Science Fiction (Bloody Disgusting): Sometime in the spring of 1937, while
still struggling to make any sort of living as a writer, he pitched an idea to the editor of Argosy magazine, Jack Byrne, to use the thushol from “Brain-Stealers” in a horror story set on earth. Byrne liked the idea and Campbell set out to write the story and had completed the first version, titled Frozen Hell, within a couple of months of this meeting. The story was rejected by Byrne, who according to Campbell said, “it’s a good yarn, good ideas, good writing. But there aren’t any characters in it.”
Cinema (The Wrap): Ten years ago, Disney’s “John Carter” opened nationwide.
Meant to be a potential franchise-starting blockbuster, it was savaged by critics, who called the film “wanly plodding and routine” (Entertainment Weekly), and “a giant, suffocating doughy feast of boredom” (The Guardian), and was met with indifference by general audiences, who simply didn’t show up. (It opened in second place, behind forgotten animated Dr. Seuss adaptation “The Lorax”).
Conan (Sprague de Camp Fan): “The Pool of the Black One” was first
published in Weird Tales, October 1933. It was reprinted in The Sword of Conan, Gnome Press, 1952. It is the fourth and last story in Conan the Adventurer, Lancer Books, 1966.
Enigmas drive art. The first one there creating something new was the square peg that is perceived as an odd ball, the loser, the outcast.
One type of movie that I realized that I like watching is the bio-pic about artistic types who struggle with family, life, society. These sort of movies are different. I enjoyed watching the life of Cleveland comic book guy Harvey Pekar made into American Splendor.
I just found out about a movie of this sort last week and watched it in Tubi. It made me think of two other films that to me have a theme.
Movies about writers are hard to do. I once talked to Roy Thomas about Gardner Fox. Roy said to me that the most exciting thing for Gardner Fox every day was going out to get his mail. Writers are generally planted in front of their typewriter. Read More
“Race, you’re one in a million of your kind–and I guess that I am one in a million of mine. Come! I’ll give you a name as feared as yours. They call me ‘The Red Peril’.”
I just gasped up at her. This slip of a girl, the most notorious woman burglar the underworld has ever produced!
Race Williams returns, fresh off of bouts against the Klan and blackmailers. This time, an unsavory man throws $1,000 at him to not take a certain young woman’s case–to find lost diamonds. Instead, Race takes the case to spite the scumbag.
For Miss Muriel Barton needs those diamonds to receive her inheritance–an inheritance soon to be spent to find her missing half sister, Nellie Coleman. By accepting her case, Race Williams finds himself unraveling a web of intrigue and blackmail keeping the half sisters apart. And when he follows a lead to the diamonds, he crosses the path of a masked burglar who has her own interest in the case.
The Red Peril. Read More
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 12 March 2022
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Dragonskull: Blade of the Elves – Jonathan Moeller
Gareth Arban wants to become a knight and win glory enough to marry the girl he loves.
But death is the other face of glory.
When invaders sweep out of the north wielding mighty dark magic, it will take more than a squire’s bravery to stop them
A knight armed with sword & shield isn’t prepared for a dagger in the back.
Gareth Arban intends to return to Tarlion to marry the woman he loves.
But dark forces seek the Dragonskull, the lost relic of power, and Gareth is the key to finding it.
Unless Gareth watches his back, his death will be the first step on the path to the Dragonskull…
Hard Luck Hank: Fourth Quadrant – Steven Campbell
The royal family of a powerful empire are visiting Belvaille for an upcoming diplomatic summit. But their plans are somewhat interrupted when the galaxy’s premier assassin shows up and eliminates every single aristocrat. All except for one child who had been hidden.
Hank is happy minding his own business. Of course, his business entails robbing, extorting, eating lots of food, and fighting. But compared with the rest of the criminals of his city, he’s practically a saint. However, Hank’s easy existence is interrupted by the chief of security who entrusts him with safeguarding the royal survivor.
Along with his unsavory friends, Hank struggles to keep the last child alive while avoiding the Navy, bounty hunters, organized crime, and the most successful assassin in history. If Hank fails, it will result in catastrophic economic collapse brought about by a vengeful empire.
