whee

Just got in from what I thought was going to be D&D, but turned out to actually be two sessions of the Game of Thrones boardgame, since a couple of the players couldn't make it. I got there a bit late, so I watched the first game, and then played in the second. (House Lannister. Managed to avoid getting the crap beaten out of me by the Greyjoys; gave the Tyrells the occasional beatdown, but not enough to stop them from winning on the last turn.) It's a pretty darn good game. Certainly worth $35 if we can get it at work; maybe worth $45-50 from Funagain. Good stuff.

Also, Croupier is finally available on DVD, which means I can watch it again.

Also also, picked up a book of Edward Gorey interviews today for $8. Looks to be very very cool.

Now I think I sleep, since I've got homework to do tomorrow.

Mona Lisa Overdrive

William Gibson, Mona Lisa Overdrive

It's not as good as Count Zero. I don't even think it's as good as Neuromancer. But then, it had pretty darn high standards to live up to.

Four viewpoint characters this time: the daughter of a Yakusa oyabun who's been sent to England for protection during a Yakusa war; a mechanic who winds up taking care of Bobby 'Count Zero' Newmark's comatose corpus; Angie Mitchell, the MacGuffin of CZ; and Mona, a street girl who looks a lot like Angie. The main story revolves around a plot to kidnap Angie, who'd had her head tampered with in CZ and still occasionally talks to the ghosts in the machines

MLO is a sequel to both Neuro and CZ, and maybe that's why it doesn't impress me. Angie-the-plot-device seems completely different from Angie-the-character, and all the Yakusa daughter added was some insight into Molly Sally's character; not really enough to justify the amount of time spent with her. There's still neat stuff going on, but . . . I dunno . . . it didn't move me as much. It's still exploring the ramifications of the end of Neuro, but it also brings in 3Jane, just to give Sally someone to worry about. CZ was all about "When It Changed;" MLO wants to make it more about the characters than the world. Which is a shame, because the characters are cool, but the world-changing made for a better story. (The last page or two redeems this, somewhat. Very cool way to end it.)