Don Hertz
An incredibly detailed book covering the history of video games. Note that this is only Volume 1 and stops at Pac-Man. The remainder of the book dives deep into things like the the first penny arcades, the creation and evolution of pinball, the first games to appear on mainframe computers, and so on, in great detail. It's really interesting, but reads more like a textbook and won't be for everyone.
This one book is almost as long as the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy and yet seems to do little plot advancement. It feels like multiple books stuck together (Is it?) with minimal segue from one to the other. One moment Kvothe has just defeated a group of bandits and a couple of pages later he’s deep in fairyland mastering sex for what seems like 10+ chapters. It all felt a bit disjointed. Kvothe’s complete inability to make any kind of advancement with Denna has reached maximum frustration levels by the end - becoming almost comical.
This is one of Stephen King's best in several years. They don't all work, but the majority are good to great and reminded me of classic SK. Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream was the highlight and had me not wanting to put the book down - something that hasn't happened in a long while. The Dreamers was a fun, creepy, Lovecraft style tale. The Answer Man has a great start and ending but felt muddled as it worked its way through the middle. Overall, highly recommended if you've ever enjoyed Stephen King.
If you enjoyed the movie and are interested in any way about how it was made, you'll like this book. It's not a full "making of" book, as it is heavily focused on design elements - set, costumes, pre-production artwork, etc. Elements of post production - editing, music, sound, visual effects are not covered. However, there is still a significant amount of interesting "how did they do that" material here which breaks down filming the sand worm sequences, the spice crawlers, and other key set pieces. It's also beautifully designed and printed, looking great on your shelf afterwards. Worth the money. I'll be adding Tonya Lapointe's other books to my list.
Jason Schreier has a way of writing that is immediately engaging and fascinating. I flew through this book and his previous one Blood, Sweat, & Pixels and would highly recommend both to anyone with even a passing interest in the video game industry. I appreciated the final chapter which focuses on ways the industry is exploring possible solutions, but felt it very short and probably worthy of its own book. There is also a strong focus on the "recovery" part of the title which perhaps paints a rosier picture than intended. Some of the heavier tolls the industry enacts on individual lives - divorce, personal bankruptcy, and depression aren't deeply explored. Still, great book. If you're already spending time reading this review - you should be reading this book.
I came to this after reading, and loving, the JW Rinzler series of books on the original Star Wars trilogy, Alien, Aliens, and Indiana Jones. I didn't enjoy this one nearly as much but perhaps my expectations were improperly set after reading the Rinzler books. The print quality of the book is great and the photos are great. If you are a fan of Star Trek 2 then it's worth the purchase. However, it is far less detailed than the Rinzler books and the chapters often feel random and oddly chosen - as if a series of magazine articles were culled together and placed into a book. Post production and the main cast both get much shorter mentions than seems appropriate while entire chapters are dedicated to the Ceti Eels, Kahn's crew, and the starfleet cadets. Still, most of the information that is here is interesting. It just feels short and incomplete.
It's dense. I started listening to the audio book, stopped almost halfway through when I realized I didn't know who most of the characters were or what was going on. I then picked up the Kindle version of the book and re-started it. That helped a lot. After reading the entire book, I went back and re-started the audio book and listened to it again. The narrator is excellent. If you are reading an electronic version, don't do like I did and only realize there is a glossary of characters, locations, and other terminology at the end of the book when you get there. Bookmark it and flip to it as needed for reference. It would have been really helpful had a realized it was there earlier. The DLC Bookclub podcast was also very helpful as they read through and summarized several chapters each week so after reading through them, I'd listen to the episode that aligned with the chapters I'd just read, which would help clarify some points and draw connections. Despite my struggles at getting through this first book, it was worth the effort. I'm invested in the world and characters. Although epic and long, it is not as “talkie” as the Game of Thrones series. There is plenty of epic action throughout. I'm looking forward to digging into book 2.
Highly recommended to any Riyria fans. However, being a prequel to the Riyria Revelations trilogy, the characters spend a significant amount of time confused about the motivations of other characters. Anyone who has read the Revelations series already knows those motivations, so some of the many paragraphs spent on characters wondering what's going on becomes a bit of a grind to get through. It's like knowing who the murderer is at the end of the Scream movie before going into it and you're just waiting for all the characters to catch up to where you are. Still, it's a great book, and despite my concerns, I'd still recommend you start with the Revelations series as I think the characters fair better when you are thrust into the middle of their adventures. You'll stand a better chance of being “hooked” by this series.
I listened to the audiobook version of this and found fascinating story ideas delivered in an almost textbook like fashion - devoid of emotion, tension, scares, or anything else that could have drawn me in. Perhaps it was the narration of the audiobook, which had a strange, almost robotic delivery to it. I found myself bored for the majority of it, setting it aside for weeks at a time before I forced myself back because “maybe the next one is better”. I finally made it 25% of the way through the final story and then bailed. I know Ted Chiang is a revered author, but for me this just didn't connect.
Great sections on editing and color. The Fairlight audio capabilities are barely touched on. The entire Fairlight section in the book is only 12 pages long and does little other than cover the basics of the interface. Had that been as robust as the editing and color sections, this would be a 5 star book.
I have to side with the naysayers on this one. I usually really enjoy Clive Barker but Imajica seems stuffed with excess that suffocates the main story line. Having reached its end, the through line is a great idea and could have made for a fantastic novel if the approach had been more focused. Easily half the book involves situations and characters that don't seem to add anything to the story and I kept waiting for the plot to meander its way back to where it was going - again and again. Clive Barker has deemed Imajica “unfilmable” and I think that's partly a recognition of the problem. It's fantastical representation and exploration of christianity is really well thought out and at it's core would make for an equally interesting film but in it's current form it involves far too much pointless meandering that would flummox filmgoers just as much as it did me.