DMR Books has a series of reprint anthologies of classic fantastic fiction. The first is Planetary Adventures.
“Heroic tales of sword-swinging adventure can sometimes be found in unlikely places—such as the pages of Golden Age science fiction magazines! Rather than being set in the dim past or a fantastic dream-world, the stories in this collection take place on other planets. Journey to Luna, Mars, and worlds even more distant with these classic tales by five masters of adventure science fiction!” Read More
RPG (Matthew Constantine): It’s no secret, Call of Cthulhu is my favorite
tabletop RPG. If I had to pick one, this is it. I’ve been playing it since the last 80s, I’ve been running it since the late 90s. It’s the game I typically use to introduce people to the tabletop RPG hobby. It’s my fall-back game when I’m not sure what I want to do but know I want to do something.
Robert E. Howard (Adventures Fantastic): Robert E. Howard was definitely a born story-teller, and in his letters to his author pen-pals, he definitely followed the rule to never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Since the anniversary of the battle has just passed, let’s look at what Howard had to say about it. In the middle of his August 9, 1932 letter to H.P. Lovecraft, Howard segues from talking about Texas gunfighters to the Battle of the Little Bighorn:
TSR (Tenkar’s Tavern): I’d choose Luke. No hesitation. No question. I’d say I’m sad to see TSR go down in flames, but this isn’t the TSR of old risen from the grave. It’s a carpetbagger tugging on the heartstrings of nostalgic gamers, seeking to pick their pockets – or worse – roll them in a dark alley and leave them naked, bereft of all valuables. This TSR is built off of deceit. Not just from how they jacked the TSR logo, but their use of imagery copyrighted by WotC to advertise their unwritten projects and their undated convention.
The fifth issue of Science Fiction Adventures from August 1957 continued the “3 complete novels” format. Robert Engle produced the cover painting for this issue.
Robert Silverberg was present as “Ivar Jorgeson” in “This World Must Die!” The Jorgenson biography states he was born in the little fishing village of Haugesund, Norway immigrating to the United States at age eight.
“This World Must Die!” has Loy Gardner sent on a secret mission to destroy the Planet Lurion. If not, Earth will be destroyed in 67 years according to the invincible computer. As the later paperback blub states:
“And the man to do the job was Gardner. If he did it successfully the blood of billions would be on his hands; if he fouled up, he would be the worst traitor in Terrestrial history. And not even he knew which course he would pursue when he finally learned that even the all-wise machine had not known all the right answers.”
The glare and the clatter died at the same time throughout the Club Samedi. Even the buzzing crowd-noise suspended in expectation. Behind the orchestra sounded a gong. Once. Twice. Thrice…
The master of ceremonies intoned:
‘Midnight. The witching hour. And Illyria!’
The gong chimed on to twelve and stopped.
From his table on the floor of the Club Samedi, John Thunstone watches an authentic voodoo dance with his date, Sharon, Countess Montesco. Rowley Thorne, another occult enthusiast, introduces himself to Thunstone and Sharon. He declares himself to be patron of the voodoo dance, an invocation to the gateway god Legba. It’s a polite introduction, but while Thorne dances with Sharon, Thunstone slips away to question the dancer Illyria. Her account of Thorne’s patronage aroused Thunstone’s suspicions. He returns the next night, and at the stroke of midnight, Illyria dances again, but she is not alone. Some thing dances with her in the shadows. After the strange ritual, Thorne lets slip that he has designs on Sharon. Furthermore, Thunstone is studied enough in the occult to recognize that Legba is never summoned alone. Strange plans are underfoot, and Thunstone must ready himself for the third cry to Legba.
Sure enough, Rowley Thorne’s intentions were less that honorable. For when the third cry finishes, the audience for Illyria’s dance will become voodoo cultists, spreading Thorne’s power. As the Countess Montesco, Sharon owns a grand fortune that would be at Thorne’s disposal. But an amulet designed by St. Dunstan and a liberal spray of salt foil his plans. For John Thunstone knows his Lafcadio Hearn, his W. B. Seabrook. and his occult books well. And he will use every bit of occult knowledge to defend his girl and the world.
“The Third Cry to Legba” introduces John Thunstone, the second of Manly Wade Wellman’s occult investigators, and the heir to Judge Pursuivant’s knowledge and sword. The inside flap to Wellman’s Lonely Vigils describes him as:
“a hulking Manhattanite playboy and dilettante, a serious student of the occult and a two-fisted brawler ready to take on any enemy. Armed with potent charms and a silver swordcane, Thunstone stalks supernatural perils in the posh night clubs and seedy hotels of New York, or in backwater towns lost in the countryside– seeking out deadly sorcery as a hunter pursues a man-killer beast.”
“The Third Cry to Legba” serves as a better introduction for a new reader to John Thunstone than “The Dai Sword”, establishing the key relationships and rivalries for the playboy occultist. And it is in the “posh night clubs” of New York that we find Thunstone, reunited with his old flame, Sharon. Her inability to understand his fascination with the occult sent her overseas, and into a marriage to the Count of Montesco. Now the widowed Countess, she’s returned to New York, and to Thunstone. She tries to play Thorne’s intentions into Thunstone’s jealousy. Instead, she serves as a fault line between two experts in the occult. Thorne would later be revealed to be a necromancer, and would play with forces similar to those found in the Cthulhu Mythos. Thunstone is crafted in a different mold. The first resonances to St. Dunstan appear in this story, and, like the saint, Thunstone is “a gentleman borne and bred, who studied black magic–and caught Satan’s nose in a pair of red-hot pincers.” As the nursery rhyme says:
St. Dunstan, as the story goes,
Once pull’d the devil by the nose
With red-hot tongs, which made him roar,
That he was heard three miles or more.
And it is Thorne who roars in the devil’s place, again and again as the two men clash throughout the 1940s. St. Dunstan’s paraphernalia reoccurs throughout Thunstone’s adventures, whether in the sapphire and silver amulet that protects Sharon or in the silver forged swordcane passed down from Judge Pursuivant. It is telling that Wellman wrote the sophisticated Thunstone while he lived in New York, and the folksy Balladeer after he left for the Carolinas.
Silver, sapphires, St. John’s wort, and salt. Wellman’s fascination with white magic and the occult shines through. As he would mention in the Eyrie notes in Weird Tales, every book he mentions not only exists, but occupies a place in Wellman’s library. Many of these sources are contemporary to Weird Tales, written in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Thunstone and Wellman draw from a wide variety of folklore, from Caribbean Jesuit priests, followers of Aleister Crowley, and Japanese youkai experts. Even in John the Balladeer’s stories, actual occult tomes appear time and again. It strikes me as odd that a writer so inventive in bestiary and folklore would adhere so strictly to established lore to dispel evils.
If you can, try to find an audio version of this tale. Like many wordsmiths, Wellman needs to be heard to get the full effect of the writing. Even in a short snippet like the introduction quoted above, one hears the cadence of the gong, the rhythms of the orchestra, and the murmurs of the crowd.
Thunstone’s adventure here might be the most genteel of Wellman’s settings, but under the surface, it is as two-fisted a tale as any detective pulp of the 1930s. And the writer who best showcased John Campbell’s new fantasy returns here to the Gothic and romantic roots of the genre, that of menace and mystery. For an exercise in contrasts, “The Third Cry to Legba” should be paired with Wellman’s later “Vandy, Vandy”.
Originally published in the November 1943 Weird Tales, “The Third Cry to Legba” can be found in Shadowridge Press’s recent rerelease of Lonely Vigils.
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 03 July, 2021
Saturday , 3, July 2021 Uncategorized 1 CommentThis week’s releases take readers to digital battlegrounds, Roman frontiers, and lunar rebellions.
Cyber-Mage Realization (Overtaken Online #3) – Ben Ormstad
OVERTAKEN ONLINE. The world’s first FPS VR-MMORPG with 100% immersion. Reminiscent of classics like Doom and Dead Space, but with RPG-elements that enable players to level up and develop skills – and sprinkled with a pinch of magic.
