Jared Rascher

Really a Hard Sell

Revisado: 10-12-20

The voice acting is well done, and what works works well, but there are several issues with this. Other reviews have mentioned the length of the production, and I know that even a short production was likely to be expensive. Still, it's hard to feel satisfied, especially when you realize that that 70 minutes is actually about 55 minutes with the really long intro and outro.

Having played through the original story, there are some key points missing (I'll hit the spoilers in a minute). One thing that I think would have helped is more of Ezren's journal entries, which did a good job framing the scenes where they were used, but aren't used nearly enough.

Since this ties into later chapters of a wider story, some of the omissions would have worked better if they had been expanded. For example, Aldern Foxglove is briefly mentioned, but his closeness to the heroes is important in the next chapter, and even a brief nod to the boar hunt (and the unusually proportioned boar, tied to omens of Lamashtu) would have helped.

Some other omissions aren't needed as much for the ongoing narrative, but would have made the events of the story less sparse, rushed, or unfinished. For example, there are a pair of mercenaries in the final location that would have been a good "twist" to help out the protagonists instead of the abrupt "this was too much for us before, but now that we've been captured, we can handle it."

There was also a rather significant mutant goblin that felt a little more important than Bruthazmus, and no reference to what was "in the basement" of the old fortress. I wouldn't have minded the goblin druid guarding the maze leading to the bridge either.

In the end, I'm not sure this is worth the price, even though I really appreciate the effort that goes into even a short production. At best I would hope there is a slightly higher price point that tips over the profitability line and allows for a better developed story.

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What Goes With a Published Edition Colors the Work

Revisado: 11-26-16

Any additional comments?

I give the book 4 stars because while it is a very important work, I'm rating not just on the quality, but the potential enjoyment of readers as well, and the inherent cynicism and intermittent unfocused scenes won't appeal to all readers.

Additionally, the afterword is--interesting. I'm 43 as of the time of this review, and have lived in the shadow of Gibson's work for a long time. It is important for predicting the direction society might be going, and does this in a manner that doesn't become so apocalyptic that what could happen doesn't appear to be impossible or removed from the present day. He is a very skilled writer that wrote a very important work that did an exceptional job of synthesizing multiple cultural trends.

If you stick around for the afterword, however, you will find out that not only are Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Gene Roddenberry hacks, but that science fiction has no business every being optimistic, and that Gibson didn't just do an amazing job of reading trends, but actually predestined the internet and multi-national corporations just be being the best writer to ever walk the face of the Earth.

Additionally, he should be proud that he did this, because the world sucks anyway, so it only matters that you do something great and world changing, not that you do anything positive in life, because optimism is a fool's game.

If anything, the afterword marks Gibson as one of the clear inspirations for the modern day internet Troll Culture, where you can't show that you care about anything, have to be relentlessly cynical at all times, you always predict the worst, and you point and laugh when the worst actually happens, because why attempt to make the world any better.

Read the book. Skip the afterword.

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