“We solved every case we worked on. It’s just that the solutions weren’t always pretty. An explosion here, an inferno there, and in the end, we’re left with a mountain of corpses, and, incidentally, a solution.”–Kei, “The Great Adventure of the Dirty Pair”

When science fiction writer A. Bertram Chandler visited Japan in the late 1970s, he had no idea that a stray comment would spark a multimedia science fiction franchise. When his hosts, including Haruka Takachiho of Crusher Joe fame, took Chandler to see a joshi (women’s) wrestling match, the antics of Takachiho’s assistants prompted Chandler to say, “”the two women in the ring may be the Beauty Pair, but those two with you ought to be called ‘the Dirty Pair’.” That stray comment sparked a novella that mixed Western pulp science fiction, Japanese joshi wrestling and idol singing, and a double-helping of chaos into what would be a classic raygun romance–if the Dirty Pair’s infamy didn’t keep scaring off potential suitors.

The Lovely Angels (don’t ever call them the Dirty Pair to their faces) is the code name for a pair of young trouble consultants. Kei, the narrator for the stories, is a brash, boastful, and lively hothead lifted from the covers of the pulps. Her partner, Yuri, is a demure Japanese beauty that acts as the brake to Kei’s recklessness–and the occasional focus of Kei’s jealousy as well. Together, Kei and Yuri form a set of complementary opposites–and a psionic duo straight out of John W. Campbell’s dreams. The resulting property damage, however, is straight out of a nightmare. In the best tradition of wrestling heels, the ensuing chaos is never quite their fault.

Like many Japanese stories, The Great Adventure of the Dirty Pair wears its inspirations on its sleeve. From wrestling, the series gets the outfits, names such as Lucha and the WWWA ( World Welfare Works Association from the World Women’s Wrestling Association), Kei and Yuri’s larger than life personalities, and their heelish yet sincere protests that the disasters in their wake are never their fault. The names Kei and Yuri are taken from the same assistants who entertained Chandler. From American science fiction pulps, the Dirty Pair steal liberally. Rayguns, heatguns, flying saucers, and Campbelline psionics feature prominently in the stories. Kei’s hair and build is classic pulp cover-girl, while the interior art is a mix of 1940s Weird Tales interior art and manga. Their adventures are the sort of trigger happy-detective story that filled the hero pulps. And, yes, that is a coeurl Kei and Yuri are riding on the cover, complete with the nickname “Black Destroyer”–and the special diet and property damage required by a hyper-intelligent alien cat. The result is a strange East-meets-West version of Northwest Smith, if Northwest Smith and Yarol were replaced by sorority girls.

While the two novellas in The Great Adventure of the Dirty Pair are standard futuristic versions of crime tales, complete with the requisite twists and betrayals, Kei’s narrative voice is the star of the show. Her larger-than-life exuberance practically drips from each word, even after translation into English. Some of this is due to Kei’s constant wrestling-style self-promotion, but Dark Horse did a masterful job in translation. Few English-language science fiction stories–and almost no light novels translated since–have such a vivid, unrestrained, and selfish voice animating their words, much less one trying to style herself as a heartbreaker and a lifetaker to potential partners and rivals alike.

At the end, when the villains are arrested, all the worlds are wrecked, and the refugees resettled, the Dirty Pair novel always preserves its pulpy sincerity, complete with the foreboding that the Lovely Angels will soon wreak their accidental havoc on a new world. Read More

Every week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.

My Sister Suprema – Chuck Dixon and Anthony Gonzales-Clark

Randy is a bright young boy who devours comics and dreams of becoming a superhero. One day, he discovers a secret formula on the Internet that claims to provide an individual with superpowers. After assembling all the ingredients and technology required, he experiments with the process, but the whole thing goes terribly wrong. Somehow, by accident, his big sister Cecelia ends up with the very superpowers he’d been seeking for himself. And she has no idea what to do with them.

It falls to Randy to help her figure out what her powers are, select a costume, choose a superhero name, and teach her what it means to be a superhero. But while Randy and his sister are trying to figure things out and hide her new powers from their parents, the villain whose formula Randy inadvertently discovered is hunting for the thieves who stole his secret.

Preservation (Battle Mage Farmer #6) – Seth Ring

Insane cult trying to undermine the stability of society? Powerful mage whose very presence unmakes the world?

John doesn’t care. He’s getting married.

After rescuing Katrine, sealing himself into a manaless state, and defending against the most dangerous beast tide the world has ever seen, John only has one thing on his mind. Getting married, and going on a honeymoon. Oh, and trying to figure out a way to keep the world in one piece.

That quest will take him to worlds unknown, and pit him against enemies beyond anything he has ever faced. Thankfully, he’s not alone, and between Ellie and Ferdie, he has the best companions a simple farmer could ask for.

The Serpent Stairs (Essence Wielder #1) – Dan Michaelson and D. K. Holmberg

Dax Nelson was destined to protect the empire. When he’s gifted the power of an unusual essence, everything changes.

The Great Serpent grants a gift of powerful essence to those who come before him. The experience, and the gift, is unpredictable but all have a vision of the Great Serpent so they can understand the purpose of their essence.

Not Dax.

With his new essence, rather than learning from his father, he now must go to the Academy to learn to control his essence. It’s not fire as all in his family possess, but even the most powerful in the Academy don’t know what it is—or what it means for Dax.

And the only thing he remembers from his visit to the Serpent Stairs may be key to stop an attack on the empire, if he can understand his essence in time.

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Every week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.

The Council of Yoran (The Chain Breaker #12) – D. K. Holmberg

The Chain Breaker must fall. Something greater must rise.

A dark power builds, but Gavin and his allies can’t find its source.

Much of what he’s learned has been fragments of what he needs. Gavin must find a way to bring it all together if he wants to protect the future.

But the key to stopping the danger may involve a sacrifice he’s unwilling to make.

He can’t fight his way past the danger that comes. The Chain Breaker must fall.

Who—and what—will replace him?

Dark Menace (Space Raiders #3) – Ken Lozito

The message came warning that Nate’s friends have been captured.

Aliens are abducting juveniles across the galaxy, and every species is a target, including humans.

Nate is certain he knows who’s responsible, but it’s impossible because they’re supposed to be dead.

Determined to uncover the truth and rescue his friends, Nate embarks on a journey that leads him down a galactic rabbit hole, exposing the darker undercurrents of galactic society and the fight for justice.

For Nate, it’s personal. For everyone else, it’ll be costly.

Dragonskull: Crown of the Gods – Johnathan Moeller

The ultimate artifact of dark magic. Only one may wield it.

At last Gareth Arban has found the resting place of the Dragonskull, the deadly weapon of dark magic that can either rule or destroy the world.

But the sorceress Azalmora has also found it and will do anything to claim the Dragonskull’s power.

To free the world from the Dragonskull’s curse, Gareth must pay the ultimate price…

Gruesome Futures (Tales to Make You Vomit #4) – edited by J. Manfred Weichsel

The librarian is back with her first misanthropic anthology!

When three brave astronauts embark on a trip to the moon, little do they know that a hidden purpose awaits them—an alien signal detected from the moon, shrouded in secrecy to prevent panic on Earth. The lunar module is damaged upon landing, stranding the astronauts on the moon’s surface, with no hope of returning home. Determined to fulfill their mission, they follow the mysterious signal to a crater, leading them beneath the moon’s surface and into an enigmatic library.

Here they meet the Librarian, a seemingly harmless elderly woman with a nefarious agenda. The bilious bibliosoph has decided to put humanity on trial by forcing each astronaut to read a sickening science fiction book from her liverish library. If just one can read a book without throwing up, the earth will be spared. But each time one of the astronauts gets green around the gills, the librarian will launch, by catapult, a giant rock at the earth, which will, upon impact, cause massive loss of life. As the bizarre book bazaar unfolds, the astronauts face an unsettling realization—the final rock will bring about the destruction of Earth. Read More

Every week, the Castalia House Blog spotlights some of the many new releases in independent, pulp, and web novel-influenced science fiction and fantasy.

Lord of a Shattered Land – Howard Andrew Jones

The Dervan Empire has at last triumphed over Volanus, putting the great city to the torch, its treasures looted, temples defiled, and fields sown with salt. What little remains of Volanus is scattered across the empire, its wealth plundered and its survivors sold into slavery. It is an absolute victory for the Dervans in every way but one.

Hanuvar, last and greatest general of Volanus, still lives. He now travels the length of the Dervan Empire that conquered his homeland, driven by a singular purpose—to find what remains of his people who were carried into slavery across the empire, and free them from subjugation by any means necessary.

Against the might of a vast empire, he had only an aging sword arm, a lifetime of hard-won wisdom, and the greatest military mind in the world, set upon a single goal. No matter what the empire musters against him, no matter what man or monster stands in his way, from the empire’s festering capital to its furthest outposts, Hanuvar would find his people, every last one of them.

And he would set them free.

No Easy Dead – Jake Bible

A deadly wasteland. An elite unit. Can they protect the Stronghold?

In the post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested wastes, there is one beacon of safety in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains: The Stronghold.

For decades, the inhabitants have fortified and defended the Stronghold from zombie hordes, building their society and culture on military precision.

And chosen from the best of the best is Denver Team Alpha. DTA is the elite strike force used to rescue survivors and refugees that have made it to the hellish wasteland of Denver below. But because of the unbelievable risks, and high mortality rate, DTA has come to stand for something else: Dead Team Alpha.

Now, DTA will be put to the test as something far worse than zombies comes at them out of the wasteland…

Psi Wars 3: Imperium – Rick Partlow

They thought the war was over…the enemy had other ideas.

Two years after the end of the Psi War, Caleb Mitchell is Emperor in all but name, leading his armies on a crusade to cleanse the colony worlds and Earth itself of the last of the psionic madmen known as the Changed.

But the citizens of the Commonwealth weren’t the only ones devastated by the war; the criminal cartels in the Pirate Worlds are in chaos, their trade cut off, their resources running out.

A young warlord named Amos Dobrev rises up to unite the cartels into a union they call the Syndicate. He builds an army of psionic supermen and tries to carve out his own kingdom among the former Commonwealth colonies.

Dobrev says they are only doing what they have to do to survive. Mitchell considers Dobrev a threat who needs to be put down before he destroys everything that’s left.

And caught in the middle is Randall Munroe, Mitchell’s right-hand man, trying to decide whether the bigger threat is an outlaw Syndicate…or the power of Cal Mitchell’s Imperium.

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