Lord, what have they done to poor Freddy Krueger? A reboot of this particular franchise had roughly unlimited potential. No more would they need to rely on self-referential humor and sight gags. It could finally be a gritty and disturbing jaunt into the human psyche, or at least a slasher leagues more engaging than Saw and its ilk. The choice of Jackie Earle Haley couldn’t have been more perfect for the role. Film and special effect techniques have never been more advanced! With permission to redefine the character as necessary, what else could they have possibly needed? They had every advantage possible!

Read: part 1, and part 2.

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" ‘Fight the good fight,’ he said," mumbled Ben, almost incoherently, to nobody in particular.

The silence became a living thing. Everyone knew about the Chicago explosion. By then, everyone in the bar stared at Ben in complete shock, not even breathing to disrupt his narrative.

I read a lot, but even good authors get caught in the deluge of published novels, and nobody can really keep up, so I depend on recommendations. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi was one of those books I’ve never heard of, yet nonetheless maintained critical acclaim in the SciFi community.

Am I done with David Weber’s Honor Harrington series yet? Sadly, no. After finishing In Enemy Hands, I still have many more to go, but it’s not a struggle I dread.

Fittingly, this particular installment is more about Haven than Honor or Manticore. The first half of the book is almost purely setup, and considering the title, it’s not exactly a surprise that our heroine is eventually captured. But that’s fine in this context, because Haven has historically received the short end of the stick. Haven’s society is a precarious testament to unchecked power, the potency of directed propaganda, and delusions of grandeur. Weber paints a portrait of a society on the verge of another revolution, desperately scrabbling for scraps to maintain a war now required for public opinion.

Erin lasted longer than he expected. Two weeks he’d traveled through towns picking up supplies and killin’ every damn zombie he saw. But Erin knew he’d never make any genuine progress that way, so he left the back-roads for good. He followed the tributary streets into highways and finally the interstates, heading to the biggest mall he could find, knowing the zombies would congregate there to feed.