Author Archives: JE

About JE

James Enge is the author of the World-Fantasy-Award-nominated novel Blood of Ambrose (Pyr, April 2009). His latest book is The Wide World's End. His short fiction has appeared in Black Gate, Tales from the Magician's Skull, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and elsewhere.

Invasion of the Stochastic Parrots

Posted on February 20, 2023 by JE

Apparently enough fatheads were taken in by the chatbot hype this winter to flood electronic submission portals with chatbot-written fiction. At last there’s an option for the person who’s too dumb or lazy to read but who thinks they can … Continue reading →

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Swords Against Redundancy: Leiber’s TWO SOUGHT ADVENTURE and SWORDS AGAINST DEATH

Posted on February 20, 2023 by JE

In summary: these two books collect the earliest stories Fritz Leiber published about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, ergo one or the other is essential reading for the sword-and-sorcery fan. Both are probably essential only to the Leiberian completist, so … Continue reading →

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Two Too Similar

Posted on February 16, 2023 by JE

Today a post on Scott Edelman’s Facebook page got me thinking about short-lived TV shows I loved as a kid, a train of thought that led eventually to a bizarre discovery of a series of attempted murders. In 1967 two … Continue reading →

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WHOSE BODY? by Dorothy L. Sayers

Posted on February 13, 2023 by JE

In summary: Whose Body? (Fisher Unwin, 1923) is worth reading if you like Golden Age detective novels and/or Dorothy Sayers. But novices to both might be well-advised to start with the second novel in the series, Clouds of Witness, a … Continue reading →

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SWORDS AND DEVILTRY by Fritz Leiber

Posted on February 11, 2023 by JE

Summary: this is essential reading for the fan of sword-and-sorcery, written by the guy who coined the name of the genre. Some mild spoilers follow. In terms of internal chronology, Swords and Deviltry (Ace, May 1970) is the first volume … Continue reading →

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Not the Last about THE LAST OF US

Posted on February 6, 2023 by JE

Like the rest of the universal world, I loved episode 3 of The Last of Us, but (and this may be where the universal world and I part company) episode 4 reminded me of why I’m tepid about the show … Continue reading →

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Southbound

Posted on February 2, 2023 by JE

Typo of the day is soughtward (for an intended southward). Seems like it ought to mean something—“in the direction of seeking”, maybe. “He never found what he was seeking soughtward; he only found it when he stopped looking.” Or maybe … Continue reading →

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Goa, Going, Gone

Posted on January 31, 2023 by JE

I was scrolling through an electronic edition of a venerable Latin dictionary, which is a totally normal thing to do, and I was brought up short by the entry for superstitio: “excessive fear of the goas; unreasonable religious belief.” I … Continue reading →

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Pancreas Crisis!

Posted on January 23, 2023 by JE

It’s probably time for me to reveal here that I was hospitalized last week for acute pancreatitis, cause not fully understood. The pangs started late on MLK jr Day and D hauled me to the hospital early the next morning.  … Continue reading →

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The Road to Amber

Posted on January 21, 2023 by JE

I try to fight my internal hype machine when I hear about my favorite books being adapted to the screen. But: this seems like incredibly good news.

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