Y Ffwrnais Awen

This link comes courtesy of jokersama. I have the feeling both johnaegard and barthanderson will love this one:

Yellow Drum Machine Robot

Also, barthanderson's new book The Magician and the Fool should be appearing this week at fine booksellers everywhere:



Or, order it through DreamHaven Books and you may still be eligible for the drawing for a free tarot reading by Mr. Anderson. Barth throws a mean spread, so if the opportunity is available, I wouldn't pass on it.

I know I've been fairly quiet, and I'll rectify that with some actual content soon. In the meantime, grrm posted this. To summarize:

• Terry Pratchett has donated £500,000 to Alzheimer's research.
• Pet Cadigan has spearheaded the campaign "Match It for Pratchett" among science-fiction fandom, attempting to match Terry's donation pound for pound.


• There are a number of ways you can help. You can go to http://www.alzheimers-research.org.uk/ and make a donation in Terry's name, and they will include it in the running tally.


• You can purchase the official Match It for Pratchett T-Shirt. All profit will go to Alzheimer's research.


• George also has also donated a number of books which are currently being auctioned off on eBay. You know you want to own an original bound galley of Good Omens, right? Right?

So there you go. I urge you to donate if you can, and even if you can't, please pass it along to your favorite science fiction and fantasy readers.

Tell me something good that's happening in your life right now.

Not too long ago I was nudged by a beautiful lady, but I haven't felt up to replying until now. So, briefly...

Happy New Year!*
Congratulations to eltanin and her husband on the birth of beautiful baby Morgan.
Congratulations to kebechet and her husband on the conception of beautiful baby <to be determined >.
Congratulations to Barack Obama for winning the Iowa caucus.
Congratulations to Hillary Clinton for winning the New Hampshire primary.
Congratulations to the Republican Party for once again having a bunch of candidates that scare the bekrizna out of me.
Congratulations to everyone on my friends list for still being awesome.
I'm going to go die now.



*Unless you celebrate some other arbitrarily selected date of annual renewal, in which case, "Happy Western Culture-Sanctioned Arbitrary Day of Annual Renewal!"

I've been too busy with my projects to really focus on writing anything in this journal, but this particular meme looked rather fun.

Go to Wikipedia and get a random article: this is your band name.
Look up another random article: this is your album name.
Look up 10 additional random articles: these are your songs.

Band: Broadcast Wave Format (BWF)
Album: Death, Deceit and Destiny Aboard the Orient Express

Track Listing
1. Electrocution
2. Brennan
3. Wait Long By The River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By
4. Pinetown Girls' High School
5. Life's a Bitch
6. Thick Records
7. Saint Regina
8. Kraków Cavalry Brigade
9. Linwood
10. History of the Jews in the Netherlands


Now I go back to hiding in my pile of projects.

Rundown of the last 10 days:

Friday the 9th, microphone dies
Monday the 12th, microphone finally replaced
Monday the 12th, Bioware Austin announces they're looking for a writer
Tuesday the 13th, taught myself how to use the Aurora Toolset and started work on a submission module
Wednesday the 14th, module
Thursday the 15th, module
Friday the 16th, module
Saturday the 17th, oh gods, the module...
Sunday the 18th, finished and tested the module, prepared résumé, had a snafu with the PSA, but got that taken care of
SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
Monday the 19th, reviewed everything and submitted.

Now, I am way behind on Nanowrimo, but, frankly, this was way more important to me.

Going to play a game for a few hours to unwind. Then, it's back to the novel.

I'm stalled at 12200+ words. My microphone has shorted out, and until it gets replaced I'm not getting any farther.

You can find the entire movie on youtube in segments. It's not Shakespeare, but it's based on a story by Gordon R. Dickson, and it's pretty sophisticated for a cartoon from 1982. It's worth a watch if you haven't seen it, and it's most certainly worth another watch if, like me, you grew up with it. I remember how much I identified with Peter, with one foot in the world of fantasy and one foot in the realm of science. And, as quest stories go it has all the right tropes: the noble hero who's totally out of his element, the gallant knight, the grizzled old adventurer dragon....

