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Pulp Reality
Pulp Reality 2: An Action & Adventure Publication
Stormgate Press Ten new short stories from today’s leading authors and illustrators in the New Pulp genre. Packed with Pirates, Private Eyes, Aliens, automatons, villains and vigilantes. High adventure, wondrous fantasy, mysterious horror and startling science fiction await you. Be transported to astonishing places and travel to amazing times in the Golden Age, Pulp Style. This is Pulp Reality 2.
330 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 18, 2021
2 people are currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
Charles F. Millhouse
63 books55 followersCharles published his first book in 1999 and he hasn't looked back. Having written 20 books in the Science Fiction/Pulp genres. His latest work, Captain Hawklin and the Lost Land is due to be released in spring 2020 and Book II of the his Origin Trilogy: Origin Equation will be published in Late May 2020
Charles lives in Southeastern, Ohio with his wife and two sons.
Charles lives in Southeastern, Ohio with his wife and two sons.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 12, 2023
If there were any more pulp in this, it would be a tree. This is a selection of stories with throw back themes, best read through grainy black and white filmstock. For my money, Fancy Cat was head and shoulders the best of the volume. Except for The Wind Up Kid, which I struggled to get through, the remainder were decent.
The volume’s weak point is inattentive editing: we have “council” (a board of people) used instead of “counsel” (advice); a pair of "high heal" shoes are abandoned; and someone hopes their lie isn’t “prevalent” but apparently doesn’t mean widespread, and probably others I didn’t bother to highlight.
Stories:
New Flesh On Old Bones: a touch of swashbuckling derring-do, opening the collection on a strong note.
Nightvision: Murder: highly stylized 1930s superhero solving crime and rendering justice! (With an ”!”)
To Race The Moon: working title, Werewolves of the Western Front.
Snow Chase: a simple security job goes violently sideways.
The Legend Of The Fancy Cat: finely-drawn ghost story with a twist. No cats were involved.
Kings Of The Crustaceous Period: gives “Deadliest Catch” a whole new meaning.
The Wind-Up Kid: brought to your dusty Old West town by a traveling show.
Ace Anderson And The Curse of Doctor Atomika (Part Two): in which our heroic adventurer uh...please consult the summary of part 1 and read from there.
Editing issues aside, this is a generally fun collection and worth the price of admission.
August 26, 2021
There is something for everyone here once again. Some crossovers with familiar characters are always fun to read. Not all the stories were my cup of tea but the writers and artists did a great job here. Check out this new pulp anthology that celebrates action and adventure.
June 13, 2021
*Pulp Reality 2* is an anthology containing ten short stories, with each story accompanied by at least one piece of eye-catching artwork, usually serving as the title page, plus the front cover image shown above, which I find simply stunning. The paperback version, which is the only format available for now, measures 8½”x11”, presumably to mimic the traditional size of pulp fiction magazines, which per Wikipedia, was 7”x10”. 208 pages might sound like a pretty short book, but here that's not true; you can get a remarkable number of words on an 8½"x11½ page.
One of the tales is told in the first-person POV, and one is a continuation of a story from the initial Pulp Reality publication. There is a minimal amount of cussing, which I gather is typical of pulp fiction. A couple of the stories feature heroes who also star in full-length series by their authors; I thought it was a clever way to give the reader a "taste" of those.
I liked that no two stories had the same setting/sub-genre. We won’t list the details here – it’s more fun to discover these by reading the book. The back cover claims the magazine is “packed with Pirates, Private Eyes, Aliens, automatons, villains and vigilantes”, and I can attest that’s accurate, albeit it's not all-inclusive.
There are no “weak links” among the authors here; each tale kept me entertained and turning the pages. Here's a few things, without spoilers, that really stood out for me, one per tale:
In Old Flesh for New Bones, the breathtaking “feel” for sailing back in the swashbuckling era.
In NightVision, the deep character-development of the hero, in only 20 pages.
In To Race the Moon, the twist at the end of the story.
In Snow Chase, how well the “then/now” timeline technique worked.
In Patently False, a refreshingly new super-power.
In Fancy Cat, much better than *The Shining*, plus tons of plot twists.
In Kings of the Crustaceous Period, why eating crab legs may shorten your lifespan.
In The Wind-Up Kid, the technologically-believable mechanical hero.
In Ghost from the Past, the insight into the oddly fascinating Hawklin father/son relationship.
In Ace Anderson, the eerie concept of zombies on a submarine.
The book does have a significant amount of punctuation misuse and lots of typos. But if grammatical hiccups don’t unsettle your inner reading mind, and you yearn for tales where buckles are swashed and thrills are spilled, then you’ll find *Pulp Reality 2* to be a delightful read. I did.
One of the tales is told in the first-person POV, and one is a continuation of a story from the initial Pulp Reality publication. There is a minimal amount of cussing, which I gather is typical of pulp fiction. A couple of the stories feature heroes who also star in full-length series by their authors; I thought it was a clever way to give the reader a "taste" of those.
I liked that no two stories had the same setting/sub-genre. We won’t list the details here – it’s more fun to discover these by reading the book. The back cover claims the magazine is “packed with Pirates, Private Eyes, Aliens, automatons, villains and vigilantes”, and I can attest that’s accurate, albeit it's not all-inclusive.
There are no “weak links” among the authors here; each tale kept me entertained and turning the pages. Here's a few things, without spoilers, that really stood out for me, one per tale:
In Old Flesh for New Bones, the breathtaking “feel” for sailing back in the swashbuckling era.
In NightVision, the deep character-development of the hero, in only 20 pages.
In To Race the Moon, the twist at the end of the story.
In Snow Chase, how well the “then/now” timeline technique worked.
In Patently False, a refreshingly new super-power.
In Fancy Cat, much better than *The Shining*, plus tons of plot twists.
In Kings of the Crustaceous Period, why eating crab legs may shorten your lifespan.
In The Wind-Up Kid, the technologically-believable mechanical hero.
In Ghost from the Past, the insight into the oddly fascinating Hawklin father/son relationship.
In Ace Anderson, the eerie concept of zombies on a submarine.
The book does have a significant amount of punctuation misuse and lots of typos. But if grammatical hiccups don’t unsettle your inner reading mind, and you yearn for tales where buckles are swashed and thrills are spilled, then you’ll find *Pulp Reality 2* to be a delightful read. I did.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews