Pulp Magazine Authors and Literature Fans discussion

Always posted a good question on the group reads topic discussion, "Is there any mainstream pulp out there these days, where we can all get a copy?" If you mean are there any current writers in the pulp tradition, there are several I've come across in the last year or two. One's who spring immediately to mind are Paul Malmont, Wm. Michael Mott, Stephen Hunt, and Charles Ardai. David Drage has a wonderful podcast called "Dial P for Pulp" that regularly mentions works both old and new in the Pulp field, everything from mystery to fantasy to adventure.

I recommend F.Paul Wilson´s Repairman Jack series. There´s more pulp in those books than you´ll find in most modern attempts to imitate good pulp. There´s a healthy balance of nostalgia and evolution in them and that´s key. Purer imitations feel sort of ersatz.

SM Stirling's SKY PEOPLE and COURT OF THE CRIMSON KINGS are VERY evocative of Burroughs...

Is this a good place for me to, finally, “review the collection edited by Henrik Harkens? The book is _Eldritch Horrors: Dark Tales_, and it was a great delight to see what modern writers are doing with H.P. Lovecraft‘s and C.A. Smith’s great Cthulhu religion. Henrik has gathered together a number of new additions to the tradition here. There is a Baker’s Thirteen stories here – that is, fourteen – plus an introduction.

I don’t know if this is Henrik’s first anthology or not, but I’ll say, to begin, that the production values are very good: good slick, large format paperback with white (acid-free?) pages and very eldritch artwork on the cover and in the interior art. As a former artist myself, it does my heart good to find an editor who still appreciates the value of illustrations.

This is not to be a true review as I cannot objectively evaluate the work of my three internet friends Benjamin Szumskyj, Leigh Blackmoore and Henrik Harksen himself. My bias in mind, I will say that I enjoyed all three of their stories. Ben’s and Henrik’s both had disturbing nightmare qualities whereas Leigh’s was more of an old-fashioned adventure/horror with an entirely unexpected ending.

Of the remaining stories, the crowning jewel was “One Thousand and One Words” by Paul S. Kemp, an author previously unknown to me, but whose work is so polished I’d be very surprised to learn this was his first appearance in print. This story establishes early on an unremitting sense of world-wide menace, of a looming threat to all mankind, and the smaller horror takes place within this larger one. Very nicely done.

“The Door to Nowhere” by Blake Wilson was also excellent, good old-fashioned story telling set in modern Australia, with an effective ending. “Out of the Frying Pan” was also well-written and engaging, though the ending left me puzzled. The last of my favorites was “The People of the Island,” again, a nice, old-fashioned tale, though set just off modern Hong-Kong, an area author Paul Mackintosh seems to know something about. He does a good job of transporting us to an exotic locale and then convincing us we’d really rather have stayed home.

Others, of course, might prefer others of the stories. All in all, the book is a worthy effort. Kudos to Henrik Harksen for continuing to keep Lovecraft’s spirit lamp burning and continuing to cast its unholy light.

~ John Mayer

In another group, "Supernatural Fiction", Always mentioned Charlie Huston. It looks like he has several series. This list is from Fantastic Fiction, which says he is writes Noir Crime Fiction. I don't know, but might his work be a good fit here? Has any one else read his work?

Series
Hank Thompson
1. Caught Stealing (2004)
2. Six Bad Things (2005)
3. A Dangerous Man (2006)
Caught StealingSix Bad ThingsA Dangerous Man

Joe Pitt
1. Already Dead (2005)
2. No Dominion (2006)
3. Half the Blood of Brooklyn (2007)
4. Every Last Drop (2008)
5. My Dead Body (2009)

Moon Knight
1. The Bottom Premiere (2006)

Plus a couple of novels:
The Shotgun Rule (2007)
The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death (2009)

John wrote: "Is this a good place for me to, finally, “review the collection edited by Henrik Harkens? The book is _Eldritch Horrors: Dark Tales_, and it was a great delight to see what modern writers are doing..."

I really enjoyed the book too & did a review of it. The artwork was fantastic.

I probably have more crime suggestions than anything else. But see if there's anything that appeals. Boston Teran (which has to be a pen name) wrote a couple of very pulpy (and violent) thrillers several years back, but show up all the time at used book stores.

1) God is a Bullet
2) Never Count out the Dead

David Corbett's first effort, The Devil's Redhead is also a good violent crime novel. Should be easy to find.

Conqueror Worms, by Brian Keene. His first zombie book, The Rising, also worked for me.

A little older, but still recent enough to find, Falling Angel, by William Hjortsberg, which was later made into the movie Angel Heart. The book is way better, and a great blend of the hardboiled and horror.

The Dead Yard, by Adrian McKinty. I consider this the best of the Michael Forsythe novels. Forsythe is a prodigy, a one footed killing machine, but a pretty funny one. Hank Thompson wouldn't stand a chance. Not sure where the line for pulp is, but the ending of this one pushes into the area of ultimate revenge novels.

Although I'm not a real big fan of Space pulp I fully enjoyed Eric S. Nylund's entrys in the Halo series. These are what indirectly lead me to real pulp fiction. So I can't reconmend them enough.

For more Earthbound stuff I'm interested that Dirk Pitt has not been brought up yet.

Personally I think the ones that should most be looked into are the mid-series entrys. they have the most forward momentum as well as the best prose.

The later ones with the kid, (either Pitt's or Cussler's) completely kill the books.

I always thought that Dirk Pitt was an updated version of Doc Savage, motley crew of henchmen and all (you’ll recall all of Savage’s sidekick’s were also military men). But it’s been a long time since I read one. I thought they suffered from Cussler’s taking himself more seriously than Lester Dent took himself.

I found a publisher that has some good, new pulp. They're Hard Case Crime & have some excellent authors.
http://www.hardcasecrime.com/

I first found out about them because a favorite SF/Fantasy author had written a murder mystery. Roger Zelazny died in 1995, but his agent found The Dead Man's Brother when cleaning out files. I saw some other great authors had written stuff, Block, Spillane, Hamilton, King & more.

I'm currently reading Money Shot which is also published by them. It's pretty good. Anyone else read any of their offerings?

There's quite a bit of overlap in the membership of this group and the Hard Case one:

Hard Case Crime

Thanks, Dan. Another group, I do not need, but it is neat to know others know about this publisher. The cover art is wonderful. Seeing a lot of old, favorite authors as well as new ones who measure up, is also cool.

Fifty to One, the fiftieth Hard Case book, has an insert with the cover art for the first fifty books in it. It was a nice bonus.

I can just hear a cash register making a cha-ching noise. I'd love to collect all 50 & that cover art insert does sound like a great bonus. I see they have a subscription so you can get each book as they publish it too. Sweet!

I read the website & the advertisement in the book I'm reading. I can subscribe to a monthly book club & get a new novel each month from Hard Case Crime, with 10 days to look it over. Books that way only cost $6 delivered. I'm going to read a couple more & I may just join up. Not all their stuff is new. A lot are reprints, but the cover art is pretty good.

If you join at the Dorchester Publishing website, you only get the new ones but you get a discount on everything on the site along with a buy five books, get one free deal.
Dorchester Publishing

Yeah!! I have to concur, Hard Case rules! There has only been one that I didn't absolutely love, and that was Stephen King's The Colorado Kid. Every other Hard Case book I've read has been amazing -- my favorites are Money Shot by Christa Faust, both of the books by Richard Aleas (Charles Ardai, also the publisher), Ed McBain's Gutter to the Grave, Lawrence Block's Grifter's Game, Mickey Spillane's Dead Street. Almost every Hard Case book I have picked up has left me floored. I just picked up Ardai's Fifty-to-One which I can't wait to read.

Plus, the covers are just awesome.

Gutter to the Grave, A Touch of Death, Lemons Never Lie, and Grifter's Game are some of my favorite Hard Case reprints so far. My only complaint about Hard Case is that I wish they'd do more reprints and fewer originals, although Money Shot was pretty great.

I agree that Hard Case is a great publisher. The only book of theirs I've really, really disliked so far is the Max Allan Collins two-in-one.

I joined the book club today. I'd like to get caught up & collect the rest that have been issued. Some I have in other editions, though.

I just finished Money Shot over the weekend & will review today. I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. Something about it just turned me off, but it's hard to pin down.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Warhammer novels (both the sci-fi 40K and the Fantasy universes). Truly, if you want modern pulp, seek no further.

A great many of the WH authors cite classic pulp literature as their main influence. Seriously, people, do check their titles out.

I, as an avid pulp reader, can recommend the following writers:

C. L. WERNER - the man is, simply put, REH reborn. By far my favorite modern author. If you ask me, his literature is obligatory reading for anyone calling himself a lover of pulp.

Recommended novels (links lead to novel excerpts): Wulfrik, Brunner the Bounty Hunter, Grey Seer, Temple of the Serpent.

DAN ABNETT - pick anything; the man knows what he's doing, whatever that may be - fantasy or sci-fi. You can't go wrong.

MIKE LEE - again, a great pulp writer. Collaborated with Dan Abnett on some novels.

Recommended novels: Malus Darkblade series, Nagash trilogy (The Sorcerer, The Unbroken and finally The Immortal which is to be released this August.

NATHAN LONG - the Blackhearts omnibus.

And also, literature published by Abbadon Books, though I haven't had the chance to read many of their titles.

Werner ? REH Reborn ?

Mohammed wrote: "Werner ? REH Reborn ?"

Maybe 'reborn' wasn't the right expression, but whatever you want to call it, the fact remains that I have yet to find an author today who comes closer to Robert E. Howard in terms of style and storytelling than Mr. Werner does.

Abaddon Books currently runs a few pulp genres - Post-Apocalypse with the Afterblight series (What introduced me to the term 'Pulp'), steampunk - the Pax Britannia and El Sombra lines, and a alternate space saga titled No Man's World; it is about a WW1 company being transportec to a hostile planet.....like Australia.

They have other genres as well, but I haven't got to them yet.