The Saga of David, Son of Sullivan
There is a used bookstore in Minneapolis, MN, called Uncle Hugo’s. It is “the oldest independent science fiction bookstore in America,” and, to my mind, one of the absolute greatest. I was first taken to Uncle Hugo’s by my great-aunt and -uncle, when I was 12. I have been a diehard fan and supporter ever since. It was at Uncle Hugo’s a few years later that I discovered Tom Deitz‘s Windmaster’s Bane. This...
Queen Beats a Flush
Anyone who has ever seen a picture of Britain’s distinguished monarch, Queen Victoria, will know that she had a killer poker face. What you may not know, however, is that she actually put that poker face to use! While poker has seen a massive increase in popularity over the past decade, in Queen Victoria’s day, poker was still a wild-eyed gaming child from the boondocks of America. The first documented instance of poker...
David Eddings’ “The Belgariad”: An Appreciation
David Eddings’ The Belgariad was one of my all-time favorite fantasy series, growing up. I must have read and reread it every year for a period of about seven years, starting in my very early teens. My original physical copies are battered and worn to the point where I won’t risk reading them again—but I still keep each and every one. The other day I noticed them on the shelf, and decided to reread the entire series (in...
Pure Imagination: Why Roald Dahl is Dreampunk
Arguably the most famous children’s author in the world, Roald Dahl is known for his deliciously dark, lovingly twisted fables that have been simultaneously delighting and horrifying children since the early 1960s. His work is also a perfect example of dreampunk. Although none of his tales are set in literal dreamworlds or feature characters questioning the nature of reality, a la Alice in Wonderland or Inception, Dahl’s...