It's not too hard to see how I transitioned from this to Dragonlance.

It should be noted that there are individuals among us whose light, charm, spirit, generosity, and wit radiate in a way that can be felt like sunlike on skin: whose very presence brightens the atmosphere. We are blessed whenever we may spend a few moments with one of these people. I spent a weekend with nine of them.

I received a new bedroom for my birthday. Pictures forthcoming when the light is better.

I have eight people from all across the country coming to visit me this weekend. Why would I want to feel good?

Dear Artists on eBay and Etsy,

Please stop trying to sell me "Limited-Edition Reproductions" of your original art. I quite like your original art. In fact, there are times when I would be willing to purchase your original artwork, and I might, in fact, pay you a generous sum for that artwork. I am not interested in your "reproductions." I don't particularly care that these "reproductions" are on archival quality paper. I don't care if they are suitable for framing. That's all well and good, I assure you, but I simply can't get over the fact that, when reduced to its barest elements, you are still trying to sell me a 8.5" x 11" piece of paper that took 30 seconds to print on your Epson inkjet. Sticking your name in the corner with 27/100 does not make this any more impressive. Neither does it justify the $25 price tag. For $25 I can get some very nice reproductions of original artwork that sells for millions, on archival quality paper, printed in a size more suited to framing and on a printer much nicer than yours. Even better? I can get two or three posters for the same price. I assure you, they mount and frame just as nicely as anything printed on acid free archival quality paper.

If you want to sell me an art print, that's fine, but it had better be worth my money. Make an investment and have some quality prints made. If you don't think you can make enough money to earn back your investment with a professional quality print, then perhaps you should reassess whether those homemade art prints are really worth the money you're demanding. In any case, reserve those 8.5" x 11" Epson print outs for selling at $5-$6 apiece in artists alley. Certainly, you deserve to be compensated for your artistry, but let's be realistic about the product you're providing.

In addition, please look up the following terms: Pre-Raphaelite, surrealist, fantasy, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, minimalist, primitive, folk art, Cubist, and Impressionist. Until you are absolutely certain you understand what they mean, kindly stop using them to advertise your art.


Yours Cordially,

A Disgruntled Patron of the Arts

Please recommend to me:

1. A book you've read in the last six months that you think I should read also.


2. An album to which I should listen.


3. A movie, TV series, anime, etc. that I should watch.


4. A video game I should play.

Feel free to recommend more than one of anything. Feel free to omit that last one if you don't play video games. I'm pretty sure that everyone who reads this journal can at least cover 1-3.

If for some reason you feel strange about publicly posting your tastes in books, music, movies or games, anonymous comments on this post are being screened. Feel free to fill me in that way, but do let me know who you are. I'd like to be able to match recommendations to friends.

Mass Effect: Revelation is a novel set in the universe of Mass Effect, the much-anticipated Science Fiction RPG being produced by BioWare for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. Written by the game's lead writer, Drew Karpyshyn, whose other prominent writing credits include the Star Wars: Darth Bane series and a novel adaptation of Baldur's Gate II, Revelation serves as back story to the events of the game, introducing the reader to characters, races, and concepts from the Mass Effect universe.

Let's be honest here: this is a novel based on a video game. Some of you are probably thinking, "Bard, you just panned Kim Stanley Robinson. How can this book possibly stand a chance?" It's true. While I am not the sort of literary snob that believes a novel based on a television, movie, or game franchise must of necessity be awful, there's a tendency for books like Revelation to be less than stellar. My expectations for this book were not high. However, what I wanted out of this book was not strong writing or deep characters; rather, I wanted more insight into the game I've been anticipating. I have a feeling that a lot of people that read this novel are going to be looking for the same thing. Can we excuse a novel for poor writing and flat characters if it gives the reader exactly what she's looking for? From my perspective that's the very definition of the contract between the reader and writer.

