Black Gate – Page 432 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

May Short Story Roundup

Tuesday, May 8, 2018 Fletcher Vredenburgh Comments 1 comment

Each month I sit down with the hope of reading nothing but good, solid sword & sorcery fiction. I may read all over the place most of the time, but I do the roundups to get a fix of the stuff that inspired me to blog in the first place. When I open the electronic covers and start reading, I want swords, wizards, warriors, big honking monsters. The basics.

When I finally sat down to read this month’s batch of stories for the roundup, I felt as if I was being deliberately messed with by everyone. There were a few applicable stories, but for the most part, what I read could have been found in the confines of other, less genre-affiliated magazines. It’s not that any of the stories were bad. In fact, they were quite good. They just weren’t heroic fantasy and that’s what I was looking for. Maybe it’s just that I’m getting old and cranky, maybe I’m just a dope, but I was not an especially happy S&S reader this month.

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, the gold standard by which I judge even the superlative new Tales from the Magician’s Skull, let me down. Issue 36 has the usual complement of three stories and three poems. I don’t dislike any of them, but I only like one of them.

“More Blood Than Bone” by E.K. Wagner is not the one I liked. The issue of who is entitled control of natural resources and who gets to wield the power they confer is couched in a nautical tale starring a sea monster, a naturalist, and a sorcerous aristocrat.

Divided into several sections, each commences with an entry from The Bestiary of Tierence Stillson, Esq.. In the first section, Tierence herself appears on the deck of a ship hunting the dangerous haukfin, in order to gain a better, up-close understanding of the creature and one of its teeth, a source of great magical potential.

…

Read More Read More

Birthday Reviews: Susan Casper’s “Mama”

Tuesday, May 8, 2018 Steven H Silver Comments 1 comment

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction August 1984-small

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction August 1984-back-small

Cover by Paul Chadwick

Susan Casper was born on May 8, 1947 and died on February 24, 2017. Casper was married to author and editor Gardner Dozois.

Casper’s first story was “Spring-Fingered Jack” in 1983 and in 1988, she co-edited the anthology Ripper! (also Jack the Ripper). Other stories included “Covenant with a Dragon,” “Nine Tenths of the Law” and “Up the Rainbow.” Her short fiction was collected posthumously in Up the Rainbow: The Complete Short Fiction of Susan Casper and she also had a novel, The Red Carnival, published posthumously.

“Mama” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Edward L. Ferman, in the August 1984 issue. It would be reprinted in 2017 in Up the Rainbow.

Gloria’s mother is over-bearing and somewhat typical of a Jewish mother in “Mama,” although she could have been just as stereotypical had she been a mother of numerous other ethnicities. The key is that she disapproves of Gloria’s life choices and while Gloria is just trying to live her own life, suffering from a sudden breakup with the boyfriend she didn’t seem to have much invested it, her mother is trying to “fix” her life, making it better in the only way she knows how.

…

Read More Read More

To Roam the Unreadable Tome: The Night Land Straight Up

Monday, May 7, 2018 Thomas Parker Comments 12 comments

Anytime that you read a Black Gate article, you do so at your peril. We all know this. How much time and money have you spent tracking down obscure books that you’ve read about here, and how many irreplaceable hours have you spent reading them? Yeah. Me too.

My most recent bout of this fever I blame squarely on Nick Ozment, who recently blew a loud horn on behalf of William Hope Hodgson’s 1912 weird classic The Night Land. Now I’ve had a copy of this book on my shelf for thirty five years and never once come close to reading it. (Wife and kids, working for a living, eating and sleeping, reading a zillion other books, watching Lost and Breaking Bad — you know how it goes, Hodgson, old boy; it was nothing personal.) I never felt any guilt over neglecting this masterpiece; after all, in his article, Nick alluded to the book’s virtual unreadability in its original form (Mr. O was using his piece to boost James Stoddard’s 2010 “translation” of the book into a more modern, accessible idiom.)

Well, to tell me that a book is “difficult” or “impenetrable” or “practically unreadable” (all words that featured prominently in Nick’s article) is like waving a red flag at a bull. My reading fate for the next three weeks was decided at that moment.

…

Read More Read More

New Treasures: Medusa Uploaded by Emily Devenport

Monday, May 7, 2018 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Emily Devenport has written six novels under her own name, including Larissa (1993), Eggheads (1996), and The Kronos Condition (1997).

Under the name Maggy Thomas, she was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award for Best Novel, for Broken Time (2000). She’s also produced two novels set on the Belarus planet under the pseudonym Lee Hogan.

But it’s been fifteen years since she’s published a novel, so anticipation is high for her new book Medusa Uploaded. Most of the major genre sites — including io9, The Verge, and Kirkus — have selected it as one of the most interesting books of the month. It arrived in trade paperback from Tor last week.

My name is Oichi Angelis, and I am a worm.

They see me every day. They consider me harmless. And that’s the trick, isn’t it?

