C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 99
March 10, 2016
Undead L.A. volume 2 review
The Undead L.A. series by Devan Sagliani is a series based around telling stories about the final days of Los Angeles citizens during the zombie apocalypse. Each story chronicles the events of someone in the city before the US government drops bombs on the survivors, destroying them (or they escape beforehand). Personally, I really enjoyed the first volume and was looking forward to this one.
Fans of the original will be pleased by Undead L.A. volume 2 as...
March 9, 2016
Alien 3 review
Alien 3 is a difficult movie for me to review. It's, on its own, an extremely well-done horror film. David Fincher (Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) managed to take an extremely troubled production and bring it together in a moving, terrifying, and gritty science-fiction piece. Alien 3 contains numerous memorable scenes, emotional gut punches, and impressive bits of world-building. It also ends Ripley's story arc in a powerful way.
Unfortunately...
Some great GAMES OF SUPERVILLAINY reviews
One of the things which authors love is getting reviews, especially positive ones and I thought I'd share two of the best ones I got for THE GAMES OF SUPERVILLAINY.
The first review is from My World...in words and pages.
I can't express how much I enjoyed this book, and particularly in audio. It's the fun I needed and will look forward to in future installments! Battles with Nazi Robot, dragon, Amazons, cybernetic dinosaurs, cultists, zombies, deal with gh...
March 6, 2016
Aliens (1986) review
It's Alien week here at the United Federation of Charles and we're going to discuss the second installment of the franchise which was, in my opinion, one of the single-most influential movies of all time--for video games. Aliens inspired Halo, Metroid, Contra, Doom, Dead Space, and (I kid you not) Echo the Dolphin. Indeed, there's a ridiculous number of common elements in video games which come directly from Aliens. There's an excellent article on the phenomenon by Gamesrad...
March 5, 2016
Dead Space: Martyr review
The Dead Space franchise is a series of works which I've devoted a good deal of effort to familiarizing myself with. The series premise is the galaxy is littered with "Markers" which are worshiped by a cult called the Unitologists. These Markers are, unfortunately, not very helpful to humanity as they result in horrific mutations along with violent resurrection into space zombies. The trilogy of video games star Isaac Clarke as the only man in the universe with any luck fig...
March 4, 2016
Alien (1979) review
I think the ship has already sailed on this particular movie's success but because this is my blog, I decided I would, nevertheless, post my review of it. Alien remains one of the seminal movies of my life, being the first R-rated movie I ever saw (at age 12) and also what inspired me to write my first piece of professionally-submitted fiction (a piece of Alien fanfic around the same time which I submitted to a contest which, unsurprisingly, rejected it). In a very real sen...
March 3, 2016
Alien: Isolation review
If I had to say what is the single greatest horror movie of all time was, I'd probably say Alien. If I had to say what my favorite movie of all time would be, it would be Jurassic Park followed by Star Wars, but Alien is certainly up there. However, Alien is a movie which has had only one good follow up. It had some decent comics by Dark Horse but they were altered to accommodate Alien 3 and just about everything else has been mediocre or outright terrible. So, it's with th...
March 1, 2016
The Riyria Revelations: Heir of Novron review
I've mentioned how much I enjoy the Riyria Revelations. They're a collection of fun books which are a breath of fresh air in the dreary darkness which is otherwise my kind of fantasy. As big a grimdark fan as I am, I don't mind taking a break in a land where good guys are good and bad guys are awful. It's a world with a lot of familiar elements (elves, dwarves, magic swords, lost lineages) but handles them in a way which is competent if not original.
Unfor...
February 29, 2016
Dead Space 3 review
Dead Space is a series which changed the way horror video games were made. It released three very well-received video games (though not without controversy), a pair of animated movies, many comic books, and quite a bit of merchandise before essentially ceasing to exist as a franchise. That is in large part due to the financial difficulties at Electronic Arts but more particularly due to the mixed reception of this game.
Dead Space 3 is a big transition fro...
February 22, 2016
The Riyria Revelations: Rise of Empire review
The Riyria Revelations remains one of my favorite popcorn fantasy series. They're not perfect books with their simplistic good and evil morality as well as somewhat generic fantasy setting but they're fun. The characters are likable, the dialogue is sharp, and the world-building (while not terribly original) is consistent as well as used intelligently. If I were to describe it, I'd probably say it's what would happen if you combined Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar series with some...
