ePulp Review of the Week - Ten A Week Steale by Stephen Jared.

Ten A Week Steale by Stephen Jared
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*E-Pulp Warning* All my e-reading is e-pulp focused so my reviews are written with e-pulp in mind. Reader beware :) *E-Pulp Warning*

Overall: 4 stars (Recommend).

Ten A Week Steale is a great little noir story set in 1920s Hollywood, authentically capturing the mood and the city as Steale does what hard-boiled men do. Hollywood is captured brilliantly by someone who obviously loves the genre and the setting and, although it's not the fastest or pulpiest story around, it's well worth a look.

Pacing and Action: 3 stars.

To be honest, the story probably wasn't written as a pulp story. At least not dialled up to 'Full Throttle' which makes 3 stars a little awkward. By the standards of any other genre this has plenty of fisticuffs and dames, villains and other action galore. But by pulp standards there's a lot of thinking and brooding and contemplating the nature of life etc. None of this detracts from the story in any way but it does lack that pulpy extreme.

Pulp Concept: 4 stars.

Steale isn't a Private Investigator cliche and the use of 1920s Hollywood rather than the 30s are both nice touches that give Steale his own road to walk. The back story also makes all of what happens completely plausible as the hard-boiled action ensues. It's classic era setting and the easy action tropes it allows all come together for a pulp concept that, while not ground-breaking, certainly does the job.

Then there's the setting. First class. The author clearly has a love for this era and this town and it shows from the details sprinkled throughout. You don't drown in it but the sense that you're wandering through these gaudy temples to the new demi-gods of their age is palpable. Fantastic stuff that begs to be explored further.

Character Development: 4 stars.

Related to the pacing this is a book that has plenty of character development and a fair bit of introspection and self awareness. Being noir-ish tends to do that :) The characters are well rounded, have plausible motivations and personalities and they are all indelibly tied to the world in which they exist and it works very well.

Production: 5 stars.

Have you seen that cover? Wow. Gorgeous. Eye catching, era relevant and professional. And that's a sentence you could use to describe the whole package. It's been edited properly and is a quality production all round.

Series Potential: 3 stars.

This is where I'm guessing the story was not originally intended as a straight up pulp story. While there's definitely space to produce sequels and create a series - and the author's familiarity with the setting BEGS for SOMETHING set in 1920s Hollywood - the story does little to set up a serialised status quo. While this isn't an issue for people not interested in the pulpier side of life, for those of us who are it's another indicator that, while a good read, it's not straight up pulp.

Wrap Up.

A good, entertaining story that anyone with an interest in noir or hard-boiled detectives should like, with an interesting twist thanks to the setting and atypical era. Not to take from this though, it's not the pulpiest story going, even if it is of the highest quality.

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Pulp Cover of the Week - The Shadow, Spring 1949.

Dieselpunk Song of the Week - The Mojo Radio Gang by Parov Stelar.

Art Deco Poster of the Week - The Chicago World's Fair.

ePulp Book Review - Tier Zero by Henry Brown.

Tier Zero by Henry Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*Pulp Warning* All of my reading and reviewing is skewed towards epulp. All reviews are therefore skewed to that end. Reader beware :) *Pulp Warning*

Overall: 4 stars (Recommended) - but drop a star if you're a pulp purist or think the politics may annoy you.

Tier Zero, though not the pulpiest read you're likely to find, is a good read in the vein of an old-school men's adventure paperback. It moves at a fast clip and has plenty of authentic military action and hardware to satisfy any enthusiast but the American politics can be a bit much if you're not that way inclined.

Pacing and Action: 3 stars.

If there's one thing this story does well it's the authentic use of military hardware and action. Clearly the author has some form of military background and the story benefits, conveying the use of hardware and what it's like to be on a battlefield, all while moving the plot at a rapid fire pace. Battle scenes are explosive, the characters know what they're doing, and what they achieve is built on a solid foundation of training, making much of what happens completely believeable. On the battlefield at least.

Where the story can bog down is with the politics. Maybe it's an American thing but, as an Australian, I found the political discussions a bit jarring. Long arguments full of assumptions I clearly wasn't privy to slowed the action down. It also sounded a bit one-sided so I can imagine that if you're American and you have a different set of political beliefs you may also be rubbed the wrong way. But, again, I'm clearly out of the loop of these discussions.

I'd also imagine pulp purists would find it a bit annoying. It does tend to suck the fun out of a story.

But this story isn't, per se pulp, more like a paperback from the 70s or 80s with a very strong retro vibe so if that's what you're after, you'll get it in spades. Less so if you're just after pulp or don't appreciate the strong political message.

Pulp Concept: 4 stars.

It's an okay concept but I think the author carries it a long way. Were it in the hands of someone who wasn't as comfortable with military characters it may have been a shallow read but the author is able to give the situation a lot of authenticity and depth. There's also plenty of material to mine from the subject matter so overall it's a fairly satisfying concept, mostly thanks to the execution.

Character Development: 4 stars.

Military stories are usually ensemble stories and the author does very well bringing together an eclectic group of people who still work together in an authentic way. There's plenty of inter group drama and very different personalities but they're handled very well, each character achieving some sort of depth. Some characters felt like they only existed to support the politics but overall it was very good.

Production: 3 stars.

Spelling and grammar were good. There were a few weird page breaks in the middle of the book and for some reason, every time I turned on my Kobo the bookmark was about 8 or 9 pages back from where I finished last. But this could be a problem with the Kobo as much as the book. Where the production is really let down is the cover which, while serviceable, does sell the story short. The content inside deserves better.

Series Potential: 3.5 stars.

There's plenty more story left in this series with ramifications for the protagonist that could be interesting to explore later. But at the same time there isn't a lot there to suggest there's more to come. The characters are likeable enough to sustain another sequel (I think this is the second in the series) but it could also finish there without too many problems.

Wrap Up.

Tier Zero is a well written men's adventure action story with an old-school vibe but there are some aspects that will mean it's not for everyone. However, if old-school men's adventure is what you're after then this is a good example.

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Just when you thought the editting was just about done...

You ever tried writing? Cause this is what you can expect. You've been editting and editting and editting for months and then you realise you have to re-engineer large slabs of the story and then you re-edit and re-edit and then you walk away and think 'you know what? I think I'm close to finishing this section off'.

A month later you walk back to your manuscript to do one final pass and this happens:

 

And trust me, this isn't one of the bad pages.

Page after page of this stuff.

<Sigh>

 

Stupid dumb compulsion to write stuff that doesn't exist anywhere except in my stupid dumb imagination... grumble grumble grumble...

Pulp Cover of the Week - Dusty Ayres and his Battle Birds.

Dieselpunk Song of the Week - High Hat by Swing Republic.

Art Deco Poster of the Week - Sinclair Oils.

Pulp Cover of the Week - Planet Stories

Dieselpunk Song of the Week - Happy Swingin by Shemian

Pulp Heroes FTW!

A-mazeballs.

These fantastic pulp/dieselpunk/atomicpunk-era inspired figures are part of an upcoming range of figures called the 'DC Bombshells collection'. Indeed.

And to top off the 'punking awesomeness - a post apocalyptic Wonder Woman!

Methinks that those two Wonder Woman statues will be on my desk in the near future. They are way too awesome not to be.

But here's my other question - will they be releasing any blokes in all their 'punkitude glory? Am I going to be able to get a Pulp Trinity to sit next to my Post Apocalyptic Trinity?

DC Comics, make it happen!!!!

Writer's Update - Oh so many apologies.

Apologies go out to anyone who has been checking in at the Aether Age hangar the last month because the updates have been... well, they haven't been. There just hasn't been any updates.

But I have a good excuse!

You see, four weeks ago I got this thing called a 'proper job'. One that pays consistently, on time and at a level that can fund my existence with food and shelter and other good stuff. It has been a while since such a phenomena has been a regular part of my life and it's been a very welcome change of pace. Very welcome indeed.

The problem was that, unbeknownst to me, the person I was replacing - and who was in charge of training me for the position - was sort of leaving in a hurry. A three day hurry. Three days in which he was sort of more interested in planning his holidays and attending job interviews at other work places. He was a nice bloke, but his mind was very much elsewhere.

Three half days of training later I was cast adrift on a sea of confusion and 'yeah, just work it out for yourself, the best way to learn is to be thrown in the deep end, etcetera etcetera' and the last month has been one big long attempt to stop drowning in confusion and frustration.

But I survived! And here I am, ready to get back to my now long-neglected-yet-highly-involved-hobby-slash-calling, writing strange little pulp stories with funny characters and bizarre sci fi dieselpunkiness.

Big breath in, big exhale out, and a sincere 'It's good to be back.'

So again, apologies to anyone who kept coming back for more pulpy/dieselpunky related stuff but from here on in I hope that everything will be able to get back on track, including some updates on a few short story projects I'm working on, as well as the impending release of my first wave of novels. But I'll keep those details for future updates.

See you soon,

The Author of this weird little blog,

Grant.