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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: Weird fiction
A. Merritt’s Seven Footprints to Satan
Abraham Grace Merritt (1884-1943) was an author with an vivid and bizarre imagination! Among his surreal fiction stories one can find a hive-like race of metal, electrically powered geometric shapes (The Metal Monster, 1920), a colossal stone face dripping tears … Continue reading
Posted in Mystery/thriller
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Philip Wylie’s Gladiator (1930)
Stories of superheroes have evolved dramatically since the appearance of Superman in Action Comics #1 in 1938. Where many of the first, like Superman, were moral, upstanding individuals striving to do good in the world, many modern heroes are flawed, … Continue reading
Posted in Weird fiction
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T.C. McCarthy’s “Exogene”
Most of us are familiar with the Greek myth of Pandora and her eponymous box. In a standard telling, Pandora is given the box by Zeus but is explicitly told never to open it. Pandora’s curiosity gets the better of … Continue reading
Posted in Science fiction
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The Moon-Maker, by Arthur Train and Robert Williams Wood
The 1916 novel The Moon-Maker by Arthur Train and Robert Williams Wood is, even at first glance, an unusual book for a number of reasons. First, it is a science fiction novel written in 1916, long before science fiction had become … Continue reading
Posted in Science fiction
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Richard Marsh’s The Complete Adventures of Judith Lee
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the work of Richard Marsh (1857-1915), who was an incredibly successful author of mystery, horror, and generally weird fiction in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. Marsh was famous in his own … Continue reading
Posted in Mystery/thriller
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“The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The War of the Worlds”, by Manly and Wade Wellman
These days, there are countless “mashups” in fiction, in which two or more disparate genres, characters or series are brought together or into conflict. We’ve seen werewolves versus vampires, such as in the Underworld series of films; we’ve also seen … Continue reading
Posted in Mystery/thriller, Science fiction
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Todd Strasser’s “The Wave”
I haven’t had the opportunity to talk about any weird fiction for a while, and I thought I’d get back on the horse by discussing a short novel that technically isn’t “weird fiction”, but it definitely is weird and fiction! … Continue reading
Posted in Weird fiction
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Richard Marsh’s Between the Dark and the Daylight (1902)
If you’ve followed this blog for any period of time, you know I’m a big fan of the writings of Richard Marsh (1857-1915). I’ve reviewed a number of his works on this blog, and Valancourt Books has been doing a … Continue reading
Posted in Weird fiction
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T.C. McCarthy’s “Germline”
I’m not particularly well-versed in science fiction — at least current science fiction — but occasionally I see something that really intrigues me. I’ve always found novels about future warfare particularly compelling, such as Robert Heinlein’s famous/infamous Starship Troopers (1959), John … Continue reading
Posted in Science fiction
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Isaac Newton… Father of invisibility physics?
My blog has been a good impetus to research a number of interesting scientific topics more deeply than I would otherwise have had the ambition to do. For instance, since the blog’s inception, I’ve been pushing the origins of “invisibility physics” … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Invisibility, Science fiction
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