Video Game Music Review - Bastion Original Soundtrack

Album Name - Bastion Original Soundtrack  

Released On - August 5, 2011 

Composed By - Darren Korb

Vocals Performed By - Logan Cunningham (01, 14, 22), Ashley Barrett (12), Darren Korb (17)

Lyrics By - Greg Kasavin (01), Darren Korb (12, 17, 21, 22)  

Published By - Supergiant Games

My first introduction with the inspired music by Darren Korb and Supergiant Games was not through Bastion, rather through the second entry Transistor, which impressed me with its uniqueness as it behaved much more like a complete artistic experience of an album, instead of being a patched up thing like many soundtracks.

The first entry, that is the soundtrack of Bastion, is even better at times, due to its often moody and engrossing charisma. From the beginning intro by the narrator, the listeners are pulled into the beautiful yet mysterious world of Bastion, and there is a positive sense of wonderful things to come for the adventurer.

The tide of thought-provoking and enticing music never lets off, and there is a skillful mixture of folk, country, electronic and alternative rock among other genres to keep the momentum going. In between this smooth instrumental journey interspersed are beautiful vocal tracks with nuanced lyrics and emotionally charged performances.

Compared to the much more polished nature of the later works by Korb, there is a distinct sense of rawness and desperation, as well as a sense of an emotional journey present here. Every track feels like a labour of love and I as a listener keep coming back to various tracks and even at times to the whole of the album years after my first listening.

Notable tracks - 'Get Used to it', 'Bynn the Breaker', 'Build that Wall', 'Twisted Streets', 'Brusher Patrol', 'Mother, I'm Here', 'Pale Watchers', 'Setting Sail, Coming Home' & 'The Pantheon' among others.

So, Overall Score  - "9.5 out of 10" 

Weekend Shorts - Five Views of the Planet Tartarus by Rachael K. Jones review

Name - Five Views of the Planet Tartarus

Written by - Rachael K. Jones review 

Published on - Lightspeed Magazine January 2024 (issue 164)

Flash fiction is a relatively new kind of short stories, where it is often quite hard to express any remarkable message due to the constraints of space. The reader is often left imagining consequences and things are left without any resolution.

But sometimes authors can provide a satisfactory performance even despite such meagre room for maneuver. Rachael K. Jones tells a story without any viewpoint character, using crisp prose and blending science fiction with horror in only 549 words.

Special mention is to be given to the shocking twist at the end, which also kind of comes full circle by ties with the beginning. And like any good short story this one keeps a lingering presence in the mind of the reader for a while.

Despite everything, I would have liked the story to be a bit more divulging, especially about the setting.

This is certainly a worthy Hugo/Nebula nominee and gets 4 out of 5 stars from me.

Retro Comic Review - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 1 #25

Name: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 1 #25

Published by: Mirage Comics

Writer & Artist: Rick Veitch 

Letterer: Steve Lavigne

The second issue of the 'River Saga' may be the weakest of the trilogy, but it is still way better than most other issues of the guest era. The story takes a new direction with the introduction of new characters and new story elements, keeping the reader guessing as to where the story is heading next.

The turtles get pulled into an environmental subplot, involving a greedy corporation and corrupted authority, and the pursuer for the Bloodsucker takes a back seat. But the ecologically motivated semi-conflict does end in this single issue as the trio restarts their quest with the help of a new ally.

Despite the enjoyable premise and execution, the new characters are quite generic and stereotypical in their depiction, and the dialogue at times contains some uninspired puns. And the story might have been polished a bit to make the issue even more powerful and enigmatic.

As like the previous issue, the art is quite detailed and engrossing. Once again, the villainous design of Bloodsucker was the highlight of the character's work.

This gets 3.5 stars out of 5 stars from me.

 

Weekend Shorts - Model Collapse by Matthew Kressel review

Name - Model Collapse 

Written by - Matthew Kressel 

Ilustrated by - Keith Negley

Edited by - Ellen Datlow

Published by - Tor.com 

My first read from this author was quite an interesting one. In such a small space the author has created a unique story that is part science fiction and part horror, and the story flowed like a breeze keeping focused and ended with a neat twist.

Much cannot be expressed about the story without spoiling it, so I will just say that it keeps mysterious all throughout, keeping the reader guessing what is really happening and where the story is actually going.

I would have liked a bit more explanation regarding the setting as many things are left unclear and the potential for further expansion of the premise is rather minimal due to the ending.

Overall score - 3.5 out of 5 stars.

 

Weekend Shorts - Human Resources by Adrian Tchaikovsky review

Name - Human Resources

Written by - Adrian Tchaikovsky 

Ilustrated by - George Wylesol

Edited by - Lee Harris

Published by - Tor.com 

[ Back with this special feature after quite a long time, as I have quite a lot of free time now, compared to what I used to have the last 3-4 years. Hopefully I can continue for a bit this time around. ]

Anyone who reads Tchaikovsky is bound to get attached to his unique prose style and sense of humor while telling a thoughtful or serious story. It seems he can pull this off quite remarkably in the short form as well.

This short is placed in the world of his full-length novel 'Service Model', although featuring different characters and sometimes before that story as well. This one features a human employee in an office where slowly they are becoming unnecessary due to them being replaced by artificial intelligence.

The prose is as enjoyable and smoothly flowing as always by the author. But the  main problem with the setup is that the ending twist could be guessed even from the beginning. The execution was brilliantly done, but the story does seem to be desiring a bit more meat to make it as memorable as other works by Tchaikovsky.

In the end, I'll give this 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Retro Comic Review - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 1 #24

Name: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 1 #24

Published by: Mirage Comics

Writer & Artist: Rick Veitch 

Letterer: Steve Lavigne 

The notorious 'guest era' in Mirage comics' original TMNT is known mostly for its inconsistency. These issues are often filled with pure randomness, awkward humor, and sheer mediocrity. But there are also some issues that are still regarded by some fans very highly even these days.

Issues 24-26 are fondly remembered by most fans as 'The River Saga' and the first issue brilliantly sets up the story. We get introduced to how Veitch characterizes the Turtles and their companions, get acquainted with his unique style of storytelling and also get our first glimpses of the main villain, who might be one of the best antagonists of this guest era if not the best.

The art is also quite beautiful, with detailed character works and poignant facial expressions. The first reveal of the humanoid depiction of the antagonist is master class of horror storytelling that I keep remembering quite often when I think of this arc.

There are a few gripes regarding how the characters speak at times or some unorthodox clothing choices not in touch with the general personalities, but these are things that can be easily overlooked based on the overall merit of the plot.

I'll give this a well-deserved 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review - Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void by Tim Lebbon

Name - Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void 

Written by - Tim Lebbon

Narrated by - January LaVoy

Series - Dawn of the Jedi 

Published by - Del Rey 

Audiobook by - Random House Audio

There are times when reading a book, you find that the actual setting is just being held back by the plot and characters on offer. 'Into the Void' has quite an interesting setting to work on and the author does quite a formidable job of world building to introduce us to it. But the plotline he uses to portray this setting and the characters he uses never do enough to engage me as a reader.

This story occurs during the time period of 'Dawn of the Jedi', which occurs more than 25,000 years before the movies. It is set on the Tython system and features the forebears of the Jedi order. The worlds described are quite detailed and certainly made me interested in further exploration.

But the story of Lanoree and his brother never really intrigued me much. The timeline kept jumping often without smooth transition, keeping me from being invested in the characters. The action bits were somewhat entertaining, but the protagonist kept getting knocked unconscious too often to seem formidable and unusually kept alive even being so vulnerable. Then when the ending came, it was just too underwhelming to register any meaningful response.

The narration by January LaVoy was quite palatable, and had no particular issues regarding accents or pacing. It is definitely not her fault; rather, the badly handled time-jumps by the author kept me losing attention at times.

This gets 3 out of 5 stars from me, mostly for the interesting setting and skillful world-building.