On Basilisk Station Review

I am familiar with David Weber's work through reading the Dahak and Safehold series (I have reviewed a few of the Safehold series here in the past). From that I know that he writes sweeping space opera and military science fiction. What I haven't done is go back and read any of his Honorverse books. Until now. Browsing through the books section of iTunes, I found the "first in a series" section where I ran across On Basilisk Station and it was available for free. Hmm, an author I like, a book that starts a 20+ book universe (including main and spin-off novels), military science fiction and free?? Sign me up.

On Basilisk Station is the story of Commander Honor Harrington taking command of a light cruiser, HMS Fearless for the Royal Manticore Navy. The story is set some 1900 years after mankind has left earth for other planets and centers on the Kingdom of Manticore and pressures from other star empires jealous of Manticore's wealth. Specifically the People's Republic of Haven, who are an expansive empire looking for additional conquests to keep their economy from imploding. Enter Honor and her crew who find themselves assigned to Basilisk Station, a star system that is the junction for several wormholes.

As wormhole junctions are economically very important to trade and Basilisk connects directly to the Manticore system, Honor and her crew need to protect the crown's interests in the system. Unfortunately, there is a sub-plot of politics back on Manticore make life difficult for Fearless and its crew. Not to mention the threat from person's unknown to Medusa, the only habitable planet in the Basilisk System. How can one light cruiser protect crown interests in the system? Read and find out.

On Basilisk Station is a fast-paced naval story with political and military science fiction backdrop. If you enjoy naval stories or military science fiction, there is no reason for you not to pick up this book. Especially since it is free and DRM-free thanks to Mr. Weber and his publisher, Baen Books. Honor Harrington is setup as a larger-than-life leader in On Basilisk Station  and I am looking forward to learning more about her story and where it leads in the subsequent novels. Be sure to give it a try. On Basilisk Station gets 4 Mick Happies. Get a copy for yourself here:

From Baen directly - here.
From Amazon - here.
From iTunes - here.

The Lone Ranger Movie Review

I debated for a long time about whether or not to invest the almost two and a half hours to watch The Lone Ranger movie from Disney and directed by Gore Verbinski. Finally I decided to get it from Netflix and give it a go. Now will begin a review where I tell you why it isn't as bad a movie as everyone made it out to be.

The Lone Ranger tells the story of a lawyer, John Reid (Armie Hammer), who upon returning to Colby, TX goes out with his brother, a Texas Ranger, to re-apprehend a notorious outlaw. Along the way all the rangers are killed leaving the lawyer (who was deputized) the only one alive. He is kept alive by a mysterious indian he met on the train, Tanto (played by Johnny Depp), and together they set out to stop the bad guy - each for their own reasons. The background plots of the movie include the building of the transcontinental railroad and the tensions between "the white man" and the Comanches. The entire movie is told in a flashback from 1933 at a carnival as an old Tanto tells a young boy, who is dressed like the Lone Ranger, the story.

I think that the movie suffered from a couple flaws, completely unrelated to the story that contributed to it being considered a flop. One, too much money was spent on a film that, while a remake of a beloved television property, was not in an established movie franchise. And two, the film was made after several films in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, which means it is considered a re-tread of those films rather than considered on its own merits.

Can't say much about flaw one, but I can comment a bit on flaw two. If Pirates didn't exist when this movie came out, we wouldn't be looking at Depp's portrayal of Tanto and thinking a face-painted Captain Jack Sparrow. Instead we would be thinking it was a quirky and layered portrayal of arguably the real hero in the Lone Ranger tales. Without Pirates, we would also look at The Lone Ranger as a fun and slightly campy romp through the old West mixing modern-ish references and dialogue seamlessly with the 1860s time period. They also do a good job of mixing in iconic Lone Ranger bits in a fun way. The only other thing I think the movie is challenged by is not having as recognizable star power in the making from the female lead. In Pirates, Keira Knightley was a strong character and poised to be a Hollywood star (she had been acting for a while before that) and here, Ruth Wilson is not given quite as much to work with as Rebecca Reid, John's sister-in-law, though she does ably wield her rifle.

If you like trains, explosions, over-the-top stunts and westerns, you should give The Lone Ranger a shot. Don't let the hype dissuade you. I have stopped watching many, many movies and watched this all the way through and wasn't disappointed (was my bar set low to start with? maybe). Overall, The Lone Ranger gets 3 Mick Happies. Hi-Ho, Silver,…well you get the idea.

