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/lit/ - Literature

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23272782 No.23272782 [Reply] [Original]

Everyone knows about Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft, but who are some more obscure pulp writers that you enjoy? I'm fond of Karl Wagner, I think his writings come closest to emulating Howard's style.

>> No.23272898
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23272898

>>23272782
Edgar Rice Burroughs for sure. Tarzan is pretty close to Conan. Plus there's the Mars stuff if you want a sci-fi flavour.

E. E. 'Doc' Smith is in some ways (not in prose style but in general outlook) the sci-fi R. E. Howard. He's called the "father of space opera". He wrote about 6'2" scholar-athlete astronaut ubermenschen. (See pic.)

He also (sort of) lived what he wrote. He was a scholar-athlete himself. And (like Heinlein) he married a hot high-IQ babe. The funny thing was his work was in food science. In particular, he made donuts. So the toned, tanned warrior-poet actually helped millions of Americans become FAT PIGS. Hmmm. Never mind.

>> No.23272912

>>23272782
Shame he died early

>> No.23273302 [SPOILER] 

Honestly, I'm partial to the likes of Lester Dent or H. Bedford Jones.

>> No.23273493

>>23273302
Lester Dent rules

>> No.23273512

>>23272782
He has a chud name

>> No.23273517

>>23272912
she*

>> No.23273668
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>>23272898
>Edgar Rice Burroughs for sure. Tarzan is pretty close to Conan. Plus there's the Mars stuff if you want a sci-fi flavour.

Don't forget hollow earth.

>> No.23273674
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23273674

Keith Laumer's short stories and novels about Retief are also great pulpy fun. I found picrel at a used book sale and was instantly hooked.

>> No.23274415

Anyone got links to more of Arthur D. Howden Smith's stuff.

>> No.23275014
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23275014

My all time favorite pulp writer, few even come close to his talent.

>> No.23275023

I read the Deathworld series by Harry Harrison a few years ago, and had a lot of fun with it.

>> No.23275048

I was just wandering, which of the Conan stories not written by REH are worth checking out?
I guess what parts of the Cthulhu mythos not written by Lovecraft too?
Anything particularly great happening there, or is it mostly kind of lame?

>> No.23275491
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23275491

>>23275048
When it comes to Conan, the pastiches written by Karl Edward Wagner are the only ones worth reading IMO.
As for the Cthulhu mythos, there's plenty of authors that are worth reading, including Robert E Howard himself, and Clark Ashton Smith aswell.
Then there's more modern ones like Ramsey Campbell, T.E.D. Klein and Michael Shea, all of them who wrote Lovecraftian horror in their own unique interesting ways.

>> No.23276704
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>>23272782
I'm quite partial to William Hope Hodgson. The House on the Borderland is a really fun read and Hodgson himself was a fucking chad. Ditto on Lester Dent as well.

As an aside because Lovecraft is my greatest source of autism, it's arguable most people don't know Lovecraft beyond his Cthulhu Mythos stuff. Rats in the Walls has become the lmao-funny-cat-name story and people are aware of The Shadow over Innsmouth to a degree, but there's tons of his fiction (esp. the shorter stories) that just absolutely flies under their radar. The Thing On The Doorstep , The Hound, The Whisperer in Darkness are all fun little lesser-known ones. You could even throw Cool Air in there if you want a pulpy horror that's basically about air conditioning.

>> No.23276723

>>23276704
>William Hope Hodgson
The House on the Borderland is fantastic. I read The Night Land right after and was disappointed. The first half is amazing, the second half is the slowest pseudo-romance dogshit.

>> No.23278236

Some good authors here:
https://sfss.space/archives

>> No.23278334
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>>23275014
This. I wasn't sure if he counted as obscure since many people who read Lovecraft and Howard would be aware of him but if Edgar Rice Burroughs counts as "obscure" then Smith definitely does. Also, despite him being looked down on as a pulp writer his prose absolutely dunks on anything written in the last 50 years and gives everything else a good run for its money.

>>23275491
>When it comes to Conan, the pastiches written by Karl Edward Wagner are the only ones worth reading IMO.
This as well.

>> No.23278426

Manly Wade Wellman

>> No.23279611

man, I grew up reading all the scanned pulps I could get online in the '00s internet and grabbing every pulp or pulp adjacent work I could grab. A lot of hard-boiled detective stuff's immensely enjoyable, but I kinda enjoy the more sci-fi/fantasy pulps too. There's just something about good pulp writing that just doesn't hit with other stuff. Like, I get the importance of shit by James Joyce or Charles Dickens, but I'm gonna slurp down pulps like noone's business. Especially if it's like just some kinda 50 page story.

Anyone got a link to compilations of The Shadow/The Avenger pulps online? I can't seem to find all of them. I did find all the Doc Savage stuff though. There used to be a few sites that compiled a fuckton of pulp stories like the Black bat and The Phantom Detective, but they seem to be dead now.

>> No.23279631

Michael Moorcock