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New Treasures: Introducing Garrett, P.I.

New Treasures: Introducing Garrett, P.I.

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Introducing Garrett P.I.-smallWhen I started reading fantasy, I wanted every book I read to be The Lord of the Rings. High stakes, epic in scope, and at least one guy had to have a bitchin’ magic ring.

That’s the only decent explanation I can come up with for why I steadfastly ignored Glen Cook’s Garrett, P.I. novels for so many years. And that took some doing, too — in the 24 years since Sweet Silver Blues appeared, Cook has written no less than thirteen, with one more on the way. I’d probably still be ignorant of this highly readable and fast paced series if the charming Tina Jens hadn’t discovered this glaring omission in my fantasy education at Worldcon, and arrived at our booth the next morning with a brand new copy of Sweet Silver Blues, inscribed to me by Glen Cook.

Long story short, it wasn’t long before I was a fan. So you can imagine how delighted I was to open my mail yesterday and find a review copy of Garrett For Hire, a handsome omnibus collection of Deadly Quicksilver Lies, Petty Pewter Gods, and Faded Steel Heat, novels 7, 8, and 9 in the series.

I know what you’re thinking. Who does an omnibus of novels 7, 8 and 9? Unless…

A quick Internet search proved what I should have been able to figure out for myself: there are two previous collections. Introducing Garrett, P.I. was published August 2011, and Garrett Takes the Case in February 2012. Not sure how the hell I managed to miss them both. Clearly my detection skills are no match for my new hero, Garrett. Well, at least I’ve got one thing figured out: what books I’m going to be tracking down and reading this weekend.

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The Pop Culture Class of 1960 – 1969: Marvel Firsts: The 1960s

The Pop Culture Class of 1960 – 1969: Marvel Firsts: The 1960s

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Marvel Firsts The 1960s-smallI remember the first time I read Origins of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee’s seminal 1974 anthology collecting the first appearances of the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, and Doctor Strange. It was memorable because, for one thing, Stan’s bombastic introductions were frequently more entertaining than the comics themselves, and for another… the comics sure looked old.

Stan knew that, and he also knew a collection of first issues didn’t necessarily reflect Marvel Comics at its best. So alongside each origin story he also reprinted a tale that did showcase what made these characters special, including the FF’s epic battle with the Silver Surfer (from issue #55), Spider-Man’s tussle with the Shocker (issue #72), and others classic stories from the late 60s.

It made for a terrific book — and a great seller. Stan followed it a year later with Son of Origins of Marvel Comics, and then Bring on the Bad Guys; all told Marvel produced a total of 24 different books in similar format with publishing partner Fireside Books.

Origins of Marvel Comics hasn’t been in print in nearly three decades (ignoring the oddity with the same title released last May, which condenses the origin of each of the Marvel’s most popular characters into a single page), which is a shame. However, Marvel finally rectified this oversight late in 2011, kicking off an ambitious program to collect the first appearances of virtually every one of its major and minor characters.

This is a massive undertaking, and while I miss the partner tales Stan included alongside his selections, it’s an understandable sacrifice for the sake of completeness. While another reprinting of The Fantastic Four #1 or Amazing Fantasy #15 wouldn’t normally get me to crack open my wallet, an omnibus volume that also collects The Rawhide Kid #17 (from 1955), Daredevil #1 (1964), Western comic The Ghost Rider #1 (1967) and numerous others was definitely worth a look.

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Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House

Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House

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The Haunting of Hill HouseDifferent people have different explanations for why horror fiction exists, and why it’s worthwhile. It’s always seemed to me that, whatever else it does, good horror writing expresses some kind of fear or terror that is both deep and common. Insofar as the fear’s deep, the horror story touches a profound well of emotion, as good fiction usually does; insofar as it’s common the story links readers together and reminds us that we share the same dreads. So at its best, horror fiction is empathic and profound.

And something else: it can articulate fear in a new way. Mary Shelley tapped into new fears of her time about scientists and Faustian Romantics. H.P. Lovecraft wrote stories articulating fears arising from a new scientific worldview, in which humanity was not only displaced from the centre of creation, but proved to be an accident or irrelevance in a fundamentally inhuman universe. At least as far back as the first wave of Gothic novelists in the late eighteenth century, writers were finding an imaginative form for writing about the fears of women (in particular) in an extremely patriarchal society; the usual plot involved an innocent female protagonist, a sinister edifice or castle, and a demonic male figure, lord of the estate, who gets the heroine in his clutches. It’s been said that the typical Gothic is a love story between a woman and a house.

Gothics are still being written, though not quite in the eighteenth century mold. The best of them have changed, incorporating new fears, reflecting new times. So one of the greatest of twentieth century horror stories, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, is both a bravura reprise of the Gothic tradition and also a radical updating of the form. It finds new dimensions to the fears it raises and summons. Gender has a relevance to those fears, but not I think in the way of the old Gothics. There is a dreadful universality to the disquiet Jackson evokes. The book revises its tradition, but also mixes old fears with new. So let’s take a look at it, and see how it all works, and what we have to be scared of.

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New Treasures: Children of the Night by Dan Simmons

New Treasures: Children of the Night by Dan Simmons

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Children of the NightDan Simmons wrote two of my favorite horror novels, Carrion Comfort and Summer of Night, and the audio version of his novel, The Terror, kept me riveted for many weeks during the long winter commute between Champaign and St. Charles last year. When Simmons talks horror, I listen.

Children of the Night was originally published in 1992, when Communist states were collapsing all across Europe and the airwaves were filled with stories of the desperate last days of Communist dictators. Romania, home to the classic fears of Transylvania, became synonymous with horror of a very different kind when western film crews entered bleak Romanian orphanages to expose the cruelty and neglect there. In Children of the Night, Simmons married modern horror and a far more ancient terror:

In a desolate orphanage in post-Communist Romania, a desperately ill infant is given the wrong blood transfusion — and flourishes rather than dies. For immunologist Kate Neuman, the infant’s immune system may hold the key to cure cancer and AIDS. Kate adopts the baby and takes him home to the States. But baby Joshua holds a link to an ancient clan and their legendary leader — Vlad Tşepeş, the original Dracula – whose agents kidnap the child. Against impossible odds and vicious enemies– both human and vampire – Kate and her ally, Father Mike O’Rourke, steal into Romania to get her baby back.

Children of the Night was published on December 11, 2012 by St. Martin’s Griffin. It is 464 pages in trade paperback, priced at $15.99 ($9.99 for the digital edition), and this edition features a brand new introduction by the author.

You can see all of our recent New Treasures articles here.

Rue Morgue Magazine’s 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See

Rue Morgue Magazine’s 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See

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Rue morgues magazine's 200 alternative horror filmsI had a clever title in mind for this post, something about a book you need to see, but the name of the book was so long nothing else would fit. Rue Morgue Magazine’s 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See. See what I mean? Damn near had to start a new paragraph just to say it again.

200 Flicks (which we’ll be calling it going forward) is a marvelous little treasure I found on the B&N magazine rack while digging around for the latest issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I’m vaguely aware of Rue Morgue magazine (and should probably be moreso, granted), but that wasn’t what caught my eye. No, it was the title, and the fact that this perfect bound “magazine” is an impressive 162 pages.

I flipped through it, and was sold instantly. This is the kind of invaluable reference work I’ll be drawing on for years. It’s packed to the brim with text, with plenty of color stills and crisp reproductions of 200 movie posters and DVD covers. The heart of the book is the carefully-selected collection of well written and informative reviews of overlooked horror films.

A quick check showed many of my favorites are here, including a guilty pleasure or two: Session 9, Let the Right One In, Psycho II, Something Wicked This Way Comes — and plenty more that I’m not familiar with. And isn’t the joy of discovery the true reason you lay your money down for this kind of thing?

The entries are organized alpahbetically, but it’s really something you browse rather than read cover-to-cover. It has numerous lists: 10 Made for TV Terrors You Need to See, 10 Foreign Zombie Films You Need to See, plus lists covering vampire flicks, foreign zombie movies, family fright fests, gore films, slashers, and many more. There are also interviews with directors and film personalities like Guillermo del Toro, Tobe Hooper, Roger Corman, Fred Dekker, Larry Cohen, Stuart Gordon, and others.

The book is so inexpensive (a criminally low $9.99, or $4.99 for the digital version) and so packed with content that the only way it can possibly be a money-making venture is if it’s primarily recycled material from Rue Morgue magazine. Which is fine by me — if the magazine is a fraction as interesting and entertaining, I’ll be getting a subscription.

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Vintage Treasures: The Fuzzy Papers by H. Beam Piper

Vintage Treasures: The Fuzzy Papers by H. Beam Piper

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the fuzzy papersThe Fuzzy Papers was one of the first science fiction books I ever read, and it’s one of the small handful of books that made me an SF reader for life.

The Fuzzy Papers contains two novels by H. Beam Piper, Little Fuzzy (1962) and Fuzzy Sapiens (1964, also known as The Other Human Race), and was published by the Science Fiction Book Club  in 1980. I joined the SFBC at the age of 12 at the urging of my friend John MacMaster, who turned me on to science fiction by loaning me book club editions from many of its finest writers, including Frank Herbert and Clifford D. Simak. The club specialized in low-cost reprints of popular SF and fantasy, ideal for a teen with little disposable income, and best of all, it occasionally produced magnificent omnibus editions of genre classics.

The Fuzzy Papers was a perfect example. Available exclusively through the club, it collects two long out-of-print paperbacks in a durable hardcover with a beautiful Michael Whelan cover, all for under 7 bucks. Not the kind of thing an impressionable teen could resist, and I didn’t even bother to try. I checked off my order form and put it back in the mail pronto, and impatiently waited for it to arrive.

I was not disappointed. Piper’s novels follow the adventures of down-on-his-luck space prospector Jack Holloway, who’s been exploring the planet Zarathrustra — a Class III uninhabited world run for profit by mining magnate Victor Grego. But everything changes when Holloway discovers the Fuzzies, curious little humanoids that almost seem to have the power to reason.

In fact, the more he interacts with them, the more Holloway is convinced they can reason — and if the Fuzzies are intelligent, that makes Zarathrustra a Class IV inhabited world, and Grego’s mining privileges would be gone for good. His company isn’t going to let that happen, no matter what the cost.

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New Treasures: Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore

New Treasures: Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore

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Dead Things-smallI talked about genre mash-ups Monday in my post on The Last Policeman. There’s an obvious one I forgot: hard-boiled detective zombie novels.

Not sure how I spaced on that one. Three titles I’ve covered as New Treasures in the last few months alone have been undead crime novels: Stefan Petrucha’s Dead Mann Running, Tim Waggoner’s The Nekropolis Archives, and Chris F. Holm’s Dead Harvest. As trends go, this one is a little more welcome than most, at least for me. Necromancers and tough-talking private eyes… what can I say, they go together.

The latest entrant into this crowded sub-sub-genre, Stephen Blackmoore’s Dead Things, sounds like it will fit in nicely:

Necromancer is such an ugly word, but it’s a title Eric Carter is stuck with.

He sees ghosts, talks to the dead. He’s turned it into a lucrative career putting troublesome spirits to rest, sometimes taking on even more dangerous things. For a fee, of course. When he left LA fifteen years ago, he thought he’d never go back. Too many bad memories. Too many people trying to kill him.

But now his sister’s been brutally murdered and Carter wants to find out why. Was it the gangster looking to settle a score? The ghost of a mage he killed the night he left town? Maybe it’s the patron saint of violent death herself, Santa Muerte, who’s taken an unusually keen interest in him. Carter’s going to find out who did it, and he’s going to make them pay.

As long as they don’t kill him first.

Dead Things will be published by DAW Books on Feb 5, 2013. It is 295 pages, and priced at $7.99 for both the paperback and digital editions.

Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery Only $6.40 at Amazon.com

Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery Only $6.40 at Amazon.com

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swords-dark-magic-256One of the best swords & sorcery anthologies of the last ten years is available at a deep discount on Amazon.com.

Swords & Dark Magic, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders, contains 17 original stories — including a new Elric novella by Michael Moorcock, a Majipoor tale by Robert Silverberg, a Cugel the Clever tale by Michael Shea, a Black Company story by Glen Cook, and a brand new Morlock tale by James Enge. Contributors include Steven Erikson, C. J. Cherryh, Scott Lynch, Bill Willingham, Joe Abercrombie, Tanith Lee, Garth Nix, Greg Keyes, Gene Wolfe, Tim Lebbon, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and many others.

Our man Jason Waltz examined it in one of the longest and most detailed reviews we’ve ever published.

At Worldcon, I had the pleasure of hearing James Enge read his fabulous story “The Singing Spear” — which includes the classic line “You killed my bartender!” James is one of our most gifted practitioners of modern S&S, and “The Singing Spear” is one of his finest stories. It’s worth far more than $6.40 all on its own — and if you get the chance, hearing James read it live is worth far more than that.

Our most recent round-up of discount fantasy titles at Amazon is here.

Swords & Dark Magic was published by Avon Eos in June 2010. It is 519 pages, and was originally priced at $15.99. While copies last, it is being sold online for $6.40 at Amazon.com.

Self-published Books: Review of Noggle Stones: The Goblin’s Apprentice by Wil Radcliffe

Self-published Books: Review of Noggle Stones: The Goblin’s Apprentice by Wil Radcliffe

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noggle stones-smallWhen I first started this series of reviews on self-published books, I had two criteria for reviewing a book.

First, it had to be a self-published fantasy novel. Second, based on the blurb and the excerpt, it had to be a book that I wanted to read. At the time, I didn’t realize that the first criterion would be the more difficult one to figure out.

I discuss some of the difficulties in deciding whether to review a book on my personal blog, but the bottom line is that I almost didn’t review Noggle Stones: The Goblin’s Apprentice. It was originally published by a small press, and only later self-published by the author. I might have still decided that it didn’t quite qualify, since it wasn’t originally self-published, but it certainly met my second criterion: . I really wanted to read this book.

If there’s one word to describe The Goblin’s Apprentice, it’s charming. From the author’s own illustrations, to the poetry, to the language. At times, it’s a bit too charming, but in the end I forgave it. The book seems to be aimed at the Middle Grade level, and it has the same sense of whimsy found in the best books of that type.

The Goblin’s Apprentice is the first book of the series Noggle Stones. The central character is Martin Manchester, an aspiring stage magician in 1899 America. His career plans are interrupted by the fact that our world has merged with a fantasy world populated by elves, dwarves, ogres, and yes, goblins. Martin soon finds himself a student of the goblin Bugbear, a scholar of Non-Logical Thought, which forms the basis of the magic system in the novel. Accompanying them is Bugbear’s scoundrel of a cousin, Tudmire. Their wandering takes them to the kingdom of Willow Prairie, which is really a small town that’s been awaiting the arrival of a king for centuries. After rescuing the dragon bride Maga from a show trial, the heroes quickly get caught up in the war against the Shadow Smith and his army of patchworks.

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Genre 2013: The John Pierce Experiment

Genre 2013: The John Pierce Experiment

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Unknown-1You remember John Pierce: his Bell Labs team invented the transistor, and he coined the term. But, like the rest of us, he had his little gaps. When in his eighties, he met up with author Dan Levitin, who was busy writing that complicated puzzler of a book, This Is Your Brain On Music. Much to Levitin’s dismay, Pierce revealed that he had never knowingly heard any rock music. Now, as to how one can live in a developed nation and achieve this, I don’t know, but once Levitin discovered this curious deficit, the two had a little heart-to-heart, and Pierce asked Levitin to provide six –– count ‘em, six –– prime examples of rock and roll from which he might form an opinion and make appropriate generalizations about the whole.

What does this have to do with Black Gate and fantasy literature? Trust me. Read on.

Levitin’s six tunes were as follows:

  • “Long Tall Sally” by Little Richard
  • “Roll Over Beethoven” by the Beatles
  • “All Along the Watchtower,” by Jimi Hendrix
  • “Wonderful Tonight,” by Eric Clapton
  • “Little Red Corvette,” by Prince
  • “Anarchy in the U.K.,” by the Sex Pistols

Scary choices, methinks, especially those last two. But regardless of my opinion (or yours), Pierce’s request poses two dilemmas.

First, if faced with this same conundrum, which songs would you choose?

Second, what if this situation were applied to fiction? Or better yet, to the ongoing divide in genre vs. literary fiction?

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