This love extended to, while I was in Japan, picking up various Three Kingdoms manga. I found no less than three different takes on Three Kingdoms (four if you count the “split” in the Scholar Bunko series) and one where, while Three Kingdoms is the setting it is not really the focus. I have heard enough of Ikkitousen to know it shouldn’t be considered among these (though I may check it out from sheer curiousity). So I figured I’d write up a bit about each. Read on if this sounds vaguely interesting.

Interestingly, though, during my research on the mysterious Huo Hu in Destiny of an Emperor, I found out that the original Tenchi wo Kurau (天地を喰らう) is actually based on a manga of the same name, rather than Yokoyama Mitsuteru’s Sangokushi. From what I gather (mostly speculation), the manga is incredibly biased towards Shu… like most.

Mitsuteru’s Sangokushi, from what I’ve read of it is just an expansion on the original story with a stronger focus on Liu Bei and his sworn brothers as characters (where in Three Kingdoms you only see the big picture). Zhang Fei is strong and loyal enough, but has a tendency to kill people who get in his way (even inadvertently). Guan Yu is, as always, wise yet decisive, and so on.

The Scholar Bunko series (also, of course, titled Sangokushi) is my favorite, since it’s closer to history or at the very least to the novel. The picture is more balanced than usual; Sun Jian is somewhat hot-headed, but his personality really comes out before Si Shui gate, where due to lack of supplies his troops begin to fail. His confrontation with Yuan Shu (who was to send supplies) thereafter is even more intense than in the novel. Too bad Cheng Pu comes off looking like such a jerk (and he doesn’t return for Chi Bi), but I’m glad he at least has a role.

Cao Cao comes off much like Julius Caesar – ambitious, motivated and somewhat manipulative. Incidentally, he has curly hair and wears a coronet-like headpiece. Just as in the novel, his character is shown in the anecdote wherein he manipulates his own father into mistrusting his uncle, so as to carouse as much as he pleased. Even minor events with Cao Cao such as his single-handed rescue by Cao Hong are faithfully shown.

The third Sangokushi series, which had no other distinguishing features, I can’t say much about. I couldn’t stand to read much of it when I saw that Zhang Fei looked exactly like Xu Zhu in Dynasty Warriors.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from anything that makes a modicum of sense is Ryuurouden (龍狼伝), or Dragon-Wolf Legend. Ryuurouden is the most stereotypical manga you could imagine that could pertain at all to Three Kingdoms. It involves (of course) a Japanese highschooler on a field trip to China who is magically transported back to Three Kingdoms. Even writing that made me shudder. He appears in the middle of Xu Shu’s debut battle (the one with the Seven Gates formation), and that appearance causes Xu Shu to be fatally wounded by a nameless subcommander under Cao Ren. Naturally, said high-schooler is chosen to take over as strategist.  He accepts so as to protect his girlfriend who was transported back with him. Xu Shu’s sister (oh yes, he randomly has a sister, Renhua, who fights alongside him) becomes angry at his death and all sorts of bad things ensue.

Characters are over-the-top – the more important a character is, the larger (physically) they are. Zhang Fei is roughly three times as tall as Shiro (the highschooler) and in several scenes is shown picking up other people one-handed. Zhao Yun, oddly, is shown as overly serious and obeying orders to a fault. He is one of the few good characters (as that’s a believable trait), as Cao Ren is shown as being strong but horribly inept and even Li Dian is shown as intelligent yet highly dishonorable. Ryuurouden does get bonus points, however, for admitting the existence of Sun Qian and even giving him a few important lines!

I only have the first volume of this manga, but it looks like it can only go downhill in most respects. It’s a guilty pleasure – fun to read, but at the same time so badly cliched.

If I had to recommend any one of these, it would be the Scholar version (by Yu Terashima, Toshiaki Kojima, and Lee Chi Ching).  The Scholar Bunko is the “beginning” part (I only have the Yellow Turban Rebellion and Anti-Dong Zhuo Campaign volumes – I don’t know how far it goes), and comes in standard manga size (approx. paperback).  There is also the Burger SC Deluxe (awesome name), which deals with the events of Chi Bi.  It’s a larger sized set, with much nicer art quality.  Unfortunately, it follows the novel in treating Zhou Yu like dirt, but such is life.

I often find myself reading the same series over again – Eddings’ Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium and Tamuli, Zelazny’s Amber and occasionally Tolkien’s various works are among my most re-read.  It’s not often that I try to branch out and give a new series a shot, but Weis and Hickman’s Death Gate Cycle came at a co-workers recommendation.

In the backstory, two powerful races were waging a cold war over dominion of the world.  Through some good luck and perhaps better cohesion, the Sartan won out over their enemies the Patryns.  An inherently optimistic race, the Sartan sealed the Patryns in the Labyrinth, a world-prison where they would spend thousands of years in peace, with the hope that by the time they escaped they would be rehabilitated.

The Sartan also went about the work of re-creating the world, splitting their one planet into four separate ones – each representing one of the cardinal elements.

Unfortunately, something went wrong.  Each world fell apart in a slightly different way, and the Sartan’s original intended purpose for each went astray.  The Labyrinth became a hellish dungeon-world, and the Patryns lived in fear – most not very long, at that.  Eventually, though, one escaped – and began to help his compatriots escape as well.  One of those escapees, Haplo, is sent out through Death’s Gate to scout out the worlds and, if necessary, prepare them for Patryn dominion.

The series starts off pretty slowly, but it builds up quickly.  The various worlds are the main draw – of them two were decent and three were pretty interesting.  Unfortunately, those three are introduced last.  The world-building quality, though, is quite good – all worlds are fairly cohesive and well thought-out.  The narrative itself is more standard fantasy fare, and the characters often switch around so it’s hard to get a good feel for many of them.

All in all, though, I’d say it’s still one of the better fantasy series I’ve read.

Sometimes this only ends in disappointment – for example, Klein’s Starmaster’s Gambit I found to be bland and not particularly cohesive.

My last random purchase was Mickey Zucker Reichert’s The Last Renshai.  The first book was not incredibly impressive at first, but I sometimes have overly high standards.  By the time I reached the end, there were more than a few twists that completely blindsided me, and I really enjoyed it.

I found out the book was part of a trilogy, and picked up the other two, The Western Wizard and Child of Thunder.   I actually read through them quickly enough I don’t really remember where the one left off and the next started.  In any case, they were all three enjoyable yet not like most fantasy.  I’ve read some of George R.R. Martin’s incredibly dark and depressing works, where a character will as soon die as become a hero, and the old villains will become the new heroes.  Likewise, I’ve read Salvatore’s intoxicatingly positive Icewind Dale, where all the main characters seem impervious to all challenges.  The Renshai trilogy strikes a good medium – most characters are in fact not invincible (with the exception of one of the main characters).  The narrative changes characters often, giving a good idea of what is happening on different sides of the continent.  Though occasionally cheesy (honestly a necessity for me to enjoy any fantasy novel), it’s a really fun read.   I would like to talk about the characters, but that would spoil much of the first novel – suffice it to say almost everyone is refreshingly three-dimensional.

Though I would hesitate to recommend it over, say, Brust’s Vlad Taltos chronicles, or Zelazny’s Amber series, The Renshai series is definitely up there.

Thanks to the wonders of a cell phone camera, I have wonderful low-res pictures to show off. As an aside, this is actually my first cell phone ever. I don’t know whether to feel like a caveman recently unfrozen or what…

These are even more lo-res than I thought they’d be… but here’s what I have with me gaming-wise.

So here’s what I’ve got.  My TV (with nonworking RCA – so only coax-quality for me), SNES and many games (one copy of Der Langrisser is easily visible, another more blurrily visible… yeah I have two… more about DL soon),  my PS2 (with some game cases and more in CD cases) and a couple PC and Saturn games.  Saturn is not pictured because I don’t want to set it up yet.

I’m considering spending part of my first paycheck on a better TV… stupid student loan grace periods corrupting my values.

Due to driving and getting all those wonderful necessities of individual survival, I haven’t had a whole lot of free time lately. This changes today, which I have almost entirely free.

Yesterday, I got the chance to try Lords of the Realm 3. It was $5, and I figured I couldn’t lose. I was mostly wrong, because aside from one very minor aspect of the game that isn’t even very well handled, everything the game has been done better elsewhere. The interface is iffy, the system is too hands-off, the manual is lacking and there are no tooltips… and the battle system was done better more than 5 years ago in other games.  I wouldn’t recommend it; Lords 2 is a much better game (and was selling for $20 at the same store).  Lords 3 advertises itself as being something like Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX: Set and forget stuff with officers.  In actuality, officers largely function as buildings with stats, except knights, who are armies with stats.

I’ve been reading a couple books, too.  Lots of time in the car and all that.  I read through Mickey Zucker Reichert’s  The Last Renshai.  I have to say I expected less, mostly because the cover showed a guy on horseback with two swords.  It has less depth than, say, Wheel of Time, but I found it a fairly enjoyable read.  The Last Renshai vaguely reminded me of Salvatore’s works (Drizzt etc), but lacks the happy-go-lucky cheesiness.  Both good and bad, I suppose, depending on what mood you’re in.

I’m now reading Alastair Reynolds’s (apparently that is the correct possessive?) Revelation Space.  Similar to Chasm City, it actually unfolds a bit like a mystery book.  It’s a bit grittier than I usually prefer, but it’s still good stuff.

Maybe now I can start Suikoden Tactics.

Oh yeah, anyone know where I should shop for a pre-assembled desktop?  Windows packaged with it and a cheap pricetag would definitely be bonuses too.  Mostly looking for something I’d be able to play newer games on, however poorly.  I know this is just asking for spambot comments but I may be picking one up sooner or later and any advice would help.

I finished a book recently called Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds.  If you’re a fan of science fiction, it’s good stuff.  Even if you’re not as much into the science of things; although there are explanations for several things, they aren’t generally related to the plot.

Anyway, it’s about this assassin named Tanner Mirabel who is tracking a man for unspecified reasons.  His hunt takes him to the formerly-rich planet of Yellowstone, particularly to Chasm City, where the reader begins to find out why Tanner is hunting this person – and why exactly Chasm City has become so desolate.

My brother tells me it’s a spinoff of a larger series, which sounds intriguing.  Chasm City has an amazingly intertwining plot, so it kept me occupied for a good while.  I highly recommend it if you’re looking for something serious (as humor is just about the only thing it lacks).
Now I get to move on to Brust’s Dzur.  If you haven’t heard of Brust, think of a combination of R.A. Salvatore and Roger Zelazny with a few twists.  It’s lots of fun, excitement, adventure, and humor.  I’m looking forward to it.