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Damon Lindleof's still-unnecessary WATCHMEN reboot for HBO moving forwards

Three months ago, it was revealed that Damon Lindelof was planning a frankly unnecessary TV version of Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen. Now it's been confirmed that HBO have greenlit a pilot, which will go into production next year.

Lindelof has also been given permission to start recruiting writers and develop existing scripts so the series can go into production quickly after a go order is given. This is a sign of HBO's trust in Lindelof, still best-known as the co-creator and one of the main writers on ABC's hit series Lost. After Lost's brilliant early seasons gave way to a somewhat muddled finale, Lindelof's reputation entered a strange stage where everything he wrote or co-wrote - including the 2009 Star Trek movie and the 2012 Ridley Scott movie Prometheus - was critically panned but was financially successful.

However, Lindelof regained his critical cachet with the supernatural drama series The Leftovers for HBO. The series executed a constrained three-season arc, with the recently-aired finale attracting a strongly positive reaction. HBO is keen to exploit its relationship with The Leftovers on a higher-profile project.

Zack Snyder, who directed the perfunctorily satisfying 2009 movie and been rumoured to produce the series, is no longer involved with the project.

American Vandal: Season 1

Oceanside, California. High school student Dylan Maxwell is expelled after twenty-seven cars in the school parking lot are vandalised with phallic images, Dylan's trademark graffiti style. Whilst Dylan usually admits and boasts of his pranks (and even films them for his YouTube channel), in this case he vehemently protests his innocence. Fellow student and budding documentary-maker Peter Maldonado identifies several discrepancies in the account of the crime and, inspired by web series Serial, sets out to prove Maxwell's innocence with a thorough and painstaking examination of the evidence.

American Vandal is a mockumentary which merges the familiar Spinal Tap/What We Do in the Shadows format with the recent emergence of high-profile, true-crime documentaries such as Serial and Making a Murderer. At first glance it's a dumb comedy where the crime isn't a bloody murder but a kid vandalising a few cars for kicks, with a lot of early humour mined from the differing techniques for drawing male genitalia and the use of ludicrously elaborate CGI reconstructions of the crime. However, the show quickly changes tack and moves into a slightly more serious examination of high school, relationships, social media, memes and how decisions made at a young age can affect someone's entire life.

The central conceit is that Maldonado and his friends Sam Ecklund and Gabi Granger are filming a documentary about the crime both as a project and also a way to prove Maxwell's innocence. They don't particularly like Maxwell, but the pedantic Maldonado in particular seems irritated that the biggest problem with the idea that Maxwell committed the crime - that he's dumb as a box of frogs and couldn't possibly blank the security cameras covering the parking lot - doesn't seem to have registered with the teachers who are all too eager to get rid of a known troublemaker. A lot of easy humour is mined from the fact that Maxwell is not a particularly bright guy, but this blows up later on when he sits down to watch the documentary, when it becomes suddenly and searingly painful to watch.

American Vandal is an odd show in tone: it's very funny, with usually several stand-out comedic moments per episode. It's also, bizarrely, quite gripping: the central mystery is mind-bogglingly inane but the reconstructions of the crime, the painstaking character analysis of each person involved and the way new evidence is discovered just as leads seem to be drying up, leading into the next episode, gives the series a strong moreish quality. Most successfully, it's got some very well-written characters, portrayed by some extremely talented young actors. Most successful spoofs have to be as good as the thing they are spoofing, and American Vandal is certainly that.

Weirdly, I was often reminded of the novel and movie Battle Royale whilst watching this show: that story was about a bunch of high school students forced to fight one another to the death on a remote island, but if you ignored the trappings it was really about school relationships, the intensity of youth (when everything is Vitally Important and social status is everything) and how societies remain the same even in wildly different circumstances. American Vandal does the same thing, with its examination of the crime also exposing the social conflicts across the school, amongst both the students and teachers. Relationships, ambitions, hopes and darker secrets emerge over the course of its eight half-hour episodes. The silly banter of the kids and their rather under-developed senses of humour ring true, and the show strikes just the right balance of authenticity; only the hyper-elaborate CGI scenes don't really fit in, although you can perhaps accept them as having been added later after Maldonado's project goes viral and gets picked up by a network.

There are several twists and the final episode is pretty stunning: it inverts some of the places you expect the characters to go and you realise just how good some of these actors really are, especially two of the actresses in supporting roles who out of nowhere deliver powerful, screen-dominating performances when the story intensifies towards the end. Of the two central questions in the series, one is definitely resolved but the other is not (although Maldonado hits on a theory that he feels is "90% convincing" and probably is the answer, but with just enough doubt left behind), which feels appropriate.

American Vandal's first season (****) starts off as a dumb high school comedy mockumentary - American Pie by way of Making a Murderer - but very quickly outgrows that to tell a series of stories about a group of high school students that are alternatively funny, tragic, sweet and dramatic. By the time you get to the end, you could probably care less who "drew the dicks", but you will want to know more about these characters. The show is available now on Netflix. A second season is in the planning stages but has not been commissioned yet.

Bryan Cogman joins GAME OF THRONES spin-off team

The Game of Thrones spin-off development team has expanded even further. In addition to the four previously-announced projects in development, it's been confirmed that a fifth project is in the works, to be helmed by Bryan Cogman.

Bryan Cogman, Executive Story Editor/Writer.

Cogman is a writer-producer on Game of Thrones itself, having written ten episodes of the series to date (more than anyone else bar producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss). He's also been the informal "keeper of the lore" on the series, keeping track of changes between the book and TV canons and having a hand in many of the worldbuilding featurettes on the DVD and Blu-Ray box sets. He's the only person currently working on Game of Thrones to be given a shot at working on the spin-off.

George R.R. Martin has confirmed that he's worked with Cogman on developing some ideas for the spin-off. Intriguingly, Martin has said that Cogman's project will be an "adaptation", in contrast to the other four series which are all original ideas.

Martin has previously ruled out a series based on Robert's Rebellion, saying it would just be "joining the dots" and all the major plot revelations from the war will be revealed in the books or TV series. He has also ruled out a series based on the Dunk & Egg prequel novellas, since he has only written three of a possible twelve (maximum) stories in the series and wants more in print before he commits to a TV deal.

