Writer and Podcaster
February 4, 2017
Podcast CCR, Chrononaut Cinema Reviews, hugh, JRD, Metropolis, Opopinax, reviews, Rich The T T, Silent Film Leave a comment
Hugh, Jurd, Opopinax and Rich the T T consider the groundbreaking silent classic “METROPOLIS.”
Click HERE to listen!
And HERE to watch on Youtube!
Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by http://skinner.fm and Way of the Buffalo, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
This podcast originally appeared at Skinner.FM on February 1, 2017.
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February 1, 2017
Hugh Likes Video Games Casual Game, HLV, Hugh Likes Video Games, Letter Quest Remastered, PS Vita, Puzzle, RPG Leave a comment
Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey Remastered
Bacon Bandit Games
Played on PS Vita
On the whole, I’ve never gotten into touchscreen games on the PS Vita. The functionality works for the most part, but feels imprecise and gimmicky when I have a suite of perfectly good buttons right there. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised by Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey Remastered.
An enhanced port of a computer puzzle game, Letter Quest is a riff on the Puzzle Quest formula of mixing turn-based RPG and Puzzle Game mechanics. The twist is that the game in question is Boggle rather than Bejeweled. Players have a grid of fifteen letters to arrange into words using the touch screen, which works remarkably well here. Each letter scores points which the hero, a cute cartoon death named ‘Grimm’ turns into damage against an enemy. Each level has a few enemies that have different stats and abilities in addition to attacking the hero. For example, they can change the letters on you tiles or give your tiles nasty effects like poison or spikes for a few turns. Outside of combat, players can level up their abilities or tweak the design on their scythe or tile sets.
The puzzle combat is simple and addictive, as it should be. While the ability to level up attacks and boost particular word damage can allow children or limited wordsmiths to power through, the game has a long list of bonus objectives for completionists or players looking for a greater challenge.
As for the design, the monster and character designs are cute, and the remastered scores are pleasant but repetitive, but there isn’t much here in terms of plot. What story there is gets laid out through a set of comic panels players unlock as they progress. It’s all inconsequential and breezy, and seems almost as though these were assets left over from another project, but they all work well enough. The design doesn’t feel the need to justify itself, it’s just a pleasant background to try and rack up a ten-letter SAT word against. But that’s just fine for the price.
Letter Quest Remastered is a pleasant diversion for bibliophiles of all stripes. I played it as a part of Sony’s PS Plus collection, but it, or its slightly downgraded predecessor, is available on just about every console or mobile device store.
January 30, 2017
Hugh Likes Fiction Genrenauts, HLF, Michael R Underwood, Novella, review, Tor Leave a comment
Genrenauts: The Shootout Solution
Written by Michael R. Underwood
Published by Tor
Writing metafiction is a difficult needle to thread. Fiction about fiction can easily become maze-like and incomprehensible, and it makes the reader very aware of the author. By its very nature, it doesn’t suspend disbelief. Metafiction done well can be cathartic and clever. Done poorly, it just feels like a writer bragging about their MFA in literature. So I was a little leery approaching Michael Underwood’s “Genrenauts” novellas, but after finishing the first one, he’s managed to pull off something extraordinary.
Leah Tang is a standup comedian struggling to make her big break while holding down a boring day job she hates. When a strange man offers her a dream job, she is skeptical at first, but jumps at the chance.
She joins the Genrenauts. An elite, highly secret team that travels to parallel worlds and fixes problems before they bleed over into our world. Leah’s first mission is to help a desert town in Western World. But the Genrenauts don’t save the day. They put stories back on track, which is a much more difficult proposition.
Underwood’s concept of genres as alternate realities is fun and has a lot of possibilities to it. He gets to show off his own savviness with tropes and conventions, but giving these discussions to the characters rather than the narrator softens the rough edges. It makes for a quick novella read that gives old tropes new tricks. Making genres living, breathing worlds might not have worked in a longer book, but it sets the stage quickly and lets the reader get right to the plot without too much fuss here.
The other real strength is the Genrenauts team, whom the reader only gets introduced to here. Leah is the newbie on the team, and there are a lot of first impressions, but the characters seem to all have a lot of hidden depths. Putting them up against genres that often rely on stock, pulpy characters is an interesting dynamic.
Genrenauts: The Shootout Solution is a quick, delightful introduction to a novella series that is built on a great premise. I can’t wait to see what adventures the Genrenauts have ahead of them, and what other adventures they’ll have to fix. Genrenauts is available in ebook from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, MichaelRUnderwood.com.
January 28, 2017
ads, In Case You Missed It, Writing ads, Novel, Patreon, The Freelance Hunters, The Shadow Over Ironwood Leave a comment
Now on Patreon: The Freelance Hunters: The Shadow Over Ironwood!
