BOOK REVIEW: The Kingdoms of Evil by Daniel Bensen

by Solomon Midwinter
PHS Press staff writer

The Kingdoms of Evil by Daniel Bensen was a joy to read.  It was a surprise to learn it was his first book.  I would recommend this book highly, but only to people 12 and up, because there are a few moments involving some colorful language, and some moments that may not be suitable for younger children. 

   I expected the book to be a comedy, and very little else.  While certainly funny, the book actually also had some more serious moments, which was a nice surprise.
    It is an imaginative series, set in a fictional universe that is in many ways not so different from our own.  Freetrick Feend was a student at a college in the Rationalist Union.  Then he was spirited off by a strange, anatomically improbable creature called Mr. Skree, and his betrothed, a strange and terrifying woman called Bloodbyrn. He was taken to be the god-king of the kingdoms of evil. This was an incredibly dysfunctional empire, composed of three kingdoms.
     It had once been a serious threat and force in the world, but that time was centuries ago, and now it is a nation stuck in the middle ages, in an (albeit magical) world that is in the post industrial era. 
    Quite beyond that, government policies, or lack thereof, have ensured that unless something is done quickly, the entire empire will implode.  That is if they don't starve to death first.  And no one realizes how weak the military and decides to invade. 
    And on top of all of this, the Skrean (Skrea is one of the kingdoms of evil) magic system is entirely dependent on slaughtering massive numbers of monsters and/or people, as its magic system is necromancy. 
    As the name implies, these kingdoms relatively few human inhabitants are almost exclusively homicidal maniacs and sadists.  More to the point, the standard procedure if you are unhappy with the current administration is to arrange the death of the current ruler.  And as a sane and logical ruler, Freetrick had some deeply unpopular ideas. 
    This book is great, although somewhat hard to find.  It was never actually traditionally published, but it can be found on Kindle unlimited, or just Kindle.  It is also supposed to be the first book in a series, called the Covenant Nonsense.  I have been unable to find the second book, but I am still looking.  I am, however, thinking that it will come out soon if it does at all, as it was published as an Ebook  four years ago.  All in all, I would rate this book quite highly, and hope to find a sequel soon.

Wait, what is a Propane-a-phone?

by Parker Lehman
PHS Press staff member

Boiled in Lead

Boiled in Lead is a Minneapolis based band of an impossible to define genre. They kicked off on Saint Patrick’s Day 1983 and 15 years later released a compilation titled “Alloy”.

The Band is made up of Marc Anderson (drums and percussion), Dean Magraw (guitar) Todd Menton (vocals, guitar, mandolin, bodhran, whistle) Drew Miller (bass guitar, dulcimer) David Stenshoel (fiddle.)

Alloy kicks off with “Arpad's Guz,” a fast paced song that mixes a strange cymbal sound with an unidentifiable string instrument. The next track “House-Husband’s Lament” is rockabilly at its finest.

They go on combining the surreal, (“The Microorganism”) the silly, (“Rasputin”) and the serious (“The Dreadnaught”). Boiled in Lead pulls from a collection of 16 instruments including Electric guitar, Hurdy-gurdy, Propane-o-phone, and Zurna to craft a wonderful sound where you never know what will come next. The bass player Drew defines what exactly a Propane-a-phone is: “The propane-o-phone is some long metal pipes that, when you heat the column of air inside with a propane torch, it produces that special sound that only a propane-o-phone can.” They are used on “The Microorganism.”

After 32 years Boiled in Lead is still going strong. Check them out at http://www.boiledinlead.com/ or search YouTube for some of their music.

Soren Le’go’ Page

by Parker Lehman
PHS Press staff member

Soren LePage of Woodbury

Lego stop motion is a technique has been around for years and is a favored medium for PHS’s very own Soren LePage, 15 years old from Woodbury MN.

The popularity of this medium reached an all time high after The Lego Movie grossed $468,000,000 making it the 13th highest grossing animation of all time. They used a mix of computer generated and stop motion Lego animation.

