Random Babblings

Last year was a good year for movies.  Lisa and I went to the theaters 35 times for 32 movies.  AMC would be glad to know that every one of those was at their theaters.  Next to board games, movies are probably our biggest “hobby” though I’m sure we spent more on the movies this year.

We rounded the year out quite well with movies.  The first movie of the year was on New Years day, and the last was December 30th.

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His Majesty’s Dragon is the first adventure in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. It’s probably the last one in the series I’ll read for for a while. This was a quick read, coming in at only 342 pages, and was engaging enough in of itself, but there were a few things that make me shy away.

The first is perhaps a great failing of the genre it is in. This is an alternative history novel. Set in the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s the main characters are members of Aerial Corps who fly Dragons. Dragons however are not a new introduction to this world. There are references in the novel going back to the times of the Crusades. The problem is, despite 600 years of human interaction with intelligent dragons we’re exactly where we would be without them. Napoleon has seized the throne of France and has waged is war against Britain and most of the rest of Europe. A key off stage event is even the Battle of Trafalgar, though Admiral Nelson does manage to survive this one. Too much is status quo, as if except for the existence of dragons, the divergence doesn’t start until the first page of the book. Now yes if you subscribe to the Multiverse theory, which would make this world possible in the first place, the possibility does exist for a world exactly like ours with dragons that haven’t influenced anything. But to me some universes are more likely than others.

My second problem with the book seems small, but to me is indicative of lack of thought. In the climatic battle at the end of the novel a French dragon has been attacked by a British acid spitter. The acid is all over the head of the dragon, and he is in great pain. The acid is eating into him and it is only a matter of time before it eats through to his brain. The crew abandons “ship” to nearby dragons. The captain, in an act of mercy, shoots the dragon in the head to save it a slow death, but now plummets down to the ocean with his beast.

As yes, a good captain goes down with his ship, and by showing his dragon mercy he denied himself the option of jumping to another dragon. Bullshit. I don’t doubt that people are incapable of mercy or sacrifice, and the relationships that exist between the dragons and their captains in this book are capable of making that sacrifice realistic. The problem I have is while the mercy was warranted, the sacrifice was completely unnecessary. The man should have been wearing a parachute, but then nobody is.

The book is set in 1805, and the invention of the parachute is credited at 1793 even though sketches and rough prototypes go back hundreds of years. While the invention of the backpack style parachute does not occur until 1913, Novik already shows dragon related acceleration of technology in the form of the carabiner which was not invented until 1915. The men and women of the Aerial Corps are regarded as a valuable resource, one would think that more effort would be put into protecting them from mishap.

In all not a horrid novel, but enough problems to keep me from continuing to read the series. Rating: 2.5/5

Well, it’s that time of year again.  The bags are mostly packed, the weekend is clear, and we’re headed to Williamsburg for the weekend.  I’ve attended most of the MarsCons since about 1992, and Lisa started joining me in about 1997.  This has transition from a gaming convention for us into more of a social gathering, seeing people we only see once or twice a year.  It’s a relaxing weekend, but sometimes that’s exactly what you need.

Our monthly game day was the 5th, and a full day of games it was. I haven’t really mentioned it here before though. Lisa and I belong to the Tidewater Strategy Group. As a group we get together one a month for a full day of board games, and the rest of the moth random people get together at peoples houses or the local game stores. There’s 30+ people in the group and between members and guests there’s usually 25-30 people at a game day. But on to the games…

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Yes I’m still alive, just life gets away sometimes.

Been playing a lot of Guitar Hero. Finished Hinterland (4/5) and am on to the next Honor Harrington novel. Saw Sweeny Todd (3/5), and played quite a few games at Game Day.

I’ll try and expound on these over the next few days.