Stormy

Posted on March 26, 2020 by Eric

I started my own re-read of all the published works in the Dresden Files series in anticipation of the new book being released this summer. Part of the re-read was also looking at them from a new perspective. I have heard from some people that the works are misogynistic. I have never felt that way about them. In fact, I empathize with the main character more than I do with many other works. It’s part of my attraction to the series. That’s the part that worried me ~ I never want to be that guy.

I read the short story at the start of it all and the comic book that is supposed to land in the timeline before Storm Front, even though Storm Front was the first published.

Time to move on to case book one.

I read the whole thing in a morning. It’s a fast moving book. I had forgotten how short the time frame of the book itself is. It feels longer in my mind just based on how long I’ve been reading the series. The actual timeline in the book is less than a whole week – it’s only a few days total (like Thursday to Monday). I didn’t remember that.

I also didn’t remember just how many of the fantastic lines / quotes from the series came from this first book. Many I remembered and many that I didn’t.

I also came to realize just how much that dismal television show has crept into my mind. I am a visual person by nature and things like television and media tend to stick and stay with me. When I read about Bob the skull, I pictured Terrence Mann. Bob never takes on a form anything like that in the book, but that picture has stayed with me. The picture of Joanne Kelly as Bianca stuck with me as well. The problem is other details stuck too – and they’re flat out wrong. The TV series messed with so much of this work that it has become difficult to pry the two apart.

I’m glad I read the book again. I’m really glad I went back and could recognize the changes in details based on the words, not on my shaky memory.

As to the thought that the book is misogynistic? I have a really hard time calling it that. I think that’s using a club when a scalpel is called for. I try to temper my words and say things as accurately and succinctly as possible. I try to say what I mean. I think that I understand what those people are saying, even if they’re using very charged and inelegant methods to make their point. They would call my attempt to defend it a lot of inelegant things I’m sure. So – to that point:

The book is not written or intended to be hateful or hurtful to women and that is the definition of misogynistic. I do however see that people could view the main character as a sexist and somebody that works within a system that has always favored men. He has good intentions and clearly states that he understands there are women that don’t like it on page 11. Right up front.

“Maybe my values are outdated, but I come from an old school of thought. I think that men ought to treat women like something other than just shorter, weaker men with breasts. Try and convict me if I’m a bad person for thinking so. I enjoy treating a woman like a lady, opening doors for her, paying for shared meals, giving flowers–all that sort of thing. It irritates the hell out of Murphy, who had to fight and claw and play dirty with the hairiest men in Chicago to get as far as she has.”

I’m glad I’m going back through all the stories again. I’m glad I have a fresh perspective on them. I’m going to continue and see if the pattern I missed before shows up now with a new point of view…

Jungle

Posted on March 3, 2020 by Eric

I’m glad I went back and read this one again in the spot where it’s supposed to land in the series. It was good to see a case that was less complex than a lot of the things that have been created later in the series.

That being said – this particular case was quite short. If I had to guess, I’d say it was because it was part of a comic series / graphic novel.

I’ve never been a huge fan of comics themselves, but I have always loved the art. This particular story is really well done and I very much enjoy the art that goes with it. There was one thing that stuck out to me ~ and it’s part of the reason I’m going back and doing the re-read.

I’ve heard / read some folks that call Harry (the main character in all this) misogynistic. I don’t see it that way, but I’m a guy so my opinion might be biased. Since I’ve heard this complaint in more than one place I’ve tried to take note of various bits that might highlight that for others. This particular case has one thing that struck me as something a person could point their finger at and say “that ~ that’s what I mean”.

Murphy is there. She’s a strong and independent female character, even if she’s conflicted about how she feels about Harry. The villain of the piece is also a woman. There are in fact as more noteworthy strong female characters in here than there are males.

However.