On the surface this really only leaves one potential other possibility: a TV series based on the Dance of Dragons and the lead-up to it, previously explored in Martin's short stories The Princess and the Queen and The Rogue Prince. This story has several possibilities for drama: it tells the story of the deaths of the original Targaryen dragons and the near-ruin of the house. It features a major civil war and political scheming, and several exciting and unpredictable plot twists. There are heroes and villains on both sides of the war, as well as huge battles and several major dragon-on-dragon fights (which would be something different from Game of Thrones itself). Although the budgetary considerations would be daunting, Season 7 of Game of Thrones shows that HBO are willing to spend big to get big results. If they use The Rogue Prince as the basis of the start of the story, they could also start quite small and then build up to the start of the war over one or two seasons to gauge interest before committing the big bucks.

It is also possible that Martin has given Cogman are sneak-peek at The Sons of the Dragon, the novella about Aegon the Conqueror's sons Aenys and Maegor that will appear in next month's Book of Swords anthology. Of course, if GRRM is using the term quite loosely, then an "adaptation" could apply to almost any story or episode from The World of Ice and Fire or the upcoming Fire and Blood, Volume I, which expands the potential sources for the story quite widely.

HBO continue to develop the five projects and will likely select one or two to move to the pilot stage next year. HBO hopes to have a show ready to go within a year or two of Game of Thrones concluding in late 2018 or early 2019.

BABYLON 5 Rewatch: Season 2, Episodes 7-8

B7: A Race Through Dark Places

Airdates: 25 January 1995 (US), 21 March 1995 (UK)

Written by J. Michael Straczynski

Directed by Jim Johnston

Cast: Bester (Walter Koenig), Rick (Brian Cousins), Lurker (Gianin Loffler), Man (Eddie Allan), Bartender (Kathryn Cressida), Psi Cop (Judy Levitt), Shooter (Christopher Michael), Telepath 1 (Apesanahkwat), Telepath 2 (Diane Dilascio), Jason Ironheart (William Allan Young)

Date: 13 March 2259.

Plot:    At Psi Corps’ secret base at Syria Planum, Mars, a rogue telepath is interrogated by Psi Cop Bester (last seen in A6). Bester knows there is an “underground railroad” of rogue telepaths being shuttled through an unknown sorting area before they are sent on to neutral space. He kills the rogue telepath whilst tearing the information from his brain but it doesn’t matter: he knows the sorting centre is on Babylon 5. He leaves for the station immediately.

On B5 Ambassador Delenn arranges to have dinner with Sheridan. She is intrigued by human social customs and wants to learn more about them. Despite the lack of a common frame of reference, they quickly become friends and Sheridan starts to appreciate her intriguing view on the universe.

Bester arrives on Babylon 5 to a less than warm welcome from the command staff, but Bester invokes his authority to have Garibaldi and Talia Winters help him track down the rogues. The rogues, knowing the danger he represents, try to kill Bester but he manages to escape. Talia, however, is captured and taken to their secret hide-out in Downbelow. There they tell her why they are running from Psi Corps and tell her all about the illegal experiments run on them, the abuse of their basic human rights and the deaths of many of their friends due to Psi Corps’ willingness to expend lives as long as it serves the “greater good”. After hearing their stories - and scanning many of them to confirm they are telling the truth - she agrees to help them. Sheridan receives word that the rogue telepaths are willing to talk to him and he goes to meet their representative, but is shocked to find it is Dr. Franklin. Franklin explains that the clinic he set up last year in Downbelow (A21) is a cover to help rogue telepaths escape from Psi Corps. Sheridan is forced by law to report the rogues’ presence, but Talia points out that if Psi Corps stopped their search than Sheridan wouldn’t have to report the matter and could allow them to leave peacefully. Sheridan agrees and Talia and the telepaths use their combined mental powers to create an illusion in Bester’s mind of him and Talia killing all the rogues. The leader of the rogue telepaths used to be a friend of Jason Ironheart’s and realises he did something to Talia: a normal P5 shouldn’t have been able to deceive a Psi Cop like that. Bester leaves the station, none the wiser, and the rogues leave the station peacefully.

Earthforce orders Ivanova and Sheridan to being paying rent on their quarters since they need the extra money and their quarters are bigger than necessary. Furious, Sheridan uses money from the combat readiness budget to pay the rent, on the logic that he cannot be ready for combat without a good night’s sleep beforehand.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

The Compleat George R.R. Martin Bibliography

As part of a discussion on the works of George R.R. Martin, and specifically what works of his are not currently readily available in print, I ended up compiling this list of everything that GRRM has ever published (and almost everything that he's publicly admitted writing), which I'm now releasing here because, why the hell not?

This list is inspired by Leslie Kay Swigart's "George R.R. Martin RRetrospective Fiction Checklist", originally published in GRRM: A RRetrospective (2002, later reprinted as Dreamsongs in 2006) but is expanded to both include GRRM's unpublished work and also the work that has followed since.

Obviously, if I've missed anything, let me know and I'll update the list.

Novels

Dying of the Light (1977)
Martin's first novel, set in the Thousand Worlds milieu of much of his short fiction. Dying of the Light was originally called After the Festival and was serialised under that title in the April through July 1977 issues of Analog. The book was retitled with a Dylan Thomas quote. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1978, but did not win. The book mentions an alien race called the githyanki, a name "borrowed" by Charles Stross for a Dungeons and Dragons race, an association Martin did not learn of until twenty years later.

Windhaven (1981, with Lisa Tuttle)
Martin and Lisa Tuttle met in 1973 and became fast friends. They decided to collaborate in 1975, resulting in the novella The Storms of Windhaven, which won the Locus Award for Best Novella in 1976 and was also nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula. They followed this up with a sequel, One-Wing, in 1980, which was also nominated for the Hugo. At this point a deal was signed for a "fix-up novel" made up of the two stories and a specially-written third part, The Fall, which followed in 1981, along with the book version itself.

Fevre Dream (1982)
This was George R.R. Martin's first big success, a novel about vampires on the Mississippi. This was his first horror novel and was his most commercially successful novel until the publication of A Game of Thrones fourteen years later. The book was nominated for the Locus and World Fantasy Awards but not the then-famously-fantasy-avoiding Hugos.

The Armageddon Rag (1983)
This was the book that nearly destroyed Martin's writing career, bombing heavily on release (despite a World Fantasy Award nomination) and making publishers wary of touching any of Martin's other work. The most notable casualty was his then-in-progress novel, Black and White and Red All Over, which his agent couldn't sell and Martin left unfinished (the completed portion eventually appeared in the Quartet collection in 2001). However, publishing's loss was Hollywood's gain; Phil DeGuere optioned the novel for film and, although it was not made, it did bring DeGuere and Martin into contact and DeGuere remembered Martin which it came time to resurrect The Twilight Zone in 1985.

Hunter's Run (2007, with Gardener Dozois and Daniel Abraham)
Hunter's Run began life as Shadow Twin, a novella co-written between Martin and his long-time friend Gardener Dozois. Dozois and Martin worked on the novella in 1982 but eventually couldn't come up with an ending, sticking it in a drawer. Twenty years later Martin came up with the idea of giving the story to Daniel Abraham to finish. Abraham did so, very successfully, and it was published in 2004. Abraham then revised the entire story as the novel-length Hunter's Run, published in 2007.


A Song of Ice and Fire

A Game of Thrones (1996)
A Clash of Kings (1998)
A Storm of Swords (2000)
A Feast for Crows (2005)
A Dance with Dragons (2011)
The Winds of Winter (forthcoming)
A Dream of Spring (forthcoming)

You may have heard of this one.


A Song of Ice and Fire Universe

The Lands of Ice and Fire (2012, with Jonathan Roberts)
Also known as "A Big Box of Maps", with Martin drawing all of the original maps himself as line drawings and these being transformed into beautiful full-colour pieces by British cartographer-general Jonathan Roberts.

The World of Ice and Fire (2014, with Elio M. Garcia & Linda Antonsson)
The big companion book for A Song of Ice and Fire, originally called The World of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire before the publishers pointed out that this could not be fitted onto any book spine in the known universe. Martin wrote a bit too much material for this book (as in about 200% more words than originally budgeted), which he then mined to produce the novellas The Princess and the Queen, The Rogue Prince, Sons of the Dragon and...

Fire and Blood, Volume I (forthcoming)
...this book, which acts as a history of the first half of the Targaryen regime. Already complete, it is planned for release in 2018 or 2019.

Fire and Blood, Volume II (forthcoming)
This second volume, covering the rest of the Targaryen regime, is completely unwritten at the moment and, according to Martin, will not be published until after A Song of Ice and Fire is complete and possibly more Dunk & Egg novellas are published, since it'll be very hard to produce a detailed history of the reign of Aegon V with spoiling those stories.


Unpublished Novels

Black and White and Red All Over (started 1983)
This was Martin's in-progress work when The Armageddon Rag bombed. Martin's agent had been shopping the book around to publishers, but the Rag's failure saw them turn it down with a vengeance. Martin was disheartened, abandoned the book and spent some consolatory time playing roleplaying games (which wasn't a total waste, leading as it did to Wild Cards). The completed portion of the novel was published in the Quartet collection in 2001.

Avalon (started 1991)
Martin was 100-odd pages into writing Avalon, a big SF epic set on one of the most notable planets in his Thousand Worlds setting, when he was distracted by an idea he'd had about a deserter being beheaded in the snow, watched by a young boy and his family. That led to a tangent which, over a quarter of century later, remains unfinished. It's unclear if Martin seriously plans to finish Avalon once A Song of Ice and Fire is completed, but it's also notable that Martin has never published the material he had completed for the book (unlike his other unfinished novel, Black and White and Red All Over), suggesting he may have some plans for it in the future.

Short Stories, Novellas and Novelettes 

For the first two decades of his career, Martin was known predominantly as a writer of short stories, novellas and novelettes (the distinctions between which are really not worth worrying about now) and this is where he won his first awards. This list of stories is, as far as I can tell, exhaustive. Stories which are known to take place in the Thousand Worlds setting are noted with "TW", those published in the massive Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective collection with "DS".

Fanzine and Comic Work
The very first professionally-published work of Martin's was a letter to Stan Lee and Kack Kirby, published in Fantastic Four #20 (August 1963). He followed it up with a few more letters over the years, began corresponding with other fans and even attended the very first Comic-Con in New York in 1964. This led to Martin's first published writing, produced for a stream of comic fanzines on a very casual basis with very small distributions. It'd be fascinating to see if any of these stories had survived anywhere. Later on, starting with with 'Only Kids Are Afraid of the Dark', the stories have indeed survived. Three of these stories, written in the 1960s, did not appear in print until GRRM: A RRetrospective (aka Dreamsongs) got its first printing in 2003.

• 'Garizan, the Mechanical Warrior' (written 1964, lost)
• 'Meet the Executioner' (1965, comic, published in Ymir #2)
• 'The Isle of Death' (1965, comic, Ymir #5)
• 'The Strange Story of the White Raider' (1965, comic, published in Batwing)
• 'Powerman vs. The Blue Barrier!' (1965, text, published in Star-Studded Comics #7)
• 'Only Kids Are Afraid of the Dark' (1965, text, published in Star-Studded Comics #10 DS)
• 'The Sword and the Spider' (1965, comic, published in Dr. Weird)
• 'Only Kids Are Afraid of the Dark' (1966, comic version of the text story, published in Dr. Weird)
• 'The Coach and the Computer' (1966)
• 'The Fortress' (1968, revised for professional sale as 'Under Siege' in 1985, DS)
• 'The Added Safety Factor' (1968)
• 'The Hero' (1968, revised for professional sale in 1971, TW)
• 'And Death His Legacy' (1968, DS)
• 'Protector' (1968, revised for professional sale as 'Warship' in 1979)

Professional Sales
Martin made his first professional sale in 1971 and basically never looked back, churning out dozens of stories through the 1970s and 1980s, winning several awards. In the mid-1980s his short fiction career slowed as he switched to working in Hollywood, editing Wild Cards and then commencing work on A Song of Ice and Fire; startlingly, for a prolific writer of the form, Martin has only published four short stories unrelated to A Song of Ice and Fire since 1991.

