Injustice Book Review: American Pilgrim by Roosh Valizadeh

 Cower not, fierce reader!

Today we're looking at a book someone who triggered the left insanely hard as an author of pick up artist how tos. Roosh has since that time made a very public rejection of that life and lifestyle, and become something they would hate even more: a faithful Christian. 

This is his first book since his joining the Armenian Orthodox Chuch(though I believe he is now in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia), and some things stand out very clearly, some good, some bad. This is not a book of theological truth, though there is some. It's more a travelogue of a speaking tour of the USA.

Firstly, Roosh still knows how to control the frame of a conversation very well. Now, however, he brings conversations back to faith, especially concerning worldly issues of masculinity and sex. He mentions a number of Q&A sessions during his trip, and at many, he redirects someone's issues with finding a suitable woman to a spiritual issue. He encourages men to avoid the trap he fell in of the lust cycle, and to search for God instead.

Secondly, Roosh has some issues with how he views and relates to women. He acknowledges this, though I venture he is unaware of the full extent. It shows in his characterization of the women he speaks with at his events, for instance, "The blonde woman the blurted out, "Memento mori"." He may not have been knowledable of the Catholic devotion at the time, and his desire for purity balancing against his past dictating his reactions.

Third, I am impressed with his professed prayer life and need for prayer. He credits this to a desire to avoid a return to his past. 

Fourth, Roosh is clearly almost completely unacquainted with the non coastal areas of the US. This is apparent in his brief mention of his dining at a Culver's, where customer service is almost as highly regarded as it is a Chic-fil-A. He takes a comment hoping he enjoyed a meal in a context of pickup artist, when it's a consumer relations event. There's also a bit of ignorance shown regarding the Sturgis motorcycle rally, and the culture of that notorious event.

For all this, I am eager to see where Roosh goes from here. I am hopeful in his conversion being true, and look forward to hearing more from him. Perhaps someday he will join one of the Eastern rites of the Catholic Church; as is, I am grateful for his conversion.

American Pilgrim by Roosh Valizadeh, 8 of 10 fell deeds.

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.

A trio of tiny games

 Today I'm going to talk about three very small games from Button Shy. By very small I mean these don't come in a box; they store in a wallet, as they're 18 cards each. Here's a pic from BoardGameGeek for scale: 

For the skeptical, I will tell you there can be plenty of play in those 18 cards. I've only gotten 3 games from them so far, though I did back their last campaign on KS.  A number of their games come from specific 18 card competitions, with specific themes. Most take about 20 minutes, so if you're waiting with someone for a bit, they're great. Unlike a lot of newer games, these won't break your pocketbook either, at $12 for the base games, and up to 4 for expansions. 

Skulls of Sedlec is the first game I'm going to discuss. It plays with 2-3, and an expansion allows for solo play. This game is indeed based around the most famous example of Memento Mori architecture.

Each card has two skulls on them, top and bottom. Each skull type has it's own scoring conditions. On your turn, choose one of three actions: dig, collect, or stack. Digging involves turning over the top card from one of 6 piles. Collect is taking one of the faceup cards into hand. Stack is playing from hand into a pyramid shape. Stacking must be done when a player has two cards in hand.

The variety and distribution of different skull types is what makes the game interesting. One tactic won't work for every game. Sometimes, you won't get royals or peasants, but you might get priests and convicts enough to win. And it isn't just the quantity, but the placement that matters. Here's a pic(from BGG) of a final pyramid:

Seasons of Rice is a 2 player game of Rice farming. One side of the card is an ancestor with special scoring. The other is a rice field with features of paths, farmers, and buffalo. After ancestors are chosen(as well as starting fields), each player is dealt 7 cards. The game is split into two drafting rounds, the wet and dry seasons. The wet season, players choose 2 cards, one to their field and the other for the dry season. Hands are then swapped. When one card is left in hand, dry season begins. Dry season is selecting from the available pool until empty. 

Rice paddies are scored as they are closed, with bonuses from farmers and buffalo within. Ancestors provide additional scoring, some at the end, and some during play. Loose buffalo cost points.

Tussie Mussie is for 2-4 players, and is based around Victorian flower meanings. Each card is unique, and has scoring conditions and possibly scoring features. 

The game centers around an "I cut, you choose" mechanism. That is, the active player draws two cards; one is faceup, the other down. The next player chooses which one to take, which must maintain its up or down status. Cards are added left to right; adjacency matters sometimes. Three rounds to 4 cards each and the game is over.

I like these in the order I put them. Sedlec seems the most interesting, requiring flexibility and patience. Seasons of Rice has a tile laying and variable scoring that I like, as the ancestors may change your playing methods. Tussie Mussie will play quickly, even at four players, and the theme might draw some more gentle minded folk in. 

Cower not! And play well.

Fiendilkfjeld Castle by Mathew Pungitore

 Cower not, fierce reader!

It's been a very long time. I'm currently recovering from Covid(that's recovering, not ill), and am on leave.  I hope I can do some after I get back to work, but I will make no promises.

A couple days ago, I saw a bunch of authors promoting this book in my Twitter feed, because it had just hit Amazon. I must confess I've had a physical copy for months, and have only now finished it. Partly, I think I have a harder time with print now over electronic. Also, I do a lot of reading via apps while I'm on breaks at work. Anyway, to the book!

This book definitely leans toward old school horror.  It's also a bit of gothic horror, and very much focused on the titular location.  I appreciate this greatly, because most modern horror is simply gore fest style work, at least outside the Lovecraft ripoffs, and even there, I suspect.  I will not attempt most modern horror as it is vile and normalizes evil, giving the appearance of sometimes being good. 

Not so here. Evil is acknowledged as evil, and proceeds anyway, though our narrator(it is in first person) is torn over the acts he commits. There's not any moral ambiguity, though there is among the evil characters a Nietzschean philosophy of survival of the strongest. 

I have only one minor complaint: the narrator uses CE for year reference. He is at least mildly evil already, so it does make sense.

Now, for a small bit of Spoiler based discussion, so scroll down to the conclusion if you wish to avoid this.

There's much in this book's narrative that reminds me of the David Cronenberg film eXistenZ.  In eXistenZ, it's a VR game that connects directly to the mind, and there are several game layers. The last line of the movie is "Tell me. Are we still in the game?"  Fiendilkfjeld Castle takes place largely in dreams. In fact, one cannot be sure if any of it takes place outside of dreams, though the last section appears to do so.

The main character and narrator is also unreliable, as he is clearly at least being driven mad. This is in addition to the multi layered dreams, so one is not sure while reading if something happened or not. I will admit this did slow me down a little in frustration, but more of not comprehending than with the story itself.  

Conclusion

The story, though sometimes confusing, does have rewards for the reader, and clarifies by the end.  The horror is a type that truly does horrify; it lingers on, as the concepts and conceits of the tale hold  the reader much tighter than the gross normalization of evil that most modern horror has. I must congratulate Matthew Pungitore on his part of reclaiming even part of a genre long lost to degenerates.

7.5 of 10 fell deeds

 

On fiction IPs, quick publishing, and burnout

This is going to be a bit of a compare and contrast piece, covering two now well established series, another that is in a fledgling state, and two others that I have great hopes for. The established series are Galaxy's Edge from Nick Cole and Jason Anspach, and the 4HU(Four Horsemen Universe) headed by Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy.

Galaxy's Edge does a lot of stuff very much right. They started with a bang, filling a desire with their #starwarsnotstarwars postings on twitter, and marketing that as the overall idea of the series. The money they spend on covers is large, but clearly successful, as they get emails from new readers drawn in by the covers. They've even been spotted in a few physical bookstores, something few indie books get, at least before they get signed by a publisher. Their output is about a book a month, and while that's great, all the books are by them, and start feeling the same after so many.

