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A Review of Osprey’s Dragonslayers

A Review of Osprey’s Dragonslayers

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Dragonslayers: From Beowulf to St. George
Mythsandlegends_DragonslayersBy Joseph McCullough
Osprey (80 pages, May 2013, $17.95)

Osprey is justly famous for its Men-at-Arms series. Probably almost everyone who’s a military history buff, historical gamer, or historical fiction writer has at least heard of the series, which illustrates the arms, armor, capabilities and customs of different forces from different eras in extremely well-researched detail. Need to know just how fast the Mongolian cavalry from the era of Genghis Khan moved, or what they ate on the ride? Curious to find out more about the forces from the 2nd Punic war? The Men-at-Arms series is a crucial stop.

Now Osprey is advancing its standard of excellence into new territory. Its Myths and Legends line strives to bring the same sterling level of research to fantasy and myth. Several weeks ago, Osprey sent me the first book of their new series, Dragonslayers.

It’s different from the older Men-At-Arms series books on my shelves in that it’s more profusely and colorfully illustrated, but the information is just as thorough and well presented. I have to admit that I wasn’t initially that curious about the subject matter, but writer Joe McCullough pulled me right in to both the tales I was already familiar with and the sagas of dragonslayers unfamiliar to me, which is no small feat considering how busy I’ve been. It’s pretty impressive that such a small book can pack in so much information, and make it engaging besides.

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Goth Chick News: Joe Hill Takes Us for a Ride in a Vampire Rolls Royce

Goth Chick News: Joe Hill Takes Us for a Ride in a Vampire Rolls Royce

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NOS4A2_coverJoseph Hillstrom King, eldest son of Stephen King and better known by his pen name Joe Hill, released his third novel NOS4A2 back on April 30th.  And though I was clutching it possessively in my hot little hands that very same day, I did not to rush to tell you about it.

I was instead preparing to take one for the team.

Hill’s first two outings, Horns and Heart Shaped Box were so amazingly entertaining, so thoroughly well written, and hold such esteemed places in my personal library that I felt there was more than a fair chance that Hill could not maintain this level of performance for a third time. I was prepared to be magnanimous; to assume that pressured by his publisher to stop spending so much time on his comic (Locke and Key) and crank out another best seller, Hill might have caved and produced something along the lines of From a Buick 8.

Never heard of it?

Most people haven’t: that’s because a similar scenario happened to Hill’s dad back in 2002.

So rather than tell you to run out and buy it based on the merit of its two older siblings, I took NOS4A2 home to vet it myself and potentially spend some time figuring out how to tell you not to bother.

Instead today, sixty pages from finishing NOS4A2, I’m not even waiting to see how it all turns out before I tell you yes – bother.  Do it now and without worrying about the sheer size of the thing or how you’re going to find the time.  Get it and curl up somewhere comfortable because you’re not going to be moving much for quite a while.

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Fantastic Stories, October 1964: A Retro-Review

Fantastic Stories, October 1964: A Retro-Review

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Fantastic Stories October 1964I continue my peregrinations through the Cele Goldsmith Lalli years at Amazing/Fantastic.

This issue features a George Schelling cover. I don’t know if there are Schelling fans out here – but I have to say I found it quite poor, with absurdly stiff human characters, a particularly strange looking female character, a quite inaccurate representation (as to size) of the Tharn antagonist, and also not representing the scene it apparently depicts very well. Other than that… it’s kind of colorful.

(Click on the image at left to get a full-size version).

Curiously, the cover features no author’s name – only the title of the serial, “Seed of Eloraspon,” and the description: “Magnanthropus returns in a new novel.”

The interiors are by Arndt, Schelling (rather better than the cover), Finlay, and Andragna.

The ads are mostly Ziff-Davis house ads, with one full page ad for the Rosicrucians. The editorial, as usual by editorial director Norman M. Lobsenz, is about progress towards a real life version of Donovan’s Brain (and many other stories). The only other feature is a single column on what’s “Coming Next Month.”

The fiction:

Novelet:

“Beyond the Ebon Wall,” by C. C. MacApp (18,700 words)

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Tabitha Reviews The School for Good and Evil

Tabitha Reviews The School for Good and Evil

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The-School-for-Good-and-EvilThe School for Good and Evil
By Soman Chainani
HarperCollins (488 pages, May 14, $16.99 hardcover/$10.99 digital)

The School for Good and Evil is a major summer release from HarperCollins, with a national marketing campaign and lot of pre-release buzz, and it’s already getting a lot of attention.

We know what to do with young adult books getting a lot of attention here at Black Gate – we give them to Tabitha, the thirteen year-old reviewer who covered The House of Dead Maids and All the Lovely Bad Ones for us, among others. We’re glad to have her join us again, even though she makes us feel old and out of touch.

Black Gate: Tabitha, welcome back to the Black Gate offices!

Tabitha: Thanks, I guess.

Before we get started, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself.

Didn’t we do that last time?

