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“A Fun Story That Reminded Me of Conan”: Tangent Online on “Stand at Dubun-Geb”

“A Fun Story That Reminded Me of Conan”: Tangent Online on “Stand at Dubun-Geb”

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Ryan Harvey-smallLouis West at Tangent Online reviews Ryan Harvey’s newest Ahn-Tarqa tale, published here on September 15th:

Ryan Harvey’s “Stand at Duben-Geb” tells of a fantasy world with ancient Shaper magic, domesticated hadrosaurs and a clan of Mongol-like nomadic peoples desperately trying to survive the genocidal attacks of a rival clan. Holed up in a cleft in the steep Duben-Geb mountains in the middle of drenching rains, what’s left of Clan Molghiz squabbles among themselves as their talahn leader lies dying…

A landslide uncovers an ancient colossus, a forty-foot soulless, dead metal giant. But Khasar’s years with a magic-wielder have given him a sensitivity to the Arts and the craft that could perhaps reawaken this creature… A fun story that reminded me a bit of the old Conan tales.

“Stand at Dubun-Geb” is the second Ahn-Tarqa tale published here, following “The Sorrowless Thief,” an exciting  science-fantasy tale packed with “magically tamed dinosaur beasts… [and] a lot of intrigue.” (Tangent Online).

Ryan Harvey won the Writers of the Future Contest in 2011 for his Ahn-Tarqa story, “An Acolyte of Black Spires.” Ahn-Tarqa is also the setting for his e-book novelette, “Farewell to Tyrn,” and his upcoming novel, Turn over the Moon.

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

“Stand at Dubun-Geb” is a complete 5,500-word short story of heroic fantasy. Read the complete story here.

Vintage Treasures: Hell’s Cartographers, edited by Brian W. Aldiss and Harry Harrison

Vintage Treasures: Hell’s Cartographers, edited by Brian W. Aldiss and Harry Harrison

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Hell's Cartographers-smallI’ve been enjoying writing my ongoing series on the Ballantine Best of… books. It’s nice to be able to celebrate all those classic SF and fantasy writers, sure, but it’s also an excuse to talk about how I discovered each of them and what their books meant to me personally.

I don’t think I’m unique in this. SFF readers love to talk about the favorite authors of their youth. Look at the comment threads for any of my Ballantine articles — it’s just a bunch of us old fans yakking about the good old days (and yelling at those kids with their Kindles to get off our lawn).

In truth, this is a long-established tradition. Respected, even. Lots of SF authors did it. Asimov and Damon Knight did it, in Before the Golden Age and Science Fiction of the 30s. So did Brian Aldiss, in Billion Year Spree, and Sam Moskowitz, in Seekers of Tomorrow, Under the Moons of Mars, and just about every book he ever wrote. Perhaps most famously, Kingsley Amis did it in New Maps Of Hell, his celebrated survey of science fiction from 1960.

But probably my favorite example is Hell’s Cartographers, a marvelous collection of “personal histories” from six top science fiction writers: Alfred Bester, Damon Knight, Frederik Pohl, Robert Silverberg, Harry Harrison, and Brian Aldiss. This book is packed with countless anecdotes, fascinating references to SF magazines and ground-breaking stories, and tales of awkward adolescences. And for those of us interested in the history of the field, there is treasure on every page.

There are numerous quotes I could tease you with, but I’ll limit myself to this one, from Damon Knight’s entry, “Knight Piece,” which effectively communicates just how hapless these accomplished young men were around women.

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New Treasures: The Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig

New Treasures: The Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig

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The Blue Blazes-smallAnd so we continue our celebration of the latest crop of fabulous new paperbacks from Angry Robot.

Angry Robot is rapidly becoming one of my favorite publishers. Sure, we highlight a lot of great independent publishers here — folks like Haffner Press, Night Shade, Prime Books, Paizo, Pyr, Orbit, Titan, Solaris, and many others — but most of them concentrate on hardcovers and trade paperbacks, where profit margins are much higher. The low-margin mass market paperback is a much riskier proposition these days, especially when you’re taking a risk on new writers without an established audience.

