Monthly Archives:
sI think a fair case could be made that the most significant thing about the advent of the internet is that it has greatly facilitated the discussion and development surrounding independent and amateur role-playing games. It’s a nonstop party out here… and if there was a time when I was sad that there just wasn’t […]
REVIEW: Darla of Deodanth by Louise Sorensen
Friday , 7, April 2017 Pulp Revolution, Short Fiction 6 CommentsWell there’s no way around it. And it’s not like I wasn’t tipped off about this via the exquisite Ben Rodriguez cover depicting a hot adventure-girl in a fungus-filled room with a stock standard Lovcraftian horror tentacle waving at her– and gosh, her torch. What is up with that torch made out of a human […]
The Square Pegs by Ray Bradbury appeared in the October 1948 Issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. The Square Pegs is an idea piece that taunts us with what it could have been but was not. It may be one of the scariest Bradbury stories I’ve read, though it’s not a horror story. It left me […]
In light of the extensive discussions on the history of science fiction and fantasy that we’ve had here, I have to say that I was surprised when I heard this excerpt of a lecture by Dr. Jordan Peterson today. See, the overall gist of his thesis is something I’ve heard almost verbatim from the 1934 Edgar […]
This is the one case in short science fiction and fantasy fiction where the author has already delivered that last word on the critical assessment of his own material. Considering this: “The Prolapsing Empire is a Hugo Award worthy short story – about 6,500 words – featuring blunt force political message draped with a thin […]
From my previous columns, one might think I live in the past and never play anything new. But, recently I did play something new, er, newish, sorta new. That is was a player in a session of Modiphius’s: Mutant Year Zero which was released around 2014, I think. It has a lineage way back to […]
Readers familiar with the Pulp Revolution have certainly by now heard that with the death of the pulps, many genres fell out of favor. Hero pulps, sword and sorcery, and planetary romance have all declined from the heyday of the 1930s, often replaced entirely by other expressions of fantasy and science fiction. Yet as we […]
JUST RELEASED: The Prolapsing Empire by E. Reagan Wright
Thursday , 6, April 2017 Just Released 4 CommentsThere had never been a more deserving Re-Scriber for a promotion to Chief Officer, Political. Doey’s years of slaving away in the Culture Mines finally paid off, and now he was one step closer to the tippy-top position of the Aynal Empire. His first mission as Chief Officer, Political, was a simple run through the […]
REVIEW: A Kiss for the Mirrorman by Adrian Cole
Wednesday , 5, April 2017 Pulp Revolution, Short Fiction 8 CommentsOkay, this one’s just plain nuts. Is it a superhero tale? A dystopian cyberpunk adventure? A Philip Marlowe style noir-detective story…? Yes… it’s all three at once. And it’s absolutely crazy. Does it work? You know, you could argue that it all comes down to personal preference, but I think even as offbeat as this is […]
That Than Which There Can Be No More Terrible, by Michael Scalzi
Wednesday , 5, April 2017 Short Fiction 9 CommentsIn retrospect, it makes sense that one might find a ‘philosophical thriller’ lurking within the pages of a full-throated sword and sorcery collection of short stories written by metalheads. Those guys are generally well read and widely read, and the powerful effects in their music arises in part by their drawing inspiration from deep philosophical wells. That […]
Note: This is an article I originally wrote for the Superversive blog way back in 2015; naturally nobody noticed. With the discussion about comics starting up again I thought it would be timely to bring it back. As I’ve made clear in the past, I’m a big fan of Netflix’s Daredevil, despite having never seen […]
GUEST POST: The Most Overrated Novel of the 20th Century by Alex Stump
Tuesday , 4, April 2017 Book Review 66 CommentsWe all know the old saying “curiosity kills the cat”. For me though, curiosity can ether bring me joy and wisdom or pain and misery. And the subject being DUNE, it’s kind of in between. Written by Frank Herbert and released in 1965, DUNE is considered by many to be a landmark of sci fi. […]