I stumbled across this video yesterday. It is made by Dave Thaumavore, who did a bang up job telling us about the book Slaying the Dragon by Ben Riggs. Anyway, no need to for me to regutitate anything here, go watch the video, it is great. Meanwhile, I will buy Ben Riggs’ book.
I stumbled upon this post by Tracy Hickman from February. Now, as any good fanboy I went down the rabbit hole and started imagining what new Dragonlance project had been green lit by the Dragon Highlords in Seattle. It is of course wishful thinking, as there have been no signs whatsoever of a resurrected Dragonlance since the line was discontinued back 2007.
However, if we allow ourselves to dream a little, one might have a preference as to what will be released. A lot of people on Facebook talk about a live action movie or TV show like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. It would make a lot of sense given the success of these franchises and the profits that can be found in those media.
Personally, I would prefer books and game material as that would move the setting forward instead of rehashing stories we have all read and re-read a hundred times. Not to mention the risk of releasing something that will alienate the original fan base due to questionable creative choices, much like what happened with Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Besides, I think it is time to move the story forward, especially considering where we left the world of Krynn. It seems to me that they had fixed the issues that the 5th Age created and had a pretty good baseline for new stories independent of the characters and story lines we are familiar with.
I am not holding my breath here, but I do return to that Facebook post from time to time.
I stumbled across this article over at the Verge about H. P Lovecraft. I think he is a very interesting and his story is fascinating in a tragic kind of way. I have only read a few of Lovecraft’s novels, but they always made a pretty big impact on me, almost like I was lost in a psychotic nightmare.
Anyway, check out the article, and the go read the Call of Cthulhu or At the Mountains of Madness. You won’t be sorry.
Since there are no new Dragonlance books coming anymore, I have decided to read the ones I never got around to read in the first place.
Yesterday, Amazon delivered the Eleven Nations Omnibus, which I am looking forward to reading. I like the work of Tonya C. Cook, Douglas Niles and Paul B. Thompson a lot, hopefully this book will live up to the expectations.
So, I finally found the time to catch up on my reading, and my first book this summer is The Children of Hurin by J.R.R Tolkien.
The book has been edited by Tolkien’s son, since the author himself never finished it, however, that Tolkien feel is definitely there.
The book takes place during the Morgoth days and follows primarily Turin the son of Hurin and his life from cradle to the grave. I don’t want to give any spoilers, so you will just have to go read it yourself.
The book is quite dark and has some pretty horrendous aspects that rival that of the most know Greek tragedies, however, it is rather nice to be back in Tolkien’s Middleearth once again among orcs, elves and dragons.
 |
The Children of Hurin |
My favorite Gazetteer is definitely the Principalities of Glantri written by Bruce Heard. It is probably the gaming product I have used the most throughout the years, so you can probably imagine how cool it is for me to see that the man himself, Bruce Heard, has a blog.
Without further ado I present the link.
http://bruce-heard.blogspot.com/
Update: He’s on Twitter as well https://twitter.com/#!/Ambreville
Coolest handle ever!
I was looking at my Twitter stream just now, when I see one of the top searches: “Dave Arneson”. to my great sorrow I learn that the last of the “Founding Fathers” of Dungeons & Dragons has passed away.
As many of you mist likely know, Dave Arneson created Dungeons and Dragons with Gary Gygax back in the 70’s. Despite heavy criticism from the crazy Christian right wingers, the game became immensely popular, and although it is more or less dead today, spawned the whole fantasy genre.
Many of us probably remember the Basic Set, the red set as we used to call it, with the red dragon in the cover and featuring the evil wizard Bargle. I can’t beging to imagine how many hours I have spent playing D&D with my friends; and all because of the ideas of Arneson and Gygax.
Most people will probably refer to Dungeons and Dragons as the ultimate in escapism, but to me and my friends, D&D was the ultimate in socialization and abstract thinking. It provided us with an opportunity to imagine things, and be creative in a manner that I have never seen since.
Here’s to remembering two great people. Rest in peace.