#styx was epic and perfectly used

[druid-for-hire]

new Hadestown au, ICARUS!ORPHEUS, wherein orpheus is not the world’s greatest musician but rather the world’s greatest inventor/mechanic/tinkerer. his creations are wondrous and beautiful and a miracle. Orpheus his mission is to create something that will repair the world--take what’s broken, make it whole.

Orpheus is still very much an artist--only his art in this AU is visual instead of auditory. and he’s still poor! not everything he makes is immediately useful for survival and y’know, hardly anyone has the money to buy things, and he has a propensity to just. give things away, especially the smaller trinkets he makes. and they take a Long Time to make. so he still works at hermes’ bar

SO!!!

this orpheus is body pain solidarity KDSKFJH

he has a fucked up back from all the heavy lifting he does around the workshop, being hunched over while he works on stuff, and being stuck in weird positions for extended periods of time when he’s working on machines and whatever, especially the bigger ones

also he’s got a wrist brace

he has a set of gear he wears a lot especially when he’s in his workshop

1) his wing pack! he built it himself and he’s proud. the pack was also made to help with his back problems. he doesn’t wear his mechanic gear when he’s working at the bar, but sometimes he’ll leave the wings on because back hurty. also, following w icarus, the wings are kept smooth & together and waterproofed w wax, kinda like a gloss. he reapplies every so often

2) his goggles! every part about the design is impractical (the red lenses and the beak) but i like them. they protect his eyes from flying bits and sparks and sawdust etc. when he’s working and wind when he’s flying

3) his boots! they’re sturdy workin’ boots, and have a talon function to clasp onto and lift things up. especially useful for moving bigger things around the workshop, up to higher levels and what have you, and he gets to flit around the whole space with minimal usage of ladders. (yes, they’re inspired by Vulture’s boots from Spider-Man: Homecoming)

(ALSO. the model of his wings are white crow wings, bc of the myth of Coronis)

because in greek mythology, crows started out white and had beautiful voices and the reason they turned black and got croaky calls is because a crow had to tell Apollo that his lover, Coronis, left him to marry a mortal 

and Apollo got so upset he burned the crow and then burned Coronis to death, or burned the crow and then turned Coronis into a crow, depending on the version

(thanks to @princessponies81 for helping me figure this bit out)

so there are some... parallels here

also, IIRC crow wings are elliptical-type wings, meaning they’re good for a lot of control and maneuverability in tight spaces. good for the workshop

also he makes automata too! he has this little mockingbird to help him around the workshop. lots of calls for lots of signals, like how a car will have diff beep signals for low gas or parking brake on or door left open or key left in etc... little bird can measure and alert for lots of things

he’s also less noodle-y than canon orpheus because of how much he uses his arms and legs doing lifting, work, and flying

he’s not like. Built or anything. but hes got some strength to him

he doesn’t just make really good machines either; he’s absolutely as skilled in fine, delicate things as much as the big pieces—he sees the details himself, has to make it himself, he’s as skilled in silversmithy or goldsmithy as he is in mechanics, and i imagine he has skills in metallurgy too. maybe even a bit of glassblowing? just for piece assembly. all his pieces will fit most perfectly if he makes them himself

things like the Silver Swan automaton (i’d link a video but external links are illegal on tumblr)

also... i don’t know if they manage to get married this time, but they at least get the wedding bands

lover, tell me, if you can--who’s gonna make the wedding bands?

@supercantaloupe: the river gonna give us the wedding bands -- he draws the mineral, the stones from the silt, and crafts them himself

SO, he charms eurydice with one (or many) of his dazzling creations that also have usages in practicality and survival

as is the youzhe, she leaves when he gets to obsessive with working on something, holed up in his workshop instead of like. Surviving the winter

they last longer into the winter this time though because again, he does have a couple of machines good for tiding over the winter and surviving, and eurydice can operate them. but he’s too caught up with creating something to fix the world to repair them when they break down

when he leaves, he leaves his mockingbird to take care of his workshop while he’s gone. make sure there’s not leaks or fires, etc., keep everything in working order

the trip to hadestown still takes a long time, but less time than in canon, given that orpheus gets there on a pair of wings, though he gets grounded plenty of times due to bad weather. plus, his wings aren’t really meant for long-distance

so in the end the time still matches up; the events underground still happen on the onset of proper spring

he sails over the wall of the Styx on his wings, but it’s a feat easier said than done; it really is high and wide, just... hundreds of feet tall, and i headcanon that the “wall” is in fact seven layers of fortification because some myths say the River Styx wraps around the underworld seven times

and he is not a high altitude flier

uhhhhhhhhh blah blah something something ... i’m not clear on all the details but here are a few things:

orpheus gets the shit kicked out of him in Papers as usual and the fates hold his wings over him instead of his guitar

i have no idea how If It’s True goes

SOMEWHERE there’s Hey Little Songbird II (thank you to @supercantaloupe​ for authoring this idea);

it's Hades to Orpheus this time. Ironic, as he sings and flies, a real songbird.

and orpheus, that inspired inventor, that mechanic, that engineer, blessed by Hephaestus himself, being tempted to stay. It's a marvel of engineering, those factories. But they're rough around the edges, dirty, inefficient, unrefined. Imagine all the work he could do. Imagine how grand it would be, with just his help. And imagine how much fun it would be to fix it all!

but since he's fallen in love - and lost her once already - he has to pause and think. it's too good to be true, isn't it? Is it true? Can he really stay here forever, with parts and tools and endless projects worthy of his skill and attention - at least, without her?

ok back to me writing stuffs

there is no Epic I / Epic II / Epic III; the titles are now Trial I / Trial II / Trial III, like trial runs of prototypes, and on the third one it has a double meaning as a trial of judgement

Trial III goes as such:

(and thank you to @ferretteeth for this)

Hades orders him to build.  An impressive invention in turn for his life – a chance he gives only because his wife is smitten with interest. 

Orpheus gets three days and no more, and when he is finally ordered to come before the throne of basalt and steel he brings his invention. And Hades gives a curt, mocking laugh, because all Orpheus has in his hands is a simple box of bronze, cheap and adorably human. 

 He almost orders for Orpheus' death the moment he sees it, but then the boy lifts the lid and reveals a mechanical flower. Petals made out of metal rusted rosy, nectar of flecks of fool's gold. 

Delicate and beautiful; extremely finely spun, as if the metal were only woven fibers. It is as soft as any silk.

"Where did you get that," the king snaps in a hurry. "How did you know–" 

And then, with the twist of a key, the invention reveals to be a music box and long lost chords fill the Underworld.

(i originally had the idea that he builds a planetarium that replicates the summer above, a caught snippet of the thing that hades could never make on a large scale. a beautiful thing with flowers that blossomed and played the old song as hades brushed his hands across them, sun above. but i figured it’s probably more in line with the sensibilities of Hadestown if orpheus had created something less... grand)

so eurydice and orpheus are granted their chance to leave.

i’m not sure what the test is, because he’s got to fly out with eurydice clutched in his talons, and i want him to be as much a victim of his doubt as in canon

but he has to follow this flight path with absolute perfection, down to the flap. you fly too high, the flames of hadestown will catch him. he flies too low, the flames of hadestown will catch her.

i think, in his paranoia, he flies too high, and his wings catch fire

his wings are on fire--his arms are strapped in to them. he’s burning up. he’s burning.

he’s slowing down in his ascent. in a moment, he knows that if they’re going to make it, it’ll only be one of them, and... he’s not going to drop eurydice. he can’t do that to her.

when his wings can no longer climb, he throws her the final distance to the surface. she turns around and reaches desperately for him, but he’s too far away.

he falls. a comet.

he breaks.

the fact is, he dies

but he dies in hadestown. so now he’s just... well, one, no chance of going back aboveground. two, now he’s... sitting at the bottom of that long climb, broken and in pain, surrounded by the charred skeleton of his wings, broken and burned feathers, drips of melted oil and wax, and blood

he’s... there for a long time, just suffering, before someone comes to see if they made it out, and finds him at the bottom

hades sees this as an opportunity to bring him back, let him heal, and put him onto projects, perhaps “to get your mind off of it all,” but. orpheus doesn’t want to work. he doesn’t want to do anything

thanks to supercanteloupe again for co-authoring this section:

Hades says he'll squander his god given talents to just sit around all day but Orpheus won't listen

hades has just zero fucking clue how to deal with a depressed human

"have I not given him all he could want, metal, tools, a workbench? Bed, bread, fire? Strength in his bones? And yet he refuses still? The boy must be mad," he cries, angry

@s-aint-elmo: "i got a new mechanist" 

“you ruined a perfectly good talented young man is what you did. look at him, he's got depression"

persephone herself is a mess (less so after Trial III) but she has at least some sense—she is more in touch with mortals than him, spending time with them up on the surface and throwing revels, but also greeting those who lost their lovers/sisters/brothers/mothers/fathers in the winter before

persephone encouraging orpheus to build, not for her sake or for Hades', but for his own. little flowers, little birds, wind up toys and music boxes. something to keep him going

s-aint-elmo: she brings him pressed flowers from the surface, little trinkets, tokens of the green. orpheus only lets the first few wilt and rot at the corner of his table.

flowers bloom until they rot and fall apart

it's a sad, painful reminder

he eventually has the resolve to rebuild his wing pack—better this time, because really, he feels crippled without them after living w em for so long

edit: (and the feathers are black, a la the crow myth)

when hades first sees him like, passing by w wings on his back, he turns to persephone like “what have you been saying to him?” “only what he needs to hear, husband”

he has a great fear of actually getting off the ground at first, though

he’ll perch at the edge of a rooftop, but... doesn’t move. it’s a leap of faith he doesn’t feel like he can take

he always saw air as just a medium to move through, that it would support him, as easy as swimming

now he sees straight through it to the ground

he has burn scars across the entire back of his arms, hands, and fingers

it’s a reminder every time he gets to working

rough patchy skin. calloused fingers from work

big sigh

eurydice goes home.

there is the empty shell of his workshop. his many machines and trinkets and tools and his hundreds of unfinisheds and thousands of scraps of plans, and… his bird left to care for the shop after god knows how many weeks or months.

it flies down and greets her, some string of whistles and beeps she only half understands. then it asks for orpheus

she tells it that he fell; he’s not coming back, it’s too late

the bird sticks by her from there on out, the last “living” remnant of her lover, besides his shell of a workshop

ok i haven’t thought farther than this, please have fun with this au i think it’s a new favorite alongside Unswayed AU & Apartments AU

[caitsbooks]

Caitsbooks Reviews: Seafire by Natalie C. Parker

* I received an ARC at BookExpo 2018, all quotes included here may not reflect the finished edition *

Overall: 4.5/5 Stars Characters: 5/5 Setting: 4/5 Writing: 5/5 Plot and Themes: 4/5 Awesomeness Factor: 4.5/5 Review in a Nutshell: Seafire is a thrilling, epic adventure with badass female pirates set on revenge.

“Take your ship, take your crew, and prove to that man that he has not quelled all of us. Prove that there is a fire on these seas that he cannot contain.”

Blog || Goodreads || Bookstagram || Twitter  || Reviews 

- Premise - Seafire follows Caledonia Styx, the captain of Mors Navis. After making a mistake that led to the deaths of her family at the hands of the ruthless warlord Aric Athair and his army of Bullets, she is set on getting her revenge. When a Bullet saves her best friends life and offers them information that can give Cala the edge she needs, she must decide if she can trust him. 

“Never underestimate the girls of this world.”

- Setting - The setting of Seafire is really interesting, yet very vague. Set in a dystopian world where a warlord rules the seas and drugs children so they can serve his army, this book has a lot of compelling factors. While not entirely a fantasy setting, this book does have the fantasy/pirate feel despite the scifi-esque technology sometimes used. My only complaint is how little we're told about the world. There are plenty of new words used in this book that are never really explained well enough, and despite inferring the meaning, several of them still aren't clear. 

“'I am not made for just surviving.' 'What are you made for then?' 'Fighting back.'”

- Writing - 

The writing style is amazing. Natalie C. Parker's prose perfectly fits this genre-bending novel with great descriptions and intriguing internal dialogue. Plus some great banter too (Oran and Redtooth bring me so much joy, you have no idea).

"Just because there are bad things behind someone doesn't mean they only have bad things inside them."

- Plot- The beginning of the book can feel a little slow because, despite the many action scenes, the world can be a little hard to jump into. While the exposition is balanced well, what hasn't been explained in exposition slows down the plot. Not to mention, a large part of the first half of the book focuses more on the characters than the overall arc of the plot. However, by the 50% mark, the book really does pick up and is almost impossible to put down!

"Caledonia Styx, I suspect your regrets are few and legendary."

- Characters - The crew of the Mors Navis is one of my absolute favorite parts of the book. A fierce, all-female group of over fifty pirates hell-bent on getting revenge? It's awesome. I will say, this book is definitely not as gay as it sounds (there is a side romance between some crew members, but it isn't really explicitly stated in this book, but hopefully the next book will be gayer!). The main romance isn't gay, and honestly isn't at all a focus of this book (it is very much a slow-burn). The main character, Caledonia, is such a complex and fascinating protagonist. I absolutely loved her journey throughout this book. The Bullet (Oran) doesn't really get to shine until the last quarter of the novel, but he absolutely stole every scene for me. I can't wait to learn more about him in the sequel! The majority of the crew doesn't get much focus, with the exception of Pisces, Lace, Lovely Hime, Amina, Tin, and Redtooth. They each have very distinct personalities and really do stand out in this book.

“There's a storm on our tail, ladies. Not a small one. But we're fire on water.”

- Conclusion - Pros- Great writing, fascinating characters Cons- A little slow at the start, the setting can be too vague at times Overall- 4.5/5 stars. Seafire is an epic adventurous novel that will blow you out of the water.

[hellosaltysaladcollectionstuff]

Ghost of Tsushima is one of the most anticipated games of 2020, and it finally arrives this month. It's an open-world action game set in the 13th century, and it focuses on a character named Jin Sakai, one of the last samurai warriors on the island of Tsushima during the Mongol invasion. The trailers and footage released by developers Sucker Punch reveal that the game has taken a lot of inspiration of Japanese samurai cinema. So while we wait for the game, now is a perfect time to explore some classics of this movie genre.

Samurai movies--or chambara, meaning "sword fighting"--were made in Japan throughout the 20th century. But it was the huge success of Akira Kurosawa's films in the 1950s and 1960s that truly popularized the genre, inspiring dozens of imitators and homages, and making the genre popular internationally. Kurosawa's Yojimbo and The Seven Samurai were both remade as the classic westerns A Fistful of Dollars and The Magnificent Seven, while the director's Hidden Fortress was an acknowledged influence on Star Wars.

But there's more to samurai cinema than Kurosawa of course. Some movies took a more dramatic, contemplative approach, exploring the traditions and codes of honor of the samurai and ronin (masterless samurai). Others went the other way and cranked up the violence, especially during the 1970s, where jetting geysers of crimson blood became a familiar sight.

So here's our selection of some key samurai movies to check out (and one fantastic film that doesn't technically count but we've included it anyway). Many of these are also available to stream, so we've noted where you can find those on the various streaming platforms out there.

11. Killing (2018)

Streaming: VOD rental

The most recent movie on this list, Killing is the latest film from acclaimed director Shinya Tsukamoto, who is best known for the cyberpunk classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man. As the title suggests, it's a meditation on the act of killing, and how even the most ruthless samurai can be affected by taking lives. Tsukamoto himself plays a veteran warrior who takes a young samurai Tsuzuki under his wing, but things go horribly wrong when the family that Tsuzuki has been living with are threatened by a gang of bandits. It's a small scale but intense movie, with sudden bursts of brutal violence.

10. Harakiri (1962)

Streaming: Criterion Channel

Director Masaki Kobayashi is best known for his 1964 horror anthology Kwaidan, but two years earlier, he made this classic. It's more of an intense melodrama than action movie, as a samurai warrior named Tsugumo comes to the palace courtyard of a feudal lord with the intention committing ritual suicide. Although Kobayashi does eventually deliver the samurai action, the movie really doesn't need it to make it a compelling movie, with the intrigue and tragedy of the main story more than enough. It's also worth checking out Takashi Miike's impressive 2011 remake.

