Category: Books

I see a Hydra shirt on a comic book store clerk, I walk right back out the door*.

Well, it appears that my days of declining to purchase any Marvel comic that isn’t Squirrel Girl are certainly coming to a middle:

Yesterday, Bleeding reported on Marvel’s plan to get comic shop employees to wear Hydra shirts to promote Secret Empire. It’s part of Marvel’s overall “Hydra Takeover” marketing gimmick that has been as well-received on social media as, well, as Secret Empire itself. For some reason, one we can’t quite put our finger on, people are uncomfortable with this. Hmm. What could it be?

Continue reading I see a Hydra shirt on a comic book store clerk, I walk right back out the door*.

New DART pre-order from @HPLHS: The Haunter of the Dark.

This is gonna be one of the good ones. The Haunter of the Dark is a great story and the HPL Historical Society always does a good job with their Dark Adventure Radio Theatre entries. I look forward to it.

Back in the saddle again…

…no more excuses or Spring Breaks or whatever.  From now on, 500 words a day, net*. Maybe it’ll be 1,000 and I throw out half; maybe I’ll be on and can get 500 that don’t need to be hacked at later.  But it’s time to schedule writing the way that I schedule exercise. That’s probably the only way it’s going to work for me.

Moe Lane

*Separate from the stuff on this site.  I’m talking about stuff I plan to sell. Or at least hope to sell.

Pre-ordered on sight: RIVER OF TEETH.

Why?  Because it’s an alternate history story about feral hippos in the Louisiana bayou. For four bucks I’ll give it a shot, not least because this particular bit of almost-America has fascinated me for some time.  We really did come close to doing something that profoundly stupid.

I’ll let you know if it’s stupid or tiresome or both, of course.

Book of the Week: The Stars My Destination.

Al Bester is mostly remembered for writing two books: The Demolished Man, and The Stars My Destination.  But I suspect that he probably wouldn’t mind that, because if you’re going to be remembered for only two things, having it be these two books is nothing to sneeze at. Many people would be pleased to be remembered for writing a book that reminded people of The Stars My Destination. I wouldn’t object, myself.

And so: adieu to Dream Park.

Also in the mail: Miskatonic University Monograph: Codex Beltrán-Escavy.

The full title is Archaeological Interpretations of Myth Patterns in the Iconography of the Codex Beltran-Escavy (Miskatonic University Press), and at ten bucks it is one of the best Call of Cthulhu RPG props I’ve ever seen that isn’t actually explicitly a Call of Cthulhu RPG prop.  The conceit is that the pamphlet is a scholarly monograph describing and analyzing a pre-Columban Codex depicting a hitherto unknown deity; while the scholars themselves are apparently blissfully ignorant of what is actually being portrayed in the pictographs, any halfway competent Mythos scholar (and/or person who plays Cthulhu Mythos games) will instantly catch on to the Codex’s true meaning.  You can easily craft several adventures around this monograph, with it as the central prop.

The artwork is also very nice. There are color drawings and a fold-out centerpiece.  The HPLHS really worked on this one.

Today would have been John M. Ford’s Sixtieth birthday.

As I was reminded here. John M. Ford was one of the best writers I ever knew.  I wrote the below after hearing of his passing; in case you’re wondering, ‘Cadre’ refers to a fan-In Nomine creation of mine. I felt that that particular game world rather badly needed a bunch of speculative fiction author-Saints ready to come back down to Earth in order to kick ass for the Lord.  Perfect folks for JMF to hang out with, in other words.

He’s still missed. Continue reading Today would have been John M. Ford’s Sixtieth birthday.

In the Mail: The Starry Wisdom Library.

This is not yet a Book of the Week… yet.  What The Starry Wisdom Library: The Catalogue of the Greatest Occult Book Auction of All Time is is quite possibly one of the few absolutely-required supplemental materials needed for pretty much any Cthulhu Mythos campaign.  The conceit is that it is a facsimile of a 19th Century catalog for the auctioning of the Church of Starry Wisdom’s occult library, which apparently had every significant book ever mentioned in the Mythos inside of it.  What makes thus book so indispensable is that each tome inside it is physically and memorably described as a book; this gives it a genuine ring of authenticity. It’s also a dry delight to read.

A must-have for Call of Cthulhu GMs looking to establish verisimilitude, or looking for a quick MacGuffin for driving his players mad.

Book of the Week: Dream Park.

I’m surprised that Larry Niven and Steven Barnes’ Dream Park hasn’t made the list yet.  It pushes the right buttons: near-future, filk singing, and LARPing as a competitive sport.  Good stuff, good stuff.  And the sequels don’t suck, either.

And so, adieu to The Deed of Paksenarrion. Continue reading Book of the Week: Dream Park.

So, Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves is three bucks on Kindle…

…until midnight tonight (I think). I picked it up, and it’s, well, different. It’s good, but it’s different. Short version: moon explodes, slo-mo end of life on Earth, desperate attempt to get viable human breeding population in space, and so forth. Good stuff, with very little ‘get tens of thousands of people up there’ romanticism – but it’s, well, different.

I keep using that word, I know.  I’m trying to find a better one, I swear. Anyway, I’ve been reading all day, so there’s that.