Monthly Archives:
sJUST RELEASED: Starship Liberator by B. V. Larson and David VanDyke
Friday , 6, January 2017 Uncategorized 11 CommentsThe Hundred Worlds have withstood invasion by the relentless Hok for decades. The human worlds are strong, but the Hok have the resources of a thousand planets behind them, and their fleets attack in endless waves. The long war has transformed the Hundred Worlds into heavily fortified star systems. Their economies are geared for military […]
THROWBACK SF THURSDAY: The Tritonian Ring by L. Sprague de Camp
Thursday , 5, January 2017 Appendix N 8 CommentsI’m not typically a big fan of the meddling, minor gods trope. It’s theologically incoherent and usually makes for nonsensical worldbuilding. Neil Gaiman’s highly overrated American Gods is the worst offender. Ken Liu does a bit better in The Grace of Kings and The Wall of Storms. The Tritonian Ring works better, perhaps because it’s […]
Pulp Revolution, Before The Pulp Revolution Was
Thursday , 5, January 2017 Pulp Revolution 5 CommentsThere is so much going on it’s easy to miss things. And there are books going out that I don’t even look at until three different people insist I take a look at them. Thune’s Visions was one of those books. Nethereal was another. Given how good those were, I pay attention when this sort […]
Mind The Gap: Forgotten History of Science Fiction
Thursday , 5, January 2017 Uncategorized 17 CommentsThere’s a strange blank in SFnal history these days: When most people talk about SFF literature they start in the middle, with the lionized authors of the Campbell era – who doesn’t know the names Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke? – and then skip forward an entire generation to start talking about the 1980s and 1990s. […]
You are not supposed to read this book. You are not supposed to think about reading this book. In fact, just plain thinking at all is unacceptable. You have been warned…. From hilarious to horrifying to dangerously insightful, a selection of stories that must not be told, for they slaughter the sacred cows of our […]
This game is not what you think it is. You’re going to sit down to play this one and you’re just going to be shocked when it doesn’t play like Star Fleet Battles or Federation Commander or Car Wars. The sequence of play is just brutal. I mean you’d think this should be like Federation […]
WARGAME WEDNESDAY: Elements of Wargaming: Morale Systems
Wednesday , 4, January 2017 Wargames 3 CommentsWhile I was enjoying the holidays here in the States over the last month, I was reminded how a “holy day” can have an effect on people’s moods: More thank-yous, more strangers holding doors, more patience, less eagerness to jump on small issues. Naturally this contrasts with the “normal” behavior we do witness—no matter the […]
Building a Better Miniature Wargame: The Grand Strategy
Wednesday , 4, January 2017 Tabletop Games, Wargames Leave a commentMiniature wargamers are both blessed and cursed to live in a golden age of the hobby. Thanks to advances in material science and manufacturing, combined with the reduced cost of shipping and ease of cross-border payments, the cost and selection of figures available to wargames have never been better. The revolution in self-publishing has led […]
SUPERVERSIVE: “A Series of Unfortunate Events” Part 2: The Baptism of Lemony Snicket
Tuesday , 3, January 2017 Book Review, Superversive 6 CommentsIn part one of this series, “The Dark Brilliance of ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’”, I ended my article with this: I was going to end this article here, but I got to thinking: Would the world be a better place if these books didn’t exist? It’s an interesting question without, I think, a straightforward answer. Being old […]
SHORT FICTION: The Teenage Girl’s Robot Army by Rawle Nyanzi
Monday , 2, January 2017 Short Fiction 26 CommentsI’d put it off for a long time, but when I found out that Sci Phi Journal had purchased a story from top book blogger Rawle Nyanzi I finally bit the bullet and figured out how to become a Patron over there. (It’s a relatively painless process.) It’s a very short piece and I admit, […]
There’s a lot of nonsense in The Rise of Science Fiction from Pulp Mags to Cyberpunk over at Electric Lit– so much, it’s hard to know where to start. For my money, the passage below is the one that takes the cake: But “the Golden Age” has come to mean something else as well. In […]
It’s Current Year and Alignment is Still Weirdly Controversial
Tuesday , 3, January 2017 Jeffro Appendix N, Comment 12 CommentsOver at Dyvers, Charles Akins reports that players are still struggling with concept of alignment in their tabletop fantasy role-playing games: A friend of mine had invited three teenage players into his game. The three players decided to play characters with different alignments. The first decides to play Lawful Evil, the second elects to become […]