Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 203
June 5, 2011
The Big Finish
I just finished playing Dragon Age: Origins, the console game, to its conclusion. For the fifth time.While I like this game a great deal— enough to go through the sixty or so hours of gameplay no less than five times— it must be said that I truly hate the finale. It's a brutal slogfest in which your hero and his/her companions battle the Ultimate Evil and hordes of its companions, and nothing really interesting happens in it. It's just a long, long fight that you're almost guaranteed to...
Mischief of the Moment
Just a few notes from odd corners of the world press.You'd think that the, with the failed rapture a couple weeks ago, the world's quota of religious silliness has been filled, but apparently not. The Vatican has closed the 1700-year-old Monastery of Santa Croce after "abuses of a liturgical and economical nature," which included nuns dancing before the altar under the direction of Sister Anna, a former stripper. (Despite attempts by the tabloid press to paint the place as a den of vice...
June 1, 2011
Jewel In My Crown
Behold the new cover for the upcoming ebook release of The Crown Jewels. I slapped it together myself with Photoshop and a piece of stock art.Not bad, if I do say so myself. And it achieves the principal objective of an ebook cover, which is to remain legible when reduced to postage-stamp size.I plan fairly shortly to release the three Maijstral books simultaneously. The first will have a very attractive price.Why the Maijstral books, you ask?To begin with, the stakes are low. These are b...
May 30, 2011
Feathered Flight
Dick Ruttan's SpaceShipTwo has completed its first "feathered flight." Soon this lovely ship will be operating from the New Mexico Spaceport, just a couple hundred miles south of here.
Aristoi Remembered
The fine writer Jo Walton has written an equally fine analysis of Aristoi on the Tor.com blog. It's not a rave filled with nothing but praise, but that's jake with me. It's a great analysis of what in the book works, and what doesn't, for Jo Walton— and since she's a very smart reader, that's a worthwhile perspective.Jo also falls into the "I really hate the protagonist" school, which a lot of people do. Other readers just want to have sex with him. Some hate him and want to have sex...
May 25, 2011
Royal Blood
According to a new book by Richard Sugg, the British royal family regularly dined on human flesh. As well as bones, skin, and internal organs.A new book on medicinal cannibalism has revealed that possibly as recently as the end of the 18th century British royalty swallowed parts of the human body.The author adds that this was not a practice reserved for monarchs but was widespread among the well-to-do in Europe.Even as they denounced the barbaric cannibals of the New World, they applied...
Crowdsource Success!
I know I've reached the big time when I see my name in Techdirt. So helloooo, all you people out there! Buy my books!Thanks to you lovely readers, I now have some excellent, readable files of Days of Atonement, Angel Station, and Knight Moves. These will all be made available soon through electronic outlets.Winners of the prizes for first and/or most useful files are Mark Probert, Tilmon Hocutt, Bruce Albrecht, and Ivan Yakubovitch from the far-off Russian Federation. Thanks, guys! ...
May 24, 2011
Obey: I Am Your Cult Leader
The recent excitement over the failed Rapture has brought to mind the fact that I have often thought that, if only I were a sociopath, I'd be really, really rich now. I'd start a religion, like L. Ron, and make a lot of money, and not pay taxes.It would be a damn good religion, too. It would answer most of the major questions and gloss over the rest. ("Why is there pain? BECAUSE GOD HATES YOU! And God will KEEP ON HATING YOU until you LEARN TO OBEY WALTER IN EVERY LITTLE DETAIL!")Why...
May 21, 2011
Rapture Crash
Via Charlie Stross, How God is Managing the 2011 Rapture.
May 19, 2011
Orbiter Montage
Exciting moments at the Cape, condensed.We arrived predawn. Yes, that is an alligator cruising along in the lower left.
