Tag: books

THE CORRODING EMPIRE – preorder now!

Galactic society is ruled by algorithms. From interstellar travel and planetary terraforming to artificial intelligence and agriculture, every human endeavor has become completely dependent upon the hypercomplex equations that optimize the activities making life possible across hundreds of inhabited worlds. Throughout the galaxy, Man has become dependent upon the reliable operation of ten million different automated systems.


And when things begin to go wrong and mysterious accidents begin to happen, no one has any idea what is happening, except for a sentient medical drone and the First Technocrat of Continox. But the challenge of fixing the unthinkably complicated problem of galaxy-wide algorithmic decay is made considerably more difficult by the fact the former is an outlaw and the latter is facing a death sentence.


THE CORRODING EMPIRE marks the English-language debut of Johan Kalsi, Finland’s hottest science fiction author. An accomplished geneticist as well as a 6’3″ ex-Finnish Marine, in THE CORRODING EMPIRE, Kalsi shows himself to be more Asimovian than Isaac Asimov himself!

THE CORRODING EMPIRE is now available for preorder on Amazon with a retail price of $4.99. It will be released on March 20, 2017. And speaking of corroding empires, one can’t help but note that Tor Books has slashed the preorder price of John Scalzi’s The Collapsing Empire from $25.99 to $13.68, presumably due to insufferably good, think-y prose such as this:

Kiva Lagos was busily fucking the brains out of the assistant purser she’d been after for the last six weeks of the Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby’s trip from Lankaran to End when Second Officer Waylov Brennir entered her stateroom, unannounced. “You’re needed,” he said.


“I’m a little busy at the moment,” Kiva said. She’d just finally gotten herself into a groove, so fuck Waylov (not literally, he was awful) if she was going to get out of the groove just because he walked into it. 

The Third Edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says: “If anyone stands at the core of the American science fiction tradition at the moment, it is Scalzi.” That explains a great deal about the precipitous decline of American science fiction, does it not? The award-winning McRapey is, we are frequently informed, the very best that 29-time Best Publisher Tor Books and mainstream science fiction has to offer. That may be true. Nevertheless, from concept to cover, from title to text, THE CORRODING EMPIRE  is a very clear and public demonstration that the Castalia House team can do what they do, and do it better, even as an in-house joke in our copious spare time.

After all, what would be more amusing than for THE CORRODING EMPIRE to outsell and outrank The Collapsing Empire? This isn’t a lame Bored of the Rings-style parody, it is, quite to the contrary, a legitimate Foundation-style novel that effectively demonstrates how hapless Tor’s latest imitative mediocrity is by comparison.

The first number produced by the extrapolated algorithm was off by one-ten billionth. There were nine zeros behind the decimal point. It was a tiny error, all but impossible to detect unless one was looking specifically for it.


The second number was off by twice that. Two in ten billion. Or, rather, one in five billion. One might more reasonably fear being struck by lightning. On a cloudless day. Indoors.


And yet, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t the size of the error that was relevant so much as the fact that it existed at all. Somehow, he concluded, even though it was impossible, the data set must have become garbled. Garbage in, garbage out. Geist had run the extrap-algo more than a million times in the past month, using it to check and and recheck Orland’s agro-surveys. But there was no denying it. Somewhere, somehow, something had introduced an unknown variability into the process, but whether it was to be found in the data or the equations, he did not know. 

CLIO & ME in audiobook

Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Dr. van Creveld is one of the world’s leading writers on military history and strategy, with a special interest in the future of war. He is fluent in Hebrew, German, Dutch, and English, and has authored more than twenty books, including the influential Technology and War: 2000 BC to the Present (1988), The Transformation of War (1991), and The Culture of War (2010). He is known for his development of the concept of “nontrinitarian” warfare as well as contributing two books to the 4GW canon, and he is deeply respected by military officers and professional strategists around the world.

CLIO & ME is Dr. van Creveld’s most personal book, an honest, heartfelt account of his lifelong love affair with the Muse of History. It is an autobiography, not of the life, but of the mind, and as such, will be of great interest to historians and students of history alike. This “intellectual autobiography” reveals one of the great historical minds of the 21st Century to be eternally curious, endlessly inquisitive, and possessed of an unexpected charm.

Narrated by Jon Mollison, CLIO & ME is 8 hours and 48 minutes.

