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Books by D.J. Butler
Category Archives: Bookshelf
Bookshelf: The Actuator
Today only, fellow Space Balrog James Wymore’s genre-busting novel The Actuator is a Daily Deal on Amazon. If you’re the kind of reader who likes a little sci-fi mixed in with your epic fantasy… or a little hard-boiled detective, or … Continue reading
Where the Magic Happens
Because I’m sure you wanted to know. (And of course, sometimes the magic happens on airplanes, at 30,000 feet.)
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Bookshelf: Valcoria
It’s hard losing your father, even if he dies in an act of great heroism, but Sittrell Trauel has no time to mourn. The city of Amigus, entrusted to his care, falls to treachery and is taken by the aggressive … Continue reading
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Tagged Blackpowder Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Fantasy, Jason King, Rayguns, Valcoria
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Bookshelf: Apuleius
The climax of The Golden Ass is when Lucius is transformed from donkey back to human form by the goddess Isis, in order to be initiated. Here’s what he says about the rites directly: “Listen then, but believe; for what … Continue reading
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Tagged Apuleius, Isis, Joseph and Aseneth, Mysteries, Pseudepigrapha, The Golden Ass
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Bookshelf: This Darkness Light
Not content to start his latest with a bang, Michaelbrent Collings starts it with three simultaneous explosions: a vacillating U.S. president apparently led by a mysterious person known only as ‘X’ into authorizing missile strikes on a civilian population against … Continue reading
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Tagged Action, Assassins, End of the World, Michaelbrent Collings, This Darkness Light, Thriller, US President
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Bookshelf: Chain of Evil
I sat down with a .pdf copy of this book, annotation functions turned on, intending to highlight the tidbits I imagined I’d glean from Dr. Collings. Collings is, after all, a master of the horror genre as novelist, as commentator, as poet, … Continue reading
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Tagged Apocalypses, Chain of Evil, Horror, Michael R. Collings, Vampires, Werewolves
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Bookshelf: Hamlet’s Mill
I’ve just finished re-reading Hamlet’s Mill, for the fourth time. That makes it the third-most-reread book in my library, I think, and the most-reread work of scholarly nonfiction. Hamlet’s Mill is about mythology. The authors argue that myth, and its … Continue reading
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Tagged Astrology, Astronomy, Gilgamesh, Giorgio de Santillana, Hamlet, Hamlet's Mill, Hertha von Dechend, Myth, Mythology, Worldbuilding
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Bookshelf: Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings
Here’s another one for you worldbuilders out there. I just re-read Charles Hapgood’s Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings. Depending on your perspective, this is either a persistent bit of quackery or a classic of alternate history. Me, I’m not … Continue reading
Bookshelf: Betrayal’s Shadow
The Mahaelian Kingdom of Avidar, ruled by her mind-dominating and omnipresent king, emerged victor from a war five hundred years ago against the pale, inhuman, magic-Singing Elvayn. Since the war, Mahaelian Silencers have kept the slave class of Elvayn in … Continue reading
Bookshelf: Knights Dawning
From the time I read Umberto Eco’s novel Foucault’s Pendulum, when I was in high school, I’ve wanted to write a novel about Assassins and Knights Templar. It would have been, I think, a story about two men who hated … Continue reading
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Tagged Assassins, Crusades, Foucault's Pendulum, Historical Fiction, James Batchelor, Knights, Medieval, Templars, Umberto Eco
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