Tag: Castalia House

The bonfire of the SJWs approaches

As I mentioned previously, SJWS ALWAYS LIE: Taking Down the Thought Police will be released on August 27, 2015, the first anniversary of #GamerGate. I thought those of you looking forward to the book might be interested in seeing yet another excellent cover by JartStar.

As you can see, the cover is an homage to another political book well-loved by the Left, Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism. But SJWs is a lighter read, it’s meant to be a book that serves as a handbook and a reference for those who already oppose the self-appointed thought police as well as an evangelical tract that can be used to convince neutral parties that the SJWS are a serious problem and a direct threat to them even though they may be currently unaware of it. In other words, it’s written more in the vein of The Irrational Atheist than The Return of the Great Depression.

There is a chapter devoted to GamerGate, a chapter devoted to the Hugo Awards, and a chapter that contains a systematic breakdown of the standard SJW attack sequence as well as recommendations on how to respond to it. It contains a few surprises, as well as a few elements that will not be a surprise to anyone at all. It is my hope that SJWs will prove but one of many useful weapons to people across the West as the long-overdue counterattack against the thought and speech police grows and gains momentum.

It will be initially available in ebook, but we expect to have a hardcover out before the end of the year.

Do not buy this book

If you are not a serious – and by serious I mean VERY VERY SERIOUS – Gene Wolfe fan. Some months ago, I was contacted by an author with perhaps the most insanely ambitious and least marketable submission I had ever imagined. He was in the process of writing a complete literary analysis of every short story and novel that Gene Wolfe had ever written. He said it ran about 800 pages… and that was just Volume One. Since I am a fan (although I have subsequently learned not a sufficiently serious fan), of Gene Wolfe, I decided that we would publish it if Mr. Wolfe was amenable. So, I called him up, told him about the project, and after he stopped laughing, he said that he had no objections so long as we sent him a copy when it came out. He also asked who the author was, and when I told him the author’s name, there was a brief moment of silence on the other end of the line.

“I’ve met him,” he said. “You know, he didn’t seem like a lunatic.”

In any event, Between Light and Shadow: An Exploration of the Fiction of Gene Wolfe, 1951-1986 is now available on Amazon and at Castalia House. It is 828 pages, retails for $6.99, and features a foreword by Gene Wolfe fan John C. Wright. From the Foreword:

He is the only author I admire without ever daring to emulate, because his skill exceeds my own too greatly. I boldly claim that he is not the greatest living science fiction author, only because he is the greatest living author writing in any genre. In scope, in craftsmanship, in capturing nuances of dialog, in skill of approaching the central mysteries of the human condition, and of putting into words what never can be put into words, he had no equal, and, save perhaps for Cordwainer Smith, no serious competitor. He is that skilled.

One line is sufficient to show the subtlety of his writing: “The great question…is determining what these symbols mean in and of themselves. We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.” At the risk of spoiling the jest, I direct your attention to the last letter but one in that sentence, where you can see a serpent in the s, and a sword in the t in the last. His whole work is as cunningly contrived.

One line? One name. To pick one trifle out of the treasure house, is anyone else amused that the fencing master in the city of Viron, where all men are named for living things, is called Xiphias? Xiphias is the archaic name for swordfish. What other fish does one name a fencing master after?

Seriously, though, this book is esoteric beyond belief. If you’re just a casual fan of Gene Wolfe, I guarantee it will go completely over your head. If you’re not a fan of Gene Wolfe, don’t even think of reading this, go read Wolfe instead. And if you’re one of the 200 potential readers of this book, you’re probably not reading this post, you’re already ordering it on Amazon. So I may as well stop here with the note that the second volume, Beyond Time and Memory: An Exploration of the Fiction of Gene Wolfe, 1987-2015, will be published by Castalia House next year.

Good news, bad news

For fans of my writing.

First, the bad news: Book Two of Arts of Dark and Light, A SEA OF SKULLS,  will not be published this year. The cover is done and it is awesome, the story is proceeding well and I’m told that it is better than A THRONE OF BONES, but I’m only 200k words in and there is no way I can finish it and still publish the other books Castalia is committed to publish this year, such as the three books of THE STARS CAME BACK, THE 4GW HANDBOOK, and RIDING THE RED HORSE Vol. 2, among others. It’s just not possible, as there aren’t enough hours in the day. I am still working on it, however, and my reasonable estimate is March next year.

The good news. I will publish a book this fall, most likely in September, and it will be a non-fiction book entitled SJWS ALWAYS LIE: How to Defend Yourself From the Thought Police. The meme is rapidly spreading, more and more people are understanding that the First Law of SJW is both a truism and a reliable metric, and everyone needs to know how to defend themselves against an SJW swarm. And based on who is writing it, the Foreword may well be the best part.

Since nearly everyone here is either on the anti-SJW front lines or is an observer to action on that front, I’ll be interested to know what elements you think need to be there in order for SJWS ALWAYS LIE to be reasonably comprehensive.

Garden porn

Frankly, I don’t think there is really any other way to describe it. Extreme composting guru David the Good is now making videos:

Earlier this year, Marjory Wildcraft invited me to be a part of her Home Grown Food Summit. 

I agreed and hired my cousin (he almost volunteered, in fact, since it
was a lot of work) to help me put together a good gardening presentation
for the event.

The result was 13 Tips, Tricks and Lessons from Homesteading an Acre.

The video played live during the summit and was ranked among the top
five presentations by viewers. It generated a lot of really good press
but was only available as part of a multi-video package deal.

Until now!

I’ve set it free and am now offering the almost hour-long presentation for $4.99 as a video download for your enjoyment and gardening edification.

And I’m sure his fans will be delighted to note that David the Good is planning to follow up the very successful Compost Everything with two more books with Castalia House, one of which may even be released this year.

One will be focused on survival preparedness, the other on homeschooling.

Mailvox: Wallpaper request

Because the THERE WILL BE WAR covers by Lars – with a typology assist from JartStar and Chris – are awesome, we’ve had several requests for wallpapers based on them. So, without further ado, here they are at 1600×1000 resolution; just click on the smaller image to load the full one. I have to confess that while Vol. II is my favorite of the four anthologies we’ve released so far, Vol. IV is my favorite cover.

And, of course, you’ll no doubt want to pick up copies of the newly released Volume III and Volume IV too.

There Will Be War Vols III and IV

Created by the bestselling SF novelist Jerry Pournelle, THERE WILL BE
WAR is a landmark science fiction anthology series that combines
top-notch military science fiction with factual essays by various
generals and military experts on everything from High Frontier and the
Strategic Defense Initiative to the aftermath of the Vietnam War. It
features some of the greatest military science fiction ever published,
such Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” in Volume I and Joel Rosenberg’s
“Cincinnatus” in Volume II. Many science fiction greats were featured in
the original nine-volume series, which ran from 1982 to 1990, including
Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Gordon Dickson, Poul
Anderson, Jack Vance, John Brunner, Gregory Benford, Robert Silverberg,
Harry Turtledove, and Ben Bova.

THERE WILL BE WAR Volume IIII is edited by Jerry Pournelle and John
F. Carr, and features 16 stories, articles, and poems. Of particular
note are “Hide and Seek” by Arthur C. Clarke, “The Spectre General” by
Theodore Cogswell, “The Myth of a Liberation” by Truong Nhu Tang, and
“Silent Leges” by Jerry Pournelle.

382 pages, no DRM. It is available at Amazon and Castalia House.

 THERE WILL BE WAR Volume IV is edited by Jerry Pournelle and John F.
Carr, and features 21 stories, articles, and poems. Of particular note
are “The Cloak and the Staff” by Gordon R. Dickson, “Interim Justice” by
William F. Wu, “Psyops” by Stefan Possony, and “No Truce with Kings” by
Poul Anderson.

378 pages, no DRM. It is available at Amazon and Castalia House.

