Book Review: SYLO

Book Review: SYLO by D.J. MacHale Tucker Pierce is warming the bench at his high school football game on Pemberwick Island off the coast of Maine.  In the final minutes of the game, the team’s star player scores the winning touchdown–and dies.  For no apparent reason.  Later that night, Tucker and his brainy friend Quinn… Continue reading Book Review: SYLO

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: The Beasts of Tarzan

Book Review: The Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, and his lovely wife Jane have settled down in London with their infant son Jack.  I guess this is the end of the adventures of Tarzan since everyone knows that marriage and children mean that you’re never going to be interesting again. … Continue reading Book Review: The Beasts of Tarzan

Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-ups, Volume 1

Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-ups, Volume 1  Written by Bob Haney (mostly), Art by various The Brave and the Bold started its publication run in 1955 as an adventure anthology, featuring such characters as the Viking Prince and the Silent Knight.  Around issue 25, it switched to a tryout… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-ups, Volume 1

Comic Strip Review: The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dailies: Volume Two 1937-1939

Comic Strip Review: The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dailies: Volume Two 1937-1939 written by Lee Falk, art by Ray Moore Almost five hundred years ago, a sailor named Christopher Walker was accompanying his father on that man’s last voyage when they were attacked by the Singh Brotherhood, a bloodthirsty band of pirates.  The pirates killed… Continue reading Comic Strip Review: The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dailies: Volume Two 1937-1939

Magazine Review: Short Stories May 25th, 1939

Magazine Review: Short Stories May 25th, 1939 Edited by Dorothy McIlwrath Short Stories started life in 1890 as a literary magazine, but switched to being a “quality pulp” in 1910, featuring stories of adventure and crime a cut above many of its competitors.   Like many of the pulps, it lost sales badly after World War… Continue reading Magazine Review: Short Stories May 25th, 1939

Manga Review: Vinland Saga Book Eight

Manga Review: Vinland Saga Book Eight by Makoto Yukimura Warning:  This review contains spoilers for earlier volumes in the series.  If you have not read those, you may want to refer to my earlier reviews instead. Thorfinn Thorsson has finally arrived back in Iceland after more than a decade away.  His sister, now a wife… Continue reading Manga Review: Vinland Saga Book Eight

Book Review: Respectable Horror

Book Review: Respectable Horror by K.A. Laity Horror is a wide-ranging genre, which can be tailored to a variety of tastes.  Some folks prefer their scary fiction with a maximum of gushing blood and sharp objects being plunged into soft flesh; others like a more genteel approach that emphasizes the subtle wrongnesses and growing atmospheric… Continue reading Book Review: Respectable Horror

Magazine Review: Famous Fantastic Mysteries March 1944

Magazine Review: Famous Fantastic Mysteries March 1944 edited by Mary Gnaedinger Famous Fantastic Mysteries ran from 1939 to 1953 as primarily a reprint magazine.  It was originally published by the Munsey Company to feature the many speculative fiction stories they’d published over the years in their non-specialist magazines like Argosy, to cash in on the now… Continue reading Magazine Review: Famous Fantastic Mysteries March 1944

Book Review: A Feast for Crows

Book Review: A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin Note:  This review will contain SPOILERS for the first three volumes in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series.  If you have not read those, you may want to consult my reviews of those books instead. While war still ravages the land of Westeros, for… Continue reading Book Review: A Feast for Crows