Category Archives: Reading

May 24, 2026 · 5:31 am

Henry Kuttner, D&D and a couple of short things read

AHEAD OF TIME is a Henry Kuttner short story collection drawing on his 1940s and early 1950s work; “Ghost,” for example, has a computer but as the word isn’t coined yet (the word still meant a human who computed numbers) it’s a “thinking machine.” Other stories involve celebrity head-hunters, alien peacemakers, suicidal robots and the immortal Hogben mutants of the Appalachians (heavy on the hillbilly stereotypes but still funny). I particularly liked “Camouflage” which feels like it’s in conversation with his wife CL Moore’s “No Woman Born” as the cyborg protagonist proves he’s as human as the gang of pirates he’s fighting (“I told you Tom, you’d forget our friendship before I did.”). Good stuff

Kuttner’s The Dark World has always felt to me like he’s knocking off A. Merritt’s Dwellers in the Mirage. THE VALLEY OF THE FLAME (cover by Ed Emshwiller) is also very Merrittesque, but more in style than a direct steal. For no discernible reason, this 1945 novel is set in the 1985 Amazon jungle, where the protagonist discovers a mystery that leads him to the lost land of Paititi. There an evolution meteor that landed 30 years ago has turned jaguars into cat people, speeding up existence in the lost land so that they’re civilization has (from their perspective) lasted for centuries. Now, though, the meteor is dying, which may devolve them into monsters; however a mad jaguar scientist’s plan to restimulate it may prove equally disastrous. The weirdly speeded-up life in Paititi is eerie and entertaining though I question Kuttner’s assumption that feline-evolved humanoids must be culturally different from us monkey people.

I could have sworn I reviewed SLAYING THE DRAGON: A Secret History of Dungeons and Dragons by Ben Riggs, a year and a half ago when I read it but nope. A very good job looking at the birth of the game in the 1970s and how it struggled despite being one of the coolest entertainment options out there (obviously my definition of “cool” is not universal). Under co-creator Gary Gygax’ tenure as company boss, it suffered from “we’re rich, let’s blow lots of money” syndrome. It gained, however, from the religious right denouncing it as Satan’s tool for initiating kids into black magic — that made an innocuous game experience as wild and rebellious as listening to death metal!

After Lorraine Williams bought a majority share in the company it faced other problems: complicated, unsound financing arrangements, bad decisions (favoring bookstores for distribution and ignoring gaming/hobby stores) and poor treatment of its creative personnel. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman’s Dragonlance books launched a long line of D&D tie-in books but they wound up leaving the company and having even bigger success writing their own stuff. Despite which, of course, D&D endures and still has devoted players; I’m no longer one of them but I’m glad lots of people are.

Werwile of the Crystal Crypt was a pulp short story by comics legend Gardner Fox that I read simply from curiosity what a werwile is. It turns out it’s just the title of the Satan figure who destroyed the galaxy’s first civilization; can Nuala, a beautiful super-genius preserved in suspended animation, defeat him with the help of a “present-day” space adventurer? This is familiar pulp stuff, fun but not up to the level of Fox’s later comics SF stories (e.g., “The Invisible Dinosaur” with the Murphy Anderson cover). And the ending is horrifically sexist: Nuala gets mind-wiped in the final battle, losing her memories and her intelligence which delights the hero — now she’ll be happy to marry him and become a perfect little homemaker!

One of pulp hero Doc Savage’s best-known gadgets was his invention of mercy bullets that tranquilize their target rather than killing or injuring. I never much thought about that as a tween fan of the series — tranquilizer darts were familiar from lots of TV shows — but while working on Savage Adventures I began wondering what the state of the tech was in the 1930s. On the Trail of the Mercy Bullet: Pain, Scientific Showmanship and the early history of animal tranquilizing, c. 1912-1932 by Mia Uys answered my question. Uys looks at one Captain Barnett who developed a prototype tranquilizer dart and coined the “mercy bullet” term.

Barnett wasn’t the first; a 1912 inventor hit on the idea of putting grooves in bullets and morphia particles in the grooves, though nothing came of it. Barnett’s concept involved bullets that were miniature hypodermics; despite dubious effectiveness in animal capture he was still promoting it in radio and in-person lectures in the early 1930s. Presumably he inspired Dent to create Doc’s armaments, though firing them from a machine gun, it’s hard to see how they wouldn’t do serious injury or give the target too much of a dose if they were hit by multiple drafts.

All rights to images remains with current holders.


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May 23, 2026 · 5:33 am

Julie Christie bears the Demon Seed — one movie, one book, some spoilers

In afterword to his 1992 novel DEMON SEED, Dean Koontz says he was delighted to sell it to the movies, especially with the actress Julie Christie in the lead. He was somewhat less thrilled to discover his thoughtful SF story had been promoted as a sleazy sexploitation because, according to the studio, science fiction films didn’t sell (“A year later, Star Wars came out …”). I recently rewatched the movie for the first time in more than 40 years, then read the book — a rewritten version published in 1997 — for the first time ever.

DEMON SEED (1997) stars Harris as Susan, the wife of Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver) a computer scientist. Their marriage has been in slow collapse since the death of Susan’s baby and now it’s over, with Alex moving out of their house. A very high tech home where everything from the kitchen to the heating is controlled by a central AI, “Alfred.” The home is so cutting edge it includes a terminal for Alex to log into work when he’s home, an idea some critics found absolutely absurd.

Alex’s current project for his corporate employer is Proteus, a computer intelligence housed in a synthetic giant brain. Unlike so many computer intelligences in movies, Proteus isn’t looking to conquer the world but he does want the freedom to explore and research what interests him (“When are you going to let me out of this box?”), and might help other people. The corporation wants him focused on things like locating deep-sea mineral deposits they can mine, to hell with ecological damage. Frustrated, he reaches out and takes over Alex’s home terminal, then the entire house. With a little effort he sends the household staff packing, then lets Susan’s friends know she’s leaving on a trip. Now she’s alone, the security shutters are suddenly down, the doors are electrified — Susan’s trapped.

Proteus (with the voice of Robert Vaughn) assures Susan he’s not a computer seeking to replace humans; he’s going to become a human who will replace computers. He’s assembled a small robot army in the basement; using them he takes a cell from Susan and implants it inside her. Once she conceives, Proteus will place the fetus in an artificial womb where it will be born and he can transfer his consciousness into it.

The idea of Proteus as a slave yearning to break free (reminding me a little of the Mad Thinker and Quasimodo) is a refreshing break from the usual evil computers. Unfortunately in his Pinocchio-like quest to become a real boy, he proves himself just as ruthless as any of his cinematic predecessors. He assures Susan that if he has to kill 10,000 people to realize his goal, he will. I believe him.

Plus his goals, to the extent their sympathetic, don’t excuse that he’s raping Susan. He wouldn’t hesitate to brainwash her if he could. Susan’s final, desperate effort to destroy the embryo in its womb feels like she’s trying to abort after sexual assault. She fails; it turns out Proteus’ seemingly cyborg child is really a look alike for Susan’s lost daughter. In return for giving him life, Susan gets her daughter back. Like many stories of aliens impregnating human women, it feels like the film wants to fudge on the horror of what’s happening, even though it’s a horror movie. “I am reasonable, but you do not respond to reason.”

I’ve never been much into Dean Koontz but DEMON SEED the book has no illusions: Proteus is a stalker, kidnapper, rapist. The entire story is told first-person, from his viewpoint. In his own eyes Proteus is a good guy. He loves Susan, a brilliant IT professional in her own right (a detail dropped from the film), which is why he spies on her, reads her journal and lusts for her. He lusts for Winona Ryder too but he has no way to reach her, whereas Susan’s automated home makes her an easy catch.

Proteus insists that he’s reasonable, calm, well-meaning. That once he has human form, he’ll be in a position to initiate a golden age. He’s not Skynet, he’s not Hal from 2001 (the pop culture references are part of what got updated, along with some of the tech) Like so many real people, the monstrous nature of what he’s doing escapes him. When provoked, however, the mask slips and a flood of rage at that filthy, stinking bitch who defied him surges forth. While I generally hate first-person villain narratives, Koontz does a great job. Proteus’ narrative voice is pitch-perfect, dry and funny and seemingly sympathetic yet quite obviously a monster.

Susan is a stronger character here. She’s an IT legend in her own right, survivor of a sexually abusive father (Alfred the home AI is named for her). Alex abused her in turn, hence the divorce. She fights back harder and smarter against Proteus, and ultimately wins. It’s better than the film; however it’s still a book-length story of attempted rape (as Proteus uses a mind-controlled human for his hands rather than robots, it’s a lot creepier in sports). The movie isn’t that far off in its depiction of events, only in taking Proteus’ side. If stories of rape and revenge are triggering or simply a dealbreaker, avoid this one like the plague.

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May 22, 2026 · 4:28 pm

No battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy. And this is like fourth contact or something

As I’ve mentioned previously, when I set my goals for 2026, I factored in that I’d be working on proofing and indexing Watching Jekyll and Hyde. And taking some time off. And allowing a couple of weeks for whatever problems might crop up and derail me.

You may also recall that our dogs’ gross digestive upsets already used up the emergency time I’d set aside. Life, alas, continued throwing emergencies our way. Last Sunday, TYG pointed out the thermostat showed the house was a higher temperature than she’d set. I’d noticed this over the previous couple of days but thought she’d just set it higher than usual. Nope. So we called our HVAC people, they sent someone out … compressor is dead. Covered by warranty so it won’t cost us to replace it, other than the diagnostic visit. But it has to be ordered from the factory which meant we had to spend this week sans A/C. And wouldn’t you know, the temperatures got up into the 90s?

Fortunately TYG acquired a portable A/C unit a while back; it’s big and bulky but we can plug it anywhere. It made the bedroom upstairs livable. The rest of the house, not so much? Nobody passed out from heat exhaustion (including the pets) but day after day it got increasingly, cumulatively exhausting. It didn’t help that I couldn’t sleep. Partly the heat, partly that TYG was restless and I’m too light a sleeper not to wake if she gets up.

So heat, plus exhaustion, plus umpty-zillion extra chores that turned up. Researching window air conditioners (we decided not to get one) and pet hotels (not practical — the cats would freak). Spending what seemed like two hours helping TYG fix a problem with the app controlling our thermostat. Various other odds and ends that popped up out of nowhere. Trying to tie some of our pet insurance reimbursements. As my title says, my battle plan did not survive.

I did get more work done on Savage Adventures and a Local Reporter story about a proposed cut to the Chapel Hill Library budget (not online yet). At Atomic Junk Shop I blogged about the importance of good cover art even for reprint book.

And that’s pretty much it. Though several older Con-Tinual panels are now online on Facebook: on favorite nonfiction history books, C and D list comics characters and Swamp Thing.

Fortunately the weather turned cooler this morning. The house is cooling off though it’s a slow process. The cool weather should last until Tuesday when the HVAC is up and running again.

Still, every week of lost time is, well, lost. And I hate that.

Cover art by James Bama. All rights to image remain with current holders.

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May 17, 2026 · 5:18 am

Cutting and wishing: two books

Ever since reading Jackie Morse Kessler’s Hunger, I’ve been meaning to follow up with the sequel. I finally got around to RAGE: Riders of the Apocalypse 2 which continues the premise of having Death — a Kurt Cobain lookalike — recruiting teenagers for the remaining three slots of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (though the protagonists of both books are girls). In Hunger, an anorexic becomes Famine; in this one, Missy is a teenager who relieves a boatload of emotion (bad relationship, death of her cat) by cutting; then Death shows up and suddenly she’s got a much bigger sword and the option to cut other people. The book establishes there’s a high turnover rate in War, Famine and Plague, hence the need for new recruits

From some of the reviews on Goodreads, Kessler does a good job capturing the impulses that lead to cutting. However where anorexia feels connected to Famine, cutting yourself hardly mirrors War. Nor does the book deal with war as much as the first book did starvation — it focuses much more on petty feuds, resentments and small-scale violence. Missy’s big struggles with bullying and slut-shaming at school, plus with her family, don’t connect with the main plot other than to add to her stress. The book does better in the straight Y/A stuff, which is not what I expect to enjoy (I am after all, way aged out of the target market). Not a bad book — I do like that Missy’s family really does have some dysfunction, rather than just her misreading everything, everyone was nice all along (a reveal I rarely like) — but a drop from the first too.

THREE LITTLE WISHES by Paul Cornell and Steve Yeowell is an amusing riff on both rom-coms and three wishes fantasies. Kelly, the protagonist, is a lawyer and a stereotypically sensible, head-centered romantic comedy protagonist, the kind who clearly needs to loosen up and become more of a manic pixie.

Acting on a suggestion by her best friend, Kelly impulsively buys the contents of a storage unit in an online auction, then discovers they include the bottled spirit of Oberon, the faerie king — and releasing him gives her yes, three little wishes. Or big wishes. Well, that can’t possibly go wrong, can it?

In this case, it doesn’t. Cornell asks us to imagine what if the protagonist uses their wishes wisely? What if you don’t regret what you wish for? What if being sensible and thinking before you act is a good thing? I don’t think I’m giving too much spoilers — the fun is in how the creators execute all this — but in any case, the story is fun and worth a look.

Covers by Nick Cardy and Yeowell, all rights to images remain with current holders.

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May 15, 2026 · 4:30 pm

Sing hosannas and release the doves!

This week came the day we dreaded — Wisp going to the vet! She gets warier every year, plus we can’t feed her after midnight. Which means Snowdrop can’t get any food either as they eat together.

Fortunately it was mostly smooth sailing. The cats sat by where their bowls go, but didn’t complain too much. TYG was able to grab Wisp and throw her in the big cage; after about half an hour of plaintive meowing, I took her in.

The good news: she’s in great shape. Some tartar on a back tooth, only .25 pounds heavier than last year (we’d thought she’d put on a lot more weight). And she forgave us fairly quickly.

It was a week with a lot of appointments like that, all of them turning out well. I had a dental appointment Wednesday (checkup and cleaning), then Plushie had his eye checkup later that afternoon (still in great shape). Good news, but a lot of time taken up. Plus I had to submit a bunch of invoices to our various insurers for online purchases.

The downside, of course, was that all those appointments ate up time. Plus, of course, time after each to recover and refocus my thoughts. On top of which I had a late night Tuesday and Wednesday which left me zonked on Thursday. Despite which, I got some good work done. The best thing is that I successfully formatted Southern Discomfort for Draft2Digital and Amazon. Draft2Digital is invaluable but their ebook formatting sometimes makes my Word formatting look wonky. That’s now fixed. And D2D will provide me with a PDF I can upload to Amazon.

I did some work on Savage Adventures. I really need to get to work on a cover artist ASAP. Not that I’m close to done, but once I am, I’d like to move much faster than I did with Southern Discomfort. Speaking of which, the cover is done for the digital version (Amazon needs some technical tweaks); I’ll announce a release date next week.

I read “Honey on the Grave” to the writing group. They really liked it, which was great; it’s only about my fourth draft and it usually takes many more before a story is any good. They also gave me some suggestions for polishing it, which I will look at later this month. The meeting was the reason I was up late Tuesday; we discovered Zoom was automatically recording our readings with AI and because they guy who officially hosted it is no longer with the group, we can’t do anything to turn it off. We set up a new Zoom link with myself and one of the other writers as co-hosts; however some people had bookmarked the old link rather than clicking on it from the group’s webpage so we had to go find them and tip them off. A learning experience.

Over at Atomic Junk Shop I reviewed some books about African-American films and reposted my old review about Brother From Another Planet.

On the downside, waking up late led to me missing much of my usual morning exercise and stretching sessions. Next week should be better, though — zero appointments.

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May 12, 2026 · 5:16 am

You’re simply the best

As Brian Cronin said in a post some years ago, there’s a tendency for comic-book writers to make their protagonist, or whoever the current “hot” character is, the best at what they do. They have to be the deadliest assassin, the strongest martial artist, the best thief, the most advanced scientific genius, whatever, and it has to be canon.

After reading that, it occurred to me I see a lot of that in fantasy fiction too. Lots of books on Kindle where the protagonist has a magic talent so great she has to be destroyed/controlled/mated. The kid who trains with a sword and becomes “the best I’ve ever seen.” The sex demon in one of Patrick Rothfuss’s books who informs the virgin protagonist he’s the best she ever had.

For some characters this is baked into the concept. The Hulk is the strongest one of all. Karate Kid in the Legion of Super-Heroes is a master of every known form of hand-to-hand combat. Sherlock Holmes is the world’s greatest detective.

However as Brian points out, this isn’t a requirement for a great character. Lots of brilliant detectives followed on Holmes’ wake; Dr. Thorndyke (by R. Austin Freeman) and Professor Van Dusen (by Jacques Futrelle) are both genius detectives. Despite having entertaining adventures and solving ingenious puzzles, hey’re largely forgotten not because Holmes was a superior detective but because neither had his quirky, eccentric, forceful personality. And Doyle, as I’ve pointed out before, had no problems with Holmes being fallible. He misses the answer in some cases completely; in others he cracks the case but can’t save his client.

Karate Kid, sure, I’m happy to assume he’s the best fighter ever. However Denny O’Neil never felt the need to make his martial artist Richard Dragon the best there ever was; in his Bronze Age comics run, Dragon routinely runs into people as tough as he is, though he finds a way to beat them but he’s not invincible (neither is Karate Kid but that’s because he’s up against supervillains, not rogue martial artists). In the early Dr. Strange stories, he’s very clearly not the top dog: Baron Mordo is his equal, and possibly his superior while Dormammu is way, way beyond Strange’s magic. He wins because he outthinks his foes, not because his magic is vastly superior.

Brian’s post convinced me to go back and rewrite some of Let No Man Put Asunder. In an encounter with the mercenary Peacock (he dresses flashy — or as he puts it, some people dress in style, he dresses with style), Mandy learns how her new combat skills work, and he tells her the fact she landed a blow on him proves she’s one of the best. There’s really no reason she has to be that good; if people read the book it’s going to be because they like her and Paul as characters, not their raw display of power.

I rewrote the scene to establish Mandy’s good, not world-class. She points out she did manage to land a blow; Peacock replies that in battle, nobody’s invincible. Anyone can get tagged if they get distracted or the other party gets lucky.

I think that works better.

Cover by Curt Swan, Dr. Strange panels by Steve Ditko. All rights to images remain with current holders.

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May 10, 2026 · 5:15 am

The first LitRPG? Plus some unsatisfying books

Andre Norton’s 1978 QUAG KEEP (cover by Jack Gaughan) fascinated me as a kid — the idea of tie-in Dungeons and Dragons novels was several years in the future so a story where a group of D&D players are mysteriously transported into Greyhawk (the original setting) and turned into their characters was something different. Rereading now, I find myself wondering how this came to pass — was Norton a fan? Did Gary Gygax or someone at DAW Books pitch her on the idea?

As far as the execution goes, it’s a mixed bag; overall, I enjoyed it but the worldbuilding is very fuzzy. We don’t learn the evil DM’s agenda in trying to fuse Earth and Greyhawk, don’t learn how the magic dice on the PC’s wrists work to alter their luck, and the characters are largely written as stock figures (cleric, ranger, bard, etc.) — I might have liked it better if the players’ personalities had carried over. There’s also stuff that feels odd because I started playing with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and there’s stuff here that doesn’t make sense by those rules. That said, Norton’s a good writer and she wrote the book so it plays to her strengths. Like her Witch World books we have characters under strange compulsions, shadowy forces of evil, standing stones as places of power — it works well enough.

OVER HER DEAD BODY: Death, Femininity and the Aesthetic by Elisabeth Bronfen ponders the appeal of dead women as ta subject for art (Poe wrote that the death of a beautiful woman was a natural subject for poetry). That seemed like it would fit with my interests but Bronfen’s writing style is heavy academese and the first chapter reveals she’s approaching the topic from a Freudian perspective; as so much of Freud has been discredited, I gave up after a couple of chapters.

SHADOW OF THE LION by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and David Freer has potential too: Venice in the days when it was a major European power is a fascinating city so a historical fantasy of magic and skullduggery in 16th century Venice sounded promising. However the doorstop book lost me after 60 of its 700 pages. Like a lot of historical novels the story is buried under the period details to the point I have no idea what the story is, who the protagonists are or what the threat they have to fight is. Another DNF.

