Niall Teasdale's Blog, page 8

Fallen Art Dump

The art dump for Fallen is now available on ArtStation. Click the image above.

Sign of the Dragon Paperback

This is now available on Amazon. ASIN: B09LWPNMTN.

USUK

Once again: if you’ve read the ebook, buying a paper copy gets you a paper copy. The contents is not different. I’m doing this to see whether I can get some additional customers by putting out paperbacks. Frankly, they come out pretty expensive (if cheaper than from a traditional publishing house). I’d buy the ebook.

Fallen

Fallen is now available (Amazon was fast today!). This is a lighthearted fantasy romp (intentionally, rather than what comes out of my brain normally). Assuming you don’t all hate it, it’s the start of a series. I haven’t specifically named it as a series, because I haven’t figured out what to call the series, but it’s meant to start a more-comedic-than-usual fantasy series.

Links:

SmashwordsAmazon ASIN: B09LTBXGQ7USUKCADEAU

In other news… I formatted Sign of the Dragon as a paperback and started the process of publishing it on Amazon. Since this is the first time, I’ve done this myself, I’ve ordered a proof copy to check out before I actually make it live. Assuming all goes well, it’ll be available in a couple of weeks. And, if it all goes well, I’ll start releasing other books as paperbacks. Death’s Handmaiden is likely to be the next one.

Now, you’ve already read these books, and I am not saying that you should buy the paperback. If you want a paperback copy, I’m obviously happy to take your money, but please don’t think you have to. The aim here is to open up another market. Apparently, ebook sales in the UK are down and paper books are back up. Maybe I can grab the attention of a few more of my fellow Brits this way. Going forward, I’ll likely try to issue the paperback and ebook versions at the same time. We’ll see how things go.

In other other news… The NaNoWriMo project isn’t going that great. I’ll probably do the 59k words just to say I did, but it’s not my best work. I think I’m a bit burned out on fantasy having done a lot of it recently. The idea’s not to bad; I may come back to it at some point. At this point, I think I’m going to do the next Tatsu Yamada book (the sequel to Sign of the Dragon) next, and you’ll likely see it at the end of January/start of February. Possibly in paperback as well as ebook form.

NaNoWriMo

Looks like I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year.

That means I’m doing something experimental which may fail miserably to work, and I have to scrabble to get a book out after Christmas. Well, not like I haven’t done that before.

Anyway, I’ll keep you updated. Currently prepping. Writing will start on November 1st, as per the rules.

This Seasons Anime Plus Book Review (Part 1, maybe)

It is Friday night here in lovely old Blighty and I have decided to write this. Yes, there is nothing much worth my effort to watch on any form of media; a sad state of affairs. Still, this let’s me show off that I do more than watch anime every night; sometimes I read Japanese light novels too!

It’s the new anime season and, partially due to a sudden urge to read which came over me recently, and partially because I knew a bunch of light novels were going to be adapted to TV soon, I sat down and read a bunch of stuff. (Also some other things, but we’re going with the adaptation theme here.) Here is what I gleaned from reading and watching (the first episodes) of various things you may wish to give a try.

Mid-post PS. Violet Evergarden: The Movie is turning up on Netflix this Wednesday. I went to see it in the cinema. It wraps up Violet’s story in a suitably heart-mashing manner. If you’re into having your heart pureed, give it a go.

Back to the review stuff…

Nothing much has appeared so far which is likely to go on my ‘must keep watching or die’ list. I’m having to go look at my last-viewed lists on Crunchyroll and Funimation to remember most of these. Not a good sign. Crunchyroll first…

The Fruits of Evolution… (I’m abbreviating a lot of these titles. They’re too damn long.) Unpopular, smelly, overweight 17-year old gets a new chance and a harem of beautiful, big-breasted waifus in another world. Hints of So, I’m a Spider… in the over-plot. Funny, so far. Will keep watching, but I didn’t remember it until I looked. (Haven’t read the book.)

