Monthly Archives:
sWith a number of new book releases coming up this autumn, we’ve been trying to ascertain the best way to ensure the various interested parties know about them. What we have done is to put together a mailing list that consists of a) Castalia customers, and b) new subscribers, whom we will alert when we […]
Sci Phi Journal has launched its maiden issue. When it succeeds, it is excellent, but when it fails…it is even more intriguing. Some of the successes include: Short Stories Domo, by Joshua M. Young – Overall, this is the strongest of the four short stories in the Sci Phi Journal, and definitely one of the […]
This book is loaded. It’s got seductive shadow women slowly enticing men to commit suicide. It’s got a witch that murders people with her animated dolls. It’s got sketchy scientists, femme fatales, world travelling adventurer types, and even a hard boiled Depression-era Texan. I don’t understand why no one had ever pointed me to this author before […]
A college student interviewed Castalia House author Vox Day for a paper he was writing about the fantasy genre. 1: What characteristics do you look for in well-written fantasy novels? Originality, plot, credible characters, and technical style. 2: What has been your experience with reading fantasy? Most modern fantasy is polluted by philosophical perspectives inconsistent […]
Artistic License Acting as an equilibrium against perfectionism in accuracy artistic license is employed to make a more satisfying cover and give the artist some freedom in interpreting the chosen scene. Outside of a photograph or a video (which may not be what they seem) all tales, histories, stories, novels, poems, and anecdotes are imagined […]
A Short History of Fantasy is not so much a history as it is a list of books and a compendium of plot synopses, in order of appearance. Readers expecting an in-depth discussion of the movements, trends, and aesthetics of the fantasy genre should look elsewhere; the authors only have time to cover the broad-strokes […]
It’s 2018 and the United States has just won a war against China. Lieutenant Shawn ‘Calvin’ Hobbs, a hero of that war, hasn’t even completed all his postwar administrative work when he finds himself thrown into his next adventure. Only that this time the enemy, the battlefield, and the weapons will be very different. The Drakuls […]
Castalia House books have often been praised for their covers, by readers as well as authors. In this series of posts about book covers, Castalia House’s Lead Artist, JartStar, explains his philosophy of quality cover design. What makes a good cover for a book? I hope to shed some light on this difficult question in […]
In an interview earlier this year, Robert Silverberg provided a number of new details regarding the old selection process he employed circa 1969 when compiling an anthology of “The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time Chosen by the Members of the Science Fiction Writers of America.” The title of the anthology is The Science […]
RETROSPECTIVE: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard
Monday , 22, September 2014 Appendix N 17 CommentsWhen most people think of Conan they tend to think of a wild, black-haired man running around with very little in the way of clothing or armor. Just as Sherlock Holmes is now indelibly linked to his iconic deerstalker, so to is the original fantasy swordsman now wedded in our collective imaginations to Arnold’s Schwarzenegger’s atrocious accent. In spite of […]
REVIEW: Clockwork Phoenix 3: New Tales of Beauty and Strangeness
Friday , 19, September 2014 Book Review 1 CommentYou know you have a good anthology of short stories when John C. Wright’s “Murder in Metachronopolis” is one among equals. Even the freaking foreword is good: The cosmos spins its gears and stretches wings, the ticks of its constant grinding both too slow and too rapid to ever be detected. When it collapses to […]
“CRY HAVOC!” is the janissary battle cry. They are conscripted to defend the Terran Empire from alien enemies and pirates. In the battlefield you can find armored augmented dinosaurs and mechanized walkers but also swordfights and unusual powers. However, that is not what this book is mostly about. It is about coming of age and […]