The other night I finished reading Mr. Murder by Dean Koontz and I can definitely recommend it. Even though at about page 100, I was unsure if I wanted to continue reading the book. Not because it was bad. No, it was because my heart was racing so much and my blood pressure was so high that I wasn’t sure I was going to live through the rest of the book. To call this novel suspenseful is a grave understatement. If you enjoy Dean Koontz as an author or just like good suspense stories with a little supernatural or science fiction thrown into the mix, then you may enjoy this book.
I didn’t realize that the book was a reprint of a much older story when I started. The copy I have is from 2006, but the original was published in the early 90′s. Some references make this very obvious, but for the most part Koontz keeps the details and pacing at a level where nothing really feels dated or so jarring that it doesn’t work today. It’s well written and the end is a bit of a stretch but it all works well.
I’m not saying anything about the story because I don’t want to give anything away.
Next up is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Not sure if I’ll make it through that monster classic but I figure I owe it to myself to try.
Not that it was longer than the standard two days, but this did end up being a nice long weekend. I would tell you all about it, but my wife has already gone through all the trouble of writing it all out, so I will just ask that you go read the details at her site.
On Friday night I spent a little time finishing up the last chapter of American Gods by Neil Gaiman so I could start on a new book on Monday’s commute. I’d heard from a lot of people that American Gods was a good book and it definitely did not dissapoint. I’ve been a big fan of Neil Gaiman since the Sandman comics series first came what seems like forever ago. If you are a fan of his and have not read American Gods, I highly recommend it. I really can’t say much about it because I don’t want to ruin any of the details for anyone. I’ll be checking the used book store for Anansi Boys since it has a few of the same characters although I understand it’s not actually a sequel.
On Saturday, Muse had a nice long nap so I finished playing Bioshock on the XBox360. Considering all the hype and glowing reviews surrounding this game I have to admit that I had pretty high expectations for this game. Especially since the creators were some of the same people that created the classic System Shock and System Shock 2 games many years prior. For a lot of the game I felt kind of disappointed and even a bit bored with the repitition. However the mechanics are decent and the story is somewhat interesting so I kept playing and I’m glad I did.
I’m guessing that the reviewers that gave it the good ratings that they did had completed the game because it just doesn’t work until you’ve finished the game and seen the whole picture and the whole story (or at least as much is available in this game). Some parts of the game are tedious or annoying ( I lost count of how many Little Sisters died on my watch in The Proving Grounds) but the overall look and feel of the game is perfect. It’s not a flawless game though and I encoutered the typical errors that are found in most games in regards to graphics, AI and physics. It’s a good game and well worth playing all the way through but I don’t think it was deserving of all the hype that it received.
It has been mentioned that perhaps I need to take a break from playing video games because I seem to be getting jaded in my opinions of new titles. Which I think is untrue as well as impossible. Untrue because there have been a number of games that I have played recently that I have absolutely loved (or at least really liked). Impossible because video games are a huge part of my life and I can’t imagine life without them. That may change but not today.
Here’s something I didn’t know when I bought the book I Am Legend: it’s a short story collection. I Am Legend is only the first 159 pages and then the rest of the book is all additional short stories by Richard Matheson. Nowhere on the front or back of the book does it say that. The only way I even knew was once I started reading it and saw the odd table of contents. Why does it matter? Because most of the other stories were kinda crappy.
As good as the story of I Am Legend is, it’s not as strong as the legend the book itself has become. Richard Matheson’s writing does not age well. The namesake story was written in 1954 along with about half the other stories in this book. And it reads like someone from the 1950′s wrote it. It is hard to future proof any creative work of course but for those people under the age of about 30 will probably have a hard time understanding many things in this book. For the baby boomers out there, you will be right at home.
The reason I say this is because in the “future” of 1976, the protagonist must deal with Willys station wagons with 3-speed manual transmissions and a choke. What’s a choke you ask and what does it have to do with cars? Then stick to the updated Will Smith movie, you will probably be disappointed by the original story. The other stories in the book fare no better and there are some glaring problems with continuity and editing even in this re-release of the legendary story so I can only assume that these are Matheson’s actual mistakes at this point and no one will ever correct them.
The story of I Am Legend is good. It’s extremely dated and the pacing is slow and deliberate but it’s good. Most of the rest of the book is fluff that was probably written for various low-rent magazines at the time of their writing. One stand-out is the story called Prey which if you’ve seen the classic 1970′s movie Trilogy of Terror, you will recognize right off. The story of the homicidal Zuni fetish doll is much better in print than the version in the classic movie.
