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Minireview: The Temporal Void, by Peter F. Hamilton

The Temporal Void is a direct continuation of The Dreaming Void, forming the midpoint of the “Void Trilogy” series. Like the first book it’s a huge brick of a book, but that’s not a bad thing. Where the first book was mostly setup for things to come, here events are in full swing. The viewpoint switches rapidly between various viewpoints; we have Paula Myo on her continuing quest to figure out what the hell is going on, we have Aaron the memory-blanked agent continuing his mission (unclear to himself, also), we have Araminta (now confirmed to be the Second Dreamer)… and we have Edeard, deep in the Void itself, making more and bigger enemies on his quest to purge the gangs from Makkrathan. Like in the first book, Edeard almost steals the show here – these “Inigo’s dream” sequences could be collated into a separate book and you’d have a very good somewhat unconventional “from zero to hero” fantasy book. While this book does shed some light on the nature of the Void itself, it’s still somewhat unclear when Edeard’s tale happens or has happened. It seems to be in the (possibly far) past, but time in the Void functions in strange ways.

It’s a good large-scale space opera, with some fantasy thrown into the mix – as such, quite a typical mix for Hamilton. If you like his books in general and/or if you liked the first book in this series, you’ll like this. The plot threads started in the first book start to pay off here, and there are more connections made to the earlier “Starflyer War” series. Good entertainment. I’m looking forward for the final book.

Oh, Hamilton does have his idiosyncracies as a writer. He writes huge books, and I’m sure a bit of that could be trimmed off without hurting the whole. He’s also infamous for weird sex scenes – not “weird” in the “weird sex” way, but in the sense that his characters seem to have and experience sex in a way quite removed from what I feel is the human norm. He’s gotten better at that, though, there is less of that in this series though it does appear here and there… and to his credit, some of the issues are interesting: for example, sex where one of the participants is a “multiple”, a single person sharing multiple bodies. In this vision of the future, humanity has splintered on the approach various factions take to evolution. Some want to go in the transhumanist direction, some want to remain “baseline human”, some just want to improve on that in some ways, and some go in alternate directions (the “multiples”, for example). And of course, everyone is convinced their way is the right one, thus many of the (at times violent) conflicts in these books.

Joanna Newsom at Kulttuuritalo

Joanna Newsom and her band were fucking amazing last night at Kulttuuritalo.

That’s all.

For the poor sad people who missed it, here are a couple of clips (“The Book of Right-On” plus the encore “Peach, Plum, Pear”).

Jane Siberry in Finland (and elsewhere)

I’ve been a fan on Jane Siberry for the longest time. Ever since I bought her compilation album “Summer in the Yukon” way, way back, her music has been a semi-constant presence in my life. She’s (very) quirky, and some albums of hers work better for me than others – my personal favorites are “The Walking”, “Bound by the Beauty” and “When I Was a Boy”. I encountered her music at a fairly turbulent and emotional time in my life, and songs like “The Life is the Red Wagon” will always hold special meaning.

As a person, she’s… eccentric, at least judging by the evidence. After trying to run her own record label for a while, she got fed up with it and in 2006 sold her house and gave away almost all of her worldly possessions. She also changed her name to “Issa” and released an album under that name.

Now, she has changed back to “Jane Siberry” and has been on a worldwide ”Salon Tour” since January. Instead of a “normal” high-profile tour, she has decided to go globe-hopping with just her guitar and her dog. She plays where her fans arrange for her to play (often in someone’s living room), and asks that her hosts give her a room for the night and some food. The ticket costs cover her travel expenses. The Globe&Mail has a nice article about one of her living room concerts in London.

…and best of all, she’s on her way to Finland, in fact she may already be here. She’s playing a gig in Helsinki tomorrow (Tuesday). When I heard about that I’d already gotten tickets to see Rufus Wainwright at Kulttuuritalo. I was considering selling those, but then another date opened up in Riihimäki. It’s in someone’s living room, and me & Janka will be their short-time guests on Wednesday.

If you like her music, check out the tour page for contact info on the Finnish dates. They don’t seem to be sold out yet, so… if you have an eclectic taste in music and free time on Tuesday or Wednesday, get in touch with the organizers and go check out what may be a fairly unique little show.

And about that music: a bit over a week ago, Jane announced that all her albums are now available as free downloads. That’s… wow. I already had most of them, but now I have all of them.

If you’re new to her music, “When I Was a Boy” is probably her most accessible work. “The Walking” and “Bound by the Beauty” are also highly recommended.

Minireview: Stolen Land (Pathfinder #31, "Kingmaker" part 1)

Stolen Land is the first part of a new Pathfinder adventure path, “Kingmaker”. This is an interesting one, since to date the adventure paths have been extremely linear (something I’ve harped against at times, too). Sure, it’s understandable that if you want to have a huge overreaching plot and want to cover a lot of ground in a limited number of pages, you need to railroad to some extent and need to just assume the players do certain things. The problem, of course, is that players are notorious for doing everything but the thing the adventure and/or the GM has assumed. There is no real solution to this, as such; if you want a strict plot, you need to assume limited player choice (and lots of GM “push the PCs back on track” action). That can be quite ok, as long as everyone is one the same page and the players cooperate somewhat.

Of course, the “railroad” criticism is one that Paizo has heard, too, and this adventure path seems to be an experiment of sorts in building a “sandbox” adventure path. Instead of a strict linear plot, you have a series of encounters and events, all set in one large “sandbox” world area. In theory, it sounds very cool. Also, judging by this first installment, it may also turn out to be great in practice.

This start off with the PCs all being emissaries from Brevoy, sent into the lawless and ungoverned “Stolen Lands” with writs to explore and tame them (ideally helping Brevoy expand in that direction). This is a nice setup, as it solves the “why are the PCs together” and “what is the PC motivation” things in one go. If they do good here, they may end us as rulers of a new province. Of course, they are not the only such group; four other groups have been sent to other areas. This will probably lead to plot complications in later episodes.

As noted, it’s a sandbox adventure. The PCs are expected to base at a certain wilderness tavern/inn, since it’s pretty much the last bastion of civilization in the area – but nothing forces that. The inn does serve as launching point for some follow-up events, but if the PCs insist on camping in the woods for some reason there are multiple easy ways to involve them in things.

The area given to the PCs to explore and “tame” contains a large number of encounters and events. Some are minor, some more challenging, and some are interconnected to stuff I suspect will turn up again later. The main antagonists are a gang of brigands, led my a mysterious “Stag Lord”. It’s an interesting group of NPCs, and the leader is quite unusual – not quite your normal “big bad”.

An excellent fairly freeform low-level starter adventure, with five more installments to come (which hopefully keep up the good work).

Arcade Fire coming to Helsinki!

This is getting weird, in a most excellent way. Just a week ago I was commenting on IRC about the excellent lineup of summer concerts coming up, and that if Arcade Fire and The National were to come over here, things would be pretty much perfect.

Well, this morning one of the first things I noticed was an into email saying Arcade Fire are coming to Helsinki, in June. They are playing a gig in Senaatintori, of all places. All I can say at this point is… wow. And that at this rate, it’s only a matter of time before The National announce a Helsinki concert, too. :)

Arcade Fire has been the band I’ve most wanted to see live for ages now. With luck I’ll finally be able to.

Someone up there likes me. Unless it’s a cruel joke, and I’ll be unable to get tickets. In that case violence may ensue.

Minireview: Chicago (World of Darkness)

World of Darkness: Chicago is a huge setting/crossover book for the (new) World of Darkness. And I do mean huge… at 400+ pages, you could use this as a melee weapon. Fortunately, it’s both a good book and a (surprisingly) good read, so that page count isn’t a bad thing. Even though it’s titled as a general “World of Darkness” book, it’s really not. It’s a crossover book for Vampire, Werewolf and Mage; while a “normals” WoD campaign can get some mileage out of this, the bulk of the book is for the three main game lines.

After some initial chapters detailing the general history of Chicago, the book splits into three parts: unsurprisingly, Vampire, Werewolf & Mage. The Vampire section is easily the best, it’s a showcase of how to create an interesting (vampiric) political situation for a city without leaning much on stereotypes. The NPCs are interesting and the given political situation is full of options and dangers, without being too much of an instant powder keg. Too many vampire games start off with the good old “the old Price has just been deposed” trope. Well, here that has happened…. but it was some time ago, and the new Price is already entrenched, but not too entrenched. There are tons of PC options both for supporting the current regime and opposing it (and also lots of “don’t care” groups). This book is worth the cover price on the strength of the NPCs in the Vampire section alone, they are quite excellent.

The Werewolf section isn’t quite as strong, but does contain some very cool touches. I especially liked some of the Pure packs lurking in the suburbs, some quite creepy stuff going on there. Also, many of the totem spirits used here are interesting and not at all “nice” (I say that as a good thing). The fact that Chicago has a long and bloody history, both in human terms and in terms of the meat packing and slaughter industry, makes for lots of very nice spirit-world options.

Last and unfortunately also least is the Mage section. While not strictly bad, it’s nowhere are tight and interesting as the previous two chapters. There are some interesting NPCs here, but a lot of the main elements seemed quite off to me. Real names are supposed to be a big deal in this game… but here we have a major faction leader openly using his real name and also being the head of a big corporation. The bad guys, supposed to be shadowy puppeteers who may not even exist, suddenly have a headquarters in some highrise building, and the Pentacle mages actually seem to know who and where they are. It’s quite inconsistent with the game, as originally written. At times it shows quite badly that this book was written quite a while ago, back when Mage was still trying to figure itself out. I’ve been told Mage has improved over time, but here it’s a bit of a mess. Still, there are quite a few nice NPCs here who could be used in pretty much any game.

There is some interconnect between the three main parts of the book, but it’s a bit rough – the Mage section has a nightclub/pub which is portrayed as a major meeting point for supernaturals, but this isn’t mentioned in the Vampire or Werewolf parts. Still, the book does try to provide for crossover use, and succeeds to a point. Overall, it’s a very solid city sourcebook with coverage for the three main supernatural splats. Even if your campaign isn’t set in Chicago, there is lot here you could steal for many other WoD games.

Minireview: Secrets of Kenya (Call of Cthulhu)

The “Secrets of” series for Call of Cthulhu has been a fairly high-quality one (what little of it I’ve read), and this book proves to be no exception to that. Secrets of Kenya (written by David Conyers) provides a look at 1920’s colonial Kenya – a very nice change of pace from the usual U.S. locations. It also ties in nicely with Masks of Nyarlathotep, which has a Kenya episode which – while good – is lacking in detail in places and is mostly based on a fantasy version of Kenya and Nairobi. This book provides a more realistic and historically accurate description, should the Keeper want that. Well, as much “historically accurate” as a Cthulhu sourcebook can be, anyway.

I was also interested in this book since I’ve visited Kenya quite a few times, having spent my childhood in nearby Ethiopia. In fact, my sister currently lives in Nairobi with her family. As a result, Kenya isn’t quite as “exotic and foreign” to me as it would be for most people. It was fun reading about locations that I’ve visited; I actually learned a lot of new stuff from this book. Kenya has an interesting and turbulent history.

The first half of the book gives a historical overview of the country, including a focus on Nairobi (which was a much smaller and rougher place in the 1920s). It’s well-written and there are lots of fun anecdotes scattered here and there, along with various Mythos bits. It seems nicely integrated, the connections the author has made to the Mythos (expanding on some details from Masks) do not seem out of place. The book talks a bit about character creation options – while the default might be to use this book to flesh out Kenya for visiting foreign Investigators, there is also the possibility of having the PCs be locals (either white, brown or black). “White”, “brown” and “black” were actually the categories used back in the day, and racism was automatic and accepted – “blacks” simply didn’t go into many “white” places. “Browns” (Indians etc) has some more freedom, but were also seen as inferior to “whites”. To its credit, the book doesn’t try to ignore the racism, but makes it an important story and plot point.

The book also provides some more general “African” data for use in Cthulhu games: animals, languages, tribes, and a list of general African Mythos sites. The focus stays in Kenya, but you can get some small mileage out of this for other African Cthulhu games, too.

The second half of the book contains four scenarios. They are a mixed bunch… some very nice, some so-so, some utterly deadly, some actually quite survivable.

The first one, “Madness of the Ancestors”, has the PCs getting involved with an archeological dig site. Someone has uncovered new evidence about the possible origins of mankind, and the PCs join the expedition to investigate an accident on the dig site. It’s a pretty good scenario, though it does assume the PCs don’t do some quite obvious things (trying to avoid spoilers here). Some GM gymnastics and modifications probably needed on this one, in order to handle the normal PC groups. This thing is also seriously deadly; if things progress to “end game” the chances of anyone surviving are slim. Or actually, high… but not in a good way. Again, avoiding spoilers. It’s a decent adventure but needs some tweaking in my opinion.

The second one is “Cats of Lamu”, and it’s an interesting and unusual item. For one, it’s not very deadly at all, and the location is also… unusual, as is the possible resolution of the problem. I liked it, maybe because it’s so unusual for a Cthulhu adventure. It’s a smallish scenario and can be inserted in the middle of things (though it’s designed to be run in Lamu).

Third, we have “Savage Lands”, which is perhaps the strongest item of the bunch. A settler’s wife is murdered by a leopard, which has dragged his children off into the bush. The official write it off as a “normal” wildlife attack and declares the children dead, but the man insists that things are not as they seem and that his children may still be alive. Enter the PCs. It’s a fairly strong (and dangerous) scenario, with only a few problems that struck out to me – I got the impression that the leopard was supposed to have dragged the children over a vast distance, which doesn’t seem likely and something that the local authorities would accept as reasonable. Maybe I just misunderstood some of the time and distance scales involved, this may not be an actual problem in the scenario as written. In any case, easy enough to fix if needed.

Last, there is “Wooden Death”, which is a bit weird. A trading agent contacts the PCs, and wants them to investigate strange goings on in the northwest. It starts out nicely enough, but then takes a weird turn which I’m not sure is quite fitting with the tone. It’s not bad as such, just… weird. In any case, this is another very deadly scenario.

The author also provides a support page for the book, with some extra material. Nice touch.

All in all, this is a quality book. While the scenarios won’t all be to everyone’s taste, there is something there for most everyone, and the detail on Kenya seems well-researched and is written in a very entertaining manner. The layout and organization are excellent. Recommended for anyone thinking about running a Cthulhu game set on the Dark Continent.