Rules Review Page

Beginning to lose track of which rulesets I've played and what I've though of them, so posted up a consolidated list which I'll try and keep up to date.

http://newconverj.blogspot.com/p/rules-reviews.html

Ad Astra *

I got to see Ad Astra last night. I can't say I was expecting much, and I certainly wasn't disappointed. I was going to list some of the tech issues with it but when I got to a dozen I stopped. I know its a film, but I'm sure I read somewhere that the director wanted to make the most realistic space film ever, and if you are setting a film in the "near future" then I think you have more responsibility to make the tech accurate. We already seem to be at the point where Elon Musk science-fact looks more impressive and futuristic than much of SF! The film nods a lot to Apocalypse Now and 2001, but whilst I realise its all meant to be about the inner journey of the main character I'm afraid I just didn't really see any of that, and the ending was decidedly anti-climatic.

Anyway the one bright spot was the most realistic looking moon surface I've every seen in an SF film. Odd that they only had 1970s era Moon Buggies to drive on it though, and were escaping "moon pirates" who otherwise played no role in the film.

And of course that got me to thinking of my GZG Moongrunts and now that my 3' moon/asteroid play mat has arrived I really ought to get the troops on the table!

Skirmish Rules Testing: Summary

Having got the end of of my mammoth skirmish rules test I thought it would be useful to do a summary and index piece so that people can get a quick heads up on my view of them all (and this is of course all just my view based on what I want from a game, your mileage my vary).  I've also pulled together what a Frankenstein set might be like - pulling together the best bits from each - and finally on my thoughts on my own set. I've also added Skirmish Sangin and 7TV into the mix, which whilst not in this mega-test I have also played in the recent past.

Reviews Summary

Danger Close 9/10

• Pros: Really good set, all on one sheet A4. Covers most the bases.
• Cons: Activation not ideal

Snapshot 1/10

• Cons: Too lethal, no cover or spot

Azhanti High Lightning 5/10 -> 7/10

• Pros: Surprisingly good for age. Good morale.
• Cons: Dreadful activation. No spotting.

Chain Reaction/Nuts/FNG 6/10

• Pros: Good NPC AI once spotted. Nice campiagn/pre-game/scenarios.
• Cons: Unclear. Odd inverse activation.

Black Ops 6/10

• Pros: Nice guard AI.
• Cons: Noise disappointing. Surprisingly pedestrian for a "big name" release (or because of?)

FiveCore 5.5/10

• Pros: Nice patrol mode and campaign rules. Use of Kill and Suppress dice nice.
• Cons: Rules all over the place. Keep changing dice. Hard to kill. V few DMs.

Albedo ACP164  8/10

• Pros: Well balanced, card system very neat, usable and quick. Nice morale and movt.
• Cons: No spotting (in advanced). No suppression/aimed shots yet. Too many out-of-ammo.

Paragon 4/10

• Pros: Body part effect.
• Cons: Very basic DMs, simultaneous movement. Minimal morale. Hard to hit. No suppression/spot.

FUBAR 6/10

• Pros: Short
• Cons: Ranges too short. No UGL difference. Hard to activate or kill. Few DMs. Poor suppression.

Gruntz 5/10

• Pros: Unit cards nice
• Cons: Very short ranges, very few DMs, lots of stats. Change both ends of die roll. Rapid kills.

Victory Decision: Raid 6/10

• Pros: Nice actions options.
• Cons: Ranges only just OK. Very bloody. Odd wound recovery and not cumulative. No suppression. No morale. Opposed per figure activation.

Fireteam: Modern 7/10

• Pros: Nice activation and action model. Has spotting and reasonable stress. Some suppression.
• Cons: Few DMs. Very bloody. Poor indirect fire.

Skirmish Sangin 7/10

• Pros: Poses and pose chits. Unconscious & mission change mechanic. OK basic mechanics.
• Cons: Very complex per action activation. No suppression. Poorly laid out.

7TV 3/10

• Cons: Star/cast model/countdown doesn't work so well in simulations. IGOUGO. Defend then attack roles. Blurred ranged/melee system. No spot/suppress/IDF. Not really designed for this.

