Monthly Archives:
sThe Thracians were one of the great barbarian peoples of ancient history. The Greeks lived in fear of invading hordes of Thracian warriors. Later, they were the backbone of Macedonian and other Hellenistic monarchies armies. Herod of Judea employed them. Spartacus was a Thracian. Chris Webber’s The Gods of Battle (Pen & Sword, 2011) is […]
Sensor Sweep: Robert E. Howard, J. R.R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, D&D
Monday , 28, August 2023 Sensor Sweep Leave a commentScience Fiction (Fantasy Literature): Conquerors From the Darkness first saw the light of day as a $3.50 Holt, Rinehart and Winston hardcover in 1965, with a cover by Alan E. Cober. The novel was an expansion of Silverberg’s novella “Spawn of the Deadly Sea,” which had appeared in the April 1957 issue of Science Fiction […]
I like reading books about books. Paperbacks From Hell covered paperback horror from the sixities through the early nineties. Mike Ripley’s Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang cover British “thrillers” from the early 50s (Casino Royale) to the late 70s (The Eagle Has Landed). I picked up the trade paperback edition from 2019. The hardback was first […]
CH Blog Flashback: The Dirty Pair and Jesuit Joe
Saturday , 26, August 2023 Uncategorized Leave a comment“We solved every case we worked on. It’s just that the solutions weren’t always pretty. An explosion here, an inferno there, and in the end, we’re left with a mountain of corpses, and, incidentally, a solution.”–Kei, “The Great Adventure of the Dirty Pair” When science fiction writer A. Bertram Chandler visited Japan in the late […]
Blog Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 26 August, 2023
Saturday , 26, August 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. My Sister Suprema – Chuck Dixon and Anthony Gonzales-Clark Randy is a bright young boy who devours comics and dreams of becoming a superhero. One day, he discovers a secret formula on […]
One of my library booksale finds this summer was Arabs at War by Kenneth Pollack. This massive book is 583 pages of text and another 70 pages of notes. This is a Council on Foreign Relations book published by University of Nebraska in 2002. It covers the time period 1948-1991. The introductory chapter is “Understanding […]
Sensor Sweep: H. P. Lovecraft, Forbidden Tomes, Ice Planets, Continental Op
Monday , 21, August 2023 Sensor Sweep 5 CommentsH. P. Lovecraft (Sprague de Camp Fan): Lovecraft: A Biography (Doubleday, 1975) was one of de Camp’s most ambitious works of nonfiction, and, at 175,000 words, one of his longest. It was originally even longer. De Camp notes in his autobiography that the manuscript was 200,000 words, which Doubleday considered too long, and was shortened […]
I covered Steve Brusatte’s Rise and Reign of the Mammals four months back. I took out his preceding volume The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs from the library last week. This book was first published in 2018, 349 pages of text, another 55 pages of acknowledgments, notes, and index. I think the last overview […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 19 August, 2023
Saturday , 19, August 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. The Council of Yoran (The Chain Breaker #12) – D. K. Holmberg The Chain Breaker must fall. Something greater must rise. A dark power builds, but Gavin and his allies can’t find […]
Sensor Sweep: Shadows in Zamboula, John Jakes’ Brak, Castle Amber
Monday , 14, August 2023 Sensor Sweep Leave a commentArt (Paperback Palette): Paul Alexander (1937-2021) was one of the premier ‘gadget’ illustrators in science fiction. This cover for Signet’s 1985 paperback edition of Isidore Haiblum’s The Hand of Ganz shows just how outstanding he was at creating believable mechanical hardware. From his eye-catching start in 1976, till his retirement in 1998, Alexander produced more […]
One of the newest Osprey Men-At-Arms booklets is The Dutch-Indonesian War 1945-49. I discussed The Royal Netherlands Indies Army 1936-42 by Marc Lownstein almost five years ago. This is the third boolet by him covering Indonesia in WW2 and afterwards. Booklet is 48 pages as per usual size for Osprey Men-At-Arms. Contents Introduction: Summary, chronology, […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 12 August, 2023
Saturday , 12, August 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. Lord of a Shattered Land – Howard Andrew Jones The Dervan Empire has at last triumphed over Volanus, putting the great city to the torch, its treasures looted, temples defiled, and fields […]