Magazine Review: Planet Stories Summer 1949 edited by Paul L. Payne As previously discussed on this blog, Planet Stories was a science fiction pulp magazine published from 1939-1955. It was heavy on the space opera and planetary romance, and usually had a curvy and/or scantily-clad woman on the cover. This Adventure House reprint is of… Continue reading Magazine Review: Planet Stories Summer 1949
Tag: letters
Magazine Review: The Drift Fall 2023
Magazine Review: The Drift Fall 2023 edited by Kiara Barrow and Rebecca Panovka This one’s a relatively new literary magazine, having started during the pandemic. The editorial slant appears to be socialist and class-conscious. Let’s see what this issue has to offer us. The opening editorial is on “Corrupt Organizations”, talking about the use and… Continue reading Magazine Review: The Drift Fall 2023
Comic Book Review: The Complete Battlefields Volume One
Comic Book Review: The Complete Battlefields Volume One written by Garth Ennis, art by various. World War Two has been a favorite subject of comic books since the beginning of that conflict. Garth Ennis grew up on British war comics, and enjoys writing about the subject. So it’s not surprising that he did three miniseries… Continue reading Comic Book Review: The Complete Battlefields Volume One
Magazine Review: Analog Science Fiction & Fact January/February 2024
Magazine Review: Analog Science Fiction & Fact January/February 2024 edited by Trevor Quachri Let’s look at a recent issue of this long-running science fiction (and fact) magazine. The opening editorial by Howard V. Hendrix, “Machines Passing for People Passing for Machines”, which among other things discusses the Turing Test, where a simulated person tries to… Continue reading Magazine Review: Analog Science Fiction & Fact January/February 2024
Book Review: The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries
Book Review: The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler While stories that could be considered “mysteries” in some sense have existed as long as writing, and perhaps a bit before, the short story mystery came into its own during the lifetime of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). This volume collects forty-nine notable stories from… Continue reading Book Review: The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries
Magazine Review: The Scots Magazine October 1978
Magazine Review: The Scots Magazine October 1978 Like many people of Scots descent, I have a mild interest in the country and customs of my ancestors. I even wonder sometimes what the place is currently like. For me and people like me, there’s the regional interest publication, The Scots Magazine. First published in 1739 as… Continue reading Magazine Review: The Scots Magazine October 1978
Magazine Review: Analog Science Fiction Science Fact December 1984
Magazine Review: Analog Science Fiction Science Fact December 1984 edited by Stanley Schmidt Continuing to dig through my pile of stuff that I’ve been meaning to reread, I found this issue from the year I actually subscribed to Analog.. This was an indulgence as I was underemployed at the time, but a magazine in the… Continue reading Magazine Review: Analog Science Fiction Science Fact December 1984
Book Review: Rod String Nail Cloth
Book Review: Rod String Nail Cloth by T. Aaron Cisco The subtitle of this book is “An Afrofuturist Mixtape.” You can read more about Afrofuturism at this Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrofuturism but for the purposes of this review, it’s the intersection of speculative fiction with the African Diaspora experience and cultures, and in particular the experience… Continue reading Book Review: Rod String Nail Cloth
Magazine Review: Science Fiction Adventures May 1954
Magazine Review: Science Fiction Adventures May 1954 edited by Harry Harrison This is the final issue of the magazine, one of the Lester del Rey-edited issues of which I reviewed earlier. We open the issue with “The Science in Science Fiction”, an editorial by Harry Harrison. He’s thrilled about the expansion of types of science… Continue reading Magazine Review: Science Fiction Adventures May 1954
Book Review: Heart of the West
Book Review: Heart of the West by O. Henry William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), better known to most readers as O. Henry, moved to Texas from North Carolina for his health. There, he worked on a ranch for a few years before feeling well enough to take up his primary occupation of pharmacist, and fell in… Continue reading Book Review: Heart of the West