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Dead Rising review

July 17, 2014, 11:14 pm
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    It's strange for a man who considers himself a huge fan of the Dead Rising series that he hasn't played the original until now. I haven't played the latest title in the series yet either but I think Dead Rising fans will be more forgiving of that due to the fact I'm saving up to purchase an Xbox One.

    Despite this, I went into the game intimately familiar with the story since I watched it online when it came out because I was such a huge zombie fan but didn't yet own an Xbox 360. Likewise, I was intrigued by all of the features the game promised. Every magazine I read emphasized the game's open-world nature, the potential for exploration, and the mammoth amount of objects which could be used to slay zombies in inventive ways.

    Still, it wasn't until I'd played the sequels religiously that I decided to finally shell out the money and purchase the Platinum version of the title. As a result, I'm going to speak of both what was innovative in Dead Rising at the time of its release as well as how it holds up today.

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Just wandering around the mall, whacking the hell out of zombies with a board.
    While it's become something of an industry staple, the big thing Dead Rising brought to the table was the full exploitation of slow zombies and a sandbox environment. The debate between Slow Zombies and Fast Zombies has been something talked about by geeks for a very long time but Dead Rising is an argument all its own. Packed from wall to wall, the zombies are individually harmless but you can't travel very far without falling into the hands of one. Dead Rising zombies can't run but they can lunge and that's just as deadly.

    The premise of Dead Rising is you are Frank West, photojournalist, who has received a hot tip that there's something happening in the town of Willamette. This turns out to be, of course, a zombie outbreak. The only place with any survivors left is the town shopping center in a direct-but-denied homage to Dawn of the Dead. Frank's ride, a helicopter pilot, promises to pick him up in three days. You are left to rescue survivors by taking them to the security room of the mall so they can be airlifted with you, investigate the outbreak, and deal with several survivors who have become violent psychopaths.

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The Willamette Mall is an excellent and diverse sandbox to explore with multiple levels, environments, and background scenery.
    Dead Rising wouldn't be nearly as entertaining if not for the fact the Willamette Mall is such an entertaining location to explore. The contrast between the familiarity of the location, everyone having visited a place like it, and the fact you've rarely had a chance to adventure in a place like it comes together well. Virtually every object in the game can be picked up and used as a weapon so there's a staggering amount of improvised weapons. You can fight zombies with handbags, sandwich boards, stuffed animals, lead pipes, 2x4s, mannequins, buckets, mops, and (yes) guns.

    The game's weapons are all very fragile, though, so you can't rely on one throughout the entire game. Your lead pipe or battle-ax (from the antique shop) will break not long into combat and this forces you to seek anything on hand to do battle with the zombies around you. This gives the game much of its frantic pace as the heart of the gameplay is fighting off zombies that might start spread out but can swiftly become an impenetrable wall of rotting flesh.

    The chief activity aside from zombie-slaying is the location and rescue of survivors. This is, sadly, my least favorite part of Dead Rising and an area where Dead Rising 2 improved on the original. While rescuing people gives me a warm fuzzy feeling, keeping them alive in this game is almost impossible.

    They fall behind, often get caught up in zombie hordes only to eaten (in horrific cutscenes), and can't defend themselves well even if given a weapon. About the only thing I'm grateful for to the survivors is the massive amount of experience points they provide (called "prestige points" and the fact you can heal them by giving them food.

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This guy worships a department store mannequin and has a hundred raincoat and mask serial-killer followers. Some people do not deal well with stress.
    Thankfully, distracting from the tedium of rescuing survivors is the presence of the Psychos. Dead Rising has a surprisingly serious and somber main plot, the origins of the zombies aside, so it's kind of dissonant to see such an eclectic cast of bosses. There's clowns, mad grocery store clerks, pyromaniac "Nice Guys", your standard mad butchers, cult-leaders, and redneck survivalists all competing for your attention. They're often hilarious, tragic, and wild in one and that's what gives Dead Rising its unique feel.

    Perhaps the most interesting feature of Dead Rising is its strange new of the New Game+ mode. At any point in the game, you can stop it and restart it with all of your levels and equipment. Completing your game perfectly on your first try is more or less impossible and it is designed to be replayed multiple times so you can see everything. I'm not sure I agree with this design decision but it's worth noting. There's also a photography mini-game where you can get small amounts of prestige points for taking interesting pictures of survivors, psychopaths, or the endless zombie hordes. You can even get bonus points for taking pictures of "sexy" zombies and ones wearing toy hats.

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The zaniness of the boss battles contrasts sharply with its (mostly) dark and somber tone.
    So, does the game have any flaws? A few. The lip-synching action to the models isn't very good, the photography gameplay could use a little work, the aforementioned survivor issues, and a few other niggles here and there. The worst is the time limit. Dead Rising has a punishing series of challenges which are mandatory to progress the plot and require you to be in specific places at specific times in-game or all incomplete ones are failed. While this ups the challenge, I think the game would have been improved without them.

    In conclusion, I consider Dead Rising to be a landmark game in a lot of ways. It's still my favorite pick for the best zombie game of all time. While future game in the series improve on its gameplay, I'm going to say that I prefer this one's dead serious plot. Gamers looking just for a good time may prefer Off the Record but this is well-worth the money to pick up.

9/10
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The Walking Dead Season 2: Episode 3: In Harm's Way

July 18, 2014, 12:16 am
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    Note: Due to the nature of serialized storytelling, this will contain spoilers for the episodes prior to the one I'm reviewing.

    In Harm’s Way is the third installment of Season Two of The Walking Dead video game franchise. I have to admit, I’m genuinely surprised as much happened in this episode as it did. I would have thought a few of the events would have been saved for the climax. Then again, Season One threw everything but the kitchen sink at players in Episode Three so I shouldn’t be surprised.

    The premise is Clementine, Kenny, Sarita, and the Cabin Survivors have all been captured by the mysterious Carver. Carver is, apparently, the father of Rebecca’s unborn child and has captured the group in order to return them to his settlement. Telltale Games chooses a hilarious location to place Carver’s erstwhile kingdom and I can think of no better place to build an empire.

    The role of Walkers is reduced in this episode and they assume a different sort of threat to the lone stalkers from previous episodes. Instead, the Walkers take on the role of a coming natural disaster like a storm or earthquake which humans may or may not be prepared to deal with. The focus, instead, is on humans and how they react when penned in together like animals. Carver claims all of his harsh draconian methods are necessary for the greater good but are they?

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The threat this time is from your fellow humans and it's a much more severe one than the St. John brothers.
    It’s interesting how roleplaying was such a major concern of mine during my playthrough. Despite this episode lacking choices to support Carver, my Clementine was torn between her burgeoning loyalty to the Cabin Survivors (who had treated her like garbage until realizing she was useful) and the desire to be part of a kingdom which is seemingly safe against Walker attacks.

Like the Governor in the television series, we get a sense as to why people would want to follow Carver while also understanding why he’s not the man they think he is. He’s an extremely well-realized character and if he’s not as terrifying or memorable as the Governor then he’s at least the best villain they’ve created for this franchise.

    The addition of Kenny to the group livens up things considerably and I found the Cabin survivors much more likable this time around than in previous episodes. It’s really a shame so many defining events happen this episode because I would have liked to have seen more of the dynamic they start to show before the climax. Unfortunately, the character of Nick is marginalized given he could die in Episode Two. I fully expect him to not play much role in future episodes or die. This is a shame since I like Nick significantly more than the character of Luke.

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Carver remains the best villain of he video games thus far.
    The new survivors added to the group are interesting and offer some intriguing reflections into Clementine’s own developing character. The character of June, in particular, may represent the hardened survivor Clementine may become in the future—at the cost of nearly the entirety of her humanity. Is this the Clementine that chooses not to be a part of a group? The character of Sarah, however, shows the dangers of relying too much on others as she is almost completely helpless without her adults to look after her.

     This episode is a tight mix of action, puzzle-solving, role-playing, and everything else which makes a good Telltale episode. Clementine's character developed more in this episode than any other one save, perhaps, Episode Five of Season One. That's pretty high praise and watching poor Clem try to claim her independence from a group determined to protect her (but unable to protect themselves) is a story arc which reaches its climax here.

    The explosion action-filled final part of this chapter is something I give Telltale a lot of credit for too. Just when you think the emotional beats of this episode have reached their conclusion, the Episode throws three or four more at you. If the Cabin Survivors had been as likable and interesting as they were during this chapter, tI wouldn’t have been nearly so critical of the first two chapters. In any case, I consider this to be the best of the Season Two episodes thus far and am anxiously looking forward to Episode Four.

10/10
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What Zombies Fear: A Father's Quest review

July 18, 2014, 4:20 pm
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    I am a firm believer there's no need for the Zombie Renaissance to ever end. However, for this to be the case, every author must bring something new to the pot. People talk about wanting to have George Romero shamblers indefinitely as if they are the only way you can do them. I've stated why I find this to be ridiculous (here).

    Kirk Allmond is a guy who manages to impress me not necessarily because I agree with all of his choices but I appreciate the fact he bothers to do things differently. It's not so differently as Braineater Jones (reviewed here) but he doesn't just stick with the bog-standard formula either. There's zombies, there's an apocalypse, and a father is desperately trying to save his young son from dying.

    Ho-hum, seen this before.

    Some humans are immune to zombie infection, though.

    Hmm. Better.

    Which gives them low-level superpowers.

    *blink* Okay, color me intrigued.

    Oh and some of the zombies are intelligent and capable of passing for human, effectively serving as a Fifth Column for whatever force is behind the rise of the zombies.

    Okay, now you have a story.

    The premise of What Zombies Fear is Victor Tookes is a father of a toddler named Max when the zombie apocalypse happens. Max is bitten early-on but Victor and his family have an inherent immunity to the bug which allows them to survive it as well as develop superpowers.

    Victor suffers several tragedies over the course of the novel and decides to use his newfound abilities as well as those of other immune humans to build a refuge against the zombie hordes. Likewise, he's going to try and kill as many of them as possible.

    Hence the title.

    A Father's Quest is a pretty good bit of heroic fiction. Victor Tookes suffers some setbacks but the story follows him on a largely successful quest to carve out his own little fiefdom in the post-apocalyptic world.

    Kirk Allmond spends a good amount of page-time describing the specifications of the fortress, what sort of weapons they have, and paying cursory attention to how they begin setting up their town. Much of the rest of the book is devoted to well-written action scenes where our heroes take the fight against the bands of zombies roaming the Earth.

    If I have a problem with the book it's that the emotion of the events is somewhat muted. Our hero doesn't take much time to reflect on the personal losses he suffers and more or less just chugs along indefinitely. This isn't bad for the style of book this is but it did leave me a bit surprised.

    In conclusion, I think What Zombies Fear: A Father's Quest is a nice little novel which I give points for originality as well as being of a different sort of feeling than many others. It's pretty upbeat and I think zombie novels which are other genres than horror are a great idea, personally. If we can have action movies with vampires, why not zombies?

7.5/10
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The People vs. George Lucas

July 18, 2014, 11:29 pm
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    I love zombies, don't get me wrong, but aside from finishing What Zombies Fear I'm a little zombied out. So, instead, I decided to watch a movie about a bunch of people shambling along and moaning--about Star Wars.

    Okay, that's unfair.

    The People vs. George Lucas is going to be one of my rare negative reviews, sadly. I applaud the filmmaker's skill, the fact they made a film about a subject which was near to my heart, and the obvious love of the franchise built into the work. Unfortunately, the movie's relentless negativity really dampened my mood.

    The People vs. George Lucas is more or less an hour and a half about why Star Wars fans really-really hated the Special Editions and prequels. It shows the infectious raw enthusiasm of countless fans enjoying the movies from their release in theaters to the long drought until the prequels being released. The rest of the documentary has an almost message-board-like quality of everyone in the film explaining why the movies sucked and/or ruined their childhood.

    They specifically say, "raped" their childhood. A comparison which they utilize several hundred times and even make a couple of musical cues regarding--which I found to be both tasteless and problematic for a work about Star Wars. The People vs. George Lucas includes the footage from the South Park episode where Indiana Jones is sexually assaulted by Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas too--which, again, I didn't particularly like either.

    Nor did my wife.

    Listen, I've been a Star Wars fan since I was three-years-old and until the New Jedi Order followed by the Legacy of the Force novels, I was as obsessed with it as anyone else. I know something about fandom rage. I was there when the backlash against the Star Wars Prequels began, continued, and I'd say ended but that would imply there's still not people talking about the subject.

    The Star Wars Prequels were disappointing to me as well. They were empty spectacles with bad writing, bad acting, and a lot of exposition which got in the way of any sort of character development. George Lucas really needed a script editor or someone to write the script for him.

    George should stuck to using his vast knowledge of visual film-making to make the prequels the eye-candy they needed to be (and were--if nothing else). He  could have hired anyone in the world for the writing, Neil Gaiman showed up on this documentary for crying out loud, which makes it a double missed opportunity.

    However, I got over the prequels being a disappointment.

    Years ago.

    The really annoying thing about this movie is there's so much interesting stuff inside it. They talk about fandom films (showing scenes from some truly epic ones), people's personal memorabilia collections, and a few stories about what Star Wars meant to people. Star Wars helped develop my moral sensibility as well. All this gets ignored to focus on the immense sense of 'betrayal' fans have from George Lucas making movies they didn't like.

    They also do a few segments about what sort of responsibility filmmakers have to preserving their original work versus tinkering with it. Any of these would make a better subject for this documentary than people's sense of betrayal about the fact George Lucas made some mediocre movies. There's some really cute segments in this film too, including someone remaking Misery with George Lucas and a particularly obsessive fan. I actually want to check that one out because I really liked the girl's acting.

    But seriously, the movie's point seems to be about displaying the obsessive nerd rage of a large number of my people. I got to live it the first time and it wasn't that much fun in the first place. Its one-sided too with no real attempt to present the opinions of those who thought the prequels had merit (albeit one small merits). The documentary barely touched on the Star Wars Expanded Universe too, which annoyed me since it was pretty huge even if followed by only a fraction of the total fandom.

    In the end, my advice regarding this movie is this--if you want to watch a movie about people complaining about Star Wars for two hours then this is it.

    I don't.

4/10
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What Zombies Fear: The Maxists

July 18, 2014, 11:45 pm
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    What Zombies Fear is a five-book series by Kirk Allmond which reverses much of the usual drama of a zombie-apocalypse. Instead of being books about scared, desperate, and lonely survivors--it's a book about low-leveled superpowered humans kicking undead ass while rebuilding society. The zombies have many members who are intelligent and it co-ops many alien invasion motifs, providing a central antagonist as well as motivation behind the attack.

    For some, this may distract from the zombie narrative. Unintelligent zombies make the resulting apocalypse seem more like a natural disaster while this is very much a case of evil beings doing evil things. However, part of what I enjoy about this series is it's different from other bog-standard zombie novels and that is something which deserves to be noticed.

    The science fiction elements are also something I appreciated. We learn the origin of the alien invasion this book and while I object to the manner its conveyed (see below), I'm glad Kirk Allmond explained his zombie's origin.

    The premise of The Maxists is that Victor Tookes, the titular being which zombies fear, has just defeated a massive herd of zombies. One the size of a small city. This has caused the remnants of the United States military as well as the intelligent zombies to sit up and take notice of his village.

    Victor has no love for the United States government, blaming them for failing to protect the world (which is cruel given the majority of its soldiers DIED fighting the zombie menace), and finds the attempts by Colonel Fryes to bring his group back under its purview to be offensive. Given Victor and the rest of his secessionist state have superpowers, it's not something the US remnant can pressure them on.

    I was intrigued by this plotline and am saddened the United States remnant comes off as the duplicitous bunch of scumbags it does in this book. I was hoping there would be room for moral ambiguity in The Maxists but, by the end, any of it is dissolved. Victor Tookes and his settlement are not only in disagreement with them but the moral right. The United States remnant has reasons for acting the way they do but, bluntly, I find it difficult to imagine any readers sympathizing with them.

    A major subplot of the book also deals with Victor's precocious son, Max, who has developed possibly the most useful power in the world--the ability to control zombies. As one might guess, this makes him the most important three-year-old in the world. The chapters from his perspective are the most enjoyable part of the book, in my opinion.

    I loved watching him and his 'pet' zombies move through the world with an almost complete innocence of what is really going on. The terrifying potential of his abilities is also explored in interesting ways that reminded me of how a young Charles Xavier must have been.

    As before, much of the book is about action and acquiring supplies to rebuild human civilization--or, at least, Victor Tooke's small part of it. Zombies are rarely a threat to Victor and his group, which, after thousands of movies have portrayed them as invincible in great numbers--is cathartic. While Victor Tookes isn't up there with Ashley Williams of the Evil Dead franchise yet, he's still a good candidate for the zombie slayer.

    My only problem with the book is the introduction, really, where Victor Tookes explains how the zombie/alien invasion began as well as what the source of his superpowers is. While a great piece of exposition and world-building, there's never an explanation how the hell Victor Tookes knows any of this. I think the book would have been improved if we'd been given an explanation how he knew this or just had it given to us by an omniscient narrator.

    I think the What Zombies Fear remains a fun little series about a guy who has a great deal of luck kicking zombie butt. It's an independence fantasy, showing the post-apocalyptic world as a place where a person might be able to build a new life as well as a more equitable world.

    I don't believe an actual apocalypse would be anything like this as I'm quite fond of my creature comforts and the benefits of civilization but I can understand the appeal of the daydream. I will, however, continue reading the books and expect them to remain about the same level of quality, which is excellent light-reading.

8/10
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Tentyrian Legacy review

July 28, 2014, 12:43 am
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    I've been a preoccupied with putting the finishing touches on my fourth manuscript, Cthulhu Apocalypse: With Strange Aeons, to update my site. So, now that I have some free time, I've decided to review something I really liked. Tentyrian Legacy is one of the more enjoyable books I've read in months and is a stand-out for 2014's supernatural reading list along with Time of Death and the latest Blackthorn novel. It's a book I'm going to go on forums to recommend and talk about with my fellow posters.

    That's how much I like it. Indeed, it's interesting, I usually plow through books in a single day but I had to mull through the Tentyrian Legacy over the course of a few weeks because I wanted to savor the book. It's not J.R.R Tolkien or even Interview with a Vampire but it's in the general vicinity of the latter and that's pretty high praise coming from me.

    Tentyrian Legacy is a novel about two distinct time periods colliding. The first is the lifespan of schizophrenic teenager Arianna Parker and the second is the vampire covens ruling the ancient Egyptian city of Tentyris. How these two groups coincide does not become apparent for nearly half the book but when they do, the plot becomes a tale of revenge and redemption spanning two thousand years.

    I don't want to gush over the book for the entire review but since I spend a lot of time tearing other books down, I should take the time to say what a book does right when it happens. Arianna is an incredibly likable character. Not since Sookie Stackhouse have I managed to bond with a character so completely. I sympathized with her isolation, her distance from other people, and her helplessness in the face of a loveless family. Watching her grow out of this was entertaining even before the introduction of the vampirism element.

    The Tentyrians are also a great bunch of "new" vampires. They have some small similarity to Anne Rice's Akasha but are distinctly their own. Elise Walters doesn't ape Stoker's or Rice's undead but creates her own rules. There are born vampires, turned vampires, human servants,  those with special powers, and families all forming a complex hierarchy based on the Greek Zodiac. Watching how their society functions and disintegrates is a fascinating read.

    One of the things I hate about recent vampire fiction is the derivative nature of most stories. Everyone needs to add something to their fiction. It doesn't need to be much, but you have to at least try. Elise Walters creates vampires I haven't seen before. That, alone, is deserving of kudos. The world-building is something she's put a lot of effort into and I found the societal structure of the undead to be believable. There's even an artistic genealogical map at the beginning of the book.

    There's some elements which hardcore vampire fans might question. The Tentyrians begin as a collection of almost too-good-to-be-true immortals. They only feed from their willing worshipers, maintain a strict moral code, have technology higher than regular mortals, and are seemingly perfect. Elise Walters nicely subverts this first impression and illustrates the dark side of their society. While I tend to prefer my vampires as evil monsters, tragic at best, this is one of those rare occasions I make an exception. There's more than enough evil later on, anyway.

    The supporting cast in Tentyrian Legacy is excellent. We get to meet a wide variety of characters, good and evil, who all have expansive backstories as well as memorable personalities. I especially liked the characters of Raad and Laura. Sadly, I wasn't too fond of love-interest Maximos. Millionaire vampire playboy with a heart of gold is something I've seen many times before. Given the originality of heroine Arianna, I felt Else Walters could have done better. Eventually, I bought the romance but not until after cheering her attempts to resist his controlling personality.

     The villains of Tentyrian Legacy are an eccentric cast of evil-doers with grandiose plans a little too similar to the aforementioned Akasha but which they go about in a far more subtle manner. I don't think their genocidal plans for humanity were necessary, really, because they're delightfully wicked without such a over-the-top goal. I love it when vampires play puppeteer and have big screwed up family dynamics.

     In conclusion, if you hadn't picked it up from my thoroughly gushing review, I recommend anyone who enjoys vampire fiction to purchase this. How much do I like this book? I got a free copy from a friend but I chose to buy the Kindle version anyway and after finishing it, am purchasing the hardcover copy.

10/10
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Exclusive interview with Thomas Wolfenden

July 30, 2014, 9:39 am
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 Hey readers,

An extra-special treat for you today! Thomas Wolfenden, author of One Man's Island, has decided to sit down for an interview with us. A devoted fan of the post-apocalyptic genre, I was very eager to get his insights into the book and his process.

One Man's Island is the story of how a massive radiation wave hits the Earth and kills almost the entirety of humanity. A seeming single survivor struggles to come to grips with this situation and what he's going to do now that everything he knows is gone. As always, though, the ugly face of humanity emerges in the aftermath of disaster and our hero finds out he's not quite as alone as he thinks he is--much to his detriment.

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I hope the United Federation of Charles' readers will enjoy reading his insights as much as I have. Okay, Thomas, let's get started.

1. What separates One Man's Island from other post-apocalyptic/disaster stories?

Well, there’s no massive earth-shattering disaster, it’s almost as if humanity goes out with a whimper. No zombies, plagues, earthquakes, meteorites, but it’s definitely the end. But as with all of human history, evil will always exist. 

2. Why choose to go with a radiation wave over other methods of destroying the  world?

That one was an easy decision to make. I wanted to be a little different. To me, and this is just my personal opinion, that the zombie storyline is getting to the point of saturation. Not saying zombie stories are bad, I love them, I just didn’t want to go with what everyone else was writing. So I chose something while not totally likely, something that could very well actually happen. 

I did stretch science to almost the breaking point with literary license, but that was my prerogative. I did research the hell out of my theory when I was writing, and literary license aside, I did want to be as technically accurate as I could be, and still tell a compelling, believable story.

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3. There's many references to Robinson Crusoe in your story. What do you think the similarities are there?

At the very start of Robinson Crusoe, the hero finds himself marooned on a deserted isle, totally alone. He’s able to make life more livable by scavenging what he needs in order to survive from the wreck of the ship he was sailing on, as the protagonist; Tim Flannery does with what’s left over. But, as I describe in the novel, the stuff just lying around won’t last long, because of nature taking back the planet with a vengeance. 

Tim has to survive in a rapidly decaying world, and like Robinson, his treasure trove that is the hulk of the wrecked ship, won’t last forever. Food, medicine, every-day items we all take for granted all have a use-by date, and Tim has to increasingly look elsewhere in order to survive, alone on a planet that is strewn with millions of corpses. Tim also has to deal with pure evil later on, just as Robinson did, when dealing with the tribe of cannibalistic natives from another island, but in Tim’s story, it’s human nature rising it’s ugly other side, where somewhere, someone else will covet what you’ve got, want to take it away from you, and have all the power.

4. Why do you think the apocalypse remains such a fertile ground for storytellers?

That I’m not sure of. I know in my situation, what drew me to the concept years ago, was growing up in the middle of the Cold War, and that so many stories were written about the end of the world, and in reality, we lived and breathed everyday with the very real possibility of total nuclear annihilation. It just sucked me in, and I always put myself into the situation, whereas, I’d read a story, or watch a film, and wonder to myself “what would I do in this situation?” and I think a lot of people are exactly the same. They, like me, see a horrible situation, and wonder to themselves, would I survive? Whether it was zombies, meteorites, volcanoes, a great flood or gamma ray bursts.

5. The character of Friday is a very fun one. How did you come up with her?

Robyn Fritag was fun to write. In my first draft, she was a boy, and I thought that was just a tad bit too vanilla, so on writing the second draft, I changed him to a girl and threw a huge monkey wrench into my protagonists life, as if things couldn’t get worse. Here’s a mid-40’s US Army reserve Sergeant Major, big city police officer, who’s never had kids of his own, thrust into a situation where now he’s got to take care of a precocious 13 year old girl. He’s completely clueless, and the dynamic of both of them is quite entertaining. A boy would be a much simpler character for him to deal with, and girl, well, he’s completely dumbfounded, and I think that makes a more enjoyable read.

6.  What would you say is the theme of One Man's Island?

Theme? I’m not sure… At the very base, it’s a story of good and evil, and how no matter what will happen, some humans will only want to take what others have got to gain power. Just a brief skimming of human history shows that. Wars have been fought, and millions of innocent people have died over whose god is better, or theft, Writ Large in land grabs, and megalomaniacs wanting to rule the world. 

Its human nature, and I believe even an Apocalypse won’t change that. The few remaining survivors of any Apocalypse won’t be sitting around in the debris of a destroyed civilization, holding hands and singing Kumbaya. They’ll still be at each others' throats fighting over what scraps that are left over.

7. What was the hardest part writing One Man's Island?

That’s a good question, and you’ll probably laugh. I’m terrible with not only remembering people’s names in real life, but coming up with fresh names and keeping track of them was the hardest part. I had to have a notebook by my side, listing all of the characters, and even then I lost track. It took my wonderful editor, Felicia Sullivan, to point out I had three minor characters with the same name! So I had to scramble to come up with different names for these minor characters at the last minute. It was, and still is a struggle for me.

8. Who is your favorite character in One Man's Island after the lead?

After Tim, I think my favorite character is Petty Officer Harry Suplee. He’s a lot like “Chef” in Apocalypse Now, head screwed on just a little too tightly, and always just a hair away from completely losing his mind. He’s thrust into a nightmare situation, with no possible escape, and he’s surrounded by pure evil, and he still holds it together.

9. What's the most interesting reaction you've gotten to your story so far?
 
Three things I’m told constantly, that even now, I’m extremely blown away by, humbled and elated. The first thing is that most people who’ve read my novel can’t believe it’s my first. I even had one fan email me, begging to know who I really was. He thought I was someone really famous, and I just put the novel out there under a pseudonym, like Stephen King did with the Bachmann Books. 

The second was that I was told by several people I was the best dialog writer some have ever read. That my characters don’t talk like some made-up person, they talk like they’re real, and speak like real people would speak. And lastly, almost to a man, all that have read it ask me when it was going to be made into a movie. And what author doesn’t want that? 

Who wouldn’t want some Hollywood producer tossing them bucket loads of cash? But, that being said, I also live in abject terror that if that actually does come to fruition, they’ll cast Ben Affleck as Tim Flannery, and if that happens, by head would spontaneously implode.

10. What can we expect to see from you in the future?

There is a sequel to One Man’s Island written. It’s titled One Man’s War, and has a tentative release date of mid-January, 2015, so keep an eye out for that. It picks up right where the first novel leaves off, and brings back most, if not all of the old characters, as well as some new ones. It’s also a lot darker than the first book, more dystopian. 

Right now I’ve got a lot going on, but I am working on a black/gallows humor police story for Permuted Press’ sister publishing house, Post Hill Press, and a straight Action/Military Adventure for Permuted. I also have some ideas from a few more stories, a horror story, and another police humor story, but I’m keeping them on the back burner until I finish the projects I have got going right now.

Thanks, Thomas! We appreciate you showing up!
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Zombieland review

July 31, 2014, 11:33 pm
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     I really don't know how to rate Zombieland. After years of arguing with people about the social-commentary, symbolism, and philosophy behind zombies--here comes a movie which is just mindless fluff. Zombieland is a movie where zombies are allegories for zombies and the end of the world is a stand-in for the end of the world.

    It's still fun, though.

    Zombieland reminds me of the Resident Evil movies in a way. It's not a movie about anything but entertaining you and while it doesn't have Mila Jovavich, it does have Emma Stone and Woody Harrelson at his comedic best.

    The premise of Zombieland is that a batch of bad hamburger has spread a virulent Mad Cow-disease variant through the populace which turns people into zombies. These are the "Fast Zombies" of 28 Days Later and are capable of running after people. Indeed, there's a rather hilarious joke I can laugh at while I'm still overweight (working on it!) that it was the "fatties" who were the first to die.

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The four actors are just delightful on screen.
     The premise of Zombieland is that "Columbus" (every character is referred to by a city name for some reason) as played by Jesse Eisenberg is one of the survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse. After fighting off his very attractive neighbor turned zombie, he joins forces with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) who is the extremely tough zombie-hunter he is not. The two of them eventually stumble on con-women Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) before reluctantly joining forces to find shelter.

    Very reluctantly.

    There's a lot of genuinely laugh out loud moments spread throughout the film that I don't want to spoil. It would, for instance, be criminal to ruin the punchline of the mansion squatting scene. Anything I tell you would just make it less funny, so I'm going to keep my lid shut. All of the stars have chemistry and seem to be having fun, which compensates for the fact the movie is as substantial as a feather. Video game fans might also find this to be a good substitute for a Left 4 Dead movie, what with its simulation of the four player co-op experience.

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The zombies aren't too scary, I'm sorry to say.
    Despite this, I can't say Zombieland is all that great of a movie. Aside from the fact the movie is mostly lacking in dramatic weight aside from one out-of-nowhere revelation, there's also the fact the female characters in the film lose all agency right at the time it's necessary for Columbus' character to show unexpected competence.

     As for the zombies themselves (or "infected" if you want to be pedantic), I can't say I'm overwhelmed by them. 28 Days Later made the running zombies terrifying by showing their unnatural movements. These zombies just, well, run. They're targets in a video game and the make-up didn't wow me either. They don't even show up that often on screen, which is probably a blessing.

    The most fun in the film is had when the characters are alone, away from the apocalypse, enjoying the general lawlessness of the world. You can take what you want, wreck what you want, and have a good time doing whatever. Being alone in a zombie apocalypse is hellish but might not be so bad if you have friends (and are sufficiently jaded to forget you've all lost your families).

    Still, I love Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, and zombies. The other actors do a decent job too. You could do worse for an afternoon's entertainment.

7/10
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The release dates for my novels from Permuted Press

August 1, 2014, 8:40 am
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Hey fans,

    Permuted Press (here) was very nice to give me an idea of what their publishing schedule for my nine-book contract with them is going to be. They've said it's okay to post it with the public as long as it's clear that this is subject to change. I'm pretty sure nothing is going to delay the books, so that's a good thing.

    I hope, you my fans, will take the time to pick up one or more of these particular volumes when they come out.

Esoterrorism (Red Room 1#)     9/8/2015    

Eldritch Protocols (Red Room 2#)     10/6/2015    

Operation Otherworld (Red Room 3#)     11/10/2015    

Cthulhu Apocalypse: Death May Die    5/3/2016    

Cthulhu Apocalypse: With Strange Aeons     11/8/2016    

Cthulhu Apocalypse: Which Can Eternal Lie     5/2/2017    

Cthulhu Apocalypse: That Is Not Dead     11/7/2017    

Cthulhu Apocalypse: Ia Cthulhu!    5/2018    

    The Red Room series, for those of you who haven't kept up is the story of Derek Hawthorne, agent of the titular organization. It's his job to do espionage and wetwork against the various supernatural powers across the globe in a modern Post-War on Terror occult world.

    The Cthulhu Apocalyse series follows a small band of survivors, some of which will survive and others which won't, as they struggle to eke out a living in the harshness of a world where the Great Old Ones have risen. It finally answers the question of "what next?"
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What Zombies Fear: The Gathering review

August 3, 2014, 2:04 am
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    What Zombies Fear is a series which subverts many traditional zombie tropes. It is a series about humans fighting back against the darkness and succeeding. Sacred cows of the genre like the mindlessness of zombies, the hopelessness of the world, and the  helplessness of humans versus the undead are attacked head on. Protagonist Victor Tookes has a plan to kill every zombie in the world and you're invited to join in it when you read these novels.

    The premise of What Zombies Fear is that a stereotypical zombie apocalypse happens but things start going askew in surprising and entertaining ways. For one, not every human being who is bitten dies. Instead, some develop superpowers. This is such an off-kilter and enjoyable addition to the genre I'm willing to cut the authors a lot of slack for any decision they make thereafter. We also discover the zombies are controlled by aliens called "bugs" or E'clei which inhabit the corpses of the many. The E'clei are intelligent but genocidal, only a few of their kind willing to assist humanity.

    A key to the series' appeal is the character of Victor Tookes and his relationship to the other characters. A strong central protagonist can make or break any series and this one is no exception. Much like Rick in The Walking Dead, it falls to Victor Tookes to guide his group of survivors in surviving the post Z-Day world. Unlike Rick, however, Victor has both the tools and motivation to actively wage war against the entire zombie world. It may be an impossible task to slay every zombie in the world but, by the Gathering, they've managed to kill over a million with creative tactics mixed with superpowers.

    Still, no novel would be enjoyable without a little drama. Authors Kirk Allmond and Laura Bretz make a good decision to show how Victor's crusade to rid the world of zombies comes off as delusional to his fellow human beings. Even the ones who are either close family or in love with him as off-put by his grand vision. No one but Victor accepts that if even a single zombie survives then it's possible humanity may be destroyed for a second time. Readers are left to judge for themselves whether Victor is rationale, a fool, or simply trying to cope with the apocalypse by venting his rage on the undead. I, personally, think it's some combination of all three.

    The Gathering develops Victor's son Max a little more and it's a welcome thing given their relationship was such an important part of A Father's Quest. Max's increasing powers means that he, rather than Victor, might be the salvation of humanity. However, the fact he's little more than a toddle shows this is an irresponsible (if not psychotic) response to the situation. It's an agonizing choice to imagine: saving the world versus saving your son and Victor refuses to acknowledge there's any choice to be made at all. In some respects, this reminds me of The Last of Us and that's high praise.

    The intelligent zombies, at last, have a leader with the newly introduced character of Laura. Unintelligent zombies do not need a "Queen" or villain other than evil humans but the existence of intelligent ones means I've been dying for a "face" to the enemy threat for some time. Laura is, sadly, pretty one-dimensional. While one might argue a person who wants to kill seven billion humans to make an army of the rotting dead can't be more than a one-note character, I was hoping for better from the authors.

    This volume introduces a few new characters including Victor's father and the eidetic memory-possessing Krista. I especially liked Krista and was glad to see her propped up as someone who was willing to call Victor on his sometimes-questionable logic. Even with more and more of his group willing to call him out, Victor has somewhat skated over the problems of leadership until now. Having someone willing to argue with him makes the story a great deal more dynamic.

    In short, I approve of this volume and suggest the series is only getting better as time passes.

8.5
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What Zombies Fear: Fracture review

August 3, 2014, 6:09 am
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    It is to the credit of authors Kirk Allmond and Laura Bretz they've managed to do what very few authors have done: make a continuing zombie series which remains interesting after the initial premise. Zombies are a great source of drama but rarely are the tales something which goes beyond the discovery, initial outbreak, and survival at a location. It takes imagination to move beyond these concepts.

    And these two have imagination.

    The premise of What Zombies Fear is Victor Tookes is the father of young son, Max, and possessed of an immunity to zombie bites. Furthermore, his immunity comes with mild-superpowers. Gathering a group of similar individuals empowered by their bites, they attempt to rid the world of zombies. Opposing them is Laura, who is the head of the "intelligent" zombies which psychically control the billions of undead creatures swarming the planet.

    Fracture is where everything goes to hell.

    Critics of What Zombies Fear have indicated they found Victor Tookes a little too perfect, his leadership too unquestioned, and things going too swimmingly for our protagonists. I found these elements to be charming and was willing to overlook how well things were going for Victor in the name of watching the zombies get there's. Really, aside from the Resident Evil movies, the zombies never lose these things.

    The breakup between Leo and Victor Tookes is painfully realistic. Brought about by Victor refusing to give her more than the superficial relationship they had, I was affected. I'd wanted these two to be able to work it out but, unlike other series where such would only be a roadblock to romance, I was left with the impression this was going to stick. The fact the other members of the group were starting to turn against Victor too felt sudden but, remembering the previous volume, had been been in the works for some time.

    The drama is big in this book with some genuinely moving moments, unexpected deaths, and surprising twists. The character of Krista, who I was quite fond of in the previous volume, reveals herself to be bisexual and becomes involved with another female character. I liked this twist as it provides much-needed diversity in a genre which used to be one of the most in fiction but has kind of become more heterosexual male-dominated white-bread over the years. The fact it's not a major deal to any of the characters is also a point in the authors' favor.

    Sadly, I can't give this book a solid 10 out of 10 for a couple of reasons. The first is one of the book's main subplots deal with a military base having degenerated into misogynist slavers. I didn't much care for the plotline in 28 Days Later and it feels exploitative here, a way of making the human enemies irredeemable from the start. This is a personal pet peeve of mine and I was hoping to never see this sort of subplot again. I've seen much-much worse, believe me.

    In conclusion, Fracture is a very different book from the previous ones. It's far darker and the next book (which I've already read) gets darker still. For some, this will be a welcome change but it left me feeling uncomfortable in places. I can't hold strong dramatic weight against it but almost feel like it would have been better to stay a series about Victor killing zombies forever.

8/10
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Exclusive Interview with Elise Walters

August 3, 2014, 7:27 am
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It is a common bit of convention wisdom the vampire genre is played out. Of course, that was said after the glut of Dracula-rip offs following Bela Lugosi. Then it was said again during the Hammer Horror picture era. It was said to Anne Rice when she tried to publish Interview with a Vampire. Then it was said to Laurel K. Hamilton after she published Guilty Pleasures. It was also said to Stephanie Meyer before she sold enough copies of her books to purchase a small galaxy.

In short, vampires will never played out but they can become repetitive unless you bring something new to the genre. Vampires might be overexposed at times but the same was said for J.R.R Tolkien and his style of fantasy after ten thousand or more (I may actually be underestimating the numbers) published books more or less identical to his works but lacking his creativity.

As a self-styled discriminating vampire fiction connoisseur, I have nothing to do with 90% of the vampire market but restrict myself to what I feel is the wheat from the chaff. For the most part, this doesn't have to be Tolkien or even Rice but it does have to be different. Things like Gabrielle Faust's post-apocalypse cyberpunk Eternal Vigilance series (here) or even just very well-written character drama in the Paranormal Romance Blackthorn series (reviewed here, here, and here).

So what does this mean for our latest interviewee? Elise Allyn Walters wrote a very good vampire novel. One which isn't about their tortured angst over their condition or, necessarily, how a vampire can be fixed by the love of a good woman. That, alone, puts it over 60% of its competing market. The humor and enjoyability of its plucky heroine added another 31% with an additional 1% for its villain's comic book supervillainy. So, it's squarely within the 90% range and I reviewed the first novel of the Tentyrian Legacy series here.

Better still, she's agreed to do a interview with us!

1.  So, Elise, what makes Tentyrian Legacy different from other vampire novels?

When you boil it down, it’s the book’s original concept that makes it different. I created my vampires, called Tentyrians, using the mythology surrounding the Zodiac of Dendera, which has never been done before. I was inspired by the Dendera Zodiac, an Egyptian bas-relief that was taken from the ceiling of a temple found in Dendera, Egypt in the 1800s.

The carving was found in a chapel of the Hathor temple at Dendera but it is now housed at the Louvre museum in Paris, France. The carving depicts the twelve symbols and constellations associated with the zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.

In Tentyrian Legacy I created twelve fictional vampire covens from these symbols to form the Tentyrian race that lived in the city of Tentyris at the time of the Ptolemaic reign. Dendera is in fact a real place; it was once the capital of the 6th Nome in Upper Egypt. In Greek, “Dendera” translates to “Tentyra”, which is how I came up with the name of my vampires and their city.

In Tentyrian Legacy, the Tentyrians are ruled by the Council of the Zodiac, which consists of the twelve coven leaders as well as four “Luminary” princesses and Queen Hathor. The idea for the Luminaries and the Queen was inspired by images found in the Zodiac of Dendera as well.

What was great about creating the world of Tentyrian Legacy is that I wasn’t held back by preconceived ideas of vampires. I was able to create them from my imagination and tie them to something historically accurate. That isn’t to say the Tentyrian vampires don’t bear any resemblance to vampires that we all know and love either in books or movies.
Origin: Possess a genetic mutation from humans that appeared around 180 B.C. While born of human parents those with the mutation decided to form their own community called Tentyris led by Queen Hathor. In modern day, this mutation has largely gone dormant. Tentyrians can be “created” from humans, however it is an arduous process that requires months and often years of teaching self- control to prevent blood lust.
Survival: Require blood to drink (human or animal), can eat food in small quantities, practically immortal but severe injury such as decapitation will kill them, can go out in sunlight but prefer to be in the dark as that is when they are strongest
Appearance: Do not age past 25, pale skin, most are beautiful.
Power: Powers range in each Tentyrian (telekinesis, memory manipulation, premonition, etc.) but the most powerful are those on the Council of the Zodiac. Council members can “shift” or physically move themselves with their minds.
Survival: To survive the Tentyrians built the city of Tentyris under the guise of a religious community. They are sworn to a code where their true nature is kept secret from humans outside of Tentyris. As part of the code, Tentyrians can only take blood from willing humans.
2. How would you describe your lead, Arianna Parker? How is she different from other heroines in these sorts of books?

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Since Tentyrian Legacy follows Arianna from childhood and into adulthood her personality changes as she grows. As a young child and pre-teen we see her quiet and subservient to her demanding parents who completely misunderstand her. Through a series of events, Arianna grows into a headstrong woman who values her independence and is admired for her brilliance.

On a superficial level, Arianna is gorgeous. But she doesn’t rely on her good looks to get her where she wants to be. Arianna works hard for what she has, constantly struggling with symptoms akin to schizophrenia that take her years to control. Ultimately, Arianna comes to be a successful businesswoman in finance; she’s methodical in nature and intensely private with her inner circle. When the legacy of the Tentyrians comes into her life, she is completely unprepared for what’s in store.

As far as how she compares to other heroines in vampire literature, I’m sure there are parallels you could call out—her physical beauty, her love interest Maximos who also isn’t hard on the eyes…But I’d say the crux of what makes her different is that she is very much her own woman and she never needs a man to define her. Rather than wanting to be swept up in a man’s arms her instinct is to want to stand on her own two feet.  

3. Arianna is diagnosed as schizophrenic at the start of the novel. How did you go about deciding to incorporate such an element into your character?

As I started drafting Tentyrian Legacy I knew I wanted Arianna to have the power to read minds and to have what I’d call a “broken” childhood. Having her labeled as a “schizophrenic” served as the vehicle for bringing both of those elements to life. As a child, Arianna can’t understand the voices she hears in her head and the physical and mental ramifications she experiences cause her parents to alienate her. All of this contributes to Arianna becoming the woman she is.

4. The Tentyrian vampires have a very well-developed culture based around ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology and history. How did those elements influence your characterization of their society?

The mythological and historical elements not only helped create the structure of Tentyrian society but I’d say it helped characterize them as I tried to notch the Tentyrians into history seamlessly. What I mean by that is, if the Tentyrians were in fact real—I wanted how they needed to act and live to reflect how for thousands of years their existence was kept secret. As a society (until all hell breaks loose), the Tentyrians pride themselves on loyalty, honor, secrecy, and respect for all life.

That is why the Tentyrians have such an elaborate governing system and code for how they must coexist with humans. By using a point in time around 53 B.C. where Ptolemy XII (“Auletes”) was in power, I was also able to use real life events to explain the emotions and ultimately the actions of the Tentyrians to abandon Tentyris, which is the jumping off point for the entire story.

5. There's a lot of flashbacks in your book. Do you think using history is an underdeveloped tool in vampire novels?

Yes, I do think it is underutilized. I love using flashbacks as a way to show how key experiences in a character’s life shapes him or her. I think there are a lot of books out there that will present to you a character and they are the way they are because the author just tells you so with a few adjectives. I want to actually show why. In terms of historical components, I like bringing them into my work because I find them interesting and because they add an element of realness.

6. Did you have any influences from favorite writers going into this book?

I’d say Anne Rice and Karen Essex. Anne Rice because, in my mind, she is queen of all things vampire. Rice was the first writer to make me fall in love with the genre and even want to write a vampire book to begin with. Karen Essex’s writing style and approach to Egyptian history has always been inspiring to me.  I could reread Essex’s Kleopatra again and again.

7. Who is your favorite character after Arianna?

Probably Stavros or Calix. I like how bad they are and I found writing their dialogue and describing them—from their choice in clothes to their deepest emotions –really freeing. It was like doing something naughty and loving it. Maybe it’s because deep down I’m not as good as I’d like to think…

8. How would you describe Tentyrian vampires? What makes them tick?

Well there are two types of Tentyrian vampires as they break into different factions. The good ones led by the Tentyrian Brotherhood are loyal, stoic, brave, and a little sad. Their sole purpose for living is taking down the Dark Coven and saving the human race—all because of a promise and prophecy made millennia prior. Meanwhile, the bad ones (The Dark Coven) see themselves as realists, they are admittedly bloodthirsty and selfish but it is because they fundamentally believe they are superior creatures.

9. How do you like your vampires? Misunderstood or bad?

Both, I think! For me they come hand in hand. It’s funny though, by the time I finished writing Tentyrian Legacy I felt I liked the “bad guys” the Dark Coven more than my own hero Maximos who is more of the traditionally “misunderstood” love interest.

10. What can we expect in future installments of the Tentyrian Legacy series?
 
More vampires, love, and plots to destroy the world! The next installment is called Tentyrian Thirst and focuses on the story of the Second Luminary, Kiersten Kincaid.  Kiersten is strong like Arianna—I don’t think I have it in me to create weak female heroines—but she will face some unique challenges when it comes to embracing her Tentyrian heritage and human love interest Xavier Shafer.  And if you liked the characters in Tentyrian Legacy, don’t worry they will be back in book 2. I hope you will take a read!

Thank you, Elise, I appreciate you taking the time to join us!
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What Zombies Fear: Declaration of War

August 5, 2014, 7:06 am
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    The penultimate book to the What Zombies Fear series. Declaration of War is a book which is markedly different from the rest of series' entries. Whereas the previous book, Fracture, destroyed the nakama (a Japanese term for a really close non-family group of friends) of Victor Tookes--this stomps on the ashes before scattering them.

    The premise of What Zombies Fear is that Victor Tookes, the titular protagonist, is a human being immune to the bites of zombies. Furthermore, he and a small number of other heroes have gained superpowers from it. Dedicating himself to destroying every zombie on planet Earth, Victor Tookes has had a small amount of success in this. He even managed to disable the E'clei Queen Laura, ultimately leading to her death.

    Unfortunately, Victor has become a victim of his own success as the routing of the zombies has convinced the other members of his posse it's time to retire. Victor doesn't help his case by not really having a plan other than "kill zombies" as well as a selfish-sounding goal of doing it for his son (versus everyone else's). By the time the book is through it's first five chapters, it's clear no one wants anything further to do with Victor.

    The premise of this was believable but disappointing. I'd been big fans of the supporting cast until this point and watching them become so selfish and stupid in the face of a genocidal race of man-eaters who only appear to be defeated was annoying. It's a bit like watching a car wreck, you can't turn away even though you know it's going to lead to disaster. The supporting cast trade immediate comfort for long-term survival.

    Despite this depressing premise, there is much to recommend the novel and a lot of set up for what will undoubtedly be a grand conclusion in the final novel. Declaration of War has more character development than any other volume in the series and while a lot of it is melancholy, other parts give fascinating insights into the cast. We get a sense of why Victor does what he does, how he thinks, and what his major flaws are--particularly in how he fails as a leader due to his self-centeredness.

    There's a significant time-skip in this book and I have to say I think it's some of the most touching stuff in the entirety of the series. We get to see the characters experience what sort of lives they hoped to have after the zombies were dealt with, even if it's an illusion. The fact there's a positive lesbian romance (and even marriage) is also something I approve of, being the giant liberal that I am.

    In conclusion, I find Declaration of War to be the darkest entry of the franchise yet but not without some appeal. I think any fans of the series will want to purchase this book and it's an essential part of the build-up to the climax. Still, I wish the authors hadn't been quite so brutal to their characters.

8/10
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Interview with a Vampire (film) review

August 10, 2014, 4:26 pm
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    I'm feeling in a somewhat undead mood this week, so I'm going to be doing a week of reviewing my favorite vampire movies. There will be good, bad, and indifferent but all of them left an undeniable impression on my poor little psyche. We'll be starting off with my favorite vampire film of all time: the Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise classic Interview with a Vampire. I love this movie and could gush about what it's awesome forever. However, that's not going to benefit people who haven't seen it and those who have seen it already know. 

    So, instead, I'm going to talk about what works in this film.

    In a very real way, Interview with a Vampire is a vanishingly rare film which treats the concept of vampirism seriously. There's countless films where there's undead monsters threatening you and just as many where the vampire is the hero. Hell, television has made a cottage industry out of copying Hannibal King and his 'vampire private eye' thing.

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You have to be as self-aware of your prettiness as these two men to pull off these outfits. Or actually French. Either way.
    What this film, and the Anne Rice novel before it, captured was the perspective of being a vampire. Much is made of Louis and his many imitators (as well as predecessors) being reluctant vampires who don't hurt people in the course of their duties. The thing is, what makes Louis so unique and arguably more interesting is he gets over it. His inability to hurt regular humans fades with time as they cease to be a relevant part of his life while his "vampire" family becomes what he cherishes.

    That's almost unique, the failure of the redemption or "Good" vampire arc.

    Now, this doesn't hold in The Vampire Chronicles. Vampires prey upon the evil-doer there and become rockstars or immortal gods who hang out with the Devil. However, we're talking about the movie which has an entirely different ambiance than the later volumes of Anne Rice's work. No, here, vampirism is a dread curse which the attempts to fight against are ultimately futile. Louis is a monster at the end and he's accepted that but he'll never be happy about it and that's the truly staggering nature of his curse. Brad Pitt's performance is masterful as he conveys what it's like to be caught in vampiric purgatory.

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Adorable and deadly!
    While Louis is the titular interviewee, this movie would have gotten nowhere without Tom Cruise's Lestat. There's a joke to be made about Tom Cruise playing a charismatic ego-maniacal blooducker but I'm sure plenty of people have already done it. Just like Louis, Lestat is trapped in vampirism but attempts to convince himself that he's happy by doing whatever amuses him at that moment. To be Lestat is to be just as lonely as Louis and yet his attempts to make companions make things worse. There's some silliness with Tom Cruise's wire work but, overall, I really liked his overacting.

    Perfect for Lestat.

    Much has been stated about Kirsten Dunst's Claudia and there's a reason for that. In a film which a good half is about the slow degeneration of a child vampire to insanity, you need someone who can pull off a lot of conflicting emotions. Kirsten Dunst manages to capture the hopelessness of being trapped forever in a shell which is cute rather than beautiful well. To never be a liberated woman and always look like a little China doll is something Anne Rice says females of our species have struggled with for millennium (see here).

    I can't speak to that but the primal desire of not being able to be who you want (and can never be) is conveyed well. We can all relate to frustrated dreams and Claudia's dream to grow up is one we can all relate to at one point in our lives. Distaste for our own body is a, sadly, universal theme with even the beautiful suffering from it.

    While playing a fairly minor role in the grand scheme of things, I always remember Antonio Bandera's performance as Armand performance when thinking of older vampires. Armand is kind of a false shephard in this movie. Louis is in search of something to separate him from the belief he's a monster but all Armand can offer is shenanigans and justifications. He's very good at selling them, though, which is more than anyone else has tried.

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I will say, there is a LOT of staring in this movies. Intense gazes. Glares. Looks. The whole shebang.
    All of the vampires in this movie are one shade of miserable after another. The only ones who aren't are the Theater Vampires and those are literally too stupid to realize how horrible their lives are. Immortality isn't a blessing when you only have an eternity of misery to contemplate.

    Ignorance is a blessing for the Theater Vampires because they can't contemplate the enormous weight of eternity banging down on their shoulders--ironically, while they sit in judgement of mortals for not doing the same. It's a delicious bit of irony that Santiago and other evil vampires talk of how death comes for everyone while not thinking the same will befall them. They have a hateful role and it's well-acted.

    The movie wouldn't be half as good as it is if not for the soundtrack by Elliot Goldenthal. I still have the soundtrack twenty-years-later and listen to its regularly. Its haunting, beautiful, and exotic. Neil Jordan made a bunch of wonderful casting, music, and direction choices for this movie.

    That's why it's a must-see for vampire fans.

    Or hell, movie fans in general.

10/10
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A short story of mine has been released

August 10, 2014, 4:44 pm
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I thought I'd give people a head's up that one of my short-stories is now available for purchase as part of an anthology. Available in ebook and POD format is Monster Hunter: Blood Trails, a short-story collection of humans hunting the creepie and crawlie.

Available for Order Here

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The hunter spreads a hind inside the beast's track, shocked by the sheer enormity of the thing. Dusk settles through the forest but there is just enough light to make out the tiny red droplets along the edge of the print. An hour ago it had been a steady flow. The trail leads down into a valley the sun has already given up to shadow, and the moon won't be up for hours. Under any other circumstances it would be wise to wait for the moonlight, but the warm trickle of the hunter's own blood has not stopped and there is no time to wait. 

The hunt is on. BLOOD TRAILS marks the 4th volume in the Legends of the Monster Hunter series and welcomes 24 brand new stories to the family. Fans of LEATHER, DENIM & SILVER, THE TRIGGER REFLEX and USE ENOUGH GUN will be well pleased with these tales and newcomers to the series will be very glad to discover it.

 My story, Crusade of Blood is about a group of Hashishin (Assassins) in Acre during the reign of Saladin investigating a series of vampiric murders amongst the city's Jewish population. I hope you enjoy it if you check it out.
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What is Cyberpunk?

August 12, 2014, 8:24 am
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    When deciding what sort of genre you want to write in, it's important to familiarize yourself with the kind of tropes and expectations of them. One of my favorite subgenres is also one of the most influential and, sadly, one of the ones whose roots have strayed furthest from its original source.

    I, of course, speak of the titular cyberpunk genre. Cyberpunk influences all walks of fiction and even modern-day life but few people identify these elements as specifically from the genre anymore. In a very real way, we are living in a cyberpunk world.

    Science-fiction author Bruce Bethke coined the term cyberpunk for his 1983 short-story,
appropriately titled Cyberpunk. The etymology of the word also indicates just what it is about. Between the late 16th and the 18th centuries, punk was a common, coarse synonym for prostitute. Shakespeare, himself, used it several times and its vulgarity was part of its appeal.

    Punk music, started in the 1970s, was coined as a term for the garage bands of the day that would take on a defiant anti-establishment tone. Cyber is from the word cybernetic, which comes from the Greek adjective κυβερνητικός meaning skilled in steering or governing. Cybernetics is about technology and tools which interface with us humans.

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    What does Cyberpunk mean? Bluntly, it means getting ****ed by technology. In its raw essence, cyberpunk is a view of the world which means that technology will not make life better for humanity but only give the oppressor a different means of brutalizing the underclasses. It's not necessarily a technophobic genre, far from it, but it is an unromantic view of technology's power.

    If I may be so bold, the first cyberpunk novel may be R.U.R or Rossam's Universal Robots, a 1920 science fiction play by Karl Cabek depicting the oppression of living machines. The roots of technology not being a beneficent force but an oppressive one also shows up in Metropolis and the writings of Ardus Huxley. Huxley, in particular, gave a stunning view of a predominately clone-society ruled by worship of Henry Ford values of greed and industralization in 1931's Brave New World.

    The modern conception of cyberpunk is something entirely different, however, and owes its popularity to two primary sources: the works of William Gibson and the movie version of Bladerunner. Bladerunner provided the public with the view of a used-up science-fiction future where the majority of work was performed by enslaved Replicants (androids so real they bleed, feel, and age). The majority of people were impoverished, sick, and living in the shadow of corporate ziggarauts which were deliberately modeled after those of ancient Babylon.

    William Gibson's works, particularly Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive created the idea of a massive sprawling civilization which had exaggerated almost cartoonish values of materialism and addiction to technology. Despite not knowing a thing about computers, William Gibson created the hacker-hero archetype with Chase and predicted the importance of safe data transfer with the protagonist of Johnny Mnemonic.

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    Cyberpunk would proceed to become an influence on animation, roleplaying games, fashion, movies, and video games. Amongst my favorite of cyberpunk works include the original Bubblegum Crisis, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Hackers, the Deus Ex games, and The Matrix. While the last straddles the line of cyberpunk and post-cyberpunk, being about a prophesied messianic figure, it still falls in the line of what the genre is all about.

    A lot of fans of the genre love the tropes without actually caring about the meaning. Cyberpunk is one of the first genres to forward style over substance. Fans of the genre often think of mirrorshades, trenchcoats, cybernetics, hacker heroes, ruthless megacorporations, epic poverty, and a general sense of doom brought about by societal collapse. This is all dross, however, for the real heart of the story. Which is man versus machine and society.

    Cyberpunk is unique in that it is very pro-technology but also extremely wary of it. Science and technology abound in cyberpunk fiction, to an almost-fetishsized level, but the number of misuses from it are astounding. On a basic level, cyberpunk fiction must believe that technology will not make the world a better place. The flaw is in the human, rather than the machine, though. If technology solves humanity's problems or makes the world better then it is probably Post-Cyberpunk or simply science-fiction.

    I've mentioned in previous articles the similarity of cyberpunk to Noir fiction. In both settings, the corruption is endemic and irreversible. You may strike against the System, even score a few moral victories, but how much you may actually achieve is questionable. Any salvation the world may achieve is often through the destruction of the old without explaining what will come thereafter.

    Some cyberpunk works actually allow the machine to collapse thanks to the efforts of the protagonist, even if this usually comes with some form of cost. There is a strong anarchist sentiment to cyberpunk and it's not so much the protagonists have a better idea for how to run the world than anything would be better than the status quo. Even so, the protagonists may or may not believe in the positive ends they work toward.

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    The movie version of Johnny Mnemonic has Johnny struggle against his own extreme selfishness versus a larger social good. Despite the near-apocalyptic nature of the threat, Johnny has to be dragged kicking and screaming toward any positive end.

    Because of the Noir sensibility, cyberpunk heroes tend to be loners and rebels. The flaws of these individuals are as intricate to realizing the setting as their merits. Decker, the protagonist of Bladerunner, is an individual who hunts Replicants for a living despite their apparent humanity. Case in Neuromancer is addicted, physically, to the internet.

    To live in the general dystopian worlds of cyberpunk and come away unphased will feel inauthentic to all but the most deft of writing. Genuinely noble souls, like Robocop's Alex Murphy, are often chewed up and spit out by the world--forcing them to rebel because society won't allow them to be good.

    The villains of cyberpunk are typically part of the establishment. They need not be actively malevolent but enforce a status quo which oppresses and dehumanizes. Corporations are a favorite villain in the medium, representing the unchecked growth of greed and profit better than almost any other group. They are not the only sort of villains which can serve as cyberpunk foes, however. Corrupt governments, organized crime, and even mad scientists are all viable enemies for cyberpunk stories.

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    Paul Verhoven's Robocop created one of the most perfect cyberpunk villains in the despicable megacorporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP). Omni Consumer Products destroys the life of noble police officer Alex Murphy, feeds off the misery of Detroit's population like a parasite, and ruins more lives via its business policies than "normal" criminals could ever hope to match.

    OCP's not an uber-efficient evil empire, though, but a bloated fat dragon whose members are so obsessed with their bottom line they're actually incompetent. OCP does as much damage through cost-cutting as they do through any plans which work. This is embodied by the robot ED-209, which is at once highly dangerous and pathetic. The cool efficiency of many science-fiction villains is absent from cyberpunk as not even the cause of evil is immune to the slow decay of the world.

    So what is the appeal of cyberpunk? In a very real way, it is the allure of raging against the machine. An individual may not be able to make the world a better place but he might be able to strike against the oppressor. Everyone loves a rebel and cyberpunk is an excellent way to exaggerate existing trends before sending your protagonists against them.

    As long as there is something wrong with society and technology hasn't fixed all of our problems, there will always be room for cyberpunk.
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Interview with me on Permuted Press' website

August 12, 2014, 10:53 am
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Underworld (2003) review

August 12, 2014, 6:33 pm
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    Well, this review, like Interview with a Vampire is really-really out of date. However, it's my blog and I'll review what I want to. I may do a review of The Hunger soon and that is a movie every vampire fan should familiarize themselves with. Underworld is not in the same league as either of these two films but it has a lot going for it. There's Kate Beckinsale playing the vampire Black Widow and, um, uh, yeah. Oh, right, Bill Nighy and Michael Sheen are great in these films! The way they chew the scenery has to be seen to be believed.

    Anything else?

    Mmmmm, lemme think.

    Vampires! Werewolves! Fighting each other! There's that too!

    Yeah, the Underworld films are as substantial as a vanilla wafer. I'm going to get around to reviewing them all, probably, but it takes only a single movie to understand them all. Much like their counterparts in the Resident Evil films, they exist for the sole purposes of showing their attractive female lead kicking ass in an outrageous series of situations.

      And you know what? I'm cool with that.

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There's a lot of scenes of Selene shooting in this movie.
    The premise of Underworld is there's been a multi-century war ongoing between the vampires and the Lycans (werewolves). Selene (Kate Beckinsale) is a "Death Dealer" and professional hunter of the fuzzy who has, in the pursuit of vengeance for her family, almost exterminated the Lycan race.

    Or so it appears.

    I won't spoil the rest of the movie for you because it's a surprisingly coherent, albeit comic book-y, plot. I don't think anyone really expected anything from this movie other than vampires shooting at werewolves while werewolves try to eat vampires. Keep in mind there's a lot of that but there's also lies, betrayal, mythology, and world-building which go well beyond that. Someone cared about this world enough to create a backstory for it and that's something you don't see too often in vampire movies.

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This is basically the movie's atmosphere in a nutshell. Dark and darker.
     Really, the entire thing feels very strongly reminiscent of the Vampire: The Masquerade games I used to run. This isn't surprising given the movie creators were sued by White Wolf due to the similarity of their concepts. They're different enough that I don't think this was plagiarism but I can certainly tell the movie was influenced by the whole "Gothic Punk" mentality which Vampire: The Masquerade codified.

     As mentioned, credit also goes to Bill Nighy's Victor and Michael Sheen's Lucien as the two of them create nuanced multifaceted characters with the ability to ham it up with the best of them. In a very real way, Selene is an intruder on their centuries-long grudge and watching her be forced to deal with it is almost disappointing. Shane Brolly's Kraven is delightfully detestable and I even liked the bit-character of Erika (as played by Moonlight's Sophia Myles).

    The action is good in Underworld, so is the music, and the atmosphere is delightful. Everyone has the time of their lives in this movie and I think people will enjoy it if they go into it expecting a fun action flick. They will be pleasantly surprised by the slightly-more-in-depth plot than was absolutely necessary. It's mostly an excuse to see Kate Beckinsale shoot a shit ton of werewolves in a catsuit but not entirely. There's also plenty for the ladies as well with male eye-candy too.

    Enjoy it for what it is.

    7.5/10
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Interview with C.T. Phipps (Me) on Illustrious Peeps

August 17, 2014, 9:24 pm
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Fellow author and blogger James Crawford was nice enough to interview me for his website Bloodsoaked and Writing.

He asked me about what it felt like to have six or seven other Charles Phipps in my genre (and why I had to be known as C.T. Phipps instead) and plenty of questions which allowed me to talk about all sorts of nonsense.

http://www.bloodsoakedandwriting.com/illustrious-peeps/c-t-phipps/

Please check it out!
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Only Lovers Left Alive review

August 20, 2014, 10:36 pm
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    I can't believe this one slipped under my radar. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as vampires. With John Hurt and the girl who starred in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland too! Really, I should have been all over this movie from the very beginning. Anyway, kudos to Mrs. Phipps because she's the person who recommended this movie to us.

    So what do I think?

    This is the best vampire movie I've ever seen, or at least one of the best. Which is amazing because this movie actually has no plot whatsoever. It reminds me of my old Vampire: The Masquerade games where the sessions would consist of the player characters sitting around talking for hours rather than doing anything of note. Despite that, this movie is really-really good. I'm not exaggerating.

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The casting is perfect. I could buy them as vampires in real-life.
     The premise of the film are Adam and Eve (all-but-stated to not be their real names) are a pair of married vampires who live apart. Adam is a professional rocker who lives in Detroit and has seen said city go from being the music capital of the world to, well, Detroit.

     Eve is a much older vampire who has seen the rise of modern civilization as a blessing rather than a curse. Adam is suicidal, contemplating taking a wooden bullet to the heart, so Eve decides to do an emergency intervention and rush to his side.

    And that's the movie, actually.

    There's a subplot about Eve's sister Ava coming to visit but it's really about the development of these two characters and how they deal with the ennui of immortality. It's a character piece whose subjects just happen to be vampires and I'm impressed with that. Not since Interview with a Vampire have I seen a vampire movie so interested in the concept of what it is to be undead.
   
    What I really liked was the social commentary of the movie. While I use the term Gothic Punk liberally, this movie does a nice subdued version. Adam is disgusted with the human race's lack of progress, their general stupidity, and their unwillingness to fight for anything beyond their own egos. He's known some of the greatest artists in history and is irritated when they're forgotten or misrepresented (Christopher Marlowe, hilariously played by John Hurt, is representative of this).

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Tom Hiddleston oozes charm every moment he's on screen.
    The use of Detroit is perfect for a vampire's home city as it's a city with some of the greatest music history in America but to say it's hit hard times would be an understatement. You can feel Adam's pain as he looks to see the poverty, suffering, and hopelessness of a city he has come to have great sentimental attachment to.

    There's even a minor environmental message as many vampires have died of blood poisoning due to the amount of pollution and other toxins humans have put in their veins. Drinking "straight" from the vein is hazardous to your health now.

    Tilda Swinton's Eve is a great character as she has managed to keep an optimistic view of the world despite living through the Black Death, Crusades, and much-much worse. I liked the film's viewpoint on why she's more successful at immortality than Adam. Adam gets attached to things and can't move on while Eve is always moving around, absorbing new things, and learning. Charles Darwin gets called out during one of their conversations and it's true, evolution is about adaptability.

    The supporting cast for this movie is great with the aforementioned John Hurt and Mia Wasikowska being vampires who add quite a bit to the storyline. There's not that many characters in the movie, five or six total, but they each lend a different perspective on immortality.

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Fangs for the memories!
    Ava is a perpetual child, refusing to grow up and yet probably being better adapted to the modern world than Adam. John Hurt's Christopher Marlowe attempts to nurture new genius in the next generation, showing a concern for the world which may one day leave him behind.

    Even the movies props and costuming department tell a story. The vampires lives are reflected in their possessions or lack or possessions. Rather than simply making them obnoxiously rich, though they are, they tend to accumulate things which are emotionally precious to them. Their clothes also reflect where they last stopped caring about their styles with Ava, for instance, being slightly out of date while Adam still dresses like it's the Seventies.

    Hell, I haven't even gotten into how funny the movie is despite its weight subject matter. I laughed aloud at least a dozen times. I won't spoil any jokes but everything from "Soul Dracula" to Ava's bratty teenage-daughterness makes this movie awesome.

    Only Lovers Left Alive is a great-great film. Every vampire fan should see it.

10/10
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