Photos of a famous author moving into his newly completed tower!

Get it? Because goats will eat anything!

I was a little surprised to hear that David Eddings had passed away. I never really read a whole lot of David Eddings stuff, to be honest, but one of his books, The Ruby Knight, was one of the first fantasy novels I had ever read (with The Hobbit and LOTR being the two that preceded it.)

What was more sobering for me, though, was doing some reading up on other authors out there and realizing that we’re going to be closing the book on a great deal of speculative fiction authors. While it’s exciting to think that there’s going to be new writers establishing themselves and doing new things within the genre, it’s quite saddening to think that a lot of recognizable names are getting up there in age.

Piers Anthony is 74.

Terry Pratchett is 61, but was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s 2 years ago.

Ursula Le Guin is 79.

Jack Vance is 92.

Michael Moorcock is 69.

Robert Jordan passed away 2 years ago.

This post is probably more than a little morbid, but it was the result of stumbling around and checking out some other authors which I am familiar with.

RIP David Eddings.

One of the Internet whipping boys as of late, particularly if you’re of the geeky bent, has been author George R.R. Martin, he of the ongoing Song of Ice and Fire series. I’d recommend the books to pick up and read, but, well, I’d probably have to go and recommend you take up black tar heroin or start reading Robert Jordan, another fantasy author who passed away not too long ago before completely finishing his epic fantasy series, leaving his story unfinished and in the hands of another author. You might see where I’m going with this.

See, the fifth book in the series, A Dance With Dragons has been stalled. Roughly five years, as a matter of fact, although technically, the ‘drama’ with Martin has only been going on for the past 2 years or so. The fourth book in the series, A Feast For Crows, was half of what he intended the fourth book to be and A Dance With Dragons was going to be tossed out really quickly, lickety split, because, hey, if he had written only half a book, figuring out the rest shouldn’t be too hard, right? Unfortunately, the release of ADWD hasn’t happened and fans, being the annoying pests that they are, soon became disgruntled. It doesn’t help that Martin keeps a blog where he updates readers on his current doings, such as works that he is editing, other projects, such as the HBOization of ASoIaF, hocking merchandise or, and this is important here, providing updates on ADWD. This criticism reached critical mass not too long ago when Martin himself lashed out at angry fans on his blog, upset that they dare to pester him about updates regarding the book.

More recently, authors such as Neil Gaiman have come out to voice their support for Martin, telling fans that Martin ‘is not your bitch.’ I can see the point that Gaiman is making: just because you buy the published work of an author, doesn’t mean he is under any sort of obligation to provide more entertainment for you. I agree with it, too. Unfortunately, when you’re someone like George RR Martin, constantly posting updates regarding your work and making and breaking promises to your fanbase about said work, you’re providing them with an expectation, intentional or not. Martin is under no obligation to post said updates, but when he does that begins  a dialogue with his audience and expectations change.

I think the big misconception that a lot of people are under is that fans aren’t mad because Martin is doing other things, they are getting mad because he has teased fans with the hope that the book is going to be done soon. This has been an ongoing problem for about 2 years, if you refer back to the last link that was made. This becomes further complicated when Martin refuses to give any sort of insight as to what is going on with ‘the’ work, other than vague promises of ’soon, soon’ and then goes on to talk about every other writing project he is involved in, projects which have all seen completion or progress of some kind. Further, it becomes frustrating when rumours abound that Martin forbids any sort of mentioning of the book when he makes appearances at conventions and quells any attempt at discussion on his blog. This would be understandable if his blog hadn’t already been setup as a place to go for information regarding ‘The Book’, but, again, since Martin uses the blog as a way of updating people on his work, fans have an expectation that he would be giving updates on all of his work, as has been the case. To chastise fans for expecting something is silly, given that he uses his blog as a way of advertising every other piece of writing and merchandise of his. To make one exception:  to refuse to discuss a book that has been promised to be released ’soon’ for the past 2 years while getting angry when fans sour against you for what they view as dragging your heels is asinine, especially when you leave all of them in the dark, after providing them with information and updates prior to this.

That’s the issue and why so many fans are upset and feeling frustrated: they feel as though they are being lied to and that Martin is being evasive about things. It is not because they lack sympathy towards George because writing can be frustratingly hard at times. It is not because fans expect a new book: that expectation was placed there by Martin with his constant promises of ’soon.’ The book isn’t something he has stated he has put on the backburner, it is something he is actively working on and, if you believe him, close to completion.

If Martin were to come out and say ‘Look, the pressure regarding this book is huge and I’m having some incredible difficulties with it. I can’t give you a timeline because I need to reconnect with the project and get the writing juices flowing.’ Fans would be a hell of a lot more understanding than with the current runaround that they are currently on the receiving end of. To bring up one of my favorite authors, China Mieville has said that he wants to write more books in the Bas-Lag universe, a world that I abso-fucking-lutely adore, but that he’s taking a break from it and he wants to write some other stuff. I’m not getting pissed at him. Why? One, because he has arms that could probably crush me into a fine powder and two, because he hasn’t gone onto his LiveJournal and written posts where he says ‘Oh sup mates, I’m working on a new Bas-Lag novel. It should be finished in June’ and then when June rolls around, posts something like this. Then repeats the process for the next 2 years.

Although I’m not as hung up as some other, more rabid, fans can be, it is frustrating watching this play out. If I ever, ever get a publishing contract, please, for the love of God, use this post as a reminder of what not to do as an author.

So, one of the things that I am hugely interested in is steampunk, a genre of literature that has certainly caught on in recently, with people creating DIY masterpieces of all sorts of things, from laptops to guitars and games like Bioshock taking some steampunk elements and incorporating them into something new. I don’t know what it is, but the idea of all things steampunk is something that I find utterly fascinating. Maybe it was too many hours spent in front of the SNES, playing Final Fantasy 6 (another game which had a lot of steampunk elements.) Maybe it’s the whole concept of the world re-imagined into something new and fresh that seems so tempting. Maybe it is simply the DIY spirit that incorporates steampunk that makes it so appealing to me. I don’t know. Fact is, I fucking love the genre, for whatever reason.

For those that aren’t entirely familiar with what steampunk is, think (typically) Victorian-era technology and customs meets science fiction, creating all sorts of bizarre and fun stuff. Like just about anything that has the word ‘punk’ attached to it, it’s hard for fans to come to a general consensus on what ‘is’ and ‘isn’t’ steampunk and, if you were to go to the Wikipedia page for steampunk, I’m sure there is either an edit war raging right now or the ashes of one can be found in the previous changes section. Anyway, generally speaking Victorian feel + sci-fi tone = crazy mad fun. For the visually inclined:

I’ve been branching out into some steampunk fiction, some of them, such as the works of China Mieville’s Bas-Lag books, are brilliant and make me hang my head in shame at the thought of competing with someone such as Mr. Mieville. Others have been somewhat lacklustre. Still, in an ongoing quest to check out new and interesting steampunk fiction, I picked up Stephen Hunt’s The Court of the Air, as I had heard a couple of good things about it and was jonesing for a steampunk fix.

That said, I didn’t particularly enjoy it. Why? Well, there were a couple of major problems that leaped out for me. The first is one that can be problematic of most speculative fiction writers who are playing around in their own world: too much world building, not enough storytelling. It’s obvious that Hunt has put a lot of care and effort into creating his own universe and he just can’t wait to tell you all about it. Unfortunately, readers are subjected to an introduction to his world by the Micro Machines guy, where details, cultures, characters, places, cities, etc. whiz by at the speed of light. He does a good job of establishing the primary setting, the country of Jackals, which is basically playing the role of England in this story, but a lot of the smaller details are simply thrown into the mix without a lot of exploration or explanation. Sometimes Hunt will get around to explaining what certain things mean, other times he won’t. It creates a very disorienting effect and ruins the immersion. Maybe I’m spoiled by authors who do an incredible job with world building and writing about their worlds, like the aforementioned Mieville or George RR Martin, but I found the pace at which Hunt flew through things to be a little much.

The second problem I have with the story relates to the world building and it’s more of a peeve than an actual complaint. You know how in some stories where they’re talking about alternate universes and the only difference for something in the alternate universe is that the name of it has been ‘cleverly’ changed? I hate that and Hunt does it in Court of the Air. A lot. For example, there are subversive characters running around who are part of a ‘dangerous’ political group known as Carlists. You know, like Karl Marx, but with a C? He also does that a lot with places in Jackal, coming up with rather unimaginative names for existing places. It’s not a huge complaint with the story, really, but it’s something that sticks out for me and makes it hard for me to get immersed into the story.

Finally, I have a major issue with the characterization in the story. Or, rather, the complete and utter lack of it. The story revolves around two orphans, Molly and Oliver (Twist?), who are being pursued by unknown agents. Molly likes to read and is a bit of a brat, while Oliver was found in the middle of nowhere after being subjected to the something called ‘feymist.’ All Oliver wants to do is be normal. Got all that? Good, because that is ALL you learn about the characters for the entire book in terms of personality or motivation. And the story just flies, moving from action sequence to action sequence. Sometimes another character will provide exposition explaining why or who Oliver or Molly is running from, but that’s about it, really. There’s no time to build any sort of bond with the characters and the whole story almost becomes like a JRPG, as the main characters flit from locale to locale.

And honestly? I could deal with something like that, depending on the context, say like a young adult novel, where character development isn’t as important as telling an entertaining story. It still happens, mind you, but characterization/development takes a backseat to plot. But this is a 582 page book and is not marketed as a young adult novel. As a result, it becomes hard to care about the characters when they are completely devoid of any kind of personality.

