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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Audrey Parker is an FBI agent who is sent after a wanted man and she tracks him down to the town of Haven. When part of the road gives way on the coast, she is rescued from her car by Nathan Wuornos, a detective in the police department and someone who is “troubled” (has a special ability) where he can’t feel pain, which as some upsides and downsides. Audrey quickly figures out that there’s a lot of “troubled” people in the town and she figures out that she can help them. Not only that, with being adopted, the two journalists in the small town show her a picture of someone who looks like her mother. She decides to use some of the vacation time that she’s saved up and spend some time in Haven, helping out the police department and see what she can find out about her mother, and that might be what Agent Howard, her superior, really wanted to happen.

That, by the way, is basically the synopsis of the first episode of a five season show and it doesn’t change massively as time goes on. The first couple of seasons are a bit more episodic, but eventually you start to get bigger story arcs as Audrey, Nathan, and Duke (who is introduced in episode one as well), keep having to solve the problems and deal with the troubles. And the troubles can get out there, there’s someone who basically put their soul into the work on their house and keeping their family safe that they took control over their own house and use the mirrors to see, which is pretty horrifying. Or there’s someone with whatever they touch in with their hands, it causes it to explode. Or time travel or mermen. There are so many, and it’s almost one per episode, though we do get to go back and visit. And while we get that, they spend more time building up Audrey Parker’s past and delve into the mystery surrounding her mother and an unexplained Colorado Kid mystery. In the end, I think that they tie it up quite well, though, it ends differently than I would have expected, but it ends smartly. They are given time to wrap up the mystery and complete the full story which is really nice.

Now for a downside of the show, I think that some of the special affects haven’t aged the best, and that’s kind of to be expected. While this show had a solid budget in terms of what they were able to pull of it was still early 2010’s and that’s going to look dated now. I just kind of expect that because some of the other shows I really like from the SyFy channel has the same issue, Eureka and Warehouse 13. Another thing is the early season storytelling, I think that they have a few arcs that are being set-up that would have had great long term potential, and then they rush through them in a couple of episodes. Some of that was the product of the time, and some of that was just poorer storytelling. The issue with the storytelling like that is that you feel like you lose the payoff, but in the early 2010’s, the larger story arcs were generally secondary.

Finally, as a downside and an upside, I want to talk about the acting in this show. I would say that the acting is okay for the show. I don’t think that it’s bad and I don’t think that it’s great. With Audrey, Nathan, and Duke, though, it ends up being good on screen chemistry, it just takes a bit to get there. The early episodes, in fact I’d say through a good chunk of season 1, the acting is quite rough. Now there are some characters, Vince and Dave, the journalist brothers, played by Richard Donat and John Dunsworth who are great from the start. Eventually the acting does get better and I think that’s mainly as the chemistry on screen gets better. Plus, it’s a show where Edge and Christian from the WWE are both in it, and Edge (Aaron Copeland) playing Dwight Hendrickson actually has a big role in the show and does really well with his acting. There are other professional wrestlers who have acted, but he’s one of the best that I’ve seen besides the ones who have gone to Hollywood, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena.

So, who is this show for? I think that’s a good question, I think that the supernatural element is going to keep some people a way as it dabbles in dimensions, time travel, ghosts, and so much more that would give away a lot of the plot if I continue down that route. I would say that it probably would make sense for fans of Supernatural but maybe aligns itself closer with Locke & Key in terms of feel. Also fans of Eureka and Warehouse 13, while it’s kind of in a different genre, it definitely has some similar feel to those shows.

Overall, I really like this show. I think it suffers a tiny bit from Stephen King syndrome where the ending is a little bit out there, but they build towards that well. There are also some story elements that are just dropped in an odd way, but overall, it’s good. And I think some shows like this, Supernatural, suffer from having the world ending event at the end of every season that needs to be stopped, Haven does a good job of building up the stakes for the seasons as time goes on.

Is this a show that you watched when it came out or one that interests you now? If you’ve seen it, did you enjoy it?

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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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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – Yup, I can now put MCU on a TV show list. And this isn’t even one of the show titles that I’m looking forward to all that much, But The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will be the first one out there, and I’m curious to see how important it will be for the MCU. Definitely keep on eye on my #10MinMarvel podcast (or ear) to hear any rumors about that. But I am curious to see Zemo used more fully than he was in Civil War.

Lord of the Rings – Controversial pick here, but I’m very interested in it. I don’t know what story they are going to tell and how it’s going to go, but an interesting story set in the world of Middle Earth could be interesting. I just don’t know enough about it, but I definitely am curious. More Hobbit adventures could be cool.

Obi-Wan Kenobi – Disney+ show as well, and again not much known about it. We know that we’re getting Ewan McGregor back, we know it takes place before Star Wars: A New Hope. I’m super curious about it after how much I’ve liked The Mandalorian. If it weren’t for that shows success, I don’t think I’d care that much, but now I’m excited for a new type of Star Wars, that I hope this can capture as well as the Mandalorian did.

Wheel of Time – This book series is so much, like so much of a meandering plot, so many characters, so much going on that doesn’t need to. But, I’m hoping a show will be able to adapt it into something even more enjoyable, because I do enjoy the book series. I like the diverse cast thus far, and I like the fact that I don’t know a ton of the names. If they keep close to the book plot wise, but just tighten it up, that would be great.

The Stand – Stephen King, Post Apocalyptic, I’m in. Now, I haven’t actually watched Under the Dome yet, but I’m definitely interested in anything that is Stephen King. And, since it’s him, it’s going to be supernatural in nature as well. Overall, I think that this is the one of the two Stephen King adaptations that I’m most interested in, because it’s more out there.

Locke & Key – Let’s go from Stephen King to Joe Hill. I haven’t read all of these trade paperbacks/comics yet, but I really want to. The first one was really cool and I definitely liked the horror vibe to it. I’ll be curious to see how they build it into a show, but I don’t know enough of the story to really be able to talk about how well I think they’ll be able to adapt it.

Alright, there are way more shows, and like I said, this is just new shows (some which might not come out in 2020), and I’m going to be busy watching all of these, plus shows that I want to continue watching. So, what are you looking forward to? Is there some something that you want to see adapted (cough Dresden Files cough) that should come to TV?

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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 – 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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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.

In this book, a bit of a spoiler coming up here, we get the story of Brenner and his experiments in 1969 to 1970. What we know about those from the show is that Eleven’s mother was part of those experiments back in the day. So we kind of guess that we are going to get that story and find out about the horrors of Brenner’s experiment, at least that is what the tagline tells us for the book. The tagline, if you are wonder, is “Before the demogorgon… before the mind player… terror wore a human face.”

The kids are the biggest draw to Stranger Things, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Eleven, and Will are all fun and flawed characters. They bicker, they fight, and then they make up because in the end, they are all friends. In Stranger Things: Suspicious Mind, we have four people, cool, same number as the main group, who meet at the experiment, okay, so not good friends, who them become friends, that sounds good, and never fight or disagree, wait, that’s not realistic, and are all some level of a Mary-Sue or Marty-Stu. By that, I mean these characters don’t make mistakes. They only make mistakes when it comes in how the show has actually dictated things will have to go. The heart of the characters has been ripped out in this book. There are two interesting characters who actually seem to have some development, and even with those characters, they are at times treated in ways that removes the character work that has been done to them.

We also lose the adventure feel that we get from Stranger Things, the show. Instead of getting characters trying to solve a mystery, we have our main Mary-Sue immediately be suspicious, I guess that makes sense given the title. They immediately figure out what they need, their plans keep on being thwarted, kind of, and I feel like that’s only because the Netflix series dictates that they are. If we go back to the tagline and the last part, “Terror has a human face”, this book doesn’t have suspense, let alone terror. This is a YA book, kind of, in that it really doesn’t know how to treat itself, so maybe it’s set-up as a book where it’s supposed to be suspenseful or have terror for a younger reader, but if they have seen Stranger Things, which I don’t know why they would be reading this book otherwise, this will seem like nothing. There is not a sense of satisfaction, like you get in the show, when the boys, or the teens, or the adults, eventually unravel something. Here, it just progresses as you’d expect.

Finally, the writer seems to think the most important thing in this book to make it feel like Stranger Things is Hawkins, Indiana. Or at least that is how it feels to me. That’s where the lab is, that is where Brenner is, that is where they go for the experiments. But we only really see the lab, and it could have been suspenseful if they had only been there and crazy things were happening to them, but instead, we get them going back and forth. The location is one of the least important things for making it feel Stranger Things like. The mystery, the adventure, and the friendships are what make Stranger Things, and this has the location and the bad guy and we’re expected to accept it as an entertaining book, like the show is entertaining.

One rant from me, I know I promised not to rant too much, but this one gets me. Stranger Things, the show, does a good job of sampling from a whole lot of 80’s movies, books, and TV series. You get the John Carpenter film feel, you get the Stephen King film and book nods, and so much more. But in the end, Stranger Things is it’s own show that does some of it’s own things and respectfully handles it’s nods to the materials it samples from. Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds feels like a straight up ripoff of Firestarter by Stephen King. This, of course is minus any of the suspense that King puts in, a good bad guy, like King has, and flawed characters, which King writes so well. If Stephen King wanted, I’m pretty sure that he could sue them for plagiarism with how closely this parallels what he’s written. Okay, it might not be that bad, but this feels like a sanitized version of Stephen King. If someone were to have gone through and picked out every part that could be slightly troubling or stressful in Firestarter, you’d probably still have a better book than Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds, but they would be close. And just with how it’s written, I’m not 100% sure the author knew they were ripping off Stephen King as much as they were. If they had known, it feels like they would have given a nod to it, instead of just writing something so straight forward. It feels like they knew what the show had wanted to create as a backstory for Eleven, and just went with it, not realizing that it referenced Firestarter.

Anyways, enough ranting. It’s fairly therapeutic to get that out, but I don’t want to be a website that rips on things all that often. However, I do want to give a fair view of when something is bad, that it is in fact bad so you know to avoid it. I don’t know who to blame for this book, because I really want to give the author the benefit of the doubt and put it on whatever publishing company got the license for Stranger Things novels. But, in all fairness I think there is plenty of blame to go around, and even I can probably be held to fault for thinking this might actually be an entertaining book. Books about shows tend to be pretty bad, and I should have known this. This book for me, and my recommendation for you, is a hard pass. It isn’t worth a buy, even cheap as an ebook, and it isn’t even worth checking out from a library. If you want something with the same feel, go with Firestarter, a book that I find entertaining, but isn’t even one of Stephen King’s best books.

Let me know what your thoughts are on the book if you’ve read it. Did you like it better than I did, did you know that it was ripping of Stephen King?

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1 Psych
Pretty easy choice for me, easier than some previous years, but Psych is just that perfect blend of parody/satire that I can really enjoy. The whole premise just works as well, someone who is hyper observant helps the police while pretending to be a psychic in a comedy format. The characters are also really good as well. They all grow and develop over time while not changing who they are as core characters.

2 Stranger Things
Creepy and classic, Stranger Things is probably a show that everyone knows about, but is so well done. It follows around different groups of people through the town of Hawkins as crazy things are going on in the town. It pulls from horror greats like Stephen King, John Carpenter, and others. It’s definitely my cup of tea as well because it takes place in the 80’s, and I’ve always just enjoyed that aesthetic.

3 Dark
While Stranger Things has that creepy classic horror vibe feel, Dark is actually just creepy and so well done. In the US it is on Netflix, and I’m not sure where it was released in it’s original German. I would say that you should watch it with sub-titles if you can because some line in English can be half as long or twice as long as it takes to say in German.  I’m always on the lookout for good Time Travel and Dark does an amazing job with it. It could be a tough show to watch for some people though because it is very thematic and deals with dark themes, as the name would imply. I’m waiting on the second season,  hard to believe it will be as good as the first, but one can hope.

4 Supernatural
This is a show that I’m not completely caught up, but the adventures and monsters that the Winchester brothers have to face off against just makes a good show. I like the horror aspects of it, the monster of the week, and the really campy nature of some seasons as well. I can’t say that I’ve loved every season of Supernatural, there have been so many and they can get a little bit repetitive, but they tend to do a good job of having enough unique episodes and evolving the show over time that it works well.  If you aren’t in for the campy or you aren’t in for the horror, the show might not be for you, because it does both at different points in times throughout the various seasons.

5 Stargate: SG1
This show almost made my list last year, and after watching the very first episode again after a long time, it reminded me of why I like it. There’s the nostalgia of it as it was the first big Sci-Fi epics that I watched. And then it goes all over the map, but they do a good job of creating an interesting story throughout most of the seasons, and there is a certain campiness that I enjoyed about it. While there are certainly better critically acclaimed Sci-Fi shows out there, SG1 is my favorites.

Another tough list to make and a lot of change. The biggest thing is that Doctor Who has fallen off of my list. There are just so many shows that putting down a list of 5 was hard to do.

Honorable Mentions:
Doctor Who
iZombie
Futurama
Eureka
The Librarians

What are some of your favorite shows? Are there any shows on the list that I have that you want to check out? Or do you have suggestions for shows that I might like based off of my top 5?