So I read all four black company books, or I guess you could say all 10, since they have now been re-packaged into trilogies / dualogies(?). It was a very entertaining series, and Glen Cook definitely is able to build an interesting world with very interesting characters, and interesting plot lines. I would have to say this is the first epic fantasy that I also epicly loved the characters!
The first trilogy is probably the best-written trilogy ever. It was completely engaging and probably the most fun I have ever had with a trilogy. He really did a good job coming up with his own lore (if he did copy someone else, I didn't recognize the similarities) that was almost familiar, yet completely not. He handles magic in a way that just really makes sense! The military "with the guys" feeling really put me into the story and made it very believable.
Glen has this habit of putting you in the point of view of a peon in the operation. When that person becomes more important, he puts you in someone else's perspective.
I'm a little torn, because while the first trilogy was the most incredible book ever, and the 2nd trilogy was also very epic, unfortunately books 7-9 (duology and a half) totally bogged down, and the tenth book just felt like he was ready to wrap it up. I will definitely recommend that you read the first trilogy though, and make your own decision from that point on. If you find yourself unable to get enough of the world you should definitely keep reading, and you REALLY get to feel the pain of time passing (I honestly started feeling a bit depressed myself at times). He really drew me in.
Anyway, first trilogy is a 10, the next trilogy somewhere between 8.5 to 9.5 depending on the fact that it leads in to the next two duologies, and the next books really ARE written well, but he so effectively built such an awesome world that I couldn't help but feel a little bit letdown yet also somewhat satisfied in the somewhat satisfying ending. I have to say that this must be because the journey was so well done.
I really really want to tell you details on what makes this book so good and the reasons that I think parts of it could have been better, but I don't want to post spoilers. I recommend that you read the first book and make your own decision.
Oh, the series is a bit gothicly dark, so if your favorite part of LOTR is re-reading the parts about elf cities you may not be into this.
This guy from Amazon says it a lot better than I could, and I totally agree with him: link
12 June 2010
04 June 2010
Sorry if you liked this one...
Apparently a lot of people love the Green Rider. A few people really don't. Unfortunately I think I am with the smaller group. I'm only on page 87, and even the people who liked it have said that it doesn't "pick up" until page 100. One reviewer even said that it didn't get interesting until the 2nd half.
Anyway, this is how I'm feeling right now: Amazon Crit but I plan to make it through this book (as long as I don't have any other books to read momentarily). At least I found one other person as frustrated as I, and now I can feel a little better and try to keep reading.
My big gripe is that the premise (she has to deliver a message to the king) should be more of a side-note that leads into the "real" issue, which would be the actual story with conflict and other "epic" things such as these villains hinted at. Even Incarceron (which, by the way, is a really good book... minus maybe 80 pages or so that were "ok") which aims to be more of a few-and-true fantasy, ends up being epicer than the Green Rider without even trying.
Of course, I may come back and modify this if I can ever get through the rest of the book.
Maybe I'll go write some reviews on books that I enjoyed reading so I don't just seem entirely negative. I guess I was too busy enjoying them to worry about writing a review.
/begin rant (highlight if you really wanna see it)
I mean seriously, these awesome green riders, who are famous for being messengers??!! When push comes to shove, do we call in the green riders? No, what about Ghostbusters? I think we would have to call in either the local militia or He-man, since the green-riders specialize in running away, and getting the message to the king who, obviously, is going to fix all our problems. Or will just die anyway, because the villains are obviously really scary, and the green riders all ran off.
Plus giant eagles, plus cliched named villains, plus a less-cooler version of galadriel, plus a less-cooler version of Shelob. At least the horse is unique. Oh wait, guess not.
(I'm perfectly willing to eat my words later)
Anyway, this is how I'm feeling right now: Amazon Crit but I plan to make it through this book (as long as I don't have any other books to read momentarily). At least I found one other person as frustrated as I, and now I can feel a little better and try to keep reading.
My big gripe is that the premise (she has to deliver a message to the king) should be more of a side-note that leads into the "real" issue, which would be the actual story with conflict and other "epic" things such as these villains hinted at. Even Incarceron (which, by the way, is a really good book... minus maybe 80 pages or so that were "ok") which aims to be more of a few-and-true fantasy, ends up being epicer than the Green Rider without even trying.
Of course, I may come back and modify this if I can ever get through the rest of the book.
Maybe I'll go write some reviews on books that I enjoyed reading so I don't just seem entirely negative. I guess I was too busy enjoying them to worry about writing a review.
/begin rant (highlight if you really wanna see it)
I mean seriously, these awesome green riders, who are famous for being messengers??!! When push comes to shove, do we call in the green riders? No, what about Ghostbusters? I think we would have to call in either the local militia or He-man, since the green-riders specialize in running away, and getting the message to the king who, obviously, is going to fix all our problems. Or will just die anyway, because the villains are obviously really scary, and the green riders all ran off.
Plus giant eagles, plus cliched named villains, plus a less-cooler version of galadriel, plus a less-cooler version of Shelob. At least the horse is unique. Oh wait, guess not.
