On the Verge of Lunacy

Masanosuke Akitsu is having a hard time keeping his jobs because of his personality. Although he's a skilled swordsman, he freezes up in a crowd and cowers when everyone's attention is on him. The shy ronin meets his opposite while wandering around town. Yaichi, leader of the gang called Five Leaves, hires him as a bodyguard. He finds the gang's covert activities discouraging however and several times he tries to extricate himself from the group. However, the more he knew Yaichi, Take, Umezou, and Matsukichi, he becomes more attached to the gang. His fascination with Yaichi leads him to discoveries of the latter's past that strengthens his admiration for the gang leader. The series has a very slow pace that matches the main character's personality. It takes a few episodes to establish the personality of each member as it is a character-driven story. There are also flashbacks in certain episodes that will only make sense as the story progresses. This is a diffe...

Charles John Tibbits wrote a brief introduction of the origin of myths and legends. He traces it back to animism. He wrote that investing life in all things, living or inanimate, probably arose from the language used to describe or name things. Some words are expressive of gender and because the items have genders, there is a possibility that qualities were given to the object as time passed. This a collection of 30 of those stories which originated from that concept. They are listed below: Gaffer Death The Legend of Paracelsus Hans in Luck The Grey Mare in the Garret The Water Spirit Peter Klaus The Legend of Rheineck The Cellar of the Old Knights in the Kyffhauser The Fisherman and his Wife The Mouse Tower The Dancers The Little Shroud The Arch Rogue Brother Merry Fastrada The Jew in the Bush The Elves The Conclave of Corpses Legends of Rubezahl, or Number-Nip The Hunter Hackelnberg and the Tut-Osel The Alraun The Goose-Girl Hans Jagenteufel The Waits...

Edited and translated by Charles John Tibbits This book is a collection of 29 stories, some of which are from the Edda. Readers will also find stories about the Norse gods although this book does not include the tales leading to Ragnarok. Included are a few stories about Thor and Loki. The following are the myths and legends included in this volume: The Wonderful Plough (Isle of Rugen) How a Lad stole the Giant's Treasure (Sweden) Tales of Cats (Denmark) The Magician's Daughter (Sweden) The Hill-man invited to the Christening (Denmark) The Meal of Frothi (Norway) The Lost Bell (Isle of Rugen) Maiden Swanwhite and Maiden Foxtail (Sweden) Tales of Treasure (Denmark) Holger Danske (Denmark) Tales from the Prose Edda      The Gods and the Wolf      The Strange Builder      Thor's Journey to the Land of Giants     ...

Don and his son Toby were out exploring the woods surrounding Timberlake farm. On their way back home, Toby found strange tracks on the snow. His father Don felt that the tracks were strange, but he dismissed them as footprints of some unknown animal. When he consulted his books and contacted his friend who said that the tracks aren't from any known animal in the vicinity, he became more suspicious. Toby had also sighted a strange creature with amber eyes peering at him at the windows. When they found one of their horses dead, Don knew his family, Toby, his son and Connie, his wife, is in danger. This book, published by Dean Koontz under the pseudonym Aaron Wolfe is a recollection of the strange events at Timberlake farm from the point of view of Don. He found himself battling for his sanity against an unknown force. The unfolding of the events leading to a shocking revelation was expertly done, creating more tension and anticipation towards the ending. Although the book is...

Although this game was set in the age of the Warring States in Japan, it doesn't focus on the human conflicts. Instead the player goes on a quest to stop the resurrected Nobunaga and the Genma from taking over feudal Japan and later on, the rest of the modern world. In the first game of the series, Onimusha: Warlords , Samanosuke Akechi received a letter from his cousin Princess Yuki asking him to rescue her from imminent danger. She observed that most of their servants are disappearing and strange events have been happening in the castle. Samanosuke was too late however. And what was supposedly a rescue mission turned out be a quest to rid the world of a much greater threat. The objectives of the first game are quite easy to follow. The player also has to remember everything he sees in the castle (doors to be opened, puzzle boxes, etc.) as some of these will help unlock items needed in the game. The boss fights aren't difficult as long as the player remembers the p...

The famous quartet from the Bridgeburners of the Malazan series. I tried to stick to the physical descriptions of the characters in the books. Link:  http://fav.me/d4salrp

Laseen from the Malazan series. Posted this on my deviantArt. Link:  http://fav.me/d4sal7b

Posted this on my deviantArt. I remember the first Spurs game I watched. That was 10 years ago. The Lakers were about to knock out the Spurs from the playoffs. I was more impressed with the silent Duncan than with the flashy duo of Kobe and Shaq. They were defeated but I became a loyal fan since then. Link:  http://fav.me/d4sakh9

This is a collection of eight of Dean Koontz's early science fiction short stories. Although this was compiled without a theme in mind, readers will notice that most of the stories focus on the emotional and psychological effects of new worlds and new discoveries on man. If the reader is looking for detailed descriptions of a new planet, species or breakthrough technology, this is not a book that I will recommend. The stories here are more than just that. The ff. are the stories included in this volume: Soft Come the Dragons - a man who was forced by circumstances to solve the mystery of the dragons' ability to kill people through eye contact has unravelled an equally mysterious answer. A Third Hand - a mutant and reject tries to help his murdered friend and finds himself face to face with a formidable foe. A Darkness in My Soul - a successful product of an experiment was asked to unlock the secrets of the mind of a super genius (I wrote a review on this. If you...

This book is an attempt to combine all the stories about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table from various sources to make a cohesive, fluid story. It is made up of sixteen chapters beginning in the prophecy of Arthur's birth to his defeat by Sir Modred. From chapter five to thirteen, however, the focus shifted to his well-known knights. There was very little attempt at characterization. Arthur and his knights were just as elusive and mysterious as they were before and after I read the book. There was no attempt to portray him as something else other than what the sources say. The book is just a narration of the events from his birth to his death and the things that happened in between. I cannot empathize with any of the characters even if some of them were portrayed as almost invincible, brave men and the best fighters in the world. Despite that, I'd still recommend this book to those who are interested in the Arthurian legends, particularly to those who are ...

This book, composed of four major sections, does not only talk about the world of the faeries but also discussed the various customs and beliefs connected to them. The first Book, The Realm of the Faerie  succinctly detailed the qualities of the five classes of faeries of Wales. It also mentioned the four major classes in the  Scandinavian folklore and its differences with the former method. Theories of the origins of the faeries were also discussed. If the reader is using this book as a reference, I advise him to take notes. The author did a thorough job in researching incidents of fairy sightings and encounters so much so that more than half of the book is a recollection of the stories. The ff. are the types of faeries discussed: 1. Ellyllon 2. Coblynau 3. Bwbachod 4. Gwragedd 5. Gwyllion The same trend was applied in the second Book, The Spirit-World . Sikes also used a method of classification to delineate the differences between the incidents. The class...