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Author: John ONeill

Sarah Avery on “The War of the Wheat Berry Year”

Sarah Avery on “The War of the Wheat Berry Year”

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Sarah Avery’s story “The War of the Wheat Berry Year” first appeared in the Black Gate 15, our last print issue. Since then, Sarah has had a stellar career — winning the 2015 Mythopoeic Award for her novel Tales from Rugosa Coven, editing an anthology with David Sklar, and successfully Kickstarting The Imlen Brat, a novella featuring the heroine of “War of the Wheat Berry Year,” when she was a child adopted into a perilous royal court. Now Great Jones Street has reprinted a revised version of “The War of the Wheat Berry Year.” Here’s Sarah.

In 2003, I wrote a fantasy short story about.. a turncoat. I gave her many of the attributes we see so often — an army of followers who are Other to her, a homeland with blatant unresolved injustices, an offstage villain who is suitably repellent. But I gave her a few other things, too, that the usual turncoats don’t have.

She faces someone she loves on the battlefield. Someone she owes, who has done her lifesaving kindnesses she can never forget or repay. He’s angry, and his anger has its reasons. Quite apart from her betrayal of their nation, she has betrayed him, humiliated him, endangered him, put him in the position of having to make choices he finds unbearable. Worst of all, she has put him in the position of having to kill her or to die trying…

A few years later, “The War of the Wheat Berry Year” was my first professional sale. I sold the story to John O’Neill at Black Gate  —  he put me through three rounds of revisions for clarity, and I’ll always be grateful for his patience. In 2009, when the magazine was about to transition from print to online publication, my story appeared in the last print issue. Some things about the first published version of the story hold up pretty well, well enough that Great Jones Street picked it up for reprint this year.

Read Sarah’s complete article on the reasons for her revisions, “Conscientious Turncoats, Or Why I Stopped the Virtual Presses on “The War of the Wheat Berry Year,” at Great Jones Street.

Future Treasures: Jack Ketchum’s Off Season: 35th Anniversary Edition From Dark Regions Press

Future Treasures: Jack Ketchum’s Off Season: 35th Anniversary Edition From Dark Regions Press

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Jack Ketchum’s debut novel Off Season created something of a sensation when it first appeared as a Ballantine paperback in 1980. Partially based on the legend of the Scottish cannibal clan led by Sawney Bean (which also inspired Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes), the novel was heavily critiqued for its over-the-top violence, and Ballantine eventually withdrew it from circulation. Now, to celebrate the book’s 35th anniversary, Dark Regions Press is returning the book to print in a special unexpurgated edition, with a new short story and afterword by the author, and a gorgeous wraparound cover by David Stoupakis.

The Ultimate Edition of Jack Ketchum’s Debut Novel That Shocked the Horror Scene in 1980

Jack Ketchum’s debut novel Off Season made a huge impact on the horror scene with its initial publication in 1980. It became so controversial that the original publisher withdrew their support of the novel. Now award-winning specialty publisher Dark Regions Press is bringing Ketchum’s debut novel back in its best form yet.

The 35th anniversary edition of Off Season includes the author’s originally intended version of the novel (unexpurgated), a new short story based in the Off Season universe, a new afterword from the author, the novelette “Winter Child,” five full page interior illustrations by Tomislav Tikulin and stunning full color wraparound dust jacket artwork by David Stoupakis.

Here’s the complete wraparound cover.

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Check Out the Recent Fiction at Tor.com

Check Out the Recent Fiction at Tor.com

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One of the (many) reasons I enjoy Tor.com is the enormously diverse range of fiction, compliments of Tor’s large cast of contributing editors. The sixteen stories posted there in the last three months were selected by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Justin Landon, Diana Pho, Liz Gorinsky, Melissa Frain, Susan Chang, and other fine editors. They include YA fantasy, horror, hard SF, urban fantasy, dystopian SF, space opera, dark fantasy, post-apocalyptic SF, and historical fantasy. What’s not to love?

A new story is posted at Tor.com every week. Not sure which ones you’d enjoy most? That’s what Tangent Online is for. Here’s Seraph on Rebecca Campbell’s “The High Lonesome Frontier,” illustrated by Linda Yan (above left).

As I drifted along these memories of the man who wrote the song, and the woman who sang it, and the mother who loved it, and the granddaughter who wasn’t even sure it was real yet loved it anyways… I realized the true beauty of this story, and the legitimacy of its claim to being science fiction. This story is of a 4th, or perhaps 5th-dimensional viewpoint, following the thread of this one song in a direct course from one life to the next, experiencing it all as a single moment in time, yet never in a linear fashion, as if the story itself is the river of which the song forever echoes, where does that water run. Magnificent.

Read Seraph’s review here. And here’s Jason McGregor on Lettie Prell’s hard SF tale “The Three Lives of Sonata James,” illustrated by Kevin Hong (above middle).

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New Treasures: The Rise of Io by Wesley Chu

New Treasures: The Rise of Io by Wesley Chu

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the-rise-of-io-smallWesley Chu burst onto the scene with The Lives of Tao, the opening novel in the Lives of Tao trilogy. His Tor hardcover, Time Salvager, was optioned by Michael Bay. His new novel from Angry Robot, The Rise of Io, is the first in a new trilogy. Earth is in the aftermath of a civil war between two alien factions, when Ella Patel stumbles upon a couple being chased by a heavily armed gang. Soon she’s caught up in an alien investigation, and listening to a strange new voice in her head.

Ella Patel – thief, con-artist and smuggler – is in the wrong place at the wrong time. One night, on the border of a demilitarized zone run by the body-swapping alien invaders, she happens upon a man and woman being chased by a group of assailants. The man freezes, leaving the woman to fight off five attackers at once, before succumbing. As she dies, to both Ella and the man’s surprise, the sparkling light that rises from the woman enters Ella, instead of the man. She soon realizes she’s been inhabited by Io, a low-ranking Quasing who was involved in some of the worst decisions in history. Now Ella must now help the alien presence to complete her mission and investigate a rash of murders in the border states that maintain the frail peace.

With the Prophus assigned to help her seemingly wanting to stab her in the back, and the enemy Genjix hunting her, Ella must also deal with Io’s annoying inferiority complex. To top it all off, Ella thinks the damn alien voice in her head is trying to get her killed. And if you can’t trust the voices in your head, who can you trust?

Our previous coverage of Wesley Chu includes:

An Origin Story Mashed With a First-Contact Story: A Review of The Lives of Tao by Kelly Swails
New Treasures: The Lives of Tao
Time Salvager
Time Siege

The Rise of Io was published by Angry Robot on October 4, 2016. It is 352 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Tommy Arnold.

Vintage Treasures: The Best of John Brunner

Vintage Treasures: The Best of John Brunner

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In 1974 Lester Del Rey hit on the idea for a series of collections showcasing the best early SF writers in the field — especially those who had a publishing contract with his Del Rey imprint, naturally enough. The Classic Science Fiction line grew to roughly two dozen volumes, creating an essential library of early science fiction. It became one of the seminal SF series of my childhood, introducing me to such writers as C.L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Edmond Hamilton, Fritz Leiber, Henry Kuttner, John W. Campbell, Philip K. Dick, Fredric Brown, Murray Leinster, Robert Bloch, Jack Williamson, and many others. James McGlothlin has been reviewing them at Black Gate. So far he’s covered The Best of Stanley Weinbaum and The Best of Frederik Pohl, two of the finest books in the set.

I always thought I had a complete collection, but just a few months ago I discovered there was a late entry — The Best of John Brunner, published fourteen years after the first volume in the series. How the heck did that manage to elude me for nearly 30 years? I scrambed to find one, and soon enough located a virtually new copy on eBay for just $4 — just five cents more than the 1988 cover price. It arrived a few weeks ago.

It has been a genuine treat. Brunner is one of science fiction’s finest 20th Century practitioners, and while I’m well familiar with his novels, I’ve discovered that I’m much less knowledgeable regarding his short fiction. In fact, while I haven’t finished reading it, I’m pretty sure I’ve never read any of these stories before.

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Part Teenage Wasteland, Part Lovecraft Fever Dream: Charlie Human’s Baxter Zevcenko Novels

Part Teenage Wasteland, Part Lovecraft Fever Dream: Charlie Human’s Baxter Zevcenko Novels

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For all the resources I turn to when I want the latest book news — including Locus magazine, Facebook, Amazon, conventions, and suggestions from friends — there’s really no replacement for browsing a really great book store. The Barnes & Noble in Geneva, Illinois, is a really great book store, and I’ve made many of fine discovery there. Last Saturday was no exception, and I walked out with a copy of Apocalypse Now Now, the first novel by Charlie Human to feature sixteen year-old Baxter Zevcenko, veteran of South Africa’s supernatural underworld.

Lauren Beukes (Broken Monsters) called Apocalypse Now Now “A demented, raucous urban fantasy,” and Richard Kadrey (Sandman Slim) labels it “Part teenage wasteland, part Lovecraft fever dream.” The second novel, Kill Baxter, was published in trade paperback by Titan last year, and arrives in a mass market edition this month.

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Lackington’s Issue 11 Now Available

Lackington’s Issue 11 Now Available

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Lackington's Summer 2016-rackAdrian Simmons is one of the editors of the highly-regarded Heroic Fantasy Quarterly magazine. But he’s also a fine writer in his own right, as Charles Payseur reminds us this week, in his review of the Summer 2016 issue of Lackington’s magazine, containing Adrian’s short story “How I Came to Be Raised by Balniwan the Fool.”

Just ahead of the release of their next issue, Lackinton’s has dropped the paywall on their Possessions issue and it’s a great collection of rather dark stories… there are a lot of ways that these tales circle around what it is to have possessions, and what it is to be possessed. Most of the pieces are solidly fantasy, the magic alive and well and further complicating the theme but also giving it a wild fire that casts some wicked shadows…

This story takes an interesting angle on the idea of possessions, focusing on a child living in a world defined by violence. Under the rule of their father, Alebeg, the children as possessions, less than people. He scares them and he awes them and he lives a bit like a cult leader on a hill, though with a rather Norse feel to it. So as I read [the] main possession of the story is that of the main character, who is treated more like property than a person… It’s certainly a visceral story that comes with the taste of blood and the bitterness of being someone powerless in the face of force and power. A fine way to kick off the issue!

Read Charles’ complete review here.

Every issue of Lackington’s has a theme, which gives the magazine an interesting focus. The theme this issue is “Possessions.”

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Gunslingers, Shapeshifters, and Ancient Animal Gods: The Children of the Drought Trilogy by Arianne ‘Tex’ Thompson

Gunslingers, Shapeshifters, and Ancient Animal Gods: The Children of the Drought Trilogy by Arianne ‘Tex’ Thompson

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The border town of Sixes is quiet in the heat of the day, but at sunset wake the gunslingers and shapeshifters and ancient animal gods whose human faces never outlast the daylight. Appaloosa Elim had to enter Sixes to find his so-called partner Sil Halfwick, who disappeared inside in the hope of making a name for himself among Sixes’ notorious black-market traders.

That was the premise of One Night in Sixes, the popular debut novel by Arianne ‘Tex’ Thompson. A sequel arrived in 2015, and the concluding novel in the trilogy is now scheduled to arrive in paperback in late December. Here’s all the details; links will take you to our previous coverage.

