Blog Archives
sThe last quarter of the 19th Century saw the several European powers carve up any territory they could annex around the globe. Previously, the Dutch, French, and British Empires would be territory in the Caribbean basin for producing raw materials such as sugar and indigo. There would be some trading posts or ports in the […]
The United States of America got into the empire business in the wake of the Spanish-American War in 1898. Cuba achieved independence after a few years, but the U.S. decided to keep Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Hawaii was scooped up at this time also. The Spanish had a ramshackle empire in the late […]
One of my favorite genres is alternate history. I think the first alternate history piece of fiction I ever read was L. Sprague de Camp’s Lest Darkness Fall and his The Wheels of If shortly after. I enjoy essays on alternate history. A very interesting one on web years ago had Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, commander […]
This is a book from Osprey that I have waited for a long time. I think I first became aware of the Netherlands East Indies in WW2 in the novel Tarzan and the Foreign Legion. In that novel, Col. John Clayton, Lord Greystoke is shot down while an observer on an American heavy bomber on […]
Guest Post: Will the Last of King Harold’s Housecarles Please Form an Orderly Queue
Saturday , 2, December 2017 Uncategorized, War 5 CommentsWill the Last of King Harold’s Housecarles Please Form an Orderly Queue By Richard Toogood It doesn’t require a particularly robust grasp of the past to recognise and understand the significance of the year 1066. It is one of the most famous dates in history. The year of the three kings and the three […]
Castalia House is very pleased to be able to announce that the Pournelle family has graciously decided to allow Castalia House to continue publishing new anthologies in the revived THERE WILL BE WAR series. We will begin work on THERE WILL BE WAR Vol. XI in the new year; Vox Day will edit the new […]
Military Fantasy Resources: Retrospective Histories
Sunday , 21, August 2016 Uncategorized, War 2 CommentsMark Twain said that history does not repeat but it does rhyme. That can be used to advantage in writing military fantasy. I covered some contemporary histories a few weeks back. A good source for material is retrospective histories. The Book of the Sword (1884) by Richard F. Burton was supposed to be the first […]
This is the final installment of a 5 part series about the Robotech novels. Click here for parts 1, 2, 3, and 4. I’m departing a bit from talking about books here, and I’m going to talk about some TV shows and films today. I waffled a bit on doing this originally, but there was […]
The Gundermen play a specialist role in the Hyborian Age. They are mentioned in some of the Conan stories with certain skills in the military realm, namely as the best infantry of the period. The Gundermen are given a separate section in “Notes on Various Peoples of the Hyborian Age.” Howard stated Gunderland was originally […]
An announcement by Jerry Pournelle, author of The Strategy of Technology: We are bringing out, in both electronic and print production, The Strategy of Technology, a 1970 book that was once a text in some of the Service Academies and still is in use at two of the War Colleges. This is not a new […]