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A to Z Review: “Tongtong’s Summer,” by Xia Jia
The letter X provides us with our only duplicate author of the year, with a second story by Xia Jia, which, it should be noted, is the pen name used by Wang Yao. As with last week’s story, “A Hundred...
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Alien Cults, Interstellar Wars, and a Starship Murder Mystery:...
November-December 2024 issues of Asimov’s Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction & Fact. Cover art by Shutterstock and John Sumrow We’ve got issues of Asimov’s Science Fiction and Analog...
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Lyrical, Mysterious, and Ingenious: The Tales and Poems of Clark Ashton Smith
The Last Oblivion: Best Fantastic Poems of Clark Ashton Smith (Hippocampus Press, January 13, 2021) January 13 will mark the 132nd natal anniversary of the great Clark Ashton Smith, accomplished...
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Gary Gygax’ 17 Steps to Role-Playing Mastery (Steps 11 to 17)
So, if you are reading this post right now (and you’d have to be, to see these words), this is Part Two of a look at Gary Gygax’ 17 Steps to Role-Playing Mastery. It would make sense to go read Part...
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Lies Weeping – The next Black Company Novel is on the Way!!!!
Back in April, as part of an exclusive Q&A with sword and sorcery legend Glen Cook, Black Gate revealed that the author had already completed the next three novels in his seminal The Black Company...
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Two Classic Fantasy Anthologies: Barbarians and Barbarians II, edited by...
Barbarians, edited by Robert Adams and Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh, and Barbarians II, edited by Pamela Crippen Adams, Robert Adams, and Martin H. Greenberg (Signet New American Library,...
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Goth Chick News Classics: Ray Bradbury’s “The Wish,” a Timeless Christmas Tale
The Book For the last few Decembers I have reposted an article I wrote about Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Wish.” It is a Christmas tale of loss and love and magic which Bradbury penned following...
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A to Z Review: “Death Goddess of the Lower East Side,” Link Yaco
Published in 2000, Link Yaco’s “Death Goddess of the Lower East Side “ was written for Steven-Elliot Altman’s shared world anthology The Touch: Epidemic of the Millennium, which invited authors to...
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Jumping the Shark, Part II
House Shark (SRS Cinema, 2017) So, here we go. A new watch-a-thon, this one based on a handful of the 500+ shark movies that I haven’t seen (or gave up on). I’m not holding out much hope for these –...
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Ladybug Private Detectives, Living Ponds, and Robot Owls: The Owlstone Crown...
The Owlstone Crown (Margaret K. McElderry/Atheneum, October 1983). Illustrated by Michele Chessare The latest in my series of reviews of mostly forgotten SF/F from the 1970s and 1980s is a fairly...
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Ten Things I Think I Think: December 2024
Time for a Ten Things I Think I Think as we close in on Christmas. Those two things are unrelated, though… So, I think that: 1) The Two Towers is Still My All Time Favorite Fantasy Movie As you’ll be...
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The Convincing Villain
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Good afterevenmorn, Readers! Side note, autocorrect keeps trying to fix my nonsensical greeting and it’s quite annoying. Back to the post! I’ve been doing a lot of...
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B-List Heroes and More: Marvel Contest of Champions, The Atomic Knights, and...
Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions, 3-issue limited series (Marvel Comics, June, July & August 1982). Written by Mark Gruenwald, art by John Romita Jr. and Bob Layton Marvel Super Hero Contest...
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Dark Fiction at its Best: This Haunted Heaven by Reggie Oliver
This Haunted Heaven (Tartarus Press, October 24, 2024). Cover artist unknown Reggie Oliver is a British actor, playwright, illustrator and dark fiction author. He has published several short story...
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Goth Chick News: The Christmas Cat, the Yule Lads, Troll Couples and Other...
Another masterpiece by Emi Boz It all started with Big Cheese John O’s Facebook post in which he tagged me on a painting of a Yule Cat by Emi Boz [Macabre Cabaret Artist]. True, I love pretty much...
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A to Z Review: “Iron Monk,” by Melissa Yuan-Innes
Melissa Yuan-Innes sets her story “Iron Monk” on a spaceship traveling to the asteroid belt. Appearing in the May-June 2010 issue of Interzone. The crew of the spaceship seems an odd lot and it is...
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A Singular Success: Fat City
I hold people who write novels in awe. Because writing an entire book-length story is something that I could never do in a million years, I even have a measure of admiration and respect for people who...
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Barry N. Malzberg, July 24, 1939 – December 19, 2024
Barry Malzberg in 2009 Barry Malzberg died Thursday, December 19, 2024, at the age of 85. I never met Barry in person, but I knew him through correspondence — much of it on an email list, but also some...
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A Holmes Christmas Carol
Just about everyone is familiar with A Christmas Carol. The first short movie was made in 1901, based on a play adapted from Charles Dickens’ novel. And there were new adaptations this year. THAT is...
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Of “Dick Merryman” and “a Bad Stink”
British Film Institute Box Set of BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas One of the earliest Christmas ghost stories concludes with dismemberment and a fart joke. Those familiar with the tradition of telling...
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