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)