MYST III: EXILE, A Look Back

As of January 31st our cold weather days have now increased to a season total of 40.  On those days the temperature did not reach 0 C or 32 F.  On many of those days the temp did not even come close to reaching that level.  So it's been very cold, though the winds seem to have died down.  The next ten days are supposed to continue cold, so we should reach 50 with no trouble at all.  Around here winter usually dies around the 14th of February--we are hoping it does.

Today is a full moon day, and tomorrow is Candlemas.  So many holidays and festivals around here!  Brigid comes out tomorrow to do her part in encouraging Spring to appear, though we can't get her fresh flowers until Tuesday.  We will also reveal our new cross-quarter Tarot card.  Deb continues work on her newest film, while her last one just chalked up an award in Toronto for best micro-short (She Makes A Moving Picture).  Yay Deb!  Next week will mark one month on my newest piano pieces, so I will talk about them then.

 

There are two films to report, one good and one bad.  The bad one was the 1969 b & w horror film It's Alive, starring Tommy Kirk as a dynamite carrying paleontologist, one of four people who get caught and trapped by a crazy man.  This is one of the all time bad horror films, with a monster (It) so badly done that it almost makes the film worthwhile to watch.  Apparently millions of years ago there were lots of these creatures, but hardly any nowadays.  The dynamite gets used at the end, and two out of five people and one It come out alive.  We barely came out alive ourselves.  At any time the prisoners could have walked out of the cave they are trapped in, but I guess it was just too much effort.  It features one of the most unpleasant husbands in the history of cinema.  What a relief when he is finally fed to the monster.

 

From our DVD collection. 

 

The good film was Suddenly Last Summer, a 1969 b & w film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift.  A one act play by Tennessee Williams was greatly expanded by Gore Vidal.  Taylor is a supposedly violent and crazy young woman being helped by Clift as her doctor.  Hepburn is her looney aunt who wants a lobotomy performed on Taylor, which is Clift's specialty.  This is high drama, and Taylor acquits herself well.  Hepburn chews up every scene she is in, and Clift just rolls along with the punches.  This marks the second film in a row with Taylor that I have liked her in her role.  The ending is a bit over the top.  What inspired the writer to come up with it?  I am curious.  Not a film to inspire one's love of humanity.

 

We watched a great print of it on Criterion. 

 

Turning now to Myst III Exile, I would like to share some thoughts on this game that emerged in 2001.  First the bad news.  The game is old.  It is rendered in 16 bit colour and appears at a resolution of 640 x 480.  Wow.  That means it will not run on most newer PCs.  However, the game is available cheaply on Steam, and this time we played it there rather than using the CDs.  It originally came on 4 discs, with switching required throughout the game.  I first played the game in July and August of 2001, spending 30 hours wandering the various landscapes.  I was impressed overall, though the game had some problems with sound and the mouse.  At the time I did not realize that there was a 5th ending, a happy one for all.  Imagine doing hours and hours and hours of work to find that there are no less than 4 bad endings and only one good (very tricky) one.  Nice reward for all the work.  Idiots!  On the good side, the static slideshow was gone.  Now players could turn 360 degrees and see things in all direction.  Heaven!

 

I played it again in 2015 on XP and it worked fine.  I finally discovered that 5th ending.

 

Now for the 2026 play, my 3rd time through the game.  It really needs an update.  The Steam version is the original, and it seems odd to see the low resolution, especially after playing so many new games recently.  Even so, it's still quite a pretty game to look at.  We played it together, though we needed lots of help.  The only way to truly understand what the hell is going on and why is to use the Prima Official Strategy Guide, which we kept handy and used liberally.  There are five worlds that require puzzles to be solved to advance the story.

 

The game opens on Tomahna, the house of Atrus and Catherine and Yeesha that we will see more of in Myst IV.  However, we are quickly taken to J'nanin, the world that is central to the game.  For most of the images below I have cropped out the bottom of the screen, which shows the inventory items, mostly books.  The game play screen is 640 x 480, more square than these cropped images.

 

J'nanin, where the puzzle solving begins.

 

Heading down into the crater towards that amazing little building within it.  Inside is an important elevator puzzle, as well as an office and desk that must be studied closely.  Here is the only bed in the game; a hammock in the office.  Deb and I took turns sleeping on it while we rested from our journeys.
 

None of these worlds were meant for anything except to train Atrus' two criminal sons how to manipulate worlds and get along together to solve problems.  I wish the Myst stories had left those two alone, already imprisoned by Atrus at the end of Myst.  We now have to deal with a man driven mad by the cruelty of those two boys.  Saveedro, played with full force and intensity by Brad Dourif (Wormtongue in LOR), is rightly upset with Atrus for not keeping a close rein on the boys, and the game is all about his seeking revenge.  He has been separated from his wife and kids for twenty years, and is now a raving madman.  

 

Anyway, there are three main puzzles to solve in J'nanin, also referred to as the lesson age.  The solving of each puzzle gains the player a different world to explore.  There is also a minor puzzle to solve beneath the main elevator, found in the art nouveau house shown above.  The elevator gains the player access to the main tusk summit, which has solutions to each of the three main puzzles.  There are also three smaller tusks, with a major problem to solve for each.  We got through J'nanin without much trouble.  One of the puzzles I really liked was the light puzzle, shining from one lamp to another across the small island.  It's also a great island to walk in, as the player can make a complete circuit of the island without backtracking.  It is a death-defying walk and quite exhilarating!

 

The first world we traveled to from J'nanin was Voltaic, the energy age.  The puzzles here are also mostly solved by a bit of poking and exploring, though the three-storey steam pipe one is tedious and overly complicated.  Especially since Saveedro has damaged part of it, as he has in each world.  The puzzles would be difficult enough, but by damaging them things can quickly go from bad to worse for players.

 

Players first appear on a tiny islet in Voltaic.

 

Voltaic is the energy world.  Water power and steam power must be engaged in order to progress here.

 

Catwalks, both high and low, an elevator, underground caverns and above ground caverns, along with an airship ride, are some of the highlights of this very scenic age.  Once things are up and running, there are some great sound effects.  This helps immersion in the game, as the music, for the most part, is quite lame by Myst and Riven standards.  Once the age has been completed players are rewarded by a scenic airship ride through the canyon.  We get to take a sheet of paper with us which has a mysterious symbol written on it.  Back to J'nanin via a handy linking book, and on to the next world.

 

Amateria, the age of dynamic forces, is still my favourite of the worlds of Myst III, though the puzzles are virtually impossible without spending a lifetime of trial and error.  The small island can also be walked in a circle, with indoor and outdoor scenery of a spellbinding quality.  The sky was unbelievably dramatic, with lightning, thunder and some of the best dark clouds and lighting to this day.  Even in 2026 I still love just walking around that place.  Its Chinese themed architecture works perfectly against the drama of the overall atmosphere.

 

For its time, Amateria was a wonder to behold.

 

I still enjoy taking leisurely walks here. 

 

As mentioned, the puzzles here are far too challenging, and with very little in the way of help as to what needs doing, this beautiful setting can quickly become a frustrating experience.  Hints and use of a walkthrough are nearly mandatory if the player wishes to exit the game in a spirit of fun and enjoyment.  Whereas the payoff in Voltaic was a ride in an airship, this time one gets to ride inside an ice sphere, whizzing through a maze of track.  It's best to save the game before the final code is inputted, so the ride can be taken again.  Back to J'nanin with another symbol on paper, and off to yet another world.

 

Edanna, the world of nature, is nearly a complete disaster, and one of the worst Myst creations to ever be thrust upon a devoted gamer of the series.  There are many physical levels to this game, but if the player doesn't begin from the uppermost level and work downward, there is no hope of success.  Should one wander down into the depths of the jungle first, nothing at all can be accomplished.  It's so easy to get lost and turned around down there that I can safely bet that many players likely abandoned the game somewhere below.  Even if by chance some puzzles are solved, you will never figure out what they mean.  Even with a walkthrough and a map from the strategy guide, good luck finding and solving everything that needs doing.  None of it makes the least bit of sense as far as teaching the boys anything about worlds or nature.  The jungle at the bottom features one necessary pathway that is virtually impossible to find.  It is easy to get turned around, and can become something of a maze, that dreaded feature of many early adventure games, beginning with the Zork text games and continuing on into visual games for far too long.  The less said about Edanna the better; use a walkthrough if you wish to remain sane.  Otherwise, expect plenty of anger issues to arise.  Upon completing this world the reward is to be picked up by a giant bird and brought up to its nest.  A third page with symbol is gained.

 

Saveedro has painted murals in most of the ages, telling of the deeds of Sirrus and Achenar, the evil sons of Atrus.  This one is located in the jungle of Edanna.

 

There are some truly beautiful areas in Edanna, especially deep below.  As to fair or logical puzzles, there are none. 

 

The final world visited before end game is Narayan, the age of balance.  Again Saveedro (who we bump into here and quite often in the game) has damaged part of the age, in this case destroying some tapestries which hold symbols related to the three we have gathered before arriving here.  Again the puzzles are complex and unnecessarily abstruse.  Part of the first main puzzle makes absolutely no sense at all.  The second one is easier, as it is simply copying symbols from an underground tapestry collection and putting them into a machine.  This world is very limited, and there is little to explore.  With only three discs, the developers were running out of room.  But seeing a gondola that will follow an airborne track leads the player to assume that he/she will soon be riding the vehicle.  Not so.  The gondola is only for Saveedro, if you make it that far in the game.  Once the second main puzzle is solved, the end game sequence begins.  Save as soon as you can.  Next come the five endings.  Choose wisely.  It doesn't matter, as the game sets up the player to lose.

 

A mysterious door in Narayan, which, unfortunately, we never get to enter.  This is a micro age, with very little to see.

 

This screenshot gives the true 640 x 480 screen dimensions of the game, with the bottom uncropped.  If the game ends properly Saveedro gets to go for a ride. 

 

Of the five possible endings, three of them end badly for the player and for Atrus.  A fourth ending ends badly for Saveedro, but okay for us.  A fifth ending, which will only possibly be found by players after all the others have been tried (I missed it entirely the first time I played and never knew of its existence), ends well for everyone.

 

The game could really use an upgrade, and I would certainly replay it then.  Though a fairly good game with lots to see and many places to wander freely, I rank it well behind Riven and a bit behind Myst.  Even so, it is one of those games I find myself thinking back to often, with that little dwelling at the crater bottom on J'nanin and the mysterious and entrancing world of Amateria.  It was hurtful not to see more of Atrus and Catherine's house, but we get the whole thing in Myst IV.

 

Happy Full Moon, and Happy Candlemas! 

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 2025 Reading Update

January was a very cold month, perfect for plenty of reading.  I got through 12 books, one of them a graphic novel.  Besides my two regulars (Tubb and Bulmer) I read 4 from my Delphi Classics collection and 6 others.

From 1988 comes the 255 page conclusion to Kenneth Bulmer's Witch War Saga, Warlord of Antares, with the sudden though somewhat expected death of Cistra the evil witch woman.  She has lusted after Dray Prescott for several volumes now, and finally, just as she has him within her grasp, she is undone by a jealous wizard who wanted her for himself.  One of the many things I like about this series is the unexpected turns.  Though many things are predictable, just as many are not.  We have seen people get killed who we wish had still been alive, and we have seen battles lost that we wish had been won.  Another thing I like about the book is the comaraderie between Dray and his best friends.  Though they take seriously events that need to be taken seriously, they are also keen to show light-heartedness as much as bravery.  Delia, Dray's wife is once again in the background for this story.  This is the first volume where Drak, son of Dray, is Emperor, after Dray's (and Delia's) abdication.  And so a new series of adventures will begin with the next volume, as Dray attempts to unite a vast continent of small kingdoms again the dreaded Shanks.  A good entry in this remarkable series. 

Cover art by Ken Kelly. 

 

Cap and his team are up against an old and very evil enemy, one they thought they had eliminated in a past volume, in this pot boiler by E. C. Tubb.  In The Genetic Engineer Cap has to infiltrate the top secret and very hidden laboratory run by this evil scientist, and of course it must be blown to smithereens once discovered.  There really isn't too much to say about this one.  The mad scientist is designing and making clones with the help of kidnapped scientists.  He will program them to fight to the death, and they will feel no pain so will continue to fight until unable to do so.  His great plan to sell his soldiers to the highest bidder is undone by a female captured scientist, who programs the clones to run away in fear instead of stand and fight.  So for once a woman helps save the day!  Not the greatest of the stories, but not a terrible one, either.

 

Turning to four of the Delphi Classics for this month I began with William Hope Hodgson's The Dream of X.  The Night Land by Hodgson is a masterpiece of fantasy horror writing that I first encountered in the the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series many years ago.  I reread it fairly recently and still loved the book.  However, it is 200,000 words and quite a commitment to sit down and read.  If you have ever wanted to wander about inside of a hellish painting by Bosch or Bruegel, then this is the book for you.  In 1912 the author published a 20,000 word version, which is the above named story.  Reduced by 90%, this is exactly what the reader gets: 90% less of everything.  This is a very disappointing novella and not recommended.  The full version is just that; a full version.  Imagine any great novel or film cut by 90%.  Read the full version of The Night Land.  Please.

 

The Girl From Malta, an 1889 crime novel by Fergus Hume, also left me quite disappointed.  For one thing (spoiler alert), after all is said and done and we have tried for nearly 300 pages to figure out who the murderer is, it turns out there was no murder.  What a chicken poop ending!  Obviously Hume himself could not decide who killed the victim.  It was either one of two sisters (likely the older one with a violent temper), or their male cousin.  Obviously too scared to have one of the women as the murderer, the author sets up the male cousin.  But in the end it was a suicide!  Right.  The guy stabbed himself in the heart with a letter opener.  Happens every day.  Yawn.  Moving on....

 

Daisy Miller is a novella by Henry James from 1878.  At times it is quite a brilliant story, though at the end the author cops out (spoiler not provided here).  A young American girl is spending a year in Europe with her mother and 9 year old brother.  The young boy provides much entertainment for the reader, and also provides a genetic excuse for the young woman.  Daisy (likely 15 or 16 in the book) is very immature, very beautiful and talks a lot.  She is allowed to go out with men unsupervised by her mother, and this eventually leads to her being ostracized by "society."  Our hero cannot make Daisy understand her predicament, and she is incapable of doing anything except flirting with him and especially a handsome Italian musician, with whom she spends most of her time in Rome.  Though she likes the hero very much, she is unable to relate to him.  They fall out when he attempts to advise her of her worsening social flaws.  Rather than try to put a fitting conclusion to the story, James takes the easy way out.  It's a shame, as much better endings could be devised.  Highly recommended.

 

M. R. James' final published collection of horror stories is from 1925 and is called A Warning To The Curious and Other Ghost Stories. This was the final published volume of all new stories by James, though his collected short stories (to follow) include four never before published.  Of the six stories included here "The Haunted Dollhouse" is certainly worth mentioning.  The tiny inhabitants of an old dollhouse enact a gruesome ritual late each night.  Very creepy.  The five other stories are all good and worth reading, though not particularly scary.

 

The Con Man is from 1957, and is Ed McBain's fourth 87th Precinct novel.  Carella, a detective from the precinct, was badly wounded in the first book.  The author wanted to kill him off, but the editor would not allow it (!).  So Carella is back in book 4, trying to catch a serial killer.  He gets some unasked for assistance from his deaf and dumb wife.  This is the best of the series so far, with a lot of tension building towards the end.  The detectives from the precinct rotate in each story, which is a pretty cool idea.  Hard boiled and top notch big city crime writing.

 

Akira is a comic from 1988 by Katsuhiro Otomo.  It is the second (of three) outstanding comic/graphic novel to recently enter these hallowed walls of bloghood.  It is thirty years after an atomic bomb devastates Tokyo, and the outskirts of Tokyo are coming back to life, sort of.  This is essentially a Japanese version of the much earlier Mad Max film, though it gets even more cynical and outrageous.  Tokyo was bombed because of an out-of-control ESP experiment that went awry.  Of course a secret group is trying to revive it.  Original art was in black and white, but it was coloured for release as a 36-comic (six volume) graphic novel once its popularity had hit the roof.  The author was given a huge amount of control over the animated film version, too.  If you enjoy reading about 15 year old sex-crazed male juvenile delinquents on super fast motor bikes, then you are sure to love this series.  Watch as they out ride and out fight Japan's military and top secret agents, just like in real life.  The plot thickens as we learn that a top secret project has been working with mutants who are psychic deadly weapons.  After the first six issues we have not learned what "Akira" is, but it sounds like really bad news.  The art and colouring are totally fantastic, and the story shows promise.  But it's hard to accept young boys being so adept at nearly everything.  How they afford their bikes, repairs, gasoline and how they get so much time away from their reform school is kept a mystery.  Let's hope they can save the world, though.

 

I read Vol. 1, which contains the first six comics.  There are 6 volumes (36 comics).

 

Paul Aster's 1985 novel City of Glass eventually became three books, now known as the New York Trilogy.  Paul Quinn writes cheap detective novels.  A few years ago his wife and son died and he is becoming a stranger to the world and to himself.  When a strange phone call for Paul Aster reaches him and asks for private eye help, Quinn decides to become Paul Aster and accepts the case.  A dangerous man will soon be released for prison, and his son, damaged at an early age from his father's social experiment on him, is terrified that his father will find him again and seek revenge for getting him sent to jail for 13 years.  Quinn/Aster follows the father, William Stillman, and keeps watch on him.  As the case goes on Quinn becomes completely engaged, to the point of eventually losing himself and seeming to disappear eventually into thin air.  At the beginning of the book we see Quinn observing street people and rough sleepers and wondering how a man could ever reach such a low point.  By the end of the novel he has become such a man himself, one of the worst cases.  This is a strange yet engaging story, with many sharp turns and bumpy rides.  I am looking forward (next month) to continuing the trilogy.  Recommended.

