Fiction (Frontier Partisans): Cry Havoc is worthy. Jack Carr’s latest novel, set in the covert war in Southeast Asia in 1968, is in hand, and it’s a good un. It opens with Tom Reese (father of Terminal List protagonist James Reece) on a MACV-SOG patrol in Laos. A tense ambush scene climaxes in an intense firefight at extremely close range.

Fantasy (Arkhaven Comics): Sword & sorcery fiction continued to appear in some lower tier pulp science fiction magazines, mainly Fantastic Adventures and Planet Stories. In the case of Planet Stories, the setting was another moon or planet and the sorcery was disguised as pseudo-science. Most people familiar with the genre are totally oblivious to the stories that was appearing in these magazines. Here is a theoretical anthology of fiction from this period and magazines.

Fantasy (Goodman Games): Aside from Conan the Cimmerian, there can be no more iconic image in all of sword-and-sorcery fiction than the dynamic duo of “the Twain.” Fafhrd, towering Northern barbarian, and Mouser, weaselly little thief, form a wonderfully visually complementary whole, and that’s even before you get to their actual personalities.

Zelazny (Archive.org): A Night in the Lonesome October is a novel by American writer Roger Zelazny published in 1993, near the end of his life. It was his final book, and one of his five personal favorites. The book is divided into 32 chapters, each representing one “night” in the month of October (plus an “introductory” chapter).

Comic Books (CBR): The beloved post-Apocalyptic animated series, Thundarr the Barbarian, ran for just a single season in 1980-81, but through reruns, the beautifully designed series, which featured work from a number of classic comic book creators, has become a cult classic.

Old Radio (Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society): Joshua, Tim, and Eric check out a chilling tale from Suspense for this inaugural episode. By reputation, this is one of the finest examples of horror from the golden age of radio, and the Society is ready to share their thoughts on this classic broadcast and try to answer several vital questions. Who makes a sneaky cameo in this story?

Cinema (Frontier Partisans): One of the most breathtakingly heroic actions in American military history will be brought to cinema by Ron Howard. Alone At Dawn is cast and slated to begin filming this fall and winter. The film depicts the Battle of Takur Ghar and the actions of Technical Sergeant John A. Chapman, who died in a savage firefight after a one-man battle that — eventually — earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Review (The Silver Key): Darrell Schweitzer’s We Are All Legends collects 13 short stories published between 1970 and 1981. It’s a weird, wonderful little book. The stories take place in medieval Europe but of an uncertain date and place, with permeable borders. Magic has not left the world. It’s studded with Arthurian references, of wounded fisher kings and Merlin and Excalibur, even though its decidedly S&S. It’s dark, both in tone but also subject matter. Julian is haunted by his past sins.

Tolkien (Socrates in the City): The discussion focuses on J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, two literary giants who wrote their masterpieces in the aftermath of World War II. In his latest book, The War for Middle-earth: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm, 1933–1945, Loconte—together with SITC host Eric Metaxas—traces how the devastation of World War II shaped both the friendship and the imaginations of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, inspiring them to create works that continue to illuminate the battle between good and evil.

Horror (C Walls Writer): The Most Underrated Horror & Fantasy Writer: Karl Edward Wagner

Gaming (Rageaholic): Electronic Arts: A Slow Motion IMPLOSION

Fiction (Black Gate): The recent discovery of a previously unknown and unpublished short story by Raymond Chandler reminded me of a question that’s lingered in my mind for a very long time. How did Chandler in the early years the Depression support himself and his wife writing for Black Mask and other titles when he only sold a two or three stories a year?

Tolkien (Gospel Coalition): This article explores the relationship between Tolkien’s angelology, as reflected in his fictional writings, and classical angelology, particularly as represented by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Two aspects of classical angelology are examined:

Poetry (Imaginative Conservative): White founts falling in the courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;
There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard

RIP (Up and Down These Mean Streets): Trout was a mainstay in the Robert E. Howard United Press Association for many years. I want to say he joined during one of the mailings in the numeric 30s or 40s or not too much later. Surely by the 60s. And I think he was around for mlg 200. Anyway, a long time.

Cinema (Glitternight): Halloween Month rolls along with this look at a very old British series of telefilms that presented some classic horror tales during Christmas Season. The tales themselves were NOT set around Christmas, so they make for nice Halloween Season viewing, too. 

Fiction (Interesting Literature): What happens if you cross the Martian adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs with the pulp fantasy of Robert E. Howard? You get the planetary fantasies of Leigh Brackett, the underrated writer of ‘science fantasy’ who penned a number of hugely entertaining short stories and novellas set on Venus and Mars.

Lists (Movieweb): Via a blog post, the author shared a list of several books he feels each of his fans should read. Many of them are the fantasy kind. A few slightly pivot to other genres.

Science Fantasy (Rough Edges): After reading William P. McGivern’s grim and gritty crime novel SHIELD FOR MURDER a couple of weeks ago, I got the urge to try one of his science fiction stories. “Safari to the Lost Ages”, a novella that appeared originally in the July 1942 issue of FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, seemed like a good bet. It’s about a trip 30,000 years into the past, and I like a good time travel yarn now and then.

Pulp (Heritage Auctions): DALLAS, Texas (Oct. 3, 2025) — For its premiere Pulp Signature® Auction Dec. 4-6, Heritage Auctions will offer a deep selection of Spicy, Saucy, Thrilling and Weird pulp magazines from the Dr. Richard Meli Pulp Collection. Renowned for his completism as well as his discerning eye for securing the highest-quality copies possible, Dr. Meli owns one of the greatest troves, if not the premier collection, of pulp magazines ever assembled.

Fiction (Science Fiction & Fantasy Remembrance): First published in the November 1939 issue of Unknown. It has the rare of actually appearing in a genre magazine twice, being reprinted in the October 1953 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. You can also find it in the Chandler volume Collected Stories.

James Bond (MI6-HQ): Late last week, MI6 revealed the new key art being used by Amazon Prime for the James Bond films and how the streamer had used clunky Photoshop and AI tools to remove any guns from the actor’s poses. The four worst offending examples went viral on social media. Perhaps feeling shame for the terrible botch job on the artwork, not to mention the idea in the first place, Amazon Prime has now reinstated the previous key art across its streaming service.

Science Fiction (Ken Lizzi): My edition of The Glory That Was is dedicated to Isaac Asimov and boasts an introduction by Robert A. Heinlein. So right up front you have substantial implied attestations of quality. But I’ve learned not to set my sights too high, and tempered my expectations accordingly. I expected an L. Sprague de Camp short novel: smart, droll, erudite, and entertaining, but not grand, emotionally moving, or offering any particularly deep profundity.

Astronomy (Lotus Eaters): The 3I-ATLAS Enigma

Art (Michael Whelan): This began as a study for AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, exploring the cubic structures on the mountains as described by H.P. Lovecraft. After researching the unique design of the plane, Michael couldn’t resist adding it to the scene. But the painting still needed a touch of horror, and a drawing from his sketchbook of a skeletal hand clutching a star stone fit perfectly.

Review (Fantasy Tales): Fantasy Tales was a British fantasy and horror magazine that ran from 1977-1991, though since it only published twice a year that’s not a huge number of issues (24). It was modeled after the classic pulp Weird Tales, and had a high percentage of notable authors for what started as basically a fanzine. By the issue I have to hand, it had moved to professional printing.

Cinema (Silver Key): Werewolves were my thing, for whatever reason. Maybe I, powerless but with a powerful hunger, felt the urge to shed my weakness and transform. I will leave the psychoanalysis to the more qualified. The best of the werewolf flicks was and remains An American Werewolf in London.

Review (Ruined Chapel): Richard Pastore recommended this book to me when I asked for suggestions regarding “the best” Halloween book. Well, while it’s an inherently subjective concept, I’d have to say that this is about as Halloween-y of a Halloween story as there can be.

Horror (The Obelisk): The Gein case directly inspired The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs, both of which feature sexually confused serial killers with a penchant for…ahem…reusing human tissue. But the first work of fiction to capitalize on the infamy of the Gein case was Robert Bloch’s 1959 novel, Psycho.

Clark Ashton Smith (Michael K. Vaughn): Explore the dark, horrifying tales of Clark Ashton Smith, a master of Weird Tales. This video discusses Smith’s signature style, characterized by uncompromising doom and beautiful prose. Journey into atmospheric stories where characters face inevitable, ghastly fates.

Hallowen (Swordslore): Samhain mhath dhuibh uile! A good Halloween to you all! With the spooky season rolling in, I figured I’d make a post curating all the posts I’ve made thus far related to Halloween and horror for readers’ convenience of picking out some things to read by candlelight as the sunsets creep in earlier and the dark winds moan…

History (Raymond Ibrahim): Battle of Tours: When the Hammer Saved Christian Europe from Islam

Cinema (Ruined Chapel): In The Shootist, he plays J.B. Books, an aging gunfighter who rides into Carson City, Nevada to see an old friend, a Dr. Hostetler, to get a second opinion on what another medical man has told him.