News: Rackham Entertainment moving in a new direction?

For a long time now, it has seemed that Rackham Entertainment, the French the French miniature modeling company in competition with Games Workshop (GW), was content to follow slavishly in the footsteps of their British rivals. With Rackham's Confrontation sales flagging in comparison to GW's Warhammer Fantasy Battles (better known in the community as WFB), and their new AT-43 system unable to get much traction against the entrenched Warhammer 40000, it seemed as though Rackham was at risk of going into the long spiral to oblivion. Enter new executive management, though, and all of that seems to be changing.

Until recently, Rackham has been content to follow GW's standard business practice and release armies and army books in a long thought out scale, hoping to make money both on the models and the books. Unfortunately for Rackham, while model sales have been OK, the sales of rules system sets and army books have not. Why? Well, the reasons are manifold, but the primary reason is that folks buy Rackham's models to proxy in other game systems like Warhammer 40000 or WFB. While this was an easy trend to spot, the real question was what to do about the problem. Rackham forwarded their gambit to overcome this loss at the beginning of March, and I have the feeling that this very well may do the trick of turning things around for them.

The beginning of March saw major changes come down the pike for Rackham's website. It went from fairly bland and clunky to sleek, exciting, and well integrated, but a new frock could not save the company by itself. The most important change to Rackham's new site was a section offering the rules for FREE. That's right, all of the rule books, all of the army books, all of the supplements, all for free. Now anyone can pick up Confrontation or AT-43 without having to spend money on the books, and can use those models they bought for a new game.

The main question now is: Is this too little too late? In spite of the lamed economy, GW is posting profits and sales increases, so obviously there is a market out there with money to spend on pushing small models around the table. Rackham's system is well developed, simple in its design, and well thought out in its execution, but will that be enough to offset the major advantages of GW? Of equal import is the question of something wargame players refer to as 'codex creep'. Rackham's most recent new armies have seen a massive scaling up of power in contrast to the original release armies. Does this mean that an entire new rules set is on the way, or that the older armies will be getting newer army books? Only time will tell, but I know that I will be watching with great anticipation.

If you would like to learn more about Rackham Entertainment or AT-43, keep your eyes on this blog on Thursday when Part 2 of my AT-43 series will come out.

Week at a Glance: March 15 to March 22

For those who are unaware, the NJ/NY area was pummeled by a major storm over the weekend. This did not keep many of us from braving the elements to chat with Jackie Kessler over at Raider Books in Suffern, but the aftermath has left us all with a variety of problems. Part of the area here is without power, meaning that my brother and sister-in-law are crashing on my bed for the duration of the emergency, and updates to the website will likely be... delayed for a bit. On a more positive note, since I have both power and internet access, blog posts will still go off as scheduled.

Now for the week at a glance:

In SFSNNJ Club News:

Our regularly scheduled Films to Come event will be going on as planned at 7p on Wednesday 3/17 in the newly set up Events area in Borders Ramsey. Special thanks to new General Manager Alicia Clouder, Josephine Brown, and all the rest of the fantastic staff at Borders Ramsey for setting up that great area! We appreciate all that you and the staff do for us!

Saturday 3/20 is the regular day for BJ Pehush's Call of Cthulu game, however with Lunacon and several other events set to go off this weekend, the game may be delayed. Look for further discussion on this at our Forum (the link is in the margin).

In the Movies:

Alice in Wonderland remains at the top of the heap in the box office, however there are a few great genre films coming to theatres everywhere this Friday. Look for Repo Men, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and IMAX: Hubble 3D at your local venues.

On DVD & Blu-Ray:

Blockbuster hits The Princess and the Frog and Twilight: New Moon makes their way to small screens everywhere this week, as do Astroboy, The Fourth Kind and Ninja Assassin. Popular TV series Breaking Bad's second season also makes its way to DVD & Blu-Ray this week.

For Video Games:

This week is a big one for PS3 owners as God of War III hits the shelves. Nintendo DS owners can look for the new Pokemon: HeartGold and Combat of Giants: Mutant Insects titles to emerge onto the scene. PC Gamers can let out the breath that they have been holding as Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising finally arrives, along with the anticipated Metro 2033 and Wings of Prey.

For TV:

Not much in the way of new shows at the moment, but look for new episodes of Chuck and Spartacus: Blood & Sand as well as a second start for V, as they re-air the series premier. Hopefully it will do better this time!

TV & Movies: Basic Cable TV Roundup

Amazingly I have been watching TV for quite some time (shocking, I know), and I have to say that I have never been quite as impressed with the medium as I have been of late. Basic cable has finally matured into a venue for excellent programming, and as such poses a bit of a dilemma. Why, you ask? Well, mainly because there are so many worthwhile shows to watch that determining which ones will be 'appointment TV' is becoming more and more difficult, especially since many of the best shows are on opposite one another. So, what are my appointment TV picks for basic cable?

Burn Notice
For those not in the know, Burn Notice is basically an updated version of The Equalizer. An ex-spy named Michael Westin (Jeffrey Donovan) is stuck in Miami, his home town, when he is shut out of the intelligence community. His only allies are Fiona Glenanne (Gabrielle Anwar), a gun-running mistress of mayhem who dated Michael during a job in Ireland; Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell), a former Navy Seal with ties to the FBI; and his dear old mum, Maddy Westin (Sharon Gless). Together they are trying to get Michael's reputation restored, learn who burned him and why, and helping folks all along the way. The show is well written, exciting, and brilliantly executed by everyone from the actors to the production staff. Some trademarks of the show include Michael's constant expository voiceover, where he explains the ins and outs of spycraft; character descriptions that appear when characters outside the main recurring cast are introduced (ex. Gilroy: Freelance
Psychopath); Sam Axe's fun-loving demeanor (ex. his target shooting trick where he shoots patterns that look like Martini glasses); Fiona's constant admonitions that Michael could solve problems more quickly with properly applied violence (ex. "In my experience, if something seems to good to be true, it's best to shoot it just in case."). Find out more at http://www.usanetwork.com/series/burnnotice/.

Caprica
Fans of Battlestar Galactica rejoice, for the evolution of the toaster from domestic appliance to frakking world killer is here! Seriously, though, this is a brilliant show with a huge number of encapsulated, yet interconnected, lives and stories, and an ever-expanding view of life in this futuristic society. Those who did not care as much for the direction of BSG after the first two seasons (like me, for instance) will still enjoy the universe that Ronald Moore is spinning out for us. Learn more at http://www.syfy.com/caprica/

The Closer
You really gotta love this ensemble cast, and Kyra Sedgewick's brilliant performance as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson-Howard just put the cherry on top. Every aspect of this show is tight, from writing to direction to performances, and the quality of the show is something that I doubt even HBO could match. The average episode deals with the Major Crime unit run by Deputy-Chief Johnson investigating a crime while Brenda deals with a cornucopia of personal issues (moving, sick pet, arguing with fiancee/husband Fritz Howard, etc), and culminates in Brenda trying to outwit the criminal to force a confession. If you have not been watching this one, you can check out episodes on http://www.tnt.tv/series/closer/.

Dark Blue
While I don't necessarily consider this 'appointment TV', I have found myself tuning in to this one as often as not (it initially benefited from being on after The Closer which is a far superior show). That being said, I would highly recommend this show for anyone looking to fill the void left by the departure of The Shield. The cast may need a bit of an overhaul, though, as the only character and actor with any interesting bits is Dylan McDermott as Carter Shaw. still there is a lot of potential there.

In Plain Sight
I have been eagerly awaiting the return of In Plain Sight since the dramatic season finale last May. This show follows the exploits of US Marshalls Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack)as she and her partner, Marshall Mann (Frederick Weller) as they try to keep witnesses stashed away in Albuquerque, NM, safe from those who would do them harm. Add a dysfunctional alcoholic mother named Jinx (Leslie Ann Warren), an irresponsible sister (Nichole Hiltz), and a sexy fiance (Christian de la Fuente) to a high-stress job, and it is a recipe for disaster. Fold in some crazy co-workers, high maintenance witnesses, hostile FBI agents, and a hot and cold relationship with the local detectives, and you have a recipe for success. The show will be coming back strong with new episodes on 3/31, but you can find out more about the backstory at http://www.usanetwork.com/series/inplainsight/index.html

