"Originality is the art of concealing your sources."Here's a little something for those of you who miss my regular weather-reports: It's getting milder, and if I didn't know better (I do), I'd think spring was just around the corner (it isn't). But it's nice with a bit of change from the freezing-your-arse-off weather we've had so far this year.
Talking about arse - I've been working it off, last week and this, and I'd promised myself that I would go home early today. It's now not-so-early, and I'm still at work. I'm terrible at keeping promises. But I've gotten a lot of things done today, so big pat on the back for me. It's all worth it - the blood, sweat, and the tears. All those bitter, bitter tears.
Here's a mail from Meg:
Check out Tailchaser's Song, if you're interested in good writing from Tad Williams!
And...if you haven't tried it, try setting LOTR on "easy" level -- it's deceptively easy to accidentally switch it to medium or expert, which would lead to the no-win situations you mention.
It's winter and your faithful readers need a good adventure game to play! How about a suggestion - or a good winter book to read?Always interested in good writing from Tad Williams, so I
will check out
Tailchaser's Song - thanks for the recommendation.
Playing games on the "easy" setting feels like a total cop-out, but I'm willing to sink that low if I can't get anywhere on "normal" (and that does happen). I'm not a particularly good player - I don't have those mad skillz - but I want to see as much of the game as possible, considering I've paid $50. So yeah, if I can't progress any further in
The Two Towers, I'll cheat- uh, take the "easy" way out. And that's nothing to be ashamed of.
I'm probably not the best person to recommend any new adventure games, since I haven't played any, and I don't know what's on the horizon, but check out
Adventuregamers.com - they're on top of what's hot and what's not, and what's
coming out in 2003. I also spotted
this thread on their forums - "Adventure game recommendations - new and upcoming" - which ought to nudge you in the right direction.
A good winter book, though,
that I can help you with. Winter's the perfect time to dig into those epic fantasy series, and my current favourite (and I've mentioned this one before, several times) is
George R. R. Martin's
A Song of Ice and Fire. Bloody brilliant. The tenth book in the
Wheel of Time series has just been published, so if you need ten thousand-page tomes to while away those long winter nights, you'd better get started. Now. I haven't read book ten yet, but I intend to, and the series is pretty amazing up until book five or six. After that, the next three or four books are a bit disappointing, but number nine is a return to form. And, since it's all one long story, you're better off reading them all in one go, and avoid the confusion of trying to remember who's who and what happened in the last book. Even if it takes you a few months to do so. I haven't updated myself on any new and exciting fantasy series being published, but if you're looking for excellent genre book reviews, check out the British mag SFX. They'll tell you what's what.
Moving away from the Bloated Fantasy Epics, and for those
short, dark winter evenings, Neil Gaiman's
Coraline works like a charm. Short, spooky, and atmospheric. It's a great, little novel for both kids and adults.
And as for borderline fantasy literature, I've heard so many good things about Michael Chabon's
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay that I just have to start reading this soon. It's a bit risky to recommend something I haven't yet read, but there you go. I will go out on a limb for you. That's how much I care. Chabon's latest novel,
Summerland, is also supposed to be very good. It's about baseball. Sorta.
I'll come back with some suggestions in the dreaded
non-genre branch of literature tomorrow. Now - work.
