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Month: January 2016

On Writing Modern Noir Fantasy

On Writing Modern Noir Fantasy

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Drake Peter McLean-smallMy first novel Drake has been described as a mix of Urban Fantasy and Noir, and I suppose it is, in a way. So what does that mean to me?

Well I think we all have an idea of what Urban Fantasy is – the king of the genre is obviously The Dresden Files, with the magical detective in a big modern city helping the cops solve the unsolvable, inexplicable paranormal crimes.

Drake’s not that.

Don Drake isn’t a detective, he’s a hitman. He doesn’t help the cops – hell, he doesn’t have anything to do with the cops if he can help it. Drake works for gangsters, and demons, and demon gangsters. He’s not Harry Dresden, not by a long way.

But he’s not Philip Marlowe or Mike Hammer either, for all that he’d like to be. The world Drake lives in is hard-boiled but he really isn’t. He’s a cynical, somewhat cowardly opportunist who does the best he can to make his way in a world he barely even understands.

A Noir world.

So what’s that? Noir needs to be dark, by definition, but I don’t think it has to be tied to any particular time period. The classic Hollywood Noir is set in LA or New York in the 1940s but it can work equally well in the backstreets of ancient Rome or the mean cantinas of Mos Eisley, or even in modern South London for that matter.

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New Treasures: The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman

New Treasures: The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman

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The Lesser Dead-smallChristopher Buehlman’s debut novel Those Across the River (2011) was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, and Charlaine Harris called it “one of the best first novels I’ve ever read.” He followed up with Between Two Fires (2012), the tale of a disgraced knight coming face-to-face with apocalyptic horror in 1348, and The Necromancer’s House (2013), the story of a modern sorcerer on the run from a monster straight out of Russian folklore.

His newest novel, The Lesser Dead, was published in hardcover in 2014, and released in trade paperback late last year. It was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award for best novel, and won the American Library Association’s Best Horror Novel of the Year award. It’s the story of a secret colony of vampires in New York City who find themselves being preyed on by something far darker than themselves….

New York City in 1978 is a dirty, dangerous place to live. And die. Joey Peacock knows this as well as anybody — he has spent the last forty years as an adolescent vampire, perfecting the routine he now enjoys: womanizing in punk clubs and discotheques, feeding by night, and sleeping by day with others of his kind in the macabre labyrinth under the city’s sidewalks.

The subways are his playground and his highway, shuttling him throughout Manhattan to bleed the unsuspecting in the Sheep Meadow of Central Park or in the backseats of Checker cabs, or even those in their own apartments who are too hypnotized by sitcoms to notice him opening their windows. It’s almost too easy.

Until one night he sees them hunting on his beloved subway. The children with the merry eyes. Vampires, like him…or not like him. Whatever they are, whatever their appearance means, the undead in the tunnels of Manhattan are not as safe as they once were.

And neither are the rest of us.

The Lesser Dead was published by Berkley on October 6, 2015. It is 368 pages, priced at $16, or $11.99 for the digital edition.

Feast Or Famine?

Feast Or Famine?

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Tom Jones1Typically my characters don’t spend a lot of their time eating. It’s not because I’m not interested in food, quite the contrary (see my previous BG posts on the subject, here, here, and here.) No, it’s usually because, if I can paraphrase my agent for a moment, I’ve found my characters something more interesting to do. Having your characters sit down and eat is a useful device, however, in that it does give them something to do – even if it doesn’t forward the plot – while they’re talking, which usually does forward the plot. As a general rule, characters need to be doing something while they talk to each other, and if they eat, you can also use the details of the food to help with world-building and setting.

Joyce RedmanStill, even when my characters are eating, they’re not usually attending a banquet. Indeed, banquets and eating scenes in general are usually something we encounter visually, rather than on the page. Who can forget the scene in the Errol Flynn version of The Adventures of Robin Hood, where he walks into Prince John’s supper banquet with a stag on his shoulders?

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Goth Chick News: Surviving the Long, Cold Winter, or Life Hacks for the Horror Fan

Goth Chick News: Surviving the Long, Cold Winter, or Life Hacks for the Horror Fan

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Netflix Hacked-smallHaving visited Iceland last summer, I am here to confirm that Reykjavik has nothing on Chicago when it comes to the cold. Only this morning, CNN gleefully reported that the capital of Iceland was actually warmer today than my beloved windy city.

