Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.
Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box by Jacques Boyreau
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It’s like having your very own drive-in… at home! Portable Grindhouse reprints some of the most louche, decadent, minimo-pervo artwork to ever grace a VHS box, featuring such movies as From Beyond, Cop Killers, and Cocaine Wars. A feast for exploitation cognoscenti, Portable Grindhouse is a portable grindhouse. Readers will be agog at the plethora of supertrash movie titles, and then move on to rediscover the anarchic box designs. Throughout, editor and cultural historian Jacques Boyreau succinctly narrates the household-piercing story of VHS: "VHS box-art ‘became’ the iconic equivalent of the movie." Portable Grindhouse is published in a VHS "format," slyly packaged inside a facsimile VHS box, and contains almost a hundred reproductions of VHS art with commentary.
Scary how many of these movies I’ve actually seen.
Starfist: Double Jeopardy by David Sherman and Dan Cragg
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The thrilling pace of the Starfist space epic quickens as the explosive series rockets to dazzling new heights, packed with the hell-for-leather action only two battle-hardened and decorated combat vets like David Sherman and Dan Cragg can provide.
The Confederation has finally disclosed the existence of Skinks, fierce aliens bent on wiping out humankind, and announced its plan to find and destroy their home world. While the rest of the universe grapples with the news, the Skink-savvy Marines of the Confederation’s Thirty-fourth Fleet Initial Strike Team (FIST) have their own take on the situation.
Though they’re no longer in danger of being exiled to a ghastly netherworld for spilling the beans about the deadly aliens, the men still can’t transfer out of the unit where they’ve been confined since they first laid eyes on the Skinks. The reason is obvious: Who else but the legendary Thirty-fourth FIST has the skills and experience to spearhead the invasion of the Skinks’ home world?
Morale isn’t improved by a report of Skinks on the uncolonized world of Ishtar near a mercenary force engaged in slave-driven mining operations there—which means that FIST must turn around and head right back into the jaws of hell with no downtime. But none of that matters to Lieutenant Charlie Bass and the third platoon of Company L. They’re Marines, they’re the best, and they’ve got a job to do.
The Marines will find a planet ripped apart by all-out war, with enemies on all sides. The only certainty is that the fighting will rage red-hot and relentless, and Charlie Bass and his men will be right in the thick of the action.
Nightchild (Chronicles of the Raven) by James Barclay
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It begins with a tidal wave. There is a new power coming. It will sweep aside the four colleges of magic. It is the power of the land, and it has manifested itself in Lyanna, a five year old girl. Unknowingly, she could destroy Balaia. Desperate to maintain their power, the colleges will do anything to control the child. If that fails, they will kill her. Terrified, Lyanna’s mother, Erienne the mage, takes her into hiding. But they can’t hide forever. As the hunt goes on, Lyanna starts to test her powers and nature itself begins to turn on Balaia. Her father, Denser of The Raven, is also desperate to find her. But can even The Raven find Erienne and her child when they do not want to be found? And if they do find them, what then should they do? Lyanna is ripping the world apart. Thousands are dying. Can The Raven afford to let her live?
More in Part II