Leverage
Another TNT hit, Leverage is a series about a group of criminals led by a former investigator, whose sole mission in life is to balance the scales for the little guy. Part A-Team and part Robin Hood, the Leverage team is made up of a Hacker named Hardison (Aldis Hodge), a Hitter named Elliot Spencer (Christian Kane), a Grifter named Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman), a Thief named Parker (Beth Riesgraf), and the Mastermind, Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton). Witty and urbane, the show is wonderfully quotable and quirky, with a heart and soul that makes you really root for the 'bad guys'. As Parker says during "The Bank Shot Job' "Sometimes bad guys are the only good guys you get." You can find out more on http://www.tnt.tv/series/leverage/.

White Collar
What makes this show different from Leverage? Well, it is another show about a criminal doing good, but in this case, Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) is working with FBI agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) to thwart villains and protect the little guy. A great supporting cast of fun characters, a good stable of writers, and great acting make White Collar a show to watch. Charming, sexy, and witty, though it has a fun heart, this a lot more serious a show than Leverage. Learn more at http://www.usanetwork.com/series/whitecollar/index.html.

Now these are just a few of the shows that I really enjoy on Basic Cable. Look for more on the Regular Network lineup next week , and an article on pay cable the week after. Those looking for some other interesting shows should check out Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Men of a Certain Age, and Archer for an entertaining time.

Gaming: AT-43 A New Option Part 1

Three years ago this December, French company Rackham introduced a new science fiction game system to the world: AT-43.  When first I heard rumors of a game that had Rackham models, pre-assembled and pre-painted, I was interested.  As much as I do enjoy assembling and painting 40K models, for me the most important part of the game has always been fighting battles on a tabletop.  The question became, then, would this upstart system be as good as 40K, or would I be using the models as IG and Necron proxies?

The Universe

The game AT-43 is set 43 years after the great Trauma, which is a totally unhelpful frame of reference for those of us struggling to figure out what the game is about.  One learns of the history of the Trauma and the universe around it only through the reading of the Army Books (the main rule book being pretty well devoid of fluff), as each group seems to have a different idea of what is going on.  Considering that some of these races are at least borderline psychotic I am going to give a general overview from the ‘humans’ point of view.

The world is Ava, and the people of Ava know that their ancestors must have come from the stars.  Why?  Well there are these great big pyramids full of super-high technology in the arctic, and since nobody on their world could have built them, there is no fossil record of other species with high tech, and no evidence that the humans of Ava are related to the rest of the biosphere’s evolutionary path it seems pretty obvious.  Reasoning this through, the scientists of Ava started a crash program to reverse engineer as much technology from these pyramids as they could to advance their civilization and reach for the stars, which they had determined were their birthright.  The United Nations of Ava was born and it began to colonize neighboring stars quickly.

Their first colony, Hades, was a hellish world rich in minerals which the UNA used as a sort of Botany Bay colony.  Unfortunately for them, the people of Hades revolted and formed the Revolutionary Collective of Hades and the Red Blok.  Many of the UNA’s colonies, as well as half of the nations of the world of Ava, joined the Red Blok and UNA and their Red Blok enemies began fighting a war comprised of a bitter series of brush battles, sabotage, work stoppage actions, civil riots, propaganda, espionage, and unremitting psychological warfare.  This all came to an abrupt halt with the Trauma on Ava.

While the ‘humans’ were progressing away, the Therians (humans from the planet Earth who had long ago experienced singularity and evolved into the trans-humanist state of purely mental beings living in machines) were merrily going about their business and waiting for technology and industry to reach a certain level on Ava before they enacted the next part of their devious plan.  Did I say devious plan?  Well, I guess ‘devious’ is as good a word as any (though in the case of the Therians, moronic, foolhardy, insane, nonsensical, or rabidly stupid would do as well for descriptions).  You see, in the many millennia since their transcendence from fleshy beings to computer constructs that use nanotechnology, the Therians have become obsessed with their own mortality.  Sure, they could conceivably live until the heat death of the universe, but how would they survive after the heat death of the universe (never mind that fact that this would not occur for trillions of years).  Their brilliant plan to escape the icy fingers death, therefore, was to encase as many stars as possible in Dyson Spheres, where they could live through the end of time in comfort and style.  By the way, did I mention that they decided to cheat and seed thousands of worlds around the universe with life and technological scraps so humans could evolve quickly and become high tech societies and damage their planet to the point where it can easily be converted into the beginnings of a Dyson Sphere?  Yeah, they did that too.  Great plan, huh?  Thus it was that the Therians attacked Ava, setting off the Trauma, and opening up a can of worms that is the setup for the present day’s actions.

The Trauma, as the name implies, devastated Ava, but the UNA and Red Blok were able to beat back the Therians and their simian allies, the Kharmans (whose point of view I am leaving out because it is frankly not that important).  How did the super-evolved, high tech Therians get beaten?  Well, let’s just say that playing seven hundred billion hours of Star Craft 2 and Dawn of War 3 do not make insane technologists into generals.  Although the Therians were forced to flee, a huge factory ship, the Damocles, was sighted, and the UNA began assembling troops to go forth and destroy it before it could get close to Ava.  Red Blok, who received the brunt of the damage to Ava during the Trauma, turned back to lick its wounds and continue undermining the UNA, fighting the Kharmans, and picking off any stray Therians that happen by.  The Kharmans are continuing to… seek the bushido of zen bananas or some such nonsense (they have a subservient philosophy which stresses knowing their place in the universe and serving the Therians because the Therians uplifted the Kharmans from basic apes).  What of the Therians?  Well, they are busily updating their Facebook status to “Annoyed: at war with UNA” and writing long pieces of tedious poetry on their Live Journal sites while they occasionally actually fighting the invaders on Damocles.

Yes, it is a very strange future, but then again, they are French.

Book Review: The Dreaming Void by Peter Hamilton

As a long time admirer of English science fiction writer Peter F. Hamilton, I try to keep up with his work as best I can.  The problem is that with all of the books I have to read for SFSNNJ events, I have found myself falling behind.  Why am I telling you this?  Well, mainly it is to explain why I am reviewing an older book instead of a newer one, but it is also an attempt to give you a bit of background to this particular review.

Now, a little bit of background about the book.  To start off with, The Dreaming Void is a second series set in the Commonwealth Universe.  While you do not need to have read Misspent Youth, Pandora's Star, or Judas Unchained, they will help to enrich the story if you have the time to read them.  All of the technology, philosophy, and history of those books is handled in The Dreaming Void as commonplace (i.e. it is a fact of life and handled through conversational exposition rather than tedious info-dumps).  Still, I highly recommend reading them as they will definitely give a depth of philosophical and historical content to the events chronicled in this book.

Moving along to The Dreaming Void itself, here we have an excellent example of why I love Peter Hamilton.  Brilliantly written, with a panoply of distinctive and interesting characters, The Dreaming Void picks up 1200 years after the conclusion of Judas Unchained.  In this time, humanity has begun to transcend into post-physical status (if you are unfamiliar with the concept of transhumanism or the Singularity, let me know and I will devote an article to it at some point), and have been studying the universe for quite some time.  In the midst of all of this, a researcher named Inigo, who was assigned to Centurion Station and is watching a bizarre phenomena called the Void at the center of the Milky Way slowly expand and swallow stars, begins dreaming of life forms inside of the Void.  After sharing his experiences through networked neural processors called the gaianet, a religion springs up with the desire to enter the Void and join the humans already there in their blissful existence.  When Inigo disappears, and the religion starts to prepare for its pilgrimage into the Void, agents from around human and non-human space begin their attempts to stop it, for they fear this Pilgrimage will trigger a cataclysmic expansion of the Void, causing it to devour most of the Milky Way.

What makes this book so great is its massive complexity.  Characters both inside and outside of the Void are separated by vasts gulfs of space, society, and philosophy, so as we progress find ourselves confronted with an almost prismatic array of diversity, with every character being equally memorable and understandable.  One complaint I have in this book is that there is no clear cut 'villain' presented (with the exception of the Cat, who is just a plain old vanilla sociopath following orders).  Realistically, you can understand and sympathize with all of the groups and characters in the story, and though the Living Dream's leadership and the Accelerator Faction of A.N.A. seem like they could be the 'bad guys', their motives are not in any way 'evil' and their methods are no less distasteful than the agents of other factions.  I suspect that as the story evolves in books two and three we will have a real villain to contend with, however The Dreaming Void is effective as it stands without the presence of a major foil.

THAC0: 9
While this is an intelligent and exciting book, with a lot of character development and action, it does require a great deal of patience and a desire to trek along for the long haul.  Those who love Hard Science Fiction will love the technological aspects of the story, but even if that is not quite your thing, the characters and action will keep your interest, as will the mystery and exploration.

Movie Palaces to make a return?

My father and I were talking about movie theatres and cable the other day, and I have the feeling we might actually be wrong in our prediction.  Here is the gist of our discussion:

The Situation:
Ticket prices keep going up and DVD releases keep coming faster and faster (it is now an average of 4 months between theatrical and DVD releases for most films), theatres are already complaining about the fact that they hardly see any profit on the films that they show (they make money in concessions not tickets), DVD prices and rental fees keep dropping, there is now a 3D TV coming on the market, and the average American household's buying power is shrinking.

The Prediction:
With these indicators, my father and I agree that it is more likely that theatres will increasingly regress into 'evening out' places with massive showpiece events taking the fore while minor releases get pushed straight to immediate DVD release.  Why? Well, most of the gimmicks that draw crowds to the theatres are now fairly cheaply and easily replicated in the home (with the exception of IMAX and 3D), if there is a problem with the viewing at home, you can always fix it and start over, you have no need to sit with an obnoxious crowd whose members cannot shut up during the film (as seems to happen to me about 50% of the time, a fact that those who saw Surrogates with me can attest to), you can spend $.50 on popcorn instead of $6, and you never have to worry about parking, where to eat before or after, or whether you will be shot by Joe Chill in the parking lot (though this last mostly just applies to people with the last name of Wayne). 

If you really look at it, movie theatres today are in the same position as live theatre was a hundred years ago, at least in my father and my opinions.

Week at a Glance, March 8 to March 14

And we are back...

OK, so I plan to update on weekdays while I am out of work, and here is the start of a new era.  Look for daily updates, likely until I get back to work.

So, this week in the Science Fiction Society of Northern New Jersey:
Monday 3/8: Suspense Central with Moderator Aurelia Long discusses An Audience For Einstein at Borders Books and Music in Ramsey, NJ
Tuesday 3/9: Wake for Nicholas Polyniak, beloved father of Alan Polyniak at the Allwood Funeral Home in Clifton, NJ
Wednesday 3/10: Drawing a Crowd with Moderator Tim Cook discusses Super Kids at New Moon Comics in Little Falls, NJ
Saturday 3/13: Face the Fiction presents author Jackie Kessler at Raider Bookshop in Suffern, NY.

For details on these events, check out the calendar at http://www.meetup.com/science-fiction-society-northern-nj/.

On TV this week of Science Fiction and Fantasy on TV:
ABC: Though technically not SF or Fantasy, a new episode of Castle premiers tonight at 10p, and of course Lost is on Tuesday at 9p
CBS: Nothing really genre here except the Big Bang Theory on Monday at 9p
FOX: Human Target has a new episode this week on Wednesday at 8p
NBC: Chuck keeps on keeping on Monday at 8p with a new episode
SyFy: look for this week's new episode of Caprica on Friday at 9p
USA: The season finale of White Collar premiers in Tuesday at 10p

This week there are no new genre films among the big box office releases, however there are still a lot of genre films still out in the theatres around the country.

New this week:
Green Zone
Mother
Our Family Wedding
Remember Me
She's Out of My League

Genre Films still out at the theatre:
Alice in Wonderland
Avatar
The Crazies
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Shutter Island
The Wolfman

New books out this week:
Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter  by Seth Grahame-Smith
The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni
Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience by Stephen Hall