Lately I decided to read Ursula K Le Guin’s Earthsea series, consisting of A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore and Tehanu. I’d tried to read the books while a young teenager, but never really got into them. Now as an adult, I’m really enjoying the style of writing. I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes these books special. Certainly, they’re very well written and the world is fascinating (Earthsea is a series of islands in an archipelago).

Ursula Le Guin

To me, the Earthsea books are Le Guin’s most human novels. They’re about the frailty of power and the nature of strength. Her hero, Sparrowhawk, is not a characture of so many heroes we’ve seen before, but a simple goatherder made archmage, a man whose humility and restraint make for a compelling story. There are no enormous battles between hoards of orcs and human warriors. Sparrowhawk’s battles are fought as much within the mind as without.

In the first novel A Wizard of Earthsea, Sparrowhawk is a young wizard must learn to deal with the evil he has brought into the world. A far cry from many of the stories where wizards must fight unspeakable evil, he is forced to reflect on himself and the consequences of his actions. The resolution is impeccable and very moving, in that the plot restraint shown by Le Guin compliments the world she creates. It feels like a desaturated world, one not filled with bright cities and pomp and circumstance, but dirty, real places, full of sadness and longing. The wizards in her books are practical – they make winds for the seas, heal pigs from illness and dye cloth in vivid colours.

My favourite so far is The Farthest Shore. Le Guin weaves in the importance of words into her magic, in that to create magic, one must know the true name of things in the old language. When the words begin to disappear, so magic is forgotten and the world thrown into chaos. It reminded me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude, when the town becomes infected with insomnia. He writes:

Thus they went on living in a reality that was slipping away, momentarily captured by words, but which would escape irremediably when they forgot the values of the written letters.

This kind of higher thinking perpetuates the Earthsea novels. Sparrowhawk often reflects on his own ability to do justice in the world without creating injustice. It sets the books apart from many of her counterparts, not being afraid to think deeply or be limited by the expectations of the genre.

She writes:

When a rock is lifted the earth is lighter, and the hand that bears it heavier. When it is thrown the circuits of the stars respond, and where it strikes or falls the universe is changed. On every act the balance of the whole depends.

For any writers aiming to write fantasy, the Earthsea books are a must read. I wish there were more writers of humble fantasy, of kind and moving stories. The greatest fantasy novels have been about humble men and creatures, I think of the Lord of the Rings; while there are great battles and enemies, the saving of the world comes down to four small creatures called hobbits, with little power (and some would say common sense) between them. It makes for more interesting reading when the hero diverges from a reader’s expectations, and eventually goes beyond them.

The Earthsea archipelago

Robin Hood – A young Orson Scott Card. The author of Ender’s Game has got the same greying stubble and short cropped hair. Just give him some tights and a bow.

Wipe that silly grin off your face, Orson Scott Card! You're meant to be saving England.

Maid Marion – The ever lovely Margaret Atwood, who has that same air as a medieval Cate Blanchett. And the same kind of floaty brown hair. And plus, she’s old enough now to act in a remake of Robin and Marian.

Maid Marion: A Handmaid's Tale

King Richard – Alan Moore. He’s got the biggest beard factor out of all the sci-fi/fantasy crowd plus the scary eyes. And you can’t be a king if you ain’t got those rings.

Bling King: Alan Moore would make a great King Richard

Prince John – Hands down Audous Huxley, with notable mention for Anthony Burgess. Note the similar menacing stares and terrifying black hair.

The author of the Magna Carta, the Brave New World of it's age.

Queen Elianor of Aquitaine – A no brainer. Ursula K. Le Guin for the distinguished queen mother.

Where's my wimple?

William Marshal – Philip K. Dick. Note the identical grey streak through the beard.

They don't have Nice n' Easy in the middle ages

Godfrey – Perhaps the creepiest resemblance of all is how actor Mark Strong looks almost identical to China Mieville. Plus if there’s ever a bad boy of fantasy, I’d vote for Mr M.

(Ooh, and my copy of Kraken has just arrived…)

Take the L out of bald and you've got bad.

Have you ever seen a movie and thought “That guy looks exactly like…?” Tell me what you think here.

Jeff Vandermeer and his wife Anne have released The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals. They have a special edition for sale here. I haven’t read the book yet, but it sounds intriguing. I’ve read a couple of Jeff Vandermeer’s stories and they’re great, unfortunately there seems to be a real dearth of his books in Australia.

Now to the China Miéville front, and a big fat front that is. He’s just won the Arthur C. Clarke award for The City and the City, which I wrote a review of when it came out here. It makes him the only person to win it three times (damn over-achievers!). Personally, not his best book, but people seem to like it. He’s also finally got a website over at tumblr, but in true Miéville style it is full of slightly incomprehensible yet endearing quotes about socialism and giant squid.

Neil Gaiman is starting a world wide book club, funnily enough on the world wide web of twitter. He’s trying to get thousands of people reading the same book at the same time. They’ll be reading the classic American Gods, one of my Gaiman favourites.

More comic booky, but still weird enough, Mike Mignola is selling prints and original artwork on his website. Yay original Hellboy artwork! So sad that I can’t afford it.

And finally Ben Templesmith is releasing a book on sexy octopus women, called Squidgirls. While I don’t endorse the content, what could make a weird fiction fanboy’s life more complete than a book with naked kraken ladies?

The original game of choice: Blade Runner

Dubbed as an ‘interactive drama’, Heavy Rain follows four people and their pursuit of the Origami Killer, a desperate father, an insomniac woman, a FBI agent and a private eye. Each pathway has its own feel within the story, for example, the trials of the father are most reminiscent of Saw, while the private eye’s storyline has echoes of a Raymond Chandler novel. (Even the FBI agent looks a little bit like Mulder!) The whole game has the look and feel of Se7en, David Fincher’s masterpiece set in a city where the rain never ends. While this conglomerate of references could have turned into a hack job of old stories, the scriptwriting is excellent and the interactivity creates a whole new way of storytelling.

Yep, that's a sleazy guy. Couldn't you just tell from the zebra jacket?

How does this work, you ask? When you approach an object or a choice, pictures of your options show up on screen and by pressing certain combinations you can react in different ways. It could be as simple as moving the joystick to open a cupboard. You’ll also have to learn to shower yourself, feed a baby and even kiss… Slightly creepy. But there are much better things to do with your moves later on in the game, like beating people up and interrogating sleazy guys.

The game feels like a major development from the point and click adventure. You explore a location, find clues, solve a problem and then move on. But it is done in such an innovative way that it will never feel like pushing those old buttons “Talk to” and “Pick up”. The gameplay is completely original and a clear reason why Heavy Rain will be a major contender for game of the year.

Your choices determine the outcome of the game, but with so many possibilities everyone will have a different experience. If one of your characters dies, they are permanently dead and the story continues without them. The autosave function sees that there are no second chances. The first play through I resolved to go with my gut feelings and not try to reset in order to replay. I’ve never played a game where I’ve been so on edge about my joystick control. One false move could mean the end for a character, and there are some pretty horrific ways to die in this game! I had to ask myself “What would I do?” in this situation, which at times is harrowing and other times morally confronting.

Heavy Rain’s major contribution to video games comes in the way it deals with moral responsibility. It asks the question “How far would you go to save someone you love?” and is one of the few games that challenges a player’s sense of morality through the ability to chose, something that is impossible in film or literature. In a medium that often allows players to live out their fantasies without repercussion, Heavy Rain confronts players with the consequences of their actions. In that way it is entirely unique – where other games have used violence to justify their exploration of morality, Heavy Rain does the opposite, to the point where you may need to fail events to succeed in getting the best outcome. Part of the entertainment of the game is to see where another choice may have made a difference, giving the game a fantastic replay value.

The private investigator, Scott Shelby was my favorite storyline.

