TARZAN The Jungle Warrior

TARZAN

The Jungle Warrior

By Andy Briggs

Open Read Media

180 pages

Several weeks ago we reviewed the first book in this new, licensed Tarzan series; The Greystoke Legacy.  Following in the footsteps of Tarzan’s creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Andy Briggs continues his new adventures of the Jungle Lord exactly where he left off in this second installment.  Anyone familiar with the original classics is knows that “Tarzan of the Apes” and “The Return of Tarzan,” were actually one story told in two parts.  So it is with this series though it dares to be even more ambitious and by the conclusion of this excellent sequel the saga is far from over.

In the first book, young Jane Porter and her widowed father, Archie, are living in the Congo.  Archie is operating an illegal tree cutting operation with his lifelong friend, Clark. Working at the camp is a young American named Robbie Canler who is on the run from the law.  By the end of that first story, Jane had met the wild jungle man, Tarzan, and earned his trust and friendship.  She had also discovered he might very well be the long lost heir to a British fortune.

In Burrough’s classic “Return of Tarzan,” the principle villain was a sadistic Russian named Nikolas Rokoff and his henchman, Alexi Paulvitch.  Tarzan foiled their various schemes until in the end they traveled to Africa and allied themselves with his cousin, Lord Cecil Clayton, in an attempt to destroy Tarzan and thus nullify his claim to the Greystoke fortune.  In “The Jungle Warrior,” Briggs wonderfully reintroduces Rokoff as an obsessed big hunter who has made a fortune bagging endangered wild animals for his rich clients.  Having heard the rumors of a “white ape” inhabiting the heart of the Congo, Rokoff and his aid, Paulvitch, set out to find and capture this legend.  The cruel hunger has become jaded and much like his fictional peer, General Zaroff from Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game,” believes Tarzan will provide him with the most challenging hunt of his life.

Once again we are given a fantastic adventure with some of the most incredible action sequences ever written.  In his works, Burroughs made Tarzan larger than life, almost superhuman in some aspects and reimagining him as anything less would have been a serious mistake.  Not so with this new and exciting interpretation.  Here is wild, amazing action that knows no boundaries and a Tarzan as courageous, magnificent and totally unstoppable as he has ever been.  Reading these new Tarzan exploits is a joyous, fun experience; one no true pulp fan should miss.  We can’t wait for volume three.

STEIN AND CANDLE Vol One

STEIN AND CANDLE

Detective Agency Vol. One

By Michael Panush

Curiosity Quill Press

250 pages

One of the finest pulp novels we enjoyed last year was Michael Panush’ “Dinosaur Jazz.” In fact this reviewer nominated it as Best Pulp Novel in 2012 for both the Pulp Factory Awards and the Pulp Ark Awards.  Yes, it is that good and if you haven’t read it yet you should certainly go out and do so immediately.

Of course having discovered Panush’s marvelous fiction, we went hunting up some of his earlier works.  We found two volumes of stories starring a duo of occult detectives operating in the years after World War Two known as Stein and Candle.  We’ve just finished reading the first collection and are thrilled to report Micael Panush is yy no means a one-trick literary magician.  “Stein and Candle” features seven hair-raising, fast paced, pulp tales of the most unusual and original new occult heroes ever invented. 

Mort Candle was an army sergeant with the 101^st Airborne during the war and is one tough as nails character.  During the last days of the European campaing, he and his squad were sent on a mission to rescue a Jewish family, the Steins, being held captive in their Austrian castle by a group of sadistic Nazis SS unit.  Count Wolfgang Stein was a scientist who dabbled in arcane lore and the Germans wanted him to create a zombie army with which to stem the tide of the war and save the Third Reich.  When Stein refused, he and his wife Hannah, during a daring escape attempt, were killed and only their young eight year old son, Weatherby survived to be rescued by Sgt. Candle and his team.

This volume opens six years later as we learn Candle, now a civilian private investigator, has become the fourteen year old Weatherby’s legal guardian.  Together they take on weird cases tainted by the occult.  These pit them against all manner of horrific adversaries such as vampire bikers, a deadly ghost haunting a British movie company and a zombie plague in a Los Vegas like city in the California desert.  Each case is narrated by Candle in his rough, non-frills voice, and is a thrill ride this reviewer relished to the max.  Whereas the volume contains only one story presented in the third person style and it is the actual origin story of the young occultist, Weatherby Stein.  It is a most moving story and Panush deserves much credit for holding back towards the end of the volume.

Bottom line, dear readers, if you like hard-edged fantasy that combines both horror and pulp action, “Stein and Candle” is the book for you.  Panush continues to whip up fresh new ideas coupled with truly great characters establishing him as one of the best new writers in the New Pulp arena.  We fully expect his name and award titles are going to be synonymous all too soon.

MONSTER EARTH

MONSTER EARTH

Edited by Jim Beard & James Palmer

208 pages

Mechanoid Press

Talk about hitting a homerun your first time at the plate, this book does just that.  It is the first title from writer James Palmer’s new company, Mechanoid Press, and it is a pure joy for monster junkies of all persuasions.  Working with co-editor, Jim Beard, what the two have done is created an alternate world where giant monsters appeared just prior to the outbreak of World War II.  Then, in various stories by their colleagues, the effects of their presence is made known throughout the history of the next thirty years.

Thus the theme of the collection is to answer that question, “What would our world be like if all those movie monsters like Godzilla and all the rest were real?”  Aiding Beard and Palmer answer that question are five other talented monster-lovers providing us with marvelous tales of sheer unadulterated imagination.

“The Parade of Moments,” kicks everything off with Jim Beards relating old man’s memories his days as a newsreel cameraman.  He was in China during the height of the Japanese – Chinese conflict in 1937.  It was his good (or bad) luck to be on the scene with the first giant tentacle demon appeared under the command of the Japanese.  Later, in Shanghai, he films the arrival of the gargantuan Foo Dog monster of Chinese myth as it does battle with the enemy sea monster.  This is where the world changes forever.

Writer I.A. Watson picks up the thread with his “The Monsters of World War II, or, Happy Birthday, Bobby Fetch.”  You have to give some applause for that title alone.  The story takes place in Hawaii on the morning of Dec. 7^th, 1941 and the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces; this time aided by their giant squid-like sea creature.  Young Bobby Fetch, newly arrived with his scientist parents befriends a beautiful young girl who teaches him the myths of the Hawaiian dragons.  Giant winged monsters devoted to protecting the islands and their people.  The boy soon learns all true heroism comes with a cost.

With the end of the war, countries find themselves having to lock up their monsters, such as the American fur covered beast called Johnson in Jeff McGinnis’ marvelous entry, “The Beast’s Home.”  Military authorities keep Johnson imprisoned in Los Angeles because of its being on the west coast.  When the monster breaks free on several occasions, wreaking havoc and great loss of life, the city is soon abandoned by the movie industry and becomes nothing more than a gilded ghost town.  This was our favorite story in the book.

“And A Child Shall Lead Them,” brings us into the 1960 where writer Nancy Hansen tells of a giant Snake Goddess from India who chases a false guru to the shores of Boston attempting to reclaim what was stolen from her.  When the U.S. Military unleashes its own monster, a giant Thunderbird, a battle royal ensues that threatens to completely destroy the Hub City unless a teenage boy and old derelict can soothe the savage behemoths with their ancient folk-music.

Edward M. Erdelac continues this Native American thread with his “Mighty Nunuq,” a giant polar bear connected to the Inuit people of the frozen north.  But once again, all such supernatural beings demand sacrificial offerings.

Fraser Sherman’s sixth entry, “Peace With Honor,” is set in the last days of the Vietnam War with both sides using monsters to not so much to win as to find a honorable exit to the conflict that so ravaged both sides.  Thus the North Vietnamese unleash their giant bat-monster the Shrieker who must battle Junior Johnson, the offspring of the famous L.A. monster used to defeat the Japanese in World War II. 

The unifying thread that moves through all these stories is used to maximum advantage here as each new story builds on the foundations set by the others thus world-building a very believable Earth and its horrifying history.

Co-Editor James Palmer wraps up the book with “Some Say in Ice,” which is the most exaggerated, bombastic, over-the-top fishing story ever told.  American monster scientists head to the frigid arctic waters to capture an illusive sea creature few have ever seen.  How they go about this is fantastic and wonderfully captures the true core of “Monster Earth.”  It’s a grand send off and left this reviewer applauding soundly.

“Monster Earth” is what New Pulp is all about.  It’s fresh, original, with a tip of the hat to those old black and white cinema thrills we all enjoyed as youngsters.  If this book doesn’t have a sequel, then there’s something really wrong with this Earth. Go get it now…before the monsters get you!

 

COMPLEX 90

COMPLEX 90

By Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins

Titan Books

244 pages

Available May 2013

Beginning a new year with a new Mike Hammer novel is a cause for jubilant celebration.  In his short preface to the book, begun by the late Mickey Spillane, Collins informs us that the setting is 1964 and “Complex 90” is in part a sequel to the 1961 Mike Hammer novel, “The Girl Hunters.”  For those of you unfamiliar with that private eye classic, a brief summary is in order. 

“The Girl Hunters” opens with our down-and-out hero discovering that his secretary, and one true love, Velda, has returned from the dead.  Having lived in an alcoholic haze since her disappearance seven years earlier, he learns that Velda had been on a spy mission for the government, captured by the Russians and thrown into one of their of their prisons where she had endured physical tortures until managing to escape.  Now back on U.S. soil her ordeal is far from over as the Soviets send a specialized assassin team to terminate her permanently.  Instead they run into Hammer and it he who does the exterminating.  You can easily enjoy “Complex 90” without having read “The Girl Hunters,” but why on earth would you settle for one great Mike Hammer book when you can enjoy two?

Okay, back to this “sequel” of sorts.  The cold war is still in full tilt, even though Hammer and Velda have slowly gotten their lives back on a normal track.  Then an old colleague recruits Hammer to assist him as a bodyguard for a controversial senator throwing a lavish cocktail parting in his New York penthouse.  Hammer sees it as an opportunity to make a few fast bucks.  In the middle of the soiree, an assassin attempts to shoot the senator but instead guns down Hammer’s pal. Hammer takes a slug to the leg before sending the killer through a window eighty stories up via a hot lead tivkry from his .45 automatic.  So much for an easy few dollars.

Suffering only a flesh wound, Hammer is soon back on his feet.  Immediately he is offered a new assignment; that of bodyguard to the senator during his fact-finding junket to Moscow. The senator wants Hammer to replace his dead friend who was scheduled to accompany him.

No sooner are the two in Russia then Hammer is arrested and imprisoned by the KGB for being a spy.  Fortunately for the savvy P.I., they detain him in a city facility and he waste no time escaping, leaving half a dozen bodies behind.  By the time he makes it back to the States, he’s left a trail of forty-five dead Russians creating an international incident.  Now the Russians are clamoring for his hide and the State Department isn’t any too pleased with the notorious New York private-eye.  What bothers Hammer is why he was kidnapped in the first place and why the Commies are so hell bent on bringing him back to the U.S.S.R.

Finding the answers to those two questions is the major plot around which this fast paced thriller revolves and like all Mike Hammer tales, there’s plenty of two-fisted action along the journey.  Collins prose never lets up for a second propelling this reader to a slam-bang climax that had us needing a drink when it was over.  Cold war intrigue, sexy femme fatales and in the middle of it all, one tough son-of-bitch throwback whose conservative patriotism will not be shaken by gun-toting foreign agents or two-faced  Washington politicians. 

In a time of when America is being torn apart by a culture war, Spillane’s Mike Hammer is a cleansing storm that makes no excuses for loving ones country and doing whatever it takes to keep her strong.  Makes us wish we had a lot more like him.

THE BREACH TRILOGY by Patrick Lee

INTO THE BREACH!

A Review of Patrick Lee's Breach Trilogy

By guest reviewer

Andrew Salmon

In these days of overhyped, over-marketed, multi-volume mega-series, it's hard to find a series of novels that truly justifies their existence. It's all about branding and stretching stories out to 1000s of pages for purely economic reasons is, sadly, the norm these days.

Patrick Lee's incredible Breach trilogy is the exception to the rule.

In three of the best edge-of-your-seat thrill rides this reader has ever had the pleasure to read, Lee gives us a New Pulp trilogy for the ages. The novels are The Breach, Ghost Country and Deep Sky and all three are lean, mean, thrill machines you do not want to miss.

But enough hype. What is this rollicking trilogy about?

In the first novel, The Breach, we are introduced to ex-con, ex-cop Travis Chase who is seeking to escape his past and find solace in the frozen, isolated wastes of Alaska as he tries to decide what to do with the rest of his life. That answer comes unexpectedly when he stumbles upon a unmarked 747 that crashed in the frozen wasteland just days before. To his surprise, no one has reached the wreck despite clear weather and the proximity of the crash to the nearest town. Added to this mystery is the discovery that the survivors of the crash have been tortured and killed, including the First Lady who has left a note providing the location of the torturers but also desperate instructions for whoever finds it to kill not only the torturers but also the two remaining surviving passengers. Chase heads to the scene but instead tries to rescue the two prisoners, a man and a woman. In a great action sequence, he fails to save the man but manages to save the woman who is critically injured during the battle.

The woman, Paige Campbell, it turns out, is an agent of Tangent. Their goal is a simple one. They are trying to save the world. Not from a terrorist plot, or from some unseen enemy representing a shadowy, potential threat to the US or democracy. No, they are literally, trying to save mankind from ultimate destruction.

Destruction by whom? Ah-ah. That would be telling. But I will tell you this: Tangent agents are trusted to guard, examine and study, The Breach, which is a form of wormhole that resulted when a particle collider was tested back in 1978. Since that time, items have been appearing on our side of the breach, items sometimes mundane, often unfathomable, and often deadly dangerous with strange properties and powers. Are they from the future? Another dimension? Are they the prelude to alien invasion? No one knows. Called Brach Entities, the good guys need to keep these items away from the bad guys.

That's the set up and I'll leave the first novel here so as not to spoil the action. And there is a ton of great action in this first installment despite the novel being somewhat hampered by the need to introduce the above premise.

The action picks up in the next novel, Ghost Country, which is the biggest and boldest entry in the trilogy. This one kicks off with the President's motorcade being taken out. Now such a sequence would normally be the climax of a great action tale but here Lee begins the tale with this breath-taking action. And it's an indication of the action that is to come. Campbell, with mere seconds before capture, must get a message to Chase telling him to retrieve a Breach Entity similar to the one lost in the destroyed motorcade. Chase, who has left Tangent and Campbell for compelling reasons set down in the first novel, has no choice but to re-involve himself with Tangent and the Breach and sets out to find this second artifact.

This device turns out to be a means for the user to jump ahead 73 years into the future - a future where mankind has been wiped out by a Breach entity. To reveal more would be to spoil the biggest, boldest, grandest entry in the series.

Put simply, once you pick up Ghost Country you will not put it down. It is filled with trips through time, government conspiracies, action galore, heroism and sacrifice and enough left over to set up the third and final novel.

Deep Sky is much smaller in scale and tone although the main mystery remains intact and there is still tons of action. Reading it after Ghost Country, however, may seem like something of a letdown because of this scaling back and, really, there is only one thing that can elevate the work: and that's the revealing of what the Breach is while wrapping up the various plot threads. The world is still ticking down to destruction and here the baddies are taking out anyone associated with the Breach and this is all compelling stuff. But it's the secret of the Breach that will either make or break the book after the compelling first novel and the exemplary Ghost Country. I, too, was somewhat taken aback by the approach in Deep Sky. Don't get me wrong, as a standalone work, it is an action thrill-ride but after Country the action paled somewhat even though I was still feverishly turning pages.

