On Iain (M) Banks

I was sad to hear the news that Iain Banks is suffering from terminal cancer, as he is an author who has meant a lot to me since I first discovered him during a meal break whilst at the University of Southampton. It was when I was working at Silica Shop, unsuccessfully(*) selling PCs in the eyes of the manager, discovering the joys of the back passages and rooms frequented by the staff of the Debenhams in which Silica existed.

(*)I was 'unsuccessful' mainly because I tended to sell people a computer that met their needs and desires rather than a fully loaded and overpriced top end Compaq. Anyway, I digress.

I first encountered Banks through his SF epic Consider Phlebas, which I found near impossible to put down after I discovered it on the shelf in WHSmiths. I can remember sitting outside on a bench in the cold, unwilling to move as I was gripped by the story, and getting annoyed that I had to go back in. It was glorious, enchanting and fast-paced space opera and so different to the norm of SF from the late seventies and eighties. Absolutely brilliant. I then went and bought everything that he had written at that point - The State of the Art, The Player of Games and then Use of Weapons. That book has the distinction of being one of the few that I've reached the end of and immediately re-read, as I never saw it coming. I moved onto his contemporary novels (published without the ‘m’ ), which are equally good and larger in number. The Wasp Factory was dark, macabre and I couldn't put it down despite intensely disliking it. Few books since have evoked that emotion, much like a film where you want to look away but can't. The Crow Road and Complicity are both great thrillers (and check out the TV series and the film respectively) and Espedair Street is a great rock novel (likewise the BBC Radio 4 version was excellent).

Banks quickly became one of the few authors I bought in hardcover (along with William Gibson and more recently Alastair Reynolds), and someone whose books I really looked forward to. Excession is a personal favourite in his SF, and the surreal The Bridge in his 'literature'. Feersum Endjinn messed with my head when I read it, as the alternative phonetic and English chapters forced a meshing of gears.

I think his books went off the boil a bit about a decade ago, but even a weaker novel from him was worth a read, often surpassing other writer's best works. I think his work had been back on an upward improving trajectory over the last few years.

And now his next book is almost certainly his last unless there is some kind of reprieve or remission, which he states is unlikely. I'll miss his work, it has brought me great enjoyment. It also holds several unique places in my heart.

Thank you, Iain (M) Banks. You've thrilled me, inspired me and entertained me, not to mention set me on a journey in gaming that I hope I can complete this year.

Coda.
Reflecting, what makes it even worse is that another of my favourite authors, John le Carré, is 82 this year, so I suspect there are a limited number of books left from him too.

How I spent my Sunday Afternoon (DomCon Report)

Crushed to death twice in a lost Incan Temple, narrowly escaping a sinking island with its treasures on a helicopter, dying horribly as we failed to find the cures to a global pandemic, and then engaging in titanic expansionist space exploration only to be crushed by a galactic economic superpower. That's how I spent my Sunday afternoon...

After fearing that the snow would sabotage things, a group of friends (Andy, Graham and Simon), all TomCon veterans rendezvoused at my house in Wetherby from places as far afield as Sheffield and Settle. Our objective was simple - to play some of the many boardgames that had built up unplayed at my house. We called the event "DomCon", a resurrected title from the days that I ran my Stormbringer RPG campaign.We were accompanied through the afternoon by my 6 year old, Nathan, who joined in some games, bailed out of others, and complicated one even more than the rules did.

I'd shared links to the excellent Dice Tower reviews of the games we planned to play the night before. I recommend these if you're coming old to a game as they give a feel for the mechanics.

We started with Escape: The Curse of the Temple, recommended to me as a fun cooperative game suitable for kids by Steve Hatherley around the time I tried out Forbidden Island for the first time. The premise is simple; think of the sequence at the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana Jones has to escape the temple/tomb where he steals the golden idol. The game has square tiles of the temple rooms which you explore by rolling a set of five dice and getting the right icons come up. If you roll a black skull, that dice is frozen, but two black skulls can be released by throwing one of their golden counterparts, which come up just as often. You need to find the way out,and along the way as many jewels as possible. The jewels are important, as they make it easier to carry out the final escape as the number unfound relates directly to the number of icons that you have to roll to escape.

There are three catches. The first is that you will need more than one player working together to release some of the jewels as they need more icons than you have dice. The second is that the whole game is played real time, against a soundtrack that lasts just over ten minutes. This results in a frenetically paced set of dice rolls, and a good deal of self-pressurisation. The final catch is that on two occasions a gong sounds, meaning you have one minute to get back to the starting room otherwise you will lose a dice permanently. On top of this, if anyone is left in the temple after it collapses after ten minutes, then you all lose. Cooperation is vital.

