Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Planet Stories, May 1943

The Fiction House pulps always had great covers, and PLANET STORIES was no exception. This one is by Jerome Rozen, and it's a fine example of swashbuckling science fiction adventure. Among the authors inside are Leigh Brackett, Ross Rocklynne, Hannes Bok, and H.L. Gold. A lot of modern SF fans might turn their noses up at this stuff, but it's wonderful to me.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Blue Ribbon Western, February 1950

Oscar J. Friend is probably best remembered as an agent and editor in the science fiction field, but he wrote a number of Western novels, too, and the ones I've read have been pretty good. His novel HELL ON THE HALF-MOON is the only piece of fiction in this issue of BLUE RIBBON WESTERN, with only a couple of short features to round out the table of contents. I haven't read it and don't have this issue, but I'll bet it's an entertaining yarn.

Forgotten Books: Trail Boss From Texas - Barry Cord (Peter Germano)

(This post originally appeared in different form on April 25, 2005)

Originally published by Phoenix Press in 1948, this is Peter Germano’s first novel under the pseudonym Barry Cord, and as far as I know, his first full-length novel overall, although his shorter fiction had been appearing in the Western pulps as far back as the mid-Thirties.

Larry Brennan is the title character, who has brought a herd of cattle from Texas to Colorado to deliver them to an old friend of his boss. Unfortunately, the rancher Jeff Halliday, who was supposed to take delivery of the cattle, is murdered just before Brennan arrives, and after wiring his boss to ask him what to do next, Brennan has no choice but to wait for an answer. This delay gives him plenty of time to get mixed up in a range war that he originally wants no part of, as well as a land grab motivated by the impending arrival of the railroad.

These are classic Western story elements, of course, and Germano doesn’t really do anything new with them. This is a good solid traditional Western, though. Germano has been quoted (in TWENTIETH CENTURY WESTERN WRITERS) as saying that his writing was influenced by the work of Ernest Haycox and Luke Short (Frederick D. Glidden). That can be seen in his terse, unsentimental prose style and his hardboiled action scenes. His books often have strong mystery elements in them, as well. TRAIL BOSS FROM TEXAS suffers a little at first as Germano crowds in too many characters and plot angles in too few pages, but eventually everything gets straightened out and the story flows better. In the Fifties, when he was one of the regular writers of the Jim Hatfield novels in TEXAS RANGERS under the Jackson Cole house-name, and during the Sixties, when he was a prolific novelist for the Ace Double line, among other publishers, his storytelling abilities were more developed and he became one of the best Western writers of the period.

Now Available from Rough Edges Press: Lynched - Ed Gorman

Marshal Ben Tully arrives in Pine City to find a double tragedy waiting for him: a lynch mob has taken a suspected murderer out of Tully's jail and hanged him—and the murder victim is Tully's wife! 

Even though he's almost overwhelmed with grief, Tully's instincts as a lawman take over when he uncovers evidence that the man who was lynched may not be the one who killed his wife. It seems that nearly everyone in Pine City has secrets they don't want exposed, and the identity of Kate Tully's murderer is one of them. Ben Tully's investigation plunges him into a web of deceit, lust, and more murder as he risks his life to discover the truth about his wife's death! 

In LYNCHED, master storyteller Ed Gorman has written another compelling Western mystery full of action and suspense.

(This is one of Ed's best Westerns, and a top-notch mystery to boot. If you've never read any of his Westerns, grab this one and give it a try!)

Shattered Shields - Jennifer Brozek and Bryan Thomas Schmidt, eds.

A lot of heroic fantasy uses armies and wars as a backdrop, as the editors of this new anthology point out in their introduction, and since I like both fantasy and military fiction, SHATTERED SHIELDS has a built-in appeal for readers like me. That said, it's kind of a mixed bag, as anthologies often are. A number of the stories feel more like excerpts from novels rather than actual short stories, and some come across as introductions or prequels to larger works and seem a little incomplete. But there are some real stand-out stories, too, and my favorites include:

"Keeper of Names" by Larry Correia, which suffers a little from that "intro to a new series" feeling I mentioned above, but Correia's fast-paced writing and interesting characters 'way more than compensate for that. I'll definitely be interested in the novel that follows this story.

"Rising Above" by Sarah A. Hoyt is a great alternate World War I flying ace story that involves dragons. Some of the humor is groan-inducing in a good way, but there are also some poignant moments and some nice action. It works as a stand-alone, too, and I really enjoyed it. Probably my favorite story in the book because it's so much fun.

"A Cup of Wisdom" by Joseph Zieja is a much grittier story about the nature of war, very well written and effective. I don't know what else Zieja has written, but I'm going to have to look into that.

"Vengeance" by Robin Wayne Bailey is a straight-ahead sword and sorcery story about a warror and the demon-possessed dagger she carries. Plenty of action in this one, and a likable protagonist.

Nancy Fulda's "Deadfall" features an intriguing concept: airborne floating island kingdoms powered by wood with anti-gravity properties and filled with barbarians. This story does a good job of being self-contained, yet making me want to read more about the setting.

"Yael of the Strings" by John R. Fultz features an unusual protagonist, a minstrel whose job is to inspire the soldiers in a battle with his songs. It won't come as any surprise that before this one is over, he has to do more than sing.

Glen Cook's The Black Company is a series I've been meaning to read for years. I already own quite a few of the novels. But "Bone Candy", his Black Company story in this anthology, is actually the first one I've read. It's told in a very distinctive, hardboiled style, and I really enjoyed it despite the fact that it ended too abruptly for my taste, leaving me feeling like it was part of something intended to be bigger.

Elizabeth Moon is another author I've meant to read. "First Blood", her story that wraps up SHATTERED SHIELDS, makes me more convinced than ever that I should. Good characters, excellent action scenes, and an interesting enough setting that I want to read more.

All the other stories in SHATTERED SHIELDS are good except for a couple I didn't care for, but that's a pretty good percentage for an anthology. And it introduced me to several fine writers whose work is new to me, also a good thing. If you're a fan of heroic fantasy that's on the gritty side, this one is well worth reading.

Tuesday's Overlooked Movies: Veronica Mars

The Kickstarter campaign that raised the money for this movie broke all sorts of records at the time, and we were glad of that because all four of us were fans of the VERONICA MARS TV series. After that splash of coverage about the funding, though, the movie was made, released to theaters, and promptly vanished without a trace. That's not uncommon in this age when there don't seem to be any more modest successes, only mega-blockbusters and mega-flops. But now that VERONICA MARS is out on DVD, we watched it anyway, of course, and as a fan of the series, I thought it was excellent.

The movie takes place 10 years after the end of the series and picks up nearly all the characters. Veronica is a lawyer about to go to work for a prestigious firm in New York. Her dad Keith is still a PI back in seedy Neptune, California. And her former boyfriend Logan, the son of a movie star, has joined the Navy and become a fighter pilot. Unfortunately, while he's home on leave, Logan is arrested for the murder of his pop star girlfriend, also a former classmate of Veronica's at Neptune High. When she hears about that, what do you think she's going to do? Stay in New York and get rich as a high-powered lawyer? Or turn her back on all that and go back to Neptune to find the real killer and clear Logan's name?

I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to reveal that Veronica goes home and wades right into that murder case.

This is great stuff, pure hardboiled private eye fiction complete with smart-aleck voiceover (which Kristen Bell as Veronica could pull off even when she was supposed to be a high school kid), hostility from the corrupt cops, and a complex plot with a mixture of suspects from both high society and low. There's also a lot of humor and fine dialogue, including some in-jokes that are satisfyingly obscure. It's rare when you can get together almost the entire cast of a TV show, plus the same creative team behind the camera, and make a "reunion episode" (which is basically what VERONICA MARS is) and have it seem like they've never missed a beat and have been working together all along.

I can see how people who never watched the series, or tried and didn't like it, might not care for this movie. For me, though, it was two hours with old friends, executed with near-perfection. The ending is set up for sequels, and I'm really hoping they come about. In the meantime, if you're a fan and want to catch up with what's been going on in Neptune, you definitely need to watch this one.

The Westward Tide, Book 2: Trail Revenge - Jack Tyree (Wayne D. Dundee)

TRAIL REVENGE is the second volume in the new Western series The Westward Tide, written by Wayne D. Dundee under the pseudonym Jack Tyree. It continues the story begun in TRAIL JUSTICE of a wagon train full of immigrants headed west for new homes and new beginnings. It's a classic set-up for drama and action, and Dundee takes full advantage of the opportunity to present a wide variety of characters, some good, some bad.

One of the plotlines from the first book comes to fruition in this one, as a deadly secret shared by a couple of the pilgrims catches up to them in violent fashion. There are some nice twists to the plot, leading up to a very compelling showdown at the end.

The wagon train's two scouts, veteran mountain man Elwood Blake and flamboyant young gunfighter Basil St. Irons, have quickly become two of my favorite characters in current Western fiction. They make quite a team when they go after the villains, and I certainly wouldn't want to have them as enemies.

As usual, Dundee's writing is tough and well-paced. He's one of the best storytellers in the business. I really enjoyed TRAIL REVENGE, and if you're a Western fan, I'd strongly urge you to pick up the first two books in this series. They're top-notch entertainment.

And while you're at it, check out Dundee's new stand-alone Western FUGITIVE TRAIL and his hardboiled horror novel THE NAKED AND THE UNDEAD. You really can't go wrong with any of his work.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, June 20, 1936

ARGOSY usually had great covers, and here's another one, this time heralding the beginning of a long historical serial by George Challis, who was, of course, Frederick Faust, better known as Max Brand. Much, if not all, of Faust's Western fiction has been reprinted at one time or another, but I wish somebody would reprint more of his historical fiction. What little I've read of it was top-notch. This issue also features another of my favorites, W.C. Tuttle, and a couple of top-of-the-line pulpsters in George F. Worts and Fred MacIsaac.

Now Available from Rough Edges Press: Devil in a Cage - W.L. Fieldhouse

Multiple murder, Devil worship, and a missing fortune in mob money...it's just another day in Las Vegas for private investigator John Weller. 

When Weller, a history buff and former homicide detective who has retired from the police force because he lost a leg to a shotgun blast in the line of duty, is hired by the public defender's office, the case he's supposed to look into seems open and shut. A bank robbery gone wrong has resulted in the deaths of two of the plotters and the arrest of the third, a scumbag associated with Lucifer's Chapel, a local group of Satanists. It doesn't take long for Weller to begin to have doubts about the case, which becomes more complicated—and more dangerous—the deeper he delves into it. He'll have to scramble to uncover the truth before it costs him his own life! 

DEVIL IN A CAGE is a classic private eye novel by legendary action/adventure author W.L. Fieldhouse. Brand-new and never before published, it features a compelling protagonist in John Weller, a complex plot, sheer storytelling energy, insightful social commentary, and a vivid portrait of Las Vegas that could only be provided by an insider like Fieldhouse. Rough Edges Press is proud to present this powerful novel of crime and detection.

(This is the first new novel by Bill Fieldhouse in a number of years, and I'm very pleased to publish it as part of the REP line as both an e-book and a trade paperback. I'm also going to be publishing the sequel sometime next year.)

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: 10 Story Western, September 1944

(This post originally appeared in different form on November 21, 2005.)

I like this one because instead of the clean-cut hero you usually find on Western pulps, this guy is one ugly, mean-looking son of a gun. A good line-up of authors, too, with Tom Roan and Cliff Farrell heading the list. The "Gipson" listed lower on the cover is Fred Gipson, author of OLD YELLER. Many of his stories appeared in the pulps. And "Emley" is Alan M. Emley, who was actually Alan LeMay, author of THE SEARCHERS.

I don't know if you can make it out in the scan or not, but just below the barrel of the gun in the character's left hand is some faint pencil scribbling that reads "BW Gardner". This pulp is from the collection of the late Barry Gardner, a good friend and an absolutely wonderful fellow who was the son of Bennie Gardner, who wrote extensively for the pulps as "Gunnison Steele". Before he passed away, Barry had collected several hundred pulps with his dad's stories in them, and I wound up with the collection. Bennie Gardner wrote some very good full-length pulp Western novels, but he was really the master of the Western short-short, packing action, a credible plot, and usually a twist ending into two or three pages. Well worth reading, if you're ever flipping through a Western pulp with a Gunnison Steele story in it. This one likely has two in it, since "Gardner" is listed on the cover and he often used Barry's name as a pseudonym as well.

This issue was lost in the fire, of course, along with the rest of Barry's pulps, but I'm glad I was able to preserve cover scans of a few of them.