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bluegargantuaHi,
I don't have a job yet, but it looks like I might have an interview starting next week. An actual interview as opposed to talking to a recruiter. At least one of the recruiters has seemed pretty active, one has been kinda tepid and today's recruiter(s) was(were) just insipid.
Let's do a book review or two...
First up: The Demon Princes by Jack Vance. This is a collection of all five of Vance's "Demon Prince" stories. In short, five intergalactic criminals get together and enslave a world. Only a young boy and his grandpa escape. The young boy essentially grows up to become Batman -- only he's focused on finding and killing the five "demon princes" who destoryed his world.
When describing planets, exotic societies and clothing Vance is at his best. He's like a precursor to Chia Mieville. Unlike Mieville, he's got a better hand for plots. But I'm not sure if this is really up-to-snuff.
Here's the deal: it can come as no surprise to anyone acquainted with the idea of literature that the hero, Kith Gersen, eventually finds and kills all five demon princes. What's interesteing, what makes the books worth reading is how complicated that process is. The problem with the Demon Princes is that 3 times out of 5, our hero is simply confronted with two or three individuals, one of whom must be his man and since he doesn't kill innocent people, he has to suss out who the criminal really is. The last two stories change this up quite a bit and are, in fact, much better than the first three. The books were written over a span of 20 years, so it's not surprising that his stuff gets better as he goes along. Still, there's never any real excitment in Kith's sleuthing.
Further, when they're called the "Demon Princes" you kinda hope that you're dealing with real bad-asses here. But honestly, you get no sense that these are master criminals, sitting in the center of a web of evil that stretches between the stars. They're clearly not nice people, but you never really see the scope of their villany and so it just doesn't feel very just vengence-y. It'd be like a story about trying to capture Jesse James, but this guy just finds out where he lives and shoots him in the back...just not a gripping read.
So...yeah. Not a great series. Of course, there's lots of neat Vance-isms and small supplimental pieces that preface each chapter and these can be a lot of fun, but if you really want a tale of star-faring vengence, this isn't really ideal.
Anyway, on to the next item...a pair of graphic novels. Iron Empires Volume 1 and Volume 2 by Christopher Moeller. Classic military Sci-Fi. There's this vast human sphere made up of eight empires. Across the border lie the Vaylen, parasitic worms that crawl into your brain and take over. Conflict ensues. There are grav tanks and bulky power armor and psychics and laser guns and all that kind of good stuff. There's nothing particularly unique, but the comics are well put-together and while the stories focus on the individual, the illustrations illuminate the larger picture. It's subtle and very well done. I got interested in this because the creator has gotten together with Luke Crane and their putting out a new RPG based on the Iron Empires setting and using a modified Burning Wheel engine. Unlike Luke's Jihad setting which is just Dune with the serial numbers smeared over with mud, this has Mr. Moeller's full cooperation and support. Even if you don't particularly care for Burning Wheel, I suspect that this might be an interesting RPG setting for folks who are attracted to WH40K and Fading Suns, but wish for something a little different. We'll see, I'm slated to be in a game at GenCon this year.
So yeah. That's what I've been reading.
later
Tom
I don't have a job yet, but it looks like I might have an interview starting next week. An actual interview as opposed to talking to a recruiter. At least one of the recruiters has seemed pretty active, one has been kinda tepid and today's recruiter(s) was(were) just insipid.
Let's do a book review or two...
First up: The Demon Princes by Jack Vance. This is a collection of all five of Vance's "Demon Prince" stories. In short, five intergalactic criminals get together and enslave a world. Only a young boy and his grandpa escape. The young boy essentially grows up to become Batman -- only he's focused on finding and killing the five "demon princes" who destoryed his world.
When describing planets, exotic societies and clothing Vance is at his best. He's like a precursor to Chia Mieville. Unlike Mieville, he's got a better hand for plots. But I'm not sure if this is really up-to-snuff.
Here's the deal: it can come as no surprise to anyone acquainted with the idea of literature that the hero, Kith Gersen, eventually finds and kills all five demon princes. What's interesteing, what makes the books worth reading is how complicated that process is. The problem with the Demon Princes is that 3 times out of 5, our hero is simply confronted with two or three individuals, one of whom must be his man and since he doesn't kill innocent people, he has to suss out who the criminal really is. The last two stories change this up quite a bit and are, in fact, much better than the first three. The books were written over a span of 20 years, so it's not surprising that his stuff gets better as he goes along. Still, there's never any real excitment in Kith's sleuthing.
Further, when they're called the "Demon Princes" you kinda hope that you're dealing with real bad-asses here. But honestly, you get no sense that these are master criminals, sitting in the center of a web of evil that stretches between the stars. They're clearly not nice people, but you never really see the scope of their villany and so it just doesn't feel very just vengence-y. It'd be like a story about trying to capture Jesse James, but this guy just finds out where he lives and shoots him in the back...just not a gripping read.
So...yeah. Not a great series. Of course, there's lots of neat Vance-isms and small supplimental pieces that preface each chapter and these can be a lot of fun, but if you really want a tale of star-faring vengence, this isn't really ideal.
Anyway, on to the next item...a pair of graphic novels. Iron Empires Volume 1 and Volume 2 by Christopher Moeller. Classic military Sci-Fi. There's this vast human sphere made up of eight empires. Across the border lie the Vaylen, parasitic worms that crawl into your brain and take over. Conflict ensues. There are grav tanks and bulky power armor and psychics and laser guns and all that kind of good stuff. There's nothing particularly unique, but the comics are well put-together and while the stories focus on the individual, the illustrations illuminate the larger picture. It's subtle and very well done. I got interested in this because the creator has gotten together with Luke Crane and their putting out a new RPG based on the Iron Empires setting and using a modified Burning Wheel engine. Unlike Luke's Jihad setting which is just Dune with the serial numbers smeared over with mud, this has Mr. Moeller's full cooperation and support. Even if you don't particularly care for Burning Wheel, I suspect that this might be an interesting RPG setting for folks who are attracted to WH40K and Fading Suns, but wish for something a little different. We'll see, I'm slated to be in a game at GenCon this year.
So yeah. That's what I've been reading.
later
Tom
