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Month: November 2015

Living in a Moroccan Medina

Living in a Moroccan Medina

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The Jemaa al-Casbah, the mosque in the Casbah, just uphill from my house, that broadcasts predawn sermons over a loudspeaker.
The Casbah mosque, just uphill from my house, broadcasts predawn sermons over a loudspeaker.

Hello again, Black Gate readers! You may have noticed that I dropped off the blog, and indeed the rest of the Internet, for all of October. You did notice, didn’t you? You didn’t? Well, I was gone. I spent the entire month on a writing retreat in Tangier, Morocco. I’ve written about visiting Tangier before on this blog, but this time I decided to dedicate a longer time in the city to some writing. My current project, The Last Hotel Room, is a novel set in contemporary Tangier, and I thought it a perfect opportunity to try out my own version of a writing retreat.

Through local contacts I was able to rent a house in the medina, the old historic quarter. My house was a traditional building of northern Morocco — two stories and a rooftop terrace surrounding an airshaft topped with glass. Sunlight and ventilation came courtesy of the airshaft, the only other windows being small ones in the downstairs kitchen and upstairs kitchenette. The interior was cleverly designed so that each room felt open to the sunlight from the airshaft while remaining out of view of the other rooms, providing openness and privacy at the same time.

This sort of architecture has an unusual acoustic effect. Noises next door and on the street just outside sound like they’re coming from inside the house. Your neighbor’s door opening sounds like your door opening. It’s a bit weird at first, but it never makes you nervous because your house is a fort. Doors are made of metal and secured with heavy bolts. The airshaft has a cage-like barrier to keep people from dropping in unannounced. My two windows were both well above street level and protected with iron bars.

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Future Treasures: Ash and Silver by Carol Berg

Future Treasures: Ash and Silver by Carol Berg

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Ash and Silver-smallThe first two novels set on the world of Sanctuary were Flesh and Spirit (2007) and Breath and Bone (2008). Carol Berg returned to Sanctuary with Dust and Light last year, which BG writer D. B. Jackson called “A tale of magic and politics, of intrigue and betrayal.” Now she concludes the saga of a sorcerer whose past is veiled in shadows with Ash and Silver.

Ever since the Order of the Equites Cineré stole his memory, his name, and his heart, thinking about the past makes Greenshank’s head ache. After two years of rigorous training, he is almost ready to embrace the mission of the Order — to use selfless magic to heal the troubles of Navronne. But on his first assignment alone, the past comes racing back, threatening to drown him in conspiracy, grief, and murder.

He is Lucian de Remeni — a sorcerer whose magical bents for portraiture and history threaten the safety of the earth and the future of the war-riven kingdom of Navronne. He just can’t remember how or why.

Fighting to unravel the mysteries of his power, Lucian must trace threads of corruption that reach from the Pureblood Registry into the Order itself, the truth hidden two centuries in the past and beyond the boundaries of the world…

Ash and Silver will be published by Roc on December 1, 2015. It is 475 pages, priced at $16 in trade paperback and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover art is by Gene Mollica.

Interfictions Issue 6 is Now Available

Interfictions Issue 6 is Now Available

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Interfictions Online-smallThe sixth issue of online-only Interfictions magazine, cover dated November 2015, is now available.

Interfictions began as an anthology series launched by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss, with Christopher Barzak as co-editor of the second volume. In 2013 the magazine moved to the internet, becoming Interfictions Online. It publishes poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and hybrids forms.

The fiction this issue is guest-edited by Carmen Maria Machado and Sam J. Miller. In their Editorial, they describe the issue thusly:

Several of the issue’s pieces deal with family: in “A Primer on Separation,” Debbie Urbanski provides a heartbreaking how-to manual for navigating the gulf that opens up between parent and child, while Lisa Bradley’s “glass womb” reaches into the obscure and frightening territory between siblings. Shveta Thakrar tells a slipstream story of how our mothers’ gifts help us, and sometimes fail us, in “Shimmering, Warm and Bright.” In “Answering Crow’s Call” by Alina Rios, family history falls like a thunderclap.

Moving from personal history to spiritual heritage, “Psychopomp” by Indrapramit Das looks at life and death through the lens of Hindu philosophy in the shadow of a cosmic tsunami. In “Assemble”, theatre dybbuk, in collaboration with the Center for Jewish Culture, Leichtag Foundation, and the New School of Architecture and Design, create a unique theatre/dance/architecture piece inspired by the ancient ritual surrounding the harvest festival of Sukkot.

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Experience the Creepy and Compelling Rhythms of De Staat’s “Witch Doctor”

Experience the Creepy and Compelling Rhythms of De Staat’s “Witch Doctor”

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I don’t usually share music videos here (I think the last time was due to some fascinating musical detective work on Star Trek by the CBC). But in the case of De Staat’s new video “Witch Doctor,” I’m compelled to do so. After watching it four times, I feel like I’ve been indoctrinated into a secret cult.