One Night in Sixes (464 pages, $7.99/$6.99 digital, July 29, 2014) — excerpt
Medicine For the Dead (480 pages, $7.99/$3.99 digital, April 9, 2015) — prologue
Dreams of the Eaten (384 pages, $8.99/$6.99 digital, December 27, 2016)

All three were published by Solaris. The covers are by Tomasz Jedruszek.

See all of our recent coverage of series fantasy here.

Future Treasures: The Mountain of Kept Memory by Rachel Neumeier

Future Treasures: The Mountain of Kept Memory by Rachel Neumeier

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the-mountain-of-kept-memory-smallRachel Neumeier is the author of The City in the Lake, The Floating Islands, House of Shadows, Black Dog, and The Griffin Mage Trilogy. Earlier this year Knopf Books released her new YA novel The Keeper of the Mist.

In her latest, a prince and a princess must work together to save their kingdom from outside invaders… and dangers within. It’s available in hardcover next week from Saga Press.

Long ago the Kieba, last goddess in the world, raised up her mountain in the drylands of Carastind. Ever since then she has dwelled and protected the world from unending plagues and danger…

Gulien Madalin, heir to the throne of Carastind, finds himself more interested in ancient history than the tedious business of government and watching his father rule. But Gulien suspects that his father has offended the Kieba so seriously that she has withdrawn her protection from the kingdom. Worse, he fears that Carastind’s enemies suspect this as well.

Then he learns that he is right. And invasion is imminent.

Meanwhile Gulien’s sister Oressa has focused on what’s important: avoiding the attention of her royal father while keeping track of all the secrets at court. But when she overhears news about the threatened invasion, she’s shocked to discover what her father plans to give away in order to buy peace.

But Carastind’s enemies will not agree to peace at any price. They intend to not only conquer the kingdom, but also cast down the Kieba and steal her power. Now, Gulien and Oressa must decide where their most important loyalties lie, and what price they are willing to pay to protect the Kieba, their home, and the world.

The Mountain of Kept Memory will be published by Saga Press on November 8, 2016. It is 431 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $7.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Marc Simonetti.

New Treasures: The Girl with Ghost Eyes by M. H. Boroson

New Treasures: The Girl with Ghost Eyes by M. H. Boroson

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the-girl-with-ghost-eyes-paperback-smallPublishers Weekly called The Girl with Ghost Eyes “A brilliant tale of monsters, magic, and kung fu in the San Francisco Chinatown of 1898.” In her review of the hardcover edition, published by Talos in November of last year, Sarah Avery wrote:

We’re connoisseurs of kickass combat scenes, eldritch lore, and victories won at terrible, unpredictable price. We want our heroes unabashedly heroic and morally complicated at the same time. Add a decade or more of research on the author’s part, distilled to the most concentrated and carefully placed drops, and a well-timed sense of humor, and you’ve got the recipe for the perfect Black Gate book…

Li-lin’s family has protected the world of the living from the spirit world for generations. Most Daoist priests and priestesses take it on faith that their rituals work — they can’t literally see the spirit world and the efficacy of their magic. Li-lin can, though. She has yin eyes, ghost eyes, a visionary ability that appalls her father and would disgust her trusting neighbors if they knew…

Devoted daughter, faithful widow, compassionate protector of Chinatown, Li-lin must conceal her rarest talent, lest she shame everyone she loves. Long practice at concealment, combined with the necessity of bending rules and stories if she’s to be effective in a world where even a warrior priestess is expected to show deference to men and elders no matter what, has prepared her almost too well for the mystery she must solve.

Someone wants her father dead. That someone wants it enough to lay trap after trap for her family. Bad magic is on its way, of the kind only the Maoshan can stop.

Li-Lin and her ghost eyes save Chinatown, don’t you doubt it.

The Girl with Ghost Eyes was published in hardcover by Talos on November 3, 2015. It was reprinted in paperback by Talos on October 11, 2016. It is 304 pages, priced at $7.99, or $7.59 for the digital version.

See all of our recent New Treasures here.