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SGT. Thor the Damned Review

SGT. Thor the Damned Review

Why is this so good? I finished reading this on a plane and I immediately wanted to go back and buy the two earlier volumes, but I couldn't without ponying up for airline internet access. But it was so much fun to read this that I seriously considered

Dune: Part Two Movie Review

Dune: Part Two Movie Review

Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two movie adaption of the second half of Frank Herbert's Dune is very good. Verging on greatness. Villeneuve successfully captured key thematic elements of Dune in a way that is likely to resonate with audiences now. I say this for two simple

Mongol Moon by Mark Sibley

Mongol Moon by Mark Sibley

Mongol Moon by Mark Sibley is a throwback to my youth, when Tom Clancy was one of the most popular authors in the world and you could see people toting massive tomes with Clancy's name emblazoned on the cover everywhere. Clancy got his start in technologically detailed spy

Doomsday Recon by Ryan Williamson and Jason Anspach

Doomsday Recon by Ryan Williamson and Jason Anspach

Doomsday Recon is a story of Cavalry Scouts lost in a nightmare land of Mesoamerican myth and folktale come true. Beset on all sides by demons and monsters, a desperate struggle for survival is thrust upon them. Cut off from retreat or resupply, the Scouts will have to learn whether

WBH Weekly-ish Digest 2024-02-02: The Age of Frye

WBH Weekly-ish Digest 2024-02-02: The Age of Frye

It's been a month since the weekly-ish digest, and in that time I managed to do an in-depth analysis of Northrop Frye's First Essay from the Anatomy of Criticism, as well as complete a couple of reviews of excellent adventures. My Brother’s Keeper by Tim

Northrop Frye's First Essay

Northrop Frye's First Essay

Bringing it all together Let's do a brief recap. First, I described Northrop Frye's model of stories as a phase space. A phase space describes all possible states of a system through time. You can build one up by seeing how one thing changes into another

Northrop Frye on Thematic Modes

Northrop Frye on Thematic Modes

Last time, we explored Northrop Frye's modes of heroic action, which creates a model in two dimensions, the mythic-ironic axis and the tragic-comic axis. In the latter part of the First Essay, Frye turns to another related way of categorizing stories: theme or "dianoia". Aristotle lists