Baby Driver

I took the plunge, World's End notwithstanding, and went to see Baby Driver.

Short version - if you sat through the trailers and said "hell, yeah" - the movie is exactly what they sold you. Go, watch it. 

That said, I'm torn. Where once in the past I was more amenable to "stylish" and directly artistic movies, I have much less patience with, say, Tarantino flicks, than I used to be. It's very overtly and deliberately stylistic, often enough in ways that call themselves to your attention. Yet, I've been thinking about aspects of it, its themes, its story, for the last couple days.

A few notes on what to expect.

Music runs throughout the entire thing. Baby, the main character, has tinnitus from a childhood accident that killed his parents, and nearly constantly keeps headphones in his ears, music playing. In the opening credits, Baby walks past graffiti and other markers that coincide with the music he's listening to. He remixes the conversations and planning meetings with his crime boss he owes - Kevin Spacey's "Doc". The music, and his sunglasses, are a barrier between him and his life of crime that he desperately seeks a path out of, while the music is also a reminder of his mother. 

Mr Wright dialed back the forced humor, to good effect. This is a tight and efficient story with little or no wasted time. Everything is important, and a number of "checkov's gun" moments are well disguised as character revelations and moments, only later being revealed for exactly how important they are, often in ways not obvious when they first come up. Most of the twists - it's a heist movie after all - follow the rule of "surprising yet inevitable" to good effect. The humor, when it comes, works.

The driving. The trailers didn't lie - it's absolutely nuts.

The characters are a bit pretentious, again, deliberately. Like the driving and action (though god save me from two-fisted rifle firing by some wee slip of a girl) it's one of a piece with how over the top everything is. Stepping back, neary every one of them is exaggerated, putting a face on to the world, with Lilly James' "Deborah" being the only character who is largely what she presents herself to be. Baby is, in many ways, also what we see, trying to present a different face to the world, and the criminals he works with.

It's not much of a spoiler since it's a critical blurb in the first trailer, but the song "nowhere to run to" is absolutely emblamatic of the main theme of the movie - Baby trying to get out of this life of crime, and getting dragged back in. Unlike, in some ways, Shaun and Fuzz, and to a much greater extent World's End, everyone in this film gets what they deserve.

For those who, with some justification, hate the Hero's Journey and reluctant hero tropes that seem to infect Hollywood movies these days, the movie starts off firing on all cylinders getting away from a bank robbery. Baby's backstory - an all too typical "daddy was abusive" bit - is sketched out in a bare minimum through the movie, and you discover each character through their actions. He's already a gifted driver, he's already looking to get out, and thinks he's near that goal. It's the complications of falling in love (please spare me from the line "I don't think I'm good enough for you...), being dragged back in against his will, and finally, dealing with a chaotic and murderous member of the team, that unravels everything.

It is, in the end, a movie about the consequences of evil and nihilism, and of taking responsibility for one's actions and choices.

Spoilers. I warned you.

No. I'm not kidding.

Really.

In the end, Baby finds his ....

Look. I don't really think this will ruin the movie if you're inclined to like it, but it is a spoiler, if a bit vague.

In the end, Baby finds his salvation in stopping running, facing the consequences of his actions. He, and Deborah, are the only ones who live - she the innocent and he, while not so much, being saved in large part by his actions to save others, so that they stick their necks out for him. 

Given my recent kick of listening to Jordan Peterson's lectures on how facing the good and evil in ourselves, and facing what we fear is the only way to find meaning, that is very appropriate.

Review: Blame

What do you get when you cross Gregory Benford's Great Sky River with a spaghetti western?

Blame.

A brief voiceover gives us the setting. In the far, far future where humanity lost the ability to communicate with the city it constructed, that they lived in, and so the city deemed them illegal residents, and began to exterminate humanity. Our story starts generations later.

An aside. Yes. Given the word choice, I'm sure some people would love to make it about the current immigration kerfluffle, but keep in mind this is a Japanese comic from 20-30 years ago, and Japan isn't exactly an immigration capital even now. Also, it's not the first to posit total war between man and machine - Saberhagen's Berzerker stories come to mind, as well as the future of the Terminator movies, of course.

The action starts right away - you see a small team of people scurrying through giant metal caverns and claustrophobic spaces, in search of a new food source for their village - these details being picked up over several minutes from hints dropped in conversation. The team is composed of kids, teens, and if that fact itself didn't show their desperation, it's later reinforced.

They get in trouble...

...and are rescued by a quiet, almost speechless man calling himself "Killy" - who is searching for humans with the net terminal gene.

Already, the similarities with Great Sky River show up - the desperate straights of the dwindling human population that found a sanctuary of sorts, but must still forage in the world of the machines to get by, living like rats in the walls in constant fear of being found, of their sanctuary broken.

And the westerns - a lone stranger shows up, rescuing the hunting party from the "safeguard". Back at the village, he brings with him the chance to survive, to secure a source of food, and perhaps return the city to human control. And so a team of villagers set out.

And so - through numerous twists I won't spoil - the village is brought to the brink of disaster, yet saved, and the lone stranger wanders off on his quest, never to be seen again.

The action sequences are amazing. The 3d-rendered shading style has vastly improved over efforts I'd seen in the past. The characters are memorable, with the competent and wise village leader, "pops" and his dutiful, competent son, are both noteworthy. Despite a few infodumps, they are short, added only as needed, and the personalities are drawn out with economy and clarity.

Well worth watching.

How Reviews SHOULD Be Written

I stand in awe.

As I already commented the other day, "this review makes me want to watch the movie."

What movie? King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.

Yeah, that. Saw the trailers and it looked like a hacked together bit of CGI with little respect for the source material or the viewer.

Saw go read the whole review, but I'll give you a taste - for I'm utterly floored, and applaud, the writing, and sheer enthusiasm that comes off the page.

Ritchie does not mess about (this will be a theme).  The movie opens with 200-foot tall olyphants straight out of Lord of the Rings assaulting Camelot.  Mages from the tower of the kaiju elephant’s back incinerate soldiers manning the walls.  It almost veers into the lazy disintegration CGI trope, but it still looks great.  Magic isn’t easy to translate to the screen; Legend of the Sword does it very well.

The fair knights of Camelot are screwed, no?  Well, no, not when King Uther (this is backstory) has his Sword +5+25 of badassery.  He leaps from the remains of a stone bridge onto the side of the elephant, scales it, uses the power of the Sword to dispel Mordred’s magical attacks, and single-handedly slays him.  This is a king who gets shit done.

Mordred is defeated, but all is not well in the kingdom.  There is fighting in the castle, and both Uther and his brother, Vortigern (played by Jude Law) are rushing their families to seeming safety.  But if you’ve seen any of the trailers, or, uh, that his name is “Vortigern,” you can guess Law’s character is up to no good.  While Uther is trying to get his wife and son to safety via the water (why he is running now when he just faced down a kaiju without blinking isn’t explained), Vortigern stabs his wife by the water (Why?  Give it a few minutes.)  A young Arthur watches Frazetta’s Death Dealer kill his mother, then is off on a boat to be raised in a brothel.

This is an origin story, but Ritchie spends about 10 minutes on what another director would have burned an hour on.  A rapid fire sequence shows Arthur growing into a man.  Defending prostitutes, making a little coin on the dock, learning how to fight from a Chinese guy named Kung Fu George.  Why?  Because it’s cool, that’s why.

Still have no idea if the movie is any good, certainly others over at Vox Pop disagree, but either way, the review made me reconsider watching a movie I'd already decided not to watch.

Review: The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin

I normally would not pick up a YA book. But John C Wright is a fantastically literate and aware author who's integrity in making recommendations I trust, and in posts and comments his wife, L. Jagi Lamplighter, has been warm, very well spoken, and insightful. So I decided to give her book, The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin, a shot.

The short version is that I am very glad I did.

From Amazon:

Nestled amidst the beauty of New York’s Hudson Highlands and hidden from the eyes of the Unwary, Roanoke Academy is a place of magic and wonder. It offers everything a young sorceress could desire—enchantments, flying brooms, and the promise of new friendships.

On her first day of school, Rachel Griffin discovers her perfect memory gives her an unexpected advantage. With it, she can see through the spell sorcerers use to hide their secrets. Very soon, she discovers that there is a far-vaster secret world hiding from the Wise, precisely the same way that the magical folk hide from the mundane folk.

When someone tries to kill a fellow student, she investigates. Rushing forward where others fear to tread, Rachel bravely faces wraiths, embarrassing magical pranks, mysterious older boys, a Raven that brings the doom of worlds, and at least one fire-breathing teacher.

Described by fans as: "Supernatural meets Narnia at Hogwarts", The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin is a tale of wonder and danger, romance and heartbreak, and, most of all, of magic and of a girl who refuses to be daunted.

So, yes. We have a magical school. The lead character is a girl instead of a boy. There is magic. The "wise" - humans with magic - exist in parallel with, and mostly hidden from the normal humans, most of whom are "the unwary."

Yet, It's hardly a simple knockoff of Hogwarts.

First of all, it exists roughly in the same universe as her husband, John C Wright's, "Moth and Cobweb" books. The wise are families which have magic because their forebears had been, in part, magical creatures. There are wars among the wise at times, and of course, multiple schools of magic. The wise in this world tend to take a more active part in managing the world of the unwary to keep them ignorant of magic behind the scenes than the magicians of the Harry Potter universe, but then, it's not quite our world. Monotheism, as in Christianity, is almost unknown.

