Saturday, 11 April 2009
Malazan at 10: An old interview with Steven Erikson
And when I say old, I mean old. This interview was done by The Guardian in October 1999, a few months after Gardens of the Moon was published. It's very interesting, expanding on how the Malazan series was picked up for publication, the tug of war between Orion and Bantam over the series, what Erikson was doing at the time and how the deal (which I believe remains a record-setter for a debut fantasy series, shattering that set by Goodkind a few years earlier, although I could well believe someone like Rothfuss has broken it) changed the author's life.
Some other writers' takes on the BSG finale
In the month since it aired, the BSG series finale has attracted a generously 'mixed' batch of reviews.
SF Signal has asked some other SF writers what they thought of the finale and where, if anywhere, that the writers went wrong.
George RR Martin chimes in with his thoughts here.
Obviously, spoilers for those who haven't watched the episode yet.
SF Signal has asked some other SF writers what they thought of the finale and where, if anywhere, that the writers went wrong.
George RR Martin chimes in with his thoughts here.
Obviously, spoilers for those who haven't watched the episode yet.
Friday, 10 April 2009
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
The village sits alone in the forest. Ringed by ancient fences and barricades that stand between the people of the village and the Unconsecrated, it is a haven of civilisation against the horrors that lurk in the Forest of Hands and Teeth. The Guardians defend the village and the Sisterhood leads it, ensuring the people pray for salvation and do not question the order of things. When Mary's mother is taken by the Unconsecrated and Returns as a mindless beast, she stops believing in God and her questioning of the facts of her life leads her to some shocking discoveries about her world and her place in it.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth is the debut novel by American author Carrie Ryan and is the first in a series set in a post-zombie-apocalypse world. The small community ringed by danger recalls the works of George Romero, whilst the forbidding forest surrounding the small, seemingly idyllic commune brings to mind the movie The Village (in a good way). The way people try to carry on with ordinary lives but having to take precautions against the threats of the world is also reminiscent of Peter Brett's recent The Painted Man as well (except, obviously, with zombies rather than demons). The book also has a feel of its own as well, due to the role that religion plays in affairs and the obsession of the main character in finding the truth about the world.
The book is told in the first person from the point-of-view of teenager Mary, who faces entering adulthood and searching for a prospective husband at the same time her family is laid low by tragedy. Mary is a deeply flawed protagonist, angry at the world and by turns obsessed with finding 'the ocean' (a strange concept her mother told her about as a child) and also with a young man, Travis, who is betrothed to another. In short, Mary is a very convincing teenager whose stubbornness and jealousy sometimes gets her and her friends into trouble. This makes her often an unlikable character, such as when she withholds important information from her friends for no really comprehensible reason, but also a very convincing one.
The setting of the first book is intriguing, with a creepy and mysterious atmosphere pervading the besieged village and its enigmatic cathedral. Characterisation is solid, and most importantly the writer can write, with a flowing and engaging prose style that keeps the action moving along nicely. However, there is definitely too much emphasis on the doomed romance storyline, which is appropriate in the first half of the book but under the much more desperate and dangerous circumstances of the second begins to get a little grating and occasionally threatens to bog down the pace, although usually the author seems to realise this and gets the action underway again with a nicely-written moment of horror or an interesting backstory revelation.
The ending is mildly disappointing, partially for being a little bit too familiar from readers of The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, and also for its extreme ambiguity. There will be a companion novel focusing on other characters, The Dead-Tossed Waves, out next year, with further books promised, so I'm guessing we'll eventually learn the fates of the characters left hanging at the end of this book, but a little bit more solid closure would have been appreciated.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth (***½) is a debut novel beset by some of the normal teething problems associated with a debut work, but Carrie Ryan's prose and pacing skills are impressive. I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do with more experience. In the meantime, this is an enjoyable book that will pass the time nicely. The novel will be published by Gollancz in the UK on 1 July 2009 and is available now in the USA from Delacorte.
Oh yeah, and to those worried by this being a 'YA' novel, it isn't. It's instead a book that doesn't feature any sex or swearing, which seems to automatically make a book 'YA' these days even when it features some gruesome imagery and violent deaths (as this book does).
The Forest of Hands and Teeth is the debut novel by American author Carrie Ryan and is the first in a series set in a post-zombie-apocalypse world. The small community ringed by danger recalls the works of George Romero, whilst the forbidding forest surrounding the small, seemingly idyllic commune brings to mind the movie The Village (in a good way). The way people try to carry on with ordinary lives but having to take precautions against the threats of the world is also reminiscent of Peter Brett's recent The Painted Man as well (except, obviously, with zombies rather than demons). The book also has a feel of its own as well, due to the role that religion plays in affairs and the obsession of the main character in finding the truth about the world.
The book is told in the first person from the point-of-view of teenager Mary, who faces entering adulthood and searching for a prospective husband at the same time her family is laid low by tragedy. Mary is a deeply flawed protagonist, angry at the world and by turns obsessed with finding 'the ocean' (a strange concept her mother told her about as a child) and also with a young man, Travis, who is betrothed to another. In short, Mary is a very convincing teenager whose stubbornness and jealousy sometimes gets her and her friends into trouble. This makes her often an unlikable character, such as when she withholds important information from her friends for no really comprehensible reason, but also a very convincing one.
The setting of the first book is intriguing, with a creepy and mysterious atmosphere pervading the besieged village and its enigmatic cathedral. Characterisation is solid, and most importantly the writer can write, with a flowing and engaging prose style that keeps the action moving along nicely. However, there is definitely too much emphasis on the doomed romance storyline, which is appropriate in the first half of the book but under the much more desperate and dangerous circumstances of the second begins to get a little grating and occasionally threatens to bog down the pace, although usually the author seems to realise this and gets the action underway again with a nicely-written moment of horror or an interesting backstory revelation.
The ending is mildly disappointing, partially for being a little bit too familiar from readers of The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, and also for its extreme ambiguity. There will be a companion novel focusing on other characters, The Dead-Tossed Waves, out next year, with further books promised, so I'm guessing we'll eventually learn the fates of the characters left hanging at the end of this book, but a little bit more solid closure would have been appreciated.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth (***½) is a debut novel beset by some of the normal teething problems associated with a debut work, but Carrie Ryan's prose and pacing skills are impressive. I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do with more experience. In the meantime, this is an enjoyable book that will pass the time nicely. The novel will be published by Gollancz in the UK on 1 July 2009 and is available now in the USA from Delacorte.
Oh yeah, and to those worried by this being a 'YA' novel, it isn't. It's instead a book that doesn't feature any sex or swearing, which seems to automatically make a book 'YA' these days even when it features some gruesome imagery and violent deaths (as this book does).
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Happy 10th Anniversary to the Malazan Book of the Fallen!
On a lighter note, it is now ten years since Gardens of the Moon, the first novel in Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, was published. Preceded by tremendous reviews (JV Jones' review in SFX and the Stephen Donaldson cover-quote were probably instrumental in the book being as successful as it was), the book led to no less than nine sequels (seven of which have already been published) and Erikson becoming one of the most-discussed epic fantasy authors of modern times.
Ten years? You've got to be fricking kidding me! Also, what the hell is actually going on in that picture? Can someone at Bantam please tell us please?
More impressive is the fact that in ten years Erikson has published eight very large novels with the ninth due in just a few months and the final book in the series only a year and a half away. Whilst the merits of the Malazan series continues to be fiercely debated on many fantasy forums, no-one can deny that Erikson's profligacy is impressive. Anyway, here's to the next ten years!
Ten years? You've got to be fricking kidding me! Also, what the hell is actually going on in that picture? Can someone at Bantam please tell us please?More impressive is the fact that in ten years Erikson has published eight very large novels with the ninth due in just a few months and the final book in the series only a year and a half away. Whilst the merits of the Malazan series continues to be fiercely debated on many fantasy forums, no-one can deny that Erikson's profligacy is impressive. Anyway, here's to the next ten years!
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Way back in the day, I was a fan of the Medal of Honour series of games, particularly the Allied Assault series of PC games. Back in 2002 this was cutting-edge stuff, with its depiction of the D-Day landings and its mix of realism with solid gameplay. There were limits to what the game could do, however. Due to engine and technical limitations, it wasn't possible to create 'open' levels, so the player was carefully herded where the designers wanted him to go, giving rise to an odd situation where American soldiers fighting across an open field would find their route determined by impassable wire fences. But this was a minor complaint in 2002 given the quality of the visuals and the intensity of the action.
Some of the Allied Assault team broke off in 2002 to form a new company, Infinity Ward, specifically to address issues like this and ramp up the intensity of the war simulation experience. In late 2003 they launched their own take on the concept, Call of Duty, which went on to eclipse its forebear in critical acclaim and allowed the player to control American, Russian and British soldiers, switching between them as necessary. Call of Duty 2 carried on this fine tradition. However, both games still felt very limited. CoD2 improved things by sometimes allowing a choice of several different paths to an objective, but there was still none of the freedom being offered that would really benefit the game, and the ingredients were feeling a little stale.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (CoD3 was a console-only affair) seeks to update the experience by switching to a near-future setting depicting a Middle-Eastern warlord and a mental Russian agent teaming up to launch a nuclear attack on the United States and 'reclaim' both their countries for Team Crazy. The typically intense CoD combat experience is once again on offer here, and it has to be said that when they are on form, Infinity Ward can't be beaten for offering combat experiences which offer a solid approximation of the chaos of real combat (or so I'm informed by people I know in the army). The problem is that Infinity Ward are so focused on recreating that feeling of insane carnage that they sacrifice a lot of other elements, leading to frustrating gameplay.
I mentioned earlier that in 2002 it simply wasn't possible to have an open gameworld with multiple paths to an objective and also maintain a high visual quality. These days - or at least in late 2007 when this game came out, this wasn't even remotely still an issue any more, as Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, a game with superior graphics to CoD4, demonstrated, giving you the run of the streets of Mexico City and allowing you your own choice of tactics, approaches, use of cover and weapons and the calling in of support as needed. In CoD4 suddenly being stuck in a closely-regulated 'on a rails' shooter is annoying and frustrating. Engaged in a close-quarters alley gun battle, I hit upon the idea of using a side-alley to flank the enemy, only to be met by a wall of impassable tyres. Your only option to progress is to advance into a hail of enemy fire and overwhelm them at close range. Great.
On the plus side, this is one hell of a slickly-produced game, with great music, impressive (and very well-scaled for PCs) graphics and instinctive controls. Mission briefings are nicely-realised and make full use of satellite maps. The in-game banter is sometimes funny, although it doesn't stray far from the usual macho cliches. The designers are also clearly enormous fans of Aliens, employing music that is very similar to Horner's score for that movie, naming at least one character after an Aliens one and quoting dialogue from the movie several times. This was all pleasing to my inner nerd and helped calm my rage after another stand-off that would have lasted until the end of time if I hadn't charged an enemy machine gun nest as the only possible way of making progress. It's also good to see the Brits and Russians get a look-in as well as the Americans (although you only get to control the British SAS platoon and an American Marine Corps contingent, not the Russian loyalist forces). There's also a great but all-too-brief level where you get to play the gunner on a Lockheed AC-130 gunship.
The game's highlight is an unexpected flashback mission which takes place in Chernobyl, with just you and another sniper having to sneak past the heavily fortified perimeter in order to assassinate an enemy dignitary. This a very tense, well-designed mission depicting the ruined city in a very atmospheric manner, culminating in an absolutely insane stand-off with half the Russian army where, for once, the enemy's vast numbers actually made sense. And whilst I normally don't rate multiplayer as part of a single-player game (since, as studies continuously show, three-quarters or more of gamers usually never take their games online, unless it's an online-only game, of course), the multiplayer action in CoD4 is solid, since it generally does feature more open levels and of course doesn't have infinite waves of enemy forces.
Call of Duty 4 (***) is a decent, if extremely short (which cost it half a star) action FPS, but I think Infinity Ward really need to reassess what they are trying to do with this series. Continuing to sell it as a warfare simulator when they won't encourage or even allow the use of real military tactics is disingenuous, and the series is now being overtaken and leap-frogged by other games that work much better. As it stands, the series is in danger of becoming stale and predictable.
The game is available now on PC (UK, USA), X-Box 360 (UK, USA) and PS3 (UK, USA).
Some of the Allied Assault team broke off in 2002 to form a new company, Infinity Ward, specifically to address issues like this and ramp up the intensity of the war simulation experience. In late 2003 they launched their own take on the concept, Call of Duty, which went on to eclipse its forebear in critical acclaim and allowed the player to control American, Russian and British soldiers, switching between them as necessary. Call of Duty 2 carried on this fine tradition. However, both games still felt very limited. CoD2 improved things by sometimes allowing a choice of several different paths to an objective, but there was still none of the freedom being offered that would really benefit the game, and the ingredients were feeling a little stale.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (CoD3 was a console-only affair) seeks to update the experience by switching to a near-future setting depicting a Middle-Eastern warlord and a mental Russian agent teaming up to launch a nuclear attack on the United States and 'reclaim' both their countries for Team Crazy. The typically intense CoD combat experience is once again on offer here, and it has to be said that when they are on form, Infinity Ward can't be beaten for offering combat experiences which offer a solid approximation of the chaos of real combat (or so I'm informed by people I know in the army). The problem is that Infinity Ward are so focused on recreating that feeling of insane carnage that they sacrifice a lot of other elements, leading to frustrating gameplay.
I mentioned earlier that in 2002 it simply wasn't possible to have an open gameworld with multiple paths to an objective and also maintain a high visual quality. These days - or at least in late 2007 when this game came out, this wasn't even remotely still an issue any more, as Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, a game with superior graphics to CoD4, demonstrated, giving you the run of the streets of Mexico City and allowing you your own choice of tactics, approaches, use of cover and weapons and the calling in of support as needed. In CoD4 suddenly being stuck in a closely-regulated 'on a rails' shooter is annoying and frustrating. Engaged in a close-quarters alley gun battle, I hit upon the idea of using a side-alley to flank the enemy, only to be met by a wall of impassable tyres. Your only option to progress is to advance into a hail of enemy fire and overwhelm them at close range. Great.
