The Planetary Adventures of Eric John Stark (Appendix N Review)

Posted on September 3, 2016 by Rawle Nyanzi

The Planetary Adventures of Eric John Stark

The Planetary Adventures of Eric John Stark
by Leigh Brackett
Originally published by Fiction House (1949)*
Republished by Wonder Publishing Group (2010)
$5.99

* The Road to Sinharat was published in 1963.

Eric John Stark — also known as N’Chaka, the Man Without a Tribe — ventures through the Solar System, battling vicious tribal leaders, frightening monsters, and ancient spirits. Though he has the intellect of a civilized man, he retains the battle-hardened, savage nature imparted by his barbarian upbringing. With his dual natures, he outwits and outfights all opponents, civilized and barbarian alike.

Welcome to The Planetary Adventures of Eric John Stark.

Continue reading →

Posted in Appendix N | Tagged , | 9 Comments

The Face in the Frost (Appendix N Review)

Posted on August 20, 2016 by Rawle Nyanzi

The Face in the Frost

The Face in the Frost
by John Bellairs
Originally published by Macmillan (1969)
Republished by Open Road Media (2014)
$6.15 (Kindle)
$9.99 (Paperback)

The wizard Prospero goes on a journey alongside his friend Roger Bacon. While on this journey, Roger Bacon is killed, and Prospero goes through the South Kingdom, looking for a way to bring him back to life.

Welcome to the disaster area known as The Face in the Frost.

Continue reading →

Posted in Appendix N | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

The High Crusade (Appendix N Review)

Posted on August 13, 2016 by Rawle Nyanzi

The High Crusade

The High Crusade
by Poul Anderson
Originally published by Doubleday (1960)
Republished by Baen Books (2010)
$6.99 (Kindle)
$12.00 (Paperback)

Among medieval Englishmen, aliens land, their towering spacecraft dwarfing primitive works. Men watch transfixed as a blue creature steps out, bearing weapons that incinerate men with casual ease. They have come to conquer, and England — no, all Earth — would lay prostrate before them, their lands surrendered and their people devastated.

But that’s not what happened.

Instead, brave English knights stormed the ship with sword, bow, and axe, and they slew all but one of the blue-skinned fiends. Led by Sir Roger de Tourneville, the knights forced the alien to operate the ship for them. They loaded up the entire population of the town of Ansby and thought they would fly to France and then to the Holy Land, but the alien deceives them, and the people of Ansby are taken to a planet in the alien empire. But the Englishmen remain undeterred, and they steel themselves for a battle unlike any they had ever faced.

Continue reading →

Posted in Appendix N | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Real Permanent Open Thread

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Rawle Nyanzi

I just learned that WordPress pages don’t have comment threads, so here’s the true open thread right here; talk amongst yourselves, and sorry for any inconvenience.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Suicide Squad (movie review)

Posted on August 9, 2016 by Rawle Nyanzi

suicide-squad-poster-big

Daytime Renegade and I review the film Suicide Squad, the true Ghostbusters remake (Zuul The Enchantress is in it.)

Also, stay a while and read my Appendix N Review Series. It’s spoiler-free, and you’ll find great reads.

Posted in Movies | Comments Off on Suicide Squad (movie review)

The Broken Sword (Appendix N Review)

Posted on August 6, 2016 by Rawle Nyanzi

The Broken Sword -- Poul Anderson

The Broken Sword
by Poul Anderson
Originally published by Abelard-Schuman (1954)
Republished by Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy (2014)
$6.15

Hark! Gather ye, youths and lasses, for a fierce tale of Skafloc, stolen from his fair mother’s arms by warrior elves, and Valgard, Skafloc’s vile twin born of elf and troll blood. Where Skafloc becomes an honored swordsman in service to elf earl Imric, Valgard becomes a bloodthirsty berserker, slaying all who dare to oppose him. War brews between the races of troll and elf, and Valgard leaves his human family behind to serve the trolls. As sword and axe carve their savage design across all the lands of Faerie, Skafloc and Valgard edge ever closer to a fated clash of steel and blood, with naught but hatred for one another.

For this is the saga of The Broken Sword!

Continue reading →

Posted in Appendix N | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Three Hearts and Three Lions (Appendix N Review)

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Rawle Nyanzi

Three Hearts and Three Lions (modern cover)

Three Hearts and Three Lions
by Poul Anderson
Originally published by Doubleday (1961)
Republished by Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy (2015)
$4.20

In the 1940s, Danish native Holger Carlsen left an idyllic life in the United States to fight the Nazi forces that rampaged through his old country. In the midst of a heated battle, he is spirited away to a mystical realm that resembles the European Middle Ages, but with a twist: the magic and monsters of legend are real, and they threaten to overwhelm human society. Holger is given not only armor, a sword, and a horse, but the fighting and riding skills of a knight — and mysterious memories that haunted him at every turn. It turns out that Holger is a hero foretold to aid humanity in a great struggle against the chaotic, inhuman forces of the Middle World, and he has no idea how he would fill such big shoes.

Continue reading →

Posted in Appendix N | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Announcing the Appendix N Review Series

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Rawle Nyanzi
The tabletop role-playing game that started it all.

The tabletop role-playing game that started it all.

Through my reading of the Castalia House blog and other blogs, one name kept coming up whenever the history of sci-fi and fantasy was mentioned: Appendix N. Apparently, this was a list of works and authors that inspired Gary Gygax when he created the first version of the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop roleplaying game. It is said to be a good survey of the fantasy genre as it existed in the 1960s and 1970s.

That got me curious.

Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , | 6 Comments

The Teenage Girl’s Robot Army

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Rawle Nyanzi

My short story, The Teenage Girl’s Robot Army, has been accepted for publication by the Sci Phi Journal. As a result, I had to take the story down.

The story talks about what would happen to the sanctity of life if robots replaced human workers entirely. Since human life would have negative economic value, murder would become more acceptable in society.

Once the relevant Sci Phi Journal issue is published, I will make an announcement on this site.

Posted in Short Stories | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Missionaries (A Review Unspoiled)

Posted on June 28, 2016 by Rawle Nyanzi

The Missionaries

The Missionaries
by Owen Stanley
Published by Castalia House (2016)
$4.99

When academic theories collide with practical reality, fun is had by all and sundry. The Missionaries is a hilarious book that will have you turning the page to see how badly a UN bureaucrat’s quest to modernize a distant tribe can go — and believe me, it goes really wrong. It shows the limits of the academic way of thinking while making you laugh all the way.

Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The Missionaries (A Review Unspoiled)