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Joyce Carol Oates’ Gothic Quintet, Part II: A Bloodsmoor Romance

Joyce Carol Oates’ Gothic Quintet, Part II: A Bloodsmoor Romance

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A Bloodsmoor RomanceLast week I began looking at Joyce Carol Oates’ Gothic Quintet, in advance of the publication of the fifth book in the sequence next March. I thought 1980’s Bellefleur was a tremendous work, eloquent testimony to the imaginative power of the Gothic and to the sophistication the form can sustain. This week I’m looking at 1982’s A Bloodsmoor Romance, to which I had a more qualified response.

To some extent this may well be a function of my being not the right reader for this book. While Bellefleur consciously played with the genre conventions of the Gothic proper, Bloodsmoor uses and parodies the conventions of 19th-century romance — romance as we know it, the story of young women looking for love and marriage. And romance as such is not a form that has any intrinsic appeal to me, or whose appeal I understand. I don’t say it’s bad. I’m saying I have no idea what makes romances good or bad as romances.

Unsurprisingly, then, the book plays off of texts with which I’m not familiar. I’ve seen similarities noted to Little Women, for example, which I’ve never read. Bloodsmoor is also intensely ironic, satiric in a way that Bellefleur wasn’t (as I read these books, anyway). So this is a genre that never appealed to me, and with whose key stories I have no experience, and it’s being sent up in a fairly unsubtle manner. Maybe it’s surprising that I didn’t have a worse reaction than I actually did.

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New Treasures: Castle Waiting, Volume Two

New Treasures: Castle Waiting, Volume Two

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castle-waiting-volume-two-smallI first discovered the brilliant and touching Castle Waiting through Linda Medley’s self-published comic in the late 90s. Eventually collected into the graphic novel Castle Waiting: The Curse of Brambly Hedge, it retold the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty (sort of), as seen by an odd cast of mostly minor characters. It was well written and beautiful, feminine in perspective and mood, incredibly slow-paced, and wholly original. I loved it.

And then it pretty much vanished. Stray issues popped up now and again in my local comic shop over the years, but it looked to me like Castle Waiting would always be one of those undiscovered indie treasures that never broke into the mainstream.

Fanatagraphics turned all that around in 2006 with the massive Castle Waiting, a 472-page omnibus collecting virtually all the early issues in an attractive and affordable format. Picking up the story many years later, Medley follows the new inhabitants of Sleeping Beauty’s ancient castle, most of them fairy tale characters with mysterious origins. Managed by the unflappable (literally) stork Rackham, the Castle is home to an eclectic mix of humans, outcasts, and friendly but mischievous sprites and other spirits.

This volume was successful enough that it allowed Medley to return to publishing Castle Waiting on a regular schedule in 2006. She published fifteen issues with Fantagraphics, and those issues were finally collected in 2010. Focusing chiefly on the pregnant Lady Jain, who has fled to the castle to escape an abusive husband, this second volume drew wide praise from NPR, Time Magazine, and many other sources, and Publishers Weekly ranked it one of the best comic books of 2006 in a critics’ poll.

With its long-awaited second volume, Linda Medley’s witty and sublimely drawn fantasy eases into a relaxed comedy of manners as Lady Jain settles into her new life in Castle Waiting.

Unexpected visitors result in the discovery and exploration of a secret passageway, not to mention an epic bowling tournament. A quest for ladies’ underpants, the identity of Pindar’s father, the education of Simon, Rackham and Chess arguing about the “manly arts,” and an escape-prone goat are just a few of the elements in this delightful new volume.

The book also includes many flashbacks that deepen the stories behind the characters, including Jain’s earliest romantic entanglements and conflicts with her bratty older sisters, the horrific past of the enigmatic Dr. Fell, and more.

Interestingly, except for a tiny copyright notice on page 377, the book is published totally anonymously, with no mention of Linda Medley anywhere on the cover, spine, or title pages.

