Kindle Fire HD is here!!

Check it out! I'll be saving up for this! Looks like it could definitely be a contender with the ipad! Amazon has set this up with either 4G LTE or just wi-fi. They also made a $199.00 option for the 7" display! I'm going to have to redo this whole blog for the new products... (not that I've been posting lately).




Amazon also added a line with a new backlight technology, called Paperwhite!

Rapid Kindle Wall Charger

Rapid Wall Home AC Charger for the Amazon Kindle 2nd & Latest Generation / Kindle DX ( aka Wi-Fi Free 3G 6 in. 9.7 in. )
Just bought this new charger for my Kindle. Seems to work great. My old died for some unknown reason. If your looking for a replacement or just an extra charger, here it is. Only $17.95.

The Ranger's Apprentice

This series is great for young adults just breaking into the fantasy genre. There's not to much "magic", they follow a good storyline of a young man and his friends, and tend to have a good message to them. I read through them fairly quickly and really enjoyed it.
A quick synopsis:

As an apprentice

 

Will is an apprentice throughout the books The Ruins of Gorlan, The Burning Bridge, The Icebound Land, Oakleaf Bearers, Erak's Ransom, and The Battle for Skandia. The first four books tell the story of Will's first two years as an apprentice while Erak's Ransom told about Will's final mission as an apprentice.
Alongside others, Will is an orphan in Castle Redmont. At age 15, the orphans are expected to either become an apprentice or go off to work in the fields. After much stressing and suspicion of his own behalf, Will is chosen to become a Ranger. Rangers are the intelligence force and unofficial 'police' of Araluen. They have mastered the art of unseen and unheard movement, camouflage, knife throwing, knife fighting skills and long-range weaponry, specifically the long bow. However, Will is too small to use a long bow, so he uses a recurve bow. This is a bow that curves in the opposite direction at the ends. After being an apprentice for a few days, Halt takes Will to see his horse Tug. With Tug, Will trains in the skills needed to pass his assessment at the annual Ranger meeting, called The Gathering. However, The Gathering is cut short with rumors of Morgarath's underlings, ugly creatures that look like a mix of ape and bear which walks up-right like the wargals , called Kalkara breaking through the Three Step Pass, the only known access into Morgarath's lair in the Mount

 

ains of Rain and Night.
In the second book, The Burning Bridge, a war is approaching and Will, Gilan, and Horace, Will's friend from Battleschool, are sent to Celtica to ask for reinforcements. However, when they arrive they realize Wargals, Bearlike monsters working for Morgarath, have slaughtered the entire city and only one person survived, a girl named Evanlyn. Gilan moves on ahead of Will and Horace to report to the King. Meanwhile, the three ride about a day behind Gilan and encounter Wargals. They follow them to the Fissure; a deep gorge thought to be impassable. The Celtica miners were all captured to complete a bridge across the Fissure. The bridge would allow Morgarath's army to assault the King's army straight from behind destroying the King's forces. Will, Horace and Evanlyn burn the bridge, but Evanlyn and Will are captured in the process. Horace rides back with the horses and meets up with Gilan and a group of infantry trying to rescue Evanlyn, who is in truth, the Crown Princess Cassandra. Horace tells Gilan what happened and they ride back to the main army. The war goes well with the bridge destroyed and Horace kills Morgarath in a last ditch attempt by throwing Morgarath off balance.
Will and Evanlyn are taken as slaves to Skandia, a frozen, pine forested neighboring country north-east of the Araluen border. Will is forced to work outside in the bitter cold of The Yard. He quickly becomes addicted to warmweed, a drug that gives a person warmth, but builds up addiction and destroys the mind. The Skandian who captured Will and Evanlyn, Erak, sets up a plot to rid Will of his addiction and escape with Evanlyn. The two succeed in escaping, and take refuge in a small log cabin for winter. While there, Will overcomes his addiction with much help from Evanlyn. To rescue Will and Evanlyn, Horace and Halt also set off for Skandia.
While living in the log cabin Evanlyn is captured by a Temujai warrior, the Temujai are a fierce, nomadic tribe of horse warriors from the east and masters of the recurve bow. Will tries to rescue her, but almost fails until Horace and Halt come along. Halt captures one Temujai alive and realizes the Temujai are back to try and take over the western world again. 20 years earlier they almost succeeded until politics, and a serving of bad shellfish, got in the way. Halt agrees to help Skandia drive off the Temujai since Halt feels if the Temujai defeat the Skandians, they will attack Araluen next. The Skandians win the battle, but the Oberjarl (leader of Skandians) dies and Erak is chosen as the new Oberjarl. After returning home Horace is knighted and Will is offered the position as the lieutenant of the Royal Scouts, the country's archery trainers. Will does not accept the offer knowing that the Ranger life is his true calling.
A few years later Will is in his final year as an apprentice Ranger. Erak the Oberjarl has been captured by the Arridi, sand nomads. Princess Cassandra goes along with Will, Gilan, Halt, and Svengal (Erak's second in command) to pay the ransom. However, violent sandstorms, warring tribes, and danger everywhere may keep them from reaching Erak in time to secure his release. At the end Will is made a full Ranger and receives his Silver Oakleaf.

