The latest fresh by Fantastic Britain’s best-selling author Terry Pratchett is a parody on European football (soccer) and all the cultural phenomena that go along with it, such as cheerleading and football hooliganism. The book, Unseen Academicals may therefore be a bit more exciting to Europeans than to Americans.

But really, the book is about so much more than football (soccer) and makes for fabulous entertainment for anyone, American or British. It is also a book about fashion super models (and their association with football super stars); pies of every conceivable variety (and their association with football fans); as well as goblins and orcs (association to football unknown).

In characteristic Terry Pratchett fashion, the Discworld is like a funhouse mirror image of our own world; exactly the same, only more so. Instead of human cheerleaders, there are naiads dancing on the sidelines of the football field, and cart-tail vendors take the place of tail-gate markets.

The main character in the book is the goblin-turned-orc Mr. Nutt, who is one of only a dozen or so surviving orcs on Discworld. In a show of philanthropy, two of the world’s most powerful despotic rulers choose to take Nutt on as a project, to help not only him but his entire persecuted race.

It bears mentioning that the two leaders in question, Lord Vetinari and Lady Margolotta have been at this before. Their previous projects have included rock trolls, werewolves, golems, and vampires, all of which they helped in apt integrated and accepted members of human society.

Mr. Nutt gets sent from Lady Margolotta’s Uberwald to Lord Vetinari’s Ankh-Morpork and assigned the task to accumulate ‘worth’ in human society. In doing so, Nutt gains many loyal acquaintances and admirers in his workplace, the Unseen University. Co-worker Trev Likely goes to any length to defend his orc friend, and the head mistress of the Night Kitchen, Miss Glenda Sugarbean (creator of the crusty onion pie) becomes a staunch admirer, which later leads to a budding romance.

Mr. Nutt so impresses his superiors at Unseen University with his strategic thinking and vast knowledge that they choose to place him in charge of the school’s new football team as its head coach. After that, there is no stopping the events that follow.

Unseen Academicals may be a parody on the phenomenon of European football (soccer), as well as a number of other things thrown in for excellent measure, but soccer fan or not, this book will give you many hours of joyous reading and barrels of laughs.

Britt Hellman resides in North Carolina with her spouse and their three boys. A copywriter by profession, she writes book reviews as a leisure activity. Visit the website The Light Fantastic, where you can order Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett and all the other 36 novels in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.

As early as 1988 Bruce Sterling envisioned a world wherein the possible and the probable, in terms of technology, were one in the same. He was one of the first writers to describe a “net” of information that could be accessed by anyone, anywhere. Granted the net, as such, was not a new concept, but it is remarkable how our current Web 2.0 incarnation on the Internet mirrors his fancy of nearly three decades ago.

William Gibson, Sterling’s one-time collaborator, had also predicted as much four years prior, with the release of his gritty science fiction masterpiece, Neuromancer. In that dystopic tale, the Net functioned much as it does now — as a conduit to databases and mainframes, clogged with the wisdom of the ages rendered down to binary code. What both writers had given literary life to was the promise of a fantastic transformation, a transformation that would take our conscious minds into a digital realm of dreams.

The blurred line between what is real and what is fabricated has long been the ore mined by generations of writers. At what point are we capable of crossing over the limitations of perception and entering a new reality? Granted, this is somewhat rhetorical, but the trend has been steadily moving towards fusing what we can imagine with what we can experience.

The Internet is just one incarnation of this poised possibility. By and by we use it more and more to accomplish what? With the introduction of HTML5, the dawning of Web 3.0 is upon us, which means we are on step closer to that ultimate melding of consciousness and computer. Granted, this smacks of doom mongering, but need not look any further than the slow integration of man and graphics card. How else can you give reasons for the popularity of the first-person video game? You are “in” the action.

What will it mean to be “into” your favorite game or film? With the growing popularity of green screen applications that can project you into your desired film clip, thanks to innovators like Yoostar, how much longer must we wait until we can be thrust into a game? To be sure, the promise of “plugging into” a film or game — the two will become synonymous — not only will the nature of entertainment change, but so will many of our societal norms. The future, as Mr. Sterling and Mr. Gibson foresaw, could very well be “the color of television tuned to a dead station.

Treat yourself to a glimpse of the future. With the aid of Yoostar you can start to acclimate yourself to a world that strives to be one, tremendous movie.

Relatively unknown in America, Terry Pratchett was the number one best-selling author in Fantastic Britain during the 1990’s, and only J. K. Rowling has sold more books than Pratchett in the UK since 2000. The Light Fantastic is the classic second fresh in his Discworld series from back in the 1980’s when it all started.

