Black Gate – Page 329 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

Shipwrecks, Labyrinths, and Sentient Islands: The Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy by Francis Stevens

Monday, April 15, 2019 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

The Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy-small

The Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy-back-small

The Bison Frontiers of Imagination line has reprinted dozens of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Clark Ashton Smith, Philip Wylie, E.E. “Doc” Smith, A. Merritt, Jack London, Ray Cummings, Hugo Gernsback, Robert Silverberg, and many others, in handsome and affordable trade paperback editions. We’ve reviewed several of them here at Black Gate including:

The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney, reviewed by Thomas Parker
Perfect Murders by Horace L. Gold, reviewed by Bill Ward

I’ve been accumulating them for over ten years, starting with the Clark Ashton Smith volumes Lost World and Out of Space and Time, which are among my favorite Smith reprints. But recently I’ve been a little more experimental with my Bison purchases, and so far I haven’t been disappointed. Last week I bought a copy of The Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy by Francis Stevens, a pseudonym for Gertrude Barrows Bennett (1883 – 1948), author of The Citadel of Fear and The Heads of Cerberus. Her work appeared in many horror anthologies I’ve enjoyed over the years, including Jonathan E. Lewis’s Strange Island Stories (2018), and Sam Moskowitz’s Horrors Unknown (1971) and Under the Moons of Mars (1970). Here’s a snippet from the back cover to demonstrate her range.

In a future where women rule the world, a sentient island becomes murderously jealous of a shipwrecked couple. Dire consequences await a human swept into the dark, magical world of elves. A deadly labyrinth coils around the dark heart of a picturesque landscape garden. Within an Egyptian sarcophagus lies the horrifying price of infidelity. Swirling unseen around us are loathsome creatures giving form to our basest desires and fears…

Sounds like just what I’m in the mood for. The Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy was edited and introduced by Gary Hoppenstand, and published by Bison Books on October 1, 2004. It is 404 pages, priced at $21.95. There is no digital edition. The cover is by R.W. Boeche.

Hither Came Conan: Steven H. Silver on “Man-Eaters of Zamboula”

Monday, April 15, 2019 Bob Byrne Comments 11 comments

Of course, that's a Margaret Brundage cover — Of course, that’s a Margaret Brundage cover

Why “Man-Eaters of Zamboula” Is the Best Conan Story of All Time, with the Possible Exception of “Shadows of Zamboula,” which Is the Same Story, So It Really Is the Best of All Time

“Man-Eaters of Zamboula” is, without a doubt, the best, and most quintessential story about Conan the Barbarian written by Robert E. Howard. And since stories by other authors don’t count (with one exception noted below), that means that “Man-Eaters of Zamboula” is the absolute best Conan the Barbarian story ever written. I suppose a case could be made that “Shadows of Zamboula” is a better Conan the Barbarian story, but since the only difference between those two stories is the replacement of the phrase “Man-Eaters” with “Shadows,” I’d be willing to concede the point.

Howard first published “Man-Eaters of Zamboula” in the November 1935 issue of Weird Tales, where Margaret Brundage provided a lurid piece of cover art showing Zibibi naked and standing between four cobras preparing to strike, an image taken directly from the story’s climax.

The story has everything: a mysterious stranger giving Conan an enigmatic warning, which the Cimmerian completely ignores, a power struggle between a mad priest and a distant satrap and his power-behind the throne wife, mystical potions, star-crossed lovers, beautiful (naked) women, the one man who can give Conan a physical challenge, snakes, cannibals, revenge, a precious gemstone. You can practically see the over-the-top movie trailer proclaiming the various elements of Conan’s day in Zamboula, because all of that action takes place in a single day and night.

In the beginning, the story opens with Conan, bereft of all his possessions save the clothes he is wearing and his massive sword, walking through the Zamboulan suq. A Zuagir tribesman sidles up to Conan and warns him not to go to stay in the House of Aram Baksh because anyone who stays at the inn who isn’t a native Zamboulan winds up disappearing. Although Aram Baksh claims they’ve all left town, many of their possessions wind up being sold in the suq. The tribesman does not give a reason why a Zamboulan would spend the night at Aram Baksh’s, but the important part of the message is that Conan, under no circumstances whatsoever, should spend the night at the House of Aram Baksh.

Naturally, Conan immediately heads to the House of Aram Baksh to spend the night because it is inexpensive, located at the edge of the city, surrounded by a wall, and he has been told that staying there is a phenomenally bad idea. He also has already paid Aram Baksh for his night’s lodging even before getting the warning.

