Agents of the Shadowcast, report!

Razorfist returns with the latest edition of The Shadowcast, the only podcast devoted solely to the exploits of the Knight of Darkness, The Shadow. This time, he interviews pulp historian and author Will Murray. They discuss, among many topics, The Shadow’s history, publishing The Shadow reprints with Anthony Tollin, Murray’s recent Doc Savage/The Shadow crossovers, the newly published Master of Mystery: The Rise of The Shadow, new pulp and pulp revolution, and Murray’s career writing Doc Savage fanzines, Doc Savage, and the Destroyer.

Murray’s works of pulp history are encyclopedic and inform a significant portion of the literary criticism and histories discussed on this site and elsewhere.

Prehistoric murder, mad kings, and unwilling mercenary henchmen fill this week’s new releases.

Cirsova Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense Issue #9 – edited by P. Alexander

In this issue:

Infinite universes are filled with myriad worlds of infinite possibilities—and infinite selves! One man hunts and is hunted across the multiverse, seeking absolution!

The Mongoose and Meerkat have been hired to lay claim to the salvage of a wrecked ship… and will be partnered with none other than the Hand of Bursa!

It was supposed to be a drug-fueled science fiction anthology alleging to recreate the human brain! But what was the sinister truth behind The Mellifluous Phoenix?!

A door-to-door salesman promises a fantastic cleaning device that can get rid of anything and everything! But what can get rid of a salesman who won’t give up?!

..and much, much more.

Descendant of War – G. J. Ogden

Frustrated by restrictive rules, maverick warship commander, Dalton Reeves, has crossed the line one time too many. Disciplined for violating orders, Reeves is packed off to “The Abyss” – a dangerous and isolated space city named Concord Station, and officially the worst assignment in the galaxy.

Amidst escalating interstellar tensions, a long-forgotten enemy emerges from the mysterious Shadow Space to threaten war. Events are quickly set in motion that will propel Concord Station from obscurity to the most strategically important outpost in the galaxy.

But as the secret of Reeves’ dark origin is revealed, he’s thrust into the center of the conflict in more ways than one. Dalton Reeves is a descendant of war, but he’s not the only one.

The ancient enemy not only seeks conquest, but to exact vengeance upon the sole descendant of two infamous soldiers that annihilated the alien’s homeworld a millennium ago.

With the six realms on the brink of all-out war, can Commander Reeves face both his demons and his bitter rivals to become the warrior and the leader the galaxy desperately needs him to be?

Jurassic Jail (Time Wars #1) – William Alan Webb

In the Jurassic, nobody cares if you scream.

Future America is dangerous and bankrupt. The interstate highways are littered with the rusted hulks of ambushed cars and trucks, and only Mad Max would dare travel the back roads. With society at large failing, the government has embarked on a number of projects to keep its collective head above water.

Like the Manhattan Project and Operation Overtime before it, Operation Timekeeper—the project to build a time travel system for military purposes—has attracted the best and the brightest that still remain in America… as well as the worst and the most psychotic who will do anything to control it.

When the only thing worse than failure occurs, and an operational time travel system is developed, it sparks an arms race with Russia and China, and the body count skyrockets as both patriots and enemies try to hijack the new technology for their own purposes.

But not everyone has given up on the rule of law. In Tennessee, Fayette County D.A. Pete Dance wants to prosecute the murder of a man whose fossilized remains turn up after a series of devastating earthquakes, assuming he can stay alive long enough to do so. The only problem Dance has—besides the assassins on his trail—is that the victim is still alive.

Khyven the Unkillable (Legacy of Shadows #1) – Todd Fahnestock

A rising champion. A secret rebellion. A deadly crossroads.

After forty-nine victories in the bloody Night Ring, Khyven the Unkillable is a celebrity gladiator. If he can survive one more battle, King Vamreth will free him and declare him a knight.

But the king doesn’t play fair.

Instead, for Khyven’s fiftieth “battle,” the king orders him to travel through the magical noktum and infiltrate the secret lair of a rebel leader known only as “The Queen in Exile.” All Khyven must do to earn his knighthood is gain the queen’s trust…

…and betray her. Read More

Malfunctioning armadas, culinary orcs, and ancient rebel angels fill this week’s new releases.

