Peter Hodges

One of my 2010 goals has been to play more video games.

Yes. That’s right. I want to play more video games. I did a piss-poor job of it last year, and I missed out on some gaming goodness. Pursuant to that goal, I’ve been playing a more this year. While I’m deriving some enjoyment from my primary hobby, there are  several things that fill me with rage, decanting their liquid anger into my empty soul like the devil’s own urine. Here’s a random sample of items that get my goat:

Borderlands Expansion Pack

The first time I played it, Mad Moxxi was cute, boobalicious, and sarcastically witty. Now, every time I play the arena, her voice grates, her taunts wear on me, and the loot that she drops from her high tower makes me want to put Brick’s (the tank character, and my main toon) fist through her face. This was high concept with poor execution–the arenas provide replayability, the potential for loot is great, and you get enemies/bosses from the entire game. The bad news is that it is all recycled content, and the voice tracks are repeated way too often. Couple this to fact that this should have been patched content support and not a paid expansion pack, and my knuckles want to taste flesh. (But I still play it almost every night. Go figure.)

Battlefield Bad Company 2

If you’ve known me at all, you know that I am a Battlefield fanboy. I even played that atrocious “sequel” they called BF2142 (the fewest hours I’ve spent in any Battlefield game). Now, we get scraps from the console table (Battlefield Bad Company was never a PC game, and we only got the sequel because someone in their company decided to throw us a bone). The game officially releases on March 2nd, but you can play in a one-map beta test with a pre-order. Saddling up with the old Battlefield crew (*fist bump to TulsaLAN*), I downloaded what was supposed to be a beta game.

In reality, it is an alpha, because beta at least implies functionality out of the box. I currently cannot run the game through Steam, I cannot use Ventrilo (VoIP software) unless I key the transmit button during the load process so that my mic stays open all the time, the server browser crashes to desktop, and the friends/matchmaking system is broken. When I finally do get in the game (by finding the game executable buried in my Steam directory and right-clicking to “run as admin”), it’s pretty okay. It tries a little too hard to be Call of Duty (the damage model is terribly unforgiving, and the movement isn’t as fluid as other Battlefield games).

Sniper rifle and RPG zooms are toggles, while battle rifles and light machine guns require steady “holds” on the right mouse button to bring up iron sights. Crouching isn’t a toggle either, you must hold it down. There is no prone. That’s right, boys and girls, this is a war game, and you can’t lay down on the fucking ground and avoid enemy fire.  When I quit the game tonight (playing with the wonderful Kate) and reflected on my experience, I realized that I wanted to fly to Sweden and punch the lead developer of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 in the face. Twice.

They’ve taken my beloved franchise, dumbed it down for the console retards, and then castrated what they didn’t break. I can only hope that someone in the mod community can fix these issues about four to six months down the line, or maybe even give the game something like Desert Combat was to the Battlefield 1942 series. If not, it may top Battlefield 2142 for fewest hours played in a Battlefield game.

Steam

Steam is the elephant in the room when it comes to digital distribution. I’ve been a retail box kind of guy, but recently I’m transitioning to steam. For example, I bought Borderlands and Dragon Age retail, but I’ve gotten Mass Effect (the first one), Torchlight, and now Battlefield: Bad Company 2 through Steam. It’s nice that my games and profile reside in the “cloud.” It’s a pity, though, that Steam still forces SecuROM copy protection/DRM on me when technically I don’t even own the content. I have to be connected to their authentication servers to even play the damned game, and they still saddle me with copy protection.

Are you kidding me?

Really?

I’m not going to pirate games; as a content creator myself, I fully believe that artists should be compensated for their time. Supporting a platform like Steam implicitly recognizes that I’m willing to put up with managing still another on-line account in exchange for content security and file management. That copy protection is a by-product of this should be a win for everyone. Instead, game companies have taken the opportunity to ram their DRM phallus into my mouth in an attempt to make me swallow their load of resource-hogging superfluous garbage. It’s like people are trying to kill PC gaming. I’ve refused to go the console route on general principles (no mouse and keyboard, auto-aim in first person shooters is lame beyond belief), but if I continue to have to wear an “Exit Only” sign on my ass when I buy and play PC Games, then I’ll be forced to turn my back on the platform. That sucks for everyone.

Reponse to Infinity Ward Petition

Infinity Ward is the maker of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I’ve boycotted the game (and encouraged others to do so, as well) due to the lack of dedicated server support, the ten dollar price tag increase over standard PC Games, the lack of mod/community support. After signing the petition, I received a mass email from a community manager that was basically a big “Dear Pete and everyone who signed this petition: Fuck you.”  They detailed their sales of the PC version, the number of players playing during peak times (via Xfire statistics), and the fact that they’re “on the cutting edge” and they’re “changing the way PC Gamers interact with online content.” If by cutting edge they mean “Xbox 360″ and they want to strip features that PC Gamers demand in their games by taking an intentional step backwards, then sure, I guess it’s a success. I felt more like they were rubbing the noses of the 125,694 signers of the petition in the fact that their opinions and money didn’t matter. (It would be interesting to know how many signers actually bought the game despite their “commitment” not to.) That alone earns the responsible cretin of this organization a punch in the nose.

Let’s play Infinity Ward’s game and do a little math here. Let’s assume that 20% of the signers followed through on their promise to not buy the game (Is that optimistic? Look at the Amazon review for it.) That’s 25, 140 people.

Multiply that by the $59.99 ($60 for convenience’s sake) premium for the game: $1,508,077 sales dollars are now left on the table. If you assume a 10% profit margin, they’re leaving about $150,000 of pure, bottom line, dividend-producing money untapped. That alone is more than enough for a business unit to spend the month that it would take a couple of programmers and a user interface specialist to put in those items.

Oh, and did I mention that it uses SecuROM, too?

Since they want to play the math game, I’ll chortle to myself every time I leave the game alone in Best Buy or the Steam store and say: “1.5 million dollars, haha!”

After a week of contemplation, here are the winners of the (coveted, I’m sure) Peter Hodges annual awards.

Book of the Year

There were so many good novels out last year, including several that I didn’t have a chance to mention even in the nominations. I picked stand-out novels from among my favorite, established authors for consideration. This meant that  I left out Acacia by David Anthony Durham, Maelstrom by Taylor Anderson, Eye of the Storm by John Ringo, and Lamentation by Ken Scholes, all of which were great reads and deserve recognition for their contributions to the genre for the year.

Head and shoulders above them all, though, is Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold. He takes a standard revenge story, sets it in the harsh world of his Last Argument of Kings trilogy, and adds such memorable characters and tight plotting to it that it rises to the level of masterpiece. Abercrombie has a gift for making each character in his narrative sound distinctly different–haughty nobles, sorcerers with the weight of ages, obsessive-compulsive serial killers, and charismatic barbarians sound and feel alive. Each of them is writing their own story with their own voice within the greater narrative, to the point that I lose myself so completely in the book that I will surface hours later. The voices are different enough that they could have been written by the characters themselves. Add to this the fact that the characters are not typical fantasy constructs–none of them are wholly good or wholly evil (not even the OCD serial killer). Best Served Cold provides a visceral, satisfying, and entertaining read that has resonated enough with me that every time I finish a book, I contemplate re-reading it before starting another new one.

Video Game of the Year

I played so few video games this year, that it almost seems a little unfair to nominate and pick a game for this award. I spent quite a bit of time with the Wii, but none of the games there are more than idle version. Gaming as a medium for solid storytelling is reserved mostly for the PC (with a begrudging hat tip to some console titles and developers that have forsaken the PC). My taste in games has changed over the years, as well. I used to live for the perfect frag, the epic flag capture, or the best tank/zerg/grunt rush. Now, I’m looking for immersive story lines, good laughs with a few close friends, and a sense of shared accomplishment.

