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sWhen the question of “what are your hopes and dreams” came up for a school assignment, my son’s response was, “I want to a make a million dollars designing video games and then I want to retire and play the video games I designed.” I was not pleased. “Son,” I demanded. “You do know what […]
The 2016 H. P. Lovecraft Re-read: The Haunter of the Dark
Sunday , 30, October 2016 Fiction, Short Fiction 5 Comments“The Haunter of the Dark” was H. P. Lovecraft’s last story. He wrote it in November 1935 right after finding out about the sale of At the Mountains of Madness and “The Shadow Out of Time” to Astounding Stories. It is a relatively short piece of fiction at 9,320 words in comparison to most of […]
Short Reviews – Black Amazon of Mars, by Leigh Brackett
Friday , 28, October 2016 Appendix N, Book Review 1 CommentBlack Amazon of Mars by Leigh Brackett originally appeared in the March 1951 issue of Planet Stories. It can be read online here at Archive.org. Black Amazon of Mars completes Brackett’s original trilogy of Stark stories. Black Amazon finds Stark on his way to the polar city of Kushat to fulfill the dying wish of […]
Guest Post by Zachary Wood: “The Missionaries” by Owen Stanley
Thursday , 27, October 2016 Book Review 1 CommentWhile the title of may lead you to anticipate a religious story, The Missionaries is anything but. A comedic, fast-paced account of the modern world’s attempts to improve the violent tribal islanders of Elephant island, and all of the bungling drama that occurs as a result shows that interfering indirectly does nothing but harm. The […]
SENSOR SWEEP: Eternal Love, Ultimate Canonization, Brass Underwear, and the Rise of the Futurians
Wednesday , 26, October 2016 Sensor Sweep 19 CommentsAppendix N (Civilized Bears) Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Tribute to Tarzan’s Creator, A Personal Hero — “Why such fond memories of ERB’s yarns? They were fun to read, of course. That English Victorian morality of honour and loyalty and duty always felt right to me. Still does. ERB had a fantastic imagination and was at […]
WARGAME WEDNESDAY: Olyde School Fantasy Miniature Armies Part 1
Wednesday , 26, October 2016 Wargames 1 CommentI have fantasy dwarf, skeleton and orc armies, purchased ages ago, which I’ve slowly and not so surely, been painting over the years. As I approach a critical mass of table ready miniatures I am changing the focus of my posts back to miniature wargaming, specifically fantasy wargaming. For background read the first Olyde School […]
There ought to be term for it: that sense of elation and astonishment when you stumble across something in an old book that is surprisingly applicable to contemporary events. Of course even if there was such a thing, you’d need another one for when it keeps happening and you keep being surprised by it anyway. […]
Recent discoveries have made me a little more adventurous with my audiobooks: Rather than shelling out for an audible subscription and trying to find the longest books I can to get the bang for my buck, it turns out there’s a nifty library app called “Overdrive” that allows access to your local library’s audiobook collection. […]
It won’t be long before the stuff nobody was talking about becomes the stuff that “everybody knows.” That being the case, I thought it’d be worth delving into the nitty gritty of just what exactly people knew and when they knew it when it came to the question of the Castle Amber D&D module’s connection […]
The 2016 H. P. Lovecraft Re-read: The Shadow Out of Time
Sunday , 23, October 2016 Fiction, Short Fiction 11 CommentsH. P. Lovecraft wrote “The Shadow Out of Time” in November-December 1934. It is a novella at 25,323 words. This is the other pillar of his cosmic history. There is a sense of déjà vu reading it as he reused some ideas. The main plot concerns Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, an instructor of Political Economy […]
I’m not sure that there is a consensus on just what the opposite of the Bechdel test would be exactly. I have my own pet theory, sure. One thing is clear, however: any sufficient repudiation of the Bechdel test is indistinguishable from awesome.
Retro Fandom Friday – One Letter to Make You Think
Friday , 21, October 2016 Uncategorized 6 CommentsMore Sex In The Future? appeared in the letters column of the Summer 1949 issue of Planet Stories. Though we’ve included the text in its entirety, it can be read here at Archive.org. I’ve noticed in the last couple stories I’ve read, including two of the three that I’ll be talking about in the upcoming weeks, […]