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Take Advantage of the Great Apex Nebula & Stoker Award Sale

Take Advantage of the Great Apex Nebula & Stoker Award Sale

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i-remember-the-futureJason Sizemore at Apex Book Company, publishers of Apex magazine and many fine Dark SF, Fantasy, and Horror books, tells us that to celebrate receiving two Nebula nominations and two Stoker nominations, Apex is having a sale on all books by authors who’ve received nominations.

The discount is 40% off print and digital versions of the following books:

Dark Faith, edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry L. Gordon — $11.97 (Buy Here)
To Each Their Darkness, Gary Braunbeck — $11.37 (Buy Here)
Taste of Tenderloin, Gene O’Neill — $8.37 (Buy Here)
Mama’s Boy and Other Dark Tales, Fran Friel — $9.57 (Buy Here)
I Remember the Future, Michael A. Burstein — $13.17 (Buy Here)
Unwelcome Bodies, Jennifer Pelland — $8.97 (Buy Here)
Aegri Somnia, edited by Jason Sizemore and Gill Ainsworth — $8.97 (Buy Here)

Issue 18 of Apex Magazine, containing Amal El-Mohtar’s Nebula-nominated story “The Green Book” is also 40% off. You can read the complete story here.

The special pricing ends March 14. Take advantage of a great sale to sample the work of some of the finest new writers in the genre!

Charles R. Saunders Reviews A Desert of Souls

Charles R. Saunders Reviews A Desert of Souls

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desertofsoulsCharles R. Saunders, author of the legendary Imaro books, has weighed in on Howard Andrew Jones’s first novel:

What, then, is so special about The Desert of Souls? Well, just about everything.

Drawing on his extensive knowledge of the Middle East during the initial bloom of Islam’s ascendance, Howard brings to life the storied past of places such as Baghdad, Basra, Mosul… To this tapestry of history, Howard adds several threads of sorcery…

The protagonists and the patron become involved in a fatal encounter in a local bazaar. Events swiftly escalate into a maelstrom of murder, theft, escape, pursuit, magic, mayhem, romance, rejection and redemption, The characters — and the reader — whirl along in a breakneck journey through a Middle East that is ancient, yet well beyond the cusp of irreversible change…

Yet for all this homage to the past, Howard also breaks new ground with this novel, which places him firmly among the ranks of such new-wave sword-and-sorcery writers as Joe Abercrombie, James Enge and Steven Erikson, to name just a few. Remember Howard Andrew Jonses’ name. You will be hearing — and reading — more from him.

Charles’ review joins the recent rave coverage from BookPage, Bush League Critic, and SF Revu.

You can read Charles’ complete review here.

R.A. Lafferty Literary Estate For Sale

R.A. Lafferty Literary Estate For Sale

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past-masterSteven Silver at SF Site is reporting that the estate of R.A. Lafferty, including rights to his 29 novels and 225 short stories, is currently being auctioned off.

The source for the news appears to be an online classified ad at Locus Online, which claims that the “Current bid is $70,000+.”

R.A. Lafferty is the author of the novels Past Master, The Reefs of Earth, Fourth Mansions, and Sindbad: The Thirteenth Voyage, as well as the classic short story collections Nine Hundred Grandmothers, Strange Doings, and Lafferty in Orbit.

He won a Hugo Award in 1973 for the short story “Eurema’s Dam,” and was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards for Past Master.

He died in 2002.

900-grandReports have been circulating for some time that the Lafferty estate had withdrawn reprint rights to all of his work, including recent short story collections. While Lafferty’s novels have not generally drawn much attention in recent years, his short stories continue to be highly regarded.

Until recently Wildside Press had been keeping much of Lafferty’s best work in print, including Nine Hundred Grandmothers, The Devil is Dead, The Reefs of Earth, Does Anyone Else Have Something Further to Add?, and many others. Those editions are now out of print.

While it’s not unusual  for literary rights to go to auction, I can’t recall seeing a bulk lot of an author’s entire output auctioned at once — especially one as large as Lafferty’s.

Interested bidders can contact the Lafferty estate.

Drinking in the Demonic Energy of Tolkien’s The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun

Drinking in the Demonic Energy of Tolkien’s The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun

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legend-of-sigurd-gudrunIf you like the sound and rhythm of words — and if you’re a hopeless J.R.R. Tolkien junkie — you’ll like The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun (2009, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Lacking either of these prerequisites, you probably won’t. And there’s not much more to say than that.

Casual Tolkien fans likely won’t buy The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, and even semi-serious fans who have tackled The Silmarillion may lack the appetite for it. It consists of two long poems, around which are sandwiched an exhaustive introduction and a pair of lengthy explications/footnotes, the latter written by Tolkien’s son Christopher. Added together, this additional material is longer than the poems themselves.

The real reward of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun is its wonderful language. The poems—“The Lay of the Volsungs” and “The Lay of Gudrun”—are composed in eight line alliterative stanzaic metre. Reading them makes me wish I knew the native Old Norse Tolkien of which Tolkien spoke so admiringly; the modern English is pretty darned powerful already.

