Picture of author.

William Jones (2)

Autor(a) de Arkham Tales

Para outros autores com o nome William Jones, ver a página de desambiguação.

26+ Works 454 Membros 19 Críticas

Séries

Obras por William Jones

Arkham Tales (2006) — Editor — 66 exemplares
Frontier Cthulhu (2007) — Editor; Contribuidor — 61 exemplares
High Seas Cthulhu: Swashbuckling Adventure Meets the Mythos (2007) — Editor; Contribuidor — 45 exemplares
Horrors Beyond (2007) — Editor, Contributor — 39 exemplares
Horrors Beyond 2: Stories of Strange Creations (2007) — Editor, Contributor — 23 exemplares
The Anthology of Dark Wisdom: The Best of Dark Fiction (2009) — Editor — 14 exemplares
Book of Dark Wisdom #1 (2003) 5 exemplares
Book of Dark Wisdom #3 (2004) 4 exemplares
Mysteries of Morocco 4 exemplares
Book of Dark Wisdom #2 (2003) 3 exemplares

Associated Works

Hardboiled Cthulhu: Two-Fisted Tales of Tentacled Terror (2006) — Contribuidor — 83 exemplares
Cthulhu's Dark Cults (2010) — Contribuidor — 48 exemplares
Dark Furies: Weird Tales of Beauties and Beasts (2005) — Contribuidor — 21 exemplares
Thou Shalt Not... (2006) — Contribuidor — 15 exemplares
D6 Fantasy Locations (2005) — Contribuidor — 6 exemplares
Blood & Devotion: Tales of Epic Fantasy (2010) — Contribuidor — 4 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome canónico
Jones, William
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
USA
Locais de residência
Michigan, USA

Membros

Críticas

An excellent slim sourcebook for the Call Of Cthulhu role playing game. It concerns the Morocco of the 1920's . Some great portraits of both the cities & Moroccan society of the time. Good scenarios, if a little predictable, round out the book. Very highly recommended.
 
Assinalado
aadyer | Nov 8, 2013 |
If you didn't know already there's a game you can play with the cover of a lot of these zombie novels about nowadays. I've named it 'Guess the Celebrity Zombie' and it involves who the zombies on the cover may, or may not, be based upon. In the case of Pallid Light I see Ben Kingsley as the main male zombie and Tina Fey as the lead female. Over the shoulder of Tina as we look at the cover there's Shirley Temple and Christina Ricci to the right of her. Surprisingly Ice-Man of the X-Men makes an appearance just to the left of Ricci and Napoleon Dynamite is to the left of him. In between Kingsley and Fey we have WWE superstar Edge and to the left of Kingsley we have...okay couldn't come up with a likeness for her but feel free to name her yourself.
Getting past the cover and onto the novel itself the story takes place in a small town named Temperance where on a rainy night the dead begin rising from their graves. Always small towns. If we just cremated everyone we would never have these zombie problems so think of that option for yourself less you arise one day as one of the undead!
The story starts off quite well with the hero being an anti-hero, if that makes sense, and it had me turning the pages quicker than I had anticipated. Unfortunately the good start begins to drag by the time the first third of the book is done and from there on in it became a bit of a chore to get through. In fact the only piece of story that dragged me from my boredom occurred at the beginning of chapter 11 when I got an unintentional laugh;
"Cada tugged off Paul's slicker..."
Ha! Lucky man! Upon a re-read I figured out his slicker is actually his raincoat or poncho or something akin to one of those.
Other than the silly innuendo there was nothing else in the novel to put a smile on my face. The problem for me was that the story never really evolved and it was a case of the same, sprinkled from time to time with a few different, characters reliving the same type of situations just in different places around Temperance. Add in a plethora of spelling errors and the enjoyment level wasn't particularly high. The ending is also weak and is left open with no conclusion and no explanations for some of the mysteries presented throughout the novel (for instance, why was Jimmy rounding everyone up?). In fact, near the very end the main character Randall Clay, whose name kept reminding me of Randall Flagg from Steven King's 'The Stand' (an ode to one of the author's favorite characters perhaps), puts a gun under his chin and contemplates pulling the trigger and I couldn't help but sympathize as after trawling through this novel I felt like doing the same.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
BookMarcBlogpants | Jan 20, 2011 |
Arkham Tales is perhaps the beginning of a new venture for Chaosium, all original fiction set in the world of their role playing game, Call of Cthulhu. Back in the day, before the internet, I was unaware of the small and (semi) thriving of small press mythos magazines. The only access to modern Lovecraftian fiction I knew about was through the cycle books, trade paperbacks by Chaosium. The most recent example of these was The Tsathoggia Cycle. Generally, these books featured reprinted stories gleaned and selected, usually by Robert Price, from these various magazines (Cthulhu Codex, Crypt of Cthulhu, Midnight Shambler etc). These were a definite mixed bag, with the books often containing a few winners, much mediocrity and a fair number of dogs. Alas, this was all that was available, except for an occasional fine quality hardback like Cthulhu 2000 (and even that had reprints). Lately, with improved on line connections and facilitation of book production by small presses the amount of books containing almost all new published mythos fiction has sky rocketed. Also, maybe it's only my imagination but this new generation of authors (not that the last one has moved off the scene) (maybe the 4th or 5th Lovecraft Circle?) is immensely talented so most of these collections have highly superior fiction. I always say we are in a golden age of mythos fiction, and point to books like Dead But Dreaming, Hardboiled Cthulhu, Horrors Beyond and the Delta Green books. And there is so much more in the pipeline, it is almost an embarrassment of riches. GW Thomas is set to release Cthulhu Express soon, and Rainfall Books has some titles in the offing, while Pagan Publishing has a new trade paperback collection of DG chapbooks planned. Elder Signs Press has stayed very, very busy, while Kevin O' Brien and Lindisfarne Press are getting back on their feet. Edward Lipsett has opened our eyes to Japanese mythos fiction via Kurodahan Press, John Pelan plans to issue The Cthulhian Singularity and Charlie Stross' The Jennifer Morgue is coming from Golden Gryphon. This is the golden age! Even so, we must admit our debt to Chaosium and Robert Price for keeping the eldritch fires burning.

And we also owe a debt to Chaosium for their role playing game, Call of Cthulhu. Actually I never played it; back when I had time for such leisure pursuits I was a D&D fan (but you gotta love a game where no matter how good you are, you eventually go insane or get eaten...). So here is my bias for the review: I do not know the source materials other than the stories by HPL and his legion of followers. And here is my assessment: you do not need to know their source material! Just like you don't need to know any of the Delta Green sources to really enjoy their books. Frankly, it's a wonder it took so long for Chaosium to elicit fiction based on their game world. After all there are tons of D&D based books. Delta Green, a version of CoC set in the modern era rife with secret government agencies and conspiracies, has been generating GREAT fiction for years now. Maybe the idea was germinating for a while but Chaosium was too broke to act on it, I dunno. Although set in or about Arkham, authors had free rein about all other content and setting, so there is no sense of repetition at all.

Someone will have to fill me in on the authors' reimbursement but I think it was peanuts plus 2 copies of the book, so truly these stories are labors of love. What I really like is that there was a solicitation of stories and a culling process by the highly respected William Jones, from Elder Signs Press. This means the stories are notches above the cycle books. List price is $15.95 but it is discounted on Amazon to $10.37, and available for free shipping if you buy $25 worth of stuff (like Hardboiled Cthulhu!). The book itself is a good quality trade paperback, like all the cycle books. Page count is 288, not counting the editor's note, so very generous! The editor's note by William Jones is quite useful and details the setting for the anthology in Chaosium's world. Unfortunately there are no bios on the authors. Cover art is by Steven Gilberts. It shows a grizzled one eyed grounds keeper at Miskatonic University, shadowed by various critters. I am not sure about this, but I believe Mr. Gilberts did the artwork for some CoC game scenarios, so this is a very appropriate choice. This brings me to the biggest flaw in the book: there were at least a half dozen careless typos, mostly word substitutions. I did not jot them down as I was reading but, for example, p160 "fowl odors" (unless everything was supposed to smell like chickens). I think someone relied too much on a spell checker. Also in the story Burnt Tea by Michael Dziesinski busted was used as a descriptive adjective, "busted body." OK, I'll accept that a woman has a bust, or a narc conducts a bust, or you sculpt a bust. I'll buy that if you are writing colloquially in dialogue, or representing someone's thoughts, to say something was busted is appropriate slang, but in narrative detached from thoughts or dialogue it reads like the mistake of an ignoramus. Why not "broken body?" I saw this same mistaken usage twice in another story somewhere recently, maybe a chapbook, and I was equally put off by it. I won't say it killed the story, but goodness gracious it peeved me. I greatly enjoyed Eats, Shoots, & Leaves by Lynne Truss, so consider this my panda paw print.