• 'The Hero' (1971, TW, DS)
• 'The Exit to Santa Breta' (1972, DS)
• 'The Second Kind of Loneliness' (1972, DS)
• 'Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels' (1973)
• 'Night Shift' (1973)
• 'Override' (1973)
• 'A Peripheral Affair' (1973)
• 'Slide Show' (1973)
• 'With Morning Comes Mistfall' (1973, DS)
• 'F.T.A.' (1974)
• 'Run to Starlight' (1974)
• 'A Song for Lya' (1974, Hugo Award winner, TW, DS)
• 'And Seven Times Never Kill Man' (1975, TW, DS)
• 'The Last Super Bowl Game' (1975)
• 'Night of the Vampyres' (1975)
• 'The Runners' (1975)
• 'The Storms of Windhaven' (1975, with Lisa Tuttle, revised for Windhaven)
• 'A Beast for Norn' (1976, revised for Tuf Voyaging, TW, DS)
• 'The Computer Cried Charge!' (1976)
• 'Fast-Friend' (1976)
• '...For a Single Yesterday' (1976)
• 'In the House of the Worm' (1976, TW)
• 'The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr' (1976, DS)
• 'Meathouse Man' (1976, DS)
• 'Men of Greywater Station' (1976, TW)
• 'Nobody Leaves New Pittsburgh' (1976)
• 'Nor the Many-Colored Fires of a Star Ring' (1976)
• 'Patrick Henry, Jupiter, and the Little Red Brick Spaceship' (1976)
• 'Starlady' (1976, TW)
• 'This Tower of Ashes' (1976, TW, DS)
• 'After the Festival' (1977, serialised version of ''Dying of the Light'', TW)
• 'Bitterblooms' (1977, TW, DS)
• 'The Stone City' (1977, TW, DS)
• 'Weekend in a War Zone' (1977)
• 'Call Him Moses' (1978)
• 'Sandkings' (1979, Hugo and Nebula Award winner, TW, DS)
• 'Warship' (1979)
• 'The Way of Cross and Dragon' (1979, Hugo Award winner, TW, DS)
• 'The Ice Dragon' (1980, revised as a children's book in 2006, DS)
• 'Nightflyers' (1980, revised for ''Nightflyers'', TW, DS)
• 'One-Wing' (1980, with Lisa Tuttle, revised for Windhaven)
• 'The Fall' (1981, with Lisa Tuttle, written for Windhaven)
• 'Guardians' (1981, revised for ''Tuf Voyaging'', TW, DS)
• 'The Needle Men' (1981)
• 'Remembering Melody' (1981, DS)
• 'Closing Time' (1982)
• 'In the Lost Lands' (1982, DS)
• 'Unsound Variations' (1982, DS)
• 'The Monkey Treatment' (1983, DS)
• 'Loaves and Fishes' (1985, written for Tuf Voyaging, TW)
• 'Manna from Heaven' (1985, written for Tuf Voyaging, TW)
• 'The Plague Star' (1985, written for Tuf Voyaging, TW)
• 'Portraits of His Children' (1985, Nebula Award winner, DS)
• 'Second Helpings' (1985, written for Tuf Voyaging, TW)
• 'Under Siege' (1985, revised version of 'The Fortress', DS)
• 'The Glass Flower'' (1986, TW, DS)
• 'The Pear-Shaped Man'' (1987, DS)
• 'The Skin Trade' (1988, World Fantasy Award winner, DS)
• 'Black and White and Red All Over' (1983, published 2001, unfinished novel fragment)
• 'Shadow Twin' (1982, revised in 2004 with Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham, revised again in 2007 for Hunter's Run)
• 'A Night at the Tarn House' (2009, in Songs of the Dying Earth)

Wild Cards

George R.R. Martin created the Wild Cards superhero universe for a roleplaying game in the early 1980s, fleshing it out (aided by many writers, but most notably John Jos. Miller, Walter Jon Williams and Martin's co-editor, Melinda Snodgrass) for a shared world anthology series that currently clocks in at 27 volumes (and counting). Martin edited the entire series, but specifically wrote the following stories:

• 'Interlude One' through 'Interlude Five' (1987, in Wild Cards)
• 'Shell Games' (1987, in Wild Cards, DS)
• 'Jube: One'' through 'Jube: Seven' (1987, in Wild Cards: Aces High)
• 'Winter's Chill' (1987, in Wild Cards: Aces High)
• 'Hiram Worchester' (1988, in Wild Cards: Jokers Wild)
• 'From the Journal of Xavier Desmond' (1988, in Wild Cards: Aces Abroad, DS)
• 'All the King's Horses' (1988, in Wild Cards: Down and Dirty)
• 'The Great and Powerful Turtle' (1990, comic strip in Wild Cards #3 for Epic Comics)
• 'Jay Ackroyd's Story' (1990, in Wild Cards: Dead Man's Hand)
• 'The Great and Powerful Turtle' (1992, in Wild Cards: Dealer's Choice)
• 'Jay Ackrod's Story' (1995, in Wild Cards: Black Trump)
• 'Crusader' (2008, in Wild Cards: Inside Straight)

Novella-length excerpts from A Song of Ice and Fire

• 'Blood of the Dragon' (1996, Hugo Award winner)
• 'Path of the Dragon' (2000)
• 'Arms of the Kraken' (2002)

The Tales of Dunk & Egg (prequels to A Song of Ice and Fire)

• 'The Hedge Knight' (1998, collected in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, DS)
• 'The Sworn Sword' (2003, collected in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms)
• 'The Mystery Knight' (2010, collected in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms)
• 'The She-Wolves' (forthcoming, working title)
• 'The Village Hero'' (forthcoming, working title)

Other Song of Ice and Fire-related stories

• 'The Princess and the Queen' (2013)
• 'The Rogue Prince' (2014)
• 'The Sons of the Dragon' (2017)

Collections

• A Song for Lya (1976)
• Songs of Stars and Shadows (1977)
• Sandkings (1981)
• Songs the Dead Men Sing (1983)
• Nightflyers (1985)
• Tuf Voyaging (1987, collection of linked stories)
• Portraits of His Children (1987)
• Quartet (2001)
• GRRM: A RRetrospective (2003; reissued 2006 as Dreamsongs)

Editor

Science Fiction Anthologies

• New Voices in Science Fiction (1977)
• New Voices II (1979)
• New Voices III (1980)
• New Voices IV (1981)
• The Science Fiction Weight-Loss Book (1983, with Isaac Asimov & Martin Greenberg)
• The John W. Campbell Awards, Volume 5 (1984)
• Night Visions 3 (1986)

Wild Cards

1. Wild Cards (1987)
2. Aces High (1987)
3. Jokers Wild (1987)
4. Aces Abroad (1988)
5. Down and Dirty (1988)
6. Ace in the Hole (1990)
7. Dead Man's Hand (1990)
8. One-Eyed Jacks (1991)
9. Jokertown Shuffle (1991)
10. Double Solitaire (1992)
11. Dealer's Choice (1992)
12. Turn of the Cards (1993)
13. Card Sharks (1993) (Book I of a New Cycle trilogy)
14. Marked Cards (1994) (Book II of a New Cycle trilogy)
15. Black Trump (1995) (Book III of a New Cycle trilogy)
16. Deuces Down (2002)
17. Death Draws Five (2006)
18. Inside Straight (2008)
19. Busted Flush (2008)
20. Suicide Kings (2009)
21. Fort Freak (2011)
22. Lowball (2014)
23. High Stakes (2016)
24. Mississippi Roll (forthcoming)
25. Low Chicago (forthcoming)
26. Texas Hold 'Em (forthcoming)
27. Knaves Over Queens (forthcoming)

Collaborations with Gardner Dozois

• Songs of the Dying Earth (2009)
• Warriors (2010)
• Songs of Love and Death (2010)
• Down These Strange Streets (2011)
• Old Mars (2013)
• Dangerous Women (2013)
• Rogues (2014)
• Old Venus (2015)

Film

• Nightflyers (1987) - original story
• Sharknado 3 (2015) - cameo appearance as himself

Television

The New Twilight Zone

• The Last Defender of Camelot (1986) - writer (teleplay)
• The Once and Future King (1986) - writer (teleplay), story editor
• A Saucer of Loneliness (1986) - story editor
• Lost and Found (1986) - writer (teleplay)
• The World Next Door (1986) - story editor
• The Toys of Caliban (1986) - writer (teleplay)
• The Road Less Travelled (1986) - writer (story and teleplay), story editor (DS)

Max Headroom

• Mister Meat (1987) - writer (unproduced)
• Xmas (1987) - writer (unproduced, eventually staged in 2017)

Beauty and the Beast

• Terrible Saviour (1987) - writer
• Masques (1987) - writer
• Shades of Grey (1988) - writer
• Promises of Someday (1988) - writer
• Fever (1988) - writer
• Ozymandias (1988) - writer
• Dead of Winter (1988) - writer
• Brothers (1989) - writer
• When the Blue Bird Sings (1989) - writer (teleplay)
• A Kingdom by the Sea (1989) - writer
• What Rough Beast (1989) - writer (story)
• Ceremony of Innocence (1989) - writer
• Snow (1989) - writer
• Beggar's Comet (1990) - writer
• Invictus (1990) - writer

Doorways

• Doorways (pilot) (1993) - writer (story and teleplay), creator (DS)

Game of Thrones

• Series - writer (story), producer
• Pilot (2010, unaired) - cameo background performer
• The Pointy End (2011) - writer
• Blackwater (2012) - writer
• The Bear and the Maiden Fair (2013) - writer
• The Lion and the Rose (2014) – writer

Z Nation

• The Collector (2015) - cameo appearance as himself

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs. The Cities of Fantasy and History of Middle-earth series are debuting on my Patreon feed and you can read them there one month before being published on the Wertzone.

A History of Middle-earth Part 9: Victories for the Light

In the Third Age of Middle-earth, the great kingdoms of men and elves faced mounting threats from all sides. In a time of defeats and danger, the forces of good cried out for victories against the mounting threat of the Shadow.

The Oathtaking of Cirion and Eorl, at the founding of Rohan, by Ted Nasmith.

The Founding of Rohan
In 2510 TA the Gondorian army under Ruling Steward Cirion marched north to meet

the barbarian attack. However, it was a trap. A host of orcs descended from the Misty Mountains and defeated the Gondorian forces, driving them in disarray towards the Field of Celebrant and the waiting Balchoth. All seemed lost.

In the northern Vale of Anduin a people known as the Éothéod had lived for some centuries, but their people had grown too numerous to remain in these lands. The Balchoth were among their foes. Their king, Eorl the Young, noted that departure of the Balchoth to the south and gathered a large army. Thus, when the Balchoth confronted the Gondorians at Celebrant, they were not expecting the massive assault on their rear by the Éothéod. The Balchoth were utterly destroyed and Gondor was saved. In gratitude Cirion gave to the Éothéod Calenardhon, the north-western Gondorian province stretching from the Gap between the Misty and White Mountains to the Anduin and the mouths of the River Entwash. The Éothéod, who had renamed themselves the Eorlingas in honour of their great king, accepted. Thus in 2510 the Riddermark was founded, the land known as Rohan, with its capital at the hill fortress of Edoras. Great friendship there was between Rohan and Gondor, and Rohan’s founding secured Gondor’s northern flank from attack. By 2698 Gondor felt secure enough to rebuild the White Tower even larger and grander than before.

However, Rohan itself would soon be plauged by great troubles. In 2754 King Helm Hammerhand slew Lord Freca, a troublesome lord whose lands lay along the River Adorn in the far west of Rohan. Freca’s son Wulf declared vengeance against Helm. He fled Rohan and made common cause and alliance with the Dunlendings, the semi-barbaric inhabitants of the hills of Enedwaith who for some years had also held the old Númenórean fortress of Angrenost, which all now called Isengard. Four years later, when Wulf learned of a massive assault on Gondor by both the Corsairs of Umbar and the Haradrim, he convinced the Dunlendings to attack Rohan, certain that Gondor would not be able to come to Rohan’s aid. The attack took the Rohirrim by surprise, but they were able to hold the Dunlendings at bay long enough to evacuate their forces in two groups. One, led by King Helm, took refuge in the ancient fortress of the Hornburg in the valley everafter known as Helm’s Deep. The other, led by King Helm’s nephew and heir Fréaláf, evacuated to Dunharrow south of Edoras. The Dunlendings besieged both fortresses and Wulf took up residence in Edoras.