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Total Pulp Victory: A Report from Windy City Pulp & Paper 2019

Sunday, April 14, 2019 John ONeill Comments 21 comments

A few of the $1 paperbacks I brought home from Windy City

I returned from the 2019 Windy City Pulp and Paperback Show a few hours ago, weary and happy. It was another fabulous convention, and once again it proved to be the undisputed best show in Chicagoland for those who love vintage books and magazines.

This was the 19th annual convention. It was founded in 2001 by Doug Ellis, and I’ve been attending ever since Howard Andrew Jones and John C. Hocking made the long trip to the 7th Windy City way back in 2007. This year I spent most of the show with friends, including BG bloggers Bob Byrne, Rich Horton, and Steven Silver, as well as local booksellers Arin Komins and Rich Warren, who had a booth and a few spare chairs and were kind enough to let us hang out. There was lots of great food and terrific conversation, and we toasted absent friends, including Howard Andrew Jones, Jason M. Waltz, Barbara Barrett, and especially bookseller and all-around great soul Dave Willoughby, who passed away last year. Dave personified the friendly and welcoming nature of Windy City better than anyone else, I think, and he was profoundly missed.

I made numerous great purchases at the show, including an assortment of Arkham House hardcovers from Doug, some marvelous books from the Glenn Lord estate (purchased from his widow, Lou Ann), a couple of recent Dark Adventure Radio Theater releases from Greg Ketter, a box of vintage SF digests in great condition — and some really wonderful treasures at the auction, including a copy of the 1990 Donald Grant illustrated edition of Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness, several stacks of pulps, and an absolutely magnificent set of 1927 Weird Tales, bound in two volumes.

But as usual, most of what I took home with me was paperbacks. Lots of paperbacks. I found a few that I was willing to pay a premium for, including some Clark Ashton Smith collections and horror anthologies, but the vast majority of them — well over 200 in total — were less than $1 each, including all those I spread out on my kitchen floor to photograph when I got home (see above).

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Tomorrow Isn’t Always Another Day: Remembering Howard Fast’s The Edge of Tomorrow

Sunday, April 14, 2019 Barbara Barrett Comments 4 comments

Howard Fast The Edge of Tomorrow-back-small

The Edge of Tomorrow (Bantam, 1966) Cover artist uncredited

Books, like music, can evoke images of another time and place. When I picked up The Edge of Tomorrow recently, it triggered memories of Manhattan, Kansas, just before my husband left for Vietnam. It was mid-June 1966 when I drove from California to Fort Riley.

Manhattan was a whole new world. I remember heat and humidity so heavy it was like walking around on the bottom of a warm fish bowl. But there were awesome times too — a Harry Belafonte concert, thunder so loud I thought it would flatten me, and staring out a window all night during a tornado watch.

Yet, my most vivid memories are about food and friends. It was still early days for the anti-war protests and we were not aware of them. Uppermost in our minds was knowing our husbands or fathers or sons or brothers would be going to Vietnam. With so much uncertainty in our lives, we made the best of the moments we had and meals were about the only time life seemed normal.

The troops at Fort Riley trained twelve to fourteen hours a day. That left evenings and some weekends for relaxation. When Bob was home, his Army friends often stopped by for a beer and a chat. Many times, they stayed for a home-cooked dinner. During the five months in Kansas, I prepared a lot of food. Mostly from family recipes. So did other wives. We tasted dishes we had only heard about and exchanged recipes. One of my favorite memories centers around a feast those of us from California put together. We craved Mexican food but tortillas, pinto beans and hot sauce weren’t available in the local stores then. That problem was solved when we wrote and asked our families to send supplies. They were generous beyond belief. All our friends were invited. For a few hours, while we were eating tacos, enchiladas, refried beans, rice, burritos, guacamole and hot sauce, we were home.

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: The 1973 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer: Terry Carr

Saturday, April 13, 2019 Rich Horton Comments 1 comment

Steven Silver has been doing a series covering the award winners from his age 12 year, and Steven has credited me for (indirectly) suggesting this, when I quoted Peter Graham’s statement “The Golden Age of Science Fiction” is 12, in the “comment section” to the entry on 1973 in Jo Walton’s wonderful book An Informal History of the Hugos. You see, I was 12 in 1972, so the awards for 1973 were the awards for my personal Golden Age. And Steven suggested that much as he is covering awards for 1980, I might cover awards for 1973 here in Black Gate.

The 1973 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer went to Terry Carr. Terry Carr (1937-1987) won four Hugos overall – in 1959 he won for Best Amateur Magazine for Fanac (along with his co-editor Ron Ellik), and in 1985 and 1987 he won for Best Professional Editor. (Alas, he died early in 1987, so did not get to receive that award. Famously, this was the second consecutive year that the award was given posthumously – though in 1986 Lester Del Rey bitterly refused the award to his wife Judy-Lynn. (There could be a third posthumous Best Editor award this year, as Gardner Dozois is one of the nominees for Best Editor, Short Form.) Like the great majority of Fan Writer winners, Terry Carr was also an accomplished professional writer, probably best known for his stories “Hop-Friend” and “The Dance of the Changer and the Three” and for his novel Cirque.

Carr wrote some fine fiction, as noted, and also spent some time as an agent, and he was a prolific and wonderful fan writer and fanzine editor. But his largest contribution to the field was as an editor. He worked at Ace through most of the 1960s. There he co-edited the World’s Best Science Fiction series with Donald A. Wollheim, and he spearheaded the classic first Ace Science Fiction Special series. After leaving Ace he became a freelance editor, most famous for his Best Science Fiction of the Year series for Ballantine/Del Rey, and for his Universe series of original anthologies. He also edited the third series of Ace Specials.

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Future Treasures: All My Colors by David Quantick

Friday, April 12, 2019 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

David Quantick is the author of Sparks and The Mule. His latest, All My Colors, is a dark comedy about a man who remembers a book that may not exist, with dire consequences.

Booklist compares it to one of my favorite 80s fantasies, saying “the slowly unfolding literary menace will appeal to fans of Jonathan Carroll’s The Land of Laughs (1980),” and Kirkus Reviews calls it “wonderfully bizarre… a twisty and fitfully funny episode of The Twilight Zone, it’s a blast. A caustic, unexpected comic horror story in which the villain, as always, thinks he’s the hero.” Here’s the description.

It is March 1979 in DeKalb Illinois. Todd Milstead is a wannabe writer, a serial adulterer, and a jerk, only tolerated by his friends because he throws the best parties with the best booze. During one particular party, Todd is showing off his perfect recall, quoting poetry and literature word for word plucked from his eidetic memory. When he begins quoting from a book no one else seems to know, a novel called All My Colors, Todd is incredulous. He can quote it from cover to cover and yet it doesn’t seem to exist.

With a looming divorce and mounting financial worries, Todd finally tries to write a novel, with the vague idea of making money from his talent. The only problem is he can’t write. But the book — All My Colors — is there in his head. Todd makes a decision: he will “write” this book that nobody but him can remember. After all, if nobody’s heard of it, how can he get into trouble?

As the dire consequences of his actions come home to both Todd and his long-suffering friends, it becomes clear that there is a high — and painful — price to pay for his crime.

All My Colors will be published by Titan Books on April 16, 2019. It is 289 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback and $8.99 in digital formats.

See all of our recent coverage of the best upcoming fantasy here.

Signing In The Rain: Random Thoughts on Book Signing

Friday, April 12, 2019 Violette Malan Comments 3 comments

Back in the day, at least here in Canada, you could book multiple book signings in the big box stores – sometimes even more than one store in a given city, since they were comfortably far apart. And for a different experience, there were still a few independent bookstores around.

With box stores you were usually dealing with employees, while with the independents you dealt with owners, people who not only had a vested interest in your doing well, but were the people making the decisions. On the other hand, smaller store = less traffic.

Early on, I had some great experiences in box stores, but lately? If they still do this type of event at all, you’ll find the person who made the arrangements isn’t at work today, didn’t leave sufficient (or any) instructions, and only ordered copies of your most recent book, even though previous books (including earlier ones in the series) are still in print. The staff might be sincerely apologetic, and as helpful as possible – after all, they’re not the ones who dropped the ball – but that doesn’t conjure up any books.

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Jem, by Frederik Pohl

Friday, April 12, 2019 Steven H Silver Comments 1 comment

The National Book Awards were established in 1936 by the American Booksellers Association. Although the Awards were not given out between 1942 and 1949 because of World War II and its aftermath, the awards were reestablished in 1950 and given out annually since then. Since 1950, only US authors are eligible for the award, which is designed to celebrate the best of American literature, expand its audience, and enhance the value of good writing in America. From 1980 through 1983, the American Book Awards were announced as a variation of the National Book Awards, run by the Academy of the American Book Awards.

While the National Book Awards were selected by a jury of writers, the TABA program relied on entry fees, committees, and voters made up of groups of publishers, booksellers, librarians, and authors and critics. The change was controversial and a group of authors including Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Roth, and Susan Sontag, among others, called for a boycott of the award.

