WBH Digest 2023-10-13: Pay Me XM Denarii or I'll...

This is a useful contrast between G. K. Chesterton and H. P. Lovecraft. The word "absurd" means very different things in their works.

JD Cowan writes about Quake. That game has a special place in my heart, as it was my real introduction to the internet. I played Quake on a 28.8 modem.

Daniel J. Davis is doing a series of Twitter threads on Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, and Davis' selection of literary responses to that book.

Here are his selections:

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Bill, the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison
Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Armor by John Steakley

Davis brings the point of view of an author and a veteran to this, and I've been enjoying his threads so far. While in a way Bill, the Galactic Hero was supposed to be a spoof or maybe even a refutation of Starship Troopers, Davis sees it more as two sides of the same coin, or the same thing from a different kind of person's POV.

Also via friend of the blog Daniel J. Davis, here is Future War Stories, a broad-ranging military sci-fi blog. It covers books, videogames, guns, and more.

I'm happy to see efforts paying off in this project to read burnt scrolls found in a library buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Of course, most of the scrolls will probably be like the Complaint Tablet To Ea-Nasir.

The tablet reads:

“Tell Ea-Nasir: Nanni sends the following message:
When you came, you said to me: “I will give fine quality copper ingots.”
You left, but you did not do what you promised me.
You put ingots which were not good before my messenger and said:
“If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!”
What do you take me for that you treat me with such contempt? …
… How have you treated me for that copper?
You have withheld my money bag from me in enemy territory;
it is now up to you to restore to me in full.
Take notice that I will not accept any copper from you that is not of fine quality.
I shall select and take the ingots individually in my yard,
and I shall exercise against you my right of rejection because you have treated me
with contempt.”

Except with that certain Roman something

Ian Nol at Culture War Insurgent has written us a short story, "Angels of Light".

There is a Robocop game that is an extremely faithful reproduction of the source material, which means unspeakably gory and violent, with a nearly unstoppable Robocop stomping around shooting bad guys.

In book news, friend of the blog Peter Nealen has an entry in the Galaxy's Edge side series Order of the Centurion: Always Legion.

And Will Wight has book two of his Galactic Patrol like space opera series The Last Horizon coming out in December.