Tag: books

Then They Came for Rohan

John Trent reports that Warner is following Amazon’s lead in purposefully destroying the value of its Tolkien IP with its forthcoming animated film.

Some new information has come our way regarding the upcoming animated film Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim. There’s an alleged marketing document detailing how the company Warner Bros. is going to market this movie, and it also provides some new information regarding relationships between the characters and how it is radically different from JRR Tolkien’s original short story that you can find
in Appendix A in the back of The Return of the King.

The document that his Source gave him says this: “finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation the daughter of Helm must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.” It also adds this: “This all-new stand-alone cinematic adventure forges the legend of Hera, the rebellious daughter of Helm Hammerhand, as she answers the call to protect her people in a battle for their survival that shapes the destiny of Middle Earth.”

Another rebellious girl-boss self-insert Mary Sue! Another violent rape-and-pillaging of a well-loved story! Will the wonders vomited out of the Hellmouth ever cease?

At this point, if you’re a Tolkien fan, it’s really time to turn to ARTS OF DARK AND LIGHT. It’s not Tolkien, nothing is, but it’s considerably closer to Tolkien than anything you’re going to get out of the Hellmouth or the converged publishing houses anymore. And, in fact, the first non-book spinoff from AODAL has been officially produced, and I will play the unofficial Kingsguard anthem on Arkhaven Nights next week. Songs from Selenoth!

In the meantime, if you haven’t picked up A THRONE OF BONES or A SEA OF SKULLS yet, they’re both on Amazon and at NDM Express now.

The Kingsguard ain’t like t’other dwarves…

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History Notes

A few notes for History subscribers as we’re rolling a more books into the final stages of the production process.

  1. The new Spanish cowhide leather will make its Castalia debut with the CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF BYZANTIUM volumes 1 & 2. There will be no additional charge. We’re not sold out quite yet, but there won’t be very many extras, so keep that in mind if you’re contemplating a History subscription.
  2. We have improved the quality of our paper. Previously we were using the same paper that Folio Society does, but starting with DRACULA for Library and BYZANTIUM for History, we’re moving up to the highest quality offered by the same manufacturer. Neither Easton nor Folio will be competitive with the quality of the materials Castalia is offering by this winter.
  3. The first high-quality bonded leather has arrived at the bindery. We’re still sorting out how our lower-cost line of Signature Society books will be presented, but if you’ve got a book you’d like to see offered in that line, let us know at SG.
  4. Many Annual History subscribers need to renew their subscriptions. Since we changed payment processors, we cannot automatically renew your subscription. If you’re not sure if your subscription has lapsed or not, please email library AT castaliahouse DOT com. Since the History subscription has grown to the point that it is approaching Library print runs, we seldom have any extra books.
  5. NAPOLEONIC WARS is scheduled to be bound on October 1st.
  6. BYZANTIUM Vols 1 & 2 are expected to be bound in November. As is Dracula.
  7. We MAY offer a few goatskin BYZANTIUMs if we have any extras from the sets we are binding for Cambridge.
  8. SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON may – MAY – be out in time for Christmas.
The front endpapers for NAPOLEONIC WARS

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An Outdated Review

Didact’s Mind wrote a very favorable review of the preliminary edition of A SEA OF SKULLS back in 2017. It would be interesting to know if he feels the completed work holds up to his initial perspective on it.

Vox Day has not merely matched George R. R. Martin’s fantasy writing skills and output. He has exceeded him, by miles, leaving old Rape Rape wheezing and panting in the dust.

In fact, I am willing to go so far as to argue that, with this book, Vox Day has catapulted himself into the storied and rarefied rank of writers that sits just below The Master himself.

That’s right, I went there. I just said that Vox Day has written a book that is nearly as good as J. R. R. Tolkien’s work.

Not as good. But not terribly far off, either.

From one fantasy fan to another, praise simply does not come any higher than that.

Vox’s accomplishment is made all the more astonishing by the fact that this isn’t even the completed book yet. It’s less than half of the full work. This book is already far more complex, more layered, and simply bigger in scale and scope than its predecessor. There are far more point-of-view characters, the battle sequences are way bigger, the size of the world that Vox Day is playing with is far greater…

The result is so good that it deserves to be called the finest high-fantasy book of its time.

Make no mistake: this now puts Vox Day right below The Master himself in terms of writing- right up there with C. S. Lewis, John C. Wright, and maybe two or three others. And that is an astonishing achievement, given that neither Tolkien nor Vox can rightly be considered first-rate fantasy writers.

One of the interesting things about the comparison between Tolkien and Day is that neither of them are really writers to begin with. Vox Day started out as a musician and a game designer. Vox himself will readily admit that his writing is not as good as Tolkien’s- because it isn’t. Yet Tolkien was a linguist, whose strong Christian faith and interest in Scandinavian mythology helped him create a fantasy world. The reason both Tolkien and Day succeeded, where so many dedicated professional authors would have failed, is because they focused on their respective strengths and wrote works of epic fantasy that played to them…

This book is, quite simply, an extraordinary achievement. With it, Vox has separated himself from all of his contemporary rivals and has clearly laid down a marker for everyone else to match- and I personally don’t think anyone will be able to do so for years, maybe decades, to come.

It’s entirely up to the reader to see if the most recent volume in ARTS OF DARK AND LIGHT holds up to the promise of its earlier and abbreviated release. But for my part, what I will say is that one reason it took me so long to complete the book and get it out is that I was determined to at least try to deliver something that was consistently at the same level as A THRONE OF BONES. I took PG Wodehouse as my inspiration here, as his work is remarkably consistent throughout a novel; he was quite purposeful in attempting to ensure that every scene and every page stood up well on its own. This required a significant amount of discipline in not permitting the story to expand willy-nilly in any direction that happened to capture my attention at the time.

As we’ve seen from George Martin’s failure to finish his epic fantasy, while it’s much easier to churn out words by following one’s momentary whims and exploring whatever tangent happens to strike one’s fancy, this inevitably leads to a wider scope and excessive perspective characters that will, sooner or later, render the story too large to write. One of the many geniuses of JRR Tolkien was his ability to keep his epic story tied very tightly to a fairly small number of key characters, keeping them in physical proximity to each other, and thereby preventing the story from continually expanding to the point that it escaped his ability to reasonably describe it.

Only time will tell, but in A SEA OF SKULLS, I believe that I successfully conquered the challenge of the middle book, which in any trilogy is always the hardest book to write because it has to expand upon the first book without exploding in a manner that renders closure in the third book impossible. It’s interesting that one seldom hears writers discussing these technical matters, but this is probably because the sort of writers who attend workshops mostly write short stories, while the writers who teach them are either self-promoters like John Scalzi or successful mediocrities cruising for starstruck young women like Neil Gaiman, neither one of whom could write epic fantasy if they tried.

Anyhow, for better or for worse, it’s done now and I’m on to the final volume in the series. If Didact’s Mind updates his review, I’ll be sure to post a link to it here.

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ASOS on Amazon

The hardcover edition of A SEA OF SKULLS is now available on Amazon, as are its predecessors, SUMMA ELVETICA and A THRONE OF BONES.

Three down, one to go. The paperback edition has been submitted and should also be available through the retail bookstores early next week is also available. And, of course, NDM Express has them as well. Here is one of the first reviews, based on the Kindle edition.

The successor volume to A Throne of Bones, extends and deepens the Great Game played across Selenoth. The mysterious Watchers emerge as events grow wider and more subtle; with armies marching and leaders falling, they must now step out of shadows and reveal themselves to their selected minions in the Younger Races. The minions respond in various ways; what can be counted on is that The Watchers are not revealing the complete truth or timeline to their minions, each other, or maybe themselves. A gateway, an alignment, and an artifact are common elements, but the reader must determine which parts are true. Rudyard Kipling would approve of The Great Game play, and how leaders and common folk are portrayed.

Visions of intense beauty mix with prosaic household scenes, and acts of horror or terror are met with stern justice and supreme sacrifice. Treachery, double-dealing, and acts of mercy conflict and act at cross-purposes, creating unintended consequences and surprise outcomes. The action, battles, and intrigues build across species, realm, entire regions, with several startling climax moments of horror and glory, sufficient to make men weep in joy and grief. Some characters may not be seen again; others – perhaps leave a legacy, or return through Grace?

The narrative and writing style are reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings. The prose is well structured, but doesn’t have the depth or meter of an Oxford Don. The author would make Tolkien smile, with a sprightly and almost gleeful Thomistic analysis of a question by one character, something worthy of placement in Christian epic fantasy. This is a worthy addition to the set of Epic Fantasy as an homage to Tolkien, supporting the Good, Beautiful and True, and explicitly Christian in structure.

