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Month: January 2014

Vintage Treasures: They Fly at Çiron by Samuel R. Delaney

Vintage Treasures: They Fly at Çiron by Samuel R. Delaney

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They Fly at Ciron-smallSamuel R Delaney is justly famous as a science fiction writer. As I noted during my days as a bookseller at places like the Chicago Printer’s Row book fair (in my article “Selling Philip K. Dick“), Delaney is one of a handful of classic SF authors for whom there is still a constant demand. During that hot weekend in July in 2012 — just like at numerous SF conventions over the years — I did a brisk business selling old Samuel R. Delaney paperbacks to readers asking for him by name.

He’s less well known as a fantasy writer, even though his Nevèrÿon books — Tales of Nevèrÿon (1979) and Neveryóna (1983), and the two collections Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985), and The Bridge of Lost Desire (1987) — have their fans. Personally I found Tales of Nevèrÿon beautifully written, but very slow, and had no real interest in trying the next three.

But the Nevèrÿon volumes aren’t Delaney’s only fantasy. In 1993 he revised and expanded a novelette he’d written with James Sallis and published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1971, releasing it as They Fly at Çiron, and I’ve always been curious about it.

Çiron is a quiet village, troubled only by the strange black Winged Ones who inhabit the skies overhead. Until the army of Myetra arrives, led by the brutal prince Nactor, and the villagers find themselves enslaved and treated as beasts. Rahm, a village youth, escapes and form a desperate alliance with the fearsome Winged Ones, finally finding a way to resist the Myetran’s advanced weaponry.

They Fly at Çiron turned out to be Delaney’s last genre novel. Since 1993 he has focused exclusively on literary novels such as The Mad Man (1994), Dark Reflections (2007) and Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders (2012). They Fly at Çiron was published in a limited edition by Incunabula in 1993, and in hardcover by Tor in 1995. The Tor edition is 224 pages, with a handsome cover by Thomas Canty, and is readily available online.

See all of our recent Vintage Treasures here.

Neal Barrett, Jr, November 3, 1929 – January 12, 2014

Neal Barrett, Jr, November 3, 1929 – January 12, 2014

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Neal Barrett, JrNeal Barrett, Jr, author of The Karma Corps (1984), The Hereafter Gang (1991), and the four-volume Aldair series, died on Sunday.

Barrett first published story was “To Tell the Truth” in the August 1960 issue of Galaxy Magazine. He made a name for himself with his quirky, hard-to-classify short fiction, including the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award finalist “Stairs” (Asimov’s SF, September 1988), and the Hugo and Nebula Award nominee “Ginny Sweethips’ Flying Circus” (Asimov’s SF, February 1988). His short work has been gathered in half a dozen collections, including Slightly Off Center (1992), Perpetuity Blues and Other Stories (2000), a nominee for the World Fantasy Award, and Other Seasons: The Best of Neal Barrett, Jr. (2013). He continued writing short fiction right up to his death, with his “HERE and THERE” appearing in the Spring 2012 issue of Subterranean Magazine, and “Bloaters” in Impossible Monsters, an anthology released by Subterranean Press in July 2013

Barrett’s first novel was Stress Pattern, published by DAW in 1974. DAW published all four volumes of his Aldair series between 1976 and 1982, and his 1984 science fantasy The Karma Corps, which we covered in a Vintage Treasures piece just a few short months ago. His later books included Through Darkest America (1987), Pink Vodka Blues (1992), Dead Dog Blues (1994), Prince Of Christler-Coke (2004), and Finn, the Lizard Master series from Bantam (The Prophecy Machine, 2000, and The Treachery of Kings, 2001).

We discussed Neal Barrett’s Aldair novels — which Fletcher Vredenburgh called “a blast of strangeness and adventure. Really, [Barrett is] an author without enough attention from the average reader” — in the Comments Section of my September 10th Vintage Treasures post.

Neal Barrett was born in San Antonio, Texas, and grew up in Oklahoma City. He was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2010. He died January 12, 2014, at the age of 84.

New Year’s Resolutions of Oz

New Year’s Resolutions of Oz

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one million yearsAfter about ten months of uninterrupted weekly posts, I’m taking a bit of a breather this week. Today, instead of new content, I’ll take inventory and look ahead to what I hope to deliver Black Gate readers in 2014. Perhaps I can couch it in a “New Year’s Resolutions” list — most of us allow for a bit of leeway on those overly optimistic proclamations, anyway…

1. Lose about twenty pounds, preferably at a blackjack table in Derbyshire.

2. Cut back on tobacco consumption, especially my wife’s.

3. Drink more alcohol. (It fell way off in 2013. Obviously I need to get to more conventions.)

And blah blah blah. Okay, let’s get to the stuff that someone else reading this might actually be curious about…

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The Science Fiction and Fantasy of Mick Farren

The Science Fiction and Fantasy of Mick Farren

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The Novels of Mick Farren-small

First time I heard of Mick Farren was when I opened a box of review copies from Tor in 1996 to find his novel The Time of Feasting, a dark fantasy concerning a hidden colony of vampires living underground in New York City. I flipped to the bio, where I read that Mick was the writer and singer for the punk band The Deviants, and that he also had several solo hits.

