The Outer Worlds 2

2362. The outer colony systems have mysteriously been cut off from Earth. An Earth Directorate investigation team is dispatched to the Arcadia system to investigate possible causes for the disruption to communications, only to face unexpected resistance and betrayal. A single agent is recovered from cryosleep ten years later and learns that the system is threatened by huge dimensional rifts of unknown origin. The agent must help save Arcadia from the rifts and navigate the complex political machinations between three factions and various local concerns.

Released back in 2019, The Outer Worlds was a totally fine roleplaying game. It saw the player explore the Halcyon star system, navigating local factional squabbles and ultimately help rescue (or destroy) the helpless frozen crew of a colony vessel. Though enjoyable, it was somewhat shorter than players have come to expect in the modern era, and perhaps fell short of the more complex writing and characterisation people expect from Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind knotty RPGs like Alpha Protocol, Pillars of Eternity, Neverwinter Nights II: Mask of the Betrayer, Tyranny and Fallout: New Vegas.

The Outer Worlds was developed relatively quickly and on a low budget, before Obsidian's acquisition by Microsoft. The Outer Worlds 2 has a much larger budget and took twice as long to develop, with a larger scale and scope. There were also creative team changes, with RPG legend Tim Cain (creator of the Fallout franchise and the various classic games at Troika) who co-led the first game retiring but staying on to advise.

The question is here is if they could make something more impressive. Both The Outer Worlds and its effective fantasy successor, Avowed (released earlier this year), were fine RPGs which were enjoyable to play with some solid characters and storylines, but with a limited scope and risked being a bit too forgettable. The answer is, fortunately, yes. The Outer Worlds 2 is a significant improvement over both games and is easily Obsidian's best recent AA-level RPG so far. People hoping that they'd rediscover their writing mojo from New Vegas or Pillars of Eternity may be somewhat disappointed as they don't get back to that level, but definitely of their recent 3D RPGs, this is the strongest.

The game can be played from either first or second person (or flipping between them), with the player creating their character from scratch. They can decide how to approach combat (direct engagement, stealth, engineering to hack robots and turrets etc), puzzle-solving (through engineering skills, hacking or science) and dialogue (through speech, a threatening demeanour etc). It's important in Outer Worlds 2 to pick a lane and stick to it as, unlike its forebear, there's no way to respec once you're in the game itself. However, you can respec once at the end of the prologue mission, which gives you a taste of the game and how you're likely to play it.

The prologue is a nice taster for the game itself, giving you options on how to infiltrate a facility and two different routes; you can't take both, so immediately you have an alternate choice for a replay. The prologue has some obstacles that can be solved by talking to people (talking a nervous bureaucrat into helping you out in return for eliminating some problems from his service record) or just killing everyone in sight.

Once the prologue is resolved, the game sets you down on the planet Eden and you have to get to work investigating the mystery of the rifts. You'll soon find the Arcadia system is divided between three factions: the authoritarian Protectorate, the science-minded Order of the Ascendant and the hyper-capitalistic megacorporation Auntie's Choice. The Protectorate is mostly presented as antagonists and will usually fire on you on sight, but representatives from the other two factions can be more nuanced, and you can deal with them through negotiation or combat. You also gain NPC companions from these factions who will join you on your ship, and navigating the personal relationships between these companions can give you clues on how to handle the wider political relationships between the factions. You can side with one faction over the others or try to negotiate peace between them, which is more difficult but also generates a ton more missions, so that feels like the optimal choice.

The game is set over four planets: Eden, Dorado, Cloister and Praetor, along with several space stations, an asteroid settlement and several spacecraft. The four planets are each surprisingly large, with a sprawling map. You are guided around the map by quests, but you can also just break off to explore (there are various locations on each planet that no quest will take you to, and will generate quests or rewards by striking out on your own). This is the first notable difference from original game, where the maps were smaller and there was less to do outside the scope of the quests, not to mention that the first two planets were reasonable in size but the latter ones were tiny with only a few quests apiece. There is immediately more to do here, spread over a larger area, with more choice in where to go. Exploration is more of an option here than it was in the prior title.

The writing and pacing are also stronger, and the game's intro immediately grabs your attention in a way the first game didn't. There's bigger and more epic set pieces, and more changes to the story based on your choices. Combat is improved, with more variations in approaches to battles. I chose to switch between a high-powered sniper rifle for ranged engagements and an explosive-shell-firing shotgun for close-up encounters, and these got me through most of the game with moderate skill improvements. Combat is chunkier and more satisfying than the first game, with body parts flying and a wider array of loot.

The game also tries something new for an RPG: there are no weight limits or encumbrance, the designers finally giving up since people now expect a "send to camp" or "send to spaceship" button, so why even worry about encumbrance in the first place? Similarly there is no stamina bar, allowing you to run around effectively forever. Removing that limitation has zero negative impact on gameplay, and allows you to focus on having fun.

But the game does imposer limitations elsewhere. Like its forebear, the skill points are dished out somewhat miserly (2 per level, with a 30-level cap) and the game does not reward jacks-of-all-trades. You really need to focus in on 5-6 skills, spreading things out further will just leave you underskilled to really do anything. I ran a Speech, Lockpick and combat-heavy build and that allowed me to get through the game one way, but a Hacking, Engineering and Science-heavy build would give you a different-feeling result. With no respec possible after the prologue, the game does force you to think carefully about your character build, unlike other recent RPGs that basically allow you to respec at will to overcome every problem in the game. Outer Worlds 2 requires more careful thought there.

Your companion characters are fine, being a likeable lot with their own, fairly involved quest chains. Even psychotic killer Aza ends up being a valuable team member, despite her unrelenting preference to just murder everything in sight. None of the companions are going rank amongst Obsidian's best, but they're mostly a step-up from The Outer Worlds'. 

If the game has a key weakness it's probably that, after the impressive prologue, the game suddenly feels a bit underwhelming. The first planet is a bit RPG-by-the-numbers and very similar to the first game. Choices are mostly limited in scale and consequence (one Fallout 3 Megaton-ish exception aside) and shooting all the bad guys will get you through the game. Those expecting a better experience than the first Outer Worlds may feel distinctly let down by the opening to this game. But around 10 hours in (about a quarter of the way through the game), the game suddenly bursts into life: the story kicks up a gear and becomes more interesting, the scale of events becomes much larger and the level of your freedom to make choices and the variation in the consequences of those decisions both improve immensely. The game catches fire and doesn't let up to the finale, taking in some impressive level design, combat encounters, exploration and even semi-immersive sim moments along the way.

The Outer Worlds 2 (****) has a slow start but then bursts into life. It's a stronger game than its forebear, with more interesting locations, a better story, more convincing characters and more in-depth worldbuilding. It plays some interesting trade-offs, getting rid of tedious things like encumbrance and fatigue and instead forcing you make harder choices about your character build. It's a longer game than its predecessor, but not so much as to become tedious. It's still not Obsidian at their best, but it's a solid, enjoyable RPG experience even if it's not going to be troubling any best game of the year lists.

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Doctor Who: Season 25

London, November 1963. A strange white-haired man said to be living in a junkyard with his granddaughter has disappeared, along with two of her schoolteachers. But he disappeared with the mission that brought him to this place unfulfilled. A few weeks later, but much longer for him, he returns to complete his task, and prevent the streets of London being turned into a battleground between two factions of the most dangerous species in the galaxy.

It would probably be fair to say that, after the underwhelming twenty-third and twenty-fourth seasons, expectations ahead of Doctor Who's silver anniversary year were low. The show had the feeling it was running on fumes: the budget had been slashed, the quality of the scripts was apparently deteriorating and the episode count almost halved over Doctor Who's traditional format. Ratings were on the slide and angry fan calls for the showrunner (as he'd now be called), John Nathan-Turner, to be sacked were being roundly ignored, leading to furious diatribes in the fanzine community.

Of course, it wouldn't be Doctor Who if it was predictable. For the twenty-fifth season, the creative crew riposted by delivering its finest set of episodes in years, and for its opener, its best story since Season 21's The Caves of Androzani.

Remembrance of the Daleks is, by any measure, a triumph. The debut script by Ben Aaronovitch - best known today for his Rivers of London urban fantasy series - is phenomenally good. The characters banter with one another believably, there are exceptional monologues on the mutability of time, and the script interjects mystery back into the Doctor's character. In fact, for almost the first time in the entire series, the Doctor is revealed to have set the events of the story in motion himself, laying an elaborate trap for the Daleks only to realise that things are complicated because the Daleks have divided into two factions with different motivations, something he was not expecting.

The white Imperial Daleks and grey Renegade Daleks (led by a black Dalek Supreme) despise one another due to their differing notions of racial purity. The Imperial Daleks have accepted cybernetic enhancements and deliberate mutations to make themselves more powerful (one such mutation resulting in a "Special Weapons Dalek" that can blow away entire streets). The Renegade Daleks believe these mutants are freaks, only fit to be destroyed. The metaphor for human racial superiority is expanded more directly as well: a black cafe worker muses with the Doctor on how if people had never decided they liked sugar, the sugar cane industry wouldn't have happened and he'd be an African. A key moment in the story is when Ace, vibing on the coolness of being in Swinging Sixties London (though 1963 is actually a bit before the swinging fully kicks in), is confronted with the less-cool spectre of racial bigotry.

In fact, Remembrance of the Daleks has a good claim for being the first "modern" Doctor Who story, rather than 2005's Rose. The story works on multiple levels of theme and metaphor, the Doctor is far more intelligent and cunning than we've traditionally seen, often acting rather than reacting, and the VFX work is beyond any other story produced in the Classic run to date. Daleks blasting one another on the streets of London, rocket-propelled grenades flying, spaceships landing in school playgrounds, the Doctor jury-rigging powerful weapons on the fly...this is Who at its most action-packed, even beyond Earthshock. The story also uses continuity in a neat way, tying in with the events of the first-ever Doctor Who story from 1963, An Unearthly Child, but lightly enough not to confuse people who hadn't seen that story recently (which, in 1988, was the majority of viewers).

As well as the excellent script, memorable dialogue, cool plot twists, impressive (for the time) action and several of the most "badass" moments in all of Doctor Who history (Ace single-handedly taking on a Dalek assault squad armed with a baseball bat being a highlight), it has an exceptional cast. Old reliables like George Sewell and Michael Sheard give great performances, but it's Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred who take centre stage. McCoy makes the Doctor convincingly dark and manipulative in a way we've not seen before, cementing his position as the best Doctor since Tom Baker, whilst Sophie Aldred dials down the enthusiasm of her debut to deliver a more compelling performance (and cementing her position as the best companion since Tegan, if not Sarah Jane Smith). Pamela Salem also gives a great guest performance, having previously been on the show over a decade earlier in The Robots of Death. Dursley McLinden also gives a solid guest performance as Mike, though this is tinged by tragedy: he later died of complications related to AIDS, and his character and story inspired Russell T. Davies' mini-series It's a Sin.

Remembrance of the Daleks is something of an embarrassment of riches, with so much packed into the story it could have easily been a six-parter and still felt crammed. As it is, it holds a claim to being the last truly great serial of Classic Doctor Who, though a couple of the stories after this have a go at breaking that claim.

The Happiness Patrol feels like a thematic sequel to the preceding season's Paradise Towers, in that it also feels like a JG Ballard novel come to life. The Doctor and Ace arrive on a planet where citizens are mandated to be happy on pain of death (resulting in the TARDIS getting a pink makeover). Does this make much literal sense? No. But as a nightmarish dreamscape it almost works, with Ace working to corrupt the titular "Happiness Patrol" not to be so happy, and the Doctor working with blues player Earl Sharp to help bring down the society. The guest cast is also in overdrive, with Sheila Hancock (as a Margaret Thatcher analogue), Lesley Dunlop, Ronald Fraser and Richard D. Sharp delivering great performances.

Production value-wise, the story is a mixed bag with some great costumes and excellent animatronic creature effects, but poor sets (the sets look dowdy and distinctly misery-inducing, which is odd given the vibe). The Kandy Man also feels a bit random: he gets the best lines and his happy and cheerful performance belaying his murderous intentions is a nice juxtaposition, but he looks ridiculous. He's also not really important to the story and could be removed with no issue, which would have improved the story no end. As it stands it's a solid story, and much better when viewed as an adult than as a kid (especially after coming off the action high of Remembrance of the Daleks).

Silver Nemesis aired on the actual 25th anniversary of Doctor Who itself, but is a bit of a mixed bag. The idea here is that the Doctor has unleashed a powerful superweapon in a prior, off-screen adventure and here has to ensure it is neutralised whilst fending off multiple forces on its trail. This is pretty much the exact same plot as Remembrance of the Daleks, even down to the fascist metaphor, although that's less subtle here as literal Neo-Nazis show up in pursuit of the weapon. We also have a returning classic monster with the Cybermen, but they have almost nothing to do in the story. The Cyberleader is incompetent (to the point where his lieutenant keeps pointing out that he's an idiot) and the Cybermen themselves are wiped out too easily by gold weapons. Ace fighting off a whole Cyber-platoon with a catapult and gold coins is a cool visual but a very dumb idea.

This is a shame because other elements of the story work better. The Doctor having a hidden, darker past is again hinted at, and Fiona Walker as Lady Peinforte and Gerard Murphy as Richard are a great double-act. The location filming at Arundel (standing in for Windsor Castle) is also very impressive and, for the second story in a row, we have a lot of riffing on music, this time jazz, with Courtney Pine guesting as himself (only the third time this ever happened in Who history, and both prior times it was newsreaders who only appeared on TV). Some of the action sequences are effective, and the Nemesis itself, which can speak and seems urgently concerned that people find it beautiful (given its ability to lay waste to vast amounts of the galaxy, most respond in the affirmative, with alacrity). The first episode is also quite strong. But it's a bit of a letdown overall, wastes the Cybermen, and is overshadowed in every way by Remembrance of the Daleks.

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy rounds off the season and is a very bizarre story. This is Doctor Who returning to the "Surreal Who" school of story, previously seen in Warriors' Gate, Kinda and Snakedance. The Doctor and Ace arrive at a galactic carnival where people have to keep the audience entertained or die a horrible death. They find both allies and enemies amongst the carnival entertainers and other guests, with a constantly shifting web of allegiances to keep on top of.

