u/Ghost_Mech

I’ve wanted to read The Road for a while, but somehow never got around to it. I was browsing Goodwill today and found this hardcover.

After checking it out, it turns out to be a 2006 Knopf first edition, first printing with the original first-state dust jacket: $24 price on the front flap and 10/2006 on the rear flap. The book itself is incredibly tight and appears unread, with bone-white pages and no creasing. There is some minor foxing on the top edge, although some of what initially looked like foxing was just dust.

I’m honestly more excited that I finally have the book I wanted to read than the value, but finding a first/first for $4 was a pretty damn good surprise. Lol. And yes, I’m absolutely going to read it. I just need to get over the sudden urge to put it in a glass case.

I’ve wanted to read The Road for a while, but somehow never got around to it. I was browsing Goodwill today and found this hardcover.

After checking it out, it turns out to be a 2006 Knopf first edition, first printing with the original first-state dust jacket: $24 on the front flap and 10/2006 on the rear flap. The book itself is incredibly tight and appears unread, with bone-white pages and no creasing.

I’m honestly more excited that I finally have the book I wanted to read, but finding a first/first for $4 was a pretty damn good surprise. Lol. And yes, I’m absolutely going to read it. I just need to get over the sudden urge to put it in a glass case.

Never read the books before but it sounded really good. The black on black cover with black sprayed edges looks awesome. I put a Bodart cover on it I apologize it’s so shiny.

I wanted to make her look like an actual person rather than an overly stylized character. Kept the proportions, features, makeup, and complexion as natural and understated as I could while still fitting the Bloodborne aesthetic. It took about 2 hours in total. I hope you all like her.

Update: I Finally Read Kelmin’s Tower (1992): 199 Pages, 47 Chapters, and One Extremely Strange Forgotten Fantasy Novel.

I finally finished Kelmin’s Tower by Thomas Alexander Anthony, the incredibly obscure 1992 fantasy novel I’ve been documenting.

199 pages. 47 chapters.

Now that I’ve reached the end, I can finally give a proper spoiler-free summary and review of what I found. So, what is Kelmin’s Tower about?

At its core, Kelmin’s Tower is a dark fantasy adventure following Emmanuel Slade, an assassin who becomes involved in a resistance movement against the mysterious ruler known as Kelmin.

Slade travels with a small group that includes the elf Arinock and the barbarian Wolvesbane, along with several other companions. Their journey takes them across the fantasy world of Arland and gradually brings them into direct conflict with the political, military, religious, and supernatural forces surrounding Kelmin and his Tower. It begins with the feel of a fairly traditional fantasy quest.

But the further the story progresses, the stranger and more ambitious it becomes. What initially appears to be a straightforward mission gradually turns into a story about war, religion, destiny, power, morality, free will, revenge, and the nature of good and evil. And it gets very dark.

The journey:
Slade and his companions begin as a relatively small resistance group operating against the forces of Kelmin. As they travel, they encounter different settlements, races, armies, religions, political factions, and military organizations. Their understanding of the world and their own mission changes constantly.

One of the most important people they encounter is Father John, a powerful priest devoted to the fictional deity Raniksha:

Father John is an extremely complicated figure. He repeatedly helps the party, but it becomes increasingly obvious that he has his own plans for them and for the larger conflict. Eventually, Father John brings them to the Bloody Hand, an enormous Dreadnock resistance force hidden deep within a mountain range. And this is where the scale of the story suddenly becomes enormous.

The Bloody Hand’s encampment contains hundreds of thousands of Dreadnocks from different tribes and factions. They have gathered together because they represent one of the last major organized resistances against Kelmin.

Slade and his companions realize that their arrival at the Bloody Hand wasn’t coincidence. Father John has deliberately brought them there because the Bloody Hand is going to become an important part of his larger strategy.

The Bloody Hand and Karillium:
The Bloody Hand regularly launches campaigns against Karillium, while Karillium maintains massive defensive forces along its borders. The conflict has existed for years. Neither side has been able to completely defeat the other.

The Dreadnocks can launch enormous attacks, while Karillium has fortified mountain passes, experienced soldiers, White Knights, and extensive defensive infrastructure.

Father John sees the stalemate as an opportunity.
If the Bloody Hand launches a sufficiently large offensive, Kelmin will be forced to divert enormous amounts of military and supernatural power toward the threat. That creates an opening for Slade and his companions. Their real objective is still the Tower. So the massive war between the Bloody Hand and Karillium becomes part of a much smaller operation involving only a handful of people. The scale difference is one of the things I really enjoyed about the book.

You have armies numbering in the hundreds of thousands or more, while the actual quest ultimately comes down to a small group trying to reach one location.

Kelmin’s world:
One of the most interesting aspects of the novel is the way Kelmin’s civilization is presented. His territory is prosperous. The roads are beautifully constructed.
The cities are orderly. The settlements are clean and peaceful. People have food and security. The infrastructure is impressive. There is very little visible poverty. To an ordinary person living there, Kelmin’s world can genuinely look like paradise.

But the book keeps asking: What did it cost to create that paradise? Kelmin has imposed his vision of order upon the world. People are protected, but they are also controlled. Those who oppose the system pay an enormous price. The book therefore doesn’t simply present Kelmin as a generic evil ruler. His accomplishments are real. His civilization genuinely benefits many people. But the methods used to create that civilization are horrifying. That moral contradiction becomes one of the central themes of the story.

Slade:
Slade is probably the most unusual part of the novel.
He’s not a traditional fantasy hero. He’s an assassin. He’s exceptionally skilled at killing and sees assassination almost as an art form that he has spent his life perfecting. He isn’t particularly interested in being viewed as noble. Throughout the story, however, he becomes increasingly introspective.

He thinks about death. He thinks about destiny. He thinks about whether people really control their own lives. He thinks about good and evil. He thinks about balance. And he increasingly questions whether the path he’s following was actually chosen by him. The closer he gets to Kelmin’s Tower, the more those questions become important.

Arinock and Wolvesbane:
Arinock and Wolvesbane provide much of the emotional grounding for the group. Arinock is an elf navigating a world that isn’t always welcoming toward his kind, while Wolvesbane is a hardened barbarian who has lost much of what once gave his life meaning. Their relationship develops into one of the more human aspects of the story.

There are moments when the book steps away from armies, magic, and political schemes and simply lets the characters talk about friendship, loss, survival, and what they might do if they actually make it through the quest. Those moments stood out to me because the story can get so huge that these quieter conversations remind you that the characters are still just people trying to survive.

Raniksha and the religious mythology:
The fictional religion surrounding Raniksha becomes increasingly important as the story progresses. This also explains the strange religious-looking symbols and imagery associated with the book, including the symbols on the front cover. The symbols aren’t random decoration. They are part of the fictional religious mythology Anthony created for the world, particularly the imagery surrounding Raniksha, his followers, and the supernatural forces connected to them. The book uses religious symbols throughout the story to establish the presence and influence of this fictional belief system.

So when you look at the cover and see those strange symbols, they are essentially a visual introduction to one of the major forces operating within the story.
They aren’t references to Nazi symbolism or an attempt to invoke real-world occult movements.
They belong to the book’s fictional fantasy mythology.

And just to be completely clear…
Because this book contains some extremely dark religious and supernatural imagery, I want to make something clear for anyone discovering it through these posts: There is absolutely no Nazi material or Nazi ideology in Kelmin’s Tower. There is also no real-world occult propaganda, instruction, or agenda.

The book contains fictional gods, fictional religions, magic, sorcery, supernatural entities, ritual sacrifice, and dark fantasy imagery. Some of it is genuinely disturbing. But it is all part of the fictional world of Arland and the story Anthony was telling. This is a strange, dark fantasy novel from 1992, not a Nazi or occult text.

The writing:
This is probably where I would give the book its biggest warning. The prose is rough. There are grammatical errors, awkward sentences, strange word choices, inconsistent terminology, occasional name inconsistencies, and some very abrupt transitions.

The pacing can also be all over the place. The author sometimes spends several pages exploring a philosophical idea and then immediately launches into an action sequence. There are also scenes that are very much products of their era and may be surprising to modern readers. But despite all of that, I never found the book boring.There is always something happening:

Assassins.
Elves.
Barbarians.
Dreadnocks.
Sorcerers.
Priests.
Knights.
Massive armies.
Ancient religious traditions.
Magic.
Political schemes.
Military campaigns.
And a mysterious Tower sitting at the center of everything.

It feels like Anthony had an enormous story in his head and tried to fit as much of it as possible into 199 pages.

The themes:
This is what surprised me most after finishing it.
Underneath all the fantasy action, Kelmin’s Tower is deeply concerned with balance.

The book repeatedly questions whether good and evil can exist independently of one another. It questions whether absolute order can become oppressive. It questions whether rebellion automatically makes someone morally righteous. It questions whether people actually control their own destinies.

It questions whether someone can destroy an evil system without becoming destructive themselves.
And perhaps most importantly, it questions whether a peaceful society is necessarily a good society if that peace was achieved through horrific means. The author doesn’t always explore these ideas subtly.
Sometimes he practically walks into the room carrying a philosophical billboard. Lol But the ideas are absolutely there. And some of them are surprisingly compelling.

Overall impression:
I wouldn’t call Kelmin’s Tower a lost masterpiece.
The writing is too rough for that. But I also don’t think it’s fair to dismiss it as disposable fantasy pulp. It is ambitious, strange, dark, philosophical, occasionally bizarre, and incredibly specific in its vision.

There are genuinely memorable concepts and characters buried inside the rough prose. And because the book is so obscure, reading it feels less like discovering a forgotten classic and more like opening a sealed box from 1992 and finding someone’s entire imagination still sitting inside.
I started this whole project because I found a physical copy of a fantasy novel that almost nobody seemed to know existed.

Then I started documenting it chapter by chapter. Then people started finding the posts. And now I’ve actually read the entire thing. 47 chapters. 199 pages.

After reaching the final page, I somehow have even more questions about Thomas Alexander Anthony, the history of this book, and how Kelmin’s Tower disappeared so completely after publication. So this feels less like the end of the Kelmin’s Tower rabbit hole and more like the beginning of the next part.

And finally, a message to Thomas Alexander Anthony, wherever you may be: If by some extraordinary chance you ever happen to see this, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for writing Kelmin’s Tower. Whatever its flaws, whatever its rough edges, and whatever happened to it after it was published in 1992, you created something that survived. Decades later, a stranger found a copy, opened it, became fascinated by it, and decided that this strange little book deserved to be remembered. I read all 199 pages. I followed Slade, Arinock, Wolvesbane, Father John, and the rest of the journey all the way to the end. And now I’m telling other people about it.

I don’t know what your experience was when you wrote this book, or what you hoped would happen to it after publication. I don’t know whether you ever expected someone to still be talking about it decades later.

But if you ever do happen across these posts:
Thank you for the book. It was one hell of a journey

UPDATE: Quick note for everyone helping with the author search:

I really appreciate everyone trying to help find Thomas and learn more about Kelmin’s Tower. It’s honestly been amazing watching people dig up old records and make connections.

Just please don’t send me private home addresses, tax records, phone numbers, or other personal information about Thomas or his family. I’m not comfortable contacting someone through private information or having anyone show up at their home.

Public contact info and legitimate public leads are absolutely welcome. I just want to keep this respectful and let Thomas or his family decide if they want to respond.

Thanks again to everyone who’s been helping.

I finally finished Kelmin’s Tower by Thomas Alexander Anthony, the incredibly obscure 1992 fantasy novel I’ve been documenting.

Now that I’ve reached the end, I can finally give a proper spoiler-free summary and review of what I found.

So, what is Kelmin’s Tower about?

At its core, Kelmin’s Tower is a dark fantasy adventure following Emmanuel Slade, an assassin who becomes involved in a resistance movement against the mysterious ruler known as Kelmin.

Slade travels with a small group that includes the elf Arinock and the barbarian Wolvesbane, along with several other companions. Their journey takes them across the fantasy world of Arland and gradually brings them into direct conflict with the political, military, religious, and supernatural forces surrounding Kelmin and his Tower. It begins with the feel of a fairly traditional fantasy quest. But the further the story progresses, the stranger and more ambitious it becomes.

What initially appears to be a straightforward mission gradually turns into a story about war, religion, destiny, power, morality, free will, revenge, and the nature of good and evil. And it gets very dark.

The journey:
Slade and his companions begin as a relatively small resistance group operating against the forces of Kelmin.

As they travel, they encounter different settlements, races, armies, religions, political factions, and military organizations. Their understanding of the world and their own mission changes constantly. One of the most important people they encounter is Father John, a powerful priest devoted to the fictional deity Raniksha:

Father John is an extremely complicated figure. He repeatedly helps the party, but it becomes increasingly obvious that he has his own plans for them and for the larger conflict. Eventually, Father John brings them to the Bloody Hand, an enormous Dreadnock resistance force hidden deep within a mountain range. And this is where the scale of the story suddenly becomes enormous.

The Bloody Hand’s encampment contains hundreds of thousands of Dreadnocks from different tribes and factions. They have gathered together because they represent one of the last major organized resistances against Kelmin.

Slade and his companions realize that their arrival at the Bloody Hand wasn’t coincidence. Father John has deliberately brought them there because the Bloody Hand is going to become an important part of his larger strategy.

The Bloody Hand and Karillium:
The Bloody Hand regularly launches campaigns against Karillium, while Karillium maintains massive defensive forces along its borders. The conflict has existed for years. Neither side has been able to completely defeat the other.

The Dreadnocks can launch enormous attacks, while Karillium has fortified mountain passes, experienced soldiers, White Knights, and extensive defensive infrastructure.

