Hawkman, the comic book superhero, was apparently created in 1940 by Gardner Fox of Appendix N fame. This post wasn’t originally intended to include him beyond a cursory note, but I found it quite interesting and coincidental that Fox should come up in this context, given my preoccupation in recent […]
This is probably going to sound kind of unhinged, but has anyone else noticed that trees get all the vegetational glory in SFF tales? Mirkwood and Lothlorien and Fangorn Forest and the ents, wood nymphs, Hogwart’s Forbidden Forest, Sherwood, the Great Woods of Narnia, even the Hundred Acre Wood – […]
Scifi and Fantasy are absolutely littered with famous weapons – from Excalibur to the lightsaber to Indiana Jones’ signature bullwhip. The further back you go, the more and more you find. Compiling a list of my favorites would be an undertaking, but reminiscing about Dilvish got me thinking a little […]
You might argue that Roger Zelazny’s brand of fantasy is plenty infected by modernism, as some would put it. You might also argue that he was doing some hard drugs when he wrote it. But it’s not the apple that fell from the Tolkien tree of Fantasy. Earlier this year […]
It seems to be a recurring theme with me – that for years I was unaware of such-and-such an author or was mistaken about the nature of his or her writings. Such was the case with Edgar Allen Poe. Last year, for the Halloween season, I did a little bit […]
Last month I wrote about the largely forgotten grandmaster of weird SFF, Clark Ashton Smith. Recently I’ve revisited the “best of” collection of another undeservedly obscured scifi great (and another Smith) – Cordwainer Smith. I wrote a bit about Cordwainer Smith last year over at the Castalia House blog. If […]
Owing to the intensity of starting a new job in a rushed situation, my reading of Witch World has been placed on hold. I have, however, been able to get some Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice in, for reasons only immediately obvious to myself. Jurgen is an odd but wonderful admixture. Filled to […]
On the most recent episode of Geek Gab, our hosts talked a little about reading and buying digital vs paper books. Of course it’s not a new discussion – for some people, there’s no adequate substitute for the physical sensation of a book in their hands. “Real” books are much […]
Last week, back at the Bushi homeland, Gita wrote a piece about plotting, and Jordan of Anachronistic Robot posted an essay about short story structure. This got me thinking a little. You see, I’ve never given all that much thought to plot or story structure. I’m sure it’s important for […]
It’s been a while since I played The Witcher 3 for PC, and I imagine it’ll be some time before I’m able to go back to it. Was a beautiful game, though, and a lot of fun. Since I was recently talking about inspiration Sapkowski may have drawn from Michael […]
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