Worse was to come, however. The game encourages you to keep up the advance whenever possible, presumably because of the creators' desire to focus on intense combat. This results in slightly ridiculous situations where your entire team is exchanging fire with enemy forces on the other side of a courtyard. In any sane military in the world, you would clear the area of all visible opponents and then move in and mop up the survivors. You can't do that in CoD4 as the enemy's ranks are constantly replenished. You can't actually make a dent in the enemy numbers until you move forward to the next objective. Yup, this military simulator game basically demands that you charge into enemy gunfire and engage them at pointblank range. The uses of cover and making the most of range and numbers, among the most basic concepts of modern warfare, are actually discouraged.
On the plus side, this is one hell of a slickly-produced game, with great music, impressive (and very well-scaled for PCs) graphics and instinctive controls. Mission briefings are nicely-realised and make full use of satellite maps. The in-game banter is sometimes funny, although it doesn't stray far from the usual macho cliches. The designers are also clearly enormous fans of Aliens, employing music that is very similar to Horner's score for that movie, naming at least one character after an Aliens one and quoting dialogue from the movie several times. This was all pleasing to my inner nerd and helped calm my rage after another stand-off that would have lasted until the end of time if I hadn't charged an enemy machine gun nest as the only possible way of making progress. It's also good to see the Brits and Russians get a look-in as well as the Americans (although you only get to control the British SAS platoon and an American Marine Corps contingent, not the Russian loyalist forces). There's also a great but all-too-brief level where you get to play the gunner on a Lockheed AC-130 gunship.
The game's highlight is an unexpected flashback mission which takes place in Chernobyl, with just you and another sniper having to sneak past the heavily fortified perimeter in order to assassinate an enemy dignitary. This a very tense, well-designed mission depicting the ruined city in a very atmospheric manner, culminating in an absolutely insane stand-off with half the Russian army where, for once, the enemy's vast numbers actually made sense. And whilst I normally don't rate multiplayer as part of a single-player game (since, as studies continuously show, three-quarters or more of gamers usually never take their games online, unless it's an online-only game, of course), the multiplayer action in CoD4 is solid, since it generally does feature more open levels and of course doesn't have infinite waves of enemy forces.
Call of Duty 4 (***) is a decent, if extremely short (which cost it half a star) action FPS, but I think Infinity Ward really need to reassess what they are trying to do with this series. Continuing to sell it as a warfare simulator when they won't encourage or even allow the use of real military tactics is disingenuous, and the series is now being overtaken and leap-frogged by other games that work much better. As it stands, the series is in danger of becoming stale and predictable.
The game is available now on PC (UK, USA), X-Box 360 (UK, USA) and PS3 (UK, USA).
Lostwatch 7: Season 5, Episodes 7-12
The first six episodes of Season 5 of the recently-Peabody-Award-winning Lost saw the former survivors of Oceanic 815 divided and pursuing separate goals. The Island had been displaced from its proper place in time and space through the actions of the Others' leader, Ben Linus. With the Island's time-skipping threatening to kill everyone left on it, John Locke returned to the Orchid Station and spun the mysterious wheel again. He was thrown off the Island and the time-skipping ended. Unfortunately, when it ended, those left behind were stuck in whatever time period the Island had been in at the time...
The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham picks up on Locke's story after he was thrown off the Island. Like Ben before him he is deposited in Tunisia and is soon tracking down the members of the Oceanic Six with the help of the redoubtable Mr. Abbadon (The Wire's Lance Reddick making a return appearance). This is the episode that fills in the gaps and reveals how Locke ended up in the coffin at the end of Season 3. However, it is slightly unsatisfying. Whilst Jack and Hurley's reactions to Locke's request they return to the Island are in-character, Kate callously refusing to go back and help Sawyer and Sayid's indifference to the fate of the innocents on the Island are both unconvincing and seem to be plot devices to put Locke on the road to despair and the episode's shock ending (which is more successful in its unexpected brutality).
LaFleur, on the other hand, is utterly brilliant. We start off seeing Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Miles and Faraday on the Island after Locke disappeared down the well. The final time flash leaves them in permanently stuck in 1974, when the DHARMA Initiative is up and running at the height of its influence. With the group about to be thrown off the Island, it falls to some quick-talking by Sawyer (and his knowledge of the 'Hostiles') to convince the DHARMA folk to accept them in. Josh Holloway totally owns this episode and we see Sawyer get to deploy his formidable wits and intelligence in a way we haven't since some of his earlier conman flashbacks. The shift in the dynamic of the show at this point is entertaining to watch, as we get to know some of the members of the DHARMA Initiative and the knowledge that all of them - or at least those of them who are still on the Island in 1992 - are going to die adds an air of poignancy to proceedings.
Namaste sees Sawyer, Juliet and company's relatively idyllic peace shattered by the arrival of some of the Oceanic Six. Sawyer is again forced to think on his feet as he gets them accepted by his DHARMA companions, but complications ensue when Sayid is captured outside the Barracks and mistaken for an Other, leading to some interesting dynamics. This is another strong episode as we see Juliet and Sawyer taking charge and making decisions for the good of the survivors, leaving 'traditional' group leaders Jack and Kate to follow events as they unfold, something Jack seems to be reasonably happy with. A late-episode conversation between Jack and Sawyer is terrific as Jack's flaws and mistakes as a leader are laid bare. Present day events are also followed up on, as Lapidus and Sun journey to the Barracks in 2007 and find out that finding their companions is going to be difficult...
