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New Treasures: The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar

New Treasures: The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar

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The Winged Histories-smallI met Sofia Samatar at the World Fantasy Convention in 2014, and I was very impressed. She was gracious and extremely well spoken, in public and in private, and won the Best Novel award that year for her acclaimed first novel A Stranger in Olondria (and also addressed “the elephant in the room” with her passionate comments on being presented with a statue honoring H.P. Lovecraft).

A Stranger in Olondria also swept the British Fantasy and William L. Crawford Awards (and garnered a Nebula nomination along the way). The sequel, The Winged Histories, arrives next week from Small Beer Press, and it is unquestionably one of the year’s most anticipated novels.

Four women — a soldier, a scholar, a poet, and a socialite — are caught up on opposing sides of a violent rebellion. As war erupts and their loyalties and agendas and ideologies come into conflict, the four fear their lives may pass unrecorded. Using the sword and the pen, the body and the voice, they struggle not just to survive, but to make history.

Here is the much-anticipated companion novel to Sofia Samatar’s World Fantasy Award-winning debut, A Stranger in Olondria. The Winged Histories is the saga of an empire — and a family: their friendships, their enduring love, their arcane and deadly secrets. Samatar asks who makes history, who endures it, and how the turbulence of historical change sweeps over every aspect of a life and over everyone, no matter whether or not they choose to seek it out.

Sofia Samatar received the John W. Campbell Award in 2014. Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and many other publications. The Winged Histories will be published by Small Beer Press on March 1, 2016. It is 300 pages, priced at $24 in hardcover and $14.99 for the digital edition. Read the first chapter at Tor.com.

Future Treasures: Borderline by Mishell Baker

Future Treasures: Borderline by Mishell Baker

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Borderline Mishell Baker-smallMishell Baker is the Communications Director for the Clarion Foundation. Most of what I know about her comes from her bio at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which states “She lives with her husband and daughter in Los Angeles, where she is currently at work on a novel set in the early history of the world featured in ‘Throwing Stones.'” Borderline, which arrives in trade paperback from Saga Press next week, could be that novel. Probably is. If it sounds intriguing, it couldn’t hurt to check out “Throwing Stones,” which appeared in BCS 47.

Borderline follows the misadventures of a cynical, disabled film director with borderline personality disorder who is recruited into a secret organization that oversees relations between Hollywood and Fairyland. It’s the opening volume in a new urban fantasy series, and is Mishell Baker’s debut novel.

A year ago, Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she’s sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales.

For her first assignment, Millie is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star who also happens to be a nobleman of the Seelie Court. To find him, she’ll have to smooth-talk Hollywood power players and uncover the surreal and sometimes terrifying truth behind the glamour of Tinseltown. But stronger forces than just her inner demons are sabotaging her progress, and if she fails to unravel the conspiracy behind the noble’s disappearance, not only will she be out on the streets, but the shattering of a centuries-old peace could spark an all-out war between worlds.

No pressure.

Borderline will be published by Saga Press on March 1, 2016. It is 390 pages, priced at $15.99 in trade paperback and $7.99 for the digital edition.

The Books of David G. Hartwell: The Canadian Anthologies

The Books of David G. Hartwell: The Canadian Anthologies

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Northern Stars-small Northern Suns-small

We lost David Hartwell on January 20th. This is our fifth article in a series that looks back at one of the most gifted editors in our industry.

By the early 90s, as a result of the success of books like The Dark Descent and its follow up, Foundations of Fear, David Hartwell had found his market niche: weighty anthologies that had a solid claim to being definitive surveys of the fantastic. David started with fantasy and horror, and quickly expanded into science fiction, with books like The World Treasury of Science Fiction (1989) and The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF (1994), co-edited with Kathryn Cramer.

In the mid to late 90s, David produced two highly regarded anthologies of Canadian science fiction, both edited by Canadian SF writer and critic Glen Grant: Northern Stars: The Anthology of Canadian Science Fiction (1994) and Northern Suns (1999). The former is a fine collection of the best Canadian SF produced in the late 20th Century (1973-1994), and the latter serves as an excellent snapshot of the best Canadian writers working in the field in the late 90s.

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Vintage Treasures: The Finnbranch Trilogy by Paul Hazel

Vintage Treasures: The Finnbranch Trilogy by Paul Hazel

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Yearwood-small Undersea-small Winterking-small

I don’t know much about Paul Hazel, but I became curious recently when I stumbled on his complete Finnbranch Trilogy, a Celtic fantasy published between 1990 and 1985, on eBay. All three books, plus his only other fantasy novel, The Wealdwife’s Tale, for just $3.99.

I dithered for a bit, but hey. What can I tell you? I’m a sucker for vintage paperbacks in perfect condition. They are now mine.

Hazel remains something of a mystery though, and there isn’t a lot out there about him. I did find an entry at the online Science Fiction Encyclopedia, however. Here it is.

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Goth Chick News: Your Dark and Stormy Night Reading List Has Arrived – Meet the 2015 Stoker Nominees

Goth Chick News: Your Dark and Stormy Night Reading List Has Arrived – Meet the 2015 Stoker Nominees

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Bram-Stoker Award-smallAs it does each year at this time, the Horror Writer’s Association (HWA) has announced this year’s nominees for the coveted Stoker Award.

In case you aren’t familiar with the coolness that is the Stoker, it is named in honor of the man himself, Bram Stoker, and awards are presented annually for superior writing in eleven categories including traditional fiction of various lengths, poetry, screenplays and non-fiction. Previous winners include Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, George R. R. Martin, Joyce Carol Oates and Neil Gaiman, if that tells you anything.

Basically, this is the Oscars for us horror bibliophiles, only with a much more progressive wardrobe.

In addition, far better than a stoic naked dude dipped in a coating that is comprised of less “gold” each year, the Stoker award is a creepy mansion whose door opens to review a plaque with the winner’s name engraved.

So without further ado, the 2016 Stoker nominees are…

Superior Achievement in a Novel

  • Clive Barker – The Scarlet Gospels (St. Martin’s Press)
  • Michaelbrent Collings – The Deep (self-published)
  • JG Faherty – The Cure (Samhain Publishing)
  • Patrick Freivald – Black Tide (JournalStone Publishing)
  • Paul Tremblay – A Head Full of Ghosts (William Morrow)

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New Treasures: The Arcana Familia by Randy Henderson

New Treasures: The Arcana Familia by Randy Henderson

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Finn Fancy Necromancy-small Bigfootloose and Finn Fancy Free-small

Randy Henderson’s 2015 debut, the opening volume in the The Arcana Familia series, was horror/comedy Finn Fancy Necromancy, the tale of teen aged necromancer Finn Gramaraye, imprisoned for 25 years in the Other Realm for a crime he didn’t commit, and released into an adult body in the present day with a head full of 1980s memories. Greywalker author Kat Richardson called it “Absolutely marvelous. A funny, quirky, and compelling tale full of fantastic twists and dire conspiracies… hands down the best fantasy debut novel of the year.” It was published in hardcover by Tor last February, and the paperback arrived on January 5th.

Darkly funny fantasy novels don’t come around that often, and it’s good to see them succeed when they do. The second volume in the series, Bigfootloose and Finn Fancy Free, arrived earlier this month. Here’s the description.

Finn Gramaraye is settling back into the real world after his twenty-five-year-long imprisonment in the otherworld of the Fey. He’s fallen in love with a woman from his past, though he worries she may love a version of him that no longer exists. He’s proved his innocence of the original crime of Dark Necromancy, and he’s finding a place in the family business — operating a mortuary for the Arcane, managing the magical energies left behind when an Arcane being dies to prevent it from harming the mundane world.

But Finn wants more. Or different. Or something. He’s figured out how to use the Kinfinder device created by his half-mad father to find people’s True Love, and he’d like to convert that into an Arcane Dating Service. It’s a great idea. Everyone wants True Love! Unfortunately, trouble always seems to find Finn, and when he agrees to help his friend, the Bigfoot named Sal, they walk right into a Feyblood rebellion against the Arcane Ruling Council, a rebellion being fomented by unknown forces and fueled by the drug created by Finn’s own grandfather.

Bigfootloose and Finn Fancy Free was published by Tor Books on February 16, 2016. It is 432 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital edition.

Acquiring Michael Whelan’s Cover for The Bane of the Black Sword

Acquiring Michael Whelan’s Cover for The Bane of the Black Sword

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Michael Whelan The Bane of the Black Sword-small Michael Whelan The Bane of the Black Sword DAW-small

I thought I’d move a bit further ahead in time tonight than my usual pulp related posts, though it does have a bit of a pulp connection for me. I was discussing this piece with a friend of mine earlier today, so I figured I’d post it. By Michael Raymond Whelan, this is the cover for The Bane of the Black Sword by Michael Moorcock, featuring the one and only Elric of Melnibone (click the art for bigger versions). Both Deb and I loved the Elric books when we read them as teenagers, in the DAW editions featuring all those great Whelan covers, and when we had the chance to pick this up, we jumped at it.

We bought this in a hotel room many years ago, from our friend Randal Hawkins. He and his wife Donna drove up from the K.C. area with the painting, and we met them at a hotel about half way between there and Chicago to do the deal. It wasn’t the only time we did a deal like that in a hotel room with Randal — we bought other art from him that way as well, over the years, as well as many pulps. Hence the bit of a pulp connection for me. Those were good hotel rooms! Randal passed away much too young, but we have fond memories of visiting with him and Donna in K.C., looking at their great art collection, as well as their place in Las Vegas. And we often think of him when we look at this piece.

Future Treasures: The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R. S. Belcher

Future Treasures: The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R. S. Belcher

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The Brotherhood of the Wheel-smallR. S. Belcher’s previous novels include two acclaimed weird westerns set in the town of Golgotha, The Six-Gun Tarot and The Shotgun Arcana, and an urban fantasy that explores a gritty occult underworld, Nightwise.

His latest is the opening volume in a new urban fantasy about a mysterious society of truckers known only as The Brotherhood of The Wheel. It’s available in hardcover from Tor Books next week.

In 1119 A.D., a group of nine crusaders became known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon–a militant monastic order charged with protecting pilgrims and caravans traveling on the roads to and from the Holy Land. In time, the Knights Templar would grow in power and, ultimately, be laid low. But a small offshoot of the Templars endure and have returned to the order’s original mission: to defend the roads of the world and guard those who travel on them.

Theirs is a secret line of knights: truckers, bikers, taxi hacks, state troopers, bus drivers, RV gypsies — any of the folks who live and work on the asphalt arteries of America. They call themselves the Brotherhood of the Wheel.

Jimmy Aussapile is one such knight. He’s driving a big rig down South when a promise to a ghostly hitchhiker sets him on a quest to find out the terrible truth behind a string of children gone missing all across the country. The road leads him to Lovina Hewitt, a skeptical Louisiana State Police investigator working the same case and, eventually, to a forgotten town that’s not on any map — and to the secret behind the eerie Black-Eyed Kids said to prowl the highways.

The Brotherhood of the Wheel will be published by Tor Books on March 1, 2016. It is 384 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover and $14.99 for the digital edition. See all of our coverage of the best upcoming fantasy here.

Vintage Treasures: The Science Fiction Book Club Original Anthologies

Vintage Treasures: The Science Fiction Book Club Original Anthologies

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Between Worlds-small Down these Dark Spaceways-small One Million AD Gardner Dozois-small Forbidden Planets Marvin Kaye-small

Last month I had a look back at one of my favorite Best of the Year series, Jonathan Strahan’s Best Short Novels, a delightful four-volume set collecting the best novellas of 2004-07 and published exclusively through the Science Fiction Book Club. SFBC did many exclusives, but that was the one that got me to excitedly rejoin the club for the first time in over a decade.

It was a great time to be a member. In addition to the Strahan volumes, Andrew Wheeler at SFBC also commissioned some of the top editors in the field, including Gardner Dozois, Mike Resnick, Marvin Kaye and Strahan, to produce eight original themed anthologies, each containing 6-7 new novellas by writers like Robert Silverberg, Peter F. Hamilton, Robert Reed, Nancy Kress, Greg Egan, Jack McDevitt, Alan Dean Foster, Julie E. Czerneda, Charles Stross, Stephen Baxter, Cory Doctorow, Walter Jon Williams, and many others. Each anthology was offered exclusively through the club, which means many fans never even knew they existed.

Each anthology was themed, like Gardner’s collection of far-future tales One Million A.D. Marvin Kaye’s Forbidden Planets looked at visits to strange and hostile worlds, Mike Resnick’s Down these Dark Spaceways and Alien Crimes contained science fiction mysteries, and Strahan’s Godlike Machines gathered tales of future eras where machines ruled. They were a lot of fun, and I snapped each one up as it arrived.

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The Midnight Games and Why I Wrote Them

The Midnight Games and Why I Wrote Them

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The MIdnight Games David Neil Lee-small“One might not think of our city as a muse,” began a recent review of my first YA horror novel The Midnight Games in a Hamilton magazine. But if you ask me, good horror novels, because they assume that monstrous secrets lurk behind the facades of everyday life, always convey a strong sense of place: I’m thinking of the New York City of Whitley Streiber’s The Wolfen, the Los Angeles of Robert McCammon’s They Thirst, or even the east coast gothic of Tim Wynne-Jones’ Odd’s End (which is an archetypical Canadian production — a horror novel about real estate).

In any case, Hamilton, Ontario, just southwest of Toronto, is a grimy little city that, like a lot of its relatives in the USA, dearly misses the great days of its industries (in this case, steel); days that have passed and that will not return again. One result of this is a working class culture, deeply depressed, that tends towards the nostalgic, and by nature I am a relentless optimist who regards nostalgia with a distaste approaching revulsion. For all that, I’ve lived in Hamilton since 2002 and the city has been good to me in many ways; let’s just say it’s enabled me to write a lot of books.

One day a local Hamilton publisher, Noelle Allen, put out a Facebook call for Hamilton-based books on behalf of her company, Wolsak & Wynn. I replied, “What we need is a horror novel, set in Hamilton, that people will read on the bus.” I volunteered to write such a novel.

Like it or not, for the past twelve years my family and I have lived a couple of blocks from Ivor Wynne, the local football stadium, and we hear all the noise from the Tiger Cats games. So I began a novel in which my protagonist hears a racket from the stadium at night, which he thinks of as “midnight games.” However, they are not games at all, but the cruel ceremonies of a local cult which is trying to summon to earth the Great Old Ones of the H.P. Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos; trying with what turns out to be a fair degree of success.

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