Blog Archives

The 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 […]

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 […]

       Military fantasy has antecedents that go back more than 80 years. Robert E. Howard had an interest in medieval warfare that showed in some of his fiction. “Kings in the Night,” “The Scarlet Citadel,” “Black Colossus,” and Hour of the Dragon all have set piece battles described in detail. One could add Howard’s crusader […]

Priestess of the Flame by Sewell Peaslee Wright appeared in the June 1932 issue of Astounding Stories. A scanned version can be found here.   I have been rather amused by the protests which have come to me regarding the “disparaging” comments I have made, in previous tales of the Special Patrol Service, regarding women. […]

I came to Neal Stephenson somewhat late when compared to a lot of other people. Mostly, I think, because I picked up 1999’s Cryptonomicon when it came out, and, even though I enjoyed it, was disgruntled that I’d read a cryptography textbook masquerading as a novel, and an adventure novel masquerading as a science fiction […]

The Player’s Aid puts out some of the best wargaming content around. I was glad at first to see that they were branching out into other types of board games, because really… I do want to know what’s going on outside of the hard core wargaming scene. But hey, I don’t mind hearing about that […]

So, you have heard about military fantasy and thinking of writing some of it yourself. Hey, all you need to do is write about sword, spears, and spells, right? Yes, but there is more to it. If you are going to write military fantasy, you better put some emphasis on the military part of it. […]