Sorry the blog’s been quiet! Not because nothing’s been going on… just that it’s been going on in other forums. One day I’ll get around to updating the bibliography and other pages, but in the meantime they’re like a peek back. Hard to believe the first posts are nearly 10 years old, moved here when I switched to WordPress all the way back in 2008!
RSS supporting our friends at Black Gate- Goth Chick News: The Horror of Peter Jackson’s Heavenly CreaturesIn 1991, Peter Jackson was a wee New Zealand lad of thirty-three who was embarking on what would become a very lucrative film career. He was still seven years away from becoming a near household name with the release of Lord or the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and was on the hunt for […]
- Up and Down Again: Robert Silverberg’s Up the LineUp the Line by Robert SilverbergFirst Edition: Ballantine, August 1969. Cover art Ron Walotsky.Also shown: Fourth printing, June 1981. Cover art Murray Tinkelman. Up the Lineby Robert SilverbergBallantine (250 pages, $0.75, Paperback, August 1969)Cover art Ron Walotsky Having discussed Isaac Asimov’s The End of Eternity last time, I thought to move forward a […]
- Space-faring Creatures and Ancient Secrets: The Escaping Exodus Series by Nicky DraydenEscaping Exodus, Books 1 & 2, by Nicky Drayden (Harper Voyager, 2019 and 2021). Cover: Courtney ‘Seage’ Howlett, unknown Nicky Drayden won the Compton Crook Award for her first novel The Prey of Gods. I was even more intrigued by Escaping Exodus, the opening volume in a far-future saga in which human society exists in […]
- Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: The Exuberant Excess of Sixties VikingsLast of the Vikings (1961) The blockbuster success of 1958’s The Vikings spawned a number of would-be successors that tried to make up for lower budgets by amping up the action. The ever-lurid Italian cinema took the lead with two adventures directed or co-directed by Mario Bava, Last of the Vikings and Erik the Conqueror, […]
- Future Treasures: Dead Space by Kali WallaceKali Wallace is the author of Salvation Day (July 2019), which Jeff Somers at the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog called a “sci-fi horror thriller [that] looks do outdo the scares of Alien, and comes damn close.” Her new novel is Dead Space, and it got a rave from Publisher’s Weekly (“a locked-room […]
- Science Fiction is a Small CommunityThe Best Science Fiction Stories: 1953, edited by Everett F. Bleiler and T. E. Dikty (Frederick Fell, 1953). Cover art uncredited. Two weeks ago I bought a handsome copy of The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1953, edited by Everett F. Bleiler and T. E. Dikty, from a seller on eBay. As I carefully opened the […]
- Galaxy Science Fiction, November 1954: A Retro-ReviewGalaxy Science Fiction, November 1954. Cover by Emsh Ah, yes, it’s that time again to look back at Galaxy Science Fiction. The rumor that I was traded for a box of unopened board games is untrue. But John has quite the penchant for such things, so I hope no one puts this to the test. […]
- Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone: 2020 Stay at Home – Day 26So, last year, as the Pandemic settled in like an unwanted relative who just came for a week and is still tying up the bathroom, I did a series of posts for the FB Page of the Nero Wolfe fan club, The Wolfe Pack. I speculated on what Stay at Home would be like for […]
- Vintage Treasures: Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. HeinleinOrphans of the Sky (Ace Books, 1987). Cover by Carl Lundgren Robert A. Heinlein never really did it for me. Even in my teens, when I was devouring any science fiction between covers, I didn’t get the appeal. I never read his juveniles, and I bounced hard off of Friday. I found Stranger in a Strange […]
- My Greatest Antique Fair FindThe Master Mind of Mars (A. C. McClurg & Co, 1928). Cover by J. Allen St. John Today, I thought I’d share the story of our greatest antique fair find. Deb and I enjoy going to flea markets and antique shows when the weather is nice. Even if we don’t buy anything, it’s a fun […]
- Goth Chick News: The Horror of Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures
