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sTHE SEQUATUS SERIES by Nick Broadhurst Humanoid aliens of the galaxy-spanning Federation run the Milky Way galaxy with one particular race called Royals as the lord of each galactic sector. By earth timeline, it is the late 1980’s but earth is unaware of the presence of alien life. The technology level is about what one […]
Cowardice is all too common within me, so know that when I write of cowardice, it is not as a judge of men, but as man’s flawed ally against it. I want to be clear about that, before I write this: Damon Knight was a coward, when he could have been a Grandmaster. Setting aside […]
RETROSPECTIVE: Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny
Monday , 15, September 2014 Appendix N 25 CommentsImagine the ultimate city, the greatest one that could ever exist: a city so awesome, that every other city on every other plane of existence is nothing but a shadow in comparison. Imagine that being king of this city is a very big deal and that this position is contested by nine brothers, all of whom are […]
REVIEW: “Reho: A Science Fiction Thriller (The Hegemon Wars)” by D.L. Denham
Friday , 12, September 2014 Book Review Leave a commentIn a conversation with French New Wave film director François Truffaut, Hitchcock explained the difference between surprise and suspense. Let us suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, “Boom!” There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it […]
Anton Chekhov once famously advised: Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there. This is […]
Then it was my turn to be frightened, because I realized for the first time that it was possible for a human being to do what I had done. And if I could do it to Elen, I thought, surely they could do it to me. But they couldn’t. They set me free: they had […]
Pink: A Parable (with Violence), Part Two (of Two)
Tuesday , 9, September 2014 Uncategorized 4 CommentsPart One (of Two) of The Electric Hunt The Electric Hunt (Part II) What was she looking for? I had no idea, but the rendering of deer was clearly a fact-finding routine: the deer were hung, bellies slit, entrails rifled through, then abandoned. I came upon two more slaughter points. The only communicator that worked […]
RETROSPECTIVE: Pirates of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Monday , 8, September 2014 Appendix N 10 CommentsAt least three of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s series are part of the same continuity: both Tarzan and events from the Pellucidar series are mentioned in this first novel in the Venus series. The Mars series would have been brought in here as well as the protagonist fully intended to go there. Alas, his calculations for his […]
REVIEW: “Red Denver: A Science Fiction Short Story (The Hegemon Wars)” by D.L. Denham
Friday , 5, September 2014 Book Review 7 CommentsHollywood doesn’t like to make westerns anymore, and audiences don’t much like to watch them (save those written by Quentin Tarantino). Perhaps that’s a good thing – for westerns. We’ll always have John Ford and Louis L’Amour. But both audiences and studios are a little keener on the western-in-disguise: post-apocalyptic science fiction. Red Denver welcomes […]
What if the Earth was invaded by aliens that fed on human emotions and the only people safe were those with boring lives? My first thought was that just by trying to stay alive in such a weird world their lives would no longer be boring, and thus no longer safe, so… game over for […]
Castalia House is very proud to announce the publication of ONE BRIGHT STAR TO GUIDE THEM, by John C. Wright. It is a magnificent novella reminiscent of THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, as it asks the question: after the adventure, what comes next? ONE BRIGHT STAR TO GUIDE THEM begins where other fairy tales end. Brilliant […]
RETROSPECTIVE: At the Earth’s Core, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Monday , 1, September 2014 Appendix N 9 CommentsWhen a Connecticut born mining operator goes to visit his dilettante paleontologist friend that has constructed a “mechanical subterranean prospector,” an “iron mole” with “a mighty revolving drill” capable of tunneling through the earth at unparalleled speed, things quickly go off the rails. Not five paragraphs into the story, the two are on board the hundred […]