Rating - 2: of use for some campaigns (but not most)
Dungeons and Dragons gaming book. It might be fairer to break this into two ratings. In terms of background, flavor text, and useful stories that you can insert ready-made into your campaign, this is definitely a 3. In terms of rules and game mechanics, this is a 1.
Weapons of legacy are items with a history that grow in power along with their users. With time and effort, characters can unlock the powers hidden within the magic items, which are far weaker shadows of their full glories in a less dedicated wielder's hands. You may be the hero who extends the legacy of the sword of the ages.
The quest for new and better loot is somewhat of an oddity of the RPG genre. The fantasy stories on which they are based rarely include characters trading in their equipment for new and better stuff every few weeks. Our great heroes tend to get a constant set of items and stick with them, and a change in your costume or main weapon is a significant turning point in the story. In RPGs, you are constantly shopping for a better sword, another magic talisman, a wand with more charges, etc.
So the idea here is fairly obvious: bring back the item that stays with you the whole time. The wizard's ring, the warrior's staff, and the healer's amulet become constants, items that need not be kept around solely for sentimental reasons. No one out-levels Excalibur.
Two-thirds of the book is a presentation of many legacy items, mostly weapons but including some others. Each is an example of how you could go about making these for the game, complete with the item's history, powers, and rituals to unlock its abilities. Another 10% is rules guidance for making your own, and the rest is using weapons of legacy in the game.
The histories are good. If an item needs a story, this is your place for one-stop shopping. The stories are the exact length that you want them to be, about a page, and segmented within that to a few smaller segments. This seems to be exactly enough to give an item's legend or history without bogging the game down in needless detail or including vast amounts of material that never gets used. You have probably seen GMs veer between those with novel-length campaign setting descriptions. You also get an adventure seed with each item, often with an NPC or advanced monster.
The mechanics, however, are problematic. This book may give you some interesting options in how you treat important items, but few players are going to want those options. The penalties for unlocking a weapon of legacy's powers are generally too steep to be worth it. Getting access to the stronger abilities requires undergoing rituals and paying penalties in terms of hit points, attack bonus, spells, etc.
No one likes the power spiral that demands that every new book have something a little better than the last book that came out. That just gets unhealthy. In this case, though, adopting a weapon of legacy seems to make your character weaker than just pursuing options from the core books. How much price are you willing to pay for flavor text, when you can always just apply the flavor text to whatever item you might find? If a magic sword needs a story, you can just give it one, without applying a new chart to the item.
The items are interesting, and maybe the penalties are not as bad as I fear in play. I have not tried using the book in play, but it hurts to get penalties to what your character needs and uses constantly. The barbarian's spear, for example, gives -3 to all attacks, -4 to Reflex saves, and -10 hit points. Not so bad, but a +5 weapon that gives -3 to hit takes away a bit of the reason to have it, not to mention applying that penalty to any other attacks. How about the rogue's armor that gives -2 to Reflex saves, -3 to all skill checks, -4 hit points, and -18 skill points? If I'm a rogue, I need those skills.
In terms of items that level along with characters, there are already several options out there. The most basic is in the Dungeon Master's Guide: pay to have another enchantment added. If that is too mercenary for your fantasy tale, say you are paying that amount in a ritual to unlock the powers already hidden within your ancient sword, maybe for oils to anoint it or powdered gems that will be absorbed into the thirsty blade. Get creative. We also have the Ancestral Relic feat, the Kensai prestige class, the Mindblade class with Mindarrow prestige class, and an article in Dragon #289 entitled "Leveled Treasures." Or you can just have it happen spontaneously or under the guise of the character's power developing; it is a good way to balance out wealth when you give too little treasure.
If I recall correctly, the original Dragonlance modules did that very thing. The items that stuck with characters, like Sturm's sword, increased in power between modules with no explanation or justification. Sturm is that cool now, let's call it a +3. Does that break your suspension of disbelief?
With all these options available, I cannot see many characters being excited about giving up pretty fundamental things like hit points and base attack bonus to get an item that is at best marginally better than generic loot. And if you cherry-pick just the right item or combination of abilities, we are back to that power spiral problem. Point blank: leveled treasures are not a new idea, and this new mechanic does not give us a better way to play it.
But I reiterate: if you want a lot of good, quick, ready-made stories to make an item special and have something for the bardic knowledge check, these fit the bill perfectly. If you need a two-minute story on why this magic sling is special, the work has already been done for you, and you have ways to extend that story if the players want more.
Amazon link
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Magic of Incarnum by James Wyatt, Frank Brunner, and Stephen Schubert
Rating - 3: useful for many campaigns
Another gaming book, again Dungeons and Dragons 3.5.
Incarnum is a new system of magic for Dungeons and Dragons, intended as an addition to not a replacement for the existing system. Incarnum is life energy, the soul-stuff of potential beings yet to be born (or borrowed from those who have been). Its manipulation opens new options for character development and thematics.
No one actually needs this book. It makes your job harder to incorporate it, just like it would to include psionics or any other system outside the core. That said, it is an interesting approach to magic, and it will fit well with some character concepts that do not follow the orthodox archetypes. Also, having more options can be fun.
In another way, this is of course silly. How many different systems of magic do we need? Across various books we have incarnum, psionics, truenames, pact magic, shadow magic, warlock invocations, and of course arcane and divine magic, which can be spontaneous or prepared form, from a variety of lists which vary by class, domain, specialization, and whether this class gets access to all or a learned subset. Then we have magic-like systems such as bardic music, hexblade curses, and... I am getting lost here. Given enough time, every variant system one can imagine will appear in a publication, along with variant systems for those variants. This makes one look forward to Fourth Edition, when things can be re-unified; at least most things hold to the Third Edition vision of reducing the number of sub-systems, since most of the variant magics follow existing structures. And hey, fighters can get in on the variant system action with the new Tome of Battle!
Am I showing my cynicism? Every book needs some number of new prestige classes, feats, spells, magic items, monsters, and so on. The last count showed over 600 prestige classes in official publications. This means you need to pick and choose a bit for your campaign, or else you will be overwhelmed by the number of slightly varying things you need to keep track of. That said, there is material here that could make the cut.
The mechanics are that incarnum is used to make "soulmelds." Soulmelds are like temporary magic items that can be reshaped every day; you pick from a menu. Each gives certain bonuses. You can vary those bonuses throughout the day by shifting a pool of "essentia," your personal quantity of incarnum. You can also bind a small number of soulmelds to your body's chakras to enhance them.
In terms of character options, you have access to all soulmelds, but you pick from that list at the beginning of the day (like preparing spells); throughout the day, you shift your bonuses between those soulmelds using essentia. Pick which bonuses you want at the start of the day, alter how strong they are as desired.
Incarnum would work interestingly as a replacement for the existing magic system for a low-magic campaign. The classic Tolkien story does not have a lot of teleportation and fireballs, so if that is your vision, this has that earthier feel. Play with the thematics of soul-stuff or just use the mechanics to tone down the spellslingers.
While I have not explored all the options that are available through the incarnum, it looks very flexible but limited. You have a lot of interesting options, but not overwhelming power. Being able to add +6 to pretty much whatever roll you like is nice, but many players will want to dip into incarnum rather than making it a focus. Strong buffs, weak blasts, but optimization may reverse that initial impression. Also, saving throws against incarnum effects are easy to beat because the difficulty is 10 + essentia invested + ability mod, but essentia investing is severely limited (4 at level 20, although some abilities allow this to rise); how hard is it to save against a 4th level spell at level 20?
Chapter by chapter:
We have four new races, not terribly exciting. We have incarnum-humans, incarnum-fey, and a pair of scaled- and spined-humans that are only linked to incarnum by their favored classes. These are a race shooting for bodily perfection and their offshoot race that gave that up in favor of fun.
We have three new base classes: Incarnate (incarnum-mage), Soulborn (incarnum-warrior), and Totemist (incarnum-druid). The incarnate gets wide soulmeld options but little else, with +1/2 BAB, 1d6 HD, and 2 skill points/level; those are harsh disadvantages for what is described as a melee class, but maybe the right balance of soulmelds make them good gish. Soulborns are your standard "fighter with magic abilities instead of feats" class, this time with soulmelds. Totemists are to incarnates as clerics are to wizards: similar but with differently focused magic, this time themed around magical beasts.
We have the required chapter of feats, along with racial substitution levels. The incarnum feats are like psionic feats, only you invest essentia instead of keeping or losing your psionic focus. They give each class a way to interact with incarnum, so we have the incarnum sneak attack feat, the incarnum rage feat, the incarnum spellcasting feat, the incarnum mindblade feat, etc. They also cover the various abilities like speed, saving throws, etc. Some of them are interesting, with the general idea of "here is how incarnum can help your class."
We have a chapter listing all the soulmelds, consuming about a quarter of the book. Incarnates get the longest list, soulborns get a subset of it, and totemists are pretty much on their own. Taking the first few, we have boots to increase Balance, Escape Artist, Jump, and Tumble checks (pump essentia to increase the bonus, chakra bind to reduce falling damage); shoulders to give you light fortification (pump essentia to DR 3/alignment, chakra bind to go to medium fortification); and sandals that let you walk on air (pump essentia to go faster, chakra bind to get perfect maneuverability). Others give you natural attacks, elemental resistance, or assorted combat bonuses.
We have a chapter of new spells, including new psionic powers, warlock invocations, and magic items. These are mostly about improving or protecting against incarnum abilities.
The ever-popular chapter of prestige classes follows, with both original and predictable options. The obvious are the arcane-incarnum mystic theurge, the divine-incarnum mystic theurge, the barbarian-totemist, and the incarnum necromancer. We also have a thematically interesting but rather underpowered meleer puts arcanum light into his weapon, a ray, or a damaging aura; his opposite, the incarnum shadow-warrior (monk/rogue) who gets to punch you at a range with his shadow; the incarnum swordsman (bind your sword to your chakras); the dwarf incarnum-forger, with interesting abilities to invest power into arms and armor he has made; the incarnum magehunter; and the requisite class for a new race, one focus on the spine-humans' spines.
A chapter on monsters, half of which are cited earlier as the four new races and creatures summoned or created by spells and soulmelds. The rest include the incarnum dragon, incarnum ooze, incarnum wraith, incarnum giant, and two incarnum golems. Am I hitting hard enough the extent to which we cover old ground from a new perspective, which I imagine every book with a new system does? For example, Frostburn includes the ice mage, ice barbarian, and so on. The souleater is an interesting variation on the devourer, and a few of the new monsters are templates to help you make your own incarnum-whatever, including the soulfused construct that gives you new options for the living construct subtype introduced with the warforged.
The last chapter is about incarnum campaigns, but it only covers ten pages so I hope you picked up enough ideas along the way. These are a few campaign arcs (such as introducing incarnum into your game), some incarnum locations, and an order of incarnum warriors. The prestige class entries also had help for incorporating these into your campaign. The brief flavor text section is all right when you remember that you can incorporate a new type of magic pretty cleanly without mucking with your world's history; it might be easier to muck with the background of incarnum to make its thematics fit your setting, rather than the other way around.
Finally, appendices, with epic level material, character sheets, and an essentia tracker.
One thing I did not see noted is that incarnum ties directly into the orthodox D&D world, since it was kind of in the module series that launched Third Edition. Without spoiling anything, you note that one of those modules is in Magic of Incarnum's list of sources; it could be interesting to retrofit the modules with this material.
Despite mocking the setup of every D&D book ("Do we have enough feats? Did we cross our new system with every character class? Ooh, can we also cross it with the new system from the last book?"), I think this is a good book. It has interesting ideas, and it explores them. The editing is also better than many D&D publications.
So as yourself three questions: (1) is this an interesting idea or set of thematics that I would like to incorporate into my campaign; (2) are the options offered mechanically interesting and something that will actually be used; and (3) has someone else in my group already bought this book?
Amazon link
[edit] Some power for the Incarnate, from the Character Optimization boards. So there are some fun things to do with them.
Another gaming book, again Dungeons and Dragons 3.5.
Incarnum is a new system of magic for Dungeons and Dragons, intended as an addition to not a replacement for the existing system. Incarnum is life energy, the soul-stuff of potential beings yet to be born (or borrowed from those who have been). Its manipulation opens new options for character development and thematics.
No one actually needs this book. It makes your job harder to incorporate it, just like it would to include psionics or any other system outside the core. That said, it is an interesting approach to magic, and it will fit well with some character concepts that do not follow the orthodox archetypes. Also, having more options can be fun.
In another way, this is of course silly. How many different systems of magic do we need? Across various books we have incarnum, psionics, truenames, pact magic, shadow magic, warlock invocations, and of course arcane and divine magic, which can be spontaneous or prepared form, from a variety of lists which vary by class, domain, specialization, and whether this class gets access to all or a learned subset. Then we have magic-like systems such as bardic music, hexblade curses, and... I am getting lost here. Given enough time, every variant system one can imagine will appear in a publication, along with variant systems for those variants. This makes one look forward to Fourth Edition, when things can be re-unified; at least most things hold to the Third Edition vision of reducing the number of sub-systems, since most of the variant magics follow existing structures. And hey, fighters can get in on the variant system action with the new Tome of Battle!
Am I showing my cynicism? Every book needs some number of new prestige classes, feats, spells, magic items, monsters, and so on. The last count showed over 600 prestige classes in official publications. This means you need to pick and choose a bit for your campaign, or else you will be overwhelmed by the number of slightly varying things you need to keep track of. That said, there is material here that could make the cut.
The mechanics are that incarnum is used to make "soulmelds." Soulmelds are like temporary magic items that can be reshaped every day; you pick from a menu. Each gives certain bonuses. You can vary those bonuses throughout the day by shifting a pool of "essentia," your personal quantity of incarnum. You can also bind a small number of soulmelds to your body's chakras to enhance them.
In terms of character options, you have access to all soulmelds, but you pick from that list at the beginning of the day (like preparing spells); throughout the day, you shift your bonuses between those soulmelds using essentia. Pick which bonuses you want at the start of the day, alter how strong they are as desired.
Incarnum would work interestingly as a replacement for the existing magic system for a low-magic campaign. The classic Tolkien story does not have a lot of teleportation and fireballs, so if that is your vision, this has that earthier feel. Play with the thematics of soul-stuff or just use the mechanics to tone down the spellslingers.
While I have not explored all the options that are available through the incarnum, it looks very flexible but limited. You have a lot of interesting options, but not overwhelming power. Being able to add +6 to pretty much whatever roll you like is nice, but many players will want to dip into incarnum rather than making it a focus. Strong buffs, weak blasts, but optimization may reverse that initial impression. Also, saving throws against incarnum effects are easy to beat because the difficulty is 10 + essentia invested + ability mod, but essentia investing is severely limited (4 at level 20, although some abilities allow this to rise); how hard is it to save against a 4th level spell at level 20?
Chapter by chapter:
We have four new races, not terribly exciting. We have incarnum-humans, incarnum-fey, and a pair of scaled- and spined-humans that are only linked to incarnum by their favored classes. These are a race shooting for bodily perfection and their offshoot race that gave that up in favor of fun.
We have three new base classes: Incarnate (incarnum-mage), Soulborn (incarnum-warrior), and Totemist (incarnum-druid). The incarnate gets wide soulmeld options but little else, with +1/2 BAB, 1d6 HD, and 2 skill points/level; those are harsh disadvantages for what is described as a melee class, but maybe the right balance of soulmelds make them good gish. Soulborns are your standard "fighter with magic abilities instead of feats" class, this time with soulmelds. Totemists are to incarnates as clerics are to wizards: similar but with differently focused magic, this time themed around magical beasts.
We have the required chapter of feats, along with racial substitution levels. The incarnum feats are like psionic feats, only you invest essentia instead of keeping or losing your psionic focus. They give each class a way to interact with incarnum, so we have the incarnum sneak attack feat, the incarnum rage feat, the incarnum spellcasting feat, the incarnum mindblade feat, etc. They also cover the various abilities like speed, saving throws, etc. Some of them are interesting, with the general idea of "here is how incarnum can help your class."
We have a chapter listing all the soulmelds, consuming about a quarter of the book. Incarnates get the longest list, soulborns get a subset of it, and totemists are pretty much on their own. Taking the first few, we have boots to increase Balance, Escape Artist, Jump, and Tumble checks (pump essentia to increase the bonus, chakra bind to reduce falling damage); shoulders to give you light fortification (pump essentia to DR 3/alignment, chakra bind to go to medium fortification); and sandals that let you walk on air (pump essentia to go faster, chakra bind to get perfect maneuverability). Others give you natural attacks, elemental resistance, or assorted combat bonuses.
We have a chapter of new spells, including new psionic powers, warlock invocations, and magic items. These are mostly about improving or protecting against incarnum abilities.
The ever-popular chapter of prestige classes follows, with both original and predictable options. The obvious are the arcane-incarnum mystic theurge, the divine-incarnum mystic theurge, the barbarian-totemist, and the incarnum necromancer. We also have a thematically interesting but rather underpowered meleer puts arcanum light into his weapon, a ray, or a damaging aura; his opposite, the incarnum shadow-warrior (monk/rogue) who gets to punch you at a range with his shadow; the incarnum swordsman (bind your sword to your chakras); the dwarf incarnum-forger, with interesting abilities to invest power into arms and armor he has made; the incarnum magehunter; and the requisite class for a new race, one focus on the spine-humans' spines.
A chapter on monsters, half of which are cited earlier as the four new races and creatures summoned or created by spells and soulmelds. The rest include the incarnum dragon, incarnum ooze, incarnum wraith, incarnum giant, and two incarnum golems. Am I hitting hard enough the extent to which we cover old ground from a new perspective, which I imagine every book with a new system does? For example, Frostburn includes the ice mage, ice barbarian, and so on. The souleater is an interesting variation on the devourer, and a few of the new monsters are templates to help you make your own incarnum-whatever, including the soulfused construct that gives you new options for the living construct subtype introduced with the warforged.
The last chapter is about incarnum campaigns, but it only covers ten pages so I hope you picked up enough ideas along the way. These are a few campaign arcs (such as introducing incarnum into your game), some incarnum locations, and an order of incarnum warriors. The prestige class entries also had help for incorporating these into your campaign. The brief flavor text section is all right when you remember that you can incorporate a new type of magic pretty cleanly without mucking with your world's history; it might be easier to muck with the background of incarnum to make its thematics fit your setting, rather than the other way around.
Finally, appendices, with epic level material, character sheets, and an essentia tracker.
One thing I did not see noted is that incarnum ties directly into the orthodox D&D world, since it was kind of in the module series that launched Third Edition. Without spoiling anything, you note that one of those modules is in Magic of Incarnum's list of sources; it could be interesting to retrofit the modules with this material.
Despite mocking the setup of every D&D book ("Do we have enough feats? Did we cross our new system with every character class? Ooh, can we also cross it with the new system from the last book?"), I think this is a good book. It has interesting ideas, and it explores them. The editing is also better than many D&D publications.
So as yourself three questions: (1) is this an interesting idea or set of thematics that I would like to incorporate into my campaign; (2) are the options offered mechanically interesting and something that will actually be used; and (3) has someone else in my group already bought this book?
Amazon link
[edit] Some power for the Incarnate, from the Character Optimization boards. So there are some fun things to do with them.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales
Rating - 4: worth reading multiple times (buy it)
Yes, this is how up-to-date I am on my comics reading. I now read everything in trade paperback and graphic novel form. The one monthly I still buy, I read six-to-eighteen month lumps, and I am behind, so the whole thing could have gone downhill in the last year or two. Maybe I can read Infinite Crisis in a month or two.
Identity Crisis is a murder mystery and more. Is it a spoiler to mention the victim, who dies almost at the beginning? Someone is targeting heroes' family members. The brief series explores the importance of secret identities and how far one will go to protect them, and we spend a lot of time on the human side of the heroes.
A big point is that Superman's greatest weakness is not kryptonite. It is Lois, and Ma and Pa Kent, and Jimmy Olson, and everyone else you could hurt other than him. You can outrun a beam of light or you can bounce bullets off your chest, but is there someone back home who it would kill you to lose?
We see a lot of B- and C-listers here. Many of the Silver Age heroes or villains get put to good use. There are many that casual readers will not know. This is fine; if you remembered Elongated Man (no, not Plastic Man) and his wife, bonus points for you. We are dealing with the people who are usually less important to the stories but very important to someone. How often have you thought about Robin's father, and how he worries about his son fighting alongside Batman? Ever wondered what happened to the Calculator and all those people who used to wear really stupid costumes back in the '70s? No, probably not at all, but this time we are exploring the people who live in this world of heroes and villains. They may not know that they are in the story as potential victims, but they do realize what it means to be 5% above average with Superman coming after you. Rough life.
The central plot element is a murder mystery, which serves as a driver for the story but spends a lot of time off-stage. Instead, the main item of interest relates to Dr. Light, one that I will not spoil in case you are new here. It has pushed the DC universe for the past two years, so you may have heard about it. What will you do to protect those you love? It re-casts quite a bit of the Silver Age in a darker light. (Obviously, not everyone likes that.)
There are some truly touching moments, but then I am a sap these days. Family, friends, loss, and all that. Another ending that gets to me. Also, Firestorm, whose scenes were done with surprising understatement, given the obvious spectacle.
I really enjoyed the use of a wide range of characters. When you can call in everyone you need, you get to see everyone briefly use his or her specialty. Even if you forget or never knew half the cast, you get the relevance. Also, leaving the B-list, if you have never seen Deathstroke, there is a fine treat waiting for you. Teen Titans does not do the man justice.
I cannot say that I like the art. It is not bad, it just is not great. I am just not thrilled with Rags Morales's art style, his selection of face models, the way the lines come together. He does make good use of faces and expressive body language.
What is really great is the art layout, which I am lead ot believe is mostly Brad Meltzer's design. What to keep in the frame, what to cut out, what to focus on: good choices were made. The most prominent ones are pointed out in the back, but you see a lot of excellent layout in the fight scenes and the ones in which the story is carried by close-ups on faces and eyes.
And conveniently, I need not care what effect this story has on DC continuity or anyone's memories of the Silver Age. I do care, but the important thing here is a good book, a good story, which is what we have. Besides, DC will keep resetting every now and again anyway, so you can assume this happened to some other Silver Age if you like.
Amazon link (paperback edition)
Update: This is a really great post about why the retconning in Identity Crisis is a horrible thing that destroys what Silver Age heroes were supposed to have been. Conveniently, I have no strong Silver Age memories to which I am attached, so I can enjoy the story independently; also, I think the latest DC universe reboot wiped out the Silver Age, or made it irrelevant, or the next one will. Your childhood memories were never safe.
Yes, this is how up-to-date I am on my comics reading. I now read everything in trade paperback and graphic novel form. The one monthly I still buy, I read six-to-eighteen month lumps, and I am behind, so the whole thing could have gone downhill in the last year or two. Maybe I can read Infinite Crisis in a month or two.
Identity Crisis is a murder mystery and more. Is it a spoiler to mention the victim, who dies almost at the beginning? Someone is targeting heroes' family members. The brief series explores the importance of secret identities and how far one will go to protect them, and we spend a lot of time on the human side of the heroes.
