Sucker Punch is possibly the most spectacular failure I’ve seen in a while. It’s certainly ambitious, it’s got lots to praise, but there are far too many efforts falling flat or possibly offending for it …
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Enuka Okuma – “Cookie” – Interview
Enuka Okuma is a young actress and now a director. She will be back on ABC June 16th for season 2 of the summer series Rookie Blue “as the tough talking rookie cop, Traci Nash, that has …
Continue readingNotes Towards a Sort of Supreme Fiction – Chris Barzak Guest Blog
I was going to write an essay describing the state of the speculative fiction genre, or describing my uneasiness with certain genre-oriented tenets, but I decided not to. I thought, then, that I might write …
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Playin’ with Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Sansa Chapter 29
She’s new, she’s the re-re-reader. She’s the newbie, she’s the spoilery vet. Together they’re rereading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting their POV on. Next up they react to Chapter 29: Sansa. …
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Playin’ with Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Catelyn Chapter 28
She’s new, she’s the re-re-reader. She’s the newbie, she’s the spoilery vet. Together they’re rereading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting their POV on. Today they react to Chapter 28, a Catelyn …
Continue readingScalped: Unwanted – A Study In Flawed Characters
Scalped is a phenomenal series, that’s not news to anyone whether you read it or not. The book gets good press like the ocean gets waves. Constantly. But just recently, I bought the latest trade, …
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Playin’ with Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts: Eddard Chapter 27
She’s new, she’s the re-re-reader. She’s the newbie, she’s the spoilery vet. Together they’re rereading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting their POV on. Today they react to Chapter 27, Eddard. If …
Continue readingHave a Drink on Ali Liebert on Harper’s Island – Interview
I recently had the pleasure of putting some questions to Canadian actress Ali Liebert, who I (and my long-time Boomtron followers) know best as “Nikki the bartender” from Harper’s Island. We talk about what her current …
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Playin’ with Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Jon Chapter 26
She’s new, she’s the re-re-reader. She’s the newbie, she’s the spoilery vet. Together they’re rereading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting their POV on. Today they react to Chapter 26, a Jon Snow …
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Playin’ with Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Eddard Chapter 25
She’s new, she’s the re-re-reader. She’s the newbie, she’s the spoilery vet. Together they’re rereading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting their POV on. Today they react to Chapter 25 – a …
Continue readingThe Black Death Tries Avoiding the Plague Like Cliches
The Black Death is about what you think it is. Set near the beginning of the era of the bubonic plague, it follows a young monk out of his abbey while he serves as guide …
Continue readingSquare Jawed Heroes – The Aesthetics of Who Is Jake Ellis?
Comics are all about beautiful people. Find me a leading character who isn’t physically desirable and I’ll find you a comic I either don’t know or it isn’t selling. This is an aesthetic medium and …
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Playin’ with Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Bran Chapter 24
She’s new, she’s the re-re-reader. She’s the newbie, she’s the spoilery vet. Together they’re rereading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting their POV on. Today they react to Chapter 24- Bran. If …
Continue readingFast Five Quits Reality, Goes Full Spectacle – Review
Fast Five is great, superb summer entertainment, and a fitting commemoration for the 10th anniversary of the original The Fast and the Furious. Justin Lin has fashioned himself into a groundbreaking action director in the vein …
Continue readingTangled and the Death of the Disney Fairy Tale
Like Nietzsche with God, last fall Disney declared that the fairy tale was dead. In this case, that is, Disney would no longer be making animated features out of the old stories. As a child …
Continue readingThor – Movie Review: A Study In Universe Expansion
Marvel Studios have had a lot of success at the box office lately, especially with the Iron Man movies, and they obviously plan to have a lot more success in the coming years with a …
Continue readingPlayin’ with Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Daenerys Chapter 23
She’s new, she’s the re-re-reader. She’s the newbie, she’s the spoilery vet. Together they’re rereading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting their POV on. Today they react to Chapter 23- Daenerys. If …
Continue readingGrimDark: Loose Canon & Warhammer Race War Aaron Dembski-Bowden Guest Blog
Aaron Dembski-Bowden bringing his cannons to canon. Also his warhammer.
Continue readingUniversal War One… Stripp’d
The Christian conception of redemption is an oddly commercial one. Grounded in Old Testament talk of ransoming the slaves, redemption is presented as a transaction through which Christians pay off their debt to God and …
Continue readingPlayin’ with Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Arya Stark Chapter 22
She’s new, she’s the re-re-reader. She’s the newbie, she’s the spoilery vet. Together they’re rereading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting their POV on. Today they move on to Chapter 22, an …
Continue readingI Saw the Devil: Feel Good Movie of the Year – review
“The count’s frozen face was petrified and ashen and the blood still poured down the parallel cuts. His eyes bulged wide, full of horror and pain. It was glorious. If you like that kind of …
Continue readingRETURN to CEREBUS, cried the Earth-Pig Born! A Cerebus Retrospective
Part the First Dave Sim is not dead.
Continue readingPlayin’ With Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Tyrion Lannister Chapter 21
She’s new, she’s the re-re-reader. She’s the newbie, she’s the spoilery vet. Together they’re rereading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting their POV on. Today they move on to Chapter 21, a …
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Playin’ With Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Ned Chapter 20
She’s new, she’s the re-re-reader. She’s the newbie, she’s the spoilery vet. Together they’re rereading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting their POV on. Today they move on to Chapter 20, a …
Continue readingI Sell the Dead | movie review
I Sell the Dead is proof that not every IFC production is golden. It’s from a couple years ago now—2008, I think—and showed up on my Netflix recommendations page and sounded interesting enough to try. …
Continue readingAn Essay into Exoticism – Notes from New Sodom
Hal Duncan on Exoticism in Literature, representation, cultural appropriation, and needed suspicion.
Continue readingSource Code | movie review
Mozart originally ended his opera Don Giovanni with Don Giovanni descending into Hell, his soul claimed by the devil, and later added a final ensemble to bring the performance away from the bleakness of that …
Continue readingDarkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane Review
It becomes immediately apparent from the opening pages of Darkness, Take My Hand that Dennis Lehane has upped the ante since A Drink Before the War. Darkness, Take My Hand stands in stark contrast to A …
Continue readingThe Lincoln Lawyer – review
Matthew McConaughey is one of those actors that you just love even though they don’t really do that many good movies. He’s done a handful over the years, maybe three or four, and he’s a …
Continue readingEmbedded by Dan Abnett – Review
Embedded is Abnett’s second independent novel for Angry Robot Books and one of the most original and compelling SF stories I’ve read in quite some time. In fact, I’m drawn to a grossly overused cliché to describe …
Continue readingAdjusting the Adjustment Bureau
When a movie could have been good, but wasn’t, it becomes an even worse movie experience than if there had been no expectation, no potential, for anything better. So it was with The Adjustment Bureau. …
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Playin’ With Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Bran Stark Chapter 17
George R. R. Martin has us in Bran dreams in our reread this week and we are talking the heart of winter and other things We know nothing about.
Continue readingSandman Meditations – A Game of You
Matthew Cheney meets Barbie Adventures as he continues his Sandman Meditations in A Game of You.
Continue readingIron Company by Chris Wraight – Review
I’ve been meaning to review this little beauty for a while, so, straight to business. Iron Company was Chris Wraight’s first Black Library novel and yet somehow managed to tick almost all the boxes for …
Continue readingOoku: The Inner Chambers – Volume 5
At the end of volume one of Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ooku: The Inner Chambers, the Shogun Yoshimune asks an elderly monk to explain to her “the logic of the present custom” of using male honorifics and …
Continue readingThe Secret Cuisine – Notes from New Sodom
Hal Duncan examines science fiction and fantasy as genre and literature and speculative fiction’s place in culture.
Continue readingOoku: The Inner Chambers – Volume 4
With the opening volumes of Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Fumi Yoshinaga attempts to answer the question of why it is that a culture’s values do not automatically keep step with its demographics. For example, why …
Continue readingShow Me Your Lightning Bolt!
