Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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The Real Hawk of Outremere: al-Markis

“He was a devil incarnate in his ability to govern and defend a town, and a man of extraordinary courage”

This, according to Ibn al-Athir, Arab chronicler of the Crusades, was Conrad of Monferrat.
But then of course Sir Walter Scott got to work and gave the upstart Italian that had defeated Saladin and (more importantly, for Scott) opposed Richard Lionheart his just desserts.
And I, that I am sitting right now smack in the middle of Montferrat, never heard about the guy. Weird, considering this should be part of our History curriculum in school, right?
Looks like it’s time to set the record straight.

This is a story that will feature intrigue, politics, swordfights, courage and a mysterious death, the lot in the Holy Land during the Third Crusade.
Perfect for Karavansara.

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The Vizier’s Second Daughter

Travel back in time to kidnap historical figures for a few days, which then produce neural copies for the entertainment industry. It’s a job like any other, for “Bill” Billings.
A short orientation course, and then a jump in the past, to extract another subject. In Baghdad, in the ninth century, this time, to kidnap Scheherazade, the daughter of the Vizier, the greatest storyteller of her time.
Only, this time it does not work out as expected.
Not only does Bill kidnap the wrong girl, but a failure of his time machine deposits him and his unexpected companion… elsewhere.
Very much elsewhere.
Is it simply a post-human future, as Bill suggests, or is it the land of the Jinns, as claimed by the second-born of the Vizier? Continue reading →


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Tits & Sand: The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

Let’s go back to Tits & Sand movies with the mother of them all – the 1940 version of The Thief of Baghdad.
And I know, there were Arabian Adventure movies before, but this one was and is, to me, the definitive item. Once again, this was a movie that was a staple of afternoon reruns on the telly in the ‘90s, and before that I saw it in a small parish cinema, and boy did it make an impression.
So be warned – I’ll wax nostalgic, or maybe not. But this is one of my favorite movies from way back when…

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Asteria and the spirit of peplum

asteria khan engAnd so…
The first story of Asteria was a straightforward peplum, but with a strong influence from Go Nagai and Mazinger Z in particular.
The second Asteria adventure was a Harold Lambesque story of Mongol warriors, with a supernatural horror twist.
The third Asteria novelette, that’s coming out in the weekend, is a lace & steel sort of swashbuckler, with a side of clockpunk shenanigans.
It is fitting, I think, that the fourth story, that I started writing yesterday, will be a tits & sand adventure with Arabian Nights and Marco Polo references. Continue reading →


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IV Barrymore Trilogy Blogathon: The Mysterious Island (1929)

It’s the Fourth Barrymore Trilogy Blogathon, hosted by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood and dedicated to the most famous dynasty of actors in the history of 20th century cinema.
So please direct your browsers to the above link and check out a wealth of posts about some well known and some more obscure movies featuring the Barrymores.

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And then come back here, because we will take a look to a strange little thing called The Mysterious Island. Continue reading →


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Various disasters

The 15th of August looms closer, the countryside is deserted and wet under sudden showers that do nothing to lower the temperature, but only increase humidity.
And in the last two days we’ve been struck by a number of minor but painful catastrophes, so sorry if I am not updating the blog with “proper content”.

Please be assured that we are all fine, and nothing serious is going on.
It’s just that all our schedules and plans and things have been scrambled for good.

Hold on out there, we will hold on in here.