Anthony Cardno
@anthonycardno.bsky.social
writer, proofreader, book reviewer, collector of books, movies, music, comic books, and too much other stuff. Gay. He/Him pronouns.
Shamefully, it's taken me 2 years to finally read @pjoanneburgh.bsky.social 's Becoming Mrs. Claus, the followup to her holiday legal romance State v. Claus. It was great to return to the world of Meg Riley and Ralph Claus to see how their relationship has progressed.
December 21, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Shamefully, it's taken me 2 years to finally read @pjoanneburgh.bsky.social 's Becoming Mrs. Claus, the followup to her holiday legal romance State v. Claus. It was great to return to the world of Meg Riley and Ralph Claus to see how their relationship has progressed.
Did I need yet another copy of All-Star Squadron Issue 29? No. Did I buy it anyway? Of course. One of my favorite Squadron covers by @jerryordway.bsky.social centering one of my favorite DC characters, The Shining Knight. Ordway provides the interior art as well, retelling a Golden Age SSoV tale.
December 21, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Did I need yet another copy of All-Star Squadron Issue 29? No. Did I buy it anyway? Of course. One of my favorite Squadron covers by @jerryordway.bsky.social centering one of my favorite DC characters, The Shining Knight. Ordway provides the interior art as well, retelling a Golden Age SSoV tale.
It's the Christmas season, so how could I resist picking up this classic DC Comics Presents issue with a cover Jose Luis Garcia Lopez and interior art by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson? Spoiler: I couldn't! I love Silver and Bronze Age superhero Christmas stories and this one was tons of fun.
December 21, 2025 at 12:53 AM
It's the Christmas season, so how could I resist picking up this classic DC Comics Presents issue with a cover Jose Luis Garcia Lopez and interior art by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson? Spoiler: I couldn't! I love Silver and Bronze Age superhero Christmas stories and this one was tons of fun.
I've always had a soft spot for DC's weirder war characters (like the original Creature Commandos and G.I. Robot). My memory of The Viking Commando was fuzzy but positive. The story is every bit as weird as I vaguely remembered it being. There's also a Gunner, Sarge & Pooch take & 3 others.
December 21, 2025 at 12:48 AM
I've always had a soft spot for DC's weirder war characters (like the original Creature Commandos and G.I. Robot). My memory of The Viking Commando was fuzzy but positive. The story is every bit as weird as I vaguely remembered it being. There's also a Gunner, Sarge & Pooch take & 3 others.
I know I owned this one at some point, but had only a vague memory of it. Lately I've been trying to rebuild my collection of DC Earth One and Two crossover stories. This one was a fun story by Gardner Fox with beautiful Gil Kane art.
December 21, 2025 at 12:43 AM
I know I owned this one at some point, but had only a vague memory of it. Lately I've been trying to rebuild my collection of DC Earth One and Two crossover stories. This one was a fun story by Gardner Fox with beautiful Gil Kane art.
Today's #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember book is Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud, the first in the Lunar Gothic Trilogy. It delivers exactly what's promised: Gothic horror on the dark side of the Moon.
November 20, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Today's #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember book is Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud, the first in the Lunar Gothic Trilogy. It delivers exactly what's promised: Gothic horror on the dark side of the Moon.
What Stalks The Deep, the 3rd book in T. Kingfisher's Sworn Soldier series. I enjoyed it although perhaps a little less than the first two books. Particularly liked the way Kingfisher expresses Easton's fight against claustrophobia. Similar to The Dreaming of Man, the author tweaks Lovecraft tropes.
November 19, 2025 at 5:02 AM
What Stalks The Deep, the 3rd book in T. Kingfisher's Sworn Soldier series. I enjoyed it although perhaps a little less than the first two books. Particularly liked the way Kingfisher expresses Easton's fight against claustrophobia. Similar to The Dreaming of Man, the author tweaks Lovecraft tropes.
Seamus Sullivan's Daedalus is Dead is a retelling of the Icarus and Minotaur myths. It also ruminates on memory, guilt, and correcting the wrongs we've done to others. The novella see-saws between Daedalus's time in the Land of the Dead) and his life. But he may be a bit of an unreliable narrator.
November 19, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Seamus Sullivan's Daedalus is Dead is a retelling of the Icarus and Minotaur myths. It also ruminates on memory, guilt, and correcting the wrongs we've done to others. The novella see-saws between Daedalus's time in the Land of the Dead) and his life. But he may be a bit of an unreliable narrator.
