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Military science fiction coalesced as a distinct form of fiction in the 1970s. Gordon R. Dickson showed the way with this “Dorsai” stories in Analog in the 1960s. Jerry Pournelle’s “CoDominion” stories in Analog and David Drake’s “Hammer’s Slammers” stories in Galaxy in the 1970s solidified a new genre. The first military science fiction anthology […]

Raiders of the Second Moon by Basil Wells (as Gene Ellerman) appeared in the Summer 1945 issue of Planet Stories. Of all the short stories I’ve read over the last year, Raiders of the Second Moon is by far one of my favorites.  I would go so far as to say it’s a perfect sword […]

LEGEND OF THE GALACTIC HEROES, VOLUME 1: DAWN by Yoshiki Tanaka; translated by Daniel Huddleston (Haikasoru, tpb, 292pp, $15.99) In 1982, the already prolific mystery, SF, and fantasy author Yoshiki Tanaka published Ginga eiyu densetsu (Legend of the Galactic Heroes), the first book in what would become a ten volumes series. It would go on to […]

This is part 4 of 5 dealing with the Robotech novelizations. Click here for parts 1, 2, or 3. So the first, second, and third generations of Robotech were the result of rewriting three animated Japanese scifi series into one over-arcing and thirty year long story. In order to link those  generations together and explain […]

This is part 3 of 5 dealing with the Robotech novelizations. Parts 1 and 2 are here. Last week I talked about Robotech‘s second generation, the story of rebellious brat put in charge of a squadron of transforming tanks and the events that spell Earth’s imminent doom that result from her command. Okay, that’s not […]

I have been reading William Lind for about ten or eleven months. I generally go to the Traditional Right website very two weeks to see if Mr. Lind has a new piece up. Having read a good number of his online blog entries and also the downloads at the resources tab, I was eager to […]

Prodigal Weapon by Vaseleos Garson appeared in the Summer 1945 issue of Planet Stories. Prodigal Weapon was, at best, a missed opportunity.  Like Garson’s later story, The Little Pets of Arkkhan, I can see this being made into a mediocre episode of Outer Limits or Star Trek, but, for a story about laughter, it offers […]

I have a sweet tooth for WWIII novels. While at the local Barnes & Noble last week, I spotted Rick Campbell’s Empire Rising. I had to buy it. It one of those paperbacks that is in between a mass market paperback and trade paperback and retails for $9.99. The back cover has this: “The President […]

Young Josh was a voracious reader without video games or internet to distract him– and homeschooled to boot, so all that time spent not being distracted by other students meant he read literally everything in the science fiction section of the library. Or at least gave it a shot; I remember trying Gene Wolfe’s Book […]

Adventure fiction, unfortunately is one of those almost dead genres, just ahead of boxing fiction. There are some fantastic tinged novels by Clive Cussler, Douglas Preston, and James Rollins that straddle adventure. They are generally techno thrillers with gadgetry and world wide conspiracies owing more to Lester Dent (Doc Savage) than Jack London. Picking up […]

Red Witch of Mercury by Emmett McDowell appeared in and was double-billed with Spider Men of Gharr as the featured story of the Summer 1945 issue of Planet Stories. I’m no longer surprised by how good the average Planet Stories piece is.  Going by what some of fandom was saying in the subsequent issue’s Vizigraph, the […]

Okay, this one is just plain neat. Stuff from Sci Phi has been kind of hit and miss with me– see here and here for details– but Ben Zwycky’s Beyond the Mist is not just good, it is occasionally even astonishing. In these jaded times where it often seems as if everything’s been done better already, this book […]