9. The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)

Streaming: Criterion Channel

Zatoichi is one of the most iconic heroes in samurai cinema, and the success of this first movie spawned no fewer than 25 sequels, plus a TV show and a remake. Zatoichi is the legendary blind swordsman, whose sensitive nature conceals his incredible swordplay skills. Shintaro Katsu is perfectly cast, the action is exciting, and it was great way to kick off samurai cinema's longest-running series,

8. Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (2002)

Ok, Ghost Dog is not a Japanese samurai movie. Cult director Jim Jarmusch has dabbled in numerous genres over the years, but even when he's making vampire or zombie movies, his films are marked by offbeat storytelling, deadpan comedy, and great performances. Ghost Dog: is one of his best; it's a darkly funny crime drama, in which Forest Whitaker plays the mysterious title character, a hitman who uses an ancient samurai code. The tone, pacing, and themes of honor and tradition have more in common with the traditions of Japanese cinema than Western crime films. Plus the music is by Asian action cinema fan and Wu Tang Clan main man RZA.

7. Lady Snowblood (1973)

Streaming: HBO Max

A huge influence on Tarantino's Kill Bill movies, Lady Snowblood combines samurai cinema with the revenge movie. Japanese icon Meiko Kaji plays a woman who seeks bloody revenge on the men who destroyed her mother's life 20 year earlier. The film is a blend of artistic filmmaking and over-the-top gory violence, as Lady Snowblood is trained in the way of the samurai warrior and uses her skills to chop and hack her way to vengeance. It was followed by the inferior but still entertaining sequel Lady Snowblood: Lovesong of Vengeance.

6. Twilight Samurai (2002)

The Oscar-nominated Twilight Samurai is one of the most acclaimed samurai movies of the modern era. It focuses on Seibeia, a widowed samurai who reunites with his childhood sweetheart Tomoe after many years. It's a slow and thoughtful film, but when the action does arrive it has real emotional power, as Seibeia must face Tomoe's abusive ex-husband in a duel to the death.

5. Yojimbo (1961)

Streaming: HBO Max, Criterion Channel

Yojimbo is one of Kurosawa's most entertaining samurai movies, and its success helped kickstart the spaghetti western genre, when Sergio Leone remade it as A Fistful of Dollars. It adeptly mixes action, comedy, and drama, as Toshiro Mifune's charismatic samurai finds himself playing two rival crimelords against each other as they both compete for his services.

4. Shogun Assassin (1980)

Streaming: Criterion Channel, HBO Max

The six-movie Lone Wolf and Cub series was based on the classic '70s manga about a vengeful samurai who travels the land with his young son in a booby-trapped babycart. In the early '80s, the first two movies--Sword of Vengeance (1972) and Babycart on the River Styx (1973)--were edited together by American producers, redubbed, and released here as a single 90 minute movie titled Shogun Assassin. This version focuses more on the blood-spraying mayhem and less on the drama, but it's still huge fun. Shogun Assassin is available on the Criterion Channel, while the superb original films can also be found on HBO Max.

3. Samurai Rebellion (1967)

Streaming: Criterion Channel

Another samurai classic from Harakiri director Masaki Kobayashi. Like its predecessor, this is a dark and serious story that focuses on a samurai questioning his values and place within the constraints of the feudal system. In this case, a once faithful samurai leads a rebellion against his former lord to protect his son, leading to an exciting and violent final 30 minutes. It's also stunningly directed, with beautiful black-and-white photography and stylish camerawork.

2. 13 Assassins (2011)

Streaming: Hulu

Takaski Miike's 13 Assassins is actually a remake of a 1963 movie of the same title, but it's even better than the original. The movie is set in 1844, and focuses on a group of samurai who come together to assassinate an evil lord. The gripping first hour, as the group are assembled, builds to an incredible final 45 minute battle sequence. What's so impressive about this final scene is that Miike continues to develop the plot and characters alongside the violent mayhem. It's a film that both honors the classics of Japanese samurai cinema and pushes the genre forward.

1. The Seven Samurai (1954)

Streaming: HBO Max, Criterion Channel

Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai isn't just one of the greatest samurai movies, it's one of the best action movies ever made. This epic tale of a group of ronin who team up to protect a village from bandits set a new standard for action filmmaking, with Kuraosawa's mastery of editing and choreography influencing filmmakers for decades to come. The action is matched by the compelling drama, with the three-hour running time allowing Kuraosawa to really explore all seven of his heroes, while the location photography gives it a realistic feel that still feels fresh.

