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Post by hynreck on Mar 25, 2014 16:35:21 GMT
Latin roots and all, some words are the same or very similar. As I suppose vag's first language is Portuguese, it might mean the same.
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Post by hynreck on Mar 25, 2014 13:32:48 GMT
I'm not sure what vag meant by note, probably something about enjoying drinking demon blood, but that's what we would say in french. Like, I'd rate that book 3 stars. Approx: Je donne à ce livre une note de 3 étoiles.
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Post by hynreck on Mar 21, 2014 16:34:14 GMT
Thanks for the health related wishes, it's just the good old flu, but since it went through every member of my family in succession, it feels like forever! Just like this damn winter. Oops, weather chit-chat, I should quit while I still have some bit of dignity.
Interesting thought about the ring. It would be handy indeed to carry such a ring when going through the Caverns of the Snow Witch, tracking that Tower of Destruction or visiting those Caverns of Kalte. Oops wrong series.
Interesting also about the drone thing, but sounds expensive! Can't we have something simpler, like a micro zapper, preferably aimed at the crotch. Hell, I understand most people use handheld devices nowadays, so I guess I will have to settle for a good old shock in the teeth, nose or eyeball. Better than nothing! Of course, for buyers to equip their said devices with such torture implements would be pretty stupid, but funny enough, I know a lot of stupid people out there...
As for Razaak, if he were to look like Vagsancho, I wouldn't be surprised at all, but er, what? The other way around, you say?
As for that ranger... *Strolls in the clearing, saw ranger lying on the floor with a blackened eye.* "Yep, looks like a Muppet alright!" *Punches ranger again before leaving*
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Post by hynreck on Mar 20, 2014 15:53:42 GMT
True, I guess!
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Post by hynreck on Mar 20, 2014 14:58:52 GMT
Thank you almightymudworm for making me laugh. I'm sick and I need it. This aside, some points: I enjoy your vision of a revisited Scorpion Swamp. It sounds like a neat idea and way more epic than what we ended up with. Or heck, perhaps Scorpion Swamp should keep it's three storylines, be 1000 sections long, and added to a series like DestinyQuest, where it would fit in more, I believe.
As for me punching out people because of how they look, I'm not that bad! It only happened a few times. I swear I've never been arrested, so, as you can see, authorities think I'm a fine citizen... Since we're not planning to meet, don't worry, as I've never been able to punch someone through the internet, though I would have done it to Vagsancho back in the days... How awesome would that power be??? If I'm ever a X-Men, I want that power!
Kidding aside, I was playing this part more for laughs than meanness, though I can see why it would look that way. Mean is funny, right? In any case, I do mostly dislike the illustrations. This cheesy pre-Costner Robin hoodness isn't for me. I'll make an exception for John Cleese, though.
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Post by hynreck on Mar 20, 2014 12:39:13 GMT
I thought this thread had been buried under the patio! ...but you've gone and resurrect it! What I've you done?? Oh, the Horror! The Horror!!
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Post by hynreck on Mar 13, 2014 18:04:50 GMT
That chef catched that one in the nick of time!
As regard toward the breaking of the fourth wall of having to choose what's being stolen from you (which I admit is pretty silly), I prefer when the author tells you something more akin to: you loose the third item that was written on your inventory, or something similar.
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Post by hynreck on Mar 12, 2014 12:06:30 GMT
Hope Gargantus never meets with Storm (X-Men), then.
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Post by hynreck on Mar 11, 2014 12:40:55 GMT
I'm currently reading Beyond the Pit and liking it so far (50 so pages in)! Good job.
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Post by hynreck on Mar 10, 2014 14:25:30 GMT
Maybe Yaztromo relies himself on his one-time magical items? All out of crow-dust or something so switched to frog? Could be that Yaz suffers from wild mood swings and passes judgment as he sees fit on the moment? He did seemed a bit like that in the book... If Vermithrax is the same crow as the one in TFoD, then by all means he should have paid off his debt by now. Which only reveals how low Yaztromo's willing to go: everytime the crow brings enough gold, Yaz goes something like that: Now, Vermithrax, you took your time bringing back the gold, and see, with inflation and all, plus penalties for delay not respected, I gotta charge you ten more. Be careful now.
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Post by hynreck on Mar 10, 2014 12:31:15 GMT
Interesting thought. If Vermithrax, now I remember the name!, was once a human, what kind of unspeakable thing did that man (at least I supposed it was a man) did to justify that special treatment? Hmm...
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Post by hynreck on Mar 7, 2014 17:36:25 GMT
I actually finished reading this book, the last in the Chadda Darkmane trilogy, around the end of last year, so by the time I’m actually writing this (and perhaps far from finishing, if my Demonstealer review is any indication) two months have passed already. Enough time to forget important details, I reckon. Sigh. Seems like a constant with me. So yesterday I picked it up, trying to remember a bit more about it, and damn it, while it did refresh my memory - ever so slightly - it also made me remember something I wanted to put into my Demonstealer review. Of course it did.
So here it goes, and by way of keeping the amazing suspense, let’s first see what triggered that memory: As I was flipping through the pages, mostly using Russ Nicholson’s amazing illustrations as reminder of what happened in the story (wonderful, yes, but I constantly found myself struggling with Yaztromo’s depiction, my vision of him being of a far more feeble man, balding perhaps, more in line with the text; not this semi-youthful and strong-looking bearded tuggee from the Temple of Doom), I find myself reminded of how some set pieces, near the beginning, felt inserted, constructed only to make the big bad seem, well, really bad, you know? These scenes of destruction, of innocent people being slaughtered left and right, sometimes quite randomly, serves only that purpose, and if done with subtlety, then are not quite so jarring. Otherwise, they stand for what they are and can be annoying. I like my dosage of death and destruction linked to the main story, thank you. If I wanted pointless mayhem… well I’m not so sure what I would read actually, but I could always go and sound the alarm in GoldenEye, with an infinite ammo cheat on and wait for the waves of soldiers to show up and the carnage to begin. It’s fun but it’s not much of a story.
Tropes, tools for telling a story, are supposed to blend in and not stick out, they are not supposed, usually, to give you constant reminder that what you’re reading is a construct. You are supposed to sink into the story, not be taken out of it every time you spot one. Of course, being well-versed in said tropes will render the effort of sinking in slightly more difficult, true, and so this is not a perfect world, but the author’s got to share the burden of hiding his tropes as well as he can. It’s a tough assignment, and I’m certainly not claiming I would be better at it than anybody else.
Fortunately for Shadowmaster, those scenes at the beginning are not as bad as I may make them sound; they do tie in with the main plot, even if still gratuitous at times, and they do not overstay their welcome, but they did remind me of similar scenes in Demonstealer which are a bit more guilty of this. Yes, finally I’m getting there.
I’m targeting those horror-tinted bits where we follow the point of view of random, hapless victims, who will clearly die to serve as flesh vessels for the demonic aids. This is typical horror movie prelude stuff (oftentimes can be found in more than just the prelude, truth be told), and while I expect it in such cases, I was a bit surprised of finding such examples here. Of course, in Trolltooth Wars there was an whole chapter devoted to this technique, the attack on the village - quite horrifying - so perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. Perhaps it just came with the legacy required of continuing a story already set with a certain style by another author, just like keeping Chadda an unlikable jerk most of the time seems to have been a requirement.
It’s not that I would have cut those scenes, exactly. On their own they are quite effective, and if nothing else, informative of the Modus Operandi of the skinless demons. But after 2 or 3 times it became somewhat redundant (there’s at least 3 instances I can remember). After the first informative time, it became a horror porn show, probably design only to appeal to our basest voyeurism desires or as padding. I’m not offended, though, as I believe it’s far from being the biggest offender in regard to a book meant to entertain, myself being quite a fan of exploitation cinema. No, the biggest offender in the room here would still be the boredom aspect of Demonstealer. But enough about that.
The closest similar scene in Shadowmaster would be the scene with the mercenaries guarding the convoy, from somewhere to somewhere (sorry about that), skirting some barren hills apparently dedicated for easy-to-pull ambush. We get the point of view of a family man, get lots of personal details so that we can feel about him, and for a while I was hoping he would make it through, just so that this chapter would have a stronger link to the rest of the book than just: we’re showing you how we get the bodies (for Cawliss’ army of mutants). But then, his companion, a veteran mercenary girl, gets offed quite easily and still in denial, a bit surprising really, not the denial part which I find credible enough, but the fact that she’s supposed to be a veteran and should react accordingly (apparently she must have been a veteran of countless trips where nothing happens and so had her senses dulled), and so I somehow knew that nobody would survive. The man in question is on a horse, and could have fled I suppose, but instead decides to give the bad guys a run for their money, and dies heroically and epically. Fine. But man, you had a family to care for! Don’t you think that your selfish decision might have doomed them all?? Oh well, I’m getting too invested in details yet again. That’s what happens when you have little ones at home that you care for. You would take a bullet for them, but for them, first and perhaps only; not for some merchants paying you a pittance.
Again, it’s not that those scenes don’t deserve to be, they have their reasons to, but they feel overly dramatic (they are for sure) and exploitative. But then again, it’s a case of show, don’t tell, and I’ve myself mostly been in favour of that approach, generally speaking, enjoying quite a few books out there (or movies, or games) that did show instead of telling, and for which I had no problem whatsoever. So maybe I’m a bit biased in this case. Most likely, the fact that I often find myself bored out of my mind probably lead me to find fault on every pages. But who’s to blame for that?
Though, I’ll admit I wasn’t as bored reading this book as I was with the last one. Doesn’t mean that time flew by all the same, but let’s move on from there. I don’t know why exactly, the story left a better impression on me this time around. Seemed more grounded, more straightforward, with a classical approach that reminded me of some simpler times, perhaps; McGuffins are stolen, heroes gather, bad guys must be stopped; let’s storm the castle and see what happens from there! The Conan the Barbarian approach, fitting for a big guy such as Darkmane: I’ll get myself a wizard, a thief, and a Valeria look alike and we’ll be all set to go, no problem!
Thinking about it now, I realize that Demonstealer’s story wasn’t that much more complex. In my critic of that book I was saying that it was a bit of a failing, especially when pitted against Trolltooth Wars. Shadowmaster suffers from the same simplistic problem, but simple doesn’t always mean bad, and can be quite entertaining if well done. This book felt to me as if it dragged less than Demonstealer, with 10% less padding, perhaps. I guess what it comes down to is taste, as usual.
Of course, there’s still plenty of annoying stuff to bring it down a few notch away from a good book. One that you would probably pick up once more in the next ten years, say. Everybody in it still seems to be a jerk to everybody else. Chadda seems less inclined this time to be so, good for him (particularly good for us), as it shows evolution, which is the basis of any well done characterisation, something that was a bit lacking with the big amonor aficionado. At the end, Darkmane even starts to have different views about the world itself, and how he was wrong about many things, and basically start realizing how much of a prick he’s been all his life. That a big wtf moment there for the reader who’s probably been accustomed, up to now, to never see any change whatsoever in Chadda, the guy plainly refusing to doubt his core believes.
Actually, this time around, while the thief is a reliable sleazy douchebag liar, true to his nature, it’s Yaztromo, I believe, who wins hands down the crown for biggest jerk. How’s so? Well, it might just be me, of course, but beside being condescending to nearly all around him, with his air of superiority while actually being quite useless (except at the end, granted, but he just benefitted from a huge artefact boost, otherwise he would have been dead), it’s his attitude toward his pet crow that makes him look particularly bad. Maybe I am not suppose to feel for a stupid bird (crows’ are far from stupid, by the way), and yes, the bird is an annoying element who’s main purpose is to be comic relief (that makes two with the thief), but it helps out whenever it can and as best as it can and never gets any thanks for any of it, Yaztromo raining his usual abuse on the poor thing all the time. Of course, it is outclassed in most situations, but what the hell do you expect if you bring your pet bird to a stealth infiltration mission and a war against numerous opponents? To scout ahead and tell you enemy positions? Oh wait, it did just that, now move along Yaztromo and try to be useful instead of lagging behind and forcing Darkmane to pick your ass up and carry you most of the way (as a matter of fact, Chadda also picks up the thief too, so it can be really funny with the right mind. That… or pathetic).
I probably need to wrap this up, before I start ranting in circles. I’ve mostly said what I wanted, I believe, and would just add tiny bits to this, by mentioning the obvious but funny Hippie Elf Balloon-Maker and his mysterious cat as another wtf moment but interesting and funny, nonetheless. It’s hard to figure if the author was lacking imagination here by going the stereotype way (we all know, since the dawn of Tolkien, that elves are tree-hugging lovers, just like our good old hippies of days past (but which one came first?)) or just having a bit of fun, contrasting type against the very square Darkmane. I’d rather believe the later.
Also, bonus points for the elf lady (sorry about forgetting the names, as always) and particularly the thief. They are both rather useless characters that are hard to care for, in light of their weirdness/glaring flaws, and I was all ready to write them off as a waste of space, but by the end they kind of redeemed themselves a little, making me care enough that when (SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY YOU SHOULDN’T READ REVIEWS OF AGES OLD BOOK IF YOU WANTED NO SPOILERS) they died, I felt for them, which, quite frankly, surprised me a lot. It touched me, and I wanted to tell Mr. Gascoigne, here and there: well done Sir, you’ve managed to make me care. For the first time in this trilogy. Pop open a beer you deserve one.
So that’s it. That’s the end of the trilogy. Those are not books that I would feel inclined to read again, but all things considered, Shadowmaster kind of did well in this context. It didn’t feel like such a time waster, more like a decent way to kill time. Sure, there’s better out there, but for those with interest in the Fighting Fantasy world, I would recommend it. As long as you don’t go and expect greatness… but if you’ve been through the first two books, by then you will know that!
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Post by hynreck on Mar 7, 2014 16:38:22 GMT
You leave your book collection at home?! But they must get terribly lonely without you… Yes, fair enough. Looking forward to a glut of them from you sometime between month and a year’s time then, maybe. For the pics, generally I’ve started with a memory of a striking image and then looked for somewhere to embed it from, starting with Titannica, then Google Images. Oh yeah, this could work fine too, I guess (googling images). I used to carry all my books around, believe it or not, but someone stole my hammerspace case and now I can't anymore. Well, I did try putting them on my back, but it made me look like the garbage lady in Labyrinth and we all know look is all that matter in life...
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Post by hynreck on Mar 6, 2014 17:34:40 GMT
Perhaps, but due to circumstances, I doubt I can ever achieve this level of funny. To be clearer: I usually post at the job (like now) when I've got a minute, and my book collection is obviously at home and I'd have to take time to go through it to find an interesting piece of art, at the very least. ...and since I'm struggling posting my reviews, lol! Don't know how I'd manage. But who knows, when it's all quiet and with no immediate reviews (there's all those reviews that are lost and in need of reposting, too, as you are well aware)...
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Post by hynreck on Mar 6, 2014 13:18:49 GMT
You are quite right: cheating properly does require an extraordinary amount of time, considering what the end goal is, and can often even be stressful, which is sad, but in the end we pleases our difficult minds if succesful, so who knows what's the best course of action. It's a damn if you do damn if you don't in most cases: we all want to follow the rules by the letter, but when such rules are left wanting, or result in an unfair, unbalanced game, it's hard to stay blind to this and just accept our death. We will fight any which way we can, and one such way is by cheating, but cheating in a manner that is as close as possible to the true rules, so that we can still be challenged and appease at the same time our slightly guilty conscience.
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Post by hynreck on Mar 5, 2014 13:40:52 GMT
There's a game? I guess with such a basic name that shouldn't surprise me. But the movie, then. The one with Bowie's area. It's still a great watch if you haven't seen it and like fantasy. Which you should since you hang out here! You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it. Your quote, not the area, though you will see it, it's unavoidable.
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Post by hynreck on Mar 5, 2014 13:32:21 GMT
I found out that throwing your dices across the room in frustration only chips them, they don't make the numbers any better... sigh. At least I was using cheap dices. Got to remember that next time I play with my good ones.
Thank you, greatlord, for the clarifications. If I had more time I would definitely do something like you (well, let's say somewhere half-way, mind) because I love studying, in a similar manner to you, perhaps, randomness in life; I'm a big fan of chaos (not the evil kind) and so that would be an interesting experiment. Randomness for randomness' sake in gamebooks can be very frustrating, but it can also spice things up real quick.
As for cheating, I'll keep in mind your pointers, they are interesting. Right now, with my current book, I've improvised a system that allows me to play the book and still not stab myself in the eyeball with an icepick. It's a spur of the moment thing, so it might not be perfect, but I'll go into more details when I review the book. I know it's still cheating, but any book with big gaping holes in its rules must expect (the author must expect, that is) that we'll fill in the blanks, somehow.
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Post by hynreck on Feb 28, 2014 14:48:35 GMT
I just found out this thread, I find it hilarious. Good job almightymudworm!
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Post by hynreck on Feb 28, 2014 14:43:17 GMT
deadshadowrunner, is your sig inspired by Labyrinth, by any chance?
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Post by hynreck on Feb 28, 2014 14:42:11 GMT
If my mind does not play tricks, Scarachna is a scorpion/spider hybrid. So, not a bug, but close. Nasty thing.
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Post by hynreck on Feb 28, 2014 13:26:09 GMT
aha so true. See I'd forgotten about that. I mean, I certainly didn't forget that Chadda can be quite the jerk at times; actually, you made me remember that he's mostly a jerk (like his old Trolltooth self) in the first half of the book. I seem to remember him calming the f*ck down after. Probably because he's more busy not getting killed. One scene that sticks out right now is the one with the little (damn it, forgot the name once more, but the creature that's the same species as his man servant in Trolltooth, small balding humanoid)at the port of (damn it! I'm so bad with names today!) of one of the twin cities... Sigh. Okay, I'm probably being not very clear, but it's the scene where he grabs that Cherpa-thing by the neck, savagely lifting him up in the air and demanding answers under threat of death... while the poor thing was just doing its basic everyday job, if I remember correctly. This scene came out of nowhere, seemingly out of place but not necessarily out of character, but how can you love Chadda at times like this? You just want the bad guys to rip him a new one; no wonder I was kind of happy when that demonic aid was beating the crap out of him, easily at that.
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Post by hynreck on Feb 27, 2014 19:53:53 GMT
Got me beaten to it!! That's fine though. I've started writing the review today, got a chunk done. Will do another chunk tomorrow, if things keep quiet. And then who knows...? I will try hard not to let months fly by, this time!
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Post by hynreck on Feb 27, 2014 14:18:31 GMT
That's quite a read, greatlordofthedark. I don't know how you do it, I would be quite insane by now. But maybe you are? I already consider myself not quite sane, but I think that would be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Anyway, I started cheating because, contrary to my fellow poster above, I have nowhere near as much time as him to play books over and over (oh, and I'm not trying to be insulting, ô dark one, I'm just establishing how it is on my side). I've got books of all types to go through, movies, a backlog of games to play dating back to the NES age, music, dates with Rosie Palm, sculptures, no, not sculptures, but hell, that's just for entertainment. And on average, a day, I've got about 2 to 3 hours of free time, if lucky, to go through any of this. You watch a movie, chances are you have no more time for anything else.
Well, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, because I'm sure I'm not the only one in this situation. I'm fine with it, but don't ask me to play by the meticulous rules all the time; life is too short. I do enjoy a good gamebook, though, and here's what I've been doing through the years, up until now:
Early beginnings, first gamebooks: Island of the Lizard King, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Flight from the Dark, etc. Played all by the rules, straight-up as far as I can recall. I was young and had so much free time. Of course, even back then I could see how this was dragging on and on. And so I'm pretty sure that not so long after that, I started rolling "perfect" characters. Well, you know the drill.
So, I had a streak of cheating days or years after that. To varying degrees, I seem to recall, mostly cheating on fights, items, five-finger bookmarks, er, most likely anything and everything, really.
Then some long dead years of nothing, except perhaps reading through a gamebook here and then. Not even trying.
We've come to the renaissance, now. The days I've decided to acquire every Fighting Fantasy out there, and to this day, other series too. Nowhere as ambitious as greenspine; I'm afraid I'll never reach that height. But still quite respectable, taking a sizable chunk of my full to bursting bookcase.
Since I was facing 60+ FF books, I didn't dare play them properly last time, of fear to still be at it today. That was around back in 2009, if I recall correctly. I picked rules of my own, as in: no cheating with items acquired, or path chosen, only fights and luck roll or the like. Even random number roll I would respect. When dead or stuck I would go back in time (using the sands of time from Prince of Persia, of course) to the earliest moment that I could and proceed from there, hoping to get unstuck. When out of options, I would start over again, admitting defeat.
Now that I'm playing Dracula's Castle from Mr. Brennan, I'm still cheating but less than ever. I do the fights proper, items, etc. Everything is rolled and written down. When I die I die. But I still use the sands of time (to save time, what else?) to go back a square or two, but let's say I lost to a fight, then that fight is now off-limit until I actually re-roll a character.
For more concrete examples on what I'm doing, I died straight at the beginning of the book, the first time I played. Do I re-rolled my character? No way, I don't have that amount of time and this death is non indicative of my character's potential anyway. Plus, it would be possible to re-roll the exact same character, so why bother? I'll just restart at the beginning, no harm done. After dying six or seven more times with my character on nearly all pathways available to me did I accept his suckiness and re-rolled to start fresh from the beginning.
The new character I've rolled, this time rolling five dice for stats and allocating them as I thought would fit better (nothing exceptional, but better than my first: 3, 3, 4, 6, 3) has yet to fail. Of course, he benefits from meta-knowledge acquired by his unsuccesful predecessor, but how can I do otherwise? Plus certain author are obviously counting on that. And I haven't really cheated yet with this one, except, maybe you could say, against the batman, because instead of going straight into the fight I told myself I would try him on to see how this event turns out (as a sort of trial run, if you want) and would proceed if successful or make as if nothing ever happenned otherwise (my first plan was to avoid him altogether after my humiliating first defeat, but temptation proved too strong). And I won, yes!
I supposed there is also the matter, in this particular book, of being allowed to backtrack and go in circle, abusing the health system and being attacked and ambushed over and over again by the same creatures. There's nothing in the rules telling you what to do in such situations, so I'm leaving it to my good old logic and deciding according to the situation at hand, or intentions. Some would propably see this as cheating, I see it as the author should have been specific about what to do in such situations; he didn't, his loss.
I suspect that the longer I take at this book (or any other book, really) the more cheating will be involved. Because I do intend to read the last chapter, and we all know some gamebooks out there, played by the rules anyway, dislike the thought of loosing. Yes, Livingstone, that eye's on you.
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Post by hynreck on Feb 26, 2014 17:51:09 GMT
I've been real busy at the job those last few months, which is why I was mostly gone from here. I lurked, but didn't have much time to post or ponder existential questions. But today and the next few days look like they should be way more quiet than usual, so I might be able, aside from finally finishing this review, to post a review of Shadowmaster and look into all the other reviews missing from the time of TUFFF. Some might need complete rewrites, but I'll have to see if I can manage that and still be coherent. I'm doubtful.
I'm currently playing (yes! actually playing!) Dracula's Castle by J.H. Brennan. Yes, getting killed by an apple because you're too stupid not to bite into it is frustrating (on the first roll too) and I intend to write about it all at some point in the future. Got to finish it first!
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Post by hynreck on Feb 26, 2014 17:45:27 GMT
Two down, one to go in the Chadda Darkmane trilogy.
I’ve been trying to find time to write this Demonstealer review since forever, but time keeps eluding me, or work kept me busy, keeping my motivation well buried. Whatever works against you, you know. Still, I’m going to give this a try now, and I only hope my memory hasn’t been clouded by the passage of time or the much better entertainment that came after (like watching Dredd with Karl Urban, that was a fun movie). My best bet is that mostly I’ll be stuck with impressions rather than precise examples, but impressions do matter in the end, as often they make the difference between something – this book – sitting on the shelf forever or being picked up again in a few years.
I’ll give it to you straight: I thought that, overall, Demonstealer was a better book than The Trolltooth Wars. On nearly all aspects. Doesn’t mean that it was a good book, but it certainly didn’t grate me as much as the last one. It was more cohesive, with a simpler straightforward story and nearly no loose ends (none that I could find or remember). The writing seemed also better, flowing more fluidly, sometimes full of unnecessary wording that bordered on poetry, true, (well, maybe back then it was just silly elf talk) with some awkward descriptions revealing details that weren’t properly thought-out, but overall better all the same. Still, there were quite a few flaws, so let’s get down and boogie.
While the story might be more streamlined and cohesive, with mainly only one thread to follow, it is also overall weaker than Trolltooth Wars. It’s good that we only get characters and situations that are relevant to the story, but the lack of complications, surprises and such does not do a great job at keeping one interested. In fact, I believe this is the biggest flaw of this book: a mediocre story that doesn’t keep you entertained. It took me forever reading this simple book, what – 200 or so pages? – because I couldn’t care less. It’s not that there was nothing interesting, there was. For instance, the 4 demonic aids are creepy enough and intriguing on their own, and some battle or confrontations are (nearly) gripping. I’m thinking of the attack by some kind of undead wolf/dog in the basement of a house, the subsequent attack in the sewer or Chadda Darkmane getting his ass served by one of the demons (so was Gan, but who would expect anything else?) before being saved by the Caarth. But generally speaking? Snooze-inducing.
