David H.
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October Takeover: European Horror – Vampires, Black-Gloved Killers and the Devil
~posted by David H. If you’re looking for the birthplace of the horror film, then the place you should be looking is Europe. From German silent films to Hammer’s Technicolor horrors and on to the black-gloved killers of Italian giallo, Europe has been a prime breeding ground for horror. For viewers willing to try something… Continue reading
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Fantasy Checklist Challenge: Comic Fantasy, All Pratchett
~posted by David H. If there has ever been a king of comic fantasy, then that crown was worn by the late Terry Pratchett. And in that crown, the shining jewel is the Discworld series. Published in 37 different languages with over 80 million books sold, Pratchett is second only to J.K. Rowling as the… Continue reading
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Fantasy Checklist Challenge: Comic Fantasy
~posted by David H. Much like its sister genre science fiction, funny isn’t the first word that springs to mind when people think of the fantasy genre. The straight-faced seriousness of early fantasy authors like J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings) and Robert E. Howard (Conan), and contemporary ones like Robert Jordan (The Eye… Continue reading
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Science Fiction Checklist Challenge: New Wave Science Fiction
By David H. At the beginning of the 1960’s, science fiction was in a rut. While grand masters, such as Isaac Asimov and Arthur Clarke, were still writing interesting and worthwhile work, the genre itself had become fossilized. The tropes of pulp science fiction (rockets ships, robots, aliens barely distinguishable from humans, and square-jawed, flawless… Continue reading
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Science Fiction Checklist Challenge: Science Fantasy
~ posted by David H. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” ~Arthur C. Clarke Though many fans will vehemently deny it, the truth is that science fiction’s most closely related sister genre is fantasy. Both tell fantastic stories set on different worlds with unusual societies and often featuring non-human characters. But while science… Continue reading
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The Science Fiction Checklist Challenge: Time Travel
~posted by Dave H. One of the most enduring concepts in science fiction is that of time travel and its consequences. From Ray Bradbury’s famous short story “A Sound of Thunder” to the BACK TO THE FUTURE films and beyond, time travel has remained a core idea in the science fiction genre. The concept itself… Continue reading
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The Science Fiction Checklist Challenge: Humorous SF
~posted by David H. Science fiction as a literary genre is often viewed as one of the more serious, so it can be surprising to many people that it has such a rich history of comic stories. Many of the authors from science fiction’s “Golden Age” wrote humorous science fiction tales, including L. Sprague de… Continue reading
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Mystery Challenge: The Mystery Without A Solution
~by David H. One of the central tenets of a mystery is the solution. As a reader, we know that at some point, the main character will discover it and expose the criminal behind everything. But some books take a different approach. What if the central point of the book is the mystery itself, not… Continue reading
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Mystery Challenge: Science Fiction / Fantasy / Paranormal
~by David H. The mystery story is one of the most flexible of stories, because a mystery can take place anywhere. The time and place don’t make any difference; all that’s required is a crime and someone to solve it. So what happens when a mystery takes place in the depths of space or on… Continue reading