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[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Legion of Time, Creepy Asimov, Fletcher Pratt, Lost Worlds

Gaming (Modiphius): Today we’re delighted to announce the release of Conan the Adventurer in PDF a major new sourcebook for the acclaimed Robert E. Howard’s Conan Adventures in an Age Undreamed of RPG. Conan the Adventurer is the definitive guide to the lands south of the Styx River, including serpent-haunted Stygia, Kush, Darfar, Keshan, Punt, Zembabwei, and that vast region known to the folk of the Dreaming West as “the Black Kingdoms”. Rife with mystery and ancient, long forgotten cultures and ruins, this region is brimming with potential for adventure and intrigue.

Science Fiction (John C. Wright): LEGION OF TIME was first serialized from May to July of 1938 in Astounding Magazine. It concerns one Dennis Lanning, who, as fate would have it, is the lynch pin on whose actions the existence of two mutually-exclusive future worlds hinge. The visions reveal that some future act of his will grant one of the two futures certainty, and abolish the other into impossibility. The impact of this tale on the science fiction readership of the day is easy to underestimate, and that for several reasons. Foremost, because it is hard to remember or imagine how new the central conceit of the story had been.

  Asimov (lithub): By 1969, Asimov himself reported, he was being described by longtime friend Frederick Pohl as someone who “turned into a dirty old man at the age of fifteen.” Asimov, by his own account, was “perfectly willing to embrace the title; I even use it on myself without qualms.” He wasn’t kidding. Two years later, he published The Sensuous Dirty Old Man.

Review (Eldritch Paths): I never know what to expect from author Brian Niemeier. His works always seem to subvert my expectations while exceeding them. Strange Matter, his collection of short stories is no different. All the stories are just weird and different, and they range from fantasy to sci-fi to weird fusions of genres. In short, it’s awesome. Here are my thoughts on each story.

Culture  War (Walker’s Retreat): Independent author Misha Burton had a good Twitter thread (starting here) that identifies why contemporary fiction sucks harder than a Hoover on overdrive. Reproduced below; emphasis mine.  There is a significant difference between fantastic fiction of the form “what if I fought a dragon” and “what if I were a dragon”. For this discussion I don’t mean “dragon” literally–it could be magic spells or handwavium mutant superpowers.

Comic Books (13th Dimension): Marvel has been producing high-end omnibi collecting this classic run but in June, the publisher is scheduled to start making the stories available in the more affordable Epic Collection paperback format. Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith’s Red Sonja debut might be the main selling point — but check out the other artists represented in this volume: Gil Kane and John Buscema. Beauteous.

Fiction (DMR Books): The last ninety-plus years have seen Haggard’s star slowly fade. There was a massive shift, in many ways, immediately after World War Two. A large percentage of the authors writing for the pulps and Men’s Adventure Magazines after WWII were influenced by HRH either directly or indirectly. However, there was a zeitgeist in the air which said that all those titans from the time before the Bomb were somehow wrong, and that a “better way” could be found…or just hadn’t been tried.  Thus, the gradual memory-holing of H. Rider Haggard.

Gaming (Monsters and Manuals): In adventurer-dense settings, you get an adventurer-friendly infrastructure developing. Institutions arise to facilitate what adventurers do, from your bustling inn brimming with hirelings and rumour, to your adventurer’s guild, your market in ancient treasures and exotic weapons, your sages willing to shell out fortunes for rare collectibles, and so on. (Arguably, the true potential of adventurer-dense settings has never come close to being fully explored; would a system of adventurer insurance come into being? How about hireling labour exchanges?

Tolkien (Tor.com): We’ve come now to the end of Fëanor’s story: to the infamous Oath and the havoc it wreaks on Valinor, Middle-earth, and especially the Noldor. In the title of this series of articles, I’ve called Fëanor the “Doomsman of the Noldor” for this reason. Mandos is known as the Doomsman of the Valar because he is the one who pronounces fates, sees the future, and is especially good at seeing through difficult situations to their cores. I’ve named Fëanor similarly because it is his Oath, his set of ritualized words, that bind the Noldor in a doom they can’t escape.

