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Month: July 2016

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 203 Now Available

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 203 Now Available

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Beneath Ceaseless Skies 203-smallBeneath Ceaseless Skies was nominated for a World Fantasy Award earlier this month (alongside Black Gate, we humbly point out), and I must say, they make for some very stiff competition. BCS is one of the top markets for adventure fantasy, and it just started buying longer stories. At only $15.99 for a full year, it’s a terrific bargain. I finally bought a subscription back in May, and I’ve been heartily enjoying it.

Issue #203 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies is dated July 7 and features fiction by Mishell Baker and Rachael K. Jones, a podcast by Rachael K. Jones, and a reprint by Aliette de Bodard. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

“Fire in the Haze” by Mishell Baker
And yet everywhere I looked, my periphery supplied ghosts of him: lounging indolently on a couch, reaching up to add a final stroke to a poem, bowing over my hand. And there, of course, pausing at the foot of the narrow stairs to the grand bedchamber. Looking over his shoulder, a half smile adorning the human face he wore even when we were alone.

“The Night Bazaar for Women Becoming Reptiles” by Rachael K. Jones
Hester’s skin itched all over, and she longed for cool sand sliding against her bare belly. One, two, three eggs into her mouth, one sharp bite, and the clear, viscous glair ran down her throat. The shells were tougher than she expected. They tasted tart, like spoiled goat’s milk. She waited for the change, but the sun crawled higher and nothing happened.

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Who Still Reads 1950s Science Fiction?

Who Still Reads 1950s Science Fiction?

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The Heinlein Juveniles-small

Over at his blog Auxiliary Memory, James Wallace Harris has posted a heartfelt and clear-eyed tribute to the science fiction of the 1950s, and asks the question: Is there more to classic SF than mere nostalgia?

Personally, I believe the best science fiction books written in the last twenty-five years are better crafted than the best science fiction written in the 1950s. Now I’m talking about writing, storytelling, characterization, plotting, and all the mechanics of creating a book… So, why bother reading old science fiction at all?… The 1960s seems to be the oldest science fiction that many modern readers discover, with books like Slaughterhouse Five, Dune, A Wrinkle in Time, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Man in the High Castle.

Time is hard on science fiction. It doesn’t age well… The real question is: Are these old science fiction books still readable, still lovable, by later generations who have no nostalgic ties to the past? Who still reads 1950s science fiction?…

The 1950s were strange in that people thought civilization was coming to an end and hoped to expand civilization across the galaxy. What a schizoid dichotomy. And I grasped that as a kid. Maybe that’s the trip that got laid on me that I’m trying to understand. To me, the absolutely best inheritance I received from the 1950s were the Heinlein juveniles I first discovered in 1964, when I was still twelve (the Golden Age of Science Fiction). In fact, all my reading of science fiction feels like it’s been downhill ever since I first read Have Space Suit-Will Travel, Tunnel in the Sky, Time for the Stars, The Rolling Stones, Red Planet, Starman Jones, Farmer in the Sky, Between Planets, Space Cadet, Citizen of the Galaxy, The Star Beast and Rocketship Galileo. There were other young adult SF from the 1950s that I loved; books by Andre Norton, Isaac Asimov, Donald Wollheim, and the whole series from Winston Science Fiction. But the Heinlein twelve were always the pinnacle of SF for me.

Read the complete article (with plenty of gorgeous cover scans) here.

Three Ways to Write a Cast of Supporting Characters Without Confusing the Reader

Three Ways to Write a Cast of Supporting Characters Without Confusing the Reader

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vikings
But what were their names?

Remember the 1950s The Vikings? Tony Curtis versus Kirk Douglas. But what were their characters called?

How about Gladiator? Russel Crowe as Maximus. Can you remember the names of the other characters?

Pirates of the Caribbean? Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. I bet you can name the other actors. What about their character names?

The nice thing about movies is that they have actors. Even if we don’t know their names, we do remember and then recognise them. So when Maximus’ right-hand man betrays him, we know who he is even if we can’t recall his name and didn’t realise how significant he was when we first saw him.

It’s harder with prose. Much, much, harder. As soon as you have more than a handful of characters, you’re faced with two problems: seeding and identifying.

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The July Fantasy Magazine Rack

The July Fantasy Magazine Rack

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We had several significant firsts in the front half of July. We celebrated the launch of a brand new magazine, Blind Spot, edited by Julien Wacquez and René-Marc Dolhen and dedicated to bringing the best of French SF to English audiences. And just as monumental for me personally, Sean McLachlan covered issue #280 of Strategy and Tactics, perhaps the greatest wargaming magazine of all time. And Matthew David Surridge took a fond look back at Xignals, Waldenbooks’ in-house SF magazine in the late 80s and 90s.

We had plenty for vintage magazine fans this month, too — including a look at The Strange and Happy Life of The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology, and Rich Horton’s Retro Review of the April 1951 Thrilling Wonder Stories.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our Late June Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

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New Treasures: The Dinosaur Knights by Victor Milán

New Treasures: The Dinosaur Knights by Victor Milán

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The Dinosaur Lords-smaller The Dinosaur Knights-small

Knights riding dinosaurs! It’s so far over the top, it’s almost irresistible. The first installment in Victor Milán’s dino-chivalry mash-up was The Dinosaur Lords, which appeared in hardcover last August, to a surprising amount of critical praise (and more than a few astonished stares.) The second volume, The Dinosaur Knights, was published by Tor earlier this month.

Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often cruel world. There are humans on Paradise but dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden, and of war. Armored knights ride dinosaurs to battle legions of war-trained Triceratops and their upstart peasant crews.

Karyl Bogomirsky is one such knight who has chosen to rally those who seek a way from the path of war and madness. The fact that the Empire has announced a religious crusade against this peaceful kingdom, the people who just wish to live in peace anathema, and they all are to be converted or destroyed doesn’t help him one bit.

Things really turn to mud when the dreaded Grey Angels, fabled ancient weapons of the Gods who created Paradise in the first place come on the scene after almost a millennia. Everyone thought that they were fables used to scare children. They are very much real.

And they have come to rid the world of sin… including all the humans who manifest those vices.

Emily Mah interviewed author Victor Milán for us last year, just before the release of The Dinosaur Lords — check it out here.

The Dinosaur Knights was published by Tor Books on July 5, 2016. It is 444 pages, priced at $26.99 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Richard Anderson.

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Mycroft’s Job

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Mycroft’s Job

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Mycroft_SP1One of the things I enjoy about being a Sherlockian (no, I don’t mean a fan of the BBC television show) is the way ‘one thing leads into another’ and you can explore all kinds of avenues and lanes, wandering here and there, encountering interesting stuff. That was a long sentence!

I was fortunate enough to be included in the upcoming MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part V. In the early part of my story, The Case of the Ruby Necklace (yes, I know, captivating title), I had cause to include a passage from A Study in Scarlet:

“Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I’m a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is. Here in London we have lots of Government detectives and lots of private ones. When these fellows are at fault, they come to me, and I manage to put them on the right scent. They lay all the evidence before me, and I am generally able, by the help of my knowledge of the history of crime, to set them straight. There is a strong family resemblance about misdeeds, and if you can have all the details of a thousand at your finger ends, it is odd if you can’t unravel the thousand and first.”

“And these other people?” I asked, regarding the many strangers that visited our rooms for private sessions with Holmes. I had wondered if he were not some kind of fortuneteller and too embarrassed to tell me so.

“They are mostly sent on by private enquiry agencies. They are all people who are in trouble about something, and want a little enlightening. I listen to their story, they listen to my comments, and then I pocket my fee.”

“But do you mean to say,” I said, “that without leaving your room you can unravel some knot which other men can make nothing of, although they have seen every detail for themselves?”

“Quite so. I have a kind of intuition that way. Now and again a case turns up which is a little more complex. Then I have to bustle about and see things with my own eyes. You see I have a lot of special knowledge, which I apply to the problem, and which facilitates matters wonderfully. Observation with me is second nature.”

 

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Lara Destiny and the Question of Identity

Lara Destiny and the Question of Identity

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61kUt9hg1UL._UX250_Dick Enos has proven himself one of the most prolific New Pulp writers since he emerged five years ago.

What sets Dick apart from many of his contemporaries is his unwavering vision to create original pulp characters. Until recently, I was only familiar with Rick Steele, the adventurous 1950s test pilot who has appeared in seven novels thus far. Rick is cut very much from the mold of the classic newspaper strip, Steve Canyon and OTR and Golden Age of Television favorite, Sky King.

I was vaguely aware that Dick had launched a second series featuring an original character, a female private eye called Lara Destiny. I immediately thought of Max Allan Collins’ Ms. Tree and Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski. Female private eyes were a rarity in hardboiled circles thirty years ago, but what could Enos offer in the way of a new twist? The fact that Lara Destiny was born Lawrence Destiny is a good starting point.

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The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in June

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in June

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Osprey Catalaunian FieldsAh, June. Not a bad month at all, now that I look back on it.

For one thing, M Harold Page pointed out how Osprey Publishing made a compelling argument for the true location of the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields, otherwise known as the Battle of Chalons, in “OMG They Found It! Osprey’s The Catalaunian Fields AD451.” That casual revelation was enough to catapult Martin’s article to the top of a crowded field, giving him our most popular blog post last month.

I finally had time to compile my lengthy notes on my favorite Chicago con, in “Total Pulp Victory: A Report on Windy City Pulp & Paper 2016, Part I,” our number 2 post for the month. It was followed by a guest blog post by Babylon 5 actress Claudia Christian and author Morgan Grant Buchanan on their first joint project, the ambitious Wolf’s Empire series.

Coming in at number 4 last month was our Vintage Treasures feature on H. Rider Haggard’s The People of the Mist, followed by Derek Kunsken’s look at “Rebirth: DC’s Corrective Reboot.”

Rounding out the Top Ten were Fletcher Vredenburgh’s review of L. Sprague de Camp’s classic S&S tale The Tritonian Ring, our report on a detailed feature on Perry Rhodan in the summer issue of SFX, my look at Asmodee’s Fantasy Empire game Hyperborea, and no less than two articles from William Patrick Maynard: the first installment of his exploration of Marvel’s classic Master of Kung Fu comic, and “The Fu Manchu That Almost Was.”

The complete list of Top Articles for June follows. Below that, I’ve also broken out the most popular overall articles, online fiction, and blog categories for the month.

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Future Treasures: Red Right Hand by Levi Black

Future Treasures: Red Right Hand by Levi Black

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Red Right Hand Levi Black-smallRed Right Hand is the debut novel from Atlanta writer Levi Black. Jonathan Maberry calls it “A perfect blend of old-school horror and modern storytelling sorcery… absolutely riveting!”

Charlie Tristan Moore isn’t a hero. She’s a survivor. Already wrestling with the demons of her past, she finds herself tested as never before when she arrives home one night to find herself under attack by three monstrous skinhounds straight out of a nightmare. Just as hope seems lost, she is saved by a sinister Man in Black, dressed in a long, dark coat that seems to possess a life of its own and wielding a black-bladed sword in his grisly red right hand.

But her rescue comes at a cost. The Man in Black, a diabolical Elder God, demands she become his Acolyte and embrace a dark magick she never knew she possessed. To ensure her obedience, he takes her friend and possible love, Daniel, in thrall as a hostage. Now she must join The Man in Black in his crusade to track down and destroy his fellow Elder Gods, supposedly to save humanity from being devoured for all eternity.

But is The Man in Black truly the lesser of two evils – or a menace far more treacherous than the eldritch horrors she’s battling in his name?

I first heard of it at the B&N blog, in Jeff Somers’s post “The Long Arm of Lovecraft: 8 Books That Probe the Mythos,” which also examines Ruthanna Emrys’ The Litany of Earth, Jacqueline Baker’s The Broken Hours, and Nick Mamatas’ I Am Providence. On Red Right Hand, Jeff says:

Charlie… survives an attack by a trio of monstrous skinhounds thanks to the intervention of the Man in Black, whose long coats swirls with a mind of its own and whose grisly red right hand clutches a black blade. The Man in Black is in fact an Elder God, and he enlists Charlie’s help in destroying his peers, claiming to be trying to save mankind. Charlie dives into the fray, unsure if there’s such a thing as the “lesser of two evils” when it comes to Lovecraftian creatures. Readers will be sucked in by the bravado writing.

Red Right Hand will be published by Tor Books on July 26, 2016. It is 304 pages, priced at $24.99 in hardcover and $11.99 for the digital edition. Read an excerpt here.

Thinking about the Evolution of Marvel Comics’ Star-Lord

Thinking about the Evolution of Marvel Comics’ Star-Lord

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Marvel’s conception of Star-Lord for the 1970s and 80s.

I’ve been doing a bit of thinking lately about puzzling characters in comics and how they change over time. In the last couple of weeks, I decided to reread they comics I’ve got around with the Marvel Universe’ Peter Quill, also known as the Star-Lord.

Now, for those who’ve been living in a hole for the last decade, or for those who only know Peter Quill from the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, Peter Quill made his first appearance in 1976 in Marvel Preview #4 (a black and white magazine), under the creators Steve Englehart and Steve Gan, who envisioned him as an unpleasant, introverted jerk who would go on to grow into a cosmic hero.

I love that arc, and wonder how much it was kicking around then. Around the same time, Jim Starlin wanted to do something similar with Captain Marvel, but Marvel didn’t give him the character, so he did it with Adam Warlock (see my thoughts on that in my series on Adam Warlock I, II, III).

Star-Lord didn’t reappear until Marvel Preview #11, this time under Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin (the team that would later moved over to Uncanny X-Men from #108 to #143, famously creating the Hellfire Club, the Phoenix Saga, and the Days of Future Past).

Under Claremont, he wasn’t the introverted jerk, but a straight-faced loner, traveling the space-ways. I haven’t read the Heinlein juveniles, but it sounds like Claremont was aiming for that kind of bland square-jawed adventurer, and that persona stuck in Star-Lord’s appearances through the 70s and 80s.

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