American military historian and fantasy writer
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2 episodes with Fletcher Pratt
This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. This brings us to a look at some of Arthur C. Clarke's other stories, A Time Odyssey (1951), Tales From the White Hart (1957), The Nine Billion Names of God (1954), The Star (1955), Dolphin Island (1964), and A Meeting With Medusa (1971. These stories will wrap up our look at Clarke's Science Fiction and we have seen a lot of good stuff here. And as a final note, we cover CLarke's Three Laws. Arthur C. Clarke: Other Works, A Time Odyssey A collaboration between two of science fiction's best authors: what could possibly go wrong? Well, something went wrong. This series is not bad, but I hesitate to describe it as good. This series was described by Clarke as neither a prequel nor a sequel, but an “orthoquel”, a name coined from “orthogonal”, which means something roughly like “at right angles”, though it is also used in statistics to denote events that are independent and do not influence each other. And in relativity theory Time is orthogonal to Space. And in multi-dimensional geometry we can talk about axes in each dimension as orthogonal to all of the others. It is something I can't picture, being pretty much limited to three dimensions, but it can be described mathematically. It is sort of like the 2001 series, but not really. It has globes instead of monoliths. And the spheres have a circumference and volume that is related to their radius not by the usual pi, but by exactly three. Just what this means I am not sure, other than they are not sphere's in any usual sense of the word. In this story these spheres seem to be gathering people from various eras and bringing them to some other planet which gets christened “Mir”, though not in any way to the Russian Space Station. It is a Russian word that can mean “peace”, “world”, or “village”. I have seen it used a lot to refer to a village in my studies of Russian history. Anyway, the inhabitants include two hominids, a mother and daughter, a group of British Redcoats, Mongols from the Genghis Khan era, a UN Peacekeeper helicopter, a Russian space capsule, an unknown Rudyard Kipling, the army of Alexander The Great… Well at least they have lots of characters to throw around. They end up taking sides and fighting each other. In the end several of the people are returned to Earth in their own time. But the joke is on them. The beings behind the spheres are call themselves The Firstborn because they were the first to achieve sentience. They figure that best way for them to remain safe is to wipe out any other race that achieves sentience, making them to polar opposite of the beings behind the monoliths in 2001, for whom the mind is sacred. Anyway, the Firstborn have arranged for a massive solar flare that will wipe out all life on Earth and completely sterilize the planet, but conveniently it will happen in 5 years, leaving time for plot development. Of course the people of Earth will try to protect themselves. Then in the third book of the series an ominous object enters the solar system. This is of course a callback to the Rama object. It is like they wanted to take everything from the Rama series and twist it. While I love a lot of Clarke's work and some of Baxter's as well, I think this is eminently skippable. The two of them also collaborated on the final White Hart story, which isn't bad Other Works Tales from the White Hart This collection of short stories has a unity of the setting, a pub called White Hart, where a character tells outrageous stories. Other characters are thinly disguised science fiction authors, including Clarke himself. Clarke mentions that he was inspired to do this by the Jorkens stories of Lord Dunsany, which are also outrageous tall tales, but lacking the science fictions aspects of Clarke's stories. Of course this type of story has a long history, in which we would do well to mention the stories of Baron Munchausen, and of course the stories of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt as found in Tales from Gavagan's Bar. And Spider Robinson would take this basic idea and turn it into a series of books about Callahan's Place. Stories of this type are at least as much Fantasy as anything, but quite enjoyable, and I think I can recommend all of these as worth the time to while away a cold winter's evening while sitting by a warm fire with a beverage of choice. The Nine Billion Names of God This short story won a retrospective Hugo in 2004 as being the best short story of 1954. The idea is that a group of Tibetan monks believe that the purpose of the universe is to identify the nine billion names of God, and once that has been done the universe will no longer have a purpose and will cease to exist. They have been identifying candidates and writing them down, but the work is very slow, so they decide that maybe with a little automation they can speed it up. So they get a computer (and in 1954, you should be picturing a room-sized mainframe), and then hire some Western programmers to develop the program to do this. The programmers don't believe the monks are on to anything here, but a paycheck is a paycheck. They finish the program and start it running, but decide they don't want to be there when the monks discover their theory doesn't work, so they take off early without telling anyone, and head down the mountain. But on the way, they see the stars go out, one by one. The Star This classic short story won the Hugo for Best Short Story in 1956. The story opens with the return of an interstellar expedition that has been studying a system where the star went nova millennia ago. But the expedition's astrophysicist, a Jesuit Priest, seems to be in a crisis of faith. And if you think it implausible that a Jesuit Priest could also be an astrophysicist, I would suggest you look into the case of the Belgian priest Georges Lemaître, who first developed the theory of the Big Bang. Anyway, in the story, they learn that this system had a planet much like Earth, and it had intelligent beings much like Earth, who were peaceful, but in a tragic turn of events they knew that their star was going to explode, but they had no capability of interstellar travel. So they created a repository on the outermost planet of the system that would survive the explosion, and left records of their civilization. And when the Jesuit astrophysicist calculated the time of the explosion and the travel time for light, he is shaken: “[O]h God, there were so many stars you could have used. What was the need to give these people to the fire, that the symbol of their passing might shine above Bethlehem?” Dolphin Island This is a good Young Adult novel about the People of the Sea, who are dolphins. They save a young boy who had stowed away on a hovership that subsequently had crashed, and because no one knew about him he was left among the wreckage when the crew takes off in the life boats. And from here it is the typical Bildungsroman you find in most Young Adult novels. The dolphins bring him to an island, where he becomes involved with a research community led by a professor who is trying to communicate with dolphins. He learns various skills there, survives dangers, and in the end has to risk his life to save the people on the island. If you have a 13 year old in your house, this is worth looking for. A Meeting With Medusa This won the 1972 Nebula Award for Best Novella. It concerns one Howard Falcon, who early in the story has an accident involving a helium-filled airship, is badly injured, and requires time and prosthetics to heal. But then he promotes an expedition to Jupiter that uses similar technology, a Hot-Hydrogen balloon-supported aircraft. This is to explore the upper reaches of Jupiter's atmosphere, which is the only feasible way to explore given the intense gravity of this giant planet. Attempting to land on the solid surface would mean being crushed by the gravity and air pressure, so that is not possible. The expedition finds there is life in the upper clouds of Jupiter. Some of it is microscopic, like a kind of “air plankton” which is bio-luminescent. But there are large creatures as well, one of which is like jellyfish, but about a mile across. This is the Medusa of the title. Another is Manta-like creature, about 100 yards across, that preys on the Medusa. But when the Medusa starts to take an interest on Falcon's craft, he decides to get out quick for safety's sake. And we learn that because of the various prosthetics implanted after the airship accident Falcon is really a cyborg with much faster reactions than ordinary humans. As we have discussed previously, Clarke loved the sea, and in this novella he is using what he knows in that realm to imagine a plausible ecology in the atmosphere of Jupiter. Of course when he wrote this novella no one knew about the truly frightening level of radiation around Jupiter, but then a clever science fiction writer could come up with a way to work around that. Clarke's Three Laws Finally, no discussion of Arthur C. Clarke can omit his famous Three Laws. Asimov had his Three Laws of Robotics, and Clarke had his Three Laws of Technology. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This concludes our look at Arthur C. Clarke, the second of the Big Three of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. And that means we are ready to tackle the Dean of Science Fiction, Robert A. Heinlein. Links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Time_Odyssey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_the_White_Hart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Jorkens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Munchausen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_Gavagan%27s_Bar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callahan%27s_Crosstime_Saloon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Billion_Names_of_God https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_(Clarke_short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin_Island_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Meeting_with_Medusa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws https://www.palain.com/science-fiction/the-golden-age/arthur-c-clarke/arthur-c-clarke-other-works/ Provide feedback on this episode.
This week on The Shiver Show, co-hosts Mary Labrie and Greg Flynn invite you to go undercover with a wonderfully unsettling X-Minus One classic, Doctor Grimshaw's Sanitorium (1955).Written by Fletcher Pratt in 1934, and adapted for radio by George Lefferts, this tale is in the style of a found manuscript, penned by private detective John Doherty, a man who is now missing. As the story unfolds, Doherty suspects that something sinister is going on behind the locked doors of Doctor Grimshaw's exclusive sanitorium. Patients disappear. Deaths are whispered away. And the treatments? Let's just say they're… experimental.Like any sensible hard-boiled detective, Doherty does the only logical thing—he checks himself into the sanitorium under the pretext of needing treatment for his alcoholism. It's a decision that proves both brave and catastrophically unwise. Once inside, reality begins to warp, paranoia sets in, and all hell breaks loose.What makes “Doctor Grimshaw's Sanitorium” such a standout is its fearless genre-blending. It's science fiction, horror, and noir crime all rolled into one. Mary and Greg explore what makes this old time radio drama so creepy, and why it still sends shivers. So slip into a drafty hospital gown (yes, those ones that open up at the back), and prepare to be part of the mad experiment that is Doctor Grimshaw's Sanitorium. Thank you for listening! If you like the show, please share us with your friends and family AND give us a review! If you have a suggestion for a show or a question, please drop it in the comments! Watch us on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@shivershowpodcastFollow The Shiver Show https://www.facebook.com/theshivershowor check out our website at https://www.timewarpstudios.com Other podcast platforms: https://linktr.ee/theshivershow
Historically Thinking: Conversations about historical knowledge and how we achieve it
How can a new nation establish itself amidst the networks and intrigues of a very old part of the world, while at the same time trying to be different from everyone else? Are these inherently contradictory aims? And how can either–or none–of these objectives be achieved by civil servants who are engaging in, at best, on the job training? These are some of the questions that are prompted by studying the First Barbary War, fought by the young United States from 1801 to 1805 along the coast of North Africa. Far from being a story simply of simple and straightforward naval derring-do, it is one of strategic ambiguity, diplomatic finesse, and the ideological aspirations of a new nation set against the backdrop of world war and millennia old customs. With me to discuss the First Barbary War is Abby Mullen, Assistant Professor of History at the United States Naval Academy. She is also the impresario of not one but two podcasts: Consultation Prize, a limited run series about US diplomacy from the ground-eye viewpoint of American consuls, and Big If True, a podcast for kids which is co-hosted with her daughter. But today we are (mostly) talking about her new book To Fix a National Character: The United States in the First Barbary War, 1800–1805. For Further Information William Eaton is the subject of the portrait above; for a little something about the "Burr Conspiracy", in which Eaton may have participated and against which he then gave evidence, see Episode 344 As mentioned in the podcast, Daniel Herschenzohn in Episode 95 explained the complex economy in the Mediterranean that centered on the redemption of prisoners. But the only time that consuls have shown up was very recently, in Episode 359. Here's a link to Abby Mullen's Consolation Prize, a limited series podcast "about the history of the United States in the world through the eyes of its consuls." And one to Big If True, "a podcast for kids exploring the truth about big things" co-hosted with her daughter, but which is now alas lapsed into a podcast doze. For on the American wars on the Barbary coast, see Frank Lambert's The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World; for a now very old book full of swashbuckling derring-do, and not very many strategic complications, see Fletcher Pratt, Preble's Boys: Commodore Preble and the Birth of American Sea Power.
From The Files of Ellis H. ParkerEpisode 267 is adapted from a first-person article in True Detective Mysteries, December 1928, written from the perspective of Detective Ellis H. Parker of Mount Holly, New Jersey, who during his career was known as “America's Sherlock Holmes.” He solved 288 of the 300 major crimes he worked on during his career, obtaining signed confessions in more than half of them. His most high-profile case was the Lindbergh kidnapping. Stories of his cases were collected in a book by Fletcher Pratt titled “The Cunning Mulatto” in 1935.AD-FREE EditionBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.
Tonight Robert had the conversation of a lifetime as he got to get down and Nerdy with Retired English, Journalism, and Creative Writing Professor, Frank Coffman. Finally, Frank answered Robert's burning questions about Fletcher Pratt and the Trap Door Spiders and their link to Kolchak. We also learned Frank has formally studied the type of mathematical literary criticism of creative writing that helped identify the Unabomber, and has written and edited many works of poetry, is one of the foremost authorities of Conan The Barbarian, while also rocking a wicked Kolsplay costume in the making. Last but not least, off the air, Robert learned Frank has something in common with one of Bradley's favorite Astonishing Legends guests and Robert is cooking up a special crossover episode where Frank will join us again for a conversation with that guest and about that topic. Listen in and be ready for Frank's post Stoker Con Kolchak 50 Years Panel and we'll dive even deeper into Frank's academic perspective of Kolchak.
Ginny Loveday joins us to discuss Fletcher Pratt's "Invaders from Rigel", small books with even smaller fonts, colonialism, space travellers who don't understand combustibles, goofily over-capable heroes, interesting adversaries, home play vs organized play, overly replying on combat to handle challenges, separating the art from the artist, and much more!
Based on a story by Fletcher Pratt; written for radio by Laurie R Vasquez The strangest invasion of Earth ever. Disguised Pink Elephants are a walking nightmare not an hallucinogenic dream.
He is quoted often, correctly and incorrectly, but few have actually read his works in full - and even fewer know much about the man himself, Major General Carl von Clausewitz, Kingdom of Prussia.Out guest for the full hour will be Donald Stoker, author of the new book, Clausewitz: His Life and Work. Stoker is a Professor of Strategy and Policy for the U.S. Naval War College's program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.His previous book, The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War, won the distinguished Fletcher Pratt award for the best non-fiction Civil War book of 2010. Past winners include Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote.
Episodio 370. Un invito alla lettura, da parte di Massimo De Santo, di Apprendisti Stregoni (1941) di L. Sprague De Camp e Fletcher Pratt e Opzioni (1975) di Robert Sheckley. Per l'immagine di copertina: © Aventi diritto. All rights reserved.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/fantascienticast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Un invito alla lettura, da parte del CylonProf Massimo De Santo, di Apprendisti Stregoni di L. Sprague De Camp e Fletcher Pratt e Opzioni di Robert Sheckley. Leggi di più su Fantascientificast.com - Pubblicazione amatoriale. Non si intende infrangere alcun copyright, i cui diritti appartengono ai rispettivi detentori - Autorizzazione SIAE 5612/I/5359.
Hoi and Jeff discuss liminal spaces, war, peace, and fear of masculine vulnerability in Fletcher Pratt's "The Well of the Unicorn" with special guest Strix Beltrán!
DVN005 Limited Edition of 100 Mastered by: Eric Trude released December 29, 2018 C24
Originally aired under Dimension X in 1950, it was replayed in JUL-1955 under X minus 1.Written by Fletcher Pratt, this short story takes us on a crazy journey into the sanitariums of the late 1940s. Based on the intro, this tale claims to be a true story - what do you think?Check out www.oldtimefuturefunhour.com for more details, and to get the full episode yourself.
In which we have a martini, read a scroll, and practice magic.Episode 237, No Forwarding Address(download or listen via this link)Book InformationStory rating: G for tall tales in tavernsNo Forwarding Address by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt is under copyright. This story is shared under the Fair Use Act as an illustration of this duo's writing. Views to the contrary, please contact me (my email is in the sidebar).Podcast HighlightJourney IntoSeeing Ear Theater
'Limited War' is one of the terms making a frequent appearance in the strategic studies, international relations, and military history realms over the last 70 years. What does 'Limited War' mean? When do we know we are in one? What unique problems arise when waging one? What are the problems with ending them? And what should states do to secure a lasting peace? Distinguished Vienna Diplomatic Academy Fulbright Professor Donald Stoker discusses these issues and others by drawing upon what he has learned researching the subject for his forthcoming book from Cambridge University Press. Donald Stoker, PhD, was Professor of Strategy and Policy for the US Naval War College's Monterey Program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, from 1999 until 2017. The author or editor of eight books, his Carl von Clausewitz: His Life and Work (Oxford University Press, 2014), is on the British Army professional reading list. His The Grand Design: Strategy and the US Civil War, 1861-1865 (Oxford University Press, 2010), won the prestigious Fletcher Pratt award, was a Main Selection of the History Book Club, and is on the US Army Chief of Staff's reading list. In 2016, he was a Fellow of the Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford's Pembroke College. He is currently writing a book on limited war for Cambridge University Press and is the Fulbright Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, Austria. This event was part-sponsored by the US-UK Fulbright Commission
'Limited War' is one of the terms making a frequent appearance in the strategic studies, international relations, and military history realms over the last 70 years. What does 'Limited War' mean? When do we know we are in one? What unique problems arise when waging one? What are the problems with ending them? And what should states do to secure a lasting peace? Distinguished Vienna Diplomatic Academy Fulbright Professor Donald Stoker discusses these issues and others by drawing upon what he has learned researching the subject for his forthcoming book from Cambridge University Press. Donald Stoker, PhD, was Professor of Strategy and Policy for the US Naval War College’s Monterey Program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, from 1999 until 2017. The author or editor of eight books, his Carl von Clausewitz: His Life and Work (Oxford University Press, 2014), is on the British Army professional reading list. His The Grand Design: Strategy and the US Civil War, 1861-1865 (Oxford University Press, 2010), won the prestigious Fletcher Pratt award, was a Main Selection of the History Book Club, and is on the US Army Chief of Staff’s reading list. In 2016, he was a Fellow of the Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford’s Pembroke College. He is currently writing a book on limited war for Cambridge University Press and is the Fulbright Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, Austria. This event was part-sponsored by the US-UK Fulbright Commission
Michael Moorcock’s first five Elric of Melniboné stories appeared in the British magazine Science Fantasy in 1962 and were collected in hardcover the next year as The Stealer of Souls, followed by a U.S. paperback edition from Lancer Books in 1967. Savage and sardonic, the Elric stories must have seemed like a fantasy off-shoot of Great Britain’s “Angry Young Man” movement of that era. At first glance, Elric of Melniboné appears to be the very antithesis of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Cimmerian: a physically weak sorcerer, addicted to drugs, symbiotically linked to the malignant black sword Stormbringer, and the rightful emperor of a cruel and decadent pre-human civilization. Moorcock and Elric are often characterized as a negation or rejection of Howardian swords & sorcery, but that’s a drastic oversimplification of Moorcock’s relationship to pulp fantasy. Moorcock was precocious fantasy talent, creating fanzines as a schoolboy and becoming editor of the professional magazine Tarzan Adventures by the age 17 in 1957. Moorcock was a notable contributor to AMRA, a fanzine that was a hotbed of discussion about fantasy fiction and counted among its many notable correspondents Poul Anderson, L. Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber, and Roger Zelazny. As mentioned here, the term “swords and sorcery” was coined by Fritz Leiber in dialogue with Moorcock, although Moorcock has always preferred the term “epic fantasy”. Moorcock has at times minimized but never totally denied his appreciation for Howard, most likely hoping to let the Elric saga stand on its own two feet. He’s also held up his deep regard for the works of Leigh Brackett, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Fritz Leiber, and Fletcher Pratt among others and was later a founding member of the Swordsmen and Sorceror's Guild of America, none of which indicates someone contemptuous or indifferent to fantasy fiction. Moorcock continued to write Elric stories in the late 1960s and the 1970s that were set prior to the events of Stormbringer. DAW Books republished the Elric Saga in 1977, arranging the stories by internal chronology, splitting the stories from The Stealer of Souls between The Weird of the White Wolf and The Bane of the Black Sword, the third and fifth books of Elric’s saga respectively. With Moorcock’s approval, Del Rey/Ballantine began publishing the “definitive” version of Elric’s saga in 2008, once again collecting the stories in publication order. Elric’s saga clearly had an impact on Gary Gygax as he specifically mentions Elric as a playable figure in the “Fantasy Supplement” to Chainmail (1971). The Law vs. Chaos alignment system in Chainmail and original Dungeons & Dragons (1974) may have originated with Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions, but there’s a distinct Moorcockian flavor in practice, although that would obviously vary from gaming group to gaming group. Rob Kuntz and James Ward wrote up Elric and the Melnibonéan mythos in the fourth Dungeons & Dragons supplement, Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes (1976). Four years later, Kuntz and Ward would detail the Melnibonéan mythos for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in Deities & Demigods (1980). Although TSR had permission from Moorcock to use Elric for D&D, their West Coast rivals Chaosium secured the official Elric license in 1981, leading TSR to remove the Melnibonéan section (and Cthulhu Mythos section) from the third printing onwards of Deities & Demigods. As a result, the first two printings of Deities & Demigods are now highly sought after collector’s items. In the meantime, Elric’s gaming presence has remained tightly bound up in the RuneQuest/Basic Role-Playing system for over 25 years, with the exception of Chaosium’s D20 System adaptation Dragon Lords of Melniboné (2001). There is currently no gaming license for any of Michael Moorcock’s works, so it remains to be seen if Elric will ever make an official reappearance at the gaming table….
He is quoted often, correctly and incorrectly, but few have actually read his works in full - and even fewer know much about the man himself, Major General Carl von Clausewitz, Kingdom of Prussia.Out guest for the full hour will be Donald Stoker, author of the new book, Clausewitz: His Life and Work. Stoker is a Professor of Strategy and Policy for the U.S. Naval War College's program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.His previous book, The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War, won the distinguished Fletcher Pratt award for the best non-fiction Civil War book of 2010. Past winners include Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote.Episode first broadcast in DEC14.
Fletcher Pratt’s The Blue Star first saw print in the hardcover anthology Witches Three (Twayne Publishers, 1952), which also included Fritz Leiber’s Conjure Wife and James Blish’s “There Shall be No Darkness”. Pratt himself was the uncredited editor of the Witches Three, which ended up being the second and final volume in the short-lived “Twayne Triplets” series of themed hardcover fantastic fiction anthologies. Witches Three and The Blue Star in particular were positively reviewed at the time by The New York Times and The Washington Post among others. The Blue Star was not republished for the mass market however and soon slipped into obscurity, perhaps partly as a result of Pratt’s death in 1956. The Blue Star would likely remain forgotten to this day had Lin Carter not picked it to be the inaugural work in 1969 of the now seminal Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series (BAFS) was launched largely to follow up on the massive success of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works for Ballantine Books. Carter was tasked with bringing “fantasy novels of adult calibre” to the mass market paperback format, from original works to reprinting many rare or unjustly obscure “fantastic romances of adventure and ideas”. Although Carter did call The Blue Star “thoughtfully conceived and brilliantly accomplished”, it’s still a bit of a mystery why he thought this rather dense and allusive book was a particularly good choice to launch the series. It is worth noting that one of Carter’s literary mentors and frequent collaborators was L. Sprague de Camp, who was also Fletcher Pratt’s most frequent fiction writing partner. The BAFS edition of The Blue Star features a striking and psychedelic wraparound cover by Ron Walotsky which has almost no bearing on the story contents. After the cancellation of the BAF series The Blue Star remained sufficiently popular to be reprinted twice more by Ballantine Books in 1975 and 1981, although now with a more mundane (if accurate to the text) cover by Darrell K. Sweet. It’s hard to map any direct textual influence from The Blue Star to Dungeons and Dragons, especially given the overall passivity of The Blue Star’s protagonists Lalette Asterhax and Rodvard Bergelin. The Blue Star’s magic system, societies, religions and mores are quite well-developed though and may have appealed to the worldbuilder in Gary Gygax. Gygax the history buff and wargamer may also have felt a special affinity for Fletcher Pratt, who was even more well known during his lifetime as a popular military and naval historian (and naval wargame creator!) than as a writer of fantastic fiction.
Special guest Gavin Norman (author of The Complete Vivimancer and Theorems & Thaumaturgy) joins us to discuss Jack Vance‘s The Dying Earth! Jack Vance originally wrote the loosely connected stories that comprise The Dying Earth while serving in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II. Vance’s fiction had started appearing in pulp magazines as early as 1945, and The Dying Earth marked his first book publication when it was released in digest-sized paperback in 1950 by Hillman Periodicals, best known as a comic book and magazine publisher. The Dying Earth appears not to have been particularly successful at first, as it was not reprinted even as Vance’s career went on an upswing in the late 1950s & early 1960s. Hillman ceased publishing in 1961 and Lancer Books snapped up The Dying Earth, reprinting it in paperback in 1962 with a cover by the ever-versatile Ed Emshwiller depicting the denouement of the story “Ulan Dhor”. The Dying Earth did well enough that Lancer kept it in print until they went bankrupt in 1973, by which time its reputation was such that it has remained in print to this day through a series of different publishers. No doubt the continued success of The Dying Earth led Jack Vance to revisit the setting starting in the mid 1960s. These new stories that would eventually be published as The Eyes of the Overworld (1966), followed by the post-Appendix N books Cugel’s Saga (1983) and Rhialto the Marvellous (1984). Gary Gygax wrote in issue 2 of The Excellent Prismatic Spray (2001) that he first became a fan of Jack Vance after reading The Big Planet (1957) in the pulps in the early 1950s and then was “absolutely enthralled...as no work of fantasy had done for a long time” with the publication of The Eyes of the Overworld in 1966. The Dying Earth further cemented Gygax’s love of the setting. When it came time to devise a magic system for Dungeons & Dragons, Gygax felt that a “Vancian” system of memorized spells that are expended when cast and that then must be re-learned before casting again was the best way to provide flavor and balance the magic-user against other classes. The Enchanter series by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt would provide the situational pre-conditions for spellcasting in D&D, but these spell components were often glossed-over, as Gygax laments as early as 1976 in issue 6 of The Strategic Review, the predecessor to Dragon magazine. Oddly, D&D’s publisher TSR appears never to have tried to license the Dying Earth setting even though Gary Gygax remained a huge fan of Jack Vance and actually had significant contact with him after Dungeons & Dragons took the world by storm. The first time gamers would get to officially adventure in the Dying Earth was with the publication of Pelgrane Press’ The Dying Earth Roleplaying Game in 2001. Goodman Games has since licensed the Dying Earth setting for its Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, with a target release date of late 2017.
The Compleat Enchanter by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt is a compilation of the first three novellas in the Harold Shea/Enchanter series, “The Roaring Trumpet” (1940), “The Mathematics of Magic” (1940), and “The Castle of Iron” (1941, revised 1950). The Compleat Enchanter was first published as a Nelson Doubleday/Science Fiction Book Club hardcover in 1975 before being released as a Del Rey paperback in 1976, featuring a charming Brothers Hildebrandt cover painting. The three adventures in this book take place in the worlds of Norse Mythology, Edmund Spenser’s epic poem The Faerie Queene, and Ludovico Ariosto’s epic poem Orlando Furioso. De Camp and Pratt would later team up for two more Harold Shea stories, “The Wall of Serpents” (1953), and “The Green Magician” (1954). These stories fall outside of the Appendix N Book Club reading list since they were not collected in paperback until 1979, but Gary Gygax and Tim Kask must have been big fans since “The Green Magician” made its first reappearance in print since 1960 in issues 15 and 16 of The Dragon (1978)! In any case, the Harold Shea series undoubtedly left its mark on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, most obviously in the magical spell component requirements in The Players Handbook and the Against the Giants series of modules.
The Appendix N Podcast - Episode 42 - The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt Thanks to our sponsor: Easy Roller Dice Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92) “The Carnelian Cube” (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1948 (paperback) Lancer Books, 1967 Guests: Louis Brenton twitter - @revlouisbrenton website - louisbrenton.com Jeremiah McCoy websites - http://jeremiahmccoy.com & http://thebasicsofthegame.wordpress.com Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com twitter - @jeff_wik Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn Geoffrey Winngdwinn@comcast.net
The Appendix N Podcast - Episode 42 - The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt Thanks to our sponsor: Easy Roller Dice Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92) “The Carnelian Cube” (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1948 (paperback) Lancer Books, 1967 Guests: Louis Brenton twitter - @revlouisbrenton website - louisbrenton.com Jeremiah McCoy websites - http://jeremiahmccoy.com & http://thebasicsofthegame.wordpress.com Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com twitter - @jeff_wik Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn Geoffrey Winngdwinn@comcast.net
The Appendix N Podcast - Episode 42 - The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt Thanks to our sponsor: Easy Roller Dice Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92) “The Carnelian Cube” (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1948 (paperback) Lancer Books, 1967 Guests: Louis Brenton twitter - @revlouisbrenton website - louisbrenton.com Jeremiah McCoy websites - http://jeremiahmccoy.com & http://thebasicsofthegame.wordpress.com Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com twitter - @jeff_wik Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn Geoffrey Winngdwinn@comcast.net
The Appendix N Podcast - Episode 42 - The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt Thanks to our sponsor: Easy Roller Dice Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92) “The Carnelian Cube” (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1948 (paperback) Lancer Books, 1967 Guests: Louis Brenton twitter - @revlouisbrenton website - louisbrenton.com Jeremiah McCoy websites - http://jeremiahmccoy.com & http://thebasicsofthegame.wordpress.com Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com twitter - @jeff_wik Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn Geoffrey Winngdwinn@comcast.net
staticnosis, Haha Mart, Cabo Boing, Acid Fountain, Long Distance Poison, Nonhorse, Lisa, Orthodox, Olson and Billington, Sam Gas Can, Rangers, Skyjelly, Fletcher Pratt, Convivial Cannibal, eelxb, dschulez, [klsr], and Lester, Nowhere.
staticnosis, Haha Mart, Cabo Boing, Acid Fountain, Long Distance Poison, Nonhorse, Lisa, Orthodox, Olson and Billington, Sam Gas Can, Rangers, Skyjelly, Fletcher Pratt, Convivial Cannibal, eelxb, dschulez, [klsr], and Lester, Nowhere.
06:58 - Julia Bloop – "I Gotta Get Outta This Place" – Roland Throop 09:10 - Ylangylang – "How Thin is the Skin of the Soul" – Life Without Structure 14:15 -The Cyclist – "Bending Brass" – Bending Brass 17:18 - Luxury Elite – "Crystal" – World Class 19:25 - Ratkiller – "Sympathy (feat. Benzokai)" - Odor Orienting 23:15 - Fletcher Pratt – "Screwed up Raga" – Dub Sessions vol. 3 Talk Break 29:10 - Hillboggle – "Up the Country (excerpt)" – Up the Country with Hillboggle 32:10 - Shocking Pinks – "Lovehate (Abstract Mutation Remix)" – Wake up Children 36:35 - Al Lover – "Drug Attic" - Interference Patterns Talk Break 42:15 - Pressed And – "Blue Noun" - Imbue Up 44:12 - Luurel Varas – "Yodayoga" – Luurel Varas 47:30 - Pregnant – "Mount in Me" – John Raw 50:40 - Don Gero – "Wyvern" – Wizarding Talk Break 55:55 - Nate Henricks – "Sometimes I Die" – Neon for No One 59:21 - Matt “MV” Valentine & Sun Hoods – "Shoot Him Again, His Soul's Still Dancing" - Matt “MV” Valentine & Sun Hoods
Harold Shea sets off an another enchanted adventure, this time to the world of the Orlando Furioso. Will he be reunited with his lost love, or will bad poetry be his undoing? www.nobleknight.com Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92) Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) “The Castle of Iron” Unknown, April 1941 (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1950 (paperback) Pyramid Books, 1962 My guest: Peter Foxhoven website - http://www.cromcountthedead.com Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn Email us with your comments! thetomeshow@gmail.com Thetomeshow.com Patreon.com/thetomeshow
Harold Shea sets off an another enchanted adventure, this time to the world of the Orlando Furioso. Will he be reunited with his lost love, or will bad poetry be his undoing? www.nobleknight.com Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92) Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) “The Castle of Iron” Unknown, April 1941 (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1950 (paperback) Pyramid Books, 1962 My guest: Peter Foxhoven website - http://www.cromcountthedead.com Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn Email us with your comments! thetomeshow@gmail.com Thetomeshow.com Patreon.com/thetomeshow
Harold Shea sets off an another enchanted adventure, this time to the world of the Orlando Furioso. Will he be reunited with his lost love, or will bad poetry be his undoing? www.nobleknight.com Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92) Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) “The Castle of Iron” Unknown, April 1941 (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1950 (paperback) Pyramid Books, 1962 My guest: Peter Foxhoven website - http://www.cromcountthedead.com Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn Email us with your comments! thetomeshow@gmail.com Thetomeshow.com Patreon.com/thetomeshow
Harold Shea sets off an another enchanted adventure, this time to the world of the Orlando Furioso. Will he be reunited with his lost love, or will bad poetry be his undoing? www.nobleknight.com Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92) Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) “The Castle of Iron” Unknown, April 1941 (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1950 (paperback) Pyramid Books, 1962 My guest: Peter Foxhoven website - http://www.cromcountthedead.com Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn Email us with your comments! thetomeshow@gmail.com Thetomeshow.com Patreon.com/thetomeshow
Follow along with the amazing adventures of Harold Shea, spellcasting psychologist! Travel from the world of Norse mythology to the romantic fantasy of Spencer's Faerie Queene. How will Harold best the Blatant Beast? Find out, as you listen to our thrilling discussion! www.nobleknight.com Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92) Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) American writer of science fiction, fantasy and history Best known for his works on naval history and the American Civil War, and for collaborations on fiction with L. Sprague de Camp Attended Hobart College and wrote for various magazines “The Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game” — a set of rules for naval wargaming, involving tiny wooden ships, published prior to WW2 “The Roaring Trumpet” Unknown, May 1940 Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Thjalfi Utgardaloki Snogg “The plotline of the story is based on the myths of Thor's expedition to Jotunhem as told in the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, and the Völva's prophecy regarding Ragnarok in the poem Völuspá, preserved in the Poetic Edda.” “The Mathematics of Magic” Unknown, August 1940 Spencer's Faerie Queen Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Lady Britomart Lady Florimel Belphebe Both stories first appeared in book form in The Incomplete Enchanter, 1941, Henry Holt and Company My guest: Chris Constantin Dark Revelations the Roleplaying Game - http://drevrpg.com Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn Email us with your comments! http://www.thetomeshow.com thetomeshow@gmail.com
