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Title: The 80 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time
Authors: Jonathan Vankin & John Whalen
ISBN: 0806525312
Format: Over Sized Paperback - 718 pages
Rating: Overall Concept - 8/10
Execution - 7/10

It has been sometime since I invested this much time in a non-fiction book. The reason this one caught my eye is because I've always been intrigued by Conspiracies and was watching a show of the same title on Tech TV. On that show they repeated interviewed Jonathan Vankin commenting on his being the coauthor of this book. I was intrigued enough to spend the $30+ CDN to own this book.

The book is a collection of 80 conspiracies that are listed as the 'greatest'. It covered varied topics from The Shroud of Turin, the sarin attacks of Shoko Asahara's cult "supreme truth" (Aum Shinrikyo), the fake moon landings, and of coarse the JFK/RFK assassinations and the 9/11 disaster.

At first I would say that the problem with this book is that the predominate number of these conspiracies are of USA origin. But after some reflection, that makes sense as 1) the authors are American and therefore have a bias towards their own countries views, 2) the proliferation of media in the USA provides more opportunity for conspiracies to flourish and therefore seem great and 3) the USA has an interesting penchant for going to great lengths to prove that their leaders are both corrupt and incorruptible (yes, this is meant to be contradictory).

Being a dabbler into conspiracy theory, I was aware of a fair number of the ones mentioned in this book; however there were some nice surprises. There were some I had never heard of before (i.e. the 'assassination' of Pope John Paul I) and some interesting twists on those I did (i.e. that Mark David Chapman was 'brainwashed' to kill John Lennon). Actually, the most interesting 'twist' is that with regards to 9/11 the authors choose to debunk all the theories regarding this they can. Essentially what they argue is "the bigger the disaster, the bigger the disbelief". They do discuss various 'issues' of the event, but seem to say "it was a huge tragedy and any attempt at conspiracy theory (denial) is both pointless and a waste of time, accept it and deal with the consequences".

My only disappointments in this book are 1) that some of the conspiracies are covered to quickly and 2) there is a certain expectation, on behalf of the authors, that the reader is well versed in the players of US politics (past and present).

I would recommend this book to anyone who has a burgeoning interest in Conspiracy Theory, but for an average reader this will seem like just that much nonsense.

Title: The Piercing
Author: John Coyne
ISBN: 0425054764
Format: Paperback - 261 pages
Rating: Overall Concept - 6/10
Execution - 7/10

When I was about 10 years old, I remember seeing a commercial for a movie. In this commercial it alternates between a woman sleeping on a bed and a spider dropping from the ceiling. It ends with the girl sitting bolt upright and gasping, as if the spider had just jumped down her throat. When I found this book, which shows a woman in bed with a fearful look on her face, I thought I had found the novelization of the movie in question. I have since learned that the movie in question was "Deadly Blessing's" by Wes Craven and starring Sharon Stone (her first movie I hear).

This book is actually a typical 'b-rated' horror novel of the seventies. It covers one of my favourite sub-genres, which I refer to as the 'questions of faith' horror novel.

The story revolves around a young girl in the Appalachians, who is a member of an extremely poor family living in a shack and two priests of a small Catholic parish near by. She is experiencing the 'stigmata' (the wounds of Christ (whippings, crown of thorns, nails through hands and feet, stab to the side)) and the two priests are trying to help/minister her through these tumultuous moments. And as it typical of this subgenre, the priests are both flawed. The elder priest is to ready to accept this as an act of God and the younger priest is unable to fulfill his vows of celibacy (he's having sex with a college student from the college parish he used to run, and to just add more fuel to the fire she happens to be Jewish).

Needless to say the book if full of bad times for everyone involved.

Every once in a while it is good to read some mental bubblegum, and this was one of those times.

I would recommend this book to those who sometimes feel the need to sometimes read a 'b-rated' novel, just for the pure escapism of it.

Title: The Legacy
Author: John Coyne
ISBN: 0425041832
Format: Paperback - 246 pages
Rating: Overall Concept - 6/10
Execution - 5/10

Once again, when I was about 10 I remember a commercial for a horror movie called the Legacy. The commercial showed a lovely young woman sitting outside a bed surrounded by various hospital equipment and as the woman leans closer to the bed, a hideous hand/claw grabs her by the wrist. And this is the novelization of that movie.

I have seen the movie fairly recently (most interesting that Roger Daltry is in it) and thought, I wonder what the novelization is like.

Unlike some novelizations that actually add to the movie experience, this one does nothing but reproduce it scene by scene. There are a few scenes early on that add to the background of the host of characters, but they are few and weak.

Now the essential story is that an American architect is hired by a prestigious London hotel to redecorate their new hotel. She and her boyfriend head to London and have some time to vacation before the job. They bum around the country side on a rented motor cycle. As they bum around they get run off the road by a luxurious limo and the owner offers to let them stay at his mansion until the bike is fixed. However, as with most horror novels, this isn't just an idyllic country estate but actually the coven for five powerful people and their mentor. As the novel progresses the characters begin to die in very disturbing ways and the main character and her boyfriend have several close calls themselves. The ending has a nice twist, but happens to quickly to be truly effective.

I would recommend that anyone interested in this story might be better served by watching the movie (if you can find it).


Title: Forged
Author: Thomas M. Reid
ISBN: 1592630103
Format: Paperback - 316 pages
Rating: Overall Concept - 7/10
Execution - 8/10

With the new Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition rules came a lot of new faces to the DnD industry. One of those new faces is Bastion Press with there campaign setting Oathbound. I have heard several good things about the Oathbound setting but didn't feel it warranted the $40 purchase for the main book, especially if I found out that it wasn't to my liking. Then Bastion decided to publish an independent novel that takes place in this new campaign setting. This is that novel. And actually this is only the first of a trilogy, which will be published one book per year for the next two years. I couldn't justify the $40 but perhaps a $10 novel would satisfy my curiosity enough to help me decide if the new campaign setting would work for me or my gaming club.

After 40 or so pages into the book I was mortified by the fact that several of the pages in the first part of the book had separated from the cover! And considering how carefully I read mass market paperbacks (you'll never see a crease in the spine of a book that has only been read by me) this was most unacceptable.

However, the quality of the story and the writing easily kept me going enough to finish this book (praying all the while that the bindings would last).

The book follows the basic premise of a standard campaign in Oathbound. The character is magically drawn from their native home/plane and end up on a world called Forge. The character has to adapt to several new concepts (i.e. heightened senses and emotions, magic, magical creatures, people of exotic races, and the world itself). Along the way the character interacts with several other characters and has to accept his new 'way of life.'

The author has a good grasp on storytelling skills and pacing. His story was rather graphic, but nothing that any other fantasy novel hasn't already covered. Actually his forthright nature was very appealing, mostly due to the rarity of such a style in today’s day and age, everyone seems preoccupied with symbolism or some such, as opposed to just stated what they mean.

I don't wish to give any of the concepts of the book away so as to avoid spoiling the freshness of the new campaign setting for someone like myself, who wanted to see what Oathbound was all about. I am fairly certain that for those of you that know Oathbound, the book will be a fair representation of the world.

All in all I would heartily recommend this book to any gamer and would also argue that any good reader of fantasy would be appreciative of this novel. Now to see if the other two books in this trilogy make for a good read as well.