A Sword and Planet Quiz

A Sword and Planet Quiz

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Can you match the fantasy world on the left with its creator on the right?

Kregen _________ 1. John Norman
Magira _________ 2. Edmond Hamilton
Newhon  ________ 3. Gardner F. Fox
Janus __________ 4. Charles Allen Gramlich
Ur_____________ 5. Jack Vance
Amber__________ 6. Adrian Cole
Skaith__________ 7. Leigh Brackett
Gor  ___________ 8. Fritz Leiber
Kaldar _________ 9. Alan Burt Akers
Tschai_________ 10. Edgar Rice Burroughs
Talera _________ 11. Andre Norton
Barsoom _______ 12. Roger Zelazny
Llarn __________ 13. Hugh Walker
Ghandor  _______ 14. Robert E. Howard
Almuric  ________ 15. Del Dowdell

Answers are here. Good luck!

Cape Fear: John D. MacDonald is BACK!!!!!

Cape Fear: John D. MacDonald is BACK!!!!!

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I have not been active in the John D. MacDonald world for awhile. Time is limited, and interests are many. I recently jumped down the Columbo rabbit hole (I wrote about him back in 2016, and I’ve got a big project in the works for 2027). And I’ve been watching that seventies show, Emergency!. That holds up way better than you might expect!

Which is all to say, I actually exclaimed in joy last week when I discovered a new ten-episode streaming series of Cape Fear is coming!! (You can see I’m still excited!). It will air on Apple TV, every Friday from June 5 through July 26.

Hopefully you’ve read some of my John MacD writings here at Black Gate. I even have a landing page where I collected my writings on him. I was late to the Robert E. Howard party, and Two-Gun Bob has risen to number two on my all-time favorite writers list. But John D. MacDonald is the one author he hasn’t passed. And I don’t think he ever will.

THE EXECUTIONERS

There was a writers community in Sarasota, Florida, in the fifties. MacDonald moved there in 1951, and the dean of the group was MacKinley Kantor, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize winner, Andersonville. He became JDM’s friend, and mentor. In 1957, at one of the gatherings, Kantor was needling MacDonald about the quality of his writing. All he wrote were mysteries and other paperback trash. Why didn’t he write a real book?

MacDonald got mad. He bet Kantor $50 that he would write a book within thirty days. A book that would be serialized in magazines, be a book club selection, and be turned into a movie. Kantor accepted.

MacDonald had written almost two dozen books, mostly paperback originals. MacDonald was popular, but the books were of a type. British critic and novelist Julian Symons later called his books “…production line efficient fast-moving American thrillers.” But he also said, “..there are interesting ideas about the nature of corruption and the increasingly mechanical form of life in America.”

Kantor saw that MacDonald had more in him. Something that would stand out from the good but similar book after book (I like what he was writing, but I’m also not a Pulitzer Prize winner, either).

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My Top Thirty Films, Part 6

My Top Thirty Films, Part 6

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The Thing (Universal Pictures, June 25, 1982)

So here we are, the final wild bunch of my favorite films; films that I have returned to time and time again purely for their entertainment value and healing properties. I’m sure most of the thirty films on my list are favorites for you too, but I hope there are at least one or two titles spread upon this charcuterie board of nostalgia and cheese that you haven’t seen, and might have piqued your interest enough to seek them out. Thank you for your comments thus far — I have really enjoyed the mixture of enlightenment and fury in your replies. Onwards and upwards!

The Thing (1982)

Who’s in it?

Kurt Russell, Keith David, Donald Moffat, Richard Dysart

What’s it about?

A group of American researchers in a remote Antarctica facility find themselves on the edge of paranoia and despair after an alien shapeshifting parasite infects their group. The men must struggle to stay human, all the while trying to ascertain who among them has been infected by the thing.

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Forgotten Authors: Rosel George Brown

Forgotten Authors: Rosel George Brown

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Rosel George Brown

Rosel George was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 15, 1926. She attended Sophie Newcomb College and earned a Master of Arts degree in Greek at the University of Minnesota. In 1947, she married W. Burlie Brown, a lawyer who would go back to school in 1949 to earn a Ph.D. in history before joining the Tulane University faculty in 1951. Aside from the period when she was attending graduate school in Minnesota and Burlie was attending graduate school in North Carolina, Rosel George Brown lived in New Orleans. The Browns had two children. For about three years, Rosel worked as a welfare visitor.

Brown began publishing science fiction in 1958 when her story “From an Unseen Censor” appeared in the September issue of Galaxy Science Fiction alongside established authors Isaac Asimov, Damon Knight, Arthur C. Clarke, and Willy Ley. The following year, she published seven additional stories in If, Fantastic Universe, Star Science Fiction, F&SF, Galaxy, and Amazing, demonstrating the ability to sell to multiple editors. In 1959, she was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best New Writer, alongside Kit Reed, Louis Charbonneau, Pauline Ashwell, and Brian W. Aldiss.

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Here Comes Everybody: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner

Here Comes Everybody: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner

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Stand on Zanzibar (Del Rey/Ballantine, June 1976). Cover by Murray Tinkelman

Watching their sets in a kind of trance
Were people in Mexico, people in France.
They don’t chase Jones but their dreams are the same—
Mr. and Mrs. Everywhere, that’s the right name!
Herr und Frau Uberall or les Partout,
A gadget on the set makes them look like you.

Stand on Zanzibar is perhaps John Brunner’s most significant novel. Up until then, he had written competent science fiction on familiar themes such as psionics (Telepathist) and time travel (The Productions of Time). With Stand on Zanzibar he began writing larger books that were no longer purely ways of playing with such standard ideas, but examinations of our own world in a fantastic mirror. At the same time, they used a more sophisticated literary method — not the surrealism that inspired much of the New Wave, but a naturalism similar to nineteenth-century fiction.

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A Fine Sword & Sorcery Anthology: The Spell of Seven, edited by L. Sprague de Camp

A Fine Sword & Sorcery Anthology: The Spell of Seven, edited by L. Sprague de Camp

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The Spell of Seven (Pyramid Books, June 1965). Cover by Virgil Finlay

L. Sprague de Camp was a major player in the paperback Sword & Sorcery boom of the 1960s. I had the good fortune to meet him and his wife; both were urbane and erudite. I was able to correspond with him while in the ranks of REHupa, the Robert E. Howard United Press Association. De Camp’s role in promoting Robert E. Howard — and his own work with it — is not without controversary, which I’ll address.

But not today. De Camp was also a popular and successful fiction writer, both fantasy and SF, and even nonfiction. I’ll address those aspects in time, but today I’ll just bring some of his editing work into focus. He edited a number of fine Sword & Sorcery anthologies, most of which featured REH. These include Swords & Sorcery, The Spell of Seven, Warlocks and Warriors, and The Fantastic Swordsmen. I have two copies of The Spell of Seven and will discuss it first.

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Dragonslayer: How to Slay Your Dragon

Dragonslayer: How to Slay Your Dragon

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Dragonslayer (Paramount Pictures, June 26, 1981)

Dragonslayer (109 minutes; 1981)

Written by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins. Directed by Matthew Robbins.

What is it?

A sorcerer’s apprentice travels across sixth-century England to battle a dragon terrorizing a small kingdom. The jerk of a king and the local populace eventually prove more trouble to deal with than the dragon. Unfortunately, the dragon loses.

Noteworthy

A joint production between Paramount and Walt Disney, Dragonslayer was only the third PG-rated film associated with Disney. Indeed it feels like a Disney movie that has taken a dark turn along the way. Although not a profitable one.

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What I’ve Been Watching: February, 2026

What I’ve Been Watching: February, 2026

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I haven’t told you about What I’ve Been Watching since last year! Of course it’s only February 16, so I guess we can keep a sense of proportion.

But I’ve been watching a lot of stuff this year. As always, many are re-watches. I opened up the DVDs for The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, which is still in my Top Two over thirty years after it’s lone season (Screw Fox for canceling this, and Firefly, so quickly).

Psych (the other show in my Top Two) is still frequently on screen, and I just started jumping back into Columbo; even adding more than ‘Just one more’ to my book library.

So, let’s talk about a few things.

THE NIGHT MANAGER

I watched this when it aired back in 2016. I kept thinking that Tom Hiddleston would be a great James Bond. I still do. He’s a natural. And Hugh Laurie was simply excellent. His cold, rational villainy was spot on.

So, Hiddleston, Laurie, and Olivia Colman in a super thriller based on a John Le Carre novel. I thought this was great. Definitely recommended.

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Classics of Sword & Sorcery: Echoes of Valor, edited by Karl Edward Wagner

Classics of Sword & Sorcery: Echoes of Valor, edited by Karl Edward Wagner

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Paperback editions of all three volumes of Echoes of Valor, edited by Karl Edward Wagner (Tor Books, February 1987, February 1991, and September 1991). Covers by Ken Kelly, Rick Berry, and Rick Berry

The three book Echoes of Valor anthology series from TOR was edited by Karl Edward Wagner, who wrote excellent Sword & Sorcery tales himself, and could recognize good ones when he saw them. These were not anthologies of new stories, but reprints. Each contained a Robert E. Howard tale. Here are some capsule reviews.

Echoes of Valor (1987, Cover Ken Kelly)

Contains one story each by Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and Henry Kuttner. Howard’s story is “The Black Stranger.” It’s a Conan tale but wasn’t published in REH’s lifetime. He rewrote it as a pirate tale featuring Black Vulmea called “Swords of the Red Brotherhood.” It still didn’t sell. Long after Howard’s death, L. Sprague de Camp rewrote it as “The Treasure of Tranicos” and it was published. It didn’t really need the rewrite in my opinion, so who knows why it wasn’t published initially.

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My Top Thirty Films, Part 5

My Top Thirty Films, Part 5

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Mackenna’s Gold (Columbia Pictures, March 18, 1969)

Four horror films and a western.

Sounds like a great night in.

Mackenna’s Gold (1969)

Who’s in it?

Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas, Julie Newmar

What’s it about?

Marshal MacKenna (Peck) chances upon a map to a legendary treasure, and burns it after committing it to memory. A motley collection of outlaws, Apaches, traitors, and nefarious ne’er-do-wells coerce MacKenna into leading them to the hidden valley where the riches are rumoured to be, but infighting, jealousy, and greed soon thins out the gang. Will MacKenna make it out alive?

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