At this point it must be said that, since the death of TUFFF (if you don’t know, no need to bother), there’s been an overly long delay between the writing of the first section of this review with the now following section. If my writing style now feels different, it is most likely because my body’s been hijacked by one of those village pod people from the Navy. Of course, if I were possessed, this is just the kind of thing I would say or write to keep you off track. Wink wink, nudge nudge. Was that useless padding? Wink wink, nudge nudge.
Back on that track, then… What was left to talk about? Details I guess, illustrations, then I’ll wrap this up. I suspect this second section will be dramatically shorter.
On second thought, I shall not be writing about the illustrations. They are really, really good. They’re from Russ Nicholson, you know?
I was writing earlier about some awkward descriptions and some not-so-well thought-out moments… Here’s one example I’ll remember all my life (and related examples): the long trudge through the sewers. Every fans of Lone Wolf reading this book (Demonstealer, silly, keep up) will be reminded of the long sewer chase scene in Shadow on the Sand, right? I know I was. Remember when Lone Wolf cuts himself up? It was on the leg if I remember well. Well, he immediately contracts Limbdeath (I think that’s what it is in English, if not, sorry), and it’s a nasty disease.
Well of course he immediately contracts a terrible disease; he’s only wading through a thick sludge of piss and shit and Naar knows what else, of course he gets diseased!! You would too, if something similar happened to you in your city/town sewer system. I bet it would happen to you anyway even if you did not cut yourself up, as unequipped with protective gears as you are. I mean, those are filthy places, everybody knows that. Right?
Right?? Well, apparently, Mr. Gascoigne didn’t know that. Or it slipped his mind. Or he blatantly ignored the facts. Or had other beliefs/theories of his own. Whichever reason I choose makes me facedesk hard enough to have Xel’lotath printed on my forehead. And you know I had to hit the shift key to get that.
The sorcerous baddy helping the 4 demonic aids (ok, so I forgot all their names, it’s been a while) gets cut up on his calf or something by Chadda earlier before the sewers. Then goes through the sewers, limping, and later, on the surface of Somewhere, Titan, tries to perform some healing magic to close the wound but rather unsuccessfully, and I’m thinking: finally! Some side-effect of walking in the sewers with an open wound, at long last! But is it because of this that he, the man with a name I can’t remember, can’t heal himself? Nope. It is because of the entropic effect of being close to the demonic aids, which null his healing powers. Back in the sewers? He contracted nothing. Those are clean sewers.
Chadda and Gan, you ask? Bruised and battered, they wade through the same sewer system. They even have a big fight with some great aquatic monstrosity down there, with scratches and all. Do they contract anything? Nope. Cause those are some really clean sewers down there! It is mentioned that after they exit, they take the time to wash off the filth. So I guess it’s okay to go swim in the sewers with bruises and cuts, as long as you wash up well after. Don’t forget behind your ears!
See, those are little details, but they are little details that take me right out of the story. And while I ponder and wonder when the hell are the main characters going to get sick, 50 or so pages have gone by. And when finally I conclude that the characters are effectively disease-proof and I should pay more attention to what else is going on in the story, too late, it’s over. Or real close, anyway.
And so I will conclude this review too. It’s not much and I realize there’s probably tons of stuff I should have written about, probably missing on stuff I told myself (while reading the book last year, you know) would be really good to include in this review, well, time has had a piece of this story. So sorry. Beside, this review was a bitch to birth, so I’m just happy I can close the lid on that.
After all, there’s still Shadowmaster, who’s been left in a similar limbo and who, surprisingly enough, probably doesn’t deserve it.
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Post by hynreck on Feb 26, 2014 14:38:10 GMT
You're not sure?
Congrats, by the way, the feeling's good.
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Post by hynreck on Feb 3, 2014 16:38:08 GMT
This wouldn't surprise me a bit, you know.
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Post by hynreck on Dec 16, 2013 15:33:41 GMT
I usually never quits, but I remember doing it back then (when I was far younger) with the french issue of Creature of Havoc. Of course, now I know why I was stuck, due to that particular mistake in the text.
