Down the Stacks #39: Daughter of the Forest

This week on Down the Stacks, we’re slipping into the realm of fairy tales while keeping one foot solidly in reality.  In ancient Ireland, near but not quite part of the clash between Christianity and Druidism, is The Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier.

Down the Stacks #38: There Will Be Dragons

This week on Down the Stacks, We’ll be looking at an interesting spin on science fiction and fantasy with There Will Be Dragons by John Ringo.

Other Media Review: Obduction

A small but powerful force in my childhood was a series of puzzle-adventure games created by the small studio Cyan, Inc. called Myst.  Myst was a series of six games released between 1993 and 2005, independently at first and later in partnership with Ubisoft.  The first game, Myst, and its sequel, Riven were some of the bestselling games of their time and had profound influences on the adventure game genre, for better or worse.

What drew me to Myst as a child, and what now drives my efforts to acquire and re-experience the series up to at least Myst IV: Revelation is the stories the games tell and the smooth integration of puzzles into those stories.  I haven’t found another computer game that has managed to achieve that almost perfect combination of difficult yet logical puzzles with a deep and story-rich world.

Then, Cyan returned after taking a gamble on crowdfunding and released a whole new game that has recreated the Myst formula: Obduction.  I was excited, and the game became one of my top reasons to get a new computer: I needed better graphics and CPU than my old computer had.

So, how does Obduction compare to my Myst nostalgia?

Short story: Lilianne and the Dragon

Based on an idea brainstorming post I saw on Tumblr once.