ATHENA VOLTAIRE: PULP TALES

New book in the ArcLight library:

I think I've rambled about liking pulp heroes at some point - growing up digging out every Doc Savage book I could find in the various used-book stores I've come across, spending weekends rewatching the Indiana Jones films (along with THE PHANTOM, THE SHADOW, THE ROCKETEER, etc.), that sort of thing.

Added to that mix of daring heroes of the 1930s and thereabouts is Athena Voltaire. Who is she? From a Westfield Comics interview with writer/artist Steve Bryant:

"Athena Voltaire is a 1930s pilot/adventurer. She’s the daughter of a stage magician, so growing up on tour with her family, and traveling with other magicians, circuses, and air shows helped her to develop her unique skill set. She’s the pilot who everyone calls when they want to get into—and out of—dangerous places."

Those dangerous places are often inhabited by gangsters, zombies, vampires, Nazis, and assorted other monsters. Also the occasional run-in with major historical figures of the times. Fun stuff.

Started as a webcomic (co-written with Paul Daly), Bryant has shepherded Athena from the web to print comics, including a new upcoming series from Action Lab Entertainment, and now to a prose volume also from Action Lab consisting of close to twenty tales of derring-do by a variety of writers, each story illustrated with a piece by Bryant.

I've only just started reading it so I can't get in to which stories I like best. I'll guess that Bryant's own tale will be up there, of course, and I expect good things from Ron Fortier's entry (among other things he's written stories for The Phantom and The Spider for Moonstone Books' recent anthologies of those characters and the Green Hornet revival from NOW comics in the early 90s *and* currently heads up Airship 27 Productions which puts out many cool pulp-inspired projects featuring heroes new and "classic," so yeah, I think he knows his stuff). Other authors in the Chris Murrin edited volume include Elizabeth Amber Love, Tom King, Corinna Bechko & Gabriel Hardman, Genevieve Pearson, Dirk Manning and more.

Currently available from all the major online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Target, if you've got the slightest interest in the likes of Indiana Jones, Lara 'Tomb Raider' Croft, the Uncharted games series, and naturally the pulps that started it all, I'd definitely reccommend you making the acquaintance of Athena Voltaire.

Two Movies and a Book

Actually had a little time off at the end of the month. Possibly my last days off until Thanksgiving if the rumors are true. Managed to squeeze in some movie watching and book reading.

Read on for some thoughts on THOR: RAGNAROK, PHOENIX FORGOTTEN, and Rachel Bach's novel  Fortune's Pawn.

Happy First Day of Halloween!!

Greetings!

Yes, big surprise that I'm into the Halloween season I suppose. The weather might start cooling off, cheap horror movie DVDs start showing up everywhere, etc....

Unfortunately, it's also when we start getting busy over in the "real world" so this is another round-up of random bits and bobs.

Various and Sundry

Another one-day weekend so something of a grab-bag tonight....

Hurricane Irma is on everyone's mind around here right now. The predictions keep pushing it westward, which is good for where I'm at but doesn't do much for those in its path. Keep your heads down, people. Especially you, Dad.

(Amusing Irma note - at work they passed around a business card with the phone number we're supposed to call to make sure they aren't closed or on a delay or whatever when there's "inclement" weather. I laughed when I got mine because in the years I've been there, thru snow and ice and what have you, I only remember the recording being changed for us twice. If the roof is on the building, they expect us there. And if it's not, they probably expect us to be there to clean up.)


Been replaying the first Mass Effect for the umpteenth time. I can't help it. I love my Shepard.

Commander Calico Shepard

I've gone thru the original Mass Effect trilogy multiple times over the years. I'm also about halfway thru my second run of Mass Effect: Andromeda.

That game got a lot of hate - enough that EA and Bioware have effectively abandoned it now (except for some multi-player stuff - big whoop). I think they gave up too easily. Between the sour feelings about the end of Mass Effect 3 and the general dismay that the new games wouldn't have Shepard, they really had to expect a ton of criticism. I'm not going to deny there were some issues on launch, but I'm not sure I've played a big game where there weren't. Even the original trilogy has issues that haven't been fixed to this day. Oh, well...I still liked it. I'll play it at least one more time after the current run. I may not love my Ryder, but she's a lot of fun and grows on me a little more every time I crank it up. In fact, now I'm wanting to get back into it when I finish this.

Pathfinder Cici Ryder

Book-wise, I've recently read Carrie Vaughn's BANNERLESS.

I'm a big fan of Vaughn's writing in general, and enjoyed this a lot, too. On the face of it, it's a post-apocalyptic murder mystery, but it's also a small, deeply personal look into the life of the Investigator, Enid. This isn't a Mad Max sort of world, where everyone scavenges whatever they can thru any means necessary. Possibly because in this instance the Fall, as it's called, was something of a quiet apocalypse. No big war or alien invasion or super-virus. Just a society that was hit by more and larger storms and other events until it was too much. One day the power went off and just never came back on. And right now, with Irma bearing down just weeks after Harvey and Jose' waiting in the wings, with the western half of the country seemingly on fire...it doesn't sound like that far-fetched a scenario.

