Timewaster's Guide Archive

I think that the Alcatraz books at least are going to be a five books series actually, and I am not even sure if the fifth book has been purchased yet. Might be a while before you get them in a boxed set.

Also started in on Adrian Tchakovski's(sp?) Empire of Black and Gold and have to say, it is great. This book might win the award for worst back cover blurb ever but I encourage everyone who likes political fantasy to pick a copy up and give it a try. A very cool story and some very cool characters it has been a great read so far.

Also along with everyone else I am reading through Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians. I just can't stop laughing, this book is hilarious.

I am playing through it now and enjoying it quite a bit. I have found myself frustrated a few times by certain puzzles where, as was said you can easily "die" dozens of times just because you miss a single button press or are trying to figure out what you need to do next at warp speed since the Prince never really stops moving.  I seriously doubt that I will be going back to find all the light seeds I missed, I am sort of working under the assumption that some of them can't even be acquired until you gain more abilities and I have yet to double back and collect them.

All in all the game is an exciting experience and a ton of fun to play. Even the frustrating moments come with the great sense of accomplishment when you have the timing worked out.

I have read myself some fanfiction. Particularly the stuff based on Disney's Gargoyles where the fan community (with input from the actual creative team) wrote further seasons of the show and wrote a few spinoff series as well. All of which were originally planned by the creators before the series got canceled. I have also read some of the transformers Beast Wars fan fiction. I was a huge fan of that series when it was on and it was nice to see some fans making an effort to write more stories to bring some of the toys into the canon.

I like fanfiction as a way to extend a series, particularly when it is done well. My big problem is that just like with books you have no way of knowing which authors are good without reading them first and whereas in RL the less talented authors don't get published, or at least not for long, fan fics just keep getting written by anyone with a keyboard.

The thing you need to be careful of with fan fiction is when it gets into the erotica area, which to my mind tends to be creepy. I don't really understand what would drive someone to write that stuff but as long as it is clearly labeled so I can avoid it more power to them.

Also not at all.

Munchkin is neither a CCG nor an RPG. While the game does have expansions it is really just a card game. There are no real roleplaying elements to it.

Those are pretty awesome. I am thinking about grabbing an allomantic vial just because they are way too cool. Might need to grab one for the GF as well, once she starts reading the books.

And caught up, that took a long time.

As I was reading I had plenty of comments and questions, most raised by other posts but since I didn't bother to write them down I can't remember most of them.
My new pet theories are both about the Shards (and might need to be restated on that thread assuming it exists at all) but they are:
1. Ruin and Preservation were not two seperate shards but in fact shards of a shard. They were in such perfect balance that it seems strange to me that they could have ever functioned without each other. I expect that the power arrived on the planet and was fractioned through some unknown event (possibly in the moment that Ati and Laras each claimed a portion of it.) This would also explain how, once there was a consiciousness in control of them they were capable of working together. But who knows, I think EUOL said something about us having met 4 shards and since I firmly believe Hoid is one, the pool is another and there is one in Warbreaker (which I have only just started reading) that leaves us only room for one in MB.
2. Hoid is a shard. I suspect that Hoid with his ability to jump worlds (or possibly ability to exist on all worlds at once) is another shard of Adonalsium, possibly even the conciousness and with his power removed he simply has no memory of what he once was. I'll admit a bit of a leap and the character could simply be like Cid for the Final Fantasy games, a nice little in joke for the author and his fans.
3.  Regarding the Seers at the final battle (and in fact a number of the others who fell to the mistsickness) I seem to remember when Elend first figures out the mists snapping people he orders that metals be brought down, but then specifically lists Iron, Steel, Pewter and Tin (IIRC) I got the impression that he only felt it was necessary to get metals into the mistings who had abilities that would be useful in the battle. Really when you have very little time would you care if someone could burn copper? Or really any of the less readily useful metals? Even Zinc and Brass would be fairly useless in that situation since (as Breeze was fond of reminding us) they are not simple powers to use. They require finesse, and finesse comes from training and practice not just from having the power. As for the battle in the Kandra Homeland they had a ton of atium sitting there but did they really have big caches of any other metals? For all we know some of the soldiers (and I hope Demoux) were indeed Mistborn but without the other metals to test how would they, or we know.

Sorry those ran a little long, had a little stream of conciousness moment there.

I am just finishing up The Hero of Ages and have to say that it was the most fun book in the series. I have just been flying through it, unable to put it down and happily missing out on sleep to read.

After that I have Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchakovisky which I am really looking forward to.

Right before HoA I tore through Princep's Fury, the 5th book in the Codex Alera which was a bit slow to start but once it kicked in it just flew.

I picked up 7 new books with Christmas GCs so am looking at a nice long run with some exciting new authors to get me through these brutal cold months (-50 outside today, I need to move).