“It is easy to kill someone with a slash of the sword. It is hard to be impossible for others to cut down.” Yagyu Munenori Hollywood, games and fiction gets fencing wrong. Protracted clash of blades. Wild telegraphed flailing and awkward cuts. Casually absorbing lethal attacks, or powering through guard positions. Ridiculous speeds. Most of […]
Marcus Wynne’s THE REVENGERS
Rob the corrupt. Then kill them. Evil lurks in the streets of Minneapolis. Where the police can’t or won’t act, retired US Marines Salt and Raul Sanchez take justice into their hands. Hybrid vigilante-hitmen, they stalk their prey, rob them blind, and finish them. Permanently. Book 1, SALT, introduces readers to the world of Revengers. […]
Movie Review: Weathering with You
Morishima Hodaka is a 16-year-old high school student fleeing his remote island home. Amano Hina is an orphaned girl with the power to change the weather. Destiny brings them together in a Tokyo deluged in rain. But will destiny tear them apart? Weathering with You has all the elements of a classic Shinkai Makoto anime: gorgeous […]
Aero #1 Review
When Marvel announced its trifecta of Chinese superheroes, I braced myself to be disappointed. In recent times, Marvel has continually delivered comic series emphasising social justice in lieu of storytelling, and I was sure these comics would continue in that grand tradition. Looking at Aero #1, I do declare I was wrong. It was worse. Easy […]
Book Unreview: 9th of August
One of the signatures of PulpRev is our cheerful disdain of conventional genre boundaries. Where traditional publishers see a dividing line between fantasy, science fiction, romance and other genres, we draw on the older traditions that blended various aesthetics to create exciting tales. We do not box ourselves in by arbitrary genre distinctions; we embrace […]
Between Tradecraft and Thrills: Johnny Wylde
It is accepted wisdom in the thriller community that highly-trained characters must display excellent tradecraft to thrill the reader. Yet this isn’t always so. In my first post in this series, I explored the Orphan X series, in which the protagonist’s poor tradecraft sets up superior scenes; in my previous post, I showed how taking […]
Between Tradecraft and Thrills: Orphan X
New York Times bestseller Gregg Hurwitz blew into the writing scene with his debut Minutes to Burn. With his Timothy Rackley series, Hurwitz hit his stride, solidifying his position as a top-shelf thriller author. In his latest series, Orphan X, he has reached new heights, producing a magnificent blend of pulse-pounding action, complex characterisation, powerful imagery, […]
Series Review: Writing Violence by Marc MacYoung
Marc ‘Animal’ MacYoung watches rom-coms because Hollywood gets action scenes wrong. Having worked as a court-recognized expert witness, correctional institute director, bodyguard, bouncer, cooler and event security, he has decades of first-hand experience with violence and criminals. His street name came from a high-risk lifestyle filled with life-or-death encounters on the mean streets of Los […]
Appendix N Review: The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
In the far-flung future, the Sun has reached the end of its lifespan. Under an alien sky, strange animals and plants thrive across the world, ruined cities stand in mute testimony to all-conquering Time, squalor and luxury exist side by side in decaying and decadent civilisations, and science and technology have blurred into a unified […]
The Nihilism of The Punisher MAX
The Punisher presents Marvel with a dilemma. A Vietnam veteran who lost his family during a Mafia hit, Frank Castle transformed himself into the vigilante Punisher to wage a one-man war on crime. His defining traits are his ruthless and lethality. Unlike other superheroes, he is perfectly willing to kill everyone who enters his sights. […]