What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

[st barbara]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

 

Just read another "Hardluck Hannigan" novel by Bill Craig "The Sky Masters". Again, delightfully pulpy with giant nazi aircraft carrier zepplins, flying saucers, a two fisted American adventurer hero, a beautiful English heroine and a mysterious character who seems to have magical powers.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

 

starting to read the Doc Savage novels again, and just finished Hard Magic by Larry Correia

[st barbara]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

 

starting to read the Doc Savage novels again' date=' and just finished Hard Magic by Larry Correia[/quote']

 

What did you think of "Hard Magic" ?

[st barbara]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

 

I've just read "Doc Voodoo: Aces and Eights" by Dale Lucas. Gangsters, voodoo and a "dark avenger" with a pair of blazing automatics ! Set in Harlem in the 1920's with a mostly black cast. Good stuff ! Written in 2011 and published by "Beating Windward Press". I hope that we will see more of this character in the future.

[Ian Mackinder]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

 

Just finished re-reading a couple of favourites - 'Doc Sidhe' and the sequel 'Sidhe Devil'. Written by one Aaron Allston, whom some here may have previously heard of. Definitely Pulp-ish, with a Fantasy overlay. Well worth reading.

[IndianaJoe3]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

 

Just finished re-reading a couple of favourites - 'Doc Sidhe' and the sequel 'Sidhe Devil'. Written by one Aaron Allston' date=' whom some here may have previously heard of. Definitely Pulp-ish, with a Fantasy overlay. Well worth reading.[/quote']

 

I just started Doc Sidhe myself. I also grabbed the Robert E Howard Omnibus​ for my Nook (only $1.99!) but I'm having some trouble getting it to work.

[st barbara]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

 

I just started Doc Sidhe myself. I also grabbed the Robert E Howard Omnibus​ for my Nook (only $1.99!) but I'm having some trouble getting it to work.

 

What type of stories are in the Howard Omnibus ? Given that, like most pulp writers, he wrote in many different genres it would be interested to know if there are boxing and western stories (for example) included in an omnibus.

[assault]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

 

I've finally started working through my collection of Perry Mason stories. Yesterday I finished The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom (1949), summarised in Wikipedia as: "First Mason gets his face slapped by a beautiful burglar in his office building, then a Tijuana wedding trip leads to a murder".

 

I'm not sure how many I own - they're scattered randomly through my bookshelves.

[IndianaJoe3]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

 

What type of stories are in the Howard Omnibus ? Given that' date=' like most pulp writers, he wrote in many different genres it would be interested to know if there are boxing and western stories (for example) included in an omnibus.[/quote']

 

There's a bit of everything - boxing, Westerns, horror, detective, historical and fantasy. Plenty of Conan (of course), but there's also Kull, Bran Mak Morn, Cormac Fitzgeoffery, Wild Bill Clanton, and Solomon Kane.

[Kharis2000]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

 

City of Corpses: The Weird Mysteries of Ken Carter, by Norvell W. Page. Published 2009 by Black Dog Books

 

Full Disclosure: I'm biased when it comes to the pulps and the authors that sprang from them; no apologies, no excuses; I simply love that era and style of writing.

 

That said, this collection is, flat out, an example of why I feel the way I do about the genre.

 

Norvell Page is a fever dream of an author, whose characters live out on the pointy end of the exclamation point. He was incredibly prolific, producing and selling - selling! - an average of between 100,000 and 120,000 words a month, and 1,000,000 words a year. Whether you like the pulps or not, the sheer volume of his work stands as a testament to the fact that he knew what people wanted and he knew how to give it to them.

 

'City of Corpses' contains seven short works, all originally published in TEN DETECTIVE ACES, six from consecutive issues running from May-June to November in 1933, and a final story from September 1935. All feature the same character, Kenneth Carter, and all fall squarely into the 'weird mystery' category.

 

'Weird Mystery' is a catch-all phrase from the pulp era that covers any mystery or crime-related story where there is an element of the fantastical or the horrible. As a rule of thumb, if the opening crime in a story is someone being shot down on the street corner, you're reading a Plain Jane adventure or crime pulp. If, on the other hand, the opening crime is a parachutist falling from the skies with his hands bound and his chute's shroud lines fashioned into a hangman's noose around his neck... you're reading a weird mystery.

 

No one wrote better weird mystery than Norvell Page.

 

These stories are, in essence, the tryout that he (unknowingly at the time) produced in order to be offered the job as the lead writer for The Spider serial pulp which ran for 118 monthly issues from 1933 to 1943. He was offered the job after the spurt of stories in 1933, accepted it and produced a run of breakneck paced stories about the Spider that are, well... hell, just go read one. You'll understand.

 

Ken Carter, the hero of these stories, isn't the Spider, and certainly doesn't come with the baggage that any of the 'big three' pulp heroes [Doc Savage, the Shadow, & the Spider] did, but the people that he fights and the crimes that they commit are as colorful as the foes the two of those that Norvell Page *didn't* write ever faced. If Carter has a flaw, its that he's 'sentimental' and doesn't like to see a woman come to harm, even a bad one. The bad ones frequently do, since being hoist by one's own petard is a staple of pulp villainy finales, but Carter isn't out there pulling a trigger on them. He's athletic, a good fighter - although not superhuman, since he frequently loses his fights to wake up at the dubious mercy of the villains of the piece - and has the requisite jack-of-all-trades skill set of the pulp hero.

 

If you're looking for an introduction to the pulps in general, the weird mystery genre within it, or you want to read some sizzling slam bang fiction by one of the masters of the style, you can't go wrong with this collection.

[st barbara]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

 

There's a bit of everything - boxing' date=' Westerns, horror, detective, historical and fantasy. Plenty of Conan (of course), but there's also Kull, Bran Mak Morn, Cormac Fitzgeoffery, Wild Bill Clanton, and Solomon Kane.[/quote']

 

Sounds good. I have some of Howard's "non Sword and Sorcery" stories in various books ("The Riot At Bucksnort", "Treasures Of Tartary" and "Waterfront Fists") but er haven't got around to reading any of them yet.

[Clonus]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

 

What did you think of "Hard Magic" ?

 

It's set in the era, but it owes more to the X-Men than Doc Savage, Fu Manchu or even Dashiel Hammett.

[The Main Man]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

 

I can tell you all what my next literary conquest is at the very least: The Shadow in... The Devil Monsters.

[RJB]

Hey! I just read ERB's Tarzan of the Apes. I must say its a much better read than I expected.

[st barbara]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ? Doe Philip K. Dick count? Just the the Variable Man. I'm finally reading some of his short stories. Thank you Android and Kindle free books!

Well the thing that I have discovered about the term "pulp" is that people define it for themselves. I wouldn't call Dick's work "pulp" personally, nor "The Hunger Games" but, if you want to consider it as such go right ahead. "Pulp" is a useful "catch all" term for exciting, fast moving stories of high adventure !

[st barbara]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ? A little lovecraft and a lot of doc savage

"RJB" Have you read any of the recent "Doc Savage" novels published by Altus Press ? How do they compare to the "classic" tales ?

[IndianaJoe3]

I've made it into the, "Boxing Stories" section of the REH Omnibus (featuring, "Sailor Steve" Costigan). Howard spins a good yarn, but the amount of casual racism (and more than a little sexism) is appalling.

[st barbara]

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ? Doe Philip K. Dick count? Just the the Variable Man. I'm finally reading some of his short stories. Thank you Android and Kindle free books!

Well I wouldn't call most of Dick's stuff "Pulp". E E Smith or the early John W Campbell on the other hand.

[st barbara]

I've just finished "Treasures Of Tartary" by Robert E Howard. A rather odd collection including some of Howard"s "eastern adventure" stories, a couple of western tales and a pirate yarn..

[st barbara]

I recently read "Treasures Of Tartary" a collection of stories by Robert E Howard. A very mixed bag including a couple of "Eastern Adventure" type stories, a couple of western stories and a pirate yarn. Not Howard's best work but still worth reading.

[JohnTaber]

I recently read the 19XX strips.

[st barbara]

I was in the city today and , while browsing in a second hand bookshop, encountered some "Doc Savage" comics from a company that I hadn't heard of "Millenium Comics". I don't know how old they are, and the art is only so-so; but comics featuring "Doc" and company are always welcome. I can't find a date on them however.

[Kaze9999]

For authentic pulp, I recently re-read the original Shadow pulp book in ebook form; for pulp-style, I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed Larry Correia's "Hard Magic", book one in his Grimnoir Chronicles series.

[Andrew_A]

I`m currently reading Raymond Chandler`s Playback. Okay book, but not as good as his earlier novels. No racism so far.

[Pyre-Archer]

All 3 Red Panda books by Gregg Taylor (Android Assassin, Mind master, and The Crime Cabal), also =plannign to re-read one of the Spider novels, The City Destroyer.

 

Further down, I'd like to look into some of the Operative #5 books.