THE GREEN HORNET - YEAR ONE

GREEN HORNET – YEAR ONE
Dynamite Comics
Writer Matt Wagner
Artist Aaron Campbell

In the three years I’ve written Pulp Fiction Reviews, I’ve never bothered to shine a light on comics. I am making an exception here because of the quality and pulp strings attached to this marvelous title from Dynamite Comics. Okay, so the Green Hornet was never a pulp hero, having been born on the radio along about the same time as the Shadow and other great melodramatic heroes. He would also make the jump to the movie serials and comics casting him clearly in the same mold as the glorious pulp characters of his day.

Earlier this year Dynamite opened the Green Hornet floodgates and inundated the comic world with more Green Hornet titles than ever put by a single publisher before. There was Kevin Smith’s supposed old unused movie script and individual books featuring the various Katos etc.etc. For the most part most of these are lackluster affairs truly not worth any fans time or hard earned coins.

Almost lost amongst this plethora of mediocre fare was one singular gem, GREEN HORNET – YEAR ONE. Conceived and written by veteran scribe Matt Wagner, it tells the story of the original verdant clad avenger and his Asian side-kick in a historically accurate time frame. It is the late 1930s and Germany and Japan are dicing up the world map to their own gratification and dreams of empire building. Against this background, Britt Reid, the bored, educated son of a Chicago newspaper publisher, decides to answer the call of wanderlust and go traipsing around the globe. He wants to have one big glorious adventure before he resigns himself to filling his father’s shoes and spending the next twenty years of his life behind a desk.

Meanwhile in the Land of the Rising Son, Hiyashi Kato has been raised by his noble sire to be a modern Samurai and live by their strict code of martial honor. When he is summarily drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army and becomes part of the invasion of China, he witnesses acts of brutal atrocity that challenge his very moral core. He deserts, choosing in the course of right and ultimately crosses paths with the young American, who saves his life in a freakish accident. Kato vows to accompany Reid and be his companion until his debt his repaid.

Wagner, realizing today’s audiences need action, jumps back and forth between these events and those occurring after the duo’s return to Chicago. Here they discover Reid Senior has died and left the running of the Daily Sentinel to his son. Once in this lofty position, Britt will come to understand the dept of the corruption infecting his beloved city by the criminal gangs, all of which will lead him to become a masked crime fighter with his loyal Kato ever at his side in the livery of a masked chauffeur.

Aaron Campbell’s art is so evocative of the times this story unfolds in, one has to wonder if he doesn’t spend every waking second in a library reference hall. His work captures not only the look but the atmosphere of these unsettling days when America, having just survived the Great Depression is on the brink another world conflict, unsure if the future spells doom or glory for the brash young country.

GREEN HORNET – YEAR ONE is a terrific comic series and does justice above and beyond to one of the great classic radio heroes of all time. Any pulp fan worth his fedora would be wise to pick it up.

BLACK ORDER

BLACK ORDER
By James Rollins
Harper Books
506 pages

When a book mixes science, religious philosophy and secret societies dating back to the Nazis, you can expect a real spicy pulp stew. Veterinarian turned thriller novelist James Rollins delivers just that and the meal is absolutely scrumptious for the first page bite to the last closing line morsel. Easily one of the best modern pulp adventures I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.

The adventure opens during the closing days of World War II when allied forces are racing against each other to lay claim to Germany’s scientific innovations developed during the war to include everything from rocket propulsion to medical experimentation.
Amidst this chaos, one German commando unit is attempting to flee the invaders and smuggle out the results of an amazing breakthrough in quantum physics that could alter the shape of mankind forever. Along with these papers and artifacts is a baby unlike any other in the world; the first of a race of true supermen.

Like any good thriller writer, Rollins then jumps ahead in time to the present where members of a special Washington based group known as Sigma Force are involved with what they believe to two distinct missions. The first is an antique book auction being held in Copenhagen and the second is a distress call from a Tibetan monk residing in a monastery located deep in the Himalayas. Commander Gray Pierce follows the European case which centers around a group of killers eager to get their hands on Darwin’s Bible. It supposedly contains secret runes put their by a former German scientist involved with a secret project known only as the Bell. At the same time, Sigma Director Painter Crowe arrives in Tibet, only to find the monks have somehow gone insane and murdered each other. No sooner does he uncover this horror then he is captured and taken to a hidden mountain lair operated by the descendants of the very same German researchers who developed this mysterious Bell.

Rollins’ genius is that he keeps both plot threads moving at breakneck speed, constantly putting Pierce and Crowe in cliffhanger perils and then deftly jumping from one to the other. Thus the action seems to flow non-stop, scene after exciting scene. He also glues these action set pieces with thought provoking debates on what is evolution and where do science and religion meet in its process. Is there a grand design and will quantum physics someday open the blueprint to creation? That these weighty dissertations occur while men are being shot at, mountains exploding and mutated monsters roam the jungles of South Africa is all part of the roller-coaster ride BLACK ORDER delivers.

Recently a friend wrote asking me to passing along names of people I considered to be top-notch modern day pulp writers. James Rollins was at the top of the list I passed along and BLACK ORDER reaffirms that choice beautifully.

RABBIT HEART

RABBIT HEART
By Barry Reese
Wild Cat Books
149 pgs.

Modern day pulp writer, Barry Reese, eschews the traditional hero avenger fare for something much darker and violent with this thriller that borders on the sensational. One has to imagine he dove into this adult orientated tale with both trepidation and a palpable sense of unfettered freedom. There is plenty of gore, sexual brutality and blatant acts of depravity all meticulously embellished with not a gruesome detail omitted. If you’ve the stomach for it, Rabbit Heart is a savage reading experience but it is not for the timid.

The adventure begins with the death of the protagonist, a young girl named Fiona Chapman. She’s murdered by an outdoor serial killer who fancies himself the next Jason from the Friday the 13th movies. But Fiona doesn’t die, or at least in the same way normal people expire. Instead she somehow biologically evolves into another state of being, one in which she is incredibly strong and powerful. She soon learns that she is one of a handful of mythological spirits who have roamed the world for centuries known as the Furious Hosts.

These semi immortal deities exist only to kill and be killed. They are all players in a bizarre, savage game known as the Hunt. Each is filled with an unquenchable lust compelling them satiate their dark passions by preying on innocent humans while at the same time battling each other until eventually only one will remain. This is of course reminiscent of the Highlander movie series, but with a neat twist. When a Furious Host is killed by another, he or she will be reborn into another body at a later date to resume the contest. Thus killing them permanently is a problem.

Fiona, whose archetype figure she becomes when fighting is that of a sexy bad-girl warrior, is different in that she is actually repulsed by her new supernatural identity. She truly wants to no part of it but doesn’t know how to escape her fate. Then she meets an occult detective from the past who has been tracking the activities of the Furious Host and has come to her with an offer. His name is Ascott Keane and he wants to help Fiona take on the task of finding and destroying all the Hunters, ridding the world of them once and for all.

RABBIT HEART is by far the most accomplished of Reese’s writing to date. Unlike his earlier, fanciful pulp adventures, there is a steadier prose here that is precise and confident. The excess sex and violence is never gratuitous, serves the plot and avoids being pornographic by that masterful writing. I strongly recommend this book to my adult readers looking for something new. Final warning, this is a superior effort but NOT for the squeamish.

NAPOLEON'S PYRAMIDS

NAPOLEON’S PYRAMIDS
By William Dietrich
Harper Fiction
380 pages

In the year 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in an obsessive wish to make himself a modern day Alexander the Great. What he did was not so much a great military achievement as much as it an academic watermark for history. As writer William Dietrich marvelously depicts, Napoleon actually help create the archeological science of Egyptology.

It is against these world altering events that Ethan Gage, the protagonist, finds himself ensnared and sent on the adventure of a lifetime. A former protégé of the late Benjamin Franklin, young Gage, a one-time frontiersman, returns to Paris as an entrepreneur with the goal of makingt himself rich. He is acting as an agent between various companies in both the newly independent colonies and their ally France. But this France is one still governed in post-revolution chaos, the memories of the blood stained guillotine still fresh in every citizens’ thoughts.

When Gage wins a very odd looking medallion of Egyptian origin from a luckless soldier in a card game, he soon finds himself the target of deadly, mysterious factions. His favorite brothel mistress is murdered and evidence planted to indict him. A journalist companion suggests he join a group of scientist traveling with Napoleon to Egypt for the grand invasion and Gage is only too eager to accept the protection of the little corporal to evade the Paris police.

Once in the land of the Pharaohs, he becomes even more ensnared in the mystery of the medallion and that of an exotic beauty who may hold the key to its meaning. But is she a friend or foe? Does the medallion contain the means of unlocking the power of the great pyramids and if so, can this power be harnessed by human will? NAPOLEON’S PYRAMID is a wonderful historical adventure and Ethan Gage, surviving by his wits and courage, proves to be a bona fide colonial version of Indiana Jones. The story is a mystery, thriller and historical travelogue all rolled into one glorious package. It is a fun read that delivers what the title promises; an original, one of a kind adventure.

SUPERHERO'S WELCOME

SUPERHERO’S WELCOME
By Dan Schwartz
(www.banocanut.com)
142 pages

This is easily one of the funniest and most original takes on superheroes I’ve ever read. Dan Schwartz, in this little self-published gem, delivers a twisted tale of heroics, dastardly villainy and outrageous puns that had me crying in tears.

In the wondrous city of Utopolis, crime has all but vanished completely thanks the Seven Deadlies, a super hero team formed by the mental wizard, Mind Manners. And it is the most eclectic group of costumed characters ever assembled, from Tidal Rush who controls water, to the genius British caveman Shrunk or the hermaphrodite Shocking Parts, a gorgeous woman…then again not. Her name says it all.

And as much as the comedy is prevalent, the action and mystery are equally realized. When a mysterious villain appears on the scene and begins to target the members of the Seven Deadlies, the suspense cranks up a notch. This new threat is one by one murdering the superheroes with apparent ease and the key to his insidious plot is tied to his true identity. By the time it is revealed, the plot takes a whole new twist. One that left me shaking my head and thanking the stars that I came upon this truly unique book.

SUPERHERO’S WELCOME isn’t for everyone. But if, like me, you grew up addicted to comics, this book is going to make you laugh and maybe even think a little. Dan Schwartz is a talented writer. One you should really get to know.

ST NEW FRONTIER - TREASON

TREASON
Star Trek-New Frontier
By Peter David
Pocket Books
436 pages

The only problem I ever have with Peter David’s unique and original Star Trek paperback series is that they appear too infrequently. Of all the literary spin-off series based on the late Gene Roddenberry’s science-fiction adventure television series, New Frontier is simply the best. All due to David’s easy style of writing and his marvelous ability to interweave characters from the other media with his own creations, chief of amongst which is Captain McKenzie Calhoun of the starship Excalibur.

At the end of the last book in this series, MISSING IN ACTION, we discovered that Xy, the half-breed son of Vulcan medical officer, Selar, suffered from a rare malady that caused accelerated growth and within weeks of his birth he had become a fully matured adult. The obvious implications being that he would reach old age quickly and die. As this new novel begins, Selar is contacted telepathically by an unknown race of aliens who claim to have the ability to slow down Xy’s metabolism and thereby save him. But they will only share this knowledge with her if she will kidnap another baby of mix heritage and bring it to them. The child they want is the half human/Thallian son of the late Si Cwan, ruler of New Thallon and his widow, former Star Fleet officer, Robin Lefler.

And if this wasn’t enough drama, once Selar flees with the baby aboard an ultra sophisticated Romulan spy ship, the ghost of Si Cwan somehow possesses the body of his young sister Kalinda and begins to advise Calhoun on how to pursue the renegade Vulcan and reclaim the stolen heir. The pacing is frantic and as always, David brings his colorful cast to life, injecting each with a truly singular personality that makes them stand out. Because he subtly allows us to see their inner motivations, dreams and fears, we become instantly invested in their predicaments when the action heats ups. Which is quite often in this runaway sci-fi thriller. As always, he delivers such a solid reading experience, the ending arrives too soon, even after four hundred pages, and has us wanting lots more.

Even if the Star Trek franchise is not your reading cup of tea, I still recommend you sample New Frontier. It’s truly a cut about the others and one of the finest continuing sci-fi series on the market today.

ARTIC DRIFT

ARTIC DRIFT
A Dirk Pitt Novel
By Clive Cussler & Dirk Cussler
Berkley Novel
593 pages

Once again civilization is on the brink of collapse. Global warming is increasing to the detriment of the environment and all life on the planet. When an American research scientist discovers a way to artificially create photosynthesis, the process by which plants transform harmful carbon dioxide into oxygen and water, a glimmer of hope is found. But this amazing planet saving solution depends entirely on a rare mineral known as ruthenium which then becomes the treasure target of an unscrupulous Canadian businessman who controls most of the gas and oil production in the northern latitudes.

Through the use of government bribes, murder and extortion, this greedy megalomaniac is willing to let mankind face global destructions rather than give up his bloody wealth.
He devilishly orchestrates a conflict between Canada and America which soon has both suspecting the other of harboring militaristic goals. Into this convoluted plot of evil twists and turns arrive the brave men and women of NUMA, the National Underwater and Marine Agency, led by Dirk Pitt; the most popular pulp hero of current literature.

Created in 1973, Dirk Pitt and his NUMA crew have traveled the seas of the world battling some of the most colorful villains ever invented all in defense of mankind and the world. It is no wonder that ARTIC DRIFT, their twentieth outing is a big, fat, rollicking adventure set against the topical themes of global warming and the world’s oil and gas addiction. Leave it to a master storyteller like Cussler to inject a real world crisis into an over-the-top thriller that had me whipping through the pages non-stop. There is plenty of action, death-defying escapes from impossible traps and an ancient sea mystery to be solved before the final chapter is closed.

This is also the third collaboration between the senior author and his son, Dirk, who shares the same name as his dad’s enduring hero. I have no idea what their routine is like but Dirk Pitt fans should take heart that their seamless prose melding should herald the continuation of the series long after Clive hangs up his thesaurus. And that, for pulp fiction fans, is the best news ever.

HAPPY 75th TO PENGUIN BOOKS

One of the most respected publishing companies in the world is celebrating it's 75th anniversary with a truly wonderful contest. Go to the on-line site and register and you can win 75 old and new classics from this distinguished house. Tell them Pulp Fiction Reviews sent you. (http://www.penguinbooks75.com/)
Ron

LOVE & BULLETS

LOVE & BULLETS
By Percival Constantine
Pulpwork Press
210 pages

When this book first arrived, I was really eager to dig into it as I’ve generally enjoyed most of the titles put out by this loose outfit of writers. Sadly the book disappointed me greatly and the first warning it would do so was in the introduction wherein the writer gives us a detailed history of the book and how it came to be and how much he loves these characters. In the future, allow the readers to make their own judgments and leave the histories, if you feel they are warranted, to the end of the book as an afterward.

Only in science fiction movies and comics do characters die and then come back again and again and again. It has become such a trite norm all of us have come to expect it in these medias. But not in literature, which truly should be held to a high standard than a B movie gone direct to video.

LOVE & BULLETS takes place in the world of super secret, deadly assassins who are suppose to be the most elite killers in the world. Angela Lockhart, described as "beautiful, deadly and cunning" is the best of the best. We are given a few glimpses into her training with Agency, another ultra-secret government group, and she excels in all facets of mayhem. Her teachers claim she is not only the most adept assassin they have ever trained, but her intelligence IQ borders on genius. Angela is the perfect killing machine. If all this sounds a wee bit cliché, that’s because it all is and had it actually been realized as a comic book, would have worked extremely well. But this isn’t a comic.

When Angela’s husband is murdered, the Agency refuses to help her investigate his death and punish his unknown killers. Angela quits the Agency to go solo and find the bad guys all on her own. But before she can do so, she immediately comes under the radar of a colorful, master villain known as Dante. Dante offers her assistance in finding her husband’s killers if she in turn will come to work for his ultra-secret organization known as the Infernum. If this sounds a little bit like Spy vs Spy, well, that’s perfectly legitimate as espionage thrillers have always stretched credulity to the max.