While the events of Pratchett’s novels take place on an imaginary Discworld, they are really parodies on various cultural phenomena from our own world. The Light Fantastic makes delightful fun of the religious fanaticism that can rise from the belief that the world is coming to an end. Book burning bonfires abound, lynch mobs chase after the unconverted, and frightened hordes flee the cities like rats off a sinking ship.

The main character throughout the book is an aspiring but perfectly inept wizard named Rincewind, whose main talent is survival-by-running-away from anything that seems even remotely threatening, which includes just about everything.

That is, everything except for the one thing that has got everyone else in a state of panic: The Red Star appearing in the sky that keeps growing brighter and hotter by the hour. Other than Rincewind, the only other person unconcerned about the new celestial risk is his friend Twoflower, who says of Rincewind: “If there was anything at all to be frightened about, he’d be frightened. But he’s not. The star is just about the only thing I’ve ever seen him not frightened of. If he’s not worried, then take if it from me, there’s nothing to worry about.”

In the end, it turns out that Twoflower is right in using Rincewind as the barometer for any real risk to the world as they know it. Rincewind is, after all, the Discworld’s leading authority on when to panic.

The adventures of Rincewind and Twoflower take them through a forest of talking trees, a visit with predominantly friendly rock trolls, travelling through the universe in a magic gift shop and through the skies on a druid-levitated rock, narrowly escaping Death after visiting the netherworlds, and saving a sacrificial virgin against her most ardent insistence: Things that are possible on the Discworld and nowhere else.

But, what the tale is really about is a “lost” magic denote that every wizard on Discworld is searching for. Together with the seven other spells from the magic book Octavo, it needs to be read at the appointed time in order to turn the tide of events, save the Discworld from destruction, and veer Fantastic A’Tuin away from the Red Star.

Fantastic A’Tuin, of course, is the fantastic sea turtle swimming through the outer space with four elephants on its back, who in turn hold up the Discworld. Just as a clarification for those of you who still cling to the belief that all worlds in the Universe are spherical and revolve around stars by way of gravity.

The Light Fantastic is a fantastic read and highly recommended, though I must caution, it requires fantastic discipline in order to not laugh out loud if read in silent public spaces such as libraries. It can be read as a standalone book or as part of the series.

Mrs. Hellman lives in North Carolina with her husband and three sons. A professional copywriter, she writes and publishes book reviews as a leisure activity. In the late 1980’s, her husband introduced her to the books by Terry Pratchett. Visit her site The Light Fantastic for more information on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, from The Color of Magic (1983) to Unseen Academicals (2009).

Social Networks are now allowing people to communicate in new and exciting ways which weren’t even dreamed of in previous generations. Aside from just randomly chatting, they are also allowing people to tell tales, and to make works of fiction, which are emerging to recreate the nature of storytelling.

Roleplay is an act of imagination, where you gather a group of people together, and each one assumes the role of a character. Then they act as that character, in order to further the tale. Everyone adds their own perspective to the piece, and the resulting tale is made up of the whole.

Social networking communities are places for people to tell one another tales already. Through the submission of pictures, videos, and on paper content, you tell your acquaintances and families about the life you are living. It is a form of personal narrative.

This storytelling function can also be used to make fictional tales. By signing up as a character, you can use all of the applications normally reserved for real people, to prompt the life tale of the fictional person.

The tale can then be told and expanded on through a series of interactions with others on the site. These can be other fictional characters, or they can be real people. The addition of extra people to the tale breathes new life and energy into the tale, invigorating it.

Most of the huge social networks are not intended for use as fictional or roleplaying tools. You will find in the terms of service of most of these sites that the act of making a fictional character is expressly forbidden, and can be punished. While these rules are not usually enforced very strictly, their mere presence tends to hamper your ability to engage in make endeavors.

There are alternatives but. The most well loved is probably http://www.RolePages.com. A social network set up very similarly to facebook, the creators of RolePages encourage members to sign up as fictional characters. In fact they want members to sign up as the weirdest, and most creative people they can possibly imagine. The goal is to then make tales through interactions with other character members across the site.

Social networks are a new frontier in the art of communication. Using them as a medium for telling tales is a trend that is just starting to catch on. As the sophistication of the technology increases the ability to make fictional works using these tools is only going to improve.

To read more about this subject visit RolePages.com an in character roleplaying social network where you can sign up as anyone or anything that you can imagine. There you will find more information on facebook roleplaying, as well as an eclectic cast of members including werewolves, vampires, fairies, psychics, aliens, madmen, monsters, demons, and anyone else that you can imagine.

categories: roleplaying,dungeons and dragons,sports meeting,fantasy,sci fi,science fiction,leisure activities,chat,social networks,facebook,myspace,twitter,internet,social networking