Got a couple treats coming up for you from guest poster IINFAMOUS REVIEWER GIO Probably next week, you’ll see the review right here–followed by an interview with the author.
Gio calls this a legendary tale in the tradition of Robert E. Howard.
Sounds like this book is a standout, five star read, so start the New Year off right and come back to check it out!
Actually, you can buy them from November 22nd-29th.
As word spreads about the Big Based Book Sale, this one might be the biggest and best yet.
The books offered are, at the very minimum, void of PC content. Some, like Schantz’s own novels, actually serve up direct counter-arguments to the shibboleths of a PC worldview. In his novels, these might be reflected in the narrative arc or in the dialogue itself. (His young adult trilogy, The Hidden Truth, for instance, is predicated on the reality of a globalist cabal, while his fictional high school students debate topics such as why or why not women should have the vote.) In the end, I imagine that all of the authors offering their works for this event approach being “based” differently.
BTW, I have finished The Hidden Truth and highly recommend it. I’ll post a review here in the near future. Hans G. Schantz has also made 49 chapters (so far) from The Wise of Heart available to read for free on Arkhaven and his substack.
The Big Based Book Sale ends tomorrow. You still have time to save money on some good reads by non-woke authors.
Wow–my Retreads trilogy made the top 10??!??! To think I almost didn't put them in this time… And I've been plugging the sale mostly to sci-fi and fantasy groups. https://t.co/lV3rvGqNaE
— Henry Brown (@MachineTrooper) September 12, 2023
And despite it being mostly a sci-fi/fantasy deal, my Retreads trilogy made the Top Ten in sales. If you haven’t picked up my paramilitary adventures, now’s a good time to get those for cheap, too. (Not just on Amazon, BTW. There are universal book links on the “Books” page right here at Virtual Pulp.)
My thanks to Hans Schantz for putting this sale together. Hopefully the first novel in my new series will be ready by the time of his next sale. Or the one after that…
Here are some titles I picked up for 99 cents apiece from the Big Based Book Sale:
The most recent attempt at secession happened in the New World in 1776, some two hundred years ago. General George Washington nearly succeeded at rallying his countrymen in a military revolt against the Crown. But disunity and infighting ultimately brought them down, and Washington was executed in a public spectacle.
Most people gave up. But not all.
The cleverest and most driven survivors went to ground. They learned from their mistakes. They planned, they plotted, they tinkered and they toiled. They began to develop new weapons and machines that would level the playing field. With technology at their fingertips, anyone could stand toe-to-toe with a British mage and come off conqueror.
The uprising has been a long time coming. The arsenal is as large as it’s going to get. Now all the “technomancer” army needs is soldiers, young patriots like Calvin Adler, who has had enough of the mages pushing him around.
Freedom beckons, if he will but pay the price in blood, sweat, and tears.
This is the New Revolution.
He has no name. His past is a mystery. His future is etched in blood…
The Sellsword knows an opportunity when he sees one. When he rides into the border city of Aldreth, he can tell that th
But after the alluring duchess catches his eye, the Sellsword puts himself in harm’s way to protect her and the innocent people of Aldreth. To save the noble few, spells and blades won’t stop the Sellsword from leaving a swath of righteous carnage in his wake…
Brutal is an action-packed grimdark fantasy in the vein of classic pulp fiction and Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. If you like gory battles, larger-than-life characters, and witty humor, then you’ll love James Alderdice’s gritty tale.
Yeah, I’m in a sci-fi & fantasy mood lately. I also picked up a few classics for free, at the Big Based Book Sale.
There is an alternative to the Marxist garbage being rammed down your throat on all the mainstream/legacy platforms. Support what you love, or it goes away.
I’m not sure how intentional Paul Hair was about paying tribute to Indiana Jones with this story, but I couldn’t help making comparisons while reading it (specifically to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Raiders of the Lost Ark). However, it’s more than just a pastiche or fan fiction.
The author uses pulp adventure to thematically concentrate on the old axiom: “Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Which, I guess, would have made it a candidate for a spot in some of the classic adventure magazines in the heyday of pulp fiction. Except that Hair weaves in some more modern elements–like a couple typical Current Year college students assisting on the quest.
Plot-wise, The Chosen One is almost formulaic…until you get to a big twist that I honestly wasn’t expecting. Having communicated with Paul a little bit (he does blog here, occasionally) I wouldn’t figure him as an author who likes moral ambiguity. But I just don’t know for sure which character’s perspective he endorses.
There is some ideology that pops up in the story, but it’s on the subtle side, compared to his flash fiction. When I get political in my prose, I tend to use a sledgehammer. So do some of the other authors who contributed to this anthology. That’s not how Paul tackles it, unless I’m just dense. You might find yourself pondering and questioning long after you finish reading the story…which could be the author’s core purpose in writing it.
Some of the tales in Appalling Stories 4 are super-quick reads. But this one’s got some meat on it. I thought it was a fun read.
I’m not calling it “the Martial Law Book Sale” because I’m trying desperately to be optimistic about the shutdown and what will happen afterwards.
While we’re waiting (and hoping) for this to blow over, don’t succumb to boredom. Kick back with a good book and enjoy the down time.
Mike has reduced the prices of all his e-novels, now. Also, I’ve slashed the prices of my shorter books and will add those links, too. Remember, you can click on the images or the text links to buy. And all these books are available not only on Amazon for the Kindle, but at Barnes & Noble for the Nook, Kobo, the Apple Store, and just about every other store where you can buy e-books, for whatever device.
-Hank
Fast Cars and Rock & Roll…that title tells you exactly what you’re in for in this 459 page high-testosterone tale of Deke Jones’ adventures with racing, rock music, and ravishing women.
Click here to read it on Kobo.
Click here to get it from Smashwords.
Click here to get it everywhere else.
Deke Jones is back for 612 pages of private detective work mixed with irreverent mayhem in Shadow Hand Blues, trying to solve a cold-case mystery after stumbling on a dead blues man’s electric guitar.
Click here to read it on Kobo.
Click here to get it from Smashwords.
Click here to get it everywhere else.
There are no elves, unicorns, or pixie ninjas in Gods & Proxies, but it’s about as epic a fantasy as you could possibly get in 316 pages. Or is it a fantasy at all?
Click here to read it on Kobo.
Click here to get it from Smashwords.
Click here to get it everywhere else.
The Curly Wolf is 321 pages of western action, innocent romance, and larger-than-life characters.
Click here to read it on Kobo.
Click here to get it from Smashwords.
Click here to get it everywhere else.
The entire Retreads series is available for a song at Amazon. Well, I don’t think they actually make you sing. But the three E-Books will cost less than a cheeseburger from the drive-through.
And, of course, the books are for sale individually, too. Hell and Gone was the series premier, my first bestseller, and still the most popular of all my books.
Buy it for the Nook on Barnes & Noble.
Also available as an audiobook from Audible. Comment on this post to get a coupon code for a discount!
The second Retreads novel is Tier Zero. Many readers thought it was even better than the first book.
Also available as an audiobook from Audible. Comment on this post to get a coupon code for a discount!
With the third book, False Flag, the Retreads series took a turn into SHTF (I believe the current term in use is “boogaloo”) patriot fiction.
Below are some shorter books that were priced lower than the full-length novels. Now they’re even cheaper! (Sale prices will be visible after clicking on the links.)
Long before mixed martial arts, men of the west displayed their violent prowess with fists only. Tomato Can Comeback is the tale of a young fighter’s quest for redemption…on the canvas.
Also available as an audiobook from Audible. Comment on this post to get a coupon code for a discount!
Radical Times is set during the aftermath of the Civil War, when a soldier returns to the girl he loved, but is caught in the middle between two factions that still want to fight.
Thus Spake the Bard tells the story of a troubador and his creative friend, who get on the wrong side of a sheriff from Nottingham.
The Greater Good is a satire, dropping snark bombs on the superhero genre and leftist groupthink.
There will one day be a full-length Honor Triad novel, but for now there are two short books in this heroic fantasy series: The Bloodstained Defile, and The Gryphon of Tirshal.
We are back stateside, and the nationalist superteam has decided they need to win hearts and minds by fighting crime. Hammer and Rebel are teamed up on patrol to keep the streets safe.
But the tension continues to build, and the artwork has improved again. There’s an interesting story arc taking shape–and building (I hope) towards an epic showdown between the European and American superteams.
Get Alt Hero 5 here.
Read the review of Alt Hero 4.
Captain Europa meets with his E.U. overlords to observe a Paris riot-in-the-making between French nationalists and Antifa. The Captain’s team is scattered around, but the U.N. has their own superteam held in reserve just in case the police can’t handle it.
There’s no confusion about which side Captain Europa wants to prevail; but unlike real-life situations in places like Berkeley, the police actually try to restrain both sides. It turns out, though, the cops can’t handle it.
To make matters a whole lot more interesting, there are some super-powered folks on the nationalist side.
I’m still really fuzzy on who has what powers, which works to the writers’ favor, I guess. Two super-strong dudes duked it out at one point, and one seemed to have the other outclassed by an order of magnitude. …Or maybe not? The outclassed guy, after playing punching bag for most of the fight, ended it (?) with a comic book haymaker–and I’m not sure how. Because he got really, really, really mad, I suppose. This is far from the first time that a comic book hero surpassed the limits of their own defined abilities, so it’s not that big a deal. I’d just like to know more about those abilities, that’s all.
This is turning out to be a humdinger of a series. I haven’t been this engaged by a comic storyline for a couple decades. When all these are combined into a print graphic novel, I will probably buy a copy for my son.
Arkhaven is turning up the heat, and steering us toward a big showdown. They’re also still improving on all fronts in Alt Hero 3. The Rebel character is growing on me, too, though the sperg in me wants to inform her that foreigners are not Yankees. In fact, foreigners refer to all Americans, North and South, as Yankees.
But the true heroes are a little too streetwise to fall for it. I won’t give any more away. Suffice it to say, I’m looking forward to the next issue (and 26 ad-free pages just don’t seem like nearly enough for each comic. Sigh.)
Arkhaven Comics is already making a name for itself. Granted: it couldn’t have come along at a time when the competition was less formidable. Still, they’re doing a lot of things right, and may just revive an interest in the medium from someone other than obese gamma basement-dwellers looking for something to do in between LGBT parades.
I don’t want to evoke the old post-Watchmen/Dark Knight Returns “grim and gritty” ideal…but to describe my impression in one sentence, I would say this: Avalon reminds me of the early Astro City comics, only darker.
The art strikes me as somewhere between classic Kirby and some of the ’60s Charlton work. As for the story…it seems Dixon is laying the groundwork for a character-driven saga that might border on deconstructive.
Forgive me for all the analogies (and I’m not going to assume Dixon’s goal is moral ambiguity), but Issue #1 strikes me as how the Cohen Brothers might attempt to tell a superhero story. A certain character pontificates on ethics, appointing himself to define the moral code all masked vigilantes should abide by. Meanwhile, some glaring chinks come into focus on his own shining moral armor.
With understated irony Dixon has no doubt honed to a fine point over his prolific career, this same character warns his crimefighting partner not to breathe in the cocaine dust kicked up by a fight with some bad guys. “Don’t want to get a taste for it,” he says. This comes just after a series of panels documenting his own (presumably first) moral failing–for which he will probably develop a taste.
Then again, will it be considered a moral failing in this narrative? I can’t predict for certain.
Another vigilante guns down some unarmed individuals–a couple in bathrobes–who have a child locked in a cage, waiting to be used in some sort of child pornography. As much as I cherish the Bill of Rights, the last thing I want to hear (read) is some speech about due process and how it’s wrong to become judge, jury and executioner, blah blah blah.
I suppose I’m jaded by the criminal “justice” system that occupies reality. Maybe Dixon is, too. It will be interesting to find out as this story weaves out.
