Black Gate – Page 1031 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

Vintage Treasures: The Best of Fritz Leiber

Wednesday, August 21, 2013 John ONeill Comments 19 comments

And so we come to Fritz Leiber, in our continuing exploration of Lester del Rey’s Classic Library of Science Fiction series.

The Best of Fritz Leiber, published in 1974, was the second in the line, following The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum. Unlike Weinbaum and many of the authors who would follow him, Leiber was well known — even a star — to contemporary SF readers in 1974, thanks chiefly to his popular Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser books.

Which brings us conveniently to the book’s first problem. Those stories were being published by Ace Books, who had five volumes of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in print by 1970, and the Classic Library of Science Fiction line was owned by Ballantine, which meant The Best of Fritz Leiber couldn’t include any of them. This is sort of like assembling a Best of Robert E. Howard collection that ignores Conan (which Del Rey books did in 2007, with considerable success, now that I think about it.)

Poul Anderson acknowledges this painful lack in his introduction, taking a moment to badmouth sword & sorcery while he’s at it:

It’s too bad that we have no tale of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser here. Not only did that charming pair of rogues… launch the author’s career, they are still going strong, to the joy of everyone who appreciates a rattling good fantasy adventure. But by no means are these stories conventional “sword and sorcery.” The world of Nehwon is made real in wondrously imagined detail… Here Leiber in his way — like the late J.R.R. Tolkien in his, and not vastly different — has done, and is doing, for the heroic fantasy what Robert Louis Stevenson did for the pirate yarn: by originality and sheer writing genius, he revived an ossified genre and started it off on a fresh path.

I could likewise wish that this book held a sample or two of Leiber’s horror stories. In my opinion, which Fritz modestly does not share, Lovecraft and Poe himself never dealt out comparable chills.

In other words, Leiber’s stories (and Tolkien’s) are good, so they can’t really be sword and sorcery… despite the fact that Fritz Leiber is often credited with coining the phrase “sword & sorcery” to describe his most popular work. Poul Anderson. What a doofus.

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L. Sprague de Camp, Fletcher Pratt, Gardner Fox and Appendix N: Advanced Readings in D&D

Tuesday, August 20, 2013 John ONeill Comments 33 comments

Over at Tor.com, the intrepid Mordicai Knode and Tim Callahan have been conducting dangerous psychoreality experiments, just like William Hurt in Altered States.

I don’t expect you to get that reference, because Altered States came out, like, a billion years ago. But trust me, it was wild. William Hurt locks himself in a sensory deprivation tank until he turns into some kind of glowing protoplasm. And Blair Brown got naked. A lot. Drew Barrymore played their 4-year old daughter, if that helps you understand how old this movie is.

Anyway, Mordicai and Tim have convinced the brain trust at Tor.com to let them attempt the same thing, in the name of science. Tor doesn’t have the budget for an awesome sensory deprivation tank (or to pay anyone to get naked), but they’ve got the essentials down. For the last month or so, Mordicai and Tim have been refusing all outside stimulus except the work of those authors listed in Appendix N of the Dungeon Masters Guide.

They’re consuming nothing but Mountain Dew and Doritos Locos Tacos from Taco Bell, and electrodes attached to their brains will capture the exact moment they transform into Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax. Hasn’t happened yet but, believe me, the stars are right and the time grows nigh.

In the meantime, teams of diligent scribes have been scribbling down every word Mordicai and Tim speak as they grow closer and closer to ultimate enlightenment. We’re here to share some of the best with you. Take them in small doses, this is potent stuff.

They start with L. Sprague de Camp, author of the early alternate history novel Lest Darkness Fall (1939), The Wheels of If (1948), Rogue Queen (1951), and, with Robert E. Howard, Tales of Conan (1955), one of the very first Conan collections.

Here’s Tim on L. Sprague de Camp, who left him underwhelmed.

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New Treasures: Kiss of Steel by Bec McMaster

Tuesday, August 20, 2013 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

You know what’s missing from my recent book diet? Romance. Especially romance involving mystery, the supernatural, clockwork creatures, and black fishnet stockings.

I’m serious (especially about the fishnet stockings). I’m a sucker for a good romance. I think most readers are, regardless of gender, but a lot of male readers are suspicious of anything packaged as paranormal romance or romantic SF. I think it stems not from any true dislike of romance, but more a mistrust of the trappings of the genre. A lot of fantasy readers avoid anything packaged as romance because they’re unfamiliar with it, assume most of it is poor quality, and can’t be bothered to take the time to learn differently.

