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The 2010 Bram Stoker Award Nominees

Tuesday, March 1, 2011 John ONeill Comments 7 comments

The 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

Monday, February 28, 2011 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

After 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

Monday, February 28, 2011 Isabel Pelech Comments 0 Comment

Neptune 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

Sunday, February 27, 2011 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

As 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.

The Desert of Souls Now Available in Kindle Edition

Saturday, February 26, 2011 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Howard Andrew Jones’ first novel The Desert of Souls is now available in Kindle format through Amazon.com’s online store.

The Kindle edition is priced at just $11.99, a thirteen dollar discount from the hardcover.

Rave reviews continue to pour in for The Desert of Souls, including these recent comments from some well-known fantasy authors:

“A grand and wonderful adventure filled with exotic magic and colorful places — like a cross between Sinbad and Indiana Jones.” — Kevin J. Anderson

“Like the genie of the lamp, Howard Jones has granted this reader’s wish for a fresh, exciting take on the venerable genre of sword-and-sorcery!” — Richard A. Knaak

“Howard Andrew Jones spins an exciting and suspenseful tale in his historical fantasy debut. A rich, detailed tapestry — part Arthur Conan Doyle, part Robert E. Howard, and part Omar Khayyam, woven in the magical thread of One Thousand And One Nights.” — E.E. Knight

The upcoming Black Gate 15 will excerpt the first two chapters of The Desert of Souls. But don’t wait — order your copy today!

Win One of Five Copies of The Desert of Souls

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

While the festitivites of Howard Andrew Jones month continue with no slowdown here at Black Gate HQ (if you don’t count those two hours Sunday night when we had to turn off the lights and hide out from the Chicago PD), mail continues to pour in from readers with the sad refrain, “How can we get in on this terrific Howard Andrew Jones action?”

Now you can — courtesy of Thomas Dunne Books, who are sponsoring a giveaway of Howard’s breakthrough first novel The Desert of Souls, featuring Dabir & Asim, the brave adventurers who originally appeared in Black Gate 10 (in “Sight of Vengeance“), and in Black Gate 12 (“Whispers From the Stone“).

How do you enter? Easy!

Just visit the contest website and fill out the simple entry form. All entries must be received by March 1, 2011 11:59 p.m. EST, and all entrants must have a valid email address.

From all eligible entries Thomas Dunne Books will hold a random drawing on March 2, 2011. Five winners will be chosen; each will receive a hardcover copy of The Desert of Souls. Winners will be notified by e-mail.

Are we good to you, or what? (The answer is “Yes.”) Don’t thank us; it’s our job.

Good luck in the contest. And keep celebrating Howard Andrew Jones month, party faithful.

A review of Changeling by Roger Zelazny

Monday, February 21, 2011 Isabel Pelech Comments 2 comments

changeling

Changeling, by Roger Zelazny
Ace Books (251 pages, $2.95, June 1980)

I don’t know how the idea got started, but I’ve seen a number of books where magic is seen as a force fundamentally opposed to technology. It doesn’t always make sense to me, since “technology” is an extremely diverse thing, but it makes for some good stories — not to mention a decent limitation for characterrs who would otherwise become much too powerful. Changeling, by Roger Zelazny, is built on this concept.

The story starts with the defeat and death of a sorcerer called Det, Lord of Rondoval. The conquering forces seriously consider killing his infant son as well, but they find another solution.

Thousands of years ago, the world split into two seperate dimensions, one ruled by magic, the other by technology. If the baby were sent to the technological dimension, his sorcerous potential wouldn’t endanger anyone.

Of course, something else living would have to be brought back from that world to maintain the balance.

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Arabian Culture Myth as Fantasy: Tor.com interviews Howard Andrew Jones

Saturday, February 19, 2011 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

We ran out of bubbly grape juice by Friday morning, but that hasn’t stopped the non-stop celebration of Howard Andrew Jones month here at the Black Gate rooftop headquarters.

Today we’ve been clustered around computers reading the lengthy and far-ranging interview with Howard at Tor.com, which covers Howard’s literary inspirations, his research methods, and how long years toiling for Black Gate molded him into the literary titan he is today:

Are there other novels that inspired this series? Perhaps in unexpected ways?

Tthe books I’ve read the most times are probably Leiber’s collection of Lankhmar stories, Swords Against Death, and Zelazny’s Amber books… I can’t imagine that Leiber and Zelazny haven’t had a lasting influence upon me. I love the world building and pulp noir sensibilities of Leigh Brackett, queen of space opera, who was writing of Firefly-like characters twenty and thirty years before Han Solo every reached the silver screen.

How would you say your career as an editor at Black Gate has helped shape you as an author?

That’s an interesting question. I suppose it’s gotten me to think about the starts to stories even more than I was already. I see a lot more beginnings than I do endings, to be honest. That’s just the way it works when you’re reading submissions. The biggest impact, though, probably comes from the number of people I’ve had the privilege to meet thanks to Black Gate’s John O’Neill… I think my writing career would have had a much harder time getting launched without my work with the magazine and the Harold Lamb collections.

The complete interview (and an absolutely smashing photo of Howard in a paisley shirt) is here.

Larry Nolen’s Best Heroic Fantasy of 2010

Saturday, February 19, 2011 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

Over at Locus Online Larry Nolen’s, editor of The OF Blog, has posted his rundown on the Best Heroic Fantasy of 2010:

Heroic or high fantasy, whether it appears under the guise of multi-volume “epics” or the shorter-length Sword and Sorcery fantasies, is often overlooked when it comes to judging a year’s best. Due to the outsized conflicts and emphasis in most such stories on plot over theme or minute characterization, such stories cannot be judged in the same fashion as a realist or surreal fiction. Heroic fantasies depend much more upon immersive experiences for the reader to enjoy the unfolding narratives. Resembling more cinematic serials in their wide scope, plot-driven action, and formulaic characters and situations, heroic fantasies have long appealed to readers…

In his follow-up to the acclaimed reimagining of Xenophon’s history of the Greek Ten Thousand, The Ten Thousand, Paul Kearney in Corvus revisits the world of the Macht over two decades after the heroic events of the first novel… Kearney masterfully reveals Rictus’ conflicts, his reluctant assumption of command in Corvus’ army, and the terrible events that sunder him from all which he has loved. Corvus is perhaps one of the best character-driven heroic fantasy novels published in recent years.

Some great titles on this list, including a few I might have overlooked.

The complete list, including titles from N.K. Jemisin, George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, Ian Cameron Esslemont, and Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders, is here.

Internal, External Conflict Ignite Cornwell’s The Burning Land

Thursday, February 17, 2011 Brian Murphy Comments 3 comments

“Our gods prefer feasting. They live, Uhtred. They live and laugh and enjoy, and what does their god do? He broods, he’s vengeful, he scowls, he plots. He’s a dark and lonely god, Uhtred, and our gods ignore him. They’re wrong.”

–Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land

burning-land-us-cover2 Conflict — internal to fictional protagonist Uhtred of Bebbanburg, and external to blood-soaked, fire-ravaged Britain — burns brightly in The Burning Land, the fifth and latest entry in Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Stories, a partially fictionalized chronicle of the real-life Viking invasions that swept Dark Ages Britain.

A Saxon-raised-Dane, Uhtred is a microcosm of the rough mixing of Christianity and pagan culture that occurred in war-torn ninth century Britain. Uhtred is a Saxon whose father was killed in a Danish raid. Taken prisoner as a thrall to the Dane Earl Ragnar and raised hard, he nevertheless grows to love the Danes. Although they’re ferocious raiders, the Danes drink deep of life, scorn Christian virtues of humility and pity, and worship the pagan gods of Thor and Odin (they expect less of their followers than the one God, and leave more leeway for fun).

But Uhtred’s loyalties are torn. His hereditary home is the Northern kingdom of Bebbanburg and his peoples are Saxon. Over the course of the series he comes to respect the coldly pious and serious, but brilliant and fair King Alfred of Wessex (Alfred the Great) and at times reject the occasionally murderous habits of the Danish warlords.

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