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New Treasures: Voodoo Tales: The Ghost Stories of Henry S. Whitehead

New Treasures: Voodoo Tales: The Ghost Stories of Henry S. Whitehead

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Voodoo Tales The Ghost Stories of Henry S. Whitehead-smallI continue to collect the Wordsworth Editions Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural, which I’ve found to be an inexpensive way to gather a diverse range of early horror writers on a single bookshelf.

My latest acquisition was Voodoo Tales: The Ghost Stories of Henry S. Whitehead, which I bought because it was huge (691 pages!), inexpensive ($3.90!), and ’cause it had voodoo in it (voodoo!). What can I tell you, it was a compelling combo.

I’ve never heard of Henry S. Whitehead, but apparently he was an early Weird Tales writer who had two Arhkam House collections. You’d think I’d be more on top of an author who had a pair of Arhkam House collections, but no. This genre keeps finding more ways to surprise me.

I’m guessing that Whitehead wrote mostly voodoo tales, but I won’t know for sure until I dig into the volume. Until then, I’m relying on the cover and the text on the back, and I’m definitely picking up a voodoo vibe.

“And behind him, like a misshapen black frog, bounded the Thing, its red tongue lolling out of its gash of a mouth, its diminutive blubbery lips drawn back in a murderous snarl…”

Let Henry S. Whitehead take you into the mysterious and macabre world of voodoo where beasts invade the mind of man and where lives of the living are racked by the spirits of the dead. In this collection of rare and out of print stories you will encounter the curses of the great Guinea-Snake, the Sheen, the weredog whose very touch means certain death, the curious tale of the ‘magicked’ mirror, and fiendish manikins who make life a living hell. Included in this festival of shivering fear is the remarkable narrative ‘Williamson’ which every editor who read the story shied away from publishing.

With deceptive simplicity and chilling realism, Whitehead’s Voodoo Tales are amongst the most frightening ever written.

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Jews With Swords: Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon

Jews With Swords: Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon

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oie_19193039NDl2SGNtIn 2002, Michael Chabon edited a collection of retro-pulp stories titled McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, filled with stories by both literary writers and genre writers. I found it underwhelming. What grabbed me, though, was Chabon’s cri de couer for a return to plot in fiction. And in so doing he wanted writers to be able to use whatever genres they wanted to tell whatever stories they wanted, without fear of being dismissed as no longer writing “literature.”

While he had by then written the superhero-themed novel Kavalier and Klay and the baseball and Norse Mythos mashup Summerland, he was known primarily as an author of literary fiction. From that point on, he threw himself deep into the waters of plot and genre. Since then, he’s written a Sherlock Holmes novella, The Final Solution, the Nebula- and Hugo-winning alternate history novel, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, and the screenplay for John Carter.

In 2007, as part of his exploration of plot and genre, he wrote Gentlemen of the Road, an unabashed, fun-for-the-sake-of-fun swashbuckler. Hewing to its old roots, it was initially serialized in the New York Times Magazine. His working title and, as he writes, “in my heart the true” one, was Jews With Swords.

While he hoped to invoke memories of Jewish troopers at Antietam or Inkerman, or warriors like Bar Kochba and Judah Maccabee, most people found it too incongruous. But that incongruity, between Jews with swords and the modern steroptype of Jews as decidedly un-adventurous, was something Chabon wanted to explore. He notes that from their very begininning, when Abraham was told by God “lech lecha: Thou shalt leave home,” Jews have been wanderers and “by definition, find adventure.” In his own words, he “attempted to…find some shadowy kingdom where a self-respecting Jewish adventurer would not be caught dead without his sword or his battle-ax.”

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New Treasures: Motherless Child by Glen Hirshberg

New Treasures: Motherless Child by Glen Hirshberg

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Motherless Child Glen Hirshberg-smallIf you used to enjoy vampire novels, but have become increasingly disgruntled by the crushing weight of vampire-lover, vampire-teammate, and vampire-sidekick novels in the Urban Fantasy section of your local bookstore, then I think I have just the book for you. Glen Hirshberg, author of American Morons and The Two Sams, knows how to spin a creepy tale, and Motherless Child looks like his creepiest yet.

In the American South, the heart of Rock ‘n’ Roll beats hard and strong in honky-tonks and roadside bars, and “trailer trash” doesn’t begin to reflect the strength of the women who live in those thin-walled “mobile” homes. Sophie and Natalie are young mothers, barely out of their teens, each raising a toddler. Their daily lives are full of dull routine, so they are thrilled to discover a mysterious musician, “the Whistler,” performing at a dive bar near Charlotte.