So if forced to choose I'd probably be happy to play both Danger Close and ACP164 as is, with a marginal preference for Danger Close detail wise, but I'd miss the ACP card  approach!

Frankenstein Rules

So given what I think needs to be in a set of skirmish rules which would I choose for each bit?

• Activation: Fireteam:Modern with user choice but random Red/Blue and opportunity to trump
• Actions: Fireteam:Modern or Victory Decision: Raid
• Movement: ACP164 randomness. Skirmish Sangin poses.
• Spotting: Danger Close, good above/below
• Aimed Fire: Danger Close or ACP164
• Suppressive Fire: None really did it right!
• Indirect Fire: Danger Close or ACP164
• Morale: AHL or ACP164
• Wounding: ACP164 or Paragon
• NPC AI: Bits of FiveCore/Chain Reaction/Black Ops
• Scenario/Campaign Builder:  FiveCore/Chain Reaction

Thoughts for My Rules

And what I'm probably looking for in my rules:

• Core Mechanic:  Probably D20, so effectively 5% changes. But do like the card model (suppose could generate afterwards). Also toying with FATE dice.
• Activation: Need to be able to choose who to activate, so can do proper fire & manoeuvre, but with some friction, Fireteam:Modern really is pretty close.
• Actions: A good range, at least 6, maybe even 12 so you feel like you have choices to make, perhaps with different ones for interior and exterior (maybe even 1s and 5s "bounds" as the two engagement types have different feels to them).
• Movement: Some element of randomness, even if just +/- 1 or 2 units. Also differentiate between "patrol" (actually a quite slow walk), "jog" (fast, but not out of breath) and "run" (very fast and out of breath)
• Spotting: Full DM set, including cover and up/down storey, and movement and size
• Aimed Fire: Long ranges, but rapid fall off of DMs. Can spend actions to aim better. Out of ammo (not quite as frequent as ACP164) and also gun jam. Might do to hit target area, then body part locations THEN base save role on both cover for that location and any armour. Extra detail would be worth it I think.
• Suppressive Fire: Add up weight of fire, spread across target frontage, reduced change to kill but higher chance of suppression. Little you can do if suppressed except keep head down or fall back, or very unaimed fire. WRG mech rules had it pretty good.
• Indirect Fire: Roll for on target/offset/direction - must always go "bang" somewhere! Less side ways deviation if line-of-sight (eg UGL)
• Morale: Some form of stress for person, and then unit morale based on casualties. Mission change for "western" forces. Maybe even some sort of "TV" rating as I think was planned for Fighting Season. Would like to include the Flight/Fuss/Fight model from Brains and Bullets book.
• Wounding: Body location and minor/serious/dead.
• NPC AI: Guard, fighting patrol, ambush and encounter modes? Keep to cover.
• Scenario/Campaign Builder: Steal ideas from FiveCore/Chain Reaction, but not a key focus!

Oh well, time to start play-testing!

Skirmish Rules Testing: Part 7 - Albedo ACP164

Presentation

ACP164 is Buck Surdu's SF version of his WW2 Combat Patrol card-driven rules for the new Albedo wargame on Kickstarter. A quick-start version of the rules are currently available to backers as a PDF with a PDF card set. Didn't take long to print the cards out and stick onto card stock. The rules are pretty well laid out, and as it is the cards have most of what you need to know. I made rough equivalences between the ACP164 weapons and SA80/AK47 etc.

Set-Up

My standard set-up was used, with 10 encounter points to be randomly diced for pairs of insurgents as they cam into sight. As with almost all my games I converted the rules to Hex, one (4cm) hex = 1inch in the rules. Figures were my standard 15mm, not ACP164 28mm (not yet painted!)

How It Played

Cpl Hore and the team (EDF) got a fair way onto the main drag before coming under fire from insurgents (ILR) on the roofs of the two central buildings. Wade and Jones were caught in the drainage ditch, Hore and Kronfield raced to a building roof to give covering fire, whilst Wall's team provided the fire base. A few lobbed AGL rounds missed their mark, there was a lot of running out of ammo on both sides as rounds flew, and even as the ILR took casualties their morale held up. But in the end the body armour meant that most ILR hits were ineffective, but the EDF hits were deadly. 