A big point is that Superman's greatest weakness is not kryptonite. It is Lois, and Ma and Pa Kent, and Jimmy Olson, and everyone else you could hurt other than him. You can outrun a beam of light or you can bounce bullets off your chest, but is there someone back home who it would kill you to lose?
We see a lot of B- and C-listers here. Many of the Silver Age heroes or villains get put to good use. There are many that casual readers will not know. This is fine; if you remembered Elongated Man (no, not Plastic Man) and his wife, bonus points for you. We are dealing with the people who are usually less important to the stories but very important to someone. How often have you thought about Robin's father, and how he worries about his son fighting alongside Batman? Ever wondered what happened to the Calculator and all those people who used to wear really stupid costumes back in the '70s? No, probably not at all, but this time we are exploring the people who live in this world of heroes and villains. They may not know that they are in the story as potential victims, but they do realize what it means to be 5% above average with Superman coming after you. Rough life.
The central plot element is a murder mystery, which serves as a driver for the story but spends a lot of time off-stage. Instead, the main item of interest relates to Dr. Light, one that I will not spoil in case you are new here. It has pushed the DC universe for the past two years, so you may have heard about it. What will you do to protect those you love? It re-casts quite a bit of the Silver Age in a darker light. (Obviously, not everyone likes that.)
There are some truly touching moments, but then I am a sap these days. Family, friends, loss, and all that. Another ending that gets to me. Also, Firestorm, whose scenes were done with surprising understatement, given the obvious spectacle.
I really enjoyed the use of a wide range of characters. When you can call in everyone you need, you get to see everyone briefly use his or her specialty. Even if you forget or never knew half the cast, you get the relevance. Also, leaving the B-list, if you have never seen Deathstroke, there is a fine treat waiting for you. Teen Titans does not do the man justice.
I cannot say that I like the art. It is not bad, it just is not great. I am just not thrilled with Rags Morales's art style, his selection of face models, the way the lines come together. He does make good use of faces and expressive body language.
What is really great is the art layout, which I am lead ot believe is mostly Brad Meltzer's design. What to keep in the frame, what to cut out, what to focus on: good choices were made. The most prominent ones are pointed out in the back, but you see a lot of excellent layout in the fight scenes and the ones in which the story is carried by close-ups on faces and eyes.
And conveniently, I need not care what effect this story has on DC continuity or anyone's memories of the Silver Age. I do care, but the important thing here is a good book, a good story, which is what we have. Besides, DC will keep resetting every now and again anyway, so you can assume this happened to some other Silver Age if you like.
Amazon link (paperback edition)
Update: This is a really great post about why the retconning in Identity Crisis is a horrible thing that destroys what Silver Age heroes were supposed to have been. Conveniently, I have no strong Silver Age memories to which I am attached, so I can enjoy the story independently; also, I think the latest DC universe reboot wiped out the Silver Age, or made it irrelevant, or the next one will. Your childhood memories were never safe.
Friday, August 11, 2006
The Strictest School in the World by Howard Whitehouse
Rating - 4: worth reading multiple times (buy it)
This is a ripping good yarn, a phrase I have not used un-ironically in my entire life. It is fun, something you can zip through without being a bit of fluff.
The subtitle gives you most of the summary: "Being the Tale of a Clever Girl, a Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines, Mostly Broken." Emmaline is a fledgling teenage aeronautic engineer at the end of the Victorian age. Rubberbones is her pilot, since he seems to be immune to damage. Their attempts to fly are cut short by her being sent to boarding school at, well, see the title. We also have gypsies, a mad inventor, a feral princess, someone who cooks with earwigs, violent sports, and "the birds."
The story includes a lot of fun. Where logic, physics, or biology get in the way, they are merrily and even explicitly thrown overboard. We are playing here.
The story flows wonderfully. Do not read this over a meal, because you will find yourself with cold food and 40 pages gone before you think to pause. Or maybe you are the sort who would unwittingly eat an entire bag of chips while reading; the point is that the tale is immersive, bringing you in and letting you ride along with it. We are on a ride here.
The characters are flat and static. Conveniently, that is not a problem in the slightest for the story. It is not the kind of story where we grow and become better people. This is kids and friendly grownups versus mean kids and oppressive grownups. And it is done well.
It does right the things for which I criticized The Mysterious Benedict Society. Character differences remain relevant, and each character is demonstrably him/herself when s/he is "onstage." Even Stanley (think Little Brother from Mulan) gets to act out his simple nature. There is not too much to each character, but they play the heck out of it.
The story is pretty straightforward: problem, resources, complications, overcome. Instead of saving the princess from the tower, though, we are helping the princess get what she needs to save herself. Positive, easy to follow, and since the main story is simple, it cannot get lost when we start throwing in fireworks and other decorative flourishes.
Yes, this gets a 4 while serious literature will frequently get a 3 or a 2. In your life, are you going to watch Citizen Kane more or fewer times than Spiderman? This book does not ask much from you but gives a good amount back. Low time investment for a good time; that merits a repeat performance, which is our definition of a 4.
If I were that sort, I might go so far as to use phrases like "timeless classic" and "something you will be proud to give to your grandchildren." Like most good writing targeted at a young audience, it can be enjoyed by young and old.
It's just a good, fun story. It succeeds at being entertaining where others fail at trying to be important. What more can I ask of a book than to do well everything it tries to do?
Amazon link
This is a ripping good yarn, a phrase I have not used un-ironically in my entire life. It is fun, something you can zip through without being a bit of fluff.
The subtitle gives you most of the summary: "Being the Tale of a Clever Girl, a Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines, Mostly Broken." Emmaline is a fledgling teenage aeronautic engineer at the end of the Victorian age. Rubberbones is her pilot, since he seems to be immune to damage. Their attempts to fly are cut short by her being sent to boarding school at, well, see the title. We also have gypsies, a mad inventor, a feral princess, someone who cooks with earwigs, violent sports, and "the birds."
The story includes a lot of fun. Where logic, physics, or biology get in the way, they are merrily and even explicitly thrown overboard. We are playing here.
