KAMN Show #46: Fahrenheit 451
Welcome to Show #46, and Happy New year to all our Ninja fans! Feature Discussion: Summer, Dave, Brian and Jen discuss the 1953 Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451, both the original and restored versions of the novel, and the 1966 film, directed by Francois Truffaut. Listener Feedback: You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. You can also email all of us at ninjas-at-kickassmysticninjas-dot-com,... [Read More...]
KAMN Show #44: The Black Company
Welcome to Show #44! Feature Discussion: Brian, Dave, Jen and special guest Sam Roberts discuss Glen Cook’s 1984 fantasy debut, The Black Company. This story and series is noted for it’s gritty portrayal of war and its combatants, and its cult classic following amongst members of the military. Listener Feedback: You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas... [Read More...]
KAMN Show #42: The Stainless Steel Rat
Welcome to Show #42! Stainless Steel Rat. Brian and Dave delve into puns. ’nuff said. Feature Discussion: Summer, Dave, Brian and Jen discuss the original 1961 story The Stainless Steel Rat, first in a long series by Harry Harrison. Brief Story Description: The Stainless Steel Rat, a mastser thief and con artist, believes he has pulled off a successful bank job, but discovers that his heist... [Read More...]
KAMN Show #40: Jhereg
Welcome to Show #40! Feature Discussion: Summer, Dave, Brian and Jen discuss the 1983 fantasy Jhereg. A fun, fast-paced story set in a uniquely crafted world, it’s a good opening story in the Taltos saga, even though there is mucd laid down that doesn’t get explained until later books in the series. Yes, we argue about the casting of the non-existent movie. After more thought, Summer... [Read More...]
KAMN Show #38: The Forever War
Welcome to Show #38! Yes, we put the promo at the beginning, because once we got rolling on the discussion, we never took a break. ‘Tis why we’re geeks. Feature Discussion: Summer, David and Jen tackle Joe R. Haldeman’s The Forever War, which was first serialized in Analog magazine in 1972, then published in novel form in 1974. It was the Nebula Award winner in 1975 and the Hugo... [Read More...]
KAMN Show #36: The Broken Lands
Welcome to Show #36! Yes, it’s been a while. We’re still around, though! Feature Discussion: Welcome newcomer ninja stunt double Jen Crawford. Jen is a big fan of 90s TV, so we’ll have to explore that in future KAMN episodes. David, Brian and Jen chat about “The Broken Lands”, Book One of the “Empire of the East” trilogy by Fred Saberhagen, first published... [Read More...]
Great Things Come to Those Who Wait
2008 is an auspicious year. It’s the year that Matt Stover’s epic Heroes Die becomes eligible for KAMN discussion. This is the book that rekindled my interest in fantasy by showing me that fantasy could be so much more, and yes, validating the feeling that I hadn’t been getting enough story in my stories. I was honored to finally meet Matt at a World Fantasy Con a few years back,... [Read More...]
Asimov, Foundation and more
We’ve had a lot of requests during the time we’ve been doing this to do a show on “Foundation.” A lot of requests. I haven’t put it on the schedule yet, simply because of how much work I’ve been doing lately, but for some reason I kept getting hints and reminders about Foundation over the past 2 months. Last night, I experienced another hint. I went to a new store... [Read More...]
KAMN Show #34: Ringworld
Welcome to Show #34! Feature Discussion: David, Brian and Summer discuss the Hugo and Nebula Award winning 1970 novel “Ringworld”, by Larry Niven. The Ninjas talk about this classic SF novel, and also discuss how this type of story has held up over time. David’s a big fan of the Ringworld series, and even he admits there are some issues with some of the more recent sequels. The talk... [Read More...]
KAMN Reviews?
Since Dragon Page Cover to Cover has thrown the door open to more contributor reviews, both in audio and print form, I’d like to do the same thing here. There are a lot of books and movies and tv shows that we won’t get to, or at least not get to any time soon, so I don’t see any reason why we can’t post written reviews here, or include the occassional audio review in a KAMN... [Read More...]
Madeleine L’Engle
I missed this news, but Madeleine L’Engle passed away on September 6 at the age of 88. She was the author of over 60 novels, but her most noted novels were Time Quartet, consisting of the Newbery Award-winning A Wrinkle in Time (1962), and it’s sequels A Wind in the Door (1973), A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978), and Many Waters (1986). I have fond memories of those first three books from... [Read More...]
KAMN Show #32: War for the Oaks
Welcome to Show #32! Feature Discussion: Summer, David and Brian talk about Emma Bull’s critically acclaimed 1987 debut novel, War for the Oaks. The Ninjas talk about the story premise, the interweaving of music into the story, and the melding of the mundane realm with the magical realm because the immortal Seelie and Unseelie can only permanently harm/kill each other when a human with special... [Read More...]
The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy
“The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy” is a series of tips, tricks and helpful hints for fantasy writers from Dragon Moon Press. Volume 3 in this series is “The Author’s Grimoire”, and it’s coming out in September. It’s been delayed for quite some time, but it’s going to hit the shelves at last. What’s so important about a brand new book about... [Read More...]
Fred Saberhagen
Fred Saberhagen passed away on June 29 from cancer. I didn’t know until a “Cover to Cover” listener sent me an email about it. The announcement had even been posted to Slice of SciFi, and I didn’t know. To say the least, I was stunned. I never got hooked by his Berserker series as some other friends of mine did back in the day, but I liked the “Empire of the East”... [Read More...]
KAMN Show #30 Repost: Galactic Patrol
Welcome to Show #30… again. Summer, David and special guest Tim Callender (host of The Babylon Podcast) gather ’round to discuss “Galactic Patrol”, the original first novel of E. E. “Doc” Smith’s “Lensman” space opera series. The audio quality is still popping in places, but it’s the best Mike can do. KAMN Show #30 Repost: Galactic... [Read More...]
