Various Thoughts

The last book in the Chosen of Nendawen series, Cry of the Ghost Wolf by Mark Sehestedt, is more ‘gritty’ than most D&D-focused books tend to be. It’s not on the level of a series like The Black Company, but it makes the attempt to be less escapist fantasy and more medieval fantasy. The protagonist is surprisingly likable for most of the duration and I had no trouble deciphering the storyline despite not having read the first two parts of the series (which I didn’t even know existed until after this arrived).

David Chandler‘s Ancient Blades trilogy (Den of Thieves, A Thief in the Night, & Honor Among Thieves) reminds me a bit of the Night Angel trilogy. Primarily in the characters’ personalities, although it’s certainly nowhere near as epic as that series. Beyond that I’m not really sure what to say about it…. It’s pretty much escapist fantasy for the most part, the events that take place aren’t particularly grounded in any overarching framework and it reads more like a series of loosely connected adventures (complete with an open ending) than a true trilogy. Which is not to say that it’s not entertaining; it is.

Mark Lawrence‘s Prince of Thorns is the first entry in a fantasy series with a hint of science fiction that focuses on a young (psychopathic? sociopathic?) prince on his quest to get revenge for his mother and sibling’s murders and eventually become emperor. The story starts off styled in a ‘realistic’ manner with few fantasy elements, which makes their initial appearance and eventual domination somewhat shocking. The series could go one of two ways from here, either focusing on the more realism-based aspects or instead on the magister puppeteers in the background. I’m not sure which I would prefer.

Brimstone Angels by Erin M. Evans takes place in the Neverwinter setting. The general theme, being unjustly ostracized due to your appearance, is so painfully mundane that I had to force myself to wade through the first half of it. Thankfully however, once the protagonists finally reach Neverwinter things pick up noticeably and you get a decent enough conspiracy plotline combined with a basic budding paranormal romance. It’s nothing earth shattering, but it’s interesting enough as a time waster.

Finally, we come to the bane of my existence; Bloodstone. I seem to be cursed to follow Nancy Holzner‘s Deadtown series whether I want to or not (and I don’t). Not only did I forget about the first book to the point of re-ordering it along with the second, but I apparently also pre-ordered the third at the same time and completely forgot about that as well. It arrived months ago and I did my level best to avoid reading it until recently.

Background information out of the way, this novel is not as forgettable as the first two. It mostly focuses on the plans of the ‘old ones’ to attain true eternal life with some secondary focus on revealing Mab’s background and patching up the rift between her and Gwen. The good news is I didn’t actively dislike this installment, the bad news is I still do actively dislike the series as a whole and the direction it appears to be heading. Hopefully I can remember to avoid ordering it in the future.

The first film adaptation of the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is part thriller and part murder mystery. It reminded me of Silence of the Lambs actually, although I haven’t seen that in ages and as a result may be imagining parallels where none exist. Imaginary or not that’s what I kept thinking about throughout the film and honestly I enjoyed that movie far more. Quality-wise there’s nothing really wrong with it, it’s simply that I felt like I had seen it all done better before.

I just got out of the theater from seeing Contraband about an hour ago. This movie is sort of what you’d get if you crossed Blow with The Italian Job. There’s a large amount of action along with a moderate amount of family drama and some master-level criminal chicanery. Best of all, everything moves along at a solid pace and there are no particularly lengthy dead spots that I would have been forced to skip through had I been watching this at home.

With first Melancholia and now Contraband both ending up not being complete wastes of time, I think I’ll be resuming my periodic movie theater visitations. Next up will probably be Kill List and Underworld: Awakening followed by Safe House and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (both of which were previewed before Contraband and looked entertaining). Possibly Haywire (which was also previewed) as well, although I’m on the fence about that one.

The fourth entry to the Black Sun’s Daughter series keeps the same level of quality while finally introducing us to the series’ namesake. Beyond that fairly notable trait, it also reveals a bunch of Ex’s backstory while pitting Janyé against both herself and his former comrades.

