Blizzard has released a new Diablo III trailer at the yearly Blizzcon conference. It shows the fifth and final class that will be availabe in the fantasy game Diablo III: the Demon Hunter.
Diablo III will be the latest installment of the very popular and successful Diablo game series. Diablo III is highly anticipated and is expected to be released somewhere in 2011.
Below both the Demon Hunter trailer and the Cinematic trailer.
Demon Hunter trailer
Cinematic trailer
A lot of Malazan news these days. Bantam Press has announced the release dates for the last novel in Steven Erikson‘s The Malazan Book of the Fallen series. It will be available on February 15, 2011 in the US and on February 21, 2011 in the UK and in Europe.
I cannot wait!
Synopsis
Savaged by the K’Chain Nah’Ruk, the Bonehunters march for Kolanse, where waits an unknown fate. Tormented by questions, the army totters on the edge of mutiny, but Adjunct Tavore will not relent. One final act remains, if it is in her power, if she can hold her army together, if the shaky allegiances she has forged can survive all that is to come. A woman with no gifts of magic, deemed plain, unprepossessing, displaying nothing to instill loyalty or confidence, Tavore Paran of House Paran means to challenge the gods — if her own troops don’t kill her first.
Awaiting Tavore and her allies are the Forkrul Assail, the final arbiters of humanity. Drawing upon an alien power terrible in its magnitude, they seek to cleanse the world, to annihilate every human, every civilization, in order to begin anew. They welcome the coming conflagration of slaughter, for it shall be of their own devising, and it pleases them to know that, in the midst of the enemies gathering against them, there shall be betrayal. In the realm of Kurald Galain, home to the long lost city of Kharkanas, a mass of refugees stand upon the First Shore. Commanded by Yedan Derryg, the Watch, they await the breaching of Lightfall, and the coming of the Tiste Liosan. This is a war they cannot win, and they will die in the name of an empty city and a queen with no subjects.
Elsewhere, the three Elder Gods, Kilmandaros, Errastas and Sechul Lath, work to shatter the chains binding Korabas, the Otataral Dragon, and release her from her eternal prison. Once freed, she will be a force of utter devastation, and against her no mortal can stand. At the Gates of Starvald Demelain, the Azath House sealing the portal is dying. Soon will come the Eleint, and once more, there will be dragons in the world. And so, in a far away land and beneath indifferent skies, the final cataclysmic chapter in the extraordinary ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’ begins.
Source: Amazon
Stonewielder, the new Malazan novel by Ian Cameron Esslemont, is on its way to the stores and will be available soon!
In this latest novel, set in the work Esslemont created together with Steven Erikson, we will learn more about the legendary Greymane and the Empire’s Korelri campaign.
Personally, I thought that Esslemont’s previous novels, Night of Knives and Return of the Crimson Guard, were not yet completely at the same level as Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series but I thorougly enjoyed the books and he is getting there so I am really looking forward to his latest work.
Stonewielder will be published by Bantam Books on December 28, 2010.
Synopsis
Greymane believed he’d outrun his past. With his school for swordsmanship in Falar, he was looking forward to a quiet life, although his colleague Kyle wasn’t as enamoured with life outside the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard. However, it seems it is not so easy for an ex-Fist of the Malazan Empire to disappear, especially one under sentence of death from that same Empire. For there is a new Emperor on the throne of Malaz, and he is dwelling on the ignominy that is the Empire’s failed invasion of the Korel subcontinent. In the vaults beneath Unta, the Imperial capital, lie the answers to that disaster. And out of this buried history surfaces the name Stonewielder. In Korel, Lord Protector Hiam, commander of the Stormguard, faces the potential annihilation of all that he holds dear. With few remaining men and a crumbling stone wall that has seen better days, he confronts an ancient enemy: the sea-borne Stormriders have returned. Religious war also threatens these lands. The cult of the Blessed Lady, which had stood firm against the Riders for millennia, now seeks to eradicate its rivals. And as chaos looms, a local magistrate investigating a series of murders suddenly finds himself at the heart of a far more ancient and terrifying crime – one that has tainted an entire land…”Stonewielder” is an enthralling new chapter in the epic story of a thrillingly imagined world.