It’s one of the most effective music videos I’ve seen in years (and apparently done on a shoestring budget). As Black Gate author Jeremy Tolbert says, ” I can’t seem to stop watching it… It has this creepy, Constantine vibe – an evil necromancer or black magician controlling a cult or something.”

Check it out. Just don’t blame us if you find yourself penniless in Budapest with a shaved head when it’s all over.

[Caution – one brief occurrence of adult language.]

Discovering Robert E. Howard: Howard Andrew Jones and Bill Ward Re-Read “Rogues in the House”

Discovering Robert E. Howard: Howard Andrew Jones and Bill Ward Re-Read “Rogues in the House”

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Conan Rogues in the House-smallHoward Andrew Jones and Bill Ward have been reading their way through the Robert E. Howard collection The Coming of Conan, the first of the three Del Rey volumes, perhaps the definitive collection of Conan tales. They recently discussed “Rogues in the House,” first published in the January 1934 issue of Weird Tales.

Here’s Howard:

On re-reading it I was surprised that I haven’t visited this one more often. It gallops along. A lot happens in a short time because it’s told with such economy. And it’s very different from what has come before. I’ve been reading a lot of Conan pastiche in my downtime via The Savage Sword of Conan reprints recently, and so many of those writers model a Conan story off of the formula we saw in the last stories — monster, half-naked damsel, evil wizard/trap, escape. “Rogues in the House” breaks the formula and for this reason is even more of a pleasure.

Stepping back you can see how it’s a strange beast inspired from multiple sources — weird death traps out of Fu Manchu stories, a system of mirrors set to emulate a modern mastermind’s hidden cameras, and an ape servant who’s rebelled against his master. If someone had come and babbled the various story elements to me I would have rolled my eyes. Yet it works very well, in part because once it starts rolling it just never lets up.

You could say that about stories that catch you up and then realize upon re-examination that some of the elements didn’t make sense. That, however, can’t be said about “Rogues.” In retrospect it’s one fine scene after another, although my favorite moment may well be the conclusion.

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New Treasures: The Lazarus Gate by Mark A. Latham

New Treasures: The Lazarus Gate by Mark A. Latham

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The Lazarus Gate-smallMark Latham has had an interesting career. He’s the former editor of White Dwarf, Games Workshop’s flagship magazine, and the head of their ultra-successful Warhammer 40K line. He’s also a game designer is his own right, with several tabletop games to his credit.

His debut novel, The Lazarus Gate, is the opening volume in a new Victorian supernatural series. Captain John Hardwick, a tough but troubled army veteran, is recruited by a mysterious club to combat a growing threat to the British Empire. It’s an intriguing new gaslight fantasy, reminiscent of James Blaylock and Arthur Conan Doyle.

London, 1890. Captain John Hardwick, an embittered army veteran and opium addict, is released from captivity in Burma and returns home, only to be recruited by a mysterious gentlemen’s club to combat a supernatural threat to the British Empire.

This is the tale of a secret war between parallel universes, between reality and the supernatural; a war waged relentlessly by an elite group of agents; unsung heroes, whose efforts can never be acknowledged, but by whose sacrifice we are all kept safe.

The Lazarus Gate was published by Titan Books on September 29, 2015. It is 399 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback, and $5.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by Julia Lloyd.

See all of our recent New Treasures here.

Short Speculative Fiction: “The Karen Joy Fowler Book Club” by Nike Salway

Short Speculative Fiction: “The Karen Joy Fowler Book Club” by Nike Salway

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This is the marvelous sort of story that never quite allows you to form a picture in your head, because it’s always contradicting itself. It seems to exist on three (or more?) levels at once, strange images super-imposed on each other. On the one hand it seems a story of everyday modern life, Facebook and all, told with keen emotional resonance.

There’s for instance, this passage from a mother’s perspective when her daughter has an abortion:

“And afterwards, her daughter wanting ice cream and to sit by the river and watch the waterbirds dancing in the shallow water. Alice had rested her head on Clara’s shoulder, curled her feet up under her bottom like a child. Her breath had smelled of milk and sweet biscuits, and her hair of antiseptic. It is the last time Clara can remember her daughter wanting to be held.”

This passage sounds the sort of thing you could read in any mainstream fiction magazine, rich in sensory detail and lived-in experience.

But no. It’s firmly of our genre. Do you want to discover for yourself the speculative element, which slowly and imperceptibly bleeds into the tale? Go and read this lovely tale by Nike Sulway for free at Lightspeed, here. Then click on for the full review with spoilers.

