Tag: Castalia House

As was previously mentioned on the Darkstream, the Jan-Feb subscription book is THE ARTS OF WAR. This will feature ancient military treatises on the art of war, one of which is very famous and most of which will be entirely new to even the historical military enthusiast. The included selections are as follows:

• Sun Tzu, The Art of War
• Asclepiodotus, Taktika
• Aeneas Tacticus, Poliorketika
• Sextus Frontinus, Strategemata
• Vegetius, De Re Militari
• Maurice, Strategikon
• Onasander, Strategikos

The book will feature a foreword by Alex Macris, formerly of West Point, and an introduction by yours truly. Depending upon how well it is received, it may become the first in a series, as there are a number of medieval, Renaissance, and modern texts that are thematically relevant, but at the very least, it will serve as an epic historical must-read. So if you aren’t a subscriber yet, you may want to consider joining the Library now.

It may interest Selenoth fans to know that the Arts of Light and Dark series repeatedly references Sextus Frontinus, particularly the Marcus Valerius chapters. And speaking of AODAL, both A THRONE OF BONES Book 1 and A THRONE OF BONES Book 2 are now shipping, and ATOB Book 1 is the February Book of the Month. As of this morning, about 65 copies of each limited edition of 850 remain available.

January was a productive month on the writing front. I exceeded my goal of 31,000 words, putting in 34,529 on A SEA OF SKULLS and 2,019 on other fiction. At this rate, I expect to finish the first draft of ASOS on or before March 3rd. There will be a little back-and-forth with the first readers and cleaning up any inconsistencies or infelicities, but the ebook should be out sometime in May. I plan to use the ebook release to catch any further typos or errors, so the print edition should be out around August, and the two-volume Library set will be based upon the print edition and will probably serve as the subscription books toward the end of the year or the beginning of 2024.

The bindery tells us that THE JUNGLE BOOKS will begin production on February 20th, followed by the four Taleb books on February 24th. We plan to launch the new Castalia Library site at the end of the month, but more about that anon.

Finally, we’re going to be putting the first three Finnish AODAL books in print this year. If there are any native speakers interested in translating them into German, French, or Italian, please let me know.

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Attention: Junior Classics Leather Set backers.

Please send your current shipping address to: castalialibrary-AT-infogalactic-DOT-com.

Please do not “confirm” your current address or send a useless note that says “it’s the same as it was before”. Send the current shipping address in this form, preferably on one line, please, as described below. Do not send it to me or to any email address other than the one specified. Send your current shipping address to castalialibrary-AT-infogalactic-DOT-com.

Backer ID, Name and Lastname, Quantity (sets, not books), Address, City, State, Country, Postal Code (Zip), Email address. Separate the sections by comma, so that the line looks like this:

12345, Name Lastname, 1, 123 Main Street Apt #2, San Diego, CA, USA, 55555, email@url.com

If you don’t know your backer ID from the campaign, just use 000 and we’ll look it up. That’s all we need. We’ll be sending out an email to all the backers too, so hopefully we can start having them shipped next week if everyone responds quickly.

Those who purchased sets from the Arkhaven store do NOT need to send in their addresses unless you have a different shipping address than the one you provided when you ordered it. There are only 10 sets left, so if you would like one, this will be your last chance for a while.

UPDATE: In other Castalia Library news, the Libraria stamping for A THRONE OF BONES Vol. I has been approved.

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Contra my previous post on the subject, the November-December book, #19 in the Castalia Library subscription, is THE LAWDOG FILES by Lawdog. This is actually two books in one, because it contains both THE LAWDOG FILES and THE LAWDOG FILES: AFRICAN ADVENTURES. And consequently, this means THE ARTS OF WAR, featuring an introduction by Alex Macris, will be the January-February book, #20 in the subscription.

I’m sorry for the confusion, but somehow I forgot that we’ve already printed the interiors of LAWDOG and so we can get it shipped sooner than we can ship THE ARTS. The site store has already been updated accordingly. But if, for whatever reason, you a) subscribed in the week between November 5 and November 12, and b) do not want LAWDOG, please email me and let me know which of the previously released books you would like instead.

Also, if you’re on Gab, please note that we’ve established a Library account there which you can follow for regular updates and announcements.

A critter well known to us in our town twisted off one evening and decided to add Attempted Murder to his curriculum vitae by hitting his lady du jour in the head a couple of times with a hatchet. Not one to leave a job half done, he dragged her out to the lake, wired her up to a cinderblock, and shoved her off into the water. Wonder of wonders, she survived. Even bigger wonder, she came into town and filed charges on her homicidal boyfriend. I had been out on a date and wandered back into town about the time that the search was really getting wound up. I’d no sooner walked through the door of the office when the sheriff hit me with three conflicting orders on where to go, one of which would require asbestos underoos. I decided that going back home to change out of my date clothes would be counterproductive, so I was digging through my locker trying to find my spare set of armor when the call came in. One of our local merchants had spotted the critter climbing in the back window of an abandoned building used for storage. Since the other two deputies were on the far side of the county, the sheriff made a posse of me and a luckless Highway Patrol Trooper who had come in for a coffee refill, and we went tear-arsing off to Downtown Bugscuffle. The abandoned building in question had, at one time, been a fairly swanky department store positioned on the prize end of Main Street. However, in the intervening hundred years or so, the entire block had fallen into disuse and disrepair, leaving the once-grand old building standing all alone, used only for storing various and sundry stuff that needed storing by the locals.

For those of you who don’t know how to search a large building with only three people, it’s really quite simple. One officer, whom we’ll call “the sheriff,” stands on one corner watching the front of the building and the west side. The second officer, or “random DPS trooper,” stands at the opposite corner of the building, watching the back of the building and the east side. The third officer, being the bravest and most handsome of the three, goes inside with the idea of flushing the critter out a window where he can be spotted by one of the other two and, hopefully, arrested.

Three guesses who got to go inside, and the first two don’t count. Let me tell you, that place was darker than the Earl of Hell’s waistcoat and stacked floor-to-ceiling with shelves. On those shelves were the collected knick-knacks of 20 years of Main Street stores. And not a lightbulb anywhere.

There I was, with a snubbie .357, a five-cell Maglight, and a Handi-Talkie, and only two hands. About the fourth time I tried to answer the sheriff’s “Have you got him yet?” radio call while trying to cover a suspicious patch of darkness with the .357 and juggling the Mag-Lite, I stopped in the feeble light of the moon shining down through a hole in the ceiling to make a few adjustments.

I was occupied with trying to figure out which I needed more, the Mag-lite or the Handi-talkie, when the SOB decided to jump me. I’m here to tell you, folks, things went rodeo from there. He lunged out of a shadow and tried to grab for my throat, and me, reacting totally out of instinct, I whacked him a good one across the forehead with the Maglight.

Bulb, batteries, and assorted electronic parts arced gracefully into the darkness. The critter took one step back and jumped at me again.

Things were not looking good in Dogville.

I held the snubbie back with my right hand, trying to keep it away from the critter’s grasp, and I tried to stiff-arm him away with my left when I stepped onto what was later found to be a D-cell battery from my Maglight.

Down I went. And the alleged aspiring axe murderer landed on top of me. Hoo boy. The gloves really came off then. We rolled around on the cold cement. I was hitting him in the head with the butt of my revolver and giving him elbow smashes to the jaw and brachial plexus, knee strikes, you name it, the whole enchilada. And he kept grabbing at my throat.

Finally, we rolled into a patch of moonlight, and I saw the bastard had a knife!

Folks, I hate knives. No, I really hate knives. He was on top of me, and he had to weigh three-hundred pounds, and that damn knife was coming down at me in slow motion at just about the same time the barrel of my snubbie rammed up under his chin.

I squeezed off two rounds.

The .357 magnum is a powerful round. Two of them, fired in quick succession, sufficed to blow the electronic brains and assorted stuffing of the Animatronic Life-Like Talking Santa Claus that formerly belonged to the local Thriftway halfway to Dodge City.

You don’t want to know what a couple of .357 rounds will do to hydraulics.

sigh

“The Good Shoot”, THE LAWDOG FILES, Castalia Library #19

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The November-December January-February book for the Castalia Library subscription is THE ARTS OF WAR, featuring an introduction by Alexander Macris, a game designer who attended West Point. And yes, it will contain Sun Tzu, but more importantly, it will include works of major military history significance with which you are almost certainly unfamiliar, such as Frontinus, Vegetius, Maurice, and others.

As our ace proofreader noted after completing his read-through and cleanup of Sextus Frontinus:

It really bothers me that I was never taught works like this. I read Sun Tzu, Mushashi, and other Asians on the art of war. But Frontinus and these others are our heritage, and I never even heard of them until now, and that’s wrong. Think about how cool history class would have been if we had read even snippets of these books.

Arts of Dark and Light readers may wish to note that it is the works of Frontinus to which Marcus Valerius repeatedly refers throughout the series. In my opinion, THE ARTS OF WAR is about as close to a must-read as the Castalia Library is ever likely to feature, and I highly recommend subscribing to the Library if you have not already done so.

In other Library-related news:

• The November-December subscription book is THE LAWDOG FILES.
• The Annual Castalia Library subscription now includes a complimentary edition of DISCOURSES by Machiavelli. Current subscribers who renew their subscription may substitute the Library edition of their choice so long as it is in stock. Subscribers who wish to pay by wire transfer instead of credit card should email me directly for payment information.
• The Annual Libraria Castalia subscription now includes a copy of THE DIVINE COMEDY by Dante. Current subscribers who renew or upgrade their subscription may substitute the Libraria/Library edition of their choice so long as it is in stock. Subscribers who wish to pay by wire transfer instead of credit card should email me directly for payment information.
• The next books scheduled to ship are a) Vols. 1-6 of the leather Castalia Library Junior Classics later this month and b) A THRONE OF BONES Vols I and II on December 16. There are still 23 Junior Classic sets available.
• We are currently in communication with a major European author concerning the production of a leather-bound line of his works. This may or may not be done under the Castalia Library imprint.
• A major step forward concerning the Swiss bindery was completed yesterday, as we received an important approval from the relevant government authority.
• The MIDNIGHT’S WAR crowdfund will include a leatherbound edition of the omnibus.
• We are currently focused on getting all four books of the INCERTO set by NN Taleb into production.

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I believed I promised you that we would have a book announcement of our own this weekend, and here it is.

KARA’ZIN

Empire of perfidy.

With Menuvia little more than a funeral pyre, Xerdes flees to the Traitor’s Kingdom of Nazgan. Where larceny is legal, honor is fatal, and it pays to keep a low profile.

For the deserts of Nazgan are not empty. A lethal legend now haunts the badlands, thirsty for sinful blood. A hooded horror none dare name.

Even as the masked wraith carves its way through the underworld of two separate countries, it has only ever uttered a single world.

“…Xerdes.”

Razorfist has written the second book in his Nightvale pulp fantasy series, which is being published by Dark Legion Books. He’s releasing a limited edition of 750 signed copies, of which only 340 are left after he announced DEATH MASK on his stream about eight hours ago, so don’t wait if you’re interested in a signed copy. Seriously, don’t wait. They will probably be gone before the Darkstream tonight.

Fortunately, you can also preorder both the regular hardcover and paperback editions until June 30.

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If you’re not a Castalia Library subscriber and you’re contemplating the possibility of dipping your toe into deluxe book collecting, THE MISSIONARIES is an excellent place to start. There is a reason we chose it as the first book in the Castalia Library.

The Dark Herald discusses the Owen Stanley book on the Arkhaven blog:

The Missionaries takes place on Elephant Island. An Australian protectorate that Australia wants off the books. The Island is going to be Independent whether they like it or not. The Moroks who inhabit Elephant Island would have been surprised to hear that anyone besides them owned it in the first place.

“Roaring” Roger Fletcher is the Australian Royal Magistrate in name. And the local king in function. The native Morok peoples are convinced that he is the incarnation of their chief god Takime. He lives rough as he wishes and enjoys the Morok’s love and respect, as well as their roast pork and their svelte women. He carefully manages local disputes using trial by combat as a way to keep murder, rape, and cannibalism within acceptable limits.

The Moroks have their own culture and are rather fond of it.

Laripa was distinguished among the settlements of the Moroks by the presence the greatest orator Malek; the greatest sorcerer Macardit; and the greatest philosopher, Garang, a twisted, hairless little man with a squint. It was thus a kind of Florence or Paris, a cultural center where the aspiring young intellectual of the Moroks came to learn the secrets of their fathers, and, more hidden still, the dark revelations of the Before-Men who, led by Tikame himself, had roamed the mountains when Time itself was not.

The problem is that the UN has decided that they won’t be allowed to keep it. Fletcher’s opponent Doctor Prout, is a sociologist who has been given an ounce of power by a UN Special Commission. I can’t think of a more terrifying combination.

This story is skillfully constructed. The tone is consistent and builds steadily to a climax that I didn’t quite predict. That’s good because there’s nothing worse than an ending you saw coming all along.

There is an organic mixture of poetic description that paints a vivid and flourishing portrait of life on Elephant Island, that is ably counterbalanced by its larger-than-life characters. As well some lower-than-life characters. In my time I’ve known people like all of them. If you’ve lived a quiet life, allow me to assure you, these are all real people.

The work is consistently toned and beautifully written with prose that made me remember what a sweltering island jungle smelled like after an afternoon storm.

Years ago, the reporter Amanda Robb asked, prior to her interview of me, which Castalia House book she should read to best understand what made us different than all the other publishing houses. I told her to read THE MISSIONARIES. When we subsequently talked, I asked her what she thought of it. She said it was the most disturbing and most racist book she had ever read. She also said that she couldn’t put it down, that it kept making her laugh out loud, and now she hated herself for it.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a sign of a novel that is not merely good, but great, with substantive commentary on the human condition.

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Castalia House is pleased to announce that the 2nd edition of THE MISSIONARIES is now available to order. A 400-unit print run of the Library 2nd edition and a 50-unit print run of the Libraria 2nd edition are now being produced; we will decide upon the cowhide and goatskin colors in the near future. So, if you did not manage to acquire a copy before the 1st editions were sold out, or if you are a completionist, this is an opportunity to add the 2nd edition of the first Library book to your collection.

Subscribers can utilize their discount codes as usual. If you are a subscriber and you do not have a code, please contact library-at-castaliahouse-dot-com.

Castalia Library 2nd Edition

Libraria Castalia 2nd Edition

We will be producing 2nd editions of other sold-out Library books, including MEDITATIONS and AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND later this year. The precise size of the print runs is yet to be determined.

UPDATE: If you’re the one who mentioned typos in the 1st edition in last night’s Darkstream, please email me the list of typos to which you were referring so we can fix them.

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After an email conversation with a Castalia Library subscriber who was disappointed with the fact that we are doing second editions, thereby theoretically reducing the value to collectors who would prefer the supply of Library books to be as limited as possible, it occurred to me that in addition to changing the color of the second editions, we could follow the lead of Franklin and Easton by changing the artwork on the covers and spines.

For example, Easton actually has five different editions of Plutarch’s Lives in addition to its Deluxe Limited Edition, which has a limited print run of 1,200 volumes. The editions, with one exception, feature different artwork.

While I would prefer to keep the artwork more or less the same from one edition to the next, thereby maintaining some degree of continuity for those who start collecting the books later, I can understand why some might prefer different covers. So, I thought it best to survey the people whose opinions matter most, which is to say the Library subscribers.

Also, I should point out that while we value the opinions of the collectors and we are pleased to have piqued their interest, they are not our primary market nor is serving their needs our primary objective. Castalia Library, first and foremost, is about the preservation of knowledge in a beautiful and timeless manner. Therefore, our motivations and our decisions may, at times, not be aligned with the preferences of those who are buying our books.

Regardless, let us know your opinion on SocioGalactic.

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That’s a rather click-baity way to inform potential Castalia Library subscribers that today is the last day to subscribe to the Library and receive POLITICS by Aristotle without needing to make a catch-up payment.

And since several people have asked, this is what presently comprises the Library series, here is the list. The books marked by strikethrough are sold out. HEIDI and SUMMA ELVETICA are the two books that are closest to selling out next, although I’m pretty sure we have more than two copies of HEIDI left in stock.

1. The Missionaries by Owen Stanley, limited edition of 500
2. The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, limited edition of 650
3. Awake in the Night Land by John C. Wright, limited edition of 650
4. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, limited edition of 750
5. Lives, Vol. I by Plutarch, limited edition of 750
6. Lives, Vol. II by Plutarch, limited edition of 750
7. Summa Elvetica by Vox Day, limited edition of 750
8. Heidi by Johanna Spryi, limited edition of 750
9. Rhetoric by Aristotle, limited edition of 850
10. Discourses on Livy by Niccolo Machiavelli, limited edition of 850
11. A Throne of Bones Vol. I by Vox Day, limited edition of 850
12. A Throne of Bones Vol. II by Vox Day, limited edition of 850
13. Ethics by Aristotle, limited edition of 750
14. The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling, limited edition of 750
15. Politics by Aristotle, limited edition of 750

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Now that the Arkhaven site has been stabilized, we’ve been able to get the Castalia Library store updated and make some of the books that had not been available to purchase available again. We even managed to find a few copies of THE MISSIONARIES and AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND squirreled away; please don’t get too excited, as both books are already out of stock again. So the first three books in the Library series are now sold out.

The more significant news is that both Library and Libraria editions of THE DIVINE COMEDY are available, as are DISCOURSES, RHETORIC, ETHICS, and THE JUNGLE BOOKS. The cover on the latter is especially fine, as a comparison with the more expensive Easton Press edition tends to demonstrate.

The next book in the Castalia Library series is POLITICS by Aristotle, which will complete the three-volume ersatz trilogy that we are publishing. While we may one day publish a Complete Works set of Aristotle, we will not do so as part of the main subscription. And don’t forget, subscribers can utilize their Library discount to purchase additional volumes at the subscription price.

On the production side, we’re now working on getting ATOB Vol. I, ATOB Vol. II, and DISCOURSES shipped in April and May. The bindery is having compressed air and water installed in preparation for the arrival of the machines, most likely in May.

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