He Arrived at Dusk by R.C. Ashby
Not for the first time, a novel resurrected by the fine folks at Valancourt Books has turned out to be one of my favorite reads of the year. Back in 2020, J. B. Priestley’s Benighted (1927), reissued by Valancourt in 2013, was one of my favorites, and just last month, Ernest G. Henham’s Tenebrae (1898), brought back to life by Valancourt in 2012, became one of my top picks for 2023.
September 19th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | R.C. Ashby | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
A number of literary works from some of my favorite authors are celebrating their quasquicentennial, or 125th anniversary, this year. Released in 1898 were H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, Henry James’ novella “The Turn of the Screw,” Jules Verne’s The Mighty Orinoco, and H. Rider Haggard’s Doctor Therne. Those first two titles,
September 11th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Ernest G. Henham | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson
It’s the big question; one that has been weighing on mankind for millennia now … namely, what happens to us when we buy the farm? You know … croak, kick the bucket, breathe one’s last, check out, cash in one’s chips, bite the dust, ride into the sunset, pass on, pass away, give up the ghost, meet one’s maker, pass over, perish … in a word, die. It’s a conundrum that many people have wondered about once or twice – or 10,000 times – during their stay here on Earth;
August 21st, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Richard Matheson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Skin and Bones by Thorne Smith
Up until recent years, I could have counted on the fingers of one hand the books that have made this reader laugh out loud … and I still would have had a couple of fingers left over. Those three books – all of which make me chuckle today, just thinking about them – are, chronologically, Harry Harrison’s undeniably funny Bill, The Galactic Hero (1955), Eric Frank Russell’s hilarious sci-fi adventure The Great Explosion (1962),
August 10th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Thorne Smith | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Promise of Air by Algernon Blackwood
Algernon Blackwood’s novels The Human Chord (1910) and The Centaur (1911) constituted two of my finest reading experiences of 2022, so it was with great anticipation that I looked forward to my next experience courtesy of the author popularly known as “The Ghost Man.” But that nickname, it seems to me, has done Blackwood something of a disservice, because scares and shudders were far from being the writer’s only concern.
August 4th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Algernon Blackwood | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Whistling Ancestors by Richard E. Goddard
And so, I have just come to the end of another lot of books from the remarkable publisher known as Ramble House. And what an octet of books they were! In chronological order: Elliott O’Donnell’s The Sorcery Club (1912), which tells of ancient Atlantean magic being used by a trio of men in modern-day London; G. Firth Scott’s Possessed (1912), in which a deceased business magnate takes over the body of one of his former employees;
July 24th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Richard E. Goddard | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Mad-Doctor Merciful by Collin Brooks
On three separate occasions over the past few months, I have been asked the question “Where do you find all those strange books that you read?” The answer from me has been the same for the past few years now: Armchair Fiction, Ramble House and, most recently, Valancourt Books, three publishers that specialize in reviving obscure, unusual and out-of-print sci-fi, horror, fantasy and mystery works for a new generation to appreciate. I have been on something of a tear with Ramble House lately, and would like to tell you now of the seventh book in a row that I have experienced from this remarkable firm.
July 12th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Collin Brooks | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Beast Or Man? by Sean M’Guire
A little while back, I shared some thoughts here on FanLit regarding American author David V. Reed’s unforgettable 1943 novel Return of the Whispering Gorilla. In this truly sui generis creation, an army of gorillas is brought together by Plumbutter – a 400-pound member of their own species with the surgically implanted brain of a human male – and fights a regiment of Nazis in equatorial Africa. But, as it turns out, 13 years earlier, on the other side of the pond,
July 7th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Sean M’Guire | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
The Devil of Pei-Ling by Herbert Asbury
In 2002, Martin Scorsese brought to the big screen his 18th film as a director, Gangs of New York. The picture was based on a nonfiction book by one Herbert Asbury, namely The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the New York Underworld, but the screenwriters played so loosely with the facts in Asbury’s book that the film was famously Oscar nominated for a Best Original Screenplay award,
June 28th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Herbert Asbury | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Fire Spirits by Paul Busson
During the course of four of my recent reviews here on FanLit – for Walter S. Masterman’s The Yellow Mistletoe (1930), Mark Hansom’s The Shadow on the House (1934), R. R. Ryan’s Echo of a Curse (1939) and H. B. Gregory’s Dark Sanctuary (1940) – I had cause to refer to editor/author Karl Edward Wagner’s highly regarded list of 39 of his favorite horror books,
June 23rd, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Paul Busson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
It seems to me that anyone who thinks of nature as "unchanging" isn't paying attention. This book sounds amazing and…
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Mine too, but to be fair, he's the only Iraqi torturer I know, fictional or otherwise. He has a great…
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Would you believe that this was the first time that I ever read it? SO glad that I finally caught…