Vintage Treasures: Eleanor Arnason’s The Sword Smith

Vintage Treasures: Eleanor Arnason’s The Sword Smith

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the-sword-smith2I first became acquainted with Eleanor Arnason through her powerful science fiction novels, including To the Resurrection Station (1986), Ring of Swords (1993), and especially A Woman of the Iron People (1991), the novel which won both the first Tiptree Award and the Mythopoeic Award in 1992.

But Arnason has a fine rep as a fantasy author as well. Her Daughter of the Bear King (1987) — the tale of a Minneapolis housewife who finds herself in a strange world where she’s hailed as a long-awaited hero, a true bear and shape-changer called to fight a creeping evil — was her second fantasy novel. Her first, and her first published novel, was The Sword Smith (1978).

The Sword Smith is an odd book in many ways. In begins in media res, with our heroes Limper, a lame smith, and his companion, the young dragon Nargri, in full flight from the King of Eshgorin, who has put a price on their heads. The reasons for all this are gradually revealed in a book that’s more travelogue than tightly-plotted heroic fantasy, with the two companions having a variety of adventures, meeting new companions, getting captured (more than once), and getting in and out of sticky situations. That’s our two heroes on the cover, making a sword (click for bigger version).

The Sword Smith is sometimes described as “low fantasy” (as opposed to high fantasy), chiefly because of the lack of plot. But it’s also praised for its originality; world building; and themes of individual freedom in the face of tyranny, the value of artistic aspirations, and prejudice.

It took me a while to track down a copy, but I finally found one last week. I think this has more to do with the publisher — a tiny outfit called Condor Publishing, who as far as I know published virtually no other fantasy novels — than any lack of quality. For whatever reason, copies are scare, and the book has never been reprinted.

The Sword Smith is 208 pages in paperback. It was published in 1978 by Condor Publishing, with a wraparound cover by A. Echevarria, and had an original cover price of $1.95.

Art of the Genre: Joe Kubert [1926-2012]

Art of the Genre: Joe Kubert [1926-2012]

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Joe Kubert, comic icon and teacher, passed away August 12th 2012
Joe Kubert, comic icon and teacher, passed away August 12th 2012
When I think of Joe Kubert, I think of Sgt. Rock, of comic books and of incredible pencils, but first and foremost I think of an inspirational teacher. Most of the time, artists influence the marketplace and world with their art alone, students of their style learning from observing images, but now and again a great artist also becomes a teacher, and for this their lives, and our world, will be forever changed.

So it was for Joe Kurbert, comic icon, and master of his art. Joe’s school, and all the ‘Kubies,’ as his graduates were called, helped define nearly two generations of art since its inception in 1976. Notable names such as Dave Dorman, Tim Truman, and countless others have studied under this master, and because of that, his rank among the all time greats increases tenfold.

Two of his children, sons Adam and Andy, have gone on to follow in their father’s footsteps as well, now respected comic artists in their own right.

His art, so inspiring to all fans, had a subtle quality that somehow managed to be both hard and soft. Emotion was etched into each line, and the movement found in his figures always had a realism I found astonishing when reading gritty war stories from his formative, post WWII, years in the industry.

He was another outstanding member of ‘The Greatest Generation,’ and the principles for which he lived his life, and the kindness and generosity for which he was known, are a shining example to others who I hope will eventually follow in his footsteps.

To this, beyond talented and incredible father, artist, husband, and teacher, I raise a glass. He will be sorely missed, but his legacy, as well as his teachings, will continue. And for that, the world of art will be forever enriched.

Black Gate Goes to the Summer Movies: The Bourne Legacy

Black Gate Goes to the Summer Movies: The Bourne Legacy

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bourne-legacy-posterThe Bourne Legacy, Paramount’s attempt to extend their successful Jason Bourne franchise — based very loosely on the novels of Robert Ludlum — does give the impression of the first film of a trilogy. It feels like The Bourne Identity (2002), the inaugural movie of the Matt Damon trilogy: it’s a starting point with some excellent sections, but also the nagging sense that all the finest moments are yet to come. Overall, there is something slight about the enterprise, making it a minor disappointment for a film I hoped would salvage August. Will Expendables 2 be this year’s “August Surprise”? I never thought that might be a possibility at the beginning of the season.

Doug Liman directed The Bourne Identity, but it was Paul Greengrass sitting in the folding green chair for the next two films, The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), and it was his work that shoved the series into the high octane world of dazzling foot pursuits, close-quarter pummelings, shaky-cam car chases, and earnest people trying to get control of the world by walking fast while talking on cell phones. And audiences loved it. Those two films are the defining spy movies of the decade, easily besting the re-boot of James Bond (in the Jason Bourne mold, natch).

The Bourne Legacy, under the direction of Tony Gilroy, who wrote all three previous entries and made an impression as a director with Michael Clayton in 2007, collects the elements that made its predecessors work: whipcrack action with jittery cameras, raw global espionage, and top-level actors playing the gray-shaded manipulators attached to their phones and computer displays. What it doesn’t have is a compelling enough character story at the center to hold it together, or a resolution that satisfies beyond the need to signal a sequel.

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Mindjammer Press Publishes Sarah Newton’s Mindjammer

Mindjammer Press Publishes Sarah Newton’s Mindjammer

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mindjammer2I first encountered Sarah Newton in 2010, when Howard Andrew Jones mentioned how impressed he was with Mindjammer, a far future transhuman space opera setting she wrote for the Starblazer Adventures RPG. I picked up a copy of her massive Legends of Anglerre fantasy roleplaying game on the strength of his rec and wasn’t disappointed. It was a gorgeous and inventive game based on the popular FATE system and we reviewed it in detail in Black Gate 15. I was especially impressed with Sarah’s crisp prose and attention to detail.

We don’t let talent like that get away if we can help it, so we recruited Sarah as a BG contributor last year. Her detailed appreciation of a classic urban setting, Pavis – Gateway to Adventure: The Classic RPG City is Back! (parts One and Two) was one of the most popular gaming articles we’ve published on the website this year.

Now Sarah has published her first novel, Mindjammer, through the brand new Mindjammer Press. Mindjammer Press, a new roleplaying and fiction imprint, has announced plans to publish both the Mindjammer roleplaying game and a new line of associated fiction. Their publication schedule includes the upcoming second edition core book, Mindjammer: The Expansionary Era — with vastly expanded content, new and detailed background material, and all new artwork — in spring 2013. It will be followed by the Solenine campaign pack, based on the setting for the first novel, a new and revamped Black Zone campaign, and the second novel in the Mindjammer series, Transcendence. Here’s the description for the first novel:

IT IS THE SECOND AGE OF SPACE… In the seventeenth millennium, the New Commonality of Humankind is expanding, using newly-discovered faster-than-light travel to rediscover lost worlds colonised in the distant past. It’s a time of turmoil, of clashing cultures, as civilisations shudder and collapse before the might of a benevolent empire ten millennia old.

In the Solenine Cluster, things are going from bad to worse, as hyper-advanced technologies destabilise a world in chaos. Thaddeus Clay and his SCI Force special ops team are on the trail of the Transmigration Heresy. What they find is something beyond even their imagining – something which could tear the whole Commonality apart…

Mindjammer is receiving a lot of positive press from readers both inside and outside the gaming industry. Here’s what Stargazer’s World said about it:

What I also enjoyed tremendously was that Mindjammer is a science fiction story that really deserves the name. The technology described sounds plausible and the Commonality era feels “real.” And even though Mindjammer is highly entertaining it also makes the reader ponder a couple of philosophical questions like what makes us human and is there a way to cheat death? In my opinion good SF should not only entertain but make us ask questions. Mindjammer does that all the time…

Mindjammer is a very exiting and intelligently-written novel that should be on the reading list of every SF fan!

Mindjammer is available now in Kindle format for $3.99 and in print for $15.95, both from Amazon. Check it out.

Forbes Publishes List of World’s Top-Earning Authors

Forbes Publishes List of World’s Top-Earning Authors

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maximum-rideForbes magazine has released its annual list of the top-earning authors on the planet. The list is dominated by science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers, including Stephen King, Suzanne Collins, Dean Koontz, and George R.R. Martin. Here are the 10 authors on the list who write genre fiction, and their total earnings in 2011:

1. James Patterson (Maximum Ride); $94 million
2. Stephen King (11/22/63; Dark Tower) $39 million
5. Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid), $25 million
7. Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb (In Death): $23 million
9. Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games); $20 million
10. Dean Koontz (Frankenstein, Odd Thomas);  $19 million
11. J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter); $17 million
12. George R.R. Martin (The Game of Thrones); $15 million
13. Stephenie Meyer (Twilight); $14 million
15. Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians); $13 million

Virtually all of the authors on the list, including Stephen King, Jeff Kinney, Suzanne Collins, J.K. Rowling, and George R.R. Martin, made the list due at least in part to revenue from film adaptations of their work.

The notable exception is the top-selling author James Patterson, who earned nearly all his income from his massive book sales. Patterson published an astounding 14 new titles in 2011 alone.

You can find the complete list here.

New Treasures: Bentley Little’s Indignities of the Flesh

New Treasures: Bentley Little’s Indignities of the Flesh

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indignities-of-the-flesh2I try to keep up on the latest in horror, I do. But it’s challenging. There’s a lot of fresh talent emerging, exciting new work from established authors, and classic stuff I really should make time for. What do I buy, and what do I make time to read?

Lacking a real plan, I’ve fallen back on a tried-and-true strategy that introduced me to the best fantasy and science fiction decades ago: I buy the books with the best covers.

Which brings us handily to Indignities of the Flesh by Bentley Little. Isn’t that a cool cover? Creepy claw-handed dudes, glowing blue hair, and cosmic-colored pajamas. I was reaching for my credit card before I’d finished reading the title. (Click on the image for a bigger version.)

Indignities of the Flesh is a collection of 10 short stories by the acclaimed author of nearly two dozen horror novels. Bentley Little won the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel for The Revelation in 1990; he was nominated again for Best Novel in 1993 for The Summoning. I have his previous short story collection, The Collection, which is now out of print and highly prized by collectors. Here’s the book description for Indignities:

Herein you’ll meet: the mischievous “Rodeo Clown”, who may very well be evil incarnate, or perhaps little more than an innocent bystander in a ring of coincidence; a man obsessed with dental hygiene to the point of stalking, in “Brushing”; a cynic forced to tag along on an ill-advised trip to a faith healer in “Documented Miracles”; a demented birthday girl whose equally demented birthday wishes are about to come true, in “Happy Birthday, Dear Tama”; a family on the run from cartoonists in search of their god, in “Looney Tunes”; and a man who pays the ultimate price for circumventing a parking attendant in the never before published, “Valet Parking.”

Rounding out the collection are “The Black Ladies” and “The Piñata,” a pair of unsettling stories culled from childhood nightmares, the surprisingly poignant “Even the Dead,” which documents the last days of a tender partnership between two friends, only one of whom is still alive… Indignities of the Flesh is a superlative gathering of the kind of twisted, darkly humorous, and mind-bending stories for which Bentley Little is best known.

Indignities of the Flesh is 208 pages in a deluxe hardcover edition from Subterranean Press. It is $35, and was released on May 31. The cover and interior pen-and-ink illustrations are by the talented Bob Eggleton. Learn more at the Subterranean website.

“Quit Messing Around and Subscribe”: James van Pelt Reviews Black Gate 11

“Quit Messing Around and Subscribe”: James van Pelt Reviews Black Gate 11

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black-gate-11I was doing a search earlier today and stumbled on a review of Black Gate 11 by none other than the distinguished author James van Pelt. It was written in Sept 2007, though I missed it until now. Here’s what Jim says, in part:

In the last three days I’ve received my subscriber copies of my two favorite magazines, Talebones and Black Gate. As I was looking them over (lovingly), it suddenly occurred to me that both of these magazines should have kick-butt subscription numbers. They’re wonderful, issue after issue… Here’s what you’re missing in this month’s issue of Black Gate:

  • Really superior production values…  This is a beautiful magazine
  • Great cover art… my little image doesn’t quite capture the impact of the magazine…
  • Top notch high and heroic fantasy. Where do you go for your fantasy kick of that sort? The contents of Black Gate leans toward the adventure fantasy side of the field, but there’s a lot of range in the magazine in approach, style and tone.
  • A serialized story from Mark Sumner, “The Naturalist: Part II.” I like serialized work. Do you remember when that was common in most of the magazines? I first really started paying attention to Sumner when he published an earlier story in Black Gate called “Leather Doll.”
  • Interesting, in depth reviews of the latest fantasy books. Unlike a lot of review venues, Black Gate gives me enough insight into the book to decide to buy it or not
  • Articles by Rich Horton, one of the towering authorities on short fiction in science fiction and fantasy. He can write about a 1954 issue of Galaxy magazine that makes me want to try to find it.
  • A column on gaming
  • A funny multi-page cartoon called “Knights of the Dinner Table: the Java Joint” that in this issue mentioned another favorite author of mine within the cartoon, Carrie Vaughn
  • A lively letter section

This is the second shout out this week for Mark Sumner’s “Leather Doll” (the first was in today’s Letters Column). Not bad for a story which appeared over eight years ago in Black Gate 7. You can read Jim’s complete review — as well as his comments about Talebones, another terrific small press magazine — here.

Black Gate 11 is still available on our back issue page. Buy the PDF for just $8.95, or the print version as part of our back issue sale — any two issues for just $25.

Letters to Black Gate: Ed Carmien, Scott Taylor, Matthew David Surridge, and our Digital Future

Letters to Black Gate: Ed Carmien, Scott Taylor, Matthew David Surridge, and our Digital Future

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Ed Carmien's "Before the Wind," from Black Gate 10. Art by John Kauffman.
Ed Carmien's "Before the Wind," from Black Gate 10. Art by John Kaufmann.

John Burt writes:

I am really enjoying the back issues of Black Gate I purchased. The Morlock series is awesome! The next article for me is the Choose Your Own Adventure in issue 12.

Other writers I enjoyed: Ed Carmien’s “Before the Wind” (BG 10) blew my socks off, probably my favorite story so far. Martha Wells is always enjoyable, Mark Sumner’s “Leather Doll” was the best until “Before the Wind.” Todd McAulty is very good. Those are the ones that come to mind while writing this.

I am a rebel when reading these as well, I start at the beginning and read from end to end, skimming over the RPG stuff (I play boardgames mainly), Which leads me to a comment about an earlier article, when discussing the magazines of the 70s that are gone, the writer mentions that Rodger MacGowan disappeared from the scene, he did, sort of. He is the art director of GMT Games and has RBM Studios, which does art for games (mainly wargames) and publishes the house organ for GMT Games, C3i.

Thanks for the feedback, John. We have fiction in inventory from Martha Wells and Todd McAulty that I think you’ll enjoy, as well as more Morlock stories by James Enge. Stay tuned!

Simone Stubbs comments on our plans to switch to a digital format:

John, I am writing to say that I won’t read the new Digital Issue. I prefer a hard copy sent to my address. Yes, it is what the new generation wants to do, read by hand held devices. But, I am sixty nine years old and my husband and I just have one desktop computer and one Track Phone between us for communication. Whenever you publish hard cover please send it to my address.

Simone, I know what you mean — a lot of our readers are constantly asking for digital versions of the magazine, and I know we’ll have to make them happy to survive. But I still prefer a physical copy of the magazine myself. I’m 48, and my house is filled with old books and magazines. It would make me very sad to have to totally give up print.

It will be some time before we’re able to do another physical edition of the magazine, however. If you’re missing any of the print issues, I’d be happy to offer you print back issues while you wait.

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The End of the World and Everyone Knows It

The End of the World and Everyone Knows It

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on-the-beachI’ve always had a hankering for apocalyptic fiction. It probably goes back to the original Planet of the Apes being one of the first big-screen movies I ever experienced, though I was too young to appreciate or remember more than a flash or two — “Daddy, why is is that monkey riding a horse?”. I was probably asleep by the time Heston knelt in the sand in front of the Statue of Liberty. Does that still count as a spoiler? Nevertheless, it seems to have left an impression.

Recently, there’s been a boomlet of what I call full-stop apocalyptic movies. What I’m talking about is the sort of movie where everyone, and I do mean everyone, dies at the end thanks to some earth-ending cataclysmic event. No escaping to another world on a spaceship ala When Worlds Collide (or getting picked up by a Vogon construction fleet). Nope, the curtain comes down on everything and everyone in one dreadful, final coda.

You have to be in the right sort of mood to enjoy this kind of thing. I find a largish whiskey helps. While it sounds bleak, as an author or dramatist, the idea isn’t without merit. We’re all going to be face-to-face with death at some point. In this sort of story, all your characters are going to be meeting death at about the same time. The interest comes in seeing how each recognizes, struggles against, and eventually experiences their final moments, singly or together.

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This Week’s Bargain SF & Fantasy Books at Amazon.com

This Week’s Bargain SF & Fantasy Books at Amazon.com

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those-across-the-river2You. You’ve got some kind of high octane karma going.

Not feeling it? Check this out: two days ago the World Fantasy Convention announced Christopher Buehlman’s debut novel, Those Across the River, had been nominated for a World Fantasy Award. And guess what’s recently been remaindered at Amazon.com for just $9.98 in hardcover.

See what I mean? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. How about a copy of He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson, edited by Christopher Conlon and containing all new stories by Stephen King, Joe Hill, Nancy Collins, and Joe Lansdale, for just $2.08 (marked down from $25.99)? Or Col Buchanan’s epic fantasy, Farlander, in hardcover for $1.80 (originally $24.99)? Or the gorgeous full-color art anthology, Sci-Fi Art Now, edited by John Freeman, for just 12 bucks (was $29.99)? Or Omnitopia Dawn, the first volume of Diane Duane’s new Omnitopia series, for a measly $2.92 (original price: $24.95)?

Damn, man.  You did something right in your previous life. Invented penicillin or the TV remote control or something. Sit back and enjoy the spoils.

Most books are discounted from 60% to 80%. As always, quantities on these bargain books are very limited. All are eligible for free domestic shipping on orders over $25. Many of last month’s discount titles are also still available; you can see them here.