Tony Calder Tony’s Comments (group member since Dec 19, 2018)


Tony’s comments from the Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy group.

Showing 921-940 of 1,069

Apr 26, 2020 06:41AM

45059 I just read a very short (20-odd pages) and pretty confusing short story - WireShip Manifestation. The author, John Pirillo, is certainly prolific, but I haven't read anything else, so I don't know if this is representative of his work.
Apr 26, 2020 03:02AM

45059 I read the graphic novel Marada the She-Wolf. A fairly average writing effort from Chris Claremont, saved by the beautiful artwork from John Bolton.
Apr 25, 2020 08:59AM

45059 I read the graphic novel Greenberg the Vampire, which is a somewhat unusual tale of a Jewish vampire who happens to be a best-selling horror author and suffering from writers block.
Apr 24, 2020 08:48AM

45059 I finished There and Back Again, a delightful and thoroughly charming retelling of The Hobbit as a space opera. If you are a fan of Tolkien's work, you should enjoy this as a lovingly re-imagined version of his classic children's tale, and if you've never read The Hobbit, you can still enjoy this as a cracking good story. I regret that this was sitting in my TBR pile for so long.
Introduce Yourself! (1510 new)
Apr 22, 2020 08:13PM

45059 Welcome Charles, you clearly married a woman with good taste :)

I remember the first SF novel I read was The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet back in 1966, although I don't remember a lot about it :)
Apr 19, 2020 03:23PM

45059 I have started There and Back Again. It's a reworking of The Hobbit, but as an homage, not a rip-off.
Apr 19, 2020 03:48AM

45059 I finished UFO Investigator's Manual: UFO investigations from 1892 to the present day. Like the automotive manuals the publishing company is known for, this tries to present a "workshop manual" guide to how to become a UFO Investigator and, for the most part, succeeds.
Apr 11, 2020 12:19AM

45059 Andrea wrote: "King does have a talent for really dragging things out (The Stand in particular was looooong..."

I think Stephen King's best work is his earlier stuff - when he wasn't such a megastar and actually had to pay attention when editors told him to shorten it :)
Apr 09, 2020 09:48AM

45059 G33z3r wrote: "A lot of people may not even know they get Comet TV. Here it's carried on one of the many digital sub-channels of the main broadcast stations."

It can be streamed online, but it looks to be geo-blocked outside the US - at least, it's geo-blocked in Australia. It may be available through YouTube's paid service, but I don't subscribe to that.
Apr 09, 2020 09:39AM

45059 I finished The Savage Sword of Conan, Volume 11. While the Savage Sword series generally told Conan stories with more of the feel of Howard's work than the monthly Conan comic that was published at the same time, the quality is more hit-or-miss than earlier volumes in this series, both in quality of story and of artwork. The Savage Sword books obviously continued to sell well enough though, as volume 11 of this reprint series finishes with issue 120, which is only a little over halfway through the total number of issues (235).
Apr 04, 2020 06:21AM

45059 Haynes, a British publisher best known for creating detailed workshop manuals for a wide range of cars, as well as various aviation, maritime and military manuals, have also dipped their toes into the SF pool by doing books on the Millennium Falcon and the USS Enterprise (Star Trek, not USN). In 2013 they went in an even less likely direction by publishing UFO Investigator's Manual: UFO investigations from 1892 to the present day. I'm not sure how serious a look this is going to be, but I guess I'll find out.
Apr 03, 2020 06:40AM

45059 I finished Percival and the Presense of God: Young Percival's Quest for King Arthur & the Holy Grail, a retelling of the story of Percival's quest. Slow, in the manner of classical romances, but it has some lovely use of the English language.
Apr 02, 2020 11:06PM

45059 Barbara wrote: ""Devs" - mini-series on Hulu

A computer engineer investigates the secretive development division in her company, which she believes is behind the disappearance of her boyfriend. ...

Intriguing show."


I agree, I have really been enjoying it.
Introduce Yourself! (1510 new)
Apr 01, 2020 05:18AM

45059 Clare wrote: "Hi, Megadethine, nice to have you with us.

You are never too old for RPGs. I've been teaching young relatives D&D and it came right back."


Indeed, I've been playing D&D (and a bunch of other games over the years) for well over 40 years. Although now, all our games have been forced to go online.
Mar 25, 2020 11:26PM

45059 I finished The Protocol. As expected, a quick read, and quite enjoyable. That said, it's very rare that I will read more than one of the modern military-adventure thriller type books in a row (even though there are currently 26 or so books in this series). So now I'm starting Percival and the Presense of God: Young Percival's Quest for King Arthur & the Holy Grail
Mar 23, 2020 02:30PM

45059 I have made more progress in my seemingly endless quest to read all the Thomas Covenant books and I'm now a bit over halfway through The Runes of the Earth. The third chronicle is nowhere near as depressing as the first two, but I am struggling to maintain interest - I'm enjoying it when I pick it up, but I feel the call of a lot of other books :)

I have started The Protocol, which I think will be a quick read. It's not overtly SFF, but I expect it will have plenty of elements that threaten to suspend disbelief :)
Mar 19, 2020 08:14PM

45059 I finished Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey. Not even remotely SFF, but an excellent book and highly recommended for anyone who has an interest in dance music.
Mar 18, 2020 05:26PM

45059 I finished Sea King's Malice. With D&D adventures i generally only read far enough ahead to be ready for the session or 2, and the group I'm running through it has reached the final chapter. Underwater adventures are fun to run because they present different challenges to the players :)
Mar 13, 2020 05:43AM

45059 The Joy of Erudition wrote: "Tony wrote: "I finished The Rod of Seven Parts. I had only been reading far enough ahead to prepare for the next few sessions, and my players have now arrived at the beginning of the..."

The one you listed, which I have read, is a novel. The one I just finished is the actual D&D adventure. The novel is a novelisation of how the campaign may play out.
Mar 12, 2020 01:09PM

45059 I finished The Rod of Seven Parts. I had only been reading far enough ahead to prepare for the next few sessions, and my players have now arrived at the beginning of the climax of the adventure. It has been a (mostly) enjoyable adventure.