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Steven Erikson Calls it a Series with The Crippled God

Steven Erikson Calls it a Series with The Crippled God

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gardens_of_the_moonSteven Erikson has completed his epic fantasy 10-book fantasy series The Malazan Book of the Fallen. The final volume — the 928-page The Crippled God, in hardcover from Tor books — went on sale yesterday.

I remember when my buddy Neil Walsh reviewed the first volume, Gardens of the Moon, for my new website SF Site a dozen years ago. Copies weren’t available in North America yet, but that didn’t stop Neil from remarking on what he told me was the most exciting new author he’d discovered in a long time:

This is an astounding debut fantasy novel. The world is fully realized and the characters are people you want to spend time with. The world history is tremendously complex, spanning hundreds of thousands of years. The character histories and interactions are equally complex and interesting…

Unsurprisingly, it’s only the first of The Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. There are 10 books planned — wait, don’t go yet. Hear me out. There are 10 books planned in the “sequence,” but each is intended to be a stand-alone story, unified by their chronicling of the lives of 3 members of the noble house of Paran, each of whom plays a key role in the history of the Malazan Empire. (In this one, Captain Ganoes Paran plays a key role by being knifed in an alley the same day he is assigned to his new command. Well, there’s actually a lot more to his involvement than that, but… read it and see.)

So, I imagine you’re wondering, “Is it true? Is this a stand-alone novel?”

Well, let’s call a spade a spade. This isn’t the first in a 10-book “sequence;” it’s the first of a lengthy, complex and intriguing series. But a series which — based on this first installment — has the potential to become known as a defining work in a market already overwhelmed with fantasy series.

the-crippled-godSome time later The New York Times reported on the unusual internet buzz that had sprung up around the book, and the effect it had on the reported 6-figure sum Erikson negotiated to complete the series. Erikson called Neil in Ottawa shortly afterwards to thank him, and I saw quotes from his review printed in bold at the top of later installments. And just as Neil predicted over a decade ago, The Malazan Book of the Fallen has become one of the defining fantasy works of the early 21st Century.

As for me, I decided to wait until the series was completed before tackling it (a lesson I learned from Game of Thrones).  I dutifully bought them as they were released, forming an impressive span on my bookshelf, looking forward to that final volume.  A span that, if my math is correct, measures exactly 10,020 pages in paperback. And so now I’ve learned another valuable lesson: waiting until the end isn’t always a brilliant plan, genius. When am I going to find six months to read it?

I may have painted myself into a corner, but hopefully you haven’t. Have a look at The Crippled God, and let us know if you think it makes a fitting conclusion to a famous fantasy series.

New Treasures: Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London

New Treasures: Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London

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rivers-of-londonOne of the great things about Amazon.com is that there are so many ways to browse. Which is rather ironic, considering that 10 years ago that’s the precise reason I confidently gave for why online booksellers would never replace local bookshops: you couldn’t browse.

Yeah, well. I was wrong.  You can browse.  And how. Last week I stumbled across a few hard-to-find British hardcovers in the Science Fiction & Fantasy section of their Bargain Department, and on a hunch I did a search for all titles from Gollancz, the prolific UK SF & fantasy publisher. I sorted by price and bam, I had a handy list of great bargain Gollancz books.

One that grabbed my attention immediately was Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London, in hardcover for just $14.56:

My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit – we do paperwork so real coppers don’t have to – and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England.

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The 2010 Bram Stoker Award Nominees

The 2010 Bram Stoker Award Nominees

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stoker-awardThe final ballot for the 2010 Bram Stoker Awards has been announced. The Bram Stoker Awards are given each year by the Horror Writer’s Association for Superior Achievement. The categories are Novel, First Novel, Long Fiction, Short Fiction, Anthology, Collection, Non-Fiction, and Poetry Collection. The winers will be announced at the Stoker Weekend in Long Island NY, from June 16-19. The winners receive what is undoubtedly the coolest trophy the genre has to offer: a miniature haunted house designed by Gahan Wilson. The door even opens, with the winner’s name engraved on the inside. Man. I want one of these on my mantle so bad. Not bad enough to actually write a horror novel, but I wonder if I could get one on eBay. Well, eight more are going to be given out this June, so my chances are going up. The nominees include:

Superior Achievement in a Novel

  • Horns, Joe Hill (William Morrow)
  • Rot and Ruin, Jonathan Maberry (Simon & Schuster)
  • Dead Love, Linda Watanabe McFerrin (Stone Bridge Press)
  • Apocalypse of the Dead, Joe McKinney (Pinnacle)
  • Dweller, Jeff Strand (Leisure/Dark Regions Press)
  • A Dark Matter, Peter Straub (DoubleDay)

Superior Achievement in a Collection

  • Occultation, Laird Barron (Night Shade Books)
  • Blood and Gristle, Michael Louis Calvillo (Bad Moon Books)
  • Full Dark, No Stars, Stephen King (Simon & Schuster)
  • The Ones That Got Away, Stephen Graham Jones (Prime Books)
  • A Host of Shadows, Harry Shannon (Dark Regions)

The complete list is here. Congratulations to all the nominees! And don’t forget, eBay is a fine place to unload all those annoying trophies cluttering up your home.