Will's first mission

After receiving his Silver Oakleaf and given a fief to take care of, Will takes on his first mission as a full Ranger throughout the books of The Sorcerer in the North and The Siege of Macindaw. A few days after arriving in the fief, Will is sent north to Macindaw in order to investigate claims of sorcery. The lord of the castle, Syron, was poisoned by an unknown substance. Many believe a sorcerer to be the cause of the illness since Syron's ancestor was also once poisoned by a sorcerer. Alyss is sent up to help Will, but is captured by the rogue knight Keren, also responsible for poisoning Syron. Will manages to escape and enlists the help of the sorcerer who is in fact a gifted healer called Malcolm. Horace is also sent up north by Halt when Will does not send a message in a long time.
To rescue the castle and Alyss, Horace and Will devise a plan. They receive the help of the Skandians that Will gave supplies to and use them to assault the castle. Horace explains that to successfully capture a castle, a three-to-one ratio is needed. With only about 25 Skandians and 35 soldiers in the castle this would seem impossible. Malcolm, the sorcerer who is actually a very skilled healer and a scientist sets up some conjurations that draw the attention of the soldiers in the castle to one side, allowing Will and Horace to enter the castle on the opposite side. Soon the Skandians also enter the castle. Will quickly climbs up to the dungeon where Alyss is being held. However, Alyss was hypnotized into believing Will is the enemy. Will tells Alyss that, "I love you, I always have," and the hypnosis is broken. As Keren attacks Will, she throws acid into his face and Keren stumbles backwards and falls out the window while the Skandians are able to take control of the castle.
Will returns to his fief with his first mission as a full Ranger a success. At his log cabin he receives a letter from Alyss stating that Will told her in a dream that he loved her. Horace tells her that although it seems like a dream, it might not be. She writes in the letter, "I love you." Will leaves his log cabin again with Tug, to deliver his own letter to Alyss.

The Outsiders

In Kings of Clonmel and Halt's Peril, Will, Halt and Horace are sent to Clonmel to prevent a cult called the Outsiders from taking power. The cult offers to protect a village from bandits that are actually part of the Outsiders in exchange for gold. When the village has been stripped of its possessions, the cult runs off to the next village. In this fashion, they take over five of the six kingdoms of Hibernia. Halt, Will and Horace are sent to Clonmel, the last section, to try to prevent the cult from expanding into Araluen. Halt tries to persuade his twin brother, King Ferris, to use his troops to drive the cult out. In the end, the cult loses power in Clonmel, but the leader, Tennyson, runs away to try to reach the other five sections, which he controls. Will, Halt and Horace leave Clonmel to chase the false prophet. After reaching a smuggler's port and managing to get information on Tennyson's whereabouts, the trio hires a ship to take them to Picta, where a smuggler had taken him. The chase is on as the three pursue him through a drowned forest, and finally, at an encounter with Tennyson's hired assassins, Halt is shot with a poisoned arrow and incapacitated. Due to Picta's geographical location being near Macindaw, Will does a tiring one-day one-night ride to reach Malcolm, the man that assisted them before and is possibly the best healer in all of Araluen, if not the world. After bringing the healer back, Will learns that Halt was poisoned with a toxin that has another toxin extremely similar to it, and the both have antidotes, but the wrong one will kill him. Will then captures the assassin that fired the arrow, and forces him into telling which type of toxin he used, and Malcolm cures Halt. Later that night, the assassin tries to escape, but Will manages to kill him before he does. The group, on the move again, manage to find that Tennyson is up to his old tricks again and is trying to swindle the money out of more countrymen. Using Halt's similarity to King Ferris, whom Tennyson murdered, they manage to discredit Tennyson in front of the farmers. The trio then proceeds to use their reputation as Rangers and drives the men off. They then manage to kill Tennyson by dropping all of Malcolm's self-made noisemakers, causing a cave-in that buries Tennyson and his followers in the debris, giving Halt, Horace, and Will a heroes' welcome when they return to Araluen.

The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

The Emperor of Nihon-Ja is the tenth and latest installment in the Ranger's Apprentice book series by Australian author John Flanagan. In this adventure Horace is studying Nihon-Ja fighting techniques and Will and Halt are on a diplomatic mission with Alyss. When Horace finds out there is a rebellion against the emperor his instincts kick in and he, as always, gets involved. Back in Araluen, Evanlyn thinks Horace has gone missing. She shows up unexpectedly to ask a suspicious Alyss, Will and Halt for help, along with Selethen and the Skandians. Meanwhile Horace is risking his life for the emperor. Overcoming death and despair he stumbles upon Will and his other friends. Can they figure out a way to save the emperor?  Find out here:

 

Kindle 3G with Special Offers

Check out the new Kindle 3G with Special Offers. Apparently you can get the Kindle with a few ads, for a slightly reduced price. I don't know how most people feel about that, but it would definitely bother me.

