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Year: 2017

Fantasia 2017, Day 2: Tilting at Ghosts (Tilt, A Ghost Story, and Museum)

Fantasia 2017, Day 2: Tilting at Ghosts (Tilt, A Ghost Story, and Museum)

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TiltFriday, July 14, felt like my first real day at the 2017 Fantasia Festival. After only one film the night before, I had three movies I wanted to see that afternoon and evening. First would come Tilt at the 175-seat J.A de Sève Theatre, a thriller that was drawing attention on the festival circuit for its political subtext. After that, at the 700-seat Hall, would come A Ghost Story, a movie about loss; I thought it looked slightly more interesting than the comedic manga adaptation Teiichi: Battle of the Supreme High because A Ghost Story depicted its ghost in the form of an actor with a sheet over his head. The sheer brazenness was appealing. Besides, after that my last film of the day would be another manga adaptation at the Hall, Museum (Myûjiamu), directed by Keishi Otomo. I’d seen and enjoyed two other adaptations by Otomo before, the third Rurouni Kenshin film two years before and then last year The Top Secret: Murder in Mind. The odds seemed good for Museum, a crime thriller about a cop tracking down a frog-masked serial killer.

But the day opened with Tilt. Directed by Kasra Farahani from a script he wrote with Jason O’Leary, it follows a documentary filmmaker, Joe (Joseph Cross), whose wife Joanne (Alexia Rasmussen) is pregnant. Joanne’s making some money as she trains to become a nurse, but Joe’s having problems putting together his second film, about the economy and the myth of an American “golden age.” Over the course of Tilt — the title, we’re told, of Joe’s well-received first documentary, about control and chaos in pinball — we see Joe slowly lose his grip on reality as he strains to get his film’s material into some kind of shape. He takes to walking aimlessly around nighttime Los Angeles, his sanity deteriorating. Will he find help before he reaches a breaking point?

The movie’s already drawn some attention because contrasting with Joe’s increasingly ragged work on his film, with his rants about the 1950s and American empire, is the concurrent rise in the background of Donald Trump as glimpsed through news reports and the characters’ disbelieving jokes. Given the lead time involved in film production, there’s yet to be a substantial cinematic response to Trump’s election, so the Trumpian motif in Tilt stands out. Still, it’s mainly an element in the film’s atmosphere: media reports, snide jokes, a jump scare involving a Trump mask that I suppose we must consider cinema’s first Trump scare. It weighs heavily only perhaps because of this particular historical moment, and because we’ve not yet gotten to the point of frequently seeing Trump in fiction films. But, as Farahani has pointed out in interviews, Trump’s in the movie only because he seemed to the filmmakers to represent some of the themes they were working with — a kind of white male entitlement and anger. Tilt isn’t a response to the America Trump is making, so much as a look at the emotional texture Trump has seized upon.

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July/August 2017 Analog Now on Sale

July/August 2017 Analog Now on Sale

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Analog July August 2017-smallI’ve been buying Analog Science Fiction and Fact for over 40 years. Remarkably little has changed in that time. It’s still a digest magazine. It still has interior art by Vincent Di Fate. And I still read “Probability Zero” first.

The July’August issue has a big novella by Martin L. Shoemaker, “Not Far Enough,” featuring the return of Captain Nick Aames, Carver, and Smith, who’ve previously appeared in the pages of Analog in “Murder on the Aldrin Express” (September 2013), “Brigas Nunca Mais” (March 2015), and “Racing to Mars,” (September 2015, winner of the Analog Award for Best Novella of the year). Here’s editor Trevor Qachari on the issue.

We kick off our July/August issue by checking in on Captain Nick Ames and his crew, last seen in “Racing to Mars,” September 2015, by Martin Shoemaker. When a routine mission goes off the rails, it’s more than just a matter of shipboard politics: lives are at stake, and people will die if they go too far, or “Not Far Enough.”

Then we have the kind of fact article that we only pull off all too rarely: H. G. Stratmann gives us a look at the science behind Stanley Schmidt’s story in this very issue, “The Final Nail.”

We also have fiction ranging from “Across the Streaming Sea,” an adventure that perfectly embodies Clarke’s Law, by Rob Chilson; to a story of the bond between a captain and his ship in Brian Trent’s “Galleon”; a follow-up to Maggie Clark’s “Seven Ways of Looking at the Sun-Worshippers of Yul-Katan,” in “Belly Up”; and an almost-could-have-happened-this-way tale of early space travel, “For All Mankind,” from C. Stuart Hardwick.

There’s also a slew of short pieces from such folks as Andrew Barton, Tom Easton, Tim McDaniel, Robert R. Chase, Ron Collins, Kyle Kirkland, Aubry Kae Andersen, Edward M. Lerner, Eve Warren, Holly Schofield, Uncle River, and Howard V. Hendrix, as well as an awesome array of compelling columns.

Although Trevor says “H. G. Stratmann gives us a look at the science behind Stanley Schmidt’s story in this very issue, ‘The Final Nail,'” don’t look too hard for Stan’s story. It actually appeared last issue.

The cover this issue is by Rado Javor. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

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Purity of Blood by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Purity of Blood by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

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oie_822641406YLopEI closed out my review of Captain Alatriste last summer by stating I would be reading more of Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s series in “short order.” That did not happen. Only now, over a year later, have I plunged back into the grimy, deadly underside of Golden Age Madrid. Even more than its predecessor, Purity of Blood (1997) explores the darkest heart of imperial Spain as she, only 130 years after her emergence as the world’s leading power, is collapsing in on herself; collapsing due to endless war, unsustainable debt, corruption at all levels, and unyielding religious fanaticism. Still, Spain remains a mighty empire; if not feared, still respected in all corners, and her subjects proud:

But at the time of this tale, our monarch was still a young man, and Spain, although already corrupt, and with mortal ulcers eating her heart, maintained her appearance, all her dazzle and politesse. We were still a force to be reckoned with, and would continue to be for some time, until we bled the last soldier and last maravedi dry. Holland despised us; England feared us; the Turk was ever hovering ’round; the France of Richelieu was gritting its teeth; the Holy Father received our grave, black-clad ambassadors with caution; and all Europe trembled at the sight of our tercios — still the best infantry in the world — as if the rat-a-tat-tat of the drums came from the Devil’s own drumsticks. And I, who lived through those years, and those that came later, I swear to Your Mercies that in that century we were still what no country had ever been before.

Purity of Blood picks up shortly after Captain Alatriste, in the year 1623. Like that book, this one is narrated by Íñigo Balboa, the son of one of Alatriste’s slain comrades. Íñigo tells the story from late in life, but during its events he is thirteen.

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Burn the (Black) Witch

Burn the (Black) Witch

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The-Black-Witch-smallFinishing up your manuscript for a YA novel? Congratulations! You’re almost ready to become a bona fide published author. The final step: evading the pitchfork-wielding mob!

The Black Witch, a debut young-adult fantasy novel by Laurie Forest, was still seven weeks from its May 1 publication date, but positive buzz was already building, with early reviews calling it “an intoxicating tale of rebellion and star-crossed romance,” “a massive page-turner that leaves readers longing for more,” and “an uncompromising condemnation of prejudice and injustice.”

The hype train was derailed in mid-March, however, by Shauna Sinyard, a bookstore employee and blogger who writes primarily about YA and had a different take: “The Black Witch is the most dangerous, offensive book I have ever read,” she wrote in a nearly 9,000-word review that blasted the novel as an end-to-end mess of unadulterated bigotry…

In a tweet that would be retweeted nearly 500 times, Sinyard asked people to spread the word about The Black Witch by sharing her review — a clarion call for YA Twitter, which regularly identifies and denounces books for being problematic (an all-purpose umbrella term for describing texts that engage improperly with race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and other marginalizations)…

Based almost solely on Sinyard’s opinion, the novel became the object of sustained, aggressive opposition in the weeks leading up its release. Its publisher, Harlequin Teen, was bombarded with angry emails demanding they pull the book. The Black Witch’s Goodreads rating dropped to an abysmal 1.71 thanks to a mass coordinated campaign of one-star reviews, mostly from people who admitted to not having read it…

Positive buzz all but died off, as community members began confronting The Black Witch’s supporters, demanding to know why they insisted on reading a racist book. When Kirkus gave the novel a glowing starred review, dozens of commenters demanded a retraction…

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New Treasures: Devil’s Call by J. Danielle Dorn

New Treasures: Devil’s Call by J. Danielle Dorn

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Devil's Call J Danielle Dorn-smallI like to mix things up in the New Treasures pipeline, offering titles from a range of different publishers. I’ve featured several novels from Inkshares in just the past few weeks — including teleportation thriller The Punch Escrow, and Quebec horror novel The God in the Shed — so when a new Inkshares novel, J. Danielle Dorn’s debut fantasy Devil’s Call, landed on my desk last week, I figured it was a long shot.

But that was before I read the description. The Bibliosanctum calls it “One of the best novels I’ve read this year,” and James Demonaco, creator of The Purge movie trilogy, calls it “The Revenant with witches.” Devil’s Call leapfrogged several titles that have been waiting patiently in the queue, and I think you’ll thank me.

On a dark night in the summer of 1859, three men enter the home of Dr. Matthew Callahan and shoot him dead in front of his pregnant wife. Unbeknownst to them, Li Lian, his wife, hails from a long line of women gifted in ways that scare most folks ― the witches of the MacPherson clan — and her need for vengeance is as vast and unforgiving as the Great Plains themselves.

Written to the child she carries, Devil’s Call traces Li Lian’s quest, from the Nebraska Territory, to Louisiana, to the frozen Badlands, to bring to justice the monster responsible for shooting her husband in the back. This long-rifled witch will stop at nothing ​― ​and risk everything​―​in her showdown with evil.

Devil’s Call will be published by Inkshares on August 8, 2017. It is 275 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by David Drummond.

See all our recent New Treasures here.

A Satisfying Conclusion to Feyre Archeron’s Story: A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

A Satisfying Conclusion to Feyre Archeron’s Story: A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

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A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas-smallA Court of Wings and Ruin
A Court of Thorns and Roses, Book 3
Sarah J. Maas
Bloomsbury USA Childrens (720 pages, $18.99 hardcover/$12.99 digital, May 2, 2017)

According to GoodReads voters, Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Wings and Ruin (known as ACOWAR to YA readers) was the most hotly anticipated 2017 YA release of any genre. The third volume in a series that was launched by New York Times bestseller A Court of Thorns and Roses and propelled to the #1 slot by its sequel, A Court of Mist and Fury, ACOWAR seemed poised to dominate the YA hardcover market after its publication on May 2nd. But even after promising sales in its first few weeks, the book has not cleared the same high bars as its predecessors.

ACOWAR delivers a satisfying conclusion to Feyre Archeron’s story. A classic high fantasy, it’s got vicious faeries, spiteful queens, hot lords, and – ahem – plenty of graphic sex. So what went wrong?

The book gets off to a promising start. Feyre has gone undercover in the Spring Court, ruled by her abusive ex Tamlin, who allied with the evil King of Hybern to wrench her away from her true love, Rhysand. She must hide her true emotions, her magical powers, and her standing as High Lady of the Night Court in order to lull Tamlin into underestimating her. The pace is quick during these early chapters, as readers enjoy Feyre’s stratagems to undermine Tamlin’s court from within. Likewise, we spin through the pages as she makes her escape, longing to reunite her with her mate.

But when that happens much sooner and more easily than expected, the plot shifts focus to defeating Hybern, who wants to enslave humanity. Since the relationships (called “ships” in the YA world) among Feyre, Rhys and Tamlin served as the engine that drove the previous two tomes, ACOWAR’s momentum slows when these issues seem resolved. If you do keep reading, however, the last third of the book will reward you with lots of action and a twist that brings tears to the eyes.

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By Crom: The Tor Conan – Quality May Vary…

By Crom: The Tor Conan – Quality May Vary…

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Conan_RogueEvery so often, I get the hankering to read a tale of Conan the Cimmerian (better known as ‘The Barbarian’ thanks to Ah-nuld Schwarzenmuscles).

I usually grab one of the three excellent Del Rey volumes (which Howard Andrew Jones and Bill Ward entertainingly went through – here’s the first installment) and get a quick fix. For a little more reading, I snag one of the Ace/Lancer series edited by L Sprague De Camp (with some help from Lin Carter). And less often, I find one of the Tor paperbacks that I haven’t gotten around to yet and try one of them.

As I mentioned in this post on what qualifies as Conan Canon (say that five times fast!) back in 2015:

‘From 1982 through 2003, eight authors (though primarily four) cranked out 43 new Conan novels for Tor. At two per year, the quality varied wildly, as you can imagine. John M. Roberts’ Conan the Rogue is an homage to Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest and one of my favorite Conan books. Steve Perry’s Conan the Indomitable is one of the worst fantasy books I’ve ever read (even though it is a direct sequel to Perry’s Conan the Defiant, which I liked).’

I have maybe two-thirds of the Tor books and have read two-thirds of those (What: I’m channeling Yogi Berra now?). Some of the Tor titles give you at least a bit of an idea what the story is about, such as John M. Roberts’ Conan and the Treasure of the Python and Leonard Carpenter’s Conan of the Red Brotherhood.

But the majority are all titled Conan the (insert vague word here). It’s a litany of titles like Conan the Valorous, Conan the Defiant, Conan the Great, Conan the Formidable: you get the idea. You’ve got to read the back cover to get some clue what the story is about.

The Tor books, pushed out at a punishing pace, are very much a mixed bag. And my experience so far is that more often than not, they fall into the “meh” or worse category.

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Self-published Book Review: The Emerald Blade by Steven Kelliher

Self-published Book Review: The Emerald Blade by Steven Kelliher

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The Emerald Blade Cover

I may miss the next month or so, due to the Mysterion Kickstarter and a workshop I’m attending, but please keep sending me books to review, and I’ll get to them soon — see the instructions here.

Steven Kelliher’s The Emerald Blade is a sequel to his novel The Valley of Embers, which I reviewed at Black Gate last year. It follows the fire-wielding Ember Kole, and Linn, who inherited the air-wielding abilities of the White Crest. After defeating the White Crest, they set out to pursue T’alon Rane, the corrupted King of the Embers, whom they hope will lead them to the Eastern Dark, the Sage who is bringing the Dark Kind of the World Apart to their world.

They are joined by two fellow Embers, Misha and Jenk, and the massively strong Rockbled Baas. Both Embers and Rockbled are Landkist, gifted power by the lands in which they live, as opposed to the Sages, who take power from the land. Kole’s and Linn’s expedition travels to the Emerald Road, a rainforest where massive trees form multiple layers of canopy atop one another, and traveling along the Road involves moving from layer to layer. There they discover that the Sage Balon Rael has come to the Emerald Road, seeking the Emerald Blade, the name for both a man and the weapon he wields, a weapon that’s all that remains of the Emerald Sage.

T’alon Rane seeks both the Emerald Blade and the death of Balon Rael, on the orders of the Eastern Dark, but to achieve his goals, he temporarily allies himself with Balon Rael while looking for an opportunity to betray him. Meanwhile, Kole and Linn and their group ally themselves with the Emerald Blade. Similar to the first book, shifting alliances and tenuous loyalties make the action unpredictable, as the sides realign constantly right up to the end.

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Swing Into Action With Your Very Own Spider-Man Hoodie from USAJacket

Swing Into Action With Your Very Own Spider-Man Hoodie from USAJacket

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Drew models a USAJacket Spider-Man Homecoming Red Hoodie-small Drew models a Spider-Man Homecoming Red Hoodie 3-small

It’s a tough gig being an editor. It’s not enough to just keep a steady drumbeat of content — you also need to mix it up a bit. That’s one reason every article at Black Gate is tagged with at least one category…. makes it easier to tell at a glance when we’re over-saturated on New Releases, Magazines, and Reviews, and it’s time to commission a News piece, or something on Comics, maybe. Or Music, or RPGs.

Of course, some categories get less attention than others. Fashion, for example, is probably the most neglected category we have. Patty Templeton asked me to add it five years ago so she could do a brief feature on Crisiswear, and we’ve had maybe half a dozen reasons to use it since. Let’s just say that fashion is not my beat.

So I’m very pleased that, after producing some 4,000 blog posts here at Black Gate, today I’m writing my first fashion article. It’s because of a gift I ordered for my son’s 20th birthday: a Spider-Man Homecoming Red Hoodie from USAJacket, which Drew is so kindly modeling for us above. Once it arrived and I saw how it looked on him, I knew other members of the Black Gate community would be interested.

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A Glimpse of the Secret Pervert Republic: The Best American Noir of the Century, edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler

A Glimpse of the Secret Pervert Republic: The Best American Noir of the Century, edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler

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The Best American Noir of the Century small The Best American Noir of the Century back-small

I’ve recently been enjoying the massive 2011 anthology The Best American Noir of the Century, which isn’t science fiction or fantasy, but which does showcase a lot of highly regarded SF and fantasy writers, including Charles Beaumont, Cornell Woolrich, Harlan Ellison, David Morrell, and others.

The first question I had when I set set eyes on this book was “Which century are they talking about?” Turns out it’s neither the 20th nor the 21st… it’s the last hundred years, give or take. The book includes 39 stories arranged chronologically by publication date, starting with Tod Robbins “Spurs,” which first appeared in Munsey’s Magazine in February 1923, and ending with Lorenzo Carcaterra’s “Missing the Morning Bus,” from Penzler’s 2007 anthology of poker stories, Dead Man’s Hand.

Penzler gives a nice overview of the history of noir fiction in his Foreword, but it’s Ellroy’s introduction, in which he claims that American noir describes “the demography of a Secret Pervert Republic” that I found especially entertaining. Here’s a few snippets.

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