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Out of the Past: The Scarecrow and Other Stories by G Ranger Wormser

Out of the Past: The Scarecrow and Other Stories by G Ranger Wormser

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The Scarecrow and Other Stories
G Ranger Wormser
Edited by William P. Simmons
Shadow House Publishing (161 pages, October 26, 2020)

Originally published in 1918, this collection of short stories is the first installment of a Macabre Mistresses series aiming to unearth forgotten dark fiction, much to the joy of genre fans.

As William P. Simmons points out in his insightful Introduction, Wormser’s work has nothing to do with the horror genre in its more blatant expressions, but relies upon subtlety, introspection and psychological uneasiness.

The volume assembles twelve stories, some of which are particularly worth note.

The title story is a subtly disturbing piece in which a scarecrow made from the uniform of an old soldier comes to life to signal to his grandson what he has to do with his life.

A somehow similar concept is developed in “China-Ching,” in which a quiet dog kept restrained becomes the symbol of an unhappy marriage.

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A Tale of Horrific First Contact: The Sentience Trilogy by Terry A. Adams

A Tale of Horrific First Contact: The Sentience Trilogy by Terry A. Adams

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Covers by James Gurney, Richard Hescox, and Stephan Martiniere

Every time an author completes a trilogy, we bake a cake at the Black Gate rooftop headquarters. Given how long some big fantasy trilogies take to wrap up, we’ve learned patience over the years. Even so, we rarely have have to wait 27 years, as dedicated fans did for Terry A. Adams popular Sentience trilogy.

It opened with Sentience, Adams’ debut novel, which made quite a splash in 1986.  It was nominated for the Locus Award for Best First Novel; Locus magazine said “Adams writes with an elaborate, intricate prose … [and] weaves an elegant tale that makes for fascinating reading,” and Voya called it “an exciting story, well told and well written…. An excellent SF thriller by a new writer.” John Clute at The Science Fiction Encyclopedia describes the series this way:

Begins in the conflict between “true” humans and D’Neerans, who are human telepath, and builds into a Space-Opera sequence involving new races and challenges to their female telepath protagonist, who saves several worlds. They are told in a skittish but engaging style designed to give some sense of a telepath’s way of thinking.

Ken Richards gave the first book a 4-star review at Goodreads. Here’s an excerpt from his more detailed review.

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Zig Zag Claybourne Author Interview: Flipping the Bird and Finding Joy while Writing Afro Puffs are the Antennae of the Universe

Zig Zag Claybourne Author Interview: Flipping the Bird and Finding Joy while Writing Afro Puffs are the Antennae of the Universe

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Zig Zag Claybourne is infectiously joyous on the page and in real life. He’s a comfort to read but not everything he writes is comforting. There’s no seeing the light without being in the dark, but you can trust Claybourne to make you laugh while you’re there. He’s a chill-seeking truth-slinger who’ll shove you into action-packed absurdity then somehow make you feel…cozy.

Afro Puffs are the Antennae of the Universe is the sort of sci-fi that could get Prince’s sexyass ghost to slink outta the celestial void to host a book club. It’s the second, standalone installment in the Brothers Jetstream series. All Captain Desiree Quicho wants is a day off. Maybe a barbeque. But somebody’s got to save the universe. Again. This time from an immoral billionaire and a mega-corporation, each wanting power but neither wanting the responsibilities that come with it.

Here’s the hella fun phone chat Black Gate had with Zig Zag Claybourne about writing Afro Puffs and taking time in 2020 to find joy.

PATTY TEMPLETON:  What kind of feelings do you want to invoke in your readers with Afro Puffs are the Antenna of the Universe?

ZIG ZAG CLAYBOURNE:  Joy, rage, defiance, more joy, and fun. This book is definitely one that comes out of the gate with both middle fingers raised up high. I like that about it.

Who’s it flipping the bird at?

To the fan bois out there who are constantly being asses to everybody else. To the economic systems that treat people like they’re paper assets. This is a book for people saying enough is enough. We’re done with all that.

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Goth Chick News: Ray Bradbury’s “The Wish” Brings New Magic to the Holidays

Goth Chick News: Ray Bradbury’s “The Wish” Brings New Magic to the Holidays

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Just about a year ago I finally got around to writing about my first encounter with Ray Bradbury and his story “The Wish.” It isn’t one of his most famous or well known, but when it appeared in the December issue of Woman’s Day magazine in 1973, it touched my 9-year-old self in a deeply personal way. Following its appearance in Woman’s Day, “The Wish” only appeared twice more; once in a compilation called Long After Midnight, which I discovered in my subsequent youthful pursuit of all things Bradbury, and once in a format I only just discovered.

Here is where the magic comes in…

Back in October I received an unusual voicemail on my “day job” phone. The gentleman introduced himself and asked if I was the Sue Granquist who writes for Black Gate. If so, he had something for me. If not, he apologized for bothering me and then left his number for me to call. What was exceptionally strange about this is that I don’t even know my office phone number, not to mention my very strict policy of separation of church and state – no one at the day job knows about my gig at Black Gate.

So how, exactly, did this gentleman track me down there?

With curiosity killing me I rang the number back and met Peter Schneider, former Vice President at Viking Penguin, William Morrow, Prentice Hall and Grove Press; translate that to mean a titan in the publishing world. Now retired, Mr. Schneider’s last gig was as owner of a boutique publishing firm called Hill House Press. He explained that he was the publisher for and personal friend of Ray Bradbury in the ten years before Bradbury’s death in 2012. During that time, he convinced Bradbury to let him publish a limited-edition hard cover book of The Wish; limited as in fifty-two copies were made, each containing an actual photo of Bradbury’s father and a short note about the origins of the tale from Bradbury himself. Mr. Schneider explained that he had copy number 8 in his possession which he found when cleaning out the attic. That made him wonder when the story had first appeared in public so he Googled “The Wish” and what was the first listing that came up?

The article I had written about it, which appeared in Black Gate last December.

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New Treasures: Nebula Awards Showcase 54 edited by Nibedita Sen

New Treasures: Nebula Awards Showcase 54 edited by Nibedita Sen

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The Nebula Awards Showcase is one of the most auspicious and long running anthology series in science fiction. Founded way back in 1966 by Damon Knight (the man who founded the Science Fiction Writers of America), the series was originally created to help fund the annual Nebula Awards, and in that regard it’s had a successful run for over five decades — and produced a great many top-notch anthologies in the process.

Want examples? Just have a look at the first three volumes, which contained such stories as “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison, “The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth” by Roger Zelazny, “The Saliva Tree” by Brian W. Aldiss, “Light of Other Days” by Bob Shaw, “The Last Castle” by Jack Vance, “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick, “Aye, and Gomorrah…” by Samuel R. Delany, “Behold the Man” by Michael Moorcock, and “Gonna Roll the Bones” by Fritz Leiber.

This year’s volume is unusual in that it’s the first to be published directly by SFWA (technically SFWA, Inc, which as far as I know was created solely to publish this book). Otherwise, it hews pretty close to tradition. It’s edited by a rising star in the industry — in this case Bengali writer Nibedita Sen — and contains as many of last year’s Nebula Award winners and nominees as they could cram between two covers.

The book was released last month in trade paperback; digital editions are coming soon. Here’s a look at the complete Table of Contents.

Intro & Essays

Introduction by Nibedita Sen
“It’s Dangerous to Go Alone” by Kate Dollarhyde
“Into the Spider-verse: A Classic Origin Story in Bold New Color” by Brandon O’Brien

Best Short Story

“The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington” by P. Djèlí Clark — Nebula winner
“Interview for the End of the World” by Rhett C. Bruno
“And Yet” by A. T. Greenblatt
“A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies” by Alix E. Harrow
“The Court Magician” by Sarah Pinsker

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Discover How We’ll Get into Space in Stellaris: People of the Stars, edited by Les Johnson and Robert E. Hampson

Discover How We’ll Get into Space in Stellaris: People of the Stars, edited by Les Johnson and Robert E. Hampson

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Stellaris: People of the Stars (Baen, August 2020). Cover by Sam Kennedy

I complain (a lot) about the death of the mass market science fiction anthology. So when I see a new one on the shelves, it’s worth celebrating — especially when it looks as strong as Baen’s Stellaris: People of the Stars, which is obviously a tie-in to the hugely popular Stellaris computer game from Paradox.

Except it isn’t, which I discovered after I bought a copy and brought it home. It was inspired instead by a gathering of scientists and writers at the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop, and is a mix of fiction and non-fiction essays on space travel. Here’s a slice from by Kevin P Hallett’s review at Tangent Online.

This anthology contains ten science fiction stories themed around humanity’s quest to expand out to the stars and the many challenges they will face. With very few exceptions the stories are strong page turners. Scattered among the stories are six essays on various challenges that humanity will face, ensuring the anthology is a broad exploration of space colonization in the future….

“At the Bottom of the White” by Todd McCaffrey

Cin is a crewmember of the Valrise, a trading spaceship that is renewing contact with the abandoned colony of Arwon. The trader’s technology far exceeds Arwon’s sectarian government that starves its disaffected minorities.

Unaware of the nuances in such a charged political environment, Cin and the other members of the ship’s crew try to trade. Only to find themselves suddenly embroiled in the brutal politics of subjugation and faced with tough choices. Cin must risk going ‘down to the white’, if she’s to help the people. This was an interesting character-centric story with its fair share of intrigue and action.

Les Johnson is the author of Mission to Methone; his previous anthology was Going Interstellar (2012), edited with Jack McDevitt. Robert E. Hampson is the editor of the forthcoming The Founder Effect.

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Vintage Treasures: Saraband of Lost Time by Richard Grant

Vintage Treasures: Saraband of Lost Time by Richard Grant

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Saraband of Lost Time (Avon, March 1985). Cover by Jim Burns

Richard Grant has had a fine career as an American fantasy writer, with works such as Rumors of Spring (1986), Views from the Oldest House (1989) and the Philip K. Dick Award winner Through the Heart (1991). But his career began with his 1985 debut Saraband of Lost Time, a science fiction novel that was a Locus Award nominee for Best First Novel and received an Honorable Mention from the Philip K. Dick Award jury.

Saraband received a lot of attention at the time. In his Books column in F&SF Algis Budrys called “one of the most engaging first novels in years… a piece of cultured prose which by its nature confers importance on its cast of characters and on their activities.”

But what do modern readers make of it? It has generally positive reviews at Goodreads; Tom Britz calls it “a far reaching future tale of environmental changes [that] jumped around to different characters as it tried to make sense of this future world.” And in a 4-star review, Avis Black sums up by saying,

Grant is one bizarre writer, and Saraband is his best and most (relatively speaking) accessible novel.

But Geoff Clarke found it took a second reading to really appreciate it.

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A Maelstrom of Fun for Horror Adventure Fans: Deep Madness: Shattered Seas by Byron Leavitt

A Maelstrom of Fun for Horror Adventure Fans: Deep Madness: Shattered Seas by Byron Leavitt

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BG_SS_cover
Cover art by Christopher Shy / Cover design by Byron Leavitt.

Shattered Seas is a toxic dose of Lovecraftian mythos, psychedelic team-exploration (reminiscent of Star Trek voyages), and survival-horror melee (mutant creatures replacing zombies). It’s a maelstrom of fun if you enjoy horror adventure, losing your mind, and drowning.

Ever want to crack open the gateway into an Otherworld with a few friends? Perhaps you are ambitious and naively want to gain dominion of cosmic powers. Will you be comfortable with mutating forces transforming you into a tentacled mass? Start the madness by searching for the mystical Sphere buried in the ocean near the submerged Kadath Mining facility. Lucas Kane, a marine biologist, is one of your tour guides. Here he observes Kadath, a mining facility with organic qualities (excerpt):

Kadath lit up below them drew his attention and caught his breath. The facility sprawled across the seabed like a sunken metropolis from another world, its illuminated structures pushing defiantly upward into the inky abyss. The station’s domes and towers seemed like the last bastions of light and reason still standing in an endless Stygian wasteland. It was hypnotic, dreamlike, and yet somehow inexplicably solid. Lucas could make out the shuttle tubes running between the three main domes, as well as to the smaller, squarer outposts and middle structures. He could even see the primary enclosed drilling site not far off from the main facility, connected to Dome Three by long, spacious tubes.

This novel was inspired by Diemension Games’ Deep Madness, a cooperative sci-fi/horror board game. The novel serves as a stand-alone book as much as it does a gateway into the game narrative. Non-gamers will enjoy it all the same since the key protagonists (Lucas Kane and Connor Durham) are freshly introduced, plus the story is a prequel to the story presented in the game. At the end of this article, there is an embedded movie overviewing the board game.

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A Tale That Calls to Mind Classic SF Sagas: The Salvation Sequence by Peter F. Hamilton

A Tale That Calls to Mind Classic SF Sagas: The Salvation Sequence by Peter F. Hamilton

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The Salvation Sequence by Peter F. Hamilton (Del Rey, 2018-2020). Covers by Anna Kochman

You know, I remember when Peter F. Hamilton was known for hardboiled science fiction like the Greg Mandel series (Mindstar Rising, A Quantum Murder, and The Nano Flower, 1993-95). His breakout work was the massive 1.2 million-word The Night’s Dawn Trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God, 1996-99) which turned him into the 21st Century’s poster child for Space Opera. Since then he’s become one of the top selling modern SF writers, with a series of NYT bestselling space opera trilogies, including the Commonwealth Saga, the Void Trilogy, and the Chronicle of the Fallers.

This month sees the release of The Saints of Salvation, the third novel in The Salvation Sequence. Here’s a slice from Paul Di Filippo’s rave review at Locus Online.

Peter Hamilton just keeps getting better and better with each book, more assured and more craftsmanly adroit, and more inventive. And to his credit, he wants to stretch and try different things, not just repeat himself. His newest – the first in a fresh cycle – is, to my eye, rather different than any of his previous books. I detect a distinct Neal Stephenson vibe layered atop his own signature Hard SF moves…

What’s the year 2204 like? Pretty amazing and different…  what could upset this arcadian applecart? The discovery of an unknown alien ship on a distant planet – a ship filled with semi-butchered yet still living humans. Immediately the Connexion Corp mounts a top-secret mission to Nkya. Helmed by an employee named Feriton, the posse consists of several deadly security experts, masters of dirty tricks and brute survivalism… Hamilton gives us a tale – or at least the maximally effective start of a tale – that calls to mind such classic sagas as Greg Benford’s Galactic Center series and Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee cycle… It’s a bravura performance from start to finish….

The flashback sequences are remarkable, heart-stopping mini-thrillers, kind of police procedurals-cum-spy-capers. Hamilton should really be tasked with doing the script for the next Mission: Impossible film… In short, Hamilton is juggling chainsaws while simultaneously doing needlepoint over a shark tank. It’s a virtuoso treat, and I for one can hardly wait for Salvation Lost.

Lucky for you, you don’t have to wait. Salvation Lost was published last year. Here’s the complete deets on all three volumes, all released by Del Rey.

Salvation (576 pages, $30 hardcover/$9.99 paperback and digital, September 4, 2018) – cover by Anna Kochman
Salvation Lost (512 pages, $32 hardcover/$9.99 paperback and digital, October 29, 2019) – cover by Anna Kochman
The Saints of Salvation (528 pages, $30 hardcover/$14.99 digital, November 17, 2020) – cover by Anna Kochman

See all our recent coverage of the best new Space Opera trilogies (and other high quality series) here.

New Treasures: Warhammer 40,000: Nexus & Other Stories

New Treasures: Warhammer 40,000: Nexus & Other Stories

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Nexus & Other Stories-small Nexus & Other Stories-back-small

Nexus and Other Stories (Black Library, October 2020). Cover by Amir Zand

My favorite audiobook of 2020 — and easily one of my favorite books of the year, period — was Dan Abnett’s Warhammer 40,000: The Magos. In addition to reminding me what a good writer Dan Abnett is, it reignited by interest in Warhammer 40,000, and its gorgeously rendered future of superstition, terror, and dark sorcery. I enormously enjoyed the audiobook versions of the first Horus Heresy novels, which helped me cope with a daily 90-minute commute through Chicago traffic back in 2015.

Nexus & Other Stories, which I stumbled on last Saturday on a trip to Barnes & Noble, looks like a great way to dip my toe back in the water. It’s a collection of Warhammer 40K stories by Dan Abnett, Guy Haley, Peter McLean, and many others — including a 120-page novella by Thomas Parrott. Here’s the description at the Black Library website.

Take your first steps into the adrenaline-fuelled fiction of the 41st Millennium with a thrilling collection of tales, including an action-packed novella pitting noble Ultramarines against sinister necrons.

Whether you’re dipping a toe into the galaxy of Warhammer 40,000 or are a hardened veteran of the universe, this anthology is the perfect way to discover the many factions of the games in action-packed tales.

Nexus & Other Stories includes a total of 16 tales; mostly reprints (although they’re all new to me). Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

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