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Authorised - Bill's Monthly
Column
July 2002
Hello and welcome to what will hopefully
be the first of a series of monthly columns telling you what I have been
up to in recent times. It’s been a fairly exciting month here in old
Prague.
Giantslayer
I have been working on the outline for
Giantslayer, the 7th Gotrek and Felix novel. The basics have been
discussed with GW and tentatively approved, subject to me not going
totally mad on the detailed outline. This book could easily be subtitled
Legacy of the Old Ones. There will be some hints concerning the nature
of these ancient masters of the Warhammer world, and a look at one of
their most powerful artifacts. The book should also see our heroes
encounter Teclis, the elven Archmage, which doubtless will be something
of a trial for Gotrek since the only thing he hates more than girly
elves are girly elf wizards with big pointed hats. The setting, in part
at least, is Albion. Manuscript delivery should be in approximately
October with a view to publication in Spring next year. Oh yes, and an
unnaturally large bi-pedal humanoid might get slain as well....
Eurocon
Spent the last weekend at
Eurocon in Chotebor here in the Czech Republic. Got a chance to meet
briefly with George RR Martin (www.georgerrmartin.com),
one of my favourite authors, and did the fanboy thing by getting my copy
of Storm of Swords signed. Also got a chance to catch up with Rob
Holdstock, and appear on a panel where under brutal interrogation I was
forced to confess to my membership of several Chaos cults, and tell
people how Gotrek will die. Fortunately no one believed me. The panel
was a lot of fun, and I only wish my answers had been half as
intelligent as the questions. I would really like to thank the kind lady
who did the translation for me but whose name I did not catch, and
Bohuslav Svoboda, of Polaris, Gotrek and Felix’s Czech publishers, for
hosting the panel. I’d also like to thank Pavel Koten and the rest of
the team for making it such an enjoyable convention. And to everybody
else I met in Chotebor, it was a real pleasure.
And now for something completely
different....
Far too much time has been
spent in the last month playing Final Fantasy 10 on the PS2. In case you
have not seen it this is an astonishing roleplaying game. The setting is
a water world very heavily influenced by Polynesian, Japanese and SE
Asian mythology. The combat system is a very nice updating of the old FF
RTB system with graphics to die for. The world is mapped in 3D and looks
almost real enough to touch. The gap between the game graphics and those
of the CGI cutscenes has narrowed astonishingly. Now the characters in
your party have body language, muscles that ripple as they move, and
facial expressions that change as their emotions do. Very impressive
indeed. Special mention should be given to the Aeons, the huge
demonic/elemental monsters you can summon to fight for you. The scenes
where these appear are simply amazing. I was also very taken by the
massive schooners with Maori patterns on their sails.
What else can I tell you? The
game has a detailed world, characters you care about, an intriguing and
moving storyline and a brilliant combat and magic system. What I would
not give to see a 40K version of something like this.
Right that’s it. Back to
work.
All the best,
Bill
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