Writing update, Way of Kings illustrations, Skyrim and Star Trek/A-team videos

There’s good news and bad news regarding the latest redraft. I’ve done most of what I set out to do, and decided to add a world-specific calendar to help make it a bit more immersive (it’s a pretty minor change, actually, as the names of days are rarely mentioned and the festival names of Belisariad and Valerian remain unchanged). On the downside, I underestimated how much I’d make up in the word count by the changes I’d planned.

So, I’m going to finish working through the finickity stuff (mostly continuity, at which I am shockingly bad) and then embellish one part of the central plot (it makes sense presently but would be more realistic with something extra) and build on one of the subplots. I am three-quarters or more of the way there, so although there’s a bit to add it’s not a case of writing reams of stuff.

Once that’s done it’ll be time for a final mini-redraft (mostly about checking it flows well, continuity is good and the new bits don’t contradict the older material). I’ve made a little progress on the boring technical stuff of self-publishing, but finishing the book is obviously the first priority.

In other news, I was checking a few authors’ blogs and noticed that Brandon Sanderson (whose The Way of Kings I very much enjoyed) has cunningly put up the illustrations of that book on the internet. Whilst e-readers are excellent in many ways, you can’t zoom in much for pictures (admittedly, this is rarely a problem), so it’s quite helpful for Mr. Sanderson to put them up. Reminds me, actually, I must remember to get the Mistborn Trilogy. I was going to buy it next, but decided to go for Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Empire in Black and Gold first.

http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/1012/THE-WAY-OF-KINGS-interior-illustrations-now-uploaded

Skyrim news:

Bethesda have released 20 minutes of largely seen demo footage of their forthcoming game. Whilst most of it’s been seen before, it is nice to see it free of background noise or a Q&A, with the actual in-game sound track and effects.

http://www.bethblog.com/index.php/2011/09/12/20-minutes-of-skyrim-action/

Lastly, here’s a Star Trek/A-team spoof title sequence that I rather like:

Thaddeus

Dr Who: The Girl Who Waited

Apologies for the later than usual review. I was feeling a bit under the weather at the weekend, (hence the last entry being a copy and paste rather than something written then posted), but John O the Benevolent has prodded me into action with the Pointy Stick of Admonishment.

As with last week, this episode was a self-contained adventure, blissfully free of River Song or suchlike. The Doctor takes the Ponds to the second most splendid holiday planet in the Universe. However, it turns out to be rather sterile, with just a few white rooms and two buttons in the entry hall.

Amy returns to the TARDIS for her camera-phone, whilst the Doctor and Rory press the green button and enter another small, white room featuring only a large magnifying glass. Amy knocks on the door and is told to press the button, but she hits the red one. Curiously, she enters the room but neither of the chaps are there.

However, they discover they can communicate through the magnifying glasses, which leads the Doctor to realise that Amy is in another time-stream, which is progressing at a significantly faster rate. A robot appears and the Doctor discovers the whole planet is under quarantine for a disease which only kills double-hearted species, but that if Pond (in the treatment time-stream rather than the visitor time-stream) gets the treatment it will kill her.

Heroically, the Doctor runs back to the TARDIS, along with Rory, and tells Amy to hide and he’ll rescue her. The Doctor gives Rory a big magnifying glass (which he nicked) to keep in touch and, after getting a lock on Amy’s position, lands the TARDIS in her time-stream.

Unfortunately, the Doctor gets his landing a bit out, and Amy’s been trapped there for thirty-six years. She’s constantly evaded the ‘nice’ robots that try and treat her with fatal injections (as she’s single-hearted), become a computer hacker, sonic screwdriver-creator and katana-wielding fiftysomething. Understandably, she’s rather pissed off with the Doctor.

Old Amy then has a destined discussion with her younger self (which she remembers from the other perspective) and, as the writer decides paradoxes can exist, decides to change her mind and help her younger self escape if she can go to. Lots of technobabble and bad science later the two time-streams converge and Old Amy, Young Amy and Confused Rory are reunited. The three of them just about make it to the TARDIS, but Young Amy gets anaesthetised by a robot and the Doctor locks Old Amy outside.

He tells Rory that the two of them cannot exist together permanently, and that if she enters the TARDIS Young Amy will disappear. Old Amy allows herself to be killed by the robots, who believe they’re curing her, and Young Amy wakes up, oblivious.

I thought this was quite an interesting episode, with some good ideas but a few flaws. I dislike the idea (and it’s the second time this season) that something [the disease in this case] can permanently kill the Doctor, no regenerations allowed. The two time-streams idea was a good one, and the questions it raised were very interesting, but the end result was a Grandmother Paradox where the trigger gets pulled and yet the murderer survives. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox)

So, quite good, but not stellar. Glad to see no River Song nonsense, and the next episode looks similarly blessed.

There’s also some sad news I heard today. Andy Whitfield, the lead in the excellent Spartacus: Blood and Sand, has died at the age of 39. He had cancer, and a successor to the role for the next series had been selected some time ago, (to whom he had given his blessing). He leaves behind a wife and two children. Very sad news, especially for someone so young and with a family.

Thaddeus

The Tale of Sir Edric the Vile, episode 2

Episode 2: Heroism, thy name is ignorance

Scene 1: [Edric is in bed with a beautiful and rather naked lady friend]

Julia: O Edric, you're so heroic!

Edric: It's true, my sweet. I'm so magnificent donkeys that are particularly

well-endowed describe themselves as 'Hung like an Edric'.

Scene 2: [Similar]

Julia: Oh no, silly. I was referring to your brave and daring trip northward.

Edric: It's all in a day's work for a knight, my love. Slaying dragons,

shooting peasants, saving the King from certain death: it's what I do,

when I'm not ploughing the furrow of the prettiest girl in town.

Scene 3: [Edric sits up and begins getting dressed]

Julia: Even so, to intrude upon the territory of the Dreaded Sheep-people, to

traverse the Goblin Forest of Doom and to scale Mount Eva's twin peaks

just to reach the Cave of Terrible Darkness is awesome! Why, nobody's ever

made such a trip before and come back alive.

Edric: .... oh, really?

Scene 4: [Edric and his squire, Dog, are waiting at the Dragon Gate for Alice

and Sir Gerald the Good. Edric is seated atop a fine palfrey, Dog atop

a rather less splendid rouncey. Sir Gerald and his squire, Colin, arrive on horseback, accompanied by the sorceress Alice, who is riding a giant lizard]

Edric: Good morning, Sir Gerald, Colin. Greetings, wench.

Colin: Good morning.

Gerald: Ah, we are blessed by the company of good Sir Edric, the slayer of the

man-eating badger and the fearsome doomdog. Hurrah!

Alice: Greetings, husband.

Scene 5: [The quintet of travellers depart from the Dragon Gate, heading north]

Narrator: And so did Sir Edric the Vile, his loyal squire Dog, Sir Gerald the Good and his squire Colin proceed with the sorceress Alice. Little did they know the mortal peril this fateful journey would plunge them into.

Scene 6: [The five have been travelling a long time, and are deep into twilight]

Alice: Edric, you've barely pulled your weight all day! Sir Gerald, Dog and Colin slew wolves, goblins and a pair of trolls and you've just trotted along on your horse.

Edric: Lies, vile woman! Did I not slay the rag demon outside the city gates?!

Scene 7: [similar]

Alice: The 'rag demon' was a beggar!

Edric: That matters not, what's important is that when I skewered it with my sword it stopped annoying me. I'm improving the unemployment figures, one poor person at a time.

Thaddeus

End of the road for Final Fantasy?

Contrary to intuition, Final Fantasy refers to an inaccurately named RPG series rather than some sort of adult film. The first I bought was VII, for the original Playstation, and, like most others, I loved it. The game had a great villain, an innovative battle system (I really liked the materia), good music and decent range of characters and was nice and long. Since then I’ve played I, II, IV, V, VII, IX, X and XII (the first four were re-releases for the Playstation).

And yet I wonder whether the series might be waning now, perhaps terminally so.

I was less impressed with X and XII, for the PS2 and PS3 respectively, missing out XI as it was an online game. There were some good elements, but also some bad ones.

X’s lead character, Tidus, had an irksome voice and character, and the lack of a proper central villain (yes, there was Seymour but he wasn’t the real enemy) was displeasing. Auron and Kimahri were quite cool, but I was never enthralled with the game. It was great to look at but felt superficial.

XII had a party of just six (three active at anyone time) and two of them (Vaan and Penelo) were not very interesting. There was an intriguingly political plot, but it was sadly underdeveloped, and whilst cinematic graphics were as excellent as ever the in-game graphics were surprisingly not up to scratch.

I decided not to buy XIII. Reading previews and then reviews it appeared to be a graphically beautiful but linear game whose greatest selling point was the title. Three and a half stars on Amazon for a game with a huge fanbase is not very impressive either.

And why should people go for Final Fantasy? Dragon Age: Origins provided great player-character customisation, a good party system with excellent banter and great voice acting throughout. Oblivion (and, soon [although not soon enough], Skyrim), is a great first person RPG with a huge free-roaming world to explore and literally hundreds of hours of gameplay.

Now, it’s not an either/or choice. You can, obviously, buy all those games. But if I want a party-based RPG with top notch acting and some freedom of movement I can get Dragon Age. If I want a first person mammoth game that offers no linearity and total free-roaming, I’ll get Oblivion/Skyrim. Final Fantasy probably has the nicest graphics, but that’s the only area of excellence I can recall from reviews and the like.

Maybe it’ll become a great online series, but that’s not my thing. Even if my PS3 were hooked up to the internet I wouldn’t want to play those sorts of games.

Final Fantasy won’t drop dead. It’s been around for decades, has a massive fanbase and I’m sure it’ll go on for a while yet. Maybe it’ll reinvent itself like Tomb Raider, but with the likes of the Elder Scrolls to compete with it’ll have to be a bloody big change.

Thaddeus