He's Our You follows up on the previous episode with the DHARMA guys torturing Sayid to find out what the Others are up to. There's some real tension here as it appears that Sayid might be about to blow Sawyer's gig. As with most Sayid-centric episodes, this is a winner centred on Naveen Andreas' reliably haunted performance and Sayid's actions in this episode, of a man at the end of his tether who never wanted to come back to the Island and whose life has no real meaning on or off it, are convincing, especially the jaw-dropping conclusion which is exceptionally cold, even for Sayid and even for this show. SF fans will no doubt enjoy a cameo by Blade Runner's William Sanderson as DHARMA's torturer-in-residence Oldham.
Whatever Happened Happened addresses the apparently time-shattering events of the previous episode and is centred on a conversation about the show's time travel paradoxes by Hurley and Miles which seems to end in confusion until the episode's ending expands on events and seems to confirm Faraday's earlier assertion that "Whatever happened, happened". This episode is mostly centred on Kate, which is enough to strike terror into the hearts of even the most seasoned Lost fan, but it's one of the best ones in a long time, expanding on the backstory impressively. Kate's friendship with Cassidy and the reason she gives to Claire's mother for returning to the Island almost make her character likable again, which is something I thought was impossible by this point. Another winner.
Dead is Dead focuses on some more of Ben's backstory. We learn how he kidnapped Alex as a young child (helped by the 11-year-old Ethan), how his rivalry with Charles Widmore grew over time (leading to the latter's banishment) and what happened when he went to unleash his vengeance for Alex's death on Penny. Ben is forced to conclude that he needs to atone for his sins and journeys to the Island's mysterious Temple to ask the Monster for judgement. Fans of the show's mysteries will no doubt be fascinated by our glimpses of the Temple, of the Monster's lair and of Ben's summoning system, although all of these raise numerous fresh questions. The story of the 'new' crash survivors from Flight 316 is also furthered and we get proof that these people are not what they seem either. A great episode really strengthened by Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson on top form as the new, super-confident Locke and Ben.
I was worried if the time travel shenanigans at the start of the season were going to undo a lot of the headway Lost has made in late Season 3 and all of Season 4, but these fears proved unfounded. The show is still going from strength to strength.
507: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham (***½)
508: LaFleur (*****)
509: Namaste (****)
510: He's Our You (****)
511: Whatever Happened Happened (****)
512: Dead is Dead (****½)
Forthcoming: Some Like It Hoth (15/04/09), The Variable (29/04/09), Follow the Leader (06/05/09), The Incident (13/05/09)
The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham picks up on Locke's story after he was thrown off the Island. Like Ben before him he is deposited in Tunisia and is soon tracking down the members of the Oceanic Six with the help of the redoubtable Mr. Abbadon (The Wire's Lance Reddick making a return appearance). This is the episode that fills in the gaps and reveals how Locke ended up in the coffin at the end of Season 3. However, it is slightly unsatisfying. Whilst Jack and Hurley's reactions to Locke's request they return to the Island are in-character, Kate callously refusing to go back and help Sawyer and Sayid's indifference to the fate of the innocents on the Island are both unconvincing and seem to be plot devices to put Locke on the road to despair and the episode's shock ending (which is more successful in its unexpected brutality).
LaFleur, on the other hand, is utterly brilliant. We start off seeing Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Miles and Faraday on the Island after Locke disappeared down the well. The final time flash leaves them in permanently stuck in 1974, when the DHARMA Initiative is up and running at the height of its influence. With the group about to be thrown off the Island, it falls to some quick-talking by Sawyer (and his knowledge of the 'Hostiles') to convince the DHARMA folk to accept them in. Josh Holloway totally owns this episode and we see Sawyer get to deploy his formidable wits and intelligence in a way we haven't since some of his earlier conman flashbacks. The shift in the dynamic of the show at this point is entertaining to watch, as we get to know some of the members of the DHARMA Initiative and the knowledge that all of them - or at least those of them who are still on the Island in 1992 - are going to die adds an air of poignancy to proceedings.
Namaste sees Sawyer, Juliet and company's relatively idyllic peace shattered by the arrival of some of the Oceanic Six. Sawyer is again forced to think on his feet as he gets them accepted by his DHARMA companions, but complications ensue when Sayid is captured outside the Barracks and mistaken for an Other, leading to some interesting dynamics. This is another strong episode as we see Juliet and Sawyer taking charge and making decisions for the good of the survivors, leaving 'traditional' group leaders Jack and Kate to follow events as they unfold, something Jack seems to be reasonably happy with. A late-episode conversation between Jack and Sawyer is terrific as Jack's flaws and mistakes as a leader are laid bare. Present day events are also followed up on, as Lapidus and Sun journey to the Barracks in 2007 and find out that finding their companions is going to be difficult...
He's Our You follows up on the previous episode with the DHARMA guys torturing Sayid to find out what the Others are up to. There's some real tension here as it appears that Sayid might be about to blow Sawyer's gig. As with most Sayid-centric episodes, this is a winner centred on Naveen Andreas' reliably haunted performance and Sayid's actions in this episode, of a man at the end of his tether who never wanted to come back to the Island and whose life has no real meaning on or off it, are convincing, especially the jaw-dropping conclusion which is exceptionally cold, even for Sayid and even for this show. SF fans will no doubt enjoy a cameo by Blade Runner's William Sanderson as DHARMA's torturer-in-residence Oldham.
Whatever Happened Happened addresses the apparently time-shattering events of the previous episode and is centred on a conversation about the show's time travel paradoxes by Hurley and Miles which seems to end in confusion until the episode's ending expands on events and seems to confirm Faraday's earlier assertion that "Whatever happened, happened". This episode is mostly centred on Kate, which is enough to strike terror into the hearts of even the most seasoned Lost fan, but it's one of the best ones in a long time, expanding on the backstory impressively. Kate's friendship with Cassidy and the reason she gives to Claire's mother for returning to the Island almost make her character likable again, which is something I thought was impossible by this point. Another winner.
Spoiler warning: the following episode has not aired in all territories yet.
Dead is Dead focuses on some more of Ben's backstory. We learn how he kidnapped Alex as a young child (helped by the 11-year-old Ethan), how his rivalry with Charles Widmore grew over time (leading to the latter's banishment) and what happened when he went to unleash his vengeance for Alex's death on Penny. Ben is forced to conclude that he needs to atone for his sins and journeys to the Island's mysterious Temple to ask the Monster for judgement. Fans of the show's mysteries will no doubt be fascinated by our glimpses of the Temple, of the Monster's lair and of Ben's summoning system, although all of these raise numerous fresh questions. The story of the 'new' crash survivors from Flight 316 is also furthered and we get proof that these people are not what they seem either. A great episode really strengthened by Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson on top form as the new, super-confident Locke and Ben.
I was worried if the time travel shenanigans at the start of the season were going to undo a lot of the headway Lost has made in late Season 3 and all of Season 4, but these fears proved unfounded. The show is still going from strength to strength.
507: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham (***½)
508: LaFleur (*****)
509: Namaste (****)
510: He's Our You (****)
511: Whatever Happened Happened (****)
512: Dead is Dead (****½)
Forthcoming: Some Like It Hoth (15/04/09), The Variable (29/04/09), Follow the Leader (06/05/09), The Incident (13/05/09)
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
Dave Arneson has passed away
Last year we lost Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons. Sadly, his colleague and co-creator Dave Arneson has also passed away at the too-young age of 61.
Dave Arneson was born in 1947 and took up military wargaming in the early 1960s. During his wargames he took to 'acting out' certain confrontations and scenes, and enjoyed games which deviated from the historical record. By the late 1960s he was working on miniatures games with non-combat objectives and which focused on the players interacting with one another and even working cooperatively. He met Gary Gygax in 1969 at a gaming convention and the two developed a friendship based on their mutual interest in wargames, particularly of the naval variety (they coauthored a naval wargame, Don't Give Up the Ship!, which was published in 1972).
In 1970 Arneson created a game utilising a mash-up of his wargame rules with Gary Gygax's in-development Chainmail system. This game focused on dungeon crawls, combat and experience, and utilised rules for hit points and armour class. The game was named after its setting, Blackmoor, and campaigns in this setting were run for the remainder of Arneson's life. Arneson demonstrated the game to Gygax in late 1971 and they collaborated on expanding the game into a full rules system. With financing from a colleague, Brian Blume, this rules system developed into Dungeons and Dragons, the first version of which was published in 1974. Blackmoor became the first campaign supplement for the setting and was published in 1975. The company they founded became known as TSR and Arneson and Gygax collaborated for the next few years. Unfortunately, Arneson was unhappy that he was not credited for his work on the original D&D when the 1st Edition of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game appeared in 1979 and filed a lawsuit against TSR and Gygax to ensure he was properly credited on all later iterations of the game. He later returned to TSR in the mid-1980s but left during the buy-out that also say Gygax leave the company permanently. During this time Blackmoor had become an integral part of the Mystara world setting, but Arneson retained control of it.
Arneson moved into computing and teaching. In the early 2000s, with the advent of the Open Gaming Licence, he published a fresh series of Blackmoor gaming materials based on the 3rd Edition of D&D, and continued to attend roleplaying conventions and events. He passed away last night after an illness, and had previously suffered a stroke in 2002.
This is a sad day for roleplaying. Arneson was a quiet guy whose role in creating D&D has sometimes been overlooked in favour of the far more outspoken and larger-than-life Gygax, but his contribution to the game was absolutely critical, and he remains credited for the game on the latest, 4th edition of the game. Roleplaying designer Monte Cook has a few brief words to say about him here. Certainly the world of roleplaying is a poorer place today.
Dave Arneson was born in 1947 and took up military wargaming in the early 1960s. During his wargames he took to 'acting out' certain confrontations and scenes, and enjoyed games which deviated from the historical record. By the late 1960s he was working on miniatures games with non-combat objectives and which focused on the players interacting with one another and even working cooperatively. He met Gary Gygax in 1969 at a gaming convention and the two developed a friendship based on their mutual interest in wargames, particularly of the naval variety (they coauthored a naval wargame, Don't Give Up the Ship!, which was published in 1972).
In 1970 Arneson created a game utilising a mash-up of his wargame rules with Gary Gygax's in-development Chainmail system. This game focused on dungeon crawls, combat and experience, and utilised rules for hit points and armour class. The game was named after its setting, Blackmoor, and campaigns in this setting were run for the remainder of Arneson's life. Arneson demonstrated the game to Gygax in late 1971 and they collaborated on expanding the game into a full rules system. With financing from a colleague, Brian Blume, this rules system developed into Dungeons and Dragons, the first version of which was published in 1974. Blackmoor became the first campaign supplement for the setting and was published in 1975. The company they founded became known as TSR and Arneson and Gygax collaborated for the next few years. Unfortunately, Arneson was unhappy that he was not credited for his work on the original D&D when the 1st Edition of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game appeared in 1979 and filed a lawsuit against TSR and Gygax to ensure he was properly credited on all later iterations of the game. He later returned to TSR in the mid-1980s but left during the buy-out that also say Gygax leave the company permanently. During this time Blackmoor had become an integral part of the Mystara world setting, but Arneson retained control of it.
Arneson moved into computing and teaching. In the early 2000s, with the advent of the Open Gaming Licence, he published a fresh series of Blackmoor gaming materials based on the 3rd Edition of D&D, and continued to attend roleplaying conventions and events. He passed away last night after an illness, and had previously suffered a stroke in 2002.
This is a sad day for roleplaying. Arneson was a quiet guy whose role in creating D&D has sometimes been overlooked in favour of the far more outspoken and larger-than-life Gygax, but his contribution to the game was absolutely critical, and he remains credited for the game on the latest, 4th edition of the game. Roleplaying designer Monte Cook has a few brief words to say about him here. Certainly the world of roleplaying is a poorer place today.
Some sad Transformers-related news
Typical that just after my first-ever Transformers post, the second one would have to be a piece of sad news. The slice of Transformers I grew up on was the Marvel comic, which ran for a stonking 332 issues between 1984 and 1992 and contained a tremendous amount of awesome.
The very first Transformers artist was Frank Springer, who sadly passed away from prostate cancer on 2 April at the age of 79. In addition to Transformers he worked on many other Marvel and independent comics, including Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD and The Avengers. He also worked for National Lampoon. He served in the Korean War and had been active in comics work since the late 1950s. In addition to his work on Transformers he also did the art for the Headmasters spin-off mini-series, which gives rise to what David Willis of the Shortpacked! webcomic makes a convincing case to be the greatest piece of TF-related artwork ever, when taken out of context:
Seriously, the real explanation is nowhere near as awesome as what is going through your mind right now.
Sad news indeed.
The very first Transformers artist was Frank Springer, who sadly passed away from prostate cancer on 2 April at the age of 79. In addition to Transformers he worked on many other Marvel and independent comics, including Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD and The Avengers. He also worked for National Lampoon. He served in the Korean War and had been active in comics work since the late 1950s. In addition to his work on Transformers he also did the art for the Headmasters spin-off mini-series, which gives rise to what David Willis of the Shortpacked! webcomic makes a convincing case to be the greatest piece of TF-related artwork ever, when taken out of context:
Seriously, the real explanation is nowhere near as awesome as what is going through your mind right now.Sad news indeed.
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
The Discworld Comes to...Somerset?
The Somerset town of Wincanton was officially 'twinned' with the Discworld city of Ankh-Morpork in 2002. The town's ties with the fictional city were strengthened when a new housing estate, Kingwell Rise, had several streets named after streets in Ankh-Morpork. Peach Pie Street and Treacle Mine Road are among the new street names unveiled by Sir Terry Pratchett himself.
No word on if Wincanton is to get an Unseen University soon, however.
No word on if Wincanton is to get an Unseen University soon, however.
The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks
The State of the Art is Iain M. Banks first, and to date only, short story collection. It was originally published in 1991 and features both genre and mainstream fiction, as well as three stories set in his signature Culture setting.
The collection opens with 'Road of Skulls', a sort of jaunty little SF-fantasy tale with a Douglas Adams-esque comic conclusion. It's fun but very slight and very short. 'A Gift from the Culture', about a Culture citizen living undercover on a recently-Contacted world, is better but a bit odd. It's not a story by itself but feels like the opening chapter to a longer novel which ends in a rather pointless and abrupt manner. Interesting, and perhaps meant to convince us that Culture citizens aren't flawless, but still not the best story I've read.
'Odd Attachment' is dark and very funny, bringing a certain Monty Python and the Holy Grail scene to mind. This film is possibly a Banks touchstone, as he both appeared in the movie (he's one of the extras in the final scene) and referenced the rabbit scene in The Wasp Factory as well. 'Descendant', the second Culture story, is a story of survival and the bond between a man and his sentient spacesuit. A macabre and most effective story.
'Cleaning Up' is brilliant, a very funny SF novel about what happens to Earth when an alien spaceship accidentally dumps a load of rejected consumer products on the planet. From the evidence presented here (not to mention the humorous streaks in his other books), Banks could do a great SF comedy, and I'm surprised he's never tried to do it at novel length. 'Piece' is more sobering, a mainstream story reflecting on terrorism and the arguments of science versus faith and God versus evolution. A very thoughtful and prescient story with a gut-punch twist ending. 'Scratch' is very weird, a stream-of-consciousness oddity which is barely readable. Not really sure what Banks was aiming for there.
Fully half the book is taken up by the title novella. The premise of this story is very simple. The Culture's General Contact Unit Arbitrary arrives in orbit around the third planet of a remote, yellow star in the closing months of the year 1976 by the local calendar and spends the next fourteen months or so surveying the world to see if it is ready for official Contact. Much of the book is taken up by the attempts of the central character Diziet Sma to convince the Arbitrary's Mind - and thus the wider Culture - that Earth should be Contacted to prevent its inevitable slide into nuclear armageddon, whilst the Culture is more inclined to leave the planet as it is as a 'control experiment' to show the dangers faced by a nascent spacefaring civilisation. There isn't a huge amount of drama or personal jeopardy in the story, but the intellectual arguments between the two and the other characters' reactions to the situation are all handled intelligently and in a fascinating manner. The story also acts as an effective prequel to the third proper Culture novel, Use of Weapons.
The State of the Art (****) shows a broad range of Banks' writing skills and is well worth tracking down. The book is available from Orbit in the UK and Night Shade in the USA.
The collection opens with 'Road of Skulls', a sort of jaunty little SF-fantasy tale with a Douglas Adams-esque comic conclusion. It's fun but very slight and very short. 'A Gift from the Culture', about a Culture citizen living undercover on a recently-Contacted world, is better but a bit odd. It's not a story by itself but feels like the opening chapter to a longer novel which ends in a rather pointless and abrupt manner. Interesting, and perhaps meant to convince us that Culture citizens aren't flawless, but still not the best story I've read.
'Odd Attachment' is dark and very funny, bringing a certain Monty Python and the Holy Grail scene to mind. This film is possibly a Banks touchstone, as he both appeared in the movie (he's one of the extras in the final scene) and referenced the rabbit scene in The Wasp Factory as well. 'Descendant', the second Culture story, is a story of survival and the bond between a man and his sentient spacesuit. A macabre and most effective story.
'Cleaning Up' is brilliant, a very funny SF novel about what happens to Earth when an alien spaceship accidentally dumps a load of rejected consumer products on the planet. From the evidence presented here (not to mention the humorous streaks in his other books), Banks could do a great SF comedy, and I'm surprised he's never tried to do it at novel length. 'Piece' is more sobering, a mainstream story reflecting on terrorism and the arguments of science versus faith and God versus evolution. A very thoughtful and prescient story with a gut-punch twist ending. 'Scratch' is very weird, a stream-of-consciousness oddity which is barely readable. Not really sure what Banks was aiming for there.
Fully half the book is taken up by the title novella. The premise of this story is very simple. The Culture's General Contact Unit Arbitrary arrives in orbit around the third planet of a remote, yellow star in the closing months of the year 1976 by the local calendar and spends the next fourteen months or so surveying the world to see if it is ready for official Contact. Much of the book is taken up by the attempts of the central character Diziet Sma to convince the Arbitrary's Mind - and thus the wider Culture - that Earth should be Contacted to prevent its inevitable slide into nuclear armageddon, whilst the Culture is more inclined to leave the planet as it is as a 'control experiment' to show the dangers faced by a nascent spacefaring civilisation. There isn't a huge amount of drama or personal jeopardy in the story, but the intellectual arguments between the two and the other characters' reactions to the situation are all handled intelligently and in a fascinating manner. The story also acts as an effective prequel to the third proper Culture novel, Use of Weapons.
The State of the Art (****) shows a broad range of Banks' writing skills and is well worth tracking down. The book is available from Orbit in the UK and Night Shade in the USA.
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