First and foremost, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I went to my grandma's, where she, my family (me, my parents, and my two sisters), and my grandpa had dinner. It was kind of boring outside of that, so we watched Up and I brought my DS. The turkey and pie were great, of course, and I started playing The World Ends With You and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap again.

Now I decided since I made my list of favorite Zeldas on consoles I'll do the handheld ones now. Here goes!

5. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Four Swords (GBA)
Link to the Past is great, but obviously it's better to give it a shot on a nice big TV screen. And I'm judging this based on the new content, Four Swords, which was a fun diversion, but not very big on adventuring or the sheer scale most Zelda games have.

4. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
Okay, let's call a spade a spade. As great as the controls were in this game, the Temple of the Ocean King just brought it down like an anchor. I'm guessingif you do everything in the game minus the Temple, you get about fifteen hours of gameplay, depending on how good you are at mini-games (the archery one is pretty hard). Plus the Temple, you get more like twenty. And those are five very tedious hours. Great controls, pretty good story, it just wasn't that big and feltrushed.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening/ DX (NGB, GBC)
I think this one would've been very surprising in 1993, when the original Game Boy version came out. Reason being, the game is gigantic, by any handheld gaming standards. There's a ton to do. They didn't take any shortcuts with this handheld Zelda,to the point that itfeels as big as a console game. I put it below the top 2 rankings because it just felt weird to me, I guess. Cracking an egg open? A bunch of Mario references? It's a great game, it just didn't seem to catch the Zelda tone as well to me.

2. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GBA)
Wow. I love this game. Capcom was signed to a short contract with Nintendo to develop handheld Zelda games during the late Game Boy Color and full Game Boy Advanced years. This means they developed the Oracle games, Four Swords, (might've had a hand in Four Swords Adventures, not sure), and, of course, Minish Cap. They went out, but they went out in **** Everything about this game is fantastic. The controls are tight and fit the GBA like a glove, the graphics are colorful and beautiful, that ****c Hyrule Field Theme is just as grand as ever, even coming from a tiny GBA speaker... Just wow. Biggest complaint: it's too short. There are plenty of Kinstones to trade, but six or seven levels? A tad short for me.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Ages (GBC)
Maybe it's just that Oracle of Ages was my first Zelda game (I traded games with my friend to do the Seasons secret file later,having both gotten the gameswhen they came out in May,and then got Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask Christmas of that year). But I absolutely love these games. They're both a nice big nine dungeons long, full scale Zelda, probably each bigger than Link's Awakening because of the side quests and such. Each has an oracle to save, Din (Seasons) and Nayru (Ages). Each has a separate final boss, Onox (Seasons) and Veran (Ages). But once you beat one of the games, you can send that data over to the other game and beat it with an extra heart container right off the bat. You can also trade back and forth between games to get better weapons, more heart containers, lots of cool stuff. And, most importantly, if you beat both games using the secret file, you get the real ending, where you can fight Twinrova and a revived Ganon to save Zelda. ****c, eh? These games are huge in scale, and really do mesh together well. As the commercials said, it's one game that was too big for one cartridge. I get the feeling now that Capcom was under a lot of pressure to produce great Zeldas, since they're not Nintendo, so they wanted to prove themselves. They sure did. Oracle of Ages, to me, is a bit easier, so it might be a good call to play it first (unless you prefer the challenge of Seasons first), but either way, they're a lot of fun. Highly, highly recommended.

In other news, I've been playing a bit more No More Heroes, for the umpteenth time, on Bitter difficulty (a.k.a. Hard), and I'm at the rank 7 battle, Destroyman. For those who don't know, that means boss number four. It is quite the challenge, and I remember Henry, the secret final boss, is ridiculously hard to beat, but I can do it, I believe in myself.

Also, I beat Metal Gear Solid 3! Awesome ending, I really, really, REALLY want to play Metal Gear Solid 4 now.

Speaking of which...

Black Friday starts in an hour here! Or, since the deals start at5 AMgenerally, six hours.Some great deals:

At Wal-Mart: The 120 GB PS3 is at its normal $300 price tag, but it comes with The Dark Knight on Blu Ray, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and inFamous. I really want both games. I have Dark Knight on DVD, but it'd be cool to have it on Blu Ray. That's like... an $140, $150 deal? Sweet...

I would get it, but I don't have a bunch of money to Wal-Mart. I have a bunch of money to Gamestop. I have $180 on my Edge Card from used games and I have a few more to turn in (I don't think I'm going to replay FFIII, New Super Mario Bros. DS, MadWorld, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, or Metroid Prime: Hunters again). I'm also trying to get my sisters to part with lame stuff like Wii Play. Selling all of those, I'm guessing I'd be at... Idk, $200-$210? Usualjly I'd expect less since I'm trading in games at Gamestop, but these are fairly recent ones, and some are pretty popular.

Therefore, the Gamestop deals are what caught my eye: The PS3 is at normal $300 price here too, but it comes with the PS3 versions of God of War I and II and LittleBigPlanet. Also, I believe if you get Wii Sports Resort, you get an extra WiiMotionPlus free, a couple games (even some recent heavy hitters) are $10-20 off, and some games have higher trade-in value.

So my game plan:

1. Trade in all my games so my Edge Card is worth a total of $200 or so (have to bring my dad for this since, as of late, Gamestop wants you to be 18 to trade things in and I'm 17).

2. Convince my parents to let me get a PS3. If I'm paying for it myself, they probably won't care, and if I'm only paying $100 for a freakin PS3, it sounds like a deal to me.

3. Jack my sisters' money to help me get it. They want LittleBigPlanet, and my 14-year-old sister is interested in Call of Duty type stuff, oddly. No offense to teenage girls that are into shooters, but coming from her, at least, that's kind of strange.

4. If I can get this PS3 + God of Wars + LittleBigPlanet deal (savings of $100-$120 or so? Idk), trade in my PS2 versions of God of War I and II.

5. Buy Metal Gear Solid 4, since it's like $30 or something, which is amazing.

6. Maybe get another game or two.

7. Halle-freakin-lujah!

Hope this turns out well, and that you guys had a good Thanksgiving and will have a good Black Friday!

Whew. I think I've done a fair few book reviews for now, so I think I'll just write a normal blog, since I haven't for a little while (again).

I am now 100 pages into editing Alastair, my book. That makes me happy. Just 260 to go... Give or take, since it keeps getting longer or shorter as I edit.

I am deep into The Wheel of Time, Book One: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. It is fantastic, highly detailed, the characters feel very real (although Jordan does kind of stereotype women as whiny and sexist), and I am definitely going to keep reading through the series. That's saying something, because this book series is possibly the biggest ever. It's twelve books now, will be fourteen, and it's about 3 million words long and 9,000 pages long. Literally.

Tolkien, I just thought I'd let you know that there's an illustrated version of A Christmas Carol at your local bookstore now, fully illustrated by Brett Helquist! Might be worth checking out.

Yep, I definitely tore my ACL. I'm getting surgery in January, unless someone cancels at the doctor's so I can get in sooner.

I actually played a video game today! First off, I played more of Metal Gear Solid 3. It rocked. I just beat Volgin when you fight him next to the Shagohod after planting the C3. Awesome battle!I forgot how to do the Sorrowthing so I had to repeat it... That was annoying. But now I'm getting toward the end ofwhat I think is the best of the first 3games.

I also played some Phantom Hourglass. I was playingawhile agoand got to the last run through of the Temple of the Ocean King for my third time playing the game, and then... My DS froze. Yeah, I was pissed. Now I finally got the will to go back and finish it.

I will say, I don't think Phantom Hourglass is one of the best Zeldas out there. Very repetitive. I think they realized they'd been releasing a Zelda a year since 2000, and wanted to keep the trend going. Thus, we had the Temple of the Ocean King show up over and over, which made the game a lotlonger, clearly much easier to develop, and not as much fun. The most likely reason it was rushed is because Capcom quit making handheld Zeldas after Minish Cap so Nintendo has the full weight of the series on their shoulders again, and they wanted to keep their momentum going after Twilight Princess. Now, I think they've solvedthis problem for two reasons:

1. They decided to just take a year to do nothing but develop in 2008.Now they're not rushing thingsso we'd have anotherannual Zelda, and they canwork on keeping the quality of the franchise upto what it has been in the past. I'm fine with a year of no Zelda if the next game kicks some serious ass (there are some Zeldas I could've done without, I'll be honest). And

2. Spirit Tracks has a different director, so they've clearly split the Zelda franchise into two groups. While one works on Spirit Tracks, the other is working on Zelda Wii, so we get more effort behind all of the games and, therefore, we should be able to expect better games in general.

