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Exclusive Interview: “A City Dreaming” Author Daniel Polansky

 

While many fantasy novels take themselves seriously, occasionally you get a tale that’s not just of might and magic, but of mirth as well. Such is the case with A City Dreaming (hardcover, digital), a new urban fantasy novel from Daniel Polansky that’s not only been compared to the Harry Potter books and the Hellblazer comics, but also to the works of Kurt Vonnegut and the animated sitcom Archer. Though in talking to Polansky about the novel, it seems this tale was inspired by a certain city as well.

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Exclusive Interview: Kubrick’s Game Author Derek Taylor Kent

There’s a conspiracy theory which suggests that not only did the U.S. government fake the moon landing, but that they hired film director Stanley Kubrick to make the fake footage. But while this is obviously not true, what if Kubrick did leave clues in his movies, clues meant to lead eagle-eyed viewers to a treasure? Such is the premise of Kubrick’s Game (hardcover, paperback, digital) a puzzling thriller by Derek Taylor Kent. Though in talking to Kent about his novel, it seems this idea isn’t as far-fetched as you might think.

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Exclusive Interview: Star Trek Prey: Book One: Hell’s Heart Author John Jackson Miller

As Game Of Thrones fans will tell you, waiting for the next book in a series can be quite frustrating. But in talking to writer John Jackson Miller, whose trilogy of Star Trek novels are coming just a month apart — Star Trek Prey: Book One: Hell’s Heart (paperback, digital) is out now; Star Trek Prey: Book Two: The Jackal’s Trick (paperback, digital) is out October 25th; and Star Trek Prey: Book Three: The Hall Of Heroes (paperback, digital) will be available November 29th — it seems having these three novel come in rapid succession cut some of the frustration in writing such an epic sci-fi saga as well.

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Marvel’s Women Of Power Two Pack For Zen Pinball 2, Pinball FX 2 Review

Between the introduction of Ms. Marvel, the gender swapping of Thor, and Captain Marvel getting her own movie, it’s a good time to be a woman in Marvel Comics. But it’s also a good time to be a fan of those ladies and pinball thanks to Zen Studios, whose newest tables for Zen Pinball 2 (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4, Vita), Pinball FX 2 (Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC), and Zen Pinball (iOS, Android, Amazon) are the Marvel’s Women Of Power Two Pack, which feature the ladies of A-Force, Ms. Marvel, and Spider-Gwen, as well as a host of bad gals.

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Books

Exclusive Interview: Bite Author K.S. Merbeth

 

In many works of fiction, we follow the story of the hero. But in her debut novel Bite (paperback, Kindle), K.S. Merbeth instead tells the tale of a kid who joins a group of bad guys in a post-apocalyptic wasteland…and fits right in. But what’s interesting is how this novel was, in part, inspired by some adventure games that are built around the idea of giving players the choice of being the hero, or being a bad guy.

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Books Video Games Xbox 360 Xbox One

Exclusive Interview: “Halo Fractures” Authors Matt Forbeck, Christie Golden, And Troy Denning

 

With the strategy game Halo Wars 2 (Xbox One, PC) not coming out until February 21st of 2017, fans of the Halo games are undoubtedly going through withdrawal. Thankfully, Gallery Book has a fix in the form of Halo Fractures (paperback, digital), a collection of short stories from such sci-fi writers as John Jackson Miller (Star Wars: A New Dawn), such Halo novelists as Tobias Buckell (Halo: The Cole Protocol), and even such Halo game writers as Brian Reed, who co-wrote Halo 4 and was the lead writer on Halo 5: Guardians, and also penned the comic books Halo: Initiation, Halo: Escalation, and Halo: Fall Of Reach, the graphic novel adaptation of Eric Nyland’s prequel novel, Halo: The Fall Of Reach.

To find out more about the stories in Halo Fractures, I posed (mostly) the same questions to three of the books contributors: Matt Forbeck, who wrote the novel Halo: New Blood; Halo: Last Light writer Troy Denning; and Christie Golden, who’s new to the Halo cannon, but has written novels based on the StarCraft games as well as the worlds of Star Wars and Star Trek.

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Exclusive Interview: The Last Days Of Jack Sparks Author Jason Arnopp

With such found footage horror movies as The Blair Witch Project and the Paranormal Activity series still scaring the crap out of people, you’d expect someone would apply this motif to other things. But while we wait for someone to make a found footage horror video game or a found footage horror three-layer cake with sprinkles, we can get spooked in literary form with the faux memoir The Last Days Of Jack Sparks (hardcover, digital), a found “footage” fright-fest novel from writer Jason Arnopp.

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Exclusive Interview: In The Mountains Of Madness Author W. Scott Poole

Thanks to such iconic horror stores as “The Call Of Cthulhu,” “At The Mountains Of Madness,” “The Dunwich Horror,” and more, writer H.P. Lovecraft has become one of the more inventive and influential writers of the 20th century…and the 21st. Just as such disciples as Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo Del Toro, Metallca’s James Hetfield, or his fellow writers Stephen King, Clive Barker, Mike Mignola, and Neil Gaiman. But what kind of man comes up with such twisted tales? This is the subject of W. Scott Poole‘s In The Mountains Of Madness: The Life And Extraordinary Afterlife Of H.P. Lovecraft (paperback, digital). Though in talking to Poole about the book, he revealed that this isn’t a conventional literary biography.

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Books Video Games

Exclusive Interview: The Tetris Effect Author Dan Ackerman

At first, the video game Tetris seems simple enough. When you really get into, though, you realize there’s a complexity to it that may be subtle, but it’s also substantial. Not surprisingly, the story of how Tetris came to be also seems simple enough at first, but not when you real dig in. It’s a story told in the new book The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized The World (hardcover, digital), written by CNET editor Dan Ackerman (who, I should point out, is someone I’ve known for years from going to video game press events). But in talking to him about his book, it seems it wasn’t just a love of the game that made him want to write something this substantial about Tetris.

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