You can win trophies depending on the outcomes of certain scenarios. They can be as simple as the ‘Ludwig Van’, for playing the piano with no wrong notes, or as complex as an award for killing or not killing someone. I found myself wanting to unlock the trophies more and more, one of the few games I’ve actually wanted to fully complete (unlike Final Fantasy XIII – as if I am going to grind my way through those dumb trophies and screensavers). Completing certain chapters also unlocks interesting bonuses, again, something worthwhile like the stunning concept designs. This is a game that you will want to look at the extras – it’s a fascinating work of art, not just a video game.

It goes without saying that the graphics are excellent. I felt the lighting of the crime scenes was spot on, particularly the rotating beams of the police cars reflecting off the water in the first crime scene. There is a high level of detail in the cinematography; cut scenes use film techniques like steadycam and are carefully framed. Even many of the interactive parts are completely animated. The main characters are well done, although some of the supporting female characters (particularly Lauren the friendly prostitute) have an odd look about them. The sets and locations are well thought out, although I had a little bit of difficulty navigating in certain situations (Butterfly Trial anyone?).

Which leads into my one major frustration with the game. Walking. You have to use the left joystick and press R2 at the same time to move around. Why press R2? Why not just use the left joystick? It felt completely redundant to have to press two buttons to walk around a crime scene. And some of the combination moves will leave you feeling like playing twister on your controller.

Isn't there something familiar about this FBI agent?

There are also a few points where I could see better alternatives that weren’t offered in the game. In the Butterfly Trial (sorry, it’s the one that totally peed me off!), why wouldn’t Ethan brush away the glass? Or the FBI agent’s fancy glasses… how realistic is that? Or the way he dictates into his glasses the whole time like Kyle MacLauchlan in Twin Peaks! There are a few unbelievable situations like this but on the whole, it’s incredibly realistic.

Heavy Rain is a magnificent game. Despite the few misses, it has more than enough hits to land a power punch in storytelling. It is a genre changer and brings new life to the interactive story. I have never played a game that gave me so many chills or adrenaline rushes, yet has a story worthy of the top crime writers of our day. Play Heavy Rain and don’t look up the spoilers. It’s one of the best choices you’ll make.

The FFXIII story revolves around two things – the Fal’cie and the L’cie, although I’m not sure what the difference is between the two, nor exactly what they are. Basically, infected people are getting “deported” which is a fancy word for “taken away to die”.  One such person is the pink haired Lightning, a welcome break to Final Fantasy’s regular brooding male protagonists.

Ms Lightning, possibly a descendant of Cloud Strife?

Of course, Lightning doesn’t want to die, and as we find out, she’s an ex-soldier. Which is the first of many similarities between Ms Lightning and Cloud Strife. The second is their jpop hair.

The game begins in a world highly reminiscent of FFVII’s Migar, green lights, big machines and lots of train tracks. As always, the graphics are impressive, stunning on a HD TV. The cut scenes and action are closer than ever in quality, seamlessly blending film style graphics into the battle sequences. Final Fantasy has always been glorious to look at and XIII is no exception.

Hasn't he heard of Pantene? No need to hide bad hair days under a bandanna!

As the story progresses, you join Snow and a group of rebels fighting for freedom (I just want to hear one of the soldiers yell “Rebel scum!”). Snow’s the guy with the bandanna and greasy blonde hair, who talks much differently to what I expected; I thought that he would be more of a charming rogue character, instead he’s an uber-noble freedom fighter that talks way too much. Mr Greasy promotes his group NOVA suspiciously like FFVII’s AVALANCHE. Yet another ‘This worked before so let’s do it again moment’.

Then comes mom.

Now, when Square Enix did their budget, visual effects was a big one, then programming, maybe sound etc. Script revisions were on the bottom of that list, towards the basement, maybe even lower, heading towards hell. The FF crew obviously have never animated a HD ‘mom’ before and probably could have given her a few more wrinkles, ‘cause tired ol’ mom looks like a 16 year old with grey hair. Given that it’s pretty hard to raise children in this time of war, she’s looking as fine as an ad for Chanel. So, Snow goes up to a group of scared victims and says something like “Who wants to fight for freedom, blah, blah, blah.”

