J.B. Sommerset

This post is for those of you here in the states, not my friends over seas. To the rest of the free world, I feel obligated to apologize for what comes next, because it’s not just going to affect us. It will have ripples that will change everything. This election was the “go ahead” for the Putins, the Kim Jongs, and the Victor Orbans of the world. For that, as an American, I am sorry. To start with, I am so utterly disappointed in so many people today. I did not vote for him, I voted for Harris. For me, the choice was obvious, and oddly enough, it had nothing to do with politics- we’ve been down that road before with this man, he lied then, like we knew he would. Last night we cast our ballots and let the statistics show the nature of our character and basic values we care about. America voted a 34-time felon, twice impeached, con artist into office. We vapidly put the keys to the country in the hands of a narcissistic mad-man and his cronies. A man, who, by our own adjudication sh...

Well, here it is, the audio book of the week. In this case, since it is coming into the season, the Halloween season that is, I picked something dark. Again, I have mentioned that I like H.P. Lovecraft . I have posted a number of his stories, but it's hard to remember which ones. I know I have posted the likes of " At the Mountains of Madness ", " The Dunwich Horror ", and " The Shadow Over Innsmouth " (one of my personal favorites). I even recently reviewed " The Color out of Space " with Nick Cage - which was really different than the original but okay for what it was. I am almost certain I've never posted this one. This week, lets have a listen to " The Dreams of the Which House ".  Cheers!

Well it's that time again, this week has been busy and I haven't had the time to find something new for the audio book of the week. In part because I have been binging on short stories, this week I have been revisiting one of my favorites " Thomas Ligotti ". Such a juicy and plump set of works. He is a dark delight, and there is a lot of his stuff that I just haven't got to yet, so hear is a new one, at least for me. Enjoy, "The Red Tower" by Thomas Ligotti.  Cheers!

This week I just fell like crushing some skulls and making some dude lament me. That's right, we are going straight Robert E. Howard this week, well, his legacy at least. It's some premium " Conan the Barbarian " goodness. This one is a lot like the last audio book, Tarzan had 23 follow ups, well, Conan had 21 adventures (by Howard ). I plan to own them all someday, but these collections get quite expensive.  This week, I am going to step outside the Robert Howard series, and look at some additions people have written in the Conan sagas, and there are more than I can count. We are going to go with " Conan The Swordsman ", by  L. Sprague de Camp , Lin Carter and Björn Nyberg . A collaboration, great! This is o ne I have never read, so I will be doing this with you this week. I take it the legend himself  needs no introduction so enjoy your skull crushing this week. Cheers! 

Hey gang, it's been a while since I posted an interview with an author. I have posted interviews with authors before, and even this particular author, but not in a very long time. And being that this is one of my favorite authors, the wonderfully weird Kurt Vonnegut , author of such works as " Slaughter House Five ", " Player Piano ", and " Cat's Cradle ", I had to give it a go and put it up for you guys. For those of you who have never read any of his works, shame on you! Go out and get a couple of his novels and dive right in! Hope you enjoy this interview. Cheers!

That's right, I started " House Of The Dragon " season 2. Let's talk about it, like hard, real hard because it does a whole lot right, especially in todays world where screenwriters and showrunners have completely forgotten how to write a good story and then translate it to the screen. Most modern renditions of my favorite childhood stories are so bad that when I watch them I can smell the sour grape and watermelon vape fumes of the douche-people who wrote them. Because that's the kind of image modern literature and film puts in my head. A douchey one with a whole lot of vape-fumes. What an image, it I could describe it, it would look like this: It's this image of an androgynes guy sitting outside the Star-bucks. He's got whispers of chin hair on his prepubescent jawline, and poorly applied black nail polish on his hands. There's an uncentered man-bun on his head, a snake of ratty coils, unwashed hair that smells of pot smoke. Leaning on his tiny littl...