I’m the Bad Guy!?: Shadow Over Ziral – Kenneth Arant
Why, oh why couldn’t he have plot armor?
After waking up as a “bad guy” inside his favorite anime, stopping a royal kidnapping, and headbutting one of his character’s bullies, Aren was finally ready to begin his academy arc… but then the plot screwed him over.
Something is stirring in the mountains and it’s driving the native monsters wild, forcing them to migrate toward the academy. And not even the academy, with all its enchantments and defensive barriers, could survive unscathed if they decided to attack.
To make matters worse, the students of the academy are acting strange. They’re treating Aren like he’s the villain he was written to be, and he can’t imagine why. Only Kami has remained by his side through it all. If they somehow manage to survive the horde of monsters heading their way, Aren and his fellow students will soon be forced onto an entirely different battlefield.
But, hey, at least Aren is the only one who knows the truth of a far-off future and can act to prevent the worst from coming to pass… Right?
The Primal Hunter – Zogarth
On just another average day, Jake finds himself in a forest filled with monsters, dangers, and opportunity…
It was a day like any other when suddenly the world changed. The universe reached a threshold humanity didn’t even know existed, and it was time to finally be integrated into the vast multiverse. A place where power is the only thing anyone can truly rely on.
Jake, a seemingly average office worker, finds himself thrust into this new world. Into a tutorial filled with dangers and opportunities.
His new reality should breed fear and concern. His fellow coworkers falter at every turn. Jake, however, finds himself thriving.
Perhaps… This is the world Jake was meant to be born in. Read More
Gaming (Jon Mollison): Miniature wargaming, fantasy or historical or sci-fi, can provide insights into the realities and complexities and challenges of conflict. And with greater understanding comes greater wisdom, and with greater wisdom comes a greater ability to find the often camouflaged path to peace. Besides, most of the guys who profess worries over wargaming in a time of war have no genuine intention to put their hobby on pause.
Appendix N (Goodman Games): Born in 1912, Alice Mary Norton worked as
a teacher, a librarian, and finally a reader for Gnome Press before becoming a full-time writer in 1958. By then she’d already had a dozen books published, including such classics as Star Man’s Son, 2250 A.D. and Star Rangers. Based on their easy style and simpler characterizations, most of her early books would probably be classified as YA today.
Conan (Sprague de Camp fan): “Drums of Tombalku” first appeared in Conan the Adventurer, Lancer Books, 1966. Per the publication information in this book: “In 1965, Glenn Lord, literary agent for the Howard estate, discovered, in a batch of Howard’s papers, an outline of this story [synopsis] and a rough draft of the first half of it. L. Sprague de Camp edited the existing text and completed the story according to Howard’s outline.” A new edited version of the draft appeared in The Pool of the Black One, Donald M. Grant, 1986.
Issue number four of Men’s Adventure Quarterly is a “Jungle Girls” theme. I have reviewed previous issues of MAQ remarking on the incredible production quality.
MAQ No. 4 is 144 pages with a mix of contents. Fifty-seven pages are devoted to Jane Dolinger. Dolinger was a travel writer from the 1950s to the 1970s. She wrote books, articles for the men’s magazines, and also attractive enough to feature in magazine pictorials. I had not heard of her before. Bob Deis interviewed Lawrance Abbott who wrote Jane Dolinger: The Adventurous Life an American Travel Writer.
A couple of Dolinger articles are reprinted: “I Helped Shrink a Human Head,” “I Found the Jaguar Princess” and “The Jungle Killers Who Fight For Women.”
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 5 March 2022
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Anything (Full Murderhobo #2) – Dakota Krout
An ever-expanding desert. A centuries-old curse. Enough power to change Anything.
Luke is a straightforward man. There are only a few things he wants in life: levels, things to fight to gain levels, and finding Cookie so he can fight things more efficiently. Well, better armor might be nice. Yet, the other members of his team are ready for some relaxation and fun in the sun. After all, there should be huge perks that come with stopping an invasion in its tracks, and a hero’s welcome would be a welcome change.
Surprisingly, being famous for making the Kingdom wealthy and powerful has its downsides. Namely, there is now a huge price on their heads. Ordered to flee from the political machinations, assassins, and marriage proposals, The Four soon find themselves searching for a way to pit their power against the world and make a comfy home in the desert.
The problem is, Nature likes to be left alone. When you start messing with it… Anything could happen.
No Risk Too Great (The Frontiers Saga: Fringe Worlds #2) – Ryk Brown
Stranded on an inhospitable planet…
Lost in an unknown time…
Faced with an unfamiliar galaxy…
And a dear friend nearing death…
The Confederated Systems Alliance has spread to dozens of systems, creating the first true interstellar alliance dedicated to bringing peace and prosperity to all inhabited worlds. Unfortunately, some see this new alliance as a threat to their own seats of power, and would do anything to stop it.
After a well deserved rest, Captain Nathan Scott is once again called into action. This time, it is not the fate of the galaxy that is on his shoulders, but the life of one of his dearest friends.
Nathan Scott and the crew of the Aurora must make alliances quickly, or they will lose one of their own.
Renegade Swords III – edited by D. M. Ritzlin
Like an adventuring swordsman plundering ancient tombs, DMR Books makes another foray into the realm of time-lost tales and returns laden with treasures! Renegade Swords III, like the previous volumes in the series, collects rare tales of sword-and-sorcery and heroic fantasy that have unfairly gone neglected or unnoticed. Of the six stories and novellas herein, not one has ever been reprinted before, so you’re bound to discover something new to you!
Stories included:
“A Ship of Monstrous Fortune” by Adrian Cole
“Handar the Red” by James Cawthorn
“Magic’s Price” by Lars Walker
“Quest of the Veil” by Gene Deweese
“The Fire-Born” by W. Paul Ganley
“The Black Tower” by Brian McNaughton and Robert E. Briney
The Strange Recollections of Martha Klemm: Sara was Judith – Julian Hawthorne
“She is not there, she is something else; she is an angel—or a devil come back to peep at us, to be worshiped, to mock us, to kill us, to smile on us as we die, and to go on to another, again to ravish and destroy him! What is she—who is she? No one knows! But she was, before the Pyramids, and when our great Londons and Parises are a jungle and a swamp, she was what men desire and can never possess, the glimmer in the dark, the mirage in the desert, the thing that is, and is not!”
Martha Klemm’s school chum, Sara, is an impossibly bland and uninspired woman living a rather dull and ordinary life—quite the contrast with Martha’s, filled with globetrotting adventure. Sara’s daughter Judith is her exact opposite: filled with life and vibrancy, mystery and mischief.
When a deadly storm drowns the girl saving the young lad who fancies her, Sara, in her one act of passion, hangs herself in her boudoir. Pronounced dead, Sara shocks the mourning household, friends, and doctor when she emerges later that evening, more vivacious than she has ever been… and protesting that she is Judith! Read More
Coming (Wasteland & Sky): Space pirates and superspies, ghostly singers
and half-orc bards, lost cities and deals with the devil . . . all this awaits and more in Pulp Rock: Twelve musically inspired tales of adventure, excitement, and horror by some of the most exciting voices in science-fiction and fantasy. Come explore the nexus between music and the written word, and get ready to rock.
Art (DMR Books): Bran Mak Morn, the doomed third-century King of the Picts, is one of Robert E. Howard’s most iconic creations. Bran has been depicted by numerous talented artists on the covers of books and in comics. Unfortunately, relatively few of those renditions are faithful to how REH actually described Bran Mak Morn and the Picts.
Pulp (M. Porcius): In his editorial in the April 1944 issue of Fantastic
Adventures, editor Ray Palmer, in introducing the second Jongor tale, “The Return of Jongor,” relates to us SF fans a behind-the-scenes story about the first tale of Robert Moore Williams’s ersatz Tarzan. According to Ray, whom I practically called a liar in my last blog post, in late 1940 Fantastic Adventures was about to go out of business. Read More
Best of collections are good introductions to a writer. In the case of The Best of Jerry Pournelle, it is a case of collecting various odds and ends, many I had not read before.
This is a sort of memorial collection as it came out after his death in 2017. This is a big anthology of 760 pages in paperback.
John F. Carr has an introduction “What was Jerry Pournelle really like?” There are non-fiction remembrances interspersed within the volume by Larry Niven, David Gerrold, Steven Barnes, and Robert Gleason.
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 26 February 2022
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A Blade and a Ring (The Chain Breaker #7) – D. K. Holmberg
Gavin must stop a man who shares his training and abilities.
Gavin has left the only friends he’d ever made to study his El’aras magic. Though he may share their heritage, he quickly learns that he’s not El’aras.
When an attack targets them, and has the ability to counter any El’aras ability, Gavin is all that prevents certain devastation.
Understanding the attack and who is behind it leads Gavin to uncover the truth about his mentor—and there is much Tristan never shared.
There has been another Champion, and he’ll stop and nothing to claim a destructive power he believes he’s fated to control.
Only Gavin stands in his way. Though Gavin might not be the first Champion, he is the only Chain Breaker.
The Last Hunter – J. N Chaney and Terry Mixon
Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Two centuries after the Confederation staved off an invasion by the robotic Locusts, Captain Jack Romanoff faces mandatory retirement from an ever-shrinking Navy. Actions speak louder than words. The Confederation doesn’t think the Locusts are coming back.
But what if the politicians are wrong?
Snared in a scheme he doesn’t fully understand or trust, Jack gets his promotion, but it comes with a catch. With a crew of rejects, he must restore the most powerful warship humanity has ever built, after centuries of neglect and decay, before time runs out.
If he fails, humanity might not need to worry about history repeating itself ever again.
Pulp Rock – edited by Alexander Hellene
Space pirates and superspies, ghostly singers and half-orc bards, lost cities and deals with the devil . . . all this awaits and more in Pulp Rock: Twelve musically inspired tales of adventure, excitement, and horror by some of the most exciting voices in science-fiction and fantasy. Come explore the nexus between music and the written word, and get ready to rock. Includes:
Glam-metal juggernauts Slamurai were past their prime, until a surprise new album and tour thrust them back into center stage . . . but is the band who it claims to be?
In the deserts of Afghanistan, a Marine hears a ghostly recording from the forgotten past that sets him on an obsessive, destructive quest to find the singer . . . and the malevolent intelligence behind her song.
What is the connection between a country music superstar and a spate of dead journalists? One imprisoned music reporter knows the secret . . .but will anyone believe him? Read More
Castalia House New Release: THE MINARIAN LEGENDS
Wednesday , 23, February 2022 Uncategorized 1 Comment
The Minarian Legends represent the collected stories about the many great kingdoms and celebrated heroes of Minaria, a continent of epic adventure. In these pages are presented the histories of the many kingdoms, heroes, and tribes that comprise a fantasy world full of merciless war, powerful magic, and intrepid adventure, the world of the classic 1979 TSR wargame, Divine Right.
The ancient tomes of the Minarian past have been mined to provide readers with the backstory of many kingdoms and heroes of the world of Divine Right. Among the latter are royalty, thieves, warriors, priests, adventurers, treasure hunters, werewolves, dragons, assassins, conquerors, wizards, rogues, barbarians, and pirates.
This comprehensive edition of Minarian legends offers the largest and most expanded collection of Minarian tales ever told, many of which are presented here for the first time by author Glenn Rahman, the designer of Divine Right.
Now available from Castalia House at Castalia Direct and Barnes and Noble, among other places.
Authors (Quillette): It might seem odd to recommend a thriller by a British
author as a source of information about the ancient enmity between Russia and the Ukraine, but Frederick Forsyth is no ordinary novelist and his books are not ordinary novels. Forsyth is so knowledgeable about so many things that his name appears all over Wikipedia, not just on pages dedicated to his works.
Games (Venture Beat): After 60 years, an albino swordsman is finally getting the video game treatment. For the first time since the 1961 publication of Michael Moorcock’s novel Elric of Melniboné, the legendary dark fantasy series is going to be the basis for a video game, as Runatyr has acquired the rights to make a computer game based on the first six books of the Elric saga.
Comic Books (Bleeding Cool): BÊLIT & VALERIA: Swords vs. Sorcery #1, by
Max Bemis and Rodney Buchemi • MSRP: $3.99 • Release Date: May 4th ROBERT E. HOWARD’S HYBORIAN AGE UNLEASHED! See its true skull-cracking barbarian nature, its unrestrained blood-splattering violence, mayhem, and sexuality!