Odysseus’ lack of bravery appears again in Sophocles’ Philoctetes. He is unwilling to be in line of sight of Philoctetes, who is one of the best archers in all of Greece. In addition to Philoctetes skill with the bow, he wields Heracles’ bow along with the arrows tipped in the Hydra’s blood (p. 364, Powell). So, Odysseus instead sends Neoptolemus to meet Philoctetes and trick both the bow and the man into coming to Troy (p. 165, Philoctetes)...

With each new installment of The Dresden Files I find that I am filled with giddiness due to the rising anticipation of the story. And as I have consumed each new chapter in this series I have found that I have not been disappointed. Through each of the fourteen novels I have watched Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden learn and grow, as well as defeat enemies he should have no right walking away from...

Through this action Odysseus keeps a firm grasp on his honor, despite his earlier cowardice. Ajax has no one with whom he could truly connect — no one of equal stature to help him through his problems. For all the past deeds and the honor he has accrued, ultimately it takes Odysseus, a man he wishes to murder (Ajax), to grant him honor after death...

I remember a few years ago, well maybe closer to five years ago, I was walking through a local Barns & Noble and out of the corner of my eye I saw a hardcover book which cover caught my eye. I immediately picked it up, gave it a once over and was gripped by the reviews. I am fairly sure the book was not The Final Empire, it was The Hero of Ages, if my memory serves me correctly...

Greek Mythology has always interested me, so much so that while I was at college I took a class on the subject. During the class I was required to write a paper that counted as a significant portion of my grade. For a while I had trouble thinking about my topic, but then it came to me. And it intrigued my professor at the time, so over the next several posts I will share the paper I wrote back in April of 2004...

Often I will come across a show that I have never heard of and I immediately fall in love with, only to find out that it has already been cancelled. Typically this happens as I’m three or four episodes into the series...

What is it about books that make them so hard to translate to the screen? The first thing that pops into my mind is the depth of a book. There is so much occurring throughout the pages that to force the book into the constraints of a movie certain things must be forfeited. No one will sit through a six to eight hour movie, it just won’t happen. Rarely, a movie will run very close to a book, in fact I have seen it happen only a couple of times...

Audio books are an incredible way to consume literature… well some types of literature anyway. I do not care how good a narrator might be, he will be unable to adequately describe a technical diagram in sufficient detail. So technical literature aside, listening to an audio book can bring the story alive in different ways than simply reading it ever could. Yet there are those who believe that listening to an audio book is a bad thing, almost childish...

As technology grows every day, it ever so slowly seeps into the world of literature. Just four years ago if e-books were thought of at all they were considered a joke. Used only by a handful of people, they were quickly dismissed by the vast majority. Not caring about the lack of an apparent market or the other dedicated e-ink e-readers already on the market, Amazon released its first generation Kindle...

A good book is a wonderful thing; it can comfort your soul as it carries your mind into a new world. As a fantastic story speeds to its inexorable conclusion you begin to dread and, at the same time, yearn for the climax. On the one hand, the engrossing plot and the compelling characters make you wish the story would continue and would never end...

What is an acceptable piece of literature? Are stories only acceptable after they have survived for generations? Do they have to be distributed throughout the world? Or can they be contained in just a handful of pages?..

When I hear the name Richard Castle, my first thoughts are not of actual books, but of the ABC television show, Castle. Not content dominating his assigned hour entertaining us, Richard Castle reaches out from the screen and into our lives through his Niki Heat series...

The SciFy original show, The Invisible Man, aired back in 2000. It was a fun and campy show. Watching you could tell that the actors had a lot of fun with each other and the show...

As I re-read Wizard’s First Rule I began to think about how I’ll often favor something familiar over something new. Whether it is reading a book I like, watching a favorite movie or television show, or revisiting the same favored places, I always seem to favor reliving past experiences over trying new things...

About a month ago I went to see “The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey” in the theater. I went into the movie thinking Peter Jackson would treat this book the same way he did the Lord of the Rings series, as a single movie per book. Since I have yet to read the Lord of the Rings I can not comment on its transition to the silver screen...