Death-Bringer by Patrick Tilley

Steve Brickman and his reluctant ally Cadillac face a major problem. Clearwater has been taken captive aboard the Federation wagon-train Red River, and they need to find a way to break her and Steve's sister Roz out with only the warriors from Clan M'Call to help. But as they struggle with that issue, Mr. Snow faces the biggest challenge of his life. Enraged with the destruction of the Heron Pool and the loss of their assault force on Lake Michigan, the Yama-Shita have sent five warships to the trading post at Lake Superior for the annual exchange of goods and servants. Allied to the treacherous D'Troit Mutes, their orders are to destroy the M'Calls and their She-Kargo allies once and for all. The stage is set for the biggest military confrontation since the War of a Thousand Suns.


In my review of the previous book in the series, I noted that every epic fantasy series seems to have a 'scene-setting' book where the characters are just getting to where they need to be for the next slice of the action. It is also true that every series has a balls-to-the-wall, balloon-going-up volume where all the ant-hills are kicked over and all hell breaks loose (and many metaphors are mixed). Death-Bringer is that book. As with the previous volumes in the series, there is a lot of scheming, political intrigue, and truly impressive layers of deception as Steve continues his attempts to keep a foot in both the Tracker and Mute camps, involving some fancy foot-work. In fact, Steve and his intellectual nemesis, Karlstrom, may be the most impressive schemers I've encountered in a fantasy book with the possible exception of Littlefinger, Walder Frey and Tyrion Lannister.

Death-Bringer eases off the scheming to finally bring some widespread carnage to the table with two huge battle sequences. The Mute clans finally choose their sides and engage in a massive conflict on the south-western shores of Lake Superior, egged on by the Iron Masters, in this series' equivalent to the Battle of the Blackwater or the Pelennor Fields. Shortly afterwards, the M'Calls get to dish out some payback by launching a full-blown assault on Red River. Tilley proves to be an excellent writer of action sequences, fulfilling the promise shown in earlier novels, and there is some catharsis in all the plotting of the previous three volumes finally reaching a head. The ending is murky and definitely not neat - there's one more volume to go - but the sense of a climax to numerous complex and sometimes confusing plot threads is most welcome.

There are some weaknesses. As with the other books in the series, it's not high art and the layers of deception are so complex it's easy to get confused over who knows what and what people are supposed to know versus what the actual truth of the situation is, but then a lot of the characters express the same concerns. There's also a slight sense of contrivance at the end where the author needed to get one character into another location and the way he handled it was a bit artificial. Oh yeah, and the title is one of the corniest I've ever come across.

Death-Bringer (****) is one of the strongest books in the series, with a fine sense of pacing and action, with some truly excellent plot twists and revelations. As with the other books in the series, it is currently not in print, but second-hand editions should be available in the UK and USA.

Updates

In an example of good timing, Patrick Tilley has just set up a new website and fan network here.

Meanwhile, China Mieville seems to have relaxed his Tolkien-sceptic stance in his old age and has written an article focusing on the 'cool stuff' in Middle-earth here. As he says, and it cannot be argued against too strongly, "Tolk gives good monster."

Currently Reading: Death-Bringer by Patrick Tilley
Currently Playing: Third Age: Total War, Company of Heroes
Currently Watching: Firefly (re-watch), Iran and the West (re-watch)

Blood River by Patrick Tilley

In Ne-Issan, the balance of power has shifted dangerously after the exposure of the Yama-Shita's treachery and the death of its ruling lord. The family has been brutally oppressed at the order of the Shogun, and the family burns for vengeance, most notably against those Mutes and Trackers responsible for destroying their project at the Heron Pool.


Meanwhile, these individuals - Steve, Cadillac, Clearwater, Jodi Kazan and Dave Kelso - are now fleeing for their lives out of Ne-Issan on Federation Skyriders, but a lack of fuel forces them down near the southern shores of Lake Michigan, still many hundreds of miles from the M'Call home turf in Wyoming. Their attempts to escape are challenged by a wily Mute wordsmith, an ambitious Ne-Issan foreign agent and the Federation, who have sent the Lady from Louisiana to 'aid' Steve's attempts to escape. Steve, still playing both sides against the middle, is still trying to keep a foot in both camps but Cadillac is about to make maintaining that pretence very difficult indeed...

