5 – Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

This Douglas Adams work is just fun and while I love to get transported into big worlds, sometimes it’s nice to just get thrown into a small and silly world, which is kind of what Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is. Sure, it’s the whole galaxy, but we don’t need to know everything about it, so we don’t. This book is very absurd and silly with a lot of great British humor in it. Douglas Adams does a wonderful job of making all the humor work in my opinion and keep the story moving along as well, which isn’t something that can be said for a lot of comedy where it’ll stop and pause on a joke or an absurd moment.

4 – The Reckoners

Not the only Brandon Sanderson that you’ll see on the list, The Reckoners is a super power story, but everyone with super powers is bad. The main character wants to join a group known as The Reckoners in order to take down one of the villains in particular who had killed his father. Can he find the Reckoners, convince them to let him join and become part of their group? This is a young adult series, but really well written. I’m not always a big fan of bad super powered people, something like The Watchmen and The Boys don’t interest me that much as their current shows, but Brandon Sanderson weaves a really good story with that as a backdrop to it. I think that this story works well for both kids and adults as well, as I didn’t read it until I was out of college and I still really enjoyed it.

3 – IT

I like Stephen Kings work a lot. And IT is probably about the most iconic thing that he’s done. There are others, Carrie and Misery are two that come to mind that would be up there as well. But in terms of the one that I like the best, it is IT. One thing I love about Stephen King is that he does a wonderful job creating two types of characters. The first is the protagonists who have their flaws, they are good, but not perfect people by any mean, and sometimes have some very big flaws. And then he also creates amazing bad guys as well, obviously in IT there is Pennywise, but Henry as well is a great bad guy who doesn’t have redeeming qualities, while King’s good guys might be shades of grey, his bad guys are all bad. I also like that IT lands the ending pretty well. Sometimes Stephen King’s books just kind of fizzle out, but IT is strong through the whole of the book. Including the ending.

2 – Stormlight Archive

I have the newest book in this series just waiting for me to read it. Stormlight Archive is an epic fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson that just tells and weaves together such an interesting story. There are a lot of moving parts, but they come together really well. And like you’ve probably notices already, I like flawed characters, but I also like how this series has some characters that are paragons of good or honor. It doesn’t mean that they are perfect, but they hold themselves to such a standard that they strive to be. I also like that this book doesn’t shy away from being what it is, a truly massive and epic story. The audio books are 50 hours, and it feels like there’s no wasted space, unlike some epic fantasy series (cough cough Wheel of Time cough cough).

1 – Dresden Files

Such a great series, I talk about it all the time, but with the new books, it’s still the same. I do have a slight knock on the new books, it really feels like it should have been a single book, but it was getting too long for what would be considered a normal Dresden book length so it was split into two. The first of the two books is still great, but it feels almost like the first act for the second book. That said, I love Harry Dresden and the series and how Jim Butcher manages to create such an engaging world and characters with depth. I think he does a great job creating flawed characters who grow and change, and get new flaws over time, or sometimes who know they have a flaw and will still refuse to work on it it. Yes, these are pulpy summer reading books, but there is so much more going on than that as well.

Those are my Top 5, and writing about them really makes me want to dive into all of them again. Thankfully I have done Dresden Files book that I need to read still and the next book in the Stormlight Archive. And as always, I do have some honorable mentions.

Daughter of Smoke and Bones
Stardust
Harry Potter
Wheel of Time

What are some of your favorite books or series? What epic fantasy should I checkout next, I do need to get back to the Runelords series.

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10 – Good Omens

I like some humor in by books and this one has a good amount of it. Good Omens is the story of an Angel and a Demon who are working together because they don’t really want to see the apocalypse come around. Unfortunately, nothing is really working like they think it will and can you actually avoid the apocalypse? Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman do a great job with this story and it’s a fast and really enjoyable read.

9 – Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

More humor, this time even more absurd as Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy asks you the big questions in life as you fly around on a crazy space ship that just doesn’t quite do what you think it will. And you’d think that the universe would have some normal parts, but that’s very questionable. Douglas Adams is an author who’s writings I generally enjoy. The other Hitchhikers books are fun, though not as good. And Dirk Gentley’s Holistic Detective Agency is a new side of crazy. If you’re up for something completely absurd, anything by Adams is worth checking out.

8 – Daughter of Smoke and Bones

You’ll also see a fair amount of fantasy on the list, and Daughter of Smoke and Bones is the first one to kick it off. And it’s very different in terms of fantasy. It’s not your normal knights on horses riding off with the wizard to slay the dragon. No, this takes place partially in a modern world. The story is interestingly woven together, and while there are some stumbles in writing where it dumps backstory for too long, it’s very enjoyable. It also feels so different from standard fantasy. Laini Taylor does a good job on the story and a good job creating a world that feels unique.

7 – Swallows and Amazons

This is a series that I grew up on. We read through it multiple times growing up and it’s just a ton of fun. It’s a kids style adventure story, almost kids on bikes, but because that was really the common term for the genre. It follows three families of kids as they go exploring the lake country of England, camping under the stars, and having crazy adventures. Good wholesome fun for the whole family. Arthur Ransome really can tell a tale of adventure. Now, I will say that there is some from the times that shows up in the writing, considering they were published in the 1930’s and 1940’s, mainly in Missee Lee, and while that one is a fun romp, it is skippable in terms of the story as a whole.

6 – Stardust

Back to another story by Neil Gaiman, this one again leans into the comedy, but also a lot of fun world building. What happens when the normal world and a world of magic collide. Stardust is an absurd story of that. It has high stakes adventure, romance, and so much going on in the story. If you’re looking for something that is just a fun romp, Stardust is that, and you can blow through it quickly. Again, one that leans into that British absurdity in it’s humor like Good Omens and like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

5 – Harry Potter

I wish JK Rowling would just go away at this point in terms of her world. She’s ruining the world that she created by continually trying to fill in holes in her world and just in general, but I won’t get into that further, because the series itself is still enjoyable. Yes, there are massive plot holes, but for a series, it builds over time and they are almost always enjoyable. I like how the stories grow up with the characters, the first one is a pretty light and simple romp and story, but in the last one, they are dealing with much weightier things. I still recommend the series for kids who need something to read, and since I’ve read them a few times now, it’s something that I can breeze through quickly.

4 – The Reckoners

Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite authors. The man is a machine when it comes to turning about books, and while I like some of his epic fantasy stuff better, you’ll have to find out what it is, I love the Reckoners series. It’s a good young adult superhero book where it isn’t just your normal superheroes out there saving the world, the powers affect the heroes negatively so that if you have powers, you are a villain, and the Reckoners are a group of people who are taking down the worst of the worst, but you have to find out the weakness of those with super powers. Really well written, some heavier things to think about, and a ton of fun.

3 – It

Only Stephen King book on the list, though, I do enjoy a lot of his stuff, and I really need to read some of them again like Dreamcatcher. But It is a book that I can just read over and over again. He does a great job of creating the horror and the tension in the book while also having a kids on bikes adventure feel to it, almost like you get in Stranger Things. Pennywise is a great villain, and there’s a lot of depth to the story. It’s a big book, but it tells such a good tale that if you’re thinking about reading some horror or want to see what Stephen King is all about, I think that this one is a great starting point.

2 – Stormlight Archive

Second Brandon Sanderson series on the list, this is a massively epic fantasy series, I mean massive. The third book in the series, the audiobook for that is over fifty hours, it’s insane. But the story in it is amazing. Sanderson weaves together several different characters into a story about the end of the world, but also about how it could be saved. There are spren, creatures that embody everything, there are wind spren that you can see when it’s windy outside, light spren, dark spren, death spren(?), and more that people research, and it’s just a unique twist to the world. I feel like there are a lot of fantasy tropes, but also so many amazingly different things that make the series worth spending the time on.

1 – The Dresden Files

I really enjoy urban fantasy which Daughter of Smoke and Bones is in some ways, and Neverwhere, which just misses the list by Neil Gaiman, is as well. But the best urban fantasy that I’ve found has been The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. He weaves a masterfully grand tale and always world ending events that keep the stakes high, but without feeling silly like so many massive series can. Harry Dresden is just a well created character, you know he’s going to win, but it’s going to be hard along the way. Nothing ever comes to him easily, and that’s fine, and he’s never going to be a perfect character, he’s written well with flaws and that makes him seem such more real, as do all of the characters in the series. Definitely a big series, definitely an easier series to read, one to checkout if you’re having trouble finding good urban fantasy.