Richard Lee Byers‘ The Spectral Blaze is the third novel in the Brotherhood of the Griffon… tetralogy? Regardless, for the first quarter or so I had trouble remembering why I continued to read this series despite not really being interested in the portrayed events and only liking Brimstone (who is barely present) as a character. Things begin to pick up at a nice clip past that point as a series of dragon-centric battles play out and the primary characters finally extricate themselves from the incredibly uninteresting interactions between the Dragonborn and Chessentians. I’m actually looking forward to the next (last?) installment.

Drink Deep is the fifth book in Chloe Neill’s Chicagoland Vampires series. Halfway through I found myself wondering why I continued following it despite utterly loathing the vampiric Houses’ entire corporate/dorm concept. I eventually recalled some of the reasons as apocalyptic crises continued to mount and talk of rebellion began to stir. Sadly, appallingly even, the ending ruined all that. How did the ending ruin all of that? It went and took the primary thing that made this series unique, which occurred in the last book, and reverted it wholesale. Which has the effect of both cheapening the event to worthlessness and consigning the series to mediocrity.

Fate’s Edge is the third book in Ilona Andrews‘ The Edge series. It involves a couple of returning main characters, though the focus is on an earlier side-character and a new addition. Interestingly enough the developing relationship isn’t the center-point of the novel; that instead is taken by a semi-race against time and some spy-ish/larcenous adventures.

Eileen Wilks’ most recent entry in the World of the Lupi series, Death Magic, centers character-wise on Rule and Lily with Cullen providing support. It’s primarily about the escalating war between the Lupi and their ancient enemy with a somewhat significant side-plot involving a conflict of interests between Rule and the Lupi’s patron deity over the importance of Lily’s continued health.

The second Lords of Deliverance book, Immortal Rider by Larissa Ione, picks up a month or so after the end of the last one and focuses on the forming of an Arik/Limos pairing as you might expect. Beyond that there’s the continued advancement toward the next apocalyptic event. The third (last?) book in the series will apparently focus on the Thanatos/Regan pairing and bring said apocalypse to a head.

Ann Aguirre‘s titular series is remarkably detailed, complex, and expansive. It has much more in common with large-scale science fiction epics than the more commonly insular urban fantasy series that it physically resembles.

The first novel in the series, Grimspace, introduces most of the primary characters that will persist through the series. Plot-wise there isn’t much to it beyond providing a reason for Sirantha to be working for the new government. Wanderlust follows that up with more character development as the main plotline becomes temporarily sidetracked and the last central character is added to the cast. Doubleblind changes gears almost completely, focusing as it does wholly on diplomacy, an alien culture, and Sirantha’s evolution as a character. The series then returns a bit to the standards of the first two books with Killbox as things heat up in the background interstellar war. Finally, Aftermath has things calming down and the various characters settling into new roles.

While there’s some suspension of disbelief required from time to time to deal with Sirantha’s curiously charmed existence and the existence of such a competent leader-politician, for the most part the series does a fantastic job of presenting events in a realistic and believable manner.

Words are an art, a tool, an expression of ideas and intent. What they are not is a meaning unto themselves. They cannot exist in a vacuum and loose all meaning once divorced from the context of their speaker and any they were speaking with/to.

What brings this on? Yet another simple-minded individual who argues for a restriction on the use of specific words… not realizing that such action is fighting the symptoms rather than the disease. You do not own the word, society does not own the word, no one owns the word. Trying to restrict the use of something you do not own is pretentious at best and self-destructive at worst.

If you become offended by a word rather than the intent behind the word, then the problem is with you. The meanings behind words change with society’s views as a natural process, a process which being upset by the word/phrase itself rather than the manner in which it was used inhibits. Accomplishing nothing beyond ensuring a retention of the definition that currently aggravates you so.

If someone uses a formerly/currently derogatory term as a compliment; that’s progress. Many derogatory words were neutral or even complementary before they were re-purposed as insults. A reversal of that trend should be met with celebration, not indignation and self-righteousness.

This is the first movie I’ve seen in the theater in… I don’t even know when. Some number of years. I decided to see it due to the seemingly universal proclamation that it’s a nihilistic masterpiece; anything with such a distinction is worth watching on general principle. Acting-wise there isn’t a single misstep, which was a pleasant surprise.

