Sensor Sweep: Timothy Dalton, Street Fighter II, Final Fantasy
Monday , 13, June 2022 Sensor Sweep 1 CommentJames Bond (Hollywood in Toto): John Glen’s “The Living Daylights” (1987)
was Dalton’s first vehicle as Bond, after Roger Moore stepped away from the unliked but wildly popular “A View to a Kill” (1985) and series icon Sean Connery had embarked on the enormously successful third act of his long film career. Dalton was a respected but unknown film and theater actor (his appearance in the 1980 cult classic “Flash Gordon” was arguably his most well-known turn prior to 007).
Gaming (Walker’s Retreat): As if the degeneration of videogames as a business wasn’t bad enough from the business side, there is also the player side- i.e. cheating.
The problem arises once Player v. Player arises, and most of the cheating talk online is in this context. This is not, and has not been for years, idle whining; esports is still a thing, so real money is on the line, and when real paydays are to be had you better believe that serious actors will do what it takes to secure the bag. No amount of exposure of cheaters has ceases the cheating; it’s only made the cheats more popular and sophisticated.
Fiction (John C. Wright): Yes, the famous George Orwell did indeed review the famous C.S. Lewis, in a column titled “The Scientists Take Over” appearing in the Manchester Evening News, 16 August 1945. Available here: http://lewisiana.nl/orwell/
While generally favorable, an unseemly bias is evident from the first line: On the whole, novels are better when there are no miracles in them.
H. P. Lovecraft received direct information on Robert E. Howard’s death from Dr. I. M. Howard dated June 29, 1936. Wherein Dr. Howard wrote:
“He slipped out of the house, entered his car which was standing in front of the garage, raised the windows and fired a shot through his brain. . .He shot himself just above the temple. It came out in the opposite side, just above and behind the left ear.”
Robert E. Howard used a pistol to perform the suicide. That is not a surprise, as he liked pistols. He mentioned in a letter to Wilfred Blanch Talman of toting an old .44 in the waistband of his pants at age 14-15. He mentioned having a borrowed “old Frontier model Colt .45 single action.”
Robert E. Howard wrote a letter to August Derleth in March 1933 in which he discussed firearms in a fair portion of the letter. He mentions being a rather poor shot with hunting. “I never did much care about it, and I haven’t hunted at all in years.”
He mentions the British “preferred heavy bored guns with powerful shocking power, but low velocity.” He compares express rifles of English hunters to “comparatively light, high powered Savages, Winchesters and Springfields of American hunters.” Read More
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 11 June 2022
Saturday , 11, June 2022 Uncategorized Leave a comment
Aeon Rising: The Apocalypse Begins – Matthew Mather
An apocalyptic supernova flashes over the South Pole. A mysterious mission sent deep into the Amazon. The story of one family’s struggle to reunite…
Max Carver, a down-on-his-luck truck driver and Army vet, joins a rescue mission into Brazil. The target is a utopian tech village, the Colony, hidden in the rainforest and run by a charismatic genius. Max’s pregnant wife, Talisha Carver, is the NSA analyst who intercepted encrypted Colony messages signaling a mysterious impending event.
Dr. Xin Rou is a Chinese researcher working at the IceCube neutrino experiment at the South Pole. On lucky days a single flash might signal the passage of a ghostly interstellar particle. Suddenly, IceCube’s entire array lights up. A million detectors at once. Which is impossible. The Antarctic sky is clear and calm—but she is already running for the door.
Because the world is about to end. But the mystery only just begins…
Dragonskull: Curse of the Orcs – Jonathan Moeller
A perilous quest. A haunted forest. Even the bravest knight might never return…
Gareth Arban knows he must stop the sorceress Azalmora from seizing the Dragonskull, a legendary relic of power.
But to catch Azalmora, Gareth must first cross the Qazaluuskan Forest, a land of dark magic and monsters.
But even the orcs who dwell within the forest are amenable to bargains.
And the cost of their bargains might be the lives of Gareth and his friends…
The Spider: Scourge of the Scorpion (The Wild Adventures of The Spider #3) – Will Murray
Men called the Scorpion the “Deathless One.” Rumored to be immortal, he controlled the Order of the Purple Eyes, a slave army of purple-eyed criminals who periodically emerged to wreak havoc on mankind during times of social upheaval. His goal: To bring New York City under scorpionic subjugation.
When a mysterious comatose patient is abducted from his hospital room, a baffling chain of events is triggered, one that brings millionaire criminologist Richard Wentworth into the case—and in conflict with the Scorpion’s old nemesis—The Skull Killer!
Will the Deathless One succeed in erecting his barbaric City of the Scorpion upon the smoking ruins of modern Manhattan?
Not if The Spider has any say in the struggle. But how can the Master of Men fight the Purple Eyes Cult when his beloved Nita van Sloan has been turned against him while his chief aides lie stricken with incurable lockjaw––victims of the lethal sting of the Scorpion? Read More
Sensor Sweep: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ken Kelly, Warhammer 40,000
Monday , 6, June 2022 Sensor Sweep 2 CommentsFirearms (Tactical Life): The M9 service handgun, the U.S. military’s
version of the 9mm Beretta 92FS, has been in continuous service with the military since 1985.
For several years there has been plenty of programmed concern in picking its replacement. Over a decade ago was the Future Handgun System (FHS), which merged with the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) Joint Combat Pistol (JCP) program. The idea was to quickly and inexpensively pick a suitable, off-the-shelf M9 replacement. Several years and millions of dollars later yielded no change.
Star Wars (Arkhaven Comics): Obi-Wan Kenobi is fundamentally uninteresting because the protagonists Obi-Wan and Leia have impregnable plot armor. So does Darth Vader. So does Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. So does Prince Organa. So does the Emperor and Grand Moff Tarkin come to that and we aren’t even going to see them. We know when everyone important dies and it won’t be in this mini-series. Although, Leia’s mother could be in trouble, and if you cared about her in the least that would matter.
Horror (Pulprev): When I think back to horror stories from earlier decades,
I find that they compare most favourably to the ones I’ve so recently read. In the days of the pulps, horror wasn’t the standalone genre as it is marketed today. Instead it tended to be mixed with other elements such as fantasy, science fiction, adventure, detective or supernatural, and branded a weird tale. And the foundation of the weird tale was the moral foundations of early 20th century America. Read More
An aspect of Robert E. Howard in Novalyne Price Ellis’ One Who Walked Alone and in E. Hoffmann Prices various memoirs is his motoring around in his car, namely a 1931 Chevrolet. Robert Roehm’s “Robert E. Howard’s Automobiles” is the best resource for information on the two vehicles REH owned and where he got them.
The first car he bought was a used 1931 Chevrolet in spring 1932. An L. Sprague de Camp interview of Lindsey Tyson has specified it was a Coach. Chevrolet offered thirteen different body styles in 1931: Cabriolet, Landau Phaeton, Five Passenger Coupe, Convertible Phaeton, two-passenger Roadster, Sport Roadster (with rumble seat), Sport Coupe (with rumble seat), two-passenger, Three Window Coupe, two-passenger Five Window Coupe, Coach (two-door sedan), Sedan, Special Sedan, and 2/4 passenger Cabriolet.
The history of Chevrolet begins in 1911. The board of General Motors removed President William C. Durant in 1910. Durant had started in the carriage business and moved into automobiles when taking control of the ailing Buick Motor Company in 1904. Durant turned Buick around and founded General Motors in 1908 with partner R. S. McLaughlin. General Motors added thirteen car companies including Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Oakland Motor Company (changed to Pontiac). A cash shortage in the wake of all the acquisitions caused General Motors Board to force out Durant. Durant teamed up with Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss race-car driver, to create the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911. Louis Chevrolet was out in 1914. Durant was also buying shares of GM stock to take control of the company in 1916. Chevrolet then came under the GM umbrella. Read More
The great highway stretched out before them. The miles flew underneath the wheels of the iron horse as they rode. Mortu the Kinslayer, Mortu the Merciful, scion of the north, where warriors were once bred like princes breed their race horses. Kyrus the Wise, a man of faith, of sacred vows and probing intellect, sharp tongued and sure of himself. Sometimes too much so, as a conflict with an evil sorcerer has resulted in his imprisonment in the body of a small monkey. Our heroes cross the wasteland in search of a cure for Kyrus, seeking magics and wisdom from the east.
Thune’s Vision is full of Schuyler Hernstrom’s earliest stories, many of which I have reviewed previously on various sites. But for sword and sorcery fans, the recent rerelease of Hernstrom’s first book has a special jewel: the third story of Mortu and Kyrus.
In the far future, centuries after aliens enslaved mankind only to be thrown down by the mutinous Men of the North, a pagan Northern axeman, Mortu, and a cursed Christian monkey monk, Kyrus, scream down the ruined roads on the back of a motorcycle. Their adventures have taken them to the vile White City and against the scorpion cult of Daganha. Now they ride once more–into the land of Aerisla, of Christian airships and Illilissy war gods. Read More
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 4 June 2022
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Domestication (Battle Mage Farmer #1) – Seth Ring
A world on the precipice of the apocalypse. A secret forged in the flames of war. A chance to start over.
For John Sutton, only one of those three things matters.
Retired from a decade of brutal war, he wants nothing more than a quiet pastoral life while he does his best to stem the steady increase of his Doom Points before they hit 100, signaling the start of the end.
He’s been given a small farm on the outskirts of the empire as a thanks for his service, but no matter how far he travels, it’s impossible to escape the war’s devastating effects on the world.
Bandits, suspicious townsfolk, a mysterious pair of siblings, and a secret that lurks in the mountains all threaten John’s peace. It will take all of his considerable power to keep from burning everything to the ground.
Dragon Knight (The Dragon Queen of Chaos #6) – Eric T. Knight
The dragon rages for freedom. Can Jarryd hold on, or will the Dragon Queen enslave him?
Nearly killed in his battle with the Emperor, Jarryd realizes the only hope for victory is if he masters the Sight, the strange ability he’s feared his entire life.
There is precious little time to do so. The Emperor and his dragons are gathering at Mocte’el for the ritual that will free the Dragon Queen. Unfortunately, Mocte’el is thousands of leagues away.
Jarryd discovers a forgotten way to travel there, but it’s incredibly dangerous.
And every step of the way Jarryd has to fight the changes happening to him. For he is rapidly turning into a dragon.
Can Jarryd and his fellow Knights make it to Mocte’el before it’s too late, or will the Dragon Queen of Chaos roam free once again?
Destiny (St. Tommy N.Y.P.D. #9) – Declan Finn
A Satanic mercenary has the Spear of Destiny.
His ultimate goal is to destroy our world.
Living saint Tommy Nolan is the only man who can stop him.
Can Tommy put him down for good? Or will he meet his destiny?
When Heathen terrorists try to slaughter him and his family while on vacation in Rome, NYPD Lieutenant Thomas Nolan must call upon every trick he knows to send the terrorist leader back to Hell. Read More
Sensor Sweep: Barbarian Heroes, Diamonds are Forever, Roger Zelazny
Monday , 30, May 2022 Sensor Sweep Leave a commentSword & Sorcery (Cobalt Jade): Without dispute, pulp author Robert E. Howard invented the fantasy character trope of The Barbarian Hero,
specifically with his creation Conan. But the roots were laid before that in the Tarzan tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli. Both pitted a stoic, nature-wise man (or boy) of the wilds against corrupt human civilization. Conan went further, though, in his manly-man appetites for pleasure and acclaim.
Comic Books (Dark Worlds Quarterly): Here are some odd Bronze Age Sword & Sorcery comics you might have missed. All the big companies (Marvel, DC, Gold Key Charlton) tried out tales of heroic fantasy, usually in their horror comics, as an experiment in the early 1970s (some in the 1960s). By 1980s, after Conan the Barbarian and other S&S comics had a firm grip on the market, these S&S tales were just part-and-parcel of writing a strange tale.
Conan (Sprague de Camp Fan): Conan the Avenger, Lancer Books, 1968
contains The Return of Conan by Bjorn Nyberg and L. Sprague de Camp; and “The Hyborian Age, Part 2” by Robert E. Howard. (I will be discussing “The Hyborian Age” in a few weeks, as the final entry for this series.) Chapters 2 – 5 of The Return of Conan were first published as the novella Conan the Victorious and appeared in Fantastic Universe Science Fiction, September 1957.
The classic mass market paperback era featured successors to the high production pulp magazine writers: Ben Haas, Ralph Hayes, Peter McCurtin, James Reasoner, Robert Randisi, and Len Levinson. These guys could produce four or more paperbacks a year. I remember reading that Zebra Books was interested in Karl Edward Wagner’s “Adrian Becker” character as a paperback series wanting four books a year. Wagner could not do it.
I enjoy some war fiction. Probably my favorite WW2 novel is Richard Matheson’s The Beardless Warriors. James Jones’ The Thin Red Line might be #2. Read More
“Whisper” Daley has squealed. They got to him at Headquarters. I’m on the spot. Better come home, son.
When District Attorney Sanford Greer turned out to be too incorruptible and too good at sending mobsters to jail, the Mob decides to place him on the spot–for a storm of lead. Tipped off by an informant, Sanford reaches out to his son for help. Now aviator Gary Greer must race home to reach his father before an assassin’s bullet beat him to the spot.
“On the Spot” is the first of a series of short stories by Raoul Whitfield collected in Laughing Death. It is the origin story of Gary Greer and his quest for vengeance. For Greer was too late. And alongside his dead father, Gary finds another dying man. An informant. A mobster with enough respect for the newly departed Sanford Greer to give Gary five names.
Those of the men who killed Sanford Greer.
These men laughed at his father’s death. Now Gary Greer will laugh as he kills each man, one at a time. It’s not a spoiler if it’s on the back cover. And although the destination is certain, sometimes the journey matters more.
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 28 May 2022
Saturday , 28, May 2022 Uncategorized Leave a comment
Cold as Hell – Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle
In the West, there are worse things to fear than bandits and outlaws.
Demons. Monsters. Witches. James Crowley’s sacred duty as a Black Badge is to hunt them down and send them packing, banish them from the mortal realm for good.
He didn’t choose this life. No. He didn’t choose life at all.
Shot dead in a gunfight many years ago, now he’s stuck in purgatory, serving the whims of the White Throne to avoid falling to Hell. Not quite undead, though not alive either, the best he can hope for is to work off his penance and fade away.
This time, the White Throne has sent him to investigate a strange bank robbery in Lonely Hill. An outlaw with the ability to conjure ice has frozen and shattered open the bank vault and is now on a spree, robbing the region for all it’s worth.
In his quest to track down the ice-wielder and suss out which demon is behind granting a mortal such power, Crowley finds himself face-to-face with hellish beasts, shapeshifters, and, worse … temptation. But the truth behind the attacks is worse than he ever imagined …
Dragon Skin (Blood of the Ancients #2) – Dan Michaelson and D. K. Holmberg
Essence can build, but it also destroys.
Having discovered his own essence, Rob needs to leave his home behind to understand what it means for him to be different from the others of his village. If he can survive the journey, the dragon queen may have the answers.
When a deadly attack nearly destroys his new essence, Rob and his friends are forced to travel toward the dangerous borderlands for healing.
What they uncover is a source of essence that might change everything for the kingdom—or destroy it.
Dungeon Core Online #3 – Jonathan Smidt
Dungeon Wars has ended. Peace reigns across DCO… for a moment.
With the creation of his fourth-floor to focus on and his burgeoning relationship with Rue to enjoy, James is ready to simply immerse himself in everything that DCO has to offer. With his players now able to take to the seas – there is a whole new set of mechanics to explore. Not to mention another set of random mobs, each more ridiculous and terrifying than the last. I mean who doesn’t want to see a zombie megalodon summon a tornado full of undead sharks?
And, as DCO grows, so too does its impact on the world. With new Dungeon Gates that allow travel between dungeons, the economic impact of the game has increased tenfold.
But where there is wealth, there are those who wish to take it.
James is about to learn that the real world is a lot more sinister than the virtual one.
Cyb3Ru5 is coming.
Keep Away (Starship for Sale #3) – M. R. Forbes
Ben knows that if he’s going to make it as a starship captain, something’s got to give. After another unexpected run-in with Mr. Keep, he’s ready to accept that he can’t avoid his fate forever.
But the first step is a doozie, and he isn’t exactly starting out on the best footing. He has more to lose than his starship or his life. A lot more.
Buying the starship was business. This is personal.
The adventure of a lifetime continues in the third installment of the #1 sci-fi bestselling Starship For Sale series. If you like found starships, unlikely heroes, and intergalactic mayhem, you’ll love Starship For Sale. Read More
Reading (Monster Hunter Nation): Conversations with friends: why men need to read more novels. I agree with this title. More people need to read novels. That’s how I get paid. Never mind the so-called demise of the male novelist, where are all the male readers? Ash Sarkar on why we all miss out when half the population turn their back on books
Conan (Sprague de Camp Fan): The Hour of the Dragon was first published
as a five part serial in Weird Tales. It appeared in the December 1935, January, February, March, April 1936 issues. Below are the front covers and first pages with illustrations. The story was reprinted under the title, Conan the Conqueror, Gnome Press, 1950; Ace Books, 1953; Boardman (UK) 1954; and Lancer Books, 1967.
Tolkien (Den of Geek): Between an extremely complicated legal situation, persistent online rumours about possible changes in the Tolkien Estate’s approach, and the nature of some of Tolkien’s posthumously published works, the situation is a bit more complicated that it might at first appear. So what are JRR Tolkien’s posthumously published works, what is so complicated about the legal issues, and is it possible for the Amazon series to draw on these books?