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alobearBroken Promise by Linwood Barclay is the first in the Promise Falls trilogy, about all the exciting goings-on in a small American town. The problem is that it’s just a bit too exciting. By the time I stopped listening to it (about a third of the way through), there were at least ten different plot threads, none of which were really connected at that point, and so many characters that I was having real difficulty keeping track. Only one of the storylines received enough time and attention for me to feel invested in the characters, and the telegraphing of the bad guy was so obvious that it robbed even that plot of any suspense. I checked my theory about that plot with someone who had read the whole book, and it was correct, so I gave up on this audiobook and moved on to something else.
Last weekend, Dave and I went to see a production of Legally Blonde at the The Polish Theatre in Hammersmith. Apparently, it was the graduation show at the end of a Theatre Studies course, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. The sound mixing rendered it difficult to make out a lot of the lyrics, and some of the staging was a little clumsy. But what it lacked in polish, it more than made up for in sheer enthusiasm. Everyone involved was clearly having tremendous fun, and overall the performances were very good. Lots of fun.
I read the first volume of the Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater in five days, the second in another five, and the third in a further three. I haven’t completed the fourth yet because Manorcon got in the way, but I am thoroughly enjoying revisiting this world. I liked The Dream Thieves more this time around, because I knew what to expect, so the introduction of dream magic didn’t feel so ridiculous. It’s also very much Ronan’s story, and he’s the raven boy I find most compelling. Another benefit of having read them before was that I noticed the subtle setting up of various things a lot more, which made the reading experience more satisfying.
The third volume, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, has the introduction of the Greenmantles as the bad guys, and they remain hilarious. It also has the introduction of the most annoying character, Gwenllian, but she is very much less annoying in text than audio, because it was her voice that irritated me. So, again, I think I enjoyed this book more than the first time around, because I could spend more time over the details of it. I love the fact that the kids involve the adults in their adventures, and I love even more that the adults don’t remotely have all the answers. They are just as well-drawn and flawed as anyone else, which grounds the whole thing much more and makes everyone that much more relatable.
I think, when I’ve finished reading the last book, I’m going to listen to the audiobooks again - and then I’ll probably end up writing, or at least reading, some Raven Cycle fanfiction. There’s a TV series in development, and I’m very much looking forward to see what comes of that. It’ll all be down to the casting, I think…
And then we went to Manorcon, where I only played three new games, but also played quite a few that I’d only played once or twice before, which was good. Terra Mystica is big and complex, and it took me most of the game to really understand it. It’s the kind of game I like, with clear objectives, interesting character abilities, and gradual development of resources. I did struggle to begin with, but it all started to make sense halfway through the penultimate turn. I subsequently managed to achieve everything I want to achieve by the end of the game, and came quite a close second, so I was very pleased with my performance overall. Plus, I can certainly see a lot of room for improvement in my play, so I’d very much like to play this again, hopefully soon, before I forget everything I’ve learned!
I had a similar experience with Star Trek: Frontiers, in that it took me two thirds of the game to figure out what I was doing, and then my enjoyment of it increased dramatically. I like games where you get to explore and uncover new areas of the board, and the theming of the game was well done. It would be interesting to play a different scenario now I know more about how the whole thing works.
Then we played My Little Scythe, which I had been looking forward to a great deal. I think the simplification of the main Scythe game is well done, and it’s tremendously cute. The gameplay was a lot of fun, but it was over way too fast, and there was a lot of randomness to how people managed to achieve objectives. I like working towards goals and planning several moves ahead in games, so I think it diminished the game somewhat that you could randomly acquire important resources on other people’s turns that gave huge advantages. Still, the ponies are adorable, and it’s an amusing way to spend half an hour. I think I’d like a middle-ground version that takes about an hour, removes the random resource accumulation and has just that bit more complexity. Not too much to ask, right?
Last weekend, Dave and I went to see a production of Legally Blonde at the The Polish Theatre in Hammersmith. Apparently, it was the graduation show at the end of a Theatre Studies course, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. The sound mixing rendered it difficult to make out a lot of the lyrics, and some of the staging was a little clumsy. But what it lacked in polish, it more than made up for in sheer enthusiasm. Everyone involved was clearly having tremendous fun, and overall the performances were very good. Lots of fun.
I read the first volume of the Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater in five days, the second in another five, and the third in a further three. I haven’t completed the fourth yet because Manorcon got in the way, but I am thoroughly enjoying revisiting this world. I liked The Dream Thieves more this time around, because I knew what to expect, so the introduction of dream magic didn’t feel so ridiculous. It’s also very much Ronan’s story, and he’s the raven boy I find most compelling. Another benefit of having read them before was that I noticed the subtle setting up of various things a lot more, which made the reading experience more satisfying.
The third volume, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, has the introduction of the Greenmantles as the bad guys, and they remain hilarious. It also has the introduction of the most annoying character, Gwenllian, but she is very much less annoying in text than audio, because it was her voice that irritated me. So, again, I think I enjoyed this book more than the first time around, because I could spend more time over the details of it. I love the fact that the kids involve the adults in their adventures, and I love even more that the adults don’t remotely have all the answers. They are just as well-drawn and flawed as anyone else, which grounds the whole thing much more and makes everyone that much more relatable.
I think, when I’ve finished reading the last book, I’m going to listen to the audiobooks again - and then I’ll probably end up writing, or at least reading, some Raven Cycle fanfiction. There’s a TV series in development, and I’m very much looking forward to see what comes of that. It’ll all be down to the casting, I think…
And then we went to Manorcon, where I only played three new games, but also played quite a few that I’d only played once or twice before, which was good. Terra Mystica is big and complex, and it took me most of the game to really understand it. It’s the kind of game I like, with clear objectives, interesting character abilities, and gradual development of resources. I did struggle to begin with, but it all started to make sense halfway through the penultimate turn. I subsequently managed to achieve everything I want to achieve by the end of the game, and came quite a close second, so I was very pleased with my performance overall. Plus, I can certainly see a lot of room for improvement in my play, so I’d very much like to play this again, hopefully soon, before I forget everything I’ve learned!
I had a similar experience with Star Trek: Frontiers, in that it took me two thirds of the game to figure out what I was doing, and then my enjoyment of it increased dramatically. I like games where you get to explore and uncover new areas of the board, and the theming of the game was well done. It would be interesting to play a different scenario now I know more about how the whole thing works.
Then we played My Little Scythe, which I had been looking forward to a great deal. I think the simplification of the main Scythe game is well done, and it’s tremendously cute. The gameplay was a lot of fun, but it was over way too fast, and there was a lot of randomness to how people managed to achieve objectives. I like working towards goals and planning several moves ahead in games, so I think it diminished the game somewhat that you could randomly acquire important resources on other people’s turns that gave huge advantages. Still, the ponies are adorable, and it’s an amusing way to spend half an hour. I think I’d like a middle-ground version that takes about an hour, removes the random resource accumulation and has just that bit more complexity. Not too much to ask, right?