 

The Night Circus is from 2011 and written by Erin Morgenstern. Deb recommended it, though she liked her second book even more.  So I finally got around to the first one.  This is not so much a novel as an experience, one that is unlike any other that I have had.  First off, it is about a circus, and the circus only opens at night.  Now that we have that cleared up, what kind of circus is it?  Well, imagine if a circus was controlled by someone (or perhaps two someones) who had strong psychic energies.  Imagine that some of the acts are a bit enhanced, to the point where attendees are not only totally amazed at what they see, but are unsure if what they see is real or something else entirely.  Imagine a circus that arrives at night in secret, and is fully set up and ready to go the very first night after arrival.  After entering, attendees wander at will, visiting smaller and larger tents to see any of the acts available of their choosing.  No sitting in one spot and watching a performance.  There are dozens of different places to visit, and they are all amazing.  There is an overarching story about two dueling wizards using a student each to see who "wins."  Filled with interesting characters both in and out of the circus, the novel holds things together really well and our interest never flags.  That is a pretty amazing achievement in a book nearly 400 pages long.  Though the story bounces back in forth in chronology it is easy to follow thanks to dates supplied with each chapter.  Also, the chapters are mostly very short, from 1 minute to 4 minutes in length to perhaps 10 at the outset.  This far exceeds Piranesi, another quite special novel read earlier.  Now I am very curious to see just what the author can do in her second book.  Very highly recommended, especially to fantasy fans looking for something completely different.

 

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life (republished as Arrival after the success of the film) is a collection of short stories and novellas first published in 2002, though most stories were written considerably earlier.

 

"Tower of Babylon" is from 1990, and is a wonderful fantasy no doubt influenced by Bruegel's paintings of the same name.  Imagine a storyteller in ancient Babylonian times relating the tale of not only the building of this miles high edifice, but of its reaching its goal, namely heaven.  This is the story of an Elamite miner who was called from afar to break through the ceiling to reach heaven once the tower was finished.  They climb for days and days to reach the summit, passing the sun, which shines upward after a time instead of down.  There is no science in this ancient tale, at least none we would recognize.  A deliriously magical tale!  **** stars.

 

"Understand" is from 1991 and is a story that begins well.  A man who had remained underwater for too long is revived and given injections of a new drug.  They give him nightmares for a while, but then his intelligence increases by a vast amount.  His doctors try a third injection, and once again he receives what might be called a Krell brain boost.  The CIA wants him for their own purposes, and he he is forced to go on the lam.  He can hack into computers and manages to find a 4th dose, which elevates his intelligence further.  this part of the book is a cross between a Jason Bourne adventure and Odd John, a novel by Olaf Stapledon.  there is even some Cyril Kornbluth thrown in for good measure.  However, the story stakes a nosedive when our hero discovers a 2nd man (of course it's a man) who is 15 days ahead of him with the drugs.  So what would the two most intelligent men do when they finally meet.  Yup.  You guessed it.  Fight to the death, mind against mind.  Sigh.  It's one man who seeks truth and beauty versus the other one who wants to use his knowledge to help humanity.  We all know where that one would soon lead.  A very disappointing ending.  ** stars. 

 

"Division By Zero" is from 1991 and is a story about arithmetic.  And empathy.  Apparently the statement that 1 equals 2 cannot be disproved by math as we know it.  The possibility is there.  And does empathy always bring closer together two people who have shared similar situations, or can it bring them more apart?  Read and weep.  An effective short story. *** stars.

 

"Story of Your Life" is from 1998 and is the one that the Arrival film is based upon.  The film is a great one, one of the better SF films to be sure.  As usual, however, the novella is even better.  It's a much more matter-of-fact telling of first contact than the film.  There is no vast structure, but rather a two way mirror that allows communication to proceed between Earth and the aliens.  What sets this story apart from the many other first rate first contact stories I have read (see my Avon/Equinox blog) is the second story that is interwoven with the main story.  The female linguist who is tasked with learning the alien language tells a story that happens in the future, and tells it in flashback, if you please.  This is a beautifully handled counterpoint to the first contact one, as we soon realize that she can know, with certainty, what will happen to her in the future.  How can she do this?  It turns out that the alien language(s) is completely different from ours.  Their spoken language cannot be properly sounded by humans, so she focuses more on their written language.  It is a language that has no bearing on the spoken one, however, and is based upon knowing all about a thing before being spoken.  In other words, she learns how to know things, once she has mastered it, before they are finished happening, such as her future life.  Her future life, as it turns out, contains much sadness and much joy.  She does have free will, and can reject her future life with one simple remedy.  What will she choose?  The story contains some really great physics and math discussions, not too difficult to follow, and is a highly recommended read.  **** stars.

 

"Seventy-two Letters" is from 2000.  It is a tiresome story/novella about nomenclature and Kabbalah.  In an altered future world scientists have animated golems to do single menial tasks.  A breakthrough came when naming them increased their capabilities.  I couldn't wait for this story to end.  * star.

 

"The Evolution of Human Science" is from  2000 and is a three page story.  It was first published in Nature.  Humans no longer do original research; thanks to genetic engineering this task is carried out by meta-humans.  Problems arise when humans can no longer understand the research, so a special branch of research is set up to study ways to interpret results from meta-human research.  Prescient if nothing else.  *** stars.

 

"Hell Is The Absence of God" is from 2001.  Chang usually takes an alternate Earth existence and builds his story assuming we have lived in it always.  In this novelette angels from heaven make occasional appearances in different locations, usually unexpectedly.  Their appearance causes a few people to benefit, but more often many others are killed or injured as a result of blinding light, chasms suddenly appearing, hurricane force winds or accidents caused by being the way of the angel.  When people die people on scene can watch their souls float up to heaven, or disappear into the earth on their way to hell.  This is pretty much a very original story, whose conclusion is that one should not depend upon God to give them salvation; anything that happens to a person is either by their own design or total randomness.  God neither punishes nor rewards.  An interesting parable of a story.  I'd be curious to get a religious person's perspective after they read it.  *** 1/2 stars.

