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Author: John ONeill

New Treasures: Leech by Hiron Ennes

New Treasures: Leech by Hiron Ennes

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Leech (Tor.com, September 27, 2022)

I’m a fan of sci-fi horror, but to be honest I find much of it rather unimaginative. So I was very intrigued by Leech, the debut novel by Hiron Ennes, which is set in a crumbling chateau in a nightmarish post-apocalyptic America, and narrated by a parasitic monster masquerading as a human doctor who uncovers a competing parasitic horror spreading through his host’s castle. Part of my interest, I admit, arises from the flood of positive press:

“A sublime gothic sci-fi tale.” ― Library Journal, starred review
“Full of squirming terror.” ― Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Pure Gothic horror.” ― The Wall Street Journal
“A strange and fascinating far-future world is gradually revealed in this accomplished combination of gothic horror and sci-fi.” ― The Guardian
“Grotesque biology like I’ve never seen. If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if David Cronenberg and Edgar Allen Poe bumped into each other at the same parasitological conference, here’s your answer.” ― Peter Watts

When Peter Watts praises your inventive biology, you know you’re onto something. I was less than halfway through the summary on the inside flap when I knew I was gonna buy this one.

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Give Yourself Some Weird Horror for Christmas

Give Yourself Some Weird Horror for Christmas

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Weird Horror issues 4 and 5 (Undertow Publications, Spring & Fall 2022). Covers by Drazen Kozjan and Barandash Karandashich.

I love watching a new fantasy magazine get its sea legs. It’s been a real treat to see this decade’s crop of best new mags — including Tales from the Magician’s Skull (edited by Howard Andrew Jones), Startling Stories (helmsman Douglas Draa), New Edge Sword and Sorcery (edited by Oliver Brackenbury), and Wyldblood (Mark Bilsborough) — carve out unique identities, and grow better and better with each issue.

One of the best of the new lot — and there are times when I think it is the best — is Weird Horror, published by Michael Kelly’s Undertow Publications. Michael has been editing horror and dark fantasy for over a decade, and he’s one of the most gifted and respected editors in the industry. The roster at Weird Horror reflects that; in the last two years they’ve published new fiction from the best new horror writers in the biz, including John Langan, Steve Rasnic Tem, Brian Evenson, Josh Rountree, Stephen Volk, Steve Duffy, and Richard Strachan.

But the very best mags don’t rely on fiction alone. And what really makes we look forward to each new issue of Weird Horror are the lively columns by an enviable stable of authors, including Simon Strantzas On Horror, Orrin Grey Grotesqueries, Lysette Stevenson’s The Macabre Reader review column, and Tom Goldstein’s Aberrant Visions.

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Vintage Treasures: Dreamships by Melissa Scott

Vintage Treasures: Dreamships by Melissa Scott

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Dreamships (Tor paperback reprint, July 1993). Cover by Tony Roberts

Melissa Scott burst onto the scene with The Game Beyond in 1984 (a nominee for the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel), and followed that quickly with the first two novels in the Silence Leigh trilogy (Five-Twelfths of Heaven and Silence in Solitude, featuring the first polyamorous triad I can remember encountering in SF) and A Choice of Destinies. In 1986 she capped off that impressive run by winning the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (now known as The Astounding Award, so it’s no longer associated with a racist loon.)

But Scott didn’t really grab my attention until her 1992 novel Dreamships, her hardcover debut and a thoughtful examination of FTL and A.I. in a far-future setting. She followed it with a single sequel Dreaming Metal five years later; that one made the long list for the Locus Award for Best Novel. Dreamships is set in a universe in which the FTL drive that rockets travelers across impossible distances relies on a dreamspace navigated using a virtual reality landscape created by the pilot. Scientists in this future are on the brink of achieving true artificial intelligence, and these two advances drive the plot.
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Gods, Demons, Monsters & Magic: The Mkalis Cycle by Kerstin Hall

Gods, Demons, Monsters & Magic: The Mkalis Cycle by Kerstin Hall

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The Border Keeper and Second Spear (Tor.com, July 2019 and August 2022). Covers by Kathleen Jennings and Jamie Jones

Kerstin Hall is the Senior Editorial Assistant at Scott Andrews’s excellent online magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and perhaps it was years of reading submissions that gave her the chops to write her acclaimed debut, the Tor.com novella The Border Keeper, a 2020 Nommo Award Finalist. (Yeah, I didn’t know what a Nommo Award was either, but I googled it and it’s legit — it’s presented by The African Speculative Fiction Society.) The Guardian called it “A phantasmagorical picaresque through a lushly realised underworld, populated by a grotesque bestiary of fantastical creatures… [a] twisty example of the new weird,” and Max Gladstone summed it up as “A labyrinth of demons, dead gods, [and] cranky psychopomps.” That sounds pretty cool.

The Border Keeper appeared in 2019, and the follow-up Second Spear arrived in August. Looking at the covers above, radically different in design and tone, the two books don’t look related (at all), but they are both part of what’s now being called The Mkalis Cycle. I much prefer Jamie Jones’s dynamic cover for Second Spear over Kathleen Jennings’ more abstract effort for The Border Keeper, but I gotta believe the dramatic cover shift was risky, and probably confused a few readers. I hope it pays off.

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Future Treasures: The Citadel of Forgotten Myths by Michael Moorcock

Future Treasures: The Citadel of Forgotten Myths by Michael Moorcock

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The Citadel of Forgotten Myths (Saga Press, December 6, 2022). Cover artist unknown.

No, your eyes don’t deceive you. That’s a brand new Elric novel, arriving in hardcover next week.

Described as a prequel, The Citadel of Forgotten Myths takes place between the first and second books in the Elric Saga, Elric of Melniboné (published a whopping 50 years ago, in 1972) and The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976). It’s the first new Elric novel since The White Wolf’s Son, way back in 2005, and is highly anticipated.

Because of Moorcock’s stature in the field these days, the back cover of his new novel is strewn with glowing quotes from J. G. Ballard, The New Yorker and NPR — and I have to admit, that NPR quote is pretty darn good. It’s taken from a 2014 piece titled (of all things) These Nautical Reads Will Put Wind In Your Sails, and is written by novelist Jason Sheehan. Here’s the whole thing; it’s worth the read.

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Vintage Treasures: Faster Than Light edited by Jack Dann and George Zebrowski

Vintage Treasures: Faster Than Light edited by Jack Dann and George Zebrowski

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Faster Than Light (Ace Books, March 1982). Cover art by Attila Hejja

Recently I’ve been on a steady diet of anthologies from the most respected SF editors of the 20th Century, including Isaac Asimov, Terry Carr, Mike Ashley, Lin Carter, and Karl Edward Wagner. And I cannot lie, it’s been a blast. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying classic tales by some of the best storytellers in the business, from A.E. van Vogt to Lucius Shepard.

But it’s time to branch out! I dunno, be intrepid. Try some new editors, maybe. Like Jack Dann, who’s produced over 50 SF anthologies in the past four decades. I recently picked up a copy of his very first, Faster Than Light, co-edited with George Zebrowski in the distant year of 1976, and it piqued my curiosity immediately.

It purports to be  a serious study of the problems and possibilities of FTL travel, with five highly-regarded essays on the topic by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Keith Laumer, Ben Bova, and Poul Anderson, plus the first appearance of Harlan Ellison’s original teleplay for the TV show The Starlost, Phoenix Without Ashes, and original stories by Poul Anderson, Ian Watson, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Gregory Benford, Hal Clement, A. A. Jackson and Howard Waldrop — and two long stories by George R. R. Martin.

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Ruined Spaceships, Post-Apocalyptic San Francisco, and the Return of Gil Hamilton: November-December Print SF Magazines

Ruined Spaceships, Post-Apocalyptic San Francisco, and the Return of Gil Hamilton: November-December Print SF Magazines

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November/December 2022 issues of Asimov’s Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, and
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Cover art by Maurizio Manzieri (x2), and Mondolithic Studio

More than a month after their October 18th on-sale date, the November/December issues of Asimov’s SF and Analog are still not on the newsstand at my local B&N here in Illinois, which is annoying. At least I was able to find the Sept/Oct issue of F&SF, so I suppose that’s something.

I’m left relying on their (excellent) websites to learn what’s packed into the end-of-year issues of each magazine. And there’s a great deal to anticipate — including a brand new Gil Hamilton tale from Larry Niven & Steven Barnes, a story of desperate survival on a ruined spaceship by Suzanne Palmer, a novella of an enigmatic Galactic Federation by Mark W. Teidermann, and a cyberpunk mystery in post-apocalyptic San Francisco by J.C. Hsyu, plus tales by Marc Laidlaw, Nick Wolven, Ray Nayler, Michael Cassutt, Tom Purdom, James Maxey, Nick Mamatas, John Shirley, Sam J. Miller, Bennett North, and many others.

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New Treasures: The Stars Undying by Emery Robin

New Treasures: The Stars Undying by Emery Robin

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The Stars Undying (Orbit, November 8, 2022). Cover by Marc Simonetti

For all that I rely on social media and online browsing to keep me in-the-know these days, there’s still no substitute for a well-stocked bookstore. Case in point: I visited our local Barnes & Noble in Geneva, Illinois on Saturday, and came away with an armful of discoveries that will keep me busy for weeks.

I’m looking forward to telling you about every one of them. But let’s start with the most intriguing: The Stars Undying, the debut novel by Emery Robin, a space-opera retelling of the twisty tale of Antony, Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar that Chicago Review of Books calls “Spectacular.” It’s the opening novel in Empire Without End, an ambitious new series, and it might just get me to bend my rule about waiting until a series is complete to dive in.

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Mike Ashley’s British Library Science Fiction Classics, Volumes 1-3: Moonrise, Lost Mars, and Menace of the Machine

Mike Ashley’s British Library Science Fiction Classics, Volumes 1-3: Moonrise, Lost Mars, and Menace of the Machine

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The first three anthologies in the British Library Science Fiction Classics: Moonrise,
Lost Mars, and Menace of the Machine. Covers by Chesley Bonestell and David A. Hardy

Two weeks ago I gazed in wonder at Mike Ashley’s 10-volume anthology series of science fiction from the pre-spaceflight era, the British Library Science Fiction Classics.

The first three in the series — Moonrise: The Golden Age of Lunar Adventures, Lost Mars: The Golden Age of the Red Planet, and Menace of the Machine: The Rise of AI in Classic Science Fiction — make an impressive set, containing nearly three dozen stories originally published between 1887 – 1965 by H.G. Wells, Gordon R. Dickson, John Wyndham, Edmond Hamilton, Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Ray Bradbury, E. C. Tubb, Walter M. Miller, Jr., J. G. Ballard, Ambrose Bierce, Isaac Asimov, Henry Kuttner and Catherine Moore, Brian W Aldiss, Murray Leinster, and many others. Each volume also includes a fascinating and impeccably researched introduction by Ashley that’s sure to whet your appetite.

Let’s take a closer look. (Warning: entirely superfluous pulp magazine covers ahead).

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Snuggle Under a Blanket With Close to Midnight, the Latest Horror Anthology from Mark Morris

Snuggle Under a Blanket With Close to Midnight, the Latest Horror Anthology from Mark Morris

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After Sundown, Beyond the Veil, and Close to Midnight
(Flame Tree Press, 2020, 2021, and 2022). Covers: Nik Keevil and Flame Tree Studio

I’ve been enjoying Mark Morris’ recent run of unthemed annual horror anthologies. He kicked it off with the highly regarded After Sundown in 2020; the success of that volume convinced the publisher, Flame Tree Press, to make it an annual event. Beyond the Veil followed last year, and Close to Midnight arrived just last month.

The newest installment looks like it could be the best one yet. It contains 20 original stories, 16 commissioned from established names and four selected from new writers who sent in stories during an open submissions window. The result is a terrific cross section of horror from the most acclaimed writers in the business — including Steve Rasnic Tem, Ramsey Campbell, Muriel Gray, Alison Littlewood, Seanan McGuire, Brian Keene, and Adam L.G. Nevill — alongside some talented and exciting newcomers.

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