“A Rose for Ecclesiastes” was a triumphant re-telling of the great pulp story. Mars as the home of a mysterious alien civilisation, a secret history of triumph and collapse, played out in a past age while Earthmen fought battles with swords and spears.
Read MoreSwordsmen in the Sky was published by Ace Books in 1964. Donald Wollheim put together five stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs-influenced Sword and Planet.
Read MoreThe first Cirsova Magazine of 2023 does not disappoint. It’s full of wonderfully weird stories. Please be aware that there are some very minor spoilers in the reviews that follow.
Read MoreA Feast of Ambrosia is a collection of stories about two mismatched adventurers, Donalbain and Bingor the Arab. Their stories take place in the Byzantine Empire around the year 1000 AD. Feast feels like a real world, there’s always a lot going on and the narrative is descriptive, colourful, and fast moving.
Read MoreJohn Taliaferro has given us the living, breathing Edgar Rice Burroughs and shown us what a wonderful writer he was. He shows ERB as a courageous and admirable man, a patriot and a family man. Tarzan Forever is also a good book for anyone who wants to understand the pulps and how they produced the finest American stories.
Read MoreBrazen imagination. If there’s a succinct summing-up of this issue of Cirsova Magazine, it’s those two words. There are some outrageously imaginative pulp stories in this issue.
Read MoreFrom the point of view of pulp fans, Alfred Coppel is an interesting writer. He made a transition, first from the pulps to the SF digests, then to bestsellerdom. It’s an article of faith that pulp writers had the best stories. Coppel not only had the best stories but was a magnificently gifted writer.
Read MoreThe Widow’s Son starts with its protagonist, Zarahemla Two-Crows, Special Agent of the Federal Occult Research Bureau, escorting a psychopathic Skin-Walker prisoner to justice. We are in the Arizona Territory in the late 1870s and the (very) big taciturn special agent has his hands full. The “weird west” doesn’t get any weirder than this.
Read MoreThe latest issue of Cirsova Magazine was published on the 15th December. It’s a long review because there are a lot of stories to cover. If you want a shorter review, I would just say “Great stories, buy it.” But if you want the luxury tour, it’s all here in black and white.
Read MoreI started reading Savage Realms when the first issue came out in January 2021. I was struck by how inventive some of the stories were. They sat firmly within the domain of Sword and Sorcery but there were some surprisingly fresh takes on the genre.
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