tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post8593008721536466337..comments2024-03-28T22:10:04.089+08:00Comments on Monsters and Manuals: My Tin EarsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-89542628068606714432019-01-20T12:03:48.489+08:002019-01-20T12:03:48.489+08:00To your dislike of comics, have you tried reading ...To your dislike of comics, have you tried reading any of the various prose books based on the characters out there? That might click with you better.Joshihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09472337459083477926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-19684925748167313342019-01-15T03:56:27.009+08:002019-01-15T03:56:27.009+08:00Star wars and Star Trek. I read and Watch a lot of...Star wars and Star Trek. I read and Watch a lot of Fantasy and sci-fi but those and Aldo tolkienesque Fantasy are notte my Cup of tea. I amici more a sword & Sorcery and old fashioned space opera guy.yurizanelli79@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05935837719583931463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-91520531831004675132019-01-13T17:33:59.936+08:002019-01-13T17:33:59.936+08:00Much of the fantasy genre in general. I love the i...Much of the fantasy genre in general. I love the idea of it, and I find the odd gem here and there, but for the most part I walk away feeling like the bar to publishing must be really rather low.Arkansannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-51117542396018873302019-01-13T05:52:15.685+08:002019-01-13T05:52:15.685+08:00Throwaway novel indeed!! I remember reading the Di...Throwaway novel indeed!! I remember reading the Difference Engine after digging through all the other Gibson I could get my hands on, and was stunned by how boring it was. I don't remember anything actually happening...HDAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-66690698825193874912019-01-13T05:49:11.567+08:002019-01-13T05:49:11.567+08:00Amusingly, despite being an extreme metalhead I fi...Amusingly, despite being an extreme metalhead I find most "metal-inspired" RPG stuff at best not that interesting and at worst annoying or even embarrassing.HDAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-28127525106484843152019-01-12T10:56:24.689+08:002019-01-12T10:56:24.689+08:00Tolkien.
I finally finished The Hobbit this decade...Tolkien.<br />I finally finished The Hobbit this decade, after first brushing up against it in high school. I've never finished LotR; I made it through Fellowship once.<br />He is a great plotter and linguist, but he cannot write. Howard could write and Lovecraft could write, but Tolkien reads like a dry essay on the history of his worldbuilding. "Let me tell you about my campaign."Will Arnoldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03698278637449036933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-6242221326945136602019-01-12T04:05:38.224+08:002019-01-12T04:05:38.224+08:00Zombie apocalypse fiction, horror fiction, and mos...Zombie apocalypse fiction, horror fiction, and most supernatural investigation fiction as portrayed in television serials.<br /><br />Still like Cthulhu/culty-type stuff in celluloid (and digital), but am O So Tired of it in literature and role-playing. I see Cthulhu on any type of RPG book and I'm generally a hard pass.JBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-25098455300163532372019-01-11T22:16:46.558+08:002019-01-11T22:16:46.558+08:00Star Trek. I watched most of the series and never ...Star Trek. I watched most of the series and never really clicked. Ironically I prefer the story of Star Trek and the execution of Star Wars even though I am not a fan of most of the latter's themes. I much prefer Rogue One and Empire Strikes Back over any of the Trek films.Derek Hollandnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-41049972558974365292019-01-11T21:53:22.279+08:002019-01-11T21:53:22.279+08:00I read and enjoyed Cherie Priest's book Bonesh...I read and enjoyed Cherie Priest's book Boneshaker. It did exactly what you're talking about, examining how technology (in this case mad science) impacts people who've fallen through the cracks of society. <br /><br />The book also has zombies, so by my scorecard it shouldn't have worked for me at all, but I quite enjoyed it.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17116795932377593506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-36441355939004536892019-01-11T20:29:00.144+08:002019-01-11T20:29:00.144+08:00Grim and gritty has become a form of kitsch. I wro...Grim and gritty has become a form of kitsch. I wrote a post about that ages ago...can't now remember what it was titled even!noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-8404460692872210422019-01-11T20:20:41.570+08:002019-01-11T20:20:41.570+08:00Yeah, I dislike a lot of what we call anime/manga,...Yeah, I dislike a lot of what we call anime/manga, but in Japan there's a lot more normal stuff that's pretty good. noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-87265036095990417862019-01-11T20:13:57.158+08:002019-01-11T20:13:57.158+08:00I think to me it's anything that has written &...I think to me it's anything that has written "grim 'n' gritty" all over it. Maybe it's kinda what you said about the images in comic books. I'm not saying that a situation can't look bleak in my fantasy/Sci-fi, but if something feels depressing to read, it stops to interest me at a certain point of time. Which is why I kinda stopped caring about GoT eventually and prefer Heroic fantasy over everything else.<br />Hm, and maybe Lovecraft. I really love some of the elements that came out of Mythos, but as a whole, it fails to interest me.<br />On the other hand, I love basically everything else that has been pointed out by you and the other commentators. ^^Wormys_Queuehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08684067668161259645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-14425349536098456752019-01-11T20:08:20.144+08:002019-01-11T20:08:20.144+08:00I used to watch it as a kid. I hated it even then....I used to watch it as a kid. I hated it even then. There is something almost bleakly depressing about early Dr Who.noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-60291150264913045572019-01-11T19:53:00.440+08:002019-01-11T19:53:00.440+08:00Metal in general, which all kinds of gamers seem t...Metal in general, which all kinds of gamers seem to be into. I don't dislike it, but it does not speak to me at all - mostly, when I am listening to metal, it just passes me by. And the same applies to a whole lot of metal-adjacent things, particularly the grimdark aesthetic. I am that one guy who has always wanted to play a light-hearted WFRP campaign, and who sees the career system as a wonderful opportunity to play a game of blundering nobodies in a corrupt, violent, but ultimately funny world. Needless to say, I am not LotFP's target audience either.<br /><br />I *mostly* don't get superheroes. I understand their appeal on the rational level, but they have never grabbed me despite attempts to enjoy the highlights. There are select comics and movies I enjoy which fit into the genre, but that may be due to something else, like the 1989 Batman's expressionist scenery or early Flash Gordon's D&Disms.<br /><br />Anime/manga. Same issue. Yes, I know it is not a genre... but most of it totally is. I like the exceptions, but it seems I don't appreciate the rule.Melanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07165894144553629675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-46989619582419208292019-01-11T19:40:11.088+08:002019-01-11T19:40:11.088+08:00I can't stand the rebooted Dr. Who but have yo...I can't stand the rebooted Dr. Who but have you ever tried the classics? Troughton and Baker, in particular?Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-24233539251240110102019-01-11T15:08:56.518+08:002019-01-11T15:08:56.518+08:00Even more heretically I've never really bother...Even more heretically I've never really bothered reading much REH at all. noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-63189772059186139202019-01-11T15:08:19.315+08:002019-01-11T15:08:19.315+08:00I've not seen the Game of Thrones TV series. I...I've not seen the Game of Thrones TV series. I liked the first three books and will continue to read whatever new ones he comes out with, if he ever does. But it increasingly feels like a task I have to complete, rather than something I will enjoy.noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-48150466496631073372019-01-11T15:06:32.737+08:002019-01-11T15:06:32.737+08:00Agree entirely about zombies. Interesting in the R...Agree entirely about zombies. Interesting in the Romero films. Boring otherwise. noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-1457831644888283862019-01-11T15:05:17.197+08:002019-01-11T15:05:17.197+08:00It fails to speak to me too - I think it is called...It fails to speak to me too - I think it is called getting old....noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-20281580853942359442019-01-11T15:04:32.637+08:002019-01-11T15:04:32.637+08:00My own feeling about anything "-punk" is...My own feeling about anything "-punk" is that it means the fiction is interested in the impact of a given technology on society, particularly from the perspective of those outside the mainstream elites who are benefiting most from it. In other words, I think you could do interesting steampunk fiction in the vein of what William Gibson was doing in Neuromancer - following poor people using, and subverting, steam technology to get what they can. Rather than just pseudo-Victoriana dressing up. noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-87479689429579740732019-01-11T14:31:58.064+08:002019-01-11T14:31:58.064+08:00I rather enjoyed Steampunk until I looked at it an...I rather enjoyed Steampunk until I looked at it and said to myself 'What the hell kind of Victorians are you wearing top hats indoors and corsets over the rest of your clothes? This is just dress-up.'<br /><br />Something like The Difference Engine goes a bit deeper and feels less insubstantial. It's not that I object to an aesthetic-driven work (Steampunk, Dieselpunk, &c), its just that it seems better to apply it to an entirely fictionalised place. The term 'Gaslamp fantasy' may be the one to use.Solomon VKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11763252777153908412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-63489092560444762282019-01-11T12:35:22.954+08:002019-01-11T12:35:22.954+08:00What I really hate are the popularity of zombies i...What I really hate are the popularity of zombies in RPGs. The main thing RPGs have going for them are the fact that everyone NPC you encounter is played by an actual human being that you can interact with. <br /><br />There have been too many sessions that I have played in where the GM throws out the "surprise" that location we are in has been overrun by zombies. Great. Every opponent we meet will be stupid an attack on sight. <br /><br />I understand why they work in video games. They are the perfect way to conceal the fact that most games have crappy AI. It's pretty easy to program convincing zombie behavior. I'm just tired of it in tabletop RPGs. Adam Baulderstonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08247875453290704056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-84717825219487831162019-01-11T12:30:40.220+08:002019-01-11T12:30:40.220+08:00The Difference Engine is barely steampunk. It'...The Difference Engine is barely steampunk. It's more a fairly staid alternate history techno-thriller. <br /><br />Steampunk had actually run its course by the time The Difference Engine came out. Actual Steampunk was much deeper into the realm of weird fiction. <br /><br />If you want to read the kind of books that actually inspired the term steampunk, look at James P. Blaylock's '80s work, such as Homunculus. To give a sense of the book, here is the first paragraph of the Wikipedia synopsis. <br /><br />"A dirigible with a dead pilot has been passing over Victorian London in a decaying orbit for some years, arousing the interest of the Royal Society, as well as scientist-explorer Langdon St. Ives and the evangelist/counterfeiter Shiloh. Shiloh is convinced that the dirigible carries his father, a tiny space alien, but withholds this knowledge from vivisectionist Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, who he is paying to reanimate Shiloh's dead mother, none other than Joanna Southcott. Narbondo and the evil millionaire Kelso Drake have their own interest in the alien; Drake possesses its spacecraft, which he uses for perverse purposes in one of his chain of stop-and-go brothels."<br /><br />That's what steampunk was like. It's certainly not to everyone's taste, but it has little in common with either The Difference Engine or the cosplay scene that came later. <br /><br />Infernal Devices, by K.W. Jeter is another good example of the brief '80s cyberpunk trend. Adam Baulderstonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08247875453290704056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-40234680568447811332019-01-11T06:24:20.252+08:002019-01-11T06:24:20.252+08:00I agree with all of yours - but I'd exempt vam...I agree with all of yours - but I'd exempt vampires as presented by Stoker. Not a guy in a suit, but a wolfish old man with a drooping moustache who boasts of having the blood of Attila in his veins and creeps down the walls of buildings to capture infants to feed to his harem. Much better than almost every interpretation that followed (barring, perhaps, Murnau's). I also like vampires as draugr-style walking corpses - stinking of the grave , devoid of suaveness and fat with blood.<br /><br />Also: the sub-Tolkien genre: Brooks, Eddings, et al.<br /><br />And, heretically, Robert E. Howard. I like the concepts. I like reading about him and his works. I like the odd line here and there. But I find the stories almost unreadable - even Beyond the Black River and Red Nails.JChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17964744140140515737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-33878990651736050422019-01-11T06:12:25.293+08:002019-01-11T06:12:25.293+08:00Game of Thrones. Yes, it's broadly similar to ...<i>Game of Thrones</i>. Yes, it's broadly similar to some of the things in which I am interested, but I don't think it's a good example of that genre, and I don't understand why so many people like it. Is it the boobs?<br /><br /><i>Black Mirror</i>. I think I would have loved it when I was 17, but I haven't been 17 for a long time.thekelvingreenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01928260185408072124noreply@blogger.com