February 20, 2017
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Fiction, Review
HLF, Hugh Likes Fiction, Matt Wallace, Novella, review, Sin Du Jour, Tor, Urban Fantasy
Idle Ingredients (Sin du Jour Book 4)
Written by Matt Wallace
Published by Tor
Matt Wallace is back again with the fourth course of his ‘Sin du Jour’ novellas. Each bite-sized course of these epicurean Urban Fantasy series is an utter delight, and I’ve been looking forward to this one. As usual, Wallace doesn’t disappoint.
Still reeling from their last big job in Los Angeles, Sin du Jour line chef Lena Tarr goes on the lamb. Bronko and Nikki bring her back to the kitchen on the very reasonable assumption that the armies of Hell that are after them will kill her without the protection Sin du Jour provides. But there’s a new face at the catering company, ‘Government liaison’ Luciana Monrovio and Lena is immediately suspicious of the hold she seems to suddenly have over all of them, particularly the guys.
This novella is a bit more serious than the last three, but that’s not surprising after the major throw down at the end of “Pride’s Spell.” The thing I did like about this one is that it packs in a lot of character growth for characters we haven’t seen too much of before. Darren gets some nice page time, and really starts to come into his own, even as Lena is shown as more vulnerable than we’ve seen her in the past, and planning assistant Jett gets a cool arc too. Wallace’s strength is in keeping all of his plates spinning so flawlessly. Sin du Jour, as in his previous novella series, Slingers, has a huge cast of characters. Matt manages to breathe life into all of them, and progress their individual stories, in a breathtakingly short amount of pages. Each bite-sized book contains more character growth and personality than your average doorstop fantasy epic.
Sin du Jour book four, Idle Ingredients, is out now from Tor. You can purchase it from Amazon or wherever you get books.
December 12, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Comics, Review
Comics, Doctor Aphra, HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, Marvel, Star Wars
Doctor Aphra #1
Written by Kieron Gillen
Drawn by Kev Walker
Published by Marvel Comics
How do you write a good anti-hero? Put them up against forces larger, and worse than themselves and always, always make the bill come due for their evil deeds, in one way or another. This is just what Kieron Gillen and Kev Walker’s Doctor Aphra sets out in its first issue.
The scheming anthropologist accomplice of Darth Vader is back in her own series, and I couldn’t be happier to see her again. Accompanied by her droids 000 and BT, dark-mirror analogues of C3P0 and R2-D2, she’s still out looking for big scores and outsmarting the Galaxy’s ever-present underworld. Clever, deep in debt, and out to save her own skin rather than the galaxy, she’s the perfect update of all of Han Solo’s tropes. Just don’t call it a redemption arc.
Gillen’s story ditches the Campbellian melodrama and delivers a story full of double crosses, brawling, badass wookiees, and grimly comic murder droids. Walker’s art is fun, and expressive, with action-oriented layouts. Colorist Antonio Fabela proves you can tell a dark story in comics without over-shading the page.
Aphra was one of my favorite characters from Gillen’s Darth Vader run, and I can’t see what shenanigans she gets up to away from the sith lord’s watchful eye. Doctor Aphra #1 is available digitally from Comixolgoy, or in print at your local comics shop.
October 31, 2016
hughjodonnell
Review
Castlevania, Dracula Season, Halloween, HLV, Hugh Likes Video Games, review
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
Published by Konami
Nintendo DS, 2005
The sequel to 2003’s “Aria of Sorrow,” Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow” was the first installment of the series for the Nintendo DS. A savvy reader might point out that ‘Dawn’ isn’t the best name for a sequel, but since it appeared in the first year of the system, it was one of many games that glommed on to the ‘DS’ suffix.
The game once again follows teen reincarnation of the Lord of Darkness Soma Cruz to a maze-like castle in which he will again come to terms with and try to overcome his destiny. When he is confronted by a cult leader searching for the Lord of Darkness, Soma’s power of Dominance unexpectedly returns, forcing him to confront his past life once again.
On the whole, “Dawn of Sorrow” doesn’t bring much new from its GBA predecessors. The main game puts you back in the shoes of Soma, with the ability to Dominate and use the powers of various monsters to fight and to solve puzzles. You can also collect extra souls to power up your abilities and weapons, which is nice, but mostly this game is more Aria of Sorrow with prettier graphics. The game does have a ‘seal’ system, in which bosses have to be sealed away to be beaten. This involves drawing a symbol on the touch screen after the fight. It is a bit annoying, forcing players to keep a stylus tucked in their hand during the fight, but hardly the most egregious tacked on touch-screen gimmick of its day.
The game also features a return of the standard Castlevania extras such as unlockable characters and Boss Rush modes. The extra mode is a real treat in this version, as it allows the player to switch between characters in a fan-service nod to Castlevania III.
The game still holds up relatively well, with well-designed, highly detailed sprites. The castle feels nice and big, and it isn’t too hard to navigate with plenty of warp and save areas. The game had a little trouble running in my New 3DS, however. It would occasionally freeze or glitch, and the system wouldn’t be able to read the game card. This wasn’t enough of an issue to prevent normal play, however.
“Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow” is an incremental but worthy installment in the Castlevania franchise, and is well worth your time if you’re looking to explore Dracula’s castle this Halloween. It doesn’t break a lot of ground, but it is a fun and challenging adventure. You should be able to find a used copy at your local game store.
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September 28, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Fiction, Review
Emma Thompson, Henry James, HLF, Horror, Hugh Likes Fiction, review, The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw
By Henry James
Read by Emma Thompson with Richard Armitage
The Turn of the Screw is a classic suspense novel and ghost story, but perhaps it suffers from being too firmly rooted in the time of its creation. The short novel is the story of a young governess sent to care for the orphaned niece and nephew of a rich London gentleman. Her employer wants nothing to do with the two small children, but that is only the start of their troubles. The governess is soon convinced that they are haunted by a pair of ghosts.
James’s short novel is preserved as a primary example of Victorian suspense, but the style would be way too wordy and anticlimactic to best-seller readers today. But the nouvelle is both steady and deliberate in the application of suspense as the main character attempts to unwind the layers of mystery surrounding her two charges. The opening section, in which the James claims to have heard this story from a friend one Christmas holiday serves as a statement of purpose to this effect, and also as a sort of carnival barker, stoking the nerves of the reader and daring them to turn the page.
But “The Turn of the Screw” is perhaps a bit too steeped in the cultural and social mores of Victorian England to be relevant to modern readers. Class and gender relationships, with a clear hierarchy, are taken for granted throughout the work. The narrator asserts that young Miles is either her equal or superior on the basis of his sex. Also, class consciousness is central to the scandalous behavior of the two ghosts. The novel asserts either a tryst between a common manservant and the well-born governess. It also implies that their contact with the two children was inappropriate, and that their return from beyond the grave is to snatch the children. James doesn’t seem to see any difference between breaking class taboos and pedophilia , which was troubling to my twenty-first century American morals.
I listened to this book on Audible. Emma Thompson’s reading is quite good, and she manages to cut the dense verbiage of James’s style down to a manageable path. Her performance keeps the modern listener invested and upholds the air of gothic suspense that may be lost on a reader unaccustomed to the style. The Turn of the Screw is also available in print and digitally from a number of public domain sources.
Thanks for reading this article. If you enjoyed it, please share it! You can also support me on Patreon for more content.
September 26, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Comics, Review, Uncategorized
1234, HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, Image, Jamie McKelvie, Kieron Gillen
The Wicked + The Divine Vol. 1: The Faust Act
Written by Kieron Gillen
Drawn by Jaime McKelvie
Published by Image Comics
Gillen and McKelvie are my all-time favorite team of comics creators. Yes. Even above Stan and Jack. Deal with it. I was impressed with their urban fantasy indie-pop black and white opus “Phonogram,” and their run of “Young Avengers” was my favorite comic of 2013. So when they announced “The Wicked + The Divine,” I knew right away that it was going to be right in my wheelhouse. But I slept on it, knowing that it would be there when I wanted it the most, and that graphic novels would be a better choice than single issues, for me. This week I finally took the plunge. And I was entirely right.
Every ninety years, twelve gods return to earth, incarnated as teenaged pop stars. They spend the next two years inspiring humanity, then they die. And the cycle repeats. It’s called The Recurrence, and it’s happening right now.
