Monthly Archives:
sOne of the short-lived competitors to Weird Tales was the magazine Strange Stories. Strange Stories lasted for 13 issues from February 1939 to February 1941. It was a bimonthly publication from Better Publication who put out the “Thrilling” line of pulp magazines. An issue costs 15 cents and probably is the reason Weird Tales dropped […]
Short Reviews – Raiders of the Second Moon by Basil Wells (as Gene Ellerman)
Friday , 18, March 2016 Book Review 6 CommentsRaiders of the Second Moon by Basil Wells (as Gene Ellerman) appeared in the Summer 1945 issue of Planet Stories. Of all the short stories I’ve read over the last year, Raiders of the Second Moon is by far one of my favorites. I would go so far as to say it’s a perfect sword […]
SENSOR SWEEP: Joyful Abandon, the Notion of “The Crew”, Barely-Clad Damsels, and Sledgehammers to the Skull
Wednesday , 16, March 2016 Sensor Sweep 1 CommentComics (Comics Review) Dagar the Invincible: Tales of Sword and Sorcery: Volume 1 — “Dagar is something of a ‘kitchen sink’ book – as in ‘everything but the kitchen sink.’ In the nine issues collected in this volume, Dagar encounters wizards, dinosaurs, cave men, werewolves, vampires, dark gods, demons and pirates, along with assorted beautiful […]
Guest Post by Penny Kenny: Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Volume 1
Tuesday , 15, March 2016 Book Review 11 CommentsLEGEND OF THE GALACTIC HEROES, VOLUME 1: DAWN by Yoshiki Tanaka; translated by Daniel Huddleston (Haikasoru, tpb, 292pp, $15.99) In 1982, the already prolific mystery, SF, and fantasy author Yoshiki Tanaka published Ginga eiyu densetsu (Legend of the Galactic Heroes), the first book in what would become a ten volumes series. It would go on to […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Robotech: The Sentinels & The End of the Circle
Tuesday , 15, March 2016 Book Review 4 CommentsThis is part 4 of 5 dealing with the Robotech novelizations. Click here for parts 1, 2, or 3. So the first, second, and third generations of Robotech were the result of rewriting three animated Japanese scifi series into one over-arcing and thirty year long story. In order to link those generations together and explain […]
I’ve run a marathon role-playing session at the local convention nearly every year this past while. It’s been a great way to not only learn to game master, but also to meet the sort of people in my area that are willing to play in the sort of continuing campaigns that I could only dream […]
Guest Post by Misha Burnett: Streetlethal by Steven Barnes
Monday , 14, March 2016 Appendix X 4 CommentsAin’t No Place For A Street Fighting Man: Streetlethal by Steven Barnes Steven Barnes is far from obscure. He has written novels in the Star Wars, Star Trek, and Assassin’s Creed universes. He has collaborated with Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle on two different series of books. He has written for film and television. While not, […]
When traveling, I take a varying number of books with me depending on the length of the trip. One important criterion for traveling is if the book is damaged or lost, I can easily replace it or don’t care. I like the old fashioned mass market paperback due to space considerations over the trade paperback. […]
Short Reviews will return next week while I catch up on my reading! Some of you might already be aware that I’ve spent the last few months putting together and releasing the inaugural issue of Cirsova, my Heroic Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine. What you might not be aware of is that submissions are now […]
SPACE ODDITY: An SF Musical Storytelling Game. Song 2, Clue 4 – Final Clue
Thursday , 10, March 2016 Games, Short Fiction, Uncategorized 10 CommentsYou can see a complete game of Space Oddity played out in the original post. The rules are simple: I’m going to tell you a short genre story that makes sense of the inscrutable lyrics of an otherwise popular song. I’ll do it in very brief parts to keep things interesting. There will be weekly clues. […]
WARGAME WEDNESDAY: SPI, Silver Bayonet, Lee Se-dol, and “Magic Pill” Thinking
Wednesday , 9, March 2016 Wargames 4 CommentsWe’ve got a lot of wargaming content from the past couple of weeks here: Zac writes about miniatures gaming with Flames of War, Alex breaks out SPI’s Musket & Pike, and there’s my deluge of PrezCon reports as well. For people that want even more wargaming news and discussion beyond even that, I suggest looking up […]
If simplicity in game design is beautiful, SPI’s Musket & Pike is a real jewel. Musket & Pike covers a unique period in the history of warfare that was post-medieval but not yet modern. Before this time, gunpowder weapons were almost unheard of, novelty at best, while after this period, it was unthinkable that troops […]