Theris Nordo Ichka's page

Dear F. Wesley Schneider,

I’ve not been paying much attention to the blog for awhile and recently decided to catch up on it, and I came across the entries about your Princes of Darkness—Book of the Damned, Volume 1.

First let me say, your Book of the Damned sounds really neat and I’m sure it will be a welcome addition to many people’s personal libraries.

What bothered me was this part of the interview:

Adherents possessed a kiln shaped like a bull, and put seven sacrifices into seven slots in the oven—one was an amount of flour, there were several animals, and the last was a human child. There was nothing inherently malevolent about this—nor particularly uncommon for the age—it was just the way they practiced their religion.

I can’t believe that you’d say that, Wes. I’ve never before heard someone try to excuse human sacrifices.

Even if such practices were not “particularly uncommon for the age” it doesn’t make them any better. They are evil and they are murder.

It's interesting how in ancient history, when a large religion such as Christianity gained prominence in an area, the old gods were demonized. Moloch and Beelzebub are good examples of this.

I am not familiar with what went on at ceremonies to Beelzebub, but Moloch wouldn’t need to be “demonized”, he was pretty demonic on his own.

I’m not meaning to attack you or your views, I’m just stating my own.

---Theris Nordo Ichka

P.S. I just hope that your only reason for saying this was to start the messageboards moving.

Got any links? I’d love to see them.

There are some active discussions going on elsewhere about this upcoming Star Trek prequel. I wondered what my fellow paizo-messageboarders had to say about it.

Link: Star Trek (at IMDb)

Have any thoughts? Concerns? Observations?

I’ve never read any Piers Anthony, is there any connection between Steppe and Sos the Rope?

In yesterday’s blog, Christopher Carey said “there will be as many classics written this year as there were in 1939”. That’s an interesting idea, and one worth discussing.

What modern books do you see as the most likely to become classics?

I’ve just read the blog titled ‘That’s Racist!’ where James Sutter stated that in pulp stories “"advanced" races were always white”.

That's not always the case, in Burroughs’ Barsoom series the red men are the dominant race (and advanced enough to make atmosphere factories), the black men have powerful fleets of airships, and the white men lurk at the South Pole and lure people to their death (though there was a very advanced race of whites in ‘Thuvia, Maid of Mars’).
That strikes me as being quite the opposite from “"advanced" races were always white”.

Some people (by this I don’t mean James Sutter) will yell ‘racist’ over any mention of skin color. I haven’t read Kline yet, but I just want to say that Burroughs’ Barsoom series is NOT racist.

And thank you James Sutter for giving us the unabridged versions of the stories, whatever the politically correct people say.

Help me, Steampunksters!

Awhile ago, I saw a book on Amazon, and I can’t remember its name.

It was a rather pricey ‘steampunk’ book with a zeppelin on the cover. I remember one of the reviewers described it as fast-paced and featuring fistfights with zombies, if that helps.

Can anyone tell me what the book’s name is and if it’s any good?

Thanks in advance,
---Theris

The avatar image selection says there are 80 people using Erik Mona’s image, which means that, besides Erik Mona, there are 79 other people using this image; in fact, it’s one of the most popular.

I have never seen anyone else use this image in any thread. Where do the mysterious 79 hang out? Are they relations of yours, Erik?

Got any odd questions that don’t fit in with any preexisting threads? Place them here!

Here’s my odd question: does anyone know where my avatar image came from originally?

Just curious, thanks in advance for replying,

---Theris

If I saw this book in a bookstore without knowing anything about Henry Kuttner, I wouldn’t even pick it up. Why? The cover art.
If it’s not too late, I’d suggest a different cover illustration. One with more of a feeling of science fiction, imagination, and fun than a big white head can convey.
Many of your other book covers are very reminiscent of the pulps, I like that a lot. It gives this series a classic feel.
This set of Kuttner stories, some of Kuttner’s best, deserves a better cover.