Blood River is the most transitional of the Amtrak Wars books. It seems that every multi-book series needs a volume which doesn't have much of an internal plot but instead is taken up getting the characters to where they are needed for the next big story movement, and Blood River does that. It also does it quite well, with a real sense of urgency as our heroes are hounded by both the Federation and the Iron Masters and Brickman's Machiavellian plotting reaches new heights, but is challenged by Cadillac and Clearwater calling him on his bullshit and trying to get him to finally choose a side, culminating in the most shocking moment in the series to date. As I've said in previous reviews of the series, Clearwater has been a bit bland and not very well-drawn compared to the other principle characters in the series, but here she really steps up and shows in more detail a cunning and ruthless streak only previously hinted at.

Elsewhere, there are weaknesses. Steve and co. spend a lot of time dealing with simple problems of travel and survival which, whilst well-written, do take time away from the core storylines of the series. There are also a few dubious deus ex machina moments when our heroes get out of tight spots with hitherto-unrevealed Mute magic powers or other abilities, although this is not unprecedented in the series (or any fantasy series involving magic, really).

Blood River (***) is a solid and enjoyable continuation of the series with some weaknesses balanced out by Tilley's trademark relentless pace. The book is no longer in print but second-hand copies are available in the UK and USA.

Fire by Kristin Cashore

To the east of the great mountains lies the kingdom of the Dells, torn and divided with major lords rebelling against the king and the people still scarred by the activities of king's late father and his powerful advisor, Cansrel. Both are long dead, but Cansrel's daughter, named Fire for her hair, is still alive and a figure of hate and envy.


In the Dells many creatures exist with special properties. Known as 'monsters', these creatures are identified by their unusual colours and strange abilities, many of them related to mental powers. Fire is the only human of this type alive, with the ability to affect people's minds and know their intentions. The temptation to abuse this power as her father did is something that Fire fights against, but when she is called upon by the king and his brother to use those abilities to defend the kingdom from its enemies, she has little choice but to obey.

Fire is the second novel from American author Kristin Cashore, following on from Graceling. Fire is set thirty-odd years earlier in the lands to the east of the kingdoms featured in that book, and can thus be read with no prior knowledge of the earlier work.

Like Graceling before it, Fire is a relatively 'light' work focused on the one central character of Fire and a number of supporting characters. The tone is different to the earlier novel, and there is more in the way of political intrigue and military action. It is a better book, mainly because the author has grown and is more confident in her writing, and also because the supporting cast is stronger and more interesting. The central character of Fire is well-drawn and psychologically complex with a number of conflicting desires and ideas which are explored in convincing detail. However, her reaction to several crises involves her bursting into tears and running to the stables to talk to her horse, which struck me as a bit winsome. Luckily, another element from Graceling that was slightly tiresome - the central romance - is present in less force in Fire and when it does intrude upon proceedings, it is much better-supported and adds to the portrait of an interesting central protagonist. Another element from the first book that a lot of people seemed to dislike - the names (which I didn't mind as they were very Vancian, which is always good) - is also much-reduced, although I did think that the character named 'Archer' perhaps should have just used his real name. A sequence in which Archer discussed having to track down another archer seemed unduly confusing even paying close attention to where the word was capitalised.


One of the biggest successes of the novel is in its portrait of Leck, a young boy with unusual powers who later grows up to be the main villain of Graceling. Here we see Leck in his youth and the author succeeds in making him utterly loathsome without over-using him. Definitely one of the most interesting fantasy villains to appear recently. Hopefully we will learn more about him in the forthcoming third book set in this world, Bitterblue.

Fire (***½) is an entertaining and breezy read. Those after a more meaty and violent fantasy experience may be disappointed, but as a lighter work this does the job quite nicely. It will be published in the UK by Gollancz on 17 September and in the USA by Dial on 5 October. The author's website is here.

Update and Reminders

Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire gets its UK premiere tonight at 9pm on BBC-2. Apparently each episode will have 8-10 minutes of extra material that the US version had to cut to make room for adverts, so I may tune in to see if this stuff improves the existing episodes, which were very meh.

Best Served Cold, Nights of Villjamur and The Strain are now all on sale in the UK, whilst Retribution Falls arrives next week.

