Another Comic!

Because I want to validate my "ownership" of a blog, here's another webcomic you should be reading: chainsawsuit. This is some good stuff here, folks. It's just your typical comic that makes fun of stuff, drawn in simple line art. But you don't need pretty graphics or, uhh... other stuff to make a good comic. Case in point:













Oh yes. Freakin' brilliant. Look at the face on that alien. The tilt of the head, the glare of the eye, the posture. Fantastic. Go, read, enjoy.

Moe!

(Click the image to see the whole thing.)

Since I may or may not have tricked a few of you into coming here from time to time, I thought that I would actually add stuff on occasion. That seems fair, right? I already started the book review thing, which I figure will give at least a post a month, neglecting anomalies such as the past few weeks. The "Just Post Stories" thing didn't seem like a proper investment of your time. Now you'll get more out of this place! Granted, that's why the Digital Sentinel was created... maybe I'll resurrect that, though managing two blogs sounds ludicrous!

Anywho, I just thought I'd bring the webcomic over at Firman Productions called Moe to your attention. Created by Michael Firman, it's a funny little comic about Moe, who is just a hair shy of retarded. Basic hilarity insues. It doesn't really have a theme, per se, unlike a lot of other webcomics. Unless "Guy named Moe does stuff that is funny" is a theme, though I doubt it. I don't really have much else to say about this, surprisingly. The comic occasionally has story arcs, but typically they don't dwell on one another much. Back in the beginning of the comic, the style was very sketchy (meaning it looked like a sketch, not that it wanted to steal your wallet). Nowadays, it still looks that way but in a much more stylized way, if that makes any sense. Stylized style. I'm personally a fan of it. I also like the typical color scheme - which involves a lot of browns - as it just adds something that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it's just that it fits well with the theme of the website, in general. I like matching.

The comic is also going to celebrate its first birthday this Friday, which is pretty cool. There are currently approximately 250 comics, which is a pretty good start, I'd say. But best of all, Mr. Firman sticks to a rigid update schedule. And that schedule, you ask? Why, one of the best: Every Weekday. That's right, folks, Monday through Friday can be filled with a brand new Moe comic. Glory to the Maker.

So go read it if you have some time. Read it before Friday and you can say you were reading it when it was still young. You know, in the future. When it isn't. You can say that and not lie. Anywho...

Enjoy.

Everyone step out of the Twilight…

This text is acceptable to the forces of Light.
                                        The Night Watch

This text is acceptable to the forces of Darkness.
                                        The Day Watch

I think I am a Procrastinator Beyond Classification. “Zach Wolfe, Procrastinator, Higher”. I may even be a zero-point procrastinator. That may be a little presumptuous, since I can’t see my own aura, but I’m willing to assume that it’s true. And why would I assume something like this? Why, because just little over twenty-four hours ago, I was giving you the rundown on the latest book I had read and here I am again, wishing to do the same once more. That’s right, folks, I’ve already polished off another one. This time, if you haven’t guessed, the book was Last Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko.

The Night Watch series has held a special place in my heart since I first learned of its existence a few years ago. For one, it’s on a very short list of books that I’ve read that weren’t originally written in this country. For another – or perhaps directly linked to the first – the story is highly unique. I mean, sure, there’s magic and whatnot but it just doesn’t have the same feel as it does in other fantasy novels. It’s also urban fantasy, which is a genre that I don’t have a lot of experience in (baring The Dresden Files, anyway). One way or another, I have greatly enjoyed this series and am sad to see it conclude with this novel.

As this is, indeed, the last book in the series, I don’t really feel like I should go into details about the plot and whatnot. If you haven’t read it, my words won’t make a lick of sense. And for those of you that have read up to this point… well, you’re aware of the writing style; it probably still wouldn’t make any sense. That’s something I do want to comment on, however briefly, if you’ll humor me. The style of these books is noticeably different from that of Western novels, and fantasy in particular. Now this shouldn’t be such a great shock, as the book was written in Russia. I’ve only recently read one other contemporary fantasy book written across the pond – that being The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski from Poland – and I noticed a similar sort of what that stories are framed. It’s a more… direct, abrupt way of going about things. It’s rather hard to describe, though I’m sure there are those who have tried. But simply, even basic sentences aren’t structured in the same way and it makes the reading experience completely different from that of your typical Western novel.