Yes but that was like a hundred years ago. All the people who read your last reviews probably got old and died.

Wow. Okay, in that case, I turn 114 this year. I’m going to high school next year. On the introvert scale, I’m beyond “vampire.”

“Beyond vampire.” What does that mean? Explain it for old people.

I scream in agony whenever I set foot outside my house.

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My Youth Was Delivered Yesterday: AD&D 2nd Edition Re-Released

My Youth Was Delivered Yesterday: AD&D 2nd Edition Re-Released

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I was introduced to roleplaying in as a teenager in the early 90’s, and the game that did it was 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D). However, I’ve never had a real strong sense of nostalgia, so years ago – when I switched over to D&D 3rd edition – I got rid of my old 2nd edition books.

Since then, I’ve occasionally missed the streamlined simplicity of 2nd edition and lamented the loss of these books.

So imagine my pleasure when I received a package yesterday from Wizards of the Coast containing review copies of the three core 2nd edition rulebooks, repackaged and re-released for a new generation:

ADDpix

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Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1951: A Retro-Review

Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1951: A Retro-Review

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Galaxy February 1951The February, 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction is groundbreaking. The first story is a novella by Ray Bradbury titled “The Fireman.”

My heart skipped a beat when I saw this, and I quickly discovered that Bradbury later expanded this tale into the classic novel Fahrenheit 451.

In “The Fireman,” Mr. Montag works as a fireman – not one who douses flames, but one who starts them in order to destroy books. Books, after all, are upsetting and challenge the brain-numbing entertainment of the day. People who are well-read might unbalance a society of non-thinkers.

I read Fahrenheit 451 in school, and I didn’t understand all of the warnings Bradbury issues throughout the novel. When I read “The Fireman,” there were parts that really concerned me as I considered our own society. Replace references to “television” with “Internet” or “Facebook,” and suddenly Bradbury’s dystopia doesn’t seem so distant anymore. This is a story I wish everyone would read – and think about while reading it. It really is quite chilling.

“…And it comes out here” by Lester del Rey – A man travels back in time to prepare his younger self for an expedition. The mission is to retrieve a device from the future and claim it as his own invention.

I love the second-person narrative of this tale, and I equally enjoyed the way that everything circuitously ties together. It was interesting how del Rey used the protagonist both as a character and as a narrator, and because time travel was involved, these were essentially two different people.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering — yes, this is the same man who started Del Rey Books.

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Further Tarzan-on-Demand: Tarzan the Magnificent

Further Tarzan-on-Demand: Tarzan the Magnificent

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Tarzan the Magnificent Warner Archive DVD coverThe Warner Bros. Archive Collection has taken good care of Tarzan fans. This manufacture-on-demand division of Warner Home Video offers all the films from the lesser-known Tarzan actors who followed Johnny Weissmuller in swinging from the jungle ceiling: Lex Barker, Gordon Scott, Jock Mahoney, Mike Henry, and the two seasons of the Ron Ely television story. The best of the lot for a more casual viewer is Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure (1959), but Tarzan the Magnificent from 1960 comes a close second to it. It’s not as lean and stripped-down as its predecessor, and director Robert Day lacks the same skill at pacing an action picture as John Guillermin, but the movie ranks among the top live-action Tarzan films ever made. And it’s just a darn good adventure film in general, with some surprising levels of violence and mature subtexts.

(Tarzan disambiguation notice: The movie has no connection to the Burroughs book of the same title published in 1939 that combines two separate novellas.)

Tarzan the Magnificent is the second movie of the series from producer Sy Weintraub, who created the “New Look” Tarzan that took the character back to his more adult and violent Edgar Rice Burroughs roots. Best of all, Tarzan got his full vocabulary returned to him, breaking over two decades of film tradition that ruled the Lord of the Jungle had to horribly misuse pronouns and exterminate helping verbs.

Weintraub’s “New Look” favored crime stories set in the African rainforest, which gave them a harsh and naturalistic feel. They also borrowed elements from the Western, and Tarzan the Magnificent is the most explicit example. The movie opens with a band of outlaws, an archetypal blood clan of murderous brothers under an obsessed patriarch, committing a hold-up in broad daylight. The criminals rob the pay office of a mining company in a small town, passing “Wanted” posters of themselves on the way in. Except for the African locals walking the dusty street, this might be any frontier town in a Western of the day. With veteran John Ford stock-company actor John Carradine in the role of the clan head, Abel Banton, it’s hardly much of a leap to see this taking place in a lawless American frontier town. Even the name “Banton” has a Western ring to it, echoing the Clantons from the story of the Gunfight at the OK Corral.

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Adventure on Film: Flesh and Blood

Adventure on Film: Flesh and Blood

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2206Se_ores_del_AceroFlesh and Blood (1985) is neither high art nor Paul Verhoeven’s best film, but it does contain flashes of genuine magic and an exceptional eye for the grime and grit of Medieval Italy. It also carries its fair share of star power thanks to the presence of Rutger Hauer, Verhoeven’s frequent co-conspirator, as mercenary soldier Martin.

The plot in a nutshell: Martin and his band of trouble-making friends are part of Hawkwood’s Army (though which of Hawkwood’s many armies is allowably unclear), but soon enough Hawkwood turns on his scruffy, ill-mannered war-hounds, stripping them of their pay and their pickings. Demoralized but determined, Martin and company make a break for the countryside, where they kidnap Princess Agnes (Jennifer Jason Leigh), then hole themselves up in a rural castle in which Agnes teaches her captors, as best she can, the fine arts of civilized behavior. But of course Hawkwood comes calling, paid now to recapture the princess. The clash that follows pits swords against fumbling attempts at science, with bubonic plague waiting in the wings.

Flesh and Blood proves to be a trifle cartoonish at times, a la Robocop, but one thing Verhoeven never lacks is energy. He’s a naughty schoolboy, yes, and at times his fondness for splatter, gore, and, well, flesh, threatens to undermine the film’s highbrow, philosophical script, but he’s also a craftsman with the heart of an animator –– both the camera and its subjects are in almost constant motion –– and provided you’ve got a strong stomach, Flesh and Blood provides ample period entertainment and many a fine battle.

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Weird of Oz on the Art of Rating 3 (of 3)

Weird of Oz on the Art of Rating 3 (of 3)

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bill and ted

“Excellent, Dude! This movie was totally triumphant!… Not since the McKenzie Brothers or the Frog Brothers has a group come along as wild as these Wyld Stallyns…”

So I wrote 24 years ago in my review of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Dude, I totally didn’t talk like that — for those who never saw the movie, I was riffing on the way the characters speak.

Looking back over the review now, I notice that I list the then-unknown actor who played Ted as “Keavy Reeves.” We didn’t have the Internet Movie Database — or the Internet — back then; my guess is I misread the notes I jotted down in the theater.

I also notice it was a decent review that gave readers of the high school newspaper a good grasp of what the film was all about, albeit a bit adverb-heavy: “As one can probably tell this movie had great potential to be utterly stupid. It is on that fine line between being fantastically dumb and riotously hilarious, but it succeeds in being the latter. . . . It is an incredibly funny movie and I declare it excellent.”

2001-A-Space-OdysseySo the review holds up okay. Question is, does the movie? I confess I haven’t watched it in years, but I have seen it several times, and my memories of it are fond ones (it was filmed in the places where I hung out in high school, so it is a trip down memory lane in more ways than one).

When I declared Bill and Ted’s to be “excellent,” was I (aside from playing on the characters’ vernacular) putting it in the same category as 2001: A Space Odyssey? Bill and Ted’s is nominally a science-fiction (time travel) film. Of course, it is primarily a comedy, so was I elevating it to the ranks of Some Like It Hot, Duck Soup, and Dr. Strangelove? (If you haven’t guessed, the answer is Hell no.) This leaves one big question, which brings us to the final topic I wish to consider in this series on the art of rating: When we rate a film (or a book or a television show etc.), what are we rating it against?

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Paul Di Filippo on “A” is for Android and Other Tales: Masters of Science Fiction Vol. #8

Paul Di Filippo on “A” is for Android and Other Tales: Masters of Science Fiction Vol. #8

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Milton Lesser A is for AndroidOver at Locus Online, Paul Di Filippo has a look at the latest Masters of Science Fiction reprint from Armchair Fiction, this one focused on Milton Lesser, author of Slaves to the Metal Horde and The Thing from Underneath.

If you do not know the enchantingly retro line of SF/F/H books published by Armchair Fiction… then I offer you now an eye-popping introduction. Visit his site and marvel at the vast range of vintage fiction, long out of print, lovingly repackaged with period artwork. Names as seminal as those of Fritz Leiber, Clifford Simak and Edmond Hamilton consort with the bylines of lesser craftsmen… The Armchair Fiction catalogue opens an essential window onto a vital and overlooked and still enjoyable portion of our history.

The latest entry in their “Masters of Science Fiction” series is awarded to Milton Lesser, who bears a name the majority of modern fans will probably be unfamiliar with. Lesser was one of those working-stiff writers back in the day who turned out intelligent, yet perhaps sometimes over facile, goods to suit whatever market was looking for material and paying a decent word rate… Truly the work of a Master? Did it exhibit a genuine affinity for the mode, a sense of wonder, some unique ideation? Does it seem hokey and clunky today, or do its narrative virtues still engage and reward?

We last looked at Armchair Fiction — via Paul W. Fairman’s The Girl Who Loved Death and Murray Leinster’s Planet of Dread — last January.

Curiously, this book is listed under the variant title “A” as in Android at Amazon.com and other places. I haven’t seen a copy myself, so I can’t confirm which title is correct.

“A” is for Android (or maybe “A” as in Android) was published January 30 by Armchair Fiction. It is 320 pages in trade paperback, priced at $16.95. There is no digital edition. See more details at the Armchair Fiction site here, and you can read Paul’s complete review here.