C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 90
July 5, 2016
Undead and Unwed review
Sometimes it's just nice to have something silly to sit down and read it. The Queen Betsy books (a.k.a The Undead series) by Mary Janice Davidson isn't my usual speed but it's quite entertaining and something I'm very glad to have picked up. It's a book series which not only doesn't take itself seriously, it takes serious out behind the woodshed and shoots it in the chest before emptying the chamber into the corpse for good measure.
The premise of the book...
Bram Stoker's Dracula review
I love this movie but it's interesting how my opinion of it has changed over the years. While a teenager, I had the idea this was one of the best horror movies ever made with its creeptacular special effects, more faithful rendition of the Dracula novel, and a truly strong performance by Gary Oldman as the titular count. Only, as an adult, do I realize how INCREDIBLY HAMMY is and ridiculously over-the-top everyone but Ryder and Reeves were playing it.
Great opening, even if...
THE SECRETS OF SUPERVILLAINY IS OUT TODAY!
Hey guys, I have some great news for all of you who are fans of the Supervillainy Saga. THE SECRETS OF SUPERVILLAINY, the third volume in the series, is out on ebook today. Jeffrey Kafer is also hard at work preparing the audiobook version and it should be available soon.
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 dif...
July 4, 2016
Vampire: The Masquerade: Redemption review
Vampire: The Masquerade: Redemption is an old game but it's still a reasonably fun one seventeen years after its release and I thought I'd share my opinion on it. It's basically a 3d combination of Baldur's Gate and Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines with the latter being a game built from the choices made in this game's design.
Classic RPG gaming combined with good role-playing. If I were to make a more modern comparison, it's what you get if you co...
July 2, 2016
Interview with Matthew Dawkins, Onyx Path Publishing writer
Hello, my fellow creatures of the night!
This will come as no shock to people visiting my blog and seeing the hundreds of vampire, werewolves, and zombie media reviews but I am a big horror fan. A large part of that comes from my experience in high school and college as a tabletop role-playing gamer. During that time, when I was a gentle wannabe Goth soul, I was a big fan of Vampire: The Masquerade.
Vampire: The Masquerade was not only the second most successful tabletop RPG of all time but it...
July 1, 2016
July 2016 update on my writing
Hey folks,
I wanted to give you a heads up on the progress of what's going on in the wonderful world of my imagination, writing, and business sense.
New Projects
I have another book series in the works along the lines of the Supervillainy Saga in STRAIGHT OUTTA FANGTON. This is a novel about a poor black vampire dealing with the fact his transformation into an undead creature of the night hasn't exactly improved his prospects but has given him a whole lot of new enemies.
A lovely banner a fan ma...
June 30, 2016
The Bound Folio review
Rob J. Hayes was my introduction to grimdark fiction. Well, actually, no, it was George R.R. Martin but saying, "He's the guy I first read that I realized was grimdark fiction after I read the books everyone else read and loved" is not a very good opening for a review. Hayes wrote The Ties That Bind trilogy which is best described as what you get if you combined Quentin Tarantino with Conan the Barbarian.
Rob J. Hayes style is to get a bunch of foul-mouth...
June 27, 2016
The Lost Boys (1987) review
The Lost Boys remains one of my favorite 80s movies, which is notable for the fact it was my first vampire movie and also a movie which is a triumph of style over substance (while still having plenty of substance). Do you remember that this movie was done by Joel Schumacher? Yes, the Joel Schumacher of Batman and Robin and Batman Forever. A favorite movie of mine was done by the same man who did those movies.
:mind blown:
I didn't but it...
The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine review
And so the saga of Geralt of Rivia comes to an end. As successful as the Witcher saga is, I'm of the mind we probably haven't seen the last video game starring either the eponymous witcher or his adopted daughter Ciri, but I do think this is very likely the end before a reboot or for a number of years. As a hypothetical end to the franchise, though, it's a pretty enjoyable piece of fanfic. Certainly, it's less depressing than the way Andrzej Sapkowski left it.
&n...
June 23, 2016
Splinter Cell: Barracuda review
Splinter Cell: Barracuda is the sequel to the Splinter Cell novel by Raymond Benson. Both are, more or less, prequels to the original game but serve as independent adventures in their own right. For those unfamiliar with Splinter Cell, it is the adventures of Sam Fisher, secret agent operating for Third Echelon (a classified division of the NSA).
In the previous novel, Sam successfully decimated the arms dealing terrorist organization known as the Shop bu...
