There’s a rare lull in the breakneck world of independent science fiction, so while the New Release feature is catching its breath for a couple weeks, let’s look back at the pulps.

What is pulp fiction?

That is a loaded question, as pulp fiction encompasses many different genres. Science fiction, hard-boiled detective stories, heroic crime fighters that would inspire today’s superheroes, sword and sorcery, and the awful menace of the weird lurking around every corner. And those are just the genres created in pulp’s golden age. Pulp fiction also featured detective cozies, romance tales, westerns, historical adventures, war stories, horror, and more all served up by the dozen for a dime or a quarter per customer. Because of this stunning variety in genre and style, many critics shrug their shoulders and say that pulp fiction is fiction that was published on pulp paper.

In other words, a medium, not a genre.

The name comes from the paper these stories were written on. Cheap, rough, low quality. Pulpy. Completely different from, and some atop their ivory towers would say inferior to, the slick quality of the magazines used for proper literature and proper stories. Such elitist still drips from pulp’s critics today. But when H. L Mencken needed money to support his high-brow literary magazine, he turned to the pulps and founded Black Mask. Mencken’s literary journal was saved, and Black Mask went on to found literary genres, writing styles, and even film noir.

Pulp publishers could be fly-by-night as they chased success. The average pulp imprint lasted little over a year. Some, no longer than an issue. This volatility forced pulp writers into writing self-contained short stories. And if a character was popular enough to warrant a return, the following stories were episodic. Gone were the serials, as unless a writer was fortunate enough to write for stable and successful magazines like Argosy, there was no guarantee a magazine would survive to the serial’s conclusion.

But 1940s wartime shortages moved many pulp magazines away from pulp paper and into the digest format. The paper might have changed, but the stories did not. So something essential to these stories continued to survive in this new medium. And, indeed, continues to do so, as German science fiction serials, American men’s adventure, African photonovels, and Japanese light novels all contain elements of their pulp fiction forebears. Even today, many look back to the golden age of pulp fiction for inspiration in storytelling, style, and milieu. Call it neopulp, dieselpunk, Pulp Revival, or Pulp Revolution, if you wish. The spirit of pulp fiction still lives on. Read More

Every week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.

Cirsova #20/Fall 2024 – edited by P. Alexander

Thirteen tales of heroic adventure and daring suspense, including:

An ancient vampire has plotted his long revenge against the family that has warred with him and hunted his kind for years and found a new ally in a small-time thug!

Clock, the mystic warden of Coney Island, is on the trail of two killers… who have been recently brought back to life by the dark powers they serve: the Isaloge!

Thomas Nolan, “Saint” Tommy, has been called in on a strange murder: a teenage girl has been murdered and seemingly dragged under the earth… by plants!

Psychic agent Lorena has fallen captive to French and Indian raiders… As the orgy of violence begins, she realizes her powers of suggestion have failed her!

…and more!

Killing Stroke (Backyard Starship #23) – J. N. Chaney and Terry Maggert

The stars have come to Iowa, and the earth will never be the same.

With the Nexus up and running, Van and crew become interstellar players in the fight for earth, but their enemies aren’t just from out in the black. Sensing massive profits, the scramble to exploit humanity pits Van against his own people—and Yotov, whose plans have finally come to fruition.

With political warfare, the Equal Grasp seeks to do what missiles cannot—remove Van from the picture. But he’s a lot tougher than that, and Icky’s hammer is swinging freely, and the crew are international stars, portrayed as the heroes of a world that reaches beyond the sky—into deepest space and beyond.

With one last throw of the dice, Yotov will unleash the hidden reserve of power she’s been hiding. If it works, Van will be dead. Or worse.

Because Yotov and the Equal Grasp don’t just want power. They want control of life itself, and they’ll stop at nothing to get it.

Shield of Conquest (The Shield War #3) – Johnathan Moeller

Battle and dark magic await!

Ridmark Arban has led the army of Andomhaim to the Isle of Kordain, ready to wage war upon the sinister Exarch of the Seven Temples and her fanatical soldiers.

But powers older than either Andomhaim and the Seven Temples have fought over the Isle, and a lord of the dark elves sees the chance to seize the Isle for himself.

And if he is not stopped, first the Isle and all the world will burn…

Taming the Raging Storm (Dragon’s Dawn #4) – Dan Michaelson and D. K. Holmberg

Laric discovers there are places even dragons can’t reach. The Dragon Dawn series continues.

Pursuing the Grand Mage forces Laric Mason to make a choice—stay and protect his home, or chase a threat that poses a danger to all of the remaining dragons.

As Laric learns the truth of his grandmother’s quest for glyph knowledge, he uncovers even greater dangers than he could have imagined.

And his uncle had not told him the truth of what Korthal faced. The Grand Mage may be a part of something much larger than Laric had imagined.

