Browsed by
Month: May 2016

The SFWA Bulletin #208, the 2016 Nebula Awards Special Issue, is Now Available

The SFWA Bulletin #208, the 2016 Nebula Awards Special Issue, is Now Available

Comments 0 Comment

The SFWA Bulletin 208-smallWhen I arrived at the Nebula Awards conference on Thursday, one of the first things I received was a complimentary copy of issue #208 of the flagship publication of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, The SFWA Bulletin. It’s an oversize magazine (not a digest), an impressive 84 pages on heavy stock, which I read on my long train ride back to St. Charles later that night.

The SFWA Bulletin has changed a lot over the years, and I’ve enjoyed plenty of issues. But this is certainly the best single issue of the magazine I’ve ever read. It is devoted almost exclusively to the 2016 Nebula Award nominees, with a 50-page section that examines each and every nominee in detail — with mini-author bios, a story synopsis, a few paragraphs on the origin and story-behind-the-story from the nominees, and fascinating tidbits on each tale, such as favorite reactions from fans, thoughts on possible sequels, and lots more.

There’s also cover reproductions — book or magazine as the case may be — for each entry, which I greatly appreciated. (I don’t know why I enjoy seeing high-res cover reproductions of recent magazines, but I do!)

This also happens to be Neil Clarke’s first issue as full-time editor of the Bulletin (he’s been acting as interim editor since John Klima’s departure last year). While he’s done a stellar job, it’s clear he’s not 100% satisfied. In his editorial, he wonders whether readers might not be better served with a post-Nebula issue instead.

…

Read More Read More

Dark Souls III: Feel the Burn

Dark Souls III: Feel the Burn

Comments 0 Comment

Dark-Souls-III-5-2

At this point, I shouldn’t need to tell you about the Dark Souls series and why people are excited about it. Over the last few years, From Software has grown in reputation, thanks to the series being one of the most challenging on the market. I felt the previous Dark Souls stepped away from what made the series great, and left From Software in a position to recover with Dark Souls III. With III, we have a mix of old and new designed to push (and punish) players further.

Undead Again

As with previous games in the Souls series, you are an undead being cursed to wander the land until you eventually become hollow or insane. Upon awakening, you’re given a quest to return the lords of cinder to their throne; this entails wandering a very big land and dying a lot.

Just like the other games, there is a deep story hidden behind the lore, but I’m going to leave that for someone more versed in it to talk about.

…

Read More Read More

We Are a Romance of the Machine: An Hour With CJ Cherryh, SF’s Newest Grandmaster

We Are a Romance of the Machine: An Hour With CJ Cherryh, SF’s Newest Grandmaster

Comments 3 comments

This weekend I attended the 2016 Nebula Conference here in Chicago, where CJ Cherryh received the SFWA Damon Knight Grand Master Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Science Fiction Writers of America. Part of the Friday afternoon programming included “An Hour With CJ Cherryh, SF’s Newest Grandmaster.” I sat in the front row, with Nebula nominees Ann Leckie and Lawrence M. Schoen, and captured the first part of the speech, in which Cherryh entertained the audience with recollections of her childhood ambition to be a writer, discovering science fiction, her early career, selling her first novel to Donald Wollheim at DAW Books, and her recent marriage to fellow novelist Jane Fancher. She spoke of the core of optimism in her work, calling it “The attitude behind my writing.” About science fiction writers, she said:

That’s our job… to make people face the future with confidence. With a notion that there is something they can do, and they should be doing it. Because, remember that [we’re] one generation removed from barbarism. People have to believe there’s a reason to keep on keeping on, and this is what we are. We are a romance of the machine. In the time when people declared Romance was dead, we were the despised literature that kept going, and kept inventing, and saying, ‘There’s a way out of this.’

The clip above includes the entirety of her prepared remarks (about 13.5 minutes), and her responses to the first few questions, including why she choose to write under “CJ Cherryh” rather than her full name.

New Treasures: A Shadow All of Light by Fred Chappell

New Treasures: A Shadow All of Light by Fred Chappell

Comments 2 comments

A Shadow All of Light-smallBack in March, when I posted a Future Treasures article about the upcoming fantasy novel A Shadow All of Light by the distinguished poet Fred Chappell, Sarah Avery left this intriguing comment:

They’re not kidding about the “distinguished poet” bit. Have you seen this guy’s bio? Whoa.

I dutifully checked it out, and I see what she means. Here’s a snippet:

Acclaimed poet and novelist Fred Chappell was born on a small farm in Canton, North Carolina in 1936. He attended Duke University, where he befriended fellow writers Anne Tyler, Reynolds Price, and James Appelwhite. The author of over a dozen books of poetry, a handful of novels and short story collections, and two books of critical prose, Chappell has received numerous awards for his work, including the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Bollingen Award, the Aiken Taylor Award, an award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters, and the best foreign book prize from the Academie Française. He was named North Carolina Poet Laureate in 1997, a position he held until 2002.

In addition to all those laurels, Fred Chappell also won a World Fantasy Award for his short story “The Lodger” (1993). He’s the author of the classic horror novel Dagon (1968) and I Am One of You Forever (1985), and was the subject of a deluxe Masters of the Weird Tale volume from Centipede Press last December. Read his complete bio here.

His latest, A Shadow All of Light, is an epic adventure featuring pirates, master thieves, monsters, and fantasy detectives. It was published by Tor Books on April 12, 2016. It is 384 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover and $14.99 for the digital edition. Read a lengthy excerpt at Tor.com.

Is Weird Tales Dead… Again?

Is Weird Tales Dead… Again?

Comments 12 comments

Weird Tales 362-smallWeird Tales magazine, the oldest and most storied fantasy magazine in America, has died and returned numerous times in its near century-long history. And I’m beginning to wonder if it’s dead again.

Marvin Kaye took the editorial reins from Ann VanderMeer five years ago with much fanfare, but since then has produced only three issues — the last of which was two years ago. The magazine’s website has not been updated in well over two years. And worst of all, I’m now hearing reports from authors who sold work to the magazine that they’ve had stories returned with little or no explanation.

In fact, the lead story about Weird Tales these days is the complete lack of communication coming out of the editorial offices. At the Nebula Awards conference here in Chicago, which began yesterday, all mentions of the magazine have been accompanied by a shroud of gloom. And earlier today I received this from Black Gate author Joe Bonadonna, who sold a story to them several years ago:

Weird Tales is supposed to print one of my novellas on the online version of their Sword & Sorcery Special Edition — it’s too long for their print version. But it’s been 3.5 years since I heard from them, so who knows when that issue will be out? They are not very good at answering emails, and their website is terrible — no news on that either.

When a magazine essentially stops publishing, that’s bad news. When it fails to update its website for years, that worse. But when it goes dark for three years or more, it’s usually dead. So far, that yardstick has proven pretty reliable.

Weird Tales has been deader than this, and surged out of the grave before. I hope it does so again. But I’m beginning to doubt it.

Future Treasures: The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu edited by Paula Guran

Future Treasures: The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu edited by Paula Guran

Comments 10 comments

The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu-smallI’m very much looking forward to Paula Guran’s annual Best of the Year collections — The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2016, coming in June, and especially The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas 2016, shipping in August.

While we wait we have her latest anthology to tide us over, and it looks like a lot of fun. The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu is a thick collection of all-new Mythos fiction by Michael Shea, Laird Barron, John Langan, Usman T. Malik, Helen Marshall, Silvia Moreno, John Shirley, Simon Strantzas, and many others (plus reprints from Caitlín R. Kiernan, Veronica Schanoes, and Damien Angelica Walters).

An outstanding anthology of original stories inspired by H. P. Lovecraft from authors who do not merely imitate, but reimagine, re-energize, and renew his concepts in ways relevant to today’s readers. Fresh new fiction that explores our modern fears and nightmares. From the depths of R’lyeh to the heights of the Mountains of Madness, some of today’s best weird fiction writers—both established award-winning authors and exciting new voices — The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu collects tales of cosmic horror that traverse terrain created by Lovecraft and create new eldritch geographies to explore…

With stories by: Laird Barron, Nadia Bulkin, Amanda Downum, Ruthanna Emrys, Richard Gavin, Lois H. Gresh, Lisa L. Hannett, Brian Hodge, Caitlín R. Kiernan, John Langan, Yoon Ha Lee, Usman T. Malik, Helen Marshall, Silvia Moreno, Norman Partridge, W. H. Pugmire, Veronica Schanoes, Michael Shea, John Shirley, Simon Strantzas, Sandra McDonald, Damien Angelica Walters, Don Webb, Michael Wehunt, and A.C. Wise.

The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu will be published by Robinson/Running Press on May 24, 2016. It is 476 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback. The cover is by Tim McDonagh. No word yet on the digital edition.

Goth Chick News: A (Sort of) Jaws Prequel With a Whole Lot of Whaaaat?

Goth Chick News: A (Sort of) Jaws Prequel With a Whole Lot of Whaaaat?

Comments 1 comment

Jaws swimming

I have no problem admitting that Jaws is in my top five favorite movies of all time. Granted, some of that love is of the “point in time” sort; as in it was the first R-rated movie I was ever allowed to see, it was the first time I saw special effects approaching realistic (I had been on a steady diet of classic horror movies since I was 8) and it was the first time I had a concrete method of expressing my fear of deep water (“Sharks!”). Forgetting of course, that the closest I had ever come to salt water was the Shedd Aquarium.

…

Read More Read More

Shut Up, You Freak!!

Shut Up, You Freak!!

Comments 13 comments

Shut Up You Freak-small

Recently, as I watched the San Antonio Spurs pummel and demoralize the Oklahoma City Thunder, I was pummeled and demoralized myself, as I was smacked with a halftime commercial for the upcoming movie Alice Through the Looking Glass. Combine this with the recent rumors of a Beetlejuice sequel, and the conclusion is inescapable: it’s sixteen years into the twenty first century, and we haven’t learned a thing. Tim Burton just isn’t going to go away, and apparently there’s nothing that we can do to make him go away. (I know that the new Alice isn’t being directed by Burton, but he’s responsible for it in the same way that Nixon was responsible for the depredations of Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy.)

The man is seemingly bulletproof; no number of Rubberstamped, predictable, underperforming movies can stop him. “Tim Burton” is a firmly established pop culture brand, and it hardly matters that he hasn’t directed a good movie since the end of the last century. (I do make a partial exception for Big Fish, which wasn’t good, but was at least an ambitious, honorable failure. It also seemed to take something out of Burton; he’s never tried anything nearly as serious since.)

How did it come to this? Back in the day, I liked Batman, Ed Wood, and The Nightmare Before Christmas as much as anyone. I was initially underwhelmed by Mars Attacks but later came to appreciate it. Now, however, I greet the announcement of every new Tim Burton project in precisely the same way I greet every new American commitment in the Middle East: “Oh God — we’ve already done this, and it never works!”

…

Read More Read More

Clarkesworld 116 Now Available

Clarkesworld 116 Now Available

Comments 1 comment

Clarkesworld 116-smallI love Peter Mohrbacher’s cover for the May issue of Clarkesworld, a gorgeously creepy piece titled “Ananiel, Angel of Storms” (click the image at right for a bigger version.) Mohrbacher has covered other Clarkesworlds — mostly recent issue 111 — but this is the first to really make me sit up and take notice.

Robert L Turner III at Tangent Online raves about Rich Larson this issue, calling him “an excellent new talent.”

“Jonas and the Fox” by Rich Larson is set in a post revolution farming community. Fox is a poet and fugitive from the new junta after the revolution starts to eat its own. He is hiding in the body of his nephew who is brain dead after an accidental fall. His Nephew Jonas, the other title character, must come to terms with the stranger inhabiting his brother’s body. The novelette cleverly links the revolution’s rewriting of history with the disconnect between Fox and his new body. The story is touching, and manages to keep you guessing as to how it will end. Larson is a young author and well worth keeping an eye on. If this piece is representative of his work, we could be looking at an excellent new talent.

Read his complete review here.

Clarkesworld #116 has five new stories by Cat Rambo, Robert Reed, Cassandra Khaw, Rich Larson, and Luo Longxiang, and two reprints by Joe Abercrombie and Sunny Moraine.

…

Read More Read More

Blogging Sax Rohmer’s The Insidious Doctor Fu Manchu, Part Seven – “Karamaneh”

Blogging Sax Rohmer’s The Insidious Doctor Fu Manchu, Part Seven – “Karamaneh”

Comments 0 Comment

NOTE: The following article was first published on May 23, 2010. Thank you to John O’Neill for agreeing to reprint these early articles, so they are archived at Black Gate which has been my home for over 5 years and 260 articles now. Thank you to Deuce Richardson without whom I never would have found my way. Minor editorial changes have been made in some cases to the original text.

The_Mystery_of_Dr._Fu-Manchu_cover_1913-227x350karamaneh-1“Karamaneh” was the sixth installment of Sax Rohmer’s serial, Fu-Manchu first published in The Story-Teller in March 1913. The story would later comprise Chapters 16 and 17 of the novel, The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu (initially re-titled The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu for U.S. publication). The story opens with Nayland Smith, Dr. Petrie, and Inspector Weymouth preparing a dragnet around the area where Dr. Fu-Manchu is known to have a base of operations. They have no illusion that they will capture the doctor himself, but hope to round up enough of his minions to deal a significant blow to the enemy.

Smith and Petrie are among a dozen Scotland Yard men combing the area. As they pass by a gypsy encampment, Smith recognizes one of the gypsies as a disguised dacoit who is wanted for murder in Burma (where Smith serves as police commissioner). While they fail to apprehend the man, they succeed in capturing the female gypsy before she can escape. The disguised gypsy woman turns out to be the mysterious slave girl who has repeatedly saved Petrie’s life since Smith first involved him in the affair. Rohmer does an excellent job of conveying Petrie’s mixed feelings of compulsion and revulsion when faced with this dangerous and exotic woman.

The reader shares Petrie’s ambivalence towards this complex character. She is beautiful and graced with a foreign otherness that defies precise identification and she has risked her own life several times in order to save Petrie, yet she has also willingly participated in the murder of countless other innocent men. Rohmer makes much of her unabashed stare that few men would be able to hold. Petrie is fascinated with her, but also feels ashamed that the object of his affection is opposed to all that defines a British subject at this point in time.

…

Read More Read More