sci-fi | Superior Realities

Humanity was not born free:

You may recall I posted a mysterious teaser image a few weeks ago. The time has come to reveal what that was about.

I am pleased to announce I will soon be releasing The Books of the World Spectrum, a new series of steampunk-inspired science fantasy ebooks from yours truly.

Initially, two books will be released: Rage of the Old Gods and Children of the Gods. I am currently in the process of writing a third book in the series, tentatively titled Human Again. More details on it will come once the first two books are released.

So what are The Books of the World Spectrum? To start with, they’re works of science fantasy, meaning they incorporate elements of both sci-fi and traditional high fantasy. In my case, this means explaining sci-fi concepts — such as robotics and genetic modification — through various types of magic.

In this series, I approach magic as more science than art. I like to say that my wizards are more geek than Gandalf. Rather than drawing power from arcane incantations or mystical beings, their magic is enhanced through cold, hard technology.

The phrase “world spectrum” refers to the setting, a spectral multiverse where various worlds are separated by their energy level. High energy worlds teem with life and thrum with power, while low energy worlds are icy places where the handful of creatures that do survive trudge through their lives in perpetual slow motion.

The human race is native to the temperate world of Barria, but they did not arise naturally. They were created to be slaves for the tyrannical Old Gods. They languished for uncounted generations before winning their freedom in the ancient conflict known as the Liberation, and the dark legacy of their origin haunts them to this day.

The star of the series is Leha, a young merchant and amateur historian. Leha is not exceptionally strong, intelligent, or skilled. Most would consider her a fool with more dreams than good sense.

But terrible things long thought impossible are about to be unleashed on the spectrum of worlds. Humanity’s greed and hate have opened the way for the Old Gods to reclaim their world. In such times, it will take someone with Leha’s reckless defiance to save humankind.

Leha is supported on her journeys by Drogin, her elder brother. A skilled Automaton technician, Drogin has a bit more caution than his sister, but his desire to look out for her usually leads to him being dragged into her crazy schemes.

Along the way, Leha will also gather allies from many worlds and nations. If you read this blog regularly, you have already encountered one such ally in the short story In Her Sister’s Pose. Now all grown up, Natoma serves as a mentor to Leha.

I will be publishing through Smashwords. This means the books should be available through most major ebook retailers, including Amazon and iBooks. The exact price per book is yet to be determined, but expect it to be very affordable.

Both novels should be released at approximately the same time. I don’t have an exact release date to share right now, but I’m hoping to launch in late spring or early summer.

I will soon be launching a new blog devoted to The Books of the World Spectrum. It will feature news, bonus stories, background info on the worlds of the spectrum, and some unique features you might not expect from a book site. Cast photos, anyone?

I don’t plan to stop posting here at Superior Realities, but my rate of posting may slow. It will depend on how good at balancing my schedule I prove.

I’ll have more info to share as the launch date approaches. In the mean time, I will leave you with teasers for the first two books. I hope you will all be there to support the series come release, and please share this news with anyone you know who might be interested in reading something a little different.

Rage of the Old Gods:

Humanity was not born free.

Long ago, humans were slaves to the Old Gods. They rebelled, overthrowing the Gods and establishing their own societies, but peace did not last. Humanity slaughters itself in petty wars.

Now, an army of war Automatons threatens to destroy the land of Eastenhold. To save her people, a young woman named Leha travels to the to the lost worlds of Tyzu and Sy’om, whose alien powers defeated the Old Gods in ancient times.

But there is worse to come. The wars of humankind only hasten the Old Gods’ return, and even Leha’s newfound powers may not be enough to save her people from the Gods’ fury, or from the hatred in their own hearts.

Children of the Gods:

Seven thousand years ago, the Old Gods’ human lieutenants were executed so that humanity could begin a new age free from the sins of the past.

Or so history records. The truth is much different.

Still reeling from the Old Gods’ return, Leha and her allies must now confront their fallen cousins in a war that will not only imperil humanity’s survival, but also its very soul.

In part two of my review of Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm, I’ll be covering the changes to multiplayer.

I should preface this all by saying that I am very bad at Starcraft II multiplayer, so I’m not going to be commenting on the state of balance or anything like that. This is just my opinions on what’s fun as a player and a spectator.

New multiplayer units:

Obviously, the most interesting change to multiplayer is the new units added to all races.

Initially, I was rather critical of the new units, but I feel a bit better about them now. I still think the tempest is pretty boring, though I will admit it has its uses, and I do agree that Terrans kind of got the short end of the stick. Widow mines are cool, but hellbats are just a really weird and confusing firebat rehash.

I still think the new Zerg units are cool, though — vipers are absolutely hilarious to watch in action. And I am grateful that they didn’t end up scrapping units from any race.

As a Protoss player, that race is always what I most care about, and I’m mostly happy with what we got — tempest aside.

Probably the most interesting addition is the mothership core. It’s made of tissue paper, so you have to be careful with how you use it, but its mass recall ability opens up a lot of possibilities for early aggression, and it’s helpful for base defense, as well.

A slight downside is that the mothership core is actually a lot better than a full mothership, meaning the upgrade is only going to be useful for identifying noobs or trolling your opponents.

Oracles are also quite a welcome addition. After countless revisions, they ended up being a very scary harassment unit capable of annihilating entire mineral lines in moments. Protoss have never really had any good options for harassment before now, so this is a big deal.

Unfortunately, I’ve learned I’m very, very bad at harassment. This bothers me because it’s a strategy I really enjoy, but it seems to lose me the game every time.

At least I can enjoy it as a spectator.

Taking the sting out of failure:

The other major changes to multiplayer seem designed to take some of intimidation factor out of competitive play. I’ve already covered the new training tools, but that was just the beginning.

The multiplayer rewards in Wings of Liberties basically only came one way: win ladder matches. Hundreds upon hundreds of ladder matches.

HotS changes this by introducing an RPG-style leveling system. Things like spending resources and killing enemy units awards you experience for your current race, and the higher level you are, the more decals, portraits, and unit skins you unlock.

The interesting thing is that you still earn XP even if you lose your match — though you obviously get more from winning. This seems like a pointless palliative at first, but it really does make defeat feel a bit less painful and make the ups and downs of competitive play easier to bear.

You can also get experience from more than laddering. Unranked play and even matches against the AI still earn XP, so players of all stripes can get their sexy new unit skins.

Speaking of unranked play, it’s probably my favourite new multiplayer feature. There’s nothing Blizzard can do to eliminate ladder anxiety entirely, but unranked play helps a lot. It allows players to get all the benefits of ladder — like MMR-based matchmaking — without the risk of losing your ladder standing.

My ladder rank may be nothing impressive, but I’d still rather not sink any lower. Gold league I can live with. It’s refreshing to not have to worry about suffering the indignity of a demotion to silver after a losing streak.

Still not perfect:

With all that being said, HotS does nothing to address many of my long-standing complaints about competitive play in Starcraft II.

My biggest complaint is that the game is so utterly skewed towards economy as the most important factor that, for most players, you can pretty much ignore combat entirely if your macro is good enough. You can just a-move your units into the enemy base and go back to macroing.

I don’t think that’s a good design for a game that’s supposed to be about epic, fast-paced combat.

It’s also a fact that nothing at all happens during the first three or four minutes of the vast majority of games. If something does happen, it’s usually someone doing an all-in cheese strategy, and nobody wants to see that.

One of the reasons I like to watch replays from Husky is that you need a complete goofball like him to make the opening minutes bearable.

I don’t see how this could be changed without completely redesigning Starcraft II. All I can say is I miss hero harassment and creeping from Warcraft III.

I would love a mode that lets players begin with pre-established bases, but again, it’s too big a change to ever become the norm at this point.

* * *

Overall rating: 7.5/10 An evolutionary improvement, not a revolutionary improvement.

Superior Realities

Tag Archives: sci-fi

Announcing The Books of the World Spectrum

Review: SC2: Heart of the Swarm: Multiplayer