Acheron Redemption (Federation Chronicles #3) – Ken Lozito

Sentinel warships were the answer to the Federation Wars. They brought peace and stability…or so they thought.

The Sentinels are a menace, terrorizing spacers across the galaxy in their hunt. But change is coming, and spacers across the galaxy will have to choose whether to fight for their future.

Quinton thought the Sentinels were malfunctioning fleets of warships left over from the Federation Wars, but they’re much worse. They’re an instrument of control meant to hold the galaxy stagnant in its development.

With Sentinel fleets preparing a major incursion, Admiral Quinton Aldren must get the new Alliance space navy into fighting shape. But how can he build an armada when most spacers believe he’s the enemy?

Quinton will fight. All that remains is how many spacers will join him to fight for humanity’s future.

Alchemist Arcanist (The Alchemist #5) – D. K. Holmberg and Dan Michaelson

The Nighlan have been defeated but the real danger begins.

Now that Rasan Tel has revealed his plan, Sam must find a way to seal him back into his prison. The barrier has weakened, and only Sam’s vrandel serves as a lock holding him back.

When an attack nearly severs Sam from the source, he must find a new way of stopping Rasan Tel. The key rests in what he’s learned during his time in the Academy—if only he’s strong enough to find it.

Alchemy and the arcane arts must combine to stop the war, but without a way of reaching the source, how can Sam stop the threat?

Cleaver’s Edge (Morcster Chef #1) – Actus

Adventurers seek dungeons for riches. Heroes storm great fortresses. Gods clash far above.

Arek cooks lasagna and tops it with a dash of finely chopped basil.

An orc who has seen more than his fair amount of fighting, Arek wants nothing more than to spend the rest of his days cooking and away from the chaos of combat.

However, when Ming and her group of adventurers hire him as their full-time chef, his plans of avoiding violence crumble. He longs to leave his blood-soaked mistakes in his past, but old friends and foes have different ideas. Read More

Dismal Disney (Arkhaven Comics): Anyway, thanks to his budget cuts rioting has become a regular occurrence at Disney World.  There have been three this year.  Mostly, it came down to bad crowd control at various events.  I will say that again, there was bad crowd control at Disney World.  In 2019 there was no company on Earth better at handling the flow of people than WDW, but thanks to Chapek’s layoffs, the people who knew how to do that are gone.

Review (Dazed Digital): “When the French say ‘science fiction’, they are not (referring to), as you might think, HG Wells or ‘Star Trek’ or even Jules Verne,” reads the intro to Heavy Metal’s first issue. “‘Science fiction’ is a term which can sufficiently define Big Macs, South America, Methodism, or a weird neighbour. Vogue Magazine, anything Belgian, and pop-top cans are certainly science fiction. The Humanoid ‘Moebius’, writing in Metal Hurlant, describes how, while listening to a Johnny Cash album, he realised that science fiction is a cathedral. Are you beginning, dear reader, to sufficiently misunderstand?”

Fiction (Los Angeles Review of Books): Anyone who has obsessed over the mythology of Dune will immediately recognize the language Herbert borrowed from Blanch’s work. Chakobsa, a Caucasian hunting language, becomes the language of a galactic diaspora in Herbert’s universe. Kanly, from a word for blood feud among the Islamic tribes of the Caucasus, signifies a vendetta between Dune’s great spacefaring dynasties. Kindjal, the personal weapon of the region’s Islamic warriors, becomes a knife favored by Herbert’s techno-aristocrats. As Blanch writes, “No Caucasian man was properly dressed without his kindjal.”

Remembrance (Brain Leakage): 17 Years ago today, the Second Battle of Fallujah began. It was the single largest urban battle US forces engaged in since Hue City, Vietnam, in 1968. I usually don’t make a big deal of memorializing it, but maybe I should.

The men I fought alongside in Fallujah were the best men I ever knew. Not all of them made it. None of us made it home unchanged.

I share my worst memories with my bravest brothers.

