Book Review: Hokas Pokas!

Cover art by Michael Whelan.

Book Review: Hokas Pokas! by Poul Anderson & Gordon R. Dickson The Hoka of the planet Toka are the galaxy’s best live-action roleplayers.  Given a story they find interesting, the teddy-bear-looking aliens will take on the characters as their own personalities.  And they especially love Earth stories.  Thus it is that they have entire subcultures… Continue reading Book Review: Hokas Pokas!

Book Review: The Marsco Dissident

Book Review: The Marsco Dissident by James A. Zarzana It’s a Marsco world. Much has changed by the last years of the 21st Century.  The rot started to set in with the Abandonment Policy (euphemized as “Divestiture”) where countries with prosperous sections and not-so-prosperous bits split off the not-prosperous sectors as “another country now, not… Continue reading Book Review: The Marsco Dissident

Book Review: Indexing

Book Review: Indexing by Seanan McGuire Have you ever wished you could have a fairy tale life?  Be the hero of the story, vanquish evil, gain true love and live happily ever after?  Well, the Narrative is here to help!  It loves shoehorning people’s lives into the shape of fairy tales.  Of course, there’s no… Continue reading Book Review: Indexing

Book Review: Twin Cities Speculations: An Anthology of Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Book Review: Twin Cities Speculations: An Anthology of Sci-Fi and Fantasy edited by Eric Binfet As I may have mentioned before, I have a soft spot for local writers, of which Minnesota has many.  One Twin Cities writers’ group got together and self-published an anthology, and here we are.  Eight stories of SF and fantasy,… Continue reading Book Review: Twin Cities Speculations: An Anthology of Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Book Review: Chameleon 2: In Garde We Trust

Book Review: Chameleon 2: In Garde We Trust by Jerry LaPlante One of my reading addictions as a teen was trashy series hero paperbacks.  The Executioner, the Destroyer, Nick Carter Killmaster…much like the old pulp heroes but grittier and with more sleaze.  The more successful series are still published to this day in one form… Continue reading Book Review: Chameleon 2: In Garde We Trust

Book Review: The Sea-Wolf

Book Review: The Sea-Wolf by Jack London Today is an ill-omened day.  It began with a heavy fog in San Francisco Harbor, and the ferry carrying literary critic Humphrey Van Weyden colliding with another ship.  He managed to get into a life jacket, but was swept away from the other survivors by a freak tide… Continue reading Book Review: The Sea-Wolf

Book Review: Fright

Book Review: Fright edited by Charles M. Collins The cover makes this book look like a generic product, but that’s a little deceiving.  It’s actually an anthology skewed towards the Gothic end of horror rather than the gory, emphasizing vocabulary-rich authors.  Most of the stories were rarely reprinted before this collection in 1963. We open… Continue reading Book Review: Fright

Book Review: Book of Yes

Book Review:  Book of Yes by Tessie Jayme Disclaimer:  I received a copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway for the purpose of writing this review.  No other compensation was offered or requested. The subtitle of this book is “A Reinterpretation of the Ten Commandments for the New Millennium.”  While a close look at… Continue reading Book Review: Book of Yes

Book Review: The Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost Finder

Book Review: The Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson Four men come to the house on Cheyne Walk in Chelsea when the man who owns the house, Thomas Carnacki, summons them for dinner.  They ask no questions, as they know Carnacki will wait until his own good time to tell them… Continue reading Book Review: The Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost Finder

Book Review: Nick Carter Volume 2

Book Review: Nick Carter Volume 2 edited by Anthony Tollin As noted in my review of the first volume, Nick Carter, Master Detective, was a long-running character who had three distinct phases.  These reprint volumes primarily cover his pulp magazine career.  The stories were written under the house name “Nick Carter,” even though they weren’t… Continue reading Book Review: Nick Carter Volume 2