Posts

After: An Anatomy of Fracture (2024) by Drew Starling

-
Image
The world as we know it has ceased to exist. It has been   over a decade since the visitors first appeared. Though nature still   flourishes, humankind has been crushed and placed under the merciless genocidal   campaign of alien intelligence. Technology   has been ravaged by electro-magnetic   pulses. Humans are forced to wear oxygen converters that conceal their exhaled   breath, by which they can be located and destroyed. They now exist either in isolated   solitude or in fortified communes. The   sky is filled is giant discs that emit   howls as they communicate with each other while on the earth’s surface giant creatures   constantly seek the remnants of humanity to rend and tear apart in the claws   and teeth. Our main character, only ever referred to as “the woman,”   has chosen the life of isolated solitude, serving as a motorcycle   courier,   carrying messages back and forth between the communes (Comms), where people   exist in undernourished squalor   and disease. There is a
Post a Comment
Read more

Atomic Werewolves and Man-Eating Plants (2023) Edited by Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle

-
Image
Through the tireless efforts of pulp-renaissance men Robert Deis   and Wyatt Doyle, the world is once again a brighter place for those with a predilection   toward the Men’s Adventure Magazines   (MAMs) of a bygone era. The duo’s ability   to mine the depths of the MAM archives to pull together these themed editions   is unparalleled and the riches of their efforts is a gift to those like myself,   who generally missed out on these magazines in their original incarnation. The hook this time around is an entire edition built around   stories that are much more clearly fictional with supernatural overtones. This   makes it similar in some respects to the authors’ earlier   Cryptozoology Anthology . Whereas much of the popular MAM stories at   least dipped a toe into the real world, albeit it in greatly exaggerated tales   of manly men and their adventures, often while at   war, this collection revels   in tales of sci-fi and horror featuring (as announced loudly in a list on the front  
Post a Comment
Read more

The Paperback Kung Fu Phenomenon: Part 2 (Standalone Titles, TV, & the 80s)

-
Image
The following column was originally printed in Justin Marriott's Paperback Fanatic 47, which was published in July of 2023. You can buy a copy of it  here. As   I explained in this column last edition, I spent my teen years in the 1970s absolutely obsessed with all things martial arts. I collected magazines, comics, movies, and attempted to acquire every single paperback book or series that focused on this very specific genre. I was less interested in non- fiction books   about the martial arts or individual styles; I was really only interested in   the violent pulp fiction that was anchored in manly men (or sexy   women) fighting   other manly men (or sexy women) in stylized conflict. And thankfully there was   no shortage of it for a decade plus. This time around I want to focus on some additional two-fisted series from that   era, including a TV tie-in, a couple of titles that failed to spawn their own   series, and some that were birthed in the 80s. Kwai Chang   Caine, Master o
Post a Comment
Read more