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Assorted, unrelated reviews
Aug. 17th, 2014 10:59 amBuffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Nine - The season 8 comics were collected in nine trades, which meant that even with the slower pacing and lighter density of comics versus a 22-episode tv season, it felt like a long series of events was being paid off. Season 9 got only five trades worth of issues where even less seems to happen and more time is devoted to extensive fight scenes and “unearned” confrontations with big villains. (Though apparently reading the Angel & Faith, Spike and Willow trades—which are considered canon to this series—would have fleshed out the revelations a bit more and made some things feel less deus ex machine.) That combined with fact that both the interpersonal growth and interaction has become repetitive and underdone; and the quipping and general wit has declined; makes me less interested with continuing the series into season 10 or buying the various spin-offs.
The Unwritten Volume 8: Orpheus in the Underworld and Volume 9: The Unwritten Fables - Mike Carey, Peter Gross, and in the ninth volume, Bill Willingham. Hard to go wrong here. The wonder of Unwritten, a blending of Books of Magic with Lucifer in a Harry Potter-shaped bowl, continues apace. The ninth volume is a crossover with an alternate history of Fables, in which Mister Dark was not defeated and a last, desperate plan is enacted to stop him.
Final Fantasy VII NES (Lugia Hack) - I had not realized the size of the fanhacking community for the Chinese knockoff FF7 NES cart. People apparently not only have translated this into English, but they rework the graphics and map setup to bring it more closely in-line with the PS original. (Also to decrease the difficulty, because apparently the Chinese original is insanely hard.) I don’t think the hacks are enough to make it a particularly good game, as it’s still a NES rpg and gets bogged down by slow and frequent battles and a more-complicated-than-helpful experience system; but it’s a neat little thing.
The Roommates: True Tales of Friendship, Rivalry, Romance, and Disturbingly Close Quarters by Stephanie Wu - I’ll admit, I only bought and read this because the third story in the book is one that I told; and honestly, mine is both one of the only positive stories in the book and probably one of the least interesting. The stories are told memoir-style, and are very lightly edited, presumably to remove personal or incriminating details. (In my case, the title of the terrible comic book we passed back and forth, likely at some lawyer’s insistence.) Which also means that some of them could have desperately used some reworking or punching up to make for better stories. If you like true stories of living with mostly unpleasant people, it’s a decent collection. Though one thing that did strike me as odd: In something like 50 stories that were almost all set in NYC, there were virtually no queer people. Am I just biased by the circles I usually move in, or is that weird?
The Unwritten Volume 8: Orpheus in the Underworld and Volume 9: The Unwritten Fables - Mike Carey, Peter Gross, and in the ninth volume, Bill Willingham. Hard to go wrong here. The wonder of Unwritten, a blending of Books of Magic with Lucifer in a Harry Potter-shaped bowl, continues apace. The ninth volume is a crossover with an alternate history of Fables, in which Mister Dark was not defeated and a last, desperate plan is enacted to stop him.
Final Fantasy VII NES (Lugia Hack) - I had not realized the size of the fanhacking community for the Chinese knockoff FF7 NES cart. People apparently not only have translated this into English, but they rework the graphics and map setup to bring it more closely in-line with the PS original. (Also to decrease the difficulty, because apparently the Chinese original is insanely hard.) I don’t think the hacks are enough to make it a particularly good game, as it’s still a NES rpg and gets bogged down by slow and frequent battles and a more-complicated-than-helpful experience system; but it’s a neat little thing.
The Roommates: True Tales of Friendship, Rivalry, Romance, and Disturbingly Close Quarters by Stephanie Wu - I’ll admit, I only bought and read this because the third story in the book is one that I told; and honestly, mine is both one of the only positive stories in the book and probably one of the least interesting. The stories are told memoir-style, and are very lightly edited, presumably to remove personal or incriminating details. (In my case, the title of the terrible comic book we passed back and forth, likely at some lawyer’s insistence.) Which also means that some of them could have desperately used some reworking or punching up to make for better stories. If you like true stories of living with mostly unpleasant people, it’s a decent collection. Though one thing that did strike me as odd: In something like 50 stories that were almost all set in NYC, there were virtually no queer people. Am I just biased by the circles I usually move in, or is that weird?
