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Voice of the Elders
Voice of the Elders
Greg Ripley | 2018 | Natural World, Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences, Thriller, Young Adult (YA)
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Puts focus on the harder topics of what we face with global warming as a race if we do not start thinking about sustainability as a complete way of life. (0 more)
The ending was extremely rushed. (0 more)
Honest Review for Free Copy of Book
Contains spoilers, click to show
The Voice of the Elders by Greg Ripley is a very well written book that anyone who has a strong connection with earth and nature would be drawn to right away. This is well received as the book puts a lot of focus on the harder topics of what we face with global warming and as a race if we do not start thinking about sustainability as a complete way of life. It also brings to light the idea that even if sustainability is the best for the planet as whole companies such as big oil and nuclear power may not be all that interested because it takes profit away from them, showing just how harmful human greed can be.

The book also mentions many aspects from different religions and cultures, along with their moral views. Christian theology is even mentioned in the same paragraph as the threefold version of the Golden Rule which many would attribute to the Pagans or more specifically the religion of Wicca. However, a lot of talk in the book revolves around Chinese Daoism and somewhat in-depth at that. This lost me at a few different places but not for long as the ideas were also explained fairly well. I believe the average reader should be able to at least the get gist of what is being said during the conversations.

The basic idea of the book is that the Earth is in major trouble. As humans, our greed and lack of concern for our environment is killing our planet as it is already too late to reverse these effects unless we do something big really quick. A meeting is being held at the United Nations to address these concerns and that is where the reader first meets the main character Rohini. It is also where the Elders are first introduced into the story. Without giving too much away to the interested reader I feel like I can safely say that the Elders tell the World Leaders about what can be done to save the Earth and propose a plan where the Earth will send ambassadors to the world of the Elders.

Rohini is chosen to be one of these ambassadors and is brought before the world on TV when all of those selected to be ambassadors are introduced. This is when trouble starts, those against the Elders and the sustainability programs launch their first direct attack and kill most of the ambassadors and the President forcing Rohini, her trainer Jane, and Jane’s friend Guangming into hiding as suspects while waiting for their names to be cleared.

Overall the book is very well written and I failed to find any major editorial flaws in it. Still, I rate this book to be 2 out of 4 stars. This is because while I loved seeing Rohini grow spiritually and increase her personal connection with the Earth I found the book lacking. The last five-chapter or so felt rushed like Greg Ripley got bored or wasn’t sure how to pull everything together. I guess more of what I am trying to say is with how amazingly detailed the rest of the book was the end felt haphazardly thrown together. Now if this were the first in a series I would change my rating to a 3 providing that a few things got explained better such as who exactly the “Others” are (not going to say anything more about them without risking a spoiler) and what happens with the Earth and the Elders.
  
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Dan Lacey (7 KP) rated the Xbox One version of ARK Survival Evolved in Video Games

Feb 26, 2020  
ARK Survival Evolved
ARK Survival Evolved
2017 | Action/Adventure
Content (2 more)
General mechanics
Playability
Bugs (2 more)
Community
Developers
Its almost like removing your socks with a chainsaw.
Where does one begin with Ark Survival Evolved?

This is a game I fell in love with and at the very same time detested the game in its entirety. It is a very strange feeling to enjoy a game so so much that you hate it's very existence.

Allow me to explain, Ark is a survival game in case the name didnt give that away in which you start stranded on an island with nothing but your underwear and a dream. The early game very quickly becomes a nightmare comprising of being mauled to death by Raptors or being beaten to a pulp by another player. The aim of the game is to build your base, fortify your base and tame the vast amount of creatures ark has to offer to enable you to progress further in the game by defeating boss monsters and learning the story of the arks.

Taming creatures of the game is so much fun each one has it's own stats abilities and a way to tame it. Most can even be bred to improve its stats via mutations which also can change the colours of the creature. There is a vast interconnected system with all creatures each one is good at something and may lack at something else. There is no better feeling than the very first time you successfully tame a tyranosaurus rex and plop a saddle on it's back, then hop on and March off into battle. The feeling you get when after a few days you place your first set of turrets around your little shack in the hope that when you log on again the next day you will still have everything untouched is a feeling of dread and satisfaction.

There are two game modes pvp (player vs player) and pve (player vs environment) this review will mainly focus on the pvp side as that is the mode I am most familiar with. One of the biggest draws to this game is the amount of content there is available due to the many dlcs. The flipside is that due to the constant need by the developers to sell more digital content they have neglected the many many many many MANY problems the game has which allows players to cheat their way to the top.

The game is riddled with toxic players who will exploit anything on a massive scale if it puts them to the alpha status all players strive to achieve. The game has been plagued by players under meshing (going under the game map) and being able to destroy other players work without worry of being killed by the many forms of defences there are. Players also have various ways in which to duplicate full inventories of items and tames. The developers however turn a blind eye to this at the same time saying they are going to fix it.

Yet here we are in 2020 and I'm some 3.5k hours into the game still complaining still hating the game and at the same time in total love with it. The game is like a drug that you want to give up but at the exact same time you tell yourself you can quit when you want believing the potential this game had and still has will one day shine through and it will all be worth it.

So to sum it up, Ark is like taking a shower in lemon juice while covered in papercuts. It's painful but at the end of the day you smell lemony fresh so the pain is mostly worth it for the pleasures you get in the end.
  
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