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New Treasures: The Cold Between by Elizabeth Bonesteel

New Treasures: The Cold Between by Elizabeth Bonesteel

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I see that Amazon.com is taking pre-orders for Remnants of Trust, the second Central Corps novel and the sequel to Elizabeth Bonesteel’s debut The Cold Between.

That means it’s definitely time for me to read the first one. I love an ambitious space opera, and The Cold Between looks like just the ticket. It’s is a military SF novel with romance elements that SFF World calls a “taut, space-based science fiction mystery.” Here’s the verdict from Publishers Weekly.

Bonesteel’s space opera debut, the first in the Central Corps series, expertly revitalizes familiar plot elements… Bonesteel keeps the plot moving briskly… The headlong action will attract readers, but they’ll find themselves paying more attention to the characters’ convincing and satisfying emotional relationships.

The Cold Between was published by Harper Voyager on March 8, 2016. It is 528 pages, priced at $16.99 in trade paperback, and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Chris McGrath (click the images above for bigger versions).

See all of our recent New Treasures here.

Air Pirates, Acrobats, and Zeppelin Fleet Action: The Ring of Seven Worlds

Air Pirates, Acrobats, and Zeppelin Fleet Action: The Ring of Seven Worlds

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Ring of the 7 Worlds - Cover
…very hard to review without spoilers.

The Ring of Seven Worlds  (by Gualdoni, Clima, Piana, and Turotti) is a meaty Steampunk graphic novel sent to me by Sloth Comics when I was looking for reading for my daughter… and it’s very hard to review without spoilers.

It delivers a Steampunk (or is it Valve Punk?) setting with a Studi Ghibli feel in which Seven Worlds connect through a now sealed gate — the ring of the title — and of course the gate unseals and there’s an invasion that kicks off a rollicking adventure for two teenagers: a girl air-acrobat and a highborn boy.

And of course there are air pirates and zeppelin-on-zeppelin fleet action.

Meanwhile, in the background we have threads for clearly delineated power politics, gritty insurgency, and, ultimately… ah well, no spoilers.

Unlike some graphic novels, it does have a proper plot that makes a breathtaking kind of sense and takes you on a real journey. But again; no spoilers!

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I Am Not a Serial Killer Film Drops (Someplaces) Tomorrow

I Am Not a Serial Killer Film Drops (Someplaces) Tomorrow

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i-am-not-a-serial-killer-poster-2I am not particularly active on Twitter lately, but today I had a bit of time and hopped on, only to see the following headline shared by Dan Wells:

Retro-horror mashup ‘I Am Not a Serial Killer’ has an unexpectedly warm and fuzzy side

The tweet included a link to an LA Times review of the film I Am Not a Serial Killer which, according to IMDB, is set to release tomorrow, on August 26. Another review, over at the A.V. Club, proclaims “Psychopaths are people too.”

Despite being fond of Wells’ horror novel of the same name, I had no idea this film was on the horizon, and am definitely pleased to see it getting initial praise. If you want to really get a taste for what to expect, I suggest the fantastic trailer for it. (If you want to see the movie, check the bottom of this article for links, which I’ll update if I find more online availability after it is released. Feel free to skip there, if you have seen enough and want to avoid spoilers.)

The movie is based on the novel of the same name, which has gone on to spark a number of sequels featuring the main character, teenage John Cleaver, who is also a diagnosed psychopath. John’s fear is that his psychopathic urges will get the better of him, and that he will lose control of himself. To prevent this, he studies serial killers intently and has developed a series of rules that are designed to maintain his veneer of normalcy. One of the rules shown in the trailer, for example, is that when he feels an urge to kill someone, he instead compliments them. (A tip that is also helpful when maneuvering social media.)

John works in his family’s mortuary, which gives him some release for his interest in death. But he gets more than he bargains for when a series of murders in his quiet down prove to be the work of an actual serial killer. John’s expertise in this area leads him to discover who the serial killer is, and it turns out the police are not equipped to deal with the menace. In attempting to deal with things the “right” way, John finds events slowly becoming worse. He is forced to step up, breaking his own rules, and slowly getting in touch with his own darkness in order to combat the killer that threatens his community.

And that’s when things start getting really bad.

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Future Treasures: Ninth City Burning, by J. Patrick Black

Future Treasures: Ninth City Burning, by J. Patrick Black

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Ninth City Burning Cover-smallHere’s a promising debut SF novel of alien invasion…. or, perhaps, post-apocalyptic alien dystopia? Whatever. It has aliens, desperate battles, and mutant powers. Bring it.

We never saw them coming.

Entire cities disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving nothing but dust and rubble. When an alien race came to make Earth theirs, they brought with them a weapon we had no way to fight, a universe-altering force known as thelemity. It seemed nothing could stop it — until we discovered we could wield the power too.

Five hundred years later, the Earth is locked in a grinding war of attrition. The talented few capable of bending thelemity to their will are trained in elite military academies, destined for the front lines. Those who refused to support the war have been exiled to the wilds of a ruined Earth.

But the enemy’s tactics are changing, and Earth’s defenders are about to discover this centuries-old war has only just begun. As a terrible new onslaught looms, heroes will rise from unlikely quarters, and fight back.

Ninth City Burning will be published by Ace Books on September 6, 2016. It is 496 pages, priced at $27 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Matthew Griffin. Read an excerpt at Entertainment Weekly.

See all our coverage of the best in upcoming fantasy here.

An Epic Finale for Ancient Opar

An Epic Finale for Ancient Opar

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BOAO-cover-small2Hadon-front-final1Over forty years ago, Philip Jose Farmer published a pair of officially sanctioned books recounting the history of ancient Opar, the lost civilization familiar to readers of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels. Opar was the first of the author’s lost cities that survived undiscovered in the African jungle until the noble apeman came along. Burroughs’ lost civilizations, like his alien worlds, were fantastic places of adventure that allowed the author to sharpen his satiric blade and skewer organized religion and politics alike.

Farmer, in notable contrast, was interested in using Burroughs’ concepts as a springboard for more realistic and decidedly more adult adventures. Farmer’s histories are peopled with conquerors and king-makers who are not just noble savages, but also savage rapists and murderers. His Opar novels opened Tarzan fans’ eyes to the antediluvian kingdom of Khokarsa. While the sword & sorcery boom of the 1960s and 1970s flooded bookshelves with immoral and amoral barbarians, Farmer set his work apart by treating the material as realistically as possible. His characters die tragically and sometimes prematurely. Sexual intercourse leads to unplanned pregnancies that alter people’s lives as it changes the course of a kingdom’s destiny.

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Alaric’s Biggest Secret: “The Desert of Vanished Dreams” by Phyllis Eisenstein

Alaric’s Biggest Secret: “The Desert of Vanished Dreams” by Phyllis Eisenstein

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Phyllis Eisenstein’s wandering minstrel Alaric, one of the most beloved characters in modern fantasy, appeared in eight short stories in Fantasy & Science Fiction between 1978-1998, and in two novels: Born to Exile (1978) and In the Red Lord’s Reach (1989). He recently made a long-overdue reappearance in George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois’ massive 2014 anthology Rogues, in the novelette “The Caravan to Nowhere.”

He’s reappeared again, this time in the new novelette “The Desert of Vanished Dreams” in the latest issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science, still on sale at better bookshops. In honor of the occasion, F&SF has interviewed Phyllis on their website, and Phyllis reveals several secrets about the magical world she’s been nurturing for nearly four decades.

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New Treasures: The Lure of Devouring Light by Michael Griffin

New Treasures: The Lure of Devouring Light by Michael Griffin

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Ross E. Lockhart’s Word Horde press has done some darned impressive horror volumes. Just counting the ones we’ve covered recently:

The Fisherman by John Langan
Mr. Suicide, Nicole Cushing
Cthulhu Fhtagn!, edited by Ross E. Lockhart
Vermilion by Molly Tanzer
The Children of Old Leech, edited by Ross E. Lockhart and Justin Steele

Yeah, that’s a pretty good list. A list like that wins you some serious credibility. So when Word Horde offers us an intriguing new debut collection from someone I’ve never heard of, I think it behooves us to pay attention. Michael Griffin’s The Lure of Devouring Light has been called “A solid outing from a rising star in horror and dark fantasy” by Publishers Weekly, and Hellnotes says “It doesn’t get more recommended than this.”

The Lure of Devouring Light was published by Word Horde on April 30, 2016. It is 336 pages, priced at $16.99 in trade paperback and $6.99 for the digital version. The cover art is by Jarek Kubicki. Read more at the Word Horde website.

The 2016 Hugo Award Winners

The 2016 Hugo Award Winners

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The Fifth Season Jemisin-smallIt was a delight to be in the audience in Kansas City for the 2016 Hugo Awards. I was sitting next to Rich and MaryAnne Horton, and we thoroughly enjoyed both the pre-show and the presentations.

There’s a lengthy list of winners, so let’s get to it. The complete list follows.

Best Novel

The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US)

Best Novella

Binti, Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)

Best Novelette

“Folding Beijing”, Hao Jingfang (Uncanny 1-2/15)

Best Short Story

“Cat Pictures Please”, Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, 1/15)

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Future Treasures: The Call by Peadar O’Guilin

Future Treasures: The Call by Peadar O’Guilin

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Peadar O’Guilin was one of the most popular and prolific contributors to the print version of Black Gate. His first story for us was “The Mourning Trees” (BG 5), followed by “Where Beauty Lies in Wait” (BG 11) and “The Evil Eater” (BG 13), which Serial Distractions called “a lovely little bit of Lovecraftian horror that still haunts me to this day.” A fourth story, “The Dowry,” appeared as part of our Black Gate Online Fiction catalog.

Check out the podcast version of “The Evil Eater” on Pseudopod, or download Where Beauty Lies In Wait, a free e-book collecting a dozen of Peadar’s short stories, including his Black Gate tales, here.

Peadar’s first novel, The Inferior, was published to terrific reviews in 2008; it was followed by the next two novels in The Bone World Trilogy, The Deserter (2012) and The Volunteer (2013). His last book was Forever in the Memory of God and Other Stories, which Sarah Avery called “old-school weird fiction, Clark Ashton Smith style.”

Peadar’s newest novel is easily one of the most anticipated novels of the year here at Black Gate‘s rooftop headquarters. A unique blend of fantasy, horror, and folkore from one of the top writers in the field, The Call is this fall’s must-read fantasy epic.

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The Women of Andre Norton’s Witch World

The Women of Andre Norton’s Witch World

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Witch World 1I don’t think there is any one today who doesn’t know that Andre Norton was really Alice Mary Norton, which makes her portrayal of female characters more interesting than it would be otherwise. Much of her fiction was written prior to the politicization of the feminist movement (or at least widespread public awareness of it) so it isn’t surprising that in many respects her characters reflect the traditional, male-centric, social attitudes that we would expect from that time period.

In particular we see the presentation and acceptance of women as “other” in the feminist sense, which is, stated simply, the idea that women are seen and defined not as entities and persons in their own right, but as “not men.”

The protagonist of Witch World is clearly the male human Simon Tregarth, who is transported from our plane of existence to that of the main setting of the book and its sequels and follow-ups. It’s primary world fantasy in that respect, and Simon is the “stranger in a strange land” through whom we learn about the new world.

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