Blog Archives
sShort Reviews: Cichol’s Children, From “Pulp Nova”
Wednesday , 26, April 2017 Book Review, Short Fiction 10 CommentsPulp Nova represents James Desborough’s attempt to recapture the spirit of the Golden Age of Science-Fiction. Written back in 2013, Desborough recognized even back then that the self-publishing made possible by changing technology was creating a publishing environment similar to that of the pulp era. The easy cost of production gives free rein to writers […]
How Not To Write Pulp: Brood of the Witch Queen
Monday , 24, April 2017 Before the Big Three, Book Review, Fiction 5 CommentsAs noted in a recent article, Sax Rohmer managed to write one of the greatest pulp novels ever, The Insidious Dr.Fu-Manchu, as well as one of its worst, Brood of the Witch-Queen. While I examined the former in-depth, I didn’t do so for the latter. Well, I believe any negative opinion of a book deserves a full […]
Last year, I speculated if military fantasy had enough good writers to make it a viable sub-genre. Operation Arcana is another Baen Books anthology offering of military fantasy. Baen Books published the trade paperback in March 2015. The mass market paperback came out in September 2016 at $7.99. John Joseph Adams is the editor. The […]
The Pulp One-Hit Wonder: Sax Rohmer
Saturday , 22, April 2017 Authors, Before the Big Three, Book Review, Fiction 14 CommentsAt first glance, it seems strange that Arthur Henry Ward, writing under the pseudonym Sax Rohmer, doesn’t garner more attention on this blog. After all, he wrote the enormously entertaining, successful, and influential The Insidious Dr.Fu-Manchu. But upon further reflection, it makes sense. The book in question is not fantasy or science fiction. And as we […]
Valerian and Laureline: Ghosts and Wrath
Thursday , 20, April 2017 Book Review, Comics, Fiction 5 CommentsLast month’s review of Ambassador of the Shadows introduced the BD comic of Valerian and Laureline, a legendary science fiction adventure with a forty-five year run. Influencing visual science fiction such as Star Wars, The Fifth Element, and various anime, in summer 2017, this classic tale will arrive on the silver screen in Valerian and the […]
Heavy Metal, and Sword and Sorcery: The Feedback Loop
Wednesday , 19, April 2017 Book Review, Short Fiction, Uncategorized 12 CommentsDavid C. Smith presents the first non-fiction piece in Swords and Sorcery II, and it’s a beauty. There exists a massive amount of scholarship on Robert E. Howard, his life, his history, and his work, and with very few exceptions (see: Damon Knight’s spiteful and amateur analysis), the analysts agree that Howard’s work conveys a […]
John Carter of Pellucidar
Saturday , 15, April 2017 Appendix N, Authors, Book Review, Fiction 18 CommentsNot too long ago, HP of Throwback Thursday fame and I decided to both read the same book and write up our reactions. This wouldn’t be the first time for us, though this time we agreed on a book mutually and well ahead of time. Because he is a gentleman, he also offered to let […]
A Fever-Dream Quest of Grab-Your-Infogalactic Kadath
Wednesday , 12, April 2017 Book Review, Short Fiction 7 CommentsThe works of H. P. Lovecraft are often imitated, but never reproduced and certainly never surpassed. It’s a rare sort of genius that can launch an entirely new genre of literature, and rarer still is the genius whose imitators so consistently fail to improve upon his works. In the decades since the great old one […]
900 WORDS OF EPIC RANT THE LIKES OF WHICH THE WORLD HAS SELDOM SEEN!
Monday , 10, April 2017 Book Review, Computer Games, Pulp Revolution 12 CommentsYES! It’s blog post time, time for me to crank out 900 words of scintillating prose in the form of a scathing review, a brutal editorial, or a brilliant and inspiring speech calling for the brave Pulp Revolutionaries to storm the citadel of Tradpub and cast down their Golden Idols. Hey, I’m Daddy Warpig—it’s what […]
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. […]
Jon Mollison has the lowdown on Castalia House’s latest monster hit: The Amazon blurb brags that, “Kalsi shows himself to be more Asimovian than Asimov himself.” I wouldn’t go quite that far. The Corroding Empire fails as an Asimov pastiche (tribute?) in a few ways. It features a long string of characters who are well rounded […]
“I Like You, Too” by Joe Gibson appeared in the October 1948 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. After a couple of duds which followed Brackett’s masterpiece, this issue of Thrilling rights itself with the fun and somewhat bizarre “I Like You, Too” by Joe Gibson. Given the recent arguments here over Hard SF and Pulp, […]