I truly would not have it any other way. Read More

Last time, we watched as Doc Savage faced off against his most fearsome foe, the Rasputin-like John Sunlight. While the clash of intrigues did reveal many of Doc Savage’s virtues, such as the observation powers of Sherlock Holmes, the physical prowess of Tarzan, the Christliness of Abraham Lincoln, and a leavening of Percy Fawcett’s adventurousness, that Arctic battle obscured one important fact: Doc Savage never fights alone. For at his side are five remarkable men of mayhem and science, each a master of their field, each a pulp hero of renown, and each eclipsed by only one man, Clark (Doc) Savage, Jr. himself. Whether he is joined by the simian industrial chemist Monk Mayfair, the dapper attorney Ham Brooks, the brooding bruiser and construction engineer Renny Renwick, wildcat electrical engineer Long Tom Roberts, or the verbose geologist Johnny Littlejohn, Doc Savage always has a friend at his back, ready to dive into the latest adventure.

Especially when that adventure starts with the delivery of what appears to be Renny Renwick’s desiccated remains to Doc Savage’s laboratory. An act that, instead of intimidating the Man of Bronze, sets him on the trail of Renny’s apparent murderer. And into the path of a mysterious Chinese artifact that holds the power to drain the world’s oceans. But how did Renny end up in that box?  Read More

Silver strikes, obsidian dragons, time-lost Rangers, and spirited-away armored soldier fill this week’s new releases.

The Book of Joe (Forgotten Ruin #5) – Jason Anspach and Nick Cole

A Ranger is Forged.

The next chapter in the war against Sût the Undying and the Nether Sorcerer unfolds against the backdrop of what it takes to become a U.S. Army Ranger.

The Rangers’ next objective takes them on an odyssey of desperate survival and relentless combat through the Desert of Sleep, a savage and strange land… and a gateway to hell. Here the forces of Darkness fester, here the elements of the Rangers must go on the ultimate patrol, and here is where…

…the End War begins.

Forever (Forgotten Space #4) – M. R. Forbes

As a development platform for desperately needed advanced technology, the experimental starship Foresight is the greatest hope humankind has to flee the alien hordes. For test pilot Captain Nicholas Shepherd, the success of the program is even more personal. Successful completion means delivering his wife and son safely off-world and leaving the war behind for good. But when Foresight suffers a critical malfunction during her final scheduled flight, what should have been a minor setback becomes a major fight for survival.

Joined by an unintended crew of survivors, Nicholas is about to embark on an impossible mission that will take them far beyond the outer reaches of space. If he fails, humankind won’t just be lost.

Now crippled and left for dead, Nicholas and his crew find a glimmer of hope in an unexpected new ally. Down but not out, if they want to finish what they’ve started they’ll need to return to Earth. Only it’s not the Earth they knew and the hardest battle is still to come.

If they can survive long enough to fight in it…

Junkyard Raiders (Junkyard Pirate #5) – Jamie McFarlane

On the pastoral, backwater planet of Fimil Alpha, something or someone is eradicating the tribespeople of the Gauder Plains. Back on Earth, Albert Jenkins and his crew are enjoying the short-lived fame that accompanied their last adventure. What they don’t know is that by bringing back life-saving technologies to Earth, they’ve made powerful enemies who will do anything to see them quieted forever.

With a target on their back, AJ’s team needs to make themselves scarce. The problem is they have no idea of the brewing crisis. Fortunately, or possibly to their great harm, a quick-thinking US Army Intelligence officer makes a deal with highly advanced aliens to remove his team from danger. What she doesn’t know is that AJ’s team will be placed at ground zero of the emerging alien invasion.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire seems about right to AJ and his friends. Not prone to complaining about injustices done to them, they are quickly absorbed by the developing hostilities on Fimil Alpha when they bear witness to the eradication of their new, peaceful neighbors.

Can this small team of old vets stand in the way of yet another alien invasion? Or will they just be yet another casualty in a war that’s just barely started?

Light Unto Another World #4 – Yakov Merkin

While their mission to stop the other Swords from claiming the Sigil or Unity was a success, war is still coming, and preparations must be made if they’ll stand any chance at all.

With the odds so heavily stacked against them, Uriel Makkis made a choice.

He has introduced the technology of firearms to his friends and allies.

Following their return to Valtenar, Uriel and his team throw themselves completely into the war preparations, with Uriel finding himself falling into a greater position of leadership than he had planned on, but it is a role he can accept.

However, Uriel is not only utilizing his knowledge of technology from back home; he intends to draw on additional knowledge, so help his demi-human friends, people whom he has come to identify with, reclaim their place on this world.

But before any of that, he and his team must survive an unplanned adventure that brings with it an entirely different set of dangers, and new foes. Read More