C.A. Powell's Blog

Sergeant McGrew is a rough-cut man from Belfast. His crew are everything to him. New recruits are regarded with superstition. There are reasons why. Four of the five-man crew, have been with the tank...



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Sergeant McGrew is a rough-cut man from Belfast. His crew are everything to him. New recruits are regarded with superstition. There are reasons why. Four of the five-man crew, have been with the tank commander for over four years. McGrew and his surviving troopers have witnessed many traumatic events, including the tragic deaths of various friends along the bloody journey through World War II. From North Africa, Italy and finally Northern Europe. It is now early February 1945. A few days prior to the Reichswald Forest Campaign. They have a new recruit and once again the superstitious feelings of dread and loss begin to grow in McGrew and his seasoned trooper’s minds. Are the veterans going to witness another recruit perish before the finishing line of a costly war? Or will the likeable young trooper make it? http://thelastdaysofthunderchild.blog...

Why did the late Mr. Ballantyne continuously speak of such radiance caused by the presence of strange little fairy folk? Why did no one believe him? https://amzn.to/3fj5BOe #Supernatural #Fairy...



topics, reading, writing, novels, space exploration, moyra melons, reader, amwriting,

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Why did the late Mr. Ballantyne continuously speak of such radiance caused by the presence of strange little fairy folk? Why did no one believe him? https://amzn.to/3fj5BOe #Supernatural #Fairy #Mythical #LegendaryCreature #Pixie #Sprite #Horror #Thrillerhttp://thelastdaysofthunderchild.blog...

Artist (Peter Moran) impression of Thunder Child.


How the aging ship of HMS Thunder Child may have looked from the science fiction novel of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds.
It was a great adventure fantasizing about such a ship and I would imagine it was splendid fun designing the interior along the lines of the Devastation class ship built-in 1871 with a sister ship named HMS Thunderer to follow.
This interior design was done by the book's cover artist Peter Moran. I love the detail of this and it does make for a very atmospheric feel. It sat very low in the water and there is a small ram to the front, below the waterline.
You will notice, in the image, that the revolving turret still has its short stubby muzzle loading guns. In history, muzzleloaders were obsolete in the Royal Navy by the time of 1898, when the alien invasion story is roughly set.
On a whim, I took unashamed liberty to still have one ship using muzzleloaders for this science fiction pastiche story. I think I did this because the Devastation class sister ship HMS Thunderer had a terrible accident using the muzzle loading guns in 1879 during a gunnery exercise. Plus the ship's names are similar.
Because of this accident, the admiralty ended all muzzleloaders, and ships were converted to longer barrelled breech loaders.
As this is a science fiction story and with an emphasis on the fiction aspect, I wanted to use a poetic license and bend the rules for the 'make-believe' HMS Thunder Child - our Martian fighting fictional ship.
I know there is a hoard of HMS Polyphemus fans out there. I've often had comments on such. I appreciate them, but I have chosen to indulge in the Devastation presentation with a small ram. Therefore, for all Polyphemus fans, fair play to you all, but I like the older idea of this fictitious almost like a Devastation class ship.
Peter Moran undertook a great project of presenting the ship's interior. I love this image. I hope you good people do too. 😃👍
#WarOfTheWorlds #sciencefiction #readers #scifiart #scifihorror #scifi #scifibooks Grinning faceThumbs upThe Last Days of...1. Thunder Child https://buff.ly/2NkEbbQ2. The Fighting Machine https://buff.ly/2MNil1N3. Purgatory https://buff.ly/2Lkls0Bhttp://thelastdaysofthunderchild.blog...

Jago & Litefoot: Series 3 by Andy Lane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This third series spreads its wings a little more and each of the four stories draws to a dynamic climax in the fourth tale.
Leela of Doctor Who fame turns up on Professor Litefoot's front door. She has been sent on an important mission by Romana (Another Doctor Who companion)
Leela has a device that measures the fabric of time and there are holes and distortions around Victorian London. She needs the help of Jago and Litefoot to put the anomalies to right. This our intrepid duo agree to do and off we all go on some splendid uncanny adventures.
Great fun and highly recommended to any Big Finish fans or Doctor Who spin-off fans. I know I keep mentioning it, but the dialogue between Jago and Litefoot as complete quality. I love it bits.

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Counter-Measures: Series 2 Box Set by Matt Fitton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very well presented Audible. This is the second series I have listened to while at work. I particularly liked the last story. Some splendid ideas for uncanny mystery and scientific manipulation in dangerous areas. All set in Britain of 1963. Everything seems to work well within the confined limits of that time and place. Very entertaining and well worth listening to.

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Jago and Litefoot go Season Fourth.
I can't help loving a bit of pretentious flowery dialogue. In these Jago and Litefoot stories, we have it in abundance. Especially from the Victorian theatre manager, Mister Jago. Professor Litefoot does not do bad either with his pretentious wit. Now we have the Doctor Who character of Leela thrown into the mix with her Sevatean warrior straight talk.
It all makes for splendid dark humour and a wonderful uncanny season 4 jaunt. This series had two fine stories out of the four. I must confess to being not to keen on the first tale set in Brighton. But the second and third just blew me away with fiendish cleverness on the part of whoever wrote the scripts. The fourth was hijacked and I felt our friends went backstage for long periods.
One of the stories, I liked, involves Oscar Wilde. The creepy tale is very clever and an absolute peach of a listen. A diabolical conundrum that is splendidly thought out. I know I am always raving about the wonderful dialogue between Jago and Litefoot but I honestly can't express how much I love it all.
In one part of the tale, Jago heaps colourful and pretentious praise upon Oscar Wild. The arrogant writer casually bats back a culinary machine gun of pretentious words that leaves Jago dumbfounded and gulping. For once the theatre manager is at a loss for words. Furthermore, he has been raked by several words that he has never heard before. It was excellent humour.
Then, to top it all, the actual story was fabulously dark and ghastly. Science fiction - horror and Gothic shivers at its sublime best. Whoever sat down and thought out this plot was very good indeed.
Then the fourth seemed to bomb a little. Jago and Litefoot are the stars and in this story, they seemed to be pushed in the background. Therefore despite having one of the most enjoyable of the stories so far, it also had one that was not so good. I might have given it three stars out of five, but I did enjoy the Oscar Wild story. That got a six out of five - lol. The overall performance earns the entire series 4 a four-star in all.http://thelastdaysofthunderchild.blog...

Richard Stanley wrote and directed the script for the British science fiction movie called Hardware. There were some noted cameo roles from Rock Stars of the time. Three of them being Iggy Pop as the radio presenter and the strange desert traveler who finds the robot parts played by Carl McCoy of Fields of the Nephilim rock band. Then there was Lemmy of Motörhead and Hawkwind fame.

The two main stars were Dylan McDermott and Stacey Travis. American actors who gave the movie a broader range of audience appeal.

The desert wanderer has unknowingly found parts for a self-repairing robot. It is some form of military hardware and once it repairs its self after being sold to an out of work creative artist, the diabolical machine goes on a killing spree. The original version had a number of grisly murders in it. However, it was edited before release and many of the more gruesome scenes were omitted.

It has since become a cult movie but it did cause a great deal of controversy when the British comic group 2000 AD saw the film. There was a court case of plagiarism issued and by Fleetway comics because it was from a short story called SHOCK! It was in the 1981 Judge Dredd Annual. The case was successful and certain monies had to be paid and on-screen credits to the story of SHOK! are included in screening, etc.

The film is set in a post-apocalyptic future and was made on a budget of £950,000 and grossed in excess of 5.2 million at the box office. Some of the close camera work and lighting gave the film some good authenticity.
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A very well presented Audible. This is the third series I have listened to while at work. I particularly liked the last story. Some splendid ideas for uncanny mystery and scientific manipulation in dangerous areas. All set in Britain of 1965. Everything seems to work well within the confined limits of that time and place. Very entertaining and well worth listening to. It is also very atmospheric too. I will listen to all the other Counter Measures on Big Finish. I'm a fan all the way.http://thelastdaysofthunderchild.blog...