The Zeppelin Now On Nook!

Pulp of the Week - Uchronic Tales: The Zeppelin

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This weeks Pulp of the Week is a little different because this is the first release from my new publishing endeavor... The Uchronic Press.

Here's the press release:

The Uchronic Press is proud to announce “Uchronic Tales: The Zeppelin,” our debut release. This action-packed 18,000 word novella by W. Peter Miller with a cover by Mike Fyles features the premiere appearance of Clark Tyler, a man that trouble seems to find. Or, perhaps he is just good at finding it. This story is available now on Kindle, with Nook and all other formats to follow as soon as possible.

The Uchronic Press is here to serve all readers that crave action, excitement, and a bit of an edge in their pulp adventure fiction. Our stories take place in an alternate past, a uchronic world greatly like our own, but with a dash more mystery, danger, and the macabre. Here you will find heroic adventures, outlandish science, ferocious alchemy, mystic forces, and an alternate history just slightly larger than our own.

Uchronic Tales: The Zeppelin features a young Clark Tyler, an American airman caught up in a conspiracy that threatens to turn the tide of the Great War. Reich Zeppelins have been bombing London mercilessly, but the night one of them takes a strange detour could turn the tide of the war. The Germans have kidnapped a mysterious passenger and it is up to Clark Tyler and a band of elite commandos to stop the massive airship Eisern Feist from returning her secrets to the Fatherland.

In the months ahead, danger will put Clark and others in a number of Uchronic Tales. Look for stories featuring the classic days of Hollywood, earth-shattering danger, lost civilizations, and bizarre visitors from the unknown aether.

Welcome to Uchronic Tales

Fans of my custom creations should be on the look out for guest stars that may be familiar...

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Pulp Film of the Week - Legend of the Fist: Return of Chen Zhen

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Donnie Yen brings back the character Chen Zhen - first portrayed by Bruce Lee in Fists of Fury - in this great piece of Pulp Cinema.

Chen Zhen was part of the Chinese units fighting in the Great War. They fought in service units - 150,000 men were sent to the front lines by the Chinese government - most had no military training, yet were there in battle supporting the allies. They carried artillery shells and dug trenches, hauled dead and suffered heavy casualties.

When his unit falls under heavy sniper and machine-gun fire, Chen Zhen snaps. He takes out the whole sniper squad and he and the survivors of his unit finally get to go back to Shanghai.

Despite the aid given the allies in the war, by 1925, China stood alone against a building Japanese invasion. There were student protests and isolated pockets of resistance, but Chen Zhen tried to stay out of it. But finally, the slights and comments and pushing around got to be too much and Chen Zhen snapped.

Swiping  a costume from a display case outside a popular cinema, Chen Zhen dons the costume of the Masked Warrior (not to be confused with Kato's outfit) and takes the attack to the heart of the Japanese aggressors.

The action is terrific, the cinematography is first class, the story is compelling, and Donnie Yen proves himself to be a great star in this film directed by Andrew Lau, best known for Infernal Affairs. The supporting cast is great, especially the lovely ingenue played by Qi Shu.

The historical setting of the Japanese incursion into China, just as the Provinces are trying to unify, lends weight and depth to the story in a very pleasing manner; giving weight to the action and justification for the fights.

I give Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen a 9 out of 10. This is a great pulp film.

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Tannhäuser Tuesday - Tannhäuser Novel Announced

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Fantasy Flight Games has finally announced the Tannhäuser novel Rising Sun, Falling Shadows. I say finally because the book has been on Amazon for months. 

The cover on Amazon

Here is what Fantasy Flight has to say about the book:

"Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Rising Sun, Falling Shadows, a novel by Robert Jeschonek! This gripping novel based in the war-torn alternate history of Tannhäuser brings fan-favorite characters vividly to life, while drawing newcomers into a war-torn world where science and the supernatural clash to determine the fate of humanity.

In the midst of perpetual war, a far-eastern warrior sect with a shadowy agenda has set out toward the evergreen peninsula of Kamchatka. Can Union Major John McNeal and the elite soldiers of the 42nd Marines stop their sinister plot before it’s too late? And what terrible powers lie hidden in the verdant wilderness? The race is on to discover ancient secrets that could finally bring the Great War to its climactic end!

For more information on this exciting novel, including insights from the author himself, visit our Rising Sun, Falling Shadows website. Then, look for Rising Sun, Falling Shadows at your local bookstore in the second quarter of 2012!"

The Amazon description says it is 336 pages and will be out July 10th.


I feel U-Chronic!

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Pulp of the Week - Bonus! The Lucid Dreaming

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Stoker Award winning writer Lisa Morton has written a disturbing and fantastic novella about the breakdown of humanity as told through the eyes of  young woman named Ashley. As it turns out, Ashley, in addition to despising her name also spends her days at a state mental facilty. It seems she is a violent schizophrenic that calls herself Spike, partly because she likes it and partly because everyone else calls her that.

