Blog Archives

Meanwhile… (Nerdette) The Past, Present And Future Of Sci Fi With N.K. Jemisin — “Science fiction has, for years, allowed a fairly vocal subset of its readership to declare that the only true science fiction is stuff that was written 50 or 60 years ago, that the pulps of the ’40s is what the genre is all […]

Old School (Weird Words of Joel Jenkins) One Last Book for the Year — “Alexandre Dumas is a literary genius, and this book is a confirmation of that. It was serialized in 1844 and 1845 and there is a reason it took so long to serialize–mainly because the book is humongous. I’m pretty sure I read […]

Erasing the Pulps (Hooc Ott) Tarzan in Strange Beds — “Heinlein got the idea for the novel when he and his wife Virginia were brainstorming one evening in 1948. She suggested a new version of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book (1894), but with a child raised by Martians instead of wolves.” Role-Playing Games (Just The […]

Pulp Revolution (Puppy of the Month Club) Prologue — “We don’t read any book here, though, but those that represent the spirit and style of fiction that was once popular and emulated, but now has waned, even if there are already many signs of a resurgence. And Thune’s Vision is one of those signs. And […]

Appendix N (The Pulp Archivist) Questions for Investigation — “When did the idea that the pre-Campbell weird tales and the pulps suck become common? I have a hard time believing that it was prevalent during the 30s through the early 70s. Many of the early Campbell writers were friends with Lovecraft and his Mythos circle. […]

Traveller (Tales to Astound!) TRAVELLER: Out of the Box–“Giants of the Imagination” — “In particular, the tales that inspired early RPGs (books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jack Vance, Robert E. Howard, and countless others) were never about one definitive setting, obsessed with the defining the top-down organization and structure like some obsessive compulsive gazetteer. Instead, […]

Appendix N (Civilized Bears) Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Tribute to Tarzan’s Creator, A Personal Hero — “Why such fond memories of ERB’s yarns? They were fun to read, of course. That English Victorian morality of honour and loyalty and duty always felt right to me. Still does. ERB had a fantastic imagination and was at […]

Pulp Revolution (The Puppy of the Month Book Club) Author Interview: Brian Niemeier — “In hindsight, I think it’s safe to say that the Soul Cycle—Nethereal in particular—is responding to the same creative exhaustion in contemporary genre fiction that’s motivated the pulp revival. Almost every story released by the major movie studios and publishing houses […]

Appendix N (Cirsova) The Son of Tarzan — “Really, The Son of Tarzan could’ve just as easily been called The Daughter-in-Law of Tarzan. Though the narratives’ focus on Meriem doesn’t ratchet up into high gear until the middle of the novel, Burroughs has given us something that the first book lacked – a co-protagonist who […]

Appendix N (Every Day Should Be Tuesday) Throwback SF Thursday: Women of Futures Past, edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch — “You wouldn’t think a story about an expedition to the South Pole could be boring, but Le Guin has done it.  This is the sort of nasty, dull story the literati love.  It isn’t science […]

Appendix N (Hooc Ott) Tarzan the Cimmerian And Conan of the Apes — “Conan and Tarzan are both clean-(cut)-limbed, black haired, blue/grey eyed, black Irish, super agile, big kitty killing, noble savages made of steal and Iron. Howard and Burroughs use some similar words phrases descriptions, scenarios and reference Plato’s Atlantis. Convincing evidence in my […]

The Scouring of the Shire (CS Globe) 70 Years Ago Today, WWII Vets Took Up Arms Against Corrupt Cops and Ran Them Out of Town — “After the former soldiers retrieved pistols, shotguns, and various other weapons, throngs of citizens joined them in surrounding the county jail where at least 25 deputies had run for […]