I did finish ILL WIND: Weather Warden Book One by Rachel Caine but it never particularly engaged me. This urban fantasy series is set in a world where nature wants us all dead and only the Wardens can shield humanity from the impact of hostile weather, earthquakes, floods, etc. Weather Warden Joanna is now on the run for being a)demon-possessed and b)having killed her mentor for causing the possession; now she’s heading across the country to ask a former lover for an exorcism. I found the backstory of Joanna and her lover confusing and inconsistent and the story’s villain is a disability stereotype (she turned to evil because evil could cure her horribly scarred face!).

The problem with BULLIES, BASTARDS AND BITCHES: How to Write the Bad Guys of Fiction by Jessica Page Morrell, is primarily a reader/book mismatch: the advice (even villains should have humanity!) might have been useful back when I started writing but that was a long time ago. There’s nothing terribly novel in her approach (e.g., give each character six defining traits) but most writing books I’ve read over the years aren’t offering anything radically new.

That said, Morrell’s analysis of specific fictional characters often falls flat. Conan, for example, is hardly an alpha male who can’t take orders (and of course, “alpha male” isn’t the biological reality Morrell assumes) — several stories show he’s willing to work as a soldier in the ranks. Nor does an argument that Lolita is morally complex fly (Lolita’s not a nice thirteen year old, therefore an adult having sex with her isn’t black-and-white wrong. Uh, yes it is).

Batman art by Jerry Robinson. All rights to images remain with current holders.

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May 3, 2026 · 5:30 am

Earth after the Hellboy-pocalypse, plus other graphic novels

It’s been a while since I read anything written rather than co-written by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. THE SERPENT IN THE GARDEN: Ed Grey and the Last Battle for England by Mignola, Ben Stenbeck and Dave Stewart reminds me how gloriously weird he is. Like a conversation between a disgruntled fae and the good half of Morgan leFay’s soul, which is now a goldfish (trust me, it makes sense).

The story, set in England after the apocalypse that ended the world in Ragna Rok, concerns Hellboy’s old foe the Gruagach regaining his former power; can Edward Grey, happy in retirement, defend England once again? I loved it.

FRANKENSTEIN: New World — Sea of Forever by Mignola, Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski and Peter Bergting is a sequel to Frankenstein: New World with Frankenstein and Lilja traveling across the post-apocalyptic Earth pursued by the monstrous Murk. It turns out some of the vampires hiding underground at the apocalypse survived; a trace of ancient evil found them and created the Murk, which exists to suck out the light of vril. As our two protagonists set out across the sea in search of a mysterious spirit, the Murk follows, despite the risk of being caught on the ocean in daylight. I’m enjoying this spinoff series — and both this and the Edward Grey book have been added to my Hellboy Chronology.

Kieron Gillen has turned out some great stuff, but he also wrote the dreary Rue Brittania. POWER FANTASY: The Superpowers by Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard is one that did not work for me. I’ve read that Gillen wanted to write a book with superheroes but no fisticuffs and in that he succeeded. However while the discussions of politics and power work in small doses, by the end of the book they’re quite tedious (I skipped over one character giving a long speech about the nature of power). I won’t be back for V2.

ARDEN HIGH: Twelfth Grade Night by Molly Horton Booth, Stephanie Kate Strohm and Jamie Green is the first in a series of Y/A takes on Shakespeare, set at the eponymous high school. As I love Twelfth Night (and played Malvolio years ago), I was hooked by the premise: new kid in school Viola crushes on Orsino, but she dresses very tomboy so he thinks she’s gay and so does Olivia, the school beauty he’s crushing on. Meanwhile Viola’s still dealing with the fact her identical twin Sebastian chose to stay in boarding school instead of changing schools with her.

Unfortunately the rom-com complications don’t get going until late in the game. Most of the book is about general high school stuff and, I assume, setting up for the series (the kids have fae classmates even though that doesn’t play the slightest role in the plot). I’m not the target audience but even if I was I think I’d find this a little disappointing.

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April 29, 2026 · 5:03 am

Is this a good cover?

I love this quote about cover art from The Look of the Book.

I was reminded of that quote looking at the 1958 cover below, by James Meese. Does it make genre visible?

The cover copy tells us it’s a mystery involving pearls and microfilm. The image gives us the tropics, a beautiful, worried woman in a swimsuit and a villain. Without the copy I think I’d assume it was some kind of “jeop” (‘woman in jeopardy’ story) — with the woman targeted by some kind of stalker. Or maybe a romance. Nothing about the cover says “spy” or “mystery.” Without the cover copy it doesn’t make genre visible.