Currently Reading: Fire by Kristin Cashore
Currently Playing: Bridge Commander, Third Age: Total War, Company of Heroes multiplayer

Wertzone Classics: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

A group of researchers and scientists at the civilian research facility Regula I have created an amazing piece of technology, the Genesis Device. This device can instantly terraform any lifeless world into a terrestrial, habitable one in a matter of hours. The Federation has sponsored the development of this device, assigning the USS Reliant to assist the team in locating a dead planet to use in the initial testing. The Reliant's survey of Ceti Alpha VI runs into problems when Khan Noonian Singh, arch-enemy of James T. Kirk, is unexpectedly encountered on the planet. Soon, the Reliant is under his control and he is on his way to Regula I to take control of the Genesis Device and turn it into the ultimate weapon...


Meanwhile, the USS Enterprise under Captain Spock is on a training mission with a fresh crew of cadets. Admiral Kirk is on board to oversee the training cruise. When a garbled distress call is received from Regula I, Kirk assumes command and is soon forced into a desperate battle against Khan and the Reliant.

The Wrath of Khan has the reputation of being not just the best Star Trek movie, but also one of the best SF movies of its age. Unfortunately, in recent years it has perhaps become better known for the numerous parodies of a certain seminal William Shatner moment roughly halfway through the film, although in-context it works a lot better.

There are several factors which combine to make The Wrath of Khan such a good movie. First off, it has an extremely well-drawn villain played by a good actor. Khan having previously appeared in the classic Star Trek series (in the first season episode Space Seed) gave him a decent backstory and rationale for wanting vengeance against Kirk without getting bogged down in continuity. It was many years after I first saw the movie as a kid before I saw the episode, and really all you need to know is that Kirk dumped Khan on a planet as a gesture of supposed mercy which ended up killing Khan's wife and several of his shipmates. Ricardo Montalban plays Khan with a certain theatrical malevolence which treads a razor's edge between high camp and genuine evil. He also gets some ripe lines which he manages to dignify through totally believing in them. Seriously, who else could pull off, "Revenge is a dish best served cold, and it is very cold...in space"?

The second factor is that the script plays to the strengths of the individual actors and gives most of the Enterprise crew their own stories to follow (although Nichelle Nichols' Uhura and George Takei's Sulu are not as well-served as others) . Chekov, notably under-used in the actual series, turns up as the first officer of the Reliant who is captured by Khan early on and eventually ends up back on the Enterprise. There is an interesting and tragic subplot for Scotty, who gets his nephew a job as a trainee in the Enterprise's engineering department, whilst McCoy spends most of the movie trying to pull Kirk out of his brooding depression at turning 49. There's also the new character of Saavik, Spock's protege who is angling for her own command. Effectively played by Kirstie Alley, Saavik serves as a viewpoint character for those viewers unfamiliar with the series. Oddly, a line referencing the fact that Saavik is actually half-Romulan, half-Vulcan was cut from the movie (and not restored in any one of the half-dozen or so different cuts and edits of the movie released over the years), whilst a later joke by McCoy referring to this fact is left in, somewhat confusingly. Spock only seems to have a minor subplot at the start referring to Kirk's guilt when he takes command of the ship from him, only to disappear in the middle third of the movie whilst Kirk, Saavik and McCoy travel to Regula. Of course, this was only to set up the unexpected ending (more on which in a moment).

The movie was also made on a crushingly small budget of $8 million (later raised to $11 after positive studio reaction to dailies), less than one-quarter of that assigned to its forebear, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The producers, director and special effects crew had to work with their backs to the wall with only a limited number of sets, miniatures and effects shot available. Some shots from the preceding movie were re-used, whilst two-thirds of the movie took place on the same set, the Enterprise bridge which was redressed to serve as as the bridge of the Reliant. This saved enough money so that the final, iconic battle sequence - the Enterprise and Reliant playing cat-and-mouse in the Mutara Nebula - could be rendered as impressively as possible. The battle scenes in the movie are also superb, with the ships acting less like oversized fighters (a common complaint levelled against later movies and TV episodes) and more like the lumbering battleships they're supposed to be, dishing out and taking enormous amounts of punishment. The battle is also tremendously visceral, with decks collapsing and crewmen getting crushed, burned or subjected to lethal radiation in a manner that hadn't been seen previously on Trek (and led to the movie getting a hitherto unthinkable '15' certificate in the UK). Additionally, there's a small piece of history in the movie in the Genesis Device training movie, which is the first-ever 100% computer-generated sequence in the history of film (or so it is claimed anyway).


Particularly worthy of mention is James Horner's score, which re-uses a few elements from his earlier movies (particularly Battle for the Planets) but mostly consists of new material. His new overture, used for flybys of the Enterprise and the main title theme, is instantly classic.

Of course, what really got people talking when the movie was released was the jaw-dropping ending, which in the pre-Internet age had successfully been kept secret in a manner unlikely to be replicated today. It's still an emotionally powerful moment played by the actors in a convincing and almost poetic manner (the oft-mocked Shatner is on top form throughout this movie and its sequel). In fact, despite the sometimes hokey dialogue as related above, the movie has a number of iconic lines and quotes (mostly from A Tale of Two Cities and Moby Dick) which help give the movie a thematically satisfying through-line. This is a movie about not just revenge, but age, finding your right place in the world and the fact that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few (or indeed, the one). There's also satisfying attention paid to not copping out on the story. The writers couldn't conceive of a way that Khan and Kirk could meet without Kirk being killed, so they simply don't meet. And whilst victory is eventually won, it is only at a hard cost.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (*****) is a great film because it doesn't go overboard on the gimmicks or macguffins (the Genesis Device - which doesn't really do much - aside) and simply has two enemies on two equally-matched ships slugging it out and one winning through the use of his wits. With strong thematic underpinnings, endlessly quotable dialogue, a score to die for, great effects and some solid acting, the movie overcomes a few cheesy lines, a couple of continuity gaffes (Chekov never met Khan in Space Seed and didn't appear until the following season) and some 80s hairstyles to retain its place as not just the best Star Trek movie, but an entertaining and breathlessly exciting SF movie in its own right.

The movie has just been reissued on DVD in the UK and also released for the first time on Blu-Ray. In the USA the movie is only currently available as part of a boxed set also featuring the other five original-cast movies, on Blu-Ray (UK, USA). Oddly, this collection is not available on DVD in the USA, with only a 'trilogy collection' containing the second, third and fourth movies available, whilst the full box set is available on DVD in the UK. Exactly why Paramount have done this, or not included any of the excellent special features from the 2002 DVD release, I have no idea.

Iron Master by Patrick Tilley

Steve Brickman, former Skyhawk pilot turned AMEXICO secret agent, is out of his depth. His mission to capture Mr. Snow, Cadillac and Clearwater, the three M'Call Mutes whose powers pose a direct threat to the Amtrak Federation's expansion, has been complicated by the fact that Cadillac and Clearwater have been sent as envoys to Ne-Issan, the homeland of the mysterious Iron Masters. With little choice, Brickman is forced to follow and soon learns that Cadillac is posing as a Tracker wingman, using the knowledge and information he stole from Brickman's own mind to construct an air force for the Iron Masters.


Meanwhile, in Ne-Issan the Shogun is concerned over the ambitions of the powerful Yama-Shita family, who already control the lucrative Great Lakes trading routes into the Mute heartlands and now seem to be organising themselves for an attempt to displace him from power by sponsoring the air force project. His top agent, Herald of the Inner Court Toshiro Hase-Gawa, is dispatched to sabotage the aircraft production facility by any means necessary, and soon finds an unlikely ally in the shape of Steve Brickman...

If Cloud Warrior was an exploration of the culture of the Mutes and First Family looked more closely at the inner workings and government of the Federation, Iron Master turns its attention to the society of Ne-Issan. For reasons that Tilley doesn't entirely explain, vast numbers of East Asian refugees from the War of a Thousand Suns somehow reached the former Eastern Seaboard of the United States and set up a feudal society based heavily on Shogunate-era Japan, running from Nova Scotia to South Carolina. The society they have built is undeniably well-drawn and fascinating, but it seems a bit odd that refugees from Asia would end up on the Atlantic coast of America and not, say, in the Washington-Oregon-California area.

Anyway, ignoring that geographic oddity, Iron Master is the best of the first three books in the series. Tilley's grasp of political intrigue and his appetite for plans-within-plans and multiple layers of deception reaches its full flower here, as Brickman pursues his agenda, Hase-Gawa pursues his, the Shogun's wily chancellor pursues yet another and AMEXICO do their bit to add to the confusion as well. It's a complex and at times confusing story, but Tilley's clear prose, relentless pace and gift for action sequences keeps events ticking along nicely. Characterisation is strong, with Brickman's evolution to a full-blown double agent continuing in an intriguing manner and Hase-Gawa making for an effective supporting character (his true motivations are held back for the last few pages of the book and make for a nice twist). Unfortunately, Clearwater, despite being one of the central figures in the series, remains a bit bland and distant as a character.

Iron Master (****) is a strong and compulsive read and is a solid continuation of the series. Again, it is no longer in print but second-hand copies are available in the UK and USA.

