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Author: John ONeill

Future Treasures: The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk, edited by Sean Wallace

Future Treasures: The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk, edited by Sean Wallace

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The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk-smallWhat the heck is Dieselpunk?

Sean Wallace gave an enticing description of this funky new sub-genre in his call for submissions for The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk last year:

If you need to know what dieselpunk is, it’s a subcategory of steampunk, essentially, covering the 1920s through the 1950s, including the Roaring Twenties, the Depression, World War II, and even a little beyond that, but here’s the thing: I want material from all over the world, I don’t want a white-washed representation of this theme.

The book is scheduled to be published in July, and I have to say, it looks pretty good. Packed with stories by Genevieve Valentine, Carrie Vaughn, E. Catherine Tobler, Nick Mamatas, Jeremiah Tolbert, and many others, it could be a lot of fun.

Dieselpunk: an emerging retro-futuristic sub-genre, similar to steampunk, based on the era between the First World War and the start of the Atomic Age, merging elements of noir, pulp, and the past with today’s technology… and sometimes a dash of the occult.

Award-winning editor Wallace presents a cutting-edge collection of twenty-five vibrant stories that explore the possibilities of history while sweeping readers into high-powered hydrocarbon-fuelled adventures. Join us in an era when engines were huge, fuel was cheap and plentiful, and steel and chrome blended with the grit and grease of modern machines.

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Enjoy the New Supergirl Trailer

Enjoy the New Supergirl Trailer

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The new Supergirl trailer has just been released, and it’s already drawing some pretty harsh criticism. Meredith Woerner at io9 called it “depressingly paint-by-numbers,” and compared it (rather unfavorably) to the Saturday Night Live parody skit featuring Black Widow.

But I watched it this morning, and frankly loved it. It looks like the kind of show that I could watch with my fifteen year-old daughter (who digs Arrow and Buffy in a major way), and we could both enjoy. The show is already getting some defenders — author Chuck Wendig posted “Hey, I Liked That Supergirl Trailer” this morning, saying:

Listen, I like dark stuff. I write dark stuff. But sometimes, I just want fun… I loved Guardians of the Galaxy because it was weird, wonky shenanigans from start to finish. Supergirl looks like its bringing its own kind of goofy glee to the mix…

Did you see the photo above? She’s smiling! What mad hell is this?!

Watch the complete six-and-a-half-minute trailer above. Supergirl stars Melissa Benoist as Supergirl, Mehcad Brooks as Jimmy Olsen, and Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant. It debuts on CBS in November 2015.

New Treasures: Hexed: The Sisters of Witchdown by Michael Alan Nelson

New Treasures: Hexed: The Sisters of Witchdown by Michael Alan Nelson

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Hexed Michael Alan Nelson-smallI’m not familiar with the the BOOM! comic Hexed, but perhaps I should be. It’s apparently a spin-off from the horror comic Fall of Cthulhu, but you don’t need to be familiar with her appearances there to enjoy her adventures in her own comic. I’m not sure how many issues were published, but enough to be collected into at least two graphic novels, the first published in March 2010, illustrated by Pretty Deadly Artist Emma Rios, and the second by newcomer Dan Mora, to be released this July.

Lucifer the thief, the star of Hexed, seems like a pretty interesting character, and The Sisters of Witchdown marks her first appearance in a prose novel. It’s being marketed as a YA title, but I’m intrigued enough to check it out.

Luci Jenifer Inacio das Neves, Lucifer for short, isn’t your typical teenaged girl. She’s a thief who survives by stealing bad things from bad people in the magical and mystical underworld hidden beneath our own. So when a policeman’s daughter, Gina, is kidnapped by a force he can’t explain, Lucifer is the only one who has a chance at getting his daughter back.

With the unsolicited help of Gina’s friends, including Gina’s boyfriend David, Lucifer’s investigation leads to the unfortunate truth of the kidnapping. Gina was taken to an otherworldly dimension by a creature of unspeakable evil: one of the Seven Sisters of Witchdown. Against all odds, Lucifer must use every magical tool hidden in her trick bag to steal her way into the Shade and bring Gina back before the Sister sacrifices her for her own dark ends. But the closer Lucifer gets to Gina, the closer she gets to David. And David to her. Lucifer must risk her life by confronting demons, witches, and the cruel demigoddess controlling her destiny — all to save the one girl who stands in the way of Lucifer finally finding love.

Michael Alan Nelson’s comic writing includes 28 Days Later, Supergirl, Valen the Outcast, Dominion, Cthulhu Tales, Dead Run, and many others.

Hexed: The Sisters of Witchdown was published by Pyr on May 5, 2015. It is 279 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback and $9.99 for the digital version. The cover is by Larry Rostant.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 172 Now Available

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 172 Now Available

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Beneath Ceaseless Skies 172-smallI love a good weird western. So you can imagine how intrigued I was by the latest issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Scott H. Andrews’ magazine of literary adventure fantasy. It’s a special weird western issue, celebrating the release of their new themed anthology Ceaseless West. Issue 172 contains three new stories, a reprint, a podcast, and more.