However, this was the same year that the fell Long Winter afflicated all of western Middle-earth. Flash floods off the White Mountains inundated the Dunlendings and fever and sickness swept through their ranks. By the spring many had died and those who remained were unable to hold the Rohirrim at bay any longer. Fréaláf led a sortie from Dunharrow, aided by a loyal band of stalwart warriors. They broke through the Dunlending lines and put them to rout. They then retook Edoras and slew Wulf. Although victory was theirs, the news from Helm’s Deep was greivous, as King Helm had been slain. Fréaláf took the throne, beginning the Second Line of the Kings of the Mark. Gondor had likewise managed to survive the attacks of its enemies and by spring 2759 had restored its boundaries across the Anduin in Harondar and Ithilien.

With Edoras secure once more, King Fréaláf led a punitive sortie against the Dunlendings. He besieged and liberated the circle of Isengard and the tower of Orthanc that lay at its heart and pushed the Dunlendings all the way back into Enedwaith. Satisfied, the King returned to Edoras, but was surprised to meet the wizard Saruman who had come forth to speak to him. Saruman had long wandered in Middle-earth, but now desired permanant residence. Confident that Saruman’s wizardry would keep any enemy at bay, Fréaláf glady surrendered control of Isengard to Saruman the White.

An Unexpected Party, by John Howe.

The Quest of Erebor
By the end of the Second Millennium of the Third Age, the elves and men of Middle-earth had suffered greivous defeats in their war with the various evil forces of the world, but the dwarves had remained relatively immune to the ravages of war. In their holdfasts in the Blue Mountains and Iron Hills they continued to delve deep into the earth and forge great riches, unconcerned with the affairs of the outside world. Khazad-dûm, their greatest and most ancient hold in the Misty Mountains, grew rich and powerful indeed.

Then, in 1980 TA, the dwarves of Khazad-dûm delved too deep, exposing a great crack that led to the bowels of the earth. From this fissure emerged a terrible demon of fire and death: a balrog of Morgoth, the last survivor of its kind. The balrog slew King Durin VI and put the dwarves to rout. King Dáin led a stand against the balrog and was slain also. By 1981 the dwarves had abandoned Khazad-dûm in its entirety and it became known to all as Moria, ‘The Black Pit’, as the elves had already long called it.

A thousand years later, many dwarves hoped to reclaim Moria, believing the balrog to have died or left in the meantime. However, the defeats of the dwarves continued. In 2770 the dragon Smaug descended from the Withered Heath and assailed Erebor, the Lonely Mountain south-east of the Grey Mountains. The dragon captured the mountain and made it his lair, displacing King Thrór and his kin. Thrór knew he could not defeat the dragon but hoped that perhaps Moria could be reclaimed instead. In 2790 he entered Moria but was slain by orcs. Enraged, his kin gathered for war and three years later launched a massive assault against the orcs of the Misty Mountains. They avoided Moira, but struck at Goblin-town in the High Pass of the Misty Mountains, the large orc city of Gundabad and other locations throughout both the Misty Mountains and Grey Mountains. The War of Dwarves and the Orcs lasted for seven years and concluded with the Battle of Nanduhirion before the East-gate of Moria, in the Dimrill Dale. The dwarves emerged victorious, having reduced orc numbers by so much that for nearly a century they did not trouble the mountains again. King Dáin Ironfoot returned to the Iron Hills in victory, but the dwarves themselves had suffered greivous losses for their success.

In 2802 Thráin II, heir to Erebor, settled in the southern Blue Moutains near the ruins of Belegost with his son Thorin Oakenshield. Pondering long the fate of his homeland, Thráin departed for Erebor to see if Smaug remained in residence. However, servants of Sauron had identified Thráin as the holder of the last of the Seven Rings. In 2845, after hounding him for four years the length and breadth of northern Middle-earth, they finally imprisoned him in Dol Guldur and seized the ring.

Five years later the wizard Gandalf, tiring of the speculation about who might be in control of Dol Guldur following the end of the Long Peace, stole into Dol Guldur by secret. He learned that Sauron had indeed returned. He also came across Thráin, who surrendered the key of Erebor and a map of the mountain to the wizard before dying. Gandalf also learned that Sauron’s minions were searching for the One Ring, and were also looking for word of Isildur’s Heir.

The White Council was convened in 2851 and Gandalf urged an assault on Dol Guldur, but Saruman thought the venture too risky, although by now Saruman wanted the One Ring for himself, believing he could use it to destroy Sauron and secure liberty for all of Middle-earth.

Frustrated, Gandalf could only watch as over the next ninety years Sauron’s servants grew stronger. Ithilien became dangerous to travel as orcs multiplied in the Mountains of Shadow, and in 2885 the Haradrim captured the crossings over the River Poros. An alliance of Gondorian and Rohirrim troops drove them back, but it was clear that, in the long term, the forces of evil were slowly beginning to win the upper hand. With the ruining of Tharbad in the Fell Winter of 2911, the main trade routes from Lindon and the north to Rohan and Gondor were no longer secure, and contact between the two regions began to fade and become more doubtful.

In 2933 Arathorn II, Chieftain of the Dúnedain Rangers of the North, was slain in battle. His wife Gilraen took their son Aragorn, then only two years old, to Rivendell and Elrond agreed to raise Aragorn as his ward. Gandalf took an interest in the boy, “Isildur’s Heir” as his father was before him, but by now had determined that a victory was needed to rally the forces of good against Mordor.

In 2941 an unexpected opportunity presented itself. Gandalf was in the lands west of the Shire, having gone to confer with Círdan of Lindon. He met Thorin Oakenshield on the road and they conferred for a time. He gave Thorin the key and map of Erebor and Thorin immediately saw this as a sign that the time had come to retake Erebor. Gandalf also believed the time was ripe to slay Smaug and deny Sauron a new ally in the coming war. They raised a force of twelve battle-hardened dwarves from the Blue Mountains and headed east. Whilst traversing the Shire Gandalf suggested employing a nimble-fingered hobbit to steal his way into Erebor as a scout. Thorin was at first doubtful, but in time Gandalf convinced him. They changed their course for Hobbiton and Gandalf recruited Bilbo Baggins to the quest. Bilbo was doubtful about going off on a big adventure, but eventually agreed.

The Questors passed eastwards to Rivendell, avoiding being attacked by trolls along the way, and from there crossed the High Pass over the Misty Mountains. However, the party became divided during an orc attack and Bilbo was left alone. Wandering the mountain tunnels, he chanced upon a ring left on the ground and picked it up. He was soon confronted by a loathsome, strange creature named Gollum who tried to murder him. By chance, Bilbo discovered that the ring made him invisible when worn and employed this to escape.

