The latest installment of my book review column, STRONG MEDICINE: Books That Cures What Ails You, has just been published in Intergalactic Medicine Show.

In this column, I review Paragaea by Chris Roberson; James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips; and Map of Dreams by M. Rickert.

[Excerpt:] Will our intrepid heroes find the portal home, or will they be stuck on Paragaea forever?

If that last line doesn’t clue you in to the very essence of what Paragaea is all about, then the novel’s subtitle, “A Planetary Romance” (a term harkening back to the days before science fiction was called science fiction), surely will. It’s neo-pulp; that is, it’s written in the tradition of the pulp masters of the past–Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard, et al.–but is written in a modern style more accessible to contemporary readers. Roberson knows his pulp well and has fun exploring and reinventing the tropes of that era, and he does so in a fresh, original, and–most importantly–fun way. And like Burroughs’s Barsoom stories, Roberson’s Paragaea is otherworldly swashbuckling action-adventure at its finest.

Go read the review and then come back and tell me how awesome it is.