It’s the Friday before Labor Day. It’s my son’s last day of Pre-K. It’s a little weird over here.
And as always, I continue to wonder what I’m doing with this blog.
I’m on a book-reading tear of late, which is a fun thing to be in. Since my last post, I’ve finished reading four more books (The Bone Mother (which is very creepy) and the Gameshouse Trilogy (which is great and very short)) and am switching between three or four other novels all at once. I don’t normally juggle books like this, but that’s how my brain is working at the moment, and I’m inclined to let it wander as it wants.
As I continue to pine for a new David Mitchell novel, I find that Claire North is a more than adequate placeholder; I’ve now read five of her novels and am also in the beginning of a sixth, and her other two are on the to-read pile. She’s doing some remarkably interesting things in the literary science fiction genre, and I’m more or less on board for anything and everything else she’s going to write. She wrote the aforementioned Gameshouse Trilogy, which is excellent; she also wrote The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, which is one of the best books I’ve read this year and is certainly one of the most unique takes on time-travel I’ve ever encountered.
As for games: well, the big fall release season is fast approaching, which means (among other things) that if I don’t get a handle on my backlog now, I never will. First priority is to give some quality time to the X port of Nier:Automata. There are a great many people whose opinions I deeply respect who love the shit out of this game; I’m about 8 or 9 hours into it but I’m not quite there yet. The combat is serviceable, but the world design is empty and feels unfinished… the most interesting thing about it is how unnerving some of the enemy dialogue is, but I’m not quite sure that’s enough.
I’ve reached a point in Dead Cells where I’m probably never going to get that much better, and that’s OK. I think I mentioned last week that I’m now at a point where, if I get good drops, I can usually defeat the Concierge. There is SO MUCH MORE to do, of course, but it also requires me to be far more skilled than I will ever be. I’ve gotten my money’s worth; I just know that there’s only so much I can bang my head against a wall, and I’d rather continue feeling good about that game instead of frustrated.
Beyond that, it is what it is. Just trying to keep my head above water, in these troubled times.
Have a lovely holiday weekend, everyone!
Shouts From The Couch 