So let's look at both. How does the book hold up as a read? What insights does it offer into the setting of the game, and are these ultimately satisfying?

In his acknowledgments, Karpyshyn thanks his editor helping to make the book the best it could be in light of tight deadlines. It left me with the impression that the author, himself, wasn't very satisfied with this book, and indeed, the novel feels as though it was rushed out the door. I'm unfamiliar with the author's previous works, and thus, I can't offer an opinion as to whether a few more months of revisions would have made a positive difference with this novel, but my gut feeling is yes.

The story follows Keith David Lieutenant David Anderson, who is given the assignment of tracking down Kahlee Sanders, the only known survivor of an attack on a human research station. It seems the humans have been conducting illegal research experiments, and thus, Sanders is wanted both for questioning in light of the attack and also to keep word of these illegal experiments from falling on the ears of the Citadel Council, a galactic tribunal that resolves disputes and maintains peace between species. Naturally, one of the Citadel's special agents (or Spectres) is also tracking down Sanders, and the true instigators of the attack have hired their own mercenaries to deal with the problem.

If the plot so far seems a bit textbook skiffy, that's because it is. Revelation doesn't break any new ground here (and if we may extend the digging metaphor a bit further, actually robs a number of graves), but for all that, the plot is engaging and the convenient coincidences and stretches of plausibility are largely forgivable. The characters, with the sole exception of the Spectre Saren, are pretty flat and unconvincing, and the dialogue is mediocre throughout. This, I found to be disappointing since video clips of the Mass Effect game have indicated that the dialogue is pretty solid. Ultimately, the end of the story proved to be unsatisfying, and I was left with questions that will hopefully be answered in the game. In all, Revelation makes for a fairly bland read. It might excite readers without a lot of experience in science fiction, but it's definitely not going to cut it for sci-fi veterans.

This leaves us with our second question. Does the novel serve as a good intro into the universe of Mass Effect? My answer here is a qualified yes. While the novel does an excellent job introducing us to the universe, veteran science-fiction fans may once again find that universe a bit lackluster. The Universe of Mass Effect reminds us, at varying turns, of Babylon 5, Farscape, Firefly, Starship Troopers, and most particularly, David Brin's Uplift novels. The entire galaxy functions as a collective solely due to the presence of the technology of the Protheans, a highly sophisticated spacefaring race that mysteriously disappeared many millennia before the emergence of the current space powers. All the allied spacefaring races of the galaxy relying on this technology, even though none of them understand it. This technology includes the Mass Effect relays that enable faster than light travel, as well as the Citadel, a highly advanced space station that serves as mankind's last best hope for peace the sociopolitical hub of the universe. In addition, there is a galaxy-wide prohibition on artificial intelligence research, since it's commonly assumed that sentient artificial life will invariably turn on its creators and become an unstoppable force in the universe. The novel even pays lip service to the idea that the Protheans may have had a hand in the evolution of the current spacefaring races.

The alien races are rather run-of-the-mill as well. The turians get to be the foil the race for humanity, similar to us in temperament, intelligence, and ambition, but at odds with us because neither they nor we have gotten over the brief war between our races. The krogans are the huge, gruff, war mongering lizards. The asari are the blue-skinned, effeminate diplomats. Perhaps most interesting (and most disappointing) are the Batarians, who as a culture receive more stage time in the novel than any other race, and yet, it has been confirmed that they will not be in the game itself.

However, it must be said, despite its derivative nature, I found the universe of Mass Effect to be quite immersive. I can forgive its somewhat unoriginal nature, if only because at some point in the near future I'll actually be able to play in that universe. Who hasn't wanted to play in the universe of Firefly or Babylon 5? And really, that's what Mass Effect and Revelation are all about.

Do I recommend this book? Not unless you really, really want to read military science-fiction of the classic pulp variety. If you're interested in the Mass Effect game and universe, there are plenty of online resources at your disposal. They'll fill you in on the background of the game better than the book does. BioWare may hope to revolutionize the RPG genre with Mass Effect, but Revelation does little to revolutionize the video game novel genre.

Discovered while looking at Welsh heritage items on eBay:



The motto, "Perge sed Caute" translates to "Advance, but with Caution."

After bashing my head for months against Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt, I finally decided the book wasn't worth my time anymore. I was hesitant to review this book, as I did not finish it, but the very act of reviewing the novel has brought to light many of the problems I was having with this book on a subconscious level. I now understand why I could not finish it, and I have no regrets. But on to the review.

The premise of The Years of Rice and Salt is an ambitious one: Robinson reimagines the world as it might be if 99% of the population of Europe had been wiped out by the Black Death in the 14th century. Starting from this point, Robinson's book spans the seven centuries that follow, chronicling the fate of the world—primarily, the rise of global Muslim and Chinese empires—through a series of loosely related novellas. The primary conceit that drives the novel is the introduction of a group of characters who find themselves reincarnated in each story. This alone probably would have been enough to fuel the novel for me even without the alternate history, but in the end, the alternate history is the primary story here. Robinson is a celebrated writer, and although I wouldn't call this his most compelling novel by any means, the writing is by no means bad.

It begs the question: if the book had so much going for it, why didn't I finish it?

Part of the problem is that our reincarnated central figures are horribly two-dimensional. One character is always passionate and driven, frequently to his/her own detriment and the detriment of the jati (which here refers to a family of souls, if you will, bound to each other in each reincarnation and reliant upon each other to ultimately break free of Samsara). One is always mystical and sensitive. One is always inquisitive. It becomes tiresome to follow them through history, knowing more than they do, watching them repeat their mistakes, because they simply don't make enough progress fast enough. Thus, what might've been a truly compelling narrative device simply fails to deliver, and it's likely because it was never meant to be the primary thrust of the novel.

Another part of the problem is this book sets itself up to be Fraught with Import™. The very nature of the premise, the book's narrative structure, and it's daunting timeline all point to a Big Novel full of Big Ideas™, and with all due respect to Kim Stanley Robinson, it fails to deliver on that implicit promise. In fact, simply by scanning a few reviews on Amazon, it becomes evident that Robinson's ultimate reimagining of history doesn't veer too far afield from our own. The New World, electricity, the atom bomb are all discovered by the Islamic and Chinese empires, and roughly at the same times this crazy European dominated world of ours discovered them. It's hard not to imagine Robinson crafting this novel after a long, sleepless weekend of playing Sid Meier's Civilization. It's the same sort of conceit: a world in which social, economic, and scientific progress exist independently of culture.

This leads to the biggest problem of the novel. The entire book is predicated on a "seemingly rational but ultimately politically incorrect idea", and once that becomes apparent, the novel becomes rather distasteful. If the mere presence of European society is the factor that prevented the Chinese and Muslim societies from reaching this level of potential, it directly implies that these cultures are somehow inferior to European culture. It further hammers this idea home by mapping much of their alternate history to the course of events as we know it, giving these events a heightened importance (the one true path that all society must follow). Doing so turns the promise of the novel on its ear, offering to speculate "this is how would things be different," and instead proselytizing on "why things must inevitably remain the same." The book ceases to be about Eastern culture at all, and, instead, becomes a 700 page apology for Western society 1349 CE- Present. In essence, it absolves Western society of any accountability for its crimes against other cultures by saying, "hey, if it wasn't the Europeans, someone else would've come along and done it." It's an irrational argument built upon layer after layer of fallacy: a house of cards that stands only if we ignore the rules of gravity.

Ultimately, The Years of Rice and Salt promises much and fails to deliver on those promises. Perhaps if it had focused more on the humanist elements of the story, or perhaps if it had taken more risks with its speculative future, I might have had kinder things to say about it. Alas, those kind sentiments exist in an alternate history to which you and I, Dear Reader, shall never be privy.

I recently had a chance to see that "THIS IS SPARTAAAAA!" movie that came out earlier this year. Chance really isn't an accurate assessment of the situation. I was all but compelled to watch the film by my brother, in his eagerness to quote the movies three or four memorable lines in my presence without incurring the fearful vengeance of the Anti-Spoiler Demon.

This might imply that I didn't wish to see the film, which is inaccurate. I was certainly interested in seeing 300. However, as my expectations of the movie were not terribly high, it was ranked on my priorities list accordingly.

But see it I did, and while it might be harsh to demand 117 minutes of my life back, if 300's reliance on gritty hyperrealistic violence and quivering oily machismo in light of actual plot and character development has taught me anything, it's that the world is a unforgiving and cruel to the weak willed and the soft hearted.

Therefore, I'm demanding 234 minutes of my life back, a bottle of fine scotch, and a back rub from a lovely young lady. After that, I might approach something resembling mollification.

It should be noted here that spoilers follow.

We begin our story in the kingdom of Sparta, where men and women are forbidden, by law, to have more than 1% body fat. We are quickly introduced to young Leonidas, future King of Sparta, who at a delicate age is torn from his mother's loving bosom and plunged into a childhood of savagery, violence, and abuse. This total absence of a feminine hand in his rearing, coupled with brutal fistfights with other children and strict physical discipline from the adult males in his life is precisely what transforms Leonidas into a bristling epitome of masculinity, honor, and nobility, loved and admired by all his soldiers. In a purely heterosexual way, of course.

After a brief rite of passage, wherein a teenage Leonidas ventures forth to brave the cold, unforgiving Mediterranean winter and does battle with vicious CGI, we are brought to the forefront of the story. Leonidas, now King, receives a messenger from the Persian King Xerxes, and, being an expert at diplomacy, kicks the messenger and his 20 man entourage into a conveniently placed messenger-kicking-pit. War imminent, he seeks the approval of the gods and the apella to marshal his warriors. Receiving neither, he gathers 300 men anyway and marches off to fight the Persian army, whose soldiers number somewhere in the bajillions.

Here the movie becomes an exhausting string of absurd and graphic action sequences occasionally ornamented by episodes of flimsy subplot. The Spartans repel wave after wave of invaders, Xerxes tempts Leonidas with power, and on the homefront, we are subjected to a horribly mechanical political subplot featuring Queen Gorgo, who is threatened, extorted, stripped of her virtue, betrayed, and ultimately saved from charges of murder and treason by the fact that the real traitor likes to keep his under drawers lined with Persian blood money.

Finally, Leonidas and his men are "betrayed," though I use the term lightly, as it's difficult to be betrayed by someone you only just met and whose entire life, dreams, and aspirations you crush with a few condescending phrases. Leonidas and his remaining troops fight the good fight and are slaughtered, but not before taking King Xerxes down a few pegs and ensuring that the rest of Sparta will fight with honor and bravery and finish the job. It's a horrible film, and if you haven't seen it by now, I don't recommend you waste two hours of your life watching it, no matter how impeccably well-oiled Gérard Butler's pecs may be.

"But Bard," I hear the fans of this film begin to protest, "you're being an overly critical prat. This movie isn't meant to be anything more than an excuse to watch musclebound men doing cool and violent things."

And that's where you're wrong. Not in your assessment of this movie's purpose, mind you. There, I think you're dead on. However, there seems to be this natural assumption among fans of this film that anyone who didn't enjoy it as much as they simply ha d their expectations set too high. Case in point, I approached this film assuming it would be awful. I expected hollow acting, a weak plot, and perhaps passable action, and given these fairly low expectations 300 still could not deliver.

Much of the problem lies in the fact that everything 300 brought to the screen has been done better in other films. And no combination of those elements really outshines the prominent action movies of the last decade. Gladiator, though far from one of my favorite films, had much better cinematography, and gave us more believable, more intense combat. Lord of the Rings gave us a much more realistic sense of place and really set the bar in terms of fantastic arms and armor. Brotherhood of the Wolf did a much better job with hyperrealistic blow-by-blow fight choreography. Shall we even talk about Leonidas' last moments versus William Wallace in Braveheart? Let' s not and let Sparta retain some of her honor. Even Leonidas, that epitome of testosterone infused muscle, doesn't strike me as half the manly man that Charlton Heston portrayed in his 1965 picture "The War Lord." Or Spartacus for that matter.

Or Moses.

These were supposed to be the movie's strong points, and when they don't meet their promise, what's left is a twitching abortion of a film that the real Spartans would have rejected on the spot. The political subplot is weak, the portrayal of the Queen as a guileless, honorable, but vulnerable woman being manipulated by those who would do her harm is offensive to women everywhere. Her vengeance and triumph at the end is a weak apology. Equally offensive is the film's use of physiognomy to portray good and evil, the Spartans encompassing (one ideal of) human physical perfection, while the armies of Xerxes are hideously deformed. Even Xerxes himself, while beautiful, is festooned with facial piercings to give him a look that is sinister by our culture's priggish standards.

Despite his legendary work on Batman, I have never been a fan of Frank Miller, and thus I have not read the graphic novel upon which this movie was based. I can't tell you whether the film 300 is a bad adaptation of a good graphic novel loosely based on history, or whether it is a good adaptation of a poor graphic novel loosely based on history. What I can tell you is that 300 the film fails to be as entertaining as the history it seeks to dramatize. My recommendation? Forgo the fiction and find yourself a nice history book on the Greco-Persian wars. You'll be in for a better story.

I've been playing Peggle over the last couple days, and like so many other games in the Popcap library it' s shamelessly addictive.

There is this moment, however, that every game designer on this planet needs to pay attention to and emulate. The moment you are about to win a game, when the ball is racing toward that final orange peg, suddenly time slows down, the pinball begins to blaze like a comet, timpani rolls... it connects...

And the invisible choir begins to sing "Ode to Joy."

For such a silly little game, that moment packs quite a charge. Its pretty nearly as invigorating as the moment Wander topples a Colossus. And toppling a Colossus is a real project. By comparison, this is like having the entire room stand up and cheer because you managed to tie your shoelaces properly. If only we had an invisible choir that praised us every time we did something cool in real life. We'd all feel a lot better about ourselves.

This ties directly back to what I was talking about the other day regarding rewards for good behaviors. This is precisely why we will eventually create video games where a player actually feels her moral choices. Feeling good about yourself is an extremely powerful state of being, and feeling good about what you do, even inside a game, is going to have a tremendous impact on the meaning of actions.

At the very least, it's kept me coming back to the free online version of Peggle, and it's kept me contemplating the purchase of the full game, and I'm sure that's exactly what Popcap was hoping it would do.

For several months now, I've been reading Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt, and I just can't get through it. I pick it up, read for a few pages, and then put it down for a few days or a week or two weeks.

The premise is intriguing, and I like the characters and the way the author draws them through time. I have my quibbles so far, but nothing has struck me as particularly offputting. This book just can't seem to engage me.

I know some of the people reading this journal have read this book. I'm somewhere around page 190, and I'm ready to give up. Can you give me a compelling reason to stick with it?

This has gotten terribly long. I meant to talk about morality in video games, but I also seem to have ended up with a review for Fable. It wasn't really my intention to review Fable itself. For one thing, the game is several years old now, and for another I couldn't possibly do a funnier or more accurate review than Yahtzee has already done. Nevertheless, it seems this has turned into something of a review anyway. It's behind the cut in case you want to skip it. My rant about morality in video games is further down, also behind a cut for your convenience .

( A Fable Review )



( Morality in Gaming: a Manifesto )

___
1: Not counting Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Jedi Knight II, Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, The Elder Scrolls series, Wing Commander 4, Kyrandia 3, NetHack, Dragon Warrior, etc. etc. etc....