Fiction (Goodman Games): The Appendix N is a list of prolific authors of science fiction and fantasy. But Fletcher Pratt is not one of them, at least not in comparison to most of the authors on the list. He primarily wrote historical nonfiction about the Civil War, Napoleon, naval history, rockets, and World War II. So why is Fletcher Pratt listed in the Appendix N and why does he have the coveted “et al” listed after The Blue Star?

Sherlock Holmes (Pulp.Net): I’ve posted several times about Solar Pons, a popular character inspired by Sherlock Holmes that was created by August Derleth, continued by Basil Copper and more recently by David Marcum. (I think calling him a pastiche doesn’t do him justice.) We’ve gotten reprints of the original works and collections of new stories, and recently we got the return of the scholarly journal on Solar Pons: The Pontine Dossier.

Video Games (Rawle Nyanzi): No one plays video games anymore. It can sure feel that way when no one purchases the indie game you worked so hard on. All those sleepless nights, all that time, effort, and money — all of it is ignored. You feel like you did nothing of value. But I’m not here to talk about video games, I’m here to talk about books. It’s easy to think that no one buys your book because “no one reads anymore,” but I believe that perspective is very mistaken.

Manga/T.V. (RMWC Reviews): In June of 1972, Nagai’s Devilman manga began, and in July an anime based on it began airing. A horror-action series that would become one of his flagship franchises, the anime was significantly toned down for television. The same year, on October second, Mazinger Z debuted in Weekly Shōnen Jump and a subsequent anime series from Toei Animation would begin airing on December third.

Publishing (DVS Press): Tradpub is a facade, but perception matters. You have to think about who you are facing, in what arena you are facing them, and what victory means. Yes, traditional publishing is in trouble right now due to store closures and paper supply problems, but that doesn’t mean they are dead. Most normal people don’t spend a second thought on the entire industry, and they certainly aren’t looking at any numbers to see what the problems within the industry are.

Biography (Interstellar Intersection): Mark Finn penned what has become the definitive biography on Robert E. Howard in the 21st century, titled “Blood & Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard.” Published by MonkeyBrain Books in 2006, a second edition with revisions was later furnished by the Robert E. Howard Foundation Press in 2012. Finn, a scholar from Texas, was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in the Special Award — Professional category in 2007 for his biography and scholarship of Howard, highlighting how desperately the genre fiction community needed new scholarship of Howard, as his creations outshined him.

Fiction (Paul McNamee): Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond is ex-SAS with a problem–he’s easily bored. Civilian life holds nothing interesting for him. He places ads for excitement. Once he’s sifted through the dross, he finds himself pulled into an international plot set on destroying Great Britain as a world power. Only Bulldog and his team of former comrades-in-arms can save the day, weaving between the law and the villains. I.A. Watson brings us a modern Drummond. This novel is as high-octane as any action movie out there today. The novel is wall-to-wall action, does not let up, and leaves you breathless.

Art (DMR Books): The three stories in “Castaways” were all good to varying degrees, but the Frazetta art, every single plate of it, is what really sticks in my mind decades after I laid eyes on it. What I didn’t know until much later was that Frank had just finished up his first ever paperback gig doing ERB covers for Don Wollheim at Ace books. The Canaveral Press edition of Tarzan and the Castaways was Frazetta’s first chance at illustrating a book in the more prestigious hardcover format. Like the major league ballplayer he very nearly became, Frank swung for the fences.

Fiction (Legends of Men): The lost world genre centers around exploration. The land that comprises the setting has been lost or is legendary to the European characters in the stories. They often have something valuable like diamonds or gold. Those valuables compel the characters to search for the land, which is always hard to find and traverse many dangers in the process. The protagonists are usually forced into the role of explorer, even though it might not be their primary skill. For example, in King Solomon’s Mines, the protagonist is an expert elephant hunter who undertakes an exploratory quest.

Gaming (Old Skulling): Due to their importance and influence on the sword and sorcery adventures, Factions can effectively be treated as characters and, as such, can influence the events of the campaign in a myriad of ways. But how do we resolve the outcome of their actions in a fair and neutral way? This system proposes assigning them scores in 4 main Attributes similar to those of the PCs: Warfare, Subterfuge, Machinations, and Influence.

Sensor Sweep: Legion of Time, Creepy Asimov, Fletcher Pratt, Lost Worlds published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/