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sWARGAME WEDNESDAY: Avalon Hill’s The Battle of the Bulge (1981) – Part I
Wednesday , 6, December 2017 Wargames 5 CommentsI’ve spent the last few months playing Avalon Hill’s The Battle of the Bulge, probably devoting more table-time to it than virtually any other game in recent memory. It’s one thing to want to play a hex and chit game twice, once to get a feel for each side, but really says something when you […]
For those of you still not convinced that the old pulp magazines have far more to offer than second rate writing by hacks and literary shysters, allow me to present to you the grossly unheralded John Buchan. A Scottish author whose work mainly appeared in the British Magazine Blackwood’s Magazine, John Buchan’s novel Prester John […]
Just in time for Christmas: THE LAWDOG FILES: African Adventures in paperback LawDog had the honor of representing law and order in the Texas town of Bugscuffle as a Sheriff’s Deputy, where he became notorious for, among other things, the famous Case of the Pink Gorilla Suit. But long before he first put on the deputy’s […]
Terra Nova. The promised world is humanity’s new home, safe from the threats of a dangerous galaxy, where veterans of a long war could live in peace. The promise was a lie. Chief Katherine “Kit” Carson, of the elite Pathfinder Corps, joins the mission as a last-minute replacement, hoping to put a spotty past behind […]
SUPERVERSIVE: “Howl’s Moving Castle” is a Fairy Tale Par Excellence
Tuesday , 5, December 2017 Superversive Leave a commentThis is an update of an old article from Superversive SF – I decided that there was enough here to expand and improve to make a re-post worthwhile. Be sure to take a look at fellow Superversive columnist and author Corey McCleery’s review of “Howl’s”, linked below. Corey already did an excellent review, so this is […]
Xbox One X: Totally Worth Some Painful Dentistry (Should You Find It Necessary)
Monday , 4, December 2017 Computer Games 5 CommentsSo I got an Xbox One X on Friday, and I won’t tell you how I managed to afford it except to say that—contrary to all rumors—getting $300 in store credit from Game Stop does NOT involve selling them a kidney. Just all your gold fillings. So was it worth all the impromptu in-store dentistry […]
Sensor Sweep: Dungeon Dwellers, Shambleau, Dumb Barbarians
Monday , 4, December 2017 Sensor Sweep 6 CommentsRPG (Blackgate.com): I’m still unpacking the boxes I brought home from the Fall 2017 Games Plus auction. There’s so many SF and fantasy board games being published these days that it’s impossible to keep up. But you know, I do my best. A week after the auction, I dropped by Games Plus in Mount Prospect […]
The post-World War III world is a radically different place where magic and technology have become one in the violent struggle for global influence between nations. The rising powers of Persia and Musafiria are challenging the longtime dominance of the weakened Western powers, as the increasing use of magic provides them with a more level […]
An artist with a thirty year career in paperback cover illustration is Douglas Beekman (b. 1952). The online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction states: “After briefly studying at the Columbus College of Art and Design in his home state of Ohio, he grew dissatisfied with the school and […]
One quality I love about pulps and classic science fiction works is how much physical confrontation is in them. Whether it involves mech suits, killer drones, shooting, swords, fisticuffs, or wrestling, there was heaps of full-blooded action. And it’s seemingly simple, right? Just write about one man punching another! How hard that can be? And […]
Fantasy and Adventure New Release Roundup: 2 December 2017
Saturday , 2, December 2017 Fiction 2 CommentsWith the holiday season now upon us, this roundup of the newest releases in fantasy and adventure is bursting at the seams, featuring a wife pressed back into her former role as an assassin, a desperate fight to save a friend from a magical kangaroo court, the first hard-boiled detective fighting the Klan, and a quest […]
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 […]