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Author: John ONeill

The White Space Novels by Elizabeth Bear

The White Space Novels by Elizabeth Bear

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Ancestral Night and Machine (Saga Press, March 2019 and October 2020). Covers by Getty Images and Jae Song

Elizabeth Bear is chiefly known as a fantasy writer these days. She won the 2005 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and she’s had a hand in more than eight acclaimed series in the years since, including The Edda of Burdens trilogy, the Eternal Sky trilogy, and The Lotus Kingdoms trilogy, all from Tor. When I wrote about her new space opera novel Ancestral Night back in 2019, I quoted the Publishers Weekly review that first got my attention.

Outstanding… Bear’s welcome return to hard SF after several years of writing well-received steampunk and epic fantasy. As an engineer on a scrappy space salvage tug, narrator Haimey Dz has a comfortable, relatively low-stress existence, chumming with pilot Connla Kuruscz and AI shipmind Singer. Then, while aboard a booby-trapped derelict ship, she is infected with a not-quite-parasitic alien device that gives her insights into the universe’s structure. This makes her valuable not only to the apparently benevolent interstellar government, the Synarche, but also to the vicious association of space pirates… Amid a space opera resurgence, Bear’s novel sets the bar high.

While shipping for some Christmas break reading at B&N last week, I laid eyes on the sequel for the first time. The trade edition of Machine was released in July of 2021, and now looks very handsome on my bookshelf next to the first one.

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Vintage Treasures: Deathweave and Darkloom by Cary Osborne

Vintage Treasures: Deathweave and Darkloom by Cary Osborne

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Deathweave and Darkloom (Ace Books, 1998 & 1999). Covers by Royo

I bought a collection of vintage paperbacks on eBay a while back (I do that a lot), and buried in the mix was one I knew nothing about, a midlist ACE SF adventure titled Deathweave by Cary Osborne.

Now, I love midlist paperbacks. They’re basically an undiscovered country. If you’re an entry-level author, the theory is that if you work long enough, like countless writers before you, you’ll eventually build an audience large enough to break out of midlist and start hitting the bestseller lists. Of course, the vast majority of writers never make it, which means that most midlist titles vanish after a few months in the sun, never to be seen or mentioned again. There are many, many talented writers who never had the good fortune (or perseverance, or celebrity connections, or whatever pixie dust it takes) to break into the front rank, and toil away in undeserved obscurity their entire career.

What does all this mean? It means these eBay lots I buy are littered with undiscovered gold, that’s what it means. Which means that when Deathweave finally fell into my eager hands 24 years after Ace first published it, I treated it as exactly that. Especially when I found out it had a sequel, Darkloom, which I tracked down a few weeks later.

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Merry Christmas from Black Gate

Merry Christmas from Black Gate

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Things have finally calmed down in the O’Neill household. Presents have been opened, snacks are munched, and hordes of Chaos Space Marines have been defeated in a family game of Dawn of War (I would have been exterminated if Tim and Drew hadn’t rushed to my base to assist. But we delivered the Emperor’s justice in the end.)

It’s been a trying year. We experienced intermittent site outages as we continued to adjust to our new service provider. At the day job, I had to fire a hard-working employee, and five months later was fired myself. I started two new writing projects, and accepted a full-time writing gig for the first time in my career. My wife retired. My kids started new jobs. And I read a lot of great fiction — but not nearly as much as I’d hoped to.

Black Gate, for me, continues to be a place where I share my love of fantastical literature and, through the depthless generosity of the loyal community it has attracted, I constantly discover new books, films, and writers. Far more than that, I find my own love of the genre deepened and expanded, as I learn to appreciate writers — many of whom I’ve been reading for decades — in brand new ways. That’s all down to you, our loyal readers, and the joy, enthusiasm, and amazing insights you bring.

So once again, as we close out another year, I’d like to thank all the BG readers who drop in with a book suggestion, a thoughtful comment, an encouraging word. It means a lot. You make the effort we put in every day worthwhile. On behalf of the vast and unruly collective that is Black Gate, I would like to wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Continue being excellent — it’s what you’re good at.

Monsters, Mechs, and a Multi-Book Saga: Nightwatch Over Windscar by K. Eason

Monsters, Mechs, and a Multi-Book Saga: Nightwatch Over Windscar by K. Eason

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The novels of The Weep: Nightwatch on the Hinterlands and Nightwatch Over Windscar
(DAW, October 2021 and November 2022). Covers by Tim Green/Faceout

I’m pretty much an impulse buyer. When I pick up a book and it mentions monsters, interstellar Confederations, extra-dimensional horrors, subterranean ruins, witches, and decommissioned battle mechs — all in the first two paragraphs — I’m usually sold.

That’s exactly what happened when I read the inside jacket copy for Nightwatch Over Windscar, the new novel by K. Eason. I paid for that damn thing and had it home before I even finished the third paragraph of the jacket copy.

If I’d paid even the teeniest bit of additional attention, I might have also noticed that it’s the second book of The Weep, a two-book series set in the world of Eason’s popular science fantasy Thorne Chronicles, which opened with How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse and continued in How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge. Doesn’t look like you need to read those books to enjoy The Weep… good thing, because tracking down the first book, Nightwatch on the Hinterlands, is effort enough. I was looking forward to riding out this massive winter storm and Christmas break with what I have on hand.

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The Return of Lone Wolf by Joe Dever

The Return of Lone Wolf by Joe Dever

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Lone Wolf Definitive Editions, Volumes 1-3 (Holmgard Press). Covers by Alberto Dal Lago

Joe Dever started playing Dungeons and Dragons in 1976, barely three years after the first copies appeared in game shops in Lake Geneva. In 1984 he published his first Lone Wolf solo fantasy game book, Flight from the Dark; it became an international bestseller and launched a publishing phenomenon. By Dever’s death in 2016, the Lone Wolf series had been translated into 18 languages and sold over 12 million copies.

Unlike most other fantasy solo gamebooks — such as Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone’s classic Fighting Fantasy titles, Steve Jackson’s fabulous Death Test and its sequels, Tunnels and Trolls adventures like City of Terrors, George Dew’s excellent Legends of the Ancient World, and others — the Lone Wolf books could be played separately or back-to-back, as individual chapters in an epic solo campaign spanning 32 books.

Before his death Dever substantially rewrote the opening book Flight from the Dark, expanding it from 350 to 550 sections. The publishing company he founded, Holmgard Press, has now reissued the first five titles in hardcover Definitive Editions in the UK, and will be releasing paperback editions of the original gamebooks with brand new cover art — and all the original interior art by Gary Chalk — in the US on January 3.

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Exploring the Dark Corners of the Universe: The Science Fiction Anthologies of August Derleth

Exploring the Dark Corners of the Universe: The Science Fiction Anthologies of August Derleth

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Strange Ports of Call (Berkley Books, June 1958). Cover artist tragically unknown

August Derleth is remembered these days primarily for his stewardship of the works of H.P. Lovecraft. He founded Arkham House (with Donald Wandrei) in 1939 to bring Lovecraft into print in hardcover, and over the next 30 years he contributed steadily to Lovecraft’s foundational Cthulhu Mythos, both in his own writing, and by publishing numerous books in the cycle from other horror notables. He was also (as Bob Byne is constantly reminding me) the creator of the popular Sherlock Holmes pastiche Solar Pons, and the author of a great deal of historical fiction, including the Sac Prairie Saga.

But for me, Derleth’s greatest contributions were as an editor. He assembled some 30 horror and science fiction anthologies, including Sleep No More (1944), The Other Side of the Moon (1949), Far Boundaries (1951), The Outer Reaches (1951), Beachheads in Space (1952), Night’s Yawning Peal (1952), and many more. Many of them are highly collectible and hard for the casual collector to get their hands on — but the paperback reprints, by Berkley Books, Sphere, Signet, Four Square Books, and many others, are much easier to come by.

In the late 50s Berkley Books reprinted seven of Derleth’s early SF anthologies in handsome paperback editions including his first, Strange Ports of Call. These books helped introduce thousands of American readers who didn’t read magazines to science fiction for the first time. Here’s a look at all seven.

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A Dark and Glorious Vision: Michael Moorcock’s Elric, from Titan Comics

A Dark and Glorious Vision: Michael Moorcock’s Elric, from Titan Comics

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All four volumes in Michael Moorcock’s Elric from Titan Comics (2014 – 2022)

There’s been a lot of comic adaptations of Michael Moorcock’s Elric over the years. Perhaps the most famous is the French artist Philippe Druillet’s ambitious rendition of The Eternal Champion, but there have been many others associated with the character, including P. Craig Russell, James Cawthorn, Walter Simonsen, Mike Mignolia, Howard Chaykin, and many more. First Comics had a lengthy association with Moorcock for many years, producing highly regarded adaptations of Elric, Hawkmoon, and others. I think my favorite was Mark Shainblum’s lengthy Chronicles of Corum adaptation.