Now, I’ve mentioned a few other books that I like as well that almost made the list, Dirk Gentley’s Holistic Detective Agency is just out there and weird but really enjoyable. I have liked Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan is massive and enjoyable. Classics like Dune, Lord of the Rings, and Chronicles of Narnia all just miss the list as well. How about what, what are some of your favorite books? Have I sold you on checking out any of my favorites?

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Locke & Key follows a family who is moving back into the families home after tragedy has struck them. Rendell, their father, has passed away so Nina picks up and takes the kids from Seattle to Mattheson, Massachusetts. None of the kids, except the youngest, Bode, are excited to be there. But when Bode hears a voice in the well house talking back to him when he makes his voice echo, it’s clear that this isn’t a normal house. Soon Tyler and Kinsey are drawn into the crazy world that the house holds with many magical keys and Echo, the voice from the well who has gotten out. What does Echo want and why can’t their mother, Nina, remember anything about the keys?

Let me quickly give my thoughts on the show and then I’ll go into more depth. There might be some spoilers later on, but I’m going to try and keep them to a minimum. I really liked this show, even though it isn’t as dark and horrific as the first trade paperback, there’s definitely a very interesting and creepy story behind it. And that was enough for me, plus Joe Hill did the work on it to keep it in the spirit of the books, but not have to go fully dark. However, because of that it has much more of a YA feel to it, so if you’re a huge fan of the comics, know that before you jump in. There are a few things that stand out to me for the show.

The first thing is the acting. Most of the time, you have a cast that is mainly teen age (though teen in acting can be early 20’s) or kid actors, the acting will end up being suspect. However, in Locke & Key they do an amazing job. The actor who plays Bode, Jackson Robert Scott, does a great job. Bode is supposed to be a wide eyed 8-10 year old in the show, and you can really see that in the acting. He does a very good job of portraying an innocence and sincerity to his acting. And I won’t go into it a ton with the other actors, but the actors portraying Kinsey and Tyler, Emilia Jones and Connor Jessup respectively, do really good work as well. There are shifts in their acting as you get to see more of their character and as their characters change that are really well done. Even the adult acting is well done and it doesn’t just feel like so many YA stories where there’s a group of teens and no adults believe them and then the adults are wrong.

Another thing is that while this leans into horror tropes and supernatural elements that could seem cliche, it does a good job of keeping them different. When we were watching through it, it felt to Kristen and myself like several things we’ve seen or played before, Haven, Life is Strange, Oxenfree, and more, but it still felt unique. The element of the keys and how they work is really well done. And you can see where Joe Hill is borrowing form the work that his father has done before, but in a very respectful and well done way. I got numerous callbacks to IT in the show, and I appreciated that. It’s really that none of the tropes it used felt out of place or felt like they were forced in there because it’s horror or anything like that, it just flowed naturally.

Let’s talk a bit more about the story before I wrap up here. Like I said, the story is not going to be as heavily horror focused, which I’m fine with. While I love some good horror, there’s something whimsical about the keys that lends itself not just to horror but to this more fantastical element as well, and the show leans into that some more. As things unfold, there is definitely more horror and violence, but there’s also a sense of fantasy or magic to the story. Like I said previously as well, it doesn’t fall into the storytelling tropes of YA where the kids are smart and the adults are dumb and don’t believe the kids. It avoids some of that by a nifty plot device that they explain but also by just having the kids do their own thing. They use the grief of Rendell’s death and Nina’s reaction to it to drive some of why Kinsey and Tyler don’t bring as much to her as well, which I think is well done. And Bode is just too Bode to think about that.

So, I’ve said that I like the show, but would I recommend it to everyone? I’d lean towards no. It still has horror elements, so some people aren’t going to love that as much. Kristen actually stopped watching part ways through episode one because of some of the creepy stuff that was going on. But in the middle of the season, it hit more of that fantasy and whimsy, so I stopped and we rewatched it because I knew that she’d like it. So there’s definitely a piece where if people aren’t horror fans they’ll enjoy it as well, and like myself, Kristen and I are waiting for, hoping for, a second season to come out. Definitely an interesting show and if the trailer seems interesting, they do a good job and it’s worth checking out.

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5 – The Reckoners
The only YA (young adult) series on the list, and one of the two series by Brandon Sanderson. The Reckoners is a super power series, but done in an interesting way. Super powers became a thing, but they weren’t heroes, in fact, they were all villains. There is a team, called The Reckoners who are out there figuring out the weakness of bad guys and trying to take them down to basically free the normal people from being under the super powers thumbs. David, isn’t a Reckoner, but he desperately ones to become one. Is he going to be able to help them in a way to get into the group? It’s a well done series and while it’s a bit darker in how it handles super powers as compared to Marvel or DC, it doesn’t beat you down with bring dark.

4 – Stardust
The lightest book on the list in terms of tone, Stardust is just a fun romp through a wild and crazy fantasy world. I generally like Neil Gaiman’s works, but they can be pretty big and heavy, Stardust is a much smaller work, but tells an interesting and light story. The blend of the real world and this amazing fantasy and how they interact is interesting. There are a few lines that just crack me up when I read them in the book, and you really do feel the sense of adventure that is being created in the book. The movie, while different, is also not bad and keeps a similar tone to the book. If you want a lighter fantasy read, Stardust is a lot of fun.

3 – The Stormlight Archive
Another series, I kind of feel like I’m cheating by putting them on the list, but I feel like sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts, and if I were to talk about it separately, it wouldn’t fully tell the story. The Stormlight Archive is an epic fantasy story by Brandon Sanderson. You get prophecy, you get visions, intrigue, and so much more, but it’s all put together well. Sanderson is probably better known for Mistborn, but I like Stormlight Archive considerably better. The scale is just so big, but the story is well done, and the characters are flawed. You’re going to see this as a theme, characters who are flawed who feel more real, and in Stormlight Archive, you have heroes who do great things, but they are still flawed characters.

2 – IT
I love Stephen King. And IT is my favorite out of the books that he’s written. The structure of interweaving the kids and adults stories together works well. It’s an interesting horror story but also has an epic story as well. Pennywise is a great antagonist. I sometimes, also, have an issue with Stephen King’s work because he doesn’t always land the story as well as he could in the end, and I think in IT, you get a good complete story. Again, with complex characters who have flaws and because of those flaws you care about them more. Now, IT is a beast of a book to read and is definitely weird and disturbing, so it isn’t going to be for everyone, but if you are interested in trying horror, I highly recommend it

1 – The Dresden Files
I’ve talked about this series before, and I’m completely caught up series finally this year. Thus far, there are 15 books in the series, and it’s a ton of fun to see the series come together. The start of the series is a bit more of a stand alone, but when Jim Butcher hits his stride, the story is quite complex and well written. It’s a massive fantasy world with interesting characters and flawed characters, which I think really makes the series work. Harry Dresden is a good guy in general, but he has his flaws and you get to see the character grow in realization without fixing all of his problems. To me, that’s what I want in good story telling, good depth of character and characters who feel real. The series, since it is so long, does have a hiccup or two in the storytelling, but as a whole, it is telling a very interesting story.

Nothing new to this year, besides finishing off The Dresden Files this year, but let’s see in the honorable mentions?

The Wheel of Time
Harry Potter
Ascend Online
Lord of the Rings
Daughter of Smoke and Bones

Any books from my top reads that you love? Any that you’ve been wanting to check out? Let me know in the comments below.

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5 – Crawlers
So this actually is from the movie The Descent. It is a monster that you don’t know much about, but being the movie takes place in a cave and there are plenty of dark corners for the monster to hide in, it works so well. And, then if you watch the non-American ending, you find out even more about the monsters that possibly makes them even more terrifying. Yes, this movie has been out a while, but I don’t want to spoil it for you.

4 – Cloverfield Monster
I don’t know that it really has any name, but it is scary and the fact that it is having smaller monsters fall off of it is just creepy. It really is just a monster that is around to kill, but the fact we don’t know more about it than just that, it works well. There’s something about a large amount of unknown that makes it into a terrifying monster and something that is so hard to kill is also a good monster. And it isn’t like some horror movie villains where you think that you’ve killed them and then they aren’t dead, this monster just doesn’t go down.

3 – Dracula
Hard to go against one of the oldest monsters out there. Dracula is just terrifying because of how he can plan things out. For me, a good monster really is one that isn’t just that mindless killer that is going to chase you down, but can plot and plan and has an idea of how they want to take over. Dracula is very much that type of monster and very hard to kill as well. There have been so many different versions of vampires, but anything with Dracula in it tends to be a little bit more iconic.

2 – Freddy Krueger
Another one of my personal favorites, I really like the concept of Freddy Krueger and how he can get you in your dreams. While some of his movies are cheesy, the concept is very good. There’s just something so iconic about the sweater that Freddy wears and then the razors on his hands. Robert Englund does such as good job as Freddy as well and has consistently through so many movies.