(I'm perfectly willing to eat my words later)
20 May 2010
Dawn of War 2
During my rant about how bad Starcraft 2 is, a friend of mine told me that Dawn of War 2 is so much better. And that it's awesome. So I downloaded the demo from Steam for free, and played it, and it's seriously the best game I've played in the past 5 years.
The best part is that DoW2 is modeled after Warhammer 40,000, which is pretty much the best Wargame-system in the world. Space marines, Orks, space elves, big ugly bugs—what more could you ask for? Guns maybe? Well, so far all of the space marines have guns, and usually they are big.
"Daddy, I want to play Dawn of ward 2". Oh yeah? Why? "I like guns".
So, I let him "play" by sitting on my lap and watching me play. Then he says "I want to be the guy with the guns". And I say "Well, they all have guns".
DoW2 got rid of one of the most annoying parts of the game, which building a base. Sure, base building can be kind of interesting, but usually you have to spend at least as much time playing base manager as you do actually playing the game. Well, as fun as it is to WAIT for my stupid buildings to build, and for my stupid harvester guys to go get more minerals, I'd honestly just spend my time PLAYING the game. You know, shooting the orcs/bugs/spaceelves with all the guns. Also, Grenades, Rocket launchers, demo charges, and JET PACKS! Yeah, it's just awesome. I'm just going to say, don't waste $180 on Starcraft 2 (or any money on Blizzard junk in general—they're just not doing anything cool lately) and get a good game!
The best part is that DoW2 is modeled after Warhammer 40,000, which is pretty much the best Wargame-system in the world. Space marines, Orks, space elves, big ugly bugs—what more could you ask for? Guns maybe? Well, so far all of the space marines have guns, and usually they are big.
"Daddy, I want to play Dawn of ward 2". Oh yeah? Why? "I like guns".
So, I let him "play" by sitting on my lap and watching me play. Then he says "I want to be the guy with the guns". And I say "Well, they all have guns".
DoW2 got rid of one of the most annoying parts of the game, which building a base. Sure, base building can be kind of interesting, but usually you have to spend at least as much time playing base manager as you do actually playing the game. Well, as fun as it is to WAIT for my stupid buildings to build, and for my stupid harvester guys to go get more minerals, I'd honestly just spend my time PLAYING the game. You know, shooting the orcs/bugs/spaceelves with all the guns. Also, Grenades, Rocket launchers, demo charges, and JET PACKS! Yeah, it's just awesome. I'm just going to say, don't waste $180 on Starcraft 2 (or any money on Blizzard junk in general—they're just not doing anything cool lately) and get a good game!
14 May 2010
Starcraft 2
So I pre-ordered Starcraft 2 from Amazon for $60. The price is a little high but after 10 years since the original, the game was going to be super awesome. With all the hype and possibilities of Blizzard charging $60 for each portion of the storyline (Terran, Protoss, Zerg), I thought that this was going to HAVE to be a very remarkable game.
My beta key comes, I install, play.... My initial impression of SC2 is that it takes at least as long as the original to get your base started and start making units, and it just feels THE SAME. You rush or you get into a boring turtley game. Totally disappointed. Honestly, over the past few years they've put up movies and hyped the game, but it really doesn't feel like they put much thought or work into this. If this really releases in 2 months, it's not going to be good.
Heroes of Newerth, on the other hand, just barely released two days ago. I'd been playing that beta for over 6 months and since the first day HoN seemed twice as polished as SC2 seems now.
Thankfully, Amazon let me cancel my pre-order. At this point I don't think I'm going to be willing to pay more than $20 for this garbage, and definitely not $180. I guess a miracle can still happen, but Blizzard is getting way too greedy. The sad thing is that I know exactly what they will do. People will buy the first third of the single-player game, and Blizzard will assure us that we will always be able to play even if we don't buy the next installment. But what they won't tell you is that you'll only be playing with other people who didn't buy it. And then they'll do it at least one more time, and all of the multiplayer units that should have been in the game from the start, we'll have to wait for. And Blizzard is so used to the little fanboys eating out of their hand that they will do exactly this. And they will totally get away with it. For now, I'm going to wait.
My beta key comes, I install, play.... My initial impression of SC2 is that it takes at least as long as the original to get your base started and start making units, and it just feels THE SAME. You rush or you get into a boring turtley game. Totally disappointed. Honestly, over the past few years they've put up movies and hyped the game, but it really doesn't feel like they put much thought or work into this. If this really releases in 2 months, it's not going to be good.
Heroes of Newerth, on the other hand, just barely released two days ago. I'd been playing that beta for over 6 months and since the first day HoN seemed twice as polished as SC2 seems now.
Thankfully, Amazon let me cancel my pre-order. At this point I don't think I'm going to be willing to pay more than $20 for this garbage, and definitely not $180. I guess a miracle can still happen, but Blizzard is getting way too greedy. The sad thing is that I know exactly what they will do. People will buy the first third of the single-player game, and Blizzard will assure us that we will always be able to play even if we don't buy the next installment. But what they won't tell you is that you'll only be playing with other people who didn't buy it. And then they'll do it at least one more time, and all of the multiplayer units that should have been in the game from the start, we'll have to wait for. And Blizzard is so used to the little fanboys eating out of their hand that they will do exactly this. And they will totally get away with it. For now, I'm going to wait.
