Quick Rec - The Black Rider by Max Brand

The second novella moves slowly, but the other two are mighty fine and the short short is good too. For the other lovers of Brand out there. You are out there, aren't you?

Dunderthome! is back.

After much fussin' and fightin', my forum is back in action. Here's the link: DUNDERTHOME!

A Plea For Tarzan

When I was a young man, one of my favorite fictional characters was Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan of the Apes. I had borrowed a few paperbacks from the library and after becoming addicted I knew I wanted all 22 (or so) for my very own, so I slowly accumulated them in the Ballantine versions with cover art by Neal Adams, all of which ended up neat and numbered in a row on my headboard’s bookshelf. In the late ‘70s/early ‘80s collecting these works was not as difficult to do as it seems to be now.

Why is it so difficult to collect these in book form nowadays? It might be because a portion of his works are now in the public domain or because he has fallen off in popularity—maybe both. So it turns out that I should have kept those paperbacks instead of getting rid of them (When did I do that, anyway?). Now if I want to revisit them, it will be quite a pain to assemble the whole set. Sure, you can get the first part of the series as free downloads on the Internet, but that works only if you don’t mind reading off a computer screen or a Kindle or sheets of your own printer paper. And anyway, like I said, I’d want the books. What’s available in book form? The first several novels can be obtained pretty easily online but once you get past those—these are the ones in the public domain--it then becomes a matter of finding used copies--which is too bad.

Sure, ERB wasn’t the best writer in the world nor was he politically correct (Who was back then?) yet seldom have I experienced the pure power of imagination he exhibited book after book, taking us everywhere from the jungles of a mythical Africa to the waterways of Mars. Perhaps a genre publisher like Leisure or Del Rey could be persuaded to release all these books again, perhaps as doubles; I’ve seen that done before.

Bring them back please, if not for the younger generation, then at least for us adults who never quite grew up and still enjoy a fantastic tale.

A Blog of Mars and Grim Rictus Reviews Have Merged!

You might have noticed that I've moved the GRR reviews over here. One stop shopping, and all that. Take a look if you haven't seen them yet. I've had the privilege of reviewing some very fine books in the past few months.

Cleaning House

I've decided to close the Dunderthome forum due to low traffic levels. I also think message boards are a thing of the past with Twitter and Facebook around. Thanks to everyone who ever lurked or posted there. I've made some good friends and I'm thankful for that.

I've also stopped posting to Grim Rictus Reviews. I figure I can review books just as well in this blog and, besides that, I can also review non-horror items. There is already a blog called Grim Reviews (a very cool place), so that's another smaller reason to move operations over here.

Both Dunderthome and Grim Rictus Reviews will continue to take up cyberspace until further notice. In other words, I'm not deleting them completely yet, so you can still read them.

All this just means you will hear more from me right here on this blog, so stay tuned, friends!

GRR Is Now Closed

I've decided to consolidate things, and therefore any future reviews will be posted at my main blog: A Blog of Mars.

Thanks to everyone for reading GRR!

Take care,

DT Wilbanks

"Time Changes"

Hi folks,

I have a weird little story titled "Time Changes" forthcoming in Postscripts anthology #20/21 (it's a double-issue!). I'm happy to be part of another great PS publication and proud to be among the other authors. I hope you consider buying yourself a copy!

Postscripts #20/21 Link