Monthly Archives:
s“I Like You, Too” by Joe Gibson appeared in the October 1948 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. After a couple of duds which followed Brackett’s masterpiece, this issue of Thrilling rights itself with the fun and somewhat bizarre “I Like You, Too” by Joe Gibson. Given the recent arguments here over Hard SF and Pulp, […]
THROWBACK SF THURSDAY: The Autumnlands Vol. 2 by Kurt Busiek
Thursday , 16, March 2017 Comics 8 CommentsWhy should you be reading The Autumnlands? For one, the art is gorgeous. I’ve got copies of the new Darth Vader comics, Ms. Marvel, Rat Queens, Saga, The Walking Dead sitting on my bookshelf. Only Saga has artwork that even comes close to that in The Autumnlands. It’s detailed, beautifully drawn, wildly inventive, and richly […]
The pulps are supposed to be racist. I mean, if you hear anything about the pulps it generally about how racist they are. Somehow the legions of people that are literally shaking after reading “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” never talk about how the pulpiest of pulp science fiction romances was between an ex-Confederate and a Red […]
We would, I think, agree that Margaret St. Clair is one of the (late) pulp era greats. Here is her autobiographical essay published in Fantastic Adventures (Ray Palmer ed.) in November 1946[1] to accompany her first published science fiction story: “A Rocket to Limbo.” There are a few notable things here, I think: First, notice […]
An empire of genocidal artificial intelligences threatens to overwhelm humanity, held back only by the combined fleets of humanity’s lone superpower, the Majesterium. The allied might of the dozens of human systems who owe fealty to the Star King have long stood as a unified bulwark against the Syntharchy…until now. The alliance threatens to unravel […]
One of the most exciting things to come out of the Appendix N discussion is the number of people that have gone from having not much to read to having more in their to-read pile than they can keep up with. And it makes sense, really. The books in Appendix N defined fantasy and science fiction. […]
LEGEND is a dark fantasy adventure film, directed by Ridley Scott, starring Tom Cruise as Jack, Mia Sara as Princess Lily, and Tim Curry as Darkness, a traditional devil complete with horns and hooves. It’s a traditional fairy tale, with some of the lushest sets ever devised, and a brilliant costumed performance by Tim Curry. Even […]
Daddy Warpig is IN DA HOUSE! Time to cause another riot. One of the strange side-effects of the last two years is that I’ve gotten to know a ton of editors and published writers, and get invited behind the scenes, as it were. And some of what I see is heartbreaking. “Is this okay to […]
I’ll always have a bit of a soft touch for Palladium games. I mean… no sooner had I stumbled across a stray copy of the iconic Moldvay Basic D&D set, than I had a desire for something like that, but weirder. And Palladium was right there waiting with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness. […]
The Lost Works columns propose to review the authors of Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, as it contains the backbone of what an older generation read and understood fantasy fiction to be, and what, until recently, all fond fans of fantasy would have recognized as their shared core of works. The series proper begins with […]
Last summer I reviewed a little book with the unassuming title of Mutiny in Space. Left to my own devices, I usually pick up books with big, grandiose titles like The Vindication of Man or The Big Event of Cosmic Importance with a Thing That Sounds All Powerful. Mutinies are all fine and good, but […]
The Girl With All The Gifts is a Big Old Pile of Nihilist Garbage!
Monday , 13, March 2017 Movies 36 CommentsThe Girl With All The Gifts is crap. It’s worthless. It’s a big old pile of nihilist garbage. It’s a waste of your time and money, even if you get to see it for free. (See Opportunity Cost.) It’s so awful, it makes me angry. Now, I promised The-Powers-That-Be here at the blog that I […]