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sThe late 1980s brought a new sort of Weird Tales anthology, the bargain hardback. Peter Haining’s Weird Tales stood as a lone monument for 20 + year period. Marvin Kaye’s anthology in 1988 was part of a new era along with anthologies edited by Robert Weinberg, Stefan Dziemianowicz, and Martin H. Greenberg. Robert Weinberg had […]
Short Reviews – The Enchantress of Venus by Leigh Brackett
Friday , 20, May 2016 Book Review 1 CommentThe Enchantress of Venus by Leigh Brackett appeared as the featured cover story in the Fall 1949 issue of Planet Stories. This novella is the second (chronologically the 3rd) book in the original Eric John Stark Trilogy. While Stark is pretty badass, I’d only peg him as 4th level. Also of note, this may be the […]
The Weird Western “sub-genre” is an odd classification, because one of the hallmarks of Western novels, stories, comics and movies is their naturally occurring internal morality, often defined (often obliquely) as a Code – most famously, the “Code of the West.” This code is not rooted in the natural world, but is intrinsically supernatural. For […]
John C. Wright has a new book on the way. This one’s going to be delivered a little differently, but have no fear. This isn’t like all those other Patreons out there. The posts are all going to be public, so he’s basically using it as a sort of “pay what you want” platform. But […]
WARGAME WEDNESDAY: Fire in the Lake, Silent Victory, and Combat Commander
Wednesday , 18, May 2016 Wargames 1 CommentThe big news this week is that Andrew Ruhnke’s Falling Sky is arriving at the homes of wargamers the world over. Twitter is lighting up with images of skrinkwrapped wargames emerging from their boxes of foam peanuts. Those that are holding out for the upcoming two-player COIN game by Brian Train are meanwhile getting a look at […]
SUPERVERSIVE: The Quantum Thief trilogy by Hannu Rajaniemi
Tuesday , 17, May 2016 Uncategorized 4 CommentsI’ve probably established that I’m a fan of giant robot stories by now, but that’s not actually where my fondest love lies, sci-fi-wise. Mecha and power armor are great features that I absolutely love, but they’re not a necessity. A story weak on sense of wonder (or some other draw) won’t pull me in just […]
I recently received this comment on my Appendix N series recently from a student of classic science fiction and fantasy calling himself Atlemar: You make the observation here that “It used to be normal for science fiction and fantasy fans to read books that were published between 1910 and 1977. There was a sense of canon […]
Building a Weird Tales Library: Part 6
Sunday , 15, May 2016 Short Fiction, Uncategorized 3 CommentsStories that originally appeared in Weird Tales continued to pop up in anthologies in the late 1970s. Michel Parry was a prominent anthologist in the late 1970s. From the Archives of Evil (1976, Warner Books) and From the Archives of Evil II (1976) are paperback reprints of Christopher Lee’s “X” Certificate No. 1 and Archives […]
Short Reviews – Coming of the Gods by Chester Whitehorn
Friday , 13, May 2016 Book Review Leave a commentComing of the Gods by Chester Whitehorn was featured in the Summer 1945 issue of Planet Stories. One of the many reasons why I’m doing Short Reviews is to share what stories from the pulps were like and what they were about, as many of these have never been collected or reprinted; I feel that […]
SF Coverage in Transition: SF Signal Shuts Down, io9 Makes Move
Thursday , 12, May 2016 Fiction, Uncategorized 21 CommentsAfter covering nearly the last decade and a half of science fiction publications, movies and events, SF Signal is shuttering its doors. From John DeNardo and JP Frantz, founders of SF Signal: When we started SF Signal in 2003, it was because we loved speculative fiction. Having a blog allowed us to share that love with other […]
SENSOR SWEEP: Lovecraft’s Imitators, Byproducts of Modernization, Globalizing Genres, and Subverted Stereotypes
Wednesday , 11, May 2016 Sensor Sweep 8 CommentsAppendix N (Zak S.) Lovecraft, Nerds And The Uses of Ick — “These sheltered, life-phobic souls: shy, nervous, fragile, conflict-averse, fastidious, introverted bookworms, whose main social outlet is nerd conventions, with their small circle of gentle hobbyist correspondents are, ironically, imitating Lovecraft because they haven’t read Lovecraft, or haven’t learned anything from reading him. They aren’t […]
What Makes An RPG an RPG And Not Some Other Kind of Game?
Tuesday , 10, May 2016 Tabletop Games 15 CommentsBy this point, we have amassed quite a few reasons for why we just can’t talk about RPGs. In the first place, the Inquisitors of RPG Ecumenism are liable to show up at any moment and smother the discussion. Next, Zak S. has observed a myriad of reasons for why there is no RPG Theory. As if this […]