This was pretty cool. Here was a successful rock musician making a mid-career transition to dark fantasy writer. This just re-affirmed what I already knew: there were plenty of glamorous professions out there, but nothing as awesome as being a fantasy novelist.

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Art of the Genre: Artistic Melancholia for the Ruins of the Cyber World

Art of the Genre: Artistic Melancholia for the Ruins of the Cyber World

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Biking the Grasslands before the fall...
Biking the Grasslands before the fall…

Not to go all ‘Goth Chick’ on you, but have you ever walked in a graveyard? If your answer is no, I’d put money says that you have but you just didn’t realize it. You see, the internet is really a reflection of our own world, with vibrant and glowing real-estate all along the information super highway. Now if you consider each dedicated website as a ‘town’ along this course, what happens when the site goes dormant? I would like to hypothesize that it, and all the ‘people’ [information] in it dies as well. Sure, you can still visit, and perhaps even find out some cool history there, but in truth you are simply walking over the graves of the dead.

Take a site like Grognardia for example, RIP December 11th 2012, or Permission Magazine RIP February 2011, or Stephen Fabian.com RIP June 6th 2010. They still exist, can still be read, but have ceased functioning for all intents and purpose and are now just ghosts in the machine.

Now you might be asking, ‘so what does this morbid topic have to do with Art of the Genre?’ Well, perhaps nothing, but then again, perhaps everything. Each website, no matter how basic, had to have a design, and that design, like a testament to some ancient civilization, is left behind in a kind of ruin that can be viewed by anyone who stumbles off the beaten path into a lost world, but I think I digress, so first let me go back. Seeing these always seems to bring me back to my post here on November 15th, 2012. In it I spoke about the Art of Disappearing MMORPGs, and for some reason I feel the need to speak on the subject a bit more and I apologize if I reiterate some of the topics of that post but I’m in stream of consciousness right now so humor me.

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Winter 2014 Subterranean Magazine now Available

Winter 2014 Subterranean Magazine now Available

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Subterranean magaine Winter 2014-smallHow does Subterranean magazine get such gorgeous covers, issue after issue? Editor Bill Schafer must keep a host of talented artists chained up in the basement. I wish I’d thought of that.

The Winter Issue isn’t just a pretty face — it’s got personality, too. Have a look at the spectacular table of contents:

“The Scrivener” by Eleanor Arnason
“Bit Players” by Greg Egan
“The Prelate’s Commission” by Jeffrey Ford
“Nanny Anne and the Christmas Story” by Karen Joy Fowler
“Hayfever” by Frances Hardinge
“Caligo Lane” by Ellen Klages
“I Met a Man Who Wasn’t There” by K J Parker
“Pilgrims of the Round World” by Bruce Sterling

We published Jeffrey Ford’s “Exo-Skeleton Town” back in Black Gate 1. It won the 2006 Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, the French national speculative fiction award, and has been reprinted many times — including in the anthology Alien Contact, where editor Marty Halpern said:

This is probably the quirkiest story in the anthology. And it remains one of the more unique story concepts I’ve ever read. In fact, even though I’m the editor, I’m almost tempted to ask Jeff: “Where the hell did this idea come from?”…

You can read the complete story here. We published Ellen Klages wonderful fantasy “A Taste of Summer” in Black Gate 3; she has since been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell, and World Fantasy Awards for her short fiction.

Subterranean is edited by William Schafer and published quarterly. The Winter 2014 issue is completely free and available here; see their complete back issue catalog here. We last covered Subterranean magazine with their previous issue, Fall 2013.

New Treasures: The Woodcutter by Kate Danley

New Treasures: The Woodcutter by Kate Danley

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The Woodcutter-small47North, Amazon’s new fantasy, SF and horror imprint, launched with considerable fanfare in October 2011, and I’ve been watching it with interest ever since. Several genre publishers have quietly cut back — or folded — over the last few years, so I’m always relieved to see the cycle of life continuing, and new imprints emerge. But just as importantly, new publishers bring new editorial ideas and a willingness to take chances, and that means a healthy crop of new authors.

Kate Danley is one of those new authors, and 47North published her debut novel a little over a year ago. The Woodcutter opens with strong fairy tale elements, and quickly takes a darker tone — with missing girls, hellhounds, and a pixie dust drug ring.

Deep within the Wood, a young woman lies dead. Not a mark on her body. No trace of her murderer. Only her chipped glass slippers hint at her identity.

The Woodcutter, keeper of the peace between the Twelve Kingdoms of Man and the Realm of the Faerie, must find the maiden’s killer before others share her fate. Guided by the wind and aided by three charmed axes won from the River God, the Woodcutter begins his hunt, searching for clues in the whispering dominions of the enchanted unknown.

But quickly he finds that one murdered maiden is not the only nefarious mystery afoot: one of Odin’s hellhounds has escaped, a sinister mansion appears where it shouldn’t, a pixie dust drug trade runs rampant, and more young girls go missing. Looming in the shadows is the malevolent, power-hungry queen, and she will stop at nothing to destroy the Twelve Kingdoms and annihilate the Royal Fae… unless the Woodcutter can outmaneuver her and save the gentle souls of the Wood.

Since The Woodcutter appeared Kate Danley has been very busy, releasing three volumes in the Maggie MacKay Magical Tracker series, two O’Hare House Mysteries, a collaboration with William Shakespeare (Queen Mab: A Tale Entwined with William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet), the Christmas tale The Spirit of Krampus, and more.

The Woodcutter was published by 47North on November 6, 2012. It is 273 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback and $3.99 for the digital edition.

See all of our recent New Treasures here.

Was Star Trek‘s Theme Music Stolen From Beethoven?

Was Star Trek‘s Theme Music Stolen From Beethoven?

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The CBC’s Tom Allen and the Gryphon Trio do some amazing musical detective work, following the clues from Mahler to Brahms to Beethoven to the 23rd Century, in this delightful single-take through the twisted subterranean corridors of Paul Hahn’s piano studio in Toronto. Also starring teleporting pianist Jamie Parker, and a little cosplay.

Heroic Fantasy with the Sharp Edge of Reality: The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris

Heroic Fantasy with the Sharp Edge of Reality: The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris

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The Sacred Band-smallThe Sacred Band
Janet Morris and Chris Morris
Perseid Press (547 pages, June 2011, $24.95)

All three hundred of the Sacred Band of Thebes fought at Chaeronea in August of 338 BCE, and two-hundred fifty-four skeletons lie buried there today under a granite lion. Some still argue about the fate of the forty-six whose skeletons were not recovered. Plutarch says that they died together, and Philip of Macedon wept to see it. Another, later, view is that the remainder surrendered, were taken prisoner, or deserted. We tell a different story.

— Janet and Chris Morris, in their Authors’ Notes and Acknowledgments from The Sacred Band

And this is the premise behind this wonderfully rich, complex, dramatic and highly emotional epic of gods, demi-gods and Men. This is the story of how Tempus the Black, Favorite of Enlil, Storm God of the Armies, and the one they call Riddler, challenged the gods to rescue twenty-three pairs of Thebans, forty-six warriors who had been fated to die. And rescue them he did… Charon, Lysis and the other forty-four men of the original Sacred Band of Thebes… by opening a dimensional portal from Chaeronea to Lemuria, where they were taken, trained and made part of the greater Sacred Band.

This is the also the story of Nicodemus, who is called Niko and Stealth, a true weapon of the gods, of his own struggle with becoming the favorite, the avatar of a god, and his intimate relation with the goddess Harmony.

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Starting to Kick Farewell, Something Lovely

Starting to Kick Farewell, Something Lovely

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Last night I started a new Kickstarter campaign. For those of you who just asked “what’s a Kickstarter?” you can learn more here. Basically, it is a site that links together people interested in investing in projects with those who require funding. These are generally smaller projects, sometimes creative, sometimes technological. Explore the site. There’s lots to see.

This is my second Kickstarter. I’ve mentioned my Kickstarter for Centurion: Legionaries of Rome, a role-playing game, here. I’ll have more to say about that once I get the final tally for shipping costs.

The new Kickstarter is a short fiction collection called Farewell, Something Lovely. I’ve subtitled it “Tales of Sword Noir,” working yet again the title of a sub- sub-genre in which I like to write. To me, sword noir is basically a mash-up of sword & sorcery and hardboiled crime fiction, falling more heavily on the sword & sorcery side. One of the stories re-printed in Farewell, Something Lovely first appeared in Black Gate 15.

Kickstarter offers a great opportunities for freelance creatives, including fiction authors. There are actually better paying markets for short fiction than there are for role-playing games, however there are less of them. E-books have certainly created opportunities for the “insurgent creative” – a term coined by Gareth-Michael Skarka – however Kickstarter offers an even better opportunity, at least in my mind.

Kickstarter provides two factors up-front that e-books or other self-publishing routes do not: market testing and funding.

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