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Books

Planet of the Wage Slaves by J. Manfred Weichsel

J. Manfred Weichsel has written another brutally funny satire, Planet of the Wage Slaves. It has a totally awesome 1970s style cover, which is a bit of a departure from Weichel’s typical lurid naked women cover. This brief 13,800 word book would serve as an excellent introductory piece

The state of the short genre fiction market

Via friends of the blog Cirsova and SFFaudio, a historical point of reference for the short fiction market, another piece of the puzzle of why the book market is what it is right now. Weird Tales was usually a monthly, and if we adjust for population growth, 50k a month

Kipling's Influence on Futuristic Fiction

Via Castalia House’s Sensor Sweep, here is a great blog post at Tentaclii listing some well-known authors who credit Rudyard Kipling as being an inspiration to the science fiction in general and them in particular. Despite being a very low stakes story, Kipling’s With the Night Mail is

Graustark by George Barr McCutcheon

Graustark by George Barr McCutcheon is a now largely forgotten example of the Ruritanian romance. After the literary success of Anthony Hope’s Prisoner of Zenda, many imitators followed. Graustark was once widely known and read, and I suspect that conditions may be right for a rediscovery of this classic

Follow up on the state of the book market

I was reading the DMR Books blog post REVIEW: Tarzan Forever: The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs by John Taliaferro, and I stumbled on this gem. It is another fascinating data point on the state of the book market. Like many Americans, ERB had read the pulps, especially the bestselling

The Pastel City by M. John Harrison

The Pastel City by M. John Harrison is a tightly written tale of defeat and triumph, duty and revenge, all in 144 melancholy pages. It is vastly different than the kind of fantasy book often written now. More happens in this slim volume than in trilogies of contemporary works. And

Why Christians Should Read Adventure Fiction

I think the obvious answer to the question, “should Christians read adventure fiction?”, is “Yes”, but since I see a surprising amount of discomfort around the topic, I thought I would delve into it more deeply. I can posit at least three reasons that I will explore at length: 1.