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PlayStation 5 Reviews Video Games

“Days Gone: Remastered” Review

 

Typically, when a video game company releases a remastered version of a game that only came out a few years earlier — as opposed to a remake of an older game — all they do is make it look and run a little better. They usually don’t add anything significant that might make it worth getting if you’ve already played the original.

But while that’s largely true for Days Gone: Remastered (PlayStation 5), a renovated version of 2019’s third-person open world zombie apocalypse action game Days Gone (PlayStation 4), Remastered has some additions that may make fans of the original consider getting this upgrade.

Well, the masochistic ones, that is.

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Books

Exclusive Interview: “Unusual Fragments” Lead Editor Sarah Coolidge

 

For over 10 years, Two Lines Press has specialized in bringing previously untranslated books to English readers. A mission they solidified five years ago with the launch of The Calico Series, which publishes anthologies of translated poetry and short stories.

In honor of their newest release, a collection of Japanese short stories called Unusual Fragments: 20th-Century Japanese Fiction (paperback), I spoke to lead editor Sarah Coolidge about what goes into these anthologies, and Fragments specifically.

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Books

Exclusive Interview: “Skin” Author Kathe Koja

 

William Shakespeare once wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” But not every player has everyone’s best interest at heart.

Originally released in 1993, Kathe Koja’s queer, body horror / weird fiction novel Skin is less a story and more a performance. Or so she explains in the following email interview about the new version of Skin, which Meerkat Press are rereleasing in paperback.

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Books

Exclusive Interview: “Down In The Sea Of Angels” Author Khan Wong

 

While it may sound like it mixes elements of science fiction and fantasy, author Khan Wong says his multi-timeline novel Down In The Sea Of Angels (paperback, Kindle, audiobook) is more of a “speculative / literary cross-over.”

Which may explain why, in the following email interview about it, he cites such disparate influences as David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and the X-Men comics of Jonathan Hickman.

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Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Last Boy On Earth” Author West Ambrose

 

Genre can be a tricky thing. Some people embrace it, others feel shackled by it. And still others don’t give a crap.

And then you have someone like author West Ambrose, who, in the following email interview about his new novel The Last Boy On Earth (paperback, Kindle), seemed to work through it before ultimately saying, “Let’s call it…without any limitations; Cosmic Love.”

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Books

Exclusive Interview: “Dark Diamond” Author Neal Asher

 

For nearly 25 years British science fiction author Neal Asher has written stories set in a fictional universe he calls Polity.

But while his newest installment Dark Diamond (paperback, Kindle) is the 21st installment of this series, in the following email interview — in which he also discusses what inspired and influenced this new novel — he explains why this story may serve as a good entry point for this sci-fi saga.

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Books

Exclusive Interview: “Death At A Wedding” Author Marc Watson

 

As we all know, Death has lived a long and rewarding life. When not performing their duties as The Grim Reaper, they’ve taken a trip down the Nile, made a number of wishes of varying degrees of quality, and even gone on holiday.

But in Marc Watson’s comedic fantasy novella Death At A Wedding (paperback, Kindle) — the sequel to his 2017 novella Death Dresses Poorly — the embodiment of life always ending has to navigate an awkward social situation: being a guest at a loved one’s wedding.

In the following email interview, Watson talks about what inspired and influenced this urban fantasy / dark romantic comedy novella.

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Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Only Song Worth Singing” Author Randee Dawn

 

Watch enough episodes of Behind The Music and you quickly learn that terrible things can happen when a band goes on tour.

But I must’ve missed the episode in which a band’s tour go awry because of creatures from Irish folklore.

In the following email interview, author and rock journalist Randee Dawn talks about The Only Song Worth Singing (paperback, Kindle), in which an Irish band bring some unruly guests with them on their first U.S. tour.

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Books

Exclusive Interview: “Twilight Imperium: Voice Of One” Author Tristan Palmgren

 

Having previously written four novels about characters from Marvel Comics, author Tristan Palmgren is now turning their attention to one from a different fictional universe: the science fiction space opera board game Twilight Imperium.

In the following email interview, Palmgren talks about what inspired and influenced the sci-fi space opera spy novel Twilight Imperium: Voice Of One (paperback, Kindle).