Lilith Gets A New Review!

Longtime reader Ray Bara has posted a new review of The Chronicles of Lilith on Amazon.com. He gave the book 5 stars and titled his review “Another Wonderful Barry Reese Romp!” Here’s his full review:

“Another epic Barry Reese novel. He never fails to deliver a great tale. I love the Lilith character and would love to see more of her. My only complaint about this story, and it’s a small one, is that I would’ve liked to see more of Lilith’s Crimson Ladies. I feel they are big part of what makes Lilith interesting. More of them would’ve made the book even more interesting. I also loved the way Reese brought in an old favorite character, very ingenious! All in all, a great adventure. Go read it!”

Thanks, Ray! Sorry you didn’t feel we got to see enough of the Crimson Ladies. I definitely agree that they’re a key ingredient in the Lilith recipe. Since this was Lilith’s first solo book, I did want to keep the emphasis on her as much as possible but if there are future volumes, I’m sure we’ll explore more of the Crimson Ladies. Glad you enjoyed the guest appearance by Max Davies 🙂

The image accompanying this post is of actress Mia Goth.

The Sword of Hel Gets A New Review

Over at Amazon, a reader by the name of Charles Gramlich posted a review of The Sword of Hel. He gave the book 4 stars and said the following:

“This is a short collection of five sword and sorcery stories by Barry Reese, who is described as one of the “New Pulp” writers. He’s also written for Marvel Comics and Moonstone Books. This is the first item I’ve read from him. These are definitely sword and sorcery tales rather than high fantasy. They involve an individual hero with generally small term goals for each tale. The character is Grimarr, a Viking, which gives him a semi-historical background, but the world he moves in is largely an invented, semi-European setting. Grimarr dies a non-heroic death and goes to the afterworld where he is recruited by the Goddess Hel to do her bidding on Earth. These adventures typical feature a battle with some kind of sorcerer, and there is generally a nubile young woman involved somewhere along the line. These are classic characteristics of sword and sorcery.

I picked up a lot of hidden references or nods to the Robert E. Howard Conan stories, but the overall character of the tales reminds me more of the Brak tales by John Jakes or the Kothar stories of Gardner Fox. The writing is crisp and good and the stories hold your interest. I might nitpick that some of the endings seem to come a little too quickly. This is a pretty short book and some of the tales might have been fleshed out more to great effect. There’s also a kind of compendium that represents a timeline for Reese’s shared universe stories. Not having any familiarity with any of the other tales or Reese’s other work, this didn’t mean much to me. Fans of Reese might certainly appreciate it.

The package from Pro Se Publications is attractive, with a cool cover by Larry Nadolsky. I’m going to give the work four stars, which means I’ll be interested in seeing more in this vein from Reese.”

Thanks for the kind words, Charles. I have read the Kothar stories but I’ve never read Brak tales – I need to rectify that. I’m glad that you enjoyed the book and I hope you’ll be intrigued enough to look into some of the other parts of the shared universe!

Ouch.

Being a writer means you have to develop a thick skin. I was updating my Publications page earlier tonight and needed to get the date that a particular anthology was released. While doing so I wandered across a review of said book… and while they enjoyed it, they singled out my contribution as being one that they felt was lacking. In fact, they made it clear that they felt it didn’t deserve to be included at all.

Ouch!

I thought my story was pretty good but obviously everyone has their own opinions. As long as you’re putting your hard-earned money down to buy the book, you certainly have the right to share your views on the contents!

Over the years, I’ve gotten more positive reviews than negative but it’s human nature to focus on the bad side, I suppose.

Work continues on the new Straw-Man story. Hopefully it’ll receive a positive reaction when it’s finally released.

The Super-Fan Reviews Lazarus 13

The Pulp Super-Fan, Michael Brown, is back with a look at volume thirteen of the Lazarus Gray series. Let’s see what he says:

Lazarus Gray is a New Pulp character from Reese (The Peregrine, Gravedigger, and other characters and works). Gray is sort of inspired by the classic pulp hero The Avenger, and has a group of associates organized as Assistance Unlimited.

Gray is located in a fictional town called Sovereign City (created by Pro Se Press publisher Tommy Hancock), and thus is part of the larger Sovereign City Project. He is also set in the same universe as Barry’s other characters, so has crossed over with them.