A generation starship can hide many secrets. When an Executive clan suspects Oichi of insurgency and discreetly shoves her out an airlock, one of those secrets finds and rescues her.

Officially dead, Oichi begins to rebalance power one assassination at a time and uncovers the shocking truth behind the generation starship and the Executive clans.

Medusa Uploaded was published by Tor Books on May 1, 2018. It is 317 pages, priced at $16.99 in trade paperback, and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Sam Weber.

See all of our recent New Treasures here.

A Tale of Three Covers: Nightflyers by George R.R. Martin

Monday, May 7, 2018 John ONeill Comments 8 comments

George R.R. Martin may be the most popular genre writer on the planet. In terms of global book sales his only living rivals are J.K. Rowling and Stephen King.

So it’s not surprising that much of his back catalog is returning to print, including his 1985 short story collection Nightflyers. Nightflyers contains six stories, including the Hugo-award winning novella “A Song for Lya,” but by far the most famous tale within is the title story, a science fiction/horror classic which won the Analog and Locus Awards in 1981, and was nominated for a Hugo for Best Novella.

Nightflyers was originally published by Bluejay in 1985, and reprinted in mass market paperback in February 1987 by Tor with a cover by James Warhola (above left). It was reprinted two years later with a new cover to tie-in with the 1987 movie version (above middle; cover artist unknown). The new edition, with a vibrantly colorful cover from an uncredited artist (above right), is the first over over three decades. It will be published by Tor at the end of the month, in advance of the new series debuting on Syfy later this year.

“Nightflyers” was one of the first major adventures set in Martin’s “Thousand Worlds” universe, home to much of his early short fiction. Here’s my synopsis from my 2012 Vintage Treasures article.

…

Read More Read More

Birthday Reviews: Gene Wolfe’s “The Cat”

Monday, May 7, 2018 Steven H Silver Comments 2 comments

Gene Wolfe was born on May 7, 1931.

Wolfe received the Nebula Award for his novella “The Death of Doctor Island” in 1974 and in 1982, he received the Nebula again for the novel The Claw of the Conciliator, the second volume in his Book of the New Sun. He has a total of twenty Nebula nominations and in 20013 was recognized by SFWA as a Grand Master.

He has received the World Fantasy Award for his novels The Shadow of the Torturer and Soldier of Sidon as well as for his collections Storeys from the Old Hotel and The Very Best of Gene Wolfe. The Shadow of the Torturer also won a British SF Association Awards. The Sword of the Lictor received the August Derleth Award from the British Fantasy Society and the final volume of the Book of the New Sun, The Citadel of the Autarch, received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and the Prix Apollo. The later, fifth volume, The Urth of the New Sun was recognized with the Italia Award.

Wolfe has also received a Rhysling Award for his poem “The Computer Iterates the Greater Trumps.” In 1985, he was the Guest of Honor at Aussiecon Two, the Worldcon in Melbourne and a GoH at the World Fantasy Con in 1983. He received a Skylark Award in 1989 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from World Fantasy Con in 1996. In 2007, Wolfe was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

“The Cat” was first published in the Souvenir book for the 1983 World Fantasy Convention. Gardner Dozois picked the story up for the inaugural volume of his long-running The Year’s Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection and also reprinted the story in Magicats!, co-edited with Jack Dann. Wolfe included the story in his collection Endangered Species and later in the collection The Castle of the Otter, published by Centipede Press and which included the earlier Zeising Brothers book The Castle of the Otter along with additional material published in the intervening 23 years. In 1990, the story was translated into French as “Le Chat,” and has been published in France at least three times.

…

Read More Read More

Vintage Treasures: The Shining Falcon by Josepha Sherman

Sunday, May 6, 2018 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Josepha Sherman’s first short story, “The Shrouded Sorceress,” was published in Space & Time in 1981; her first novel was the YA title The Secret of the Unicorn Queen in 1988. She passed away in 2012, leaving behind a rich legacy of written work: 10 anthologies, including In Celebration of Lammas Night (Baen, 1996) and Urban Nightmares (Baen, 1997; with Keith R. A. DeCandido), and over two dozen novels, including media tie-in books for Bard’s Tale, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek, Mage Knight, Highlander, and Xena: Warrior Princess.

But her most acclaimed novel was also her first book for adults, The Shining Falcon. It won the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel of the Year, and was widely praised when it was first released. Esther Friesner called it “A gloriously rich tapestry of pageant, adventure and magic,” and Morgan Llywelyn said, “A world based on Slavic history and mythology, a world both exotc and darkly familiar… darkly brilliant and shimmering with magic.” Library Journal said:

A shape-changing prince, a magic-fearing noblewoman, a jealous princess, and an unscrupulous courtier find their destinies inextricably linked by the forces of love, hate, and magic. Drawing heavily on Slavic mythology for her first adult fantasy, Sherman creates a richly detailed novel with all the charm and readability of a fairy tale. Highly recommended.

