Book Review: Avengers of the Moon by Allen Steele
It takes a lot of moxie to decide you’re the one to take a character beloved from pulp magazines and anime and update it for a 21st century novel. Allen Steele has already proven that he has that moxie, having given us a novella on “The Death of Captain Future”, but that story wasn’t about Captain Future so much as about a fan of the pulps in which that hero first came to life. Twenty-odd years later, he’s at it again, but this time he’s gone all out to make Captain Future a hero for our times. Did he succeed? If by “succeed” one means creates a perfect pastiche of the hokey and wholesome tales of yore while subtly correcting for modern advances in scientific knowledge and attitudes about the Other, then he more than succeeds. Avengers of the Moon has all the feel of an early 20th century planetary romance, without any of the “mistakes” that let us smile behind our hands when reading the originals he draws on. It’s not set in the “distant future” year of 2015. There are no aliens living in caves on the moon or on the other planets in our solar system.* Weapons and gadgets and space travel are more plausible for modern readers (and cool as heck!). The nom-de-guerre of Captain Future remains but is treated as a childish embarrassment that others gently rib Curt Newton for adopting. Etc.
140. New Pulp, Reviews, and Amazon w/ Tim Pratt and Adam Christopher (A Discussion)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode140NewPulpGoodreadsWTimPrattAndAdamChristopher/Sandf–Episode140–NewPulpGoodreadsWTimPrattAndAdamChristopher.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSPulp sensibilities, Amazonian acquisitions, and authorship, oh my! Authors Adam Christopher and Tim Pratt take a little time out of their evenings to talk to us about review etiquette for published authors, Amazon’s recent acquisition of Goodreads, their new books, and much more. We hope you enjoy the episode! Note: If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 140 — Download (MP3) Intro and Discussion (0:00 – 1:19:26) Tim’s Website Adam’s Website Tim’s Twitter Adam’s Twitter Paizo Publishing Angry Robot Books “Amazon buys Goodreads — and then goes totally hip” (Washington Post) “New pulp fictioneers are ready to rock’n’roll” (The Guardian) Check out their books. Tis good stuff! You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible. Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