And Mom steps up. Snow asks “You sure?” And here comes the most awkward line in the history of video gaming.

“Moms are tough.”

It has all the delivery of a young Anakin Skywalker asking Padme “Are you an angel?” It made me laugh out loud and cringe with embarrassment… But searching on the internet has made it apparent that at least one person cried at this moment… Ahem. Of course, after she’s uttered these words we know she’s destined for the clichéd dead mom, orphan child plot basket.

Sigh.

The evolution of Final Fantasy perkiness: From left Vanille, Penelo, Rikku and Selphie

As for the other characters, well there’s your typical perky Rikku/Penelo/Selphie clone called Vanille, played by Australian Georgia Van Cuylenburg. And she bugs me. It’s not the accent (actually I rather like hearing an Australian in a video game). Nor is it the acting. It’s the callous way she’s so damn perky in a war zone, particularly towards said orphan whose mom just died. To paraphrase: “Oh your mom just died so sorry, let’s skip around and explore this zany temple/machine/thing. Oh you need a hug? Super. Ciao!”

The character I really enjoy is Sazh, the fast-talking, chocobo wearing, afroed man, who’s not quite sure how he ended up in this mess, or this video game. He’s a departure from typical Final Fantasy character stereotypes (the perky girl, the brooding hero with a sword, the kind hearted sidekick, the hot gothic chick). And the chocobo in his hair is so cute that it’s hard not to like him. The other characters include Hope, said orphan child, whose hair is as grey as Mom’s (obviously from bearing the burden of the world on his shoulders) and Serah, Lightning’s sister and Snow’s fiancée, who quickly becomes a npc, but I won’t give that exciting plot point away.

In case of an emergency, just press X.

Now that I’ve had my whinge about unbelievable characters, I’ll move onto gameplay, which is… alright. Square Enix have moved away from the real-time battle system in XII, which was at times a bit too much like autopilot (for an example of this, some people were able to leave the game overnight and level up). They’ve returned to interactive battles, in that you must come into contact with the monsters to engage the battle screen. It’s an interesting decision and for me it sometimes feels like a step backwards. While the system in FFXII wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t a bad idea and could have simply been improved.

However, the action is definitely more involving and face-paced than its turn based predecessors. FFVIII lacks the static camera of past games, so that every move feels like a different animation. Even if you fight the same monsters (as inevitably you will), the battles do not feel as repetitive as past games. And you can do some pretty cool moves while laying up your ATB gauge. It’s a little bit easy given that there’s a button which says “Auto-battle” which chooses the most effective attacks for you. Also, you magically heal after every battle with no penalty, so there’s no more running to the next save point to heal everyone up. Which is good and bad, I got a little irritated when I’d go through a hard part of FFXII and then the save point would turn into a bloody monster, but then it’s not so challenging.

Oooh... crystals... pretty... but strikingly linear.

You don’t really level up in this game, but use a pretty little system that’s called the Crystalarium which could have been drawn as a straight line in terms of linearity. You don’t get much choice in what roles your characters do, and even during battle you can only control the “commander”, normally Lightning or Snow. You can, however, assign the roles the other characters take during battle, such as a medic, ravager or synergist.

Overall, Final Fantasy XIII is like the pretty girl at school. She’s popular and good looking, but she’s also a little vacuous and shallow. Despite this, I’m going to play it through. Call me shallow, but the graphics are so pretty it’s hard to notice the flaws.

That’s it for my first observations. I’d love to see where this story goes, and if it makes any more sense with a few more hours gameplay (author’s note: after 6 hours and watching the Good Game review it’s starting to make sense!). I’ll write another post when I’m later through the game, although given that most Final Fantasy games take around 100 hours to complete, I have another 98 to go.

Have you played Final Fantasy XIII yet? What do you think? Is the script bad or are moms really tough?

Hammertime! Now strike a pose. The original visitors...

