The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina – A Review
Based on the hit Archie Horror comic series Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Riverdale, Afterlife with Archie, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark), The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina dropped it’s 10-episode Part One on Friday, October 26. This darker retelling of everyone’s favorite teenage witch is an interesting take on the world of a character that had been prior to this series, light and carefree, uninterested in modern takes. While the horror is definitely there, the show does retain much of its own kind of humor without terror or jump scares, making for very enjoyable viewing.
While the comic book is set definitively in the era of the character’s original inception in the sixties, the show has a more ambiguous take on its temporal setting, long enough ago to still have house lines and no computers to speak of, but without much of the problematic features that plague an unvarnished look at the American past. Those elements that remain are exhibited by side characters you aren’t supposed to care about, while the main characters are widely diverse.
The show is, of course, about the eponymous Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka), a half-witch half-human who is a few days out from her sixteen birthday, which is, of course on Halloween. On that date, she is to take her dark baptism, signing her name read more…
Ganked In Space – Snippet
Extermination just got a whole lot more fun.
When lifelong friends Reggie, Joel, and Cody, fail to win the Virtual Reality Elite championship, they’re forced to find real work. The guys sign a pest control contract, ridding space stations of infestations.
SNIPPET 1
Sonic Shuttle, En Route to Sector 12 Transgalactic Station
Reggie looked around the ship proudly. He was a freaking entrepreneur. An independent business owner. The salt of the galaxy’s economy. An intergalactic pest control expert. He might have been sitting on a plastic bucket, in a postage-stamp sized galley watching his friend murder a defenseless oxygen regulator, but for him, life couldn’t get any better.
Joel was bent over his workbench, which was actually the dining table in the galley, halfway through putting the oxygen regulator back together. His wavy, brown hair dangled forward just reaching the upper edge of his vision. He brushed it aside, leaving a smudge of thick, black goo across his forehead. It complemented his forest green eyes nicely.
His fingers, like the rest of him, were quick and agile, adjusting small parts with confidence.
Cody walked into the room looking for a snack but was disappointed to find Joel hard at work in the spot where he wanted to eat. He knew there was no point arguing about it—Joel worked wherever he found space. But Cody couldn’t help but notice the handful of regulator pieces still sitting on the table.
“You do know we need that to breathe, right?” Cody asked, pushing his thick glasses up on his nose and indicating the device. His fine blond hair looked like a small heap of straw on top of his head, and he swung his lanky arms when he talked, gesticulating like an Italian grandmother. It could be dangerous to stand too close to him.
He set about searching the cabinets for something to eat, ultimately settling on some freeze-dried meat substitute.
Joel scoffed. “If it works just fine without those pieces, then why have them in the first place? I’m just making it more efficient.”
“If it works?” Reggie questioned. He shuffled to get more comfortable on top of the overturned five-gallon bucket at the back of the room, near the sink. They only had three chairs on the entire ship and moved them from place to place as needed. The two chairs that Joel wasn’t using were in the lounge, and Reggie didn’t feel like fetching one. His large, athletic body barely fit on the bucket; he looked like a Great Dane trying to sleep in a cat bed.
“It’ll be fine,” Joel said, undeterred.
The guys, or ‘Notches’ as they affectionately referred to themselves, had been on the ship for two days now. No jobs. Nothing to do. Totally bored. If they didn’t find something to do soon, Joel would end up taking the entire ship apart.
That’s when Reggie decided to remind them of the one surefire thing he knew would occupy their time and keep them out of trouble.
“Remember Deep Space Death Match?” he asked.
The name drew a gasp of nostalgia from Joel and Cody.
“We were so good at that game,” Reggie continued.
“Were?” Joel said. “We’re still so good at that game. There’s just no one to play against anymore; everyone plays Team Hollow Point now. Death Match was way better.”
“Totally,” Cody added. “The graphics are better. The story is far superior…no one cares about the story anymore. And the fucking microtransactions.”
Joel and Reggie both groaned.
“I hate them so hard,” Reggie said. “And the players are so vulgar. There can still be friendly competition without all the swearing. It’s all ‘F this’ and ‘F that.’”
“Yeah,” Joel said, smiling over the edge of his tinkering project. “What the fuck is up with that?”
Reggie threw a balled-up rag at Joel, who swatted it away. “Seriously?” Reggie said. “How do you guys eat with those potty mouths?”