I enjoyed the game, and will look forward to playing again.When I'm not sure, as Nathan got scared by the game and bailed out leaving me to take his dice. We failed to beat this twice, but I think that it feels achievable.

Next up was Forbidden Island, a game about which I have blogged previously. Suffice it to say that we were successful in winning the game, and Nathan was very happy with the outcome. Graham had got a copy of the game on the basis of my past review and enjoyed it, so it was useful having three experienced players. This was the third time I've played this at Novice level, so I think I'll be raising the difficulty next time to make it feel more challenging.

Pandemic before it went horribly wrong

Then we moved on to a game that takes the clever mechanic of shuffling the discard pile and putting it back on the top of the draw pile to another level. We played Pandemic, a game by the same author which I have reviewed before. This was my first outing with the game with other players, and – as I mentioned at the start of the piece – we failed. We found one cure and had two more about to be delivered when we ran out of the player cards, which is an instant loss. We spent far too long trying to nobble the disease rather than concentrating upon the cure. Of course, this is the sleight of hand the game throws you with all those disease blocks looking so tempting to fight. Unfortunately, we realised we had lost two turns before the end, which left quite an anti-climax. I'd like to try this one again though.

Lots of cards in Eminent Domain

Our final game was Eminent Domain, which started life as a Kickstarter project, but I bought it from retail. This is a deck building game of interstellar conflict. What does that mean then? Essentially, this is a battle to gain influence points, which can be obtained by conquering or colonising planets, or through trade or other actions.

We did find the game a struggle at the start, but this was partly due to Nathan's fascination with the model spaceships, coupled with his insistence that Andy was called Dave!

The game revolved around a deck of role cards, which include areas such as warfare, survey, colonisation, production or trade, and research. Each player starts with an identical hand of cards, which is tailored either consciously or unconsciously to the strategy that they have adopted through card draws and deliberate permanent discards from the hand. Players also start with a world located on survey, which needs to be colonised or conquered.

Eminent Domain game turns have a simple structure. You have a hand of cards, which is limited to five at the end of your turn, which comprises role cards and later technology cards. Initially, half your deck is in play so you know what can be gained from drawing from the remaining cards. As you tailor the deck, this becomes more and more effective. At the end of the turn you can discard any or all of your cards and draw back to the maximum hand size (which can be increased by acquiring certain planets).

The first phase of your game is optional - you can play a role card or a technology card as an action. This usually is more limited than playing it in the role phase of the game, but can also be very useful. Cards usually have two descriptions on effects dependent on phase. For example, a survey card will allow you to bring two cards out of your unused pile (exceeding deck limits if necessary) when played as an action, or permits you to look and choose a planet card for a settlement target in the role phase. You can use this first phase to prepare for the second.

The second, role, phase means you select a role card type and draw it into your hand from the central deck pile. You can then play it, backed up with other cards, to gain an effect. For example, if a planet requires four colonisation counters to settle, you could pick colonisation, add a further four colonisation cards from your hand, and land colonies and settle to capture a planet. As 'leader' in the role phase, you get advantages over the other players. Once you have acted, the other players each get a chance to either follow the action you have played by using the same role card(s) without the leader's bonus, or to dissent and pick a card from their unused pile to add to their hand. Thus, it is possible to have a hand bigger than the deck hand limit right up to the end of your turn.

Once all other players have decided whether to follow or dissent, you then get to clean up your deck, discarding and drawing ready for the future. The turn moves clockwise around the table, with the Action/Role/Clean-up cycle starting for a new player.

Using the research action can gain you extra advantages with technology cards in your hand that give special effects for the action phase, or reduced costs for certain role actions by acting as role cards. Some technology cards cycle through your hand in the same way as role cards, whereas some have permanent effects.

Planets also give an advantage when colonised or conquered as some can produce resources (which can be converted to Influence Points by a produce/trade card), some have the same effect as a role card (for example acting as if an additional production card was played), and they also have a basic value in influence just from ownership.

The winning hand

The game is actually quite simple, but the follow/dissent mechanic was new to us, which caused some confusion. It was no surprise that Simon – who grasped the mechanics first – went to win through a huge production and trade programme.

You can't directly attack another player, but you can hamper them through your choice of roles. For example, had we realised how close Simon was to winning earlier then we could have deliberately avoided choosing the role that benefited him most – Production/Trade – thus starving him of opportunities to extend his hegemony.

There are a huge number of options and approaches to the game, and I'd love to try it again to see where it goes to. I think that was the feeling around the table, with a replay of this being the most popular to return to in the future.

Thanks to all present for a great afternoon, and to Jill for her patience!

--
Links to Dice Tower Reviews
Escape the Curse of the Temple http://youtu.be/precx0zmetg
Pandemic http://youtu.be/A5V8q-Su8iM
Eminent Domain http://youtu.be/hbq7r0LgX6Q

Amazon - killing reading

I own a Kindle, and it's a wonderful thing. It stores hundreds of books, displays them well, allows instant gratification if you want to read a novel you have heard of (mostly), has a good form factor and excellent battery life.

I fear that the Kindle – and its ilk – will kill reading.

Beyond my parent's love of books – reading with and to me, and the fantastic Children's Book Club my mother joined – two things drove my passion for reading .

The first was the fantastic public libraries that the UK has had for years. In my teenage years I consumed up to 8 books a week, and slightly less when younger. Sadly, this is a system under threat as the present austerity measures, and fall in usage of libraries, take a toll. I have some guilt here, as I don't really use the library these days as the backlog of books I own is too big. Nathan does, through school.

The second was discovering the books that rested on my parent's shelves. I explored, sneaked looks at, and devoured the contents avidly. It drove some of my tastes in literature, which is probably a fusion between my father's love of SF and my mother's love of more literary and historical novels.

The Kindle kills this. No browsing. No exploring. No discovery without purchase.

I worry.

Wedding +10

Esquires

I'm writing this in Esquires coffee shop in Ambleside in the Lake District. Jill and I have been away on a child-free weekend (with my parents looking after the little tykes), staying at very nice hotel with a spa to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. It's been a while since we last got time together like this, and every time we do I end up thinking that we must do this more often. I guess the living 100 miles away from family takes its toll here. Anyway, perhaps I should make a resolution to try and do this every few months, as its great to be away as a couple.


The very nice hotel

Jill is at the hotel, pampering herself with a 'treatment', whilst I've been wandering through Ambleside, browsing at shops and generally chilling out. The hotel has been excellent (Best Western Ambleside Salutation), living up the recommendation from the Wetherby Methodist Church 'Bootbashers' society. Rooms were good, with a decent swimming pool, hot tubs and steam room.We didn't sample the food beyond breakfast, mainly as we had other places we wanted to be.


Zeffirellis - Perfection?

Friday night saw a lovely Italian meal at Zeffirelli's Jazz Bar, following by a showing of The Hobbit. That was great too, but we left with a headache from the 3D. I'm tempted to arrange another showing to see it in 2D, as I think that the film will look better. Although the shots were lovely, I can't help but think that some of them suffered from being 3D, as they moved too fast to allow the eye to linger and appreciate the spectacle. As a big Tolkien fan, I was more than happy with the way that the film had been treated, but I do wonder how they will manage to stretch it to another two films.


Lots more on the set from Ambleside at Flickr

Saturday started lazily, with a breakfast nearly as late as we could achieve, and then we went for a wander around town. Bizarrely, we spent a good chunk of time wandering around the parish church grounds and graveyard. Like a muppet, I had forgotten to bring my camera, so I was using my iPhone. The light was just right for black and white, with not enough contrast for colour so I used the Hipstamatic app (my favourite iPhone camera app); I'm pretty pleased with the results, but I was reminded how power demanding the post-processing is, with nearly half my battery going.


OK, some in colour too, deliberately to saturate blue & green. You can see more on the set from Ambleside at Flickr

It's funny how looking at all the grave inscriptions makes you feel more in touch with what has happened in a community. I guess it's the little things that it draws out, the human day-to-day triumphs and falls.


Gorgeous

We chilled out at the spa when we got back to the hotel, and celebrated back out our room with a very nice bottle of Champagne that my parents had given us. Then we headed out to Doi Imtanon (which sounds like a place in Middle Earth) Thai restaurant for dinner. The service was great, and I must confess that we probably over indulged in wine because we found a nice bottle of Shiraz-Cabernet from the same Vineyard (Wakefield, South Australia) that had supplied the wine for our wedding breakfast.


Same vineyard and very close to the wine from our Wedding breakfast, glug.

Fortunately, I was much less delicate this morning than I expected, so am feeling quite chilled out. We were going to try and watch 'the life of Pi' this afternoon, but have decided against it so we aren't back too late, as reality intrudes again tomorrow with a return to work and school. It's been lovely getting time with Jill without other pressures, and I'm fortunate to have such a wonderful wife.

