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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5472380" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 223: November 1995part 5/8Winter Fantasy 96 gets a brief promotional article over recycled artwork. Meh, my dear, meh. Exactly the kind of thing you've been told to cut out. The role of books: Season of shadows by Ellen Foxxe appears to be written under a pseudonym, with an unknown amount of the worldbuilding and plot done by the publisher. This results in John being curious who's behind it, and how much of it is actually a collaborative work. That is an interesting question. As I've said before, even when one person appears to be sole author, they do often benefit from a friend or SO providing an ear and holding up a mirror to their work. It's like an editor without the extra cost. Anyway, the review is positive overall. Chicks in chainmail, edited by Esther Friesner is obviously on the lighterhearted side of fantasy female asskicking. There is of course good stories and bad ones, and a bit of cyberpunk in amongst the typical fantasy. And it is very obviously aimed at a female audience. But it is generally pretty entertaining, and any preachiness is generally outweighed by the fun. Since she's had stuff published in here, I can guess pretty well what this'll be like. Time scout by Robert Asprin and Linda Evans is of course a story of time travel with fairly complicated rules that are crucial to the unfolding of the plot. Sounds fairly familiar. Still, as he says, the implementation is the important thing, and this fast-paced action filled one is pretty good. Looks like it's going to be all positive reviews this time around. Fires of eden by Dan Simmons is essentially a bottleneck murder mystery, only set in Hawaii, with a cast of unpleasant gods endangering everyone. This means the structure may be traditional, but the trappings and twists certainly aren't your standard english country house cluedo cliches. Plus it's tightly plotted and well paced. No objections here then. Point of hopes by Melissa Scott & Lisa A Barnett is another novel that gets plenty of praise for being well-crafted, well plotted, and understated in style, so you can uncover more with multiple readings. One of those cases where I'm sure John has said exactly the same in a previous review. Either he's been doing these too long, or I've been reading them regularly for too long. The ecology of the chitine: Hmm. This ecology is delivered by a drow, upon one of their many enemies. Very interesting. In this case, it's a self-made problem, as the chitine were created by them, and then thrown out when they failed to live up to expectations. Lolth, on the other hand, still thinks they've got potential. But then, she's the kind of deity who really gets off on the idea of her worshippers fighting over who loves her more, while being randomly cruel to all sides to "make them stronger." A pretty short ecology, this is very much business as usual. Description, footnotes, a bit of new crunch. They may be planning to shake up the magazine, but it doesn't look like much needs changing here. Eye of the monitor comes to an end with a rather embarrassing little piece about zeb's upgrade woes. Sure, it's vaguely reassuring seeing our familiar long-term writers suffering from the same problems as us, but it really doesn't make them seem like professional computer operators. Plus Windows '95? I'm not sure if I'm nostalgic for that or not. On balance I'm gonna have to go with not. I certainly remember our computers crashing a hell of a lot more in those days than they do now. So this is yet another case where they go out poorly, and with little warning, as if they know there's going to be some changes around here, but are expecting, or at least hoping to have a place in the new order, and trying to present a positive face accordingly. Life can be cruel. Our only actual review here is of the Discworld computer game. This gets a decidedly mixed result. The writing is funny, the art is great, but the coding really is not up to scratch, and it gets very repetitive by the end. This is one game that seriously needs a good patching. A very definite shame, really.</blockquote>

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