End of 2022 - Book Review & Stats

 This year has been amazing to say the least in terms of reading. 

I've read 179 books with 43869 pages (average 245 per book). To compare my top three years were; were

2010 - 26978 pages (102 Books)
2021 - 25763 pages (92 books)

So what did I read and why only 245 pages in average. Well the vast majoriy was horror with 90 books, 24 Sci-Fi & 25 Fantasy in terms of Gene.

In terms of Black Library I've read 11 novels, 

So what were the ratings

1 Star - 17 

2 Stars - 25

3 Stars - 43

4 Stars - 59

5 Stars - 30

I currently Finish a couple of novels 

Fire Warrior By Simon Spurrier;  (Reread)
Harry Potter And the Prisoner of Azkaban - J K Rowling  (Reread)
The Elric Saga (Book1 ) - Michael Moorcock  (Reread)
Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien  (Reread)
Tide of Souls - Simon Bestwick

Probably Gonna finish this month all of the above

So what were my favorite/top ten (eleven)

1. Pan's Labyrinth by Guillerme Del Toro
2. Starving Zoe - C Derick Miller
3. Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets (Reread)
4. The Hunt for Vulkan - David Annadale
5. Servant of the Shard - R A Salvatore
6. The Far Empty - J Todd Scott
7. Remina - Junji Ito
8. Recursion - Blake Crouch
9. The Abuse of Ashley Collins - Jon Athan
10. Crossed (Several issues)
11. BlackWing - Ed Macdonald

Dissapointing Reads

1. Caitlin Kiernan - Tinfoil Dossier Series
2. Michael Scott Rohan - The Ice King
3. Shadow of the Vulture - Regina Garza Mitchell - Woke Stuff
4. They Built the Gallows for you and me - Cody Higgins
5. The Spirit - Thomas Page
6. John Hornor Jacobs - A Lush and Seeting Hell (both stories)
7. Crossed - Several issues

TBR January 2023

 So, I am going to start doing this on a monthly basis here. I made on youtube but I don't think that's worth it anymore.

I will be also try to make a weekly update on friday of my reading performance.

So as you know this year of 2023 I've got a lot of novels line up to read. Probably I won't be reading them all BUT will try. My main goal above everything else is start reading Horus Heresy novels.

I am going to add the above with the books I am going to read and cross-check them.

So let's start January with Horus Rising (416); Thanquol's Doom (408); Shadow Games (351); Resurrection Dreams (352); Beasts in Velvet (286); Grim Investigations - Dark Revelation + Investigator Origins (200); 

Continuing from December ; Fellowship of the Rings (275 pages)

Continuing from December ; Fire Warrior (300 pages)

That's around 2500 pages which would be awesome to read.  

Happy readings everyone.

Reading Objectives for 2023

First of all I am going to stop with the all pages per day. It's not that viable continue that and it's making me feeling bad. Like I didn't read those 50 or 100 pages per day and I got a bit pressure... So I am going to stop. I am going to try to read more gamebooks & boardgames so less books to read... But I do have a goal.

So let's go, 

My first and important goal is to read at least 12 bbooks under Horus Heresy Stuff

• Horus Rising
• The False Gods
• Galaxy in Flames
• Flight of the Eisenstein
• Fulgrim
• Descent of Angels
• Legion
• Battle for the  Abyss
• Mechanicum
• Tales of Heresy
• Fallen Angels
• A Thousand Sons

Then the second objective is to continue reading Stars Wars novels

•  Han Solo's Revenge
• Han Solo and the Lost Legacy
• Darth Plagueis
• Luke Skywalker and Shadows of Mindor
• Cloak of Deception
• Darth Maul Shadow Hunter
• Maul: LockDown
• Shadow Games
• Tales of the Bounty Hunters
• Shadows of the Empire
• Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon
• Rogue Planet

The above list may change... But that's my goal

Then is to continue/finish some series like;

• - Continuing Vampire Hunter D (at least 2 novels) - Book 9 & 10
• - Continuing Drizzt Novels Promise of the Witch King & Road of the Patriach
• - Continuing Richard Laymon 6 novels (once every two months)
• - Continuing Ender Saga with Children of the Mind
• - Continuing Black Jack - Dreadnaught
• - Continuing reading Aconyte novels set in Arkham Horror; Zombicide
• - Finishing Ed Macdonalds Ravencry & Crowfall
• - Finishing Poirot - 5 novels remaining
• - Finishing Beast Arise Series - 5 books remaining
• - Finishing Read Beasts of Velvet - Last book on the series
• - Finishing the last novel on Thanquol Series by CL Werner
  
• - Finishing Tomes of the Dead series (4 novels to go)

I can't leave without horror and the vast majority are solo stuff.

So a lot of stuff... I keep buying so some stuff I will fail, hope not. My really priority is starting the humogous task on Horus Heresy. With 54 novels plus novellas, short stories and Siege of Terra, there is stuff until 2030.

Oh and I am also continuging with several rereads like Harry Potter; Lord of the Rings, Elric & some warhammer/40k stuff. Let us see if the next year is good... I hope so...

TV Series & Movies of the Year of 2022

 I've watch a lot of movies this years, the vast majority horror. I always try new stuff. Sometimes I don't finish the movie if it's crap..

Best ones of 500 movies I've tried...

Deep Impact - 8.5 Stars - The 1998 story about a comet colliding with earth. The difference between this and the other released that year (Armageddon) is that this one is more focus on characters.

DeadTime Stories - 8.5 Stars - A babysitting uncle tells his nephew three horror stories about killer witches, Little Red Riding Hood and a werewolf, and "Goldi Lox" and the three bears.

Joker - 9 Stars - A mentally troubled stand-up comedian embarks on a downward spiral that leads to the creation of an iconic villain. Ye all know about this. It's controversial and it's awesome.

Suicide for Beginners - 9 Stars - This is full of comedy and horror elements. Writing the perfect suicide note is not easy.

Rocky - 9 Stars (1976) - Need I explain?

Waiting for the Barbarians - 9 Stars This one is a retelling of french army conquering of north africa. But it's a fantasy stuff. IT's collonialism. It could be a lot more. It could be expanded for greater scope.

A Writer's Odyssey - 9 Stars This is a Chinese movie that mix the "real" world with a fantastic world. It's cool and really innovative. IT's magic and the action scenes and Fx elements are awesome. 

Venciafrenia - 9 Stars 

This is a spanish horror movie set in Venezia with elements that really connected and made me really invested in. Since I recently was playing a boardgame set in Venenzia with zombies and this strange carnival twisted stuff I was really love it. Btw, the boardgame is Carnival Zombie.

Perfect Number - 10 Stars So this is a Korea mystery thriller. It's one of the most thought provoking stuff I've watch that really made me invested on the characters and the reason behind their action. Everything from the beginning to the end was thought.

Gran Torino - 10 Stars This was a movie that innitially I didnt think I would enjoy it but as the story progress I started being invested and by the end I was crying. Damn...

The Prince of Darkness - 10 Stars To me is one of the best John Carperter movies, well the best one I think, and one of the best 80/90 horror movies overall. It's awesome. It's about a group of scholar graduates who are trying to understand why some people are getting some strange visions and acting weird. They find something odd in a chapell and no matter what they do, science can't explain everything. It's really good.

Now about the TV series

Did you saw a lot of tvshows ? Yeah. Some were great, some were awful... Not going to talk about every one but let's go...

The first one I wanted to say is that one of the best was Red Sleeve a Korea time period stuff. Comedy & Drama. Made me cry a lot. Then I went to All of Us are Dead also a Korea show of zombies and survival. You got the usual suspect - Walking Dead. Finally it finish and it was a good show to be honest. Some woke elements but overall I enjoy it. Prison School from Japan is a good comedy, ecchi stuff. Really cool. Superman & Lois continues and I am enjoying the stuff. Orville is also interesting as always - always woke but wtf can I do. Stargirl & Avenue 5 & Chucky were good as previous seasons Not that woke, well chucky was and althought I wanted to learn more the all "they" character was laughable. Yes. Like a murderer is going to run at you and know you wanted to be treated as "they" LOL - unfortunately everything nowadays has some woke elements but they are beareable.

