Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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It’s fantasy, I can do as I please

We call'em hillocks hereabouts

We call’em hillocks hereabouts

Yesterday I had a brief but highly instructive discussion with the author of a book set in the mountains of Devonshire. Here, in a city of chalets crowded around a Medieval castle, the local sheriff and his deputy have to investigate a series of mysterious murders.

Now the thing that caused some perplexity is, of course, that the highest peak in Devon is about 600 meters high (not exactly a mountain, especially for us that live in the shade of the Alps), chalets are very scarce in the area, and law enforcement in Devon is handled by the Devon & Cornwall Police, not by a rather American-sounding Sheriff’s Office.

When these observations were vented, the reaction of the author was – “this is a fantasy novel, I can do what I please”.

I beg to differ. Continue reading →


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Raphael Ordoñez’ Dragonfly, a biased review

Dragonfly-by-Raphael-OrdoñezI promised a review and here it is.
I spent the weekend immersed in one of the most intriguing, baffling and intelligent books I read in a long while.
The book is Raphael Ordoñez’ Dragonfly, a novel I discovered thanks to the Black Gate blog.
The review published by Black Gate promised much – and the novel delivered in full, and possibly more1.
What was an impulse purchase, based on a great review and a great cover (by the author himself), turned out to be one of the best reads of this year.

The novel takes place on the Counter-Earth at the Cosmic Antipodes, whatever that may mean, and indeed much of the setting is shrouded in mystery.
Is this the past, the future, some place else or our own world? Are the strange individuals the hero meets aliens, members of different human branches of evolution, or something completely different? Continue reading →


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The Saint

Ah, the joys of old time radio!
here’s an episode from the radio version of The Saint – based on the caper stories by Leslie Charteris.
While I’m quite familiar with the classic Roger Moore TV series, I just found out that no less than Vincent Price played the role of Simon Templar on the radio.
And indeed the witty tone of Price suits quite nicely the character.
Here’s an episode.
Enjoy!


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Recharging the batteries

tumblr_mwjlmfJ1vx1rkiuhro1_500I’m tired.
I spent these last three months writing, about 5 hours a day every day on the average – without weekends or any other relief.
Mind you, I’m not complaining1 – if there’s something I’d like to do, is increase my output, which means hitting the 8-hours-a-day mark, and the no-less-than-5000-words-per-day mark.
Let’s say I’m working on it.

The problem is, sometimes we need to recharge the batteries. Continue reading →


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On being a pedantic old fool

09-00,WTNM2It’s a sad fact I’m getting too old for this stuff.

No, ok, let me give you a little background on what happened today.
My friend Claire did a piece on her Italian blog, about Kipling’s science fiction stories.
Kipling’s two science fiction stories, meaning of course With the Night Mail and As Simple as ABC.

Which is all good and fine.
OK, Claire has a take that seems to me a little bit too dark on the stories, but apart from that, reading her piece was…

Surprising.

Because Claire is good, has a wide and deep knowledge of English literature and is doing a great series of posts for the Kipling anniversary, but you see, Rudyard Kipling did write quite a bit of science fiction.
According to John Brunner – and he’s pretty knowledgeable on the subject – Kipling did write at least nine science fiction stories. Continue reading →