Stygian Software is currently undertaking development on an indie RPG titled Underrail. It’s a turn-based RPG displayed in an isometric view with a strong focus on combat and exploration. Set in an inhospitable future Earth, humanity has been forced to seek a new life under the planet’s surface. The titular Underrail is a network of metro stations controlled by rival factions and your character plays a key role in the events that follow. The developers promise a deep character customization feature, plenty of exploration, and an item crafting system.

Stygian has just released a new gameplay video showing off one of the early dungeons in the game which you can check out below. Keep coming back to The Indie Mine for Underrail updates and follow the developer blog for first-hand news.

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Late last year I had the chance to review John Trevillian’s novel The A-Men, a story about a group of lost individuals banding together in a future Earth.  If you read that review, you’ll remember that although I enjoyed the book, I had a few gripes with the disjointed story and confusing plot.  The A-Men Return, the second title in Trevillian’s planned trilogy, continues the story of the main character Jack and his surviving compatriots.  Where the first chapter in the A-Men’s story had its missteps, the sequel is an improvement on the first book in just about every way.  In fact, the only gripes I really had were the inconsistent portrayal of the female characters and the disappointingly cliched villain.  Although these issues play out at the climax of the story, they hardly detract from what is overall an enjoyable read for fans of post-apocalyptic or dystopian society stories.

The A-Men Return takes place roughly four years after the events of the first novel and follows the individual characters that have long since gone their separate ways.  Dead City, the main setting of the series, has established a kind of order out of the chaos as a number of rival gangs have found their footing amongst the savagery at large.  The surviving members of the original A-Men who are the focus this time around – Jack, Sister Midnight, Pure, Dingo, and D’Allesandro – have all led very different lives, but ones that are still true to their characters.  The second book follows the format of the first by having each chapter dedicated to one of five characters and rotating between them. The language for the characters’ outer voices and inner dialogue is written much more closely to their personalities which adds a nice wrinkle to the reading experience.  It’s fairly easy to open to a page, read a line or two, and instantly know whose chapter it is.  It’s also a nice change of pace when switching from one style to the next.

The A-Men Return continues the series’ tradition of bringing together characters from all walks of life.  It’s been a rough four years for Jack and in some ways he’s become less than human.  His vulgar, blase mindset comes out in just about everything he does and says.  At the same time it’s his yearning for an escape from the world that inspires and brings together the rest of the group.  Sister Midnight’s calm, focused presence is often played against Pure’s bitter, drug-addled fits.  Dingo the Wonder Dog has replaced his former friend 23rdxenturyboy(from the first book) as my favorite character in the series.  The experimental dog-man has a childlike innocence and exuberance that is refreshing among the grizzled cast and is far removed from a character like D’Allesandro and his scheming ways.  Because of the wide range of personalities involved, none of the characters felt like throwaways.

Characters are brought together much more quickly than in the first book leading to a more cohesive story that doesn’t run the risk of losing the reader through a multitude of plot threads.  The plot device of the A-Men’s internal communicators helps further that connection by allowing them to be in contact with each other even from great distances — all while D’Allesandro’s guiding hand bends them to his designs.  It is fascinating to see how the characters interpret the voices inside their heads and rationalize it according to their beliefs in the world around them.  This device was easily one of the best improvements between the first novel and this one.

Although the plot consistently moves forward, the bulk of the story takes place within a few set pieces.  Most of the really great sequences involve Jack, which should come as no surprise since his chapters are once again considerably longer than any of the other characters.   Jack running the gauntlet of the circus death maze feels like a B horror movie in the best of ways.  After being captured, his battle of wits against the AI that imprisons him calls back to popular fiction like 2001.  Jack’s adventures into the X-Isle, the simulated world that is a large focus of the series, are full of fantastic imagery and tense action as he must survive the ire of virtual gods.  The fact that this book is a sequel allows Trevillian to spend much more time driving the actual events of the book forward rather than setting up the backstories of the characters and the world.   The effect is a more exciting, pulpy experience.