Then there’s Willamena aka ‘Will’ – the assistant to Dr. Reese. She is 110% the damsel in distress. She does nothing but deliver information and need to be rescued. She cowers behind Harry more than once. I hadn’t particularly noticed it before, but I could totally see where people might find this character problematic. I found her a bit annoying, but genuinely realistic. There are some people out there that just can’t “do” the violence / scary situation thing. They freak out. They cower. They fail. It just so happens that this cowering person in need of rescue is a woman. Except… why is it always that way? I didn’t see it before, now I’m questioning it.

I would suggest digging up a copy of the graphic novel and taking a peek for yourself. I think it could be an interesting conversation. On to Storm Front!

The Witcher – A Review

Posted on January 4, 2020 by Eric

I’ve been a fantasy fan for a long time, but I haven’t played video games since the days of Atari. When the Netflix series “The Witcher” was announced I had no idea what was headed to the screen. While a long time fan of fantasy I’ve drifted away recently and read in many other genres. I still love it, but missed anything related to this series. I started watching the show with a blank slate, just really hoping for some excellent, accessible fantasy.

Before I get to the spoilers I will say that I did in fact like the series. I can’t say that I loved it, but it is swords and sorcery and that usually works out well for me. If you’re a fan of swords and sorcery it’s worth watching. There is a book series. I thought I would go and grab up the books, then I read this review. Perhaps I’ll hold off. Maybe it’s better to let the show stand on its own.

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT

Why didn’t we get more of *this* Witcher?

Yes, it’s swords and sorcery. It’s got a ton of standard fantasy tropes in there. Eleves, dwarves, wizards, and even dragons. There are castles and wizard battles and swamp monsters and ghouls and…

and all those things are rammed in and around the plot in just 8 episodes.

The problem with epic fantasy is rarely the fantasy part. The problem is the epic part. There is SO much world building and background that it’s almost impossible to cram it all in to anything less than a massive series. The writers tend to do exactly what I said ~ they cram. The push and mash and squeeze as many of the eye catching ‘cool’ fantasy things into as short a span as they can in a desperate grab for eyeball time. The Witcher suffers from this. There is so much there and very, very little of it is actually the main character doing his job. Geralt is a magically created warrior designed to hunt and destroy monsters. The series opens with him battling a swamp dwelling giant spider with human features, then shows his fighting powers against people, then that fades away in order to start stacking in story.

As I wrote that I had to stop and really think about it. How could I complain about building in story? It’s exactly what I always say that I want. That is the part about cramming in the ‘epic’ part. The story is named for Geralt’s job, but then we spend huge amounts of time on Ciri, Yennifer, Jasker the bard, The Brotherhood (that is mostly women?) and a jumble of other bits. We see Geralt’s part in things, but only just.

Witchers are supposed to be constructed to have no human emotions. I suspect this is not the truth and much like the manner in which Spock is portrayed in the modern updates of the Star Trek series the character is deeply emotional, simply repressed to the point of psychological damage. I believe the emotions will burst forth in the form of rage at some point. A truly emotionless character would be far less interesting. What this emotionless warrior does is drift through the story. I want to like Geralt, but he’s flat. On purpose? Maybe.

So a flat character and a jumble of story. At least the whole thing will make sense when it’s fully rendered on screen, right? Wrong.

The time line jumps all over the place. I could never tell when in the story we were supposed to be. Were we in the past, the distant past, the present? It was almost impossible to tell for sure. Flashbacks to dead characters that have been replaced by magic shape shifters only made this worse. Apparently both the sorceress Yennifer and Geralt are supposed to be significantly older? Sorcerers are supposed to have greatly expanded life spans, but we’re only getting vague references to that? It was very frustrating.

The other part I found frustrating was the indecision of what the nature of the show wanted to be. Getting past organizational aspects of how the story was made, what were they trying to portray? There were tons of gratuitous nudity scenes. Generally speaking I am in favor of that sort of thing – if it advances the story in some way. These scenes all gave me the feeling that what they were aiming for was trying to take over the space vacated by Game of Thrones. The show wanted to be dark, and mysterious, violent and sexy… and then they added in Jasker the bard. Jasker should have been Joxer from Xena: Warrior Princess. They could have gone for a much lighter, entertaining version of the entire series. There were still monsters and fighting and love stories just with added camp.