Dex, Frida, Hiko and Tasha successfully opened the Godmadrigan Army and the Celestial aliens up to forming an alliance against the Daemonorgs. Now they’re assigned the crucial mission of eliminating key parts of the daemons’ on-ground strongholds, since weakening the beasts’ parasitic grip on the planet is needed to enable their long-awaited defeat.
Simultaneously, Dex’s journey from being a mere Battle-Marine grunt to a true Cyber-Mage solidifies when he comes in contact with his master Patrio’s collaborator, Ÿlvette – a no-bullshit, high-leveled bad-ass able to rip a demon to bloody shreds by simply snapping her fingers.
The Fort (City of Victory #1) – Adrian Goldsworthy
AD 105: DACIA
The Dacian kingdom and Rome are at peace, but no one thinks that it will last. Sent to command an isolated fort beyond the Danube, centurion Flavius Ferox can sense that war is coming, but also knows that enemies may be closer to home.
Many of the Brigantes under his command are former rebels and convicts, as likely to kill him as obey an order. And then there is Hadrian, the emperor’s cousin, and a man with plans of his own…
Gritty, gripping and profoundly authentic, The Fort is the first book in a brand new trilogy set in the Roman empire from bestselling historian Adrian Goldsworthy.
The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl #4) – Matt Dinniman
New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure.
You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that’s talent.
A floating fortress occupied by warrior gnomes. A castle made of sand. A derelict submarine guarded by malfunctioning machines. A haunted crypt surrounded by lethal traps.
It was supposed to be easy. One bubble. Four castles. Fifteen days. Capture each one, and the stairwell is unlocked.
Here’s the thing. It’s never easy. Carl and his team can’t go it alone. Not this time. They must rely on the help of the low-level, I-can’t-believe-these-idiots-are-still-alive crawlers trapped in the bubble with them. But can they be trusted?
Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the fifth floor of the dungeon. Read More
Sensor Sweep: Planetary Adventures, Fritz Leiber, 80s Movies
Monday , 28, June 2021 Sensor Sweep 1 CommentGaming (Walker’s Retreat): This is my review of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. (“FF14” and “ARR”, respectively.) It does not cover any of the expansions, as those will be reviewed seperately at a later date. Analysis of the game’s narrative is covered seperately at my writing blog, the Study, called “A Narrative Reborn”; the narratives of the expansions is likewise not covered and will also be done seperately.
New (Wasteland & Sky): The first is a new anthology by DMR Books,
featuring classic authors from the pulps and some of their more obscure stories (some of which have barely or never been reprinted) in one packed collection. Just released, you can see the description here:
Horror (Pulprev): Architecture is the visual language of habitation. Through design, colours, shapes, textures, the architect reveal the aesthetics of his soul, and the values of his times. In fiction, architecture establishes setting, tone, mood, history, culture. It evokes atmosphere by provoking the audience. And it tells you what characters can, cannot, must and must not do in a space during a tactical situation.
RPG (Table Top Gaming News): Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth Box
Set Up On Kickstarter
Dungeon Crawl Classics brings that nostalgic feel of old-school RPGs to your tabletops. Dying Earth, a new box set for the game, is up on Kickstarter. It contains three books, a map for your game, and plenty of extras as well. Head on over and check out the campaign.
Cinema (Arkhaven Comics): Disney’s semi-official leak is that Harrison Ford’s shoulder injury has temporarily halted production for six weeks. Frankly, official statements are given to sunny optimism. It shouldn’t be forgotten that Ford is seventy-eight no word on whether or not he’s had to have surgery but if WDW Pro is correct then I would bet on it. According to WDW Pro at Pirates and Princesses Blog, Harrison Ford is down for eight weeks not six.
D&D (Grognardia): One of the primary reasons I choose Fafhrd and the
Gray Mouser over Conan as prototypes of the D&D adventurer is not their larcenous goals – which they have in common with Conan – but rather because they operate as a team. Lots of people like to point to the Fellowship of the Ring as the closest literary antecedent to a D&D party and I can certainly see why.
