Can the new video game and its tie-in TV show (or is it the other way around?) give a new twist to an old alien invasion tale?
by Kellie Sheridan
THE CONCEPT
Four years ago, Syfy/Universal Cable Productions teamed up with Trion Worlds (the creators of MMORPG, Rift) to work on something they hoped would be revolutionary for science fiction entertainment… and Defiance was born. On the one hand, Defiance is a video game in the Rift-school, a Massively Multi-Player Online Roleplaying Game potentially featuring thousands of individual avatars and scores of plotlines. …

An homage to Sam Raimi’s cult horror trilogy, in the wake of the (inevitable, really) remake.
by David Baldwin
After years of rumors, the remake of Evil Dead is finally here. I thought it was well worth the wait, but obviously anything will be considered inferior to Sam Raimi’s original trilogy.
Shot between 1979-1980 but not officially premiered until 1982, Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead introduced the world to the now legendary Bruce Campbell, and his buffoonish jerk character Ashley J. Williams – but we all know him better as Ash. Although movies …

A bargain, a rip-off, a bizarre trophy or a priceless momento? A look at the practice of paying a celebrity to be nice to you.
by Rachel Hyland
There is a tangible electricity in the air, a frisson of anticipatory glee as scores of men and women – mostly women – stand in line for an approximately 30 second encounter with Jason Momoa. A privilege for which they have paid quite handsomely.
Star of Stargate Atlantis, Conan and Game of Thrones (Season 1, anyway), Momoa’s is a towering presence as he emerges from …

In the first installment of a new series, one gamer takes on a new MMORPG—and we’re along for the ride.
by Kellie Sheridan
In July of 2012, Funcom released The Secret World, a massively-multiplayer online game set in a world of Urban Fantasy. The game takes place in the modern day real world, but includes all kinds of fantasy elements, from mythology all the way to pop culture. The result is an immersive game that sheds traditional game elements like levels and character classes in order to give its players a unique …

Justin Cronin’s despised sequel The Twelve, and a great literary tradition it might well uphold
by Kate Nagy
The Twelve, the sequel to Justin Cronin’s wildly popular 2010 vampire thriller The Passage, was published last fall to reviews that were, alas, rather less than ecstatic. “The Twelve bites,” was the succinct, if somewhat unkind, conclusion drawn by one waggish reviewer. Various critics have cited the book’s overpopulation, tissue-thin characterization, and surplus plot lines as flaws, and I have to concede that they have a point. There are too many characters, not to …

Earlier this year, geek goddess Felicia Day drew her hit webseries to a close… or did she?
by Kellie Sheridan
For anyone who has somehow not yet heard, The Guild is a geektastic webseries that follows the “real lives” of a guild of six socially awkward gamers as they interact both in and out of their favorite online video game. You can even argue it is the web series, as it was one of the very first to reach large scale popularity, and is even credited as being part of Joss Whedon’s …

Twitter followers – along with corporate sponsor Blackberry – help create a year’s worth of magic.
by Geonn Cannon
Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors, but even I have a hard time quantifying him. Sure, he’s an author, but of what exactly? Short stories, comic books, novels? Yes, all of the above. But he also writes children’s books, and he provided at least one song for his wife Amanda Palmer’s 8-in-8 album (the amazing “The Problem with Saints”). If it’s made of words, Neil has either written one or will …

A look at what has made the great man so great for so long.
by Amy Sharma
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger
Born: July 30, 1947 in Thal, Styria, Austria
“You have to remember something: Everybody pities the weak; jealousy you have to earn.”
Oh Arnold. Where to begin? A few years ago, The Daily Show named Charlton Heston “Man of the Century” (good gravy that was in 2000 – I am old!). I wouldn’t go so far as to give that title to Arnold. But he is so versatile of an actor as to be able …

The Horde vs. the Alliance, PVE vs. PVP and so much more: leveling with the novice on how to level up.
by Kellie Sheridan
Massively multiplayer online games (or MMOs) are the epitome of social gaming. Thousands of players gather together on one server to live out their fantasy lives together, questing and being the heroes they may never get to be in real life. For almost ten years now, World of Warcraft has ruled the MMO scene, despite being a game that many subscribers are not even willing to admit they …

With Brandon Sanderson’s A Memory of Light at last rounding out the series, a look back at the fourteen books in Robert Jordan’s work of Epic Fantasy.
by K. Burtt
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the halls of Geek Speak Magazine. …