Bran the Blessed

I haven't really posted much yet so I'm a bit nervous and all but still, happy birthday : P

Finished "The Tyrants of Kool-Sim" by James Maclaren Cobban. A lost race story about a jewish dynasty who finds only enjoyment in counting figures assuming control of a race of pygmies via loans because "like all jews they come to trade and stay to rule", and whose blood is literally so toxic it is used as lethal poison.

Well, here

http://theweirdandwonderfulblog.blogspot.cz/2016/05/the-tyrants-of-kool-sim-by-james.html

Good luck. I know next to nothing about computers other then YTD Video Downloader is horrible adware you should never touch with a ten foot bargepole but good luck either way : D

Another young woman. What a shock.

5 bucks says the character is from Britain.

Oh and the clip says "get back to the future" but I'm still saying there's a huge chance she's from the "present" as well.

May not bother trying to track down a copy just yet, then.

I think you can find it in a Library in the UK as that's where it was printed.

Also finished my review of Sign of the Spider. Not edited or spellchecked yet because I have to go eat something, haven't touched anything all day.

http://theweirdandwonderfulblog.blogspot.cz/2016/04/the-sign-of-spider-by-bertram-mitford.html

The Fuzz Against Junk looks pretty bitchin', and that's one hell of a cover on the other...

I have the other, that exact version to be exact. I think the only other version on the internet is 40 $ though.

Isn't there a Hanns heinz Ewers novel that's very similar to Haggard's She as well?

Ah sorry man, I completely missed this ! I haven't read She but I guess if you mean domineering female presence then that goes for both Alraune and The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Spoilers for both books abound below.

Mind you I wish I could find those stories of his I read in Hearts of Kings. I think I have a few that someone was translating on the internet from the original somewhere but it's none of these.

As for me, finished The Sign of the Spider. Bit of a letdown as it was more of an adventure novel with only a hint of weirdness, hell the Zulu-esque setting of climax of the book isn't even the focus for very long. I want to do a quick review of this so that's all for now.

Started on Irving Bacheller's The Master of Silence. Looking promising and it's a rather short read too.

After that I may dig into something that finally came in the mail on monday:

Getting my hands on this bastard was an Odyssey. First I can't find a decently priced copy anywhere, then I find an Ebay seller who put it up twice without anyone buying it, he puts it up again and then outa nowhere some s.o.b. outbids me by 50 cents two seconds before the auction ends, after I got up at like 3 AM to nab it.

Then when I find a not so bad copy on Amazon, the seller, who btw wanted to use USPS and charge like 33 $ for shipping when what I eventually got shipped from Australia for 8, finds out that L.W.Currey and others like it have been hiking the price up on this so they offer me a deal where they'll only ask three times their original listing price, otherwise they'll make it even more expensive for others to buy.

I finally found a shop and publisher in one from Australia who had it and after a friend put down 22 $ for me (was blead a blid dry by bills and whatnot) as a sort of birthday gift the thing finally arrives. And quite quickly too, given any time I bought something from Australia it always took forever, and this was like three weeks including going through our own, semi-paraplegic postal system so kudos.

And while looking up a scan of the Bennett, I found these weird satirical collages from something called The Hero Maker from 1966 and I thought I'd share

Been reading some of Bertram Midford's The Spider. Been meaning to read some of his stuff forever since people compare him to Haggard, who I've also wanted to finally get along to forever. Basically the closest I've come so far is with Pierre Benoit and his Atlantida which I heard people compared to She and which is a really fantastic book.

Not very far into the Midford yet because I've been suffering from a cold and the sinus swelling in my nose basically made it impossible to breathe (cue me trying a million different things people suggested including home made nasal liquids, etc.) but it's interesting because the down on his luck main character becomes a slave trader halfway through and I'm curious if Midford is still gonna have his readers care about his love life like he did prior to that.

Rabbit you say. Huh.

As promised, here is the review. I hammered it out real quick due to lack of time so no spellchecking until later. : P

http://theweirdandwonderfulblog.blogspot.cz/2016/03/the-golden-dwarf-sensational-romance-of.html

Finished with the Golden Dwarf today. Will write out a more detailed review on all it's flaws when I'm properly awake and not just desperately clinging to consciousness : P

The book I just mentioned on the last page : P

Oh an I'm really annoyed both versions of this which are available are missing pages >_> So far it's three. Godamn it can they not double check ?

Of course I've no way to report this directly to Google either.

Didn't they start experimenting with that in the early 70's ?

And started reading "THE GOLDEN DWARF: A SENSATIONAL ROMANCE OF TO-DAY" a few days ago. So far there's a fairly large cast of characters (If we count all that have actually shown up, alive, by page 90 then we're at15), so much so I had to make a mental note of the rather tangled web of romantic and antagonistic relations between the characters. It's not so bad as a quaint little village melodrama however I'm expecting a lot more based on the following summary.

http://www.lwcurrey.com/pages/books/148825/r-norman-silver/the-golden-dwarf-a-sensational-romance-of-to-day

I've finished with Doctor Arnoldi. And the only way to describe my feelings right now is, if a book could beat you up, that's how I feel right now.

It's like if the last few pages of Flecker's The Last Generation went on for about three times as long and were about ten times as nasty.

Well, this isn't much science fiction but I do recommend looking up Edogawa Rampo's work anyway. Granted he only has one English language story collection with fantastical elements out as far as I know, Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination. It has some purely criminous stories, which is reasonable given he was the literal pioneer of the detective story in Japan, however the few fantastic stories presented in the volume are really unusual and interesting. His penname is the literal japanese pronunciation of "Edgar Allan Poe" for crying out loud !

Also how about German SF ? Different copyright laws make it impossible for me to access many of these but there were some interesting sounding things there, especially from before WWI, and yes I know that sounds a bit anachronistic : P

Q: Which great river is Sigmund Freud's favorite?

 

A: Zat would be de Nile.

Hmmm. That's bad.

I think I'm dead inside now : D

Thayer's was actually an author? I know of him as the head of the Fortean Society (and, secondly, as a closet Nazi sympathizer), but I didn't realize he actually had any claim to fame outside of Charles Fort.

His Doctor Arnoldi is legendary for being either marvelous or disgusting. He's also somewhat well known for his Thirteen Men as I hear.

I've read two short books I want to do a full review of later (after reading a third short title) but right now I started reading "Doctor Arnoldi", by Tiffany Thayer.

Yes.

I'm aware that was the case, but it's still disquieting to read.

I don't think anyone's really forgotten about Bowie, even me who'se barely seen or heard any of his stuff have always known about him.

I know this isn't a joke but it was rather disturbing to read a magazine review of his last album which was published days before he died, where the writer writes in a way that assumes that the album is a sign of an improvement of Bowie's music, talking about things to come.

I must be massively behind on technology then because I had no idea you can kill a phone by setting the wrong date. I used to do that all the times with old phones, just to see them display a date when they didn't exist yet.

Don't get me wrong it wasn't a bad design in theory but....you don't expect godamn Omega to have giant poultry for henchemen.

Ah yes Omega's terrifying mutant chicken.

I've finally finished Born of Flame by Margaret Bloodgood Peeke and well, it's more Hermetic tract then a novel. I wrote up a review of it on me book blog if anyone wants to find out the origin of the word "Serpentineth"

http://theweirdandwonderfulblog.blogspot.cz/2016/02/born-of-flame-rosicrucian-story-by.html