Dead Water (Redhook, June 13, 2023). Cover design by kid-ethic C. A. Fletcher is a Scottish writer, and the author of the popular post-apocalyptic novel A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World. I’m unfamiliar with his work, but I decided to pick up his latest when it was released in paperback in June. Dead Water is described as ‘Folk Horror,’ which I think means it’s a tale of horrible stuff that happens to people who live…
Ghost Story (Pocket Books paperback reprint, September 1, 1989) When fall finally starts descending on Chicagoland there are a few rituals which are essential to getting me in the mood for Spooky Season. Granted, this time of year isn’t dramatically different from the rest of the year around here, considering. But there are certain things that ramp up the countdown to October 31st. For example, a more than average quantity of gothic elements appears in the décor, the sweatshirts come…
“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) A (Black) Gat in the Hand was primarily about hardboiled Pulp stuff when it began, because that’s what I mostly what I was interested in, and knew about. And I was the one writing it….
Shadow of Earth (Dell, September 1979). Cover artist uncredited We lost Phyllis Eisenstein almost three years ago, in December 2020. She was a friend of mine, and I miss the long conversations we used to have at Windycon and the Windy City Pulp & Paper Show. I’ll never forget the greeting she shouted at me in 2015 (“I’m retired!”) after she finally quit her advertising job. She had numerous writing projects she wanted to complete. She died of a stroke…
“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) So… I agreed to write an introduction for The Complete Cases of Mike & Trixie: Volume One, from Steeger Books. That intro is below. It is not, however, in that particular book, as I missed…
Science Fiction Discoveries (Bantam Books, August 1976). Cover artist uncredited Five years ago Steven H Silver had a daily column at Black Gate in which he covered Science Fiction Birthdays for a full year. His choice for November 4, 2018 was Kara Dalkey, and Rich Horton had this to say in the comments. I suppose the only other candidates were M. T. Anderson (I’ve liked a couple of his recentish short pieces a fair bit) and an interesting one: Babette…
“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) If you read Pulp, you know who Evan Lewis is. He’s an MLB MVP while I’m AAA on a good day. Hardboiled, Adventure, Doc Savage, Dick Tracy, Davy Crockett, Nero Wolfe – the guy knows…
Combat SF (Ace Books, June 1981). Cover by Vincent Di Fate Military science fiction has a long and honorable history, from Heinlein’s Starship Troopers to Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War and John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War. It’s not nearly as prevalent on bookstore shelves as it used to be. Some people say that’s because science fiction is no longer a male-dominated genre that panders to young male power fantasies. And those people are mostly right. But there’s still plenty of…
The Grand Illusion novels: Isolate, Councilor, and Contrarian (Tor Books, 2021-2023). Covers by Chris McGrath L. E. Modesitt Jr. is one of the most popular and prolific authors of modern fantasy. He’s written over 80 novels, including the long-running Saga of Recluce (22 books), The Imager Portfolio (12 books), the Corean Chronicles (8 books), the Spellsong Cycle (5 books), and the Ecolitan series (4 books). His latest series is The Grand Illusion, in which he is “Masterfully blending gas lamp…
Lord of a Shattered Land (Baen Books, August 1, 2023). Cover Art by Dave Seeley From the beginning, Sword and Sorcery has been an existentialist literature of the outsider. The rogue, the mercenary, the outcast, the criminal: from Conan to Elric, Fafhrd to Corwin of Amber, Jirel of Joiry to Grimnir the Corpse-maker, the S&S protagonist finds themselves at odds with their society, confronted with aggressive meaninglessness and called upon to carve out their own meaning in a chaotic, ever-changing,…