The Geek Caucus
Incredible. More excited than ever about this film. Does anyone else sense a Steve Jobs allusion here?
I’m not sure I completely understand the ongoing confusion (up until this video came out) about whether or not Prometheus is directly connected to the Alien universe/films. It obviously is. The Space Jockey, seen in the first trailer, is straight out of Alien. The derelict ship is straight out Alien. How is this movie not connected to Alien?
James S.A. Corey’s Leviathan Wakes is a debut novel in name only (James S.A. Corey is the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck; Abraham has authored two epic fantasy series and an urban fantasy series under yet another pen name, and Franck is the author of published short stories and assistant to George R.R. Martin), but it’s as impressive as any I’ve encountered. Book one of a planned trilogy entitled The Expanse (with possible future books to follow if the series proves successful), Leviathan Wakes is a perfect harmony of genre: a strong main space opera theme supported by elements of noir fiction and horror.
Set a few hundred years in the future when humanity has colonized the solar system (but not the stars), the story follows two viewpoint characters (not counting those in the prologue and epilogue), Miller, a down at the heels detective from Ceres station (an asteroid space station in the asteroid belt), and Holden, the executive officer of a space freighter. Corey wisely steals from George Martin (who stole in turn from William Faulkner) the narrative technique of structuring the novel in alternating viewpoint chapters titled with the corresponding viewpoint character’s name.
My first impression was that I’m not sure I like the new costume better than the costume from the 1995 Sylvester Stallone film Judge Dredd. I was 13 when the Stallone movie came out. I loved it, critics be damned. Looking back, I have a nostalgic, campy appreciation for it, but Karl Urban and company will be hard-pressed not to improve upon it. On a totally superficial level, though, I can’t decide whether I like the new, more “realistic,” quasi-tactical look they’re going for with Dredd’s armor. Stallone’s costume is hardly practical, but it seems truer to the character from the comics. Also, is it just me or does Urban’s helmet make his head look too big in proportion to his body?
What do you think? Which Dredd is cooler?
From Belated Media, a hypothetical discussion of how The Phantom Menace could have been a good movie:
[Via io9]
In the inaugural episode of the Fantasy Faction podcast, Fantasy Faction’s Marc Aplin and Paul Wiseall interviewed Joe Abercrombie, author of the First Law trilogy, two stand-alone novels in that same universe, and the forthcoming A Red Country, the final stand-alone volume before Abercrombie writes another trilogy, presumably a large-scale follow-up to The First Law. Abercrombie mentions the interview himself on his blog.
Details on the trilogy have been thin, in no small part because Abercrombie himself doesn’t seem to know exactly where he’s going with the story, but the author game some details to Fantasy Faction in the podcast interview that I hadn’t heard before.
Abercrombie told Aplin and Wiseall that the new trilogy will probably feature a “next generation of characters” taking the major roles. A Red Country apparently picks up about fifteen years after the end of The First Law, and the new trilogy will start five or ten years after A Red Country, meaning we can expect the new trilogy to begin at least 20 years after the end of The First Law. The main characters from The First Law will therefore become the older generation, and will most likely appear as secondary characters (though Abercrombie notes that this is subject to change). Jezal Luthar, for example, will likely remain in the background as “the old king,” probably much as he has done in Best Served Cold and The Heroes.
The main plot will probably be a “political civil war style plot based around the Union.”
Aplin and Wiseall tried to push him a little bit toward revealing how likely it was that characters from The First Law would return in major roles, and Abercrombie took the opportunity to discuss the “fine line,” as an author, “between giving people what they want and being bored.” He seemed in general ready to move on from focusing primarily on the First Law characters, ready to take the series in a new direction. But he was also definitely aware of fans’ desire to see a return to characters they know and love.
When discussion finally turned to the elephant in the room — the question of when we will find out what happened to Logen Ninefingers and if and when we will see the Bloody-Nine again — Abercrombie responded predictably (and understandably; it’s not as if we really want him to spoil the surprise): he said that he really “can’t ever answer that question [in an interview]” and that fans who want to find out should keep buying his books. There’s an implicit promise there, and one thing I think we can be certain about is that, one way or another, Logen’s story isn’t finished. Otherwise it would be cruel and unusual punishment for Mr. Abercrombie to keep playing coy.
Last night’s Walking Dead episode, “Triggerfinger” (Season 2, Episode 9) was more of the same from our favorite angsty zombie drama: intense emoting by the characters, punctuated by brief, innocuous action, none of which particularly moves the plot forward.
There’s a lot of good story there, particularly with the Rick versus Shane tension coming to a head, but the pacing is just too slow to be completely engaging.
The stationary setting of the farm has only contributed to this plot stagnation. Something has to happen, really happen, and soon. Something big. I have a feeling the producers saw an opportunity to expand an important but comparatively short portion of the original comics with this second season, drawing out something that was never intended to fill ten hours of television, even with the changes they’ve made (Shane’s continued existence at this point in the story is the biggest diversion from the comics). The group should have been long gone from the farm by now, and on to their next adventure.
Batman: Arkham City is the best video game I’ve played in recent memory. Mass Effect 2 and Portal 2 are close contenders, but Arkham City still takes the top spot. I don’t think I’ve been quite as enthralled by a game since Half-Life 2 came out. They’ve captured the spirit of Batman perfectly, distilling the Dark Knight and his gallery of villains to their essence.
The Penny Arcade Report has a fascinating interview up with Gabe Newell, co-founder and managing director of Valve Software, the company behind Half-Life, Portal, Left for Dead, and the Steam gaming platform. Newell talks about everything from wearable computing to DRM. The “Where is Half-Life 2: Episode 3/Half-Life 3?” question is only referenced obliquely, and Newell pretty much confirmed that they haven’t announced anything because they’re not far enough along with whatever Half-Life follow-up they’re working on:
[...][P]art of the reason that we backed off talking so much about what was happening in the future is that when we’ve done that in the past, you know, with Half Life 1 it was a year after we originally said it would be, Half Life 2 basically if you go and read the forum posts apparently took us fifty or sixty years to get done so we’re trying to be careful not to get people too excited and then have to go and disappoint them. So we’re sort of reacting in the other direction and saying “okay, well let’s have things a little more baked before we start getting people all excited about it.
Half-Life 3 aside, this interview seems to imply that Valve is more focused on the big picture — on delivering something new and game-changing — than on producing a Half-Life follow-up, which might be a great thing. The Penny Arcade Report also has a photo tour of Valve’s offices, which will make you hate your guidance counselor/college adviser for not explaining that working for a video game company was a viable, lucrative, satisfying career.
Casual Brandon Sanderson readers may not have picked up on this yet, but all of his adult fantasy fiction novels, regardless of their apparent differences, share the same universe: the “Cosmere.” In his usual comprehensive manner, Adam Werthead of the Wertzone summarizes Sanderson’s planned 36 book mega-series in a helpful primer for those unfamiliar with the subject. This announcement will no doubt seem more than a bit remedial to the folks over at the 17th Shard.
The fact that all of Sanderson’s fantasy series share a universe is based on the existence of common characters, concepts, and statements by the author himself. Sanderson’s meticulous planning combined with the fact that his planned legendarium is far from finished has created a lot of fodder for the theorists.
If you’re a Sanderson devout and want to know more about the Cosmere, the Shardworlds, or the more esoteric shards, check out the Coppermind, the Sanderson wiki.
As much as I want to (finally) found out how the Wheel of Time ends, I’m more excited to see where Sanderson goes with his own work. He’s unmatched in secondary worldbuilding and the development of magic systems, and The Way of Kings was a good read.
This is awesome in so many ways it eludes summarization. SeanWard.net put a guy in a Batman suit and sent him out into the streets of Toronto, originally with the intention of making a “Shit Batman Says” video. It became more of a social phenomenon. Watch and learn and watch again. WHERE ARE THEY?!?
