Adventure

The Diogenes Club #(Richard Riddle, Boy Detective)

by Chris Roberson

ADVENTURE, the first volume of an annual anthology of original fiction in the spirit of early twentieth-century pulp fiction magazines, features stories from all genres, promising both literary sophistication and pulse-pounding action. Contributors to the first volume, among them leading lights and award-winners in the fields of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and western, include John Edward Ames, Lou Anders, Neal Asher, Kage Baker, Barry Baldwin, O'Neil De Noux, Paul Di Filippo, Mark Finn, Michael Kurland, John Meaney, Michael Moorcock, Chris Nakashima-Brown, Kim Newman, Mike Resnick, Chris Roberson, Matthew Rossi, and Marc Singer.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Horror, Anthologies

400 pages, Paperback

First published November 25, 2005

About the author

Chris Roberson is the co-creator with artist Michael Allred of iZombie, the basis of the hit CW television series, and the writer of several New York Times best-selling Cinderella miniseries set in the world of Bill Willingham’s Fables. He is also the co-creator of Edison Rex with artist Dennis Culver, and the co-writer of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D, Witchfinder, Rise of the Black Flame, and other titles set in the world of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. In addition to his numerous comics projects, Roberson has written more than a dozen novels and three dozen short stories. He lives with a teenager, two cats, and far too many books in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews

[MH · Rating 3 out of 5]

The back cover promise of "literary sophistication and pulse-pounding action" in the style of Michael Chabon's collections for McSweeney's is a little optimistic - some of these stories are pretty adolescent, and more than half of them involve series characters or are set in the individual authors science fiction universes (making them less successful as stand-alone stories and more interesting for readers of those particular series). Still, there are some enjoyable stories from Kim Newman, Michael Kurland and the editor, Chris Roberson, and Marc Singer contributes a great piece that works as a genre adventure, a commentary on the genre, and a clever, moving story in its own right.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

While a few of the stories didn't work as well as others, this is a prime anthology to give you a few tastes of the pulp world. I know I'll be looking for more on many of the authors herein (especially Lou Anders, Chris Roberson, Kage Baker, Mark Finn, Kim Newman, and Marc Singer).

Now I just wish that this had been an annual series of anthologies, as I'm wisihing I had another collection just like this. Guess I'll have to go pick up my friend Lowder's ASTOUNDING HERO TALES and see what he's got in there.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great pulp adventure stories in a multitude of genres. Some of my favorites were Lou Anders’ weird techno-western (there better be more installments of this coming, Lou, or so help me I’ll hunt you down), Kim Newman’s kid-detectives-meet-Cthulhu charmer, and Mike Resnick’s hilarious Island of Dr. Moreau/Dr. Doolittle opener.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm turning into a Kage Baker completist. I bought this book purely for her Company short story "Unfortunate Gytt" and so far that's the only story I've read in it. "Unfortunate Gytt" is a wonderful glimpse into one of Edward's many exploits. Two thumbs up.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I am not a huge fan of short stories I had high hopes of this collection. All of these stories were supposed to be modern writers telling stories in the pulp tradition. Of the 13 stories in the book I only enjoyed 3 of them, overall I will have to give this book a Not Recommended.

[Michael Norwitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

High entertaining anthology of old-style adventure stories, with numerous genres represented.