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sSensor Sweep: Planetary Adventures, Fritz Leiber, 80s Movies
Monday , 28, June 2021 Sensor Sweep 1 CommentGaming (Walker’s Retreat): This is my review of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. (“FF14” and “ARR”, respectively.) It does not cover any of the expansions, as those will be reviewed seperately at a later date. Analysis of the game’s narrative is covered seperately at my writing blog, the Study, called “A Narrative Reborn”; the […]
The fourth issue (June 1957) of Science Fiction Adventures had another cover by Emsh illustrating Harlan Ellison’s “Run for the Stars.” Algis Budrys makes his first appearance in Science Fiction Adventures with “Yesterday’s Man.” I enjoyed Budrys’ The Falling Torch, a novel of guerrilla warfare against occupying aliens. “Yesterday’s Man” is a post-apocalyptic story of […]
A new season brings a new edition of adventure magazine Cirsova, complete with unknown stars, feats of heroism, and quick-paced twists worth of the classic Argosy magazine. Continuing the direction set down by its fifth anniversary, the Summer volume presents a mix of old favorites and new stars, with an eye for longer tales this […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 26 June, 2021
Saturday , 26, June 2021 Uncategorized Leave a commentClassic planetary adventures, interstellar giant robots, and litRPG archeologists fill this week’s new releases. Drifter’s Folly (Peacekeepers of Sol #4) – Glynn Stewart When United Planets Alliance Captain Henry Wong and Ambassador Sylvia Todorovich attempted to bring peace to the Ra Sector, they turned to the Drifters for neutral ground. Instead, the nomadic spacers betrayed […]
Sensor Sweep: Howard Days, Derleth Christmas Card, Tolkien Society Seminar
Monday , 21, June 2021 Sensor Sweep 7 CommentsRobert E. Howard (Orthosphere): Considering that he died at thirty, Howard’s literary accomplishments can only impress. Stylistically, he operates at a level many ranks above that of the typical pulp writer. His vocabulary includes a rich lode of Latin and Greek derivations and likewise of English archaisms. Brought up, from age thirteen, in the small […]
Science Fiction Adventures: April 1957
Sunday , 20, June 2021 Pulp Swordsmen, Short Fiction 2 CommentsThe April 1957 issue of Science Fiction Adventures had a sensational red cover by Ed Emsh. The three novellas format continued. “Clansmen of Fear” by Henry Hasse was the cover story. This is a post-apocalyptic story as was so common in 1950s science fiction magazines. Hasse is probably best remembered for the story “He Who […]
“My name is Crest da Zolral.” The alien was waiting for them by the inner hatch of the airlock. “I am an Arkonide. In your terms, I’d describe myself as the scientific leader of this expedition.” As tensions rise in 2036 between America, Greater Russia, and China, an American moon base goes dark. NASA attempts […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 19 June, 2021
Saturday , 19, June 2021 Uncategorized Leave a commentPlagues of super heroes, time-traveling interstellar wars, and eternal keyboard warriors fill this week’s list of new releases. Cirsova Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense Issue #7 / Summer 2021 – Edited by P. Alexander The fearsome legions of the God Badaxe are on the march, cleaving a bloody swath through the magical land […]
Sensor Sweep: Pulp Covers, Black Sails, Starship Troopers
Monday , 14, June 2021 Sensor Sweep 6 CommentsArt (Lithub): But it isn’t only great detective novels that have gotten the pulp treatment. Classic works of literary fiction have existed as pulps from the very beginning of pulp—the new paperback publishers of the 1940s and 50s printed them right along with classic crime and some genuinely lowbrow (and sometimes quite lurid) new novels, […]
The February 1957 issue of Science Fiction Adventures again featured three “complete new action novels.” The cover by William Bowman for Robert Silverberg’s “Slaves of the Star Giants” was not as good as the first issue. “Two Worlds in Peril” by James Blish and Phil Barnhart started the issue. James Blish might be best remembered […]
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 12 June, 2021
Friday , 11, June 2021 Uncategorized Leave a commentScience fiction’s most popular hero returns in this week’s science fiction and fantasy releases. Blood and Steel (Tranquility #1) – Josh Hayes and Devon C. Ford They came to start a new life. Now they have to fight for it. Joel Lander wants nothing more than a fresh start, far from Earth and wars that […]
THE MIDNIGHT SEA by Ian Cameron Reviewed by Richard Toogood THE MIDNIGHT SEA opens, evocatively, on the bleak snow swept runway of Benbecula aerodrome in the Outer Hebrides. It closes upon an ebbing tide of the Kola Inlet. And dividing the two are twelve tumultuous days occupied with what Sir Winston Churchill described as “the […]