Up late talking games & writing? You're...

Just a quickie update tonight, so let's get down to business:

Books: Finished City of the Dead a few days ago...


...And polished off Dead Sea last night, both by Brian Keene.


Although neither of them was as earth-shattering as the same author's The Rising, they were both some extremely good horror reading. I totally recommend all three, and picking up the rest of his backlist is priority #1 for me the next time I hit a bookstore. After getting through three of his books, it's clear that certain themes resonate strongly in his writing -- family, love of children, responsibility. Probably not what one would expect from books where zombies tear people to shreds, but the undercurrents are strong and only increase my respect for the man's writing. Keene is at the top of my list of authors to interview, and my fingers are crossed that I'll be able to get him.



Games: Downloaded the trailer for Iron Man on the 360 today. Based on the movie that's based on the comic, I was a little surpised at how amazingly awesome it looked. Granted, it was a non-interactive series of developer-selected images and action shots, but damn... it was looking hawt. If that game plays even half as cool as that trailer suggests it will be, then we're in for quite the ride.


In non-trailer news, I'm still slogging my way through Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney on the DS, and all I can say is that I WANT PHOENIX WRIGHT BACK!!! Completely dropping the entire cast of familiar characters that Capcom's spent three games building was madness, and the actual court cases taken on by the thoroughly incompetent newcomer have all been extremely dull and tedious, missing the wacky spark and pizzazz that's always carried Phoenix and crew in the past. I've had practically no enjoyment with this title so far, and I'm nearly done... If I wasn't interested in seeing the explanation for why Phoenix left in the first place, I would have shelved it already. Unless you're a diehard courtroom action fan, my suggestion for Apollo Justice is to skip it and stick with the original Phoenix Wright games instead.


Behind Infernal Eyes: Now that my son's back in Hawaii and things are sort of getting back to my usual routine, I've started work on the book back up and things are moving. I haven't quite gotten back in the groove yet, but it's one foot after the other, one page after another. Chapter 8 begins tomorrow.