Welcome to My Swarm of Villains!

You read right--this is Brian Ranzoni's review blog for all things book, movie, and video game. It has three jobs: to entertain you, to educate you, and to earn a bit of your money in return. I chose Blogger because it helps me to minimize the amount of stuff I'm storing on brianranzoni.com; don't wanna keep all my eggs in one basket. Also, it helps me to link reviewed products to Amazon.com, giving me a little bit of ad revenue to help support my website. I write for a living, folks. You don't trade essays for milk down at the supermarket.

But even if you do not spent a cent here, I thank you for spending your time and attention. If I fail in my mission to amuse or to inform, then exercise your consumer right to notify me.

Another thing you should know about what I do... My reviews have a higher standard of evidence and logic than most websites I encounter. But they are not scientific studies--they are personal opinion. I do not feel obligied to back everything I say with a proper topic sentence and supporting paragraphs linked to a works cited page. Therefore, my reviews should only be treated as a guide--always check out the subject for yourself. Even if I tell you not to read a bad book, not to watch a bad film, or not to play a bad game, you should ignore me and find out for yourself. Personal experience is one of the only sources of knowledge that hold weight with me.

Likewise, you have no obligation to invest in something that I think is the bee's knees. In accordance with my Uncle Jim's Rule, "If you could die doing it, don't." My corollary: "If you could waste money doing it, don't".

This is all disclosure, and I believe in it, because even if it gives some ammunition to critics, it also buys reader respect.

I might condenscend to you in these pages. I might make jokes that offend rather than enlighten. I will falter in scholarly methodology. I live in a politically and academically partisan state, where people are so busy butting heads with each other that the only common ground is the battlefield. This influenced my rhetorical methods.

But I always assume you have a fucking brain in your head, and that you have the intellectual and emotional maturity to handle my voice in the Internet noise. My contribution to the problems of poverty and ignorance is to force us both to think smarter, faster, and harder. Hopefully, you smile or frown along the way.

Some Fine Print

I write 10-15 page reviews and upload them to brianranzoni.com as portable document format files (.pdf). So my posts on Blogger are basically capsule summaries with some helpful links. This will always include a .pdf download link to my full review, another link to my main website, and a product link to Amazon.com.

It's not necessary to visit my website to learn more about the book, film, or game in question... but you can read Facebook comments there, cruise links to related products, and learn more about my own art.