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Month: October 2010

Black Gate: Your Definitive Source for Sword & Sorcery

Black Gate: Your Definitive Source for Sword & Sorcery

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swordssorcery2So I finally had a chance to sit down this week with Swords & Dark Magic, the new anthology from Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders.

It’s well worth your time.  It has a terrific new story by James Enge, “The Singing Spear,” in which Morlock faces off against an indestructible weapon of his own design. It also includes a new Black Company tale by Glen Cook, and a fresh Elric novella from Michael Moorcock.

Additional contributors include Robert Silverberg, with a new Majipoor story, and Michael Shea with a tale of Cugel the Clever, as well as Joe Abercrombie, Garth Nix, Gene Wolfe, Steven Erikson, C.J. Cherryh, and many others.

The introduction by the editors, “Check Your Dark Lord at the Door,” is a fine retrospective of Sword & Sorcery through the decades. And the editors salute this publication with:

Black Gate magazine… has been the definitive source for sword and sorcery short-form works since its launch in 2000.

Kind words indeed. Always a pleasure to be honored by such distinguished gentlemen. And now I know what book I’ll be giving as a Christmas gift to all my relatives and in-laws. If you’re interested in a copy, better find one before I buy them all.

Short Fiction Roundup

Short Fiction Roundup

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cover002-150Salon Futura is a recently launched online non-fiction magazine for essays and reviews about science fiction and fantasy. Therehugo-12 have been several attempts to do this sort of thing, most of which have had short life spans (anyone remember the Internet Review of Science Fiction?), but with Cheryl Morgan on the masthead, whose Emerald City book review blog was up for 12 years, this perhaps might have more staying power. On the other hand, this is a paying market, so if you’re interested in critical discussions of SF/F genre, you might want to consider hitting the donate button. Here’s the short fiction review for the October issue by Karen Burham.

Morgan, by the way, is also the non-fiction editor of 2010 Hugo award winner Clarkesworld magazine. Publisher Neil Clarke (oh, that’s why the magazine is called that) writes about winning the Hugo and other developments here.

A Peek at The Way of the Wizard

A Peek at The Way of the Wizard

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WAY OF THE WIZARD hits stores on Nov. 16.
The Wizard hits stores on Nov. 16.

It’s almost here! Next month Prime Books releases its new fantasy anthology paperback, THE WAY OF THE WIZARD. It features 32 stories of sorcerers, wizards, magicians and the like. In addition to luminaries like Neil Gaiman,  George R. R. Martin, Robert Silverberg, and Peter S. Beagle (among others) it features my own story, “The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria.”

Editor extraordinaire John Joseph Adams just announced the book’s complete table of contents:

WAY OF THE WIZARD

– Table of Contents –

-Introduction by John Joseph Adams
–In the Lost Lands — George R.R. Martin
–Family Tree — David Barr Kirtley
–John Uskglass and the Cambrian Charcoal Burner — Susanna Clarke
–Wizard’s Apprentice — Delia Sherman
–The Sorcerer Minus — Jeffrey Ford
–Life So Dear Or Peace So Sweet — C. C. Finlay
–Card Sharp — Rajan Khanna
–So Deep That the Bottom Could Not Be Seen —  Genevieve Valentine
–The Go-Slow — Nnedi Okorafor
–Too Fatal a Poison — Krista Hoeppner Leahy
–Jamaica — Orson Scott Card
–The Sorcerer’s Apprentice — Robert Silverberg
–The Secret of Calling Rabbits — Wendy N. Wagner
–The Wizards of Perfil — Kelly Link
–How to Sell the Ponti Bridge — Neil Gaiman
–The Magician and the Maid and Other Stories — Christie Yant
–Winter Solstice — Mike Resnick
–The Trader and the Slave — Cinda Williams Chima
–Cerile and the Journeyer — Adam-Troy Castro
–Counting the Shapes — Yoon Ha Lee
–Endgame — Lev Grossman
–Street Wizard — Simon R. Green
–Mommy Issues of the Dead — T. A. Pratt
–One Click Banishment — Jeremiah Tolbert
–The Ereshkigal Working — Jonathan L. Howard
–Feeding the Feral Children — David Farland
–The Orange-Tree Sacrifice — Vylar Kaftan
–Love is the Spell That Casts Out Fear — Desirina Boskovich
–El Regalo — Peter S. Beagle
–The Word of Unbinding — Ursula K. Le Guin
–The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria — John R. Fultz
–The Secret of the Blue Star — Marion Zimmer Bradley

So I’m sandwiched in between Ursula K. LeGuin and Marion Zimmer Bradley. Not a bad place to be!

You can pre-order WAY OF THE WIZARD at Amazon.com

Cheers!
John

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Power of Myth-Making

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Power of Myth-Making

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wrightson-frankensteinMary Shelley’s Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus is a remarkable work. The book had its origin as a ghost story concocted during a weekend gathering of the literati on Lake Geneva. It became the modern myth best reflecting the ethical and moral issues that arise when technology consistently outpaces its maker’s ability to reconcile progress with the established strictures of society. It remains a classic cautionary tale that has lost none of its relevance nearly 200 years since its publication. Despite this fact, it is an intensely personal story with strong autobiographical touches.

frankenstein2Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born in the late eighteenth century to outspoken liberal political theorist William Godwin and pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Her mother died of complications giving birth to Mary. She grew up revering her parents’ work and was encouraged by it to ceaselessly question authority in any form. At age 16, Mary began an affair with one of her father’s most ardent followers, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley who was five years her senior and married with small children.

Percy left his wife and family to travel the continent with Mary and her stepsister, Claire. He enjoyed affairs with both young women. Their unconventional living arrangement engendered much public outrage and ostracism wherever they went. Mary became pregnant with Percy’s child, but the little girl died shortly after birth. Mary’s father, who had criticized the institution of marriage in his writings, inexplicably turned his back on his unwed daughter for her licentious behavior.

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Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel Prize for Literature

Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel Prize for Literature

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war-of-the-end-of-the-worldPeruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the finest writers in the world — perhaps, indeed, the finest writer — was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature by the Royal Swedish Academy yesterday.

Vargas Llosa wrote two of the best novels I’ve ever read: Time of the Hero, based on his experiences at a Peruvian military academy — which caused such an uproar that a thousand copies were publicly burned by military authorities — and The War of the End of the World, which he’s called his finest book. This historical novel of End-of-the-19th-Century Brazil reads like epic fantasy, chronicling the apocalyptic fate of the small town of Canudos, in the grip of a visionary prophet and home to the country’s outcasts — prostitutes, bandits, and beggars — and a place where money, taxation, and marriage do not exist. Until the Brazilian government deems it must be destroyed at any cost.

In total he’s written over 30 novels and plays, including The Green House, Conversation in the Cathedral, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, and In Praise of the Stepmother.

Vargas Llosa ran for President of Peru in 1990, but lost to Alberto Fujimori, who was later convicted of bribery, embezzlement, and human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 1976 Vargas Llosa famously punched his former friend Gabriel García Márquez (author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and a 1982 Nobel Prize winner himself) in Mexico City, and the two have reportedly not spoken in decades.

The Nobel Prize for Literature is regarded as the highest award a writer can receive. Previous winners have included Guenter Grass, Toni Morrison, William Golding, Saul Bellow, Samuel Beckett, Jean-Paul Sartre, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill, William Faulkner, and George Bernard Shaw.

E-Books That Cost More Than Hardcovers?

E-Books That Cost More Than Hardcovers?

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fall-of-giantsThe New York Times is reporting that two recent bestsellers — Fall of Giants by Ken Follett, and Don’t Blink by James Patterson and Howard Roughan — are priced higher in their e-book versions than in print by Amazon.com.

As of press time, Fall of Giants, published by Dutton on Sept 28, is $19.99 for the Kindle edition, and just $19.39 for the physical book (all 1,008 pages).   Don’t Blink is $14.99 for the e-book, or just $14 for the hardcover.

As you can imagine, this has ignited something of a firestorm in Amazon’s Customer Reviews section, resulting in both novels taking a critical drubbing.

Fall of Giants has 63 five-star reviews versus over 200 one-star reviews, with comments ranging from:

Refuse to pay this much for an ebook

and

Let’s boycott the gougers

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Goth Chick News: Let the Screaming Commence

Goth Chick News: Let the Screaming Commence

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image004It’s the first of October and that means the countdown has started.

For the next thirty days there will a lineup of great stuff on TV, a schedule full of movie festivals and new theater releases, a litany of themed events and a virtual plethora of options for combining adult beverages and questionable behavior.

In short, it’s thirty days until my favorite date on the calendar: Halloween.

For the next month I will average approximately four hours of sleep per night in a manic attempt to juggle my intrusive day job with all the after-dark activities available only this time of year. Soon I will begin to resemble the pale and sallow creatures of my Midnight Movies and bug-eyed demons of the local haunted attraction, but it matters not. I will sleep on November the first.

