T.K. Wade -- Author

Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Under the Umbran Sun [Short Story Review]

"Under the Umbran Sun" is a short story by Frances Pauli. It is the nineth story in a collection called "Tales of Hayven Celestia," which was published in 2020. As I have already stated, this is a universe created by author Rick Griffin, in which he allowed many other people to write stories in.

So many of these stories have to do with the kangaroo-like geroo race that I sometimes forget there is a plethora of other races that are interesting in their own right. The umbra is a race of bears that have their own story. Like most of the species in this universe, they are enslaved by the krakun.

What's cool about the umbrans is their ability to figure out the quality of precious stones and gems by use of their extremely good eyesight. The main character of this story is a female umbran named Mindelle who is forced to do this in the mines for very little appreciation and money. It is a thankless job that will ultimately lead to her death. What's interesting here is that she has never even seen the giant krakuns, but she still feels the weight of their control.

Without going into spoilers, this entire story is about hope in a near hopeless environment. The world Mindelle lives in is so bad that when something actually good happens, she can barely even acknowledge its existence... because it seems so unreal. This entire story was really good at portraying the very limited viewpoint of a mind in despair and how just a little bit of hope can be enough to climb up out of the mire.

This is one of the best stories in the Hayven Celestia collection. I totally recommend it, especially for those in bad situations. It was really a masterclass in writing.

This blog was written on November 22, 2025.

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Monday, December 29, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Next Life [Short Story Review]

"The Next Life" is a short story by Gre7g Luterman. It is the eighth story in a collection called "Tales of Hayven Celestia," which was published in 2020. As I have already stated, this is a universe created by author Rick Griffin, in which he allowed many other people to write stories in.

The story here has to do with a geroo song-writer named Kaari who is very suddenly and unceremoniously ripped out of her life onboard a geroo generation ship and sold in an auction by a very devious krakun, looking to turn a quick profit. There is also another angle to this story having to do with a lio (lion-like alien race) war criminal who is also captured. The lio and the krakun are at war presently, so krakun would bid for him in order to torture and kill him. Tough stuff.

The crazy part of this story is just the very suddenness of how life can completely and utterly change in a moment. Much of it has to do with Kaari's attempts to struggle with this fact, and it is done with flawless precision. No spoilers here; just understand that this is one of the best stories in the series that I have read so far. Very touching!

"The Next Life" is a brilliant slice of life out of the Hayven Celestia series. I loved it. I even took it slowly because of how much I was enjoying it. I definitely give this story one of my highest recommendations.

This blog was written on November 13, 2025.

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Wednesday, December 24, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight - The Lone Ranger on Powder Horn Trail [Book Review]

"The Lone Ranger on Powder Horn Trail" is a book written by Fran Striker. It was published in 1949. This is actually the eleventh book in the novel series. I don't normally read books out of order like this, but I figured it might not be such a big deal since I already knew a lot about the Lone Ranger outside of the books.

Solid story! The Lone Ranger is tracking down someone called the Arizona Kid for the murder of a Texas ranger. The only problem is that the Kid may actually be innocent. The Lone Ranger has to contend with his code and his vows to bring the Kid in for a fair trial while also realizing that doing so may get an innocent man hanged.

I used to see the Lone Ranger as more of a kid's thing, but this book was well written and honestly kept me wondering what was going to happen right to the end. There was even a sense of danger throughout. This was especially evident when a shot from ambush caused an avalanche that nearly crushes the Lone Ranger to death. All the details of this event was well described and honestly breathtaking.

I guess the reason I was scratching my head was that I did not expect such a gripping story from a serial book series about the Lone Ranger. But here it is! I am kind of interested in reading more. At the very least, I'd like to read the first one at some point. Either way, I recommend this one for sure if you can find yourself a copy.

This blog was written on November 8, 2025.

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Monday, December 22, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight - Hexen: Beyond Heretic [Video Game Review]

"Hexen: Beyond Heretic" is a video game developed by Raven Software and published by Id Software. It was released in 1995, although I am playing a modern re-release that came out in 2025.

"Heretic" was like "Doom" but with a D&D esthetic. "Hexen: Beyond Heretic" is something vastly different. For the first time, the Doom engine has been modified to be truly dynamic and genuinely atmospheric. For an old game with old graphics, it looks amazing. It also does not have the same map-by-map structure of "Heretic" or "Doom." It is an open world structure that let's you go from place to place with an emphasis on exploration. Sometimes you need to even go back to older maps, although there are points where you do get cut off permanently as the game progresses.

Usually there is a hug map, and you have to travel around outside of it, always returning to open up new doors. It is a very satisfying mapping structure. I always enjoyed exploring in this game. It also helped that the diverse locations and atmospheres were really good.

You can play three different characters in this game: a fighter, a cleric, and a mage. I have only tried the fighter so far, and it was really cool using melee weapons in a game like this. I enjoyed it a lot. You can, by the way, switch characters whenever you like... I just never did.

Once more, you can use items which will help you along the way, but there is also magic you have to pick up to keep your magic weapons charged. There are two types of magics too, which was weird.

I really enjoyed this game, and I am kind of sad I waited so long to play it. The thing that boggles my mind is that it still looks like "Doom" but like if Doom was a bit more advanced. It feels like it is somewhere between "Doom" and "Quake." Either way, I do recommend playing "Hexen: Beyond Heretic."

The best way to play it these days is through the excellent "Heretic + Hexen" remaster released by NightDive Studios. Enjoy!

This blog was written on October 24, 2025.

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Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Bugs on a Ring [Short Story Review]

"Bugs on a Ring" is a short story by Wyatt Winters. It is the seventh story in a collection called "Tales of Hayven Celestia," which was published in 2020. As I have already stated, this is a universe created by author Rick Griffin, in which he allowed many other people to write stories in.

This story involved an interesting planet where the only place anyone can live is on a ring that lines the entire sphere. The krakun use it for mining purposes, but there are a lot of problems with it. The main character, a ringel named Stitson, is actually there to get revenge. He is trying to murder a krakun, in this case the governor of the ring.

The problem here is that he is so blinded by revenge that he isn't entirely thinking about the innocent slaves that might get in the way. This leads to some terrible imagery that I won't spoil. I'll just say that there are a lot of graphic and violent scenes where some very innocent people lose their lives in this one.

The idea of this story is all about how revenge can often be blinding, or at the very least severely limit someone's vision. The story is well told, and I do recommend it.

This blog was written on October 20, 2025.

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Monday, December 15, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: A Ferrari in the Bedroom [Book Review]

"A Ferrari in the Bedroom" is a book written by Jean Shepherd. It was published in 1972. It is a mix of stories and essays from the perspective of the man himself. Some of it is fiction, and some of it isn't. It doesn't really point out which is which, though.

A long time ago, I read an interesting book called "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent." by Washington Irving. It was a mix of both short stories and essays about England. The stories, such as "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," were pretty good, but the essays were kind of boring. In the case of "A Ferrari in the Bedroom," most everything is at least a little interesting. It has more to do with Americana than boring old England. Although I think that is due to the wonderful way that Jean Shepherd writes. If he had written about England, it would have probably been really enjoyable.

A lot of these chapters had a perspective from his view of the early 70's. It talks a lot about the silliness of commercialism at the time. Seriously, a bunch of the essays had to do with weird products you could buy. The titular "Ferrari" had to do with a bed you could get that was shaped like the car. Why would you even want that? In a lot of ways, this book was about Jean Shepherd looking at the world and wondering what was wrong with it, often equating it to some sort of mental disease.

Jean is more known for telling stories about his life growing up, but in this one most of it is about how he feels in the modern (70's) day. He's rich now, a TV and radio star. He hangs out with Playboy bunnies and flies first class. It is a little strange to see him talk about that stuff, but if he had not gotten famous in the first place, we might not have even heard those heart-warming stories from early books.

This book also has a full play in it intended for marionettes. It was about some losers who used to rebel against society, and now they are old men with no prospects. It was more sad than anything.

There were a few old stories in this book, such as when he went to the Indy 500 with his old man. That was nice, but there just are not a lot of these moments in the book. It's not bad. I found his opinions very charming. He even went into how he noticed women were sort of taking over the role of men, which was sort of the beginning of that movement that's left us a bit confused these days. He was there at the beginning of it.

What I am trying to say is this: The book is good and I do recommend it, but it does not quite have the same spirit as his other two previous books. They were the stories that made him famous. These are more about a sort of shock that happened once we all crashed into the 70's. It's an opinion worth telling, lest we forget.

This blog was written on October 17, 2025.

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Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Super Mario Bros. [Book Review]

"Super Mario Bros." is a book written by Todd Strasser. It is the novelization of the 1993 movie of the same name and was published at the same exact time. If I had known this book existed earlier, I would have read this one a long time ago. Apparently it is based on the original version of the script! It also has the Nintendo Seal on the back, which is a first for me as far as book reading. The movie DVD doesn't even have that.

I actually like this movie and have defended it. Some people say that it is actually a good film but not a good Super Mario film, but I don't agree. I think that if you were going to do a human version of the game, this is about as good as you could expect. Children responded positively to the film when it came out. It was the adults and later generations that did not understand it. Even so, the movie didn't make money, so we never got another one. (And we wanted another one.)

The book follows the film pretty closely, but it does deviate occasionally. Some scenes were added or changed slightly. The elevator goomba dancing scene doesn't happen, although the elevator scene does occur. They just don't dance. However they do dance later when Toad (in the form of a goomba) plays music on his harmonica. I feel that both scenes are necessary for it to be funny though, because it shows that the goombas like music.

Probably the oddest inclusion in the book was that the good king (the one that got turned into a fungus) was named Bowser. It feels like the people who made the script just sort of threw names around without fully knowing the context. This was thankfully omitted from the film.

"Super Mario Bros." is a painfully easy read. It feels like I am just reading scenes from a comedy 90's film. And even though there are some intriguing differences, it is not really better than the movie. For that reason, I don't really recommend the book if you can get ahold of the film, which isn't hard to do. That said, however, it was a good novelty, and I don't regret it. If anything, I am just amazed that the book even exists. Super Mario was actually novelized!

This blog was written on October 15, 2025.

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