SULTRY PULP
(The Return of Daniel)

Hats off to Greg Beatty, one of SF's prolific talents, for helming this column in my absence! Seems wherever I go, online or off, in the SF universe, I can always count on finding something under Greg's byline to brighten my stay. From penetrating reviews and provocative SF-related non--fiction to dynamic Speculative Fiction and poetry, Greg is a steadfast talent in the SF field.

Check out an excellent example of his fiction right here at SFReader. "Where Did You Go?" won an Honorable Mention in last year's Annual Firebrand Fiction/SFReader.com Fiction Contest. And with good reason. This tale of futuristic angst and adolescent ennui is admirably scribed in prose as lean and emotional as good poetry. For more of Greg's fiction, check out "Midnight at the Ichnologist's Ball" at one of the best destinations for online fiction: SCI FICTION.

To read an excellent poem by Greg, try "One Man's Cannibalism" at AstroPoetica. This wondrous and well-managed site for astronomically-themed poetry is simply must-see! So don't just read Greg's poem, take a look at lovely work from Jennifer G. Cuthbertson, Jennifer Jerome, Scott E. Green, Don Narkevic, Bruce Boston, Dan Mitrut and many, many others. Each poem also features an illo--captivating Cosmic Art to compliment excellent poetry--and there's easy surfing to boot!

Greg's non-fiction is seemingly ubiquitous; a recent good read is "Science Fiction's Secret Father: Time to Celebrate the Seusscentennial" available in the articles archive of STRANGE HORIZONS. Or do you think you already know something about the connection between Speculative Fiction and Dr. Suess? As the parent of a toddler and as a poet and a SF writer, I'm happy to say, Beatty's lucid and spirited essay touches on many a familiar base and also delivers some dexterous insight into the nature and purpose of SF, or any form of imaginative 'silliness'.

So, thank you, Greg Beatty, for providing such excellent reviews and for keeping Firebrand free from rust while we were away on our own adventures.

And where have we been? Beyond death and back... through lands as treacherous as Mordor, in ebon worlds, lost in tangled forests where we faced enemies more bloodthirsty than dragons. In worlds where swords clash! To a mysterious island where a shipwrecked femme fatale exacted vengeance from her lecherous captors--villains who once gleefully flayed her silk-white skin with leather whips.

No--I'm not talking about Lady E.'s recent honeymoon! And don't worry, we're prepared to share every bit of our latest sultry pulp excursions with our loyal readers, though we're afraid (for the most part) you'll have to provide your own pictures.

PULP AND DAGGER FICTION! is one of the most entertaining and colorful online venues for adventure SF you're ever likely to Google. This free and content-plentiful site is the creation of brothers Darrin and Jeffrey Blair Latta, Canadians with imaginations as large and 'naturally' preserved as their native land. Click here to read Jonah Lissner's highly-entertaining interview with Jeffrey Blair Latta at Adventure Fiction Online and then hustle over to PULP AND DAGGER FICTION! to read sexy pulp with enough rollicking adventure and suspense to satisfy anyone in search of some spicy work-a-day escape.

Darrin (or "Drooling" D.K) Latta's "The Garden of Death" scores a perfect ten for readability and an eleven for tantalization! If you're like me, you appreciate a story where the heroine gets tied up and (nearly) ravaged a few times to keep things interesting. Add to that Latta's protag, Neekin's, Houdini-like gift for escape artistry and you've a recipe for some of the best adventure SF on the web or off. "Drooling" D.K. Latta spoofs himself only somewhat apologetically with his anime-like, Eros-driven plot, setting, and host of horny villains. "Her knife-wielding nimbleness", as his Neekin is affectionately known, is an addiction quickly succumbed to--at least by anyone looking for top-notch adventure fiction in thrill-a-minute chapters, tailor-made for the online attention span and presented with soulful color and gusto absolutely free of charge.

Jeffrey Blair Latta's eleven-chapter "Fukitso and the Lair of the Havok!" features a sword-slinging Samurai whose black Katana, Ginago, specializes in 'spurting gore'. Latta's pulp-proud prose clashes and rings like an RPG melee--and through the tangles of corpses, abducted beauties, and fierce dopplegangers, character development and story theme rise, impressively preserved and nurtured. The notion of 'keeping your enemy close' is never far from perception, thus elevating Latta's untamed prose far beyond anything an amateur writer or a wannabe might accomplish, no matter how honest their intentions. However thematic, action supercedes contemplation for the most part in this deftly imagined sword-fest.

What is highly notable about both of the Latta brothers' fiction from a technical standpoint is the enviable compression they've achieved; in essence, delivering the 'hot spots' of a traditional adventure novel in distilled, highly entertaining form. This is pulp-on-the-go-series adventure fiction for the modern age--and as such it is a potent, uncut dose of the best and worst pulp-style adventure fiction has to offer.

One is apt to encounter many wonderful and outrageous phrases such as "He drew his short sword and meaningfully ran a thumb along the edge" in the fiction at PDF--and these 'gems' of pulp-style are like sticky pieces of candy, like when you get a clump of 'Milk Duds' instead of just one--it's something that thrills deep as childhood, and if you haven't outgrown loving candy-clumps in favor of only candy truffles--or if you just love great adventure SF, click right over to PDF and indulge your addiction.

Why not hop aboard the forecastle of the Valeria II and soar through the pirate-infested skies with "Marvelous" Michael Jason via his four-chapter Airship Adventure, "Sail High, Sail Far"? You'll plunge into action from the first paragraph, no parachutes required! Where else would you find this snippet of dialogue: "Enemy vessel is a duel-prop heli-yacht"? Blasting broadsides in the clouds over Paris may not be your idea of a good time, but by my reckoning, I'd much rather spend an afternnon with tough-guy protag Jock Cochran aboard a battling dirgible than slogging through my cable channels.

Jason's Zeppelin micro-adventure is exactly the kind of SF readers consistently lament has disappeared from the scene. Pulp lives! In fact, it is better than ever and, unlike Bluebeard's treasure, its free for the taking.

In addition to the stories mentioned, PDF offers a score of other pulse-pounding serials, short fiction, and reviews of graphic novels,. The site updates every seven days, so bookmark the PULP AND DAGGER FICTION! homepage and click over when you need a quick escape from planet Earth.

Another good route of escape is ADVENTURE FICTION ONLINE, a somewhat more conservatively presented, but no less imaginatively rollicking, website that deserves rotating into your 'favorites' list.

If you DO choose to Google to keyword 'adventure fiction' you'll find Jonah Lissner's site currently at #1 (as of 5/20/04). There's ample reason for this, starting with the range of pulp stories on offer at AFO. Like the PDA, this e-pulp venue offers lots of fiction. There is, in fact, enough fiction at either of these sites to fuel a dozen Firebrand Fiction columns.

I'd recommend having fun with the menu--"Hmmm... Perhaps I'd like a story about a mining man in a moon buggy." Guess what? AFO has a story about a mining man in a moon buggy... it's titles, "The Lucky Strike" by Keith P. Graham, and I promise you--nowhere else will you find a story about an asteroid combing kid named 'Jim" who scours cosmic danger-zones to sell rocks and relics for 'beer money'. Graham's quick-read astro-vignette also poses a frightening thematic aspect: what would a rusty nuke in space really be like?

The fiction at AFO is consistently entertaining, and, if not destined for the American literary Canon, is certainly a reliable destination for adventure, spice, fun, wonder and boundless energy. Scrolling through AFO's archives is like being given a heaping crate full of wild and wonderful old pulp magazines--but you don't have to find storage space or worry about the ancient pages disintegrating.

Do you have a hankering for a South American Potboiler, some Old West tales? Or maybe you want barbaric fantasy? Boxer Detective fiction? Or maybe nothing will satisfy you but fiction that features a "six-foot-seven, four hundred-fifty-pound hillbilly with a musical ear and a penchant for adventure south of the border". ADVENTURE FICTION ONLINE is more than happy to provide such fare for the discriminating reader.

