (A Karelian Katyn)

 

Moscow - On the old, precious streets (1982)

 

https://rutube.ru/video/408717632064648336ddda2ad616c947/

Khamovniki District (Russian: Хамо́вники) is a district of Central Administrative Okrug of the federal city of Moscow, Russia. Population: 102,730 (2010 Census); 97,110 (2002 Census). The district extends from Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge into the Luzhniki bend of Moskva River; northern boundary with Arbat District follows Znamenka Street, Gogolevsky Boulevard, Sivtsev Vrazhek and Borodinsky Bridge. The district contains Pushkin Museum, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Devichye Pole medical campus, Novodevichy Convent and memorial cemetery, Luzhniki Stadium. The stretch of Khamovniki between Boulevard Ring and Garden Ring, known as Golden Mile, is downtown Moscow's most expensive housing area.

Glenn Greenwald Cashes In: CISPA Backing eBay Founder Sets Him Up with His Own Network

 

https://nomadiceveryman.blogspot.com/2021/03/glenn-greenwald-cashes-in-cispa-backing.html

Soon you’ll be able to rank Glenn Greenwald up there with Arianna Huffington, Amy Goodman and Oprah as the biggest and richest fake liberal sell-outs to the Business Party this country has ever produced.  For the record, Clinton doesn’t count because he was always a fascist sell-out from day One.

 

With the help of a billionaire “philanthropist” (who’s main interest is creating “business centered solutions to the political problems in America”.. which ironically, IS THE PROBLEM with America, that’s it’s “business centered”) named Pierre Omidyar (of eBay) , Glenn is leaving his job at the Guardian to start up his own internet network providing “news’ and “journalism” to those people out there starved for more Sunshine Press Productions’ version of the “truth”

 

“Glenn Greenwald, who has made headlines around the world with his reporting on U.S. electronic surveillance programs, is leaving the Guardian newspaper to join a new media venture funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, according to people familiar with the matter.” Reuters

 

The opportunity is just so wonderful, according to Greenwald, no journalist could ever pass it by. Well, I guess that depends on what you call “journalism” Glenn.

 

“Greenwald did not specify what his new project would look like, describing it only as a “momentous new venture” and a “once-in-a-career-dream journalistic opportunity that no journalist could possibly decline.” He said that the site would be a general-interest outlet, that he would be responsible for its journalism output, and that it had substantial money behind it.

 

Speaking to the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple, Greenwald said the site would have branches in New York, Washington and San Francisco, and that it was being funded by a “particular backer.”

 

“It would be impossible for any journalist, let alone me, to decline this opportunity,” he added.” Huffington Post

 

In the interest of full disclosure, the same “particular backer” that is funding this new brand of “journalism” is partnered up with the Huffington Post on their Huffpost Hawaii brand of truth-telling. Guess that explains the glowing review of this news, huh?

 

In order to fully understand what this is all about, one has to first follow the money as someone once whispered in a bathroom stall.

 

Pierre Omidyar started up eBay, is currently chairman of the board of that company and he is a pure globalist. He is 46 years old and reportedly worth $8.5 billion dollars.

 

Greenwald’s new endevour is probably backed by Pierre through his “philanthropic” investment firm, the Omidyar Newtork.

 

Take a little gander at what they claim is their purpose”

 

“Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, the organization invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic, social, and political change.” Wiki page for Pierre Omidyar

 

Now, when we are faced with a new “journalistic” website coming out to help catalyze “economic, social and political change” with someone so involved in the Edward Snowden psyop at it’s helm, one has to wonder about what that “change” looks like. The Omidyar Network site has the exact same quote, only they’ve taken the word “political” out of it, I guess that was a bit obvious for them so they simply removed it before people started asking what kind of “political” change they had in mind for America.

 

Long ago I put forward the hypothesis that the Snowden psyop was all about readying the country to accept the failed CISPA bill. I stated that the timing of the new push to get CISPA passed dovetailed right into the timing of the Snowden “leaks” that weren’t actually leaks of anything new at all (check out William E. Binney for proof)

 

And speaking of timing, please read  The Curious Timing of the Snowden “Leak” and Obama’s Formation of the PCLOB – Laying the Groundwork for CISPA  and  The Missing Motive of the Snowden Psyop: CISPA (yes… CISPA)

 

Now we have Glenn Greenwald partnering up with the owner and chairman of eBay though is globalist foundation to bring us even more “news”

 

What was eBay’s position on CISPA?

 

I’m glad you asked:

 

“Industry group Technet, which lists Microsoft, Salesforce, Visa, Cisco, Craigslist, Apple, eBay, Google and Yahoo among its members, sent a letter to leaders of the House Intelligence panel in which it makes it clear that it supports CISPA.

 

“Technet, the bipartisan policy and political network of technology CEOs that promotes the growth of the innovation economy, commends you for your work on cybersecurity and writes to express our support of H.R. 624, the ‘Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2013,‘ wrote CEO Rey Ramsey.

 

“This bill recognizes the need for effective cybersecurity legislation that encourages voluntary, bi-directional, real time sharing of actionable cyber threat information to protect networks.” Inquirer April 18, 2013

 

Make a note of that date. It isn’t last year’s CISPA push, it’s this years and Snowden’s “leaks” came out in May, a month later.

 

eBay is part of a thing called Technet and they sent a letter of support backing the new CISPA in April. Here is the letter from the government website.

 

Aside from owning eBay and backing CISPA, Greenwald’s new sugar daddy is one hell of a developer, owning golf courses and resort hotels all over the country. He also has a 48,000 square foot “home” in Henderson NV complete with 33 bedrooms. Here’s a bird’s eye view of it under construction.

 

Pierre also has a thing called the Democracy Fund where they try to finance for-profit companies and a slew of NGOs to help change the country. They use “of, by and for the people” as their slogan. The Democracy Fund created something called “Bipartisan Policy Center’s Democracy Program“

 

What Glenn is having created for him by this globalist billionaire is his own little network where he can be kingpin like Arianna Huffington, Glenn Beck or Di$info Jone$ for that matter.

 

Whatever else you wish to call it, it’s payment for services rendered.

 

The “debate” on how to fix our intelligence gathering operations is being held right now in congress and in bars and kitchens all across the country.

 

Truth is, we didn’t need the phony “debate”. We had a set of laws and they were being broken. So, they needed the artificial “debate” to justify changing them and CISPA is that change.

 

There’s a reason 800 major US companies support CISPA, because it will make them lots of money and the ones that it doesn’t aid directly, it will aid in the future when the internet is a closed system where the wealthiest control every possible version of what people come to see and read and understand as the truth of the country we live in.

 

You might not think Coke would give a crap about CISPA, but they do. With an open internet, we see what happens in Columbia when workers try to unite for better work conditions and pay. They get killed by Coke’s goon squads. So, with CISPA, Coke can effectively erase that little tid-bit of truth from the “interwebs”

 

You might not think that BP gives a crap about online freedoms and the 4th amendment, but they do. Look back on who and what was bringing out the truth about the spill in the Gulf and you have your answer right there.

 

There’s a reason these companies gave $65 million in donations last year to get CISPA supporting congressmen reelected.

 

And there is a reason that Glenn Greenwald is cashing in on the billionaire globalist’s dime. He provided a service and apparently will always provide a service that supports their business centered world view while disguised as some kind of “journalism” from a liberal point of view.

Dragon Wing Review

 

https://ossuslibrary.tripod.com/Bk_Fantasy/DragonWing.htm

As the first book in this seven book series, which I remember very fondly, this was a great book. As a story in itself, it was very good and extremely solid.

 

There are only a handful of characters in this novel, which makes it relatively easy to follow, especially since we only follow two storylines, which merge into one about halfway through the book. The characters, because there are few of them, are as real as they could possibly be. I started thinking about the characters I liked the most, and I came up with Haplo, Alfred, Hugh, the elf captain (after the mutiny), Limbeck, Jarre, in no particular order - in other words, all the main characters except Bane, whom I found whined too much. But I think we were supposed to think about him in that way.

 

From the Prologue, we know there is something big going on, but we don't get to see it in this story. We get tangential references to the Nexus and the Labyrinth, and the other three worlds, but very little else. We know that Haplo was sent to foment chaos, but we know so little about the Sartan and Patryns, except that the Patryns lost the war, and the Sartan somehow all died out (at least in the Realm of Air). Then there is Haplo's dog, who saved the man's life in the Labyrinth, and seems to be made of magic, in some ways. I have no recollection of the dog, so I don't remember his importance in the overall storyline.

 

The storyline in the realm of air goes more than one hundred pages before Haplo actually arrives. In that span, we meet Hugh the Hand, rescued from the guillotine (in the opening pages, and one of my favorite scenes in the book) by the King's Wizard so he can be used to kill the King's son. Why Bane has to be killed is a mystery we don't learn the truth of for a long time. Hugh is extremely well developed -a very sensible man, kind of like the recent Boba Fett of Bloodlines. It takes a while to get to the secret place where Hugh has hidden his dragonship, an elven ship that he uses to get around between the continents and islands, so we get to learn a lot about him. While humans normally use enchanted dragons, because their magical gift is of the natural kind, elves are mechanically inclined, so that they can create huge ships that stay afloat -for this realm does not have any oceans or lakes, but only air. The continents stay afloat using coral that exhales downwards. Water is mostly taken from the elves, whose ships can descend into the maelstrom at the bottom of the world.

 

There, on Drevlin, dwell the dwarves, or the Gegs, as they call themselves. The gegs serve the Kicksey-Winsey, a great mechanical contraption devised by the Sartan, and whose purpose nobody knows, including Haplo, when he arrives. Limbeck is a Geg who found himself outside in the storms once, and who found a destroyed elven ship with dead elves on board. Already curious and asking the forbidden question "why?", he started a revolution, claiming that elves were not gods descending from the skies demanding water as a devotion, and wanting to pool all knowledge of the kicksey-winsey so they could determine its purpose. After being sent to his death at the bottom of the maelstrom, he is rescued by his fellow revolutionaries, and he brings along Haplo and the dog, whom he rescued after the ship was heavily damaged traveling through the Death Gate.

 

Alfred is introduced as a clumsy servant of the child Bane. I couldn't wait to see him finally revealed as a Sartan, at least to the readers. As the book progressed, my favorite parts were being let in on the secret. He tracks Bane and Hugh down though nobody else could. His best disguise is his clumsiness, tripping over everything -even nonexistent bumps in the road. He also faints when confronted with trouble. When Bane dies, Alfred heals him. When Bane poisons Hugh, Alfred also heals the assassin. He abhors the taking of life, and refuses to do so at any time in this book. Even the dragon that is furiously trying to kill him at the end of the book gets trapped in a cozy warm memory rather than being killed, as Haplo would have done.

 

Bane's secret is that he is not the son of Stephen and Anne of the mid realm, but of Sinistriad from the High Realm, a powerful and -yes- sinister wizard who has a plan to save his people. For although there were rumored riches in the high realm, their magic as a whole was fading, and their pride would not let them return to the Mid Realm in disgrace. Actually, most of them don't have enough magic to return, anyway. Sinistriad planned to put Bane on the human throne, then rule as the King's father. When Stephen's wizard broke Bane's enchantment, they sent for Hugh, to be rid of the threat. If a wizard can only teleport to a place he has already visited, and Sinistriad is so young, then how did he teleport himself to Stephen's castle in the Mid Realm? Surely he can't be one of the original High Realm settlers.

