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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
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ At the Earth’s Core and Pellucidar
Regardless of what you think of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ writing, he himself was no slacker! Burroughs wrote well over fifty novels in his lifetime, including 26 featuring Tarzan, and used incredibly imaginative, now iconic, settings as backdrops. I’ve briefly discussed … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy fiction
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Robert E. Howard’s Almuric
Hot on the heels of a discussion of various ‘planetary romances’ set on Mars, I turned to Robert E. Howard’s own take on said romances: the tale of the savage world of Almuric: I have to admit, Howard fan that … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy fiction, Robert E. Howard
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Get your ass to Mars!
(Title courtesy of the movie Total Recall.) The planet Mars has always been a source of fascination (as is its sister planet Venus, but that’s another post). As we have seen (here and here), in reality Mars can be quite … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy fiction
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C.L. Moore’s Black God’s Kiss
I mentioned in a previous post the “Planet Stories” publications, which are reprints of classic pulp fantasy, horror, and adventure stories. I finished recently one of those publications, Black God’s Kiss, the collected stories of C.L. Moore’s character Jirel of … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy fiction, Robert E. Howard
6 Comments
A shout-out to some excellent horror publishers
Before I started writing this blog, I hadn’t actively hunted down new (and old) horror for some time. Older works were very hard to find and new books were often… lacking, to put it politely. I’ll have a rant about … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy fiction, Horror
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Solomon Kane and Robert E. Howard’s religious beliefs
Now that I’m thinking of Solomon Kane, I thought I’d do a brief post about the character, his adventures, and the clear influence Howard’s religious beliefs had on both. Solomon Kane is a 16th century English Puritan, warrior and wanderer. … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy fiction, Robert E. Howard
2 Comments
Solomon Kane movie?
I put this in the category of things I found that I wasn’t looking for: it looks like a movie based on Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane is slated for release sometime in 2008! My blog title, of course, is … Continue reading
Posted in Robert E. Howard
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Some unconventional vampire stories (updated)
When I was younger, I was heavily into role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. I also ventured occasionally into other RPGs, and one of the popular ones was (and still is) Vampire: The Masquerade, in which one plays an … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Robert E. Howard
6 Comments
Reincarnation in horror…
While on vacation, I stumbled across one of Brian Lumley’s early novels, Khai of Khem, a fantasy adventure story set in pre-historical ancient Egypt. One of the major plot points of the story is the idea that Khai has, in … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy fiction, Horror, Robert E. Howard
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