Here are the contents (not otherwise listed elsewhere that I could find, so I typed the dang thing myself):

Mysterious Dan's Legacy - Matthew Baugh
Vaughn's Diary - Robert Vaughn
The Orb - Tony Campbell
The Nether Collection - Cody Goodfellow
Worms - Pat Harrigan
They Thrive in Darkness - Ron Shiflet
What Sorrows May Come - Lee Clark Zumpe
Arkham Pets - James Ambuehl
Small Ghost - Michael Minnis
Burnt Tea - Michael Dziesinski
Arkham Rain - John Goodrich
Regrowth - David Conyers
The Idea of Fear - CJ Henderson
Disconnected - Brian Sammons
The Lady in the Grove - Scott Lette
On Leave in Arkham - Bill Bilstad
Geometry of the Soul - Jason Andrew

Spoilers may follow so stop now if that bothers you *********

Mysterious Dan's Legacy - Matthew Baugh - This is a new author to me. In 1873 a Kansas cowboy (that was frontier territory right after the Civil War) comes to Arkham to collect an inheritance, which brings unwelcome knowledge, responsibilities and enemies. This was a very likeable story; I wonder if the protagonist, Daniel Hawkins, will become a regular character in Mr. Baugh's stories.

Vaughn's Diary - Robert Vaughn - Here is one story where my knowledge of the source material wasn't up to scratch and I couldn't remember if there was an antecedent story but HPL or someone else, so I don't recognize the name Timothy Erasmus Vaughn. Regarding this tale, never ever read the diary of a deceased relative who was an occultist in Arkham. Never! I hadn't read anything by Mr. Vaughn before, but this was a good read and I hope he is writing more mythos fiction.

The Orb - Tony Campbell - Tony Campbell wrote After the War which appeared in Horrors Beyond. I liked that story well enough but it didn't knock my socks off. That impression is confirmed in The Orb, which is also OK but doesn't stand up to the best in this anthology. A Miskatonic Unversity librarian's father has to match wits with the Hounds of Tindalos and Nyalathotep.

The Nether Collection - Cody Goodfellow - After the absorbing Cahokia in Horrors Beyond and the unreasonably entertaining To Skin a Dead Man in Hardboiled Cthulhu, and his sensational novels Radiant Dawn and Ravenous Dusk, Mr. Goodfellow can basically do no wrong. This was a change of pace, being a story of Harry Houdini and Lovecraftian ghouls. What can I say, I really liked it.

Worms - Pat Harrigan - This was a fascinating story by an author I never encountered before. It chronicles the rise of a man from office drone to fanatical rabble rouser, with terrific Lovecraftian touches scattered throughout. I loved that more subtle touches were used as opposed to the usual rub your face in the fact that there's a mythos out there.

They Thrive in Darkness - Ron Shiflet - With Unfinished Business in Hardboiled Cthulhu Mr. Shiflet now has two tales of Pickman and his ghouls in print. While I enjoyed the story, I confess to liking Unfinished Business better.

What Sorrows May Come - Lee Clark Zumpe - Mr. Zumpe wrote The Breach, a terrific story in Horrors Beyond, and has a few stories in mythos magazines. This effort was OK, sort of a reanimation tale with a protective ghost thrown in. I liked the prose but the story left me flat; I didn't dislike it, there was just better stuff here.

Arkham Pets - James Ambuehl - This very brief story by the ubiquitous Mr. Ambuehl concerned a boy who finds some crawly things in an Arkham swamp and decides to bring them home. Complications ensue. I found this amusing and diverting.

Small Ghost - Michael Minnis - Mr. Minnis is very productive. Recently we've had A Little Color in Your Cheeks in Horrors Beyond (mostly good) The Prodigies of Monkfield Cabot in Eldritch Blue (OK), Salt Air (superb) in Dead But Dreaming and The Butcher of Vyones (great) Lost Worlds of Space and Time #1. Small Ghost was terrific, maybe the highlight of Arkham Tales. It was about Brown Jenkin, the rat-like witch's familiar and someone with the health department.

Burnt Tea - Michael Dziesinski- I already mentioned my problem with the typos. Otherwise this was a very nifty work by an author I never encountered before, about the Hounds of Tindalos and Japanese tea ceremonies in the 1920s.

Arkham Rain - John Goodrich - Mr. Goodrich is active on the mythos scene but I don't recall seeing his work before. I'll have to remedy that! Arkham Rain was a terrific story about the Innsmouth taint visiting an unwitting family. An old mythos trope? You bet! But this was a wonderfully original take.

Regrowth - David Conyers - I'm a big David Conyers fan. He is becoming well published in almost all the newer mythos anthologies. This story has some thematic similarity to False Containment in Horrors Beyond, and deals with unnatural melding of disparate species. Being a Conyers yarn it was a darn good read, although I've liked other stories by him better.

The Idea of Fear - CJ Henderson - We, of course, did need a hard boiled PI story in this book! Who better to do it than the masterful CJ Henderson? But this story was refreshingly different; the ending will catch you by surprise, as a PI and a medium try to find a ghost.

Disconnected - Brian Sammons - Mr. Sammons can also do no wrong, especially after One Way Conversation in Horrors Beyond. This is another winner. It is about the Mi-Go and Yuggoth, and a PI tracking down a missing relative. But like everything else by Brian Sammons, do not expect the usual mythos conventions or story format.

The Lady in the Grove - Scott Lette - Yet another new author to me and yet another auspicious introduction! An Irish enforcer is sent to Arkham to provide a little muscle for an MU professor.

On Leave in Arkham - Bill Bilstad - Ditto the above. This story has a complex construction with rapidly switching time frames and viewpoints, about WWI veteran/murderer. Very worthwhile read.

Geometry of the Soul - Jason Andrew - Also a new author to me, Mr. Andrew's story was only OK, about a MU expedition that goes horribly awry. The initial few pages in the Arkham sanitarium were much better for me than the last few pages.

So in summary, this is a terrific book of all brand new fiction. Even the stories that aren't the best are pretty good, and the best stories are first rate. The price is low and the page count is generous. Many of these authors are new on the scene and the rest are among the hot new mythos talents. Don't try to choose between it and Hard Boiled Cthulhu; order both of them discounted from Amazon! Together they are still less than Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth. Mythos fans should not hesitate.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
carpentermt | 2 outras críticas | Sep 27, 2010 |
High Seas Cthulhu, full of mythos stories nautical and piratical, is the latest offering from Elder Signs Press. Right now this company is the hottest thing around in the US for fans of Cthulhu mythos fiction. They are more prolific than either Hippocampus Press, Chaosium or Mythos Books. In the UK, the best thing going is Rainfall Books. Thank goodness for the modern era and the web, so fans can access all of their books. High Seas Cthulhu is a lovely trade paperback, with the usual flawless production qualities and editing we expect from Elder Signs Press (OK, I saw an occasional sentence fragment and at least one instance where as author used the word bemused when they meant amused). It lists for $15.95. I don't see a discount on Amazon but it is available for free shipping if you order more than $25 worth of stuff. Page count was 327 with stories starting on page 9, very generous for this genre! There were a few unnumbered pages of useful minibios of the authors at the back of the book. All of these stories are newly published with this anthology except "Ensnared," which was in an obscure story collection in 2003. Most of the authors were new to me. The attractive cover art by Steven Gilberts shows a Cthulhu-like thing attacking a ship; it could have been based on a number of the stories herein. I liked it but my favorite ESP covers are the shoggoth in Hive and the noir cover for Hard Boiled Cthulhu. There were a few nautical terms bandied about that I did not know; I've posted a list of these words and their definitions below to save you the trouble. I wish William Jones had written an editor's/publisher's note to explain how he conceived of this book and let us know a little about the story selection process. This would have been fun to read; I had a similar wish when I read Hard Boiled Cthulhu.

Here are the contents:

The Idol in His Hand by Darrell Schweitzer
The Tip of the Iceberg by John Shire
Passage to Oblivion by Lee Clark Zumpe -
Dark Blue by Alan Dean Foster
The Isle of Dreams by Charles P. Zaglanis
Ensnared by Paul Melniczek
A Kind of Fear by C.J. Henderson
La Armada Invencible by Michael McBride
The Others by Stewart Sternberg
Signals by Stephen Mark Rainey
The Havenhome by William Meikle
The Bedlamite by Ferrel Moore
The Star of Istanbul by Chris and Linda L. Donahue
High Seas by Michael Penncavage
Those Who Came to Dagon by John Shirley
Clown Fish by Matthew Baugh
Ice by Heather Hatch
The Wreck of the Ghost by Tim Curran
The Stars, in their Dreaming by Gerard Houarner
Depth of Darkness by William Jones

I ended up really liking the book but it took some time to grow on me compared to Arkham Tales or Hardboiled Cthulhu, where I stayed up all night reading. There were a few stories in here I didn't really like, most near the front of the book, which took the wind out of my sails for a while. This is in contrast to other titles where just about all the contents are top notch. Eventually I warmed up to it and finished High Seas Cthulhu in a matter of 3 or 4 nights. It is practically self recommending to mythos fans. I mean, pirates and the mythos, how can you miss?

*****spoilers may follow so stop reading now if it bothers you******

"The Idol in His Hand" - Darrell Schweitzer has written a few mythos stories I know about. In particular I really liked "Why We Do It" form Dead But Dreaming. This story was OK but didn't really jazz me, about a journalism student interviewing a seedy ex-pirate who may have found a curious route to immortality.

"The Tip of the Iceberg" - This was a very likeable story, about an exploratory vessel discovering a shoggoth encased in the ice on the coast of Antarctica.

"Passage to Oblivion" - Lee Clarke Zumpe has a few mythos stories to his credit including "What Sorrows May Come" in Arkham Tales (a decent enough effort) and "The Breach" in Horrors Beyond (that I thought was very good). Unfortunately I found "Passage to Oblivion" pretty annoying. Maybe it was in medias res for some characters he has developed in other stories I don't know about. One main character is a superhuman Sentinel of Sodalitas Invictus (and these are not all that well explained in the text, although I suppose you can infer what they are; I even did a wikipedia search to no avail) and the other is probably a human avatar of the Great Race, posing as an Arkham professor. A secret map charting waters not meant to be seen by humans is stolen by the Barbary pirates and needs recovered. Apart from the exposition I was not blown away by the prose.

"Dark Blue" - Alan Dean Foster does not need introduced to fans of fantasy and science fiction. His mythos stories include "The Horror at the Beach" from The New Lovecraft Circle and "A Fatal Exception Has Occurred At..." from Children of Cthulhu. Both were OK. This was my favorite mythos story by Foster so far, where a too-clever-by-half entrepreneur inadvertantly finds some undiscovered ship wrecks in the Pacific Ocean and decides to salvage them with a crew sworn to secrecy. Maybe he should have hired a different ship.

"The Isle of Dreams" - A captain mad to see his deceased wife and to restore his son to his full faculties seeks a fabled island in the South Pacific where it is said dreams can be made real. Nyarlathotep has something to say, however, about just whose dreams come true. I liked it.

"Ensnared" - This was pretty good! A fishing boat lands a stone idol instead of a net full of fish. Complications ensue.

"A Kind of Fear" - CJ Henderson is a prolific author not just of Lovecraftian stories although they are big part of his output. He recently published a Cthulhu based Kolchak graphic novel and "The Idea of Fear" in Arkham Tales, a pretty good hard-bitten PI tale. This was another winner from Mr. Henderson. A rich insufferable snob enlists a crew of workers to unearth some pirate treasure. Things turn out the way he wants but not as you would expect. I liked the twist at the end.

"La Armada Invencible" - Michael McBride has an entertaining book, Species, Chronicles of the Apocalypse, available from ESP. I am not aware if he has any other Lovecraftian stories out there. He is a skilled writer and tells us what really happened to the Spanish armada. There was a reason Sir Francis Drake was so successful.

"The Others" - This was a tautly written story about a slaver that is transporting a cargo, including three men who are definitely not the same as everyone else. In some ways the plot device reminded me of Forbidden Planet, except it was a more active than passive expression of the mind.

"Signals" - Steven Mark Rainey is the author of the very good mythos novel Balak and the story collection The Last Trumpet. "The Violet Princess' in Eldritch Blue was a fine read. I have not yet essayed his new novel Blue Devil Island. With credentials like these it is no surprise that this was an excellent story, about a man obsessed with a phenomenon of recurring lights in the North Atlantic. I liked the ambiguous denouement.

"The Havenhome" - Willie Meikle wrote a novel with mythos trappings called Island Life that I did not care for at all. Then he wrote a Derek Adams novel, The Midnight Eye Files: The Amulet, which was great. I also really liked his story "The Mouth" in Hardboiled Cthulhu. Unfortunately I did not like "The Havenhome." Maybe it could have used a rewrite. A sailing ship comes upon a colony in the New World where something terrible is stalking them.

"The Bedlamite" - This story had a few problems in terms of organization and being too busy, but all in all I enjoyed reading it. At the time of the Civil War, the Secretary of Navy's son has gone mad and put out his eyes, as the sole survivor in a ship found derelict. A strange group of men are taking him back to see to try to help him recover.

"The Star of Istanbul" - Here is another story I had some issues with. First of all, to the assiduous Lovecraftian it is anachronistic. The Deep Ones did not come to Devils Reef until summoned by Obed Marsh about 300 years after the time of Suleiman the Magnificent. Also I thought the parts trying to show the perspective of the Deep Ones and Cthulhu didn't really work; they made them somehow mundane and not horrifying. Finally, how could the hero escape an attack of a swarm of Deep Ones by jumping into the sea? Humans have a mysterious stone and Cthulhu wants it back. Even with my problems with the plot devices I thought it was pretty well written.

"High Seas" - Very nice! A trio of deep sea fisherman catches a big shark that has a message inside it. This leads to an encounter with another group of people out fishing...

"Those Who Come to Dagon" - John Shirley is a well respected author who may have written a mythos story or two, including "Buried in the Sky" from Weird Tales that I haven't read. I did not really like the end where the protagonist writes in the throes of a transforming event. Unfortunately it is all too common a failing in mythos fiction. I am always reminded of the scene from Monty Python's Holy Grail where the knights are debating about what is Castle Arg, and King Arthur says that he wouldn't have written Castle Arrrrgghh he would have just said it, and Sir Galahad says "Perhaps he was dictating." Overlooking that and accepting it as a mythos trope, this was a very well written story about a search for promised treasure. The treasure found isn't exactly what was promised.

"Clownfish" - This was really good, and more of a real pirate story than most of this book's contents, as a crew of cut throats come upon the sole survivor of a shipwreck. After the fact, the title was perfect. Although I liked "Mysterious Dan's Legacy" in Arkham Tales, "Clownfish" was superb.

"Ice" - Another very agreeable read! An Antarctic research vessel discovers something terrible trapped in the ice.

The Wreck of the Ghost - Tim Curran is the author of the decent mythos novel Hive, with sequels planned. He also wrote the hysterically funny "Eldritch Fellas" in Hardboiled Cthulhu and the novel Dead Seas, that I own but haven't read. This well could be the best tale in High Seas Cthulhu, a whaling story full of adventure, whaling, seafaring jargon, tentacles and mayhem.

"The Stars, in their Dreaming" - Gerard Houarner wrote the highly effective "The Blind" in Horrors Beyond and has a penchant for fiction like Clark Ashton Smith. This one I found OK, nothing special, as a slaving ship sails into uncharted waters. In some ways the ending was a trifle too upbeat for me for this anthology.

"Depth of Darkness" - William Jones edited the anthology and skillfully helms ESP. He has a collection of stories on his own label, Artifacts, mostly compiled from other ESP books (ugh, duplication). "Depth of Darkness" was terrific, a fitting close to the anthology. Another research vessel dredges a 3 billion year old artifact off the ocean floor. Complications ensue. Great prose!

So in summary, if you've read this far you've probably already bought the book so anything I say is superfluous. Any serious Cthulhu mythos fan will have to have it. While I wasn't completely won over by all of it, there were plenty of gems here and that makes me give it a warm recommendation. I understand Elder Signs Press is planning a mythosish sword and sorcery anthology, as well as one centered on my favorite Great Old One, Nyarlathotep. I can't wait to see what they do next!

OK, this is a late addition. Here is a dictionary for unwary readers who need to brush up on their nautical terms before reading this book.

Asteriated - exhibiting asterism
Asterism - property of some crystallized minerals of showing a (usually six rayed) star-like luminous figure in transmitted light or, in a cabochon-cut stone, by reflected light
Bark - a sailing vessel having three or more masts, square-rigged on all but the aftermost mast, which is fore-and-aft-rigged
Benthonic - of or pertaining to a benthos
Benthos - the bottom of a sea or lake
Bilbo - a long iron bar or bolt with sliding shackles and a lock, formerly attached to the ankles of prisoners
Caique - a single-masted sailing vessel used on the eastern Mediterranean Sea, having a sprit mainsail, a square topsail, and two or more other sails
Capstan - a windlass rotated in a horizontal plane around a vertical axis; used on ships for weighing anchor or raising heavy sails
Davit - any of various types of small cranes that project over the side of a ship and are used to hoist boats, anchors, and cargo
Enisle - to make an island of, to place on an island or to isolate
Gunwale - the upper edge of the side or bulwark of a vessel
Flense - to strip the blubber or the skin from (a whale, seal, etc.)
Holystone - a block of soft sandstone used in scrubbing the decks of a ship
Janissary - a member of an elite military unit of the Turkish army organized in the 14th century and abolished in 1826 after it revolted against the Sultan
Ketch - a small two masted sailing craft.
Loblolly - a thick gruel
Main yard - a yard for a square mainsail
Main brace - a brace leading to a main yard
Miro - New Zealand conifer used for lumber; the dark wood is used for interior carpentry
Mizzen - a fore-and-aft sail set on a mizzenmast
Mizzenmast - the third mast from forward in a vessel having three or more masts
Noddy - a seabird; also a dunce
Orlop - the lowermost of four or more decks above the space at the bottom of a hull
Sanguine - cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident
Sgraffito - a technique of ornamentation in which a surface layer of paint, plaster, slip, etc., is incised to reveal a ground of contrasting color
Shebec (otherwise known as a xebec) is a small sailing vessel used mostly in the Mediterranean.
Taffrail - the upper part of the stern of a ship or a rail above the stern of a ship
Vahine - a Polynesian woman.
… (mais)
1 vote
Assinalado
carpentermt | 1 outra crítica | Sep 26, 2010 |

Listas

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

C. J. Henderson Contributor
Tim Curran Contributor
Ron Shiflet Contributor
Lee Clark Zumpe Contributor
Paul Melniczek Contributor
Steven Gilberts Cover artist
Matthew Baugh Contributor
James Ambuehl Contributor
Gerard Houarner Contributor
Jason Andrew Contributor
Scott Lette Contributor
John Shirley Contributor
Cody Goodfellow Contributor
Michael Minnis Contributor
Darrell Schweitzer Contributor
Stewart Sternberg Contributor
Tony Campbell Contributor
David Conyers Contributor
Brian M. Sammons Contributor
Rachel Gray Contributor
John Sunseri Contributor
Alan Dean Foster Contributor
Richard A. Lupoff Contributor
David Niall Wilson Contributor
Gene O'Neill Contributor
John Goodrich Contributor
Bill Bilstad Contributor
Pat Harrigan Contributor
Robert Vaughn Contributor
Lee Clarke Zumpe Contributor
Michael Dziesinski Contributor
Lon Prater Contributor
Durant Haire Contributor
Robert J. Santa Contributor
Angeline Hawkes Contributor
Michael McBride Contributor
Ferrel Moore Contributor
Heather Hatch Contributor
William Meikle Contributor
Linda L. Donahue Contributor
Chris Donahue Contributor
John Shire Contributor
Michael Penncavage Contributor
Richard Gavin Contributor
William Mitchell Contributor
James S. Dorr Contributor
Richard Lupoff Contributor
Doug Goodman Contributor
Ann K. Schwader Contributor
Lucien Soulban Contributor
William C. Dietz Contributor
Robert Weinberg Contributor
Paul S. Kemp Contributor
Greg Beatty Contributor
Jay Caselberg Contributor
Ekaterina Sedia Contributor
A. A. Attanasio Contributor
Neddal Ayad Contributor
Wendy Leeds Contributor
Sam W. Anderson Contributor
Deanna Hoak Contributor
Richard Wright Contributor
Tom Piccirilli Contributor
John Pelan Contributor
Christopher Welch Contributor
Bruce Boston Contributor
Christian Klaver Contributor
Malcolm McClinton Cover artist
Lee Ballentine Contributor
Sherry Decker Contributor
Peter Straub Contributor
James Argendeli Contributor

Estatísticas

Obras
26
Also by
7
Membros
454
Popularidade
#54,064
Avaliação
½ 3.4
Críticas
19
ISBN
95
Línguas
4

Tabelas & Gráficos