Derik Badman's Journal

2020-09-26 08:52

Read McMaster's Penric and the Shaman the other day, a sequel to Penric's Demon. I did not find the former as interesting or amusing as the latter. It was a quick read and felt like it was missing something. Partially there was a lot less of the Desdemona character, the demon that possesses Penric, and their interactions were part of what made the former interesting. Also the plot of this one revolved around elements of the world's religion and magic that felt underexplained or not in such a way that the stakes of the plot were evident, particularly since the plot had very little in the way of actual conflict. It seemed obvious from early on what was going to happen and there was nothing in the way of surprise. I've got the next two in the series from the library already, so I'll read them to see if this one or the first were a fluke. I started the third one Penric's Mission which so far seems more interesting.

I've been playing Kingdom of Amalur: Re-Reckoning on the PS4. It's a remake of a game I played a bit on PS3 (borrowed from Ian) but didn't get far into (I think something else I was much more excited about got released, so I gave up on the slower/uglier PS3 game). The load times are still way too slow for a modern game that isn't that great looking, but it's a fun, light, action fantasy game, and it does look a lot better in the remastered version.

This week went by quickly and I didn't get much writing done. Had to get images scanned and edited for my two comics reviews; had code releases to do for work; and probably just lost my habit/schedule more than I should have. Feeling overwhelmed again by a lot of the crap in my office. Too many books, of course. Feeling guilty about buying so many, and how often they end up being disappointments. At least I've been a lot better about getting ones from the library where possible (easier for contemporary lit or fantasy books, less so art or comics, not at all for game books). I don't know what it is I'm always looking for or expecting/hoping to find in all these books. It's not just entertainment. Sometimes I feel like I'm trying to study/research for some project that doesn't exist and doesn't even have a conception. With the game books it's a lot about some future campaign I will run, but now the accumulation is such it's probably enough to last a lifetime, if all of it turned out to be content I'd actually want to use (debatable for a lot of it), and so much of it does not go with the rest, it'd have to be a whole host of separate games. I'm not even running any games right now, and I don't suspect I will for awhile since our current campaign (from one of the 5e books) is probably fairly long.

It's a lack of focus, I guess. Many thing interest my on a surface level and then not so much the more I get into it. How many books do I have that I've never read? I should take a count.