Chuck: Season 5

Chuck Bartowski no longer possesses the Intersect, but has still matured into a confident and capable secret agent. As he mentors the new Intersect, he also has to deal with the fact he and his team are now independent contractors with bills to pay and rival companies to compete with. When, yet again, a dangerous agent comes after the Intersect, Chuck has to call upon his resources and training to stop them.

Chuck has always been a curious show, a geek comedy with dramatic and romantic overtones whose tone has often spun on a dime. The show has always done a good job of managing these different tones and styles, keeping everything grounded though Zachary Levi's earnest-but-sympathetic performance as the title character. In the fifth season, the show experiences several additional such tonal shifts, as Chuck is betrayed by his best friend (but it turns out not to be his fault) and, most surprisingly, has his life almost ruined in the final few episodes of the series. For a show that's always been quite warm-hearted and entertainingly cheesy, the surprisingly bleak tone of the final few episodes comes as a bit of a shock.

The season - renewed purely to be wrapped up - only consists of thirteen episodes and it appears there may have been budgetary restrictions in place: our previous season villains were played by well-known actors such as Chevy Chase and Timothy Dalton. This year we get Angus Macfadyen, a very solid Scottish actor best-known for his supporting role in Braveheart (as Robert the Bruce). He does a good job, but lacks the geek-cred his predecessors brought with them. Even more problematic is the fact that he only appears in the last few episodes of the season with little build-up and his character is never really explored in much depth (in contrast to Dalton's hammy-but-complex Volkoff).

The truncated run causes issues throughout the season. Storylines that would have been given whole episodes to develop in the second through fourth seasons are here disposed off way too quickly. An entertaining on-going subplot involving Carrie-Ann Moss as a rival contractor (and potential romantic interest for Casey) has enormous potential, but kind of peters out with no real climax or pay-off. Most frustratingly, there is relatively very little action in the Buy More. Big Mike, Lester and Jeff barely get any lines in some episodes, although a late-season subplot that sees Lester and a reformed and sober Jeff finally discovering what's going under their feet does help reduce this problem a little.

Most surprising is a divisive late-season storyline involving amnesia. Given the tone of the show, I was confidently expecting some last-minute solution or cure would be found. Instead, we get a highly inconclusive ending. It's not quite The Sopranos, but the series ending without ever answering the central question poised by the last couple of episodes is an unexpected and possibly even brave choice. Whether it's the right choice is one that fans will be arguing about for years to come (or unless the much-rumoured Chuck movie gets off the ground). For myself, Chuck has always been first and foremost an escapist and fun show, not a gritty drama like the new BSG or something from HBO. Ending the show in this manner feels out of character for the series, and a little bit of pointless torture for our main characters who really deserved more of a happy ending.

That aside, the final season of Chuck (***½) is entertaining, well-acted and often quite funny. The shortened episode order means some storylines aren't developed very well, and the ending will be divisive, but certainly the season is worth watching for established fans. In particular, the way Chuck's character develops across the five seasons, going from nerd to an intelligent, resourceful agent (exemplified by the shots of Chuck on the DVD spines, which cleverly show this development) does pay off very well here. The season is available now in the UK (DVD) and USA (DVD, Blu-Ray).

GRRM on pitching new projects to HBO

George R.R. Martin was stopped on the red carpet at the premier event for Game of Thrones's third season in Los Angeles and asked about his new development deal with HBO. Martin confirmed that he will not be running these projects directly but will be giving out initial ideas for HBO to develop with other producers.

Apparently to be discussed are an SF series (possibly an adaptation of his short story collection Tuf Voyaging, which he has hinted several times recently might be in development), a couple of historical dramas and the potential Game of Thrones prequel series, based on his Dunk and Egg short stories. If any of these come to fruition at HBO remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, there was also a lengthy discussion of the series featuring Martin, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and a large number of castmembers. Some interesting tidbits were dropped during the interview, with Martin indicating that his initial discussions with Benioff and Weiss happened whilst there were still only three books out (dating it to before A Feast for Crows' publication in October 2005). They then pitched the show to both HBO and Showtime in March 2006, a lot earlier than previously believed (HBO optioned the books in January 2007).

A Fortress of Grey Ice by J.V. Jones

Ash March has visited the Cavern of Black Ice and stalled the arrival of the evil Endlords, at least for now. She must now make her way to the homeland of the enigmatic Sull, where her true path will be revealed. Meanwhile, Raif Sevrance's role in events seems to have conclude, and he now seeks a life for himself amongst the exiles of the Maimed Men. But it seems that his destiny has not done with him yet, as he is called into the vastness of the Great Want in search of the Fortress of Grey Ice...

Middle volumes are always the most problematic part for any ongoing series. They don't have a clearly-defined beginning or end and structurally can end up as a bit of a mess if the author isn't careful. In the case of J.V. Jones's Sword of Shadows fantasy sequence this is even more of a danger. Planned to be five books in length, this gives her no less than three middle volumes to navigate through and retain the audience's attention.

She got off to an excellent start with A Cavern of Black Ice, one of the strongest opening volumes to an epic fantasy series ever written, one that showed an impressive growth in writing ability since her debut work, the somewhat more traditional Book of Words trilogy. With its considerably more nuanced characterisation, restrained toned and thorough-but-not-overwhelming worldbuilding (particularly showing that the clans may be relatively primitive, but they are not mindless savages and have complex systems of agriculture and mining), the Sword of Shadows is a more mature and interesting work.

This quality carries forwards into A Fortress of Grey Ice, though Jones is only partially successful in navigating through the problems of middle volume syndrom. On the plus side, she introduces several new storylines (particularly the civil war within Clan Dhoone) which make for interesting reading, expanding the scope of the story and the world without resorting to filler. Raif Sevrance's storyline, as he goes from rejected hero to a member of the Maimed Men to searching for the enigmatic Fortress of Grey Ice, is also structurally well-handled, giving the book a narrative spine with its own beginning, middle and end. Book of Words fans will also appreciate the arrival of Crope, a notable supporting character from that work, and his role in this novel (which ends in the death of a major character so impressively offhand that both Paul Kearney and George R.R. Martin would applaud it). Elsewhere, other characters and storylines suffer. Ash March spends the whole book on a journey from A to B and doesn't even get there at the end of the book. Raina Blackhail's potentially gripping story of political machinations within the Hailhouse are given very short shrift. The Dog Lord's storyline, though entertaining, seems to rely on a few too many obviously unwise decisions for it to be fully convincing.

The star of the book - and probably the whole series - is the wind-lashed, freezing cold landscape of the Northern Territories. Jones's research for this series appears to be formidable, with musings on the dangers of frostbite and how the climate works within an ice desert. George R.R. Martin's descriptions of the land beyond the Wall in A Song of Ice and Fire are impressive, but Jones's depiction of her frozen setting is even more impressive (as the whole series is set there).

A Fortress of Grey Ice (****½) is well-written and finely-characterise, with a formidably vivid setting. The plot and pacing is not as impressive as in the first book, and some storylines feel drawn out, whilst others are given relatively short shrift. However, this is still a well-above-average epic fantasy and the conclusion will leave readers eager to move onto the third book (which they can do immediately, rather than waiting five years as fans had to back when this novel was first published). The book is available now in the UK and USA.

GAME OF THRONES 'No Mercy' trailer

HBO have released another big trailer for the third season of Game of Thrones. Interesting that they decided to pack these trailers into a short period of time rather than release them over a longer period and get the build-up going earlier.

This trailer is a bit longer and gives us more of a look at new characters like Daario.

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

The dreaded Queen of Blades, the leader of the Zerg, is no more. Sarah Kerrigan has been freed from the Swarm and is now human once again...but consumed by the need to avenge herself on Arcturus Mengsk, Emperor of the Terran Dominion, the man who betrayed her and left her for dead. When Mengsk's troops raid the facility Kerrigan is recuperating in, she finds herself alone and without any allies. Kerrigan needs an army to bring down her enemy and the leaderless Zerg Swarms may be the key to victory, if she can resist becoming part of the Swarm once more.

Heart of the Swarm is the rather tardy second instalment of the StarCraft II series of games, arriving an eyebrow-raising three years after its predecessor, Wings of Liberty. Considering the game uses the exact same engine as its predecessor (some minor upgrades aside) and apparently follows a story arc laid down by the guys at Blizzard almost a decade ago, the reason for the delay initially appears puzzling. The answer, of course, lies in the franchise's multiplayer angle. Blizzard have introduced new units with this expansion and have spent months and months painstakingly testing every iteration of the changes, dumping some new units and bringing in others, to make sure they don't upset the multiplayer balance. Given that StarCraft II's multiplayer scene is worth millions of dollars, this is unsurprising, but it does leave those of us primarily interested in the game's single-player storyline hanging in the wind for quite a long time.

Still, the game is here, and to a certain degree it's StarCraft as normal. You have a base, you collect resources, you build units and you fight the enemy for territory (control of additional resources areas where you can establish secondary bases) and ultimately try to destroy them. The gameplay is held together by a storyline, in this case one about vengeance and evolution. Kerrigan is out to kill Mengsk and end a feud between the two that began fifteen years ago in the original StarCraft. Blizzard cleverly raise this story - a subplot in the overall scheme of things - to prominence in Heart of the Swarm and push the big-picture storyline about the return of the alien Xel'Naga firmly into the background for the next game to worry about. Giving Heart of the Swarm its own direction and a storyline that does come to a definitive conclusion helps it avoid the 'middle title' syndrome that trilogies often suffer from. Heart of the Swarm also feels like it might be treading over the same ground as the original title's Brood War expansion, which also focused on Kerrigan uniting the Swarm under her control. Heart of the Swarm contextualises this in a different way, however, to avoid repeating concepts already visited in the series.

The campaign structure is quite interesting. There are five sub-campaigns, four of them taking place on planets and a fifth in deep space, each consisting of several missions. Between missions Kerrigan is based on board her spacecraft, a Zerg Leviathan (replacing the Terran battlecruiser Hyperion from Wings of Liberty), and can seek advice from her underlings, upgrade units and enhance her own powers and abilities through a levelling system. The unit-upgrade section is the most amusing, as Zerg mutation specialist Abathur (the Zerg equivalent of a slightly befuddled scientist) portentously reveals how he's going to improve the Zerg species, usually provoking a sarcastic response from Kerrigan. Given that the Zerg are the most alien and weirdest of StarCraft's three races, Blizzard draw a nice line here between making sure they stay that way whilst also humanising them enough to give them identifiable personalities. The surprise reappearance of a previous major character thought dead also helps give the game some more identifiable personalities.

The writing is as dreadfully cheesy as it was in Wings of Liberty, although the theme of a need for vengeance so powerful it overcomes one's humanity is a bit more interesting than the muddled and overlong campaign of the previous game. Heart of the Swarm is significantly shorter in terms of proper missions than its predecessor (clocking in at 20 compared to 29, almost a third shorter) but makes up for the shortfall with optional training missions showing how potential Zerg mutations will be used on the battlefield. Though entertaining, these mini-missions do feel like an attempt to pad out the length to make players feel they are getting their money's worth, and none will take longer than five minutes to complete.

On the battlefield, things are similar to Wings of Liberty. As with Liberty, the game tries to avoid too many build base-build army-kill everything missions, instead peppering some more creative objectives into the game. This is helped by the deployment of Kerrigan herself, a powerful unit with numerous powers (which are upgraded throughout the game). Kerrigan can turn the tide of a battle single-handed, but can't win everything by herself, so deploying additional troops is always necessary. Heart of the Swarm avoids the dull slog some of Wings of Liberty's missions descended into, but sometimes goes too far the other way by making things too much of a walkover. Certainly Swarm benefits from occasionally being whacked up to 'hard' mode on occasion.

On the minus side, there is obviously going to be another long wait for the conclusion of the story in Legacy of the Void, and certainly in the UK the pricing of this expansion set is off-putting: £30 - the cost of a full-price, complete game - for an expansion with a third less content than the previous game? Heart of the Swarm does just about justify it through monumental production values, a decent length (about 10-11 hours in total) and a more entertaining campaign than Wings of Liberty, not to mention the multiplayer enhancements. Also on the minus side, though for an expansion much less of an issue, the game has still resolutely failed to take on board any of the major RTS innovations of the last fifteen years. Proper 3D line of sight, cover and destructible scenery and battlefields are still nowhere to be seen, and the camera is still suspended uncomfortably close to your units and the battlefield even on the higher resolutions. Given that Wings of Liberty was looking outdated in 2010, Heart of the Swarm is looking positively geriatric in the impending face of Company of Heroes 2 and Total War: Rome 2. For fans of the franchise, however, this will no matter one whit.

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (****½) is ultimately a more satisfying and enjoyable game than Wings of Liberty. The writing is still poor on an individual level, but the story is more focused and has a definitive and satisfying ending, compared to Wings of Liberty's cliffhanger. The result is a game that improves on its forebear and makes for a satisfying addition to the franchise, though one that not likely to win over anyone not already a fan. The game is available now on the PC (UK, USA).

New GAME OF THRONES trailers for Season 3

This one is about war:

And this one is about 'the beast':

Season 3 begins airing on 31 March in the USA and the day afterwards in the UK.

More details on THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE

Bantam Books have released more info about The World of Ice and Fire, the companion guide to A Song of Ice and Fire. The book is due for publication on 29 October 2013 and will be 288 pages in length. They have also published several sample pages from the book.

The blurb:

With all new history and material from the maester himself, The World of Ice and Fire is a must have for both long-time fans, new readers, and viewers of the HBO series, Game of Thrones. This lavish, fully illustrated, full-colour book will be the comprehensive guide to the mega-bestselling world that George R.R. Martin has established in his Ice and Fire books.

This will be the comprehensive guide to all things Game of Thrones and beyond. From the pre-history to the coming of the First Men, through the reign of the Targaryen kings and Robert's Rebellion, this guide-co-written by George R.R. Martin and the immensely knowledgeable founders and keepers of the www.westeros.org site-will tell series readers old and new all they might want to know about the history and culture of Westeros and the lands beyond the Narrow Sea. And there is a 30-page excerpt of all-new history invented by George solely for this volume.

ALL-NEW MATERIAL CONTRIBUTED BY GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: Much of the content of this book is all-new historical material, created by George exclusively for this volume—including a 30-page excerpt written by George.

FULLY ILLUSTRATED: The full-colour guide will be filled with gorgeous original artwork and maps commissioned exclusively for this edition.

THE HBO SERIES CONTINUES ON MARCH 31, 2013: HBO reported that 3.9 million viewers saw the inaugural broadcast of season 2, with 6.3 million tuning in among all of the network’s broadcasts for the night—a 53 percent gain from its freshman season average and a 27 percent rise from its previous series high. And with the DVD of season two releasing the month before, they only expect demand to rise.

SURGE IN NUMBERS: Since the show’s premiere, novel sales have increased exponentially, proving that people who get a taste of this world are keen to devour all there is about it.

SUCCESS OF THE NOVELS: To date, there are over 21.5 million copies of A Song of Ice and Fire series in print, and over 4.5 million in eBook sales.

APP-ORTUNITIES*: This will serve as the perfect companion volume to the Ice and Fire app, released in November 2012.

A WINNING TEAM: George’s co-authors on this book, Elio Garcia and Linda Antonssen, are the founders of the www.westeros.org site, and probably know more about this world than anyone save George. In fact, they are the folks George calls when he forgets certain series details.

HOLIDAY GIVING: Perfectly timed for the holiday season, this volume is the ideal gift for the George R.R. Martin fan in your life.

TIMING: The MM edition of A Dance with Dragons will also be published in Fall 2013, which means extra publicity for George R. R. Martin.

Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Amazon, Martin confirms that he is continuing to work on The Winds of Winter, and is making progress ahead of HBO catching up with him (although noting that the gap is less than it was before).

* The Wertzone does not condone such use of bad puns.

Publication date confirmed for THE REPUBLIC OF THIEVES

Gollancz has confirmed a publication date for The Republic of Thieves, the long, long-awaited third book in The Gentleman Bastard sequence. It will be published on 8 October 2013 in the USA and 10 October in the UK.

Tyrion Lannister approves this news.

Gollancz's Deputy Publishing Director, Simon Spanton, commented:

"Some of you will know about the real difficulties that gathered around this novel for Scott. I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank Scott for sticking with it. I know that he was always painfully aware of the delays and what those meant both for his publishers and his fans. So I’d also like to thank Scott’s readers for their patience and for the immense support and the profound goodwill towards Scott that they have shown during this time. It’s been a long wait but I have every faith that their patience will now be rewarded with The Republic of Thieves."

HUZZAH!

UPDATE

Scott Lynch has posted his own take on the news at Fantasy Faction. He confirms that work is already underway on Book 4 of the series, The Thorn of Emberlain, and he hopes to return to a sane production rate and not have to get Brandon Sanderson to finish the series. Lynch has also formally surrendered his 'Crown of Lateness' (which, arguably, he never had in the first place, cough cough Melanie Rawn/David Gerrold/Patrick Tilley/Diane Duane/Harlan Ellison cough).

Pratchett announces new DISCWORLD book

Terry Pratchett has announced that the next Discworld book, likely to be out at the end of this year, will be entitled Raising Steam. He made the announcement via a Skype webchat.

Pratchett announced the book by holding up a card saying "RAISING", at which point the Skype connection cut out. Pratchett had previously announced that the next Moist von Lipwig novel would be called Raising Taxes, so fans immediately assumed it was going to be that. However, it was then clarified that the book would actually be called Raising Steam. It has no release date as yet, and no further details have been announced.

Speculation: given Pratchett's way of announcing the book, which was clearly teasing fans curious about the long-MIA Raising Taxes, I'd guess this was indeed the new Moist von Lipwig book. Pratchett had previously said that he was having difficulty making the tax-based book interesting. This is understandable, given that Making Money - Moist takes over the Ankh-Morpork Mint - was fairly close to being a retread of Going Postal - Moist takes over the Ankh-Morpork Postal Service - as it was. I would guess (and to stress this is guesswork) that Pratchett has taken Moist out of the tax office and put him in charge of the Undertaking, Ankh-Morpork's under-construction subway system. This also allows Pratchett to do the 'Undertaking book' he's been hinting at for a few novels in a row now.

Of course, this might be in error and Raising Steam could be about surface trains or even an outright steampunk satire, and not involve Moist at all. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

RIFTWAR companion volume to be published in 2013

The last-ever novel in Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Cycle, Magician's End, will be out in May. This is the 30th novel in the series and marks an end to the saga that began back in 1982 with the publication of Magician.

Appropriately, it has been revealed that there will now also be a companion volume to the series. Entitled Midkemia: The Chronicles of Pug, this book will be a 192-page 'coffee table' book containing illustrations and extensive maps about the world of Midkemia. The project grew out of a mooted 'Midkemia Atlas' that Feist planned several years ago. The book will also feature 'narration' from the characters of Pug and Magnus.

“In the first year of the reign of King Lyam conDoin, I, Pug of Crydee, magician to the royal court and cousin to the King by adoption, do take quill in hand and set forth this writ, that all may benefit from the knowledge I have gained…” -Pug of Stardock

So begins the narrative account of Feist’s best-selling character, Pug of Stardock, for Midkemia: The Chronicles of Pug. Part travel log/journal and part atlas, this visual compendium brings the world of Midkemia to vivid, illustrative life, and gives readers a completely new look at the creative genius of Raymond E. Feist.

Designed and illustrated by the same creative team that brought us the Harry Potter books (Film Wizardry and Page to Screen), Midkemia: The Chronicles of Pug is divided into five sections and transports readers -- via maps, blueprints, floor plans, and journal text -- to the outer reaches of the Midkemia world and into its cities. Starting at the Far Coast, Pug, the hero of The Chaoswar Trilogy, recounts his childhood, before he embarks on a journey that takes him to the Grey Towers, Sorcerer’s Isle, and Krondor. Pug also encounters several favorite characters and people along the way -- including Jimmy and Locky, the Sauur, and Erik and Roo in Ravernburg. Beautiful hand-drawn maps illustrate the changes in Midkemia’s geography as war ravages the land and physically alters the landscape; dedicated readers and fans can literally trace the changes made by each battle. Unlike anything else in the Feist oeuvre, this book is a totally immersive look into the world of Midkemia as never experienced before.

Notably, Feist is co-writing this book with Stephen Abrams. Stephen Abrams created Midkemia in the mid-1970s as a roleplaying setting. Feist, a player in Abrams's games, started writing the Riftwar Cycle to 'fill in' the history of the roleplaying setting at Abrams's suggestion, with Magician set some 500 years before the 'present day' of the setting. The original plan was for Feist to write the account of the five great Riftwars that shaped the history of the planet. Impressively, some thirty-five years after that discussion, that's pretty much the task that Feist has now completed.

The book is currently scheduled for publication on 5 November 2013 from Harper Design. A working cover is shown above. You can look inside the book and see how it's going to look here.

Thanks to Jussi from Risingshadow for discovering the above information.