As you might have surmised, I skipped writing a blog last week. There are a couple of reasons for this happening, with first and foremost being the fact that I really did not have anything to say!  The second is even though we have been preparing to go overseas once again for another vacation, there were tons of things which popped up and had to be dealt with.

Let’s face it, I don’t miss many blogs during the year, only a couple at the most over the past two plus years I’ve been writing these.

And let’s face it part two – most of the time the blogs are pretty much just updates of what I’ve been working on and reviews anyhow, so really – miss one blog and anything I had to say will be mentioned in the next one.

However, over the next three weeks I will not be adding the usual links to the blog. The reason is my internet connection in the Philippines is almost as bad as having dial-up. Normally what would take only a few seconds at most to load now takes upwards of 5 minutes to load, which means adding the usual links will be a major pain in the ass.

Once I return to Canada in April, the links will return.

While I’m in the Philippines I am hoping to get back to work on several projects. I want to finish the weapons compilation book, as well as get the New Mutant Monday book ready to submit to Mike once I get back to Canada.

Last week I posted the usual two creatures for New Mutant Monday, the Harelss and Octicacti and the previous week I wrote up the Wolf Spider and the Screaming Fungus. All four images were inspired (as usual) by what I saw online. A special thanks to William T. Thrasher for letting me use the image of his Wolf Spider, and to Michael Varhola for the suggestion!

Even though I’m in the tropics at the moment, I will still be posting two more entries tomorrow. One is finished, and is rather disgusting if you ask me, the other still has to be written up. And there will be another pair of new conversions – one inspired by Mockingjay part 2, and believe it or not from Z-Nation. The latter I’m surprised I haven’t written up yet, and I should have done so for New Mutant Monday.

About an older project. I finished writing an article about monk magic items several months ago. I think October or maybe November. It was submitted to Michael but due to the hectic schedule it has yet to be released. After discussing it with my friend over several rounds of Descent, he is interested in helping convert the items from OSR to Pathfinder and 5^th edition.

I also plan on padding this book, increasing the size, so this is something you can look forward to seeing in the upcoming future.

Now for the next usual part of my blog. With having skipped a week, instead of a single book review, I have two. I finished the novels Assassins of Altis by Jack Campbell and the Orphan Army by Jonathan Maberry.

It had to happen.

I was not overly fond of a novel by Jonathan Maberry. I find this difficult to believe considering how much I have enjoyed his Joe Ledger series, Rot and Ruin, and Pine Deep.

This book simply did not resonate with me. It was not boring in the least, and it was obviously written for tweens and a younger audience. The whole alien invasion was cool, and the youngsters having to deal with their parents going off to war and living in the post-apocalyptic environment created by this invasion.

I think it was the fact that Jonathan married the supernatural with SF that didn’t appeal to me. It’s strange – I enjoy some fantasy and SF mixture settings but this did not do it.

I will of course read the second in the series, which is coming out fairly soon if I’m not mistaken. It’ll probably grow on me.

I will give it a solid 4 out of 5 because of how well written it was, despite my personal feelings towards the book. If you have younger kids, this is a book you should give them to read, or read to them!

The Assassin’s of Altis is the 3^rd book in Jack Campbell’s Pillars of Reality series. This novel reveals more about the history of the world, the origin of the Mechanics and to an extent the Mages, and the larger role the Daughter of Jewels will play.

For a steampunk style novel, I did enjoy it and I am looking forward to the series continuing. I do have the 4^th book on my iPod and I’ll listen to it in a few months. I am trying (again) to finish several of my oldest books on the list before I get to it.

While on the flight I was able to watch The Mockingjay part 1 & 2 – when I wasn’t passed out from sheer exhaustion! I am not happy with how so many novels are being split into two movies now. I’m one of those who would rather sit through a 4 hour movie to see it all finished in one shot rather than wait a full year to see the second half!

It’s been quite a few years since I read the final novel in the series and did not remember quite a bit of the events that occurred, but I did recall enough to recognize the majority of the major scenes. Overall they were pretty good and I did not feel I wasted my time watching.

The books are always better, never doubt that.

No new reviews regarding RPG material, although I have made quite a few purchases from Kobold Press. I picked up the Races Compilation, Mythic Spells, and the Advanced Paths books. All are actual physical books, so I will have to wait until I get back to Canada to see them. Oh and I also purchased the 2012-2015 Annuals from Necromancers of the North, again in print format.

And finally I purchased the Savage Worlds War of the Dead campaign book, since I already own the four large adventures packages that were released a few years. I need to read over the four campaigns and see how well they were written.

Yeah, I spent quite a bit of money on the physical copies of the books, but I do far prefer this over PDF’s any day. Still my credit card was begging for mercy.

The crew were at the GAMA tradeshow last week. I could have been with them too, but well… I’m in the tropics right now. So probably next year, depending on how things go. I have not had a chance to watch the Podcast they had while there, as my internet connection sucks balls here in the Philippines. Again this is something I will have to wait until I get back to Canada.

At least I have Comicpalooza this year! And the cast from Aliens will be there, so I can collect more autographs for my armor. Damn Bill Paxton for giving me a free autograph! =) Look what he started.

Only seriously expensive one will be Weaver, at $125 US. I hope the Canadian dollar will have increased by then…

And that’s pretty much it for now.

I really don’t have any major cultural insights to discuss, unlike my last trip here to bury my father in law.

So until next Sunday, I hope you all stay happy and content, and enjoy the first week of Spring!

Chris Van Deelen is the author of the Skirmisher Publishing LLC sourcebook Creatures of the Tropical Wastes sourcebook, co-author of its Wisdom from the Wastelands game supplement and contributor to the 'Sword of Kos: Hekaton' Anthology. Check out his Twitter, FaceBook, Pintrest, Reddit and Fan Fiction accounts!