New Treasures: Col Buchanan’s Farlander

New Treasures: Col Buchanan’s Farlander

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farlanderAfter weeks of late nights working on Black Gate 15 layout, I’m ready to relax in my big green chair with something substantial.  The latest big-budget fantasy from Tor looks like it might just fit the bill.

For fifty years the Holy Empire of Mann, an empire and religion born from a nihilistic urban cult, has been conquering nation after nation. Their leader, Holy Matriarch Sasheen, ruthlessly maintains control through her Diplomats, priests trained as subtle predators. The Mercian Free Ports are the only confederacy yet to fall… For ten years now, the city has been besieged by the Imperial Fourth Army. It is only a matter of time before it falls.

Ash is a member of a sect known as Rōshun, assassins who offer protection through the threat of vendetta… Forced by his ailing health to take on an apprentice, he chooses Nico, a young man living in the besieged city of Bar-Khos, whose own father is long gone, a deserter of his family. At the time, Nico is hungry, desperate, and alone in a city that finds itself teetering on the brink.

When the Holy Matriarch’s son murders a woman under the protection of the Rōshun, he forces the sect to seek his life in retribution. As Ash and his young apprentice set out to fulfill the vendetta, their journey takes them into the heart of the conflict between the Empire and the Free Ports — into bloodshed and death.

I don’t usually go for books with assassins as main characters.  Maybe I’m just in a dark mood. Maybe the unusual cover intrigues me, with an African American assassin posed before a decaying urban setting (“African American” really doesn’t apply in a setting that includes neither Africa nor America, and which was created by an Irishman.  But “black assassin” signifies the wrong thing altogether.) And the airship doesn’t hurt.

Farlander is the first novel in The Heart of the World.  It is available in hardcover from Tor for $24.99.

A Review of Neptune Crossing by Jeffrey A. Carver

A Review of Neptune Crossing by Jeffrey A. Carver

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neptuneNeptune Crossing (The Chaos Chronicles, Volume 1), by Jeffrey A. Carver
Tor (383 pages, hardcover, April 1994)

Neptune Crossing, by Jeffrey A. Carver, is the first of a series. As with some other books I’ve reviewed, it feels unfinished and awkward without its sequels. That’s not to say that it’s a bad book, or that you shouldn’t read this series, but you might want to pick up Strange Attractors at the same time and treat them as a set.

John Bandicut is a man with problems. He works for a mining company on Triton, the same mining company that caused him to lose his cybernetic implants, and he’s going insane from that loss. Also, an alien called a quarx has moved into his brain, declaring that he has to help it save the Earth — possibly doing quite a bit of the work himself, as the quarxx might die before the job gets done.

And it’s probably a suicide mission. And he can’t tell anyone. And he’s met a woman he likes.

Quite a lot of this book is about Bandicut struggling to cope with his situation, and sometimes failing. There’s sometimes a palpable sense of isolation and depression, which fits the subject matter; first and foremost, Bandicut has to wrestle cooperation out of his own mind.

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Howard Andrew Jones and Scott Oden Surround the Sword Woman

Howard Andrew Jones and Scott Oden Surround the Sword Woman

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sword_womanAs Howard Andrew Jones month heads into the final stretch, we still have several exciting developments to tell you about.

First is the release this month of Robert E. Howard’s latest thick collection, Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures, featuring a generous selection of classic pulp adventure tales from the creator of Conan, including “The Sowers of the Thunder,” “Lord of Samarcand,” “Hawks of Outremer,” and “The Road of Azrael.” This is the 11th volume in the handsome Del Rey editions of collected Howard fiction, following The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, the two-volume The Best of Robert E. Howard, and El Borak and Other Desert Adventures.

Howard Andrew Jones teamed up with fellow Black Gate blogger and historical fiction author Scott Oden to bookend the collection: Scott wrote the introduction, and Howard the lengthy 22-page afterword, “Howard’s Journey,” which puts REH’s historical fiction in proper context with the great pulp writers who preceded him.  From his afterword:

Pound for pound Robert E. Howard’s historical fiction more than holds its weight against Howard’s other genre and series work. Over just a few years Howard fashioned a grander helping of these stories than many historical writers craft over a lifetime… It should not be assumed, though, that he wrote any of his stories in a vacuum… Professional author though he was, Howard still had to find his comfort level with the genre. He did so in part by being familiar with both history and the writers who brought it to life before him…

Scholars have noted the influence of Jack London and Rudyard Kipling in his work, as well as Howard’s familiarity with myth and legend, likely via Thomas Bulfinch. The shadow cast by adventure and historical adventure writer Harold Lamb has been noted but never discussed at length. Robert E. Howard seems to have found a kind of kindred spirit in Lamb, and progressed from modeling off his fiction until, student growing to master, Howard matched and even sometimes surpassed his skill.

Sword Woman is fully illustrated by John Watkiss. It includes 18 complete stories, over a half-dozen fragments, and detailed notes on the texts. It is available in trade paperback for $18, and clocks in at over 570 pages. The series is edited by Rusty Burke.