The American Book Award included genre categories, presenting awards for mysteries, science fiction, and westerns. Two awards were presented in the science fiction category, one for hardcover, one for paperback. The genre awards were abandoned after a single year. The only winner of the National Book Award for Hardcover Science Fiction was Frederik Pohl’s Jem. The Awards were presented in New York on May 1, 1980 at a ceremony hosted by William F. Buckley and John Chancellor. Isaac Asimov presented the science fiction awards.

I tend to find a lot of Pohl’s novels depressing, even while acknowledging he can write biting satire. His satire tends to be the darkest of humor, and Jem is certainly dark. It opens at a scientific conference held in Bulgaria in the near future, sometime after 2024. Earth has been divided into three massive alliances which are based on the products of the countries involved, The People countries that provide labor, the Oil countries that provide power, and the Food countries. Pohl introduces four individuals at the conference, Ana Dimitrova, a translator from the food bloc, her lover, Abdul Dulla, a scientist from the people countries, Danny Dalehouse, a scientist from the food countries, and Marge Menninger, a soldier from the food countries.

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Goth Chick News: And Just Like Merlin, I Have My Very Own Magic Wand…

Thursday, April 11, 2019 Sue Granquist Comments 2 comments

When I built my current house, I had my heart set on planting a Rowan tree in the front yard. I learned about the tree’s long, sacred history when visiting Scotland; that since ancient times people have been planting a Rowan beside their homes. It is known as the Tree of Life and symbolizes courage, wisdom and protection.

Celtic mythology says that when the goddess Hebe lost her chalice of youth, an eagle fought to recover the cup and return it to her. Wherever the bird shed a drop of blood or feather, up sprang a Rowan tree. Another legend states how the Rowan tree bent over a fast-flowing river and rescued Thor from being swept away into the Underworld. There are several recurring themes of protection offered by the Rowan. Pieces of the tree were carried by people for personal protection from black magic, and sprigs of Rowen were worn inside clothing and fastened above door frames to ward off evil. My favorite story has Merlin’s wand being made from the branch of a Rowan.

So, after a lot of research and effort, I determined that the climate in Chicago would be hospitable to a Rowan tree and ordered one. I positioned it in my front yard right outside my office window where it grew pretty quick for a tree, maybe because I regularly talked to it. To its credit, my house was pretty evil-free for nearly ten years, considering what I do as a side job, so it was fairly heartbreaking when my Rowen started looking a little sick. I contacted an arborist who informed me that though the climate in Chicago was good for the tree, the soil of Northern Illinois was not. Alas, my Rowan tree was dying and could not be saved.

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New Treasures: Necropolis PD by Nathan Sumsion

Thursday, April 11, 2019 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

Back in October, I managed to trap Parvus Press co-founder Colin Coyle in a bar long enough to get the scoop on his upcoming releases. There were plenty of interesting titles in the mix, but the one that really grabbed my attention was the debut fantasy novel by Nathan Sumsion, co-creator of the Terra Immortalis role playing game. Here’s what Colin shared then.

Necropolis PD is one of my favorite urban fantasies in a long time. It’s a cousin to both Butcher’s Dresden Files and Gaiman’s Neverwhere and I honestly feel that it brings a new flavor to a genre that has been heavily tread in recent years.

Necropolis PD is the tale of Jacob Green, trapped in the Meridian, a city of the dead, and pressed into service to solve a series of bizarre murders. Andy Whitaker at SFCrowsnest says Meridian “is a strange and compelling place. Don’t be fooled by the dark humour and strange environment… [Sumsion] might just have struck gold.” Here’s the description.

How do you solve a murder in the city of the dead?

Jacob Green was just an average college student. But three months ago, he ran through the wrong door and found himself trapped in the city of Meridian – a literal necropolis, concealed from the modern world, made up of forgotten places and populated entirely by the dead.

As the only living, breathing resident, Jake has struggled to scrape out an existence while waiting for the Necropolis Police Department to decide his fate, and it’s not looking good. But when an unusual string of crimes hits the city, Jake’s overseer and tormentor, NPD Detective Marsh offers him a deal: Jake’s life in exchange for helping them solve the worst series of crimes in the necropolis’ history.

Someone, or some thing is killing the dead, and if Jake can’t figure out who’s responsible, he could be next.

Necropolis PD is a hidden world fantasy that combines mystery, horror, magic, and more than a little humor. This book is perfect for the living and recently-departed alike.

Necropolis PD is the latest in the flourishing sub-genre of undead detective fiction. If you like it as much as I do, here’s a few more recent examples.

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