Sting of The Scorpion
By Warren Stockholm
ISBN #978-0-97679143-0
Pop Pulp www.khpindustries.com
103 Pages
Price $9.99
September 2006
Rating: 5-Stars
Steeltown, Penssylvania. In this
alternate universe, the Germans won WWII, but after forty years of occupation,
they’ve been driven from America. Five years later, we are living in a world of
Internet, email, fax machines and speakeasies and mob rule. Out of the chaos
rises a paladin to battle the criminal element that the underworld knew only as
The Scorpion. But the past has come back to challenge this defender of the
city. As a child he was German born, and raised as a superman, one of many
clones. And the evil that he must face is one of his own, a brother, and a
superman just like him. But he is pure evil.
This was actually conceived as a
possible series, as a new pulp magazine, titled SCORPION. This first story was
powerful, the concept fantastic, and the action moved at a wonderful pace. The
writing is intelligent, but the narrative awkward, switching from 3rd person to 1st person sometimes, plus typos that
a proofreader should have caught. A second novel was advertised, The City of
The Living Dead, but has not appeared yet. The author pays homage to the old
pulps. There is an intersection named Robeson & Gibson Streets, another
street is named Stockbridge. A Fortress of Solitude is mentioned, etc.
Besides the very minor flaws in
editing mentioned above, this is a wham-bang action novel in the tradition of
the old pulps, and the best new character I’ve read in many years.
