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Next MALAZAN novel, LEGACIES OF BETRAYAL, slated for October 2026 release

Legacies of Betrayal, the third Tales of Witness book in the Malazan world by Steven Erikson, has received a tentative release date of 1 October 2026. The book is the second half of No Life Forsaken, the two books being planned as one novel and then split in two for length when Erikson went long (not an uncommon occurrence).

Erikson is currently writing the final Kharkanas Trilogy novel, Walk in Shadow, which he hopes to finish this year before writing the fourth and final Witness book.

Meanwhile, Erikson's collaborator Ian Cameron Esslemont is writing the fifth Path to Ascendancy prequel novel in the same world, The Last Guardian, which does not have a release date as yet.

A Preview of A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS

On Friday night, I attended the London premiere of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the latest foray into the Known World of Westeros and Essos. The six-part show starts airing tonight in the United States and tomorrow in much of the rest of the world.

This six-part series adapts George R.R. Martin's 1998 novella The Hedge Knight. Like the novella it sees the newly-dubbed hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall seek to make his name and fortune at the great tourney at Ashford Meadow, eighty-nine years before the events of Game of Thrones. Dunk runs into problems proving his identity and legitimacy to take part in the tourney, but taking on an unusually resourceful squire, Egg, soon sees him succeed in his mission. Unfortunately, Dunk earns the ire of a powerful foe and has to fight for his honour and even his life in a brutal melee.

Martin would follow up the novella with The Sworn Sword (2002) and The Mystery Knight (2010) (all three collected in 2015's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), eventually mooting anything from nine to twelve stories in total that would follow the life stories of Dunk and Egg across the next fifty-one years, through tumultuous years in the Seven Kingdoms as the authority of the now-dragon-less Targaryens is increasingly tested.

At the premiere we saw the first two episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and it was interesting to note that the first season of the show is no less than the eleventh season of television set in Westeros. However, the show still manages to feel fresh. The tone is a little lighter than the two preceding series and there is no immediately foreboding feeling of full-scale civil war about to erupt. The entire season takes place in a field and the neighbouring castle (though some flashbacks do take us to King's Landing), and if the show is cheaper than House of the Dragon and the later seasons of Thrones, it's very clearly still not cheap. There are some superbly-staged jousts and melee scenes, crowd scenes with hundreds of people in shot at once, and a lot of spectacular location footage. Some may bemoan a lack of hardcore dragon action, but there's still a lot of visual spectacle.

The casting is exceptional, with Peter Claffey as Ser Duncan the Tall and Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg both being incredible finds. Claffey embodies Dunk's mixture of resolve and naivete to perfection, and Ansell is as impressive a find as Maisie Williams was for Arya fifteen years ago. Bertie Carvel is outstanding as Prince Baelor "Breakspear" Targaryen, Daniel Ings is a very different Lyonel Baratheon from the book but a compelling performer, and Youssef Kerkour excels in a small role as the blacksmith Steely Pate.

One criticism I do have is that the pacing of the show can be best described as "relaxed." After two full episodes we still hadn't reached the event that kicks the plot of the novella properly in motion (Prince Aerion's disagreement with a performer over a story about his family). Some of the new scenes introduced to expand the story are excellent, such as more action for Lyonel Baratheon, but others feel a bit overdone. A new subplot about Dunk seeking advice from some camp followers who feel sorry for him feels weird, at best. Taking a 100-ish page novella and turning it into six episodes of TV (even six episodes that are somewhat shorter than the Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon norm) has required a lot of invention and for some people maybe too much invention; how the remaining four episodes handle this remain to be seen.

The more-humorous tone is also an interesting choice. There are a couple of moments that veer from dark comedy or character humour into outright slapstick, and one scene that makes use of the stirringly epic score of Game of Thrones to comic effect only to undercut it in the basest way possible, is both funny but borders on the too much side of things. Again, seeing how the rest of the season handles this will be interesting.

Ultimately, I think that the first two episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms are a promising start. The production values, acting, sets and action setpieces are outstanding, and after House of the Dragon's increasingly wild swings from the source material, it's a refreshing relief to find a lot of scenes here translated 1:1 from the book to the screen, complete with Martin's laser-sharp characterisation and dialogue. Some of the new scenes to fill out the runtime are well-judged and handled, a few less so, but not disastrously. The more humorous tone starts off promisingly but by the end of the second episode, I was ready for them to reign it in a bit.

Kathleen Kennedy steps down as the boss of Lucasfilm

After fourteen years, Kathleen Kennedy has stepped down as the head of Lucasfilm, passing the reigns to Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan.

Kennedy has had a storied career in Hollywood, which began in the late 1970s working in TV before becoming John Milius's assistant. Through Milius she met Steven Spielberg, who employed her as a secretary but was impressed by her grasp of storytelling. She gradually got bigger roles, going from assistant on Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) to producer on E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). She co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Spielberg and her future husband Frank Marshall in 1982.

She worked closely with Spielberg on most of his movies, and some with husband Marshall. In early 2012 she was recruited by George Lucas to become co-chair of Lucasfilm Ltd. when it was still an independent company. On 30 October that year, Lucas sold the company to Disney and retired, with Kennedy becoming President.

Charged with succeeding George Lucas and revitalising the success of Star Wars, her approach of identifying talented film-makers and giving them creative freedom initially achieved success: The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017) were smash hits at the box office (the former still being the biggest movie ever at the American box office), and the former received critical acclaim (despite concerns over its conservative approach to the Star Wars greatest hits). The Last Jedi took much bigger creative swings but only achieved mixed critical success, becoming the most divisive of all Star Wars films. Rogue One (2016) was a success on both fronts, and the first live-action Star Wars TV series, The Mandalorian (2019 - present) was also a hit on her watch and helped launch the Disney+ streaming service to great success.

Unfortunately, The Rise of Skywalker (2019) received a critical drubbing and the film only achieved half the box office of The Force Awakens. Even worse, Solo (2018) had already become the first Star Wars movie to lose money at the box office. TV shows The Book of Boba Fett (2021), Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) and The Acolyte (2024) also all underwhelmed. Outside of Star Wars, other Lucasfilm properties stumbled: the TV series Willow (2022) was written off as a tax exercise and removed from Disney+ altogether just a few weeks after release, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) underwhelmed at the box office, despite a reasonable critical reception.

To what degree Kennedy should be blamed for these failures remains a fierce point of contention among fans, with it being pointed out that changes in leadership at Disney with wildly different demands for the amount of content caused problems for not just Lucasfilm but also Marvel. More recent Star Wars projects have also been more successful: Andor (2022-25) has been critically lauded as the best Star Wars work of all time in some quarters, whilst Skeleton Crew (2024) was also warmly received critically, though its viewership on Disney+ was not strong (but at least it hasn't been removed from it).

Kennedy confirmed the transition period actually began two years ago, with the plan being to split her role in two: Dave Filoni will take over creative control of the franchise and Lynwen Brennan, formerly of ILM, will handle business affairs. Filoni started work on Star Wars on the Clone Wars TV show (2008-14, 2020) and Star Wars: Rebels (2014-18) before moving over to live-action as a writer, producer (and sometimes actor) on The Mandalorian.

Kennedy also has a foot in the door on forthcoming projects: she is a producer on The Mandalorian & Grogu, a movie spin-off from The Mandalorian due out this May, and Star Wars: Starfighter, due in 2027.

During her departure interview with Deadline, Kennedy also gave a brief update on other percolating projects. James Mangold's is on hold, apparently taking a wild swing with the Star Wars universe. His script is rumoured to be the Jedi origin story, set tens of thousands of years before the rest of the franchise. Taika Waititi has submitted a comedic script but the greenlight has not been given. Donald Glover has also submitted a script, and Steve Soderbergh and Adam Driver are pushing a script written by Scott Burns expanding on Kylo Ren, although this project is believed to be on hold. Simon Kinberg's project is still in active development, with a recent total rewrite of the treatment. More intriguingly, Kennedy confirmed that conversations have happened with David Fincher and Vince Gilligan over them doing takes on the franchise.

Pluribus: Season 1

The entire world has changed. Every human being has become joined into a hive mind, the result of an alien signal received from a distant star system. Almost every human being. Thirteen people have found themselves naturally immune to the process, including Carol Sturka, a Romantasy author living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The joined seem to be happy with their lot: every war in the world has ended and a lot of pain and hardship has gone with it. But this is at the cost of individuality and freedom. Aware that the joined are trying to find a way to convert her and the remaining immune, Carol sets out on an ambitious plan: to find a way of reversing the process and saving humanity. She just doesn't know where to start.

Back the 1990s, Vince Gilligan was a staff writer on The X-Files, writing many of that show's best and most-acclaimed episodes. In 2008 he created Breaking Bad, the story of a chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin by oppressive American healthcare costs. He followed that up with Better Call Saul, a prequel/interquel/sequel, that expanded on the character of Jimmy McGill, who became noted criminal lawyer Saul Goodman, which many critics rated as being even better than its parent show. That project also introduced Gilligan to actress Rhea Seehorn, whose quiet but powerful performance as Kim Wexler was astounding. Seehorn and Gilligan have now re-teamed for Pluribus, a distinctly different kind of show.

The genre here is science fiction: an alien message from 600 light years away has been decoded by secret government researchers and found to include the ingredients for genetic material. This material is basically a virus that rewires humans into a single entity, a hive mind formed by the life experience of all almost-eight billion people on the planet. The logical ramifications of this idea are entertainingly explored: any single person on the planet can do anything that any other human being can do, instantly. A fast food server can fly the most complex aircraft on the planet, a school gym teacher can perform brain surgery at the very highest level achievable. Gilligan is a master of detail, the slow burn and thinking through the logical ramifications of situations, and employs that here to impressive effect.

Carol's continuing immunity to the alien virus is basically a chaos grenade that the hive mind struggles to deal with. The thirteen immune people can still impact the infected: displays of anger or physical violence towards the infected can send them into a fit, so the infected cannot themselves use violence or force to cajole the immune into cooperation, though they claim not to be able to do so anyway due to inherent pacificism. Testing the limits of what the infected can and cannot do becomes an interest of Carol's, as she looks for a way of freeing people from the virus, or even if the individuals still exist on that level.

It's richly interesting stuff, but it feels like the sort of premise you can explore in a novel better than in a TV show. The first episode, depicting the total chaos of the virus taking over and Carol's bewilderment at not knowing what the hell is going on, is dynamic and action-driven, with phenomenal performances and setpieces. The next couple of episodes, which explore the ramifications of both the hive mind's arrival and how Carol can coexist with it, as well as the identities of the other dozen uninfected and what their stories are (and how some have a radically different view of what the joined are than Carol does, with some subtle nods at the American mindset versus that of other cultures), keep up the pace.

Things flag somewhat mid-season and one detects a note of wheel-spinning as the show indulges in flashbacks and plot misdirections: one massive "gotcha!" plot revelation turns out to not be a big deal after all. Things ramp up towards the end as we make more discoveries about the hive mind and what its ultimate goal might now be (it turns out that Carol's ability to strike a good deal with every single lawyer on Earth on the opposite side might be a tad optimistic), and Carol discovers that one of the other uninfected might be even more driven and ruthless in freeing the people than she is. These are strong story elements but seemingly exist only to ramp up to an inevitable cliffhanger ending.

Pluribus's reception has thus been divisive due to its love of the slow burn. In an age of "second screen" viewing, seeing a show happy to take its foot off the gas and just vibe at times with some great cinematography of the New Mexico desert or the jungles of the Darien Gap can be refreshing. But sometimes you feel maybe the show needs to get a move on. When Breaking Bad decided to have a slow episode, it could still use its time to explore character or the details of Walter's drug operation or something else. One of the best-rated episodes of the show is a budget-saving piece of filler featuring Walter and Jesse battling a persistent fly. Pluribus can't quite do this because there are effectively now only fourteen characters alive (the thirteen unjoined plus the hive mind), so you can't bring in a guest character or some newcomers to the regular cast to keep things fresh.

Still, the problem can be a little overblown. The season is only nine episodes long (it might have been even better at seven or eight, a rare thing to say these days), the episodes aren't hugely long (many clock in at around the 40-minute mark) and the show does have superb cinematography, location filming and acting. Rhea Seehorn is absolutely nuclear-hot and we can hope this show gets her the awards she inexplicably missed out on for Better Call Saul, and the rest of the cast is excellent, especially those playing the infected, who all effectively have to play the exact same character expressing itself through different bodies. The show also works well on a thematic level by not lingering on any theme like a TED Talk. There are ideas swirling around here about interconnectedness, loneliness and the morality of enforcing any one ideology on anyone else. So far the show has presented being joined as a bad thing, forced on people against their will, and the desire of the hive mind to add Carol is wrong, but we so far haven't had the other side of the argument: are the people in the hive mind genuinely happier and better off, and would suffer at being separated? Is Pluribus a four-season exploration of the ideas presented in the Star Trek: Voyager episode Tuvix? This remains to be seen.

The first season of Pluribus (****) is beautifully-shot, written and acted, with phenomenal acting, attention to detail and a logical exploration of the premise. Midseason, it definitely slows down so much that the show risks losing the audience's full attention, but it does rally and come back strong for an interesting ending. Whether Season 2 can up the ante to make a longer-form story out of this limited premise viable remains to be seen. The season can be seen worldwide at the moment on Apple TV+. A second season was commissioned at the same time as the first but, slightly inexplicably, is still to enter production.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods.

Empire of Exiles by Erin Evans

Over a century ago, the changelings overran the known world, destroying the ten great empires. Their survivors fled west, finding refuge in the small nation of Semilla, erecting the great Salt Wall behind them to prevent the changelings from following. Behind the Wall, the refugees have built a new civilisation, but have brought some of their old problems with them. A generation ago, a devastating civil war shattered the fragile peace and the pains of that conflict have not been fully resolved.

The memories of that war are stirred when a cold-blooded murder takes place in front of a dozen witnesses, with the killer taking his own life. The killer's best friend, the scribe Quill, is adamant that his friend would not be able to hurt a fly, and his actions have to be the result of outside influence. His investigation, pressing against tides of scepticism, starts exposing secrets many wish had been left untouched...and hinting of a greater threat to all of Semilla.

It's been some time since I sat down and enjoyed a new epic fantasy series. The subgenre had felt oversaturated for a while. Empire of Exiles, the first novel in The Books of the Usurper, helps overcome that genre-ennui by bringing enough fresh ideas to the table whilst still retaining that core appeal of a group of characters coming together to face a threat in a well-realised secondary world.

It helps that the author, Erin Evans, is neither a newcomer nor a slouch. Her six-volume Brimstone Angels series was one of the brightest rays of sunshine to emerge from the otherwise highly troubled 4th Edition period of the Forgotten Realms shared world, and she brings that experience to bear here. Empire of Exiles lands with a bang (a brutal murder, with a clear culprit), immediately complicates things (the murderer has no motive or prior history to suggest why he would do such a thing) and then gradually builds up the story and the world around it in impressive complexity.

We have two primary POV characters. Sesquillio Haigu-lan Seupu-lai, or Quill, starts off feeling like the traditional "callow youth who grows into being a world-saving champion," but what he lacks in experience is made up for by his intelligence and his impressive tenacity. His refusal to believe in a simply illogical situation - his best friend of a decade suddenly turning into a killer for no reason - becomes infectious and causes other people to start doubting the sequence of events. His confidence is also generally well-earned, and it's nice to see a character like this who isn't immediately dismissed as a total lunatic and his arguments are engaged with seriously.

