I recently got a book that’s been on my to-buy list for awhile, Arena of Souls by David Wood. This is the first of what looks to be an ongoing series of books with Brock Stone, set in the early 1930s.
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.
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.
For those interested in scholarship on the works of H.P. Lovecraft should check out Hippocampus Press‘ Lovecraft Annual. This journal, edited by top Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi, replaces the prior Lovecraft Studies journal from Necronomicon Press (45 issues, 1980-2005).
Readers of my weekly column (both of you) know that I quite enjoying giving my opinion on a wide range of topics. I’ll cut the normal ten down to five this time, but it’s been two months since I’ve expounded thus.
Blackmark by Archie Goodwin and Gil Kane (Bantam Books, January 1971). Cover by Gil Kane As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t grow up with comics. They weren’t available in my small, rural town of Charleston, Arkansas in the 1960s and 70s.
The Vatican Tapes (2015) – Prime Imagine my excitement when I read that Mark Nelvedine (The Crank movies, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Gamer) had made an exorcism flick. This was bound to be bonkers! Oh, foolish lamb that I am.
So I have posted on various pulp comics here, most of them American, but also a few European ones which I feel either use American pulp characters or themes or use European pulp characters. But so far I have never done any pulp manga, because this largely doesn’t exist.
In October of 1988, Tor Books released the first Tor Double, a volume that reprinted Arthur C. Clarke’s 1971 novella Meeting with Medusa with Kim Stanley Robinson’s novella Green Mars. Over the next thirty-five months, they would publish a total of thirty-six books in the series.
One of the best parts of my Black Gate side hustle is the cool people we get to meet, and there’s nothing more exciting than connecting with those who are most definitely “our people.” I am embarrassed to admit that the Fall Days of the Dead show in Chicago last November was my first encounter with the geniuses behind the podcast They Mostly Pod Out at Night, Mostly, who go by the monikers Graveyard and Salem.
With the start of 2025, Stormgate Press has put out their fifth issue of Pulp Reality, dated Winter 2025, three years after the last one. And sadly, this is the final issue. I do hope that at some time, we see a return, but maybe their “Stormgate Quick Reads Books” series replaces this to a […]
Social interaction is a minefield, isn’t it? Whether it’s gathering with the family for the holidays, relating to people at the workplace, or making small talk with the checker at the supermarket, any encounter with other people, no matter how casual or seemingly benign, is fraught with uncertainty and even, sometimes, menace.
Good afterevenmorn! Let’s talk self-publishing. Particularly, print on demand options. In this particular climate, I know a number of book buyers and independent and self publishers looking to make an impact by being more mindful of where they spend their money and with whom they do business.
What flummery is this? I have not written about Nero Wolfe since last Summer? There has not been a 3 Good Reasons in four years? What kind of mystery blogger is this Bryne fellow? Most unsatisfactory. So… Welcome to another installment of 3 Good Reasons.
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.
The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond (Parallel Media, April 9, 2010) and The Conjuring (New Line Cinema, July 15, 2013) 20 new watches, all featuring my least favorite horror genre, possession and exorcism flicks.
Bewilderment by Richard Powers (W. W. Norton, November 1, 2022); Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Grove Press, October 29, 2024), and Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford (Faber & Faber, April 4, 2024) I just finished Richard Powers’ Bewilderment, from 2021.
An Earthman on Venus (Avon, 1950). Cover by Raymond Johnson Ralph Milne Farley (1887 – 1963) was a pseudonym for Roger Sherman Hoar. Hoar was a Massachusetts senator and an attorney general, so I can understand his use of a pseudonym to write his SF stories under, but I can’t imagine why he’d choose one just as long and awkward as his real name, and even less memorable.
I have previously posted on F. Paul Wilson‘s works that make up his interlocking series called the Secret History of the World, including the Repairman Jack series as well as the Adversary series, the ICE trilogy and more.
Science fiction — what is it, really? What elements place a story firmly in the genre? For any requirement that you can think of, there is probably a great sf story that violates it, and rather than cobble together some dictionary-ready definition, it’s easier to just think of particular books that you would hand to someone unacquainted with the genre with the words, “Here — read this; this is science fiction!” Everyone would have their own choices for such a...
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Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot and the Foundation Trilogy. Robert A. Heinlein’s Sixth Column. Arthur C. Clarke’s first three novels. The entire Conan saga from Robert E. Howard. The International Fantasy Award winner City by Clifford D.
A short-lived pulp reprint series is Pulp Reader, which came out from Ken Krueger‘s Shroud publications in the mid-1970s. Running only three issues, each reprinted a shudder pulp story.
Jason Waltz kicked off season two of his 24? in 42 podcast interviews with your very own Monday morning columnist. The prior installment was with Malazan’s Ian C. Esslemont, so I’m in pretty good company here.
Few things are more ubiquitous than Conan and fantasy. Decades of sword-swinging high adventure has earned the barbarian a following most can only dream of. It’s taken the heavily thewed warrior to the big screen, Marvel Comics, and more.
As usual, 20 films, all free to stream, and I’ve never seen them before. Can I really find 20 cave person films I can sit through? EDIT: No. I’ve expanded the list to include any and all primitive cultures as there are not enough prehistoric flicks to watch.
Dragonslayer (OSR Publishing, February 7, 2024). Cover by Jeff Easley I’ve admired the mega-dungeon adventures of Greg Gillespie for several years, particularly Barrowmaze and The Forbidden Caverns of Archaia.
State of Paradise (Picador paperback reprint, July 8, 2025). Cover art: detail from Tiger in a Tropical Storm by Henri Rousseau, 1891 When I was a kid there was a public service announcement on TV that went something like “Attention: Aliens.
Of Men and Monsters, by William Tenn (Ballantine Books, December 1975). Cover by Boris Vallejo After posting about The Borrowers by British author Mary Norton (1903 -1992) last week, several people mentioned other books and movies with similar kinds of themes — little people living in the houses of big people.
I have been posting on the fanzine bare*bones, which is devoted to “unearthing vintage, forgotten, and overlooked horror/mystery/sci-fi/western/weird film – paperbacks – comics – pulp fiction – video.” It’s produced by Peter Enfantino and John Scoleri through Cimarron Street Books.
Good afterevenmorn! I hope everyone who has to suffer through the daylight savings shift Sunday are coping with losing that hour of sleep. To those to whom that does not apply, know that I am fiercely jealous of you.
On Black Friday weekend 2024, Steeger Books put out their next sets of Argosy Library volumes, Series XVI and XVII, getting closer to 200 volumes. As always, with each series, we get 10 books of great and sometimes overlooked fiction that appeared in the early pulps.
Wow. Eleven years ago today, on March 10, 2014, I became an official Black Gate blogger. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes kicked off a three year run, bringing a mystery presence every Monday morning.
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.
A 20 film marathon of werewolf movies I’ve never seen before. As usual, the films must be free to stream. I’ve got a bad feeling about this. My Mom’s a Werewolf (1989) YouTube Man or beast? Gradual, hairy transformation into rubbish suits.