Still, I credit growing up in minus-double-digit wind-chills for creating my love of the horror genre. What else was there to do on the numerous snow days — home from school with the temperatures outside incompatible with human life, so forget sledding or walking to a friend’s house – but flip through the cable access channels while the P’s were at work, and develop a life-long obsession?

Flash forward to a shiny new 2016, where snow days are a thing of the past, but the temperature for the weekend is predicted to be minus 26.

I mean seriously, wtf?

Thankfully we aren’t left without a couple little somethings to take the chill off. So grab an adult beverage, put some Velveeta in the micro and pull up a chair – you’re going to love this.

First up – a Netflix hack for the horror fan, courtesy of my friends at Dread Central.

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Open Road Returns Cherry Wilder’s A Princess of the Chameln to Print

Open Road Returns Cherry Wilder’s A Princess of the Chameln to Print

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A Princess of the Chameln-smallCherry Wilder was the pseudonym of New Zealand SF and fantasy writer Cherry Barbara Grimm, who died in 2002. She produced many popular fantasy novels in the late 70s and early 80s, starting with the Torin trilogy (which we discussed back in July), and the four novels in the Rulers of Hylor series (A Princess of the Chameln, Yorath the Wolf, The Summer’s King, and The Wanderer; the last co-written with Katya Reimann). Sadly, all have been out of print in the US for thirty years.

Fortunately, Open Road is taking steps to rectify that. They published a digital version of A Princess of the Chameln on November 17, and next month they will offer a print-on-demand edition. Here’s the new description.

When her royal parents are killed during a coup, Princess Aidris Am Firn of the Chameln flees for her life. Constantly on the run from unseen enemies of the crown, she poses as a commoner and joins a cadre of women warriors so she can fight those who assassinated her parents and continue to hunt her. While cultivating allies, Aidris learns that two pretenders have ascended to the dual thrones of Chameln. Having discovered their true queen is still alive, counselors from Chameln rally to her side and convince the queen that the time has come for her to reclaim her birthright. But before she can do this, she must discover who her enemy really is, lest the unknown assassins strike her down too.

The other books in the series will follow shortly: Yorath the Wolf (ebook February 16, POD April 12) and The Summer’s King (ebook May 17, POD July 12). Open Road is also responsible for the fabulous Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak, the 14-volume series we examined here.

A Princess of the Chameln will be published on February 2, 2016. It is 288 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback, and $5.99 for the digital edition.

Alan Rickman, February 21, 1946 — January 14, 2016

Alan Rickman, February 21, 1946 — January 14, 2016

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Alan Rickman as Severus Snape-small

British actor Alan Rickman, known around the world for his spot-on portrayal of Slytherin wizard Severus Snape in all eight Harry Potter films, died today of cancer.

Alan Rickman burst into public consciousness with perhaps his finest film role — the arch villain Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988), whom Maxim magazine called “The Finest Villain of Our Time.” He played the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) and Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility (1995). My wife and I still quote Rickman’s Colonel Brandon around the house. Science fiction fans especially enjoyed his marvelous portrayal of Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus (clearly based on Leonard Nimoy’s Spock) in Galaxy Quest (1999). He was cast as Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001, and reprised the role seven times over the next ten years. He directed Emma Thompson and her real life mother Phyllida Law in his directorial debut, The Winter Guest (1995).

Alan Rickman began his career on stage in his late 20s; his first film role was the BBC TV’s 1978 broadcast of Romeo and Juliet. He provided the voice for Absolem the Caterpillar in Alice Through the Looking Glass, to be released later this year. He died this morning, at the age of 69.

The January Fantasy Magazine Rack

The January Fantasy Magazine Rack

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In his December Short Story Roundup, Fletcher Vredenburgh gives as eloquent a summary as I’ve seen for the vital importance of short fiction to fantasy, and in particular to sword & sorcery:

Before I get into the reviews, I thought I’d say a little about why I’ve made it a major part of my writing to review and publicize S&S short stories. While there have been good S&S novels… the beating heart of the genre has always been short stories. From that opening blast of thunder in REH’s “The Shadow Kingdom” — and through the decades in the works of authors as diverse as C.L. Moore, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, and Charles Saunders — it’s been in short stories that the genre’s been best displayed.

The hallmarks of swords & sorcery are adventure, dark fantasy, horror, and a narrow focus on only a few characters, bound together in a narrative that reads like a shot of mainlined adrenaline. In the very best stories — KEW’s “Reflections for the Winter of My Soul,” for example — they’re all present. Not that there can’t be structural complexity, finely detailed characters, or exquisitely tooled prose, but it must be exciting. Detours into side-plots, passages meticulously describing feasts, too many secondary and tertiary characters all put brakes on the action. Limited to fifteen or thirty pages, the focus is on the protagonist and his or her immediate situation…

The very best stories I have read in my years of reviewing S&S are the ones that come closest to meeting the demands I’ve put out above. There are dozens of authors working like mad to create stories that will thrill and chill you, and grab you out of the safety of your comfy chair for a little while. It’s those tellers of tales I’m on constant watch for and hoping to hip readers to. I want S&S to continue as a living, breathing genre, not one content to exist as a museum for forty- or seventy-year-old stories.

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Future Treasures: The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

Future Treasures: The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

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Mistborn novels Brandon Sanderson-small

The first three novels in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy — The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages — were published between 2006-08 by Tor Books. In 2011, Sanderson returned to the world of Mistborn with The Alloy of Law. Set after the trilogy, in a period corresponding to late 19th-century America, the spinoff books became New York Times bestsellers. Now, hot on the heels of last year’s Shadows of Self, (which we covered here), he continues the tale with The Bands of Mourning.

The Bands of Mourning are the mythical metalminds owned by the Lord Ruler, said to grant anyone who wears them the powers that the Lord Ruler had at his command. Hardly anyone thinks they really exist. A kandra researcher has returned to Elendel with images that seem to depict the Bands, as well as writings in a language that no one can read. Waxillium Ladrian is recruited to travel south to the city of New Seran to investigate. Along the way he discovers hints that point to the true goals of his uncle Edwarn and the shadowy organization known as The Set.

The Bands of Mourning will be published by Tor Books on January 26, 2016. It is 448 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover, or $14.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Chris McGrath.

Ancient Lixus: A Roman City in Morocco

Ancient Lixus: A Roman City in Morocco

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The amphitheater of Lixus. Photo courtesy Almudeana Alonso-Herrero.
The amphitheater of Lixus. Photo courtesy Almudena Alonso-Herrero.

Happy New Year! Or Sana Sayeeda as they say in Arabic! I’m back from another trip to Morocco, and this time besides staying at our usual place in the medina of Tangier, I and my wife also visited the ancient city of Lixus on Morocco’s Atlantic coast.

Like many cities of Roman Morocco, it’s been inhabited since prehistory, and became a Phoenician colony starting around the 8th century BC. The Phoenicians called Lixus Makom Shemesh (“City of the Sun”). It is believed to be their southernmost colony, but considering the many good bays and coves that stud the Atlantic coast to the south, I’m wondering if an archaeological survey might uncover more.

The ruins stand on a hill overlooking Oued Loukos estuary and the city was an important fishing port as well as a fish processing and salt panning center, the products then being shipped to the Mediterranean. Salt is still being panned in this region today.

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The 2016 Philip K. Dick Nominees

The 2016 Philip K. Dick Nominees

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Archangel Marguerite Reed-smallThe nominees for the 2016 Philip K. Dick Award, given each year for distinguished science fiction originally published in paperback in the United States, have been announced, and it’s an interesting ballot. Over at Barnes&Noble.com, in an article titled This Year’s Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Take SF in Strange New Directions, Joel Cunningham writes:

Sorry Hugos, but for my money, there’s no more interesting award in sci-fi than the ones named for Philip K. Dick. In the tradition of everyone’s favorite gonzo pulpist, the “PKD Award” honors innovative genre works that debuted in paperback, offering a nice reminder that you don’t need the prestige of a hardcover release to write a mind-blowing book (just ask William Gibson, whose seminal cyberpunk classic Neuromancer claimed the title in 1984), and in fact, if past winners are any evidence, the format might be seem as a license to take greater risks. This year’s nominees are of a piece with PKD contenders of the past: they twist genre tropes in new ways, carving new toe-holds in well-worn tropes. Which brings us to another thing we love about this particular award: the winner is basically impossible to [predict].

This year the noninees are

Edge of Dark, Brenda Cooper (Pyr)
After the Saucers Landed, Douglas Lain (Night Shade)
(R)evolution, PJ Manney (47North)
Apex, Ramez Naam (Angry Robot)
Windswept, Adam Rakunas (Angry Robot)
Archangel, Marguerite Reed (Arche)

The winner will be announced on March 25, 2016 at Norwescon 39 in SeaTac, Washington. Congratulations to all the nominees!