Warhammer 40K - The Horus Heresy!

Like I've mentioned before, Warhammer is another one of those franchises that I've always been curious about, but never really dug into.  However, after watching a handful of lore videos (courtesy of Bricky), I've started to take a closer look at the 40K side of things.  Among the hundreds of available novels, The Horus Heresy was recommended as a good starting point, with the first three making a loose trilogy, so I decided to give it a shot.

Book Reviews for 2026 - Part One!

As it turns out, the next article would be more book reviews!  This one features two books that I started quite a while ago and only finished this year.  I've been reading them in between all the others, catching a chapter or two, and was finally able to wrap them up this Spring.  Here's what I've been reading lately!

Books I Read in 2025 - Catch-up!

My reading got a little side-tracked as the year went on, largely due to some other interests and problems taking up my time.  Nevertheless, I was able to work my way through the following books, one way or another.  Perhaps they are an odd group, compared to what I've been reading lately, but sometimes when the mood strikes to read something specific, you follow it, you know?

Films I Watched in 2025!

I'm not going to lie; this feels like I've flipped the script with this.  Back when I was getting more into blogging on this site, I focused much more on movie reviews, pushing out articles whenever I watched a handful of them.  Meanwhile, my book reading was relegated to a single article at the end of the year.  However, it's clear that my entertainment patterns have changed.  While I do still watch movies, it's certainly not as frequent as it used to be, while my book reading habits have somewhat improved.  Still, I did end up watching some neat films here and there, and I figured I had a few interesting things to say about them.  So I'm doing a format I've done before and simply recap all the movies I saw.

Wandering Through the Hyborean Age - Part 7!

Well, I did tease the possibility of this when I wrote my conclusion article.  While I did enjoy reading other things, including fantasy, I found myself drawn back to the world of Conan, largely looking for some easy, fun stories to read.  After some thought, I've decided to organize my continuing journeys largely by author rather than trying to work out any timeline stuff.  Part 7 here will be focused on the three novels written by Andrew J. Offutt.  While he started with science fiction, he also had a hand in sword and sorcery, editing the Swords Against Darkness series in the late 70s.  While I wasn't able to tell how he got the opportunity to write these novels, they do happen to make for a loose trilogy, even if they were published out of order.

Books I Read in 2025 - Part 2!

After a slow start, my reading habits seemed to have picked up as the heat of summer gives me another reason to just stay inside.  I have a peculiar trilogy of books this time, including a few sequels that I had been putting off.  Once again, this is mainly to try and read through the books I've gathered in my shelves.  Here's what I've just finished reading lately!

Books I read in 2025 - Part 1!

Well, this took longer than I care to admit to pull together.  I thought I would try to put out more book reviews this year, like I had been doing with my movie reviews, but then I got my hands on Tears of the Kingdom, and suddenly reading took a nose dive as a consequence.  Still, I did want to make these into more of a series instead of having just one or two long articles at the end of the year, so here are the first three books I've read for 2025!

The 1984 Music Project!

So, because I was turning 40 this past year, I started a bit of a project where I listen to a bunch of albums that are as old as I am.  I thought it would be fun to go through the year of 1984 and listen to the albums as they came out 40 years ago.  Basically, in chronological order.  I did a monthly report of the albums to a music server I’m on and then later decided I should collect my thoughts in a document.  Many of the albums are ones I've heard before, but I also threw in some ones that were new to me, spicing things up.  I tried to include each album's released date when I could, but some just had a month without a date (at least as best I as could tell).  Given my current listening tastes, a vast majority of this article is going to feature hard rock and heavy metal (though there are a few oddballs thrown in.)  This is going to be a long one, so settle in!

Recently Watched 2024 - Part Three

Well, dang.  I was hoping to get in a third film before the end of the year, but it didn't happen, for one reason or another, so here's two movie reviews to finish off last year.  Interestingly, they're both epic films building on franchises, and while neither were bad, they certainly had different ways of respecting the legacies they were building on.

Books I Read in 2024!

Yup, it's time for another one of these!  I had planned on doing two articles like I had in previous years, but I definitely did not read as much this year.  (I mostly blame the Nintendo Switch I picked up last December.)  Still, I did read some pretty interesting stuff, and I ended up having a lot to say about these books.  This one is a long one, but here are all the books I read in 2024.

Recently Watched 2024 - Part Two!

Dang, I guess I really dropped the ball in the second half of 2024.  While I wasn't going to repeat what I did for 2023, I would liked to have written just a little more than I have, but I guess this year I was busy with other things.  At the very least, I caught a few things to watch, and it turns out I had a lot to say about each of them, so settle in for a long one.

Recently Watched 2024 - Part One!

It's definitely been a while since I put something here, so let's talk about some movies!  Largely got a lot of sci-fi this time around, mostly of the epic space opera variety.  I thought about trying to squeeze a third space opera in here, but I couldn't decide what to watch and eventually Furiosa came to fill that slot.  So here's the movies I've seen so far this year!

A pair of random anime reviews

Okay, so once upon a time, I was thinking I would be watching and reviewing a lot more anime.  However, that didn't really come to fruition, and as a consequence, I have these two reviews that have been sitting here, waiting for a third to complete the article. Unfortunately, I feel that simply tacking on a third at this point would feel inconsistent, as it has been about 3 or 4 years since I watched them.  Nevertheless, I did want to at least share these reviews, as they were my thoughts at the time, and I figured they'd at least be interesting.  After debating it back and forth in my head, I've decided to just quietly release these two without any promotion with the hopes that I can maybe start fresh with something else, leaving these reviews in my rearview mirror instead of letting them linger in the "Draft" section of my blog.

So, here's two random anime series reviews, I guess.

Wrapping Up 2023 and Looking Ahead to 2024

Well, last year was certainly a busy year for me on this blog.  I watched a lot of movies and read a lot of books, giving me plenty of subjects for my analysis and review.  I feel pretty proud that I was able to publish an article for every month of 2023.  I think it just ended up that way, in a pretty serendipitous manner, but I'm glad that it did.

I thought about putting together a Top 5 movies of the year, as I did end up seeing quite a few.  Because Dune got delayed to 2024, I'm sure Guy Ritchie's The Covenant would have been my number one, followed by Godzilla Minus One, John Wick, and the second Spider-Verse movie.  However, I admit I haven't feel like writing up a big capstone article for whatever reason.  Of course, I will still be writing articles about what I watch in the future, but I'm thinking I want to spend more time catching up on things rather than trying to stay up-to-date.

That being said, as I look ahead, there are some films that do get my interest, namely the Dune sequel, Kung Fu Panda 4, and maybe Furiosa, Deadpool 3, and Borderlands.  Later in the year will be that Gladiator sequel, as well as that animated Lord of the Rings movie.  I'll also watch the second season of Rings of Power.  However, I haven't feel inclined to really write up an article about my Anticipated Movies, either.  It's hard to know what will come out anymore as release dates keep getting shifted for one reason or another.

I do have several books I'm looking at reading, but they aren't a big series like Conan.  Still, I think I will post book reviews more regularly as I get through more books.  I've picked up some pretty neat ones lately, and I'll be excited to share them with you as I get through them.

I also want to maybe try and do more writing.  I know I have plenty of ideas, I just need to get them down and share them on this site.  Maybe even submit them to a publisher or two.  There are other projects I want to work on, though I don't want to talk about them quite yet.  Still, if I have something to share, I'll be sure to post about it here on the blog.

I guess this post is mainly to say that I plan on carrying on in a very loose manner, not really trying to force anything too much.  Nevertheless, here's to working towards a productive 2024, at least for the kinds of things I like to share on my blog.  

Recently Watched - 2023 Part 7!

Alright, let's wrap up the last bunch of films before I bring this year to a close.  I've certainly got quite the handful here, between mysteries, giant monsters, superheroes, and anime.  I know there are still some I missed in this year, but the fact that this is Part 7 means I still saw plenty enough, I think.  Anyways, on to the reviews!

Books I Read in 2023 - Part Two!

Time to wrap things up with some writing reviews!  I wasn't sure how many I'd have for this article, as I ended up writing quite a few for the first part, but I was able to wrap up quite a few novels before the end of the year, so maybe they're completely unbalanced.  In any case, I've been reading some pretty fascinating books, even if they are just more genre fiction (I know what I like, okay?).  Here we go!

A Quick Update and a New Story!

Hey, just wanted to bring some attention to a few things.  First, I ended up doing some writing for NaNoWriMo 2023.  It wasn't as much as last year, but right before it started, I suddenly got an idea for a new space opera style story, and started writing along with the other writers.  However, I didn't stick with it, so it's only 6000 words long, but I decided to throw it up on the site regardless.  Click here if you want to jump right to it!

I've also removed my previous NaNoWriMo attempt, The Elimination Virus, from the navigation bar above, and made it a part of my [Scraps] page for my NaNoWriMo attempts.  You can find both my 2022 and 2023 attempts there, and I will probably include any others I end up writing.

But that's basically it.  Just a minor thing.  I do plan on having a few more articles before the month is out, though I'm afraid they may end up crowding with the holidays.  Until then, stay safe and stay warm!

Wandering Through the Hyborean Age - Part 6: Conclusion

So, after 21 books (well, 22, if we want to count all the short stories from Swordsman that got mixed in my versions of the Lancer/Ace books), I think it's time to present my overall thoughts, like I promised.  I doubt my conclusions will be particularly profound or earth-shattering, as most of this material is the epitome of shallow genre fiction, for better or worse.  Still, as I have been poking through the catalog of stories published over the last 90s years, I have been writing up my thoughts regarding this franchise, which is why this article is so dang big.  Hopefully, you'll indulge me as I go over my thoughts on the various themes and qualities of the different authors I experienced.  Here we go!

Wandering Through the Hyborean Age - Reviewing Conan Books Part 5!

So much for finding something else to talk about!  As I got closer to the end, I found myself getting excited to complete my journey!  This final stretch has Howard's only Conan novel, the bizarre sequel by Nyberg, and the last adventures of our hero, wrapping up the Lancer/Ace books by de Camp and Carter.  While it remains stirring pulpy adventures throughout, these ones do show a few different sides to Conan that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Wandering Through the Hyborean Age - Reviewing Conan Books Part 4!

It's taken a while, but I've finally got another chunk of Conan books to discuss.  Things seem to be moving along pretty well as we get towards the end of Conan's renowned career.  However, the stories remain consistently inconsistent in quality.  I know that when you get to this much material, it's gonna be a mixed bag, but I think I'm getting used to it now.  In fact, let's start on a rather positive note!