 

Hugh's ship is attacked by the elves and is damaged so that they crash on Drevlin, and meet up with Limbeck and Haplo. When a watership of the elves drops down to connect the spout to their continent, they take it over. I liked the division among the elves. None of the crew were rebels, but their new captain was extremely unlikable, from the moment we met them. For all his talk of honor, he did nothing to instill honor upon himself. Thus when the lieutenant supported Hugh and the others, it was a really nice moment.

 

Up to the high realm they traveled, because Sinistriad needed a ship to transport his people down to the mid realm. Bane's mother, a woman trapped physically and emotionally in her husband's castle, actually helps them to escape, when chaos erupts. Bane figures out the purpose of the Kicksey-Winsey (to align the continents and provide water for all), and finally understands his father's plan -that he was being used as a pawn to take control of the Mid Realm. For that, he starts hating his father, and tries to turn his mother against the man. When that doesn't work, he reveals his final secret, that Alfred is a Sartan. That gets Haplo's attention, and while Bane tries to blackmail Alfred into killing his father, Alfred tries to leave, Sartan style -using teleportation. I really liked the way Bane's plans always backfired. He never even thought that Alfred would leave. He really thought Alfred would respond to the blackmail.

 

Haplo catches Alfred, and while they are arguing about the best way to deal with each other, Bane tries to kill his father by himself. Between Bane, the dog, Hugh and Bane's mother, Sinistriad ends up dead, with Hugh dealing the fatal blow -fatal to both of them. Sinistriad's lethal dragon, once enchanted, is now free, and everybody has even bigger problems on their hands.

 

For the entire story, I was trying to recall why Haplo let Alfred live, when he obviously wouldn't hesitate to kill any Sartan he came across. When Alfred started to teleport, I thought this must be it -he didn't get a chance. But the authors didn't waste that chance to bring to two together, as the dog, impervious to magic, it appears, dragged Alfred back. Haplo, ordered strictly not to use his magic and reveal himself as a Patryn, leaves Alfred to deal with the dragon. I find it interesting that Alfred tells Haplo that it would take their combined strength to battle the dragon, when he is able to lull it to tranquility with only a little effort.

 

It makes me wonder if Alfred has to practice his magic in order to keep it strong. He must not have had much chance in the kingdom palace, being chamberlain to Bane. He also appears to be stronger than Haplo. What did he do as a regular Sartan before the world was sundered. Was he part of the sundering? His reaction (if I recall correctly) in Serpent Mage tells me no. But he must have helped in making the world of air livable. Or, being strong as he is, was he a battle-mage? I have no recollection, if anything is ever said about his past at all.

 

At the end of the book, Haplo has increased the chaos in this realm, by showing Limbeck that the dwarves must go to war. There is no need to do anything among the elves or humans, because they are already at war, the elves among themselves as well.

 

I love this series of books, but I found the back history a little heavy-handed. There were chunks of story where we were told the history of a realm or of a people. Much better presented was the mausoleum of the Sartan, which showed us the history -or that at least something happened to them. I don't know how they could have given us the history of the High Realm, for example, like that, but it would have flowed better than the pages we got. The authors did so well with even the most minor characters; it's too bad they couldn't do the same with the places.

 

My favorite thing about this book, really, is the narration, aside from the history, as it is so funny! According to the narrator, everything is somewhat alive, as everything has an opinion. In addition, there were so many side comments, like the idea that Limbeck nearly discovered the theory of relativity, or the laws of aerodynamics, except for the fact that he was falling almost to his death. It was so humorous.

 

Still, that is a very minor detraction from the book as a whole, which was great, and gave us just a little taste of what is to come in this terrific series. There is little to say, really, except describe plot, as everything flowed along easily, and nothing stood out as feeling "wrong". Everything felt quite right, though except for the revelations about Alfred, which were slowly given to us, nothing stood out as being incredible, either. This was simply a solid, and wonderfully written book. I will move straight on to the second book, dealing with the Realm of Fire.