Review of Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

Go on, I dare you to google “top 10 Terry Pratchett books”. While there are a few titles that appear with semi-regularity in such lists, it's only semi-. Otherwise, the fans of the author's works are as diverse as their beliefs what constitutes 'the best'. Reading Rob Wilkin's biography of Pratchett, he made the statement to the effect Night Watch (2002) is likely his best, and that something resembling agreement, somewhere maybe in the ballpark of consensus, was had on this idea. Wilkins as close to the inner sanctum of Pratchett as a person could be without being Pratchett himself, why not see what the fuss is about?

Night Watch is a City Watch novel. More specifically, however, it is a Sam Vines novel. In the opening scenes he joins the chase of a murderer through Ankh-Morpork, a chase that leads to the roof of the Unseen University library. In the standoff that follows, Vimes takes a blow to the head and wakes up in what at first appears to be an alternate reality. People don't recognize him, the Watch's offices don't exist, and people think he is a criminal. But it's returning to his home to discover that his wife is still a child makes Vimes understand the situation: he's in the past. Some arcane magic happened at the University. With the help of the monks of time, Vimes intends to get back to the present. But that likewise means getting through the past, again, this time as a member of the Night's Watch.

Review of Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons is a writer who came into the ring punching. His first novel, Song of Kali, was universally lauded by readers and critics, and his follow up, Hyperion, is a work still read today—an amazing thing considering the sheer volume of fantastika that has been released in the four decades since. But Hyperion was not enough for 1989. Alongside it, Simmons released Carrion Comfort and Phases of Gravity, two additional novels. But these left hooks and jabs were based on something: a body of short fiction Simmons had been steadily working on throughout the 1980s. Bringing together that period of work is Simmons' debut collection, Prayers to Broken Stones (1991).

Simmons' style clean and to the point, the stories collected in Prayers to Broken Stones offer readers of horror and science fiction bite-sized morsels to chew over. Several of the stories (three—three-and-a-half, in fact) would later be developed into novels. And while the majority are horror, and this reviewer largely bounces off horror, he at least recognizes the quality manner in which Simmons goes about delivering story.

Non-fiction: Review of Terry Pratchett: Life with Footnotes by Rob Wilkins

While it's clear Harry Potter is the king of 21st century fantasy, it was Terry Pratchett and Discworld who finished the 20th with the largest fireworks and fanfare, and continued popping and fizzing even as the boy wizard took the reins. Such extraordinary output from Terry Pratchett in that time—two, sometimes three novels per year bursting with imagination and laughs. From whence the drive and energy? The world will never hear that side of the story from Pratchett himself, but he did leave the beginnings of an autobiography with his personal assistant, Rob Wilkins. In 2022 readers can finally begin to understand the man behind some of the most humorous yet human fiction ever written in Terry Pratchett: Life with Footnotes.

Life with Footnotes is an excellent biography. While following the tried and true sequencing of most biographies, birth to death, Wilkins constantly keeps an additional two or three narrative lines looping through the main timeline of Pratchett's life. Jumping forward and jumping backward as needed to properly present the tent poles of the author's life, the biography is far from a dry, year by year recounting. And yes, the warm humor is there, more in a moment.

Starcraft II - 2022 Year in Review

The season's final points getters have been tallied. All tournament trophies have homes on players' shelves. The confetti from the IEM Katowice World championship has been swept up. And the year's (entirely unexpected) champion has been crowned. Thus it's time to take a look back at 2022, hand out some awards, and look at the best matches.

2022 was a bittersweet year of Starcraft 2 for this viewer. Watching the reducing number of Korean players, the relative lack of fresh threats from other regions, no new balance patches, no guarantee of global tournaments next year, and the continued lack of balance (i.e. no protoss winning premiere trophies), I went into 2022 with trepidation that my favorite esport might be in its last year worth viewing. I was also concerned that the overall quality of gameplay was dropping. Are top players still playing at a top level, or is quality dipping to the level of lesser players as the best players leave the game? Would a Creator in 2022 have a chance against a Stats in 2019 or Zest 2016? Where are the players in Europe to put up a fight against Reynor, Serral, and Clem? Would a Ragnarok today be able to put up a fight against an Innovation from yesterday? And indeed, players like Creator and Ragnarok put up little fight against Rogue and Maru in 2022, who showed their true class.

As a result, I watched less Starcraft 2 than any year since 2014. Part of this is objective: there were fewer GSL participants, meaning shorter tournaments, and the non-Korean scene shifted from three to two total global tournaments. To be fair, the major and minor tournaments were healthy in terms of quantity and quality. But they didn't always have the financial backing to make them dogfights with a meaty bone for the winner. But as I sit here at the end of the year, I am more hopeful than at the beginning of the year.

Review of Eight Skilled Gentlemen by Barry Hughart

One of the major aspects of Terry Pratchett's success was not the rate of production (sometimes three novels per year), but that each of his books possesses a human foundation that lingers when the humor and slap-bang plots fade. There is a heart to each of his books that most people can relate to and take away through the giggling and smiles. This is a poor way to introduce a good novel, but Barry Hughart's Eight Skilled Gentlemen (1991) shows what happens when the layers of divine humor and potent zip-zap storytelling have a moment to settle.

In Eight Skilled Gentlemen, the heroes of Bridge of Birds and The Story of the Stone return: the drunken detective Master Li and his intelligent muscle for hire Number Ten Ox. When a ghastly ghoul interrupts a funeral proceeding, the pair are tasked with investigating the undead monster's source. The search leads them to the most powerful yet unlikely person in the world: the Taoist master. He tells them of a group of eight demons disguised as men, and tasks the dynamic duo to go out and identify them before their nefarious plans go any further.

