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Rediscovering the Ubiquitous Donald F. Glut

Rediscovering the Ubiquitous Donald F. Glut

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frank_kindleDonald F. Glut is best associated with his 1980 novelization of The Empire Strikes Back. Some may recall his name today if they are between the ages of 40 and 45 and the movie was a touchstone of their childhood. I was not yet nine years old when the film was first released and read and re-read the paperback over and over again at a time when Star Wars meant as much to me as The Clone Wars does to my kids. The difference was, at age eight, I already recognized the name Donald F. Glut and knew him for a mysterious individual to be respected and admired because he wrote everything I wanted to read.

I was an avid comic book junkie as a kid and adored classic horror and science fiction films of decades past like many that grew up in the 1970s. Donald F. Glut was not a name like Stan Lee or Roy Thomas or even Len Wein or Marv Wolfman that I associated with specific titles that I eagerly devoured each month. Glut appeared where I least expected to find him – which in his case was nearly everywhere.

1An early 1978 issue of Marvel’s Star Wars, a stray issue of Marvel’s adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s Kull the Conqueror that somehow made it past my Mom and into my hands, an Incredible Hulk mini-storybook that I picked up at Woolworth’s – they all bore his credit as author. It didn’t end with comic books. In those days before the internet, libraries were treasure houses for information and non-fiction books on the Frankenstein Monster or dinosaurs that I pulled off the shelf with trembling hands were also from the pen of the amazing Mr. Glut.

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OF SECRET WORLDS INCREDIBLE: A Psychedelic Journey into Clark Ashton Smith’s Poetic Masterpiece

OF SECRET WORLDS INCREDIBLE: A Psychedelic Journey into Clark Ashton Smith’s Poetic Masterpiece

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smith2What a TRIP…

In the world of epic fantasy, poetry often gets a bad rap. In the world of legendary fantasists, one name that continues to be revered is Clark Ashton Smith. As one of the “big three” WEIRD TALES writers from the 1920s and 30s, Smith gained a reputation that rivaled that of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard for fantastic fiction. His superbly dark fantasies set in realms such as Zothique, Hyperborea, Atlantis, and Averoigne set a new bar for weird fantasy. With his lush language, poetic sensibilities, and lyrical style, he was a word-wizard of the highest caliber. Any scholar of classic fantasy is sure to sing Smith’s praises. He is certainly one of this author’s favorite writers (especially his Tales of Zothique, my favorite of all his story cycles).

However, Smith thought of himself first and foremost as a poet. He wrote weird fiction because it paid well (yes, there was a time when short stories paid well). The key to his dark genius is probably to be found in his thousands of stanzas of verse…his poetry seeped into his weird fiction and made his tales baroque and lyrical. Smith denied the archetype of the conquering hero…his main characters were more likely to meet hideous doom than to defeat the eldritch monsters they encountered. His wizards were diabolical megalomaniacs or hermetic iconoclasts who explored forbidden mysteries and unlocked terrible powers.

Smith’s greatest piece of verse is (arguably) the epic poem entitled THE HASHISH-EATER or THE APOCALYPSE OF EVIL. It is a phantasmagoric tour de force through jeweled realms of fantasy laced with cosmic horror. It is a masterwork of fantasy, but is usually overlooked in favor of his short stories. It is also probably my very favorite poem. Ever.

Rather than attempt to explain why the poem is so magnificent, I thought I’d simply present it here at BLACK GATE, one stanza at a time, with a paragraph of analysis/commentary between each stanza. For those who prefer to read the poem without annotations first, I recommend a visit to my favorite CAS tribute site The Eldritch Dark, where the entire poem is posted without comments or analysis: http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/572/the-hashish-eater–or–the-apocalypse-of-evil

You may want to light some candles and put on a stick of incense…I suggest the heady aroma of jasmine…maybe some old Black Sabbath in the background. Now…let us begin our celestial excursion into the depths of darkest fantasy…let us delve without fear into the eerie depths of a gorgeous nightmare…let us travel stanza by stanza through Clark Ashton Smith’s greatest poem….

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Desert of Souls: A Review

Desert of Souls: A Review

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bgdesertDesert of Souls, by Howard Andrew Jones.
Thomas Dunne Books (320 pages, $24.99, February 15, 2011)

As I write this, I’m listening to Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon, because sometimes Yo-Yo Ma’s cello just does things to a girl, you know? Anyway, it seems appropriate, so I thought I’d share.

First of all: Spoiler Alert. Probably minor ones, but you never can tell with me, so if you don’t want to know a few plot points, some specifics of the characters, interesting quotes and structural ramblings, please do not read further.

Second of all: I met the author once four years ago and have corresponded with him a few times, so there’s that. I am not an unbiased reader. But this is a blogicle for Black Gate Magazine, after all, and as we’re having a month-long celebration of Howard Andrew Jones over here, I don’t really think anyone expects me to be neutral!

…Hurray!

Third of all: I confess that I’d never read a Dabir and Asim story – in Black Gate or elsewhere – before this debut novel, so I came to it with no thought more profound than, “What pretty colors the cover has!” and “ Oh, great, now I want a scimitar too!”

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Frank M. Robinson’s Legendary Pulp Collection for Sale

Frank M. Robinson’s Legendary Pulp Collection for Sale

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incredible-pulpsOne of the largest and most impressive pulp collections in the world is now for sale.

Pulp historian and author Frank M. Robinson, whose books on pulps include The Incredible Pulps, Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines, and Science Fiction of the 20th Century: An Illustrated History, is selling his collection of nearly 10,000 pulps magazines. The sale will be conducted through John Gunnison’s Adventure House Auctions.

Adventure House has prepared a YouTube video showing a small sampling of the pulps in the collection, including Weird Tales, Spicy Mystery, The Thrill Book, Submarine Stories, Pirate Stories, and Doc Savage, here.

Highlights of the collection include rare pulps such as Ghost Stories, Miracle Science Fiction and Fantasy, Tales of Mystery and Imagination — and ultra-rare gems such as Gun Molls, Courtroom Stories, Saucy Movie Tale, Mystery Adventure, and the only only known copy of the June 1929 issue of Zeppelin Stories, which includes the near-legendary tale “Gorilla of the Gasbags.” 58 of the rarest issues in his collection are included in the MagazineArt Gallery (do a search on Frank M. Robinson).

I’m not sure how I feel about this. I’m glad the collection appears to be being kept together. But there’s no way I can buy it without winning a lottery.

I wonder if Patrick Rothfuss will offer to buy it for me.

Patrick Rothfuss Offers to help Nathan Fillion buy Firefly

Patrick Rothfuss Offers to help Nathan Fillion buy Firefly

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the-wise-manPatrick Rothfuss, whose second novel The Wise Man’s Fear was released last week, has published an open letter to Nathan Fillion in which he offers to assist the actor who played Captain Mal in his quest to buy the rights to Firefly:

Here’s the deal. My second book is about to come out. My publisher tells me there’s a decent chance of us selling a truly ridiculous number of copies. If this happens, I will have more money than I’ll know what to do with.

Except that’s not exactly true. I know exactly what I’d like to do with that money. I’d like to help you buy the rights to Firefly back from Fox…

Alone, all we can do is dream wistful dreams of Firefly’s return. Together, we are a team. We can gather others to our cause. With 20 or 30 of the right people, we could pool our resources and make this… happen.

You know where to find me.

Rothfuss’s first novel, The Name of the Wind, was released to wide acclaim in 2007. Both his novels are part of the Kingkiller Chronicles.

Fillion’s off-hand comment in his Feb 17 Entertainment Weekly interview (“If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly… and distribute it on the Internet”) has triggered enormous interest among fans who are hungry for any hope of the series’ return. Several fan efforts have sprung up to assist him, including helpnathanbuyfirefly.com.

It remains to be seen just how serious Fillion is, however (likely not very). Still, we can dream.

Rothfuss complete letter, published on his blog, is here.

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.