Tag Archives: review

Newbs and a Harry Potter Review. But Mostly Newbs

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Newbs:

My life as of late seems plagued by newbs. For one thing, I’ve gotten into several truly awful WoW raid PUGs in the last few days. In one, I came in to heal a Baradin Hold guild run (not my guild, thank god), only to find that they were trying to kill the new boss, Occu’thar, with DPS that wouldn’t have been nearly sufficient for the much easier Argaloth. Most of them didn’t even have gems in their gear. I try to fight every elitist urge I have, and I rarely judge people harshly for not having the very best gear or enchants, but not geming is just something that gets under my skin. It’s hanging a giant “I don’t care about succeeding, and I’m willing to drag everyone in my group down with me” sign around one’s neck.

A day later, I was thrilled to finally be invited to a Firelands group, only to find out the group had only one healer (me), and one tank. The raid leader was an all PvP gear and didn’t even know what a role check was. Needless to say, I bailed on the group–something I only do under the most dire circumstances. I try to be very tolerant of the inexperienced and help them when I can, but when you don’t even understand that raids take multiple tanks and healers, I start to wonder if you bought your toon off eBay.

Then today I joined another Firelands group (after having to explain my class, spec, and ilevel to the raider leader about seven times, after he said I could come), only to find the group had vanished and only the leader was left. He evaded my questions about what had happened to the rest of the group, and when I asked for clarification, he called me an obscenity and stormed from the group. This very suspicious fellow is now resting comfortably in my ignore list.

But my newb problem isn’t limited to the gaming world. A few months ago, I submitted some of my short fiction to a new anthology of fantasy fiction, “Beneath a Violet Moon” from an obscure company called Inceptus Press. And then I waited for a response. And waited. And waited. At last, a few days ago, I checked their blog, and discovered they had decided not to do the anthology after all because they didn’t like the submissions.

What bothers me about this is they didn’t bother to inform the contributors by any means but a single poorly advertised post. All they would have had to do is write a brief form letter explaining the situation and do a mass mailing to all their contributors. It probably would have taken the same amount of effort as the blog post.
That they neglected to do so proves they are a tactless, rude, and unprofessional group of people.

In other words, they’re newbs.

Anyway, I did promise a review…

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part one:

Last night, I finally got around to seeing the second to last Harry Potter film on DVD. I’ve found all of the movies to date rather disappointing compared to the awesomeness of the books, to varying degrees. Order of the Phoenix was pretty enjoyable and almost as good as the book, but Half-Blood Prince was a horrific butcher job.

The Deathly Hallows was probably the closest to the books so far in terms of following the specifics of events. Little was left out, and for the first time, it felt properly paced instead of seeming like a jerky plot summary of the book. But that said, it still comes up short.

This was the first time I realized this, but the actors playing Harry, Ron, and Hermione simply aren’t very talented. Ron is probably the best, but that’s likely just down to his being the easiest role to play. Daniel Radcliffe has none of the intensity or gravitas Harry carried in the book, and Emma Watson tries her best, but she just comes off as too shrill and girly. Neither have the strength of personality to pull off their respective roles. The good acting is reserved for the minor roles: Bellatrix Lestrange and Luna Lovegood.

There was one big blunder, too. (Warning: Spoiler ahead if you haven’t read the book–and if you haven’t, have you been living under a rock?) In the scene where Bellatrix is torturing Hermione, I remember book-Ron going absolutely ballistic. It was a crucial scene that really proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he loved her. In the movie, he hardly reacted at all.

Overall rating: 6.4/10 The Deathly Hallows part one is one of the better efforts to emulate the books thus far, but it still doesn’t work that well.

One final note–Weird Worm posted another of my articles: Beloved But Short-Lived Sci-fi Shows.

Review: “Devils’ Due” + Writerly Woes

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Lately I’ve been getting a great deal of “job offers” that are interested in hiring me, but want me to do some “test assignment” first. Now, I’m an extremely paranoid person by nature, so whenever I get one of those, I can’t help but worry that it’s just an elaborate scam to get me to write something for them for free.

But even if they’re not scams, I really hate the idea of these test assignments. Why should I put a few hours of work when there’s an excellent chance (based solely on the huge number of submissions these jobs surely get) I’ll simply be rejected? Why should I be expected to work for free? When you apply for a job in an office, do they expect you to work a shift or two without being paid just to see if you’re the right fit? I realize I’m relatively new to the writing game, but I’ve given you my portfolio, my resume, and a link to this here blog. How many examples of my writing do you need?

I don’t think this is right. But at the same time, I’m not really in the financial situation to be turning down any opportunity for work. So I may have to swallow my pride and just do these things. And that’s probably why companies are sending them out–they know saps like me are desperate enough to do them. They know they can get away with it.

This blog’s hits have also taken a nose dive in the last week or so, and I can’t figure out why, and that is also distressing me.

But anyway, enough ranting. It’s reviewing time!

It hasn’t much come up here yet, but I’m not just a WoW fan. I’m also a big fan of the Starcraft franchise; Blizzard owns all of my soul, not just some of it.

So I was happy to dive into the newest Starcraft novel, “Devils’ Due” by Christie Golden. It’s a sequel to (and improvement over) William C. Dietz’s somewhat bland “Heaven’s Devils,” and both are prequels to the Starcraft games, telling the story of James Raynor’s early life.

Christie Golden’s strength has always been characters, and this is once again true in “Devils’ Due.” The book focuses pretty much exclusively on Jim Raynor and Tychus Fyndlay, but both are richly represented and so true to their in-game versions that you can easily hear the voice actors in your head when you read the dialogue. The Tychus of the book is actually a lot more interesting than the one-dimensional waste of pixels he was in SCII.

The first few scenes promise a light-hearted, alcohol-fueled romp through the cosmos, with Jimmy and Tychus always one step ahead of the law, but the book quickly takes a much, much darker turn. I’m on the fence about whether or not this is a good thing, as at times it honestly got a little too intense even for my morbid tastes. But at the same time, Starcraft has always been a very dark universe, so perhaps this is as it should be. There is one character that I’m never, ever going to forgive her for killing off, though.

There are two villains in this book, but unfortunately, neither was all that interesting. One was a cliche sadist, and the other, his shadowy puppet master, was also a little shallow and was given far too little backstory. It would have helped to know more of his history and how he came to command such impressive resources. Alas, this is not the case, and the villains become little more than–exceptionally scary–plot devices to get Jim and Tychus where they needed to be. That said, it doesn’t come off quite as forced as I’m making it sound, and the story does flow well and is enjoyable.

One final complaint is quite nit-picky, and that’s that it rushes the timeline quite a lot. Jim doesn’t meet his wife until the very last scene in the book, and this means that the actual time they were together would be remarkably small. This is confirmed (and made worse) but an official Starcraft universe timeline in the back of the book, which shows that they had their son almost as soon as they met (must’ve been a quick courtship), and that he was abducted a mere three years later. Honestly, I find it hard to believe even the Confederates were crazy enough to start training a ghost at age three. I realize this is fantasy, so complaining about a lack of realism may be pointless, but I find it hard to believe a child’s psionic powers would even be noticeable at that age. Hell, Nova Terra’s psionic powers border on the god-like, and hers didn’t manifest in any strong manner until she was fifteen.

But despite these complaints, “Devils’ Due” was a pretty good read. When you get right down to it, anything with Jim Raynor is automatically good.

Overall rating: 7.9/10.

“Devils’ Due” is available on my Amazon Affiliate, along with “Heaven’s Devils” and several other good Starcraft books. Hint: “Liberty’s Crusade” and “The Dark Templar Saga” will rock your world.