There’s been a lot said about the iPad since it was announced last week, from comments on it’s functionality to the comical name that begs to be mocked. I won’t say much about it as I fear I’ll be repeating others far too much but I will say that this new tool in combination with the good old automatic sliding door means that we’ve officially entered the future. It may not be this particular iteration but rest assured that technology very much like the iPad will be increasingly the way in which we access information and entertainment to the point that it will become THE dominant way.

The second thing I’ll mention is that on a personal level I don’t have a use for it yet, that doesn’t mean it’s a dud it’s just that I might not be the platforms intended user. I already have multiple laptops and look for high end performance in my tablet technology because I use it for processor intensive work like drawing my comic. Having said that I WILL be looking at ways to optimise this comic for users who want to use the iPad. I suspect that since it allows the user to zoom in and flip through pages far more efficiently higher resolutions will be handy which makes this comickeer who works in 700mb files a happy chap.

Once again. Welcome to the Future. One to beam up.

Apologies folks, this one is, appropriately, a long one.

I began my quest with Rand Al Thor over 13 years ago now. Having finished Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance and the Thomas Covenant series I was serching for something to read and my read of choice was fantasy. In part because reading series meant I always knew what I was going to read next. And so I picked up the first of the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan and was hooked. I devoured it and moved onto the next book. I quickly read everything in the series so far and it was only towards the end of the third book did I realise something was wrong. Jordan seemed determined to go against the fantasy convention of wrapping it up in a trilogy. Sure Nania and the Black Cauldron books were longer but Narnia stories were tiny compared to each hefty tome in the Wheel of Time and there seemed no end in sight.

And so it went for 13 years I continued with Jodan, frustrated as each book seemed to take forever to come out. At one point Jordan took a hiatus to write a Conan novel and I almost called it quits then. He was toying with us. Finally after the 11th book came out, Knife of Dreams, i heard the news Robert Jordan had passed away from a rare blood disease. I remember feeling both immensly sad at the loss of the man and incredibly irritated that i’d been robbed of closure. Shortly after it was announced that Brandon Sanderson had been tapped to complete the last three books in the series.

Which brings me to “the Gathering Storm”. Sanderson’s first book does a lot to shore up my wavering support to the series. Over the last few books the story had ben to strain under the weight of the multiple narratives it was weaving, in fact Knife of Dreams spent over 100 pages recapping what the various characters were up to. The Gathering Storm by contrast presses headlong into the story, hurtling towards the Last Battle and innevitable end. The war of the Aes Sedai kicks into high gear and Matt, Perrin and Rand, long separated, finally look as if they’re moving towards joining back up. While each had their own story to tell the series has suffered from having all the protagonists so spread out. All in all it was a great read, I recommend it to any and now I just have to wait for the NEXT book to arrive.

Hey guys, as many of you may have noticed Jen’s reviewdle posts have been missing the last few weeks. She decided that they really needed a home of their own as Sawbones should centre on the comic and while sharing what we’re interested in is part of what we hope you come here for after you’ve finished the latest update, the site was beginning to feel like it had a split personality. Half comic, half review site. As of 2010 Reviewdle has a new home www.reviewdle.blogspot.com. In the next week or two I hope to find a place to create a permanent link over there.
This blog however will begin to dwell more on Sawbones centric stuff. Things like zombie news, comics we like, things that make us smile and what colour our belly button lint is (currently a grey/blue).

Hope you stick with us.