Reader Question Day #21 – Mount & Blade & Tea
Manwe asks:
Regarding the [medieval romances] do you like the genre? And have you read any of the medieval sagas? I have a deep affinity for them.
Back in college, I actually did my senior thesis on La Chanson de Roland. Of course, that’s technically a chanson de geste, but the character of Roland turned up in the later Romances as part of the Matter of France. I’ve read Mallory and several of the different permutations of the Arthurian legend. What’s interesting is that Count Roland actually existed (Charlemagne’s biographer Einhard mention the “Count Hruolandus of the Breton March”) and Arthur probably did not, but Arthur is vastly more famous than Roland, at least in the English-speaking world.
Of course, Charlemagne gets a cool rock opera written about him.
I just picked up The Belgariad series (by Eddings) after I heard good things about it. Any thoughts on the series?
The Belgariad and the Malloreon are entertaining, but not deep. Eddings writes very clear, readable prose (which, take it from me, is a lot harder to do than it looks), but his books tend to be very light and breezy. So I thought they were an entertaining read, but not a profound one. They definitely lack the current trend of angsty nihilism, so that is a point in their favor.
Garnet asks:
Is [GHOST IN THE STORM] available at iTunes yet for iBook?
Not yet. For some reason, Apple has been increasingly slow to accept ebooks from Smashwords – I suspect Apple is trying to force people into using iBooks Author. Which is disappointing, because I sell a lot of books off iTunes, but not enough to justify the cost of buying a Mac just to use iBooks Author.
However, iBooks runs off EPUB files, and if you’re comfortable sideloading books onto your iPad/iPhone (it’s pretty easy) you can get the EPUB of GHOST IN THE STORM off Smashwords.
Kallinikos asks:
If you could pick just one computer game, what would it be?
Mount & Blade: Warband. You can conquer a medieval world via overwhelming economic superiority. Which reminds me of a book I just read – THE DRAGON’S PATH by Daniel Abraham, an epic fantasy about an orphaned refugee. After her home is destroyed, instead of taking up sword and going on a quest, she…starts a bank. It works rather well.
rose asks:
Coffee or tea?
Tea, definitely. Back in 2011, I emergency-taught a section of Modern World History with exactly six days to prepare. The only way I got through that was by drinking cup after cup of black tea.
-JM
“Of course, Charlemagne gets a cool rock opera written about him.”
Well actually it was not an opera, but an album…which I have 😀
Christopher Lee, singing heavy metal, as Charles the great?! I had no choice in the matter, I had to buy it!
About Eddings’ books, yes I have heard they were on the light and breezy side, like Stasheff’s stuff. That’s fine with me, every single book written can not be a profound meditation on the human condition after all.
Regarding his series though, I have all the Belgariad and will be buying the Malloreon, but what about the others in that universe? By that I mean the stand alone books: Belgarath the Sorcerer, Polgara the sorceress, and the Rivan codex. Are they good enough to buy?
“Mount & Blade: Warband”
Awesome game!! Especially for an indie title! Had alot of fun with that one (which was actually an enhanced edition of the original Mount & Blade, though the expansion ‘With Fire and Sword’ was a bit of a hit and miss). Was that game just on your mind when you answered the question, or is it your favorite (in which case I would say: you like it even more than your RPGs like KOTOR and DA?)
On the subject of games, I just started playing the Guild Wars 2 beta, and wow is it good! I know you don’t play mmos Jonathan, but I recall you saying that was because of the subscription fees. Well the GW2 is totally free (no fees ever), and is a massive improvement over GW1 (which had more than a few akward elements), if you ever get a chance to play a trial for it, you should check it out, no harm in a trial after all. Unless of course you have a thing against mmos in general, then heh, nevermind!
“I have all the Belgariad and will be buying the Malloreon, but what about the others in that universe?”
Belgarath and Polgara are pretty good books – the Rivan Codex is basically the world guide to the books’ world.
“Was that game just on your mind when you answered the question, or is it your favorite (in which case I would say: you like it even more than your RPGs like KOTOR and DA?)”
It was on my mind – I like it because I can play in short bursts to unwind.
“Unless of course you have a thing against mmos in general, then heh, nevermind!”
I don’t have anything against MMOs, but there’s just no time for it. 🙂
Might have to get those prequel books then, and about the codex, yes I knew that was a world guide (I like those kinds of things), what I wanted to know was it any good? Some world guides just repeat what you found in the novels, others give you an even more in depth look.
“I like it because I can play in short bursts to unwind”
Thats funny, I somtimes do that myself! It’s a nice pick up and play game kind of game.
“I don’t have anything against MMOs, but there’s just no time for it.”
Fair is fair! 🙂