Saturday, March 9, 2019

Conan The Barbarian #4 - Review by SE

Conan The Barbarian (2019-) #4 by Jason Aaron
S.E. rating: 5 of 5 stars

Really enjoyed this, however there are some incongruities. The artist differs from the previous three installments, and although the story-arc continues with Conan aging into an old man... it does not explicitly or implicitly mention the Crimson Witch. So that is strange.

It is very well done filler. Given that Marvel's reboot of Conan is all over the map (and time) with three comic series released together in 2019, and each apparently with serialized novellas (decoupled from the comics they are printed with), one can argue that readers didn't need any more jarring. I'm curious if the next issue can connect all the dots.

That said, Conan The Barbarian (2019-) #4 captured the "barbarian vs civilization" conflict that Conan deals with remarkably well. Conan strangles the king of Aquilonia (called Namedides instead of Numedides, as per REH canon from the 1932 "The Phoenix on the Sword" story.) Then he assumes the boring role of king without a war.

The art is gritty and mesmerizing. Instead of a shallow sidekick, he bonds with an captive lion--which seems much more appropriate and genuine. As a king, he needs to conceal his identity as he delivers vigilantly justice on the streets at night to regain his mental strength (must satiate the inner barbarian). Conan seems to re-purpose one of his old pirate flags into a mask, which made sense to me but some say it looks too detailed and anachronistic (like a "biker's mask"). I liked the idea.

Part #4 of Black Starlight by John C. Hocking starts to gel and get dark. Conan and his party are on Stygian shores and zombies had attacked them. The role of the emerald lotus grows clearer, and the conflict with a ghostly entity escalates. Looking forward to #5.

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Sunday, March 3, 2019

Is That The Best You Can Do? Card Game - Review by SE

 "Is That The Best You Can Do?"
Free Market Kids delivers a solid card with "Is That The Best You Can Do?"

It is inspired to teach basics of financial literacy and negotiating skills, but it's fun whether or not you care about learning. It is as easy as Uno... but totally different.

The games works with three people, but works best with four or more for the negotiations to get exciting. It is excellent for family gatherings, home schooling, or class settings. A match runs about 30-45min, but a single ~5min round can be fun and full of teachable moments.

High quality materials, art, and design produced this Deluxe version. The box is like a book that can be stored like one. A magnetic closure/top is slick .  The currency, core to the game, are translucent, poker-sized "crypto-currency"---they are fun to hold and durable.



Each player takes 7 Supply/Demand cards. Then the negotiations start.  One player begins by offering to sell or buy an item (all are Sci Fi based.... like flying cars, robot dogs, alien chess, etc.).  Then... the others chime in. Some will want to buy, and others enter as competitive sellers.  Everyone has different goals (ie buy-for-less-than OR sell-for-more-than).

Pairs negotiate, come to a price, and are awarded the difference between their card value and the end-price.  Then they replenish their deck of 7.

It is easy, but different than most buying-trading games. Only takes a minute to pick up.

To add spice and learn more, there are Market Cards. Instead of replenishing one's deck with Supply or Demand cards, one can pick a Market card that introduces one-time events; there are 9 flavors (ie everyone holding a Robot Dog gets taxed! Or arbitrage is enabled, so you can buy/sell to yourself...and seven more events).

Free Market Kids are going to spring board off this, as they are preparing lesson plans and game-add-ons to stimulate learning. I suspect they will create a basic (non Deluxe) set that just has the basic cards and will cost less.


Game Overview

 

Set up

   

 Negotiations

 

 Market Cards

 

Friday, March 1, 2019

Savage Sword of Conan 2019 #2 Review by SE

Savage Sword Of Conan (2019-) #2 by Gerry Duggan
S.E. rating: 3 of 5 stars

Starts off great, with Conan and his newfound buddy Suty landing on Stygian shores. A brutal landscape of "trees" leads to an encounter with pseudo-human (Darth-maul inspired) followers of Koga Thun. Conan administers the expected, titular savagery. The art is nice. This leads to a history of the area and the city of Kheshatta.

Then the comic portion stalls and becomes contrived and inconsistent. With limited pages, the information flow has to be spot on, and this issue seemed to spend/waste its precious pages after the nice beginning. More on that below in the spoiler section.

The bonus serial installment of "Shadow of Vengeance" by Scott Oden was an okay follow-up to an awesome beginning from Savage Sword Of Conan (2019-) #1. Conan is now on stage with Octavia. I appreciate the call outs to the Hyborian Age milieu but it ate two of this three-page dose. The last page did not end with the cliff-hanger I expected. Conan is slowly entering peril. I hope for a fun confrontation in the next installment.

Spoiler section...





The Koga Thun followers go from being thugs to weakling rats who reveal their master's plan to find treasure. Conan kills them and goes to the city. At this point I expected Conan to "use the map in his head" to steer him into the guarded city. But no, the scrawny Suty calms the angry guards by explaining that the towering hulk of Conan is simply a slave he wishes to sell, so the guards instantly flip to being okay with letting them in. This was a wasted page of silliness that could have been better spent on reinforcing the mind-map. 

Then we have several pages of Conan wandering into a library. It is unclear if his mind-map is steering him or if he is just goofing around. A lady he saw in a vision from Savage Sword Of Conan (2019-) #1 appears; her name is Menes. She introduces herself with a silly one-liner (she sneaks up on Conan, and he says men cannot do that... but wait...she is no man; I half expected her to say her name was Eowen.)

Whatever, Menes seems to be on their side (anti Koga Thun), so they make up a team.

It ends on a real shallow WTF. Menes, who was hiding and/or protecting the library, departs randomly from the conversation to head down stairs and open the barred door. Strange. She walks casually while asking if they brought friends. Conan strolls behind saying nothing. She opens it to be drug out by three bad guys! 

Menes was stealthy & smart enough to sneak up on Conan, but then not observant enough to sense danger when a random person knocks--why is she opening the door? Does "savage" Conan & Suty help save her from being drug out, or fight after? Nope. They hide behind the door. 

It just feels inconsistent & contrived from frame to frame. 
It is unclear how Conan and Suty have and react to any vision.



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Sunday, February 24, 2019

For the Killing of Kings - Review by SE

For the Killing of Kings by Howard Andrew Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When comes my numbered day, I will meet it smiling. For I’ll have kept this oath.
I shall use my arms to shield the weak.
I shall use my lips to speak the truth, and my eyes to see it.
I shall use my hands to mete justice to high and low, and I will weigh all things with heart and mind.
Where I walk the laws will follow, for I am the sword of my people and the shepherd of their lands.
When I fall, I will rise through my brothers and sisters, for I am eternal
-- Pledge of the Altenerai

Howard Andrew Jones’s For the Killing of Kings is highly recommended for epic fantasy fans. Twice in the first half, I was completely floored by plot twists. The last third kept me from going to sleep. Haven’t had that much fun reading a book in a long time. This jumpstarts The Ring-Sworn Trilogy, a wild & fresh & furious epic.

Pitched as The Three Musketeers presented via the style of Zelzany’s Chronicles of Amber, it holds true. Indeed, the epic pacing is reminiscent of Zelzany; HAJ doles out action and backstory with precision. Since there are many more than three “musketeers” here, and it has more of a medieval flare, one could argue it is more of a “King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table” mashup. Instead of a singular Holy Grail, the Altenerai guard are spread out searching for many hearthstones of mysterious, spiritual, power—in this case, stones are not clearly holy.

The key story arc focuses on the coming of age of the female squire Elenai, a soldier with burgeoning magic prowess. Her rise in the Altenerai (the Queen’s guard) is compelling. On her journey she mingles with the older members who still reel from the ambiguous ending of a war seven years prior; their commander was killed, and their Queen Leonara decided to make peace rather than annihilate the barbaric Naor enemies. The Queen spread the ranks out searching for hearthstones, and distanced herself from Altenerai traditions.

I list some of my favorite elements (Re-ordered and slightly disguised to avoid spoilers): a spellcasting system that linked nature to people (hearthstones); a sculptured horse worthy of Frazetta’s Death Dealer (or a woman of the similar ilk); a humanoid made of blood; a spooky ghost-town/village; the hidden content within the Chasm Tower; an unexpected, swift betrayal.

Humor: the expected banter between friends on the front line is well-delivered. Also, there are humorous cultures like the kobalin which are honor-driven furballs (reminded me of a matured, and more belligerent, Gurgi from Lloyd Alexander’s Pyrdain series)—if they like you, they want to kill you.

A diverse cast feels genuine and fresh. Despite a requisite dose of masculinity (via violence and “charmers”), women play a dominant role in the book; to wit, Queen Leonara rules over the city of Darassus, and Feolia is governor of Alantris. Elenai mingles with the disenfranchised Altenerai as she matures. The group listed below is ~50% female; a few in the group are sexually nonbinary (orientations are not a focus of the story, just low-key truths, matters of fact).
1. Asrahn (m): Master of Squires, veteran
2. Elenai (f): Young squire under Asrahn
3. N’lahr (m): Entombed Swordsman and war strategist; his sword Irion is part of a prophecy
4. Kyrkenall (m): Archer and mad poet; best buddy to N’lahr
5. Denaven (m): Veteran like Asrahn
6. Varama (f): Weapon’s specialists and scientist, emotionally cold (reminded me of a Star Trek Vulcan)
7. Rylin: (m) James-Bond-like, charming specialist
8. Cerai: (f) Hearthstone seeking sorceress with artistic flare
9. Rialla (f): Spellcaster and forger of weapons
10. Belahn (m): An aged crazy, protector of families
11. Decrin (m): Veteran
12. Aradel: (f) Archaeopteryx (ko’aye) riding, retired member
13. Kalandra: (f) MIA sorceress, searching for hearthstone and their origin
14. Renik: (m) also MIA, swordsman looking for hearthstones and their origin, may have heeded to a strange garden in Ekhem

Quibbles:
A map was not necessary, but would have been appreciated.

The role of the sword Irion in the plot is fantastic. It is a fun weapon to see in action. It certainly was fated to complete a mission instead of being locked up in a display case after a stalled war. However, the hope/myth behind its potential is referred to as “prophecy” which (a) seemed like a misnomer and (b) introduced a fantasy cliché. In a book in which many dozens of story arcs are interwoven, each having believable motivations/consequences, posing a fate-driven prophecy felt out of place. The prophecy seemed to originate in a relatively private setting in an impromptu ritual (not a public discourse or professed openly) and there was some mystery about its invocation (where did the inspiration come from to link the weapon to a particular individual).

More from HAJ:
The trilogy is well underway. During the Feb 2019 Ask Me Anything (AMA) on reddit, I inquired on the release schedule. HAJ returned: “First, rest assured. Not only is the second book written, it's going through final revisions right now… The third book is fully outlined and I had begun drafting…”

Howard A. Jones has long held a passion for action fiction and throughout his career has re-introduced readers to Harold Lamb, moderated Sword and Sorcery websites, and edited the Dark Fantasy magazine Blackgate and currently Tales from the Magician’s Skull & Perilous Worlds.

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Thursday, February 21, 2019

Mar Apr Groupreads - Haggard's Eric Brighteyes and Hocking's Emerald Lotus




The Sword and Sorcery Group on Goodreads
invites you to the Mar Apr 2019 groupreads

 (two topics, two months; click on links to the discussions):

(1) Haggard's Eric Brighteyes

(2) Conan and the Emerald Lotus - by John C Hocking


Banner Credits

- 1978 unknown/uncredited artist for the H. Rider Haggard book "Eric Brighteyes"
- 1999 Ken Kelly, Cover for "Conan and the Emerald Lotus" by John C. Hocking

Conan and the Emerald Lotus by John C. Hocking the 1995 pastiche which has a 2019 sequel (of sorts) with a serialized novelette in Marvel's Conan The Barbarian (2019-) #1(penned by John C Hocking, included as a parallel story with the comic). That series started release this year in January and continues!

Sword and Sorcery in 1891!; Indeed, Eric Brighteyes was written then by H. Rider Haggard, also known for:
She: A History of Adventure and Ayesha: The Return of She
King Solomon's Mines and Allan Quatermain

BTW, DMR books recent blog post on Haggard

interior illustrations by Lancelot Speed, 1891; that link shows many, and here are two:
"Eric and Skallagrim boarding the Raven" // "All Night Long Gudura Sat in the Bride's Seat"
descriptionLancelot Speed's image All Night 

Saturday, February 16, 2019

Savage Sword of Conan #1 (2019) Review by SE

Savage Sword Of Conan (2019-) #1 by Gerry Duggan
S.E. rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is part one of three separate reboots for Marvel's Conan. I am also reading the Conan the Barbarian yarns (CtB, now on #3), and will likely try out the Age of Conan series (AoC, due out next month, March 2019).

Like the CtB series, this comic also has a novelette attached; this one also appears unrelated to the story in the comic. This one is penned by Scott Oden. For me, this story is less an add-on and more of the real feature. It is presented as a sequel to Robert E. Howard's 1934 The Devil in Iron, a short story that presents Conan as a leader of a kozak group who annoys a corrupt governor from Turan. I was instantly inspired to re-read it. That is a testimony to Oden's pastiche which deftly continues the tale without explicitly presenting the barbarian.

The comic part had some highs and lows. Here Conan is ostensibly twenty years old, living as a pirate. In a disjointed tale, he is captured in the high seas from wreckage, imprisoned, then must fight for freedom from a Stygian galley. I was most impressed with Conan when he... hmmm.. "procures" some bones to unlock his manacles. That was a savage and witty scene, true to Conan. I was less impressed with a kick-to-the-groin and an anachronistic depiction of a gun on a pirate (noted by several Facebook groups). Monsters and sorcery sneak their way in, but not smoothly. As cool as the cover is, it only tangentially reflects the story.

Beware Marvel's ADHD: I was concerned about the frenetic coverage of location and times within CtB, and that concern is amplified here with SSoC. This introduces two new story yarns in parallel. Let us assume that the AoC has a story too... that would mean that Marvel is giving readers ~6 separate Conan yarns nearly simultaneously; within the comics, Conan seems to be flitting about new geographies every issue.



Review of CtB No.3,
Review of CtB No. 2,
Review of CtB No.1


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Sunday, February 10, 2019

Conan the Barbarian #3 - Review By SE

Conan The Barbarian (2019-) #3 by Jason Aaron
S.E. rating: 4 of 5 stars

Conan The Barbarian (2019-) #3: In this third installment, we have Conan at a third location and adventure. We also have a third installment of John C. Hocking's "Black Starlight" novelette, itself an entirely different story taking place somewhere near Stygia. More on Marvel's ADHD issue below.

No.3 pays homage to Conan being crucified on a giant tree. Previous classic scenes include:
1) The "Tree of Death", in the second chapter in A Witch Shall Be Born (Weird Tales, 1934)… in Khauran (Koth, Zamora, Shem surround this small country)
2) The "Tree of Woe" from the Conan the Barbarian 1982 movie) occurring in … Eastern Lands, sentenced by Thulsa Doom

Here in Conan #3 2019, he is in Nemedia, in then mining town region, hung up to die on the giant, ancient Red Tree (on Red Tree Hill), sentenced for thieving

Most of the story emphasizes Conan's unique abilities (huge size, quick thinking) to work his way out of a terrible fate; a chance, and unnecessary, lightning strike detracted from Conan’s ability to solve his own problems. The primary antagonist introduced in #1 was the Crimson Witch and her minion children; they appear again, this time for 2 pages (in No.2 it was ~1page). I'm hoping No.4 allots them more emphasis.

On the Black Starlight front, John C. Hocking dishes out another chunk of Conan and his mysterious travels to Stygia with the emerald lotus. This story starts to take shape now, so I am interested in seeing what his mission/goal is really about.

Marvel's ADHD: Marvel's Conan the Barbarian is done well, but with the frenetic coverage of location and times in just three installments, plus a disconnected story attached, the apparent lack of focus is a concern.

But wait there is more! Marvel is releasing two more Conan comics, very soon to overlap with this series:
2) The Savage Sword of Conan
3) AND... The Age of Conan
- AND there is another pastiche novelette to be placed in The Savage Sword (penned by Scott Oden).
- Let us assume that The Age of Conan has a story too... that would mean that Marvel is giving readers ~6 separate Conan yarns nearly simultaneously, the first two of which is jumping across geographies and time. I only hope that there is some sort of coherent theme across these.


Review of No. 2,
Review of No.1


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