Monday, October 22, 2012
New This Week
No new print books this week, but I did pick up three more e-books from Black Dog Books: THE SILVER MENACE/A THOUSAND DEGREES BELOW ZERO, a pair of early science fiction novellas by Murray Leinster; THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER, a collection of Middle Eastern adventure yarns by G.G. Pendarves; and DEAD MEN TELL TALES, a collection of Craig Kennedy scientific mysteries by Arthur B. Reeve. I've read a lot of Leinster's work over the years and enjoyed all of it. I've heard of Reeve's Craig Kennedy stories but never read any of them. Pendarves is a new author for me. I expect to enjoy all three books. (These are all available as print editions directly from Black Dog Books, too, of course.)
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6 comments:
Leinster's short fiction is always a safe bet. It's a shame he has become almost forgotten.
The Pendarves sounds interesting, too.
I have all of them IN PRINT and enjoyed the Leinster and Pendarves. I have yet to read the third book. Black Dog books are terrific.
Pendarves, who lived in Cornwall, England, was a bit of a favorite with renowned pulp editor Robert A. W. Lowndes. He revived at least three of her Weird Tales contributions in his 1960s Magazine of Horror. My collection of that mag and its companions (Startling Mystery Stories, Weird Terror Tales, Bizarre Fantasy) isn't complete, but here's what the enthusiastic RAWL said when introducing The Dark Star (WT, March 1937) to his readers:
"Seventeen stories under the name G. G. Pendarves ran in Weird Tales between the The Devil's Graveyard in the August 1926 issue, and The Withered Heart, published posthumously in the November 1939 issue. It was not until Farnsworth Wright sadly wrote of her passing that we knew the author to have been Gladys Gordon Trenery. Her stories also appeared in Oriental Stories and The Magic Carpet. Most popular of her tales was The Eighth Green Man, which saw two reprintings in WT (it appeared first in the March 1928 issue with a shuddery illustration by Hugh Rankin) and has appeared in various anthologies since. Also repeated in WT were The Grave at Goonhilly (originally in the October 1930 issue); The Sin Eater (first published in the December 1938 issue), and Thing of Darkness (first seen in the August 1937 issue). Of her nineteen stories in in WT, most were memorable, and the question that we wrestled with, when we thought of her stories, was not whether to offer you G.G. Pendarves, but which to start out with!"
Just ordered Thirty Pieces of Silver, and added Leinster's book to my wish list. I'm a big fan of Howard's El Borak stories and it'll be great to see another author's take on the same subject matter.
Thanks for the shout out, James. Much appreciated.
Tom Roberts
Black Dog Books
There was a collection of Pendarves' stories from Weird Tales entitle Thing of Darkness from Midnight House/Darkside Press a few years back. I think it's still in print. It was a limited edition hardcover, ran something like $40-50.
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