Other than that, there's the first Fatemaster (I believe it is so named in english?)that I've also played in french, a few tries, I believe, but always ended up quitting, being stuck and having no clue about what I was doing wrong. For all I know, I was being the victim of another editing mistake.
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Post by hynreck on Dec 13, 2013 16:58:52 GMT
I'm also here, but I'm useless at puns.
As usual I'll blame the fact that English is not my native language. Though I'm not convinced I'd do better in French.
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Post by hynreck on Dec 13, 2013 16:53:32 GMT
This is my review salvaged by Mudworm from somewhere on the next pages of the old TUFFF. Looks right at first glance, but I'll have a deeper look all the same. Maybe some stuff could use the proverbial edit button.
Another new book! This one I remember well from my youth, what with such a striking cover, especially because I thought I'd never pick it up. Such a silly illustration - what, a flying tower?? It's not that it's particularly ugly, but it is peculiar (well, the tower is a bit ugly, but the drawing is still well done, I just don't agree with the artistic view). It's not just the subject matter, either, but the drawing itself. If the book wasn't titled so, I would have thought that it looked more like some giant cement magic wand, somehow spewing fire from one of it's decorative gargoyle. As opposed to when the tower is finally revealed and described in all it's glory, as something gigantic and black... I imagined something nearly metallic, like a medieval starship, with a large round opening at the bottow from which an immense column of fire pours down, showering all under in liquid flames.
So, a silly premise and cover, but a not so silly adventure, and certainly an author determined at not looking silly, and by that, I mean he meant business by delivering some maddeningly hard gameplay and bang-your-head-against-the-wall puzzles, ensuring no-one would ever get through ToD alive, at least on a first try. If you did, congrats and go buy yourself a lottery ticket. Now.
Seriously, fights are numerous and hard in this book. Most have special rules thrown into them that can put you at a serious disadvantage (a trademark of the author, Keith Patio. Er, I mean Martin, or course). Some of the easiest enemies, Ice Ghosts with a Skill of 7, are made hard if you are not equipped with a mace. Others are willing to hurt you freebie style right before or after the battle.
Nothing comes easy in this book. Certainly not the puzzles. Reading from this thread only (the old TUFFF thread is what I mean here, though you can still sample it in this one) makes it obvious that many a fellow FF adventurer spirit's been crushed mercilessly by the obscure and quite insane puzzlers found in the pages of this book. I mean, everybody loves a challenge now and then, it's good for the wits, but puzzles of this caliber are just no fun. And no fun is opposite of what such a book is supposed to make you feel, so no more, okay? Let it be a warning, and a benchmark from now on, on which I will judge every puzzle that as yet to come in the books following (having now read all FF had to offer in the main serie, I can now confirm that Tower of Destruction owns some of the hardest puzzles out there, if not the hardest). I mean, come on. The author even goes so far as to insult the player through the mouth of the elf serving up the clock puzzle, by telling you that he won't reward people with no skills or wits. Oh thanks a lot mister, maybe I'll return the favour by writing a scathing review. But I'll try to stand above this, to be virtuous.
Otherwise, and lucky for Mr. Martin, I suppose, I found the story sufficiently good to keep me interested for the time it took me to finish it.
This paragraph seems a bit disconnected from the main review, sorry about that. Something got lost in translation I suppose. But here is how it goes: Lots of weird things going on in this book, weird imagery, plenty of action, twists and turns. It's hard to say if Keith Martin was inspired at times or just feeling really bored, throwing shit at us just for the sake of it. In any case, it was entertaining enough to keep me going. Oh and full of Golems. Don't remember seeing that much golems before, even in Masks of Mayhem where they were seriously lacking. Gotta love a Golem on rolling skates… Pete Knifton's illos were mostly nice, but I kept feeling that guy should have illustrated sci-fi FF... if sci-fi FF would have survived the crippling Sky Lord blow. His drawing lines are very... spaceships and superheroes. Maybe, again, it's that Iron Man Golem on roller skates that make me say this (damn, doesn't that sound fantastic? I hope they give Iron Man roller skates in Iron Man 4).
An interesting book, but highly frustrating. Can't wait to die next time I play it fair!!
And that's what we got here. Not so bad, feels almost right! Cheers.
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