Yes I’m doing these things again. Sanity is overrated anyway.
Okay let’s start with the obvious news. The first issue of Alt*Hero has been released on Amazon Kindle and physical dead tree copies are promised for two weeks from now. Distribution will be through Ingram and any store with an Ingram account should be able to order it.
Calarts ruins everything.
I still think the real fun starts when Chuck Dixon’s Avalon hits the stands (which is a good reason for your local comic store to set up an Ingram account) as that series is going to have stronger normie appeal than the AltHero series itself but the important thing is that the readers are happy and the SJWs are continuing to REEEEE and call everyone Nazis.
I’ll try to get Issue #1 read by this weekend.
Toy gun commercials for the 50’s and 60’s. [6 Mins]
A fun vision of a lost era. Those tommy guns looked awesome. Of course this was an age there would have been a lot of WWII veterans around to teach the boys about the real deal.
You WILL get the Johnny Eagle theme song stuck in your head. (A small price to pay.)
And all of a sudden I want some nachos.
SF author Michael Z. Willamson gives a long detailed loving rant against the argument that mere rifles are of no use against a tyrannical government.
The section on flawed heroes is definitely worth highlighting. While a protagonist without vices or weaknesses can often be boring in the end we value heroes for their virtues and heroism.
Not much to say this month so let’s just get straight down to business.
A quick Geekdom is under attack manifesto from what appears to be a fairly new site.
Remember fam, it’s all one big nerdwar. Focus on the battleground that you know best but remember that Alt-Culture is a combined arms operation. Do your duty and together we can push back the poz.
So grab your gyrojet carbines and get to your scout ships, boys because those space princesses aren’t going to just escape from those alien doom dungeons without somebody lending a hand, tentacle or other biomechanical grasping device.
Epic Viking squirrel music.
This almost seems to be two separate songs blended together. Definitely high energy and very squirrelly.
J D Cowan Discusses what actually made the X-Men good.
“If you asked anyone in the 1990s why they liked the X-Men you would have few answers beyond the obvious. They had awesome powers. They were cool. They were distinct individuals with their own talents that backed each other up and meshed well in a group. They always take on the bad guys and put aside their own personal grudges to do so. The stories are explosive and fun.
Whatever politics the X-Men were created with were secondary to what kids enjoyed out of them.”
Justin Knight reflects on what drove him to write his latest novel, Praxis.
“I loved the original Alien movie, because it was basically truckers in space. With Praxis, I wanted to do a warehouse in space.”
Diversity and Comics reviews Shirtless Bear Fighter [22 mins]
And he’s not really a fan. This comic seems to have wasted a perfectly good concept, in favor of cramming in lame jokes and completely ham-handed sarcasm.
Edit: Oh Look Somebody decided to DMCA the video in question. How stunning and brave!
Interplanetary Baseball Commissioner Jon Del Arroz discusses the rise of alternative culture [13mins]
“The first pitfall is obvious. Most readers won’t question a non-human character, but, if by the middle of the book they’re wondering what exactly is alien about this character, you have a problem.”
Looks about right
Paul Lucas reflects upon a Robert. E Howard poem and does an in-depth breakdown.
“The climax of the poem is striking – the Dark Barbarian literally towers over all. He is a massive god looming over the remnants of a crushed civilisation, not just in our minds but literally.“
Forging a French Nail (Early WWI Trench Knife) [6 Mins]
Weapons don’t need to be fancy in order to be deadly. It’s also very sobering to contemplate that a great deal of World War I fighting was done with knives, sharpened entrenching tools or even clubs.
NotJohnDaker muses over how to work Vikings into the ACKS system.
As per this blog’s standard policy MOAR Vikings is better than less Vikings and I must applaud all efforts towards that noble goal.
Outward Bound: Colonizing Titan [31mins]
“This is Titan the frozen flammable gold mine of the solar system.”
Exactly what it says on the tin. Amazing series. Certainly much better Sci-fi than Star Trek Discovery, especially when you consider that its budget could probably be calculated in ramen noodles.
Rawle Nyanzi gives us a post briefly discussing various highly romantic weapons that are in fact quite impractical but always seem to capture the imagination of the audience.
Swords, Spacefighters and Giant Robots sounds like a pretty awesome time.
Anyway that’s all I got for now. People do seem a little interesting in further “Ice Moon Corrigan” writing so I’m trying to plan a little of that out. Corrigan was supposed to get a passing mention in Decisive Action but it’s such an interesting idea for a society that it would be a shame not to play with the ideas just a bit more. We just don’t get enough Christian fanatic super-preppers turning entire moons into heavily fortified monasteries in modern Science Fiction.
But that’s another thought for another day until then For Breyland and for glory!
Opening thoughts: The possible rise of Overedgy SF
Most if not all social, cultural or political movements tend to take the form of a youthful rebellion to what the previous generation held as their standard; an over-correction to the errors that generation made or a panicked attempt to avoid a repeat of a recent tragedy. French Humanism for example came about as a direct result of the French Wars of Religion and the horror that resulted from christian fighting christian over small matters of heresy.
So what will be the reaction to the curse that is Pink Slime Science Fiction? The obvious answer would be some form of self-consciously anti-SJW science fiction. The Pulp Revolution does contain some elements of this as “Write whatever the fuck you want, hombre. Just don’t make it boring.” is in fact quite opposite an mantra from anything Tor books would choose to associate with. The problem here is that new movements tend to overreact when the pendulum swings. So what I expect to see is something I for the lack of a better term am, dubbing Overedgy SF; where offending and mocking the progressive gatekeepers of the previous era is front and center.
Now we are already seeing quite a bit of this but its mostly limited to what are clearly parody stories but if an Overedgy SF movement actually begins in earnest we can expect to see some fairly serious works purposely offend and directly attack the progressive sacred cows at every beat. Instead of virtue signalling these authors will be vice signalling. Sadly this too will be a form of message fiction and detrimental to storytelling but we should as least see some better dialogue than your typical John Scalzi novel.
Even if authors don’t want to be shitlords there is going to be a temptation to work in offensive or questionable content that the author wasn’t originally going to go anywhere near simply to kick the SJW gatekeepers while they are down. Every action in nerd culture produces an equal and opposite (if slightly more autistic) reaction and the CHORFs have had their cold clammy hands on the vitals of Speculative fiction for far too long for fiction lovers to simply let them walk away unscathed.
So expect we’ll see a five to ten year literary wave of Overedgy SF before it gets boring and played out. While it should an absolute blast to read after the creative drought of the last few decades it is important to note that Overedgy books are not likely to age well.
And what will I do? Not sure? While there is no way I can keep politics out of my writing I decided a long time ago that is would be best to let the reader make the judgement call and not simply preach right and wrong to them… that said I never expected to write a chapter about throwing Communists out of a helicopter and yet here we are.
Interestingly the rest of the book will probably be quite apolitical but this does fit into the bipolar madness that is the Beautiful Terror.
Right now he’s mostly doing daily video links and summaries but that’s a start. He also did a review of Defenders S1 a few days back. Again it’s a start.
And here’s an article by the same Nate Winchester making a plea to storytellers to keep politics out of their stories.
So it appears that circumbinary planets do exist. Must make for some weird orbital mechanics.
Wargaming tactics: Skimishers 101 [8 min]
Decided to throw this one in as I didn’t have anything for the tabletop constituent. Also a good apolitical channel for anyone who’s into Battletech or Warhammer 40K.
Five reasons why Zeon lost the One Year War. [7 min]
All makes sense. Mind you I’ve only watched the original series once.
The final part of The Mixed GM’s six part retrospective on Solomon Kane
Also there is the videogame aspect in that if a gamer has to stare at a character’s butt for hours at a time it helps if that butt belongs to a hot chick rather than a fat hairy dude in a fedora. (Author inserts are never good.)
Jimfear138 preaches the gospel truth about what makes a good Sci-fi movie
Insensitivity readers might just be a growth industry; especially if I’m right about the rise of Overedgy science fiction. You just can’t think of ways to offend everybody without an ever bigger Shitlord watching your back and pointing out missed opportunities to drive the knife in just a little deeper.
This sounds like very good news. A much more promising future than putting windmills in soyfields to power our iSlavecollars.
You will see mentions of thorium reactors in the Breyland stories as it’s one of the few neearhorizon technologies that I’m actually excited about. Big game changer and a lot closer than practical fusion.
and will that I fear I’ve rambled enough for one night.
Well my social media holiday turned out to be a complete disaster but it’s nothing any of you would care about so let’s just get straight down to business.
Brian Niemeier discusses the difference between the Superversive and the Pulp Revolution literary movements.
I do think it is important to remember that these two movements overlap and are not in direct conflict; even if certain people do seem to get strangely butthurt about it.
I initially supported the Superversive SF movement and I stand by the goal of countering the nihilism and hopelessness that is all pervasive in modern literature and “entertainment.” As for the Pulprev? I have the much better reason that all my cool friends are doing it and putting entertainment back into things that are supposed to be entertaining just seems like a good idea.
Huge folding knife; which turns out to be a surprisingly good weapon.
Jon Del Arroz on writing character. Lot of good tips here.
“The final thing I’ll note is the protagonist especially needs something for someone to root for.”
Remember if the audience begins to cheer for the bad guys, you either haven’t fleshed out your heroes properly or you may be writing some kind of horrible message fic.
An in-depth article about viking shields; from both a historical and a gamer (GURPS) point of view.
“Interesting thing about this – a properly made shield, when struck at with a sharp sword, will catch and trap the blade of that sword. Nearly every time. The thinner, the easier this happens, but even with the thicker wood with no rawhide edging, a good shield bind was obtained.”
Sabaton and Girls und Panzer
Sabaton makes everything better.
Injustice Gamer brings up a niche product that might just fill your gaming needs.
“Mice and Mystics is the most family friendly entry here. You’re playing as the king’s heroes after they’ve been turned into mice by an evil wizard. Try to avoid the cats and bats, get the cheese, and save the king.”
Your kids will live on Mars. Mixed feeling about this piece. On one hand it’s important to be optimistic on the other hand the name Elon Musk triggered a red flag. Still worth a quick read.
Nerdlife Six: Random thoughts and prayers to RNGsus.
Okay I got a bunch of links and a nice quiet peaceful day to collect my thoughts.
Mostly writer, old school tabletop or pulprev links this time. As that is the crowd I’m hanging out with recently (even if I’m not actually getting any writing done.)
So if even for a brief moment let us set aside the tunes of war and play instead the tunes of chill.
An older piece about how we tend to take for granted the modern ease of travel. Something to keep in mind when writing or gaming in a medieval fantasy setting.
Great, great now I need to add scorpion smoking fanatics into Brothers in the Dust. Well I guess that would raise the stakes a little.
Yes please!
An article by Jesse Abraham Lucas highlighting a very bad habit some writers (particularly movie writers) have of misleading the audience and wasting the tension built up in a previous scene.
Diversity and Comics reviews the Batman/Elmer Fudd Crossover.
DC seems to be absolutely winning with these looney tunes crossovers. The lesson here is that if you start with a stupid gimmick you need to fully commit to it and then follow through with everything you got.
The Alt Right DM makes one of the best pitches possible for Old skool gaming.
This brings up the possible and very awesome scenario of all the heroes getting wiped out and their low level henchmen having to finish the quest while being completely over their heads.
In science news, practical water harvesters are getting closer and closer.
What I want to know is what happens when they ditch this boring ecologically responsible stuff and hook up one of these babies to a thorium fuelled reactor or two?
“When we sit down to crack open a book, we need an escape, even a short one. We do not need more darkness thrown in our face. We need hope. Light. Joy. That is why we need the Pulp Revolution.”
Sort of rushing this one but I have enough links for a post and I’m too caffeinated to sleep.
Quick fictional interlude: No idea where I’m going with this…
Zeps or (zeproru in Codteki) were difficult to describe in Terran biology terms. Seiko kept thinking of them as horse-dog-lizard-things. The nekoites had never figured out what planet the zeps came from or even if they were a natural creature at all or perhaps rather a genetically engineered animal creation of a distant alien race still completely unknown to the clans. The strange mammal-like reptiles had quickly become the low tech mount of choice on the rare niche occasions that such animals were called for. Zeps were intelligent, easily trainable and able to eat plants from a half dozen protein profiles. In addition they were tough, loyal to their handlers and had a nasty enough bite to fend off most local predators but their best trait (from the nekoite perspective) was that unlike Earth-horses, they responded well to being cryogenically frozen and could safely be put in storage aboard starships until needed planetside.
Of course getting them off the spaceship wasn’t always easy.
“Come on Fluffy. Easy does it,” Seiko crooned as he tried to lead the confused creature down the offramp.
World Building: Gas giants and habitable moons
Lot of heavy geek math here but still a fun watch for us soft scifi plebs.
Starts a little slow but this one’s worth the wait.
Bradford Walker discusses the principle of simplicity in gaming. He uses WoW as his main example but then applies the same principles to tabletop gaming.
I do see some of this while say playing Aurora 4x (which is about as complicated a game as there is.) Fighters in Aurora are very effective, and extremely cost efficient but I don’t use them because it’s too much micromanagement and I’d rather focus my efforts elsewhere. Player attention span is also a resource in 4x games.
Steampunk Author and airship mechanic Jon Del Arroz on character voices and dialogue.
“In much the same fashion, Manowar came out with a specific mission. They were going to play HEAVY METAL, they were going to sing about whatever the fuck they wanted, they were going to play fast and loud, and anyone who had shit to say about it could get fucked.”
I need a break from politics and I guess this will count. This was supposed to be my one day to relax this week and I spent most of it on social media yelling about throwing reporters out of helicopters. Therapeutic perhaps but hardly productive.
I try to cover a good spread of topics in these… things so that there is something for everybody. Still end of the day it’s whatever shiny internet thing catches my eye, and I’m not exactly the most organized individual.
Writing out the two Breyland Notes pieces seemed to have helped but yeah… the flesh is willing but the mind is sperging.
So here we go.
Black Marketing: This a ten minute long 1944 US propaganda film that is oddly well acted and compelling. I’m a big fan of these archive channels.
Very well done little film breaks down that how a typical black market scheme is run. Might be of interest to both history buffs and the Pulp Revolution crowd. A lot of fun if you like old style gangster movies.
Indie author and cosmic madman Jon Mollison breaks down the possibilities of donut shaped planets.
I’ve gone ahead and subbed to the Youtube channel in question and it looks like there’ll be plenty of materiel for future posts.
Yes once Captain America was an American.
Injustice Gamer discusses the nature of complexity in boardgames. Not much I can add but his next article is going to be about Kickstarter and how it’s effected the market. That should be a fun read. Might as well start hyping now.
This will be mostly older links as I had an unusually rough month and this piece was delayed because of it. Of course I don’t really have a set deadline for these sort of things. Maybe I should set one?
Anyway since this happened during Space Opera Week I just want to start by pitching my favorite novel of all time. H. Beam Piper’s Space Viking.
It’s a classic, almost archetypal space opera; with a central revenge plot and focus on the questions of civilization versus barbarism, the nature of leadership and the duty of men. Very 1950’s and oddly in hindsight rather Alt-Right to boot. I literally cannot recommend this book more.
He’s got about three or four of these but think this is the funniest one.
Raging Golden Eagle on Marvel choosing DEATH before de-convergence.
PowerWolf- Army of The Night
Urge to Deus Vult rising! Powerwolf has this very interesting thing going on where they introduce just enough Catholic Horror themes into their Black Metal to provide a sense of contrast. A spot of light to accompany the darkness.
“Evil Queens are Princesses who were never rescued.”
Not only is this video very useful for wargamers it turns out that IRL Trolls can shout random German words in order to trigger snowflakes and confuse the normies.
Jon Mollison discussing his latest novel (at the time, I think put out another one since then.) In the course of which Jon goes over the difference between natural diversity and forced diversity and how the former can develop over the course of writing a proper story.
Nerd Life Two: Space is big edition. April 28th 2017
Sorry about the delay on this but I keep getting distracted by shiny things. Also watching a fair amount of anime lately which is somewhat out of character I suppose. However with most western entertainment consisting of nothing but SJW infested crap a man does get desperate from time to time.
If anyone cares the shows in question are:
Tiger Mask W (definitely worth watching if you’re any kind of an old school wrestling fan.)
Heavy Object (7/10 but had a satisfying ending. Recommended for the giant robot fans. The rest of you can leave it be.)
Arslan Senki (has a very Sun Tzu-ish feel to it. Prince Arslan’s not much of character but you’re really watching this because his companions and advisers are awesome.)
Let’s start things off with some mood music.
Damn this guy’s good.
Not entirely sure what this thing is… but hey shiny radishes.
Reminds of a story idea I had where an alien race blockaded Earth by releasing trillions of ball bearings into Earth orbit. Sadly I wasn’t able to think of an ending for that story as if somebody did that to us we’d probably be completely fucked.
Enceladus? I suppose that’s a reminder that we really don’t know that much about Jupiter or Saturn’s larger moons.
I’m not a comics guy but most of my friends are so by default I’m forced to keep up on comic news in order to still in the conversation.
Well that’s all I got for now. Good night my Magic Space Aryan brothers and remember the bosun’s refrain. “Space is a cold, cruel, dark bitch of a mistress and she is always trying to kill you.”
Not too sure what direction I’ll be taking this blog in the future. I’ll probably be doing a bit of A/B testing over the next month or so. This is supposed to be a writer’s blog but I never seem to get any writing done…
I know right.
Rolling a 98 (Found randomly on Youtube)
Hey sometimes RN Jesus thanks you for all the prayers. Moments like these are why gamers game.
The STAR WARS is serious business section:
Of course Han shoots first. To think otherwise is heresy!
A brilliant retelling of Star Wars that highlights just how toxic and counterproductive strong female characters can be when trying to tell any sort of heroic story.
Bradford Walker breaks down the important of Grand Admiral Thrawn as a Star Wars antagonist. While I still have mixed feelings about Rebels there is absolutely no doubt that they nailed Thrawn character and that his mere presence greatly improved the show.
Wasn’t sure where to put this… but you know how much I love conspiracy theories. Besides Machiavelli is pretty required reading in these troublesome days.
Huh? What’s that? movies are supposed to be fun?
Of Wolves and Men 