Console Corner: Review of Disco Elysium

STOP! If you normally come to my blog to read book reviews, do not skip this. Yes, Disco Elysium is a video game. But be aware, it's predominantly a narrative experience. The fact it is perhaps the best-written video game narrative ever should at least help you consider reading this review. (If not that, then maybe the killer title?)

Putting it lightly, the video game medium is not famed for its maturity. Of course every medium has its share of juvenile content, but video games may be the worst offender. Hand-eye coordination and onscreen interactions are what make the medium tick with aarrative almost always taking a back seat. Super Mario Bros features an Italian plumber trying to save a princess who has been kidnapped by a dinosaur protected by turtle ducks... Not quite Pulitzer material. But there are a few games out there that treat the person playing like they have an adult brain who has given thought to the layers of existence. Disco Elysium (2019) is absolutely one of them.

Review of Ludluda by Steve Beard & Jeff Noon

Gogmagog by Steve Beard and Jeff Noon was a breath of river air. I do not say 'fresh' river air. The dark mood, the edgy fantastic, the murky waters, the lurking evil (the swearing granny)—it was not a light affair. About an aging river boat captain dealing with a vegetal crisis, said swearing granny decides to guide a few ignorant tourists through the most dangerous parts of the river, in turn rekindling a rivalry with an ancient enemy. Gogmagog the first half, Ludluda (2024) is the bookend.

I'll cut to the chase. If you enjoyed Gogmagog, Ludluda will not disappoint. Same quick-pace, same offbeat imagination, same curmudgeonly Cady Meade tackling her yellow-eyed dragon. The book does spend more time on land—or at least different versions of something semi-solid underfoot. There are two excursions (more in a moment) into unexpected territory. And there is an exciting climax. But beyond this, the artistic vision and storytelling are consistent—nice, that.

Console Corner: Aiko's Choice

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is one of the rare video games I have played through more than twice. Everybody has their gaming sweet spots, and for me this blend of stealth puzzle hits most of them. With its feudal samurai setting—cherry tees, rice fields, Japanese castles, temples, and the like—the game sings. Mimimi Games has, unfortunately since gone out of business, but before leaving the gaming scene they released a small standalone game (not technically DLC) in the setting: Aiko's Choice (2021).

Aikko's Choice features the same five characters as Blades of the Shogun, all with the same character abilities. But the game is about one-third the length: six total missions, two of which are short. What could be called a “side mission”, the story of Aiko's Choice takes place in the middle of Blades of the Shogun. A certain Lady Chiyo surprises the gang at their hideout, kidnapping Yuki and Togama in the process. Hayato, Mugen, and Aiko give chase, tracking down their friends and make sure Chiyo does not escape to tell Kage-yama of their cabal.

Culture Corner: Egypt (Hurghada & Cairo)

For the first time, my family went on vacation the week prior to Christmas. Typically a time we are preparing for the holidays, we instead went to Egypt for seven days. The goals were local culture—people, food music, etc., pyramids, beach time, and a few day dives in the Red Sea. We accomplished most of that, and got a bit more than we bargained for.

1 – The Red Sea near our hotel. The kids loved it.  I didn't complain. :)

Review of The Lost and the Damned by Guy Haley

Let's speak honestly. The Solar War, first novel in the Siege of Terra series, was essentially an extended prelude. When taken in context with the wider Horus Heresy story, it was a “necessary” kickoff to the final ten books in the series. But it was 90% perfunctory. Little of consequence or value was given the reader that could not have been summed up in a couple paragraphs. (Apologies John French for the cynicism; your effort was heroic to make something of nothing.) The Lost and the Damned (2019) by Guy Haley, second Siege of Terra novel, is when the series' rubber really hits the road.

The Lost and the Damned is Horus' opening assault on terra firma. The opening paragraph is a salvo of missiles landing on Himalaysia. Wide-angle, the book rotates through the points-of-view of primarchs on both sides, as well as the ordinary people running the palace's walls who must set aside their daily duties and take up weapons in defense. Their lives turned upside down by the attack, they are slaughtered by the millions. Overall, Haley does a nice job presenting the earth-level battles and the destruction leveled on both sides.

Article: Fantasy Fiction: The Farce of Complex Characters

I recently switched phones, and in the process switched browsers to Chrome. On mobile, this means Google advertizing. One of the first ads I saw, undoubtedly due to browsing history, was a link to Fantasy Review's “6 Urban Fantasy Series for Fans of Complex Characters”. With a couple minutes to spare, the word 'complex' had my interest, so I clicked. Turns out there are different definitions of the word.

One of the centerpieces, if not the centerpiece of literary fiction is character realism. Readers of said fiction expect emotions, thoughts, actions, dialogue, and the details of human life to cleave to reality. That is the norm of the form. It arises, naturally, that subsequent characters are 'complex'. Real people's lives are, after all, complex. Another way of putting this is: complex characters are default in literary fiction. Nobody need call them out as 'complex', or make a list of literary-minded books with 'complex characters'. That is the logic I tried to apply to Fantasy Review's article about 'complex characters' in fantasy fiction. I failed.

Review of Unseen Academicals by Terry Practhett

Whether tracked mentally or written down, I assume Terry Pratchett had a list of topics he wanted to present through the unique lens of the Disc. And he got through dozens upon dozens of these topics. Readers knew football / soccer / foot-the-ball had to be there somewhere on the list, and indeed in the thirty-seventh novel up it popped in Unseen Academicals (2009). A topic beloved by millions if not billions, one can only assume Pratchett was waiting til he had the right story, the right combination of ingredients, to do the sport justice in Discworld. Let's see what they were.

The portions plying the pot of Unseen Academicals are: ten cups of wizard, one stein of goblin, two hurlyhoos of female Unseen University kitchen staff, various dashes and splashes of Ankh-Morpork streetlife, the unpeeled onion of Veterinari, oh, and one, large orange librarian (with banana). The spice setting the stew afire is the discovery of a certain pornographic vase at Unseen University featuring ancient men at play in foot-the-ball. A set of gentlemanly rules discovered inside the vase, Veternari makes the case that foot-the-ball needs to be converted from a pie-eating, tooth-knocking, rough-housing affair on Ankh-Morpork's streets to the next level of respectability; it needs proper goals and a field judge. He asks the wizards to field a new team and stage an exhibition match. Away we go!

Good vs Great: Star Wars Unlimited vs Star Wars Destiny

In our polarizing times, it's easy to have an extreme opinion. Gush, gush, gush, rant, rant, rant. With the recent release of Star Wars Unlimited, there is a lot of gushing happening. And rightfully so; it's a tightly designed game whose industry pedigree is evident. Part of that pedigree is Star Wars Destiny, a game which Unlimited borrows a huge amount of DNA from. As such, it seemed a fun idea to approach the release with a view more subtle: the difference between a good expandable card game and a great one. This article is going to assume the reader has played both games, or is at least familiar with expandable card games in general.

We will cover:

• Gaining Resources

• Spending Resources

• Battlefield

• Initiative

• Color Pie

• Art

• The (Damned) Dice

• Theme

• Doing Damage

• Deck Construction & Card Draw

• Mulligan Rule

• Exciting Endings (or Lack Thereof)

• Conclusion

Resource systems are the foundation on which expandable card games are built, meaning there is no better place to start than how to earn the in-game money necessary to get those wonderful, fun, beautiful cards on the table.

Review of Playground by Richard Powers

I've quoted the poet Alicia Ostriker on this blog before, and it's such a powerful quote that I'm going to break it out again here: “the true poet is necessarily the partisan of energy, rebellion, and desire, and is opposed to passivity, obedience, and the authority of reasons, laws and institutions.” Writers of fiction are not poets; clear. But the concept can still apply to novels. If you're not trying to find an edge in your stories, it's difficult for them to cut. Let's check the energy/rebellion/desire meter on Richard Power's 2024 Playground.

While dipping in and out of the lives of several characters, Playground mainly revolves around three. “Jacqueline Cousteau”, actually Evelyne Beaulieu, is a woman who has seen the spectrum of underwater research in the course of her long life. She was a tester of early 20th century diving apparatuses, and has spent countless thousands of hours performing biomarine research since. At a loose end in old age, she lives on a remote Polynesian island called Makatea wondering what to do with her life. Todd Keane is a young man with a plan at the birth pangs of the internet. From an upper-middle class family, he goes to university to study IT and there puts his plan of building a social networking platform into action. Becoming a billionaire for it, he must eventually decide what to do with his earnings, something a certain Polynesian island may play a role in. And lastly is Rafi Young. Despite their racial and socio-economic differences, Rafi becomes best friends with Todd at university. The two eventually go their separate ways, but not before they must confront the results of their youthful brainstorming on the future of the internet.

Speculiction's Awards - Best Fiction Published in 2024

As is tradition here in the bustling offices of Speculiction, we come together at year's end to look back at the books published in the year, summarize what was read, and choose the best—if possible. (For best of books read in 2024, regardless of publishing year, see here.)

2024 was an average reading year. I can't say great, or even good. Partially this is my own fault. For whatever reason, genre/mainstream books held a larger than normal proportion of consumption, and of those books I read outside the mainstream, few chimed in bells or lifted angelic voices to the heavens for consideration as 'best of the year'. But a book did eventually pop up that is worthy.

Best Reads of 2024

Like the explosion of fireworks at midnight, Speculiction dons its tweed sweater and monocle every new year to reflect on the reading year past. I ask the question: What stuck out? What distinguished itself among the ~50 books I read? And as I get older: What do I remember?

Regardless year published, personal rating, number of NY Times bestselling-author quotes on the cover—here are the dozen or so books that stuck out this year. (For books published only in 2024, see here.)