A little 'Yautja' Action and some 'Age of Sigmar'...
It’s a slightly shamefaced Graeme who greets you today… After all my moaning and worry about having my teeth pulled, it turns out that yesterday’s appointment was just a prelude to the main event. A scan of my jaw (and the few teeth left in it), a little cleaning up and enough ‘laughing gas’ that there were actually a few moments that made me chuckle ;o)
I wasn’t good for much, yesterday afternoon (honestly, I’m a little surprised I made it to the train station…), so I took it easy and read a couple of short stories that I’d been meaning to get to. Let me tell you about them…
‘The Distance In Their Eyes’ – Stephen Graham Jones (From ‘Predator: Eyes of the Demon’, Titan Books)
Page Count: 12 Pages
The ‘Predator: Eyes of the Demon’ anthology has been sat on a shelf for a while now and every time I go to pick it up… You know what happens next ;o) Anyway, my youngest daughter finally watched ‘Predator: Badlands’ the other day, really enjoyed it too, so I took that as a sign and chose ‘The Distance In Their Eyes’ as my first read…
The Yautja Tel’s time among ‘Species 76-re0’ has been nothing short of a disaster. After all, how can you successfully hunt a species that won’t even hide, let alone fight? It’s only when he leaves the planet though that he realises, the real hunt may only just be beginning…
I haven’t read enough ‘Predator’ stories (a few, but…) to really have a good idea what the overall range is like. What I can say though is that I’ve never read a beautifully weird ‘Predator’ tale like ‘The Distance In Their Eyes’. The closest I’ve come is Jeff Vandermeer’s ‘South China Sea’ and even that tends to ‘follow the rules’.
‘The Distance In Their Eyes’ is a haunting tale that may be a little inaccessible for some (I struggled a little, anyway) due to its cast. The Yautja may be familiar but the introduction of a human character might have been useful. As it is, we have two alien species trying to make sense of each other which looks amazing but doesn’t give us much to connect with.
Maybe that’s the whole point though, that slightly ‘disconnected feel’ certainly adds to just how ‘alien’ this all feels and really encouraged me to keep reading, just to keep sampling ‘The Haunting of Tel’ (as it were). Some nice insights, into the Yautja mindset, remind us that we’re reading a ‘Predator Tale’. ‘The Distance In Their Eyes’ isn’t your average ‘Predator Tale’ though…
‘The Wanderer’ – Hal Wilson (From ‘On the Shoulders of Giants and Other Stories’, Black Library)
Page Count: 30 Pages
When I read Hal Wilson’s ‘The Past Returns’, I mentioned that I went looking for ‘The Wanderer’ but couldn’t find it. Turns out I wasn’t looking too hard… It’s actually the second story collected in ‘On the Shoulders of Giants’; a book that has a spot on my shelves. Dammit etc… ;o)
Once I realised this, I made sure to read ‘The Wanderer’ and…
‘The Wanderer’ (as far as I’m aware) is the tale that introduces us to Whisperblade Zelef Eryx and his role as Chief Enforcer for a Dawnbringer Crusade making its way through darkest Shyish. I say ‘enforcer’… Eryx is called on more as a detective when a spate of suicides threaten to destabilize the progress of the Crusade. Can he solve the mystery?
Well, we know the answer to that, don’t we? Makes me wonder why I ask the question sometimes ;o) ‘The Wanderer’ is more about introducing us not only to Eryx but to the role of the Whisperblade itself. A cynical part of me suspects that this story was published around the time that Games Workshop released a particular box of miniatures. Surely not though… ;o)
Anyway… Wilson gives Eryx enough character to raise this tale above that. We now know who the mysterious figure, on the box, is but we’ve also got a tale with an intriguing mystery and a leading character who is prepared to go to any lengths to solve it. Things are pretty straightforward but I wasn’t after much more than that so I was happy. I’ll definitely be checking out ‘Whisperblade’ now.
I wasn’t good for much, yesterday afternoon (honestly, I’m a little surprised I made it to the train station…), so I took it easy and read a couple of short stories that I’d been meaning to get to. Let me tell you about them…
‘The Distance In Their Eyes’ – Stephen Graham Jones (From ‘Predator: Eyes of the Demon’, Titan Books)
Page Count: 12 Pages
The ‘Predator: Eyes of the Demon’ anthology has been sat on a shelf for a while now and every time I go to pick it up… You know what happens next ;o) Anyway, my youngest daughter finally watched ‘Predator: Badlands’ the other day, really enjoyed it too, so I took that as a sign and chose ‘The Distance In Their Eyes’ as my first read…
The Yautja Tel’s time among ‘Species 76-re0’ has been nothing short of a disaster. After all, how can you successfully hunt a species that won’t even hide, let alone fight? It’s only when he leaves the planet though that he realises, the real hunt may only just be beginning…
I haven’t read enough ‘Predator’ stories (a few, but…) to really have a good idea what the overall range is like. What I can say though is that I’ve never read a beautifully weird ‘Predator’ tale like ‘The Distance In Their Eyes’. The closest I’ve come is Jeff Vandermeer’s ‘South China Sea’ and even that tends to ‘follow the rules’.
‘The Distance In Their Eyes’ is a haunting tale that may be a little inaccessible for some (I struggled a little, anyway) due to its cast. The Yautja may be familiar but the introduction of a human character might have been useful. As it is, we have two alien species trying to make sense of each other which looks amazing but doesn’t give us much to connect with.
Maybe that’s the whole point though, that slightly ‘disconnected feel’ certainly adds to just how ‘alien’ this all feels and really encouraged me to keep reading, just to keep sampling ‘The Haunting of Tel’ (as it were). Some nice insights, into the Yautja mindset, remind us that we’re reading a ‘Predator Tale’. ‘The Distance In Their Eyes’ isn’t your average ‘Predator Tale’ though…
‘The Wanderer’ – Hal Wilson (From ‘On the Shoulders of Giants and Other Stories’, Black Library)
Page Count: 30 Pages
When I read Hal Wilson’s ‘The Past Returns’, I mentioned that I went looking for ‘The Wanderer’ but couldn’t find it. Turns out I wasn’t looking too hard… It’s actually the second story collected in ‘On the Shoulders of Giants’; a book that has a spot on my shelves. Dammit etc… ;o)
Once I realised this, I made sure to read ‘The Wanderer’ and…
‘The Wanderer’ (as far as I’m aware) is the tale that introduces us to Whisperblade Zelef Eryx and his role as Chief Enforcer for a Dawnbringer Crusade making its way through darkest Shyish. I say ‘enforcer’… Eryx is called on more as a detective when a spate of suicides threaten to destabilize the progress of the Crusade. Can he solve the mystery?
Well, we know the answer to that, don’t we? Makes me wonder why I ask the question sometimes ;o) ‘The Wanderer’ is more about introducing us not only to Eryx but to the role of the Whisperblade itself. A cynical part of me suspects that this story was published around the time that Games Workshop released a particular box of miniatures. Surely not though… ;o)
Anyway… Wilson gives Eryx enough character to raise this tale above that. We now know who the mysterious figure, on the box, is but we’ve also got a tale with an intriguing mystery and a leading character who is prepared to go to any lengths to solve it. Things are pretty straightforward but I wasn’t after much more than that so I was happy. I’ll definitely be checking out ‘Whisperblade’ now.
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