I won't go to much into the specifics of the story because as a novella, every word counts and everything is critical. What I will say is that some kind of plague has hit the world and it turns everyone into stark razing psychopathic murderers. 

Spike is on her meds, so she finds herself alone in a world where everyone wants to kill everyone else, and by the time she breaks out of the hospital, the world has gone bad.

The cross country adventure that Spike has reminded me just a little of Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog. Probably the bleakness and stark prose.

I liked The Lucid Dreaming a lot (I'll give it a 9 out of 10) and will pick up  more of Lisa Morton's books. The Lucid Dreaming was published by Bad Moon Books. More information about Lisa Morton can be found here. The cover painting is by Zach McCain. His work can be found here.

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Pulp of the Week - Doc Savage 30

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August 1935 - Spook Hole

Spook Hole begins in New York with a one-armed man and a seafaring scalawag having a brutal encounter on the docks of Manhattan.

Those docks are an important setting for this adventure. One unique feature of this saga is the number of potential villains that are introduced quite quickly in this adventure.

There is the one-armed man, 

The thug with baseball bat sized bundle of wires wrapped in heavy tape,

The femme fatale, Nancy Law,

The brutal Captain Wapp,

The thug in pursuit, Oliver Orman Braski,

The mysterious Hezemiah Law,

The denizens of the Spook Hole,

And the traitorous sailor, Sass.

There are a number of unusual features of this novel. Pat Savage makes a brief but memorable appearance. In one scene, Doc's unconcious trilling gives him away. There is also an interesting aside about how a few years earlier there was a boom in small airports. "... airports mushroomed up with great frequency around New York, not a few of them be located in spots so unhandily located that only the enthusiastic promoters dreamed they would ever be useful in a practical way. The result is that at present many weed-grown flying fields are eyesores in the suburbs."

There are the usual fights, shootouts, disguises, and in the end the deep mystery of the Spook Hole itself.

For this review I read my battered Bantam copy that I bought at a library book sale many decades ago. The book was published in Sept 1972. The paperback cover is an iconic one by Fred Pfeiffer. Visit the Pfeiffer Pfiles blog for more information about this great painter. The pulp cover is by Walter Baumhofer. The interior illustrations are by Paul Orban and once again come from Chris Kalb's great Doc site.

I'll give Spook Hole a 7 out of 10. There is far too much mucking around back and forth in New York and not nearly enough of interest once they get to the Spook Hole.

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Congratulations, Miah

Friend of the Blog, Miah, of the Tannhäuser Blog, has had his first Tannhäuser strategy article published on the Fantasy Flight Games site. You can read his article about choosing equipment packs HERE.

This is yet another good sign that Fantasy Flight is showing continued support for Tannhäuser. Here's hoping that support lasts a long time.

Cheers, Jeremiah!

Tannhäuser Tuesday - Operation Hinansho Released

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Operation Hinansho is released and in stores now!!!

Miah - where does TH18 fit into your list?

I skipped over the parts of the rulebook that FFG put out as a PDF. Here are the 9 new scenarios.

New stuff to spruce up your older maps!

There is an entry point in the middle of each edge for your 3-4 player games.

Who left the radio out in the woods?!?

A nice spot for a secret passageway token...

Lots of places for locked doors.

Entry 1

Entry Point 2

Entry Point 3

Entry Point 4

I think the new maps are great and I like that there is support for 2-4 players now. That is a major plus for getting more people to try Tannhäuser.





I feel U-Chronic!!!

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2012 will be a time of change and growth here at Savage Tales. For one thing, I will be launching a new web site to promote and sell my fiction. The inaugural offering will be a novella, The Zeppelin, which introduces my pulp character, Clark Tyler, as a young man that chooses to head off to the Great War at age 17. So far, I have written four novella length tales with Clark, spanning the years 1917 to 1942. The Zeppelin is edited and I'll be putting up on Kindle as soon as I can manage.

In addition, I have an exciting story featuring Ki-Gor, the Jungle Lord, appearing in Jungle Tales Vol. One from Airship 27 sometime early in the year. This story features a supporting character that will be familiar to early readers of this blog... Airship 27s The Green Lama Volume One is still available in print and features my story that takes the Green Lama to Hollywood. A revised version of this story will be one of the novellas released this year.

The Savage Tales blog will carry on its mission of featuring news and highlights in the boardgame and speculative fiction world. I provided reports from 4 major conventions in 2011, and I don't yet know what 2012 will bring.

One feature that will be added here will be my experience with creating ebooks and printed books through my own imprint. Details on that will appear after the legal paperwork goes through. I will say that the name of the new website and the name of my imprint should not shock the readers of this blog.

I continue to be thrilled and amazed by the number of visitors and pages read here at Savage Tales. I thank you all for your interest and support.

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