From the reviews:

  • Those who are – or wish to become – writers, professors, or historians will certainly want to read it. He shows exactly what it is like to be a professor and a historian; principally, very lonely and requiring an extremely high degree of self-motivation!
  • Van Creveld presents us with an intellectual tour de force. What a mind! This book just stuns me… I can give it no higher recommendation than that it is also must-read for the true student of history, of war, for war is the history of human kind.
  • The explanation of how a successful author works and develops his ideas has been helpful to me by getting me thinking of ways to improve my own thought process/exploration of the past.
  • A fascinating look at an unusual and influential mind… The book is of interest to anyone who is interested in military history, a life in academia or the processes that a great writer uses to get in touch with his muse and craft a book

SIX EXPRESSIONS OF DEATH

When an unknown man is shot, then stabbed to death on the road between Morijuku and the village of Iwagi, it is natural to assume that he fell victim to bandits preying on travelers passing through the Kiso Mountains. But when Daikawa Tadashi, a samurai from a poor, but ancient noble house, encounters the body, he realizes that there is likely more to the tale than a simple robbery.

And when Tadashi’s attempt to dutifully report the murder to one of his daimyo’s lieutenants unexpectedly results in a second murder, he finds himself, and worse, his lover, ensnared in a dangerous web of deceit and death. For clan war looms over the mountains, the Tiger of Kai, the lord of the Takeda, is on the prowl, and shinobi stalk the shadows of the night.

SIX EXPRESSIONS OF DEATH is Mojo Mori’s debut novel. A historical murder mystery set in a mystical version of 16th century Japan, it is a unique and enthralling tale. From the reviews:

  • Fans of Medieval Japanese history or traditional Japanese culture will be pleased.
  • This is an interesting tale of murder and intrigue during the Sengoku Era of Japan. This was a time of great upheaval and conflict, when the entire country was at war. A mysterious murder of a traveler outside of a small village catches the attention of a humble samurai, and before he knows it, he is up to his neck in a plot that could embroil his whole land in an unwinnable war…. The writing in this book is quite good. The author has a nice feel for Japanese sensibilities and aesthetics.
  • The honor of the samurai is contrasted well with the cunning of the ninja, and both are presented with respect due their traditions.
  • Author Mojo Mori’s future is writ bright with this unique and sparkling debut.

SIX EXPRESSIONS OF DEATH is 218 pages, DRM-free, and retails for $5.99 at Amazon and the Castalia House store.

Fake reviews and reprisals

Happy napping
By dab2525 on February 24, 2017
This book was typically poor Day writing. Someone buy him a grammar book. Otherwise, it was dull enough to induce sleep.

Author writes like an 8th grader 
By dab2525 on February 24, 2017
Writing was juvenile, thoughts were trite, just a fraudulent trap to quench haters’ desire to feed.

I find it incredible when people try to defend these fake reviews and suggest that they might be genuine. “How can you be sure they’re not real,” they demand. Because it’s absolutely obvious when someone hasn’t bought the book, hasn’t read the book, relies entirely upon generic criticisms, uses emotionally charged language, posts several reviews on the same day, and hasn’t convincingly reviewed anything else.

I was a professional reviewer. I can spot a fake review as easily as a professional art restorer can spot a painted forgery. There are literally dozens of potential tells. Of course, it’s even more obvious when they make their political motivations unmistakable.


This literally smelled like someone got a bunch of flowers to try and
By dab2525
This literally smelled like someone got a bunch of flowers to try and hide a used feminine cleansing product. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!


I’d rather rid the country of ALL of the people who are prejudice against other legal American ethnic/religious groups, women, and gays. As a white male, I fully expect there would be many, many white males in that group that should be exiled. Great idea!
– dab2525

Now, if you want to try to convince yourself that this individual actually read two of my books after buying Ivanka Trump’s perfume, feel free to do so. But you’re an idiot.

This is why posting reviews on places like Amazon is important. The SJWs engage in this manipulative vandalism in order to try to prevent people from supporting those they perceive as the enemy by establishing a false narrative about them. There is a reason that you don’t see fake reviews like this littering the listings of of every book by SJWs and moderates; they pose zero danger to the SJW Narrative. What I’d ideally like to see is for 10 positive reviews to be posted by verified purchasers for every attack single review that appears on a Castalia House listing.  I suspect that would serve as sufficient disincentive to engage in the activity.

As the God-Emperor says, now is the time to act.

UPDATE: Three hours and 27 minutes to locate and profile David Arthur Burcher? VFM, your sloth makes your Dark Lord sad. I will grant that it is Saturday and I did post before most of you were awake, but this is simply not the extreme performance I expect out of my most rabid and loyal servitors!

No flesh or blood with your SJW bones tonight. Let that be a lesson to you.

UPDATE: I sent Mr. Burcher the following email:

I was very sorry to learn that you were so disappointed with two of my books that you recently reviewed. As Castalia House always hopes to satisfy our customers, I would be pleased to offer you two alternative Castalia House ebooks that you might find more to your taste. We have a number of excellent authors from whom to choose.


Our catalog is below. If you will let me know which two books are of interest to you, I will be happy to send you the epubs.


With regards,


Vox Day

SOMEWHITHER now in audio!

The 2016 Dragon Award-winner for Best Science Fiction Novel, Somewhither is the first part of A Tale of the Unwithering Realm, a new science-fantasy series from science-fiction master John C. Wright. It is an adventure, it is a romance, and it is a coming-of-age story of a young man who is not a man, in a world that is only one among many. It is a tale of a greater and darker evil with longer reach than anything he could imagine, of despair without bounds, of pain beyond measure, and of the faith required to surmount all three. It is a story of inexorable destiny written in the stars and the stubborn courage that is required to defy it.

Ilya Muromets is a big, ugly, motherless boy who does not look like anyone else in his Oregon town. His father is often absent on mysterious Church missionary work that involves silver bullets, sacred lances, and black helicopters. Ilya works as a janitor for Professor Achitophel Dreadful of the Cryptozoological Museum of Scientific Curiosities, and he has a hopeless crush on the Professor’s daughter, Penelope, who pays him little attention and appears to be under the impression that his name is Marmoset.

One night, when Professor Dreadful escapes from the asylum to which he has been temporarily committed, he sends a warning to Ilya that not only is his Many Worlds theory correct, but those many worlds are dominated by an unthinkably powerful enemy determined to destroy anyone who opens the Moebius Ring between the worlds. And, as it happens, prior to his involuntary absence, the Professor left his transdimensional equipment in the basement of the Museum plugged-in and running….

So it is that Ilya, as he has secretly dreamed, is called upon to save the mad scientist’s beautiful daughter. With his squirrel gun, his grandfather’s sword, and his father’s crucifix, Ilya races to save the girl, and, incidentally, the world.

Narrated by Jon Mollison, Somewhither, The Unwithering Realm, Book One is 22 hours and 9 minutes long.

Simon & Schuster cancels Dangerous

It’s official. From Publisher’s Weekly:

After enduring withering criticism since it was revealed in late December that it planned to publish a book by controversial Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, Simon & Schuster said late Monday that it has canceled the book.

A brief statement released by the company read: “After careful consideration, Simon & Schuster and its Threshold Editions imprint have cancelled publication of Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos.”

Castalia will certainly publish it, if Milo is amenable.

I will do a Darkstream tonight, touching on this and other things, at 7 PM Eastern. The replay is here.

The return of the Red Horse

Nick Cole announces Riding the Red Horse, Vol. 2:

Tom Kratman and I have approached Castalia House with an idea put forth in this blog last week about doing a California Secession Anthology:  and it’s a go!

It’ll be the next installment of Kratman’s Riding the Red Horse anthology and it will focus on a fictional successful Secession of California and resulting Civil War within the US.  Currently we’re developing a timeline for the conflict with the assistance of an MI Officer who had POTUS level briefing access during the Iraq war.

Once the timeline is completed we’ll be inviting a Dream Team of today’s best MilSciFi and Science Fiction authors to game the ruination of the Golden State within short stories set against the backdrop of the conflict.  We expect controversy to accompany the launch as the real-time craziness of the current culture war probably spirals into a mess no one could’ve conceived.  But controversy sells and we’re stubborn enough to try, so… game on.

And if you look in the comments, you’ll even be able to see who a few of the contributors will be.

Moth & Cobweb 4: Daughter of Danger

The nameless girl does not know who or what she is. She does not even know her name. But she quickly learns that she has enemies who are trying to kill her, as well as lethal skills that no girl her age should know. And, she inadvertently discovers, she can also fly.


