Browsed by
Category: Books

Roger Zelazny’s Jack of Shadows: Amber-Lite is Still Awesome

Roger Zelazny’s Jack of Shadows: Amber-Lite is Still Awesome

Comments 7 comments


Jack of Shadows (Signet, August 1972). Cover by Bob Pepper

A decade ago this summer, Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny was reissued in print, after many years languishing in obscurity even among the author’s most devoted fans. The novel is vintage Zelazny. For many who just read those words, that will be enough. They can stop reading now and go and buy a copy and enjoy — even if, like me, they read it before, quite a while ago, in an earlier release from a different publisher. You guys, go have fun. We’ll chat later. The rest of you, continue on with me to the next paragraph, if you would.

If you’re still with me here, then two things must be true: One, you are intrigued enough to want to know more — and I applaud you for it! — but two, simply saying “a classic Zelazny book is back in print” is not enough to send you racing to the bookstore. You demand more. Very well.

…

Read More Read More

Kane and the Dark Fantasy of Karl Edward Wagner

Kane and the Dark Fantasy of Karl Edward Wagner

Comments 11 comments
Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane paperback editions

Karl Edward Wagner (1945 – 1994) is one writer I make a concerted effort to collect. I think I have almost his entire output, which is — unfortunately—not extensive. The man was a genius and I wish it was more. I met him briefly at a conference and corresponded with him some. He was only 48 when he died and that’s way too young.

The first work I found by Wagner (KEW) were his Sword & Sorcery stories of Kane, sometimes called “The Mystic Swordsman.” In my opinion, Kane is the most outstanding character creation in heroic fantasy, for he is Cain of the Bible, of Cain and Abel fame, although in later years Wagner seemed to be reinventing the character.

…

Read More Read More

Tales of Fantasy Rome: The Eternal City, edited by David Drake, Martin Greenberg, and Charles Waugh

Tales of Fantasy Rome: The Eternal City, edited by David Drake, Martin Greenberg, and Charles Waugh

Comments 2 comments


The Eternal City, edited by David Drake, Martin Greenberg, and Charles
G. Waugh (Baen Books, January 1990). Cover by John Rheaume

The main reason I bought this collection was for the Howard story, “Kings of the Night.” This was back when I was striving to be a Howard completist. All in all, an entertaining collection.

It was published by Baen in 1990, and Drake did a pretty good job of selecting the stories. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

…

Read More Read More

Dark Muse News: The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) by Byron Leavitt

Dark Muse News: The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) by Byron Leavitt

Comments 4 comments


The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) by Byron Leavitt
(Brain Waves Press, 2026.) Cover created by Miblart with interior illustration by the author.

A contemporary, cosmic-horror take on portal fantasy!

The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) is a young-adult, portal fantasy written by Byron Leavitt.  It’s a contemporary, cosmic-horror take on the sub-genre that was a gateway for many of us. Recall the books like A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1962), The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (1961), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (1950), The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (1900), and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)?

All of the above have adult followings as much as their young adult readerships. Which portal fantasies grabbed you and helped you become addicted to fantasy?

…

Read More Read More

Lin Carter’s Year’s Best Fantasy Stories

Lin Carter’s Year’s Best Fantasy Stories

Comments 9 comments
The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories, volumes 1-9, edited by Lin Carter and Arthur Saha (DAW Books, 1975-1983)

While people disagree on the quality of Lin Carter’s writing, most people agree he was a fine editor and tireless supporter of the fantasy field. Volumes edited by Carter brought quite a few new authors to my attention, as well as feeding me a steady diet of works by writers I already loved.

From 1975 to 1988, DAW books presented a yearly anthology called The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories. Lin Carter edited the first six and I own and have read all but #3, which I ordered recently but was sent the wrong book.

Arthur W. Saha took over as editor after that. I only have one of his volumes. I don’t know why the editorial switch, but Carter may have been suffering from ill health around that time. He died in 1988. I first read the three with Robert E. Howard content, but later read a couple of others. Here are my thoughts.

…

Read More Read More

Roger Zelazny, Master Craftsman of Fantasy

Roger Zelazny, Master Craftsman of Fantasy

Comments 12 comments
The Chronicles of Amber and The Second Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny (Gollancz SF Masterworks editions, April 14 and August 18, 2022). Covers uncredited

There are few authors whose works bring me greater joy than Roger Zelazny.