You don’t have to be utterly obsessed with All Hallow’s Eve to enjoy October. With an internet connection and a little tenacity, you can expend as much or a little cash as you wish and still have a ripping good time.

Here are my top three suggestions for ways to enjoy the only time of year when adults can act like juvenile delinquents in public, and no one cares.

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Heroic Fantasy Quarterly 6 Arrives

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly 6 Arrives

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hfq-bannerThe sixth issue of online fiction zine Heroic Fantasy Quarterly appeared September 30.  What are you still doing here? Jump over to HFQ and check it out!

Contents this issue include the short stories “The Sea Wasp” by Robert Rhodes and “Heart of Man” by David Pilling, as well as poems from Charles Saplak and Shennandoah Diaz.

There’s also an editorial, which includes this amusing update on our pal Adrian Simmons:

After stumbling upon a rare opportunity to level-up, Adrian Simmons will be taking off the next two quarters at HFQ in order take a Numerical Analysis of Data course, as well as a prep course for the Fundamentals of Engineering test. Thus begins a six-month process akin to the development of the classic AD&D bard. If he passes, he looks forward to the ability to charm monsters.

Looking forward to the details at the World Fantasy Convention, Adrian. Bring the harp.

Past issues of HFQ have included contributions from Black Gate stalwarts such as Contributing Editor Bill Ward, Vaughn Heppner (our man!) and Euan Harvey,  as well as Matthew Wuertz, James Lecky, Jeff Crook, and many others. You can find the treasures of the past at their hearty Archives.

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly is edited by the mighty crew of Adrian Simmons, David Farney, William Ledbetter, and James Lecky. Art this issue is by Mariusz Gandzel.

Art Evolution 4: David Deitrick

Art Evolution 4: David Deitrick

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In my ongoing Art Evolution series, I explained my plan to collect ten of the greatest fantasy role-playing artists of all time for a shared project. They were to illustrate a single character in their most recognizable style. So far, the list has included Jeff Laubenstein, Eric Vedder, and Jeff Dee, with this week adding again to that prestigious list.

a-doomsday-254Three down, and I now had a “1st Edition D&D Lyssa”, but I’d only scratched the surface of my goal and all the artists I’d collected so far weren’t cold calls. These were people I’d already worked with, friends and partners, and the list that remained loomed much larger than this current success. I kept asking myself, ‘do you want this for you, or do you want it for something greater?’

I chewed on that as I read through an old Dragon magazine one afternoon in late August [a pastime I strongly suggest doing once a month to anyone still role-playing]. While reading, I stumbled on a beautiful advertisement for the Traveller RPG.

I recognized the art as something I’d loved in my teens, but had no idea who drew it. Going to my bookshelves I pulled down a copy of FASA’s House Davion supplement for Battletech and managed to put a name to a style… David Deitrick.

I remembered him from a hundred different pictures that had shaped my role-playing life in the late eighties. Everything about his work screamed military, and that style lent so well to the science-fiction bent of the companies he helped characterize.

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Rigor Amortis: Love and Zombies

Rigor Amortis: Love and Zombies

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rigoramortisRigor Amortis, a collection of zombie erotica and romance flash fiction edited by Jaym Gates and Erika Holt, was officially released October 1.

According to Jaym, who came by our booth and entertained us during slow moments at Dragon*con, Rigor Amortis started out as a joke on Twitter, and quickly snowballed into a  real book.  A bizarre and strange book, but still a book. Check out this description:

Horror and erotica. Zombies and romance. Rigor Amortis.
       Maybe a tender love story is your thing, a husband doting on his wife’s rotting corpse. Or perhaps a forbidden encounter in a secret café, serving up the latest in delectable zombie cuisine, or some dirty, dirty dancing in the old-time honky-tonk. Voodoo sex-slaves and vending machine body-parts? You’ll find those here, too.
       Whatever your flavor, these short tales of undead Romance, Revenge, Risk, and Raunch will leave you shambling, moaning, and clawing for more.

Contributors include Armand Rosamilia, Jennifer Brozek, Annette Dupree, Alex Masterson, Edward Morris, and dozens more. The sexy and disturbing cover is by Robert “Nix” Nixon.  Rigor Amortis is $14.95 (print) and $2.99 (e-Book) for 148 pages, and published by Absolute XPress.

More details are available on the website.  Show us a little zombie love, and support a quality small press.