Blog Archives

I was discussing Blue SF with a Worldcon gentleman who is fairly neutral as such things go, and he mentioned that it might be useful if there was a list of what we Blue aficionados consider the top 10 Blue SF/F novels of the last 15 years. I can think of a few contenders, I […]

John C. Wright’s latest offering The Book of Feasts & Seasons is precisely that—an offering, not of blood but of ink, a tinsel-wrapped gift presented to both his God and his readers. A couple of stories in the collection are about as heartfelt and beautiful as anything I’ve read, since, well, Awake in the Night Land. Wright […]

A top ten list that contains more than one book published by Castalia House this year. An impressive showing by Baen’s Larry Correia as well. Go to the site to see the reviewer’s top three for 2014: 10. Fallen King (Cirian War Saga Book 1) by Eric Lorenzen 9. Warbound (The Grimnoir Chronicles Book 3) […]

When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him. -Revelation 6:3-4 As […]

Had the robust seeds of magical realism not been planted in such infertile ground as Marxian social “development,” the genre might have become much more than the parochial domain of only one of its early masters (Specifically: Borges, the only author of such literature whose talent for the truth superverted the mandatory “literary Leftism” of […]

Vox Day’s “A Magic Broken” takes us into the sordid brothels of Selenoth with an entertaining trick of a tale featuring assassinations, castrations, and revelations that most readers can probably plow through in under a half hour. The narrative is split between Lodi the dwarf warrior and Nicolas the battle mage while at cross-purposes in […]

I have discovered the secret to crafting an entertaining story. Forget plot. Forget character. Forget all that stuff. You want guaranteed success? Just make sure the title of your next masterpiece is “The Last [blank]”. Then, fill in the blank. Think about it. The Last of the Mohicans – terrific book (even better movie). Avatar: […]

Both of the stories in The Wardog’s Coin are a brisk read and a hell of a lot of fun. We was exhausted, outnumbered, battered, bleeding, and more than half of us was wounded or dead. The men was barely moments away from breaking and running. So, of course, we attacked. In the first story, […]

“Awake in the Night Land” is my favorite book I’ve read this year, my favorite of Mr. Wright’s, and easily the best-adapted parallel work that I can think of — a lollapalooza of fan fiction. Its Promethean characters are rousing, its Lovecraftian monsters are horrifying, and its Tolkien-esque prose help make it stand as one of […]

I’m not sure what I expected from Tom Kratman’s fiction, but it certainly wasn’t this. Big Boys Don’t Cry is a military sci-fi novel of tragic beauty and grim joy, telling a story that simultaneously celebrates traditional martial virtues even as it scorns the way the powers-that-be glorify them in order to manipulate men into […]