Star Trek: Articles of the Federation review

    The West Wing meets Star Trek.

    One thing I've always wondered about is how the United Federation of Planets works. The name implies its meant to work roughly analogous to the United Nations but it has its own military and power. Indeed, a Federation means that it probably functions more like the original United States did before we gradually became more federalized versus state-based (after a little something called the Civil War).

    Articles of the Federation more or less shows how the Federation works by following its President in the post-Dominion War era, Nanietta Bacco, as she attempts to navigate the events following Shinzon's overthrow. This is very much set in the events of the Star Trek-Lit universe, frequently referencing events in other novels (particularly Star Trek: Titan).

    Reading this after the first J.J. Abrams movie is kind of hilarious as everyone reacts to Praetor Shinzon's actions as the most devastating thing which has ever happened to Romulus. While it's wrong to laugh at genocide, even of fictional races, I can't help but feel a little schadenfreude as the Romulan's future woes.

    Take that, evil space elves.

    Honestly, I can't wait for the novels to catch up to the movie timeline since it will nicely rid the Star Trek Lit-universe of several truly appalling Romulan politicians. I admit, I also want to see the reaction of many characters in this book who are desperate to appease them.

    Articles of the Federation consists of not so much a narrative as a 'Week in the Life of the Federation's President' and watching her deal with various scandals, meetings, diplomatic conferences, and so on. The writing is very anarchic, feeding into the idea that the President is constantly under scrutiny and forced to deal with a hundred different things simultaneously.

    I very much enjoyed some of the subplots: the investigation of the previous President's arms trafficking to an independent planet, persuading a surgeon to perform an operation on an enemy race's VIP (despite her being a former POW of them), and why a seemingly friendly race constantly becomes belligerent every time they leave their planet.

    I'm a bit "meh" about Nanietta Bacco, herself. She seems designed to be a badass President who steamrolls her way through any opposition to the most moral outcome possible. My favorite parts of the book are when the author has this backfire horribly. She's an okay character but I enjoy my Trek characters a little more flawed. It doesn't help I'm not a big fan of baseball and find her obsession as baffling as I found Sisko's.

    The supporting cast, however, is awesome. I loved each and every one of them from the President's aides down to the Betazoid college roommates watching political TV for a class. There's a large, interesting, and diverse cast spread throughout the story. While fans might something with a bit more 'meat' to it, I think this is one of the most enjoyable Star Trek novels I've ever read.

9/10

Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many review

    I was going to post this review a long time ago but I actually lost my original one. In any case, I got around to re-reading the novel and decided to review it anyway.

    As the title implies, this is a companion piece to Star Trek Online as opposed to the novel universe. There's numerous nods to the novels in the MMORPG, so it makes sense there's numerous nods to the novels in the companion book as well. However, the events of Star Trek: Destiny manifestly did not happen in the MMORPG so there's references to the novels in STO:TNTM but also contradictions.

    Confused yet?

    Well, you shouldn't be. STO:TNTM is more an epilogue to the Star Trek television shows as opposed to a tie-in to the MMORPG. The book is set after the events of the "Undine War" that is the central basis of the online game. Alien shapeshifters invaded the Federation, again, and the book implies our heroes eventually beat them back. It's an interesting tact for a tie-in novel to take, being set after the game itself, but I suppose none of us believed the game would end in the Federation's destruction anyway so it's ok.

    The premise of the novel is DS9 character Jake Sisko, known as a famous author in the novel's setting (and implied in the show), has been hired by the Federation to chronicle the events of the Undine war. He decides, in-universe, the only way to do this is to print up the transcripts from selected interviews taken from veterans of the Undine War. In short, the novel is the Star Trek version of World War Z without the zombies.

    The novel is, overall, good but there's many stories which have little-to-nothing to do with Star Trek Online or its history. There's some timeless stories like Jake Sisko dealing with a damaged soldier who couldn't bring himself out of the war, Worf dealing with a sanity-bending fight against an Undine warrior disguised as himself, and how B4 saved the Federation. I swear to you, the last story is actually touching. This, from B4's greatest detractor.

    However, quite a few stories don't deal with events from the Online game like an interview with Captain Picard's descendant and a baseball game against the Gorns. I'm serious about the last one. They seem more like epilogues to the characters of the television series. For example, Seven of Nine isn't particularly relevant to the conflict in the game yet we see her ultimate discussed.

    The confusion over the alternate universes of the Expanded universe is given a nice little nod, however, in an interview with Lucsly and Dulmer from the Department of Temporal Investigations. They, more or less, explain that all of the various novel universes are separate with temporal shenanigans responsible for the discrepencies. I liked this explanation and give them kudos for bothering to explain it.

    Would have the novel been better to talk about battles against the Undine and the Borg? Would it have been better to discuss how the Federation reacted to being under siege by not only these two implacable enemies but the Klingon Empire? Perhaps. There's only so much you can do without either spoiling events of the game or hamstringing the developers of the game, however. Likewise, I felt the Federation trying to make sense of such a senseless conflict was rather cool. It fits that they don't lionize the war other cultures might (including our own).

     Perhaps the most important story in the book, at least for Trek-Lit fans, is the discussion of the Hobus Nebula explosion in J.J. Abram's movie. The book nicely deconstructs the bad science behind it while maintaining it as an important cultural/political/historical milestone in the franchise. I appreciate when authors work around oddball things in Star Trek versus rejecting them outright.

    One of my favorite elements from STO:TNTM is the timeline in the back of the book. The Needs of the Many contains a complete timeline leading up to the events of Star Trek Online. For those seeking a companion piece to the MMORPG, this is the most useful part of the book. Captain Lucien Drake of the U.S.S Tarot, my character if you didn't know, found it most helpful. Despite not being what it advertised, this book got me into Star Trek Lit and I highly recommend it.

    Kudos to Mathew A. Martin, the book's "real" author.

8/10

Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Forgotten History review

    I was a big fan of C.L Bennet's Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock. It was a new kind of Star Trek novel, depicting a fascinating mixture of bureaucrats dealing with minutiae and an outsider's perspective on all the various time-travel shenanigans we saw through all of the recent series. In WTC, we didn't get much information on the Original Series but that seemed like a big undertaking with Captain Kirk's somewhat legendary relationship with time travel.

    "Seventeen recorded violations!" as Agent Lucsly would say.

    Forgotten History attempts to make up for this conspicuous absence by dealing with Captain Kirk's relationship with the DTI. As the first recorded time traveler in Federation history, his actions lead up to the founding of that body and their reactions to his further incursions into the time-stream. C.L Bennet is a master of incorporating obscure canon into his stories, including the largely forgotten animated series.

    Fans of Watching the Clock may be disappointed that the previous stars of the book, including several minor characters from TNG who grew into fully-developed time agents, barely factor into this book. The work was written as a Star Trek: The Original Series novel and it shows.

    I can't say this isn't disappointing on some level. I love Captain Kirk, Spock, and Scotty but I was hoping for more information about Lucsly and Dulmer. They have some good bits in this novel but I felt they were a bit stereotypical in places. Lucsly, for example, has a passionate hatred of Captain Kirk which seems disproportionate given what we know of both men. Even if he viewed Kirk as a menace to linear history, he had to also know he spent a substantial amount of time patching up the timeline too.

    I will say, however, the book does something clever with time travel. A minor theme of the book is that the way we remember history isn't remotely how it happened. History is a story, which is obvious if you think about it, meant to tell us about what we can achieve or should avoid as much as what happened.

    Characters from the future discovering people from the past aren't all sunshine and roses or Sauron wannabes adds an interesting perspective to the book. I will say, however, there's a bit at the end which really annoys me. A Starfleet officer's first obligation is to the truth so a character should never deny the "warts and all" of the past as well as the reverse. I think knowing George Washington had slaves, for example, doesn't diminish his accomplishments while also warns us away from making his mistakes.

    The original series characters work extremely well and I particularly liked the handling of Spock. The "arc welding" of various Trek series is quite cool with Spock having some pointed opinions on the Vulcans of T'Pol's time. There's a subplot I won't spoil but harkens back to my favorite Spock episode too, with an unexpected guest star.

    In conclusion, this is a really good book. One I am very glad to have bought and one of my favorite Star Trek stories. Unfortunately, I really wish we'd seen more of the Temporal Agents. They were guest-stars and it would have been nice to see a character do a complete 180 on his opinions. That would have made the book a perfect 10.

8/10

Star Trek: Into Darkness review

     Star Trek: Into Darkness is a movie I have had some trepidation about watching due to the fact that I'm a big Star Trek fan. You can see it in the name of my website. I really liked Star Trek's reboot under JJ Abrams but I also think it was roughly as substantial as a doughnut. It's all powdered sugar and sweet bread, no real substance. Which isn't bad. Mindless entertainment has its place.

   The thing about Star Trek, I love the series, but it was on its last legs due to a series of mediocre serials and unfortunate missteps. I liked Enterprise but it was clear the writers had no idea what they wanted to do with the series. Likewise, Star Trek: Nemesis was a half-finished jumble of ideas with nothing behind it. This is in addition to the damning with faint praise I have for Star Trek: Voyager, which never really rose above okay. So how does Star Trek: Into Darkness measure up?

I actually like Carol Marcus' portrayal in this movie.

    Pretty well, except it's now a doughnut with a glass of orange juice as opposed to just a doughnut. There's very-very mild social satire in the movie and that elevates it above the previous one but the movie never stops to breathe long enough for the ramifications to sink in. It's literally not until the final speech we even get the movie's opinion on terrorism.

    The problem with ST:ID isn't that it's a bad movie or has poor world-building, it's one of the most evocatively realized settings I've seen out of big-screen science fiction in a long time. My main issue is that it's a very smart movie which doesn't have much confidence in the story it's telling. A surprisingly good script is buried under whiz-bang action and never-ending fanservice. I, honestly, believe the movie would have been better if they'd deleted all of the callbacks from the final half-hour of the movie and stuck with the original plot they'd created.