07 May 2010
Synergy
Synergy is really cool. If you don't know what it is, and you have at least two computers, it's a way that you can share one of the computer's mouse and keyboard with the other computer(s), and also it combines your monitors onto a shared desktop so you can scroll off the edge of one computer's screens onto the other. If you don't have at least two computers, you should really get another so you can use Synergy with them. Oh, Synergy is cross platform, too, so you can use your new and cool Mac with your old windoze box. And it's cool.
Anyway, the Windows interface is a little clunky, but head over to http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ and grab the windoze installer (SynergyInstaller-1.3.1.exe) for your windoze box, and for Mac you would get synergy-1.3.1-1.OSX.tar.gz version.
On a sidenote, if the mac version didn't just come with a couple files and "synergyc" and "synergys" (one for client, one for server), you downloaded the wrong file. I can say this because I did it, and was having a heck of a time figuring out what I did wrong.
For my setup, since my windoze machine is the desktop with a keyboard and mouse attached, I made it the server. The windoze version seems to have an interface that is at least semi-usable, where I couldn't find an interface for the mac version. This is OK because after telling the windoze machine what computer name to expect (It ended up being nickwhipple.mac_123 or something really dumb and long like that), all I had to do on the Mac was run "synergyc -f windozecomp", with windozecomp being the name of my windoze computer. Mine is named beast.
Actually, if you open synergy from the windoze computer I think you can simply put it in test mode, and then run synergyc -f windozecomp from the mac, and the windoze machine should find the name of the mac computer. Then you can add that to your windows machine, along with settings on what side of what screen should go to what.
That's all for now. But if anyone reads this blog and finds this a big confusing, let me know, and I'll put up some screenshots.
Update:
Yeah, SynergyKM for mac is way better than plain synergy, because it has a graphical user interface. So if you are using a mac definitely go for that. Its naming scheme is a little bit different from the other synergy so if you have already been messing around with one you may have to re-do some of your settings.
Anyway, the Windows interface is a little clunky, but head over to http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ and grab the windoze installer (SynergyInstaller-1.3.1.exe) for your windoze box, and for Mac you would get synergy-1.3.1-1.OSX.tar.gz version.
On a sidenote, if the mac version didn't just come with a couple files and "synergyc" and "synergys" (one for client, one for server), you downloaded the wrong file. I can say this because I did it, and was having a heck of a time figuring out what I did wrong.
For my setup, since my windoze machine is the desktop with a keyboard and mouse attached, I made it the server. The windoze version seems to have an interface that is at least semi-usable, where I couldn't find an interface for the mac version. This is OK because after telling the windoze machine what computer name to expect (It ended up being nickwhipple.mac_123 or something really dumb and long like that), all I had to do on the Mac was run "synergyc -f windozecomp", with windozecomp being the name of my windoze computer. Mine is named beast.
Actually, if you open synergy from the windoze computer I think you can simply put it in test mode, and then run synergyc -f windozecomp from the mac, and the windoze machine should find the name of the mac computer. Then you can add that to your windows machine, along with settings on what side of what screen should go to what.
That's all for now. But if anyone reads this blog and finds this a big confusing, let me know, and I'll put up some screenshots.
Update:
Yeah, SynergyKM for mac is way better than plain synergy, because it has a graphical user interface. So if you are using a mac definitely go for that. Its naming scheme is a little bit different from the other synergy so if you have already been messing around with one you may have to re-do some of your settings.
06 May 2010
Honcast.com
So, I've ranted a couple times about Heroes of Newerth, and how so many people are bad at it. But really, the game does make sense a lot. If a team gets a nice early lead, it's very likely they will keep building their lead and win by mid or late game. Unless the other team does decently early/mid game and picked heroes that have a much stronger late game.
Anyway, Honcast.com has been a nice way to pick up on some good strategies, but more importantly to get an objective view on how games are won or lost. It's taken my nerdrage factor down by about 300%! I recommend you check it out if you are a HoN player. And if you're not, you may as well check it out too, and then go play yourself some HoN.
Anyway, Honcast.com has been a nice way to pick up on some good strategies, but more importantly to get an objective view on how games are won or lost. It's taken my nerdrage factor down by about 300%! I recommend you check it out if you are a HoN player. And if you're not, you may as well check it out too, and then go play yourself some HoN.
06 February 2010
Week 4
I got sick of cut/pasting these so I finally turned on Japanese input method. I'm trying to figure it out.
64．校
６５．母
６６．毎
６７．気
６８．水
６９．火
７０．父
７１．生
７２．男
７３．白
７４．百
７５．目
７６．社
７７．空
７８．立
７９．耳
８０．聞
81．花
82．行
83．西
84．見
64．校
６５．母
６６．毎
６７．気
６８．水
６９．火
７０．父
７１．生
７２．男
７３．白
７４．百
７５．目
７６．社
７７．空
７８．立
７９．耳
８０．聞
81．花
82．行
83．西
84．見
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