Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Books


by 2 Comments

Hunting sunken treasures

The first comment I got when I shouted “Wow! This is just great!” was along the lines of “Sounds like the sort of junk Clive Cussler writes.”
Talk about feeling alienated.
But let’s proceed with order.

1111bigOne of the few perks of living smack in the middle of Southern Piedmont is, in two hours I can be on the Cote d’Azure.
The sun, the sea, acres and acres of nubile, scantly clad young women stretching on the beaches…
And I normally end up in some antiquarian bookstore.
They even publish (or used to) a map of antiquarian bookshops in the Nice area.

So a few years back I was browsing the stalls of one such small Alladin caves of librarian wonder, and I caught me the three volumes of the Born Free series, first edition, and to round up the bill, I threw in a weird little book called Treasure Diving Holidays, by Jane and Barney Crile.
The book – a 1954 first edition – once bought and brought home, was placed on a high shelf together with other sea-oriented books, and soon forgotten.
Which is all right – I’m quite convinced books should be read at the right moment, so sometimes forgetting them on a high shelf is just what’s needed.
Then, when the time comes… I need some color and information for some seafaring stories I’m planning, and I go and rediscover this hidden gem.

What’s it all about? Continue reading →


by 2 Comments

The way they do it

Rogue Blades Entertainment has a strong track record as far as I’m concerned – I have a few of their anthologies here on my shelf, and they never failed to deliver as promised: entertaining, original, solid no-frills sword & sorcery.

9780982053683_covSo I was extremely interested when Writing Fantasy Heroes was announced – a multi-author collection of essays on sword & sorcery writing, from one of my favorite purveyours of sword & sorcery, edited by J.M. Waltz.
What could go wrong with that?

Well, first there was the fact that the Italian Amazon does not carry the book.
Then, the delivery guy was unable to find my house (it happens, I live in the wilderness), and sent my copy back to the international seller from which I had ordered it.
With the refund, I got me a second copy.
And it got to my house two days before Easter, and waited in the pouring rain, hanging halfway out of my (flooded) mailbox, for my return home from the hospital.

Continue reading →


by 3 Comments

The Far East for Gamers

I’m experimenting, here – two reviews, one here in English, one in Italian on my other blog, strategie evolutive.

And I’ll review a game accessory.
I’ve been playing roleplaying games since the dim and distant past, and I find gaming an interesting alternative to writing.

Recently, I’ve been highly impressed by Paul Wiggy Wade-Williams’ Leagues of Adventure, a tabletop, pen-and-paper game of exploration and adventure set in Victorian times which is refreshingly steampunk-free, and based on the highly flexible, and entertaining Ubiquity System.
The game is a gorgeous hardback that aims at recreating the setting and mood of stories from Rider-Haggard, Conan Doyle, Kipling and other greats.
Maybe with a wink at Burroughs and Verne. Continue reading →


by 7 Comments

John Blofeld

His father was the inspiration for the James Bond villain.

6273610-MI discovered John Blofeld‘s The Secret and the Sublime when I was sixteen.
The book, in its gaudy, cheap Italian paperback edition, was interesting for two reasons.
First, because it connected with my growing interest for zen and taoism.
Second, because it promised to reveal Taoist Mysteries and Magic – which was extremely good, because I was tired of the standard, psaeudo-celtic, or D&D-derived magic in fantasy stories, and was looking for some off-beat inspiration*.

In the end, the book was useless in developing my own magic system – but in retrospect, it was probably instrumental in convincing me that “magic system” is the wrong idea when writing fantasy.
Magic should be magic – and sure as hell it feels that way in Blofeld’s book.
On the other hand, Blofeld’s book fueled my interest in the East, which is one of the reasons I’m writing this blog, and I still feel a strong affection for this small book. Continue reading →


by 2 Comments

Learning my history

“By 1937 almost 75 per cent of European trade was on a barter basis.”

Not bad, as a snippet of historical info, when you’re planning a story with a smuggler as the main character.

Researching historical details as background and framework for stories can be great fun.
In this case, it’s also long overdue.

When I was in high school, history stopped with the First World War.
This, for two main reasons
. the post-WWI history of our country is still a politically sensitive area
. post-WWI history is part of the second half of the last year, and it normally gets sacrificed to make room for more hours in the subjects that will be covered in the final exam. Continue reading →


by 3 Comments

How I became a hack, part three

Yes, just like that...

Yes, just like that… sort of.

One day I’ll write a book called Mistress of Yamatai.
It will be a Burroughs-esque actioneer.
The story – a freak accident involving some ancient Japanese relics causes out hero (an anonymous orientalist) to slip back in time (and possibly sideways, too) to the ancient land of Wo, where he’ll have to face unspeakable lovecraftian horrors and shamanic magic, fight blood-thirsty barbarians and woo fiery-spirited, ample-breasted Himiko, the Mistress of Yamatai.
A classy thing, in other words.

I’ve got the story outlined, the characters sketched – the zip file including the lot resurfaced a few days back, after a slump caused a pile of old CDs to spill fan-like on my desk.

One day or another, I’ll write the book.
I made a promise.
In the meantime, here’s the story about Himiko, the Mistress of Yamatai, and about her Curse. Continue reading →


by 7 Comments

Learning to Fly (or to write about it)

I’m a sucker for teach-yourself manuals.

9780340966143Now, in 1938, a British gentleman by the name of Nigel Tangye published with Hodder & Stoughton a small handbook called Teach Yourself to Fly.
The volume was reissued in 1941, as a quick-and-dirty crash course for RAF newbies.

Now, c’mon, this is the 21st century – we are leery, and pretty skeptical, of one-package crash courses and Idiot’s/Dummies books about using Twitter or Mexican cooking.
And here’s a 75-years-old, 170-pages booklet, claiming to be the one-stop beginner’s course for fighter pilots?
In war situations?
One has to scratch one’s head, and wonder how gullible were they back in those days. Continue reading →