The characters range from an orc leader of decent but evil intellect, promoted for rational acts to protect his lads, to a decrepit, nearly deceased elf Magister who answers dire pleas for help – but with painful costs for his people and himself. Several heroes and villains continue, with greater depth and subtle character revelations. Some are introduced, some strengthen their positions, while others make their final curtain call. This is the way of all life in Selenoth, as is true in our world. All are striving to protect and defend what is Good, Beautiful, and True or its Inverse, driven by their faith, morals, and internal desires.

Highly recommended for high school ages and above. Be prepared to make side studies of politics, Republican Rome, faith and theology, logic, logistics, and poetry, and enjoy the excursions.

UPDATE: The paperback edition is now available on Amazon and on NDM Express.

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A Late Arrival

So this just showed up in the post today. We’ll go over it, fix any apparent infelicities, and then turn on distribution this weekend. It should be on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, etc. by late next week. You can already order it at NDM Express, though, just click on the image.

It’s only 750 pages even though it’s slightly longer than ATOB and the text is exactly the same size. This is because we’ve gotten much better at optimizing our line spaces and margins. So, we will be modifying ATOB to match at some point soon, for those who are obsessive about these things. But the three books all look great together on the shelf regardless.

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Amanda Palmer Speaks

In a way. Neil Gaiman’s ex-wife’s cryptic allusions do NOT bode well for Neil Gaiman. She put out a Patreon post that mostly consisted of images.

“One of the pictures is a trash can on a city street that has a copy of “Lolita” sitting on the rim.”

Yeah, that’s not a good sign.

The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor called Humbert Humbert, is obsessed with the 12-year-old Dolores Haze, with whom he becomes sexually involved after he becomes her stepfather.

Whatever could she be trying to tell us about Mr. Tubcuddle?

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The Sound of a Sea

Hark! What’s that you hear? We submitted the hardcover edition of A SEA OF SKULLS to the printer last night. I’ll review them next week, and assuming they pass muster, we’ll release it into the distribution system. You’ll be able to purchase them from directly NDM Express, of course, as well as from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local bookseller. At 299,434 words, it’s a slightly longer book than ATOB in terms of word count, although with the much more efficient layout program we have now, it only clocks in at 760 pages. We do plan to do a revised version of ATOB so that the interior styles will match more precisely, but probably not for a month or two.

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FJOTRA

Fjotra did not object, in principle, to learning about the gods of her new people. She had known from the time her father, the Skullbreaker, sent her to marry the heir to the southern kingdom, that she would have to learn many different new ways. The language was different, but she was young enough to learn it without difficulty. The food was considerably more abundant and flavorful, and her palate did not take long to adapt to the various meats and breads and sauces that were much to be preferred to the salted fish and charred game of her home islands. The clothing was lighter and more comfortable, and she adored wearing silk and cotton dresses in the place of the crude leather and canvas clothes that had been worn by Dalarn women since the coming of the Aalvarg had made raising sheep for wool and growing flax for linen impossible. Even the weather was much more gentle than it customarily was in the windswept Wolf Isles.

But despite the best efforts of Father Francois, who took great pains to talk her through the nonsense, she could make neither heads nor tails about the gods of the southerners. They worshipped a god who was both dead and alive, who was both father to himself and son to himself, and also took on a third form that was nevertheless the same as the other two. It wasn’t that the idea a god had different forms was foreign to her; the Aldaföðr had a hundred names, from Arnhöfði to Völundrómu, and each name represented a different aspect of her people’s greatest god. But despite his many aspects, he was merely the first among a host of gods, and Fjotra particularly venerated Valfreyja, the beautiful goddess who was queen of the Choosers of the Slain.

Continue reading “The Sound of a Sea”

How to Wreck an Epic Fantasy

George RR Martin was never, ever, going to finish A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE. But introducing too many perspective characters and excessively widening the story isn’t the only way to screw things up. Now, I personally thought THE WHEEL OF TIME started out mediocre and only got worse from there, but it’s interesting to see the suggestion that it was ruined, not once but twice, by two different authors.

