-
The author of Skulls in the Stars is a professor of physics, specializing in optical science, at UNC Charlotte. The blog covers topics in physics and optics, the history of science, classic pulp fantasy and horror fiction, and the surprising intersections between these areas. -
Category Archives: Horror
Basil Copper’s The Great White Space
H.P. Lovecraft not only introduced a fundamentally new genre of horror — “cosmic horror” — but inspired generations of writers who have built on his ideas and taken them in interesting new directions. Valancourt Books recently released a new edition … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Lovecraft
3 Comments
R.I.P. Richard Matheson (1926-2013)
Yesterday, I learned via Boing Boing that Richard Matheson, amazing author of speculative fiction, horror, and much more, died at the age of 87. One of my earliest blog posts was a “horror masters” post on Richard Matheson, who I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Science fiction
3 Comments
Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers
This post continues a long-neglected series of posts about classic novels of science fiction and horror that were adapted into movies of the 1950s and 1960s. Years past, I talked about John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos and The Day of … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Science fiction
2 Comments
John Blackburn’s The Face of the Lion
I won’t have many more of these to announce in the future (I swear!), but I wanted to point out that another book by John Blackburn has been released recently that contains an introduction by me — The Face of … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
Leave a comment
Colin Wilson’s The Philosopher’s Stone
I have to admit: I almost didn’t finish reading Colin Wilson‘s 1969 novel The Philosopher’s Stone, recently reprinted by Valancourt Books. The novel is, in my opinion, a slow-starter; it takes quite some time for this curious story to find … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Lovecraft, Science fiction
7 Comments
The Club Dumas, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
For reasons that I never quite understand, some books that I purchase end up sitting on my shelf, unread, for months or even years. Typically, when I come back to read them, I end up mentally kicking myself for avoiding … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Mystery/thriller
7 Comments
John Blackburn’s “Nothing but the Night”
I’m happy to announce that another of John Blackburn’s classic horror novels has been reprinted by Valancourt Books, and again it features an introduction by me — Nothing but the Night! When a bus crashes that is carrying orphans … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Personal
Leave a comment
John Blackburn’s “Bury Him Darkly” and “Broken Boy”
Part of why I love writing this blog is rediscovering classic weird fiction that has been lost through misadventure and misfortune. Happily, others share this interest, and some of them are in an even better position to do something about … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Personal
7 Comments
Phantasmagoria: How Étienne-Gaspard Robert terrified Paris for science
Scientists are so often imagined to be bland and unimaginative, slaving away at research and taking away the joy of nature. I’m no longer so irritated by this perception as I used to be, but rather surprised by it: going … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Horror, Optics
15 Comments
The Thing From the Lake, by Eleanor Ingram (1921)
I am continually astonished at the number of truly wonderful books that have been neglected and then forgotten as the years go by. Sometimes the books are simply ahead of their time, sometimes the authors die, leaving no one to … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
4 Comments