That said, I liked the world that Hunt has created, I love many of the things that he introduced into his story, I simply didn’t like the execution, is all. I believe this was Hunt’s first novel, so he definitely has room to grow and improve his craft, so here’s hoping that he can do so with subsequent efforts.

So, I made mention I was going to talk about some books, and I thought that with my last post, talking about how video games have been changing over the years, I’d go with an author who just recently jumped back into my mind.

I caught an appearance from Steven Johnson on The Colbert Report about 2 years ago when he was plugging his book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, a short, interesting piece talking about how new media, particularly television and video games, has been evolving since their inception. It’s wonderfully written and has what I find to be some solid reasoning and analysis to support his claims, although it is a little short on actual hard data, a lack of which is disappointing, as it would have made his arguments far more compelling. As it is, the book is more theory than actual hard data, sort of like a Malcolm Gladwell book without the use of studies done by psychologists, doctors, etc. I particularly liked the comparisons he did with shows from the 70s and the Sopranos, as well as his analysis of the early Zelda games with more recent one, but I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Johnson’s case is pretty much that the stuff that teachers, politicians and parents are worrying about ‘rotting’ the minds of the youth of today are actually doing the exact opposite, as television and video games are creating a kind of thinker that is different from ones that had existed before and is developing different thinking and learning skills. To go back to the Sopranos example, Johnson illustrates how abstract and sophisticated modern television has become, using the various plotlines, larger casts and (occasionally) abstract ideas and symbolism that is used when compared to the fairly linear television that existed in the 70s. From there, he goes on to show how modern media results in users who have to track numerous points of data and, essentially, multitask. What some people may qualify as ADD could in fact simply be an intensive form of time micro-management.

Johnson does the same thing with video games, talking about how games have become more and more multi-faceted since the early days of Pong. This is one of the reasons why I’m not convinced that games are becoming more and more ‘dumbed down’ as time goes on, as they are becoming far more intellectually intensive for folks, as there are far more things to track and take care of. I’m not going to resummarize all of his arguments, but his hypothetical argument that reverses the roles of books and video games was pretty funny, if not more than a little hyperbolic.

I should also point out that while Johnson provides examples of how things have changed, he is not trying to make blanket statements about pop culture and that folks are not instantly becoming smarter just because they watch The Apprentice over Wheel of Fortune, or that you are going to go from being a C+ student to an A student if you play a few more hours of World of Warcraft every week. Although Johnson doesn’t go into this, I’d like to think that people are like raw resources, and media and our interactions with said media, are a sort of refining of those raw resources. The issue is where those resources are used. To use a brain as oil analogy, imagine if your brain does the equivalent of a rocket ship going to colonize Mars, which is infinitely more valuable than, say, using the same resources to do doughnuts in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

I know I sound like one of those web 2.0 dipshits, a wide eyed snake oil optimist going on and on about how the sky is the limit with the World Wide Web, lawl, but I really do think that video games, television and other kinds of media are great at developing well rounded thinkers, it is simply up to educators and parents to tap into and utilize those thinking skills, along with the ones that are traditionally cultivated and developed, to ensure that students are realizing their full potential.

Anyway, enough rambling on about this particular book. I highly recommend picking it up and seeing what Johnson has to say. However, if reading about television or video games sounds like a dreary task for you, there are other works by Johnson that are equally interesting, one of which I’ve read.

The Ghost Map is an historical recount of the cholera epidemic that hit London in the mid 1800s and is a wonderfully researched affair. Johnson delves deep into the cause of the cholera epidemic, examining faulty infrastructure, popular opinion and environmental factors that led to a ‘perfect storm’ for cholera to thrive. He also looks into how medical minds of the time were able to figure out where the outbreak originated from and move away from the ‘miasma’ theory of disease, a revolutionary concept that helped to further our medical knowledge. Great stuff.

His most recent book, The Invention of Air, came out at the tail end of last year, and is another historical read, looking at Joseph Priestly, an exiled English scientist who fled to America, and the role he played in influencing the founding fathers. This is the book of his I have not yet read, but am quite keen on checking out. Based on his prior works, I should have nothing to worry about!

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Unrelated, but a funny sidenote: My first rant about Dumb Decision Designs was centered around the silliness of fighting games forcing characters to unlock half the roster before they get all the characters. While my post was centered around Street Fighter IV, there are other games out there that were worse offenders, such as Marvel vs. Capcom 2, a game which has a total roster of 56 characters, but (I could be wrong here, my memory sucks) only had about half that available, forcing you to unlock new characters.

Well, Capcom announced on Monday that there’s going to be a port of MvC2 onto the PS3 and 360, but with the entire roster already unlocked. Woo hoo! See? Not all gaming companies hate you!