4HU started off a bit slower, with the first four novels being by Wandrey and Kennedy at 2 books each. And then they opened up the floodgates to other authors with anthologies. This let them get a feel for the audience early on and built the draw and talent pool available quickly. Currently, it sits at a 3 week release schedule plus some. The cover art varies a bit more, but there are only a couple I would actually replace of my choice. The cycling of other authors into the release schedule, with the novels tying together, but not directly interfering(through edicts such as only Chris and Mark actually write the 4H, and even appearances of characters from such need approval) with the other stories.

Silver Empire recently had a successful Kickstarter campaign for a universe called Heroes Unleashed, with interesting ideas that are somewhere between the two. What was termed Wave I will have 5 authors doing novels(likely series if successful). Morgon Newquist(school of arts and war) created this world with short stories in two anthologies(Paragons and HA! HA! HA!), and the others involved include some others I've reviewed here: JD Cowan(Grey Cat Blues, Knights of the End), Kai Wai Cheah(No Gods Only Daimons, Hammer of the Witches), Jon Mollison(Sudden Rescue, Adventure Constant), and Richard W. Watts, with whom I am unfamiliar.

Bradford C. Walker and Brian Niemeier both have run Indiegogo campaigns(Brian's is still live), related to their #AGundamForUS work, and both have some good ideas. Now, if both do well, they will eventually face the challenge of putting out new material and keeping a fresh feel to their stories, which is where I think Galaxy's Edge has begun to fall flat, so this is no mean feat. My advice would be to do a contained series, maybe 6 books, at first, and perhaps invite other authors after, either for shorter arcs or standalone novels. Yeah, this is a throwback to the books they are somewhat imitating, but it did work then, and should work again, if they find authors that get what they're doing.

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.

DC in denial of reality, and Hard Case Crime dismisses readers

I know there's the GenCon bit everybody has seen and written about. I just didn't expect the con to deal itself a deathblow this fast, and that's all I'll write here for now.

DC co-publishers Dan Didio and Jim Lee recently did an interview on ICV2 regarding DC's sales year to year and the industry. Bounding into comics provided a little commentary via numbers, but didn't go into analysis, instead asking for opinions in the comments section. Didio seems to think the biggest problem is over-saturation of the comics market, while Lee is pointing to declining traffic at Barnes and Noble and waning interest in The Walking Dead.

Both are in at least some way, dead wrong in how they're looking at things, though they have made a move to get into WalMart, and that will likely help. But neither espouses concern for the health of comic book stores, their primary outlet. They refuse to name either their or Marvel's recent badly moving books as reason that the industry suffers, especially the Diamond overshipments. Instead, they are pointing their fingers at the high quality of new publishers popping up. They do mention the high price point of issues, but fail to mention any remedy for that, nor is any mention of the mostly fail that digital comics are(DRM kills the ability to really share or collect, because you don't OWN the book you bought, not to mention the inability of reader programs to really work with experimental panel layouts, among other issues).

Now, yes, over-saturation will indeed make individual company and title numbers fall. But that doesn't change what the industry numbers should look like, which are down 4% from last year. That doesn't explain over 60 stores in the USA closing this year so far. Unless you explicitly mean, "Marvel overshipped to stores enough that they went broke." A shrinking industry is something they should be massively concerned about, but they don't express that anywhere. But that has NOTHING to do with small press comics.

You want better sales, DC? Quit the diversity classes and get great writers and artists onboard, and pay them well. Tell AMAZING stories, and quit gaslighting the characters into something they never were. New guys? fine. Quit messing with Superman, WW, Bats, etc. Put out some newsprint titles at $2 or less, like Alterna does. Get it together, and make some money selling comics.

Now, onto Hard Case Crime. This is going to be tough for me. 

Hard Case Crime, on their Twitter account(my information again from BiC), has explicitly stated they don't want money from Trump supporters. For those not in the know, HCC is one of the larger crime pulp revival presses, with well over 100 titles by now, including Lawrence Block, Mickey Spillane, Max Allan Collins, and Michael Chrichton(as John Lange) in their catalog among others.The covers are magnificent portraits that tell you something is going down.

Insulting writers is a bad look in general. Insulting your customer base is a worse one. I like their books a lot, and have been excited about the comics partnership they developed with Titan. Now, I have to either cut them off, or be a blasted paypig to people that hate me openly. "Don't give money to people that hate you." -Brian Niemeier

Goodbye, Hard Case Crime. 

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.

Converged company signals its imminent end

Alderac Entertainment Company has been a bit converged for awhile, but was still attempting to focus on making good games, and having a measure of success with that. Yesterday they made an announcement regarding its big convention event(GenCon, PAX Unplugged, and a few others), Big Game Night. For their 2020 Big Game Night events, they're looking for games from women designers.

Before any idiot thinks that I don't think women can make good games, that's not true. But WHY THE CRAP SHOULD IT MATTER? Either the game is fun, or it isn't. Some of the Virtue Signallers went to the trouble of making a geeklist of games with women designers, omitting in many cases the male co-designers. But if AEG wants something that will sell long term, it's a path they will actually avoid. Almost all of the popular designers are men. And yes, people do buy games just based on the designer.

But let's look at the hobby itself. Most of the players are in fact, men, likely somewhere between 2/3 and 80%. Especially when you're talking about people that actually seek out new and complex games. Most game players don't try to take apart mechanics and see how they fit together, though; they tend to try to understand this game that they're playing now(This is aside from teaching games, a somewhat different skill). Some try to understand the mechanics, but don't develop a vocabulary for it. Others figure out how the pieces fit together, and like to discuss them. And the smallest set is those that actively design games(mechanically, not graphically necessarily).

I used to like AEG, even when they literally stepped away from making games I wanted to play. But why should I bother if they're going the "women who code" route? Even if they get the games they want NOW, they probably have to spend the next whole year rebalancing it and finding balance issues. Maybe they can get the games done in time. Or maybe they'll end up with a nice train wreck of money lost on rights and development and graphics.

And AEG joins Renegade on the list of companies I'm not buying from anymore.

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.

On the comics collapse

There's a lot of talk of the markets shrinking in sff and comics from the tradpub sources, and here's a bit of my theory on the comics side.

I think Marvel and DC, with some help from Diamond(active to a point, but I have trouble believing they're that dumb) might be actively colluding to close the comic book stores. Diversity and Comics has made a good amount of noise over the fact that over 60 shops have closed this year alone.

Marvel is being overshipped, and the stores have to pay for the books. DC had a few exciting and high selling things early in the year, but their more recent moves are really bad from a sales standpoint, and the stores would be more inclined to take those chances after the big early sales.

Diamond, for the third real player, has for years made it very difficult and expensive to reach retailers and the public eye via their catalog. Alterna Comics has had trouble with them not shipping reorders and reprints, and the publisher has taken to shipping them directly himself. Most small press stuff can only be bought at cons or maybe from a local store, though one, Hollow Harbor, has connections with Miniature Market and sells through them.

Now, the why. They dominate the marketspace. They make a better percentage off of digital sales, though Diamond should be panicking over store closings. And through the digital space, they can better keep people from noticing smaller material, entering their entire back catalog over time. Why? Image almost took an equal share at one point, especially with Jim Lee's Wildstorm part of the business. He sold out for security over taking chances to become a giant in his own right as a publisher. Well, that and Batman.

Now POD printing approaches usefulness for comics printing at competitive prices, and if alternate models start hitting the mainstream comics market in news and books, then they don't control the industry anymore. Dave Sim became a legend for self publishing Cerberus; these days, he would have gotten rich at it as well. So yes, they're terrified of Arkhaven and Dark Legion. D+C's Jawbreakers and Ethan Van Sciver's Cyberfrog have them shaking. And they don't have a clue what to really think about the project Chuck Dixon has gotten going. Red Rooster? Should eat up a good chunk of Astro City/Black Hammer readers.

Mark Waid talked to Antarctic Press to get them to drop Jawbreakers. He's now under investigation for tortious interference. But I wonder how deep the DOJ is going to look. As a leading Marvel writer(history and reputation, not current talent), he might unwittingly have led the Mouse to a trap.

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.