Unfortunately Constantine seems unable to resist the temptations of making Dante all things in one. A man of mystery, a man of the arts, an expert on pop culture, a movie fanastic, oh, and a deadly martial artist. All the while being this mysterious spy master with a world wide network under his command. A little would have gone a long way here, but that’s not what we get. These characters are exaggerations and when they begin to act illogically, one can only sigh with resignation.

We are told Angela has a brilliant mind but from the first page to the last she is completely manipulated, first by Dante, then by the Agency spy who falls in love with her and then again by Dante. Brilliant, hardly. Naïve, completely.

Throughout the book it is made blatantly clear that Angela and Dante will invariably have to fight each other to the death. Which is as good a point as any to applaud Constantine’s technical writing skills. He is a good writer in that his prose is precise, economic with excellent dialogue and creates some truly amazing action sequences. For this he gets top marks, but that cannot save his unimaginative storytelling. Once again he eschews logic and commits the final, major sin with the outcome of that battle royal.

Following the book’s own logic, Dante is a superior fighter and should kill Angela with little difficulty. But she’s the protagonist and we hope she will figure a way to survive. This is classic thriller suspense, rooting for the underdog. And that’s exactly what happens, in that Angela manages one final trick and gets the drop on Dante and stabs him in the back with his own Katana blade. At which point, she would have then found a pistol and put two slugs into his head to make sure he is truly dead. Kaput. That’s the cold, methodical professional we are told she is. But Constantine doesn’t want Dante to be dead and so Angela simply walks away from his body, steals some money and flees. In other words she acts totally uncharacteristically.

The final chapter arrives and lo and behold Dante walks out of a hospital all smiles and good cheer. Surprise. Hardly. Good writing is about discovering who your characters are and then being faithful to them, regardless of how painful the outcome. The lack of this realism is evident on every page and like Angela, we readers are manipulated with a heavy hand that serves no one but the writer. Despite this misstep, Constantine is talented and it is my hope he’ll forgo any plans for a sequel and instead challenge himself to give us something totally new.

CEMETERY DANCE

CEMETARY DANCE
By Preston & Child
Vision (Hatchette Book Group)
566 pages

Here is a reviewer’s riddle. When is a big book like a little book? Answer; when it’s so well written you breeze through it in no time at all. Which is what happens with each new Speical Agent Pendergast novel from the extraordinary imaginations of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Individually both are extremely popular and talented thriller writers, but when they join forces to chronicle the adventures of the FBI’s most brilliant sleuth, the prose rises to an entirely new level of excellence.

When a famous New York City journalist is brutally murdered in his own apartment, it is cause of enough to stir up both the police and the press. But when the overwhelming evidence gathered points to the perpetrator being a fellow who died two weeks earlier, things suddenly take a turn for the macabre. Enter Special Agent Pendergast and his long time friend and colleague, Lt. Detective Vincent D’Agosta of the NYPD.

Are there zombie killers loose in the city and if so, what are their connections to a secretive cult that meets in an abandoned old church in the woods at the north end of Manhattan? As Pendergast and D’Agosta dig deeper into history of the area known as the Ville, they uncover allegations of voodoo and ritualistic animal slayings. But what was the dead man’s connection to the cult and the motive for his grisly slaying? Before any of these questions can be answered, the body of the slain journalist vanishes from the city morgue. Several days later it reappears at a Press Club function and in front of hundreds of witnesses, stabs a young woman to death on the stage before escaping through a backdoor exit.

The city is locked in a grip of fear, as the news of the walking dead begins to spread and Pendergast and D’Agosta find themselves in a desperate race to solve this bizarre puzzle before others are targeted by the undead. CEMETERY DANCE is the thirteenth Pendergast thriller and I consider this the finest modern pulp series being written today.
Typical of the classic pulps, they feature a colorful, nearly super human hero pitted time and time against the most exotic crimes by fiendish masterminds of villainy.

Were Walter Gibson, creator of the Shadow, alive today, these are the kinds of stories he would be writing. Here’s a big tip of the pulp fedora to Misters Preston & Child and there amazing Special Agent Pendergast and here’s hoping he’s around for another lucky thirteen.

SUN-KOH Heir of Atlantis

SUN-KOH (Heir of Atlantis)
By Dr.Art Sippo
Age of Adventure Press

Dedicated pulp fans are aware of the fact that the concept of hero pulps was not limited to the United States. During the 30s and 40s, pulp magazines were popular all over the world and there were hundreds of original crime fighting heroes created in England, France and Germany. One such foreign star was Sun-Koh, Heir of Atlantis written by German writer Paul Muller and clearly intended to be an Aryan version of America’s Doc Savage. Like Savage he was larger than life and throughout his hundreds of adventurers was accompanied by a group of loyal, unique individuals.

Beside the similarities there were also major differences and these were what have created an on-going controversy over this character. Whereas Doc Savage was a man of science and his companions all experts in various technical fields, Sun-Koh was slanted towards mythology and magic. He was supposedly a time-traveler from the sunken continent of Atlantis, a member of the royal family and master of mystic abilities. And although there was plenty of super scientific gizmos in his adventures, it was the magic that took center stage. His aides were also magicians, immortals and religious Hindu assassins. Quite an eclectic mix.

Still the biggest divergent was Sun-Koh’s political philosophy. It reflects the superman philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Muller easily adapted it into his character, a near perfect specimen of man. Yet these stories were being written at the same time Adolf Hitler and his Socialist Democratic Party were manipulating the philosophy to suit their own claims that pure blood Aryan supremacy was destined to rule the world. Initially the pulp writer and the new German administration were raising the same platform but in the end, unable to make allowances for anything they did not consider intellectual superiority, the Nazis shut down the flamboyant pulps for being cheap entertainment. Thus ended Sun-Koh’s adventures.

Today’s pulp fan have a natural disdain for the Sun-Kon tales and it is to Dr.Sippo’s credit that he chose to bring this volatile character back in this new collection. Sippo believes there were real ideological differences between Muller’s creation and Hitler’s Aryan propaganda and this is what he explores further in his own original adventures. SUN KOH-HEIR OF ATLANTIS features five of Sippo's original Sun-Koh tales, the first three had been published previously and set up the series and introduce this marvelous cast and the last two are brand new, continuing the adventures. The transfer is seamless and I was very impressed in how Sippo captured the over-the-top plotting of classic pulp writing. There is nothing small in these adventures, from invisible super planes run on cold fusion, to super-powered armored warriors battling each other like the knights of old.

There’s also a very large dose of violent Tantric sex thrown in which is brutal and savage and not for the timid. This is adult fare and although not lascivious in any way, the reader should be wary that these tales are not sanitized for some PG rating. In the end, this is a truly remarkable book and one no true pulp fan should pass up. Sun-Koh remains one of pulp history’s most remarkable figures and now, thanks to Dr.Sippo and Age of Adventure, all of us are discovering him for the very first time.

QUARRY'S EX

QUARRY’S EX
By Max Allan Collins
Hard Case Crime
210 pages
Available Sept.28

Max Allan Collins started writing his Quarry books back in 1976 with The Broker. It was the first time we were introduced to the Vietnam vet turned paid assassin. In that tale, we learned how Quarry, not his real name of course, came home to find his wife in bed with another man. He murders the guy by dropping a car on him and then, because of his service record as a war hero, is acquitted by jury. Shortly thereafter he is recruited by a man known only as the Broker to become a professional killer.

In the books that have appeared since that stellar debut, that opening scenario has often been retold many times to bring the new readers up to speed. Recently, since becoming affiliated with Hard Case Crime, Collins has begun filling in specific details of Quarry’s life, each more compelling than the last. In this particular book, we are told what happened to Quarry’s ex-wife after they divorced and parted. But Quarry’s personal life is, as always case, only the subplot of the story.

Quarry has come to a small Arizona town where a movie studio is shooting an action B movie. When he discovers that the director of the film is the target of a hit, Quarry approaches the man and offers his own lethal services to both eliminate the threat and discover who put out the contract in the first place. It is this neat little twist combination of mystery and crime thriller that makes this series so original and fun. Quarry is no knight-in-shining armor private eye out to save the world. He’s a killer who makes a good living taking out other killers.

Once the first part of his contract has been efficiently resolved, Quarry is a master of death-dealing, he then becomes a detective chasing down the person who put out the contract on the moviemaker. As always, there are plenty of juicy suspects from the mob boss who is financing the project to the director’s wife who inherits all if he dies. The problem is the woman is Quarry’s ex-wife. The second he lays eyes on her, old familiar feelings he thought long dead begin to resurface, complicating an already precarious situation.

Paying homage to the potboilers of the 40s and 50s, Collins laces his tale with the most outrageous sexual encounters; all done with a sly, sharp wit that is ingratiating. At the same time he balances that adult humor with explosive violence that is as mesmerizing as it is ugly. His prose falls into place with the deft touch of a contemporary poet, each line awakening a new possibility in how we see the world. Reading Quarry is an education in human psychology taught from the barrel of a silenced automatic.

SENTINELS - WORLDMIND

SENTINELS – WORLDMIND
By Van Allen Plexico
White Rocket Books
252 pages

The planet Earth is under attack by a mechanical space faring super entity known as the Worldmind. The only thing between us and total annihilation is a group of super powered humans and their android allies known as the Sentinels. But before the group can deal with the Worldmind, they discover it is but one of three god-like space conquerors known as the Three Rivals and the other two are in fact on their way to our Solar System to do battle with the Worldmind.

So even if the Sentinels can miraculously defeat the Worldmind, it still leaves them with two other equally powerful threats to defeat. All of which are almost impossible for this brash young band of heroes, considering their own leader, the tactically brilliant Ultraa has been kidnapped and is now facing something known as the Galactic Council to defend the existences of the human race.

If all of this strikes you as cosmic melodrama, you are totally right, as Plexico’s continuing Sentinels saga was inspired by the outlandish, imagination rich comic books he read as a child. Here are all the colorful characters with their amazing abilities. Here are noble alien beings and dastardly, soulless foes that devour worlds as if they were on a fast food menu. There is absolutely nothing reserved or moderate about these over-the-top adventures and they are bloody addictive.

SENTINELS – WORLDMIND is the fifth book in this fun series and as such suffers the same weakness in being totally dependent on those volumes that came before it. Oh, sure, a reader might be able to understand some of the conflicts that occur in this book but in the end confusion will reign. Plexico’s cast of characters is extensive and each is unique and captivating story in themselves, ergo he could possibly recap all of them with each new chapter or the books would become thousands of pages long. I am particularly taken with the teen-age boy from Tennessee who has been grafted into an alien suit of armor to become the Star Knight.

Still, if you truly love wild space action, terrific characters and nail biting suspense, you must read these books. They are like nothing in heroic fiction ever done before. And let me add this incentive. Like all true talented writers, Plexico’s storytelling skills get better and better with each new book so that by the time you reach WORLDMIND, you are in for a tremendous, satisfying experience. THE SENTINELS is a truly wonderful homage to the comics we all grew up and should not be missed.

STARTLING ADVENTURES MAGAZINE

STARTLING ADVENTURES MAGAZINE
Editor Daniel Werneck
Poeira Books
118 pages

In its glory days, the pulp fiction monthly magazines were the repositories of thousands of fantastic short stories. It was a time unparalleled in America when reading was a national pastime, long before television and computers captured our imagination. Editor Daniel Werneck expresses this feeling aptly in his end of the book essay which is a nice concise history of the pulps, past, present and future. It is Werneck’s love the genre that propelled him to create his own homage to those long ago mags.

Startling Adventure Magazines contains an editorial, the previously mentioned essay, and five pieces of fiction. They are all short and the entire book/mag can be read in a leisurely ninety-minutes. The stories are as diverse as the originals which they wish to mirror and although the quality of each is evident, the effects are a mixed bag.

Vic’s Night Out by Anthony Abelaye seemed pointless. My high school English drummed the basic rules of writing into our heads long-long ago. For it to be a “real” story, it has to have brought about change by the tale’s ending, something that does not happen here. We meet two losers about to go out on the town. They go to a club, one of them starts a fight. They meet an old prostitute and take her home. She begins an affair with one of the two losers, leaving the other alone in a neighborhood bar feeling sorry for his pal. In others words they were sorry losers when the story started and remain so when it ends. Abelaye has a funky, modernistic prose he should use on something a whole lot more substantial.

Atha and the Green Tower by Eric Orchard is clearly the best action entry here and he delivers a quick, fast moving story much like the old pulps. This one should have been longer. Still my favorite is easily Werneck’s own Automatic Lives which tells the story of DVL-54, worker robot who makes guitars. One day he is informed that the government is transferring him to a factory that produces machine guns. Following DVL-54 as he comes to grip with this change and his bizarre sadness at losing his old job is a very poignant drama that was skillfully handled. This writer had much to offer.

The remainder of this slim volume contains another sci-fi entry, Summer by Colin Peters which is also extremely well done and a neat little one act play entitled Mama’s Boy by Jonathan Wallace where in a gay Devil plays a game of chance with a bar patron with disastrous results. If done on stage, the ending would certainly make folks sit up and take notice.

And there you have volume number of Startling Adventures Magazine. A tip of the pulp fedora to Daniel Werneck and company. This little book isn’t about to conquer the world, but it does entertain and in the end, isn’t that what the pulps were really all about?

DILLON & THE LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN BELL

DILLON & THE LEGEND
OF THE GOLDEN BELL
By Derrick Ferguson
Pulpwork Press
280 pages

A few years ago I read and reviewed an adventure novel called DILLON AND THE VOICE OF ODIN. It was my introduction to Derrick Ferguson’s larger than life action hero, Dillon. I recall liking the book a great deal and giving it a major thumbs up in my review. Well here comes the sequel and I have to admit it caught me completely by surprise. I fully expected to enjoy it and I have, just much more than I ever expected. This book is truly leaps and bounds a better read than its predecessor and Ferguson has truly grown as a writer. His prose was always clean, but now he brings a new sense of confidence to every sentence as if he’s finally gotten comfortable with this character and is now just having fun spinning his incredible exploits.

And incredible they certainly are. Dillon, a big strapping African American mercenary adventurer, is asked by his old mentor, Eli Creed, to help save the troubled monarchy of Xonira. A civil war has broken out between a wise and benevolent ruler and a cruel, twisted usurper who is in league with demonic forces beyond this world. The Lord Chancellor hires Dillon and Creed to enter an ancient death-maze known as the Blagdasen Citadel and there retrieve the Golden Bell, an artifact that will hopefully reunite the divided land and bring back peace. It’s a noble undertaking, but accomplishing it proves to be the most daring, dangerous and fool hardy mission Dillon has ever undertaken. Accompanied by the cantankerous Creed, a lovely Xoniran agent named Dagna Summers and Brandon, a specially gifted young man, Dillon sets out to do the impossible.

Believe me when I say Ferguson is a master pulp writer and he lays on the action thick and heavy from page to page. It is a break-neck pace that never slows down from rocket-pack raiders in Manhattan, advanced dirigible warships soaring over foreign lands, to a genetically altered female assassin. He dishes out the jaw-dropping wonders with every new chapter. There’s more action and thrills in this one book than a half-dozen other pulp thrillers I’ve read of late.

One of the sad truths of the old pulp era was its exclusion of minorities by both color and gender. There simply were no major black or female pulp writers, if any at all. Now Derrick Ferguson is among an elite group setting the ship alright, and he does so with a genuine flair and love of the genre. Dillon is part Indiana Jones, part James Bond and a whole lot of Imaro. And one of my personal favorite pulp heroes. He should be one of yours too.

HOUSE DICK

HOUSE DICK
By E. Howard Hunt
Hard Case Crime
206 pages

Long before professional spy, E.Howard Hunt became famous as a member of Richard Nixon’s “plumbers,” he was a talented writer known for his mysteries and thrillers written under various pseudonyms. In 1946 he won a Guggenheim Fellowship for his writing. Hunt was one of the architects of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Castro’s communist Cuba and after that debacle, he and many of his colleagues, were relegated to minor desk jobs in the intelligence community.

He later went to work for President Nixon as a security specialist and along with G.Gordon Liddy and others, was one of a secret team charged with fixing “leaks.” Hunt engineered the first Watergate burglary and in the follow up Watergate Scandal, was convicted of burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping, eventually serving 33 months in prison.

HOUSE DICK was published in 1961 under the pen name Gordon Davis and is set in a fancy Washington D.C. hotel (no, not that one). When a rich woman’s jewels are stolen, it becomes Pete Novak’s job to handle the affair. Novak is the hotel’s security manager. When the woman’s husband convinces him there was no burglary and then later turns up dead in the room of occupied by his mistress, matters quickly spiral out of control. The case turns out to be a whole lot more complicated than Novak expected.

Add to the mix a blond femme fatale up her beautiful lips in blackmail, a violent mobster ex-husband just out of prison and wanting his cut and soon things at the Tilden Hotel are really jumping. Yet Novak manages to keep one step ahead of events, as he manipulates both the police and the suspects until he can solve the mystery and return his life to a comfortable status quo. Although not an exceptional work, HOUSE DICK is a competent example of the paperback thrillers that flooded the drugstore spin racks of the 1960s. It remains an entertaining read from a writer whose real life exploits were far more interesting than any of his fiction.

THE ALCHEMY OF MURDER

THE ALCHEMY OF MURDER
By Carol McCleary
Forge Books
364 pages

Nellie Bly was the pen name of pioneer female journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She is most famous for two daring feats: a record-breaking trip around the world in emulation of Jules Verne, and an expose in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. Now, firs-time novelist, Carol McCleary, using these two historical events as bookends, weaves a remarkable suspense thriller wherein Nellie crosses the globe in search of a sadistic killer.

The adventure begins in Blackwell Island’s Lunatic Asylum where the intrepid reporter crosses path with Dr.Blum, a monster who murders several of the female patients in his private laboratory as part of some twisted anatomical experiments. Before Nellie can expose him, he fakes his own death and flees to England with the determined journalist hot on his trail. In London he resurfaces publicly earning the name, Jack the Ripper. More than ever Nellie is obsessed with seeing him captured and brought to justice.

Alas the elusive fiend escapes again; this time to Paris, the City of Lights, then in the midst of the grand 1889 World’s Fair. Aware of her own vulnerability in this strange setting, Nellie convinces the famous writer Jules Verne to join the hunt. Soon they are racing to and fro across the great metropolitan city coming in contact with such illustrious figures as Oscar Wilde, Toulouse Lautrec and Louis Pasteur. The duo’s efforts ultimately reveal a grander evil behind the mad killer’s goals, one that will set loose a deadly biological plague capable of wiping out the entire population of the city before spreading throughout the world.

McLeary’s research is impeccable and she marvelously captures atmosphere and mores of the times as the Industrial Revolution was rapidly igniting a class struggle throughout the world. Anarchist of every flag were all too ready to blow things up. It was also a time when the role of women in society had begun to evolve with women like Nellie setting the course. Yet the joy in this depiction is that McLeary doesn’t fall to the temptation of making the feisty reporter a larger-than-life feminist amazon. Instead she brings forth a winning, loveable soul eager to explore all that life has to offer. Her Nellie is both a daring pioneer and at the same time a true product of her times and upbringing. It is this tough-sweetness that comes through and makes THE ALCHEMY OF MURDER a very gratifying experience in so many different ways.

THE BIG BANG

THE BIG BANG
A Mike Hammer novel
By Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins
An Otto Penzler Book
246 pages

The cover tag to this book reads, “The Lost Mike Hammer Sixties Novel.” It’s an appropriate definition as The Big Bang is set smack dab in the middle of that rocking decade when free love ruled, hippies and peaceniks protested the Vietnam War and the British musical invasion was on thanks to the Beatles.

There was also another war raging on the streets of our of country, one we could not afford to lose. Illegal drugs, spurred by the open door attitudes that made marijuana harmless and LSD the “cool” way to trip, were flooding the mean streets and an epidemic of lost souls was in the making. Into this tsunami of heroine and cocaine, private eye Mike Hammer innocently stumbles when he comes to rescue of an unarmed young man being assaulted by three dope-heads. Hammer leaves two dead and the third in serious condition, much to the chagrin of his pal, Detective Captain Pat Chambers and the new Assistant D.A. Hammer’s reputation is a liability, as the second he becomes involved with anything, a violent bloodbath of some kind always ensues.

Hammer discovers the boy he saved, Billy Blue, worked part time at a local hospital and the thugs who attacked him did so because he refused to steal drugs for them from that facility’s pharmacy supplies. That in itself is nothing extraordinary, still Hammer has a nose for trouble even when it buries itself under such minor misdemeanors. In this case the rash attack on Billy was instigated because, for some unknown reason, the illegal drug market on the streets had dried up and pushers and junkies were getting frantic to score their next fix.

All of which exposes a turf war in progress between the head of an old Mafia clan and a young, hippie club owner called the Snowbird, each vying to control the lucrative drug trade. It doesn’t take Hammer’s nosing around very long to attract attention and soon assailants are coming after him with knives and silenced automatics. Which is exactly how the tough guy works, stirring up a ruckus to see what shakes loose.

Spillane’s writing was always infused with a brash humor filled with sexual innuendos and the more he wrote, the more prevalent it became. It was his literary version of the magician’s sleight of hand; get the audience to focus on one hand while the other performs the hat trick. His protégé, Collins, deftly adapts this style so that the transition between them is unnoticeable and delivers another marvelous Hammer tale. The end was both expected and satisfying as it remained true to the character. Mike Hammer isn’t a social worker, he’s an exterminator with a talent for dealing with human vermin. It’s fun to see him in action again.

HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD

HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD
Edited by Russ Anderson Jr.
Pulpwork Press
152 pages

There have been those critics who have been lamenting the supposed death of the “short story” in American literature. I would argue their alarm is a bit premature, as lately short pulp fiction (i.e. popular fiction of all genres) has not only been surviving quite well, but with books like this one, actual been getting strong. Gathered here are nine fun, extremely well written tales of the Wild West, all with a touch of the macabre. Some are better than others, but the fun of any anthology is that very potential inherent in multiple writers and their varied offering.

“Camazotz” by Josh Reynolds suffers a fatal flaw in that it’s too short and one wonders why it was even included. It’s a nifty idea of a cowboy trying to get out of Mexico with an Aztec mummy. Unfortunately no sooner does it get going then it’s over. Makes me wish the editor would have pestered Reynolds to expand it to a more satisfying length.

“Wyrm Over Diablo” by Joel Jenkins features a colorful pair of heroes that were so much fun to see in action, I’m hoping he had plans to use them again in the future. This was a non-stop action piece pitting a Native American gunfighter against a Cthulhu type monster that was thrilling stuff.

“Don Cuevo’s Curative” by Thomas Deja is my favorite. Deja’s tale of a spooky, thoughtful exorcist who is hired by a town to save a young possessed farm boy was skillfully laid out with intriguing, sympathetic characters. Deja’s style is laconic in that it doesn’t rush the story, pacing it carefully to a very rewarding finale. He’s a writer worth watching.

“The Town With No Name,” by Mike McGee is a comedic entry that never takes itself seriously. An emotional scarred outlaw is recruited to be the sacrificial lamb to the Devil on behalf of a dusty town of lost souls. How he accepts his role in their grand scheme and confronts Lucifer is reminiscent of the finer O’Henry tales.

“Sins Of The Past,” by Barry Reese features a 2oth Century masked avenger traveling back into time to put to rest a trouble spirit that is the cause behind a genuine “ghost town.”

“You Need To Know What’s Coming,” by Ian Mileham is easily the most frightening story in the collection, with a really creepy ending.

“Of All The Plague A Lover Bears,” by Derrick Ferguson not only has the most original title, it also presents the pulpiest tale in which a mystic gunslinger is hired to clean out a town full of flesh-eating zombies. This is the kind of gem I read anthologies for.

The book has two remaining stories, but quite honestly, neither belongs here. One features asteroid miners in space and the other about a small town handy man who meets the Devil on Halloween eve. They are both well written and enjoyable, but I take umbrage that when you set a theme for an anthology, stick to it. Just because the space cowboy wears a Stetson does not make it a “western”. Likewise the other tale, whose setting has no distinctiveness, could easily have taken place in the woods of Maine. Which is why I cry foul. Neither of these is a real “western.”

That said, HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD, is a grand collection that is extremely entertaining and worth your support. In fact, I’m hoping it does well enough to warrant another volume. These are too much fun to end with just one outing.

RECKLESS

RECKLESS
By Andrew Gross
William Morrow
416 pages
Available April 23rd

A gripping suspense novel deftly plotted so as to move along at an easy exhilarating pace that never once feels contrived. Each scene seems perfectly set in sequence so that the plot falls together like a series of well lined-up dominoes. All too often, lesser writers are forced to invent outlandish events to justify their heroes’ brilliant deductions. It’s what separates the master scribes from the wannabes, that ability to lay out a plot that unfolds naturally. The pieces fit perfectly, thus allowing the reader to enter the scenario and become invested with the protagonists.

Ty Hauck is a respected ex-detective working as an investigative manager for a prestigious global security outfit. When a former lover, April Glassman, is brutally murdered along with her husband and oldest daughter in a supposedly botched home robbery, Hauck gets involved. His cop instincts telling him it was more than a home invasion gone sour. April’s husband was the chief equities trader for a large Manhattan investment bank and several days after his murder, auditors learn that he leveraged the firm beyond its assets. When it collapses, it sends catastrophic ripples throughout the economic community. Then, within days of these events, a second big money trader commits suicide and once again another reputable institution is brought down. Savvy cops have an aversion to coincidences and Hauck is no exception. He begins to suspect there is a connection between these two untimely deaths and continues his probing until he finds himself the target of a sadistic ex-Army Ranger sent to terminate his investigation.

All the while, in Washington D.C. a low level Treasury Agent named Naomi Blum is discovering similar threads that connect the two dead Walls Street brokers. She begins to suspect they were mere pawns in a larger conspiracy to topple to the U.S. Economy. When she learns of an ex-cop who has gotten himself embroiled in the affair, Blum travels to New York and arranges a secret meeting with Hauck. Once they realize their cases are intertwined, they agree to join forces in unraveling the plot and following it back to its sources.

Soon they are in Serbia tracking down a fugitive war criminal, all too aware that their own lives are also at risk with every move they make. Gross balances wonderful characterization with taut action sequences that are both exciting and credible. Ty Hauck is no James Bond, he’s just a good man looking for the truth while possessing the moral courage to find it no matter where the trail leads, even to the highest offices of the U.S. Government. RECKLESS is an intricately plotted, top-notch thriller and with it Gross easily steps to the head of the class in this already crowded school.