Singularity's Ring is a science-fiction novel exploring concepts of identity and group minds. In the future, or so the story goes, humanity will be bound together in groups or pods of two, three, four and sometimes five. Although pod members retain their individual names, skills and personalities, these are expressed primarily within the pod and they are capable of only limited independent activity.
Author Paul Melko has drawn a convincing world where these group minds have taken over humanity democratically (because each member of each pod has a vote) and the remaining 'singletons' live somewhat resentfully in enclaves. We gradually learn that the pod culture has followed something called the Gene Wars, and the Community, an attempt at creating a gestalt entity from six billion humans that went disastrously wrong. The Community ...
Advantages: Impressive, Neolithic site Disadvantages: That concrete filling, which to be fair is not noticeable
The Ring of Brodgar is a Neolithic henge and stone circle thought to have been erected between 2500BC and 200BC on the mainland island of Orkney and is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Apparently henges (that is the circular flat area and surrounding bank/ditch) do not usually have stone circles in them and therefore this site along with Stonehenge are anomalies. Unfortunately because of the prominence of Stonehenge and the fact that a flat circular bit of land from Neolithic times doesn't really look like much, the unusualness of the site is rather overlooked as people flock to see yet another stone circle.
Of the probable original 60 stones, 27 remain in a huge circle in an otherwise unremarkable field. The circle is 104 metres in diametre which is a massive distance when you are standing in the centre of it. Whilst I have ...
Advantages: Just a truly great realisation of a truly great novel - most of the effects, acting and setting is spot on and I couldn't have asked for more Disadvantages: May not suit non-fans, is rather long, the troll, I have to wait a year for the sequel
My Story
I must begin by confessing, I'm a bit of a Lord of the Rings nut. Now, I know many people going won't have read the book, or may have done so (or started doing so) years ago and forgotten it. Well, I was read The Hobbit as a child, after enjoying a spoof computer game 'Bored of the Rings' at the age of 10-11 I read Lord of the Rings for the first time. Since then, I've read it two more times, plus other Tolkien books (including The Silmarilion and Book of Lost Tales), played the games, seen an animated version of LOTR (as it shall henceforth be know) and to be honest, I was rather apprehensive about whether the film could live up to expectations.
Well, I went to see it with three friends tonight (Genny, George and James) and I needn't have feared - we all really enjoyed it. Despite a variety of backgrounds (me being ...