Team Fortress 2 filled all of those roles (save for a storyline) off and on for a good portion of the year, but the game has been out for nearly two years. Even though, hour for hour, this is where the bulk of my game time was spent, TF2 was ineligible for consideration. That left Dragon Age: Origins and Borderlands as the serious contenders.

Borderlands was the most fun I’ve had in a shooter since Battlefield 2. The coop play is implemented better and more smoothly than anything I’ve ever played before, but I can’t give the game the award for several reasons:

1. Forcing gamers to use Gamespy for a match-making system is a travesty. That might have been acceptable in 2001. It’s not in 2009. Either use Steam (Valve makes an excellent product) or code your own.
2. Uneven pacing toward the end of the game was generated by the high expectations of the early game. I expect my excitement to crescendo through a game, instead of getting derailed.
3. The last boss battle was anti-climatic to the point of frustration. Were it not for all the things Borderlands did correctly, I would have mailed Randy Pitchford of Gearbox software a picture of me giving him the finger.

This makes it sound like I’m giving Dragon Age: Origins the award by default, by that isn’t entirely fair. It is hands down the best RPG I’ve ever played, lacking only a good coop system to elevate it to true greatness. Games like Dragon Age are meant to be enjoyed by parties of people, and the fact that Bioware worked so diligently to give you intelligent, meaningful interactions with the NPC characters in the game shows that they understand that. I would have loved, though, had they expanded the mechanic of the game just enough to let two human players each play with an NPC companion. This would have made a nearly perfect experience sublime.

As it stands, Dragon Age will be long remembered as one of the near-misses of my PC Gaming career, and my winner for video game of the year.

This year, I’ve lumped film, video games, and television into one post. My sampling of video games and television has been limited this year (mostly because television sucks), and while I’ve seen a lot of films this year, there haven’t been a great deal of stand-outs for me to really sink my teeth into.

Television Nominees

Battlestar Galactica, Season 4.5

Season 4.5 of BSG wrapped up earlier this year with an ending that was…something. I’m not exactly sure what it was, but I think Starbuck was an angel, God wanted Cylons and humans to interbreed, and somehow, a star-faring culture gave up their technology to live in peace with nature. The only way this ending could have been less satisfying is if Ron Moore drove to my house and personally kicked me in the nuts. Yet, for all of it’s dark meanderings, it did wrap up the best science fiction series ever to appear on network television. And that has to count for something, friends.

Torchwood: Children of Earth

I guess the Torchwood production team found themselves a real writing staff. After two seasons of very hit or miss episodes, they managed to wrap up the story of Jack Harkness and his (remaining) crew with an emotional, tension-filled roller coaster ride that kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. I was amazed, nauseated, and elated throughout the production. Bravo to our friends across the pond.

Stargate: Universe

I find this series to be strangely watchable, despite the missed opportunities on characterization. Friend and former writing instructor John Scalzi saves the show from being a disaster on the technical end (although if I see those damned blue “trading places” stones in one more episode, my reality motivator will blow a gasket). If the producers listen to their fanbase and amp the character interactions, put a leash on the (epic fail) Chloe/Lt. Matthew Scott romance (I want to see Eli knock that booty out the park), and provide  a little more adventure to the story arc, this could be a strong second season winner. After all, other great science fiction shows are full of awkwardness in the first season–Babylon 5 or Star Trek: Next Generation ring a bell for anyone?

The Tudors

Sex, elaborate period costumes, and sex makes this an interesting study in intrigue, revisionist history, and drama. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is brilliant as Henry, and his rapid succession of wives and advisors provides fodder for a soap opera written in the blood of the beheaded and anti-Catholic rhetoric. This entire series is magnetic.

Honorable mention: Fringe
Biggest missed opportunity: Dollhouse

Video Game Nominees

Dragon Age Origins

This is the best RPG I’ve ever played. Period. This beats the greats of the past–both Neverwinter Nights, Oblivion, Fallout (although I haven’t played Fallout 3), World of Warcraft, Dungeon Siege, Titan Quest, Diablo, etc. Never has a game grabbed me by the heart and led me on a tale that had me emotionally invested in characters within the world. For the first time outside of a tabletop experience, I played a role in the game world, and I played it consistently and with trepidation at the consequences.

Borderlands

I’ve beaten this game with friends Kate and PoorYorick not once, but twice, looking for elusive loot and tough enemies. It is the definitive coop experience on the PC, ranking, in my estimation, even above our last nominee on this front.  What is particularly striking is the cel-shaded graphics, which provide an excellent style for the mood of the story. While the game does have flaws (the last boss battle is the very definition of anti-climatic), and the humor and sarcasm that made the game so endearing early fades in the last parts, this is definitely a strong contender for game of the year, if only because of the sheer enjoyment I derive from playing it.

Left 4 Dead 2

This is supposed to be the penultimate coop experience, but it feels a little too much like “been there, done that” for it to work in the same space. This feeling is salvaged somewhat by the awesome “scavenge” mode, new infected boss types, and a new characters to play, but at the end, you’re still killing lots of zombies.

Honorable mention: Plants vs. Zombies
Most frustrating game ever: Demigod

Film

Avatar

What can I say that hasn’t already been said? Is the story designed to make white people feel guilty for their ascendancy? Yes. Is it a retread of the classic “someone from advance culture goes native” idea? Yes. Where it differs are the sounds, the emotional impact of the actors (both real and motion-captured), and the visual effects. I could watch this movie again and again.

District 9

Low budget, unknown director, and set in South Africa–those three things make it sound like a trifecta that would lead this movie to the bargain bin. Instead, we have an intelligent thriller, shot documentary-fashion, that serves as a modern day tale on the dangers of apartheid. The special effects (performed by WETA, Peter Jackson’s effects house) rival any big-budget movie, and are all the more powerful for their judicious use in the story.

Inglorious Basterds

This one gets the nod in the science fiction/fantasy category only because it is alternate history. I’ve long been a Tarantino fan, but he takes the cake here with his easy-going, cold-blooded villain Hans Landa, his psychotic American platoon leader Brad Pitt, and brilliant cameos by several actors throughout the course of the movie. The dialog is amazing, mixing the mundane with the important, but the real scene stealing happens whenever Brad Pitt is on the screen.  This is Tarantino at his finest–an anti-Nazi revenge fantasy that re-writes the end of World War II.

Honorable mention: Watchmen, Zombieland
Epic Fail: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Funny People

We’ve been on a brief hiatus from the site, but I’m going to kick it off when the nominations for the Peter Hodges (fourth annual) book of the year awards.

For me to consider a novel in this category, it must have been published during the calendar year of 2009, I must have read it, and it must be in the genre of speculative fiction.

The nominees are:

• The Sword of the Lady, S. M. Stirling
• Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson
• Without Warning, John Birmingham
• Best Served Cold, Joe Abercrombie
• First Lord’s Fury, Jim Butcher

In two cases, there are authors who published twice during the year, and both of their novels were eligible. Brandon Sanderson continued the Wheel of Time series with The Gathering Storm. Despite the fact that this is the best Wheel of Time novel since Lord of Chaos, this is continuation of Robert Jordan’s world. It is expertly executed, but does not show Brandon Sanderson’s originality in the same way that Warbreaker does. Jim Butcher wrapped his Codex Alera series (First Lord’s Fury) and also published Turncoat, the latest of the Harry Dresden cycle. While I love the Dresden novels, they’re mass-market urban fantasy that doesn’t show the range that Butcher is capable of.

I’ll ponder the range of each novel over the next few weeks or so and announce the winner. Feel free to sound off in the comment section below on the nominees, or on a novel I may have left out.

Jay Lake has done a wonderful job with Green. I have been slowly adding his works to my towering list of authors to read, and I am glad I had the opportunity to immerse myself in this tale.

We follow a girl of no name and no future as she is sold to an educated stranger. Raised as courtesan by cruel mistresses, she is trained in all arts for the eventuality that she will serve the undying Duke of Copper Downs.

Where does the word “Green” come in? Part of the mystery surrounding the book’s title is so important, that I won’t spoil the surprise. It’s well worth finding out for yourself and is wrapped up in what I would offer as part one of three in this novel.

I was easily reminded of Memoirs of Geisha with the detailed narrative, which only strengthened my love for Lake’s prose, as Memoirs is one of my favorite books of all time. Yet our young and unlikely protagonist is not nearly as eloquent and in control of herself as Golden’s heroine which makes it that much more fun to read.

It was almost like I was reading a cross between a possible path for Arya from George R.R. Martin’s, Song of Ice and Fire series and that of Golden’s poor Japanese girl, Chiyo. Like Mary Robinette Kowal wrote in her review of the piece,

I kept feeling like I’d read it before while absolutely knowing I hadn’t.

Bingo. It has some of the best elements of stories that I truly love and enough new things to keep me engaged. Like an old friend, you remember the person and are delighted at how much they’ve grown or changed as the years pass.

I only have two criticisms. One of which is aimed at the marketing department of the publisher.

I like to say I don’t ever judge a book by its cover, however I’ve proven time and time again that unless the book is specifically recommended, I will judge. This particular piece of art gracing this cover would pass. It’s interesting enough that it would have caught my eye had I been looking for something without recommendation. Yet…

I have been keeping up with the growing controversy of publishers that select poorly representative cover art for new novels. It’s not the cruelly drawn space ships or weird art that after finishing a book and reengaging with the cover do you ask yourself, “Where did that happen?” It’s selling the work by offering up a protagonist that looks nothing like the protagonist.

Justine Larbalestier had issue with a recent work. Her publisher decided to market her book with a white protagonist, when clearly Justine’s focus was that of woman of African American descent. Hoping to get more white girls to pick up the book, the publishers marketed how they saw fit. Justine rants here.

The same could be said for Jay’s front cover. I know, I touted it as a pretty piece of art. Which it is. Yet, Jay writes that his protag is a woman who has deep color to her skin. While the girl in his cover has slight Asian overtones, I kept feeling guilty that had this book not been on my recommended and must read list, I would have fallen into the consumer trap that I so wanted to avoid. I would have been secretly contributing to the reasoning publishers give their authors. Anyone who tells you covers don’t matter on impulse buys, doesn’t know anything about marketing.

I don’t want to make a huge stink about it, but it’s something I’ve been trying to be conscious of. I defaulted to reading a white character, because of who I am, but I feel I was also egged on by a cover that showed me what our heroine was supposed to look like. It actually threw me out of the book for a moment.

It does matter.

The only other thing I’ll offer regarding this piece is that I thought the ending was a bit exhausting. I really loved the ideas Lake put forth and there is some substantial build-up to what I would consider the third climax in the book. My issue is in regards to the sheer amount of new characters that are introduced. It takes careful reading at this stage in the novel to keep everyone straight, and at the breakneck pace I wanted to read, I found that I had to slow down and really sort through what was what and who was who.

In a nutshell, if you are looking for a high fantasy, literary kick-ass feminine narrative, chalk full of engaging surprises, this is the book for you.

For you wussy readers out there, it does contain skillful violence and the sex scenes are ala Alfred Hitchcock; acts are described in brief to leave more to the reader’s imagination. Just how I like ‘em.

4 out of 5 stars on this one.

S. M. Stirling continues his change saga with The Sword of the Lady. Stirling has been on an aggressive release schedule for the past several years, churning through the aftermath of the disappearance of the population of the island of Nantucket and the resulting changes to the men and women left behind. Set a generation after The Protector’s War, Stirling has used the past couple of books to pass the torch of leadership to those who born immediately after the change.

First and foremost, the rules of physics have fundamentally changed. Gunpowder doesn’t work quite right; steam doesn’t build enough pressure to drive engines. Internal combustion doesn’t work. In short, the basic physical chemistry of the universe changed overnight, leaving those left behind reliant on muscle power and animal power to accomplish their tasks.

Against this backdrop, young Rudi MacKenzie, scion of a clan of Wiccans who survived and thrived after the change, embarks on a quest to visit Nantucket. He has received visions leading him to a mystical sword, but Stirling leaves room for the reader to interpret whether these visions comes from God (or the gods), if they are being planted by extra-terrestrials, or if they are figments of Rudi’s imagination. There seems to be real power in worship of every form, whether it is the simple faith of a catholic warrior knight (Father Ignatius), or a complicated belief in the Norse pantheon.

Every hero on a quest must also have an enemy–in this case, it is the Church Universal and Triumphant, which is revealed in bits and pieces over the course of the novels. The “adepts” of the church (essentially warrior mages?) have power that looks and feels magical within the context of the world, but the system by which it works has not been explained thoroughly enough for me to grasp if it truly is supernatural, or if it’s an application of something more mundane. Their characterization is the weakest part of the narrative. Their motivations aren’t terribly clear, and their brief point-of-view chapters are somewhat one dimensional. I could use more information about this aspect of Stirling’s world, so I’ll have to wait and see if he answers the questions I have in the next book.

Rudi and his friends are hunted and harried by soldiers of the CUT as they try frantically to reach their goal. Rife with action sequences, Stirling takes the reader on a ride through the wasteland of a post-change America. Our mighty civilization has fallen to ignorance, tyranny, and cannibalism, but out of it all, a few small communities of men and women have begun to thrive. These are the seeds of the future, and the detail provided for each unexpected community of friends is both poignant and melancholy. Whether intentionally or not, Stirling forces us to ask difficult questions  about our existence and our potential survival in the face of disaster. In his view, fewer than ten percent of us have what it takes to pull through, and of those ten percent, it is much easier to forget our thin veneer of liberty and civilization in order to survive.

This is grim, existential, and difficult to put down.

Joe Abercrombie follows his First Law Trilogy with the stand-alone Best Served Cold, a novel of revenge, political intrigue, and interesting characters set in a rich and diverse fantasy world. The world is the same as the First Law, and minor characters from the first narrative appear and disappear throughout this novel, but you needn’t have read the first three books to read this one. The setup reads like a typical revenge/adventure story, but having read Abercrombie’s earlier work, I knew it wouldn’t be quite so simple.

Imagine taking Tolkein’s epic world, focusing on one small part of one fragmented kingdom in an area that two great powers are struggling over, adding Quentin Tarantino’s eye for the dramatic and his gift for dialogue, sprinkling George R. R. Martin’s ability to write living, breathing characters, and finally adding a dash of black, gallows-style humor. Shake it well, make sure that none of the characters could truly be heroic by any definition, and then tell a revenge story that is anything but typical. That, in essence, is Best Served Cold.

I’ll admit that the plot meanders a bit toward the end; the book could have gotten away with being about forty thousand words shorter, but the characters in it are just so damned interesting that you probably won’t notice. The characters range from the female mercenary general who was left for dead by a jealous employer, a barbarian soldier/killer who is trying to be an optimist, a drunken ex-general, or a scary little serial killer with a penchant for numbers. Their stories are interwoven with a deft hand, but don’t mistake this for an epic fantasy. Rather, this is blunt, brutal, and gritty. Things don’t come together for the good of the characters, and the results are often ironic, if not mind-numbling “oh my God, I shouldn’t be laughing” hilarious. Abercromibe succeeds in giving such distinct voices to the characters that I would swear that it was really them writing their own autobiographies. I can think of no one else who nails this aspect in the writing as well.

Abercromie has really struck a nerve with me. I discovered him via the Amazon “related authors” search when I was browsing for Scott Lynch’s next book in the Locke Lamora series, and I’m glad that I did. There are very few authors that I’ll buy books from site-unseen or without some reviews to back them up, and Joe Abercrombie is on that list. Start with The Blade Itself and work your way through the trilogy. You won’t be disappointed.

I’m a little behind on book reviews.

Surprised, are you? I’ve been making an effort to spend more time writing, plotting, (video gaming, *sigh*), and reading than usual, but all that means that I need to keep everyone abreast of the newer books to hit the shelves in the past month.

This week, we’re going to talk about John Ringo’s Eye of the Storm, Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold, S. M. Stirling’s The Sword of the Lady. If I’m feeling especially ambitious, we’ll catch up with some earlier summer releases: John Birmingham’s Without Warning and Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker.

As a preview, I have to say that Sanderson’s book, while initially very odd, is my early contender for novel of the year. It was nice to see Ringo return to form with another story in the Legend of the Aldenata universe, and S. M. Stirling could hardly disappoint with more of his change series.  The real surprise, and to my mind, the underdog, has been Joe Abercrombie. He’s been churning out meaty fantasy novels for the past few years, and as far as I can tell, has gone largely unnoticed. Let me say this straight out: He is amazing. No one, not even George R. R. Martin, has as keen a grasp of character as Abercrombie. Wait for the review and I’ll give you a glimpse of it.

That means I’m still behind on Weber’s By Heresies Distressed, and I have to get that one done in time for the Christmas book rush. That means I’m going to be a busy guy.

I’ve recently started to read E. E. Knight’s Vampire Earth series. I did not read it for the longest time for a simple reason: It had “Vampire in the title. I’m not a fan of the current trend to drive urban fantasy into the ground. I understand its hot; I understand that hard SF and military SF arent’ the sellers they once were (unless you’re on the British side of the pond). What that means for me as a consumer is that I’m extremely selective about what I read. I finally saw so many recommendations coming to me about the first book Way of the Wolf that I picked it up. I was surprised that the story wasn’t about vampires at all, but a post-apocalyptic Earth that is invaded by a aeons-old alien culture. Yes, one of the alien types does sample human blood and/or “auras,” but the difference is that they are aliens and not some supernatural, undead construct. Why does this make a difference? I don’t know. Ask your mother.

E. E. Knight (or his agents and publishers) have missed the boat by labeling this as the Vampire Earth series. The book is a great, fast-paced read. The episodic nature reminds me of Allen Steele’s Coyote series. His world building is grim and thoughtful, and his main character (no matter what the few idiot reviewers on Amazon contend) is well developed and driven. This is not to say that urban fantasy books, by and large, are not great, fast-paced reads. For me, the I miss the appeal of the conceptual framework and thus barely give them a chance. If Mr. Knight is trying to attract sci-fi traditionalists who enjoy a good alien invasion/human resistance  story, I would recommend a series label that doesn’t put off the (admitted) minority of speculative fiction readers who want good science fiction without the supernatural chaser.

I’m looking forward to reading more in the series over the next couple of months.

This is arguably the best movie of the summer.

I’m serious. It flew under the radar until a recent unveiling at ComicCon (smart marketing move, or hedging their bets?), where hype built up to hellish proportions. I went in to the theater expecting a solid movie, but I didn’t expect to be impressed on so many levels.

District 9 is a science fiction story in the best tradition of the genre. It has unique philosophical underpinnings that speak to the nature of humanity–the good, the bad, and the ugly. We follow a mid-level civil servant throughout the entire narrative in what amounts to a first person point of view, interrupted only by documentary-style interviews with “experts” on the events of the movie. I can’t really talk about the plot without revealing too much of what happens, but several science fiction tropes are well-represented.

What elevates this story is the emotion that the director wrings from the audience at every step. You will be alternately horrifed, ecstatic, disgusted, and uplifted at different points in the film. None of the scenes are rendered for sheer gratuity. The action sequences rival the many-times more expensive Transformers sequel (a movie that I personally loved). The special effects are absolutely seamless. The aliens themselves are rendered such that I couldn’t tell if they were CG, actors in body suits, or a hybrid with motion capture technology.

There are some weak points in the science of the story, but these are gracefully put aside by the director in the service of the tale. I never found myself lingering on these questions for very long, simply because there were too many other interesting things to ponder.