That should have bored anyone reading this enough for this week. If you're in the path of one of the storms or fires or plagues or whatever else is out there, watch out for yourselves and each other.

DOCTOR WHO: SHADA: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams

DOCTOR WHO: SHADA: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams

by Gareth Roberts

Ace Books

paperback / January 2014

Book description:

"From the unique mind of Douglas Adams, legendary author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, comes Shada, a story scripted for the television series Doctor Who but never produced—and now transformed into an original novel...

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Imagine how dangerous a LOT of knowledge is...

The Doctor’s old friend and fellow Time Lord, Professor Chronotis, has retired to Cambridge University, where among the other doddering old professors nobody will notice if he lives for centuries. He took with him a few little souvenirs—harmless things really. But among them, carelessly, he took The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey. Even more carelessly, he has loaned this immensely powerful book to clueless graduate student Chris Parsons, who intends to use it to impress girls. The Worshipful and Ancient Law is among the most dangerous artifacts in the universe; it cannot be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.

The hands of the sinister Skagra are unquestionably the wrongest ones possible. Skagra is a sadist and an egomaniac bent on universal domination. Having misguessed the state of fashion on Earth, he also wears terrible platform shoes. He is on his way to Cambridge. He wants the book. And he wants the Doctor..."

Just a quick round of random musings on the latest book I've finished.

DOCTOR WHO: SHADA: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams is apparently a novelization of a Doctor Who script originally written by Douglas Adams for the show during the run of Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor. I say apparently, because I'm far from a Who expert and am just going by the info in the book itself. It seems a strike resulted in the story never being completed, tho home video versions using storyboards and narrations to complete the tale have been released.

I picked this up far more for the 'Douglas Adams' part than the 'Doctor Who' part, even tho I have memories of watching some Tom Baker episodes on PBS when I was a kid and have been following the revival since it started.

Douglas Adams, if you don't know (and if you don't....you have my deepest condolences) wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy; the BBC radio series, the BBC television series, and the first five books in the trilogy. (Several years back, Eoin Colfer wrote And Another Thing..., the sixth book, which I just recently started on.) He also wrote two books featuring an eccentric detective named Dirk Gently and other works, all worth checking out. His death in 2001 was a great loss that still makes me sad to this day.

Gareth Roberts took on the unenviable task of transforming Adams's script to a novel and completing it in a way that Adams (who is said to have expressed his displeasure over how the whole affair turned out) maybe would've approved. 

I don't know how Adams would react, but I quite liked it. I don't know specifically which bits are Douglas Adams and which bits are Gareth Roberts and that's a good thing. The whole thing has the general sound of something Adams could've written, with plenty of phrases that definitely sound like the way he wrote, but the tone is consistent throughout. It doesn't come across like person A wrote this bit and person B wrote that bit. The story is a fun Doctor Who tale at its core, and the Adams touches are just icing on the cake. Nothing about it plays against my (hazy, to be sure) memories of Tom Baker's Doctor, and I could hear his voice and see his face while reading it. And K-9 is on the scene, too. K-9 rocks! 

If you're a fan of Adams or the Doctor, I'd say it's worth a read.

G.I .JOE: Luck Be A Lady by Carrie Vaughn

G.I .JOE: Luck Be A Lady 

by Carrie Vaughn

Amazon Kindle Worlds novella

Book description:

"In this episode, Lady Jaye and Cover Girl are in Las Vegas tracking down a secret Cobra bunker. But instead of a secret bunker, they find the Baroness and Dr. Mindbender on the verge of launching a nefarious experiment that could spell doom for the entire city. Parental advisory: this episode contains disguises, trick javelins, mad races across the desert, and explosions. Lots and lots of explosions."

I'm a fan of Carrie Vaughn's work. I found the first novel in her werewolf series, Kitty and the Midnight Hour, on the shelf at the local mallbox bookstore and have been hooked ever since.

G.I. JOE, I have to admit, I'm somewhat less familiar with. Read some of the comics back in the day, had a couple of figures (Snake Eyes and Scarlett), saw some of the cartoons and both the recent movies...that's about it. But I know Vaughn is a fan, so when the Joes were added to Amazon's "Kindle Worlds" program, I was one of the folks to casually point it out to her. Luckily, others did too, and now we have this.

It's a short, fun, action-packed story (with explosions, as noted in the description above) about two Joes in a mad scramble to save Las Vegas from the latest Cobra plot. It's full of self-aware humor but doesn't skimp on the action and, in my humble opinion, is more than worth the two buck asking price.

Pick it up, and if you like it, don't hesitate to check out her other works. I think you'll be glad you did.

Honey West and T.H.E. Cat “A Girl and Her Cat”

Official Solicitation:

When an exotic green-eyed Asian doctor hires Honey to recover a stolen sample of a new influenza vaccine from a rival scientist, the blonde bombshell private eye—suspicious but bored—takes the case. But when she’s attacked not once, but twice, on her way from Long Beach to San Francisco to track downher quarry, she knows there’s more—much more—to her femme fatale client than meets the eye.

Along the way, Honey’s one-time paramour Johnny Doom—ex-bounty hunter and current Company agent—reenters the picture, and the gorgeous doctor’s insidious—and deadly—grandfather deals himself in. But when Honey questions whether Johnny’s playing her game, or just playing her for a patsy, she joins forces—as only Honey can—with the one man in Frisco who can help her recover the stolen vaccine-cum-bioweapon and prevent a worldwide epidemic—former cat burglar-turned-bodyguard Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat: T.H.E Cat!

Join writers Win Scott Eckert and Matthew Baugh, and cover artist Douglas Klauba, for A Girl and Her Cat, a groovy, racy 1960s romp.

I finally made it down the stack (do ebooks wind up in 'stacks'?) to this one.

The two main characters from two of the mid-sixties best 'one season wonder' television shows team up in this novel by Win Scott Eckert and Matthew Baugh.

Honey West is an ocelot-owning, judo using private eye who also happens to be a total knockout. She was played by Anne Francis.

T. Hewitt Edward Cat is a former circus aerialist (who never used a net) and cat burglar who abandoned his life of crime to become a bodyguard. He was played by Robert Loggia.

If you're a fan of either show (I'm much more familiar with Honey West thanks to its runs on MeTV) or sixties spy stories in general, there's a lot to like packed into this book. Along the way there are references to or cameos by several well-known genre characters. If you're familiar with them and like this sort of thing, you're in for a treat. Eckert and Baugh know their stuff when it comes to these classic characters and it shows.

Unfortunately, due to the pesky nature of copyrights, most of these other characters can't be named outright and if you don't know who they are, I can see where it could be a bit frustrating for the reader. That said, the scenes are handled well enough to not mar the flow of the story. It's a small nit to pick and really, it's hard to believe anyone interested in the book wouldn't already have enough of a passing knowledge of other characters from the same time frame to not pick up on who they are.

Moonstone Books published another winner with this one. Their track record with classic characters (they've also published books and comics about Buckaroo Banzai, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Zorro, the Green Hornet, the Lone Ranger, The Phantom, and many more - quite of few of which have also been written by Eckert and Baugh - like I said, they know their stuff) has been pretty darn good in my eyes and this is no exception.

I think it's too late to get the hardcover, but the ebook is easy enough to come by for both Amazon's Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook tablets, so do yourself a favor and take a short stroll thru the swinging, sexy, sixties.

POISONED FOR REVENGE- A CASE FOR KITTY MCGEE

Official Synopsis:

"The Hottest Lady Shamus in 1920s Hot Springs returns! Kitty McGee continues to find life harder than she wants it to be. Hired by a bootlegger accused of poisoning his own hooch, Kitty goes head to head with the police, gangsters, and a relentless lady reporter. With enough grit to gum up a tommy gun and her trusty blade, Kitty McGee tears her way through the home away from home for America’s gangsters in the early 20th Century in true lady gumshoe style."

I like pulp adventure. I stumbled across some of the Bantam reprints of Doc Savage pulps, originally published between 1933 and 1949, back when I was in grade school and was hooked. Movies like RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK just served to reinforce that addiction.

In recent years, there's been a bit of a resurgence of the genre, with imprints like Hard Case Crime reprinting hard-boiled, two-fisted tales of adventure by great classic authors like Lester Dent (of Doc Savage fame) and Cornell Woolrich along with new tales by the likes of Stephen King and Christa Faust inspired by those stories of yesteryear. There are even new Doc Savage stories being published today, written by pulp expert Will Murray (using the 'Kenneth Robeson' byline the originals were credited to) and published by Altus Press.

Especially with the advent of digital publishing, others have gotten into the game. One of the leaders of this new wave of pulp is Pro Se Press and one of their most intriguing innovations is the Single Shot line of short stories, available to download for the bargain price of ninety-nine cents from Smashwords and Amazon.

One of their newest offerings is POISONED FOR REVENGE- A CASE FOR KITTY MCGEE by Ashley Mangin.

Kitty McGee is a pulp-era private detective who specializes in helping those who have no other place to turn, because she remembers what it was like to lose everything after the stock market crash.

That's why she's answered the call of Donald Gordon, a small-time bootlegger with a big-time problem; his hooch has been poisoned and the cops are wanting to pin the deaths on him. When she speaks to him, Gordon points his finger at mob boss Big Al Candelari. In short order, Kitty is caught between mobsters and an overenthusiastic rookie reported named Billie Jean Byline, trying to solve the case and not get herself killed in the process.

'Poisoned...' is a quick read, both due to its short length (Amazon estimates it at 20 pages) and the breakneck pace that fits so well with the pulp feel the story is going after. Kitty is a fun character, armed with her knife and riding around on an Indian motorcycle, willing to take on the mob to help someone that the police are perfectly happy to lock up. Gotta love someone who fights for the little people.

If you like pulp stories, especially those with tough female protagonists, or have just been wondering what the whole 'pulp' deal is about, this title is good, inexpensive way to dip into the pool.

Personally, I wouldn't mind see more (and longer) Kitty stories in the future.