Follow along with the amazing adventures of Harold Shea, spellcasting psychologist! Travel from the world of Norse mythology to the romantic fantasy of Spencer’s Faerie Queene. How will Harold best the Blatant Beast? Find out, as you listen to our thrilling discussion! www.nobleknight.com Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92) Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) American writer of science fiction, fantasy and history Best known for his works on naval history and the American Civil War, and for collaborations on fiction with L. Sprague de Camp Attended Hobart College and wrote for various magazines “The Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game” — a set of rules for naval wargaming, involving tiny wooden ships, published prior to WW2 “The Roaring Trumpet” Unknown, May 1940 Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Thjalfi Utgardaloki Snogg “The plotline of the story is based on the myths of Thor's expedition to Jotunhem as told in the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, and the Völva's prophecy regarding Ragnarok in the poem Völuspá, preserved in the Poetic Edda.” “The Mathematics of Magic” Unknown, August 1940 Spencer’s Faerie Queen Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Lady Britomart Lady Florimel Belphebe Both stories first appeared in book form in The Incomplete Enchanter, 1941, Henry Holt and Company My guest: Chris Constantin Dark Revelations the Roleplaying Game - http://drevrpg.com Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn Email us with your comments! http://www.thetomeshow.com thetomeshow@gmail.com
Follow along with the amazing adventures of Harold Shea, spellcasting psychologist! Travel from the world of Norse mythology to the romantic fantasy of Spencer’s Faerie Queene. How will Harold best the Blatant Beast? Find out, as you listen to our thrilling discussion! www.nobleknight.com Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92) Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) American writer of science fiction, fantasy and history Best known for his works on naval history and the American Civil War, and for collaborations on fiction with L. Sprague de Camp Attended Hobart College and wrote for various magazines “The Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game” — a set of rules for naval wargaming, involving tiny wooden ships, published prior to WW2 “The Roaring Trumpet” Unknown, May 1940 Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Thjalfi Utgardaloki Snogg “The plotline of the story is based on the myths of Thor's expedition to Jotunhem as told in the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, and the Völva's prophecy regarding Ragnarok in the poem Völuspá, preserved in the Poetic Edda.” “The Mathematics of Magic” Unknown, August 1940 Spencer’s Faerie Queen Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Lady Britomart Lady Florimel Belphebe Both stories first appeared in book form in The Incomplete Enchanter, 1941, Henry Holt and Company My guest: Chris Constantin Dark Revelations the Roleplaying Game - http://drevrpg.com Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn Email us with your comments! http://www.thetomeshow.com thetomeshow@gmail.com
Follow along with the amazing adventures of Harold Shea, spellcasting psychologist! Travel from the world of Norse mythology to the romantic fantasy of Spencer’s Faerie Queene. How will Harold best the Blatant Beast? Find out, as you listen to our thrilling discussion! www.nobleknight.com Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92) Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) American writer of science fiction, fantasy and history Best known for his works on naval history and the American Civil War, and for collaborations on fiction with L. Sprague de Camp Attended Hobart College and wrote for various magazines “The Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game” — a set of rules for naval wargaming, involving tiny wooden ships, published prior to WW2 “The Roaring Trumpet” Unknown, May 1940 Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Thjalfi Utgardaloki Snogg “The plotline of the story is based on the myths of Thor's expedition to Jotunhem as told in the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, and the Völva's prophecy regarding Ragnarok in the poem Völuspá, preserved in the Poetic Edda.” “The Mathematics of Magic” Unknown, August 1940 Spencer’s Faerie Queen Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Lady Britomart Lady Florimel Belphebe Both stories first appeared in book form in The Incomplete Enchanter, 1941, Henry Holt and Company My guest: Chris Constantin Dark Revelations the Roleplaying Game - http://drevrpg.com Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn Email us with your comments! http://www.thetomeshow.com thetomeshow@gmail.com
Kevin and Steve get their nerd on and ask, “Of all the fantasy/sci-fi novel settings you’ve read about, where would you want to live?” Part I of this episode is a boy’s club (Part II will feature women authors), though they go over some classics, from Tolkien’s Middle Earth, to Lewis’ Narnia, Zelazny’s Amber, Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain, Moorcock’s multiverse, and they venture into more obscure works by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, among others. Scintillating!
He is quoted often, correctly and incorrectly, but few have actually read his works in full - and even fewer know much about the man himself, Major General Carl von Clausewitz, Kingdom of Prussia.Out guest for the full hour will be Donald Stoker, author of the new book, Clausewitz: His Life and Work. Stoker is a Professor of Strategy and Policy for the U.S. Naval War College's program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.His previous book, The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War, won the distinguished Fletcher Pratt award for the best non-fiction Civil War book of 2010. Past winners include Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote.
New Age Hillbilly, Pak, Dsic, Fletcher Pratt, Jason E. Anderson, Matt Carlson, Plankton Wat, Lake Mary, Jeremy Kelly, Kosmonaut, Emuul, Dinner Music, The Marshmallow Staircase, and Parashi
New Age Hillbilly, Pak, Dsic, Fletcher Pratt, Jason E. Anderson, Matt Carlson, Plankton Wat, Lake Mary, Jeremy Kelly, Kosmonaut, Emuul, Dinner Music, The Marshmallow Staircase, and Parashi
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