Review (Pulp Fiction Reviews): Robert Silverberg is one of the best known science fiction writers in the world. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo
and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame and a Grand Master of SF. A voracious reader since childhood, he began submitting stories to science fiction magazines during his early teenage years. He received a BA in English Literature from Columbia University in 19567. While at Columbia, he wrote the juvenile novel “Revolt on Alpha” (1955) and won his first Hugo in 1956 as the “best new writer”.
Science Fiction (Mystery File): HARRY HARRISON – Sense of Obligation.
Brion Brandd #1. Serialized in Analog SF in 3 parts, September through November 1961. Reprinted in book form as Planet of the Damned (Bantam J2316, paperback, January 1962); also under the latter title by Tor, paperback, December 1981. Brian Brandd is recruited as a member of the Cultural Relations Foundation, whose task it is to aid islated planets cut off after the fall of the Earth empire. His first assignment is to stop an impending war between the planets Dis and Nyjord.
Weird Tales (Dark Worlds Quarterly): ritz Leiber’s appearances in Weird Tales are both surprising and disappointing. As an outer member of the
Lovecraft Circle, it was only natural that Leiber wanted to found in “The Unique Magazine”. But he only appeared eight times and only after some struggle. I have already chronicled the challenges to gaining access to Farnsworth Wright’s final issues here. I have also talked about how Wright rejected the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series that John W. Campbell happily snapped up. Normally, I would have assumed Leiber wrote reams of stories like other WT authors but they were few and not always his most famous.
James Bond (Paperback Warrior): British author Ian Fleming created what is generally believed to be the most popular secret agent of all time, James
Bond. The series began in 1953 with Casiono Royale, an origin novel that introduced Bond’s continuous war with Russia’s counterespionage agency SMERSH. Nearly a year after Casino Royale’s publication, Live and Let Die was released. It’s the second novel in the James Bond series and features many elements that were dissected and added to the Bond films For Your Eyes Only (1981) and License to Kill (1989).
Art (DMR Books): Manuel Pérez Clemente—known to the world as Sanjulián—celebrated his eightieth birthday yesterday.* A native Catalan, he grew up in Barcelona, studying art at Belles Arts of Sant Jordi. Sanjulián debuted on American shores in 1970, doing covers for Warren Publishing–he started right around the time Frazetta quit doing Warren covers and right before Ken Kelly made his debut. A classic run of paintings for Eerie, Creepy, Vampirella and 1984 ensued. Sanjulián would be associated with Warren until its demise in 1983.
Tolkien (The Federalist): J. R. R. Tolkien never got far in writing a sequel to “The Lord of the Rings.” He found it “depressing” work and despite a few attempts, the project, tentatively titled “The New Shadow,” never made it past the first chapter. The story would have been something of a thriller, with the peace established after the defeat of Sauron threatened by plots and cults arising from the “inevitable boredom of Men with the good.” This insight certainly applies to the current leadership of the Tolkien Society (of which Tolkien himself was once president), which has decided to desecrate his work.
Tolkien (The Federalist): The Tolkien Society, a literary organization founded in 1969 and dedicated to promoting the works of J.R.R Tolkien, has held an annual academic conference for decades. This year’s conference, to be held virtually via Zoom on July 3 and 4, is on the theme of “Tolkien and Diversity.”
Before we go on, understand that the Tolkien Society’s president was, and formally remains, the great J.R.R. Tolkien himself.
Cinema (Saturday Evening Post): Between the time of the rise of disco and when the oceans drank the polar ice caps, there was an age undreamed of . . . and the name of this age was . . . The Eighties. And unto this age was born a seemingly sudden explosion of mystic tales about mighty warriors. For years, those stories shook the theaters with the strength of their steel before they diminished into perennial cable reruns and cult fandom. Now, forty years hence, cast your gaze back upon a time of stop-motion dragons and barbarian queens. Let me remind you of the days of HIGH ADVENTURE . . .
Science Fiction (DMR Books): William Fitzgerald Jenkins was born in modest circumstances in Norfolk, Virginia. From the beginning of his literary career, he always went by ‘Murray Leinster’, a shout-out to his Irish heritage. ‘Atmosphere’ got his foot in the door, but ‘The Runaway Skyscraper’ is what put him on the map. I’ll let Murray recount how that went:
Cinema (Skillset Mag): Every once in a while, when all the proper cultural,
financial and astronomical forces align, the movie industry hits a hot streak. These include old-school slasher movies and every Adam Sandler movie from the ’90s, but perhaps the best example of them all is the string of legendary ’80s teen movies. I’m talking, of course, about the real classics: Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and my personal favorite, The Breakfast Club, among others.
H. P. Lovecraft (Tentaclii): REVIEW: The Lovecraft Annual 2020, which was published in late summer 2020 from Hippocampus Press. It is summer 1935. Lovecraft and Barlow are sitting on a lake-shore porch in balmy Florida. They are listening carefully to Barlow Sr., one Colonel Everett D. Barlow, and are taking rapid notes on his talk. The beginning of a World War is only four years away, and Col. Barlow is observing that the nation’s defences have been left sorely lacking. The new Lovecraft Annual opens with the unusual item that resulted from this talk, and gives us the supporting materials that allow the modern reader to eavesdrop on the long-ago flow of talk.
The fourth issue (June 1957) of Science Fiction Adventures had another cover by Emsh illustrating Harlan Ellison’s “Run for the Stars.”
Algis Budrys makes his first appearance in Science Fiction Adventures with “Yesterday’s Man.” I enjoyed Budrys’ The Falling Torch, a novel of guerrilla warfare against occupying aliens. “Yesterday’s Man” is a post-apocalyptic story of the search for a man who presided as leader over a section of the United States. He had the most stable government for a period of ten year before being overthrown. The wheels are coming off everywhere. The main character is a driver for an armored car that he keeps running. This story almost gets into military s-f with descriptions of rifle pits, M-1 rifles, Springfield ’03s with grenade launchers etc. The story is more dialog than anything. My gut feeling is this was meant for Astounding Science Fiction and did not make Campbell’s cut. Read More
A new season brings a new edition of adventure magazine Cirsova, complete with unknown stars, feats of heroism, and quick-paced twists worth of the classic Argosy magazine. Continuing the direction set down by its fifth anniversary, the Summer volume presents a mix of old favorites and new stars, with an eye for longer tales this time. Also, the experiments with illustrations return, with work from Mongoose and Meerkat illustrator Dark Filly and newcomer UsanekoRin gracing the pages. And anchoring the volume is the second issue of the 1980s-era indie comic, Badaxe.
Cirsova’s Summer 2021 volume opens with the second part of Michael Tierney’s The Artomique Paradigm, the latest of his Wild Stars adventures. Wild Stars is a long and vast setting, previously told in comics. And while it takes a while for newcomers to move past the setting shock, this second set of chapters settles into a wild dash across a pirate planet. The locales are ambitious and pulpy, setting a backdrop for a plot that movies at the speed of Max Brand’s historic adventures. An internal logic to the gleefully over-the-top names reveals itself through quick asides between the inevitable setbacks and betrayals. This portion of The Artomique Paradigm ends with a masterful cliffhanger. While we are promised the conclusion in the next volume, that conclusion is still three months away.
Caroline Furlong’s “Lupus One” is a joyous homage to classic 20th century anime, filled with mecha, monsters, gods, and alternate universes. And it is a pleasure to read something influenced by anime and manga without it becoming a mere Xerox of the original medium. No reluctant and depressed mecha pilots here. “Lupus One” transplants a class primary world fantasy like many of those found in Weird Tales, where the main character stumbles into a lost and almost legendary weirdness, into the futuristic setting of the moon. While “Lupus One” is self-contained and hints at a happy ending, plenty of hooks exist for continuation, which I hope Furlong will explore in the future. And, in a masterful stroke of editing, “Lupus One” also bridges the science fiction settings of the Moon and the Wild Stars to the fantasy worlds in the stories that follow. Read More
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 26 June, 2021
Saturday , 26, June 2021 Uncategorized Leave a commentClassic planetary adventures, interstellar giant robots, and litRPG archeologists fill this week’s new releases.
