Classic Cover #11 - Shadow Dragons - Gary's Source?

I love "The Invisible Robinhood Returns" as if the cover wasn't wild enough.  Still, the Binders could write so the story probably isn't quite as cheesy as the cover implies.

Celebrating the Birth . . . E. Nesbit

Edith Nesbit (15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924)
     E, Nesbit was a successful and influential writer of children's stories, including many fantasies, as well as adult ghost stories.  On the positive side, her writing is seen as having an influence on writers as diverse as C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling.  On the negative side, her works have tendency to be tedious and condescending, as well as preferencing the mundane over the imaginative.  Many of her works are freely and easily available.






Fiction
At Project Gutenberg:

• Many text stories.

Audio Fiction
At LibriVox:

• "Ebony Frame, The" (in "Ghost Story Collection 002")
• "Man-size in Marble" (in "Ghost Story Collection 001") 
• "Mystery of the Semi-detached, The" (in "Ghost Story Collection 004") 
• "Uncle Abraham's Romance" (in "Short Ghost and Horror Collection 018") 
• "Uncle Abraham’s Romance" (in "Ghost Story Collection 001") 
• "All Round the Year" 
• "Baby Seed Song" (in "In the Nursery of My Bookhouse") 
• "Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare" 
• "Book of Dragons, The" 
• "Children's Shakespeare, The" 
• "Conscience Pudding, The" (in "Christmas Short Works Collection 2007") 
• "Enchanted Castle, The" 
• "Five Children and It" 
• "Five Children and It, Version 2" 
• "Five Senses, The" (in "LibriVox 5th Anniversary Collection Vol. 2") 
• "For Dolly, who does not Learn her Lessons" 
• "Harding's Luck"
• "House of Arden, The" 
• "Literary Sense, The"
• "Macbeth" (in "Children's Short Works, Vol. 016")
• "Magic City, The" 
• "Magic World, The"
• "Many Voices (selection from)"
• "Measure for Measure" (in "Short Story Collection Vol. 019")
• "My School Days"
• "New Treasure Seekers"
• "Nine Unlikely Tales" 
• "Phoenix and the Carpet, The" 
• "Pussy and Doggy Tales" 
• "Railway Children, The" \
• "Royal Children of English History"
• "Story of the Treasure Seekers, The"
• "Through the Wood"
• "Too Clever by Half" (in "Coffee Break Collection 008 - Animals") 
• "Wings and the Child"
• "Wonderful Garden, The"
• "Wouldbegoods, Being the Further Adventures of the Treasure Seekers, The"

Quag Keep (1978) - Book Review

Quag Keep by Andre Norton (1978). Fantasy.
DAW. (1979 printing) 192 pages.
Other Reviewers: Grognardia. Curled Up with a Good Book.

Brief Summary: Several real-world gamers become their fantasy-world game characters, possessing only tiny fragments of their fantasy memories, and even less of their real ones. After two of the characters, the swordsman Milo Jagon and the beserker Naile Fangtooth, meet in a dingy tavern, they are soon united with the rest of the party. They find that they are pawns of a mysterious power that is trying to bring the worlds together, with disastrous results. Setting out from the city of Greyhawk, they travel across much of a vaguely described world, with some interesting D&D style encounters, until they reach the Sea of Dust where they confront the mysterious power.

The Good: The first Dungeons and Dragons novel (sort of). The story was very original at the time, with many gaming fiction cliches being created here, not followed. Much of the middle of the book is very good, especially the encounters with Lichis the Golden, the illusionist, another dragon, and aboard a ship on the Sea of Dust. 

The Bad: The framing story/gimmick of having players becoming their characters just doesn't work.  It interferes with what would otherwise be a good quest story.  Secondary party characters are just window dressing at best. 

Overall: I have to acknowledge three personal biases in favor of this book.  1) I'm a huge fan of the late Ms. Norton.  I grew up reading her novels and love her style. 2) I enjoyed this book as a teen, before I, and most other people, even knew what D&D was. 3) Greyhawk is my D&D world of choice; I even have the original poster map up on the wall of my den.

Despite these biases, I can't recommend this book with much enthusiasm.  The gimmick really falls flat, as it always does, and its interpolation into the fantasy world, particularly in the case of the wrist-dice, is more annoying than interesting.  The world is vaguely described in all but a couple of places.  It's clear that the author didn't know to much about the geography and cultures of the world, and really couldn't add too many details as she was playing in someone else's sandbox. There are some very good chapters to the book, not surprising since it Norton, but they aren't enough to save the book from mediocrity.

Availability: This book is available as an e-book from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, for the bargain (ha!) prices of $8.99 and $9.99 (seriously!).  This is far too much for a book that is less than half the size of a modern fantasy novel.  If you do buy it, grab a used copy for a buck or two. Even with $3.99 shipping, you can save money buying a used paperback copy via Amazon. 

Final Grade C-

Great Freebies By Kress, Dick, Sigler, and More.

There's some really great stuff today.  Lightspeed has a pair of cool sounding stories, including  "Beyond the Reach of His Gods" illustrated to the left and a Nancy Kress SF story in both text and audio. And there's much more free fiction including two magazines. There's some classic SF at LibriVox and Protecting Project Pulp and Scott Sigler starts the audio of his latest GFL novel (always awesome).  There may be a second freebies post* today as I haven't even looked at the Comics, Gaming, and E-Book sites yet - and my team of free fiction super-ninja spies are currently raiding SF Signal's Free Fiction Links.


Fiction
At Daily Science Fiction: "Caput Mortuum" by Andrew Kay. 
     "The Master's voice trickles from the speaking tube. "Renán," he says, his voice an urgent orange but matte with kindness, "please come downstairs."
At Lightspeed: "Beyond the Reach of His Gods" by Brian Ruckley. Fantasy.
     "An unseen log boomed against Wolfrun’s hull. In the last few days, Rhuan of the Grey Hall had taken to posting a lookout on the prow, to ward against just such events. This great, fat monstrosity of a river seemed at times to carry almost as much debris as it did water."
At Lightspeed: "Art of War" by Nancy Kress. Science Fiction.
    “Return fire!” the colonel ordered, bleeding on the deck of her ship, ferocity raging in her nonetheless controlled voice.
At Philippine Genre Stories: "The New Daughter" by Dean Francis Alfar. Fantasy.
     "When the boy inevitably grew up, married and moved away with his own growing family, the toymaker decided to make a girl."
At Strange Horizons: "The Lord of Discarded Things" by Lavie Tidhar. Speculative Fiction.
     "There were still alte-zachen men in Jaffa and Central Station in those days, as there always were and always will be, and chief amongst them was Ibrahim, he who was sometimes called The Lord of Discarded Things." 


Now Posted: Innsmouth Magazine #11. Horror.

• "The Dark Island" by William Meikle.
• "The Drowned Ballet" by Kirsten Alene.
• "Charlotte Babbage and the Engine of Liberia" by Andrew Dombalagian.
• "The Boston Look" by Evan Dicken
• "Prayer to the Priest of Dreams" by| Josh Storey.
• "Dinner at Majak’s" by Nghi Vo.

 Now Posted: Resident Aliens October/November Issue.

• "Silence of the Imbeciles" by John C. Conway. Speculative Fiction.
• "The Light in Everything" by Dan Grace. Speculative Fiction.
• "Masters of the Earth" by Margaret Karmazin. Science Fiction.
• "The Newborn" by Alex Mellen. Science Fiction.
• "A Different Blessing" by Milton Davis. Zombies.

Audio Fiction
At Author’s Site: The MVP Episode #1 by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction.
     "If you recall the end of Book III in this series, our fighting Krakens were stranded in a place they did not want to be, about to be boarded by sentients they did not want to meet. We pick up the story right from there."
At LibriVox:  "Omega: The Last Days of the World" by Camille Flammarion. Science Fiction. 1894.
     "On 25th century Earth, a comet is on a path to collide with the Earth ending it all. Astronomers predict different scenarios as to how they will all die depending on the chemical composition of the comet. Omega probes the philosophical and political consequences that arise as the human race faces the end of the world."
At LibriVox: "The Eyes Have It and Tony and the Beetles" by Philip K. Dick. Science Fiction.
     "Aliens have invaded the earth! Horrible one celled creatures disguised as normal human beings" and "10 year old Tony grows up fast when history catches up with the human race. A sobering look at human history .. and our probable future."
At Lightspeed: "Art of War" by Nancy Kress. Science Fiction.
    “Return fire!” the colonel ordered, bleeding on the deck of her ship, ferocity raging in her nonetheless controlled voice.
At Protecting Project Pulp: “The Way Down the Hill” by Tim Powers. Speculative Fiction. 1982.
     "The rich, leathery smell of Latakia tobacco told me that old Bill was there, and I soon identified him by the long, blackened meerschaum pipe he somehow found again every time. The little girl puffing at it gave me a raised eyebrow."
At Toasted Cake: "Your Cities" by Anaea Lay. Speculative Fiction.
     "It's like the city just shrugged," somebody whispered. 


*Or if I get too busy or too lazy, they'll be up tomorrow.

Sunday Gaming Freebies

Some cool fantasy and science fiction gaming freebies today for a variety of game systems, both free and otherwise. But don't hesitate to check out free items if you don't own the system for which they are designed. Just remember Dave's old-school conversion rule "Your best guess is always 100% correct because all good RPGs encourage house rules."

Today's illustration is for the "Arachnidrake" below.








@DriveThruRPG: "Dragon Age RPG Quick Start Guide"

"you can now download the PDF version of the Dragon Age RPG Quickstart Guide, as featured on Free RPG Day, for free! This quickstart features rules, an adventure, and pre-generated characters so you can jump right into the action. The Dragon Age RPG is based on BioWare's popular Dragon Age RPG franchise, and brings the dark and gritty world of Thedas to your gaming table."

@The Free RPG Blog: Reviewed and linked to "The Droog Family Songbook" a mashup RPG of A Clockwork Orange and The Sound of Music.

"Your character is a member of the Von Droog family. A charming pod of ultraviolent Austrians living in a Nazi infested the mountain range."

@Exonauts!: [Monster] "Space Strigoi" for X-plorers or other sci-fi games.
@The Land of NOD: [Encounters] "Mu-Pan - Eastern Encounter IV" and "Mu-Pan Eastern Encounter V"
@The Land of NOD: [Monster Variant] "Chimera"
@Online Dungeon Master: [Adventure] "Tallinn's Tower" 4E
@Trollish Delver: [Monster] "Mongolian Death Worm" Tunnels and Trolls.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [Magic Items] "Writ of Eviction," "Standard of the Forgotten King," "Wine of the Moon," "Horn of the Minotaur Lord," and "Steer Stones"
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [Monsters] "Azlir" and "Volquin"
@The Savage AfterWorld: [Monster] "Chronoweasel" Mutant Future.
@Blog on the Borderlands: [Magic Items] "Ring of Mastery Thievery" and "Mask of Disguise"
@Blog on the Borderlands: [Class] "The Woodsman"
@Sea of Stars: [Magic Item] "Box of Servants"
@A Field Guide To Doomsday: [Monsters] "Borer Blimp," "Overtoad," "Dredgehead" and "Stingeroo" Mutant Future.
@Kobold Quarterly: [Monsters] "Beatific Drake" and "Arachnidrake"
@DriveThruRPG: "Paper Modeling Guide"
@DriveThruRPG: [adventure] "Circles Disrupted" for Lost Roads of Lociam.

QuasarDragon Presents "Dragon Lady" By Evelyn E. Smith

"Dragon Lady" By Evelyn E. Smith, from Beyond #10 (1955)

"BACK in the Eleventh Century, I was the only daughter of a rich and powerful king in the North, as well as being the most beautiful woman in the known world, though I say it as shouldn't. Naturally a combination of such talents as my looks and my dowry would make princes come from far and near to seek my hand in marriage."

Continue HERE.

Elric "The Black Petals" Pt 2 of 3, Tons of Flash Fiction, and More

A ton of flash fiction today, part two of the three-part Elric story at StarShipSofa. I don't have too many details about that but Moorcock + Elric + StarShipSofa = awesome! And three longer tales for your enjoyment. I have been having trouble with my internet all morning so I might have missed something - in which case it will be added either tonight or tomorrow.








@Ray Gun Revival: "On A Crooked Planet" by Dan Larnerd. Science Fiction.

"Hanging in orbit was the UES Pierre Cruzatte; a long range survey ship that resembled a submarine more than the starships from twentieth century television. It had no windows and no graceful curves; just thick titanium bulkheads, blinking sensor arrays and a monstrous interstellar drive."

@Yesteryear Fiction: "The Dragon King" By Robert William Shmigelsky. Fantasy.

"The high wind, tossing and turning over top of a vast kingdom of castles, mansions, towers, halls and arks, flew towards a tall, distant blue tower, which spiraled up into the night sky to the top of the veiled heavens beyond like a whirlwind pulled up from the ocean and frozen into place."

Classic Fiction
@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "Feet Of Clay by Phillip Hoskins. Science Fiction.

"Life is pretty strange when a god who is good and benevolent must prove that he has"

@StarShipSofa: Episode #192 featuring The Black Petals Pt 2 of 3 by Michael Moorcock, read by Peter Cavell.













@Daily Science Fiction: "Remember" by Will Arthur.
@Daily Science Fiction: "V is for Vámonos" by Tim Pratt, Jenn Reese, Heather Shaw, Greg van Eekhout
@Every Day Fiction: "Sunstance Q" by Michael Madden. Horror.
@Every Day Fiction: "Lessons Never Learned" by Christopher Owen. Fantasy.
@Aoife's Kiss: [Poem] "Spell" Fantasy. Until July 2011?
@Quantum Muse: "The Crimson Wind" by James Gardner.
@Eschatology: "Time, and Tide" by Stephen Ramey. Horror.
@Eschatology: "For All of Humanity" by Brian M. Sammons. Horror.
@365 tomorrows: Science Fiction.

• "Going Steady" by Jae Miles.
• "A Good Day’s Work" by T.C. Powell.
• "Auteur" by Jake Christie.
• "Wedding Day" by Harris Tobias.
• "Out of Time" by Jae Miles.

@Flashes in the Dark: Horror.

• "Vengence is Mine" By Lori Titus.
• "The Endless Sleep" By Paul D. Brazill.
• "Generation Gap" By James Kunkle
• "Sure Bet" by Acquanetta M. Sproule.

@The Fifth Dimension: [Poetry] Fantasy and SF.

• Comparative Religion by Bruce Boston
• Nocturne by J.S. Watts
• The World Over by Shelly Bryant
• The End by Raymond HV Gallucci
• Forbidden Love by Kellee Kranendonk

@Weirdyear: Weird Fiction.

• "The Plot To Save Heidi Falls; Lie Or Die" By John C. Weil.
• "And Now You Know Why" By Acquanetta M. Sproule.
• "Traffic Stop with Annie Kim" By Jerry Guarino.
• "Money is Gross" By Michael Shine.
• "Love is Cruel" By Joe Mynhardt.

@Yesteryear Fiction: Fantasy.

• "Whisp" By Dr. Benjm. ‘TeaPot’ Freeman – Museologist.
• "Fourth Trial Of A Dragon Knight" By Robert William Shmigelsky.
• "Third Trial of a Dragon Knight" By Robert William Shmigelsky.
• "Second Trial of a Dragon Knight" by Robert William Shmigelsky.

@The New Flesh: Horror.

• "Jim Parades a Toy" by Josh Myers.
• "Bathroom Kiss" by Len Kuntz.
• "Last Ride" by Georges Dodds.

@Apex Magazine: [poetry]

• “Black, Red, White” by Rachel Swirsky
• “The Walking Man Goes Looking for the Sons of John: Six Cantos” by Elizabeth McClellan

Cat Rambo, Asteroids, Science, Kirk's Middle Name and More

It's Friday and pleasant weather, at least here in Illinois, so I'm in a very good mood as I post this, despite still using an emergency backup computer that is old enough to be considered steam-punk. Lots of good reading and more today, with a slightly off topic final section of science podcasts, but I'll likely be going off topic more frequently than in the old days. It's more fun that way.

E-Fiction
At Daily Science Fiction,

"Swallowing Ghosts" by Cat Rambo.
"Grandma always said, "Don't yawn with your mouth open, a ghost will fly in."

I didn't believe her until it happened."

Online HERE.

"The Birdcage Heart" by Peter M Ball.
"One She likes watching him dress. He likes to be watched, so he goes through the motions: yesterday's underwear; Levis, left leg following the right; the belt threaded through the loops, tugged tight and fastened; yesterday's black socks; the crimson sneakers, the laces, the left foot before the right. The shirts always last, always the struggle. 'No undershirt,' she says. 'Leave it off today.'"

Online HERE.


At Munseys,

"The Honored Prophet" by William Bentley (1954).
"The black dwarf sun sent its assassin on a mission which was calculated to erase the threat to its existence. But prophesies run in strange patterns and, sometimes, an act of evasion becomes an act of fulfillment."

In ebook downloads HERE.

"Tangle Hold" by F. L. Wallace (1953).
"Jadiver objected to being the greatest influence for good on Venus ... because what was good for Venus was bad for Jadiver!"

In ebook downloads HERE.


"Chain of Command" by Stephen Arr (1954)
"By going through channels, George worked up from the woodwork to the top brass!"

In ebook downloads HERE.