I’d still recommend reading I Am Legend if only for the namesake story but with the caveat that you may not be old enough to get all the outdated references and terminology. If that sort of thing doesn’t bother you though and you don’t mind a few confusing edits here and there then by all means pick up a copy and read it. It may not age well but it’s still potent enough.
I just recently finished reading the Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium. This is one of the Black Library‘s Omnibus books that collects the first three novels in the Ciaphas Cain series as well as three short stories that help to fill in some of the blanks from this ‘autobiography’. The three novels collected here are For The Emperor, Caves of Ice and The Traitor’s Hand which if bought separately cost quite a bit more than getting all three and the bonus shorts all in this one book. Yeah, it’s a bit bulky but it’s worth it.
The stories are the autobiographical accounts of a Commissar in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. For those of you not familiar with 40K, a Commissar’s job is to keep the morale and courage of the Imperial troops up and to deal with trouble-makers and insubordination. They are modeled after the stereotypical Russian officer of the real World Wars that are shown shooting deserters in the back and executing troops until everyone falls in line. Understandably, the Commissar is generally not well liked.
In these stories though, Commissar Cain is the opposite of what he should be and the result is pretty damn funny. Instead of being the typical shoot first and ask no questions ever type, he is a self-proclaimed coward and lives to get away with as little as possible in life. He prefers to not shoot his troopers to make examples of them because if they don’t hate him, they may not “accidentally” shoot him in the heat of battle or leave him to be eaten. Of course the irony is that whenever he does what he thinks will be the easiest assignment it always turns out to be the most important and tide-turning events which makes him look like a hero to everyone else.
These books won’t be for everyone and you really have to have a basic understanding of the Warhammer 40K universe to get a lot of the subtle references and jokes. But if you are familiar with this great game and genre, you will love these books. Instead of the cold hard grittiness you usually get in a 40K book, this one goes completely against the grain.
Over the weekend I finally finished Assassin’s Creed on the XBox 360. I had gotten it while we were back in the States for the holidays when Best Buy had it on sale for $39.99 USD. Considering the game was still new and selling for $60 normally, I thought that was a pretty good deal.
It took me a couple weeks of playing off and on but I finally beat it and I have to say that I enjoyed the game quite a bit. I knew that the game was reviewing fairly well with the major games sites and magazines so my expectations were relatively high. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the premise of the game, you are an assassin during the 3rd Crusades that Europe made against “the Holy Lands”. Your Brotherhood of Assassins is tasked with stopping the Knights Templar from obtaining certain artifacts that would change the war in their favor.
What I didn’t know about the game was that its based in the future and all the medieval action takes place in a genetic memory replay computer thingy. You are actually a descendant of the assassin in question and they use this machine to have you relive his memories through genetic memory. It all sounds kind of weird but it works. So there’s actually two storylines going on and they’re relatively interesting.
Gameplay is fun. I’ll just say that now. It’s like a medieval version of Crackdown but with much better graphics. However, it is also rather repetitive for such a big name game. Don’t get me wrong though… the stabbings and the tasks may be the same over and over, but it remains fun throughout. The enemies become more plentiful as well as better trained as you become more skilled yourself. There are hidden items littering the landscape if you could just find them and the only inventory you ever have to worry about are your throwing knives (which are easily replaced). This simplicty keeps the action going strong.
Once you get the hang of it, you can take on a group of soldiers on your own or run like hell through the city trying to lose them. You can hide in hay stacks or blend in with white robed scholars. You can go anywhere in four cities in the game world and let me just say that the scope of these cities is huge. It’s amazing when you climb the tallest tower in a city and look around and see exactly where you are and the hundreds of buildings there are around you in just one city.
This game could potentially be rather short if you wanted it to be. Some tasks are necessary but others like saving citizens from abusive soldiers are not. You only need to do a certain amount of tasks before you can go on each of your assassination missions but you would miss out on some odds and ends and some Achievements if you are playing on XBox 360. I tried to complete as much as I could and there are still plenty of objectives that I didn’t finish.
If you liked Crackdown then you’ll probably really like Assassin’s Creed. If you liked Assassin’s Creed then you should definitely try Crackdown if you haven’t already. I say that because Crackdown didn’t sell very well compared to Assassin’s Creed which is a shame. It’s definitely one of my favorite 360 games so far and Assassin’s Creed gets the formula right as well. I’ll be looking out for the sequels.
May 9, 2008 12:45 pm | 
