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Category: Series Fantasy

A Band of Black Hearted Bastards in a Comic Romp: Articles of Faith by David Wragg

A Band of Black Hearted Bastards in a Comic Romp: Articles of Faith by David Wragg

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The Black Hawks and The Righteous (HarperVoyager, October 2019 and September 2021).
Covers by Richard Anderson (left) and uncredited

I bought David Wragg’s debut fantasy The Black Hawks when it first appeared in 2019. It sounded right up my alley — the tale of a dysfunctional band of mercenaries drafted into a desperate conflict to protect a stranded prince.

I was delighted to see a second — and apparently, final — volume appear at the end of last year. The Righteous concludes the tales of the seasoned (and entertaining) mercenary band, and opens with them imprisoned and sentenced for execution for their part in the rebellion, alongside their employer, the knight Vedren Chel. A daring escape sends them on the run, and headlong into a brand new adventure.

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What a Cleric is For: Hall of Smoke by H. M. Long

What a Cleric is For: Hall of Smoke by H. M. Long

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Hall of Smoke and Temple of No God (Titan Books, January 2021 and February 2022). Cover designs by Julia Lloyd

I first took notice of H.M. Long’s debut fantasy Hall of Smoke when The Guardian included it in their roundup of The best recent science fiction and fantasy last January, calling it “a compelling debut.” Closer to home, Paul Weimer at Tor.com celebrated it as that rarity of rarities — an entertaining fantasy focused on the most-neglected of the D&D archetypes, the cleric. (He also name-checked Greg Stafford’s Glorantha in his review, which warmed my heart.)

I saw a copy for the first time in Barnes & Noble on Saturday — alongside the newly-released sequel Temple of No God. The combination proved too much for someone with notoriously poor impulse control, and both volumes ended up coming home with me.

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If Jack Reacher Came to Westeros: The Chronicles of Stratus by Mark De Jager

If Jack Reacher Came to Westeros: The Chronicles of Stratus by Mark De Jager

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Infernal and Firesky (Solaris, 2020/21). Covers by Head Design

I’m not one to complain how things were better in the Good Old Days of fantasy in the 70s and 80s. (I know, I know — I had trouble keeping a straight face even as I typed that.) But at least mass market paperbacks were plentiful in those days, and you could escape from your neighborhood bookstore with a couple slender paperbacks, a chance to try out some exciting new authors, and change from a ten dollar bill.

There’s still plenty of exiting new authors to enjoy today, and fantasy is certainly richer and more diverse than those long-ago glory days (especially if you’re looking for something that wasn’t written by a straight white male). But mass market has gone the way of the Dodo. Nowadays the shelves are crowded with expensive trade paperbacks, and a pair of new authors will set you back 35 bucks or more.

Which is one of the reasons I’m so grateful for Solaris, who’ve held the price of the trade paper volumes to just $11.99 for much of their introductory line — including South African writer Mark De Jager, whose debut fantasy Infernal was described as “If Jack Reacher came to Westeros” by Sebastien de Castell.

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Saving Pets (and One Human) in a Zombie Apocalypse: The Hollow Kingdom Series by Kira Jane Buxton

Saving Pets (and One Human) in a Zombie Apocalypse: The Hollow Kingdom Series by Kira Jane Buxton

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Hollow Kingdom and Feral Creatures (Grand Central Publishing,
August 2019 and August 2021). Covers by Jarrod Taylor

Kira Jane Buxton’s debut novel Hollow Kingdom was the sleeper fantasy hit of 2019. The tale of a zombie apocalypse seen through the eyes of a caustic (and foul-mouthed) crow was a finalist for the 2020 Thurber Prize for American Humor, and chosen as a Best Book of the Year by Book Riot, NPR, and Good Housekeeping (And that’s not something you see every day. I challenge you to find another zombie novel with a Good Housekeeping endorsement.)

Jeff Somers at the B&N Blog turned me onto Hidden Kingdom in his list of the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of August 2019, calling it “a darkly hilarious twist” on the zombie formula. The sequel, Feral Creatures, finally arrived last summer, and sees the return of our favorite apocalyptic corvid and his faithful friends as they try to keep the last human alive in a rapidly worsening apocalypse.

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A Hearty Library of Genre Fiction: The Arbor House Treasuries edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Bill Pronzini, Robert Silverberg, and Others

A Hearty Library of Genre Fiction: The Arbor House Treasuries edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Bill Pronzini, Robert Silverberg, and Others

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The Arbor House library. Cover designs by Antler & Baldwin, Inc.

Last week I ordered a copy of The Arbor House Treasury of Great Science Fiction Short Novels, a thick anthology from 1980 edited by  Martin H. Greenberg and Robert Silverberg, and when it arrived I was astounded by the rich assortment of treasures within. Novellas both classic and long overlooked (even by 1980), including “By His Bootstraps” by Robert A. Heinlein, “The Golden Helix” by Theodore Sturgeon, “Born With the Dead” by Robert Silverberg, “The Star Pit” by Samuel R. Delany, “Giant Killer” by A. Bertram Chandler, “A Case of Conscience” by James Blish, “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” by James Tiptree, Jr, “On the Storm Planet” by Cordwainer Smith, “The Miracle Workers” by Jack Vance, and many more.

It made me wonder how I’d managed to miss this book for four decades, and sparked an interest in other Arbor House Treasuries. I knew there were a couple others… a mystery volume, and one on noir, or something? Twenty minutes on Amazon, eBay, and ISFDB (my research triumvirate these days) yielded at lot more than I thought — no less than eleven. I keep hoping a little more digging will yield a clean dozen.