“Jesus, Reg, you sound like a seventy-year-old woman sometimes,” Joel teased. He set the oxygen regulator on the table and wiped the sweat from his forehead, leaving a second streak of thick, black goo across his brow. “But, damn, what a great game.” He stared off like he was looking into the past. “If we’d played Death Match in the championships, we would have been top ten for damn sure.”
“No doubt,” Reggie said. “None of the current VRE teams could stand two rounds against us. We’d smoke all of them.”
Cody pulled a stray thread from the sleeve of his shirt and snapped it off, looking at it appreciatively. “Have you seen the top team’s siege dynamics?” He wound both ends of the thread around his forefingers. “They’re garbage. All show. Barge into a building, guns blazing. No tactics. No finesse.” He took the thread and slipped it between his two front teeth and began flossing. “It’s insulting.” read more…
EC018: Renegade, a Tale From The Kurtherian Universe – Part Two
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This week we deliver the conclusion of Renegade, from Erika Everest. If you didn’t hear part one, and our chat with the author, you can get caught up here.
Life Goes On
During the blessedly short introduction, I mentioned that Life Goes On, TKG 21 was just released as an audiobook. You can grab your copy here, if you don’t already have in your audible queue.
Fans Write For the Fans Facebook links: Kurtherian Universe, and Oriceran Universe. read more…
The Gift of Marvel Rising
On being gifted, what does it mean to really have special talents? If you are especially good at something, that means you want to make billions of dollars and retire on an exotic island, right?
The answer to that is an easy no. Quite probably the easiest “no” I have ever written. If money and fame were everything, people like Elon Musk would have left the spotlight years ago. Sure, money comes with perks. People respect you and congratulate you. Still, it really isn’t everything. Money didn’t bring Batman’s parents back. That horrific tragedy propelled him to become one of the most iconic heroes in history. Not only did Batman have money, he also had special talents. He used them for the good of all humanity. His money and his talents are interchangeable—but certainly not everything.
The Disney cartoon of Marvel Rising may be one of the greatest shows on television. Currently, the show streams on Disney XD. Not only is the epic writing stellar and reminiscent of the 1993 Batman: The Animated Series (that series was so good!) but the cast is a group of misfit girls. Yes, the Powder Puff girls were rockin’ kickbutt youngins, and the writing was out of this world (you can thank Lauren Faust for that) but the audience was directed at the very young. When I was a young teenage girl, I yearned for lady characters who didn’t take their clothes off to work their magic. I found that in the 1993 Batman: The Animated Series with many of the female characters like Catwoman and Poison Ivy. Not to forget Harley Quinn, who was so much better in this series than in the recent movie featuring the epically-talented Margot Robbie.
I will always remember being a young prepubescent girl and having to special order my X-Men dolls because ToysRus didn’t sell Storm or Rogue. On a recent trip to Target I saw the characters Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Quake, Patriot, American Chavez who in the show Marvel Rising save people and go on epic quests. I never got to see that as a kid. Girls these days, they don’t know how good they have it. In my day I had to special order my heroes and hide my comics because “Good girls didn’t read that kind of garbage.” read more…
The Return of Daredevil on Netflix
Dropping at midnight Pacific Time on October 19th, the third season of the first of Netflix’s Marvel series’ is a pure joy to watch. Picking up where The Defenders left off, with Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), Daredevil/The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, in New York City in the basement of a church, recovering from his miraculous survival the explosion of Midland Circle and the dragon fossils beneath it. What comes next is Matt struggling with his faith, his identity, and how to exist in the world, either as Murdock, or as Daredevil. Meanwhile, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) puts a plan into action that would bring him and his beloved Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer) together again, as Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) work to stop him.
Cox is amazing in the role of Daredevil and it shows most in this season, in how he struggles with his faith, living in a world where such terrible things have happened to him but still wanting to believe in a God who has a plan for him. But that goes for the entire cast. Both Foggy and Karen get expanded roles and backstory in this season, stepping up from just sidekicks to real characters in their own right, and Father Lantom (Peter McRobbie) and new character Sister Maggie (Joanne Whalley) as the voice of reason for Matt’s more self-destructive tendencies and a grounding found in his upbringing in a Catholic orphanage.
Charlie Cox by Gage Skidmore
The most interesting thing, I think, is the dichotomy of seeing where season three goes, Matt believing that he can’t be both Matt Murdock, attorney at law, and Daredevil, and opting to be the latter, in relation to how the first half of season two went. After all the talk that he and Punisher (Jon Bernthal) had about how some people just need to be killed, because the system doesn’t work for some people. It would seem, though Castle doesn’t show up in this season, that some of that lesson stuck. read more…
The Streaming of Wheel of Time
Image by Tor Books
Amazon, along with Sony Pictures Television are in the works to make a series out of Wheel of Time. You heard it, Robert Jordan’s epic masterpiece will be streamed in no time. Fans are already wondering how that saga could be turned into television. Yes, Game of Thrones is almost done now with only eight seasons. If you’re one of the many who’ve tackled one of George R. R. Martin’s novels, you know eight seasons doesn’t do the books justice.
Fourteen epic books encompass the world of Wheel of Time and writers like Brandon Sanderson can say their launch into fame came from being a part of Jordan’s realm. There’s something about seeing the characters we’ve come to love land on the screen. That’s the appeal of Game of Thrones. Yes, there’s a lot of added sex and violence (it is HBO) but the common thread throughout tells a story of a family coming to grips with reality and that reality being Westeros.
Whatever family you might think I am referring to, know that I am rooting for Snow and Sand. I am and shall always be for the common underdog. That’s why when Ned Stark met his fate, it became a shock to me among the fans and was a realization of the alternate reality created by Martin. After that incident, we weren’t in Kansas anymore. The HBO season is almost done and who will fill the void?
Why Amazon’s version of Wheel of Time will. You heard it, they are in the works to develop the series and we will all be at our screens panting for Jordan’s characters to go on their epic journey.
They are keeping quiet on the actors of the series and if they are slated to get some big names. Yes, the actors playing the characters created by Robert Jordan are important. Remember that Kit Harrington was a nobody before Game of the Thrones and since then he gave us Pompeii–which is in itself a masterpiece of cinema. That movie needed to be made and it couldn’t be done without the curly hair of Harrington.
Another Game of Thrones actor famous for the cruelty he endured in the Red Wedding has been said to in the works to be the next James Bond taking over for Daniel Craig. You heard it here. We are talking about Robert Madden who famously portrayed the eldest son of Ned Stark. You probably thought we were referring to Tobias Menzies who played on Game of Thrones but is best known for his role on Outlander.
Now, everyone is talking about Outlander, but it is headed toward the sunset of television too and there’s no television Stonehenge to revitalize it. In no time, television will be all about read more…
EC017: Renegade, a Tale From The Kurtherian Universe, with Guest Host Erika Everest
[powerpress]
This week we dive into the deep end of the Kurtherian Gambit Fans Write for the Fans world. Our story is Renegade, by Erika Everest, who joins us as our co-host.
During the show intro, we discuss her path to becoming a published author in the Kurtherian Gambit Universe, and her work behind the scenes to support the Fan’s Write process.
Fans Write For the Fans Facebook links: Kurtherian Universe, and Oriceran Universe.
Here is the blurb for Renegade from Tales From The Kurtherian Universe, Book One.
Renegade, by Erika Everest
I am one of the Drakis, the enhanced warriors of our race. Our Gods have sent us to fight ignorance and injustice in the universe, and to bring peace and enlightenment instead.
On the planet I am assigned to, I meet a native who is not grateful for our help. In fact, she despises us for our interference. Her attitude challenges my entire worldview. Is my cause truly as noble as I have always believed? Or is it something more sinister?
And what are the God’s real intentions for the Drakis?
Each of the Fan’s Write books can be purchased at Amazon.
Links:
Join the email list to be notified of new audiobook releases and to be eligible for free stuff from LMBPN Publishing. Click here to signup.
Subscribe via Apple Podcast here
New Books Coming October 22nd-26th
Gott Verdammt! (Tabitha here),
I meant to have this done and posted earlier today, but now that I’m (finally) starring in my own series the demands on me are endless. Nevertheless, here I am, ready to tell you about this week’s lengthy list of new releases, beginning with two today.
Your Life Is Forfeit – Book 4 in Judge, Jury & Executioner Series (MONDAY – Available now)
Red has a price on his head. Rivka is determined to find those who put it there.
Criminals commit crimes. Career criminals do it in secret. They are good at hiding.
Rivka’s latest case has her hunting fugitives. Red is on a mission to find them and make them pay for what they’ve done.
A Subtle War – Book 3 in the Enemy of My Enemy Series (MONDAY – Available now)
Embraced by strangers. The Furlorians want to earn their trust.
