I just finished The Golden Cord, book one of the Iron Dragon series, written by author Paul Genesse. What a fantastic book. I’ve known Paul for about a year, and have learned a lot from him on writing and book marketing.

This is book one, of what I think will be five books in the series. It has a very captivating start, putting some of the main characters into survival mode. The story primarily focuses on Drake, a young hunter who volunteers for a journey that will change his life. He has a deep sense of devotion and obligation to family and village. He knows leaving puts the village at risk, and his future plans with the girl of his dreams in jeopardy.

There is plenty of mystery, suspense, fighting, and of course romance. The story has a fairly even pace, one chapter pulls you into the next, and several times the author teases your emotions with near death experiences.

One thing I really appreciate in this book is the quality of description the author uses about the world the story takes place. This allowed me to create visuals in my mind, and I could easily follow the characters on their journeys.

This isn’t necessarily a criticism of The Golden Cord, but I find stories that span multiple books tend to fill a considerable amount of space, especially book one, with building up characters, surroundings, and creating multiple plots, and not as much on engaging the reader into the story. Personally I find it difficult to read a book that is written like this and most of the time I end up moving on to something else.

Although this is the first book in Iron Dragon series, the author does a really good job of keeping enough suspense and action going, while not giving away the entire series in the first book.

I highly recommend this book. If you are into Fantasy, Dragons and other mythical creatures, this book is for you. I can’t wait to get the next book in the series. Great job Paul.

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A couple of days ago I had the chance to preview the new Disney/Pixar animated movie WALL-E. I’ve actually been excited to see this movie for quiet some time, and was excited to attend the premier in Salt Lake City, Utah.

My biggest beef with premiers is the way they treat everyone like criminals. But that’s just me. Once you’re in the theatre everything is fine, but getting in is like trying to enter a foreign country.

Warning, I talk about several aspects of the movie, so if you haven’t seen it yet, you may want to wait before continuing to read the rest of this post.

The first half of WALL-E was fantastic. The graphics and animation were top notch. The story was great. I can only imagine how difficult it is to carry a movie for an hour with no conversation. But the directors were able to communicate with the audience pretty effectively. The second half of the movie on the other hand was a waste. The story was inconsistent and boring, and I found myself wanting the movie to be over. The ending was OK, but not nearly as strong as the beginning.

One of the really unique features of the movie was the way the robots communicated. It was an updated War Games, or R2D2 sounding computer voice. It’s was a lot smoother and cleaner than something you’ve heard in the past.

The movie is worth seeing, once, maybe even better on DVD or Blu-ray. I give it 3.5 out of 5.

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