Geekomancy Book Review

I have a list of books, TV shows and movies on my iPod that I add to whenever I find something that sounds interesting that I don't want to forget. For instance today my daughter and I were at the bookstore and I took about 7 pictures of book covers to check into later to see if they should be added to the list. I tend to find things by checking websites like Pat's Fantasy Hotlist or listening to the Empire Podcast or Adventures in Scifi Publishing. It is the latter that clued me in to Geekomancy by Michael R Underwood (see episodes 204 and 205).

Geekomancy is an urban fantasy book from Pocket Books starring Rhiannon "Ree" Reyes, a barrista in a game store/bakery/coffee house trying to make ends meet while trying to write and sell a screenplay to Hollywood. As the story starts, Ree is quickly drawn into an underground world of magic and mayhem where objects of geek culture are embued with power that some Geekomancers can tap into to fantastic effect. Out of her normal life, Ree is soon learning to cast spells and channel geek energies all while slinging pop culture references fast and furious.

This book is a fun and rampant ride through the college town of Pearson, Oregon. Ree knows her geek culture and uses it to great effect. Similar to the outstanding Ready Player One, Geekomancy has so many geek references in any given paragraph at times it is impossible to catch them all. What I really liked about the book was the breadth of magic hiding in plain sight (behind the plot device of The Doubt that keeps normal people from believing/remembering weird stuff they see). Particularly amusing was the reference to Bromancy, which we see in action at one point - I dare you to think of preppy fraternity guys the same way again.

In Geekomancy, Michael R Underwood gives us a contemporary urban fantasy with a strong, though a bit relationship-focused, lead character in Ree. I don't want to ruin the plot, but suffice it to say there are lightsabers and steam-punky elements all mixed in this story. I am looking forward to the sequel Celebromancy (and the soon to be released novella - side-quest - Attack the Geek). There is even another novel optioned in the series, Hexomancy, coming probably in 2015. Geekomancy gets 4 Mick Happies and can be found on most ebook platforms (not available in paper form). Go grab a copy and enjoy.

Dallas Buyers Club Review

I typically do not see Oscar-nominated best film candidates. They just aren't what I would call fun. All good movies I am sure, but not what I want when I look to escape my day-to-day with a some entertainment. At our house we are definitely more comedy and action than drama. So it was a bit of a departure for us to settle in to watch Dallas Buyers Club last night.

Dallas Buyers Club is the story of Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey), an electrician who contracted HIV in the early/mid 1980s and was given 30 days to live. The movie chronicles how Woodruff found a way to survive and bring help to other HIV-positive people through the creation of a buyer's club. A buyer's club is an organization where the members pay dues to get access to the club's resources, in this case non-FDA approved drugs to treat HIV and/or the symptoms of AIDS.

The movie gives a pretty stark portrayal of the drugs and unprotected sex that was (likely) rampant back in the early 80s and the impact of that destructive lifestyle on the characters. It is also critical of the drug trial/FDA approval process, making you question whether policy and the process of approving drugs should be given precedence over letting terminally ill patients get access to the medicine they need to make their lives comfortable.

I personally feel that doctors can help patients and the drug approval process can help protect people from negligence to a point. However, neither are infallible and it is important that individuals research and look out for themselves to ensure that they get the best care for themselves. In the movie that is what many of the characters are doing. Searching for options to make their lives better while dealing with a serious medical condition. The movie also shows some of the conflict of interest where physicians are running trials sponsored by the drug companies that are seeking FDA approval that will earn them a hefty return on their investment (which they are entitled to when they solve a medical problem - maybe not quite so much, but that is a different issue). Dallas Buyers Club is also very critical of AZT, a failed cancer drug candidate that has later been used in conjunction with other drugs to manage health of HIV-infected individuals.

As with any biographical movie, there are differences between reality and the film. The movie is takes some extremes for some characters, introduces others, like Rayon (Jared Leto) and Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner), that are composites of people the writers interviewed and completely fictional. Dallas Buyers Club  does not say that it is a true story, so you have to look past things like that in the effort to make a compelling and commercially viable movie.

It is understandable why Leto and McConaughey have both won Academy Awards for their work in the film where they both give raw and emaciated performances. What was most interesting for me was the conversation that the film prompted with my wife and daughter (who is in her late teens) after we finished it. A discussion on health care, how HIV infections started and spread and about AIDS. We normally don't have those types of conversations started because of a movie we watched.

For an interesting (and frustrating because of the things the characters go through) movie, Dallas Buyers Club is worth a look. If you have problems with racism and drug use and language and sex, you will have difficulty sitting through this one as they are rampant. Dallas Buyers Club gets 4 Mick Happies. Now I need to go watch a comedy to cleanse my brain.

Now for something different…watch musings

I am not a watch person anymore. I used to wear one and later had a pocket watch. Now with the need to carry 2 cell phones that serve as clocks and keep my calendar alerts, I don't see the need for a watch on my arm.

This morning, however, my wife and I started bantering about what cool features an iWatch™might have and I thought maybe these features would be pretty nifty:

Kinetic charging™

Real health function

Theft deterrent

With a couple of these features, maybe a new watch wouldn't be a bad thing.

Have a great week.

Nostalgia Tinged (Game) Reviews

Last weekend we re-watched Dragonslayer, the 1981 fantasy film that made Dragons seem real and awesome. It is still a fantastic movie (4+ Mick Happies) that didn't require massive special effects to be good. Dragonslayer had a plot and fairly good acting for the time. What doesn't hold up about it is the musical score. The Disney 1950s sweeping music just doesn't fit the tone of the rest of the film. Hollywood should just remaster the special effects a little and put in a score with a darker tone and put this film back in theaters, it would be awesome.

The next day I happened to catch a tweet from the Bundle of Holding folks (think Humble Bundle) but for tabletop RPGs. The have a Traveller bundle going until the end of February 2014 that will basically give you everything you can think of from the Traveller game for ~$20 with some of the money going to charity. The minute I saw the bundle, it took me right back to playing Traveller with my dad as we rolled our characters and envisioned them through their military careers and now trying to make it as intrepid merchant-adventurers through the reaches of space. It was only a small mental leap to have me thinking about playing the MegaTraveller PC games (1 and 2), which I really liked. This sparked off even more random flashbacks to other games I loved back in the day (see more about them below). It also made me wonder if they hold up as well as Dragonslayer.

I played so many games growing up that I have to wonder how my parents put up with my fickle playing habits. When I say I played them, I probably spent hours and hours, often never finishing a given game, before moving on to the next interesting (shiny) game that came along. This is probably why, unlike books that I remember fairly well, I tend to have only partial memories of a few aspects of certain games or don't remember them quite like they really were. I guess you really had to be there.

Some of my fondest games were from the early days before graphics really took hold. From the SSI Computer Baseball game that I got a Christmas IOU from my dad for that came out months later. I played and played that game. Entering stats from my Bill James Baseball Abstract for the 1984 season so that I could replay the season as the Padres, keeping the stats for my team. Today you can get that same stat feel on your iOS device ($1.99) or on PC ($19.99) in the form of Out of the Park Baseball, which I have done in the last 10 years or so - creating your own fictitious baseball universe and running it out for 25 years or more. This may have been the start of my love of stat-driven sports simulations that would later lead to me buying multiple versions of the Championship Manager and now Football Manager games (which are all fantastic Soccer management games, all 4 to 5 Mick Happies - go get one or see my iOS review here.)

Also back in the minimal graphics days, I loved fantasy games. Some while growing up and others when I hit college. Here are some of the best I remember (some of which are still playable today):

Wizardry: Legacy of Llylgamyn - one of the best isometric first-person dungeon romps around. Released in 1983, it (and the rest of the Wizardry games) have been remastered, remade and now even exist as a free online MMORPG from Sony (though I haven't tried that). Wizardry: LoL (see what I did there?) was great - take a party into a dungeon and die. Simple as that with nothing more than some lines drawn on screen to give you a sense of where you are going. You can probably find it or one of the other Wizardry games to try somewhere, check them out - it's not Diablo or Path of Exile, but fun in its own way.

I did try to relive the Wizardry experience through another similar game, Oubliette, an obscure dungeon crawler that if you search hard enough on abandonware sites (not that I recommend doing that) you may find it though you will need DOS to run it if I remember correctly. It is the same dungeon dive with a party of characters, but I really liked the character generation process and that your characters aged and had to be retired (though they often died before then). I think you also had to type in the spell names you wanted to cast - so cool back in the day.

I also took the love of RPGs into the Sci-Fi realm as well with Omnitrend's Universe and Universe II games. I remember the multiple floppy disks and the huge binder for Universe - it was kind of like a choose your own adventure game on the computer in space. Probably not great, but loads of fun at the time. Universe II was a more expansive and polished game and if you can play it, it is worth the time, a lot like playing Traveller on your computer. Though I remember the look being better than the screenshots on the link above - perhaps that is due to time and/or my monitor and graphics card at the time?

Of course the other RPG game growing up was Rogue. If you don't know what that is and like RPGs, then at least go play NetHack, which is free to play online at the link or available for free on iOS devices here. Any of these are 5 Mick Happy dungeon dives with lots of depth. Give it a try. These were some of the first games to introduce permadeath and they are HARD.

In college I discovered the world of MUDs (Mulit-User Dungeons) and got into the player killing mayhem that is Genocide. This is a text-based game in which you compete with other players online to win matches - hour long games of team or individual based battles. It is, of course free to play (here) and is where I learned how to touch type. Yay, video games! For time when I wanted to key bash some computer-controlled monsters, I played Valhalla (now defunct). It has been spiritually remade as the mud Asgard's Honor and you can still do pub bashes of monsters that follow you when you run. A pub bash being where you drag a monster to the pub (the place where you can buy healing drinks and food) and the rest of the players online help you kill it while you tank (take all the damage). Best way to kill a big mob (monster). You haven't lived until you lag out in a major fight while playing online with a 9600 baud modem. Eek!

Also in college I had the fun experience playing multiplayer Warlords - a turn-based strategy game that had elements of war games with heroes that you took on quests. A really fun game that probably inspired the Heroes of Might and Magic and other games of that type. Warlords has been remade for iOS and can be found here. Sitting in a computer lab playing multiplayer with friends trash-talking you was simply the best.

The last game I will mention in the walk down memory lane was the very first Battletech inspired video game I ever played, Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception. An RPG where you were caught on a planet invaded by enemies. You had to steal a 'Mech and recruit support and get word out of the invasion. Fantastic game and ripe for conversion to our new touch interface devices. Though I remember the graphics being way better than the screenshots in the link. At the time, waging war in a massive robot on my computer was AWESOME.

Looking back at all of these games (some of which I am amazed are still playable after 20 - 30 years) I find that my memory is better than the reality of the game. Sometimes you can't go back and relive that same experience you had at that time and place. It also makes me think that there are so many opportunities waiting for someone to take these old classics and bring them into the 21st century and make them available to a new generation. Maybe the lack of graphics or arcade action would make them less interesting to gamers today. I like to think not. Certainly these games have shaped my tastes - I like simulations, RPGs and strategy games most of all. I hope one of these spark fond memories for you and if you haven't tried any of them, at the very least, try NetHack - its a classic and free and hard and fun. I still play it today.

Thanks for indulging my nostalgic look bad down memory lane.

Knights of Badassdom Review

Warning there be spoilers here! I have been looking forward to Knights of Badassdom ever since I saw the trailer. A Live Action Role-Playing comedy with a great cast? Sign me up. (The cast includes Peter Dinklage, Steve Zahn, Summer Glau and Ryan Kwanten and they are all FANTASTIC). The story is about three friends who go on a LARP adventure but inadvertently cause horror and mayhem when one of them summons a succubus using a magic tome. You could get all of that from the trailer, by the way.

This movie had all of the hallmarks to be great cheesy fun. People dressing up and pretending to battle and adventure in a fantasy setting. Not taking itself too seriously and the actors obviously having fun playing their parts. Tons of opportunity for self-depricating humor. It is all there for the taking. Where it breaks down is in the last two-thirds of the movie when it becomes more about gore killings than about LARP and friends growing and saving the day.

Knights of Badassdom could have been a great movie. They could have gone with this and it would have been 5 stars:

1. LARP players get ambushed by paint-ballers and when running away slice the paint-ballers tires.
2. Guy gets dumped by girlfriend for being a loser so he gets dragged off by buddies to a LARP weekend.
3. LARP hilarity ensues with people doing outrageous things in costume running about (some stoned) and over-acting.
4. Paint-ballers find out about LARP weekend and show up for revenge.
5. Buddies save the day by running off the paint-ballers using their LARP weapons.
6. Guy gets new girl and they all agree to do it all again in a month.

That would have been an awesome movie. The cast for Knights of Badassdom is great and do a good job with what they are given - it is the plot that let them down. I mean look at how cool Peter Dinklage looks as Sir Hung:

Here is the full party:

Most of the 6 points I mentioned above are in the movie already. What derails it from being a tongue-in-cheek nerd-fest awesome comedy is the succubus story line. Every time we see the three main guys or the rest of their party LARP-ing, it is great. There is witty dialogue, there is camp, there is humor. When we start the gore-fest killing, it is just annoying and loses the point. Seriously, a movie that has this limbering up scene:

and this awesome van art:

should go with being a LARP comedy and leave out the gore/horror angle.

Anyway you look at it, you get exactly what is in the trailer for Knights of Badassdom. Unfortunately, spread out to nearly 90 minutes it just doesn't hold up as a good movie. If they re-cut the film with the plan I have listed above then this would have been 4 maybe 5 Mick Happies. As it is, it is a 4 - 5 Mick Happy cast in a 2 Mick Happy movie. So, Sir Hung, put us out of our misery and as Summer Glau's Gwen says, "Finish Him!":