Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: October 2024


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WWWednesday: October 9, 2024

Yesterday, the second Tuesday of October, was officially Ada Lovelace Day, in honor of the mathematician who wrote formulae with Babbage, intended for use with his Analytical Engine.

World Fantasy Con starts next week, in Niagara Falls, NY. I’ll be there.

Freya Marske has Book One of a new series coming out, and Reactor has an excerpt.

Nerds of a Feather provides a review of The Principle of Moments. Clara Cohen’s review is harsh, but probably accurate.

File 770 offers a link to this radio interview with Susannah Clarke,


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Horror Double Feature: Die, Monster, Die! & I, Monster

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature we have two curious stories, courtesy of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert Louis Stevenson. It’s Die, Monster, Die! and I, Monster!

DIE, MONSTER, DIE! (1965)

“The Colour Out of Space” has long been one of my favorite H.P. Lovecraft stories, so I was curious to see how this 1965 film adaptation, directed by Daniel Haller, had turned out. Very well indeed, I’m happy to report. In this solid little AIP chiller, Nick Adams, an American, comes to Arkham, England to visit his college girlfriend.


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Blood of the Old Kings: Too flat, too thin

Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-il Kim

Blood of the Old Kings (2024), by Sung-il Kim and translated by Anton Hur, is the first in a Korean fantasy trilogy well known in South Korea. While it has its strong points, I have to confess to being overall disappointed with Blood of the Old Kings, though I’ll probably give book two a shot when it comes out in English in hopes that the series improves (the last book won an award so there’s a fair chance that’s the case).


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Horror Double Feature: The Gore Gore Girls & The Slumber Party Massacre!

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we will deal with strippers, boiling oil, acid, a driller killer and tasty Doritos! It’s The Gore Gore Girls and The Slumber Party Massacre!

THE GORE GORE GIRLS (1972)

Say what you will about cinema’s “Wizard of Gore,” Herschell Gordon Lewis, it must be conceded that from his first films (1963’s trashy Blood Feast and 1964’s crackerbarrel massacre Two Thousand Maniacs) to his last (1972’s The Gore Gore Girls), the man remained faithful to his muse,


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Sargassa: Recommended with caveats

Sargassa by Sophie Burnham

The first book in a series by Sophie Burnham entitled EX ROMANA, Sargassa is, not surprisingly given that series name, set in a world where the Roman Empire seemingly never fell, at last not permanently, though there was a mysterious “Great Quiet” in which most of the prior knowledge and technology was lost before the Empire was reestablished. More specifically, the novel is set in Sargassa, long ago colonized by the Roman Imperium and now home to the Imperial Archives, the repository of all the Empire’s knowledge and lore.


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Horror Double Feature: Violent Midnight & Theatre of Death

In today’s installment of the Shocktober Double Feature, we will encounter a serial knife killer, near nudity, a Parisian blood drainer and Christopher Lee. It’s Violent Midnight and Theatre of Death!

VIOLENT MIDNIGHT (1963)

A film probably better known by its alternate, later title of Psychomania, Violent Midnight proved a very pleasant surprise for me indeed. The film centers around Elliott Freeman, a young, reclusive painter who won’t be a free man much longer if the local police have their way.


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Horror Double Feature: Womaneater & Please Don’t Eat My Mother

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we will encounter Amazonian natives, a carnivorous tree, a man-eating houseplant and full-frontal nudity. It’s Womaneater and Please Don’t Eat My Mother!

WOMANEATER (1958)

For those of you wondering whether Pittsburgh-born beauty Marpessa Dawn ever made another film besides 1959’s classic Black Orpheus, here is your answer. She appeared one year earlier, as an Amazonian native at the opening of Charles Saunders’ Womaneater, being sacrificed to a carnivorous tree. That tree is stolen by English scientist George Coulouris,


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Horror Double Feature: The Black Scorpion & Dinosaurus

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we will encounter giant insects, prehistoric beasties and a very befuddled caveman! It’s The Black Scorpion and Dinosaurus!

THE BLACK SCORPION (1957)

By the late 1950s, filmmakers must have been running out of insects that they could mutate and transform into giant monsters. Audiences had already been treated to such fare as Them (giant ants), Tarantula (spiders), The Monster From Green Hell (wasps), The Beginning of the End (grasshoppers), The Deadly Mantis (praying mantises),


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WWWednesday: October 2, 2024

In Reactor, Molly Templeton stops to praise things that aren’t brilliant, awesome, amazing, or setting the genre on fire—they’re just good.

I loved The Fall when I first saw it, and then it disappeared. Nerds of a Feather rediscovered it and reviews it here.

Baen’s short story contest is open for submission until February 1, 2025. As I read the  summarized guidelines, it looks like they want science fiction.

Here is a list of local agencies providing relief in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene,


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Horror Double Feature: The Bells & The Cat and the Canary

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we encounter mesmerism, murder, insanity, a spooky house and an escaped madman, in two wonderful old silent films! It’s The Bells and The Cat and the Canary!

THE BELLS (1926)

The Bells is a very fine silent movie from 1926 that is not at all creaky and should manage to impress modern-day viewers. As revealed in my beloved Psychotronic Video Guide, this story was, remarkably, filmed no less than four times prior to this 1926 version,


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Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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  1. Happy Halloween, Marion, and thanks for the hedzup on "Late Night With the Devil." I'd never even heard of that…

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