It's deeply weird, not helped by the story expanding from three to four episodes, meaning a first episode where the Doctor and Ace take the whole length to even reach the circus.

What helps elevate the story is the guest cast, with Jessica Martin as Mags, the random werewolf; T.P. McKenna as Captain Cook (getting the assignment); Ricco Ross as the Ringmaster; Ian Reddington as the Chief Clown; and Peggy Mount as the Stallslady all turning in sterling performances. It helps that Ian Reddington doesn't do a cliched "evil clown" performance but something more interesting, with McKenna's what-ho-fellow-well-met fellowship giving way to more vicious selfishness as he tries to survive the travails of the carnival.

Most intriguing is the ending, where the Doctor starts off doing slapstick comedy to entertain the audience but then slowly becomes more manipulative and cunning as he builds up to defeating the enemy. The arc here is the Doctor going from one of the exhibits at the carnival to the grand ringmaster, manipulating everyone else without them realising it.

The twenty-fifth and - alas! - penultimate season of Classic Doctor Who (****) is a winner. The scripts are better, the dialogue is becoming more modern and naturalistic, the effects are improving, and the Doctor-Ace team is becoming one of the most definitive in the show's history, but the season is definitely too short, with great ideas having to be rushed.

The season is available on DVD and Blu-Ray as well as streaming on BBC iPlayer in the UK and various services overseas. It's currently only available on limited edition Blu-Ray, but the standard edition is expected to be released in 2026.

• 25.1 - 25.4: Remembrance of the Daleks (*****)
• 25.5 - 25.7: The Happiness Patrol (****)
• 25.8 - 25.10: Silver Nemesis (***)
• 25.11 - 25.14: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (****)

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

RUMOUR: Something may be up with HALF-LIFE 3

Here we go again.

Almost quasi-credible rumours are swirling from previously-reliable Valve insiders (including those that broke the news of the existence of their previous games) that Valve Software may be on the verge of formally announcing Half-Life 3, for release in early 2026. The mega-delayed video game was at one time slated for release as early as 2009, and its continuous non-appearance has made it one of the Internet's most famous, long-running gags. Fans had given up hope of ever seeing it before Valve released the VR-based spin-off game Half-Life Alyx in 2020, which ended with a strong tease that Half-Life 3 was indeed on the way.

Series protagonist Gordon Freeman and key ally Alyx Vance in publicity art for Half-Life 2.

A Short History of Half-Life

The original Half-Life was released in 1998 and was a revolutionary game in the development of the first-person shooter genre. With its commitment to total immersion - your character never spoke and there were no cut scenes that took you out of the action - the game broke new ground in telling story and depicting action in a first-person environment. Almost every major FPS series that followed after it owes it a debt of gratitude, including BioShock, Far Cry, Call of Duty and Halo. Three expansions followed, namely Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Decay, that expanded the story and background lore. The game was also a huge step forwards for modding, with some mods becoming official releases, including the single-player action game Gunman Chronicles and multiplayer games Team Fortress and Counter-Strike. In 2020, after five years of partial releases and betas, Half-Life received a Valve-sanctioned remake release as Black Mesa.

Half-Life 2 was released in late 2004 and was again a giant jump forwards for FPS gaming, mostly down to its stunning graphics (which still hold up well today), lighting and physics puzzles. Half-Life 2 also massively popularised the game distribution platform Steam, which has now become the single most popular game distribution platform on PC, and is credited with saving the PC as a gaming platform. The game was followed by two direct expansions, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Episode Two, the latter released in late 2007 as part of The Orange Box alongside Team Fortress 2 and physics puzzler Portal.

Valve indicated that Half-Life 2: Episode Three should follow within about eighteen months, but the game never appeared. Instead, it developed Portal 2 (2011) and the multi-player Left 4 Dead series. Constant rumours about the status of Episode Three swirled but nothing definitive was announced, aside from a nod that if a new game should appear, it would probably be a full Half-Life 3 rather than another expansion. Finally, in late 2019, Valve confirmed that Half-Life: Alyx was on its way, an interquel set between Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Released in March 2020 to blanket critical acclaim, Alyx became (and remains) the definitive VR game, as well as a strong game in its own right. With the ending of the game apparently recontextualising the end of Half-Life 2: Episode Two, fans began theorising that a new, mainline (non-VR) entry in the series was in development.

The Combine Citadel in City 17 under construction (from Half-Life: Alyx).

The Rumours

Rumours of Half-Life 3 began circulating after Half-Life: Alyx's release, specifically its ending which revisited the massive cliffhanger ending of Episode Two and provided a stronger jumping-off point for a new game. It was also noted that the making of Alyx required the creation of 4K assets for City 17 locations and Half-Life weapons and items, that could be reused either in Half-Life 3 or a comprehensive remaster/remake of Half-Life 2 (or both). The creation of Alyx also meant huge adjustments to the Source 2 Engine that cold only be fully justified through the release of additional games (Counter-Strike 2 was subsequently released in 2023, and multiplayer game Deadlock has since been announced, both also using Source 2).

Rumours began gathering pace last year, with rumours stating that a project known as "HLX" or "Half-Life X" had been in development since Alyx wrapped, alongside new hardware projects. These rumours gathered pace in late 2024 and early 2025, with noted industry insiders with excellent track records confirming that Half-Life 3, or at least a new Half-Life game, was an active project. Hardware rumours also continued to proliferate.

This week, Valve formally confirmed the existence of a new generation of Steam Machine home consoles, a new range of VR equipment, and a second generation of Steam Controllers. Insiders became more confident that Half-Life 3 was a thing, stating that Valve had not announced it at the same time as the hardware so one news would not drown out the other.

The date for Half-Life 3's official confirmation is unclear, though some have suggested 16 November (today), as the 21st anniversary of Half-Life 2's release. However, that hasn't happened so far and it'd be odd to make a major announcement on a Sunday (though it's Valve, who delight in not being bound by commercial conventions, so who knows?). Wednesday 19 November may be more likely, as the 27th anniversary of the Half-Life franchise as a whole. Otherwise the next likely date is Thursday 11 December, at the 2025 Game Awards, though it's likely Valve would not want to share the stage with other games.

As for a release date, a shadow-drop like that done by Bethesda for Oblivion Remastered earlier this year seems less likely, with a Q1 2026 release more plausible. The rumours also suggest that the game will only be released on PC via Steam, Linux and SteamOS, and may be a launch title for the new Steam Machine hardware, estimated in early 2026. Console versions of the game would only follow at a later date. The game is rumoured to not be a VR-exclusive, Valve acknowledging that too many gamers are not fans of the VR experience (or even can't enjoy it due to medical reasons). There may be an optional VR mode.

If Half-Life 3 did launch in 2026, it would likely only be eclipsed in sales and profile by Grand Theft Auto VI (currently scheduled for a November 2026 release).

Of course, that's assuming the news is real and Valve don't actually announce Alyx 2, Portal 3 or some other title.

The Aperture Science vessel Borealis from Half-Life 2: Episode Three concept art. The Borealis is believed to be a key location in the next Half-Life title.

NOTE: Spoilers for the Half-Life series follow

The Half-Life series tells the story of an alien invasion of Earth that begins when scientists at the Black Mesa Research Facility in New Mexico inadvertently breach the dimensional barrier between Earth and another world called Xen. Aliens flood the complex, but are ultimately stopped and their master, the Nihilanth, is defeated by Black Mesa research scientist Gordon Freeman. Freeman is the only survivor of the crisis equipped with a Hazardous Environment Suit, allowing him to reach Xen and destroy the threat once and for all. Having achieved his mission, Freeman is "recruited" by the enigmatic "G-Man" to serve as his agent. Other expansions explore the fate of other characters during the original Black Mesa Incident, including US Marine Adrian Shepherd and Black Mesa security officer Barney Calhoun.

Half-Life 2 is set twenty years later and reveals that, although the Black Mesa Incident was successfully resolved, the events attracted the attention of the Nihilanth's masters, the mysterious Combine, an ultra-powerful, trans-dimensional, post-Singularity alien force. The Combine invaded Earth in the Seven-Hour War, defeating its armies and occupying the planet with trivial ease. Draining the oceans, suppressing human reproduction and reducing the population to "manageable" levels, the Combine are interested only in draining Earth's resources and leaving the planet for dead. Gordon Freeman is returned to the frey by G-Man. Rapidly joining forces with a resistance movement led by veterans of Black Mesa (including Barney, Dr. Kleiner and Eli Vance), Gordon leads a successful uprising that destroys the Combine Citadel in City 17 and frees humanity. Gordon leads a further military assault that ensures the survival of the resistance and the destruction of the Combine "superportal" that is summoning reinforcements from one of the Combine homeworlds. During this latter battle, one of Gordon's key allies is killed and Combine Advisors are revealed to be at large on Earth, whilst a resistance group has located the Borealis, a ship created by Aperture Science capable of travelling through portals. The Borealis may hold the key to permanently sealing the portals to Earth and preventing future Combine invasions.

Half-Life: Alyx is set a couple of years before Half-Life 2 and focuses on Alyx Vance, the daughter of Dr. Eli Vance from Black Mesa. Alyx plays a major role in Half-Life 2 and its expansions as effectively a co-protagonist. Alyx sets out on a routine reconnaissance mission which escalates when the resistance discovers evidence of a major Combine "superweapon." Her investigations eventually defeat this Combine plot but attract the attention of the powerful G-Man. G-Man agrees to intervene to help her during her moment of highest need, which results in him changing time to alter the end of Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Unfortunately, this is only possible if she agrees to replace Gordon as his most trusted agent. Gordon finds himself discarded, but with a new, incredibly daunting mission: to defeat G-Man and rescue Alyx, and ensure the Combine threat is ended for good.

The spin-off Portal series focuses on Aperture Science, a rival to Black Mesa. Aperture focuses on portal technology, short-range teleportation using interdimensional portals. A research subject named Chell discovers that the Aperture Science computer, GLaDOS, has gone loopy and is trying to kill her. She defeats GLaDOS but is unable to escape from the facility, and is put into suspended animation. She wakes up to find the world in ruins (possibly a result of the Combine invasion) and tries to escape again, but inadvertently reawakens GLaDOS. GLaDOS is in a battle of wills with a rival AI, Wheatley, with Chell caught in the middle, having to cut deals and work with both as she tries to navigate the Aperture Labs and escape. There are various connections to the Half-Life series, including the discovery of the empty Borealis dry dock, but these are limited.

The Black Mesa Incident, or Resonance Cascade, that triggers the events of the Half-Life universe. Depicted here in remake game Black Mesa.

A Wertzone History of the Wait for Half-Life 3

• What's up with Half-Life 3? (January 2012)
• Finally! An official quasi-update on Half-Life 3 (April 2012)
• Happy 15th Anniversary to Half-Life (November 2013)
• Half-Life writer leaves Valve (January 2016)
• Half-Life writer reveals where the story would have gone in Episode 3 (August 2017)
• Happy 20th Anniversary to Half-Life (November 2018)
• Valve to release third full Half-Life game in March 2020 (but not the one you want) (November 2019)
• SF&F Questions: Will We Ever See Half-Life 3? (December 2019)
• Half-Life 3 (probably) confirmed (March 2020)
• Valve tease next-generation Half-Life game (July 2020)
• Footage of unreleased Half-Life game emerges (May 2022)
• Idea for Portal 3 floated at Valve (December 2022)
• Half-Life 2 turns twenty years old (November 2024)

Forge of the High Mage by Ian Cameron Esslemont

The Malazan Empire has completed its conquest of the Quon Tali continent and is mopping up a few rebellions and uprisings. However, Emperor Kellanved is in no mood to consolidate. Greymane's armies are engaged on the continent of Korelri to the south, but Kellanved is of a mind to take the rest of the imperial forces and strike for Falar, the peninsula and large island chain off the remote northern coast of the continent, separated from the rest of Quon Tali by the icy wasteland beyond the Fenn Range. In Falar, religious strife and political intrigue are building to a climax, but it is in the icy wastelands that the fate of the land will be decided, for an ancient Jaghut has discovered a K'Chain Che'Malle artefact of tremendous power, and is of a mind to unleash it upon the world.

The first two novels in the Path to Ascendancy series, Dancer's Lament and Deadhouse Landing, were Ian Cameron Esslemont's best Malazan novels to date. Set long before the events in either his own Malazan Empire sequence or Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, the two books established the origin story of Emperor Kellanved (aka Shadowthrone aka Ammanas aka Wu) and Dancer, the Rope (aka Cotillion), founders of the Malazan Empire. The books were focused, tight and highly enjoyable.

Unfortunately, the third book, Kellanved's Reach, was less-accomplished. The book was incredibly rushed given the story it had to cover - the conquest of mainland Quon Tali by Kellanved and his ragtag bunch of disparate allies - with massive battles, campaigns and character motivations machine-gunned out by the writer at a rate of knots. It had every appearance of a book written to a tight page count (just over 300 pages) and meant to wrap up its series.

With the Path to Ascendancy series selling much better than expected, it was decided to expand the series to six volumes, with the next three focusing on the Malazan conquest of Falar, Seven Cities and northern Genabackis in turn. It also appears that any page limit has been relaxed, with Forge of the High Mage coming in at a much more generous 450 pages, with a tighter focus that mean we're back to the quality levels of the first two volumes here. Indeed, if not better.

The book is structured around the Malazan decision to invade Falar from both land and sea. Kellanved contracts a pirate flotilla to invade Falar and cause chaos and destruction, scattering the Falaran fleet piecemeal whilst the Malazan land armies under Dujek One-Arm advance across the icy wastes to invade the archipelago from the south, via its mainland holdings. This plan, naturally, barely survives contact with the enemy: the Falarans are revealed to have a magical superweapon called the Jhistal, the capabilities of which are unknown and the threat of which stymies Kellanved's plans. Meanwhile, the Malazans have to deal with the natives of the wastelands, namely the Jheck and various other factions who do not take kindly to the Malazan incursion. Events are complicated further by some treasure-seekers who find a solitary volcano in the heart of the wastes, and get rather more than they bargained for when they get inside.

