Maintaining this tradition, despite everything that went wrong in 2016.
====BOOKS====
Favourite: WOLF HALL, by Hilary Mantel
The prose in this book – any time Cromwell thinks about the loss of his wife and daughters, the future of his son and nephew, or the own sacrifice of his happiness – feels like a punch in the heart. The Henry VIII / Boleyn scheming is just a bonus.
Disappointment: D&D and PHILOSOPHY
This isn’t the year for me to really enjoy nonfiction essay anthologies. Each essay trod fairly obvious ground, and there was nothing surprising
Surprise: ANCILLARY JUSTICE, by Ann Leckie
There are many comparisons to the Iain M Banks Culture novels for the sheer scope of strangeness, and those aren’t unwarranted, but this mystery/sci-fi/adventure novel is grounded into specifics of character that swept me up in a flurry of pages. The grammatical wordplay and notions of identity alone are worth the cover price. This novel is so good I’m almost afraid to read the rest of the series.
Observations: I set myself a goal of reading 12 specific novels (mostly gifts that had lingered on the shelf) by the end of 2016. I probably won’t make that goal, but I did read 10 books off the list, and I read two others on a round-trip flight to Seattle, so I think that counts. I’ll definitely repeat the process for 2017…though this time I might add a few important re-reads to the list.
====COMICS (Print)====
Favourite: THE PITIFUL HUMAN-LIZARD / ASTRO CITY
My personal reserve list is down to these two books – with the occasional mini-series thrown in. Both books are twists on superheroic adventure, but I care for the characters as people first and foremost.
Disappointment: PREZ
I’m hugely disappointed that PREZ didn’t get the full six-issue concluding chapter. Instead, a story was placed as a backup in a Catwoman Election special. I’m sure I’ll pick it up eventually…on digital.
Surprise: GOLD KEY ALLIANCE
Reboots of the Magnus/Solar/Turok/Samson/Spektor characters are my kryptonite – they’ve kept me reading comics during summer vacations 30 years ago, and kept me collecting since the days of Valiant. But the reboots don’t always stick the landing – even if Jim Shooter is involved from time to time. This mini-series features five parallel stories of the revised characters – and the revisions are unique – leading to a multiversal clash of previous versions. The best crossover since UNITY, and I don’t say that lightly.
I wonder which company will be next to take a swing at those properties?
Observations: I’m buying more Kickstarted comics like Paradox Girl, Jill Trent, and reprints from Bedside Press than I am reserving books at my local shop…but I’m reserving many books for the kids!
=====COMICS(Electronic)====
Favourite: VELVET
I’m off the Brubaker/Philips bandwagon (except for CRIMINAL special editions) but these 60s-set spy series proves I can’t quit Brubaker entirely. To say that this story is about Moneypenny being the real agent in the field doesn’t do the concept justice, but it should get your attention.
Disappointment: JUPITER’S LEGACY
I don’t know why I keep giving Mark Millar another chance. At least the books were a free offer from Comixology.
Surprise: 4001 A.D.
Valiant knows how to build off their annual events and work a Comixology sale. This year, we see the rise and fall of Japan in 4001, with callbacks to the Book of Death event from 2015 and the Eternal Emperor plotline from 2014. The main story was fantastic…and leave me wondering what could possibly be next for the character.
Observations: I picked up blockbuster HumbleBundles for the kids for the first time, but they are less enthused by digital comics on the computer. I’ll have to find a way to put the books on their tablets to get them reading.
=====GAMES (Physical)====
Favourite: EPIC PVP: FANTASY
The mad scientists at Fun to 11 Games won me over with this fast-paced card battler. Pick a Race deck, pick a Class deck, shuffle, and start fighting your opponent with different move combos. Let me tell you that a Goblin Rogue fights very differently than a Goblin Samurai. I’ve played each individual deck once, but there are 30 combinations left to try…and that’s before the MAGIC expansion ships this year.
Disappointment: DOCTOR WHO: THE CARD GAME
Too many duplicate cards, too many end-of-game conditions, too many needless cross-references in the FAQ page…these are all signs of a half-baked game design. “Timey-wimey” handwaving for the Doctor’s paradoxes and time travels, but are terrible justifications for this game. I apologized to the lunchtime gaming group for inflicting this one them.
Surprise: GLORY TO ROME / MOTTAINAI
Two versions of the same game, which, like INNOVATION, are marvels of card design efficiency and depth. Each card can be a material, a location, an artifact, a worker, a role to play, or a bonus score depending on where it is on the table or in your tableau. This makes for some daunting rulebooks, but when everything comes together…you h ave to play again.
Observations: it took some extra lunches and the help of colleagues and friends, but I made it through my 12games2016 objectives. I think I’ll repeat the process next year.
=====GAMES (Mobile)====
Favourite: UNDERWORLD CCG
Totally obvious, self-interested, and shameless, but true: the Underworld CCG is the very best thing I’ve done in my game design career. I worked with an amazing team of developers and artists, everybody contributed ideas that made the game better, and I still have to play at least an hour a day. One day, I’ll get to Rank 1!
Disappointment: MR. ROBOT EXFILTRATION
Maybe if I watched the show, I’d care more, but this modernized epistolary AR story game left me cold and lost in a maze of options that didn’t lead anywhere. I spent 2 weeks without getting a notification about a next step, so I just deleted the app.
Surprise: CARD CRAWL
This is a game that I’d love to have in print, like DEAD MAN’S HAND – a solitaire management game, where you deploy shields, swords, potions and the odd magic ability to ward off monsters and reach the end of the 54-card deck intact. Grinding for coins to unlock new magic cards isn’t tough at all, but I suspect setting up the combos to unlock new characters will be.
Observations: I couldn’t stop playing TAP TITANS clones for a good part of the year: HE-MAN, ROCK GODS, NONSTOP KNIGHT kept me busy for many bus and metro rides this year (and I ate up a lot of cellular bandwidth running ads). I think the fever has broken.
====MOVIES (First-Run)====
Favourite: DEADPOOL / PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES
February was a glorious month for unexpectedly awesome films that are honest twists on genre conventions. Deadpool is a love story with flashbacks-within-flashbacks and the greatest Calendar Girl sequence of all time…OF ALL TIME. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies made me giggle from start to finish, but most especially during the Darcy proposal / Elizabeth rejection sequence. More marriage proposals should end in swordfights.
Disappointment: SUICIDE SQUAD
Harley Quinn is great. Amanda Waller is great. Enchantress is great. Diablo is great! Joker is great (but he doesn’t belong in the movie and his connection to Harley is vile Pick-Up Artist fantasy) but this movie is a mess of weird plotting.
Surprise: ARRIVAL
I’d read the Ted Chiang short story earlier this year, but even knowing how the story unfolds couldn’t let me hold my composure and heartbreak. If I was watching it on DVD, I’d stop it about three-quarters through and start again, just to prolong the experience.
Observations: Taking the kids to the movies is a blast, because now they want to talk about everything they see.
====MOVIES (DVD/Stream)====
Favourite: BEEBA BOYS
This is one of those movie that I’ll have to watch until the end, no matter when I stumble upon it while channel-hopping. The rise and fall of the Beeba Boys – a gang of 2nd-generation Indo-Canadians in Vancouver – is sexy, violent, funny (especially Waris Ahluwalia), and disconcertingly familiar.
Disappointment: MR. RIGHT
Max Landis should never be allowed to write another script…he managed to make Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick dance AND be incredibly dull at the same time in this hitman/romance/farce. Massively disappointing.
Surprise: MACBETH (2016)
I’ve been catching up with as many Shakespeare versions as I can (there’s always more than you think), but this Fassbender/Cotillard production was simply breathtaking. The director filled in some of the open questions in the play with some plausible and heartbreaking answers. You’ll never see a better “Out, damned spot!” or “Tomorrow, ad tomorrow, and tomorrow” soliloquies.
Observations: I bought quite a few DVDs – particularly from the mid-80s – to fill in gaps in my collection and nostalgic memory. Haven’t watched them all, though, which is telling.
====MUSIC====
Favourite: PAGEANT MATERIAL, by Kacey Musgraves
Her voice is as clear as summer love, but her lyrics are wintery and rueful. I first saw her perform “Late to the Party” on the Colbert Late Show, and wanted to listen to nothing else for the rest of the day, and those days have stretched on.
Disappointment: BLACKSTAR by David Bowie
As the wits on Twitter say, “I’m not saying that David Bowie was the force that held the universe together, but… :: gestures at all of 2016 ::” I’m just sad that this is the last Bowie album.
Surprise: STRANGE LITTLE BIRDS by Garbage
So, I’m re-watching TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES on DVD, and I’m struck by Shirley Manson’s performance and then, lo and behold, a new Garbage video pops up in my Twitter feed. Well, I took Skynet’s hint and picked up the album, and it brought me right back to the good old late 90s/early oughts of her endless growl.
Observations: lorem ipsum
====TV SHOWS ====
Favourite: SCREAM
One could say that you can’t make a TV series out of a scary movie (and in fact one character did) but they’d be wrong! The mask has changed, but the pop culture references so on fleek they’re basically a time capsule from 2015/2016…even at the risk of being incomprehensible even two years later. Pure popcorn fun.
Disappointment: LUKE CAGE
Luke Cage was terrific in his appearances in JESSICA JONES, but this “will-he-or-won’t-he embrace his heroic destiny” just wore too thin by the third act. When the show worked it was amazing – every frame with Simone Missick as Misty Knight, Mahershala Ali as Cottonmouth, or Alfre Woodward as Black Mariah was a delight – but Diamondback was a profound disappointment…right down to his uniform, which featured (get this) a diamond on his back. Oof.
Surprise: FLAKED
This seven-episode half-hour comedy from Will Arnett is both a sly, smug, infuriating joy and the first non-Lego Batman work of Arnett’s I’ve enjoyed. He plays Chip, a kingpin of cool and harmony at a Venice Beach Alcoholic Anonymous, where he inspires everyone with his sad life story and his stoic recovery, but never manages to help anyone but himself. A great way to spend a long evening in front of the TV.