This brings us to the secret of the Breach itself. No, I'm not telling. It would be a crime to spoil the fun for readers. Here Lee is faced with the problem of all mystery-driven fare: how to come up with an explanation that will wow readers who have had the time, over the course of the previous two novels, to theorize and come up with their own explanation for the ultimate secret. Obviously it is impossible to satisfy every reader in this situation. As for this reader, no stranger to this type of story, the reveal blew my mind. I never, in a million years, saw it coming and it truly surprised me. All in a good way. That said, and for the reasons stated above, your mileage may vary when Lee draws back the curtain. All I can say is that it worked for me and I was left in awe after reading the last page. Needless to say I've got an eye out for the next Patrick Lee book. The Breach trilogy is simply brilliant.

Story aside, a word about the presentation of the work is in order. Spread over three novels, the 1168 pages of the trilogy could just as easily been presented as a single, large work and shelling out for three novels might put some readers off. However now that all three books have been released, readers can avoid the frustration of being left hanging while awaiting the next installment. This is a series you will want to devour. The books are available for Kindle but, given that these are released by mainstream publishers (Harper Collins) the ebooks are ridiculously overpriced and are actually more expensive than printed copies. But they are an option for those who prefer reading that way.

For me, the money I spent on the Breach trilogy was money well spent. I was glued to my chair, slicing my fingers to shreds turning pages long past bed time. Some of the best New Pulp writing on the market today. I loved it!

ANDREW SALMON – is one of the finest New Pulp writers in the field today, having won the Pulp Factory Award for Best Short Story of 2009.  He resides in Vancouver, Canada with is wife.

THE BLACK BEETLE

THE BLACK BEETLE

(No Way Out)

Written & Illustrated by Francesco Francavilla

Dark Horse Comics

(1 of 4)

There have always been pulp inspired comics even during the heyday of the pulps. There were Shadow and Doc Savage comics etc.  For the most part most of those were badly done rip offs of the prose tales.  As time went on pulp characters like Tarzan and others continued to find their way into comic books from various publishers.

Since the advent of the New Pulp Movement (and yes, it is a genuine movement) we’ve had some pretty drastic highs and lows in pulp inspired comics.  DC’s abysmal New Wave was a major disaster which pulp enthusiasts predicted would flop long before the company had released a single title.  DC attempted to re-do pulps and completely alienated the one audience that might have helped them win this market.  Idiocy on a grand scale was evident.

Moonstone Comics gave it a shot with their Return of the Originals but most of their books, though well intentioned, came across half-baked in weak production values across the board. Offered up at a time when the company was making a very serious change to the more lucrative prose books, Moonstone pulp comics were really a sad misfire.  Soon thereafter Dynamite hit the scene with their big splash reviving the Green Hornet; never really a golden age pulp but a pulp character nonetheless.  And with Matt Wagner’s Green Hornet Year One, Dynamite hit a solid homerun. Soon they were following this up with the Shadow, a new Spider and ultimately their over-the-top group pulp team-up, MASKS.  Thus today when a fan says pulp comics, they immediately think of Dynamite.  Not a bad connection to have instilled in your readership.

But Dynamite and Moonstone aren’t the only ones doing pulp comics.  Dark Horse has had tremendous success with their Conan series these past few years and even dabbled in New Pulp creations with Mike Mignola’s creation of Lobster Johnson.  Now they’ve delivered a brand new classic pulp hero in Francesco Francavilla’s THE BLACK BEETLE.  This book is easily one of the best pulp comics ever done with wonderful, moody artwork and a typical fast paced purple prose plot that is pure fun to read.  Francavilla has been a long time pulp fan as is evident by his own website and when Dark Horse recruited him a while back to do covers, it didn’t take a Nostradamus to predict he would soon be delving into the pulp field with his considerable talent.

If you aren’t picking up THE BLACK BEETLE you are missing tons of great pulp adventure.  This is offered up as a four part mini-series.  This reviewer truly hopes its only one of many to come.

TARZAN :The Greystoke Legacy

TARZAN

The Greystoke Legacy

By Andy Briggs

Open Road Media

177 pages

We’d vaguely heard mention someone was going to be re-launching a new, modern version of Tarzan a while back then promptly forgot all about it.  These kind of re-imaginings have been tried before with various pulp heroes; most of them have failed miserably and are better left forgotten.  Thus when one of the marketing agents for Open Road Media contacted us about reviewing Andy Briggs new Tarzan books we were curious enough to accept their gracious invitation.  The books arrived two weeks ago (they are also available as Ebooks) and we were anxious to dig into them.

It is important that we make it resoundingly clear that Tarzan of the Apes as created and written by Edgar Rice Burroughs is one of our favorite fictional characters.  Having discovered Burroughs books in paperback format during our teen years, we devoured most of them and particularly cherish the first two; “Tarzan of the Apes” and “The Return of Tarzan.”  Together they tell one of the most amazing yarns ever put to paper and from which an entire cottage industry was born.  Tarzan is easily one of the most recognizable figures of all times and has been portrayed in movies (starting with the silent era), TV series, comic books, radio and who knows what else.  His venerable tale is of man’s daily struggles with survival, the preservation of his natural environment and the steadily encroaching beast that is modern civilization.

After having read, “Tarzan : The Greystoke Legacy,” we confess to having been wonderfully surprised at just how well it was both conceived and executed.  Briggs is a truly talented writer who is obviously a true fan of Burroughs’ original stories and he reshapes the origin of the Ape Man with both a logical presentation and a great deal of reverence for the classic source material.  Unlike Burroughs, who lived in a time when his background setting for Tarzan was a still largely unexplored “Dark” Continent, Briggs is challenged to offer us a hero whose jungle home is a rapidly dwindling landscape endangered daily by multiple factions.

Burroughs never once, in his many books, ever offered us scientific details of the wildlife and flora of the savage jungle he wrote about.  Not so in this retelling.  Yet, despite his handicap of portraying an authentic wilderness, Briggs never loses sight of the intrinsic nature of his hero; Tarzan is a savage being nurtured by the law of the jungle.  He kills his enemies and protects his friend, be they beast or human.

Jane Porter is a troubled, lonely young woman, who has followed her father into Congo where he and his partner are operating an illegal tree-cutting operation.  When mysterious acts of vandalism begin plaguing the camp and slowing down the work, those in charge believe the sabotage to be the work of militant rebels hiding deeper in the jungle.  One night someone sets fires to the machinery and Jane, disorientated by an explosion, awakens to find herself lost in the jungle.  When he is found and rescued by a half naked white man calling himself Tarzan, she is propelled into an adventure that will both alter her world view and awaken an inner strength and courage she didn’t know she possessed.  All because of this strange, mysterious man who dwells amongst the giant apes of the forest.

The last thing this reviewer desires is to spoil the exuberant, grand adventure this book presents by giving away scenes that are both fresh while echoing the iconic trappings of this legendary figure.  “Tarzan : The Greystorke Legacy,” is a rousing, hugely entertaining read that respects it heritage while offering us a truly exciting “new” Tarzan for our times.  We can’t wait to dig into book two.  Stat tuned, Tarzan fans.

SENTINELS : Metalgod

SENTINELS : METALGOD

By Van Allen Plexico

White Rocket Books

189 pages

Getting this book was pretty much like getting an extra Christmas gift for this reviewer.  Go through these archives and you will discover we’ve been reading Van Plexico’s Sentinels series since day one; and applauding all of them.  Of course the inherent danger with any long running series is that the writer will become tired of the concept and characters and begin to offer up deluded stories missing the verve and punch of his or her earlier entries.

Well, rest easy, Sentinel fans old and new, “Sentinels – Metalgod,” is another top notch chapter in the saga of Earth’s mightiest super-heroes.  Without skipping a beat, this new book picks up where the last story arc end; the cataclysmic battle between the Sentinels and a trio of super beings all bent on the complete destruction of our planet. (Note, if you haven’t read those books yet, you have some serious catching up to do.)

So in the wake of the Sentinels miraculous victory over these outer space threats, the team finds itself divided.  With their leader, super powerful Ultraa, locked in stasis in a giant red gem, Pulsar (Lyn Li) returns to Earth with the remnants of the team minus scientist Esro Brachis who has opted to visit the alien worlds of Kur-Bai Empire with Mondrian, a beautiful Captain in the Kur-Bai Starfleet with whom he is infatuated.  They are traveling with aboard a fleet starship commanded by Devenn, leader of the Kur-Bai super warriors known as the Elites.

No sooner does Pulsar and company return to Sentinels HQ then a new super being calling himself Law appears and, taking control of the Earth’s communications satellites, broadcast a warning that the Kur-Bai are actually planning to an invasion the Earth.  It falls squarely on Pulsar’s shoulders to deal with this mysterious new character while at the same time trying to recruit new members to help bolster the team’s decimated ranks.

At the same time the Elites, nearing their home world, are attacked by a Kur-Bai starship crewed by powerful robots called Eradicators.  Esro and the Elites discover a military junta has taken over the governing body of the empire and they have been labeled outlaws to be captured and imprisoned.  Barely managing to foil the Eradicators, they make their way to a Kur-Bai space station and there learn the full extent of the events that have befallen their people.  A power-hungry admiral of the fleet has successfully orchestrated a coup, killing thousands of loyal citizens in the process. A full scale civil war is about to erupt throughout the empire and Devenn and his Elites are caught right in the middle.

Those of you who are fans of this series understand its homage to Marvel Comics’ Avengers.  “Sentinels – Metalgod,” now tips its literary inspiration cap to that classic sci-fi TV series, Babylon 5.  Filled with political shenanigans, outer space battles, empire civil wars this book catapults readers into a whole now universe of action and adventure while at the same time injecting it with a marvelous wry commentary on today’s shallow attitudes about fame and popularity.  The scenes of Pulsar meeting her German based fan club had this reviewer in stitches.  Plexico’s enthusiasm for this series has never been stronger and that is evident on every single page.  If you aren’t a Sentinels fan yet, it’s high time you checked it out. This kind of reading fun doesn’t come along every day.

RUNNING DOWN THE VOODOO

RUNNING THE VOODOO DOWN

A Decker P.I. Case

By Bill Craig

ISBN # 978148026892

216 pages

This is writer Bill Craig’s sixth Sam Decker novel and it rocks.  Decker is a private investigator living in the Florida Keys and he’s one tough customer.  A former Drug Enforcement Officer, he despises incompetence in police work almost as much as corruption.  When beautiful young jazz singer, Carly Kinnebrew, is kidnapped after a performance in a Miami nightclub, the police ineptly handle the case believing the woman has merely fun off on some private escapade.  When Decker is called into the affair, he immediately uncovers multiple clues that point to kidnapping.  But not just a routine kidnapping for money.

In his investigation, Decker learns the singer had been the victim of earlier abduction as a young child in New Orleans.  There she had been sexual abused by a very twisted voodoo practitioner known only as the White Orchid Man.  Only by her strength and will to survive had the girl managed to finally escape her captor and return home.  When the police failed to track down the fiend, she and her mother went into hiding and the scarred child changed her in name in hopes the White Orchid Man would never find her again.

Alas, Decker quickly comes to the conclusion that very horror has transpired and he goes into action, enlisting his circle of friend, both official, ala Police Chief Monica Sinclair, and private such as fellow P.I. Rafael Cortez and the massive Indian shaman Seminole Joe to aid him in finding Carly and help him save her from a truly horrible fate.

Bill Craig’s writing is lean and mean.  He waste very few words on extensive exposition, giving you a character or setting in economic phrases without slowing down his breakneck pacing.  There are amble action scenes that propel this caper like majestic white water flowing over rocks.  “Running Down The Voodoo,” is a terrific read and a wonderful introduction to a memorable cast of characters.  Trust me, pick up this title and you’ll soon be hunting up the previous five Sam Decker books.  It’s that good!

TWO GRAVES

TWO GRAVES

By Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Grand Central Publishing

484 pages

Several years ago a very good friend gave me two paperback novels for Christmas.  They were “The Cabinet of Curiosities” and “Still Life with Crows,” both by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. They were my first introduction to Special FBI Agent Aloysius Pendergast and one I’ve been most grateful for ever since.

The Pendergast books are the epitome of modern pulp thrillers harkening back to the grand old hero magazines of the 1930s and they clearly evoke the same escapist fare prevalent in those series.  Upon becoming a fan of the tall, gaunt Southern bred Pendergast, it soon became clear to me that he was the true heir to famous pulp avenger of old.  For if Clive Cussler’s sea-going hero, Dirk Pitt, can be called the modern day Doc Savage, something many of his ardent followers still claim, then Pendergast is our new Shadow.  Like that black clad nemesis of evil who “knew what lurked in the hearts of men,” Agent Pendergast is a most unique and extraordinary character.  He is wealthy and thus his career is an avocation of personal interest.  He is learned with several degrees, skilled in both philosophical and martial arts while a crack shot with most weapons.  Add to this the fact he also has knowledge of obscure and ancient arcane practices and rituals while possessing certain uncanny abilities which border on the supernatural and you have a genuine pulp hero for our times.

Since discovering this series, I’ve relished each new entry and have never once been disappointed by authors’ efforts.  Along with such an unforgettable main character, the books feature many truly amazing supporting characters from Pendergast’s allies ala New York Lt. Detective Vincent D’Agosta to his exotic young ward, Constance Greene who, though she appears to be in her early twenties, is actually over a hundred years old because of a strange elixir that has prolonged her youth. The genius of Preston and Lincoln is how they make the fantastic elements of each book as believable as the normal ones.

Now “Two Graves” ends a trilogy story arc begun in “Fever Dream” and continued in “Cold Vengeance.”  For twelve years, Agent Pendergast believed his beloved wife, Helen, had been killed by a lion on their honeymoon safari in Africa.  When evidence surfaces that proves her death was faked and that she might still be among the living, it propels Pendergast on the most important case he has ever confronted.  To say the story has been a roller coaster of action and suspense would be a truly gross understatement and the revelations in this final chapter are mind-boggling.  From a psychotic serial killer in Manhattan to a hidden Nazis eugenics camp in the jungles of Brazil, “Two Graves” is hands down the best Agent Pendergast novel ever written and this fan would never make that claim lightly.  Were the series to end at this point, I would hazard most readers would be content with the established canon as it now stands.

Of course, being fans, we will always want more; lots more.  But being a somewhat discriminating reviewer, it is difficult for me to imagine Preston and Child topping this book.  It is clearly their Agent Pendergast masterpiece.

PROHIBITION

PROHIBITION

By Terrence McCauley

Airship 27 Productions

181 pages

Now on Kindle

Guest Reviewer – Derrick Ferguson

I’m going to get to talking about PROHIBITION in a bit, I promise. But first, I gotta relate a little story that will assist me in making my opening point. Okay? Thank you for your patience and sit back. Here it goes:

Couple of weeks ago I’m having a Skype conversation with a gentleman who is incensed that I don’t like “Hobo With A Shotgun.” It’s a perfect modern grindhouse movie he insists. No, I politely disagree. “Planet Terror” is a a perfect modern grindhouse movie. The gentleman spends the next two minutes expressing his opinion that whatever it is I allegedly use for thinking must be composed of excrement and another minute telling me that “Planet Terror” is garbage and why on Earth do I think it’s the better movie.

“Because,” says I, “Robert Rodriguez knows what grindhouse is. The guys who made ‘Hobo With A Shotgun’ just think they know what grindhouse is.”

Which finally brings me to PROHIBITION by Terrence McCauley. We’ve got a lot of New Pulp writers who think they know what a 1930’s gangster story is. But Terrence McCauley knows what a 1930’s gangster story. Man, does he ever.

We’re in New York, 1930. The town is run by Archie Doyle, the city’s most powerful gangster who is more like the monarch of an unruly kingdom. And there’s somebody out there looking to take his crown. Archie’s got an ambitious plan in mind that will give him more power than he’s ever dreamed of before. But he’s got to stay alive long enough to see that plan through. That’s where his chief enforcer Terry Quinn comes in. Terry’s an ex-boxer and the toughest mug on two legs. But finding out who’s trying to start a bloody gang war between Archie Doyle and his main rival, Howard Rothman is going to take more than just being tough. Quinn is going to have to rely on his street smarts and think his way through this. Of course, shooting and slugging his way to the guilty party helps an awful lot, too.

PROHIBITION has a lot going for it, mainly that McCauley isn’t afraid to write characters who aren’t likeable at all. But that’s okay with me. As long as I know why the characters are doing what they’re doing and understand their motivations, I’m cool. McCauley is writing about people who have chosen a dark, dangerous and violent life and he stays true to that. That’s not to say he doesn’t find the humanity in them. He does. It’s just a humanity that manifests itself within the terms and parameters of the concrete jungle his characters have chosen to inhabit for whatever reasons people have to live a life of crime. This wasn’t an easy period in American history to live in and people had to make hard choices. The characters in PROHIBITION have to make the hardest choices of all since the wrong one can get them killed.

A lot of New Pulp writers figure that to write a 1930’s gangster story you just have to have pseudo-tough talking wanna-be’s sounding more like Slip Mahoney than real gangsters run around shooting Tommy guns. McCauley understands that the most successful gangsters of that era ran their organizations like businesses. The business just happens to be crime is all. Violence wasn’t their first resort to solve every problem. It was just as useful and as profitable to know when not to use violence as it was to know when to use it.

I appreciated the smartness of these characters. The way they talk to each other, maneuvering to gain an edge through words makes for some really solid dialog. The relationship between Archie Doyle and Terry Quinn reminds me a lot of the relationship between the Albert Finney/Gabriel Byrne characters from “Miller’s Crossing.” Imagine if Gabriel Byrne’s character was an authentic badass who knew how to fight instead of getting his ass kicked all the time and you’ll get what I mean. Terry Quinn is a guy who knows how to work the angles and his navigation through this gleefully violent story is an enjoyable one to read.

And like any good gangster story, McCauley doesn’t skimp on the sex and violence. If you want cute gangsters who pal around and crack jokes then go watch “Johnny Dangerously” because you’re not going to find that in PROHIBITION. I appreciated the tough, hard story McCauley is telling and the even tougher, harder characters who speak and talk pretty much the way I expect gangsters of that era to behave.

I’m sure that there are some who are going to be uncomfortable or even turned off by the language and that there isn’t really an ‘heroic’ character to root for. Terry Quinn is a killer and extraordinarily violent man who doesn’t make apologies for how he lives his life. Most readers like to have a lead character to root for and while Terry’s misplaced sense of honor and loyalty lifts him a notch above most of the other characters in the book that doesn’t mean he’s anywhere near being on the side of the angels. But it’s precisely because of that misplaced honor and loyalty that makes him such an enjoyable protagonist to read about.

And I can’t wrap up this review without mentioning the wonderful illustrations by Rob Moran which do an excellent job of capturing the mood and feel of the story. I’m willing to bet next month’s rent that Rob Moran has seen a lot of those great classic Warner Brothers black-and-white gangster epics of the 30’s and 40’s as that’s the feeling I got from his illustrations.

So should you read PROHIBITION? Absolutely. It’s not only a terrific way to spend a couple of quality reading hours, it’s also an important book in the evolution of New Pulp. It’s exciting to see books like this that adds another genre to expand what New Pulp is and can be. The bread-and-butter of New Pulp are the masked avengers, the jungle lords and the scientific adventurers, sure. But there’s plenty of room for sports stories, romance, westerns and private eyes. And in the last couple of years we’ve seen those. Hard-boiled crime stories are just as much a Classic Pulp tradition and I’m delighted to see it being continued and represented in New Pulp. Most definitely put PROHIBITION on your Must Read List. 

ARCHIE MEETS NERO WOLFE

ARCHIE MEETS NERO WOLFE

By Robert Goldsborough

A Mysteriouspress.com Book

221 pages

If you are a lover of books, then the passing of a favorite writer brings on a great deal of sadness; especially if that writer had been the author of a well loved series.  Such was the case for thousands of mystery lovers when Rex Stout passed away in 1975.  For all intents and purposes this also brought about the demise of his beloved characters, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.

The following eleven years saw most of Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries reprinted countless times in various editions; all of them treasured by his fans.  Still the thrill of joining these familiar figures on new cases seemed to be a lost cause.  Then, in 1994, journalist Robert Goldsborough wrote “Murder in E Minor,” a brand new Nero Wolfe mystery much to the delight of the majority of Stout fans.  Note, I say majority.  In matters such as these, there will always be the vocal purists who see new stories as sacrilegious and prefer such fictional heroes end their careers with the death of their creators.  We are clearly not of that attitude.  We thoroughly enjoyed Goldsborough’s efforts and felt he had captured Archie’s voice perfectly.  He would go on to write six additional titles in the series ending them in 1994 with “The Missing Chapter.” 

At which point, annoyed by the criticism of that minority we mentioned, Goldsborough went on to create his own original mystery series featuring a Chicago reporter of the past named Snap Malek.  Several of these have won prestigious genre literary awards.  Still, when looking at our Nero Wolfe titles on our bookshelf, we regularly hoped that some day he would return to that familiar brownstone on West Thirty-Fifth Street in which dwells the rotund detective and his handsome legman, Archie Goodwin.  That he has done so in such a spectacular fashion is a cause for unabashed celebration.

Not only has Goldsborough answered our pleas, but he has gone beyond our wildest dreams in offering up the story Rex Stout never did; the tale of Archie’s first meeting with Nero Wolfe.  Painstakingly culling through Stout’s canon, Goldsborough took the slim nuggets seeded throughout the dozens of books and short stories and meticulously put them together in a working timeline.  From these morsels he then went on to craft a truly complete and traditional Nero Wolfe mystery only with a major difference; we finally are allowed to witness the first ever meeting between these two remarkable characters. Let us assure you, it was worth the wait.  Reading “Archie Meets Nero Wolfe,” had us remembering our teenage high school days when we first picked up our first Wolfe paperback.  This book is in essence a joyous family reunion.

It should be noted that the very first Nero Wolfe mystery, “Fer-De-Lance,” appeared in 1934 during the days of the Great Depression.  Goldsborough deftly sets his story in the same era wonderfully researching his background for authentic slang, clothing, automobiles and the city itself so the reader is transported back into that time. 

Now the book’s actual mystery plot resolves around a rich hotelier’s eight year old son being kidnapped.  The man hires the famous Nero Wolfe to save the boy.  Wolfe, as is his habit, then recruits his regular group of private investigators; all of whom are quite familiar to any fan of the series.  Only this time there’s a new face in the crowd, an eager beaver fresh of the bus from Ohio who has connected himself with operative Del Bascomb.  His name is Archie Goodwin and he is very, very eager to show Wolfe how capable he is.  As ever Goldsborough delivers a true by-the-rules puzzle astute readers will relish in trying to solve before Wolfe’s traditional in-house gathering at the finale.  But the true heart of this book is the fun in watching a young, brash, would be private-eye encounter the man who is going to be his mentor and closest friend.  Goldsborough again captures Archie’s voice brilliantly and in doing so takes us on the ride we’ve all been waiting for a long, long time.

Mystery fans, if you or a loved one is a Nero Wolfe fan, you could not give them a better Christmas gift this year than, “Archie Meets Nero Wolfe.”  Then watch the smiles on their faces when they unwrap this truly great book.  Tell them Santa sent you.

THE EXECUTIONER - Border Offensive

THE EXECUTIONER

Border Offensive

By Joshua Reynolds (really)

Gold Eagle

187 pages

We were discharged from the U.S. Army and returned civilian life upon our return home from Vietnam in the summer of 1968.  Sometime shortly after that major life change, we picked up a paperback book from a new publisher called Gold Eagle; the book was “Mack Bolan – The Excutioner” and the author was Don Pendleton.  It told the story of a Vietnam veteran who comes home to Massachusetts to bury his family, all dead because of the local Mafia which the police cannot bring to justice because of lack of evidence.

Incensed that while he was fighting for his country in a foreign land, his own loved ones were being victimized back home, Bolan realizes he’s been fighting the wrong war.  He goes AWOL, arms himself and retaliates against the local mobsters responsible for killing his family. By the book’s end he is a fugitive on the run but oddly content with his new role; that of an avenging angel who will take on the mob with no regards to his own safety.  He will become their Executioner and do what the law cannot; mete out justice.

It was heady stuff but even to a twenty-one year old reader, it was also very familiar.  Having learned about pulp fiction and their history over the years, it was all too easy to recognize this new paperback series was in fact a brand new attempt at mass market pulp fiction and in his own way, Mack Bolan, had become the Shadow of our times.  Confirmation of that theory quickly followed when Gold Eagle not only began issuing new Bolan adventures monthly but also debut another series about a secret agent trained in martial arts called The Destroyer by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir.  Just like that these two on-going action packed series launched an entire two version of American paperback pulps that would flourish throughout the 1970s.  Within months other paperback companies were putting forth their own wild and wooly series from the Black Samurai, to the Lone Wolf, the Chameleon and the Baroness to name on a very few.  By the end of that decade there were dozens of these on the bookstore racks.

Off course Pendleton, being only human after all, couldn’t possibly keep churning out book after book after book. Thus the editors of Gold Eagle adopted another practice of the old pulps; they hired ghost writers to produce books all under Pendleton’s name. As this became the norm, even after his death, the true author was given their due credit on the indicia page with the phrase, “Special thanks and acknowledgement to John Smith for his contributions to this work.”  Over the past forty years dozens of authors have found their name in this sentence.  Which brings us to this latest Executioner adventure and its author, new pulp writer Joshua Reynolds.

Being familiar with Reynolds work on reviving classic pulp characters ala Jim Anthony Super Detective and Dan Fowler G-Man, we decided it was time to revisit Mack Bolan after almost twenty years and see if anything had changed in the set formula of the books. Happily the tried and true elements were still there; tons of violent action with a stalwart hero who preserves despite all manner of physical duress.  Reynolds easily slips on the Executioner styling opening the book with Bolan in Mexico having just destroyed a drug cartel’s money making poppy fields.  On his way back to the states, he runs afoul of a group of Texas coyotes; men who smuggle illegal Mexican immigrants across the border for cash.  Knowing these characters to be merciless thugs, Bolan opts to investigate the situation and inadvertently interferes with an undercover border agent’s plan to bring down the two sadistic brothers running the operation.

Then Bolan and his new ally discover the coyotes are working for an al Qaeda agent named Turiq Ibn Tumart who plans on infiltrating the ranks of the poor Mexican workers with one hundred al Qaeda terrorists and in this manner smuggle them into the U.S. to wreak whatever murder and destruction they can perpetrate on unsuspecting American cities.  Now it’s up to Bolan and the young agent to find a way to stop this deadly convoy and destroy both the coyotes and their fanatical Jadhists allies.

“The Executioner – Border Offensive,” is an excellent addition to this long running series and kudos to Reynolds for this gritty, fast paced new chapter in the on-going war against evil by the one and only Mack Bolan.  Pick it up, pulp fans, you won’t be disappointed.