C. J. Daley

As soon as I saw this was available, I immediately grabbed a copy and started reading it. Christmas horror is 100% my style this year.

This was a lot darker than I expected from the blurb to be honest. I expected a fast paced home invasion story, and instead I got a ghost story featuring kidnapping, infatuation, absolute control, and conditional love. Mam is not like other mothers. Angelina is constantly watching out so as not to upset her, because at best, she’ll be berated, and at worst…well she doesn’t want to know.

This really broke down and showed the different ways a parent can be over the top controlling. One of my WIP actually features the same type of control, and this was done well enough that I was definitely taking notes. The conditional love was so strongly written and revolting that it made my stomach turn just reading through it.

This was definitely a very Christmasy story, and just about as dark as you can go. Personally a 4/5* for me.

The Autobiography of Santa Claus as told to: Jeff Guinn. Guinn is known as a great biographer, and as this actually reads like it's a real biography, I'll give him that. However if this was really at all enjoyable, than I would have had it finished before Christmas. This dragged. It spent an unbelievable amount of time in the “pre-Santa” timeframe and it cuts out right when it's getting good. I think I've always personally looked at Santa Claus as an aside to Christianity, or like Christmas' capitalism cousin. But this biography really doubles down on Santa, or “Saint Nicholas” really really being tied to Christ. Which is fine really, that's not what I disliked overall anyway. But what I find the most disturbing here is the gross misrepresentation of world history. Whereas Santa Claus is mostly known as mystical or magical and therefore whimsical and silly, this is written as a TRUE story and biographical piece and therefore it is truly adult. Therefore, I cannot forgive the way history is told. Instead of elves, Santa recruits real people. These people are hardly ever nobodies and the book just reads like a weird, and stupid name-drop piece. Not to mention his choices aren't even saintly people or good people? One of them is Attila the Hun?? Also at one point the good Christian St. Nick calls Charlemagne a “good and just leader” and didn't he drown hundreds of thousands of people for not converting? The onus is not on you Santa to support Christians who are bad... To me it just read as a really weird, misleading story rather than an uplifting and whimsical one. Which is honestly, all Santa Claus ought to be. 

Personally, I did not like this, and the closest I've been to a DNF in a long time. 

The Rise of the Empire is honestly a great deal for the price. Keep in mind though that it's around the size of a comic book volume (a big paperback) and 700 pages long.


Mercy Mission short: 4An entertaining story and not at all a bad introduction to Hera leading into A New Dawn. Tarkin: 4
As opposed to some people I've seen, I am a huge fan of the detail and stylized writing of James Luceno. His stories are some of my favorite in the universe. I love seeing the ideas and experiences behind the mind that led to Tarkin becoming the Grand Moff.


Bottleneck short: 5The idea of having Tarkin and Vidian face off was a great one. This could have been flushed out into an even longer story and I would have been on board. However, it still did itself justice as a short. The twist with the poisoning at the end is just another reason why Tarkin is the mastermind. Another tidbit of information on Rae Sloane before her official first appearance in A New Dawn as well. A New Dawn: 4
Not my favorite novel as I had read it prior to seeing anything about rebels. Even though it's a prequel to rebels I just didn't have any connection or reference to those characters. With that being said, it's a pretty enjoyable first team up for Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla. An even deeper extension to the Bottleneck short would be how imposing and honestly creepy Count Vidian is. He was a great creation for an antagonist. As always for me, especially with this being the first official appearance, Rae Sloane is continuously badass.


The Levers of Power short: 5*
Now ADMIRAL Rae Sloane leading her ISD during the battle of Endor. I love seeing the amount of stories that can be pieced together just from things already seen in the universe. Also the reference to the B-Wing fighters from the Blade Squadron shorts? what a nice little reference. The ending with her shooting the officer and preparing for what will come in Aftermath? what a badass, again.


The end of this compilation also includes excerpts from: Battlefront: Twilight Company and SW Aftermath, just another reason why this is totally worth the price. If you haven't read these novels or short stories (I couldn't find these three online) it's honestly unbeatable.

I had gone through the authors books some time ago and added Nightflyers and Other Stories to my wishlist without even reading the bio. I then recently saw someone review it on Readerly under this Illustrated edition and had to grab it. A true scifi horror? And by Martin no less? Hot damn. 
For me this stands out as something that would immediately be linked to Event Horizon, but also this year's Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes as well. I found multiple articles asking if Nightflyers (due to the latest adaption) was based on EH entirely. Which struck me as super odd because no one pointed out that NF actually predates it. Apparently EH is based on an older movie that's based on an even older novel, but is uncredited. Dead Silence is kind of a spiritual retelling of both in a way. Regardless, Martin's ran so these other two had to walk, sadly. 
D'Branin and his team have hired the Nightflyer to take them after an elusive (and heavily debated) alien race. The ship is almost fully autonomous, being controlled by only a single man. Yet he refuses to show himself. Is he a ghost? An AI computer? Something even more dangerous and nefarious? And when things go wrong, just because he's the easiest to blame, is he the villain? 
This was atmospheric, engaging, creepy and overall a blast. Claustrophobic and evil, you can feel the cabin fever growing. 
Personally a 5/5* for me, can't believe I've never read before. David Palumbo's art is amazing and so worth it. Lots of use of the word ‘sexed'.

I have read more than one Dickens' novel and liked those much more so than this. I have also read many other novels of the period and had better or similar luck. However, I found this so longwinded as to not be the slightest bit enjoyable. At points the dialogue was so long and drab that I genuinely forgot who was speaking it in the first place. I didn't particularly enjoy these characters and I felt that I had to fight to absorb every single word. This sounds overly harsh, but as I've said, I have liked other works of his much more...

The audio I chose was also not an A-grade caliber unfortunately and that did not help.