The pacing is spot on - and the story doesn't artificially drag through an entire school year.

Rachel is an interesting character, and not particularly gifted with leadership by author caveat, or many other skills that her friends have in abundance. The one thing she does have - an eidetic memory - she learns how to use to see what is hidden, and the competence she develops at magic are done through repeated, often embarrassingly bad, practice before she finally gets the hang of things.

Her persistence is far more important to the decisions she makes than anything else, and unlike a certain other magic school series, she is certainly a protagonist here, making choices.

The romance aspect is sweet, somewhat innocent, yet real, which is different from what I'd seen, and far different from the worst of what I'd heard is considered acceptable in YA fiction.

As to the bad guys and the conflict - yes, the adults don't really listen, a trope so old that Eight Legged Freaks explicitly made fun of it, but  are not morons and when trouble comes calling they are near universally competent and people you would not cross. There are bullies, straight out of central casting for Mean Girls. The magicians in the house of bad boys living on the edge of dark magic are shown to be far more nuanced than their reputation allows.

And Rachel makes several decisions that I expect will lead to interesting times and hard choices later on.

I could say far more, but only at risk of spoilers.

Review: Take the Star Road (The Maxwell Saga) book 1

While I've long seen him around the Mad Genius Club environs and have enjoyed the posts at his own site, I had not read anything of Peter Grant's until the western Brings the Lightning, and Take the Star Road is, after all this time, only the second book of his I've read.

Steve Maxwell is an orphan, born on a deeply socialist earth that is in danger, due to most of the smarter and more driven (K-selected?) people leaving for other colonies, of becoming a backwater. Despite the reverence still held for "Old Home Earth" - the signs are there. Fortunately his parents ensured a modicum of good schooling in their affairs, and Steve is a driven man who wants off his homeworld, to make his way among the stars.

As the book opens, Steve is closing out a night washing dishes and closing up an orbital, cargo terminal bar as a part time worker. Leaving, he and the owner are attacked, and Steve helps fight them off, saving the owners life, to discover they are members of a local Tong, the Lotus Tong. Out of gratitude, the owner first takes him on full time, then arranges to get him an apprentice slot with a merchant spacer he trusts. And so Steve's journey begins.

The characters are amazing, and, when one dies later in the book, it has a huge emotional impact. The story - a youth-coming-of-age story - is tight and well told. The action, when it comes, is brutal but not glorified to the point of violence porn, understandable given Mr Grant's background as a veteran and a preacher.

The weakest point is the dialog. I both read and listened, in turns, having purchased both the Kindle and Audible versions. The narrator was excellent, but the "golly" and "gee" routine was a bit jarring for me as a son of a Marine and veteran sailor, given the universe of the book, but understandable with the target audience and Mr. Grant's sensibilities. The biggest issue, again, more noticeable when narrated as you have more time to take in the words and stilted sentences stand out more, was the over-explanatory and stilted nature of the dialog.

The world Maxwell inhabits includes jump drives, reactionless drives, antigrav and artificial gravity, and tractor beams, whereas projectile weapons are the shipboard weapons of the day, and missiles the weapons of choice for pirates and major naval ships. The attention to detail, and "how things work" shows. Despite the stilted nature of the dialog, it does explain why things work, numerous aspects of ship design and operational procedures, all of it to a level of detail comparable to the pages spent in Have Space Suit Will Travel detailing the design and operation of vacuum suits. Also, the reasons make sense, and matter in either how the story unfolds or how characters behave, and why.

It can be a bit unsettling to read an author in reverse order, even if the two books have nothing to do with each other, when they display such a large progression in skill and craft. Nevertheless, despite the dialog issues I had, I quickly finished this book, taking full advantage of "whispersync" to either listen to it via audio or to read it on a Kindle, getting through it as fast as I could. The story and characters are memorable in their own right, the story engaging, and despite the clunky dialog you can see the gold of his later works already shining through, ready to be revealed in greater clarity and polish.

I highly recommend it, and will gladly continue the series. It also shows that his western was not a fluke.

Review: The Stars Came Back, by Rolf Nelson

Helton Strom isn't having a good day. Or week for that matter.

A teacher who can't get the job he wants as pilot (even managing to break the simulator while testing), he decides to take a break to help out his sister, he then has his citizenship and job stripped from him, and is left adrift with nothing to do. To make matters worse, the ship has been hijacked by pirates, and he, and the passengers, have been stranded on a desert planet, to be used as slaves.

Little did he know things were already looking up.

First things first, the format. There are two editions of this book. The first is in a semi-screenplay format, the second is a standard prose style retelling that covers the first half called "Back From the Dead: The Stars Came Back" which covers the first half of the original, the second half is in process. It takes a while to get into the flow of things, but gives the story a very cinematic style, with internal thoughts, feelings, and dialog telegraphed by visual cues, what people do, what they say, and what the author, as "director", choses to focus on.

Which brings us back to the story.

After saving the prisoners with the help of another passenger, Strom stumbles into what looks like the chance of a lifetime. Free and clear ownership of an old, small transport that's desperately in need of repairs. And someone's already living on board. And hints build up that it has a mind of it's own - and we're not entirely certain it's sane.

It does appear... protective.

And things keep rolling from there.

It's been said that if you liked the freewheeling "western" feel of Firefly with an oddball crew, you'd probably like this. Except this has less corporate conspiracies, just as many nasty bureaucracies and power-hungry predators, and more explosions.

Lots more. That's what you expect when you add in mercenary companies, battle fleets, tanks, infantry action, and a rogue, abandoned battlestation.

Full of action and adventure, with a side dash of philosophy, it's an interesting tale of a man molding a new future, alliances, and a new, rag-tag "family," out of the people and materials at hand, and indeed, at the end, working to return the stars to mankind, instead of to the tyrants.

Review: Oath of Fealty

Pournelle is one of my personal heroes. While I might argue that Dan Simmons or Gene Wolfe are better prose stylists, that Larry or Ringo can capture me with the chaotic rush of their stories and their wonderful characters, or that Wright can floor me with the scope of his vision and the direct poetry of his words, I keep coming back to Pournelle. His editorship of There Will be War that I stumbled into while in middle school, was a turning point in my life. Finding a battered copy of the Mercenary on a library sale spinner was another - and I treasure the collected Falkenberg/CoDominum stories in The Prince. The later realization that the first true short story in The Mercenary was based on the Nika revolt in Constantinople jumpstarted a love of history that high school boredom and teachers had nearly crushed out of my soul. I'm not the only one who found Pournelle fundamental and underappreciated, outshone by better-known names; Jeffro has reviewed King David's Spaceship in it's role as an inspiration for the role playing game Traveller.

In addition to his own work, Pournelle also was half of what was, in my mind, one of the best collaborative pairings in science fiction. Pournelle, alone, had studied aerospace engineering, sociology, and other subjects, with an ability to understand the impact of technology from his own and other disciplines that few had. His take on the future was full of hope and adventure, swords and impossible quests, but also gritty. The militaries acted like functioning organizations. The technology felt lived in. The consequences of his tramline based FTL system in the CoDominium books, and the stories like King David's Spaceship that followed, followed rules as merciless and consistent as any "hard" science fiction work. He had a feel for history that breathed life into his stories, even when not explicitly informed by true events.

The other half was Niven - with an eye toward the utterly fantastic. Niven could get in someone's head. His stories featured aliens that were truly alien, their very thoughts and assumptions driven by their instincts and biologies. Looking at his stories, he lived and breathed the big ideas of stellar constructs, and what if. His Ringworld inspired, among other things, the setting for Halo.

The two together? Amazing.

In my opinion, and despite the high esteem in which I hold Dune, Their work on The Mote in Gods Eye is easily not only the best first contact novel ever written, but the best science fiction book written short of Gene Wolfe's long and new sun books, while being far more accessible. There is a scene near the end, the result of events that could only have come from both authors working together, that is the stuff of utter nightmares, and yet, only involves one space suit, and its contents.

So - all these words, and I've yet to mention, among their other works, Oath of Fealty.

When Pournelle stopped There Will Be War at the ninth volume, he started a new project, published by Baen, called Imperial Stars. It explored governments of the future, more than straight warfare. Included in the essays was an old Campbell essay where it was discussed tribesmen, barbarians, and civilized people, and that to a barbarian, civilized people looked an awful lot like weird tribesmen, subsuming themselves to the tribe. he closed with the point that future political changes past "civilized" may take on structures that look a lot like the old, to our current selves.

To me, Oath of Fealty is borne of that essay. It centers on a large arcology - think of it as a massive building which is a self-contained city - the first one to be successful, built near LA, called Todos Santos. From Infogalactic:

In the near future, a race riot results in the destruction of an area just outside Los Angeles. The city sells the construction rights to a private company, which then constructs an arcology, named Todos Santos. The higher standard of living enjoyed by Todos Santos residents causes resentment among Angelenos. The arcology dwellers have evolved a different culture, sacrificing privacy - there are cameras (not routinely monitored) even in the private apartments - in exchange for security. The residents are fiercely loyal to the arcology and its management, and the loyalty runs both ways. During the course of the novel, Todos Santos is compared to a feudal society, with loyalty and obligations running both ways, hence the title. 

