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Shambleau and Others - C. L. Moore

A collection of Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry stories. Excellent stuff.

Shambleau and Others : Black God's Kiss [short story] - C. L. Moore
Shambleau and Others : Shambleau [short story] - C. L. Moore
Shambleau and Others : Black God's Shadow - C. L. Moore
Shambleau and Others : Black Thirst - C. L. Moore
Shambleau and Others : The Tree of Life - C. L. Moore
Shambleau and Others : Jirel Meets Magic - C. L. Moore
Shambleau and Others : Scarlet Dream - C. L. Moore

An escape from a captor leads Jirel basically into a Clark Ashton Smith story, and a passionate revenge.

4 out of 5

Shoot vampire gorgon women, don't ask them in for dinner.

4.5 out of 5

Jirel looks for a way to undone some of what she has done when she decides that the Black God's Kiss was rather an extreme solution to her earlier hatred.

3.5 out of 5

"Not even the lowest class of Venusian street-walker dared come along the waterfronts of Ednes on the nights when the space-liners were not in. Yet across the pavement came clearly now the light tapping of a woman's feet."

This leads him to monstrous vampiric alien, and to the aid of one his thralls, above.

""The-Guardians-still rove the halls, and unleashed now -so keep your ray-gun ready, Earthman. . , ."

4 out of 5

Women who commune with trees and others in ruined temples are best avoided. Failing that, there is the trusty raygun solution.

3.5 out of 5

Northwest's fondness for markets leads him to a purchase trapping him in a dream world.

3 out of 5

4.5 out of 5

Original Article

A Little Harmless Surprise - Melissa Schroeder

Short collection of related stories.

Little Harmless Surprise : A Little Harmless Surprise - Melissa Schroeder
Little Harmless Surprise : A Little Harmless Fling - Melissa Schroeder
Little Harmless Surprise : A Little Harmless Kalikimaka - Melissa Schroeder

An extra.

2.5 out of 5

Bartender butch.

2 out of 5

Multiple gifts.

2.5 out of 5

1.5 out of 5

Original Article

Retief At Large - Keith Laumer

A so-so collection of stories, with one standout.

Retief At Large : Cultural Exchange - Keith Laumer
Retief At Large : Saline Solution - Keith Laumer
Retief At Large : The Castle Of Light - Keith Laumer
Retief At Large : Wicker Wonderland - Keith Laumer
Retief At Large : The Brass God - Keith Laumer
Retief At Large : Mechanical Advantage - Keith Laumer
Retief At Large : Dam Nuisance - Keith Laumer
Retief At Large : Grime And Punishment - Keith Laumer
Retief At Large : The Forbidden City - Keith Laumer
Retief At Large : The Piecemakers - Keith Laumer
Retief At Large : Ballot And Bandits - Keith Laumer
Retief At Large : Pime Doesn't Cray - Keith Laumer

Armed Baggage MEDDLE.

3.5 out of 5

Triple salted rock deal.

4 out of 5

Dealing with militant Groaci tourism.

3 out of 5

Retief gets in some underwater work, and has a serious bomb issue.

3 out of 5

Pope joke.

3 out of 5

An archaeological expedition finds thanks to non-Retief ineptness there are Gouaci around.

3 out of 5

Skeem troubles.

3 out of 5

Mud problem.

3 out of 5

Diplomat massacre plan.

3 out of 5

Two diplomats, two fleets, luckily one of the former is Retief.

3 out of 5

Election hijinks and alien tests for Retief.

3.5 out of 5

Bad ballet theatre nicking.

3 out of 5

2.5 out of 5

Original Article

Retief: Ambassador To Space - Keith Laumer

A collection of minor Retief stories.

Retief Ambassador Of Space : Giant Killer - Keith Laumer
Retief Ambassador Of Space : Dam Nuisance - Keith Laumer
Retief Ambassador Of Space : Truce Or Consequences - Keith Laumer
Retief Ambassador Of Space : Trick Or Treaty - Keith Laumer
Retief Ambassador Of Space : The Forbidden City - Keith Laumer
Retief Ambassador Of Space : Grime And Punishment - Keith Laumer
Retief Ambassador Of Space : The Forest In The Sky - Keith Laumer

Monster removal game.

3.5 out of 5

Skeem troubles.

3 out of 5

Appropriate reprisals.

3 out of 5

Give 'em a show.

3 out of 5

Diplomat massacre plan.

3 out of 5

Mud problem.

3 out of 5

Gasbag Groaci.

3 out of 5

2.5 out of 5

Original Article

Fit and Dirty - Holly Love

Short collection of mediocre athletic stories.

Fit and Dirty : Cheer Skirts - Holly Love
Fit and Dirty : Hot Yoga - Holly Love
Fit and Dirty : Lifeguard On Duty - Holly Love
Fit and Dirty : Coaching Brit - Holly Love

Meeting the captain.

2.5 out of 5

Girlfriend's classmates welcoming.

3 out of 5

Fat man save couple.

3 out of 5

Young athletic and bad and ex-crim.

3 out of 5

1.5 out of 5

Original Article

Galactic Diplomat - Keith Laumer

An ok collection of Retief stories, with one standout.

Galactic Diplomat : Ultimatum - Keith Laumer
Galactic Diplomat : Saline Solution - Keith Laumer
Galactic Diplomat : The Brass God - Keith Laumer
Galactic Diplomat : The Castle Of Light - Keith Laumer
Galactic Diplomat : Wicker Wonderland - Keith Laumer
Galactic Diplomat : Native Intelligence - Keith Laumer
Galactic Diplomat : The Prince And The Pirate - Keith Laumer
Galactic Diplomat : Courier - Keith Laumer
Galactic Diplomat : Protest Note - Keith Laumer

"After estivating, the Verpp moult, and then they're Qornt, of course. The Gwil become Boog, the Boog become Rheuk, the Rheuk metamorphosize into Verppâ€""

3 out of 5

Triple salted rock deal.

4 out of 5

Pope joke.

3 out of 5

Dealing with militant Groaci tourism.

3 out of 5

Retief gets in some underwater work, and has a serious bomb issue.

3 out of 5

Free Electorate Fun Everywhere.

3 out of 5

Not to mention Greenbacks and Groaci.

3.5 out of 5

Retief has piracy and an alien invasion of a peaceful unarmed world to sort out. Needs a Bolo and sneakery.

3.5 out of 5

Aga Kagan landgrab opposition.

3.5 out of 5

3 out of 5

Original Article

Scott Nicholson Library Volume 5 - Scott Nicholson

A three book horror omnibus.

Scott Nicholson Library 5 : Troubled - Scott Nicholson
Scott Nicholson Library 5 : The Gorge - Scott Nicholson
Scott Nicholson Library 5 : Solom - Scott Nicholson

A kid ends up in a home. Not your average kid, because associated this with this is a secret group called The Trust. They like to experiment with psychic powers. And the dead. So psychic kid, crazy Secret Society and living in an old madhouse.

3 out of 5

FBI pursuit of an abortion clinic bomber and his girlfriend leads to a wilderness chase. There's a problem for them and some others in the area. Something is hunting them. Vampire batpeople, no less.

3 out of 5

Ok. Something in that moonshine in these hillbilly hamlets it seems. Because here we have a book where a goth girl and her mum get to move to one. Only problem is the ghost of the dead wife her mother is replacing. That and the scarecrow dressing goddess worshipping maniac and his undead murderous ancestor.

Oh yeah, and his flock of man-eating goats!

The word loopy gets used in this book and it is is certainly appropriate for this horror novel

3.5 out of 5

3 out of 5

Original Article

Know Your Elder Gods - Darrell Schweitzer

"“All my tales,” H.P. Lovecraft famously wrote to Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright in 1927, “are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large. To me there is nothing but puerility in a tale in which the human form â€" and local human passions and conditions and standards â€" are depicted as native to other worlds or other universes. To achieve the real essence of externality, whether of time or space or dimension, one must forget that such things as organic life, good or evil, love and hate, and all such attributes of a negligible and temporary race called mankind, have any existence at all. . . . If I were writing an ‘interplanetary’ tale it would deal with beings organized very differently from mundane mammalian, and obeying motives wholly alien to anything we know upon earth â€" the exact degree of alienage depending, of course, on the scene of the tale; whet her laid in the solar system, or in the utterly unplumbed gulfs still further out â€" the nameless vortices of never-dreamed-of strangeness, where form and symmetry, light and heat, even matter and energy themselves may be unthinkably metamorphosized or totally wanting. I have merely got at the edge of this in ‘[The Call of] Cthulhu,’ where I have been careful to avoid terrestrialism in the few linguistic and nomenclatural specimens from Outside which I present.”

4 out of 5

http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/2012/05/25/know-your-elder-gods-lovecraft/

Original Article

The Mandel Files Volume 2 - Peter F. Hamilton

As it says, the third Mandel novel.

Possible alien vegetation discovery.

Impressively, this trilogy continues the quality work as again Event Horizon and particularly Julia Evans need Greg Mandel's help.

There are plenty of dodgy characters to be dealt with in this novel as they try and find out what happened to her father, and where the frack that the strange flower delivery Julia received actually came from.

Good stuff.

4 out of 5

Original Article

The Mandel Files Volume 1 - Peter F. Hamilton

Psychic corporate sleuthing.

Greg Mandel is literally a psychic detective, an ability given to him via technology and a stint in the military. So not a psychic detective in the ghost busting sense, at all.

This very nasty far left government has since collapsed, leaving old pommieland in a semi-parlous rebuilding situation.

Mandel is hired to look into both thefts, and attacks on a digital personality, via that personalities granddaughter.

4 out of 5

Chest mangled cosmologist investigation.

The growing corporate power Event Horizon is again involved here, as one of its star researchers is found dead, and mutilated to go along with it, which seems rather strange.

A job for psi-cop Greg Mandel, who had happily been minding his own business but is talked into taking on this case.

Plenty of people wanted this work stopped, too, so he will be one busy investigator.

Just as good as the last book.

4 out of 5

4.5 out of 5

Original Article