I don’t know if I would stay on board for campy epic fantasy and that’s the show’s biggest issue. It can’t decide what it wants to be or where it wants to go. It’s a retro feel stuffed in a modern package that doesn’t quite fit.

There are other issues associated with the show as well. Yennifer as hunchback and deformed never sat quite right with me. Something was off about that portrayal. When she was transformed it confirmed my fear. This was actually a gorgeous Hollyweird actress that they’d made up to look that particular way, then magically transformed. I do not fall into any category other than ‘able’ so it’s not for me to discuss the depth of this, but despite truly excellent make-up and special effects it just didn’t sit right.

For more depth on this you should check out this article.

I’ve spent quite a few words picking this show apart. These issues are what distract me from flat out loving a successful fantasy series. There are really excellent parts to this show and good stories within the larger story. The series has been announced as having a second season already. My hope is that the story lines get sorted in better order, the actual power of Geralt comes forward (there was a lot of hype around the black eyes in the promo stuff and we almost never see that in the series) and the writers decide to make this story it’s own, not just a GOT replacement.

I do recommend watching the series. As always, supporting something new is vital to showing that we, the consumer, are actually interested in new and exciting shows and that we want something more than another remake.

The Dragon Prince

Posted on December 1, 2019 by Eric

I am a long time fan of the fantasy genre. Yes, I was first hooked by The Hobbit a long time ago, but since then the heroic sword and sorcery story has always had a place in my heart. I love it.

I admit, for a while I wandered away. I’d seen plots that looked, felt and moved the same way for a long time. Before I began writing and learning what a trope was I began to see and understand the commonality among my favorite stories. I still like them.

Since then I have always hunted for fantasy stories that could give me the heroic journey without making me bored while doing it. Subtlety, nuance, shifts in the way things are presented or the way worlds are constructed are all things that catch my attention. I am a particular fan of changes to world building.

IF you’re of a similar mindset, I humbly suggest you find a way onto Netflix and watch The Dragon Prince. It is excellent fantasy – the best I’ve seen in a long time. You might look at it and think it is a show aimed at children. That is and is not true. This show takes on a number of very deep themes and issues. These affect people no matter how old they are and we all still need to deal with those things.

This article: How The Dragon Prince Became the Best Fantasy Show on Television, Animated or Not has a number of very good things to say.

This article:
The Dragon Prince Ended Season 3 With a Battle That Could Rival Any Lord of the Rings Movie is full of spoilers but also covers a lot of excellent points about the show.

My quick hits from the show?

The characters are strong and complex. There are good examples of behavior and bad examples of behavior. Both examples show the consequences of those actions, and it’s not always black and white. Clear cut answers are few and far between in this show.

The story is stronger because it can’t take short cuts. There’s something to be said for avoiding the cheap method of getting a point across. The romance isn’t punctuated with explicit sex – that’s not an option. There is no violence simply because an ‘action scene was needed’. The story needs to carry the day.

Things that are considered divergent to many people are shown in this show without needing to sledge hammer the point home. Nobody bats an eye at the fact that one of the best generals for the humans is deaf. I don’t know ASL, but I’m betting those lines are actually animated with real words. There is a creature missing a leg (trying not to be spoilery) that has been made to look ‘normal’ because of preconceived viewpoints. It’s there, but it’s not the point and that’s what I really like about it. You can’t use your standard assumptions because they might not be the case. I think that’s a very strong argument for world building and quality story telling.

IF you’re not worried about spoilers, check out those articles. Either way, do yourself a favor and go check this show out. Totally worth your time.

Philcon 2019

Posted on November 21, 2019 by Eric

This was originally published in Watch The Skies November 2019 issue.

