Monthly Archives: March 2012

BLOOD AND TACOS #1

BLOOD AND TACOS #1, edited by Johnny Shaw (2012, Creative Guy)   The age of the Paperback Action Hero series lasted from 1970 to 1984. These dates are arbitrary, but they do represent a high…

RULE 34 by Charles Stross

 RULE 34 by Charles Stross (2012, Ace)   It’s not often enough I get to read a book which literally blows me away. Rule 34 is such a novel: original, entertaining, futuristic, amok, but optimistic enough to…

STRANGE TALES OF THE CURIOUSLY UNCOMMON by Andrew Bliss

These short stories by Andrew Bliss are worth the afternoon it will take to read them. Dark and amusing, they are all set in present day London. Which ties it into a specific locale, but can make reading them difficult for the *ahem* Thames challenged. Also illustrated with some wicked photographs.

HELL! SAID THE DUCHESS by Michael Arlen

 HELL! SAID THE DUCHESS by Michael Arlen (1934, Doubleday) “#1: Hell! Said the Duchess. An unexpectedly chilling tale of demonic possession by this most charming author.” -Karl Edward Wagner, “13 Best Supernatural Horror Novels”(Twilight Zone Magazine,…

MEDUSA by E. H. Visiak

“#13 Medusa. If David Lindsay had written Treasure Island in the throes of a peyote-induced religious experience…Well, if Coleridge had given Melville a hand on Moby Dick after a few pipes of opium….”
-Karl Edward Wagner, “13 Best Supernatural Horror Novels” (Twilight Zone Magazine, 1983)

THE FIRE SPIRITS by Paul Busson

“#5 The Fire-Spirits. A strange tale of a young man’s involvement with a bewitching peasant child, mountain legends, and the quest for German unification. The English translation is said to be heavily expurgated, but I haven’t read the German to compare.”
-“13 Best Non-Supernatural Horror Novels”, by Karl Edward Wagner (Twilight Zone Magazine, 1983)