Treasures to Return To: The Best of Lucius Shepard

Treasures to Return To: The Best of Lucius Shepard

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The Best of Lucius Shepard, Volumes One and Two (Subterranean Press,
August 2008 and December 2021). Covers by J. K. Potter and Armando Veve

I think the first thing I ever read by Lucius Shepard was his famous novella “R&R,” an ultra-realistic tale of American G.I’s in near-future Guatemala caught up in a senseless war guided by psychics, and fought by young men on a dangerous cocktail of combat drugs. It was unlike anything I’d ever read before, and it took home many of the industry’s top awards, including the Locus and Nebula. Shepard, who died in 2014, published a dozen novels — including Philip K. Dick nominee Life During Wartime (1987), Locus Award winner The Golden (1993) and A Handbook of American Prayer (2004) — but his major work was at short length.

Fourteen years ago William Schafer at Subterranean Press did the world a favor and published The Best of Lucius Shepard, a monumental volume collecting seventeen of his most famous and acclaimed works of short fiction. For most writers that would certainly be adequate, but it was not for Shepard, and at the end of last year Subterranean finally released a massive 848-companion volume containing over a dozen new tales, including Nebula nominee “A Traveler’s Tale,” Hugo Award-winner “Barnacle Bill the Spacer,” the Dragon Griaule tale “Liar’s House,” and three previously uncollected novellas.

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Goth Chick News: The Night at the Bride of Killer Piñata Movie Premier

Goth Chick News: The Night at the Bride of Killer Piñata Movie Premier

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Bride of Killer Piñata

It’s true that in the horror movie industry, premiers are often referred to as “black carpet” events, as opposed to “red carpets.” When you think about it, either color would work, but it makes sense that our more alternative industry would want to distinguish itself from the mainstream.

Regardless, the concept is the same.

A theater is booked for the first-ever big-screen showing of a new film. There’s a cool backdrop near the entrance, against which photos are snapped. The director, the stars, and the whole production staff roll up, along with their family and friends, while intermingled is press and local reviewers. Usually there are a few speeches before the lights go down, then an uproarious cheer when the movie title appears on the screen. It is literally one of the coolest things you could ever get to do, so if you get invited to one, accept immediately.

And that is exactly what happened to me recently.

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Random Reviews: “The Loser of Solitaire” by Paul David Novitski

Random Reviews: “The Loser of Solitaire” by Paul David Novitski

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Cover by Steve Fabian
Cover by Steve Fabian

The introduction to Paul David Novitski’s short story “The Loser of Solitaire” in the January 1979 issue of Fantastic Stories notes “Paul Novitski is not a prolific author.” In fact, he sees to have published a total of five short stories over a period of seven years, with the first two, appearing in 1973 and 1975, published under the name Alpajpuri, and the last three, all appearing in 1979 under his own name.

Novitski tells the story of a man who is looking someone named Zo. Through the course of the story, we learn that this man is a rover, someone who travels at relativistic speeds through space and therefore ages differently than mere mortals. He also has four arms, although at no point does Novitski address whether the arms are natural or an augmentation.

His search for Zo takes him into a night-club/brothel, where he is assaulted by the sights, colors, and sounds while he is being propositioned until he finds Zo. When he does find her, he explains that they have a friend in common, Sergi, although it is unclear how much of a friend Zo considers him. What is clear is that Zo is something of a writer and Sergi had shown the rover some of her writings, which has caused him to want to track her down.

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Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Valiant Avenging Chivalry

Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Valiant Avenging Chivalry

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The Valiant Ones (Taiwan/Hong Kong, 1975)

Wuxia, which can be translated as martial chivalry, is the term usually applied to tales of ancient Chinese armed martial arts, especially when retold in the context of the Hong Kong action film tradition that began in the Sixties. Wuxia movies were eclipsed by the Seventies kung fu boom but never quite went away, reviving full force in the Nineties and staying strong to this day.

By the late Seventies there was a changing of the guard, as the founding knights, directors King Hu and Chang Cheh, gave way to rising stars of chivalry such as Sun Chung and John Woo. The latter took the lessons of the founders, absorbed the frenetic dynamism of the kung fu years, and carried wuxia films forward with a new joy and energy.

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The Golden Age of the Novella: The Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo

The Golden Age of the Novella: The Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo

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All three volumes in The Singing Hills Cycle: The Empress of Salt and Fortune,
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, and Into the Riverlands (Tor.com, 2020-2022). Covers by Alyssa Winans

Happy book birthday to Into the Riverlands, the third volume in Nghi Vo’s acclaimed The Singing Hills Cycle!

In its review of the second volume, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, The Chicago Review of Books said “We are in a golden age of the novella,” and boy, that’s the truth. Tor.com alone has published many hundreds of novellas since they launched their novella line in September 2015, and for the past half-decade or so they’ve thoroughly dominated the long-form Hugo and Nebula ballot, with series like Martha Wells Murderbot, Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children, Becky Chambers’ A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti, and many, many others.

Last year the Hugo Award for Best Novella was awarded to Nghi Vo for her debut Tor.com release The Empress of Salt and Fortune. It was followed less than ten months later by When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, which Publishers Weekly called “Dazzling.” It’s delightful to see the third volume in this groundbreaking fantasy series arrive so quickly after the first two.

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Talking The Rings of Power – The Istari

Talking The Rings of Power – The Istari

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So – season one of Amazon’s massively expensive Second Age epic, The Rings of Power, has fully aired. I have mixed feelings about it. It’s definitely better than MTV’s teen-drama take on Shannara (The Sword of Shannara is one of my all-time favorite novels). But I liked the Wheel of Time better than Rings. And that certainly had some flaws. So, still sorting through things.

I’m going to do a re-watch, really paying attention and trying to be a little less disappointed at the approach they took. I will say, if you’re a fan of The Silmarillion, it’s worth watching to see some of that book come to life – even if it could have been done more faithfully.

For the next month-ish, I’m going to identify some key aspects of the show, and look at some of the good and the bad for each. And the main part will be Tinkering With Tolkien – some discussion of what Tolkien actually wrote about the topic of the week.

The Silmarillion is my favorite Tolkien novel. I love the lore and the history of Middle Earth. The wars, the stories of dwarves, and elves; it’s incredible world-building. I like reading about what he created, more than reading the actual books straight through. I enjoy reading the appendices to the Lord of the Rings, and the events in the timelines. Unfinished Tales, which elaborated on the five main books, is actually my favorite Tolkien book of them all.

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Vintage Treasures: A Glow of Candles by Charles L. Grant

Vintage Treasures: A Glow of Candles by Charles L. Grant

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A Glow of Candles (Berkley Books, November 1981). Cover by Jill Bauman

Charles L. Grant was a major figure in 20th Century horror, not just as a writer but as a talented editor. He edited dozens of horror anthologies, including eleven volumes of the groundbreaking Shadows series from 1978-1991. He produced over a dozen novels, but is remembered today primarily for his powerful short fiction, gathered in three major collections: Tales from the Nightside and A Glow of Candles and Other Stories (both in 1981), and the retrospective Scream Quietly: The Best of Charles L. Grant (PS Publishing, 2012). He died in 2006.

Grant received the British Fantasy Society’s Special Award for life achievement in 1987, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers of America in 2000. He was honored with two Nebula Awards and three World Fantasy Awards for his writing and editing. Sadly, little of his work remains in print, and his collections can be hard to come by. I recently managed to track down a copy of A Glow of Candles, and it was well worth the effort.

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The Only Devil Book You’ll Ever Need: The Book of Fiends – A Malefic Bestiary for Fifth Edition by Robert J. Schwalb

The Only Devil Book You’ll Ever Need: The Book of Fiends – A Malefic Bestiary for Fifth Edition by Robert J. Schwalb

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The Book of Fiends (Green Ronin Publishing, March 8, 2022). Cover by Svetoslav Petrov

It’s a cliché to say that a good role playing campaign is like a satisfying fantasy series, packed with realistic characters, compelling action, and vivid settings. It’s more accurate, I think, to say that truly great role playing shares an essential ingredient with the best fantasy. I mean, of course, that it’s all about the villains.

Want to keep your players coming back, clutching well-worn character sheets and eager for action? You need challenges worthy of their time, and you won’t get that with the same generic dragons week after week. You need truly malefic opponents with legendary skills, cunning agendas, and awe-inspiring magic at their disposal.

There are some terrific resources out there to help you craft really memorable villains, but for my money the best one on the market is The Book of Fiends by Robert J. Schwalb, with Aaron Loeb, Erik Mona, and Chris Pramas. It’s a massive 254-page tome filled to the brim with inventive and truly original infernal menaces for Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons. There isn’t another book published in the last five years I’ve drawn from as heavily for my own game as this one. I don’t care why kind of RPG you play, The Book of Fiends will up your game.

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Future Treasures: Eyes of the Void, Book 2 of The Final Architecture by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Future Treasures: Eyes of the Void, Book 2 of The Final Architecture by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Shards of Earth and Eyes of the Void (Orbit, August 3, 2021, and November 22, 2022). Cover design by Steve Stone

Adrian Tchaikovsky is equally at home with ambitious epic fantasy (including his Echoes of the Fall trilogy, and the sprawling, 13-volume Apt series) and big-canvas science fiction (including Warhammer 40K and his Arthur C. Clarke award-winning Children of Time novels).

HIs latest is an ambitious space opera trilogy. It began with Shard of Earth, which BookPage labeled “one of the most stunning space operas I’ve read this year… glorious,” and Publishers Weekly called “dazzlingly suspenseful… a mix of lively fight scenes, friendly banter, and high-stakes intrigue.”

Next month the second installment Eyes of the Void drops, and the advance buzz for this one is just as rapturous. I usually avoid a series until at least three novels are in print, but I may have to make an exception for this one.

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Random Reviews: “Divina” by Sarah Ash

Random Reviews: “Divina” by Sarah Ash

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Cover by Roy Virgo
Cover by Roy Virgo

Sarah Ash’s “Divina: A Tale of Bel’Esstar” is set in her city of Bel-Esstar and focuses on the opera composer Avenel Brumiere and his muse, the Divina Oralie. Unfortunately for both of them, the story opens with Oralie’s costume igniting on the stage lights and the soprano suffering horrible burns all over her body, to which she would succumb despite the intervention of a mysterious doctor.

Part of Ash’s story deals with Brumiere’s attempts to work through his grief at the loss of his paramour and inspiration. As may be expected, Brumiere’s attempts to complete his next opera are stymied by the loss of the only woman he believes would have been able to sing the part he was writing. Dust comes to cover the score he was working on.

When the mysterious doctor appears with the offer to not only help Brumiere through his grief, but also help him regain his ability to compose, Brumiere ignores his offer. At this point, the story appears to move from a study of grief on the creative process into a deal-with-the-devil story, supported by the doctor’s business card which identifies him as Asmodé, who exhibits automata at the House of Asphodel.

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