Category Archives: Reviews

Pet Peeves, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Speculative

War for the Planet of the Apes

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As a fan of the 1968 Planet of the Apes movie, and even the first sequel, I’ve watched the revamping of the franchise with interest.  Between career drama, family tragedy, and other distractions in my personal life, I missed this film’s release in 2017 and was not even aware of its existence until a few days ago.

Of course I had to watch it.

What it’s About:

After the events depicted in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Caesar has led his fellow smart apes into the woods and established a secret colony there. At the beginning of this film, the  evil humans (who apparently have nothing better to do) find the colony and intend to commit genocide against them.

Caesar needs to move the entire colony away quickly to a new settlement where they won’t be found, but breaks off from them to undertake his own revenge mission. To avoid spoilers, suffice it to say that from there, the plot builds toward a climactic battle at the end.

Who Directed this Thing?

Upon looking up director Matt Reeves on InfoGalactic, I was shocked to discover he is Generation X. For reasons that might occur to you while reading the rest of this review, I would have guessed Boomer–specifically a draft-dodging “campus activist” Boomer who probably still has a North Vietnamese flag tacked to his wall. I can only speculate about this: Maybe Reeves is a Boomer wannabe. Perhaps, like me, he grew up immersed in Boomer culture and, unlike me, adopted all of it as his own. (Full disclosure: I still love a lot of Boomer music and some of the American cars manufactured during their rising adult years are still my favorites. In fact, some of my best friends are Boomers.)

Cringe Factor:

The older I get, the more of a problem I have with cruelty to animals. The newest Ape movies have been hard to watch because there is so much of it. And, just like so many pinko directors before him, Reeves uses our empathy for the ape characters in an attempt to make us buy in to his themes and worldview.

On several occasions I felt like apologizing to my dog on behalf of all human beings. He sat watching me, waiting for me to turn off the TV and play with him–much less upset about human cruelty than I was.

Technical Ineptitude:

The screenwriter and director know absolutely nothing about the military, other than what they’ve seen in other movies and TV shows. Which is to say: damn little.

And that’s fine–as long as they steer clear of projects that depict military units and personnel. When film makers make their predictably half-assed effort, it grates on me

Hey, Spielberg is a leftist Boomer who (along with George Lucas) probably has a North Vietnamese flag tacked to his wall. But at least he hired an advisor for Saving Private Ryan so he didn’t vomit his ignorance all over the screen for the entire movie. There were moments when he obviously vetoed the experts’ advice, for the sake of dramatic tension and such. Because Hollywood Boomer. Can’t get your expectations too high with that crowd.  And this movie reminded me that Boomer director Francis Ford Coppola actually did a commendable job depicting soldiers at war (for a draft-dodging Boomer, anyway).

Dismissing exceptions like Spielberg and Coppola, when it comes to draft-dodging Boomers who make movies about war, there are two camps: those who believe the US armed Forces is comprised solely of the Marine Corps, and those who believe every swinging Richard in the military is Special Forces. Reeves was obviously discipled by the latter camp.

The evil humans are led by Woody Harrelson playing his own version of Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse, Now! Dude shaves his head and listens to Jimmi Hendrix while planning an idiotic defensive battle against other evil humans  who believe his methods are unsound and are coming to terminate his command, with extreme prejudice. At least there was no monologue about watching a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor.

The “Special Forces” officers and men under his command demonstrate the tactical acumen of a young boy playing with plastic army men. (Maybe the real deal is like that these days. I know the standards have been plummeting across the board as good soldiers have been chased out to open slots for freaks, perverts, womyn and diversity hires.)

However, the movie’s human soldiers do have magic ghost-ninja powers that allow them to repeatedly and easily sneak up and get the drop on the apes, who apparently lost their animal survival instincts, hearing, sense of smell, and developed one whale of a myopia in their vision. At least for the parts of the story that require such handicaps. In fact, these seasoned, professional SF A-Team operators can even have hysterical conversations about 30 yards from an ape listening post and not be discovered.

There’s a lot more I could complain about on this subject, but that would make this a loooooong post.

Theme, Etc:

Much like a Stanley Kubrick film, the big question the screenwriter/director wants you to ask is, “Who actually demonstrates humanity in this story?” Hint: it ain’t the humans.

I give the filmmakers props for driving this theme home with a couple shots of soldiers showing themselves to be more feral than the apes with the motivational mass command and hoowah-ing that grunts are conditioned to perform (but Special Forces soldiers do not, unless their ranks are filled with guys from the Ranger Battalions).  They sounded more like apes than the apes, and this is the closest the movie ever gets to verisimilitude from a military perspective.

Humans are barbaric savages who would rather lose a battle and be wiped out than to miss an opportunity to murder some escaping, unarmed apes. Like the gorilla traitors they employ as “donkeys,” humans are fanatical killers who will follow idiotic orders blindly without question, but are incapable of empathy, gratitude, fair play, or any sort of decency. Except for Nova, who is a young girl in this movie.

Caesar, Luca, Rocket and the other apes are the only characters (besides Nova)  who have any humanity.

This movie really comes off like yet another symbolic summary of Vietnam, as told by a communist propaganda minister–like Little Big Man, Soldier Blue, Return of the Jedi, and Avatar.

Everything you’ll see here has been done before many times. There is no part of this movie that suffers from any modicum of originality.

The acting is fine and the musical score is competent. All the elements of filmmaking come together to sadden, depress, disturb and/or infuriate you over the mistreatment of the apes. And that is pretty much all this film is good for.

Fantasy, Reviews

The Hunter by K. Aagard – a Review

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(The Hunter of Fareldin Series Book 1)

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~Her eyes watered with tears as she took the first bite. The mere taste of the food seemed to give her body strength. It was nothing like the fine dishes she was used to, but at the time it tasted better than anything she’d ever eaten~

What it’s About:

As I read and analyzed Book 1 of The Hunter of Fareldin, I couldn’t help but keep comparing it to another book we recently reviewed on Virtual Pulp based on certain similarities. Both stories revolve around two seemingly different and polar opposite characters-a young girl and a brooding ranger (or hunter)-caught up in a life and death situation that involves a long journey on foot and on horseback while being hunted by dangerous foes. The big difference is that in The Hunter of Fareldin the writer doesn’t bore us to death and doesn’t create incoherent character behavior as things unfold.

Flow:

Let’s face it, when most of the story consists of marching/setting up camp/building a fire/repeating, keeping things interesting can be quite the challenge. But I’m happy to say that Aagard manages to do so and in a very astounding fashion. Not only does the story hardly ever get boring, but we slowly start feeling invested in the two main characters just as they slowly start building strong emotional ties toward one another!

Plot:

Our adventure starts when a failed kidnapping attempt of young noblewoman Adeline of Fenforde (Addy) finds our young protagonist lost and alone in foreign land. When she tries to steal a sword from a strange man, she strikes a most unusual deal with Strider (aka The Hunter) and his giant wolf pet Greer. She promises that if he can deliver her back home to her family he’d be generously compensated for it by her father. Although Strider accepts the offer, little is he concerned with monetary compensation, but this mission rather gives his life some temporary meaning, which it had none left ever since his family was murdered.

This is a story of powerful but dangerous magic, of spies and inside jobs, but most importantly of lives being restored to hope.

Craft:

If I have to use a word to describe the work the author does here, that word would be BALANCE. Aagard always finds that perfect balance between character development, action scenes, compelling plot lines, and solid prose. And so, just when we feel like the story is getting too slow she gives it a boost with something that gains our attention right back, and when we feel that we should know more about a character she slows things down, taking the time to dig into their minds and hearts.

Although a Book 2 is in the making, the reader turning to the last page will feel satisfied knowing that they read a complete story whether or not they decide to pick up the next book. But given the quality of this first story, I don’t see how anybody wouldn’t want to read more of The Hunter of Fareldin!

🦀

Alternate HIstory, Fantasy, Reviews

The Dweller in Drury Lane by Paul Leone

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THE DWELLER IN DRURY LANE AND OTHER CURIOUS CHRONICLES

Reviewed by

“Above all, she remembered the first time she saw Him, the first time she heard His words. These were good memories, holy ones. Ya’el tried to bury the other memories this place carried with it beneath them. As ever, she failed.”

 

If you follow me on social media and/or are subscribed to the INFAMOUS🦀 YouTube channel, you would have noticed the ample use of terms such as ‘NEW LEGENDS’ or ‘LEGENDARY’. And that is simply due to the essence of what I (and Virtual Pulp) do on a daily basis: exhorting authors to write good stories that resonate through time and that have, for lack of better terms, no expiration date. 

There is a point when a good story is no longer just a good story but becomes a LEGEND. Paul Leone’s The Dweller In Drury Lane is all that, and then some! If there is a work of fiction literature today that encompasses everything I always ramble about, this book right here embodies all those elements to their fullest! 

Before we dive in, I want to officially welcome Paul to our elite group of Virtual Pulp LEGENDARY authors, and look forward to a very needed Q&A interview later on!

What it’s About:

But what is this book with such a long title really about? And what makes it so special? To answer that question we need to mention what author/youtuber Bonsart Bokel stated some time ago: fiction writers should focus more on history while applying new and exciting concepts to it. 

Regurgitating good content that has already been written only creates predictable and boring books. 

We covered a good few authors recently who have adopted the alternate history approach with excellent results. The Dweller in Drury Lane can be categorized as alternate history based on the fact that everything we read is historically accurate, and it’s within this historically accurate environment that Leone works his magic (pun intended!).

The book is a collection of short stories divided in two groups: the first group of stories follows the adventures of Immortal Champion Ya’el, circa 65 AD Jerusalem. The second group follows the adventures of Lady Renee De Launcey and her Puritan maid-servant Innocence circa XVII England.

Characters:

Make no mistake, even though both main characters are female, they are far removed from the modern image of ‘strong independent WAMEN’ portrayed in our modern western pop culture. In fact, Ya’el is constantly torn by two seemingly polar opposite commandments, whereas Renee and Innocence are aware that they need the aid of men when dealing with powerful and dangerous foes.

As soon as we flip to page 1 we are immediately transported to another world thanks to Leone’s prose. There are virtually no traces of modern euphemisms and in fact at times I had to wonder if the author was someone who lived centuries ago. Every chapter  in the first half of the book feels like reading an ancient manuscript translated from Hebrew, Roman, and Greek into old English: think of Homer, Virgil, and of course the Holy Bible itself.

Secondary characters are as rich and complex as the main characters. I particularly loved the character of Coem, a young girl from Hibernia (Ireland) in search of vengeance for the murder of her family by the hands of another Immortal Champion of Sheol. THIS is how you write characters that resonate with us hours and even days after we close the book. Young Coem wasn’t able to kill her family’s murderer because mortal weapons cannot kill a Champion of Sheol. Ya’el decides to aid Coem and tells her of a weapon that can harm a Champion called Aurichalcum-the alloy of Atlantis. To which Coem replies:  “Then will that slice her skin?” How can you not LOVE that delivery!

Prose:

When we move to Part 2 of the book, we are now in XVII England and I’m not kidding when I say that I haven’t been this enthralled ever since reading Jane Austen’s prose! The choice of verbs, adjectives, nouns, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, modifiers, syntax, the subtle expressions typical of the period, are all top notch here!

The attention to the historical aspect also deserves great praise. Whether we are walking through Jerusalem in 65 AD or we find ourselves in the countryside of Great Britain in 1665 AD, we keep getting fed captivating historical data as the narrative unfolds. 

In closing, I encourage you all to grab a copy of The Dweller. If this interview doesn’t motivate you to do so, maybe the fact that you can download the entire book for FREE will.

 

Note from INFAMOUS:

This review will be followed up by a Q&A with author where we will uncover even more about all this, and I will also mention how a few years ago I read another book by Leone and wasn’t at all impressed by it!

🦀

Fantasy, Reviews, Speculative

EVIL NEVER RESTS by Kevin G. Beckman

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The Weird Tales of Silas Flint (The Flint Anthologies Book 1)

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This is the third story we find in the Weird Tales, and it seems like Beckman continues to pleasantly surprise us with outstanding storytelling that is well thought-out and well written.

Though each story is its own, there is also a bigger picture in this world and events that keeps opening wider as we go along. And so we find once again witch hunter Silas Flint and supernumerary Ricardo Navarro exactly where the last tale left them.

What it’s about:

When a messenger delivers an urgent message that their aid is needed at a town where supposedly ‘werewolf’ attacks have been reported, the choice for our duo is easy: go investigate and possibly kill some werewolves!

Along the way, we have the chance to briefly meet Charles, Flint’s evil brother, and three very enigmatic witch sisters who will play a major role in the unfolding of the following events. Who are the three sisters? And why do they seem to aid Flint in his mission? 

When our heroes deduct that the murders were not random but strictly connected to key names in the current local political circle,  the story takes on a sort of mystery/detective tone which, coupled with some very captivating characters like Mr Oglethorpe, propels the story to new heights of fun, action, and inspiration. Why do I mention inspiration? You might ask. Well if a character like Oglethorpe doesn’t inspire you at some level I don’t know what will. His faith, resolution, conviction, and toughness, despite his advanced age, is only matched by Silas Flint’s himself! Love the guy and he definitely steals the spotlight!

To conclude, I want to again point out how these tales fully embody the spirit of classic pulp fiction while taking on their own shape and form. Needless to say, see you in two weeks with the next tale: The Gloom of the Grave.

🦀

Adventure, Fantasy, Reviews

MAN OF SWORDS: The Beast Beneath Druihmkirk

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(Part 6 of a 6-Part Series)

Review by

~She could not stand, no matter how desperate her desire to do so. “Please,” she shrieked in distress, “I cannot.” “Nor do you have to,” soothed the warrior, quite gentle. And he caught her up, handling her as if her frame were a feather.~

 

The Beast Beneath Druihmkirk is the final tale we find in R.V. Mills’ Man of Swords, and I’m happy to say it is yet another memorable read! Mills never ceases to delight us with these legends in the making!

What It’s About:

Our hero Rohye is wanted by the evil city Provost (think of it as a city Mayor) on the charges of freeing a defenseless woman from the cruel shackles unjustly put on her for basically rejecting the advances of the city Provost himself. He and the girl need to find a way out of town, but it seems like the only way to escape is by taking the sewage route where no man dares roam due to the legend of a mighty beast that has been inhabiting the underground for years.

What I like about this story is that-similarly to The Isle of the Shrine of the Sick’ning Scarab– some of the most deciding and crucial scenes take place with Rohye not being in them. This is a fresh take and makes the plot development more organic in a sense, and not as predictable.

Once again, chivalry, loyalty, courage, perseverance are all displayed and highlighted throughout this ordeal. There is GOOD and there is BAD, no gray areas. Modern  narrative today is leaning more towards the concept of the ‘misunderstood’ or ‘alienated’ character, but in actuality all that does is blur the lines of morality. Not in Mills’ book! He is pretty firm on the values he puts forth and THAT is what makes Man of Swords a true classic of our current fiction literature.

Not to mention the superb prose, the attention given to secondary/supporting characters, and the plain realization that this is not just your next book on your TBR list.

To conclude, I want to encourage my man Robert to keep writing and never feel discouraged or swayed by the winds of modernism and progressive trends. This series was a true blessing for me personally, and I hope that more folks will pick this up and come to appreciate these amazing stories. True legends in the making!

INFAMOUS 🦀

This concludes this 6-part series. Hope you enjoyed it and that you will leave us your feedback. Virtual Pulp and Robert V. Mills will be back soon with another 6-part series, this time to cover Robert’s latest work The Girl With Fire In Her Hair! Stay tuned and thank you!

Reviews, SHTF

PNW Affliction 1: Recycled by Chance Paladin

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(A Review)

Recycled is one of the books I picked up recently on a cyber-shopping trip.  It was a lightning-quick read, in a series of 23 books.

What It’s About:

Our hero is out on a midnight walk when the lights start going out.  He winds up seeking shelter at an abandoned building.

Not an overly ambitious plot, but according to the metadata and a few clues sprinkled into the narrative, this is the beginning of a SHTF survival adventure. I happen to enjoy that genre–especially when the story is told well and protagonist isn’t stupid.

I’ll start with a mild spoiler: 90% of this book is the protagonist exploring a closed down recycling plant, solving puzzles to find a room and the tools he’ll need to keep warm while he sacks out for a few hours.

Reading the book is a lot like watching somebody play a videogame–which I guess is a thing, now, on Youtube. Fallout 1 meets Leisure Suit Larry, but without the hook-up options.

Author’s Execution:

This book read like a rough draft that suffers from no proofreading. There were a lot of typos, distracting shifts from present-to-past tense, and plot points that weren’t thought out very well.

Main Plot Contrivance:

I never understood why the protagonist didn’t just go home, being only a few blocks away. Yes, the night gets dark as the lights go out, but  his eyes adjusted to the dark, we are told–and he has a flashlight. There is mention of homeless encampments and a spree of home invasions. Such would make me even more determined to make it home. In fact, if the danger was too extreme to walk home from the convenience store (being visible to potential threats either because of street lights, or my own flashlight), then I wouldn’t have left home in the first place.

The Magic Cat:

Power is out, but there are keyless entries throughout the building which don’t require electricity to trigger–including at least one outer door. Using his smartphone just before the cell towers go down, our hero finds a BBS or web chat forum used by the employees with a clue that “the groundskeeper” can let you in if you’ve forgotten your key card, or the code to the keyless entry.

The MC doesn’t have to wait for the groundskeeper. The groundskeeper, evidently, is a housecat, with the access code for the door printed on its collar.

After MC and the cat enter the building, the cat is able to access certain rooms via “pressure pads.” It also is fairly clumsy, knocking stuff over with loud crashing noises a few times, to cause suspense I imagine.

Toward the end of the book, when the MC finally runs into some antagonists, the magic cat defends him, dispatching one of the assailants.

Right.

So, this would be unusual heroism for an animal he just met that night–even a very perceptive dog. But a cat? Even a cat who loved you would simply stand by and watch while you got beaten to death–or, at best, run and hide. Exactly how the cat puts the attacker out of commission is not explained. Nor could it be. This creature is referred to as a “monster cat” a few times. It’s evidently an exceptionally large cat. Even so, let’s pretend its feline brain has been replaced with that of a loyal terrier. It can break the skin and cause pain to a human with bad intentions, but to take that human out of the fight, it would need to be a cougar, or at least a bobcat.

The Climax:

After dawn, there is an attack on the building by an organized mob. There’s a city-wide power outage, presumably the beginning of a SHTF scenario, and police are a non-factor for whatever reason. Within a few hours, a bunch of scumbags (leaderless, we are told) find each other and organize into an assault team…and they choose as a target an abandoned recycling center?

Not a gas station (they have a vehicle). Not a clothing, sneaker, or jewelry store (which rioters loot in real life). They don’t attack some statue or monument they identify as a symbol of “fascism” or “white supremacy” (as rioters do in real life). Not a grocery store. A closed down, locked up recycling center.

The MC is hit by a truck, helps the cat fight off the bad guys until the cavalry (former employees of the recycling plant?) rides to the rescue, and then passes out from the blunt force trauma of the truck hitting him.

Reviewer’s Take:

Despite all the above, I read to the finish. I didn’t know much about the MC other than he’s survival-savvy and loves cats, but I wanted him to find a place where he could keep warm and get some sleep.

Will I read more from the series? Well, I’ve already bought Book 6–the other one that was 99 cents. So I imagine I will.

My best guess about this is that Mr. Paladin is pumping these short books out as fast as he can without much quality control because he is convinced quantity is more important. In today’s series-dominated fiction market, maybe he’s right.

This is the kind of story you might write for the amusement of friends or family. It is not the sort of work I would consider ready to sell for a profit to complete strangers. Yet, evidently, the latter is the case.

It suffers many of the problems that are stereotypical of indie fiction. This one would be easier to polish than most, but it already has 21 ratings on Amazon (most of which are favorable), so I suspect the incentive is not there for the author to fix it.

How a book with these problems gets such a favorable average truly is strange, when solid work without these problems are awarded far less flattering “social proof.” But I’ll spare you my speculation about that.

Adventure, Fantasy, Reviews

THE HOLLOW REALMS/BOOK 2: ASHES OF NECROPOLIS

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By Jordan Allen

Review by

I walked into Ashes of Necropolis while already being familiar with Book 1 of the Hollow Realms Series. And although not a perfect work, Book 1 overall was pretty good in my opinion.

Book 2 left me with more mixed feelings and overall I thought it to be a step down from the previous story.

What I’m referring to is mainly the overall dialogue, some of the plot lines, and characters we find along the way.

Characters:

Our main character is mercenary Erde who travels to the city of Furcht where his friends have last been seen, to rescue them. Right there I found issue with the fact that Erde shows on several occasions that he is willing to give his own life for his three friends but we never get to see what made his relationship with them so special. We just have to accept the fact that Erde is a very altruistic man. 

Speaking of the main character, I noticed that although Erde is a fearless warrior, he sounds like he must not be the ‘brightest bulb on the Christmas tree’ if you catch my drift. He kinda’ reminds me of the ‘clueless’ Keanu Reeves performances on the big screen, if you know what I’m referring to.