A UGL round bursts harmlessly in the street, but one ILR already down

With the first obstacle cleared Hore pushed on, but he and Kronfield were on point then another ILR pair opened up from behind one of the houses on the south side. Luckily the RPG failed its reaction role, as did Nufail the ILR commander. Hore and Kronfield returned fire, taking out Nufail. Wall and co did a rapid right flank, came up behind Mahamadou and his RPG acting as a club was no help against their SA80s and cold steel.

Mahamadou taken in the flank

No sooner had the EDF regrouped when an ILR pair on the compound roof opened up, wounding Wade. Wall managed to take Olasyar and his PKM out, but Hore was beginning to feel the pressure and his team got an adverse morale check, with Wade and Jones becoming stunned whilst Hore and Kronfield decided that the only way to save their exposed comrades was to charge the enemy team by the compound gates!

Hore and Kronfield charge the compound!

Luckily Wall saw the problem and in a fast move managed to get his guys to the gate just before Hore, but incoming fire from Jandol wounded Wilson. 

Wall & co pile in!

McDowell and Gallagher went into the melee, but the ILR ML199 had a massive edge against the EDF L1-56 in melee, and both were forced back. Wall took a morale test and whilst McDowell and Gallagher stayed firm back at the ditch Wilson had had enough and fell back to the sheep pen. Meanwhile Wade and Jones had managed to pin Ali on the compound roof, but by the gate Jandol and Karwan now had Hore, Kronfield and Wall all right in front of them. Luckily BOTH of them rolled out of ammo. 

Returning fire the EDF took out Jandol. Karwal took a reaction test and got a CHARGE, and so Butch Cassidy style charged out of the gates into the withering fire of the three EDF soldiers and it was game over. The ILR had lost 9 , EDF had only 2 wounded. The game lasted about 8 turns.

Karwal's final charge!

Rules Impressions

As previously mentioned I had Buck's WW2 rules on my to-play list, so it was nice to be able to try them out in their Albedo/SF version - and I must say I really liked them. The use of the multi-purpose cards worked really well and meant that there was hardly any table look-up.

Sample prototype ACP164 cards. Almost everything is on them, some elements are dual purpose, and you may need 2 cards to resolve some issues - e.g. one to hit and one for damage, creating more randomness. They work well.

The double random activation worked well, with fire-teams not individuals activating. The random movement was also good.  I did seem to get a lot of out-of-ammo cards at the start, but that eased. ILR morale also almost always held up - so they had to be killed one by one (which probably reflects the "Japanese" morale they've been given to start with). Cover also looked like it was going to be problematic, with lots of cover saves, but again they eased off. EDF body armour kept their casualties low, but they certainly suffered worse morale wise.

There are probably fewer DMs then I'd ideally like (to/from different heights, aiming) , and in the current version no spotting rules or suppression (but pin has a similar, even bigger, effect). 

Overall

Overall I'd have to give them 8/10 - but I might need to edge the Danger Close rules up to 8.5 as with the sets as they are I'd marginally prefer the added detail in DC - but ACP164 gives a faster game and would certainly be better for "playability" - and once the final rules are out they may also be at 8.5 or even 9. They've certainly also given me some new ideas for my own set.

All in all a great game, with probably the best balance of hits and morale effects so far.

Skirmish Rules Testing: Part 6 - FiveCore

Presentation

FiveCore is a rules family/system from Nordic Weasel Games, available through WargamesVault. As well as the Core book there are loads of supplements with additional and optional rules and even different ways of doing things (e.g. activation, damage). I picked up several which looked like they'd be useful (which was probably a mistake). Good production quality and each individual book is well laid out.

Set-Up

No major variations, most weapons covered in generic terms. Used FiveCore's Sandbox supplement to set up a presence patrol scenario, with patrol points to be visited and encounter points which may, or may not, contain enemy.

How It Played

Note: Doing these run-throughs is taking up a lot of time, and spare evenings have been hard to come by lately. I've also found that within the first couple of turns I have a feel as to whether I'm going to get on with the rules or not, so I'm no longer going to play every rules set to the end of the scenario - also saves me boring you with repetitive description. These descriptions will probably also be more high level.

Insurgents just visible on the two roof tops - and man down in the ditch!

The patrol set of and almost immediately came in sight of the first encounter point. That was a dud but as FireTeam 2 turned the corner onto the main drag the next one spawned a group of 4 insurgents who I put on suitable building tops. They took out the point man who was moving down the ditch and the others took cover and started returning fire. Several UGL rounds were lobbed onto the roof tops but kept missing. Eventually the weight of SA80 and Minimi firepower took the insurgents out and a flanking attack by Cpl Hore and his #2 wasn't needed.

Rules Impressions

Whilst all the options were nice in the end they were totally overwhelming - perhaps I should have just stuck to the core book. It was nice to compare though their standard move/normal/fire turn type (neat idea, especially the move turn where everyone can move but can't be shot!) with their action-points based system. Whilst the idea of rolling Kill and Shock dice was nice, the constant changing of your dice mix was a real pain. The 1 and 6 for results instead of even just 5 and 6 also seemed to increase the mental gymnastics. 6S for suppression from an MG was nice though. Killing was very hard (6s on Kill only), and there are very minimal DMs (probably just as well) for cover - you're either hiding (so out of sight) or not.

The patrol mode worked quite well, and the encounter spawning, and I could see myself using the Sandbox book as a campaigning ruleset regardless of the main rules.

Overall

Overall through I though they were too complicated in presentation and too fiddly in the mechanics, so I'd only give them 5/10 - maybe 6/10 if I had only read the one book!

Edinburgh Fringe 2013

Just back from this year's long weekend at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Not a classic, but some good shows in there - 16 in 3 days (and a couple of bits), not including the cafe. We got a a lot more different venues, some we hadn't been to before and hardly spent any time at the Pleasance (when previously we've spent almost whole days there). We also found it harder to work out what the "must-sees" were - perhaps because we normally go at the end of the festival when all the reviews and awards are out. None of our Festival faves (NIE, SpyMonkey etc) were there either to structure our schedule around. Also we saw hardly any posters for the shows we did see, adding to the feeling of being just a bit more in the dark.

Here's the shows in order:

Friday

Death By Murder* - We took a chance at using the half-price hut for our first night, just off the train seeing it was nearby. We go what we paid for. Sort of improvised comedy but not very well done and some pretty amateur acting. One of the cast played the inspector and had to work out who the murder was, but it just didn't really work and wasn't that well done.

Saturday

Pussyfooting**** - Nice drama piece by a young theatre group we know via contacts in Birmingham. The neatest thing was the use of blackboards of all sizes to represent the set and props with drawings being hastily drawn as the play went on. Well acted and not a bad script around a fun plot about people's feet taking them over.

Seven Ages**** - flyered whilst buying tickets at the Fringe Ticket Office (saving us 90p a ticket vs iPad app purchases). 7 linked scenes about the 7 ages of pan, told and acted with wit and charm by Kevin Tomlinson, some with audience suggestions. Funniest was the "one word at a time" Clue style section with his assistant who couldn't remember that R came after E for the Queens initials, or that it was Great Britain and Northern Ireland (not ... and Scotland!).

Ballad of the Burning Star*** - history of modern Israel told Cabaret style complete with Drag Queen and gold spandex shorted Starlets. The Guardian had given in 5 stars but it just didn't really hold together. The play we say a few years ago consisting of monologues of cafe patrons each of whom gets blown up in turn as the end of their piece was far better.

Solfatara**** - Another that we'd been alerted to from friends in Birmingham, this time a Barecelonan production, in Spanish but with English subtitles. But it soon became apparent that the subtitle were part of the act as Annie-Hall style they started giving voice to the inner thoughts of the main characters (and even of the subtitler). The set-up was that a character in a mask (so very/only expressive eyes and mouth became the (evil) inner voice of the main character as the relationship between him and his wife went through volcanic (hence Sulfatara) outbursts. Really well done, really accessible, very nice piece.

Boredom***1/2 - Earlier in the day in search of a coffee we'd gone into Hunt & Darton's pop-up cafe just up from the Pleasance - without realising that it was actually an "event" - with Hunt & Darton curating a different ambience each day - today being "community" so we found ourselves at a large table doing a puzzle with a group of Australians. Really nice ambience and as good as many a show. SO in the evening we took in their Boredom show, which was prefaced by the two of them sat po-face saying "This is Hunt & Darton's show about boredom - good luck" and then proceeded with a variety of dead pan monologues, sketches, slideshows of food, a collection of model pigs and so. Well done and very amusing in a very dry way. Giving it **** would probably be wrong in principle, it wasn't meant to be that exciting. But **** for the cafe.

Sunday

Voluntary Departure **** - Woefully poorly attended black comedy in a very small venue, it was nice to see a piece by more mature performers just acting their hear out - the woman in particular in this two hander was superb, the script really tight, sharp - just delivering that with a solid hour on stage at a brisk pace and some really wonderful wordplay was stunning. The plot was about a voluntary euthenasia clinic in a future state, the clinician advising the client how to die, and finding out why he wants to die. There was a 1984 watching security eye, and constant references to "our leader" - which for some reason kept making me think of Alex Salmond and a future Scotland. The the ending could perhaps have had a bit of a better build up, but overall really good.

High Plains **** - Really good simple (ghost) story of the modern American west told by a battered friendly drunk. Very simple, very effective.

Inspector Norse **** - Subtitled "The Girl with Two Screws Left Over" this was a wonderful mix of The Killing, Abba and the Ikea catalogue. A two hander from two mature women (Lip Service Theatre) and a set (and props) made almost entirely of wool. Just very silly but very good, highlights being the crisp-bread foleying of walking through snow and the woollen animal roadkills piling up on the front of the car. From the web site it looks like they make a serial habit of such popular culture send ups - must try and catch them again.

Humans Inc. A Sci-Fi Epic on Stage from anthony springall on Vimeo.

Humans Inc - ***1/2 - Every year I try and see something SF related, but am usually disappointed. Is it that people try too hard with Star Trek style sets, or that the plots are too cliched, or that the subject matter just doesnt attract good or inventive actors. Humans Inc almost broke the mould, but not quite - and a cavernous venue populated by a handful of SF geeks didn't help. The staging was really good, handheld LED frameworks for flying spaceships (or bits off), (real) lasers cutting through the smoke, white handheld screens being used almost balletically (?) to creating moving corridors, lifts and housings. It's just the plot was far too cliched and the acting (particularly from the lead) far too variable.

The Colour Ham - ***1/2 - Sketch and magic show delivered by three guys who were in perpetual giggles about what they were doing - some deserved some not. Well done but just a bit too much audience volunteer humiliation for my liking but they did appear to get their come-uppence when one volunteer turned out to be the neighbour of one of the performers and she had no idea what he did for a living!

Monday

Domestic Science **** - We made a conscious decision to see a bit more on the Free Fringe this year (having seen and enjoyed Austentatious last year), and along with the half-price hut on the first night, and generally lower ticket prices (earlier in the festival, not all weekend/bank holiday) we probably averaged a lot less per ticket than previously (despite still donating about £7 a head for the free shows we saw). This was a really good science show, lots of simple demos/experiments with household objects, smart and funny delivery, and a highlight of my wife being dressed up as the Hubble Space Telescope (image available on request!)

School of Night's Spontaneous Shakespeare **** - Jo saw this last year and really liked it. Four real "thesps" improvising around Shakespeare (and Chaucer), with some wonderful "study notes" style interjections to take the play in challenging directions. Great fun and well worth seeing again next year.

