Cav's Place

The procedure for contesting the fine I received for taking part in the November 7 protest is slowly moving forward, so last Monday I got a letter stating that I had ten days to submit all evidence and the name and address of my witness. Strangely enough, the letter also stated that I needed to pay the 20 RON fee, though that was paid and the original receipt submitted along with the other documents when I first filed the complaint, but one of the lawyers helping the protesters with these things told me to simply state that in the letter I’ll submit in reply, so I hope it doesn’t mean there was a problem.
There clearly was one with the witness, however, seeing as it implied contacting someone and asking them to go through this trouble for me when I could barely think of a couple of people who may have anything relevant to say. After all, I go alone and try to avoid socializing, so it’s unlikely that anyone noticed my actions in particular and, with the exception of the known activists, there are few protesters I know how to reach. However, I did remember one person who was around me for a certain period of time on both sides of the road and who did one of the things I specifically mentioned in my complaint, which after all is based on existing laws and the behavior of the protesters as a whole, not mine in particular, so he was the first choice and thankfully he agreed. Did ask me to call him first, however, so that marked the first time I called someone since whenever the last time I called Andra was, obviously no later than 2005, and probably the first time I called anyone but her or my parents since early 2000, when I called Rose those few times. Needless to say, it was frightening.

Once that was taken care of, it was a matter of adding his name and address to the letter mentioning the documents already submitted and the fact that I’ll also add CDs containing material I filmed that evening, and submitting everything Wednesday morning. Not that there seems to be any need to do so myself, since nobody seems to ask who you are, but I did go myself both times, dad coming with me but waiting outside. I handled it far better the first time, however, as this time I don’t quite know what I did in there. I definitely wasn’t looking at the woman, barely said anything and at one point I was just standing there while she wanted me to do something, and when I walked out I was in shock. Obviously didn’t think to check anything right away, though I kept stopping to face walls or garbage cans and search aimlessly through my backpack, prompting dad to ask me what did I lose a few times, until I told him I had lost myself.
Since he had to go to work soon and I wanted to go buy something too, since I was already out, we went our separate ways after that and it was only then that I thought to check what papers I was left with and somehow end up convinced that I still had one more copy of that letter than I should have, obviously meaning I had submitted one less. That shocked me even more and I didn’t quite feel as being inside my own body as I walked to the hypermarket I meant to go to, barely putting one foot in front of the other and probably not exactly keeping a straight line, so I’m sure some people thought I was drunk, but at least I reached the place and decided to browse two other shops first, thinking that may help calm me.
Well, it did help me get over the shock, but I jumped straight from it to rage and had a difficult time not smashing things, particularly while walking past plates and glasses. Somehow held it together until I got back and tripped on a cabinet door that doesn’t stay closed, on the hallway… Stopped hitting that when my leg hurt too much to stand anymore and I had a bit of skin peeled off one hand as well. Then threw things, but tried, and managed, not to break anything on purpose, only knocking over and spilling a coffee cup. I did break one of the CD cases, since I was told they couldn’t be added to the file like that and I had to remove the disks from the cases, which I brought back, but that was completely accidental, as I had placed them on top of my clothes and they fell when I meant to take them all back to my room. Either way, I can’t recall the last time I was in such a state. I do recall one time, in early 2002, when I also punched a door until I slightly hurt my hands, but that wasn’t nearly as bad either. I imagine the fact that the next day was February 13 and the one after it is what I’m now calling Heartbreak Awareness Day played a part as well.
Still, after cooling off somewhat in that manner, I closed myself in the kitchen, made myself something to eat, ate it and cleaned up before finally making my way to my room. Then I lashed out at someone who had just pestered me about, in her opinion, choosing to remain afraid of people in a way that made her add herself to the increasing list of people who block me, took a nap, and only then checked the papers once again. Thankfully, doing that made me realize I had been wrong the first time and had in fact been left with exactly what I should have been left with. As such, everything should be in order and the case should go forward, but the next listed date is nearly a month from now, so I won’t know for sure until then and the actual court hearing will be even later, probably in late spring or early summer.

