Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Paul Levine; Captain Future



PAUL LEVINE’S “FLESH & BONES” NOW AN E-BOOK

From Paul Levine

I was sitting at the end of the bar sipping single-malt Scotch when I
spotted the tall blond woman with the large green eyes and the small gray
gun.

That’s the opening line of “Flesh & Bones,” Paul Levine’s bestselling 1997
thriller that has just been released as an e-book. It’s the last of the
critically acclaimed series featuring Jake Lassiter, the second-string
linebacker turned hard-boiled Miami lawyer.

“Flesh & Bones” deals with the very real issue of “recovered memories.”
In the opening scene, fashion model Chrissy Bernhardt shoots her wealthy
father. She claims to have recently recovered repressed memories of
having been sexually abused by him as a child. Hired to defend her, Jake
Lassiter begins to doubt his client, even as he falls for her.

“Another breathless thriller,” wrote the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
“Filled with smart writing and smart remarks,” proclaimed the Dallas
Morning News.

“Flesh & Bones,” priced at $2.99, is available on Kindle, Nook, and at
Smashwords.

-----------------------------------------CAPTAIN FUTURE

Ed here: Edmond Hamilton is one of my favorite old-time pulp writers. That he survived the pulps and went on to write some of the most masterful stories of the Fifties and Sixties is a credit to his skill and intelligence. But even these days I pick up one of his old pulp stories from time to time and have a great time with it. If you want to know where Star Trek and all other such shows and books came from, look no further than this gorgeous edition of Captain Future Volume One.



The Collected Captain Future
Volume One
Edmond Hamilton
Introduction by Richard A. Lupoff
Illustrated by George Rozen, Earle K. Bergey & H.W. "Wesso" Wessolowski
ISBN-10 189388735-9
ISBN-13 978189388735-0
$40.00
776 pp. Hardcover
Description
Here is a letter, attributed to Standard Magazines editor Leo Margulies, sent to science fiction fanzine editors in 1939. This text is from Bob Tucker's classic fanzine Le Zombie (vol. 2, No. 4, Oct 28, 1939)

"Dear Mr. Tucker,

Can there be anything new in scientifiction? We say yes -- and offer CAPTAIN FUTURE. Fellows, CAPTAIN FUTURE is tops in scientifantasy! A brand new book-length magazine novel devoted exclusively to a star-studded quartet of the most glamorous characters in the Universe. And the most colorful planeteer in the Solar System to lead them -- CAPTAIN FUTURE. You'll find Captain Future the man of Tomorrow! His adventures will appear in each & every issue of the magazine that bears his name.

He ought to be good. We spent months planning the character, breathing the fire of life into him. For we feel that the man who controls the destinies of nine planets has to be good. But don't take our word for it -- get your first copy of CAPTAIN FUTURE the day it hits the newstands and marvel at the wizard of science as he does his stuff on every thrilling page.

You'll find Captain Future the most dynamic space-farer the cosmos has ever seen. A super-man who uses the forces of super-science so that you will believe in them. You'll see Captain Future's space craft, the Comet spurting thru the ether with such hurricane fury you'll think Edmond Hamilton, the author, has hurled you on a comet's tail.

And you'll agree that Captain Future's inhuman cavalcade -- the Futuremen -- supplement the world's seven wonders. There's Grag, the metal robot; Otho, the synthetic android; and Simon Wright, the living brain. A galaxy of the ultimate immortal forces!

So come on....give the most scintillating magazine ever to appear on the scientifiction horizon the once over. You'll be telling us, as we tell you now, that CAPTAIN FUTURE represents fantasy at it's unbeatable best.

CAPTAIN FUTURE will appear at all newsstands in a few weeks. Price, 15 cents. First issue features Edmond Hamilton's novel, CAPTAIN FUTURE AND THE SPACE EMPEROR. Cover by Rozen. Illustrations by Wesso. Short stories by Eric Frank Russell and O. Sarri. Brand new departments -- THE WORLDS OF TOMORROW, THE FUTUREMEN, UNDER OBSERVATION, and THE MARCH OF SCIENCE.

That's all.

--Leo Margulies"

Table of Contents
Reviews
Excerpts

Related Books
The Vampire Master
Stark and the Star Kings
The Metal Giants and Others
The Star Stealers
The Universe Wreckers
Captain Future - Volume Two
Table of Contents
Introduction by Richard A. Lupoff
Original Magazine Editorial
"Captain Future and the Space Emperor" (Captain Future, Win ’40)
"Calling Captain Future" (Captain Future, Spr ’40)
"Captain Future's Challenge" (Captain Future, Sum ’40)
"The Triumph of Captain Future" (Captain Future, Fll ’40)
"The Future of Captain Future"
Artwork Gallery

Reviews
Edmond Hamilton (1926-1977) was a pioneer of American science fiction who began his writing career during the 'Golden Age' of pulp magazines. He sold his first story, 'The Monster-God of Mamorth" to Weird Tales magazine in 1926 and became a prolific contributor to the science fiction pulp magazines of the 30s and 40s. He was writing and getting published through the 1960s, even as the popularity of science fiction action/adventure tales of the kind he specialized in was fading. Now under the deft and expert editorship of Stephen Haffner, Haffner Press is bringing out deluxe editions comprising all of the Edmond Hamilton stories, beginning with "Captain Future", a quintessential science fiction hero who, along with his three companions (a sentient robot, a synthetic android, and a disembodied brain kept alive in a serum-case) protected the solar system against all manner of villains and menaces. Captain Future was such a popular character that it became the title of one of the many science fiction pulp magazines of the day. Now all those wonderful science fiction adventures of yesteryear are available in a single 776-page volume.

Also very highly recommended for dedicated science fiction fans and made available by Haffner Press is a collection of Edmond Hamilton stories originally published in the pages of Weird Tales magazine (along with two that were published in Amazing Stories Quarterly and one printed in Science Wonder Quarterly): "The Collected Edmond Hamilton: Volume One: The Metal Giants And Others" and "The Collected Edmond Hamilton: Volume Two: The Star-Stealers: The Complete Tales of the Interstellar Patrol".
—Midwest Book Review

"One more title for tonight, also a deeply-appreciated review copy: The Collected Captain Future, Volume One, from Haffner Press. Edmond Hamilton was the quintessential space opera writer of the 1930s and '40s, but he was an author I had never read: with this book in hand, I read the 150-page long title story, "Captain Future and the Space Emperor", first published in 1940. It is a hoot; it is a casebook of prose the like of which is described in writing courses under the heading *do not write like this* -- a compendium of "said-bookisms" such as "he muttered sickly to himself", "the President asserted confidently", "the thing gasped hoarsely", and so on and on. But more than that, it's a tale of simple presumptions about space flight and planetary natives and easy villains with unironic tags like "space emperor"... So unironic that it's hard to believe anyone could have read this stuff without choking. Isn't there a lesson here, though, about context and presumptions and relative sophistication? Might we reflect on what has or has not changed since then? As an example, here back in 1940 two of Edmond Hamilton's characters debate about who or which is most human... a debate carried on in subsequent decades by Isaac Asimov and STTNG's Data and all the way to Bernard Beckett's Genesis. Some things never change; some debates seem never to be resolved."
—Mark R. Kelly, Views from Medina Road, the locusmag blog

Excerpts
TBA

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