Forge of the High Mage works because it settles on doing three things and doing them well: a Malazan military campaign focusing on the old favourites, with Kellanved, Dancer, Hairlock, Nightchill, Dujek and the Crust brothers playing a major role in events; a coming-into-his-power story for perennial Malazan favourite Tayschrenn; and an exploration of the Falaran culture and religion through the eyes of its highly reluctant High Priestess (with a healthy bonus of exploring more of the character of perennially loathed antagonist Mallick Rel). It's also tapping into something the Malazan series has flirted with before but not quite committed to, and in fantasy as a whole is under-explored: an epic fantasy disaster novel. The second half of the book turns into the fantasy equivalent of Towering Inferno as various characters try to stop the disaster that has been unleashed and is now out of anybody's control.

The book's pacing is much-improved over its forebear, and we get a lot more character-building and exploration. Tayschrenn's growth from arrogant but skilled mage to a more considered, mature statesman starting to understand the vast powers he has access to is extremely well-handled, whilst our limited-but-effective observations of Mallick Rel's multi-layered, Littlefinger+ Xanatos Gambits that see him emerge on top when he should really have been killed ten times over are quite impressive. Indeed, Esslemont makes Rel's ability to get on top of even the most ludicrous odds and emerge victorious seem quite plausible, which in turn benefits Erikson's Malazan novels where Rel's rise to supreme power decades after these events felt a lot more random. Kellanved and Dancer fans may be disappointed that they get a lot less screentime this time around, but those who feel they were verging on overuse in the prior books may appreciate the fact we spend a lot more time with the rest of the Old Guard.

Another theme of the novel is the idea of "moving into a new world." The Malazans started as a gang operating out of an inn and somehow conquered an island, then a continent, and are now going for the world, but in doing so they are starting to attract the attention of some very big hitters. When one legendary figure who has so far dismissed the Malazans as non-entities finally turns his attention to them after their madcap antics in this book and decides to "keep an eye on them," it feels like the sort of momentous backstory moment we really should be seeing in these books (and often are not).

On the negative side, it does feel like Esslemont includes some favourite characters really only to touch base with them rather than because they have a key role to play in this book. He's sensible enough not to bring in Surly or Greymane (who have other fish to fry), but some of his favourite Crimson Guard do feel shoehorned in, do very little, and then leave the narrative. Some might also ponder the bonkers scale of events in this book and the fact that nobody in chronologically later books mentions them, but to be honest that's par for the course for Malazan: the events that completely change the lives of millions of people in Falar forever are just a wet Tuesday afternoon to the likes of Kellanved and Tayschrenn. There's also quite a bit of blatant scene-setting for the next volume in the series that fulfils relatively little function in this novel, but that might read better once the next volume is available.

Forge of the High Mage (****½) is a splendid return to form for Esslemont, something that will hopefully continue. The fifth book in the Path to Ascendancy series, The Last Guardian, is forthcoming.

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

Doctor Who: Season 24

The TARDIS has been drawn off course with such force that the Doctor has been injured and forced to regenerate. The Rani takes advantage of the Doctor's post-regenerative confusion to trick him into helping her with her amoral plans of scientific experimentation, whilst his companion Mel sets out to rescue him.

Season 23 of Doctor Who had seen the show both metaphorically and literally in a fight for its life. Cancelled by BBC1 controller Michael Grade on the questionable grounds that he didn't like it (despite it pulling in almost nine millions viewers at the time), the show had been granted a reprieve after a national press campaign and massive fan blowback. The resulting trial season saw ratings drop, but with the episode count halved, the cost of the show had also been significantly reduced. The show was also started to generate additional revenue streams, via a series of releases on home video. The show was given a lifeline: it would continue with the 14 episodes a year format pioneered by Season 23, but Colin Baker would have to be let go as the Doctor.

Baker, understandably annoyed by the decision, declined to return to film a regeneration story. With script editor Eric Saward having quit the show under highly acrimonious circumstances at the end of Season 23 as well, this left producer John Nathan-Turner - himself continuing only extremely reluctantly - opening the next season with no script editor, no script and no Doctor. With little choice, he tapped the last writers from Season 23, Pip and Jane Baker, to pen a new story. With negotiations continuing to try to get Baker back to return for at least one more story, it was also unclear when the regeneration would take place, meaning the script had to be kept open-ended. Nathan-Turner finally succeeded in hiring a new script editor, the young Andrew Cartmel, who promptly found Pip and Jane Baker refusing to listen to any of his story edits. Baker finally confirmed he was not coming back at all, so the new Doctor would have to start the story in Bakers costume and wearing a wig during the regeneration scene, which was suboptimal to say the least.

To say it was a trial by fire was an understatement, and the resulting script, Time and the Rani, is a mess. The story does do well by bringing back the magisterial Kate O'Mara as the Rani, who reportedly begged Nathan-Turner to be allowed to return to rainy England after spending too long filming the drama series Dynasty in California, and the story is kept borderline watchable really by O'Mara's gusto (including selling the Rani's totally deranged decision to impersonate Mel to win over the Doctor), Bonnie Langford's enthusiasm and a sharp upturn in the quality of visual effects. The story is surprisingly accomplished in deploying sharp video effects such as the killer "soap bubble" trap that the Rani employs, and even some primitive CGI with the brand new title sequence (the totally computer-generated TARDIS is really quite impressive for 1987).

The guest cast also does well, with risible material. Wanda Ventham gives a very good guest turn, and it's amusing to note that during filming she brought her 11-year-old son, a certain Benedict Cumberbatch, to watch the shooting. The rest of the cast is solid, O'Mara is outstanding and Bonnie Langford has to rise to the occasion as a driver of the story given the Doctor's instability. But of course the most notable performance has to go to newly-anointed Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy. A comedian and light entertainer, best-known for making kids laugh, McCoy was keen to bring a more dramatic and darker touch to his performance as the Doctor. Whilst he's limited by the script, McCoy does give the most charmingly off-kilter performance as the Doctor since early Tom Baker, and immediately makes the character work.

Great effects (not even mentioning the very solid prosthetics work for the alien Tetraps), good performances and a good Doctor can't make up for the fact that the script is very weak and contrived, and almost all the location filming takes place in the exact same Doctor Who stock quarry we've seen a thousand times before.

Paradise Towers, on the other hand, sets out its claim for greatness by asking a very simple question: what if J.G. Ballard wrote a Doctor Who? The resulting story is a mostly-legally-distinct rewrite of Ballard's seminal novel High-Rise as a Who story, and it has to be said it's pretty solid. The Doctor and Mel visit Paradise Towers, a famed luxury apartment complex, only to find it's descended into being a totally dystopian post-apocalyptic hellhole. The tower is divided between the robot Cleaners, officious Caretakers, eccentric old Rezzies and the Kangs, all-girl gangs divided by colour who engage in mock conflicts, though not to the death (or "unalive," as the story prophetically calls it).

The story is deliciously dark (two Rezzies try to eat Bonnie Langford alive!) and quite funny, with a solid guest cast. The weakest link, infamously, is Richard Briers, a comedic actor who decided to go "big" for his dramatic villain role. His performance in the first three episodes is okay, but his playing of a "zombified" version of the character in the final episode is horrendous and makes getting through to the end tougher than it should be, which is a shame as so much of the rest of the story works well. Paradise Towers also nearly made a claim for being the first Doctor Who story to feature canonically gay characters (though a whiff of subtext remains with Tilda and "room-mate" Tabby) before the production team decided not to go in that direction (Who's first gay characters being cannibalistic lesbians trying to feast on Bonnie Langford would have given every tabloid writer in the northern hemisphere convulsions for weeks, though the publicity would have been impressive).

Delta and the Bannermen is one of those stories that's not great, but everyone involved is clearly enjoying the hell out of it, so you almost don't care. The Doctor and Mel win a trip to 1959 Disneyland but, due to a collision between the transport spacecraft and an American test satellite (and also a collision between the writers' ideas and the reality of the budget), have to divert to a sub-Butlins holiday camp in Wales instead. The story then goes completely berserk, with the Doctor and Mel having to contend with a love triangle between two locals and an alien space princess; a newly-hatched big green alien baby; two American intelligence agents; an enigmatic bee-keeper; motorbikes; rock and roll; and a squad of unhinged mercenaries led by Don Henderson at his most gloriously scene-consuming.

It's all unhinged, but kind of holds together and works, though the production values are desperately strained here. Sylvester McCoy continues to give an exceptional performance, but Mel is put on the back burner in favour of Sara Griffiths as Ray, who stands in as the Doctor's companion for this story. Griffiths' performance is 100% pure charm and she only misses out on being promoted to full companion because of the decision to film this story first and Dragonfire second, otherwise we'd have had Sara Griffiths as Ray rather than Sophie Aldred as Ace. Fortunately, thanks to the power of Big Finish Audio, Griffiths would get her stint as the Seventh Doctor's companion in a later audio series. 

The rest of the cast is mostly solid, but the script is a bit janky in places, and the new three-part format (each of Seasons 24 through 26 would feature two four-parters and two three-parters, all 25 minutes) is not really successful. The three-parters in this era would generally feel like two-parters stretched out too long or four-parters badly rushed, and this is definitely the latter. The script is also not helped by a bit of a tonal mismatch, with a fun, madcap feel that's rather undercut by some fleeting moments of Eric Saward-meets-Robert Holmes level of cynical ultraviolence. Still, entertaining, and the level of Welsh location filming and accents make this feel like the Russell T. Davies era arrived early.

Dragonfire rounds off the season by taking the Doctor and Mel to Iceworld, a shopping resort on the planet Svartos. Here they meet old friend Sabalom Glitz and a new ally, Ace, a teenager from Earth transported to Earth by a "time storm." The four decide to team up and track down a legendary treasure, said to be guarded by a dragon. However, they also run afoul of the enigmatic Kane, who wants to escape from the planet and return to his homeworld, no matter the cost.

Dragonfire is a bit Doctor Who-by-the-numbers, with lots of running around corridors and one of the cheapest monster costumes you'll ever see in your entire life. The script is also a bit of a mess, with main villain Kane (Edward Peel) spending a lot of his time getting in and out of the freezer, which is...odd. Tony Selby imbues Glitz with his traditional insouciant charm, and secondary villain Belazs (Patricia Quinn) gets way more character development and motivation than Kane. The story also relies a bit too much on the revelation (spoilers!) that the alien dragon is actually friendly, beyond which there isn't too much to the story.

However, the story is most notable for introducing the character of Ace. Almost uniquely for a Doctor Who companion, Ace is given a ton of characterisation and backstory here, with her status as an orphan, feeling out of time and place back on Earth and her love of chemistry and explosives being well-established. She is also depicted as a person of action, taking offensive and defensive action (usually involving nitro-9 explosives) whilst all Mel can do is stand and scream. The script was rushed towards the end, leaving writer Ian Briggs and script-editor Cartmel with several major plot holes, including the way that Ace got to Iceworld not making any sense. However, various Doctor Who fanzines (and the actual Doctor Who Magazine) saw fans furiously theorising that a larger plan was at work and there was a bigger story to Ace's arrival, something Cartmel was happy to run with in later seasons. Yes! This is the first long-running Doctor Who mystery box storyline, a novel idea for the Classic series but something the modern one would run with (perhaps a bit too much).

Season 24 of Doctor Who (***) is quite possibly the most underwhelming of the entire 26-season run of the Classic series. It's quite short and one story, Time and the Rani, is arguably one of the dozen or so worst Doctor Who stories of all time. Even its strongest moments, Paradise Towers and Delta and the Bannermen, would barely pass muster in a typical Third or Fourth Doctor season. But Sylvester McCoy gives a genuinely intriguing performance as the Doctor, and there's a lot of goodwill generated by the show bouncing back from the messy way the Colin Baker era ended. There's a notable improvement in the quality of video effects, and the new title sequence and music are both very solid.

But the decision to air opposite Britain's biggest series at the time, soap opera Coronation Street, was to damage the show's ratings permanently. And the show was about to find itself up against some formidable science fiction opposition working with a much higher budget that would leave Doctor Who looking very dated indeed: on the exact same day the fourth episode of Time and the Rani aired in the UK, the very first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation aired in the United States.

The season is available on DVD and Blu-Ray as well as streaming on BBC iPlayer in the UK and various services overseas.

• 24.1 - 24.4: Time and the Rani (*½)
• 24.5 - 24.8: Paradise Towers (***½)
• 24.9 - 24.11: Delta and the Bannermen (***)
• 24.12 - 24.14: Dragonfire (***)

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

A Revised Malazan Reading Order

Way back in the day, I created a Malazan reading order that became quite popular. This was in response to a terrible list published on Tor.com, apparently itself derived from a confused communication with Steven Erikson and Ian Esslemont (they themselves did not approve of the list as a reading order).

My reading order is pretty straightforward, being basically order of publication with a few shifts around taking into account spoilers and minimising breaking up storylines. I've seen various suggestions on how to improve the list over the years, but they usually come with caveats and trade-offs that make each of them questionable in different ways, though several have merit. The obvious one is that since the original list was published in 2017, multiple new Malazan novels have been published, so it makes sense to update the list to account for them.

NOTE: I have tried to minimise spoilers, but the map and some of the discussion text may nod to what storylines are in what book and area, which some may prefer to avoid.