Moving on to an entirely unrelated topic, I have to say that I finally managed to reread some of the sections I had recently finished adding to my story. Had ended up with no less than four of them to read again and make corrections to, which is a new record, but now I’m down to only one and I’m planning to take care of that as well. Since I’m keeping my word and proofreading the new edition of Darkness Rising, getting myself to put in the time and effort necessary to do this is even more difficult, but now that I got myself started, I’m sure I’ll manage somehow.
Unfortunately, having done that is part of the reason why I’m now falling behind with the proofreading, as I currently have two more chapters I didn’t even glance at yet, which is actually down from the four I had yesterday morning, despite largely only proofreading, the fact that I put in some 30 minutes per page into the first chapter, to more specifically explain some of the reasons why I complained so much about the way the first book was written, being the only real exception. Still, it should all be manageable if I’ll avoid further breakdowns.

That’s highly unlikely at the moment, however, particularly considering what I did last night. Did something the night before as well, but while that can perhaps be said to be more direct, it was almost certain to have absolutely no result, so it didn’t frighten me too much. This might, on the other hand, so I’ve been sitting here all day, avoiding checking messages and fearing it may come back and bite me in other ways as well.
I guess I’ll somehow need to check later tonight, but I don’t know what I’ll do if my admittedly very poorly thought out attempt will actually have a result, and if it won’t it definitely won’t be good news either, so I have no idea what the next days will bring. I’ll need to write another post over the weekend, by which time I may also know more, so I guess there is a chance I may explain better then, but I highly doubt I’ll be in a good enough state of mind to make much sense and I’m also not sure I actually want to be specific, so I probably won’t.

This post will cover nearly two weeks, starting on January 27 with the creation of the event page for the snow removal action scheduled for Saturday, February 1. Little actual information was posted until the next evening, but it was clear that somebody needed to do something about the sidewalks, seeing as the authorities seemed to only care about the roads, and only the main ones at that, and most other people preferred to simply complain instead of picking up a shovel and helping out. Of course, considering the size of the city and the expected turnout, not much could be achieved in the no more than five hours of actual work that the listed schedule included, but such an action could serve to show people that they can, and perhaps should, take matters into their own hands.
Admittedly, a few did so even before the event, the most notable case being that of a student, Iulian, who made the news after creating a page, on January 28, where he announced which area he’ll be trying to clear each day. However, while many “liked” his initiative and posted comments to show their appreciation, very few came to actually help out, and some of those who saw him at work were asking what does he gain by it or complaining either that he wasn’t doing the work properly or that, by taking it upon himself to help, he merely encouraged the authorities to do even less for the people in the future. From what I could see, he was not discouraged by those comments, stating that what he does is, in fact, a protest, against the authorities as well as against the people’s indifference and this mentality that makes most simply stay home and complain instead of actually doing something about what bothers them.

The actual action started at 10 AM on February 1, when people started gathering outside the Theater exit of the University Square metro station. Only a few of us were on time, but about 25 had arrived before we actually split in teams and left in different directions, around 10:30 AM. Nearly all brought their own shovels as well, which was unexpected considering the fact that many messages posted on the event page were from people asking whether they’ll find shovels there if they’ll take part, since they don’t have their own. No idea whether that still held true for those who arrived even later, however, since most estimates mentioned a total of around 50 people taking part and one of those who may be considered organizers even said 80, most being one, two or even more hours late and sending messages or calling to ask where the teams were in order to join one.
While we were waiting for people to gather and a couple of reporters were trying to take a few interviews, we were rather surprised to see city workers suddenly arrive in the area as well and start clearing the snow in earnest. Since this started only a few minutes after 10 AM and they seemed focused exactly on the area where we were gathering, telling us to clear away since they couldn’t do their job because of us, it was rather obvious that this was happening precisely because they knew we were going to gather there at the time, and probably because they wanted any cameras to see them as well and therefore paint a picture contradicting the accusations that the authorities do nothing about the problem. Thankfully, the gendarmes were much friendlier, a couple of negotiators stating that they appreciated our initiative and asking which areas did we plan to cover so they’ll be able to send a few teams to protect us in case anyone will mean to get in our way.
It should also be noted that an urgent appeal posted by a dog shelter outside the city made some of us initially say we’ll go there instead, after gathering in front of the Theater, since they were saying they’ll take care of transportation. However, after all of two people wrote their contact information in the document created for this purpose, it was decided not to rely on the others who simply posted a comment saying they were interested in going and the idea was dropped, though the equipment that had been donated to us for the day was sent there instead. As one of the two who added their contact information in that file, I definitely intended to go, but I can understand the decision and take comfort in learning that some 30 people actually were there that day and most of the work could be be completed, giving those poor dogs a chance to survive.
As such, I ended up in the last team that formed, and we went to the Timpuri Noi metro station, first clearing some paths around one of the exits. Admittedly, I’ll say that area was already rather manageable, but we did that largely to get ourselves into a rhythm, as then we split into smaller groups and moved on to clearing a path on both sides of the bridge, the sidewalks there being far worse, moving aside a large pile of snow blocking access to a crosswalk, and actually creating a way to cross another sidewalk that was under about a meter of untouched snow, people needing to walk on the street in that area. All of this was mostly finished around 2 PM, at which point some left, those of us who didn’t spending a few more minutes widening one of the entrances to this last area we cleared and taking a few more pictures before leaving as well, by 2:30 PM. If only we knew how city workers will shit on our work…
Interestingly, on top of the comments we heard, people ranging from thanking us or being shocked that anyone is willing to do something like this to wondering who’s paying us, saying we’re wasting our time or complaining that we’re not doing something right, we also had an older man dig some oranges out of his shopping bag and offer them to us, insisting when we didn’t want to accept, and another person come to bring us a bottle of hot tea, simply stopping the car next to us to hold the bottle out the window and driving away as soon as one of us took it. In addition, and somewhat sadly, seeing as it implies that people simply volunteering to help out is so rare it becomes particularly significant when it happens, several television stations, at least one radio station, plus one or two newspapers and news sites, sent reporters to cover the event, some seeming absolutely shocked by what we managed to do with that sidewalk that was completely covered in untouched snow in particular.
Since I can only offer specific information, and pictures, from the area I was in, I’ll also add links to some more pictures posted by others, who were in teams that covered other areas and which were obviously very active and successful as well. As far as I’m aware, most of those also scattered after they considered their work done for the day, so the planned “after” group shot, scheduled for 4 PM, when the original plan called for all of us to return to University Square, didn’t serve much of a purpose anymore. In addition, while one of those who may be considered organizers offered to pay for hot tea for all of us, as far as I’m aware all of those who were on the team I was in refused and I’m not sure if he found anyone else to accept the offer, though he did seem set on returning to University Square at the end.

Moving on, an ongoing event that must be mentioned is an exhibition dedicated to the issue of fracking, which hosted, and will continue to host, various debates and film viewings related to the topic, the debates and presentations I saw announced as having taken place during the period covered by this post being on February 5 and 7. The exhibition itself opened on January 30 and is set to last until February 23, though it will be closed each Monday and Tuesday. Strangely enough, the actual opening event only took place on January 31, when people were asked to bring open recipients, fill them with water from the fountain found in front of the building the exhibition takes place in, and deposit them inside, as a symbolic gesture of solidarity with the victims of water exploitation. This event was initially scheduled for January 29, but the organizers believed that the weather will discourage most from attending at the time, so they delayed it until the blizzard was supposed to end and also kept the exhibition closed on that first day, though they opened it the next, for those who wanted to visit sooner.

To briefly mention several other events that took place during this period, I should start with a very small protest against the new Penal Code that took place across the road from the Government building on January 31, starting at 4 PM. It was announced on extremely short notice, only a couple of activists seemed to have noticed it and anything having to do with the courts is highly suspicious, from the point of view of the average protester, of being associated with the President, so only a few people attended. There were messages stating that another protest on the same theme was supposed to take place the next day, starting at 3 PM, but that would have made it overlap the snow removal event and I haven’t seen any information about it since.
On February 3, after a small number of activists occupied the headquarters of Minvest Deva for several hours, to protest against all the cyanide mining operations set to start in Romania and show solidarity with those who fight against similar projects elsewhere in the world, Alex posted that he heard rumors that people were to gather in Bucharest as well, in front of the Theater, from 5:30 PM. He claimed to not even know for sure why people were asked to come, though he assumed it was to show solidarity with those activists, so it was no surprise that only a few actually showed up and even he only got there around 6:30 PM. I went to have a look, out of curiosity, but saw no more than about 25 people, if you include the hunger strikers and exclude the dozen or so who’re there every evening to protest solely against the President and who are very much at odds with the rest of us, who attack both sides equally. Since I don’t know what happens there on a regular evening, such numbers may even be rather normal, and either way people soon started to scatter, some regrouping in the underground passage but not seeming to truly expect anything to actually happen that evening, so I eventually left as well and heard nothing more of it.
Next, a minor television station that actually supported the protesters since the start of this movement asked people to gather in a bar on February 4, starting at 4 PM, to await a decision that would have reduced the number of Romanian free-to-air channels that cable providers are required to include in a package to the ten that have the most viewers. Plenty of protesters were highly suspicious of directly associating ourselves with this television station in such a manner, but some known activists and groups promoted the event and then shared an article that included quotes from some of the speeches made there that evening. That’s all I know about what actually happened, however.
Also on February 4, a call to send messages to the Romanian MEPs was posted, asking them to vote in favor of amendment 27 of the 2030 Framework for Climate and Energy Policies, which would have urged local and regional authorities to not allow the exploration or extraction of unconventional fossil fuels. That same post also included the first mention I saw of a call apparently made since January 31, asking people to write their representatives in the Romanian Parliament and ask them to vote in favor of the anti-fracking laws put forward by a few of them.
Since I’m at messages, another one, this time coming from the Association of Young Ukrainians from Romania and Bulgaria, was posted on February 6 and asked people to donate bandages, warm clothes, sleeping bags, blankets and other similar items until February 12, as they will be collected and sent to the Ukrainian protesters. And I’ll also add here that, on February 7, the United We Save page created an event overlapping the one created a month ago and scheduled for the next day, explaining that it was merely a result of popular demand, as that event was created by another page and many protesters kept asking why doesn’t this “official” page of the movement show up as host, as they were used to seeing it.

Last but most definitely not least, February 6 is Rosia Montana’s Anniversary, celebrating the fact that the oldest document mentioning the town, named Alburnus Maior at the time, is dated February 6, 131. For the fourth year in a row, this day was marked by special events, this time taking place in more than 40 cities across Romania and the world, obviously including Bucharest. Viewings of films related to Rosia Montana, a photographic exhibition reflecting the cultural patrimony of the area, debates about the future, with and about those who oppose the mining project, and a concert made up the day’s schedule here, the event taking place at the Romanian Peasant Museum and admission being free. Products made by the locals, including sweets, socks, bags and alcoholic beverages, were also available for purchase, proving that the area can have a future, and people can earn a living, even without mining. In fact, it should be simply said that such events prove that the area can have a future, seeing as open-pit mining and the tailings left behind offer none in the long term.

I’m falling too far behind with these protest reports and writing one to cover all the time since the previous one is an increasingly daunting prospect, so in order to get myself going again and post something today, I’ll split this period. The current plan is to write the next such post by Thursday or Friday and have it cover everything that happened between January 27 and at least tomorrow, if not Thursday as well, but if the few small events taking place during the first part of this week will seem to be too much trouble to add to it then I’ll have it cover only last week and call it good enough for now, because otherwise next week I’ll find myself in the same position I’m in now.

This post’s title comes from the page created on January 22 and meant to inform people of all protests and related events taking place in Romania. From what I see, anything organized by or closely connected to politicians or political parties will be ignored, but pretty much anything else that doesn’t directly oppose the demands that may be said to have largely been accepted by the United We Save movement will be mentioned, at least one event having already been posted with a disclaimer stating that making the announcement does not in any way imply supporting the group organizing it or its ideology. As such, I’ll be selecting what to include in these posts even more carefully.
There was a fair amount of confusion when this page was created, many, myself included, assuming that it indicates a split. However, I recently saw an interview that briefly explains that those behind this page have generally identified themselves with the United We Save movement and will continue to do so, this merely broadening the scope in a way they thought was necessary without intending to challenge the others by it. At the same time, the significant drop in activity on the United We Save page is hard to ignore, so let’s see how the situation will continue to develop.

