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Messages - Davias

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31
The White-Luck Warrior / Re: Nonmen Society
« on: October 17, 2013, 08:02:54 pm »
Man! Every time I understand some things in Bakker's books, a thread pops up, with a dozen new questions... 8)

A side question to the topic:
Do we know, if Quya mages were damned before the arriving of the inchoroi?

32
The Forum of Interesting Things / Re: Richard Dawkins defends ‘mild pedophilia’
« on: October 17, 2013, 07:47:56 pm »
+1 Callan S.
I like Dawkins appearances in general, but this was unnecessary.

33
The Forum of Interesting Things / Re: Best RPGs
« on: October 17, 2013, 07:46:33 pm »
Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 for the SNES.
I loved these games as a kid and I love them till today.
Quite remarkable games ( Ok, I AM nostalgic about it, but my avatar might say something about my love for those games,  :D...)
I play Secret of Mana every two years, last year with a challenging hard mode.

34
The Forum of Interesting Things / Re: Dark Souls & Demon's Souls
« on: October 17, 2013, 07:40:01 pm »
I only own Demon Soul's on my PS3 and have watched some gameplay videos of Dark Souls. I must admit, I like the gritty graphic style, the horrorlike monsters and the dark story.
The game had all in it, what I miss in most video games today: a challenging difficulty, a somewhat cryptic story, cool monsters and bosses, tactic combat, etc...
BUT..., I never played more than 20% of the game, because I don't like the gaming experience at the end.
To start the whole level again, when a step in the dark, or one missed attack, send me to death...
Bosses, who killed me one hundred times, before I defeat them...
To see the same level over and over again...because I suck at this game... :-[

Maybe I am too lazy nowadays to beat challenging video games. Or I'm too bad and slow with the most action games.
Now I play old classics from nearly fifteen or twenty years ago, or some roguelikes where I could think a few minutes and drink a cup of tea between turns, before I took the next step to slay a few monsters. 8)

35
General Misc. / Re: Disseminating Bakker
« on: October 14, 2013, 02:59:39 pm »
I saw a map of Eärwa on some random site somwhere in the web. There was also a short review of the first book on the site and I liked the title "The Darkness that comes before".
The review was not so positive about the book:  too dark, too complicated, too brutal, no main characters to root for, etc... ), all things, which I adore in my fantasy readings 8)
I must admit, I slogged through the first book at first, but somhow at the end, when the skinspy was revealed and the Holy War marches against Shimeh, I was hooked. I reread the whole book some weeks later, and found out, I had missed the best stuff and understand more and more about the characters and the world. After that, I bought all available books. And I hunger. Hunger... for... more.... 8)

36
Literature / Re: YOU MUST TELL ME ... What else are you reading?
« on: October 13, 2013, 06:51:19 pm »
After so many books about the punic wars and roman history, I finally read "The Grim Company" by Luke Scull.


37
The Forum of Interesting Things / Re: Sciborg's Indie Game Thread
« on: September 24, 2013, 07:48:33 pm »
Quote from: Royce on September 19, 2013, 05:47:59 am
Have you guys played Journey? I thought that game was quite beautiful

I have always wanted to play that game, because what I have heard and seen about it looks and sounds so... beautiful. I own a PS3, but didn't play much. The only games I completed on the PS3 are "Shadow of the Colossus" and "Ico", games which create a very.... melancholy feeling in my opinion.
But Journey looks like a game worth playing in contrast to the many big, hollywood-like "crash, boom, bang" games on the console.

At the moment I'm playing a little roguelike game, named "Infra Arcana". It is inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and despite it's simple graphics, the game has a lot more atmosphere than many big horror games.

http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/home

38
Literature / Re: A Game of Thrones
« on: August 23, 2013, 02:11:17 pm »
+1 Francis Buck
Well said. I say similar things to many friends of mine, who have read the books, when we talk about the series.

39
Literature / Re: "The broken empire" by Mark Lawrence
« on: August 18, 2013, 12:54:08 pm »
I have read the first two books in the series and it was entertaining for a while. But not for long and the books rested on my shelf for weeks, before I read another chapter and dropped it again after some reading.
The main protagonist is - as Royce had already mentioned - insane but it is fun too read about his trains of thought in some chapters.
I didn't like the world building at all, it is a apocalypse version of our current world in a future after a big downfall, where some mythologies of our history has survived ( such as viking and roman gods, greek heros, etc... ). Also the characters mention books about Platon, Sun Tzu and so on. I found it quite.... irritating at times.
The story is ok, but only driven forward by the main protagonist and his crazy actions, the other characters are mainly stereotypes and not very interesting in my opinion.

40
Literature / Re: A Game of Thrones
« on: August 01, 2013, 07:15:41 pm »
A few years ago, I was a passionate fan of the series, I must admit. I have read almost all of the classical "Fantasy" books in the 90's.
Back then, it was cool to read all the Lord of the Rings rip-offs, Wheel of Time, many AD&D books, Dragonlance, Shannara, and many others. But as I grew older, those cliche's didn't work any more and I began to yawn when I walked along the shelves of many libraries.

"Oh, another magical stone, jewel, talisman gone missing? Yawn...
"Oh, please, not another shining hero slaying evil gods and overlords with ridiculous plans to conquer the world." Yawn...
"Ah yes, the elves are living in the woods, the dwarfs under the mountains and the Trolls trashing with big clubs..." Yawn...

I began to read more history books and horror literature, with only a fantasy book now and then.
And in 2002 I bought the first book of Game of Thrones. At first it looked like many other books in my collection and the reading was only...ok. But at the end of the first book, somehow the author has gripped me and I loved his dark and grim tales of Westeros. I loved the historical touch of Martin's world, the ambivalent characters, the gritty world building and the sinister threat in the background.

I loved the Song of Ice and Fire, until the last two books came out. The third book was fantastic in my opinion and I still count it in the list of the best books, I have ever read in the fantasy genre. But the fourth and the fifth book couldn't hold the high standard of the first three books. They were boring and the story didn't make any progress. Today I wouldn't recommend the books anymore.

But fortunately, today there are authors like Scott Bakker, Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, Paul Kearney. They write intelligent and thrilling fantasy, without repeating the old cliches of Elves and Dragons.


41
Literature / Re: HP Lovecraft
« on: July 25, 2013, 08:05:23 pm »
Yes  i have read two short stories by him in a collection of Mythos-related stories from other authors than H.P. Lovecraft. One was Ubbo-Sathla and the other The Return of the Sorcerer or something like that. He captured the writing style of Lovecraft quite good, but in my opinion the stories lack the final... tension and creeps I got from Lovecraft's best works.
But I cannot say much of the quality of his other stories.

42
Literature / Re: YOU MUST TELL ME ... What else are you reading?
« on: July 19, 2013, 04:08:24 pm »
So, after a little bit of sinking into my books of Roman and Carthaginian History, I will read something a little bit different:
The Dice Man - by Luke Rhinehart

43
General Misc. / Re: Obligitory music thread. (or What Are You Listening To Right Now)
« on: July 18, 2013, 05:20:02 pm »
The soundtrack of the game "Europa Universalis - Rome" Epic 8)

44
General Earwa / Re: TSA in different Languages
« on: July 18, 2013, 05:06:33 pm »
I found the cover art of the german editions really good compared to the crap, a german publisher usually assign to fantasy books. The titels are ok. At least they have something to do with the content :D
( Sometimes, I want to hide a bought fantasy book in a bag or under my shirt, when I leave the shop, because I'm ashamed of the covers. I feel so much better and more elitist, when I leave the shop with my history books :) )
And the german translation of Bakker's work was also good, compared to 60% of my other german fantasy books. Sometimes I think, the translator simple used GoogleTranslate :(

The worst fantasy translation, I have ever read in german was the new translation of George Martins "A Song of Ice and Fire". They changed the names of characters and places to an unnecessary extent and it sounds simply horrible while reading those books in german. Here is a sample of dumb title translations:

"Original - A Storm of Swords" - "Translation - Die Königin der Drachen" which means "The Queen of dragons" and be glad that I don't post a cover from the first german editions of Martin's books.

There are some horrible covers and translations in germany when it comes to the fantasy genre, but you can goggle it yourself. In the last years it has become a little bit better, but not much.
That is the reason, why I read almost all books in english now.
And it seems, I must wait a few years for a translation of the Aspect Emperor Books. Bakker's novels are no bestsellers in my country  ::)


45
Literature / Re: YOU MUST TELL ME ... What else are you reading?
« on: July 10, 2013, 09:39:47 pm »
I have read a few samples from Sapkowski's books, because I like the setting of the world in the computer game. But I wasn't very impressed by the writing and gave it up. I think, the story has potential. The world, characters and story are somehow gritty and unique, but also kind of generic and boring.

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