Pre-Order A Unique Sickness of Spirit! Also, Other News!

The Kindle copy of A Unique Sickness of Spirit, the third novel in The Citadel of the Last Gathering, will be released on October 6 and is now available for pre-order. As usual, we're not 100% sure when the paperback copy will be finalized. It all comes down to how the cover and map look in print and whether adjustments are needed.

Also, the first novel in the series, A Count of Five, will be free if you pick it up on the 1st or 2nd of September. If you haven't already gotten a copy for your Kindle, do so then and save a few bucks!

In other news, I wrote a pair of reviews over at The Middle Room that you might be interested in. First, I saw Kubo and the Two Strings, a beautiful movie I wish had focused a little more on tone. Nonetheless, it's absolutely stunning, and you should check it out on the big screen before it's too late.

If you have Amazon Prime, you may have heard you can watch the pilot for the new live-action spin on The Tick. If possible, I'd suggest doing so before reading my review (or anyone else's for that matter). It's nothing like I expected, but it's one of the most intriguing starts to a superhero show I've ever seen.

And speaking of streaming TV shows, I wrote up a few thoughts on the use of holiday tropes in Stranger Things for Mainlining Christmas. Lindsay and I both enjoyed the show quite a bit, though we felt like it leaned a tad too heavily on its references. If it had worked in an element or two that felt wholly original or uniquely realized, I think we'd have loved it. As it was, we just really liked it.

Updated Cover for A Count of Five

We're still putting the finishing touches on the cover for A Unique Sickness of Spirit. In the meantime, I thought I'd share an updated cover image for the first book in the series, A Count of Five. This won't alter the print version, but new copies of the digital will now feature this image.

In other news, we saw Pete's Dragon last weekend. It was a decent movie, but Disney made a serious error in releasing it so soon after the far superior Jungle Book. It's impossible not to look at this and be underwhelmed - the genres are similar, but they're just not in the same league. You can check out my review of Pete's Dragon here, and - because I'll take any excuse I can think of to link to my review of The Jungle Book - you can read about one of the year's best movies here.

Medieval Pony Squad Weekend

Not a lot to update this week, but I've got a few things. Lindsay and I had a nice weekend: we swung by the Midsummer Renaissance Faire in Bonney Lake, WA. While we were there, we caught a couple fun acts and bought some costume pieces. It was nice, though a tad smaller than the ren faires we're used to. Growing up on the East Coast spoiled us, I guess.

Pivoting from a faire to Walmart, we came across these figurines. Friendship is Magic is one of many animated series we both enjoy, and these might be the nicest collectibles I've seen from the show, at least at this price point.

I threw together a very brief review with some additional pictures over here, if you're interested.

Shifting gears to movies, we caught Suicide Squad on Sunday. While I can definitely appreciate why the vast majority of critics tore it apart, I had a much more favorable reaction. The movie's got flaws - major structural ones, in fact - but unlike its dour predecessor in the DC Expanded Universe, this one was actually fun. If you want more details on that, check out my review at The Middle Room.