Book Review: Air Service Boys over the Rhine

Book Review: Air Service Boys Over the Rhine by Charles Amory Beach In 1916, America was still officially neutral in the matter of the Great War.  While many Americans didn’t much like the way Germany was attacking its neighbors, the government felt that it was really none of our business.   Still, some Americans felt… Continue reading Book Review: Air Service Boys over the Rhine

Book Review: Better than Bullets: The Complete Adventures of Thibault Corday and the Foreign Legion Volume 1

Book Review: Better than Bullets: The Complete Adventures of Thibaut Corday and the Foreign Legion Volume 1 by Theodore Roscoe The Légion étrangère was created in 1831 as a way to remove disruptive elements from French society, primarily foreigners of all sorts, and put them to good use fighting far away.  Their first and primary posting was… Continue reading Book Review: Better than Bullets: The Complete Adventures of Thibault Corday and the Foreign Legion Volume 1

Book Review: War Wings

Book Review: War Wings by Eustace L. Adams Jimmy Deal and his squadron are Navy flyers assigned to Souilly-sur-Mer, near the Belgian border and some heavy fighting in World War One.  Ensign Deal was a Reservist before the Great War, and many regular officers resent him.  Good thing he’s one of the best seaplane aces… Continue reading Book Review: War Wings

Book Review: Headstrong

Book Review: Headstrong by Rachel Swaby This is a collection of short biographical sketches of women who made advancements in various scientific fields.  According to the introduction, it was inspired when the New York Times ran an obituary of Yvonne Brill that listed her home cooking as her most important accomplishment, followed by being a wife… Continue reading Book Review: Headstrong

Comic Book Review: Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1

Comic Book Review: Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1 story by Doug Moench, art by various. Doctor Bruce Banner was one of the nation’s top physicists, and an expert in gamma radiation, when he was drafted into creating a new kind of nuclear weapon called a “gamma bomb.”  Just before the device was about to go… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1

Magazine Review: High Adventure #138 Battle Stories

Magazine Review: High Adventure #138 Battle Stories edited by John P. Gunnison By the mid-1920s, the Great War was far enough in the past for people in America to be nostalgic about it, and the pulp magazines noticed an increase of interest in stories about the war.  So they started putting out magazines dedicated to… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #138 Battle Stories

Magazine Review: High Adventure #126 Adventure Fiction Spectacular

Magazine Review: High Adventure #126 Adventure Fiction Spectacular This issue of the pulp reprint magazine concentrates on stories of adventure around the world.  Three of the stories are by “Major” George Fielding Eliot, who was born in Brooklyn, raised in Australia, fought at Gallipoli and was a Canadian Mountie before settling down in the U.S.… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #126 Adventure Fiction Spectacular

Book Review: The Greatest Knight

Book Review: The Greatest Knight by Thomas Asbridge Disclaimer:  I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.  My copy was an uncorrected proof, and there will be changes to the final edition.  Specifically, there will be maps, genealogical charts, and an index. William Marshal started life as… Continue reading Book Review: The Greatest Knight

Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: Weird War Tales Volume 1

Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: Weird War Tales Volume 1 edited by Joe Kubert & Joe Orlando As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, the relaxation of the Comics Code in the early 1970s created a horror anthology boom at DC Comics.  At the same time, the once best-selling war comics were going into a slump,… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: Weird War Tales Volume 1

Book Review: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries

Book Review: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler The title of this volume is slightly misleading; “locked room” stands in for the general idea of impossible crimes in mystery stories.  A man  is found stabbed in the back in a windowless room with the door locked from the inside.… Continue reading Book Review: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries