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Future Treasures: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R. R. Martin

Future Treasures: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R. R. Martin

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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms-smallMany of George R. R. Martin’s legions of fans are unaware that, parallel to the epic storyline of A Game of Thrones, Martin has been quietly telling another tale of Westeros, featuring two unlikely wandering heroes. The story has unfolded in a series of novellas published in anthologies Martin and Gardner Dozois have edited over the past few years, and now at long last the stories are being collected in a deluxe volume, heavily illustrated by Gary Gianni, to be published in hardcover by Bantam Books next month.

Taking place nearly a century before the events of A Game of Thrones, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms compiles the first three official prequel novellas to George R. R. Martin’s ongoing masterwork, A Song of Ice and Fire. These never-before-collected adventures recount an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living consciousness.

Before Tyrion Lannister and Podrick Payne, there was Dunk and Egg. A young, naïve but ultimately courageous hedge knight, Ser Duncan the Tall towers above his rivals — in stature if not experience. Tagging along is his diminutive squire, a boy called Egg — whose true name (hidden from all he and Dunk encounter) is Aegon Targaryen. Though more improbable heroes may not be found in all of Westeros, great destinies lay ahead for these two… as do powerful foes, royal intrigue, and outrageous exploits.

Featuring more than 160 all-new illustrations by Gary Gianni, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a must-have collection that proves chivalry isn’t dead — yet.

Here’s what GRRM said about the book on his blog back on February 25th.

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Road Trip from Hell: Warhammer 40K: Gaunt’s Ghosts: Honour Guard

Road Trip from Hell: Warhammer 40K: Gaunt’s Ghosts: Honour Guard

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Honour Guard Dan Abnett-smallHonor Guard
A Warhammer 40K novel
Volume 4 of Gaunt’s Ghosts
By Dan Abnett
Black Library (312 pages, $6.95, August 2001)
Cover by Martin McKenna

The faith of the Imperium of Man — the only faith, thanks to a massive Inquisition — is centered around the God-Emperor of Mankind, who sits upon his Golden Throne on Holy Terra. Whether he’s a divine being incarnate, or a man who somehow gained god-like powers, is a question I don’t know the Warhammer 40K lore well enough to answer, but the emperor is kept eternally alive by the arcane machinery of the Golden Throne, and his massive psychic energies provide a beacon which allows mortal pilots to navigate spacecraft through the treacherous realm of the Warp.

The Emperor stands as the sole God, but there’s room in the Imperial cult to include various other figures, “saints” who are venerated for their faith in the Emperor and their deeds in his service. Given the Imperium’s nature, and the character of the WH40K universe in general, these saints are primarily warriors. One such is Saint Sabbat, the warrior woman who originally won the Sabbat Worlds for the Imperium, and in whose name the present-day (sometime in the 41st millennium) Sabbat Worlds Crusade is being waged.

We catch up with the Ghosts as they’re locked in street-to-street combat on the Saint’s own homeworld of Hagia, fighting the Chaos fanatics who have claimed the world’s holy cities as their own. This particular band of Chaos worshippers is particularly keen on denigrating the Imperial faith, so they’ve taken on the name Infardi, formally used by pilgrims to Hagia, and are heavily tattooed with blasphemous scenes involving the Emperor and various others figures of worship.

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Out of the Mouth of Madness

Out of the Mouth of Madness

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Derleth MythosI spent the past year in the frozen tundra on a quest not for gold or oil, but rather that elusive will o’ the wisp men call Ha of Saskatoon. I barely escaped with my life, a sad and broken man. Over the course of many months, I poured through John D. Haefele’s exhaustive tome, A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos which the redoubtable Don Herron bequeathed to me in an effort to restore my shattered mind. Having recently closed the book for the final time, I come forth with this my 250th article. A mere trifle for the more prolific blogger, but a milestone for this shadow of a man who once was.

Now in absolute fairness I should disclose a few facts before continuing. First off, I am not an H. P. Lovecraft cultist. I like aspects of the Mythos more than I do his actual fiction. This will be heretical to many, but I did not come upon his prose until later in life – long after Roy Thomas introduced me to his work in various comics he authored for Marvel in the 1970s and well after the time I had absorbed bits and pieces of the Mythos unknowingly while devouring Robert E. Howard’s stories in the pages of the Lancer or Ace Conan paperbacks with their stunning Frazetta cover art which, like that of Boris Vallejo and Neal Adams, frequently displayed brazen muscular buttocks in a fashion that touched something primal and possibly even impolite in my already warped adolescent brain.

I must also refrain from joshing my readers that a particular Lovecraftian scholar earned my enmity like no one since S. J. Perelman when I purchased a pricey, but beautifully bound and illustrated Sax Rohmer collection that was published in recent years only to find said literary critic’s introduction to the same was dismissive, condescending, and pompous in the extreme. It took much restraint not to craft an analogue for this bloated windbag in my third Fu Manchu book and allow the Devil Doctor to feed this bleating goat’s delicate parts to starving centipedes. Despite the appeal of such a notion, I chose instead to let karma find him and that it may have done with Haefele’s scholarly work.

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New Treasures: Nod by Adrian Barnes

New Treasures: Nod by Adrian Barnes

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Nod Adrian Barnes-smallAdrian Barnes’ debut novel Nod was published in hardcover by Bluemoose Books in 2012, and is now available in trade paperback from Titan Books. The tale of an unusual and mysterious apocalypse — one night 99.99% of mankind finds itself unable to sleep, and as one night becomes many, civilization begins to collapse — Nod was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Dawn breaks over Vancouver and no one in the world has slept the night before, or almost no one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand, can still sleep, and they’ve all shared the same golden dream.

After six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis will set in. After four weeks, the body will die. In the interim, panic ensues and a bizarre new world arises in which those previously on the fringes of society take the lead.

Paul, a writer, continues to sleep while his partner Tanya disintegrates before his eyes, and the new world swallows the old one whole.

Adrian Barnes is a Canadian writer. His next novel is titled Dickensian, which he describes as “about a post-modern uber-hipster who finds his life slowly transformed into a Dickensian orgy of the emotions.” It doesn’t yet have a release date.

Nod was published by Titan Books on September 1, 2015. It is 256 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback, and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by Julia Lloyd.

See all of our recent New Treasures here.

Future Treasures: The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror by William Sloane

Future Treasures: The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror by William Sloane

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The Rim of Morning Two Tales of Cosmic Horror-smallI’m not familiar with William Sloane, but my interest was piqued this week when I saw his omnibus collection coming out next month from NYRB Classics. The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror collects two pulp-era tales of supernatural horror: To Walk the Night (1937) and The Edge of Running Water (1939). Here’s the description:

In the 1930s, William Sloane wrote two brilliant novels that gave a whole new meaning to cosmic horror. In To Walk the Night, Bark Jones and his college buddy Jerry Lister, a science whiz, head back to their alma mater to visit a cherished professor of astronomy. They discover his body, consumed by fire, in his laboratory, and an uncannily beautiful young widow in his house — but nothing compares to the revelation that Jerry and Bark encounter in the deserts of Arizona at the end of the book. In The Edge of Running Water, Julian Blair, a brilliant electrophysicist, has retired to a small town in remotest Maine after the death of his wife. His latest experiments threaten to shake up the town, not to mention the universe itself.

I did a little homework and found that both novels had a long history of paperback reprints from mainstream publishers, such as Dell, Bantam, and Panther. But they were also reprinted by Del Rey in the early 80s, in editions that dressed them up as supernatural SF and gothic horror.

Both have been out of print in the US for the last quarter century.

All of the editions had terrific covers, and immediately appealed to the paperback collector in me. I’m definitely going to have to get the NYRB reprint — if only for the new introduction by Stephen King — and also track down down the Dell, Bantam, and Del Rey paperback editions.

Here’s a quick look at a few of the earlier editions of these long-neglected supernatural classics.

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For Gonji Lovers: A Hungering of Wolves by T.C. Rypel

For Gonji Lovers: A Hungering of Wolves by T.C. Rypel

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oie_6235149uAZhq0luI’ve finally read A Hungering of Wolves, the last published volume of T.C. Rypel’s dimension-spanning swords & sorcery epic series about Gonji, the half Japanese, half Norwegian samurai, fighting his way across Renaissance Europe in hopes of discovering his destiny. It shouldn’t be the last book, but as of now, sadly, it is. While there is a collection of shorter tales scheduled for the near future, the sequel to this book is not.

It was orginally published as Knights of Wonder by Zebra Books way back in 1986. Rypel and his books fell victim to the whims of the publishing industry and an agent who wasn’t a big heroic fantasy fan. My earlier review of the first three Gonji books, collectively called the The Deathwind Trilogy, contains a more detailed account of Gonji’s publishing history.

I tend to avoid series that haven’t been finished because I fear they never will be. My dad went to his grave never seeing the end of Roland Green’s Wandor series. I dread the screams that will pierce the heavens if A Song of Ice and Fire doesn’t reach its end. So when I tell you that I read A Hungering of Wolves knowing it sets up a story that remains unfinished, that should tell you something about how much I like Rypel’s books.

If you have any love for swords & sorcery then you should read the Gonji books. Though thirty years old, Rypel’s books don’t feel dated and avoid the cliches that infect the worst heroic fantasy. Gonji, his associates, and opponents react like real humans, not puppet characters moved about in service to some pre-ordained plot.

While the books have more blood and thunder than even I can handle at times, they also have detailed and nuanced character development contemporary readers expect. For every loud and explosive scene the books have calmer moments that create atmosphere and a believable world. Just enough time is spent with secondary characters to make you care when something happens to them or buy their motives when they act.

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New Treasures: The End of the Story: The Collected Fantasies, Vol. 1 by Clark Ashton Smith

New Treasures: The End of the Story: The Collected Fantasies, Vol. 1 by Clark Ashton Smith

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The End of the Story The Collected Fantasies Vol 1-smallThe End of the Story is the first of five volumes collecting all of Clark Ashton Smith’s short fiction, arranged chronologically by composition. It was originally published in hardcover by Night Shade Books on January 1, 2007, and quickly went out of print. The cheapest copies I can find online start at over $200.

