Finished reading Watchmen last night…  Damn good book.

I was absolutely amazed with the visual style and the quality of the writing.  I’ve only read a very few graphic novels…  But I’ve ready plenty of comics…  And I’m always kind of surprised when I find really good writing.  It seems like publishers will often use the pretty pictures as an excuse to skimp on real writing.

The end certainly wasn’t what I expected…  It definitely fit the storyline, and I guess there really wasn’t any other way to wrap things up…  But it certainly isn’t what I expected.  I was hoping for something a little more heroic.

So, having read the book now, I’ve got very mixed feelings about the upcoming movie.  I’m really excited to see the movie…  There’s a distinct possibility that they’ll do something absolutely amazing with it.  The story certainly has plenty of potential.

But I’m also concerned that they’ll butcher the story.  There’s so much going on in the book…  So many different lives being woven together…  Flashbacks and memories, things happening out of sequence…  Glimpses into the lives of normal people as they go about their lives…  Big, complex issues that can’t be solved with an action sequence…  I have a hard time seeing how Hollywood is going to boil this down into a decent movie.

I’ve been hearing about Watchmen on Slashdot for very literally years now.  Folks constantly mention it as the quintessential superhero comic.  Folks constantly refernce different characters, situations, or phrases from it.  And I’ve been meaning to read it for quite some time now, but just ahven’t gotten around to it.

Recently there’ve been trailers on the web for the new Watchmen movie coming out, which has sparked more discussion on Slashdot.  More people referencing the story, characters, situations, phrases…  And I’m still left wondering what they’re talking about.

So I finally bought the book.  And I started reading it last week…  And I’ve had a hell of a time putting it down.  Right from the first I was absolutely hooked on the characters and artwork.  Rorshach is fascinating, Dr. Manhattan is awesome (in the literal sense of the word)…  And the Nite Owl is rapidly becoming very interesting as well.

I really can’t wait to find out where this is all going…  Right now the plot is convoluted and weird to the extreme, and I’ve got absolutely no idea how anyone is going to avoid a nuclear armageddon.

I finished reading Mona Lisa Overdrive over the weekend…  Another terrific book from William Gibson.  But, unfortunately, it looks like that’s one of his last cyberpunk novels.  If I understand correctly he’s now writing steampunk…

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I have, for many years now, been telling Terri that I wish I could be a pirate.

No, not a modern-day literal pirate…  Not the kind of pirate that illegaly distributes copyrighted materials.  Not the kind of pirate they’ve got boarding ships and killing people on modern shipping lanes.  No…  I want to be the kind of swashbuckling do-gooder pirate that Hollywood made up.  Someone like Jack Sparrow, or Han Solo.

I’ve always enjoyed a certain type of movie, game, or book…  The kind of setting where there aren’t a whole lot of rules and the protagonist is making their way largely on their own.  Movies where you can hop aboard your space ship, or horse, or boat and ride off into the sunset.  Movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, and the Star Wars movies.  Games like Freelancer, or Edge of Chaos.

It annoys me that in the real world it is basically impossible to make a living off literally the sweat of your own brow.  It annoys me that in the real world just about everything is already owned by somebody.  It annoys me that in the real world there is very little that is unexplored or undiscovered.

If I were to just pick a random direction and start walking…  Off into the woods, over the hills, across a river, up a mountain…  I’d be trespassing.  Somebody owns that land.  Maybe a private individual, maybe a business, maybe the government…  But somebody already owns it, and I could get in trouble for tresspassing.

If I were to start chopping down trees to sell firewood, or digging in the ground looking for gold, or trapping critters to sell the meat/fur/whatever I’d be breaking the law.  Not only would I be trespassing on somebody else’s land, but I’d be hunting out of season or breaking environmental protection laws.

If I were to start building a house or shack of some sort I could get in trouble for that, too.  Again, it’s not my land…  But everything you build has to be up to code, and you need permits for it all.

And there’s a real appeal to the idea of living outside the lines.  Of being able to carve out your own existance somewhere in the wilderness.  Of being able to basically go where you want to, do what you want to.  Of not having to show up to work on time to get a paycheck.

That’s one of the things I really enjoy about William Gibson’s stories…  He presents a near-future cyberspace as a kind of new Wild West.  Full of opportunity, freedom, and danger.

And EVE Online captures this feeling very, very well.

You’ve got your ship and you’re basically free to do whatever you want.  You can mine minerals, you can build stuff, you can go out and PvP, you can even become a pirate.  There’s really nothing preventing you from doing that, except your own ability to survive against the automated police force…

There’s a real sense of living on the edge.  Of there being very little between you and pure chaos.  There’s the feeling that you can really discover new and unexplored territory.  That you can carve out your own place in the universe.

And I’m thoroughly enjoying myself.

Sure, I haven’t done a whole lot of consequence so far.  I’ve been doing a lot of mining, done some training, bought a couple ships…  But I haven’t gone out and done battle with hardly anyone.  I haven’t been fighting back the pirate menace or rebelling against the system, I’ve just kind of been earning a living.

But the setting is absolutely terrific.  It feels so open and full of possibilities.

I just finished reading Stephen King’s Cell…

Very enjoyable read. It’s been a long time since I read anything by Stephen King and it was a lot of fun just to experience his writing style again. He’s got a way of describing things that is absolutely amazing. And I’ve spent enough time in the North-East to enjoy his Maine-isms. But, on the whole, I don’t think it was one of his stronger books.

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