As you should know by now, I really love a good alternate history. Some writers change one or two things and others change many things. A good example of the latter is Kingdom of the Wicked by Helen Dale. Her story (which is split into two books) explores a scenario in which the Industrial Revolution […]
For many years, scholars regarded Kipling as one of the great writers in the English-language canon. Political correctness has damaged his reputation, due to post-modernist interpretations of his novels and poetry as an apologia for British Imperialism. Being familiar with leftist over-sensitivity, I had my doubts. After reading his 1901 young-adult novel Kim, I’ve concluded […]
Recently I wrote a review of Volume 2 of Jerry Pournelle’s “There Will Be War.” The series began in the 1980’s and came to an end in 1990 when the Soviet Union fell. After 9/11/2001, however, it was apparent that Fukuyama was quite wrong about “The End of History.” Notwithstanding the continuance (and increase) in […]
The First Rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club – unless you’re talking about the 1999 movie that achieved cult status. Due to the odd promotional posters which featured a bar of soap, I had no interest when it came to the theater. As time went by, I kept hearing references […]
Images (c) their respective publishers and/or artists. British writer Michael Moorcock is a master of many genres. He’s written numerous volumes of classic fantasy as well as iconic modern sci-fi. He is also one of the few who was writing steampunk because it was “a thing.” The cover of his 1971 novel Warlord of the […]
Once upon a time, the publishing industry was largely about fun. Books, movies, comic books, games – they not only passed the time but helped inspire us and expand our imaginations. Yet all these kinds of media (with the possible exception of video games) seem to be in decline. Why is that? It’s because entertainment […]
In part 2 of this series, we’ll examine another great program for self-publishing writers. The old saying “You get what you pay for” is not necessarily true. The open-source world offers increasingly powerful FREE software tools for writers. Most of these tools are available for multiple operating systems: Microsoft Windows, Mac, and my favorite, Linux. […]
