C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 74

Lucifer's Star is out on audiobook!

Hey folks,

I'm tremendously pleased to announce the release of LUCIFER'S STAR, my dark space opera, on audiobook. Eric Burns (The Dragon Circle Trilogy) has done an amazing job bringing my story to life and I hope you'll check it out. I've heard the book described as an "R-rated Star Wars" and "what happens when the TIE pilots and stormtroopers find out they're the bad guys." For me, it's a deconstruction of the more romanticized view of war and its consequences in many military sci-fi stories...

Darkmage by M.L. Spencer review

    I very much enjoyed M.L. Spencer's Darkstorm novel, which was a breath of fresh air from the usual fantasy novels which have a massive threat to the world only for the heroes to resolve it with a laugh and a lark. So, I was very interested in picking up Darkmage which was the sequel set a millennium later. The world has managed to recover from the first book's apocalypse but bear's permanent scars. Furthermore, there are still those who would like to repeat casting opening...

Blood Dawn by Jason Bovberg review

    The Blood Trilogy is one of the better zombie novel stories I've read in the past ten years. I originally picked it up when I was still with Permuted Press and said company was still primarily known for producing fiction related to the cannibalistic undead. It was a fresh take on that genre because the "zombies" in question were not just carbon copies of George Romero's creatures. They were inscrutable "red light" aliens who possessed humans and animated them for reasons un...

Beauty in Ruins: Populating a Universe is Hard . . . by C.T. Phipps...

An essay by me about populating universes with quirky memorable characters on the Beauty in Ruins website. I think people looking to add a little spice to their world-building will find this a little bit useful.

Beauty in Ruins: Populating a Universe is Hard . . . by C.T. Phipps...:

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi review

    I admit my primary knowledge of John Scalzi comes from the Hugo award controversy last year where I only paid a little attention. Sadly, my knowledge of sci-fi fandom is spotty at best as I'm still picking up my reading on the classics as opposed to the new successes. Still, I'd heard good things about him and since Wil Wheaton was narrating his books, I thought I'd give him a go. Instead of starting with Old Man's War, I decided to, instead, begin with his new series in th...

Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn review

    My first Star Wars novel, which would literally change my life, was Dark Force Rising in 1992. I was twelve-years-old and it changed my view of how Star Wars and writing were supposed to work. It was darker (but not too dark), more serious (but not too serious), and had a focus on politics as well as military tactics (but without ending up like the Prequels of Honorverse's later books). I loved them so much I read every single one of Timothy Zahn's other Star Wars books and...

Shattered Dreams by Ulff Lehmann review

     I'm a big fan of Mark Lawrence's Self Published Fantasy Blog Off and while I don't participate in it, I always use it as an option to find new and exciting books to review. One of these books is Shattered Dreams by Ulff Lehmann, an author I will freely admit to have talked to before I read his work back when we were both posters on the Forgotten Realms Candlekeep forums. So, take this review with a grain of salt but also note I've never been one to shy away from telli...

HMS Nightingale (Alexis Carew 4#) review

    The Alexis Carew books are a favorite of mine and my go-to books for space opera of a decidedly Age of Sail-esque bent. I absolutely loved the first three books and was very eager to get into the fourth. I will say, unfortunately, this one didn't appeal to me nearly as much as the others for a variety of reasons. It's still an excellent novel but I'm going to say that I hope the author returns to his more traditional style for future ones. I will, however, give him credit f...

Valley of Embers by Steven Kelliher

    So, what if Gandalf was evil? This has been a topic which has been touched upon by a number of books. The First Law Trilogy managed to do it in a delightfully interesting way. However, Valley of Embers isn't a Medieval fantasy story nor does it bear anything but a superficial resemblance to the Lord of the Rings. Instead, it actually reminds me more of Princess Mononoke with a dash of The Legend of Zelda and Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's the story of a protagonist who bi...

The Dragon's Legacy by Deborah A. Wolf review

    There's multiple kinds of fantasy: There's high fantasy which is elves, dwarves, and unicorns that can have dark elements but is mostly about heroic narratives. This dark fantasy and grimdark which is about taking the nastiness of the world then adding ice zombies as well as inscrutable Fair Folk. Then there's epic fantasy which is a large sweeping tale of entire worlds with hundreds of cast members viewing the situation from multiple perspectives. The Dragon's Legacy is pr...