Takt op.Destiny is just plain weird. Fighting monsters with music and a road-trip across America. Funny, fairly action packed. Probably will keep my attention. Also, a short title; that’s worth a mention. (Haven’t read the book, if there is one.)

Sakugan. This looks like something I’ve seen before, but the first episode was entertaining, and I’ll likely keep it up. (Haven’t read the book.)

Platinum End. A weird mix of horror, angels, battle royal combat, and possibly power armour. This could really end up being awesome or boring me to tears after a few episodes. (Haven’t read the book.) Also, Platinum End is also showing on Funimation.

The World’s Finest Assassin… I kept this until last (for Crunchyroll) because I have read the first novel. I gave it one star on Goodreads. The first line of my review is “I am never getting back the time I spent reading this. That’s the sad thing.” I saw that this was getting an adaptation this season, so I tried the book. I wish I hadn’t. However, I also said, “Strangely, I have a bit of hope for the anime. With a competent scriptwriter (ignoring this novel almost entirely) and a good animation studio, this could be turned into something entertaining.” So far, the anime is better than the book, though that’s a low bar to clear. I’ll keep watching for another couple of episodes, though I don’t expect it to ever rise above “entertaining trash.” I may not keep watching through the season.

Mieruko-chan. On to Funimation and another horror-based anime. This is, so far, horror/slice-of-life, but I don’t think we’ve done more than scratch the surface. Based around a girl who can see ghosts. Her problem is that if they figure out she can, bad things will happen, so she does her best to keep them from finding out, even when they’re stuffing the rotting faces in hers or hiding under her duvet. Oddly humorous, likely to get very creepy, and possibly very good. (Haven’t read the book/manga. I think this has to be from a manga. It’s too visual.)

Tesla Note. I actually had to sit here and think what the plot was to this. Will, not the plot, but what happened. Weird science sort of thing with teleporting trains, the ultimate ninja-spy, and the legacy of Nikola Tesla. Doesn’t (thank the anima gods) take itself very seriously, which is likely to be its saving grace. If I remember it’s on, I’ll keep watching it. (Haven’t read the book, if there is one.)

Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut. Um… Well, there’s a vampire being forced to become a test pilot on a rocket after the dog died and they don’t want to send a human up first. Don’t know about this one. Could be great or trite. It’s set in Russia, which makes a change. (Haven’t read the book.)

The Vampire Dies in No Time. Comedy vampire hunting with the world’s weakest vampire teaming up with a publicity conscious vampire hunter. Likely to be an easy watch without having to engage the brain. (No idea if there’s a book. Feels like a comic strip.)

Banished from the Hero’s Party… This is one of those ones which gives away most of the plot in the title. Guy who used to be part of the party trying to save the world from the demon king moves to a backwater town to become an apothecary. There he meets a girl who has always fancied him, and they move in together (no, not the same bed, this is a light novel). She’s tough as nails and, while everyone thinks he’s weak, he’s really very strong. Stuff happens. This is another one I read knowing there was an anime coming. Thus far, the anime has stuck reasonably well to the book, maybe pushing some exposition into the first part which was later int he book, I’m not quite sure. Notably, I haven’t felt the need to read the second volume, and I have a feeling the anime may be too slow to keep my attention, but it’s not actually bad, and the girlfriend is cute. Oh, and combining what I know of the second and third volumes with hints given inthe first, the plot is going to end up being deeper and more complex than might first appear. However, it’s quite possible the anime will need to get a second season before it gets to that stuff.

And… That’s it so far. Not much. The second part of season one of Jobless Reincarnation is out on Funimation. Compared to the other isekai going now, Jobless is an absolute masterwork. It’s a really good anime (if you can get past the protagonist’s personality) anyway, but even the first new episode has set things up for some glorious things to come. But there’s little not much happening at this point in autumn 2021. Which I think sums up 2021 nicely, really.

Next year…

The Chronicles of Leadale. I ploughed through the available English translations of this quite happily, though I’ll be honest and say that the first is the best and the series tales off a bit after. This is getting an anime adaptation due out early next year, and I expect it to be pretty good. You can find trailers (in Japanese) on Youtube if you want to see what it will look like. Fundamentally, OP RPG character finds themselves in the fantasy world they used to game in. Everyone else is weaker than them. Hilarity ensues. But it’s better than that trite summary suggests.

She Professed Herself the Pupil of the Wise Man. Also due an adaptation release. Same plot as above, but the player was male and ends up in a female body because of reasons. Did I say female? Sorry. An adorably cute female body. Probably will be good on screen. Also probably better than my short summary suggests. There’s a trailer out which suggests they’ve done a fair job.

I Shall Survive Using Potions! I think I heard this was getting a TV series… By the same author who wrote Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average… Now, I also read several of the latter series recently and discovered that the adaptation was somewhat different from the novels. In Didn’t I‘s case, that was a good thing since the TV series introduced an utterly stupid plot about a corrupt noble in the first three episodes which was unnecessary and borderline offensive. I can hope things go the other way with Potions! since the books seem okay, but after two I decided to stop bothering. Even with Didn’t I, the books have been getting less good as they move on and I’ve been told that’s a common factor in FUNA’s work. Oh well.

The Alchemist Who Survived… No clue if this is getting adapted, but I read it… so now you don’t have to. It’s just kind of boring.

Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out… Yes, that is the title, if not the complete one. I have no idea if this is getting an anime, but it would probably be fun if it did. Kind of feminist wish fulfilment, but also not. Was amusing if nothing else.

The Sorcerer’s Receptionist. Meh. Couldn’t be bothered to try volume 2.

Reincarnated as the Last of My Kind. Likewise, failed to inspire me to read volume 2.

Anyway… I’ve finished the first draft of (tentatively called) Fallen, and I’m now moving on to something called Mids. Fallen, if it remains called that, should be out in November. Mids, if it works out, will be out in January. Fallen is a fantasy. Mids is horror/sci-fi-fantasy inspired by a game I just played (along with a heap of other stuff), which I might get around to sort of reviewing because… writing something down about it might convince me that I understand what’s going on. We’ll see.

Have a good weekend. I’m worldbuilding for Mids so I should have a great time.

A Milestone is Reached (Also News)

Today I happened to notice that I had one hundred subscribers on ArtStation. It’s not exactly a huge milestone. It’s a tiny milestone. More of a rock at the side of the road, hidden by grass really. On the other hand, for a non-artist who never makes it onto the Trending page, I’ll take the win.

And to celebrate, I posted some character references from the book I’m currently working on. You get a sneak peek. Not that I’m telling you much more about it.

News: BAD_CODE did not go so well, so that’s off the list. Something called BAD_CODE is going to turn up sometime, because I think it’s a great title. I am now working on something else, which is going well and will be my next book.

I had a medical problem sneak up on me over the past few months. Pretty much the last year, really, but it’s only really started being a problem since last winter. I just did not realise how bad it was getting until they put me on a massive dose of drugs for it and suggested the next stage would’ve been a trip to accident and emergency. I also didn’t realise how much it was affecting my work until I realised how much better things were going after the drugs kicked in. The past three or four weeks have been amazing! I just hope they have a solution which will keep me in this state once the current treatment ends.

Moral of this story: if you even think your health may be deteriorating, ask someone.

Anyway, things are progressing. I don’t have a date for the next book yet, but it’s coming along. Before the end of the year. Hopefully, significantly before the end of the year. (I might even manage another one before Christmas if my current pace keeps up, but I am not promising anything.) I’ll reveal more about the new book at a later date, but for those of you who care about this stuff, it is planned to be a series.

Stay healthy. Enjoy the pics.

Flooding

When I wrote the two storm impacts in the Fox books, I was projecting some future trends regarding extreme weather events and climate change. I didn’t expect to see scenes I could have written myself on the new channels this morning.

If you’re in the area affected by Ida, good luck and stay safe.

Futures Art Dump

There was a bit more to show you than I thought. Click on the image above to go to the ARTStation page.

Futures

Futures, the fourth Death’s Handmaiden novel, is now available.

SmashwordsAmazon ASIN: B09D8BRCNKUSUKAUCADE

Getting Into Anime (when you’re old)

A couple of comments on my last post about Violet Evergarden were from people who either haven’t watched anime before or haven’t watched it in a while. Now, I’m not an expert on anime, but I did get sucked down this rabbit hole recently, so I feel like I should inflict it on a few more people… Uh, I mean that I have something to say about getting into anime later in life. It’s a bit of an extreme case for me, I’m pushing toward 60 steadily, but this is meant to give some suggestions for anyone not coming to the subject having watched anime from a young age. Or if you just want to try something new, whatever works.

I’m going to give as many examples as I can from Netflix, because they have a fairly substantial anime collection and a lot of people have Netflix subscriptions. I will also be taking some examples from Funimation and Crunchyroll, both of which provide free-with-advertising videos as well as trial periods for their subscription services if you feel like giving them a go.

Couple of notes.

Anime is not a genre. Anime is basically a shortened form of the Japanese word for animation (which is an English borrow word, so we use a word from Japanese which they borrowed from English), and it has many genres of entertainment beneath it. If you like Anime A, there is no surety that you’ll like Anime B, but the same is true if you change like to dislike.Anime is not for kids. In fact, some anime should never be shown to kids. Just as anime is not a genre, anime is produced for all age ranges. Viewer discretion is advised.Anime and hentai are not the same thing. Actually, if you’re Japanese, hentai isn’t a thing. The word hentai is Japanese, but it means something akin to pervert. The Japanese would describe what the West calls hentai as ‘pornographic anime.’ Still, most anime you can find on Netflix and the other streaming services is absolutely not hentai.Dubs and subs. I’ve focused primarily on series with English dubs available. This is more accessible, I think. If you get into it, you’ll end up following season shows, and that really means subtitles. Due to some truly awful dubs back in the day, there’s something of a prejudice against dubbed anime in the fandom, but the truth is that modern dubs can be just as good and they’re almost always easier to watch. Go with what you like, but it’s usually easier to start with dubs unless you happen to understand Japanese.

On to the good stuff.

First, the classics. Akira is a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk anime with violent biker gangs, body-horror, seriously OP psychic powers, and space lasers. It’s one of the first anime I ever watched, long before I really got into it. I didn’t like it, but recently I thought to give it another go and, well, I still think it’s overrated. I can appreciate the animation more, and I believe I’m a minority viewpoint, but I don’t like Akira that much.

Similarly, I tried to get into Neon Genesis Evangelion and I failed. It’s got a somewhat compelling story, but I found the characters entirely unsympathetic and it didn’t hold my interest beyond about eight episodes. It is, however, considered awesome by the majority of fans, so it’s probably worth a crack. Unlike Akira there are a bunch of Evangelion series, so if you like them, there’s plenty to watch.

Ghost in the Shell… Both of the above two are available on Netflix, GitS isn’t (at least in the UK). You can find two of the four Arise films on Netflix, the live-action movie, and their own series Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, but the original movie isn’t there and neither is Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (upon which SAC_2045 is based). Funimation has pretty much everything GitS-related aside from the live-action movie and SAC_2045. Now, I don’t hate the original animated version of GitS, but Stand Alone Complex is better. SAC is closer to the manga all this is based on. It’s funnier, has more and better action, and I’d argue it covers the themes the film does in much greater detail without the confusing rubbish of the last few minutes. Anyway, GitS is the basis behind Aneka, Fox, and Tatsu, so I’d consider it a worthwhile view in any form.

Anything by Studio Ghibli… and I have to admit that I keep meaning to watch a bunch of these and I never get around to it. Studio Ghibli has produced so many classic examples of anime, it’s just about impossible to list them all, but you can find a list of most of them on Netflix who have a huge bundle of Ghibli films available. Noted examples in no particular order: Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Naursicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Howl’s Moving Castle. There are a bunch of other ones.

And now let’s move on to the more modern stuff, which I generally prefer, to be honest. Having said that, there’s a specific genre I can’t seem to get into, that being:

Shonen Battle. Shonen literally translates to boy or youth, it’s the designation for manga and anime targeted at teenage boys (no, not that way; get your mind out of the gutter). Shonen battle anime does exactly what it says on the tin: it gives you over-the-top battles, generally spanning multiple episodes, tournament arcs, and usually younger male protagonists. Shonen Battle is the physical embodiment of power creep. There’s always a bigger, badder bad guy, and there’s always a bigger, more OTT power the protagonist can pull out of his arse to defeat him. Classical shonen battle is (you guessed it) Dragon Ball and all its franchised follow-ups. Also in the famous category are Naruto and Hunter x Hunter. They aren’t on Netflix, but My Hero Academia is, and that’s one of the most popular shows in the genre currently. I got about eight episodes into MHA, got bored, and stopped. I got a little further with Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, which I definitely think is a cut above the rest regarding the animation, but these shows all seem the same to me. I keep hunting for one I like, and I’m not doing well.

Also in this category, sort of, is One Punch Man, though it’s very much a satire rather than a straight take. It’s the story of an ordinary man who manages to make himself so powerful that he can take down any enemy with one punch. He then becomes entire disillusioned because nothing is a challenge any more. It’s funny. Season one is on Netflix. I recommend it. If you like it, season two is on Crunchyroll.

If you tried Violet Evergarden and liked it, you may wish to try a few more of its ilk. There are a bunch on Netflix: A Silent Voice, Your Name, Your Lie in April, Anohana, and Erased. Anohana in particular is known for making grown men blubber. I can’t really recommend any because I haven’t watched them. I’ll save them for the next time I want a cathartic experience.

I should mention JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Haven’t watched, don’t want to go down that rabbit hole. It’s… weird. Just from clips on YouTube, I know it’s weird. Netflix has two seasons of it, and it’s very popular with people who cannot shut up about it online.

What got me into anime this time around was A Certain Scientific Railgun, so let’s cover that franchise. The A Certain… anime series are getting pretty voluminous at this point. A Certain Magical Index is the base series, taken from a light novel series. That got a manga spin-off concerning a girl who can fire coins at hypersonic speeds, hence her nickname of Railgun. One of the villains of her arc (actually appearing in both Index and Railgun from different viewpoints) goes by the name of Accelerator, a boy able to manipulate vectors and one of the most OP characters there is. He got his own anime, A Certain Scientific Accelerator. Index and Railgun have three seasons each, Accelerator currently has one. There’s also an Index film, The Miracle of Endemyion, which just turned up on Netflix, but you’d need to go looking on Funimation if you want the rest. The worldbuilding in this franchise is great and the setting is partial inspiration for the Death’s Handmaiden setting as well as some aspects of Ultrahumans.

The other inspiration for that series is The Irregular at Magic High School. The first season of that is on Netflix, but it is subtitled Japanese. If you want to watch the second season, you need to go looking on Funimation, but there’s a dub of that (but the sub is better). If you want to watch the movie… Well, I had to order it from somewhere on Amazon. It was scripted by the author of the light novels, but it’s not really required viewing.

Some of my favourite anime falls (at least partially) into the Slice of Life category. On Netflix, there’s Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions. One season on Netflix, a second available on Funimation. Two films on Netflix. Elsewhere you can find Nichijou, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Interviews with Monster Girls, The Helpful Fox Senko-san, and numerous others. Those last three are my go-to anime to watch when I’m feeling down, particularly Monster Girls which manages to be wholesome, funny, sexy in the right way, and touching. As with most Slice of Life (otherwise known as Cute Girls Do Cute Things), nothing happens in an interesting way.

What else… Oh yeah, isekai. Isekai isn’t really a genre, it’s a set-up. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe would be isekai, if written by a Japanese author. So would A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Aneka is, by some tokens, an isekai. Basically, take someone out of their normal environment and toss them into another one. It’s a literary convention which allows exposition without making the characters look stupid: they need to explain things to the noob. The one that really kicked off the isekai bandwagon was Sword Art Online. I can’t recommend it because I haven’t watched it and thanks to the deluge of reviews denouncing it as trash, I probably never will. I suspect that, if you like it, you’ll love it, and otherwise you’ll hate it. It’s on Netflix, however, so it’s available. Angel Beats is also on Netflix and is supposed to be a lot better, though I only kept going for a few episodes.

In an isekai class of its own is Konosuba. Correctly, it’s Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! which translates as God’s Blessings on this Wonderful World! It’s a character comedy, technically a satire on the isekai genre, but really more like a sitcom. There’s a film, The Legend of Crimson, which I went to the cinema to see. You don’t have to, but you will need to try out Crunchyroll to watch it. At least you can watch all of it dubbed (though the subbed version is at least as good, maybe better, depending on preference).

Oh, another isekai worth watching is The Saga of Tanya the Evil. This one has some excellent world building and some interesting philosophy, if you’re willing to look past the setting which has been heavily mistaken for Nazi Germany. It’s not, but I can understand how people might see it that way. Personally, I liked it enough to buy it on BlueRay. There’s a series and a film on Crunchyroll. It’s well worth the viewing, but the film has never received a dub. Oh, and the music in this one is awesome too.

I nearly forgot the slimesekai! That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is a bit like Konosuba, but it’s more of a deconstruction of the genre than a satire. Like Tanya, it features an older protagonist (prior to their death anyway), but Tanya gets reincarnated as a human (of the opposite sex) while Rimaru gets reincarnated as the world’s most powerful slime monster. It’s a funny series, getting kind of dark as things progress. Season two is running on Crunchyroll at the moment (subtitled), while the dub is available on Funimation (coming out a couple of weeks after the Japanese version).

And Ascendance of a Bookworm is on Crunchyroll too. Watching that pushed me into writing The Empress’s Mage.

I could keep going for pages… Quick-fire round:

PSYCHO-PASS (Funimation) is good and added some colour to Tatsu. (You’d get the joke there if you watched it.)Cop Craft (Funimation) was one I enjoyed. A sort of reverse isekai.Overlord (Funimation or Crunchyroll) is another isekai I should’ve mentioned already. It’s a bit different. Funny as well as very dark in places.The Rising of the Shield Hero (Funimation and Crunchyroll, I think) is another isekai which I’m less fond of.My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom (Crunchyroll) is a very funny isekai with a twist.One Piece is a very, very, very long anime which you’ll have to find for yourself. Has a lot of fans. Probably not for the beginner.So, I’m a Spider, So What? (Crunchyroll) is an iskai with a twist so big it corkscrews and a weirdly sympathetic protagonist. Currently being dubbed, but you get 24 episodes in the first season.The Misfit of Demon King Academy (Crunchyroll) takes the concept of the overpowered protagonist and dials it up to 15 (11 wasn’t high enough). There’s argument over whether it’s a straight comedy or meant to be taken seriously. Whatever, it’s funny. In the first episode, the protagonist beats someone to death just using his heartbeat.Blend-S (Funimation and Crunchyroll) is ‘cute girls doing cute things’ dialled up to 11 with a subtle hint of unintended sadism. Funny, but only available subtitled.I’ve been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level (Crunchyroll) is cute girls do cute things in another world. Well, I think it’s funny and you may too.

I’m going to stop now. I’m sure there’s stuff I should’ve mentioned and haven’t. If you want to give more anime a go, these are some ideas for what to try. Just remember, pretty much everything is an acquired taste. If you do find something you like, let me know in the comments (and I never usually say that).