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I just recently finished reading John Brown’s novel Servant of a Dark God.  The cover art for this book is amazing and immediately demands your attention. The book is a good sized read roughly 492 pages.  From the start John begins to unfold the elements of the world around you progress deeper and deeper into the book.

 

Servant of a Dark God is about a land which is ruled by the Divines, magic exists and is tightly controlled. Only the Divines are allowed to wield the knowledge of Fire. 'Fire' consists of the spirit and life of a person and is the direct fuel for magic. Anyone who attempts to use Fire other than the Divines are labeled as 'sleth' or 'soul-eaters--dreaded figures thought to steal and consume the Fire of others.  

 

The novel largely follows Talen, but the book doesn’t completely follow any specific protagonist. The story is instead the story of two families in particular. Therefore, if Talen's an irritating protagonist (he did start out a little immature and annoying), the reader can look forward not only to his maturation (he does eventually), but also the thoughts and motivations of many other characters.

 

Brown's novel is unlike any story you have read before.  There are some traditional fantasy elements here and there, but I felt like I was embarking on a new adventure. And thus, I want to say first that I truly enjoyed my adventure.  John Brown's immense attention to detail is astounding. His world is immense and detailed--almost dauntingly so. It did take me awhile to pick up the exact structure of the government and whatnot (which was easier after I conceded and made liberal use of the 'Terms and People's section in the back of the book).

 

I found myself enjoying the book quite a lot and am looking forward to reading the next in the series: CURSE OF A DARK GOD.  So if you are looking for a great read, a new and interesting world to explore where the magic of the land is far different than any other fantasy book out there, a book with rich vibrant characters you will find yourself hoping against all odds for.  Then this book is for you! 

 

-Revan
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As rumored in various radio media yesterday, 101.9 The End has dumped its DJs and gone, as they say, "jockless" for the first time since its inception in 1996.

As reported by All Access, this means no more Jimmy Chunga and ... who else was on The End? Since I never changed my radio preset when they switched from 107.5 years ago, have no idea. Also, AA says The End's bold new automated format will now "focus largely on ‘90s music." Great--how many stations do we have in Salt Lake already doing that? Gotta love radio consultants.
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Sega presents Resonance of Fate, a new JRPG from Tri-Ace. It's a role-playing experience that swaps swordfighting for gunplay, and it's designed from the ground-up for hardcore fans of the genre. Jason D'Aprile has logged in dozens of hours on it, but according to him, it wasn't necessarily time well-spent. Here's why:

"On the surface, Resonance of Fate offers up a veritable smorgasbord of destructive possibilities. It is an RPG focused entirely on acrobatic gunplay where you upgrade and level up your weapons  with the same detail you normally assign a character. The mix of firearms and otherwise traditional JRPG elements is an intriguing combination, likely to attract players sick of giant swords and sorcery.

Unfortunately, Resonance of Fate ends up feeling more like a proof-of-concept experiment than a game. Granted, it’s a really long experiment, but rife with frustration and torment because of the obtuse and absurdly complicated game mechanics. To put it mildly, RoF is a game for the hardcore, and it makes no apologies or exceptions on the matter."
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CONduit is Utah's longest-running and largest general science fiction and fantasy convention.  This year they are celebrating CONDuit’s 20th anniversary! CONduit XX: Space Pirates of CONduit will be held May 28-30, 2010 at the Radisson Downtown in Salt Lake City, Utah. So come on down and be part of the fun and celebrate with the folks at CONDuit!

 Not only is this the longest running science fiction and fantasy convention, but your hosts of Dungeon Crawlers Radio.  Revan and Malak will be there again this year.  Last year we were a part of CONDuit and we had tons of fun! We met several great authors,  Bailed out a fellow podcast the hosts out of a tight jam, Interviewed several talented people, and so much more!

You can come dressed up or dressed down. Last year we met Jack Sparrow, Superman, Master Chief, a Jawa, and several others.  

If you haven’t been to CONDuit yet?  We suggest you come down to the Radisson Hotel in downtown Salt Lake and see what you’ve been missing!
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It has been six months since officially Dungeon Crawlers Radio took the air waves of UtahFM.  Now we were completely excited to get any time slot we could get our hands on and of course as newbies to the station we got one of the crappiest time slots ever.  Now this was nothing against UtahFM at all.  We were the new guys on the block and the programming department couldn’t just give us any pick of the available time slots.  Like most radio stations the new guy gets the crappy late night shifts. 

So here we are six months later and our show is going strong.  Our numbers have increased and we are getting more and more popular.  Through a little manipulation and some elbow grease we are moving to a new time slot. 

We will still be on Monday nights we will just be on a little earlier.  Dungeon Crawlers Radio will now air from 6:00 to 9:00pm right after Portia Early’s Unsigned and Uncensored. 

Thank you to everyone that has listened to our show live and our podcasts.  Tell your friends, tell the geeks in your family, and be sure to tune in to the new and improved 3 hour long show of Dungeon Crawlers Radio!!  
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  Malak and I recently attended LTUE at BYU and sat down with many amazing people that help to start this Idea.  We were sitting in an empty room with no interviews coming in yet and still kind of setting things up when we seen several panelist with newsletters for their projects.  I'm not sure which of us verbalized the idea, but we both instantly agreed that we needed one.
Now a newsletter is not an easy task to undertake especially a monthly newsletter.  None the less we decided to go for it full on as we always have.  As thus out of that chaotic mess came the idea for the Dragons Horde.  A monthly newsletter produced by Dungeon Crawlers Radio and written by Revan, Malak, and friends of the show.
We hope that this newsletter will help to keep you updated about what's going on with out show, the podcasts, events, reviews, ideas, and opinions of us here at Dungeon Crawlers Radio.  The first issue will be coming out in March.  If you’re interested in getting a copy click on the contact us link and send us an email!
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What could be better that watching a group of Jedi charging into battle with lightsabers lit locked in battle against a Sith Lord?

How about lightsaber wielding acrobatic Jedi and Sith Lord Squirrels!!!

The Image above is of course totally photo shopped but it was completely hilarious!!

 
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I recently read the article by Stephen Johnson of G4TV about the recently crown Miss America, Caressa Cameron from Virginia.  Ms. Cameron used the competition as a platform to speak out against video games.  She actually suggested parents should: "Take away the TV, take away the video games, set some standards for our children." She went on to suggest kids should be outside, "playing imaginary games with sticks in the street like I most of us did when we were little."

While Miss America's advice is relatively sensible, consider the source. Is Cameron suggesting that little girls should be discouraged from playing video games in favor of participating in beauty pageants?  In order to be a pageant queen like Cameron, you'd have to devote a considerable amount of time to all the skills needed for Miss America-hood. Like wearing a sparkly dress; and waving and walking at the same time. All that is time when you're not "playing imaginary games with sticks."

So Cameron is suggesting it's better for girls to bleach their teeth, scrub their personalities, and starve themselves to earn the right to parade around in front of America and Rush Limbaugh (a Miss America judge) in order to be rated and evaluated like heads of cattle than it is to play video games. I’d rather see my daughter taking out noobs with headshots in MW2 than teetering around on too-high high heels and being evaluated for her looks by old men.

Now as for the fact that for some reasons video games continue to get the bad wrap of teaching children bad values, whatever happened to the parent actually taking responsibility for their lack of parenting?  I have seen many individuals that have happily let their child play video games for hours on end just to get the child out of their hair.  What is that teaching kids?  Video games have some value to them.  Right now my kids are playing video games that are teaching them, math, spelling, problem solving skills, and so forth.  I am glad they love playing the games because since doing so their school desire to do their work has increased because they are learning in a fun way.  Now are they monitor as to how much time they spend playing those games of course!  Are they encouraged to play outside and have some good old fashion fun?  Yes!  So I really think that Ms. Cameron needs to pull her head out of the bucket and stick to world peace or something like that because she clearly doesn’t understand the world of gaming.
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This movie stars Jackie Chan, Billy Ray Cyrus, and George Lopez

Overall it was a great movie that had many funny moments as well as the slap stick fighting style Jackie Chan is Famous for.  Billy Ray Cyrus is thankfully not in the movie as much as he could have been and George Lopez part was different then most characters he has played in the past.  I found myself several times shaking my head at the stupidity of the villains and their lackeys in the movie, but it was a family movie and they couldn’t go with a darker villain like you would find in a traditional bond movie. 

Overall it is a good comedy/family movie which we give a B-. 
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Steve Jackson Games
Card game for 3 or more players
Illustrated by John Kovalic

Munchkin really is a “Must Have” for anyone who enjoys tabletop roleplaying games for true fun value. Munchkin is a card game that likes to poke fun at RPG’s like Dungeons and Dragons - the hack 'n slash dungeon crawl variety. Honesty the games tagline says it all:

Kill The Monsters * Steal The Treasure * Stab Your Buddy


In Munchkin, you kill monsters and gain levels hoping to reach level 10 and win. As you play and kill, you gain treasure that you can use for bonuses, trade with other players, or sell off items to buy more levels. You can change your race (Human to start, also Elf, Dwarf or Halfling) and class (wizard, thief, warrior or cleric) all throughout play, and cause general chaos and mayhem. The other players can play cards to screw you over left and right, which is where the big fun in this game is.

The rules are even munchkiny. There are lines in the rules like "start the game by rolling dice and arguing over this sentence and if a word in missing any meaning". They even say you can cheat, as long as you're not caught! And the cards are just hilariously drawn and worded. You'll have so much fun stabbing your friends!

Some of the inspiration for the game came from the book also by Steve Jackson Games titled The Munchkin's Guide to Power Gaming. There's a lot of gags in this game, such as the monster "Gazebo" (you must face the gazebo alone!). It is worth the somewhat steep SRP of $25.

Munchkin is a great party game, you will have loads of laughs, and you'll end up making new in-jokes and references in your group when you play this game.

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