''Darkworld Detective'' is a collection of
science fantasy
file:Warhammer40kcosplay.jpg, Cosplay of a character from the ''Warhammer 40,000'' tabletop game; one critic has characterized the game's setting as "action-oriented science-fantasy."
Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction ...
stories written by
J. Michael Reaves, published as a
paperback
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, ...
original by
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin Jr., Sidney B. K ...
in
1982
Events
January
* January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00).
* January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...
. The linked stories feature protagonist, a detective on the planet Ja-Lur. An authorized sequel, ''The Black Hole of Carcosa'', was written by
John Shirley
John Shirley (born February 10, 1953) is an American writer, primarily of horror, fantasy, science fiction, noir fiction, westerns, and songwriting. He has also written one historical novel, a western about Wyatt Earp, ''Wyatt in Wichita'', and ...
and published by
Pocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.
History
Pocket Books produced the first Paperback#Mass market paperback, mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and ...
in 1988.
Contents
*"The Big Spell" (reprinted from ''
Weird Heroes'' #8)
*"The Maltese Vulcan" (reprinted from ''
Weird Heroes'' #8)
*"Murder on the Galactic Express"
*"The Man with the Golden Raygun"
Reception
Writing in ''
F&SF
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science-fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Bouche ...
'',
John Clute
John Frederick Clute (born 12 September 1940) is a Canadian-born author and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy literature who has lived in both England and the United States since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part ...
described the volume as "dim but decent," faulting Reaves's narrative style as "about as close to
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...
as
Kai Lung
Kai Lung () is a fictional character in a series of books by Ernest Bramah, consisting of '' The Wallet of Kai Lung'' (1900), ''Kai Lung's Golden Hours'' (1922), '' Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat'' (1928), '' The Moon of Much Gladness'' (1932; published ...
is to
Confucius
Confucius (; pinyin: ; ; ), born Kong Qiu (), was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Much of the shared cultural heritage of the Sinosphere originates in the phil ...
" but concluding that the stories are nevertheless "mostly straightforward fun."
References
External links
*{{isfdb title, id=7344, title=Darkworld Detective
1982 books
1982 short stories
Novels by Michael Reaves