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New Treasures: The Late Breakfasters and Other Strange Stories by Robert Aickman

New Treasures: The Late Breakfasters and Other Strange Stories by Robert Aickman

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Robert Aickman was one of the finest horror writers in our field. He received the World Fantasy Award in 1975, and the British Fantasy Award in 1981, the year he died.

Not familiar with Aickman? Great! There’s never been a better time to try him. The marvelous Valancourt Books has returned much of his work to print, including The Late Breakfasters and Other Strange Stories, an omnibus collection of his early work, released in hardcover and an affordable trade paperback format last week. It contains his debut novel The Late Breakfasters (1964), half a dozen short stories, and a new introduction by Philip Challinor.

I first discovered Valancourt by standing in front of their booth at the World Fantasy Convention a few years ago, and being absolutely astounded at how many terrific books they have in their back catalog. Here’s a few I’ve managed to highlight recently at Black Gate.

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The Dandelion Dynasty and Sagrada Família

The Dandelion Dynasty and Sagrada Família

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The Dandelion Dynasty is an attempt at melding two separate literary traditions, both of which I’ve been fortunate enough to inhabit.

One of them traces a lineage from ancient, fragmentary pre-dynastic legends and Warring States Period annals to the spare, vivid biographies in Records of the Grand Historian, to elegant Tang Dynasty lyric poems and politically subversive Yuan Dynasty plays and pre-modern Ming Dynasty novels, and thence to the first vernacular Chinese stories, whose awkward but also lively language is cobbled together by great writers who were also courageous translators and who enriched the new medium with neologisms and adopted grammatical structures and strange metaphors imported from the West, and finally, to the wuxia classics that revived the strength of Chinese storytelling and the modern web serials that represent the lives of men and women in a society seized by some of the greatest upheavals and tumultuous changes ever encountered by any human society, incorporating along the way historical romances, oral storytelling, and magnificent fantasies that have been built up by generations of artists, brick by brick,  like the Great Wall itself.

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Horror and Swords & Sorcery

Horror and Swords & Sorcery

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by Virgil Finlay

The air has turned crisp, the sun is dipping below the horizon earlier each evening, and the supermarket candy section seems to have grown exponentially. Halloween is just around the corner and, like many of you, my mind has turned to haunts and frights.

Horror is one of the primary elements dividing swords & sorcery from epic fantasy. To quote the Horror Writers Association’s site, horror fiction is that which “elicits an emotional reaction that includes some aspect of fear or dread.” Horror has been intrinsic to the genre from its earliest days. Robert E. Howard’s heroes, Kull, Conan, Bran, and Solomon Kane all face off against supernatural horror. In general, the worlds of S&S are dark and dangerous. The protagonists, mostly loners, find themselves pitted against an inimical universe populated with carnivorous forces of darkness that sate their hunger on humanity.

Epic fantasy is concerned with things like the fate of the world, the battle between Light and Darkness, or big dynastic squabbles. There may be moments of terror in epic fantasy (e.g. LotR’s Watcher in the Water; A Song of Ice and Fire’s wights), but it’s rarely the main event. Not in every story, but in most of their S&S work, writers like Clark Ashton Smith, Karl Edward Wagner, and C. L. Moore, created tales that were horror first and foremost. They spun nightmares and darkness into thread and, along with strands of adventure and mystery, wove from it something moodier than Prof. Tolkien or his successors.

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Self-Published Book Review: The Soldier and the Slave by Andrew J. Luther

Self-Published Book Review: The Soldier and the Slave by Andrew J. Luther

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If you have a book you’d like me to review, please see this post for instructions to submit. I’ve received very few submissions recently, and I’d like to get more.

the-soldier-and-the-slave-front-600x966The Soldier and the Slave by Andrew J. Luther is this month’s self-published novel. I last reviewed a book of Mr. Luther’s in 2015, called The Severed Oath, the second book of his Tales of The Undying Empire series of standalone novels. The Soldier and the Slave is the beginning of a new trilogy in that world called The Undying Empire: Rebellion.

In The Severed Oath, the Emperor played only a small part. He wasn’t very helpful, but neither was he particularly malevolent. The Emperor does not appear in The Soldier and the Slave, but he has a much more sinister role. He has ordered a detachment of his legions, led by Commander Kied, to secure a valley while a small team of specialists search for something hidden in it. The valley is inhabited by farmers, unimportant but citizens of the Empire. While Kied is initially content to follow orders, even if it involves confining Imperial citizens to their homes, he balks when he discovers what’s planned for the second part of his orders: the wholesale execution of the citizenry. His refusal, while noble, leads only to his arrest and imprisonment, and the execution of his command staff.