Father John sees the stalemate as an opportunity.
If the Bloody Hand launches a sufficiently large offensive, Kelmin will be forced to divert enormous amounts of military and supernatural power toward the threat. That creates an opening for Slade and his companions. Their real objective is still the Tower. So the massive war between the Bloody Hand and Karillium becomes part of a much smaller operation involving only a handful of people. The scale difference is one of the things I really enjoyed about the book.

You have armies numbering in the hundreds of thousands or more, while the actual quest ultimately comes down to a small group trying to reach one location.

Kelmin’s world:
One of the most interesting aspects of the novel is the way Kelmin’s civilization is presented. His territory is prosperous. The roads are beautifully constructed.
The cities are orderly. The settlements are clean and peaceful. People have food and security. The infrastructure is impressive. There is very little visible poverty. To an ordinary person living there, Kelmin’s world can genuinely look like paradise.

But the book keeps asking:

What did it cost to create that paradise?
Kelmin has imposed his vision of order upon the world. People are protected, but they are also controlled. Those who oppose the system pay an enormous price. The book therefore doesn’t simply present Kelmin as a generic evil ruler. His accomplishments are real. His civilization genuinely benefits many people. But the methods used to create that civilization are horrifying. That moral contradiction becomes one of the central themes of the story.

Slade:
Slade is probably the most unusual part of the novel.
He’s not a traditional fantasy hero. He’s an assassin. He’s exceptionally skilled at killing and sees assassination almost as an art form that he has spent his life perfecting. He isn’t particularly interested in being viewed as noble. Throughout the story, however, he becomes increasingly introspective.

He thinks about death. He thinks about destiny. He thinks about whether people really control their own lives. He thinks about good and evil. He thinks about balance. And he increasingly questions whether the path he’s following was actually chosen by him. The closer he gets to Kelmin’s Tower, the more those questions become important.

Arinock and Wolvesbane:
Arinock and Wolvesbane provide much of the emotional grounding for the group. Arinock is an elf navigating a world that isn’t always welcoming toward his kind, while Wolvesbane is a hardened barbarian who has lost much of what once gave his life meaning. Their relationship develops into one of the more human aspects of the story.

There are moments when the book steps away from armies, magic, and political schemes and simply lets the characters talk about friendship, loss, survival, and what they might do if they actually make it through the quest. Those moments stood out to me because the story can get so huge that these quieter conversations remind you that the characters are still just people trying to survive.

Raniksha and the religious mythology:
The fictional religion surrounding Raniksha becomes increasingly important as the story progresses. This also explains the strange religious-looking symbols and imagery associated with the book, including the symbols on the front cover. The symbols aren’t random decoration. They are part of the fictional religious mythology Anthony created for the world, particularly the imagery surrounding Raniksha, his followers, and the supernatural forces connected to them. The book uses religious symbols throughout the story to establish the presence and influence of this fictional belief system.

So when you look at the cover and see those strange symbols, they are essentially a visual introduction to one of the major forces operating within the story.
They aren’t references to Nazi symbolism or an attempt to invoke real-world occult movements.
They belong to the book’s fictional fantasy mythology.

And just to be completely clear…
Because this book contains some extremely dark religious and supernatural imagery, I want to make something clear for anyone discovering it through these posts:

There is absolutely no Nazi material or Nazi ideology in Kelmin’s Tower. There is also no real-world occult propaganda, instruction, or agenda. The book contains fictional gods, fictional religions, magic, sorcery, supernatural entities, ritual sacrifice, and dark fantasy imagery. Some of it is genuinely disturbing. But it is all part of the fictional world of Arland and the story Anthony was telling. This is a strange, dark fantasy novel from 1992, not a Nazi or occult text.

The writing:
This is probably where I would give the book its biggest warning. The prose is rough. There are grammatical errors, awkward sentences, strange word choices, inconsistent terminology, occasional name inconsistencies, and some very abrupt transitions.

The pacing can also be all over the place. The author sometimes spends several pages exploring a philosophical idea and then immediately launches into an action sequence. There are also scenes that are very much products of their era and may be surprising to modern readers.

But despite all of that, I never found the book boring.

There is always something happening:

Assassins.
Elves.
Barbarians.
Dreadnocks.
Sorcerers.
Priests.
Knights.
Massive armies.
Ancient religious traditions.
Magic.
Political schemes.
Military campaigns.
And a mysterious Tower sitting at the center of everything.

It feels like Anthony had an enormous story in his head and tried to fit as much of it as possible into 199 pages.

The themes:
This is what surprised me most after finishing it.
Underneath all the fantasy action, Kelmin’s Tower is deeply concerned with balance.

The book repeatedly questions whether good and evil can exist independently of one another. It questions whether absolute order can become oppressive. It questions whether rebellion automatically makes someone morally righteous. It questions whether people actually control their own destinies.

It questions whether someone can destroy an evil system without becoming destructive themselves.
And perhaps most importantly, it questions whether a peaceful society is necessarily a good society if that peace was achieved through horrific means. The author doesn’t always explore these ideas subtly.
Sometimes he practically walks into the room carrying a philosophical billboard. Lol But the ideas are absolutely there. And some of them are surprisingly compelling.

Overall impression:
I wouldn’t call Kelmin’s Tower a lost masterpiece.
The writing is too rough for that. But I also don’t think it’s fair to dismiss it as disposable fantasy pulp. It is ambitious, strange, dark, philosophical, occasionally bizarre, and incredibly specific in its vision.

There are genuinely memorable concepts and characters buried inside the rough prose. And because the book is so obscure, reading it feels less like discovering a forgotten classic and more like opening a sealed box from 1992 and finding someone’s entire imagination still sitting inside.
I started this whole project because I found a physical copy of a fantasy novel that almost nobody seemed to know existed. Then I started documenting it chapter by chapter. Then people started finding the posts. And now I’ve actually read the entire thing.

After reaching the final page, I somehow have even more questions about Thomas Alexander Anthony, the history of this book, and how Kelmin’s Tower disappeared so completely after publication. So this feels less like the end of the Kelmin’s Tower rabbit hole and more like the beginning of the next part.

And finally, a message to Thomas Alexander Anthony, wherever you may be:

If by some extraordinary chance you ever happen to see this, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for writing Kelmin’s Tower. Whatever its flaws, whatever its rough edges, and whatever happened to it after it was published in 1992, you created something that survived. Decades later, a stranger found a copy, opened it, became fascinated by it, and decided that this strange little book deserved to be remembered.
I read all 199 pages. I followed Slade, Arinock, Wolvesbane, Father John, and the rest of the journey all the way to the end. And now I’m telling other people about it.

I don’t know what your experience was when you wrote this book, or what you hoped would happen to it after publication. I don’t know whether you ever expected someone to still be talking about it decades later. But if you ever do happen across these posts:
Thank you for the book. It was one hell of a journey

I picked this up at Goodwill today for 50 cents. I honestly just thought it looked like an interesting old fantasy paperback.

Then I got home and tried to look it up.
And… nothing.

It’s Kelmins Tower by Thomas Alexander Anthony, published by Rising Sun Publications in 1992.
ISBN: 0-9630915-1-4
Edited by Suzanne Boire
Cover art by Matthew Pearson and Walt Richardson

I’ve gone down a surprisingly deep rabbit hole trying to find anything about this book.

I’ve searched the exact title, author, ISBN, publisher, editor, cover artists, publication year, and different combinations of all of them. I’ve tried the usual book databases and general searches.
I can barely find a trace of it.

No real discussion of the book that I can find, no obvious publication history, no information about how large the print run was, and almost nothing about Rising Sun Publications or Thomas Alexander Anthony.

Which I find pretty fascinating because this isn’t an undated manuscript or some random homemade book. It has an ISBN, an editor, credited cover artists, and a legitimate 1992 publication date.
So I’m wondering if anyone here has ever come across it.
Has anyone read Kelmins Tower? Does anyone recognize Thomas Alexander Anthony or Rising Sun Publications?

I’m especially curious whether this was a very small independent fantasy press, a self-published book, or something that had a little more circulation back in the day and has just completely disappeared since.
I paid 50 cents for it and somehow turned that into an archaeological dig.

I’m just fascinated by how obscure this thing seems to be and would love to hear from anyone who knows anything about it.

Update:

For anyone wondering what this book is actually about, especially because some of the terminology, imagery, or references can look strange when taken out of context, I wanted to give a broader explanation of the story based on what I’ve actually read.
The book is a dark medieval fantasy centered around a growing conflict involving kingdoms, warriors, political power, religion, supernatural elements, and forces fighting for control. The story begins to follow several different threads that gradually start connecting.

One of the major threads involves Kelmin and the White Knights, whose rise in power becomes increasingly important to the story. On the other side, Slade begins recruiting Arinok, Koren, and Wolvesbane, drawing them into a conflict that is much larger than they initially realize. What starts with attacks and violence around places like Hamlet eventually develops into a much broader struggle.
The story also introduces Father John and the Raniksha rituals, along with characters such as Dedral Arholk, Doblin, and King Hethros. There are secrets surrounding the different factions, hidden movements of weapons and steel, betrayals, captures, deaths, and revelations about the past of some of the major characters. The events surrounding Varen Peak, the hidden steel shipment, Wolfsbane’s capture, Koren’s death, and the destruction of Rines have all pushed the story into much darker territory.

