Jlawrence’s Comments (group member since Mar 08, 2010)

Jlawrence’s comments from the The Sword and Laser group.

aldenoneil wrote: "I prefer the book discussion and am less interested in the news and book releases. Maybe we should settle this with fists."

You mean fisticuffs. You mean sword-fists and laser-cuffs.

Aloha wrote: "When you logically think about it in a microcosm of a room with a shelf to contain only approved books, with people of every possible religion and belief in the room, including atheism,and each person is allowed to burn books antithetical to their belief, there would be no book left on the shelf. "

Agreed. I think I didn't make myself clear. I agree that some of the reaction was hysterical. And, as I previously said, I do not think the series should be banned from schools and libraries. I like many aspects of the series and kind of think it's a over-ambitious but fascinating thing that Pullman created by trying to tell an inverse Paradise Lost in a young adult format -- but even if I *didn't* like the series, I would never support their being banned.

I was just arguing that the statement that the deity in His Dark Materials has nothing to do with the Christian God is not true. Because of the way Pullman set things up (mentioned in my post above), it is entirely predictable that some Christians' buttons would be pushed by a young adult novel series in which (view spoiler)[the protagonists end up literally joining a battle *against* a deity that is, in various ways, associated with the Judeo-Christian God (hide spoiler)]. I think this is a different scenario than, say, completely ignorant assertions from some Christian groups in the 70s/80s that the Dungeons & Dragons games were Satanism training tools. Sure, there were demons and devils and spells in D&D -- but D&D had no overarching theological/philosophical agenda. His Dark Materials *does* have an agenda, one that's pretty baldly right there in the plot of especially the third book, and which stems from Pullman's atheist world-view that he's promoting, as you've said. That's why I can understand the reaction occurring, while at the same time not agreeing with the reaction's calls for banning and censorship.

Aloha wrote: "The god here is in the mythological Compass world. To become hysterical and vilifiy the book for that is absurd."

Actually, (view spoiler)[there are heavily-laid on parallels to Paradise Lost through His Dark Materials, with Lord Asriel standing in for Pardise Lost's Satan, the rebel angel who wants to overthrow God's authority and establish his own rule. Pullman himself has said in interviews how His Dark Materials became a retelling of Paradise Lost. And Lucifer in Paradise Lost is a not-completely unsympathetic character, even though Milton clearly views his actions as wrong. Conversely, Asriel starts as somewhat of a villain (given the ending of HDM book 1), but by the third book is leading what is pretty much a heroically viewed battle of liberation against God and the Authority. Lord Asriel is just successful where Milton's Satan failed. And there's the angels with names from Judeo-Christian mythos, etc. (hide spoiler)]

So, the evoking of (or at the very least the *mirroring* of) some Christian mythos is pretty strong. Not that I think that should mean His Dark Materials shouldn't be read, discussed, analyzed, etc - but I *do* understand why some Christians are upset with the books, and its evoking of Christian symbols and Milton should be looked at in any serious consideration of it.

MOAH readings/enactments of horrible 19th-century sci-fi!

Please. :)

InExile entertainment has launched a kickstarter project for a sequel to Wasteland, the 1988 post-apocalyptic CRPG. InExile's CEO is ex-Interplay founder Brian Fargo, who was was involved in the Baldur's Gate games, Fallout 1 & 2, and other classics.

Wasteland was ground-breaking at its time for featuring a wide variety of skills your characters could choose from, improve, and use in different situations, multiple solutions to puzzles and obstacles, and a degree of sandbox-y freedom of action. It was also the inspiration for the Fallout series.

I never finished Wasteland, but there's a definitely lack of party-based, turn-based, tactical style RPGs out there (and sci-fi to boot!), so I'm interested to see how well inExile can mix old-skool goodness with some modern conveniences (like a smooth UI).

Just in the first day, they're halfway to their goal! Like the Double Fine kickstarter project, it's an encouraging example of getting fan support for a kind of game that can't get AAA funding anymore.

Also, SF author Michael Stackpole was part of the original Wasteland design team, and he's back for this project.

Scan of original back cover of Wasteland

This book slowly won me over. I really liked the brash intro (the colorful cursing between Chains and the Thiefmaker), but immediately after that it became a kind-of amusing but not gripping read as Locke and his gang more or less effortlessly pulled off their long cons (I had the same issues with the effortlessness and lack of surprise that others above did).

And additional nitpick was that anyone who had a sense of humor in the book had the *exact same sarcastic sense of humor and exact same method of expressing it* -- including the narrator. Of course when the humor was excellent, like in that initial Chains-Thiefmaker dialogue, it didn't matter, but it was kind of be like if everyone in the Hitchhiker's Guide books spoke in the exact same way that Adams-as-narrator did.

Regardless, things did pick up considerably for me when the Gray King was introduced and put Locke and gang in a delicious pickle. And by the last third, I was pretty engrossed. I'm curious about the next in the series, and hoping it can be compelling throughout instead of an extreme ramp up half-way through. Also, (view spoiler)[I'm not convinced that depriving a bondsmage of the ability to cast magic is not going to incur the wrath of the bondsmage brethren, just because he's not dead - I hope that's addressed in the sequel. (hide spoiler)]

I had some other issues similar to ones voiced above. The switch between alternate chapters being character-building flashbacks and then later alternate chapters being "meanwhile..." plot info reveals was kind of jarring. And I too wondered how the Gray King could afford a bondsmage and none of the Camorr royalty could.

