Jack Vance departs

Jack Vance, author of such fantasy classics as the Dying Earth stories and the Lyonesse trilogy, has passed away.

The Jack Vance official website statement.

Of course, I'm also grateful to Vecna, er, Vance for his contributions to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game (the  'Vancian' spell system, graciously allowing Gary Gygax to use his 'Ioun stones' as a kind of magic item in the game, etc.).

Thanks for all the wonderful tales, oh great arch-mage!

Essay on Lovecraft

My fellow Lovecraft fans, I think that this piece in the Los Angeles Review of Books may be of interest to you!  It is a fine essay on Lovecraft's work (posing as a book review).

As an aside, I thought that I would note that I agree with the author that "Clark Ashton Smith was a better stylist" than HPL.  It is regrettable that more of CAS's work is not available in published form today.  Fortunately, most of his work is available online at 'The Eldritch Dark'.

OSR Con III in Toronto August 3-4

OSR Con III will be held on August 3-4 in Toronto.

Ed Greenwood will be returning as one of the guests of honour, and will be joined this time by Frank Mentzer.

I had a great time at last year's OSR Con II, and very much regret that it is unlikely that I will be able attend this summer.  However, if you can make it to Toronto for that weekend, I very much urge you to go!  It's a wonderful 'little' con.

I believe that my friend Lawrence Whitaker (co-author of RuneQuest 6 and many other RPG books) will be there.  If you have a chance to play in one of Lawrence's games, I recommend that you take it, as he's a superb GM.