The Fractal Hall Journal

Dead Space

Holy crap, is this game terrifying. And that’s just the intro. Sure, the creepy nursery rhyme theme is a little derivative but I think that’s something computer games are actually really good at. You take the really good bits from genre work (films mostly) and you squish it all together (see Halo, amongst many others). It’s not art, but it’s fun. And this game is packed full of blood-squirty dismembering fun.

The only possible hiccup is that like Condemned and Call of Cthulhu before it, it may be too scary to finish.

Why yes, I am a scaredy cat.

Fallout 3

Depending on what mood I’m in, I could well call Oblivion my favourite computer game. It’s certainly the game I’ve spent the most amount of hours on, by a hee-uge margin. I got it years ago, and because of the finding time thing, I still haven’t completed it. So I’m very much in the target market for a post-apocalyptic version.

Not spent loads of time on it yet because I really do want to finish Dead Space, but I should imagine a lot of ‘09 is going to spent on this one. And, hopefully, Elder Scrolls V in ‘10.

The Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire

I’ve been meaning to get this one for a while. The follow up to Deadly Genesis (reviewed here previously), and like the previous story an entertaining yarn. Brubaker’s an excellent writer, and very good at doing a Claremont-style story in the modern Marvel house style. I feel like I’m damning with faint praise, but that’s not the intention. To be honest, it’s nice to read a superhero comic that doesn’t irritate me on any level.

Lovecraft’s Haunt of Horror and Cthulhu Tales

Sorry, that last one got a bit catty.

A couple of Mythos comics were added to the haul this year, and although I haven’t had chance to read them yet I’ve skimmed through. The MAX title is the hardcover of Richard Corben’s straightforward Lovecraft adaptations, and looks gorgeous. The second is the first paperback collection of BOOM! Studio’s ongoing anothology title. BOOM! Haven’t made a single misstep yet with their Cthulhu titles, and I doubt they’re going to start here.

Arkham Asylum 15th Anniversary edition

Really needs a post to itself. In short: brilliant, better than I remember it. Unfortunately the good bits were all left in Morrison’s original script, so this is the first version I’ve ever read that makes a damned bit of sense. A flawed masterpiece.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War

Late to the party on this one, as I’ve only just upgraded to a graphics card that can handle the game. I assume we’re all geeks here, and we’re all familiar with the Games Workshop property that is, perhaps, nerdness incarnate.

Let’s just say, if Fallout 3 doesn’t suck up all of my time, then Dawn of War will be getting the rest. Hoo boy, I hope you’re all ready for another dip in productivity. Damn shame I’m fucking awful at RTS games.

The Steel Remains, by Richard Morgan

Britain’s best SF writer tackles fantasy. Half way through this, and it’s very good.

The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom

Picked up at random for being a haunted house book on the cheap at Asda. Last book I got from there was Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box, and that one was fantastic.

Again, only half way through it. Good points and bad points and I haven’t made my mind up about it yet, but it’s entertaining and it cost about three quid so I shouldn’t really complain either way.

That’s that faint praise thing again, isn’t it?

Anyway, turns out there’s a competition running in connection with the book, and the first prize is a weekend in that haunted hotel in Ludlow (Ludlow?) that’s been mentioned here before, more than once. The town’s obviously cornering the market in this kind of thing.

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“…Society is, always has been and always will be a structure for the exploitation and oppression of the majority through systems of political force dictated by an elite, enforced by thugs, uniformed or not, and upheld by a wilful ignorance and stupidity on the part of the very majority whom the system oppresses.” – Richard Morgan, from an interview on saxonbullock.com, via Wikipedia.

A few days ago on Twitter I mentioned that if Rambo was an adjective, it would describe this book. Let’s expand on that, Internet Friends.

In the US the novel’s been retitled Thirteen, I’m assuming due to difficulties anticipated with the original name. If this is due to race issues (I don’t know for sure that it is, but it really wouldn’t surprise me), then it makes an interesting echo of some of the themes of the book.

Set about two hundred years in the future, the story is broadly about a genetically-engineered Thirteen’s hunt for a serial killer. Thirteens were created as supersoldiers, all throwbacks to pre-agriculture human hunters, a species of lone killers bred out of the human race hundreds of years ago. With wiring so different from modern humans, they’re seen as psychotic monsters to the general population. There’s a lot of subtext here about views on race and religion, but also on what humans actually are, what role our genes play in behaviour, how behaviour shapes society, but also whether or not life experience really does shape who we are. The “black man” describes the protagonist not just in terms of race, but how his society views him. It’s a dark, cynical book, one that echoes many of this author’s usual themes, outlined most clearly in the quote above.

It’s also incredibly violent, with people getting dispatched in many and various bloody ways. The swears are many, and there’s a couple of extremely explicit bongo scenes. A book for Grown-Ups, in other words.

While occasionally uncomfortable, it’s still very well written and easy to read. On his website, Morgan mentions that a fair few people don’t like the book very much, because they were expecting another Altered Carbon (his debut). Which is a surprise, because it’s not that radically different in terms of style or even theme, although the religion thing tends to get people hopping mad. Morgan has a distinctive voice, and that’s not a criticism. His next one is a Heroic Fantasy (capitals added for extra grandeur), which really will be a proper departure from previous work.

It’s probably not the most accessable of his books; it’s got something to piss of practically everybody and it slows down a bit in a few places, but it’s still very good and damn near essential if you like your SF both thought-provoking and blood-thirsty.

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