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Reviews

La Danza de la Muerta by Donald Uitvlugt Book Review

Donald Uitvlugt describes this collection as haiku short stories: small stories with big impact. I like reading, and reviewing, short story collections, but this one is so exceptionally compact that I will have to strive to match it by not writing a review longer than one of the stories in

Red Heroin by Wade Curtis (Jerry Pournelle) Book Review

In Red Heroin [Amazon affiliate link], a thrilling tale of espionage set in late Sixties Seattle, engineer Paul Crane finds himself sucked into a plot involving drug smuggling, student activists, fast cars, and hot women. This was Jerry Pournelle’s first novel, and it is a remarkable start to a

Cugel's Saga or The Skybreak Spatterlight by Jack Vance Book Review

Cugel’s Saga [Amazon affiliate link] and The Eyes of the Overworld are both described as picaresques, but in my mind, a key element of a picaresque is to take the absurdity and dial it up to eleven. Cugel as portrayed in the 1966 short stories has a kind of

Overlooked Again: The Phoenix Ring Book 2 by Jon Mollison Book Review

Joe Smith, the forgotten man, returns in Jon Mollison’s Overlooked Again [Silver Empire affiliate link]. Joe finally faces a true nemesis, a Prime with preternaturally keen hearing and sight, not to mention Gallic unflappability. This is also the first book two in the Heroes Unleashed universe, so we get

The Eyes of the Overworld by Jack Vance Book Review

Cugel the Clever stumbles from one adventure to another in a dismal world, ancient beyond memory, in Jack Vance’s The Eyes of the Overworld [Amazon link]. Written in 1966, Cugel’s world spanning tale of thwarted ambition and stillborn revenge is darkly epic. Reading through my omnibus edition of

The Pulp Mindset: A NewPub Survival Guide by JD Cowan Book Review

For the most part, here at With Both Hands I review fiction, but since this book is about the current state of adventure fiction, it makes sense to discuss it. Major changes are underway in fiction publishing, especially in fantastical adventures marketed mostly to men, and JD Cowan is here

The Dying Earth by Jack Vance Book Review

The Dying Earth [Amazon link] is not at all what I expected. I knew that Jack Vance had written about a decaying and declining Earth of the far future, when the Sun has swollen with ruddy light. What I got was a collection of loosely connected short stories and novellas