I’ve been steadily reposting my Recommendations. If you missed them, here are this week’s.
The Roman Mysteries
Look, I’m not big on mystery fiction, so for me the appeal isn’t the Mysteries part of the series, is the Roman part.
“Daily life of average people tends, both in pop culture and academia, to take a back seat to the big, exciting decisive set-pieces of history — the battles, the conquests, the assassinations, the big heroic dudes (and it is usually dudes, rather than women…) doing big heroic things. … Where I think The Roman Mysteries really shines is in describing the details of daily life of average, everyday people.”
Immortals Fenyx Rising
Other, Better Games: The Game
“If nothing else, Fenyx Rising is solid as a sort of ‘My First Open-World Adventure RPG’, or a good change of pace for people who enjoy this style of game but want a more lighthearted, family-friendly take on the genre. … Though, fundamentally, I’m recommending this more on the basis of style and substance.
Though it does have the fact that it’s CanCon going for it.”
Koei’s Warriors Games
[Dynasty/Samurai/Fire Emblem/One Piece] Warriors, come out to play-ay…
“
Critics don’t seem to like the Warriors game, decrying them as mindless and repetitive. And, yeah, they kind of are. Recently, though, the games have done a lot more to emphasise the importance of tactics and managing the battlefield, rather than just plowing through the enemy. They’re maybe not for everyone (but is anything?), but if they’re the kind of the thing you like, then you probably like the Warriorses a lot.
And even if you hate the gameplay, you’ll probably love the soundtracks.“
Ya Boy Kongming!
Our story begins in AD 234 on the Wuzhang Plains. Zhuge Liang dies of illness, his last wish to live in an age of peace. He is promptly reincarnated in present day Shibuya.
“A shining example of one of my favourite story premises: ridiculous people doing mundane things, Ya Boy Kongming tells the story of a time-displaced Chinese war hero attempting to conquer the cutthroat world of the Japanese recording industry.”
The New Legends of Monkey
Show. Me. The. Monkey!
“Honestly, New Legends of Monkey reminds a lot of the 90s Hercules and Xena shows, though with an Chinese mythology angle, rather than a Classical mythology one. And it’s probably as faithful to that mythology as Hercules and Xena were.”
The Forbidden Kingdom
There. They fought. It’s done. Never ask us for anything again.
“Sure, Jackie Chan vs. Jet Li doesn’t live up the hype. But I don’t really fault the studio for hyping it up. Movies are expensive, marketing is hard and “Jackie Chan and Jet Li finally fight” is an obvious selling point.
As it happens, the movie overall is actually pretty cool.”
The Chronicles of Prydain
Lord of the Rings, but Welsh.
“Chronicling (apologies for the pun), so to speak, the story of an orphan boy, a magic pig, a princess fond of strange metaphors, a woebegone forest creature, a wandering minor king moonlighting as a bard fond of egregious self-promotion, with support from a fairly archetypal old, wise sorcerer type and Prydain’s answer to Aragorn, The Chronicles or Prydain could be glibly and uncharitably, though not entirely inaccurately, described as “Welsh Lord of the Rings.”
Granted, that description does Prydain a disservice, especially considering that was written before Lord of the Rings really exploded in popularity.”
Redwall
Redwall will emotionally destroy you.
Centred around and named for Redwall abbey,, Redwall, authored by the late Brian Jacques, was going Medieval with enough aptitude and success to get 22 books and nearly 30 years of mileage out of the concept. The series itself spans generations and traces the history of Redwall and its inhabitants at various points in time.
And, of course, this week’s chapter is here:
My other recommendations are here.
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