Example: he gets a brand new magic sword branded by a powerful spider/woman hybrid and all he can say is: 

“It looks pretty and shiny,” said Erde, twirling the blade effortlessly, “but what does it do?”

Another thing that I found odd plot-wise is when Erde finds his first friend Troye trapped in a cell, and Troye tells him that the key to the lock of the cell is none other than one of the fingernails belonging to the big Pig Warden outside. How does Troye even know that? No clue.

Cohesion/Craft:

Alrich is another character that has been stuck in this extra-dimensional town for years and he has healing powers. We learn that he was just another knight who wandered into this town so how does he have healing powers? Did he already possess them or somehow gained them in Furcht? No clue.

Lastly, and worth mentioning, I noticed the use of modern terminology that just doesn’t vibe well within the context of the story. Example: Erde needs a great Master Smith in Furcht to forge him a mighty and magical armor to defeat the enemy. But when he shows impatience, the Master Smith’s response is: 

“My time does not revolve around your schedule, human.”

Schedule is not exactly a word an immortal demigod would use…but that’s just me!

To conclude, I still enjoyed some of the elements this book shares with book 1. I like the atmospheric vibes the author builds and surrounds the reader with. At times you really feel like you’re walking in the thick fog with the MC, and the sense of mystery and adventure still makes this a fun read, if you can just turn away in indifference to the points I mentioned above.

🦀

Fantasy, Reviews, TEOTWAWKI

The Witch’s Repentance – a Review

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The Weird Tales of Silas Flint (The Flint Anthologies Book 1)

A Review By

“You used your powers to commit crimes against the laws of man, however, in addition to the laws of God. God will forgive you, but that does not excuse you from the consequences of your criminal activities in this world.”

 

After reviewing the first tale of Book 1 of The Weird Tales of Silas Flint, we were so impressed with this pulp fiction narrative that we decided to jump right into the second tale!

What it’s About:

As the title suggests, this time we find Flint dealing with a witch who claims repentance and seeks forgiveness for her transgressions against God and against the laws of man. And speaking of repentive thoughts, this now seems an ongoing theme in the Silas Flint tales. Witches are evil and corrupt, and yet even they were at one point just normal human beings and thus even they sometimes long for that lost sense of humanity. 

Zelda Fletcher was a woman who was seduced and corrupted by a master of evil sorcery, Francisco. But when she realized that Francisco was aiming at more nefarious deeds than just robbing the local stores by ways of witchcraft, she had enough and left him. Now Flint must decide how to apply the full power of the law to Zelda’s case, while also dealing with a possessed Francisco who is about to hit town with a vengeance!

Reviewer’s Take:

Once again Beckman manages to create the ‘classic’ pulp fiction vibes we fell in love with by reading Solomon Kane, yet creating something NEW. 

Concepts of Truth, Righteousness, Good vs Evil are all valued and taken quite seriously rather than scoffed at (see a lot of mainstream ‘reinterpretations’ of classic characters). The relationship between Flint and his associate, Navarro, breathes just enough lightheartedness into the story in a tasteful and balanced fashion.

The other pattern I noticed in both tale #1 and #2 is that unlike other similar franchises, where bystanders and townsfolk seem just an inconvenience for the hero to keep out of the way, here everybody is welcome to aid Flint in fighting evil. In fact, we see Flint himself oftentimes encourage every able body to pick up a weapon and stand against evil, rather than tell them to get lost. This is a very interesting choice and one that I can appreciate for different reasons.

Needless to say, friends if you haven’t picked up a copy of the Weird Tales yet I strongly suggest to do so, and follow us as we move on to tale #3: Evil Never Rests!

🦀

Reviews, Speculative

Die Stunde X by Shaun Stafford – a Review

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Every now and then, a book ends up in my TBR list that will hit hard and make me ponder the absolute evil that mankind is capable of in ways that go deeper than I could have possibly predicted. Die Stunde X is just that.

Written in 1994 and first published in 1995, when the author Shaun Stafford was only 25, this book was originally conceived as a stand-alone novel but it eventually became the first of the Greater German Reich series.

What It’s About:

The premise of this alternate history drama work of fiction are as follows: It’s 1994 and for about 50 years now Great Britain has become a Nazi state. The Greater German Reich controls all of Europe and there’s a Cold War going on between the Reich and Russia and the US, who have formed a Russo-American Pact against the Nazi regime.

 But the British citizens are far from losing hope, and freedom fighters keep the polizei constantly busy. The best organized British resistance cell at the moment seems to be the Combat UK, and a bloody chess game is being played by both sides.

When the Third Fuhrer decides to visit Great Britain occupied territories, Combat UK sees this as the perfect opportunity to murder the leader of the Reich.

Reviewer’s Take:

What I liked about the plot is that the author leads the reader to assume where the story is going but later on, with an unexpected turn of events, introduces a series of different other possibilities. This move was masterful, in my opinion.

The story also describes five different ‘interrogations by torture’ scenes, which are very graphic. I usually don’t like to read about violence and physical abuse, but in the context of what we’re reading here, it cannot be dismissed or hidden. This is alternate history drama fiction but the vivid realism of the atrocities depicted in it will make you tremble and weep for humanity.

One thing I want to reiterate is that this is not at all violence for violence’s sake. Die Stunde X is brutal, violent, raw, and of very graphic nature. But it’s also beautiful in its absolute truths, providing a mirror for all humanity to stop. And stare. This book shouldn’t make you think “I’m glad I’m not like them!” but rather “All of us carry the seed of potentially committing heinous acts while  believing in a perverse and twisted idea”.

In conclusion, I want to congratulate Shaun on a magnificent job well done. This book was written almost 30 years ago and yet it has not aged a bit. No, I can’t say that I was smiling when I got to the last page, but at the same time I knew in my mind and in my heart that this book must be praised, it must be shared, it must be read, and it must be preserved for generations to come. 

Thank you Shaun, and look forward to book 2!

🦀

Fantasy, Historical, Reviews

THE SPIRIT PHONE by Arthur Shattuck O’Keefe

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A Review by

I’m beginning to notice a pattern with some of our last few guest authors and the source material they are basing their works of fiction literature on. Instead of just trying to emulate other writers, they are tapping into the vast inspiration provided directly by history itself; taking real historical characters/events and applying new and creative ideas to them for innovative storytelling.

The latest gentleman to join this group is A.S. O’Keefe with The Spirit Phone.

What it’s About:

Based on true accounts of Thomas Edison’s attempts to build a phone-like device to communicate with the dead, The Spirit Phone throws the reader into a vortex of the historical, the paranormal, and the technological.

Our two main characters in this dystopian alternate history are none other than Allister Crowley and Nikola Tesla: two individuals far apart in personality, yet with just enough in common to prevent a demonic invasion of our plane of reality–for the spirit phone turns out to be not the tool to speak with the deceased, but rather the key to unlock entry of evil entities called ferox into our world! Only mage A. Crowley and acclaimed scientist N. Tesla stand in the way of doom!

Characters:

Honestly, it doesn’t matter how much you know about Crowley and Tesla, it doesn’t even matter what your opinion of these two historical figures is if you do know of them. The synergy between the two in this alternate historical setting is the stuff of legends! One is the hedonistic occultist with a flair for the extravagant; the other the more pragmatic scientist with a fixation for numbers. Yet, where one lacks in certain skills or knowledge, the other always seems to compensate for it. And that’s how they comprise a complimentary team.

O’Keefe manages to infuse just enough sense of humor into the Crowley/Tesla duo while avoiding the ridiculous or campy. These characters’ personalities and the situations they get into can be hilarious at times, but in ways that feel natural and not at all forced. 

Reviewer’s Take:

Even the paranormal and the technological elements involved in the story always feel quite plausible. Yes this is a work of fiction and yes the author is adding stuff of his own to these historical characters, but none of it ever feels too unlikely to have possibly happened in actuality.

The reason why this alternate history universe works is first and foremost due to the author respecting the source material, which in this case is the historical period of time itself: from the locations, to the people, to the food, restaurants and hotels, to the daily newspapers, everything feels authentic. This is not about taking a historical period and simply changing the gender or the sex of its characters to virtue signal or to highlight the ‘injustices of white westerners’ or the ‘oppression of women’s voices’.

The underlying core theme is MANKIND and his ongoing struggle to deal with his own mortality. An invention that promised to let us communicate with our dead loved ones turned out to be a tool for evil to rule our world. Man, in all his technological advances, still is like a baby just learning how to crawl. This story is much more than just your next fantasy trope on your TBR list. This is the stuff legends are made of. 

I’m very glad to say that Mr O’Keefe deservedly enters our elite group of legendary authors here at Virtual Pulp!

🦀