Search Results for: castles

Ancient Castles and All-Night Parties: The Collected Macabre Stories by L.P. Hartley

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The Collected Macabre Stories By L.P. Hartley Tartarus Press (Two volumes in slipcase, £80, 2023) LP Hartley (1895-1972) was a British novelist (author of The Go-Between just to mention one title) and a prolific author of short stories, some of which have a distinctive dark vein. Tartarus Press has collected his macabre stories in a new edition consisting of two hardcover volumes sold together in a slipcase, featuring thirty-seven stories.

Godzilla: 3, Castles: 0 – The History of the Castles Godzilla Wrecked

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The city of Washington, DC has taken occasional issue with production companies shooting large-scale action and science-fiction movies in the National Mall. As one government official explained, in regards to a planned shoot for the third Transformers film, “The National Mall is not an area in which Americans come to see high-tech action movies being made.” What? That’s one of the reasons we have national monuments! This is not a defense of Transformers 3: We Won’t Get It Right Until…

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Two Castles in Slovenia

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Mali Grad In last week’s post about Zaprice Castle, Slovenia, we looked at a well-preserved Renaissance fortification protecting the important crossroads of Kamnik. Two earlier castles can also be visited in this town, is an easy day trip from the capital Ljubljana. Mali Grad (“Little Castle”) is an obvious landmark visible from most of Kamnik. It’s situated atop a small hill overlooking the town. All that remains today is a reconstructed tower, a few foundations of walls, and a medieval…

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Modular: Castles & Crusades 7th Printing

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Troll Lord Games has just hit its funding goal for the 7th edition of Castles & Crusades Player’s Handbook, to be released in June of 2017. What’s Castles & Crusades and why should you want it when you have so many other fantasy games to choose from? Take it away, Troll Lords: You’ll find with C&C that the game is easy to play, but more importantly is its versatility. You can take your house rules and drop them right on top…

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Modular: Castles & Crusades Expands

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To my shame, the first time I ever caught sight of the Castles & Crusades game I simply walked right past its GenCon booth, wondering why anyone needed another version of Dungeons & Dragons. Pathfinder had launched recently, and D&D 3.5 was still going strong, and I just didn’t see the point. As a matter of fact, not knowing about the mechanical innovations of the system or its connection to Gary Gygax, I assumed C&C was a blatant rip-off. Man,…

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Gypsies, Monsters, and Very Spooky Real Estate: Haunted Castles: The Complete Gothic Stories by Ray Russell

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Ray Russell received the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991 and the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992. His novels included The Case Against Satan (1962), Incubus (1976), and Absolute Power (1992), and he published a half dozen horror collections in his lifetime, including Unholy Trinity (1967), Prince of Darkness (1971), and The Book of Hell (1980). Stephen King called his novelette “Sardonicus,” his best known work, “perhaps the finest example of the modern Gothic ever written.” It…

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The Castles of Gondar, Ethiopia

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The building in this photo looks a bit strange. It appears European but also has a style uniquely its own. One might be excused for thinking that this is European Colonial architecture in some far-off colony, but in fact it was built by one of Ethiopia’s most anti-colonial emperors. The Emperor Fasiladas reigned from 1632 to 1667 and was a strong ruler right from the start. Like the Merovingian kings and the Moroccan sultans, Fasiladas had to contend with powerful…

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Werewolves, Haunted Castles, and Scottish Legends: Terror By Night by R. Chetwynd-Hayes

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Terror By Night By R. Chetwynd-Hayes Tandem (186 pages, $1, June 1974) I’m reasonably familiar with the horror and SF genres, but I have to admit that the name R. Chetwynd-Hayes didn’t ring any bells. But the kind of tacky cover — and the fact that this collection dated from 1974, before the great horror boom of the Eighties kicked in — was enough for me to take this one out for a spin. Chetwynd-Hayes wrote about ten novels and…

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The Exploding World of Castles and Crusades

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I was disappointed I wasn’t able to go to GenCon this week. Although I’ve been enjoying Howard Andrew Jones’s sporadic updates on Facebook, and looking forward to a detailed report when he gets back. In the meantime, I’ve been consoling myself with memories of my last game convention, Gary Con V in March. I wrote up a detailed report on Gary Con IV last year, but just didn’t have time to do it justice with a full length write-up this…

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Black Gate Online Fiction: “Falling Castles” by Jamie McEwan

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The intrepid Prince Tanek, hero of “An Uprising of One” from Black Gate 15, returns in a tale of a daring castle raid — with chilling consequences. Tanek could hear voices coming from the watchtower above as one by one his companions pulled themselves through the chilly water and lined up against the wall beside him. Romy was distracting the single watchman on the northwest tower. King Luzak had left only a skeleton guard behind, wishing to include all available…

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