Monthly Archives:
sTime to read a modern thriller after all the horror anthologies I knocked off this past winter. I was alerted to Kurt Schlichter’s The Attack by a friend. I checked out the premise, read the first pages that were part of free preview. I have heard Kurt Schlichter filling in on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 30 March 2024
Saturday , 30, March 2024 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. Chords of Fate (The Wayward Chronicles #1) – D. K. Holmberg We were called the Wayward. It was a derogatory term for some, but it was one we embraced. Most of us […]
Sensor Sweep: Elden Ring, James Ward, Hyperborea RPG, Appendix N
Monday , 25, March 2024 Sensor Sweep Leave a commentRPG (Grognardia): When I first read Astonishing Swords & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, two things about it greatly impressed me. Most significant was that this roleplaying game of “swords, sorcery, and weird fantasy” demonstrated an obvious love for the pulp fantasies of Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith. Robert E. Howard (Echoes of Crom): […]
Crocodilans: Alligators, crocodiles, gharials, caimans. When I was a kid, alligators and crocodiles were among my favorite animals. The were the closest thing today to a dinosaur. The crocodile order emerged from the archosaurs 250 million years ago as the pseudosuchians. The pseudosuchians were dominant that they kept the dinosaurs (another branch from the archosaurs) […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 23 March 2024
Saturday , 23, March 2024 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. Enemy Below (Nocturnus #1) – Devon C. Ford We aren’t alone. The enemies are already here… beneath our feet. Beneath the surface, a war rages between the surviving demons still inhabiting the […]
Sensor Sweep: Dune Movie, Greyhawk, Maximum Mayham Adventures
Monday , 18, March 2024 Sensor Sweep Leave a commentConan (Essential Malady): Whatever the truth is, Conan the Adventurer was certainly one of my earliest introductions to Robert E. Howard’s most popular character. The show originally broadcast in late 1992 and had a longer second and final season in late 1993 but I don’t believe I watched it until a year or two after […]
One of my favorite Louis L’Amour quotes is: “The idea that poverty is a cause of crime is a lot of nonsense. It is one of those cliches that is accepted because it seems logical. Crimes are committed by people who have some money and want more. More often they are committed by somebody who […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 16 March 2024
Saturday , 16, March 2024 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 #18 / Spring 2024 – edited by P. Alexander Eighteen stories of heroic adventure and daring suspense. Including: “A Quick Laugh with Death” by William Drell – Investigating the medical blackmail of […]
This is a guest post by Richard: A SCENT OF NEW-MOWN HAY was the first of twenty-eight enviro-thrillers/science-factions/quasi-horror novels – call them what you will – that the prolific English author John Blackburn produced between 1958 and 1985. If those descriptions seem uncertain or ambiguous then it is because Blackburn’s work is notoriously difficult to […]
Sensor Sweep: Gas Station Knives, Ka-Zar, Wally Wood, Rooster Teeth, Drones, Poul Anderson
Monday , 11, March 2024 Sensor Sweep Leave a commentSword & Sorcery (Echoes of Crom Records): I list my top ten classic sword-and-sorcery collections by author. Knives (Blade HQ): Put simply, gas station knives cheap out on materials. Where there should be metal, there is often plastic. Where there should a blade steel with a real name and a known composition, there is mystery-meat […]
Cold Print is not an Arkham House book but two thirds of the contents were originally published by Arkham House. Ramsey Campbell was another of August Derleth’s discoveries. Cold Print is a collection of Campbell’s “Cthulhu Mythos” stories from 1962 to 1985. Cold Print was first a Scream Press hardback from 1985. Tor reprinted it […]
Sensor Sweep: Lovecraft, Elric, Hugos, Forgotten Realms
Monday , 4, March 2024 Sensor Sweep 1 CommentHorror (RT Book Reviews): It’s always hard to believe that such prolific and influential writers died in relative obscurity during their time. The works of authors like Poe, Hemingway, and the focus of this list, HP Lovecraft all put out numerous works during their time on earth just to die penniless and unknown, with their […]