The second major POV is Amadea Gintanas, Archivist Superior at the Imperial Archives, who is in charge of the records and lore of Semilla. Amadea is the older, more no-nonsense, take-charge kind of character who cuts through BS and keeps the plot on track, but she is also harbouring trauma from the civil war twenty-plus years earlier, in which she played a very reluctant part. She is also in charge of a collection of novices and students who are gifted, able to wield magic.

Magic in this setting is original and interesting. Some people - specialists - have affinities for certain substances, like ink, bronze or glass, and can manipulate that substance: one character uses her ability to manipulate ink to "pull" sensitive information out of a letter and hide it under her skin whilst it's shown to someone else, and return it later on. They can also manipulate the constituent parts of those substances, so glass-sensitives also have power over sand. The problem is that they can also become addicted to their powers, and even overdose on them to their own destruction (or those around them). Such a risk is heightened during certain times of year, which vary by substance; this is known as coming into alignment. One of Amadea's jobs is keeping her students on the straight and narrow and out of harm's way when using their powers. It's an intriguing form of magic, only lightly explored in this first book.

There are also smaller POV roles. Richa Langyun, the investigator assigned to the murderers, is refreshingly standard for such a character: he is committed to finding out the truth, no matter how many important toes he steps on in the process, and is gruff but seems to have a heart of gold. Fortunately he doesn't start the story four days from retirement. Yinii Six-Owl ul-Benturan is a specialist in ink and one of Amadea's students, who also allies with Quill early in his investigation, and provides a valuable POV on the use of magic in the setting.

The book also strikes a good balance between dropping us into the action and getting on with business - the book is just 340 pages long but packs in more worldbuilding, character and thematic development, and plot than some volumes twice that size - and explaining what is going on. Exposition is brief, pertinent and usually only delivered where necessary, which is a good balance between the Eriksonian "what the hell is happening?" in media res approach and the alternative of stopping the action every few chapters for a TED Talk on magic, religion and history.

The world is fascinating, and it's interesting that we get two large maps, one of the entire explored world and one of Semilla, but almost the whole story happens in the city of Arlabecca by itself (and a lot of it in just one building, the Imperial Archives). The world map at first feels useless, but as the backstory is revealed and the true horror of what happened to the old civilisations becomes clear, the map shows the sheer odyssey some of the refugee columns had to endure to get to safety. It's a good use of a map to enhance the storytelling rather than just existing as a reference.

With a rich world, solid characters, interesting-but-not-overwrought magic system and an enjoyable mystery plot (expanding into something grander later on), this is a compelling novel. It does have a few weaknesses. One is that it feels like the author was trying hard not to let the book become too dark, so sometime the tone feels a little unsteady with some humour appearing where it doesn't feel apt. Some of the less-well-drawn students in the Archives feel a bit whimsical or comic relief even when it's not really logical to be so. Another issue is that the ten civilisations aren't entirely human, or some were hybrids of humans and other things, so some of the people in the book appear to be entirely human, some have ram's horns coming out of their head and the most alien have tons of octopus-like tentacles. This is mentioned early on and doesn't really come up again, to the point that two characters might be having a conversation with the reader entirely unaware that one of them is not fully human until they casually use their tentacles to pick something up, which can be a little jarring (there being a quick reference to confirm which species is which would have helped).

The maps by Francesa Baerald are also beautiful but designed to be seen in colour; the black-and-white reproductions in the physical books aren't very readable, so I had to download copies from her website to read them better.

But these issues are mostly ignorable. Empire of Exiles (****) is a solidly enjoyable opening to this series, with an interesting world that seems ripe for further exploration. A sequel, Relics of Ruin, is available now and a third book is on its way.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods.

Sniper Elite 3

June 1942, North Africa. The Germans have taken Tobruk, but American sniper Karl Fairburne distinguishes himself on the battlefield. A skilled marksman who works best alone, Karl is recruited to help Allied intelligence track down General Franz Vahlen, a German engineer who is working on a rumoured "superweapon" to help the Axis win the war. Fairburne has to fight his way across several German strongholds in the northern Sahara and along the Mediterranean coast to track down and destroy Vahlen's project.

