Monday Book Pick: The Sting of the Scorpion
The Sting of the Scorpion by Warren Stockholm
Delightfully dark pulp. Kurt Reinhardt is the product of Nazi genetic engineering in a world were the Germans won WWII and occupied America for sixty years. He was bred to be super solider but didn’t like the job. After another war which saw American regain its independence, he immigrates to America and works his way to wealth. Of course he has serious issues, which he works out by fighting crime in slums of Pittsburgh It’s dark, gritty, and nasty. Just what you want in Noir Pulp.
Monday Book Pick: The Mad Goblin
The Mad Goblin by Philip Jose Farmer
I’m seeing a lot of Philip Jose Farmer’s work come back into print, which is a good thing. The Mad Goblin is one of two parallel sequels to A Feast Unknown. This one focuses on James “Doc” Caliban (yes, based on Doc Savage), half brother of the fellow Tarzan was based on. Both are former agents of “The Nine.” A group that discovered the secret to extremely prolonged life thirty thousand years ago and has ruled the Earth from behind the scenes since then. This is adventure pulp at its finest, with Farmer paying tribute to one of his favorite fictional characters.
Monday Book Pick: Area 51
Area 51 by Bob Mayer
The first is a series of ten books (currently). I’ve just read this one, the series intro, and found it fast paced and fun. Now I enjoy a good conspiracy as much as the next person, perhaps more, and this book is based on the infamous Area 51, and throws in Pyramids, the Nazi obsession with the occult, and Ancient Astronauts! A good adventure pulp novel. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
Monday Book Pick: Alexander Outland: Space Pirate
Alexander Outland: Space Pirate by G.J. Koch
It’s a Space Opera! It’s a pulp Story! Humor, romance, sex robots, a princess on the lamb, and the best pilot in the Galaxy!
If want fun, adventure, and even more raw sewage that you swing a smugger’s space ship at, this is your book. It’s not high art, but a fun read!
Monday Book Pick: The Martian Emperor
The Martian Emperor (A Chronological Man Adventure) by Andrew Mayne
Second in the series. The first was my pick back in early June. In this book, our hero and heroine pick up a number of months later. They travel to New York City by way of Smith’s private, and off the books, train, in order to face a new menance. The “Emperor of Mars” is blackmailing the Earth. They run into his old friend Theodore Roosevelt, and have a series of adventures. During the course of said adventures, we learn some more about Smith and his background. A ripping good yarn and well worth the $0.99.
Dieselpunk
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised about the amount of Dieselpunk on Pinterest.
It looks like the old FASA RPG Crimson Skies counts as Dieselpunk these days.
Monday Book Pick: Tarzan of the Apes
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
I saw this book in the “New Science Fiction” section at a local bookseller. So “new” means published in the last 100 years, since this book was originally released in 1912! It is a classic, well worth the reprinting. One of the favorite early childhood books of both my brother and myself. I still have that hardcover edition with the Ape-English dictionary in the back.
Crunchy pulp goodness: Danger 5
From our cousins down under (i.e. the Australians) comes this delightfully campy WWII Spy Spoof “Danger 5.”
Episode 1: The Diamond Girls
Monday Book Pick: The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril
The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont
The book is crack for pulp fans. Really, I’m not kidding. The heroes include Lester and Norma Dent, Walter Gibson, L. Ron Hubbard, Robert Heinlein and a merchant ship working cowboy who goes by “Lew” (Louis L’Amour I’m betting, perhaps Malmont couldn’t get his estate to release the use of his name). Additional appearances by H.P. Lovecraft and E.E. “Doc” Smith. It’s pulp writing, done by someone who loves pulp and wrote a big, wet, sloppy kiss to pulp.
Sunday SciFi: The Middleman
I’ve only caught a few episodes so far from this one season wonder, but so far I really like The Middleman and his Sidekick Wendy Watson. It’s delightfully low budget, in an old school Doctor Who way, funny, a tribute to the pulp era, and the cast is clearly having fun.
The Middleman himself is a clean cut, all American, milk drinking former Special Forces veteran with authority issues and what appears to be a id case with Doctor Who’s psychic paper in it. Hmmmm….a Doctor Who/Middleman crossover. I’m sure there is some fan fic out there that covers it.
It’s good low budget fun entertainment. It’s got robots, gadgets, blasters, intelligent apes, the supernatural and a spunky sidekick that steals the show.
It didn’t run in a drive-in, so I don’t know what Joe-Bob Briggs would say, but my advice is to check it out.