September 5, 2020
hughjodonnell
Nostalgia Pilots, Podcast, Uncategorized
Gundam, hugh, Jason, Jurd, Nostalgia Pilots, Podcat, Spence, The 08th MS Team

Welcome to Nostalgia Pilots! This week, Spence, Jurd, Jason and Hugh gather to consider Gundam The 08th MS Team Episode Four – “The Demon Overhead”
Click HERE to listen to the podcast!
In this episode, Michel is extremely Watson, Karen solves her teammates’ problems with violence, and Aina fixes her ship through trying harder. Plus, the Apsalus has a silly name, and Minovsky particles are the new wrenches.
Promo: Glow in the Dark Radio
September 4, 2020
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Video Games, Review, Uncategorized
Gaming, HLV, Hugh Likes Video Games, Indie Game, Nintendo Switch, review, Steampunk
Merchant of the Skies
Published by AbsoDev
Deveolped by Coldwild Games
Played on Nintendo Switch

The Skinny: Come take a trip on this airship!
Merchant of the Skies is a resource trading and management game that puts you in the captain’s seat of a trading vessel plying the skies between floating islands. The Campaign mode sets you up as the scion of a trading family, just starting out with their own boat. You buy low, sell high, do a few favors for your Uncle who is trying to set up a postal system, and gradually discover the secrets and history of the area. As you gain income, you can buy bigger ships, purchase island, and eventually set up caravan routes for complex manufacturing and delivery. There’s no combat, and the only lose condition is running out of money. Once you complete the campaign, the game opens up a sandbox mode that lets you set the goal, or just lets you tool around in your majestic airship
The game’s pixel graphics steampunk fantasy worlds are beautiful and nostalgic. The region is presented as a filled with floating island and other sights, and you travel from one to the other Indiana Jones-style. When you visit an island, it switches to a side-on perspective with pixel sprite buildings and wee figures dashing about. This mode mostly uses menus to navigate, so you don’t have to worry about keeping track of your captain as they visit the trading posts.
The game does get a little laggy towards the endgame, when you have resource gathering and processing happening all over the map. The game auto-aves each time you leave an island, so as the game goes on, be prepared to spend a bit too long waiting towards the end of the game. Also, most of the endgame content requires resources rather than money, so eventually you’ll be raking in cash with nothing to spend it on.
Merchant of the Skies is an engrossing, low-stress management game with charming visuals and strategic thinking. It’s the perfect game for anyone looking for something on the Switch to chill out with.
September 4, 2020
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction

Everyone knew you couldn’t fight the Walkers, just outrun them.
But when a pair of the mechanical titans, accompanied by a platoon of Colonial soldiers appeared outside her village, Amrita decided to fight anyway. She climbed onto a rooftop and watched the lumbering mechs pass, gunners searching for targets.
But Amrita and her rebels were prepared. Two deafening explosions rattled the roof’s timbers as the Walkers hit the mines buried in the square.
She stood and raised her sword, signaling for the real attack to begin. This would be their first victory, but they still had a long fight ahead.
Thanks for reading! For more Everyday Drabbles, Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and you can support the project on Ko-Fi!
September 3, 2020
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction

She stayed up all night with the body. It was just superstition, but her family wanted it done, and everyone else was so exhausted.
Her grandmother had surely passed the night beside her own loved ones, back in the day when wakes were held in living rooms rather than funeral homes. She sat next to the closed coffin in one of those chairs that always looked more comfortable than they felt, and wandered through memories.
The lights snapped on. The funeral director stood frozen in the doorway, cup of coffee in hand.
“How did you get in here?” he demanded.
September 2, 2020
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction

The necromancers rode to battle on the backs of skeletal beasts of war, decked in bronze barding that shone in the morning sun.
They left their silent city and passed through the great stone doors to face the enemy in fields of black wheat.
They dismounted and conjured a legion of skeleton warriors from the ground, ordering them into perfect formation.
In the distance, the enemy waited in their ranks. The commanders laughed, for how could the living fight their constructs of tireless bone?
They heard the calls of a stampede of rushing puppies. The necromancers’ army was adorably routed.
Thanks for reading! For more Everyday Drabbles, Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and you can support the project on Ko-Fi!
September 1, 2020
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction

The light is already fading when her father arrives to take her home. The snow crunches under their boots, and they navigate the village road by the light of the incubation pods that line the road.
When her father was her age, these were cornfields, but nothing grows in the Earth anymore.
She runs up to one of the pods and rubs at the glass, curious about what’s inside. Her father takes her hand and tells her not to dawdle.
Most of these pods contain crops, but he isn’t ready for her to see the pod she was birthed in.
Thanks for reading! For more Everyday Drabbles, Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and you can support the project on Ko-Fi!
August 31, 2020
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction

My gym had just reopened, but I was already dealing with a bunch of problem guests. Now, I understand that lots of people got used to working out in their own spaces, but these guys were the worst. They were noisy, they didn’t clean up after themselves, they hogged the equipment, and they STANK.
I found the group’s apparent leader, a surprisingly scrawny guy, on the lifting bench, stepped around his groaning spotter, and took him aside.
I’m afraid you and your friend need to leave,” I said.
The necromancer looked at me with an expression that could’ve peeled paint.
Thanks for reading! For more Everyday Drabbles, Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and you can support the project on Ko-Fi!
August 30, 2020
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction

The adventurer entered the final chamber of the tomb. This was it, the resting place of the legendary sword Heartpiercer.
She pushed with all her might and heaved the lid of the sarcophagus aside. The longsword was there, unsheathed and gleaming in the torchlight. She wrenched it from the skeleton’s grip and just beheld it for a moment.
The blade was still sharp, untouched by the ravages of time. This would surely turn the tide in the battle to come.
Behind her, the tomb guardian slid downward on silent, silken threads, preparing to dispatch another thief plundering the ancient catacomb.
Thanks for reading! For more Everyday Drabbles, Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and you can support the project on Ko-Fi!
August 29, 2020
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction

When the superhero lost his powers, he went to see his doctor.
“Your powers will return in time,” she reassured him.
“How soon”
The doctor shrugged. “Maybe four weeks? Why not take a holiday?
He took her advice, and jetted off to a tropical island.
But he was back in her office less than a week later, convinced he was dying.
“It’s just a sunburn,” she said. “Rub some calamine lotion on the burn and remember to wear a hat.”
“But my powers come from sunlight,” he said.
The hero’s powers came back, but he never got over the betrayal.
Thanks for reading! For more Everyday Drabbles, Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and you can support the project on Ko-Fi!
August 28, 2020
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Fiction, Review, Uncategorized
Fantasy, Harrow the Ninth, HLF, Hugh Likes Fiction, Sci-Fi, Tamsyn Muir, Tor
Harrow the Ninth
Written by Tamsyn Muir
Audiobook ready by Moira Quirk
Published by Recorded Books

The Skinny: The sequel to Muir’s impressive debut novel delivers more mystery, gothic weirdness, and dad jokes. (Spoilers for Gideon the Ninth)
Any novel can make you think the main character is mad. It takes a very special book to make you wonder about the author. Harrow the Ninth, manages to do both, with style and grace. And it does it leaving my desperately looking forward to the last volume of the trilogy, due out sometime next year.
And how does Muir follow up the massive success of her debut Gideon the Ninth? In second-person, and with the conspicuous absence of any mention of the first book’s beloved title character. Harrowhark the Ninth has done what she set out to do, and became a Lychtor at Canaan House. But instead of waking up a mighty immortal in the full flush of her powers, she’s sick, dying, and probably going mad. There’s something wrong with her, and she cannot understand what. Also, she is dreaming of her time at Canaan House, and those memories don’t match the events of the first book at all.
Things only get worse when she’s brought to the Emperor’s haunted Space Station for training. The other Lychtors are as likely to kill her as teach her, and the Emperor Himself is far from the living god she imagined. Her only remaining friend is Ianthe, her fellow newbie necromancer, who has plans of her own. Oh, and a monstrous undead Death Star is on its way to kill them all, so no rush getting all that sorted out.
Muir has struck gold once again with this space opera that is equal parts Gothic and Arch. The mysteries are tantalizing, the characters are that same signature mix of badass and horrible people, and her writing just sets the page on fire. The second-person perspective and jumbled nature of the first sections of the novel might be a bit of work to get through, but the payoff is definitely worth it, and it’s a brilliant use of literary device.
Moira Quirk also returns to read the audiobook version, and her narration and voice work are spot-on.
Harrow the Ninth is exactly what I wanted out of this sequel, full of gothic space crypts, planet-sized undead, and witty dialog from decadent lesbian space necromancers. It’s not a good place to start the series, but if you enjoyed the Gideon don’t miss it!
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