Holiday, Interrupted

So starting today, I was going to take a couple of weeks off. Maybe to go somewhere - the other half and I have talked about spending a few nights in Krakow - but mostly just to recharge the old batteries. Take the critic's hat off for a book or two, you know... enjoy a thing on its own terms for once.

To tide you all over, I was going to schedule a choice few reviews to run while I was in absentia. I've read the books: they're sat here in a neat little stack, just waiting for me to give them each an hour or two and the attention they surely deserve, each in their own ways.

I was going to look into gutting my computer once and for all; I was going to finally put pen to paper on a long short story that's been knocking around my head for months; I was going to spend some quality time with the aforementioned other half, be it in Krakow or not. I was going to do a bunch of things, all told.

And then Halo: Reach happened. And for once, the year's biggest triple-A video game hasn't left me utterly cold. Perhaps that's something to do with my having read the reissue of Eric Nylund's decade-old origin story, The Fall of Reach. In fact, I think it's pretty safe to say that indeed, it is. But anyway. In a fortnight's time, Halo's going to be old news, and colour me surprised, I actually have a few things to say about Bungie's pet project this year; better that I say them while people are still interested in hearing them.

So the holiday... it's not off, not altogether, but I'm pushing it back till next week so I can spend a few days going while the getting's good. Thus, before the weekend's upon us, look forward to full reviews of both the game and the book, as well as a lengthy, related discussion of the whys and wherefores of shared worlds fiction which takes in Halo: The Fall of Reach, Dead Space: Martyr and a whole bunch of other tie-ins besides.

Meantime, who here plays Halo: Reach multiplayer? I'm "niallalot" on Xbox Live and I've shot (and indeed been shot by) a fair few of you in the face online already, but the more the merrier! Friend me, or leave your gamertag in the comments and I'll do the dirty work myself. Together, surely, we can defeat Legendary difficulty...