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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
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
His Wisdom The Defender: A Story, by Simon Newcomb (1900)
My explorations of the early history of science fiction and horror has turned up a surprising number of scientists or people with scientific training who have dabbled in speculative fiction. Optical scientist Robert Williams Wood coauthored a pair of science … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Science fiction
3 Comments
E.R. Eddison’s The Worm Ouroboros
If you were to ask most people to name the truly classic works of fantasy fiction, you would almost certainly hear J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” (1954-55) and “The Hobbit” (1937), as well as C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy fiction
5 Comments
Philip Wylie’s The Murderer Invisible
If it were a mystery novel, The Murderer Invisible would be a failure right off the bat, as the plot twist is explained right there in the title! As science fiction and horror, however, this 1931 book by Philip Wylie … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Science fiction
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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
11 Comments
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
1 Comment
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
2 Comments
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
4 Comments
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
5 Comments
“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
7 Comments
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