The Earth a Machine to Speak
Ya gotta understand that when I talk about “engineering porn”, I’m not talking about slinky women dressed immodestly and draped over trains. Sometimes people use that second word as a suffix that means, “gorgeous ideas about a typically innocuous thing elevated to a higher level by means of extraordinary...
T-Bird and Throttle #3
My hard copy order of Josh Howard’s T-Bird and Throttle arrived a week or so ago, and it got buried beneath a pile of other things. Last night, while zonked out on allergy meds, I reached for the shelf and the timing of grabbing TB&T couldn’t have been better. It...
Secrets of Blackmoor: The Movie
One for the wargames, oddly enough. The birth of Dungeons and Dragons is a strange and fascinating story of how creatives can draw forth order from the froth of chaos. I went into this film expecting a lot of defensive snark about how Gary Gygax was a Johnny-come-lately who...
Lord of the Fake News Flies
Like all American boys, I was reliably informed by people who should have known better that The Lord of the Flies was an important book that had important things to day and that asked important questions. Like all normal American boys, after reading it, the only question that I...
Book Clubbing
Alexandru over at The Dacian has a cunning plan. Every two weeks he will pick a short story worthy of discussion and give the stalwart Old Guard fans a chance to read and discuss across blogs. In his own words, he hopes to: foster an environment rich in community...
The Island, No Not That One *Updated*
We’re not talking about the 2005 Michael Bay clone escape film of the same name, we’re talking about a quiet little Russian flick that is pretty much the exact opposite. Although, this The Island isn’t without a good explosion and gunfight. Apparently I’m not the only one fleeing the...
Jack Vance!
huge fan of the man, the myth, the legend who helped inspire the tabletop RPG phenomenon. Learning the master of words had penned the story of his own life drove me to get my hands on the man’s autobiography. And it was fine. Easily the worst thing of his...
The Great Divide Game
A blog called The Dark Herald has been one of my daily reads for some time. Insightful analysis of these modren times and a keen wit keep me coming back for more. The author has released (or is it re-released) a very different sort of zombie novel called The...
Crisis Aversion Team
This 1982 mens adventure fiction novel was recommended to me by fellow Heroes Unleashed author, JD Cowan, who reports: …our pair of hero cops chase down a mad drug-dealer through dirty back alleys, disgusting sewers, an exploding chemical plant, and the twin towers (oh boy), while being chewed out...
Spoiling the Loop
Smart sci-fi, genuinely thoughtful sci-fi on the order of a Solaris or a Primer, is a rare thing these days. Hollywood much prefers to devolve a thoughtful sci-fi property into two men punching each other atop and exploding high place (see Star Trek) or to use slow-mo shots, soft...