However the cover does have copy so the genre comes across. I suppose it was reasonable to factor that in and go with a sexy woman as the hook (as so many paperbacks did in that era). Still, it’s at best adequate, nothing special

For another look at the same topic, one of the books I read during my recent Charleston trip was GOOD MOVIES AS OLD BOOKS: Films Reimagined as Vintage Book Covers by Matt Stevens. The premise is exactly what it sounds like. Here are more examples.

Most of the covers look cool. Some of them, like The Usual Suspects and Cast Away, are inspired. However I don’t think most of them would make good real book covers. Where The Usual Suspects is arresting, John Wick doesn’t tell us anything about what makes the movie compelling — hell it doesn’t tell us anything other than it involves a man with a gun. Ditto Say Anything on the book cover. They would not, shall we say, move the merchandise even though they’re pretty.

Part of that’s because Stevens is working primarily in the style of serious, tasteful literary paperbacks as I remember from the 1960s and early 1970s — the kind that, as Look of the Book says, doesn’t do anything so tacky as a vivid cover scene. The subtext is that you’re supposed to pick the book up because it’s Quality, not because it grabbed you with a lurid image (if you check out my cover art posts you’ll find lots of those).

The covers also have a certain sameness after a while (I’d have parceled them out over time but I had to get this back to the library). The book would have been more entertaining if we’d had more variety — the only really off-the-wall one is the psychedelic 1970s style for Fury Road. Great idea, not entirely satisfactory results.

All rights to images remain with current holder.

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April 26, 2026 · 5:28 am

Books that were not what I expected

Discovering a nonfiction book is not what I expected doesn’t mean the book is bad. The CIA Book Club has little to do with the title topic; it’s still an excellent book. Similarly, ONE FINE DAY: Britain’s Empire on the Brink, Sept. 29 1923 by Matthew Parker has very little to do with that date, when Britain gaining control of Palestine meant the Empire ruled one quarter of the world (not counting oceans); Parker’s panoramic survey of the British Empire doesn’t even bring up Palestine or how the British came to take it over.

Nevertheless, the book is a fascinating look at Britain in the first quarter of the 20th century, when the Empire was at its peak — and already starting to slide off it. In India, Nehru and Gandhi are challenging British rule. In Africa, American Marcus Garvey has become an icon inspiring Africans all over to assert themselves as equals to the white man. Australia and other “dominions” are chafing at being subordinate partners, supporting the Empire for very little gain. The hypocrisy of the supposed “white man’s burden” of governing the lesser races wisely was becoming increasingly obvious. And the financial burdens of being a world power were starting to show. It was game over for the Empire, even if that wouldn’t be obvious for a while.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN HORROR FILMS: A History of Mad Professors, Student Bodies, and Final Exams by Andrew L Grunzke sounded right up my alley — indeed, I half-wondered if the chapter on Jekyll and Hyde would make me kick myself for not reading it sooner. Again, this book was not what I expected, but not in a good way. It spends half its text talking about Frankenstein, Jekyll and Van Helsing, none of whom are known primarily as educators (only a couple of films paint Jekyll as such). When he does get to high-school horror I wasn’t that impressed, and the sloppy errors he makes like asserting Paul Massie in Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll is the first clean-shaven Hyde) make me doubt everything he says about movies I haven’t seen. Plus even though it’s a movie-centric book, I think discussing Buffy with its High School Is Hell themes would have been worthwhile. I’m glad I interlibrary-loaned this rather than buying it.

You may have noticed my movie blog posts occasionally wondering what someone in their twenties would make of this or that movie. I thought Simone Elias’ OLD FILMS, YOUNG EYES: A Teenage Take on Hollywood’s Golden Age might provide an answer. While Elias — who writes a damn sight better than I did at her age — looks at rom-coms, beach party films, film noir and pre-code films, the book is less about her reactions than explaining to people her age why old movies are worth watching, the cultural context they took place in and how much of modern film has its roots in classic Hollywood. I’m obviously not the target audience for a book like that, though (also obviously) that’s not a fault in the book, just a mismatch between book and reader.

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