You see, I want as much Zelda as I can get, but I want it to be of the amazing quality the original, Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess were. That's asking a lot, I know, so I vote this: quality over quantity, which is how Nintendo has worked in the past. They very commonly make games that win Game of the Year awards, but that's their only contestant for the year. See Metroid Prime, Zelda: The Wind Waker, Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Super Mario Galaxy.

Let's look at my favorite (console) Zeldas, from least favorite to most, and see how many years of developmentthey (probably) had behind them.I haven't beaten The Adventure of Link, so we won't count that one.

On consoles:

7. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GC)

Well it wasn't a bad game... But I've played through it twice and even with three friends probably couldn't convince myself to do it again. The stages were all chopped apart so the exploring was gone, the story wasn't particularly deep... Not very Zelda. How long was it in development? Let's see, um, maybe a year? It was Nintendo, not Capcom, and it came out a year after Wind Waker. No wonder...

6. The Legend of Zelda (NES)

Probably around two years? Although it was much easier to develop games back then. It's kind of mean putting this next to Four Swords Adventures, because the game's fantastic. I guess it's just that my tastes include being able to actually beat the game without a guide.

5. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64)

Two years, because everyone wanted a sequel to Ocarina of Time.

4. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

Well it was four years between this one and its predecessor, but judging by how awesome Link's Awakening was (which came out a year later), they were probably being made side by side. So I'll give it... Three years? I know a lot of people are going to be all mad that I put this all the way down at fourth, but part of it is just that 3-D Zeldas tend to just be bigger, which makes them better to me. Also, it bugged me that it's harder to get to the Dark World than to the Light World. But whatever.

3. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GC)

Three years. And man did I love it... But the collection quest toward the end felt like a cop out, kind of like the Temple of the Ocean King. I mean it was fun exploring the ocean, butforcing us to do it made it less so.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)

Three years, and no collection quests.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)

Five years. Yes, they were developing for five years to get that damn Z-targetingsystem right.And guess who's on top?

My point is, I'm glad they took two years to develop Spirit Tracks, that should be enough time to make a good handheld Zelda. For Zelda Wii, I don't care if they push it back to 2011 (which is probably going to happen, judging by the Twilight Princess release date fiasco), as long as it's worthy of the name Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Wind Waker, and A Link to the Past have given this franchise. And Eiji Aonuma, who basically controls Zelda now, said he's not releasing it until they know it beats Ocarina, because he's mad that everyone says he hasn't topped it yet (Miyamoto directed Ocarina).

There's my take on Zelda. Can't wait for Spirit Tracks December 7! The railroad thing is interesting... Fresh idea, although I don't know how well it fits into the Zelda universe. Yes the game comes 100 years after Phantom Hourglass but... Steam engines? Oh well, I'll have to play it. But either way, controlling a Zelda phantom sounds awesome. I'm pumped!

Hi! It's been awhile! Sorry about that if you're into these reviews I guess, but there are a few things that have factored into this:

1. In taekwondo I landed a kick wrong and messed up my leg. I got an MRI. I think I tore my ACL, but it could just be something out of joint. Don't know yet, but that's been annoying.

2. I FINISHED MY BOOK! 361 pages at the moment, 98,000 words, 24 chapters. I'm editing now, and I'm 40 pages in. Just 321 to go lol.But I'm happy, I've been through drafts and drafts of it and I'm finally pretty happy with it...

3. I just wasn't feeling it.

This didn't really inhibit me writing reviews, but I've been reading a lot, as ever. I finished The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, and am now moving right along through The Wheel of Time 1: The Eye of the World. Apparently my parents really want me to read The Lost Symbol byt Dan Brown(Dad, as if I wasn't going to read it anyway) and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (Mom... Even the author doesn't know what genre that's classified under). That last is like 800-900 pages, so I think I'll read that second... And I already know Dan Brown's awesome. Then, at last, I can get to Pendragon 10, maybe some more Stephen King (although I think I'm going to try something outside of The Dark Tower), and more of The Wheel of Time, because book one is awesome so far.

