Eyes of the Void - R.A. Young - July 31, 2024
The second book in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Final Architecture trilogy is named Eyes of the Void. As a quick introduction — it combines a fight against the planet-destroying Architects with hyper-intensifying tensions between human and alien factions, all told through the personal perspectives of a ragtag crew of Odd Couple salvage crew friends. And it is depressing as fuck.
In defense of Tchaikovsky, Eyes of the Void is not written in a depressing fashion whatsoever. It’s fast-paced and its POV characters are determined if not optimistic. But between the cracks, beneath the skin, it fills me with existential dread.
How else can you write a story about a profound universal threat threat? Where fighting back isn’t a matter of strength, but scientific understanding so far beyond ken it becomes religion? Where the greatest obstacle preventing progress is humanity’s selfishness? Everything fucking sucks in the future. That’s war, I suppose. Why does it feel worse because the protagonists are optimistic? Because the entire book is framed like a romp of an adventure?
I’m torn between really enjoying Eyes of the Void because it’s rare to fully capture just how fucked such a massive conflict is even through such a limited perspective and disliking the book because it isn’t patient or thoughtful enough to acknowledge it’s doing what it’s doing. It’s too busy keeping things moving forward. And that makes me question if the deeper themes are accidental, or perhaps just sloppily done and I’m giving the book too much credit.
Perhaps I’ll know better after finishing the final book in the series. It hopefully doesn’t take multiple months.
Death of Comic Book Criticism
There’s a website not entirely unlike Metacritic, except for comic books. It’s named ComicBookRoundup and it’s been around since about 2012. It’s not widely used or referenced, but there was a point around 2014 when it saw a good amount of traffic — for a comic book website, at least. Being the mark that I am, I still regularly check ComicBookRoundup to see what comics are getting good reviews and to aggregate some ratings for fellow comic mark friends. One of those friends made an interesting point today while looking at reviews. Where have all the comic book reviewers gone?
As a former video game reviewer and a self-described follower of media criticism apocalypticism, I decided to follow through and see just how true it might be that comic book criticism is dying or dead. I went through the list of this week’s reviews and one name stood out to me. The latest issue of Saga, the popular lurid sci-fantasy comic from Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, had just two reviews for the week. Now, Saga in 2024 may not be as popular as it has been in the past, but it’s still significantly more popular than most comics. That it had just 2 reviews is shocking. Still, when the most popular comics of the week only have 7 total reviews, maybe 2 is better than nothing. I went ahead and checked past Saga issue releases for comparison and saw that at its peak Saga garnered a healthy 30 reviews. This was back in 2013. Then I decided to look up what happened to all those reviewers in the years since.
Of those 30 websites that reviewed Saga #9 in January 2013, only 4 still publish comic book reviews. Only 4. They include AIPT, CBR, Major Spoilers, and Henchman-4-Hire. That’s two larger for-profit websites, one mid-sized community-funded website, and a personal blog. 26 websites have left comic book reviews behind. Several of those are still publishing comic-related content, but no longer post reviews specifically. Those include IGN, Den of Geek, Newsarama, and Bloody Disgusting. Newsarama’s even removed all of its old comic book reviews. Hell, CBR has removed most of its past comic reviews. Tragically, most of the remaining 26 either no longer publish any content of any kind, and 12 have disappeared off the internet entirely. Comic book criticism is a wasteland. And, if anything, it’s only getting worse.
This isn’t exactly a scientific endeavor, to be fair. ComicBookRoundup isn’t aggressively hunting for reviewers to add to its aggregation. Reviewers have to reach out first, and then submit their reviews individually. Further, personal blogs and small websites have broadly been supplanted over the past decade by social media and newsletters, neither of which are accepted through ComicBookRoundup. There may be just as much formal comic book criticism now as there was in 2013, but fans will have to dig for it.
It isn’t just comic book criticism that’s dying. Music criticism barely exists beyond Amazon-style user review aggregates and glowing magazine features. Few would disagree that video game criticism is in a great place with its 7-9 scale. Movie criticism is a bit better if you can escape the reductive “Fresh” system of Rotten Tomatoes. At least critics are allowed to not like movies. What do comic books need to do to get back to a healthy place? I wish I had an answer, but I dream of comic critics being allowed to thrive again.
Visiting Hinterberg
A new action-adventure game named Dungeons of Hinterberg has captured my attention over the past week. Each day the player can complete one of 25 dungeons, return to town and hang out with a friend to build their relationship, put off sleep to build up a stat, and then rest before a new day starts. All the while story is intermingled, triggered by certain events and decisions, revealing secrets regarding the town of Hinterberg and its strange dungeons and magic.
If that sounds mysterious and intriguing then you understand why I decided to try Hinterberg out in the first place! But trust me, this game is much stranger than any typical action-adventure game with rudimentary Persona daily scheduling. First off, it features a modern setting and with it modern problems. While the dungeons are full of goblins and other familiar fantasy creatures, the true conflict of Hinterberg is that very real and nefarious concept — capitalism!
Without digging into spoilers, I don’t want to overpromise on Hinterberg’s themes. Lucina is more interested in her budding friendships in Hinterberg than anything else. It’s great to have underlying themes, especially political ones, but I question the overall value of doing so lackadaisically. Still, there’s something to be said about dealing with societal issues by sharing the burden with friends, while also focusing on productive and joyful aspects of life along the way. I’m hoping the ending of the game manages to punctuate the themes strongly, though. I’m not sure how well I’d consider it overall without a punchy finish.
Lightning Round
Here are a few quick bullet points covering various topics that I’m too exhausted to write anything more than a blurb for:
Deadpool vs. Wolverine — Through Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, I was a major MCU cheerleader. In the phase after? I went from 100 to 0 in 60 seconds. Deadpool vs. Wolverine did not bring me back to the fold, but I don’t think it was supposed to. It’s just a terrible yet hilarious popcorn flick made for nerds, just like its Deadpool predecessors. That’s enough for me.
San Diego Comic-Con — This past weekend’s major comic convention was packed full of nerdy news. DC is making its own Ultimate universe with characters like Wide Batman and Not-Really-Barda Wonder Woman. It might be cool if Snyder wasn’t writing it! The Fantastic Four movie has a fun retro style, but Reed Richards is still over 50 years old — quite weird for a sort-of origin story! Marvel Comics didn’t announce shit worth being excited about.
Critical Role — I’m making another attempt to watch Critical Role, going back to the original Vox Machina campaign. It’s admittedly A LOT. Every episode is between 3 and 5 hours long. I don’t even remember any of what I watched the first time through, but I do remember which players I enjoyed the most. Liam O’Brien and Laura Bailey’s Vax and Vex siblings are wonderful, as is Travis Willingham’s Grog. Others I may need more time to get to know. I’ll certainly have plenty of time with them.
Murderbot’s Return — I’m taking a break from the Final Architecture while the third book is mailed. Instead, I’m returning to the Murderbook series! I’m starting up Network Effect, the fifth book and the first full-length novel after the four novellas. I love Murderbot. I can’t wait to see what shenanigans it gets up to next.
What’s Next? — I’m wrapping up Hinterberg and don’t have another game lined up. I may or may not end my Final Fantasy 14 subscription as the endgame grind isn’t exciting to me. Overwatch 2 and Marvel Rivals are fun to play with friends. Also, I really want to read some damn comics. I just need to get my brain straight.
Politics — Fuck politics (hopeful).
This last week has been an experience, y’all. First off, happy birthday to my brother Eddie. Second off, thank you all so much for reading my silly newsletter. I’ll keep writing if you keep reading. Love y’all — Rory