I loved Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan growing up. LOVED IT. MULTIPLE REREADS of the series, even when I wasn’t prepping for the next release. I read it as much as some other folks (me included) reread Harry Potter.

Here is how WOT went down:

Books 1-5 were AMAZING. So was Book 6, but Book 6 did intro, in a minor way, elements/characters that came to be very unpopular. People argue about the JTS book, whether it was Book 6 or 7 (majority argue book 6, but I disagree). From Book 7 on it was a long, meandering trek into the wilderness, wherein popular characters were minimized, unpopular characters/subplots were given tons of coverage, and new characters no one cared about were introduced. The main characters hardly interacted during this time.

Then the OG author DIED. He’d had a long illness, and fans were told that he’d left behind a detailed outline to finish the story, that only lacked being fleshed out by another author. Brandon Sanderson, a then up and coming (he’s since arrived) fantasy writer was tapped to finish the series alongside the widow (who was also the editor of the OG author). Instead of one follow up book, it quickly turned into 2 follow up books. Then it blossomed into 3 books. Fine. Whatever.

Especially since book 1 (under the new guy, book 1 of 3) was so good. A return to the 1-5 level of quality in the minds of readers. Then Book 2 came out. And things got shaky. There were a few iffy sections. But we all sort of explained it away because the author had to arrange pieces on the board to get ready for the finale.

And the last book was straight up terrible. Series ruining terrible. Terrible to the level (and I’m not alone in this) wherein I have not since picked up a single book in the series, and I used to read the entire series (or, OK the first 5-6 books) every 18 months or so. Fan sites saw traffic dip by 80+ percent. Long gestating talk about spinoff novels/stories died instantly (and there was speculation that the widow and publisher were vetting writers and workshopping plots). Again, this all died instantly and permanently.

That detailed outline we’d been told about was, instead, 2-3 legal pads of freeform notes. No organization.

That is where GOT is. The author has written himself into a corner, and has no idea how to end it. All he knows is that he doesn’t know what to do, and that his most likely idea was widely panned in the TV show. He’ll never finish.

I’ve heard this from multiple sources, including some who have worked with him directly on ASOIAF-related products. However, I stand by my original analysis, which is that Martin made a technical and structural mistake that was the initial cause of the problem, which was introducing too many perspective characters. If I recall correctly, he went from 9 in the first book to 22 in the second; ironically for all his bloodthirsty reputation, Martin’s problem is that he doesn’t kill off enough of his perspective characters.

Brandon Sanderson sells incredibly well, but he would not be able to fix the technical problem with the series and bring it to a proper conclusion. I could do it, being sufficiently ruthless to resolve the situation, and I even know how I would do it, but I’m probably the second-to-last person on the planet who would ever be asked to do so. And I’ve got to wrap up ARTS OF DARK AND LIGHT properly in A GRAVE OF GODS.

Chuck Tingle, of course, would be the last.

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More Bubbles in the Tub

Fandom Pulse has uncovered more dirt on the unusually clean bathtub enthusiast:

To add more bubbles to the bath, a publishing industry insider has spoken out about Neil Gaiman on X. Michael Matheson posted, “The pattern talked about in recent allegations is decades-long. Power imbalance frequently at the heart of what Neil does. At Clarion, there’s the Gaiman Rule for instructors, named after Neil: ‘Don’t sleep with the students.'”

He continued noting something potentially worse for the author about his being kept away from young writing students at another course, “Neil is (I think unofficially?) barred from teaching at a particular workshop for young writers that caps out attendant age at 19. Not naming that one because I was told it in confidence nearly a decade ago when I was reprinting a story of Neil’s in an anthology.”

Matheson also points out how the industry protects Neil Gaiman, saying, “It’s not a question of ‘if,’ the silence surrounding Gaiman for years is about who wants to lose their career by tilting a lance at one of genre publishing’s sacred (cash) cows. That Gaiman cloaked himself in feminist/ally rhetoric for ages also made it harder to air things.”

Having an unspoken rule about not sleeping with students named after Neil Gaiman at Clarion is a huge red flag. Clarion is where writers go to live for six weeks to workshop and learn from teachers like Neil Gaiman. The workshop produces a lot of writers in traditional publishing and is seen as a rite of passage for a fast track to get into places like Clarke’s World or Tor Books. With a second writer’s workshop allegedly banning Neil Gaiman because it’s geared toward young students, it appears the industry knows the 62-year-old author’s proclivities are much worse than they seem on the surface.

And that’s not all… tomorrow’s Arkhaven Nights is going to be lit! It turns out that in 2012, a nameless, unidentified individual who absolutely and totally was not Neil Gaiman himself set up a Tumblr site where people could send pictures of themselves reading his books in the bathtub. Even better, if they were too shy to post a public picture, they could email the picture directly to an email address belonging to a Gmail account that was definitely not set up by Neil Gaiman, and was certainly not accessible by him, called bathbookneil@gmail.com.

joleneparton: Reading @neilhimself in the bathtub (the illustrated edition of Stardust with Charles Vess). Just barely SFW, if you have a fairly permissive office.

neil-gaiman: This is the internet. Is there actually a dedicated place for happy photos of people reading my books in the bath?

joleneparton: There is now! Send me your photos, people, and I’ll put ‘em up. I’m student enough (and therefore bored enough in class) to take on this task. Address them to bathbookneil@gmail.com if you don’t want to do a Tumblr submission.

neil-gaiman: Why, thank you. I love it when things move at the speed of internet. (And as far as I am concerned, people can be reading their books in the bath naked, fully dressed, they can be of any gender or all, masked, alone, or in groups of as many of them as can fit into a bath.) (I’ve never successfully read in the shower, although I HAVE tried.)
(via neil-gaiman)

That Neil! He’s so naughty and charming and ever so attentive to his fans. My favorite part is where the person who definitely is not Neil Gaiman explains why he is going to the trouble of doing this.

I’m student enough (and therefore bored enough in class) to take on this task.

Gaiman never was particularly good at writing credible dialogue. Case in point, there is someone named PrudishChild suddenly active in the Gaiman-related threads who more than a few Redditors suspect of being one of Gaiman’s sock puppets.

PrudishChild
Any reason to think he set up the gmail, or had access to it? I thought someone else set it up and he just commented on it.

And the suspicions appear to be well-founded, since PrudishChild, who “made this alt account to comment on the allegations against Neil Gaiman” exhibits at least one of Gaiman’s writing quirks.

Weird spaces and poor punctuation? I don’t agree. Maybe some autocorrect issues..? Honestly, I’m not sure what you mean.

What evidence would you accept as me not being Neil Gaiman? I find the accusation that I am him to be bizarre, a bit self-important, and utterly ridiculous. There are 57 members here on this sub, and to think that I’m a famous author is just so, I dunno, self-centered. I am sure he’s being kept away from social media, and I am sure he’s working on prepping for Good Omens 3, which stars filming in January. Engaging with 57 people on r/neilgaimanuncovered won’t do a damn thing for his reputation, his pocketbook, or his work.

I am not defending him. As Ive said many times, I am staying neutral on the matter, until more is known. It may seem like I am “supporting rape culture” or “attacking the victims” or “dedicated to Neil,” because I am one of few (though not alone) who are calling for neutrality instead of immediately condemning him. You can probably find a few statements where what I say can come across as support for Neil, but I think if you look at all my comments fairly, you’ll see that I am merely against turning allegations into proof. That does not serve anyone – victim, accused, society, the internet, Reddit, etc.

I have been posting information about Neil’s works on r/NeilGaiman , as I am allowed to do, and also because the mod asked that be what the subreddit remain. I am providing content for comments. You may see that as attacking the accusers, but I do not.

Gammas always think they’re being so clever. They never understand how transparent their actions are.

UPDATE: Of course, there’s more. There is always more. Apparently, like Harvey Weinstein, naughty Neil likes to run the Teddy Kennedy on the unsuspecting.

The massage was supposed to be for Amanda, but she decided to split it in two with Neil. When it was Neil’s turn, this person recounts that they told him to get naked and covered with a towel so that when they returned he was decent. Neil called the masseur back into the room (usually it’s the massage therapist who knocks), and when they got back into the room Neil was standing naked in front of them.

Gamma Game!

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Napoleonic Wars

We’ve finished the interior of the fourth book in the History series, STUDIES IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS. For a look at the endpapers and the title page, visit the Castalia Library substack. There are 50 copies remaining, so if you’d like to acquire one, you can do so at the Arkhaven store. A significant discount from the retail price is available to all History, Library, and Libraria subscribers, but it is not the usual discount code, so please visit the substack for details.

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