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sSensor Sweep: C. L. Moore, Terry Pratchett, Starblazer
Monday , 30, January 2023 Sensor Sweep 8 CommentsRobert E. Howard (Adventures Fantastic): Most readers of weird fiction probably know about the story “The House in the Oaks” by August Derleth, which first appeared in the anthology Dark Things in 1971, the year Derleth died. It was one of the many “posthumous collaborations” of tales left unfinished on the death of Robert E. Howard on […]
I wrote that William R. Forstchen’s One Second After was the scariest book I ever read. The Final Day is the third book in the series. This picks up six months after the events in One Year After end. John Matherson is delivered a message from the neighboring community from an army officer who claims […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 28 January 2023
Saturday , 28, January 2023 Uncategorized 1 CommentEvery week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy. Blessed Time 4: Shattered Hourglass – Cale Plamann Time is running out, and the fate of reality itself lies in Micah’s hands. Micah fought the Third Prince of Elsewhere once. He was […]
The French Foreign Legion is a military outfit with a lot of history around it and some legend. I can remember seeing movies about the FFL growing up. The one I remember best is the 1966 remake of Beau Geste starring Dean Stockwell, Doug McClure, Telly Savalas, and Leslie Nielsen. I read pulp writer Wyatt […]
Sensor Sweep: Robert E. Howard, Mummy’s Curse, Excalibur, Aragorn
Monday , 23, January 2023 Sensor Sweep Leave a commentCinema (MSN.com): 40 years ago, the unlikely acting career of then-bodybuilding champion Arnold Schwarzenegger went off with a bang in Conan the Barbarian (1982). Based on Robert E. Howard’s character of the same name from 1930s pulp magazines, Arnold’s epic sword and sorcery film was helmed by writer-director John Milius, the militant filmmaker best known for writing […]
Cirsova, Winter 2022 (Vol. 2, No 13) is brand new. 185 pages, $15.00 in cost. “Sister Winter,” John Daker is a weird story of a man on his way home in the winter comes across a ethereal being asking for his aid. There are some sinister men looking for Sister Winter and Martin helps her. […]
Here Be Dragons: The Web Novel’s Accidental Travels into Otherwhere
Saturday , 21, January 2023 Uncategorized Leave a commentOtherwhere, Otherwhen, Otherwho, and Otherhow. These are the explorations of the web novel medium, one devoted to fantastic worlds and adventures that take place anywhere but in the present. Today, we’ll focus on genres of Otherwhere, that take readers to new worlds so unlike the current day. These worlds are physically new worlds, as opposed to […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 21 Jan 2023
Saturday , 21, January 2023 Uncategorized Leave a commentEvery week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy. Breaker of Horizons 2 – NoDragons Nic has been Selected. Chosen to leave his own body behind and become a monster. Chosen to live or die on his own wits. His own […]
Sensor Sweep: D&D, Arthur Machen, Blood of the Serpent
Wednesday , 18, January 2023 Sensor Sweep Leave a commentFiction (Endless Bookshelf): In 1923, a century ago, Welsh author Arthur Machen was at the height of his literary reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. It had been a long path from his “horrible” juvenile poem Eleusinia (1881)(1881) and such early books as The Anatomy of Tobacco (1884) and the numerous translations of the 1880s and early 1890s. […]
I have a fascination with the U.S. Army between WW1 and WW2. I return to Brian McAllister Linn’s Guardians of Empire periodically. One of my favorite histories of the U.S. Army in WW2 is Geoffrey Perret’s There’s a War to be Won. That book covers the interwar period and development of things like the 105 […]
Sensor Sweep: Warren Magazines, TSR Adventure Modules, Glory Road
Monday , 16, January 2023 Sensor Sweep Leave a commentFirearms (You Tube): Wow, ejecting shell makes bullet go off inside ammo box. RPG (Grognardia): Between 1978 and 1985, TSR Hobbies published eighteen stand-alone adventure modules carrying the byline of Gary Gygax, starting with Steading of the Hill Giant Chief in 1978. Because it was the first of its kind, module G1 does not include a suggested level range […]
I wrote three years ago about Richard McKenna’s The Sand Pebbles and what an incredible novel it was. I was aware that McKenna had been in the science fiction magazines before The Sand Pebbles and there was a paperback collection, Casey Agonistes. I finally found a copy this past summer. McKenna had six stories in […]