Yearly Archives:
sSENSOR SWEEP: Fantasy’s Lifeblood, Alien Bureaucracies, Self-Congratulatory Praise, and Incredibly Racist Novels
Wednesday , 14, September 2016 Sensor Sweep 6 CommentsAppendix N (Every Day Should Be Tuesday) Throwback SF Thursday: Women of Futures Past, edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch — “You wouldn’t think a story about an expedition to the South Pole could be boring, but Le Guin has done it. This is the sort of nasty, dull story the literati love. It isn’t science […]
WARGAME WEDNESDAY: The Arab-Israeli Wars Pt 2: Kalkiliah
Wednesday , 14, September 2016 Wargames 1 CommentAfter the sound drubbing I’d given the Egyptians, I thought I would hand my dad a gimme by playing as the Jordanians in 67 battle of Kalkiliah (Qalqilya). We were both very wrong in our prediction of how this battle would turn out. Set-up primarily as an infantry battle with some Israeli Tanks coming in […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds
Tuesday , 13, September 2016 Superversive 1 CommentI’m just gonna come out and say it: I was doomed to have a complicated relationship with Blue Remembered Earth from the get go. Africa has never been a continent to hold much fascination for me, for whatever reason; but I have, by the same token, known so many warm, humorous, and friendly African folks […]
GURPS Watch: GURPS Day, Incantation Magic, and Dungeon Fantasy Kickstarter!
Monday , 12, September 2016 GURPS 3 CommentsThe growth of Douglas Cole’s GURPS Day roundup has continued throughout this year. A whopping 63 blogs are aggregated there now and more are added every week! Check out the latest installment over at Gaming Ballistic here. Meanwhile, Steve Jackson Games has launched a Kickstarter for a standalone boxed set featuring everything you need to […]
Guest Post by Misha Burnett: Galatea in 2D by Aaron Allston
Monday , 12, September 2016 Appendix X 5 CommentsArtists And Models: Aaron Allston’s Galatea In 2D Aaron Allston is probably best known as the author of a series of Star Wars novels. Gamers will also remember him as the former editor of The Space Gamer magazine as well as a prolific writer for titles such as Champions, Car Wars, and Basic D&D. In […]
Guest Post by Brian Renninger: Running First Edition Oriental Adventures, Session 4
Monday , 12, September 2016 Tabletop Games 2 CommentsPlay report 4: 1st Edition AD&D, and 1st Edition Oriental Adventures. Summary: Three nights on the town So, our party has made landfall in the big city Okina Ringo. The ship is docked and entry fees paid. Now what? What is Okina Ringo like? Shozu and Yamagato are a faux Nippon (Fo-Nippon). Is the mainland […]
The 2016 H. P. Lovecraft Re-read: The Call of Cthulhu
Sunday , 11, September 2016 Fiction, Short Fiction 4 CommentsHalloween is less than two months away. I generally shift my meager time for pleasure reading towards the weird and some horror as the days get shorter and nights get cooler. Last week I pulled out the big Barnes & Noble H. P. Lovecraft The Complete Fiction to reread some H. P. Lovecraft. My introduction […]
Short Reviews – The Madcap Metalloids, by W.V. Athanas
Friday , 9, September 2016 Uncategorized Leave a commentThe Madcap Metalloids by W.V. Athanas appeared in the Summer 1949 issue of Planet Stories. It can be found here at Archive.org. One of the cruelest fates an author in Planet Stories can suffer is to follow Leigh Brackett–doubly so if their story is kinda meh. The Madcap Metalloids is not so much a terrible […]
According to the mainstream narrative, wargamers are alternately either losers that have never really left mom’s basement or else monsters that are keeping women out of gaming. Imagine my surprise then to see something completely new on this point: the wargamer as romantic lead! I am positively beside myself. The Wargamer woos me. He invites […]
SUPERVERSIVE Review: “The Old Man and the Wasteland”, by Nick Cole
Tuesday , 6, September 2016 Book Review, Superversive 9 CommentsLet me get my big criticism out of the way first. The problem with the book is that, minus a slightly more positive ending, the book is EXACTLY the same as “The Old Man and the Sea” updated to a post-apocalyptic setting. It doesn’t even pretend not to be, which is admirable…but if we’re criticizing Scalzi […]
In 1969, the pulp ethos was still alive and well. In this fourth volume of the Dumarest series which came out in that year, our hero finds himself on Logis. This civilized world has an institution called the “Bloodtime”, a three day period in which all laws are suspended. Pandemonium naturally ensues as people pay […]
Castalia House is very pleased to be able to congratulate both John C. Wright and Nick Cole, Castalia House authors and winners of inaugural Dragon Awards in the categories Best Science Fiction Novel (SOMEWHITHER: A TALE OF THE UNWITHERING REALM) and Best Apocalyptic Novel (CTRL-ALT-REVOLT!). And congratulations to all the other winners, including Larry Correia […]