As far as actual events go, and seeing as I’ll completely ignore everything related to the hunger strike, the first one I need to mention is the January 21 protest that took place in front of the Romanian branch of the European Commission, as part of what was intended to be a coordinated action against the development of unconventional fossil fuels within the European Union, the main purpose of this particular event being to ensure that Romanian anti-fracking activists will deliver copies of the open letter as well, in Romanian and English. Unfortunately, it seems that similar events were organized in few other European capitals, most other anti-fracking groups deciding to simply send the letter instead, yet over here a few other documents, including some related to the ongoing situation in Pungesti and others proving the harmful impact of fracking, were delivered as well. Unlike nearly all the others, this protest was authorized, even if that required Maria to put herself through a particularly unpleasant meeting the day before, not to mention that it obviously required us to stand in a “pen” and stick to a certain schedule.
Then again, the schedule wasn’t exactly the problem, since the signed protocol stated that the protest was to take place between 3 PM and 6 PM, yet the cold rain made us clear away around 5 PM, not long after the two activists who went inside to deliver the documents finally returned and filled us in on everything that happened. Yes, they also asked for an audience, but that wasn’t granted, so that means it took them about and hour and a half to simply get those documents registered, since the employee who was supposed to do so seemed terribly bothered by actually needing to do her job, initially meant to only give them one registration number and then left and took her sweet time before returning to register each of the documents separately, as required.
While the two of them were trying to keep calm inside and lectured the gendarmes on the dangers of fracking while they waited, many speeches were made outside, one activist intending to let each person have the loudspeaker for a few minutes. Though we never were more than 50, a few, myself included, managed to avoid being called over by him and a couple of others firmly refused when he did ask them to speak, but many made use of the opportunity, some of those saying things that bothered me terribly, particularly in the last 30 minutes before we left. In fact, under those circumstances I was just about to leave even if the others would have wanted to stay until 6 PM, so it was a relief when the decision was made to end the protest early, since we were all wet and shivering and had already done what we meant to do.
I later found out that some of those who attended regrouped once again in front of the Bucharest National Theater and continued trying to inform passersby of the dangers of fracking, but I’m not sure if that was significantly different from what happens there on most evenings. In addition, one activist took the opportunity to announce that he will organize informational events which will take place in a club every Tuesday and Wednesday, saying that any artists willing to perform for the cause, obviously for free, are welcome. Since this wasn’t mentioned by any of the other activists or groups that I follow, however, I have absolutely no idea whether any such events actually took place or, if so, how they turned out.

Moving on to January 22, the day’s event was announced on extremely short notice and by very few activists, the first message I saw being posted at 2:13 PM and asking people to gather at one of Herastrau Park’s entrances at 4:30 PM, to take part in a flash mob to protest against the authorities “pruning” the trees on that alley by cutting off most of their branches and leaving some as little more than bare trunks. I’m still not sure who actually organized the protest, that first message mentioning an NGO but Remus Cernea, who had successfully struggled to suspend that butchery after being made aware of it, seeming to run things once there, this connection with a politician possibly being one reason why other activists chose to ignore the call.
Under these circumstances, the fact that about 20 people did attend is more encouraging than it may seem at first glance, especially since the event itself turned out quite well, even if it started later than it was supposed to and could hardly be called a flash mob. Printed sheets of paper were brought and handed out to the protesters, each being asked to pick a tree and stand next to it while holding the sheet of paper as some pictures were taken. After that, as you can see from my pictures as well, the sheets of paper were stuck to trees with black tape, to signify mourning, though it appears that very little such tape was brought and regular tape needed to be used after no more than a few.
Thankfully, though I’m not sure how much of an influence the protest itself had over that, the complaints filed by Remus Cernea resulted in the “pruning” being halted completely and those who had approved and carried out that butchery being fined. Unfortunately, about one hundred trees already suffered in such a manner before this happened, even though the actual approvals were for limited pruning of only 17 of them, other interventions on the old trees lining that alley having otherwise been specifically banned as of last summer.

Before moving on to the weekend, I should also mention the calls to boycott OMV Petrom, since the first messages were posted and the event was created on January 23. The reason behind this is that, while activists were busy fighting on other fronts, mainly against Chevron’s attempts to start exploring potential shale gas deposits, OMV Petrom stealthily started building wells all over the country in great haste. While anti-fracking activists are convinced that the purpose of all of this is fracking, and that in some places it’s not even a matter of merely exploring potential deposits anymore, it’s entirely possible that at least some of them are built on top of, or as part of an effort to search for, conventional gas or oil deposits, yet this is no excuse for the secrecy and disregard for existing laws, nor is it something that should be encouraged either way, seeing as we need to move on to renewable energy sources as quickly as possible.

Still on the matter of fracking, activists announced that a viewing of Drill Baby Drill was taking place on January 26, starting at 3 PM, as part of a film festival. Then, from 5:10 PM, those interested gathered in front of the Bucharest National Theater in order to discuss what to do to restart the protests, both against fracking and against the newest form of the Mining Law, in Bucharest as well, since in other parts of the country they’re still ongoing yet here they largely died out over the winter. That time was obviously picked both in order to allow those who went to watch the movie to arrive and to avoid any overlapping in case the other event taking place in University Square that evening would have lasted longer than initially announced. The fact that the location was changed to the Theater after initially being announced as being the fountain probably had nothing to do with any of that, however, the purpose likely being only to once again gather around the hunger strikers, so it’s a good thing I changed my mind and decided not to attend.
Said other event I mentioned above was meant to show solidarity with the Ukrainian protesters, or at least with those who are neither violent nor extremists, and to commemorate those who died there. Another protest with a similar theme, supposed to take place in front of the Ukrainian embassy, was organized by an NGO and scheduled for January 25 at noon, but I don’t have any information about what actually happened then and, considering the blizzard Bucharest was under at the time, I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t actually take place after all. This other one, however, was part of a series of similar events taking place in several other cities throughout Europe and the world and started precisely on time, at 4 PM, the organizers, some of them Ukrainians, apparently arriving some 30 minutes early and seeming to know what they wanted to do so well that I couldn’t exactly figure out how to add myself to the group of around 25 that I found there when I arrived as well and therefore largely limited myself to taking a few pictures.
The fact that the event only lasted around 25 minutes, therefore sticking to the information posted on the event page that day, which specified that it’ll end after at most 30 minutes, surprised some of the others who wanted to attend and were used to arrive much later, extremely few ever being on time when it comes to the protests organized over here, so a small group ran into some trouble with the gendarmes when they arrived after the actual event had already ended and attempted to stage their own. According to a message that was posted, at that time some of those who actually attended the event apparently continued to display the signs and flags as they had a brief walk through the Old Town.
And since I have no idea how to fit this in otherwise, I’ll also add here at the end that some known activists and groups also mentioned a creative protest that took place earlier that day outside the Floria Capsali Choreography High School, which is to be merged with the Dinu Lipatti Art College and therefore cease to exist, teachers, students and parents singing and dancing in the snow in order to draw attention to their plight. The messages only appeared after the protest took place, when some news pieces about it were published by the media.

Full disclosure: I received a free copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Note: The review refers to the Uncut and Extended 2014 Edition.

It must be said that Prophecies Awakening does start quite interestingly and shows plenty of promise early on. It even briefly hints towards being rather different, and for the space of one scene made me think of The Black Jewels Trilogy, yet then it skips forward to the “present” and buries itself under pretty much every fantasy cliché there is, only seeming to try to come back up for air during the all-too-brief visit to She’Ma’Ryn. Whether that small part and the few early hints actually are a sign of things to come by the end of the series or not, it remains to be seen, but as far as this book is concerned, they appear accidents more than anything else.
Not that there’s anything wrong with an unoriginal story and setting in itself, at least not from where I’m standing. You could have a story that piles together most of the clichés in the book and I won’t care as long as it’s written well, has some interesting characters and locations that actually feel “real” and there’s a significant emotional impact. Immerse me in that world, make me understand those characters and care for their fate and the events taking place and I’ll get all sorts of excited… Yet unfortunately none of that happens here after the first few chapters, which are admittedly quite decent.

The term that keeps popping into my mind when trying to characterize the writing, at least after those first few chapters, is “immature”. There’s this feeling that the author simply decided to write an epic story without going through the stages, and that at one point, early on, he got too frustrated with how long it took and how difficult it was and simply decided to get to the end, regardless of how it turned out and discarding everything that didn’t directly help him reach those final few scenes he perhaps had in mind from the beginning. The fact that this book is so short by high fantasy standards seems to only support that assumption even further.
What probably makes it worse for me is that I recognize a lot of the style issues I struggle with, and because of which I write so little and say that what I did manage to write so far can only very generously be called a rough draft. Was tempted to say this reads largely like I think, when I try to put thoughts into words right away, before starting to struggle to also find a way to express them that seems at least decent. The fact that many of the style issues strewn throughout this book are the same ones I struggle to avoid until, at times, I just give up completely may make me judge an author who doesn’t seem interested in eliminating them somewhat more harshly than others would, but it’s undeniable that Prophecies Awakening is plagued by poor writing, and that may be putting it mildly.

Sure, a great story written poorly may still make for a decent read if you care more about the substance than the form, and I do need to point out that I can quite “see” plenty of scenes, and most notably the battles. Many are particularly flashy and, for lack of a better term, at times senselessly “magical”, appearing meant to tick all the boxes on a list of clichés specific to run-of-the-mill fantasy movies as well, yet I definitely have the feeling that Prophecies Awakening would have done much better as a movie. It wouldn’t have been something to write home about, but it does seem to have the pacing and the scene cuts of one, and there are incomparably fewer fantasy movies than books, so the demands and expectations from one, especially from one marketed as something of an “indie”, are far lower as well and I could see them being met by something like this.
For a book, however, depth, emotional impact and immersion are paramount, which means that Prophecies Awakening is hampered by the dialogues that don’t flow in any way, the largely one-dimensional characters and, most of all, by the almost complete lack of emotion far more than by the poor overall writing style. Most dialogues feel like summaries of dialogues, jump stages or needlessly describe right away, seeming nothing more than another method of moving everything forward to the desired end as quickly as possible. The moments when a few characters may appear to mean to start becoming “real” are few and far between, and never last. Otherwise, events that should have an extreme emotional impact, that should generate powerful reactions, simply wash over them, any attempts to display any sort of emotion falling entirely flat. In addition, characters meant to be skilled, responsible or wise also tend to make incredibly stupid choices or have shockingly immature moments. And let’s not even mention the attempts to portray romance…
There are also plenty of things that don’t add up, at times this seeming to be the result of the author rewriting certain parts multiple times, making additions and removals without properly keeping track of the consequences. Other passages and events feel forced just to get the story to a certain point in a certain way, with the least trouble and in the least amount of pages. And I must also mention that certain elements feel too much as if taking place in a video game, without this way of thinking being masked nearly as much as using it in a book requires.

Last but definitely not least, for the amount of effort that seems to have been put into developing the magic system, considering those Latin phrases and the specific descriptions of the effects of certain spells, it seems particularly poorly utilized and all over the place. One moment characters are able to do amazing things, the next they seem to either forget all about what’d be most useful or be unable to repeat their previous feats when the need is greatest, at times magic suddenly seeming to become too weak to get the job done when it should have been easy. Under these circumstances, all that effort will probably be wasted on most readers, who are likely to see those phrases as little more than gibberish to skip over and not care too much for accurate descriptions of effects of spells that will never get used again, no matter how great the need for them may be.

To conclude, the author definitely likes the genre, he may have some interesting ideas up his sleeve for the rest of the series and there may be a decent, if entirely unoriginal and far from deep, fantasy story to be found even in Prophecies Awakening itself, but it lacks the characters, the impact and the immersion, and what it doesn’t lack is buried under the poor writing style.

Rating: 2/5

There didn’t seem to be anything arranged to pick people up from the gathering spot and take them to the dog shelter after all, the two events not being connected in practice in such a manner, despite the messages posted by some. Still, since we had been offered some equipment for the day on condition of being able to pick it up and transport it to wherever it’ll be needed, the organizers decided to tell those who were going to the shelter to pick it up instead, as they obviously had cars available, explaining that they chose this option because all of two people actually listed their contact information in the document created for those who actually wanted to go and they were unsure about the few others who simply posted comments. I was one of those two, but definitely understood their reasoning under those circumstances.
As such, I didn’t go there, but instead was part of one of the several teams that were formed and cleared snow from sidewalks in several parts of the city, and I have to say we certainly made a difference, as you can see from the pictures I took. That I’m already barely moving and imagine that getting out of bed tomorrow will be terribly difficult is another matter entirely, of course.