Series Review: A Dream of Eagles

Happy Canada Day everyone!

Today I thought I'd take a quick look at one of my favourite Canadian authors, Jack Whyte, and his most famous series, A Dream of Eagles.


To be fair, Mr. Whyte was born in Scotland, but has been living in Canada since the '60s so I think it's fair to say as a nation we've adopted him.

The series takes a look at Arthurian legend (stories of King Arthur and his round table) and focuses on it through the lens of historical fiction, attempting to view the story behind the legend, the original story of the king, the wizard the sword in the stone and Camelot and tries to put together a framework which could one day become the legend with which we are all so familiar today.

The series is great - the novels are quite big but move quickly and are filled with action, adventure and romance (which does get a bit steamy at times).  The concepts of how all these pieces might have come together to form the backbone of the legend are incredibly clever and I can honestly say that these may be my favourite books on the topic - and over the years I've read everything from La Mort D'Artur to The Mists of Avalon.


If you haven't checked these books out before they are a great treat and I really hope you enjoy them.

Things I've Noticed: Sometimes I speak too soon

Happy Canada Day everyone! (for those of you South of the boarder, that means we get Friday rather than Monday off this weekend).

A couple weeks ago I gave my first impressions of the PS3 Game Assasins Crreed. I used phrases like "cut-scenes that go on forever," a "Bizarre game-within-a-game set-up," and finally an open-ended style that was "so vague" it came off as unhelpful.

Now, a couple weeks later and just about halfway through the game I'd like to re-address these issues.

First: Sorry - I spoke too soon and as my playing style (a couple hours each Saturday and Sunday) limits the amount of time I'm playing any game, I found it hard to get involved with the story. Four weeks into the game and I'm actually having a lot of fun.

Second: The open ended nature of the game, although difficult to figure out at first, gets to be a lot more fun as I start exploring the cities throughout the game. Basically you begin by climbing to the high spots throughout the city, then look around and get a bunch of mini-missions to do - the more mini-missions completed the better a chance you have at assassinating the bad guy in each level. Once the game got rolling I found this to be a lot of fun.

Finally: I'm still not a big fan of the game-within-a-game structure, every once in a while the character wakes up, is able to view two scientists argue and then goes to bed. Seriously, although you can wander around the lab, and occasionally read some emails or find a secret code, there isn't really a lot to this aspect of the game (so far - see I can learn!)

Anyway, almost immediately after my first review the game started to be a lot of fun, and in the spirit of all Canadians everywhere, I'd just like to say - sorry.

Happy Canada Day Everyone!!!

Happy Canada Day

For all my Canadian Readers (Hello my lovely wife) Happy Canada Day!

For everyone else, I'll try to answer the question of "Why aren't any businesses in Canada answering the phone today?"

Although for most of the world today was a pretty regular Wednesday, for us up in the Great White North it's our National Holiday. Yup, Canada Day (which used to be known as Dominion Day) celebrates the enactment of the British North America Act back in 1867 when our country began the journey to being the great nation it is today.

It's a pretty big deal for us, we have fireworks, a statutory holiday, and my grocery store sells cupcakes with little Canadian flags on them.

Anyway, I'll be back onto my regular reviews and musings next week, I just wanted to send out a quick note wishing everyone a great Canada Day.