In addition to the current members of Assistance Unlimited — Morgan Stanley, Eun Jiwon, Samantha Grace, Abigail Cross, and The Black Terror — we will see some new additions to the group in these, as well as various guest stars. This time, each volume consists of a single novel.

Finally, in Volume 13, we have “An Adventure of Lazarus Gray With Assistance Unlimited” (did someone mess up on the title???). Here the team faces a new threat: a mummy, Rama-Memnon, and his associate, Teddy Pumpkins. They team up with Rose Dorcas, who runs an insane asylum on the outskirts of Sovereign City and had her own mad plans. They devastate Soverign City, but are stopped by AU and some new and old friends. Rama-Memnon has a connection with Princess Femi, who Lazarus and AU battled and defeated in earlier volumes. Hopefully the city can fully recover.

We meet a new superhero: Nature Boy. He’s actually a short-lived superhero from Charlton Comics, all of three issues in 1956-57. You can read them online or in a reprint by Gwandanaland Comics. In the comic, the gods of the elements saved him when he was a baby and granted him powers. But here he’s another “creation” of Project: Cicada, like The Black Terror, though with nature-based powers. So he works for them, though will probably show up in future stories. Another new character is Wynona Jones. She is well skilled with firearms, and has dealt with threats like vampires and more. She will be joining AU.

Returning is Jakob Sporrenberg, who as Eidolon had been a former member (twice) of AU, but left due to his violent nature. He rejoins AU as the less violent The Observer after his experiences here.

I’m not sure when we’ll get Volume 14. I hope it’s not a long wait. In addition, if you check his timeline, you see references to a few other works that aren’t out yet. And some that are, like the new Chronicles of Lilith.

Thanks for the detailed coverage, Michael! I don’t think you’ll have a very long wait for volume 14. It’s complete and in the queue at the always-busy Pro Se Productions publishing house.

Uh-Oh! Lilith takes a hit!

It’s never easy to get a negative review, even when you’ve been writing for as long as I have. Making it even harder is when that review comes from someone that has been a long-time fan. ChickJ posted a review of the Lilith novel and have it just 1 star. His review was titled This should have an X/MA warning label. Here’s his review:

“This is a hard review for me. I have really enjoyed Barry’s stories and books. But this time he got into some really disgusting, violence sex descriptions. Now at my age I can shrugged it off. But younger people and most adults I believe will really offended. I think Barry should take this book off the market and make it a lot less graphic. The story is fine and I like some of the characters, but it is too graphic for most people. Can’t recommended it.”

Sorry to read this, my friend! Whenever I do a new series or a new standalone story, I always try to make it a little different in an attempt to take my writing in new directions. With Lilith, it was meant to be a modern-day thriller and I definitely tried to lean into explicit horror more than I do with Lazarus Gray or Gravedigger. This book is far from my most “out there” work, though! Avoid Rabbit Heart if this one was too much for you. Hopefully you’ll like my future works more.

A Quiet Review

ChickJ, who has reviewed quite a few books from Reese Unlimited over the years, is back with a look at Nightveil: The Quiet Girls, a novel I wrote a few years back starring AC Comics’ Nightveil character. He gave the book 4 stars out of 5 on Amazon.com and titled his review A simple but enjoyable book. Here’s the rest of his review:

A very good old time pulp book. (It is really new but it feels like a pulp from the 40’s.) The side characters are more interesting then the heroine. Alonzo, Charlotte, Elizabeth, and Ghoulie really made the book. I wonder if they will show up in other of his books. Recommended for all pulp fans.

First off, thanks for saying that it felt like an old-school pulp novel. That was definitely the feel that I was going for! As for the characters you mention, I had a lot of writing them but I haven’t really thought about bringing any of them back… Now that you’ve put the idea into my head, I’ll see what I can do.

Thanks again!

The image accompanying this post is by Will Meugniot, an old friend of mine that’s worked with me on a handful of projects in the past. I’ve always loved his version of Nightveil!

The Pulp Super-Fan Looks at Lazarus 11-13!

Michael Brown, aka The Pulp Super-Fan is back with a massive look at Lazarus Gray Volumes 11-13. You can read his words by clicking here. As always, I appreciate Michael taking the time to look over the books and his insightful analysis of each. He had a few questions so I’ll try to answer them here:

  1. The Puzzler is an actual Golden Age enemy of the Black Terror. He first appeared in America’s Best Comics #30 (April 1949). As is usual when I use public domain characters, I took a few liberties with his backstory.
  2. L’ Homme Fantastique is a brand-new character that I created just for Volume 12. He’s proven popular with readers so he may pop up again in the future.
  3. The “Silver Age” Assistance Unlimited will definitely return. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about their first adventure. I’m currently writing Lazarus Gray 15 but I plan to work on the second Silver Age book next.

While you’re there looking over Michael’s review, check out all of his other posts as well!

A Trio of Reviews

We have three small reviews that have been posted recently on Amazon. Let’s look at them in the order they were posted, shall we?

First up, is one by a user named Green Dragon. He reviewed Restless: An Anthology of Mummy Horror and gave the book five stars. Here’s what he said: “A great collection of new stories! I enjoyed every one of them!”

Next up was a review by thefuntony of The Sword of Hel. He gave it 5 stars and said: “Loved this and really would like to see a few follow up stories with these characters. Had been putting off reading as I am not a huge fan of Viking stories but loved this! Hoping we see much more of the Sword of Hel!”

Finally, Tony posted another review a few days later, this time of The Adventures of Lazarus Gray Volume Nine. It was another 5 star review: “So very happy to see more books in the LG timeline. I had to go back and catch up so it was a bit of a wait to get to 9 but definitely worth it. Starting 10 now and the fun continues. No spoilers for you but I will say he throws in so many plot twists and turns, it was fun to get to the end to see how it all worked out. Even with the new characters and newer characters he keeps you on the edge of your seat with all the action. Can’t wait to get thru the next few.”

Thanks for the reviews, guys!

Lazarus Volume 12 Review

Ray Bara, who recently reviewed volume 11 on Amazon, is back with his views on the follow-up. He gave the book five stars and titled the review “Lazarus Gray Resurrects Himself Again!” Here’s the rest of his review: “How does he do it? Barry Reese keeps kicking it up a notch with each addition to his Lazarus Gray series. This one adds the usual heaping helping of action. He then adds some new characters like Blue Fire and L’Homme Fantastique, whom I absolutely loved. LHF is enigmatic, ambiguous, and intriguing all at the same time, and is a great addition to the Sovereign landscape. Speaking of landscape, Lazarus has to return to Dread Carcosa, the unforgiving landscape where he has some unfinished business from a few volumes ago. Reese also closed up the plot twist from the last volume, thankfully allowing me to pick my jaw off the proverbial floor by explaining Lazarus’ bizarre behavior in that previous story. I also enjoyed how Kelly Gray has become a more pivotal part of Assistance Unlimited, not just a background character anymore. Reese put together an epic plot in Volume 12, with a great story, a huge cast of wonderful characters, and plenty of excitement all the way through. I’m looking forward to Volume 13 to see where he takes Assistance Unlimited next. What a great read!”

Thanks, Ray! Volume 12 was a real challenge to write – I knew the secret behind the eleventh book’s twist, of course, but I knew that revealing it had to be done just right… and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. I’m glad you liked the way it turned out. L’Homme Fantastique doesn’t appear in volumes 13 or 14 but I do have more ideas for him so maybe in 15…? We’ll have to see!

Thanks again, Ray!

Laz 11 Gets Reviewed

Ray Bara posted a 5-star review of The Adventures of Lazarus Gray Volume 11. Let’s see what he had to say:

“Barry Reese and Lazarus Gray are like fine wines! Yet another killer installment in the Lazarus Gray series. Barry Reese is at the top of his game. He brings a darker tone to this one, which makes sense during the height of WWII. I love the regular and recurring characters, and I enjoyed the introduction of Lilith and her group of loyal assistants. Reese pulls out all of the stops on this one. The ending, which is more of an epilogue, is a tad disturbing, from a plot point of view, but I’ll get over it. Especially since I already have the next two volumes in the series queued up. Great job, Barry. This series keeps getting better!”

Thanks, Ray! I’m so glad that you enjoyed it — you’re definitely right that the ending was meant to be unsettling. Hopefully you’ll find the payoff for it in 12 to be worth it.