C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 93

Update for May 2016

Okay folks, it's time for another update on what I've been up to as an author and what sort of stuff is going to be happening in the future of C.T. Phipps. Things have been going very well for me and while there's setbacks, I've got to say things are all on the up and up when it comes to writing.

AMBER COVE: My relationship with Amber Cove Publications is especially good as I've signed an agreement with them to produce four 60K word books a year. Two AGENT G and two SUPERVILLAINY SAGA for the...

Fae: The Realm of Twilight review

    When I read Fae: The Wild Hunt by Graham Austin-King, I was under the impression I was reading a darker-than-normal fantasy which would still very much fall under the auspices of Young Adult fiction. Having read the sequel, I revised my opinion and now think of Graham Austin King as a grimdark author and a very good one. He doesn't lace his work down with profanity, sex scenes, or visceral violence but manages to invoke the kind of subtle horror as well as causal brutality...

License Renewed review

    The James Bond Continuation Novels are, like many of those stories, something of a red-headed stepchild to the franchise. For James Bond purists, there's actually two groups with those who love the books and those who love the movies with a decent-but-not-huge overlap. Neither group has much regard for the James Bond continuation novels which were done by Kingsley Amis, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, and a series of others thereafter. I, on the other hand, love the James Bon...

Fae: The Wild Hunt review

    Graham Austin-King, having checked out my website, was kind enough to send me a sample of his work in order to review. Reading the first book, I promptly purchased the first book I'd already read and then purchased the remaining two volumes of the series at full cost. It was me voting with my dollars, so to speak.

    Fae: The Wild Hunt is an interesting book and is somewhat difficult to classify. I'm inclined to say it's a Young Adult Fantasy but it's a good...

Colonel Sun review

    I'm a huge fan of the James Bond franchise, anyone who has read this blog will know that. It's one of my goals to eventually do a review of all of the movies up until Spectre. I'm not just a fan of the movies, though, but also the books. Well, sort of. I equivocate there because the novels have a wonderful panache to them which directly led to the films and a deep brooding atmosphere. They're also err, really racist at times.

    Ian Fleming gets some defense...

Deadpool review

    Yes, yes, I know it's been out forever and everyone loved it. So why am I only reviewing it now? Well, I don't get to the movie theaters that often these days with only rare exceptions being made like with Superman v Batman. Deadpool was something I meant to go see but various events kept me from seeing the Merc with a Mouth.

    Deadpool and I have something of a mixed relationship comic book wise as I've always enjoyed him but never as a primary protagonist....

Star Wars: Bloodline review

 "Today is the end of the Republic. The end of a regime that acquiesces to disorder. At this very moment in a system far from here, the New Republic lies to the galaxy while secretly supporting the treachery of the loathsome Resistance. This fierce machine which you have built, upon which we stand will bring an end to the Senate, to their cherished fleet. All remaining systems will bow to the First Order and will remember this as the last day of the Republic!"
-General Hux, The Force Awak...

The Steel Remains review

    One of the more interesting problems of science fiction and fantasy is a lot of people are more interested in the war than the peace. It's a conceit of the majority of novels that everything will roughly end like WW2 where one side is dismantled completely or outright destroyed. One of my favorite early aversions was the Star Wars Legends universe where it took a couple of in-universe decades for the New Republic to make a treaty with the Empire because destroying it turned...

"What every sci-fi and fantasy author can learn from Halo?"

Here's an article I wrote for Ragnarok Publications which I thought you would be interested in. Basically, I took a moment to talk about one of my favorite game series and their handling of storytelling in the original games. Basically, some advice on how to "hit the ground running" when you're trying to capture a world.
What every sci-fi and fantasy author can learn from Halo
No, I don't mean how to tea-bag your opponents.
Nor do I mean selling out to Microsoft.
Not even how to craft excellent m...

Horror, Humor, and Heroes volume 4# review

    I'm a huge fan of Jim Bernheimer's work. While the D-List Supervillain series is my favorite, I've also enjoyed the Dead Eye, Spirals of Destiny, and Prime Suspect: A Clone Detective Mystery books. As such, I've also made it a point to pick up the collections of his short stories which he puts out on a fairly regular basis. The Horror, Humor, and Hero novels are pretty fun with the first one being famous for the original Confessions of a D-List Supervillain novella.

 &n...