Tag Archives: RPG

CCLAP Fridays: On Being Human: Warhammer 40K Space Marines

Posted on April 6, 2012 by | Leave a comment

I continue my CCLaP essay series “On Being Human”, this week exploring the dark world of Warhammer 40K and the Space Marines.

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CCLaP Fridays: On Being Human: An Introduction

Posted on February 18, 2012 by | Leave a comment

My introductory essay to my themed essay series, “On Being Human” has been posted at CCLaP.

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Posted in books, CCLAP Fridays, film, nature, The Horus Heresy, The Internet, TV, Warhammer 40K

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Introducing CCLaP Fridays

Posted on February 10, 2012 by | Leave a comment

I’m proud to a new feature, CCLaP Fridays.  I recently became involved as a writer for the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography.  Every other Friday I will post on their website, alternating between general book reviews and themed reviews.

The general reviews will focus on fiction and non-fiction books published in the last 24 months.  My themed reviews focus on the question, “What does it mean to be human?”  I will be looking at attempts to answer that question through books, TV shows, movies, and role-playing games.  Everything from Warhammer 40K’s Space Marines, Iain Banks’s Culture, Samuel Beckett’s Trilogy, and a Jim Thompson hard-boiled novel will be analyzed.  (This will dovetail nicely into my more in-depth analyses of Warhammer 40K and Battlestar Galactica/Caprica on Coffee is for Closers.)

It will be a unique privilege to write for CCLaP, since I’ve been an avid reader of their reviews and essays for years.

As always, I will post notifications on this blog to let you know when my reviews and essays appear.

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Mechanicum (The Horus Heresy, Book 9) by Graham McNeill

Posted on April 24, 2010 by | Leave a comment

The Horus Heresy series continues in Graham McNeill’s epic Mechanicum.  Graham McNeill is one of the Black Library’s “dream team” writers.  The other members of the trio include the hyper-prolific Dan Abnett and Ben Counter.  The trio wrote the first three novels of the Horus Heresy series.

The first three novels functioned like a self-contained trilogy, chronicling the Warmaster Horus and his descent into heresy and madness.  James Swallow’s Flight of the Eisenstein (Book 4) was a taut thriller with crisp writing and wonderfully orchestrated space battles.  Since then, the Horus Heresy has had its ups (Legion by Dan Abnett) and downs (Descent of Angels by Mitchel Scanlon).  This reviewer happily reports that Mechanicum brings the series back up to fighting trim.

In the novel, the readers encounter the adepts and forge masters of Mars.  Centuries ago, the Emperor and the Fabricator-General created a union between Terra and Mars.  The Mechanicum is one of the pillars of the Imperium of Man.  The novels functions as an institutional history, similar to earlier volumes that chronicled the origins of a specific Space Marine legion.  Only Graham McNeill could pen a compelling narrative based on supply chain logistics and portraits of the mechanically modified denizens of Mars that humanize them.

The novel includes many competing plots (and competing plotters).  Adept Koriel Zeth wants to build the Akashic Reader, a device capable of giving someone unlimited knowledge.  Fabricator-Generator Kelbor-Hal wants to open the Moravec caverns, sealed by the Emperor’s command.  Finally, Dalia Cythera, a lowly transcriber drafted by Adept Zeth to construct the Akashic Reader, deals with her visions of a dragon and a secret long buried in legend and deception.  During this historical period of the Imperium, there is no single interpretation of the Omnissiah, the so-called Machine-God worshipped by the Mechanicum.  To use more familiar figures, Adept Zeth, a champion of scientific exploration and eternal skeptic, could be seen as Dr. Richard Dawkins.  She does not believe that the Machine-God actually exists.  Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal, a cold-blooded figure of monumental avarice and ambition, could be seen as Reverend Pat Robertson.  Kelbor-Hal, a servant of the traitorous Warmaster Horus, will use every means at his disposal, including unleashing the demonic forces sealed away by the Emperor.  And like Pat Robertson, he is not moved by the death of millions, but only uses it as a means to acquire more power in the name of the Machine-God.

While these machinations and theological debates occur, the Mechanicum suffers catastrophe after catastrophe.  The atrocities lead to the inevitable split, with those loyal to the Emperor arrayed against those loyal to the Warmaster.  The novel also includes great battle scenes with rival Titans, Reavers, and Knights fighting each other.

The novel is a wonderful continuation of the Horus Heresy, bringing a mix of space battles, ideological debates, and gothic imagery.

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The Art of Reviewing Special Edition(TM): The 20 Minute “Avatar” Review

Posted on February 2, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Every blog needs a large-scale project. The Art of Reviewing will explore reviewing as an art form and as a valuable element to understanding society.  During this project, I will profile specific reviewers of merit.  Several specific cases also explore other facets of reviewing.

If you haven’t seen it already, it’s making the rounds on Ye Olde Nettertubes.  It’s a twenty-minute review of James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar.

Here’s the review, in two parts:

***

COMMENTARY

This review is a bit long and a bit cynical, but it makes a number of valid points.  It is an artful combination of pop culture references, snark, and erudition.  The description of audience manipulation on the part of the filmmakers illustrates the power and seduction of the medium.  Making an analogy between Avatar and the Garbage Pail Kids Movie (Rod Amateau, 1987) shows a stroke of demented genius.

While I have not seen the film, I have seen Dances With Wolves, Titanic, and Aliens. I’ll probably see it once it is released on DVD and enters my Netflix cue.

In our media-saturated culture, one has to be aware of how audience manipulation works.  Every work — book, TV show, film, etc. — draws us into a world that is not our own.  Avatar, with its blue color, sexy panther-monkey aliens, and CGI, opts for the easy path.  The easy route includes villains too easy to hate and an alien culture too beautifully perfect. The film’s 18th century caricature of the military mirrors its 18th century caricature of “the noble savage.”  Add the tacked-on topicality (“Did he just say ‘Shock and awe’?”) and NSFW eroticism of the Na’vi and the result is boffo box office, despite the sheer obviousness of its crapulence.  Hence why the reviewer dubbed it an “effective movie” but not a “great movie.”  Akin to the difference between Dick Van Patton and General Patton.

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Battle for the Abyss (The Horus Heresy, Book 8) by Ben Counter

Posted on November 2, 2009 by | 1 Comment

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Battle for the Abyss by Ben Counter begins with the construction of the gigantic battleship, the Furious Abyss, within the hollow center of Thule, a moon of Saturn.  The Mechanicum construct the ship using the ancient technologies they preserve.  Unbeknownst to the Emperor, the Mechanicum build the massive warship for the Word Bearer Traitor Legion.  Those familiar with the Cylon basestars of Battlestar Galactica will recognize the Furious Abyss.  Heavily armed and holding a contingent of fighters, the Furious Abyss is an intimidating force.  Unlike the sleek basestars, the Furious Abyss resembles a giant battlestar with Chartres Cathedral sitting on top.

In the novel, we meet several Space Marine legions, each with their own specialty and genetic modification.  The aforementioned Word Bearers are a Traitor Legion combining martial skill with a fanatical adherence to the Word of Lorgar, their Primarch.  In the unfolding galaxy-spanning civil war, the Word Bearers resemble Oliver Cromwell at his most theocratic, fanatic, and tyrannical.

Members of the five legions meet up on Vangelis to resupply their ships.  Everything proceeds apace, with the Space Marines prepping themselves for their future engagement, to must at Calth “in preparation to launch a strike on an ork invasion force besieging the worlds of the neighboring Veridan.”

Following a psychic attack on Vangelis, Cestus, Brother-captain and fleet commander of the Ultramarines 7th Company, discovers that the Wrathful Abyss will strike the Ultramarines homeworld of Ultramar.  Cestus commandeers the Wrathful, a ship of the legendary Saturnine Fleet.  The Fleet has a history that predates the Empire of Man.  Members from three other Space Marine Legions accompany Cestus.  Skraal, Brother-captain of the World Eaters Legion, fights with a psychotic ferocity that frightens the other Space Marines.  Brynngar, Captain of the Space Wolves Legion, with his lupine incisors and penchant for drinking, has serious misgivings about Mhotep, Brother-sergeant of the Thousand Sons.  Mhotep raises Brynngar’s ire because the Thousand Sons, shunned at the Council of Nikea because of their psychic abilities, embody an irrational, unknown force.  At this stage of Imperial history, people possessing psychic powers still pose a threat to the Emperor’s embrace of rationalism and reason.  The Word Bearers broke their oath with the Imperium because their fanaticism and superstition met with censure from the Emperor.

When the Furious Abyss destroys the Waning Moon, the loyalist Space Marines have to make the decision to wage war on their battle brothers.  The prophecy given to the Alpha Legion (in the previous book, Dan Abnett’s Legion), about the Imperial Civil War has come to pass.  The loyalist Space Marines have their loyalties tested.

Battle for the Abyss provides plenty of action, including ship-to-ship battles.  Ben Counter, author of the Soul Drinker’s Omnibus, fills the pages with adventure, excitement, and gore.

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Guild Musings: Musing #2: Chat channels and wifi

Posted on October 7, 2009 by | Leave a comment

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For Better or Worse: The Knights of Good

The third episode of The Guild, the plot hinges on Codex’s inability to bring the Knights of Good back together.  Codex (Felicia Day) cautiously and politely asks the Axis of Anarchy (the rival, evil group headed by Wil Wheaton), if they could get Tinkerballa (Amy Okuda) back.  The Axis of Anarchy smell an intruder in their midst and then verbally assault Codex with all manner of f-bombs and snark.  Wil Wheaton snarked at Codex by quoting Ayn Rand.  Considering Rand’s philosophy of utopian selfishness precipitated our current economic unpleasantness, my money is on the Knights of Good.

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Meet the Villains: The Axis of Anarchy

The humor from the episode comes from understanding the media conventions of this webisode.  As opposed to genre conventions, media conventions relate to how the media itself is used in reference to the narrative.  Nearly the entire episode takes place in a “chat channel.”  MMORPG players will talk to each other in real time when they use this “channel”.  When the characters chat in the “channel,” the speak into their microphones and look at their computer screens.  By extension, they are talking to and look at us, the audience.

The scene becomes comedic genius when Vork, with his beat-up van as a mobile headquarters, steals wifi from a local fast food joint.  Holding up the drive-in lane, he attempts to use his diplomatic skills as Guildmaster.

While all the members of the Knights of Good have their social quirks, Vork stands out, with his passionate combination of assertive micromanaging and living in seclusion like Howard Hughes.  Vork, harassed by impatient customers, orders fifty straws and twenty ketchup packets.  (Since he lived in his grandfather’s house, mooching off the Social Security benefits, Vork’s lifestyle is one of seclusion and economic austerity.)

The episode concludes with Codex unsuccessful in bringing the Knights of Good back together.  However, Tinkerballa, the Ranger, may not be lost for good.  As an experienced back-stabber and “with the maternal instincts of a chipper shredder”, she may have ulterior motives.

The Guild continues to impress with its understanding of the media informing the comedy.

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Legion (Horus Heresy, Book 7) by Dan Abnett

Posted on October 4, 2009 by | 1 Comment

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Can Dan Abnett save the franchise?

After the underwhelming Descent of Angels by Mitchel Scanlon, the Horus Heresy series is in desperate need of revival.  None is better equipped to revive the flagging franchise than the prolific Dan Abnett.  Abnett, author of Eisenhorn, the Ravenor series, the Gaunt’s Ghosts series, and other titles for Marvel and Doctor Who, has the rare gift to write well and to write a lot.  Like the space fantasy version of William T. Vollmann, he churns out full-length novels at a ridiculous rate.

In Legion, Abnett throws the reader into a desert landscape, a war that has lost forward momentum, and paranoia sweeping the ranks.  The parallels to modern desert warfare and the situation in Iraq are unmistakable.  The Imperium of Man wages a war against the inhabitants of Nurth.  We follow the Geno Five-Two Chiliad of the Imperial Army, a unit of the Imperial Army that traces its lineage back to Terra and its genetic heritage to that of the Space Marines.  Their formidable nature and fierce loyalty make the military stalemate even more frustrating.  The Chiliad operates through uxors and hetmen.  Uxors are psykers and communicate through the hetman officer corps mentally.

John Grammaticus, a powerful psyker, meets up with the Chiliad in the guise of Konig Heniker.  Grammaticus is a member of the Cabal, a secretive interspecies organization that has important knowledge it needs to communicate to the Alpha Legion of Space Marines.  Grammaticus has to get close to the uxors to impart this knowledge.  He describes the uxors thusly: “As he sat down opposite Uxor Rukhsana, he reached out.  Instantly, he tasted feeble immature ‘cepts, chitter-chatter minds, the moist, unwholesome mental architecture of the pubescent aides.  The technical inability to conceive made most uxor-aides gruesomely promiscuous.  Grammaticus was repelled by the lurid, shallow thoughts that washed towards him.”

Eventually, Grammaticus gets in touch with the Alpha Legion, the newest and most enigmatic legion of Space Marines.  Abnett even subverts the “legion-primarch trope” in this volume, highlighting a Space Marine legion that specializes in stealth and espionage.  Even though the Space Marines, like their brother legions, are genetically engineered superwarriors that stand nine feet tall, he makes their covert tactics seem plausible.

The Alpha Legion already know what Grammaticus knows, but under a different name.  In one form or another, the Imperium has been battling the forces of Chaos.  The Cabal has a different name for the predictable enemy: the Primordial Annihilator.  The name is clinical, menacing, and opaque all at once.

The Cabal offer the Alpha Legion a choice, but the reader is kept guessing while the stakes increase on Nurth.  Factions have their own agendas, whether it’s the 670th Fleet Commander, the Imperial Army, the Cabal, or the Alpha Legion.  While conditions on Nurth deteriorate, people are forced to act.  In Legion, you are left guessing to the last page.

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Guild Musings: Musing #1: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Posted on September 13, 2009 by | 2 Comments

“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” – Gil Scott-Heron

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Note: To avoid confusion, italics will differentiate the Guild (show) from the Guild (group of characters).

Two episodes into its third season, The Guild has become an Internet phenomenon.  The show follows the comic misadventures of various gamers associated with The Knights of Good, a guild in a MMORPG [Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Game].  While the game they play involves mythical creatures, fantastic quests, and cool costumes, the shows follows their day-to-day lives.  In another nod to the MMORPG, the players do not address each other by their real names but by their online nicknames.

guildCodex and Zaboo share a mediated experience.

Each episode begins with Codex (played by Felicia Dey) facing the viewer and talking about her problems.  It is reminiscent of the Video Confessional on “reality programming.”  In this case, the webcam replaces the video camera.  Following each Online Confessional, the Guild deals with some problem, major or minor, depending on how socialized each member is with the outside world.

While the Guild is a spot-on satire of MMORPG players, the show’s success may point to trends in the ever-changing world of New Media.  This season, the Guild debuted on Xbox, then other video game platforms, eventually “going wide” on MSN Video.

I don’t have cable.  I also don’t watch broadcast TV.  I keep up with events and my favorite TV shows in other alternative ways.  I belong to Netflix and I watch TV shows on Hulu and video clips on YouTube.  The revolution won’t be televised because of some idealistic Luddite event will happen.  The revolution won’t be televised because it doesn’t need to be.  YouTube has proven fatal to politicians prone to verbal gaffes and insensitive statements.  The Internet sprouts memes and parodies at lightning speed.  We find ourselves, the viewing public, in a period of technological change and social flux.  Don’t worry, it happens periodically.  Apocalyptic rhetoric aside, the anxiety will lessen when things become more standardized.  The latest fracas between Blu-ray and DVD HD is only one example.

If you don’t mind being a year behind, then Netflix offers many advantages to the standard cable package.  Price, variety, and availability make it far superior to cable.  Cable itself has superseded broadcast television, since television is technically broadcast via satellite dishes and antennae.  However, even the year lag does not apply to all Netflix offerings.  I recently viewed No Reservations: Season Six via the Watch Instantly feature prior to the DVD release.

Which brings us back in roundabout fashion to the Guild: Season Three. In the first episode, Codex and her Guild-mates are sitting outside the local GameStop shop.  They await the release of the new expansion pack for their MMORPG.  All is going well until a crew of black-shirted baddies cut in front of them.  In a nod to RPG character-naming obviousness, they call themselves The Axis of Anarchy.  Wil Wheaton plays their leader, a nice bit of pop cultural referencing because Wheaton is a long pop cultural footnote.  Wheaton played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation and wrote a weekly column called “Games of Our Lives” for the AV Club.

The omnipresence of the Internet and availability of alternate media sources will create new challenges to the traditional media of TV, radio, and film.  But now are not the End Days, since people still read books and go to the movies.  To paraphrase Mark Twain, “Reports of the death of television have been greatly exaggerated.”

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Book Review: Descent of Angels (The Horus Heresy, Book 6) by Mitchel Scanlon

Posted on September 6, 2009 by | Leave a comment

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The Horus Heresy series continues in its sixth installment, Descent of Angels, written by Mitchel Scanlon. The series makes a major reversal with this series. Scanlon has written previous novels for the Black Library, but his work involves the Warhammer brand, the epic fantasy sister ‘verse to the space fantasy of Warhammer 40K. Unlike previous volumes, the action occurs on one planet under circumstances one could label “low-tech.”

Descent of Angels begins with an original story, telling the tale of how humanity settled on the planet Caliban.  The settlers became separated from the rest of humanity because of warp storms (the Warp being the means of interstellar travel).  The separation lasted 5000 years.  In that space of time, the human settlers created their own mythology, culture, and defense systems.  The major obstacle to settlement on this heavily forested planet was the great beasts, nightmarish monsters reminiscent of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos.

The novel follows Zahariel, Knight Supplicant of the Order, in his rise to full knighthood.  The Order, unlike other knightly orders, considers all men created equal, regardless of birth or position.  Zahariel is in awe of the Order’s future Grand Master, Lion El’Jonson, a superhuman giant found in the woods battling beasts with his bare hands.

During Zahariel’s ascent to full knighthood, he becomes aware of a “gift” he possesses, an uncanny ability to “read” people.  He keeps this gift secret until members of the Dark Angels Space Marine legion descend upon Caliban, ending 5000 years of separation.

The novel can be seen as a Pre-Contact novel, to borrow the phrase from colonial studies.  The majority of the novel does not involve the Imperium of Man and the Space Marines arrive well into the book’s second half.  Ideologically, the book takes place when the Imperium espoused a rationalistic, explicitly atheist position.  A previous volume, Flight of the Eisenstein, traces the transition from this militant atheism to the “Church Militant” phase, when the Emperor was considered a living god.  It is nice to see a franchise not adhere to a rigorously linear storyline between volumes.  The vastness of the Warhammer 40K universe and multitude of Space Marine chapters offers more opportunities to non-traditional storytelling.  In addition, it is easier to drag out a series when it is not the standard linear storyline.  (The sitcom How I Met Your Mother, a 3-camera sitcom, excels in plot contortions and subverting the standard linear storyline.)

In full disclosure, standard fantasy is not my favorite genre to read.  I enjoy the Warhammer 40K space fantasies.  It was enjoyable to read this volume of the Horus Heresy series because it was not the usual Tolkien Boilerplate Knock-off, although Warhammer 40K originated as such in the 1980s.

Descent of Angels is another exciting read in the ever-expanding Horus Heresy series.

***

On a personal note, I was underwhelmed.  In a word, “Meh.”

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