Sensor Sweep: Gary Gygax Interview, Tarzan comics, August Derleth, Appendix N
Monday , 27, February 2023 Sensor Sweep Leave a commentRobert E. Howard (Paperback Warrior): “Robert E. Howard’s Iron Shadows
in the Moon”, starring Conan the Cimmerian, was published in Weird Tales in April, 1934. The story was renamed to “Shadows in the Moonlight, and appeared in the Gnome Press volume Conan the Barbarian in 1954. It was later edited by L. Sprague de Camp for inclusion in Swords & Sorcery, a 1963 collection published by Pyramid that featured authors like Fritz Leiber, H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith.
J.K. Rowling (Washington Examiner): Last year, Esquire magazine published a list of “The 50 Best Fantasy Books if All Time.” Harry Potter wasn’t on the list. Instead, sitting at the top was The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, a work of fantasy with analogs to the real-life history of slavery on Earth that won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Firearms (Firearms News): I realized that the revolver I had seen come out
of the vest pocket was a Safety Hammerless (aka Lemon Squeezer), but it took a while until I realized it was the scarce version with a two-inch barrel normally termed “Bicycle Revolver,” presumably because it could be tucked into a pocket while out peddling along. I also realized that the revolver that had made the impression on me was probably a .32 SW version is it could fit in a vest pocket. S&W also made .38 S&W Safety Hammerless revolvers, but they were bulkier.
Appendix N (Grognardia): Poul Anderson’s 1961 novel, Three Hearts and Three Lions (originally released in two parts in the September and October 1953 issues of The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy) is one of the most influential fantasy tales ever written, though I imagine very few fantasy fans under the age of 50 have read it. Michael Moorcock, for example, thought very highly of it, borrowing its conception of the eternal war of Law versus Chaos for his Elric stories, which in turn influenced countless other authors. Among those was Gary Gygax, whose conception of alignment in Dungeons & Dragons – itself a remarkably influential fantasy text – derives equally from Moorock and Anderson, hence the inclusion of both authors in Appendix N to his Dungeon Masters Guide. Read More
Michael Z. Williamson’s That Was Now, This Was Then is just out in mass market paperback. It is the sequel to A Long Time Until Now (2015).
A short description:
SOLDIERS OUT OF TIME
Then: First Lieutenant Sean Elliott and nine other mixed-service U.S. soldiers on a convoy in Afghanistan suddenly found themselves and their MRAP vehicle thrown back to Earth’s Paleolithic Age. And they were not alone. Displaced Romans, Neolithic Europeans, and more showed up as well. Some would be allies. Some became deadly foes.
Now: Scientists from an almost unimaginably far future need the survivors’ advice and support to reconnoiter and ultimately recover other groups displaced in time. There’s just one problem. Not all of those other groups want to be recovered or even understand where they are. Prehistory is an ugly place, fascinating to visit, but no place for a civilized person to live. But the future, gorgeous as it is, has a darker side that dampens the appeal. In the end, only inventiveness, grit, and a thirst for freedom from the fickle tides of time can keep Sean and the displaced Americans alive and on a path to finally find a place—and a time—to call home.
Some of the characters from A Long Time Until Now are contacted by the U.S. Army for a mission. The Bykos from the future have found there is another time displaced group of U.S. Soldiers in the time just after the Younger Dryas in the waning days of the Pleistocene. A teenage Paleolithic boy has been thrown into our time. Read More
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 25 February 2023
Saturday , 25, February 2023 Uncategorized Leave a commentEvery week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.
Adrift (The Lost Warship Book 1) – Daniel Gibbs
There is a time to weep and a time to mourn.
For the CSV Lion of Judah, that time has not yet come.
The war with the League of Sol ended in victory for the Terran Coalition. Major General David Cohen and his crew conclude their three-month goodwill cruise with one final FTL jump. But instead of returning home in a blaze of glory, the wormhole collapses and hurls them more than four million lightyears into the unknown.
Stranding them in a distant galaxy.
With dwindling supplies but buoyed by hope of a miracle, David follows the evidence to a nearby inhabited planet. After a disastrous first contact with the less advanced alien civilization, rival factions threaten the tenuous peace—and reignite a centuries-old genocidal conflict.
Now David and the war-weary Lion must take up arms once again to head off a catastrophic event in hopes of unlocking an ancient technology’s secrets.
Before the chance to return home is lost forever.
Cursed Cocktails – S. L. Rowland
When life gives you lemons, squeeze them into a stiff drink and stir.
After twenty years defending the frozen north against some of the most dangerous threats in the nine kingdoms, Rhoren “Bloodbane” has finally earned his retirement. While the blood mage’s service to the realm may have ended, burning veins and aching joints remain, and Rhoren soon learns that a warmer climate offers relief from his chronic pain.
And a chance at a fresh start.
In the warm and relaxing atmosphere of Eastborne, the umbral elf finds a new purpose and a sense of belonging. He may have left the frozen north behind, but he brings with him the skills and strength gained from a lifetime of defending the realm. Along with his most prized possession—a book of drink recipes inherited from his father.
Spilled cocktails may not carry the same weight as spilled blood, but opening a tavern brings a unique brand of challenges. With the right friends and a little bit of luck, he might just have a recipe for success.
Gathering Storm (White Ops #4) – Declan Finn
To fight the enemy in the shadows, Sean will put together a strike team to light up the darkness— with nukes if necessary.
They will get the job done at any cost.
They will be White Ops.
When Earth First terrorists threaten to assassinate the Pope, the Rangers of White Ops are called in to protect him.
After the hostage situation at Yesdin planet, Sean Patrick Ryan is still bothered by the Renar weapons the terrorists used. When Earth First has the same weaponry, it’s clear that something Is wrong on Renar.
Dark forces stalk White Ops. but who will be the prey?
Osprey Publishing’s Pictish Warrior AD 297-841 is number 50 in their Warrior series originally published in 2002. Author is Paul Wagner with illustrations by Wayne Reynolds.
The Picts are an enigmatic people of the British Isles first mentioned in 297 A.D., a regional power until succumbing from hammer blows from the Scots and Vikings. Robert E. Howard enshrined the Pict as the eternal barbarian. He imagined them as short, olive skinned Causcasoids of the Mediterranean physical type. They are present in the time of Atlantis when Kull was king of Valusia. Conan of Cimmeria fought them in the Hyborian Age. Bran Mak Morn leads the Picts against the Romans, Cormac MacArt both fought and allied with in the 5th Century, and Turlogh O’ Brien encounters them in the 11th Century. Read More
Sensor Sweep: Red Nails, Non D&D RPG, Louis L’Amour, Private American
Monday , 20, February 2023 Sensor Sweep 2 CommentsRobert E. Howard (M.C. Tuggle
): Ernest Hemingway and Robert E. Howard had a lot in common. Both were passionate outdoorsmen who relished food and drink and brawling. Though identified with different genres, both infused their fiction with athletic, vivid prose that still stirs the imaginations of appreciative readers. They have inspired countless writers, and decades after their deaths, their works are still in print.
RPG (Grognardia): In a comment to a recent post, I was asked to put together a Top 10 list of my favorite non-D&D RPGs. I thought that was a good idea and today’s post is the first half of that list. In putting the list together, I spent some time reflecting on which games I both liked and had played extensively over the course of my time in the hobby. Most of the results were obvious, but a handful surprised me.
RPG (Grognardia): 5. Star Trek the Role Playing Game Star Trek is my
original fandom. I started watching the Original Series in reruns on a local TV channel growing up and instantly fell in love with it. As a kid, I read everything about or related to the show that I could and one of my proudest possessions was a gold Starfleet uniform shirt that I probably wore far too often. Read More
A very recent Baen Books’ anthology is Worlds Long Lost edited by Christopher Ruocchio and Sean CW Korsgaard.
This is the description:
ALL-NEW STORIES OF ANCIENT ALIEN ARTIFACTS FROM TOP NAMES IN SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
The universe is older and more alien than we can ever understand.
We were not alone. The farther we push into the universe, the more obvious it becomes. The signs are everywhere: canals and pyramids on Mars, old roads on the moons of Jupiter, ruined cities on worlds about the nearer stars. The galaxy once teemed with life—or so it seems. Which begs the question: what happened to it all?
These stories explore the ruins of lost civilizations, solve ancient mysteries . . . and awaken horrors from beyond the dawn of time.
Featuring stories by Orson Scott Card, Griffin Barber, Adam Oyebanji, Jessica Maguire, and Patrick Chiles, and an all-new entry in the Sun Eater universe from editor Christopher Ruocchio. Join us for your next adventure to Worlds Long Lost!
The Bob Eggleton cover is atmospheric. Trade paperback format, 305 pages. $16.00 retail. Read More
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 18 February 2023
Saturday , 18, February 2023 Uncategorized 1 CommentEvery week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.
Apprentice to the Gods (The Seventh Shaman #4) – D. T. Read
The Resistance Pact’s attack on the Supremacy’s “ally” world, Jassem, has succeeded in taking the Jax out of the fight—for now—and as the newly appointed commander of the 15th’s 1st Fighter Squadron, Ku makes preparing his pilots for the inevitable next battle his top priority.
With its defensive forces scattered to protect its allies, though, the Resistance Pact’s homeworld of Solienne has been left open to attack, and the Supremacy swoops in to capture it. Solienne’s deployed units—including the 15th on Tobe—are left to fend for themselves.
When Ku is injured in the fierce fighting there, he learns his piloting career with the Soli Aerospace Forces is over, and he’s forced to settle on a career with the Qaletaqa, his people’s revered special operations force. But before he can start there, he has a much more demanding task—he must become Wanikiya, the long-awaited Preserver of His People.
Dragon Rage (Blood of the Ancients #10) – Dan Michaelson and D. K. Holmberg
The realms have united, but Rob still doesn’t have the power to defeat the Eternal.
Rob has united the realms, and now the essences have begun to mingle. For some, this means increased understanding of different powers within the lands. For others, this means their connection to power has shifted. And not all are pleased.
While planning for another attack from either the Eternal or the Netheral, Rob discovers a threat he cannot overpower. An unusual ally might be key to understanding how to use his new connection to essence, but even that isn’t enough.
When the danger comes from within his realms, Rob must unearth long buried truths, or all the essences will be lost.
Sevenfold Sword Online: Creation – Jonathan Moeller
The greatest epic fantasy MMORPG in history has a ticking time bomb at its heart.
Noah Carver used to work for Maskell Entertainment, developing the smash hit virtual reality game Sevenfold Sword Online (loosely based on the fantasy novels of Jonathan Moeller).
Then Carver got fired.
Not for incompetence, or for laziness.
But because he discovered the truth.
The game’s runaway success was built on the deadly technology of humanity’s ancient enemy, and Maskell Entertainment doesn’t want anyone to find out.
And unless Carver finds proof, a lot of innocent people are going to die…
Shadowcroft Academy For Dungeons: Year Three – James Hunter and Aaron Michael Ritchey
Logan’s sophomore year was fine. Destroy an ancient evil. Solve a murder mystery. Tell way too many silverware jokes. No big deal.
His junior year, on the other hand, is shaping up to be the deadliest of them all. Shadowcroft Academy is hosting the Interschool Tournament, and though there is no Goblet, Logan and the Terrible Twelfth are about to find themselves tossed into the Fire.
With epic loot, lucrative sponsorships, and school bragging rights on the line, the tournament is guaranteed to be a bloodbath for all involved. Especially since a mysterious, masked dungeoneer with ties to Earth has set his sights on the tournament participants and is hellbent on wiping them out, no matter the cost.
Good thing the Terrible Twelfth has a bevy of new classes to help them rise to the occasion, including Cruelty Incorporated: The Business of Destruction, Runic Haiku: Utilizing Power Word Syllable Poetry, and the traumatizing Brews, Beers, and Bubbles – Alchemy for Everyone, taught by an oddball professor that no one seems to remember.
In short, it’s just another year at good ol’ Shadowcroft, with even more mushroom action, a crocheting minotaur, a surprising amount of twine, and interdimensional conspiracy theories out the wazoo. Read More
Sensor Sweep: Hill Giant Chief, Jim Henson, The Sunless Citadel
Monday , 13, February 2023 Sensor Sweep 1 CommentConan (Paperback Warrior): If you look online for the definition for
“convoluted”, it should just provide a link to Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp’s “Hawks over Shem” short story. In my quest to absorb as much Conan literature as humanly possible, I read half of this particular short story and found myself so confused that I re-read the first half again, which led to even more confusion.
Pulp (Rough Edges): ’Ive read quite a few Dan 
Fowler novels by various authors over the years, but “Snatch!” goes back to the series’ origin, appearing in the very first issue of the pulp G-MEN, cover-dated October 1935. Dan Fowler is an agent of the Division of Investigation, a name still used by author George Fielding Eliot even though the DOI’s name was changed officially to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in July of that same year.
Old Books (Semicolon): Here’s a list of children’s books published in 1923.
See if one of these catches your fancy, and if so, let me know what you thought. (I have not read most of these books, but I do plan to read and review some of them this year.) The Arabian Nights: Tales of Wonder and Magnificence by Padraic Colum. A selection of stories from the Arabian Nights, using the direct translation by Arabic scholar Edward William Lane. Colum selected and abridged some of the tales to make up his own version of the timeless stories of Shahrazad. Read More
The Normans in Italy 1016-1194 by Raffaele D’Amato and Andrea Salimbeti from 2020 is a fairly recent addition from Osprey Publishing. This is the latest addition to volumes on the Normans. Terence Wise wrote Saxon, Viking, and Norman (Men-at-Arms # 85, 1979) and David Nicolle wrote The Normans (Elite #5, 1987).
The Normans in Italy is 48 pages with six plates of illustrations by Florent Vincent. Raffaele D’Amato has written many Osprey booklets, most on the Roman Army. I have his booklet on the Carthaginians.
Historian John Julius Norwich has called the Norman kindom in southern Italy, “the other Norman Conquest.” Many don’t know that Norman freebooters and adventurers had filtered into southern Italy at the beginning of the 11th Century. They first hired out as mercenaries but went independent and created a series of counties. Eventually, Robert “Guiscard” d’ Hautville conquered all of southern Italy by 1071. His brother Roger crossed into Sicily and conquered that island from the Moslems with a small number of Norman knights and Lombard men at arms. Read More
Below are reviews of Web-novel inspired fiction from the Popadanets, isekai, and litRPG/GameLit genres respectively. For more on these genres, please check out “Here Be Dragons: The Web Novel’s Accidental Travels into Otherwhere”, which discusses these three common genres from the web novel branch of fiction.
In M. H. Johnson’s Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Reborn, Alex, a billionaire’s son, attempts a desperate gamble to beat cancer. He volunteers to be cryogenically frozen until such time as a cure could be found, with his mind stimulated by an immersive MMO-like program while he sleeps. When he wakes up, Alex finds himself a barbarian in a Chinese fantasy thousands of years future that looks an awful lot like the past. To survive, he must master chi cultivation, even if it means drawing the attention of a trickster deity.
Warrior Reborn paints a light gloss of litRPG gaming elements over the currently popular chi cultivation and portal fantasy genres (xianxia and isekai) into a doorstopper novel. However, the litRPG elements are completely superfluous to the story, as Warrior Reborn quickly turns into a Ringoesque logistics opener focused on how Alex cleared his meridians to use the non-games mechanics skills of chi cultivation. This pursuit fills 75% of the doorstopper, which means that the conflict for the series is not revealed until the denouement. Warrior Reborn needs an aggressive editor wielding a cutting knife. There is, however, a lot of potential and charm here. The chinoiserie elements are immersive, not intrusive. The characterization is strong enough to carry the story over long stretches of exposition. And there are tantalizing hints to Alez’s lost adventures as a Watson to a trickster god’s Holmes. Hopefully the sequel will better balance exposition and adventure. Read More
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 11 February 2023
Saturday , 11, February 2023 Uncategorized Leave a commentEvery week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.
A Feast of Ambrosia: The Adventures of Bingor and Donalbain – Glen Rahman
Bingor, a sly scoundrel hailing from Sicilia, and Donalbain, a Scottish bard, are not your typical sword-and-sorcery heroes. Thieving is their main trade, but they have no scruples against burglary, bounty-hunting, treasure-seeking, swindling, and selling information.
Despite their rascally nature, they prefer to make criminals the primary targets of their larceny, and avoid violence whenever possible—which isn’t often!
In these adventures, our carefree rogues encounter deadly threats of both earthly origin and supernatural—including vampires, lycanthropes, and other creatures of the night!
Prince Peacemaker (The Prince of Britannia Saga #4) – Fred Hughes
Hazard survived the war… but can he survive the peace?
The empire defeated the Swarm at the Battle of Iris, but it came at a great cost. To win, Hazard King needed to reveal he was Crown Prince Henry and take command of the Imperial Fleet as War Leader. Now their enemy is suing for peace, something many in the empire don’t want to give.
There are even officers in his own fleet that wish to restart the war and eradicate the Swarm.
Hazard and his mother, Empress Elizabeth, face not only issues in the Isis System but across the empire. A rebellious system government decides the time is right to secede from the realm and takes hostages to ensure their success. As if things aren’t bad enough, their old foe, the Marxist Federation, loses control of a biological weapon that threatens the planet Lenin and the Empire of Britannia.
Hazard won the war, but winning the peace will be even more complicated. To do that, he’ll need to become… Prince Peacemaker.
Flying Sparks: Ultra Light Beams – A Kickstarter by Jon Del Arroz
FLYING SPARKS VOLUME 5: Ultra Light Beams is the fifth 72-page volume to the mega-hit crowdfunded graphic novel series, which has sold more than 3,000 copies! (All five volumes are available as rewards and add ons.)
Meta-Girl and Johnny are having the worst rough patch yet in their relationship after Meta-Girl finds out Johnny’s been delving into deep crime. They don’t have time to think about their love lives because strange lizard creatures are pouring through an interdimensional portal, threatening to destroy our entire existence. If that weren’t bad enough, a major villain has given himself supreme powers to become the strongest enemy our protagonists have ever faced!
Who will make it to the end alive?
This Kickstarter will remain open until 23 February 2023. Read More