Critical Myth-Interpretations

This is the first book in the Uplift Saga, as it has been rebranded over the years.  I first read this book several years ago, and at that time, I wasn’t particularly thrilled.  It seemed to have a lot of great ideas packed into a relatively short page count, but the tone of the novel shifts all over the map.  When the book is about discovery and fleshing out a convincing future universe, it works very well.  When the book shifts to a more mundane murder mystery, it tends to get bogged down in contrived drama.

The result is an odd mash of concepts that never seem to point in any meaningful direction.  Even the central character, a man with what appears to be a self-created split personality, moves through the story a bit too easily.  Motivations are barely discussed, and the actions are put forward in a way that doesn’t say much about the characters involved.

The central science fiction concepts of Uplift and the beings within the Sun are probably worth the time, because together they place Humanity in a wider perspective.  Those aspects of the novel are quite interesting, and had it been explored in a more traditional manner, the resulting strife on Earth would have been equally intriguing.

The mystery plot is essentially the glue holding together all the promising ideas.  Those ideas would ultimately lead to the Uplift Saga and much better storytelling, but one has to wonder if this was originally meant as a one-off novel.  If so, then the main plot (the murder mystery and the Sun exploration) was the author’s main driver, with the rest as background for the events at hand.  Since it eventually became the opening chapter to a much larger sequence, the book appears to be a bit of a mess.  Reading it through again, that’s not too far from the reality.

Rating: 6/10

This is the final novel of the classic James Bond series (only a collection of short stories would eventually follow), and it was published after Ian Fleming’s death.  There’s some question as to whether or not the novel was completed by Fleming, or if an early draft was completed by another writer or published “as is”.  Whatever the case might be, the novel feels like an unnecessary extension to what was, for all intent purposes, a completed story arc.

The Blofeld Trilogy was the crowning achievement of the Bond novels, covering a period in Bond’s life when he was at a psychological low point.  It brought his journey from the cold-hearted man of “Casino Royale” to the jaded and exhausted agent of “You Only Live Twice” to a conclusion.  I would think that the author was ready to leave the character behind as well, given the tone of the previous book.  That’s one thing that makes “The Man with the Golden Gun” such a miscue; there is no need to take the character into another meditation on death when he’s already been there, except to let him go out on a more positive note.

The writing itself is uninspired and often scattered, with the thin story barely supporting the mere 200 pages.  It’s a very quick read, but that’s not a good thing.  Elements that should have been considered more carefully are tossed together, and it’s hard to imagine that any capable Bond villain would be stupid enough to fall for some of Bond’s attempts at a false identity.  The whole story feels like an unrefined concept, and given the questionable circumstances of its origins, perhaps it is one that should have been left to the archives.

Rating: 4/10

After the wild success of “Final Fantasy X”, a sequel was released entitled “Final Fantasy X-2”.  Unlike the original, the sequel was mostly a light-hearted romp with more of a mission-based format than the typical hero quest format.  By most measures, that new format was not as well received, and it seemed more like an attempt to pull in female gamers than a serious attempt at continuation.

The same creative team was behind “Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings”, and it shows.  Vaan’s involvement in the rise and fall of empires gives way to a semi-serious sky pirate adventure where Vaan learns to consider the consequences of being…well, a sky pirate.  More than that, quite a bit of time is spent on Vaan’s relationship with Penelo.  It shouldn’t be hard to figure out how that goes.  (By the way, for those complaining about her wardrobe…did you bother finishing “Final Fantasy XII”?  Same outfit!)

That’s not the only change.  The action-RPG format of the original gives way to a simplified real time strategy (RTS) concept.  When I say simplified, I’m not kidding.  There are essentially three different types of support units, and in rather predictable fashion, one unit is always weak to another in a rock-paper-scissors fashion.  It takes about three battles to get the basics down to an instinctive level, and from there, it’s just a matter of checking out the competition before each new battle.

This makes it remarkably easy to prepare for most engagements.  You build up your “esper” units fairly quickly, so while some missions are difficult, it’s mostly a matter of unit management.  You check out the type of unit, the elemental weaknesses, set up your single gambit, and from there it’s a simple matter of positioning and movement.

Devoted RTS gamers will get bored very quickly.  The missions are not all that complicated, and things only get hairy when the bosses have a massive “area of effect”, which is usually remedied by spamming the enemy with ranged units or a bit of quick leveling up.  The strategy is so simple and predictable that additional elements like weapons crafting are almost entirely unnecessary.

All that said, these apparent weaknesses make it an almost perfect portable game.  It’s possible to tackle a single mission in a few minutes, especially in the beginning, and by then the simplicity of the game makes it mildly addictive.  The only problems are the long stretches of expository cut-scenes at certain points in the game.  Also, if you save right before a battle, in some cases the cut-scenes leading to a battle will repeat.

So while the format is not what I would prefer, and the tone is more light-hearted than the original, the sequel works as a fairly easy and mostly time-friendly extension to the “Final Fantasy XII” story.  Those looking for a true RTS challenge, however, would best be served looking elsewhere.

Rating: 8/10