My burgeoning affiliation with the All New! All Different! Boomtron, with its Ooku reviews and its Sandman Meditations and its other various lovingly crafted commentaries, comes with the knowledge that I am lacking in … well, knowledge. …
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Playin’ With Ice and Fire – A Game of Thoughts | Eddard Stark Chapter 16
Even in a fantasy world we join forces in our Game of Thrones reread to hate anyone who kills our puppies.
Continue readingOoku: The Inner Chambers – Volume 3
Volume One of Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ooku: The Inner Chambers posed a question of both its world and ours. That question was why there is such a thing as gender inequality when gender inequality is so …
Continue readingAnimal Kingdom | movie review
Animal Kingdom is not a movie about the jungle but simply the law of the jungle: it’s kill or be killed, and only the strong survive. As the poster tagline claims, it is a crime …
Continue readingRun, Micro, Run
The notion of the sidekick has been a popular one in story-telling since time out of mind, yet it has most likely been brought to its highest prominence in superhero comics. The majority of these …
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Playin’ with Ice and Fire – A Game of Thoughts | Sansa Stark Chapter 15
Sansa Stark sees the world of Westeros in a much different way as her siblings and we dive into her first POV of this reread of A Song of Ice and Fire.
Continue readingLynn Kurland Interview – Romancing the Nine Kingdoms
Lynn Kurland is the author of the Nine Kingdoms romantic fantasy series, as well as a best-selling romance author. For all my love of dark, bloodspurting, knights who say–er, frak–fantasy, I also love the lighter …
Continue readingOoku: The Inner Chambers – Volume 2
The First Volume of Ooku: The Inner Chambers ends with the newly installed Shogun asking a question of an elderly monk. This question, though apparently simple, cuts straight to the heart of her kingdom, her …
Continue readingA Glorious Waste of Time: Jordan Brady’s I Am Comic
There’s an old Chinese curse that a lot of hacky writers use to set up the premises of their articles, and it is as follows: May you live in interesting times. And for stand-up comedy, …
Continue readingPhonogram: Singles Club 4 – Konichiwa Bitches | Best Single Issue Comics
The first Phonogram mini landed and people weren’t sure what to believe. Here was a comic about music that talked about lyrics and music instead of writing and art. It didn’t feature a cape in …
Continue readingPhonogram: Singles Club 4 – Konichiwa Bitches | Top Single Issues
The first Phonogram mini landed and people weren’t sure what to believe. Here was a comic about music that talked about lyrics and music instead of writing and art. It didn’t feature a cape in …
Continue readingOoku: The Inner Chambers – Volume 1 (2009)
0. A Statement of Subject and Method Fumi Yoshinaga’s Eisner Award-nominated and James Tiptree Jr. Award-winning series Ooku: The Inner Chambers is a multi-volume manga series set in an alternative version of Medieval Edo Period …
Continue readingPlayin’ with Ice and Fire A Game of Thoughts | Catelyn Stark Chapter 14
Catelyn Stark does Catelyn Stark things and me and Elena just can’t in this chapter of our Game of Thrones reread.
Continue readingYou’ve Been Punked – Sam Sykes Guest Blog
If science fiction revolves around the question of “what if,” and fantasy revolves around the question of “what was,” then the question of “what is, but not so recently is, and more like what was, …
Continue readingA New Urban Fantasy – Sam Sykes Guest Blog
If you’ve been at all concerned with the state of fantasy in the past few years, you’ve probably noticed a drastic shift in genres. The market has split wildly into many segments, including that bastion …
Continue readingJustin Isis Interview On Manga Cafes, Convenience Stores, and the Taste of Human Flesh
Justin Isis. He’s like Jonathan Franzen if Jonathan Franzen was better looking and could write. Like Paul Leppin meets Kawabata in an empty brothel with cold tile floors. His just-published book, I Wonder What Human …
Continue readingToo Cool (Or, how a moron ended up at the TCA’s)
Like Dante, I wasn’t even supposed to be there that day. The focus of all the attention was familiar: small waves of television and movie stars, wide-smiling studio execs, nervous-looking producers and show-runners, all surrounded …
Continue readingSandman Meditations – Season of Mists
Matthew Cheney visits Hell and Ragnarok following Gaiman in Season of Mists.