Review of Master of Sorrows by Justin Travis Call

Most bibliophiles know the feeling a hundred or so pages into a novel: to stop or continue? Will this book get better, or should I just move on? It's entirely possible to encounter such questions in Justin Travis Call's debut novel Master of Sorrows (2019), first in The Silent Gods series.

When it comes to epic fantasy, Master of Sorrows is small scale. The book covers the major events in the life of a teen named Annev over a few days' time. An acolyte at a school for stewards and avatars (think Assassin's Creed), Annev spends his days running chores for his master and studying the martial arts and lore of his order. Batting eyelashes at the headmaster's daughter, he has plans of passing his avatar tests and marrying to live the good life. But beyond preparation for the avatar trials, he has one more difficult task: to keep his missing arm a secret. A magical artifact in his arm's place, if anyone should find out about its existence they would burn him as a heretic. On pins and needles he moves forward with preparations...

Cardboard Corner: Review of "The Mad Titan's Shadow" deluxe expansion for Marvel Champions: The Card Game

The first two deluxe expansions for Marvel Champions: The Card Game, “The Rise of Red Skull” and “Galaxy's Most Wanted”, showed a clear upward trend. Regardless what the player thinks of the IPs, the game's potential was revealing itself. While many people take this for granted with FFG's living card games, it's still worth pointing out given not all survive so long. Which means the question still exists: does the third deluxe expansion, “The Mad Titan's Shadow”, continue the upward trend?

“The Mad Titan's Shadow”, like the deluxes before and after (at least as of the writing of this review), gives players two new heroes (with complete decks), five new villain scenarios, puts everything within the game's rule framework, while adding interesting little bits here and there to flesh out the expansion. In other words, the game continues to provide fresh content while evolving gameplay—exactly what regular players want. The rest is in the details.

Review of Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene

Like a metronome, Graham Green's oeuvre oscillates between two points: mainstream and literary fiction. The metaphor appropriate, the majority of the time the needle is traveling. It spends little time at either extreme, meaning much of Greene's more entertaining fiction can be explored and his more literary work offers elements of pure enjoyment. Monsignor Quixote (1979), one of Greene's last novels, is a droll yet idealistic mix that finds the needle floating free and easy somewhere close to the center.

Crammed into as few words as possible, Monsignor Quixote is a mini-retelling of Cervantes' masterpiece, set in the modern era, and all delicate humor intact. A cogent pastiche, Greene starts the novel in El Toboso, Spain where a local priest, one Father Quixote, has a chance encounter with a bishop from the Vatican. Awarded the title of 'Monsignor' in the aftermath, Quixote is quite thrown by the new title, and elects to go on a road trip with the recently deposed mayor of El Toboso to try and get his head around it. The mayor, named Sancho, is a communist who loves wine as much as Quixote, something the pair consume in vast quantities driving in Quixote's small Seat 600, a car he dubs Rocinante. Taking an overland journey through Spain together, the pair wrestle with the big ideas of religion and politics. But for every bottle they go through, the truth becomes a little grayer.

Review of Divergence by C.J. Cherryh

Emergence saw the marid finally in a position to take a breath. The Shadow Guild, while still in existence, had been pushed back, allowing Taibini, Bren, and the dowager to begin moving for better territorial position. Nomani was identified as the likely inheritor or lands previously held by insurgents, and in Resurgence the mysterious Machigi appeared with a proposition to solidify his power as well as offer the marid a share. But remnants of the Shadow Guild interrupted proceedings, giving rise to the question are things as stable as readers thought? Divergence (2020) answers that question.

Divergence kicks off precisely where Resurgence ended aboard the red train. Bren is trying to make sense of the strange social, and by default political, milieu the dowager has created. Nomani, still not entirely trustable, continues to push for a lordship, while Machigi sits quietly saying and doing all the right things yet not being entirely open about his long-term intentions. Or is he? In the capital, Cajeri is taken deeper into the confidences of his father and mother as he proves worthy of their trust. And while at a distance from the action, proves his role in the capital can still pack a punch.

Cardboard Corner: Review of "The Rise of Red Skull" deluxe expansion for Marvel Champions: The Card Game

Fantasy Flight Games have released several expandable card games, and all to date have followed a similar arc—at least those that made it out of the gate and into the stretch. First is a solid core box that introduces first principles through simple but powerful heroes fighting in simple but powerful encounters. This is followed up by a deluxe expansion that offers more of the same with slight iterations—a confident first step beyond the core box that doesn't mix things up too much but offers something new. Along with peppering in single packs to fill interstices, the first deluxe expansion is inevitably followed up by several expansions which show the depth to which the game's first principles can be expanded. Then comes the inevitable power creep—deluxe expansions featuring heroes and encounters that do everything a little bit more in order to give longer-term players a challenge. But I go too far. Let's take a look at “The Rise of Red Skull” (2020), the first deluxe expansion for Marvel Champions: The Card Game. Is it more of the same with slight iterations that doesn't mix things up too much?

The short answer is Yes. “The Rise of Red Skull” is a safe but confident first step that proves the core box has legs to walk on. It gives players two new heroes (with complete decks) and five new villain scenarios linked in a semi-coherent narrative. (More on the “semi-” in a moment.) For players who enjoyed the core box and wanted more content, this is it in a way that doesn't shake things up too much.