Have a Weird Christmas courtesy of this set of vintage SF magazine covers.
posted by jjray on Dec 18, 2009 - 18 comments

William Hope Hodgson led an almost fictional life. After trying to run away to the sea as a boy, he eventually had careers as a seaman, professional body builder, personal trainer, public lecturer, and an author of weird fiction (much of it available here). He is also remembered for giving Harry Houdini a hard time. He died toward the end of World War I, having volunteered, received a discharge due to injuries, and volunteered again. [more inside]
posted by GenjiandProust on Dec 13, 2009 - 7 comments

Hour 25 Online is a science fiction radio station that's been broadcasting since 1972. They're available online now and have a very nice archive of interviews with science fiction authors and other luminaries.
posted by substrate on Jul 30, 2005 - 5 comments

Don't teach braille in my town again, McFadden - Martin Amis was an early fan of Jeff Lint's "The Caterer", a Pearl Comic of the mid-seventies. Steve Aylett talks about his biography of the man here, and Justin Taylor says how much he enjoyed it.
posted by TimothyMason on Jul 3, 2005 - 7 comments

The Night Land, William H Hodgson's surreal fantasy, inspired largely by H G Wells' The Time Machine, (do you really need an amazon link?) but not resembling it all that much, is called by Gardner Dozois (editor of Asimov's Science Fiction since 1985) "one of the flat out strangest novels ever written" in the 21st annual Year's Best Science Fiction anthology. The novel, written at the turn of the century, was also described by H P Lovecraft in the following way: "Allowing for all its faults, it is yet one of the most potent pieces of macabre imagination ever written." How many novels have you read that have an entire web site dedicated to simultaneously exalting it and apologizing for it? Andy Robertson's web site is a companion to the book he edited collecting stories from modern sci-fi writers attempting to pay homage to the under-appreciated novel. (note: The above-mentioned anthology contains a story, also published on Robertson's web site by John C Wright, entitled "Awake In The Night," which is fantastic in its own right, as well.) (Did I mention that Hodgson "brutally treated" Harry Houdini? Scroll To Middle Of Page.)
posted by shmegegge on Feb 18, 2005 - 9 comments