Belkin Keyboard Case for iPad mini - review

Yes, it does like a ZX-81 (as pointed out by Neil Ford)!

My new iPad mini was bought with the knowledge that it would be used for work as well as pleasure, so I bought myself a Belkin keyboard case as well as a Smart Cover.

The keyboard case looks very good - the effect is of an old style paper organiser (if you remember those by 'Time Manager' then you'll have a good analogy but it is much thinner). It should give moderate impact protection. There is a micro-USB port for power, plus an on/off switch, a pairing button for bluetooth, and an LED to indicate charge status. Pairing is no different to any other bluetooth keyboard under iOS and I had no difficulties. The keyboard is tailored for iOS: there is a Fn function key to allow keyboard access to search, show/hide keyboard, cut/copy/paste, music and volume and screen lock. The home key is also dedicated on the keyboard.

The keyboard is made of plastic, but quite solid. The build is better than the Zaggmate keyboard cover for my older iPad 1 (which had a habit of loosing keys) but noticeably less solid than Zagg's keyboard folio for the better half's iPad 2, probably as that has an aluminium chassis. The Logitech Tablet keyboard (which is close to full size), feels more solid but is far larger.

The keyboard pitch is tight and needs some getting used to, altogether understandable due the size of a 7.9" tablet like the mini. While typing this, I've repeatedly pressed "/" due to the truncated nature of the spacebar which it is adjacent too. I also find the backspace to be out of position, and keep on hitting the "=" button instead. However, both of these are noticeably becoming less of an issue as I get more familiar with the keyboard layout and action.

However, there is one design flaw, related to apostrophes. These are positioned where you'd expect them (near the enter key) but they both need to be accessed with the Fn button rather than a clean press for the single apostrophe, and a shifted press for the double quotes. This is the biggest let down about the whole device, and I've not yet convinced myself that I will get used to it. It suggests that although the keyboard case was 'designed in California' it was designed by someone that rarely does any extended typing. I would rather have the semi-colon and colon key operated by the function key and have the apostrophes directly accessible.

Overall, I do like the keyboard, but how well that I adjust to the apostrophe design decision will determine if I ever love it.

Updated 13/1 to reinstate missing key names.

First Impressions - Forbidden Island

At the weekend, I had the fun of playing a game with Nathan (nearly 6) and his Grandmother (somewhat older) which didn't end up with either a small boy tantrum, or me deliberately throwing the game. The game was Forbidden Island and I deliberately bought it because it is cooperative. You either all win, or all lose. The opponent is the game itself.

Nathan loved it, and caught on well despite it being promoted as suitable for 10 years +. That age is probably right for picking up and learning the game yourself, but if you're guided by an adult I think it's easily suitable for 5 year olds.

The premise of the game is simple; you are a team of adventurers who have travelled by helicopter to an island which is sinking into the ocean. You are there to recover four treasures which are hidden on the island and get away by calling the helicopter back for the whole team.

There isn't a game board as such, rather twenty-four sturdy and attractively designed double sided tiles that represent the different locations on the island. They have names like 'Phantom Rock', 'Fool's Landing' and 'Cliffs of Abandon'. One side is illustrated in full colour (representing the initial state of the location) and the other side is a shade of blue, representing flooding before it finally sinks into the ocean never to return. Some locations are marked as starting points for different player roles, and there are two marked for each treasure as a location they can be retrieved from by the players.

The pawns for each player are wooden, and the treasures moulded in plastic, and the game comes in a sturdy tin. The game also includes a set of cards which give each player a unique role (for example a pilot or diver), treasure cards, and the flood deck. Finally, there is a water meter that governs the rate of flooding.

Game play is simple - each player takes a role card to start. This gives them special abilities, for example the explorer can move and shore up parts of the island diagonally. The game is based around 2-4 players, and there are more roles available than the number of players.

The island is set up as a 4x4 grid, with a further two cards centred on each side. A number of flood cards are then drawn, and the relevant locations immediately flipped to flooded. This has no direct effect on them for play, but puts them one step away from disappearing.

Each player is dealt two treasure deck cards which are placed face up so that the other players can see them. There are treasure cards showing the items that you are after, cards with special effects (the sandbag card to sure up anything at anytime and the helicopter lift that allows a group of pawns to be moved from location to another at anytime, or for the game to be won) and the dangerous 'waters rise' card. This one is replaced and shuffled back into the deck if dealt at the start of the game.

Each turn, a player can take up to 3 actions. These include moving, shoring up an adjacent section of island (flipping from flooded to untouched), giving a treasure card to another player in the same location and capturing a treasure (by discarding 4 of the appropriate treasure cards at the right place). Players can also carry out their own special move if appropriate.