Reunited, the party headed east, but Gandalf left them to head south. The elves of Lórien, waylaid several times by orcs passing out of Mirkwood, had resolved to attack Dol Guldur and Gandalf and a strangely reluctant Saruman had agreed to lend their aid to this attack. However, Sauron withdrew before them and fled back to Mordor. Meanwhile, the Questors were imprisoned by King Thranduil, lord of the North Mirkwood elves, for failing to ask his permission to cross his lands. Bilbo employed the ring to rescue the others and they came at last to Erebor. Bilbo, again using the ring, spoke with Smaug, who could not kill him without seeing him. At last, enraged and frustrated, the dragon rashly attacked the nearby settlement of Esgaroth (“Laketown”) and was promptly shot down by the legendary archer Bard.

Now King Thorin took up his seat in Erebor and sent to King Dáin of the Iron Hills for reinforcements. However, both Thranduil of the elves and the men of Esgaroth led armies forth to reclaim riches stolen from them by Smaug. Thorin was unimpressed by their forces and sealed the doors to the fortress. It seemed that violence might erupt with the arrival of the dwarven reinforcements, but at this moment the goblins and wargwolves of the Grey Mountains launched their own attack. A mighty battle, the Battle of Five Armies, erupted. The elves, men and dwarves emerged victorious, aided by Gandalf and the Great Eagles of the Misty Mountains, led by Gwaihir the Windlord, who came late to the battle. Thorin was slain and Dáin became King-under-the-Mountain. In the spirit of their victory, Dáin returned to the elves and men their stolen riches and a new three-way treaty of alliance was concluded between Thranduil’s kingdom, Esgaroth and Erebor. Well pleased, Gandalf departed and Bilbo left for home.

Part 10 of the History of Middle-earth Series are available to read now on my Patreon feed as follows:

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs. The Cities of Fantasy and History of Middle-earth series are debuting on my Patreon feed and you can read them there one month before being published on the Wertzone.

GOOD OMENS enters production, gets first picture and new castmembers

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's 1990 novel Good Omens is being adapted as a BBC mini-series, as previously revealed, and it officially entered production yesterday with the first read-through of the script. Director Douglas Mackinnon tweeted a (sadly quite small) photograph to celebrate.

Good Omens stars David Tenannt as the demon Crowley and Martin Sheen as the angel Aziraphale, former enemies-turned-friends who decide to team up to stop the Apocalypse. Jack Whitehall and Miranda Richardson have also joined the project, as witch-hunter Pulsifer and Madame Tracy respectively. Michael McKean has also been cast as Sergeant Shadwell, with Adria Arjona playing the splendidly-named Anathema Device, Nina Sosanya playing Sister Mary Loquacious of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl, Ned Dennehy playing Hastur and Ariyon Bakare playing Ligur.

Good Omens will be a six-episode mini-series produced by the BBC with Amazon as international distributors. It is expected to air in 2019.

George R.R. Martin's NIGHTFLYERS greenlit as a TV series

George R.R. Martin's 1980 novella Nightflyers has been greenlit as a TV series by SyFy. SyFy are currently producing a pilot based on the novella and the network were impressed enough to give a full series order. Netflix is also getting involved early, negotiating both international distribution and second-run rights in the US. This may be in response to its much-derided deal for SyFy's The Expanse, which seemingly (and nonsensically) requires that several months elapse between the US release and transmission elsewhere in the world.

Martin's novella was previously adapted as a forgettable, low-budget movie in 1987. The story, set in Martin's Thousand Worlds setting, sees an advanced starship and its crew drawn into a possible conflict with both a malevolent AI and a mysterious alien creature.

Martin is not involved with this new TV project, as his contract with HBO for Game of Thrones means he can only develop new projects exclusively with them for the next few years.

BABYLON 5 Rewatch: Comic Issues 5-8

DC2-4: Shadows Past and Present

Publication Date: March-June 1995

Written by Tim Dehaas (from an outline by J. Michael Straczynski)

Artwork by John Ridgway (pencils and inks) & Robbie Busch (colours)

Date: This storyline takes place prior to the events of episode B9, setting it in early 2259. Keffer is a full Lieutenant, placing it after the events of episode B4 (which are also directly referenced). Episode C8 confirms the flashback storyline takes place in 2253.

Plot: On Babylon 5 Ambassador Mollari is toasting the recent reversal of fortunes for the Centauri Republic. His joviality arouses the suspicions of Security Chief Garibaldi, who decides to keep an eye on him. G’Kar is also angered by Londo’s flippant disregard for either the ten thousand Narns killed at Quadrant 37 (episode A22) or the crew of the Narn warship dispatched to investigate Z’ha’dum (episode B2).

Londo meets with Mr. Morden, who asks Londo to let them know if Garibaldi continues to investigate his activities. Shortly after this, Londo speaks to Lord Refa on Centauri Prime, unaware that Garibaldi has hacked the transmission. Refa and Londo agree to meet in person to discuss the latest events, including the attack on Quadrant 37 and the Centauri Emperor’s failing health. Garibaldi “borrows” a shuttle to investigate. Lt. Keffer sees the theft in progress but, rather than report Garibaldi, offers to fly the shuttle for him. Morden then intercepts Londo and tells him to cancel his meeting with Refa and undertake a diplomatic mission elsewhere, whilst his “associates” deal with Mr. Garibaldi.

Garibaldi and Keffer’s shuttle arrives at Londo and Refa’s meeting place, a remote outpost planet on the fringes of Centauri space. Keffer tells Garibaldi that he can trust Sheridan, but Garibaldi retorts that Sheridan hasn’t earned that trust like Sinclair did. Keffer asks him how he and Sinclair built up that trust and Garibaldi agrees to tell him the story.

Six years earlier, in 2253, Garibaldi was running a shuttle transport service on Mars Colony. He’d been fired from his last couple of jobs and found the transport gig an easy way to make money. He was also drinking way too much. He was hired by Lt. Commander Jeffrey Sinclair to survey a remote area of Syria Planum where odd readings had been detected by Earthforce.