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New Treasures: Beneath the Keep by Erika Johansen

New Treasures: Beneath the Keep by Erika Johansen

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Beneath the Keep (Dutton, February 1, 2022). Cover design by Vi-An Nguyen

Yesterday I made my bi-weekly pilgrimage to Barnes & Noble, in search of the latest issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. No dice; the newsstand still had the old issue. My wife and daughter were shopping next door at J. Jill, and there was no hope they’d be out of there any time soon, so I spent the next hour leisurely browsing the SF and Fantasy sections. I ended up leaving with an armful of books (and a copy of Mad magazine), so I consider it time well spent.

One of my most interesting finds was Beneath the Keep by Erika Johansen, which looked like a dungeon-delving tale but read more like a high fantasy with plenty of court intrigue. I’m a sucker for a great cover, so I brought it home. A little homework revealed it’s a prequel to Johansen’s bestselling Queen of the Tearling series, which is probably worth another look.
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“Deeply Weird”: Craig L. Gidney on The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce

“Deeply Weird”: Craig L. Gidney on The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce

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The Darkangel and A Gathering of Gargoyles (Tor Books, 1984 and 1985). Covers by Kinuko Y. Craft

Facebook is a great place to discover vintage fantasy. I know, right? It’s not just old people and Bob Byrne talking about actors he recognizes. Earlier this month Craig L. Gidney (A Spectral Hue, Skin Deep Magic) caught my attention with this short post.

Before there was Twilight, there was The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce, the original teenage vampire romance novel. The Darkangel was a deeply weird novel. It’s set on the moon, a locale which adds an extra eerie element. The moon is full of strange creatures, including gargoyles and a lorelei that lives in a pool of the moon. The heroine has agency, though she isn’t an Action Girl. The plot of the first book owes a great deal to the Bluebeard legend. The entire trilogy is dream-like. I wish more people knew about it. The novel turned me on to the dark fairytale fiction of Tanith Lee and Patricia McKillip.

He’s absolutely right. The Darkangel was nominated for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and won the International Reading Association’s annual Children’s Book Award. It was followed swiftly by a sequel A Gathering of Gargoyles; both were published in paperback from Tor. A third novel, The Pearl of the Soul of the World, eventually appeared five years later to complete the trilogy.

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Future Treasures: Azura Ghost, Volume II of The Graven by Essa Hansen

Future Treasures: Azura Ghost, Volume II of The Graven by Essa Hansen

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Nophek Gloss and Azura Ghost (Orbit, 2020 and 2021). Covers by Mike Heath

I seem to have increased the amount of space opera in my diet. I think it’s because there happen to be so many good series on the go — from Becky Chambers Wayfarers books to Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy, from Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space to James S.A. Corey’s Expanse, Derek Künsken’s Quantum Evolution to Megan E. O’Keefe’s Protectorate trilogy.

But the one I’m excited about at the moment is Essa Hansen’s The Graven, the tale of one man and his sentient starship. Mostly because the second book, Azura Ghost, arrives next week. We covered the first volume, Nophek Gloss, last year. Not only has Hansen created an exciting space opera series, but she’s also mixed in the other hot SF theme de jour — the concept of the multiverse — spreading her tale across a rich canvas of parallel universes.

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Vintage Treasures: The Dominions of Irth Trilogy by Adam Lee (A. A. Attanasio)

Vintage Treasures: The Dominions of Irth Trilogy by Adam Lee (A. A. Attanasio)

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The Dominions of Irth Trilogy by Adam Lee (Avon Eos, 1998-2000). Covers uncredited

The first science fiction website I ever launched was the SF Site, way back in 1995. I partnered with Rodger Turner, Neil Walsh, and Wayne MacLaurin to start Canada’s first big SF book blog, and it was a big success, with plenty of early traffic and award nominations. Best of all, we were soon on a first-name basis with the publicity departments at most of the big publishing houses. That’s how I met Andy Heidel at Avon, who helped me understand their big relaunch as they morphed from Avon Nova into Avon Eos in 1998 — including why they jettisoned cover art in favor of purely design-focused covers (“We’re trying to be the next big thing,” Andy explained).

I loved Avon Eos, and their dedication to quality SF and exciting new authors, but I didn’t love those covers. Frankly, I think readers didn’t know what to make of all the abstract shapes and colors, and especially the lack of identifiable heroes or storytelling elements, and they stayed away in droves. Eos eventually reverted to traditional covers, but I don’t think it ever recovered, and it is no longer a functioning imprint.

I think that misfire hurt most of Avon’s authors in the late 90s. Including “Adam Lee,” the pseudonym A. A. Attanasio adopted to publish his critically acclaimed Dominions of Irth trilogy in the US. The series appeared with a series of generic cover designs, and pretty much sank like a stone. “Adam Lee” died a lonely death, and Attanasio returned to publishing under his own name.

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Celebrate Derek Künsken’s First Trilogy, The Quantum Evolution

Celebrate Derek Künsken’s First Trilogy, The Quantum Evolution

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The Quantum Evolution trilogy by Derek Künsken (Solaris; 2018, 2019, and 2021). Covers by Justin Adams

You lot know that every time one of our authors publishes a novel, we celebrate with dinner at the Black Gate rooftop headquarters in downtown Chicago. And you’re also aware that every time an author completes a trilogy, we bake a cake. So what do we do when a Black Gate author completes a trilogy, as our own Derek Künsken just did with the release of The Quantum War, the third novel in The Quantum Evolution?

Why, it’s cake for dinner, of course. In fact, it’s cake and bubbly for everyone! Have a drink on us to join in the celebration*!

(*Conditions apply. Must be 21 years old. Offer not valid outside the continental United States. Or anywhere that serves bubbly.)

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