Well, it's that time again, the audio book of the week, although due to broken links these things are not as reliable as they used to be. This week I was exposed to the Disney film- " Tarzan ". Although it's a great kids movie, the Disney show doesn't really capture even half of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books by the same name. Of which, most people don't realize that Tarzan of the apes had a butt-load of adventures. Tarzan appeared in 24 stories written by the OG himself and numerous adaptations by other authors who loved his work! So, forgive me if this is a repost of an older book, there are too many to keep up with. This week I chose " Tarzan the Untamed ". Enjoy this turn of the century goodness.  Cheers!

Sometimes it's hard to keep the bi-weekly audio book up because often there are broken links, bad readings, missing chapters, and so on. A lot of the time they don't stay up because of this. They will get flagged and I will remove them. I hope that doesn't happen with this weeks audiobook. Speaking of... This week I chose to post a different, more contemporary book from a very prolific writer- James Patterson. I hope you enjoy! Cheers!

Before I get started, just as an F.Y.I., a couple of my audiobooks have been flagged because of broken links, this should be fixed soon.  Moving on, this week I am going to call back to a favorite. This week I am calling back to H.P. Lovecraft , one of my favs. I have posted his work a couple times but I hold back a bit when it comes to him. A person can get tired of the same thing over and over. I ration it well. This week is going to be one of the times when I was in the mood for some out of this world body horror and occult mayhem. This week it's " The Horror at Redhook ". I hope you all enjoy! Cheers!

When I was a kid I used to read every fantasy book I could get my hands on. Short stories, novels, comics, graphic novels, it didn't matter. Among those were some of the classics. I have posted a number of them over the years here on my site. But there is one author I can't seem to recall ever posting, and I really don't know why. If this is somehow a repost, I apologize. I don't think it is. This week we are going back to the The land of Narnia . I say back to, because most of you out there are very familiar with " The Chronicles of Narnia " by C.S. Lewis . If you haven't read the books, you most likely have seen one of the many film adaptations of them. My biggest disappointment was that only four of the books were ever made into movies, which is a shame because my two favorites were never even considered- " The Horse and his Boy " and " The Magician's Nephew ". I like " The Last Battle ", but it isn't my favorite. S...

Okay, for some reason this didn't post like it should have 2 weeks ago, so I am going to make up for it and post it now. Moving forward these will be on schedule, I am adding them to my workflow. Anyway, moving forward. We all know how much I loves me some Mark Twain , I have posted a lot of his works, form " Tom Sawyer " to " Huck Finn ", but for some reason I have never posted this one, which is weird, it sort of falls into his well known works. So, here it is, this week I am posting " The Prince and The Pauper ", Bon, appetite! Cheers!

I was skeptical when I saw the trailer for " The Creator ", it seemed like it had been done a number of times before- from " Terminator " to " A.I. " In other words, I didn't think it could be original or even come across as authentic. I was wrong, and I will give this film more credit than most of the critics did. I think it deserves that, because it's hard to come up with anything that even has original paint. This movie has a crap ton happening, and while it's true that there are so many call outs and themes that appear to be stollen from other movies, I assure you this story is very much an original work. And those call outs are more tributes than anything else. The plot is one that I have addressed here many times and struggle with, especially right now. Artificial intelligence is something I am VERY cautious of. For the most part A.I. has been vilified in movies and stories, it's usually the big-bad-guy in most science fiction films t...

This week's book is a well known story for any science fiction fan. In fact there was a movie made from the book- although it doesn't deserve the association. Not because it's a bad movie, it just doesn't represent the book or the author. I would say it shares the name and not much else because as creative as the movie is, the book is better and has more to it. For those of you who don't know, I am a big Robert A. Heinlein fan, and find the mans work, often, ahead of it's time. I have posted his work from time to time, but for some reason I have never posted the full length audio book of " Starship Troopers ". Not sure why, maybe it's because it's not his best work- it's good, but he has done better. Anyway, here it is- I give you Starship Troopers. Cheers!

Every once in a while I like to put a title in here that I have not read and know nothing about. It keeps it fresh and I will most likely post more books that I haven't read before. This audiobook is a little outside of the bi-weekly range, but I have been busy and also "I caught a wee sniffle". I don't know anything about it and I am not really sure if it's going to be any good. But I am down to give someone a few extra likes, clicks, or subs. So here we go, this week is " A Hunt in Winter " by Conor Brady , apparently, its a thriller. We'll see about that. Enjoy! Cheers!

I recently watched " The Fall of the House of Usher " on Netflix, loved it BTWs and wrote a review of it which can be found here . It got me thinking... I might have missed some of other stories created by the same author. That's right, you know who I mean, Edgar Allan Poe . I will still contend that I am not a E.A.P. super fan. Hell I have barely read a couple of his stories, but the mini-series was so good that I decided to give it another go. So, this week I bring some of his short stories to the table for the listening. I hope you enjoy this collection.  Cheers!

Okay, now that the holidays are over, it's back to our regularly scheduled program. An audio book every other week for those of us who don't have the time to read. This week we lean on the classics- Jules Verne . I think I have posted this one before, a long, long time ago. As with most good books they deserve a second time around, maybe a third, maybe we just keep reading them again and again our whole lives and enjoy them more and more- they age like fine wine. The older the better. Anyway, this week I am going to be "digging" down deep and journeying to the center of our world with "A journey to the Interior of the Earth" (Also known as "Journey to the Center of the Earth"). I hope you all enjoy this one, as a kid it was one of my favorites.  Cheers!

This next one is one I have posted before. I indulge in this story once or twice a year because it has special meaning to me. I think, for anyone who has suffered with someone who has Alzheimer's or Dementia, this one might hold a special place in the world of literature. That's right, this weeks audio book is Don Quixote   by  Miguel de Cervantes . There is something about this story that just takes me back to when I had to deal with a person who fought "giants".  Cheers!

Since Thanksgiving is coming this month, I decided to post this one a week earlier. Let's face it, the only thing anyone wants to do the day after Thanksgiving is have a comma. For all of you outside of the US, it's just going to be a bonus book, granted, I haven't been 100% consistent these last few weeks, but I can't argue with an extra read, and neither should you.  This week, it's all about science fiction. Who better to tell a story in that genre than the king of science fiction himself, that's right, Isaac Asimov . Most of us know the name, and most of us know about some of his works, such as, " The Foundation Trilogy ". But there is so much more to him than that fantastic series. He's kind of like Frank Herbert in that way. Anyway, here it is, I bring you this week's story- " The Naked Sun " Enjoy!

I recently finished a Netflix original I thought deserved more credit than it got, even though it got a lot of credit. Usually, most of the shows on streaming services are okay, some are even "meh". Some deserve only the mention of ridicule: Good examples of those include, but are not limited to, " The Wheel of Time " and " The Rings of Power " (based loosely on some stollen material from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien ). Both are decidedly horrid when compared to the books. The latter is more than horrid, I can't express how bad it is, in fact, I just threw up in my mouth a little trying to forget I mentioned it. If you avoid one show in your life, avoid "The Rings of Power", utter fucking trash.  Enough of that negativity! Onward! The show I speak of, the reason I wrote this post, is " The Fall of the House of Usher " based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe . In fact, it's based on one of his short stories, but there is so much mor...

I think I posted this one a while ago. A long while ago. But being that we just that "Halloween", I thought about posting it, but wasn't sure that I should. I try not to be stale here on the site and avoid repeating myself. So I wasn't going to repost. Then I watched " Renfield " just before Halloween, and decided I had to repost the original story by " Bram Stoker ". That's right, the bi-weekly audiobook this week is " Dracula " by Bram Stoker (Incidentally if you haven't seen "Renfield", it's fun entertainment, it's good for a laugh or two, a great Saturday night movie).  Cheers!