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New Treasures: Shattered Dreams by Ulff Lehmann

New Treasures: Shattered Dreams by Ulff Lehmann

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Shattered Dreams by Ulff Lehmann (Crossroad Press, March 16, 2018)

Shattered Walls, Book 4 of Ulff Lehmann’s Light in the Dark Book series, released this November, 2022. This post reviews Book 1, Shattered Dreams, to lure dark fantasy readers into the Dark. Do you like Tolkien-esque worlds with a unique perspective, perhaps sprinkled with Grimdark battle and horror? Shattered Dreams will whet your appetite. It’s a fresh, dark spin on traditional fiction.  You’ll be thrown into a mire of fractured perspectives and nightmares, and Lehmann controls the process of refining it all with a host of characters (the cursed Drangar Ralgon stealing the limelight). You’ll enjoy this if you enjoy mysteries, brutal melee, and Elvin worlds.

Shattered Dreams Cover Blurb

Epic Fantasy filled to the brim with Grimdark Reality.

If one looks too long into the abyss, the abyss looks back. Drangar Ralgon has been avoiding the abyss’s gaze for far too long and now he turns to face it. For a hundred years the young kingdom of Danastaer has thrived in peace. Now their northern neighbor, mighty Chanastardh, has begun a cunning invasion. Thrust into events far beyond his control, the mercenary Drangar Ralgon flees his solitary life as a shepherd to evade the coming war and take responsibility for his crimes.

In Dunthiochagh, Danastaer’s oldest city, the holy warrior Kildanor uncovers the enemy’s plans for invasion. As ancient forces reach forth to shape the world once more, the sorceress Ealisaid wakes from a century of hibernation only to realize the Dunthiochagh she knew is no more. Magic, believed long gone, returns, and with it comes an elven wizard sent to recover a dangerous secret.

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Gods, Demons, Monsters & Magic: The Mkalis Cycle by Kerstin Hall

Gods, Demons, Monsters & Magic: The Mkalis Cycle by Kerstin Hall

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The Border Keeper and Second Spear (Tor.com, July 2019 and August 2022). Covers by Kathleen Jennings and Jamie Jones

Kerstin Hall is the Senior Editorial Assistant at Scott Andrews’s excellent online magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and perhaps it was years of reading submissions that gave her the chops to write her acclaimed debut, the Tor.com novella The Border Keeper, a 2020 Nommo Award Finalist. (Yeah, I didn’t know what a Nommo Award was either, but I googled it and it’s legit — it’s presented by The African Speculative Fiction Society.) The Guardian called it “A phantasmagorical picaresque through a lushly realised underworld, populated by a grotesque bestiary of fantastical creatures… [a] twisty example of the new weird,” and Max Gladstone summed it up as “A labyrinth of demons, dead gods, [and] cranky psychopomps.” That sounds pretty cool.

The Border Keeper appeared in 2019, and the follow-up Second Spear arrived in August. Looking at the covers above, radically different in design and tone, the two books don’t look related (at all), but they are both part of what’s now being called The Mkalis Cycle. I much prefer Jamie Jones’s dynamic cover for Second Spear over Kathleen Jennings’ more abstract effort for The Border Keeper, but I gotta believe the dramatic cover shift was risky, and probably confused a few readers. I hope it pays off.

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Future Treasures: The Citadel of Forgotten Myths by Michael Moorcock

Future Treasures: The Citadel of Forgotten Myths by Michael Moorcock

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The Citadel of Forgotten Myths (Saga Press, December 6, 2022). Cover artist unknown.

No, your eyes don’t deceive you. That’s a brand new Elric novel, arriving in hardcover next week.

Described as a prequel, The Citadel of Forgotten Myths takes place between the first and second books in the Elric Saga, Elric of Melniboné (published a whopping 50 years ago, in 1972) and The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976). It’s the first new Elric novel since The White Wolf’s Son, way back in 2005, and is highly anticipated.

Because of Moorcock’s stature in the field these days, the back cover of his new novel is strewn with glowing quotes from J. G. Ballard, The New Yorker and NPR — and I have to admit, that NPR quote is pretty darn good. It’s taken from a 2014 piece titled (of all things) These Nautical Reads Will Put Wind In Your Sails, and is written by novelist Jason Sheehan. Here’s the whole thing; it’s worth the read.

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New Treasures: The Stars Undying by Emery Robin

New Treasures: The Stars Undying by Emery Robin

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The Stars Undying (Orbit, November 8, 2022). Cover by Marc Simonetti

For all that I rely on social media and online browsing to keep me in-the-know these days, there’s still no substitute for a well-stocked bookstore. Case in point: I visited our local Barnes & Noble in Geneva, Illinois on Saturday, and came away with an armful of discoveries that will keep me busy for weeks.

I’m looking forward to telling you about every one of them. But let’s start with the most intriguing: The Stars Undying, the debut novel by Emery Robin, a space-opera retelling of the twisty tale of Antony, Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar that Chicago Review of Books calls “Spectacular.” It’s the opening novel in Empire Without End, an ambitious new series, and it might just get me to bend my rule about waiting until a series is complete to dive in.

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Mike Ashley’s British Library Science Fiction Classics, Volumes 1-3: Moonrise, Lost Mars, and Menace of the Machine

Mike Ashley’s British Library Science Fiction Classics, Volumes 1-3: Moonrise, Lost Mars, and Menace of the Machine

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The first three anthologies in the British Library Science Fiction Classics: Moonrise,
Lost Mars, and Menace of the Machine. Covers by Chesley Bonestell and David A. Hardy

Two weeks ago I gazed in wonder at Mike Ashley’s 10-volume anthology series of science fiction from the pre-spaceflight era, the British Library Science Fiction Classics.

The first three in the series — Moonrise: The Golden Age of Lunar Adventures, Lost Mars: The Golden Age of the Red Planet, and Menace of the Machine: The Rise of AI in Classic Science Fiction — make an impressive set, containing nearly three dozen stories originally published between 1887 – 1965 by H.G. Wells, Gordon R. Dickson, John Wyndham, Edmond Hamilton, Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Ray Bradbury, E. C. Tubb, Walter M. Miller, Jr., J. G. Ballard, Ambrose Bierce, Isaac Asimov, Henry Kuttner and Catherine Moore, Brian W Aldiss, Murray Leinster, and many others. Each volume also includes a fascinating and impeccably researched introduction by Ashley that’s sure to whet your appetite.

Let’s take a closer look. (Warning: entirely superfluous pulp magazine covers ahead).

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Snuggle Under a Blanket With Close to Midnight, the Latest Horror Anthology from Mark Morris

Snuggle Under a Blanket With Close to Midnight, the Latest Horror Anthology from Mark Morris

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After Sundown, Beyond the Veil, and Close to Midnight
(Flame Tree Press, 2020, 2021, and 2022). Covers: Nik Keevil and Flame Tree Studio

I’ve been enjoying Mark Morris’ recent run of unthemed annual horror anthologies. He kicked it off with the highly regarded After Sundown in 2020; the success of that volume convinced the publisher, Flame Tree Press, to make it an annual event. Beyond the Veil followed last year, and Close to Midnight arrived just last month.

The newest installment looks like it could be the best one yet. It contains 20 original stories, 16 commissioned from established names and four selected from new writers who sent in stories during an open submissions window. The result is a terrific cross section of horror from the most acclaimed writers in the business — including Steve Rasnic Tem, Ramsey Campbell, Muriel Gray, Alison Littlewood, Seanan McGuire, Brian Keene, and Adam L.G. Nevill — alongside some talented and exciting newcomers.

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New Treasures: The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2021 Edition edited by Rich Horton

New Treasures: The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2021 Edition edited by Rich Horton

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The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2021 Edition
(Prime Books, August 22, 2022). Cover by Tithi Luadthong.

Earlier this year Rich Horton shared an update at Strange at Ecbatan on the long-awaited 2021 volume of his long-running The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy series:

My best of the year anthology for 2021 has been much delayed, for reasons mostly linked to the pandemic, including difficulty getting a slot at printers. (And other issues!) But at last I have a TOC nearly ready. We’re holding open one slot for one more potential story… hoping to hear from the author soon. But I figured it was time to post the list. It’s been fun going through these stories again, and realizing how good they are, and how worthy of whatever exposure they can get.

The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2021 Edition has now arrived from Prime Books, and it is a delight to see it at last. After a dozen years in print, the series has switched to digital only, at least for now. This volume collects 34 stories from 2020, and includes tales from Sofia Samatar, Annalee Newitz, Sarah Langan, Yoon Ha Lee, John Kessel, Naomi Kritzer, Ken Liu, Alec Nevala-Lee, Sarah Pinsker, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Michael Swanwick, Tade Thompson, Ian Tregillis, Jessica P. Wick, and many others. It does not include the mystery story Rich mentions above, so I guess they never secured the elusive rights for that last one!

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New Treasures: We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen

New Treasures: We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen

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We Could Be Heroes (Mira, November 30, 2021). Cover design: Elita Sidiropoulou

Okay, I’m a little late with this one (it was published nearly a year ago). But I just found it at Barnes & Noble a few weeks back, and it’s quickly floated up to the top of my TBR pile, so I claim special circumstances.

The superhero novel is enjoying its time in the sun right now. Veronica Roth had a bestseller with her superhero dark fantasy Chosen Ones; so did Marissa Meyer with her Renegades trilogy. But Mike Chen’s humorous novel of two former archrivals — one with the power to wipe minds, and one with super speed and strength — who meet in a memory loss support group and gradually realize they each hold the key to the other’s recovery, and the clues to a deadly mystery, is the one I’m clearing the decks for. Buzzfeed calls it “an incredibly fun and thoughtful take on superhero lore,” and Martin Cahill at Tor.com say it’s “Wonderful.”

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Tales of Adventure and Exploration from the Pre-Spaceflight Era: Mike Ashley’s British Library Science Fiction Classics

Tales of Adventure and Exploration from the Pre-Spaceflight Era: Mike Ashley’s British Library Science Fiction Classics

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All ten anthologies in the British Library Science Fiction Classics edited by Mike Ashley,
plus his non-fiction survey Yesterday’s Tomorrows, and interior art from Moonrise (bottom right).
Covers by Chesley Bonestell, David A. Hardy, Warwick Goble, Frederick Siebel, et al

Mike Ashley is a fascinating guy. He interviewed me years ago about founding the SF Site (sfsite.com), one of the first science fiction websites, back in 1995, for his book The Rise of the Cyberzines, the fifth volume of his monumental History of Science Fiction Magazines. He’s edited dozens of SF anthologies over the years, including 19 volumes in The Mammoth Book series (The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy, The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction, The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures, etc.)

But I’m currently obsessed with his latest project, a sequence of terrific anthologies published under the banner of the British Library Science Fiction Classics. There are nineteen volumes in the British Library Science Fiction Classics so far, including long-forgotten novels by William F. Temple, Charles Eric Maine, and Muriel Jaeger, and even a new collection of previously-abridged novellas from John Brunner, The Society of Time, which looks pretty darn swell.

But the bulk of the series — eleven books — consists of ten anthologies and a non-fiction title from Mike Ashley. And what books they are! They gather early fiction across a wide range of themes, heavily focused on pulp-era and early 20th Century SF and fantasy. Mining classic tropes like the Moon and Mars, sinister machines, creeping monsters, and looming apocalypses, Ashley has produced a veritable library of foundational SF and fantasy. Reasonably priced in handsome trade paperback and affordable digital editions, these volumes are an essential addition to any modern SF collection. And they are positively packed with fun reading.

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The Best American Science Fiction And Fantasy 2022, edited by Rebecca Roanhorse and John Joseph Adams

The Best American Science Fiction And Fantasy 2022, edited by Rebecca Roanhorse and John Joseph Adams

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The Best American Science Fiction And Fantasy 2022 (Mariner Books, November 1, 2022)

The busier I get, the more I treasure editors. If there are unsung heroes in this business, they are the tireless editors who read towering stacks of unsolicited subs to sift out those few precious treasures that get you and me excited to go to the bookstore.

I appreciate editors of all kinds these days. The ones who acquire novels; the ones who edit magazines. But I especially cherish those who comb through hundreds of stories in venues large and small to bring us Year’s Best volumes every year. John Joseph Adams has been editing The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy since 2015, each year with a distinguished co-editor, and this year he partnered with Rebecca Roanhorse, author of Trail of Lightning, the 2019 Locus Award winner for Best First Novel, to bring us the eighth volume in the series, this one containing stories by Kelly Link, P. Djèlí Clark, Caroline M. Yoachim, Stephen Graham Jones, Aimee Ogden, Meg Elison, Nalo Hopkinson, Rich Larson, Sam J. Miller, and many others.

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