Category Archives: Books

The Holy Orb (Short Story) – Part 3

Continued from Part 2.

David read the verses back and forth several times before the fact that he was supposed to solve a riddle dawned on him.
He began to whisper the verses:
“So three dozens, that makes about thirty-six object, are divided equally, so among the twelve there must be four Crosses, four Candles and four Chalices… that‟s clear. Now, begin with light and end with light… maybe the first artifact is a candle…”

He looked at the poem again and thought he got the first clue but he soon turned skeptical.
He looked around and he could see people walking. Some were praying near the altar, others were kneeling in front of statues of Mary and Joseph and Jesus. Everyone was preoccupied with asking God to help him with his own troubles, and not one of them cared about the difficulties David was facing.
He looked around and saw an old woman, with long silvery hair. She had a serene look on her face. She moved gracefully as if flying a couple of inches above the ground. She was moving towards David at a slow pace. But there was something about her that he couldn‟t quite describe.

She moved closer and sat on the bench right in front of him but did not talk with him.
That situation lasted for about three minutes until David breathed a deep sigh and the woman looked at him. He looked back, straight into her eyes and a look of shock appeared on her face.
“Tu peux me voir?” she gasped in amazement.
“Oui, je peux, c’est une stupide question… tu es la et j’ai des yeux”
“Ah! Alors tu ne sais pas qui je suis ou quel est mon état physique, metaphysique pour etre de plus en plus precis?”
David looked at her in awe. What was she talking about? She was right there, flesh and bone, in front of him. But who was she? He didn‟t have any clue whatsoever.
“Look!” he spoke in fast English. “I don‟t know who you are, and I don‟t know what sort of metaphysics you‟re discussing. Now if you‟ll excuse me, there is something time-consuming that I‟m preoccupied with!”
The woman did not reply. David couldn‟t figure out if she understood him or not; he did appreciate, however, the silence as he returned to the poem.
It was then that the woman caught a look of what he was reading and a look of utter happiness appeared on her face.
“I can help you with that poem!” she said calmly.
“Excuse me?” asked David, half not-hearing what she said exactly and the other half not quite sure if what he heard was true.
“You heard me…. I can help you with the poem. I know the sequence. I created the poem. That’s my handwriting…”
David looked up at the woman and tried to comprehend what she said.
He looked at her again and thought for a moment. He decided that he had nothing to lose.

The Holy Orb (Short Story) – Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

“David, do you really have to go?” his girlfriend said in a rather sing-song voice. “I really want you to stay with me!”
He smiled. “Elodie, I honestly can‟t – the Magiliement has forbidden me from even trying to come see you! What would they do if they saw me here? A lot of people are dying, and no one is knowing how” he said as he caressed her hair. “I‟d rather stay with you! But they are after me! Whatever! I don‟t really care!”

“I know! By the way, I like your new necklace!”

And then a man came out of nowhere. He took David by the hand and pulled him away – the next thing David knew he was standing in a bustling downtown. Italian sentences were jumping out everywhere. David was in Rome.
He looked at the man who he knew was from the Magiliement: the magical parliament. He smiled, attempting to make things feel less tense. The man, however, did not smile back. He kept looking ahead as if his gaze was trying to conjure something – a moment later, a birch tree stood right in the center of the piazza.

“Come on!” he said as he ran to the tree. David followed suit. “Ok… this tree is a gate to Nostro Signora Del Spirito!” the man said, and David looked puzzled. “It‟s a church!” he said impatiently. “And I‟m supposed to go to a church because –?” asked David sarcastically, receiving a stern look. “Ok… ok!! I‟ll go!” and he entered the newly opened portal.

His feet left the ground … he was weightless, moving through nothingness… and then he hit firm ground. He was standing on a hill, next to a gothic looking church. He opened the door and entered. The place inside was sublime.
He ran towards the only thing he considered to be out of place: a golden table on which a scroll was found. Then, something else appeared: a rather complex looking pedestal with spots for objects, along with three dozen different artifacts: Crosses, chalices and candles. It was the first time David saw bare candles burning glowing red, blue, green and transparent lights.

Then he looked at the scroll, which seemed to be old since its edges were rather worn out. Before reading it, however, he looked around and noticed none of the other worshipers in the church could see him. Not wanting to dwell on that idea for long, he unrolled the scroll and read.

Three Dozens divided equally

In fours, you create a symbol, religiously.

Crosses, Chalices and Candles conjured magically

Will get you to the place you seek so desperately,

Begin with light and end with light… but not so lightly,

Lucidity is a color created powerfully,

Then lines combine and become divinely

A vessel follows and cradles so motherly

The next lines that embrace a soft glittering so passionately,

Next, you ought to, recognize the existence of a series, logically

Dozens divided to occupy twelve spots so perfectly,

Get the first six, right and the next six will follow smoothly

Only reversion and disorientation will fail your quest greatly

We leave you the option to decipher our Scroll intellectually

To get past our mind maze manufactured so meticulously

The power that is bestowed upon us is not to be taken carelessly

Either you get it or you’re stopped on your quest unquestionably…

The Holy Orb (Short Story) – Part 1

This is a short story that I wrote a few years ago for an English course. It’s Harry Potter-inspired and I hope you’ll take the chance to read it and let me know what you think.

I’ll be posting it in a few parts. Presenting part 1.

As mortals bristled by to their workplaces, it seemed no one noticed as a long golden-scaled snake slithered next to their feet. Its eyes gleaming bright blue; its slit-tongue hissing, the snake took a detour into a shady alleyway right outside an antiques shop. It remained still in front of a wall before spitting three drops of poison on a small lever that was only visible to it.

The lever revolved and spun upwards as the bricks of the wall in front of it started to fade away to reveal what seemed to be another dark alley.
The snake hissed something that seemed strangely satisfactory before entering through the newly opened passage.

The lane was bordered on the right by low and strangely crafted sculptures. They showed people getting tortured.
On the left, a brick wall stood erect, on which characters of an unknown language were carved. The snake continued, hissing furiously trying to sense its way.

It stood in front of the seventh statue and slithered up to the woman‟s neck, who was shielding herself from a tall wizard. The snake, then, wrapped itself around the neck and squeezed three times. A scream emanated from the woman‟s mouth each time it did so. The statue‟s neck broke the third time, sending the woman‟s head tumbling to the ground.
As the statue‟s stones faded into nonexistence, a staircase appeared where the woman‟s feet had once been.
The snake slithered down into what seemed to be an underground church.

The Cross-shaped ceiling was all that remained to indicate the true nature of the place. Everything else was dismantled.
An empty chair stood on the altar.
The snake moved to the chair and as it neared the altar, it transformed into a man.

He flicked his fingers around and a bluish glow illuminated the place. Then, one by one, people started to appear, surrounded by heavy dark smoke.

“So…” he breathed eerily. “Will we be able to get the boy before he gets to the orb?”
A man who appeared to be one of his followers approached him fearfully, shaking.
He breathed. “David Parker is nowhere to be found – the Magiliement has sealed him well!” “SILENCE!” the snake man roared. He pointed his wand at the man who breathed furiously, shallowly in front of him – a jet of yellow light emanated out of the tip of his wand and the man fell to the floor, lifeless – dead. “This is what you get when you disappoint me!” he said calmly, his mouth twisting into a smile.

He drew out his long, pointed yellow nail and drew a sphere in the air. He looked at bright blue eyes that shone at him, as David Parker sat with his girlfriend on the lawn of his university, his hand bristling through her hair.

Kane Chronicles: The Throne of Fire (Book Review) – Rick Riordan

The story of Sadie and Carter Kane picks up with The Throne of Fire, three months after the events of The Red Pyramid.

After getting new recruits into their Brooklyn home and starting their training process, Sadie and Carter are met with the realization that their world-saving job is not over yet. Apophis, the Egyptian lord of Chaos, is preparing to break out of his prison come the Spring Equinox, which is five days after the start of the book.  And the only way to possibly prevent Apophis from escaping is to wake up the Sun God: Ra. But in order to wake up Ra, they must find the three parts of the Scroll of Ra, which are scattered in three different locations that they must determine.

At the same time, not all the gods want to see Ra return because that would mean them not getting a shot at the throne anymore. So it is with both internal and external resistance that they must go on their quest, not knowing that it might well be Apophis’ plan for them to bring back an old and fragile and senile Ra so the world can finally sink in Chaos.

