Monthly Archives:
sOsprey Publishing’s Men-at-Arms booklet Italian Colonial Troops 1882-1960 is #544 in the series. Published in 2022, author: Gabriele Esposito, artist: Giuseppe Rava. Forty eight pages including eight color plates. Italy like Germany got into the colony business later than Great Britain, Spain, France, and the Netherlands. Italians had moved into Tunisia across the Mediterranean Sea […]
Conan (Sprague de Camp Fan): Two Conan pastiches in the same year? And a third on the way? Are we in a Conan renaissance? I honestly don’t think so. Titan Books is taking a chance on Conan most likely in hopes of the long-promised Conan Netflix series. If that happens a renaissance could occur but […]
S. M. Stirling’s Conan: Blood of the Serpent is the first in a new period of Conan the Cimmerian pastiche novels. What is a pastiche you ask? A pastiche is an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period. L. Sprague de Camp began writing Conan pastiche stories in […]
In 2009, the Louvre Museum, one of the most renowned art museums in the world, gathered comic book artists together for a unique exhibit showcasing the breadth of contemporary art found in comic books. French bandes dessinées and American comic books featured prominently in the display, joined by panels drawn by Japanese manga artist Hirohiko Araki. While […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 25 March 2023
Saturday , 25, March 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. (Note: next week’s spotlight will be postponed to 4 April.) Codex Babylon (The Cross-Time Crusade #1) – Robert Kroese A secret cabal of demonic forces threatens to destroy civilization and plunge the […]
An Interview with Morgan Holmes By Matthew Pungitore Ciao! My name is Matthew Pungitore, and in this article, I’ll be talking with Morgan Holmes. So, without further ado, let’s caper like a comet to the interview. Matthew Pungitore: “Morgan, I’m honored to be able to have this opportunity to talk with you like this. I have […]
Sensor Sweep: Time Machine, Clark Ashton Smith, Jack Vance, Into the Unknown
Monday , 20, March 2023 Sensor Sweep Leave a commentRobert E. Howard (Paperback Warrior): “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” was written by Robert E. Howard in the early 1930s. The story, featuring Conan the Cimmerian, was originally rejected by Weird Tales, so Howard changed the character to Amra of Akbitana and called the story “The Gods of the North”. It was accepted and published by The Fantasy Fan #7 in March, 1934. As a Conan story, […]
I have a near love-hate relationship with Louis L’Amour. I took a sledge hammer to his historical novel The Walking Drum a few years back after a re-read. On the other hand, I like his pulp adventures featuring Turk Madden and Ponga Jim Mayo. I find L’Amour works better in slender paperbacks from the 1960s- […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 18 March 2023
Saturday , 18, March 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. Cirsova #14 / Spring 2023 – edited by P. Alexander Tales of heroic adventure and daring suspense that include: When an astronaut confronts a lamia, she has a proposition for him: she […]
Sensor Sweep: Siege of the Black Citadel, Middle Earth RPG, World of Warcraft
Tuesday , 14, March 2023 Sensor Sweep Leave a commentWeird Tales (Tellers of Weird Tales): The first issue of Weird Tales, dated March 1923, probably arrived on newsstands before that, possibly in mid to late February. I base that only on the idea that magazines usually showed up ahead of their cover dates so as to avoid seeming outdated. For example, Time magazine also […]
I like to read natural history now and then. A favorite book as a kid was William E. Scheele’s The First Mammals. A book I would love to have now but unwilling to pay the going rate. Prehistoric mammals don’t get the love that dinosaurs do but illustrations of saber-tooth tigers, mammoths, ground sloths etc […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 11 March 2023
Saturday , 11, March 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. The Ascendant Wars – Rhett C. Bruno and M. B. Vance When the rules of war keep changing, fight for each other… Humanity has been banished to a distant star. Left to […]