Once actions are completed, each player gets two treasure cards, against a maximum hand of five cards. If a waters rise card is drawn, the water meter increases one level. Initially, a normal game will be set so the flood level is 2, but this slowly goes up higher as the game progresses. The waters rise card also triggers the flood card discard pile being shuffled, then placed back on top of the flood deck, effectively intensifying the flooding locations. Pandemic players may recognise the clever game mechanic, and it should be no surprise that the games share the same author.

The final step of a player's turn is to draw the appropriate number of flood cards. The locations shown are immediately flipped to the blue side if untouched, or permanently removed if already flooded. If this happens to a location with a player, they can swim to an adjacent tile if it is a legal move, but if not then they drown and the game is lost.

Retrieving the treasure requires the player to get four cards showing the same treasure in their hand. There are five in total for each in the treasure deck, so if you discard more than one between the team then you would have to wait for the deck to refresh before finding that treasure. As you can only get each treasure in two locations, should these sink before you find it then the game is lost.

Once the treasures are retrieved, the players all need to get to Fool's Landing and then play a helicopter card to escape and win. This clearly means that Fool's Landing sinking is a bad thing to happen, as the game is lost.

Finally, the game can also be lost by the water meter raising as high as the skull and crossbones icon on its top.

In play, it feels quite tense when the flood cards are turned over and the waters rise. The limit that you can only pass cards one way in your own turn is also quite frustrating, in a good way, as you need to plan carefully. It kept Nathan's attention for the 40 or so minutes it took to play, and I suspect that a rematch would be under half an hour. It's great fun, and the mechanics and feel all combine for a lovely team game. I'd recommend this for 5 years to adult.

The game has a retail price of £19.99 but you can pick it up for £12.99 if you shop around places like Amazon.

Links:
Gamewright: https://www.gamewright.com/gamewright/index.php?section=games&page=game&show=245
Amazon.co.uk: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Gamewright-317-Forbidden-Island-Game/dp/B003D7F4YY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352241094&sr=8-1

Apple Maps

The search returns ‘Odeon Crewe’, but not if you search for the Odeon!

I was deeply skeptical about Apple Maps after reading about the issues on the internet. However, the reports don't match with my experience of using it as a SatNav. I've done this three times so far, and it's taken me to the location by the shortest route, and without misdirection. Where I do find it weak is in the search engine side. For example, last night I put in "Odeon Cinema, Crewe" and it couldn't find it, but "Cinema Crewe" worked fine.

The vector tiling for the map sets is very effective for keeping a larger area within the navigation range and scaleable in comparison to Google Maps. This means you can still zoom in and out and track location when you have GPS but no cell connection.

The lack of effective public transport and pedestrian routing is disappointing. The turn-by-turn navigation works well.

Overall, as a product, it needs tweaking, but it's nowhere near as broken as some commentators have made out.

Shattered Dreams

I hate the Jimmy Saville revelations, with a passion. In revealing how he behaved and shattered the lives of people who trusted him and looked up to him, he shatters memories and illusions of goodness to others that were part of my childhood, making the world a worse place. Part of me wishes that this had never come out, but then what justice would the victims have if it was forever buried? Every part of the good works that Saville was involved in is now tainted, and what legacy he left is turned to corruption and abuse.

Plus it allows the BBC to obsess about its favourite subject, the BBC.

The Thick of It

The brilliant Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker
Image ©2012 BBC - all rights reserved

I was late in discovering the BBC’s The Thick of It, mainly as the few times that I had stumbled across it flicking channels I'd usually landed in the middle of one of Peter Capaldi's brilliant swear-word filled tirades as Malcolm Tucker, the government's Director of Communications. Landing in the middle of one of these is not something that really endears the programme to you, and I dismissed it as loud and sweary rubbish passing as comedy.

However, I ended up catching the first episode of Series 4 on TV one night – from the start – when Jill and the boys were in bed. I was hooked, realising that this was one series that you couldn't just drop into mid-episode. I've watched each episode since, through a variety of means (time shifted on PVR, iPlayer and live), and they have been gloriously full of swearing, politics and – in far too many ways – believability. I'm really sad that last night saw the final ever episode, dealing with the aftermath of the Goolding Inquiry (think spoof of Leveson) on leaking, and the demise of Malcolm Tucker.

However, now I have the DVDs of the first three series and specials to enjoy as a guilty pleasure and to compensate for the loss of this brilliant show. Contrary to my original thoughts, this is a fantastic counterpoint to Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.