Holiday Book Review
Dec. 27th, 2008 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
As usual, I got a bunch of books for Christmas. I've already read through two of them.
First up: Freakangels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield. This is a collection of their on-line web comic of the same name.
It's...kinda boring. It's the first book so they have to introduce the freak angels (a collection of pale, violet-eyed psychics who are guilty about sorta destroying the planet) and it just takes awhile for things to get going. There's a lot of steampunk eye-candy and beautiful views of a submerged London, but very little in the way of actual plot. Web comics differ from their print cousins in that they don't have to have to pack a lot of action into 32 pages. Depending on their schedule, they can meander for quite awhile and as long as the payoffs are good, people will keep up with it (see also: Order of the Stick). But if you've got a print-transition idea in mind, it might help to ramp up the first few "issues" of the web comic to help hook people in.
Luckily, the second book was quite a bit better: Earth Ascendant by Sean Williams. This is the second book in his Astropolis series. The first Saturn Returns was pretty good. This one keeps the pace up. Imre Bergamasc was revived from a copy of his memories out on the galactic rim. He discovered that galactic civilization had failed (possibly caused by another version of himself) and went back to Earth to try and pick up the pieces and figure out what happened.
In this book he's the ruler of the universe and trying to pacify another sector when he gets dire warnings that he has to return to Earth. Since there's no FTL, people are just downloaded across the universe at lightspeed, that means there's about 10,000 years from when he leaves to when he arrives back on Earth (probably the best central conceit about this game. Once he gets back, the mystery deepens but more evidence comes to light. It's all very clearly part of a trilogy and you can see how it's all gearing up for the final book (out early next year).
The book wasn't all that long and I clipped through it. The series seems neat, but the final book is where the whole thing will be judged so if you're on the fence, wait until I get around to it.
later
Tom
As usual, I got a bunch of books for Christmas. I've already read through two of them.
First up: Freakangels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield. This is a collection of their on-line web comic of the same name.
It's...kinda boring. It's the first book so they have to introduce the freak angels (a collection of pale, violet-eyed psychics who are guilty about sorta destroying the planet) and it just takes awhile for things to get going. There's a lot of steampunk eye-candy and beautiful views of a submerged London, but very little in the way of actual plot. Web comics differ from their print cousins in that they don't have to have to pack a lot of action into 32 pages. Depending on their schedule, they can meander for quite awhile and as long as the payoffs are good, people will keep up with it (see also: Order of the Stick). But if you've got a print-transition idea in mind, it might help to ramp up the first few "issues" of the web comic to help hook people in.
Luckily, the second book was quite a bit better: Earth Ascendant by Sean Williams. This is the second book in his Astropolis series. The first Saturn Returns was pretty good. This one keeps the pace up. Imre Bergamasc was revived from a copy of his memories out on the galactic rim. He discovered that galactic civilization had failed (possibly caused by another version of himself) and went back to Earth to try and pick up the pieces and figure out what happened.
In this book he's the ruler of the universe and trying to pacify another sector when he gets dire warnings that he has to return to Earth. Since there's no FTL, people are just downloaded across the universe at lightspeed, that means there's about 10,000 years from when he leaves to when he arrives back on Earth (probably the best central conceit about this game. Once he gets back, the mystery deepens but more evidence comes to light. It's all very clearly part of a trilogy and you can see how it's all gearing up for the final book (out early next year).
The book wasn't all that long and I clipped through it. The series seems neat, but the final book is where the whole thing will be judged so if you're on the fence, wait until I get around to it.
later
Tom
