Christmas gifts can extend the season substantially. I received a Christmas present of the DMR edition of Manly Wade Wellman’s novel Cahena: A Dream of the Past. I read it this week, thus drawing my holiday out longer. Well, Merry Christmas to me; what a fine gift. Manly Wade Wellman was one of the last… Continue reading Cahena, Manly Wade Wellman’s Heroic Historical Fiction
Category: Authors
Bard IV. A Bloody Culmination.
I have been belatedly reading through Keith Taylor’s Bard series. I was going to write “working my way through” but that phrase suggests effort, labor. The Bard books are effortless. Reading them is a joy, not a chore. Book Four, Ravens Gathering, is, as the title suggests, a story of a convergence, a gathering. Characters,… Continue reading Bard IV. A Bloody Culmination.
The Watchers Out of Time. H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth.
H.P. Lovecraft receives top billing for The Watchers Out of Time. But the stories in this collection appear to have been actually written by Lovecraft’s acolyte, August Derleth. He seems to have used notes of Lovecraft’s as the springboard for the fifteen (fourteen and a half, rather, since Derleth died before completing the titular tale)… Continue reading The Watchers Out of Time. H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth.
On Stranger Tides: Tim Powers’ Swashbuckling Adventure
It has been years, decades, since I first read On Stranger Tides. I suppose I have been busy reading other things. It’s a pity those other things couldn’t all have been as fun as this. It’s long for a work of (perhaps) sword and sorcery, 322 pages in my paperback edition. But despite the length… Continue reading On Stranger Tides: Tim Powers’ Swashbuckling Adventure
Jack Vance’s Maske: Thaery. Plus Beer Tasting Notes.
I can conceive of no reason not to accompany a review of Maske: Thaery, by the sui generis literary genius Jack Vance, with a review of a few brews. And I might as well do it while watching a football game. If that seems an unexpected, odd, and yet ultimately compelling combination, welcome to the… Continue reading Jack Vance’s Maske: Thaery. Plus Beer Tasting Notes.
Death Angel’s Shadow. A Terrific Trio of Tales from Karl Edward Wagner.
Karl Edward Wagner created a truly unique character in Kane. Yes, that Cain (maybe, more or less, perhaps in a different world.) Death Angel’s Shadow collects three Kane novellas/stories. Reflections for the Winter of My Soul is an excellent werewolf story. It is a massacre in an isolated chateau. It should be filmed by Neil… Continue reading Death Angel’s Shadow. A Terrific Trio of Tales from Karl Edward Wagner.
Golden Blood. A Jack Williamson Adventure Textbook
Was the 1930s the last great period of adventure fiction in the modern era? There’s Indiana Jones, Tales of the Golden Monkey, Robert E. Howard’s oriental and boxing tales, to mention a few examples. And then there is Jack Williamson’s Golden Blood. What captured my attention was the tank on the cover. And then… Continue reading Golden Blood. A Jack Williamson Adventure Textbook
The Borgia Blade. All Killer, No Filler.
Gardner F. Fox‘s The Borgia Blade is a distillate of Rafael Sabatini, served with a squeeze of romance novel in a man-sized pewter tankard. Fox streamlines the historical adventure novel, keeping only the good stuff. And yet at the same time one gets the impression that he’s putting all his research on the page. That is… Continue reading The Borgia Blade. All Killer, No Filler.
Tsalmoth. Vlad Taltos Bears Up Under Adversity.
That saga of Vlad Taltos continues with Tsalmoth, the sixteenth book in the series. Tsalmoth is a tale set in Vlad’s early days. He’s still a minor boss and occasional assassin. There’s a touch of the original ‘cool’ factor and at the same time, Brust is layering in universe-building information which may, or may not, become… Continue reading Tsalmoth. Vlad Taltos Bears Up Under Adversity.