First Family by Patrick Tilley

Having escaped from the clutches of the M'Call Mutes, Steve Brickman triumphantly returns to the Federation fully expecting to be congratulated on his exploits and his gathering of vital intelligence on the enemy. Instead he is arrested as a deserter and narrowly escapes death before being sent to menial, ball-busting work in the A-levels. According to the doctrines of the First Family, the rulers of the Amtrak Federation, Mutes do not take prisoners, and that 'truth' cannot be contradicted. But now Brickman knows something of the truth the Family has other plans for him, and for his Mute friends...


Picking up immediately after the events of Cloud Warrior, the second volume in The Amtrak Wars is a slightly different beast. There's still a fair amount of action and the pace remains furious and at times page-turningly addictive, but after the straightforward plot of the first book things get murkier here. Conspiracies are revealed, deeper mysteries are alluded to and labyrinth plots are set in motion. Political intrigue also rears its head as we meet some key figures within the Family, such as the President-General and Karlstrom, the ruthless head of the clandestine intelligence agency AMEXICO. Tilley's grip of worldbuilding also remains strong, as we begin to learn more about the shadowy Iron Masters who live on the Eastern Seaboard and trade weapons with the Mutes through great steamships ploughing the Great Lakes.

As I mentioned in the first book, true-blue all-American hero Steve Brickman started off as a bit of a lemon, but in this second book he starts evolving into a more interesting protagonist. A key theme of the series is Brickman's torn loyalties between the Federation and his family, and the Mutes, his would-be mentor Mr. Snow and Steve's would-be lover, Clearwater. This results in Steve having to spin out some pretty spectacular lies, cover-stories and half-truths to keep either side from plugging him, and seeing Steve struggle through the mental gymnastics required to keep one step ahead of everyone else is fascinating (and it's all rather mild here, compared to the labyrinth of plots and counter-plots that have developed by the final volume).

The writing in this volume is also notably better, with Tilley restraining his more excited passages to convey the action in a slightly more thoughtful style. However, the refreshingly informal prose remains intact, as do the slightly confusing multiple POV switches in one chapter.

First Family (***½) steps up the pace, deepens the world and the story and the cliffhanger ending effectively hooks the reader into the third book in the series, Iron Master. Again, the book is out of print at the moment but copies seem to be available in the UK and USA.

RIP David Eddings

SF Crow's Nest broke the news this morning that fantasy author David Eddings passed away last night at the age of 77. Eddings is best-known as the author of the five-volume Belgariad series of novels published in the early 1980s. Alongside Terry Brooks' Shannara books, Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar series and Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant novels, they are credited with establishing the subgenre of modern epic fantasy.


Eddings was born in Spokane, Washington State in 1931. He grew up near Seattle and attended the Reed College and University of Washington. He was drafted into the US Army in 1961 and, upon leaving, worked as a college lecturer. Poor pay led him to move to Denver where he worked as a grocery store clerk whilst working on his first novel, an adventure story called High Hunt. He worked on many other books in this time, but found most of them to be poor and he abandoned them. The only other book he completed at this time was The Losers. Frustrated with his lack of success in the writing field, he was only re-inspired when he picked up a copy of The Lord of the Rings in a bookstore and found it was on its 78th printing. He retrieved a map he had drawn as a diversion a few years later, and used it as the basis for his first fantasy world. Although his early fantasy work was credited to David by himself, in later years he announced that his wife Leigh had co-written all of his fantasy novels with him.

They wrote The Belgariad as a trilogy, but upon selling it to Del Rey Books, he was asked by his editor Lester Del Rey to expand it to a five-book series. Del Rey also suggested the chess-inspired titles for each individual book. The early novels sold very well, and the Eddings suggested a sequel series to Del Rey, called The Malloreon, over dinner. Apparently Lester had to be dissuaded from drawing up a contract there and then on a napkin. During the latter part of writing The Malloreon novels Eddings came up with an idea for a trilogy which he liked so much that he actually wrote the last couple of Malloreon novels alongside the Elenium trilogy. When this series also proved successful, he and his wife went on to write The Tamuli sequel series.

In the mid-1990s, Eddings' output slowed and he gave his wife full cover credit for the remaining works of his career. They produced two prequels to The Belgariad, a companion volume called The Rivan Codex (which described their writing and worldbuilding processes), a stand-alone novel called The Redemption of Althalus and a four-book series called The Dreamers. Leigh Eddings fell ill with a series of strokes around this time, and passed away in early 2007. Eddings also briefly made headlines in his local area around this time when he accidentally set his office on fire and the local fire brigade had to be called out.


