Tag: Castalia House

Expanding the audio front

A History of Strategy: From Sun Tzu to William S. Lind Audible – Unabridged. Martin van Creveld (Author), Jon Mollison (Narrator).

There are few better suited to write the history of strategy and
military thought than Dr. Martin van Creveld, who has been a significant
contributor to the literature of war. A professor emeritus at the
Hebrew University, 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 20 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.


Featuring a foreword by Dr. Jerrry Pournelle, A History of Strategy: From Sun Tzu to William S. Lind
begins with the Chinese military literature, then reviews the Greek,
Roman, and Byzantine works before proceeding to the Middle Ages. From
Machiavelli and Montecuccoli to Guibert and Frederick the Great, van
Creveld chronicles the gradual transition from medieval to Napoleonic
warfare and onward into the nuclear age and the rise of ISIS.

We’re very pleased to announce our second audio book, A History of Strategy: From Sun Tzu to William S. Lind, and to be able to let you know that many more are on the way, including Awake in the Night Land, SJWs Always Lie, and There Will Be War Vol. X. And if you haven’t heard it yet, you’ll likely want to check out the audio sample of Cuckservative: How “Conservatives” Betrayed America as well.

Our goal is to have all Castalia House books available in audio by the end of 2016. I know most of the readers of this text-heavy blog prefer ebooks to audio, but if you’ve got friends who prefer the latter, do us a favor and let them know about our audiobook line.

The new sheriff

In order to better focus my activities in the coming year, I have relinquished my responsibilities as the manager of the Castalia House blog. If you’d like to see who is going to do a much better job of running it than I did, visit the CH blog to see who has been named the new Blog Editor at Castalia House.

Mark my words. In two years, the Castalia House blog is going to be the best and most popular SF/F and gaming blog. There are few pleasures as satisfying as handing off responsibility to someone who is more capable than you are.

Traffic report 2015

The growth in site traffic this year was more than expected, as a surprising number of people initially stopped by to see what was going on with the Hugo Awards in August and then stuck around for the remainder of the year. Last year we saw a single 1.5-million pageview month; this year we had 10 in a row. All of the growth was at VP, as AG was pretty flat due to my sporadic posting there. But as was the case last year, 2015 finished very strong; December was not only up 30 percent over last December, but was the second-most-highly-trafficked month of the year.

In 2015, Vox Popoli had 16,211,875 pageviews and Alpha Game 4,565,094 for a total of 20,776,969 Google pageviews. The blogs are now running at a average rate of 56,923 daily pageviews. And yes, I do find it amusing that the blogs are now seeing considerably more genuine traffic than the “extraordinary amount” a certain SF blogger once lied about having. As for the running annual totals, they are as follows:

2008: 3,496,757
2009: 4,414,801
2010: 4,827,183
2011: 5,969,066
2012: 7,774,074
2013: 13,111,695
2014: 15,693,622
2015: 20,776,969

Thank you all for the part you have played in making that happen. However, there are some more important numbers that merit mention. 2015 ended with 465 Vile Faceless Minions pledging their mindless obedience to the Supreme Dark Lord and preparing for battle in 2016. Expect heavier use this year, VFM, as the SJWs react to our media offensive in a variety of means both fair and foul.

On Twitter, I ended the year with 6,230 followers and 14.628 million impressions for 2015. Not bad, but I can clearly put in a little more effort on that front.

Castalia House grew from 21 books published to 37, including 5 in print and 1 in audiobook. Book sales increased 145 percent and no less than six category bestsellers were published. We also added three editors, an Editor-at-Large, an Audio Editor, and a Blog Editor; see the Castalia blog later today for more details there. Speaking of the Audio Editor, the audiobook for Cuckservative is now available on Audible and Amazon, and is already one of the top 50 Philosophy audiobooks. We expect even faster growth for Castalia in 2016 with the release of upcoming books such as Riding the Red Horse Vol. 2 by Tom Kratman and Vox Day, Iron Chamber of Memory by John C. Wright, Clio and Me by Martin van Creveld, Do Buddhas Dream of Enlightened Sheep by Josh Young, and There Will Be War Vol. XI by Jerry Pournelle, among others.