Laura is a fanatic. She’s seen every god that has appeared so far. And when Luci, this incarnation of the Prince of Lies as filtered through the Thin White Duke, takes a shine to her and invites her backstage, she becomes enmeshed in the affairs of beings that are equal parts divine being, celebrity, and terminally-ill teenager.
The Wicked + The Divine is another moonshot high concept of a comic from Gillen and McKelvie. A strange mix of pop culture and religious iconography, it is constantly shocking, melancholic, and larger-than-life. McKelvie’s clean, gorgeous line work is once again perfectly suited, with a whole class of post-modern deities to accompany his work on Marvel’s Young Avengers. Matthew Wilson’s colors once again provide a rich partner to McKelvie’s art.
The Wicked + The Divine vol. 1 is available in trade from your local comics shop or digitally from Comixology. It’s a hell of a good read.
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September 14, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Podcasts, Review
Hello From The Magic Tavern, HLP, Hugh Likes Podcasts, review
Hello From the Magic Tavern
Produced by Arnie Niekamp, Evan Jacover, and Ryan DiGiorgi
Hosted by Arnie Niekamp, Adal Rifai, and Matt Young
hellofromthemagictavern.com
Hello From the Magic Tavern is a difficult podcast to explain. It’s kind of like The Lord of the Rings with less wandering and more poop jokes. Half improv, half interview show, the podcast is hosted by Arnie Niekamp, playing himself. The premise is that he fell through a magical portal behind a Chicago Burger King and landed in the magical land of Foon. He still gets wifi through the portal, and hosts a podcast interviewing locals along with his co-hosts, a talking badger/shape-shifter named Chunt, and Usidore, a wizard of less than legendary talents.
The interviews with guests are improvised, but each one becomes canon for the podcast, and episodes build to form a larger story. It’s a neat premise, that has resulted in a lot of pop culture jokes and references becoming ongoing bits.
The producers are also a part of the creative team at Jackbox Games, who create indie party video games like “You Don’t Know Jack” and “Fibbage.” The signature humor of those games is on display here as well, so fans of their video game work will be well at home with “Hello From the Magic Tavern.” The ongoing story line, which involves Arnie’s fervent wish to return home, but utter lack of action, and the land of Foon being menaced by a Dark Lord simply referred to as “The Dark Lord,” get stranger and more complex with every episode, but it is one heck of a trip.
You can stream Hello From the Magic Tavern online, or find it in iTunes or your favorite podcatcher.
Thank you for reading this article. If you enjoyed it, please share it, or leave a comment. You can also support me on Patreon for more content.
August 6, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Podcasts, Review
Comedy, Gaming, Gosh Darn Fiasco, HLP, Hugh Likes Podcasts, Improv, Podcasts, review
HLP-Gosh-Darn Fiasco
Hosted by: Angela Webber, Richard Malena and guests
Goshdarnfiasco.simplecast.FM
Gosh-Darn Fiasco is a live-play role playing game podcast hosted by musician Angela Webber. But where most of these kind of gaming shows feel like audio dramas, this one is more like improv. The difference lies partly in the source material, and partly in the rotating team of talent that comes to play.
“Fiasco” is a GM-less roleplaying game in the style of classic caper movies. Written by Jason Morningstar and published by Bully Pulpit Games, it is a storytelling RPG. This means the goal of the game is to play out a scenario, rather than winning a battle. As the name implies, the fun isn’t in winning, it is in snowballing the story from a small problem into a huge catastrophe.
Each episode, Weber and her guests play through one single play Fiasco game from beginning to end. There are a variety of settings, or ‘Playsets’ that they have gone through, from a Colonial Salem to McMurdo Station to a heist at the Jim Henson Workshop. Each episode takes the Cohen Brothers aesthetic of the game and turns it even more towards the comically ridiculous.
Frequent guest such as Lucia Fasano and Kevin M. Arnold add improv chops to the game, making it a lighthearted, gonzo joy to listen. Gosh-Darn Fiasco is a monthly podcast that runs about 90 minutes per episode. It’s not something you’re going to get through in a single commute, but it is a heck of a lot of fun. Find it at Website, in iTunes, or in your preferred podcatcher.
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July 12, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Podcasts, Review, Uncategorized
Alice isn't dead, Disparition, HLP, Hugh Likes Podcasts, Jasika Nicole, Joseph Fink, Podcasts, review, Welcome To Night Vale
Alice Isn’t Dead
Joseph Fink/Jasika Nicole/Disparition
nightvalepresents.com
America can be a weird, lonesome place. This is something the creators of ‘Welcome to Night Vale,’ no strangers to weirdness themselves, learned firsthand while touring with a live version of the hit podcast. Co-writer Joseph Fink was inspired to write a new show based in part on his experience of traveling across the country. But like the original, ‘Alice Isn’t Dead,’ takes place in a world much stranger and scarier than our own.
While ‘Night Vale’ uses its off-kilter atmosphere for humor, Alice is a straight-up horror story, with a fair bit of mystery thrown in. The podcast follows a truck driver, played by Jasika Nicole, as she travels the country in search of her missing wife. Along the way, she tells her story into her CB radio as though it were a letter or a diary. At first she just wants answers, but she quickly becomes embroiled in an inexplicable conspiracy, and attracts the attention of The Thistle Man, a supernatural impossible serial killer. From there, things only get worse.
Produced by Disparition, each episode is a rich soundscape. I expected the CB chirps and engine hum that provide the basic sound floor to take me out of the story, but they are expertly mixed, and rather than distract, they provide a sense of realism and tension to the performance. Set on the lonely highways and the weird nowhere towns of the American imagination, “Alice Isn’t Dead” is a creepy mystery that proves that the Night Vale creative team have real chops behind their satire. You can find the show in iTunes, or at nightvalepresents.com.
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January 13, 2015
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Podcasts, Review
Astonomy Cast, Frasier Cain, HLP, Hugh Likes Podcasts, Pamela Gay, review, Science
Hosted by Dr. Pamela Gay and Fraser Cain.
astronomycast.com
Astronomy Cast is an astronomy and citizen science podcast that takes listeners on ‘a fact-based journey through the cosmos.’ Neither too simplistic nor overly technical, It is a great peek into the universe for amateur astronomers and science fans alike.
The show is hosted by Universe Today publisher Fraser Cain and Astronomer Dr. Pamela Gay. While it is not always consistently published due to the hosts busy schedules, it does cover a wide range of topics. They discuss science news such as current mission like Rosetta and Cassini, astronomical phenomena such as sun spots and finding water in space, and more! They have recently begun a fascinating series of biographies of modern female astronomers such as Joceylyn Bell Burnell, a discoverer of pulsars!
As a lover of science fiction, but someone who didn’t do great studying science in school, this is a great podcast. They present astronomy with wit, and grace, and explain clearly without talking down to the listener. This is an engaging and entertaining podcast for the non-scientist who has watched “Cosmos,” but is ready for something more challenging. It’s even a gateway to citizen science projects such as Cosmo Quest, which assists in mapping heavenly bodies!
Astronomy Cast is available from iTunes, astronomycast.com , or your favorite podcatcher.
January 8, 2015
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Comics, Review
Erica Henderson, HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, Marvel, review, Ryan North, Squirrel Girl, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1
Written by Ryan North
Drawn by Erica Henderson
Published by Marvel Comics
Some comics are meant to amaze. They sculpt years of storytelling continuity into jaw-dropping moments of greatness. Some comics are meant to shock, taking familiar tropes or safe concepts and turning them on their head by framing them in the harsh light of gritty realism.
And some comics are just plain fun. I suspect “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” falls into the third category. The eponymous S G is Doreen Green, a jokey Z-lister with the a fluffy tail, a prominent overbite, and the proportional strength and speed of a squirrel. She also has no idea how to operate outside of the superhero mode, which is about to make her first day of college very interesting.
Written by Dinosaur Comics creator Ryan North and drawn by indie artist Erica Henderson, this book will feel familiar to anyone familiar with their work. It’s a light, breezy tale filled with misappropriated superhero theme songs, squirrel (fish) out of water humor, and even alt text printed on the bottom of each page. Even the art has a softer, more cartoonish quality that lends itself well to North’s wacky script. This isn’t going to be one of those comics that changes everything, but it was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to see what kind of trouble Doreen and her pet squirrel/sidekick Tiptoe get into with her cat-obsessed roommate, oh, and it looks like she might have to save the world after all, too.
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is available from Comixology or your local comics shop.
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