Reduced to a slave in the mines, he is paired up with Rotos. A giant of a man, Rotos is not only strong, but powerful, possessing abilities unlike any that Kied has seen. He can overwhelm most people with sheer presence, though Kied proves at least partially resistant. Rotos is also unfriendly, unwilling to even talk to Kied at first.

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Distinctive Visions of Earth After Climate Change: Drowned Worlds, edited by Jonathan Strahan

Distinctive Visions of Earth After Climate Change: Drowned Worlds, edited by Jonathan Strahan

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Reading reviews frequently helps heighten my anticipation for a book. That’s certainly the case with Jonathan Strahan’s acclaimed new anthology Drowned Worlds, a collection of SF tales which looks at the future of Earth after the full effects of climate change.

The book includes all-new fiction from Ken Liu, Kim Stanley Robinson, Christopher Rowe, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Charlie Jane Anders, Jeffrey Ford, Rachel Swirsky, Lavie Tidhar, Catherynne M. Valente, and many others. It’s been getting some terrific reviews, from places like Tor.com, Locus Online, and other fine institutions. Here’s a few samples, starting with author James Lovegrove in the Financial Times.

Taking its cue — as well as its title — from JG Ballard’s 1962 debut novel The Drowned World, the book offers 15 memorable, distinctive visions of Earth after climate change has exerted its grip. Sea levels have risen, and deserts have spread. People live aboard rafts, amid ruins, on other planets. The Anthropocene era has done its apocalyptic worst. There is nevertheless, a thin silvery thread of hope — humankind, through its adaptability and ingenuity, endures.

And here a snippet from Gary K. Wolfe’s lengthy review at Locus Online.

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Read an Original Short Story in the World of The Lazarus Gate and The Iscariot Sanction at the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi Blog

Read an Original Short Story in the World of The Lazarus Gate and The Iscariot Sanction at the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi Blog

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Mark Latham’s new novel in The Apollonian Case Files, The Iscariot Sanction, was published by Titan Books on September 20. It’s the follow-up to The Lazarus Gate and, in honor of the occasion, the popular Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog at BarnesandNoble.com has posted a brand new story set in the same world, “The House of the Dead.”

Mark Latham’s two novels of The Apollonian Case Files, The Lazarus Gate and The Iscariot Sanction, take place in an alternate Victorian Age in which Her Majesty’s Empire is under attack by supernatural threats, and only a mystery “gentlemen’s club” stands in the way of total oblivion. They’re great fun, mixing elements of Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft, James Bond and H.G. Wells, with a setting we love spending time in — which is why, in honor of the release of the latest in the series, we’re pleased to present an original short story set in the same universe. Enjoy!

Read the complete story here.

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Future Treasures: The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe

Future Treasures: The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe

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Every once in a while a really stellar anthology comes along that generates a lot of pre-publication whispers, gradually growing to a steady buzz of excitement. This year that anthology is The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales.

The Starlit Wood was assembled by Dominik Parisien, editor of the highly acclaimed Clockwork Canada, and Navah Wolfe, editor at one of the most exiting new imprints in the industry, Saga Press. Several of my friends have privately tipped me off that this is the best fantasy anthology of the year, and the public accolades have just started to pour in. Terri Windling calls it “Excellent… I loved it,” Jeff VanderMeer says it’s “Classy, smart, and entertaining… and featuring the best and most exciting fantasy writers working in the field today.” And Publishers Weekly raved, saying it’s “A rich sample of what awaits us in the world of fairy tales.”

For anyone looking to revisit the wondrous (and frequently dark!) world of fairy tales — or who just wants to a taste of what the best writers in fantasy are doing today — The Starlit Wood is your best opportunity this year. It contains stories by Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Jeffrey Ford, Max Gladstone, Margo Lanagan, Seanan McGuire, Garth Nix, Naomi Novik, Sofia Samatar, Catherynne M. Valente, Genevieve Valentine, and many others, and will be released in hardcover this month by Saga Press.

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In 500 words or Less … The Wurms of Blearmouth by Steven Erikson

In 500 words or Less … The Wurms of Blearmouth by Steven Erikson

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the-wurms-of-blearmouth-smallWhen someone asks my favorite fantasy series, Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen is usually one that I mention. It’s one of those sprawling epics with great characters and a complex, vibrant world that sucked me in and inspired me to write fantasy of my own.

After the series ended, I grabbed the next Erikson book I could find — The First Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach — and was delighted. I read the next in that series, Crack’d Pot Trail … and put it down after a couple chapters.

Erikson’s most recent work is a series of prequels (which I avoid) and his other recent books haven’t interested me, so when I found another Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novella, The Wurms of Blearmouth, I almost didn’t pick it up.

