Old Time Tales

Old Time Tales Old books, old games, old music and old times.

03/26/2026

Not long ago we picked up the "Dungeon Crawler Carl" series on Audible. It's one of those "the world ends in a wild apocalypse and turns into a video game universe" kind of books.

It is wacky. It is weird. It is definitely filled with what Grandma would have called filthy language and filthy talk. It is also insanely funny and heartbreakingly sad.

With nearly everyone on Earth dead the survivors must decide, is it every man (or cat) for himself? Or is it possible for the last remaining vestiges of the Earth to join together and push back against the invaders?

We are listening to the Audible version and it is definetly a five star production.

Dungeon Crawler Carl was written by Matt Dinniman. Check it out.

A true classic of its type!I am always looking for a good Old Time Tale and this is a perfect example of what I am looki...
03/17/2026

A true classic of its type!

I am always looking for a good Old Time Tale and this is a perfect example of what I am looking for. Something older than I am. The kind of book my mother would have read to my sister and I when we were little. A book with Brave Heroes. A Princess who does not need to wait to be rescued but can do the job herself. Silly, but yet serious no nonsense monsters. All in a magical, fairy tale world of its own.

Princess Irene is a sweet, darling child who can be afraid, but does not let her fear conquer her. Curdie is the clever, strong hero who learns how important it is that those we care for should always be listened to, no matter how outlandish what they say may seem.

The goblins are silly but take themselves seriously, as silly folk often seem to do. And they are prepared to commit serious acts of violence, so they must be taken seriously.

This is a wonderful book to share with the right child. Either a young one still learning how to love fantasy, or an older one who wants to go back to the kind of stories they read when they were little. I wish that we had known about it when our kids were still little.

I borrowed it from the library, on the Libby app. If you don't use Libby you should check it out.

I listened to the audible version, from Oasis. The narrator was a wonderfully skilled woman who did the voices perfectly. I especially liked her version of Curdie, when he sang his songs to chase away the goblins.

I want to mention the Great-Great-Many-Great Grandmother, who was a loving, yet mysterious and completely unexplained protector to Princess Irene and Curdie. I wanted to know more about her, who she was, how she was connected to Irene, but if they explained that in the book I missed it. Maybe we will learn more in the sequel, "The Princess and Curdie".

As I said earlier, this is an excellent Old Time Tale. Written in 1872 it inspired the authors that inspired other generations of fantasy authors in their turn. Tolkien, Lewis, Chesterton and many others.

On a final note, this book is often included in lists of "The Top 100 Books Everyone Should Read". That is where I found it, and I agree.

Cheers.

03/15/2026

Been a busy week. We finished the audible version of "Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" which I did not care for. Didn't like the story, I don't care for books where there is no one to like. Even the Songbird was never given a chance to do more than react to events. And the Snake was the snake we always knew he was going to be.

But the worst part was the narrator. As I said, we did the audible version and he was not up to the task of narrating a book with a large amount of sung verse. Songs were an important part of this book and it would have been so much better if they had gotten someone who didn't sound like a 9th grade literature student afraid to speak aloud in class.

03/05/2026

Just spent the last few days listening to Mark Twain's "Letters From Hawaii" and I have to say, they were amazing. Like time travel. This is what books are all about. The author sharing and the reader opening up and becoming immersed in the story.

Twain tells of his trip to the Sandwich Islands, todays Hawaii. He shares stories of his trip there on a clipper ship and his first impressions of Hawaii. He makes comparisons of Hawaii to San Francisco, and San Francisco, home of the newspaper that sent him there, falls short.

I enjoyed his stories about Hawaiian history and culture. His honesty in telling about the death of Captain Cook and how it was his own stupid fault is much better than versions told by historians. I very much enjoyed the descriptions of the island, the people, the trees and flowers but most especially the volcano.

Written in the days when there was no radio, tv or movie and the only way to experience something like this was in a book shows how much the world has changed. And, in my opinion, not for the better.

Oh yes! I used the Libby app to borrow this book from the library and listened to the audio version. It was exceptional.

Cheers!

03/02/2026

Started Mark Twain's "Letters from Hawaii" in audiobook form today. Just him on a trip to Hawaii, being paid by a newspaper to write letters home about his adventures. What a great way to make a living, wow! And he is brilliant at it. I am only on the 5th or so letter and deeply wish that such places still existed. I am truly grateful that Twain wrote this book so that that image of our history is not lost forever.

03/02/2026

Well, I finished book four, Many Waters, of Madeleine L'Engle's five book Time series. I have to admit that I almost gave up on it.

First off, I liked that it was about Sandy and Dennis, the two pragmatic, common sense twins. We hadn't seen much of them before in the other books, since they focused on Meg and Charles Wallace (who barely appear in this book). There are lots of things to like about the twins. Hard working. Kind. Solid. What bothered me the most was their failure to acknowledge that when strange chit happened that it was real. They ended up in Biblical Times (sorry, not MUCH of a spoiler, once you get to reading the book) for gosh sakes! And yet the fuss and worry about every single solitary detail. They made me think of Thomas Covenant, from the Unbeliever books. And if you haven't read those, you may want to consider it!

Another point was that four books in to the series and it seems that no one in the Murray family ever mentions or discusses what happens to the them with the other members of the family. It doesn't seem like a secret, it just seems like it doesn't even occur to them to mention it.

My final point is that this isn't really a true novel. Yeah, it has all the literary elements of a novel, but that's not the point. It just seems that Madeleine just wanted to write a book about observers from modern times experiencing events from Biblical times. And it really seems like she had a point that she wanted to make and I either missed it, which is likely, or she just didn't make it strong enough. She hits well on the problem we all have trying to understand when bad things happen to EVERYONE and that God just doesn't seem to care. And she makes some great points on how unfair life is to women but she makes all her women characters silly and weak.

I am glad that I finished it. She did some excellent work trying to rationalize science and religion as the same thing in working out the problem of how to get the boys home.

I don't know if I'll bother with the 5th book, An Acceptable Time, or not. It introduces a new family member who is a main character in yet another L'Engle book and I just think I'll care for it. As I've said before, this isn't really a series, actually. It's more like five stand alone books all centered around the members of one family. I know that it'll be awhile before I wade into it, it's going to be work to finish, I expect.

Cheers!

02/26/2026

Working on the last chapter of L'Engle's "Many Waters" and I'm glad I stuck with it. I almost put it down because it didn't seem to be going any where, but then it finally hit its stride and things started to happen.

I do have to say that the book really makes God look like a jerk for setting loose the Flood. It's almost like God was trying for a reset, rather than eliminating the abundant evil. Before the flood there were Seraphim, Nephilim, cute little mini-mammoths and unicorns. all living amongst, and in some cases, breeding with the humans. Who were all like four foot tall. After God's (In the book, El) reset all that's left are humans and the normal animals that we are accustomed to today. The flood didn't just wipe out all the bad people, it wiped out entire races and species.

Which is shame, because I'd love a mini-mammoth pet. And a unicorn.

02/22/2026

Working on "Many Waters" the 4th book of L'Engle's Time series.

This is the book that finally made me realize, it is NOT a series. It is a series of stand alone books focusing on characters in one family. Sure, they all grow older, and interact with each other. But they don't really share any of the experiences from the earlier books with each other. You can never tell if they're really even aware of what is going on from the other books. Except for Charles Wallace and Meg, and even that is limited.

The fourth book is all about the twins, Sandy and Dennis, which I was really looking forward to. But so far, and I am about half way through, it is nothing but them observing events going on around them. They are there, in the book, simply so that we can experience what they are seeing.

And honestly, it is NOT what I expected. Sandy and Dennis (SPOILER ALERT) end up in Biblical times, before the Great Deluge. The world they see is modeled much on Biblical lore and mythology, with Seraphim and Nephalim in abundance, interacting with Noah's family.

Speaking of Noah's family, if they were anything like in the book I don't understand why God bothered saving them. Only Noah's daughters in law and his father seem to be nice. And his youngest son, Japeth.

"Many Waters" isn't really a novel at all. It's just L'Engle wanting to give us an idea of what she imagines life was like in a weird, Biblical world with mythological creatures sharing our homes.

I am very nearly about to just give it up and return it to the library but I am curious to see just how far L'Engle will push having these two young men from 20th century America into the Noah story.

If you have read this book please leave a comment and tell us what you thought!

02/18/2026

I finished L'Engle's "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" and it was easily the best of the series so far. With Meg an adult and the focus on Charles Wallace it cut back considerably on the whining. I did get aggravated by Charles Wallace taking so long to figure out what needed to be done, he is supposed to be the intuitive one.

The idea of Charles Wallace traveling with a unicorn and being able to "go within" other people throughout time was an interesting way to write a time travel novel. And each journey he took into another person kept the book on pace and moving. Over and over we would get to know the people that he was within, learn how they were all connected and what needed to be done to gain the "might have been" that was the goal.

Mom O'Keefe was easily my favorite character in the book. Bright, clever, sweet as a young child but treated badly by life she still managed to keep a spark of her soul glowing to the end.

Another aspect of this that distinguishes it from other books in the series is the clever use of poetry to tie the story and the characters together. I will be doing a short video of "Patrick's Rune" which the entire book is crafter around.

One final thing, this book has probably one of the most interesting fictional books inside it. I would love to read Matthew Maddox' "The Horn of Joy". It is a shame that the book is just as fictional as Matthew himself. I hoped all the way through the "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" that Maddox and his book would be as real as Patrick's Rune. Alas, not.

Cheers!

02/14/2026

We like to listen to audible books in the car while we're traveling. Yesterday we just finished "Sunrise on the Reaping" by Suzanne Collins. Here is the review I left on goodreads:

Hope you like Poe's "The Raven" (Who doesn't?)

We just finished the audible version of "Sunrise on the Reaping" and it was excellent. As a prequel it fits well with the earlier books in the series, keeping everyone in character and hardly mentioning Peeta at all. (Thank you VERY much!) We also got to have a better look at District 12 and the people who live there. It is more of a real place to me now.

Normally I do not enjoy reading books that I know how they're going to end, but Collins did an excellent job of keeping the story, well, not fresh, but original. Different. It was not the same old story, rehashed.

One thing that bothered me was that for such a highly technical, sophisticated place the Capital seems like it's full of bunglers. That Haymitch was able to accomplish much of what he did would have required a great amount of ineptitude on the part of the Game Keepers. Of course, with the way they manipulate facts and reality, now that I think of it, maybe the kinds of things Haymitch did happen in every year's Hunger Games and they just edit out all the parts that they don't like.

I want to mention that this is an excellent book on how messed up trauma can leave a person and how important treatment is for PTSD.

My crack on the Raven in the title was just a joke. I love how the poem was woven into the story. Especially since the narrator, whose name I can't remember and who goodreads failed to include in the jacket information, did a superior job of finding the cadence of the poem all through the text of the book. Well done.

Super book, thanks!
Cheers!

Address

Webster, KY
40176

Telephone

(270) 945-3336

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Old Time Tales posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Old Time Tales:

Shortcuts

Share

Category