 

"Liking What You See: A Documentary" is from 2002.  The story discuss and dissects Lookism, where a person or persons look at someone.  Often it is the most beautiful faces that gather the most looks, while plain ones attract very little attention by comparison.  Truly unattractive people might gather a few curious looks, while deformed faces might gather even more than beautiful faces.  The story tells of an implant that takes away the differences, making everyone look average.  A university campus is considering making having this implant a pre-requisite to attending its campus, and the subject is to be put to a vote.  The story is enthralling, taking the form of a documentary film with student interviews dominating the pages.  Recommended reading,  *** 1/2 stars.

 

I read the Kindle version. 

 

Finally came another entertaining tale by the Old Sleuth.  Cad Meth, The Female Detective Strategist, or Dudie Dunne and His Lady Pal is from 1895.  Old Sleuth wrote over a hundred detective stories that were published cheaply in newspaper-like format, and so far the several I have read have been quite good, in a quaint and humourous way.  The dialogue portions of these stories are usually quite fun to read.  This one features a very intelligent and beautiful female detective working alongside Dudie Dunne.  She saves his neck at one point, after he fell for a villainess' wily story about helping her poor brother.  It is refreshing to see a story from 1895 feature a heroine like Cad Metti.  She does return later in another adventure, though I don't think I have that one.

 

See you in a month.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

Frozen in Time

We are entering week 2 of some of the coldest temps I have ever experienced down here in the deep south of Canada.  How cold?  We hit -10 F last weekend.  It hasn't improved very much, and will remain cold into early February at the least.  We were supposed to dodge the major storm that hit the US and Toronto really hard.  When the forecast got updated we were in the 1" to 3" of new snow.  When it got updated again we were in the 3" to 6" category.  We ended up getting about 4" of snow on Sunday, and I spent Monday taking the shoveling in small stages.  It is so cold out that even being outside for a short time fully dressed for weather is unpleasant.  At least the shoveling keeps the body heat coming.  I burned some serious calories today!

Charles Herold is a man who used to write PC game reviews for the New York Times.  Before he landed that job he and I had met on-line somewhere to discuss and argue about games.  Though we agreed on many game-related topics, we also disagreed on several fronts.  I remember really liking the PC game RAMA, for example, while he found it a waste of time.  Anyway, I found him on FB and we have reconnected, already having some decent discussions about games.  He really did not like Syberia, and though I wasn't crazy about the 2nd and 3rd games in that series, the newest one is terrific.  I also really liked the first one.  Latest topics are adventure game frustrations, which are legion in many games.  Good to hear from you again, Charles!

 

We are replaying MYST III at the moment, and I've been going through my vast adventure game collection.  I have an enormous CD/DVD collection of games, as well as a whole slew stored on Steam and more on Humble Bundle.  Though we have continued to play PC games over the years, my interest seems to be peaking once again.  It seems to be the golden age of PC adventure games, with some absolutely stunning video games coming out recently.

 

In TV and movie news we are now watching Season 2 of Foundation.  It seems to be stuck in a rut, and is tending towards Star Wars and Star Trek more and more often.  We shall see.  It doesn't seem to bear a lot of resemblance to anything Asimov wrote.

 

A Traveler's Needs is a 2024 film from South Korea directed by Hong Sang-Soo and starring Isabel Huppert.  Much of the film is painfully bad cinema, as a woman from France with apparently no reason to be in Korea is taken in by a sympathetic student to share his small flat.  She has two women who wish to learn French and she sets out to teach them.  With no idea how to teach, or any pedagogical basis for what she is doing, she hungrily takes their cash and gives them ridiculously bad lessons.  When the young man's mother visits him and discovers he is sheltering a strange older woman from France, she freaks out.  This is probably the best part of the film, the confrontation between her and her son.  The film drags on with a second student, as the woman and her husband extend warm hospitality to her and show her some sights around Seoul.  The part where she is sitting alone and mindlessly tooting on a recorder is quite painful to watch.  A movie to avoid.

 

Showing on Mubi. 

 

Next came two shlocky feautures from our DVD collection.  Welcome To Blood City is a 1977 SF/Western film, a collaboration between Canada and the UK.  It stars Jack Palance in one of his standard heavy breathing bad guy roles, Keir Dullea, Samantha Eggar and Barry Morse.  A psychological experiment is taking place, and Dullea has been inserted into a deadly role to see if he can stand the heat and solve problems on his feet.  A futuristic man is needed to help get the world out of trouble, and the search for such a leader is on-going.  Mostly the film is a western, filmed in Ontario near Kleinburg.  There are lots of men hanging around with nothing to do.  The saloon is always packed.  There is plenty of killing, lots of saloon girls, slaves who aren't citizens yet, and any number of bullies just asking for it.  Eggar plays a female scientist who inserts herself into the scenario to influence the outcome.  Tiresome and often jaw-dropping in its badness, this one must have gone straight to the video shelves on stores.

 

A great poster probably helped video rentals.  From our collection. 

 

Future Hunters (1988) was another direct to video release.  The spear that pierced Jesus is sought by many people, including a scientist.  One of his female students and her boyfriend get caught up in a frenzy of travel and action.  Though filmed mostly in the Philipines, setting include the US, Hong Kong (some location shots were taken here) and Manila and surrounding jungle.  There are so many many "Huh?" moments in this film, including a sudden transition during a car chase from night to broad daylight.  The heroine, a slender California blonde, manages to run through the jungle in high heels, fight and defeat a much stronger Amazon warrior, and most impressive of all she manages to mostly keep her sole white dress on through much of the film.  It is a bit tattered by the end.  There are some good scenes in Hong Kong with Bruce Li kicking some kung fu butt, but overall this is an empty imitation of Mad Max at the beginning, and Indiana Jones throughout.  Why does the evil bad guy always laugh at everything?  The film is from our 50 DVD collection called Sci-fi Invasion.

