I wanted to give a quick shout-out today as one of my favorite old school role-playing games launches its new 2nd edition Kickstarter.
I’ve talked about Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea before — now’s your chance to sign on and see what the fuss has been about.
Until recently, Dan Verssen’s “Leader” game line has concentrated on various air war subjects. Given that my shelves are primarily filled with fantasy novels or books about pre 10th century eras I didn’t find them initially intriguing no matter my growing interest in solitaire board games, but Marco Arnaudo’s enthusiastic review of Hornet Leader won me over.
Even after I snagged a copy I didn’t take to Hornet Leader immediately, though. There were so many different armaments and so many different planes that I remarked to my friend Dean Brown that I felt like I was playing “Armament Leader” because I had to spend so much time choosing which kinds of bombs to put on my aircraft. I gather that happens to some players. I decided it wasn’t really for me, but for people who really liked knowing minute details about planes and bombs, and traded it away, but then, talking with Dean, I got to wondering if I’d really given it a fair shot. I decided to trade for a new copy last winter. After I played again and took more time with it I was hooked, and enjoyed several campaigns from December to March. And that left me in good shape to understand what a Leader game was all about, probably a good thing for a playtester for the upcoming B-17 Flying Fortress Leader game…
Last last month Bob Weinberg passed away. Pulp scholar, anthologist, writer, and all-around great guy, Bob has been a fixture in science fiction, fantasy, and pulps for longer than I’ve been alive. My heart goes out to his family and friends.
I didn’t know Bob well, but I had the pleasure to meet with him several times over the years. I was first introduced to him a little before he wrote the introduction to one of the Harold Lamb anthologies I edited (Swords from the West). I got to know him better when I met him at conventions over the years. He was one of the few people I knew at my first World Fantasy Convention, and greeted me warmly. And he was always there at every single pulp convention I attended, smiling, witty, sometimes curmurdgeonly, though in a gentle and teasing way. He was extremely knowledgeable about the fields of fiction I love, and always had a good story to tell about some of my genre heroes.
I liked him, a lot, and falsely assumed that he’d always be a fixture at the conventions. Certainly he seemed to have boundless energy the first few times we interacted. He’d appeared tired the last two times I bumped into him, and I saw on Facebook that he’d had some recent medical issues. I also thought I’d seen that he’d pulled through them. I wish I’d kept closer track.
Locus has a detailed obituary detailing all of this fine man’s accomplishments, including his winning of the Stoker Award. He will be missed.
Just when I thought I couldn’t get busier, I got busier. It’s good stuff, though. In addition to working on line edits, I’m now suddenly contemplating cover ideas and even initial cover copy. That’s exciting.
So it looks like the new book really will be titled For the Killing of Kings. It’s projected to be the first of three, and I’m not completely sure what the series will be called. I hope to have some sketches and other news about it to share with you next week, along with a bunch of other cool things. For now, though, I need to get back to line edits and work on some cover copy.
For the 5th year in a row my wife and I drove over to Louisville Kentucky this October to wander around the St. James Court Art Fair. There’s lovely artwork, crafts, and jewelry of all types, not to mention delicious food and some fine music — and the beauty of the neighborhood buildings, many of which are turn of the century mansions. One of these years I’m going to take the time to grab a tour that’s offered by a handful of them.
My wife purchased some swell necklaces and earrings. Me, I picked up another great refrigerator magnet.
Not much new to report here. I’m head down over a new manuscript but super busy with home stuff at the same time. I’ve been reading a lot of great RPG supplements I’ll tell you about when I get to catch my breath, and I remain super excited about some board games I’ve been perusing/playing. Alas, covering all of these things in the detail they deserve takes more time than I currently have. So I’ll simply leave you with this:
A few months ago I pulled down my old Conan paperbacks to re-read what I’d remembered as a pretty decent pastiche, de Camp’s “Halls of the Dead.” The bones of the story were pretty good, most likely because they were from a very detailed outline Robert E. Howard himself had set down (now popularly known as “the Nestor fragment”). But man, was the execution terrible.
And in the past few months I’ve been exposed to more de Camp pastiche than ever as I worked through various Savage Sword of Conan volumes. On the whole, they’re just not very good, even in outline form.
The only exception I suppose I have is when de Camp changed names and settings in one El Borak story and turned it into a Conan tale. Even that isn’t entirely successful — until it makes its way into comic form in a Savage Sword story, at which point, in the hands of Buscema and Thomas “Sons of the White Wolf” kicks an awful lot of sword-and-sorcery butt.
Do any of you enjoy the de Camp and Carter pastiches? If so, which ones?
Copyright Darian Jones
Well, my energy’s approaching normal again, but I remain super busy. So while I have a moment to think about the web site, I still don’t have time to tackle a couple of cool subjects I’ve been planning.
Instead, here’s some Friday links, courtesy of Link Man!
First, here’s an interview I held with the talented Peadar O’Guilin about his new novel, The Call.
Second, here’s a link to an upcoming sword-and-sorcery audio book that looks pretty cool.
Third, I received a copy of the first issue of Skelos magazine and can hardly wait to get started reading it. If you’ve been living under a rock, you may not have heard that there’s a new fantasy/horror/sword-and-sorcery mag out there. Here, go read more.
Whew! Is it 11:00 already? It’s been a busy morning. Guess I’d best keep things short.
First, I’m proud to announce that after years of practice, I’ve finally qualified for my second degree black belt. Hopefully this level of fitness will help delay the ravages of middle age!
Second, I’ve just had an article published in REH: Two-Gun Raconteur on one of my favorite, and under-appreciated, Robert E. Howard stories. You can check it out, along with a bevy of great articles, at the link.
Third, the sleep issues seem finally to be settling down. Fingers crossed that it’s finally under control!
There’s a lot going on here, so I’ll keep from any attempt at a long, profound post.
Here’s the highlights reel from the last few days:
1. Finally saw “Stranger Things,” and found it almost as good as I’d been promised it would be. Those actors were fantastic, and the pacing and script were excellent. Highly recommended — unless you work with traumatized kids, in which case maybe not. I deliberately had kept from learning anything about the plot, so wasn’t able to forewarn my wife, who was having some tough times by the end of episode three.