Castle Waiting, Volume Two was published in December 2010 by Fantagraphics. It is 384 pages in hardcover for $29.99. There are no paperback or digital editions. With its slow pacing and glacial (almost non-existent) plot, it’s not for everyone. But I recommend it highly.

Vintage Treasures: Hong on the Range by William F. Wu

Vintage Treasures: Hong on the Range by William F. Wu

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hong-on-the-range4I admit this one doesn’t seem very vintage to me, but perhaps that’s just because I’m getting a little vintage myself.

William F. Wu’s fourth novel, Hong on the Range, was published 23 years ago. It was originally published in hardcover and has never had a paperback release.

And that’s too bad, since it’s the kind of off-the-wall science fantasy that I think would really appeal to a modern audience. Set in a post-apocalyptic American West where cities have decayed and the surviving towns cling to the railway, where most people have cyborg enhancements, meat is harvested from cows without harming them, and a young man named Louie — a “control-natural” forbidden by law from enhancing himself, and who is shunned and misunderstood by others — heads West to find his fortune.

The Old West Was Never This Wild! In a New West filled with cyber-enhanced cowboys and mechanized singing steers, Louie Hong must make his way through hostile territory filled with cattle rustlers and bank robbers, and a passel of cyborg bounty hunters who think he’s both! A story about coming of age in a strange and dangerous land where a young man’s most faithful friend may just turn out to be a computerized steer named Chuck.

While it’s the only novel in the sequence, Hong on the Range is part of a series of stories written by Wu that began in 1985 with “Wild Garlic.” Most of them were published in Pulphouse magazine; the last one, “In the Temple of Forgotten Spirits,” in 1993.

Hong on the Range was published by Walker & Co in 1989. It is 286 pages in hardcover. It has never had a paperback release, but it was re-released in a digital edition for $2.99 last October.

New Treasures: The Demoness of Waking Dreams by Stephanie Chong

New Treasures: The Demoness of Waking Dreams by Stephanie Chong

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the-demoness-of-waking-dreams-smallOne of the critiques I get about my New Treasures column is that I don’t cover much Paranormal Romance.

That’s probably true. A lot of it arrives here at the rooftop headquarters, but I can’t get Howard or Mike Penkas to read it. As for me, I like to focus on the week’s most exciting titles for New Treasures, and I just don’t know that much about what’s really exciting in Paranormal Romance.

Yeah, that sounds like an excuse to me too. There’s a lot of good work being done in the sub-genre — it’s been the most popular form of fantasy for at least the last three years — and we’re not doing a service to anyone by neglecting it. I should just jump in with both feet and educate myself.

So where do I start? I have a tried and true system for selecting books: I go with the best covers. And this week that meant my hands wandered towards Stephanie Chong’s second novel, The Demoness of Waking Dreams.

Ex-cop Brandon Clarkson is an angel with an edge. His tough exterior is the perfect camouflage for his job — hunting down the most dangerous criminals on earth. A self-reliant and demanding lone wolf, Brandon is the perfect angel to track and capture demoness Luciana Rossetti.

Beneath the surface of Luciana’s cool, green-eyed beauty lurks the heart of a malevolent killer. In the winding streets of Venice, she lures Brandon into her dark world of pleasure.

They are perfectly matched. Angel and demon. Man and woman. But only one can win the battle of wills, of strength and of desire.

My first thought was to pass this off to my teenage daughter Tabitha to get her take on it. But flipping though it, I discovered some pretty steamy scenes that would probably get me in trouble. For the sake of propriety, this is a mission I should undertake myself. Yeah. That would be best.

Chong’s first novel, Where Demons Fear to Tread, is part of the same series (The Company of Angels), but seems to deal with different characters. This volume seems to be suitably standalone.

The Demoness of Waking Dreams was published by Harlequin MIRA on August 28, 2012. It is 359 pages for $7.99 in paperback ($6.99 for the digital edition).

