The Half-Made Review

Hi,

So I just finished up The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman. It suffers from a distinct case of sequel-itis and pretty much nothing that's been introduced in the book is resolved in any way. That said, your long journey up to the indifferent ending is really pretty good.

So in this universe, everyone lives in the East and the impenetrable God's Mountains hem them in...until a pass through it found. What's on the other side defies description -- literally. A wild, untamed wilderness where nothing is fixed in form, time and space are jumbled and the everything is rather like a fairy tale. But with the arrival of humans comes Definition and slowly the vast spaces of the West become inhabited by men.

In the process, the Hillfolk, native people to the West, are driven out or imprisoned. The magical spirits of the land are boxed up and shut away but a couple of pantheons make accommodations. On the one side, you have the Gun, spirits who incarnate into deadly weapons and who imbue their wielders with supernatural power. On the other side you have the Line, massive Engines of progress who bring voracious industry and technology and swarms of human servants to it's banner. The Gun is for anarchy, the Line is for tyranny and between them they've slowly devoured the numerous human lands in the West.

Only the Red Republic took a stand against both sides but in the end, the Line's terrible weaponry brought them low. Now the Line stretches out to remake the West in its image while the Gun fights a losing guerrilla battle against them.

The leader of the Red Republic's military forces was General Enver long believed dead. Turns out he'd just been driven mad by one of the Line's noisemaker bombs. Now he's a shattered wreck in the House Dolorous on the far Western fringe of the known world.

Meanwhile, Dr. Liv Alverhuysen, psychologist has received a letter of invitation from the House Dolorous. It's hoped her modern understanding of the mind can help her develop new and better treatments for the war-scarred patients of the place. Full of optimism and adventure, she packs her bags and sets off. Of course, agents of both the Gun and the Line are also closing in on the House and its illustrious patient, whom they believe possesses the secret to a powerful weapon.

The book clips along at a pretty good pace. The writing is good and there's a fair amount of imagination at work -- especially as the less reality-grounded portions of the world crop up. Plot points generally move forward and you see a lot of nifty ideas that get at least some working out rather than just serving as window dressing. The book's only problem is that it ends without resolving a great deal.

Fans of Deadlands or Western-style steampunk will find a lot to enjoy here. Other fantasy fans will probably find it a slightly off-beat fun read as well.

later
Tom

The Half-Made Review

Hi,

So I just finished up The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman. It suffers from a distinct case of sequel-itis and pretty much nothing that's been introduced in the book is resolved in any way. That said, your long journey up to the indifferent ending is really pretty good.

So in this universe, everyone lives in the East and the impenetrable God's Mountains hem them in...until a pass through it found. What's on the other side defies description -- literally. A wild, untamed wilderness where nothing is fixed in form, time and space are jumbled and the everything is rather like a fairy tale. But with the arrival of humans comes Definition and slowly the vast spaces of the West become inhabited by men.

In the process, the Hillfolk, native people to the West, are driven out or imprisoned. The magical spirits of the land are boxed up and shut away but a couple of pantheons make accommodations. On the one side, you have the Gun, spirits who incarnate into deadly weapons and who imbue their wielders with supernatural power. On the other side you have the Line, massive Engines of progress who bring voracious industry and technology and swarms of human servants to it's banner. The Gun is for anarchy, the Line is for tyranny and between them they've slowly devoured the numerous human lands in the West.

Only the Red Republic took a stand against both sides but in the end, the Line's terrible weaponry brought them low. Now the Line stretches out to remake the West in its image while the Gun fights a losing guerrilla battle against them.

The leader of the Red Republic's military forces was General Enver long believed dead. Turns out he'd just been driven mad by one of the Line's noisemaker bombs. Now he's a shattered wreck in the House Dolorous on the far Western fringe of the known world.

Meanwhile, Dr. Liv Alverhuysen, psychologist has received a letter of invitation from the House Dolorous. It's hoped her modern understanding of the mind can help her develop new and better treatments for the war-scarred patients of the place. Full of optimism and adventure, she packs her bags and sets off. Of course, agents of both the Gun and the Line are also closing in on the House and its illustrious patient, whom they believe possesses the secret to a powerful weapon.

