 The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson I discovered Brandon Sanderson’s work in 2009, and not in the usual way (by reading his postmortem completion of Robert Jordan’s monstrosity). In Elantris, a standalone novel, I found his creativity within the realms of fantasy to be amazing. In his Mistborn: The Final Empire trilogy he proved he could sustain such creativity over an impressive number of pages. Besides his apparently bottomless supply of innovative magical systems, most fascinating to me was the way he completed an entire story in the eponymous first book of the Mistborn trilogy, only to have the entire novel be a kind of subtle critique of storytelling in general. At the end of book one the hero has triumphed, the evil emperor is cast down, and we all realize that the emperor wasn’t that evil and that killing him has just screwed the world big-time. It’s like the Rebel Alliance finally managed to kick Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine’s asses only to discover that hey, maybe they weren’t doing such a bad job of ruling the universe after all. Oops. Anyhow, I was in Bellevue the other day keeping myself occupied during a snow storm while my lovely wife practiced for an upcoming concert. Wandering the shelves at Barnes & Nobel, I chanced upon the New Fiction shelf and found to my delight that Brandon Sanderson had a new novel out, and that it was set in the world of Mistborn. After choking up an entirely too-large wad of cash (seriously B&N, I like your stores, and you served me well that day, but neither of those things is worth what has essentially become a 50% markup over the now-normal price for a book), I set-to reading the cover materials. It seems that even when returning to one of his already established worlds, Sanderson can’t help getting creativity all over everything. The Alloy of Law indeed takes place in the world of Mistborn, in the very same city in fact, but 300 years have passed since the world-altering events that ended the original trilogy. Some of the magic of that original world remains, but some has been lost. And time marches on, of course, so that what was once a creative re-take on standard sword-and-sorcery fantasy has become a unique mash-up of western and steam-punk settings. It’s not tongue-in-cheek Victoriana by any stretch, and the setting works in support of and service to the story as it should. Still, I like me some railroads and gaslamps and was thrilled to see Sanderson treat the genre to his particular madness. The novel ends satisfactorily, but leaves plenty of room for more in the same vein. Here’s hoping Sanderson taps that vein again soon. View all my reviews
I've been out of town for my past two birthdays (Colorado for 35, Belize for 36), so this year Jieun has been bugging me to do something special. Of course, in her mind "something special" means a fancy (and expensive) dinner. I don't think what I've come up with here is what she was imagining, but hey, it's my birthday! So I started to plan something fun, and since my Birthday is the day after the MLKJr. holiday, I decided to make it a whole day with Jieun and our four closest friends in the area. One of the most significant things to happen to me this past year is my commissioning as an Army Reserve Chaplain, so I set out to compose a vaguely military invitation to the day. I began by listing the addresses and times of the places I'd made reservations, but before long a theme developed and things had gotten totally out of hand. I've read this three times now and it still makes me laugh (self-entertaining is one of my finer points), so I've decided to share it with you. Thus: http://bit.ly/wfiNW6
I have previously maintained a kosher-esque separation between this website, which is mostly writing oriented, and my other odd hobbies. No longer. I'm a gamer-nerd, and I'm proud of it!
Soapy-clean little models
A new game I've been wanting to get into is called Dystopian Wars, by Spartan Games out of the UK. It's a 2mm scale game, meaning the models are all vehicles and not individuals. The game is set in an alternate history and has a definite steampunk flair going on. After the week-long game-fest this past June when I went to Colorado to visit my brother Isaac, I bought the starter sets for two different factions of the game. Last weekend it started raining and I decided to bust one out and get painting. The models are resin, which I've not worked with before, but I hear you're supposed to clean them really well so that the chemicals used in the molding process don't later react with the paint. The photo above is a fleet of models drying after their dip in soapy water.
FSA Battleship and Cruisers
In the world of Dystopian Wars, these models represent The Federated States of America. The background of the world is fascinating, covering the second half of the 19th century and postulating a hidden cache of alien/ancient technology that is discovered under the antarctic ice, spreading over the world and leading to global conflict as different nations struggle to incorporate newly powerful weapons and the vehicles that deploy them.
The game incorporates land, sea, and air units, a variation unique in my experience and one I'm excited to try out.
Bombers on megneto stands
The above picture is of the two bombers included with the FSA starter kit, which I'm trying to mount on magnets to their stands, making storage easier. I'll have to report back on how that works, since I'm waiting for the glue to dry before testing them out.
FSA Frigates, with basecoat paint
Here are three Frigates with a trial run of paint. I'll do a coat of stain/poly for shading once I've got the whole lot of them done. I've never painted at this size before and am not quite sure how much of the microscopic detail to try and hit. I've just used three colors on these guys and am hoping the stain will make them look epic, at least from a few feet away.
Areoplanes, which are more steampunky than Airplanes
As of this posting, I am still working on the SIXTEEN bases of areoplanes included in the set. I hope these guys are useful in game, because they are annoying to paint in this quantity.
That's all the modeling/gaming news for now. Stay tuned for more, unless you now think I'm crazy (hint: you're right).
I've been on a board game kick this past week and thought I'd share. Last Thursday I rode over Chinook Pass on Hwy410 and down through the Yakima Valley to Tri-Cities, where lives my childhood friend, Brian. I love these visits in part because they are excellent motorcycle rides, and in part because my time there consists entirely of B.S.ing and playing games: a great short-term getaway.With a play time of three to four hours, Runebound is not a game lightly begun. We managed to cram three plays into less than forty-eight hours, and I enjoyed every minute of them. You can check out Runebound on Board Game Geek, and if you like board games and have not heard of the Geek then OH MY GOD YOU ARE WELCOME!In short, it's a DnD/Tolkeinesque style adventure game in which you are represented by a little plastic dude (or dudette) who runs around a map slaying monsters, visiting towns, and generally getting all medieval on the place. The basic game is fun for several plays, and there are any number of expansions, from full boxes to smaller packs of cards that add monsters, allies, and items. If you like these kinds of things (swords and sorcery, also Dragons) I highly recommend Runebound. If you're close enough to my physical location, let me know if you'd like to try.
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