Drifter’s Folly (Peacekeepers of Sol #4) – Glynn Stewart
When United Planets Alliance Captain Henry Wong and Ambassador Sylvia Todorovich attempted to bring peace to the Ra Sector, they turned to the Drifters for neutral ground. Instead, the nomadic spacers betrayed the summit and attempted to kill everyone there.
With peace forged despite the Drifters’ betrayal, Henry and Sylvia take an elite squadron in pursuit of the Drifter Convoy. Their enemies have friends at every turn, neutral worlds who will give them shelter—and if the UPA breaches that neutrality, everything Henry and Sylvia have worked for could crash down in flames.
If the UPA is to keep the peace in the stars of a fallen empire, their diplomats must be untouchable, their honor unblemished. But as Henry’s superiors prepare for all-out war, his ships fly ever closer to a deadly trap laid by an enemy that knows them all too well…
Dark Origins (The Messenger #14) – J. N. Chaney and Terry Maggert
When a ship emerges near the growing expanse of The Kingsport, the captain tells a chilling story–Deepers are among humans,across the galactic arm in the region Dash began his march to greatness.
The enemy is not standing still. Bishops and Battle Princes attack across a massive front, leading fleets of Deeper craft that straddle the bridge between life and machine.
Fighting over a span of light years that boggles the mind, Dash and his crew are drawn farther out in the big black than any human has ever gone—-or so they thought, for a small beacon of humanity drifts, alone, frozen, and ancient, out where the light of days is older than the history of mankind.
Capturing the object, a secret is revealed, and the war, and Dash, will never be the same, for his mission just got a lot harder, and the enemy has changed their face yet again.
With the Kingsport and Anchors under withering fire, Dash will lead his fleet into the teeth of an enemy force that has beenlying in wait for a million years, and they will stop at nothing to turn humans into biomechanical servants who drift among the stars, dreaming of a peace that will never come.
Unless Dash can win. And he always wins.
The Emissary (The Earth Epsilon Wars #1) – Terrance Mulloy
Arriving home after a harrowing tour of duty on a hostile alien world, USC Sergeant Matt Reeves has just learned the enemy – an insidious humanoid species known as the Wraith – may be preparing to attack Earth again. A widower with a nine-year-old daughter, Matt doesn’t need any reminding of what’s at stake. With much of Earth still in ruins, and its military forces stretched beyond capacity fighting an interstellar war, there is no way mankind could survive another invasion. Teetering on the brink of defeat, the United Space Command is desperate to find some form of leverage.
Enter The Emissary Program.
Matt learns the USC have been secretly experimenting with time travel to alter the outcome of the war – and they want him to be their next guinea pig – sending him back to Washington DC, forty-eight years before the invasion. His mission: help a small team of scientists locate a brilliant virologist, whose work may hold the key to eradicating the Wraith from existence.
Can Matt and his team successfully change the future and save mankind? Or will they learn the Wraith have already altered the past and won the war?
The Executioner’s Rebellion (The Executioner’s Song #4) – D. M. Holmberg
Executioners bring order to chaos, but will Justice be enough to stop what’s coming?
As executioner within Verendal, Finn takes on more responsibility, especially now that he’s saved the kingdom from repeated attack, but he still struggles with his place within the city.
When protests erupt within Verendal, with those from the poorer sections clashing with Archers, Finn finds himself investigating a very different kind of crime than he’s ever pursued. Worse, it’s one that might involve witchcraft he doesn’t understand, and this time his usual tactics won’t be enough. Asked to be more than the Hunter, he doesn’t know what that means for him.
Finn must find those responsible before the city falls into chaos, but it might be too late to keep the violence from spreading throughout the kingdom. Read More
Sensor Sweep: Howard Days, Derleth Christmas Card, Tolkien Society Seminar
Monday , 21, June 2021 Sensor Sweep 7 CommentsRobert E. Howard (Orthosphere): Considering that he died at thirty,
Howard’s literary accomplishments can only impress. Stylistically, he operates at a level many ranks above that of the typical pulp writer. His vocabulary includes a rich lode of Latin and Greek derivations and likewise of English archaisms. Brought up, from age thirteen, in the small and isolated Texas town of Cross Plains, in Callahan County, in the middle of the state, Howard almost miraculously overcame a lack of educational resources and acquired a reserve of knowledge in history, literature, myth, and folklore that would shame the modern holder of a college degree in any of those subjects.
Science Fiction (Wasteland & Sky): Ever since the Pulp Revolution started, the main kickback has always been from the older set who think it exists to erase their past when it exists for the exact opposite. The whole reason the movement sprung up was because of those who began looking into the past and were finally discovering what Fandom was actually doing was rewriting and destroying what came before. They were doing it for their own gain, chasing out anyone who wanted what they had mere years earlier.
Gaming (Monster Hunter Nation): I talked about this in the last blog post about the Yard Moose Mountain Mega Shooting Weekend, where I had shooters from all over the country coming to my place for three days of pistol training, about how one night I ran a one off RPG session for 17 of them, and by some miracle it actually turned out good. When this got posted about on Facebook right after, a whole bunch of gamers asked how the hell do you run a game that big and not have it suck, so here’s how we pulled it off.
Science Fiction Adventures: April 1957
Sunday , 20, June 2021 Pulp Swordsmen, Short Fiction 2 Comments
The April 1957 issue of Science Fiction Adventures had a sensational red cover by Ed Emsh. The three novellas format continued.
“Clansmen of Fear” by Henry Hasse was the cover story. This is a post-apocalyptic story as was so common in 1950s science fiction magazines. Hasse is probably best remembered for the story “He Who Shrank.” I read that story in the Asimov edited Before the Golden Age. Donal is the leader of a village whose inhabitants need periodic exposure to radiation in the ruins of Chicago. He has problems, some of the women are joining marauding wanderers who raid their fields. Things go from bad to worse when very ugly, vaguely cat looking aliens who need the radiation to power their stricken ship. There is some fighting and then a resolution by the aliens who will transplant the villagers to an Earth like planet. Hasse really does not explain how the villagers will get by without their radiation on the new planet. Very clunky science fiction.
Daniel F. Galouye was prolific in the 1950s and the faded away in the early 1960s. I have not really read much by him. “Gulliver Planet” is an alien invasion of Earth story with microscopic aliens taking over the bodies of a group of humans. I did not like this one at all.
“Aren’t you using the Supplementary Auto-Raction Circuit?’ “No, I thought–“
“Confound it, Thaul! That’s what the circuit’s for–to automatically supply authentic movements and gestures!”
This is just a sample. I can’t say I want to sample more Galouye. Read More
“My name is Crest da Zolral.” The alien was waiting for them by the inner hatch of the airlock. “I am an Arkonide. In your terms, I’d describe myself as the scientific leader of this expedition.”
As tensions rise in 2036 between America, Greater Russia, and China, an American moon base goes dark. NASA attempts a rescue mission by sending the Stardust, commanded by Perry Rhodan. But when Rhodan and his crew find a giant metal sphere on the far side of the moon, their problems–and those of the entire human race–grow far more complex. And getting back home is no certainty as there is a bomb hidden on the Stardust.
Meanwhile, in Houston, John Marshall valiantly attempts to keep his children’s shelter running–and the street children away from each other’s throats. Marshall has always had an intuitive knack for reading people, but nothing prepared him for when one of his problem children suddenly teleports the two of them to Nevada Fields so that they can see the Stardust’s launch.
Thus begins Stardust, the first episode of Perry Rhodan NEO, a retelling of the world’s most popular science fiction series. Introduced to the world at WeltCon 2011, NEO updates the geopolitics and technologies from the Cold War and punchcards to a 2010 multipolar world, transistors, and information technology. Perry Rhodan NEO is published concurrently with the original Perry Rhodan series and is written by some of the same authors. Frank Borsch, the author of the first book in the Perry Rhodan: Lemuria series, revisits Rhodan’s first adventure in Stardust. Read More