....I have been mainly listening to...

I do some early morning and delivery shifts at work. Not only are they the best part of the job as I get to work alone and be self motivated, but I can also listen to podcasts whilst I work. Here are my favourite podcasts of the moment...

 



 The H.P.Lovecraft Literary Podcast - My all time favourite. Chad and Chris talk about horror, weird and supernatural fiction... they started out working their way through all of H.P.Lovecraft's stories... and they've moved on to cover other authors over the years - some classic tales, and some pretty obscure ones, all with a constant professionalism and great sense of humour. They have one free episode per month, and to hear the other content you have to subscribe (It's $6.66 per month) which is pretty cheap really... it's the only podcast I subscribe to. It's great.

The Cromcast - Another literary podcast, this time focusing mainly on the works of Robert.E.Howard... they're on their 5th season now. They started off going through the Conan stories, then his other stuff like Solomon Kane, Kull and other adventure stories... currently they're talking about some of his boxing tales - which I'm not so much interested in, but the presenters are very engaging, and it is a very enjoyable listen. The three presenters have a fun but thoughtful style - occasionally they have guests on who are very knowledgeable - but a bit dry and rambling... (I'm not so keen on those bits).The three dudes from the cromcast have also got a spin off series going on called "Bourbon and Barbarians" - which is them getting drunk and playing some basic version of Dungeons and Dragons - It's good fun!

Blurry Photos - Is a podcast about weird "real life" or Fortean type stuff. They pick a different subject for every episode... The two Dave's who present the show have a very irreverent boisterous style - I think they must both come from some theatre/stand up background - they're constantly doing funny voices or bursting into song... but once they get into talking about a subject, they cover it passionately and in depth, and always with sensitivity if called for - they've got a huge library of episodes I've been steadily working my way through.


The Dice Tower Podcast - Is a weekly podcast about boardgames and cardgames. Presented by Tom and Eric... they talk about games they've played recently, have top tens of various themes of games and discuss anything you can think of to do with tabletop gaming. The episodes are quite short, but very enjoyable and professional.

The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast is a fortnightly podcast about boardgames, miniature games, cardgames and occasionally Role playing games. These episodes are usually 2 - 3 hours long. There are 5 presenters, all opinionated and with their own styles. They cover all aspects of tabletop gaming in depth. This for me is by far the best podcast about this subject. I look forward to listening to every episode - I can't get enough of it! I think Tony's news section is probably the best bit - but I enjoy all the discussions they have. Very informative, thought provoking and fun!

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff... Ken Hite and Robin Laws design roleplaying games, mainly with horror themes... this is their podcast where they talk about anything that is of interest to them... some of it is roleplaying related - but they talk about all manner of other things, from films, to food, to weird history and folklore...

Shut Up & Sit Down - is another podcast about tabletop gaming. The previous two I mentioned above are American shows. This is a UK show, and I guess is slightly more relatable with occasional references to British culture. They have a fondness for social deduction games which I certainly do not share, but I like to listen to them talking about any subject. They have a nice style and fun attitude which I appreciate. Good job. I was in the audience for their live show at the UK gaming expo last year, which was great, I hope I can get to see them again this year.

So those are my top 7 current podcasts... all highly recommended by me to anyone who shares exactly the same tastes as myself!

Podcast round-up!

I find myself listening to a lot less music these days and a lot more podcasts and audio books for some reason...not really sure why. Here's what I've been listening to lately:

Podcasts about boardgames are featuring heavily at the moment... The best and most excellent by far is THE SECRET CABAL GAMING PODCAST. I enjoy every minute of this super show, and as the show is pretty long - that makes it even better for me!! - This is where to go for the best discussions, views and fun stuff about everything boardgame related.

Next up is THE DICE TOWER podcast - Tom and Eric are excellent presenters, and this weekly podcast is the best place for well informed, up-to-date news about boardgame releases as well as other boardgame related stuff - as this show comes out weekly it is a lot more concise than the Secret Cabal - but good it is indeed!

A few other boardgame related podcasts worth a mention are THE SHUT UP & SIT DOWN show and BLUE PEG PINK PEG - both are good fun, and I especially like the later as they concentrate on talking about boardgames that work well for couples - and it's always good to get new ideas for games that Carolyn and I can play together. THE LITTLE METAL DOG SHOW is pretty good too - but episodes seem to be coming out a lot less regularly at the moment.

Also boardgame related, (but we're talking retro and obscure boardgames here!) is the FLIP THE TABLE podcast - always hilarious!! And GAME NIGHT GUYS in which Brian and Curtis play games and chat about what they've been up to in their everyday lives... all good stuff.

Kind of gaming related is the KEN AND ROBIN TALK ABOUT STUFF podcast. Ken Hite and Robin Laws are both writers and creators of roleplaying games. Their podcast is related to this, but they talk about all kinds of interesting stuff, historical, factual, fantastical....and any other random stuff they are interested in.... I especially like the section of the show called "Ken's time machine" in which they discuss what devious methods Ken would use to change a real life historical episode...and what the possible outcomes would be. I haven't had the inclination to do any roleplaying since I was a teenager - but this show appeals to me on many different levels. Very interesting, and laugh-out-loud funny!

The zombie survival audio drama WE'RE ALIVE has finished now at the end of it's 4th season. (No spoilers here! - but you can download all four series from their website for free!) - What a great show that was... the We're Alive void has now been filled for me with the audio serial WELCOME TO NIGHTVALE. A humorous dark kind of supernatural/sci-fi/Lovecraftian radio drama which defies description (all though I've briefly tried!) and is very good indeed!

A couple of podcasts that I really enjoy, but have both really slowed down in episode production are the M.R.James related show A PODCAST TO THE CURIOUS and the Clark Ashton Smith related show THE DOUBLE SHADOW (which I'm hoping hasn't ground to an actual halt)... but the inspiration behind both of these podcasts, and still my favourite podcast of all time is the ever quality consistent and regular H.P.LOVECRAFT LITERARY PODCAST. Chris and Chad have finished working their way through all of Lovecraft's stories and are now reading their way through all manner of early 20th century spooky tales that were mentioned in Lovecraft's essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature". This show is superb in every way.

Brown Monkey Audio....

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to draw your attention to the audio work of Mr.Brown Monkey.

This has got to be one of the funniest and weirdest things ever. Brown Monkey and his giant sidekick Sherman the polar bear find themselves in various stories by H.P.Lovecraft.

 

Huh?

 

I've been following Julie Hoverson's blog over at 19 Nocturne Boulevard, She loves Brown Monkey, and has recently put a couple of his shows up on her feed, but you can find a link to all of them here:

https://sites.google.com/site/brownmonkeyaudio/home

Audiophiles - take note...

It's been a while, so another podcast round-up is in order!.... The podcasts I'm listening to at the moment are roughly falling into three camps: Audio Drama, Literary Reviews, and Podcasts about boardgames. So here's what's been on the mp3 player over the last few months...

We're Alive (the zombie survival audio drama serial) is just about to reach the end of Season 3...I can't really say much about this without giving away any spoilers, but things are not going well for the survivors! The writing, the acting and the production on this are absolutely fantastic, well worth checking out if you haven't already... all the back episodes are available for download from their website.

19 Nocturne Boulevard is the home of Julie Hoverson and her unstoppable audio horror drama production machine.. over the last few months she's put out some excellent shows, her own adaptations of H.P.Lovecraft's THE RATS IN THE WALLS and THE SHUNNED HOUSE are both excellent, and her FATAL GIRL series (currently 4 stories) is great fun - her own audio version of a  dark supernatural Japanese Anime series with strong female characters...

On the "literary review" side of things, The H.P.LOVECRAFT LITERARY PODCAST is still going strong, Chad and Chris have exhausted all of H.P.Lovecraft's stories now, and have moved on to talking about stories by other authors. Their new criteria is that these stories were all mentioned by Lovecraft in his famous essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature". So far they have covered:
"The Repairer of Reputations" by Robert W. Chambers
"The Yellow Sign" by Robert W. Chambers
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
"The Upper Berth" by F. Marion Crawford
"The Signal Man" by Charles Dickens
"The Great God Pan" by Arthur Machen
and they have just started on "The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood. The H.P.Podcast guys have also decided to start charging a subscription fee for their content. The fee is very small ($6.66 every 3 months) and in my opinion is worth every penny.

The Double Shadow podcast folks, taking inspiration from the H.P.L.L.P, are covering the dark literature of Clark Ashton Smith. They have just finished talking about his "Averoigne" series which were all set in an alternative medieval France populated by necromancers, werewolves, vampires and batrachian witches.... with episode 15 they are moving on to the "Poseidonis" stories....

A Podcast to the Curious - The M.R.James literary podcast, doesn't come out as regularly as the previous ones mentioned, but this is quality stuff, and well worth the wait! They have recently done "An Episode of Cathedral History", "The Diary of Mr.Poynter" and "The Residence of Whitminster". Very enjoyable creepy stuff - and very well researched. They've also done a nice little interview with Robert Lloyd Parry, a performer of M.R.James stories... very interesting indeed - inspired me to get some tickets for one of his Christmas one man shows when he's playing not too far from here at Buxton Opera House... looking forward to that!!

The guys at NEWS FROM PNAKOTUS are still doing their news show about anything Lovecraft / Cthulhu related. It's still a great fun show with loads of info, quality content and knowledgeable presenters, but recently they have done something which to me is VERY ANNOYING. They have changed their file format from MP3 to shiny new MP4, which means if you've got some kind of new fangled expensive listening device you can get nice images to accompany your listening pleasure. Or on the other hand, if you're like me and have an a nice little "old" MP3 player, you can't listen to it at all. I listen to quite a lot of audio whilst I'm at work, or when I'm doing stuff around the house after the kids have gone to bed. So to listen to this now I have to put time aside to be sat in front of my computer doing nothing else - which I will now have to do as it's such a great show. Well maybe it's just me. Bah.

So onto the boardgame related podcasts... there are loads of these, and you can't do much better than going to the DICE TOWER and checking out all the ones on the Dice Tower Network... The Dice Tower podcast itself is great, and I also recommend The LITTLE METAL DOG SHOW, a UK boardgames podcast. Micheal the presenter has just got back from this years Essen gaming show, so he's done a ton of interesting interviews from there... two podcasts that I've started listening to lately which are really funny, and concentrate on the less "serious" side of boardgaming, are FLIP THE TABLE and THE GAME NIGHT GUYS.

THE GAME NIGHT GUYS is a podcast in which the presenters Brian and Curtis get together every week, sometimes with other friends too, and they tackle a boardgame. More often than not the games are weird games they've picked up from charity shops (Hello Kitty Big Roll Bingo!), but they will play modern designer games too. Whilst they are playing, the guys chat about their lives and what they've been up to lately. It's all great fun and very engaging. I love it!

FLIP THE TABLE - "a podcast about The Other Side of Board Games. Most board game shows focus on the latest-and-greatest, or time-tested classics. We have taken it upon ourselves to comb our local charity shops and salvage stores for the other stuff...we're talking licensed cash-grabs, kids games that kids are too smart for, gimmicky games with strange (and only occasionally functional) gadgets, and all the other games that tend to gather dust in the back of closets..." so far the Flip The Table crew have played: Transformers, American Idol, WWE DVD boardgame, Lingo DVD game, G.I.Joe boardgame, Heartthrob, Halo DVD game, Pac-man cardgame, Donkey Kong boardgame, Donald Trump game, Robocop VCR game, Nightmare VCR game, Ewok boardgame, Gone Birding, Dexter boardgame, and Mystery Mansion....  after playing the games they go indepth into dissecting the mechanics of the games, and then end up playing a fun quiz of their own silly design inspired by the themes of the games they've just played. These guys have a lot of knowledge about boardgame mechanics,which lends this to be a very interesting and fun show at the same time.

I think that's about it for now... apart from to mention the Halloween special of The Gaming Gang, which has a couple of really creepy Old Time Radio shows tagged on to the end.... it will give you the willies!!

I have mostly been listening to....

Just a few nods in the right direction for anyone who's living in an audio void....

The H.P.Lovecraft Literary Podcast is still going strong - although they will soon be reaching the end of Lovecraft's writings - Chad and Chris have said that they will continue on with the podcast, covering other stories of supernatural horror that may have inspired Lovecraft...

We're Alive - The serialised podcast of zombie horror survival is well into the third series.... edge of the seat stuff!!


There have been quite a few new additions to my regular podcast listening list lately....

A Podcast to the Curious - Is one of two new podcasts that have been inspired by the H.P.Lovecraft Literary Podcast's format. This one is done by two English chaps - Will and Mike. They are focusing on the works of M.R.James (Author of many a ghostly tale that will give you the creeps!!). They certainly know their stuff, and the depth of research that they go into for each story is fantastic! - I've really been enjoying this one.

The Double Shadow - is the second podcast following the same H.P.Podcraft format. This one has three presenters: Phil, Ruth and Tim. They are covering the fantastical works of Clark Ashton Smith, a contemporary of Lovecraft's and a superb author (amongst other things!) in his own right. They're doing his Averoigne stories first in chronological order, then moving on to Zothique and Hyperborea. There have only been four episodes of this so far - and I'm totally sucked in...


The 1 player podcast - Is a podcast all about solo-gaming. This something that interests me a lot, so this has been fascinating listening. Albert, the presenter, has been looking into all aspects of gaming solo, from choose your own adventure style books, to board and card games, even to solo roleplaying - (which I've got to say I don't really get.... I guess it's just a way of writing a story really..??). Very informative, and lots of great ideas.

The Gaming Gang - Is another podcast about gaming... mainly about board and card games - but they also cover a bit about wargaming and roleplaying too. The presenters Jeff and Elliott are an absolutely fantastic double team - I could listen to them for hours talking about anything really, very funny, opinionated, honest and informative. If you even have a passing interest in games, then do yourself a favour and give this show a listen. It was listening to this that inspired me to join my local boardgames club.

