Elflock's page

BeneathTheEarth wrote:

I just do not see the appeal of ebooks. I mean, I realize that it saves space but I love my book shelf and I love watching it grow all the time. And I love old school cover art.

Agreed.

There's nothing like the feel of paper beneath my fingertips as I read a book.

I think ebooks are fantastic for textbooks, so students don't need to haul around 200lbs of textbooks or for readers who aren't concerned with the 'collecting' aspect of books.

Yes,I realise a lot of people will have this problem with the ebooks...it's not the same as a book. It's always going to be difficult to change to something like that. I was the same a few months ago,but I'm now a total Ebook convert. I will always read the ebook version if I have both,I just like it better. The only reason I bought the Ebook reader was because there are literally thousands of these old interplanetary romances,Gothic romance,historical,crime,a million other kinds of adventure,whatever you want...stories from Weird Tales,Planet Stories,Fantastic Adventures,Amazing Stories,etc etc etc etc etc that will never see the light of day in paper books...and it's all free!! (well,I like the really OLD stuff,it's public domain,a lot of it)

"James Sutter"
... So far, it's been our experience that very few people are clamoring for pulp and out-of-print authors...'

;) Well,you're up against Harry Potter and Merlin you see? I watch that with my grand daughter. That's what's happening in Fantasy. It's a scene for 6 year olds. Girls mainly. ;)

I recently picked up an Ace anthology called Swordsmen in the Sky edited by a pre-DAW Donald A Wollheim. This got me thinking about these older anthologies. Have you guys thought about doing one of these with old, lesser known pulp S&S and S&P authors? That might be a great idea for authors like Clifford Ball and others.

Excellent idea...but if you do something like this you should only include stories that are not available free as ebooks! Wallace West springs to mind!...put one of his in there...and I promise I will buy the book if it has the first 'Golden Amazon' story in it ;)

(It may be the last real book I ever buy)

ps. If you haven't seen this,you need to check it out!!
www.archive.org/search.php?...creator%3A%22Leigh%20Brackett%22
(type Leigh Brackett in search query)

Most of the previously unavailable Brackett stories are there.

'I'm really glad someone is finally bringing out Rosny in English'.
...

Me too! About time!

Elflock wrote:

~Interesting Aussie stuff~

Nah, you really have to look for them over here. I still don't have the second half of the second book (published separately over here as The Heroes Return) after scouring several of my used book treasure troves for some time.

Yeah,of course finding the ONE volume that you are missing is a whole other story. We have a bookfair every 6 months where they have all these 80's series shrink-wrapped together for about $1 or $2 per book,that would be the best way to get them (they bundle the whole series if they have them complete) They always have these Hugh Cook ones along with all the David Eddings,Raymond Feist,Alan Dean Foster,all the others I mentioned,Jack Chalker etc. etc. I just looked for these online,you can pick the old paperbacks up pretty cheap,like $1.18 I saw somewhere for the first book,but then there are people selling some of them for $48 each too(unfortunately,the second volume is the one!)so whatever,they are probably a bit scarcer these days I suppose,don't know. I got an Ebook reader...all this becomes a non-issue! You can just get everything that you are missing from any series. I love this thing! There seems to be a lot of discussion about the formats that ebooks come in,but you can just convert anything to a normal text file and use that in my little machine,it's great,much better than holding a thick book open and that...but I wouldn't buy a Kindle! Way too expensive! And you have to sell your soul to Amazon!

' I attribute my drive to become a publisher in part upon the sad American fate of The Walrus & the Warwolf, Hugh Cook's very best book. This is the book I started Planet Stories to publish'.

This little statement puts everything into a perspective I can finally understand about Planet Stories! ;) One thing about these Hugh Cook 'Chronicle of...' books that I don't understand is that no one seems to have known about them or whatever,but here in Australia they've all been in the charity bins for $1 for years. You can walk into any second hand bookshop here and find at least 2 or 3 of that series in the section that no one even bothers looking in,you know? I assume that it must have sold quite a few copies at the time,because there are so many of them around in second hand bookshops and charity shops. They are in the same place as all the other 80's series like Julian May and Jack Chalker and who's that other guy that everyone used to love?...the one about the dude who doesn't believe he's in the story or whatever the hell it was about? Thomas Covenant? Was that the author or the character? Whatever,it's just that no one wants any of that stuff as far as I can see. Everyone has different taste (especially me it seems!) but it's definitely a generational thing. Speaking of which,I just finished the best book I've read in years....'The Skrayling Tree',Michael Moorcock. Now that's what I call good writing!! 9/10...no,10!! The adventures of Hiawatha in the Multiverse...eh? How could that not be cool? ;))

Great Pirate Names from Hugh Cook's THE WALRUS & THE WARWOLF: Whale Mike, Bucks Cat, Sully Yot, Jon Disaster, Ish Ulpin, Jez Glane, Simp Fiche, Tiki Slooze, Salaman Meerkat, Ika Thole, Peg Suzilman, Raggage Pouch, and Harley Burpskin.

And of course, Dreldragon "Drake" Douay.

No,everybody in New Zealand has a name like that...nothing special ;)

Hey All,

I've been a JC fan since 1973 and as much as I'm excited about this film (or at least as excited as I can get over films in general anymore)
I'm pretty much settled on being disappointed.
Because no matter how hard they try (like in LoTR) my own vison of Barsoom is so personal and an intergral part of my youth that it won't live up to my expectations. This isn't any fault of the film makers, but I was so in to these books when I was 12 that no one can make a film that will make me happy. Of course I'll go though. As far as red skin is concerned, I#m also interested if they'll be egg-laying.

take care.
Doug

Yes,I totally agree,I'm the same. I suppose,given that every film has to be someone's vision or whatever,this still might be pretty cool. There is also a very lame looking DVD movie just out recently called 'Princess of Mars'...I don't hold much hope for that one I'm afraid

However, as far as Dyalhis goes I really did like 'The Sea Witch'

http://www.archive.org/details/TheSea-witch

Yeah,that's cool! Hadn't read that before.

I read that Wallace West story on the plane home from my DC vacation last night. It was called "The Phantom Dictator," and it was about a cartoon character called Willie Pan that hypnotizes America into a world war. Only one doctor and a rival cartoonist have escaped the influence, and they hatch a plot to re-hypnotize (or is that de-hypnotize) America with a counterfeit Willie Pan film.

It was pretty dumb, I'm afraid. About the only thing the story had going for it was a downer ending. Light stuff.

Hmm,yes it sounds like 'Pretty dumb' is not a strong enough expression for this one...more like 'tragically lame' or 'hopelessly cheesy' or something like that. Oh well,'Lords of Atlantis' was a beauty though! Of course I read that about 20 years ago and I haven't re-read it...things change. I've re-read lots of these old things in recent years,and hardly ANY of them are even half as 'good' as I thought when I was young...:(

As an aside, a Frank Belknap Long novel called It Was the Day of the Robot was the worst book I read in 2009, if not the whole decade...

Yes,that was on a par with 'Aerita' and 'Awlo of Ulm' and a few other things I can think of...good cover though

For what it's worth, I totally agree with you about Aerita of the Light Country, unfortunately. The first two are like The Gods of Mars compared to that one.

Yes,a classic case of hackmanship there!

Elflock wrote:

On the other hand...if you published,say,an anthology of Wallace West...I would be the first person to buy a copy of the real book!(and probably the only one too I suppose)

Has anyone read anything by Nictzin Dyalhis (his real name apparently)...this guy was really good,he only published 8 stories and they would make a beautiful addition to your series in a nice big anthology!!
What about Lloyd Arthur Eshbach? There's not much of his stuff around either...what I've read was actually pretty good.

I will agree with you about Nictzin Dyalhis, an excellent author. In fact, The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box is putting out The Supernatural Tales of Nictzin Dyalhis. It should be good but expensive. As for Eshbach, I have Tyrant of Time, an OK collection. I would like to read some more of him. West, on the other hand, I think the only time you will see him back in print is when you start your own publishing company.

;)

I actually read a little Eshbach story last night,'Sister Abigail's Collection'...it was pretty cool.

I brought three issues of Wolheim's old Avon Fantasy Reader on my current vacation. One of the cover stories was Nictzin Dyalhis's The Sapphire Siren. I was VERY excited to read this novella, since it's a very early S&S story. Unfortunately, it wasn't really all that good. Nowhere near as strong as Howard, Smith, or Moore in terms of facility with the English language. It was ok. Sort of like low-grade Henry Kuttner. Indeed, given the subject matter, the author's fake-sounding name, and the use of the word "avid", I half-seriously wonder if Dyhalis is yet another Kuttner pseudonym.

Except Kuttner would have written a better story.

At least one frequent poster will be pleased to learn that the very same issue contains a rare story by Wallace West..

Ahhh,interesting...I thought 'The Sapphire Siren' was great! I think a lot of this depends on the mood we are in when we read these things. Also,if people have been telling you how totally fantastically awesome something is,you tend to be a bit sceptical or something and it seems to lessen the enjoyment you get out of the whole thing. This is what happened to me with Maza of The Moon. Hey,you may be right about it being Henry,but according to Wikipedia and other things I've read in introductions to anthologies and things like that,it actually was his real name...if so...what were his parents thinking?!?!

I absolutely GUARANTEE 100% that you will not forget 'The Purple Cloud' by M.P.Shiel if you ever get around to reading that little gem...this is NOT corny,it is totally,fantastically brilliant!!!

Check out what people said about this book:

H G Wells: 'Colossal...brilliant novel'
Arthur Machen: 'He tells of a wilder wonderland than Poe ever dreamed of'
Hugh Walpole: 'He is not to be touched,because there is no one else like him'
New York Post: 'A GENIUS DRUNK WITH THE HOTTEST JUICES OF OUR LANGUAGE'
The Irish Statesman: 'The greatest writer of sensational fiction of his time'
Jules Claretie: 'This masterpiece should live as long as the Odyssey'

And it's all true!!! Seriously,it's classic.

Elflock wrote:

Yes,fair enough,you are totally correct,I should not have said 'most'

No worries, just wanted to set the record straight for anyone who might be wandering by the boards.

Elflock wrote:

On the other hand...if you published,say,an anthology of Wallace West...I would be the first person to buy a copy of the real book!(and probably the only one too I suppose)

I've paged through Lords of Atlantis in second-hand store, but I haven't read his work. Next time I go to that bookstore I'll see if they still have a copy. What appeals to you in his work?

Yes,sorry about that! Hmmm,I can't remember what actually appealed to me about The Lords of Atlantis,it just didn't make me cringe all the way through it like a lot of this stuff does. Also it has one of the coolest covers that you will ever see! I've only read one other story by this guy,'The End of Time' (Gutenberg) it was a pretty cool little story too.

'along came this promotional video for a space cult called UNARIUS.

A heavily made-up old woman explained the secret history of the universe, and much to my surprise, it mapped EXACTLY to the history of the solar system Kline invented in MAZA.

I wonder if someone involved in the cult read the Ace edition and incorporated it into their mythology.'

Yes,I'd forgotten about these weirdos,..but I suppose they are no weirder than any other religion or cult. I think someone should found a religion based on Clifford Simak's,'Ring Around The Sun'...

Elflock wrote:

However,most of the things that you guys have published are available as free legal ebooks...hello?

As far as free legal ebooks in the United States, this statement is not accurate, and remember we are a U.S.-based publisher. Titles by Anthony, Brackett, Cook, Gygax, Hughes, Lansdale, and Moorcock, and the anthologies by Lowder and Sutter, make up the the bulk of the thirty books we have under our belt or have announced as of this post, all of which are quite clearly not in the public domain. Please take a look at our library again.

To my knowledge, there are only five books in our collection of thirty that can be found online, and at least two of those have estates that should be paid and aren't by the pirate editions. We believe authors should be paid for their work, and even with the really old works we make every effort to find their estates.

Besides, our books are pretty. :-)

Yes,fair enough,you are totally correct,I should not have said 'most'(I've actually 'put my foot in it' here because I must have got them all in a big torrent...all the Kline,Kuttner,Brackett,Howard,Merritt,everything...not the Gygax,Lansdale etc)...All these more recent authors you mention are all available illegally too though of course. Just like the music 'industry',it's basically come down to the buyer having to make a moral decision each time he/she wants a new book...Do I get it for free,in 10 seconds,with the click of a button on one website,or do I give someone some money for it on another website and then wait for 10 days for it to (hopefully) come in the mail from some country? Don't worry,as a musician trying to sell little underground albums that nobody ever heard of and stuff I know all about this issue!! To be honest,I've actually given up and joined the 'free music and free everything else for everybody' camp now. And I actually prefer Ebooks I'm afraid!! The artwork is always there on your Paizo product page if anyone wants to look at it ;) Don't hate me,I'm just giving you a hard time because I've got nothing better to do.

On the other hand...if you published,say,an anthology of Wallace West...I would be the first person to buy a copy of the real book!(and probably the only one too I suppose)
Has anyone read anything by Nictzin Dyalhis (his real name apparently)...this guy was really good,he only published 8 stories and they would make a beautiful addition to your series in a nice big anthology!!
What about Lloyd Arthur Eshbach? There's not much of his stuff around either...what I've read was actually pretty good.

Oh,it's supposed to be Requests here...well,I'll just make my usual boring request for Wallace West. Has anyone read 'The Lords of Atlantis'? You can't get this guy's stuff anywhere...not even as ebooks (there's one short story on Gutenberg) However,most of the things that you guys have published are available as free legal ebooks...hello? Do you take this into account when you decide what to publish? And then,on top of that,you also have to compete with the whole 'illegal' Torrent/Rapidshare etc ebook world...times are changing...C'est la vie...

Now,I know that no one cares what anyone else thinks,and everyone has a totally different view of what is 'good',it's all about taste and all that,but really,'Maza of The Moon'?...Even keeping in mind that 95% of this old stuff was written for teenage boys in the 1930's etc,I'm sorry guys but I think this is just total juvenile rubbish!! (NO OFFENCE intended to anyone above!! Life would be horribly boring if we all liked the same things) In fact for me,'Maza' is competing very strongly with 'Aerita of The Light Country' for the lamest interplanetary romance that I ever struggled to finish. Well,at least I managed to finish it I suppose,unlike some other books over the years...'Jandar of Callisto' comes to mind...hmm,what else was I not able to finish?...some $#*+ that I can't even remember by Karl Edward Wagner,Hugh Cook,Piers Anthony etc ;) Yes,I think 'Crewell Lye' was probably the worst book I ever tried to read...no,actually,'Barefoot in the Head' by Aldiss,definitely the worst...the list goes on...:(

I actually enjoyed TAMA, PRINCESS OF MERCURY and TAMA OF THE LIGHT COUNTRY, but I don't think you can make a very strong case that either have withstood the test of time particularly well. The idea that they are in the same category as Burroughs or C. L. Moore or Brackett is frankly laughable, but I thought both had their charms.

Absolutely correct,they are nowhere near as good as Burroughs,Brackett or Moore(or Howard or CAS or dare I say it,Wallace West!)Those first 2 Light Country ones are just ok,the third one is total rubbish. I really liked The Girl in The Golden Atom and Rain of Fire and a few others of his though. Same applies to Farley and the others mentioned above.

Likewise Kline,some of his stuff was pretty good,but he was not in the same league either. I'm actually 75% through Maza of The Moon at the moment,it's ok,it's very much in the Flash Gordon style this one,not the usual 'poor man's Burroughs',but it's got all the usual racial stereotyping and the ever present militarism/xenophobia etc etc that most of this old stuff has. I think it's just ok,but again,it hasn't really 'aged' well.
Here's my suggestion for some actual kind of 'intelligent' sci-fi reading from that era...'The Purple Cloud' by M.P.Shiel. This was published in 1930 and in my opinion it puts in perspective just how lame most of the rest of this stuff was back then!!
And now you can get it free at Project Gutenberg!....http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11229
;)

Still waiting for mine. I ordered it last November & Amazon.ca (Canada) says it's going to ship before April 8... after all the people in this blog are finished it, sounds like.

They must be personally delivering it on foot.

Naah,nothing matters anymore....

Doug

Yeah,as I wrote a bit later in reply to Tyson..."I also thank Lin Carter no end for doing that Ballantyne Fantasy series in the late 60's/early 70's. That's how I(and many others of my generation no doubt)discovered Morris,Dunsany,Chambers,MacDonald,Crawford etc etc. Hope Mirrlees!"
And I did like Lin's Green Star series etc...;)

Can anyone recommend stories set in Asia during the fictional pulp era? Prefer Asian protags if possible. Thanks!

'The Fox Woman',A.Merritt...(Project Gutenberg)

'I live in Germany and a perfect example is our "mega bookstore" down town.
They have reserved some serious shelf space for english language SF and Fantasy. But most of this space is taken up by...
War Hammer
Role Playing tie-ins
film tie-ins
Terry Goodkind
Terry Pratchet
Harry Potter and all those Harry Potter Type books.
Metrosexual Vampire boyfriends, Goth Chick lit and paranormal romance.
ect.

The SF is mostly....

Star Wars
Star Trek
Mech Warrior
War Hammer
Douglas Adams
Peter F. Hamilton mega page multi volume epics
ect.'...

Sounds exactly like our bookstores in Australia...tragic...sigh :-(
Hmm,what killed S&S? A general lack of imagination maybe(D&D being a really good example!)...just like Sci-fi which disappeared up it's own backside about 1978 in my opinion. But of course,you guys all love Gary Gygax and Glen Cook and all that...so...'what a drag it is getting old',said Mick.

Erik Mona wrote:

You should check out Gryphon Books. They have published a seemingly impossible amount of Fearn. Last time I was at Uncle Hugo's sci-fi bookshop in Minneapolis, they must have had about four dozen different titles, including tons of Golden Amazon novels.

I think many of them may be as old as the mid-80s. For all I know they are hard to find, but Uncle Hugo's has TONs of them.

And, as you will soon discover, after a while almost all Ray Cummings novels sort of seem like the exact same story told over and over again.

Ok cool,thanks for the tip. Yes,Fearn was VERY prolific(he had several pseudonyms too). It's pretty hard to find any of his stuff here though,I've been looking for them in second hand shops for years. Now,that's a BIT harsh about Ray!! I've read quite a few of his books and I don't think he was any more 'samey' than most of his contemporaries ;)

Well,I still like most of the Ray Cummings stories I've read,but after reading 'Aerita of The Light Country',I concede you may be right! One of the lamest things I have ever managed to finish. A while ago on here you were talking about publishing the 'Tama of The Light Country' stories...they're pretty cool,but if you do publish them,I would strongly advise not including 'Aerita' with them!

You should check out Gryphon Books. They have published a seemingly impossible amount of Fearn. Last time I was at Uncle Hugo's sci-fi bookshop in Minneapolis, they must have had about four dozen different titles, including tons of Golden Amazon novels.

I think many of them may be as old as the mid-80s. For all I know they are hard to find, but Uncle Hugo's has TONs of them.

And, as you will soon discover, after a while almost all Ray Cummings novels sort of seem like the exact same story told over and over again.

Ok cool,thanks for the tip. Yes,Fearn was VERY prolific(he had several pseudonyms too). It's pretty hard to find any of his stuff here though,I've been looking for them in second hand shops for years. Now,that's a BIT harsh about Ray!! I've read quite a few of his books and I don't think he was any more 'samey' than most of his contemporaries ;)

Rest assured, we are looking into this.

Now that I have an ebook reader,I won't bug you about Ray Cummings any more...I now have most of the ones I wanted...free too...Project Gutenberg! (I much prefer the ebook reader to a real book btw...you can see the type better for a start) But I'll ask again for John Russell Fearn. Come on,'The Golden Amazon' series. I'd definitely buy that!!

I'm confident we can get the rights to just about all of Kuttner's stories, and that one's on the list (I have it in about 5 different formats). That said, sales on Kuttner books aren't exactly what I would describe as "blockbuster," so here's hoping Robots Have No Tails knocks peoples' socks off.

Well,I finally got The Dark World...I can see why you guys like it,I didn't mind it,but...only about a 6/10 for me. It's a pretty thin book too,couldn't you have thrown another story in with it!?! ;)

No,it was pretty cool I suppose...meanwhile I just bought an ebook reader so I can read all the Ray Cummings ones that I don't have and a whole lot of other cool old stuff that you guys will NEVER publish ;)

joela wrote:

Can anyone recommend stories set in Asia during the fictional pulp era? Prefer Asian protags if possible. Thanks!

Well, of course, there's Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu stories. And Guy D'Armen's Natas. Both villains, but then, I think you'll find few Asian protags in the old pulps.

The 'Kai Lung' stories by Ernest Bramah from the 20's were cool. 'The Willow Landscape' by Clark Ashton Smith (1930) is a good little story set in China. 'Alien Earth' by Edmond Hamilton (1949) was set in the Laos jungle. 'The Monster Men' by Burroughs (1913) was set on an island off Borneo. There were many Robert Howard stories set in Central Asia,'Lost Valley of Iskander','The Daughter of Erlik Khan','Curse of The Crimson God' etc etc. 'The Metal Monster' by A Merritt was set in Tibet. In the early Weird Tales there were a lot of Oriental bad guys (judging by the covers) but there weren't many Asian protagonists that I know of in any of the old pulps.

Here is a strange one that has come to my attention. Not a request or even probably a candidate but I figure someone may find this interesting. Its a book called "The Iron Dream" written by Norman Spinrad and it is an alternate history book. The premise is that Adolf Hitler immigrates to America in 1919 after his tour of duty in WW1 and he becomes a pulp writer who writes a book called "Lord of the Swastica" in 195x shortly before dying. The book within a book basically explores fascism/militariam as science fiction with super races and the like. The book itself is supose to be satirical and taking a jab at the fascist and sometimes racist nature of SF/Fantasy of the day. Apparently the book won the Nebula and some other award. Wikipedia has a good article on it. Has anyone read this?

I have this around here somewhere but haven't read it...not REALLY my cup of tea. One that was pretty cool by this guy was 'The Men in The Jungle'. It is not for the faint-hearted! I seem to remember it has people eating babies and stuff like that :(

Elflock wrote:

As far as I'm concerned,the only pastiche/homage that I ever read that was actually any good was the Elric series (Conan). His Michael Kane series was very ordinary. Well,of course,Brackett's Mars stuff was sort of a homage to Burroughs,but she totally managed to come up with something different and dare I say it,better!(I love ERB,but Brackett's characterisation was just better for me) On the subject of people who got hundreds of books published,have a look at the total rubbish that hacks like Lin Carter used to churn out...he tried to do everyone's style,including Brackett,Burroughs,Howard,CAS etc etc.,but he was just not at all in the same league,talentwise. But for some reason,he got hundreds of books published by major publishers. He even used the pseudonym H.P.Lowcraft at one stage...at least he seemed to realise his deficiencies! I know everyone loves Kuttner and Hamilton,but I would put both of them in the same category...people who could sort of write ok,and got millions of stories published,but they just didn't have the talent or the original ideas that for instance,their respective wives had. There just can't ever be another Leigh Brackett...or CL Moore...or Robert Howard...or Clark Ashton Smith...or...A.Merritt...or Francis Stevens!!

Kuttner's a considerably better writer than Carter/Bullmer etc whose top level is average, basically. I don't think you can fairly say his wife came up with everything, either - quite unlikely, apart from the earlier work he did on his own, too. I've come across a couple of decent Carter short stories, for example - that's the probability thing.

Part of Hamilton's appeal is that while not particularly good in comparison with the rest of the list, he was rather better than the contemporaries - e.g. he started writing in the 20s. Also wrote a lot and came up with a lot of stuff, so on probability likely to come up with the odd better piece - e.g. The Monster God Of Mamurth speaking of Lovecraft.

Francis Stevens doesn't impress me...

There seem to be a lot of Australians in this little scene ;) Yes,fair enough points,Kuttner and Hamilton are definitely better than Carter,that's for sure! I've mentioned quite a few of their stories elsewhere here that I did like. And I've also liked a few stories by Lin-baby himself...so,you know. Guys,I only make these sweeping,inflamatory statements for a laugh! You know that! As I said ages ago somewhere on here,I also thank Lin Carter no end for doing that Ballantyne Fantasy series in the late 60's/early 70's. That's how I(and many others of my generation no doubt)discovered Morris,Dunsany,Chambers,MacDonald,Crawford etc etc. Hope Mirrlees! 'Lud-in-The-Mist'. Now that was a classic! The reason I like Brackett,Moore and Stevens is that they had leading characters that were actually a bit fallible and human...compare Northwest Smith to say,John Carter! (I can only assume it was to do with the fact that these writers were not men or something ;) From all the older stuff I've read,these three really did stand out in this regard from at least 95% of their contemporaries. This is sort of what I meant by original ideas really,they were pioneers!

As far as I'm concerned,the only pastiche/homage that I ever read that was actually any good was the Elric series (Conan). His Michael Kane series was very ordinary. Well,of course,Brackett's Mars stuff was sort of a homage to Burroughs,but she totally managed to come up with something different and dare I say it,better!(I love ERB,but Brackett's characterisation was just better for me) On the subject of people who got hundreds of books published,have a look at the total rubbish that hacks like Lin Carter used to churn out...he tried to do everyone's style,including Brackett,Burroughs,Howard,CAS etc etc.,but he was just not at all in the same league,talentwise. But for some reason,he got hundreds of books published by major publishers. He even used the pseudonym H.P.Lowcraft at one stage...at least he seemed to realise his deficiencies! I know everyone loves Kuttner and Hamilton,but I would put both of them in the same category...people who could sort of write ok,and got millions of stories published,but they just didn't have the talent or the original ideas that for instance,their respective wives had. There just can't ever be another Leigh Brackett...or CL Moore...or Robert Howard...or Clark Ashton Smith...or...A.Merritt...or Francis Stevens!!

Actually, I thought Earth's Last Citadel showed more variance in style between chapters than most of the Moore/Kuttner stuff I've read. I think they each took on whole chapters at a time. A few chapters are obviously written by Moore (the lush descriptions are a dead giveaway), but there's a minor character whose hacky Scottish accent is everpresent in some chapters and totally absent in others. I think one author used the cheesy patois and the other didn't think to.

It's not like many of their stories had more than one draft.

Yes,you're probably right. To be honest I can't really remember much about it,just that I liked it a lot more than any other Kuttner book I've read. With the possible exception of 'Fury'.

There's a list for you :-

So the other Planet Stories books are definitely recommended. Can be impossible tell who wrote what with Kuttner and Moore some of the time.

SF-N-4.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Destination Infinity - FREE
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Vintage Season
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : We Kill People
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : Beauty and the Beast - FREE
SF-C-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : The Best Of Henry Kuttner
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Clash By Night - FREE
SO-N-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : The Dark World - FREE
SO-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : Dragon Moon
SO-C-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : Elak Of Atlantis
SF-N-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : Fury - FREE
SU-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : A Gnome There Was - FREE
SH-S-4.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Graveyard Rats - FREE
SU-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : Housing Problem - FREE
SH-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : I The Vampire
SF-S-4.5 Kuttner, Henry : Mimsy Were the Borogoves - FREE
SF-C-4.5 Kuttner, Henry : Mutant - FREE
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : Three Blind Mice - FREE
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : Two-Handed Engine - FREE
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : We Guard the Black Planet! - FREE
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : What Hath Me? - FREE
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : The World Is Mine

Lots of whom you will find :-

http://henrykuttner.bravehost.com/index.html

And some of the others online too.

Kuttner died in 1958, so public domain in a lot of the world like Canada etc.

There'll be more you can find here if you feel like it :-

http://freesflist.blogspot.com/

And 'Earth's Last Citadel',although I suspect it's 90% Moore

However, did read one today that may be of possible interest for reading :-

That Halcyon Drift, by Brian Stableford

First of a series

http://www.librarything.com/series/Hooded%20Swan

A guy crashlands his ship on a planet - ends up with an alien mental parasite - is rescued, by then is indentured to go on missions to pay this off.

First one is to find a Lost Star in a strange nebula.

Certainly better than Fanthorpe, but a similar era - early 70s.

Yes,good tip,I've read 'Halcyon Drift',I agree it was quite good. I also have the 3rd one in that series,'Promised Land',and another one,'The Florians',which is the first in another series,but haven't read them yet.

Elflock wrote:

Blue Tyson wrote:

Elflock wrote:

Anyone read any John E. Muller? 'Edge of Eternity' and 'The Negative Ones' were both cool.

Nope, never heard of him. What sort of books are those?

'Edge of Eternity': Sun goes nova,mankind sets off in untested hyperdrive ships for Alpha Centauri. It's a good one! 'The Negative Ones': Brilliant nuclear physicist staggers home,a pathetic wreck of his former self,raving about flying saucers and a strange being called Ravan...there are ancient legends about this Ravan and his 'Vimana'(you know,a flying car from the ancient Hindu myths).

John E Muller was actually a pseudonym of R.L.Fanthorpe,a British guy (I think) writing in the 60's. Check out that Fantastic Fiction site for Muller's books,there were quite a few.

Ok, well people make fun of Lionel Fanthorpe for being highly prolifically bad, in general. Look him up, you might be amused.

Hmm,yes,an interesting guy,look at his 'achievements' in the Wikipedia entry! Priest,member of Mensa,martial arts instructor etc. Not only prolific with the books,also the pseudonyms it seems! By a ridiculous coincidence,I happen to be half-way through a pretty bad one at the moment by this guy as Karl Zeigfeid,'Barrier 346'

Elflock wrote:

Anyone read any John E. Muller? 'Edge of Eternity' and 'The Negative Ones' were both cool.

Nope, never heard of him. What sort of books are those?

'Edge of Eternity': Sun goes nova,mankind sets off in untested hyperdrive ships for Alpha Centauri. It's a good one! 'The Negative Ones': Brilliant nuclear physicist staggers home,a pathetic wreck of his former self,raving about flying saucers and a strange being called Ravan...there are ancient legends about this Ravan and his 'Vimana'(you know,a flying car from the ancient Hindu myths).

John E Muller was actually a pseudonym of R.L.Fanthorpe,a British guy (I think) writing in the 60's. Check out that Fantastic Fiction site for Muller's books,there were quite a few.

Anyone read any John E. Muller? 'Edge of Eternity' and 'The Negative Ones' were both cool.

I will have to check her out.

Erik,I just found a great collection called 'The Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy',by Francis Stevens. Published recently (2004) by Uni of Nebraska Press (Bisonbooks). I promise you will not be disappointed if you can find this!

I have never even heard of her.

"Francis Stevens was the most gifted woman writer of science-fiction and science-fantasy between Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and C.L.Moore" (Sam Moscowitz)

It's true!

recently i celibrated my 24th birthday

as a gift i recieved a replica of weird tales Jul/Aug 1923 issue

the opening story a 2 part story called sunfire by Gertrude Barrows Bennett aka Francis Stevens shes a cited influence of both Lovecraft and Merritt

its a story of five explorers who come upon a uncharted island where things aurnt quite as they seem

its a great lost world story

Try to find,'The Citadel of Fear',by Francis Stevens. Seriously,this is a classic! Anyone who likes Merritt should get this (there was a Paperback Library edition from 1970). She also had one called 'Claimed' which was another classic and several others that I haven't been able to find. Her shorter fiction would make a good collection...hint,hint.

Erik Mona wrote:

I really liked Kuttner's "The Fairy Chessmen," btw, so obviously tastes differ.

I haven't read any of the Hogben "hillbilly" stories yet, though I will soon and I promise to report here with my impressions of them.

Obviously, I liked the robot stories we reprinted in "Robots Have No Tails," and most of the comments we've gotten on them have been quite positive.

I'll go with inbetween you and johnny on The Fairy Chessmen - I thought that was average. The Hogben stories are okish. The yank rural thing has to be pretty superior to appeal to me I think - REH, Manly Wade Wellman, etc.

Fury, The Prisoner In the Skull, The Time Axis, The Valley Of the Flame - those are all decent.

To be fair,I should say here that I really liked 'Earth's Last Citadel','Fury',a few others that I can't remember. The Elak stuff was pretty cool,Prince Raynor less so,but ok. However these are not at all in the same league as REH or Moore or CAS for me. Two Kuttner books that I think I would like (from their descriptions)if I could find them are,'I am Eden' and 'The Time Axis' (and 'The Dark World'...ok!!)

The thread title was the lead off of an article on the SciFi Channel's newsite.

It also provided some details on reprint collections of Edmond Hamilton stories. Thought it might be interesting to share.

Yes,it's interesting to read what the more 'mainstream' sci-fi fans think about this old stuff. Also the comments on there regarding what is a 'classic' are interesting...the decade in which you discover sci-fi seems to play a big part in deciding this for most people (the famous Asimov quote..'The Golden Age of science fiction was when you were 12' sums it all up I think. And on the other thread there,I still put Moorcock at the top of my list for a Nobel prize! (and how dare they say that he would lose points for his work with Hawkwind!! That's one of the reasons he should get the bloody thing!!)

LOL, Johnny. I think we agree on more than we disagree on!

Didn't you like THE DARK WORLD?

Yes,we totally do agree on more than we don't.

I have to admit to not ordering it yet...sorry! I think I'll like that one. I was at the little shop where I buy Paizo stuff the other day,she normally has a few Paizo titles,but there was only a second-hand Gygax one there. Don't get me started on Gary!! That's the first Planet Stories book I've seen second-hand I think.

I'm just doing a drive-by right now and I haven't read the article yet, but I think it's fairly obvious that science fiction can easily seem dated when current technology leaves it in the dust. I've read "classic" sf and fantasy exclusively for the last four years, and I can't tell you how many times I've read stories set in the future with people reading ticker tapes, feeding cards into computers, or remarking with pleasant surprise how breathable the atmosphere is on Mars.

Basically, if you can't get past this level of anachronism and focus on the story, I think you're an idiot.

That said, there are some stories that are pretty much ruined by the march of history.

Fantasy, on the other hand, is nearly immune from this, which is perhaps one reason why Planet Stories has subconsciously erred more on the side of fantasy than science fiction so far.

I think the anachronisms are what makes this stuff interesting! However I also agree with what you say about getting past them and focusing on the story.

Re. Edmond Hamilton...just another very prolific hack (like Kuttner) These guys WERE pretty good at doing everyone else's style and ideas I suppose,to be fair. Hamilton had a few reasonable things in the 20's,and 'The Star Kings' and 'Alien Earth' in 1949...for me everything else is just very ordinary at best (avoid the 'Starwolf' trilogy from the 60's at ALL costs!)
For me a lot of Kuttner is just painfully tedious,almost unreadable. Especially,'Tomorrow And Tomorrow' and 'The Far Reality' (also published as 'The Chessboard Planet','The Fairy Chessmen' etc),but also the painful,corny hillbilly and robot stories. These two authors are exactly the sort of thing that gave science fiction it's reputation in literary circles of being just rubbish written by hacks. Of course there were MANY others who were a lot worse than these two though...have a look at Eando Binder or Stanton Coblenz etc etc. Actually,from what I see on these messageboards,most people will probably totally disagree with everything I say! If you think 'Star Wars' was a good thing,you will like Hamilton's 'Starwolf' maybe.

ps. I think the worst thing that happened to C.L. Moore's writing career was marrying Henry!

"He was a liberal in politics,and a bitter foe of civic injustice in any form"

(from H.P.Lovecraft's memoriam of Robert E. Howard,who was a friend,in 'Skull-face And Others')

Elflock wrote:

Ok,thanks again. It's understandable about the programmers,the software etc. I know I must seem incredibly stupid,but I still have no idea about the links! I can't see any instructions there on how to do anything at all,just a list of things that mean nothing to me. As I said,I don't even know what a BBCode tag is! Hey,it's not a problem at all,but I'll have another look later and try to understand it anyway! Cheers

Ok....A BBCode Tag, is.... Well, BB comes from Bulletin Board, the things that predated webforums when the internet existed and the world wide wed didn't.... Code, well, is a code that the server understands, and "tag", means you can stick the code around soem text, to tag it, and the server will apply the code to the text.

So, a bbcode in a simple fashion, make text bold. So if I wand to make this text bold I simply type it, and then put [b] before it, and after [/b] after it. That tells the server to make what I type between appear bold.

As for URLS, some of the tags, take arguments in the case of a url, you put the url in quotes (") after an equals sign, after the [url and before the ]. So url="paizo.com" (but enclosed in square brackets again....) Then stick some text (possibly even the url again and this a [/url] after it. Which is a lot harder to explain than to do.

These boards have a preview function....just play with it, copy the code like you did before, and tweek it, and hit preview, and see what happens. You'll get the hang of it.

P.s. Any chance of getting these posts split off into a separate thread? :)

Thanks,I think I get it now! ;)

Yes, that's what I mean.

Look at what you copied, and pasted, and look at the results. What you copied and pasted, is in effect instructions on how to bold text, how to create links etc etc. Stuff some boards do for you.

The answer for why you have to do it yourself is......The boards here use custom software, so that the store can be integrated into the boards, and you can have threads on the product page. That means that Paizo can't just use the other software that does the fancy stuff, and they have only two full time programmers.....Other things get priority.

Ok,thanks again. It's understandable about the programmers,the software etc. I know I must seem incredibly stupid,but I still have no idea about the links! I can't see any instructions there on how to do anything at all,just a list of things that mean nothing to me. As I said,I don't even know what a BBCode tag is! Hey,it's not a problem at all,but I'll have another look later and try to understand it anyway! Cheers

Elflock wrote:

Cool,I'm hopeless at all this mumbo jumbo...thanks!

Then seriously, clue yourself in. The button is on *every* page you use to post. Click it, and it will show you exactly how to format the link, in a way we *can't* because the markup would be read and changed....

That sounds really harsh, but but Paizo have made it as easy as possible to get this information, and you are just ignoring it now....

Quoted material here....

'This is bold and italics.

Go to Paizo Publishing.

Contact customer.service@paizo.com

• one
• two

This is bigger and this is smaller.

This is out-of-character commentary for play-by-post threads.

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 51d6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3 This is a dice expression.'

No,it's not harsh,but not everyone understands this computer stuff...this info above from the 'BBCode tags you can use' button means nothing to me at all I'm afraid. Is this what you mean? (what are BBCode tags?!)Everywhere else on the internet,I just copy the link and paste it on wherever,why is it different here? Anyway,thanks for the help! I wasn't ignoring it,I don't understand it.