Colonel Quaritch, V.C.: A Tale of Country Life by H. Rider Haggard
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Almost 120 years before British author J.K. Rowling faced the pressure and the problem of how to follow a string of phenomenally successful novels, another British writer was faced with the same dilemma. H. Rider Haggard, between the years 1885 and 1887, had come out with four of the most popular novels of the late Victorian era: King Solomon’s Mines (1885);
December 16th, 2015. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | H. Rider Haggard | Free!, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
Whether unjustly or not, no other science fiction author has been as closely linked to the 1960s drug culture — at least in the public eye — as Philip K. Dick … and understandably so. From the San Francisco bar in The World Jones Made (1956) that dispensed pot and heroin, to the Bureau of Psychedelic Research in The Ganymede Takeover (1966); from the amphetamine and LSD use in Ubik (1969) to the afterlife description in A Maze of Death (1970) that Dick mentions was based on one of his own LSD trips;
December 15th, 2015. Sandy Ferber and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Philip K. Dick | Audio, BSFA Award, Film / TV, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson
Richard Matheson is an author who never seems to let me down. The first two novels that I read by the man, I Am Legend (1954) and The Shrinking Man (1956), are superb and highly original sci-fi creations, and both have been memorably filmed. (I seem to be in the distinct minority in preferring the 1964 U.S.-Italian coproduction The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price, over 1971’s The Omega Man,
December 11th, 2015. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Richard Matheson | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Zombie Strippers directed by Jay Lee
Indulge me for a moment, please, as I quote myself from a recent review: “It can be a tricky balancing act, coming up with the perfect film in the genre known as the horror comedy; a picture that is hilariously funny while at the same time being truly scary. And while there is no shortage of films with a decidedly uneven ratio of horror::comedy — such as 1960’s The Little Shop of Horrors, 1974’s Young Frankenstein and 1975’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show — such films usually come off as pure comedies,
December 11th, 2015. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
Zontar, The Thing From Venus directed by Larry Buchanan
The memory of Roger Corman’s lovable shlock classic It Conquered the World (just one of four pictures that Corman came out with in 1956) is pretty fresh with me, since, just four months back, I happened to see this cult item on the big screen. It was playing at NYC’s wonderful Film Forum as part of a double feature, paired with 1957’s I Was a Teenage Werewolf. Filmed on the cheap and clocking in at a scant 68 minutes, It Conquered…,
December 8th, 2015. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
Although Don Siegel’s 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers has long been a favorite of this viewer — it is, most assuredly, one of the genuine sci-fi champs of the 1950s — it was only very recently that I finally got around to reading Jack Finney’s source novel. The occasion was Simon & Schuster’s 2015 release of the book’s 60th anniversary edition, with a most interesting foreword by author Dean Koontz. Actually, Finney’s novel had originally appeared serially in 1954 in Collier’s,
December 3rd, 2015. Sandy Ferber and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5 | Jack Finney | Audio, Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
The People of the Mist by H. Rider Haggard
Sir Henry Rider Haggard, the so-called “Father of the Lost Race Novel,” didn’t write such stories featuring only Allan Quatermain and Ayesha, She Who Must Be Obeyed. For example, his 17th novel, The People of the Mist (1894), is a smashing, wonderfully exciting, stand-alone lost-race tale featuring all-new characters. But the first third of the novel is hardly a lost-race story at all, but rather one of hard-bitten African adventure.
In it,
November 27th, 2015. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | H. Rider Haggard | Free!, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Case Against Satan by Ray Russell
Up until a few years ago, the name “Ray Russell” was only familiar to me by dint of his work as a screenwriter on such marvelous horror/sci-fi films as Mr. Sardonicus (1961), The Premature Burial (1962), Zotz! (also from 1962) and X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes (1963). It wasn’t until I noticed a highly complimentary review of his 1962 novel The Case Against Satan,
November 23rd, 2015. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Ray Russell | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Warning: Use only as directed. And with caution.
Written in 1969, Ubik is one of Philip K. Dick’s most popular science fiction novels. It’s set in a future 1992 where some humans have develop psi and anti-psi powers which they are willing to hire out to individuals or companies who want to spy (or block spying) on others. Also in this alternate 1992, if you’ve got the money, you can put your beloved recently-deceased relatives into “coldpac” where they can be stored in half-life and you can visit with them for years after their death.
November 20th, 2015. Kat Hooper, Bill Capossere and Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5, 4, 5 | Philip K. Dick | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 16 comments |
Bubba Ho-Tep directed by Don Coscarelli
It can be a tricky balancing act, coming up with the perfect film in the genre known as the horror comedy; a picture that is hilariously funny while at the same time being truly scary. And while there is no shortage of films with a decidedly uneven ratio of horror::comedy — such as 1960’s The Little Shop of Horrors, 1974’s Young Frankenstein and 1975’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show — such films usually come off as pure comedies, only with a horror setting.
November 19th, 2015. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.