Lawrence Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords Arrives Next Week

Lawrence Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords Arrives Next Week

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Cinema of Swords by Lawrence Ellsworth (Applause, June 15, 2023)

Next Thursday is a big day in the Black Gate offices, as the most anticipated book of the year finally arrives: the hardcover edition of Lawrence Ellsworth’s monumental Cinema of Swords.

What’s in this great beast of a book? Every one of Lawrence’s informative and entertaining Cinema of Swords columns from Black Gate — Over four hundred movies and television shows featuring swashbucklers: knights, pirates, samurai, Vikings, gladiators, outlaw heroes like Zorro and Robin Hood, and anyone else who lives by the blade and solves their problems with the point of a sword — pus full-color stills, poster reproductions, a handy index (both Title and Subject), and plenty of fascinating sidebar articles by Lawrence, covering topics like The First British Invasion (50s swashbuckling TV series from ITV) to Wholesome Buccaneers (family-friendly pirate ) and Mighty Maciste (the roving strongman of two dozen films of the 60s-era post-Hercules peplum craze).

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Goth Chick News: The 7th Guest Finds New Life Thanks to VR

Goth Chick News: The 7th Guest Finds New Life Thanks to VR

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Monty Python’s Complete Waste of Time (7th Level, October 1994) and The 7th Guest (Trilobyte/Virgin, April 1993)

I remember it like it was yesterday. The year was 1994 and all I wanted was a computer with a compact disc read-only memory. You see, having a CD-ROM-capable PC, which had only become available the year before, opened an entirely new world of entertainment. However, a machine with those advanced capabilities, including 24-bit VGA graphics, would set you back around $2,300 (or roughly double that in today’s dollars). I literally used to haunt my local CompUSA store where they had floor models of these technological marvels I could actually play with.

Oh, the longing…

And then miracle of miracles, I received a $1000 refund on my taxes and promptly financed the rest at some ridiculous interest rate, loading my very own Packard Bell Pentium Multimedia PC into the trunk, along with monitor and printer. But as euphoric as this was, the real scores were riding shotgun in the front seat, CD-ROMs of Monty Python’s Complete Waste of Time, and The 7th Guest.

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Let’s Talk About Giant Robots: Tim Akers on BOLO and BattleTech

Let’s Talk About Giant Robots: Tim Akers on BOLO and BattleTech

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BOLO by Keith Laumer (Berkley Medallion, July 1977), BattleTech board game
(FASA, 1985), and Lonely Power Armor by Tim Akers (Citizen Crow Press,
May 17, 2022). Covers by Vincent Di Fate, Alan Gutierrez, unknown

Why do so few writers write anguished poetry or create art to honor the fertile and elusive muse of modern sci-fi? I’m speaking, of course, of that ever-sexy icon of the future, the GIANT ROBOT.

Tim Akers takes a small step to rectify this injustice in his May newsletter Heretigram, writing:

The image that defined my early creative life [was] the original cover of BattleTech, the game of armored combat, released by FASA in 1984… and lasting through dozens of revisions and reboots. It’s seeing a bit of a resurgence in gaming, and I couldn’t be happier. BattleTech was the game that moved me from Avalon Hill cardboard chit and hex map strategy games, and into the wider world of miniatures gaming. And I’ve never looked back.

Tim also salutes the fiction of Keith Laumer and Fred Saberhagan and, just to prove his heart truly is in the right place, offers a tasty excerpt from his own giant-robot inspired fiction, his new novella Lonely Power Armor.

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Djinn, Disguises, and Dangerous Desert Quests: The Sandsea Trilogy by Chelsea Abdullah

Djinn, Disguises, and Dangerous Desert Quests: The Sandsea Trilogy by Chelsea Abdullah

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The Stardust Thief and The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah (Orbit,
May 17, 2022 and February 20, 2024). Cover design by Lisa Marie Pompilio

Arabian fantasy with a true One Thousand and One Nights feel is rare these days, which is why we celebrate it when it comes along. And Chelsea Abdullah’s debut novel The Stardust Thief, opening volume in The Sandsea Trilogy, has indeed been celebrated, with a bevy of enthusiastic reviews.

The Stardust Thief is a rousing tale of adventure, featuring a young thief with a djinn bodyguard, midnight assassins, dangerous desert quests, ancient lamps, magical disguises, a cruel prince and his softhearted younger brother, the Forty Thieves, and much more. Kirkus Reviews calls it “a beautifully crafted adventure,” and the sequel, The Ashfire King, is already on the schedule for early next year. I bought copy of the first volume last weekend I’m looking forward to diving into it.

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Talking Tolkien: Tolkien’s Evil Magic Sword – Anglachel

Talking Tolkien: Tolkien’s Evil Magic Sword – Anglachel

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Talking Tolkien is back for another installment, and I’m bringing back one of my essays.

Today’s essay is about a magic sword named Anglachel. It is really a minor element of the book, but the story of it weaves in and out of many other parts. That’s one of the true wonders of The Silmarillion. It’s a vibrant, interconnected history of Tolkien’s world. There are just SO many characters and stories throughout it.

I’m in that weird, small group which cites The Silmarillion as their favorite Middle Earth book. It is essentially a mythology and history of Tolkien’s world. While I love Robert E. Howard’s Hyboria, for me, Tolkien set the fantasy standard for world building. The Silmarillion is really several long stories combined into one book.

John Ronald Ruel Tolkien, creator of Middle Earth, was a master storyteller. The Hobbit, with its tale of plucky hobbits and dwarves, a wizard, a magic ring, and a dragon, made what has been termed high fantasy appealing to a large audience. And The Lord of the Rings is an epic saga of good versus evil and of never giving up on what is right, no matter how daunting the odds.

Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings included bits of Middle Earth history. Gimli sang ‘The Song of Durin’ as the fellowship traveled through Moria and Aragorn sang a song of Beren and Luthien early in his travels with the hobbits. It was the history of Middle Earth and events of the First Age that were always dear to Tolkien’s heart. He tried for decades to get The Silmarillion published and he constantly revised and added to his creation.

Of course, magic swords are one of the most popular tropes in fantasy (and role playing games). The appeal can probably trace its roots back to King Arthur’s legendary blade, Excalibur. Bilbo was given the elven dagger named Sting in The Hobbit. Aragorn’s Anduril (the sword formerly known as Narsil) is an important symbol in The Lord of the Rings, while Gandalf bore Glamdring (Hey Gary Gygax, who says wizards can’t use swords?), a sword that traced its lineage back to Turgon of Gondolin. As does its ‘mate,’ Orcrist, which found its way to Thorin as he sought to reclaim Erebor for Durin’s folk.

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Reading the Avon Fantasy Reader — Issue 1: What Defines a Classic?

Reading the Avon Fantasy Reader — Issue 1: What Defines a Classic?

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Avon Fantasy Reader #1 (Avon Books, February 1947). Cover artist unknown

On the occasion of this year’s Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention — my fifth — I resolved to learn from past mistakes and come armed with a specific list of items needed to plug holes in my considerable collection of science fiction and fantasy paperbacks and pulps. This year, I came looking to complete my set of all 18 volumes of Donald A. Wollheim’s Avon Fantasy Reader, a digest magazine I’d poked at before due to its propensity to publish works by Clark Ashton Smith, a writer who never disappoints. The convention coughed up all but two of my missing issues, but crucially provided the first volume in the series, which I had never before seen in person. I snagged it immediately, of course, and began reading it that day.

The Avon Fantasy Reader ran 18 issues, from February 1947 to March 1952. Originally intended as a quarterly, it usually managed three issues per year. Wollheim’s introduction to the first volume promises tales of fantasy and imagination about “those strange forces which exist just beyond the boundaries of knowledge.” He further touts a roster of authors that represented “a sure guarantee of the best stories of their kind available.”

