Last week, like many, I was saddened by the news that Jerry Pournelle died. He was one of the giants of Science Fiction, so prolific and really having done so much for the genre. I hadn’t in the course of my readings, read King David’s Spaceship, however, and so I figured I would honor his […]
Book Review: Thrawn
Several weeks ago I mentioned I was rereading the original Thrawn trilogy in preparation for the new book by Timothy Zahn. I hadn’t read them since I was a teenager, and was wondering if they held up as much as I’d enjoyed them as a kid. It turns out these are some of the best […]
Fiction Review: Walking On A Sea Of Clouds By Gray Rinehart
I met Gray Rinehart at LibertyCon this year and had a brief chat with him about his debut novel, stating I’d read and review it when it came out. With ebooks, I’m exceedingly slow, but fortunately this is still on the level of new releases so let’s delve into his debut novel, Walking On A […]
TV Review: Amazon Prime’s The Tick
This weekend i watched the 6 episodes of The Tick. I don’t watch a lot of TV because it’s usually so dark and dreary it’s painful to watch and makes you feel bad. I don’t want to get in that head space This followed a little bit of that trend as it’s MUCH darker than […]
Steampunk Review: Tainted by Morgan Busse
Tainted is a Steampunk novel set in a Victorian-style fantasy world that doesn’t feel all too different from most London settings. Kat is mostly alone—with a dead mother and a mad scientist father who spends all his time away from her, on his projects, and she’s left raised by paid staff, a woman who […]
Comic Review: Golgatha
I picked this up because I saw a kickstarter that had a science fiction comic, and those are pretty rare. It looked very heavy on the SF, which I was excited about. So how did the story break down? Golgatha is the story of colonists who get sent on a mission to colonize a new […]
Review: Hugo Nominated Cirsova Magazine – Issue 6!
It’s the review everyone’s been waiting for, of the magazine completely redefining the science fiction and fantasy short fiction market. For the general market – this comes out in September, but I kickstarted Cirsova and so I received an early copy. Hopefully I was able to scoop the first review as well. These stories harken […]
Film Review: Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets
This weekend I went to see Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets. I saw it was the most expensive indie movie ever made, and that Luc Besson was involved, of Fifth Element fame – which might actually be the greatest science fiction movie of all time. So I figured, why not? I got […]
X-O Manowar 2012 Run (Vol 1-13) Reflections
Mild spoilers for anyone who’s reading through this. Nothing big though. I caught up on X-O Manowar, which was just relaunched a few months ago, written by Matt Kindt. The current iteration I found so beautiful that I wanted to go back and see the history of the character, which was rebooted with the rest […]
Retro Review: The High Crusade by Poul Anderson
The High Crusade is the fast paced adventure story that melds both high fantasy and science fiction into an incredible epic adventure. The concept is an alien ship lands on Earth, an advance scout for an invasion force that preys upon undeveloped worlds, subjugating and taking their resources as a galactic empire expands. They land […]
Retro Review: Star Wars: The Last Command by Timothy Zahn
Earlier this year I was pretty excited to find that Timothy Zahn had a new Thrawn novel out. The original trilogy was something I found exciting in my youth, and I was eager for more with this character, which they’ve actually done a great job of incoroporating into the Rebels tv show as well. It’d […]
Review: Swan Knight’s Son by John C. Wright
I usually post my reviews here first, but today I went over to the Superversive SF site in order to post my review. It’s a site that should be on your daily blogroll if you like science fiction/fantasy. Some great people write over there. Here’s the review: http://www.superversivesf.com/2017/07/18/review-swan-knights-son-john-c-wright/
Retro Review: Cash by Johnny Cash
I don’t read a ton of biographies, auto or otherwise. Many of them come across as very dry as they recount events in life chronologically, and no matter how well done that is, it can get boring. The ones that really stand out are the ones that put the feeling and soul of a person […]
Review: Netflix’s Castlevania
A lot of buzz about this animated program over the weekend, and I promised I’d watch it and review. This is based on the old Nintendo games, an action/horror thriller that was very intense when I was a kid, even on the 8-bit system. Naturally there’s been a lot of Castlevania games over the years, […]
Drown The Cat – The Writer’s Guide For The #PulpRevolution
Doing a post on writing advice this morning reminded me of a new release this week, something that flies in the face of conventional “how to write” guides, focusing on dialing in the passion of a writer. Drown The Cat quite intentionally parodies the title of Save The Cat, the writing guide that so […]
Review: Wandfasted by Laurie Forest
I’ve been saying that within 2 years, Laurie Forest will be one of the biggest, most respected names in fantasy. Her new novella, Wandfasted, will go a long way toward making that reality. It’s a longer novella, almost full novel length, which is good bang-for-your-buck in terms of entertainment/cost value. And actually, it’s almost two […]
Anthology Review: Straight Outta Tombstone
Straight Outta Tombstone – edited by David Boop. Between the title and the cover, it didn’t take much for me to be salivating over buying this. I’m a big fan of the Weird West, as many folk know, going back to my work on Doomtown Reloaded for the Deadlands RPG universe. Add in some of […]
#SteampunkMonth Review: Everland by Wendy Spinale
I went into Everland not knowing what to expect. I saw steampunk wings on a cover, heard it was a Peter Pan retelling but Steampunk, and that was enough to get me in the door. It turns out it’s more of a “twisted fairy tale” which I found out afterward is a genre in and […]
#SteampunkMonth Review: The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis
The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis is a Steampunk war story about a woman who, by luck and her willingness to fight, becomes an airship captain. She is set up by the general, with his nephew Bernat being sent aboard to report on her and provide evidence she’s incompetent. After the opening battle, the first […]
#SteampunkMonth Retro Review: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
I had originally thought that this would a short read, something quick that I could get into and show its influence on the streampunk genre, as in steampunk communities, this book is talked about regularly. I’d considered it proto-steampunk from my loose memory of it as a child. Perhaps its due to its attitude, just […]
#SteampunkMonth Short Story Review: Chasing Christmas Past by Melanie Karsak
I learned of Melanie Karsak’s Airship Racing Chronicles through a friend yesterday, and figured I’d check out the short story last night. The short is very short indeed, and it’s actually available for free on amazon, so well worth a try. The short opened in a personal moment, a sad Christmas eve of getting drunk […]
Review: Your Name by Makoto Shinkai
I went into reading Your Name. thinking that it was going to be a stupid bodyswapping movie. Unfortunately, from American media, the whole “Freaky Friday” thing is so overdone in every television show – and done so poorly, that the concept jars me and makes me not want to pay any attention in the least. […]
Retro Review: Star Wars: Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn
In my review of Heir to the Empire, I called it space opera t its finest. After reading Dark Force Rising, I am sorry to report that I am wrong, because THIS is space opera at it’s finest. While Heir to the Empire did a lot to set up the story in Dark Force Rising, […]
Comic Review: X-O Manowar #3
Some spoilers ahead, though I left out a couple crucial details to ensure the story is still enjoyable to those who pick this up. X-O Manowar #3 picks up right where #2 left off, with Aric preparing for an outright assault on the President of the other faction. It starts out with this pretty montage […]