What happens next is beyond their wildest dreams… at least they think it is, because when they wake up in the morning, their memories are hazy, their clothes are shredded, and they’re covered in dried blood.

They’re also no longer human.

Sophie and Natalie flee: from their children; from Natalie’s mom, who vows to protect the babies but can’t stop worrying about her daughter; from the Whistler and his eerie Mother. But the women’s wild ride through the heart of the South can’t stop them from changing, can’t hide them from their Destinies. The Whistler is on their trail, as bound to them as they are to him, driven by a passion so intense it threatens to unhinge him.

The final confrontation is unavoidable and unpredictable. Motherless Child is a moving and eloquent tale of the depth and breadth of motherly love, and how that love can heal and hurt, save and destroy, sometimes all at the same time. It’s a stellar work by a great American writer. It’s also scary as s–t.

Motherless Child was published on May 13 by Tor Books. It is 269 pages, priced at $24.99 in hardcover and $11.99 for the digital edition. See all of our recent New Treasures here.

The Series Series: Cursed by S.J. Harper

The Series Series: Cursed by S.J. Harper

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Cursed S.J. Harper-smallOnce in a while, I check in with the paranormal romance subgenre. Most times, I conclude I’m the wrong reader and move on. What makes the check-in worthwhile is that there are books out there like Laura Anne Gilman’s Heart of Briar (which I reviewed here), books that use the conventions of paranormal romance to do something surprising, something stranger or more complex than the usual spectacle of exogamy-as-extreme-sport.

Cursed, the first volume in S.J. Harper’s Fallen Siren series, promises a bit more strangeness and depth than the average paranormal romance does. Harper’s heroine is a Siren, and it turns out there’s more to the Sirens’ myth than we all remember from reading Homer in high school. According to several actual ancient sources, the Sirens were Persephone’s companions and for their failure to save Persephone from Hades, Demeter cursed them. The Ancient Greek and Roman versions of the story disagree about the precise nature of the curse, which is just the sort of wiggle room modern writers love.

Since S. J. Harper is the pen name for a team of established romance writers, their version of the Sirens’ curse is that, until the Sirens have rescued enough innocents from abduction to satisfy Demeter for the loss of her daughter, they cannot die no matter what they suffer and they can never know love without losing the beloved. Losing in the worst possible ways. Harper’s interpretation of Demeter is the winter goddess of the barren Earth, all wrath and vengeance. As when the mythic Demeter would have allowed all humanity to starve while she went on strike, this Demeter has no qualms about destroying innocent men to torment the fallen goddesses who love them.

Do you sense that it’s a problem when the villainous dea ex machina in reverse is more interesting than the protagonists who get most of the time on stage? Yes, that would be the mismatch between book and reader showing. Or it might be an actual weakness of the book, but I don’t have the right readerly dopamine receptors to get romance novels, so I can’t be sure how its merits would look to a reader who does.

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An Age of Alternate Worlds Where Vampires and Zombies Prowl: Salman Rushdie on Fantasy

An Age of Alternate Worlds Where Vampires and Zombies Prowl: Salman Rushdie on Fantasy

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One Hundred Year of Solitude-smallI was reading Salman Rushdie’s cover article in the Sunday issue of The New York Times Book Review yesterday when I stumbled on a fascinating quote.

Rushdie’s article, “Magic in Service of Truth,” isn’t really about fantasy — not directly, anyway. It’s a tribute to the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez, and especially the setting of his most famous novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Márquez, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982, died on April 17th, and Rushdie’s article is a thoughtful look back at the career of the man whom the President of Colombia recently called “the greatest Colombian who ever lived.”

But Rushdie’s article is fascinating for other reasons as well. He is one of the most respected writers of the 21st Century — indeed, for several months after the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988, and the fatwā issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, he was perhaps the most famous author on the planet — and in the midst of his tribute to Márquez, he casually admits we are living in a literary Age of Fantasy.

We live in an age of invented, alternate worlds. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, Rowling’s Hogwarts, the dystopic universe of The Hunger Games, the places where vampires and zombies prowl: These places are having their day. Yet in spite of the vogue for fantasy fiction, in the finest of literature’s fictional microcosms there is more truth than fantasy. In William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha, R.K. Narayan’s Malgudi and, yes, the Macondo of Gabriel García Márquez, imagination is used to enrich reality, not to escape from it.

Rushdie has written a fantasy or two of his own, including his first novel Grimus (1975) and Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990). He was knighted in 2007.

I read the article in in the newsprint edition, but you can read it online here.

Can SF Save the World From Climate Change?

Can SF Save the World From Climate Change?

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A-Canticle-for-Leibowitz-smallSince its inception in the 19th Century, science fiction has inspired technological innovation and progress, utilizing creativity to prod the minds of scientists and engineers into designing wonders beyond the factories and smokestacks of the Dickensian world. Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, the godfathers of SF, imagined submarines, airships, rockets, spacecraft, and even atomic energy, and their “science fantasy” stories inspired generations of scientists, inventors and engineers, not to mention countless artists and writers.

In the early 20th Century, the Golden Age of SF helped pioneer many of the modern technologies we now take for granted. Arthur C. Clarke conceptualized the geostationary satellite. Isaac Asimov laid the groundwork for robotics and artificial intelligence. E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensmen novels inspired the US Navy to create the first naval combat information center. In the early 1980s, at a time when personal computers were still in their infancy, William Gibson imagined cyberspace.

At the same time, SF writers have also warned us about the dangers of our rapidly changing world. Pre-dating Verne and Wells, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a bleak cautionary tale of what can happen when scientists try to alter life itself (a warning that seems more prescient than ever in an age of cloning and GMOs). In response to the Second Industrial Revolution, E.M. Forester wrote the first modern dystopia, The Machine Stops, a short novel that depicts a future race of humans that have become helpless, fat, and slug-like due to their complete reliance on technology.

And then, of course, there are the classic dystopian tales, warning us of the dangers of taking social and political ideologies to their extreme ends: A Brave New World, 1984, Animal Farm, and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We. Similarly, the post-apocalyptic novel A Canticle for Leibowitz, penned by Walter M. Miller during the height of the Cold War, warns of the dangers of nuclear proliferation coupled with imperialism.

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2013 Nebula Award Winners Announced

2013 Nebula Award Winners Announced

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Ancillary Justice Ann Leckie-smallThe 2013 Nebula Awards were presented yesterday at a solemn SFWA ceremony in downtown San Jose. Folklore tells us these events occur at carefully planned intervals every year, but I suspect the truth is that Nebula Awards erupt spontaneously whenever a critical mass of science fiction and fantasy writers gather together. Like bar fights and flash mobs.

Here’s the complete list of winners.

Novel

Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie (Orbit)

Novella

“The Weight of the Sunrise,” Vylar Kaftan (Asimov’s SF, February 2013)

Novelette

“The Waiting Stars,” Aliette de Bodard (The Other Half of the Sky, Candlemark & Gleam)

Short Story

“If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love,” Rachel Swirsky (Apex, March 2013)

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New Treasures: The Dark Rites of Cthulhu edited by Brian M. Sammons

New Treasures: The Dark Rites of Cthulhu edited by Brian M. Sammons

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The Dark Rites of Cthulhu-smallI first met Neil Baker over a decade ago and was surprised by how much we had in common, including our shared love of genre films. He told vastly more entertaining stories than I did — especially his tales of the British film industry, and working on films like Lifeforce. So I wasn’t at all surprised when he told me late last year that he was joining the noble and distinguished brotherhood of small press publishers.

In an article for Black Gate last month, Neil told us that his first release, The Dark Rites of Cthulhu, was a collection of stories dealing with “the more magical aspects of Lovecraft’s tales, smaller, more intimate stories that explored the consequences of humans meddling in powers beyond their understanding.” In a marketplace crowded with a multitude of Cthulhu volumes, this one stands out, with terrific reviews, fabulous design, and excellent interior art by Neil himself. Here’s the book description.

For centuries, students of the forbidden arts have probed the inky recesses of the spaces inbetween. Hapless mortals have invoked monstrous entities from beyond through foul magicks, incantations and rituals. When will they learn that there can be no profit nor joy to be gained through relations with the insidious old ones? These sixteen tales of depravity, sorcery and madness may offer some illumination, but ultimately there can be no salvation for those who dabble in The Dark Rites of Cthulhu.

Featuring terrifying new stories by Glynn Owen Barrass, Edward M. Erdelac, John Goodrich, Scott T. Goudsward, T. E. Grau, C.J. Henderson, Tom Lynch, William Meikle, Christine Morgan, Robert M. Price, Pete Rawlik, Josh Reynolds, Brian M. Sammons, Sam Stone, Jeffrey Thomas and Don Webb and edited by Brian M. Sammons, The Dark Rites of Cthulhu shares cautionary tales set in a multiverse of jealousy, greed, desperation and naivety and is guaranteed to delight students of the Dark Arts and followers of the Great Old Ones alike.

The Dark Rites of Cthulhu was edited by Brian M. Sammons and published by April Moon Books on March 28, 2014. It is 224 pages, priced at $18.99 in trade paperback and just $2.99 for the digital version. Buy it directly from the April Moon website. It gets our highest recommendation.

Future Treasures: Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell

Future Treasures: Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell

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Traitor's Blade-smallThere’s been a lot of pre-publication buzz about Canadian Sebastien de Castell’s debut novel Traitor’s Blade. Dave Duncan called it “A wild dance of fights, treachery, and jaw-dropping surprises,” and Fantasy Book Critic said it was “The first ‘new’ fantasy of 2014 that met and even exceeded my expectations.”

But it was Niall Alexander’s review over at Tor.com that really piqued my curiosity. He called it “A bunch of fun from one cover to the other. Recommended especially to readers who’ve had it up to here with unhappy heroes.” Sounds like just what I need. Here’s the book description.

Falcio is the first Cantor of the Greatcoats, the elite corps of 144 men and women whose mission is to travel the land and uphold the King’s Law. Highly trained in the sword-fighting, diplomatic, and judicial arts, the Greatcoats are heroes. Or at least they were heroes, until the powerful Dukes, feudal noblemen with ambitions of their own, overthrew the king and placed his head on a pike as a warning to his supporters.

In the power vacuum left by the death of the king, Tristia is on the verge of collapse and the barbarians are sniffing at the borders. As the power struggle among the Ducal powers brings chaos to the land, the Greatcoats are scattered far and wide; reviled as traitors to the king they failed to protect, their reputation and legendary leather coats are both in tatters.

All the Greatcoats have left is the secret set of instructions given to each one by King Paelis before his death. If Falcio and his best friends Brasti and Kest have any hope of fulfilling the king’s final mission, the Greatcoats must reunite — or else they must stand aside and watch as the world they were sworn to protect burns.

Traitor’s Blade will be published July 1, 2014 by Jo Fletcher Books, a division of Quercus. It is 372 pages, priced at $26.99 in hardcover and $13.99 for the digital edition.

Spotlight on Interactive Fiction: Choice of the Deathless by Max Gladstone

Spotlight on Interactive Fiction: Choice of the Deathless by Max Gladstone

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Between keeping up with my usual webcomics, Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and several writing projects (one of them my own current work for Choice of Games), I haven’t had as much time to play games (or review them) as I’d like. But back in my December 20 post, I promised an upcoming review of Choice of the Deathless by Max Gladstone. Max is a writer friend of mine and I’m not shy about proclaiming my love for his Craft Sequence — of which Choice of the Deathless is a corollary. Since Max is currently a John W. Campbell nominee, and his Three Parts Dead just made Reddit’s list of under-read fantasy, I thought now would be a great time to spend some time on Choice of the Deathless — and mention his novels as well.

Choice of the Deathless, art by Ron Chan
Choice of the Deathless, art by Ron Chan

The world of the Craft Sequence is one in which human wizards — usually necromancers, most of whom wear pin striped suits and run corporations called Concerns — rose up against the gods in a huge war and won, leaving most of the gods dead. Lest you think this means the conceit of the world is all about the virtues of Progress over Faith, I assure you I don’t read the stories at all that way. Progress has its own failings, Faith has its strengths, and the stories told in Max’s books and game strike me as being about characters who try to find a way to reconcile the two to make the world a better place. Also: necromancers who are, effectively, lawyers, and fantasy novels that are also legal thrillers. Sometimes about ecoterrorism, corporate espionage, or just trying to find a good cup of coffee. What’s not to love?

Choice of the Deathless gives the player a chance to take part in that world of exciting corporate magic, beginning at the low rung of a Concern’s ladder with hopes of climbing all the way up to Partner. But while student loans, crappy apartments, and a lack of sleep all add flavor to the game, things really start to get interesting when the PC starts dealing with literal demons. In one case, the PC needs to keep demons from finding a contractual loophole that would allow them to gain an unlimited foothold in the human world. In another, an oppressed demon wants out of an abusive contract, without getting sent back to the demon lands. In a third, the PC must decide whether to advise a minor goddess to seek out her own lawyer or take her to court for everything she has. And the larger story arc gives PCs the chance to eventually become a skeletal, undead, master of magic — if they play their cards right.

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