Yearly Archives:
sOne of the surprising books of the late 1980s was a Robert E. Howard collection, Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors. This was a Baen paperback published in May 1987. David Drake edited the book. It sold for $2.95, was 247 pages, and had three printings. The cover by Steve Hickman is spectacular. This book […]
Short Reviews – Duel on Syrtis, by Poul Anderson
Friday , 4, November 2016 Appendix N, Book Review, Uncategorized Leave a commentDuel on Syrtis by Poul Anderson appeared in the March 1951 issue of Planet Stories. It can be read here at Archive.org. One is a big game hunter who complains about liberals and suffrage, the other is a cute Martian owlbear just trying to make it in the cruel world. Riordan has a spaceship, a […]
SHORT FICTION: “Only a Signal Shown” by L.E. Buis
Thursday , 3, November 2016 Short Fiction 3 CommentsOkay, I’ve been causing a stink lately. It drives me nuts that people act like science fiction began with the Campbellian revolution. Everything I’ve heard about the pulps has turned out to be egregiously wrong. And anything anyone says about the history of science fiction comes off to me like warmed over narrative from three […]
WARGAME WEDNESDAY: A Ballet of Bullets, Armor, Blood, and Sweat
Wednesday , 2, November 2016 Wargames Leave a commentKyle at Miniatures Market has this to say about the Band of Brothers system: I’m convinced this system is one of the only squad systems to effectively communicate genuine World War II period tactics, without silly gamey tactics or hundreds of pages of rules. It’s a ballet of bullets, armor, blood, and sweat, whirling around […]
SUPERVERSIVE: How Netflix’s “Daredevil” can pull off “Born Again”
Tuesday , 1, November 2016 Book Review, Fiction, Superversive Leave a commentFull disclaimer: I LOVE “Daredevil: Born Again”, by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli. Not like. Love. I make a point to pick it up and re-read it a few times a year, and it is one of the very few books I read – and I mean I can count them on one hand – […]
SUPERVERSIVE and Horror Stories: A Day-After-Halloween Special.*
Tuesday , 1, November 2016 Superversive, Uncategorized 5 Comments*Yes, I know it’s All Saint’s Day, but then talking about horror doesn’t make all that much sense. I didn’t grow up watching horror movies, unless by “horror” you mean things like Frankenstein and The Wolf Man, and I don’t, particularly. As an Eighties kid, I had a pretty clear idea of what horror was […]
When 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 […]