Neglecting sentence structure and the like, though, the simple presentation of events is handled in a different fashion. Often, characters have revelations that aren’t revealed to the reader for possibly hundreds of pages (those familiar with the books will recall that Anton does this near the end in every book). Secondly, though the books play out as a sort of horror mystery with a fantasy element, the reader is never really permitted to guess at things; Lukyanenko typically just slaps you in the face with a plot twist in the last couple of pages that came from the bleachers somewhere off behind left field and expects that to be a logical solution. Often, however, these left me perplexed as to what was even going on. The first book was the worst, if I recall, though it progressively got better in this regard as the series progressed. Sure, Anton has a habit of wasting obscene amounts of power. At least the explanations for why he did it got better as they went along.

In this sense, I was rather pleased with the ending. For one, this story follows the “mystery procedural” a little closer than others, with a few clues here and there. Now, maybe reading the thing in one sitting allowed to me pick up on foreshadowing that you wouldn’t immediately recall when reading the book over a period of a week – much like when you watch an entire television show’s season in one sitting; the foreshadowing has to be heavy-handed for you to remember it ‘til next week – but I was actually able to figure things out long before Anton did. I’m not trying to prop myself up as some mystery-solving expert, though. What I’m getting at is that the machinations in the book simply aren’t overwhelmingly ludicrous like they were in the other books. For instance, the true nature of the Twilight it pretty easy to figure out once they find Merlin’s little poem near the end of Story One (This isn’t a spoiler, even if it may seem like one; they just sort of… find it all of a sudden. “Hey, look down here.” Not kidding.). Though I will give myself a little bit of credit here; after three of his books, I’ve started to see how Lukyanenko thinks. It’s the same trick every time, just used in different ways, so it was a little easier to figure stuff out this time around. I want to go into more detail, but I know some of you haven’t read this book yet so I won’t spoil it for you. But let me just say that the end of the book doesn’t read like this: “Suddenly, a character that you’ve never heard of before this moment appeared and took the Crown, a smile upon her face, before disappearing once more. With a knowing grin, [Gesar/Zabulon] patted Anton on the shoulder. ‘It had been his plan all along,’ Anton thought, looking at the leader of the [Night Watch/Day Watch]. ‘I understand what I have to do now…’ [Obscene misuse of power here].” In all fairness, it’s actually a decent ending.

[Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t read up through Twilight Watch, the following is going to be a mild surprise.]

One bone to pick, however, is the fact that, even though Anton is now a Grand Light Magician, he hardly does anything more powerful than you’ve seen him do a hundred times before. The only real difference is his ability to go deeper into the Twilight. Now, of course, his enemies have basically scaled in power as well, but it’s still not a proper excuse. “Beyond Classification” means – and this is stated in the first couple pages of the book by Anton – that all Higher Magicians are so close in power, it’s hard to tell which one is more powerful at any given time. Otherwise, the numbering system would go higher and they’d get themselves some numbers, too. However, there isn’t even the slightest hint that Anton could stand for more than a second against an attack from Gesar, Zabulon, his wife Svetlana, Thomas (he’s new), Olga, etc. Sure, most of this could be attributed to inexperience (though Svetlana is an outlier) and you do see him go toe-to-toe with another Higher Magician… but even in that fight, he was aided by another Magician with some fancy toys and he was still worried that he would lose – and probably would’ve had the bad guy not fled the scene. Maybe I just want to see Anton finally flex his muscles a bit and actually have the upper hand on occasion, but it just seems like Lukyanenko missed an opportunity here for some really nifty storytelling. A person that magically (heh, get it?) comes into a large amount of power, struggling with learning how to control it and use it for the Light, etc. Oh well, I guess.

I would recommend these books simply because they’re from Russia, have a style unlike our own, and I feel that anyone who enjoys reading should expose themselves to different techniques. The fact that they have a really interesting story and world is a definite bonus. Lukyanenko is one of Russia’s most popular authors and it’s easy to see why. So by the Light and by the Darkness – whichever tickles your fancy – read these books. You won’t regret it.

The Furies Cometh

Another week comes to a close and another book lies conquered on the bookshelf. This time, the book in question is Furies of Calderon: Book One of the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. I mentioned the book’s existence in my last bookish post as a possibility for reading. Now, having read the thing, I can pass along my impressions if you’ll indulge me a bit.

First, a little introduction to the book for those unaware of what it’s about. The story takes place in the nation of Alera and, more specifically, in the Calderon Valley; go figure. The Aleran people are somewhat special. You see, they all have a connection with the furies: embodiments of the elements of nature. They can communicate and bond with these furies, gaining their aid in a number of ways. Say, if it’s dark and you happen to be good on with a fire fury, just ask it to start a fire for you and it will. Don’t want to scrub the floor and there’s a bucket of water nearby? Ask a water fury to clean it for you. Walking taking too long? Ask an earth fury to surf you along on a giant rock. This last is my favorite. There are a number of fury types, including: Water, Earth, Wood, Fire, Air, and Metal. They all have varying effects apart from the obvious “manipulate water”, “throw fireballs”, “fly”, etc. and it adds a nice flavor to things. For instance, fire furies can manipulate emotions such as fear and anger, while earth furies can be used in a similar fashion to inspire lust. Air furies can bend the air to create a practical magnifying glass while metal furies can increase someone’s pain tolerance.

The nature of the furies is left somewhat ambiguous, as if Butcher couldn’t really decide how they worked. Most of the characters call their furies by name: Rill, Brutus, Cirrus, etc. and seem to be the only ones that can use that particular fury. But it’s also stated that furies are basically everywhere and a few instances involve Alerans just talking to random furies and getting results. Of course, there’s a one-sentence line in there somewhere that says that all Alerans can commune with furies, though they typically specialize in one or two fury types, but still. I took this to mean: Alerans bond with a number of specific furies but they can command others around, they just might not listen. A number of times it is mentioned that certain characters are at a disadvantage because they do not know the local furies. To somewhat support this, there are wild furies that play interesting roles throughout the story. Garados is one. A gigantic fury that lives at the top of a nearby mountain, he generates wicked storms that pound through the valley while his “wife” wind fury rides the storms and causes problems.

One thing I’ll say is that it’s a rather creative magic system. The only problem is that Mr. Butcher seems to be uncertain as to how exactly it works and/or what its capabilities and limitations are. I’m not faulting him for this – it’s the first book and you have to start somewhere – I’m just saying that it’s somewhat noticeable. “I can’t fly those couple hundred yards, it’s too tiring” followed a few pages later by the summoning of a massive tornado. This is not an actual book event; I’m just trying to give you an example of the sort of thing that occurs from time to time. Maybe everyone’s just really modest and underestimates their abilities?

Something else to complain about while I’m thinking of it is the editing. It was… jarring, on occasion. Neglecting the occasional comma-instead-of-a-period thing that crops up in most all books, there were some major things that I would’ve taken out of the book long before it hit the publisher’s desk. An example: a character – a Marat – who speaks in broken Aleran introduces himself, giving his name and what not. Keep in mind that, up until this point, all Marat have spoken in a broken fashion. Two sentences later, the character introduces himself again, this time in a flowing, almost regal, way, giving his name once more. The Marat never speak in broken Aleran again. Barring one misunderstanding that was thrown in later for some comic relief, they don’t ever seem to struggle with a single Aleran word. Another example: a woman tells a man to follow after someone. A sentence later, she tells him to do the exact same thing, though in a slightly more polished way. Now, I’ll admit that I may have just been reading too carefully – or not carefully enough – and didn’t really understand why characters and descriptions were repeating themselves, but I’m pretty sure that at least a few were honest mistakes. And again, I’m fine with that; Jim Butcher has a ridiculously prodigious publishing schedule. I’m just saying that it occasionally took me out of the story.

Let’s see, what else? The back of the book – and most all advertisements for the series in general – tout Tavi (the only person in all of Alera without a fury of his own) as the main character. I’ll give a nod to that; the boy does some rather important stuff. However, he may get a point-of-view for half of the book. The rest is from the point of view of his aunt, a Cursor (a cross between a mailman and a spy), and the bad guy. It does seem that he plays an increasingly important role throughout the series, so I’ll let that one slide for now. Tavi’s uncle, Bernard, is possibly my favorite character, I think. He’s an earth- and woodcrafter and he’s ridiculously powerful. It’s easily my favorite fury-combination with earth probably being my favorite fury type in general. It seems the most useful, next maybe being air or water, depending on what you needed to do. I see some potential in woodcrafting – if you were in the woods or around wood, anyway – and metal is obviously useful to a warrior. That just leaves fire…

Typically when it comes to elemental magic, I like fire. This is usually because it’s one of the few elements easily used as a weapon and, as such, gets a fair bit of coverage. However, Butcher downplays that stereotype quite a bit. The problem with fire in Alera is this: furies live in the elements; they can’t create them where they don’t exist. For instance, if an earthcrafter is lifted up off the ground, they can’t talk to their fury and, therefore, can’t do much of anything. If a watercrafter is thrown into, say, a hot smokehouse, there’s no moisture for her to talk to her fury with. Now, there’s one or two caveats to this (a powerful firecrafter is seen possibly conjuring a fireball from nothing, I’m not sure) but for the most part this limits the firecrafter greatly. You see, while there’s typically a fair amount of earth, air, and water around at any given time, fire isn’t exactly lying about in piles. As such, firecrafters have to carry the stuff with them in pots. Yeah, it’s about as impractical as it sounds. Now, it appears that if you get close to a powerful firecrafter when there’s actually some fire around you’re going to die painfully (at one point, three firecrafters working in tandem kill hundreds with little effort), but they’re also at the greatest disadvantage just in their day-to-day activities. It’s a really good balance and I applaud Butcher for it; possibly the most powerful crafters are also the weakest. I find the dichotomy intriguing.

Wind furies actually seem to be the most underpowered when it comes to overall usefulness. Now, you only really see it used to great effect by one character so maybe it’s more useful than it appears, but its main use seems to be generating wind. Now that wind has a number of applications, but they’re mainly overt things like knocking people away or flying. No levitating objects or Force-pulling stuff here. They also don’t seem to have the emotional connections or the bodily connections the other fury-types display. It can make the users move faster, though, so maybe that compensates a bit. I don’t know. Metal actually seems to be the favored fury type in a soldier. The only people you see with connection to a metal fury are ridiculously awesome swordsmen. And when I say ridiculously awesome, I mean that they can easily hold a city gate against invasion all by themselves. And its fury counterpart and weakness is wood; a weakness that seems a little hard to exploit. Wood’s pretty cool, if the person using it knows what they’re doing. Apparently one of its main uses is allowed the crafter to fire massive bows, the likes of which they normally wouldn’t be able to draw. A good woodcrafter can also cause the haft of your axe to snake around and take a swing at your head, which is cool. Pair that with, say, a large Steadholder who also communes with a powerful earth fury named Brutus and you have yourself a nifty character. Named Bernard. But anyway…

The book cover sports a quote that says “…inspired by Tolkien”, though I’m not really sure what this means. Maybe they just meant, “Tolkien wrote epic fantasy, and so does Jim Butcher”. That’s all I can come up with, anyway, as he doesn’t really borrow much from the Tolkien collection of now-fantasy clichés. This may be a good time to note that the book isn’t really written in the same style as Butcher’s other successful series, The Dresden Files. For one, it’s written in the third person limited perspective and has a feel more like that of a typical epic fantasy novel. Butcher is obviously a talented author; I just feel that he occasionally labors beneath this style. But again, this is only the first book in the series – and his first really successful attempt at the genre in general – so I’ll cut him some slack there.

This thing is getting a little winded, so I’ll draw things to a close. In short, I liked this book – flaws and all. Jim Butcher has crafted an interesting world and I feel confident that, as the series continues, it’s only going to get better as he grows more familiar and comfortable with it. Currently, the series is up to Book 5, with Book 6 coming this December, so I’m looking forward to moving deeper into the heart of Alera. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good fantasy romp, as well as to anyone getting tired of your run-of-the-mill magic systems, medieval worlds, and fantasy creatures. So go buy, check-out, or borrow Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher, as I wholly recommend it. I mean, any book that has killer ostriches has my stamp of approval.

Addendum: do you remember when we were forced to write book reports back in grade school? Now I do it of my own volition and with a lot more effort than I ever did before. As I hit the last fifty pages of the book or so, I recall thinking that I couldn’t wait to write a small review on this. What’s happening to me?!