But we still love paperbacks here at Black Gate. We love the way they’re packaged, and even the way they smell. And we especially love publishers willing to take chances on new writers. And those paperback publishers willing to take chances on gonzo, edgy, hugely original ideas from daring new writers… we just want to take them home and snuggle them. And make them a warm batch of chocolate chip cookies.

The Blue Blazes is the third Chuck Wendig novel from Angry Robot. They’ve also published Blackbirds and Mockingbird, as well as the upcoming The Cormorant. But it was The Blue Blazes that really grabbed my attention last time I was at Barnes & Noble. Sure, the marketing text on the back was intriguing:

Meet Mookie Pearl. Criminal underworld? He runs in it. Supernatural underworld? He hunts in it. Nothing stops Mookie when he’s on the job. But when his daughter takes up arms and opposes him, something’s gotta give…

But it was the blurb from Empire State author Adam Christopher that really sealed the deal:

The Blue Blazes is exactly my kind of supernatural mob crime novel: dark and visceral, with an everyman hero to root for and Lovecraftian god-horror to keep you awake at night… this is the good stuff, right here.

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New Treasures: She Returns From War by Lee Collins

New Treasures: She Returns From War by Lee Collins

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She Returns from War-smallI love Angry Robot books. I don’t pay much attention to publishers when I’m at the bookstore. But when I’m home, and my purchases are stacked by my big green chair, it’s hard not to notice that half of them have the Angry Robot logo on the spine.

I think they’re just in tune with the kind of books I’m most interested in. Which is weird, because I’m not exactly sure what they are myself. But I know they involve great cover art, intriguing settings, and women in cowboy hats. This week, anyway.

She Returns From War is the sequel to the supernatural western The Dead of Winter, released last October. The tag line is True Grit Meets True Blood, which is clever. Have you noticed this burgeoning mini-trend of western-horror-fantasies, including Guy Adams’s The Good The Bad and the Infernal, Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill’s Dead Reckoning, and the Bloodlands novels of Christine Cody? Apparently it’s a thing. See? We’re paying attention.

Four years after the horrific events in Leadville, a young woman from England, Victoria Dawes, sets into motion a series of events that will lead Cora and herself out into the New Mexico desert in pursuit of Anaba, a Navajo witch bent on taking revenge for the atrocities committed against her people.

She Returns From War was published by Angry Robot on January 29, 2013. It is 361 pages, priced at $7.99 in paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition.

The recent coverage Angry Robot titles we’ve covered were The Crown of the Blood by Gav Thorpe, The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu, The Bookman Histories by Lavie Tidhar, and The Corpse-Rat King, by Lee Battersby.

See all of our recent New Treasures here.

Black Gate Online Fiction: “Stand at Dubun-Geb” by Ryan Harvey

Black Gate Online Fiction: “Stand at Dubun-Geb” by Ryan Harvey

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Ryan Harvey-smallRyan Harvey returns to Ahn-Tarqa, setting of “The Sorrowless Thief,” for another heroic fantasy packed with adventure, swordplay, and weird magic.

Jelmez, the lookout, waved to them from his perch over the ravine.

“What is it?” Guyuk yelled. “The Sorghul?”

“I don’t know. You’ll have to see this for yourselves. Only an old tale-spinner could describe such a thing.”

A hundred feet along they reached a stretch of sheer limestone wall. Centuries of erosion from winter storms had caused a landslide that ripped a wound in the mountains’ roots.

Even the oppressive Dubun-Geb could not diminish the majesty of the forty-foot giant revealed inside that gash. It had the outlines of a man, but there was nothing of warmth or life to its gargantuan frame of bronze and steel. A flattened oval served as a head, and the rain washed over an obsidian visor that covered the place where eyes should be. Like any creation of the Art, it exuded the Sorrow. None of them had felt it so potently before; it crushed the breath from their lungs.

“A colossus,” Khasar exclaimed.

Ryan Harvey won the Writers of the Future Contest in 2011 for his story, “An Acolyte of Black Spires,” part of his science-fantasy series set on the continent of Ahn-Tarqa. His previous Ahn-Tarqa story for Black Gate, “The Sorrowless Thief,” appeared here on April 7th. Ahn-Tarqa is also the setting for Ryan’s e-book novelette, “Farewell to Tyrn,” and his upcoming novel, Turn over the Moon. His work has appeared in Every Day Fiction, Beyond Centauri, Aoife’s Kiss (upcoming), and the anthology Candle in the Attic Window. He writes science fiction, fantasy, and the shadowy realm between both, as well as a long stint writing a column at Black Gate.

