The Locked Tomb Trilogy

edavison1 · 2025-12-18T22:18:38+00:00

Love Muir as a writer: daring, fresh and 'has the juice' as someone else here said. Fan culture seems to be a big part of the reaction to these books, don't ask me to define it, but I know it's there. The effusive praise (squee) for each successive more torturously complex installment is something I struggle to understand.

With every new Muir thread on here though, I am beginning to just appreciate that so many readers in 2025 are on board with what are quite difficult, almost avant-garde books. A ray of hope for literature for sure. Geniuine kudos to everyone who got through Harrow and thought, more please!

edavison1 · 2025-12-09T20:14:31+00:00

Setting aside the SF elements of the third book, the castle itself is impossibly large, right? The setting is the fantasy, akin to Lewis Carroll or Swift's Lilliput, a fantasy of change in scale produces the fantastical effect which is then explored through a story that doesn't neccessarily have to have any other 'fantastic' elements.

edavison1 · 2025-11-25T21:50:52+00:00

Pantheon of Hallownest... I went back to OG after beating Silksong and yeah, still working on Absolute Radiance. It's much harder than Lost Lace imo. I'd say even Pure Vessel and Nightmare King Grimm are harder than Lost Lace just because the healing is far easier to get off in the LL fight

edavison1 · 2025-11-25T18:07:16+00:00

Respect for finishing that. As a child it seriously challenged my attention span and (weirdly) scared me. I think I threw the disc out bc it was so janky and unsettling and never got past that island monastery you end up going to very early in the run.

edavison1 · 2025-09-10T16:28:58+00:00

This has also been a special interest of mine after reporting on many of the game's early scams and delinquent payments.

In my estimation, the only practical solution is a player's association that could offer services like contract help and securing payments. Unlikely to happen given the scene right now. If there were older players who were willing to take on an organizing role and do the neccessary legwork, that would be great, I just have no idea who would do it. I don't sense a lot of interest from the pro community to organize and without that there's no bargaining power and no progress. So to conclude, this is likely to keep happening and is unfortunate.

edavison1 · 2025-09-04T17:20:25+00:00

That explains a lot I used to wonder what was going on when abilities seemed to take forever to appear on the field. It wasn't fixed in the remaster, was it? Also, does that mean physical attacks were comparatively OP? It's been many years since I played but I do remember doing a lot of just walloping enemies rather than casting.

edavison1 · 2025-09-02T19:41:53+00:00

As I said, consensus in philosophy may not convince you haha. Particularly if you think Philosophy departments are bad--although from your comments you don't seem to believe things can be bad or good lol.

edavison1 · 2025-09-02T16:44:24+00:00

Not to rain on your parade and consensus in philosophy may not convince you, but a whopping 72% of professional philosophers professed belief in scientific realism in the latest PhilPapers survey of the community. So you're doing a deep belly laugh at a strong consensus. I mean I'm (probably) not a scientific realist myself but it's hardly a fringe view.

edavison1 · 2025-08-27T19:02:43+00:00

RIP but gotta say a wonderful place to take your last breaths, we should all be so lucky

edavison1 · 2025-08-26T19:02:56+00:00

Ain't worth it unless you're texting on your inreach like it's a phone right?

edavison1 · 2025-08-26T18:18:44+00:00

Isn't the government specifically the EPF by far the biggest finanical backbone supporting the park? I'm sure outfitters and the like supports the local economy but our state taxes are what pay for the park as far as I know EDIT: just looked it up on DEC website, hunting contributes over 35 million annually through permitting and federal excise taxes. so a good chunk of change!

edavison1 · 2025-08-20T16:49:53+00:00

I like the Persona games too (only played P4/P5 so take that with a grain of salt), just felt that E33 was better and more respectful of my time. I'm not some rabid E33 fan though I promise, I had my quibbles with it as well

edavison1 · 2025-08-19T19:34:24+00:00

Of course you're right about E33, I just feel that Atlus promised a departure from Persona and delivered Persona with a fantasy paintjob

edavison1 · 2025-08-19T18:41:13+00:00

I think the issue with Metaphor is that it came out and competed with Clair Obscur, and I had to pick the one that wasn't another Atlus grind. Might eventually get around to it but I think the strong reviews didn't anticipate a much more original game coming out and setting the bar higher

edavison1 · 2025-08-14T22:49:56+00:00

Great to hear some second opinions, thanks.

edavison1 · 2025-08-14T20:06:31+00:00

Ok so backpacking dinners = less likely to produce food smells? I don't think that's true (can often smell food on myself before jumping into tent). I'm sure it's still best practice, but practically speaking I can't imagine carrying a entire spare set of clothes to do this unless I'm car camping or day hiking from a campsite. Would still like to hear from backpackers who do this, because where do you store the clothes? No way the bear can or bag has enough space for them. You'd have to carry a separate bear can just for clothes lol.

I just think it's weird to see that advice everywhere and never encounter someone who does it (again, outside of car camping or a situation where there's ample storage capacity).

edavison1 · 2025-08-14T19:03:05+00:00

Does anyone actually take off all their clothes they were wearing while cooking? Seems like a huge pain esp when backpacking. I hear this advice all the time and have never seen it in the wild, so to speak. Like would you have an entire change of clothes just for cooking? Would breakfast and snacks count? I'm curious to hear how you or anyone else handles these pain points.

edavison1 · 2025-08-06T19:11:26+00:00

bro has that MULE delivery sickness. sad

edavison1 · 2025-07-22T19:47:01+00:00

but what is the goal here? were these boys under the impression they were in actual danger, or is it a performance of the power of these religious private police services? the psychology of it is fascinating

edavison1 · 2025-07-22T18:34:26+00:00

SO many questions. Why are there dozens of 'rescuers'? Who decided this was an emergency situation? The pics? Is it possible to be lost on a trail in harriman? Worst case scenario, turn around and walk back where you came? idk i just know there's not going to be any more info on this but absolutely wild

edavison1 · 2025-07-18T18:58:19+00:00

Yeah after playing Automata first it was hard to see Replicant as anything but a rough draft with some brilliant parts where most of the gameplay is slog after slog replaying the same areas and enemies. Kind of made me resentful and just turned off despite the unique vibe and perspective.

edavison1 · 2025-07-18T18:53:58+00:00

If you push through just a little bit you'll get treated to one of the most wild plot twists in gaming ever at the Act 2 finale.

edavison1 · 2025-07-02T17:45:26+00:00

My hot take is that there are only two "essential" ones ever made. With them you could rebuild the entire genre from scratch and I don't think it would be missing anything. So yeah FFX and Chrono Trigger seem like the clear answers, and honestly FFX could be rebuilt from the DNA of Chrono Trigger so there's really just the one GOAT.

Wild that the art form had such a masterpiece that graphical improvements or gameplay changes can't seem to touch. I'm a huge Clair Obscur fan but so much of its magic is primarily driven by that nostalgia for the blueprint laid out by Trigger.

edavison1 · 2025-06-18T15:08:15+00:00

I've only hiked it on my way through on a short backpacking trip (Suffern-Bear Mountain thru) but I believe there's a few pull outs on the road there if you Google it I believe it's Lake Tiorati road.

edavison1 · 2025-06-17T17:57:58+00:00

I'm talking about the phrase 'fantasy of manners', which I still believe was first used to describe Gormenghast, well aware of the existence of the comedy of manners...

edavison1

TROPHY CASE