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In 500 Words or Less: Short Fiction Roundup #2!

In 500 Words or Less: Short Fiction Roundup #2!

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To round out the calendar year, I decided it’s high time I wrote up another Short Fiction Roundup. I will freely admit I read way more novels than short fiction, but here are some of my recent reads that I want to spotlight:

The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 Edition

Yes, I realize we’re at the end of 2018, and yes, this edition means stories from 2016. Best Of anthologies are always hit or miss with me, since critic appeal and mass market appeal don’t always mean the same thing. But I was pleasantly surprised here.

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Dress Rehearsal” starts with a theater troupe escaping a dangerous patronage and takes a wild turn involving devilish creatures given a furlough from Hell. In “All That Robot Shit,” my Ottawa buddy Rich Larson provides a post-apocalyptic Castaway setting featuring robots that’s equal parts touching and hilarious (which is consistent with Rich). And Charlotte Ashley’s story of honor and respect between paired nemeses in “A Fine Balance” is coupled with the thrills of master warriors hunting each other in the streets. (Oh, and check out Charlotte’s Archipelago project, too!). There are a bunch of other engaging stories here, and I’ll be checking out Rich Horton’s 2018 edition for sure.

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Birthday Reviews: George Zebrowski’s “Lords of Imagination”

Birthday Reviews: George Zebrowski’s “Lords of Imagination”

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Black Pockets and Other Dark Thoughts

Cover by Bob Eggleton

George Zebrowski was born in Austria on December 28, 1945. He is married to author Pamela Sargent.

In 1999 Zebrowski’s novel Brute Orbits won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. In 2000 he and Sargent were presented with the Service to SFWA Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He has also been nominated for the Nebula Award for Short Story three times, for “Heathen God,” “The Eichmann Variations,” and for “Wound the Wind.” Zebrowski has collaborated on fiction with Sargent, Charles Pellegrino, Jack Dann, Gerald Hull, and Grant Carrington. He has co-edited anthologies with Thomas N. Scortia, Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, Dann, and Gregory Benford.

Zebrowski first published  “Lords of Information” in the Spring 1990 issue of Science Fiction Review, edited by Elton Elliott. He substantially reworked the story and retitled it “Lords of Imagination” for its reprinting in his collection Black Pockets and Other Dark Thoughts in 2006.

“Lords of Imagination” is not just a rumination on the role of science fiction in the world of the future once aliens discover Earth and make it a protectorate, but is also a look at the role science fiction plays in our own time, partly, according to Zebrowski’s character, as a means of preparing mankind for the eventual discovery of alien species, and, by extension, technological and cultural advancement as well.

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Vintage Treasures: Strange Dreams by Stephen R. Donaldson

Vintage Treasures: Strange Dreams by Stephen R. Donaldson

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Strange Dreams Stephen R Donaldson-small Strange Dreams Stephen R Donaldson-back-small

Bantam Spectra cover by Gervase Gallardo

Twenty-five years ago oversized trade paperbacks fantasy anthologies were few and far between. Today they’re the default, but in the early 90s, when original anthologies routinely appeared as mass markets paperbacks, you had to be something special to warrant the deluxe trade paper format. (Nowadays, of course, the mass market anthology is long dead, but that’s a subject for a different post.)

Strange Dreams was something special. In the early 90s Stephen Donaldson was one of top-selling fantasy writers on the planet, with the bestelling Mordant’s Need and Chronicles of Thomas Covenant to his credit. In his introduction he relates how the book came about as a result of a conversation with master anthologist Martin H. Greenberg.

We were discussing the basis on which I might be willing — or indeed able — to pull together a collection, and I quickly dismissed the traditional anthological fundaments: Historical Development (where fantasy came from and how it grew); Defense of Genre (why fantasy is written); Technical Display (how fantasy can be written); and Thematic Modulation (what fantasy has to say about X and Y)… once all these bases have been diminished, why bother to do a collection at all?

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Birthday Reviews: Keith Taylor’s “Sepulchres of the Undead”

Birthday Reviews: Keith Taylor’s “Sepulchres of the Undead”

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The Secret History of Vampires
The Secret History of Vampires

Keith Taylor was born on December 26, 1946 in Tasmania.

Taylor has won the Ditmar Award twice. His first win was in 1982 for his short story “Where Silence Rules.” He won a second time in 1987 for his novel Bard III: The Wild Sea. He has been nominated for four additional Ditmar Awards as well as an Aurealis Award.

“Sepulchres of the Undead” appeared in the anthology The Secret History of Vampires, edited by Darrell Schweitzer, in 2007. The story has never been reprinted.

The great pyramids of Egypt have held a fascination for people for millennia. In “Sepulchres of the Undead,” Taylor explains that they are not simply vast monuments to the egos of the early Pharaohs, but actually served an important purpose. After Menkhaf kills a large bat on one of the pyramids, he learns that the pharaohs and their families are actually a separate race from most Egyptians. They are all, to some extent, vampires, and the great tombs are designed to ensure that their corpses are protected from humans and nature, for as long as their corpses remain, the vampires will retain the ability to change shapes and terrorize the population.

