Temeraire by Naomi Novik

Temeraire is an epic fantasy/alternate history crossbreed novel by Naomi Novik, first published in 2006. Confusingly, it is also the first novel of the Temeraire series, an open-ended series which now encompasses five volumes with several more on the way. In the USA, possibly more sensibly, it is called His Majesty's Dragon.

The Napoleonic Wars are raging across Europe, but this is not the history we are familiar with. Dragons exist in this world and most nations have harnessed them to be used as weapons of war. Captain Will Laurence of the Royal Navy wins a great coup for Britain when he captures a French vessel transporting a rare Chinese dragon egg to Napoleon. The egg hatches and the newborn dragon immediately bonds with Will, to his consternation. Once a dragon has chosen its rider, the bond cannot be severed and Will has to give up his career in the navy to train as a dragon-rider.

The rest of the novel follows Will as he learns the basics of serving in Britain's aerial corps and bonds with the young Temeraire, who rapidly grows to maturity, before taking part in a series of engagements with Napoleon's forces culminating in the Battle of Trafalgar and a French aerial assault on the British coast.

Temeraire is a fun read. It's light but enjoyable. Novik paints her characters with a light touch, and after numerous recent dark and gritty fantasies it's something of a relief to read something that is enjoyable and amusing without being drenched in blood every five pages. Conversely, this makes the book something of a popcorn read: a somewhat disposable product. There's some fairly broad characterisation going on there and some of the background doesn't make sense (it's still unclear to me why aviators are considered the scum of the earth compared to soldiers and naval crew), not to mention some fairly wince-inducing, Eddings-esque dialogue between the aviators and their dragons. However, that tends to get forgotten when the muskets start blazing and French and British warships are pounding away at one another with giant lizards battling one another far above, which is all splendidly exciting and well-realised. Given Novik's background in computer programming, it's appropriate to describe the Temeraire concept as an obvious 'killer app', and it's no surprise it was rapidly snapped up for a movie adaption by Peter Jackson (it would be interesting if Smaug in the upcoming Hobbit movie adaption turns out to be a prototype for the dragons in the Temeraire move to follow).

Temeraire (***) may be fluff, but it's fun and easy to read, and I really need to get around to reading the sequels, but as I said with so many other, meatier books around it's easy to forget about this series. The novel is published by Voyager in the UK and by Del Rey in the USA (under the title His Majesty's Dragon). The sequels are Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory and Victory of Eagles, with more volumes forthcoming.

Online Round-Up Part 2

Forums
Ah, forums. In the grand tradition of the classical civilisation concept that gave them their name, SF&F forums are enlightened places of civilised discussion and debate, where everyone's opinions are respected and the partipiants enjoy partaking in a mutual exchange of ideas for their mutual enrichment.

Okay, maybe not, but relatively SF&F forums are, believe it or not sometimes, among the best out there. Venture into a computer game or TV-based forum, and it won't be long before you're decrying the state of the education system amd the rise of functional illiteracy, whilst pondering if you should be hiring a bodyguard given the reaction you provoked when you very gently suggested that maybe, just maybe, the new Doctor Who isn't quite the single most fantastic thing since sliced bread.

My forum of choice is Westeros. Technically, this is supposed to be the forum dedicated to George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. However, since new novels in the series come out at rather irregular intervals, the fanbase on the forum spends enormous amounts of time discussing other books and authors, as well as TV shows, games, politics etc. You know a forum has 'made it' when increasingly more people are joining up to take part in the discussion who have never read the author the site is supposedly supporting. With nearly ten thousand members, Westeros is also one of the biggest forums out there. The quality of discussion is usually high, and you can find me hanging out there most days, whilst authors such as Peadar O'Guilin, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, Pat Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Brian Ruckley and Richard Morgan have been known to stop by from time to time.

My oldest forum is Wotmania, specifically the 'Other Fantasy' subforum. I first visited this forum ten years ago, not long after it was established, and lurked there for many years. The quality of discussion is likewise high, and unusually for an epic fantasy board discussion of other types of genre is quite frequent. Few people would probably credit a Robert Jordan board for hosting so much discussion of Hal Duncan, M. John Harrison and Jeff VanderMeer. Interestingly and conveniently, the Other Fantasy subforum lumps TV, films and books together, making navigation a breeze compared to some other forums. On the other hand, the forum software is ancient, and the site has an extremely old-fashioned look to it these days.

Malazanempire is of note for Steven Erikson fans who haven't got a clue what is going on in the books. The posters there are extremely knowledgeable of the series and if you poke around you'll find my map of the entire Malazan world, as approved by Erikson himself (although it's not canon and I had to guess at a lot of the stuff, it's apparently pretty close).

SFX is the forum of the British SFX Magazine and is notable for its heavy British bias towards SF&F. Whilst I can't recommend the book discussion section too much (it's often dead for weeks at a time, aside from the 'what are you reading now?' threads), the TV discussion is pretty interesting and it's one of the few forums I've come across with a dedicated anime discussion subforum.

SFFWorld is one of the bigger multi-topic forums out there. Not dedicated to any particular author or subgenre, the breadth of discussion is impressive and the mods and admins know their stuff. There are two criticisms. First off, there sheer mass and number of subforums (14 of them) is a bit off-putting when first confronted. I can't help but feel that other forums have handled having a large breadth of discussion topics somewhat more elegantly. The split between the SF and Fantasy subforums, one of the few boards to do this, also means slightly more work for the casual browser as he has to move between both forums. There are also technical issues. Possibly down to the sheer volume of topics out there, the board is sometimes slow to load and posting a reply can take a long time (often you can hit 'Post Reply', go off to make a cup of tea and come back to find it still hasn't gone through). Despite these minor issues, the quality of discussion on the board is high and there quite a few authors who participate in discussions there, including the likes of Gary Wassner, James Barclay and Scott Bakker.

In terms of membership (although it should be remembered that the membership of any board can be misleading, as old, inactive accounts and alts belonging to the same person are usually counted alongside current accounts), Chronicles Network is allegedly the biggest SF forum out there. However, it's clunkily designed with the number of subforums verging on the insane. Whilst they do keep SF and Fantasy together (but separate Horror from both), they have separated out reviews, a curious decision given that reviews are a primary driver of discussion. Again, however, there is a lot of great discussion to be had there.

Other authors such as Paul Kearney and Brandon Sanderson also run their own forums where interesting, decent discussion can be found. Scott Bakker's forum, Three-Seas, has recently made a bit of a comeback from a long period of quiet and has had a bit of smart makeover. Good to see this board gearing up after the three-year-drought of new material from the author. The new-ish board dedicated to Peter F. Hamilton's works, The Unisphere, is also a good read for those looking for more info on Hamilton's works.

Okay, so that wraps that up. I may continue to update the list as time goes by as other, interesting forums are pointed out.

Wertzone Classics: Ultraviolet

A brief note here: the Ultraviolet of which I speak is a mini-series that aired on Channel 4 in the UK and is absolutely no relation to the godawful Mila Jovovich move of the same name, and should not be confused with it.

Ultraviolet ran for six episodes at the tail end of 1998 and rapidly picked up enormous critical acclaim. Unfortunately, various factors combined to mean that a planned sequel series never went into production. The series was the brainchild of Joe Ahearne, who wrote and directed all the episodes (the exhaustion brought about by which, and C4's request he do the same for the second season, is apparently the key reason why it never happened). Ahearne had formally worked on the acclaimed BBC-2 series This Life and more recently has directed several episodes of the new Doctor Who.

Ultraviolet is a modern take on the vampire myth. As it was airing at the same time as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the writer clearly wanted to take a different approach (borrowing a fair bit from The X-Files as well). Ultraviolet is more realistic than Buffy, delving more into science of how vampires might work and showing in some cases greater fidelity to the myth (for example, vampires do not appear on camera as mirrors are part of the camera's focusing mechanism, whilst in Buffy they do) and taking it to new levels: these vampires cannot appear in any form of electronic recording, and cannot use phones either. Also, to avoid certain connotations of the word they never once use the term 'vampire' in the whole series, instead using the phrase 'Code 5' (which is rendered as 'Code V') or the nickname 'leech'. Ultraviolet does have a wry sense of humour, however, especially in the use of carbon bullets and ultraviolet-emitting detection gear (which replicates the effects of sunlight) to replicate more traditional vampire-killing weapons.

The story follows Detective Sergeant Michael Colefield of the London Metropolitan Police Force (played by Jack Davenport, better-known these days for his turn as Captain/Commodore Norrington in the Pirates of the Carribbean trilogy). When his best friend and fellow policeman vanishes without a trace on the eve of his wedding, Colefield discovers his friend was leading a shady double-life that was being investigated by a organisation that the government refuses to acknowledge exists. This organisation is soon, almost reluctantly, forced to recruit Colefield into their ranks once he uncovers evidence of the existence of the 'leeches'. He is integrated into a team led by Father Pearse Harman (the Catholic Church co-funds the war against the leeches alongside national governments; played by Philip Quast), Dr. Angela March (Susannah Harker) and Vaughn Rice (Idris Elba, best-known for his role as Stringer Bell in The Wire), but intriguingly he doesn't fully trust his new team-members and they remain wary of him until quite late in the series. This is mostly because Colefield has a hopeless crush on his friend's jilted fiancee, Kirsty and continues to have contact with her, which the rest of the team suspects is a weakness the leeches will employ against him. However, when it is discovered that Harman has cancer, the leeches also find that they have a temptation they can use against him...

Even though there was supposed to be a sequel, as a mini-series Ultraviolet works extremely well, with events starting at one point and coming full circle as the series proceeds. The notion of science versus faith is explored intelligently in the series: crucifixes and other symbols of faith are treated as placebos and only have an impact on those vampires who themselves are superstitious. The vampires themselves employ technology for their own ends, able to drive around with with use of UV-resistant glass and use vocoders to make phone calls, whilst the longer-lived specimens are able to manipulate the stock market over decades to make immense fortunes. The central theme of the series is also compelling: the vampires and those opposed to them have endured an uneasy truce over the centuries because the vampires want to protect their food supply and enjoy being the elite; they have no wish to turn the whole human race into vampires, for example. The truce is now over because humanity is getting perilously close to the point where it will destroy itself, and the vampires need to save us from ourselves...but whilst this may sound great the suggestion is that their preferred mode of existence for 'normals' is in immense battery farms. At the same time, the world governments are scared of going public for fear of causing a panic and the creation of a state of intolerance, surveillence and fear. As one character says, they walk the line between living on a Bernard Matthews farm or in Iran-writ-large. These themes, even more timely now than when the show was first transmitted, are explored intelligently and in-depth.

This is a great series and no mistake, well-written, excellently acted (Davenport's finest hour by far; Quast is just fantastic as the multi-layered Harman) with moments of moral doubt, character drama and occasional moments of bad-ass action (Vaughn gets two of the most spectacular vampire kills in screen history), whilst the revelation of the vampire's final plan for humanity in the last episode is spine-chilling.

Criticisms? Frankly, no, not really. When the episode aired with the paedophile case I was a bit bemused and pondered if the show was just trying to be 'edgy' for the sake of it. However, it ended with an absolutely monumental and somewhat disturbing twist that was just brilliant and exceedingly logical given the parameters of the show. Of course, the biggest criticism is that we never got a second season, but that may be for the best. The conclusion to the series would seem to make any further continuation of the story a bit too black-and-white, whilst it's the moral ambiguity of the two sides that makes Ultraviolet so interesting.

Ultraviolet (*****) is available on DVD in the UK and the USA and is absolutely 100% recommended as being probably the finest exploration and use of the vampire in modern fiction I have come across.

Online Round-Up Part 1

I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the other blogs that are on the go out there and see what they bring to the table.

Newsletters
The only SF&F-related newsletter I make a point of reading every month is David Langford's Ansible. Langford is a consistently funny, offbeat look at the genre and is an excellent resource for rounding up all the news in the genre in any one month. He's won nearly thirty Hugo Awards for it and his other projects over the years, and it's certainly worth taking a look every month.

Blogs
The biggest blog out there is Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, which recently passed its 1 millionth page-view milestone. The Hotlist remains a valuable resource for reviews, interviews and competitions on the web, even if Pat's scoring system is so complex that it has confounded expert mathmaticians.

Blood of the Muse is a newer blog that has emerged in recent months featuring good book reviews and author interviews and picks up on the defunct Hope I Didn't Give Away the Ending's tradition of showing author's signatures to aid collectors. A good read.

The Bodhisattva is a long-running blog run by Jay Tomio, who knows of what he speaks. Jay gives good quote, does good reviews and expands beyond the standard literary reviews to take in comics as well.

The Book Swede is a solid review blog which also delves into the murky realm of television on occasion. Well worth a look.

Dark Wolf is a newer blogger who has come along in the last few months with a fine site and some good reviews on there.

The Deckled Edge is another solid blog, and carries on a fine tradition of summing up each new week's releases and bestsellers.

Aidan Moher's A Dribble of Ink has become a more impressive blog as time has gone on, adding excellent interviews and keeping abreast of the latest debates and discussions rocking the SF&F blogosphere, as well as doing a good line in those articles about various facets of the genre I occasionally think of doing and then don't because, well, people like Aidan do them better then me. Worth checking out.

In a similar manner, Fantasy Book Critic has become a more intriguing blog of late, with the team of writers expanding to ensure more regular updates and a greater range of subjects covered.

Fantasy Debut has been around for a year now, but missed my attention for quite some time. This blog concentrates on new authors to the genre and on their debut novels. It's a slightly different approach and emphasis which is distinctive, and the blog is quite interesting as a result. You may pick up the first hints of the 'next big thing' here.

Another (relatively) long-term blogger is Ken, whose Nethspace continues to offer worthwhile commentary on the genre (most recently with a scathing attack on the Locus Awards controversy) and is always worth a look.

Fellow 'lemming of discord' (long story) MinDonner runs her blog Sandstorm Reviews at this location, and is well worth a look for her great reviews as well as the colleting of various, merciless parodies of the works of Terry Goodkind.

Larry, aka 'Dylanfanatic', brings a slightly different sensibility to his appreciation of the genre over at OF Blog of the Fallen, which is always interesting.

Graeme's Fantasy Book Review has become one of my most commonly-visited blogs and features good round-ups and review of everying book-related. And I just realised I haven't got this in my links bar. Whoops, sorry Graeme!

Similar apologies must also go to James, whose Speculative Horizons is another excellent blog that's similar gone un-linked by me up to now.

Gabe Chouinard, always one for an interesting debate or review, has his blog Mysterious Outposts here. I will point out that this entry has always been here and was absolutely not added after the fact in the spirit of Soviet revisionism because he commented on the entry. Of course not. Ahem.

Unfortunately, some of my other favoured sites and blogs have gone on hiatus in the last few months:

Darren 'Ariel' Turpin has sadly recently mothballed his excellent UK SF Book News website and reduced his online presence via his blog, The Genre Files, due to a heavy workload in his new job working for Orbit. Best of luck to Darren in his new endeavour, but I hope we continue to hear from him in the future.

My fellow BwBer Race has likewise reduced his blogging frequency over at The Human Race, but hopes he might make a bit of a comeback soon, which would be most welcome.

For various reasons, some of them I believe outside his control, William 'Stego' Lexner's blog, Hope I Didn't Give Away the Ending, continues to be on hiatus. No-one does a good rant like William, but few are as strident in their passion for the genre, and we can but hope for his eventual return to the blogosphere.

Author Blogs
Frankly too many to mention, although I'm sure most people already have Neil Gaiman and George RR Martin's blogs on tap (although in the latter case the constant flamewarring over the release of his new novel is getting a little tiresome). Joe Abercrombie's blog is also becoming an enjoyable blog to read, with occasional TV and movie reviews interspersed with shamelessly outrageous self-promotion. I can also recommend the blogs of Alastair Reynolds, Adam Roberts, Melinda Snodgrass (whose latest novel, The Edge of Reason, I've just started reading and is a bit of a stormer), Kate Elliott, Daniel Abraham, Brandon Sanderson, David Deveraux, Tom Lloyd (whose books I really need to read), Lisa Tuttle, Peter F. Hamilton and in particular Peadar O'Guilin, whose blog is quite amusing to read.

Also, not quite an author blog, but I've found the blog of Mojo, a CGI artist who has worked on many major SF TV shows including Babylon 5, Star Trek: Voyager and Battlestar Galactica, to be thoroughly enjoyable and extremely funny.

This is getting a bit long, so I'll leave off here. Next time, I'll be taking a look at the myriad SF&F fan forums out there.

Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition: Player's Handbook

Reviewing is something of a solitary habit, so it's good when an opportunity arises to test something with five friends over an extended period of time. In this case, it was the new, fourth iteration of the Dungeons and Dragons pen-and-paper roleplaying game (actually it's the seventh, but we won't dwell on that). I got into playing D&D back in school with 2nd Edition about fourteen years ago and we got used to changing rules systems every few years: we took on board a lot of changes from the '2.5' rules set (the Player's Option/DM's Option books), gratefully changed over to 3rd Edition and incorporated some, but not all, of the 3.5 edition rules as well. Along the way we have played many other RPGs, running from the World of Darkness games through the splendid Deadlands, the old-school Robotech, Cyberpunk, Star Wars (West End rules, obviously) and a number of the D20 games, including Wheel of Time, Judge Dredd and Babylon 5.

Let there be no mistake, D&D 4th Edition has been the most controversial new edition in the game's history. The flamewars on various Internet sites have been something to behold, with the fans of 4E accused of being simplistic morons who want to turn the game into World of WarCraft and the antis accused of being terrified of change. The change-over from 2nd to 3rd Edition, which was pretty controversial at the time, had absolutely nothing on this. I'm trying to take a balanced view in my approach and sum up what I find to be good and bad with the game.

First off, even the most ardent fans of 3rd Edition had to admit there were substantial flaws with the game. Preperation time for DMs was quite high, characters ascended levels very quickly unless you constantly gave them weak opponents to fight or changed the XP tables, and although the core classes and prestige classes were nicely balanced, some of the prestige classes in the add-on books were broken. In addition, multiclassing, although a vast improvement on the abomination of 2nd Edition, still didn't work as well as it should have done. The changes for 3.5 fixed some of these issues but a lot of the core problems remained.

4th Edition does successfully answer some of these issues. Level advancement is now very slow. After four sessions and killing dozens of enemies between us and achieving several major story and campaign goals, we still hadn't hit 2nd Level. Making a campaign last a decent, long time with 4E isn't an issue, which is good. We didn't get a chance to test multiclassing in the game, but the way it works does seem to be reasonable, giving you some major abilities from another class without totally destroying your levelling rate in your primary class, leaving you underpowered compared to the rest of the party. Preperation time for DMs is also much reduced. In fact, 4E seems to be a lot easier for DMs to prepare campaigns for all-round, thanks to the completely different track that monsters and NPCs work under, and that is a good thing as well. Unfortunately, character generation, which was supposed to be streamlined for this edition, still takes about as long as 3E. Although 3E's confusing morass of skills has been streamlined (a good idea, although some extremely useful skills were lost in the process) and the feats have been toned down, the new class powers have replaced them.

Some sacred cows have been killed along the way, which although admirably bold does lead one to ponder if the resulting game can be called D&D any more. The Vancian magic system is out. Given it was one of the cornerstones of the game, it's a pretty radical change. Some people hated it as being illogical, but the variation on it they brought in for 3E worked pretty well in my opinion, and many iconic spells are now gone. In fact, spells don't exist any more. They're either wizard or cleric powers they can use at will, once per combat or once per day, or they're 'rituals'. It's a very interesting idea that more or less works, but it does feed into the overwhelming 'balance' problem of the game, which I'll come to momentarily. Other big changes including the temporary removal of some core classes and races, but it's okay as they'll be back in another book you can pay more money for, the permanant removal of others (the new system doesn't really allow for sorcerers, for example) and the new way healing is approached. Fed up with the cleric being treated as the party medpack, the creators have changed things so that every character can heal 25% of their hit-points at will, several times a day or once per combat. Clerics and paladins can do a bit more healing than that, but essentially PCs are going to stay on their feet a lot longer than in 3E.

Then there is the 'balance' issue. Balancing is important in a game. No-one wants to have a character who's special skills only come into play once a day and they spend the rest of the time bored whilst everyone else takes care of business. The problem is that D&D was never that sort of game. I've read horror stories of 2E and 3E games where the wizard would simply fire off their one magic missile a day or whatever and take no further part in the game, and the player would end up feeling bored. All I can say is that any DM who ran a game like that should be shot. Keeping your players engaged in the game is vital, and I've lost track of the number of times my 1st Level party was about to be obliterated only for the wizard to save the day with a sleep spell or a fine piece of negotiation aided by a charm spell. Unfortunately, WotC's quest for balance has been too successful with 4th Edition. There is now zero difference between one class and another. A wizard hangs back and pelts the enemy with limitless magic missiles for similar damage that a ranger does with his bow or a warrior does with his sword. Mechanically, everyone is identical, they just approach the problems from different angles. Lots of people really like this, but I find it against the spirit of the game. One character being able to do something the others cannot is the whole point of assembling a party of different adventurers in the first place. That now feels redundant.

4th Edition is a good game. In fact, I look forward to the inevitable martial arts expansion for the game, as it could be the most successful depiction of martial arts in an RPG to date. The rules really lend themselves well to it. However, it's not really in the spirit of how our group plays D&D. We veer towards realism (including realistic use of shields, borrowed from the excellent Game of Thrones RPG, and the correct, damage-reducing application of armour) and 4th Edition veers towards cinematic exuberence. The DM said he enjoyed the fact that the game lent itself well to a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon style of flamboyence. That's great, but our group doesn't particularly like to do that (maybe a result of several people in the group with a solid grasp of medieval history and weapons) in D&D. For us, 4th Edition felt like either a solid optional ruleset like the old 2nd Edition Player's Option books, or a completely different game. It is also inherently a high-magic game (even non-magical classes have magical or supernatural abilities) that will clash badly with people running a low-magic setting. Plus you cannot transfer characters from 3E to 4E. If you want to start a new campaign which is very heavy on combat in a high-magic setting and uses miniatures, then 4E is for you. If you don't, than the new system will likely be of no use whatsoever.

It's annoying because there is a lot of good stuff in 4E, but overall it doesn't feel like the next logical step forward in the rules, as the progression was from 1E to 3.5E. There's definitely some interesting ideas in there, but overall nothing that really warrants our group to permanantly switch from 3.5E. Obviously, each D&D group plays the game slightly differently, and 4E will no doubt appeal to other groups more than 3E and beginners will probably find it a lot of fun, but it didn't quite do the job for us. Fortunately, with several of the 3E designers now working on the Pathfinder D20 game, those hankering for new rules and material for 3E can still get it, so no longer is it a choice of "stick with old books for a dead system or get with the new rules," which is all to the good.

Some notes on the book itself: the font is quite large and the borders are huge, leading to a lot of wasted space compared to the busy 3E books or the crisp and efficient 2.5E ones. The art direction feels rather conservative compared to 3E, but the illustrations are good. The layout is horrendous, however, and the index is laughably bad. I was quite shocked at how difficult it was to find information in a hurry, as this is something previous editions of the game going back to the 2.5E revised rulebooks in 1995 had fully delivered. I also had a chance to look at the Monstrous Manual and was really surprised at how bad it was: stat-blocks, a picture and maybe a single paragraph of text and that was it, easily the worst iteration of the book to date (including that loose-leaf foldered 2E thing).

I'm not going to give a score to 4E D&D because it's a very subjective game. The things I outlined as being weaknesses for our group may very well be huge strengths for yours. I can only say that I was disappointed that the game didn't offer more to our group, but it is impossible for one game to appeal to everyone. The Dungeon and Dragons 4th Edition Player's Handbook is available now in the UK and USA from Wizards of the Coast.

Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal by Vern

Vern is the guy who used to write reviews of action movies for Ain't It Cool News, mostly low-budget, direct-to-video/DVD stuff that most people wouldn't touch with a bargepole. Whilst writing these reviews he'd engender a lot of debate, arguments and flamewars with one exception: the movies of Steven Seagal. It turned out that there are many fans of the Seagal out there, people who watch his movies religiously, drink cans of Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt (his own energy drink) and listen to his two albums of blues music whilst analysing the themes and motifs of his work. And some of them weren't being all cool and ironic. Fascinated, Vern set out on a mission to watch and review all of Seagal's movies. This proved difficult, as Seagal was entering his most prolific period to date, churning out ten movies during the book's production. However, with his next couple of pictures delayed, Vern was finally able to catch up and write a book about his experiences. This book.

The first thing that hits you about Seagalogy is that the title is grammatically dubious. However, it turns out that there is a website called Seagalology which just takes the mickey out of Seagal on a boring surface level, and Vern wanted to avoid any association with them, so that's fair enough. The second is that this is a very good book. It's genuinely funny, interesting and, in its own way, incredibly barmy. Vern isn't writing serious film criticism here but he's also not taking the piss either. He obviously respects Seagal (and given how many people he's thrown through windows over the years this is probably a good thing) and is genuinely interested in what makes his films tick.

An early discovery is that Seagal is a left-wing action star, which immediately puts him in a different boat to Schwarznegger, Stallone etc. His films usually don't portray America in the best light, and the most common theme between them is how corrupt the CIA can be and how the US' own developments in areas like chemical and nuclear weapons are not really helping make the world a safer place. In fact, by analysing the motifs that repeat themselves in every single movie, Vern draws some interesting conclusions. You might say that one film about a lone wolf agent trying to redeem himself from a corrupt CIA past by opening a martial arts dojo is a typically cheesy action movie plot, but fifteen involving dodgy government shenanigans is probably an indication that there's some message trying to be gotten over here.

Most of the book is taken up by a film-by-film analysis of his works. There are 27 movies here, ranging from the very-well-known action flick Under Siege to the direct-to-DVD debacle that is Submerged (a movie that would have had Seagal fighting aliens for the first time, but it was changed in post to fighting strange people driven mad by drugs; only 13 minutes of the film is spent on a submarine, submerged). Vern clearly loves the early movies the most, when Seagal is younger, in his prime, does all his own stunts and the plots are pretty straightforward, generally a variation on the "Bad guy killed his partner/girlfriend/wife or kidnapped his dog/daughter/pen-pal and he has to sort it out," set-up. The first movie or two are generic action flicks enlivened by Seagal's slightly unorthodox fighting abilities (he uses aikido, which is not usually featured in martial arts movies as it favours defence over offensive attacks), but very quickly we start seeing some of Seagal's iconic touches coming in as he becomes more powerful and able to exert influence on the movie's direction. He starts wearing some truly rididculous outfits, gets a ponytail, and delivers some message about karma. Vern points to On Deadly Ground as being a vital point in Seagal's movie development, namely the legendary bar fight scene where, having defeated his goons, Seagal suddenly neutralises the bad guy (a lackey of, almost unbelievably, Michael Caine) by playing a weird game with him and then engaging him in a debate about if it is possible to change the essence of a man whilst stirring, epic music plays in the background.

From then on, it's batshit insanity all the way as Seagal stops some villains from blowing up a petrol station with a stick of dynamite by shooting the burning fuse off the dynamite whilst it's tumbling in mid-air (Fire Down Below), saves the USA from a horrific nerve agent by spraying the countryside with flowers from an Apache (The Patriot) and travels across the planet to save his 13-year-old pen-pal after he's sold into white slavery (Out of Reach), even though he hasn't actually been told this and just guesses randomly that something is up. Along the way, he plays cops, ex-CIA agents, ex-Navy SEAL chefs, and a respected expert in Chinese archaeology serving at Yale (but who actually turns out to be the male, retired version of Lara Croft). He fights the mafia, yakuza, corrupt government agents, drug-dealers and bent cops with guns, martial arts, swords, a snooker ball wrapped in a handkerchief and, on one bizarre occasion, a credit card (The Glimmer Man). He throws dozens of people through windows and narrowly avoids enormous explosions on countless occasions. On one occasion (Executive Decision) he even dies, which is rather jarring. As the films become stranger, Vern continues to analyse what makes these movies work or, in the case of the later DTV films, what makes them fall apart.

You also find out more information than you ever needed to know about the formulation of energy drinks and Steven Seagal's musical career. I must admit I found the revelation of his musical background to be pretty cringe-inducing, but a quick trip to YouTube reveals that Seagal is a surprisingly accomplished guitarist, although his vocal range is limited. He even has a few decent reggae, funk and blues songs up there. I mean, Jimmy Cliff doesn't need to start worrying about the competition, but it's light-years beyond most actor-turned-musician projects (Dogstar comes immediately to mind).

Vern's central thesis, that Seagal is an auteur film-maker who imprints all his movies, even the ones not written specifically for him, with his own interests and unique sensibility in a way that Chuck Norris or Jean-Claude Van Damme do not, is hard to refute. This is partially what makes the book a success. The other part is that it is absolutely hilarious. Whenever Vern seems to be getting a bit too serious about his ideological analysis of the politics of the films or something, he'll drop in a casual comment or train of thought that will leave you giggling like a fool (after a lengthy musing on the plot of one film, he returns to the point with, "Meanwhile, Seagal continues to escalate his war on testicles," for example). By the time you reach the end of the book you can't help but agree with Vern that there is something interesting going on with some of these movies beyond a surface reading. And even when there isn't most of the films are unintentionally very funny.

Complaints? Well, if reading a book makes you want to go and watch Attack Force or Submerged, it's probably not an entirely good thing. Also, the later DTV movies tend to blur into one and it's rather hard at times to care enough about some random awful film you're never going to watch to read a ten-page analysis of it, but Vern ususally drops in enough interesting analysis or comedy to make it all worthwhile.

Seagology: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Segal (****) is available now in the UK and USA from Titan Books. Vern is interviewed here about the book, and his own website is here.

Musings

There has been a recent shift in emphasis on the blog away from book reviews and towards computer game, TV and movie coverage. I would like to confirm at this point that the book reviews are here to stay and in fact there's a solid thirteen books sitting on the shelf, waiting to be read, along with a good few dozen more that are waiting to be re-read and reviewed.

However, the recent shift has come about for several reasons. First off, I mostly read on the way to and from work, or during breaks at work. Since I am currently unemployed, this has cut down my reading time. Secondly, since starting the blog I've been constantly reading at a fast pace, and this has led to a feeling of burn-out. I'm taking advantage of this period of unemployment to catch up instead on games and DVDs, hence the shift in emphasis over the last few weeks. Normal service will be resumed hopefully soon enough. A third reason is that I've had some positive feedback on the blog being aimed at the genre, rather than the medium, and its embracing of books, film, television and games rather than just SF&F literature by itself. I've also had requests for more frequent updates, which has necessitated having more things to review.

Forthcoming Reviews:

Books: I am currently reading a hilarious non-fiction critical guide to the films of Steven Seagal, which may be one of the funniest things I've ever read. That is forthcoming in a few days. I am also very slowly ploughing through an electronic ARC of Return of the Crimson Guard which is not easy on the eyes. I'm hoping to finish this before the mass edition comes out next month. I've also picked up the first two books in Greg Keyes' Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series. I promised myself I'd read this series once it was finished, and with the recent publication of The Born Queen I can now fulfil that promise. On the ARC front, Melinda Snodgrass' The Edge of Reason and Greg Bear's City at the End of Time are forthcoming.

DVDs: Expect reviews of Ghost in the Shell II: Innocence, the complete series of Babylon 5, the continuation of my much-delayed Deep Space Nine reviews and two entertaining (but for very different reasons) low-profile movies I saw recently, namely The Last Legion and Pathfinder.

TV: Most TV shows are on hiatus for now, with nothing of major interest until Heroes returns in September. Once exception is Avatar, which completes its third and final season later this month, and I shall be covering that at the time.

Games: Command and Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath and the classic strategy game Ground Control are the next games up for review. Before all of that, however, I'll be tackling the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons which, given the online debate that's erupted about it, should be interesting to say the least.

300

300 is one of the most critically divisive movies of recent years, with Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes both giving it a score in the 50-60 range, indicating a near-equal divide between those who love and hate it. It's understandable. On a surface reading, this movie is vapid, stupid, ludicrously over-the-top and even less historically accurate that other recent liberty-taking films such as Gladiator and U-571. However, 300 may also be the most textually-misread film of our times. In fact, the movie is an excellently-staged piece of propaganda. Imagine if Joseph Goebbels had travelled back in time with a modern CGI team and had been paid by the Spartans to tell the world how awesome their soldiers were (frankly, that sounds like a great idea for a film in itself), and you'd end up with a movie like this. Seen in that light, 300 becomes a great deal more intriguing.

The movie is based on Frank Miller's graphic novel, The 300, and opens in 480 BC. Ten years earlier, the Greek armies had defeated the invading Persians under Darius at Marathon, but now his son Xerxes has returned with a vast army. The Greek city-states are preparing to resist, but everything rests on Sparta, the most formidable of the Greek cities. Unfortunately, the Ephors, the priests of Sparta, are insisting that the Spartans celebrate the feast of the Carneia, during which time Spartans cannot go to war. King Leonidas disobeys and takes a small force of 300 men north, joining up with some additional Greek troops along the way. Leonidas' plan is to force the Persians to meet the Greeks at the Hot Gates (Thermopylae, a narrow pass only a few dozen feet wide between the mountains and the sea) where the Persians' vastly superior numbers (120,000+ ) will not avail them. Whilst the Spartans hold off the Persian advance for three days of almost non-stop combat (fighting the Persian Immortals, gunpowder-throwing troops and war-rhinos and elephants, presumably from Persia's territories in Africa or India), Leonidas' wife Gorgo attempts to persuade the Spartan council to defy the Ephors and send the remainder of Sparta's 10,000-strong army to aid Leonidas.

The narrative is somewhat simple and straightforward, with frantic, balletic combat sequences at the Hot Gates mixed in with political maneuverings back in Sparta. These are not particularly complex, but do increase dramatic tension in the storyline. During the lengthy sequences where no dialogue is spoken on-screen, we get narration by Dilios (David Wenham, better known as Faramir from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy), who is our Goebbels-like figure, relating the story of the battle to a Spartan audience some months later. Intriguingly, some of his dialogue is directly lifted from contemporary sources such as Aeschylus or later commentators like Plutarch for added effect. Because the movie is concerned explicitly with recreating scenes from the graphic novel, the acting is somewhat stilted and dialogue tends to be minimalistic, with plenty of emphasis on speeches and dramatic pronounciations (such as the infamous, "Tonight we dine in HELL!" or the "Come get them!" response to a Persian demand to lay down their arms, although interestingly this is actually mentioned in classical accounts of the battle). It is quite notable that the acting and dialogue in the sequences back in Sparta - a subplot established only in the film - is much more traditional.

Stylistically the movie is a tremendous achievement, with extensive CGI backgrounds and colour grading combining to give the film an almost unique visual identity of its own. The battle sequences are exceptionally impressive, if totally unrealistic, although the dramatic shifts between slow-motion and normal speed become rather boring after a while. Musically, the film shifts from a traditional score to a more rock-like theme which is used at moments of extreme drama or action, but it works reasonably well.

300 is definitely a very interesting film with a unique visual identity. The actors do a generally good job given the limitations they are working under. However, a lot of people can't quite get to grips with what the film is actually about and spend an enormous amount of time moaning about the Spartans not wearing armour, calling the Athenians boy-lovers when pedastry was actually instituionalised among the Spartan warrior class, having the Ephors as deformed priests rather than an elected council or kicking Persian diplomats down a well when in fact this was an incident from the earlier Persian invasion under Darius (and Xerxes didn't send diplomats to Athens or Sparta during his attack because of this). All of this is totally irrelevant: the film is a story being told by the highly imaginative Dilios to get the Spartan army riled up for the Battle of Plataea. His depiction of the Persians as lunatic dual-wielding masked swordsmen led by a ten-foot-tall androgyne (a near-unrecognisable Rodrigo Santoro, better known as the short-lived Paulo from Season 3 of Lost) is due to him wanting to portray the enemy as a monstrous force to be destroyed, and not because either the director or the writer wanted to make racist slurs against Iran.

That said, a lot of viewers may dislike the film simply because it is so ludicrously over-the-top on almost every level, from its snarling villains to lecherous old priests to gigantic war-rhinos. As for myself, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

300 (***½) is available now on DVD in the UK and the USA. The director, Zack Snyder, is currently filming a movie adaption of the seminal graphic novel Watchmen for release in 2009.

Mass Effect

When it comes to gaming pedigrees, few come better than that of BioWare. Along with their partner companies, first Black Isle and later Obsidian and now (kind of) CD Projekt, BioWare have been involved with a gaming heritage to be proud of: Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, Planescape: Torment (probably still the definitive modern RPG), Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire and The Witcher, whilst their next game, Dragon Age, is already one of the most eagerly-awaited games of 2009.

Mass Effect is a science fiction roleplaying game not related to any previous property, although it is also the first game in a trilogy. The goal with Mass Effect seems to have been to create an original universe and storyline which would combine BioWare's previous expertise in creating morally dubious situations with a more fluid 'run 'n' gun' combat system which owes more to first-person shooters than to roleplaying games. For this reason, Mass Effect has divided some audiences, particularly the hardcore RPG players who dislike action games. However, for those who enjoy both genres, Mass Effect is a successful hybrid of the two and a perfect jumping-on point for those who enjoy shooters but perhaps haven't been grabbed by RPGs in the past.

The setting is 200 years or so from now. Humanity has expanded into space, forming the Human Systems Alliance, and made contact with various alien species. Much of the Galaxy is controlled by the Council, three powerful alien races and several 'lesser' ones (such as mankind) based on the Citadel, an enormous space station located in deep space. Whilst Earth is the newest species in Council space, its rapid advancement has alarmed some of the older, more sedate species who fear losing their chance of a new senior seat which they've been working towards for millennia in favour of this new, younger race. This provides an interesting political backstory to the game, as whilst Earth itself is (refreshingly) not in danger, its political future is indeed in your character's hands.

You play Commander Shepherd (you can specify Shepherd's first name, gender and appearance, as well as his/her abilities), a capable military officer assigned to the Normandy, mankind's most advanced combat frigate. As the game opens you discover that a member of the Spectres, the Council's elite military force, has gone rogue and is searching for what appears to be an ancient alien superweapon. Your character is put on his trail, dealing with various side-missions along the way and acquiring a large collection of allies, weapons and abilities. Along the way many important revelations will be made about the true origin of the Citadel, the Council and its history.

Those who have played Jade Empire and Knights of the Old Republic will find much that is familiar, as the out-of-combat interface is virtually identical. Things have been streamlined somewhat (you automatically strip corpses of loot rather than having to do it manually) and the graphics are obviously superior, but the controls and viewpoint is very similar. Dialogue has been improved, with less emphasis on what you say as on how you say it and how it influences people's reaction to you. There also isn't any good/evil path to play, as it's possible to develop your 'polite' and 'severe' attributes simultaneously, which is more realistic.

When combat commences you switch to an over-the-shoulder view in which you can select weapons, give orders to your squadmates, take cover and make tactical decisions. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but once it's second nature combat becomes immensely satisfying. Unfortunately, you cannot directly control your allies' behaviour, only give them orders, and the AI is sometimes not up to the job, making your allies jump into your line of fire and run around in circles rather than seek cover. The game also has a very harsh system for treating wounds, with such a huge recharge between being able to use healing equipment that most of the time you can only use it once per combat.

There is a third control system as well. After landing on planets you sometimes have to make your way between locations using the Mako, a giant armoured buggy-thing. The Mako is not upgradeable, not particularly useful in combat and handles like your character downed a cask of whiskey before getting aboard. Apparently it's better than the 360 version, though.

Generally the game plays very well. My system is relatively low-spec compared to the game's demands but I was able to run almost everything at high settings with no major problems. I did run into one bizarre bug that prevented me from engaging any NPCs in conversation whilst on board the Normandy, which apparently locked me out of several side-quests and the game's romance storylines, but luckily it didn't prevent completion of the game. I will be looking again at the game once the imminent patch (hopefully) fixes this problem.

The game does have several flaws. First off, veterans of BioWare's previous RPGs may find that the mission structure is very familiar and at times, given the SF backdrop, there are moments when you suddenly think you're playing Knights of the Old Republic once again. Secondly, as mentioned earlier, the healing system is extremely harsh, forcing many frustrating reloads during combat. Thirdly, the basic storyline is extremely familiar, bearing more than a passing resemblance to both Knights of the Old Republic and Homeworld 2. Finally, whilst the game has a somewhat satisfying ending, the 'to be continued' nature of it is vaguely irritating. It would be nice to finish a game and that's it (see also Crysis), rather than it being the opening of a trilogy or something.

Mass Effect (****) is a solid, but somewhat familiar entry to the BioWare canon. The RPG/FPS hybrid effect works quite well, but the roleplaying situations do feel derivative of earlier BioWare games. However, no-one else in the industry makes RPGs as good as BioWare, and even an evolutionary game from them rather than a revolutionary one is worth a look. The game is available now on the X-Box 360 in the UK and US, and on the PC in the UK and US. Mass Effect 2 is currently in development, and a downloadable episode called Bring Down the Sky is available now for X-Box users, whilst it will be released shortly for the PC.

A Note on DRM
A huge amount of coverage of Mass Effect on PC has centred around the issue of DRM (Digital Rights Management) rather than the actual game itself. I chose not to engage with the issue in the review because, frankly, it's not the game's fault or BioWare's, but their publisher's (Electronic Arts in this case). Those planning to buy the PC version should be forewarned that you can only install the game three times before it locks you out, so those who change their hardware or reinstall Windows frequently should take care before purchasing. Given that every such invasive form of DRM previously used has been removed within a few months of release due to public outcries and its total failure to prevent piracy, I wouldn't expect this to be an issue indefinitely, and there are also ways of removing the DRM without resorting to hacks or cracks or the like, so for me it does not impact on the review score.

Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson

Another year, another book in Steven Erikson's enormous Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Toll the Hounds is the eighth novel (of ten) in the series, but given that the final two books are one immense story split in half for length, it is also the penultimate chapter of this series.

The continent of Genabackis, two years (or so) after the war between the Pannion Domin and an alliance between the Tiste Andii under Anomander Rake, the mercenary companies under Caladan Brood and a Malazan army under Whiskeyjack and Dujek Onearm. In that war half a dozen major cities and the floating fortress of Moon's Spawn were destroyed, and the final Pannion refuge in the city of Coral was devastated and occupied by the Tiste Andii. The city is now cloaked in endless night and known as Black Coral. The shattered remnants of the Bridgeburners - Mallet, Spindle, Picker, Bluepearl, Blend and Antsy - have settled in Darujhistan to run a bar whilst a shadowy group of mages awaits the long-prophecised coming of a Tyrant who will conquer it. From the west Cutter, once a Daru thief named Crokus, is returning home with a motley crew of adventurers from across the world, whilst in the south of the continent three separate groups of travellers have arrived on missions of their own. In night-shrouded Coral, Anomander Rake broods and his sword, Dragnipur, drinker of souls, becomes restless...

Toll the Hounds takes us back to where the series began in Gardens of the Moon nine years ago, Darujhistan of the blue fires, and it is with a tremendous sense of nostalgia that reader is reunited with many favourite characters from that novel and Memories of Ice, not to mention a few more familiar faces as well (some of whom get spectacular entrances). This time around the novel is not as packed with dizzying revelations and huge battles as the previous three volumes in the series, but rather than take this opportunity to shave off a few hundred pages from the book, Erikson instead takes advantage of this to paint the city of Darujhistan in much greater depth and detail than any other city in the series, moving between numerous 'lesser' POVs among the common folk of the city and events both huge and mundane in their lives. As a result Toll the Hounds is much slower-paced than any other book in the series. To a certain extent this may invite the reader to groan, but Erikson compensates for the lack of incident with deeper characterisation and motivation than ever before.

Toll the Hounds is also the Malazan series' most thematically-developed and tightest novel, with notions of family, responsibility and the role of desire all coming in for examination. Unfortunately, Erikson hasn't lost or scaled back on his tendency to have ordinary commoners spouting out philosophical arguments like Proust, but this late in the day the average reader of this series will be prepared for it. To make up for this Toll the Hounds is the funniest book in the series by some margin and, oddly given his much greater presence in the prose style (Kruppe is recounting the narrative to two other characters, and most chapters in the book open and close with Kruppe's short commentary on the events), the divisive character of Kruppe is kept to the background and only comes to the fore in a few short, memorable scenes.

As usual, events build to a huge finale and whilst the scale of those events is not in the line of the vast battles in Reaper's Gale or Memories of Ice, the significance of these events is much greater, and the stakes are definitely raised higher as the final two volumes of the series approach. Excellent humour and some major deaths and some huge revelations make Toll the Hounds essential reading for fans of the series, and if Erikson fails to overcome his standard faults, at least he doesn't exasperate them or introduce new ones with one notable exception: the timeline, which has been very problematic on occasion, is completely shot to hell in this book with several characters appearing who are much older than they should be.

Toll the Hounds (****) is available now in the UK from Bantam Books. Tor will publish the US edition in September. Ian Cameron Esslemont's second Malazan novel, Return of the Crimson Guard, is published in August in the UK (no US date set as yet), and a review is forthcoming. The ninth novel in the series, Dust of Dreams, should be published in approximately one year's time.