Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Samurai Stocking Stuffers

Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Samurai Stocking Stuffers

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Master Swordsman Hirate Miki (Japan, 1951)

If you’re just getting into watching older samurai adventures movies, you can’t go wrong picking those directed by Akira Kurosawa or starring Toshiro Mifune and/or Tatsuya Nakadai. However, eventually you’ll run through all those, and then where do you look?

Fortunately, in the ‘50s through ‘70s, chambara action films were as common in Japanese movie theaters as Westerns were in America, and a lot of the very best samurai features are available with fairly decent English subtitles. This week we’re going to look at four lower-profile samurai films from the 1950s, the first three of which, though obscure, are well worth the trouble of seeking them out.

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Goth Chick News Classics: Ray Bradbury’s “The Wish” Has a New Meaning This Year

Goth Chick News Classics: Ray Bradbury’s “The Wish” Has a New Meaning This Year

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The Book

For the last few years, as my last post of the year, I have reposted an article I wrote about Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Wish.” It is a Christmas tale of loss and love and magic which Bradbury penned following the death of his father. When it first appeared in Women’s Day magazine in 1973, my Dad was deep in his own grief having lost his own father, my beloved Grandpa, earlier that year. The story I told in Black Gate was how “The Wish” helped ease my Dad’s grief and led to my lifelong love of all things Bradbury.

That article led to my meeting and becoming friends with Bradbury’s editor Peter Schneider from Hill House Books, who published the only standalone hardcover of “The Wish.” He presented me with one of the numbered copies, signed by Bradbury, which is one of my most prized possessions.

Two weeks ago, as I prepared for the holiday festivities, I was suddenly faced with the loss of my own father. He was 94 and his health hadn’t been the greatest for a few months, so maybe his leaving us peacefully in his sleep should not have come as the shock that it did, but the sense of loss was crushing.

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Random Review: “The Theft of Destiny” by Josepha Sherman

Random Review: “The Theft of Destiny” by Josepha Sherman

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Cover by Jean-Francois Podevin
Cover by Jean-Francois Podevin

The other day I was talking about writing with someone who began pointing out the similarity of ideas behind a variety of books. I pointed out that the idea wasn’t always the important thing, what an individual author did with the idea was important. Two authors who come up with the same basic idea would write extremely different stories.

Josepha Sherman’s “The Theft of Destiny,” which first appeared in the Margaret Weis anthology Legends: Tales from the Eternal Archives is certainly not based on a new idea. In fact, Sherman’s story is a retelling of an ancient Mesopotamian myth concerning Enlil, Anzu, and Ninurta. However, Sherman relates the legend in a way that is more resonant with the modern reader.

Over the course of only a few pages, Sherman presents three different viewpoints, beginning with Enlil, who has custody of the Tablets of Destiny. Sherman follows the tablets when they are stolen by Anzu, and, by extension, begins to look at Anzu’s motivations in the theft. Ninurta, Enlil’s son, comes into the picture when his father informs the gods of the theft and his underrated son sees an opportunity to achieve something and make a name for himself.

Without delving too deeply into the mythology behind the two gods, the demon, or the Tablets of Destiny, Sherman works to provide each of them with very realistic and understandable motives for their actions. Anzu doesn’t steal the Tablets merely to set the action of the story in motion and Ninurtu chases after Anzu because he feels the need to demonstrate that he is as capable, or more capable, than the more establish deities.

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The Return of Lone Wolf by Joe Dever

The Return of Lone Wolf by Joe Dever

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Lone Wolf Definitive Editions, Volumes 1-3 (Holmgard Press). Covers by Alberto Dal Lago

Joe Dever started playing Dungeons and Dragons in 1976, barely three years after the first copies appeared in game shops in Lake Geneva. In 1984 he published his first Lone Wolf solo fantasy game book, Flight from the Dark; it became an international bestseller and launched a publishing phenomenon. By Dever’s death in 2016, the Lone Wolf series had been translated into 18 languages and sold over 12 million copies.

Unlike most other fantasy solo gamebooks — such as Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone’s classic Fighting Fantasy titles, Steve Jackson’s fabulous Death Test and its sequels, Tunnels and Trolls adventures like City of Terrors, George Dew’s excellent Legends of the Ancient World, and others — the Lone Wolf books could be played separately or back-to-back, as individual chapters in an epic solo campaign spanning 32 books.

Before his death Dever substantially rewrote the opening book Flight from the Dark, expanding it from 350 to 550 sections. The publishing company he founded, Holmgard Press, has now reissued the first five titles in hardcover Definitive Editions in the UK, and will be releasing paperback editions of the original gamebooks with brand new cover art — and all the original interior art by Gary Chalk — in the US on January 3.

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Creeping Dread and Strange Melancholy: Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies by John Langan

Creeping Dread and Strange Melancholy: Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies by John Langan

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Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies (Word Horde, July 5, 2022). Cover by Matthew Jaffe

I consume a lot of literature from a lot of genres: everything from the vibrant, mystical fantasies of Tolkien to the grim blood-and-thunder of McCarthy, and more besides. But it is with horror fiction that I find myself at both my pickiest and my most ravenous. The horror I enjoy, I love. The horror I do not enjoy, I hardly stomach. So, when I find a horror author I consistently enjoy, I try to read their works in the manner a man stranded upon a lee shore might parcel out his last bits of hardtack and beef: a piece at a time, savoring each moment, drawing it out as long as possible.

John Langan’s work does not afford me that parsimony. A veteran of horror and other speculative genres since the publication of his first story, “On Skua Island,” in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 2001, I devour his words wherever and whenever I find them. His latest collection, Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies continued this long tradition of literary gluttony.

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What I’m Watching: December, 2022

What I’m Watching: December, 2022

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Last week, I spent 5,000 words talking about Dark Winds and the Tony Hillerman series it is adapted from. I even watched it twice – as I said, it’s a good series: just not good Hillerman. Recommended.

I continue to look forward to Tulsa King every Sunday. That may be the best show out there right now. I talked about that in the November post.

I did a series of posts on The Rings of Power – it was a ‘meh’ series. Better than The Shanarra Chronicles, not as good as The Wheel of Time. For over a half-billion dollars, it should have been better than fan fiction.

First half of season six of The Rookie was fine: though the new boot is easily the worst character in the history of the show. Season one of the spin-off show, The Rookie: Feds, was okay.

My son and I are watching Lethal Weapon: I’m not totally crazy about Damon Wayans in the role, but he and Clayne Crawford work well together. I think Crawford is the key to the show. I know there was a cast change after season two, so I’m leery. But overall, it’s a fun buddy cop show.

Moving on.

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Exploring the Dark Corners of the Universe: The Science Fiction Anthologies of August Derleth

Exploring the Dark Corners of the Universe: The Science Fiction Anthologies of August Derleth

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Strange Ports of Call (Berkley Books, June 1958). Cover artist tragically unknown

August Derleth is remembered these days primarily for his stewardship of the works of H.P. Lovecraft. He founded Arkham House (with Donald Wandrei) in 1939 to bring Lovecraft into print in hardcover, and over the next 30 years he contributed steadily to Lovecraft’s foundational Cthulhu Mythos, both in his own writing, and by publishing numerous books in the cycle from other horror notables. He was also (as Bob Byne is constantly reminding me) the creator of the popular Sherlock Holmes pastiche Solar Pons, and the author of a great deal of historical fiction, including the Sac Prairie Saga.

But for me, Derleth’s greatest contributions were as an editor. He assembled some 30 horror and science fiction anthologies, including Sleep No More (1944), The Other Side of the Moon (1949), Far Boundaries (1951), The Outer Reaches (1951), Beachheads in Space (1952), Night’s Yawning Peal (1952), and many more. Many of them are highly collectible and hard for the casual collector to get their hands on — but the paperback reprints, by Berkley Books, Sphere, Signet, Four Square Books, and many others, are much easier to come by.

In the late 50s Berkley Books reprinted seven of Derleth’s early SF anthologies in handsome paperback editions including his first, Strange Ports of Call. These books helped introduce thousands of American readers who didn’t read magazines to science fiction for the first time. Here’s a look at all seven.

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A Dark and Glorious Vision: Michael Moorcock’s Elric, from Titan Comics

A Dark and Glorious Vision: Michael Moorcock’s Elric, from Titan Comics

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All four volumes in Michael Moorcock’s Elric from Titan Comics (2014 – 2022)

There’s been a lot of comic adaptations of Michael Moorcock’s Elric over the years. Perhaps the most famous is the French artist Philippe Druillet’s ambitious rendition of The Eternal Champion, but there have been many others associated with the character, including P. Craig Russell, James Cawthorn, Walter Simonsen, Mike Mignolia, Howard Chaykin, and many more. First Comics had a lengthy association with Moorcock for many years, producing highly regarded adaptations of Elric, Hawkmoon, and others. I think my favorite was Mark Shainblum’s lengthy Chronicles of Corum adaptation.

Titan Comics has had a long partnership with Moorcock, and recently it has released the best Elric adaptation I have ever seen, in any medium. The four volumes, The Ruby Throne, Stormbringer, The White Wolf, and The Dreaming City, are among my favorite comics of any kind in the past few years. Produced by the French team that includes the writer Julien Blondel and several enormously talented artists, including Didier Poli, Julien Telo, Robin Recht, and Jean Bastide, these books belong in every decent library of modern fantasy.

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New Treasures: Isolation: The Horror Anthology edited by Dan Coxon

New Treasures: Isolation: The Horror Anthology edited by Dan Coxon

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Isolation: The Horror Anthology (Titan Books, September 27, 2022). Cover by Kerry Lewis

I know that plenty of you lot like to keep your horror reading seasonal, and once Halloween wraps it’s time to put the spooky tales away with the other decorations. But for me winter time, with its desolate landscapes and long dark nights, is the perfect time to curl up with some shivery tomes.

Dan Coxon’s Isolation: The Horror Anthology has successfully commanded my attention for much of this long wintry week. Inspired by the forced isolation of the COVID pandemic, Coxon has challenged some of horror’s brightest talents to tell creepy tales of isolation of all kinds. A mix of originals and reprints (15 originals, from Alison Littlewood, Mark Morris, Ramsey Campbell, Laird Barron, Tim Lebbon, Lisa Tuttle, Michael Marshall Smith, Nina Allen, Owl Goingback, Brian Evenson, and others, plus five reprints from Jonathan Mayberry, M.R. Carey, Joe R. Lansdale, Ken Lui, and Paul Tremblay), Isolation is an entertaining blend, with vampire tales, zombie apocalypses, tormented spirits, hostile presences, serial killers, and all the things that terrify us when we’re alone.

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Random Review: “Reconciliation” by Fredric Brown

Random Review: “Reconciliation” by Fredric Brown

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Cover by Kohs
Cover by Kohs

Fredric Brown was known for doing two things quite well. He was a master of the twist ending, science fiction’s O. Henry, if you like, and he was prolific with extremely short stories, flash fiction in modern parlance. Combining the two is not particularly easy, but since one aspect of flash fiction is “its ability to hint at or imply a larger story,” according to Robert Swartwood, the fact that the author needs to use words sparingly means that they have to imply a great deal of the plot, characters, and setting, leaving the stories rife for misinterpretation or misdirection.

One of Brown’s pieces of flash fiction is “Reconciliation,” which first appeared in Browns’ collection Angels and Spaceships. In only 311 words, Brown tells the story of a couple whose marriage is falling apart. John has come to view his unnamed wife as someone who only married him for his money and hangs around with women whom he dislikes. His wife denies that his money has anything to do with their relationship, but feels humiliated by the fact that John has had an affair and is positive that he will have future affairs, a fact that he confirms.

Brown has captured the vitriol and hate of two people stuck in a relationship that can only be headed for an ending, whether separation, divorce, or murder.

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