The Throne of Fire stays true to the writing style of the book that preceded it: both Carter and Sadie tell parts of the story. At times, when both characters go on separate ways to fulfill the quest, it is needed to keep you informed of the happenings. The intelligent thing about such a style is that it allows the author, Rick Riordian, to create cliffhangers every few chapters with a character and pick up where the other character left off, leaving you in the dark about what might have possibly happened and keeping you hooked to the pages of his book, wanting to know what happens.

And like its predecessor, The Throne of Fire keeps up with using Egyptian mythology to drive the plot, especially with the story of how Ra got exiled in the first place, as well as the importance of that mythology in fulfilling their quest.

However, unlike The Red Pyramid, The Throne of Fire has obvious girl-boy romantic interactions, mostly with Sadie who starts expressing romantic interest in two characters. And Carter has a side plot in the book involving saving his love interest from the first book, a girl named Zia Rashid.

I have one main gripe with The Throne of Fire, which is a serious lack of understanding (and obviously no will to research) of the Arabic language. At some point, it is revealed that the location of Zia Rashid is “Al Ahmar Makhan.” Not only is this is a literal translation of “The Red Place” but it is also the incorrect way to spell “Makhan” and the incorrect way to write the expression. It doesn’t stop here. According to the author, “makhan” means red and “al ahmar” means sand, which for anyone familiar with Arabic knows it’s almost the opposite and “al ahmar” means red, not sand.

However, with that aside, The Throne of Fire remains an enjoyable book, although it’s quite shorter than its predecessor. I can’t wait for the final installment in the Kane Chronicles, scheduled for a May 2012 release.

Kane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid (Book Review) – Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan is the author behind the Percy Jackson book series, which I’ve read and enjoyed.
While the Percy Jackson books are about Greek mythology, Riordan, a history teacher, admitted that if there’s a culture that tops the Greek one in class discussions, it’s the Egyptian ancient culture (obviously not the current one).

And so, it is from that basis that he wrote his second book series (there’s also a third one being a continuation of the Percy Jackson series and titled: The Heroes of Olympus): The Kane Chronicles.

The first book of the series is titled The Red Pyramid and it follows the lives of Sadie and Carter Kane, two siblings, who lose their mother to mysterious causes and are forced to live apart for six years: Carter globe-trotting with his Egyptologist father and Sadie with her grandparents, in London.

However, on Christmas eve, as Carter and his father Julius show up in London for their annual visit of Sadie, a sense of alarm is in the air but the kids do not know the cause. And when their dad takes them to the British Museum to examine the Rosetta Stone and ultimately destroying it, it is revealed that their dad is not a regular human. He can do magic. And soon enough, it is revealed that they are both descended from powerful Royal Egyptian bloodlines, making them both Magicians and holding the blood of the Pharaohs.

However, with power comes persecution – especially when both Sadie and Carter are truly clueless about the power they have. And when both start to have visions that foretell the Egyptian God Set preparing the destruction of North America, they must do all they can to stop him.

The interesting thing about Riordan’s books is that, even though they might be childish at times, they still hold very interesting material for you to read and it offers that material in a rather entertaining context. In this case, I am personally much more interested in Egyptology than I am with Greek mythology so I was positively entertained when the author used the stories of Egyptian gods to advance his plot.

The characters jump around many parts of the world using portals. They go from London to New York to Cairo to Paris to Memphis to Phoenix and Washington. Mix all of that in a rather tightly-packed book and you’re offered with a story that doesn’t let down. There’s always something happening.

Moreover, the writing style adopted by Riordan for this book is interesting. The book starts by saying that he received the text as a recording from both Sadie and Carter and that the book is more or less the transcript.
The book itself can be separated into two major parts that intertwine: the part told by Sadie and the part told by Carter, both of which are subtly quite different since both characters have different interests.

All in all, The Red Pyramid, albeit being a little hard to get into at first, is a very entertaining book for anyone who’s read the Percy Jackson books and liked them. It is the first book of the Kane Chronicles trilogy.

Review of book two: The Throne of Fire coming up tomorrow.