Michael G. Munz

The official website of Seattle sci-fi/fantasy author and geek Michael G. Munz

Audio-Play: “Finding Victor”

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Many years ago I entered one of the quarterly “24 Hour Short Story” contests at Writers-Weekly.com. Essentially, the idea was to write a story based off of a single first line, no longer than the given word limit (1,000 words in the case of that particular contest), within 24 hours. Now I am by no means a fast writer. It may or may not have taken me forty-five minutes just to write the last three sentences. But it sounded like fun, and 1,000 words was surely doable.

1000 Words

For example, as the saying goes, this picture alone is worth 1,000 words.
Not sure to whom, but an aphorism is an aphorism.

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Guest Geeks: Capital Gamer and Twofold Secret

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Guest GeeksHi everybody, and welcome to another Guest Geek post! Today we’ll delve back onto the gaming world with a Twitter friend of mine in Washington, D.C. (and A Shadow in the Flames fan) who answers to Kelly but is better known as Capital Gamer. She’ll take us into the indie game developer world with a look at Camp Keepalive, which seems to be a fantastic idea for a strategy game, AND an interview with one of the developers. While this is the first time I’ve heard of Camp Keepalive myself, I can vouch for Kelly’s taste in games. She enjoyed XCOM, and introduced me to an awesomely creative puzzle game on Steam called Machinarium. Her interviewee looks to have some pretty good taste himself, and you just can’t go wrong in strategy with Sid Meyer as an influence.
But enough of me wording-around! Time for me to turn it over to my guest…

Camp Keepalive and Q&A with Twofold Secret

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Book Review: Blood, Spirit, and Bone

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Blood, Spirit, and Bone

My rating: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5)

While I’ve always found vampires and their associated to be fascinating, with my fascination comes a picky, almost elitist view of how they should be: monstrous, dangerous, and—while they can and should have intelligence and character, the fact that they’re monsters should always lurk in the background. Also—and really, does this even need to be said?—NO SPARKLING. [Read more…]

Movie Review: Terminator: Genisys

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Terminator: Genisys

Warning: Movie may contain Time Lords.

Come with me if you want to see a better movie than Terminators 3 and 4!

Before I tell you exactly what I think of Terminator: Genisys, here’s my nutshell review of each movie in the series so far, so you know where I’m coming from:

Terminator
An excellent sci-fi action movie teasing just on the edge of horror, and a true sci-fi classic. My favorite of the series.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day
An even wilder action ride, with a little more emotional depth, and ground-breaking F/X, though as time passes, I find I prefer the artistry of the first movie just a little bit more. (It’s a shame the trailer spoiled the biggest twist for most people.) Also the first R-rated movie I saw without permission. Sorry, Mom & Dad.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Not without its charm, and I did like the twist at the end, but ultimately forgettable.

Terminator Salvation
A disappointing, pandering waste of a film that I saw once and can no longer even really remember beyond the fact that, no sir, I did not like it. [Read more…]

My First Norwescon (Panelist!) Experience

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Rather than having a Guest Geek post up this week, I figured I’d do something weird and be my own guest! (It’s complicated. There are lots of forms, and I needed to apply to USCIS for a visa… You wouldn’t believe the paperwork.) I know, it’s terribly unusual. Just bare with me. This is something I’d written with the idea to submit to another blog, but I decided I’d just put it up here and cut out the middleman!

As you may know, I’m a lifetime geek who’s lived in Seattle since autumn 1992. Between then and last January, there were twenty-two occurrences of Norwescon, the Pacific Northwest’s premiere sci-fi/fantasy convention, and I’m ashamed to say that I missed every single one of them. Either I hadn’t heard of it, or each year I was reminded of its existence either as it was happening or a few days afterward. It was like the final episode of Farscape: “Bad Timing.” [Read more…]

Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Titan’s Curse – Ch 14

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It's time to read the dam chapter.

It’s time to read the dam chapter.

A strangely-named mystery girl, goddesses in elevators, and the return of sea-cattle! That’s right, it’s the dam fourteenth chapter of Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Titan’s Curse, a.k.a…

I Have a Dam Problem

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Farscape Rewatch: “Losing Time”

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Farscape

“This plan is so bad, it HAS to be ours.”

Season 3, Episode 9:
“Losing Time”
***1/2 out of *****

 “I am bleeding and I have no wounds, so I’m either St. John of the Uncharted Territories, or there’s something very, very wrong with me!”

Having spent an entire episode with black-T-shirt Crichton aboard Talyn in the last episode, it’s time to swing back to Moya to spend entire ep with green-T-shirt Crichton! (Well, almost an entire episode, but we’ll get to that later.) I’d say this is a weird one, but this is Farscape, and they’re ALL weird ones, right? That’s why we love it! [Read more…]