Futurismic

Blasphemous Geometries sees Jonathan McCalmont taking a run with Mirror’s Edge, a game whose hipster near-future dystopian stylings fail to disguise its underlying theme – freedom is illusory.

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After reading my previous column, you could be mistaken for thinking that only great games have themes and subtexts, and that those themes and subtexts only emerge when designers manage to work together and combine the various elements that make up a game into one shining image such as GTA IV’s initial depiction of the isolation and alienation that pervade 21st Century life. This is not in the least bit true.

Many crap games have themes, too. They have themes because every line of stilted absurd dialogue, every frustrating control mechanism, every poorly-designed level and every generic character all support one idea – an idea that the game designers almost certainly never had in mind when they started work on the title. Mirror’s Edge – from EA Design Illusions CE – is not only a terrible game, it is also a game with a clear thematic message: Freedom is an illusion, and all those who would claim to champion it are hypocritical and deluded fools. Continue reading “Mirror’s Edge – The Emptiness of the Short-distance Runner”

Looks like things are winding down for the holidays – I know I certainly am! But there’s still free fiction to be had …

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Much of the following comes courtesy of the SF Signal gang.

Recently-free fiction at ManyBooks.net:

• “Talents, Incorporated” by Murray Leinster
• “Fearful Symmetry” by Ann Wilson
• “History Repeats” by George O. Smith
• “Gold in the Sky” by Alan Nourse
• “Long Ago, Far Away” by Murray Leinster
• “Charley de Milo” by Laurence Mark Janifer

Jeff Patterson continues his tradition of Christmas stories with “The Harbinger of All Things Glorious“.

Bonus! Free audio fiction: SFF Audio has a reading of “Trunk And Disorderly” by Charles Stross.

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Chris Roberson rolls out a festive re-run: “Timmy Gromp Saves Christmas“.

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Oh, so you’d like some non-fiction, would you? Well, thank MetaFilter for this little pointer:

Gutenberg-e now offers open access to Columbia University Press history ebooks.

“These award winning monographs, coordinated with the American Historical Association, afford emerging scholars new possibilities for online publications, weaving traditional narrative with digitized primary sources, including maps, photographs, and oral histories.”

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Make way for the Friday Flash Fiction crew … a few troops short, but still soldiering on despite the weather!

Somewhat appropriately for the season, Dan Pawley has “A Kind Of Homecoming“.

Neil Beynon has either been at the funny mushrooms, or he’s visited a different “Centre Point” to the one in London.

Gareth L Powell will twist your head with “The Red King’s Nursery“.

Very appropriately for the season, Gareth D Jones is “Frozen“.

And yours truly chronicles the adventures of “Alex in Hinterland“.

Flash fiction bonus! As noted by Gareth D Jones, Guy Hogan doesn’t just post flash fiction at his blog, but provides tips and advice on writing the stuff too.

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Looks like that’s your lot for this week – but then I expect you’ll have plenty of other stuff to keep you busy, too.

From me (and on behalf of the whole Futurismic gang) have the best holiday you possibly can, whatever you may call it in your household! Take care, folks.

As the oft-quoted John Gilmore aphorism goes, the internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. Looks like the Communist government of China is finding that to be a truism.

February’s story is now available; Chris Nakashima-Brown spins us a near-future post-mediapocalyptic mind-bender about celebrity, freedom, America and meaning in “R.P.M.”.

R.P.M.

by Chris Nakashima-Brown

The 1994 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS hurtles south down Cahuenga after midnight, jury-rigged engine exhaling the throaty rasp of an emphysemic Olympian. Urban interceptor, an abandoned rental reclaimed as instrument of revolution.

Or at least that’s what 0z0 said the night before as he drilled holes in the muffler to amplify the effect.

“We’re gonna free the monster,” he smiled, lighting the welding torch. Continue reading “R.P.M. by Chris Nakashima-Brown”