There are certainly religious, ritualistic, supernatural, and occasionally disturbing elements. The book also has plenty of unusual names, symbols, terminology, and imagery. But those things are part of the fictional fantasy world and the larger conflict being developed by the story.

That’s why I don’t think it’s particularly accurate to look at one symbol, one ritual, or one piece of terminology and conclude that the entire book is somehow a Nazi or occult work. When you actually follow the narrative, it’s much more clearly a dark fantasy adventure about power, war, loyalty, corruption, good versus evil, and characters being pulled into a conflict they don’t fully understand.
I’m also documenting the book chapter by chapter as I read it, rather than trying to summarize the entire thing from outside sources or from isolated passages. I’m doing this because it’s a rare book, and I want to preserve what is actually in the text while also keeping track of the characters, events, names, and connections as the story develops. That way, anyone interested can see the context for themselves instead of having the book reduced to a handful of screenshots or accusations based on individual words and images.

I’m currently in Chapter 13, and I’m continuing to document it as I go.

Grabbed this at Goodwill today for 50 cents because I liked the look of it. I figured I’d get home, search the title, and maybe find a little information about it.
Nope.

The book is Kelmins Tower by Thomas Alexander Anthony, published by Rising Sun Publications in 1992.
ISBN: 0-9630915-1-4
Edited by Suzanne Boire
Cover art by Matthew Pearson and Walt Richardson

I’ve spent way too much time trying to track this thing down now.

I’ve searched the exact title and author, the ISBN, the publisher, the editor, the cover artists, different combinations of all of them, and variations of the title. I’m getting basically nothing useful.

No real book listings. No reviews. No obvious history of the publisher. No discussions I can find about the book. Nothing that tells me how it was published, how widely it circulated, or who Thomas Alexander Anthony even was.

It’s especially strange because it’s clearly a legitimate published book with an ISBN and credited editor and cover artists. It isn’t some handwritten mystery novel I found in a box.

So I’m hoping somebody here recognizes it.

Has anyone ever seen this book before? Does anyone know anything about Thomas Alexander Anthony or Rising Sun Publications?

I’m mostly interested in the history of it. Was this a tiny independent fantasy press? A self-published project? A local publication? Was there a small print run?

I honestly just want to know how a book published in 1992 managed to leave such a tiny footprint.

I paid 50 cents for it and somehow ended up with a research project.

Update 2:

For anyone wondering what this book is actually about, especially because some of the terminology, imagery, or references can look strange when taken out of context, I wanted to give a broader explanation of the story based on what I’ve actually read.
The book is a dark medieval fantasy centered around a growing conflict involving kingdoms, warriors, political power, religion, supernatural elements, and forces fighting for control. The story begins to follow several different threads that gradually start connecting.

One of the major threads involves Kelmin and the White Knights, whose rise in power becomes increasingly important to the story. On the other side, Slade begins recruiting Arinok, Koren, and Wolvesbane, drawing them into a conflict that is much larger than they initially realize. What starts with attacks and violence around places like Hamlet eventually develops into a much broader struggle.
The story also introduces Father John and the Raniksha rituals, along with characters such as Dedral Arholk, Doblin, and King Hethros. There are secrets surrounding the different factions, hidden movements of weapons and steel, betrayals, captures, deaths, and revelations about the past of some of the major characters.

There are certainly religious, ritualistic, supernatural, and occasionally disturbing elements. The book also has plenty of unusual names, symbols, terminology, and imagery. But those things are part of the fictional fantasy world and the larger conflict being developed by the story.

That’s why I don’t think it’s particularly accurate to look at one symbol, one ritual, or one piece of terminology and conclude that the entire book is somehow a Nazi or occult work. When you actually follow the narrative, it’s much more clearly a dark fantasy adventure about power, war, loyalty, corruption, good versus evil, and characters being pulled into a conflict they don’t fully understand.
I’m also documenting the book chapter by chapter as I read it, rather than trying to summarize the entire thing from outside sources or from isolated passages. I’m doing this because it’s a rare book, and I want to preserve what is actually in the text while also keeping track of the characters, events, names, and connections as the story develops. That way, anyone interested can see the context for themselves instead of having the book reduced to a handful of screenshots or accusations based on individual words and images.

Update #3: just posted a summary of the book for everyone.

Grabbed this at Goodwill today for 50 cents because I liked the look of it. I figured I’d get home, search the title, and maybe find a little information about it.
Nope.

The book is Kelmins Tower by Thomas Alexander Anthony, published by Rising Sun Publications in 1992.
ISBN: 0-9630915-1-4
Edited by Suzanne Boire
Cover art by Matthew Pearson and Walt Richardson

I’ve spent way too much time trying to track this thing down now.

