Music Review | Tron: Legacy OST by Daft Punk

Tron: Legacy has a lot to prove. The decades-belated sequel to a nostalgic sci-fi "classic" from the early 80s, it's already been the subject of much ado about nothing courtesy of doom-saying industry analysts wondering whether its positioning as this holiday season's blockbuster of choice will be borne out by that old economic chestnut: the numbers. And you know, probably it won't.

But let's take the long view, say there's more to a movie than its box office. And indubitably there is. There's more to Tron: Legacy than a chart of potential profit and loss already, what with the odd beast of a soundtrack synthbotpop double-act Daft Punk have put together for it. That's - yep - the same Daft Punk you're thinking of. The guys with the anime music videos... the Kraftwerk-esque arrangements you're sure to know even if you'd rather you didn't.

So, an hour of music fit to shake your tush to on the dance floor? Surprisingly, not so much. The Game Has Changed, goes the title of track eight - an incredible clashing, hissing crescendo of sound that'd bleed bombast if you cut it - and it's a safe bet you'll come away from this score assured it has. If you're after another album along the lines of Discovery, forgive me for saying it, but these aren't the droids you're looking for.

However, as far as Daft Punk are from their comfort zone, they equip themselves remarkably well. A single, exquisite refrain - sometimes swollen and celebratory, sometimes tender and melancholy - flits deliberately through the soundscape, an intensely memorable motif which handily ties together the disparate threads of the duo's latest efforts. Only thus are Daft Punk able to pull together such a swathe of influences, most notably from Hans Zimmer's stellar score for The Dark Knight in Recognizer and The Game Has Changed, but you don't need to listen closely to pick out strains of Blade Runner in Arrival, touches of (of all things) Philip Glass's Koyaanisqatsi in Outlander, Nocturne and Finale, and here and there a miscellany of bits owing a debt to the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Terminator. It shouldn't work, but oddly enough, it does - thanks in no small part to that recurring aural motif, without which I dare say the twenty-odd short pieces Daft Punk have composed for Tron: Legacy would function as one not at all.

The clubbers who Daft Punk have made their bread and butter from before now won't be best pleased by the orchestral Tron: Legacy score, I fear - Derezzed is the duo's only offering in that regard, and while it might appease a few such aficionados, it feels otherwise a sweaty techno token at odds with the remainder of the soundtrack's more considered soaring - but with this album the robot brothers stand to inherit a whole other army of fans. It's more than a little derivative, yes, yet it hits on all the right notes, and the film itself, whatever its eventual legacy, will certainly be the better for it.

The BoSS for 05/12/10

If I was half the fantasy fanboy I profess to be, by all rights I'd spend this intro ranting and raving about NEW WHEEL OF TIME OMFG!!!

But no, thank you. My only reaction to Towers of Midnight's release has been a feeling of mild-to-moderate - and in any case aimless - guilt that I don't have much love for these books... that I can't share in the rampant excitement that tends to meet any and all news of this (for my money) interminably dull and oftentimes-amateurish series.

Nevertheless. The Wheel of Time aside, it's been a good, solid week of book goodies. See for yourself.

***

Towers of Midnight
by Brandon Sanderson

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
02/10/10 by Orbit

Review Priority:

2 (Fair)

Plot Synopsis: "The Last Battle has started. The seals on the Dark One's prison are crumbling. The Pattern itself is unraveling, and the armies of the Shadow have begun to boil out of the Blight. Perrin Aybara is haunted by spectres from his past. To prevail, he must find a way to master the wolf within him or lose himself to it for ever. Meanwhile, Matrim Cauthon prepares for the most difficult challenge of his life. The Tower of Ghenjei awaits, and its secrets will reveal the fate of a friend long lost. The end draws near. It's time to roll the dice."

Commentary: You know, I'm all for catching up on a series with a book or two, but twelve is taking the piss a bit, and much as I'd like to be versed in The Wheel of Time - whatever its merits, it is one of the genre's most prominent standard-bearers - what I read of the first book, years upon years ago, left me cold even then. And that was before I'd oiled up the old critical elbow.

Yeah. This just isn't going to happen, if I'm to be blunt. :/

In the Shadow of Gotham

by Stefanie Pintoff

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
02/12/10 by Penguin

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "At the dawn of the twentieth century, a deranged killer is on the prowl. New York, 1905. After losing his fiancee in the General Slocum ferry disaster, Detective Simon Ziele transferred to a country town north of Manhattan in the hope of escaping his grief. But only months later he's faced with the shocking murder of a young girl - battered to death in her bedroom on a cold winter's afternoon. And when Alistair Sinclair, one of Columbia University's most noted criminologists learns about the case, he realises it bears an uncanny resemblance to the deranged mutterings of one his research subjects. Ziele must work with Sinclair to determine whether his patient - with a terrifying history of violent behaviour and brutal fantasies - did indeed seek out this innocent young victim... before the vicious murderer strikes again."

Commentary: Am I really so transparent?

Alright, yes. I confess: I'm mostly interested in this one because it says Gotham. What? It does - right there on the cover! In the title! I appreciate it's probably got nothing at all to do with everyone's favourite Caped Crusader, but the worst case scenario here is I end up reading an acclaimed historical crime novel under false pretences, and honestly, if that turns out to be the case, I'll survive. Who knows, I might even enjoy myself...

War

by Sebastian Junger

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
27/05/11 by Fourth Estate

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "They were known as 'The Rock.' For one year, in 2007-2008, Sebastian Junger accompanied a single platoon of thirty men from the storied 2nd battalion of the U.S. Army, as they fought their way through a remote valley in Eastern Afghanistan. Over the course of five trips, Junger was in more firefights than he can count, men he knew were killed or wounded, and he himself was almost killed. His relationship with these soldiers grew so close that they considered him part of the platoon, and he enjoyed an access and a candidness that few, if any, journalists ever attain.


"War is a narrative about combat: the fear of dying, the trauma of killing and the love between platoon-mates who would rather die than let each other down.


"Gripping, honest, intense, War explores the neurological, psychological and social elements of combat, and the incredible bonds that form between these small groups of men. This is not a book about Afghanistan or the 'War on Terror'; it is a book about the universal truth of all men, in all wars. Junger set out to answer what he thought of as the 'hand grenade question': why would a man throw himself on a hand grenade to save other men he has probably known for only a few months? The answer proves elusive yet profound, and goes to the heart of what it means not just to be a soldier, but to be human."

Commentary: From the author of A Perfect Storm, one of the all-time greatest non-fiction novels, an account of the nearly-fatal year Junger spent with a platoon of soldiers in Afghanistan.

What more do you really need to know?

The Wolf Age

by James Enge

Release Details:

Published in the US on

09/11/10 by Pyr

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "Wuruyaaria: city of werewolves, whose raiders range over the dying northlands, capturing human beings for slaves or meat. Wuruyaaria: where a lone immortal maker wages a secret war against the Strange Gods of the Coranians. Wuruyaaria: a democracy where some are more equal than others, and a faction of outcast werewolves is determined to change the balance of power in a long, bloody election year.

"Their plans are laid; the challenges known; the risks accepted. But all schemes will shatter in the clash between two threats few had foreseen and none had fully understood: a monster from the north on a mission to poison the world, and a stranger from the south named Morlock Ambrosius."

Commentary: Sounds damn fine! But sadly, I must say bah and humbug to The Wolf Age for the moment, because it's book three of a thing; of a thing I haven't read (or truth be told even heard of) either book one or two of.

That is unless it's reasonably stand-alone. Anyone know?

Why oh why must everything come in threes these days? Honest to God, I'm good with one...

/end MOANING

Pariah

by Bob Fingerman

Release Details:

Published in the US on
03/08/10 by Tor / Forge

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "The world is in chaos. A zombie plague has devoured every nation on the planet. New York City is no exception. Imagine eight million zombies. Shoulder to shoulder. Walking the streets, looking for their next meal. The residents of one apartment building have bonded to keep themselves safe from the onslaught, but their inevitable demise lurks right outside their window, a constant reminder of the doom that awaits them. Forced to remain in the safety of the building, the tenants find themselves at each others' throats. When they spy a lone teenage girl who walks among the hordes, unattacked by the undead, their world opens up."

Commentary: Zombies again? I know, I know... nevertheless, I find myself rather insensibly excited to get started on Pariah. I know Graeme absolutely adored it - then again the dear fellow does (as he himself acknowledges) tend to get a touch moist over anything with a whiff of the undead about it. And there's more than a whiff of the undead to comic-book dude Bob Fingerman's first novel. In that regard, it's positively stinking.

I'm really hoping to sneak this one in sometime before Christmas. If it's even a patch on The Reapers are the Angels, as Graeme asserts, then it's going to be must-read material.

The Forge of God
by Greg Bear

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

11/11/10 by Gollancz

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "The disappearance of one of Jupiter's moons, the appearance of 'little green men' in Australia and the American Southwest, and the sudden presence of unidentifiable objects on a collision course inside the Earth's core add up to the inescapable conclusion that the Earth has been invaded by an enemy it cannot fight."

Commentary: Well if it isn't a classic alien invasion story! You don't see many such narrative these days. Nor, indeed, do you see this one - or you don't see it in these days, I should say. The Forge of God goes all the way back to 1987; Gollancz are simply reissuing it alongside a couple of Greg Bear's other classics.

For myself, surprise surprise, I've never read Greg Bear, and there are a couple of his novels on the horizon I just know I'm going to want to give the old once-over... so: the plan is to read and review a time-tested masterwork of his - this, nominated as it was for the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards upon its release way back when - before Hull Zero Three and the Halo novel hit, that I have myself something of a yardstick by which to measure them.

Here's to filling in another of the brick-holes in the wall of my general genre knowledge!

The Fall

by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

16/09/10 by HarperCollins

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "Humans have been displaced at the top of the food chain, and now understand – to their outright horror – what it is to be not the consumer, but the consumed.

"Ephraim Goodweather, director of the New York office of the Centers for Disease control, is one of the few humans who understands what is really happening. Vampires have arrived in New York City, and their condition is contagious. If they cannot be contained, the entire world is at risk of infection. Eph becomes consumed with the battle against the total corruption of humanity, while his ex-wife, Kelly, now a vampire herself, is ever-more determined to claim their son, Zack.

Commentary: Hmm. Still not at all sure what to think of these books. You might recall I found a copy of The Strain in a charity shop not so long ago, and promised myself that I wouldn't simply shelve it for that far-distant rainy day and entirely forget it existed. But guess what?

"As the Biblical origins of the Ancient ones are gradually revealed, Eph learns that there is a greater, more terrible plan in store for the human race – worse even than annihilation..."

Really there's only one way for me to figure out whether The Fall is the dodgy cash-in on Guillermo del Toro's name I fear it is, or else a decent vampire apocalypse trilogy a la The Passage in its own right. And for whatever it's worth, that's exactly what I mean to do - which is to say, get reading already! :)

Video Game Review: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Triple-A games these days, you see 'em coming a mile off. Canny marketing campaigns encompass everything from rumours to teaser trailers, gameplay footage of precise vertical slices to unboxing videos of pre-order bonuses; there'll often be "behind the scenes" bits for the unusually dedicated, lustrous eight-page spreads in magazines here and there for those who can't as yet work the internet. The avenues through which publicity-minded folks can get the word out about such and such a game are near enough to infinite as is, and industrious whatnots that they are, somehow they're always coming up with more.

Let's face it: no-one's going to be in the least surprised when, say, Dead Space 2 happens in the new year. No-one's going to be even mildly taken aback when Visceral's interminably anticipated sequel rocks our goddamn socks off, either. In such a climate, where marketing budgets can dwarf development budgets, for a game to truly surprise is a rare thing indeed. And that's exactly what Enslaved does: it surprises. Come to that, it leaves you reeling in wonderment, that a game as thoroughbred as this could possibly have come and gone without anyone really giving a hoot.

Well, quite. Stand up - or sit down, I suppose, if you prefer - and take note, for without question, Enslaved is one of the year's best games. And coming as it does from the team behind Heavenly Sword, that shouldn't be half such a shock to the system as it appears to have been. As a matter of fact, perhaps that's a large part of the problem here, because a lot of people got their panties all in a bunch over Heavenly Sword, didn't they? You remember the days? Cast your mind back... back to a time when Gran Turismo 5, Final Fantasy XIII and God of War III were a crazy dream and a global economic collapse away, and word filtered through the grapevine of a PS3 exclusive that actually looked - would you credit it? - worthwhile. At last! came the collective cries from the community; a catch-all way to justify every early-adopter's expenditure, no matter their particular taste in entertainment!

Predictably, the moment finished copies of Heavenly Sword arrived on the desks of reviewers and critics across the industry, the backlash began. Heavenly Sword looked phenomenal and played like diet God of War. It played just fine, when you cut through all the crud, but of course Sony had sold us all a dream, and Heavenly Sword, whatever its positive qualities - and it boasted no shortage thereof - was not that. I wonder if anything truly could have been.

Fast-forward a few years. PS3 owners finally have all the games they'd wished upon a star-strewn sky for, and wisely, I think, Ninja Theory have gone multiplatform with their sophomore effort, Enslaved. The game, in short, has changed - except they still can't win it, can they? It seems some lingering resentment still exists; it's either that or perhaps someone went and spent all the dollars earmarked for marketing on the game itself. And isn't that exactly what game journos the industry round have been crying out for these past years, with the rise of the triple-A? But I digress.

Out of the gate, Enslaved looks stunning. Lavish textures and character models abound. Lighting effects refract and glisten brilliantly. But you know, that's par for the course. What sets Enslaved apart, first and foremost, is its fantastic design; is its striking vibrancy. Hit start and an impossible landscape of reds and golds and greens stretches out before you - you meaning Monkey, a buff, unkempt-looking prisoner who awakens from stasis on a doomed cruiser packed to the gunnels full of mechs. Escaping from the ship functions as an introduction to the world, its sparse array of wonderfully fleshed-out characters, and a tutorial of basic gameplay elements all in one. It's practically seamless, and for ten to twelve hours, it continues thusly.

As to gameplay, well. Think Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time with slightly more emphasis on combat. You'll action, and then you'll adventure. Sometimes you'll adventure before you action, even - and that's grand! There's nothing particularly innovative about the way Enslaved plays, but neither do its well-trodden mechanics falter in the least. Leaping from platform to platform feels natural, if as linear as a straight line - more on which in a moment - while you're rewarded for plowing through a gang of weaponised mecha courtesy of Monkey's weighty staff-cum-sniper rifle with a sense of accomplishment substantially more persuasive than that which awaited you in Heavenly Sword.

The only real issue I'd raise with regards to Enslaved's gameplay is the path of least resistance it designers force you down. The platforming segments seem, in all honesty, more than a little canned. You can't jump anywhere but backwards or forwards, from one conveniently glowing object in the environment to another, and maybe back again if you feel like stretching your legs or else hunting down a tech orb or a collectible mask. It can seem crushingly linear until you acclimatise, and the worst is yet to come: you can't fall to your death except on rare occasion, divorcing the experience entire of any real sense of jeopardy. At the two-thirds mark traps along the track - again reminiscent of those from certain games starring everyone's favourite royal - are introduced, and they do a lot to making the platforming that much less of a senseless mashing of buttons. Sadly, it's a case of too little, too late.

However.

Seriously, however. It's a real problem, and it persists from one end of Ninja Theory's latest to the other: I don't mean to diminish its significance, but you know what? I got used to it. Same as I got used to Elika in Ubisoft's 2008 reboot of - yes, that old chestnut again - the Prince of Persia franchise; it serves much the same purpose, and Elika the floaty ghost-girl represented a contrivance at least the equal of Enslaved's glowing trail.

So Enslaved isn't perfect. Aside from the aforementioned hand-holding, the frame rate grinds a bit at times too. Yet what Ninja Theory does right - shorthand for pretty much everything else - it does so very right. They're among a depressingly scant assortment of developers who approach character and narrative with actual measure and maturity: Monkey and his bipolar charge, Trip, are among the year's most memorable double-acts; their relationship, as the narrative presses forward, develops as naturally as the tragic tale of a post-collapse Earth Enslaved offers up. In large part, that's thanks to stellar, nuanced performances from Andy Serkis and Lindsey Shaw akin to and indeed the equal of any in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, though it would be doing Ninja Theory a disservice to gloss over the finesse and attention such cross-media translation demands. The story itself, only revealed as you approach the endgame, is a belter. And it saddens me to think, given Enslaved's underwhelming turn on store shelves, how unlikely some continuation of Monkey and Trip's tale is.

Never has the term "criminally underrated" felt more appropriate...

Enslaved is a more satisfying game by a large margin than Ninja Theory's last original IP, and while it suffers from occasionally overbearing design and the odd technical hiccup, it stands, in the end, as far more than the sum of its myriad parts. Solid gameplay and stellar graphics are the connective tissue of a character-focused narrative of such restraint and sophistication as to put anything else the industry has hashed out this year - short, perhaps, Red Dead Redemption - to shame.

Super Oblivion 64

Still catching up!

From Kotaku, then:

Elder Scrolls V Is A

Direct Sequel To Oblivion

On the one hand, well, it's about goddamn time already, isn't it? Thank the Lord. Much as I've enjoyed the wastes of Fallout 3 and New Vegas - and I have, albeit to varying extents - I'd been wondering when word would finally get out about the next Elder Scrolls, and though this isn't it, not in any sort of official capacity, I think we can safely take the leak as confirmation of a sort that yes, would you believe it, there's another Elder Scrolls in the works.

Good stuff!

On the other hand, a direct sequel to Oblivion? Oh.

Well, that sucks a bit. For me most of all, probably. Twice I've played through Oblivion, would you believe it: the first time on the PC, where I got perhaps 50 hours in, then again on the Xbox 360, with which version I spent in excess of 100 hours before my save files somehow became corrupted. And on neither occasion did I manage to finish the story quests; being prone to distraction in a game positively founded on the prospect of hiding missions in every nook and cranny turned out to be something of a nightmare for me.

A nightmare I very much enjoyed, I'll say - and both times - but given what Oblivion's put me through, I don't know that I have the will to go back to it, the better to be ready for The Elder Scrolls V.

Still. Sign me up, thank you very much. I've kind of lost heart in the Japanese RPGs I grew up in adoration of... they just didn't grow up with me, you know? Western-developed equivalents, on the other hand - Mass Effect, all that - tend to have enough maturity about them to hook me into the open worlds and familiar old levelling mechanics I used to love.

So I say again: good stuff! :)

Undead Unemployed

The Walking Dead

Kills Its Writers

So goes the headline of an article on Dark Horizons which popped up on my RSS reader this second. Say what?

"Despite the renewal for another season, The Walking Dead showrunner Frank Darabont has fired the entire writing staff of the AMC hit series reports Deadline.

"Along with the scribes, writing executive producer Charles H. Eglee has been let go and Darabont is reportedly looking to assign scripts to freelancers rather than having a writing staff. Darabont himself penned the first two episodes of the first season and polished the scripts for the other four - one of which came from the comic's creator and two from non-staff writers. Acclaim for the pilot and second episode ran pretty high, but critical enthusiasm has slightly dropped off in subsequent weeks [...] Darabont also has the issue of a much longer thirteen-episode second season [to contend with]."

So tell me, all y'all who've been keeping up with The Walking Dead: is it true? The other half and I only sat down to start watching this show last night. We made it through the feature-length pilot and episode two, and had, I'm not afraid to say, a very fine time indeed. She hasn't read the comic, I've only read the first trade, and I think it pleased us both in equal measure.

Now I'm worried. Has The Walking Dead really gone off the deep end? A scaling of the infamous sewer shark so quickly? God, but I dearly hope not...

Book Review: Guardians of the Phoenix by Eric Brown

Buy this book from

Amazon.co.uk / The Book Depository

Global warming has taken its terrible toll. The seas have dried up and deserts cover much of the Earth's surface. Humankind has been annihilated by drought and the nuclear and biological conflicts following the Great Breakdown. Desperate bands of humans still survive. Some live far underground, away from the searing temperatures and ongoing conflicts on the surface; others scrape a living in the remains of shattered cities above ground. In Paris, Pierre lives like an animal among the sand-drifted ruins of the once great city. Near death, he faces a choice: join the strangers heading south in search of water, or remain in the city and perish.

***

The end of the world again, is it?

Well, at least this time it's not grey.

Saying veteran sci-fi author and erstwhile genre reviewer for The Guardian Eric Brown is prolific just doesn't do the gentleman in question justice. At times, he seems a production house unto himself. Only a few months ago, Solaris reissued a decade-old novel of his, Engineman, in a sumptuous new edition complete with extensive revisions, a lovely new cover and a handful of related short stories. Engineman was this here reader's first experience of Eric Brown's fiction, and if it didn't quite - hyperbole ahoy! - blow me away, I had a great time with it all the same.

With Engineman behind us, there's Kings of Eternity to look forward to come the new year: a epic narrative about some kids who stumble upon a portal to outer space Brown himself describes as "probably the best thing I've done." In the same interview, in fact - over at Mark Chitty's rather fabulous Walker of Worlds - you get the distinct sense Brown is talking up Kings of Eternity in lieu of pimping his next novel proper.

Now you often hear of authors loving their latest babies above all their other literary children, so I wasn't overly concerned that Brown seemed to be giving Guardians of the Phoenix the cold shoulder. And whatever the collective exhaustion at the prospect of such stories, I have a special place in my heart for shindigs set after the apocalypse, which this very much is: a story of a young man eking out an existence in a city of sand who comes across the very best - and the very worst - of humanity in the shape of two bands of survivors come to town.

Sadly, Guardians of the Phoenix is a bit of a mess. It's obvious. It's dull. It's predictable. It's borderline offensive, come to that, with an anti-hero who'll drop her tattered combats at the mere thought of another obscene sex scene and some bad dudes who you know are properly bad because they threaten our hero - such as he is - with homosexual intercourse! Guardians of the Phoenix is a by-the-numbers exercise in a genre so run-to-ground as to demand originality from those who attempt to work within its bounds, and that vital spark just isn't here. There's not an original nor even an interesting character in sight.

It has its moments, of course. When Brown gets his sci-fi on his footing is far surer; when he relates the details of humanity's last, best (not to mention cruelly thwarted) hope - a null-space escape ship the best and brightest built to get away from Earth while the getting was still good - Guardians of the Phoenix threatens to rise like its namesake from the ashes that are the narrative's dreary larger part. Unfortunately, even then, Brown's latest never quite catches a drift, and that the closest thing to a redeeming feature in a post-apocalypse novel such as this is a sprinkling of sci-fi come the endgame speaks volumes as to its overall worthiness.

Which is to say its dire lack in that regard...

You know, Guardians of the Phoenix isn't an awful novel by any stretch, but oddly, it reeks at times of amateurishness, and here I'd thought Eric Brown as professional as pros got. What can I say? I'm disappointed.

But let's not end on such a negative note. Here, a friendly pull-quote I can honestly get behind: whatever its issues, Guardians of the Phoenix is still better than Twilight.

(Which could be just about the most self-evident thing I've ever written.)

***

Guardians of the Phoenix

by Eric Brown


UK Publication: December 2010, Solaris

Buy this book from
Amazon.co.uk / The Book Depository


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