The Wire, Veronica Mars, Divergent and Eldritch Horror among others

[lathany]

It has been a while since I wrote a post of reviews. So here are the things I have seen, read and played.

We watched the first season of The Wire after many good reviews of it. For anyone who doesn't know the story it's about how a cop (Jimmy McNulty) is responsible for the launch of an investigation into a major drug organisation (headed by characters Barksdale and Stringer Bell) and how that proceeds. I enjoyed it, particularly liking the characters Kima Greggs and Lester Freamon (two of the most competent cops) but, frankly, the whole cast were really good. It's slow moving, but reaches a conclusion at the end of the season. There are some wonderful character developments - such as Prez's move from liability to clue solver. We have season two lined up (but may then take a break before season three).

With The Wire taking up our Lovefilms discs, I have only seen a couple of films in the last two months.

• Veronica Mars - Funded by a Kickstarter campaign, this was very much a fan movie. It revisited a huge number of characters from the series including almost all the regulars whose characters didn't die (Duncan was the main exception). The plot was fine, what they did with Veronica was OK, although it felt more a response to the fans than anything else. Perhaps the most wobbly bit was the initial set up for her love life which seemed to be a long standing relationship that hadn't developed (what, eight years have passed and you still haven't met the parents?!) Overall, if you liked the series, it's worth seeing.
• Divergent - This was a rare cinema outing over Easter when the duo were at their grandparents. Like Twilight and Hunger Games this is "coming of age", sci-fi/fantasy based on a trilogy and will be four films. That said, I liked it, thought that the lead (Shailene Woodley as Beatrice "Tris" Prior) was excellent and liked Kate Winslet as a Bad.

My new books have all been by authors I'm already fond of and two of the three are sequels.

• Lady Friday by Garth Nix - As is clear from the name, it's the fifth book in Nix's series. It's the first one that felt rather short, although a glance at the shelf suggests it's as long as the previous four. It may feel short because of the time it gave to Leaf (instead of Arthur) although, again, this has happened before. However, interesting, nice resolution and I'm looking forward to the last two.
• Dead Beat by Jim Butcher - This was OK, but not a favourite. I was not pleased to see the demon surface, even if it's holding back on the "evil" bit. Also, I was sorry that Murphy wasn't around. However, the near-end sequence with "Sue" was just genius.
• Bedlam by Christopher Brookmyre - This is a book that had bad reviews from many of his fans. However, understanding that the plot involved computer games, I was still keen. Unfortunately, it doesn't rise above "OK" for me. Perhaps the main problem was that a large amount of the book is about a game I never met or played. I understand why, for plot reasons, it wasn't a more famous game. But I still would have preferred Doom, Manic Miner and a bunch of others (these were in there, but more briefly). That said, it also suffered from bringing in a key character that you couldn't realistically figure out. So, nice try, but no (plus I hoped it would be a sort of sequel to Pandaemonium and it wasn't).

My own computer gaming has been The Secret World, both multiplayer (with chrisvenus, ao_lai and Alistair) and solo. It continues to be addictive, frustrating and not quite brilliant. I'm toying with the idea of replaying The Lost Crown again post-holiday, but I may wait for the sequel to get an actual date.

Three of the four roleplaying games I'm in (ie. all but Mechs) have advanced by a session:

• 100 Secrets - We pottered around in the port, failed to check the ship in the harbour and later arrived at the Eye Stone council meeting for the big debate. Turns out that the ship probably houses the queen as a captive. We need her back so I think we'll be running off to get her.
• Folded Edge - We continued to bod around the spacestation we were on. Then we investigated an "abandoned" station nearby, which turned out to have four goons who shot at us and hospitalised Sen. However, we did leave once he had been treated by expensive doctors and celebrated Christmas in space. Next stop the frozen university planet (I think).
• Star Wars - Now a distant memory being the least recent game, but I think it involved Hutts. And backstabbing. And eventually leaving the planet.

Anything else? Ah yes, Eldritch Horror, my boardgame birthday present from bateleur. We played our first two-player last night. It's a co-operative game set in the Arkham universe and might be described as Arkham-light, but with a bit less random in it. It's probably shorter than Arkham, although not when you're trying to understand the rules for the first time. We won and want to play again. I may introduce it to other people at some point (if they haven't already met it).

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I think it involved Hutts. And backstabbing.

The first half involved us pointing out to Shorba that we'd been set up by one of his people. He killed her. We then had a meeting with the guy we were ostensibly supposed to be assassinating, which began with him trying to shoot us and then turned into a massive battle during which he did indeed end up dead after all.

The second half involved us flying to Nal Hutta, where we found a secret marine research base - possibly built by us - and descended into an underwater superprison containing a holding cell with an ancient Sith ghost in it. We're now planning, based partly on his comments, to fly back to the site where we woke up to do a bit more research...

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks. I'd forgotten the ancient Sith - perhaps in the hopes that it didn't happen!

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

The Wire has been an excellent series. I have read some of Christpher Brookmyre's books but not that one.