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sA year and a half ago, I wrote a post about David Gemmell and how in my opinion he saved sword and sorcery fiction in the 1990s. I think it was after that that I found out the Legends anthologies. The books are subtitled “Stories in Honour of David Gemmell.” I was not familiar with […]
An Important Predecessor to Pulp, Fantasy, and Science Fiction: The Ruritanian Romance
Saturday , 3, February 2018 Before the Big Three, Book Review, Fiction 12 CommentsI first came across the Ruritanian romance, a genre featuring adventure in a small, fictional, usually European kingdom, in Nabokov’s Pale Fire. While that version was decidedly un-heroic, as Nabokov’s tragicomic works tend to be, it still impressed me as a promising setting for a story. Later, in Philip Jose Farmer’s Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of […]
If you backed Will Caligan’s Comic campaign, please check your email today. You will be receiving a survey that will permit you to cast ONE vote for the book or books you most want to see converted into a graphic novel. Simply click on the title you prefer to vote; note that a vote for The […]
Come, reader. Let us continue the review and commentary of the Conan stories of Robert E Howard. This episode is Tower Of The Elephant, first appearing in in Weird Tales, March 1933. Conan is young here. The internal chronology of the stories is subject to some guesswork. But it is fair to say that this […]
Science Fiction New Release Roundup: 3 February 2018
Saturday , 3, February 2018 Just Released 1 CommentThis week’s roundup of science fiction new releases features an interstellar vice cop going undercover, a husband discovering that his drowned wife is mixed up in a time travel mystery, and our introduction to the legendary leaders of the Four Horsemen mercenary companies. Broken Worlds: The Awakening – Jasper T. Scott Darius Drake is desperate […]
Rappaccini’s Daughter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Friday , 2, February 2018 Fiction, Short Fiction 3 Comments“For some purpose or other, this man of science is making a study of you. I know that look of his! It is the same that coldly illuminates his face, as he bends over a bird, a mouse, or a butterfly, which, in pursuance of some experiment, he has killed by the perfume of a […]
Space Bat by Carl Selwyn appeared in the Winter 1946 issue of Planet Stories. It can be read here at Archive.org. Something that has not yet ceased to amaze me is the wide variety (dare I say diversity?) of women characters in the pulps. Sure, most of them are young and attractive (though that’s not […]
Broadswords and Blasters #4 In this fantastic issue you will be introduced to the most badass grandmother that has ever existed in print, a retro space opera adventure about a two-fisted blaster wielding pilot, an epistolary tale of the corrupting influence of depraved love, and a new adventure for Benedict Arnold, Josh Gibson, and Genghis […]
New Release Spotlight: THE FOUR HORSEMEN: ALPHA CONTRACTS
Thursday , 1, February 2018 Just Released Leave a commentThe exciting prequel to the Four Horsemen Cycle by Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey. Before CASPers were the lords of the battlefield, men tested their metal against aliens one-on-one.” First contact has been made, and Earth’s militaries and its premier mercenary companies stand ready to take their first tentative steps outside the Solar System. With […]
Thank you to the 827 backers who raised $59,021 to fund three full-color volumes of Will Caligan’s Comic. The outpouring of support for Will is truly astonishing. Backers, emails should be sent out soon, allowing you to vote on the contents for the three volumes. Authors and titles include: Nick Cole (The End of the […]