New Treasures: Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco

New Treasures: Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco

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Silver Under Nightfall (Saga Press trade paperback reprint, July 25, 2023). Cover by Avery Kua

It’s Friday before a long weekend, and there’s a host of books in my to-be-read pile vying for my attention. But it’s the end of summer and I’m in the mood for something different, so the title I plucked from the pile is Silver Under Nightfall, the adult fiction debut from the author of the popular Bone Witch trilogy, Rin Chupeco.

What’s so intriguing about Silver Under Nightfall? Partly it’s the great Castlevania vibe, which is a definite plus for an end-of-summer read. It’s the tale of a vampire hunter who encounters a “terrifying new breed of vampire” and a “shockingly warmhearted vampire heiress.” There’s a lot more in the back cover text, but honestly they had me at “warmhearted vampire heiress.”

There’s the usual enthusiastic press (Publishers Weekly says it “Makes the vampire genre feel fresh… packed with political intrigue and treachery in both human and vampire realms,” and Strange Horizons says it “packs a powerful punch… a wild, wicked, and welcome addition to the ranks of vampire fantasy novels”) but that’s just noise at this point. My tall chair and comfy drink are ready on the porch, and it time to get this weekend started.

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Goth Chick News: Here Comes Another Classic Monster Remake

Goth Chick News: Here Comes Another Classic Monster Remake

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Much like fashion, movie themes come in repeatable waves, and if you wait long enough everything that was called “classic” will eventually come back around. Such seems to be the case with the classic movie monsters, originally made famous in the 1930’s and 40’s by Universal Studios. Recently we’ve seen The Invitation and The Last Voyage of the Demeter (Dracula), The Cursed (werewolf), and Birth/Rebirth (Frankenstein), but frankly, there are a whole list of projects currently in production which pay homage to the originals. Of late there have been industry announcements around titles such as Frankenstein vs Dracula, This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein, and Feed to name a few. So, if you’re wondering if the bride of Frankenstein’s monster is going to get any love in the modern age, I’m here to tell you that she is.

A couple weeks back MovieWeb announced that Maggie Gyllenhaal was set to step behind the camera as the director of a remake of Bride of Frankenstein. Christian Bale was announced to be playing Victor Frankenstein, alongside Peter Sarsgaard (Gyllenhaal’s hubby) in a yet-to-be named starring role. There are rumors that in addition to directing, Gyllenhaal herself might play Elsa Lanchester’s iconic character, but I can’t find anything to substantiate this. The project, which is said to be titled The Bride, is set up at Netflix.

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Every Page a Delight: The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers

Every Page a Delight: The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers

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The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (Overlook Press, August 29, 2006). Cover by Walter Moers

My brief Goodreads review of Walter Moers’ The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear follows. I have been on Goodreads since 2008 and this is the highest praise I have ever given to any book on the site… 🙂

Years ago, I felt that a few books of James Branch Cabell (specifically Figures of Earth, The Silver Stallion, Jurgen) would be enough to reconstruct “Fantasy” literature if ever a strange disaster happened and all other works of fantasy were destroyed.

I now think the same thing is true, to an even greater extent, with this one huge volume of Walter Moers’. It is magnificent. It is comprehensive. It is fabulously inventive. If all other fantasy vanished overnight (including the Cabell books) Fantasy would still remain, provided Bluebear still existed. It contains multitudes. It is a cornucopia of fictional marvels.

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Reviews Are Not For Authors

Reviews Are Not For Authors

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Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Hello! Welcome to the end of August (nearly). Where I am, the nights are starting to get cool, and some of the trees have begun their autumnal blush. It is my favourite time of the year, at risk of outing myself as ‘basic.’ It honestly is wonderful. The heat finally leaves. I blame my largely Irish ancestry for my inability to handle the summer temperatures. The night air moves from obnoxious heavy and thick to clear and brisk. As the season progresses, an evening walk will deliver the delightful, homey scent of wood-burning fireplaces, and the sweeter scent and satisfying crunch of fallen leaves. Coats and hats and scarves make an appearance. It’s the perfect weather for a blanket, your favourite warm drink, and a good book.

Perfection.

So much better than summer, in my opinion. I am of the firm opinion that the heat makes people a little nutty. That might be why this summer I’ve been watching from the edges of author and reader social media and watched a couple of writers careen wildly into a good many readers ‘Never Read’ piles. This is not on the weakness of their work, but rather a horrifying flight of their good sense. Two happened quite recently, and I watched from a safe distance (as I hadn’t yet read or reviewed the books in question); both weirdly similar situations, in which authors received a review that was less than absolutely gushing and seemed to lose their minds.

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Evan Lewis on Cleve Adams – Black Knight, Cannibal and Forgotten Man

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Evan Lewis on Cleve Adams – Black Knight, Cannibal and Forgotten Man

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“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

(Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun)

If you read Pulp, you know who Evan Lewis is. He’s an MLB MVP while I’m AAA on a good day. Hardboiled, Adventure, Doc Savage, Dick Tracy, Davy Crockett, Nero Wolfe – the guy knows it all. He and I message about our like interests, and I conned – I mean, convinced – him to join in the Black (Gat) parade, this year.  I know a little about Cleve Adams, but not nearly enough to write about the once popular but now mostly forgotten pulpster.

