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I never got into Battlestar Galactica, but I always wanted to. After Babylon 5 finished 8 trillon years ago I’ve been missing a good sci fi series that wasn’t Star Trek (always a crapshoot for quality). Luckily, in preparation for the final series, IGN is running a line of articles on whats happened so far. Sounds like as good as any to catch up…

So, this is going to be a week of random articles. My interests wax and wane in different directions all the time and sometimes I just like dabbling with something a little bit different than the ordinary. The last article was on super space structures. This article is on something a little closer to home: Dolphins.

Turns out their ferocious murder machines continuously devising new ways of destroying their arch-nemesis: the cuddlefish. I especially like the theory that these sea-born blood-lovers learn their skills playing, or as I call it, tactical training.

Joking aside, it’s a very cool article. The process of play developing skills is very intuitive and a sorely underutilized concept. These articles of mine, small and insignificant though they be, are a form of play in a way, and I’d like to think I’ve become a better writer for it. (That’s my obligatory writing connection.)

Something to think on. Cheers!

During one my general perusals of the internet I came upon this gallery of images depicting various proposed space structures for habitation. Part of the novel I’m been working on includes some space colonies so it seemed relevant to poke around a little bit.

As cool as the images are, there is some fascinating research that has gone into the feasibility of these possible habitations. The Dyson Sphere, shown in one of the Star Trek images, in particular has a whole host of science behind it. I also really liked the article on Kemperer Rosettes.

Enjoy!

The Demo for Empire Total War came out today. For the uninitiated, the Total War series of games is a cross between Risk’s turn style-conquer the world gameplay, Civilizations diplomacy, and the unit battles of something like Age of Empires. The previous games in the series: Shogun Total War, Medieval Total War, Rome Total War, and Medieval Total War 2 have each improved the scope of the world, added better graphics, more complex interactions between cultures, and taken the game into different time periods.

The newest entry, Empire Total War, finally delves into Napoleonic era warfare. For anyone who has seen the Sharpe series starring Sean Bean (or read the books by Bernard Cromwell) combat of the age was quite a bit more elegant than simply lines of infantry mauling each other with musketfire. This was the grand age of artillery, cavalry, and most of all, naval warfare, which is itself a new addition to the series.

Sadly the demo, released yesterday on Steam, lacked the overall world map, and as such, none of the interaction between countries, so I can’t speak for the diplomacy, trade, and general global politicking, but it featured a naval battle and a land battle to test out.

The naval battle was gorgeous. There’s something undeniably magestic about a 100+ gun first rate ship of line launching a broadside against an equally large and well armed enemy vessel. A quick google search for screenshots will reveal just how great they’ve got the ships looking. As far gameplay, it’s a tad slow and more than a little chaotic. Ships don’t turn all that quickly and so it makes for a roundabout affair sometimes, but it’s a joy to watch and there are more than a few tactical decisions to make: which ships engage which enemies, what cannon shot to use, whether to grappe enemies or not, whether to even engage or not.

The land battles are even more impressive. The featured map is the Battle of Brandywine in the American Revolution. You play as the english as they flank the americans and rout their forces en route to Philadelphia.

WIth control over a few units of hussars, a unit of dragoons, a half a dozen units of line infantry, some light skirmishers, and a number of cannon, you get a pretty good taste of what an english army could throw at an enemy in the 1700s.

Overall, I’m impressed. Games like this that provide a fairly solid historical foundation, but let the player go from there, tend to provide more than a little creative inspiration. And besides, sometimes it’s just fun to line a dozen cannon, a few thousand computerized soldiers, a couple units of cavalry and then let them just run at each other.

The game should be released in about a week so, keep an eye out!

The footmen were the first to advance. They carried the white flag of their liege across the barren plain. They were met in the middle of the field by a brigade of the enemies dark-clad legions. They eyed each other warrily while the rest of the army moved in position.

A handful of knights, the bravest horsemen called from their homes, left their position at the back of the line and advanced to within a range of their friendly footmen who were being surrounded by more legions of black clad soldiers.

Unwilling to relinquish the field, the white king ordered his personal men at arms, to hold the line. His closest advisor, a nobleman of brave heart and great repute, took the field by the storm. He advanced quickly, unmolested by the dark legions. He eyed the enemy king, who fearing the Duke’s great spirit, ordered his knights to his side.

Seeing great advantage, the hoary king of the white flag, advanced his own knights beyong the center of the field. The enemy king, a notorious coward, pulled his Queen’s own men to defend his position.

As of yet no bloodshed had been spilt. It was all maneuvering and posturing. The true battle had yet to begin. This ended in an instant. The glorious footmen, bearers of the flag, engaged a dark legion, flanking them easily and taking the advantage.

The enemy responded immediately. He sent his Queen’s guards to shore up the line. The footmen responded valiantly. They matched the Queen’s men sword to sword, but they fell under the onslaunt. The Duke, his own flank now removed, was put in peril.

As an old and heroic man, the Duke knew his duty. Facing certain death he proceeded forward, well beyond where the line could protect him. He engaged the King’s knights, annihilating them to a man. As a bold, a triumphant hero his pointed his sword at the dark king and threatened him to his face.

It was a glorious moment, but it was his last. The Dark Queen’s brother, an able general of the crusades, furfilled his kingly obligations and smote the Duke. It was a terrible loss, but a glorious end for the grand commander.

The White King survayed the field. His center was in disarray. He order more footman to advance to cover his knights, stranded beyond his line. The Dark King sought to interfere with the preparation and moved his Queen’s men forward, but they were chased off by a division of crusader swordsmen.

Determined to be a menice, the Queen ordered his men to take the center of the field. Her pennat waved threateningly over the field. The White King wisely brought his siege engines into position, should it be necessary to remove her from the field by force. A second unit of knights, was moved onto the field as well, to threaten the Queen. Finally she was moved to retreat, but not before slaying another band of valiant footmen.

With a great yell the majority of the army clashed. There was smoke and fire. Arrows were traded and darkened the sky. Footmen on both sides died in their boots, still clutching their swords. The Dark King’s Bishop, a notorious butcher was forced to cover his king.

In an instant the Knights responded. Furious at the death of the Duke, they crossed the field and slew the queen. Unsatiated they captured the Dark Tower, a old fortification built in the days of Barbarians to hold the flank. It was a terrible loss for the Dark King and his men feared their demise. The Queen’s men killed the Bishop Butcher, a unit of footmen crossed the field, blood was spilt across the field.

When the smoke cleared the knights, the valiant knights who first carried forward, were dead. Slain of a pusillanimous unit of archers.

The Knights were avanged by the mighty siege engines. They threw their stones forward. Crushing the enemy archers and a units of knights as well. The Dark King’s army was in nearly complete disarray. His footmen abandoned him. His Knights and Noblemen were slain in quick order. His remaining loyal soldiers, crossed the field in a futile attempt to break through, but they were repeased. The might of the White Banner overcompassed the field. The Dark Knight, with a final brave gesture, sent his siege engines to bombard the oncoming footmen. They were destroyed and the King surrounded.

He stood amongst the corpses of his army, the dead horses, the broken engines, the crumbled walls. His own Queen lay on the field, dead. An honorless and cowardly man the Dark King refused to die with bravery. He called off the last stand, waved off any thought of resistance. He offered his sword and was captured, bound to live his life a testament to dishonor and weakness.

http://www.jonathanstrange.com/

I received Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell for Christmas. It’s a hefty book by any measure. 800 or so pages long it fits better on my reference book shelf than with the puny fiction stories it belongs with. Given an unfortunate lack of time I was not sure if I was all that keen on sloging through, yet one more oversized fantasy tome.

You could argue I finished the book out of good luck, free time became more available than expected, but really the credit belongs Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell alone. I would describe the writing as a cross between Harry Potter and Dickens. It’s a legitimate enough comparison, but not necessarily fair. Harry Potter, despite a number of adult readers, is still young adult fiction from any marketing position. Dickens, while well deserving of his reputation, tends to be slow-paced and stuffy. Susanna Clark managed to take the best of both and avoid the weaknesses.

As a book concerning magic in England, it’s as good as any non-magician could come to capturing the true events regarding the thistle-haired gentleman and the two most famous english magicians of our age. With an abundance of footnotes, a number of drawings, and a constant stream of references to other magical documentation, manages to create and sustain a sense of verisimilitude. A book of 800 pages is likely to either build up too slowly or die our too quickly. Susanna Clark has managed, through an endlessly expansive imagination, to bring the reader from Portugal to Italy, to England to Faerie, without dropping a step. It’s an entertaining row from beginning to end. As the Washington Post reviewed: Many books are to be read, some are to be studied, and a few are meant to be lived in for weeks. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is of this last kind…

The length is admittedly intimidating, but Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a thoroughly engaging work and well worth the read. I’d like to think that Harry Potter and Tolkein have provided a certain legitimacy to fantasy works that will allow books like this one, fantasy but mature, to become mainstream and appreciated. If the works produced continue to mirror the quality of this one, that may likely come true.

The author’s site about the book can found here. Make sure to read the biographies!

I hate St. V’s Day, so I much prefer to celebrate good ol St. Pat’s day instead. For those people dying to exchange expensive flowers, sappy cards, and bite sized candies the history channels ‘History of Valentine’s Day‘ might amuse.

Aussi, KM, je t’adore.

Happy Birthday to the man who wrote one of the most beautiful paragraphs even written…and formulated the most important tenat of modern biology.

“Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.”

Origin of Species 6th Edition

Frost/Nixon came out roughly two months ago, but it’s taken me this long to see it. It wasn’t for a lack of trying; Frost/Nixon was a limited release and not shown in any theatres within an hour of me. I managed to catch a viewing recently, and even that was an awkward affair.

I haven’t written a review on Servusamanu since November. I’ve had plenty of material, but I wanted to concentrate on articles directly relating to writing. Reviews just don’t fall into that category.

Frost/Nixon deserves the award, partially out of good timing. I got into a mood to do something a little bit different from my recent string of story submissions. It also happens to be an example of what movies aren’t very often these days: dialogue based.

Theatre, and Frost/Nixon began life as a play, has always revolved around dialogue. I suppose a few especially daring plays might use stunt men for every performance and there are hundreds of singing/dancing shows, but the standard dramatic play doesn’t have many tools outside of dialogue to work with.

Movies, of course, seem to be driven more by CGI technology and stunt work than by the simple premise that ‘the emotional interaction between people is the height of drama.’ Frost/Nixon manages to do this especially well.

The name refers to was a series of interviews between David Frost and Richard Nixon in 1977. In the final dramatic interview Nixon admitted, however reluctantly, a degree of culpability and regret for the Watergate scandal. It was an important interview and certainly an interesting one, but historically speaking it would hardly be counted as one of the great events in history. It didn’t change the world of broadcasting, it didn’t sink Nixon’s reputation any lower than it already was, David Frost, while respected and famous, did not take over the world. It was momentous, but only a little bit so.

Not so, in the movie. It could be the single most important event in the 20th century for all anyone knows. The movie could have failed very easily in that regard. They could have hyped it too much and made it a farce or left it alone and bored the reader. However, I bought it. I bought into the premise and enjoyed the next two hours. The movies takes the form of scenes of event taking place, with ‘interviews’ spliced in giving commentary to the events taking place. This format lends authority and consequence. The fact that the characters care, even in the interviews they are giving an unknown number of years later, makes the history important.

A number of critics have taken umbrage at the importance given to these events in the movie, but…it’s fiction. I felt drawn in and it had nothing to do with fireworks or love scenes or car chases. The dialogue was used effectively to set up background, taken the viewer through the event, and, most importantly, make the consequences important. They used dialogue to its fullest capacity and it worked brilliantly. (It didn’t hurt that Frank Langella, and the other actors as well, are all top-notch.) For an example of how this same attempt can be done poorly, see ‘Bobby’. That movie uses a similar style, but despite the fact that movie’s central event was genuinely important (The assassination of Robert Kennedy), I found myself not especially caring about any of the characters.

I haven’t kept up on the DVD release of anything, but if anyone cares to see Frost/Nixon it should be out on DVD soon, if it isn’t already. Sadly, the original theatre run has already ended.

Back in this article I mentioned the Hudson River Reader call for submissions.

My submission below:

Miracle on the Hudson

For weeks I wracked my brains over what to write. Hudson River, memoirs of the Hudson River, recollections, musings. What could I possibly write that would truly capture the scope of the people, the towns, and the river itself?

I certainly have some things to say. I grew up in Goshen, well within the Valley and close enough to go boating or hiking during muggy, mosquito-filled summers. More recently, I have worked as a deckhand, on a boat called ‘Pride of the Hudson’ no less. I’ve gone up and down its length a hundred times, pointing out landmarks well-known and less-so, tossing rope in storms that turned West Point into a foggy nothing, buying fruit from dockside vendors between shifts.

Really though, these are splashes of color. They capture a few moments in time and place. The smell of the Newburgh docks, industrial, oily, fishy, the quaint peacefulness of Cold Spring in August; these are snapshots. They cannot possibly do justice to the Hudson.

And then there was ‘the Miracle on the Hudson’. In a week that will have scrolled by on CNN so many times it will be subliminally linked with images of Anderson Cooper. Right now though, a day after that tragedy, it is fresh and poignant and meaningful.

In New York, like nowhere else, we are used to the bittersweet taste of life. We are well acquainted to all the tragedies of life, petty and profound. A man gets mugged, but a support network develops in the form of a neighborhood watch. A school is vandalized, but people come together to erase, repair and then improve. On that most momentous of days thousands of people died, but the world saw heroism in its truest. We have seen it all and expect to see even more.

The Hudson has seen it all too and it has become a cynical river. With good comes bad, with bad comes good. If there’s a net-gain, it’s only at the expense of time and sweat and blood. Rivers are always fickle, they expect tribute. But maybe that is going to change. Maybe it already has.

Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, pilot of Flight 1549, landed a crippled 747 carrying 155 passengers into the Hudson. It could have ended in candlelight vigils and days of rescue divers pulling bodies from the depths of the Hudson, but it didn’t. Emergency workers responded immediately. No one died. Injuries were minor. The Captain’s a hero.

It’s the fairy tale ending, but it’s not at all a fairy tale. Just real life, tragic and heroic. It’s as fine a testament to what this river has seen and what this river represents as any of the thousands of similar stories that happen every day but never make the news. It is my fondest memory of the Hudson and my highest expectation of what the future will hold. It is the Hudson River in all of its glory.

~Robert D. Drake