(A spoiler-free review.)
Properly, Brandon Sanderson’s Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time: Book 12, A Memory of Light: Volume 1, The Gathering Storm.
Let me go ahead and fess up: I cannot be objective about this book. There are plenty of people who have been reading this series longer in absolute terms, but as a percentage of my life, the Wheel of Time series is approached only by Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, and King, at least, finished his. I’ve spent more of my life than not waiting for, reading, discussing, bitching about, and yes, getting bitter over Wheel of Time books. To summarize:
Books 1-3: Important Plot People are Important
Books 4-6: Horrible things happen to them. Sometimes they accomplish things. A lot of running aboot occurs.
Books 7-9: Things slow down. Fewer things happen. Many new and dubiously point-ful characters are introduced.
Book 10: Elayne takes a bath.
Book 11: Jordan realizes he hasn’t pushed a plot even one tiny bit closer to conclusion in about four books. All plots are advanced (and sometimes even concluded) simultaneously. Fandom breathes collective sigh of relief that maybe there’s hope for the old girl yet.
Book 11.5: Jordan dies.
Well, after 18 years of the damn things, we were by Crom going to get some damn closure if Teresa Nielsen Hayden had to personally raise Jordan’s zombie corpse, bind his soul to it in a freakish parody of life, and send it shuffling off to a typewriter. But since a thousand pages of “Braaaaaaains…” would be only slightly less disappointing than Crossroads of Twilight, it was decided that they’d try something else first. Specifically, finding an author familiar with the work and with a background in Cinderblock Fantasy, handing him a huge stack of notes and outlines, and saying “Here. Finish it.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Well, okay, a joke app at least.
Lately I’ve been working nights with some people I know to do iPhone/iPod Touch game design. We’re working on a separate, fairly large project, but to test the waters we did a joke app, called Tubby Tester. Basically you whack the device against yourself and it gives you snarky comments about how fat, thin, or average you are. I was one of the the two writers of the snarky comments.
If you have a compatible device and know me in real life, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll get you a promo code to download it for free, have a few laughs, and show it to people. We’re trying a whole “word of mouth” thing.
And, if you just happen to read this blog, please consider looking up Tubby Tester on the iTunes store and giving it a whirl, and a review. It’s only $0.99.
Dollhouse ekes out another lease on life, as Fox confirms that they will air all 13 episodes already ordered. That’s roughly approximate to saying “We’re not going to shoot your dog… at least not while you’re looking.”
back pain relief
Apparently its broadcast ratings suck hideously, but it’s doing very strong on non-broadcast channels like Hulu and DVR viewings.
It’s sort of surprisingly nice to see a TV exec giving it a chance.
If only he weren’t the same puppy-kicking, kitten-eating bastard that canceled Terminator. Jerk.
I don’t know who else has seen this, but Canabalt is the most entertaining Flash game since Nanaca Crash. With which it has basically nothing else in common.
Seriously, though, kills hours, tons of fun, very simple. And turn the volume up.
Let “Stargate Universe” henceforth be forever known as “Battlestar Sliderstrekscape”, to stand alongside the original Sliderstrekscape and its spin-off, Sliderstrekscape: DSV.
Seriously. They weren’t trying hard before, but now they’re just giving up. Even the camera work and soundtrack seem suspiciously familiar.
(Yes, I’ve been watching a lot of the other two series lately as well. I plead boredom.)