The Wertzone Recommended Malazan Reading Order (rev. 2025): 

1. Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen #1), Steven Erikson
2. Deadhouse Gates (Malazan Book of the Fallen #2), Erikson
3. Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen #3), Erikson
4. House of Chains (Malazan Book of the Fallen #4), Erikson
5. Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of the Fallen #5), Erikson
6. Night of Knives (Novels of the Malazan Empire #1), Ian Cameron Esslemont
7. The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen #6), Erikson
8. Return of the Crimson Guard (Novels of the Malazan Empire #2), Esslemont
9. Reaper's Gale (Malazan Book of the Fallen #7), Erikson
10. Stonewielder (Novels of the Malazan Empire #3), Esslemont
11. Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen #8), Erikson
12. Orb Sceptre Throne (Novels of the Malazan Empire #4), Esslemont
13. Dust of Dreams (Malazan Book of the Fallen #9), Erikson
14. The Crippled God (Malazan Book of the Fallen #10), Erikson
15. Blood and Bone (Novels of the Malazan Empire #5), Esslemont
16. Assail (Novels of the Malazan Empire #6), Esslemont
17. The God is Not Willing (The Tales of Witness #1), Erikson
18. No Life Forsaken (The Tales of Witness #2), Erikson
19. Legacies of Betrayal (The Tales of Witness #3, forthcoming), Erikson
20. Dancer's Lament (Path to Ascendancy #1), Esslemont
21. Deadhouse Landing (Path to Ascendancy #2), Esslemont
22. Kellanved's Reach (Path to Ascendancy #3), Esslemont
23. Forge of the High Mage (Path to Ascendancy #4), Esslemont
24. The Last Champion (Path to Ascendancy #5, forthcoming), Esslemont
25. tbc (Path to Ascendancy #6, forthcoming), Esslemont
26. Forge of Darkness (Kharkanas #1), Erikson
27. Fall of Light (Kharkanas #2), Erikson
28. Walk in Shadow (Kharkanas #3, forthcoming), Erikson

(obviously reading books that aren't out or even written yet would be an impressive feat, but this is just putting them into their probable places in the list based on what we know so far)

Standing outside the list for the time being: the six Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas are mostly self-contained stories exploring the backstory of three minor characters from Memories of Ice. They are fun but inessential. They can be read after Memories of Ice or whenever.

The Path to Ascendancy series (Dancer's Lament, Deadhouse Landing, Kellanved's Reach, Forge of the High Mage and the forthcoming Last Guardian, with one more book beyond that) are prequels which recontextualise a lot of what we think we know from the main series. Even though you can read them in the chronologically correct position, I think they work best as prequels after the main series.

As for the Kharkanas Trilogy (so far, Forge of Darkness and Fall of Light), you can read that right at the end or you can hold off until we know when the final book, Walk in Shadow, is coming out. I would, under no circumstances for a newbie, put it first.

Rationale for the order:

The order is mostly in order of publishing, although with a couple of caveats. Night of Knives is both the oldest novel in the series (it was written circa 1987, but not published until 2004) and chronologically takes place before Gardens of the Moon. However, the events of Night of Knives are not particularly germane to Gardens (the "big event" takes place off-page). Instead, Night of Knives is more important for the characters it establishes on Malaz Island. These characters do not recur in the series until The Bonehunters, over 4,000 pages later. It therefore makes more sense to read Night of Knives immediately before The Bonehunters.

House of Chains should be read before Midnight Tides: the events of Midnight Tides are actually being told in flashback by one character to another at the end of HoC. I know some people like to move Midnight Tides up because if you read in publishing order it "spoils" the fate of that character in Midnight Tides, but that's a bit weird as a reason. Plus moving Midnight Tides up disrupts the expertly-paced flow of the first four novels with the alternating between Genabackis and Seven Cities. Dumping Lether in the middle, although chronologically correct, throws off the pacing. Plus it also means you have to wait several thousand pages before catching up to the Lether crew in Reaper's Gale (which has to be read after The Bonehunters).

Return of the Crimson Guard should be read after The Bonehunters. In terms of publication order this is correct but also in terms of internal chronology. More than a year passes between The Bonehunters and Reaper's Gale, and Return of the Crimson Guard explores what happens during that year. In addition, Return has a major, game-changing ending which the later novels (by both Erikson and Esslemont) spoil. Delaying Return also means delaying the later Esslemont novels, which is a bad idea because of the way the later books interface with one another.

On different lists I place Stonewielder in different orders: it can be read immediately after Return of the Crimson Guard as this is chronologically correct (the two books are separated by a few weeks, and chronologically Reaper's Gale takes place after both books) or you can put Stonewielder after Reaper's Gale to mix things up a bit more between Erikson and Esslemont. However, Reaper's Gale ends with our heroes ready to go kick some backside in Kolanse. Putting Stonewielder after Gale means this storyline hangs for three full novels before we get back to it, whilst putting Stonewielder before Gale reduces this to two books.

The order is important because it places Toll the Hounds and Orb Sceptre Throne next to one another. Orb Sceptre Throne is the direct sequel to Toll the Hounds and Toll the Hounds does a lot of setup work for Orb Sceptre Throne which otherwise goes to waste or might be forgotten. Toll the Hounds is a significant amount of set-up with only one bit of pay-off at the end. Orb Sceptre Throne actually has the rest of the pay-off.

Dust of Dreams and The Crippled God are one extra-long novel split in two for length, so they should definitely be read together.

Blood and Bone takes place chronologically at the same time as The Crippled God (literally, our heroes in B&B see and sense the world-changing events at the end of The Crippled God three-quarters of the way through the book) and extends beyond it, so should be read after The Crippled God. Assail then picks up and resolves some storyline left dangling from Blood and Bone so they work well together.

So, what's wrong with the Tor list?

The Tor list suggests starting with the Kharkanas Trilogy novels Forge of Darkness and Fall of Light. This is really not a good idea. The Kharkanas Trilogy is a prequel in the purest form, working better when you have knowledge of the characters from chronologically later on. In addition, Fall of Light may be the most divisive Erikson novel published to date. Having it as the second book in the series I think would be a major mistake, as I've seen that novel drive off twenty-plus-year veterans of the series (some have returned, now that The God is Not Willing and No Life Forsaken have been more warmly received).

Sequential Order of the Series:

1. Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen #1), Steven Erikson (1999)
2. Deadhouse Gates (Malazan Book of the Fallen #2), Erikson (2000)
3. Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen #3), Erikson (2001)
4. House of Chains (Malazan Book of the Fallen #4), Erikson (2002)
5. Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of the Fallen #5), Erikson (2004)
6. The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen #6), Erikson (2006)
7. Reaper's Gale (Malazan Book of the Fallen #7), Erikson (2007)
8. Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen #8), Erikson (2008)
9. Dust of Dreams (Malazan Book of the Fallen #9), Erikson (2009)
10. The Crippled God (Malazan Book of the Fallen #10), Erikson (2011)
11. Night of Knives (Novels of the Malazan Empire #1), Ian Cameron Esslemont (2004)
12. Return of the Crimson Guard (Novels of the Malazan Empire #2), Esslemont (2007)
13. Stonewielder (Novels of the Malazan Empire #3), Esslemont (2010)
14. Orb Sceptre Throne (Novels of the Malazan Empire #4), Esslemont (2012)
15. Blood and Bone (Novels of the Malazan Empire #5), Esslemont (2012)
16. Assail (Novels of the Malazan Empire #6), Esslemont (2014)
17. Forge of Darkness (Kharkanas #1), Erikson (2012)
18. Fall of Light (Kharkanas #2), Erikson (2016)
19. Walk in Shadow (Kharkanas #3, forthcoming), Erikson
20. Dancer's Lament (Path to Ascendancy #1), Esslemont (2016)
21. Deadhouse Landing (Path to Ascendancy #2), Esslemont (2017)
22. Kellanved's Reach (Path to Ascendancy #3), Esslemont (2019)
23. Forge of the High Mage (Path to Ascendancy #4), Esslemont (2023)
24. The Last Champion (Path to Ascendancy #5, forthcoming), Esslemont
25. tbc (Path to Ascendancy #6, forthcoming), Esslemont
26. The God is Not Willing (The Tales of Witness #1), Erikson (2021)
27. No Life Forsaken (The Tales of Witness #2), Erikson (2025)
28. Legacies of Betrayal (The Tales of Witness #3, forthcoming), Erikson

Can you just read the series sequentially and not bother mixing up Erikson and Esslemont?

