[Kinda Book Report] Beowulf

I received this a few years ago from Santa. Beowulf is a poem that is VERY interesting. I got a modern interpretation and will be honest in saying that I was hesitant to read a poem. I dislike poetry, it's just... not my thing. Any interest in it was crushed in Secondary 4 (10th grade)... Long ago...

Now we all know the story of Beowulf. A prince of the Geats who goes to Hroathar's hall and defeats Grendel, then Grendel's mother.

Now, I will admit that I found myself enjoying this book much more than I thought.

What I learned about the story is that it is one of the only book in Old English rescued from ~700AD. There are nods to a richer litterary tradition that is now lost to us. References to people we don't know about anymore. Links to events we forget about. I did not know that. There is so much we just do not know about it.

The story is well-known, but reading as close to the source material as possible is awesome. Gives you a snapshot of mankind in the past. What people thought at the time... What was important to them. What they believed. And Beowulf is no exception.

Not much more to say... I liked it. I would give it a 3.5, which rounds out to 4/5.

Grendel is the topic of one of my inspirational songs... From this post from 2015

[Crown of Tears] The Tower of St. Edras Part 1

Our heroes left civilization to explore and see if they could claim the Tower of St. Edras for themselves.

Their avaricious gazes sought the bounty of 5M for each troglodyte right hand, some hoped to get rich quick.

Finally, the tower came into view. It suffered from previous damage, as half of the building had collapsed, leaving one side open to the elements.

Waiting for them were three human bodies impaled on long stakes.

The Tower of St. Edras is not undefended...

[Crown of Tears] Some Wanted Posters

Some simple wanted posters I did for the campaign.

[Crown of Tears] Kickoff of the Tarsyn Campaign

This past Tuesday, we kicked off the new campaign, set in FOE's new Tarsyn Campaign setting.

The heroes were hired by a merchant to escort wagons carrying various supplies to the village of Darveshnagar on the border of the Mists. To their great dismay, what should have been a rather simple two-day trip was made much worse by the unexpected arrival of rain - sudden weather changes are not uncommon along the borders.

While they walked along the Darvesh River, a band of troglodyte warriors ambushed them. A furious battle broke out.

As night was soon to fall, they decided to rest in the ruin of a tower by the river, where again the trogolodytes came and attacked them, this time led by one of their druids and a massive dinosaur monster that blasted them. These creatures made a serious impact.

Questions remain... what were the troglodytes trying to steal? Why?

In the morning, they finally reached their destination and received payment.

[Kinda Book Report] African Samurai by Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard

I got this book in a trade for one of mine. I was interested in learning more about Yasuke, the African Samurai. Where do I begin to talk about how bad this book is... And how much I got screwed in the deal.

First off, it is more interested in not offending modern audiences and apologizing rather than explaining the realities of the era and letting the reader discern what he wants to think about it.

Second, we are presented with the history of a minor character among several very interesting characters. In fairness, they list their sources at the end and admit most of it is made up of conjecture.

Yasuke is presented as a Gary-Lou. He's always perfect. Makes the right thing. Does the right thing. Is on the right side of decisions all the time. Things always turns out right for him, except where the sources explicitly tell us.

All Europeans are presented as two-dimensional, moustache-twirling villains with dark ulterior motives for everything they do.

The "ending" include a number of fan-fiction possibilities of what may have happened to Yasuke.

In one section, I woke up my wife because they spend 2 pages arguing whether Yasuke was gay, but without proof - which they admit later. Pure speculation and conjecture. Most of this book is just that... Speculative fiction.

Did Yasuke exist? Yes?

Did most of what in this book happen? Maybe...

I would have up-voted with if this was the 10-page book of real material about Yasuke, not a 472 page book. I hope to get something from the secondhand bookstore.

In short, this is book is garbage. 1/5. I could not wait to be done with it.