Titan Comics has had a long partnership with Moorcock, and recently it has released the best Elric adaptation I have ever seen, in any medium. The four volumes, The Ruby Throne, Stormbringer, The White Wolf, and The Dreaming City, are among my favorite comics of any kind in the past few years. Produced by the French team that includes the writer Julien Blondel and several enormously talented artists, including Didier Poli, Julien Telo, Robin Recht, and Jean Bastide, these books belong in every decent library of modern fantasy.

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New Treasures: Isolation: The Horror Anthology edited by Dan Coxon

New Treasures: Isolation: The Horror Anthology edited by Dan Coxon

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Isolation: The Horror Anthology (Titan Books, September 27, 2022). Cover by Kerry Lewis

I know that plenty of you lot like to keep your horror reading seasonal, and once Halloween wraps it’s time to put the spooky tales away with the other decorations. But for me winter time, with its desolate landscapes and long dark nights, is the perfect time to curl up with some shivery tomes.

Dan Coxon’s Isolation: The Horror Anthology has successfully commanded my attention for much of this long wintry week. Inspired by the forced isolation of the COVID pandemic, Coxon has challenged some of horror’s brightest talents to tell creepy tales of isolation of all kinds. A mix of originals and reprints (15 originals, from Alison Littlewood, Mark Morris, Ramsey Campbell, Laird Barron, Tim Lebbon, Lisa Tuttle, Michael Marshall Smith, Nina Allen, Owl Goingback, Brian Evenson, and others, plus five reprints from Jonathan Mayberry, M.R. Carey, Joe R. Lansdale, Ken Lui, and Paul Tremblay), Isolation is an entertaining blend, with vampire tales, zombie apocalypses, tormented spirits, hostile presences, serial killers, and all the things that terrify us when we’re alone.

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A Sprawling Norse Epic for the Snowy Season:The Bloodsworn Saga by John Gwynne

A Sprawling Norse Epic for the Snowy Season:The Bloodsworn Saga by John Gwynne

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The Shadow of the Gods and The Hunger of the Gods (Orbit, 2021-22). Covers by Marcus Whinney

As we head into the the holidays, prime reading season, I’m in the market for a good adventure saga. John Gwynne’s Bloodsworn Saga looks like it could fit the bill. It’s got Saga right there in the title, and big-ass monsters front and center on the covers. The universe doesn’t usually serve me stuff on a platter but, I dunno, maybe this is just one of those times.

These books are popular, and that’s not a bad sign either. The Shadow of the Gods has a whopping 19,231 ratings, and a stellar 4.29 score on Goodreads, barely a year and a half after release. It’s popular with critics, too. Medium proclaims it “Magnificent… Gwynne shows why he’s one of the genre’s best,” and Publishers Weekly calls it a “jam-packed epic… [with] blood-soaked battles against trolls and frost-spiders.”

Trolls and frost-spiders! That’s exactly what I’m talking about right there. But the review that really caught my attention was at Vulture, who included it in their Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the Year last year.

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Vintage Treasures: 39 Short Novels edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh

Vintage Treasures: 39 Short Novels edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh

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The 13 Short Novels trilogy (Bonanza Books/Crown, 1984-87). Covers designed by Morris Taub

I spent a lot of hours last year chasing down, reading, and writing about some very fine anthologies produced by the triumvirate of Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh. Their output in the decade before Asimov’s death in 1992 was frankly amazing: some 70 anthologies, including nearly a dozen each in Isaac Asimov’s Wonderful Worlds of Science Fiction and Isaac Asimov’s Magical Worlds of Fantasy; a decade-by-decade survey of 20th Century SF, The Mammoth Book of Classic Science Fiction; and dozens of others. These were highly readable books assembled with a deep love and knowledge of the genre.

Asimov, Greenberg and Waugh were playful in the themes they chose, and they had a mathematician’s love of lists, in books like The Seven Deadly Sins of Science Fiction and The Seven Cardinal Virtues of Science Fiction, and especially the trio 13 Short Fantasy Novels, 13 Short Science Fiction Novels, and 13 Short Horror Novels — the latter assembled without input from Asimov. The 13 Short Novels trilogy, which collects 39 terrific novellas in three volumes, is long out of print and forgotten today, which is a shame. These are exceptional books, and one is absolutely fabulous.

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