I am always happy to be asked to be a participant at the convention put on by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society. I was given a couple of different panels to be part of and I stepped out and took on my own panel for the first time ever. It’s very easy after years of participation to become jaded and treat an event like this as work, so it was nice to shake things up a little.

Attendance this year felt light. I had the opportunity to chat with a few vendors I know and they seemed to get the same feeling. Even the book launch party wasn’t as crowded as an event like that normally is. That being said, the majority of people I spoke to had an excellent weekend. There were some that had a less than stellar experience. Putting the conventions rules and posted policies to the test is never the way you want to spend a con weekend. I was sad to see this happen, but it was something that only effected me in a tangentially.

Programs had a couple of little hiccups. IF I hadn’t loaded up the schedule app on my phone I wouldn’t have found out about the change in my schedule. Given the number of panelists, requests, rules and topics I’m a bit surprised this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often. Speaks well of the program staff I think. I was able to get it sorted out easily – no real fuss. I got to talk about introducing people to board games, introducing people to urban fantasy, methods for finding new authors along with a solo panel. That’s right, me and only me! My first ever solo panel Rosie or the Roomba was well attended – despite being scheduled at ten in the morning on Sunday. I had the room to myself as nothing was scheduled ahead of me and I was thankful for the extra set up time. Bringing my own multi-media presentation was a bit of a challenge, but the technology end worked out very cleanly and neatly. I got a number of insightful questions and some very sharp consideration from the folks that attended the panel. I consider it a success and will likely attempt to do the panel again for another convention.

One of my favorite parts of this year was a young artist displaying in the art show. This young person wanted interaction and posted a hand made sign up with his art to say so. I’m not an Instagram person, but if you are you should head over and check out the work of @eanr’sart over there. I know at least one of this artist’s pictures was snapped up and taken home. I suspect a taste of success will continue to bring this artist back.

As always it was wonderful to see various members of my ‘convention’ family that I don’t get to spend enough time with. It was a fast weekend. I was on the way home again almost before I realized it. As always I hope to be invited back again next year. You should consider signing up and heading to the con too. That, after all, is how we’re going to keep science fiction conventions rolling far into the future.

Save Against Fear

Posted on October 20, 2019 by Eric

This review was originally published in Watch The Skies – October 2019 issue.

The Bodhana Group is a nonprofit organization that advocates the use of tabletop gaming as a directed therapeutic and clinical practice that can benefit personal growth as well as enhance social and educational services to individuals and families. Over the weekend of October 11 through 13^th they also ran their annual convention “Save Against Fear”. IF you’re in the Central Pennsylvania area and enjoy playing games, I would highly recommend putting this event on your calendar.

This year was the ninth year for the event and the third time I had attended. I was not alone. The con this year brought in about 450 people from all across the area and nearby states. The convention took over a large space in a local mall and used it all. There were literally dozens of games running at any given time all weekend long. Role playing games, computer simulation games, board games, card games – even beta test games. There were at least six game design groups set up and showing off their latest creations. Massive miniatures displays and games took up the rear section of the game floor covering everything from the Civil War to Star Wars. The miniatures on display were painted in myriad colors and stood out against all sorts of terrain. Some folks took the opportunity to learn how to paint the minis and add spectacular bases to them. In short, if you like to game this was the place to be.

Registration was right up front. It was fast, clearly marked and a breeze to get through. In fact, all the aspects of the convention were super smooth. There was a bake sale if you needed a snack. Vendors took over a section of the floor and brought a wide variety of items in for sale, from art to books to the next set of dice that you clearly need. The game designers had a lot of interesting things to play test and just have plain fun with.