"Bedlam Unleashed--Excerpt", by Steven Shrewsbury and Peter J. Welmerink, rings out for special mention as a powerfully provocative vignette of a caged berserker, Erik Bedlam, unleashed by Norse Mercenaries in 1014 Ireland, to singlehandedly turn the battle's tide with his woebegone, battle-bruised soul of chaotic, vengeful fury. This is stand-out flash-pulp that will take about three minutes of your busy schedule to read, but instantly remind you of why Massive Online Role Playing Games are beating the pants off short SF publishers for the attentions of the adolescent and post-adolescent berserker-loving masses. More than that, Shrewsbury and Welmerink have coined, as the Latta Brothers and many writers on both of these e-pulp sites, a contemporary template for old fashioned adventure and edge-of-your seat storytelling.

Some tales, like Stephen D. Rogers' "Seasons of Change" dip toward the low end of narrative flourish and barrel ahead with a simple premise: in this case, flesh-eating Piranha-like butterflies that plague a group of Atlantean colonists. Doozies like, "Tightening his grip on the gun that wouldn't have stopped and Atlantean grazelle", will certainly test the patience of any Strunk and White fanatic, so I suggest you remember the 'Suessian' influence, that all pervasive power of imagination, so eloquently essayed by Mr. Beatty as you surf this fun and fabulous website.

Editor-in-Chief, Jonah Lissner contributes a dizzying amount of fiction under his own prolific byline to AFO. The sheer range of his fiction-production eludes any hope of comprehensive citing here--but you could start with anything from "When She Sings" 'a flash Parisian opera thriller'--racy, well-described, but a touch obtuse--to "The Jungle Skull" a Brazilian escapade, very well-written and well worth your time. Lissner writes convincingly in myriad 'modes'--the constant aspect of his work is that it is always exciting, and always entertaining.

In fact, Lissner maintains a separate website for his 'Antediluvian Epic,' "The Viro Saga", which blends prehistoric brutality with stark, poetic narration. Something about the sprawling, repetitive, nature-based adventures of Viro recalls the oral storytelling tradition, the tribal urge to paint pictures with words, to touch the outermost tip of 'living myth' through creative imaginings.

Lissner has his finger squarely on the psychic pulse of what makes pulp fiction work, whether it is on paper or in pixels. His homepage editorial, a paean to the pulp spirit and archetypal fortitude, is as eloquent a testimony to the power and purpose of popular fiction as I've read lately and, without a doubt, AFO online lives up to this self-professed mandate.

For his combined prowess as prolific, pulp-punching author and guru-like pulp-preserving Editor, this column's Great Fiction Brand Award goes to Jonah Lissner. Congratulations, Jonah! Should your name ever be mentioned again in this column, we shall honor you by following your name with the GF Brand!

Our final mention this column goes to Scott Reilly for his much-appreciated hard-work in maintaining one of the World Wide Web's most indispensable sites for SF writers, The Write-Hemisphere.com. This industry news site is a daily must-read for all developments, gossip and announcements in the SF field. I'm not sure how I got along before I found WH and you won't be either once you see what Scott Reilly has on order. A terrific site.

So, having survived our travels and travails through the sordid and always sensuous world of the new pulps, Lady E. and I will certainly be returning with further descriptions of our travels, links to other adventure-plenty websites and print pubs.

And we won't be leaving behind the rest of the SF universe, either. So welcome us back by clicking back again and again right here to Firebrand Fiction and SFReader.com for the best reviews of short SF and SF novels, as well as SF-related essays, interviews, gossip, contests and much more. And please visit our discussion forums--we're interested in what you have to say. Registration is free--we want to hear about you, your interests, your projects and publications. Hope to see you there soon.

Until Next Time,

Daniel E. Blackston

Firebrand Fiction Reviews: all content © 2004, Dan Blackston