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Northrop Frye's Phase Space

Northrop Frye's Phase Space

I got my start on Northrop Frye through John J. Reilly's review of his most famous work, Anatomy of Criticism. Since then, I have come to appreciate Frye more and more as I develop my book criticism. I am most interested in genre fiction, especially adventure fiction written

Gemini Outsider Book Review

Gemini Outsider Book Review

In the second Gemini Man book, Gemini Drifter, I said that Matthew and Jason had the freedom to make their own path. In Gemini Outsider, that choice has now been made. The choice is to seek anonymity and normality, whatever that means for two young men who have traveled between

WBH Weekly Digest 2023-12-22: All Westerns are Fairy Stories

WBH Weekly Digest 2023-12-22: All Westerns are Fairy Stories

My theme this week is around the true value of the romance. This Twitter thread lays out the mythic reasons why Jack Reacher and Conan are the same character. The mythic resonance goes far beyond their giant, hulking portrayal, as David Carradine's Kung Fu is another representation of

The Turquoise Serpent

The Turquoise Serpent

Alexander Palacio's The Turquoise Serpent is R. E. Howard's Conan transposed into a demon-haunted pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and it is awesome. I imagine a certain fraction of my audience will know exactly what that means without elaboration, but for the rest of you let's dive

WBH Weekly Digest 2023-12-15: Memed into Reality

WBH Weekly Digest 2023-12-15: Memed into Reality

We'll begin this week with the book chapter I wrote on Isaac Asimov's Foundation, and some of the very interesting commentary that developed in it's wake. Foundation by Isaac AsimovFoundation is a book that I haven’t read until now. Given what I do

Starship Grifters Book Review

Starship Grifters Book Review

This is a funny, funny book. It is loveably absurd and ridiculously extravagant. I had this book sitting in my TBR pile for years, but it was just the thing when I finally picked it up. Starship Grifters is a Mad Magazine style parody wrapped around a nugget of another

Gemini Drifter Book Review

Gemini Drifter Book Review

Matthew and Jason have returned to Earth, escaped the Great Sorcerer King, killed the woman who tricked them and destroyed a building in the process. Now what? Gemini Drifter, the second book in JD Cowan's Gemini Man series, presents our protagonists with more freedom than the last. In