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Changa: Before the Safari by Milton Davis

Changa: Before the Safari by Milton Davis

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oie_14244n24u2oHPRemember swords & sorcery? You know, the wild, adventurous storytelling that brought most of us here together at Black Gate. I’ve put it on the back burner for the last couple of months, choosing instead to delve into epic high fantasy. But a few weeks ago I got a message from sword & soul impresario/writer/publisher Milton Davis, who wanted to know if I’d be interested in reading the new Changa collection, Before the Safari, pre-publication. Is Conan’s hair square-cut? Does Ningauble have seven eyes? Is Elric bad luck for his friends? Yes. There are a few perks to reviewing at Black Gate and this is one of them. (The hard copy won’t be hitting the shelves until July, but you can get the e-book right now).

Changa Diop, for those not familiar with him (and every self-respecting S&S fan should be by now), was once a prince of the Bakongo people, but his father was overthrown and killed by the sorcerer Usenge. In the original collections, Changa’s Safari 1, 2, and 3 (reviewed by me and Joe Bonandonna), we learned that Changa eventually ended up enslaved and forced to fight in gladiatorial combat. He was rescued from his bloody life by the Swahili Belay. A merchant, Belay taught Changa his trade and eventually made him heir in preference to his own sons.

The three Safari books tell of Changa’s great adventure as he takes his merchant fleet from 14th century Sofala, in present day Mozambique, across the Indian Ocean to China and back again. If you have the slightest interest in old school S&S, these are right up your alley. Changa Diop is an adventurer of heroic proportions and deeds, worthy of standing alongside any of the S&S greats. Constantly pushed to his limits, he faces off against demons, pirates, evil sorcerers, and monsters — lots and lots of monsters.

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Future Treasures: The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon

Future Treasures: The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon

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The Lyre Thief Jennifer Fallon-smallJennifer Fallon’s popular Hythrun Chronicles began with The Demon Child trilogy (Medalon, Treason Keep, and Harshini); the Wolfblade trilogy (Wolfblade, Warrior, Warlord) followed soon after. All six were published in hardcover by Tor in the US.

After a decade, Fallon returns to the world of the Hythrun Chronicles with The Lyre Thief, the first novel in a new trilogy. It’s a tale of powerful magics, byzantine politics, sweeping adventure and romance, and it arrives in hardcover from Tor next month.

Her Serene Highness, Rakaia, Princess of Fardohnya, is off to Hythria, where her eldest sister is now the High Princess, to find herself a husband, and escape the inevitable bloodbath in the harem when her brother takes the throne.

Rakaia is not interested in marrying anyone, least of all some brute of a Hythrun Warlord she’s never met, but she has a plan to save herself from that, too. If she can just convince her baseborn sister, Charisee, to play along, she might actually get away with it.

But there is trouble brewing across the continent. High Prince of Hythria, Damin Wolfblade, must head north to save the peace negotiated a decade ago between the Harshini, Hythria, Fardohnya, Medalon and Karien. He must leave behind an even more dangerous conflict brewing between his wife and his powerful mother, Princess Marla.

…And in far off Medalon, someone has stolen the music.

Their quest for the tiny stolen lyre containing the essence of the God of Music will eventually touch all their lives, threaten everything they hold dear and prove to be far more personal than any of them can imagine.

The Lyre Thief will be published by Tor Books on March 8, 2016. It is 445 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover and $14.99 for the digital edition. Read “First Kill,” a short story set in the world of the Hythrun Chronicles, for free at Tor.com.

Collecting James White

Collecting James White

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Collecting James White-small

I’ve been enjoying doing a little research on vintage paperback prices… mostly because it involves my favorite pastime, shopping online for science fiction paperbacks. Except now I get to do it, y’know, in the name of science.

What I’ve learned so far hasn’t been super surprising. Robert A. Heinlein is popular. Philip K. Dick is really popular. I guess the biggest surprise is that the #2 man on the list is Karl Edward Wagner, which I didn’t expect (but I probably should have). Here’s a snapshot of what you can expect to pay as you diligently build your SF library, based on a sample of top-condition paperback auctions over the last 2-3 months.

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Future Treasures: Borderline by Mishell Baker

Future Treasures: Borderline by Mishell Baker

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Borderline Mishell Baker-smallMishell Baker is the Communications Director for the Clarion Foundation. Most of what I know about her comes from her bio at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which states “She lives with her husband and daughter in Los Angeles, where she is currently at work on a novel set in the early history of the world featured in ‘Throwing Stones.'” Borderline, which arrives in trade paperback from Saga Press next week, could be that novel. Probably is. If it sounds intriguing, it couldn’t hurt to check out “Throwing Stones,” which appeared in BCS 47.

Borderline follows the misadventures of a cynical, disabled film director with borderline personality disorder who is recruited into a secret organization that oversees relations between Hollywood and Fairyland. It’s the opening volume in a new urban fantasy series, and is Mishell Baker’s debut novel.

A year ago, Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she’s sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales.

For her first assignment, Millie is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star who also happens to be a nobleman of the Seelie Court. To find him, she’ll have to smooth-talk Hollywood power players and uncover the surreal and sometimes terrifying truth behind the glamour of Tinseltown. But stronger forces than just her inner demons are sabotaging her progress, and if she fails to unravel the conspiracy behind the noble’s disappearance, not only will she be out on the streets, but the shattering of a centuries-old peace could spark an all-out war between worlds.

No pressure.

Borderline will be published by Saga Press on March 1, 2016. It is 390 pages, priced at $15.99 in trade paperback and $7.99 for the digital edition.

Vintage Treasures: The Finnbranch Trilogy by Paul Hazel

Vintage Treasures: The Finnbranch Trilogy by Paul Hazel

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Yearwood-small Undersea-small Winterking-small

I don’t know much about Paul Hazel, but I became curious recently when I stumbled on his complete Finnbranch Trilogy, a Celtic fantasy published between 1990 and 1985, on eBay. All three books, plus his only other fantasy novel, The Wealdwife’s Tale, for just $3.99.

I dithered for a bit, but hey. What can I tell you? I’m a sucker for vintage paperbacks in perfect condition. They are now mine.

Hazel remains something of a mystery though, and there isn’t a lot out there about him. I did find an entry at the online Science Fiction Encyclopedia, however. Here it is.

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New Treasures: The Arcana Familia by Randy Henderson

New Treasures: The Arcana Familia by Randy Henderson

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Finn Fancy Necromancy-small Bigfootloose and Finn Fancy Free-small

Randy Henderson’s 2015 debut, the opening volume in the The Arcana Familia series, was horror/comedy Finn Fancy Necromancy, the tale of teen aged necromancer Finn Gramaraye, imprisoned for 25 years in the Other Realm for a crime he didn’t commit, and released into an adult body in the present day with a head full of 1980s memories. Greywalker author Kat Richardson called it “Absolutely marvelous. A funny, quirky, and compelling tale full of fantastic twists and dire conspiracies… hands down the best fantasy debut novel of the year.” It was published in hardcover by Tor last February, and the paperback arrived on January 5th.

Darkly funny fantasy novels don’t come around that often, and it’s good to see them succeed when they do. The second volume in the series, Bigfootloose and Finn Fancy Free, arrived earlier this month. Here’s the description.

Finn Gramaraye is settling back into the real world after his twenty-five-year-long imprisonment in the otherworld of the Fey. He’s fallen in love with a woman from his past, though he worries she may love a version of him that no longer exists. He’s proved his innocence of the original crime of Dark Necromancy, and he’s finding a place in the family business — operating a mortuary for the Arcane, managing the magical energies left behind when an Arcane being dies to prevent it from harming the mundane world.

But Finn wants more. Or different. Or something. He’s figured out how to use the Kinfinder device created by his half-mad father to find people’s True Love, and he’d like to convert that into an Arcane Dating Service. It’s a great idea. Everyone wants True Love! Unfortunately, trouble always seems to find Finn, and when he agrees to help his friend, the Bigfoot named Sal, they walk right into a Feyblood rebellion against the Arcane Ruling Council, a rebellion being fomented by unknown forces and fueled by the drug created by Finn’s own grandfather.

Bigfootloose and Finn Fancy Free was published by Tor Books on February 16, 2016. It is 432 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital edition.

Acquiring Michael Whelan’s Cover for The Bane of the Black Sword

Acquiring Michael Whelan’s Cover for The Bane of the Black Sword

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Michael Whelan The Bane of the Black Sword-small Michael Whelan The Bane of the Black Sword DAW-small

I thought I’d move a bit further ahead in time tonight than my usual pulp related posts, though it does have a bit of a pulp connection for me. I was discussing this piece with a friend of mine earlier today, so I figured I’d post it. By Michael Raymond Whelan, this is the cover for The Bane of the Black Sword by Michael Moorcock, featuring the one and only Elric of Melnibone (click the art for bigger versions). Both Deb and I loved the Elric books when we read them as teenagers, in the DAW editions featuring all those great Whelan covers, and when we had the chance to pick this up, we jumped at it.

We bought this in a hotel room many years ago, from our friend Randal Hawkins. He and his wife Donna drove up from the K.C. area with the painting, and we met them at a hotel about half way between there and Chicago to do the deal. It wasn’t the only time we did a deal like that in a hotel room with Randal — we bought other art from him that way as well, over the years, as well as many pulps. Hence the bit of a pulp connection for me. Those were good hotel rooms! Randal passed away much too young, but we have fond memories of visiting with him and Donna in K.C., looking at their great art collection, as well as their place in Las Vegas. And we often think of him when we look at this piece.

Vintage Treasures: The Science Fiction Book Club Original Anthologies

Vintage Treasures: The Science Fiction Book Club Original Anthologies

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Between Worlds-small Down these Dark Spaceways-small One Million AD Gardner Dozois-small Forbidden Planets Marvin Kaye-small

Last month I had a look back at one of my favorite Best of the Year series, Jonathan Strahan’s Best Short Novels, a delightful four-volume set collecting the best novellas of 2004-07 and published exclusively through the Science Fiction Book Club. SFBC did many exclusives, but that was the one that got me to excitedly rejoin the club for the first time in over a decade.

It was a great time to be a member. In addition to the Strahan volumes, Andrew Wheeler at SFBC also commissioned some of the top editors in the field, including Gardner Dozois, Mike Resnick, Marvin Kaye and Strahan, to produce eight original themed anthologies, each containing 6-7 new novellas by writers like Robert Silverberg, Peter F. Hamilton, Robert Reed, Nancy Kress, Greg Egan, Jack McDevitt, Alan Dean Foster, Julie E. Czerneda, Charles Stross, Stephen Baxter, Cory Doctorow, Walter Jon Williams, and many others. Each anthology was offered exclusively through the club, which means many fans never even knew they existed.

Each anthology was themed, like Gardner’s collection of far-future tales One Million A.D. Marvin Kaye’s Forbidden Planets looked at visits to strange and hostile worlds, Mike Resnick’s Down these Dark Spaceways and Alien Crimes contained science fiction mysteries, and Strahan’s Godlike Machines gathered tales of future eras where machines ruled. They were a lot of fun, and I snapped each one up as it arrived.

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The Fionavar Tapestry Book 2: The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay

The Fionavar Tapestry Book 2: The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay

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oie_2251331IZpxRuY1When I set out to delve into epic high fantasy late last year, I deliberately chose some stories I’d read already and remember liking. Rereading The Summer Tree, first volume of Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Fionavar Tapestry, justified my fond memories of it. I ended my review stating: “This is how epic high fantasy can look if it doesn’t want to merely ape LotR or regurgitate the same bits and pieces over and over again.” Those words do not apply to the second book, The Wandering Fire (1986).

Upon finishing the second volume I remembered that, when I read it the first time, I didn’t rush to read the concluding book, The Darkest Road. In fact, it was several years before I picked it up. It won’t be so long this time, but I sure don’t feel like reading it tomorrow.

In The Summer Tree, five Canadian grad students were magically transported from Toronto to Fionavar, the primary universe. Over the course of the novel, they were transformed spiritually and, some of them, even physically. Dave Martyniuk became Davor, adopted member of the nomadic Dalrei, and keeper of the horn that unleashes the Wild Hunt. Kimberly Ford became the Seer, able to manipulate certain magics and see the future. More drastically, Paul Schaefer, distraught over the death of his girlfriend a year earlier, sacrificed himself on the Summer Tree to summon, and become a conduit for, the god Mornir. Jennifer Lowell was kidnapped and raped by Rakoth Maugrim, Fionavar’s dark lord. Only happy-go-lucky Kevin Laine seemed to escape unchanged, yet Fionavar was stimulating his natural mournful romantic tendencies to some unseen end.

While The Wandering Fire purports to move the group deeper into the heart of the growing fight against Maugrim, what was once exciting and focused now feels hurried and slapdash. Momentous events come and go in the space of a few paragraphs. In one case a major secret is discovered but so little time was invested in it beforehand, it seems tossed off and rather inconsequential instead of horrifying, as intended.

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New Treasures: Dragon Hunters by Marc Turner

New Treasures: Dragon Hunters by Marc Turner

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Dragon Hunters Marc Turner-smallIn his December article for Black Gate, Marc Turner described his first novel thusly:

My epic fantasy debut, When the Heavens Fall, came out in May this year, and it can best be summed up as The Lord of the Rings meets World War Z. It’s not a zombie apocalypse novel, but that’s going to come as scant consolation to the characters who find themselves having to wade through an army of undead.

Sounds plenty intriguing to me. The second book in the series, Dragon Hunters, has been much anticipated in these parts, and it finally arrived earlier this month. Here’s the description.

Once a year on Dragon Day the fabled Dragon Gate is raised to let a sea dragon pass from the Southern Wastes into the Sabian Sea. There, it will be hunted by the Storm Lords, a fellowship of powerful water-mages who rule an empire called the Storm Isles. Alas, this year someone forgot to tell the dragon which is the hunter and which the hunted.

Emira Imerle Polivar is coming to the end of her tenure as leader of the Storm Lords. She has no intention of standing down graciously. She instructs an order of priests called the Chameleons to infiltrate a citadel housing the mechanism that controls the Dragon Gate to prevent the gate from being lowered after it has been raised on Dragon Day. Imerle hopes the dozens of dragons thus unleashed on the Sabian Sea will eliminate her rivals while she launches an attack on the Storm Lord capital, Olaire, to secure her grip on power.

But Imerle is not the only one intent on destroying the Storm Lord dynasty. As the Storm Lords assemble in Olaire in answer to a mysterious summons, they become the targets of assassins working for an unknown enemy. When Imerle initiates her coup, that enemy makes use of the chaos created to show its hand.

Dragon Hunters is the second novel in The Chronicle of the Exile; we covered the first volume here. It was published by Tor Books on February 9, 2016. It is 493 pages, priced at $29.99 in hardcover and $14.99 for the digital version. The cover is by Greg Manchess.