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Mummies, Sexy Robots, and an ancient Greek Labyrinth: May-June 2023 Print SF Magazines

Mummies, Sexy Robots, and an ancient Greek Labyrinth: May-June 2023 Print SF Magazines

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May/June 2023 issues of Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Asimov’s Science Fiction,
and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Cover art by Eldar Zakirov
(for “Aleyara’s Descent”), 123RF, and Maurizio Manzieri (for “The Dire Delusion”)

There’s a lot of great reading in store for us in this month’s print magazines. Including a classic mummy horror tale, stories of fox-gods and conjure houses, and a new tale of Cascor the Discriminator by Matthew Hughes (in F&SF); a sexy apocalypse robot, a Star Trek-like tale of the coldest spot in the universe, and a hero in an ancient Greek Labyrinth (in Asimov’s SF); and a Raymond Chandler-esque noir in space, an action-packed novella of terrifying aliens on an alien world, a berserk mech on Mars, and a wry narrator with hangover in a dystopian London (Analog).

The big SF magazines are packed with brand new fiction from Sean McMullen, Allen M. Steele, Lavie Tidhar, Matthew Hughes, Zig Zag Claybourne, Frank Wu & Jay Werkheiser, Mark W. Teidermann, Andy Dudak, R. Garcia y Robertson, Tom Purdom, Sandra McDonald, Bill Johnson & Gregory Frost, Chris Willrich, Barbara Krasnoff, Melissa A. Watkins, and many more. See all the details below.

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Total Pulp Victory: Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention 2023, Part II

Total Pulp Victory: Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention 2023, Part II

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David C. Smith and Steven H Silver find priceless treasures in the Dealers Room at Windy City Pulp & Paper

A month ago I wrote a short convention report on the 2023 Windy City Pulp & Paper Show, which took place Friday April 21st to Sunday, April 23rd in Lombard, Illinois. In that article I mostly rubber-necked at the gorgeous Weird Tales pulps and other rare magazines sold during the evening auctions, and took covetous pictures of the pre-auction displays.

Here in Part II, I’ll share a few more photos of the vendors and personalities I met, and showcase a few of the many treasures I dragged home in seven heavy boxes — including vintage comics, science fiction digests, graphic novels, new releases, and of course lots of great old paperbacks. Assuming you enjoy cautionary tales of disastrous self control, it should be an entertaining read.

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Goth Chick News Interviews: Comic Creator Tom Fenoglio

Goth Chick News Interviews: Comic Creator Tom Fenoglio

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Hunter Ninja Bear, Volume 1: Provenance from Fenom Comics

As I told you back in April, Black Gate photog Chris Z and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2). During that adventure we crossed paths with brothers Joe and Tom Fenoglio, founders of the indie comic company Fenom Comics. They were promoting their graphic novel Hunter Ninja Bear, Volume 1: Provenance, which caught our attention due to the incredible illustrations.

I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a copy and having had a holiday weekend to devote to reading it, I must admit I’m now kind of obsessed with this story of three forces of nature (a hunter, a ninja, and a bear). I had to know more, and Tom indulged me with a quick response to all my questions as well as some juicy graphics.

So, Tom meet everyone. Everyone, meet Tom, cofounder of Fenom.

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Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Invitation to a Keelhauling

Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Invitation to a Keelhauling

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Pirates of Tortuga (USA, 1961)

Once upon a time, back in the mid-20th century, pirate movies were a genre unto themselves, like Westerns, gangster films, or jungle adventures, familiar fare at Saturday matinees with rollicking stories and reliable action, with cutlass duels and fiery ship battles. Though the genre dwindled and then died by the late ‘60s, it evoked fond memories and was regularly revived thereafter in big-budget epics that were mostly too overblown and bloated for their own good.

Fortunately, the original modest but tight buccaneering adventures the blockbusters attempted to evoke are still available to watch and enjoy. Some of them hold up pretty well even in the 21st century, and you can see why they struck a chord with movie audiences back in cinematic piracy’s heyday.

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