Jake Sampson - The Roof of the World - I was very pleased to discover that a new Jake Sampson story was available from the BrokenSea Audio folks... This is the 6th story in the series - and a ripping yarn it is indeed!! - The Jake Sampson stories are an homage to the weird pulp adventure stories of the likes of Edgar Rice Burroughs / Robert E Howard etc, lovingly done with tongue slightly in cheek....this time Jake Sampson is caught up in a race against the Nazis to find the secret Tibetan city of Shambala before they can find the secrets of immortality...
Smashing.

And now for some audio-books that I've listened to lately. All of these books are available for free from Podiobooks. So far I've just dipped my toe into the horror / sci-fi sections - but there's a ton of stuff to check out on there....

Toothless by J.P.Moore. - This is a story set in an alternative historic setting of medieval France with demons and zombies. Written from the point of view of a Templar knight who is now a zombie... well, it had good reviews and sounded quite interesting to me, so I gave it a go. Took me a few chapters to get into it, but soon things were going pretty good, then the whole thing lost momentum and ended in a big anti-climax. Nice idea - but in the end disappointing.

Dead Mech by Jake Bible - "After the zombie apocalypse decimates the world, human civilisation tries to put itself back together again. Their secret weapon: the Mechs. But what happens when a mech pilot dies in his mech and becomes a zombie? Hell on earth is unleashed..." Zombies - check. Post apocalyptic setting - check. Cannibals - check. Gruesome violence - check. I enjoyed this a lot. I followed this up by listening to the next book by Mr. Bible in this series The Americans - (which doesn't follow on from Dead Mech, but co-incides with it?) which was ok, but no way near as good as this one.

Hellwatch by Larime Taylor - A wheelchair bound supernatural detective protects an unaware world from demons and monsters. This was good creepy fun - but quite short... left me wanting more...nice.



And now onto the unstoppable sci-fi horror machine that is Scott Sigler... I'd heard good stuff about this guy, and I wasn't disappointed. His stories are fast paced and very, VERY GORY. Definitely not for the squeamish. But we're not talking splatter over content here, the plots are very engaging, the characters are very well written. This guy is good. There is a lot of hard science incorporated into the stories, and you can tell that Sigler has done his research - you'll be hard pressed to find any holes in his plots. "Tight as a gnats chuff" as we say in these parts. All these stories that I'm about to mention are read by Mr.Sigler himself in the podcasts, they contain tons of characters, and he does different accents for all of them - and he totally pulls it off. Of these four stories that I've listened to so far, I think Earthcore was my favourite, closely followed by Ancestor, but they are all ace. Check out Sigler's website also, there's all kinds of fun stuff on there (I've been laughing out loud at his movie reviews for example!)...

Infected by Scott Sigler - "Across America a mysterious disease is turning ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, themselves, and even their own families.

Working under the government's shroud of secrecy, CIA operative Dew Phillips crisscrosses the country trying in vain to capture a live victim. With only decomposing corpses for clues, CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya races to analyze the science behind this deadly contagion. She discovers that these killers all have one thing in common - they've been contaminated by a bioengineered parasite, shaped by a complexity far beyond the limits of known science.

Meanwhile Perry Dawsey - a hulking former football star now resigned to life as a cubicle-bound desk jockey - awakens one morning to find several mysterious welts growing on his body. Soon Perry finds himself acting and thinking strangely, hearing voices . . . he is infected.

The fate of the human race may well depend on the bloody war Perry must wage with his own body, because the parasites want something from him, something that goes beyond mere murder......"

Contagious by Scott Sigler - "Across America, a mysterious pathogen transforms ordinary people into raging killers, psychopaths driven by a terrifying, alien agenda. The human race fights back, yet after every battle the disease responds, adapts, using sophisticated strategies and brilliant ruses to fool its pursuers. The only possible explanation: the epidemic is driven not by evolution but by some malevolent intelligence.
Standing against this unimaginable threat is a small group, assembled under the strictest secrecy. Their best weapon is hulking former football star Perry Dawsey, left psychologically shattered by his own struggles with this terrible enemy, who possesses an unexplainable ability to locate the disease’s hosts. Violent and unpredictable, Perry is both the nation’s best hope and a terrifying liability. Hardened CIA veteran Dew Phillips must somehow forge a connection with him if they’re going to stand a chance against this maddeningly adaptable opponent. Alongside them is Margaret Montoya, a brilliant epidemiologist who fights for a cure even as she reels under the weight of endless horrors.

These three and their team have kept humanity in the game, but that’s not good enough anymore, not when the disease turns contagious, triggering a fast countdown to Armageddon. Meanwhile, other enemies join the battle, and a new threat — one that comes from a most unexpected source — may ultimately prove the most dangerous of all....."

Earthcore by Scott Sigler - "Deep below a desolate Utah mountain lays the largest platinum deposit ever discovered. A billion-dollar find, it waits for any company that can drill a world's record, three-mile-deep mine shaft.

EarthCore is the company with the technology, the resources and the guts to go after the mother lode. Young executive Connell Kirkland is the company's driving force, pushing himself and those around him to uncover the massive treasure.

But Kirkland and EarthCore are not the first to find this treasure. The mountain's history reveals two centuries of disappearances, murder, and insanity.

The discovery of ancient platinum knives, razor-sharp despite lying untouched for 1,000 years, reveals evidence of an ancient culture. If the artifacts are genuine, they show a pre-historic empire that once spanned from the Southern tip of South America all the way up through the American Southwest.

Wealth and fame lie under that Utah mountain, but at three miles below the surface, where the rocks are so hot they burn bare skin, something has been waiting for centuries. Waiting ... and guarding. Kirkland and EarthCore are about to find out first-hand why this treasure has never been unearthed"

Ancestor by Scott Sigler - "Every five minutes, a transplant candidate dies while waiting for a heart, a liver, or a kidney. Imagine a technology that could provide those life saving organs for a nominal fee.....and imagine what a company would do to monopolize that technology.

On a remote island in the Canadian Arctic, P.J. Colding leads a team of scientists who have discovered this holy grail of medicine. By reverse engineering the genomes of thousands of mammals, Colding's team has dialed back the evolutionary clock to re-create their common ancestor. The method? Illegal. The result? A computer engineered living creature --- an animal whose organs can be permanently transplanted into anyone with zero chance of rejection.

There's just one problem: these ancestors turn out not to be the docile herd animals Colding's team envisioned. Instead, Colding's work has given birth to something big, something evil......AND IT'S VERY, VERY HUNGRY!"

When Alfie met Chad and Chris....

I couldn't make it over to Leeds on Wednesday for the Live recording of the H.P.Lovecraft Literary Podcast - gutted!... I didn't get to catch the live streaming podcast either... so I'm going to have to wait a week or so for the downloadable version to appear on the website.... But Alfie and myself did manage to make it upfrom Sheffield to the Travelling Man comic shop in Leeds this afternoon for Chris and Chad's comic book signing. They've both done adaptations of Lovecraft stories for the new graphic novel from Self Made Hero - "The Lovecraft Anthology volume II"...

It was great to meet the chaps in person, we had a brief chat about their Lovecraftian doings, and they were really sweet to Alfie. Nice guys. If you haven't heard their podcast yet, then you're missing out!!

Top Geeky entertainment of 2011...

Here's a rundown of some of the best bits of geeky stuff I've been enjoying in 2011....

Films watched....

STAKE LAND...I like a good post-apocalyptic movie - this is set after a kind of vampire apocalypse. Humans have barricaded themselves into small towns. Religious nutters / cultists rule the wastelands... the film follows a young man called Martin who is taken under the wing of a vampire hunter called "Mister"... It is very atmospheric, and nicely filmed. Good story, good acting, nice dose of horror.

TROLL HUNTER... This is a Norwegian low budget horror film about Trolls. It is fantastic! - Filmed in a kind of Blair Witch wobbly camera style - but the troll effects are ace!! Obviously Trolls figure quite largely in traditional Scandinavian folklore - this film taps right into that. Some media students decide they are going to make a documentary about a bear poacher... turns out it isn't bears he is hunting....!!! This is great stuff - TROOOOLLLL!!!....

TINTIN... I like Tintin. I've got all the books....I was a little bit wary of the film, but I heard that it had got good reviews, so me and the Mrs went to see it for my birthday treat. I'm not that keen on the Shrek style of computer generated animation, but things have certainly moved on a bit from that, this was so good, at times I completely forgot that I was watching an animation. We didn't bother going to see the 3D version because last time we did that we both came out with headaches and eyestrain - but you could tell which bits were done with 3D in mind... So anyway, we both really enjoyed it! - The story isn't based on any one particular Tintin story - it takes plot bits from a few different ones and adds a load of new stuff.... The film characters really are the comic characters brought to life, they've done a great job on the whole thing - fast action and non-stop intrigue! If you like the Tintin books, go with an open mind and see this, I'm sure you'll like it!

ATTACK THE BLOCK...this totally slipped under my radar - I read a review of it on some blog or other, so I thought I'd track it down and see if it was any good... and I certainly wasn't disappointed! It's a British sci-fi horror / black comedy made by the same production company that did SHAUN OF THE DEAD (in fact Nick Frost is also in this film)... A gang of South London kids have to join forces with their neighbour, who they mugged earlier in the day, to defend their tower block from alien invasion on bonfire night!! - Excellent acting - great story... some good jumpy bits, and lots of crazy alien monster action!!