When Glory and Joachim save an Elf girl from an angry mob, she begs them to help her forest home. But The Ironwood is a deadly maze of traps and magical creatures that no outside has ever escaped alive, and the girl is pursued by implacable enemies. Can the pair of them get along long enough to save their own skin, much less save the day? And where has Bingo gone to?
Sunday Nights at my Patreon page, I’ll post a new chapter of this action-packed adventure serial novel for supporters of $1.00 a month or more. Don’t miss it!
January 16, 2017
A panel we’ve already posted from Balticon 50, but this time recorded by A F Grappin! But this panel, moderated by Jared Axelrod, was so nice we decided to run it twice! Can you spot the differences?
Click HERE to listen
January 15, 2017
Hugh Likes Comics 2016, DC, HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, Image, Lake of Fire, Marvel, New Super-Man, Power Man and Iron Fist, Squirrel Girl, The Wicked + The Divine Leave a comment
Hugh Likes Comics Top 5 of 2016
The year is finally over, so here is my top comics picks for this year, in no particular order. Not all of these comics started their runs in 2016, but all of them were read and enjoyed by me in the last twelve months.
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
W-Ryan North
A-Erika Henderson
P-Marvel Comics
Ryan North and Erika Henderson continue to kill it with their solo series focused on Marvel’s favorite C-List powerhouse. In addition to the stand alone “Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe,” they also continued to do outstanding work in her ongoing series. Flouting Super-Hero comics conventions, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is a rich blend of smarts, silliness, and action that casts a satyrical lens on The Marvel Universe. Squirrel Girl beats her foes with a combination of empathy, inner strength, and even her computer science knowledge. Plus, they did a crossover with Howard The Duck that included Kraven the Hunter driving around in a panel van with a picture of himself on the side. So there’s that.
New Super-Man
W-Gene Luan Yang
A-Viktor Bogdanovic
P-DC Comics
Set in Shanghai with an all-Chinese cast, this book is something truly new from DC. Yang is taking a risk and delving deep into the superhero genre. By taking traditionally American iconography and placing it in modern China, he brings a freshness to plot elements which can feel a bit stale elsewhere. Young Kong Kenan’s struggle with heroism and authority follows familiar beats, but has new life. Bogdanovic’s art and designs are likewise familiar and new in ways that invite the reader. The first arc just finished, and I can’t wait to see where they go next.
The Wicked + The Divine
W-Kieren Gillen
A-Jamie McKelvie
P-Image Comics
The Wicked + The Divine also didn’t begin its run in 2016, but that is the year I finally picked it up. I am a huge fan of Gillen and McKelvie, so this was a no-brainer. The story of twelve teenagers elevated to godhood for two years, it explores the dynamics of youth, pop culture, and religion in intriguing ways that only these two could come up with. This book is an emotional roller-coaster; by turns shocking, funny, and heart-breaking. Gillen and McKelvie continue to work in perfect harmony as they discuss the dynamics of power, celebrity, and exploitation.
Power Man and Iron Fist
W-David Walker
A-Sanford Greene
P-Marvel Comics
This is a truly great, modern street-level superhero comic. Power Man and Iron Fist threads that tiny needle of including years of backstory without getting bogged down in little details. It manages to include a cast of D-list bronze age gangsters and not only keeps modern readers interested, but evokes empathy. It examines what it would really be like to struggle at the bottom in a world like Marvel’s New York, where aliens and magic are commonplace. Walker’s exploration of the idea of street-level magic is both charming and chilling. Greene’s art is well-matched, and he even turns Luke Cage into a fashion plate.
Lake of Fire
W-Nathan Fairbairn
A-Matt Smith
P-Image Comics
Something a bit different to close out this list, “Lake of Fire” is one of those pure, elegant speculative fiction stories that I love. Set during the Crusades, it focuses on how pre-enlightenment Europeans might react to an alien invasion. It is essential knights vs. zenomorphs, but the execution is well-thought out and historically detailed. Fairbairn and Smith take an action-movie concept and expand it into a living, breathing world.
January 13, 2017
Hugh Likes Fiction, Uncategorized Audible, audiobook, Gail Carriger, Heartless, HLF, Hugh Likes Fiction, review Leave a comment
Heartless: The Parasol Protectorate, Book Four
Written by Gail Carriger
Narrated by Emily Gray
Audible.com
Although I am not big on Romance, I’ve had a soft spot for Gail Carriger’s “Parasol Protectorate” series for a long time. It might have to do with her delightful sense of humor, or the richly detailed world of her supernatural Victorian London. Whatever the case, I’ve been savoring the series, and I recently devoured the fourth entry, for the first time in audio.
