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sThis is it, the final Retro Fandom Friday for some time! People were abuzz in the Vizigraph about the Fall issue of Planet Stories, which featured Enchantress of Venus as its cover story. I totally did not plan for this to fall on the day that our Illustrated 70th Anniversary Edition of Enchantress of Venus […]
Last fall Fenton Woods dropped an unheralded work of brilliance on the literary world with which teased us with Pirates of the Electromagnetic Airwaves (previously reviewed at CH) the subtitle Yankee Republic Book #1. The series continues in the recently released Book #2, Five Million Watts, in which Fenton Woods pulls the curtain a little further back on […]
I have been reading Charles R. Saunders for 35 years now. I first read him in Swords Against Darkness IV (Zebra Books, 1979) with the story “Mail Kulala.” I digged his brand of hard-boiled sword and sorcery fiction. I immediately read Imaro (D.A.W. Books, 1981) and The Quest for Cush (D.A.W. […]
With laughter and mockery closing off wish-fulfillment fantasies set in the familiar world around light novel readers, light novel fantasists escaped into other worlds, taking their everyday Japanese characters with them. These in another world fantasies, sometimes called portal fantasies in English but better known as isekai in Japanese, soon became the dominant genre of light novels, enjoying popularity […]
Living dungeons, vengeful spies, and a Marine turned into a god feature in this week’s collection of the newest releases in fantasy. A Brightness Long Ago – Guy Gavriel Kay In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. […]
Sword of Fire, by Emmett McDowell, was the featured cover story of the Winter 1949 issue of Planet Stories. It can be read here at Archive.org. At last we get to the exciting cover story of the Winter issue! Dashing raygun pulp hero Jupiter Jones is on a mission for the Galactic Colonization Board to […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Want Slice of Life anime? Try “Silver Spoon”
Tuesday , 21, May 2019 Superversive 2 CommentsSo I have lots and lots and lots of ideas (I’ve been meaning to do a write-up on “Hunter x Hunter” for a loooooong time)but am also quite busy. So here’s a great, relaxing, feel-good anime suggestion for you: “Silver Spoon”. Normally this is not the type of show I’d even consider watching in a […]
Sensor Sweep: Roger Zelazny, Tros of Samothrace, Fred Saberhagen, Eyrie of the Dread Eye, Charles Beaumont
Monday , 20, May 2019 Sensor Sweep 1 CommentAuthors (Rich Horton): Roger Zelazny would have been 82 today, but, dammit, he died way too young in 1995. I loved his short fiction but I haven’t written a lot about it, so instead I’ve taken four rather short bits, capsules, really, that I did of four of his novels, for my SFF Net newsgroup […]
20th Century Small Arms: Alternate Histories, Counter Factuals, and Speculations
Sunday , 19, May 2019 War Leave a commentA reader of both the history of firearms, history, and science fiction generally leads to a collision of all three. I have discussed how many governments chose not to make changes in small arms. Light machine guns were seized upon with enthusiasm but not self-loading rifles. You start to think of “what ifs?” The Third […]
Light novels have been a frequent topic in pulp fantasy, combining the evolution of the pulp magazine with Japanese pop culture to various degrees of success. In the 1970s, Japanese publishers combined pulp magazines with anime-inspired illustrations aimed at teens and young adults. Since then, the market for these short, pulpy and fannish novels (about […]
This week’s science fiction new releases have unearthed derelict ships, genetically-engineered heroes, an armored fist of mecha tales, and sleeping threats best left undisturbed. Children of Ruin – Adrian Tchaikovsky The astonishing sequel to Children of Time, the award-winning novel of humanity’s battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Thousands of years ago, Earth’s terraforming program […]