Tag: books

Fresh Meat, Not Reboots: Brian Robeson

Like me, you’re probably tired of every new movie franchise really just being a retread, reboot, sheboot, or genderbend of an old classic.

There are plenty of other characters out there who deserve to make it to the screen besides Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, King Arthur, and so on. I could list a million more.

We’ve seen every damn iteration we should see. Studios will just milk a property that has no trademark but enjoys high brand recognition.

Here are some book series that you should jump into so that we increase the chances of seeing them on screen someday.

How the hell do we not have a blockbuster adaptation of HATCHET? This is BS. Get on it. This kid was The Martian before there was The Martian.

Fresh Meat, Not Reboots: Aleksander and Deryn

Like me, you’re probably tired of every new movie franchise really just being a retread, reboot, sheboot, or genderbend of an old classic.

There are plenty of other characters out there who deserve to make it to the screen besides Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, King Arthur, and so on. I could list a million more.

We’ve seen every damn iteration we should see. Studios will just milk a property that has no trademark but enjoys high brand recognition.

Here are some book series that you should jump into so that we increase the chances of seeing them on screen someday.

Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan trilogy is an alternate World War One story. The Allies have genetically altered animals and the Germanic powers have heavy iron machinery. “Darwinists” vs “Clankers.”

Aleksander is the fictional only child of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and Deryn is pulling a Scottish Mulan so that she can be an aviator. Their paths cross after the Archduke is assassinated, and a British airship crashes near an Austrian safehouse in the Alps.

Excellent series that plays with history in a fun way. Strong story, strong characters, great illustrations. Go read it.

Fresh Meat, Not Reboots: Silas and Josie

Like me, you’re probably tired of every new movie franchise really just being a retread, reboot, sheboot, or genderbend of an old classic.

There are plenty of other characters out there who deserve to make it to the screen besides Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, King Arthur, and so on. I could list a million more.

We’ve seen every damn iteration we should see. Studios will just milk a property that has no trademark but enjoys high brand recognition.

Here are some book series that you should jump into so that we increase the chances of seeing them on screen someday.

DID YOU THINK I WOULDN’T?

HA.

Go read SLEEPLESS HOLLOW. Silas and Josie are time-traveling ghost hunters who have to save Sleepy Hollow on Halloween in 2020. I published this book pre-pandemic, so I didn’t write the lockdowns, the riots, or the election BS into the story, because that stuff is stupid.

Get me on the big screen.

Fresh Meat, Not Reboots: Vin and Elend

Like me, you’re probably tired of every new movie franchise really just being a retread, reboot, sheboot, or genderbend of an old classic.

There are plenty of other characters out there who deserve to make it to the screen besides Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, King Arthur, and so on. I could list a million more.

We’ve seen every damn iteration we should see. Studios will just milk a property that has no trademark but enjoys high brand recognition.

Here are some book series that you should jump into so that we increase the chances of seeing them on screen someday.

Vin and Elend are the central characters in Brandon Sanderson’s first Mistborn trilogy. She’s a street rat, he’s a noble, and they both live under the oppressive regime of an immortal ruler, in a landscape that is almost barren and devoid of life.

Also, Vin can drink alcohol with metal fragments in it and gain superpowers. The first book is a heist, the second is a siege, and the third is an all-out war. Strong religious overtones about as well, but not from real-world religions.

One of my favorite epic fantasy series. Keep reading these books, Sanderson will make a movie of this eventually.

Fresh Meat, Not Reboots: Courtney Crumrin

Like me, you’re probably tired of every new movie franchise really just being a retread, reboot, sheboot, or genderbend of an old classic.

There are plenty of other characters out there who deserve to make it to the screen besides Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, King Arthur, and so on. I could list a million more.

We’ve seen every damn iteration we should see. Studios will just milk a property that has no trademark but enjoys high brand recognition.

Here are some book series that you should jump into so that we increase the chances of seeing them on screen someday.

From the graphic novel series by Ted Naifeh. Courtney Crumrin is a social outcast who has to move with her parents into her weird great-uncle’s house. Turns out said great uncle is a warlock, and from him Courtney starts learning magic.

This ain’t no Hogwarts though. Bad stuff happens and it costs dearly to undo it. Courtney learns valuable lessons along the way. And the aesthetics are to die for, especially if you read these books as part of your Halloween stack.

Get us an adaptation of this instead of Minions 873, please.

Fresh Meat, Not Reboots: Darrow of Lycos

Like me, you’re probably tired of every new movie franchise really just being a retread, reboot, sheboot, or genderbend of an old classic.

There are plenty of other characters out there who deserve to make it to the screen besides Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, King Arthur, and so on. I could list a million more.

We’ve seen every damn iteration we should see. Studios will just milk a property that has no trademark but enjoys high brand recognition.

Here are some book series that you should jump into so that we increase the chances of seeing them on screen someday.

Darrow is the protagonist from Pierce Brown’s Red Rising trilogy. I say “trilogy” because I don’t care for anything that comes after book 3. The first three stories end fantastically and after that, the story unwinds itself. I wrote about this over at UpstreamReviews.

As for Darrow, he’s a low-class drill operator who was genetically remade into a ruling-class warlord, joining a group of underground rebels who want to destroy a pseudo-Roman empire in the future. They killed his wife. He’ll burn everything they love to the ground.

Read RED RISING, GOLDEN SON, and MORNING STAR. That is all.

Fresh Meat, Not Reboots: Ashok Vadal

Like me, you’re probably tired of every new movie franchise really just being a retread, reboot, sheboot, or genderbend of an old classic.

There are plenty of other characters out there who deserve to make it to the screen besides Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, King Arthur, and so on. I could list a million more.

We’ve seen every damn iteration we should see. Studios will just milk a property that has no trademark but enjoys high brand recognition.

Here are some book series that you should jump into so that we increase the chances of seeing them on screen someday.

Ashok Vadal is the protagonist from Larry Correia’s Saga of the Forgotten Warrior series, an epic fantasy that moves at the pace of a thriller and has a distinctive Indian flavor to it. (Dots, not feathers.)

Why is he cool? The man is a killing machine, carrying a sword that has been borne by hundreds of men before him. Their skill is grafted onto it and Ashok knows how to fight like the previous bearers.

On top of that, he’s powered by The Heart of The Mountain, a magical source of healing and strength that makes him unstoppable. To make things really interesting, he’s an atheist…

…and he’s on a mission from the gods.

That’s all I’m gonna say. Read this series. Get us an Ashok movie.

Armed Forces, Veterans, and Memorial

This will probably become my perennial Memorial Day post. It’s not the kind of thing that I’ll have a ton to add to, it’s just something we all need to do on the regular.

The book I think of most for Memorial Day is FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, by James Bradley. The review is above. It’s these books that will help us understand what it costs to create a nation and protect it from tyranny.

To me, that’s what Memorial Day is. Remembering the country we have, and what we enjoy in it, and those who died to give us that ability to enjoy it. They don’t get to have it. They just paid for it. We’re living on their work.

I touched on the idea of the price of a nation in HOWLING WILDERNESS, during a draft of the first chapter. This might not make it into the final version but that’s fine. The sentiment is there.

“Fifty years,” Lady Vandervoort said, her voice lowering just a touch, her eyes going distant. “None of it happened here. It wasn’t on Katahdin, it wasn’t in Maine. We trained in Virginia. Built mimics in the Ohio. Crossed Pennsylvania. Fell into a trap in New York. Finished the fight in New Jersey. This place…this place had nothing to do with it. But we are free here, because of what was done there. Fifty years I’ve carried the memories of that day, and all the hard days before it. Now here we are…finding this uniquely Merykan way to celebrate what we have.

“This? This is the anomaly. Life isn’t like this. Hasn’t been like this for most people in most places for most of the time we’ve walked the earth. Life is war and chaos and brutality and subjugation, speckled with tiny moments of peace along the way. This is peacetime. Enjoy it for what it is. Remember what it cost to get you all here. Have fun bombing around in the woods and the swamps, I guess, but know that you hold a diamond in your hand. It isn’t yours, it’s just yours to take care of. People died to find it, to pull it out of the ground and cut it and shine it up so you can look at it and see how pretty it is.

“Make sure it stays that way. One of you little bastards is going to win this thing and get a Council appointment. The diamond isn’t yours to spend. It’s yours to preserve. Think about that for the next two thousand miles.” She chuckled, lost in some distant memory. Then she sighed. “See you at the other end of this. Good luck.”

The cultured reader will know who Lady Vandervoort is from the original Engines of Liberty trilogy. If you don’t know, I won’t spoil the surprise.

Anyway. Celebrate well, and use this day for what it really means.