Batman: Under the Red Hood

Batman: Under the Red Hood

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batman_under_the_red_hood_posterBatman: Under the Red Hood (2010)
Directed by Brandon Vietti. Featuring the Voices of Bruce Greenwood, Jensen Ackles, Neil Patrick Harris, John DiMaggio, Jason Isaacs, Wade Williams.

Warner Bros. Animation’s series of straight-to-video PG-13 releases set in the DC Comics universe has been a great success. Starting in 2007 with Superman: Doomsday (which completely embarrassed the previous year’s live-action Superman Returns) the team at Warner Bros. that originally kicked off the DC Animated Universe with Batman: The Animated Series has turned out high quality, adult-slanted fare that has even excited me about characters that I don’t usually care much about, like Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern.

But, no surprise, much of the new DVD series has featured Batman, the hottest property in Warner Brothers’ DC catalog because of the huge success of the Christopher Nolan-directed movies. Batman got his own compilation disc with Batman: Gotham Knight (set in the Nolan-verse and featuring a round-robin of top anime-directing talents), co-starred with Superman in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (an adaptation of the Jeph Loeb-written arc in the popular Superman/Batman ongoing comic), and played a major part in Justice League: The New Frontier and Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.

Now Batman has his second solo-starring release in the series. Based on a recent popular storyline in Batman’s eponymous comic book that tied into the mega-crossover event “Infinite Crisis,” Batman: Under the Red Hood brings PG-13 to the small screen in a big way. In fact, the film flirts with a “soft R” rating, and it’s definitely not for children—unless you don’t mind your children watching not one but two brutal beatings with a crowbar.

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Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek: “The Price of Two Blades” by Pete Butler

Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek: “The Price of Two Blades” by Pete Butler

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twobladesclrWe finally reach the novellas as we commence Part II of our online inventory of the massive Black Gate 14, and we start with Pete Butler’s “The Price of Two Blades,” one of the most acclaimed stories we’ve published in some time. Here’s what Luke Reviews said:

A story-teller and entertainer sits down to learn a new story for his repertoire, and finds much more. This is an absolutely brilliant piece. The novella flew by, playing both with action fantasy and the art of telling stories. One of the best pieces of short fiction I’ve read from 2010, it would be an injustice for this one not to win some awards.

Over at SF Site, Sherwood Smith says:

Butler’s well-crafted, deceptively simple frame-tale holds its own with dark, convincing emotional resonance. A wandering bard arrives at a village, and is curious about its cemetery, which is full of beautiful marble headstones of the sort that only the rich can afford. When he sees that most of the headstones share the same death date, he’s determined to get the locals to give him the story… and he hears the tale of the cost people paid in evoking magic, and the gods, to get rid of a bandit lord. The story builds to a solid double-punch that lingers effectively.

And John Ottinger III at Grasping for the Wind gushes:

Spectacular… a story of a pact made with old gods that costs a high and terrible price… Butler’s clever build of suspense and mystery, use of religious magic that costs a price, and multiple viewpoint telling of the story keep the reader glued to the action as it unfolds. This is undoubtedly one of the best stories of this issue, perhaps one of the best Black Gate has yet published.

 “The Price of Two Blades” appears in Black Gate 14. You can read an excerpt here, and the complete Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek is available here. You can find additional reviews of the entire issue here.

Art by Malcolm McClinton.

Writing Against Resistance

Writing Against Resistance

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warofart1I think one of the reasons that there are so many books out there offering writing advice is that there are so many ways up the mountain. Different writers use different ways to battle their way up the height, sometimes changing their own approaches day to day or project to project. I wouldn’t be surprised if most serious writers have at least one or two of these books on their shelf, or in a box somewhere, its resting spot likely depending upon how useful the writer really found the information.

My current favorite is titled The War of Art, and it has held that position for almost two years, partly because I’ve been too busy to read many writing books, but mostly because it gave me everything I needed to fight my most recent battles. You may recognize its writer, Steven Pressfield, as the author of Gates of Fire, Tides of War, The Legend of Bagger Vance and sundry other works.

But it doesn’t matter if you’ve never heard of Pressfield or read a line of his work if you’ve ever had trouble procrastinating with your writing or any other creative pursuit. Pressfield names your opponent in the battle between creation and NOT-creation “Resistance,” with a capital R, and in this short, concise book, tells you how to recognize it and move forward up that mountain.