The single biggest part of the con was the game library. It’s massive. It was overwhelming. When I say those thing it feels a bit like hyperbole, but there were hundreds of games to chose from. The games were all laid out along a huge set of tables and roughly divided into sections based on how long it would take to play the game. If you can name the game, I’d wager it was there. I know there are some skeptics out there but when I saw Gnip Gnop, Payday, and Canasta next to the Mork and Mindy board game I began to have trouble choosing what to play. If there’s any criticism of the con it would be that. The game selection was too much if you were even a tiny bit unsure what to play. The best part would be the fine folks working all the tables. All the people working were gamers and fans of the work they do. They were happy to come up with a recommendation based on what you were thinking and even an explanation of how to play if somebody in your crowd didn’t know how to play.

The convention had easy parking, easy access via the mall and was just down from the food court. The staff was fantastic, the games and programs were smooth as could be. I know I’m missing some of the things that were going on (Oh yeah! There were raffles and a silent auction too) but I think that’s what’s going to recommend this con the most. There was a ton to do all weekend long. If you’re in the area next October I would highly recommend you make your way there. I know I’m looking forward to it already.

Balticon 53

Posted on June 2, 2019 by Eric

As I wrote the post title I was struck by the number. The 53^rd convention from BSFS. I know I’m the “new guy” to many, having only really started at Balticon 27 but this convention has always seemed like my ‘home con’ if that could even be such a thing (that’s 26 years for those that don’t want to ‘math’). I’m not joking about the ‘new guy’ thing either. I know at least one person that has gone to every Balticon. Part of my recounting of number of visits to the convention stems from how many people I didn’t see there this year. I came up with a dozen folks off the top of my head that, through various circumstances or choices, simply didn’t make it to the con this year. It felt oddly empty. Logically it wasn’t, but it felt that way.

I will say that I was very impressed with the con team this year. Registration *always* has problems with my wife and daughter. I don’t know why – but the mistress of registration remembered me and it was much smoother this year than in years past. The con added a ribbon option this year for people that wanted to have a clear definition of what pronoun they prefer. I think this was an excellent option for those that were interested in having one or felt they needed it. While I did not use one myself (moving rapidly toward the land of the dinosaur) I did find it useful from time to time. Thankfully I didn’t see anyone abusing it. The art show was bigger than I’ve seen it in some time. There was a lot of great work on display there – and I ended up coming home with two new pieces. Programming was very strong. They got information out early, had the schedule posted ahead of their normal time and were quite active at the con itself… more on that in a minute.

It was an adventure to get to the hotel. The interstate we take to get there was shut down and all traffic diverted off to side roads. We managed to avoid the worst of the traffic, but it sent us off into the wilderness for a while. A longer ride there than normal.

I started the weekend off with 3 panels on Friday night. I felt like the panels were decent and that I contributed without being super awkward or out of place. Writing military campaigns was my weakest of the day. Genre in the age of binge watching was decent, but uneven. Bad movie adaptations could have been better (I’m not a fan of throwing it to the audience right away). On the upside I was told one of my statements / arguments actually inspired a panel for next year.

Saturday brought all kinds of weird with it. At loose ends with no panels for the entire day I could do as I pleased. I took some time to wander the con and check things out. I got to spend a lot of time in the art show. I checked out the vendor tables. I got to sit and chat with my friend Jay and get started on an upcoming project (totally a secret for right now). While we were sitting and working, Jay needed to go and be on a panel. I decided I would be supportive and headed to the panel with him.

I’m not going to recount all the details here, but that particular panel was not good. Jay told me I was ‘not contractually obligated’ to stay, but I felt as if I was abandoning him to a terrible fate. It devolved so quickly that I bailed out after about 15-20 minutes. Apparently my fears were not unfounded. I was told it got worse after I left.

This is the part where I explain how the programming team was active during the convention. I was approached later in the day by the head of programming (after being pointed out by the con safety team and flagged down). I gave my view of the events of the panel. The head of the convention was called over. I was asked to recount my view of things again. The problematic individual was subsequently pulled from all panels for the remainder of the weekend. I’m not going to call that person out. I was a witness and not directly involved with the event in question. I gave my view on matters and that was enough for the incident in question. I’m certain there were lots of hurt feelings over the whole thing. I hope the person in question gives the whole thing some thought and uses it as a learning experience rather than fuel for some kind of grudge.