1 – Pennywise
If people didn’t like clowns before, they definitely don’t like them after seeing the horrors of Pennywise the clown. He is the monster from my favorite Stephen King book and he’s shown up in two tellings of the story by Tim Curry and Bill Skarsgard. The Skarsgard version of Pennywise is definitely the creepiest version on a screen. And Pennywise in an inter-dimensional cosmic spider/clown being that knows your darkest fears and how to play upon them.

There are so many more good monsters out there. The Denarians from The Dresden Files are up there or then Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees are both good options as well. I wanted to do some more mindless monsters as well as some crazy out there monsters.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed the little bit of Halloween coverage that I’ve done, I plan on doing more against next year, and I’ll probably continue to talk about more horror things coming up here anyways, as Halloween just makes me want to watch horror films.

So what is your favorite monster that reminds you of Halloween?

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5 – Misery
This book would probably be near the top for some people, and I enjoyed it quite well. I felt like it’s a little bit too indulgent at points with Stephen King almost being the author character in the book. However, the book is creepy, and it does a good job with a classic horror trope of limiting the scope of the story. It’s been a while since I read it, so I don’t remember precisely how well it ends, but from what I remember, it has a more developed ending as compared to some of his other books. Definitely a classic of King’s and one that is referenced a lot. Also one of the few that has had a good movie adaptation done of it.

4 – Firestarter
Probably not one of Stephen King’s most horrific books, but I feel like it has a solid Halloween feel to it. A story about a girl with pyrokinetic powers is very interesting to think about, and then it adds in a government twist, that is done fairly well. But what makes this book fit into the Halloween theme is the one government agent, basically an assassin that creeps out everyone else. But with that, just the psychology of how he tries to get into the little girls head and how he tries to gain her trust, it’s written very well, and just has that nice creepy factor to it. This book is really where a lot of the feel of Stranger Things comes from as well, in my opinion. The movie version of this, while I have enjoyed it, is not amazing.

3 – Dreamcatcher
We’re in the classic Stephen King location of Maine, and things start to go weird on a hunting trip. This is a very odd book with some interesting choices for characters in it, but it’s a story that works well. It definitely has that vibe of not knowing if the characters are quite who they say they are and who is good. If I remember for this one, been a bit since reading it, it ends okay, though not as good as some of them, like Misery. But this is one of those books that you could say is part of a Stephen King-a-verse and ties into a number of his other books or takes place near them. It’s also a large book, so be aware of that while getting into it, but overall, it’s one that I really enjoyed.

2 – Under the Dome
This is not one of Stephen King’s older books, but one that people might know more because it had a TV show. What works extremely well in this book is that the good characters are morally grey, and the bad characters are very evil. Stephen King is generally very good at writing bad characters and sometimes struggles with his heroes when he tries to make them too good, thankfully, most of them are not great people, and in Under the Dome, that is certainly the case. The premise is also interesting with a dome that cuts a town off from the rest of the world physically. I like the villain of the piece, and I like how they wrap up that part of the story. I think that a fair amount of the rest of the ending is just a little bit too weird to really work well, and that’s saying something for King, but he doesn’t quite land it to match the tone of the story, but it makes sense in the Stephen King-a-verse.

1 – It
Probably no surprise that It is my number one Stephen King book. I have read It multiple times, and it holds up to each reading. Yes, the ending is a bit weird, but overall, it makes sense for a story that is a bit weird. The creepy factor is high in the book, and Pennywise is such an iconic monster. If someone wants to read horror, there isn’t a better spot to start than It in my opinion. How King winds the modern and the past together is interesting and works well. I’m excited when there is that super cut of the new It movies to see how they can intertwine the story together. Overall, this is just a classic bit of horror that I couldn’t not have at the top of my Stephen King list.

There is more Stephen King that I definitely need to read sometime. I haven’t read The Mist which is a classic of his as well, and things like The Dead Zone, which had a fairly long running TV show, that I should reread. And then there are some that I would consider duds like 11/22/63 which does some interesting things, but in the end feels like a book that doesn’t do much. Or something like From a Buick 8 which is just weird.

What is your favorite Stephen King story? Is there a book or a movie that you really love?

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5- Cabin the Woods
This one falls into a lots of the categories. The story is fairly surreal, but works well in my opinion, as you get your standard cast of horror heroes, but the world of horror seems like it’s a little bit different than normal. I think this film really shines if you’re a fan of horror, because the easter eggs that are dropped in this film come on thick and the story pulls in many a trope. This film also does have a fair amount of gore, so that’s one of those things to watch out for if that’s the part of horror films that you might not like.

4- Descent
Another scary movie, this one is definitely a horror film in the truest sense and my second favorite Neil Marshall film. Descent puts you in that claustrophobic mindset and then there are things in the dark that you don’t know what they truly are. There is an American ending, because the other one was deemed too scary or sad or something like that, don’t watch the American ending, there is much more depth in the other one. And it really raises the creepy factor. It’s a movie that I need to watch again as I really remember it fondly.

3- Nightmare on Elm Street
Here’s that campy movie that we were looking for. Though, it’s only campy because of the age of the film. Wes Craven’s horror series, Nightmare on Elm Street stands up pretty well, and it’s very much a classic. Freddy Krueger is a very good villain and the concept of how he can get you works really well. And there are plenty more cheesy sequels to watch to this film, if you want. Another one that I should watch again as it’s been a while, and I have the great looking box set.

2- Tucker & Dale vs Evil
Yes, even more campy movies, this is just a straight up spoof of horror films while keeping in basically every horror trope that you’d expect. It would be easy to say that this is more comedy than it is a scary movie, but it definitely fits into that Halloween vibe as you see tropes get played out repeatedly, just with a slight twist on them. This film is probably the best for the non-horror fans on the list because it leans more into comedy, there is some gore again, but that is done for comedy as well.

1- Dog Soldiers
Neil Marshall is back on the list, and for me, this is his best film. It has a great amount of suspense, you don’t have your incompetent group of teens in this film, but it still feels tense the whole time. Like Descent, this film limits where the characters can go, and that just adds to the tension by a long ways. It’s also a werewolf film, and normally I’ve found those to not be that scary and more in the area of camp, but this movie is scary, and it does it while not having a ton of special effects or big names in it. I’d highly recommend this film as one of the better Halloween scary movies out there.

There are so many more movies I could have put on this list, maybe I’ll do a larger horror movie list at some point in time. I watched the “classic” My Name is Bruce recently, there are movies like Repulsion and The Fearless Vampire Killers that are great. And there are many more that I need to check out as well, such as having the original IT on the self and IT Chapter 1 that I could and should watch this Halloween season.

What are some films that really scream Halloween to you? Do you even like scary movies?

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So, I decided, what are the Top 10 Demos that I want to check out at GenCon? Keeping in mind that Fantasy Flight hasn’t announced anything yet, and I know there will be more added and surprises that are showing up there.

Ten – Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl – A long title, but an interesting sounding game. You are going through and trying to collect secrets before you go into the sarcophagus of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The first person to succeed wins the game, but it’s possible for time to run out and everyone to lose the game. It seems like an interesting race against the clock.

Nine – Calico – For something complete different, this game is about cats and making quilts. It’s going to be more of a puzzle game, but the artwork looks very cute and the game just have a very satisfying look and seems like it would be a relaxing game to play. I think with it’s theme, if it’s a good game, it would be a good entry level game.

Eight – Deranged – To start, the artwork on this game looks very cool. It’s creepy and monstrous, but not gross. Second, this game has people turning into monsters, having to hunt down and kill the other players characters to turn back into a human themselves. It seems interesting, a modular board and variable player powers make me want to check out this game. I also like the weird horror theme that it has going on.

Seven – Arkeis – Arkeis seems like it’s a super natural adventure game, but instead of it being Lovecraftian, we get ancient Egypt and exploring a tomb. It looks to use the box as a game board and I’m assuming different games can be played in different configurations. But any game that has that adventure and exploration feel, it seems like a lot of fun, and it seems to be driven by storytelling, which is great.

Six – Nemesis – This one is already out, but it’s just for demo at GenCon. From Awaken Realms, Nemesis is an Aliens game, just without the IP for Aliens. You’re trying to navigate a ship back to Earth (or some planet), but everyone has their own secret objective, and did I mention, there are aliens on the ship that are most definitely trying to kill you.

Five – IT: Evil Below – I don’t know much of anything about this game. And it’s a game built upon an IP (intellectual property), which can be hit or miss, but I’m a big fan of Stephen King and It, so I want to check the game out and see if it can take any of the creep factor from the book and add it into the game.

Four – Mystery House – What makes Mystery House so interesting is that it uses it’s box to create a game board where you can’t see everything in it. So you’re going around blind searching for things, and it seems like it’s going to build up a good amount of suspense. There’s also a companion app for it, which I find interesting. It seems like a game that is going to have some wow factor on the table.

Three – Sleeping Gods – From Ryan Laukat and Red Raven Games, this game is in the line of his storybook games like Near and Far, and Above and Below. His artwork, as always, is amazing, and the idea of sailing around and completing missions, it seems interesting. It’s also a campaign game as you go through and explore the world. Definitely one that I want to see on the table.

Two – Iron Forest – This game is from the same company as Ice Cool and uses a lot of the same mechanisms as Ice Cool. But instead of a nice high school, it’s a board that goes up levels, with an elevator that you launch yourself from the first floor to the second floor and spots to drop back down. This game just seems like a lot of fun to see and demo.

One – Floor Plan – This is a roll and write game, but it looks interesting. It’s a game where you are building your floor plan (hence the name) for a house. Adding in bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, etc, but you have to make sure you’re putting in doors, and other features to score you more points.

I’ve mentioned Urban Fantasy before in some articles, but I wanted to delve deeper into it and provide some more examples beyond my normal one.

Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy in which the narrative has an urban setting.^[1][2] Works of urban fantasy are set primarily in the real world and contain aspects of fantasy, such as the discovery of earthbound mythological creatures, coexistence or conflict between humans and paranormal beings, and other changes to city life.^[3][4] A contemporary setting is not strictly necessary for a work of urban fantasy: works of the genre may also take place in futuristic and historical settings, actual or imagined.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_fantasy

I figure I can just drop in some Wikapedia knowledge to get the conversation going since they are going to define it basically the same way that I’m going to describe it. I would say that urban fantasy basically does always show up in a contemporary setting at least from what I’ve seen. But as they say it isn’t required, but it is extremely normal for it to show up in that contemporary setting.

The best way that I would describe it is that it takes a realistic setting, generally earth and our world, and then puts a twist on it. Whether it’s Fae creatures as in Grimm and The Dresden Files, to the weird London Below in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, there are large chunks of the normal world still there for the story. These twists on the world can be highly hidden such as in Neverwhere or sometimes very obvious as in The Dresden Files, though magic and monsters are still generally kept under wraps there as well.

What generally makes strong urban fantasy is the balance of normalcy with the absurd. You see the normal world happening around the characters and you often see the characters pining for or rushing headlong into the more magical aspect of the world. While I wouldn’t quality Harry Potter as Urban Fantasy since most of it takes place at Hogwarts, it does have some elements of urban fantasy, and Harry is someone who rushes headlong into the magical world because anything seems better than living in the space beneath the stairs. That compares to Grimm where Detective Nick Burkhardt is not all that excited to find out what else is going on in the world. It makes his job much harder and makes his life much crazier in ways that he doesn’t want. I think this really helps drive the home the humanity of the main character as you see the struggle. There is some Urban Fantasy, and Lost Girl is an example, where the main character, Bo, loses touch with her humanity seemingly as the series goes along. Now, a lot of that is just writing, but it hurts the show when the focus on that has been lost and it was stronger at the start of the show. They made some poor decisions in the show by trying to be edgy, but unfortunately the writing dropped off too much and the acting talent wasn’t up to snuff to pull it off.

When I think about it, I don’t think that there are many particular things that make urban fantasy strong that doesn’t make most other books, movies, and TV shows strong. It has to focus in on an interesting character with flaws and have an interesting plot to go along with it. Within that a good focus on the tension between the two worlds is generally one of the driving forces. Shows like Grimm and Supernatural, which isn’t pure urban fantasy, but is closely aligned to Urban fantasy, and book series like The Dresden Files, all the main characters are the gate keepers keeping the world of monsters and other scary things back and allowing humanity to live in blissful ignorance of what is actually going on. That tension, whether or not the main character is the gate keeper, is probably the thing that is most unique to urban fantasy as it’s the most consistent theme to it. However, it is certainly not a required part of urban fantasy or something that is only limited to urban fantasy.

So I’ve mentioned some of the examples of Urban Fantasy that I’m familiar with. There are certainly a whole lot more out there, and I’m always interested in finding more to read. So I’m going to ask for some suggestions and then give some suggestions of my own. If you have some that you’ve enjoyed, let me know.

The Dresden Files
My #1 recommendation. The books are very well done and Jim Butcher does a really good job of developing an interesting world with interesting monsters. The series starts off a bit rough as it was some of if not Jim Butcher’s first major writing experience. But besides that, it’s about Harry Dresden, a wizard PI in Chicago who is basically one of the only forces holding back hordes of darkness from not just consuming the city, but at times the world.

Grimm
I believe this show was met with mixed reviews, and I will say that there is some camp factor to the show and special effects. However, I liked the show. It is a bit monster of the week throughout a lot of it, but it does that well. The main character is interesting, and the creatures and building up of the world is quite interesting as well.

Neverwhere
Probably my first introduction to Urban Fantasy, though I might have read the first Dresden Files book before. Neverwhere is an interesting and crazy crafted world of the London Below. A normal human runs across a girl named Door whose life is in danger. After helping her, Richard Mayhew starts having changes in life, and he starts to disappear from the world. He finds out that he’s now moved from his normal life in London to being part of London Below.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
One that people might not think about as it’s moved on from being part of the collective view, but like Supernatural, it’s a modern show with monsters. The reason that I would say this is more urban fantasy, at least as how I would qualify it, is that Buffy takes place in a single town of Sunnydale that just happens to be sitting on a hellmouth. It’s a classic show and one that does have a bad season or two in there, but is mostly very strong.

Just to do some more quick hits based off of what other places are calling Urban Fantasy that I’ve enjoyed:
Warehouse 13
Supernatural
Reaper
Stranger Things
The Librarians
All fun TV shows

Big Trouble in Little China
From Dusk Til Dawn
The Last Witch Hunter
The Librarian
Underworld
All solid movie choices, though a lot of them B-movies.

Little Witch Academia
Blood Blockade Battlefront
Ghost Hunt
Those are some anime options.

American Gods
Harry Potter
IT
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Last two I would say are urban fantasy adjacent books. But I recommend all of these books.

So you can see that I’ve watched a lot, but what are some other recommendations especially in books and anime?

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1 The Dresden Files
I don’t think that this will be a surprise for anyone, but I really love this series. Jim Butcher does a really good job creating an interesting urban fantasy world that has some of that classic pulp feel to it while having very interesting villains and characters. The series starts a little slow, but as there is more focus to it, Harry Dresden’s world really takes off.

2 IT
I really like Stephen King and by far his standout work for me is It. I think that I’ve probably read the book a handful of times or more now. The story is just compelling and the interweaving of the past with the present to fill in the readers knowledge of what is going on works very well. I also like the fact that this book doesn’t fall flat at the end like some of his other books can do. The horror aspect is strong with this book, and Pennywise is a great villain and a valid reason for people to hate clowns.

3 The Reckoners
A series that I’ve talked about some and a game that I’m really excited to play, the Reckoners is a nice different twist on those with super powers. The Epics as the super powered are known in this series are all evil. And the Reckoners are a group of normal people who are trying to to bring some normalcy back to the world and take down the Epics who rule it. It’s a YA series and there’s a bit of it that’s not amazing at a few points in time, but overall, the series is really well done, and it’s just a good super power twist series by Brandon Sanderson.

4 Harry Potter
I’m done with JK Rowling in a lot of ways, she just needs to take her hands off  the stranglehold she has on this world, but I really like the series still. There’s something nostalgic about them for me, though I am older than the average who has those feelings about them, seeing as I read them in college. There is just something so magical about the world that allows you to overlook some pretty obvious flaws with it. The story just stands up well, and while the movies might not, the first movie is rough, I will always enjoy going back to the books.

5 Stormlight Archive
More Brandon Sanderson for the list. This series is epic fantasy at it’s best. The leader who didn’t want to be the leader now has to save the people. The slave rising up to save the day, and so many more classic tropes put together, but it feels new and unique and so huge. I mean, the books literally are massive, and the audio books are great because they are 45+ hours long, so you have a good amount of listening time to them. This is the epic fantasy that I’m always hoping to find.

Of course, I’m going to do some honorable mentions as well. My goal will be to the finish off a top 10 with them, like I did with the board games. In no particular order, my honorable mentions:

Lord of the Rings
The Hunger Games
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Good Omens
Swallows and Amazons

What are your favorite book series?