And here... we... go!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling: 9.0
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling: 9.0
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling: 10
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling: 9.5
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling: 9.5
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: 8.5
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: 9.0
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien: 10
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien: 10
Eragon by Christopher Paolini: 8.5
Eldest by Christopher Paolini: 9.0
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini: 9.0
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King: 8.0
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King: 9.5
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands by Stephen King: 9.5
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman: 9.0
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman: 9.5
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman: 10
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer: 8.5
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer: 8.0
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer: 9.0
Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer: 8.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket: 7.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket: 7.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket: 7.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket: 7.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket: 8.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket: 8.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket: 8.5
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket: 8.5
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud: 9.0
The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud: 8.5
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis: 7.5
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis: 9.0

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy, the third book chronologically and the fifth in publishing order happens during the conclusion of the second book (chronologically), The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. While the main characters from that book, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are kings and queens of Narnia, there's a story going on about a boy named Shasta from the southern slave land of Calormen.

Shasta does not know his real parents and has been treated poorly by his "father" all his life. So, as soon as he gets the opportunity, he gets on a horse and ditches the place. This takes awhile because his dad doesn't own a horse, so he has to steal one from another guy that comes over to their house. He and the horse, Bree, who happens to be able to talk, decide to travel to Narnia, where they can be free.

On there way, they meet a girl named Aravis, who is also traveling to Narnia on a horse named Hwin. They work together to get to the free land and end up facing a lot of danger from the Tarkaan, the ruler of Calormen.

Having read these books in chronological order, not publishing order, I found this one an improvement over The Magician's Nephew, but not nearly as good as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The writing, as with the last two, is very good, although since Lewis is talking to children it feels a little bit basic. I guess I can't fault him on that though.

This particular book is a major departure from the other books too, because it's the only one where the main characters don't come from Earth. Because it's not introducing anyone to Narnia (as happens in all of the other books), there's now a major chunk of story that isn't there. Here's where Lewis feels like he starts dragging his story out a bit. This book, at least, feels longer than necessary. He dwells quite a bit on when Shasta and Aravis get to Tashbaan, the capital of Calormen, possibly just to show us Edmund and Lucy in their adulthood during their Lion, Witch, Wardrobe journey.

That said, the character development on Shasta and Bree in particular is excellent. Shasta's feeling that there's something more out there for him is something we've all felt (or I have, anyway), so he seemed pretty real to me. It's disappointing that not much was done with the character, though. On the other hand, we do get a major part of Narnian history installed here about the kings of Archenland, a place between Calormen and Narnia. The journey itself is interesting, but the story doesn't hold up for the length of the book.

Great character development, great story... not that great pacing.

As for Prince Caspian, the fourth book chronologically and second book published, things are much more interesting. This book was meant to be a direct sequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and, to me, turned out just as well.

Prince Caspian's writing is the same as Horse and His Boy, but the story is the right length for the book, it's more diverse, and to me it's more interesting. We see a lot of great interaction with the many creatures of Narnia here, we get Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy back (probably the best characters in the series), some more complex storytelling with elements of betrayal and assassination, and some pretty cool action. There's not as much as in the movie, but there's more than in Lion, Witch, Wardrobe (the book and movie). There was a bit too much focus on Lucy over and over in that one, so here I was happy that things cut to the chase a bit faster.

Prince Caspian of the Telmarines, who invaded Narnia in the years Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy have been gone from the land (Narnia years go faster than Earth years), is nearly killed by his uncle so he can become king. When he gets in this danger, he calls on the four children to help get rid of the Telmarines and help the Narnians take control of the land again. and they start gathering the Narnians together to fight the Telmarines.

The character development here is good, too. There's still a lot of dwelling on Lucy, but we get a lot of trust issues tossed back and forth here that are much more entertaining than much of what I've seen in the series.

Great character development, great story, great pacing... Focuses on some things that don't interest me as much (Lucy, as opposed to Peter or Caspian. However, Edmund redeems himself completely in this one).

The Horse and His Boy: 8.0 out of 10: Great

Prince Caspian: 9.0 out of 10: Superb