Blog Archives

Fiction (Ken Lizzi): Swords & Sorcery is L. Sprague de Camp’s first entry in his four-volume series that spanned seven years. His introduction — an early sample of the short essay he’d return to with variations on the theme often enough — is a decent explication concerning what heroic fantasy consists of. (I found myself […]

Robert E. Howard (Adventures Fantastic): The opening is one of Howard’s best. A Roman governor, Titus Sulla, is showing a Pictish ambassador Roman justice by executing a Pict by crucifixion. The ambassador watches stoically without saying anything. The ambassador is of course the Pictish king Bran Mak Morn in disguise.The dying man provokes one of […]

Fiction (DMR Books): For today’s birthday tribute to Merritt, I thought that I’d focus on that classic novel, which was originally serialized in Argosy All-Story Weekly between November 8, 1924 and December 13, 1924, prior to being published in hardcover by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1926. Following that, it was reprinted many times, including […]

Star Wars (Arkhaven Comics): The High Republic is one of Kathleen Kennedy’s pet projects.  Initially it was supposed to have Disney Plus shows and perhaps movies attached but now it has YA books and comic books.  It was rather interesting to watch it’s development because of all of the boasting they did about their creative […]

Authors (CBC): The man was buried in June. Staff from the graveyard stood respectfully at his grave on a little hill near a forest. His coffin was covered in earth. A small numbered plaque on the ground recorded his grave’s location. But his name was not marked on the grave. The man’s name was Charles […]

Book Review (Ken Lizzi): So, here it is, the final Swords Against Darkness installment. #V. Sad. I wish Andrew Offutt had produced more. But how about that cover? I think it is terrific. There is an advertisement just inside the book for a series called Ro-Lan by Mike Sirota. Anyone read those? Any good? Andrew […]

Star Wars (Polygon): For several years, author Alan Dean Foster had been trying, without success, to get paid for several major tie-in novels adapting movies from the Star Wars and Alien franchises. While Disney has kept the books in print with other publishers, with Titan handling Alien and Del Rey on Star Wars, Foster says […]

Star Wars (Bleeding Fool): Apparently Marvel’s Doctor Aphra and Bounty Hunters books are taking a break according to Star Wars Splash Page. This may not be too much of a surprise given the recent layoffs at Marvel. But I’ve spoken with some folks who keep tabs on the comic book industry and this is the […]

Fantasy (Aeon): Tolkien articulated his anxieties about the cultural changes sweeping across Britain in terms of ‘American sanitation, morale-pep, feminism, and mass-production’, calling ‘this Americo-cosmopolitanism very terrifying’ and suggesting in a 1943 letter to his son Christopher that, if this was to be the outcome of an Allied Second World War win, he wasn’t sure […]

Tolkien (The Guardian): A previously unpublished collection of writings by JRR Tolkien, exploring the world of Middle-earth in essays tackling topics ranging from Elvish reincarnation to which characters had beards, is to be published next summer. The new collection, which is authorised by the Tolkien estate, will be called The Nature of Middle-earth, and will […]

Publishing (Kairos): The Strand is far from the only bookstore to fall on hard times this year. Barnes & Noble, the last big book retail chain, faces mounting pandemic-related difficulties compounded by their own bad decisions.     I loathe Amazon as much as the next person who relies on it. But on recent visits to […]

Lovecraft & Games (Fictiontalk): If you are a fan of horror you’ve heard of HP Lovecraft at some point. His works of fiction from “Shadow out of Time” to “The Call of Cthulhu” have influenced many science fiction and horror writers alike. Videogames are no exception. If you’re a die-hard Lovecraft fan or just looking […]