Blog Archives
sThe Last Kingdom is a historical fiction series based on the Saxon Stories novels by Bernard Cornwell. The first season was produced by BBC, with Netflix co-producing the second. Set in the 9th century during the viking invasions of the British Isles, the story follows the exploits of a fictional noble Saxon taken by the invaders […]
The Forsaken Sequel: The Unforsaken Hiero
Monday , 1, May 2017 Appendix N, Authors, Book Review, Fiction, Uncategorized 8 CommentsAppendix N entry Hiero’s Journey by Sterling Lanier is one of my favorite books. A thrilling masterpiece of fast-paced creativity and high adventure from start to finish. Its protagonist is Hiero Desteen, a powerful telepathic Christian warrior riding a “morse”, a mutation of a moose and a horse, in a post-nuclear wasteland filled with oddities, horrors, and […]
Certain writers evoke a time and place in an especially vivid manner. To the point that a reader gains a genuine sense of familiarity with a setting completely alien to his own experience. Its sights, sounds, and way of life. One might imagine this is the province of serious dramas, but I have come across it […]
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 […]
The Strange Career of Robert Sheckley
Saturday , 15, April 2017 Authors, Fiction, Short Fiction 8 CommentsScience fiction writer Robert Sheckley was born in New York City in 1928 and died there in 2005. He lived most of the intervening years in the United States. And yet, he was never more than a moderate success in his native land. His short stories attained some popularity, with a few being adapted into […]
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 […]
The Atomic Age Narrative: Galactic Empires
Sunday , 9, April 2017 Fiction, Short Fiction, Uncategorized 13 Comments“Campbell saw man as a tool-making animal.”-Brian W. Aldiss Brian W. Aldiss (born 1925) edited some of my favorite science fiction anthologies. I have read a little bit of Aldiss’ fiction but not much. I do respect the guy because he was in the British Army in Burma in World War 2 in Gen. William’s […]
Readers familiar with the Pulp Revolution have certainly by now heard that with the death of the pulps, many genres fell out of favor. Hero pulps, sword and sorcery, and planetary romance have all declined from the heyday of the 1930s, often replaced entirely by other expressions of fantasy and science fiction. Yet as we […]