Tag: Books

  • Thoughts on Jirel of Joiry

    Mention the words ‘Strong Female Character’ and immediately a visage of a tigress fills your head. She is powerful and fearless, unbeatable in combat, sexually alluring, takes no nonsense from anyone, and can best any man in any masculine pursuit. It’s a trope solidified over decades of repetition on the silver screen and the printed…

  • Book Unreview: 9th of August

    One of the signatures of PulpRev is our cheerful disdain of conventional genre boundaries. Where traditional publishers see a dividing line between fantasy, science fiction, romance and other genres, we draw on the older traditions that blended various aesthetics to create exciting tales. We do not box ourselves in by arbitrary genre distinctions; we embrace…

  • The New Age of Book Burning

    This week saw two attempts by book burners to take down offensive literature. One was successful, the other failed. Both attempts are instructive for authors to prepare for the realities of modern-day publishing and digital book burning. The Case of Amelie Wen Zhao Born in Paris, raised in China, and now living and working in…

  • Between Tradecraft and Thrills: Johnny Wylde

    It is accepted wisdom in the thriller community that highly-trained characters must display excellent tradecraft to thrill the reader. Yet this isn’t always so. In my first post in this series, I explored the Orphan X series, in which the protagonist’s poor tradecraft sets up superior scenes; in my previous post, I showed how taking…

  • Between Tradecraft and Thrills: Orphan X

    New York Times bestseller Gregg Hurwitz blew into the writing scene with his debut Minutes to Burn. With his Timothy Rackley series, Hurwitz hit his stride, solidifying his position as a top-shelf thriller author. In his latest series, Orphan X, he has reached new heights, producing a magnificent blend of pulse-pounding action, complex characterisation, powerful imagery,…

  • Appendix N: Robert E Howard, Masculinity and Morality

    Robert E Howard stands astride the world of American literature as a forgotten titan. With hundreds of stories and poems to his name, he built a bibliography that dwarfs any ten modern writers by the age of thirty. He wrote in a vast array of genres, from Westerns to spicy romances, light-hearted humourous tales to…