Adventure Tales #1

Adventure Tales #1

by John Gregory Betancourt (Editor), Mike Resnick, Vincent Starrett

The first issue of ADVENTURE TALES presents 9 stories and 10 poems culled from the pulp magazines, including fiction by H. Bedford Jones, Charles C. Young, H. de Vere Stacpoole, Vincent Starrett, Harold Lamb, Hugh B. Cave (the Featured Author, with 2 stories and an interview), and Johnston McCulley (creator of "Zorro")! Nonfiction by Mike Resnick (on Edgar Rice Burroughs), Mike Chomko (on Hugh B. Cave), editorial. More than 70,000 words of pulp material!

380 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 30, 2010

About the author

John Gregory Betancourt is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and mystery novels as well as short stories. He has worked as an assistant editor at Amazing Stories and editor of Horror: The Newsmagazine of the Horror Field, the revived Weird Tales magazine, the first issue of H. P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror (which he subsequently hired Marvin Kaye to edit), Cat Tales magazine (which he subsequently hired George H. Scithers to edit), and Adventure Tales magazine. He worked as a Senior Editor for Byron Preiss Visual Publications (1989-1996) and iBooks. He is the writer of four Star Trek novels and the new Chronicles of Amber prequel series, as well as a dozen original novels. His essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in such diverse publications as Writer's Digest and The Washington Post.

Reviews

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

When John Betancourt put together this initial collection of adventure stories, he went with classical storylines as well as settings. Several nautical stories appear, including those set in the South Seas, as well some passenger liner stories. Stories also come from the Far East and India/Tibet. All in all, it's a solidly representative bunch that does well to capture the era from the 1920s and 1930s. And that, by the way, is something I always enjoy bringing to these stories myself. That is, I always try and put myself into the age in which they were written--never worry about modern sensibilities or prejudices. That way, the stories not only reward readers with rich detail but also give a sort of socio-cultural history lesson. The best here is probably Hugh B. Cave's "The Man Who Couldn't Die," combining the South Seas, looted treasure, castaways, and sea going survival in a lifeboat. The worst? Easily the last of the bunch, "The Spider Strain," witch ratchets down to a lower level. It's the longest story and, as usual in these collections, an example of superheroes and supervillains, albeit in this case The Spider and his agent, John Warwick, are looking reform and exit the crime business. It's a less effective version of Leslie Charteris's The Saint.