 In Lego stop motion a scene is set up then the Lego figures are moved in incredibly small increments taking a picture each time. About 4 years ago as LePage was watching Forrestfire101, a well known Lego animator, and decided to try his hand at animation. He set up his Legos and prepared to take thousands of photos. When asked why he enjoyed it he responded, “Because I play God.”

POLL: The better of the two

Malachi Johnson

PHS Press staff member

The people of Planet Homeschool have taken their votes of which one is better.

Indiana Jones

or

Star Wars. 

Indiana Jones got 6 votes

Star Wars got 17.

Star Wars is the clear victor with a whopping 17 points.

VIDEO: Cooking with Sam & Frodo

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Sam: Ethan Lehman
Frodo: Joe Schatz
Golom/Smeagol: Solomon Midwinter
Narrator: Willow Skidmore
Filmed by: Aurora J. Pass
Ad guy: Riley Adesheim Marshal

Inspired by the The Lord of the Rings as Literature taught by Elise Duval Werger

Worm Warfare is Winning

by Bridger Berg

PHS Press staff member

 

Hey! This a review of a group of games, a group of STRANGE and very fun games, known as the “Worms Games.” The versions of the games include Worms Reloaded, Worms Clan Wars, and Worms Revolution.

The story of these games, if you could call it that, is of a group of worms that for some reason have extremely advanced technology and weapons, and wage warfare on other equally advanced worms. 9/10 Rating for creativity!

Anyway, these worms fight in many different landscapes and scenarios, such as forts, where the worms have to destroy each other’s fortress to win, deathmatch, where the goal is to eliminate all the enemy worms, and a lot of other variations of those two types.

The game is multiplayer, turn based, and viewed from the side. The first player does their turn, one worm from their team of four worms being selected to fight that turn, then using special items they either start out with or collect, such as the Holy Hand Grenade, the Explosive Sheep, and the Water gun to try to eliminate their opponents before their time for their turn runs out. (As you may have guessed by now, this game doesn’t really take itself very seriously.)

 After that, the next player goes, doing the same thing. This continues until the map is thoroughly destroyed and the last team with at least one worm still alive on their team wins.

Example turn: It’s GeneralSlimy122’s turn first. His “Scout” class worm, Tiny, is selected for him to play that turn. He crawls Tiny over to WormyOverlord101’s “Heavy” class worm, Bob. Selecting Tiny’s Baseball bat weapon, he hits Bob, who was near the edge of the map, off the side and into the water below, eliminating him.

 It’s now WormyOverlord101’s turn. His “Soldier” class worm, Harry, is standing next to his “Scientist” class worm, Moe, who is selected that turn, so his scientist heals both Harry and himself with the scientist unique skill.

Then selecting a jetpack for Moe and flying him over close to Tiny, WormyOverlord selects the Explosive Sheep. Clicking the mouse once activates the Sheep, which begins running over to Tiny. A second click blows up the Sheep, heavily damaging Tiny.

Play goes back to GeneralSlimy122, and another of his worms is selected to fight that turn.

There can be up to four players in a map, which would total sixteen worms! Talk about chaos! There is also a single player option, so that those that are either offline or are just getting started and need to learn a bit can still play.

 Worms are also customizable, so you can give them different voices, hats, glasses, names, and so on. If you have the game through the massive game site, Steam, you can also download custom maps and other content from the Steam workshop, a place for people to share their creations.

I would recommend this for: Someone looking for a light and silly but still very fun game, since these games are very different from any others. They are also perfect for a bored Minecraft player or whatever. (No offense to Minecraft.) So if you think it sounds right for you, go and try one of the many editions of these games!

VIDEO: Ellen Crain discusses ins and outs of Planet Homeschool

Ellen Crain sat down the PHS Press reporters Soren LePage and Tyler Skidmore to talk about upcoming classes being offered, why she homeschools and what sets Planet Homeschool apart.