Back Space Book

Is that a proper title ? I’m not sure if that counts as a proper title.

But it’ll do until I find something better. I’m trying to do at least a post a week at the moment, although in these strange times, it’s a wonder what to write about these days. Need to acquire more meme themes. The quiz question posts are always fun to do and get you outside of what normally gets written about.

Thumbnail pic ?

Humour picture. A cat is biting a page of a book. The words say "A good book will feed your head. An excellent one will feed your cat, too."
Quite

I’m aiming to read more books this year too. Reading is stimulating and hopefully always fun, although some books can go into some quite harrowing situations especially if they are bringing to mind past trauma.

I finished Homeland last night, went straight into Exile in the same series. They’re part of the extensive Legend of Drizzt series by R.A. Salvatore, who brought considerable life to the Forgotten Realms setting created for Dungeons and Dragons. I remember the books being excellent when they first came out and Homeland was still good. The various series are :

Dark Elf Trilogy – Homeland (1990), Exile (1990), Sojourn (1991)

Icewind Dale Trilogy – The Crystal Shard (1988), Streams of Silver (1989), The Halfling’s Gem (1990). These books were written before but are set after the Dark Elf Trilogy.

Legacy of the Drow – The Legacy (1992), Starless Night (1993), Siege of Darkness (1994), Passage to Dawn (1996).

Paths of Darkness – The Silent Blade (1998), Spine of the World (1999), Servant of the Shard (2000), Sea of Swords (2001)

And a whole bunch more. I raided the titles and dates above from a Book Series In Order page at this link. I think I got as far as Siege of Darkness and then lost track of the series after that when the clan had all disappeared off to various universities and we couldn’t share our books any more. Sleepysister was a huge fan of these books as well.

When the whole series came up for sale as a batch on Humble Bundle, I couldn’t resist and picked up the lot for I think it was around $20. Bargain ! Humble Bundle occasionally comes out with fantastic bundles like that, plus there’s a charity thing to it as well.

Joke picture. A cat is looking up at a packed bookshelf. Caption "Excuse me, Miss librarian... Where would I find the section on World Domination?"
Enquiring minds need to know

What are they about ? The Dungeons and Dragons books tend to be based around adventuring parties. Some of them have their genesis in the adventuring modules, so the characters are often set up to be a balanced party. In this case, The Crystal Shard sets up with Drizzt Do’Urden as a ranger with magical companion Guenhwyvar. Drizzt is a legendary weapon master specialising in dual wielding swords. Oh and he’s also a Dark Elf attempting to fit in on the surface. Next is Bruenor Battlehammer, dwarven fighter. Wulfgar gets adopted as a human barbarian. Regis the halfling rogue gets them into trouble. And the last main member of the cast is the archer Catti’Brie.

There are various curious additional recurring characters along with the main protagonists as well. It’s been a while since I’ve read these books, it kinda felt like it was time again :-).

Game screenshot from Prey. 3 globules have been stuck together to form a snowman like thing, with gloves and other items added to give the snowman hands and a face. It is weird and a little disturbing.
Weird

My back hasn’t been too healthy over the past week, so outside of the books, I’ve been playing the less active games. I did try Prey last week but cut that session short after about an hour because I could feel the alarm bells preparing to go off with pain to follow. I haven’t been back into Elite since last Monday as well.

The back has been steadily improving since the weekend but I still need to give it a few days I think. I believe it’s been affected by the cold snap we’re having at the moment, plus a night spent sleeping a bit twisted.

Ouch. But getting better.

Game screenshot from Prey. We see from the eyes of the character. They're holding a big gun and looking towards a corridor. Webs of golden energy are in the way.
Weird tendrils of Thing

I’ve still been addicted to Mars Horizon … I’m loving that game. I remarked to someone earlier that I haven’t been back to Per Aspera (colony building on Mars) for a while. That’s mostly due to how good Mars Horizon is. This is one of the reasons why :

Game screenshot from Mars Horizon. It's a spacepedia entry for the Divine Dragon space shuttle.
Divine Dragon is the best name

I sadly can’t add the words there into the alt-text. There are too many ! However, I did just look up the wiki article for the space shuttle there. It’s called the Shenlong, which translates to Divine Dragon. Here’s the wiki link. The last complete game I did was as China, with that being their version of the reusable space plane in game. It’s a smaller spaceplane launched on top of a Long March 5 rocket. Bit like the Japanese version.

Anyway, things like this and the variations between the various space agencies just adds to the interest this game is giving me. I’ve enjoyed its planning and mission puzzles but the information in the spacepedia just elevates to an incredible level.

And what could I do after finishing China …

Game screenshot, Mars Horizon. We're on the red, dusty Mars. A China flag is in the foreground. Behind that is the Habitat lander and the crewed rover. In the background are what I think are more habitats or supply structures.
Mars Base, China style

But start again as the last space agency … Europe !

Game screenshot, Mars Horizon. We're on the surface of the Moon. An astronaut holds a flag. The lander is behind them. Earth is in the background.
We’re on the Moon again !

Yep. There’s a bit of addiction going on.

But not tonight cos I’m listening to a couple of table top rpg streams and I’m about to dive into book again.

Be well everyone, stay safe.