Books you never read: Chronicles of an Age of Darkness

It feels a bit hubristic to call these entries "Books you never read", but I did (and do) read a lot of books so its no surprise that many of them never made it to mainstream popularity. And most of these were published a long time ago so they may never be seen again.

Chronicles of an Age of Darkness was 10 book series that is fairly unusual in that it made it to 10 books without the author dying or having an editor dick around with the format. I see that Wikipedia says it was meant to be a 20 book series, but at 10 books, it felt complete.

I can see why it never took off - if I hadn't been working in a bookstore and consuming every generic fantasy product of the day, I probably wouldn't have picked up the second book. The first book - The Wizards and the Warriors was good, but not spectacular. It had your standard Fantasy Adventurer Protagonists and a quest to save the world, etc. It did have a certain gritty style about it that I liked, but aside from that it was nothing special.

The second book, The Wordsmiths and the Warguild, was hilarious. The opening passage describing Sung had me laughing hysterically, and the characters had changed from standard swordsmen and wizards to gormless idiots flailing around trying somehow to survive. It was a complete surprise, and I'll bet a lot of people who read the Wizards never went on to Wordsmiths.

And then I hated The Women and the Warlords. I can't really remember what it was about now, or why I disliked it - I've been meaning to give it another try now that I'm older. The memory of Wordsmiths stayed with me though, and I bought The Walrus and the Warwolf (Have you noticed the style of the titles yet?) Walrus was much like the first book, allright but nothing like the Wordsmiths.

I kept with the series despite its spotty nature. It seemed like each new book was probably going to be allright, maybe really bad, maybe really good. I liked those odds. With the next two books, The Wicked and the Witless and The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers I lucked out. Even funnier than Wordsmiths! Hints at forgotten technology! Death, mayhem and excitement! They were so great. But who was going to read them?

The rest of the series never managed to hit the heights of those two books, at least as far as I was concerned. But he never hit any lows either. Each book, with a few exceptions, had completely different characters, but the story seemed somehow to lurch along each individual story somehow connecting into a greater narrative. With the final book telling the story of Guest Gulkan, a background character in every book so far, you had a sense that at last this anarchic storyline was going to conclude. And so it did, not with a bang or a whimper, but somewhere in between.

Adding to the cloud.

I like the Register. I like the cynical attitude they take to tech news, and the way they mix up news and opinion and fiction. I even like the way they sometimes throw stupid commentary in - it means I can never read it uncritically because I never know when someone's going to deny global warming or something.

Cade Metz's piece: Google Chrome OS - do we want another monoculture? isn't so bad, if you ignore the headline. He doesn't talk in the article about how Google Chrome will take over the world so I have to assume the headline was added by someone else.

The problem I do find with the article is that in his quest to come off all cynical and negative about his subject, he makes a few crazy statements.

But the ultimate irony is that after years of criticizing Microsoft for bundling its OS with its browser, Google has nearly made them one and the same.

Wait, what? Is Metz confusing Google with Netscape here? I'm sure Google hasn't had anything complementary to say about MS's browser bundling. But most of what I remember Google saying about IE, is that its a really crap browser, and that they had to write Chrome to save us all from it.

The realisation that anything you want to do, you can do in a browser isn't all that new either. Mozilla's been threatening to do it for years - its about time someone really tried it.

Then he takes this:

"We're going to be working with our key partners very hard to make sure you see lightly larger netbooks, essentially netbooks that can accommodate a full-sized keyboard and a much more comfortable touchpad. We care about the displays. We care about the resolutions people get on these displays. And those will all be part of the specified reference hardware."

and identifies it as Apple-like. Bashing Apple is one of the Registers favourite things (after bashing MS). But really, does Apple provide reference hardware? No. That's Microsoft. Apple makes their own hardware, and sues manufactures who try an run OS X on PC hardware.

Then, Metz misunderstands, or deliberately fudges over the nature of open source:

And, yes, the ban extends to third-party browsers. Chrome OS is limited to Chrome. Naturally. The only way to run the OS with a third-party browser, Pichai said, is to grab the open source code and do your own surgery.