I’ll admit I had some concerns about The A-Men Return after I read the first couple of chapters.  Jack’s crudeness was a bit of a turn-off.  All five characters starting off in separate locales had me worried that I’d have the same complaints as with the last book.  Those fears were soon allayed as the old crew started coming together and the action began unfolding.  I was hooked, and it was not so much on the culmination of the story as seeing how the characters dealt with each new adversity thrown at them.  Naturally, I’d recommend reading the first book before reading this one, as it is best to have some backstory on the A-Men and how they parted ways, but you could get by without doing so.  The finale of the second book sets Jack’s world up for the third entry of the series coming out in March of this year.  I can’t wait to see how Jack deals with both his successes and his devastating failures.

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

These days, the cynic in all of us believes the world is going to hell in a handbasket.  It’s difficult not to turn on the television without hearing or seeing how corporations and religion are influencing politics and vice versa.  Trying to make sense of it all is tough, but if we were suddenly thrust into this world with no knowledge of how things worked it would be next to impossible.  That’s the fate facing Jack, aka The Nowhereman, the main character of John Trevillian’s The A-Men.

The story takes place a couple of centuries in our future, on an Earth where corporations run and own just about everything.  The author begins the story in the aftermath of the corporations withdrawing from the planet, and how the remaining populace changes in order to survive.   The story feels like it’s made up of three acts, the first of which introduces our five main characters: Dr. Glass, Pure, 23rdxenturyboy, Sister Midnight, and Jack, each of whom brings something a little different to the table in a society in decay.  Each chapter bounces from one character to another, repeating the order to keep everyone at the same point in the book’s timeline.

The characters are all very different in their demeanors, motives, and places in the world, so surely there’s something to appeal to everyone.  I was frustrated early on with Dr. Glass’ mad scientist techno-jargon.  I found it easy to get bogged down in the descriptions of his project, a Matrix-like world called the X-Isle and the technology involved with running it.  Pure’s character gives the reader a look at the moral decay of Earth’s remaining denizens as she and her transvestite friend Lucille jump from one drug-induced bad decision to another.  23rdxenturyboy and his man-dog pal Elliot provide arguably the only levity of the story with their childlike innocence, enthusiasm, and hero worship in the form of an obsession with cartoons and comics.  Sister Midnight plays one of the more fleshed-out characters with her dual role as both soldier and religious devotee.  Her strength of will and fortitude help give the reader a grounded sense as chaos erupts later in the story.  Tying it all together we’re introduced to Jack, a soldier who begins his story by waking up with no memory.  The only thing Jack knows is that he intentionally had his memory wiped.  Jack’s segments are the longest in the book as he copes with both seeking out his unknown past and navigating the immediate dangers of the present.

Throughout the introduction to these characters, it can be difficult to find a purpose in a few of them.  Aside from Sister Midnight and Jack, none of the characters were interacting with each other in their stories, occasionally making it a jarring transition going from chapter to chapter.   That kind of convention works a lot better in a Tarantino or Ritchie movie.  It left me feeling much like Jack – lost without a clue.  While Pure and 23rdxenturyboy are both interesting in their own ways, they only play minor diversions as the bulk of the story is told through Jack.   Jack plays the part of the asshole from start to finish and it can be difficult to root for him at times.   However, the contrasting styles of Jack and Midnight are enjoyable and only become more pronounced as the story progresses.  Long-standing debates like religion versus science and order versus chaos play out through these two emblematic characters.

The story really picks up in its second act during which Sister Midnight and Jack are part of a military raid on a former corporate center, tasked with removing all civilians from the area.  Their plans quickly evaporate under the resistance from the various gangs that have taken hold of the area, now called Dead City.  This segment is heavy on Tom Clancy-esque action, but in its quiet moments finally start to reveal some backstory through Jack’s involuntary flashbacks and his forays into a fairy-tale book he possesses called Forevermore.  We also finally begin to see the first integration of Pure and 23rdxenturyboy’s stories as they are both planetside during the invasion.  The former’s escape is utter chaos and the latter’s a strange mix of absurdity and sadness.  Although pieces are still missing in the backstories of these characters, the well-written action segments are arguably some of the strongest in the book and help reign in the confusion for awhile.

As Jack and Midnight’s plans completely fall apart, the story enters its final stage.  Gang warfare and basic survival are the focus in what quickly becomes a Road Warrior-like setting.  It’s at this point where the fragmented story fully comes together.   Jack and Midnight’s neverending arguments eventually result in his takeover of the team and formation of the titular group the A-Men.  Jack sees it as a means to start over in a world gone to hell.  In a truly grindhouse nod, Pure joins up with a gang of  supermodel warriors before eventually joining up with Jack.  Once there, her character finally gets some added depth.  23rdxenturyboy inadvertently hooks up with the group and we finally learn a little bit about who he is, though it’s frustrating that it took so long for details to emerge that were not important in the grand plot.  Dr. Glass also plays a more central role as the other players eventually come across him and his operation, and a thrilling, action-packed conclusion is set in motion at his behest.  We also find out the real history of Jack including who he was and why his brain was wiped.

By and large the final act of the story is enjoyable, but there are a few problems.  Some of Jack’s choices and actions were not understandable.  Without giving away too much plot, after wooing Midnight back to the team he immediately runs off with another woman, leaving behind the team he fought so hard to build and the woman he just fought so hard to win back.  It’s a given that the man has had his brain worked over, but either his actions are annoyingly inconsistent or the passage of time in this segment wasn’t properly conveyed.  Dr. Glass’s operation was also never completely clear to me.  What was the endgame for the virtual world he was trying to create, and why was his self-written fairy-tale collection Forevermore central to the virtual world?  Those stories play a big part in Jack’s evolution and the life he tries to create in the real world, but it’s not clear what it all means to Dr. Glass.

My feelings about this book changed about as often as Jack’s motivations.  At times it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the technical aspects of Dr. Glass’s machinations.  I found a few of the main characters underused – despite their intriguing personalities and situations – until far too late in the book.  However, there is a lot to take away from the story as well.  There are a lot of debates here common to this and other mediums that don’t exactly tread new water, yet are still interesting due to the setting in which they’re employed.  Pop culture elements from movies like Total Recall, The Road Warrior, Escape From New York and other sci-fi works and pulpy classics find their way into the story.  I think fans of those films will find a lot to enjoy in this particular dystopian world.  As the first entry in a planned trilogy, I’m looking forward to seeing not only how Jack continues to evolve, but how the storytelling does as well.

The A-Men, by John Trevillian.  Publisher: Matador; 1st edition (29 Mar 2010)

© 2011 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Ready Player One
Ernest Cline
Random House. August 16, 2011
384 Pages (or 15 hour audio narrated by Wil Wheaton)

Set against a back splash of a ruined world where most of the inhabitants have escaped to live online, Ready Player One ferries us to a future that’s all too feasible.  It’s 2044, and a kid named Wade is our lumpish progeny, nurtured at the teat of technology and having little interest in the real world or even in the real Wade.  When we meet our orphaned hero, he lives in a teetering stack of trailer homes on the outskirts of nowhere, grumbling about the absence of God, scavenging tech equipment and relying on his wits to stay alive and online.  90% of his life is lived in OASIS, an enormous, largely benevolent virtual reality derived from multiplayer online games (or MMORPGs).   Put on a visor and a pair of haptic gloves and OASIS is your retreat from the physical world: a vast collection of possible and impossible worlds with a stable economy, perfect weather, jobs, and free education (with travel and “material” goods available at nominal micro-transaction prices). 

In OASIS, Wade becomes Parzival, a low-level avatar who attends a virtual public school.  Beyond his approaching graduation, Wade’s future looks pretty bleak, but then James Halliday, the creator of the OASIS system, bequeaths his company and entire fortune to the first person to find the “Easter Egg” he hid in in the system, and Wade sets out to find it with the same kind of instincts that keep his body functioning in the real world.  

Halliday was an introverted visionary, obsessed with the 1980′s – a formative decade for him and for computers and gaming.  The keys to finding his Easter egg are hidden in early gaming puzzles and 80′s culture references.  Wade becomes a serious “gunter” (short for egg hunter), methodically studying old text games, becoming an expert on 80′s consoles, episodes of Family Ties, Japanese cartoons, movies, commercials, music videos and  minute details of the life of James Halliday that are all archived in OASIS.  Wade’s avatar races to different locations and solves puzzles to progress on the scoreboard, much like playing in an actual MMORPG.  There are friendly competitors as well as drones of a powerful super-corporation bent upon winning, but since Wade told us at the end of the brief, seemingly tacked-on opening “Chapter 0000”  that he’s won, this is just the tale of how.  What’s telling about Wade is that he has only the vaguest plans for the prize itself.  And since his focus is on the achievement rather than the goal, I think that’s where Wade loses me a little.  This is usually the point where the hero does it all to save the farm…but perhaps the farm comes later.

While Ready Player One is an engaging read, I was disappointed by a couple things – one of them being the “I won and here’s how” self-spoiler.  It’s not that the journey isn’t good fun, or that I’d seriously consider Wade might not win, but I’d like to have gotten there with him rather than being lead down the path.  Actually, now that I’ve said that – there might have been more interesting alternatives to him winning, but those were roads the author firmly closed to that pesky reader’s imagination.  By doing so, the story cannot help but be predictable – ancillary characters appear and disappear as needed, and any threat to Wade carries little punch. 

The book also tends to tiptoe around what I consider to be the intriguing issues, ideas that are tossed into the morality scales but remain unweighed.  Should we escape to better, created worlds, or work to fix the real one?  We may have such a decision ahead of us.  Would that sort of world free or shackle us?  Open virtual public schooling?  Part of me says “great idea!” and the other part hangs back, trying to repair the vision of a nation of pale, non-socialized humans that might result.  I can only assume from his light hand with the major “problems” that the author intends to return to this setting, much like Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games series.  Having created a near future when our grand-kids have retreated from the real world is far too interesting a premise not to smell “sequel” to me.  I just hope I’m just smelling sequel and not bad movie. 

A big part of the book’s attraction is rooting Wade’s achievement on his knowledge of the 80′s –  a time most  of us lived through and remember with nostalgia and a sudden desire to go to the mall.  If you think it unlikely that a young man would want to study a past decade so thoroughly, imagine the library parking lot the day Bill Gates decides to award his fortune based on a Civil War quiz.  Having, myself, survived and possibly thrived in the 80′s, I enjoyed Wade’s visits to OASIS virtual shrines of pop culture: planets called Gygax, worlds based on Blade Runner, RUSH lyrics and Zork, and boxes of Cap’n Crunch in every virtual kitchen.  I enjoyed the references as part of my own history, and as Wade continues his studies and quests, the book has the interesting perspective of a fictional future looking into our remembered past. 

I really looked forward to reading this book, but feel that the probable sequels will flesh this story out better.  Ready Player One feels quickly written and is quickly read.  The author, Ernest Cline (whose writing history includes the movie Fanboys) might have made this into a very good 600 page novel rather than what seems a readable screenplay treatment that strokes our nostalgia.  Take an intelligent young man with time on his hands, add fodder for the reader’s memory mill, gaming references, light romance, an evil corporate adversary and the pursuit of treasure, and what results is a pleasant, late summer beach book – entertaining without the burden of substance.  I’d recommend it as such, possibly for young adults – but it saves most of its fun for those of us who lived, gamed and struggled to mature in the 80s.

© 2011, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.