Customer Reviews

Brother Bones (Airship 27 Production Presents)

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The first thing that strikes you about this collection is the breathtaking cover by Rob Davis. It sets a new standard in modern pulp art. Period. But the cover is only the beginning of an incredible journey into the dark soul of Cape Noire.

The stories comprising BROTHER BONES are as varied as the golden age of pulp fiction itself:

"The Bone Brothers" is a captivating origin tale for one of the most unusual heroes to come out of modern day pulp. This sin to salvation story keeps you turning the pages and sets up the stories which follow.

"The Shield And The Claw" is a great werewolf tale with an ironic ending worth the price of admission. And this harrowing tales gives a gore-soaked nod to the glory days of the bloody pulps.

"The Scales Of Terror" ventures into Lovecraft's corner of Hell with terrific effect. Bones going toe to toe with a demon worshiping cult? This is the stuff of pulp Heaven.

"See Spot Kill" is another horror tale dealing with Voodoo and the undead. Not to be missed!

"The Root Of Evil" also strays into horror's back alleys with a morality tale about the misuse of ultimate power mixed with oriental mysticism. A winner.

"Gorilla Dreams" is pure pulp excitement. A gangster's mind transplanted into the body of a gorilla. Who could ask for more? But this tale is not a gimmick yarn. There is a deft touch of tragedy mixed with the humor.

"Ghost Train" is a previously unreleased Bones tale. In this yarn, Bones goes up against a corrupt railroad tycoon who has killed over a hundred people on his sabotaged train. Souls crying out for justice only Bones can deliver.

As you can see, quite a pulp buffet. So no matter where your pulp tastes take you, BROTHER BONES has what you're looking for.

With the second coming of pulp we rabid fans are enjoying, Ron Fortier leads the way with as good a pulp anthology as one is likely to find. BROTHER BONES does not disappoint.

I must admit to confusion here regarding Brother Bones (2008, Cornerstone Books) by Ron Fortier vs. Brother Grim (2005, Wild Cat Books) by Ron Fortier. To judge by the cover illustrations for both, it seems like they are the same character. So why the name change? Or ARE they the same character?

How cool is this book? If the gorgeous Rob Davis cover alone doesn't sell you, the bone-chilling (pun intended) tales beneath said cover by pulp master, Ron Fortier will. This is a wonderful read. I suspect we've not seen the last of Brother Bones.

Bobby

Let me start with the worst thing about this book: the lack of proofreading. The first tale alone easily has an error on each page and that may be a conservative estimate on my part. The errors range from typos, to a word being missed here or there, to homophone swapping and the word "doesn't" coming up as "Bossn't". I was wondering at first if this was some kind of slang unique to Cape Noire. Maybe I'm nitpicky, but when you have to reread something to figure out what the writer's intent was, it's not a good thing. The good news here is it does lessen so that by the second half of the book the errors are few, if any.

Taking the halfway point between Bad and Good is Brother Bones himself. For all the bluster of the back cover and artwork, he is surprisingly absent from most stories, only showing up near the end to mete out his deadly brand of justice. Most stories follow the formula of a citizen being menaced by (or stumbling upon) something Evil, coming within inches of being killed by it and Bones arriving to save the day, guns blazing. Certainly the Shadow was not always present in his stories but he was known to be working in the background and not waiting in the wings. Bones mostly comes through as a corpse ex machina, more of an Urban Legend in Cape Noire than a character.

Having said that (and moving up toward the Good end of the scale), the stories themselves have some great "pulpiness" to their plots. I felt the final three stories were the best and the villan Harry Beest quickly became my favorite character in the entire book after reading his story.