Vintage Treasures: Shadow of Earth by Phyllis Eisenstein

Vintage Treasures: Shadow of Earth by Phyllis Eisenstein

Comments 2 comments


Shadow of Earth (Dell, September 1979). Cover artist uncredited

We lost Phyllis Eisenstein almost three years ago, in December 2020. She was a friend of mine, and I miss the long conversations we used to have at Windycon and the Windy City Pulp & Paper Show. I’ll never forget the greeting she shouted at me in 2015 (“I’m retired!”) after she finally quit her advertising job. She had numerous writing projects she wanted to complete. She died of a stroke five years later, at the age of 74.

Phyllis was an enormously respected author who influenced modern fantasy in profound ways (George R.R. Martin dedicated A Storm of Sword to her, in gratitude for her contribution to Game of Thrones), but I always thought her own fiction was unjustly overlooked. Her series Tales of Alaric the Minstrel (ten stories and two novels, Born to Exile and In the Red Lord’s Reach) was her most popular, but her catalog also included the Book of Elementals trilogy and two standalone novels. Today I want to look back at one of her first novels, Shadow of Earth (1979).

…

Read More Read More

THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING, PT2 by T.H. WHITE

THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING, PT2 by T.H. WHITE

Comments 5 comments

“Thomas, my idea of those knights was a sort of candle, like these ones here. I have carried it for many years with a hand to shield it from the wind. It has flickered often. I am giving you the candle now — you won’t let it out?”

“It will burn.”

King Arthur to Tom of Warwick, p. 647 The Once and Future King

Read the first part of this review, Might For Right: The Once And Future King, Part 1 By T.H. White.

The first two volumes, The Sword in the Stone (1938) and The Queen of Air and Darkness (1939), of T.H. White’s The Once and Future King focus on the rise of Arthur Pendragon and the foundation of his kingdom, where right, not might, is the rule. The following two volumes, The Ill-Made Knight (1940) and The Candle in the Wind (1958), tell the story of Lancelot and Guenever’s affair and subsequent rot and collapse of the Round Table and Arthur’s kingdom. At the end of The Queen of Air and Darkness, White reminds the reader that in the tales of King Arthur, sin comes home to roost and that sometimes, even innocence isn’t enough to prevent ruination. In these two books, however, no one is innocent.

Lancelot made his first appearance in The Queen of Air and Darkness when his father lent his aid to Arthur for the Battle of Bedegraine.  It was then as a young boy that he had decided he would dedicate himself to Arthur’s vision of a better world.

Ill-Made Knight is the name Lancelot takes for himself. He is no Franco Nero or even a Robert Taylor (both played Lancelot in the movies), but instead a misshapen, ugly man.

…

Read More Read More

Goth Chick News Reviews: How Did I Miss This Fab Vamp Film??

Goth Chick News Reviews: How Did I Miss This Fab Vamp Film??

Comments 1 comment

Only Lovers Left Alive (Sony Pictures Classics, April 11, 2014)

Last week as I did research for my article about the upcoming reimagining of The Bride of Frankenstein, I stumbled across a vampire movie I had not only never seen but had never heard of, and the rarity of this occurrence cannot be understated. Vampires are my favs and though my crappy memory for names and dates means I’ll never consider myself an expert in the genre, I am proud to say that my experience of them in literature, movies, and folklore is pretty darn comprehensive. So, when I found the movie Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), there was nothing for it but to cancel all plans for the evening, order Door Dash, and tuck in to stream this title which had somehow eluded me for ten years.

The first thing to love is that the film cast was comprised of some incredible actors. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston play the two main characters Eve and Adam. But then there is Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland), the late great Anton Yelchin (Star Trek and Fright Night), Jeffrey Wright (Westworld), and the extraordinary John Hurt. The writer/director is Jim Jarmusch, who was also responsible for the zombie spoof movie The Dead Don’t Die (2019), which also starred Swinton, and who according to Jarmusch’s bio, is a bit of a muse of his.

…

Read More Read More

Gen Con Writers’ Symposium 2023 – Final Thoughts from the Chair

Gen Con Writers’ Symposium 2023 – Final Thoughts from the Chair

Comments 0 Comment

 Gen Con Writers’ Symposium 2023 – Overview

Chairing the 2023 Writers’ Symposium was an honor and privilege. The organizing committee set out to double our attendance while growing the community and growing representation & scope. We more than doubled ticket sales (vs 2022) and grew our unique-ticket-purchasers by 50%.  Being our second year post-covid, we created a strong foundation for success in 2024 and beyond.