Quick tips from my point of view about convention panels:

1: Being the moderator of a panel does NOT mean you’re the primary speaker

2: The audience is there for ALL the panelists generally, and sometimes for ONE in particular – and that might not be you

3: There are panelists that know more than you and people that have different experiences than you – let them speak ( please note that the gender of said individual plays no part in that statement)

4: Stay as focused as you can (difficult, I know) on the actual topic of the panel and the stated level of expertise it’s aimed at

5: Panelists are volunteering their time. Being angry at them, talking them down, demanding they defer to the moderator is generally the path to a really bad experience

That list is not all inclusive, but relevant to the past weekend.

Saturday night featured a riot in the streets of Baltimore – in front of the convention hotel. No, I’m not joking. Thankfully I was able to avoid any issues with that, but a handful of other con goers were not so fortunate. To my knowledge, everyone came out the other side OK and relatively unscathed.

My Sunday at the con featured two more panels. I got to talk about traumatizing your characters in your writing (and why you don’t necessarily need to) AND I got to talk about the future of energy. The trauma panel was really interesting and I’m glad I got to be part of it. It was really well moderated and the discussion was far ranging with many different opinions and story telling tidbits.

The future of energy panel was an up and down thing for me. I’m going to do a separate write up for the actual content from my point of view because it was far more interesting than I initially thought it might be. I’m also going to see if I can use some of the notes from my fellow panelist Jim. He had some great points and information. I hope the audience enjoyed the panel as much as I did.

There was also shopping, chatting with friends that were there, games in the game room and a fantastic dinner out with amazing ice cream immediately following.

I had a nice, relaxing weekend. The convention itself felt a little like things might be shifting or changing, but that’s something to think about for next year. This was a really good con.

Endgame – Part II

Posted on May 21, 2019 by Eric

I recently posted about a small moment in the juggernaut movie that is “Endgame” that my daughter related to.

I was not the only one that noticed this scene. Others were not impressed but did not have the same perspective I did. While my post has one specific spoiler moment, these posts have many. In my last post I was not trying to claim victory for the MCU. They’re a business (stupidly successful) and will do what makes money. IF they’re as smart as this long movie arc says they are, you’ll see more and better.

Given how politics have played out recently, I know we need more attention to this sort of thing. We MUST do better. I think we will. For my daughter’s sake, I hope we do.

Tor – long way to go for women: https://www.tor.com/2019/04/29/avengers-endgame-shows-us-a-universe-that-still-cant-do-right-by-women/

io9 – deserved more: https://io9.gizmodo.com/avengers-endgames-women-deserved-more-1834388344

Gun with what?

Posted on April 21, 2019 by Eric

Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book once back in the 90s and wanted to bring it to one of my book groups for discussion. Thankfully they were more accepting of my choice than I have been of my own choice.

The first time I read this it stuck with me enough to make me want to read it again. This time through I can’t tell if it’s the fact that I’ve grown or changed in my tastes or if political times have changed and the things I thought were ‘cool’ at the time seem less so now.

There’s a lot of really interesting stuff in this future noir story. The main character might be considered trans… but might not be. I’m not sure. He is certainly broken and living in a gray area. There are animals that have been elevated to become a servant class – smart enough to work and understand things, but not enough to become full first class citizens. There is constant drug use and abuse (although this might be a remnant of the 1980s). There are babyheads, and I’m not sure what the hell or why. I’m really not.

This is also a dystopian story. It is a society where asking questions is frowned upon. Watch your color screen with soothing music and be happy. If you’re not happy, take more drugs and stop asking questions.

As much as I might have enjoyed this once upon a time, something has changed. There is a lot to discuss in this story so I definitely recommend it for that. If noir / odd is your thing, this book is for you.

View all my reviews

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