Hugos (Esquire): Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects to resemble a star nebula, this is the 59,000-square-foot Chengdu Science Fiction Museum, constructed at lightspeed over the course of a single year to host the 81st World Science Fiction Convention, also known as WorldCon. For writers and readers of science fiction and fantasy, it’s like the National Book Awards, the Academy Awards, and San Diego Comic-Con all rolled into one.

Fantasy (Black Gate): In my opinion, Andrew Offutt’s greatest contribution to literary history is the five book anthology series he edited called Swords Against Darkness. They were simply called I through V and published between 1977 and 1979, all by Zebra. I’ve got them all and have read them all.

Conan (Silver Key): Some would say there is no good Conan pastiche*, that the only stories of the Cimmerian worth reading are the 21 originals by Robert E. Howard. If that’s you, I get it. Me? I have no problem with pastiche, because I can differentiate new takes on the character from canon. They are something apart. That’s why I am able to enjoy the 1982 film, and Savage Sword of Conan and Conan the Barbarian the comic, even (gasp) the Lancer paperbacks with the L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter additions.

Fantasy (The Guardian): Not many authors are treated to a rockstar reception like this – but Maas’s books, the most popular of which are the Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses series, have sold 37m copies worldwide in 38 languages. The American novelist is among a new generation of uber-bestselling authors writing “romantasy”, a portmanteau of “romance” and “fantasy” applied to novels that blend elements of both genres.

Conan (Education Forensics): In Caravan of the Damned, Conan and his crew commandeer a caravan that is not only laden with riches, it has the princess – the beautiful and priceless treasure – who is to be married upon arrival. The story is constantly shifting between Conan’s brutish and impulsive crew, the arrogant yet beautiful princess, with Conan in the middle, trying to figure out how to get to the destination, as well as wring all the value from the caravan.  These various plot lines create a swirling, enjoyable mess.

Weird Tales (Tellers of Weird Tales): Maybe it was a step down for Houdini to get involved in pulp fiction, but that’s what he did, meeting Weird Tales publisher J.C. Henneberger in his Chicago office in early 1924. (3) The two men swung a deal, and that’s how the Houdini issues of Weird Tales came about. I won’t go into the particulars here. You can read about the people, places, and events involved in John Locke’s history, The Thing’s Incredible! The Secret Origins of Weird Tales (2018), pages 136-156.

Conan (Sprague de Camp Fan): “The Shadow of Vengeance” first appeared in Savage Sword of Conan V2, #1 – 12, Marvel Comics, 2019. I should have read the story then. But reading in monthly installments did not appeal to me. In any event I’m glad Titan Books has reprinted this story in The Heroic Legends e-book Series. Hopefully a print collection will appear in the future. But buy them NOW or that may never happen.

Appendix N (Goodman Games): Farmer found early acclaim in the pulps, winning the Hugo in 1953 for Best New SF Author only a year after the publication of his first tale in Startling Stories. He continued writing for Startling Stories where his work would be found beside that of other Appendix N luminaries like Jack Vance and Fletcher Pratt. Other early works can be found in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, a publication that features a letter to the editor from Gary Gygax himself in the August 1963 issue.

Edgar Rice Burroughs (Dark Worlds Quarterly): The Lost Cities of Tarzan range far and wide across the world. The original novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs are filled with lost lands and cities, often in pairs with Hatfields & McCoys going at it for centuries. This post is going to look at the lost cities from the perspective of the comics that adapted these novels. Not every novel received an adaptation but most were done. I should acknowledge Gaylord DuBois and Joe Kubert as the writers who did those adaptations.

Games (Fandom Pulse): Last night, Sony announced an enhanced Until Dawn port for PS5 and PC from developer Ballistic Moon. This news raises questions about why Until Dawn’s original developer, Supermassive Games, has yet to make a sequel to the popular survival horror game. New information reveals Supermassive did consider a Until Dawn sequel that eventually evolved into 2022’s The Quarry. In 2022 interviews with 6 former Supermassive employees on the studio’s work culture, some mentioned The Quarry began as a pitch for Until Dawn 2.