 

From our DVD collection.
 

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

Nordic Noir

We had a quiet indoor birthday party for Deb on Monday.  As usual for her big day it was very cold outside, with winds gusting to 40 mph.  We enjoyed an all-day indoor party with food and movies on the agenda, along with some fine ale, whiskey and Scotch.  The movies were four b & w crime films, two from Denmark and two from Sweden.  First up was Death Is A Caress, from 1949.  For the most part it was a pretty standard plot.  A young mechanic is engaged to a bright and sweet young woman one moment, then is in love with an older married woman (not very attractive) in the next.  She gets a divorce, they get married, they quarrel often and he eventually strangles her (good riddance to her, too).  Yawn.  Not really a noir film at all.

 

Death Is A Caress.  Showing on Criterion. 

 

Next came the best of the four!  Girl With Hyacinths is from 1950.  It is extremely well written, well presented, and quite fascinating to watch.  Eva Henning is the lovely starlet at the center of the picture, portraying a lonely woman hiding a secret.  It begins with her suicide, hanging from a hook in the living room.  The neighbours find her.  She has left her belongings to them, even though they did not know one another well at all.  She was more than once in love but now can no longer commit to anyone.  Her story is told in flashbacks, as the neighbours try to piece together what happened to cause her suicide.  Eva's soldier husband, jealous at a letter she receives from "Alex" in Paris, divorces her.  Strike one for her.  She takes up with an artist, who does a haunting portrait of her.  Though she loves him he feels that she is constraining his artistic powers and sends her on her way.  Strike two for her.  Lots of night scenes here, and jazz clubs.  We finally get to meet Alex near the end of the film, and as Eva's eyes are now more open than when she fell in love as a schoolgirl, she is crushed to see what Alex had become, essentially a Nazi collaborator.  Strike three; she can handle no more disappointment.  Highly recommended.  It was worth slogging through the other 3 films to find this one.

 

Girl With Hyacinths, a must see film showing on Criterion.

 

Two Minutes Late is from 1952, about a man accused of murder.  We don't really know for awhile if he did it or not, but by the time he has been cleared, the phone call telling him that happy fact comes two minutes late; he has just murdered his insanely jealous wife.  This film is way too long and could be much improved by judicious editing.  The story and characters are interesting enough, but the pace is so slow.  A bookstore and a clock store feature in the film, and a purse left behind at one of them.  Who murdered the girl found dead in the back of the bookshop?  Watch and find out, or pay me to tell you.

 

Two Minutes Late, showing now on Criterion. 

 

Finally comes Hidden In The Fog from 1953, again starring Eva Henning in the title roll.  At the beginning she shoots her husband several times and he collapses onto the floor.  She goes on the run.  The first part of this film is quite good, but the second half is a bit of a letdown.  Once the police find her she admits to shooting her husband.  However, in an Agatha Christie twist, he was already dead from arsenic poisoning before she shot him.  No charges are brought against her.  The second part is total Agatha Christie.  The detective in charge claims to know who dunnit, and all the suspects are brought together for the final denouement.  As expected, the guilty one (somehow) turns out all the lights in the room and runs through a glass siding door (ouch), before being apprehended by waiting police outside.  To tell you the truth I've already forgotten who the murderer was.  Some guy.  An okay film, but a bit of a deflated second half.

 

Hidden In the Fog is showing on Criterion. 

 

In foot news I was able to do 15 minutes on the treadmill today, pain free.  I had been walking regularly on it before my surgery, but it always hurt.  The pain seems to be gone, though the toe is still sensitive.  I see the doctor tomorrow.  Hopefully the news will be good.  I felt so happy about my foot that we have been searching flights and trains to various locations, all non-USA destinations.  How sad to live one mile from a once favourite country and not wish to visit.  Times are strange and getting even stranger.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January Rules the World

The hit count for this blog is currently at 147,059 since its inception on Dec. 20th 2017!  Keep those hits coming and I'll keep writing.  Views come in from virtually every country on the planet.  Now back to our regular programming.

 

January has taken over the Homestead and surrounding area.  It's very cold with worse to come, there is snow on the ground and the boiler is working hard to keep us happy.  We have entered the coldest part of January not only statistically but actually.  This happens from time to time and must be endured, but as we have already had many January days in December it's all getting to be a bit much.  We should have about three weeks of true winter left, but since weather is no longer predictable, this could go on till June.  We shall see.

 

My foot is healing up well.  I will see the doctor in three days to get an official medical opinion, but I am optimistic.  It still hurts to put shoes on, so I am unable to resume walking.  The toe is likely still swollen.  

 

My new piano pieces have now had ten hours of work put into them.  In other words, I am still nowhere.  I will give a more detailed report after the first month.  Deb is inching along on her newest short film, and is ready to commission her composer from Mexico City.  So we both have plenty to keep us busy.  We recently finished playing "Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles," a PC game from 2010.  It is packed with puzzles, many of them quite easy while others are nearly impossible to solve unless one randomly hits upon the solution.  It was actually quite fun to play, even though its relationship to Doyle's book is pretty sketchy.  Graphics were quite well done, as well as the story.

 

 

2 screenshots from the Holmes PC game. 

 

We have begun a replay of Myst III, having recently undertaken the most updated versions of Myst and Riven.  This one badly needs an update.  From 2001 we are now playing the game on Steam rather than loading 4 CDs and having to keep switching them.  At the time, this game was rendered in 640 x 480 graphics!  Hard to believe, as I still think of it as a modern game.

 

2 screenshots from Myst III. 

 

There are two movies to report, and a 9-part SF series.  First the series.  Dark Matter is from 2024 and based on a novel by Blake Crouch.  It stars Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly.  It has an interesting premise that eventually collapses in upon itself, and the series and its many tropes had us cursing the production several times.  Overall it is watchable, especially the episodes where they are traveling within The Box, a room that allows access to different realities, though closely related to the existing one.  It's fun seeing Chicago buried in snow, burnt to a crisp, covered in sand dunes, and looking very sleek and modern in a far future version of itself.  There are many loopholes in the story, and the ending, which we both liked, sure left a heck of a mess behind in present day Chicago.  Recommended, though not highly.

