Search Results for: tale covers

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: William Patrick Murray – Who was N.V. Romero?

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“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 gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun) Will Murray has graced this column multiple times, and he has delved into a mystery or two. He’s got another one today, looking into a Pulp byline from the nineteen thirties that has gnawed away…

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Fantastic, August 1961: A Retro-Review

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Fantastic, August 1961. Cover by Leo Summers It’s been a long time since I did a Retro-Review from Cele Goldsmith’s time at Amazing/Fantastic. So I’m happy to be back at it! This issue is from about two years into Goldsmith’s tenure. There are two features — Norman Lobsenz’s editorial, and the letter column, According to You. (Well, and a brief Coming Soon piece.) The editorial talks about using computers to analyze the various items certain Thais believe have magical powers,…

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A Sword & Sorcery Series I Really Love: Flashing Swords!, edited by Lin Carter

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Flashing Swords! #2, 4, & 5 (Science Fiction Book Club, September 1973, May 1977, and December 1981). Covers by Frank Frazetta, Gary Viskupic, and Ron Miller It’s time to take a look at another Sword & Sorcery anthology series I really love: Flashing Swords, edited by Lin Carter. It is second in my affections only to the Swords Against Darkness 5-book series edited by Andy Offutt that I wrote about here last year. Flashing Swords! came out of the group…

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Tubi Dive, Part I

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50 films that I dug up on Tubi. Enjoy! How to Make a Monster – 1958, AIP As a slight deviation from our usual programming of themed lists, here are the results of a deep dive I recently undertook, pushing Tubi to the limits. So here we are with How to make a Monster, a follow-up of sorts to the two spectacular schlock movies, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and I Was a Teenage Werewolf, both released a year earlier…

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Tor Doubles: #0: Keith Laumer’s The Other Sky and The House in November

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Between October and December of 1969, Keith Laumer’s novella The Seeds of Gonyl were published as a serial in the magazine Worlds of If. The story was published the following year in a hardcover by G.P. Putnam & Sons under the title The House in November, and in 1971 as a paperback by Berkley Medallion. In 1981, Tor reprinted the novel as part of its “Jim Baen Presents” series, but, apparently deeming the novel too short, it paired it with…

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A Lot of Camelot: The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

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The Bright Sword (Viking, July 16, 2024) With no disrespect to J.R.R Tolkien, the King Arthur legend is arguably the  inspiration of much post World War II medieval-based fantasy. You’ve got your out-of-nowhere claimant to the throne, a magic sword, court intrigue, some side stories, romance, sorcery, betrayal but yet a kind of redemption. All the key ingredients. Sure, Game of Thrones was based on the very real English Wars of the Roses, particularly the also very real violence and…

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To Save Your Sanity, Take Stephen Leacock’s Nonsense Novels and Call Me in the Morning (or, Why Are Canadians Funny?)

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You need a good laugh right now. How do I know this? I know this because I need a good laugh right now. Everyone I know needs a good laugh right now, so it stands to reason that you need one too, doesn’t it? So… where to go for that much-needed laugh? Well, there are standup specials on Netflix and the other streamers, you’ve got SNL, there are the many late-night topical jokemeisters — all the usual suspects. Now if…

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Hidden Gods, Cryptids, and Swamp Monsters: March-April Science Fiction Magazines

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March-April 2025 issues of Analog Science Fiction & Fact and Asimov’s Science Fiction. Cover art by Shutterstock The big news this month is that all three print science fiction magazines, as well as the mystery magazines owned by Penny Press, have been sold to a new buyer, a consortium of fans who have have ambitions to maintain and grow all five. Here’s an excerpt from the announcement at Locus Online. Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Asimov’s…

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Across Time: Claude Moreau and His Translator Scott Oden in Conversation

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This post packs two punches: A showcase of the New Treasure A Clockwork’s Dreaming: And Other Tales by Claude Moreau and Scott Oden (January 2025, 134 pages, Kindle and Paperback). An exclusive interview with the deceased author Claude Moreau, the living translator Scott Oden, and special appearances of Laurent Dupont, editor of the literary magazine Les Petites Merveilles. Yes, this article is historic and magical. Read on to learn how this came to be.

One of the Finest Achievements of Heroic Fantasy in the 20th Century: Dilvish, the Damned by Roger Zelazny

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Dilvish, the Damned (Del Rey, November 1982). Cover by Michael Herring Roger Zelazny was unquestionably one of the great American fantasists of the 20th century. That’s not to say he was perfect. His woman characters were often 2-dimensional, and he paired an unwillingness to work with an outline (“Trust your demon” was his motto) with a fondness for projects that really needed an outline. But perfection is boring. Zelazny rarely is. Much of Zelazny’s work is on my always-reread list,…

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