Pulp

[close] For the readers who are looking for the casual read. Lot's of action, good characters, and simple plot. This group isn't for you if you like book plots that require a flow chart; like books that blather on for five pages about a tree (It's a tree, it has leaves, move on); or like books that have deep philosophical characters. This group is about books that bring the action, tell a good story, and have characters you can love.

[close] Started somewhat as a reaction to the British cozy mystery of the Agatha Christie style (think Murder She Wrote), there came a demand for something more real, action where the stakes were higher, the participants (good and bad) sleazier, the police on the take, the ladies fatal for any would-be patsy. Thus was born, largely in the 1920s, and often in the pulps (foremost among them Black Mask), the American answer to Sherlock Holmes, the genre that in turn became the basis for the film noir revolution of the 1940s. Our original big three writers in this genre are Dashiel Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain. This modest beginning spawned an international phenomenon with writers in other countries picking up the tropes, some adhering to original themes, others blending in other genres such as science fiction dystopia or urban fantasy, to craft a new literature known simply as noir. These writers and settings come from communities as diverse and complex as can be found throughout the modern world. Half our focus is on original hardboiled crime fiction, its formation in the middle third of twentieth century United States. The other half is on modern noir throughout the world as it has developed since. Join in on the fun as the outsider champion of justice tries to bring its criminal elements to account, won't you?

[close] Group devoted to books that can't be easily categorized into a single genre, because they mix two or more.

[close] For fans of smutpunk! Smutpunk is a blend of erotica, pulp noir/fantasy/western, existential horror, steampunk, bizzaro, Lovecraftian and classical mythology, and silver- and golden-age comic styles. Exemplified in the writings of Callie Press and Moctezuma Johnson (and an increasing number of other writers). Get on board or get left behind!