Fiction log - June 2018

Fiction books
Bertolt Brecht, Eric Bentley (tr). The Caucasian Chalk Circle
John Buchan. The Courts of the Morning (e)
John Buchan. Greenmantle (e)
John Buchan. The Island of Sheep (e)
John Buchan. Mr Standfast (e)
John Buchan. The Thirty-Nine Steps (e) (re-read)
John Buchan. The Three Hostages (e)
Ben Muir, Jess Napthine, David Ash, Lee Cooper. How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse

In progress
CJ Dennis. Songs of a Sentimental Bloke
Diane Duane. The Book of Night with Moon (e) (re-read)
Terry Pratchett. Monstrous Regiment (e) (re-read)

Non-fiction books in progress
Grant Morrison. Supergods
Jack Plotnick. New Thoughts for Actors (e)

( short, screen, and stage )

( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
Stephen Curtis. Staging Ideas

(no subject)

I picked up Gorogoa in the Steam Summer Sale, and I'm really enjoying it. It's a puzzle game where the play area consists of a collection of hand-drawn illustrations, and you manipulate the illustrations to make things happen.

You can zoom in, zoom out, and pan to reveal more of the world. Things like window frames and doorways can be moved from one illustration to another (a recurring mechanic is to allow the protagonist to progress by moving a doorway out of another illustration into the illustration depicting the protagonist). If two illustrations have matching edges, you can place them next to each other, and what happens in one will affect the other.

Strange things happen to scale as you zoom in and out, or match two pictures at different zoom levels. At one point, you have to figure out how to turn a picture upside down because it depicts a staircase going the wrong direction to be useful. At another point, the sun becomes a giant cogwheel that turns when it meshes with the battlements of a castle the protagonist is walking past. A pebble jarred out of a bucket by a loud noise goes on an impossible journey.

It's weird, and beautiful, and captivating.