My local library really came through this month, I’ve just (literally 2 minutes ago) finished The Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko and it’s damn awesome - it takes some very interesting turns from The Night Watch (no, I’m not going to talk about it) - can’t wait to a) see the movie and b) read the 3rd book when it’s finally released in English. There’s a major element from the 2nd book that made it into the first movie, it’s going to be interesting to see how the movie handles it.
I started reading “His Dark Materials” by Phillip Pullman and am nearly finished with the 2nd book (The Subtle Knife) - really enjoyable series, I’m surprised I haven’t read these before now. Just in time for the movie and game :)
I’m reading A Clash of Kings by GRRM right now, and still not really in to it. If it doesn’t pick up by the end of the book, I find it likely I won’t continue the series.
I just started “The Egyptologist” - I really don’t like the way the book is written…the writing is from journal entries or letters between characters…kind of annoys me.
I also started “A Game of Thrones”, fairly interesting so far but with so many characters I need to continue this and not alternate between the two novels.
I’m still slogging my way through Doris Goodwin’s Team of Rivals. I’m working again so I don’t have all that time to just sit in coffee shops reading like I was over the past three months.
I just read jPod by Douglas Coupland. I powered through it in two days, but that’s not saying much, as it’s full of pages with a single word, or a challenge like, “I’ve printed out pi to 10,000 digits. I have inserted a single O among the 0’s, the first one to find it gets…”
And then 10 pages of pi.
But the story is quite fun. Twentysomethings working in a large game developer/publisher in Vancouver, and being just as disillusioned about their job as they would be at any other IT job. The game they’re making is hilarious, and I thought the developer was a thinly veiled EA, but does EA have a studio in Vancouver? It’s a big enough place to have multiple games in development. Anyway, I recommend it once it comes out in paperback. Not sure it’s worth hardcover prices.
But the story is quite fun. Twentysomethings working in a large game developer/publisher in Vancouver, and being just as disillusioned about their job as they would be at any other IT job. The game they’re making is hilarious, and I thought the developer was a thinly veiled EA, but does EA have a studio in Vancouver? It’s a big enough place to have multiple games in development. Anyway, I recommend it once it comes out in paperback. Not sure it’s worth hardcover prices.
EA Sports is in Vancouver*.
*Well, Burnaby, but close enough.
edit: “EA’s worldwide studios are headquartered in Burnaby, BC.” (from EA’s website)
It wasn’t a thinly veiled anything. Real game development is not like it is in the book. It involves long, long hours and hard work. It involves tedious arguments by serious adults about things like, “I think the VileBeast should have three tentacles, not five.” And in real game development, there are no women. That’s why Lara Croft looks the way she does. It’s not that game developers are deliberately sexist. We just don’t remember what real women look like.
Wow, next thing you’re going to say is that everybody in Vancouver doesn’t have basements full of pot plants, relationships with both ballroom dancers and Chinese people smugglers, and a friend who’s mom is a lesbian named freedom (who deliberately doesn’t capitalize her name.)
Besides, I just met two actual women who work at EA. Not in Vancouver, but still.
We have a nice population of women here, though admittedly most are not in the actual developmental departments (there are some here and there). Could always use more though :)
Working on Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon; after the final battle of Pale, Darujhistan threads still being laid, so pretty early on still. I’m digging it, though; I like that its starting point is that there’s already a shload of stuff going on, and that for the most part no one is talking to each other in chunks of exposition. At least so far, the reader’s trusted to get his bearings by context, and this reader appreciates that.
I only read one book this month: Play Money by Julian Dibbell. It’s the story of one guy trying to get rich from selling gold and other virtual stuff in MMORPGs. Ultima Online, specifically. Pretty interesting read, as it gives some glimpse into not only hackers who use exploits to create billions in gold and Chinese sweatshop owners who employ dozens of people to farm gold all day long, but also just regular guys who try to find a niche in the supply chain and make a living off it. Dibbell made over $45,000 in a year, I believe. Other people he interacted with made a LOT more. The only thing that irked me was that he blatantly ignored the more negative aspects of gold farming, like its effects on the economy, griefing, and the like. It was very one-sided. Still, well written and pretty interesting.
Think I’m throwing in the towel on The Terror a bit over halfway through. Just isn’t engaging me like Simmons’ novels usually do. The whole thing feels a bit too clinical. There have been a few really cool setpieces but I’m just not motivated to continue on.
Been reading Steven Erikson’s Malazan novella Blood Follows. Picked it up several years ago and never got around to it but I’m really enjoying it. I think he has one or two other novellas out there I’ll have to look into.
It picks up again, but overall I’d agree that it’s ultimately more of a fizzle than a climax. Still really nice setpiece chapters in it though; my overall favorite was the first Blanky, Ice Master versus Ice Monster chapter. If the book were made into a movie, that chapter would be its guitar solo.
That was actually exactly what I was thinking of when I mentioned setpiece. Amazing sequence but I though the book bogged down again after it. Also, I thought it would have been better if Simmons had bothered to characterize Blanky before that sequence but he had really only been mentioned in passing to that point.
Question- a simple yes or no that you can add some spoiler space to if needed: does Simmons end up explaining away the ice monster in a rational/non-supernatural way?
Though the amount of exposition that does eventually hit about it is part of the ultimate fizzle, in my opinion. I’d have preferred it to have remained a debateable mystery.
Also agreed that characters too frequently just lurched up out of nowhere, said boo, then quickly ran away again. That never really improves.
Recently finished The Sportswriter and Independence Day by Richard Ford. really enjoyed both. About to finish War Reporting For Cowards by Chris Ayers. Just picked up Norman Mailer’s latest about Hitler, not really sure if it’s supposed to be good or not.
