Friday Fiction: There’s A Snowstorm Inside
Nov 22, 2024
The Wild Robot: An Incredible Animated Movie
Nov 20, 2024
Foundations: The 5 Best Blue Cards
Nov 18, 2024
Friday Fiction: Fantasy Tale Hat
Nov 15, 2024
Foundations: The 5 Best White Cards
Nov 13, 2024
Rogue Protocol: Best Murderbot Book Yet
Nov 12, 2024
Friday Fiction: Science Fiction Shoes
Nov 8, 2024
It Came From The Archives: “Book Review: I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House”
Nov 6, 2024
Agatha All Along Episodic Coverage: “Maiden Mother Crone”
Nov 4, 2024
Friday Fiction: The Opposite of a Werewolf Curse
Nov 1, 2024
Halloween Fiction: Pumpkin Coins and Fae Rules
Oct 31, 2024
Agatha All Along Episodic Coverage: Follow Me My Friend/To Glory at the End
Oct 30, 2024
Book Review: I Found The Boogeyman Under My Brother’s Crib
Oct 28, 2024
Friday Fiction: The Art Gallery (Part 3)
Oct 25, 2024
Agatha All Along Episodic Coverage: “Death’s Hand In Mine”
Oct 23, 2024
As odd as it is for a horror fan to say, “The Pram” is the first thing I’ve read by Joe Hill, the son of the most famous horror writer in the world, Stephen King. But, from what I’ve heard through the grapevine of criticism, they share a fair number of stylistic flourishes.
Timothy has one chance to make a wish. But is this “magic bird” even real, or just some robot playing a prank?
The Call of the Flame initially worried me that it would be a repeat of my usual concerns with Epic Fantasy. In my very recent review of The Legacy Saga, I talked about how stories in this genre can lack strong inciting incidents or story hooks because it’s too busy with worldbuilding. And several times, The Call of the Flame almost fell right into the same trap but miraculously continued to pull back and keep things understandable.
Before listening to The Storage Papers, I never thought a podcast could scare me as much as The Magnus Archives. That the mind-melting, the dark-is-dangerous thrill it gave me was the peak of horror storytelling.
Last week, Timothy met a strange bird. But now we’ll get to find out what the bird wants from him.
If you’ve been reading some of the more recent reviews, then you know we’ve pivoted to basically only looking at podcasts and books until the Hollywood strike finishes. And, while I have reviewed podcasts previously, I really dived into the medium over the past month or so. This has given me a much better feel for this medium of storytelling. It opened my eyes to the variance and breadth that’s available with audio-only narratives.
The Legacy Saga taught me an interesting lesson about tropes, genre conventions, and storytelling methods that I simply cannot enjoy. In the grand scheme, there’s nothing terribly wrong with The Legacy Saga, no glaring sin, but it was a slog to listen to for any amount of time. The minor issues stack up quickly, and what could’ve been a fun experience turned into a malaise.
We said this story would be whimsical, and let it never be said we don’t deliver on whimsey. Unlike last week’s tale of magic and a lost cellphone, this story will take a few parts to tell.
Black Tide was a different sort of book than I expected. The premise of a cosmic horror-style alien invasion was interesting by itself, but Black Tide marks the first “bottle episode” book I’ve ever read.
Much like last set’s Tom Bombadil, Eriette of the Charmed Apple begs for someone to build around her. But there was a problem right out the gate: Auras are almost universally known as the worst card type in Magic. They have a long history of not being played.
This is a silly one, folks. We’ve done many serious, intense, or frightening stories, but this is resolutely not one of them. This is a low fantasy, low-stakes comedy. Because even in a world with a unique form of magic, there are still very human, day-to-day problems. Problems I’m sure a lot of us have had.
Campfire Radio Theater is an anthology horror series tied to no apparent central themes, no reoccurring characters, and as a bit of foreshadowing: not a consistent approach to storytelling. I picked the episodes semi-randomly, going mostly off if the title or premise seemed interesting.