The story flows wonderfully. Do not read this over a meal, because you will find yourself with cold food and 40 pages gone before you think to pause. Or maybe you are the sort who would unwittingly eat an entire bag of chips while reading; the point is that the tale is immersive, bringing you in and letting you ride along with it. We are on a ride here.
The characters are flat and static. Conveniently, that is not a problem in the slightest for the story. It is not the kind of story where we grow and become better people. This is kids and friendly grownups versus mean kids and oppressive grownups. And it is done well.
It does right the things for which I criticized The Mysterious Benedict Society. Character differences remain relevant, and each character is demonstrably him/herself when s/he is "onstage." Even Stanley (think Little Brother from Mulan) gets to act out his simple nature. There is not too much to each character, but they play the heck out of it.
The story is pretty straightforward: problem, resources, complications, overcome. Instead of saving the princess from the tower, though, we are helping the princess get what she needs to save herself. Positive, easy to follow, and since the main story is simple, it cannot get lost when we start throwing in fireworks and other decorative flourishes.
Yes, this gets a 4 while serious literature will frequently get a 3 or a 2. In your life, are you going to watch Citizen Kane more or fewer times than Spiderman? This book does not ask much from you but gives a good amount back. Low time investment for a good time; that merits a repeat performance, which is our definition of a 4.
If I were that sort, I might go so far as to use phrases like "timeless classic" and "something you will be proud to give to your grandchildren." Like most good writing targeted at a young audience, it can be enjoyed by young and old.
It's just a good, fun story. It succeeds at being entertaining where others fail at trying to be important. What more can I ask of a book than to do well everything it tries to do?
Amazon link
Thursday, August 10, 2006
In the Land of the Lawn Weenies by David Lubar
Rating - 3: worth reading once (borrow it from a library)*
This is another one that gets the starred rating: if you are interested in this sort of thing, it is a 4 that will be read several times; if not, a 2. For what it is, it is very good.
This is a collection of spooky stories for kids. They are short and clever, connected to standard horror fare but original. At some point, you will see monsters, giants, werewolves, vampires, rats, bugs, cannibals, severed body parts, and lawn weenies. As a recent collection, we also have stories revolving around cell phones, video games, and skeeball. What, skeeball is not still cutting-edge eXtreme fun?
The stories are tastefully done, with humor and some absurdity. This is not a slasher flick with blood everywhere. Spooky, creepy, chilling -- these are not bedtime stories for your five-year-old, but they are nothing a ten-year-old should have a problem with.
Who knows, maybe a story or two from this little collection will be passed down through the ages, literature more timeless than the Brothers Grimm. More importantly, this is a fine book if you are a child of about ten years or want to buy a book for one.
Amazon link
This is another one that gets the starred rating: if you are interested in this sort of thing, it is a 4 that will be read several times; if not, a 2. For what it is, it is very good.
This is a collection of spooky stories for kids. They are short and clever, connected to standard horror fare but original. At some point, you will see monsters, giants, werewolves, vampires, rats, bugs, cannibals, severed body parts, and lawn weenies. As a recent collection, we also have stories revolving around cell phones, video games, and skeeball. What, skeeball is not still cutting-edge eXtreme fun?
The stories are tastefully done, with humor and some absurdity. This is not a slasher flick with blood everywhere. Spooky, creepy, chilling -- these are not bedtime stories for your five-year-old, but they are nothing a ten-year-old should have a problem with.
Who knows, maybe a story or two from this little collection will be passed down through the ages, literature more timeless than the Brothers Grimm. More importantly, this is a fine book if you are a child of about ten years or want to buy a book for one.
Amazon link
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu
Rating - 2: not worth reading (skip it)
Superman and Batman are big elements of our modern American mythology. They are part of our shared culture, and we retell and recast their updates frequently. While the Marvel storylines are frequently more coherent and far less susceptible to the reset button (three times in DC so far?), the DC characters are our icons. They keep returning, and we keep adjusting them to make them more relevant to today.
This is the origin of Superman, updated so that Superman is just getting is start in the present day. If you know English well enough to read this, you should probably have at least a sketch of that story in your memory somewhere, so I will skip the summary. Oh heck: last son of dying planet, sent to Earth to survive, adopted by good honest farm folk, becomes a hero in the big city, fights the dastardly Lex Luthor.
So why is this not worth reading? Mark Waid is very respectful of the existing Superman history, being careful not to muck with it; this is not Ultimate Superman. Because of this, nothing especially new or interesting is brought to the table. It is a different perspective on the story, an update to the present day, but it is a retread. As I said, we all know the Superman story, so if you do not add something really new, you must have the best version of it ever to be worth reading. I do not know who wrote the best Superman story ever, but this does not feel like it.
Damned it you do, damned if you don't, eh? If you take great liberties with the continuity, you get torn up on the internet for that. If you don't, you get this review. At least he is not Jon Peters, despite the giant mechanical spider. So let's talk about what is new and interesting.
New: update to the present day, so Superman was born around 1980. He did a fine job with that, even if it largely means using e-mail and having references to the Daily Planet web site. Good incorporation of the modern news cycle into the narrative.
Big change: the Superman S as tribal colors. We open with two issues in Africa, with the notion of showing pride in your heritage without being tribalistic. This interestingly comes as a recent theme is to make Superman a citizen of the world, with Justice League being international and abandoning the American Way (I know, wrong order of events). This being Superman, we will assume that he can show pride in his people without being inappropriately clannish, since he means the best. That elements fades from the story pretty quickly, however, giving way to using the shield against him. The author's comments in the back on this subject are interesting.