H. P. Lovecraft (Tentaclii): Italian philosopher and SF story writer Eric Marschall takes a look at Lovecraft: Knowledge and terror in a new ebook. Marschall looks at… “the fear of knowing and the love of knowledge that are both present in Lovecraft’s stories”. Amazon will send you a free 10% sample. In which one finds that the book starts from general philosophical ideas about such matters and then tries to map these onto aspects of Lovecraft’s fiction.

Western (Comics Radio): Harry Whittington was a prolific writer. He penned a Man from U.N.C.L.E. that became a best-seller. He wrote a number of hard-boiled, often brutal crime novels. So it’s not surprising that his Westerns were also brutal and hard-boiled. Desert Stake-Out (1961) is perhaps the best example of this. Blade Merrick, a sometimes scout for the army, is tasked with bringing a wagon-full of medicine to a epidemic-ridden mission.

D&D (Tenkar’s Tavern):We are beyond pleased and honored to announce that the powers that be have released multiple works of the late Gary Gygax to Troll Lord Games for mass-market publication. These include the complete Gygaxian Fantasy World series, Castle Zagyg: Yggsburg, Castle Zagyg: East Mark, Castle Zagyg: The Manse, Castle Zagyg: Mouths of Madness, Castle Zagyg: The Dungeons (including all 17 handcrafted levels and any sublevels).

Horror (Horror Babble): Audio of ”The Feast in the Abbey” by Robert Bloch.

D&D (DM David): Over the 50-year history of Dungeons & Dragons, the game has changed enough that some gamers prefer the early versions of the rules to duplicate the play style of 1974. Have the qualities of good dungeon master changed too? For a tour of DM advice over D&D history, I sought the D&D adventures that included advice, from In Search of the Unknown (1979), to Peril in Pinebrook (2023), and pulled the best, worst, and most dated guidance.

Star Trek (Book Graveyard): When I first picked this book up I thought it was just a random sci-fi horror novel. I didn’t notice until I got it home that it was actually a Star Trek book. That’s cool though cause I love Star Trek. Especially the original series and that’s exactly what we have here, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scottie, Sulu and well, that’s all of the usual players for this one.

History (Grumpy Wizard): Tom Shippey’s Laughing Shall I Die is an examination of the viking attitudes about death and how they lived knowing that they would almost certainly come to a violent end. It’s a book worth reading if you are interested in the vikings or how the stories about vikings influenced the sword-and-sorcery genre.

Sword & Sorcery (Tule Fog Press): Happy New Year! Well, it’s still January, at least. Our last roundup was right before Thanksgiving, so welcome back. Hope to be more consistent in 2024 – let’s shoot.

James Bond (Crime Reads): In his new book, James Bond After Fleming, author Mark Edlitz examines the world of 007 post-Fleming. And, like any story that spans the decades, there is good and then there is bad. Amis was also picked to write the first continuation novel, titled Colonel Sun, released in 1968, which thrilled readers and some critics.

Obituary (Locus): Horror writer Brian Lumley, 86, died January 2, 2024. Lumley was best known for his Mythos fiction, and for the bestselling Necroscope series. Lumley was born December 2, 1937 in County Durham in England, and served in the military police in the British Army for 22 years before retiring in 1980 to write full time.

Event (DMR Books): On October 14, 1994, the late 20th century’s premier author of both Sword & Sorcery and horror; editor of Carcosa Press, Conan, and the Year’s Best Horror Stories series; and native son of Knoxvile, Karl Edward Wagner passed away. In honor of his 30th anniversary since passing, come join your fellow KEW fans for this one-day event to commemorate his legacy. All are invited to attend, though seating is limited to 48. Cost is $20 per person. We are moving to a wait list until further notice.