There are quit a few good offers included. Visit Kindle 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 3G Works Globally, Graphite, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology to check it out!

Book of the Day

The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness (3rd Edition Revised and Updated)


All I can really say about this is WOW! My wife and I got this as a wedding gift back in November, and I finally started reading it. I am going to implement the ideas in this book into my life. The ideas are mostly just common sense, but the book challenges you to do them, and gives you and outline on how. This makes it very easy to follow.

I definitely recommend this read.

Pick it up for your Kindle here!

Book of the Day

The Night's Dawn Trilogy


I just recently finished this series of books. In the US the paperback editions have been split into 6 books. It's a very good read if your into the Sci-fi genre. I love the fact, that the Kindle format contains the whole series in one download.

The characters here are very in depth, and the story spans a large portion of the galaxy. Elements of this series seem a little more towards the supernatural , with a scientific element.

A quick overview:

In the 27th century humans have colonised nearly 900 worlds, have living, sentient starships as well as the conventional kind, and are also living in Asteroid communities and in large, living Space stations. Due to policies of 'Ethnic Streaming' by the colonisation authorities, worlds are generally united under a single government, with these governments collectively forming a Confederation. The Confederation includes both Adamists and Edenists, two alien races (the Tyrathca and the Kiint), has an armed Navy (which acts primarily against smugglers, pirates and anti-matter production facilities, which are highly illegal) and a central 'house' based on the world of Avon. Earth is still an important world, with a massive population, exporting a massive number of colonists (both voluntarily and involuntarily), but virtually environmentally destroyed after years of technological abuse

The Dragonbone Chair: Book One of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn

I would list this series as one of my favorite of all time. It's actually been quite a few years since I read it, but every once in a while I find myself wanting to read it again. I definitely recommend this.

A quick Synopsis:

The story takes place on the fictional fantasy world of Osten Ard. The history of the world and the races present in Osten Ard have a great impact on the current events in the books. Thousands of years ago the long-lived Gardenborn arrived in the land, fleeing a cataclysm. They were three tribes, the Zida'ya (commonly called Sithi), the Hikeda'ya (also called Norns) and the Tinukeda'ya (known as Dwarrows and Niskies). In Osten Ard the Gardenborn prospered and they built nine great cities of tremendous beauty. The first two tribes had ruled the third in their ancestral home called the Garden, but in Osten Ard the Tinukeda'ya went their own way, developing into two separate tribes, the sea-faring Niskies and the earth-dwelling Dwarrows. The other two tribes also split ways, making a pact at Sesuad'ra, the Stone of Farewell. Their main subject of argument was the appearance of Men or mortals in Osten Ard. The Zida'ya were content to leave Men alone to go their own way, as long as they didn't trespass in Sithi lands. The Hikeda'ya were of the opinion that the mortals had to be wiped out or driven from Osten Ard. The Norns and their fell queen Utuk'u, eldest and most powerful of the Gardenborn, removed to the north of the world, taking the two northern-most cities for their own. Three cities were also given to the Tinukeda'ya, one was sea-bound Jhina't'senei which went to the Niskies and the other two were deep under the earth which went to the Dwarrows, the smaller tribe of the Tinukeda'ya. In the greatest of them all, Asu'a, the High King ruled.
But Men began to prosper and advance and the sea empire of Nabban rose and fell without it disturbing the Gardenborn. The Sithi also had great friendship with the Hernystiri of the west. Then the Rimmersmen came with iron and to them the Gardenborn were devils and demons, to be killed on sight. Unfortunately the Gardenborn suffer from a severe allergy to iron and even with their magics and their own iron-hard witchwood weapons, they were beaten back, one after the other. The Hernystiri were the only ones who stood by the Sithi in the final battle where both armies were destroyed. The remaining Sithi withdrew to Asu'a and there awaited the end. Ineluki, the King's younger son, wove terrible magic at the end with five of his servants and there they and Asu'a were destroyed. However, the spell gave the remaining Sithi time to flee to Aldheorte forest, where they continued to live in secrecy.
During the five hundred years that follows the fall of Asu'a, six different kings ruled in the castle built on the Sithi ruins, called Hayholt. The latest of these is king John Presbyter, who is dying as the story opens.
Simon is an ordinary scullery boy who is taken under the tutelage of Morgenes. When King John Presbyter dies and his son Elias ascends the throne, the way opens for a long-dormant evil to enter the realm. Elias, driven by his evil advisor, moves to eliminate his brother Josua. Caught in the struggle, Simon is forced to flee as best he can, and the young man soon finds himself taking part in adventures he had only dreamed of.

Grab the book here!