Continue readingGareth Edwards’ Monsters – Notes from New Sodom
Hal Duncan on how strange Gareth Edwards is.
Continue readingBlue Valentine | movie review
Blue Valentine screened here at the NO Film Fest the same week Welcome to the Rileys, Black Swan, and 127 Hours did. I did not end up seeing it due to a prior engagement the …
Continue readingL.E. Modesitt Jr. Interview + Imager Review
L.E. Modesitt, Jr., is the best-selling author of several fantasy and science fiction series, and a name you can’t get through any bookstore’s SFF section without encountering. I am only familiar with his work on the Imager …
Continue readingThe King’s Speech | movie review
The King’s Speech is a problematic movie for me. On the one hand, it’s a really great underdog story, the acting jobs were fabulous, and it’s a movie about hope in a time of darkness…but …
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Being a Hack: Writing a Shared-World Novel – Erin M. Evans Guest Blog
Erin M. Evans takes a break from Forgotten Realms to bring you this.
Continue readingDead Supermodels: The Photography Of Kaoru Izima | The Nail That Sticks Out
I love them when they are dead I want some cold-blooded women lying in my bed I love you when you are dead – Batmobile, “Dead (I Want Them When They Are Dead)” At first …
Continue readingThe Dilemma | movie review
I almost didn’t go see this movie for three reasons: it was getting panned by Rotten Tomatoes (somewhere in the 20 percent’s when I checked, which is just shy of worst movie of the year …
Continue readingUltramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie | Review
At last, the holy grail of Warhammer 40k fans the world over has arrived–a 40k movie! Penned by the master himself, Dan Abnett, produced by Codex Pictures and directed by Martyn Pick, it tells a …
Continue readingNocturne by Syrie James Review
Let me be honest: Nocturne by Syrie James is not the sort of novel that I naturally gravitate to. I read it because it was offered to me and sounded interesting enough to try–the sort …
Continue readingTrue Grit | movie review
True Grit is the latest movie from the Coen brothers, and their best since No Country for Old Men. It convinces me that they should stick to movies that are not comedic in structure but …
Continue readingPlayin’ With Ice and Fire – A Game of Thoughts | Tyrion Lannister Chapter 13
More Tyrion as we go up North to see the Wall and realize Tyrion is a fan of fantasy in this chapter of our Game of Thrones reread.
Continue readingTron Legacy – Review
Tron Legacy is the sort of movie that, in my opinion, requires a disclosure of a reviewer’s perspective up front. So to that end, I feel compelled to admit that I have only seen Tron …
Continue readingProspero Burns + Embedded by Dan Abnett Review
Perhaps the most eagerly awaited book of the Horus Heresy series, Prospero Burns is the fifteenth book in this New York Times best-selling collection. Though initially slated for simultaneous release with Graham McNeill’s A Thousand …
Continue readingA Marjorie Liu Interview – Dirk, Steele, and X-23
Recently I was given the chance to have a phone chat with best-selling author Marjorie M. Liu, author of the “Dirk & Steele” paranormal romance series and “Hunter Kiss” urban fantasy series; Marjorie is also …
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The Kipple Foodstuff Factory – Notes from New Sodom
Pulp? Science Fiction? and Sci-Fi? Kafka? Lovecraft? Atwood? Hal Duncan speaks on genre.
Continue readingSandman Meditations – Dream Country
Matt Cheney dreams a dream of 1000 cats in this chapter of his walk through of the Gaiman Sandman run.
Continue readingSharon Shinn Interview – Writing, Fantasy, and Troubled Waters
Sharon Shinn is the author of nearly two dozen fantasy novels, including the bestselling Twelve Houses and Samaria series. She has won the William C. Crawford Award for Outstanding New Fantasy Writer and was twice …
Continue readingPlayin’ with Ice and Fire – A Game of Thoughts | Eddard Stark Chapter 12
Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark won a kingdom together. Which of them will out dumb the other to lose it all amidst all the Lannisters?
Continue readingA Madness of Angels + The Midnight Mayor by Kate Griffin Review
This book is well-named. Its title and subtitle are intriguing–they got me to look at its premise. Which is also intriguing: Two years after his murder, Matthew Swift wakes up again. His house is no …
Continue readingPlayin’ with Ice and Fire – A Game of Thoughts: Daenerys Targaryen Chapter 11
We are invited to a wedding by George R. R. Martin and Drogo and Daenerys are the lucky young couple. Emilia and Momoa. Goddamn fine people.
Continue readingThe Black Swan review from the New Orleans Film Festival
I could review The Black Swan with one word: amazing. The film is dark and shifting, conflating dreams and obsessions into a terrifying reality where nothing is certain. Natalie Portman stars as Nina, a ballerina …
Continue reading127 Hours | movie review from the New Orleans Film Festival
Danny Boyle’s latest movie is based on a true story (chronicled in the memoir Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston), and it would be a disservice to the story and the …
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Gareth Edwards’ Monsters Review
Monsters is, as the title suggests, a monster movie. Sort of. It’s also an impressive achievement for a first-time director, much less one who had a tiny budget and created all the effects himself on …
Continue readingNever Let Me Go | movie review
Never Let Me Go is adapted from a book that I have not read. So if you are looking for a book to film comparison, sorry, I can’t give you that—all I can judge is …
Continue readingCity of Ruin + Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton Review
This review is based upon the assumption that you’ve read Nights of Villjamur, the first book in this series. If you haven’t I think you’re missing out on some of the most groundbreaking urban fantasy currently …
Continue readingThe Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron Review
I’m not sure there are words to describe how much this book delighted me. I’ll try very hard, however. The Spirit Thief is the first in a planned series about the adventures of ne’er-do-well Eli …
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The Booker and the Bistro de Critique – Notes from New Sodom
Hal Duncan ponders the Man Booker Prize and the candidacy of science fiction and fantasy novels in his latest Notes from New Sodom.
Continue readingDaredevil’s Yellow – A Perfect Memory
A bright yellow costume on a man called Daredevil. It was simply never going to work putting a slightly older, lawyer/vigilante, protector of Hell’s Kitchen in a bright yellow costume. How many reasons are there …
Continue readingPlayin’ with Ice and Fire – A Game of Thoughts | Jon Snow Chapter 10
Our Game of Thrones Reread has brought us to a crossroads, where Stark farewells occur, as we travel north and south, to the wall, and to court.
Continue readingSherlock’s Little Mistakes 3: The Great Game
0. Terms of Engagement Welcome, Brothers and Sisters, to the third weekly meeting of the Church of The Hermeneutic Christ. Blessed be the name of Sherlock and peace be upon his prophets Nero Wolfe, Jane …
Continue readingPlayin’ with Ice and Fire – A Game of Thoughts | Tyrion Lannister Chapter 9
Tyrion Lannister enters the Game of Thrones reread, thus beinning the epic journey of a dwarfs who casts a giant kingly shadow.
Continue readingSherlock’s Little Mistakes 2: The Blind Banker
0. Terms of Engagement ydoan yunnuhstan ydoan o yunnuhstand dem yguduh ged yunnuhstan dem doidee yguduh ged riduh ydoan o nudn LISN bud LISN dem gud am lidl yelluh bas tuds weer goin duhSIVILEYEzum So …
Continue readingAmerican Vampire – A Study In True Vampirism
Scott Snyder is a writer who is working to remind the reading masses what vampires are. In American Vampire, Snyder has created a new divergent path for vampires to tread as he imagines the species …
Continue readingPlayin’ with Ice and Fire – A Game of Thoughts | Bran Stark Chapter 8
Things are going down as in this Bran chapter we get our first GRRM cliffhanger in Game of Thrones – and we all fall down.
Continue readingThe Art of the Steal – Review
Now this is what a documentary should be! After my disappointment with Restrepo a couple weeks ago, I was thrilled to realize, after popping in this DVD, that The Art of the Steal was reminding me …
Continue readingSherlock’s Little Mistakes 1 : A Study in Pink
0. Terms of Engagement Mystery fiction is a profoundly consolatory genre. Whether it is set in a Loamshire country house, a snow-bound train or the streets of Victorian London, the mystery novel is all about …
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