 

Chapter 1

OBSCURITY

Cleve F. Adams is the forgotten man among hardboiled pulp writers. Though he produced well over a hundred stories and more than a dozen novels, almost every word is now out of print.

Adams was an anomaly in that his characters were genuinely hardboiled, while his style was not. His detectives were sometimes harder and more brutal than their contemporaries, but remained likable due to his easy-going whimsical style. This blend of violence and humor made him one of the relatively few hardboiled pulp writers to successfully move his magazine characters into hardcover.

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New Treasures: Witch Wizard Warlock, edited by Carol McConnell, David Lawrence Morris and Robert Allen Lupton

New Treasures: Witch Wizard Warlock, edited by Carol McConnell, David Lawrence Morris and Robert Allen Lupton

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Witch Wizard Warlock (West Mesa Press, Aug 21, 2023; 415p). Cover design by Campbell Blaine

Wizardry is always a draw for attention. Halloween is around the corner too, and there will be special attention toward beloved (feared?) magical arts.

Three Cousins Publishing (an imprint of West Mesa Publishing) gathered Carol McConnell, David Lawrence Morris and Robert Allen Lupton to collect tales of spellcasting with a global perspective from contemporary voices, and so Witch Wizard Warlock was conjured. It is available now in Kindle ($4.99), Paperback ($16.95), and Hardcover ($25.99).  An audiobook is in the works.

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Kickstarter for The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Volume IV Launched!

Kickstarter for The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Volume IV Launched!

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HFQ powered through the pandemic and stuck to our regular publishing schedule; but we fell behind on getting our best-of anthologies put together — a situation we aimed to correct with the August 19th launch of our Kickstarter to fund Best-of 4.

As of this writing, we are 85% to our goal of $1,500.  Check out our campaign and help us out if you can!

— Adrian Simmons and the HFQ crew.

P.S. On the fence?  Head over to issue #57 and see what we’re all about.

Vintage Treasures: Combat SF edited by Gordon R. Dickson

Vintage Treasures: Combat SF edited by Gordon R. Dickson

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Combat SF (Ace Books, June 1981). Cover by Vincent Di Fate

Military science fiction has a long and honorable history, from Heinlein’s Starship Troopers to Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War and John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War. It’s not nearly as prevalent on bookstore shelves as it used to be. Some people say that’s because science fiction is no longer a male-dominated genre that panders to young male power fantasies. And those people are mostly right.

But there’s still plenty of military science fiction that I remember fondly — especially the anthologies. The 70s and 80s was a golden age of mass market SF anthologies, and plenty of the better ones had military themes, like Joe Haldeman’s Tomorrow’s Warfare series (Body Armor: 2000, Supertanks, Space-Fighters), David Drake’s Space trilogy (Space Gladiators, Space Infantry, Space Dreadnoughts), and Jerry Pournelle’s There Will Be War.

But my favorite military SF from the era were the standalone anthologies. Including Combat SF, edited by Gordon R. Dickson, a terrific volume which includes stories by Arthur C. Clarke, Keith Laumer, Frank M. Robinson, David Drake, Joseph Green, Poul Anderson, Fred Saberhagen, Joe Haldeman, James White, Harry Harrison, Gene Wolfe, Hal Clement, and others.

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A Political Thriller in a Gaslamp World: The Grand Illusion by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

A Political Thriller in a Gaslamp World: The Grand Illusion by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

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The Grand Illusion novels: Isolate, Councilor, and
Contrarian (Tor Books, 2021-2023). Covers by Chris McGrath

L. E. Modesitt Jr. is one of the most popular and prolific authors of modern fantasy. He’s written over 80 novels, including the long-running Saga of Recluce (22 books), The Imager Portfolio (12 books), the Corean Chronicles (8 books), the Spellsong Cycle (5 books), and the Ecolitan series (4 books).

His latest series is The Grand Illusion, in which he is “Masterfully blending gas lamp fantasy, mystery, and political thriller” (Booklist), and it’s the first set of books from Modesitt that have worked their way to the top of my TRB pile in a long time. The opening novel Isolate won wide acclaim — Publishers Weekly said it “skillfully melds mystery and supernatural elements [into] a taut thriller,” and Library Journal said “Anyone who likes to delve into the way worlds work will be riveted” — but these days I like to wait until the first three books are available before I make a serious commitment.

The third novel, Contrarian, arrived in hardcover from Tor on August 15, and I’m finally ready to settle into my big green chair and put myself in Modesitt’s hands.

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Goth Chick News: This Is Your Invitation to The Brimstone Club

Goth Chick News: This Is Your Invitation to The Brimstone Club

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If you’ve been coming here for a while, then you’re likely aware of my deep admiration for the musical duo of Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka, known as Midnight Syndicate. In perusing the GCN articles which have featured them going back to 2009, I can see I often referred to Midnight Syndicate as my goth-boy-band crush, but I won’t apologize for fan-girling over moody musicians in black capes.

Beyond their aesthetic, it’s their talent for creating music to match your imagination that makes them fan favorites from Universal Studio’s Horror Nights to Cedar Point’s Halloweekends. To put it another way, Midnight Syndicate’s show is the only concert Black Gate photo Chris Z and I made a 12-hour round trip to see, and if you could imagine the two of us stuck in a car together for that long, then you know how great this music is.

So, it is a bit of an understatement to say I’m excited about their newest release, just in time for my favorite time of year.

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