I’ve searched the exact title and author, the ISBN, the publisher, the editor, the cover artists, different combinations of all of them, and variations of the title. I’m getting basically nothing useful.

No real book listings. No reviews. No obvious history of the publisher. No discussions I can find about the book. Nothing that tells me how it was published, how widely it circulated, or who Thomas Alexander Anthony even was.

It’s especially strange because it’s clearly a legitimate published book with an ISBN and credited editor and cover artists. It isn’t some handwritten mystery novel I found in a box.

So I’m hoping somebody here recognizes it.

Has anyone ever seen this book before? Does anyone know anything about Thomas Alexander Anthony or Rising Sun Publications?

I’m mostly interested in the history of it. Was this a tiny independent fantasy press? A self-published project? A local publication? Was there a small print run?

I honestly just want to know how a book published in 1992 managed to leave such a tiny footprint.

I paid 50 cents for it and somehow ended up with a research project.

Pictures of the book and copyright page included.

UPDATE:

For anyone wondering what this book is actually about, especially because some of the terminology, imagery, or references can look strange when taken out of context, I wanted to give a broader explanation of the story based on what I’ve actually read.
The book is a dark medieval fantasy centered around a growing conflict involving kingdoms, warriors, political power, religion, supernatural elements, and forces fighting for control. The story begins to follow several different threads that gradually start connecting.

One of the major threads involves Kelmin and the White Knights, whose rise in power becomes increasingly important to the story. On the other side, Slade begins recruiting Aranok, Koren, and Wolfsbane, drawing them into a conflict that is much larger than they initially realize. What starts with attacks and violence around places like Hamlet eventually develops into a much broader struggle.
The story also introduces Father John and the Raniksha rituals, along with characters such as Dedral Arholk, Doblin, and King Hethros. There are secrets surrounding the different factions, hidden movements of weapons and steel, betrayals, captures, deaths, and revelations about the past of some of the major characters.

There are certainly religious, ritualistic, supernatural, and occasionally disturbing elements. The book also has plenty of unusual names, symbols, terminology, and imagery. But those things are part of the fictional fantasy world and the larger conflict being developed by the story.

That’s why I don’t think it’s particularly accurate to look at one symbol, one ritual, or one piece of terminology and conclude that the entire book is somehow a Nazi or occult work. When you actually follow the narrative, it’s much more clearly a dark fantasy adventure about power, war, loyalty, corruption, good versus evil, and characters being pulled into a conflict they don’t fully understand.
I’m also documenting the book chapter by chapter as I read it, rather than trying to summarize the entire thing from outside sources or from isolated passages. I’m doing this because it’s a rare book, and I want to preserve what is actually in the text while also keeping track of the characters, events, names, and connections as the story develops. That way, anyone interested can see the context for themselves instead of having the book reduced to a handful of screenshots or accusations based on individual words and images.

I’m currently in Chapter 13, and I’m continuing to document it as I go.

The complete physical God of War collection, all together in one place.

From the original black label PS2 releases, to the PS3 collections and Ascension, to the PS4 remaster and the Norse saga. Every copy is complete in box, and opening each case to see the original artwork, manuals, inserts, and discs reminds me why I continue to collect physical games.

(I’m not counting the old mobile/Java phone titles since they never had physical releases.)

To me, this is more than a shelf of games. It’s a small piece of gaming history that’s worth preserving.
Physical games represent something that has become increasingly rare: true ownership. I don’t have to wonder if a storefront will close, if a license agreement will change, or if a game will be removed from a digital library. Years from now I can walk over to my shelf, choose a game, put the disc in the console, and experience Kratos’ entire journey from the beginning.

There’s also something special about the experience itself. Holding the original black label PS2 releases, opening the PS3 collection cases, seeing the inserts that came with the games, and appreciating the artwork makes the collection feel like more than just software. It’s a tangible part of gaming history that deserves to be preserved.

Digital games are convenient, and I buy them too when it makes sense, but they don’t replace the feeling of actually owning something. A physical copy isn’t just access to a game, it’s a piece of that game’s legacy.

Long live physical media.

The complete physical God of War collection, all together in one place.

From the original black label PS2 releases, to the PS3 collections and Ascension, to the PS4 remaster and the Norse saga. Every copy is complete in box, and opening each case to see the original artwork, manuals, inserts, and discs reminds me why I continue to collect physical games.

(I’m not counting the old mobile/Java phone titles since they never had physical releases.)

To me, this is more than a shelf of games. It’s a small piece of gaming history that’s worth preserving.
Physical games represent something that has become increasingly rare: true ownership. I don’t have to wonder if a storefront will close, if a license agreement will change, or if a game will be removed from a digital library. Years from now I can walk over to my shelf, choose a game, put the disc in the console, and experience Kratos’ entire journey from the beginning.

There’s also something special about the experience itself. Holding the original black label PS2 releases, opening the PS3 collection cases, seeing the inserts that came with the games, and appreciating the artwork makes the collection feel like more than just software. It’s a tangible part of gaming history that deserves to be preserved.

Digital games are convenient, and I buy them too when it makes sense, but they don’t replace the feeling of actually owning something. A physical copy isn’t just access to a game, it’s a piece of that game’s legacy.

Long live physical media.

I never beat the game so this will essentially be my first playthrough. It’s CIB and the pre order bonus Fighting Chance DLC wasn’t redeemed and worked even though it said on the voucher it expired in 2015.

I know it’s asking a lot but I’m really looking to have this cleaned up. It doesn’t have to be 4k and all the bells and whistles. Just nice to look at so we can print it as a 5x7 or something and doesn’t look all vhs like and grainy. This is the only image of them together smiling. I’d like it to look as natural as possible, I tried doing it myself and programs made the faces and other things look off. I’d like the black pole and date removed as well if possible. Thank you so much.

I purchased both of these games on day 1 of release. Both games are CIB with Reg cards still attached to manuals, and both guides have the poster still attached inside as well. Hope you guys like them.

Sorry for the low quality photo, but PlayStation blurs photos out when you try to take a screenshot.

During the mission “A Matter Of Considerable Delicacy” after a cutscene and leaving M’s Office, if you follow Monroe until he reaches the elevator and keep walking forward through an open glass door and take a left you will see two black leather chairs. The chair closest to the next closed glass door (the left chair if facing them) has this card on the right arm.

It’s slightly glitched into the chair and you cannot interact with it. Has anyone else seen this and or know if it’s just a placeholder? I haven’t seen many posts about it.

Edit: it is no longer there once you get back to M16 in the mission “Out Of Ashes”.

Still unpacking books but here is a decent amount of my Collection.

So I have the Japanese PS3 Dark Souls: Artorias of the Abyss Edition and after looking through it after years of storage I honestly wasn’t expecting the contents to be as mint as they are today. I’m a longtime Souls fan/collector and specifically love this version because I love the original PS3-era releases and preserving the older versions/history of these games.

The set itself is complete with:

soundtrack

prologue guide

game

outer slipcase

special map

The soundtrack disc is mint. The game disc is mint. The guide/prologue looks barely touched. But the thing that surprised me most is the included fold-out map/poster. I DID carefully unfold it today to inspect it and take the photos attached, but before it had either never been opened fully.

The folds were EXTREMELY stiff and tightly compressed. It actually took me a while just to slowly open it because the paper still has a very strong fold memory and naturally wants to stay folded. The paper stock is also much thicker than normal poster paper. It’s almost like a coated parchment/card-stock hybrid with a really premium feel to it. Condition-wise it’s kind of insane: no fold splitting

no tears

no moisture waviness

no discoloration

no weak intersections

no crushed corners

no major handling wear

It’s also double-sided:
one side is the sepia-toned Lordran/world map artwork

the other side has all the starting classes/art/stats

And honestly BOTH sides are incredible which makes the idea of framing it even harder. Before anyone says: “Just measure it.” I absolutely can if I fully flatten it out again, but the reason I’m asking first is because the folds are STILL incredibly rigid/stiff and I really don’t want to repeatedly flatten/re-fold something this clean if other owners already know the dimensions or have experience preserving/framing theirs. I’ve searched online and weirdly there’s almost no information about this specific map: very few photos

almost no framed examples

no confirmed dimensions I can find

barely any preservation discussions

So I figured I’d ask here because there are probably people who own this edition or have experience with archival/preservation stuff. Things I’d really appreciate advice on: Does anyone here own this exact Japanese Artorias edition map?

Does anyone know the exact unfolded dimensions?

Has anyone framed theirs successfully?

Is it safer long-term to preserve it folded?

Would scanning it and framing a reproduction be smarter?

If I frame the original, what’s the safest archival method?

Would a float frame be better than fully flattening/pressing it?

Should I let it slowly relax flat over time under very gentle weight?

Is there a way to display both sides safely?

How risky is it to flatten older thick-stock folded inserts like this?

Part of me wants to preserve it exactly as-is because it genuinely feels like a little preserved artifact from the original Dark Souls era. But another part of me thinks the artwork deserves to actually be displayed because in person it looks WAY cooler than I expected from a PS3 collector insert.
Would seriously appreciate input from:
Souls collectors

game collectors

framers

archivists

preservation people

or anyone familiar with older folded posters/maps.

Pics included.
Praise the Sun ☀️