Menkhaf is warned that having killed a vampire, and specifically Pharaoh Khufu’s mother, he is a marked man. He joins the Brotherhood of Ra, a group dedicated to destroying the vampires among them. At the same time Prince Hemiunu, the pharaoh’s nephew and a partial vampire, is also out to destroy the vampires. The two vampire killers allow Taylor to play with different tactics, but they also muddy the waters of the story since he never really knits their plans, attacks, or stories, together. In fact, Menkhaf seems to be forgotten by the author as Hemiunu’s plans come to fruition. The resulting story has some interesting ideas regarding both vampires and Egyptian history, but doesn’t quite pull them together.

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Rebellion in an Alternate, Magic-drenched Britain: The Dark Gifts Trilogy by Vic James

Rebellion in an Alternate, Magic-drenched Britain: The Dark Gifts Trilogy by Vic James

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Gilded Cage Vic James-small Tarnished City Vic James-small Bright Ruin Vic James-small

Newcomer Vic James scored some enviable attention with the first two novels in her Dark Gifts trilogy, Gilded Cage (which we covered here), and Tarnished City (covered here), set in a modern England where magically gifted aristocrats rule and commoners are forced to serve. Andrew Liptak at The Verge included the first in his list of the top SF and fantasy novels of February 2017, saying,

Gilded Cage is the start to a new series by debut author Vic James. The world belongs to a class of gifted magical aristocrats, and commoners must serve them for a decade. A woman named Abi is a servant to a powerful family and discovers a secret that can upend the power in society, all while her brother toils away in a factory town, building a revolution.

Kirkus Reviews said Gilded Cage “Conjures up the specters of Les Misérables and Downton Abbey… an intriguing new fantasy series,” and Aliette de Bodard called it “A dark and intriguing vision of an alternate, magic-drenched Britain… kept me up long into the night.”

The third and final volume Bright Ruin, in which the people of Britain rise up against their magically gifted masters, was published in October, and was a Pick of the Month from Library Journal. Bookreporter calls it “A triumphant conclusion to this outstanding fantasy series,” and Publishers Weekly said “Rebellion comes to a deadly boil in the final chapter… [An] intricate tale of ruthless scheming and bloody betrayals.” All three volumes are now available from Del Rey. I bought the first, and I’m well tempted to complete the set.

New Treasures: Green Jay and Crow by DJ Daniels

New Treasures: Green Jay and Crow by DJ Daniels

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DJ Daniels’s first novel What the Dead Said (2012) was an odd little mystery set in 2021 Sydney, Australia where ghosts are everywhere, everyone can see them, and a hapless member of the Apparitions Group deals with living and dead underworld figures, an eccentric inventor and his robot creation, and an otherworldly plot to open the gateway between the living and the dead. The back cover text of her new novel Green Jay and Crow caught my eye on my bi-weekly trip tp B&N (“The half-forgotten streets of Barlewin… are a good place to hide: among the aliens and the couriers, the robots and the doubles, where everyone has secrets”), and I brought it home with me.

In his December book launch column at the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, Joel Cunningham gives it an enthusiastic rec.

Daniels’ novel earns its comparisons to Philip K. Dick: weird, difficult, and occasionally obscure… In the city of Barlewin, Kern Bromley is a human known as Crow, tasked with delivering a time-locked box to a dangerous criminal. Crow becomes linked to the box and begins jumping to alternate realities, meeting himself and glimpsing multiple possible realities. Eva, the Green Jay, is an artificial body double printed from plant matter. Eva lives in the memories of her creator, and should have disintegrated long ago, but is still struggling to find her way into reality, and has managed to remain in one piece through the assistance of a pair of robots named Felix and Oscar (the Chemical Conjurers)… This is a story that explores what it means to be real, to be human — and to be neither.

Green Jay and Crow was published by Abaddon on December 11, 2018. It is 338 pages, priced at $9.99 in paperback and $5.99 in digital formats. The cover is by Pye Parr. See all our recent New Treasures here.

Future Treasures: The Smoke by Simon Ings

Future Treasures: The Smoke by Simon Ings

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I’m familiar with the name Simon Ings, but for the life of me I can’t remember from where. His bio says he’s the author of eight previous novels, including his “widely acclaimed” debut Hot Head and the British Science Fiction Association/Campbell Award nominee Wolves (2014), but I dunno, those don’t ring any bells either. However, his short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s SF, Meeting Infinity (2015), and Year’s Best volumes from David Hartwell, Rich Horton and Jonathan Strahan, and it seems likely I’ve encountered him in more than a few TOCs over the years. But his upcoming novel The Smoke already looks like one of major SF novels of 2019, and has been getting plenty of advance notice, including a very enthusiastic review from Gary K. Wolfe at Locus for the original UK hardcover.