Sherman’s other standalone novels include A Strange and Ancient Name (1993), King’s Son, Magic’s Son (1994), and Son of Darkness (1998). The Shining Falcon was published by Avon Books in November 1989. It is 343 pages, priced at $3.95. The cover was by Kinuko Craft. It has never been reprinted in the US. Copies generally aren’t hard to find; I paid $2 for mine at Half Price Books last month.

Imaginative Tales, July 1957: A Retro-Review

Sunday, May 6, 2018 Rich Horton Comments 5 comments

Imaginative Tales was the adventure oriented companion magazine to William Hamling’s Imagination. Imagination (often called Madge) is still affectionately remembered by some older fans — it was a fun magazine, though I can’t say it published much really memorable fiction. Imaginative Tales arguably tried to be even funner, but I think less successfully, based on my limited exposure.

(Hamling, by the way, is a controversial figure, not really remembered, I gather, as affectionately as his magazine. He lived to be 95, dying in 2016. He is reported to have rather gruffly rebuffed any attempts to discuss his SF publishing career over the past few decades of his life. He started Rogue magazine in 1955, as a competitor to Playboy, and much of his latter-day publishing efforts were in the “adult” genre.)

The cover is by Malcolm Smith. The interiors are uncredited, though I recognize a signature for “Becker,” and the ISFDB suggests W. E. Terry for another. The interiors are 2 color, by the way.

This issue features a novella, “World of Never-Men,” by Edmond Hamilton, and five short stories. One is by Robert Moore Williams, “The Red Rash Deaths,” and the other four are by some combination of Randall Garrett and Robert Silverberg, who, as I recall, were working together at the time, producing reams of fiction for the likes of Hamling.

…

Read More Read More

Birthday Reviews: Craig Strete’s “Time Deer”

Sunday, May 6, 2018 Steven H Silver Comments 4 comments

Craig Strete was born on May 6, 1950.

Strete was nominated for two Nebula Awards in 1976 for the short story “Time Deer” and the novelette “The Bleeding Man,” both published in December of 1974. He received a third Nebula nomination in 1981 for the short story “A Sunday Visit with Great-Grandfather,” which also placed in that year’s Locus Poll. His first collection was initially published in the Netherlands with subsequent collections appearing in the United States.

He published the magazine Red Planet Earth in 1974, focusing on Native American science fiction, and his novels have been published under his own name and the pseudonym Sovereign Falconer. He is of Cherokee descent and Native American themes and characters often appear in his works.

“Time Deer” was originally published in the November 1974 issue of Worlds of If, edited by Jim Baen. Baen included it in The Best from If, Volume III and Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss selected it for their Best SF: 1974. The story was included in Nebula Award Stories Eleven, edited by Ursula K. Le Guin. Strete included it in his collection If All Else Fails…, which was first published in Dutch. In 1986, Joseph D. Olander, Martin H. Greenberg, and Frederik Pohl picked it as a representative story for Worlds of If: A Retrospective Anthology. The story was been translated into Dutch, French, German, and Italian.

In “Time Deer” Strete takes a look at an eighty year old man whose daughter-in-law and son have decided it is time for him to enter a nursing home. Even as his son, Frank Strong Bull, has conflicted feelings about the action and Frank’s over-bearing wife, Sheila, just wants to get the man put away, he communes with his past, focusing his attention on a deer, although whether the animal is actually there or not is left up to the reader.

…

Read More Read More

DMR Books Brings Pulp Sword & Sorcery Back Into Print

Saturday, May 5, 2018 John ONeill Comments 8 comments

The Sapphire Goddess The Fantasies of Nictzin Dyalhis-small

The Thief of Forthe and Other Stories by Clifford Ball-small

Last month I rented a booth at the Windy City Pulp and Paper show here in Chicago — my favorite local convention — and piled it high with brand new hardcovers and trade paperbacks I was giving away. I had 31 boxes of leftover review copies, duplicates from my collection, and hundreds of rare advance proofs to get out of my basement, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Bob Byrne and Steven Silver made long drives to the con to help staff the booth, and we were looking forward to handing out books to grateful attendees.

Reality was a little bit different. Most folks passed by our booth with barely a glance. If Bob and Steve and I hadn’t been tirelessly peddling books, handing out free copies as people passed by, and carting books by the dozens to the freebie pile at registration every few hours, we’d probably still be there. This was an audience more interested in pulps and vintage paperbacks than brand new science fiction and fantasy, apparently.

It’s not true that there was no interest in our booth. After eight long hours unsuccessfully giving away books on Friday, Dave Ritzlin from DMR Books joined us on Saturday, and we gladly made space for him in the booth. Once we did interest picked up immediately, as folks zeroed in on his attractive selection — and especially his new releases, The Sapphire Goddess: The Fantasies of Nictzin Dyalhis and The Thief of Forthe and Other Stories by Clifford Ball.

…

Read More Read More