Arthur, Merlin and the Knights are ambushed by mercenaries when they attempt to take a shortcut through the Valley of the Kings. Merlin takes a blow to the chest and Arthur helps move him to a safer location where they both can hide. Under the cover of the night, Merlin and Arthur try to make the situation a bit more lighthearted, talking of heroism and cowardice. When they wake in the morning, Arthur hoists Merlin over his shoulders, hoping they can outrun the men chasing them. Unfortunately, they are pinned in a narrow passageway, forcing Arthur to put Merlin down and fight. Merlin does what he can to ensure Arthur’s safety by causing a rockslide, but he is now alone and injured. (more…)
Undeniably one of the best games from the Playstation 2 catalogue, ICO: Castle in the Mist was a game I had rented but never finished and then fell through the cracks of my very growing game backlog. So when I saw that Viz was publishing Miyuki Miyabe’s novelization of the game under their Haikasoru imprint, I was elated. I would finally know how the story played out without the frustrations of actually solving the puzzles. 
Yuriko Morisaki’s life does a major 180 one day when she is removed from class and sent home for the rest of the day. None of the adults will tell her what’s going on, and when she finally finds out, it is the worst kind of news possible. Her brother viciously attacked students in his class, killing one of them, and is nowhere to be found. 
As a huge Gears of War fan, I was excited when Epic and Random House announced that there would be novels filling in some of the gaps and back story behind the award winning video game franchise. This first novel would not only take us back to the often referenced battle at Aspho Fields, but would help fill in a few gaps on what happened between the first and second video game. 