Being the First Part of A Tale of The Unwithering Realm

We are very pleased to announce that Mr. John C. Wright has published SOMEWHITHER, The Unwithering Realm, Book One, with Castalia House:

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 Man can 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.

590 pages. No DRM. Available at Amazon and Castalia House. From the reviews:

  • “I had stopped reading SF and fantasy when Stephen Donaldson got longwinded and boring (make your own jokes here) and had turned to detective fiction. But the pendulum swings. The fact that you enthused about him compelled me to give him a try, since I love your work. I can confidently say I haven`t read anything I loved this much since Lewìs` space trilogy.”
  • “It is at once Star Wars, the Chronicles of Narnia, Asimov’s Robot worlds, and CS Lewis somehow rolled into one.”

I will give the gentle reader fair warning. SOMEWHITHER is crazy. The reader who described it as a “Bronzepunk Bildungsroman” wasn’t kidding. It is massive and over the top in every single way. It defines “kitchen-sink book” and there is probably not another science fiction writer alive today who could reasonably attempt a book like this. You may love it. You may find it bewildering. You may wonder if Mr. Wright should join Professor Achitophel Dreadful as an involuntary guest at the asylum. But you will definitely marvel at it.

The only way I can describe it is to imagine that Dan Brown dropped acid and was pumped full of sodium pentathol and caffeine after reading about Our Lady of Fátima. And that doesn’t even do it justice. Mr. Wright provides his own description here.

So how would I classify SOMEWHITHER? Is is high fantasy, sword and sorcery, scientific fantasy, space opera, or elf opera, or what?

It might be called an urban fantasy, in that the the tale stars a modern American boy, indeed, a Boy Scout, son of a secret agent of the parallel-world traveling Knights Templar secretly working for the Pope, who pops through a rabbit hole or Moebius wormhole, and ends up in a parallel world ruled by the Tower of Babel. Except he is from Tillimook, Oregon, which is rural rather than urban.

It might be called sword and sorcery, on the grounds that he is armed with his grandfather’s katana, a prize brought back from Japan after World War Two, so there is a sword involved, and there is definitely enough sorcery to choke a horse.

It could be called high fantasy, if we meant it reads like something inspired by a muse who had ingested a hallucinogenic drug. It is high in that sense.

SOMEWHITHER is a Christian Rock Opera, like JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, but not so blasphemous, but just as stupid.

So think of SOMEWHITHER as more like GODSPELL, but if they decided to use ninjas and vampire-hunters to portray Our Lord and His apostles instead of clowns in makeup.

Not all writers are created equal

And let’s face it, Martin van Creveld is damn near the top of the list of thinking writers these days. I think I may have posted this link before, but since Instapundit has a decent discussion going in the comments, I thought I’d post Ann Sterzinger’s review of Martin van Creveld’s EQUALITY: THE IMPOSSIBLE QUEST again in case anyone happened to miss it the first time:

Equality: The Impossible Quest is—by the by—one of a spate of solid but genuinely daring recent releases from Castalia House, a small press led by Vox Day.

If you haven’t spent all your money on my publisher, Nine-Banded Books, do yourself a favor and give Castalia House a look.

Day is, at the moment, my favorite fantasy novelist, despite the gulf between his version of theology—from reading his blog he seems pretty sure that in this reality there’s a single, just God up there—and mine, if you can call mine such.

Or likely my enjoyment grows from that gulf. Yeah, I know, you’ve blocked everybody you disagree with from your Facebubble, and the wrong cat meme triggers your cis-clawed stress syndrome. You poor, chicken-shit things; in fearing you might become what you detest, have you forgotten what a pleasure it is to escape the cage of your own brainham once in a while? Stretch your legs, fella!

(Cough.) Anyhow, Day’s work, both on his own writing and in co-curating Castalia House, is a beacon in the dull word blizzard. (I’ve written about Riding the Red Horse, a unique collection of military essays and military science fiction that Day and Kratman put out in December, but I can’t keep up. They’re killin’ it.)

And van Creveld’s Equality is one of Castalia’s most absorbing releases, if you’re interested in history anyway—past history, not the historical destiny of your marching-drum ideology—the sort of history that’s not only full of holes where the victors and the monks wrote over chunks of the evidence, but the sort of history that, as far as we can tell, indeed has been repeating itself rather drearily.

As van Creveld says in his preface, the histories of our other two unattainable ideals, liberty and justice, have been written before—or, rather, attempted; there’s too much to read on all three of these subjects for one guy to do it at a go. But van Creveld does his best to describe all our tragic, failed attempts at equality.

The SJW review of books

And they wonder why we so blithely ignore their idiotic, ideologically-driven opinions. An SJW “reviews” RIDING THE RED HORSE:

Disappointing and uneven collection
By Elisabeth Carey on June 12, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition
Theodore Beale (Vox Day) is nominated for Best Editor, Long Form, and also Best Editor, Short Form.

This collection is included in the Hugo Voters packet in support of Theodore Beale’s nomination for Best Editor, Short Form.

Unfortunately, it’s a very uneven collection. It includes the very good The Hot Equations, by Ken Burnside, and the very disappointing Turncoat by Steve Rzasa. There is, early on, a casual endorsement of the probable “necessity” of genocide on the grounds that Those People aren’t smart enough to modify their behavior. A point Beale’s fans will have difficulty with is that such inflammatory language makes it less likely that readers will take in the point the author was attempting to make. A better editor would have caught it and told the author to dispense with pointless provocation and just make his point.

If this is the best evidence Beale has to offer, he has no place on the ballot.

I don’t know about you, but I’m convinced. Then again, if one takes the opinion of actual mil-SF fans and science fiction readers into account, there can be very little doubt that if the Hugo Award for Best Editor, Short Form, was actually based on editorial merit, I would not only have a place on the ballot, but win the award on the basis of RIDING THE RED HORSE.

  • “The first great mil-SF anthology since Jerry Pournelle tapered off in the 90s.”
  • “This is a great collection of short stories. I’m not a huge fan of military sci-fi but I very much enjoyed this collection.”
  • “If you’ve been waiting for a new anthology in the spirit of Pournelle & Carr’s THERE WILL BE WAR series, stop waiting and buy this. Includes new and classic combat SF, nonfiction articles on warfare and science, and good introductions by Vox Day.”
  • “First science fiction anthology
    I’ve read and enjoyed since the Asimov days. Every SF story was fast
    moving and kept my interest including interest in the technology
    envisioned by the authors.”
  • “As an anthology of futuristic
    military-scifi, interspersed with essays ranging from an introduction to
    the 4th Generation of War to the advancement of laser technology and
    how it will shape the wars of our future, Riding the Red Horse really
    hits the spot for both entertainment and intrigue.”

Now, it is true, there are those who agreed with Elisabeth Carey and gave the anthology but a single star. Their opinions speak eloquently for themselves; these are the reviews in their entirety:

  • “What a piece of tripe. Exactly
    the kind of fiction that appeals to men who are insecure in their
    masculinity. My only regret is that one can’t rate this book any less
    than one star.”
  • “Bad”  

But what will be will be. It is of little import one way or the other. What is much more important is that Jerry Pournelle was sufficiently impressed with RIDING THE RED HORSE that he decided Castalia House was the right place to reprint and revive his excellent THERE WILL BE WAR anthology series. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s the only award that matters and the only vote that counts.

I should mention that RIDING THE RED HORSE Vol. 2 is shaping up to be even more formidable than the original anthology. Many of the Vol. 1 contributors are back with a vengeance, and the new contributors include Martin van Creveld, Larry Correia, David Van Dyke, and Sarah Salviander.

There Will Be FOUR

Coming very soon. If you are a newsletter subscriber, keep your eyes on your email this weekend for some offers you won’t want to miss. And we’re not only talking about the two new volumes of THERE WILL BE WAR either….