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Weird Tales v26n04 October 1935
An archive of the magazine from 1935 with all the artwork, advertisements, and stories included cover to cover. This is a graphic port of the magazine suited best for Kindle Fire tablets pinch and zoom feature
136 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 29, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 8, 2022
This review is for C.L. Moore's 'The Cold Gray God.'
Northwest is on Mars again, again.... again. Which is fine but I really wanted to head back to Venus. Anyway, at least it's not the same old dusty environs, here we start with a snowy setting on "Righa, pole city of Mars."
Otherwise, it's a bit of a classic start for a Northwest. He spots a beautiful woman standing out from the crowd and she asks "will you come with me?" Of course, Northwest knows what she means by this, because apparently he could tell that she was no ordinary lady of the streets, but this reader could not parse any deep meaning from the exchange. Naturally, he follows.
Well, at least to half satisfy my Venusian dreams, the lady in question is "Judai of Venus [who] had been the toast of three planets a few years past." Her songs once celebrated through to the far outposts of civilisation.
Judai offers Northwest any reward he can name if he will retrieve an item stored in a little ivory box for her. Smith heads down to the local, a bar that he knows is a safe haven for people of questionable occupation. There the barkeep doesn't just offer up information, (odd for a place that can apparently be relied upon to keep your secrets), but goes as far as to actually retrieve the damn box for him. So, I was a little unimpressed with this arrangement and hoping that it would at least be a case of the old cursed gift routine.
The real horror here has little to do with the box and a lot more to do with whatever has become of the once great vocalist. Like some of the best in this series, Northwest undergoes a battle of wills to keep his mind and body to himself.
Northwest is on Mars again, again.... again. Which is fine but I really wanted to head back to Venus. Anyway, at least it's not the same old dusty environs, here we start with a snowy setting on "Righa, pole city of Mars."
Otherwise, it's a bit of a classic start for a Northwest. He spots a beautiful woman standing out from the crowd and she asks "will you come with me?" Of course, Northwest knows what she means by this, because apparently he could tell that she was no ordinary lady of the streets, but this reader could not parse any deep meaning from the exchange. Naturally, he follows.
Well, at least to half satisfy my Venusian dreams, the lady in question is "Judai of Venus [who] had been the toast of three planets a few years past." Her songs once celebrated through to the far outposts of civilisation.
Judai offers Northwest any reward he can name if he will retrieve an item stored in a little ivory box for her. Smith heads down to the local, a bar that he knows is a safe haven for people of questionable occupation. There the barkeep doesn't just offer up information, (odd for a place that can apparently be relied upon to keep your secrets), but goes as far as to actually retrieve the damn box for him. So, I was a little unimpressed with this arrangement and hoping that it would at least be a case of the old cursed gift routine.
The real horror here has little to do with the box and a lot more to do with whatever has become of the once great vocalist. Like some of the best in this series, Northwest undergoes a battle of wills to keep his mind and body to himself.
November 8, 2024
I read several stories from this wonderfully vintage magazine that is chock full of simple tales that somehow manage to stay with you as much as the strange, comic book-like ads printed in tiny little blocs do.
Those tales were as follows:
The Amulet from Hell by Robert Leonard Russell
The Lost Club Arthur Machen
The Six Sleepers Edward Hamilton
In The Shadows Lea Bodine Drake
Please also note this installment is available to read for free or make a donation to the Internet Archive.
Those tales were as follows:
The Amulet from Hell by Robert Leonard Russell
The Lost Club Arthur Machen
The Six Sleepers Edward Hamilton
In The Shadows Lea Bodine Drake
Please also note this installment is available to read for free or make a donation to the Internet Archive.
November 8, 2024
Brundage's cover for Weird Tales October 1935 is for a story I will never read, because it's by Edmond Hamilton and the idea of reading his stories makes me want to mow my lawn, catalog my out-of-control book collection, or hit myself in the head with a hammer rather than wade through a story I have almost certainly read before.
This issue is better than the September issue, mostly thanks to the dependable pen of C.L. Moore. "The Cold Grey God" is another Northwest Smith eldritch adventure in out-there space, this one involving possession by some literally unspeakable thing from Mars or beyond. Second place is the issue's reprint, "The Lost Club," an Arthur Machen story I've either never read before or maybe just forgotten. It's minor Machen but appropriately weird.
I think I've mentioned before that King Tut and Karl Freund have cast a shambling shadow on WT's mid-30s contents. There are two mummy stories here. Arlton Eadie's serial The Carnival of Death improves in its second chapter, despite including a coincidental plot element that would have done Bulwer-Lytton proud, a one in several million chance really. Still, there's a quality to Eadie's work that sets it slightly apart from most of the long-form stories in WT and I'm a little sad to know there will be no more of his work. The other mummy fable is Seabury Quinn's clearly labeled "The Dead-alive Mummy," a passable de Grandin story, better really than some of the ones immediately preceding it.
Clark Ashton Smith translates Baudelaire; what other pulp would even dream of publishing such a thing? Eando Binder offers (offer maybe since there were two of them?) “In a Graveyard." Paul Ernst continues the risible adventures of Dr Satan; I still wince every time I read the hero’s name (Ascott Keane!). There’s also an extremely minor story by Robert Leonard Russell, “The Amulet of Hell,” that gets some points for trying to do something different in the vampire vein. Worth a mention is an early poetry contribution, “In the Shadows,” by Lea Bodine Drake. Arkham House aficionados will know that Ms. Drake added an h to her first name and published A HORNBOOK FOR WITCHES, known best as the book that most Arkham House collections are missing.
This issue is better than the September issue, mostly thanks to the dependable pen of C.L. Moore. "The Cold Grey God" is another Northwest Smith eldritch adventure in out-there space, this one involving possession by some literally unspeakable thing from Mars or beyond. Second place is the issue's reprint, "The Lost Club," an Arthur Machen story I've either never read before or maybe just forgotten. It's minor Machen but appropriately weird.
I think I've mentioned before that King Tut and Karl Freund have cast a shambling shadow on WT's mid-30s contents. There are two mummy stories here. Arlton Eadie's serial The Carnival of Death improves in its second chapter, despite including a coincidental plot element that would have done Bulwer-Lytton proud, a one in several million chance really. Still, there's a quality to Eadie's work that sets it slightly apart from most of the long-form stories in WT and I'm a little sad to know there will be no more of his work. The other mummy fable is Seabury Quinn's clearly labeled "The Dead-alive Mummy," a passable de Grandin story, better really than some of the ones immediately preceding it.
Clark Ashton Smith translates Baudelaire; what other pulp would even dream of publishing such a thing? Eando Binder offers (offer maybe since there were two of them?) “In a Graveyard." Paul Ernst continues the risible adventures of Dr Satan; I still wince every time I read the hero’s name (Ascott Keane!). There’s also an extremely minor story by Robert Leonard Russell, “The Amulet of Hell,” that gets some points for trying to do something different in the vampire vein. Worth a mention is an early poetry contribution, “In the Shadows,” by Lea Bodine Drake. Arkham House aficionados will know that Ms. Drake added an h to her first name and published A HORNBOOK FOR WITCHES, known best as the book that most Arkham House collections are missing.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews