THE OTHER REALM

THE OTHER REALM

Book Three of the Utgarda Trilogy

By Joab Stieglitz

Rantings of a Wandering Mind

185 pgs

In the first two books of this trilogy we were introduced to Father Sean O’Malley, a Catholic priest, Anna Rykoy, a Russian anthropologist, and Dr. Harold Lamb. The three of them encountered strange occult happenings at a north-east college which in turn led them to New York and the strange disappearance of pulp writer Brian Teploy. At the conclusion of the second novel, the trio discovered Teploy had been committed to a sanitarium having suffered a mental breakdown and were off to find him.

“The Other Realm” picks up where the last ended only to have our heroes uncover a startling revelation. Aliens from another dimension have been visiting our world and in doing so run afoul of a scientist with delusions of grandeur. He ultimately goes insane with the power he is able to leech from them. At the same time he manages to kidnap Teploy and imprison him in another dimension actually constructed from the pulp writer’s own imagination.

The only way to save Teploy, according to alien beings, is for Anna and Harry’s minds to enter that fictional world and become a part of it. Thus after two books clearly set in a normal 1920s background, Stieglitz then throws us into a sword and sorcery adventure that reads like a blending of H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Rice Burroughs. He offers up a dangerous quest unlike any we’ve ever encountered before.

“The Other Realm,” is as enjoyable as the first two books and the added genre twist gives it a surprising romp we were not expecting. At the conclusion the author sets the stage for possible future adventures with O’Malley, Rykoy and Lamb. We’d like nothing better.

TORRID TWINS

TORRID TWINS

A Tokey Wedge Swinger

By Jack Lynn

Grizzly Pulp

168 pgs

Tokey Wedge is an old throw-back Private Eye ala Shell Scott. Operating in the big city with a couple of friends on the police force, Tokey has a way of getting into trouble when it comes to hot-blooded dames. In this outing, he’s hired by a rich tycoon named Langland, to protect his precious rock, the Black Opal. The financier has serious money troubles and Tokey is convinced he’s planning on stealing the gem himself to collect the big insurance policy.

Adding dangerous spice to the situation is Langland’s wife, a buxom sex-pot named Virginia who is into a local mobster for serious gambling debts. She needs the cash to get her neck out of the noose. As if she wasn’t dynamite fleshly delights enough, Virginia has an identical twin sister who was once her husband’s former lover. Abbigail, nicknamed Nabby, is an alcoholic lush who despises her sister for stealing her man. So Tokey has two raging nymphos two handle…pun intended. But the trouble doesn’t end there. The case also offers up a third femme-fatale in the shape of Langland’s beautiful stepdaughter from his deceased first wife, Sonya. Though only a lowly 36 C, the half-Japanese Sonya makes a living as a bra-model.

“Torrid Twins” is so true to its sweat-mags roots as to propel the reader on a pulp time-travel adventure. The raunchy humor, the two fisted punches and the flying hot-lead resound with genuine authenticity from a time long gone. If you recall those days with fondness and need a good laugh, grab a copy. As Tokey might say, “It’s a handful of action.”

JACE OF THE JUNGLE

JACE OF THE JUNGLE

A Snapshot Novella

By Dale Cozort

121 pgs

I’ve been a big fan of writer Dale Cozort’s unique Snapshot books since the start. In them he envisioned an all powerful race of aliens who could duplicate any part of human history on our planet and duplicate it perfectly, molecule for molecule. Imagine these god-like beings creating an exact duplicate of Argentina in 1920, meaning everything in that country at that time would then exist in a bubble…while the original Argentina would still exist here on Earth. Thus there would be two, with the “snapshot” double now at the whims of these aliens, where by they could attach that bubble to another that might contain France in 1955 and then allow the people in both bubbles to cross a zone tunnel and interact.

Okay, so yes, it gives us headaches too. The thing is Cozort is crafty enough to use this world building to his story-telling advantage. In his latest Snapshot Novella, “Jace of the Jungle” he totally goes all Edgar Rice Burroughs with a young eleven year old white boy living in a hodge-podge Africa that features ape-people, Roman Legions, lost cities and dinosaurs. See what I mean? This is pulp-weaving and he pulls it off with so much fun and enthusiasm, this little 121 pg book is a tease appetizer leaving us wanting a whole lot more.

Like ERB? Like romantic jungle adventures? Like action and adventure galore? Then what are you waiting for? “Jace of the Jungle” is waiting for you.