Books read....

Well It doesn't seem like I've been reading that much this year - I've developed a habit of falling asleep after reading two pages of anything, so that Carolyn has to prise the tome out of my fingers before I  drop it on my own head...but anyway, here are a few of the best books I've read this year...

THE COMPLETE RICHARD HANNAY STORIES by John Buchan - I read The 39 Steps a few times as a teen, It's a classic. I didn't know there were other Richard Hannay Stories until I came across this "Wordsworth Editions" bumper collection with all 5 stories in... It took me a while to wade through it all, there are quite a lot of in depth references to the politics of the day that went completely over my head - but it's all good adventure stuff.. spy's, subterfuge and undercover operations in the 1930's. In my opinion the first 3 stories are the best ("The 39 Steps" is the first one, followed by "Greenmantle" and "Mr.Standfast") - lots of action and the adventures move along at quite a fast pace.. the last 2 stories in the series started to drag on a bit...

THE YOUNG BOND BOOKS by Charlie Higson - Yes that is Charlie Higson from "The Fast Show" - turns out he can churn out a cracking yarn also!!  - Whilst my daughter was looking at the Jaqueline Wilson books  I came across the graphic novel version of his first book in this series "Silverfin" in the teenage fiction section of our local library and I was totally sucked in! No holds barred action - and some gruesome bits too! An easy read - but gripping stuff!! In this series of 5 books "Silverfin", "Blood Fever", "By Royal Command", "Hurricane Gold" & "Double or Die" you get all the stuff you'd expect from a James Bond adventure - (except the sex - which is kind of nice, there are girls as main characters, but young Bond doesn't seem to be interested in that kind of thing!)... I managed to get them all out of the library. The stand out book of the series is "Double or Die" - Bond and his friends from Eton receive a suspicious letter full of cryptic clues, this leads to a race against time to save a professor who holds the knowledge required to build a code breaking computer that the Nazis and Russians are both after....

THE ENEMY by Charlie Higson - Ok so Charlie Higson has moved on from James Bond to ZOMBIES!! - "The Enemy" is the first in his teenage zombie series... set in present times, everyone (it seems?) over the age of 14 has turned into flesh eating zombies. Gangs of kids are struggling to survive. In this first book, the story revolves around two gangs who live in supermarkets, they come together to travel across London to Buckingham Palace, which they've been led to believe is a safe place. After running battles with zombies - and zombie monkeys (nice touch!!) they finally make it to the palace... but everything is not as it seems.... Don't think that just because this book is written for teenagers that the punches are going to be pulled - because they certainly are not. This book has some very descriptive gruesome parts. Nasty!! - The second book "The Dead" is already out... I'm just waiting for the library to get a copy....

THE LAUNDRY NOVELS  by Charles Stross - "THE ATROCITY ARCHIVES" - I bought a copy of this after hearing about it on the News from Pnakotus podcast. This is the first of 5 novels (only the first three have been published as I write this) featuring Bob Howard as the Protagonist. Bob works for "The Laundry", a British secret government agency that deals with supernatural goings on. This is like a modern day Lovecraftian spy thriller with a nice touch of black humour. It is very cleverly written, there are loads of great ideas here. In the world of "The Laundry" mathematics is dangerous. If you think too hard about maths you can open up a portal to another dimension and let unspeakable horrors in to yours. In this first novel there are two stories - "The Atrocity Archives" in which Bob is part of a team that have to foil a plot by occult nazis, and "The Concrete Jungle" in which someone has uploaded the deadly "Scorpion Stare" program onto the CCTV system in Milton Keynes -capable of turning living things to stone.

"THE JENNIFER MORGUE" - more of a Bond feel to the second Laundry novel. Bob is now in a relationship with Mo (who he rescued in the first story). He is sent to foil the plans of sinister Ellis Billington, a software billionaire who plans to raise an eldritch horror codenamed "The Jennifer Morgue" from the ocean depths. Bob becomes entangled with Ramona an enemy agent (actually a beautiful Deep One lady)... they are mentally linked through a ritual and things take a turn for the weird for Bob! Lots of Lovecraftian horror and James Bond style action. The characters are very well written and the plot is great!

"THE FULLER MEMORANDUM" - so Bob and Mo are now living together. Bob's boss Angleton has gone missing. Bob and Mo are attacked by zombie assassins...there are Russian spys...evil cultists... the Laundry has been infiltrated. Where is Angleton??... who is Angleton really?? why are cultists after Bob?? Loads of action, zombies and lovecraftian apocalyptic terror!! According to Charles Stross's website, the next novel will be out in 2012....and then the last one will be out in 2015!!! - Aaaargh - too long to wait!!

