Alright so I got asked to write this and while I did want to do things about books I guess I'll start with this. SO
SPOILER WARNING. Also not sure but just go ahead and realize I've been asked to write this. If you think that has impaired my judgement like a near fatal head wound in the trenches I perfectly understand that.
Gamer of the Apocalypse. (GA) Is a fan fiction story for Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. Your typical rouge-like the world has gone to hell with everything you could throw into it gone wrong sort of thing. And of all the fan fictions I've read (around ten or so) this one actually does a lot of good things.
It is still being written so this is going to cover to Chapter 37; the latest chapter. Let's get into it.
The narrator is a teenage gamer Jonathan who witnesses his younger brothers being torn apart by zombies in front of his eyes. He is joined by Mute, a mute ten year old kid who shot his zombified dad and Anastasia who was experimented on by her dad. Daddy issues galore and of course we now have the pretext for camp fire "kumbaya-our-lives-suck-offs." And yet that doesn't happen anymore than it needs to in the story and the moments are poignant and well-written. Mute doesn't start talking about shooting his dad, he just makes subtle motion to it knowing Jonathan will get it and leave it be in a sort of reverent "we all have our problems, you don't have to go any further" mentality that means we mostly get this foreboding moral qualm undertones from Jonathan as he's thinking about these Nietzsche wet dream topics. However the fact that Mute and Anastasia seems to have hopped on that bandwagon and may soon shout "God is dead!" in the city square is a bit unsettling.
Also I feel it is worth mentioning that Jonathan is fairly easy to be a self insert. Just putting that out there and if it is the case to attract the audience the writer is a bloody evil genius at getting people to love his work although the writing already seems to do that from what I can tell scrolling through the comments. And yes the writing is good.
Speaking of the writing let me say what I like about it the best. I'm not one for distopian horror and the like but I can actually get into this. Yes the world is in shambles and burning in a tailspin into the sun but everything clicks for the most part and only occasionally do I get the feeling he said "you know what would be cool?" Which is more than most fan fictions can say. And then there's the fact that what you can consider the morals and meanings in this story are always present in the background like actors having an orgy behind the curtain during the show. The play is great and if you want you can look at the motivations and sleep into the fetal position for the next few weeks you can. But the people who read/write fan fictions aren't known for hard hitting fiction so that makes this a nice touch.
Also the fact that the apocalypse isn't overhyped with blood and gore and etc. makes it much more approachable for the non-blood and gore fanboys. If such a group exists. I will warn you however if you don't play the game it is based off of you will scratch your head and think occasionally "wtf, sharknados are jumping the fucking shark eating the Fonz."
All in all:
- Interesting anti-heroes who aren't the generally expected (even if they occasionally border it): +10
- Realistic view point of the apocalypse: +5
- Subtle undertones that you could write a literary paper about: +10
- Writing quality and style not usually seen in fan fictions that could easily pass for a novel: +25
- Occasionally obvious: -5
- Harder to get into if not into the game: -5
- Fan Fiction: -5 (only because universe already created)
- Kinda self-inserty (would penalize but can't decide whether or not to): +- 0
+35. You'll be hard pressed to have me find a lot of fan fictions that can get this high a score. Also Heart of Darkness may be getting a run for its money now.
Now if he'd write a novel (which he should) in the same line he'd be pushing a fifty and I'm going to say that's the benchmark from now on.
You can read Gamer of the Apocalypse here:
I am now taking suggestions for the next book to review.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
1: Ukrainian Separatists; GLORIOUS SOVIET UNION Time!
Alright, its been a few hours since the last media storm started over the last tragedy and I'm already tired of watching Anderson Cooper stammering. What I have yet to hear is how this started. Like everything dealing with Russia; let's talk about Muscovy and the Tsar.
Russia as we know it started out as Muscovy. Which was the area around Moscow. This is where the Tsar comes from as well. And over the next several hundred years they expanded to Archangel and then crushed the Swedish Empire and its sheep-slaughtering king to get St. Petersburg.
And Russia expanded etc. etc. etc. By the 19th century Russia had participated in the Partitions of Poland and the Crimea War. Which took place in Crimea. No duh. The Russian Empire was at it's zenith size-wise.
But enough history about the expansion of Russia. Let's talk about why there is a civil war going on in Ukraine. Now we go to GLORIOUS SOVIET UNION time! Which part of that experiment in not-communism are we talking about today?
The collectivization of agriculture. Or, how the Soviet Union showed that it would fail miserably along with its satellite states. In 1929 the Soviets, having rebuilt their economy in the first five year plan, decided to collectivize agriculture.* In it they made several mistakes.
Firstly Lenin's slogan of "peace, land, and bread" meant what you expect. However Lenin was dead so who cares and Stalin didn't give a flying shit about breaking all three of those in this goal. That's not quite true, he threw the shit at the farmers. The farmers didn't want collectivization of land. And so knowing that the government was going to take their farms anyway, the Kulaks; the 'rich' farmers (i.e. owned some amount of livestock, (i.e. more that five chickens as a reference point, not sure on actual cutoff) so not rich by our standards) started killing their livestock. the poor farmers then started killing whatever one or two animals they had as well. And the army came in and started slaughtering the kulaks. Which then caused a famine as the Soviet Union required cereals for export to meet the five year plan costs. In the end most of the death happened in, you guessed it, what is now Ukraine, the bread basket region for Russia and you can see where the Russian separatists and hatred of Russia comes from.
Exporting cereals was a problem most of the Soviet satellites had and you should never do that. This is what happens when you can't accept loans due to ideology. Never stopped catholic kings. Although they would usually expel the Jews afterward. Or just persecute them more.
*The accuracy of the five year plans and their success cannot be verified. Why? Everyone fabricated everything as soon as one problem occurred so the KGB or COMECON or whoever was in charge wouldn't start whacking people. Because the not-communists in Russia had this thing for whacking people. Personally think those eighty years are why Russia has one of the worst declining birth rates in the world.
Russia as we know it started out as Muscovy. Which was the area around Moscow. This is where the Tsar comes from as well. And over the next several hundred years they expanded to Archangel and then crushed the Swedish Empire and its sheep-slaughtering king to get St. Petersburg.
And Russia expanded etc. etc. etc. By the 19th century Russia had participated in the Partitions of Poland and the Crimea War. Which took place in Crimea. No duh. The Russian Empire was at it's zenith size-wise.
But enough history about the expansion of Russia. Let's talk about why there is a civil war going on in Ukraine. Now we go to GLORIOUS SOVIET UNION time! Which part of that experiment in not-communism are we talking about today?
The collectivization of agriculture. Or, how the Soviet Union showed that it would fail miserably along with its satellite states. In 1929 the Soviets, having rebuilt their economy in the first five year plan, decided to collectivize agriculture.* In it they made several mistakes.
Firstly Lenin's slogan of "peace, land, and bread" meant what you expect. However Lenin was dead so who cares and Stalin didn't give a flying shit about breaking all three of those in this goal. That's not quite true, he threw the shit at the farmers. The farmers didn't want collectivization of land. And so knowing that the government was going to take their farms anyway, the Kulaks; the 'rich' farmers (i.e. owned some amount of livestock, (i.e. more that five chickens as a reference point, not sure on actual cutoff) so not rich by our standards) started killing their livestock. the poor farmers then started killing whatever one or two animals they had as well. And the army came in and started slaughtering the kulaks. Which then caused a famine as the Soviet Union required cereals for export to meet the five year plan costs. In the end most of the death happened in, you guessed it, what is now Ukraine, the bread basket region for Russia and you can see where the Russian separatists and hatred of Russia comes from.
Exporting cereals was a problem most of the Soviet satellites had and you should never do that. This is what happens when you can't accept loans due to ideology. Never stopped catholic kings. Although they would usually expel the Jews afterward. Or just persecute them more.
*The accuracy of the five year plans and their success cannot be verified. Why? Everyone fabricated everything as soon as one problem occurred so the KGB or COMECON or whoever was in charge wouldn't start whacking people. Because the not-communists in Russia had this thing for whacking people. Personally think those eighty years are why Russia has one of the worst declining birth rates in the world.
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