Well yes. Of course, the ability to do your own surgery is what open source is all about. And once you've done it, you can make it available to others who don't want to do surgery. Similarly the fact that Chrome OS does not support current hardware is something that can be quickly corrected - if enough people like the OS.

Lastly, there's a difference between how MS pushes its applications on to you and how Google does. MS makes you buy an operating system by being the only one. Then it gives its own applications a head start with private APIs. Then it makes sure that only its applications can read documents created with other MS applications. Or at least that's how it used to work.

Google makes you use its applications by having them be the best, and free. It uses open standards so you don't get locked in. It doesn't have to lock you in - as long as its applications are the best and free, then they have you. The only question is "Is this application the best one?" if the answer is yes, for you, then Google has you.

As long as Google's dominance is dependant on them releasing software that people like, for free, we don't have anything to worry about.

Smartest thing I've read today.

Shirky: Ontology is Overrated -- Categories, Links, and Tags: "Clay Shirky's Writings About the Internet
Economics & Culture, Media & Community

Today I want to talk about categorization, and I want to convince you that a lot of what we think we know about categorization is wrong. In particular, I want to convince you that many of the ways we're attempting to apply categorization to the electronic world are actually a bad fit, because we've adopted habits of mind that are left over from earlier strategies.

Campaign Log: End of Winter

Not much roleplaying happened this session: they ended the season and did a bunch of accounting and planning.

45 Master Characters

Having just read '45 Master Characters' I feel the need to post what I think about it. The book is a tool for writers, classifying personality types into 45 archetypes. By trying to fit in your half-fleshed out character into one of these archetypes, you can make the characterisation more believable by fitting him into one of the classic types.

The first question that comes to mind is "Is it correct?" Has she correctly classified all the myriad personalities of the world into 45 types? I don't believe that she has. Or that it can be done - I think that humans have a tendency to classify things, and to then see the world in terms of those classifications. The real world is woolier than that, and when you look closely at any classification system you see flaws. Take our species classification system - different species aren't supposed to be able to mate, but we have mules, and ligors.

Even the most basic classification - the 0s and 1s of digital computers - breaks down when you look at it closely.  Zero turns out to be 0 to 0.5, and occasionally something that should be a zero shows up as a 0.51 and you get an error.

Despite this computers still manage to work most of the time. Correct isn't as important as useful. So is the book useful? I think so. I'm finding that the artificial constraint of the archetypes is giving my characters more life than they would otherwise have. And the structure of the journey that it talks about is giving me something to do with them - even when I disagree with the structure.

So thus far, it seems worth the price. If I become a world famous author, I'll be sure to mention it as an influence.

Campaign Log: Winter 1470 (3) (updated)

Our heroes go back to Florence with their vis and (unknown to Tito) flower. Valantino asks Cosimo to heal him but the spell does not go correctly. There's no immediate ill effect, but Cosimo insists that Valantino stay with him for observation.

Valantino had planned to go back to Rimini to be with his wife, and deal with all the other things that are going on right now. Leora, his wife, has been sleepwalking, lured out at night by the magical creature that until now has only been interested in Valantino. Unable to go to Leora, Valantino charges Tito with going back to Rimini and making sure she does not get outside tonight.

This is one of those cases where Valantino loses track of the big picture when responding to the immediate need. Tito, you see, was earlier banned by Valantino from having any contact with Valantino's family. They had a duel over it, and Tito lost. The reason for the duel was that Valantino tries to keep as many details of his life as a mage as possible away from his family. As an example his wife doesn't even know he is a mage - despite being able to fly, Valantino made the entire party travel two days by regular coach to Rimini, just so that his wife could come with him and not find out about his magic.

Tito is broadly sympathetic with keeping Valantino's magic a secret - in fact, revealing another mage to a mundane is against the Treaty of Rome - but Valantino has a lot of other secrets, such as the number of people he's killed, which Tito is not cool with. Nor does Tito like telling lies. Hence the ban.

Tito leaves Carlos and Valantino in Florence and heads back to Rimini, arriving just after dark. Gaius is  fobbing off Leora about the whereabouts of her husband by telling her he left with Tito on some errand or other. Tito comes back, and in two words proves the wisdom of Valantino's ban:

Leora: "Where is my husband?"

Tito: "In Florence."

Cue head-slaps round the table, and groans from Valantino's player. There follows a bit of interrogation as to how Valantino could have reached Florence in just one day, but eventually Tito is forced to confess that they travelled in his magical flying carriage. She doesn't believe him at first, but he takes her down and shows her that it can, indeed, fly. Convinced, she asks to be flown to Florence to be with Valantino.

Tito: "But... its night, and I've been flying all day and- "

Leora: "Take me to my husband now!"

Tito: "...OK."

Gaius is present for this whole scene but provides no help at all to Tito in this argument. Much later (Tito got a little lost) the characters are all in Florence, and Leora gets to sit vigil by her husbands bedside. He's a little delirious and not entirely sure if she's really here.

Tito would like to get some sleep but he keeps hearing this singing noise coming the dormitory window. Gaius is there, but can't hear anything, so the pair of them go out into the garden - Gaius comes along because Tito has become his favourite form of entertainment. They track down the singing and discover that Valantino managed to find time before getting 'healed' to plant Daunte's gift. The flower is singing in the moonlight - no words, just a tune. Gaius can hear it well enough now, but its evidently louder for Tito, who stares at his nemesis, the singing plant.

Once again, Tito is in the company of someone perfectly capable of destroying plants, but who is disinclined to acquiesce to Tito's frantic demands to "Kill it, kill the abomination!" But here in the covenant, a nexus of magical power, Tito can conjure fire. He does so, the merest lick of flame, but enough to put paid to this small flower. He sets it to one of the leaves, and the plant screams! Not any more loudly than its singing, just a plaintive wail of pain and suffering. Tito tries to keep holding fire to the plant, but he can't bear to hear its suffering. He gives up. The plant shall live.

In the morning, Valantino wakes up to find that Leora being here wasn't a dream, and that Cosimo has identified the nature of his spell botch: Valantino is healing in reverse. Cosimo isn't sure of the best way to proceed. Its possible that they could take advantage of this - healing him by casting harmful spells. They could try to break the spell, or just leave it to run out on its own. Trouble is that they don't know how long the spell will last...

They discuss the options over breakfast, after Valantino and Tito have had their spat: "You brought my wife back!" "You brought that plant back!" One of the other students, Bryan (from the Stonehenge Tribunal) mutters something in his abominable accent about knowing a spell that might fix it. It proves to be so - but Valantino is still left injured and with no vis left. And its only a matter of time before Leora wakes up and he has to explain about the magic. He limps out into the city to find an apartment - he has plans of constructing a trap to catch this Lamia that is haunting him.

But wait! I forgot about the presents. In a previous session, Valantino had been contacted by Rinaldus, an apparently immortal mage who was responsible for a whole deal of trouble in an even earlier session. Rinaldus had a new tune this time - he wanted to help Valantino with his many problems. After a discussion of what they were, Rinaldus offered some magical items that he had 'lying around' that might be of use. And while Valantino was in Rimini, these items arrived, along with instructions on what they did and how to use them. Now that they were all together, Valantino presented the items to the other PCs.

Tito could not believe it. After all they went through with Rinaldus before, and here was Valantino accepting gifts? Did he not remember that Rinaldus was behind Master Bernado's attempt to enslave them all with mind control? Did he not remember that there was still a decision to be made in the upcoming Tribunal about that? Was he going to start voting for Rinaldus now? Did he have any reason to think that these items didn't mind control their wielder? Had he even noticed how the other apprentices that had been 'gifted' by Rinaldus were behaving? Was Valantino, in fact, mad?

Valantino's defense: "But he seemed so nice."

Tito goes back to Rimini - he has some bandits to negotiate a contract with. Not having the money to pay them directly, he comes to an arrangement where the bandits 'levy fines' from people coming into the forest, and he clears it all with Duke Sigismundo. The bandits have been limiting their depredations to stay under the Dukes radar. Under this arrangement, they'll be able to rob more people, but take less.

Tito: "and no killing."

Bandit leader: "Of course. Unless theres some situation where we have to."

Tito: "What? No, no killing!"

Bandit leader: "Oh, but we'll need to have that option. What if we run into someone who won't pay up? Or threatens one of my men?"

Tito: "But..."

Bandit leader: "If anyone dies, we'll have a full investigation."

Tito: "Well..."

Bandit leader: "And a report!"

Tito: "Allright..."

After this... I think that the way it happened was that Gaius teleported to Tito, flew the cart back to Florence to pick up the other PCs and they all met up in Rimini to handle another bit of negotiation with the primitives up on the mountain site of their proposed covenant. And the way that went was that the High Priest declared that in order to get their God's approval the PCs would have to spend a nights vigil in the sacred chamber (ie: cave). The PCs elected to postpone this until Valantino was better and went back to Florence.

The next day, there was a message from Ysabelle. I don't believe I've mentioned her before - she's a spy. She was raised, trained and employed by the mysterious and evil Countessa, but came off second best in her first encounter with Constantine (another PC). As punishment, and as a form of reparations to Constantine, she was given to him. She was ordered to obey any of his orders, and it was made clear to Constantine that if he sent her away, she would be killed. She's been fairly useful to Constantine in the past, and has not yet betrayed him. And since he can read her mind, he should know.

But Constantine is gone now, no one knows where, which is why Ysabelle wants to meet with Tito and Valantino. If they can't help her find Constantine, she wants them to get her to the other world.

More back story.

The other world, (Altero Terra) is another plane of existence, or regio. Unlike most regios, this one seems to mimic the real world in terms of landscape and seems to be as large as the world. It was discovered a few hundred years ago by mages, attempts were made to colonise it - but they ran into problems. The PCs, in a previous adventure, gained the ability to travel to the Altero at will, but when they do, all their possessions, clothes, etc get left behind. The only way to bring stuff from one side to the other is to use the portal concealed within the maze at the Academy. Ysabelle explains that she thinks it likely that Constantine is hiding out in the Altero. If he's not, then the Altero is the one place Ysabelle can think of that might be out of the reach of the Countessa - so Ysabelle might get to live. To get there, she needs to use the portal, but she needs someone to a) get her into the Academy and b) solve the maze.

The PCs agree. Tito doesn't like to see people getting killed, and Valantino owes Ysabelle for past misdeeds - as Tito points out when Valantino brings up the question of whether they should be trusting Ysabelle. But neither of them can actually help her, as neither of them can solve the maze - it requires knowledge of the Criamon mystery to do so. So they send a message for another student NPC who can help - Topillio.

Then its back to another of Valantinos problems (he has so many) - the Lamia. Tito goes off to prepare the trap they are constructing, and Valantino goes home - his wife has got a lot of questions to be answered.

-- Update --

Leora has been doing some thinking. Tito has admitted that he is a mage, and he and Valantino hang out a lot together in an 'academy' with a bunch of other students... Valantino can see where this is going and admits, that yes, he is a mage. He was only keeping it from her because he thought it would freak her out. She seems quite practical about it though (remember that the whole 'magic isn't real' meme hasn't caught on yet) and has a number of questions like: "Where is the money going to come from?", and "How did you get injured?" which Valantino can answer with varying degrees of honesty (He neglects to mention his recent career as an assassin)

When Valantino then explains that he has to go off to hunt a magical beast, Leora puts her foot down. Valantino is to injured to go out, she says. Valantino might have explained that his part in this was simply as bait, but that way led to many more long explanations, so he tried to explain that only he could cast the spells. Not Tito, nor any of the other mages in the academy. Leora wasn't buying it. She insisted that he wait until he had healed before going off to try something so dangerous. Unwilling to explain what the danger was (ie: that Leora would be lured to her death) Valantino gave in.

The next morning, Topillio arrived back from the Altero, agreed to take Ysabelle through the maze, and even offered her a place to stay - the abandoned covenant that he is trying to set up again. Offers were also made to the PCs - this is another possibility for a future covenant. It all went reasonably smoothly - invisibility spells were cast to get Ysabelle past the school masters, no one failed badly, it all went well.