Black Gate

Last March, Elizabeth Bear visited to tell us a little about her new fantasy novel, Range of Ghosts. And it sure sounded terrific — especially if her inspirations were any indication.

But here’s Bear in her own words:

The influences on this work are myriad, and begin with the beloved books of my childhood: Conan, of course, but also Jessica Amanda Salmonson’s three-volume retelling of the life of Japan’s legendary female samurai Tomoe Gozen, which at one point I read until the covers fell off.

Leiber, but I wanted something with more scope than the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser tales — something with a sense of empire and history. Tolkien, but not just Tolkien, because while I wanted a heroic aspect — not the straight rejection of heroic narrative that comes with George R.R. Martin and his literary descendents, such as Joe Abercrombie. But I didn’t want an uninterrogated heroic narrative either…

Moorcock is of course an influence, but I didn’t want to write something that dark. Poul Anderson was probably closest to the mark I was aiming at — humane, accepting of the horrors of war, but also capable of acknowledging the potential for greatness of the human spirit — and its indomitable stubbornness, which is my favorite thing about Tolkien. His people just. Keep. Plugging. Away.

Conan, Salmonson, Leiber, Tolkien, Moorock, Poul Anderson… man, there’s no way this book won’t be great.

Of course, if you’re like me, you’re a little gun shy of starting a series until a few books are in print. Which is why I was delighted this spring when Elizabeth Bear’s Shattered Pillars, the second volume in the Eternal Sky series, hit the stands.

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If you’ve been reading this site for more than, say, ten minutes, you’re probably aware that I’m a big fan of anthologies. And I’m especially fond of the Best of the Year anthologies.

It’s definitely that time of the year. Jonathan Strahan’s The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Seven, was released in May (we covered it here), and Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2013 Edition arrived on July 10 (here).

Gardner Dozois’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection was published on July 23, and Paula Guran’s The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2013 Edition will debut on August 20. The other major contender, David G. Hartwell’s Year’s Best SF 18, has been delayed to December.

And now there’s a new kid on the block. Newcomer Steve Hayes has assembled a promising volume dedicated to the best in British fantasy, including tales from Mark Morris, Lavie Tidhar, Steph Swainston, Lisa Tuttle, and many more. If I had to guess, I’d say the contents run towards the Dark Fantasy side of the spectrum, just based on the subtitle at the bottom: Discover How Dark British Fantasy is Willing to Go.  Here’s the complete description.

From the post-apocalyptic American West to the rural terror in New Zealand, this major anthology has evil spirits, bin-Laden style assassinations, steampunk, sexual dysfunction, a twisted version of Peter Pan, the folklore of standing stones, mermaids, alien tour guides, zombies, gruesome beasts, voice-controlled police states, environmental disasters and off world penal colonies. Unmissable.

Featuring (among others) Simon Bestwick, Joseph D’Lacey, Cate Gardner, Carole Johnstone, Tyler Keevil, Kim Lakin-Smith, Alison Littlewood, Cheryl Moore, Mark Morris, Adam Neville, Lavie Tidhar, Sam Stone, Steph Swainston, E.J. Swift, Lisa Tuttle, Simon Unsworth, Jon Wallace.

It contains a great many stories from names I’m unfamiliar with, which isn’t a bad thing. I’m always on the lookout for new talent, and this seems like a great way to discover it.

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Usually when I’m looking for new reading material, I turn to one of my old favorites. Or I’ll try the latest novel by a BG contributor, or by an author I’ve met recently at a convention. It’s a rare thing these days when I crack open a book by someone I know absolutely nothing about. But sometimes I miss those days when the whole field was new and I approached every book with no expectations — nothing but a willingness to be entertained and transported. In those days, I was constantly delighted, surprised by almost every book I read.

And you know what? I think the two are connected.

Once upon a time, every author I tried was new and all I knew was wonder and magic. Now I read exclusively the same small circle of authors and very little surprises me anymore. So to recapture that wonder again, I try the simplest thing: I read new authors. Writers like Bailey Cunningham, whose first novel, Pile of Bones, first in the Parallel Parks series, was just released by Ace Books.

In one world, they’re ordinary university students. In another world, they are a company of heroes in a place of magic and myth called Anfractus…

The Cree called the area Oscana, “pile of bones,” a fertile hunting ground where game abounded. The white settlers changed that to Wascana. And centuries later, it became Wascana Park, a wooded retreat in the midst of the urban sprawl of Regina.

For a select few, who stay in the park until midnight, the land reverts into a magical kingdom, populated by heroes and monsters. They become warriors, bards, archers, gladiators. In the city called Anfractus, they live out a real-life role playing game.

All harmless fun — until they find themselves in the middle of an assassination plot which threatens to upset the balance of everything. Politics are changing, and old borders are about to disappear. The magic of Anfractus is bleeding into the real world — an incursion far more dangerous than the students suspect. Only they know what is happening — and only they can stop it…

Pile of Bones was published July 30th by Ace Books. It is 321 pages, priced at $7.99 for both the paperback and the digital version. The sequel is Path of Smoke.

Walking In the Midst of Fire is the sixth installment in the Remy Chandler series, which began with A Kiss Before the Apocalypse. These books are a mix of urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and noir detective fiction, following the exploits of an angel private investigator trying to lead a normal life. (Not gonna happen, Remy.)

Author Thomas E Sniegoski wrote the YA series The Fallen before switching to adult fiction with the Remy Chandler books. I first came across his name in the world of comics, however, when he wrote the prequel to Jeff Smith’s brilliant fantasy Bone, the mini-series Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails: The Adventures of Big Johnson Bone.

Remy Chandler, angel private investigator, is trying his damnedest to lead a normal life in a world on the verge of supernatural change. He’s found a new love — a woman his dog, Marlowe, approves of — and his best human friend is reluctantly coming to grips with how… unusual… Remy’s actions can be. And he’s finally reached a kind of peace between his true angelic nature and the human persona he created for himself so very long ago.

But that peace can’t last — Heaven and the Legions of the Fallen still stand on the brink of war. Then one of Heaven’s greatest generals is murdered, and it falls to Remy to discover who — or what — might be responsible for the death, which could trigger the final conflict… a conflict in which Earth will most certainly be the beachhead.

The deeper he digs, the further he goes into a dark world of demonic assassins, secret brothels, and things that are unsettling even to a being who has lived since time began. But it is not in his nature — angelic or human — to stop until he has found the killer, no matter the personal price…

Walking in the Midst of Fire was published August 6th, 2013 by Roc Books. It is 340 pages, priced at $15 for the trade paperback and $9.99 for the digital edition.

Unfettered is a monster anthology with an unusual genesis.

It started with editor Shawn Speakman, who became friends with Terry Brooks a few years back and wrote his own fantasy novel, The Dark Thorn. When Shawn was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2011, Brooks donated an original short story to help Shawn pay his mounting medical bills — and suggested that Shawn ask some of his writer friends to do the same.

The result is a massive 518-page tome containing original stories in some of the most popular fantasy series on the market, from some of today’s hottest writers — including Tad Williams, Patrick Rothfuss, R.A. Salvatore, Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson, Peter V. Brett, Lev Grossman, Carrie Vaughn, Jacqueline Carey, Mark Lawrence, and many others.

The tales included are set in the worlds of Shannara, the Wheel of Time, the Demon Cyle, Temeraire, Kushiel, Vault of Heaven, the Broken Empire, and many other top-selling series.

As the title suggests, authors were free to contribute whatever they desired.

This book really is a once-in-a-lifetime event and, as the marketing copy states, a testament to the generosity of the science fiction and fantasy community.

Here’s the impressive Table of Contents.

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I first discovered Rachel Caine a decade ago with her intriguing first novel, Ill Wind, which followed the adventures of Joanne Baldwin, a Weather Warden, part of an international organization that tracked and confronted natural disasters head-on. Kind of an intriguing premise and I was impressed to see it become the first installment in a nine (nine!) volume series, the most recent being 2010’s Total Eclipse.

Now, if I had written nine novels in seven years, first thing I would do is find a soft couch and lie down for, I dunno, maybe the rest of my life. Not so with Rachel Caine, however. No, she elected to start another series, The Morganville Vampires (fifteen volumes in seven years) in 2006. Followed by another one, Outcast Season (four volumes in three years) in 2009, and then another, Revivalist (three volumes in two years) in 2011. For those keeping score at home, that’s 31 novels in the last decade, during most of which she also had a full-time job as a Communications Director (writing, in other words).

I could go on — there are four more novel series, and several standalone books itemized on her Wikipedia page — but, man. I’m exhausted just trying to keep up. How does she do it?

Her most recent release is the third in her Revivalist series. The opening novels, Working Stiff and Two Weeks’ Notice, introduced us to Bryn Davis, killed on the job after she discovered her employers were designing a drug to resurrect the dead. Brought back to life by the same drug, she became a soldier in a nasty corporate war against her previous employer.

Already addicted to the pharmaceutical drug that keeps her body from decomposing, Bryn has to stop a secretive group of rich and powerful investors from eliminating the existing Returné addicts altogether. To ensure their plan to launch a new, military-grade strain of nanotech, the investors’ undead assassin — who just happens to be the ex-wife of Bryn’s lover Patrick — is on the hunt for anyone that stands in their way.

And while Bryn’s allies aren’t about to go down without a fight, the secret she’s been keeping threatens to put those closest to her in even more danger. Poised to become a monster that her own side — and her own lover — will have to trap and kill, Bryn needs to find the cure to have any hope of preserving the lives of her friends, and her own dwindling humanity…

Terminated was published today by Roc Books. It is 320 pages, priced at $7.99 for both the paperback and the digital edition.