Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Tag Archives: pulp


by Leave a comment

A baroque, pulp Ulysses

Now here’s something… unusual.
An operatic version of Homer’s Odyssey, set to music in 1765 by Gluck*, and represented in 1940s costumes and setting.

The opera is Telemaco, ossia L’isola di Circe (Telemachus, or Circe’s Island).
I like the setting quite a lot.
The idea of Ulysses as a lost flyer is quite interesting.
And when Circe the sorceress as an Oriental Dragon Lady gets into play, the whole thing assumes a curious pulp tone.

Here’s a first excerpt – you can find the rest on the Tube.
Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brf4JKmmDR4

——————————
*The libretto for the opera was written by a guy called Marco Coltellini – which of course means Mark Small Knives, in Italian.

Related articles


by Leave a comment

Pulp the Spanish way: The Island of Death

imageAnd so it started: my first expedition in the uncharted territory of other people’s pulp, my first non-Anglocentric (?) pulp read is a free ebook published in 2013 by Dlorean Ediciones.
It’s in Spanish.
It’s steampunkish.
It’s part of a series.
And it’s called La Isla de la Muerte.

And c’mon – how can anyone restist a story called The Island of Death, and featuring a great cover graced by a scantly clad woman wielding two katanas, standing on the shoulder of a giant ape?

Continue reading →


by 2 Comments

Just pitched a new story

protoceratopsAnd so I did it – I just pitched a story to a big, highly respected American publisher.
The pitch is for a pulp adventure story .

I will not disclose too much, but the proposed story features the Silk Road, a few (mostly dead) dinosaurs, raiders, madmen, and assorted historical weirdness.
And some (hopefully!) not-so-cliché characters.

Having spent years collecting historical facts and assorted informations about the Silk Road and the Silk Road countries, building the setting and the background should be easy – and fun.

Continue reading →


by 2 Comments

Swords of the Four Winds

The so-called ebook revolution has brought back a number of genres and formats that for a few decades had been marginalized to say the least.
The short form is back – novelettes and novellas, novels in the 40.000-words standard of the paperbacks of old.
Pulp is making a big comeback, in all its assorted flavors – from hero pulps to adventure cliffhangers to sword & sorcery.

And for a fantasy reader, the return of sword & sorcery – the small-scale, proletarian, none-too-heroic kind of fantasy that normally involves rogues trying to save their own skin, not champions trying to save the world – is a much welcome event.

I’m currently reading – and very much enjoying – Dariel R.A. Quiogue’s Swords of the Four Winds, a highly satisfying collection of sword & sorcery stories set in the East. Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

Black Pulp

Black-PulpI’m currently reading Black Pulp, and a fine collection it is.
I like the idea, I like the execution.

Walter Mosley‘s introduction is a great love letter to the pulps of old – which is fitting for an anthology of stories that manage to update the old without throwing out what good was there in ancient (well, ok…) times.
The list of authors reads like a selection of the best writers in the field – Walter Mosley and Joe R. Lansdale, Gary Phillips, Charles R. Saunders, Derrick Ferguson, D. Alan Lewis, Christopher Chambers, Mel Odom, Kimberly Richardson, Ron Fortier, Michael A. Gonzales, Gar Anthony Haywood, Tommy Hancock…
All genres get covered, a gallery of great characters is deployed in the service of adventure.
Excellent.

It’s hard to single out one title in this selection of gems.
I’d be tempted to get my fanboy hat on and exclaim “there’s a new Dillon story in here!” – but it would be unfair to all the other fine stories between the covers of this great book.

And talking about the cover – the book is wonderfully designed, and it’s a pleasure to read.
Great work from the guys at Pro Se Press.
We want more.

Related articles