Defying traditional chronology, Sniper Elite 3 is the chronologically earliest game in the Sniper Elite series, but the developers eschew the chance to give its square-jawed, squared-headed, testosterone -embodied hero any kind of origin story. Karl Fairburne is a good sniper and is given a frankly preposterous set of missions to single-handedly infiltrate a bunch of Nazi fortresses to discover what's going with a secret project. Karl just says "okay," and that's about it. The game is basically about you killing many, many Nazis, and has no interest in putting anything in the way of that.

I had previously played Sniper Elite 4, which was solidly enjoyable, and had been planning to visit the rest of the series, but as usual plans were somewhat delayed. Going back to the previous game in the series is an interesting experience. Sniper Elite 3 was released in 2014, three years before its successor, and was designed to work on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, meaning it had to work with much greater limitations of memory. This means the maps are smaller, the set-pieces less impressive and the graphics less accomplished.

However, for an eleven-year-old game, it scales nicely on modern hardware and is still very much a good time. The smaller maps do mean a more focused game, with a faster completion time (this game can be put away in under 8 hours, about two-thirds the length of Sniper Elite 4, so if you do check it out, make sure you get it on sale). Large-scale sniper duels across immense maps aren't so much the order of the day here, with the closer quarters instead requiring players to more freely mix and match long-range and close-quarters combat on the fly, moving from stealth to head-on confrontations more liberally. The game generally does a good job of dealing with this, even if some of its tricks become a bit predictable (like the end of every mission - the exfiltration bit - usually being accompanied by the arrival of large numbers of enemy reinforcements between you and the exit).

The game's selling point is its ridiculously gory "kill-cam," which shows your bullet tearing up the internal organs of the bad guys in unnecessary, but sometimes comical, detail. Setting up trick shots, trying to shoot three enemies in a line with the same bullet etc can yield more experience points (allowing you to requisition better equipment between missions) and achievements. Sniping is entertaining, moreso as close-quarters combat can be more hit or miss: using your silenced sidearm can only guarantee kills on headshots and the various submachine guns have the accuracy of a drunk camel trying to perfectly touch down a moon lander.

The map design is pretty strong, given the technical constraints they were under, and the tension in the game can revolve around the effort expended to get into a good sniping positions versus that enemies will generally locate you within two to three kills and start swarming your location. Your character is more fragile than most video game protagonists so preserving your own life becomes a major priority when considering avenues of attack.

The plot is entertaining bobbins (and is actually based on a real German plan, though it didn't develop as far as during the game), character development is non-existent but also not required, but the game is graphically solid with some excellent sound design. If you want to while away two afternoons or so dispatching ludicrous numbers of bad guys with a chunky array of weapons, Sniper Elite 3 ticks the box quite nicely.

On the negative side, the game's AI is not always the best (and is particularly poor at counter-sniping), and a plethora of bugs remain in the game. Attempting to assassinate one high-priority target proved redundant when he instead fell through the ground and plunged screaming to die on the bottom of the map. Getting caught on the edges of object geometry, usually at the worst possible moment, is depressingly common. This is not the most polished game in history, though I've certainly experienced far worse.

Sniper Elite 3 (***½) executes well what it set out to do: a series of interesting, challenging sniper missions, with a dark sense of humour and some satisfying action, but is showing its age with limited map sizes and some minor jank. Just try not to pay too much for it.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods.

Red Dead Redemption

1911. Twelve years have passed since the Van der Linde Gang broke up in an explosion of violence and betrayal. Former gang member John Marston and his wife, Abigail, have tried to go straight since then, building up a farmstead at Beecher's Hope, West Elizabeth, over the past four years and raising their son Jack. The Bureau of Investigation finally catches up with the family, detaining Abigail and Jack in return for John's cooperation in tracking down the remaining gang members still at large: Bill Williamson, Javier Escuella and Van der Linde himself. John's mission will take him over two US states and into war-torn Mexico, so he can exorcise the demons of his past and win back his family.

How to review Red Dead Redemption 1, a fifteen-year-old game, in 2025? Normally I'd argue that a game, even an older one, should be reviewed on its own terms and merits without reference to anything else. But with this game that is, maybe uniquely, difficult. It now stands in the shadow of its more illustrious successor. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a much vaster, more epic, more visually impressive game which is, across the board, a more stunning experience. RDR2 is one of the greatest video games ever made, and it's also the prequel to Red Dead Redemption 1, with a story and narrative that's specifically designed to work as a first port of call in the series. But playing RDR2 first and then going back to RDR1 can be a jarring experience, with a significant downgrade in visuals, scope, theme, dialogue and length.

But another way of looking at it is to say that RDR1 is The Hobbit to RDR2's The Lord of the Rings. Yes, it's shorter, simpler, more straightforward, not as narratively or thematically rich, and not as interested in worldbuilding. But being shorter, more sharply-defined and more focused is no bad thing, and RDR2 being deliberately a different kind of experience to RDR1 leaves the latter as still having a lot of merit to it. If you want a vast, expansive Western, a Lonesome Dove and its sequels to revel in for weeks, go play RDR2. But if you want a short, brutal shock to the system, a Spaghetti Western or a Blood Meridian, then RDR1 can be just what you need.

Torturous, mixed metaphor openings aside, what actually is Red Dead Redemption? It's an open-world Western video game where the player takes on the role of John Marston. John used to be a member of the Van der Linde Gang, an outlaw crew led by Dutch, a charismatic leader who fancied himself a modern Robin Hood. His gang, which had no care for gender or race, was a found family of the rejected, helpless and hopeless, bound by tight bonds of respect and love...until Dutch lost his grip, becoming more maniacal, ruthless and violent. The gang self-destructed in an eruption of blood and betrayal, John left for dead. He managed to escape with his wife Abigail and son Jack, and after eight years of wandering they finally managed to scrape together enough money to build a modest farm at Beecher's Hope, West Elizabeth. After four years of peaceful living, they were apprehended by the Bureau of Investigation, and John given an ultimatum: never see his wife or son again, or help them bring down the remaining members of the Van der Linde Gang.

This quest sees John track down the remaining gang members, who are now running their own crews in New Austin and across the border in Mexico. One has holed up in a formidable fortress, so John has to do jobs in the area to build up a network of allies in law enforcement, the homestead community and amongst some of the more amenable local criminals. Once he has amassed enough friends and frenemies, he can assault the fortress. The story then leads him to Mexico, which is in the grip of full-scale civil war, with John playing both sides against the middle as he tries to get information about where other gangmembers may have gone to ground. Finally, he gets to go home to West Elizabeth...only for a new problem to emerge.

The structure is pretty much identical to that used in all Rockstar open-world games to date. You have main story missions to do (with some variation in the order), along with side-quests of varying complexity and length, and then optional experiences, such as taming horses, bounty-hunting, eliminating bandit camps, robbing people or engaging in horse and cart racing. The array of side-activities is reasonable but not huge: to get the most out of the game you have to follow the main story.

Red Dead Redemption came out two years after Grand Theft Auto IV and three before Grand Theft Auto V, so it's a surprise that RDR1 is so economical and tight in its design. A thorough-but-not-exacting playthrough, so the main quest, all story and stranger side-quests, camp assaults, but not 100% every repetitive task, comes out at around 22 hours, or more or less half the time of its near-contemporary crime capers (though to get to that for GTA4, you have to include its two expansions as well). RDR1 is actually Rockstar's shortest open-world game since GTA3 way back in 2001, which is surprising but not necessarily a bad thing.

First up, RDR1 does include its significantly-sized horror expansion, Undead Nightmare, as well, which beefs up its time-versus-cost ratio quite nicely. Secondly, open world games can tend towards bloat and makework. Rockstar is better at this than most companies, but its other games (even the mighty RDR2) still suffer from it a bit. RDR1 dispenses with most of that. There's only a couple of such missions (finding varieties of flowers from distant corners of the map), most of the rest is pretty achievable, interesting and thematic. As I said before, RDR1 is a Spaghetti Western based on the theme of revenge and redemption, it doesn't need to be a hundred hours long with three hundred named characters and realistically-modelled yak nostrils. Sometimes less is more.

Like RDR2, this game starts in media res, this time with John's family already in custody and him begin frogmarched off a boat in Blackwater (where from is unclear; John's home is about a thirty-second ride west of Blackwater by land) and onto a train to start his mission. In fact, it takes until a good few missions into the game for John to tell anyone - including the player - what the hell is going on, which is an interesting choice. It also doesn't help that the first few missions largely revolve around John learning to herd cattle and help a dog on his security sweep, which feels redundant (John has been a rancher for four years already at this point) and lacking in dynamism. Fortunately, the game picks up quickly and before long John is hogtying bandits and duelling bad guys on the streets of Armadillo. 

Graphically, this is a fifteen-year-old game, so as you'd expect it definitely looks past its best. This is an "updated" version of the game with some new, higher-resolution textures and some much-improved lighting, which does look intermittently impressive, but clearly the game can't hold a candle to Red Dead 2, especially since the two games' maps overlap a lot. You can literally stand in the same spot in Red Dead 1 and 2, and 2 will look considerably more than just eight years newer and shinier in comparison. The desolate plains of New Austin don't actually fare too badly, and Mexico (an area largely inaccessible in RDR2) can look very impressive, but the deep woodlands of Tall Trees in West Elizabeth look pretty rough in comparison. But, it generally all looks good enough to enjoy the game, which is the important thing, and the game will also not tax modern hardware really at all, which can be a relief after some recent heavy-duty releases. The game's music is minimalist but effective, with several fantastic moments scored beautifully.

Combat is simple but solid, helped out by the slow-mo "dead eye" mechanic which allows you fire effectively from horseback during chaotic engagements (though it perhaps can make things too easy). Weapon selection is solid. The game suffers from the perennial Rockstar problem of the game being an open-world, choose-what-to-do-next affair, but the second you get into a mission, you have to do the mission the way the game intends. The game and the story tells you what mission is a stealth operation and which is a full-on assault, that choice is never left to you. This still feels limiting, but this has been Rockstar's thing since 2001 and people should know that going in, so criticising the game for it feels redundant. 

Red Dead Redemption (****) has certainly aged, but it has aged well. Its length, tight story construction, less-detailed mechanics and minimalist score may be a surprise after Red Dead 2's epic scope and endless levels of detail, but that focus also makes for a very sharp game, building to an impressive climax. Recommended.

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Hosting an event with Peter F. Hamilton in late January

I'm hosting an event with SF author Peter F. Hamilton at Waterstones Book Store in Colchester, Essex on 21 January (in the UK).

I don't often host events, and almost never outside of a convention, so this will be a change of pace. I've also known Peter for a good decade and been reading his work for close to thirty years, so it'll probably be an interesting discussion.

The main focus of the event will the physical release of A Hole in the Sky and the other books in his Arkship Trilogy, which was previously an audio exclusive, but I daresay we'll cover the rest of his career and his current project, the Exodus duology, tying in with the forthcoming video game.

If you're interested in attending, the details can be found hither.

TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER 40,000 announced

Creative Assembly and Games Workshop have confirmed their highly lucrative alliance will continue into the grim darkness of the far future. Total War: Warhammer 40,000 is definitely a thing.

The game will see war raging unchecked across at least a star system, and possibly the whole galaxy, as multiple 40K factions clash in battle. Space Marines, Imperial Guard and Orks appear in the trailer, with Eldar in the promotional art, and more factions are likely to join the fray, if not in the initial release than certainly in the several thousand DLC that will follow. Armoured vehicles, aircraft and orbital bombardments will change up the standard Total War experience.

A significant change will be that the game with launch on PlayStation 5 and XBox Series X/S as well as PC. It's assumed that the game will target a 2026 release date but that's not confirmed so far.

Creative Assembly confirmed last week that Total War: Medieval III is also in early development.