Six Sought Adventure: A Half-Dozen Swords And Sorcery Short Stories Worth Your Summer Reading Time

Six Sought Adventure: A Half-Dozen Swords And Sorcery Short Stories Worth Your Summer Reading Time

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fantasy-poul-andersonI’ve always enjoyed fantasy fiction in the short form. In an age when a typical series stretches seven-plus doorstopper-sized volumes without the guarantee of an actual ending, it’s refreshing to take a quick dip into the pool of the fantastic rather than committing to a read akin to a trans-Atlantic journey in the age of sail.

If you are new to the heroic fantasy/swords and sorcery genres, the following six stories are fine stepping stones for further exploration, at least in my opinion. I’ve deliberately chosen stories written by authors not named Howard or Leiber; REH and Fritz are the best these genres have ever produced but there’s already plenty of ink spilled about them. I obviously have nothing but praise for “Worms of the Earth” or “Bazaar of the Bizarre” but I’m sure most of Black Gate‘s readers have very likely already read these stories, so I present these six instead.

“The Barrow-Troll,” David Drake, Whispers. Starting in 1977 editor Stuart David Schiff released the first of six anthologies entitled Whispers, a series of best-of collections from a now defunct magazine bearing the same name. “The Barrow Troll” appears in the first of these anthologies.

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New Treasures: Rachel Aaron’s The Spirit War

New Treasures: Rachel Aaron’s The Spirit War

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the-spirit-warAlways nice to see a new fantasy series succeed. In particular, it’s nice to see a non-traditional series succeed — i.e. one that doesn’t feature vampires, werewolves, or a stake-wielding heroine with an all-leather wardrobe. And it’s especially nice to see a genuine sword & sorcery series succeed, one whose protagonist is not a swordsman, prince, or naive young hero… in fact, he may not be a hero at all.

Rachel Aaron’s first novel The Spirit Thief (October, 2010) kicked off The Legend of Eli Monpress, a series that has now run to four volumes. The most recent, The Spirit War, was just released last month.

Eli Monpress is vain. He’s cocky. And he’s a thief.

But he’s a thief who has just seen his bounty topped and he’s not happy about it. The bounty topper, as it turns out, is his best friend, bodyguard, and master swordsman, Josef. Who has been keeping secrets from Eli…

Family drama aside, Eli and Josef have their hands full. The Spirit Court has been usurped by the Council of Thrones and someone calling herself the Immortal Empress is staging a massive invasion. But it’s not just politics — the Immortal Empress has a specific target in mind: Eli Monpress, the greatest thief in the world.

Here’s what our buddy John Ottinger III at Grasping for the Wind said about the first novel:

The Spirit Thief is a work of sword and sorcery that will appeal to readers of Jim C. Hines, Karen Miller, Jon Sprunk, and Piers Anthony. It is a thrill ride of a novel, delightfully amusing, based on an original magic system… I loved it.

Missed out on the first volumes? No problem. Orbit has just released all three — The Spirit Thief, The Sprit Rebellion, and The Spirit Eater — in a single handsome omnibus edition for $15 ($9.99 for the digital version).

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Goth Chick News: Get the Lizard Guys on the Horn: We’ve Got Them a Gig!

Goth Chick News: Get the Lizard Guys on the Horn: We’ve Got Them a Gig!

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image0021I only remember two things about the 1998 remake of the pop culture film Godzilla (and that’s saying quite a lot since most people don’t remember it at all).

The first is that it starred Ferris Bueller, I mean Matthew Broderick, in a role that was in no danger of making us forget his previous day off.

Second, I remember thinking how nice it was for Tri-Star Pictures to put the lizard effects guys from Jurassic Park back to work. Their unemployment benefits had very nearly run out since The Lost World wrapped in 1997.