I would love to have a copy, but that’s well outside my price range. So I was delighted to discover that Night Shade is printing the entire series in trade paperback, starting with the first volume, which goes on sale tomorrow.

The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith consists of:

  1. The End of the Story (January 2007)
  2. The Door to Saturn (June 2007)
  3. A Vintage from Atlantis (November 2007)
  4. The Maze of the Enchanter (April 2008)
  5. The Last Hieroglyph (September 2010)

The trade paperback edition of the second volume, The Door to Saturn — also long out of print in hardcover, and selling in some places for well over $300 — is scheduled to appear January 5, 2016.

The End of the Story contains 24 short stories and three poems, beginning with “The Abominations of Yondo,” first published in Overland Monthly in April 1926. It includes some of his most famous tales, such as the Captain Volmar novelette “Marooned in Andromeda” (1930), the Malygris tale “The Last Incantation” (1930), and the novelette “The Monster of the Prophecy” (1932).

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Vintage Treasures: The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl by Tim Pratt

Vintage Treasures: The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl by Tim Pratt

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The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl-smallTim Pratt has made a name for himself recently with a popular series of Pathfinder novels, including the tales of Rodrick the thief, Liar’s Blade and Liar’s Island. He also writes the Marla Mason fantasy series under the name T A Pratt. But before all that, he wrote the delightfully quirky The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, his debut novel, a pseudo-weird western about a cartoonist with a hidden talent — and a sacred duty. It appeared in paperback from Bantam Spectra a decade ago, just long enough to make it today’s “Vintage Treasure.” It is still in print, and well worth a look for Pratt fans.

As night manager of Santa Cruz’s quirkiest coffeehouse, Marzi McCarty makes a mean espresso, but her first love is making comics. Her claim to fame: The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, a cowpunk neo-western yarn. Striding through an urban frontier peopled by Marzi’s wild imagination, Rangergirl doles out her own brand of justice. But lately Marzi’s imagination seems to be altering her reality. She’s seeing the world through Rangergirl’s eyes – literally — complete with her deadly nemesis, the Outlaw.

It all started when Marzi opened a hidden door in the coffeehouse storage room. There, imprisoned among the supplies, she saw the face of something unknown… and dangerous. And she unwittingly became its guard. But some primal darkness must’ve escaped, because Marzi hasn’t been the same since. And neither have her customers, who are acting downright apocalyptic.

Now it’s up to Marzi to stop this supervillainous superforce that’s swaggered its way into her world. For Marzi, it’s the showdown of her life. For Rangergirl, it’s just another day…

The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl was published by Bantam Spectra on November 29, 2005. It is 402 pages, priced at $12 in trade paperback, and $9.99 for the digital edition. It is still in print. Read an excerpt here, and Tim Pratt’s complete Rangergirl story “Bluebeard and the White Buffalo: A Rangergirl Yarn” online here.

Future Treasures: The Miriam Black Series by Chuck Wendig

Future Treasures: The Miriam Black Series by Chuck Wendig

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Blackbirds Chuck Wendig-small Mockingbird Chuck Wendig-small The Cormorant Chuck Wendig-small

[Click the images for bigger versions.]

Chuck Wendig has had an impressive career as a game designer, screenwriter, Star Wars novelist, and paperback writer. James McGlothlin reviewed his supernatural mob crime novel The Blue Blazes for us here, and Kelly Swails called Blackbirds, the first novel in his Miriam Black series, “Punch-You-in-the-Face Good.”

Now the producers of Breaking Bad are adapting Miriam Black as a TV show, creating what The Guardian calls “a sassy, hard-boiled thriller with a paranormal slant” about a young woman who can see the darkest corners of the future.

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Little Green Men, Couriers of Chaos, and Miners on Uranus: Things, edited by Ivan Howard

Little Green Men, Couriers of Chaos, and Miners on Uranus: Things, edited by Ivan Howard

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Things Ivan Howard-smallThings
Edited by Ivan Howard
Belmont (157 pages, $0.50, February 1964)

Belmont Books, publisher of this anthology, apparently thrived throughout the Sixties. Early on it looks like many of their books leaned toward horror, with SF being sprinkled into the mix more as time went on. Things presents itself more as horror (the subtitle is Stories of Terror and Shock by six SCIENCE-FICTION greats) but there’s not much horror content. It’s a short volume that collects six fairly uninspired novelettes and short stories first published in SF magazines in the early Fifties.

Thumbs Up

“The Gift of the Gods,” by Raymond F. Jones

An interesting take on aliens landing on Earth, as the whole affair is somewhat derailed by bureaucracy and pettiness. It could have been a lot shorter and it was a bit preachy in spots but not bad overall.

“Little Green Man,” by Noel Loomis

I like pulp as much as the next guy and maybe a bit more — although it’s best taken in moderate doses. This one’s pretty pulpy, with the LGM of the title beseeching a mining engineer from Earth to evacuate from his home planet of Uranus. Entertaining but not particularly exceptional.

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