C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 105
November 2, 2015
Before they are Hanged review
Before they are Hanged is the second volume of The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. The First Law Trilogy along with a handful of other volumes are considered "must reads" by anyone who claims to be a grimdark fan. Whether or not this is the case is a matter of opinion but they are gritty, visceral, down-to-Earth fantasy with a lot of moral ambiguity as well as lack of pretension.
They are the warm beer of fantasy and not the horribly watered down stu...
October 30, 2015
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate review
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate is not the best Assassin's Creed game.
It's not the worst either.
Really, I'm inclined to think this is squarely in the middle of the road for games of the franchise. It's a serious improvement over Assassin's Creed: Unity but that's not saying much and doesn't take much in the way of risks compared to other titles. The plotline is cookie cutter but the gameplay is fun, the side-activities are always entertaini...
October 29, 2015
The Rules of Supervillainy audiobook is out
Great news, folks!
The Rules of Supervillainy, my most successful novel so far, has been released by Amber Cover in audiobook format. Narrated by Jeffrey Kafer, it's absolutely wonderful and I've already got a couple of great reviews on the work. Jeffrey really managed to capture the humorous, dramatic, and sometimes outright crazy spirit of the novel.
Bravo.
I think you should pick this up if you like superheroes, humor, and audio books.
But I may be biased.
Buy at Audible.com
October 28, 2015
Emperor of Thorns review
And so the adventures of Jorg Ancrath come to an end.
At the end of the novel, Mark Lawrence gives an afterword explaining why he didn't make Jorg an ongoing franchise. I give the author credit that he felt the story was going to be told in three volumes and decided to tell it in three volumes. Too often, fans demand authors continue on a story indefinitely rather than let it come to a proper close. Other times, the authors themselves don't know when to qu...
October 26, 2015
King of Thorns review
Mark Lawrence is probably one of the best fantasy writers out today. He's also one of the most polarizing. It's weird, but the man invokes incredibly extreme reactions in people and he's probably divided the fandoms *I* frequent more than any other author save Stephen Donaldson. The reason for this, at least from what I observed, is simple: his heroes are bastards. I confess, I have only two novels to draw from, both starring the same character, but lack of informatio...
October 25, 2015
The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone review
The expansions of The Witcher 3 have some big shoes to fill.
The Witcher 3 was a welcome helping of grimdark after the rather unfortunate shift of the Dragon Age franchise from dark fantasy to straight up high fantasy. Unfortunately, despite being one of the best games I've ever played in my entire life, it did have a few problems: the game was wide-open areas of nothing in particular, some of the villains were bland and one-dimensional, plus the final thi...
October 24, 2015
Batman Eternal volume 1# review
There is no one true Batman. This is a quality which a lot of fans have difficulty accepting. The Golden Age Batman is different from the Silver Age from the Animated Series to the Brave and the Bold one. As Bat-Mite said in "Legends of the Dark-Mite": Batman's rich history allows him to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. To be sure, this is a lighter incarnation, but is certainly no less valid and true to the character's roots then the tortured avenger, crying ou...
October 21, 2015
Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 5: The Vault of the Traveler review
Warning - this will contain spoilers for previous episodes of the game and mild ones for the episode.
It's been a long and hilarious road but, bluntly, I think Tales from the Borderlands may rival The Walking Dead as my favorite Telltale experience. They're at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to lightheartedness as well as character death but the games are both amazing in their own special way. Is the game perfect? No, there's some slow parts and there's iffy part...
Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight review
Batman remains my all-time favorite superhero for a variety of reasons ranging from the fact he's a non-powered mortal who gets by on his wits to the fact he has one of the most impressive rogues galleries in comics. I also love his costume. The biggest benefit of Batman, though, at least to me is he's also one of the few superheroes who is every bit as psychologically interesting as the villains he fights.
Why does Bruce Wayne put on the cowl? Why does he...
October 20, 2015
Gotham Season One review
Gotham is a series I have taken perhaps longer to review than I should have because I really wanted to love this series and I would have liked to have been able to hate it. Instead, my feelings regarding Gotham are that it's a series which is very-very good in some ways and mediocre in others.
It's never outright terrible but I do keep on thinking this is a series which could be much better too. It's the Gotham City series for a public who are familiar wit...
