Literature

Book Review: Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War

/ Michael Alexander Henke / 1 Comment

Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War
by Christie Golden

The latest of the World of Warcraft novels, and one of my favorite so far.  With the release of the Cataclysm expansion, Blizzard had indicated that the story of the game would be focusing more on the Alliance vs. Horde aspect, considering that the Wrath of the Lich King storyline had the Alliance and Horde working together.  This book really takes that Horde vs. Alliance dynamic and runs with it.  Garrosh Hellscream is the current Warchief of the Horde, and he couldn’t be more different from the previous leader Thrall.  Thrall had been working towards peace with the Alliance with his friend and counterpart on the other side, Jaina Proudmoore.  They had made great strides towards that peace, but Thrall decided to step down as leader of the Horde and follow his shamanic birthright following The Sundering of Azeroth and the return of Deathwing.  Thrall appointed Garrosh Hellscream as the new Warchief, hoping that Garrosh would continue to strive for peace.  Garrosh is a much more militant personality however, and he is not satisfied with the current shaky peace between the two factions.  He wants nothing less than to kick the Alliance off the continent of Kalimdor and to eventually conquer the Eastern Kingdoms.  To this end he uses some very brutal tactics.  Lady Jaina Proudmoore, long known as a moderate and a the loudest voice for peace between the Horde and Alliance is on the receiving end, as is her city of Theramore.  What we see is a complete shift in Jaina’s views and beliefs.  She knows that peace is no longer an option with Garrosh Hellscream as leader of the Horde, and she prepares herself for war.

This complete turnaround is one of the great things about World of Warcraft.  Many MMO worlds are static and unchanging.  If an area of the world has snow for example, it will always have snow, there are no seasons.  Blizzard decided to shake that up with the release of the Cataclysm expansion.  They completely changed many of the zones in the original continents, and added lots of new content.  Everything old was new again, and it was great to explore places and find new things, places that for many people they have visited for years.  The changes Blizzard brings to the world don’t just manifest themselves in the game, novels like this one are an important part as well.
One of the reasons I enjoy the World of Warcraft novels so much is that while playing the game, I can actually visit the places in the book.  When a building or area is described, I don’t have to try to build a picture in my head, it is already there because I have seen and been in that building.  It helps to make Azeroth feel like a living and breathing place.  With the Mists of Pandaria expansion set for release on September 25th, this book did a great job of getting me excited for the all changes we’ll be seeing in the near future.

John Carter (of Mars…..sorta)

/ Christopher Lee / Leave a comment

John Carter Logo/Poster

Written by: Christopher Lee

I finally got out to see “John Carter” this week and yes, I’ll say it, this movie is good.

No, it’s not going to blow you away. No, it’s not anything you haven’t seen before. Yes, it’s a lot like things you’ve seen before.

Why?

Because darned near movie or TV show in the Sci-Fi genre that you’ve seen in at LEAST 50+ years has either been inspired by or has ripped off the tales of “Barsoom” by Edgar Rice Burroughs. 

Given that alone, give the film, the story, the respect it’s due. Gene Rodenberry did. Publicly. When he spoke of his inspirations for “Star Trek”. Many others have as well.

Could I sit here and simply review the movie? Sure. But I’m not going to do that per se. 

The difficult thing with this movie is despite just saying “OMG it’s so good! You need to go see it!”, is telling people *why* they should give it a go. There’s few ways to describe it that don’t sound like “Avatar” or a sort of reversed “Superman” or much everything else. I honestly find myself hard pressed to do so, and therein lies, likely, it’s failure. 

How does one make an audience excited for a film that, despite it’s pedigree, is based on a 100 year old story that has somewhat faded into relative obscurity in the eyes of all but the more hardcore geeks?

I suppose simple word of mouth is the best bet. Perhaps, blatantly advertising and chest-beating that this is the story that inspired the genre almost entirely as we know it.  I also suppose that releasing it a mere week before a darned near guaranteed blockbuster (“Hunger Games”) wasn’t the best idea either.

At this point, the best thing to do is judge for yourself. Don’t dismiss it based solely on the critics (actually, do yourself a favor and stop listening to critics all together….except me, of course, but I’m not a professional…yet, and when I do become a pro, feel free to stop listening to me and support another up-and-comer!). Go to a matinee (incidentally, this is a GREAT Sunday Morning film), leave your expectations at the concession stand, and check it out. The least I can guarantee you is an enjoyable, pulpy, classic sci-fi adventure. Personally, I can never have enough of them.

If simple reasoning doesn’t work, just lookit this guy, he’s in the film. His name is Woola. He’s kind of like a giant, sweet, super fast, super loyal bulldog..ish….thing….BUT HE’S SO CUTE AND AWESOME YOU MUST LOVE HIM!! (fyi, this is the concept art for Woola. The finished character is pretty much 90% the same as this with VERY slight alterations that make him more “book-authentic”)

WOOLA!!!

Hobbes and Bacon

/ Christopher Lee / Leave a comment

I love “Calvin & Hobbes”. I’d think of putting out a challenge for people to find a more truthful and honest representation of childhood, but I know it’d be futile. There isn’t one.

“Hobbes and Bacon” was “created” by Dan and Tom Heyerman during the run of their web comic “Pants Are Overrated”. It takes place 26 years after “Calvin & Hobbes”. Calvin and Susie have married and now have a daughter named “Bacon” (after philosopher Sir Francis Bacon, Bill Watterson, creator of “Calvin & Hobbes” named Calvin after theologian John Calvin and Hobbes after philosopher Thomas Hobbes).

One night, Bacon is having trouble sleeping because she fears that her bunny isn’t up to the task of keeping her safe from “the monster” (Donald Trump, actually). She asks her father if he can help with anything more terrifying than “Mr. Bun”…he just so happens to know a “ferocious guy”.

Hobbes, meet Bacon. Bacon, meet Hobbes. The cycle of friendship starts anew.

They only made four comics, but those four were made so well. The feeling, writing and art is so true to Watterson that you can almost believe he had some part in it. It’s really sweet too. If they ever decide to do what’s needed to run with it, this could be a really successful series and it would give me a reason to buy the Sunday newspaper again. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

-Chris

You can find the original comics Here (Part 1), Here (Part 2), Here (Part 3) and Here (Part 4).

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It's story time!

/ Christopher Lee / Leave a comment

 

Last night, I was inspired to write, something just came to me and I just went with it, start to finish, stream of consciousness. It’s not the most original tale, but I’m pretty proud of it. Tell me what you think! -Chris

“The River Stone” by Christopher Lee Mannix

Once upon a time, there was a young peasant boy named Apple. He never liked that name, so he preferred people to call him “Jeff”. Jeff was just a regular boy, under normal circumstances nary worthy of mention. He wasn’t particularly smart and for a stone-cutter’s son, he wasn’t very strong. He always felt that if given the chance, he could be courageous, but being a poor boy working a thankless job for his weary father, he had accepted that the chance to prove so would never come.

One day, while stopping at a stream for water on a trading trip to a neighboring town with his father, something caught his eye. It was the most beautiful stone he’d ever laid his eye on. Perfectly smooth and round, with a faint pearly glimmer unlike any he’d ever seen. Afraid his father would take it for which to make into jewelry, he quickly hid it in his tunic and hurried back to their cart to hide it until he got home later that evening.

For the next week or so, Jeff would examine and caress his wonderful treasure. He hid it in the barn next to the horse’s stable. Late one night, when he heard his father coming up to the barn. He hurried to get his stone back into it’s safe hiding place. In his rush, he knocked over one of the shovels and down it came, grazing right across the stone scoring an ugly line across the top. Seconds that seemed like hours passed in the horror of the one precious thing he felt he may ever own, ruined. When seemingly out of nowhere a sound that rose into a hellish, screeching cacophony filled the space around him. His father burst in the door, frantic, frightened and saw Jeff kneeling, teary eyed, holding the stone.
“What the devil was that!?” roared his father, fear fading, replaced by anger. “I…I don’t know…” cried Jeff. “I cut my stone…and the sound…”. Jeff’s father raced over, fear once again alive in his every move, his eyes fixed on the beautiful rock in his son’s lap, which, in the seconds between moments had begun to glimmer more strongly than Jeff had yet seen it. The line where the shovel had scored the stone seemed to begin shining. “Noooo…no no NO!!! Where did you get that!? Get up…GET UP!!! WE HAVE TO GET IT OUT OF HERE NOW!!!”

Jeff’s father grabbed him and pulled him up with such force, his feet momentarily left the ground and he could barely get them back under him as his father dragged him, racing out of the barn and into the woods faster than Jeff, in his 10 years had ever seen him move.
Breathlessly, Jeff yelled out, “Father! What is it! You’re scaring me! What’s wrong!?” “Don’t talk, just run, we’ve got to get it away from the town, we’ve got to get rid of it as fast as poss…..”
Out of nowhere, they were stopped as their path was blocked by a large black dragon which appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
It reared up, slowly, then faster than they could blink, pinned both men down with it’s steely arms. “You’ve taken my child. You’ve harmed my child. Return it now and I shall leave you alive, but not without retribution.” spoke the beast.
“Please!” yelled Jeff’s father, “The boy took the egg, he knew not what it was, please don’t harm us! If you must, harm me, but leave the innocent child!”
The dragon seemed to think for a minute, it lowered it’s head to Jeff’s father and said, “The ignorance of men is of no concern to me. In your ignorance, you’ve revealed the thief, and he shall pay.”
The dragon lifted it’s arm off Jeff’s father and with a crystalline claw that flashed like lightning in the moonlight at the speed of it’s strike, it sliced Jeff from cheek to chest, leaving a magnificent wound that smoked as it seem to cauterise itself….and young

Jeff screamed.

His father, unable to bear seeing, hearing his son wounded so, blindly charged the beast.
The dragon reared back, but not up, like a giant black snake, ready to strike.
Seeing his father about to be struck down, Jeff knew so quickly, he felt his body reacting before his mind fully realized what it was doing, jumped up and threw the egg stone, striking and embedding it straight into the dragon’s eye.
The dragon roared as it raised onto it’s hind legs and threw it’s wings open, the sight of which stopped both father and son in their tracks, in which the knew not was awe or fear.
The beast dropped back down with a ground shaking thud and looked at both of them, a glowing furnace building in it’s mouth.
Quickly as he could, and with aim to match the greatest archers of the realm, Jeff grabbed another rock and threw it with a strength that shocked him. It struck the same spot. The egg shattered, screaming, exploding….

The dragon shuddered and dropped. It’s head seemed to have lost the top quarter.
Father and son each, breath held, slowly looked away from the beast, towards each other.
Jeff’s father let a nervous, proud smile lift his face. Jeff looked at his father, smiled back and said, “I knew it…I always knew I had courage in my heart.”

As he started to laugh, his father’s face again turned to horror. Before he could realize why, he realized he was suddenly…helplessly….engulfed in a fury of liquid flame.

The End.