Geek Girls Rule! #67 – Ian C. Esslemont – Night of Knives

Yes, yes, I know.  You’re sick of all things Malazan by now.  Well, it’s my column and this just happens to be what I’m bingeing on right now.  So there. 

I picked up Night of Knives at the book signing we went to, and decided to give it a shot after Book 8.  One of my Malazan-addicted buddies told me that he wasn’t as impressed with Esslemont’s writing as Erikson’s.  I’m nearly done with it, and contemplating picking up Esslemont’s next book Return of the Crimson Guard in hardcover. 

Night of Knives chronicles one night, the night that Emperor Kellanved and his partner in crime Dancer return and Ascend to the Throne of Shadow to become Shadowthrone and Cotillion of the Erikson books.*  The book is 465 pages long, which given the time covered in most novels of a similar length (days to years to centuries), seems excessive.  I worried about pacing mostly.  I needn’t have.  The novel is paced brilliantly, it rarely, if ever, flags.  I was initially pleased with it, but got really sucked in about a quarter of the way into it.  Esslemont’s characters are also very deep and engaging.  Their pasts are revealed in flashbacks where important, or dialog, but not clumsily so.

I’m about twenty pages from the end, but I hate reviews that give away endings and such, so I’m not worried.  And I don’t expect to be disappointed in the remaining pages.  I’m pretty pleased with being able to get a little more background on Tayschrenn as well as Dassem Ultor, who figures HUGELY in the 8th Erikson book.  

I would happily recommend this book to anyone, but certainly to anyone who has enjoyed the Erikson books.  I do think you might be a little lost on the over-arching meta-plot if you didn’t know the history as established in Erikson’s books, but not to the point of not being able to understand or follow the book. 

*One thing I always wonder with these books is, what is it like when people you have known, served with and under, grew up with… ascend to godhood?  Neither Erikson nor Esslemont really explore that in great detail.  Well, to a point.  Most of the people who served with/under Kellanved and Dancer seem to view them as the same assholes they were before, just with more power.  But I frequently wonder how the new Master of the Deck’s, Ganoes Paran’s, sister feels about her ascended brother.

In other news, I’m actually contemplating picking up some new DS games during the Xmas sales.  So far I’m considering Ninjatown, Professor Layton, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood, Lego Batman.

Geek Girls Rule! #66 – George R. R. Martin -v- Steven Erikson: Steel Cage Death Match

OK, not really.  It would be kind of funny, but I’m pretty sure Erikson would own Martin.  He’s younger and probably in better shape. 

So, ages ago when the Game of Thrones series was in its relative youth, Mr. Geek Girl What Rules got hooked.  And, as is our want, when one of us gets really interested in books, the other one will eventually pick them up and give them a try.   So I pick up the first book and start reading.  About a quarter of the way through it I gave up.  Honestly, with the exception of Arya (the younger daughter) I couldn’t give two shits whether any of those characters lived or died.  Seriously, I just didn’t care, and when you don’t care what happens to the characters it’s hard to maintain interest in a book regardless of how clever the plot may be.  I mean, even the villains were so over-the-top characatured that I just didn’t buy them.  Seriously, how long am I supposed to sit around watching what’s-his-butt (Tyrion) twirl his metaphorical mustache?  Not to mention, with the exception of the aforementioned Arya, all of the female characters had less depth than your average teaspoon, and were either completely useless (Sansa) or manipulative and conniving (everyone else) or a combination of both (the mom). 

When the Mister picked up the Malazan books at the urging of a club regular, I was dubious at best.  I had been burned by Mr. Martin, and was not eager to pick up another, ultimately, disappointing book.  However, the Mister was so enthusiastic about it, gushing about it constantly, even more than with the Martin books.  So I caved. 

I loved Gardens of the Moon.  I could not get enough.  Erikson does not rely on the cheap tactic of cliffhangers to keep you interested, but you WANT to know more about what happens to these people.  You care.  I finished Gardens of the Moon and immediately went in search of the next books in the series.  He even has fully realized female characters who are actors in fate, not just its victims, as well as male characters who get to act.  The first two books made me sniffle and cry a little, but the end of book three made me sob openly while I finished it.  Since then, I find myself sobbing more often than not during the climaxes of Erikson’s books.  Last night, finishing up Toll the Hounds was no exception.  I stayed up past my bedtime, sniffling, snuffling and sobbing on the couch wiping my eyes with one hand and turning pages with the other. 

See, Erikson kills characters as often as Martin, well, nearly as often.  But in my opinion he does it better.  You even care when the rat bastards die.  And he kills a lot of characters that you love.  A lot.  The Chain of Dogs in books two and three (edited to fix because I should not rely on Wikipedia entries instead of going back and figuring it out myself) springs readily to mind here.  But let me get back to the rat bastards.  See, villains who have no redeeming features whatsoever are A. unrealistic and B. boring.  And Martin’s work is full of them.  Shit, even Hitler loved children and dogs.  I’m sure Idi Amin loved his mother or something.  Granted, there are a couple of just plain evil characters in the Erikson books, but they tend to die quickly.  Gorlas Vidikas springs readily to mind, as does Venaz.  But for the most part Erikson’s villains are just as nuanced as his heroes, and his everyman characters who want to be neither but wind up sucked into the machinations of the gods. 

Both men have very lushly realized and described worlds.  Martin’s falls into the “pseudo-Medieval Europe” trap of most conventional fantasy.  Erikson’s has many, many worlds reflecting different types of societies and stages of civilization, from the stone/bronze age barbarity of the Toblakai, to the Middle Eastern flavor of Darujhistan and the Seven Cities to the alien culture of the K’Chain Che Malle and the Byzantine society of Letheras. 

Ok, I realize… I’m gushing.  A lot.  I’m a total gribbling fangirl for Steven Erikson, and when I met him at his Seattle book signing in September, it was all I could do not to squeal like an idiot.  The Mister didn’t trust himself to not become a drooling fanboy, and so left me to get the books signed.  Sigh.  However, it was nice that when I told him that we appreciated his scope of history and the way his societies were built, us being history majors, HE got excited about that, asking if we’d figured out which battles were based on historical battles of our world.  The Boy and I frequently, once he finished books, discuss which battles remind us of which historical battles, so it was just cool.  EEEEEEEE!!!

So as far as I’m concerned, that steel cage death match?  Erikson wins hands down.  I realize Martin has the sales, but popular does not necessarily mean good.  Hell, Dan Brown was on the best seller list for how long with The DaVinci Code? (Speaking of poorly crafted characters.)  

I highly recommend the Malazan books to anyone who loves epic fantasy.

Geek Girls Rule! #61 – One on One Gaming

Whew, it’s been a while.  I’ve started this post three times so far, but life kept intruding.  And it has been a hectic life lately, but I’ll fill you in on that at the bottom of this.  What I want to talk about is one-on-one roleplay.

Not THAT sort of roleplay, although it can turn into that depending on who you’re playing with and where.  However, mostly what I’d like to talk about is running/playing games either with one GM and one player, or no GM at all. 

I was dubious when Mr. Geek Girl What Rules suggested a one on one game of Burning Wheel.  He’d been doing this for a couple of weeks with our buddy GeekAlpha, but I was not entirely sure this wasn’t going to be “wrong bad fun” for me.  He wore me down with the promise of a game that was sort of a spin-off of a one shot we ran years before, and we sat down to “burn” the character, which wasn’t terribly odious.  And then we started to play. 

