Magazine Review: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine May/June 2021

Magazine Review: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine May/June 2021 edited by Linda Landrigan In 1956, HSD Publications wanted to create a new mystery story magazine. To boost sales, they licensed the name of Alfred Hitchcock, a famous director who was then the host of a popular television show. While Mr. Hitchcock otherwise had nothing to do… Continue reading Magazine Review: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine May/June 2021

Movie Review: Summer Wars

The clan gathers around the family computer.

Movie Review: Summer Wars (2009) directed by Mamoru Hosoda High schooler Kenji Koiso is a math whiz who almost qualified for Team Japan in the Math Olympics. But almost won’t get you a good summer job, so he’s a low level maintenance admin for the OZ online service. OZ is the most popular online virtual world,… Continue reading Movie Review: Summer Wars

Book Review: The Fourth Galaxy Reader

Book Review: The Fourth Galaxy Reader edited by H.L. Gold Galaxy Magazine had a decent run with a lot of good stories, so it’s not surprising that even this fourth collection of fifteen science fiction reprints from the 1950s has a strong selection.  (I recognized almost all of these!)  There’s an introduction which runs down inferior… Continue reading Book Review: The Fourth Galaxy Reader

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: Enchantress of Numbers

Book Review: Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852) is better known to us today as Ada Lovelace.  Her primary claim to fame is her “notes” on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, which anticipated uses for this theoretical calculating device far beyond mere number-crunching, and provide the first known published… Continue reading Book Review: Enchantress of Numbers

Book Review: The Avon Fantasy Reader

Book Review: The Avon Fantasy Reader edited by Donald A. Wollheim and George Ernsberger Avon Fantasy Reader was a pulp magazine that reprinted fantasy and science fiction stories for eighteen issues starting in 1946.   It featured some doozies from authors who’d since become well-known, or were classics in their own right.  In 1968, this paperback… Continue reading Book Review: The Avon Fantasy Reader

Magazine Review: Other Worlds April 1952

Magazine Review: Other Worlds April 1952 edited by Raymond A. Palmer Other Worlds was a science fiction digest-sized magazine that began publication in 1949.  Raymond A. Palmer was both the publisher and editor, and thus had a freer hand in choosing what to put in the magazine than most pulp editors.  Mr. Palmer (whose name… Continue reading Magazine Review: Other Worlds April 1952

Book Review: The Mystery Men of Mars

Book Review: The Mystery Men of Mars by Carl H. Claudy Dr. Isaac Lutyens, Professor of Physics and Higher Mathematics, has created what amounts to a gravitic engine.  His first thought was to create a spaceship in his attic and orbit the moon.  This being successful, Dr. Lutyens decides that the next step is to… Continue reading Book Review: The Mystery Men of Mars

Book Review: The Big Time | The Mind Spider and Other Stories

Book Review: The Big Time | The Mind Spider and Other Stories by Fritz Leiber Have you ever noticed that something isn’t in the place you last remembered putting it?  That an event you remember happening one way is described as happening a different way in  the history books?  Perhaps you have suddenly felt that… Continue reading Book Review: The Big Time | The Mind Spider and Other Stories

Book Review: The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution

Book Review: The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution by David Wootton At the beginning of the Fifteenth Century, there were no scientists as we understand the term, and no science.  Received wisdom from Aristotle and Galen ruled knowledge and philosophy.  Then a series of changes in technology and the way people… Continue reading Book Review: The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution