John ONeill – Page 405

Black Gate Online Fiction: The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris

Sunday, October 6, 2013 John ONeill Comments 4 comments

Black Gate is very pleased to offer an exclusive excerpt from The Sacred Band, a new novel in the Sacred Band of Stepsons series by Janet Morris and Chris Morris.

The Sacred Band of Thebes lives on, a world away, in this mythic novel of love in war in ancient times. In 338 BCE, during the Battle of Chaeronea that results in the massacre of the Sacred Band of Thebes, the legendary Tempus and his Stepson cavalry rescue twenty-three pairs of Theban Sacred Banders, paired lovers and friends, to fight on other days. These forty-six Thebans, whose bones will never lie in the mass grave that holds their two hundred and fifty-four brothers, join with the immortalized Tempus and his Sacred Band of Stepsons, consummate ancient cavalry fighters, to make new lives in a faraway land and fight the battle of their dreams where gods walk the earth, ghosts take the field, and the angry Fates demand their due.

Janet Morris alone and Janet Morris and Chris Morris jointly have authored six previous novels and two novelized anthology volumes in their Sacred Band of Stepsons series. Some works in this series were previously published in somewhat different form in the Thieves World® shared universe, or as authorized works taking place beyond Sanctuary®.

The Sacred Band was published in trade paperback and an electronic edition by Paradise Publishing in 2010; the first Kerlak hardcover edition appeared in 2011 and the first trade and electronic editions from Perseid Press in 2012. It is 618 pages, priced at $24.95 in trade paperback.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by John C. Hocking, Michael Shea, Ryan Harvey, Peadar Ó Guilín, Vaughn Heppner, Aaron Bradford Starr, Martha Wells, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, E.E. Knight, C.S.E. Cooney, Howard Andrew Jones, and many others, is here.

Read “Shock Troops of the Gods,” a complete chapter from The Sacred Band, here.

Derek Künsken wins 2012 Asimov’s SF Readers’ Award

Saturday, October 5, 2013 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

I flipped open the October/November issue of Asimov’s SF this afternoon and the first words to catch my eye were from Sheila Williams’s editorial, on the 27th Annual Readers’ Award Results. They were:

Much praise was lavished on relatively new writer, Derek Künsken. Richard Harding spoke for many when he wrote, “the most striking story I read was ‘The Way of the Needle.’ Wonderful imagination combined with ethics and striving. Thank you very much.

I missed the original announcement on Derek’s blog back in May, so I’m glad I caught it in print.

Congratulations to Derek! We were proud to publish his popular story, “The Gifts of Li Tzu-Ch’eng,” in Black Gate 15 (and not just because Derek is a fellow Ottawa native). Sherwood Smith’s SF Site review of the story said, in part:

Though he is famous in both history and legend, what finally happened to the warlord Li Tzu-Ch’eng is not known. A possible path is hinted at in this tale, which begins when Li is approached by a woman, Nü Wa, who claims to be a messenger of Heaven. She offers Li four gifts. When the reader discovers that Li may only use three of the gifts — the fourth will be used against him — and one of the gifts is love, it’s clear that this will not be a straightforward tale of swords and war…

Other winners this year include Joe Haldeman (Best Poem), Robert Reed (Best Novella, for “Murder Born”), and Sandra McDonald and Megan Arkenberg, who tied for Best Short Story (for “Sexy Robot Mom” and “Final Exam,” respectively.)

Artist Laura Diehl won for Best Cover for the December 2012 issue, which you can see here. Congratulations to all the winners!

September/October Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction now on Sale

Saturday, October 5, 2013 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

Okay, technically it’s been on sale for over a month, but I just bought my copy last week. Good thing this is a bi-monthly magazine or I’d be hunting up back issues on eBay.

The striking cover this issue is by David A. Hardy for Eugene Mirabelli’s short story, “The Shore at the End of the World.” Chuck Rothman doesn’t mention it in his Tangent Online review, but he does praise contributions from Rachel Pollack and Oliver Buckram:

Rachel Pollack contributes a first-class fantasy in “The Queen of Eyes,” a story of Jack Shade, one of the Traveler’s Aid Society – which, despite its mundane name, deals with supernatural events. He’s something of a detective, and when a woman comes to him to report her mother is missing, he quickly realizes her mother is the Queen of Eyes, with the ability to see everything at once, and a major power in the world. The story describes Jack’s search for her. It’s filled with imaginative details and characters, treachery and mystery and is spellbinding from start to finish.

We next move to the purest space opera in “Un Opera Nello Spazio” – yes, an actual opera . It’s a synopsis of an opera set on a spaceship, where Orlando the orangutan longs for Flora, a human. Arias are mentioned (I was especially tickled by Allarme Ross! (Red Alert). This is the type of story that is either a tour de force or which fails utterly, but Oliver Buckram avoids the potential pitfalls to create an entertaining diversion.

Albert E. Cowdrey returns after a long absence (one issue — but that’s a long absence for Cowdrey, who hasn’t missed being in the Table of Contents of F&SF for two years.) Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

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New Treasures: Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs

Saturday, October 5, 2013 John ONeill Comments 13 comments

I had the pleasure of talking to Bob Garcia a few weeks ago, at a party at Doug Ellis‘s house near Chicago. Bob is a great guy — always jovial and superbly well-informed, and always ready to entertain with fascinating, behind-the-scenes tales of the publishing biz. His American Fantasy was one of the finest fantasy magazines of the 80s, and ever since he’s been well-positioned at the heart of the industry.

I took the opportunity to ask him about his new anthology, Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs, co-edited with Mike Resnick, just published by Baen on October 1st. It’s such a great idea — all new stories set in the many worlds of ERB, by many of today’s hottest writers — that it’s a wonder no one has thought of it before.

Bob was happy to give me the details. The book contains ten new tales set in the legendary worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs — plus one reprint, Resnick’s novella, “The Forgotten Sea of Mars,” which originally appeared in the fanzine ERB-dom way back in 1966. This is the only Mars/Barsoom story in the book, as Disney now controls the rights to Burroughs’s Mars properties.

The book suffers not at all for that, however. When Bob and Mike started approaching writers, soliciting submissions, they were overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response. The final Table of Contents includes a new Tarzan tale by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, a Carson Napier of Venus homage by Richard A. Lupoff, a Moon Maid contribution from Peter David, a Mucker story from Max Allen Collins and Matthew Clemens, a Pellucidar story by Mercedes Lackey, a crossover tale by Joe R. Lansdale (“Tarzan and the Land Time Forgot”), plus stories by F. Paul Wilson, Todd McCaffrey, Kevin J. Anderson and Sarah A. Hoyt, and Ralph Roberts.

Here’s a few sentences from the introduction by Resnick and Garcia that give you an idea of the breadth of Burroughs’s accomplishments and just how vast a playground he left for their contributors to play in.

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Amazon Discounts Laird Barron’s The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All to $1.99 for October

Friday, October 4, 2013 John ONeill Comments 4 comments

Sweet! Amazon.com has made Laird Barron’s new collection, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, a Kindle special, pricing it at just $1.99 for the month of October.

In his September 4th review for us, James McGlothlin wrote:

This highly anticipated book marks Barron’s third collection of short stories (and fourth book), following both of his Shirley Jackson Award-winning collections The Imago Sequence and Occultation, as well as his 2012 debut novel, The Croning. As with his prior volumes, this one continues to meet, and exceed, the bar of contemporary horror stories, showing that Barron is still one of the leading horror voices of today.

Let me emphasize that this collection is in keeping with what I, and many others, have come to love and expect from Barron: a great combination of cosmic horror feel — which many associate with the early pulp writer H. P. Lovecraft — as well as Barron’s own gritty noir-like style…

Laird Barron’s The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All continues to provide us with his gritty cosmic horror as well as other enjoyments. I highly recommend it!

On his blog, Laird notes “This collection marks the end of the cosmic horror arc that includes The Imago Sequence and Occultation.” Cosmic horror comes in arcs now? Man, I am so out of it. Good thing I have James and Laird to keep me hip (and it’s a full-time job, let me tell you.)

What more do you need to know? Drop by Amazon today and get some gritty cosmic horror for just $1.99!

Nebula Award-winning Author Eugie Foster Diagnosed with Cancer

Thursday, October 3, 2013 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

The tireless Eugie Foster, author and genre powerhouse, announced this week on her blog that she has been diagnosed with cancer.

Eugie first came to my attention while she was running Tangent Online, after Dave Truesdale stepped down. She reorganized the field’s premiere short-fiction review site, recruited a great team of reviewers, and returned it to a regular schedule — and industry prominence. At the same time, her own writing appeared in Interzone, Apex, Fantasy Magazine, Realms of Fantasy, and other places; her Interzone story “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” won the 2009 Nebula Award and was nominated for the Hugo. Her first collection, Returning My Sister’s Face and Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice, was published the same year.

Jason Waltz introduced me to Eugie at Dragon*Con in 2010, at her busy press station deep in the con’s hive center, where she produced the onsite newsletter, the Daily Dragon. Eugie was even more impressive in person — charming and highly articulate, filled with drive and energy.

Eugie made the following announcement on Tuesday:

I’ve been struggling with blinding headaches for the last several months – since June – that has recently also become persistent sinus congestion and significant loss of hearing in my right ear. I thought originally it was a bad dental crown, since the timing coincided, or possibly TMJ, since the symptoms seemed to point in that direction.

After seeing a dentist, general practitioner, ENT, and oral surgeon; and being prescribed three (now four) courses of antibiotics, steroids, and a variety of narcotics to help alleviate my pain, they took CT scans yesterday.

As it turns out, the culprit is a malignant, fast-growing tumor, around 6cm, in my sinuses and hard and soft palate regions. In short, it’s cancer. They don’t know what kind yet so can’t make a prognosis. The ENT who ordered the CT scan said that surgery – ASAP, immediate, urgent – to remove the tumor is my only treatment alternative at this point. Whether I require chemo afterwards depends on the type of cancer it ends up being.

She is only 41 years old. Read the complete details, and the latest updates, on her blog.

Tom Clancy, April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013

Wednesday, October 2, 2013 John ONeill Comments 6 comments

Thomas Leo “Tom” Clancy, Jr, one of the top-selling authors of the past three decades, died yesterday after a brief illness.

Clancy published his first book, The Hunt for Red October, though the tiny Naval Institute Press in 1984. He’d written several articles for the Proceedings of the Naval Institute and, although they’d never published a novel, he sent them Red October after it was rejected by several major publishers. To his surprise, they accepted it and paid him a small advance.

President Ronald Reagan turned the book into a best seller when he mentioned it during a televised press conference, saying it was “unputdown-able” and a “perfect yarn.” It sold more than five million copies, and became a hit film in 1990 starring Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery. Clancy won a $3 million contract with mainstream publisher Putnam Penguin for his next three books.

Clancy published a total of 28 books, 17 of which hit The New York Times best-seller list — many at No. 1. His novels have been licensed for several major video game franchises, including Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell. Eight of his books feature his most famous character, CIA agent Jack Ryan, including The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games (1987), The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988), Clear and Present Danger (1989), and The Sum of All Fears (1991).

Ryan returned in Debt of Honor (1994), in which a fictional war with Japan results in the destruction of the U.S. Capitol building during a joint session of Congress, elevating the reluctant Vice President Ryan to the Presidency; he returned again in Executive Orders (1996) and Red Rabbit (2002). Four of the Ryan novels — The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and The Sum of All Fears — have been adapted as feature films, with Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck playing Jack Ryan.

Clancy’s final novel Command Authority, which will also prominently feature Jack Ryan, will be released in December.

Clancy passed away yesterday in a Baltimore hospital near his Maryland home. He was 66.

New Treasures: Let the Old Dreams Die by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Tuesday, October 1, 2013 John ONeill Comments 6 comments

John Ajvide Lindqvist may be the breakout horror writer of the last decade.

That’s not what I might have predicted, given his bio. Lindqvist was a street magician and stand-up comic in Sweden when his first novel appeared. Set in his home town of Blackeberg, a suburb of Stockholm, Let the Right One In (2004) has been filmed twice, once in Swedish and once in English, and both versions have brought him hosts of new fans. His second novel, Handling the Undead (2005), featured a horde of zombies shambling towards Stockholm; Harbour arrived in 2008, followed by Little Star in 2010.

Of course, being prolific is no proof of popularity. No, the real evidence that he’s become a mainstream horror phenomenon is more obvious: he is relentless compared to Stephen King. Of the eight blurbs reprinted on the back of his latest, the short story collection, Let the Old Dreams Die, more than half invoke King: “Reminiscent of Stephen King at his best” (The Independent). “Deserves to be as much of a household name as Stephen King” (SFX). “Sweden’s answer to Stephen King” (Daily Mirror). Makes me wonder if Stephen King will pick the book up in Barnes and Noble and think to himself, “Hey, this guy sounds pretty good.”