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

“Stand at Dubun-Geb” is a complete 5,500-word short story of heroic fantasy. It is offered at no cost.

Read the complete story here.

Vintage Treasures: The Best of John W. Campbell

Vintage Treasures: The Best of John W. Campbell

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The Best of John W Campbell-smallJohn W. Campbell is one of the most important figures in 20th Century science fiction and fantasy.

If Campbell’s name seems familiar, it’s no accident. He’s come up multiple times in this series so far. In my last article, The Best of Hal Clement, I noted that Clement’s heroes frequently quoted Campbell’s pulp heroes Morey and Wade, and that Clement had been discovered by Campbell in June 1942, when Campbell was editing Astounding Science-Fiction.

In my previous piece, on The Best of Jack Williamson, I also observed that Williamson had “survived the coming of Campbell,” by which I meant that he was one of the few authors talented enough to continue writing SF in the pulps after about 1939, when Campbell had re-made the entire field in his image.

I could go back through all the other articles in this series and see just how often Campbell comes up, but I think you get the point. In the first half of the 20th Century, science fiction existed almost solely in the magazines and Campbell dominated the field so thoroughly that the start of the “Golden Age of Science Fiction” is usually marked by the year he began editing Astounding — the year he discovered writers like Robert Heinlein, A.E. Van Vogt, Isaac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon, Lester del Rey, and many others.

In his memoir, I, Asimov, Asimov called Campbell “the most powerful force in science fiction ever, and for the first ten years of his editorship he dominated the field completely.”

But we’re not here to talk about Campbell the editor. We’re here to talk about Campbell the writer. And specifically, the eleven short stories he wrote between 1932 and 1939 collected in The Best of John W. Campbell.

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J.K. Rowling Green Lights New Films in Harry Potter Universe

J.K. Rowling Green Lights New Films in Harry Potter Universe

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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them-smallWord is bouncing around literary and media circles that the most popular franchise of the 21st Century — indeed, perhaps the most popular book series of all time — will be extended with new films.

Warner Bros. announced Thursday that the Harry Potter media franchise will expand with a series of spin-off films, inspired by Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Written by (fictional) author Newt Scamander, Fantastic Beasts was the textbook  introduced by Hagrid in his Care of Magical Creatures class in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban — and later written and published by Rowling in a slender 42-page edition in 2001, shortly after Prisoner of Azkaban was released.

CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment  Kevin Tsujihara elaborated in a statement:

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be an original story. It is planned as the first picture in a new film series. Set in the wizarding world, the story will feature magical creatures and characters, some of which will be familiar to devoted Harry Potter fans.

I have to be honest and admit that I didn’t even know Rowling had written a real version of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and I had to look it up to make sure it was real (it is). It’s available in a combo-pack with Quidditch Through the Ages from Scholastic Books.

The movie is unusual in another respect — it will be the first one with a screenplay written by Rowling. The films will focus on the adventures of Newt Scamander and be set long before Harry’s birth. Here’s part of Rowling’s statement:

I already knew a lot about Newt. As hard-core Harry Potter fans will know, I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favourite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood… Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world… Newt’s story will start in New York, 70 years before Harry’s gets underway.

The release date for the first film has not been announced.

New Treasures: The Grim Company by Luke Scull

New Treasures: The Grim Company by Luke Scull

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The Grim Company-smallI admit I can be a little lazy when putting together these New Treasures articles. For one thing, my scanner gave up the ghost months ago and I can’t be bothered to walk aallll the way down the hall to use Alice’s. It’s usually easier to search for an image online. I’ll spend 20 minutes searching every nook and cranny of the web, trying to save the six minutes it takes to do a scan. Go figure.

Sometimes, though, the search is fruitless — as was the case with The Grim Company, the first novel from Bioware game designer Luke Scull. There were versions of the cover out there — lots of them. But most appeared to be early versions of the final cover I was holding in my hot little hands, courtesy of the publicity department of Roc Books.  Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, Goodreads — all of them were showing the same cover. Sure, it’s very similar to the final cover, but there were subtle differences (the actual final cover is here — see if you can spot them all).

Well, I don’t have a whole lot of scruples as an entertainment blogger, but that’s one of them. At Black Gate, we try to show you the real cover. Hurray for us. So I had to troop all the way down to Alice’s office, interrupt her game of solitaire, and take six minutes to scan the cover. It’s shown at right, in all its glory (click for a bigger version). You’re welcome.

The Gods are dead. The Magelord Salazar and his magically enhanced troops, the Augmentors, crush any dissent they find in the minds of the populace. On the other side of the Broken Sea, the White Lady plots the liberation of Dorminia, with her spymistresses, the Pale Women. Demons and abominations plague the Highlands.

The world is desperately in need of heroes. But what they get instead are a ragtag band of old warriors, a crippled Halfmage, two orphans and an oddly capable manservant: the Grim Company.

The Grim Company (the opening volume in a series also titled The Grim Company) was released by Roc Books on September 3. It is 389 pages, priced at $26.95 for the hardcover, and $12.99 for the digital version.

See all of our recent New Treasures here.

Lynne M. Thomas steps down as Editor of Apex Magazine

Lynne M. Thomas steps down as Editor of Apex Magazine

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Apex Magazine 45-smallLynne M. Thomas has resigned as editor of Apex Magazine, effective at the end of the year. She made the announcement yesterday on the Apex blog:

While the past two years of editing Apex Magazine have been deeply satisfying both personally and professionally, I will be stepping down as the Editor-in-Chief of Apex Magazine after the December 2013 issue. I’m in need of break, after which I’m looking forward to exploring new opportunities and projects. Managing Editor Michael Damian Thomas will be stepping down with me.

Publisher Jason Sizemore plans on continuing the magazine. Michael and I are working closely with the incoming editor to ensure a smooth transition…

I’d especially like to thank our contributors and readers. You’ve embraced us, and I just want to hug you all back. When we took over, we had no idea that the magazine would grow the way it did. We didn’t expect two Hugo Award nominations.

Lynn has edited Apex since issue 30, when she took the reins from Catherynne M. Valente. The new editor has not been announced.

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Win One of Five Copies of King of Chaos by Dave Gross

Win One of Five Copies of King of Chaos by Dave Gross

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Pathfinder Tales King of Chaos-smallIt’s time to give away some books.

Black Gate has five copies of the brand new Pathfinder Tales book from Dave Gross, author of Prince of Wolves, Master of Devils, and Queen of Thorns, compliments of the great folks at Paizo Publishing. And we want to get them into your hands.

To avoid the usual methods of selecting winners (hand-to-hand combat, best impromptu rendition of Aragon’s speech at the Black Gate of Mordor, etc.), we’ve decided to award the copies to five randomly-selected qualifying entrants. How do you qualify? Easy! Just send us a one-paragraph review of your favorite Pathfinder product, novel, or  short story.

Unfamiliar with Pathfinder? No problem! You can check out the latest right here at Black Gate — including the first chapters of both King of Chaos and Queen of Thorns, Bill Ward’s complete four-part story “The Box,” and the 4-part mini-epic “The Walkers from the Crypt” by Howard Andrew Jones. If you want to try a complete novel, may we suggest Howard’s Plague of Shadows, or Tim Pratt’s Liar’s Blade?

You can read Dave’s introduction to King of Chaos here, and his free stories “Killing Time” and “The Lost Pathfinder” at Paizo.com. In fact, check out the complete collection of free Pathfinder Tales web fiction, with stories from Elaine Cunningham, Richard Ford, Tim Pratt, Ari Marmell, Robin D. Laws, James L. Sutter, Monte Cook, Ed Greenwood, Erik Mona, Richard Lee Byers, and many others.

To enter our contest, just send an e-mail to john@blackgate.com with the title “King of Chaos,” and your one-paragraph entry, before October 1, 2013.

All entries become the property of New Epoch Press. No purchase necessary. Must be 12 or older. Decisions of the judges (capricious as they may be) are final. Terms and conditions subject to change. Sorry, US entrants only. Not valid where prohibited by law. Eat your vegetables.