The book clips along at a pretty good pace. The writing is good and there's a fair amount of imagination at work -- especially as the less reality-grounded portions of the world crop up. Plot points generally move forward and you see a lot of nifty ideas that get at least some working out rather than just serving as window dressing. The book's only problem is that it ends without resolving a great deal.

Fans of Deadlands or Western-style steampunk will find a lot to enjoy here. Other fantasy fans will probably find it a slightly off-beat fun read as well.

later
Tom

Ariel! Ookla! We REVIEW!

Hey,

So I picked up the complete 4-volume DVD set of Thundarr the Barbarian the other day.

Even my inner 8 year-old is kinda like "Dude, this is not as cool as I was hoping for".

Here's the deal: When you get DVD sets you sorta expect that there will be some extras. There might be deleted scenes or commentary or a "making of" mini-documentary in it or something. This set is just, straight-up, all 24 episodes split out over 4 disks. The DVD menus are so spartan as to be almost non-existent.

Well, OK, not a whole lot of bells and whistles...

But the other thing you expect from DVD sets is a clean image. Maybe not a remastered original (though you often get that), but a crisp, clean print. Yeah, no, not so much here. There are very obvious video artifacts in a number of the episodes that make it look like they video-taped a television playing someone's old VHS cassettes of the episode. It's not overwhelming but it crops up enough that you feel that quality control was asleep at the switch.

Sadly, Thundarr is probably just popular enough to warrant a DVD set, but not popular enough to justify spending any money on it.

As for the episodes themselves -- they still have the gonzo, post-apocalyptic feel that I remember. I'd forgotten how heavily they re-used stock footage of our heroes riding about and their continuity guys were drunk most days ("We must recover my Sun Sword!" "You mean the one still on your wrist-holder for some reason?"). But what can I say? I was 8 and it was awesome. Given the show's popularity, this is probably the best I can hope for.

It occurred to me that a modern day remake would best be served by letting Genndy Tartakovsky take a shot at it. Then it occurred to me that Samurai Jack is the direct spiritual descendant of Thundarr and thus I should just shut up and look into the Samurai Jack DVD set.

Oh, if you feel like you want to see some Thundarr but don't want to pony up for a wretched DVD set, let me know and I can be persuaded to lend it out.

later
Tom

Ariel! Ookla! We REVIEW!

Hey,

So I picked up the complete 4-volume DVD set of Thundarr the Barbarian the other day.

Even my inner 8 year-old is kinda like "Dude, this is not as cool as I was hoping for".

Here's the deal: When you get DVD sets you sorta expect that there will be some extras. There might be deleted scenes or commentary or a "making of" mini-documentary in it or something. This set is just, straight-up, all 24 episodes split out over 4 disks. The DVD menus are so spartan as to be almost non-existent.

Well, OK, not a whole lot of bells and whistles...

But the other thing you expect from DVD sets is a clean image. Maybe not a remastered original (though you often get that), but a crisp, clean print. Yeah, no, not so much here. There are very obvious video artifacts in a number of the episodes that make it look like they video-taped a television playing someone's old VHS cassettes of the episode. It's not overwhelming but it crops up enough that you feel that quality control was asleep at the switch.

Sadly, Thundarr is probably just popular enough to warrant a DVD set, but not popular enough to justify spending any money on it.

As for the episodes themselves -- they still have the gonzo, post-apocalyptic feel that I remember. I'd forgotten how heavily they re-used stock footage of our heroes riding about and their continuity guys were drunk most days ("We must recover my Sun Sword!" "You mean the one still on your wrist-holder for some reason?"). But what can I say? I was 8 and it was awesome. Given the show's popularity, this is probably the best I can hope for.

It occurred to me that a modern day remake would best be served by letting Genndy Tartakovsky take a shot at it. Then it occurred to me that Samurai Jack is the direct spiritual descendant of Thundarr and thus I should just shut up and look into the Samurai Jack DVD set.

Oh, if you feel like you want to see some Thundarr but don't want to pony up for a wretched DVD set, let me know and I can be persuaded to lend it out.

later
Tom

I would play the hell out of this game...

...or I'd sit back and watch lucasthegray play it for me:

later
Tom

I would play the hell out of this game...

...or I'd sit back and watch lucasthegray play it for me:

later
Tom