Marie Benedict's Agent 355: historical fiction that attempts to put a person to the codename assigned to the only female member of George Washington's Culper Ring spy outfit. There are lots of theories as to who Agent 355 may have been. Benedict's compelling and fast moving novella provides one.
November 19, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Marie Benedict's Agent 355: historical fiction that attempts to put a person to the codename assigned to the only female member of George Washington's Culper Ring spy outfit. There are lots of theories as to who Agent 355 may have been. Benedict's compelling and fast moving novella provides one.
The Dreaming of Man by Nikoline Kaiser, from @neonhemlock.bsky.social Haunting, claustrophobic, full of sea-salt and dreariness in all the right ways. Ending feels a little abrupt, but the majority is brilliant. I love stories that tweak Lovecraft & feature characters he wouldn't have. A must-read.
November 19, 2025 at 5:02 AM
The Dreaming of Man by Nikoline Kaiser, from @neonhemlock.bsky.social Haunting, claustrophobic, full of sea-salt and dreariness in all the right ways. Ending feels a little abrupt, but the majority is brilliant. I love stories that tweak Lovecraft & feature characters he wouldn't have. A must-read.
The past several days of #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember (because I've fallen behind), in several posts.
November 19, 2025 at 5:02 AM
The past several days of #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember (because I've fallen behind), in several posts.
Day 14 #NovellaNovember #Novellavember. Treble Swift and the Solar Symphony by Jim Beard. Fun space opera. In a future where the solar system is split between the SolTerran Union and the United-Outer Planets, pilot Treble Swift discovers a plot by SolTer to break the detente and attack the UOP.
November 15, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Day 14 #NovellaNovember #Novellavember. Treble Swift and the Solar Symphony by Jim Beard. Fun space opera. In a future where the solar system is split between the SolTerran Union and the United-Outer Planets, pilot Treble Swift discovers a plot by SolTer to break the detente and attack the UOP.
Belated Day 12 of #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember is Will Ludwigen's brilliant A Scout Is Brave, one of my favorite books of 2024, and my second favorite Ludwigsen book (Acres of Perhaps still edges it out.
November 14, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Belated Day 12 of #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember is Will Ludwigen's brilliant A Scout Is Brave, one of my favorite books of 2024, and my second favorite Ludwigsen book (Acres of Perhaps still edges it out.
Posting again (to try to add Alt Text to the photos):
My friends at Stamza Books in Beacon NY have set up a #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember display, partially curated by me.
If you're in the Beacon area, stop in to Stanza, say hi, and tell them I sent you!
My friends at Stamza Books in Beacon NY have set up a #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember display, partially curated by me.
If you're in the Beacon area, stop in to Stanza, say hi, and tell them I sent you!
November 13, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Posting again (to try to add Alt Text to the photos):
My friends at Stamza Books in Beacon NY have set up a #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember display, partially curated by me.
If you're in the Beacon area, stop in to Stanza, say hi, and tell them I sent you!
My friends at Stamza Books in Beacon NY have set up a #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember display, partially curated by me.
If you're in the Beacon area, stop in to Stanza, say hi, and tell them I sent you!
Day 11 #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember: The Primrose Path by Bram Stoker. Posting about Stoker's birthday a few days ago reminded me that I've fallen off of one of my ongoing reading projects, which is to own and read everything Stoker wrote. So I brought this novella on this week's business trip.
November 12, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Day 11 #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember: The Primrose Path by Bram Stoker. Posting about Stoker's birthday a few days ago reminded me that I've fallen off of one of my ongoing reading projects, which is to own and read everything Stoker wrote. So I brought this novella on this week's business trip.
My friends at Stanza Books in Beacon NY have set up a #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember display, partially curated by me.
If you're in the Beacon area, stop in to Stanza, say hi, and tell them I sent you!
If you're in the Beacon area, stop in to Stanza, say hi, and tell them I sent you!
November 12, 2025 at 2:17 AM
My friends at Stanza Books in Beacon NY have set up a #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember display, partially curated by me.
If you're in the Beacon area, stop in to Stanza, say hi, and tell them I sent you!
If you're in the Beacon area, stop in to Stanza, say hi, and tell them I sent you!
Forgot to add pics to the first post in the thread, so here they are.
November 11, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Forgot to add pics to the first post in the thread, so here they are.
Happy Bram Stoker Day!
The author of Dracula was born today in 1847. I have a goal to someday own and have read everything he wrote. I have most of his novels. Between various collections and printouts I have almost all of the short stories and short non-fiction attributed to him.
The author of Dracula was born today in 1847. I have a goal to someday own and have read everything he wrote. I have most of his novels. Between various collections and printouts I have almost all of the short stories and short non-fiction attributed to him.
November 8, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Happy Bram Stoker Day!
The author of Dracula was born today in 1847. I have a goal to someday own and have read everything he wrote. I have most of his novels. Between various collections and printouts I have almost all of the short stories and short non-fiction attributed to him.
The author of Dracula was born today in 1847. I have a goal to someday own and have read everything he wrote. I have most of his novels. Between various collections and printouts I have almost all of the short stories and short non-fiction attributed to him.
For Day 7 of #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember, I decided to re-listen to Stephen Fry read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles.
There are arguments as to whether Baskervilles is a novella or a short novel, but as I've said previously, I'm fine with the line being a little blurry.
There are arguments as to whether Baskervilles is a novella or a short novel, but as I've said previously, I'm fine with the line being a little blurry.
November 8, 2025 at 5:02 AM
For Day 7 of #NovellaNovember / #Novellavember, I decided to re-listen to Stephen Fry read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles.
There are arguments as to whether Baskervilles is a novella or a short novel, but as I've said previously, I'm fine with the line being a little blurry.
There are arguments as to whether Baskervilles is a novella or a short novel, but as I've said previously, I'm fine with the line being a little blurry.
For Day 4 of #NovellaNovember, let's talk about Randy Duncan's
"Kade & Karger: Big Trouble for Lil' Easy." Word count wise, this is probably closer to novelette than novella, but I'm not being super strict about the line between the two (or between novella and short novel).
"Kade & Karger: Big Trouble for Lil' Easy." Word count wise, this is probably closer to novelette than novella, but I'm not being super strict about the line between the two (or between novella and short novel).
November 5, 2025 at 2:08 AM
For Day 4 of #NovellaNovember, let's talk about Randy Duncan's
"Kade & Karger: Big Trouble for Lil' Easy." Word count wise, this is probably closer to novelette than novella, but I'm not being super strict about the line between the two (or between novella and short novel).
"Kade & Karger: Big Trouble for Lil' Easy." Word count wise, this is probably closer to novelette than novella, but I'm not being super strict about the line between the two (or between novella and short novel).
For day two of #NovellaNovember, I re-listened to the full cast audiobook of Elizabeth Hand's 'folk horror via VH1's Behind The Scenes' classic WYLDING HALL, which I have re-read or re-listened to every year around Halloween since I first discovered it in 2019.
November 3, 2025 at 3:26 AM
For day two of #NovellaNovember, I re-listened to the full cast audiobook of Elizabeth Hand's 'folk horror via VH1's Behind The Scenes' classic WYLDING HALL, which I have re-read or re-listened to every year around Halloween since I first discovered it in 2019.
Very excited that over the weekend, my copy of Negocios Infernales, the GM-less, dice-less TTRPG created by @csecooney.bsky.social and Carlos Hernandez, arrived. Haven't had time to take everything out of the box never mind play it, but it's here!
August 25, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Very excited that over the weekend, my copy of Negocios Infernales, the GM-less, dice-less TTRPG created by @csecooney.bsky.social and Carlos Hernandez, arrived. Haven't had time to take everything out of the box never mind play it, but it's here!
At the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon NY for an author event hosted by Stanza Books. What a great space!
August 2, 2025 at 11:04 PM
At the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon NY for an author event hosted by Stanza Books. What a great space!
Happy Book Release Day to "Jack of All Comics"! Essays by a whole bunch of comics pros (and me!) about Jack Kirby's work for both DC and Marvel during the 1970s. My essay is about DC's short-lived 70s Sandman run.
a.co/d/5DW2BKB
a.co/d/5DW2BKB
June 25, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Happy Book Release Day to "Jack of All Comics"! Essays by a whole bunch of comics pros (and me!) about Jack Kirby's work for both DC and Marvel during the 1970s. My essay is about DC's short-lived 70s Sandman run.
a.co/d/5DW2BKB
a.co/d/5DW2BKB
My favorite moment was actually my worst dice roll in the year-plus I've been playing in this campaign. It's the Modiphius system, so nat-20s are BAD.
April 19, 2025 at 5:39 PM
My favorite moment was actually my worst dice roll in the year-plus I've been playing in this campaign. It's the Modiphius system, so nat-20s are BAD.