The Federation needs help and Taj volunteers. She takes the team to a distant planet. The fate of her people doesn’t depend on her success, but if she fails, the Furlorians’ hope goes with her.
Wearing that mantle, they hold nothing back as they go into the lion’s den, their cat eyes focused on a singular goal.
Determined Is Her Fate – Book 7 in the School of Necessary Magic series (Tuesday)
What do a few stolen books have to do with the end of life as we know it?
More than you would think.
Drow princess Alison Brownstone begins her senior year ready to finally graduate and start her new life, fully trained and ready to kick ass.
But still reeling from the attack last semester, and the absence of her best friend, Alison is desperate for some kind of distraction to make the days pass quicker.
And trouble in paradise with boyfriend Tanner makes it even more vital.
When books start disappearing, she can’t resist digging deeper. After all, no one should be able to penetrate the gnome’s magical protection.
But going down the rabbit hole leads to truths far more dangerous than petty theft.
Renegade – Book 2 in Damian’s Chronicles
Damien is back and this series gets cooking.
Ganked In Space (Book 1 – Intergalactic Pest Control – Thursday
Just read the series title again, there’s really nothing more to say 🙂 This is a fun series that you’re going to love.
Drinking With Death (Friday)
Debra Stone returns in the second installment of LMBPN’s first romance series. Grab a glass of wine and prepare to laugh as Debra’s strange new life continues to evolve
What I’m Watching This October/November, by Tammy Marshall
You may be asking yourself, who is this Tammy nerd and why is she telling me what she watches?
Well, truth-be-told, I’m not just any nerd. I wore glasses before Geek Chic became a thing. Now the Kardashians are trying to sound smart and I’m still trying to figure out the difference between them and a Cardassian.
They may own reality television, but they’ve got nothing on me when it comes to talking about the magnificent art of Science Fiction.
Yes, most television these days centers around a real-life car wreck human who goes about his or her daily life being deeply disturbed and somehow winning at life.
This may be entertaining, but it takes away from our human need to belong to a group that is pointed toward doing something great. We all need this. That is why The Martian made bank at the box office. We loved watching Matt Damon’s character problem solve and eventually come out on top.
That’s why there will always be a spot on the A-list for Science Fiction.
Humans want to belong. While comics were initially invented for nerds like me who never quite fit in, we are finding that all the plastic people like the Kardashians coming at us make us all feel inferior. Therefore none of us can compete and all of us are now clamoring for Science Fiction to become mainstream—and it is.
Some of the list are reboots and some of them are newly formed television centered around an epic drama. One thing they have in common is they are all a part of the art of Science Fiction. The real-life train wrecks may have reality television, but they will never own SciFi. Science Fiction searches for a better future, reality television appeases an audience of apathy.
Charmed
The original show first aired in 1998 and centered around three sisters with special gifts who took on foes in order to bring calmness to the world. This trope can be threaded throughout all science fiction and film – even zombie cinema. What is different about this show, is that the mother is murdered in the first episode. In the original show, she died when the sisters were children. This mom disappearing act doesn’t sit so well anymore. Think the reboot of Beauty and how fans wanted to know what happened to Belle’s mom. This all-too-often way of cutting out mom no longer fits into current Science Fiction drama. This series shows on Sundays on the CW.
First Man
There are a million reasons to see a movie with Ryan Gosling, but this one you want to see for an understanding of the brilliant work of Neil Armstrong. It was a singular vision that launched us into space and made him the first man on the moon. If you really want to see a movie about problem-solving, then this movie will do that justice. This is a must-see film and landed into theaters on October 12 and will likely not leave for some time.
The Walking Dead
This may be the last season you get to see Andrew Lincoln. We all remember how he rode into the square and was immediately surrounded by zombies. Know that zombies reflect our own loneliness in a world projected to us to be full of dummies. In reality, we are all unique individuals seeking our own adventures. That’s why the zombie trope will never go away. Who knows if anyone can really top how they do it on The Walking Dead. New episodes air on Sundays on AMC.
The Girl in the Spider’s Web
This epic story lands in theaters on November 9 and is a continuing story of resident badass Lisbeth who also happens to be one of the greatest characters ever created. “Why doesn’t a spider get caught in her own webs,” begs the question in this film. The answer is simple, she is the smartest person and fearless on top of it. With those combined she is the creator of outsmarting villains. This focuses more on current science fact and not fiction. That’s what’s cool about Science Fiction. It gives a lensing into the current world of science and one bright mind can come up with an idea that will eventually be used in the future. Some of her concepts are ideas not put into action yet. That makes it Science Fiction.
Tammy Marshall is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of writing. If you really want to get her on a subject, bring up Star Trek. She loves talking about traveling through space and what Gene Roddenberry’s vision did for science. Her hope is to inspire the first person to go to Mars and become the next Neil Armstrong. Her favorite movies are The Martian and Contact. She got to see Neil Degrasse-Tyson and George R.R. Martin. She wishes she could have met Carl Sagan. When she’s not plotting interstellar travel, she’s digging in the dirt. Her vegetables are legendary and her chickens have won awards. When her hands aren’t in the garden, she’s traveling to conventions around the country hoping to inspire the next person willing to go to Mars and aid Elon Musk on his mission.
New Books for October 14 – 19th
This is a big week for LMBPN publishing. We’ve got six new releases and three of them are series starters. Books include Superdreadnought 1 (Book one in a new Age of Expansion series), Strange Is Her Life (School of Necessary Magic), Crucifix – the first book in Damien’s Chronicles (Protected By The Damned), Justicar (Vigilante Chronicles), and Death Match (Animus Book 3). Last but certainly not least, The Principal Is Missing, the first book in the new School of Magic series for children.
Now, how about some details:
Superdreadnought (Today – WOOT!)
Alone and unafraid. Sometimes you prevent war by hunting down your enemies.
Integrated with a superdreadnought, the artificial intelligence known as Reynolds takes his ship across the universe in search of the elusive Kurtherians. He comes to a revelation. He’s better in the company of living creatures.
He needs a crew. He needs information. And he needs to continue his search and destroy mission.
Needing a crew and getting a crew are two completely different things. Reynolds is out of his element as he tries to reach out and make friends. Through it all, he has his vessel, the superdreadnought, the most powerful warship in the galaxy.
Or so he believes.
Strange Is Her Life (Tuesday, Oct 16th)
Dark magic has infiltrated the School of Necessary Magic.
Spies stalk the halls. Traitors whisper lies to impressionable freshmen.
And devious wizards distract with charming smiles.
If Alison and her friends can’t see past the friendly masks of their fellow students to the dark purpose they hide, it’s not just the school that will be destroyed.
But the forces of evil should have kept one thing in mind before targeting Alison Brownstone.
Hell hath no fury like a Drow princess defending her family.
Crucifix – (Damien’s Chronicles book one, Wednesday)
After a long time with mercenaries, the Church has called their demon-possessed Priest home.
A London flat nestled into the outskirts of a small alcove, a beautiful courtyard with bright shining sun, and as many books as he could read.
It was going to be quiet, calm, and… oh wait, its actually the demon apocalypse.
With incursions, hauntings, and poltergeist to take care of Damian is one of the only priests the Church can call on.
At least for now. They did send a welcoming gift in the shape of a young trainee, Max, who may or may not know his head from his… well… you get the point.
Will Damian, with the help of some friends along the way, be able to kick the slay and start to save the souls of his attackers? Or will his red-eyed granny of a neighbor poison him with a pie first?
If his demon has anything to do with it, exorcisms will only be done in the most fashionable style. Secrets and action await you as you follow Damian up his own path from hell.
Justicar (Thursday)
Justicar is book five in The Vigilante Chronicles from Natale Grey and Michael Anderle.
We expected this one last week, but Tabitha wanted her book to be the feature last week, so this was pushed 😉
Barnabas may not be Ranger One anymore, but one thing definitely has not changed: when someone screws over the powerless, Barnabas is going to bring the pain.
Death Match (Friday)
Book three in the wildly popular Animus series comes your way Friday.
And finally, we released our first children’s book yesterday. Nine-year-old Sienna Lawson wrote The Principal Is Missing. Please check this one out if you have children or grandchildren in the six to ten-year-old age brackets.
Have you ever wanted to go to a Magic School?
Callie was wondering if she would have to give up hope of ever attending.
Until one week before she was due to start fourth grade when Callie heard her dog Buster talking to her.
The shock was soon replaced with the realization that she wasn’t mundane, she was a witch.
Now, the wish to go to the school has been replaced with the unknown of going to the School.
What kind of adventures would she have?
Enjoy the week!