Overall, though, this latest tale was satisfying. The theme in the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach stories seems to be that everyone is a terrible person, but the residents of Spendrugle take things to a new level of depravity. I balked a little at first with the female characters specifically, who are stupid or vile or both — but then I realized that you can describe every character from Wurms that way, and so I got over it (mostly). In this case, Erikson is very “equal opportunity” when it comes to negative characteristics, so don’t be turned off by what’s depicted in the opening chapters (you probably will be anyway).

The real point to these stories, after all, is to follow famed necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach and their manservant, Emancipor, from screwed-up situation to screwed-up situation; they’re the real draw for me, and Erikson consistently entertains me with the way that they go about doing evil work without seeming to care about the consequences.

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New Treasures: Not So Much Said the Cat, by Michael Swanwick

New Treasures: Not So Much Said the Cat, by Michael Swanwick

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Michael Swanwick’s previous collection with Tachyon Publications was The Dog Said Bow-Wow (2007). In Not So Much Said the Cat he takes a feline turn, collecting 17 stories published between 2008 and 2014, including Hugo nominee “From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled…”. Here’s a snippet from the starred review from Kirkus.

There’s a man who, having suffered a crushing loss, finds solace after accidental contact with a time traveler; a group of time travelers hunkered down at the end of the Cretaceous period — where, oddly, nobody’s interested in the dinosaurs; and a scientist who finds a partner worthy of her genius. We also get a fascinating glimpse (which feels like a novel fragment) of a far future populated by humans and centipedelike aliens, narrated by the intelligent space suit of a woman who’s dead as the story begins; and another future where human lives resemble those in fairy tales while advanced, hidden AIs battle for supremacy. Elsewhere, in a literary-games vein, the characters in a fairy tale discuss whether they prefer to remain in books, and immortal, or enter history; there’s a famous Gene Wolfe story stripped down, turned inside out, and rebuilt to perfection; and, in a marvelous conceit, the writer Alexander Pushkin appears as he may have been — in an alternative universe. To round out the collection, we meet a dutiful young woman who, entering hell to challenge the devil to return her father, discovers that things are not as she assumed; Darger and Surplus, those good-hearted rogues with a propensity to shoot themselves in the foot, make an appearance, as does “The House of Dreams,” an entry from Swanwick’s splendid Mongolian Wizard e-book series. Tales that, through their extraordinary clarity of thought and expression, showcase precisely why this multiaward-winning author is held in such high regard.

Swanwick’s other collections from Tacyhon include Tales of Old Earth (2000) and Gravity’s Angels (2001). Our previous coverage of Michael Swanwick includes articles on The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, Chasing the Phoenix, and his short story “The Night of the Salamander.”

Not So Much Said the Cat was published by Tachyon Publications on July 18, 2016. It is 290 pages, priced at $15.95 in trade paperback and $7.99 for the digital version.

The New Pulp Era: Ghostwriting, Ebooks, and the Economics of Now

The New Pulp Era: Ghostwriting, Ebooks, and the Economics of Now

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I'm going to say absolutely nothing about that sword.
I’m going to say absolutely nothing about that sword.

A lot of writers and readers are saying we have entered a new pulp era, a repeat of those days when hardworking writers pumped out exciting fiction in large quantities while facing very tight deadlines. The old pulp era died long ago, and was replaced with modern traditional publishing. Under that model, writers usually only came out with a book a year, and if they did more than that it was generally under a pseudonym. Traditional houses seem to have been under the impression that “less is more” when it came to a writer’s output.

Readers disagree. They want more from their favorite authors, and they want it now. Those writers who have come to the top of the new indie publishing revolution tend to be those who write a lot, generally in series, and keep up a consistent quality. Some traditionally published writers such as Guy Haley are moving that direction too. In our interview with him, he talked about how he has to write five novels a year if he wants to make a living at his writing.

Even superstars such as James Patterson are getting in on the game. A post at Non-Fiction Novelist talks about how Patterson’s new project “Book Shots” fits perfectly into the pulp mentality. These thrillers and romances are touted as having lots of action and no padding, just like a good pulp story should. They’re all under 150 pages and cost less than $5. Plus there’s a whole lot of them.

I’m seeing a similar trend in online start-up publishers. My own body of indie published work, while doing OK, is not bringing me enough to live on, so I make up the deficiency by ghostwriting. This is a relatively new venture for me as I shift steadily away from nonfiction writing, but the trend I’m seeing is remarkable.

Ghostwriting always involves a strict written agreement not to take credit for a work, so what follows will by necessity be of a general nature.

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