You can, and with the expansion of the franchise across yet more sequel and prequel books since the original list, risking confusion, this is more viable than it was previously, but I would still broadly recommend against it. Although some readers are less keen on Esslemont as a writer than Erikson, it is inarguable that Esslemont's books are fully canon and Erikson does refer to them in his later novels. This is particularly egregious with regard to major events that happen in Return of the Crimson Guard; having them spoiled by later Erikson books is very lame compared to seeing the events happen as they should. In addition, Esslemont and Erikson paced their books and the events within them on the basis of their publication dates being mixed up, so it is more effective to read them with that in mind.

Chronological Order of the Series:

1. Forge of Darkness (Kharkanas #1), Erikson
2. Fall of Light (Kharkanas #2), Erikson
3. Walk in Shadow (Kharkanas #3, forthcoming), Erikson
4. Dancer's Lament (Path to Ascendancy #1), Esslemont
5. Deadhouse Landing (Path to Ascendancy #2), Esslemont
6. Kellanved's Reach (Path to Ascendancy #3), Esslemont
7. Forge of the High Mage (Path to Ascendancy #4), Esslemont
8. The Last Champion (Path to Ascendancy #5, forthcoming), Esslemont
9. tbc (Path to Ascendancy #6, forthcoming), Esslemont
10. Night of Knives (Novels of the Malazan Empire #1), Ian Cameron Esslemont
11. Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of the Fallen #5), Erikson
12. Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen #1), Steven Erikson
13. Deadhouse Gates (Malazan Book of the Fallen #2), Erikson
14. Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen #3), Erikson
15. House of Chains (Malazan Book of the Fallen #4), Erikson
16. The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen #6), Erikson
17. Return of the Crimson Guard (Novels of the Malazan Empire #2), Esslemont
18. Stonewielder (Novels of the Malazan Empire #3), Esslemont
19. Reaper's Gale (Malazan Book of the Fallen #7), Erikson
20. Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen #8), Erikson
21. Orb Sceptre Throne (Novels of the Malazan Empire #4), Esslemont
22. Dust of Dreams (Malazan Book of the Fallen #9), Erikson
23. The Crippled God (Malazan Book of the Fallen #10), Erikson
24. Blood and Bone (Novels of the Malazan Empire #5), Esslemont
25. Assail (Novels of the Malazan Empire #6), Esslemont
26. The God is Not Willing (The Tales of Witness #1), Erikson
27. No Life Forsaken (The Tales of Witness #2), Erikson
28. Legacies of Betrayal (The Tales of Witness #3, forthcoming), Erikson

The chronological order of the series is, to be honest, far too bonkers for a first-time readthrough of the series. The Kharkanas Trilogy, which would open the narrative this way, is much more concerned with philosophical musings and is very slow-paced, with even less regard for newcomers than the main series. It's also notably incomplete. However, for a reread by a very experienced Malazan fan, this approach may yield interesting results.

Ultimately these are just options, and people should feel happy to read as they're enjoying and not get too hung up on different options. These are just ideas here.

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

Paramount shelves the STAR TREK "Kelvinverse" permanently

Paramount have decided to shelve the Star Trek "Kelvinverse" setting created by J.J. Abrams, apparently for good. This setting was the home to three Star Trek movies, Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016), starring Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock and Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy.

A fourth film in the setting had been mooted for years, but Paramount had repeatedly flip-flopped on the idea, at one point considering a new film focusing on Chris Pine's Kirk travelling back in time to meet his father from the first film, played by a pre-Marvel Chris Hemsworth. They then shelved that idea to consider a pitch by Quentin Tarantino, who wanted to make a whole new Trek film with a new cast based on the classic episode A Piece of the Action. A new Kelvinverse movie was put into development a couple of years ago, with the cast all eager to return. However, Paramount have apparently grown cooler on the idea. The three films were very expensive but only the first one was a smash hit success, with the latter two generating modest returns at best. All three films also generated mixed critical notices, with praise for the cast and the general acting, but criticism for aspects of the visual design and the stronger focus on explosions and visual effects than the character-based storytelling Star Trek is best-known for. A common criticism was that the three films felt more like Star Wars than Trek, and it's telling that momentum for the films stalled when Abrams skipped town to work on actual Star Wars, directing both The Force Awakens (2015) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

In the meantime, the Star Trek franchise has returned to its ancestral home on television, with first Star Trek: Discovery and now Star Trek: Strange New Worlds taking on the classic time period, with new actors playing Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Uhura etc.

Firm plans for the new Star Trek movie have not fully settled, but it's rumoured that Paramount is considering a back-to-basics approach about the "origin story" of the Federation and Starfleet. This has alarmed Star Trek fans already annoyed with the franchise's obsession with going backwards rather than forwards, and its increasingly self-contradictory canon and continuity, already stretched by this constant revisiting and rewriting of the show's past.

Simultaneously, Scott Bakula has been pushing for a return to the franchise in his role from Star Trek: Enterprise as Jonathan Archer, the captain of the original NX-01 Enterprise who later became one of the first Presidents of the Federation. It would be interesting if these ideas merged and we got a new, hopefully more grounded and less explosion-driven Trek film featuring one of its more popular leads, but this may be rather an optimistic idea.

The future of Star Trek should become clearer in the coming months. In the meantime, Paramount+ should air the fourth season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and the first season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy in 2026.

MASS EFFECT TV series to be an original story set after the original video game trilogy

BioWare have confirmed that Amazon's upcoming Mass Effect TV series will be an original story, set after the original video game trilogy.

Amazon have been developing a TV project based on the video game franchise for some years now. The original announcement sounded like the show would be based directly on the events of the original games, Mass Effect (2007), Mass Effect 2 (2010) and Mass Effect 3 (2012). The original story depicts humanity trying to establish itself on the galactic scene, where several, much older races dominate a multi-civilisation society based at an ancient, gargantuan space station known as the Citadel. The protagonist, Commander Shepard, becomes the first human accepted into the elite Spectre organisation, given wide latitude to track down a renegade agent named Saren. From a small start, the trilogy expanded into a massive war story with the galaxy under attack from an ancient alien force known as the Reapers and Shepard having to assemble a vast fleet and army to stand against them.

The fourth game in the series, Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) avoided having to commit to any outcome from the story by being set centuries later and over two million light years away, with a fleet of exploration ships reaching the Andromeda galaxy after centuries in stasis. The game was not as well-received as others in the series. BioWare did enjoy success with the release of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition in 2022, a moderate remaster of the series.

Reportedly the Mass Effect TV series is still a year away from shooting, let alone airing. Doug Jung is producing and showrunning. Meanwhile, BioWare are developing a new Mass Effect video game, but there hasn't been much news about the game for a while.