Weekend Lounge ~ Zillion, Revisited!

Welcome to the weekend, I hope it's been a good week for you. Here is a last minute change of plans! I was not expecting this, but a perusal of my spam folder (if you sent me something and I didn't answer you, this might be the reason!) showed me a message from the creator of today's project. Stick around, because this is a good one!

Today we're covering a brand new fandub of the classic anime Zillion, a series that I covered on Wasteland & Sky ages ago. However, I believe the edition I covered is out of print now that Funimation has been absorbed by Sony. If you haven't seen the series, the first two episodes of the new fandub are up right now and as good a time as any to get into it. You can find the channel currently hosting the project here!

For those who need a refresher, Zillion was one of the original modern multimedia projects back in the day, being a light gun game by Sega on the Master system as well as one of the first anime produced by Production IG (in cooperation with Tatsunoko Productions) and is a great old time. Though a late '80s production, it has a sort of warmth and excitement to it that ran through anime in the '70s into the '90s before dying out in the new millennium. The series also holds up very well today despite not being very modern. That just helps it stand out all the more.

So what's Zillion about? One word: Adventure!

It's the future and humanity is expanding out into the galaxy. An unstoppable alien force has emerged out of nowhere, threatening our very way of lige, and now humanity's hope rests in the skills and quick trigger-fingers of a group of good-natured teenagers with attitude. With their super guns, ATVs that turn into mecha suits, and episodic adventures featuring exciting and inventive action set pieces every week, join our main trio as the get closer and closer to saving humanity and get better and better at doing just that.

They don't make 'em like that anymore, and, to be honest, they were already starting to turn away from making them like that even when Zillion was around and doing well. Regardless, this series is an easy recommend, especially for kids, and has a vibe that anyone can get into. The series is just unbridled joy and fun to watch with a surprisingly high production value and animation quality for a show that only ran slightly longer than a typical anime season of its time. Perhaps its multimedia origins helped it stand out, but it also helped it age very well.

Give the series a chance. It's still a great watch today.

The second episode of the brand new fandub is below. If you sub you can even watch more as they come out in the future! Unfortunately the original series is not available for streaming, and with Funimation gone the physical release is certainly out of print and not being released again anytime soon, so who knows if there will be another way to watch it in the near future. As well all know, streaming is not a good way to preserve anything as it is, so options are dwindling for a lot of things that should be much more easily preserved. Anyway, I digress.

Here is episode two:

Once again, the channel is available here.

That's all for this week! As a writing update, I just received an acceptable from two different magazines and will talk about those when I can. At the same time, there is one chapter of Phantom Mission left for next week, so get on the Patreon and catch up! 

At the same time, I just put the cap on another short story that will release in the future. It's been a productive time. I've got a few more I want to finish off for the end of the year, so send some prayers out that I'll be able to do it. We all know as we get into Autumn that things start to get trickier both weather-wise and in other things.

Lastly, I just put out a new episode of the podcast for backers, as well. This one is on Y Signal and '90s Nostalgia. I talk quite a bit about how they mix in the episode here. If you ever wanted to know more about the behind the scenes on that weird tale, this is the place to hear it!

Thanks again for your support, especially in this tenth anniversary of Wasteland & Sky! I never thought we would be around this long back when I started, so it's very humbling to see that not only are we still around, but still thriving at the same time.

There's also a lot more to come, so stick around, and just wait! You're going to love it. We've only just begun.

The underground city reveals its true form! Can our heroes stop the madness and reach the surface again? It's time for the final encounter! One Chapter left until the finale!

The Big Book Sale Strikes Back!

Find the sale Here!

Welcome back, all! Hope you're doing well.

This week we're going to take a look at the newest big book sale created in time for Based Con! There are a handful of these sales a year, and few that I'm involved in, so I thought I would point them out for those who might not have noticed. There are plenty of works on sale for this week and it is hard to go through and pick some of them out.

But I'm going to try and do just that!

Firstly, My book in the sale this time is Grey Cat Blues, one of my earliest (and in fact my second released), and was the one that fundamentally changed how I saw writing. For those who missed it, I recommend now as the jumping on point.

"Siege on the Shadow Planet!

"Ex-punk Two Tone is left for dead and his friend is taken. His assailants: men of mud from some place darker than Hell!

"The inscrutable Sarpedon has slithered from the depths to rule a planet that has long abandoned hope for a better tomorrow. With no one to stop his spree of violence, it is only a matter of time before Two Tone’s world is overrun.

"Old friends and a mysterious beauty gather by his side, but are they enough? Is it too late for this dying world? If all cats are grey in the dark, will anyone see the panther stalking its prey? Two Tone will find the answers the best way he knows how—through his fists!

"Grey Cat Blues tells the tale of a distant planet at humanity’s end. In this place, a man must choose between love and hate. And where his choice leads him might not be where he expects . . ."

You can find Grey Cat Blues here!

This one is pretty fast and action packed. I'm still amazed at how much I packed into that one. Be sure to give it a go if you haven't, and leave a review! Let others know what you thought of this strange book of mudmen on the rain planet.

But enough about me. Let us now go through the above list and pick out a few titles you might have missed out on. There's just so many to parse through I'm going to pick ones I have not covered in previous sales and in posts like this, so please be sure to keep an eye out if something strikes your fancy.

Also, some of the ones I mentioned in previous sale posts like this are on here once again, so if you missed out on those in other sale periods, I highly recommend picking them up this time. You never know what gem might slip under your radar. There's just so many to go through in the wild world of NewPub!

And we're about to go through some now!

Groom of the Tyrannosaur Queen by Daniel M. Bensen

Find it Here!

First let us start with a new school take on a classic adventure premise that was popularized by the king himself, Edgar Rice Burroughs! You can probably tell from the cover, but this one isn't exactly a typical premise these days. For this book, you have to set your mind to the classics. It's time to go to another world, or in this case, a brand new timeline!

I hope you like time travel, dinosaurs, and stone age madness, because that's exactly what you're getting in this one!

"Former soldier Andrea Herrera isn’t happy with where her life’s taken her. Specifically, Hell Creek, Montana, 65 million years before the present. As far as careers go, making sure the dinosaurs don’t eat her paleontologist clients comes in a pretty dismal second choice to serving her country. But when their time machine malfunctions, Andrea and her team are trapped in a timeline that shouldn’t exist with something a hell of a lot more dangerous than terrible lizards: other humans.

"Kidnapped by the stone-age descendants of a lost time colony, Andrea finds herself stripped of her technological advantages and forced into a war against the implacable armies of the Slaver Empire. Even worse, the Slavers have captured the time machine and the mission's one surviving paleontologist, using his futuristic weapons for their own ends.

"Andrea's only hope lies with the ferociously intelligent and violently insane tribal war-leader, Trals Scarback. Armed with his mystic sword, his trained velociraptor, and his herd of war-triceratops, this former slave has the resources and motivation to take on the empire. But can Andrea persuade him to see her as a partner rather than a tool for his ambitions? Only if she beats the barbarian at his own game and becomes the Tyrannosaur Queen."

You can find Groom of the Tyrannosaur Queen by Daniel M. Bensen here!

Dreams Within Dreams by M. D. Boncher

Find it Here!

As an example of exactly the kind of breath of fresh air that NewPub can give you, I would like to point out this work by author M. D. Boncher, which is hard to describe without just pointing to the official description. Would you consider this typical boxed up siffy as we know it from OldPub? I can't say that you could.

Check it out below:

Enter a world with no stars… no sun… no moon… no Earth. Only “the Dream”…

“An imaginative, action-packed tale that reads like a vision. If you like a bit of cyberthriller in your sci-fi... you’ll enjoy this one.”

- Kerry Nietz. Award winning author of “The Dark Trench Saga” & “Amish Vampires From Outer Space”

Winston Harper is a sky trucker down on his luck. Years of numbing his past trauma has whittled away his reputation. Blacklisted and back to the wall, Winston’s only hope of survival is a no-questions-asked contract offering pay high enough to make him forget his own name. What could possibly go wrong? When the client changes the deal and imperial security crashes the party, he’s on the run caught between the empire and a rebellion. Hauling ten containers of contraband cargo, and guided by a mysterious femme fatale who holds all the cards, death may be the better way out…

Set in a post-apocalyptic future where the lines between technology and biology have become blurred, humanity survives on the remains of the solar system scattered about in a sky of endless twilight, ruled by an alien entity. Follow Winston Harper as he becomes entangled in the struggle against the cosmic empire and potentially, the secrets of humanity's lost past… and perhaps its future?

"Dreams Within Dreams" is the first novel in a rollicking retro-futuristic Sci-Fi serial merging cyberpunk and old school pulp adventure with a touch of neo-noir intrigue. It's "Flash Gordon" meets "Smokey and the Bandit" meets "The Matrix" meets "Talespin".

You can find Dreams Within Dreams by M. D. Boncher here!

Mech Bunny by J. M. Anjewierden

Find it Here!

For those who wonder just how much influence old school anime has had on some NewPub writers, I would point out the premise to Mech Bunny. Not that it is a bad thing, one of the reasons the medium caught on on this side of the world was  how fresh it was compared to the stale atmosphere of OldPub at the time.

All you really have to do is check out the below and you'll understand why this sort of thing resonates with so many.

"Humans won the war against the Blues, thanks in large part to the neural link they stole from the aliens. Few people can use it properly, though, and anyone with the right kind of brain gets conscripted immediately -- even ordinary high school kids.

"All Sophie wanted to do was be a dancer. She definitely hadn't planned on piloting a sixty-foot ANGEL mech with only a cranky rabbit mechanic to talk to, or fighting the genetically engineered foxes and wolves that had turned on the humans once the aliens were gone.

"She’s lost count of the battlefields she’s seen, but this next one is the worst yet. Ordered to defend a crucial forward operating base on a volcanic planet, forces are stretched thin, so she’ll have only infantry and artillery support, no other ANGELs.
One girl, one rabbit, and one giant robot up against creatures designed to be relentless soldiers.

"Creatures who have mechs of their own.

"Great."

You can find Mech Bunny by J. M. Anjewierden here!

Rattan by TJ Marquis

Find it Here!

Formerly a serialization, Rattan gets straight to the point, as all of Marquis' works do. Are you interested in high action in a far off place far from the mundane? Then this is exactly what you've been looking for.

Rattan is certainly no exception!

"Rattan was born to build.

"She’s even bolted together her own custom robot.

"There’s nothing she’d rather spend her days on…

"But she’s happy to to report to academy for her nation’s military draft of all second-born children.

"After all, isn’t a model citizen eager to serve her elites?

"She dives into the harsh tutelage of Master Koscha, willing to give her all to comrades and country.

"But when her best friend is murdered, Rattan is set on a path that she may not return from.

"Rattan is a science fantasy survival story for teens and up, with a melancholy vibe but no shortage of heart.

"Originally published on Kindle Vella."

You can find Rattan by TJ Marquis here!

From Barsoom to Malacandra: Musings on Things Past and Things to Come by John C. Wright

Find it Here!

For a bit of a different selection, let us try some essays. And not just any essays, but those by the unparalleled John C. Wright! If one has spent any time reading his blog over the years then you know you're in for a treat with a work like this.

This book in particular covers wonder stories, so you know it's perfect for NewPub, never mind just this sale.

"Peek into the heart of Science Fiction!

"From John Carter’s Mars to that of C. S. Lewis, Science Fiction astounds us with wonder.

"Science Fiction Grandmaster John C Wright here presents essays on topics both deep and trivial surrounding the strange and wonderful worlds of science fiction and fantasy. Thoughtful, humorous, deep, or absurd, Wright travels the width of the cosmos and plumbs the deeps of eternity through the lens of simple space adventure stories to say what these flights of fancy say about life on earth, and the secrets hidden in the human heart."

You can find From Barsoom to Malacandra by John C. Wright here!

On top of the above, there is a new feature this time--a sidebar! Click on the sidebar and you can scroll through just the titles and click on them to be brought to their summary on the page and check the title out for yourself. It's a handy feature to help parse through the unbelievable selections on offer. Give it a shot and see for yourself! You might be surprised just how many gems there are, especially compared to the shriveling up scene of OldPub.

That's all for this post, otherwise it would go on forever, but I do highly recommend spending a bit of time perusing the sale for yourself. There's so much great work out there by so many talented writers that really do deserve the support. Judge for yourself by looking over the exciting covers and descriptions for yourself.

The sale page is here!

Thank you for reading, and I will see you next time!

In other news, we're reaching the climax of Phantom Mission! An underground city rising up? What madness lies in the depths of Peace Island?! Become a backer and find out today!