This month’s Apex Magazine features ”Bear in Contradicting Landscape” by David J. Schwarz and ”My Body, Her Canvas” by A.C. Wise; the classic reprint is “Useless Things” by Maureen McHugh, who is interviewed by Maggie Slater. Donata Giancola provides the cover art and Alex Bledsoe and editor Lynne M. Thomas penned columns round out the issue.
Further details about this on-line publication can be found here.
“Battle for Tropica” was the twentieth installment of Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon Sunday comic strip serial for King Features Syndicate. Originally published between July 18, 1943 and February 6, 1944, “Battle for Tropica” marks the final installment to be completely illustrated by the character’s creator, Alex Raymond. The storyline picks up where the preceding installment, “Fiery Desert of Mongo” left off with the roguish desert chieftain Gundar pledging to aid Flash in restoring Desira to the throne of Tropica. Desira is reluctant to trust the outlaw chief, but Gundar makes it known that he has aspirations of becoming the Queen’s royal consort for his troubles. Meantime, Gundar’s discarded queen, Pequit vows to make sure that Gundar never reach the throne of Tropica.
The group makes a daring nighttime raid on the city of Placida. Zarkov seizes the communications center while Gundar takes the sentries by surprise and informs them that their lives will be spared if they recognize Desira as their Queen. The Mayor of Placida kneels before the Queen and Flash is elated that the first city has fallen without a drop of blood being spilled. The important point, that Don Moore’s script never makes clear, is that the people of Tropica are beginning to learn that the Queen is not an imposter and Brazor is a traitorous usurper. Sentries later inform Flash that Brazor’s aide, Colonel Mogard is leading a fleet of tanks to Placida. Flash has Gundar’s men abandon the city to draw them away, but Mogard gives the order to raze the city to send a message to all who would remain loyal to the deposed Queen.
Vampire Fashionistas, Flesh-Eating Ogres, Paranoid Werewolves and Sugar-Addicted Zombies…
Welcome to Gothopolis.
As I stare at the cover of Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 which was just delivered by the spotty intern handling the Black Gate mailroom this semester, several thoughts are competing for top billing; like “Where is this ‘Gothopolis’?” and “Someone get my travel agent on the horn,” and “Would Steven Roman mind if I developed a crush on him?”
Finally, someone who understands…
The cover of this magnificent work of art is reminiscent of looking in a mirror. Okay, not so much. But still I’m mesmerized. Is this really a novel about a zombie shooting, werewolf booting Goth chick?
It looks too good to be true really.
So I fire up the blender and with fine adult beverage in hand, I climb into my comfy chair (the big leather one just under the life-size stand up of Bela Lugosi) to have a nice, long, get-to-know-you session with Pandora Zwieback.
“Which one do you like?” I asked, knowing full well what his answer would be.
“This one,” he replied, pointing to the top shelf where Easley’s red dragon fighting with four pegasi on the cover of Monster Manual stood at attention.
Yep, of course my son the vegetarian and animal activist would pick that one, even if the animals involved are all imaginary.
A conversation followed with various questions like, “That man is going to save his friend, right?” for the cover of Wilderness Survival Guide, and, “I know the ninja is going to get away.” for the cover of Oriental Adventures.
“Even without a weapon, the warrior can slay his enemy from a hundred paces. But the ultimate ideal is when the sword disappears altogether.
The warrior embraces all around him. The desire to kill no longer exists.
Only peace remains.”
–The King of Qin, HERO
Back in 2000 director Ang Lee reinvented the kung fu film (or “wuxia film”) with his Oscar-winning CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. Inspired by the great tradition of Chinese martial arts films, Lee brought solid storytelling, deft acting, and superb special effects to bring a new originality to the genre. The film set a new bar for kung fu flicks, where over-the-top action and supernatural elements blended seamlessly with high drama and solid scripting. Yet for Lee this was not the first installment of a new series, or a new direction for his creativity. CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON was his single entry into the martial arts film genre–he quickly moved on to other types of films.
In 2002 a film called HERO was released in China by well-established director Zhang Yimou, who was acclaimed for such “serious” (i.e. non-action) films such as RAISE THE RED LANTERN and TO LIVE. Two years later, HERO hit American cinemas (thanks to Quentin Tarantino championing the film) and established Yimou as the new reigning king of the kung fu flick. What Lee failed to do (i.e. continue exploring the fertile ground of his CROUCHING TIGER universe), Yimou did with style, finesse, and sheer visual bravura.
Dreadnought (Amazon, B&N)
Cherie Priest
Tor (400 pp., $14.99, 2010)
Reviewed by Andrew Zimmerman Jones
Cherie Priest returns to her “Clockwork Century” in full force in this third novel. In some ways, I would recommend that readers begin with Dreadought, even though it’s the third book in the series. Basically, the plot twist at the end of Dreadnought is the entire premise of Boneshaker, as I’ll explain later in the review. (Spoiler-ish alert!)
The book focuses on Mercy Lynch, a Confederate nurse whose husband has just died fighting for the Union. (Gotta love those border state romances!) She receives word from her father – who left her as a child – that he is dying, and he would like her to visit him in the Washington territory. That father is Jeremiah Swankhammer, who readers of Boneshaker will recognize as one of the key characters in that story.
With nothing really to keep her in Virginia, she sets off on a cross-country journey by airship and train to reach Tacoma and, ultimately, Seattle. Unfortunately, the only train that can get her from St. Louis to Tacoma is the Union steam engine Dreadnought, and the train is carrying some bizarre cargo … cargo which makes the train trip into a harrowing ride that brings Mercy and the other passengers into conflict with bushwackers, a mad scientist, and even zombies!
So it now it seems publishers are counting on Barnes and Noble to help them stay in business. Which is funny because it wasn’t that long ago when Barnes and Noble was a slayer of independent bookstores and an enemy of the books business; now it’s considered the only thing that stands in the way of total world domination by Amazon.
Interesting that the notion of a bookstore is beginning to look more and more like an Apple store. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. My kid just got a Nook and she goes to our local Barnes and Noble because she can read certain e-books online for free there. Meanwhile she can consume some mocha lattes and maybe even take home a real book. Like everyone else I shop on-line, but the atmosphere of a bookstore leads to impulse buys that isn’t the same as scanning some algorithm’s suggested reads.
Speaking of physical books, I just finished Richard Morgan’s The Cold Commands, Book Two of presumably a trilogy ironically titled A Land
Fit for Heroes (in which the land is neither fit for heroes nor populated with behavior typically classified heroic) by Richard K. (whose middle initial is used on book jackets only on the American side of the pond for some reason) Morgan describe it as “genre busting.” That’s not just some publicist’s hyperbole. You can read the complete review over here at the SF Site.
“Fiery Desert of Mongo” was the nineteenth installment of Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon Sunday comic strip serial for King Features Syndicate. Originally published between November 8, 1942 and July 11, 1943, “Fiery Desert of Mongo” picks up where the preceding installment, “Jungles of Mongo” left off with Prince Brazor trailing Queen Desira to the border of Tropica’s Flaming Desert.
Flash causes an avalanche to delay Brazor’s men. The river of lava and the fire dragon that lurks within menace the fugitives as they proceed into the increasingly unbearable heat of the Flaming Desert. A volcanic eruption nearly finishes them off. Flash escapes to safety by managing a broad jump of over thirty feet. Alex Raymond and script writer Don Moore make the escape from the volcanic eruption a tension-filled drama that makes one forgive the implausibility of Flash’s near-superhuman feat.
As they near the edge of the Flaming Desert, the fugitives run out of water. A delirious Flash sees pixies emerge from a volcano and float through the air and set upon him, beating him senseless. On the verge of collapse, they are rescued by desert raiders.
The interns are between semesters, the temperatures in Chicago are sub-zero and most important, the Boss is in Belize.
Belize…? What’s in Belize? Anybody?
Well, no matter. What we have here is the perfect storm of opportunity to take the week off and get ready for Goth Chick News’ second busiest season besides Halloween.
Convention season.
In the coming weeks I’ll be road-tripping to St. Louis to cover the 2012 Halloween Costume and Party Show, chatting up the disturbing participants of C2E2 and joining my fellow Black Gate staffers at something called Capri-con (where I’ll appear incognito to see what all you Sci-Fi-er’s get up to when you get together).
Until then, it’s frozen blender drinks and days nights on the sand.
See you next week.
Are you hitting up any conventions this year? If so, which ones? Post a comment or drop a line to sue@blackgate.com.
Yes, Black Gate’s focus is on the literature of the fantastic. But sometimes, fantasy needs a soundtrack.
In my first installment of “Fantasy Out Loud,” I focused on the act of reading adventure fantasy aloud. To children, by and large. But what happens once the darling tots are tucked into bed, with visions of sugarplums (or online MMO’s) dancing in their heads?
I’ll tell you what happens. I go downstairs and crank up the music. And what makes it onto the stereo more often than not? The music of the fantastic.
I’m not referring to film soundtracks, no, nor Wagnerian opera, though both surely count as fantastical (and I hope to treat both in future editions of “Fantasy Out Loud”). No, I’m talking here about rock music and its venerable forbear, folk. Folk music, with special attention here to the tradition of the British Isles, is positively rife with fantasy settings and tropes: swordplay (of both kinds), fairy abductions, marauding giants, the works.