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Category Archives: Fancies
Mavors v Atkins and Other Official Fanboy Questions
An unwary reader writes in and asks: Here’s a couple of John C. Wright Official Fanboy Questions that I’ve been wondering about, and since this is a post regarding your actual work (as opposed to other topics, like eschatology, morality … Continue reading
Posted in Drollery, Fancies
43 Comments
Lunar Sacrament of Conciliation
As a treat for the readers of HERMETIC MILLENNIA, this is a scene that was cut from the final manuscript for reasons of pacing and length, and because I changed to order of some events, but which I dearly wish … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies, Free Fic
12 Comments
What fools these mortals be
Aliens are unique to science fiction. In no story about detectives solving a murder or heiresses wondering what baron to wed will you find anything told from the point of view of a nonhuman intelligent creature. All other genres, from … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies
36 Comments
Nothung! Nothung! Neidliches Schwert!
I confess I have having a rather glum day today, and then I saw something that cheered me immensely. Somewhere in the world are kindred souls to mine, who remember the old, fine, strong stories and seek to see them … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies, Only Posting a Link
7 Comments
Whistle While You Work
If, like me, you have too much free time on your hands, you have probably wondered why Snow White, at least as Walt Disney portrays her tale, has small woodland animals to help her with her household chores, with bunnies … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies, Musings
46 Comments
Walking Through the Valley of Mist
A reader with the avian yet leonine name of Griffin ask this question: I guess I’m curious about how you get from inspiration to actual words on the page… Do you start with an interesting idea and see where it … Continue reading
Posted in Drollery, Fancies
15 Comments
The Parliament of Beasts and Birds
The animals gathered, one by one, outside the final city of Man, furtive, curious, and afraid. All was dark. In the west was a blood-red sunset, and in the east a blood-red moonrise of a waning moon. No lamps shined … Continue reading
Posted in Free Fic
24 Comments
What is the Future of the Future?
Whither Science Fiction and Fantasy? We know how the futures of the past were portrayed and how the futures of today are told: but how shall the futures of the future look? As you recall from last episode, in this … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies, Musings
96 Comments
Science Fiction: What is it good for?
I was watching DAS RHEINGOLD by Wagner with my children, seeing the dark elfs and bright gods and lumbering giants and lambent nixies all conspiring to possess to posses and fearing the Ring of the Nibelungs, and lusting for the … Continue reading
Posted in Apologetics, Fancies, Musings
37 Comments
Voting for Reptillian Space Pope
Over at CAEI, a commenter named Claude remarks: As a cradle Catholic who has been atheist/agnostic for most of my life, I would agree that atheism is boring. You, a Christian, are commanded to be perfect as your Father in … Continue reading
Posted in Apologetics, Fancies
37 Comments
HERMETIC MILLENNIA Excerpt: Just Because It Made Me Laugh
I realize it is wrong on many levels for a writer to be amused by his own words, but keep in mind I don’t consider myself to have invented Mickey the Witch of Williamsburg, but rather to have discovered him … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies, Free Fic
11 Comments
The secrets of THE SORCERER’S HOUSE by Gene Wolfe
Here follows a review and a discussion. The review contains no spoilers, or only minor ones, and the discussion contains nothing but. Review: THE SORCERER’S HOUSE concerns one Baxter Dunn, an ambidextrous a scholar with double degrees and a con-man … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies
9 Comments
Gaiman on Wolfe
Neil Gaiman’s review of Gene Wolfe’s THE SORCERER’S HOUSE Discovered at GOODREADS Caveat: This book is dedicated to me, so I may well be immediately biased in its favour. It’s an epistolary novel. Very dark, very strange, dislocating and dream-like. … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies
3 Comments
A Peek Behind the HERMETIC MILLENNIA
Normally, I do not take up space explaining my books or answering questions about them. They are meant to speak for themselves, or not at all. If there are jests or allusions to other authors in my work, these are … Continue reading
Posted in Drollery, Fancies
40 Comments
The Fourth of the Big Three
During the Golden Age of Science Fiction, the Big Three Names were the three authors with the greatest prestige in the John W Campbell Jr stable of authors: Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and one now is unfairly unrecognized, A.E. van … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies
103 Comments
Mike the Martian and the Attack of the Argumentroid
One of the argumentroids of Robert Heinlein has annoyed me for years. I was irked not the least because this particular argumentroid suckered me in my innocent youth, back when I was so proud of being a nonconformist, as were … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies, Musings
154 Comments
Future War
Why is the preferred weapon of the Galactic Empire the sword? It is to answer that question and perhaps one or two other questions of deeper import that this essay attempts. Science fiction is now old enough that a perspective … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies, Musings
80 Comments
The Big Three
As a bit of a relief to my readers who are no doubt weary of hearing my Jeremiads and screeds against the evils both political and philosophical which corrupt the modern world, let us turn from the disappointments of today … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies
36 Comments
Battles are Ugly When Women Fight
The administration, concerned that not enough women serving in the military have had the opportunity to be captured and raped by the enemy, now wish to assign women to combat roles. Good thing this happened while the looming debt crisis … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies, Musings
98 Comments
Five Views of the Universe
The universe is a large and unwieldy object, and finding a proper spot from which to regard it in a good light is a problem, considering that the spot, the spectator, and the light are all part of the spectacle … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies, Musings
95 Comments
The Feast of the Magicians
Today is the Twelfth Day of Christmas, when it is traditional to wear masquerade. (The various antics of disguise and mistaken identity in Shakespeare’s TWELFTH NIGHT reflect this the theme of the day, hence the name of the play). And … Continue reading
Posted in Drollery, Fancies
62 Comments
Nativity
Nativity By John C. Wright “Mr. Went, if you could visit anyone in the world, any time, any place, who would you go see? Oh, not for a long time. Long visits are never permitted. But just for a moment, … Continue reading
Posted in Free Fic
22 Comments
THE NEXT BIG THING (The Hermetic Millennia)
John Moeller has tagged me for the THE NEXT BIG THING, which is basically writers indulging in self-promotion crossed with a chain letter. Unfortunately, I think chain letters are untoward, so while I am perfectly willing to answer one, I … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies
11 Comments
Retrophobia
I read two posts recently that touched on the same topic, namely, the way writers handle female characters in historical fiction and heroic fantasy. Both reinforced my opinion that Political Correctness is, at its root, undramatic and the enemy of … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies, Musings
89 Comments
Wreck It Ralph
Time does not permit me to heap upon this movie all the praise it deserves, but I took the family to see the film last night, yes, at a theater, and yes, it was sixty hard earned bucks for the … Continue reading
Posted in Fancies, Reviews
9 Comments