Flame Tree Fiction

Robert E. Howard's first story featuring Solomon Kane, his swashbuckling puritan warrior, was published in the August 1928 issue of Weird Tales (1928 being a great year for pulp fiction with the first Buck Rogers story, and H.P. Lovecraft's iconic Call of the Cthulhu). Not quite as illustrious as his more celebrated barbarian stablemate, Conan of Cimmeria, Mr Kane's story is still a power-packed read and a worthy addition to our collection of creepy stories.

The Buck Rogers pulp sf fiction stories, along with the competing Flash Gordon tales, were a core inspiration for George Lucas' Star Wars. Rogers' first appearance, in Armageddon - 2419 hit the same publication year, 1928, as Lovecraft's Call of the Cthulhu and Robert E. Howard's first Solomon Kane romp, Red Shadows. The late twenties were an exciting time for the pulps: the possibilities of new technology combined with the age-old fear of the unknown fuelled the imagination of writers across the US and Europe and it was from this wellspring that Buck Rogers flourished.

H.P. Lovecraft, the master of the weird and macabre, the ultimate writer of creepy stories, set a fantastical world in motion with the publication of this short story in the February 1928 issue of Weird Tales. He stood on the shoulders of horror giants Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen; and a generation of pulp writers, including the muscular genius of Robert E. Howard (with his ultimate creation, Conan of Cimmeria) claim Lovecraft as their inspiration.

Few stories have captured the imagination as thoroughly as Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It's one of the best sci fi books ever written and even its title sends shivers down your spine, and makes the mind drift to adventure.

Greek mythology is full of gods, monsters and supernatural events – much like any other fantasy fiction. Popular tale 'Theseus and the Minotaur' is getting a retelling in BBC's latest fantasy adventure, based in the city of Atlantis. This brilliant show is bringing to life all sorts of Greek myths with a dash of humour, interesting character dynamics and plenty of action.

It seems incredible that some of Philip K. Dick's fiction is in the public domain. A superlative writer of science fiction and fantasy books Dick gave us so many powerful novels and films (Blade Runner, The Adjustment Bureau, Total Recall) but his first stories are available because their copyright was not renewed.

Oscar Wilde’s sole novel The Picture of Dorian Gray remains to this day a classic example of gothic horror. While initially rejected by a morally-rigid Victorian England, the novel has lived on and been elevated so that it, as well as Oscar Wilde himself, have become mainstays of the English canon. We celebrate Wilde and his work, and mourn the injustices he suffered in his life. While many called this novel obscene, the opposite is true. As Wilde put it, while the work presented moral issues it never demonstrated a morality itself. Instead, Wilde's goal was to depict and not to judge.

While Bram Stoker was not the first to write a novel about vampires, an idea which can be traced all the way back to Mesopotamia, he definitely established the modern concept of vampires with his novel Dracula.

Mary Shelley’s Creature

The original Creature is never described in great detail in the novel. The most we are told is that he is large and, in some way, hideous. Horror is at its best when the threat, when the feared thing, is enigmatic. What exists in our minds will always be something more than could ever be clearly described on the page. This is also true because the creature transforms throughout the book. Not physically, of course, but in how we view him. Perhaps we see him first as a sympathetic creature, shunned from society due to his ugliness. We might even sympathize further, as we see a character whose inner value is hidden under a rough exterior. As the creature turns towards evil, towards murdering those who Victor Frankenstein loves, our view of him turns to a dark avenger. Whether a terrifying figure who haunts, or a disgusting creature whose face is darkened by flashes of lightning, what it actually might look like is informed by how we view and comprehend it.

Philip K. Dick’s (1928–82) wildly manic style of science fiction, reflecting the deeply troubled, drug addicted author, has influenced and informed generation after generation of sci fi writers. Film adaptations of his work seem always to be in production; with great directors including Ridley Scott, Paul Verhoeven and Steven Spielberg as only the most notable to adapt Dick’s novels. One novel which has so far remained untouched by the film industry is his The Man in the High Castle.