Hawkmen

The Hawkmen cometh

October 9, 2018 Bushi 3

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 […]

Cactus

Trees get all the glory (lamentations for cacti)

October 5, 2018 Bushi 9

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 – […]

Excalibur

SFF Weapons: Some Interesting Implements

October 4, 2018 Bushi 4

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 […]

Thelinde

Dilvish, the Damned: Zelazny does #NotTolkien Fantasy

October 3, 2018 Bushi 9

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 […]

Eldorado

The Fantasy of Edgar Allen Poe

September 26, 2018 Bushi 0

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 […]

Introduction to the Insane Scifi of Cordwainer Smith

September 25, 2018 Bushi 5

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 […]

Jurgen cover

Jurgen the Clever

September 21, 2018 Bushi 2

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 […]

books

Doing Mobile SFF for Free!

September 20, 2018 Bushi 7

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 […]

Jack Vance, Andre Norton, and Plot Hooking

September 18, 2018 Bushi 0

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 […]

mouse

The Witcher and the Tower of Mice

September 17, 2018 Bushi 13

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 […]