At Lightspeed Magazine,

"Simulacrum" by Ken Liu.
"[A] photograph is not only an image (as a painting is an image), an interpretation of the real; it is also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real, like a footprint or a death mask. —Susan Sontag"

For online reading, online listening, and MP3 download HERE.


"The Passenger" by Julie E. Czerneda.
"At last, one gave him a purpose to match the unknown one sending the aliens sliding past his prison day in, day out. It was a child’s box of markers."

For online reading HERE.


"Long Enough and Just So Long" by Cat Rambo.
"He talked about rain, about slow gray clouds and tearing nor’easters. Rain drumming on a tin roof versus its sound on slate. Fine spring mist and the hot rain that fell during drought, coin-sized and evaporating too quickly."

For online reading, online listening, and MP3 download HERE.


Audio Fiction
At Dunesteef, "The Alarm" by Harris Tobias.
"An alarm has started ringing, but no one knows what it’s for. Old Havermayer, the beggar, says it’s a signal to alert the town that the dragon wakes. Could it be true? What will become of this peaceful town?"

Listened to this one yesterday. Quite enjoyable, though somewhat predictable.

Streaming and in MP3 download HERE.


Online Video
At StarTrek.com, The complete Star Trek animated series (TAS) available for free streaming. These have rather clunky animation and are quite abrupt due to the 30 minute format, but are still entertaining. Trek Trivia, Kirk's middle name "Tiberius" was first used in the animated episode "Bem" not in the original Star Trek series.

These free streaming episodes are online HERE. [via SFSignal [via Bureau 42]]



Comic Books
SF with an asteroid setting theme today

At Golden Age Comic Book Stories, Journey Into Unknown Worlds #20, July/1952. This issue features horror and SF stories including "The Secret of Asteroid #85."



Online HERE.






And at The Comic Book Catacombs, Science Fiction/Double Feature featuring "Asteroid Treasure" from Amazing Adventures #4 (Jul-Aug 1951).

Online HERE.






Science Podcasts
A trio of recommended ones this time.

First up is This Week @NASA a weekly audio podcast covering the latest news. Updated every Friday, this is always interesting even when there is too little going on at NASA.

Available in separate audio and video downloads HERE.




NPR Science Friday is an outstanding weekly science program covering breaking science news as well as ongoing controversies. The archive is especially convenient with each episode broken into topics so that you can download those that interest you.

The archive is HERE.




And Beam Me Up. Although its perhaps better known for its readings of SF stories, one of my favorite parts of this podcast/radio program is the roundup of Science and SF news at the start of most episodes. Topics range from the biggest science stories to odd, easy to miss stories, all presented in a friendly, informal matter. Always worth a listen.


Streaming and in MP3 download HERE.

Back from the Dead

Back from the grave after untold eons, QuasarDragon makes its unexpected return from the eldritch and unnatural world beyond the internet. More another day, but for now here are a few items of interest.


(Grave image swiped from the always cool The Horrors of It All.)





Video
Sintel is "an independently produced short film, initiated by the Blender Foundation as a means to further improve and validate the free/open source 3D creation suite Blender."

An aesthetically pleasing and charming, if predictable, fantasy film. Worth a watch or two.

Available for download HERE or for online viewing HERE.




Gaming
From Dragonsfoot, a pair of recent old school modules compatible with 1st edition D&D and retro-clones.

First The Banked Swamp by Steve Temple.
"A thick mist, a splash heard in the distance, the lure of treasures untold... Welcome to The Banked Swamp, an adventure for a low-level party, that can be dropped into nearly any campaign."

Available in a free PDF download HERE.

Second Ruins of the White Watch by Andrew Hamilton.
"Centuries ago the White Watch defended the land. Then it fell and it's location was lost... until now. Who knows what treasures could be found in its depths. An adventure for a party of 6, of levels 5 to 8."

Available in a free PDF download HERE.



Talislanta, first released in 1987, is best remembered for its "no elves" ads in rpg magazines such as The Dragon.

"Tired of 'look-alike' fantasy games? Then journey to TALISLANTA - a fantastic campaign world populated by Wizard Hunters, Astromancers, Black Savants, Exomorphs, Wind Demons, and best of all no elves."

Most, or all, editions are now available free creative common downloads, including the D20 edition so you can easily commit the ultimate Talislanta heresy and add elves if you like.

The main site is HERE and the main downloads page is HERE.

(Hat tip to Troll and Flame, a good gaming blog, that linked to these downloads long ago and where I found a copy of the old ad to quote.)