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Meta
Category Archives: review or meta-review
Permanent Records
I’ve been dabbling in the used-record market to feed the maw of my newish turntable. One thing I’ve really wanted was Cal Tjader’s Tjader Plays Mambo (1956), which is long out of print. I managed to find a copy in … Continue reading →
Posted in music, review or meta-review
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Tagged Cal Tjader, jazz, vinyl albums
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October 23: The Day of Might
At the Fortress of Engitude, we’re celebrating the Day of Might, proclaimed by the late, unceasingly great Howard Jones as a day for celebrating sword and sorcery, heroic fantasy, and heroic fiction generally.
Posted in books, fantasy, fantasy art, music, Myth & Legend, review or meta-review, sff
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Tagged Howard Andrew Jones, sword-and-sorcery, The Day of Might
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This Means Snore: THE WAR OF THE ROSES by William Adler
I’ve never seen the Danny De Vito film The War of the Roses (1989). It came out during the first Christmas season that I celebrated with my first wife and my first child. I had lots of things to occupy … Continue reading →
The SF/F Watcher’s Lament
Of all sad words of tongue or pen,the saddest are “Prequel again?”
Deus Ex Homine: Brackett’s THE SWORD OF RHIANNON and Zelazny’s ISLE OF THE DEAD
I’ve been following with interest Steven Silver’s great series of reviews of the Tor Double books at the Black Gate. His latest, scrupulously fair, review of Brackett’s The Sword of Rhiannon+de Camp’s Divide and Conquer reminded me of one of … Continue reading →
Posted in art, books, fantasy, fantasy art, magic, Myth & Legend, review or meta-review, sff, sword-and-sorcery, words, writing
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Tagged Arnold Böcklin, Boris Karloff, heroic fantasy, Leigh Brackett, Rachmaninov, Roger Zelazny, S&P, sword-and-planet
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Two Duds: WAS IT MURDER? by James Hilton and A QUESTION OF PROOF by Nicholas Blake
Fiction set at upper-class British schools was a popular genre in the 19th and early 20th C, and murder mysteries were the dominant form of popular fiction in the early and mid-20th century, so it’s only natural that cross-pollination would … Continue reading →
Posted in academia, books, mystery, review or meta-review
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Tagged C. Day Lewis, EverythingIsBetterWithLatin!™, James Hilton, Nicholas Blake
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This Way to the Egress: IMMORTALITY, INC. by Robert Sheckley
Executive summary: Immortality, Inc., Sheckley’s first novel, is a fast-moving tour of wonders and horrors, well worth reading, even if its individual parts are greater than the novel as a whole. The novel goes by a number of different names. … Continue reading →
Posted in art, books, review or meta-review, sff, sword-and-sorcery, werewolves
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Tagged Robert Sheckley
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Where Ignorance Is Blish: PLANET STORIES, July 1951
If an evil fate cast me back in time to the late 1930s, and I were compelled to join one of the factions emerging in the tempest-filled teapot of early sf fandom, I would probably side with the Futurians. They … Continue reading →
Posted in art, books, fantasy, fantasy art, review or meta-review, sff
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Tagged James Blish, Planet Stories, Poul Anderson, Ross Rocklynne, space opera, sword and planet
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1 Comment
The Truth About Clowns and Elves
Not trying to subtweet anyone, particularly my students, whose papers I’m wading my way through. But I’ve had a lot of occasion today to think about the identification of “great” with “first/inventor”. If some creator/creation is a a great example … Continue reading →
Posted in academia, Adventures in the Public Domain, art, review or meta-review, sff, words, writing
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Alphonso I, Conqueror of Erewhon
One of the features or bugs of reading five or six books at a time is that sometimes you finish them all in the course of a day and then wander around feeling strangely bereft. One of the books I … Continue reading →
Posted in biograpy, books, history, review or meta-review
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Tagged The Middle Ages
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