Author Archives: H.P.

About H.P.

Blogs on books at Every Day Should Be Tuesday (speculative fiction) and Hillbilly Highways (country noir and nonfiction). https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/ https://hillbillyhighways.wordpress.com/

Honor Among Thieves is a Dungeons and Dragons Movie that Remembers Fantasy is Supposed to be Fun

Posted on April 5, 2023 by H.P.

The worst consequence of Game of Thrones’ success is that it wrongly taught movie and TV writers and execs that fantasy should be dour. If that wasn’t your bag, or if you just got worn out on all the doom … Continue reading →

Posted in Fantasy, Sundry | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Fourth Quarter 2022 Quarter-and-Year-in-Review

Posted on January 3, 2023 by H.P.

I will say this about 2022: it was a great year for everything but reading and blogging. The dominant event there was the birth of our son, but otherwise it was a very busy, very fulfilling year filled with work … Continue reading →

Posted in Sundry | Tagged | 6 Comments

300 and Its Sequel Rise of an Empire Reflect the Respective Virtues of Sparta and Athens

Posted on December 20, 2022 by H.P.

The best thing about finally watching 300: Rise of an Empire after noticing it on HBO Max was that it spurred me to rewatch 300. That sounds like damning with faint praise and it kind of is. Rise of an … Continue reading →

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Rings of Power Redux

Posted on October 20, 2022 by H.P.

I finished season one of Amazon’s The Rings of Power show adapting material from the appendices to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.[1] I also did two other things since my last post on the show that affect how … Continue reading →

Posted in Fantasy, Sundry, Throwback SF | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Third Quarter 2022 Quarter-in-Review

Posted on October 4, 2022 by H.P.

The summer’s swelter retreats as cool fog and brisk mornings creep in.  Soon the leaves will begin to change and yards fill with skeletons.  Weekends have come to be dominated by football.  It is fall, the very best season of … Continue reading →

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Review of Against All Gods by Miles Cameron

Posted on September 30, 2022 by H.P.

Miles Cameron’s epic fantasy is an auto-buy for me at this point (I am still working my way around to his historical fiction and science fiction).  His Traitor Son Cycle and Masters & Mages series are two of my favorite … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Recap and Review of the First Two Episodes of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Posted on September 6, 2022 by H.P.

Did I watch the first two episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime (Rings of Power from here on out) on Thursday evening as soon as they dropped?  Well, I tried.  I didn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Fantasy, Sundry | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Second Quarter 2022 Quarter-in-Review

Posted on July 5, 2022 by H.P.

It was a hectic quarter, even if thinks have started settling down as the baby transitions from newborn baby to just baby.  The big wrench in my plans here was my wife and I both finishing leave but only having … Continue reading →

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Daughter of Redwinter is Too Generic to Get Over the Hump from Good to Great

Posted on June 30, 2022 by H.P.

Another week, another new series from one of my favorite new writers of the last decade.  Last week it was Brian McClellan with In the Shadow of Lightning, this week it is Ed McDonald with Daughter of Redwinter.  McDonald’s Raven’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Brian McClellan has done it again with In the Shadow of Lightning

Posted on June 21, 2022 by H.P.

Brian McClellan’s opening salvo in his latest series, In the Shadow of Lightning, didn’t immediately grab me.  The opening scenes, which take place some nine years before the events in the bulk of the novel and setup Demir’s character arc, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , , | 3 Comments