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Month: June 2014

The Series Series: Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell

The Series Series: Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell

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Traitor's Blade cover-smallWell, this breaks the streak.

After months of reviews that boiled down to not-my-book-but-maybe-yours or notably-flawed-but-with-some virtues or promising-but-published-a-draft-too-early, I looked at my box of review copies and saw months more of the same ahead of me. So I wrote John O’Neill and asked if any new books had come in that I might be able to love without reservation.

Not only did I love this book, I trusted it. Somehow, de Castell managed in his debut novel to win my trust so completely and quickly that he could tell nearly half of his story in flashback, often for a chapter at a stretch, and never once did he throw me out of the waking dream of fiction to wonder whether he could pull it off. As much as I like watching authorial tightrope-walking acts in general, I like best of all to watch one without worrying that the author might fall.

Falcio Val Mond’s coat is in tatters, along with his reputation, his soul, his country, and the order of warrior-magistrates he led to bring the king’s justice to the people of Tristia. He’s still First Cantor of the Greatcoats — for all the good that does him, with his king long since dead and the dukes of Tristia’s provinces plotting to exterminate or co-opt the surviving Greatcoats and install a new puppet monarch.

What Falcio has left to work with is formidable, though. He is still chief badass of an elite band of badasses, with two of his lifelong companions still by his side. Kest and Brasti are different enough from Falcio and from each other for the three of them to thread their misadventures with a high-stakes debate about how to survive and be of service as bringers of law in a lawless time when they are constantly outnumbered, defamed, despised, and impoverished. How do you help people who hate you, and is it ever conscionable to give up?

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Star Trek 3 Confirmed

Star Trek 3 Confirmed

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Star Trek Spock and Kirk-smallParamount Pictures confirmed on Wednesday that the third film in the J.J. Abrams-helmed Star Trek reboot has been green-lit for a 2016 release.

I haven’t been the biggest fan of the new films. Sure, they are highly watchable blockbuster action pics — fast moving, splendidly acted, and with terrific effects. But to me they haven’t captured the spirit of the original show and the creators seem kinda oblivious to this fact, turning characters I’ve loved for 40 years into action-film superheroes, with Spock getting into prolonged fistfights with superhuman opponents and Kirk ascending confidently into the Captain’s chair of the Enterprise in his early 20s, less than 24 hours out of the academy. It’s been more like watching The Expendables filmed on a Star Trek set (which actually sounds sorta cool, now that I say it out loud.)

But that’s okay. The films have been popular and have kept the franchise in the public eye. And they’re by no means bad films — they’re just not the Star Trek I wanted. So I was pleased to hear that there would be a third. Especially since the ending of Star Trek Into Darkness strongly implied the next one would be closer in spirit to the original version, with the crew finally beginning their five-year mission of exploration.

We don’t know a lot about the new movie yet. We know it will be directed by Roberto Orci, screenwriter and producer of Star Trek Into Darkness, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and the Sleepy Hollow TV show, in his directorial debut. In a recent interview, Orci stated that he wants the film to be more original, and to stay in the classic Trek world, which at least sounds good. His co-writer J.D. Payne also dropped a few clues about the plot.

Star Trek 3 (no idea if that’s the final title) will be written by Patrick McKay, Roberto Orci, and John D. Payne, and produced by J.J. Abrams and David Ellison. It is scheduled for a 2016 release, just in time for the show’s 50th anniversary. (Thanks to Tor.com for the tip.)

Future Treasures: The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Volume Two edited by Gordon Van Gelder

Future Treasures: The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Volume Two edited by Gordon Van Gelder

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The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction Volume 2-smallOne of my favorite anthologies of the last half decade (and considering how many I’ve purchased, that’s saying a lot) was The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Volume  One edited by Gordon Van Gelder. Considering it was an absolutely gorgeous 470-page package sampling five decades of the finest fantasy magazine in the genre, how could it not be?

So I was delighted to hear that Gordon and his publisher, Tachyon Publications, are hard at work on a second volume. It will be released next month, and is nearly as large as the first. Here’s the description:

A mutant baby goes on a rampage through Central Park. An immigrant reveals secrets in the folds of a perfect gift. Lucky Cats extend their virtual paws to salute a generous revolution. The Internet invades a third-world village.

The premier speculative-fiction magazine Fantasy & Science Fiction continues to discover and showcase many of the most inventive authors writing in any genre. Now drawing even more deeply upon F&SF’s impressive history, this extraordinary companion anthology expands upon sixty-five years’ worth of top-notch storytelling. The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Volume Two is a star-studded tribute to the continuing vision of F&SF.

This volume collects classic short fiction from Alfred Bester, Stephen King, Zenna Henderson, Robert Sheckley, Robert A. Heinlein,  Jack Vance, Roger Zelazny,  R. A. Lafferty, Lucius Shepard, Gene Wolfe, and many others. It even includes two of my all-time favorite stories: Harlan Ellison’s “Jeffty Is Five,” and “The Aliens Who Knew, I mean, Everything” by George Alec Effinger.