Let the Old Dreams Die contains a dozen short stories and novellas, including sequels to both Let the Right One Did and Handling the Undead.

Because of the two superb films made of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s vampire masterpiece Let the Right One In, millions of people around the world know the story of Oskar and Eli and of their final escape from Blackeberg at the end of the novel. Now at last, in “Let the Old Dreams Die,” the title story in this absolutely stunning collection, we get a glimpse of what happened next to the pair…

“Let the Old Dreams Die” is not the only stunner in this collection. In “Final Processing,” Lindqvist also reveals the next chapter in the lives of the characters he created in Handling the Undead. “Equinox” is a story of a woman who takes care of her neighbor’s house while they are away and readers will never forget what she finds in the house. Every story meets the very high standard of excellence and fright factor that Lindqvist fans have come to expect.

Let the Old Dreams Die was released today by Thomas Dunne Books. It is 400 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover, and $14.99 in digital format.

Vintage Treasures: The Best of James Blish

Monday, September 30, 2013 John ONeill Comments 18 comments

And so we come to the final Classics of Science Fiction volume, The Best of James Blish, published in August 1979.

Final as in the last one published, not the last one we’ll talk about here. We’re at roughly the halfway point in terms of coverage, as I’ve only written about 11 of the 21 volumes so far. I’m not covering them in chronological order (but that probably would have been a good idea, now that I think about it).

As we’ve discussed in the Comments section of previous posts, Lester Del Rey’s Classics of Science Fiction library is perhaps the finest mass market survey of early 20th Century short SF and fantasy. But looking at it purely from a historical viewpoint, it sure made some odd choices.

Where’s the Best of Robert A. Heinlein, for example? Or Isaac Asimov? Arthur C. Clarke? For that matter, Jack Vance? Keith Laumer? A.E. van Vogt or Gordon R. Dickson? Larry Niven, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, Robert Silverberg, Poul Anderson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Theodore Sturgeon, Frank Herbert, or Anne McCaffrey?

The answer is simple, of course. Del Rey was limited to publishing the stories he could get rights to — and the short fiction of many of the genre’s top writers, including Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, and Clarke, was tied up with other publishers. It’s a wonder he was able to acquire as many top-flight writers as he did.

And there were obviously commercial factors weighing on his selection as well. While some of his early authors — like John W. Campbell and Stanley Weinbaum — had stopped producing fiction decades ago, Del Rey caught on quickly to the idea that his popular Best of… line was a great way to introduce readers to his midlist authors. And so later entries included The Best of Raymond Z. Gallun and The Best of Hal Clement, authors with a much lower profile than Leiber, Henry Kuttner, or Edmond Hamilton, but who had the good fortune to have books in print from Del Rey in the late 70s.

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Black Gate Online Fiction: “Vestments of Pestilence” by John C. Hocking

Sunday, September 29, 2013 John ONeill Comments 8 comments

John C. Hocking returns to the pages of Black Gate after too long an absence, with another exciting tale of the Archivist and his friend Lucella.

Sevron Glauco turned with a swirl of his fine cloak, and we followed him out of guard tower 47 into the nighted city of Frekore, wondering where we were going and what a daughter of the Royal House wanted with two such as us.

“She’s broken house arrest in defiance of the King,” I said softly.

“Yes,” said Lucella, sounding unaccountably cheerful, “which makes us her accomplices in treason.”

“Gods and demons,” I swore. “What is it with you?”

Sherwood Smith at SF Site had this to say about “A River Through Darkness and Light,” the fourth Archivist tale, when it appeared in Black Gate 15:

Lucella, a tough warrior woman, and the first-person narrator Archivist, have history together, as they travel in search of a hidden stash of ancient scrolls, accompanied by a scholar and an old soldier. Unfortunately, they are chased by bandits bent on vengeance… and then there’s the demon…

I think of Hocking’s stories as characteristic of Black Gate: a strong blend of the old sword and sorcery action and mood, but with modern attention to character development, especially of the women… this story is a promising opening to the issue.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Michael Shea, Ryan Harvey, Peadar Ó Guilín, Dave Gross, Vaughn Heppner, Aaron Bradford Starr, Martha Wells, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, E.E. Knight, C.S.E. Cooney, Howard Andrew Jones, and many others, is here.

“Vestments of Pestilence” is a complete 10,000-word novelette of sword & sorcery. It is offered at no cost.

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