Battlefield Earth, written by L. Ron Hubbard is a science fiction novel released on the market in 1982 and adapted for the movie screen in 2000 with the film carrying the same name. Immediately after its releaase, the novel became a bestseller in the sci fi genre and among the fans, rated 8.8 of 10 in terms of fans satisfaction. NY Times Reviews are quite positive about the book that still remains one of the favourites and must-read books for many of the new sci fi followers.

The book is about the story of humanity in the distant future almost 1000 years after they were conquered by an alien race -the Psychlos. The few human settlements that have left on the earth are the last survivavls after the invasion. Aliens have killed most of the earth’s population thus removing every major town and city from the map. These places now are abondoned and empty with no human life. The human survivers have no idea of science and improvements since they live in remote places away from the aliens that extract minerals and Gas Oil from the earth’s inner structures.

The story is focused on a human being, Johnny, who menages to escape his birth place and captured by a cruel and greedy alien, he becomes familiar with the aliens culture. Gradually Johnny becomes aware of the sceintific explorations of the previous generations, studies the subjects of science both from alien and human prospective, visits the big cities and learns more and more about the world. This is how he will have to face the alien invaders and with the help of other human beings that have survived, he will have to free the earth and establish a new beggining for the human race.

The Lady in Blue, written by the Spanish author Javier Sierra, is an extraordinary novel embodying many different aspects of the modern day history and its links with the middle ages and the Reneissance. Among the other works of the author is the famous novel The Secret Supper which reached the top rates in the US charts. The author also researches different scientific enigmas and is personally affected by styding the history of Egypt.

The lady in blue is a fascinating work which I devoured while working my teaching assistant job in Spain last year. In the typical for the author style -fiction mixed with scientific theories, historical facts, legends and typical cultural understandings for the different poeple. The plot is centerd around several main ideas -a mixture of metaphysics and history it offers the reader to track down several stories at once -the one of a journalist who is after a significant factual discovery, the clergy that develops an important scientific project, and some occasions in the distant past when the a certain mystery appears -how is it possible for the south american tribes to be familiar with the culture of the Spanish conquerors long before they first arrived on the continent. The work of the author tracks down the theory of bilocation or otherwise said the ability of a person to inhabit two locations at one and the same time.

Following true historical events, Ancient South American traditions and culture of the tribes on the same continent, by inputing special scientific theories and coming up with amazing fictious actions the author creates a fascinating mixture of religion, science and mythology in the novel The Lady in Blue thus making it one of his most significant works.

Roberts escaped from Australia’s highest security prison, where he was serving a long sentence for committing a string of armed robberies to pay for his heroin addiction. While on the run in Australia he gained a false passport and then flew to Bombay, which was to be his primary home for the next ten years. His life there introduced him to the poorest and the richest of the city. He established a free medical clinic for slum-dwellers and brought locum doctors jobs to a place where they otherwise would’n’t have been, as well as becoming heavily involved with a branch of the Bombay Mafia.

The reader is presented with Roberts'view of the extraordinary range of situations he found himself in, and is invited to consider the moral continuity of his decisions. Rather than presenting a defence of his criminal past in Australia, and his decision to become involved with the Mafia, he explains the facts as they seem to him, and it is up to the reader to reach their own conclusions about the ethical validity of his choices. And as you can imagine these are not easy conclusions to reach. He has an obvious love for fellow humans, living in the slum with his great friend Prabakar, and providing free medical care for the thousands of dwellers who cannot afford to pay for their treatment. Yet he is willing to work for an organisation whose black market passport and currency trades fund African war lords in the despotism and tyranny of their own countries, depriving their own people of the very medical care that he provides for the population of the slum.

The honest and open manner in which Roberts writes, and the fact that the reader is not forced to pass judgement on the adventures he relates, make this book an exceptional read, rather then simply an excellent one.

These cameras are equipped with large sensors and are usually faster in performance than the ordinary ones, which make them ideal for action shoots, I shot the entire val thorens ski campaign with one of these babies! There are also provided with plenty of tools which are an added advantage for those photographers who like something unique. If you spend some extra money, you can get additional lens and other accessories which will enable you to click fantastic images. Performance wise the best models are as follows:

The Pentax K-x gives the best overall performance with its amazing low light photo quality and is also the cheapest DSLR Camera that has video capture facility. It is not so perfect so far as the video quality is concerned as it is mediocre in this respect, though the automatic white balance is quite cool. This camera is actually not meant for the new photographer. However, it is solidly built and runs on AA batteries.

Those who are first timers, the Nikon D3000 will be ideal choice, as it is user friendly and also provides a guided shooting mode that helps in speed. But, it has very limited features and has no exposure or flash exposure bracketing as provided in some other products.

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A230 is quite cheap and is good in performance, quality photos can be taken and is also flexible than the other models which offer only point and shoot and thus have their equal share of users and fans. Though the A330 is identical to the A230, still it is more expensive. However, this model has the Live View shooting capability and the tilting LCD.