Early on, we are given to understand that the “Great War” ended in 1916 with the nuking of Berlin and the irradiation of Europe, that a Yellowstone Eruption in 1874 devastated North America and led to a decade-long global winter, and that – more to the immediate point of how this world diverged from ours – the real-life Russian embryologist Alexander Gurwitsch perfected a “biophotonic ray,” which led to a form of biotech that eventually led to “the speciation of man­kind.”… At the top of the sociobiological heap is an enhanced class of urbanites call the Bund, who have taken over large swaths of London (usually referred to as “the Smoke”), and whose advanced technology has already sent robot miners to the moon… [a] haunting tale.

The Smoke will be published by Titan Books on January 22, 2019. It is 309 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback and $7.99 in digital formats. The striking cover is, sadly, uncredited.

See all of coverage of the best upcoming SF and Fantasy releases here.

Birthday Reviews: Wynne Whiteford’s “Night of the Wandjina”

Birthday Reviews: Wynne Whiteford’s “Night of the Wandjina”

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Cover by Nick Stathopoulos
Cover by Nick Stathopoulos

Wynne Whiteford was born on December 23, 1915 in Melbourne, Australia. He died on September 30, 2002.

In 1987, Whiteford received a short story award from the Epicurean and Cultural Society. Whiteford’s novel The Specialist was nominated for the Ditmar Award in 1991. In 1995 he was presented with the Chandler Award, presented for Outstanding Achievement in Australian Science Fiction.

“Night of the Wandjina” was Whiteford’s final published work and appeared in the 1998 anthology Dreaming Down Under, edited by Jack Dann and Janeen Webb. When the anthology was split into two volumes for a paperback printing, the story appeared in volume one. It has not, otherwise been reprinted.

When a company is preparing to drill for oil, one of their employees, Kel, warns them that he is uncomfortable that they plan to drill near an aboriginal site. Asked whether he believes they might disturb the spirits, Kel proceeds to tell a story about one of his earlier forays in oil exploration.

Kel tells his Director that he once went into the Outback with a team of four. When they found some aboriginal symbols looked like aliens, their aboriginal teammate, Djerri, commented that it represented a Wandjina, which he explained was a sort of wind spirit. When they decided to dig anyway, Djerri took one of their motorbikes and headed back to their camp, unwilling to be a part of the drilling team. They found a glass cylinder which they carefully unearthed, but when it broke it released a small whirlwind which seemed to take control of one of them and caused him to run until his body gave out.

The story treats the aboriginal culture and beliefs with respect, but at the same time carries a certain amount of “there are somethings man is not meant to know” and “don’t disturb the ancient spirits.” Kel and his mates approach the area knowing that they have a job to do and although Djerri can’t convince them not to, they are try to do the least amount of damage they can, although they also give into their natural curiosity, with dire consequences.

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A Ride into the Darkness: The Long Way Home by Richard Chizmar

A Ride into the Darkness: The Long Way Home by Richard Chizmar

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The Long Way Home Richard Chizmar.small

Richard Chizmar (publisher, editor, author) is one of those writers that I define as “dependable,” meaning that you can count on him to deliver tales that are entertaining, thought provoking and extremely well written. And these features are particularly important for an author devoted to short stories, where time and space are short, and suspension of disbelief must be elicited from the very first sentence.

Chizmar’s latest collection The Long Way Home assembles twenty stories in which the reader meets the many faces of the darkness which surrounds our lives and lurks in the deep of our souls. Sometimes the topic is overtly horrific (a wild serial killer, for instance), sometimes more subtle and occasionally deceiving.

Good examples of the former are “Mischief,” a witty piece where a serial killer’s confession to a journalist leads to an unexpected development; “The Man Behind the Mask,” a tense story with a terrifying twist, about a mysterious Bogeyman abducting, raping and killing girls; and “Roses and Raindrops,” a tale of graphic horror, deeply unsettling and not for the squeamish.

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A Space Opera of Surpassing Weirdness: The Amaranthine Spectrum by Tom Toner

A Space Opera of Surpassing Weirdness: The Amaranthine Spectrum by Tom Toner

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I’m off work for the holidays. Sixteen long days of Christmas food and home improvement tasks. It’s my longest break of the year, and also the time when I can get a little more ambitious with my reading. 

You know what that means. It means I procrastinate big reading projects until the end of the year. And here at the end of 2018 I find myself with several large stacks of unfinished fat fantasies, trilogies, and longer series.

Well, they’re all going to have to wait. Because I want to start with Tom Toner’s Amaranthine Spectrum, an ambitious trilogy set in the far-distant 147th Century (How ambitious? The third volume has a 19-page glossary). The series just concluded with The Tropic of Eternity, published by Night Shade in August, and it has been one of the most acclaimed space operas on the market. Tor.com called “Among the most significant works of science fiction released in recent years,” and Locus proclaimed it “Marvelous…. a space opera of surpassing gracefulness, depth, complexity, and well, all-round weirdness.”

Here’s the description for the third volume, and all the publishing details. Now don’t bother me, I’m headed to my big green chair with some hot chocolate and a warm lap cat.

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