Zelazny was a master of craft and style who could present in a terse style that seamlessly evolves into evocative prose without any awkwardness or jarring transitions. His strengths as a writer were myriad: incredible storytelling, plot development, vivid descriptions, character development, and boundless imagination in the creation of strange worlds — sometimes a shade different from our own; other times wholly alien.

In The Chronicles of Amber, Zelazny exhibits all his strengths as a writer. It’s almost frustrating to read him, because he seems to perform his craft so effortlessly.

…

Read More Read More

Not So Juvenile: Star Man’s Son / Daybreak 2250 A.D. by Andre Norton

Not So Juvenile: Star Man’s Son / Daybreak 2250 A.D. by Andre Norton

Comments 24 comments
Daybreak 2250 AD, originally published as Star Man’s Son, one half of Ace Double D-69 (Ace Books, 1954). Cover artist unknown

I started intentionally looking for science fiction to read in elementary school. Our city library had one big room full of fiction for young readers, from preschool through high school, so I found books that were meant for readers older than I was — but I enjoyed reading them, even if I didn’t understand everything that happened to their protagonists. The top two science fiction writers, for me and I think for a lot of other people, were Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton.

Norton had written half a dozen novels, mostly historical, before she ventured into science fiction in 1952 with Star Man’s Son. But it seems to have been successful; she wrote a new fiction novels nearly every year for some time after that, and I went on reading the library copies at least up through Catseye in 1961.

…

Read More Read More

High Fantasy in the Tolkien tradition: The Iron Tower Trilogy by Dennis L. McKiernan

High Fantasy in the Tolkien tradition: The Iron Tower Trilogy by Dennis L. McKiernan

Comments 16 comments


The Iron Tower Trilogy: The Dark Tide, Shadows of Doom, and The Darkest Day
(Signet, August 1985, September 1985, and October 1985). Covers by Alan Lee

I recently posted some of my thoughts about High Fantasy. I haven’t read a large amount from that field but I did read Dennis L. McKiernan’s first trilogy of books, the Iron Tower trilogy, which is definitely High Fantasy written very strongly in the Tolkien tradition.

Here’s my review of those three books, which I read in an omnibus edition.

…

Read More Read More

An Obscure 70s Fantasy: The Vanishing Tower, by Michael Moorcock

An Obscure 70s Fantasy: The Vanishing Tower, by Michael Moorcock

Comments 7 comments


The Vanishing Tower (DAW Books, June 1977). Cover by Michael Whelan

Here’s another in my series of reviews of “mostly obscure” 1970s/1980s books — the last one was of Evangeline Walton’s The Children of Llyr. That book was published in 1971, and so was the original edition of The Vanishing Tower (first titled The Sleeping Sorceress.)

And already I can hear people asking “Obscure? Obscure?! Evangeline Walton’s Mabinogion retellings were not really obscure, and Michael Moorcock’s Elric novels are not remotely obscure!”

And I apologize — because you’re right. This novel in particular is part of one of the major sword and sorcery series of all time. Yet — as with the The Children of Llyr — it’s a book I myself didn’t read until just now, over 50 years after it first appeared.

…

Read More Read More

Half A Century of Reading Tolkien Part Ten: Beren and Lúthien edited by Christopher Tolkien

Half A Century of Reading Tolkien Part Ten: Beren and Lúthien edited by Christopher Tolkien

Comments 6 comments

So it was, but it is said that in recompense Mandos gave to Beren and to Lúthien thereafter a long span of life and joy, and they wandered knowing thirst nor cold in the fair land of Beleriand, and no mortal Man thereafter spoke to Beren or his spouse.

from The Quenta Silmarillion

When I wrote about The Silmarillion last year, without much detail, I described the story of Beren and Lúthien as the great love story of Middle-earth. Inspired by Prof. Tolkien’s love for his wife, Edith, as well as the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, its narrative is integral to the events of The Lord of the Rings. Aragorn’s lineage goes straight back down the millennia to the couple, as does Elrond’s.

Christopher Tolkien, continuing the great work he undertook to edit and publish the greatest portion of his father’s work developing the myths, legends, and tales of Middle-earth, published three books brining a jeweler’s eye to the three great tales contained with The Silmarillion; The Children of  Húrin (2007), Beren and Lúthien (2017), and The Fall of Gondolin (2018). Much more than with The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien digs deeply into the evolution of the story, presenting multiple versions and commentary.

…

Read More Read More