Book Review: Great Supernatural Stories: 101 Horrifying Tales

Book Review: Great Supernatural Stories: 101 Horrifying Tales compiled by Stefan Dziemianowicz This hefty volume collects a variety of public domain stories concerning the supernatural. While the majority fall roughly into the category of horror, some are more what we’d call “dark fantasy” and a handful are just “well, that’s a weird thing that happened.”… Continue reading Book Review: Great Supernatural Stories: 101 Horrifying Tales

Book Review: The Mad Visions of Al-Hazred

Book Review: The Mad Visions of Al-Hazred edited by H. David Blalock The Cthulhu Mythos is littered with the names of mysterious books and manuscripts containing forbidden knowledge. The most commonly used one is the Kitab al-Azif, the “Book of Night Insects Buzzing” (among the possible meanings), usually referred to by the Latin translation’s name,… Continue reading Book Review: The Mad Visions of Al-Hazred

Book Review: Star Trek 2

Book Review: Star Trek 2 adapted by James Blish Once upon a time, Star Trek was not a cultural touchstone. It was, instead, a short-lived television series that was much beloved by a slice of the audience that would form the core of fandom, but with relatively poor ratings and considered soon to be forgotten… Continue reading Book Review: Star Trek 2

Manga Review: Berserk Volume 39

Manga Review: Berserk Volume 39 by Kentaro Miura Note: This post contains SPOILERS for previous volumes of the series. Quick recap: Guts, the Black Swordsman, cuts a swath across the demon-infested country of Midland. Once a member of the famous Band of the Hawk, until they were betrayed by their leader (and Guts’ best friend)… Continue reading Manga Review: Berserk Volume 39

Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3

Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3 by Robert Bloch Robert Bloch (1917-1994) was a prolific author of horror, science fiction and mystery works. (You may have seen, read or at least heard of Psycho.) This volume, originally “Selected Stories” and by no means complete, features 39 stories published between 1960 and… Continue reading Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3

Magazine Review: Wonder Stories January 1934

Magazine Review: Wonder Stories January 1934 editor-in-chief Hugo Gernsback Wonder Stories was one of the first dedicated science fiction magazines, started up after Hugo Gernsback lost control of Amazing Stories.  It started in 1929 as two magazines titled Air Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories before being consolidated in 1930. He held onto it until 1936 when financial considerations made him sell it to Beacon Magazines. They… Continue reading Magazine Review: Wonder Stories January 1934

Book Review: Great Thrillers: 101 Suspenseful Tales

Book Review: Great Thrillers: 101 Suspenseful Tales compiled by Stefan Dziemianowicz The definition of “thriller” is a little loose in this fun anthology, though most of the stories do have at least some suspense.  It feels more like the compiler picked a bunch of the public domain stories he liked, but didn’t have a strong… Continue reading Book Review: Great Thrillers: 101 Suspenseful Tales

Book Review: Writers of the Future, Volume 34

Book Review: Writers of the Future, Volume 34 edited by David Farland Disclaimer:  I received a download of this book through a Goodreads giveaway for the purpose of writing this review.  No other compensation was offered or requested. Back before he became involved with…you know, L. Ron Hubbard was a prolific author of stories for… Continue reading Book Review: Writers of the Future, Volume 34

Book Review: The Invisible Man

Book Review: The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells The sleepy village of Iping doesn’t get many visitors in the middle of winter, so when Mrs. Hall gets a new customer (and one that pays on time!) for her boarding house, it’s not polite to look a gift horse in the mouth.  It’s true the guest… Continue reading Book Review: The Invisible Man

Manga Review: Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe

Manga Review: Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe adapted by Stacy King When I was young, a half century or so ago, there was a line of educational comics called Classics Illustrated.  These presented classic public domain works of literature in a comic book format.  The art tended to be static and pedestrian, difficult… Continue reading Manga Review: Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe