Welcome to the next installment in my Retro Reviews! This time, we’re looking at Princess of Mars, the first in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter series. This is straight up pulp adventure with no pretensions to be anything other than rollicking swashbuckling fun. It is now time for my traditional attempt at poetical plot summation […]
By way of introductory remarks let me state that this review of Michael Moorcock’s An Alien Heat, the first book of The Dancers at the End of Time, is the result of the most delightful form of reread, namely revisiting a book after twenty years. An Alien Heat is also quite delightful, although perhaps more […]
By way of introductory remarks, I’d like to state that if you want a glowing account of all the clever things Pratchett does with Ankh-Morpork, Moist von Lipwig, Vetinari, et al in Making Money, you’d be best advised to go elsewhere. Not that I dislike the book for I like it well enough. Nor is […]
By way of introductory remarks, let me state that when it comes to C.M. Caplan’s The Fall is All There Is, I am having to very much figure out my thoughts as I go. This is a highly ambitious, family focused, sci-fantasy adventure with lots of swearing. If that appeals to you, read on. When […]
By way of introductory remarks, let me state that when it comes to authors with the sort of stature of Sarah J. Maas, conversation gets a little distorted. In a way, that’s why I found myself reading House of Earth and Blood to begin with. You see one of my groups of pocket friends reacted […]
Welcome to the next installment in my Retro Reviews! This time, we’re looking at an author who helped define Weird Tales with his macabre imagination and poetic writing, and an anthology of his Lovecraftian sword & sorcery. The man is Clark Ashton Smith. The anthology is Hyperborea. And for our first question What’s it all […]
By way of introductory remarks, I’d like to state that to rate Leigh Brackett’s The Secret of Sinharat is to rate pulp adventure, for this fix-up adventure of Eric John Stark is bang on pulp adventure. The basic premise of this book is that Eric John Stark, or N’Chaka, a man of a Conan-esque mould, […]
By way of introductory remarks, let me state reading Terry Pratchett’s Snuff was a profoundly weird experience for me for all sorts of reasons. Still, we try to make sense of the weird, and one of the ways I did so was reminding myself of something Order of the Stick creator Rich Burlew said: “Rather […]
By way of introductory remarks, I know a lot of people who list the Moist von Lipwig books in Pratchett’s Discworld as their favourites. Let me set the tone of this review of Going Postal early by saying I could never understand why. Don’t get me wrong, I like the books, but something vital for […]
It’s been a while very short time, but it’s time to return to the greatest series about talking woodland creatures. For those who don’t know, Redwall is a series of children’s fantasy books by Brian Jacques famous for its use of anthropomorphic animals, good vs evil, and regional British dialects. It was hugely popular when […]
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