Ulysses Dies at Dawn ***** - You know that you've finally reached the real Fringe when you walk into a venue and wonder if a) you're in the right place and b) if you are whether you ought to turn right round and head back out. The WhyNot venue was a dark basement bar, the clientele sat on a motley collection of chairs and bar stools, and was dressed in a variety of fashions from punk to goth - Deb and I were initially the oldest people there - and certainly the straightest. But the guys with aviators googles on their hats, and the girl with a set of golden wings gave it away - this was steampunk and where we should be. From the description it had sounded the most like the wonderful grunge Beowulf we saw 2 years ago - and I wasn't disappointed. The Mechanisms do what can only be described as steam punk folk/blues music story telling, and do it incredibly well. The band members had their own be-costumed steampunk personas, a highly charismatic leader (first mate!) to propel the whole drama, and an audience (with no small number of devoted followers) which was rapt. This is what I come to the Fringe for. And of course interestingly despite the classical references of the plot it was SF, and well done steam punk SF.

Baby Wants Candy **** - Whereas as Ulysses was gritty this was slick and a bit manufactured - but great fun. Improvised musical, by a US group, in this case Oh Brothel Where Are Thou. The best bit was the rest of the cast trying to keep it together when the plot went off in a completely unexpected direction involving a Narwal horn and a toenail!

Tuesday

Aaand Now for Something Completely Improvised **** - We'd wanted to see this earlier but it had sold out, but decided we could just about fit it in before the train. Well worth it. Probably felt the most "improvised" of all the improv we saw (more than previous years), cant say it was "pythonesque" in the way described in the brochure (apart from one interjection), but again the fun was in watching in how other cast members dealt with the evolving plot and trying to keep straight faces. The two most glorious moments were one actor (supposedly with bird tendencies) regurgitating an opal fruit into the mouth of another, and one actors own mobile phone going off repeatedly - as the other actor said to him - "we'd have shamed an audience member mercilously for that", the miscreant got off lightly!

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Diaspora***** - Greg Egan

This is the second Greg Egan book I've read. The first was Permutation City and that was excellent and the first book in which the idea of copies/upload/personality constructs (PC) made some sort of sense. With Diaspora Egan goes well beyond that, 150 pages in its an excellent book. Even though written nearly a decade ago it visualisation of a future for humanity is far better than most modern SF authors, and it should be quoted as much as Snowcrash when it comes to talking about virtual worlds. The opening chapter describing the "birth" of a new PC, and that PC's first interaction with external data streams, and then its avatar and its virtual world home are superb.

For the record, and it doesn't include any spoilers, Diaspora identifies a future only 100 or so years out when humanity has post-signularity fragmented into about 4 different "species" (compare with the BT future evolution chart I posted a fortnight or so ago):

- Statics - organic, unmodified humans (i.e. us)
- Exhuberants - organic modified humans, whose modifications range from cosmetic to the extremes to cope with hostile environments such as the sea and space
- Gleisner robots - "uploaded" and (I assume) digitally evolved humans who live in mechanical bodies
- Polis residents (I don't think he gives them a name as the story is from their point of view) - uploaded and digitally evolved humans who live in virtual worlds (although those worlds have feeds of the physical world, have agency in it through robots, and can step out into it through Gleisner robots.

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The Signal

The Signal - Home Page

Been trying to find some new podcasts to listen to and came across The Signal - a podcast dedicated to Firely - the Joss Whedon (Buffy) cancelled Sc-Fi series, that then spawned the Serendipity movie.

Its an incredibly well produced show, covering both real and fan developments in the Firefly universe, an episode of a fan drama series, an article about canon matters, reviews, fan film updates, an article on Hitch-Hikers Guide, music and musch more. No suprise that it won the Peoples Choice in the 2006 Podcast Awards.

Browncoats (Firefly fans) are active in both SL and Multiverse building Firefly worlds. Much as I'm not a particular fan of Firefly (even more wagon-train in space than Star Trek, especially for a supposed 2500 AD setting), you have got to admire the professionalism and energy of these guys and girls. If only we'd had these sort of resources available when Traveller was in its hayday.

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Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland ****

A book of neverending suprises. Easily his best book. Far better than JPod, or even Microserfs.

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Torchwood - The Season Finale and Christian Imagery *****

Watching the season finale (twice) last night I was struck by the Christian imagery that Russell T Davies was piling on - intentionally? Owen as Judas, Jack as the Son, waiting only for his Father (Dr Who) who forsook him both when he attacked the monster and when he failed to tempt him, The Tardis as the Holy Ghost (the spirit that brought Jack back to life the first time), then the resurrection of Jack after Gwen has been watching over him, the reunion with the team members (the disciples), and then the coming of the wind (the spirit/tardis/Dr Who/God) to take him away, leaving the disciples alone.

Stunning finale and an excellent series. Can't wait for Series 2.

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Rainbows End - Vernor Vinge **

The book of the moment (at least in cyber-circles)

- or maybe not.

Whilst the whole thing about the Epiphany wearable overlaying different interpretations of reality on what people saw was fun, the whole plot side of things was dreadful - ditto much of the writing.

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Redemption Ark *

Third book in Alastair Reynolds space saga. Revelation Space was an OK start, Chasm City was really good. ........but Redemption Ark was pretty poor and almost had echoes of EE Doc Smith with its "my momentum suppressor works better than your momentum suppresor" chase through space. Pity.

Buy now from Amazon!

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The Dice Man ***

Not a bad book at all, if a little extreme in places. The premise is simple, a man decides to live his life by the die, but the fact that he's a psychiatrist, and that alll his friends are psychiatrists, mean that the book can explore issues about the fragmentation of personality, what it is to be a self, etc.

Buy now from Amazon!

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CS Lewis Ransom Trilogy

Spent most of the Holiday reading CS Lewis' Ransom trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Voyage to Venus, and That Hideous Strength.

The trilogy starts OK, but gets worse. Very much of its time (or even after its time).

Buy now from Amazon!

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William Mitchell - Me++ - ***

Read about this ages ago, but only recently saw a copy (although I could of course have just bought it from Amazon). From early reading looks good - one of the better books on the Internet, society and the future thing.

... not too bad in the end, some nice ways of looking at things (particularly migrating functions through different shells (clothing to buildings to domes), and plugging in/out of infrastructures (from WiFi to going to the toilet), and the notion of shedding bits and calling services to you rather than going to the point of distribution. He's on less sure ground when describing technology per se though.

Buy from Amazon (as I should have done!)

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Ghost In The Shell - Stand Alone Complex **

Finally got hold of the first volume DVD of Ghost in The Shell - Stand Alone Complex from a cracking comic and game shop in Bristol.

- Nowhere near as good as the movie. Never mind.

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Dominick Hide on DVD

The BBC to release the Flipside of Dominick Hide DVD on 5 April 2005. Pre-Order Now!

Read all about Dominick Hide on my micro-site at www.dominickhide.com - it's simply the best TV SF ever done.

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Brian Wilson - Smile *****

Yes, he's still god.

Smile - Buy from Amazon

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Indra Sinha - Cybergypsies

Indra Sinha - Cybergypsies

Superb book about life on the MUDs, MOOs, and BBSs before the Internet took over. Very timely given my recent hours on Second Life. Also interesting how the visual experience of VR worlds like Second Life actually inhibit the creativity and fantasy of the old text based systems. One of the things that struck me last night was what it would be like to interface Halo, or just Dragon NS, to somethng like the old dungeon, must give it a try.

Indra even read this post and sent me a mail - thanks Indra.

The Cybergypsies - Buy from Amazon

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Greg Egan - Luminous

Greg Egan - Luminous****

Read Greg Egan's collection of short stories - Luminous. Greg Egan's book Permutation City is probably one of the best novels ever to look at "copies" - human intelligences running on computer systems.

Luminous has some great stories. A lot have a mathematical feel. Probably the best concerns what happens when mathematicians discover that simple maths "breaks down" at very large numbers, 2+2 no longer equals 4. Egan has to be one of the best SF writers around, combining great ideas, avoiding space operatics, and a wonderfully rich use of language.

***Imported from old blog***