Best Things of May 2018

Well, got all my coursework finally done, guess that means I have all the free time in the world to enjoy as many movies and videogames as I want...right?

God of War
A God of War game inspired by The Last of Us? Sure, I'm up for that. In a lot of ways God of War does things perfectly, in other ways it feels like it doesn't give enough. For the sake of trying to remain positive, let's discuss the good. This game is a technical marvel, the graphics are outstandingly beautiful, the sound design is excellent, the smallest of details given extra care, and of course the fact the whole game is one unbroken shot with no cutscenes or loading times makes it stand out like no other. The facial animations on Kratos show a wide range of emotions that games of the past couldn't get across, making the character more expressive, nuanced and interesting that ever before. The gameplay is a helluva lot of fun, a simple game mechanic like throwing an axe has somehow become an addiction to me, it was a great balance between challenging and fun throughout. Where I feel it doesn't give enough however is within the story. Now conceptually I think this is perfect, there's no revenge plot or desire to murder the gods, Kratos and his son Artreus want to take his dead mother's ashes to the highest peak and spread them in the wind. A goal that's small yet personal to the main characters that they'll go to endless lengths to achieve it. Where it goes wrong is that there are about a thousand detours stopping us from doing it "We made it! No wait, turns out we need to go here to achieve our goal!" "We made it again! No wait, turns out we need to go get this thing in order to achieve our goal!" There are multiple fake-outs and twists to drag this along, then it dares to end it on a cliffhanger telling us there is more to come. I understand you don't want to show your whole hand in the first play, but intentionally dragging out a story as long as possible then telling us there's more but "oops! we ran out of time!" feels like an unnecessary tease. If your main inspiration was The Last of Us, they didn't end the game at Autumn and say "Come back next time for the rest!". So yeah, plenty to love, plenty to be annoyed with, but overall I'd highly recommend it.

IT - Audiobook
I gotta be honest a big part of me is putting this on here just cause I finished the damn thing. At 44 hours, this is the longest audiobook I've ever listened to, and it took me 3 months to get through it all. I haven't had a book challenge like this since I read A Song of Ice & Fire in 6th form. In someways the length is a great aid to the book, Stephen King is able to write in such detail, create such a well defined world and characters, describing every emotion, every physical action, every aspect of every location, it's one of the best portraits ever painted in a book. It also allows for some of the more...obscure elements-let's say-to seem more plausible, because from a distance, while a fair portion of this book seems like utter nonsense, when you talk about it for long enough, eventually you get drawn in. However, the length is also a detriment to the book, because so many things get detail that frankly just don't need it (Take a shot every time an erection is mentioned), as well the fact that a fair portion of the book takes tangents or has bizarre and illogical decisions being made. I once heard it described as if the whole thing was written over a weekend on a giant coke binge and I have to agree, it doesn't even feel like an editor looked at the book, because a fair portion of it can definitely be cut out. There are so many things to discuss with this book that this is not the proper place to. On a final note I'll say Steven Weber, the narrator of the audiobook did a fantastic job, probably the best performance I've heard on an audiobook, a story with this many characters, plotlines, emotions, he does a bang up job with all of them, the only let down with his performance I'd say is sadly Pennywise himself, who had somewhat of a rather generic monster voice in my opinion, but every other character he played with so much charisma and gave them all distinct voices and personalities, brilliant job. Would I recommend this? Probably, it's definitely a great book, but if you're like me and you own about 90 books that you still haven't read, perhaps go through some of those first.

Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda
Talk about a 180 on books, not only in tone but also pacing, I read through this damn thing in just 3 days, I don't think that's ever happened before! After Love, Simon made my April favourites, of course I wanted to check out the book and yes, both of which are very good. Which ones better? I'd argue they're equal. The film is certainly funnier, and I think the dramatic moments sting a little harder; but the book also better develops Simon & Blue's relationship over e-mails, as well as not forcing some 2nd act drama. The main reason why both book and film are so good however is prominent in both stories, the way it captures the feelings of being a male who is sexually attracted to other males. Moments like Simon going to a restaurant and hanging out with gay people for the first time, or when he finally gets to kiss Blue, they're all feelings that I (And I imagine most queer folk) can absolutely identify with, and they're moments the film doesn't have, absolutely making the book a worthwhile read if you saw and loved the film, just like I did.

Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days
The 4th book in the series and the upwards streak continues. The first of the series to continue directly from the prior book, this instalment acts more like an ovation of the characters we've met so far. Everyone's on call for this one, and each gets a moment to stand out and show why the characters are easily the strongest part of the series. The book's theme of consequences for past actions are prevalent for most of the ensemble, some of them try to face them head on at a chance for redemption, and others bury them as far as they can, only to make it worse in the long run. The main villain this time round is the centre piece of this theme, he seeks revenge on those who wronged him, and forms his own team of support villains from prior books, most of whom weren't exactly complex, but had entertaining personalities and powers to make them engaging, so having them all team up makes for the most compelling villain line-up so far in the series. On the other hand is still Valkyrie who everyone is trying to prevent from making the same mistakes they did in their youth, as signs of her going down darker and destructive paths is becoming all the more likely. My main issues with this book is that the set-ups for future instalments are not as well tied in as the prior book. China Sorrows for example, is missing from a huge chunk of the novel, and only has relevance during the first major story beat, and then for a "big secret" to be revealed, even though it has no effect on the current story. Likewise another character is introduced in the book who holds no weight to the story, only to commit an action at the very end when everything's wrapped up, just to then lead into the next book of the series. Frankly I think there was enough here that set-up future stories, mostly involving Valkyrie's powers and heritage that you really don't need to force in specific plot points that hold no merit to the story being told. But like I said, these books just keep getting better and better. The wit in the dialogue and intrigue in the magical world is consistently great between books, and the characters keep getting more developed and compelling with each instalment, combine that with being the first book in the series to have legitimately compelling villains, and I'd say you have a damn good book on your hands.