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The Word-Hoard: Schloss
Schloss n. A castle or palace. There are a number of words for castles and other great houses or fortified compounds – keep, citadel, fortress, stronghold, manor, estate,…
Trees get all the glory (lamentations for cacti)
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…
SFF Weapons: Some Interesting Implements
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…
Dilvish, the Damned: Zelazny does #NotTolkien Fantasy
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…
The Word-Hoard: Beldame
Beldame n. 1. An old woman, especially an ugly one; a hag. 2. (Obsolete) Grandmother. When I did a Google search for “beldame,” the first several pages…
Hallowread: Carmilla
It’s become something of mine to do a little special reading for the Halloween season. Two years ago, I read and blogged about Frankenstein along with HP of…
The Word-Hoard: Dray
Dray n. A vehicle used to haul goods; especially a strong cart or wagon without sides. v. To haul on a dray. Not too long ago…
The Word-Hoard: Shagreen
Shagreen n. 1. An untanned leather covered with small round granulations and usually dyed green. 2. The rough skin of various sharks and rays when covered with small,…
The Fantasy of Edgar Allen Poe
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…
Introduction to the Insane Scifi of Cordwainer Smith
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…