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Future Treasures: Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan

Future Treasures: Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan

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Queen of Fire Anthony Ryan-smallI first took notice of Anthony Ryan with the publication of Tower Lord (2014), the second volume in the New York Times bestselling Raven’s Shadow trilogy (why do I always discover series with the second volume?) The series began with Blood Song (2013); by the second book, Ryan was being called “David Gemmell’s natural successor.” In the final volume, Vaelin Al Sorna must help his Queen reclaim her Realm — despite the fact that his enemy has found a dangerous new collaborator, one with powers darker than Vaelin has ever encountered…

“The Ally is there, but only ever as a shadow, unexplained catastrophe or murder committed at the behest of a dark vengeful spirit. Sorting truth from myth is often a fruitless task.”

After fighting back from the brink of death, Queen Lyrna is determined to repel the invading Volarian army and regain the independence of the Unified Realm. Except, to accomplish her goals, she must do more than rally her loyal supporters. She must align herself with forces she once found repugnant — those who possess the strange and varied gifts of the Dark — and take the war to her enemy’s doorstep.

Victory rests on the shoulders of Vaelin Al Sorna, now named Battle Lord of the Realm. However, his path is riddled with difficulties. For the Volarian enemy has a new weapon on their side, one that Vaelin must destroy if the Realm is to prevail — a mysterious Ally with the ability to grant unnaturally long life to her servants. And defeating one who cannot be killed is a nearly impossible feat, especially when Vaelin’s blood-song, the mystical power which has made him the epic fighter he is, has gone ominously silent…

Queen of Fire will be published by Ace Books on July 7, 2015. It is 642 pages, priced at $28.95 in hardcover, and $14.99 for the digital edition.

New Treasures: Mermaids and Other Mysteries of the Deep, edited by Paula Guran

New Treasures: Mermaids and Other Mysteries of the Deep, edited by Paula Guran

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Mermaids and Other Mysteries of the Deep-smallPaula Guran edits The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror every year, and her most recent anthology was Blood Sisters, packed full of vampire stories by women. So it’s good to see her deliver something outside the horror genre… or, perhaps, it’s good to see her keen eye for dark fantasy brought to bear on a subgenre that’s usually associated with The Little Mermaid. 

In Mermaids and Other Mysteries of the Deep, Paula has assembled a wide range of fiction by Tanith Lee, Peter S. Beagle, Samuel R. Delany, Neil Gaiman, Delia Sherman, Gene Wolfe, and others. Here’s a brief snippet from her introduction:

Powerful and incomprehensible, the oceans were thought to be the home of many monstrous creatures — sea serpents and dragons; the Norse Kraken, Greek Charybdis, Japanese Isonade, Biblical Leviathan. Rivers have monsters, too, like the Yacumama of the Amazon River or the malevolent zin, who live in the Niger River. As for lakes, even if you’ve never heard of the Welsh afanc, you know the Scottish Loch Ness monster.

The waters of the world were also believed to contain mythological creatures whose behaviors were as inconstant as our feelings about the mysteries of the deep. As Jane Yolen has said, “It is the allure of the beautiful, unattainable, mysterious Other. In every culture in every clime, there are stories of such creatures in the oceans, rivers, ponds, wells. Water is such a mutable, magical substance itself, the human imagination simply cannot believe it’s not peopled as the earth is. We want there to be such underwater civilizations and — not finding them — we invent them and then turn around and believe in our own invention.”

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Vintage Treasures: The Black Corridor by Michael Moorcock

Vintage Treasures: The Black Corridor by Michael Moorcock

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The Black Corridor Michael Moorcock-smallLast week I purchased a small collection of vintage paperbacks (something I do a lot). I bought it chiefly because it was inexpensive, all the books were in terrific shape… and it had a Michael Moorcock paperback I’d never seen before.

The Moorcock was The Black Corridor, an Ace Science Fiction Special, written in collaboration with Moorcock’s then-wife, Hilary Bailey (author of Frankenstein’s Bride and Fifty-First State.) The Ace Science Fiction Specials are highly prized by readers and collectors alike. They were edited by Terry Carr, and included first editions of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, Alexei Panshin’s Rite of Passage, John Brunner’s The Jagged Orbit and The Traveler in Black, and William Gibson’s Neuromancer, among many others.

The Black Corridor is something of an odd bird. It wasn’t as successful or acclaimed as many of the other Ace Specials, and in fact it has never been reprinted in paperback in the US. But it does have its admirers. It was cited by Karl Edward Wagner as one of the thirteen best science-fiction horror novels, and Harlan Ellison said “Saying I enjoyed this book would be damning with faint praise… I was surprised by this book, at least eleven times.” Although it was never reprinted in paperback in the US, it was included as part of the omnibus collection Sailing to Utopia, The Tale of the Eternal Champion #5, published by Millennium (UK) and White Wolf (US), alongside The Ice Schooner, The Distant Suns, and the novelette “Flux.”

The Black Corridor is based on an incomplete fragment of a thriller written by Bailey, which Moorcock called “a straight future disaster story – collapse of society stuff.” Moorcock substantially re-drafted it, setting the bulk of the book in interstellar space, to tell a tale of an Earth collapsing into anarchy and war, and the starship and crew that flee into space. The book is fairly experimental, even for Moorcock. It contains sequences of typographical art where, as Moorcock put it, “words create a pattern of other letters forming other words,” and the narrative is enhanced with entries for the spaceship’s log, dream sequences, and computer printouts straight out of the 1960s.

The Black Corridor was published by Ace Books in 1969. It is 187 pages, priced at 75 cents. The cover is by Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon. There is no digital edition.

Sarah Avery Nominated for 2015 Mythopoeic Award for Tales from Rugosa Coven

Sarah Avery Nominated for 2015 Mythopoeic Award for Tales from Rugosa Coven

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tales-from-rugosa-coven-Avery-smallBlack Gate blogger Sarah Avery has been nominated for the 2015 Mythopoeic Award for her novel Tales from Rugosa Coven, published in 2013 by Dark Quest.

The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the fantasy novel, series, or collection for adults published during the previous year that best exemplifies “the spirit of the Inklings,” the Oxford literary discussion group that included J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. The winners will be announced during Mythcon 46, held July 31 – August 3, 2015, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Congratulations to Sarah, and all the nominees!

Sarah’s short story “The War of the Wheat Berry Year,” a slender and deceptively simple fantasy featuring The Traitor of Imlen, was published in Black Gate 15. The complete list of nominees for the 2015 Mythopoeic Awards follows.

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

  • Sarah Avery, Tales from Rugosa Coven (Dark Quest)
  • Stephanie Feldman, The Angel of Losses (Ecco)
  • Theodora Goss, Songs for Ophelia (Papaveria Press)
  • Joanne M. Harris, The Gospel of Loki (Gollancz)
  • Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, Locke & Key series (IDW Publishing)

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Future Treasures: The Great Bazaar & Brayan’s Gold by Peter V. Brett

Future Treasures: The Great Bazaar & Brayan’s Gold by Peter V. Brett

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The Great Bazaar and Brayan's Gold-smallPeter V. Brett’s second novel in the Demon Cycle, The Desert Spear, became an international bestseller, and the next two books in the series made him one of the top-selling authors on the market. So it’s no surprise that The Great Bazaar and Brayan’s Gold, two limited edition novellas from P.S. Publishing, set in the world of the Demon Cycle, and detailing Arlen’s early adventures, have been sold out for years.

Now Tachyon Publications is releasing an omnibus collection of both novellas in a handsome and affordable trade paperback edition. It something no fan of Peter V. Brett will want to miss.

From the dangerous world of the Demon Cycle comes the early adventures of Arlen, Peter V. Brett’s quintessential fantasy hero. These exciting origin tales follow Arlen as he learns to navigate a world where the elemental forces of evil conjure themselves from the earth each night.

Humanity has barely survived a demonic onslaught by using magical wards that protect their cities and homes. Only a handful of mercenaries and explorers risk traveling after the sun sets. Arlen, seeking adventure and fortune, is barely protected by the warded armor upon which he has inscribed intricate defensive runes. From a journey ferrying a wagonload of dynamite to a mountain stronghold, to a dangerous mission to recover desert treasures, Arlen faces friends and enemies with a strong arm and a cunning wit.

We’ve previously covered Peter’s novels The Daylight War and The Skull Throne.

The Great Bazaar & Brayan’s Gold will be published by Tachyon Publications on July 14, 2015. It is 186 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback. There is no digital edition. Cover by Elizabeth Story.

Out Now! The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth, an Anthology Edited by S.M. Stirling

Out Now! The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth, an Anthology Edited by S.M. Stirling

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The Change Tales of Downfall and Rebirth-smallAlthough the release date is Wednesday, S.M. Stirling’s new anthology of stories in the Emberverse is now for sale on Amazon.

You can purchase it here.

ALL-NEW STORIES OF THE EMBERVERSE
by S.M. Stirling, Harry Turtledove, Walter Jon Williams, John Birmingham, John Barnes, Jane Lindskold, and more…

“[A] vivid portrait of a world gone insane,”* S. M. Stirling’s New York Times bestselling Novels of the Change have depicted a vivid, utterly persuasive, and absorbingly unpredictable postapocalyptic wasteland in which all modern technology has been left in ashes, forcing humankind to rebuild an unknowable new world in the wake of unimaginable — and deliberate — chaos.

Now, in this startling new anthology, S. M. Stirling invites the most fertile minds in science fiction to join him in expanding his rich Emberverse canvas. Here are inventive new perspectives on the cultures, the survivors, and the battles arising across the years and across the globe following the Change.

In his all-new story Hot Night at the Hopping Toad, Stirling returns to his own continuing saga of the High Kingdom of Montival. In the accompanying stories are fortune seekers, voyagers, and dangers — from the ruins of Sydney to the Republic of Fargo and Northern Alberta to Venetian and Greek galleys clashing in the Mediterranean.

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A Gateway to Fantasy for Young Readers: Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi

A Gateway to Fantasy for Young Readers: Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi

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amulet coverWith the height of the “Harry Potter phenomenon” nearly a decade past, we now have a new generation of seven- and eight-year-olds who were born after the final book in that series came out. A perennial question comes up: What will be the next “gateway” work that ushers young readers into a lifelong love of fantasy and speculative fiction?

Well, some may rightly ask, why can’t it be Harry Potter? Or A Wrinkle in Time, or The Dark is Rising sequence, or The Chronicles of Prydain, or The Chronicles of Narnia, or The Hobbit, or The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, or…?

Many do still find their first taste of enchantment in books that are decades or even a century old, but there is no denying that — at least in the publishing and bookselling world — there has to be a “latest model.” Librarians still push those beloved older books faithfully, but their sales pitch is a lot stronger when it comes as a follow-up to a young reader who, having just read something that is currently “all the rage,” asks, “What else out there is like this?”

I’m here today to suggest that if you want a contemporary work that will introduce 3rd to 7th graders to the pleasures of epic fantasy, steampunk, people with animal heads, and wise-cracking robots, you could do a lot worse than hand them the graphic novel Amulet Book One: The Stonekeeper (2008) by Kazu Kibuishi. But be prepared: odds are good that they will immediately be demanding books 2 through 6. And then they will be waiting with bated breath for book 7 and cursing that there is now a two-year interval between volumes (welcome, Young Reader, to the Pains of Following a Series that is Ongoing. To better understand what you are in for, see any conversations referencing George R.R. Martin or Patrick Rothfuss).

But I’m also here to recommend them to anyone who likes this sort of stuff, regardless your age. I mentioned “3rd to 7th graders” in the last paragraph because those are the perimeters the publisher, Scholastic, says they are written toward. As someone who does not fit that demographic, I can vouch for them being worthwhile reads even if you are middle-aged.

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New Treasures: The Astonished Eye by Tracy Knight

New Treasures: The Astonished Eye by Tracy Knight

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The Astonished Eye-smallTracy Knight’s short fiction has appeared in the anthologies Werewolves, The UFO Files, Masques V, and Whitley Strieber’s Aliens. His first novel, The Astonished Eye, was published as a limited edition hardcover by PS Publishing in 2002, and garnered high praise. Horror World called it “an uncanny blend of mystery, science fiction, fantasy and horror,” and William Thompson at SF Site said “some time has passed since I last read a novel with so much thought and ability condensed into a single slim and conceptually compressed novel.”

Now Stark House has reprinted the novel in paperback for the first time, with the original introduction by Philip José Farmer, and a new intro from Tracy Knight.

Ben Savitch, reporter for The Astonished Eye — America’s famous tabloid journal — finds himself in Elderton, Illinois, the town where he was born. After years of chasing fame, this is the last place he expected to be searching for the elusive exclusive that would put his name on the map. But a UFO landing has been reported in the area, and Savitch intends to be the one to track it down.

However, a strange kind of magic is at work in Elderton. Savitch soon meets Almo Parrish, the last surviving Munchkin (or is he?), Chandler Quinn, builder of just about anything (including a TV hero!) and Vida Proust, who seems to be dead (only no one wants to tell her). They all have something to teach Savitch about being human, if only he will take the time to listen — before it’s too late. Tracy Knight takes the story of one man’s search for his identity and blends it into a tale of fantasy, mystery and science fiction, with all the charm of a modern American fable.

The Astonished Eye was published by Stark House Press on September 29, 2014. It is 194 pages, priced at $15.95 in trade paperback. The book design is by Mark Shepard.

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Magnifying Glass, Pipe and Deerstalker

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Magnifying Glass, Pipe and Deerstalker

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Pipe_RathboneThe curved pipe. The magnifying glass. The deerstalker cap. These three objects are intimately associated with the enduring image of Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was quite astute to use these rather uncommon devices for his singularly uncommon detective.

Well, not quite. In addition to Doyle, we should also credit three other men for creating the picture we see of Sherlock Holmes, over a century later.

Along with Doyle, we must tip our deerstalker (and puff on our pipe in honor of) illustrators Sidney Paget and Frederic Dorr Steele, a well as the great stage performer, William Gillette.

It is the contributions of the latter three upon which Eille Norwood, Arthur Wontner, Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett and others based their portrayals. Of course, since Rathbone’s Universal films were set in the 1940’s, his wardrobe was contemporary to the times. But his two films for Twentieth-Century Fox fit the classic image.

Let’s take a look at three “props” that have been commonly associated with Holmes for over a century.

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