Down the Stacks #42: The Aeronaut's Windlass

This week on Down the Stacks, we return to a favorite author of mine: Jim Butcher.  This masterful and entertaining writer of the Dresden Files and the Codex Alera has recently launched a new series called the Cinder Spires.  The Aeronaut's Windlass is the first entry, and it has all the hallmarks of Butcher’s style: smart and snarky characters, a solid and fascinating world, and the promise of deep and complex plots.

Read on for more details.

Down the Stacks #41: Emerald Sea

This week on Down the Stacks, I owe John Ringo a bit of an apology.  After slogging through There Will be Dragons, I was dubious about the rest of the series.  When the I went to the library to pick out my next set of books, however, I decided to give “Council Wars”another go and checked out Emerald Sea.  It is a vast improvement.

Down the Stacks #40: Promise of the Wolves

This week on Down the Stacks, we have a selection that’s a bit lighter than recent fare:  Promise of the Wolves by Dorothy Hearst.

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.