     Still, I can't be too hard on this movie because of two factors:

    1. I was never bored.
    2. The movie had a surprisingly uplifting message for the Post-War on Terror United States.

Peter Weller does an excellent villain.

    Much like Iron Man 3, Star Trek: Into Darkness is pretty anti-War on Terror. Our heroes are struck hard by the character of John Harrison but the film depicts Kirk's knee-jerk desire for reprisal to be objectively wrong. In fact, violence of any sort causes repeated problems for our heroes (even in self-defense). Only once or twice in the movie does it do them any real good and that's when it's coupled with thinking.

  The performances in the movie are a good deal better than the original and I didn't think any of those were bad. The actors were more comfortable in their roles and able to stand on their own rather than dwelling in their predecessor's shadow. Chris Pine's Kirk isn't the most likable of characters, especially when he commits crimes which never would be tolerated in any profession let alone Starfleet, but you can't say he's not a distinct character from Bill Shatner's Kirk.

     Zachary Quinto's Spock is a little less authoritative in this movie, which seems to come from his realization Kirk is his only friend in the world (not counting Uhura). It's an interesting change and plays up the rivalry between Kirk and Spock in this setting. Sadly, that leaves Karl Urban less to do as McCoy. One of McCoy's major roles in the game was to be Kirk's voice of conscience as well as Spock's rival. With those roles split between Spock and Kirk, he mostly exists to re-hash classic lines.

Not a great choice for Khan.

     Oddly, my favorite performance from the movie was Peter Weller's Admiral Marcus. The years have not been kind to Mister Weller, who looks more like Robocop than any man should, yet this only lends credence to the idea he's a Starfleet Admiral who has seen more than most. He strikes me as one of the few characters capable of putting Kirk in his place. I wish his role in the movie had been larger.

     If I have any complaints about the movie, it's the fact that it feels like the perfectly serviceable movie about Starfleet planning a pre-emptive strike against the Klingons and a rogue agent is unfairly tacked to a remake of the Wrath of Khan. There's no reason for Khan to be in this movie and he, honestly, distracts from the whole thing. There's also the fact Cumberbatch certainly doesn't match Khan's canonical Sikh ancestry. Neither did Ricardo Montalban obviously but there's no excuse for it in this century.

     An issue is the fact that Khan and Kirk don't really have a reason to hate each other. Khan killed Kirk's mentor, true, but the former doesn't see Kirk as anything more than an annoyance. This really cuts into the storyline as a large part of what made The Wrath of Khan great was the intense hatred the former felt. The fact that Khan has killed Kirk's friend but is somewhat sympathetic means that Kirk doesn't look like the bigger man, just a bully.

Love the U.S.S Vengeance.

     As with the previous movie, there's all manner of excellent special effects and epic battle scenes. The movie never wants for humor, space battles, pew-pew, and so on but that's not really what Star Trek is meant to be about. I'm also inclined to believe it wastes some of the character moments on display. A few things also stick in my craw like the fact it glosses over the fact falsifying records is a serious crime in the military.

    In conclusion, I really enjoyed this movie and recommend people see it. This isn't entirely a movie where it's best to turn your brain off but it's close. There's some good ideas here but the use of Khan was underwhelming and lowers the entire tenor of the movie. I feel like I would have much preferred an Admiral Marcus movie.

7.5/10

Sleeping Dogs: Year of the Snake review

 Warning: This review will contain spoilers for the ending of Sleeping Dogs.

    The Year of the Snake is the final DLC of the first Sleeping Dogs game. It serves an epilogue, to an extent, for the main game. We finally find out whether Wei Shen's loyalty is ultimately to the Triads or the Hong Kong police department. Sadly, this is all a bit of an anticlimax dealt with in the opening monologue of the game.

Hint: Wei is a cop.

     The trailer for the DLC reveals said monologue which confirms that Wei Shen has returned to active duty as a Hong Kong police detective. Unfortunately, due to the staggering body count and property damage his investigation created, he's demoted to beat cop. Wei Shen spends a humorous montage writing traffic tickets and giving directions to tourists. While I would have loved to have played through some of this--the actual DLC is about a terrorist bomb threat.

The SWAT gear for the Hong Kong police comes free with the DLC--once you complete it.

    The Year of the Snake deals the discovery of a cult which believes the world is going to end on the Chinese New Year, so they've decided to start bombing things (for some reason). This is actually not that far from some real-life extremist sects so I didn't particularly mind the premise. Wei must travel across Hong Kong attempting to defuse bombs and deal with the various cultist threats.

    Part of the problem is this may be a little too ambitious of a premise for a DLC. The Year of the Snake could easily have been the beginning plot of Sleeping Dogs 2. Maybe the Snake cult are a front for the Triads attempting to do, I dunno, stock manipulation or something. The DLC seems a bit underwhelming as the cultists are all mindless mooks. This is a sharp contrast to the main game where the Triad bosses all had distinct personalities.

Wei Shen learns to go ultra-violent in a socially ACCEPTABLE way.

      Still, there's a great deal to be fun here as the addition of a stun gun and handcuffing to the game (which can be brought over to the main game) are tremendously fun. I also appreciate the chance to use the various police vehicles inside the garage. Rather than just keep to the Snake cult missions, Year of the Snake also throws in a bunch of random police missions. These are mostly petty like stopping indecent exposure or delinquents but also include things like needing to defuse bombs.

    I'm not going to say the Year of the Snake is a waste but its potential is under-realized. A lot of the game feels like repetitions of previous adventures from the main game, which they are, but they don't give enough of them. Sadly, the most commonly repeated police adventure is "Suspicious Vehicle" which is the least enjoyable of the new material.

    In conclusion, I liked Year of the Snake but wasn't blown away by it. I recommend people who were fans of Wei Shen to pick it up but not to get their expectations too high.

7/10

Sleeping Dogs: The Zodiac Tournament review

    Enter The Dragon is one of my favorite movies of all time. It is the best remembered of Bruce Lee's few films for good reason. There's something fundamentally primal about a martial arts master being invited to a brutal tournament where only the strongest warrior will walk away alive. There's a reason it's the basis for virtually every fighting game ever made. It thus feels natural that Sleeping Dogs would do an extended homage to the movie.

    The premise of the game is the best martial artists in the world have been invited to the deadly tournament of Doctor Zhang. The Hong Kong police, not approving of death matches, sends Wei Shen to infiltrate the tournament. Doctor Zhang may or not know Wei Shen is an undercover cop but doesn't care either way. Why? Because one look at the guy and you'll know he's not going to let you walk away with the tournament's winnings.

The villain goes so over the top, he reaches space. Which is entirely appropriate.

    From the moment you step on the boat to reach the island, everything switches to a grainy 1970s movie feel. From the moment the tournament begins, Wei Shen is surrounded by some of the deadliest fighters in the game. He doesn't have any friends on the island either, the good competitors think he's a Triad stooge while the bad ones, well, are bad.

    The DLC advertises there is a "new island" to explore but this is somewhat misleading. The island for the adventure is almost entirely railroaded-in, taking you everywhere you might want to travel during the adventure itself. Aside from a quest to get Fire Opal Statues, which don't do anything until after you've completed the DLC, there's not much to do around the island.

The visual homages to EtD are everywhere.

     Despite this, the DLC is still fun. The tournament doesn't just include your typical melee brawls but several twists I'd be remise in spoiling. There's also free-running sections through trap-filled zones that are incredibly fun. The other fighters aren't tremendously deep characters but some you genuinely mourn when the fights turn deadly while others you just want to ring the life out of yourself. That's good writing, right there.

The free-running sections of the tournament are some of my favorite.

    There's not much to say about this DLC other than it's fun, entertaining, and filled with surprises. The only thing I regretted about it is the final mission, which stupidly introduces a timed-mechanic when the rest of the game is mercifully without. I still haven't beaten it despite literally dozens of tries. The fact it's the last level only makes it doubly frustrating.

    One thing which separates The Zodiac Tournament from the rest of the Sleeping Dogs DLC is that it can be played as a part of Sleeping Dogs proper. This is a major boon as it makes the tournament seem part of the narrative. Unfortunately, you can't bring any of your cool toys or outfits to the island, which means it might as well be a separate storyline. I was looking forward to beating the island as Monkey.

    In short, I heartily recommend The Zodiac Tournament but it's not without flaws. If you had been allowed to bring along your melee-enhancing outfits or the timed-mission wasn't so punishing, I'd have given this a full ten. Instead, I'm going to have to give it a nine.

9/10

Sleeping Dogs: Nightmare in North Point review

 

    Sleeping Dogs is a great game. I've mentioned this before and my opinion on the subject hasn't changed. Even if you're not a fan of Heroic Bloodshed movies, it's a delightful introduction to the genre. [Editor's note: The short version is Heroic Bloodshed is a Hong Kong genre roughly equivalent to American Noir. The difference is that the protagonists be they hit men or undercover cops have a code of honor--it's just they usually have to break it in wildly bloody and deadly ways.] 


    Sleeping Dogs didn't make a whole lot of money but it wasn't a failure by any stretch of the imagination either. Which is why I was pleased to discover the game was getting a series of DLC over the course of the past six months.

Big Scar Wu's cat mask makes him a memorable-looking villain, if nothing else.

     The first of these is Nightmare in North Point, which is basically an homage to Chinese ghost stories. Wei Shen is either having a particularly vivid dream or he's really encountering the supernatural, take your pick, but it is a far cry from your typical Sleeping Dogs action. It's more like Red Dead: Redemption's Undead Nightmare only with a Hong Kong twist.

    The premise is that an old triad enemy of the Sun On Yee, Big Scar Wu (now known as "Smiley Cat"), was murdered in a particularly grizzly way. Seeking revenge, he emerges from the underworld and targets Wei Shen's girlfriend (Not Ping) as well as the rest of Hong Kong. The streets are littered with Chinese vampires (Jiang-Shi) and their demonic masters.

    Already, this premise is somewhat flawed given there's no particular reason for Smiley Cat to single out Wei Shen. It becomes doubly infuriating because Dog Eyes, who is a much more personal enemy to Wei, is one of the ghosts we later encounter. The locals also seem somewhat blase to this dramatic change in their city, wandering along with glowing eyes as if everything was perfectly normal. It would have made better sense, for what value that means, to have Wei dumped into the underworld somehow but I digress.

    Wei's journey through the supernaturally-conquered Hong Kong primarily consists of him attempting to discover a means of permanently banishing Smiley Cat's ghostly army. Thankfully, there's a number of helpful locals familiar with Chinese mythology. Plus, Wei gets to encounter a couple of friendly gangsters whose deaths have left them less inclined to seek revenge over Wei's status as an undercover cop (apparently, the dead know everything). It was a major missed opportunity to not have Wei Shen encounter his deceased sister during this pack. That would have added significant pathos to a somewhat silly and substance-less plot.

    Despite this, I had fun playing Nightmare in North Point. The Jiang-Shi enemies were an interesting change of pace from regular gang members and Wei's encounters with past friends (as well as foes) entertained me. The DLC is a little on the short side, especially since the entire map is open for exploration, but I never felt bored.

The blue-fog overlays to familiar Sleeping Dogs locations is surprisingly effective in making them creepy.

    Nightmare in North Point transforms the Hong Kong of the game from a bustling living city to a supernaturally foggy and surreal place inhabited by mindless shambling citizens. The effect is creepy but the world feels sparsley populated despite the roving gangs of Jiang Shi that Wei can run into. There's the addition of "Hell Shrines" that make it easier to fight the Jiang Shi but these aren't exactly collectibles worth hunting down given a special weapon for fighting the undead drops fairly regularly.

    Really, I think this DLC could have been transformed into a full-blown expansion if the developers had wanted to. I would have loved to have seen characters from the game react to all the supernatural craziness around them. The addition of more monsters, more sidequests, and more collectibles could have resulted in a retail release for Sleeping Dogs' Zombie expansion just like Red Dead Redemption's own. As such, this feels a bit like a wasted opportunity.

    In the end, I don't see anything wrong with the game other than it wasn't as good as it could have been. It's still Sleeping Dogs, which I enjoyed, and the plot is fun if a bit underwhelming. I suggest you pick it up if you can.

8/10

Villains Inc. review

    Villains Inc. is the sequel to the extremely enjoyable Wearing the Cape novel. It takes six months after the events of the first novel, our protagonist forced to deal with fallout from the climax. I won't spoil what happened there but will say it was one of the better endings I've seen for this genre. Characters lived, died, grew, and changed based on realistic consequences from their actions. Well, as realistic as any novel involving Superman-esque power sets can be.

    Wearing the Cape's Earth  is still light and cheerful but more wary of the destructive power of superhumans. Initially, I thought this novel was going to focus on Hope dealing with negative publicity and the rising tide of anti-superhero sentiment but the author surprised me by going in a different direction.

    Instead, Villains Inc. is a story which focuses on giving the Chicago Sentinels some archrivals. Because the Wearing the Cape series has a more "realistic" sense of scale, it's a group of mob-related heavies but they still manage to invoke the kind of team-ups which gave us the Legion of Doom and Injustice League.

    Speaking of realism, this book introduces an element to the setting I wasn't expecting: magic. Without changing the rules set out from the Breakthrough Event, Marion G. Harmon broadens the nature of his world significantly. We knew Breakthroughs include people who can imitate magic, vampires, and demons but this volume suggests they actually outnumber 'normal' superheroes.
   
    I think this book is actually better than Wearing the Cape, showing that Hope isn't just a one-trick pony. She is growing as both a hero and a character, moving beyond her origin story to become a more multi-faceted complex character. I still love her relationship with Artemis and am eagerly looking forward to reading said character's solo novel.

    If there was an element I missed, I rather regret losing the element of celebrity that was such an ever-present part of the previous books. It was still present, to an extent, but Hope only seems to deal with the negative elements of being famous in this book. I felt it was a missed opportunity to not explore more "responsibilities" of celebrity.

    It's hard to imagine the public turning against Hope since she's about as offensive as Belle from Beauty and the Beast but I, otherwise, liked the book. The Wearing the Cape series has shown the Capepunk genre can carry a 'serious' story. Superheroes have a place in prose and I'm hoping to see more tales from the author set in the universe.

     In conclusion, buy the novel. It's an excellent example of why internet publishing can be a good thing.

9.5/10

Wearing the Cape review

    Wearing the Cape is a Capepunk novel I really-really like. It manages to do something which very few novelists and writers are willing to do today: tell an idealistic story about superheroes. The majority of superhero novels out there are either adaptations or deconstructions. Wearing the Cape starts with a simple premise: what if a nice but otherwise ordinary girl was given the power of Supergirl?

    Wearing the Cape isn't a solo superhero novel. Hope Corrigan, soon to be the superhero Astra, is part of a world which has had superheroes for over a decade. They have their own version of the Justice League/Avengers, signature superhero ("Atlas"), and an entire subculture born out of the development of superpowers. It's a well-developed world with the role of superheroes explictly defined as search and rescue operatives or assistants to police.

