Update: Let's Plays, Kingkiller Chronicles, and The Silmarillion

On 08/16/2013 at 07:20 PM by Michael117

Gaming

In my previous blog, a few of you recommended to me the Game of Thrones mod for the PC strategy game Crusader Kings 2. Thanks to Blake and Travis for that, I'd never heard of or played any of Paradox Interactive's games like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis. By being showed the Game of Thrones mod I was introduced to Crusader Kings 2 by extension. Lately I've been watching a Let's Play of the original game by a Youtuber named J2 John Jeremy and I've been unable to stop watching. I really want to play this game now, and I think I might be able to run this on my PC once I get it back up and running. Crusader Kings 2 seems like the grand medieval dynasty simulator I never knew I wanted, I'd love to check it out.

The only real gaming I've done this week has been a couple matches of Civilization Revolution on occasion. On the History Channel I watched this awesome show about engineering in ancient Rome, and naturally that made me want to play through a match of Civ Rev as the Romans. I've been planning to try and make more progress in Skyrim and start playing Mirror's Edge again since our very own Backlogger's Anonymous is playing the game here at Pixlbit, but I just haven't got around to any of it this week.

Reading

There's this small used book store in town called the Book Rack and Dad goes there all the time, but I've never been. So today we went together and I familiarized myself with the place. I brought a few dollars hoping to get a book, but Dad told me to save my money he bought me a few books instead! The Book Rack has quite a nice selection and a wide variety of genres. The first thing I did was head over to the sci-fi and fantasy section to look for The Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven, but unfortunately they didn't have it. I really loved Ringworld and I've been eager to read the sequels, Ringworld Engineers being the next book in the series. Dad said we could look online and surely find it instead. The next thing I looked for was The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss since I heard good things about it from friends here on the site. Luckily they had Name of the Wind as well as the sequel, The Wise Man's Fear. I didn't know if I'd be able to find either of them at the Book Rack again anytime soon so I grabbed both.

While I was looking at those, Dad was further down in the T's looking at Tolkien's books. A few months ago I was telling Dad about how I'd never read The Silmarillion but would like to. He found a few different versions and wanted to buy one for me. I wasn't sure if there was any difference between the variety of versions, but I grabbed the one with the gold cover because it was prettier lol. The fantasy and sci-fi section was pretty awesome, they had a few Halo novels but I'd read all the ones they had. They had some D&D rulebooks, tons of Dragonlance, Man-Kzin Wars, Star Trek, and lot's of other series. I'll definitely be going back to the Book Rack now that I've seen what it's all about.

Right now I'm 450 pages into A Storm of Swords, maybe once I'm finished I'll take a little break from the A Song of Ice & Fire series to read one of my new Rothfuss or Tolkien books instead. On a side note I saw something really rad on the way to the Book Rack, just down the street there's this place called the Digital Dungeon that I've never seen before. On their sign it says they have table top gaming and role-playing among other things. I should totally go in there and see what they're all about, maybe make some new friends and learn more about non-electric gaming.

Aboboisdaman

08/16/2013 at 08:52 PM

I read The Silmarillion a while back. It's a great book, but definitely not for everyone. It's scope is far greater than LOTR, and basicly tells the whole history of Tolkien's universe. It's prose is written in an archaic style that takes some getting used to and there are a TON of characters. I loved it though and couldn't stop using those ancient words for like two weeks afterwards lol. Blind Guardian has a whole album based off that book called Nightfall in Middle Earth.

Michael117

08/16/2013 at 09:13 PM

That's pretty cool. I've spent lots of time on the LOTR wiki and I've read about a lot of the stuff that The Silmarillion covers and I always wanted to get the actual book for myself and read through it. I love the stories and histories behind Morgoth, the Two Lamps, the creation of the different races, and all the other stuff I'm sure the book has in it. I'm really glad I have the real thing now and can read it.

Patrick Kijek Contributing Writer

08/17/2013 at 03:34 PM

Yea, I liked the Silmarillion, however, it is kind of dry. That's exactly how the book should have been written, because it reads like a historical fiction novel. I can see how some people might not like it, but the history really expands middle earth into something even more believable.

Super Step Contributing Writer

08/19/2013 at 04:24 AM

I don't think it would be for me. I have a hard time getting through LOTR honestly, though last time I picked up Fellowship again, it did seem a lot more fun to read than I remembered. I want to read the LOTR trilogy eventually, but it's just a lot.

Ranger1

08/16/2013 at 09:39 PM

Yay! Got some good books there, Michael. I have an older hardcover edition of The Silmarillion with a fold-out map. My uncle got it for me for my birthday when I was a little too young to appreciate it, but I grew into it later. And The Name of the WInd took me only a couple of days to read because I couldn't put it down. I still have to read the sequel, though.

08/16/2013 at 10:05 PM

I'm pretty happy about everything I found today. Your version of The Silmarillion sounds amazing, I bet the fold-out map is pretty neat. My version has a little map in it but it's squished onto a two page spread and a lot of the place-names are hard to make out because the writing is squished as well.

transmet2033

08/16/2013 at 10:04 PM

I may come back to this with a few more thoughts, but I hope that you enjoy the kingkiller chronicles. My younger brother and I have really enjoyed them, and hope that you do as well. Also, I find that Patrick Rothfuss's blog is very interesting, he doesn't say much but when he does I find it to be worth reading.

08/16/2013 at 10:08 PM

Thanks! Everything I've heard about the series sounds real interesting. I've never seen Rothfuss' blog before so I'll have to go give it a look.

Alex-C25

08/16/2013 at 11:51 PM

Though technically it isn't finished because of the preview chapter of Jaime, I just finished recently A Clash of Kings. Just excellent book. Gave many surprises and it managed to top everything about the first book. I'm excited to continue to A Storm of Swords, but I think I need to give priority to I Robot and Dune.

08/17/2013 at 06:29 PM

Congrats on finishing Clash of Kings, I really liked that one. My favorite chapters were always Tyrion's throughout that book. In the TV show Tyrion takes is the head of the principal cast during the second season (which covers Clash of Kings) and he is portrayed fantastically. A Storm of Swords is really good, and it's really intense and things get really crazy for a lot of characters. I think you'll be impressed by that book once you get to it, but I hear you on taking a break to read other things. When I finish Storm of Swords I'm going to read something different so I can have a change of scenery.

KnightDriver

08/17/2013 at 03:00 AM

I got that Rothfuss book for Christmas one year, but I never read it. It was in paperback and the text was so tiny, I gave up after the first chapter. I wonder if it was actually good.

08/17/2013 at 06:32 PM

I got the paperback version too, and the text really is tiny but my vision is quite sharp still so I can tolerate it. It does hurt after reading for a while though, it's similar to looking at a computer screen and focusing for too long and when you look up things are blurry. After I've been reading these books for a long while, once I look up at the TV everythings a blur lol. I have some of the Halo novels in large paperback and I even have Cryptum in hardcover and having the larger text is real nice.

leeradical42

08/17/2013 at 08:11 AM

These 2 are the same kind of game there just like the kind you like. I never heard of this one but after watching your link im sold. It looks fantastic.

08/17/2013 at 06:46 PM

Glad you liked what you saw in that link, that Let's Play has been fun to watch and it sold me on the game as well. I've never heard of Hearts of Iron but it appears to made by the same people that make Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, Paradox Interactive. Hearts of Iron is one of their franchises and it looks cool. Now that you told me about it I've looked a little a a Let's Play of it and it's similar to their other awesome grand strategy games.

08/17/2013 at 06:49 PM

Yea there WWII strategy games and like all of Parodox interactive there awesome games.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

08/17/2013 at 09:26 AM

the Silmarillion is dope.

That is all.

08/17/2013 at 06:34 PM

Lol, thanks for that Matt

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