Down Memory Lane - Rembering the Pulps

[bbusybookworm]

Just saw a mail from Fictionwise and noticed one of the books with a 100% Micropay rebate was the next book in the Executioner series.

It was a real jolt and took me down memory lane to all the old pulp books I used to devour as a teenager.

Book's that I probably wouldn't pick up or read today in most cases, but ones which shaped my teen years and some of my outlook in life.

So I figured, why not?

Lets all go for a ride down memory lane, to remember the books we used to devour, many of which have vanished without a trace while others have become classics.

Lets start with the series that bought up this thought

The Executioner by Don Pendleton

Bolan's adventures against the Mob are legend, and helped shape the whole genre. It was especially interesting for me to get a hold of the books as they were not published in my country. I trawled the used book markets to find as many as I could.



Able Team And Phoenix Force by Don Pendleton.

The spin-off series were I believe never as popular, but boy did I ever enjoy them.


The Destroyer by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir

Also one of my favourites. Once I got a hold of the first book, I was hooked and always kept a lookout for more. The only problem was that I'll usually only find a few parts of the series so would have to make up the middle parts in my head as this was well before Wikipedia

The Guardians by Richard Austin (Victor Milan)

Interesting post WWIII Post-Apocalyptic Series, while not the greatest quality, had some interesting content and ideas. I Believe that it had a spin off

The Marauders by Michael McGann

Which had a decent premise, but I've only read the first part.

Springblade by Greg Walker

Oh Boy! the amount of time I spent trying to make the books namesake. A good if predictable action book, but some pretty good information on knives and bladed weapons.


Well, thats all that springs to mind. As you can see mot of it was pretty military / action based.

I did read a lot of SF, but I probably would not classify Asimov, Henlin, Clark as Pulp

So what do you remember? What was you pleasure in the past?

[Greg Anos]

I got hooked on 1930's pulp. Doc Savage, of course, but also, the Avenger, and the Shadow.

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

I got hooked on 1930's pulp. Doc Savage, of course, but also, the Avenger, and the Shadow.

I've heard a lot about the Shadow and Doc Savage, but have never read them as I've never gotten my hands on one of them.

I've looked around, but Haven't found paper or ebook versions of them.

I believe that Black Mask had them available originally, but they got pulled.

[askyn]

Well,

I have some good news for you then =)

go to Fictionwise and search for the author Maxwell Grant.

That is the pen name that multiple authors used to wright The Shadow!

There are about 10 books there =p

[Patricia]

Try here:
http://www.blackmask.com/

More free pulps that you can wave a stick at. (I wonder where that expression originated?)

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by askyn

Well,

go to Fictionwise and search for the author Maxwell Grant.

That is the pen name that multiple authors used to wright The Shadow!

There are about 10 books there =p

Thanks, Will definitely check them out.

(You Know Fictionwise is really bad for my budget )

Originally Posted by Patricia

Try here:
http://www.blackmask.com/

More free pulps that you can wave a stick at. (I wonder where that expression originated?)

Thanks, I'm definitely going through these to see what catches my interest.

I was interested in Doc Savage and The shadow specificly as I've heard a lot of good things about them.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by bbusybookworm

I've heard a lot about the Shadow and Doc Savage, but have never read them as I've never gotten my hands on one of them.

I've looked around, but Haven't found paper or ebook versions of them.

I believe that Black Mask had them available originally, but they got pulled.

BBusy, there are actually 9 Doc Savages in the Public domain in Austrailia. One of the minor writers of Doc Savages in the Kenneth Robeson pen name was Laurence Donovan. Not one of the best Doc writers, I'll admit, but he died in 1950, with makes his work PD in life + 50 countries. (and Austrailia, which became life + 70 in 2006, but existing life + 50 titles were grandfathered.)

Best title of the bunch is "The Men Who Smiled No More." Check Project Gutenberg Austrailia - http://www.gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html#letterD - You make your own judgement about legality of downloading at your own site.

The main writer of Doc Savages was Lester Dent, who died in 1959. That makes his Docs PD on Jan 2, 2010 (around a 100 or so titles.) in life + 50 countries. I expect Conde Nast will probably lean on any Canadian site posting them, like Margaret Mitchell's estate does on "Gone With The Wind", but they do become PD then.

For paper copies of Doc Savage and The Shadow, check E-BAY. There are always used paperback at auction.

If one is of less that exacting standard on copyright, check out e-bay for Doc Savage CD-ROMs. 'Nuff said.

(and yes, I do own the complete reprint set (all 182) of Doc Savage.

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

BBusy, there are actually 9 Doc Savages in the Public domain in Austrailia.

For paper copies of Doc Savage and The Shadow, check E-BAY. There are always used paperback at auction.

Thanks for the link I'll have a look.

As for the ebay route, I thought about it, but my small apartment is already overcrowded with books and as a student I do move pretty regularly.

That was actually got me more interested in eBooks so that I could save on space.

And that lead to one of my pet peeves, that there are a ton of old book's I'll like to get and am willing to pay a reasonable price for, but can't get a legal version of in ebook or even in paper in many cases.

[igorsk]

Baen is rereleasing some Spider pulps.