Big change: Lex Luthor revised. Lex had more revisions than Superman, and hey you have that freedom with the villain. There is good and bad here. The origin story was excellent. Teenage Lex is interesting and compelling, with a look bordering on Mephistopheles. His interaction with Clark and his classmates works, spot-on. Adult Lex is poor. His motivation as an adult is shaky, and it fits poorly with his teenage character; the scattered forms of megalomania are inconsistent, and hypergenius astrobiologist meshes poorly with corrupt businessman here. Motivation is key to making a good villain; as Clay would ask, "what is the why?" The character has been done better. By the bye, how did the man think he was going to contain leaks on those schemes? He is too smart have an entire army be involved in secret plans.
With every Superman story ever written available simultaneously, you can find a better one.
The art is good. There are more lines than I usually like, but it is not unusually busy. Good looks for Jimmy Olsen and the iconic Superman moments. Again, adult Lex fails, looking alternately like a goblin or a teenager, but teen Lex is great.
Excellent moment: that last scene. I may be a sap, but I was touched.
Amazon link
Superman and Batman are big elements of our modern American mythology. They are part of our shared culture, and we retell and recast their updates frequently. While the Marvel storylines are frequently more coherent and far less susceptible to the reset button (three times in DC so far?), the DC characters are our icons. They keep returning, and we keep adjusting them to make them more relevant to today.
This is the origin of Superman, updated so that Superman is just getting is start in the present day. If you know English well enough to read this, you should probably have at least a sketch of that story in your memory somewhere, so I will skip the summary. Oh heck: last son of dying planet, sent to Earth to survive, adopted by good honest farm folk, becomes a hero in the big city, fights the dastardly Lex Luthor.
So why is this not worth reading? Mark Waid is very respectful of the existing Superman history, being careful not to muck with it; this is not Ultimate Superman. Because of this, nothing especially new or interesting is brought to the table. It is a different perspective on the story, an update to the present day, but it is a retread. As I said, we all know the Superman story, so if you do not add something really new, you must have the best version of it ever to be worth reading. I do not know who wrote the best Superman story ever, but this does not feel like it.
Damned it you do, damned if you don't, eh? If you take great liberties with the continuity, you get torn up on the internet for that. If you don't, you get this review. At least he is not Jon Peters, despite the giant mechanical spider. So let's talk about what is new and interesting.
New: update to the present day, so Superman was born around 1980. He did a fine job with that, even if it largely means using e-mail and having references to the Daily Planet web site. Good incorporation of the modern news cycle into the narrative.
Big change: the Superman S as tribal colors. We open with two issues in Africa, with the notion of showing pride in your heritage without being tribalistic. This interestingly comes as a recent theme is to make Superman a citizen of the world, with Justice League being international and abandoning the American Way (I know, wrong order of events). This being Superman, we will assume that he can show pride in his people without being inappropriately clannish, since he means the best. That elements fades from the story pretty quickly, however, giving way to using the shield against him. The author's comments in the back on this subject are interesting.
Big change: Lex Luthor revised. Lex had more revisions than Superman, and hey you have that freedom with the villain. There is good and bad here. The origin story was excellent. Teenage Lex is interesting and compelling, with a look bordering on Mephistopheles. His interaction with Clark and his classmates works, spot-on. Adult Lex is poor. His motivation as an adult is shaky, and it fits poorly with his teenage character; the scattered forms of megalomania are inconsistent, and hypergenius astrobiologist meshes poorly with corrupt businessman here. Motivation is key to making a good villain; as Clay would ask, "what is the why?" The character has been done better. By the bye, how did the man think he was going to contain leaks on those schemes? He is too smart have an entire army be involved in secret plans.
With every Superman story ever written available simultaneously, you can find a better one.
The art is good. There are more lines than I usually like, but it is not unusually busy. Good looks for Jimmy Olsen and the iconic Superman moments. Again, adult Lex fails, looking alternately like a goblin or a teenager, but teen Lex is great.
Excellent moment: that last scene. I may be a sap, but I was touched.
Amazon link
Sunday, August 06, 2006
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones
Rating - 3: worth reading once (borrow it from a library)*
This rating gets the note that, if you are a big fantasy reader, this is probably a four, but if you only know that Orlando Bloom was that hot elf guy, this is a two. Satire does not work if you do not know what is being satirized.
This is the Devil's Dictionary for fantasy novels. We review the conventions and clichés of the genre, from the omnipresent reek of wrongness to the mysterious absence of foods other than stew. These are the assorted things that will confront you on your adventures (inevitably three of them) to battle the Dark Lord.
This is a review of the forthcoming updated edition. I have not read the original, nor any books actually set in Fantasyland. Of course, most fantasy novels are in the same world, plus or minus how magic works in this novel. It reminds me most of The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Clichés (posted variously under a few names).
If you know the genre at all, you are familiar with the standards, such as the color-coding that tells you who is good and evil. The teenage boy who joins your ragtag group of heroes is probably heir to a throne, secretly a girl, the most powerful source of magic on the planet, or all of the above. Barbarians live in the arctic north but wear surprisingly little clothing. And so on.
In some ways, this is like a distilled Discworld, without the plot mixed in. Reality in Fantasyland is inherently silly, if you take a step back and think about it.
Amazon link
Expected publication: October 2006
This rating gets the note that, if you are a big fantasy reader, this is probably a four, but if you only know that Orlando Bloom was that hot elf guy, this is a two. Satire does not work if you do not know what is being satirized.
This is the Devil's Dictionary for fantasy novels. We review the conventions and clichés of the genre, from the omnipresent reek of wrongness to the mysterious absence of foods other than stew. These are the assorted things that will confront you on your adventures (inevitably three of them) to battle the Dark Lord.
This is a review of the forthcoming updated edition. I have not read the original, nor any books actually set in Fantasyland. Of course, most fantasy novels are in the same world, plus or minus how magic works in this novel. It reminds me most of The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Clichés (posted variously under a few names).
If you know the genre at all, you are familiar with the standards, such as the color-coding that tells you who is good and evil. The teenage boy who joins your ragtag group of heroes is probably heir to a throne, secretly a girl, the most powerful source of magic on the planet, or all of the above. Barbarians live in the arctic north but wear surprisingly little clothing. And so on.
In some ways, this is like a distilled Discworld, without the plot mixed in. Reality in Fantasyland is inherently silly, if you take a step back and think about it.
Amazon link
Expected publication: October 2006
Friday, August 04, 2006
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
Rating - 2: not worth reading (skip it)
I hate to recommend against someone's first book, especially when it shows promise, but we must be faithful to the ratings. Every new author is competing against every book ever written, under the question, "Is this good enough to spend part of my scarce time alive reading?"
Four gifted children undertake a series of mysterious tests, bringing them to an even more mysterious challenge at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened. An evil mastermind is out to control the world, and only a team of dedicated and intelligent children can stop him. Really, we have a justification for it, this is not an arbitrary "teens must save the world because no one will listen to them" story.
The first 101 pages are very good. This is when we meet all the characters and explore their oddities a bit. Everyone except Rhonda is given a personality and a quirk, which is a standard setup that is done well. Given the same situation, here is how each of our four children approach it differently.
This is a device that could become tedious, but instead it becomes mostly irrelevant. I feared that it would turn into The Five Chinese Brothers, where we could cycle the characters through like Pokémon as their powers were needed. Veering towards the opposite problem, the differences were mostly decorative, although significant at times. The story is not character-driven; they are carried along by the external plot, and characters' differences create different ways of reacting to it without actually affecting things. Perhaps the tendency to follow Reynie constricts our perception of the differing characters.
So our time at the Institute is weak, and that constitutes most of the book. Time seems to dilate oddly; things drag while times sees to fly by quickly. This could be a fair analogy for being in school. The characters are carried along by events and exposition at the Institute, so they do not get to shine much. We do start getting more involved in the characters as the climax approaches, but it is overwhelmingly negative pathos, and again Reynie-centered.
The climax is good. We return to its being important that the characters have different skills and worldviews. The characters drive the events. The use of characters and the final confrontation are excellent.
The denouement is a bit convenient. It is like a Shakespeare comedy, where everyone gets married at the end. Here, everyone gets a separate happy ending (of the same structure), which can drag a bit even when it is short. I think of Holes as a good example of how to do that ending well (with the movie showing where you cross that line). Also, I see a tendency towards those supervillain monologues as the book wears on, long on "here is how it all came together!"
Crafting of characters is good -- simple but compelling. What needs work is keeping that relevant to the story (without veering to the opposite extreme). Harry Potter provides a good example of that, but then everyone is trying to write the next Harry Potter anyway. Still, the stories present good examples where the primary action is driven by the evil mastermind's plans but character differences are relevant, even essential to the storyline.
I might have gone for a 2.5 rating, since those first four or five chapters are very good, but they do not stand on their own as a separate unit. If the rest of the book lived up to the standards of the setup, it would definitely be a 4.
Excellent moments: the granola bar line in chapter five, which is a cute moment showing character quirks and interaction; "Rote memorization of lessons was discouraged but required; class participation was encouraged but rarely permitted" (quote may vary in final edition); and when the Curtain rises during the climax (avoiding any spoilage on a very well-written scene, reminiscent of the doors opening on Kong).
Amazon link
Expected publication: March 2007
I hate to recommend against someone's first book, especially when it shows promise, but we must be faithful to the ratings. Every new author is competing against every book ever written, under the question, "Is this good enough to spend part of my scarce time alive reading?"
Four gifted children undertake a series of mysterious tests, bringing them to an even more mysterious challenge at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened. An evil mastermind is out to control the world, and only a team of dedicated and intelligent children can stop him. Really, we have a justification for it, this is not an arbitrary "teens must save the world because no one will listen to them" story.
The first 101 pages are very good. This is when we meet all the characters and explore their oddities a bit. Everyone except Rhonda is given a personality and a quirk, which is a standard setup that is done well. Given the same situation, here is how each of our four children approach it differently.
This is a device that could become tedious, but instead it becomes mostly irrelevant. I feared that it would turn into The Five Chinese Brothers, where we could cycle the characters through like Pokémon as their powers were needed. Veering towards the opposite problem, the differences were mostly decorative, although significant at times. The story is not character-driven; they are carried along by the external plot, and characters' differences create different ways of reacting to it without actually affecting things. Perhaps the tendency to follow Reynie constricts our perception of the differing characters.
So our time at the Institute is weak, and that constitutes most of the book. Time seems to dilate oddly; things drag while times sees to fly by quickly. This could be a fair analogy for being in school. The characters are carried along by events and exposition at the Institute, so they do not get to shine much. We do start getting more involved in the characters as the climax approaches, but it is overwhelmingly negative pathos, and again Reynie-centered.
The climax is good. We return to its being important that the characters have different skills and worldviews. The characters drive the events. The use of characters and the final confrontation are excellent.
The denouement is a bit convenient. It is like a Shakespeare comedy, where everyone gets married at the end. Here, everyone gets a separate happy ending (of the same structure), which can drag a bit even when it is short. I think of Holes as a good example of how to do that ending well (with the movie showing where you cross that line). Also, I see a tendency towards those supervillain monologues as the book wears on, long on "here is how it all came together!"
Crafting of characters is good -- simple but compelling. What needs work is keeping that relevant to the story (without veering to the opposite extreme). Harry Potter provides a good example of that, but then everyone is trying to write the next Harry Potter anyway. Still, the stories present good examples where the primary action is driven by the evil mastermind's plans but character differences are relevant, even essential to the storyline.
I might have gone for a 2.5 rating, since those first four or five chapters are very good, but they do not stand on their own as a separate unit. If the rest of the book lived up to the standards of the setup, it would definitely be a 4.
Excellent moments: the granola bar line in chapter five, which is a cute moment showing character quirks and interaction; "Rote memorization of lessons was discouraged but required; class participation was encouraged but rarely permitted" (quote may vary in final edition); and when the Curtain rises during the climax (avoiding any spoilage on a very well-written scene, reminiscent of the doors opening on Kong).
Amazon link
Expected publication: March 2007
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