Pro or con, it explores issues of modern crime, of security, of the surveillance state, of loyalty, of the fragility of large and complex systems, ecoterrorism, and of the debts and obligations of feudalism. It also features one of the earliest examples of computer interface implants, beating out the more fantastic version that would show up in the works of William Gibson by a couple years.

Also, near the very beginning, is a scene that still makes me laugh in a dark way. Due to the popularity of the tall building for wannabe jumpers, the management made it very difficult to get to the roof. Since they couldn't stop everyone though, there was one, final, psychological mindfuck. As the prospective jumper finally approaches the edge, he is greeted by a diving platform. Scrawled on the wall near this by some anonymous resident, is the graffiti "Think of it as evolution in action."

That phrase describes both the societal changes in Todos Santos, as well as the individual jumper taking himself out of the reproductive pool. Most who made it that far are... dissuaded, realizing that not only did the universe not care about their grand gesture, but were willing to give them a few extra feet of height for the sendoff, and mock them.

The story fits well into the tone of Pournelle's short stories in High Justice, of individuals and companies doing what they can to stand up against tyrants, and worse, bureaucracies that take over every aspect of life. It's a fun, but thoughtful read.

I Forgot One Thing - Name of the Wind.

Since I was covering "well crafted crap" yesterday, I forgot one book that stands out as a rare work I haven't finished, no matter how fine the prose, briefly mentioned in my gushing over John Ringo's Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge.

Holy shit did I get sick of Kvothe - to the point I had to look up his name because I have him tagged mentally as "whiny selfish Marty Stu asshole gamma victim" the character so revolted me. I think I stopped somewhere at the point he was getting kicked out of the magic school or something.

God he was insufferable, and I don't think I would have gotten past the second or third chapter once the protagonist was shown to be such a useless anklebiter if the prose hadn't promised better, and it hadn't gotten so much praise.

Building a Better Groundhog Day

It's pretty easy to make fun of Tom Cruise - especially with the whole couch -jumping incident and his Scientology issues, but he actually can act. He's also in two of the better recent science fiction films I'd seen: Oblivion, and Edge of Tomorrow.

Edge of Tomorrow suffered from a lot of issues at the studio level. No-one seemed to have any idea how to market it, and the Japanese short-novel the concept was borrowed from had an even less descriptive title (All You Need is Kill).  It almost seemed that the tag line "Live, Die, Repeat" was the name of the movie, and you could be forgiven for thinking that looking at the posters. What you get is Groundhog Day as sci-fi action shootemup, and a damn smart one at that. For all of the other marketing failures, the tagline and the trailers promised us that, and the movie delivered in spades.

Cruise plays Bill Cage, a PR flack, and something of a coward, who ends up dropping into a D-Day style invasion of France to push back an alien invasion. Everything comes apart, but he manages to kill one alien before dying....

... and wakes up, the day before. He's literally stuck in a time loop, going back to the same point every time he dies.

The movie manages to play with the idea of trying, over and over again, trying to convince people the invasion will fail, to find a way past the invasion point, find the center of alien power, and disable it, with both a dark and deft sense of humor as needed. The action is over the top but true to character and the tone of the film, the armor worn in many of the scenes feels like something that could have stepped out of Warhammer 40K.

And at the end, Cage grows as a person, having to face his cowardice at a moment he really could lose it all.

Update - I've followed up with more thoughts on this movie here.

More on John Wick

There are only so many movies that I consider effectively "perfect." Movies so tightly done, with good acting, good editing, every piece has its place, and even knowing the twists you can watch them over and over again.

One for me is "The Usual Suspects".

Another is John Wick.

OK, it's not flawless. It's certainly not terribly "original".  But, and this is a huge but, it delivers exactly what it promises, with excellent pacing, interesting characters that behave exactly how you'd expect people to behave, and utterly fantastic fight scenes.

It's all in the details. It's a consummate action movie, down to the droll way that body disposal is ordered as if ordering catering for an event.

The fights are choreographed to a "T", and not the showy  stuff you usually get, epic as that can be, but tight, fast, vicious, claustrophobic, and obeying for the most part physics, people's ability to track, and the laws of ammo shortages on all sides.

The characters, from the sniper played by Willem DeFoe, to Ms Perkins are all slightly larger than life. And Ms. Perkins is athletic, but against men usually gets by on wits and feminine wiles, which she wields very effectively. The dialog is simultaneously wonderfully over the top, utterly sincere, and understated, blended as needed.

And every piece in the story has its place. Better yet, the logic and tropes of action films are played out to their logical conclusions, and for once, the rules that inconvenience the "good" guy also affect the bad guys as well.

So yes, I'm looking forward to the sequel, fingers crossed.

Loki's Child

Loki's Child reads like the unholy offspring of Robert Anton Wilson's Shroedinger's Cat trilogy, and This is Spinal Tap.

Some of you - especially those who've delved into the surreal alternate history / worlds next door of the Illuminatus and Shroedinger books, will justifiably see that as high praise.

Those familiar with Spinal Tap will wonder if anyone can capture the insider knowledge and sheer ludicrousness of the music biz.

It does.

If anything, Spinal Tap demonstrated that there are things in reality as weird and surreal as a RAW novel.

Loki's child takes that, and dials it up to 11. Take this description of a piece of music recording hardware:

The secret of the Gromko’s sound is a mysterious circuit sealed in black epoxy. It contains a dereciprocator, a hypothetical component first proposed in 1948, which uses the Graffenmuller effect to inversely transduce the electrical majestance. To build this hypothetical component, you need a hypothetical transuranic element that doesn’t exist on Earth. Luckily, the Soviets retrieved a quantity of a mysterious glowing green metal from an asteroid crater in Siberia, and they were in business. It also took care of that imperialist lackey in the blue tights who kept stealing their nuclear missiles and throwing them into the Sun.

So what is it? It's the story of a record producer who excels at taking incompetent bands and making them sound good. He's tasked with a new band, Fatal Lipstick, an all - female group and the epitome of self-indulgent art rock, dialed, of course, up to eleven. One day though, he discovers they are not merely competent, but outstanding, when no - one is looking.

And then he finds out why.

What follows is a wild ride through Magick, pagan gods, Japan, the seedy underbelly of the music biz, and a deep love and appreciation of music, musicians, and the technology that makes it possible, in a world next door to our own in a very weird way.

And it's worth word read.

Sabaton: Last Stand: Sparta

In the fall of 480 BC, Xerxes, avenging his fathers loss to the greeks at Marathon, invaded the greek peninsula again. Various political factors left the city-states unable to field their main armies in a timely manner, so Leonidas, one of two Spartan Kings, took his personal guard of 300 men, their supply train, and in conjunction with some other forces, arrived at, and began fortifying the narrow pass between the cliffs and the sea. Roughly 7000 men faced an army often described in the millions, and even at more modern estimates of 150,000 faced staggering odds. The only hope they had to hold was superior training, superior equipment, and superior position.

In the end, a treacherous farmer led a contingent of the Persian army behind the force. About to be surrounded, Leonidas sent most of the forces away, keeping a force of 400 Thebans, 700 Thespians, and his 300 men. They fought to the bitter, bloody end. The battle lost, the Persians were nevertheless delayed long enough for Athens to be evacuated, and the city-states to gather their forces, turning the tide at the battle of Platea.

Two famous quotes that stay with me are of course, Molon Labe - "Come, then take" in response to a request for the Greeks to lay down their weapons. You want them? Then you come over here and take them from us. The other of course was the famous reply when the greeks were told the arrows of the Persian army would blot out the sun. "Then we shall fight in the shade."

This battle is immortalized. Cheesy as it is, I love the Frank Miller inspired 300 (Victor Davis Hanson has an interesting take...), and there is the outstanding, lyrical, and solidly written "Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield. It's also inspired countless other stories, including some aspects of Ringo's  "Troy Rising" series.

So of course, Sabaton, continuing their practice of writing about war and warriors, could open their new album with nothing else, but "Sparta"

It's a great track and a great opener to the album. If I have a complaint, it's that the story of Thermopylae is a bit too complex for the time allowed, and so some of the quotes and images feel wedged in, without context. As it is, it's a nit.

Enjoy:

(And thanks to the Didact for clueing me in to a new Sabaton album coming out, and to Sabaton in general...)

Review: Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge (or, The Last Paladin of Shadows of MHI)

Before writing this I made the mistake of looking at the existing reviews. Heh. There was a lot of hate for Ringo in the comments. I also get it - Ringo's sense of humor and story complements Larrys, but it's different. I know people who can't stand the Grimnoir books but love MHI. Go figure.

