Category: Reviews

January 2024 once more brings with it a further return of the ever-popular work of Bo Zano (BoZanoNL) and his SL/RL partner, Una Zano (UnaMayLi), with the latest iteration of their series of builds produced under their Elvion title. Once more ensconced within a Homestead region, the setting for early 2024 harkens back to some of the earliest designs Bo and Una put together for the enjoyment of SL explorers and photographers, presenting as it does a low-lying setting rich in Nature’s presence.

Designed around a large central body of water, this new iteration of the setting forms something of a circular route around the water, paths and trails meandering gently away from the landing point to the north and south, at times passing under the shade of trees and other over open grassland, turning gently with the flow of the land to pass over the waters either via broad bridges or narrow boardwalks. For the most part the land is flat, the only real “highlands” being a table of rock where water descends from a another large pool of water and into a wide inlet at the northern end of the setting and separated from the waters around which the land forms a broken ring.

Stone steps make their way up the west side of this plateau, allowing visitors to climb to the top and admire the view – or wade across the shallow water to where a bench might be used to observe the local heron and egrets as they await the passing of an unwary fish or two. However, I’d suggest that viewing this area is best done from close to the edge of the waterfalls; that way, when looking back over the water flowing towards you, it is possible to see how it appears to flow outwards from the off-region slopes and mountain that form a backdrop to the north side of the setting, giving the impression Elvion is part of a much larger landscape.

Nor is this upper pool the only place where waterfowl might be found; both the inlet and the lake within the lowlands are being watched over by heron, pelicans and egrets, as ducks and swans and geese swim on them. Given the presence of the former three, it would appear that the waters here are rich in fishy meals waiting to be caught. A houseboat floating gently among the reeds to one side of the lake might further suggest this; whilst it is now be a cosy little retreat for romantics, its not hard to imagine it once having been a places from which rods may have been cast.

The houseboat isn’t the only structure waiting to be found; away to the north and east, a refurbished shack sits upon a deck extending over the waters of the inlet; a place where kayaks sit on racks awaiting their owners’ return to take them back out on the peaceful waters. For now, however, it offers a set of places visits can use to sit and pass the time, the walls of the shack neatly separating them around three sides of the deck.

Across the water to the west, is the largest of the setting’s buildings. Its outward face suggests it may once have been a barn; but if that were the case, the large front door openings have long since been altered to form picture windows standing either side of a front door, whilst the inside of the building has been refurbished as little games room, complete with a billiards table, Greedy Greedy game and a corner couch and armchair for quiet chats.

This barn-come-cabin guards the way to the steps leading up to the top of the waterfalls, but it is not the only guardian here; just offshore a lighthouse sits as a sentinel atop a thumb-tip of rock rising from the sea, the carcass of a wreck boat in the waters between it and the shore indicating the purpose it serve is warning vessels away from the shallows.

The last of the structures within the landscape is to be found a stone’s throw from the boardwalk linked the old houseboat with the eastern shore of the lake.

Nestled with its back to one of the two large, mixed copses of trees occupying the land, and faced on three sides by an aging wood fence with old stone cobbles Nature is slowly reclaiming lying between them and its front entrance, it is another building which has been refurbished. Once a wrought-iron and glass greenhouse, it now forms a bath-house complete with a cast iron tub over which a shower rises, its piping solid enough to support a ring from which curtains might be drawn around the tub to prevent the water from the showerhead spreading too far across the floor.

Whichever way you opt to wander from the west side landing point, it is clear that this iteration of Elvion is intended to calm and relax. There is an easy-going, unhurried look and feel to it, aided by the gentle flow of water and the wheeling of geese on the wing overhead which simply encourages gentle meandering, whichever path one opts to follow. This is further enhanced by the many places tucked away on either side of the trails to encourage folk to just sit and let the time pass unhindered, while the local horses do their part in offering further opportunities for photographers to frame their shots – or for the more artistically inclined, an easel and tricycle-cart laden with paints await.

Rounded-out with touches here and there which might remind those who have previously visited Elvion of those past designs, this is genuinely a natural and evocative setting, clearly designed with love for nature and open spaces. As always with Una and Bo’s builds, it offers a warm welcome and offers multiple opportunities for photography under both the default environment and many others – I use a number within the pictures offered here as evidence.

As always, Elvion is a highly recommended place to visit.

SLurl Details

• Elvion (rated Moderate)

Back in April 2022, I came across The Forgotten, an engaging, highly-photogenic Full region designed by Elfie (then Elfing Shenanigans, now WeeWangle Wumpkins – such is the magic of Second Life Name Changes!). I thoroughly enjoyed my explorations at the time, as I noted  in Finding The Forgotten in Second Life, and in sitting and contemplating the newly-installed bookcases in my cosily-refurbished home office, a stray thought wandered into my head about the region, leading me to consider hopping over and seeing what has changed – and so I did.

Obviously, 15 months is a very long time in Second Life, and it is likely that The Forgotten has gone through more than one iteration since my last visit. However, I was (genuinely) pleased to see that while the region is very different in looks to when I wandered through it in April 2022, there are still little touches here and there that if not carried over from the earlier design at least offer a sense of familiarity within the current situation, as if one had returned to a familiar country – if not a familiar place within that country.

In writing about my first visit to The forgotten, I noted:

Sitting under a dome of stars  – or perhaps star stuff, given the fact the a massive full Moon hangs in the sky beyond – there is a sense of timeless age to the setting, together with a sense that it is a place where the tales of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien mix without being overly swayed by one or the other. Or perhaps mix is the wrong term – it is perhaps a place that combines the imaginations of both men to present a place they would both feel comfortable in walking through.

It’s a statement that holds true with the current setting – although I’d add that George R.R. Martin might also enjoy wandering through it with Lewis and Tolkien, as there is much within the region that offers (to my eyes at least) suggestions of the worlds he created as well (and I’m not simply saying that because of the presence of dragons within the region!).

The domed sky with its massive moon is one of the elements which helped with that sense of connection to the previous iteration of the region I visited, whilst the landscape offered something entirely new to explore, from the swamps mentioned within the About Land description, through the grassy trails and rocky climbs to the islands serenely floating in the sky in defiance of gravity (and they are not alone in demonstrating this skill!).

This is a place that offers itself as a book; the landscape seamlessly flowing from shore to shore, from landing point to tabled plateau, though wetlands and grasslands, leading the visitor through vignettes and elements which stand as chapters to a story, each one unique unto itself but also joined to those which came before and which follow after, their tales combining to draw the explorer onwards as the words flowing across written pages draw the reader deeper into their narrative.

And what might that story be? Well, that is not for me to say; such is the nature of the region’s design, the attention to detail – the considered use of trails to lead one onwards and the placement of rocks, hills and screens of tree to naturally details from the eye so as to increase our surprise on finding them – narratives and tales are bound to weave their way into the explorer’s imagination.

There is a richness of contrasting tones through the setting which further enhances its attractiveness.  These take many forms; on the one hand, for example, the grassland is home to otherworldly creatures which might easily inhabit nightmares, yet up on one of the uplands bordering the grasslands a cheeky-looking little round babushka waits to offer you treats and savoury snacks and a place to sit and enjoy them. There are quiet places where romance might be had and others where butterflies weave their dance through the air, yet it is also a place where the tooth fairies are quite literal in form, and where paths marked by translucent tear-drop lamps or beautiful blooms of exotic plants end in places of potential dark or light magic.

It is also a place not without humour and simple delight; the former certainly helps to lead one on and up at the floating islands, whilst the latter can be found in a variety of ways and places, both large and small; who cannot smile on finding the mouse trying its paws at a little parachuting – while its friend looks on from the back of the bird which may well have carried them both to this branch for some daring-do.

Despite containing so much to see, be it out in the open or contained within the various ancient structures also to be found in the region or the caverns awaiting discovery, The Forgotten never feels crowded or overloaded. Indeed, such is the genius of its design that it feels anything but; the landscape allows all the various vignettes room to breathe on their own and be appreciated both apart from those close by and as a part of the region’s unfolding mystery.

Mystical, magical and in some places menacing, the Forgotten has no set path of exploration to follow; from the landing point people are free to wander where they please. Hence why any story that might suggest itself to the imagination it likely to be so personally unique. However, what I would advise is that when visiting you use the local environment settings (World → Environment → Use Shared Environment, if not already checked), and make sure you have local sounds enabled.

But above all, let your imagination take flight, and keep your eyes open for all there is to see and find!

SLurl Details

• The Forgotten (Peaceful Shore, rated Moderate)

Las Vegas is a place long renowned for its showmanship. Best known for The Strip with its casinos, bright lights, bling and the ratcheting rasp and chugging pings of one-arm bandits and slot machines, the Neon City has something of a Marmite touch to it: people either love it or hate it. Dubbed Sin City in the age of Prohibition, for a short time in its history the once sleepy little town on the rail route to California became a destination for something quite unexpected: the ability to witness first-hand the atomic bomb tests carried out by the US military.

For a period of 12 years through the 1950s and up to the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) of 1963, the US military detonated, on average, one nuclear bomb every three weeks at test grounds some 60-80 miles away from Las Vegas – timing them to take place when weather patterns would carry the fallout into the desert rather than towards the city.

In all, some 235 bombs and warheads of various sizes were detonated, and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce saw each of them as a means of further enticing people to visit the city and participate in what the New York Times once referred to as “the non-ancient but nonetheless honourable pastime of atom-bomb watching”. Calendars and community announcements would be published months in advance, hotels offers special deals and host “Bomb Parties” so people could drink and dance the night away and then pop outside to witness the distant flash lighting up the sky followed by the roiling mass of a mushroom cloud climbing into the heavens.

These were the heady years in which the future of America was seen as being driven by the awesome power of “atomics”, an age when people would soon be living in ultra-modern towns where everything would be powered by the miracle of  nuclear fission, allowing it to become less a weapon system to be feared and more an unlimited, cheap, and an available-to-all source of energy.

This odd little period in US history when the raw power of nuclear fission was both feared and celebrated, forms the cornerstone of imagining for Hillvale Beach, a public /private Full region designed by Lauren Bentham as the latest in her on-going series of settings which are rightly recognised for their richness of character and ability to immerse visitors. It represents a town which came of age in the 1950s – possibly the result of it being located near some now long-forgotten off-shore weapons testing, but which has, as the Destination Guide description notes, has been bypassed by time to be left to rot slowly and darkly, forgotten and lost.

Thus on arrival, visitors are greeted by an environment rich in symbols and icons of the 1950s – the roadside family diner, the broad billboards promoting rosy new ways of living within new environments, the smiling, happy presence of the Atomic Boy giving the thumbs-up to a wonderful nuclear-powered future – and more.

However, none of this is pristine or shiny; Hillvale Beach is a place to which time has not been kind. Forgotten by most, it has slowly eroded and collapsed upon itself both physically and metaphorically, become what is essentially a carcass of a bygone era; a place where the sands are slowly reclaiming the roads, where amusement parks offer dangers more than thrills as they slowly collapse and surviving attractions appear more like grotesques than invitations for fun.

In this one might perhaps discern another story here; one darker still, whereby the decay and ruin of the town is not so much due to it being lost and forgotten as time marched ever forwards, but rather the result of one of those tests that once draw tourists and thrill-seekers here  having gone horribly wrong, leaving only destruction in its wake. Hence why, perhaps, a faintly glowing cloud of material swirls over the roads and buildings and attractions, whilst the western sky is dominated by a nebula-like form that might so easily be the detonation of an air-burst weapon.

It is in these twists of potential narrative that Hilldale Beach – like so many of Lauren’s designs – captivates when visiting. This is a setting which simply offers the imagination to take flight, to see within it what we will and got where whatever strands of story suggest themselves to us. And, of course, there is the inevitable attention to detail and considered placement of buildings, artefacts and items which is (again) Lauren’s hallmark, and which serves to further weave a sense that we are indeed travelling through a place extruded from the 1950s into our present-day.

From the advertising hoarding reminiscent of the period through to the inclusion of Betty Boop (whose original 1930s films enjoyed a resurgence in popularity after Paramount Pictures sold them for syndication on US television) passing by way of the assorted car designs and the subtle pointers to Las Vegas and its role as a destination for the Nuclear Tourist, Hillvale Beach is a thoroughly engaging and engrossing setting; a dystopian time capsule from some version of the 1950s, if you will. And whilst it offers bother rentals as well as public spaces, the former are neatly, naturally and clearly separated from the latter, allowing visitors to explore in the confidence that they will not unknowingly encroach on the privacy of local residents.

SLurl Details

• Hillvale Beach (Thorny Nook, rated Moderate)