C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 89
July 21, 2016
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig review
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex was a success both commercially as well as artistically. It didn't exactly elevate the medium but it was an intelligent thought provoking science-fiction series with a lot to say about both technology as well as society. Given it starred a bisexual cyborg swimsuit and trench coat wearing ninja, that's pretty impressive.
However, the bane of all successful thought-provoking science fiction is the sequel. It can't ruin...
July 19, 2016
Undead and Unreturnable review
The fourth book of the Queen Betsy series is where the series settles down into the episodic status quo which will be maintained for a good number of years. Eventually, Mary Janice Davidson will disrupt this status quo with some dramatic events that will polarize her fanbase. Here, however, it's just the comfortable Addams Family-esque world of the adult Buffy and her oddball collection of friends.
A good idea of how the Queen Betsy books work can be expla...
SECRETS OF SUPERVILLAINY's audiobook is out today!
Hey folks,
Fabulous news! THE SECRETS OF SUPERVILLAINY, third volume of the Supervillainy Saga, is out on audiobook today!
Merciless, the Supervillain without Mercy (TM), is back with even bigger problems! How far will he go to fix his wife's current state of being a soulless vampire? Can he ignore his growing feelings for Cindy, despite their difference over the new Star Wars movie? Can he survive the wrath of the president of the United States (whom he accidentally stole billions from)?
While...
Undead and Unpopular review
The fourth book of the Queen Betsy series is where the series settles down into the episodic status quo which will be maintained for a good number of years. Eventually, Mary Janice Davidson will disrupt this status quo with some dramatic events that will polarize her fanbase. Here, however, it's just the comfortable Addams Family-esque world of the adult Buffy and her oddball collection of friends.
A good idea of how the Queen Betsy books work can be expla...
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex review
Ghost in the Shell was a seminal movie of cyberpunk as well as anime as a whole but I actually think it was inferior to the subsequent two season and one movie series which debuted afterward. Neither sequel nor reboot, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex was entirely its own thing which explored the setting created for the manga in a surprisingly mature way.
It's rare for any adapted work to qualify as not just good science fiction in its medium but g...
July 16, 2016
Blade (1998) review
Blade is definitely one of my favorite vampire movies. It benefits from the fact it really was a product of its time and embodied a kind of combination Highlander, Matrix, and The Godfather mentality. I often use this movie to illustrate what Vampire: The Masquerade Second Edition was like in the Nineties. It was a time of trench coats, katanas, shotguns full of dragonsbreath, and an army of evil vampires out to destroy the world in the name of ancient gods.
The Blood-Bath s...
July 14, 2016
Awesome Esoterrorism review by Timothy C. Ward! 4 out of 5 stars
I haven't mentioned this before but I am a huge fan of Timothy C. Ward and his Scavenger series. They're a high concept fantasy series where a natural disaster transforms Earth into something akin to Dune and the survivors use advanced technology to mine the planet for remnants of the previous world's resources.
If you take that as an endorsement of his work then you'd be correct. They're more sci-fi Western than hard fantasy but I enjoy them greatly. What I enjoy most of his writing, though i...
Undead and Unappreciated review
Undead and Unappreciated is the third novel in the Queen Betsy (or Undead) saga and a series which I absolutely love. It is a satire of the basic trends in vampire novels to treat everything as ultra serious while also parodying the harmless vampires of fiction.
Betsy is a traditional vampire in most respects with her powers very similar to those of Bram Stoker's Dracula but she's a product of the modern world as well as a shoe-obsessed working class forme...
July 9, 2016
Kindred: The Embraced review
Oh, Kindred: The Embraced. I love you, I hate you, and am both kind of bored with you as well as moderately entertained. You are, in many respects, three of my ex-girlfriends. The ones I met and dated before I met my wife. Kindred: The Embraced isn't the definitive vampire show for someone who wants to do a Vampire: The Masquerade story. No, that would be Forever Knight and True Blood. Hell, even Vampire Diaries would be a better choice if you got right down to it but it's...
July 8, 2016
Undead and Unemployed review
Mary Janice Davidson's Queen Betsy (a.k.a the Undead) series is a delightfully subversive and hilarious bunch of stories starring the most fashionable supernatural since Buffy; The Vampire Slayer. The 30 something year old former Miss Congeniality, Elizabeth "Betsy" Taylor, is the ruler of the undead after a car accident and a prophecy result in her overthrowing the tyrannical ruler of the undead. Who, for whatever reason, rules the vampire race from Minnesota.
&...