Blogging Sax Rohmer’s The Mask of Fu Manchu – Part Four

Blogging Sax Rohmer’s The Mask of Fu Manchu – Part Four

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2203781the-mask-of-fu-manchuSax Rohmer’s The Mask of Fu Manchu was originally serialized in Collier’s from May 7 to July 23, 1932. It was published in book form later that year by Doubleday in the US and the following year by Cassell in the UK. It became the most successful book in the series thanks to MGM’s cult classic film version starring Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy that made it into theaters later that same year.

The fourth and final part of the book opens with the voyage from Cairo to London. The Marconi operator brings Shan Greville a telegram from Sir Denis Nayland Smith of British Intelligence, warning him that agents of Dr. Fu Manchu will attempt to capture the relics of El Mokanna that Sir Lionel Barton unearthed during his recent expedition in Persia. The irascible parliamentary minister who argued with Sir Lionel before boarding the ship turns out to be the agent of the Si-Fan who breaks into the purser’s safe overnight and absconds with the box he believes contains the priceless relics. He is rescued at sea by a plane which takes him and the contents of the box (concealed inside an inflatable rubber ball) aboard and disappears into the night.

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Hawkmoon Gets Some Respect With Tor Reprints

Hawkmoon Gets Some Respect With Tor Reprints

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the-sword-of-the-dawn-smallIt’s good to see Michael Moorcock back in print in attractive accessible editions again. Thirty years ago the man ruled the paperback shelves with numerous titles in print, including half a dozen Elric novels, the Chronicles of Corum, the Jerry Cornelius books… and of course, Hawkmoon.

Moorcock is still in print, of course — but chiefly in expensive omnibus editions these days. You can’t ride your bike down to the corner store, spot a slender Moorcock paperback on the rack with a glorious Michael Whelan cover, shell out 95 cents, and cram that baby into your back pocket like you used to. (And if you can, listen to an old man and take that Hershey’s bar out of your pocket first. Trust me, you’ll thank me later.)

Anyway, my point is, those fat hardcover editions are great for cranky old collectors like me. But they don’t do much to introduce the man whom Michael Chabon called “The greatest writer of post-Tolkien British fantasy” to a new generation. Michael Moorcock deserves to be celebrated with permanent editions of his work, sure. But he should also be available in cheap paperbacks that teenagers can fold in half while they’re reading, mesmerized, on the back of the bus.

The era of the cheap paperback is over. But Tor did the next best thing two years ago, releasing all four Hawkmoon novels — The Jewel in the Skull, The Mad God’s Amulet, The Sword of the Dawn, and The Runestaff — in slender trade paperbacks with gorgeous new covers by Vance Kovacs. Now that all four have been remaindered (selling at Amazon for between $5.60 and $6.00 each, while supplies last), I took the opportunity to buy a complete set.

Collectively known as The History of the Runestaff, the novels follow the adventures of Dorian Hawkmoon — an aspect of Moorcock’s Eternal Champion — on a post-holocaust Earth as he travels a world of antique cities, scientific sorcery, and crystalline machines and is inexorably pulled into a war against the ruthless armies of Granbretan. Here’s the description for the first novel, The Jewel in the Skull:

Dorian Hawkmoon, the last Duke of Koln, swore to destroy the Dark Empire of Granbretan. But after his defeat and capture at the hands of the vast forces of the Empire. Hawkmoon becomes a puppet co-opted by his arch nemesis to infiltrate the last stronghold of rebellion against Granbretan, the small but powerful city of Kamarang. He’s been implanted with a black jewel, through whose power the Dark Empire can control his every decision. But in the city of Kamarang, Hawkmoon discovers the power inside him to overcome any control, and his vengeance against the Dark Empire is filled with an unrelenting fury.

The Hawkmoon novels were originally written between 1967 and 1969; the Tor reprints were published between January and December of 2010. Roughly 200 – 220 pages each, their original cover price was $14 – $15; they are currently much less. Move quickly if you want copies; they are selling fast.

Vintage Treasures: Tales of Time and Space

Vintage Treasures: Tales of Time and Space

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tales-of-time-and-spaceI saw this little beauty sitting on the Starfarer’s Despatch booth less than 60 seconds after entering the Worldcon Dealer’s Room. The Dealer’s Room wasn’t even open yet, but Rich and Arin were kind enough to take my five bucks anyway. Bless ’em.

I love old science fiction anthologies. I just have to have ’em. I can tell this one is old because the Copyright Date is in Roman numerals. MCMLXIX. Let’s see… that’s 19… uh.. what’s LX again?… wait… 1969! Whew. Man, that took forever. No wonder the damn Roman Empire collapsed.

Tales of Time and Space is edited by Ross R. Olney. Never heard of him. Never heard of the publisher either: Golden Press. This has kid’s book stamped all over it. 1969, huh? (Excuse me, MCMLXIX. Probably everyone spoke in Roman numerals back then. Bet that made exchanging phone numbers a bitch. “Yeah, I love vegetarian food too. Give me a ring and I’ll take you to my favorite restaurant. I’m at XIIVIIIIVIIIIVIIIIVI.”)

Likely this was something done for the school library market. Except the table of contents sure looks like a real SF anthology:

  • “Puppet Show,” Fredric Brown
  • “Birds of a Feather,” Robert Silverberg
  • “Clutch of Morpheus,” Larry Sternig
  • “The Last Command,” Keith Laumer
  • “Fog,” William Campbell Gault
  • “The Martian Crown Jewels,” Poul Anderson
  • “Of Missing Persons,” Jack Finney

Okay, I don’t know who William Campbell Gault is, but those other guys are heavy hitters. Keith Laumer’s “The Last Command” is one of my favorite Bolo tales, the one where a bunch of construction workers building a highway on a world where the last war is a distant memory awaken a dormant Bolo and it begins grinding its way to the surface, terrorizing the entire city in the process. And Poul Anderson’s “The Martian Crown Jewels” is a great slice of 50s space opera, from the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Tales of Time and Space was published in MCMLXIX by Golden Press. It is 212 pages in oversized trade paperback, and the original cover price was 95 cents. The stories are illustrated with occasional line drawings by Harvey Kidder, and the groovy cover is by Tom Nachreiner.

Joyce Carol Oates’ Gothic Quintet, Part I: Bellefleur

Joyce Carol Oates’ Gothic Quintet, Part I: Bellefleur

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BellefleurPublished in 1980, Joyce Carol Oates’ novel Bellefleur is an astonishing gothic tour-de-force, a breathtaking and phantasmagoric book that whirls through generations of an aristocratic New England family. It deals in almost every kind of traditional horror-story trope: a sprawling, crumbling, haunted house; angered spirits of the land; men who take the shape of beasts; at least one innocent heiress who develops a peculiar case of anemia after being courted by a sinister European nobleman. All these things are folded into an overarching tale of greed, power, sex, and tragedy, told in a wild style that almost hides a precise structure of event, theme, and imagery.

The book was the first in a set of five projected ‘gothic’ novels. Oates has published three more since: A Bloodsmoor Romance in 1982, The Mysteries of Winterthurn in 1984, and My Heart Laid Bare in 1998. The last of the novels, The Accursed (originally to be titled The Crosswicks Horror), is set to come out in late March of 2013. To get ready for its appearance, I want to take a look at each of the first four novels, all of which play with genre in different ways. I’ll start this week with Bellefleur, which I think is a tremendous accomplishment, and a great work of the fantastic.

Before getting into the book, a bit of background on Oates: born in 1938, her first book, a collection of short stories called By the North Gate, was published in 1963. The next year, her first novel followed, With Shuddering Fall. Bellefleur was her twelfth novel; she’s written almost 50 novels for adults, as well as plays, poetry, short stories, and Young Adult fiction. Among the long list of literary awards she’s won are the National Book Award for Fiction (for them in 1970) and the 2012 PEN Center USA Award for Lifetime Achievement. Genre awards of note include two Bram Stoker Awards — in 1996 for Superior Achievement in a Novel, for Zombie, and in 2011 for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection for The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares — as well as a World Fantasy Award in 2011 for her short story “Fossil-Figures.” Her stories have appeared in ten of the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror Stories anthologies.

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New Treasures: Albert of Adelaide by Howard L. Anderson

New Treasures: Albert of Adelaide by Howard L. Anderson

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albert-of-adelaideI’m a sucker for anthropomorphic fantasy. You know, stories that feature animals with human speech and personalities. Some of the best fantasy ever created has been in this fine tradition.

Watership Down. Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge. The Secret of Nimh. The Wind in the Willows. The Redwall books. The Lion King. Ratatouille. 101 Dalmatians. Joyce Maxner and William Joyce’s Nicholas Cricket.

Is there anything new in anthropomorphic fantasy? Anything that doesn’t come from Disney and Pixar, anyway? Yes there is. Exhibit A: the debut novel from Howard L. Anderson, about which Mary Doria Russell says: “If Larry McMurtry had written Wind in the Willows, he might have come up with something almost as wonderful and moving… This is a novel that defies analysis and summaries.”

Having escaped from Australia’s Adelaide Zoo, an orphaned platypus named Albert embarks on a journey through the outback in search of “Old Australia,” a rumored land of liberty, promise, and peace. What he will find there, however, away from the safe confinement of his enclosure for the first time since his earliest memories, proves to be a good deal more than he anticipated.

Alone in the outback, with an empty soft drink bottle as his sole possession, Albert stumbles upon pyromaniacal wombat Jack, and together they spend a night drinking and gambling in Ponsby Station, a rough-and-tumble mining town. Accused of burning down the local mercantile, the duo flees into menacing dingo territory and quickly go their separate ways — Albert to pursue his destiny in the wastelands, Jack to reconcile his past.

Encountering a motley assortment of characters along the way — a pair of invariably drunk bandicoots, a militia of kangaroos, hordes of the mercurial dingoes, and a former prize-fighting Tasmanian devil — our unlikely hero will discover a strength and skill for survival he never suspected he possessed.

Any reading experience featuring a Tasmanian devil, drunk bandicoots, and a “pyromaniacal wombat” gets my immediate attention. Albert of Adelaide was published in July by Twelve/Hachette Book Group. It is 223 pages for $24.99 in hardcover, or $12.99 for the digital edition.

See all of our featured New Treasures here.

New Treasures: Chrysanthe by Yves Meynard

New Treasures: Chrysanthe by Yves Meynard

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chrysantheI first met Yves Meynard at the World Fantasy Convention in Montreal in 2001. Yes, that was the year of 9/11, when the entire country stopped flying for weeks. I still remember my flight into Montreal… it was scarcely a month after the attacks and the cabin was virtually empty. You could wander around and take whatever seat you wanted.

Sadly, the same was more or less true of the convention. The World Fantasy Convention typically sells somewhere around 1,000 memberships, but a lot more were sold than used that year. Some estimates put the number of attendees at around 200. Whatever the case, it was the smallest and most intimate convention I’ve ever attended.

Which wasn’t wholly a bad thing. I remember the convention chiefly for the many great conversations I had. I’d lived in Ottawa — less than two hours away — until 1987, and this was a chance to re-connect with Canadian friends, including Mark Shainblum, Don Bassingthwaite, Claude Lalumiere, Rodger Turner, and Charles de Lint. In short order, I found myself introduced to some of the best French Canadian fantasy writers on the scene, including Jean-Louis Trudel and Yves Meynard.

I hit it off with Yves immediately. He was a fellow editor, the literary editor for French Canadian SF magazine Solaris, and his widely-praised first novel, The Book of Knights, had been published by Tor in 1999.

He was already being recognized as a major talent. Ursula K. Le Guin called The Book of Knights “An unpredictable, brilliantly imaginative, and very engaging fantasy,” and Locus magazine, commenting on editor David Hartwell’s annual accomplishments, said:

In terms of both mature craft and originality of imagination, Hartwell’s major discovery this year has to be the French-Canadian writer Yves Meynard.

Yves turned out to be a fascinating guy with a deep appreciation of Canadian fantasy in both French and English. He wrote fluently in both languages, a skill I envied, and we had several great talks.

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