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Collecting Isaac Asimov: Mark R. Kelly on the Best of Asimov

Collecting Isaac Asimov: Mark R. Kelly on the Best of Asimov

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Isaac Asimov collection-small

It’s hard for me to be objective about Isaac Asimov. By modern standards, much of his fiction is not very readable. But the man introduced me to science fiction virtually single-handedly. More than that, he also instilled in me an enduring love of the pulps (via the amazing Before the Golden Age), taught me the fascinating history of the genre, and showed me convincingly that science fiction was, at its core, a community of writers — of fascinating people, who deserved to be read and known.

But of course, it began with his fiction. I thrilled to many of his books in my youth, especially I, Robot and his Foundation novels. I even read — and immensely enjoyed — The Early Asimov, a collection of barely-publishable stories from the earliest days of his career, interleaved with Asimov’s funny and self-deprecating remembrances of life as an aspiring teenage writer in the late 30s. You probably had to be an aspiring teenage SF writer yourself to have any hope of appreciating that book… but I was, and I loved it.

I recently bought the collection of 35 Isaac Asimov books above on eBay. I paid quite a bit for it ($82.17, which is a lot for relatively modern paperbacks), but they were all in virtually flawless condition, and my copies had been read to pieces. I’ve been slowly unpacking the box they arrived in, and taking the time to sample Asimov’s fiction and non-fiction. It’s been a long time since I returned to the man who first acquainted me with SF. Coincidentally, I discovered that Locus Online editor Mark Kelly has been, like me, re-reading Asimov as an adult and blogging about the experience, and I found his thoughts mirrored my own in many respects.

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Vintage Treasures: A Lower Deep by Tom Piccirilli

Vintage Treasures: A Lower Deep by Tom Piccirilli

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A Lower Deep-back-small A Lower Deep-small

I read Tom Piccirilli’s A Choir of Ill Children in 2004, and it sent me scrambling to find his other novels. The first I came across was his 2001 novel A Lower Deep, the tale of the Necromancer and his demonic companion Self, who wander the spectral highways as the Necromancer attempts to prevent Armageddon.

The Publishers Weekly review offered a nice summary, but also warned about the novel’s graphic content:

The Necromancer must battle the leader of his old coven, Jebediah DeLancre, who has created a new band of witches intent on forcing Christ to return to Earth prematurely. When Jebediah offers to raise Danielle, the Necromancer’s only love, from the dead in exchange for his cooperation, he finds himself torn between good and evil… a stream of characters, spirits and demons wander in and out of this disturbing tale, including Michael the Archangel, who is wrested from the stomach of the Necromancer’s father. Piccirilli (The Night Class) attempts to lighten the story up with Self’s flippant one-liners, but a glut of gory details will keep readers squirming. This tale is not for the fainthearted…

Piccirilli was also the author of Deep into the Darkness Peering (1999), November Mourns (2005), Headstone City (2006), and The Midnight Road (2007), among others. He died earlier this year.

A Lower Deep was published by Leisure Books in October 2001. It is 363 pages, priced at $5.99 in paperback. A digital edition was released in 2011 by Crossroad Press & Macabre Ink. The cover is uncredited.

Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant

Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant

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oie_1024853Qhsh9stJoy Chant’s first novel, Red Moon and Black Mountain (1970), was published when she was only twenty-five years old. In the afterword to a later novel she explains how the world of her stories, Vandarei, grew out of fantasies she made up for herself as a child. At one point she made herself the great and majestic Queen of this world. The story of three siblings — Oliver, Penelope, and Nicholas — pulled out of England into the land of Vandarei, it reads a little like the Chronicles of Narnia crossed with The Lord of the Rings and wrung through Alan Garner’s darker fantasies.

The novel has often been dismissed as a mere clone of Tolkien’s work — most recently right here at Black Gate by Brian Murphy — but RMBM is a book that has also received tremendous praise over the decades. In his introduction to the first American edition, published as part of his Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, Lin Carter refers to it as a masterpiece. James Stoddard, author of The High House, calls it the best fantasy novel no one reads. It was the second recipient of the Mythopoeic Award back in 1972.

I first read RMBM about fifteen years ago, but retained only the dimmest memories of it. Rereading it, I will say it is one of the best works of epic high fantasy I’ve ever read. While not the toil of a lifetime, Chant draws on the same deep body of European mythology and archetypal characters as Tolkien with similar power and effect. Maybe due to its roots in her childhood imagination and definitely out of a deep well of talent, in Vanderei, its people, and its legends, Chant created a deeply heartfelt and fantastic world.

A mysterious figure lurking along the garden path sends the children out of this world and into Vandarei out of grave necessity. Penelope and Nicholas materialize along a path trod by the grave and steely princess In’serinna and her retinue. Oliver arrives among the nomadic Khentors and their single-horned horses. All the children have a part to play in an upcoming struggle for the future of Vandarei. Oliver, especially, will find himself tested to his limits.

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