Godzilla movies and their collective cheesiness have always been fun in an Ed Wood sort of way, but the 1998 version was cringe-worthy on a whole different scale: which is why I have always fantasized about ambushing Sarah Jessica Parker at a red carpet event to ask her how it feels to be married to the star of a cinematic pile of lizard poop.

And though such a statement might cause Ms. Parker to fall right off her $1200 pumps, it is clearly no such deterrent to the rest of Hollywood who apparently has never met a remake they didn’t like.

Get Industrial Light and Magic on the phone and let’s hope they haven’t chucked those velociraptor puppets…

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Art of the Genre: The Art of Miniatures

Art of the Genre: The Art of Miniatures

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wm14_trollbloodstarterThere was a time back in the 1980s when I read Dragon magazine and pined over every ad of a game. It was during this time that I saw a picture of a mini-dungeon with some really cool miniatures included. I must have stared at it for hours and finally, when the Sears & Roebuck catalog came and I could pick out my Christmas present, imagine how happy I was to see the set featured in those pages.

My mother ordered if for me, and the day finally came when I opened my gifts and discovered the box I’d been waiting for. Now imagine my shock and disappointment when the incredible color version of the set was this dull grey plastic. It was in that moment that I was both duped by miniatures and also intrigued. Someone, somewhere, had managed to turn that grey plastic to Technicolor gold… but alas, I wasn’t to try myself and so I dumped it and forgot.

When I moved to Frederick, Maryland, back in late 1997, I ended up going into the downtown area to search out a gaming store. I found a good sized store called The Gaming Realm. Although the store would only last another year and a half after I found it, I still have many fond memories of my times there and all the people I met.

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Vintage Treasures: Henry Kuttner’s “The Graveyard Rats”

Vintage Treasures: Henry Kuttner’s “The Graveyard Rats”

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weird-tales-march-1936-coverThis is the latest of my short fiction reviews, following my recent reports on Howard Waldrop’s “The Ugly Chickens,” George R.R. Martin’s “Nightflyers,” and others.

In honor of the recent release of the massive Henry Kuttner collection, Thunder in the Void, I thought I’d talk about Kuttner’s first published story, “The Graveyard Rats,” which appeared in the March 1936 Weird Tales — alongside The Hour of the Dragon by Robert E. Howard, Edmond Hamilton’s “In the World’s Dusk,” Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Black Abbot of Puthuum,” and “The Crystal Curse” by Eando Binder.

Quite auspicious company! I found echoes of both Howard and Lovecraft in the opening paragraphs. Here, see what you think:

Masson… recalled certain vaguely disturbing legends he had heard since coming to ancient, witch-haunted Salem — tales of a moribund, inhuman life that was said to exist in forgotten burrows in the earth. The old days, when Cotton Mather had hunted down the evil cults that worshipped Hecate and the dark Magna Mater in frightful orgies, had passed; but dark gabled houses still leaned perilously towards each other over narrow cobbled streets, and blasphemous secrets and mysteries were said to be hidden in subterranean cellars and caverns, where forgotten pagan rites were still celebrated in defiance of law and sanity. Wagging their grey heads wisely, the elders declared that there were worse things than rats and maggots crawling in the unhallowed earth of the ancient Salem cemeteries.

And then, too, there was this curious dread of the rats. Masson… had heard vague rumours of ghoulish beings that dwelt far underground, and that had the power of commanding the rats, marshalling them like horrible armies. The rats, the old men whispered, were messengers between this world and the grim and ancient caverns far below Salem. Bodies had been stolen from graves for nocturnal subterranean feasts, they said.

What a great opening. I especially enjoyed the promise of a tale of eldritch and powerful subterranean evils… although truthfully, he had me at “frightful orgies.”

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New Treasures: Jason E. Thummel’s In Savage Lands

New Treasures: Jason E. Thummel’s In Savage Lands

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in-savage-landsOne of the many great things about being involved with Black Gate is being exposed to so many terrific new writers. One of the best of the recent lot is Jason E. Thummel, whose short fiction is fast paced, consistently exciting, and packed with invention.

I’ve purchased three short stories from Jason for Black Gate magazine, but we by no means have a monopoly on his work. His story “Runner of the Hidden Ways” was one of the finest stories in the excellent anthology, Rage of the Behemoth (2009), and his fiction has also appeared in the acclaimed (and much-missed) Flashing Swords magazine and the anthology Magic and Mechanica (2009). His first novel, The Spear of Destiny, was published in 2011.

Now comes word that his first collection, In Savage Lands, is available. Here’s the official description:

A small band of rebellious slaves, fleeing an undead terror; an untested leader, willing to sacrifice everything to save his people; a man driven to become the thing he hates most in order to exact a terrible vengeance…

These are just a few of those you will meet within.

Against unfathomable odds, the might of monsters, the cunning of men, and the raw, overwhelming power of the elements themselves, each struggles to survive…

In Savage Lands is a collection of 13 short stories for lovers of Heroic Fiction, Sword and Sorcery, and action-driven Fantasy.

In Savage Lands is 160 pages (approximately 44,000 words). It is available for $8.95 in paperback, and in digital format for $2.99 from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes.

Thanks to the ever-vigilant Jason Waltz for the head’s up on this one!

Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Mars, Part 7: A Fighting Man of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Mars, Part 7: A Fighting Man of Mars

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fighting-man-of-mars-1st-editionBack on Mars already?

I’ve now crossed the equator of the eleven-book Martian series, and A Fighting Man of Mars is the first volume of “Phase #3” of Barsoom. Phase #1 is the original John Carter trilogy of the early ‘teens. Phase #2 comprises the three books where Burroughs tried new heroes. Phase #3, which covers the three books published in the 1930s, has John Carter return as the protagonist, and shows ERB spreading out the time between the books until he eventually quits writing them altogether. (Synthetic Men of Mars is the last actual novel of the series; the two following books are compilations of novellas.) Even though the first book of the new phase still features a hero other than John Carter, a new decade has arrived, and with this book it seems that ERB is seeking to re-capture the excitement of the first trilogy.

Our Saga: The adventures of Earthman John Carter, his progeny, and sundry other natives and visitors, on the planet Mars, known to its inhabitants as Barsoom. A dry and slowly dying world, Barsoom contains four different human civilizations, one non-human one, a scattering of science among swashbuckling, and a plethora of religions, mystery cities, and strange beasts. The series spans 1912 to 1964 with nine novels, one volume of linked novellas, and two unrelated novellas.

Today’s Installment: A Fighting Man of Mars (1930)

Previous Installments: A Princess of Mars (1912), The Gods of Mars (1913), The Warlord of Mars (1913–14), Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1916), The Chessmen of Mars (1922), The Master Mind of Mars (1927)

The Backstory

Burroughs started writing A Fighting Man of Mars in February 1929. Most of it he dictated onto Ediphone cylinders for his secretary to type later, a practice the author used for the rest of his career. The new book sold faster than The Master Mind of Mars, although All-Story still rejected it before Blue Book picked it up for $8,000 — seven times what Hugo Gernsback paid for Master Mind. The sale must have come as a great relief to ERB, since between writing the book and its appearance in six parts in Blue Book (April–September 1930), two major events occurred that shook up the author’s life. …

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Donald J Sobol, October 4, 1924 – July 11, 2012

Donald J Sobol, October 4, 1924 – July 11, 2012

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encyclopedia-brown-finds-the-clues2Donald J Sobol, the man who created greatly under-rated detective Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown, died last week of natural causes at the age of 87.

Sobol, a clerk at the New York Public Library, published Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective in 1963. It was the first of what eventually became 28 volumes featuring the genius boy detective.

While the book was an instant hit, and the adventures of Encyclopedia Brown entertained generations of young readers, it took dogged persistence for Sobol to get his creation in print. According to later interviews, it was rejected no less than twenty-four times before Penguin Books bought it.

Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown books, really collections of short stories, follow the boy detective and his friends as he solved mysteries in his hometown of Idaville for “25¢ per day plus expenses.” Occasionally Encyclopedia would assist his father, the chief of police, solve more serious crimes, but usually he was matching wits with a local gang of bullies led by Bugs Meany.

Sobol continued writing Encyclopedia Brown books his entire career, publishing five new volumes between 2000 and 2010. The most recent, Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Carnival Crime, was released in 2011. A twenty-ninth book, Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Soccer Scheme, is scheduled for release this October, in advance of the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective next year. HBO aired 10 half-hour episodes of Encyclopedia Brown, a live action version of the books with Scott Bremner in the title role, in 1989.

Sobol wrote 50 additional books in his lifetime, including the popular Two-Minute Mysteries and Secret Agents Four. He was born in New York City in 1924 and served in World War II before becoming a clerk at the New York Public Library. The success of the Encyclopedia Brown books allowed him to move to Florida to become a full time writer.

He will be missed.

Mage: The Hero Defined

Mage: The Hero Defined

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mage-iiMatt Wagner began writing and illustrating the first Mage series in 1984 at the age of twenty-two.  At the time, he was a relatively unknown creator struggling both to find his voice and make a place for himself in the comics industry.  His subsequent work on Grendel and Sandman Mystery Theatre had garnered many awards and critical acclaim; but in interviews there was always the obligatory question of “When are you going back to Mage?”

When the second volume of Mage began in 1997, Mr. Wagner had earned a (deserved) reputation as both an illustrator and storyteller.  The main character of the series, Kevin Matchstick, had also been working hard in the intervening years, earning his own reputation.  The similarities between Wagner and Matchstick are both obvious and entirely intentional, to the point where Wagner has referred to Mage as a sort of mythologized autobiography.  So we can read this volume as both an examination on how mythic tropes exist in our everyday lives and as a fantasy-dressed account of Wagner’s ups and downs in the comic industry.

When I originally read this book, I was twenty-three (essentially the author’s age when the first book was published) and a lot of it was lost on me.  I identified a lot more with the jaded young man of the first volume than with the more practical and down-to-earth middle-aged man in volume two.  Fifteen years later (oops, guess I just gave away my age there), the second volume seems much richer to me.  This is the story of a hero growing up, learning that being good involves more than simply opposing evil.  It also carries some veiled criticism of the superhero genre (specifically, why most superheroes are perpetually locked in their mid- to late twenties).  The series ends with Kevin Matchstick committing an act of maturity that most superheroes would never dare (unless it was a dream or an imaginary story or eventually ret-conned).

The first book concerned Kevin refusing to acknowledge his own potential to change the world.  His friends were mostly there to inspire him (sometimes by dragging him kicking and screaming to his destiny).  In some ways, it was a young man’s fantasy, with everyone around Kevin telling him about his greatness and obligation.

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Self Sabotage is Easier than Writing

Self Sabotage is Easier than Writing

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snoopyA lot of writers I know are pretty good at self-sabotage. It’s not that writing is hard, exactly, except that it is. Physical labor and exercise isn’t required, and it sure doesn’t look like you’re doing much when you’re staring at that screen and pecking away at a keyboard. But getting good work, consistently, means constant effort. And constant effort = work. I’d like to have those moments where an entire chapter writes itself and stays virtually unchanged through every draft because I can hear, see, and picture it so clearly the first time; but it just doesn’t happen very often. The trick is sticking with the process so that the reader can’t tell which chapters you labored over and which chapters flowed naturally the first time. And that takes time, and effort, and sometimes it’s easier to do nothing.

I’ve learned different ways to practice self sabotage over the years, and different ways to fight my tendencies. Never keeping computer games on my computer, no matter how great they look, for instance. I won that battle. But there are two others that cropped up this last month. One is an old enemy. The other one is new.

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