Author Archives: Eric

You Should Be Watching

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Lockwood & Co.

This was originally published in Watch The Skies February 2023 edition.

The main characters

Lockwood & Co. was a complete surprise. It was not a show that was on my radar, and I knew nothing about it when I started watching. I sat down with the family and we watched almost the whole season in a single sitting. Yes – the show caught us and we binged it.

Lockwood & Co. is a supernatural detective thriller story set in an alternate world where ghosts have come back to this world and can kill those still living. The only ones able to detect the ghosts are the youthful members of society who have some kind of psychic abilities. These kids are lined up at various agencies that investigate and remove ghosts. Lockwood & Co. are one of the newest of these agencies, and we follow psychic Lucy Carlyle as she joins up with this company.

The show has a great, quick pace. The characters are fun and believable as people. The chemistry among the lead actors is fantastic. You like them and you’re rooting for them right away. Through various ups and downs the first season is tight and clean. Be warned – the end of many episodes are the sort of cliff hangers that demand you watch the next episode right away. This is definitely one you should be watching.

Check out the trailer here:

The Point

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I’ve discussed many times over the years that I don’t believe you need a date on the calendar in order to make meaningful changes in your life. If you chose to change and stick with it, the change will happen.

I picked up an idea during that time when everyone else is making resolutions. It was the D23 challenge – create one room per day during 2023 and by the end of the year have a 360+ room mega dungeon. I don’t do resolutions, but I do D&D so this caught me.

UPDATE

I’m happy to report that things are going strong. I decided rather than a dungeon room I’d create a building in the Free City of Lithia for my world building. Here we are in the middle of February and I’ve got more than 40 buildings in my sketchbook… and that’s the point of the whole exercise. I haven’t gone to any great lengths, nor have I significantly changed my schedule. I have just grabbed my sketchbook and plopped a single thing each day in there. It takes 5 minutes or less (generally) and that’s it. Sure, there’s lots more development to be done on all these locations, but I *have* all those locations now.

Make a change and stick with it. Keep on creating! Day after day and you will see results!

Some entries are more detailed than others.

Hypothetically

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Hypothetically, our science fiction and fantasy group focuses on reading things within those categories. This was not the case this month

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Side note – I hate that Kindle automatically marks things as “read” on here no matter how many times I change the setting. It’s terrible and stupid to boot.

On to the book itself. I don’t know how a romance novel snuck into the line up for the science fiction book club, but it did. I remain skeptical, but the book does contain scientists and it is fiction… so we’ll go with it?

I found the people in this book to be very real, if not entirely relatable or likable. I know we’re supposed to be cheering for the main character, but she just lies to people all the time. She’s very damaged and unlikable (at least to me).

I have seen others that have been down on this book as a whole, but it was light and quick and gave me everything I was expecting from a romance novel.

If this is the sort of story you enjoy, I would suggest going and reading Bellwether by Connie Willis. It’s a bit older (96) and was nominated for a Nebula award. The story revolves around a scientist studying fads and prediction. IF you enjoy that, then go and read more of Willis’s work – you’ll be glad you did.



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The OGL Mess

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I’ve been loosely tracking the mess that has become the open gaming license (OGL) that has been cascading across nerdland over the past 3 weeks. It’s been an emotional ride, and a painful one for many creators out there. I’m going to transfer a part of a social media conversation over here – because I want what I said to live here, where I can get it when I want it. Social media platforms come and go.

My original post:

There’s a lot to keep up with in this ongoing saga, but I think this quote, and the headline says a lot,

“This is a community that literally invented the term “rules lawyer.” WotC simply didn’t realize how literally that would be taken.”

https://gizmodo.com/dungeons-and-dragons-dnd-ogl-goodwill-1-2-feedback-1850036746

The response:

Even this is a bit complicit and extremely naïve, given the repeated attempts a corporate gaslighting. It is also hilariously behind the times, as it has not incorporated their latest retraction and attempted capitulation (which is -still- a half measure, for those who are savvy to the issues).

With each compromise “attempt,” WotC have left something out, and it’s been pretty obvious to those of us invested in this fight. That’s what the author is hilariously and flagrantly blind to, which showcases them as a Corpo stooge, and thus part of the problem.

The notion of these companies (outside of WotC) working together, despite being “market competitors” with differing systems, and ORC being a system agnostic license seems to escape them.

The part I wanted to have here:

Couple of thoughts here –

“behind the times” could be me. I have posted this later than the instant gratification time table. While I am a creator, I am not constantly on here. While it’s important to stay up to date on things, immediate response is not for all. Thoughtful consideration matters, and that can take time.

The various stages of WotC’s flailing response were not the intent of this article (as I see it). The author is attempting to express something ingrained in my own point of view ~ corporations are not your friend, and they never will be. You are a resource to them and given the chance they will strip mine everything they can from you. The fact that the author works for a large corporation making them part of the problem is one opinion… but I think name calling is counterproductive.

One thing I take from this whole, ugly slap of pit fighting for cash is that there is a much, much larger community out there than ever before. Having lost friends as part of the satanic panic (being directly told this is why we can’t be friends – go away) it’s more important to me that we recognize the golden age we live in and work harder to be inclusive. We have more now than ever before – revel in it.

Systems will come and go. Companies will come and go. Communicating and finding new (and profitable) ways to do things will be the constant. Be aware of what corporations are up to, pay attention. Be thoughtful and considerate – and support the creators you know. The best thing we have is each other.

MORE TO FOLLOW

Social media is a tricky thing to manage. I’m sure this conversation will continue, but as I time shift a significant amount of my work, it will take time. Stick with the things you love. Find something that will last a lifetime and create! I look forward to seeing what we all make.

You Should Be Watching

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The Colony

This was originally published in Watch The Skies January 2023 edition.

The film makers captured ‘bleak’ very, very well.

This month is much more in line with what many people traditionally think of as science fiction. The movie The Colony on Netflix is a far future dystopian film. It’s grey and gritty. The action starts right away.

In the distant future, the elite of earth flee a dying planet, making a new home on a distant planet. This new home proves to have road blocks to humans continuing to create more humans, so a mission is sent back to earth to determine if having the colonists return is viable or not. The previous mission has not communicated back. This is the second mission, and it struggles right from the start.

The movie has a little bit of the Mad Max feeling with marauders and technology scrapped together from the past. It also has a little bit of Water World with everything being effected by a sea level that has risen enough to make everything wet and endangered by the tide. The futuristic space technology gives our hero a little bit of an edge, but she is outnumbered and spends a significant part of the movie struggling just to survive.

I think that struggle is the part that wins me over. This is not a macho, blow things up kind of survival. It’s a thought provoking, yet action packed movie with diverse concepts and problems that require the characters thought and reason, rather than simple actions. This is definitely one you should be watching.

Be sure to check out the trailer here.

Colonyside

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I do like the jungle planet

Colonyside by Michael Mammay

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This one fits the same mold as the previous two in the series.

Carl still doesn’t really grow or learn… we get more and more back story, and that’s good, but he gets played again and again. His blind spots are massive and he ignores them.

This is a good book that fans will enjoy. I’m glad I read it to finish out the series (and this one does end a little better) but I think I’m done.



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Spaceside

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Spaceside by Michael Mammay

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m going to be less spoilerific for this review.

Carl is still Carl in this book. The track record of 0 growth continues unbroken. He does have more background given about his life and reason for being in the place where he is, but he doesn’t move forward or learn… again.

There are a couple of returning characters that are enjoyable as much as side characters can be. I didn’t peg the story as quickly this time, but I think some of that was based on the way the whole thing became something of a corporate convoluted mess. I did NOT like the ending where things are resolved… mostly, except a couple of really important things. That sort of ending really irritates me. Give me an epilogue or something – wrap it up. I’ll pick up the next one if the character and/or story interest me. Forcing somebody to get the next one by leaving major things hanging is a jerk move and I resent it.

Once again, this is a very good action thriller that needs the space travel / aliens thing in order to work. Fans of military science fiction will still very much enjoy this story… just know you’re going to need to get the next one for this one to be fully resolved.



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Reading and Reviewing

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Last year was a rough year as far as the total number of books I read. This is a very mood based thing for me – but this year seems to be off to a quick start. I’ve managed to polish off 3 books so far – and I’m digging into the 4th already.

Part of this, I’m certain, is the extended time I’ve spent in medical waiting rooms already. I suppose one can put a silver lining in there if you were really working at it.

The first book I finished this year was Planetside… and I just kept forging ahead with the next 2 in the series. Here’s my review of the first one.

Planetside by Michael Mammay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is going to be a spoilerific review ~ fair warning.

I wasn’t certain what I was getting into when I picked this one up. This was a reading group selection for Watch The Skies. It was touted as something military science fiction fans would like. Having powered through this one very quickly, I agree with that.

Around page 45 (ish?) I figured out what happened to the missing Lieutenant. I made a note in the book specifically because I was hoping I was wrong, but I wanted to place that marker in case I wasn’t. I had figured out what happened right then – just not all the specifics of how or why. The guy isn’t among friendlies on the ground and he never gets back into space on the medical ship… that doesn’t leave a lot of choices.

The main character, Carl, has precisely 0 character growth during this story. He does not learn nor does he change at all. His predictability proves to be a significant factor in duping him into making an extremely harsh choice. Firing the missiles/triggering the bombs is definitely a discussion worthy topic.

The secondary characters were well written and believable, but I struggled with the doctor who went from so very strong willed to shooting herself in what felt like an extremely short number of steps. That felt forced and incongruous with her character as written.

Having said all that, I did still enjoy this book. It’s well written and fast paced. It’s a very solid action/thriller style story in space, complete with aliens. I’d love to see this turned into a film.



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