Source: Amazon
I would not go as far as qualifying him as a genius but Raymond E. Feist has written many, many fantasy books and most of his series are a must-read for fantasy fans. As his great books introduced me to the fantasy genre, Feist has definitely deserved his spot in the list of best fantasy authors.
About Raymond E. Feist
Raymond E. Feist is an American fantasy author born in Los Angelos and currently living in San Diego. After publishing Magician in 1982, he became a full time author, which resulted in a long list of novels taking place in his fantasy universe of Midkemia (and Kelewan).
His works & style
The books of Feist are high fantasy, with elements of heroic fantasy as the development a young hero, encountering dangerous situations all the time, is of the center of the story.
Feist has written many fantasy series so far, most of them taking place in one fantasy realm with one overarching theme. The fantasy series and books are known as the Riftwar Cycle.
The first series in this fantasy universe was The Riftwar Saga, which started out with the famous book Magician.
Another one of series that I really enjoyed is The Empire Trilogy, which Feist wrote together with Janny Wurts. The series is set on Kelewan, the world on the other side of the rift. Instead of focusing on battle, this series has more eye for political intrigues.
Several other well-known Riftwar series are The Serpent War, Krondor;s Sons, Conclave of Shadows, Darkwar Saga, Demonwar Saga and, still in progress, Chaoswar Saga.
Conclusion
You know what you will get when you start out with a novel of Feist; the stories are creative and well-written but don’t expect anything extraordinary or far-fetched.
As mentioned, Feist introduced me to the genre of fantasy and I thank him for that. He is not my favorite author but keeps writing great and easy to read fantasy books and by doing so he is a valuable asset for the genre.
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The producers of Lord of the Rings Online have announced that the MMORPG is doing very well after switching to free-to-play in September 2010. Over a million new accounts have been created over the last month and the revenue has been doubled.
LotRO is now making money through in-game transactions. Apparently, 53 % of the gamers purchases new outfits, XP points etc. in the game.
In the mean time, Blizzard announced that the number of people playing World of Warcraft has grown to a staggering 12 million, showing that LotRO still has a long way to go before catching up with the market leader.
Lord of the Rings Online is one of the major players in the MMORPG field and together with the other LotR games is one of the most popular and influential fantasy games around.
Conan the Barbarian is the classic sword & sorcery movie, based on the stories of Robert E. Howard, that provided Arnold Schwarzenegger with his first major film role.
The movie tells the story of a young boy living in a mythical age whose family is murdered by an evial warlord. Conan becomes a slave, grows up to be a strong warrior on and goes looking for vengeance.
Over the years, Conan the Barbarian has become one of the best known and most influential fantasy movies.
The movie
The movie has quite a reasonable story and contains lots of fighting, magic and even some nudity. The acting of the main characters is not exactly topnotch but Conan was the breakthrough of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
During the Hyborian Age in the land of Cimmeria, the entire village of the young Conan, including his mother and father, is slaughtered in a raid led by the evil Thulsa Doom. Conan grows up a slave but once a free man he picks up the trail of Thulsa Doom. With the help of two thieves (one will become his lover) he is eventually able to defeat Doom, who by then has become the ruler of a large cult. After killing Doom, Conan is crowned king.
Themes & Style
Conan is the definition of the sword & sorcery genre. It is the classical fight between good and evil in which Conan has to go on a long journey and has to kill scores of enemies until he can finally defeat this archnemesis. With wizards and witches who control magic and can morph into animals, the influence of fantasy is strong but not strong enough to deny Conan his revenge.
The author, his books and other related works
Robert E. Howard is one of the great fantasy authors of all time. Conan is his most famous creation who centered in quite a few of his stories but Howard created several more characters including Solomon Kane on which also a movie was based.
The movie Conan the Destroyer and the television series Conan the Adventurer were created after the succes of Conan the Barbarian but both failed to live up to the first movie.
Recently, the MMORPG Age of Conan was launched, which is based on Howard’s Conan and is doing quite well so far.
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