Introduction   On Racism   Epigraphs   A History of the Pulps   A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z   

Glossary and Character Taxonomy  Breakdown by Country of Origin   Bibliography   Table of Contents    The Best of the Encyclopedia

Homura Soroku. Homura Soroku was created by “Unno Juza,” the pseudonym of the Japanese author Sano Shoichi (Sugita), and appeared in a number of stories in 1937 and 1938, beginning with “Fushu.”

Homura Soroku is a Great Detective. Homura is a private detective, active in Japan, and takes on cases which verge on the fantastic. In one story he solves a series of thefts and murders committed by an Evil Surgeon who has experimented on himself, removing his own limbs and magnetically attaching more powerful synthetic arms and legs to his torso. In another story Homura apprehends an engineer who has created a very powerful form of liquid hydrogen. In a third Homura pursues the zombie Fly Man, and in a fourth he comes into conflict with a Dr. Otone, a Mad Scientist who, as a member of a secret society, wants to destroy the Japanese navy and then CONQUER THE WORLD! Otone’s tower headquarters is full of SCIENCE!, including very advanced observation technology; the tower itself can convert into an earth-borer or rocket.

* I'm including the Homura Soroku stories in the Best of the Encyclopedia category because they are imaginative. Sano Shoichi was the father of Japanese science fiction, and it's no wonder that the Homura Soroku mysteries not only verge on the fantastic but stomp into it with both feet wearing large boots. The stories are pretty well-done (relatively) combinations of mystery and science fiction, and stand as a What If? for Japanese crime and mystery fiction and science fiction: both genres could have intermingled, as the Homura Soroku stories did, and become something more interesting than either, if not for WW2. 

Table of Contents / Annotations / Blog / Books / Patreon / Twitter / Contact me