“Splitskin” by E. Catherine Tobler
My love reveled in winter’s sunbroken days, when the light spills to the fresh-fallen snow to stab a person in the eyes. Gugán flit from path to stone, a trickster comfortable with his Raven heritage. I, as Eagle, startled at every shift of snow, caught always unawares in the bright sun as he pelted me with clumps of melting cold.

“Swallowing Silver” by Erin Cashier
John Halpern knew it should be a heavy weight on his conscience, to wake up and know that he was going to kill a thing that used to be a man. Whether it was or wasn’t was a topic of much internal contemplation for him as he walked up the long path to his brother-in-law’s house to ask for help. The fact that his brother-in-law was himself a devil-man did not escape him.

“The Snake-Oil Salesman and the Prophet’s Head” by Shannon Peavey
Leaving Leo alone, with his brother’s head. Leo stepped closer to the jar. Cary’s white-blond hair floated up from his skull, the tips waving slightly. It looked like strands of spiderweb, or exposed nerves. “You still telling people things they don’t want to hear?” He tapped on the glass. As if he might rouse it to speech.

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Vintage Treasures: Under the Moons of Mars, edited by Sam Moskowitz

Vintage Treasures: Under the Moons of Mars, edited by Sam Moskowitz

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Under the Moons of Mars Moskowitz-smallSome folks I know date the creation of modern SF and Fantasy to Star Trek in the mid-60, or the release of Star Wars in 1977. Those who are a little more knowledgeable date it to the first issue of Amazing Stories, in April 1926.

Folks who are really knowledgeable date it even earlier, to the “Scientific Romances” that became popular in early pulp magazines — so popular, in fact, that a young entrepreneur named Hugo Gernsback decided that the time was right for a magazine devoted exclusively to them. That magazine was Amazing Stories, and the rest, as they say, is history.

When editors first began combing the old pulps for stories to anthologize in the late 40 and early 50s, virtually all of them began with Amazing Stories #1. There was a great deal of popular SF and fantasy published well before that, but it was overlooked. And, as the decades went by, it was gradually forgotten.

Where did it appear? I have no idea — the really knowledgeable could tell you, but I’m not one of them. As we look backwards through history, my vision goes dark right around Lost in Space.

Fortunately, the great genre historian Sam Moskowitz was one of the really knowledgeable. And he used his vast knowledge for good. Specifically, he used it to assemble the anthology Under the Moons of Mars, which collected some of the very best of the early science fiction and fantasy from the days before there were magazines dedicated to such things — including stories and novel excerpts from Edgar Rice Burroughs, A. Merritt, Ray Cummings, Murray Leinster, Austin Hall and Homer Eon Flint, and many others.

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Catching Up With Numenera

Catching Up With Numenera

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Numenera-smallI got to know Monte Cook back when Black Gate was still publishing fiction. He’s a talented writer, and he sent me a short story I would have loved to have published. Alas, the magazine was already dying at that point, and we weren’t able to do business.

But I’ve kept an eye on his publishing ventures and, like everyone else, was astounded when his Numenera Kickstarter raised an almost unprecedented $517,255 in September 2012. He used the money to launch Monte Cook Games, which in August 2013 delivered the Numenera Corebook, a gorgeous 416-page full color rule book and campaign guide. I finally bought a copy at the Games Plus auction in March, and I’ve spent the last few weeks pouring over it.

What’s so special about Numenera? Monte had an enviable reputation in the gaming industry — he was an editor at Iron Crown Enterprises and, with Jonathan Tweet and Skip Williams, co-authored the famous third Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Some of his more notable creations are the D&D modules Labyrinth of Madness and Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, as well as many Planescape adventures and the mammoth Ptolus campaign setting, based on the home game used to playtest third edition.

But it’s far more than just Monte’s reputation that’s fueled the success of his latest endeavor. Numenera has a great premise. The setting is Earth, a billion years in the future. The inhabitants of our planet live amidst the ruins of eight unimaginably powerful civilizations, each of which mastered arts and technologies they cannot even begin to understand. Artifacts from those civilizations lie in the earth — or walk the land. Some of them are incredibly powerful; some are unspeakably dangerous. And some of them are alive.

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The Dark Issue 8 now on Sale

The Dark Issue 8 now on Sale

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The Dark Issue 8-smallThe Dark continues its tradition of great covers, with a marvelous contribution this month from gaming artist Angus Yi. Check out his website here.

The Dark is a quarterly magazine co-edited by Jack Fisher and Sean Wallace. The eighth issue features four all-original short stories:

“The Ghost of You Lingers” by Kevin McNeil
“An Ocean of Eyes” by Cassandra Khaw
“A Shot of Salt Water” by Lisa L Hannett
“Momentary Sage” by Eric Schwitzgebel

You can read issues free online, or help support the magazine by subscribing to the ebook editions, available for the Kindle and Nook in Mobi and ePub format. Issues are around 50 pages, and priced at $2.99 through Amazon, B&N.com, Apple, Kobo, and other fine outlets. A one-year sub (six issues) is just $15 – subscribe today.

If you enjoy the magazine you can also support it by buying their books, reviewing stories, or even just leaving comments. Read issue 8 here, and see their complete back issue catalog here.

We last covered The Dark with Issue 7.

See our Late April Fantasy Magazine Rack here, and all of our recent Magazine coverage here.

Future Treasures: The Hanged Man by P.N. Elrod

Future Treasures: The Hanged Man by P.N. Elrod

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The Hanged Man P N Elrod-smallP.N. Elrod is known chiefly for her series about Chicago vampire detective Jack Fleming, whose first case is to solve his own murder. The Vampire Files ran for a dozen novels between 1990 and 2009, starting with Bloodlist.

Her new series, Her Majesty’s Psychic Service, opens with The Hanged Man, a Victorian urban fantasy thriller, on sale next week.

On a freezing Christmas Eve in 1879, a forensic psychic reader is summoned from her Baker Street lodgings to the scene of a questionable death. Alexandrina Victoria Pendlebury (named after her godmother, the current Queen of England) is adamant that the death in question is a magically compromised murder and not a suicide, as the police had assumed. After the shocking revelation contained by the body in question, Alex must put her personal loss aside to uncover the deeper issues at stake, before more bodies turn up.

Turning to some choice allies — the handsome, prescient Lieutenant Brooks, the brilliant, enigmatic Lord Desmond, and her rapscallion cousin James — Alex will have to marshal all of her magical and mental acumen to save Queen and Country from a shadowy threat. Our singular heroine is caught up in this rousing gaslamp adventure of cloaked assassins, meddlesome family, and dark magic.

The Hanged Man will be published by Tor Books on May 19, 2015. It is 336 pages, priced at $24.99 in hardcover and $11.99 for the digital edition.

See our complete survey of the top releases in May here.

New Treasures: The Daedalus Series by Michael J Martinez

New Treasures: The Daedalus Series by Michael J Martinez

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The Daedalus Incident-small The Enceladus Crisis-small The Venusian Gambit-small

I overlooked Michael J. Martinez’s The Daedalus Incident, the opening volume of The Daedalus Series, when it first appeared in 2013. That turned out to be a mistake. By the time The Enceladus Crisis arrived last May, it was clear that this was a major new science fantasy series. Tor. com called it “adventurous, original, and a blast to read,” and GeekDad summed up the second volume splendidly:

Wooden sailing ships battling it out in space, Earth astronauts discovering an ancient alien temple on one of Saturn’s moons, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, undead French soldiers, Venusian jungles, and corporate espionage… This isn’t steampunk, okay? This is something new and unique and completely entertaining.

The third volume — featuring undead soldiers, Royal Navy frigates sailing the Void between worlds, dark alchemy, alien slave trade, and extra-dimensional incursions — was published last week, bringing the story to a climax deep in the jungles of Venus. It’s hard for me to keep up with everything that crosses my desk these days, but I think I might just have to make time for this entire series. The Venusian Gambit was published by Night Shade Books on May 5, 2015. It is 320 pages, priced at $15.99 in trade paperback and $10.99 for the digital version.

Goodbye, Innsmouth Magazine

Goodbye, Innsmouth Magazine

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Innsmouth Magazine 15-smallI was dismayed to find, as I was cataloging our recent magazine coverage for the Late April Magazine Rack, that the delightful digital horror zine Innsmouth Magazine, published by Innsmouth Free Press, released its final issue last summer.

In a post titled “Goodbye, Innsmouth Magazine,” the editors offered a brief explanation:

Well, it had to happen sometime. Innsmouth Magazine says a fond farewell with its final issue, number 15, this spring. We’ve had fun putting together this little zine, but don’t make enough sales to keep it afloat. So, it must go.

It’s always a sad milestone when the field loses another fine magazine. The good news is that Innsmouth Free Press continues, and has recently produced some terrific books, including Jazz Age Cthulhu by Jennifer Brozek, A.D. Cahill, and Orrin Grey, and the anthology Sword & Mythos, edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles. The final issue of the magazine, #15, is still worth your attention, and contains plenty of good stuff:

Innsmouth Magazine uncoils its tentacles with seven stories of the Weird and the macabre. Do you dare to stay in “The Peach Room”? Can you survive “The Lust of Ebon Teeth”? Could it be true that “The Ocean is Eating Our Graves”? Fiction by William Meikle and many others. Welcome to our final issue!

Innsmouth Magazine was edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles, and available exclusively in digital format for $4/issue. We last covered Innsmouth Magazine with issue #4. You can still purchase back issues through Amazon, Smashwords, Weightless Books, or right at their website.