So first you may be saying, “Film classic? Conan the Destroyer? Ha!”
Hear me out.
This isn’t going to be a glowing review of why Conan the Destroyer is the best movie ever made. Nor will it be a review trashing a movie that is maligned by most fans of fantasy cinema. It will be “balanced.” Meaning I will give both points and counterpoints to why I love/hate different aspects of this movie.
Come along with me on a journey. Not a journey to slay Dagoth, but a journey nonetheless.
Science fiction and fantasy feed my mind and soul the way that pancakes feed my belly. And, I crave them just as much if not more.
When something in these genres comes about that especially moves me (or, I believe will move me), I live tweet on Mythic Scribes about it. I knew Once Upon a Time would be my spiritual version of cinnistack pancakes from IHOP when I first saw the commercials for it with “from the writers of Lost” appended to the end.
Once Upon a Time was a very risky move. Fantasy and Science Fiction is a genre that rarely makes it on prime time television. For every series that makes it, there are many that don’t. For this reason, it’s hard to get a series in those genres even green lit. Add to that the fact that it’s an adult series about fairy tale characters, and things get even more challenging.
Many of us stood in line on a brisk November night, waiting to get our hands on the game that would enslave us to our PC’s and consoles for days to come. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim went on to be named the 2011 Game of the Year, and countless players lost themselves within this fantasy world.
While most players were swept away by the gameplay, the fantasy writer in me was constantly analyzing every aspect of Skyrim, from the storyline to the world and the creatures within it. Such is the nature of the fantasy enthusiast.
I also had very high expectations for this game, after being wowed by Oblivion for years. This is my view on what I saw, and what I would have liked to have seen, in the world of Skyrim.
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diane Wynne-Jones was one of the first fantasy books I read. I bought it at a book sale at school, and loved it right away. Since then, I have bought it a further two times, after previous versions got lost or were lent to someone and never returned.
Because Howl’s Moving Castle has always been one of my favourite books, and because I had enjoyed films such as Spirited Away and Kiki’s Delivery Service, I was understandably excited when I learned that Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli was making a film adaption.
I’ve been at the helm of the Twitter account (@MythicScribes) every Sunday to live tweet about True Blood (using the hash tag #TrueBlood, along with the show-specific hash tag if HBO specifies one). Generally speaking, I haven’t been very interested in erotic fantasy writing, movies or television. When my wife tuned to HBO for the premiere episode of True Blood, the unique opening sequence hooked me immediately. Alan Ball, series creator, opens the show every week with a snippet of the show’s bottom line: a very modern spin on the classic vamp themes of sex, religion and death. There is something very raw and symbolic about the music and images used, and it served its purpose (which can be viewed here). I had to watch.
This review is by Frank LaVoie.
I was around since the inception of Dreamworld, Book 1 in Brian Wood’s The Chronicles of Trayvian James.
I’d like to take some credit, but I can’t. I’d like to say that I gave him this idea, or offered an inspiration for that character, but I didn’t.
What I did do was serve as a backboard for high school basketball coach Wood to bounce ideas off of. It was a fun process, listening to him conjure his world and dribbling through ideas as he created one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, a humorous and intriguing Young Adult Fantasy that makes me jealous that his ideas weren’t my ideas first.
Since Mythic Scribes is going to be live tweeting during each episode of Game of Thrones, starting on April 17th at 9:00pm, I decided that I would read the book. At first, it was slow going. In fact, I was a little concerned that it wouldn’t keep my interest. After all, how can I tweet about something that bores me? The prologue was great because it had the mysterious mythology that always attracts me. However, after it I was starting to think that Game of Thrones was a soap opera in a fantasy setting. In full disclosure, I sometimes watch DVRed Days of Our Lives episodes while I eat supper with my wife. So, I have some domain expertise on the subject.
With this concern in the back of my head, I struggled on. However, as I went I struggled less and less. Eventually, I looked forward to opportunities to read it.
This review is by Megan Kayne.
The lights were dim. Chinese food had arrived. Friends had been told that unless there was an emergency of epic proportion to not bother calling me for the next week. Dragon Age 2: The Rise to Power had come out and I fully intended to dedicate my time to the game. I had already picked up my Signature copy during lunch and had downloaded all the extra content available to me, so that when I got off of work for the day – I would be ready to play without pause. The gentle hum of the Xbox increased my anticipation. I settled in for what would be one of the longest weeks of my gaming life. And Bioware didn’t fail to deliver another epic story.