Posted on by Alexander Case

Book Review: The Vinyl Detective – Victory Disc

With the past two installments of the Vinyl Detective series, we’ve had an exploration of vinyl collecting along with the Jazz music industry of the 1930s-50s, and a focus on collecting singles combined with an exploration of the psychedelic rock scene of the 1960s-70s in the UK. This basically leaves one last major type of record album to cover – 78 rpm shellac records, and wartime jazz music. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Legends of the Force: Part XXI – The Crystal Star

We now com to what is quite possibly the worst Star Wars novel to date.

The Crystal Star is available from Amazon.com in Print and Kindle editions. Buying anything through those links helps support the show.

Opening Credits: Star Wars Theme from Super Star Wars on the SNES.
Closing Credits: Chiptune Cantina Band from Chiptune Inc. – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvJtiGFudFlvYMfjiU1NKJg

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Book (Vlog) Review: The Crystal Shard

This time I’m taking a look at the first published Drizzt Do’Urden novel, and the second Forgotten Realms novel.

Referral Links
Print – https://amzn.to/2uIaeh7
Omnibus – https://amzn.to/2GtQ9Ra
Kindle – https://amzn.to/2GR6u1v
Audiobook – https://amzn.to/2GumhnL

Please support my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor
Buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/countzero
Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/
Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/

Posted on by Alexander Case

Book Review: The Brothers’ War

Magic: The Gathering, of all the TCGs that I have played, has held on to me more than any other game – more than WWE Raw Deal, the Star Wars CCG, the Star Trek CCG, and even Weiss Schwarz. The reason for that, more than the raw play of the game and the people I was playing with, was the world of the game, the lore of the game and how it was conveyed. While cards would certainly have a degree of humor to them, the game always took the world somewhat seriously. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Book Review: Dungeon Hacks

Procedural content, permadeath, and extremely punishing difficulty has become more and more of a thing in game design. So, that fact, combined by my affinity for the history of technology from a social, technological, and scientific perspective, lead me to this book about the history of roguelikes. It makes for a good portrait of the development of four games, and getting briefly into some of the ways roguelikes have spread into wider gaming culture, though what could be a good look at the larger gaming picture is sadly limited. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Book Review: The Crystal Shard

Title of the Crystal Shard, from the cover of the first edition.

More than Darkwalker on Moonshae – which I need to get around reviewing at some point – The Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore is very much the introductory jumping on point for fiction within the Forgotten Realms campaign setting – and the introduction of possibly the most infamous character in fantasy fiction – Drizzt Do’Urden. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Book Review: Log Horizon – Books 3 & 4

When I last left the Log Horizon series, they’d gone into a political and economic thriller, as Shirou started forming the Akiba Round table with members of all the major guilds, before driving a bunch of the bad actors out of Akihabara through the unified powers of cash and good food. However, the series had also set up a new concept – that the People of the Land – the former NPCs are now fully sentient. Books 3 and 4, with the collective subtitle of “Game’s End,” get into the ramifications of that, along with what’s been going on while Akiba was getting its act together. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Book Review: Record of Lodoss War – The Grey Witch (Video Review)

At long last, the first Record of Lodoss War novel has received an officially licensed US release. I’ve read it, and here are my thoughts, and some notes on the differences between the two releases.

The Grey Witch is available from Amazon.com and RightStuf. Picking up the book through those links helps the site.

Please support my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor
Buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/countzero
Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/
Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/

Posted on by Alexander Case

Book Review: Legend of the Galactic Heroes – Book 5 – Mobilization

It’s the battle we’ve all been waiting for.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes Book 5 is available from – Amazon.com (Paperback, Kindle) and RightStuf.com

Any purchases you make through those links helps support the show.

Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor
Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/
Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/

Posted on by Alexander Case

Book Review: Record of Lodoss War – The Grey Witch

A few years ago I did a video review of the original OVA for Record of Lodoss War. At that time, the OVA was out of print, as was (and still is, sadly) the manga adaptation of the novels. Since then, Funimation (not the company I expected to do it) license rescued all of the anime, and now Seven Seas has done something I never expected to happen – they licensed the first novel, and gave it a fantastic edition in 2017. I got it for myself for Christmas, and finally was able to read it in February. Read more