SHERLOCK HOLMES - THE GAME'S AFOOT edited by David Stuart Davies - A collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories written by various modern writers. Some are good. Some not great -but no stinkers! - Very enjoyable all round if you like a bit of Holmes, which I do!

THE BLACK VEIL & OTHER TALES OF SUPERNATURAL SLEUTHS edited by Mark Valentine. Another great creepy collection of short stories that is part of the "Tales of mystery and supernatural" series published by Wordsworth  Editions... the highlights for me were the Carnacki tale "The Gateway of the Monster" by William Hope Hodgson and "The Red Hand" by Arthur Machen,  but really every one of the stories in here is a corker!

Podcasts listened to....

H.P.LOVECRAFT LITERARY PODCAST - I cannot recommend this highly enough.  The presenters Chad & Chris are systematically reading their way through all of H.P.Lovecraft's stories in chronological order, then along with various guests they discuss the stories at length. I can't get enough of this. The production values are very high. Chad and Chris are very eloquent, funny and knowledgeable. They are quite a way into the books now - they've just done episode 98!! Also available for free from their website are some very good quality readings of H.P.Lovecraft stories.

WE'RE ALIVE - The second season of this zombie apocalypse audio serial ended climatically at the end of the summer... season 3 is starting on January 2nd 2012...not long now!!!

WE'RE NOT DEAD - A sporadic podcast about a podcast (We're Alive!) hosted by Brittney Brombacher... fans of the We're Alive podcast discuss what they think is going to happen next - and a load of other funny stuff - I guess you've got to be a total geek to listen to this. I've been enjoying it.

NEWS FROM PNAKOTUS - A monthly podcast with updates on everything you can think of related to H.P.Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos... Books, Films, Music, Games.... presented by Paul (from Yog-sothoth.com)  & Chris (from the H.P.L literary podcast) - very informative, and good fun for Cthulhu enthusiasts like myself.

Telly watched...

MISFITS - last years Series 2 of this British dark comedy/drama about A.S.B.O. teens who get super powers after being in a weird storm was great, but it was seeming like they had got as much mileage as they could out of the characters. So for series 3 they had a fresh start - the super powers have changed, Nathan has left, and two new main characters have joined the team - Rudy (Joseph Gilgun) is a fantastic edition to the cast - absolutely hilarious!! Excellent telly!!

SUPERNATURAL - The wife and myself have worked our way through the first 4 seasons of "Supernatural" so far (I know we're a bit behind the times - so no spoilers please!!). A good mix of drama, horror, scares and humour. I wasn't sure about how things were going when the angels were introduced - but I'm liking how things are developing now it turns out they're not as nice as you might think....

THE WALKING DEAD - I've only watched the first series so far - which was of course super. I'm saving up the second one for a zombie marathon in the xmas holidays!

THE FADES - Another British tv series worth a mention...I've got a feeling it was just a one off series of 6 parts - I don't know how they'd be able to follow on from the end of the last episode. Some good creepy stuff here - a teenager can see ghosts... the ghosts can become fleshy by eating people... things become very dark and quite surreal at times. Good plot, good acting, dark humour, and generally a bit grim. Nice.

BEING HUMAN - More cult British horror drama.. this time featuring a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost who are friends. The third series was on this year. It's almost a kind of "sitcom" with gore. Very funny. Very good.

Enjoyable kids telly worth a mention....Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated....the latest Scooby Doo series is very good indeed - on a par with the Simpsons for geeky cultural referencing and loads of bits that will have parents chuckling whilst kids watch with mild confusion...there are some genuinely creepy bits that get my daughter running out the room - kids programs that actually give kids the creeps like this and Dr.Who are excellent in my book. Also worth noting is that Jeffrey Coombes (Herbert West in the Reanimator films) is a guest voice artist on a couple of the episodes as the voice of "H.P.Hatecraft" - the monster that is haunting his mansion (as pictured above!) is "Char Gar Gothakon" ...not sure where they got the idea for that....??. .Batman the Brave and the Bold...is also very enjoyable - very tongue in cheek - unlike the other excellent, but more serious previous Batman Cartoons ..It's nice when I can sit down with the kids and enjoy some of the tv programs they are watching without my brain imploding...

Comics read....

HELLBOY..... lots of good stuff has been going on in Mike Mignola's comic book universe this year... If you didn't know (spoiler alert!) he killed off Hellboy!! - That's to say that Hellboy is dead. It is not the end of Hellboy - as 2011 will see the start of the new Hellboy arc: "Hellboy in hell". And there is endless scope for many more retrospective stories of course. The last 3 Hellboy stories were all drawn by Duncan Fegredo, and a fantastic job he did too - absolutely stunning artwork!! But I've got say I was very pleased to hear that Mike Mignola is stepping back out of the shadows to do all the artwork (not just the covers) himself for the next bunch of Hellboy comics...

B.P.R.D.....more Mignola goodness....whilst Hellboy has been off in England fighting witches and pulling swords out of stones, the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence have been dealing with all kinds of mad apocalyptic goings on...not the least of which was the departure of long time artist Guy Davis. He has decided to go off and concentrate on his own stuff...which leaves the B.P.R.D. with Tyler Crook as new artist... only time will tell if he can fill the shoes of Guy Davis in this role....but anyway - I'm digressing slightly from the point that I'm loving how the main B.P.R.D. story is progressing at the moment - very Lovecraftian and very epic!!

BALTIMORE.....following on from the novel written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, this year has seen the second comic book story in the Baltimore series - "The Curse Bells", illustrated by Ben Stenbeck and coloured by the super-fantastic Dave Stewart... brilliant story, and an absolute work of art. Baltimore (the 1st World War vampire hunter) is on the track of the vampire Haigus...can he stop the spread across Europe of the vampiric curse...?

SUPER DINOSAUR.... Yes I have been reading other comics that have not been written by Mr.Mignola!! - I picked up the origin story of SUPER DINOSAUR at this years "Free Comic Book Day" - great artwork - great crazy idea for a comic, and a very funny story. It's aimed at kids of all ages - written by Robert Kirkman (of Walking Dead fame).....there have been 6 issues out so far, and the story is progressing nicely... how can you not like a comic about a dinosaur who is a superhero!!

So there you go... that was some of my geeky enjoyment of 2011.... lets see what 2012 has to offer....

Audio updates.....

I've been searching out some more audio delights for my mp3 player over the summer... to fill the hole that the WE'RE ALIVE summer hiatus has left...(season 3 will be starting in the Winter!! - Can't wait!!)...

The H.P.Lovecraft literary podcast is still going strong - definitely the best podcast I have discovered so far - Chad and Chris have just done episode 93 "The man of stone"... Chris Lackey is also co-presenter (with "Paul of Cthulhu") of NEWS FROM PNAKOTUS podcast - which is pretty essential listening if you're into Cthulhu Mythos stuff - they cover Cthulhu related news on up-coming games, literature, film and anything else you can think of...

MAXIMUM ROCK AND ROLL RADIO -  I was listening to a few years ago, then forgot about for a while, and I've got back into again, - It's D.I.Y. punk rock radio - they play underground international punk rock from all over -sometimes the sound is a bit sketchy - but it's the kids playing punk rock - and it's friggin great!! - There is a new show every week - they just did podcast #1264!!

THE INEVITABLE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE is a website with any zombie related news you can think of - and the two guys from there have been doing a sporadic podcast - just 7 shows so far - but definately worth a listen... they started off when the first season of The Walking Dead tv show was on last year - they did a podcast after every show, discussing the show and other zombie stuff - but they've done a few more shows over the summer doing film reviews, and I'm guessing they might do some more when Season 2 of the walking dead starts... they're good fun - and it's nice to hear some other zombie fans talking about zombie films that I've seen...

Not that I've played any roleplaying games since I was at school, but I have recently been listening to some recordings of Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green roleplaying sessions that the guys from ROLE PLAYING PUBLIC RADIO have put up on their website... they're pretty long, usually about 3 hours - but I've been getting into them whilst I've been doing my delivery round at work - the guy ROSS who runs most of the games is very good, keeps the games moving nicely, and isn't affraid to kill off the players - good creepy stuff!!

The CTHULHU podcast is another nice little show that I've just discovered... The chap who does it: "FNH" seems to be pretty prolific - he does about 6 different podcasts by the look of it - I'm going to have to check out some of his other ones too.. but anyhow, the CTHULHU podcast episodes usually follow a specific format, they usually start with a reading from "Into the Brazillian Wilderness" which is a real-life account of 1920s exploration in South America (To be honest I find this bit a tad dull - so I usually skip to the next part) - then some 1920s/30s music to get you in the mood for some pulp action...and then the 3rd and main part of the podcast, which is a reading of a Cthulhu Mythos story - and there are some very good ones on here - some old and some new ones too. FNH has got a very nice reading voice - gets me sucked in to the creepy horror everytime!!

I Haven't listened to it yet - (downloading as I type!) but the first part of  Julie Hoverson's audio drama version of  the DUNWICH HORROR is just out from 19 Nocturne Boulevard - should be good!

That's about it for now... untill WE'RE ALIVE starts back up again...