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Gradually getting better
Jan. 2nd, 2013 08:06 pmI've been rather under the weather for the last few days with a slight temperature and general badness, but things feel like they're finally starting to look up. I've my time intermittently trying to finish the first version of Half-Life, trying (and failing) to work out why Neverwinter Nights causes the display to go crazy & the machine to fall over, and playing lots of games of Freecell.
I've also been chewing my way through Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novels, which I've rather enjoyed. They have a bit of early Anita Blake about them, but with more humour and with more clearly defined urban fantasy — as opposed to horror — tropes. They're not entirely without problems — read in quick succession, the identical descriptions of things in the first few books grate slightly, and none of the early female characters really seem terribly convincing — Susan Rodriguez doesn't really get into her groove until relatively late on and Murphy's constant attempts to arrest Dresden in the first couple of books don't really seem to chime with Dresden's descriptions of their friendship. But that's just nit-picking that could charitably be ascribed to (a) filters imposed on the first person narrative by Dresden's own biases, which lift as he comes into a better understanding of himself; or (b) the conventions of the gumshoe style. As light, recuperative reads they're ideal.
I've also been chewing my way through Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novels, which I've rather enjoyed. They have a bit of early Anita Blake about them, but with more humour and with more clearly defined urban fantasy — as opposed to horror — tropes. They're not entirely without problems — read in quick succession, the identical descriptions of things in the first few books grate slightly, and none of the early female characters really seem terribly convincing — Susan Rodriguez doesn't really get into her groove until relatively late on and Murphy's constant attempts to arrest Dresden in the first couple of books don't really seem to chime with Dresden's descriptions of their friendship. But that's just nit-picking that could charitably be ascribed to (a) filters imposed on the first person narrative by Dresden's own biases, which lift as he comes into a better understanding of himself; or (b) the conventions of the gumshoe style. As light, recuperative reads they're ideal.