Eddings' work is beloved by readers, many of whom got their first taste of fantasy by reading The Belgariad at a young age (and current editions of The Belgariad are indeed aimed primarily at YA readers). Older readers and critics were less kind when contrasting Eddings' work to more adult fantasy novels, but Eddings' career continued to prove an enormous success. The Rivan Codex is a refreshingly candid account of how Eddings was motivated to write fantasy initially purely for profit, and he was certainly successful at this endeavour. Eddings was famously old-fashioned and, with his wife, wrote everything in longhand, not even using a typewriter. Although he appreciated his fans, he was wary of the modern expected methods of book marketing and communication, and as a result refused to allow an official website to be set up for him either.

I read The Belgariad, as many others did, as a kid and enjoyed them. Reading The Malloreon as a teenager, I spotted Eddings' more notable flaws (extreme repetition, shallow descriptions, caricatures rather than characters etc) and was unable to finish The Tamuli, one of the two or three worst works of fantasy I have ever read. However, The Rivan Codex is a surprisingly decent and honest account of how to create formulaic fantasy, and Eddings' informal way of writing in this book is enjoyable. Despite his flaws, Eddings' contribution to the expanding appeal of the epic fantasy subgenre cannot be underestimated. He had millions of fans around the world, and he will be missed.


Bibliography

The Belgariad
Pawn of Prophecy (1982)
Queen of Sorcery (1982)
Magicians' Gambit (1983)
Castle of Wizardry (1984)
Enchanters' End Game (1985)

The Malloreon
Guardians of the West (1987)
King of the Murgos (1988)
Demon Lord of Karanda (1988)
Sorceress of Dashiva (1989)
Seeress of Kell (1991)

The Elenium
The Diamond Throne (1989)
The Ruby Knight (1990)
The Sapphire Rose (1991)

The Tamuli
Domes of Fire (1992)
The Shining Ones (1993)
The Hidden City (1994)

The Belgariad Companion Books (with Leigh Eddings)
Belgarath the Sorcerer (1995)
Polgara the Sorceress (1997)
The Rivan Codex (1998, non-fiction)

The Dreamers (with Leigh Eddings)
The Elder Gods (2003)
The Treasured One (2004)
Crystal Gorge (2005)
The Younger Gods (2006)

Stand-alone works
High Hunt (1986)
The Losers (1992)
Regina's Song (2000, with Leigh Eddings)
The Redemption of Althalus (2000, with Leigh Eddings)

Return to Monkey Island

LucasArts have, somewhat out of the blue, revealed that they are releasing a specially-remade version of their 1990 classic adventure game, The Secret of Monkey Island, this summer. This will coincide with the release of a new, five-part episodic game called Tales of Monkey Island, produced in conjunction with Telltale Games (producers of the recent Sam 'n' Max and Wallace & Gromit episodic games).


The Secret of Monkey Island is one of the most influential games of all time, combining a ton of humour and inventive visuals with fiendish puzzles and excellently-realised characters. For 1990's standards, it looked amazing and was a huge hit. Its 1993 sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, was considerably larger, far funnier, with jaw-dropping graphics (for the time) and a far more epic story with an ending that people are still talking about today. I'd easily rank it as the best single adventure game ever made (and if they do a remake/re-release of MI2, which is probably dependent on sales of this one, I will be first in queue to pick it up). Series creator Ron Gilbert departed LucasArts after MI2 and the later Curse of Monkey Island and Escape from Monkey Island were comparatively disappointing, although not without merit.

The Monkey Island remake is interesting because, anticipating purist fans who hate the new art style, the team have enabled a mode to allow you to switch between the new, sharper HD graphics and console-based controls to the old-school pixels and cursor controls at will (no word if the PC version will allow the use of the mouse cursor with the new graphics, although it would be weird if it wouldn't). It looks very nice indeed, with the original soundtrack re-recorded and the new graphics looking solid without going way overboard (and they're not 3D, thank LeChuck).

Tales of Monkey Island I'm less crazy about. Telltale Games have a very variable track history, and the graphics look ropey and the trailer didn't make me laugh at all. Maybe it'll turn out okay, but for now I'll stick with the remake.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition will be released on PC and X-Box 360 in the summer, Tales of Monkey Island should launch on the PC and Wii in a few weeks.