Garibaldi’s story is interrupted by the arrival of a Shadow fighter, which shoots down the shuttle. Keffer manages to make an emergency landing on the planetary surface and he and Garibaldi set out for a Centauri settlement about fifteen miles away. However, the Shadow fighter lands at the crash site and the mysterious crew eliminate all trace of the crash before heading off in pursuit of Garibaldi and Keffer. To distract them from the danger, Garibaldi resumes his story.

Sinclair and two fellow officers, Foster and Sanchez, were tasked with looking for anything “that shouldn’t be there.” After several days of surveying remote regions of the Martian surface, the shuttle’s guidance system failed and the ship crashed, killing Foster instantly and injuring both Sinclair and Foster. The nearest settlement was fifty miles away. Sinclair, whose injuries were lighter, and Garibaldi set out on foot, leaving Foster in the (arguably) greater safety of the shuttle wreck. The two men were trapped in a cave by a sandstorm and then a rockslide. Garibaldi, fighting both alcoholism and post-traumatic stress disorder after Kemmer’s death, managed to pull himself together and rescue Sinclair from the rockslide. The two men then resumed their trek out of the desert.

They were distracted by a disturbance nearby and came across a startling sight: a huge, black, spider-like ship embedded in the Martian surface. Another ship of the same design was hovering above, using a powerful energy beam to cut it free. On the ground were humans, people apparently helping the excavation from a mobile base. After knocking out two of the humans when they stumbled across Sinclair and Garibaldi, they realised they were telepaths: they had no comms gear in their helmets. Using a stolen transport vehicle, Garibaldi and Sinclair gained entry to the base and discovered that the telepaths were conducting experiments on other humans using alien bio-technology, possible recovered from the alien ship. Discovered, Garibaldi and Sinclair blasted their way out, using grenades to almost destroy the base. The telepaths remained to save the base rather than pursue Sinclair and Garibaldi, who recovered Sanchez and drove out of the desert. They later flew back to the recovery site and found that the entire site had been sterilised with no trace of the alien ships, the telepaths or their base.

In the present, Keffer and Garibaldi are attacked by the occupants of the Shadow ship: feral, goblin-like creatures with telepathic powers who try to convince Keffer and Garibaldi to kill one another. They fail and are shot dead. Their bodies are vapourised by self-destruct devices moments later. They reach the Centauri city and are arrested. The security chief contacts Babylon 5 to ask for Ambassador Mollari’s opinion. Londo, after a moment’s hesitation, vouches for them and arranges for them to be returned to Babylon 5.

Back on the station Sheridan reads Garibaldi the riot act, but Garibaldi is certain that something is going on. After describing the alien ships he saw on Mars, Keffer recognised them as the same ships he saw in hyperspace during the Cortez mission (episode B4). Garibaldi also shows Sheridan the only piece of evidence he recovered from the crash site: a tattered Psi Corps badge.

Unbeknown to Garibaldi, one of the telepaths being experimented on at Mars was Talia Winters…

The Arc: Garibaldi experiences traumatic flashbacks to the death of his friend Kemmer on Europa (as related in A13).

Garibaldi and Sinclair’s adventures on Mars are referred to in episode C8, which picks up on some dangling plot threads from this episode and even features flashbacks to some of the same events. This may be the very first instance of a live-action television series directly referring to the events of the tie-in comic in a canonical fashion.

The suggestion that Talia was being experimented on by Psi Corps using Shadow technology is an utterly explosive revelation to seed in spin-off material, and is explored further in episode B19.

This issue hints at a relationship between the Shadows, Earth and Psi Corps. Episodes C1, C5 and C14 expand on this idea significantly.

Background: The aliens on the Shadow fighter are servants of the Shadows, rather than Shadows themselves. They are short, humanoid, ugly and have low-level telepathic powers. Despite their ability to run extremely fast and their evident hostility, they are not skilled in combat and are easily dispatched.

However, a Shadow itself – the semi-invisible insectoid aliens seen at the end of episode A22 – can be seen in the final comic on Mars. Its outline is discernible in the far left of the big splash image of the Psi Corps base, watching over events from afar.

Sinclair was a Lt. Commander in 2253, having been a lieutenant during the Battle of the Line in 2247/48. He was only made a Commander later on, in 2255 or 56, prior to taking command of Babylon 5. This is a fairly slow career progression, reflecting his fall from grace following the Earth-Minbari War.

Londo’s role in the destruction of the base in Quadrant 39 appears to be quite well-known amongst certain Centauri politicians and military personnel on even remote outposts.

Mistakes, Retcons and Lamentations: Garibaldi openly admits to spying on Londo’s outgoing transmissions. It is highly improbable that Garibaldi would do this, would be capable of doing this (since Centauri technology is superior to Earth’s) or would admit it so blatantly to Londo’s face.

The colony where Garibaldi was stationed and Kemmer was killed is mistaken identified as Io; it was in fact Europa. An ice-mining operation on Io, the most volcanically active body in the Solar system, would be impressive.

It’s unclear why the telepaths don’t spot Garibaldi and Keffer immediately, since they cannot communicate with anyone else. Perhaps their guard was down or they were uncomfortable using their telepath powers so close to a Shadow ship.

Behind the Scenes: This four-issue arc was published under the banner title Shadows Past and Present, divided into the individual issues With Friends Like These…, Against the Odds, Survival the Hard Way and Silent Enemies.

Unlike the first story arc, J. Michael Straczynski was credited as the story writer for these four issues.

Familiar Faces: Writer Tim DeHaas has worked mostly in comics, but has written two episodes of Star Trek: Identity Crisis for The Next Generation and Phage for Voyager.

Artist John Ridgway is a noted British comic book artist, best-known for some accomplished work on various Doctor Who comic books dating back to the 1980s and also his work on Hellblazer.

Review: A massive step-up from the first comic arc, this four-issue arc features much better artwork (if rather less “clean” than Ridgway’s other work) and a story that not only reflects on and nods to the arc, but actually makes significant additions to it: the Shadows are working with some humans, some of their ships are buried underground on other worlds and the Shadows and Psi Corps have some involvement in experiments involving Talia Winters. And it all stems from a throwaway line of dialogue from one of the worst episodes of the show (Garibaldi’s brief mention of “walking out of the desert” in A4). It’s not high art, but it’s a serviceable and very solid addition to the Babylon 5 mythos. ***½

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs. The Cities of Fantasy series is debuting on my Patreon feed and you can read it there one month before being published on the Wertzone.