http://www.thealexandrian.net Politics, creations, and philosophy. The problem with The Legacy is that Salvatore allows one of his strengths (his ability to vividly describe fight scenes) to bloat horribly out of control. The plot, with minimal spoilage, can basically be summarized as such: There is about twenty pages of meaningful character interaction. Then there’s a big battle between dwarves and goblins. This battle is extensively described in both tactics and detail, but is ultimately meaningless: It has no effect whatsoever on the rest of the book. Then there’s another twenty pages or so of meaningful character interaction. And then there’s another huge, rambling fight sequence that lasts for two hundred pages. The End. http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081110 R.A. Salvatore has two strengths as a writer. First, he’s capable of writing fresh, detailed, and exciting battle scenes – battle scenes which not only serve as really excellent set pieces, but which also actively contribute to the plot. Salvatore’s stories don’t get put on pause while his characters throw down. Instead, each fight is an important part of the evolving drama. http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081107 I originally wrote my What I'm Reading reactions for Dune and Dune Messiah in the summer of 2006. They were supposed to be part of a series of reactions covering the entire Dune saga, but I got distracted by other projects and never finished it. Basically, I think the Dune sequels are almost universally under-rated. In order to complete proper reactions for the later books at this late juncture, however, I would need to re-read the series. That's unlikely to happen for awhile, so -- in the interim -- here's a quick summary of my thoughts. http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081105 If you're a citizen of the United States, then today is the most important day of the year: Election Day. http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081104 Enjoy the holiday made for geeky gamers. The site hasn't been updated in about a week and probably will only update sporadically over the next few days. After that I'm hoping to be able to push more reliable content through the pipeline. The short version of what's going in is pretty simple: I bought a house. I expected to have my primary computer -- the one I use ot update this site -- set back up pretty rapidly after the move, but that hasn't happened. So I'm kinda hacking together an update method. During this interim period, new content may (or may not) appear on the front page, but the archives will not be getting updated. http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081031 Let me back up for a second and talk about the history behind City Supplement 3: Anyoc... http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081025 Merely aping real world geography will give you a functional map, but won't create a living city. For that to happen, you have to understand the soul of the city: What does it look like? How do people move through it? What's it like to live there? These types of questions have a very real impact on how the streets are laid out; how the buildings are built; the whole nine yards. In the case of Anyoc, I had already written up two evocative pieces of detail. The first was the literal look of the city... http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081024 One of the most important creative tips I ever got was to avoid genre incest. This advice takes many forms, with perhaps the most common being: "Read outside the genre." The earliest memory I have of this advice goes all the way back to when I was about eight years old and downloading the writer's guidelines for Star Trek novelizations off the Prodigy service. The editor of the line basically said (albeit in much more polite terms), "If your only influence for writing a Star Trek story is having seen 100+ episodes of the TV shows and reading 50+ novels, you are almost guaranteed to produce some unreadable, derivative crap just like the other 25,000 hacks dive-bombing our slush pile." http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081023 City Supplement 3: Anyoc was essentially a completed product when Dream Machine Productions went on hiatus. The only thing we were waiting for was the map. In fact, it was my intention to release it as our last product before the hiatus. But, unfortunately, the cartographer we had working on the project never completed it. Since we were shifting into a hiatus state in any case, I shelved the project. As we started gearing up to come out of hiatus, however, I started working on the map myself. Here's what the original sketch map that I drew way back in 2001 looked like... http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081022 From a certain point of view, Dune Messiah is a disappointment: It simply doesn’t live up to the incredibly high standard set by Dune itself. http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081021 WALLS OF FAIRY STONE AND BLOOD... Built of the seven fairy stones, the city of Anyoc stands proudly upon its hill. Pale purples mix with soft blues and faded greens; pinkish reds stand in contrast to burnished gold. And its white walls of essabas - the star stone - gleam in the bright light of the sun. http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081020 It’s interesting reading Dune immediately following a mass-reading of Vernor Vinge’s catalog, because both authors are essentially fascinated by post-humanity: Both see something essentially incomprehensible in the transhuman, but they approach it in different ways. Vinge chooses to approach it at oblique angles – from the POV of children; or on the rapid approach to it; or from a great distance; or through the lens of the primitive. http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081017 Spells of Light and Darkness: The Art of the Flame and Void was released last week. If you've been thinking to yourself, "Light and darkness spells? Sounds pretty lame." here are two spells of darkness that might change your mind... http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081016 Many of you are reading this website because of "DnD: Calibrating Your Expectations", the essay I wrote in March of last year. One of the points I made in that essay is that low level characters are actually more than capable of being experienced experts in their fields. Even at 1st-level, while they don't have to be, they certainly can be. Which brings us to the character of Ranthir, the last of our main characters... http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081015 Your honor, I think you will find -- if you just peruse this report -- that I was not speeding when the state trooper pulled me over. Hmm... Who prepared this report? Well, I did of course. http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081010 I'll be appearing as "Sam" in Ronin Theater's production of David Mamet's All Men Are Whores. Performances October 10th, 11th, 13th, 24th, and 25th. http://www.thealexandrian.net/index.html#20081009