Gen Con is a massive gaming event, the largest gaming convention in North America. This year they have over 70,000 attendees (nearly a record, and wonderful growth from last year’s 50,000). One in every thirty (3.5%) attendees purchased tickets for the Writers’ Symposium. We offered 70 Free Seminars, 60 Workshops, 20+ Signings, 65+ Presenters; these were organized into different categories (tracks, categorized sessions) to promote longer stays.  We also featured the track Game Narrative (storytelling in video and tabletop games) led by Toiya Kristen Finley to better integrate with the larger event.

We had ~2,500 unique ticket sales, another ~500 walk-ins, and the average attendee purchased 2.5 tickets (up from ~1.5 last yr., indicating our move to “tracks” worked).

…

Read More Read More

Visions of the Future: Sixty Years of Perry Rhodan Art

Visions of the Future: Sixty Years of Perry Rhodan Art

Comments 3 comments

My favorite science fiction series has always been Perry Rhodan, with the first German episode published in September 1961 (authors Karl Herbert Scheer and Clark Darlton) by Moewig Publishing. Although the U.S. editions ceased in 1979 after #137, in its native Germany the series continues to this day in various forms, with over 3,200 episodes in the main series and counting. According to author Andreas Eschbach, reading Perry Rhodan would roughly compare to reading 560 Harry Potter books.

The covers and internal illustrations for the first 1,800 German episodes were created by Johnny Bruck. Today a number of illustrators work for Perry Rhodan, with Alfred Kelsner being the only one still painting original art (vs. digital graphics). Perry Rhodan is considered the most successful science fiction series in Germany – a true classic!

…

Read More Read More

A (Black) Gat in the Hand – The ‘Lost’ Mike & Trixie Intro

A (Black) Gat in the Hand – The ‘Lost’ Mike & Trixie Intro

Comments 0 Comment

“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

(Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun)

So… I agreed to write an introduction for The Complete Cases of Mike & Trixie: Volume One, from Steeger Books. That intro is below. It is not, however, in that particular book, as I missed the deadline in epic Douglas Adams fashion. It was entirely my fault, and I’m fortunate that Steeger didn’t drop me entirely. Since this essay has just been sitting around taking up space on my hard drive, I decided to run it in A (Black) Gat. It’s pretty self-explanatory and covers the first four stories in the series. I like T.T. Flynn, and maybe I could write an intro for Volume Two…

Most pulpsters earned less than a penny a word, with the legendary Black Mask offering a princely three cents! So it comes as no surprise that not only did writers produce at great volume, – some, like Erle Stanley Gardner, could crank out over one million words a year – but they also wrote for multiple magazines in different genres. Robert E. Howard, best known for Conan (Hollywood added ‘the Barbarian’), wrote boxing yarns, Westerns, spicy adventures, horror, historicals, and even mysteries; submitting stories to almost anyone who would pay, it seems. Like his contemporaries, he was just trying to make a living as a pulpster.

…

Read More Read More

Vintage Treasures: Science Fiction Discoveries edited by Carol and Frederik Pohl

Vintage Treasures: Science Fiction Discoveries edited by Carol and Frederik Pohl

Comments 0 Comment


Science Fiction Discoveries (Bantam Books, August 1976). Cover artist uncredited

Five years ago Steven H Silver had a daily column at Black Gate in which he covered Science Fiction Birthdays for a full year. His choice for November 4, 2018 was Kara Dalkey, and Rich Horton had this to say in the comments.

I suppose the only other candidates were M. T. Anderson (I’ve liked a couple of his recentish short pieces a fair bit) and an interesting one: Babette Rosmond, who had a couple of pieces in Unknown in the early ’40s, then a quite interesting short novel, Error Hurled, in a Fred and Carol Pohl anthology in the ’70s.

Rosmond of course was an important editor — first at Street and Smith (Doc Savage was one of her titles) and later in magazines like Seventeen. She also wrote several contemporary novels (including one set among pulp editors), and she was an activist for more woman-led treatment of breast cancer. Interesting person.

The anthology in question was Science Fiction Discoveries, published in 1976, the fourth anthology Fred and Carol edited together, and the first to contain all-original stories. It had an impressive line-up — including a Thousand Worlds novelette by George R. R. Martin, an Azlaroc tale by Fred Saberhagen, and stories by Robert Sheckley, Scott Edelstein, Roger Zelazny, Doris Piserchia, and others. But the contributor that captured my interest was Babette Rosmond, with the complete novel Error Hurled, her sole science fiction publication. Rich is right — Rosmond was a fascinating person, for multiple reasons.

…

Read More Read More

Embroidered Worlds: Fantastic Fiction from Ukraine and the Diaspora

Embroidered Worlds: Fantastic Fiction from Ukraine and the Diaspora

Comments 0 Comment
Embroidered Worlds: Fantastic Fiction from Ukraine & the Diaspora (edited by Valya Dudycz Lupescu, Olha Brylova, and Iryna Pasko; Atthis; Arts Indie Publishing, TBD). Cover Illustrator, Taras Kopansky

Embroidered Worlds: Fantastic Fiction from Ukraine and the Diaspora

Here is a wild effort to crowdfund a fantastic fiction loaded with meaning. This post consolidates a few press releases with the hope that readers will follow along.

In the early months of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, writers internationally looked for a way to help raise awareness and funds for humanitarian efforts. Through network and word of mouth, and several transfers of leadership and scope, a more comprehensive project developed. Now, with a primary focus on bringing Ukrainian storytelling to broader global audiences, they hope this book will raise awareness of Ukrainian culture, pride, and literature — and will encourage people to contribute to Ukrainian humanitarian and artistic causes alike.

…

Read More Read More

New Treasures: Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco

New Treasures: Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco

Comments 0 Comment


Silver Under Nightfall (Saga Press trade paperback reprint, July 25, 2023). Cover by Avery Kua

It’s Friday before a long weekend, and there’s a host of books in my to-be-read pile vying for my attention. But it’s the end of summer and I’m in the mood for something different, so the title I plucked from the pile is Silver Under Nightfall, the adult fiction debut from the author of the popular Bone Witch trilogy, Rin Chupeco.

What’s so intriguing about Silver Under Nightfall? Partly it’s the great Castlevania vibe, which is a definite plus for an end-of-summer read. It’s the tale of a vampire hunter who encounters a “terrifying new breed of vampire” and a “shockingly warmhearted vampire heiress.” There’s a lot more in the back cover text, but honestly they had me at “warmhearted vampire heiress.”

There’s the usual enthusiastic press (Publishers Weekly says it “Makes the vampire genre feel fresh… packed with political intrigue and treachery in both human and vampire realms,” and Strange Horizons says it “packs a powerful punch… a wild, wicked, and welcome addition to the ranks of vampire fantasy novels”) but that’s just noise at this point. My tall chair and comfy drink are ready on the porch, and it time to get this weekend started.

…

Read More Read More

Goth Chick News: Here Comes Another Classic Monster Remake

Goth Chick News: Here Comes Another Classic Monster Remake

Comments 4 comments

Much like fashion, movie themes come in repeatable waves, and if you wait long enough everything that was called “classic” will eventually come back around. Such seems to be the case with the classic movie monsters, originally made famous in the 1930’s and 40’s by Universal Studios. Recently we’ve seen The Invitation and The Last Voyage of the Demeter (Dracula), The Cursed (werewolf), and Birth/Rebirth (Frankenstein), but frankly, there are a whole list of projects currently in production which pay homage to the originals. Of late there have been industry announcements around titles such as Frankenstein vs Dracula, This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein, and Feed to name a few. So, if you’re wondering if the bride of Frankenstein’s monster is going to get any love in the modern age, I’m here to tell you that she is.

A couple weeks back MovieWeb announced that Maggie Gyllenhaal was set to step behind the camera as the director of a remake of Bride of Frankenstein. Christian Bale was announced to be playing Victor Frankenstein, alongside Peter Sarsgaard (Gyllenhaal’s hubby) in a yet-to-be named starring role. There are rumors that in addition to directing, Gyllenhaal herself might play Elsa Lanchester’s iconic character, but I can’t find anything to substantiate this. The project, which is said to be titled The Bride, is set up at Netflix.

…

Read More Read More