Book Review: The Last Séance by Agatha Christie Agatha Christie is best remembered for her tales of mystery and detection, but she didn’t confine herself to that field. She also wrote stories with elements of the supernatural, and this new volume collects twenty of them in one place, rather than in scattered anthologies. The title… Continue reading Book Review: The Last Séance
Tag: madness
Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine June 1953
Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine June 1953 edited by Ellery Queen Since this has floated to the top of my TBR pile, let’s look at another vintage issue of this classic mystery magazine. The cover depicting an aerialist falling to presumed death after being stuck with a dart has nothing to do with any… Continue reading Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine June 1953
Magazine Review: High Adventure #170: Best of Science Fiction Stories
Magazine Review: High Adventure #170: Best of Science Fiction Stories edited by John P. Gunnison This volume of the long-running pulp reprint magazine dips into the pages of Science Fiction and Science Fiction Stories, a magazine that ran from 1939 to 1943 with the last two issues being under the latter name. As so often… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #170: Best of Science Fiction Stories
Book Review: Great Supernatural Stories: 101 Horrifying Tales
Book Review: Great Supernatural Stories: 101 Horrifying Tales compiled by Stefan Dziemianowicz This hefty volume collects a variety of public domain stories concerning the supernatural. While the majority fall roughly into the category of horror, some are more what we’d call “dark fantasy” and a handful are just “well, that’s a weird thing that happened.”… Continue reading Book Review: Great Supernatural Stories: 101 Horrifying Tales
Book Review: The Mad Visions of Al-Hazred
Book Review: The Mad Visions of Al-Hazred edited by H. David Blalock The Cthulhu Mythos is littered with the names of mysterious books and manuscripts containing forbidden knowledge. The most commonly used one is the Kitab al-Azif, the “Book of Night Insects Buzzing” (among the possible meanings), usually referred to by the Latin translation’s name,… Continue reading Book Review: The Mad Visions of Al-Hazred
Book Review: Star Trek 2
Book Review: Star Trek 2 adapted by James Blish Once upon a time, Star Trek was not a cultural touchstone. It was, instead, a short-lived television series that was much beloved by a slice of the audience that would form the core of fandom, but with relatively poor ratings and considered soon to be forgotten… Continue reading Book Review: Star Trek 2
Manga Review: Berserk Volume 39
Manga Review: Berserk Volume 39 by Kentaro Miura Note: This post contains SPOILERS for previous volumes of the series. Quick recap: Guts, the Black Swordsman, cuts a swath across the demon-infested country of Midland. Once a member of the famous Band of the Hawk, until they were betrayed by their leader (and Guts’ best friend)… Continue reading Manga Review: Berserk Volume 39
Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3
Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3 by Robert Bloch Robert Bloch (1917-1994) was a prolific author of horror, science fiction and mystery works. (You may have seen, read or at least heard of Psycho.) This volume, originally “Selected Stories” and by no means complete, features 39 stories published between 1960 and… Continue reading Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3
Magazine Review: Wonder Stories January 1934
Magazine Review: Wonder Stories January 1934 editor-in-chief Hugo Gernsback Wonder Stories was one of the first dedicated science fiction magazines, started up after Hugo Gernsback lost control of Amazing Stories. It started in 1929 as two magazines titled Air Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories before being consolidated in 1930. He held onto it until 1936 when financial considerations made him sell it to Beacon Magazines. They… Continue reading Magazine Review: Wonder Stories January 1934
Book Review: Great Thrillers: 101 Suspenseful Tales
Book Review: Great Thrillers: 101 Suspenseful Tales compiled by Stefan Dziemianowicz The definition of “thriller” is a little loose in this fun anthology, though most of the stories do have at least some suspense. It feels more like the compiler picked a bunch of the public domain stories he liked, but didn’t have a strong… Continue reading Book Review: Great Thrillers: 101 Suspenseful Tales