    The novel chronicles Hope's journey from being a newly discovered "Breakthrough" to becoming a fully-fledged hero. The novel shows a remarkable take on the superhero genre, illustrating with celebrity comes perks (even when you're in a selfless business). Hope not only has to deal with being suddenly the strongest woman in the world but also the newfound fame that comes with her position.

    I especially liked the character of Artemis, who swiftly becomes Hope's version of Batman. The two have a natural easy-going friendship which works despite how completely different they are. The other supporting cast members are equally enjoyable with the characters of Seven and Atlas surpassing their archetypes to become fully-realized individuals. Even the villain, the deliberately oddball named Teatime Anarchist, has many a surprise inside him.

    Marion G. Harmon impresses with the strength of his world-building. We not only get insight into how superpowers arrived in the world but the social impact and what sort of laws exist covering them. We find out what superheroes are legally allowed to do, what they're not allowed to do, and what they do with the majority of their time. In this world, superheroes do more rescue work than fighting supervillains and that's kind of cool. We even get insight into how superheroes deal with their groupies and make money in their profession.

    The villain of the book, sort-of, is intriguing. Aside from the thoroughly awesome name of Teatime Anarchist, we get a time-travel plot which makes sense. The paradoxes of time-travel often leave my mind spinning but they're spelled out here without much flourish. Real supervillains are rare in this setting so the arrival of a group of them is devastating to our heroes. I didn't expect several events in the book and the author deserves credit for surprising me.

    Is Wearing the Cape perfect? No, I can't say that it is. Hope seems a bit naive and we never quite get into her psyche as deeply as I want. Likewise, the team of supervillains we meet later in the novel goes beyond stereotypical. Despite this, I absolutely adore the novel and am actively looking forward to sequels from the writer. I heartily recommend this novel to anyone with even the slightest interest in the superhero genre.

9/10

Why so few superhero novels?

    I love superhero fiction. Unfortunately, there just isn't very much on the market these days. In fact, there's very little superhero fiction on the market period. Sure, you can occasionally see a badly written novel about the X-men or Spiderman but very rarely does an author take the time to actually create a genuine superhero novel. The exceptions, George R.R Martin's Wild Cards and breakout hits like Soon I Will Be Invincible, are rare.

    I think part of this reason is superheroes are an inherently visual medium. Those who want to write about superheroes tend to gravitate towards comics since they've dominated the medium since the Comic Book Authority was first instituted. It takes a risk to go outside of well-trodden genres and not only must an author do it but a publisher.

    The age of Amazon publishing has opened up new doors to nontraditional genres with one of the better examples being Wearing the Cape by Marion G. Harmon. Marion managed to create a surprisingly deep and nuanced setting in terms of everything from characters to laws relating to superhumans. Which, honestly, comes to where I think the real problem with superheroes in fiction comes from.

    The worldbuilding.

    Comic books benefit from a massive continuity which has come to be expected by a lot of fans of the genre. It's certainly possible to tell origin stories, which is the route movies usually take, but portraying the kind of post-human world of superheroes where they can interact is difficult. You have to create whole collections of heroes and either write or imply their backstory.

    Then there's the issue of what sort of genre your superheroes are going to exist in. How did everyone get their powers? Is everyone a mutant? Are there multiple sources of superhuman abilities? Does everyone wear a costume but not possess superpowers? All of these are questions you have to ask when creating a superhero novel.

    Answering these questions is, to me, a key part of making your superheroic novel work. It's also one of the reasons why I think the novels aren't more common. Suspension of disbelief when you pick up a comic book is instantly off. Not so much in movies or books. The reason Galactus was a gigantic cloud in Fantastic Four 2 was because the producers didn't have confidence audiences could accept a 100ft tall man in a giant purple helmet.

    In short, you need to believe a man can fly when you introduce audiences to a superheroic world and a lot of the assumptions they will forgive you for in comic books go out the window when you go to text. You also can't write novels the same way people write comic books. A picture may be worth a thousand words but no one wants to read 10 chapters of Spiderman fighting Doctor Octopus. You have to get deeper into the heads of your protagonists and give them a story arc. Batman will never give up being Batman, marry, die, or have children outside of easily retconned stories or Elseworlds but your protagonists should grow as people.

     Despite this, I think superheroes are going to be the next big thing in fiction. It's a largely untapped genre and we've been steadily building up audiences tolerance with mystical superheroines like Mercy Thompson or wizard-heroes like Harry Dresden. The only thing which separates Harry from Spiderman is he wears a duster rather than a spandex outfit. Just take note this is a genre which needs careful handling--something too many authors forget when they jump into untested waters.

Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops: The Line review

    I've mentioned that Spec Ops: The Line is one of the few video games I consider to be art. An otherwise generic first person shooter somehow managed to tell a story about pain, redemption, loss, and war. It also nicely deconstructed video games, particular third-person shooters, as a whole.

    Killing is Harmless is Brendan Keogh's lengthy discussion of the game level-by-level, attempting to figure out just what the developers were intending from the work. He avoids the rather obvious and meaningless conclusion the game is solely a deconstruction of shooters and instead invites alternative theories. He writes the book much like the game, journeying through his conclusions like the player travels through the game.

    The author examines the hidden meaning behind each element introduced into the game as it is introduced. It's an interesting way of writing an analysis and works well for me. Unfortunately, Brendan Keogh is a little too focused on his own reactions and this sometimes makes the book seem a little dry. If he'd gone out more with alternative theories to events, the book would have been more enjoyable.

    For example; one area I strongly disagree with is the author's interpretation of the endings. Brendan Keogh believes the "best" ending is about denial of reality. I believe it is about forgiveness and redemption. That, even in the hell of war and darkness, there can be hope. The author maintains the more nihilistic and self-destructive endings are more honest (even moral!), which I absolutely disagree with.  In my humble opinion, a major theme about Spec Ops: The Line is the horrors of war but only one ending is really about setting your weapon down and embracing peace. The fact this quality is ignored makes me reduce my score for the book.

    There are moments like this scattered throughout the book. Parts where fans of Spec Ops: The Line will disagree with the author but find no alternative interpretations in the book. Brendan Keogh simply moves on and continues his observations. It can be very frustrating for readers who have strong opinions on the material (like myself). Despite this, I still enjoyed Killing Is Harmless. The subject matter is dear to my heart and the parts I disagree with are not universal. He gets strongly into our heroes' state of mind and its increasing degeneration over the course of the game. His detail is great and you get a sense he really feels for the characters involved.

     Really, our main area of difference is whether or not we believe the story is one with any shred of hope or not. Brendan Keogh believes the game is nihilistic, our heroes doomed and damned by their actions from the moment they choose to head into Dubai. I favor a slightly more upbeat interpretation, maintaining the possibility of redemption exists throughout. Ultimately, Brendan Keogh's views may actually be closer to what the developers intended but I stick by my conclusions.

     I especially appreciated the way the author examined the movie influences scattered throughout the game. Spec Ops: The Line is informed by movies like Jacob's Ladder, Apocalypse Now, and several other works. Examining how these influences compare and contrast to the narrative doesn't take up too much space but are a nice aside, helping to make sure the reader knows just what exactly is being referenced at specific points.

    I recommend people with Kindles pick up this book over the physical copy but, either way, it's worth your money. Just don't expect too much from the prose. There's no amazingly deep insights which will change your view of everything.

7/10

Iron Man 3 (spoiler review)

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for Iron Man 3. Amazing, huh?


    Iron Man 3 was a fun-fun movie but I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much as Iron Man or Iron Man 2. Worse than Iron Man 2? You fiend, you're saying it's worse than an asteroid hitting Earth! No, I'm not. I liked Iron Man 2 even if it didn't really say anything new about Tony or his character. Which, frankly, this movie didn't.

    This movie exists to get Tony Stark to fight a ****load of cyborgs. It also exists to critique the Yellow Peril nature of the Mandarin as well as the War on Terror. Just as Iron Man 2 had two or three clever things (Justin Hammer is a poseur, the Black Widow's introduction, Howard Stark as Walt Disney) do did Iron Man 3.

    In Iron Man 3, these clever things were the Mandarin fake-out and getting Tony to realize his unhealthy dependence on the armor. In fact, two isn't all that clever since Tony said he was awesome without the armor in the Avengers.

    What did I think of the Mandarin fake-out? That the world's most powerful super-terrorist was a drugged-out British actor in service to the Military Industrial Complex's nastiest maniac? I loved it, personally, and felt it coming from the moment of the Mandarin's first broadcast. In a series which had avoided comic book theatricality, the Mandarin chewed the scenery from beginning til end.

    I loved the social critique behind the Mandarin. That America's media raised Osama Bin Ladin from a criminal like Timothy McVeigh to a Cobra Commander figure conducting a shadow war against America. Al-Qaeda was a real threat to the world but it's probably safe to say that a lot of the actions ostensibly taken to dismantle the organization had nothing to do with it or Bin Ladin.

    Aldrich Killian is also intriguing to me as a comics fan because he's the Caucasian Mandarin. When you strip away the Fu Manchu elements, the Mandarin's story was always about a poor man with great potential who raised himself to wealth through terrorism and technology. There's a neat little bit of foreshadowing that Aldrich wears an abnormally large number of rings for a man.

I would have preferred all of the armors against something worth fighting rather than expendable mooks.

    I wasn't a big fan of Extremis in the movies, despite liking it in the comics. I think nanotechnology capable of beating the crap out of Tony is a somewhat large leap for the setting. Given a large part of the movie resolves around Iron Man fighting the multitude of nanotech cyborgs around him, it got a little annoying. I don't care how much you enhance flesh, pure steel should be harder.

    I also felt the AIM was rather wasted here. We already have the Ten Rings organization from the first movie, so transforming Advanced Idea Mechanics into the corporate front of terrorist sponsors wasn't bad but it left me feeling nonplussed. I would have preferred AIM to show up as the public face of the new Hydra.

