A thief, strong-armed into stealing an idol from a subterranean inhuman stronghold, is the story of story cliché that has been done to death.  Kenneth Gower breathes new life into this staple of sword and sorcery by not only moving the action underground but by putting the protagonist in the center...

The second story in the first issue of the second volume of the first rate magazine Cirsova once more takes us to a remote corner of the earth where lurk things best left to slumber.   Though I’m looking forward to reading Xavier Lastra’s The Elephant Idol, we’re going to power through this...

The second volume of one of my favorite new anthology magazine…things…arrived some time ago, and it’s high time it got the proper reviewing that it so richly deserves.  This second volume leads off with a new header – The Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense – and we’ll...

It’s hard to take adults who ironically like bad cinema very seriously. Over time one can’t help but notice a distinct pattern amongst the hard-core MST3K fanbase of people marking time until they die.  Don’t get me wrong, in these jaded times it’s nice that people just like liking...

Not impressed. Terry Pratchett has an impressive gift for stringing words together.  The man could make the back of a cereal box interesting to read.  His brain works in strange ways that follow clever paths, a trait that helps him paper over the thinness of his works’ overall plots and characters...

Fenton Woods produced a sequel one of my favorite reads of last year, Pirates of the Electromagnetic Airwaves.  I have an in-depth review of the sequel, Five Million Watts up today over at the Castalia House blog.  Give her a read – you won’t regret it....

What sort of conspiracy theory digs into the Catholic Church and doesn’t find Templars at the bottom of everything? This kind. The past decade has seen considerable upheaval in the Catholic Church, an upheaval driven in part by the decreased cost of gathering information.  No longer reliant on pliable...

A big fat No Prize to anyone that can successfully identify all five authors in this photo, and you get no credit for the unmistakable HP Lovecraft....

First, the disclaimers:  Came into some gift cards and when going to the movies, it’s better to go see children’s movies.  People talk in every screening these days.  Might as well go to a movie where half the talkers have the excuse of being four year olds. The lead...

Did you ever notice how most dystopian fiction feels so fake?  That’s probably because in the last final analysis we know what happens. Spoiler alert: Good wins. Somebody should really tell James Cameron that. Science fiction has dealt with the subject of the dark future almost from the very...