Goth Chick News: Let’s Leave the Alien Franchise Alone Now… Please

Goth Chick News: Let’s Leave the Alien Franchise Alone Now… Please

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Alien: Romulus (20th Century Studios, August 16, 2024)

To begin, I’d like to review two important facts. First, with the 2019 acquisition of Fox, Disney became the owners of the long-running Alien sci-fi franchise. Second, in 2012 Ridley Scott, who created the original masterpiece that was Alien (1979), decided to leap back in after five other directors had a go at some portion of the story. This effectively scuttled the planned Alien movie we all deserved, which would have been a sequel to Aliens (1986) directed by Neill Blomkamp and would have ignored the movies which followed Aliens. This story would have reunited Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Hicks (Michael Biehn), and probably would have been awesome.

Instead, what we got was Sigourney Weaver permanently bowing out from the franchise, and two prequels from Scott, which were anything but awesome. Though nostalgia and eternal optimism caused die-hard fans to make Prometheus (2012) a technical box office hit ($130M budget against a $403M take), we’d learned our lesson by the time Alien: Covenant came around in 2017. It was considered a disappointment by Hollywood standards, bringing in less than half the ticket sales of its predecessor. Personally, I wished Scott would have kept his hands to himself.

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A Patroller for a Vanished Federation: In the Hands of Glory by Phyllis Eisenstein

A Patroller for a Vanished Federation: In the Hands of Glory by Phyllis Eisenstein

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In the Hands of Glory (Timescape/Pocket Books, November 1981). Cover by Rowena Morrill

Here’s my new look at an SF paperback from the ’70s/’80s. Phyllis Eisenstein’s In the Hands of Glory is a book I eagerly bought and read back when it came out, in 1981. By a writer whose work I enjoyed. From a publishing imprint (Timescape, edited by David Hartwell) that I greatly respected. (Not to mention the Rowena Morrill cover which, let’s just say, overtly exaggerates certain physical characteristics of the protagonist relative to her actual depiction in the book.) And I had fond, but very dim, memories of the book. So I reread it.

Phyllis Eisenstein (1946-2020) was a Chicago writer. Black Gate is a Chicago-based ‘zine, and I’m originally from the Chicago area myself, and over the years I got to know Phyllis and her husband (and sometime collaborator) Alex fairly well, from meeting them at any number of conventions. Indeed, at this year’s Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention, I had a long conversation with Alex which touched on their time in Germany (Alex was in the military then) during which Phyllis drafted her first novel.

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The Great Escapes: James, Kindred, The Reformatory by Percival Everett, Octavia Butler, and Tananarive Due

The Great Escapes: James, Kindred, The Reformatory by Percival Everett, Octavia Butler, and Tananarive Due

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James (Doubleday, March 19, 2024), Kindred (Doubleday,
July 1979), and The Reformatory (S&S/Saga Press, October 31, 2023

Percival Everett’s James is receiving a lot of well-deserved critical praise. As the title indicates (and the choice of the formal name a key trope), this reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn elevates the escaped slave Jim from supporting stereotypical character to leading man status. Fearing he is about to be sold by his owner and separated from his family, James becomes a runaway not just for his own sake, but to find a way to free his wife and daughter. Along the way, he meets Huck who has just faked his death to escape an abusive father. So far we’re close to Twain’s original, and while Everett retains some events, the perspective shifts to focus on James’s journey towards safety and dignity.

As with many of Everett’s novels, James is a satire of white perceptions of Blacks, reinventing James as highly literate and articulate. In an ironic reversal of enslaver laws that prohibit educating slaves, all Blacks are well-spoken amongst themselves and only resort to uneducated and subservient slang when in presence of their white oppressors. James calls it a “slave filter”: “White folks expect us to sound a certain way and it can only help if we don’t disappoint them. The only ones who suffer when they are made to feel inferior is us.”

Highly recommended, as is just about anything in the Everett catalog.

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What I’ve Been Listening To: July, 2024

What I’ve Been Listening To: July, 2024

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It’s a week off from A (Black) Gat in the Hand, as I am currently reading Pulp, but except for the constant revisiting of Norbert Davis’ Max Latin, I’m not listening to it (though The Continental Op is on tap).

I am constantly listening to audiobooks. I’m fortunate that my mind can multi-task, and I listen to them while driving, working, writing, when I go to sleep at night. It lets me get to things I wouldn’t have time to read. It’s often re-visiting something I read before. And I can fall asleep to something that isn’t new – no damage done. Here are some things I’ve listened to recently.

 

THE BLACK COMPANY – Glen Cook

A couple months ago, I scored a rare Q&A with the socially reclusive Glen Cook. It was mostly about his terrific Garrett, PI series, which I love. But it did touch on The Black Company. That series about a mercenary company is a foundation block for Dark Fantasy. I’ve read through the whole thing (except Port of Shadows, which I haven’t gotten around to yet) three times.

And over several months this year, I listened to the entire series on audiobook. As when I read it, I definitely like some books more than others. But it remains an epic, gripping saga. Again excluding 2018’s Port of Shadows, it’s ten books. I simply didn’t have time to re-read it (especially after re-reading most of the Garrett series for that Q&A). Listening to the books worked great. At least a book or two had a different narrator, based on gender needs. I liked the four narrators, with Marc Vietor reading the majority. That’s a key part of the audiobook experience. Definitely recommended.

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I Like Big Bugs and I Cannot Lie, Part II

I Like Big Bugs and I Cannot Lie, Part II

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Ice Spiders (Syfy Channel, 2007), Tail Sting (Shoreline Entertainment,
2001), and Big Bad Bugs (SuperNova Films, 2012)

 

Ice Spiders (2007, YouTube)

Giant bugs?

Very large spiders! About the size of a skidoo.

CGI-heavy?

Yes. Mid-2000s quality too.

Any good?

Big bug movie watching fatigue is a real thing. Don’t get me wrong, I could watch monster movies until the camel spiders come home, but sitting through the same old tired format is draining me faster than a Dalmatian-sized black widow.

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To Walk on Worlds: Matthew John’s Sword & Sorcery Collection

To Walk on Worlds: Matthew John’s Sword & Sorcery Collection

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To Walk on Worlds (Rogues in the House Podcast, 2024, 188pages). Cover art by Mike Hoffman

Black Gate highlighted Rogues in the House (RitH) podcast in 2022, and in a few years, that crew rapidly expanded with Sword & Sorcery publications that include: A Book of  Blades (2022)  and A Book of Blades Vol. II (2023), and a collection of John R. Fultz’s stories in The Revelations of Zang (2024)

This post reviews the newest collection of stories from RitH’s own Matthew John released this June: To Walk on Worlds is available now in eBook and paperback. Matthew John is fascinated with adventure fiction and moonlights as a writer and game designer for Monolith in addition to his podcast responsibilities.  This post reviews To Walk on Worlds with excerpts.

If Gandalf was an a**hole, then we’d call him a “Meddler” instead of an “Istar”

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A to Z Reviews: “Butterflies Like Jewels,” by Eric Nylund

A to Z Reviews: “Butterflies Like Jewels,” by Eric Nylund

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A to Z ReviewsEric Nylund’s “Butterflies Like Jewels” appeared in Elemental, an charity anthology  published to support relief efforts for the 2004  Indian Ocean Tsunami that struck on Boxing Day. The anthology was co-edited by Alethea Kontis and Steven Savile and all the publisher’s and authors’ profits were donated to the Save the Children Tsunami Relief Fund.

Nylund opened his story with a quote from Sir Eustace Carter Van Diem, the leader of a fictitious expedition to search for the Nile in 1841. While Van Diem and his companions were never heard from again, Nylund jumps to the modern era when one of Van Diem’s descendants, Edward Van Diem, is living in the Oceanview senior resident facility. Van Diem has garnered the attention of Dr. Lang because Van Diem is the last known person to talk to Dr. Ambrose before he went missing and Lang and Ambrose’s long and rocky relationship has led the police to believe that Lang may be responsible for Ambrose’s disappearance.

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In the tradition of Conan: The Kyrik and Kothar Novels by Gardner F. Fox

In the tradition of Conan: The Kyrik and Kothar Novels by Gardner F. Fox

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The Kyrik novels by Gardner F. Fox (Leisure Books, 1975-1976)

I’m getting ready to embark on a series of posts about Philip Jose Farmer, but got distracted looking through my shelves and decided to throw in a post about the Sword & Sorcery work of Gardner F. Fox, who I mentioned here a while back for his two book S&P series set on the planet Llarn.

While my small hometown library didn’t have anything by Robert E. Howard, they had various books claiming to be “In the tradition of Conan.” That’s how I found out about Howard. The first “In the tradition” book I read was Kyrik: Warlock Warrior by Fox, from Leisure Books, 1975. The cover was candy to a starving teen. By Ken Barr (although I didn’t know it at the time), the cover showed a muscled barbarian swordsman astride a pterodactyl with a nearly naked green-haired beauty beside him. My imagination ignited. And when I started reading it, I loved it even more.

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Little Madhouse on the Prairie: Wisconsin Death Trip

Little Madhouse on the Prairie: Wisconsin Death Trip

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Like many of you, I own a lot of books. Like perhaps not quite as many of you, I own a lot of very strange books, among them Aleister Crowley’s autobiography, a volume of Criswell’s predictions, a collection of “poems” by Victor Buono (he was King Tut to Adam West’s Batman; the title of his book is It Could Be Verse), a paranoid little volume called The Enemy Within that showed up one day on every driveway in my neighborhood in a rock-weighted plastic bag, and that blames literally everything bad that’s ever happened on the Jesuits (I’m probably the only person in town who actually read it — God, I hope I’m the only person in town who actually read it), the Exegesis of Philip K. Dick (the Lord talked to Phil, and boy, did they have some weird conversations), the collected works of Charles Fort, several volumes of the Shaver Mystery… it goes on and on.

There is no stranger book on my shelves, though, than Wisconsin Death Trip. Catchy title, huh?

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There’s Nothing to Say

There’s Nothing to Say

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Image by LoggaWiggler from Pixabay

Good afterevenmorn, Readers!

I have to admit, I’m a little stuck as to what to share with you today, given the horrendous news cycle. I am struggling to think of anything else but all the awful things that are going on in the wider world, save for the current work in progress that I have finally begun writing again after many, many months off (I was supposed to have finished this book in February). And I can’t really talk about that since, the book being in the unfinished first phase rough, no one will know what the hell I’m referring to when I do talk about it.

I’m not sure that even if I had anything constructive to say directly regarding this WIP that it would do any good, as it is the third book in a series, and I haven’t even bothered to shop the first book yet. There’s no point in trying to create buzz around a book that doesn’t even have a publication date… and may not, depending on how well it does during submission. I mean, I don’t have a book coming out until 2026, and if the first book were to be picked up, it’d be published maybe 2027 if I’m extremely lucky. Likely much later.

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