    Did I like the inclusion of the dozens of Iron Man suits from the comics? As a fan of the 90s Iron Man cartoon, I'll say that it was nice to see the movie make a nod toward them. However, as awesome as it was to see them all together, I think a lot of the coolness factor was deflated by them blowing up by the dozens facing the Extremis soldiers.

    Really, what bothered me most about this movie was the fact they felt the need to sweep all of Iron Man's legacy under the rug without it being true to the characters. Iron Man is needed more than ever and Pepper is more in danger without him than with. Yet, Tony is retiring as Iron Man because he wants to protect her. That just didn't make sense to me and felt forced.

Hanging out.

    I wasn't too fond of the standard "damsel in distress" plot into the movie either. Pepper Potts managed to avoid that for two movies, being intelligent and proactive without being a superhero. Having her kidnapped by Aldrich Killian for what is implied to be sexual reasons leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

    Despite this, Iron Man 3 has a lot going for it. It's a continuation of Tony's character arc, which is still relevant despite him "resolving" it several times. Likewise, as a critique on the War on Terror, it had quite a few interesting things to say. My score remains unchanged and I think people should definitely see this movie. Could it have been better, though? I believe it could have been.

9.5/10

Iron Man 3 (Non-Spoiler) review

 
    I just got back from a midnight showing of Iron Man 3 and I thought I'd give my review while the reviewing is good. Is it good? Yes. Is it great? Not really. I have no complaints about it like the Dark Knight Rises but the movie was a trifle...disappointing? Yeah, that's probably the best word for it. Expectations were absurdly high for the movie after the Avengers but the film doesn't quite follow it up. Still, I heartily recommend it.

    The premise of Iron Man 3 is Tony is suffering PTSD from his near-death experience fighting aliens in New York. The world is much the same after the events of Avengers and I think that's the first really big misstep in the film. After the existence of aliens has been discovered, this movie attempts to dial it back. I can't be too harsh on it because that's what Marvel comics does, make the absurdly fantastical mundane so it always resembles our world. Still, it's interesting the biggest thing Tony Stark is worried about after the Avengers is his own human frailty.

    Robert Downey Junior does a wonderful job in simultaneously showing Tony Stark as a mess while also reminding us of his brilliance. Tony Stark, despite how much improvement he makes, never quite gets his act together and that's what makes the movies so great. You don't even need to do a movie about Tony's alcoholism because RDJ realizes his frailty in every scene.

    Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper has a somewhat reduced role in this despite, or perhaps because, of being Tony's girlfriend. She doesn't get much to work with other than fretting over Tony and a few scenes where she's imperiled. Despite this, I really liked the latter part of the movie where she has a moment to shine. I'd actually love to see her become Rescue like she does in the comics or maybe go "out there" and make her Ms. Marvel.

    Don Cheadle's James Rhodes is about where I put him last film, which is he's an excellent character in a supporting role but never really shines. You couldn't really base a movie around War Machine (or "Iron Patriot" as he is in this film) but he works well whenever playing off Tony. Sadly, I think some of the scenes were deliberately designed to make his character look foolish and I felt bad about that.

    Ben Kingsley's Mandarin is a tremendous display of acting talent both in the scenes where he's meant to embody anti-American sentiment given form followed by some (surprisingly) hilarious comic scenes. I hope Ben Kingsley gets more work in A-list movies after this. He deserves to be in everything I see from now on, he's that entertaining.

The Mandarin is so over-the-top it hurts...and it works!

    I thought Guy Pearce, as founder of comic staple Advanced Idea Mechanics, was going to be a retread of Justin Hammer or Obadiah Stane. Thankfully, he's very much his own character and very much in the spirit of a comic book character (not the one he's named after).

    Rebecca Hall's Maya Hansen was, for me, the standout performance of the piece. She managed to create a multi-layered and complex character who straddles the line between good and evil. Maya Hansen created Extremis in the comics with full-awareness of its terrorist potential. Here, you are left wondering how much she knows right until the movie reveals where her loyalties really lay.

    The movie makes use of the Extremis plot from the comic arts for the majority of its tale plus building on the "Ten Rings" organization established in the first movie. Despite the trailers depicting it as "darker and edgier" it's actually about as light-hearted as the Avengers.There's even a non-annoying little kid for Tony to bond with.

    Iron Man 3 excels on the back of its characterization. Robert Downey Junior has brought Tony Stark to the screen four times and he's owned the role every single time. Gwyneth Paltrow is an excellent actress who makes the best use of a limited role. The villains are also delightful in their evil yet "realistic" enough to be believable.

    If there's any area which it falls down is the movie is retreading a lot of the same ground. Tony's PTSD resembles his trauma in the previous two movies. Likewise, I feel a trifle saddened one of the twists, which was funny but diminished what was an excellent set-up. Finally, the movie tried to 'wrap up' all of the Iron Man movie plotlines in a bow without really 'earning' it emotionally.

9.5/10