If he can’t find the answers his grandmother sought, his home might not be the only land destroyed. Read More

Every week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.

Lance (Conscript #3) – Scott Bartlett

Planet Nibiru wants them dead. All of them.

Trapped by the destruction of their own satellites, the Marines on Nibiru suddenly find themselves without orbital or air superiority.

With help months away, Po and his brothers must quickly figure out how to stabilize and survive against an exploding alien insurgency.

Po learned young to rely on no one but himself. Now, he’s slowly realizing that nothing from bootcamp, or from his trials on Earth’s moon, could have prepared him for this.

If he can’t rip up some deep-rooted beliefs about his place in the universe, and fast, it may cost him his life.

Shadow Contract (The Hunter #1) – David Beers

The galaxy’s deadliest man never planned to be a savior…

Meet Vesuvius: the galaxy’s most feared bounty hunter with a blood-soaked past.

His mission? Protect a kid.

But he’s not just any kid—Adam is the prophesied savior. Vesuvius’s contract mandates safe delivery to the religious sect that believes this, navigating a perilous universe where every faction seeks to exploit the boy.

There are enemies at each corner and a betrayal from within his own order.

Vesuvius must outwit foes. Ensure Adam’s survival. All while wrestling with a past that he thought he’d killed.

Stakes have never been higher.

If he fails in delivering Adam, the universe is sure to plunge into chaos. If he succeeds, perhaps he can find redemption.

Shadow Wired – Gustavo Bondoni

He’s a man of a thousand names. They call him Brown. They call him Sked. But they never truly know who he is.

He is more than just a hacker. He is a man trained to infiltrate the most secure facilities on Earth and fight his way back out if necessary. And he is the best at what he does.

Sked works in the shadows, a few steps on the wrong side of legality, for whichever party can pay his fees, in a world where people are wired to the net and everything is under surveillance. When Akane, the love of his life goes missing, Sked tracks her from the dives of Bangkok to the mountains of Peru.

In the process he finds himself embroiled with a criminal group who vows to hunt him down and kill him, and even space might not be far enough to escape their clutches.

That is what life looks like as one of the Shadow Wired.

When Wizards Follow Fools (Arcane Ascension #5) – Andrew Rowe

Corin Cadence has been summoned to meet with the Emerald Council, a political summit including the most powerful of all attuned and their closest political allies. His summons came with a dire warning — that war was coming to the nation of Valia. But while Valia is no stranger to warfare, the circumstances of this invasion are dire.

Valia’s visage, Tenjin, remains missing. Many of the nation’s leaders were slain during Mizuchi’s attack, and others killed or injured through Saffron’s machinations. With a critical power vacuum in Valia’s leadership, few can be trusted.

Surrounded by old enemies, tenuous allies, and strangers with their own agendas, Corin will need to leverage every skill he’s learned to help salvage his nation’s fate.

Read More

The Castalia House Blog is pleased to spotlight exciting new projects in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.

Cirsova Publishing is excited to announce that it will be publishing Adrian Cole’s Dream Lords saga in a collected edition for its 50^th Anniversary.

The Dream Lords represented Adrian Cole’s debut in his long and incredibly prolific career in science fiction and fantasy. The Dream Lords was originally published in single volume format through Zebra Books, with A Plague of Nightmares and Lord of Nightmares appearing in 1975 and the finale, Bane of Nightmares, released in 1976.

This new edition collects all three Dream Lords novels in omnibus for the first time, revised and with new foreword to the series.

Cirsova Publishing has been publishing Adrian Cole’s new Dream Lords in its flagship magazine since 2016, and this anniversary omnibus will precede Dream Lords: Legacy, a first-ever collection of this new material.

The Dream Lords 50^th Anniversary Omnibus will be available through Kickstarter, launching 10/1/24, in both hardcover and paperback. [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cirsova/the-dream-lords-50th-anniversary-omnibus]

About the Author

Adrian Cole has had some thirty novels and numerous shorts published, including ebooks and audio books, for nearly fifty years, writing sf, fantasy and horror.  NICK NIGHTMARE INVESTIGATES won the prestigious British Fantasy Society Award for Best Collection (2015).

His fantasy quartet, THE OMARAN SAGA was well-received in both the UK and US. His most recent work, an alternative Romano/Celtic trilogy, WAR ON ROME, is currently being printed in the US.

About the Publisher

Cirsova Publishing began in 2016, launching its flagship quarterly fantasy magazine, which has published over 30 issues. They are also known for publishing Michael Tierney’s Wild Stars science fantasy saga, Mongoose and Meerkat and other works by Jim Breyfogle, and the strange fiction of Misha Burnett. Earlier in 2024, Cirsova Publishing released JD Cowan’s Star Wanderers and Jim Breyfogle’s A Bad Case of Dead.