Book Review: House of Leaves

Greetings, dear reader! Today's post might be a bit strange, as I'm a STEM student going to try his hand at literary analysis. I hope it goes well.  I've only done one book review before, and while Legends isn't the easiest novel out there, House of Leaves is in an entirely different ballpark. Please let me know what you think!

It all started a few months ago, when I was browsing YouTube and spotted something out of the ordinary. It's rare that a book review appears in my recommended feed. I consume plenty of media criticism, but it's usually of newer media, like games and film. But this video must've been trending in my circles, because it immediately caught my eye with its opening question.

"Scariest Novel EVER?!" thought my lizard brain. "I have GOT to check this out." And so I did. After hearing that the novel in question was a slow-burning, philosophical, epistolary novel with multiple layers of meaning a la Frankenstein or The Call of Cthulhu, I was sold. I quickly placed a reserve at my local library.

Some novels are great. Some are merely good. Some are outright bad. But some defy all categorization, refuse to be branded with a stamp of quality, and demand to be discussed. Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves is one of those. When I first finished it, I was disappointed. But something in me wouldn't let it go. I kept thinking about it as I drove to work and school, as I mowed the lawn, as I walked my dogs. I couldn't move on until I felt satisfied, until I'd deciphered the all-important meaning which was alluded to in the video linked above.

Well, I don't know if I've found the meaning of the book. But I've found a meaning. And like I said, this book demands to be discussed. So here's my theory: House of Leaves is about loss, love, and the meaning of life. With me so far? Ok, great. Let's dive in. Here there be spoilers!

Game Review: Skyfarer

Greetings, dear reader! As you are no doubt already aware, I'm a huge fan of the writing and worldbuilding done by the fine folks at Failbetter Games for their Fallen London universe. In fact, the reason I started this blog is so I could document the development of my fan-made tabletop RPG set in the Neath. I was heartened by the encouragement I got from other fans, but in the end I decided to scrap that project upon the release of Skyfarer, the official pen-and-paper companion to the videogame Sunless Skies. It took a while before I was able to try the system, but eventually I found a gap in my schedule and gathered some friends to play. So for today, I'd like to give a mini campaign diary and my thoughts as to how the system operates.

For our one-shot, we decided to tweak the setting slightly, and so the players took the roles of the crew aboard a luxury steam liner chugging its way across the murky waters of the Unterzee, a great salt lake to the east of Fallen London. The party consisted of Mr. Grum, a grim-faced quartermaster and personal butler to the ship's captain; Lal Westermore, a rat-person and engineer extraordinaire; and Constance Greaves, the dashing young signaler. As Gamesmaster, I took the role of the ship's captain, Lady Sophia Byron, a hedonistic socialite with a taste for fine wine and beautiful company.

Wastes of the West: Death of a Comedian

Greetings, dear reader! It's been approximately six months since my last post, but here I am, yet again, to regale you with tales from my adventures in 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons! This time, I'll try something a bit different from my usual pattern: a brief synopsis of a few sessions, rather than a detailed write-up of a single night's play. I hope you enjoy!

If you're just now joining us, or if you've forgotten and don't care to check the blog's previous posts, the setting for this campaign is the Wastes of the West, a dimension dominated by a vast shifting desert and populated by exiles from across the multiverse.

Wastes of the West: The Great Train Robbery

Greetings, dear reader! Today we'll be hearing another tale from the Wastes of the West. As usual, I tried to cover all perspectives as accurately as possible, but my memory isn't perfect, and so this is more of an oral history or a campfire tale than a perfect documentation of our group's adventures. Regardless, it's a fun one today. In this episode, our group robs a train!

Cerebirn awakes to see a gathering of elves around an oasis in the desert. The elven serving girl beckons to him. Confused, he follows.

3 Things I Like about Zweihänder

Greetings, dear reader! As you may know, I've been designing a game of my own for about a year now, an unofficial fan-made game set in Failbetter Games' Fallen London universe (you can play Fallen London for free here). "But Sam," I hear you say, "you haven't updated us on that project in months! I'd assumed you'd cancelled it." Not to fear, dear reader. In spite of a temporary lapse in inspiration, I've been continuing my design work in secret for a while. So today, I'd like to tell you all about my latest muse: a new game called Zweihänder.

In the event you're unfamiliar with Zweihänder, you should know that it's a rather difficult old-school revival game ("grim and perilous," as the designers call it), heavily inspired by Warhammer Fantasy (am I allowed to say that?).

Wastes of the West: The Elven King's Court

When we last left our heroes, they were being pursued across the dunes by a pack of hostile lizard-men. Let's rejoin them, shall we?

The gleaming trident collides with Thora's shoulder, pinning her to the floor of the covered wagon. Cerebrin ducks into cover to search his bag for medicine.

Wastes of the West: Pursued across the Dunes

Greetings, dear reader! I recently had the privilege of playing a game of fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons, ran by my friend Michael, who first introduced me to D&D. Our adventures take place in the Wastes of the West, where the most grievous criminals are sent to live out the rest of their days in exile. (You can read about the setting he's created here, here, and here, although there have likely been significant revisions since he's last written about it.) This campaign has a focus on role-playing our characters' beliefs, with XP rewards for having our avatars grow and change over the course of each session. Michael also encouraged us to make a journal of the events of each week, and I decided to share my journal with all of you kind people! So without further ado, let's enter the Wastes!

My character is Cerebirn,

Is Soulsborne Ludonarratively Dissonant?

Greetings, dear reader! I have a short post today, but it asks what I think is an important question: Does the Soulsborne series exemplify ludonarrative dissonance?

But let me back up. I need to define my terms before we launch into discussion. I'm fairly certain that most people are familiar with the Soulsborne series. It's only one of the most-discussed series of the last decade, credited with reviving an interest in difficult-but-fair, retro-style gaming.