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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: REH’s Swords of Shahrazar
“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (Gat — Prohibition Era term for a...
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The Tuvela Theory: The Demon Breed by James H. Schmitz
The Demon Breed (Ace Books, September 1979). Cover by Bob Adragna Earlier this year, I visited my city library during a book sale. One of the things I spotted on their shelves was a novel by James H....
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Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Pirates Rise from a Watery Grave
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (USA, 2003) It’s hard to remember now, but a mere quarter-century ago, the pirate movie genre was dead and over, ninety years of cheesy...
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A Master of his Art: Rattle of Bones and Other Terrifying Tales by Robert E....
Rattle of Bones and Other Terrifying Tales (Clover Press, October 20, 2020). Cover by Gabriel Rodriguez “Damned be the dark ends of the earth where old horrors live again.” — Robert E. Howard Some of...
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A to Z Reviews: “Auriga’s Streetcar,” by Jean Rabe
Growing up in northern Illinois with an interest in astronomy, I was very familiar with the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. The 40-inch refractor telescope, built in 1893, was the...
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Of Artistry, Addiction, and Self-discovery: Forthcoming Memoir of Fantasy...
The art of Tom Barber: Amazing Science Fiction, March 1976, and the first issue of the paperback version of Weird Tales, edited by Lin Carter (Zebra Books, December 1980) The arts are not a way to...
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When Your First Language is Role-Playing Games
A1-4: Scourge of the Slavelords by David “Zeb” Cook, Allen Hammack, Harold Johnson, Tom Moldvay, Lawrence Schick, and Edward Carmien (TSR, 1986), and Oriental Adventures: Night of the Seven Swords by...
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Ten Things I Think Think: Marvel Edition
At loose ends and not too keen on writing over the Labor Day holiday weekend, I decided to start a week-long Marvel deep dive. I had re-watched Guardians of the Galaxy stuff for the third one, so I set...
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Fame – an Introvert’s Dilemma
This is my literal nightmare.Image by StockSnap from Pixabay Good afterevenmorn! It is a long-held convention, it seems, that writers are, by nature, introverts. From my experience, both quite...
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The End of Time and Me: Michael Moorcock’s Dancers at the End of Time
The Dancers at the End of Time trilogy: An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands, and The End of All Songs (Avon Books, September and November 1977, and June 1978). Cover art by Stanislaw Fernandes When I...
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The World of Tiers and Beyond: Philip Jose Farmer, Part I
The World of Tiers, Volumes 1 and 2 (Science Fiction Book Club, November 1981). Covers by Boris Vallejo Philip Jose Farmer (1918 – 2009). Farmer was a versatile writer. I discovered him from his Sword...
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A to Z Reviews: “A Sound, Like Angels Singing,” by Leonard Rysdyk
Leonard Rysdyk published a handful of short stories in the early 1990s, and has continued to self publish novels. His second short story, “A Sound Like Angels Singing,” appeared in 1993 in Ellen...
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Some Remarks on an Unremarkable Space Opera: Galactic Gambit by Roy C. Dudley
Galactic Gambit (Lenox Hill Press, September 1971). Cover by Herbstman In my recent looks at less-remembered novels of the ’70s and ’80s I’ve covered some obscurish works by well-remembered writers...
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Biggus Footus, Part II
Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes (New Breed Entertainment, 2011), Sasquatch (North American Film Enterprises, 1976), and Bigfoot (Syfy, 2012) This is Part II of my new watch project. All Bigfoot (or...
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Five More Things I Think: Marvel Edition
Last week I did a Ten Things I Think I Think on the deep dive I did with seventeen Marvel movies. I watched nine more to finish off this really fun movie watch, so here are Five More Things I Think –...
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A Decadal Review of 1989 Science Fiction Magazines: Wrap-up
I reviewed five science fiction magazines from mid-2021 to early 2024. Here are my overall notes and rankings. Asimov’s Science Fiction, September 30, 2022 Edited by Gardner DozoisCover by Wayne...
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The Mad Wizards at Planet X Games
Rayguns & Robuts, issue 1 (Planet X Games, August 2022). Cover by Ed Bickford “…system-agnostic universe filled with galactic space rangers and square-jawed heroes zipping across the phlogiston,...
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Neverwhens: In His Sunken House of… Doggerland… Dead Cthulhu Waits Dreaming
Yeah…Doggerland. For those not in the know, during the last Ice Age Earth’s seas were about 300 feet lower, revealing a vast amount of land. While no true Atlantis or Mu have been found, examples...
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A to Z Reviews: “Side Effects,” by Julian Saari
Julian Saari offers up a fish tale of a bar story in “Side Effects.” This short piece is the only work he has listed on the Internet Science Fiction Database and it appeared in the August 1991 issue...
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How Billy Graham’s Conan Art Got Him Fired from Fantastic Magazine
Fantastic magazine, edited by Ted White. August 1972. Cover by Jeff Jones I read Rich Horton’s Retro Review of the August 1972 issue of Fantastic magazine here at Black Gate, and I remember being...
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