Neverwinter (Neverwinter Saga 2) review

    Neverwinter is the second book of the Neverwinter Saga, the latest trilogy of books starring Drizzt Do'Urden. For those of you unfamiliar with Drizzt Do'Urden and who didn't read my previous review of Gauntlgrym, he's basically the sole good member of the Drow race. At least after a bizarre series of events turned the majority of good Drow into a non-evil subrace of elves.

    I'm not making that last part up.

    Anywho, the story opens with Drizzt traveling with his new love-interest, Dahlia Sin'felle. It's an interesting dynamic to see Drizzt paired up with a ruthless anti-hero and their relationship progresses significantly faster than Drizzt and Cattie Brie. Of course, given his relationship with Cattie Brie didn't get beyond hand-holding and mild flirting for a dozen books, I suppose it would have to.

    The central conflict of the book is Dahlia's quest for revenge on her former master, Sylora Salm. It's a contrast from previous books to see Drizzt on such a quest. Usually, he's on some noble quest of one sort or another. Here it's a personal vendetta and Drizzt is just along for the ride. It's a stark change and we get some nice commentary on Drizzt's character. He wants to be a good person but he's the type to take adventure wherever he can get it.

    Likewise, a substantial section of the book is devoted to the actions of Barrabus the Grey. There's a spoiler about him that long-time fans of the book which will pick up on immediately but, suffice to say, I'm very glad the character was included in the book. Barrabus is a warrior who is, much to his disgust, enslaved by the Shadovar. For those unfamiliar with the Realms, the Shadovar are an evil group of mages with a vast empire. In the Neverwinter Saga, they've taken to employing a bunch of barbarian Tieflings lead by a psychopath.

    Slavery is rarely depicted well in books but it's treated here as a nightmarish experience which strips you of dignity and self-worth. The irony is, in Barrabus' case, he's still possessed of significant skill and willpower. It's just in a place like the Forgotten Realms, there are plenty of ways to enslave a man. One of the more sobering passages of the book describes Barrabus' attempts to escape his enslavement by suicide and how that isn't an option in a world with magical healing.

    Barrabus' sections are probably the most interesting of the novel and I was anxiously awaiting his confrontation with the book's heroes. Needless to say, when events finally came to a head, I was eager for Book III.

    Neverwinter isn't particularly deep fiction. It definitely falls under the "Sword" in the "Sword and Sorcery" category, with a substantial portion of the book devoted to the heroes killing things. Still, it's remarkably well-written. The characters have fun interactions and play off each other well.  Dahlia isn't a perfect substitute for the Companions of the Hall but the character who joins their group at the end was a welcome, if inevitable, surprise that I'm looking forward to reading more of.

    One character that I could use less of is Herzgo Alegni. Established in book one as a rapist and mass murderer, he's as vile a character as you can get in a PG-13 series. The guy actually, somehow, manages to get worse as the book continues. I'm really looking forward to this guy getting his but his very presence causes me to want to reach into the book and throttle him. Sometimes less is more and that's definitely the case with Herzgo Alegni. Unfortunately, he looks to be the big bad of book three.

    In any case, I heartily recommend this book. R.A. Salvatore is at the top of his game and he's only gotten better with age. Really, getting rid of the old cast has its disadvantages but Drizzt has never been more entertaining than when dealing with his unpredictable new allies. I suggest all Realms fans pick up this series.

10/10

Happy 31st Birthday to me

Well, it's my 31st birthday today.

Overall, I'm happy with my life.

I just need to stop aging after 32.

Scientists really need to get to work on that.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Gauntlgrym (Neverwinter Saga 1) review

    Drizzt Do'Urden.

    Wow, that's a name that brings back memories.

    For those unfamiliar with the character, he's the protagonist of an extraordinarily long fantasy series written by R.A Salvatore. Drizzt's thing is he's a Dark Elf rebelling against his evil upbringing and homeland. He's one of the Forgotten Realms' best swordsmen and gets into adventures with his party of mostly dwarf-raised adventurers.

    The series has its ups and downs. Some of the stories are stereotypical, even by the standards of D&D fiction, involving Drizzt and company fighting against stereotypical enemies. Others are quite good, especially the ones involving Menzoberrazan or Artemis Entreri. I have a particular fondness for The Thousand Orcs, which was an epic story war story with lots of surprises.

    The series hit a snag with the 4E reboot of the Forgotten Realms. Just about everything recognizable as the Forgotten Realms was changed with whole nations being obliterated out of hand. I'm not going to go into a rant against it but it definitely made a continuing story more difficult, especially since it involved a hundred year time-skip. Really, I thought the Legend of Drizzt series ended quite decisively in The Ghost King.

    However, R.A. Salvatore seems to have decided that the series should continue. Either that or he's been paid a lot of money to continue. Honestly, it doesn't really matter because Gauntlgrym is good. It's a nice adventure that gives us an epilogue to the adventures of the Companions of Mithril Hall (Drizzt's adventuring party) before opening up new adventuring possibilities in the revamped Realms.

    The story isn't really terribly complex. Drizzt and Bruenor Battlehammer are searching for the lost dwarf city of Gauntlgrym. Likewise, a group of villains are searching for it. The only problem is that Gauntlgrym contains the imprisoned spirit of a Primordial, more or less an Elemental God with the power to destroy the world. Our heroes don't want it released, our villains do.

    Wackiness ensues.

    The characterization in the book is quite interesting with Drizzt losing some of his "holier than thou" attitude. Part of the problem with the Legend of Drizzt series is he's always had an almost zero personal flaws. This wasn't too bad, because his concern with morality was a major part of his characterization, but it hurt the narrative. In this volume, Drizzt has developed a serious chip on his shoulder. Given what he's gone through, I don't blame him.

    I liked the change and enjoy the ambiguity it brings to his interactions with others. The new Drizzt isn't quite as eager to help as the old one. It doesn't get to the point that you think he's on the verge of becoming a bad guy but it's obvious Drizzt doesn't think of himself as the world's personal protector anymore. Really, he's mostly out to fight and enjoy his remaining centuries of life.

    My favorite character in the book is newcomer Dahlia Sin'felle. Dahlia is a bit like Artemis Entreri in that she's not so much evil as the kind of person who is created when you kick around someone so much they decide their chief goal in life should be to kick back. I think she's a bit over-the-top at times but her interactions with other characters are always entertaining. I hope to read much more about the character in future installments.

    If I have any real complaints about the book it's that the story of Dahlia contains a great deal of sexual violence. It's not terribly graphic but I can't say I'm particularly fond of rape as a plot device. Really, the Forgotten Realms depicted in the book is far darker and grittier than the ones in previous books. For some, this might be a selling point. For me, it was just something I wish R.A. Salvatore had written around.

    In conclusion, I really enjoyed Gauntlgrym and recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the Legend of Drizzt novels. The adventure continues! I will state, however, that anyone who is coming into this series here would get a lot less out of it than someone who has read all of the prior novels (which is quite a feat). So, my recommendation for new readers is that they should probably look up the originals.  As part of a series, however, the book is just plain good.

8/10

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived review

    Enter the mind of a psychopath.

    Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived, which is a mouthful, is a story expanding on the first of the Old Republic trailers. If you think that's perhaps a little much, that they should have waited for the actual game to come out before trying to do a novel set in the period, you might have a point.

    Bluntly, Deceived is a very short novel and a substantial portion of it is expanding on the events of the Deceived trailer. The rest of the novel primarily deals with the characters of Darth Malgus, Zeerid Korr, and Aryn Leneer.

    The character of Darth Malgus was described, when he first appeared, as an exceptional Sith. He wasn't depicted as nice, per se, but it was a chief part of his characterization that he showed mercy as well as possessed a "slave" he treated as a wife. I was looking forward to seeing what sort of relationship Eleena and Darth Malgus had, expecting a pair of psychos in love.

    Sadly, the character of Eleena is a complete cipher. Despite the fact we see her help in the assault of the Jedi Temple, which requires an iron will right there, she is given almost no characterization whatsoever. Where did she develop her fighting skill? Why did she fall in love with Darth Malgus? What does she in him? Is she envisioning herself as an Empress?

    I had a huge number of questions regarding the character of Eleena and none of them were answered. The sum total of her characterization amounted to, "I really like Darth Malgus! He's the greatest!" If you really want me to damn the relationship, I'm going to say it reminds me of the AOTC relationship between Padme and Anakin. The characters have fallen in love because the plot demands them too.

    Still, don't think this ruined my enjoyment completely. The story isn't about what I wanted to read, but that doesn't mean that the character portrayed in the book is a poor one. Contrary to the depiction of Darth Malgus as a "lighter shade of black" he's probably the biggest psychopath in the Star Wars universe. How big of a psycho is he? His Sith philosophy amounts to, "War feeds the Dark Side. Ergo, if I wage war then I am serving the Force."

The other characters in the story are a mixed bag as well. They have their upsides, being both engaging and easy to read about. However, the characters also have some qualities that I didn't enjoy as well. For one, they are the biggest collection of whiners and hypocrites I've found in the Star Wars universe. I'm not kidding, these guys hate their lives and let us know it.

    For example, on the side of the heroes, is Aryn Leneer. She is a Jedi Knight out to avenge her master. This, by itself, is already problematic. A Jedi seeks not revenge and all that. Which, unfortunately, is the problem of her story arc. It depends on us realizing that she's going against the Jedi Path by attempting to kill the man who killed her master.

    The problem is the man who killed her master is an absolute monster and justice would be served by bringing him down. The only difference is she should be doing it for the "right reasons" as opposed to petty revenge. Unfortunately, like Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, the conclusion of the book is preordained. Darth Malgus will appear in the video game, The Old Republic, so there's no sense over whether she'll succeed in her quest or not.

    Frankly, I think her character development in the story was unbelievable anyway. I can believe a Jedi would abandon their commitment to the Jedi code and galactic peace for personal reasons, the Star Wars sexology is filled with members of the order having inappropriate relationships. What I find unbelievable is that she thinks that if she abandons her quest for revenge, she has to abandon her quest for justice. Darth Malgus is a threat to the entire galaxy and so are the Sith, yet she considers fighting them to be something she has to do solely because of a venedetta.

    That's just silly.

    Also problematic is the other major hero, Zeerid Korr, who is a smuggler because of his crippled daughter. I confess, this caused me to roll my eyes since "only a criminal because of a sick relative" thing was cliche in the 1930s. Zeerid really can't keep his disgust at his profession from his thoughts and he lets us know how much he loathes smuggling.

    Given Han Solo was noticeably angst free about running guns, spice, and other materials - I can't say I'm particularly happy about Zeerid's hypocrisy. It's a different take on smuggling in the Star Wars universe but it became cringe-worthy after several pages. Seriously, I have a low tolerance for mental gymnastics and if Zeerid really does think his profession is that loathsome he should find something else. I'm sure there's other professions out there more to his taste, legal or otherwise.

    Despite their flaws, both are entertaining to read about. Aryn's motivations are nicely unambiguous in their simplicity while Zeerid's actions as a soldier are infinitely more interesting than his angst over being a smuggler. The interactions between the two are also entertaining and surprisingly nuanced. Both are capable of recognizing the other is on a path they shouldn't be yet are aware how stupid it would be to try and lecture them.

    When the two began displaying signs of attraction, I was actually happy for them since they were obviously made for one another. It's also nice to see someone realize the Jedi Code is flat out not working for them. Too often, the EU treats a person as able to bend the Jedi Code into a pretzel shape before admitting their heroes aren't following it (I'm looking at you, Jaina Solo).

    Overall, I enjoyed Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived. It's not a great book but it was an entertaining one with excellent action and characters who are interesting if not particularly to my tastes. Darth Malgus is certainly an impressive villain and a nice way of demonstrating that you don't have to be in the slightest bit redeemable to be an interesting character.

6/10

Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta Review

Hey folks,

It's only a few weeks away from the arrival of Star Wars: The Old Republic and I thought I'd give you all a nice rundown on my thoughts from playing it. Sadly, I didn't get to play it nearly as long as I wanted to because no sooner had I downloaded it that my computer caught a virus and I had to reformat it. This, of course, meant I had to re-download the 20 gigabyte file from scratch. Given it was a weekend beta, this severely cut into my play time.

I chose to play a Sith Inquisitor and was struck by the options being somewhat limited. I was able to make roughly the sort of character I wanted, more or less a Sith version of Dante from Devil May Cry, but the options seemed quite stark. You basically were restricted to three body types; thin stick-boy, superheroic male, and a guy the size of a Sumo Wrestler. The options for race weren't problematic because I suspected that they'd be limited - here you get to choose from Zabrak (Darth Maul), Twilek (like the dancer in Jabba's palace), and Rattaki (more or less vampire-looking people).

The graphics in the game are great but if you turn them all the way down, they become so incredibly hideous as to make the game unplayable. Just a warning there, this isn't one of those games where the bare minimum still leaves you with a pleasant game to watch. Really, the game is exceptionally well-designed and I loved the look of Korriban once I got to see it.

The voice acting is top-notch and immediately we got an intriguing storyline for my character. My character was a slave who has been discovered to be force sensitive. Now, he has been sent to be educated in the ways of the Sith. An atypical rags to riches story to be sure. I think some people may object to the fact that their background is being manipulated this way but it's the conceit of the game. I understand that the other classes all have their own unique stories.

The first mission was sort of a drag as my play was riddled with bugs, mostly involving the inability to attack and use my powers. When I stopped and returned after re-installing, all of these issues disappeared and my characters minor abilities with force-lightning were able to make me tear through the local animals like a lightsaber through butter. So, I have no real objections to the action portion of the game either.

Later gameplay introduced me into my earliest antagonists, Overseer Harkin and his pet pupil who acted a bit like a vicious version of Professor Snape and Malfoy. You'd think the Sith wouldn't want to be killing off their students left and right but Harkin seems to take a perverse pleasure in doing exactly that. The rivalry between you and the "Super-Student" takes up much of the early draft of the story and left me feeling amused but sort of 'eh.' After all, I was a Sith-lord in training, did I really have time for the shenanigans of Slytherin House? I imagine many others will take a GREAT pleasure in humbling these two, however.

I didn't get to experiment much with the other classes, sadly, though they all looked intriguing to me. I'm especially interested in the Female Trooper since, being voiced by Jennifer Hale, that means it's possible to play Commander Shepard in Star Wars. Being a bounty hunter also has its allure due to the fact that, as a heavily-armed Muggle, you should have no end of opportunities to prove yourself superior to the force-wielding wizards around you. Oddly, I'm not too keen on playing a Jedi this time around since I was not a big fan of the Prequel Jedi.

So far, SW:TOR plays very much like an online version of Knights of the Old Republic. That's about the highest praise I can give it.

Still sick as a dog...

Ah, the holidays.

Nothing says them more than six days of persistent illness including fever, upset stomach, coughing, and more. Add in a poorly overworked wife who desperately needs help setting up our guinea pig website and graduate school finals this week at Marshall College and the final results are not pretty. I'm, as you can tell, still not over my illness.

It's...quite unpleasant.

When it rains it pours...

No sooner do I complete my thesis that I become bedridden for two days with violent illness, and I do mean violent.

Bleah.

Thank goodness I have such a wonderful caretaker as my wife.

Update on life

For those who have been wondering why I haven't been updating my website, the answer is I've been pulling one all-nighter after another working on my thesis.  I know, at thirty years old, I should already be done but I tend to take schoolwork with the same attitude I take everything else. Which is, of course, if you love something you should take as many classes in it as possible.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Totally NOT the economy and changing my major.

In any case, I've completed my thesis and I feel like a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I've still got a bunch of other stuff to do this weekend but I'll be able to catch up on my other business, including my second volume of Merciless and Beta-testing Star Wars: The Old Republic. I actually didn't get to do much on that game last weekend test due to the fact that, well, I had my thesis to work on.

(Sith Inquisitor rocks, BTW)

Star Wars: Ascension (Fate of the Jedi book 8) review

    Star Wars: Ascension is the penultimate novel in the Fate of the Jedi series. It follows the adventures of Luke Skywalker as he battles the Lovecraftian monster Abeloth, the Lost Tribe of the Sith, and rogue Supreme Chancellor Daala. The series has been a remarkable improvement over its predecessor, Legacy of the Force, but that's not saying much.

    I think Ascension is worthwhile for fans invested in the Star Wars EU but it's likely to be incomprehensible to those not immersed in the setting. The EU lost its way after the New Jedi Order book series and has never really found its way back. The Fate of the Jedi series isn't bad, per se, but it's meandering.

    There's about forty plots in the book: including a group of rogue Imperials, the Lost Tribe making an alliance with Aboleth, and Daala's attempts to regain her position as head of a major galactic government. None of them are boring, except maybe the rogue Imperials, but they all compete for the reader's attention.

    This is most true for the Lost Tribe of the Sith. The tribe, for those unfamiliar with it, is a group of a thousand or so darksiders recently freed from the planet Kesh. The problems with this premise have been discussed to death already on various forums.

    Really, you'd think the Jedi would have noticed them in the past five thousand years. If not them, Palpatine or the other Sith. After all, the Emperor could sense Luke Skywalker gaining power in the Empire Strikes Back.

    Still, the Lost Tribe of the Sith aren't your typical 'bwahaha' Sith and I appreciate that. Instead, they're more like the Sith version of the Kardashians. They're arrogant and beautiful snobs who just happen to use the Dark Side of the Force. I'm not sure how I feel about them since I expect my Sith to have a little more dignity than that.

    The Lost Tribe of the Sith's members get about as much development as the Dark Jedi Revan kills by the hundreds in the Knights of the Old Republic game. Luke Skywalker kills thirty here, Ben Skywalker kills twenty there, and Abeloth enslaves a whole fleet of them at the start of this book.

    Really, this isn't the lowest point the Sith have ever sunk to, but it's pretty close. I'm not a fan of the Rule of Two but these guys deserve better than to be used as lightsaber fodder for Luke and his son. The Lost Tribe of the Sith in Ascension exists for the sole purpose of making new villainess, Abeloth, look better. Given the Lost Tribe of the Sith could have easily carried the series themselves, I'm annoyed.

    Abeloth, for new readers, is more or less the Star Wars version of Nyarlathotep. She's a shape-shifting tentacle monster with godlike power who was imprisoned by elder beings centuries ago. Luke and company accidentally let her out by blowing up Centerpoint Station and it's a rush to try and figure out how to put her back in. Either that or simply kill her, old-school style.

    I don't mind Abeloth's concept, actually. I'm quite fond of the idea of writers creating new villains for our heroes to face than the old Sith and Imperial standbys. It's a 20,000 year old galaxy, why not create new villains capable of fighting the Jedi Grandmaster? It's just Abeloth isn't exactly the most well-characterized villain, befriending people only to suck out their brains. I'm still not entirely sure what her agenda is. With one book left in the series, that's not good.

    There's entirely too much Abeloth stomping on the Lost Tribe of the Sith, especially towards the end. It's hard to take the Sith seriously when they spend whatever time they're not getting stomped on by Luke getting stomped on the Eldritch Abomination. After the events of this book, I'm afraid we're not going to see much more of the Lost Tribe and their schemes.

    It seems a waste.

    Luke, himself, gives a good showing in Ascension. One of the things the Fate of the Jedi series gets right is their treatment of the Jedi Grandmaster. Luke is brave, wise, kind, and heroic throughout. He's a bit more suspicious and vindictive towards the Sith than I expected, especially for a man whose defining feature as a Jedi is his belief no one is beyond redemption, but not to the point of being out-of-character.

    Ben Skywalker continues to be inconsistently written. Part of this is the wholesale retconning of his character arc from Legacy of the Force. In LOTF, Ben was trained as a spy and as Darth Caedus' apprentice, becoming very canny and manipulative. He specialized in investigation with an almost Sherlock-Holmes ability to find clues. Now? He's just pretty much Anakin Solo 2.0, possessing a goofball personality and mad skills. I'm not complaining since I felt a fourteen year old super-spy was ludicrous even in Star Wars, but  some hint of his prior characterization would have been appreciated.

    One thing I did like was the treatment of the character Vestara Khai. Vestara Khai is a character that a lot of fans didn't know what to make of. For many, she was essentially Mara 2.0. A character that was raised by a Sith Lord to be an assassin and who had some romantic tension with a Skywalker. The book goes in an interesting direction with Vestara, managing a careful balance between a search for redemption and enlightened self-interest.

    Vestara is a character I finally started to like at the end of the book and I'm glad they made her. I just wish that Luke had treated her better, since you'd think he'd be more forgiving of a sixteen year old raised in a twisted Dark Side environment. Likewise, you'd think he'd be trying to talk her out of the values that corrupted her.

    The rest of the book is amusing and surprisingly light-hearted. I disliked the politics sections of the book, which unfortunately compromised nearly a third of the volume, but the humorous encounters with Han and the Squibs were worth at least half the book price. Squibs are always hilarious and Han playing the straight man worked wonders. Add in a decent showing by the rest of the Jedi Order and I wasn't dissatisfied with this volume.

    In conclusion, Star Wars: Ascension is a fairly typical example of the Fate of the Jedi series. There's nothing particularly spectacular about the books but they have a good deal more "fun" to them than the NJO and LOTF series. Star Wars is meant to be a lighthearted tale about good vs. evil. There's room for moral ambiguity and tragedy within the story but good should ultimately overcome darkness. The Fate of the Jedi series remembers that and, because of that, I can't be too harsh on it.

    7/10

Star Wars: Revan review

    I'm underwhelmed.

    I'm sorry, but I am.

    I like Drew Karpyshyn, I really do. I enjoyed the Darth Bane trilogy. They were a set of novels which managed to make a purely evil protagonist interesting to read about. I also enjoyed his Mass Effect novels (with the exception of Retribution). They were entertaining fluff that nicely expanded on several points of the ME universe. Plus, I absolutely love the story in every one of the video games he's worked on.

Star Wars: Revan, however, doesn't do anything for me.

    For the uninitiated, the book is a quasi-sequel to the video game Knights of the Old Republic. I've mentioned before I think it's the greatest video game of all time and any sequel was probably destined to disappoint. I'm also one of the vocal minority that thinks Knights of the Old Republic 2 had its strong points (the Exile, the Sith Triumvarite, Handmaiden) but wasn't in the same league.

    The premise for the book is dealing with the biggest "left-hanging" element of KOTOR2. Revan and the Exile have gone into the Unknown Regions, seeking the Sith Empire. What sort of adventures did they have there? What sort of epic deeds did these two legendary heroes do? What was their ultimate fate, knowing the Sith Empire eventually invades the Galactic Republic?

    Yeah, we get the answer to that here and it's "nothing too impressive."

    I won't get into spoilers but the book pretty much defines Revan and the Exile's quest as a small-scale adventure that ends on a tragic note. Despite Revan and the Exile previously having been treated as epic champions of the Force, they are treated as fairly typical Jedi Masters. When compared with the Sith Emperor, both of them together are a fairly minor threat. Given the Exile defeated Darth Nihilus, a guy who could devour planets, this rings false.

    I'm not one of the guys who feels that Revan and the Exile have to be invincible Gary Stus. I think some of fans requests for Revan, like him being to be the one to defeat the Sith Emperor, are ridiculous. Still, Revan was one of the great Expanded Universe characters. The backstory given him was quite epic and a lot of fans had a vested interest in him. Would you have Luke Skywalker causally tossed around by a new villain so he could go train a new hero to defeat him?

    No, because that's disrespectful to the character. Plus, we already had that plot with Obi Wan Kenobi.

    It's a foregone conclusion the Sith Emperor will survive Revan and the Exile's plan and so will the Sith Empire. I don't mind this, personally, but I was hoping for something a bit better planned out than what we got in the book. It's hard to tell that Revan and the Exile were military geniuses, mostly because they act like typical PCs and their actions don't really require much thought.

    Speaking of the Sith Emperor, I was disappointed with him as well. We get the Sith Emperor's origins in this book and they pretty much amount to: "The Sith Emperor was the single baddest ************ ever born. He was an evil monster before he could crawl and he's the single nastiest guy you will ever face." Seriously, Damien Thorn has less of an apocalyptic origin. It's saved, somewhat, by the fact that it's told in the form of a legend and probably isn't completely true. Still, I was hoping for something slightly more original from Darth Bane's developer.

    The Sith, overall, are a big disappointment in these books. One of the things I liked about the Darth Bane trilogy is, while its protagonist was a sociopath, you could understand his reasoning. He'd been kicked around from the day he was born and, one day, he decided to kick back. Here, the Sith are far more one-dimensional with Darth Scourge being someone who reminds me a bit of Darth Sion. He doesn't really have any motivations but power and is about as one-note evil as possible.

    He was so bad, I actually didn't buy his supposed revulsion at one of the Sith Emperor's experiments. The guy portrayed in this book would have enjoyed the power which came from destroying a world and ignored the consequences. Given that the time when the Sith were a trifle more morally ambiguous, this annoyed me. I'm still hoping to see some of these morally ambiguous Sith since we've yet to see any of them in Star Wars. We've seen plenty of gray Jedi, why not a gray Sith?

    Really, the Sith's depiction is the biggest disappointment for me. The Sith Empire depicted in the book is about as one-dimensional as we've seen their race portrayed. I may think of the Lost Tribe of the Sith from the new Legacy of the Force series as "Sith-lite" but at least they have personality. One of the great accomplishments of Knights of the Old Republic was fleshing out the Sith philosophy. This book feels like a major step back in the humanization of the Dark Side's champions.

