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sLast week, I began to examine The Philip K. Dick Reader. I had quoted Algis Budrys who observed Dick’s short fiction in the 1950s was all over the place. Here are the next five stories: “The Last of the Masters” (Orbit No. 5, November-December 1954). Post-apocalypse is a recurring item in Dick’s fiction. This starts […]
No, John DiFool, you understand nothing! I am not a computer. I am alive, just like you! And destiny has brought us together to restore justice to the universe. – The Incal The 1980s saw the pages of Metal Hurlant and Heavy Metal filled the strange allegorical journey that is The Incal. Writer Alejandro Jodorowsky […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 27 February, 20201
Saturday , 27, February 2021 Uncategorized 1 CommentMysterious starships, alien invaders, magical queens, and betrayed dragons fill this week’s new releases. Ashes Fall (Ember War: The Ibarra Crusade #1) – Richard Fox Earth suffers under a brutal alien occupation. But one young man from beyond the galaxy’s edge brings hope. Ely Hale returns to the Earth with a desperate plea from his […]
Sensor Sweep: Glory Road, David Trampier, Galaxy Warriors
Monday , 22, February 2021 Sensor Sweep 2 CommentsFiction (Ken Lizzi): Swords & Sorcery is L. Sprague de Camp’s first entry in his four-volume series that spanned seven years. His introduction — an early sample of the short essay he’d return to with variations on the theme often enough — is a decent explication concerning what heroic fantasy consists of. (I found myself […]
If you go to the Internet Movie Database and type in Philip K. Dick, there are 38 credits listed. I can’t think of any other American science fiction writer from the classic era of magazine and mass-market paperbacks with this many media adaptations. Philip K. Dick was a prolific writer of science fiction stories during […]
The sequel to Alexander Hellene’s The Last Ancestor, entitled The Second Sojourn, has been recently released in ebook and paperback. With a forthcoming review in the works, let’s take a look back at the first of The Swordbringer series. Alexander Hellene’s The Last Ancestor follows the last remnant of Christianity in the galaxy, now on the alien […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 20 February, 2021
Saturday , 20, February 2021 Uncategorized 1 CommentDueling dungeon lords, FTL space races, and a deadly Green-goo nanite swarm transform this week’s new releases. Corruption (The Necromancer’s Key #2) – Mitchell Hogan When a depraved rot is exposed at the heart of the Order, Anskar is forced to confront the growing power of the dusk- and dark-tides within himself, and find a […]
Sensor Sweep: Red Nails, Frank Frazetta, Swords of Fire, Crypt of the Devil Lich
Monday , 15, February 2021 Sensor Sweep 2 CommentsRobert E. Howard (Adventures Fantastic): Robert E. Howard’s final Conan story, “Red Nails”, relates how Conan and his fellow adventurer Valeria come upon a giant, totally enclosed city, Xuchotl, where the inhabitants have divided up into two factions and are in a deadly war to wipe each other out. As is well known, Howard used […]
Racial memory/ancestral memory/genetic memory– a concept used in fiction for fantastic effects for 140 years. H. Rider Haggard used the idea in The Ancient Allan, Jack London in The Star Rover, Edwin Lester Arnold’s Phra the Phoenician, and Robert E. Howard’s “James Allison” stories. Someone in the present remembering a past life of an ancestor. […]
They told me they needed me to go to Samaris, as the rumors had been going on too long… …and the only way to put a stop to them was to send someone there to see what was really happening. On a counter-Earth 180 degrees removed from our own, a young officer in service to […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 13 February, 2021
Saturday , 13, February 2021 Uncategorized Leave a commentAncient dungeon administrators, hidden Terran rebels, and rival military services lead this week’s new release list. Anima (Artorian’s Archives #6) – Dennis Vanderkerken and Dakota Krout New world. Old problems. Even gods must die. Artorian has been given the lovely opportunity to run a realm and sort out all of its inherent issues. Not only […]
Cinema-Comic Books-Pulp (Slashfilm): Hollywood is about to see double with Buck Rogers. The pulp hero, who is already getting a TV reboot starring George Clooney from Legendary Pictures, is also getting a new movie, this one from Skydance and backed by the estate of author Philip Francis Nowlan. And while competing projects about a single […]