Remember reading those pulp magazines when you were a kid? Those and the adventure novels about Tarzan and exploring lost worlds? Dead on the Bones: Pulp on Fire is a collection of those kinds of stories and it really brought me back to my childhood.

Being a Lansdale fan, I have come to expect a certain sense of humor from his stories and that was mostly missing here. In the foreword, Mr. Lansdale explains that he purposely tried to write in the style of his heroes. I would say he succeeded!

My favorite story of the bunch was "Dead on the Bones." A tale of a conjure man that visits the locals regularly, and who just so happens to resurrect the dead as boxing opponents. There is a lot more to this one than just what's on the surface, but you'll have to read it to see what sets it apart.

"Under the Warrior Star" was a very close second in my list of favorite tales. A true adventure story which reminded me of the fact that all my teachers used to tell me that these stories were for boys. They never understood me. Flying about on beetle-like creatures among the canopies of giant trees, with a man who can meditate so deeply he can levitate? Sign me the heck up! There was so much to this story that I can only cover the bare bones of it here-but trust me on this, if you loved pulp adventure when you were a kid, you'll love this one.

"The Gruesome Affair of the Electric Blue Lightning" featured an old favorite of mine, Auguste Dupin. Poe was always a thrill for me and to meet Dupin again was a blast! Lansdale hit the writing style right on head with this one and it brought back a lot of fond memories.

Dead on the Bones: Pulp on Fire was written as a tribute to the pulp writers of old-be they in print, on the radio or the television, the feel of the stories remains true. I think fans of the old magazines and stories like Weird Tales, or Alfred Hitchcock's, Tarzan or even Conan will not only get a big kick out of these adventures, but they'll also get a nice walk down memory lane.

Recommended for fans of the old pulp and adventures stories!

You can get your copy here: Dead on the Bones: Pulp on Fire

I received my copy free from Net Galley and Subterranean Press in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!


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"Christ, that ineffectual demigod that had fooled many into thinking the heart of God had changed; it had not, that delusion was all part of the great bastard's game."

Quotes like this are what keeps me reading Mr. Joe R. Lansdale! That particular quote comes from the story "The Redheaded Dead" which "stars" one of my favorite Lansdale characters, the Reverend Mercer! That tale, along with two others ("Naked Angel" and "Dead on the Bones") are the prize stories in this collection - for me! The other stories are more fantasy/sci-fi, and weren't really my cup of tea. But, give me a wild west vampire, the Conjure Man, and a prostitute frozen in a big ol' block of ice, and I give it 3 stars! ( )

This was a very interesting collection and nice introduction to the origins of the pulp genre, which I was too young (or not yet there at all ;) to experience firsthand. I only vaguely remember watching Tarzan as a TV series and the b/w movies, but that's about all I can say for it. So let's take a closer look at the stories we get here:

Pulp Fury: An Introduction
The introduction was very insightful and though I am not familiar with the authors mentioned my interest was piqued and I will investigate them further. I wonder if the pulp magazines and TV shows were as popular here in Germany, my guess would be that they were mainly an American thing. My parents sure can't remember stumbling upon them ;)

The Gruesome Affair of the Electric Blue Lightning
The first story, starring detective Auguste Dupin (whose character actually was invented by Poe) was ok but it held my interest only loosely. Too many coincidences and convenient guess work for my liking, though it perfectly depicts the detective's quirky 'Sherlock Holmes'-like nature (while actually, it would have been Dupin who inspired the creation of Holmes...). **

The Redheaded Dead
Though I love stories with fangs, this one about a vampire-hunting god-doubting preacher was the worst of the collection - simply utterly boring. *

King of the Cheap Romance
"Third time is a charm" and the third story of the collection, which is a sci-fi bit about a girl stranded on Mars (though most part of it read like it could have played somewhere in the arctic region as well) was the first to really hold my interest throughout. Could this be the turning point in the book?! ***

Naked Angel
Wow! I was truly mesmerized by this perfect little piece of 'pulp noir'. Got me with this one! *****

Dead on the Bones
Another tasty treat comes with this story about revenge and voodoo. Great! ****

Tarzan and the Land That Time Forgot
Reading this one stirred some vague memories of a black and white Tarzan and some distant dinosaur movie scenes (were there any in the original King Kong movie? I just can't put my finger on it where these come from). Entertaining, but nothing new on this front, and I didn't care for the macho aura surrounding Tarzan like a cloud of flies around something smelly. ***

Under the Warrior Star
What I loved about this story was the background story about a man being sent into an artificially created universe where he encounters strange people on a strange planet...the rest was just another Tarzan-like super hero saves the beauty hodge-podge with lots of fighting against some savages or beasts. **

The Wizard of the Trees
Didn't I just read that story? Way too similar to the Warrior Star, this story was perfect to resurface from the pulp realm, fading into the background while the here and now took over again. **

As a whole, this collection provides a common but decent 3 star mixture of good, great and ugly. However, the author definitely delivered on his promise that the collection would be pure pulp, and I am glad I took the opportunity to get more familiar with his work.

(I chose to read an ARC of this book, all opinions are my own) ( )