So I'll tackle complaints first:

• "Mary Sue" - my first hint you don't read John Ringo, especially when you claim to like his other stuff. Have you ever met his characters? I don't mean in the books - I mean the real-life people many of his characters are based on. Over the top, exceedingly competent, scary smart, sometimes to the point of I'm not sure they can tie their shoelaces. Except they can, and likely have a black belt. John brought this trend up regarding a review of the first Looking Glass book - "the guy I based him on does all those things, and already knows how to shoot."
• "But - he's too smart." - OK , almost a point here. Yes, Chad learns Aramaic at nine. His dad is 140+ IQ, his mom likely far higher, and so is Chad. Prodigies like this are rare, but believe me, they DO exist. That said, it says something about standards in America when we've fallen from 16 year old professional surveyors in the wilderness, and thirteen year olds commanding prize crews, to not even believing such people can exist, much less taught to function without the magical tome of a teaching degree and a certified acolyte of the teachers union to wield it.
• "But - he's still too smart" - and FWIW - John hangs a lampshade on it. Early in the book, he discovers that he was granted this gift for a purpose, and if he choses the path of duty, that purpose will bring him suffering and pain as well. He's also almost autistically focused on immersing himself on whatever he's learning, something I've seen before in real life, in people who learn quickly.
• For the idiot who compared this to "Name of the Wind" - 

1. If you liked that book, you are never going to be a Ringo fan. One writes men, no matter how over the top, the other writes a whiny perpetual victim, no matter how pretty the prose.
2. "Name of the Wind" is one of the few books in my entire life I've never finished - almost entirely due to the whiny "I'm so special" snowflake protagonist. A list that includes the Wheel of Time series, but not hundreds of SF books, the Anabasis or Kagans book on the Peloponnesian war.

• "My Misogyny" - yep - Chad sleeps around. Get over it. I know SJW types and liberals have a problem with this concept, but there are multiple tiers of good and bad, and multiple value axes. Guys who constantly have women hanging over them exist, and they're not forcing the women into anything. Get over it. Sure, some are jerks (women have a hard time differentiating between "asshole" and "guy who says no because he has priorities and self respect"), but most aren't. Chad's excuse may be paper-thin, but his life will cause pain to those he loves one way or the other. It may not be as good in the long run for civilization as family, but he's fighting for it in other ways. Also, if Chad got their panties in a wad, they should look up "Oh John Ringo No" on his Paladin of Shadows books. Their heads will truly explode. And given the anti-heroes I've seen praised, I'd rather have Chad at my side than John Wayne Cleaver of the excellent, but disturbing, "I Am Not A Serial Killer" by Dan Wells. (Also - another sign they never read Ringo.....)
• "Liberal bashing." Yes, John has politics. They are, more or less, in your face. Despite that, he is also a fantastic weaver of stories and characters. I've known an ardent feminist to cry at the death of Sergeant Ellsworthy, a minor character in A Hymn Before Battle, after earlier bitching how she was sexualized at the beginning. That said, in this book, they are much more in your face. This is a memoir - I take it most of the snowflakes with this complaint have never listened to soldiers, or most conservatives discuss politics. Chad is hardly the most blunt I've heard, and one would be hard pressed to contradict the facts behind a position Ringo takes, even if you could argue how they should be interpreted. Please step outside of your bubble - part of the purpose of stories is to discover something new.
• "Two dimensional characters" - do you need it laid out with cheat codes, or in some other equally obvious way? John doesn't write for stupid people. He is an expert at sketching out a character in a few brush strokes, such that you feel for them, and when they die (hey, it's John), you feel the loss. If you think his characters are cardboard cutouts, you're not paying attention. His descriptions of Japanese culture as demonstrated by the behavior of various chracters, for example, were spot on.
• "Show Don't Tell" - It's a fucking memoir with a number of technical discussions to help future monster hunters - or did you miss the opening segment? With this comment you tell me that you're either too ignorant the implications of the term "memoir" or you didn't read the book. Or both.
• "Oppositional" - you actually have a point here. Given the abusive upbringing Chad was subject to, his nearly reflexive oppositional defiance was understandable, but I think overplayed. 

This book is the first of several memoirs written by a presumed - dead hunter that, between hints in the first couple chapters and a knowledge of the background of the core MHI books, likely died in the "Christmas Party" well before the core series starts up.

Chad was raised by abusive academics, with most of the faults they are subject to, and a few more because of a surplus in IQ, and a surfeit of compassion or real world experience. This has resulted in an over-the-top rebellious streak ("Do you know how hard it is to get perfect 'C's'"), and an understandable desire to be the opposite of what his parents wanted.

So he joins the Marines.

He enjoys his career up to the point that a minor miracle saves him from the Beirut barracks bombing, and he gets a one-on-one conversation with St peter, discovering that his gifts, especially his intelligence, are there for a purpose. And he's given a choice: go to heaven, or return, alive, to a life of duty in the service of God, a path that was almost guaranteed to include much personal suffering. And a sign to look for. 57. Not Heinz.

Yes, Chad is on a mission from God. And so, after going through intensely painful rehab and rebuilding, he is discharged, and sets off to find out why he should be on the lookout for "57". This being the MHI-verse, it's little surprise zombies are involved in the answer.

And then things really get started.

If I had to give a one - line description, it's that a (only) slightly nicer Mike Harmon from the Kildar books narrates a memoir similar in tone to the Last Centurion, about hunting zombies, Werewolves, and worse within Larry's MHI universe. 

In structure - the book is a memoir. As such, while there is still a narrative thread and a climax, with one vignette mercilessly setting the foundation for the next, it's more of a series of vignettes, important moments in his background and career, and tips for fellow hunters. So yes, like Centurion, a lot of "tell don't show", asides,  and personal rants.

Since I know people who are otherwise Ringo fans who hate the Kildar and Centurion books, I'm not going to say "If you like MHI", or even "if you like Ringo and MHI", then buy the book. On the other hand, if my one - line elevator pitch already has you twitchily reaching for your wallet, even if you've never read Larry's books (what's wrong with you?), go ahead and spend that money.

P.S. - Oliver Wyman is the narrator on this, much like Larry's other MHI books. Fantastic narration job.

Review: Agent of the Imperium: A Story of the Traveller Universe

A long time ago, in a suburb far away, a middle schooler went into the local hobby shop. Most of this shop was dedicated to trains, miniatures, modeling, and such, but it also had an aisle with role playing games and classic wargames by companies like TSR, Steve Jackson Games and Avalon Hill.

His eyes fell upon a large, 8.5 x 11 hardcover book. The cover had two people with futuristic weapons, in clothes that would easily fit in on the Millennium Falcon, or Serenity. They were leaving their ship via a transparent, enclosed gangway, ready for trouble.

The name on the cover, oddly, used two "L's. Traveller.

He opened the rules, looked at the line art, and immediately bought it.

---

Traveller was unique, and in many ways still is. I'd already been exposed to two editions of D&D - Moldvay basic with Keep on the Borderlands, and AD&D - and wargames like Starship Troopers, Afrika Korps, and Panzerblitz. Sure enough, there were rules for combat, weapons, and armor, as well as rules for creating alien creatures to populate planets with. It predictably had a list of common starships, and a pretty coherent system for building your own. Because it involved traveling It also had a set of clear rules for generating a sector to move about in, generate planets. A lot of time was spent debating if having such a skeleton available was better or worse than making up D&D maps from nothing but graph paper. I still say "yes" - nothing stopped you from fudging things to add a needed feature, and sometimes the odd interrelationships opened new possibilities.

The first true shock was discovering that the character creation system not only gave a background, but could also kill your characters before you ever got a chance to play them.

All in all, it's a set of rules that, despite having played a number of other systems over the decades - including a number of editions of Traveller -  I would still gladly play. Simple enough. Complex enough. Loose enough. It has aged well.

The other thing I loved was the setting. The rules alone, as published in the original little black books, could easily be used to adventure in settings like the Polysotechnic League, Drakes Slammers, or Pournelle's CoDominium or universes. But later books, incorporated into the hardcover I bought, included the beginnings of the Imperium setting, information on and maps of the Regina  sector, and background. Grand in scope, feudal, with a lot of room for adventurers to get in trouble, it took on a life of its own.

Agent of the Imperium is a book set in that universe. Written by a man who obviously loves the sweep of history, and knows and loves the universe he created.

We have a problem - the empire needs trusted troubleshooters on call, in a moments notice, with full authority short only of the Emperor, to deal with threats that could grow to destroy the empire. That troubleshooter needs to be anywhere, at any time. Given the size of the empire, where trips across it can take months, even years, one man's lifetime is simply not enough. A troubleshooter, a cleaner, or as the book calls Jonathan Bland - a Decider - needs to somehow be everywhere at once.

We also have "skill wafers" - that can temporarily, with some risk, impart skills.

What if you had a souped-up version that could store an entire personality, and reactivate it once plugged into a person carrying a wafer implant, for 30 days? So that not only the skills, but the trusted personality occupies the mind and body of the host.

The Decider has a terrible role - he must do just that - Decide. He not only effectively has the full authority of the emperor, he also has to accept the responsibility for the choices made, rather than some junior commander on the scene.

The story jumps episodically, but the pieces start coming together. A planet sterilized by orbital bombardment due to a parasite breakout that could threaten the imperium. And other incidents. Each time the agent awakes, in a new body, reorients. Works the problem. He decides.

But the recordings in turn are updated with experience, and synced. And in time Bland realizes that there are less obvious threats to the empire than the ones he is awakened for, far more dangerous ones. And so he begins to make long term plans....

And so the story explores what happens from there, with the strange distributed loosely synchronized memory, and quasi-immortality of our Decider.

This books is a great example of taking something familiar, and cliched, what at first looks like a standard space opera setting, and breathing life into it. It also uses that familiarity to ground you while it then proceeds to explore the ramifications of change.

It is a thoughtful page turner. Highly recommended.