 

Showing on Apple TV. 

 

Two Chinese films round out this portion of today's blog.  It was inevitable that we would watch Chinese Ghost Story 3 from 1991.  Pretty much the same cast returns for pretty much the same story, along with similar scenes of utter grossness, and the familiar farcical humour.  I still recommend the first in the series.

 

Leaving Criterion this month. 

 

Wong Kar Wai has long led in the category of Chinese art film, and his 2004 film 2046 keeps that tradition alive, if not all well.  I found the film overlong and actually on the boring side, despite all the fine photography.  Billed as a romantic drama, that it is.  A man (played by Tony Leung) has many affairs with beautiful women but will not commit to any of them.  Not even the beautiful Gong Li, who comes to love him madly and deeply.  We eventually learn why he is like he is.  There was a woman for him, but she left and seems to have disappeared.  My question is this: can't a person change?  Not this guy, apparently.  The movie is stylish and great to look at, and despite the SF glimmer to the plot the number 2046 refers to a rooming house number, one which he can't seem to leave.  Watchable though not a truly great film (like so many other art films.....).

 

Showing on Criterion. 

 

Coming next: A winter birthday celebration and a 4-film festival of early Nordic noir cinema.  With the weather expected to worsen, the next post should come fairly soon.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking Back at 2025: Part 3

First the news update. Today I began the somewhat agonizing work of starting new pieces.  Though not all of them are new to me, it has been a while since I have played those.  About 80% of the program is new, and at least three of the pieces are of a challenging level of difficulty.  It's back to basics for me this time, with some Bach, Haydn, Scriabin, Chopin and MacDowell.  If there is time I will add another Philip Glass piece, but for now I am quite busy during my allotted two hours per day.

 

In foot news, it's been six days since my surgery.  There is still some pain, but I can put a shoe on now.  Tonight is grocery shopping night, my first real outing since last Wednesday.  It hasn't bothered me too much, and I am hoping to get back to walking in a few more days.

 

In weather news January will soon return, with another streak of very cold weather on its way.  At least it is finally coming at the correct time of year, so I am not allowed to complain this time.

 

The final 2025 review concerns some of the best books read during the past year.  I read 95 books! My Avon/Equinox project is 99% finished.  I continue to read three long series by two of those authors; two series by E C Tubb and one by Bulmer. I have a lot of unread books by Michael Moorcock, but I am in no rush to read any more of his work right now.  Most of my reading has been of older historical authors, mainly from the 2nd half of the 19th Century and the first half of the 20th.  I own about 50 complete works of various authors, collected from the Delphi Classics series on Kindle.  These are unbeatable bargains of authors in the public domain.  However, I do read more contemporary novels, too, and this will gradually increase as time goes on.  Meanwhile, here is what was most enjoyed from last year.

 

In no particular order:

The Lieutenant and Others, short stories by Sapper McNeil.  Heartbreaking alternates with very funny.

Evan Herrington, an odd novel by George Meredith, whom I first encountered in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.  The author skews the British class system with glee and much wit.  Truly fun!

Piranesi is a stunning work of fantasy by Susan Clarke, with images that will remain with a reader for a long time.  We both read this one.

Kwei Quartey is a Ghanian writer I came across last year.  He writes crime novels set in Ghana, and while he may not be as good as Tony Hillerman, his books are enjoyable and eye-opening.

The Moth is a storyteller's paradise.  True stories told by everyday people who relate unusual experiences they have undergone.  This is a mind-blowing source of great stories and anecdotes, with many of them on-line.  Check them out!

The Three Mulamulgars by Walter de la Mare is on a solid footing with The Hobbit. Children's fantasy at its finest.

On The Calculation of Volume so far has produced three volumes, read by Deb only.  She loved the first book, less so the second, and had pretty much had it by the third.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was read by Deb only, though I hope to get to it later this month.

The Starless Sea was also only read by Deb. 

Starmaker by Olaf Stapledon is the SF novel to end all SF novels.  Though the prose can be a bit tiring and overwhelming if too much is read too quickly, this is one of the most influential SF books ever written, and one of the most fascinating.  The author has the imagination of a god, and the patience to write it all down for us.  Deb read this many years ago.

The Wheels of Chance by H G Wells is a humourous bicycle adventure story.

The Complete Fairy Tales by Jacob Joseph.  The title says it all.  Extensive and interesting footnotes.  A mammoth undertaking for a reader.  I read it in segments over two or three years.

Lady Windemere's Fan by Oscar Wilde.  Wit at its finest.

Cornell Woolrich is a new author to me, though I have seen many filmizations of his works.  His novels will appear regularly in this blog from now on.  I read Cover Charge.

Whit is not one of Ian Banks' best novels, but it is still a great novel.  It begins very slowly, but constantly gathers steam.  No one else I know has ever written about the baryton!

The Education of Uncle Paul by Algernon Blackwood is another book we both read.  This one has its fantasy elements as well as day to day life.  The first 80% of the book offers superb writing, though the ending drags itself down into a spiritual world that simply doesn't fit well with this reader.  Still well worth seeking out for its extreme oddity of theme.

In Search Of Wonder by Damon Knight remains the best collection of critical essays about the classic years of SF writing and its writers. 

Heart's Desire by Emmerson Hough is a period story about early days in a tiny New Mexico settlement, before the railroad came and changed everything.  A most enjoyable read.  Witty and offers great insight into a character that defined the western expansion of the US.  Not the cowboy of Hollywood, I liked these men much better.

The Cords of Vanity by James Branch Cabell is yet another example of this man's superior writing skills and unbounded wit.  Misunderstood during his time, his novels just get better and better with time.

Ashes of Empire is the final book of three in Robert Chambers' Prussian War against France series.  All are superb reading.  Historical fiction with a vengeance.

Typhoon by Conrad gives by far the best description of a terrible storm at sea ever put to paper.  This man is the best!

The Poison Belt is an end-of-the-world SF classic by Arthur Conan Doyle that is still great fun to read.  The ending is spoiled but most of the book is eye opening and ahead of its time.

Mirgorod consists of four short stories by Gogol, including the fantasy/horror tale "Viy".  Terrific stuff!  It also includes "Taras Bulba."

Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullins is a tale of the deep southern US in the 1950s.  Don't miss this tale of a pharmacist given a death sentence from leukemia.  Fabulous writing, with memorable and very moody characters.

Dream Days by Kenneth Grahame continues his unforgivably good tales of childhood, but written for adults.  Like his previous Golden Age stories, many are unforgettable.  The final one is a real tear-jerker.

Maltese Falcon by Dashiel Hammett is one of those iconic stories that rewards readers as much as the film based on the novel.  Fun from start to finish. 

 

There you have it!  Other books could be mentioned too, but I'll leave these up as the best that I read in 2025.  Happy reading!

 

Mapman Mike 

 

News Update

In weather news, we have had a week of March, including rain and wind and some very mild temps.  However, January seems to have temporarily returned, to be followed again by March by Tuesday.  And so it goes.  There is no snow here; just a seasonal brownish-grey landscape.  Each year the seasons become more scrambled.

 

Loyal readers will remember that my foot was badly injured last June, during a late night astronomy session.  Four doctors looked at it.  I had two rounds of x-rays, ultrasound, and two nuclear medicine tests.  All that showed up was that my foot was injured and it was trying to heal.  Next I saw a foot care nurse who snipped away a small piece of in-grown toenail.  She said I was likely to lose the big toenail.  My new GP recommended I see a podiatrist.  I saw her last Wednesday, and the first thing she said was "That nail has to come off.  I can do it now or you can reschedule."  I chose the first option.  So for the past four days I've been limping around with only 9 toe nails to my name.  It might grow back; it might not grow back.  The pain was quite severe after the freezing wore off on Wednesday.  But the worse part came about 5 hours after the surgery when I had to remove the gauze bandage and soak the foot.  Peeling off the bandage was among the worst pain I have ever had to endure.  It took about an hour to get the blood soaked bandage off, pulling it up a half millimeter at a time.  The foot is finally healing, but still has to be soaked twice daily.  Hopefully this will be the end of the foot episode part of my life, and I can soon return to normal walking in the near future.  The injury seriously affected our 2025 travel plans.

 

In piano news, Saturday was recital day.  Six friends dropped by to hear me play, making for 8 of us inside.  I am grateful to them for it was a lousy weather day with some rain, some freezing rain and some snow.  My playing was messier than I would have liked, but some of the pieces went off quite splendidly.  The first half was all harpsichord, with music by Scarlatti and Couperin, while the second half featured two works by Philip Glass, 3 by Scriabin, several by Bartok and a Prelude by Debussy.  Today is a somewhat relaxing day and I can return to normal routines (such as blogging and doing laundry).  My 3rd 'looking back at 2025' blog should be forthcoming soon.

 

The Maestro hard at work.

 

Part of the enraptured audience.  The house was cozy on a

late winter afternoon, and we managed to fit 8 people inside.

Thanks to Randy G. for the photos. 

 

In movie news there are three to report, all of them quite short.  Most recently was a mess of a picture from Godard. Oh Woe Is Me is from 1993 and is quite beloved by some critics and many fans of the French director.  For me it's just painful to watch actors say and act lines that they have no idea about.  Depardieu acts as if he is in a normal film, but this is not a normal film.  I'm not quite sure what it is, exactly.  It is watchable, though barely, and as the credits finally role and most people get up to leave, there is a coda, nearly as meaningless as the rest of the film.  The film seems to be an honest attempt to film poetry, which is spouted by various male and female characters throughout the film.  Some of the poetry is good and some of it isn't.  Occasionally image and poetry do merge nicely, but often it's like a bad music video.  Deb says the movie is deliberately abstruse, and I would have to agree.  Europe has a strong history of intellectual cinema, often the kind where if you don't get it you are considered a cretin.  Thus many people are afraid to say anything negative.  This could be one of those films.  If it takes a 1000 word essay to explain a film to me I am not likely to be too interested in watching it.  Of course there is some gratuitous female nudity; this is a French film, after all.  Unless you have 90 minutes to kill with nothing else in the world to do I would not recommend this film.  Reading the script might be acceptable, but I would not watch this one again.

 

Showing on Mubi. 

 

Before that came two movies from the 1930s from our DVD collection of "Comedy Classics."  Swing High, Swing Low is from 1937 and features an all-star cast including Carole Lombard and Fred McMurray.  This movie is somewhat painful to watch.  Lombard falls in love with crumb bum musician McMurray.  They meet and live in Panama, where they get married.  He heads for New York and hits the big time.  He more or less totally forgets about his wife, who he is supposed to send money back for her passage to New York.  Instead he lives the high life and gambles much of his money away.  When she shows up in New York she thinks he has been sleeping with another woman (he wasn't).  Even so, he had more or less forgotten about her.  When she files for divorce and intends to marry another guy he (MacMurray) falls apart and ends up in the gutter.  We are supposed to suddenly feel sorry for him now, but it doesn't work well, at least with more modern audiences.  All of a sudden he can't play trumpet any more.  All of a sudden he can't live without her.  Why not?  He managed fine for many months.  But when she wants a divorce, then it's skid row time.  But don't worry; she still loves him and helps him get his groove back.  Oh yay.  It's a tough pill to swallow.

 

 

From our DVD collection. 

 

Three Broadway Girls is from 1932, and though billed as a comedy (there are moments) this is basically a film about how mean and cruel female friends can be.  Based on a Broadway play ("The Greeks Had a Word For Them"), three young women try striking it rich by teaming up with rich guys.  One of the girls is a queen bitch and does everything she can to spoil the fortunes of her "friends".  It is quite aggravating, actually.  They all make up at the end.  It paved the way for better films on the same theme, including "How To Marry a Millionaire."

 

From our DVD collection.  

 

More very soon.

 

Mapman Mike