Most disappointing stuff was without a doubt BOYS. What a woke crap. Oh and Lucifer last season. h my god... How to destroy a TV Series.

Music Awards 2022 - FOR ME - Trha & Sadness

This year I found out that I am enjoying a lot one artist that have two bands. You don't know but I love music, black metal to be precise, since I was 15. I am now 42. I've heard everything and beyond. From pure black metal to COF and everything inbetween. At like 35 I started finding atmospheric black metal and my taste changed... And then last year I found Trha and his song Dolh from https://trha.bandcamp.com/album/lhum-jolhduc was my favorite music of the year having heard like a every night from one year... (not kidding)

I have Tinnitus and so at night I hear him to help me fell asleep - I kid you not. And then as he released more and more and heard everything but that music is till my favorite. Then I found Sadness and I knew there were some resembles but one day on metallum everything wen live and we knew it was the same person... So for reference;

Trha https://trha.bandcamp.com/

Sadness https://sadnessmusic.bandcamp.com/

He releases a lof cd's throughout this year and the last years and I bought them all. I don't have everything yet of Sadness but from Trha is instant-buy. I didn't even heard and it's I buy it.

And what is this?

Well this guy is a genious. No doubt about it. I am not saying that there aren't a couple of songs that ressonate with me - but almost everything do.

It picks me up, instead of making me feel sad. It gives me hope it gives me pleasure earing and since there are so many songs and styles it always felt a bit different. You've got emo screams, mix with black metal, with shoegaze, ambient , post rock ... If you hear per example

https://sadnessmusic.bandcamp.com/album/motionless-watching-you-2  is totally different from https://sadnessmusic.bandcamp.com/album/and-longing-are-the-endless-waves). If you didn't knew it could have been a different guy.

Is this level of eclectic stuff (is that a word?) that pulls me... 

TRHA in the other end the musics are more metal, noise, raw, screams and all in a language he invented and it's not like let me grab here some words and put a music. No, there are lyrics that goes two or three pages and even if most you don't know what they mean (he has shared some lyrics in english) you know there words are identyical from one place to another so it's this level. I Am not saying he is Tolkien. Tolkien worked with it, and study finish welsh and old stuff to make this language look phonetic and writing very similar. You can understand , not understadning that the words are an evolution and so on. Here is not that... At times I thought it was hungarian and probably he got references from several languages and mix match. Don't know...  But it's awesome to see this level of commitemend from someone who didn't stick with the easiest path and went beyond. He even created a youtube channel where he pronuciates some of the words. Very cool.

So my advise to you this year? From Sadness:

https://sadnessmusic.bandcamp.com/track/melancholie-und-die-hoffnung-des-horizonts This song is awesome and really interesting  journey of 21:20 minutes. Love it. It was written back in 2015 so he was what 17/18? Damn impressing.

From Trha ye got https://trha.bandcamp.com/track/s-trharhanlha or dolh

So perfect music... BUT To be honest choosing one song over dozen he wrote it's just awful. Start at the beginning and go down that rabbit hole. You will be amazed.

Next year I don't expect anything different...

Please continue to make great music.. I will keep buying. Wish I could have CD's to hear in my car.

Book Review: Terror Cell - Tim Curran

Year: 2016
Pages: 142
Reading Time: January 2022 (1 days)
Rating: 4 Stars

Tim Curran is one o my favorite horror writers. I've got 23 of his books, I missing 9 to complete all his publish books accordingly with fantasticfiction or wikipedia. Probably he has some more.

This one is a solo book published by Severed Press in 2018. One thing I can honestly say, a after reading 10 of his novels is that the latter books are worse than the older ones. all of my good ratings are books publish 2014 and before, only the Devil Next Door really stands in the last few years.

What is this novel about? Your guess is the same of mine. So you've got 3 police officers who are hailing a distress call in a mine and the eerie feeling starts just after a couple of pages. It made me read 70 pages in one go. I was really invested in Dew, Woody and Jerry. Then enter in chapter 7 Jay and Tanya - oh my god... the black chick and white (undercover supremacist) guy - basically you've got a black woman who his trying to get into his pants (not figurately (or is it)) trying to make him say he is a racist because he didn't enjoy Obama.

Let me say something - this argument is horrendous. If a guy is a idiot - he is a idiot - no matter his skin colour. So if I think a black guy is a idiot - I am not being racist - he is a idiot! oh well this back and forth about her and him was awful but he does something interesting here and I quote "Any time white people speak the truth they're racists and any time they stand up for their own cultural identity or take pride in who and what they are, minorities scream they are the KKK and nazis..." Pretty well said Tim Curran. I can applaud this.

So this isn't woke and maybe I have to step out from our nowadays events and this would be comic but Alas I cannot and therefore this is cringe to me..

Back to the review... in the story we go every chapter through a different character who is facing his worse fears (being that there is a real enemy down in the mines) and as we follow I expected more but nothing really happens and it ends in a chapter so rush that made me feel WTF? bah...

I cannot give this in good conscious higher than 4 - the Underdwelling is my least favourite and I have to say something: I believe Tim Curran writes better in longer fiction. Short fiction is hard to get people invested - unless you gonna go full scary or eerie ambience... I have more books from him and this hear I will read more

Book Review: Pandemonium - Warren Fahy

Year: 2014 
Pages: 448
Reading Time: January 2022 (8 days)
Rating: 7 Stars

I totally remember making part of a review but losing...

Well this is a sequel of Fragment. In the beginning of the year I wanted to finish some books I started reading this since it was a fast paced book.

Basically this book follows the previous one but it's not as good. In the first book deals with exploration of a new ecosystem that was isolated from ours own. Here, the island is gone but they saved some of the beings - intelligent ones.

The book is divided in two;

- How the beings are trying to integrate to their own reality and celebrity

- How some mad scientist from Russia created his own ecosystem and why he needs the help of our scientists and beings...

First of all, don't go to this book unless you read the previous one. You will feel completely lost.

I enjoy the history parts; I enjoy the debates and issues. I didn't enjoy the characters (scientists) at all. I didn't enjoy the little girl at all.

But if you read the first, and you want to know more about this hidden ecosystem - at least the read the first. It's quite good.

Book Review: Pan Labyrinth - Guillermo Del Toro

Year: 2019
Pages: 296
Reading Time: January 2022 (8 days)
Rating: 8.5 Stars

Dear All,

Read and love it. It's so good. It's a new fairy tale enveloped in real life drama of Spain Francoism era. I remember watching the movie, but it was back in the day - we are talking 15 years ago so I don't remember that much to be honest.

This movie/story try to teach us that not all wolves wear pelt and not all that seems is and people are really good at asking questions but not as answering.

Here we have Ofelia a little girl of 12 who is going to have a new dad (stepdad) as her mother is going to marry an army official. He is an army official for Franco (nationalist spain) while the good guys are republic rebels (as per usual - read stars - imperial bad - rebels good)

Apart from that cliche the story is perfect. It has small chapters that really help the story flow, then there several intermissions that tell a grand tale of Ofelia and her earthly parents and not so earthly.

I really love it all. It was dark and beautiful. Well written and simple. So many layers, so simple story - yeah it's confusing. Read the first chapter, either you love it and continue or not. I don't believe I've read a bad review.

And although it is a fairy tale it's a dark fairy tale. IT can be to kids BUT as adult, and father I believe the story resonates even more (you're talking at someone who saw the movie at 25 or 26 and now I am 41 and with a child. It's awesome.

