Other Non-Fiction
On TV & Film
I don’t know the first thing about film criticism, but it can be fun to try anyway.
- Lunopolis (2010, director: Matthew Avant)
- Pontypool (2009, director: Bruce McDonald)
- Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010, director: David Yates)
- A review of a review of Inception (I hadn’t seen the film when I wrote this. LOL SATIRE.)
- Triangle (2009, director: Christopher Smith)
- Four Lions (2010, director: Chris Morris)
- We Jam Econo (2005, director: Tim Irwin)
- Primeval: It’s Exactly What You’d Expect (a bit of a piss-take)
I also wrote some stuff about moving pictures for the dreadfully-named website Den of Geek.
- DVD review: Sealab 2021 Season 1 (Adult Swim)
- DVD review: The Mist (2009, dir: Frank Darabont)
- Article: Zombies Can Run
On Games
Before launching Arcadian Rhythms I wrote a few trial pieces on a few different games. These be they.
- DeTweet (PC).
- Time Fcuk (PC).
- The Terrible Whiteness of Appalachian Nights (PC).
- Blood Bowl (Xbox 360).
- Some thoughts on Mass Effect 2 plus an earlier post, Massively affecting.
- Slaying the Master Race (an article, not a review)
- Psychonauts (Xbox Classics; Xbox 360)
- Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa (PC) (Beta Impressions)
- Command & Conquer: The First Decade (PC)
I also wrote some stuff about digital entertainment play for the dreadfully-named website Den of Geek.
- Game review: Race Pro (360)
- Game review: Dragon Quest IV: the Chapters of the Chosen (Nintendo DS)
- Game review: ObsCure II (PC)
- Article: Rewind the Grind: Putting the boot into the MMO
- Game review: Racedriver GRID (PC)
- Article: 10 PC Classics – Get your nostalgia on!
- Game review: Civilization Revolution (360)
- Game review: Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit (360)
- Game review: Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1 – On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness (360 Arcade)
Everything else…
- Re/Action Magazine #1 (Winter 2010/11) – a review of a feminist magazine devoted to analysing pop culture.
- The 20th Sussex CAMRA Beer & Cider Festival - a review of a beardy booze event, written for a friend’s beer & pub website. He never finished it.
- Some Other Advice On Writing - an article written for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Workshop newsletter (first appeared in #298 in 2006). It’s a ragtag, motley bundle of assorted advice, tips, etc. It’s not very good, as you would expect from fiction-writing advice written by a mostly unpublished writer of fiction.
- Recommended Books On Writing - 2006. Another article written for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Workshop newsletter (first appeared in #297). This one’s basically just a glorified but concise list of books that I think are useful for writers.
- Autobiographies of Death, Life and Love: Sartre, Beauvoir, and Rose (2003) – a 2000-word essay examining three autobiographical works in which the themes of death, life, and love are prevalent. The works in question are Jean-Paul Sartre’s Words (Les Mots), Gillian Rose’s Love’s Work, and Simone de Beauvoir’s A Very Easy Death. Written, of course, for my undergrad degree in English literature.
- Ian McEwan as a “New Eroticist”: The ‘Night Words’ of In Between The Sheets (2003) -a 2000-word essay examining some of Ian McEwan’s early short stories through the lens of George Steiner’s essays on erotic fiction. Also written for my degree.
- The Uncanny in China Miéville’s “New Weird”: An Examination of Perdido Street Station and The Scar (2003) – a 2000-word essay searching for elements of what we understand as “uncanniness” (das unheimliche) in China Mieville’s Bas-Lag novels. Also written for my degree.
The last three essays are from my time at the University of Sussex. As far as I know the copyright for these essays actually belongs to the university, but since I wrote them and am not using them for commercial purposes I figure putting them up here qualifies as fair use.
If any student is tempted to try and copy any of these for their own education, I recommend they take a long, hard look at themselves. If they then copy the essay anyway, at least try and be a bit less pompous than I was.