Her only clue to her identity is the mysterious, shape-changing ring on her finger that appears to be alive. And the one thing she knows for a certainty is that she must find out who she is before the monsters chasing her are able to hunt her down. DAUGHTER OF DANGER is the fourth book of MOTH & COBWEB, an astonishing new series about magical worlds of Day, Night, and Twilight by John C. Wright.


John C. Wright is one of the living grandmasters of science fiction and the author of THE GOLDEN AGE, AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND, and IRON CHAMBER OF MEMORY, to name just three of his exceptional books. He has been nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo Awards, and his novel SOMEWHITHER won the 2016 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel at Dragoncon.


DAUGHTER OF DANGER is 155 pages, DRM-free, and retails for $4.99 on Amazon and the Castalia House bookstore. It will soon be available on iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and the Google Play store as well.

It probably won’t have escaped your attention that we’ve got a new cover artist for the series; we will have new covers out for the first three books as well. Below is the image that will be the cover for both the Swan Knight’s Son ebook and the print editions of the Green Knight’s Squire trilogy which is presently in production.

The Collected Columns, Vol. I

Three-time nationally syndicated columnist Vox Day has been one of the most astute observers of the American political scene since the turn of the century. Known for successfully predicting the financial crisis of 2008 as well as the election of U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016, the iconoclastic writer’s work appeared regularly around the country in newspapers such as the Atlanta Journal/Constitution, the Boston Globe, the San Jose Mercury News, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Beginning in 2001, Vox Day wrote more than 500 columns for WorldNetDaily and Universal Press Syndicate. INNOCENCE & INTELLECT is the first of three volumes of collected columns, and consists of the columns published between the years 2001 and 2005. It addresses a wide variety of subjects, from encryption technology and economics to politics and video games. INNOCENCE & INTELLECT, 2001-2005 is DRM-free, 719 pages, and is available from Amazon and the Castalia House store for $6.99.

From the Foreword, by longtime reader Laramie Hirsch:

This was not a blowhard emotional young narcissist with a flimsy opinion. He always knew what he was talking about. Nor was he a one-trick pony. By the time the tide was turning, and Americans were having second thoughts about what Vox called the “War on a Tactic,” Vox was already discussing the state of America’s failing economy. Comparing Keynesian and Austrian economics, reconsidering American policies on international trade, and exposing the lying financial media, his articles were some of the first to recommend caution in the expectation of a coming recession. He recommended people get out of debt and invest in metals. In mid-2003, Vox was already discussing an inevitable real estate crash that wouldn’t happen for another five more years. His expression of America’s disdain for crippling “free trade” would not be fully realized until President Donald Trump’s election in 2016—almost a decade and a half later.


From the beginning of his time with WorldNetDaily in 2001, his writing seemed to surpass all of the typical right-leaning thinkers up until that point. And now, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see that almost every one of his positions from that early period have been vindicated by the recent events of 2016. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to discover such a writer from the beginning, and I truly feel as though I witnessed the embryonic stages of what would later become a great cultural change in America. Vox Day did not hesitate to call out the grinning jackals and betrayers of our nation from the very start. He was, and still remains to this day, ahead of the curve.

However, this first volume of the Collected Columns is not the only book we are releasing today. New Release subscribers, be sure to check your email today, because it’s an offer you will NOT want to miss. Brainstorm subscribers will certainly remember the wonderful session we held with Dr. Christopher Hallpike, the well-traveled anthropologist who has utterly demolished the fairy tales of the evolutionary psychologists with his actual experience of living with hunter-gather tribes in Africa and Papua New Guinea. Well, I stayed in touch with Dr. Hallpike, and we managed to acquire the rights to his excellent book, DO WE NEED GOD TO BE GOOD?

Anthropologist Christopher Hallpike has spent decades studying religion and morality in a wide variety of world cultures. In this book, he examines moral philosophies that range from primitive paganism to advanced secular humanism, as well as the sciences that attempt to study them.

Dr. Hallpike’s insight into the human condition is unique, as he has lived among tribal societies in Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea as well as the academic elite of the West. His scientific observations are fascinating, his logic is sound, and his scrutiny of evolutionary psychology, from the perspective of an experienced professional anthropologist, is among the most comprehensive scientific critiques of a popular theory ever published.

Featuring a Foreword by astrophysicist Sarah Salviander, DO WE NEED GOD TO BE GOOD? is a brilliant examination of an age-old question by a renowned scientist. 237 pages, DRM-free, $4.99 on Amazon, at iTunes, and at the Castalia House store.

Top 100 SF

Dear hater,


Thank you so much for the motivation. Every time I found my energy flagging, every time I was tempted to stop pushing on and turn in for the night, I found it incredibly useful to be able to think of you. This isn’t my accomplishment. It’s ours.


Love,


A formerly failed science fiction writer

And just to stoke a little more interest in the very successful Forbidden Thoughts anthology, perhaps you will enjoy this excerpt from my contribution to it, which is set in the Quantum Mortis universe.

AMAZON GAMBIT

Lieutenant Colonel Max Kruger stood at attention and saluted as General Markham, SUBCONCOM, debarked from the flyer with the ease of a man four decades younger and strode across the landing pad towards him.

“At ease, Colonel,” the general ordered. “Good to see you. Now, come with me, we’ve got a lot to discuss before the press conference.”

The general had four centims on him and was walking quickly, so Kruger had to lengthen his stride in order to keep up with the taller man.

“The Grkese signed the contract?”

“They did indeed,” the general confirmed. “And the Duke himself selected you as the contract CO, Max.”

“Honored,” Kruger murmured, as expected. And it was true, he did feel honored, although he wasn’t exactly surprised. Of the various officers in the Rhysalani Armed Forces qualified to command low-tech forces, he not only possessed the best record with regards to successfully completed contracts, but he had beaten Col. Thompson, his closest rival, rather soundly at the Duke’s Command Challenge last year. “I presume it will be 3rd Battalion?”

The 3rd Battalion of the Ducal Marines specialized in low-tech combat, particularly combat below TL10. Kruger had served with them on two previous deployments, both of which had taken place on Dom Sevru. The men of 3rd Battalion were trained to be able to fight with everything from swords and shields to plasma cannon and sub-atomic armor.

“No,” the general replied, to his surprise, as they entered the elevator that would bring them down to the heart of the airbase command center. “The Lord General suggested that this would be the ideal opportunity to show the subsector what the 11th Special Battalion can do. And the Duke concurred.”

Kruger couldn’t hide his astonishment. Or his dismay. He looked at his superior in disbelief, and while he saw everything from amusement to sympathy in the older man’s eyes, he detected no sign at all that his leg was being pulled.

“Dear God, you’re not joking!”

“Afraid not, Max. The Duke has spent a fortune training and equipping those women for the last five years, and he’s decided that it’s about time to see a return on that investment.”

Kruger didn’t trust himself to speak. The first five or six responses that sprang to mind would have earned him at least a reprimand, if not a court-martial. The next three, if uttered openly by an officer of the Armed Forces, technically amounted to lèse-nobilité and would theoretically merit a firing squad. So he said nothing.

The general grinned nonchalantly and raised an eyebrow. He knew damn well what Kruger was thinking. “He’s not wrong, Max. Their negotiators were so impressed that they paid triple our usual rate. Half up front.”

“They did? Why the hell would they do that?”

“Well, as I understand the sales pitch, our highly trained female soldiers have proven to be much better communicators than their male counterparts, and as a result they are considerably less inclined to needlessly break things and kill people. In this particular case, the estimated savings in infrastructure damage when taking and occupying the primary objective alone is expected to more than make up for the increased cost of the contract.”

“Assuming we can complete it. What’s the tech level again?”

“Seven.”

This time, Kruger couldn’t restrain an oath. The general raised an eyebrow, then slapped Kruger on his oak-leafed shoulders as they approached a door with a pair of Ducal Marines on either side.

“Try to keep it clean for the cameras, Max. If you don’t know what to say, just smile and declare that you’ve got every confidence in the troops. Do your best to sell it. God knows we’ve all had to tell a few humdingers in our day. Your record speaks for itself, so let it do the talking. Now, you’ve got an hour to review the contract and meet with the battalion’s officers before the press conference, so I suggest you hop to it.”

“Yessir,” Kruger said morosely. “Any chance I can get out of this, General?”

“None at all, Max. None at all.”