Cinema (Hollywood Reporter): The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is inspired by recently declassified files of the British War Department, which told of a secret band of military officials formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

New (Too Much Horror Fiction): Around Spring 2024, Grady Hendrix, Valancourt Books, and I will be unleashing two devilishly good horror titles in our series of Paperbacks from Hell reprints: Jere Cunningham‘s The Legacy (1977) and The Abyss (1981).

Robert E. Howard (M Porcius): Our exploration of Weird Tales continues, today with the May 1938 number.  This issue of “The No. 1 Magazine of Bizarre and Unusual Stories” prints installments of serials by two authors I like, Henry Kuttner and Jack Williamson, but on this occasion we’ll limit ourselves to a famous story by Texan Robert E. Howard which I read decades ago, a piece by our pal Edmond Hamilton of Ohio.

Sword & Sorcery (DMR Books): A reader, who I will call Utahjim, asked me a great question the other day. He had been reading L. Sprague de Camp’s The Spell of Seven (1965) and recognized that many of Sword & Sorcery’s most famous characters appeared there. Fafhrd & Gray Mouser, Elric, Conan. He asked: If you could only have one book to sum up the superstars of the genre, which one would you pick?

Warhammer (ENDYMIONtv): Amazon & Games Workshop have officially updated their Warhammer 40K live action universe & Henry Cavill has officially been revealed in his new position. Also China’s entire game industry implodes over night & companies are panicking, so let’s talk.

Games (Wertzone): There has been a recent surge of interest in BattleTech, the venerable franchise about people piloting giant robots and trying to beat up or destroy other giant robots, all in a well-realised setting (think of Pacific Rim meets Game of Thrones and you’re halfway there).

Cinema (WDW Pro): Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny final streaming numbers are in. It’s bad enough it was beaten by Ms. Marvel. It’s worse that it was roundly defeated by Peter Pan and Wendy. Ouch. Now there’s more stuff coming out about the new Indiana Jones game that was supposed to launch the franchise to new heights. It could just be the greatest low yet.

Fantasy (DMR Books): This year sees the 100th anniversary of A. Merritt’s fantasy classic, The Ship of Ishtar. The novel first appeared as a six-part serial in the pages of the venerable pulp, Argosy All-Story Weekly (running from November 8, 2024 through December 13, 2024), before appearing in hardcover two years later published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

RPG (Goodman Games): The year was 2003, and a young entrepreneur named Joseph Goodman set out with the idea to present role-playing adventures in the style that he loved as a kid.

He called that project Dungeon Crawl Classics. Over the years, Dungeon Crawl Classics has seen many incarnations and designs, but the mission has remained the same: to present the best adventures in the role-playing industry.

Tolkien (Notion Club Papers): Most of Tolkien’s best poetry is in The Lord of the Rings; but in 1962 he published a collection called The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (ATB) which was beautifully illustrated by Pauline Baynes.

Science Fiction (Fantasy Literature): Looking back, it strikes me with some surprise that, up until very recently, I had not read any of sci-fi Grand Master Clifford D. Simak’s shorter work in over 40 years. Oh, I had read any number of the author’s novels during those four decades, but since reading his 1968 collection So Bright the Vision back in 1981, none of his work of a shorter length. Coming to my rescue in this regard was the Wisconsin-born writer’s All the Traps of Earth, which had been sitting here at home on a shelf, unread, for ages now.

RPG (Skulls in the Stars): Dark Sun (1991), by Timothy B. Brown and Troy Denning. This is a big one: probably the most innovative and ambitious campaign setting that TSR introduced into Dungeons & Dragons, and one that also introduced innovative play mechanics.

Lovecraft (DMR Books): Hello, good readers, and welcome! Blessings and gladness to you all. Please, friends, step out of the gloom and the dark, and be gleeful in the firelight of Art, Literature, and creative thought. Thank you for joining me here to briefly contemplate H. P. Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model” and the “Pickman’s Model” segment of Night Gallery.