And yes, one of those others will be A Sea of Skulls.

Thank you for your interest, even if it is no more than morbid
curiosity, thank you for your support, and while 2015 was certainly intriguing, I believe 2016 is going to be absolutely extraordinary.

Volume X: initial reviews

The initial response to the return of THERE WILL BE WAR and the new Volume X is extremely encouraging. Here are a few selections from the reviews and emails I’ve been receiving:

  • This is one of the best collections of SF writing I have ever read…. What really gets me about the series is how pertinent they are to today’s geopolitical situation.
  •  I want to emphasize how much quality the CH works have. What you are doing is important…. I’ll
    definitely be following up by purchasing the other volumes and Riding
    the Red Horse    .
  • I’m delighted to see this
    masterful series is back again, now addressing the issues of the 21st
    century. Dr. Pournelle’s introductions alone are worth the price of the
    book
  • This book is an absolute blast. A collection of short stories all of
    which have a military sci-fi theme, the stories themselves trend towards
    the top in terms of writing and story telling.
  • This anthology is exactly what to
    expect from serious men thinking and writing about war in the future and
    the technology of war as applied to both future and contemporary
    warfare. 
  • This is a fine effort, very timely, certainly one worth the
    investment of time and a few dollars for any person with an interest in
    the subject of war. It leaves me hoping that Volume XI finds us in
    months instead of decades.
  •  This is my first exposure to this
    series, and I find this installment intriguing. I found the preface of
    this book quite striking…. I am very much interested in reading the earlier volumes, and also look forward to future releases.
  • Well Worth the 25-Year Wait. This is an incredible book!
  • Volume 10, the latest There Will Be War, is worthy to stand with the best of that series. Mil-sf doesn’t get better than this.

As I have previously stated, Riding the Red Horse was the best mil-SF anthology published in the last 20 years. And there is no question that There Will Be War Vol. X is even better. If you have any interest in either science fiction or current events, it is a book that you simply must read.

This exchange was rather amusing:

I want the paperback to match my 9-volume set, damn it!
 
We’re going to sell you a
whole new set. The Volume I + Volume II omnibus in case hardcover will be
published next month. We’re going to release Volume IX in ebook next, so that we
can do a Vol IX + Vol X hardcover as the second in the print series. Then we’ll fill in the
blanks….

Those thrice-damned SJWs didn’t lie for once:  You ARE evil!

What part of “Supreme Dark Lord of the Evil Legion of Evil” gave it away?

UPDATE: Not bad for Launch Day. Congratulations to Jerry Pournelle and all of the contributors.

 Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #276 Paid in Kindle Store
    #1 in Genre Fiction > Historical > Military
    #1 in Military > Strategy
    #2 in Genre Fiction > War

The return of There Will Be War

After a 25-year hiatus, Jerry Pournelle and Castalia House are pleased to announce that the famous military science fiction anthology series, There Will Be War, has been revived with There Will Be War Volume X. This has been a long time in the making, with more than a few challenges and detours along the way, but as a fan of the series from the 1980s, I am absolutely delighted to see it come alive again, although I regret the fact that there is, once more, a genuine need for it in light of current world events.

In many ways, the first nine volumes of There Will Be War have proved to be a chronicle of the Cold War; reading those earlier volumes published in the ’80s is a literal education in both the events and the psychologies of that time. We will be fortunate indeed if the challenges described in There Will Be War Volume X, in both fiction and non-fiction terms, prove to be similarly ephemeral, and disappear from history as speedily and as bloodlessly. Unfortunately, some of the contributors to the new volume would appear to be less than entirely optimistic in that regard.

