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sA Stand-Alone Science Fiction & Fantasy Novella from Dominika Lein In the cold dark expanse of space, for over 18,500 years, an organic spacecraft known as Niobe has roamed alone. No humans, no galactic civilizations, no family generations, only the remnant of a lost Reptilian crew far from their homeworld. Sinister intentions control routine incarnation […]
SUPERVERSIVE Reviews: The Orville, Episode One.
Tuesday , 12, September 2017 Superversive 6 CommentsI am not a fan of Seth McFarlane. I find Family Guy about 95% annoying, 4% dumb, and about 1% funny. I can’t stand even the commercials for American Dad, so I’ve never given it a shot, except where someone is watching it in the break room at work. So it was really weird to me when I […]
Bethesda’s “Creation Club” Is a Dirty, Filthy Money-Grubbing Con Job
Monday , 11, September 2017 Computer Games 7 CommentsI swear this totally true and not at all made up story happened exactly the way I’m going to tell it. For real. I’m sick, so I calls up the boss. “I’m sick.” “I missed that part where that’s my problem. Also, don’t put this into the blog post, like that camping crap last week. […]
SENSOR SWEEP: Weird Tribesmen, Unnecessary Backstory, Wonkish World-building, and Drooling Intellectual Giants
Monday , 11, September 2017 Sensor Sweep 21 CommentsAppendix N (Shop on the Borderlands) “APPENDIX N: INSPIRATIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL READING” AND OTHER FANTASY RPG READING LISTS: PART 1 — “That distinction between swords & sorcery and epic high fantasy is important in the history of D&D and other fantasy RPGs. It’s clear from Appendix N, and from early modules like the Giants series or […]
To celebrate the life and work of Jerry Pournelle, we will be giving away volumes of his classic military science fiction series, THERE WILL BE WAR, all week. Today and tomorrow, you can download THERE WILL BE WAR Vol. I for free. If you have never read Dr. Pournelle before, this is an excellent opportunity to acquaint yourself […]
Many people mourned the passing of SF writer Jerry Pournelle. But Dr. Pournelle was more than a writer. He affected many fields and was a significant influence on me. His book that spoke to me the most was A Step Farther Out, a collection of technical essays he’d written. It focused me on how many […]
Forgotten Sword and Sorcery Artists: John Alvin
Sunday , 10, September 2017 Uncategorized 3 CommentsJohn Alvin (1948-2008) is an artist whose art you have seen many times but did not know it. John Alvin painted the movie posters for a good portion of 1980s blockbusters including most Disney movies from the 80s and 90s: Toys, Under Siege, Radio Flyer, The Black Cauldron, Red Dawn, The Dark Crystal, Raiders of […]
Heroines, Then and Now
Saturday , 9, September 2017 Appendix N, Authors, Before the Big Three, Fiction 20 CommentsA frequent criticism of older stories, pulp or otherwise, is that they feature a “damsel in distress”. That the woman in question is nothing more than a prize to be won. This is considered bad, and earnest leftist writers of today seek to correct this horrible injustice by creating “strong female protagonists”. Right away, one […]
Today’s guest post is the first of a set by David Lille about the gatekeeper of the comics market and solutions to the problems it causes. David & Liz Lillie create the Dreamkeepers graphic novel series. You can follow them on a variety of social media platforms including Gab. * * * * * Ladies and […]
It is with great sadness that we must report that legendary science fiction writer and Castalia House author Jerry Pournelle has passed away. All of us at Castalia House and the blog extend our condolences to the Pournelle family. Upon hearing the news, Chief Editor Vox Day shared the following in memory of Jerry Pournelle: […]
I admit it. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with Astounding Frontiers kicking off three different serials in the first issue. But now that I have the second issue in hand, I’ll tell you. The first thing I did was go check up on Haroun and Zira in Ben Wheeler’s “In the Seraglio of the Shiek of […]
The Men Women Don’t Publish
Saturday , 9, September 2017 Jeffro Comment 7 CommentsIf you don’t already follow Jon Del Arroz on Twitter, you’re missing a lot. His trolling of the “Mean Girls” club of science fiction this past week his been prime entertainment. But it turns out there’s more to this than you might expect. This is all part of his research into just what has happened […]