Alexia Maccon, Soulless, Lady of Woolsey, and Mujah to Queen Victoria, is never one to let little details interfere when she sets on a course of action. So when a ghost gives her a cryptic warning of a plot against the Queen, she isn’t going to let a little thing like being eight months pregnant stand in her way. Scheming scientists, maladjusted werewolves, and zombie porcupines aren’t going to have much of a chance, either.
Carriger does it again with her fast paced comic misadventures in Victorian supernatural society. Her grasp of character and timing is once again on display as she navigates Alexia through mystery, society expectations and steampunk hi-jinx.
Emily Gray’s performance is spot on, and deftly juggles the wide-ranging accents and character foibles of the large cast. Her narration is a perfect balance of high society wit and action-comedy timing.
While this isn’t the best place to jump on to the Parasol Protectorate series, Heartless is a worthy entry. I heartily recommend readers pick up this one, or work their way up to it. You can find it on Audible, in a variety of formats on Amazon, or of course at your local bookstore.
January 12, 2017
Podcast CCR, Chrononaut Cinema Reviews, hugh, I'm not sure what I just watched, JRD, Maniac, Opopinax, Podcasts, review, Rich The T T Leave a comment
Join the full Chrononauts crew as well look at 1934’s “Maniac!”
Click HERE to listen!
And click HERE to watch the film on Youtube!
Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by http://skinner.fm and Way of the Buffalo, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
This podcast was originally posted at Skinner.FM on January 11, 2017.
January 9, 2017
Hugh Likes Comics Agents of GIRL, Comics, HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, Marvel, review, The Wasp Leave a comment
The Unstoppable Wasp #1
Written by Jeremy Whitley
Drawn by Elsa Charretier
Colored by Megan Wilson
Published by Marvel Comics
I have never been a fan of The Wasp. Originally created by Lee and Kirby as a sidekick/love interest for Ant-Man in the ’60’s, I always thought of her as emblematic of the problems that plagued female characters in that era. She was a hanger on, a love-struck fool always in need of rescue, whose powers were weaker and less awesome than her male peers. As time when on, Marvel addressed these tropes and even turned fellow Marvel damsels Jean Grey and Sue Storm into powerful badasses in their own right. But Wasp always seemed trapped in her roots. Even when her role was expanded and she led the Avengers, she was still ‘the girl.’ A fashion designer and socialite, she never really escaped the gender expectations placed on her by male writers.
Which is exactly why The Unstoppable Wasp #1 is such a breath of fresh air. The book stars Nadia Pym, teenage genius, escapee from a Russian super-soldier program, and long-lost daughter of original Ant-Man Hank Pym, because comics. Having studied her father’s work, she has come to America to live the life she never could before. But the thing about Nadia, even more than her intelligence, is her joyfulness. This is the exact antithesis of a grim and gritty superhero punch-up. The Wasp sparkles with light and energy. Nadia, despite her terrible upbringing, isn’t a brooder. She wants to make friends with everyone she meets. She wants to have adventures. She wants to dance with giant robots. This comic is fun, and beautiful and smart. It fits in right along with titles like Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel. (Who guest stars in this issue.)
Written by “Princeless” creator Jeremy Whitley, The Unstoppable Wasp is a delight. It carries over the positive messaging from his creator-owned work and sets its sights on a very important goal: encouraging girls to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. There is even an interview with paleontologist Rachel Silverstein and and PhD Chemistry student Marina Chanidou in the back in lieu of a letters column. The script never gets bogged down in its message, and remains fun and engaging throughout.
Elsa Charretier’s drawing is similarly great, with kinetic, detailed panels and clever layouts. One of the things I love in particular is how she draws Nadia. She’s always moving, practically bouncing from frame to frame, and she’s always, always smiling. She is assisted by Megan Wilson’s bright, sunny palette, which contrasts The Wasp’s black and red suit with light, vibrant colors. This is not a world of shadows, and the coloring does a lot of legwork establishing tone.
The Unstoppable Wasp #1 is a great start to another fun, engaging, and smart Marvel book. If you love comics, pick it up. And be sure to share it with any budding young lady adventure scientists in your life.
The Unstoppable Wasp #1 is available from Comixology or at your local comics shop.
Hugh J. O'Donnell 
Podcast: CCRC18: Naruto S1E1
January 21, 2017
hughjodonnell Podcast anime, CCR, Commentary Track, hugh, JRD, Naruto, Opopinax, Orange is the best color for stealth, The Swing of Loneliness Leave a comment
Join Opopinax, JRD, and Hugh as they take a quick jump in the Chronotheater to the heady days of 2002 with a commentary for the first episode of the original Naruto anime.
Click HERE to listen along.
Naruto is available to stream from Netflix, Crunchy Roll, Hulu, and Viz.com!
This podcast was originally posted at Skinner.FM on January 19, 2017.