It begins with an arty/pretentious montage of the end set to a classical score. I could’ve done without it and the entire time I was wishing I had just watched the film at home so that I would have been able to skip through it. Thankfully it’s only about fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, “Part One: Justine” starts shortly after. It encompasses more or less half the film and concerns itself primarily with introducing the two sisters who will be the main characters of the second part.

“Part One” is, regardless of its quality, completely extraneous. You could wholly excise it from the film and nothing of value (to the central plot) would be lost. It resembles what I suspect that dramatic movie that came out a year or so ago involving a depressed sister and a wedding (and have no recollection as to the name) is like and honestly probably would have been better as a completely separate movie. That said, it did have its affecting moments.

“Part Two” deals far more directly with the titular Melancholia (both the disease and the planet) and centers on the lead up to the impact event and how the central characters deal with its impending arrival. This part was fairly interesting with the only real problem being that the fourth wall breaks about halfway through as Justine (the depressed sister) spouts some lines about Earth being evil and Humans being alone that just comes across as patronizing.

Overall it’s a decent enough film that’s about an hour too long.

The final entry in Lilith Saintcrow’s Jill Kismet series manages to recapture a small bit of what made the earlier books entertaining. After some reflection I’ve determined the reason Flesh Circus and Heaven’s Spite began to turn me off of the series was due to the way Perry’s character took a major nosedive. He went from being a mysteriously powerful figure far above the common hellspawn rabble to just another capering imp with less than impressive influence. In Angel Town he both recovers a tiny bit of his former glory and has his mysterious origins exposed in a reveal that makes absolutely no logical sense whatsoever. I guess the best I can say about this conclusion is that “It could have been worse”.

I picked up World War Z basically on a whim. I saw it in a supermarket one day and made a mental note to add it to my next Amazon order, hoping it would be somewhat similar to Seanan McGuire‘s Newsflesh. It isn’t. Which is not to say that it’s not quite good, because it is. It took a little while to get into but by the halfway point I was engrossed in this documentary of a conflict that never occurred. What really makes this novel work is the eminently logical societal reactions to the unfolding crisis; the various characters and nations behave just as you would expect them to.

Archangel’s Blade is the most recent addition to Nalini Singh‘s Guild Hunter series. It’s quite a bit different from the other novels in that series, bearing a far greater resemblance to the Psy-Changeling books. It focuses on the vampire Dmitri and a new Hunter that had never been mentioned before in the previous three books. On the one hand I’m glad that the series took a step away from its apparent path of perpetual crisis escalation, while on the other I’m not at all pleased that its (relative) structural uniqueness has been seemingly thrown out the window. I’m also not particularly thrilled by the reincarnation theme that has spontaneously appeared out of thin air.

I am no longer enraged at the rampant consolization of a once PC-centric title. Merely deeply disappointed.

The menu system does not get better with time/experience, but it does reach a point of simmering frustration that can be ignored with practice. The leveling system, which at first I thought was a decent implementation of Kobu’s from Oblivion, gets worse with time as the lack of Primary Skills makes its presence felt. Gaining levels from doing non-combat things like Smithing or Enchanting tends to result in severely underpowered offensive capabilities compared to the enemy variations that spawn at later levels.

This is somewhat mitigated for fighters by the lack of Attributes, as your equipment determines your base offensive/defensive power. It’s a real problem for mages though… which is a shame since melee combat later is just as awkward as it initially appeared and I find myself spamming fireballs out of the sole desire not to have to deal with the horror of it. The inability to block if you’re dual-wielding (which I suspect is another casualty of the consolization process; “Left Hand” replaces “Block” and perhaps they had no controller buttons left to map “Block” to)  also factors in.

Basically this is a game you play on auto-pilot. It requires little to no thought; wander from point to point killing things and your character will be built for you. It is empty, has no soul, and plays far more like a corridor-shooter than its open world would suggest. At least the quests are half-way decent (if completely pointless due to a lack of an experience system and uninteresting rewards).