During my formative years, my dad made us work through the complete science fiction VHS section of Cambridge Park Video Store (which strangely was positioned right next to the porn section, and I would forever wonder through my childhood what those weird films were). From the shop came the entire Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Wars, War of the Worlds and the original Battlestar Galactica. V was one of my favourites and the most memorable series after Star Trek. I remember watching in eager anticipation as the humanoid aliens that came in peace gradually became more suspicious, until the horrid truth was revealed. So it stole a few ideas from great sci-fi novels… So what! Their badly animated machine guns, bright red outfits and guinea pig eating enthralled me. When they peeled back of their faces to reveal… Well I won’t tell you what, but if you’ve seen the original I’m sure you’ll remember.

The new V is an interesting remake, in that the context for the series actually seems more appropriate to a 2010 setting. I would suggest that there is now potential for a much deeper exploration of what the arrival of “peaceful” aliens means for humankind, than in the 1980s. An FBI agent investigating terrorist cells that as we find out at the end of episode one, are linked to the aliens, has a much greater impact in a post 9/11 world. As do the notions of surveillance, media control and censorship that the aliens begin to enforce.

Who is stupid enough to trust an alien that looks like Katie Holmes?

The Visitors themselves have more currency today, given their somewhat suspicious likeness to scientologists. I mean, who would trust an alien that looks like Katie Holmes? That resemblance alone would send me running to the hills. The tension builds simply by a very effective and creepy performance by Morena Baccarin as the High Commander. You know you can’t trust her, but her cult of personality still leads people astray. Also, Scott Wolf’s in it. Remember Scott Wolf? He hasn’t changed a bit since Party of Five.

Trust us...

While I know the ending, I will be interested to see how the V remake plays out for someone who hasn’t seen the original (or read Make Room! Make Room!). My husband is very much against science-fiction; he loves Star Wars and Independence Day, but to suggest to watch a sci-fi TV show is met with as much resistance as a Gerard Depardieu war film. Reluctantly he allowed me to watch it, so when the visitors first arrived, and the US plane came down, dead parachutist following, I was surprised when he said “Ok, that was cool”. By the end of the show, he meekly admitted, “Oh, that wasn’t so bad.”

Just wait until the end, when all is revealed. I’m sure I’ll hear a resounding “Wow”.

Alternatively you can see Monkey Island on Google Maps, so wherever you live, you can get directions there. Saves trying to navigate the Monkey Head lava puzzle.
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In the middle of the south island near Lake Ohau is a fantastic antiques shop called the Totar Peak Gallery. What’s so great about this shop is not so much the antiques (they’re fine) but the owners have converted half their shop into a Hercules, Xena and Cleopatra 2525 museum. You must remember Xena, right? Lucy Lawless? Anyway, the place is full of kitchy goodness. Here are some photos for your personal delight.

A centurion amongst the piles of books.

Cleopatra 2525 costumes

Every man needs one of these.

Costumes from the musical episode of Hercules

The piece de resistance: Xena costume

Happy draft swappers in the sun. Margo Lanagan is the one on the left. I'm in the hat with my back to the camera. HP Lovecraft casts a benevolent cosmic glow in the centre.

We all met up in an enchanting old terrace in Petersham, with green walls and red doors and a giant Geoffrey Smart painting on the wall, to talk about our novels, get some feedback and eventually swap manuscripts with other people to read over the holidays. Margo was guest of honour, bringing along two of her most recent awards, the Printz award and the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, which she won this year for Tender Morsels. If you’ve never seen a World Fantasy Award (and really, how many of us have?) they’re actually quite funny – a pewter statue of H.P. Lovecraft looking like one of the Easter Island statues. He has big saucer eyes, so that the overall effect leaves you a bit creeped out, but wanting to touch his head nonetheless. Margo is so down to earth about all the awards; she is one of those people who really deserve the success they experience.