There Will Be War Volume X is 401 pages, DRM-free, and retails for $4.99 on Amazon. The editor, who arguably did his finest job in selecting stories and essays since Volume II, shared some thoughts on the revival of his classic series at Chaos Manor today. Highlights:

There Will Be War Volume X will be on Amazon Monday. We will see where it goes from there. There is already a campaign to boycott the book on the grounds that the publisher is a scoundrel. This is apparently something to do with fan politics and awards. I can only say that it has been a pleasant experience to work with them. I have all the editorial decisions, of course, including story choices…. I find them very competent and helpful.

We also have some good stuff from new authors, who apparently prefer to be in this book rather than in the traditional magazines; I’m a bit flattered. Anyway it’s done. If you like war stories you will like this book

Note to New Release subscribers: if you don’t have an email in your inbox tomorrow and you’ve been having trouble receiving the emails despite being sure that you’re a subscriber, get in touch and I’ll send you the link to the bonus books. You won’t want to miss them!

And one more thing: fans of the series will no doubt be glad to hear that the hardcover omnibus of Vols I and II is very nearly done and will be published in January.

UPDATE: Mr. Pournelle notes that one of the contributors, CDR Phillip Pournelle, USN, was just awarded the Surface Navy Association Literary Award for “The Deadly Future of Littoral Sea Control”, which is one of the non-fiction pieces that appears in Volume X.

It’s all too telling

Mike Glyer announces the incipient publication of There Will Be War Vol. X on Monday. SJWs at File 770 respond accordingly:

CORA: from my West European POV, listing the military ranks of several of the contributors along with their names looks very weird. But I guess the target audience expects that sort of thing.

JERRY POURNELLE: Military ranks are shown for military contributors of non-fiction. i can think of no reason why they should not be.

SANDDORN: Aren’t you leaving out several Dr. or PhDs, you know, real titles?

As opposed to fake titles like LtCol, Col., Lt. Col., and CDR? Unbelievable. SJWs are even more despicable than you probably imagined.

But that tells you everything you need to know about SJWs. All that matters to them is sitting obediently in a classroom, regurgitating information like a good and properly programmed little girl.

The reason military titles are used for the non-fiction contributors, and are not used for the fiction contributors (some of whom happen to possess them), is that if one is writing on the subject of, say, modifying the U.S. Navy’s fleet composition, one tends to have just a little more credibility on the subject if one is, in fact, an officer in the U.S. Navy intimately familiar with the pros and cons of the current composition.

This doesn’t mean that military rank is the only credential worth taking seriously; the fact that the U.S. Marines think so highly of a certain contributor that they have a terrain feature on their training grounds named after him is arguably even more indicative of someone whose opinion you would do well to at least grant serious consideration. And if another contributor’s work is declared to be doctrine by an armed force, well, then, you simply shut up, read, and learn.

But neither a general’s stars nor a doctorate means a damn thing when it comes to writing fiction. There, the work must stand alone.

How you can help

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve added an Amazon banner ad on the right sidebar. For years, people have been telling me that I should get an affiliate program going, considering how many people have bought books there in support of me, in support of Castalia House, or as the result of a book review. I simply never got around to it, being busy with rather more hands-on priorities, but as part of my effort to better maintain focus (and some much-needed external encouragement), I finally took the time to set it up.

I’m sure you know how it works. Not only will VP get credit for direct sales of the product linked, but also for any items you go on to purchase in that session from that particular entrance into Amazon. So, start your Christmas shopping here! It doesn’t matter if you click on the banner ad or on one of the various book covers; the books under Castalia New Releases will always serve as a functional Amazon portal. Or you can click on the text link underneath them on the right: Amazon VD Page.

There have been a lot of changes in the last two years, but one thing that remains the same, and will always remain the same, is that the core blog content of multiple posts per day will remain free. Commenting will also remain as free and unmoderated as I can permit it to be without permitting the spammers, trolls, and monomaniacs to disrupt the discourse. You don’t have to support VP by utilizing the associate program in order for this to continue because it will continue as it has been regardless, but the more you do, the more we can do.

There Will Be Volume X

You may have thought that Castalia House was done for 2015 following the release of its most recent Political Philosophy bestseller
earlier this week, but nothing could be further from the truth. Not only are we hard at work getting several audiobooks out before the end of the year, but we are less than two weeks away from reviving a series that has lain dormant for 26 years since the end of the Cold War.

That’s right, for the first time in nearly three decades, Jerry Pournelle’s legendary There Will Be War anthology series of military science fiction and military fact, which served as the inspiration for Castalia’s Riding the Red Horse series, is back! Dr. Pournelle has been hard at work putting together a collection of the best of the new breed mil-SF writers with the best of the old guard, and the result is one of the most formidable collections of talent since the second in the series, the epic There Will Be War Volume II, which featured Poul Anderson’s “Time Lag”, Joel Rosenberg’s “Cincinnatus”, William F. Wu’s “In the Shadow of a Phosphor Screen”, and Eric Vinicoff’s “‘Caster”.

Only time will tell if Volume X will prove to be similarly memorable, but the lineup of contributors would be hard to beat. In addition to an introduction by Jerry Pournelle, the new volume features:

  • Gregory Benford
  • Charles W. Shao
  • William S. Lind and LtCol Gregory A. Thiele, USMC
  • Ben Bova
  • Allen M. Steele
  • Michael Flynn
  • Martin van Creveld
  • Matthew Joseph Harrington
  • Cheah Kai Wai
  • Col Douglas Beason, USAF, ret.
  • John DeChancie
  • CDR Phillip E. Pournelle, USN
  • Russell Newquist
  • Brian Noggle
  • David VanDyke
  • Lt Col Guy R. Hooper, USAF, ret. and Michael L. McDaniel
  • Poul Anderson
  • Larry Niven

The much-ballyhooed End of History and the permanent triumph of democratic liberalism has proven to be a mirage. As Dr. Pournelle has repeatedly warned us, There Will Be War.

If you still haven’t signed up for the New Release mailing list, you’re definitely going to want to do so for this one, as the bonus book offer is even better than the one we offered earlier this week. The book will initially be out in ebook, in audiobook early next year, then in a hardcover omnibus edition with Volume IX sometime in Spring 2016.

Cuckservative at Return of Kings

Roosh introduced Cuckservative: How “Conservatives” Betrayed America, to the Return of Kings readership. If you’ve already read it, perhaps you might leave a comment there with your impressions for the benefit of those who haven’t otherwise heard of the book. From the Prologue:

What is now taking place in Europe is a microcosm of what is happening, on a larger scope and timescale, in the United States of America. Although the European population of 508 million is larger than the U.S. population of 320 million, the 28 member nations of the E.U. fit into about half the land taken up by the 50 united States. Moreover, unlike the heterogeneous American “nation of immigrants”, the European nations are homogeneous and distinct, with long histories, traditions, and collective memories that stretch back for centuries. That is why a much smaller number of immigrants arriving in a much shorter period of time has triggered the powerful nationalistic response that is already overturning governments and will ultimately shatter the European Union.

That is why it is important to realize that the same divisive process is well underway in the United States, albeit at a larger order of magnitude. And one of the tragic ironies of American politics is that it is the very group of people who most proudly proclaim their loyalty to the U.S. Constitution and to the traditional values of America’s founding fathers, conservatives, who have helped lead the way to America’s decline and eventual collapse. They have done so by forgetting the central purpose of the very document they revere.

The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America contains an extremely important phrase that is almost always ignored by those who appeal to it, or to the men who wrote it, in defense of immigration. It states:

    We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The key phrase is this: “to ourselves and our posterity.” The blessings of liberty are not to be secured to all the nations of the world, to the tired and huddled masses, or to the wretched refuse of the teeming shores of other lands. They are to be secured to our children, and their children, and their children’s children.

To sacrifice their interests to the interests of children in other lands is to betray both past and future America. It is to permit an alien posterity, like the newly hatched cuckoo in another bird’s nest, to eliminate our own, and in doing so, defeat the purpose of the Constitution. It is, like the cuckolded husband, to raise the children of another man instead of one’s own sons and daughters.

It is, in a word, cuckservative.