Book Review: Kothar: Barbarian Swordsman - Gardner Francis Fox

Year: 1969 
Pages: 153
Reading Time: January 2022 (3 days)
Rating: 6 Stars

Kothar is not conan, it doesn't try to mimmick or subsittute. Is another hero, or anti-hero who likes to party with the girls.

The first novel really brought things together with Kothat, the demon queen and his cursed sword that makes him powerful BUT it has a setback - he cannot amass wealth. We never understand why or what would happened but that's the 70's for you.

After reading everything now, before I make this review I would say to you - don't come here UNLESS you already read dozens others and want to try something different.

Movie Review: Terrifier 2 (2022) October Horror Fest (30/31)

Terrifier 2 is a very good movie. I have not seen the previous one, if there is one and it was a good tale. Int his tale we follow two young teens who are dealing with their father's death in different ways. The boy is being obessesed with death relates stuff, killers and such and the girl is well coping very nice, tryting to make an armor (angel boobs out kind of armor) that her father designed - which will be relevant in the tale.

Meanwhile we have a creepy clown killing people the most disgusting way you cold every imagine - it's splatterpunk kind of of stuff. Not like Jason. We are talking killing and depravity and joy seldon seen.

Either way, I am not going ot give you spoilers but I really enjoy it. Nice way to end the month. If I have to be nitpicking and that's why I won't give it a 10 or 9 was the end. A bit of deux-ex machina and supernatural stuff.

Movie Review: #Unknown / The Retreat (2021) Among Others - October Horror Fest (29/31)

So this season I watch much more than 30 movies. some were just too bad that I didn't made anykind of reviews...

So lets's start with ToolBox Murders from 1979 it's a real life inspired movie about a man that went around killing people in the same area.. Besides the first death where we see a naked woman with a perfect body everything is just bad.

Note: the actress is MARCIEE DRAKE 

The second Entwined (2019) a greek mythology inspired movie that had some interesting theme but in the end failed to grip my attention. It's not bad - it's just meh, skipable.

 

Next is Hurt from 2018. If there was a movie that I couldn't get into and had to drop was this one. It's just bad from the writing to acting stuff. There is a reason why the movie has a rating of 3.7 on IMDB.

#Unknown (2021)  this is a pyschological, tripping journey of a writer who is writing novels but stuff is not at all what it seems. IT's a bit of dark half of stephen King. Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy or connect with movie or characters

The Retreat (2021) is a woke crap. Just leave it to that. Everything here made me cringe and hate the main characters. No I don't hate LGBT people. I Hate cringe people.

Movie Review: What is a Woman (2022) October Horror Fest (31/31)

 How is this not horror? What kind of deprativity is going on in USA that leads to this? Nobody can answer that in USA? Damn even my kid of 6 can. How are we letting kids deciding what to be when they are 10/11/12 or 13? I blame Hollywood and their sick agenda of making stuff that lead to confusion, everyone is gay nowdays. Where was the last movie you saw that two woman were just best friends forever without any sexual tension? 

Don't get me wrong, if you want to change sex go ahead - if you are adult. If we don't acnkowledge kids to vote until they 21, or drink , or even drive at 18 how can we allow them to change sex at 12/13 and give them stuff that can be harmful? Damn, this movie is depressing and horrible...

Movie Review: Echoes (2014) October Horror Fest 2022 (28/31)

 I don't know if I saw every horror movie that exist but I see the same plots over and over...

I've watched since 2015 around 1500 horror movies so I believe I have some knowledge although I am not a critic. ButI know what  see.

You've got this young female writer who is trying to get published. The publisher is her boyfriend (no conflict of interest there) but something is missing on her writer so he thinks of invite her to go to his glass house in the middle of the desert. Oh have I not told you? She has nightmares, some dreadful waking nightmares where she can't move... The ones I've seen over and over on movies..

But Ahah... it's not. After all there is a ghost that wants to enact revenge through her and there we go... Unfortunately there isn't anything really worth it. I would say it's oaky at best.