The Cambias Digression

Notes and thoughts on everything from what I had for breakfast to the fate of the Universe.

  • Retro-Review: Hellstrom’s Hive

    Hellstrom’s Hive is a novel by Frank Herbert, better known as the creator of Dune. He wrote it in 1972, inspired by a somewhat obscure film by David Wolper called The Hellstrom Chronicle. I haven’t seen the movie, but I gather it’s an odd combination of a nature documentary about bugs, coupled with some alarmist narration by the fictional…

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  • My Worldbuilding Talk

    Last weekend I spoke at the North Amherst Public Library branch about how to do science fiction worldbuilding, at a session organized by the estimable Steven Brewer for the Straw Dogs writing workshop. You can see Steven’s account of it here.

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  • My PhilCon Schedule

    Next weekend, November 21-23, I’ll be a guest at Philadelphia’s long-running science fiction convention, PhilCon, held once again at the Doubletree Hotel in scenic Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Here’s my schedule if you want to stop by. FRIDAY, November 21 6:00 p.m. — Science Fiction Games: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!: A panel…

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  • Notes on Worldbuilding, Part 18: The Planet Chart

    I’ve been putting together a talk about worldbuilding, distilling this whole series down into a couple of hours. As a handout I’ve created this chart, indexing planetary size against temperature to classify planets. It’s intended as a quick-and-dirty guide for people who don’t really want to go into the minutiae of planetary science. Anyway, here…

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  • More Crunchy Game Content: Even More Traveller Vehicles!

    Now updated! Here are some more vehicles for the Traveller roleplaying game, designed (as before) using the Cepheus Engine rules from Moon Toad Publishing. As before, the entries are followed by some notes about the design. TL9 GRAV CRANE This is a heavy cargo mover, capable of picking up containers or whole vehicles up to…

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  • Happy Lepanto Day!

    Today marks the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto, a fight between the allied Spanish and Italian navies and the Ottoman Empire. It took place in 1571, at the mouth of the Gulf of Corinth in Greece, and was the last great naval battle fought by oared galleys. The battle was a surprise upset —…

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  • Crunchy Game Content: Traveller Vehicles

    On a Facebook group devoted to the Traveller roleplaying game one of the other members commented on the lack of civilian antigravity vehicles in the game. There are plenty of Grav Tanks, Grav APCs, Grav Gunships, but not a lot of common, inexpensive vehicles for everyday use. Here are some designs I’ve come up with…

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  • EYES ONLY: The Ishtar Deception

    I just submitted the manuscript for my next novel, The Ishtar Deception. My elevator-pitch description of the book is “a James Bond novel set in the year 10,000.” Writing it was fun, and I hope reading it will be, too. So, as a reward to everyone for being patient while I let the blog languish…

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  • Because Everything’s Better With Pirates

    One reason I’ve been a little remiss about blogging on my own site recently is that I was composing a long piece about possible forms of future crime in space for the Center for the Study of Space Crime, Piracy, and Governance, the coolest think tank ever devised. My guest post for their blog is…

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  • New Digs

    Welcome to my new Web site! I blogged using the Typepad platform for nearly two decades, but they’ve decided to shut down so I need a new host. Let’s hope WordPress lasts longer. I’m shifting my domain name to this site, and if I can manage it I will move all my archived material as…

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The Worldbuilding Index