And (view spoiler)[Locke's tricking the bondmage -- as Kid said, how did the bondsmage work his magic on Locke before, when he didn't know Locke's real name then either?

And how did the supposedly brilliant Spider carefully arrange to put herself in a situation when confronting Locke where there wasn't even *one* other of her men waiting in the immediate wings in case this known-to-be-super-slippery opponent got the upper hand on her, as he in fact did? (hide spoiler)].

But overall, it did win me over me in the end. I especially liked the line (view spoiler)["So this revenge," Locke mumbled. "It is," whispered Jean... Locke: "It is a shit business." (hide spoiler)]

Yeah, he was heavily featured in the 70's Metal Hurlant/Heavy Metal issues. I think the best trade paperbacks would be the Moebius # series put out by Epic Graphic Novels, but they're out of print and quite costly now. :(

French artist Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, who worked on the production designs of Alien, Tron, The Abyss and The Fifth Element as well as many original comic books, passed away this weekend at the age of 73. He's always been one of my favorite sci-fi artists. RIP.

Micah wrote: "Jlawrence wrote: "Some I could never possibly re-watch too many times (Monty Python & the Holy Grail)."

When that hit DVD I was speaking on the phone with my future wife. I said something like "I need to buy this soon" which she then replied with "ummmmm I already own it." Now this was within a week of it being released mind you. And that is how I knew I wanted to marry her.

(mostly true story except for the part where the only reason I knew I wanted to marry my wife was because of a monty python dvd. It was a reason though)"

That was a worthy good omen indeed! :D

Yeah, I'm in a bit of a conundrum about the transferring your save thing. I would really like to transfer my ME1 save, but I'm loathe to buy ME2 again when I already have it for PS3. I'm leaning towards dealing with losing my ME1 save and playing through the interactive comic, and then getting ME3 on PS3 so I can at least transfer my ME2 save. (Also, it's possible my PC won't run ME3 well, which will make the decision easier!)

I'm playing through the first Mass Effect on PC right now - bought it on Steam a long time ago and never got around to it until this release of ME3 prodded me. I'm enjoying it so far, but I'm still pretty early into it. I could see the fire-at-pop-up enemies from cover mechanics could get tiring, but they aren't for me yet, and the story and world is engaging. And as others have said, it's great to see epic sci-fi in a modern game. Assuming I keep liking it, ME2 (I have a used PS3 copy) and ME3 will be next on the gaming list.

I frequently re-watch films. Some films I've rewatched too many times (Star Wars Ep IV). Some I could never possibly re-watch too many times (Monty Python & the Holy Grail).

I haven't read any yet, but Star Wars: Heir to the Empire is on my 'read in 2012' list. I've only heard good things about it (that it captures the spirit of the original trilogy well, etc.).

Like many here, I really love being able to instantly buy and read books on the Kindle. I also love the dictionary look-up of any word in the text, that's the feature I most addicted to. I like that my highlights and bookmarks are synced across the various Kindle app/device permutations. I have also (there was a thread about this a while back) run out of shelf space in my apt., so going the ebook route is essential now!

I have fallen a bit out of love with the device itself, though, despite its excellent design and ease-of-use, because I surprisingly find myself preferring backlit reading - I like the experience of reading on the kindle app on my phone better than on my 2nd gen Kindle, which goes against my expectations, hearing so much about eye strain with backlit reading (I haven't done any marathon reading sessions with backlit, though). I know the Fire is backlit, but I'm thinking about getting an iPad later this year, and likely will switch to using the Kindle app there for most ebook reading (unless the backlighting does indeed anger my eyes).

Tamahome wrote: "n
n
n
kill monster with sword
get all from corpse"

YES!!

Also:

> Lem book

About those Kindle interactive fiction titles -- The King of Shreds & Patches has a parser that will have you typing commands on the Kindle keyboard, all Zork-like (I did cover art for the pre-Kindle version). I think most of the others are gamebook/choose-your-own adventure combos, but I expect more parser-based ones are on the way (I know there's interest in that in the IF community).

A search on Amazon turned up the 'Galactic Football League' series by Scott Sigler - no idea how good or bad it is.

Book 1: THE ROOKIE

Nice!

I think he used this to calculate thiotimoline's properties.

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I'd be up for such a club if it got rolling here (or as a Game On! hybrid).

How could Tron have missed mention so far?? (Yes, it's bad, but it's cheesy-fun-bad for me, and the abstraction of the CGI helps it still be visually charming).

Actually, there was some previous discussion of 80's sci-fi & fantasy movies on the Ready Player One-inspired How does 80s pop culture hold up thread (along with a lot of other 80's stuff, naturally).

Graeme wrote: "Irene wrote: "Has anyone watched The Dark Crystal as an adult? I loved that movie as a kid, but I haven't watched it in years. I think I'll be let down."

I wasn't. It was still good."

I don't love it as much as I did as a kid, some of its clunkiness is much more apparent, but it's still good, and the imagination that went into its world is still great to experience.