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

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Robert Hood’s Fragments of a Broken Land: Valarl Undead Wins the Ditmar Award

Robert Hood’s Fragments of a Broken Land: Valarl Undead Wins the Ditmar Award

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fragments of a broken land-smallWhat the heck is the Ditmar Award?

The Ditmar Awarda are the Australian Hugo Awards, recognizing superior achievement in Australian science fiction, fantasy, and horror. They’ve been awarded every year since 1969. They’re named after Martin James Ditmar “Dick” Jenssen, an Australian fan who footed the bill for the awards way back when they were just getting off the ground. Awards are given for best novel, short story, fan writing, and other more boring categories.

All very interesting. But what’s more interesting is that a major international award just went to a fantasy novel with GIANT TENTACLES ON THE COVER. And a floating red eyeball.

This is watershed moment, people. Thousands of years from now, future civilizations will point to this moment and say, “Yep, right there, that was it.” There will be no need to explain further, because future people are cool and will understand immediately.

I do not have a copy of Fragments of a Broken Land: Valarl Undead. But I really, really want one. I want to know what all the cool future people are talking about, and those Australians with their funky awards. Plus. Giant tentacles.

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Strange Chemistry Shuts Down

Strange Chemistry Shuts Down

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Pantomime by Laura Lam-smallStrange Chemistry, the innovative YA imprint of Angry Robot Books, has closed its doors. Here’s the announcement made earlier today by Caroline Lambe, Publicity Manager at Angry Robot:

Angry Robot Books has a history of innovation and we continue to go from strength to strength. We’re constantly trying out new concepts and new ideas, and we continue to publish popular and award-winning books. Our YA imprint Strange Chemistry and our crime/mystery imprint Exhibit A have – due mainly to market saturation – unfortunately been unable to carve out their own niches with as much success.

We have therefore made the difficult decision to discontinue Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A, effective immediately, and no further titles will be published from these two imprints.

Strange Chemistry launched in September 2012 with editor Amanda Rutter at the helm, and released 17 books in its first year. Last summer, they produced this splendid montage displaying all of their book covers, and we helped them celebrate their first birthday just last August.

Over the last two years, Strange Chemistry has published a marvelously diverse range of titles, including Martha Wells’s Emilie and the Hollow World, Jonathan L. Howard’s Katya’s World and its sequel Katya’s War, Broken by A. E. Rought, Black Dog by Rachel Neumeier, Pantomime by Laura Lam, and many others. The sudden shut down leaves nearly half a dozen previously announced titles in limbo, including Eliza Crewe’s Crushed, Rabble by Rosie Best, and A Curse of Ash and Iron by Christine Norris.

As disappointing as the news is, Angry Robot reports that their core SF and fantasy imprint is still very robust, and in fact they plan to increase output from two books a month to three. Read the complete announcement here.

New Treasures: Planets of Adventure by Murray Leinster

New Treasures: Planets of Adventure by Murray Leinster

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Planets of Adventure-smallThere’s lot of great new arrivals to tell you about this week. I’ve got them all stacked up beside my green chair, unread. Because the book I’m really excited about is Planets of Adventure by Murray Leinster, published by Baen Books over a decade ago.

That’s when I first bought it, too — over a decade ago. I went hunting for a copy as a birthday gift for my son last week, and was thrilled to find it was still in print. A fat omnibus of pulp science fiction from one of my favorite science fiction writers, still in print in mass market after nearly eleven years!

Just like that, my faith in humanity is restored. Here’s the back cover blurb, ’cause it’s awesome.

Breathtaking space adventure by a master of interplanetary science fiction. Including two complete novels, one of them a Hugo Award-winner.

The Planet Explorer: As humans spread throughout the galaxy, thousands of planets have been colonized. Often, the colonists discover too late that an apparently hospitable planet conceals a danger to their survival. The fate of these colonies scattered across the galaxy rests with one man, whose own fate is to race forever against looming interstellar disaster.

The Forgotten Planet: A ship is marooned on a planet whose existence has been mislaid by the galactic bureaucracy. And the planet’s ecology has gone wild, breeding deadly giant insects. The ship’s crew and passengers have no hope of rescue. Can they and their descendants survive? Tune in next millennium.

Plus more exciting adventures of men and women against the hostile stars.

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Goth Chick News: Nice Souvenir – Dracula’s Tomb Found in Italy (Maybe)

Goth Chick News: Nice Souvenir – Dracula’s Tomb Found in Italy (Maybe)

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image008The Goth Chick News office has been closed for the last two weeks while I did a bit of globetrotting to dig up some interesting gothy bits of news from elsewhere in the world.

And this one is a doozy.

While I was visiting Italy, a picture in one of Rome’s newspapers caught my attention. I mean, Vlad Tepes is recognizable in any language, but it was necessary to employ some translation software to figure out why he was rating coverage in a city paper not exactly known for subject matters like Dracula.

What I learned was this.

Estonian researchers apparently believe they may have finally discovered the whereabouts of the grave of Vlad Tepes III, which is in Italy and not the Romanian Alps as first thought.

In case you’ve forgotten the background, Vlad was the 15th century Prince of Wallachia in Eastern Europe, known posthumously as Vlad the Impaler and the inspiration for a countless (and growing) number of books, movies, plays, comics, etc, etc.

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Speculative Fringe: God is an Iron at the Montreal Fringe

Speculative Fringe: God is an Iron at the Montreal Fringe

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God is an IronMonday, June 16, I went to see a show at the Montreal Fringe Festival. Local theatre company Black Box Productions was staging their adaptation of God is an Iron, originally a short story by Spider Robinson. The story, first published in 1979, was later expanded by Robinson into a novel called Mindkiller (which I have not read). The play, adapted by producer and Black Box chief Elizabeth Cano, sticks close to the original story, finding a solid stage-worthy drama in the sf tale. The play has two more performances — on Saturday and Sunday, full details here — and there are plans afoot for a filmed version to be available later.

In the near future, a young man, Joe, enters an apartment and finds a woman, Karen, near death. She’s plugged into a machine stimulating the pleasure centre of her brain, an addictive high common in this future, and one that often leads to death as the addict comes to prefer the ongoing pleasure to food or drink. Joe gets Karen out of the machine and tries to lead her back to health. Who is she? Why did she plug herself into pleasure, knowing it could lead to her own death? Who is he, and why does he care? The set-up gives us questions, and over the course of the story we come to find out the answers. Some are profound, and the last is almost a punch-line: like a punch-line, it collapses all the pathos of the story and the themes into a sudden and surprising realisation.

The tale’s a meditation on empathy and pleasure; more precisely, on empathy and hedonism. Living for pleasure is self-directed. So what drives us — as human beings seem to be driven — to be social animals? Is there some merit to living for others beyond pleasure? Cano’s script, a faithful adaptation of the story using much of the original text, tries to probe these questions.

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Why Pure Historical Fantasies Never Seem to be Bestsellers

Why Pure Historical Fantasies Never Seem to be Bestsellers

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the-desert-of-souls-tp
Robert E Howard does Clark Ashton Smith with a setting by Harold Lamb

One of the best modern Heroic Fantasy books I’ve read — one of few modern ones I’ll reread — is Howard Andrew Jones’s The Desert of Souls. I’d describe it as “Robert E Howard does Clark Ashton Smith with a setting by Harold Lamb.” It’s an awesome Heroic Fantasy adventure set in the authentic Near East of Harun Al Raschid. I note, however that Howard only got two novels into the series before being forced to move on.

Another book I loved was Matthew Woodring Stover’s Iron Dawn and its sequel Jericho Moon. This time we’re following a party of Trojan-war veterans as they battle necromancers and killer deities. These yarns should have kicked off a series and perhaps a movie or two, but they didn’t and Stover seems best known now for Star Wars novels.

Other otherwise successful writers have tried their hand at Fantasy in a straight historical setting, for example Barbara Hambly has romped around Early Renaissance Italy. Nobody, however, seems to have made a fortune writing “pure” Historical Fantasy, that is Fantasy tales set in an accurately depicted historical setting.

I find this depressing.

Partly it’s selfish reasons; I’m a historian by academic background and have an interest in historical magic. This is a tune I would love to play. Mostly though, I’d love to read more about Dabir and Asim, and about Princess Bara and her misfits.

Why is an authentic historical setting a kiss of death?

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Vintage Treasures: The Stars Are the Styx by Theodore Sturgeon

Vintage Treasures: The Stars Are the Styx by Theodore Sturgeon

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The Stars Are the Styx-smallWe’re living in a truly splendid era for fantasy fans. Fantasy films and TV shows routinely top box office charts and Nielsen ratings, fantasy novels crowd bestseller lists, and Gandalf, Harry Potter, and Tyrion Lannister are all household names. Believe it or not, there was a time when girls did not find you cool for talking about Wolverine or Captain America, or for being able to rattle off the names all 13 dwarves who accompanied Bilbo into the Misty Mountains. Hard to comprehend, I know.

Even those of us who cherish the history of the genre have a lot to celebrate. Many of the great fantasy books of the 20th Century are still in print, or at least available inexpensively online. Let’s face it — if you’re a fantasy fan, the world is your oyster.

Unless you’re a fan of short story collections, of course. In which case, you’re out of luck.

For most 20th Century fantasy writers, this has been a regrettable literary development, but not catastrophic. Most didn’t have short story collections anyway. But for some — like the great Theodore Sturgeon, who produced much of his best work at short length — it means that the 21st Century is rapidly forgetting them.

And that’s a tragedy. Yes, Sturgeon did leave behind a handful of novels, some of which — like More Than Human, The Dreaming Jewels, and Venus Plus X — are still in print today (in attractive trade paperback editions from Vintage Books actually; check ’em out.) But for decades before his death in 1985, he was justly renowned as one of the finest short story writers the field had ever seen.

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