Star Wars is famous for taking place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. But what went down an even longer time ago in that faraway galaxy? That’s a question Star Wars: The High Republic was designed to answer. A multimedia initiative encompassing novels, comic books, short stories, audio dramas, and web series, Star Wars: The High Republic is set hundreds of years before the Star Wars movies, during the heyday of the Galactic Republic and the […]

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Fantastic Four creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s legendary run on the title ended in 1970 after Kirby left Marvel Comics for rival DC. In the decades since, fans have often speculated where Lee and Kirby would’ve taken the comic book series next, had their partnership not ended. We’ll never know for sure, however, chances are it would’ve looked a lot like Fantastic Four: Full Circle. Written and illustrated by fan-favourite artist Alex Ross, Fantastic Four: Full Circle is the […]

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Mario is a man pushed to his limits. His beloved daughter gets cancer that seems to refuse to respond to treatment, eventually causing her to pass away at the age of four. The cost of treatment empties his bank account. He loses his job due to spending too much time away with his dying child. His wife, unable to take it all, eventually leaves him. In his desperation, he takes up a job as a hitman to keep up with […]

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In 2022, David Cronenberg released his newest film, Crimes of the Future. Not only was it his first film in eight years, but it was also a return to his interest in science fiction and body horror in the vein of The Fly and eXistenZ after a period of focusing on psychological thrillers like A History of Violence and Cosmopolis. It seems there’s no better time for Children of the New Flesh, a book which explores the early work of […]

The post Children of the New Flesh Is A Fascinating Dive Into Cronenberg’s Career from Ben Arzate appeared first on Cultured Vultures, Cultured Vultures - .

In the 1980s, a young boy in the town of Pitt’sville falls into the Pit that his town is named for. In the 1950s, a private investigator is hired to search for a woman nicknamed “The Speckled Hen.” In the early 1800s, an African kidnapped into slavery becomes a leader of slave rebellions all throughout the Americas. In 2121, a lab seeks to discover that love is a virus and cure it. I have always thought a lot about the […]

The post The Narrative Vortex of Jordan Rothacker’s The Pit and No Other Stories from Ben Arzate appeared first on Cultured Vultures, Cultured Vultures - .

Kody is a teenage boy in love with a girl from another school named Tella. After getting Tella pregnant and being locked away in a juvenile detention center for bomb threats, he wants nothing more than to get out, marry her, and settle down. Tella’s parents have other plans. They force her to get an abortion and plan to ship her off to Rome to live. After finding out, Kody breaks out of juvie and ends up killing Tella’s mother […]

The post Terrible and Tragic Teens In Bud Smith’s Teenager from Ben Arzate appeared first on Cultured Vultures, Cultured Vultures - .

It seems that anything that comes out lately involving kids getting tangled up with the supernatural is going to get compared to Stranger Things, but, of course, the trope goes back much further and to many other shows, books, and films. Off the top of my head, I can think of It, The Bailey School Kids, Scooby Doo, and Goosebumps. That’s just a few. Matthew Clarke’s newest book, Sons of Sorrow, seems most comparable to Stephen King’s It with how […]

The post The Meddling Kids Grow Up In Sons of Sorrow by Matthew A. Clarke from Ben Arzate appeared first on Cultured Vultures, Cultured Vultures - .

As World War I rages on, Kaiser Wilhelm II is working behind the scenes on his real goal; to find the man guarding a bottle of Dracula’s blood so he can take it to make himself and his wife immortal warlocks. As part of this plan, he allies himself with Elizabeth Bathory, the countess known for slaughtering peasant girls in the early 1600’s to drink and bathe in their blood to retain her youth, who is still alive after hundreds […]

The post The Nosferatu Conspiracy: The Sommelier Is Historical Horror Done Right from Ben Arzate appeared first on Cultured Vultures, Cultured Vultures - .

Sergeant Gastovsky, known to everyone as Gas, finds that one of his soldiers has been left behind on a nearby planet. His superiors won’t approve a rescue mission due to the risk. When a harebrained scheme to sneak aboard a supply ship and conduct the rescue himself blows up in his face, he hatches another to smuggle a crew of other soldiers down to the planet. Gas, however, has other motivations for wanting to rescue the man left behind so […]

The post The Misfit Soldier: War Never Changes, Even in Space from Ben Arzate appeared first on Cultured Vultures, Cultured Vultures - .

Going into the collection Spontaneous Human Combustion, I was previously familiar with Richard Thomas as an editor – most notably of the anthology of transgressive fiction, Burnt Tongues. While the stories of this collection could certainly be called that, most of them fit neatly in the genres of horror, many with a fantasy and science fiction aspect to them. A strong feeling of regret and a desire for repentance runs through most of them as well. These themes of regret […]

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I’m not going to give into the millennial urge to turn everything into a conversation about how much it sucks to be a millennial. Besides, what I need to realise is that a lot of media being produced now about recent university graduates with no direction in life is actually talking about Gen Z. Millennials are old news: Gen Z is here and they deserve just as many conversations about how much it sucks to be Gen Z. The reason […]

The post Jarrett Melendez and Danica Brine’s Chef’s Kiss Is Hashtag Relatable from Nat Wassell appeared first on Cultured Vultures, Cultured Vultures - .

Edward Ashton’s Mickey 7 has been called a sci-fi thriller, and compared to The Martian in more than one early review, but if you go into this book expecting either thriller elements or for it to be anything like The Martian, then you will probably be disappointed. The plot is too meandering to be a thriller, and apart from the fact that it’s a science fiction book set on an inhospitable planet, I see nothing that reminds me of The […]

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Madeleine Swann’s newest collection has an evocative title. It brings to mind the idea of a mysterious and dangerous place where one finds horrible things instead of gold. It fits the collection well. Throughout the stories, colorful and surreal imagery fills stories of alienation, depression, disappointment, and self-destruction. In the first story, “Typhoid Ananya,” an immigrant woman in Britain is accused of being the center of a strange disease. It causes her to constantly leak a green, oil like substance. […]

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In 2017, the hurricanes Irma and Maria ripped through the Caribbean in quick succession, causing extensive damage to Puerto Rico. The shamefully inadequate response from the US government left many on the island in terrible living conditions that continue to this day. This was another crime by the US in a long line of exploitation of the territory, devoid of the benefits of either statehood or being a sovereign country. Others that came before include bringing in companies which paid […]

The post Dying in the American Dream: Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez from Ben Arzate appeared first on Cultured Vultures, Cultured Vultures - .

Where love exists, hope can arise. Still, the human capacity to love finds itself inhibited by surrounding environments or adverse circumstances. Dehumanisation leads some to regard themselves as unable to love or worse; unworthy of love. If a person endures degrading brutality their outlook on human connections may be filtered through a warped perception where bonds with another feel pointless. But for others, meaningful bonds, whether platonic or romantic, with another human being enhance life. Love can carve out a […]

The post Empowerment Through Love And Language In Jabari Asim’s Yonder from Katie Liggera appeared first on Cultured Vultures, Cultured Vultures - .