Rudolph Kohn's Blog
October 16, 2025
Blistering Barnacles! A Quick Look at Tintin
When I was a little kid, my dad had a stack of little comic books with the name Tintin on them. Every once in a while, I would find that stack and read one or two of them. They are fun, colorful adventure stories, each generally taking place in some unfamiliar country.
Later on, I bought a big collection of them, which included twenty-two completed comics and one that Herge wasn't able to finish before he passed away.
Back then, I had no notion of order, so I just read whatever book caught my fancy. Strongest in my memory are "The Shooting Star," "Tintin and the Picaros," and "The Castafiore Emerald."
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October 15, 2025
An Alternate Ending to a Poe Classic: The Sequel, by Walter Scott Story
A little while back I read Edgar Allan Poe's classic "The Cask of Amontillado..." Well, Walter Scott Story wrote a little alternative ending to the story that also got into the first issue of Weird Tales (1923).
It's simply titled "The Sequel," and it tells the story of a possible, and maybe even plausible, escape. Having played around with bricks and mortar before, I find this story believable.
Anyway, see the video above for my reading, or read it yourself here:
https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV01n01192303/page/n119/mode/2up
October 13, 2025
Proto-Dunwich Horror?! OOZE, by Anthony M. Rud
After reading "The Dead Man's Tale" in the first issue of Weird Tales, I checked out the next story, which was a bit longer, so I thought I'd do a short review, rather than a full reading.
The story in question is called OOZE, and it was written by Anthony M. Rud. I think it first appeared here in Weird Tales in 1923, but it's possible that it's a reprint that I'm not aware of.
Read more »October 8, 2025
Light, Fun Adventure in an Alternate World: "Phantoms of Reality"
Looking through the old pulps, I found this neat little novella in the first issue of Astounding Stories of Super-Science, from all the way back in January 1930. It's called "Phantoms of Reality" and it was written by Ray Cummings.
Astounding Stories is generally a bit campier than Amazing Stories, and this novelette is a good example. It's a straightforward action-adventure story, in which the main characters visit a world of another dimension around our own. The prose is engaging, and more descriptive of people than of places.
Read more »October 7, 2025
Weird, in More Ways than One! The King in Yellow Review!
If you read Lovecraft you've probably heard of The King in Yellow. Lovecraft found the book interesting and wove references to some of its elements into many of his stories. Yet at the same time, Lovecraft said it had "uneven interest and a somewhat trivial and affected cultivation of the Gallic studio atmosphere" in his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature."
Still, I was not fully aware of the uneven interest when I sat down to read the book.
Read more »October 2, 2025
Equal Parts Brilliant Writing and Soul Pain: Yes, Minister Season One!
Have you ever watched a sitcom that made you feel like it was twisting a knife in your heart and guts while you laughed? It's a weird feeling, and it's one I got from Yes, Minister, a very popular British show from the 1980s. It ran for three seasons, and then the follow-up series Yes, Prime Minister ran for two more.
Read more »October 1, 2025
Maybe My Favorite Feist Book: A Darkness at Sethanon!
Welcome to the final book in the Riftwar Saga! A Darkness at Sethanon brings to a close this sub-series by Raymond E. Feist, and it's a doozy of a book. I'm inclined to say this is my favorite book by Feist, for its tone, pacing, character arcs, and focus. Plus, it's some well-earned epicness, that has been thoroughly justified by the previous books.
This book has two main plot lines, and one of those splits late in the book to make a third minor plot line. There is a bit of desperation throughout the story, and it's well-justified. I'm not a big fan of the "ticking clock" trope, but the timing of events in this book is handled well, neither being too precise nor too vague.
We get to experience a massive siege on a city called Armengar, and Feist handles this type of warfare expertly. The action is realistic and full of surprises, and even an occasional laugh. Feist's descriptions of routed armies and the danger of being in their paths is fascinating and uncommon in fiction; most authors assume that retreating forces just run.
My least favorite part of Feist is typically "big magic," and there's quite a bit of it in this book, but it's handled pretty well, compared to other books, and feels earned after the three previous books. Feist manages to avoid the temptation to make big light shows, which always feel kind of silly in prose, and instead he actually comes up with some fun things for the big magic to accomplish.
And, as usual, we get some heart-wrenching moments and some great character development.
If you haven't read the previous books in this Saga, you may want to stop here, as I won't be able to avoid spoiling some parts of the end of Silverthorn in describing the beginning of this book.
I recommend that you read my Silverthorn review here, and maybe even Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master, and check those books out first.
Read more »September 26, 2025
Jules Verne Falling Flat? Say it Isn't So!
In the first issue of Amazing Stories, from all the way back in 1926, we have the first half of a lesser-known novel by Jules Verne! Originally published in 1877, it's called Off on a Comet, or Hector Servadac, and it's the story of a French military officer working in northern Africa who, in the middle of preparing for a duel over a woman, is knocked over by an ear-shattering explosion!
He, as well as a sizeable chunk of the Mediterranean coast, has been captured by a comet that hit Earth with a glancing blow and continued off on its irregular orbit.
Read more »September 24, 2025
An Intriguing Adaptation: The Lensman Movie (1984)!
A little while back, I decided to sit back and finally watch the Lensman animated movie, released in Japan in 1984. It is a very loose adaptation of Galactic Patrol, which I've reviewed here along with all the other main Lensman novels by E.E. "Doc" Smith.
The original cut of the movie is largely abandonware these days, so you can easily find it online if you want to. There's a cut by Harmony Gold (butchers and imprisoners of Macross) that shifts things around a bit and cuts out some of the Japanese weirdness.
Read more »September 23, 2025
The First Taste of Weird Tales! "The Dead Man's Tale," a Reading
The greatness of Weird Tales is a force of nature. Yet, what were its origins?
I decided to go through and do a reading of the entirety of "The Dead Man's Tale," by Willard E. Hawkins, the first story printed in the first issue of Weird Tales.
It's a nice little novelette of revenge from the grave, with a surprising ending.
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