Fools. The finest novels in the English language are romances. If I were stranded on a desert island with a single book, I’d to be plenty annoyed if it weren’t a waterproof copy of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (although I could make do with Emma in a pinch.)

Science fiction, epic fantasy, sword & sorcery… these speak to the nobler aspects of our nature, our need to explore and seek new experiences. But great romance strikes at the very core of the human spirit, our desire to truly connect. And especially to connect with someone who looks really great in fishnet stockings.

Which is why tonight I’ll be curling up with Bec McMaster’s debut novel Kiss of Steel, in which vampires, werewolves, and clockwork creatures roam the mist–shrouded streets of London…

Most people avoid the dreaded Whitechapel district. For Honoria Todd, it’s the last safe haven. But at what price?

Blade is known as the master of the rookeries — no one dares cross him. It’s been said he faced down the Echelon’s army single-handedly, that ever since being infected by the blood-craving he’s been quicker, stronger, and almost immortal. When Honoria shows up at his door, his tenuous control comes close to snapping. She’s so… innocent. He doesn’t see her backbone of steel — or that she could be the very salvation he’s been seeking.

Kiss of Steel was published by Sourcebooks Casablanca on September 1, 2012. It is 439 pages, priced at $6.99 for both the digital and print versions. The sequel Heart of Iron, book 2 in what’s now being called The London Steampunk series, was released on May 7th. Learn more at Bec McMaster’s website.

So You’re a Horror Fan and You’ve Never Read…

Monday, August 19, 2013 Nick Ozment Comments 9 comments

H.P. LOVECRAFT?

I sit here typing this while wearing a pirate hat and wig of long, black dreadlocks. Why this should be I feel inadequate to formulate into words, lest my attempt to do so come across as the disjointed jargon of a dullard. I will say this, though: I have seen the gibbous moon in lonely places; I have crossed putrid moats under dark mute trees to survey strange runes left by long-lost races, runes undoubtedly concealing eldritch secrets long buried in the muck inhabited by fat mottled sea-worms, secrets that would drive one insane, insane I tell you. So I thought I’d launch this week the first installment of an occasional series called “So You’re a Horror Fan and You Haven’t Read…[author]?”.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) was almost lost to the crumbling pages of pulp magazines. Even after a book-publishing imprint (Arkham House) was created for the sole purpose (initially) of preserving his work, he remained pretty obscure outside of a small cult following for decades.

Lovecraft would undoubtedly appreciate the irony of himself having a following called a “cult,” and it did not hurt his cred that many among that cult would go on to be among the most influential creators of pop culture in the twentieth century, especially in horror cinema (Lovecraft’s influence really became well-known to a mainstream audience first through film, via folks like H.R. Giger [designer of the eponymous Alien in the Alien films] and director Sam Raimi [Evil Dead et al]. You may have never even heard his name, but if you grew up in the latter half of the twentieth century, Lovecraft’s influence pervaded the horror and science fiction you experienced).

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Vintage Scares: The Most Terrifying Short Stories Ever?

Monday, August 19, 2013 markrigney Comments 19 comments

In my fourth grade year, my teacher, for reasons still unknown to me, decided to read F. Marion Crawford’s “The Upper Berth” aloud to our class.

The story is not so well known these days, but back in the late seventies, it had gained a certain notoriety by virtue of its inclusion in Alfred Hitchcock’s Ghostly Gallery, an omnibus to which I have (with trepidation) returned to many times since. If Hitch was the source from which my teacher made her choice, perhaps she was gulled by the book’s subtitle, which read, “Eleven spooky stories for young people.”

Let me reiterate the salient feature of that rash, dangerous subtitle: FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.

Ha!

To be sure, “Miss Emmeline Takes Off” (Walter Brooks) and “The Haunted Trailer” (Robert Arthur) are easy on the soul, but how to explain the inclusion of “The Waxwork” (A.M. Burrage) or “In a Dim Room” (Lord Dunsany)?

As for “The Upper Berth,” suffice it to say that just as my teacher reached the climactic moment, our rapt, wide-eyed class erupted into chaos. One child whimpered; another screamed. Poor Alicia literally leaped to her feet and fled the room, running for dear life for the imagined safety of any spot on earth where she could no longer hear the teacher’s voice.

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Vintage Treasures: Fair Peril by Nancy Springer

Monday, August 19, 2013 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

Fantasy writer Nancy Springer has had an enviable career. In 1979, her first published novel, The White Hart, kicked off a successful five-volume series, The Book of the Isle. She followed it with more than 40 additional novels, including The Hex Witch of Seldom (1988), Not on a White Horse (1988), Apocalypse (1989), and the Tiptree Award-winning Larque on the Wing (1994).

She’s been nominated for all of the top awards in the field — including the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo, and the Nebula, all for her short story “The Boy Who Plaited Manes” (from the October 1986 issue of F&SF). Her last novel, The Case of the Gypsy Goodbye, the sixth of The Enola Holmes Mysteries, was published in 2010.

In 1996, Springer took a chance with a very different novel, a modern fairy tale featuring a talking frog, a rebellious teen girl, and a professional storyteller named Buffy. Fair Peril was the first Nancy Springer novel I ever purchased and it eventually led me to track down most of her other books.

The talking frog professional storyteller Buffy Murphy finds in a Pennsylvania pond is begging for a kiss. But the last thing newly divorced Buffy needs is yet another needy male passing himself off as an enchanted prince. Her rebellious teenage princess daughter, Emily, however, is too young to know where a kiss can lead – and soon it’s leading mother, daughter, and a hunky blond former amphibian named Prince Adamus to the mall. For there lies the realm of Fair Peril – where wishes become punishments, where everything is itself yet something other… and where it will take a dutiful mom’s considerable power of storytelling to salvage her child’s future, her daughter’s love.

The gorgeous cover by Mary GrandPré was the first thing that caught my eye — and I still love it today, nearly 20 years later.

Fair Peril was published by Avon Books in November 1996, and reprinted in paperback by AvoNova in July 1997. It is 246 pages in paperback, with an original cover price of $5.99. It has never been reprinted and is currently out of print. There is no digital edition.

See all of our recent Vintage Treasures here.

New Treasures: The Book of Cthulhu II, edited by Ross E. Lockheart

Monday, August 19, 2013 John ONeill Comments 8 comments

Ah, Cthulhu. What could possibly explain the timeless fascination you’ve exerted over countless horror writers for the past 83 years? Could it be that you’re roughly the size of Manhattan and you eat ocean liners? I dunno, but I bet I’m on the right track.

Well, whatever it is, I’m glad Big Green keeps popping up. Last August, we celebrated Ross E. Lockheart’s successful anthology The Book of Cthulhu, a marvelous reprint volume collecting some of the most famous Cthulhu stories of all time. I mentioned at the time that a second volume was in the works. Now I finally have a copy in my hot little hands and I’m pleased to say it doesn’t disappoint.

The Book of Cthulhu II contains two dozen tales of cosmic horror inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft, including Karl Edward Wagner’s “Sticks,” Neil Gaiman’s “Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar,” William Browning Spencer’s “The Ocean and All its Devices,” and John R. Fultz’s “This is How the World Ends.”

This thick volume also contains reprints by Michael Chabon, Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, Fritz Leiber, Kim Newman, Jonathan Wood, and many others. There are also four original contributions, including the novella “Hand of Glory” by Laird Barron, which is currently on the World Fantasy Awards Ballot for best novella.

Ross E. Lockhart was the managing editor of Night Shade Books and the author of the rock-and-roll novel Chick Bassist. With the recent upheaval at Night Shade, culminating in the acquisition of the company by Skyhorse and Start Publishing, I don’t know if Lockhart remained with the firm. But I certainly hope so — these anthologies are some of my favorite titles to come out of Night Shade and I’d love to see them continue.

The Book of Cthulhu II was published September 2012 by Night Shade Books. It is 428 pages, priced at $15.99 for both the trade paperback and digital editions.

See all of our recent New Treasures here.

Black Gate Online Fiction: “So Go the Seasons” by Paul Abbamondi

Sunday, August 18, 2013 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

To men of greed go the riches. And the seasons.

“Seasons are all amuck,” Uncle Hobnor said. He turned, shielding his eyes as he looked down toward the inner city, its towers standing tall, reddish flags billowing about stone ledges. “Blasted season wrecker.”

“Why does he always keep it Dryburn, Uncle Hob-hob?”

“Why?” He snorted. “I’ll tell you, boy, it’s because of that damned sovereign’s heart.” In the distance, towering high above chipped marble houses, was Lord Banamp’s impervious demesne. “He cares only for this warm weather so his flowers can live forever.”

“I think I’m beginning to forget what snow’s actually like,” Perry said.

“Me too, boy,” his uncle said. “Which is why we’re going to get it back.”

Paul Abbamondi lives in the middle of the Pennsylvanian woods with his wife and two cats, reading, writing, and drawing. His short stories have appeared in Shimmer, Farrago’s Wainscot, Warrior Wisewoman 3, and Kaleidotrope, among other publications, and he enjoys all things weird.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Vaughn Heppner, Mark Rigney, Aaron Bradford Starr, Jamie McEwan, Martha Wells, Mary Catelli, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, E.E. Knight, C.S.E. Cooney, Howard Andrew Jones, Harry Connolly, and many others, is here.

“So Go the Seasons” is a complete 1,300-word short story of adventure fantasy offered at no cost.

Read the complete story here.

Gen Con 2013 Post-Convention Recap – Part 1

Sunday, August 18, 2013 Andrew Zimmerman Jones Comments 2 comments

As always, the best four days of gaming did not fail to impress. The number of cool new (or just new to me) games was astounding, so I’ll do a quick run-down of them here and then go into a bit more depth in individual and group reviews over the next couple of weeks. I’m going through these games mostly sequentially of how I experienced them, rather than in any specific order of preference.

Day 1

One of the first games I came across upon entering the Exhibitor’s Hall was Legacy: Gears of Time (Amazon). This game’s from a relatively new company, Floodgate Games, and was funded through a Kickstarter. I first heard of it a few months back, when they Kickstarted the Legacy: Forbidden Machines expansion. Unfortunately, this was right after a little heart-to-heart with my wife about my Kickstarter “issue” … so I had pledged to pretty much stop backing any Kickstarter projects.

Legacy: Gears of Time is a time-travel themed technology-building card game. Basically, you move back in time along a track and establish technologies. Some technologies are “Fundamental,” but others require certain technologies to be established earlier in the timeline for them to work. You can establish a Combustion Engine without Fire or The Wheel in play, but the Combustion Engine won’t actually be successful until those earlier technologies are established. When you establish working technologies, you gain Influence tokens. In order to keep technologies working, you not only have to establish the technologies, but keep them active by using your Influence on them, so that the technology (or its prerequisites) don’t fade out of existence. This Influence mechanic also allows you to basically seize control of a technology established by someone else and get points for controlling that technology.

It’s a fun game. My one immediate issue is that the artwork isn’t the most polished. It has that “Good, but …” artistic feel that I’ve found on several of the Kickstarter board games that I’ve seen. However, the mechanics are rock solid and I’ll be doing a more in-depth review of the game and expansion in the future, since I now own a copy!

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The Exploding World of Castles and Crusades

Sunday, August 18, 2013 John ONeill Comments 9 comments

I was disappointed I wasn’t able to go to GenCon this week. Although I’ve been enjoying Howard Andrew Jones’s sporadic updates on Facebook, and looking forward to a detailed report when he gets back.

In the meantime, I’ve been consoling myself with memories of my last game convention, Gary Con V in March. I wrote up a detailed report on Gary Con IV last year, but just didn’t have time to do it justice with a full length write-up this year. But I sure enjoyed the few hours I was able to spend there. The highlight for me, as usual, was the Dealer’s Room, which gets bigger and more varied every year.

I was pleased to be able to say hello to Kelsey “Rose” Jones at the Games By Gamers booth, makers of the world’s best dice bags, and tell her how much I enjoyed her work. And buy a new bag for my daughter, who complained that the ones I brought home last year were “covered in skulls and icky stuff, and not pretty. At all.” She was right, and this time I got her a nice bag with a fall color print, which made her extremely happy.

I was also very pleased to finally meet Jeffrey Talanian and Ian Baggley — the writer and artist behind the terrific Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, which I reviewed last December — and buy a copy of the hot-of-the-press first issue of Gygax Magazine. I also met the friendly folks at Faster Monkey Games, and bought a copy of Castle Ravenloft from the Noble Knight Games booth, which was stocked with a wonderful assortment of new and collectible games in great condition — and at great prices.

But my most impressive stop was at Stephen Chenault’s Troll Lord booth, where I was astounded at the wide range of new Castles & Crusades titles. I had a nice talk with Stephen and left feeling very jazzed about the exciting things in store for Old School Renaissance fans.

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