It’s actually kind of nice having the GM’s undivided attention.  There’s no one else to go haring off on their own, leaving you or anyone else sitting around twiddling your thumbs while they sneak off to do Gods know what, nor is there any deadweight for you to run off on.  It can be a bit wearing on the GM if they aren’t enamored with being the sole source of character interaction via NPCs.  But my Boy likes it, so it works out fine.  It’s also really easy for the GM to tailor the game to what YOU want.  You don’t have to worry about group dynamics.  You don’t have to include something just because someone else “totally built this character to be all about X,” even if X was not part of the explicitly stated game theme/goal/ideal (and there’s almost always one, isn’t there?). 

The downside is, it’s all you.  There is no one to pick up the slack if you’re feeling lazy or lethargic about playing.  Granted, since it is just the two of you, calling it quits and playing another time is much easier.  If you don’t have certain skills or backgrounds, unless the GM is really generous with the NPCs, you can be kind of hosed.  There may not be anyone to have your back in a fight (granted if you game with dicks, there may not be anyway).  This is kind of where you have to rely on your GM to have your best interests at heart.  If your GM is of the “It’s my job to fuck with you and try to kill you” variety, don’t do one on one gaming.  It will only end in heartbreak and recriminations.  

So far the entire thing has been a really positive experience.  The one on one gaming means we don’t have to work around anyone else’s schedules, we can do it in the evenings after work instead of turning on the tv or getting lost on the internet and we can game anytime anywhere pretty much.  And the cats have been ecstatic at the increased opportunities to chase dice around.  It’s been a lot of fun, and it allows for faster story development, you get more input on story development instead of having to develop story by committee, if you have a GM that will allow any intrusions on his/her storyline.  Also, this opens up more potential for things to do in the car during the three hour drive to the eastern half of the state to see the In-Laws What Rule, apart from improv games that have an alarming tendency to make me laugh so hard I swerve all over the road. 

Now Burning Wheel is not designed specifically for one on one play, but it works.  And you should be able to pull this off with just about any system.  Steven Erikson, who writes my much beloved Malazan series, developed that world and many of the characters gaming with a friend of his one on one using GURPS, with neither of them acting as GM but rather playing as sort of an interactive story telling thing using the GURPS system as a guide.  However, the indie games scene has spawned a host of games intended for one on one play, or that are easily convertible to one on one.  Breaking the Ice features two players acting as a couple on their first date.  Beast Hunters is primarily for two people but can be expanded, in which you play tribal hunters slaying dangerous beasts.  These are just a couple off the top of my head, but there are tons more.  Check out Indie Press Revolution for more, as well as some more traditional games. 

Ok, so that’s about it for my spiel for one on one gaming.  Do it, but only if you have someone you can trust not to be an asshead at you.  It’s fun, easier to schedule than larger groups, and faster. 

Now, the state of the Geek Girl What Rules.  Well, it’s been a turbulent month so far.  A week and a half ago my family’s dog, Charlie, passed away.  He was 15 which is incredibly old for a large dog (half sharpei, half australian shepherd).  We’d helped rescue him from some fuckhead, who will spend eternity roasting in a hell I don’t even believe in, who had intended to use Charlie for dog-fighting.  He lived with the Mister and I for awhile, but because his tendency to pick up the (then) kitten and carry him around by his head made us nervous and made the kitten smell like dog spit and fear all the time, we gave him to my folks, who spoiled him outrageously.  Also, a week and a half ago, the Mister and I adopted two hedgepigs who had been abandoned by their previous owner.  Their names are Zoe and Wash (geek cred, yo!) and they are very cute and sweet.  They do nip a bit more than my previous hedgepigs, but overall they are incredibly interactive with us. 

Oh, and on Monday we went to a booksigning for Steven Erikson’s latest Malazan novel, Toll the Hounds.  This would be where I heard his story about gaming the Malazan universe into existence with his friend Ian C. Esslemont, who also writes in the Malazan universe.  Mr. Erikson is very nice, pleasant and a good reader.   I’m finishing book 7 (Reaper’s Gale) so I can get on to Book 8.  Epic fantasy at it’s best.  Go, find, read.