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The Weather: Part Art, Part Science, and Part… Magic?

The Weather: Part Art, Part Science, and Part… Magic?

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poison-study2Predicting the weather is an art and a science… yes, really, it’s a science, believe me. I spent four years at Penn State University learning chemistry, calculus, physics, thermodynamics, and fluid dynamics to earn my Meteorology Degree – I should know.

Did that transform me into a great forecaster? Er…no. So I must have relied more on my artistic side, right? Er… no again. Good thing for the masses of people that might have relied on me to forecast their daily weather that I decided to go into environmental meteorology, and work with air quality and air pollution instead. Did you hear that sigh of relief? I did.

Eventually, I ended up changing careers and becoming a writer (long story, but it involves boredom, rage, despair, dissatisfaction, and sex… you really don’t want to know, trust me). But it seems my initial love of weather and storms wouldn’t just die quietly.

No, it found ways into my writing without my conscious consent. My first book, Poison Study, has a very rare weather phenomenon that my one friend (a meteorologist that can forecast – imagine that!) has been the only person to recognize.

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Reconsiderations: The Book of The Dun Cow and The Book of Sorrows

Reconsiderations: The Book of The Dun Cow and The Book of Sorrows

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The Book of the Dun CowOne of the characteristics of a great book is that you can go back to it at different times in your life and get different things out of it. But then sometimes the reverse happens: you read a book before you’re ready. If you’re lucky, though, the book hangs around in the back of your mind, and eventually you pick it up again and find out what you weren’t able to grasp the first time around.

When I was in elementary school, someone gave me a copy of The Book of the Dun Cow, by Walter Wangerin, Jr. I read it, but I didn’t particularly appreciate it. Many years later, I bought another copy, and was much more impressed. I also understood why I didn’t care for it as a child. Not long ago, I found a copy of the sequel The Book of Sorrows. Reading the books together I was impressed again.

The books are an animal fantasy, set when “the earth was still fixed in the absolute center of the universe. It had not yet been cracked loose from that holy place, to be sent whirling — wild, helpless, and ignorant — among the blind stars. And the sun still traveled around the moored earth, so that days and nights belonged to the earth and to the creatures thereon, not to a ball of silent fire. The clouds were still considered to flow at a very great height, halfway between the moon and the waters below; and God still chose to walk among the clouds, striding, like a man who strides through his garden in the sweet evening.”

Humans have not yet been made, and the world is inhabited by animals, who talk and think. And they have a purpose, which is to act as Keepers against Wyrm, the evil that dwells in the heart of the earth and wants to ruin all creation. It is the connection between the animals — their community — that keeps Wyrm from rising. The two books describe two particularly vicious assaults by Wyrm against his keepers, and what happens to the animals as a result.

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Jennifer Rardin, April 28, 1965 — September 20, 2010

Jennifer Rardin, April 28, 1965 — September 20, 2010

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oncebitten2Jennifer Rardin, author of the Jaz Parks series of contemporary urban vampire novels, died unexpectedly at the age of 45 on Monday, Sept. 20.

Her first novel, Once Bitten, Twice Shy, was published by Orbit Books in October 2007. It was followed by Another One Bites the Dust, Biting the Bullet, Bitten to Death, One More Bite, and Bite Marks.

The seventh volume in the series, Bitten in Two, will appear in November, and the eighth and final book is scheduled for June, 2011.

Rardin’s death took her fans by surprise.  Her most recent blog post, three days before her death, is upbeat and filled with details of her trip to Kenosha. Her obituary does not list a cause of death.

Rardin was born in Evansville, Indiana and lived in Robinson, Illinois. She leaves behind a husband and two teenage children.

More information can be found on her online bio and the Jaz Parks Wikipedia entry.

Not-So Short Fiction Review: Prospero Lost

Not-So Short Fiction Review: Prospero Lost

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prospero-lost2Prospero Lost, by L. Jagi Lamplighter
Tor (448 pages, $7.99, June 2010)

Prospero Lost is the first book of a trilogy and the first published novel by L. Jagi Lamplighter, whose name I assume is not a pseudonym,  though it sounds as if it could be a character in her own book.  As you might gather from the title, the story has something to do with what many critics perceive as Shakespeare’s alter ego in his final play, The Tempest, while also somehow involving hell and rebellious offspring given the  allusion to Milton’s Paradise Lost. What you might not expect is just about every fantasy trope you can think of, including (I kid you not), Santa Claus.

It’s perhaps not surprising that Lamplighter is married to John C. Wright, who also favors the everything-including-the-kitchen sink approach to fantasy and manages to make it work. In many respects, Lamplighter’s book reminds me of Wright’s Chronicles of Chaos series which deals with the foibles of family relationships among seeming humans possessed of fantastical natures. Of course, the root of this is Greek/Roman mythology in which imperfect gods irrationally vie among each other out of jealously, envy, egotism or other petty and irrational motivations.  They are, in other words, normal human beings dressed up in magical togas.

According to Lamplighter, the inspiration for her novel’s fantasy world  stemmed from a roleplaying game.

Somewhere in the early Nineties, John and I were invited to play in a roleplaying game run by a friend. He was a new moderator for us, so I decided to write a short story demonstrating what my character could do, so there would be no misunderstandings. For my character, I picked Miranda, the daughter of the magician Prospero from Shakespeare’s Tempest, only in the game, Prospero would turn out to be one of the magicians in the game background…We only played in that game a few times, but I liked the character and the story I had written.

Miranda is the narrator and focus of the novel (indeed, the overarching title of the trilogy is Prospero’s Daughter) and Prospero remains totally off-stage.  He is lost, and Miranda is trying to find out what happened to him.

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Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 6.1 “Exile on Main Street”

Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 6.1 “Exile on Main Street”

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Season 6 starts a year after the events in the finale of Season 5, which I detailed a few days ago. This blog post is being written somewhat stream-of-consciousnessly as I watch the episode.

SUPERNATURAL
Dean Winchester (left), Sam Winchester (center), and their formerly-dead grandfather, Samuel Campbell (right)
It will contain spoilers (like the picture at the right).

You have been warned.

At the start of the episode, Dean’s been living a year with Lisa and her son, Ben, in suburbia, after his Lucifer-possessed brother, Sam, dove into a trans-dimensional prison to save the world. It’s clear that Dean hasn’t completely gotten over his past, though, as a montage relating his mundane daily tasks to his former life makes clear.

Still, he’s making friends. One in particular, a neighbor named Sid, seems to have bonded with him over regular beers, but Dean isn’t sharing anything about his past with him. He tells him that he used to be in pest control. (I, for one, am pegging Sid as a demon or something. He’s just a little too interested in Dean’s past.)

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Adventure Tales #6 Arrives

Adventure Tales #6 Arrives

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adventure-6Wildside Press continues their excellent pulp reprint series with the sixth issue of Adventure Tales, presenting tales of classic fiction from Nelson S. Bond, Arthur O. Friel, Talbot Mundy, and Zorro creator Johnston McCulley, and poetry by Poul Anderson and Clark Ashton Smith, among others. The issue is cover-dated Winter 2010, but the publication date on the copy we received was September 13.

This is a special H. Bedford-Jones issue, with three complete stories from the pulp master. As usual the issue is handsomely illustrated, with finely detailed reproductions of the original accompanying artwork. It also includes a reprint of the complete first issue of George Scithers’ legendary Sword & Sorcery fanzine Amra, which is pretty darn cool, and I hope future issues of Adventure Tales  keep up this tradition.

John Betancourt’s editorial laments the loss of Scithers, one of the most accomplished editors in our field. Scithers was founding editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction and edited both Amazing and Weird Tales in a long and varied career. He was a typesetter and Assistant Editor at Wildside until his death at 80 (and perhaps the loss of George’s keen eye explains the rather unfortunate back cover credit to “Frits Leiber,” for the poem “The Gray Mouser: 1” )

Overall this is a very handsome package, typical for Wildside’s pulp reprints, and there were brief fisticuffs atop the Black Gate rooftop headquarters to determine who would take home our sole review copy.  John Fultz sucker-punched Bill Ward and had me in a headlock when Howard Andrew Jones unleashed an evil trained chicken who swooped in and scored the prize. Howard retreated to Indiana and, in his latest mocking transmission back to headquarters, claims to be already at work on a review.

Adventure Tales is 152 pages and is now available directly from Wildside for just $12.95.