    I have a few other minor complaints, like the complete failure to mention Carth Onasi at all and the Exile's name, but the book isn't badly written. It's just not what I was hoping for and wasn't terribly impressive. Taken on its own merits, Revan is not a bad novel. Unfortunately, it's meant to be the epilogue to one of the greatest video games of all time and falls drastically short of being a satisfying conclusion. The only part I really enjoyed was the ending, which felt like the kind of book I wanted to read. It was interesting, touching, and a nice send off for Revan.

5/10

Why I'm looking forward to Star Wars: The Old Republic

    I am really looking forward to Star Wars: The Old Republic. In fact, I'm looking forward to it with the same level of anticipation I would be looking forward to Knights of the Old Republic 3. Mostly because it will be that (more on that later, though).

    I like Bioware, they pretty consistently hit all the high marks whenever they release an RPG. I like Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age: Awakenings, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Baldur's Gate, and so on. I haven't played Jade Empire yet but it's on the list of things I want to get around to.Above them all, however, is Knights of the Old Republic.

    I'll do a review of Knights of the Old Republic 2 someday but I actually go against the majority opinion in that, underrated classic or not, it wasn't a very good game. Knights of the Old Republic, however, was just candy for the brain. It was the closest thing to the original trilogy ever released for the Star Wars Expanded Universe and remains probably my single favorite video game of all time.

    The storyline of Darth Revan, Darth Malak, Bastilla, and Carth hits all the emotional high notes of Star Wars for me. Some of it was derivative but I was willing to overlook the Millennium Falcon and Stormtrooper rip-offs to appreciate the greater whole. It was a tragedy Bioware didn't get to make a proper sequel to the game.

    KOTOR was pretty much the basis for Mass Effect and Dragon Age so I'm confident all of the elements I like about these three games are going to be transplanted to SWTOR. Still, it never hurts to be cautious about these sorts of things. I've been keeping up with all the news about SWTOR and am going to explain exactly what I am looking forward to most.

    1:] The Morality System: This is something I know some people loathe. However, I think a Morality System is integral to the Star Wars universe. Luke must choose whether to rule the galaxy with the Sith or save the universe and his father. Han Solo must choose between the Rebellion and his life as an outlaw. These are the sorts of choices that made the Original Trilogy’s characterization meaningful.

    One thing which intrigues me is the SWTOR Morality System isn't going to affect your status as a Sith or Jedi. In the film it's a pretty consistent line. Darth Vader and Count Dooku are Jedi up until they fell and became Sith. As soon as they became evil, they joined with Palpatine despite having every reason to hate him.

    In SWTOR, though, you can have a Dark Jedi who passionately hates the Sith or a Sith "seduced by the Light Side of the Force.” Some people might resent this distinction but I think it's a pretty cool idea and fans have been dying to play "Bright Sith" for decades.

    2:] Giving the Empire back its strike: Poor Imperials. Yeah, they're stock Nazis and not exactly dripping with deep characterization. However, the Empire has gone through a large amount of Villain Decay over the years. The Star Wars Expanded Universe is guilty for 90% of this due to its re-hashing of the Original Trilogy.

    The Sith Empire, as depicted in SWTOR, is group that has managed to grind over 50% of the Republic and is fully capable of smashing the rest down. They’ve obviously fought for their victory and deserve what gains they’ve made.

    Note: I don't approve when bad guys get easy victories. I felt cheated when Darth Krayt was handed the galaxy in the Star Wars: Legacy comic book series. Darth Cadeus was worse, basically conquering the universe in a day and a half. If you don’t get those references, you didn’t miss much.

    Here, the Sith Emperor and his Sith Council have obviously fought for their position as rulers of half the galaxy and I respect them for it. A hero is only as good as his villains and it seems like the Sith are going to be excellent ones.

    3:] Justifying 3,000+ Jedi and Sith in the setting: Star Wars: Galaxies made a game effort at trying to be THE Star Wars MMORPG. I could do a whole article about why it didn't but I think one of its biggest problems was the way it handled the Jedi. Being set in the Original Trilogy era, there were only supposed to be two Jedi left in the universe (Yoda and Obi-Wan).

    Player characters start as Jedi and couldn’t become them without jumping through a lot of hoops. When that was changed, there were hundreds of lightsaber-wielding folk running around when Vader was supposed to have annihilated them all.

    Here, in the Pre-Pre Prequel Era, thousands of Jedi and Sith can exist without contradicting canon. Better still, you can be the Luke Skywalker of the Era (i.e. the Big Hero) without feeling like the Empire will survive until the Battle of Endor.

    4:] Fully voiced NPCs: One of the things I have a problem with in Multiplayer Online games is the fact that they do not usually develop their NPCs very well. World of Warcraft is one of the few exceptions and comparing any games to their runaway success is an invitation to disaster. After all, most MMORPGs don’t have the kind of resources WOW has.

    The fact that Bioware is going to the elaborate length of voicing all of its NPCs means that they’re undoubtedly going to have a LOT more personality than you typically see in these games. It may take up a lot of space but I’m anxious to see how it works out.

    5:] Muggles can kick ass: One thing I’ve always suspected is that Jango Fett could kill 90% of the generic Jedi we see in the movies. It’s just his misfortune he ended up fighting Obi Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu.

    Likewise, I think Han Solo is as cool (or cooler) than Luke Skywalker. The fact the non-Force Using classes in the game (Bounty Hunters, Imperial Agents, Smugglers, and Troopers) will be able to fight the setting’s mystical classes is a big appeal. 

    I don’t like the treatment of force users as gods and individual heroism is increased when both sides have tough opponents to face.

    6:] The chance to play the Empire and Sith: I love playing the bad guy, especially anti-heroes. One of my favorite flight simulators was TIE fighter and we never got a sequel to that – perhaps because it glamorized a group of Space Nazis. The Sith Empire is a much more interesting creature than the stock villains of the films, offering a glimpse into the kind of society that would have been created had Palpatine and Vader had a century to adjust galactic society.

    I'm definitely going bad for this game.

    7:] Romance: Romance is a controversial subject in video games, mostly because peoples level of immersion varies tremendously. For example, I’m married to a real life woman and have no desire to date Princess Leia. However, I love imagining my characters going on to have happy endings with NPCs in the games I play. 

    Bioware has an excellent track record with these games so I’ll be looking forward to see what sort of characters they have now. I’m actually on the fence over whether I’m going to be a Sith Warrior or a Sith Inquisitor based on the characters I romance.

    8:] A fully fleshed-out story: Stories in MMORPG usually don’t blow people away. Sometimes, there’s awesome stories like the Fall of Arthas and the rise of the Lich King. More often, the stories consist of “Go forth and kill six snow moose.” I’m hoping for a lot more from Bioware and from what I’ve seen, it’ll be far more intricate. I’m not expecting Shakespeare but if they can keep to the quality of their other RPG games – I’m game.

    9:] Replay Value: One thing which is both a strength and a weakness is you can’t do the majority of the game’s adventure content as a single class. This is disappointing to me, on one level, because I actually am quite fond of having one character that can do everything. However, overall, I salute Bioware’s effort to make every class’ experience unique. I don’t know if I’ll play all eight classes but I am glad the option exists.

    10:] World-Building: One thing that I applaud Bioware for is the fact they’re obviously going all out in building this universe. Just go to their website and look at the amount of lore they’ve created for the setting. The amount of attention to detail I’ve seen from timelines to NPCs really impresses me. This really could be the most important thing to happen to Star Wars’ Expanded Universe since the Prequels.

    So, I’ll see you all at the launch!

Grand Theft Auto, Violence, and Alternative Media

    Time for another video game essay!

    Today's subject is Grand Theft Auto and its various clones. The games are pretty much distilled mayhem. The point of the game, obviously, is to steal as many cars as possible and trash them. Oh there's stories in-between the stealing  and crashing but I can't help it if it's my favorite part of the game. I can't tell you how many times I went riding around town at top speed, in the wrong lane, listening to Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N' Roses. It gets even better when there's fourteen or so cop cars chasing you.

    What does this say? If video games are a form of art, does it mean anything to us as an audience we prefer to play as criminals rather than the police? Does it encourage violence or does it discourage it--giving people an outlet for their frustrations? Does it mean nothing at all and it's simply pure entertainment, divorced from a larger context?

    The answer is, of course, all and none of the above.

    We are each individuals and the way art affects us is dependent on the person in question. That doesn't mean the question of whether a video game is too violent shouldn't be asked, it's, instead, a question about what level of responsibility we're willing to accept versus blaming someone else. People like Jack Thompson blame GTA for criminal activity but the truth is, we are the products of multiple influences. One of these influences, much to the annoyance of parents everywhere, is individual choice.

    I'm not going to say that media doesn't affect a person's behavior. Star Wars got me interested in religion and helped model who I wanted to be as I grew up. However, there's an interactive relationship between fiction and reality. A person who hungers for violence seeks out violent media, as often as not to squelch his urge for it as to enhance it. Certainly, in the wake of economic recession I find a lot of my anger deflated by seeing evil corporations get it in fiction--even if they're walking away scott free in the real world.

    One can also enjoy special effects for what they are. There was a scene in Highlander where the Kurgan goes on a wild car chase through downtown Manhattan, singing New York, New York. Damn if it wasn't the coolest scene in the movie (not involving music by Queen or sword-fights). Grand Theft Auto is one of the few games to really master the car chase and I would forgive much for this alone.

    But isn't this terrible? Is taking a rocket launcher given to you by a half-mad hippie and starting to wreck the majority of a downtown San Fransisc...err San Fierro wrong?

    If it is, I don't want to be right. I also haven't engaged in any wanton acts of violence in real life.

    Yet.

    What about playing the villain rather than the hero? Putting the player in the role of the bad guy versus the hero. Compared to Mario and Link, your average GTA protagonist is a pretty bad dude. Carl Johnson is a sociopath whose only saving grace is he loves his family. So is Tommy Vercetti (for some value of family) and Niko Bellic. Two out of the three may feel bad about killing, but they still do it. Worse, they get away with it. There's no forces of good to oppose our antiheroes, only worse evils. The police are corrupt, the politicians are satirical caricatures. Even the average citizen is rotten to the core.

    Let's face it, if the Grand Theft Auto world were real, it'd be close to hell on Earth.

    Except, it's not real.

     The characters in video games are completely fictitious. Their lives are as valuable as those of Alderaan's population. Given literally billions of people have watched said planet's explosion without a trace of trauma, there's something to be said for the idea the line between fiction and reality is firmer than people give it credit for.

    Action movies have, since the invention of film, gone out of their way to dehumanize the enemy. Star Wars is all about creating stock Nazis and faceless troopers for our heroes to kill. It took over a decade for someone to point out that there was probably a construction crew on the Second Death Star (thank you, Kevin Smith). The Grand Theft Auto series portrays a world of over-the-top violence overlaid with cartoonish  stories of sociopathic behavior.

    Really, I'm inclined to think these sorts of stories do more to discourage violence than anything else.  Propaganda exists for either recruitment or painting a real-life movement as good or bad but it's different from escapism. The Grand Theft Auto games are about putting on the hat of a criminal for a time and exploring what that means in the safety and security of our own homes.

    And that's okay.

    The point of fantasy is to getr away from what's mundane. To give people a chance to explore a different sort of life than they might normally posses. It's why so many stories about the Middle Ages are about Kings, Queens, and Knights. No one wants to be Dirt-Sowing Peasant 72#. They want to explore the glamor, glory, and wonder of a life which is interesting. Criminals, despite the tendency of their lives to be nasty, brutal, and short--are interesting. The games are a way of exploring that natural curiosity without getting us into any trouble.

    But Charles, you may ask, shouldn't we always play heroes? Why can't we play escapism where we're always in the right and everyone else is in the wrong?

    Because it's a bad idea.

    Spec Ops: The Line deconstructed the potentially dangerous attitude of video games which glorified being the hero and how it was much more problematic than the reverse. While I don't agree with it completely, it's easy to fall into the trap that morality is easy. Without naming names, plenty of shooters encourage their players to vilify real-life groups while taking comfort in their flag-waving righteousness. This makes me more uncomfortable than the belief GTA-players will decide to start joy-riding with other people's vehicles. Being a villain is easy, being a hero is a lot harder. Which is good. Because, God knows, I need a reminder of that when I steal a cement mixer so I can slam it off a rooftop into oncoming traffic.

    Ahem. In the game, I mean. Honest.

    Admittedly, there's something to be said that crime, violence, and corruption have a place in video games but not an unlimited one. That it's perfectly alright to play the bad guy but it's possible to go too far. I actually think these detractors have a point. It's possible in Vice City, as Jack Thompson would say, to take a baseball bat to hookers. Which, frankly, is just not cool. It's harmless, hurting nothing more than a bunch of free-floating pixels, but not cool.

     The question is what to do about it. For my part, I suggest nothing.

     The video game sequel to Scarface specifically prohibits the murder of civilians as a counter to these activities. Yet, there's a very good point that just because you can do something doesn't mean your average gamer will. You could make civilians indestructible and immortal in your video games but that's a band-aid the fact they're already playing criminals.

    In short, given these games are about artificial people who are about as meaningful as any other blip on a screen, the difference is a matter of taste rather than morality. Violence against the bytes of data onscreen doesn't matter save how the person playing chooses to react to it. We can't control that, though some uses of it will be disgusting or stomach churning. Some people's reaction to football is disgusting. That's life.

    In most cases, people will just do what's fun because it's fun. Not because it's illicit or forbidden. When something becomes genuinely disturbing, they'll put it down. If they don't, maybe it's not as dangerous as people think. I support ratings for video games, fully aware I watched more R-rated movies at age fourteen than I ever have watched as an adult. Violent media may have an affect on our children, just as it may have an affect on adults, but it's not going to be the deciding factor whether we turn out to be sociopaths or not.

    Otherwise, I would have been a killer the moment I finished watching Robocop for the 300th time.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas review

    Grand Theft Auto is the King of Controversy in video games. There's been talk about how they're a bad influence on kids, contain inappropriate content, and are a glorification of crime. It's also a game series I, until recently, never really played. It's not that I paid these accusations any attention, it's more that crime games weren't my thing until recently. I preferred to be the hero and, as a result, missed out on some extremely interesting stories.

    I actually tried to get into the GTA-series with Grand Theft Auto IV and its spinoff, the Ballad of Gay Tony. However, the learning curve was too much for me. I really needed a tutorial for Grand Theft Auto IV and was under the mistaken impression that wrecking your car was a bad thing as opposed to an inevitability. The Ballad of Gay Tony was a poor way of easing me into the series because my first real mission was Luis killing thirty or so cops. So, I swore off the series and ironically picked up Saints Row and Saints Row 2. Those two games are equally violent as Grand Theft Auto but are much more ridiculous in tone, letting me remove myself from the violence of the game.

    So, knowing Saints Row was inspired by Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, I decided to try and give the game another shot. The game is, thankfully, available for download off Xbox Live and I got it for a steal. So is San Andreas different from Grand Theft Auto IV? Certainly. Is it better? That's subjective, but in my opinion, hell yes. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a much more cheerful, for lack of a better term, game than Grand Theft Auto IV. It takes place in sunny California, or an analog thereof, rather than a dark and gritty analog to New York City. The game's learning curve is much more forgiving than GTA IV, giving you much more time to ease into the role of your protagonist and learn the ropes. You move from tagging walls to car chases to bigger crimes and, frankly, I appreciated that.

The game takes inspiration from Spike Lee's Boyz-In-The-Hood. Obviously, it takes a somewhat different approach to gang life.

    Players take the role of Carl Johnson, a young African-American gang member who is returning to the city of his birth after a five-year-absence. Not minutes after arriving in Los Santos, Carl is framed for the murder of a police officer and made the pawn of the corrupt Officer Tenpenny. It occurred to me as I played that, barring Jax from Mortal Kombat, there aren't that many black protagonists in video games. It's kind of disappointing that the first lead in a sandbox role-playing game is a gangster, but it's better than nothing--which is what the video game world usually provides for black protagonist. Carl is a likable enough character, despite being willing horrible stuff over the course of the game, and I quickly bonded with him.

The fact all of this is visitable, on foot, just boggles the mind.

    The game is huge, really, giving you a lengthy map and mission set which left me feeling like I'd gotten my money's worth less than halfway through the game. The graphics hold up surprisingly well and it didn't feel too dated. Like Symphony of the Night, I don't think that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will ever go out of style. It's just a good, good game with excellent voice acting and storytelling.

    The soundtrack isn't as good as the one in Saints Row 2, "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses being the standout song, but it was passable. Really, my favorite channels were the talk radio ones, routinely going in bizarre and oddball directions.  Just about every aspect of American culture is satirized at one point or another, sparing neither the Left nor the Right. I think the whole ridiculousness of the setting was necessary to make it feel like a fun game, otherwise the violence CJ sometimes engages in would be unsettling.  Indeed, one of the game's few flaws is that the storytelling is tight-enough that the mayhem and conscienceless sociopathy contrasts sharply with the character of CJ as established in cutscenes. It's hard to believe the pleasant, upstanding, and friendly CJ is the guy who would bury a man alive in cement for whistling at his sister.

    No, seriously, that's a level.

    The gameplay is wonderful, though. It's as fun to steal cars and wreck stuff as complete the story missions. The sheer variety of activities is amazing. One thing that always put me off most Shooters is the fact that every single mission is more or less the same. GTA: SA is all about variety. There's car chases, stealth missions, gun-play, martial arts brawls, and more. Just about every mission requires you to react in a different way. It makes the whole thing a great deal more rewarding. I think my favorite missions would be any of the elaborate chase sequences and a later Ocean's Eleven-style casino heist.

The fact you can travel around the city by air, sea, or plane is innovative now--let alone when the game was made.

    I mentioned it above but the storytelling and voice acting deserve a special note. Samuel L. Jackson turns in a stellar performance as corrupt cop, Officer Tenpenny. He reminds me of Vic from The Shield and it's obvious that Tenpenny has gone off into his own little world of crazy self-justification for all the horrible things he does. As bad as Carl Johnson is, Officer Tenpenny is worse. Yet, you can tell that Tenpenny was probably made the way he was by his job. You can't stare too long at the abyss without the abyss staring back and all that. Despite how impressive Samuel L. Jackson's performance is, I actually liked the supporting character of Big Smoke better. Voiced by Clifton Powell, Big Smoke is a simultaneously endearing and skeevy character. Compared to CJ, Big Smoke is much more cynical about the gangbanger lifestyle. Yet, simultaneously, he's probably a lot less hypocritical about it. CJ talks repeatedly about protecting the neighborhood and doing right by his friends yet they consistently manipulate him and try to incite him to violence. Big Smoke seems aware, often quoting Bible passages with dubious applicability, that there's something wrong with the world they live in. He just doesn't have the courage, or perhaps the strength, to escape it. I really liked the guy and wished I could have had more interactions with him.

     Other members of the cast are interesting and memorable, albeit not as much as these two. There's aging hippie pot-farmers, cynical government agents, the incredibly annoying OG Loc, and the likable but surreal Woozie. One of my favorite sections of the game is the extended homage to Grand Theft Auto III, which I've never played, involving the psychotic Catalina. Watching her manipulate CJ into being her partner in crime was hilarious and disturbing. The fact there's dozens of memorable characters alone makes this game a cut above regular video games.

    Finally, the game-world is massive, covering fictionalized versions of Los Angeles, San Fransisco, and Las Vegas with a farming community thrown in. There's even an analog to Area 51, adding to the sense of the world's immensity. The number of activities possible in the game are tremendous too, including everything from dating mini-games to working out. This is all in-addition to the staggering number of vehicles you're capable of stealing from cars to planes to, I kid you not, jet-packs. If you're on PC, the number of Mods available to GTA: SA players staggers belief. The storyline missions provide you with all of the tools necessary to enjoy the craziness of the world while being good storytelling on its own. I admit, I had to cheat in several places but it was worth it.

Boxing is just one of the many mini-games available.

     Were there faults? Well, the game is almost ten years old but I think it holds up remarkably well. A good game is a good game, irregardless of whether or not it's older and GTA: SA is a great game. The violence can occasionally be shocking but for those who identify with their protagonists, I suggest they simply turn off their consciences and remember, "It's only a game."

    Overall, I enjoyed GTA: SA and I hope others will download it from Xbox Live or Steam. I might not agree with all of the design choices but the sheer variety of activities, size of the gameworld, and quality of the writing trumps any objections I might have. With so many linear, boring, and short video games out there--it's nice to see something showcasing serious effort. No wonder the designers decided to rename themselves Rockstar.

10/10

Where I appear om a podcast

Well, before I became a writer for novels, I tried my hand at designing tabletop RPGs. My result, Halt Evil Doer! was something I was quite proud of. If you're curious about it, here's a link to the podcast where I discuss it with one of my co-designers.

http://tinyurl.com/d9hkma5

It's my anniversary

I've been married one year and I'm terribly pleased about it. The wife and I are mostly staying at home today and just enjoying the fun of being together.

I hope for many further happy years ahead.

Best of wishes, everyone.

Dark Force Rising Review

    Dark Force Rising is the sequel to Heir to the Empire, it's also the first Star Wars book I ever read. Dark Force Rising was pretty nonsensical to me the first time I read it but improved tremendously once I had a context for who Mara Jade, Talon Karrde, and Grand Admiral Thrawn were. It's one of the best Star Wars books ever written and I encourage anyone with a love for the setting to read it.

    The premise of Dark Force Rising is a mythical two hundred Dreadnaughts, lost like the Flying Dutchman, are within reach of the Empire. These two hundred ships are enough to change the balance of power in the galaxy and our heroes are, of course, anxious to keep them out of the hands of the Empire.

    This book was made before the Star Wars galaxy was quite as big as it eventually became. In the movies, we only saw a fleet of about twenty-five Star Destroyers at Endor and the entire rebel fleet was overwhelmed by them. A rebel fleet, I point out, which is enough to cause the Empire considerable distress.

    In the WEG RPGs, by contrast, there were 25,000 Star Destroyers spread throughout the Empire. With those kind of numbers, two hundred Dreadnaughts could be either a game changer or something that's nice to have but ultimately unimportant. I think the current Star Wars universe has grown to the point that two hundred Dreadnaughts would be considered little more than a drop in the bucket of the galaxy's military reserves but what do I know?

    Dark Force Rising, like the Empire Strikes Back, is a good deal darker than Heir to the Empire. We get to meet the Noghri at length, who are basically a people inhabiting a Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland and who show just how easily it is to destroy a planet in Timothy Zahn's conception of the Star Wars universe. Admittedly, this is more "realistic" with how fragile eco-systems really are but it kind of makes the Death Star redundant. We also get to hear Joruus C'baoth's philosophy, which is about as Anti-Jedi as it can get.

    As a digression, I'd like to point out I really didn't like what George Lucas did with the Jedi Knights. Back in the 1980s, I felt role-models were distinctly lacking for a lot of kids. George provided me a couple in Indiana Jones and Luke Skywalker, two fictional characters which helped shape who I am. By making the Jedi have feet of clay and lionizing sociopath basket case Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars Prequels, I wonder if he unwittingly did kids a diservice.

    Despite this, the Jedi Knighthood's philsophy remains one of humility and patience. Joruus C'baoth nicely shows a person doesn't have to be a cackling madman like the Emperor or Sauron to rip out the heart of what a Jedi is supposed to be. Instead, he just sets a Jedi Knight up as a superior being who lords over lesser people. It's particularly notable as Luke has come to Joruus in hopes of learning how the old Jedi dealt with having a position of respect and authority.

    If only, in real life, our leaders approached their task with as much humility as Luke does. We'd live in a much better world.
   
    The quest for redemption by Mara Jade continues in this book, following her as she's forced to choose between Talon Karrde and Grand Admiral Thrawn. A choice which, amusingly, Grand Admiral Thrawn doesn't really care to indulge. I found this to be an interesting dynamic between them, highlighting the subtle differences between the Empire as Mara Jade remembers it versus the Empire that Grand Admiral Thrawn is trying to build.

    Back in the nineties, the Empire was still a stand-in for the Nazis and it's easy to see Mara as a sort of confused Post-War Hitler Youth. She's the kind of person who saw Palpatine as a godlike figure who served as her father substitute. Grand Admiral Thrawn is aware of this and seems to hold both Palpatine and Darth Vader in disdain, much like many German military officers considered Hitler and Himmler. If you object to my portrayal of Vader as Himmler, I agree, but it's the best analog I can think of.

    (Bizarrely, I think of Vader as a Rommel analog. Which is amusing because Thrawn is ALSO Rommel.)

    One of the interesting things that Prequel fans will note is that the book is strongly tied to the Clone Wars and Old Republic despite the fact George Lucas hadn't created either yet. This can lead to a lot of inconsistencies to fans determined to keep a straight continuity in their heads.

    The Dark Force fleet, for example, is something that Lando Calrissian dreamed of searching for as a child despite the fact that the Republic didn't have a military less than twenty years prior. The character of Garm Bel Iblis is a legendary Corellian Senator seemingly from a different time when we know the Republic ended fairly amicably on the Senate's part. Finally, the heroes look at clones with a mixture of revulsion and horror when we know the Republic used them as opposed to fight against them.

    Really, a running theme of Dark Force Rising is the futility of trying to recapture the past. Garm Bel Iblis and company are living in the days of the early rebellion, predating A New Hope. Mara Jade is living in the glories of Palpatine-era Imperial glory, probably equivalent to the heyday of Hitler's rise to power. Luke Skywalker is trying to look to the Jedi Masters of old for guidance when Obi Wan Kenobi obviously wanted him to found his own order  with its own rules (even more obvious with the Prequels establishing Luke is not trained REMOTELY like other Jedi).

    Even Grand Admiral Thrawn and Captain Pellaeon are living in a fantasy world constructed around rebuilding the Empire, when the entirety of the galaxy is just glad they're gone. Hell, it's questionable whether Joruus C'baoth realizes the Jedi Knighthood of old was nothing like he remembers it but he certainly wants to rebuild the organization. Only Princess Leia and a few others are looking to the future and it requires their efforts to liberate the galaxy from a (in-universe) crippling nostalgia.

    Maybe I'm biased but Dark Force Rising is one of my all-time favorite Star Wars books. Everyone should read it who loves Star Wars.

10/10

Autobiography of a Werewolf Hunter review

    I really enjoyed Autobiography of a Werewolf Hunter by Brian P. Easton. It's series of linked short stories that tell the beginning and middle of a werewolf hunter's life. Notably, since there's a sequel (entitled Heart of Scars), it doesn't tell the ending of a werewolf hunter's life. So it's a bit like the History of the World part 1. We're not exactly to the end of the story.

    Unlike most urban fantasy novels, AOAWH is not really about one particular hunt. It's about a lot of werewolf hunts. I applaud the author for this as it made the book feel like I was getting more "bang for my buck" so to speak. The protagonist isn't just a guy who goes on one werewolf hunt, he's a veteran hunter and we get to see how he earned his credentials.

    A few of the hunts are especially noteworthy, including one which took place in a Mexican village that really surprised me with its audacity. Likewise, I enjoyed a hunt involving a werewolf female that put a twist on the usual "sexy female monsters" you see in fiction. By the end of the book, I felt that the protagonist had a long and storied career with potential for future installments down the road.

    A warning for sensitive readers, Autobiography of a Werewolf Hunter is a story about a man who fights monsters. Both internal and external. The old Nietzsche quote is especially true as our hero, Sylvester, has to make countless moral compromises in order to fight the enemy. He does not come out of it entirely intact. A major theme is that hatred is a damning and self-destructive emotion, which is brought out by the horrible consequences to his actions.

    The book is also not entirely politically correct, being about a man who grew up in the 1960s and was a Vietnam war veteran on the decidedly Pro-War side. The use of the Vietnam War, I believe, is a parallel to the protagonist's werewolf hunting career in it takes him to dark places without ever really giving him sight of victory. If you're upset about a volunteer soldier from Canada being bitter about the Vietnam War not ending in a victory, this book may not be for you.

    Really, I am grateful the author chose not to shy away from the damning effects of its hero's quest. Not only do people get hurt because of his actions, innocent people do die and they do so because of him. Furthermore, it's questionable if he's entirely in the right to do so. Sylvester makes no attempt to determine if werewolves are evil to the core, he just takes it for a given and proceeds onward.

    Many times, it's driven home our hero is fighting for vengeance and his hatred is blind. It leads him to several rather anvilicious comparisons with other bigots, including the KKK. I admit, coming from the South, I appreciated the KKK being made to look like fools but the book also humanized them to a level I worry some readers will misinterpret. The author notes, explicitly, the KKK is a criminal organization which murders innocents and would kill our hero if they knew his heritage but I'm sure some will worry it's not portrayed evil enough.

    Some other enjoyable qualities I found about the book is that the hero is Canadian, which is rare enough in fiction. I also enjoyed the attention to detail paid to Native American culture as well as New Orleans voodoo. There's a certain element of Hollywoodism to both, but they're both positive portrayals that I enjoyed. Our hero, amusingly, doesn't believe in Voodoo magic and it's ambiguous whether or not there's anything supernatural about it.

    One thing I definitely enjoyed was the "Magical Native American" trope so prevalant in Hollywood is removed. Our hero is partially Cheyenne in his heritage but there is nothing magical about it, it's simply part of his background. Likewise, any training he gets from his full-blooded Cheyenne mentor is explicitly non-magical in nature.

    There's no hints that being partially Native American makes our hero any better a tracker or werewolf hunter.  It's all due to training. I know that's an awfully fine line to walk but I felt a difference between it and stories with similar protagonists. Readers are free to disagree with me on the subject, but I feel it's a deconstruction of the trope.

    Overall, I enjoyed the book. It's a hard, grizzled, and violent book which shows a sometimes unlikable protagonist on a never-ending quest to save the world from a seemingly endless foe. The book doesn't shy away from Sylvester a.k.a Heart of Scar's flaws and that makes the book more interesting to me. I look forward to reading the sequel.

8/10

The Estuary review

Vampire Apocalypse series' author Derek Gunn’s The Estuary is a novel that is both easy and difficult to describe. Effectively, if you were to say it was a Stephen King-esque novel set in Ireland with zombies you would have a fairly good estimate of what exactly the story is about. There’s a lot more to it but the fundamental premise is the same. Derek Gunn takes a bunch of small town residents, examine their lives in detail, insert a supernatural predator of some kind, and hit 'frape.'     The crisis, in this respect, is an experimental Nazi biological agent was created in the last days of World War 2. An experimental biological agent which, apparently, creates zombies. You have to wonder if the Nazis would have won the war in fiction if they'd spent half of what they spent on occult weirdness on tanks.     Still, Alfred Hitchcock was correct that Maguffins are ultimately unimportant. It doesn't matter how th zombies are created, the important part of the book is how their attack affects the town that our protagonists are from.     Derek Gunn does an excellent job in setting up a large ensemble cast for the duration of the book. There's the Businessman, the Writer, the Wife, the Spy, the Prostitute, and so on. All of them have interactions before the zombie attack and plenty of them go through some pretty staggering changes once the action starts. As quoted by Shepard Book in Firefly, you never really know a man until you dangle him over a volcano.     The start of the book is a bit slow for those expecting wall-to-wall zombie action from the get go. It's a much slower paced book than Derek Gunn's Vampire Apocalypse books. Really, they're two different genres and should each be taken on their own merits. I will say, however, the book reminds me more of Night of the Living Dead than Dawn of the Dead.     The heart of the matter is that the zombies here are treated perfectly straight. They're not a metaphor for social change or something self-referential. No, they're actually monsters and their purpose is to drive the plot. In a way, if they're a metaphor for anything, it's a natural disaster that everyone has to struggle against.     If I have a bizarre complaint, it's The Estuary is actually a little too short for its premise. It's a fairly typical sized book and not nearly the kind of door-stopper Stephen King is prone to writing. A lot of questions are raised in the book like, 'why is X doing Y when they don't know Z' which you know the author has an answer for but gets glossed over in the narrative.     Bluntly, there's just not enough space to address everything. While it's a self-contained novel, I'd really appreciate either a sequel or some form of short story epilogue. I suppose it's a testament to the characterization that I care enough about the survivors to want to know what happens to them.     Overall, The Estuary is a heart-filled tale of survival horror and an excellent entry into the whole 'Zombie Genre' of stories. I salute Derek Gunn for his work and hope he'll continue to write for many years to come. 9/10

National Writing Month

http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/charles_phipps

I'm participating in National Writing Month for those people who might be interested in. I ditched my original premise of "Merciless: Galaxy's Most Wanted" for something a little more mundane. I think it's hard to follow your original novel work in a way that doesn't diminish it. So, I had to work very hard to get a sequel opening I was comfortable with.

I'm a bit behind but I hope I'll be able to catch up in the coming week.

I sprained my ankle today

Joy.

While I was caring for the guinea pigs, I dropped a bale of hay down the stairs into the basement and broke the bottom step. While stepping down there, I ended up hearing a huge cracking noise and the rest of my evening was spent in abject agony.

Worse, one of our guinea pigs died the night before.

Poor Autumn.

This is going to make cleaning out their cages slightly difficult today.

Sexism and Gender Politics in Arkham City

I can't see why ANYONE would think this was sexist.

Note: This blog entry contains major spoilers for the game and you should proceed at your own risk if you haven't played Arkham City.

    Film Crit Hulk wrote a couple of interesting articles on the sexism in Batman: Arkham City. I actually think people should check them out.

Article 1#
Article 2#

    I disagree with some of his conclusions but I think it's an important thing to address the objections he and others have raised.

    Likewise, the Game Overthinker has his own podcast on the subject.

Podcast

    I think it's fascinating to address the changing role of women in both comics and video games. The fact we're talking about it as opposed to accepting it at face value makes me think definite progress is being made.

    Others might disagree but since it's my blog, I'll just say they're wrong.

    Let's face it, comic books and video games have never been the most progressive mediums when it comes to women. For the longest time, both have been defined as "boys' entertainment" and it definitely shows in their depiction of women.

    Gail Simone created the "Women in Refrigerators" webpage to talk about how female characters in comics were considered disposal compared to their male colleagues. For example: Barbara Gordon a.k.a Batgirl was shot and crippled by the Joker while Batman had his back broken by Bane. Batman was up and running again by the end of Knightfall but it took Barbara over a decade to start walking again.

    Video games started with Mario and Link saving the Princess. Samus Aran and Lara Croft are the two grand dames of video game heroines but both are sexualized beyond measure. Just look up Samus Aran's Zero Suit. I mean, seriously, would video game developers put Boba Fett in that outfit?

    It's no coincidence that the Final Fantasy games were hugely popular with women because of their comparatively tame sexualization (barring FFX-2) and strong roles for female characters. Lara Croft has recently being rebooted in hopes of re-imagining her as a strong female character instead of a joke. It might be a case of "too little, too late" given her name has become synonymous with fanservice but I wish them luck.

    Now, where what's the deal with sexism in Arkham City? Well, let's start with the female characters.

    Catwoman is actually one of the more interesting characters in the game. She's overtly sexualized but the game points out it's all an act. Catwoman has long been a character who uses her "feminine wiles" to manipulate men, though this has been called sexist in the past well before AA. Wasn't it Alicia Silverstone's Batgirl (ow, I hate remembering that movie) who pointed out that sort of passive-aggressive resistance went out a long time ago?

    However, the game does a nice job in establishing Catwoman is rather ambivalent about sex. She's obviously making use of her "distracting sexiness" to throw off her enemies. Hell, Catwoman steals kisses from enemies during takedowns. It adds an interesting layer to her relationship with Batman. Since before Julie Newmar, Batman has had a flirtatious relationship with Catwoman.

    Batman has never been particularly harsh to her and has even trusted his secret identity to her on occasion. In Earth-2's continuity, Bruce Wayne and Selena Kyle actually married and had a child together. Arkham City is the first game where it's implied Batman may simply be the victim of Selena Kyle screwing with his head. After all, in this game we find out that Selena Kyle flirts with everyone and it's always insincere.

    Yes, she cares for Batman and has moral choices to make regarding helping him but it's obvious she's not desperately in love with Bruce. Selena Kyle is a woman fully in control of her sexuality, even as it's something she uses as a weapon.

    Catwoman also gets to kick ass during the game, occupying a "Lightning Bruiser" role. She can't take quite as much punishment as Batman but her ability to deal with huge numbers of thugs, especially when fully upgraded, is notable.

    The camera does ogle her a bit too much for my taste and Batman rescuing her from Two Face is something I think the game could have done without. However, Catwoman does get the opportunity to return the favor later in the game. That makes up for it, mostly.

    Next up is the behavior of the generic mooks in Batman: Arkham City. Seriously, the male characters in the game are surprisingly foul-mouthed when it comes to women. The word b*** is used to a ridiculous level, usually referring to Catwoman or Harley Quinn.

    The amount of sexist commentary from the thugs also goes into some uncomfortable areas. Specifically, some thugs speculate on Catwoman being bisexual and Harley Quinn being transgendered for their own lewd fantasies and/or because they can't imagine taking orders from a woman born female.

    Here, detractors have a valid point.

    Now, I'm aware that hardened cons are not the most politically correct people on the planet. In real life, sexual violence is going to happen in environments as rife with power/dominance issues as prisons. I don't have any objections to the fact that the thugs are people the game wants us to hate. When a female nurse is rescued in Wonder City, the implications of the thugs' intent is clear and there's an argument that it's no different from rescuing any of the political prisoners being threatened throughout Arkham City.

    Except, it is.

    The first issue is that I don't object to the use of harsh language by thugs, it's just that it's remarkably focused on the women of the game. Yes, thugs would call Catwoman a "b***" and probably would use a lot more harsh language. It's just they never call Batman a "b******" or an "a******" or use any other similarly harsh words towards male characters. We don't see any of the male thugs threatening male characters with rape either, because that's not as socially acceptable to depict in our society.

    Bluntly, it's permissible in a Teen game for Batman to swoop in and rescue a female character from the threat of imminent rape but not the same for him to do so with a male character.

    Here, I think the developers really dropped the ball. They were trying to push the envelope with Batman's edginess but I think they did it in a half-hearted way. The thugs are capable of threatening women with sexual violence and being sexist but they aren't able to do the same towards men. It's because of this I think the game could have definitely dialed it back a notch without sacrificing storytelling integrity.

    Which brings me to Talia.

    I think Batman: Arkham City did a reasonable job in depicting both Talia and the League of Shadows. You know, aside from giving the daughter of the Demon's Head an outfit showing her midriff.

Because I think the world's most dangerous terrorist needs to show her belly button.

    I'm sorry, that just seems rather out of place. Are we really to the point where we need Talia al Ghul of people to show more skin to be sexy? A girl who basically thrives on being sexy due to how dangerous she is?

    Well, with that out of the way I'd like to say that the game mostly gets it right with Talia and her bodyguards. When we first meet one of the League of Shadow ninjas, she's seemingly dead and stuffed in one of the Penguin's display cases. However, it was after she'd killed eight of the Penguin's goons. Honestly, I thought that was probably underselling what one of the League could do but it's still pretty damn impressive.

    Later, we discover she actually faked her death and had entered into a trance of some kind which allowed her to survive a gunshot wound. While she's seemingly dead in her display case, she hears Batman's plans to go after the Demon's Head and breaks free. She then leads Batman on a rooftop to rooftop chase where only exceptional cunning lets Batman track her down.

    Badass.

    Ironically, the way Batman deals with the League's ninjas is less sexist than you'd think. Specifically, Batman fights them the same way he would any other thug just without the bone-snapping maneuvers. Normally, violence against women is a bad thing to depict in games but here Batman is obviously going to die if he doesn't fight back and it's a contest of near-equals.

    You could even argue the reason Batman doesn't break any of his opponent's bones is less because he's worried about hurting women than he doesn't want to unnecessarily **** off the League of Shadows when he's coming to them for a favor.

    There's also a hilarious subversion when Talia is being threatened by the Joker. For the entire time, we're meant to assume Talia is going to die unless we rescue her. Then, when Bruce Wayne is in a spot, Talia just causally spins around and seemingly kills the Joker. The entire time, Talia was playing possum and just testing Bruce to see how far he'd go for her. Had the game ended with her leaving Batman to face the Joker alone, annoyed he wouldn't kill him for her, I would have been pleased.

    Unfortunately, it ends with Talia being killed by the Joker from behind.

    This, honestly, just p***** me off. Talia is one of my favorite characters and I support Batman with her above all other options. The fact that the ending of the game then goes on to mourn the Joker of all people bothers me to no end.

    Yeah, I get it's Mark Hamill's last performance as the Clown Prince of Crime but Talia is lying dead just a few feet away. Don't you think Bruce Wayne would be carrying her body out? Don't give that he can just take her to a Lazarus Pit either. They mentioned that option for Ra's al Ghul but they didn't do that for Talia.

    So definite mixed marks for Talia and the League's depiction.

    Finally, Harley Quinn.

    Harley Quinn is always a difficult character to write in relation to the Joker. If you treat her situation seriously, she's an abused spouse with elements of Patty Hearst crossed one of Charles Manson's female followers.

    I.e. there's nothing particularly funny about it.

    If you treat it for laughs, you run the risk of laughing at some uncomfortable subtext. I love the DC comics stories about when Harley is away from the Joker and becoming her own woman. Words cannot express how p***** off I was by the ending of Gotham City Sirens, which undid all of her positive characterization.

    Really, I like the Harley Quinn in the Arkham Asylum video games because they nicely sidestep the issue. Here, Harley is just a bad person. No, seriously, it removes a lot of the sexism  to treat her as the Joker's number 1# henchwoman and nothing else. She's not remotely sympathetic and is a dangerous psychopath. It makes her villain instead of victim.

    Indeed, in the Joker's dying state, Harley plays the role of a major villainess. She kills people left and right and sends a Doctor to die horribly at the hands of her male followers. Some of them are plotting against her, thinking she'll be easy pickings when the Joker is dead but at least some of the criminals are rightfully afraid of her.

    Then we find out she's pregnant with the Joker's baby.

    Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of that. I can't say it's necessarily sexist or not, given pregnancy is part of the human experience. I think we'll have to wait until Arkham Asylum 3 to find out how that changes things. I actually like Harley's depiction in the AA games. She's tough, dangerous, and as mad as the Joker.

    I think Arkham City isn't nearly the sexist work that people give it credit for. It has a number of strong female characters who are more than just women for Batman to rescue or romantic interests. It even passes the Bechdel Test due to Catwoman and Ivy talking about plants and loot. I would have appreciated a chance for Catwoman and Harley to talk, let alone Catwoman and Talia. Still, I think the game had a surprisingly good grasp of some its female characters.

    Unfortunately, this just makes the areas it does slip up on all the more troublesome. The game just needed a little tweaking to be less troublesome in its gender politics.

    That's my .02 and you're welcome to disagree.