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A review of Scarce Resources by Brendan Detzner

A review of Scarce Resources by Brendan Detzner

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scarce-resourcesScarce Resources, by Brendan Detzner
Self-published (153 pages, $9.99, July 2011)

Brendan Detzner has been reading his stories of unholy compromise, quiet madness and apocalypses both great and small at Chicago open mic events for several years now. His first collection, Scarce Resources, is now available. If you’re not familiar with his work, these eighteen stories are a great overview of what he’s been doing.

The collection opens with “The Black Plague,” a mixture of bio-terror and supernatural horror that shows how much more fearsome life-and-death decisions are when placed in human hands than when left to the whims of nature.

“Dinosaurs,” “Dress Rehearsal” and “Humility” are also set in post-apocalyptic worlds where the drive to continue and rebuild society is either an act of ultimate hope or ultimate denial. I especially liked the playful tone of “Dinosaurs” (opening on a tennis match with the Devil), while “Dress Rehearsal” is reminiscent of Philip K. Dick.

“Music for Scalpel and Prepared Piano,” the shortest piece in the collection, illustrates in less than a hundred words how the path of evil can so easily become a slippery slope. “Quiet” deals with a similar theme, except that the atrocities he describes are sadly real (and still being funded by your tax dollars).

Given the recent death of Amy Winehouse, “The House Rock and Roll Built” may seem a bit more timely than originally intended, while “Veronica” portrays a brutal woman living in a brutal world, finding humanity in a bit of nostalgia.

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Fantasy TV Weekly Update – Nov. 7

Fantasy TV Weekly Update – Nov. 7

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grimmAnother week, another set of new television goodness from the non-cable networks. Seriously, after a year where there’s been very little mainstream science fiction and fantasy on television, it’s nice to see it coming back in such full force. I’m still divided on which of the new shows I most like (though I still probably lean, just a touch, toward Once Upon a Time), though, and both seem to have some potential.

Now on to the show recaps…

Grimm – “Bears Will Be Bears,” Nov. 4 – A breaking and entering goes bad, resulting in one of the intruders becoming a missing person. This bizarre case brings Nick face to face with an ancient race performing a violent rite of passage. (If you can’t guess the fairy tale being invoked from the episode title, you need to turn off your television and read a book of fairy tales. I mean now. Here’s a free one.) Meanwhile, the bludbad Eddie is enlisted to help Nick protect his aunt, but he goes beyond mere comic relief when he lets his inner wolf out on too long a leash.

The best thing about this show, in my opinion, is Eddie, and I’m glad to see that they made such good use of him so quickly out of the gate. I could care less about Nick, to be honest, but that isn’t necessarily a show killer. After all, I was a huge fan of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, but the main thing that made 7 years of Buffy’s angst enjoyable was the quality supporting cast: Xander, Giles, Willow, and Oz. Still, Grimm is nowhere near Whedon-esque proportions yet, so I recommend they make Nick a bit more engaging. You can watch the episode online on the official NBC show page or over at Hulu.com.

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A Stoner Fantasy Review: Your Highness

A Stoner Fantasy Review: Your Highness

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yourhighnessSometimes a film comes along which redefines a genre. It brings a new, vibrant life to traditional storytelling structures. It makes you look forward to the new tales that will be inspired by it.

Your Highness is not one of those films.

No, this film is a straight-up satire. It’s from the director of Pineapple Express which was the Seth Rogen and James Franco film that tried to carve out a difficult niche. It was a stoner action film.

Your Highness, on the other hand, is a stoner fantasy film.

And, even on that premise, I don’t think it worked. The problem is that the various stoner film traits – drug use, vulgar language, blatant sexual comments – were applied so thickly that they proved distracting. At each and every turn, it served only one purpose: to completely pull you out of the story and draw attention to the fact that you were watching a film.

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Fiction Review: Neverwinter by R.A. Salvatore

Fiction Review: Neverwinter by R.A. Salvatore

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Long ago, in a time known a college I read my first R.A. Salvatore novel, The Crystal Shard. At that point a great portion of my life was wrapped up in The Forgotten Realms where the novel took place.

Little did I know as I flipped through the very fun, and incredibly D&D-like novel, that a periphery character named Drizzt D’Urdin would go on to be perhaps the most famous D&D character of all time.

So powerful were these books that they actually changed the map of the Forgotten Realms campaign world. My copy, a 1st print, has a map in which Drizzt’s exiled home, Icewind Dale, doesn’t even appear, Salvatore choosing a place beyond the current mythos of the realm.

I finished the Icewind Dale Trilogy and was greatly pleased with all things inside those pages. It was a true D&D adventure and had the makings of something so much larger. I was also taken with the fact that the trilogy was the only one I’ve ever seen in print to feature Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, and Jeff Easley as cover artists in a series.

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APEX #30 and Weird Fiction Review debut

APEX #30 and Weird Fiction Review debut

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issue31_mediumThe latest Apex Magazine is now available; the thirtieth issue is the first by new editor Lynne M. Thomas.  The issue features former editor Catherinne M. Valente’s “The Bread We Eat in Dreams” (who also contributes a farewell essay and a poem) and “The Leavings of the Wolf” by Elizabeth Bear.  This month’s revisited classic story is “The Creeping Thing” by Robert Shearman.  There’s also poetry by Tim Pratt and Bryan Thao Worra and non-fiction by Tansy Rayner Roberts, as well as several interviews.  For those who might fear change, rest assured that the new editor intends to carry on the Apex tradition:

Apex will continue to shove at the edges of the genre until they bleed. I will be publishing transgressive, visceral stories and poems that show us the best and worst of who we are, rendered with style and precision. Expect work outside of your comfort zone: thoughtful, experimental, emotional, and brave. Here you will find stories and poems that show us a heart, sliced out carefully, still beating in the writer’s hands, for all the world to see.

Also, in the one door closes, another opens category, outgoing Werid Tales editor Ann VanderMeer and spouse Jeff (who you may also have heard of) have launched on-line Weird Fiction Review. There’s a combination of fiction, non-fiction, comics, interviews and other, well, weird stuff.  As the editors describe it:

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This site is meant to be an ongo­ing explo­ration into all facets of the weird, in all of its many forms — a kind of non-denominational approach that appre­ci­ates Love­craftbut also Kafka, Angela Carter and Clark Ash­ton Smith, Shirley Jack­son and Fritz Leiber — along with the next gen­er­a­tion of weird writ­ers and inter­national weird. The emphasis will be on non­fic­tion on writ­ers and par­tic­u­lar books, but we will also run fea­tures on weird art, music, and film, as well as occasional fiction.
Behind the Mask: Dr. Phibes – In the Beginning by William Goldstein

Behind the Mask: Dr. Phibes – In the Beginning by William Goldstein

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untitledphibes-4Forty years ago, American International Pictures released The Abominable Dr. Phibes starring the late Vincent Price to movie theaters and Award Books published the novel, Dr. Phibes by the character’s creator, William Goldstein. The novel serves as an intriguing variant to the camp classic film in treating the same story with a great deal of reverence and pathos. The following year Price starred in a hastily-produced sequel for AIP, Dr. Phibes Rises Again and Award Books again published a tie-in novel by the character’s creator which expands upon and corrects a number of the film’s flaws. Flash forward to 2011 and William Goldstein’s new novel, Dr. Phibes: In the Beginning has just been published.

I am not aware of any other creator having returned to his seminal work after such a lengthy passage of time. That said Goldstein had never truly abandoned Phibes. Much like the good doctor’s own quest to revive his beloved wife Victoria, Goldstein has had his own never-ending quest to re-launch the franchise with a new film or a television series. He is a rarity among screenwriters in that his literary efforts do not read like little more than movie treatments or as typical novelizations that slavishly follow the source material.

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World Fantasy Convention in a Really Large Nutshell, Part 2

World Fantasy Convention in a Really Large Nutshell, Part 2

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SHARON SHINN!

(…Being a continuation of Part One…)

It began, as all good days should, with breakfast.

A breakfast with FRIKKIN SHARON SHINN, y’all!

This is how it went down. John O’Neill emails me a few weeks ago. It goes something like this:

Hey Claire!!

Want to have lunch with me and Sharon Shinn?  Come on, I’ll introduce you! – John

And I go something like this:

OH MAH GAWD SHARON SHINN!

I am not going to go on about my thing for Sharon Shinn’s books. It’s just one of those things. That you have. When you think, “Ah! Look! A little novella by Sharon Shinn in this collection! How nice!” And two weeks later you emerge from rereading ALL of her books, with little black suns bursting behind your eyes and a nervous twitch, and you assure people, “No, really. I’m all right.” Anyway, for an in-depth encounter with my Sharon Shinn thing, read my review of her book, Troubled Waters.

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Goth Chick News: What the Heck Is That?

Goth Chick News: What the Heck Is That?

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image002As you would expect, Halloween means the servers that handle Goth Chick News email all but melt down in the month of October.

Though I love nothing better than hearing from some of the more… well… “interesting” members of the Black Gate fan base, there are definitely some communications I could probably go my entire life without seeing, and others that aren’t exactly “wrong” in the strictest sense of the word, but are definitely pushing a few boundaries.

You know who you are, and in the future you’ll thank me for not posting you-know-what.  Someday you may want to run for office or something…

But I do get some incredibly intriguing bits of data as well and 2011 was no exception.  This year the cool stuff seemed to run along a common theme; so much so that I couldn’t help but share it.

Pictures of ghosts.

As an amateur ghost-hunter myself, this is a topic I just can’t get enough of; and I don’t mean “orbs” (there are just too many other explanations for those), or streaks of light (same issue).  I’m after pictures showing distinguishable forms and faces that appear in pictures once they are developed or reviewed, which were not in the shot when it was taken.

It scarcely matters which side of the ghost question you come down on.  Believe or no, you can’t deny that some of the “photographic evidence” is creepy if not downright compelling.  If it gives you a little shiver, it’s a great shot.

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World Fantasy Convention In A Really Large Nutshell, Part I

World Fantasy Convention In A Really Large Nutshell, Part I

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C.S.E. Cooney and Delia Sherman (all con-related photos in this post courtesy of Patty Templeton)

It was a long and arduous journey from New York City to San Diego last Thursday. Oh, the delays! Oh, the taxiing! Oh, the stand-bys!

However, two things made the journey incredibly pleasant. One was my traveling companions, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, who both travel so often that they have it down to an art form.

When I told her I liked to arrive at the airport two hours early, Ellen replied:

“I’m more like Peter Sellars, who said he likes airplanes to be like taxicabs:  He gets to the airport, gets on one, and it leaves.”

Daunting! But, see, it worked!

bg-freedom-mazeThe second thing was the book I read on the airplane. It was Delia’s book, actually released during the convention. It’s a Young Adult time-travel fantasy called The Freedom Maze. I sank into its story as doth the unwary sheep in the treacherous highland bog, and emerged from the last page as we were landing in Texas. Where, due to earlier delays in New York, we’d missed our connection flight.

But have no fear, gentle readers! Even though I was certain I’d never make it to World Fantasy in time for my VERY FIRST EVER WORLD FANTASY READING, the Gods of the Air (and my two traveling companions, AKA fairy godmothers) were with me. Lo was I shunted onto the next flight, the Last of the Stand-By passengers, while Ellen and Delia waved goodbye and sent me texts saying:

“We are eating BBQ and feeling no pain.”

They were booked on the next flight out. I was on my way. I fell promptly asleep.

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Art Evolution Special: Erol Otus

Art Evolution Special: Erol Otus

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Otus does the cover of perhaps my favorite TSR Module of all time, and be sure to remember that creature!
Otus does the cover of perhaps my favorite TSR Module of all time, and be sure to remember that creature!

Erol Otus hates me… It’s a dead on fact, something that can’t be changed, I’m afraid, and yet I find myself having a hankering to talk about him in a favorable light. I went after Erol for Art Evolution, and he was the very first artist I’d never met to get an invite to the project. Erol wasn’t interested, and no matter what I did to try to entice him he just kept getting further away from a commitment. It’s the name of the game, a numbers game, and John O’Neill once told me that if I went out to get 20 artists and my approach had a capture rate of 19, then whatever went wrong couldn’t be put on me.

Still, the more Art Evolutions I did, the more I found people asking for Erol and what his contribution would look like. Erik Mona over at Paizo went so far as to say that without Erol my project would never be complete.

To tell you the honest truth, when I was young I detested Otus’s contributions to the field. I thought his work was that of a child among men, and if you showed me an Otus image I’d sneer at it in veritable disgust. Remember, however, that youth doesn’t represent good taste, and certainly as the years went by and my eye for art changed, a greater respect grew for Otus’s work. Now that’s not to say it became ‘better’ art, but it did facilitate a nostalgic bent to my youth that softened its edges and helped me accept what it was.

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