Random Stuff

Recently, I read The Black Company by Glen Cook, which is the first in a series of books about the aforementioned Black Company. I suppose at the time it was published it was something of a groundbreaking book, but after reading Erikson, and to some degree George R.R. Martin, it feels a little quaint. I think the writing style is downright adolescent, and the flow of the words is very poor. The plotline and characters are what give the book it's place in the hearts of fantasy fans, and it does have interesting characters and a decent plot, but Erikson does the same thing better.

The book follows a squad of soldiers in what seems to be the best mercenary army in the world. They end up working for "the bad guys", in a poorly explained war. What starts out as interesting and cliche avoiding ends up banal and unsurprising, but there are still good parts to it. I'll probably keep reading the series, maybe after I pick up the next Mistborn book (come on Brandon Sanderson, don't fuck up Wheel of Time any worse).

I've been playing warhammer online a lot with my wife, Danielle, and it's really grown on me. It's the first MMO that's sucked me in at all, so that's really saying something. I wish it were a bit easier to get into a scenario (not UI wise, but queue length wise), but otherwise fantastic. I don't have to get Saints Row 2 or Dead Space thanks to WAR. Next week, however, is a definite dual buy of Fable 2 and Little Big Planet.

As far as wine goes, I've found an absolutely fantastic Zinfandel blend called The Prisoner at Wally's. Wally's is a local LA wine shop. The Prisoner is just an AMAZING Zin. Hugely fruit forward (which is my preference), but still fairly complex, alcoholic, interesting, a fantastic wine. You might notice that I'm terrible at describing wine. I just don't have the heart to try to name a bunch of flavors that the wine really reminds me of more than tastes like. The other wine we've been drinking lately is called Porque No? it's another Zin blend, not quite as good, but a fantastic QPR at $18 a bottle. Really a nice wine. I might order more of it.