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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
James Malcolm Rymer’s Varney the Vampire
One of the reasons I enjoy writing this blog is that it gives me an excuse to hunt down and read obscure horror classics that were nonetheless highly influential on the genre. Last night I finished reading such a classic … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
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Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Last Days of Pompeii
One of the fun things about blogging about both science and horror fiction is the unusual connections that one can find between them. On of my favorite science topics outside of physics is vulcanology, which is why I read blogs … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Mystery/thriller
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Roald Dahl, sex spy?
This is entertaining. Roald Dahl, famous author of children’s stories such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and nasty little shockers such as Man From the South, was apparently a spy for the British government during World War II. His … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, Horror
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Valancourt’s definitive edition of Marsh’s “The Beetle” released!
I just received in the mail the other day my copy of Valancourt Books’ edition of Richard Marsh’s The Beetle: A Mystery. The Valancourt edition is the definitive edition for the collector, with an introduction by Richard Marsh scholar Minna … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
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Some words from Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural
Over the past few months, I’ve been throwing in a ‘shout-out’ to some smaller press publishers who specialize in classic and hard-to-find weird fiction; some original posts on the topic can be found here and here. A few weeks ago … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
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Robert R. McCammon’s Boy’s Life
I read much of Robert R. McCammon’s work when I was younger, but somehow I managed to read only his ‘lesser’ works, such as Stinger (1988), Wolf’s Hour (1989), and The Night Boat (1980), and completely missed the books widely … Continue reading
Tim Lebbon’s Mesmer
Tim Lebbon relative newcomer as a horror fiction author. I’ve discussed a couple of his later novels in a previous post, and I finally got around to reading his first: Mesmer (1997). As Lebbon himself notes in the introduction to … Continue reading
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Dennis Wheatley’s They Found Atlantis
I’ve discussed a few of Dennis Wheatley‘s books in past posts. Wheatley was a prolific author from the 1930s through the 1980s (though his most famous works were written from the ’30s to the ’50s), and he could rightly be … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy fiction, Horror
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Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill
As I’ve noticed previously, I took a multi-year hiatus from reading horror novels, in large part because I couldn’t separate out the gems from the trash in the new horror releases. Since I decided to blog about horror fiction, among … Continue reading
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Graham Masterton’s The 5th Witch
I finally got a chance to read one of Graham Masterton’s most recent novels, The 5th Witch, and I thought I’d share some thoughts about it! (In fact, there’s an even more recent novel, House of Bones, which I’m going … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
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