I haven’t read Tender Morsels yet but I’ve read Black Juice, her collection of short stories. It’s an excellent read. One thing that strikes me about how different her writing style is (and what marks it above other more traditional writing) is that she is not caught up in action speech (I did this, I said this), but rather evoking an emotion of experience through train of consciousness writing. It’s something to remember as an aspiring writer, and one of the things that I often notice about first time writers, that they begin every sentence with I did, he said, we went, rather than varying the sentence structure and allowing the fullness of description to enter their writing.

Some more advice I learnt for aspiring novelists is don’t quit your day job! Margo still needs to work on a regular basis, and this is a woman with three world fantasy awards under her belt. Which is a bit of depressing realism; we live in a society where even talented people can’t focus entirely on what they’re good at because of the money factor. She read some of her new book (a racy sex scene!) which is about selkies, the half seal, half humans found in Scotland.

In the afternoon we had a visit from another lovely published writer, Margaret Wilcox, author of Gone. Her book is a gripping memoir of tracking down her kidnapped daughter over fourteen years. Looking at Margaret, a well-dressed, polite older lady, she doesn’t seem like the type to be breaking and entering and dealing with dodgy lawers and cops, but we sat on the edge of our seats as she recollected some of the events of the book and the process of writing. She originally wanted it to write the book as a love letter to her found daughter Tanya, but was encouraged to send it to a publisher. The book has now been translated into several languages and distributed around the world.

Finally it came time to draft swap. We each read a segment of our novel and the synopsis and then paired up with someone else to swap manuscripts over the Christmas holidays. I swapped my novel, The Memory of Blood, with a couple who were co-writing a book set in London and Africa. What was great is that everyone was completely different; there were a few memoirs and literary fiction, travelling from India to Indonesia. And one rewrite of Dracula… mine. Personally, I found it really helpful to share with a group of people I had never met, after suffering a bit of writer’s anxiety, it’s good to get out and talk with other people going through a similar thing. Even published authors have been through the terror of the first book.

If you’re interested in Jan’s workshops (sorry, they’re in Sydney for all you awesome North American readers), you can check out her website: www.writersjourney.com.au

Margo Lanagan also has a good blog over at http://amongamidwhile.blogspot.com/

Delicious reading: Dead Until Dark

The first book in the series is called Dead Until Dark, and all the proceeding novels include ‘dead’ somewhere in the title. Sookie Stackhouse is a southern bartender with a disability – she can read minds. So when Bon Temps gets their first vampire, she is more than happy, because vamps don’t project their thoughts. But with the arrival of Vampire Bill also comes a series of murders. Someone is targeting women who have sex with vampires. And let me add, there’s a lot of vampire sex.

The books follow Sookie’s investigations in the vampire world, with her ability to read minds making her a valuable asset to the supernatural community. There’s a great sense of humour throughout the novels, with a little something for everyone. The books are often labeled as ‘Paranormal Romance’, but oscillate between mystery, comedy and romance in a balanced way.

It’s interesting to see how Charlaine Harris has interwoven ancient mythology into the modern South. Vampires have come ‘out of the coffin’, after the Japanese developed synthetic blood (you can order a drink of blood in a bar). But not everyone is happy about the outing of the vamps. Other supernatural creatures, shape-shifters, telepaths and even a maenid, want to stay unnoticed. For better and for much worse, Sookie becomes a bridge between the two worlds.

There’s lots of blood and titillating sex scenes, in case some of you felt a bit ripped off by Twilight’s ‘no touching’ policy. After all, vampires are notorious for their wanton lust for women, men and anything in between. I don’t recommend you buying this for your teenage daughters if they’re looking for the next Edward Cullen – there’s possibly a little too much naughtiness here. Orgies… Murders… Sex outside of marriage… You get the picture.

CHARLAAIIINE! Then and now. Love the hair.

One glance across Charlaine Harris’ website has introduced me to a whole new genre of writing. I really want to read Must Love Hellhounds, which has a great cover. Harris looks exactly as she should, your typical Southern woman with a toff of big hair. Don’t be put off by the notion of reading a romance novel, they’re a lot of light fun with a bit of intrigue to boot. For those people who thought Twilight was too wussy and Dracula was too stiff, I totally  recommend the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries.