Black Gate – Page 446 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

Vintage Treasures: The Masters of Solitude by Marvin Kaye and Parke Godwin

Monday, April 9, 2018 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Marvin Kaye and Parke Godwin made a powerful combination in 1978. Kaye already had a growing reputation as an anthologist, with Fiends and Creatures (Popular Library, 1974) and Brother Theodore’s Chamber of Horrors (Pinnacle, 1974) under his belt; he would produce dozens more over the next 30 years, including Ghosts – A Treasury of Chilling Tales Old and New (Doubleday, 1981), Weird Tales, The Magazine That Never Dies (Doubleday, 1988), and The Fair Folk (Science Fiction Book Club, 2005). Parke Godwin was already an established novelist, with Darker Places (1973) and A Memory of Lions (1976); he would go on to win a World Fantasy Award for his 1981 novella “The Fire When It Comes,” and gained lasting recognition for his Firelord trilogy (the opening novel of which was also a World Fantasy Award nominee) and his Robin Hood novels Sherwood (1991) and Robin and the King (1993).

Their collaborative novel The Masters of Solitude was serialized in Galileo magazine in 1977/78, and published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1978. A postapocalyptic tale of two disparate cultures that are all that remains of humanity after a “great devastation,” it drew comparisons to Tolkien. It has been out of print since the 1985 Bantam paperback (above), but has a surprising 166 ratings on Goodreads, and some lively reviews.

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Birthday Reviews: Barrington J. Bayley’s “The Way into the Wendy House”

Monday, April 9, 2018 Steven H Silver Comments 9 comments

Barrington J. Bayley was born on April 9, 1937 and died on October 14, 2008. He often collaborated with Michael Moorcock, and the two variously used the names James Colvin and Michael Barrington for their joint projects. He also used the solo pseudonyms John Diamond, P.F. Woods, and Alan Aumbry.

Bayley won the 1996 BASFA Award for Short Fiction for “A Crab Must Try.” He won the Seiun Award for Best Translated Long Story for Collision Course, The Zen Gun, and The Garments of Caean. The Zen Gun was also a Philip K. Dick nominee. His story “Tommy Atkins” was also nominated for the BSFA Award.

“The Way into the Wendy House” appeared in the May 1993 issue of Interzone, whole number 71, edited by David Pringle and Lee Montgomerie. It has not been reprinted. The story is not only an example of recursive science fiction, but also incorporates Bayley as a character in his own right.

The narrator of “The Way into the Wendy House” is a snob who sits in a pub and reads science fiction novels, imaging himself more intelligent than the boors who inhabit the out-of-the-way village of Donnington. Against his will, he is drawn into conversation with Alan. Alan turns out to be highly educated, although the narrator can’t understand why Alan would not only want to live in the village, but revel in conversing with those the narrator feels are beneath him.

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Constant Killing, Machiavellian Schemes, and Political Intrigue: Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

Sunday, April 8, 2018 Elizabeth Galewski Comments 4 comments

Neal Shusterman’s dystopia Thunderhead has rocked the New York Times bestseller list for YA Hardcover for the past two months as of this writing. The sequel to Scythe, a Printz Honor book, it’s just as dark, intense, and daring as the original.

The world of Scythe and Thunderhead is perfect. An incomprehensibly complex, sentient, and nearly all-knowing AI named the Thunderhead runs everything without the slightest hitch. No one needs to work unless they want to, and humans are immortal. If you grow older than you’d like, you can “turn the corner” and become whatever age you choose. If you fall from a high place and splat, a revival center will bring you back. Don’t worry about poison. Don’t worry about car crashes. As long as your flesh isn’t consumed, you’ve only been rendered deadish. Give it a day or two, and you’ll be back among the living.

Unless, of course, a Scythe chooses to glean you.

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Future Treasures: The Rig by Roger Levy

Sunday, April 8, 2018 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Roger Levy is a British science fiction writer; his previous novels include Reckless Sleep, Dark Heavens, and the ambitious space opera Icarus.

His upcoming The Rig, his first novel in a decade, has a fascinating premise: a lottery called AfterLife promises to randomly place people in suspended animation deep in the seas of the planet Bleak at the moment of death. Organic chips planted into their brains at birth record everything, and their lives are played back for billions of subscribers — who vote on whether or not they deserve a second chance. Everyone can be a judge, and anyone can be judged… or resurrected. Who needs God when you have social media?

On a desert planet, two boys meet, sparking a friendship that will change human society forever.

On the windswept world of Bleak, a string of murders lead a writer to a story with unbelievable ramifications.

One man survives the vicious attacks, but is left with a morbid fascination with death; the perfect candidate for the perilous job of working on a rig.

Welcome to the System. Here the concept of a god has been abandoned, and a new faith pervades: AfterLife, a social media platform that allows subscribers a chance at resurrection, based on the votes of other users.

So many Lives, forever interlinked, and one structure at the center of it all: the rig.

Adam Roberts calls The Rig “a tour de force: a darkly brilliant epic of life, death and huge drilling platforms.”

The Rig will be published by Titan Books on May 8, 2018. It is 464 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback and $8.99 for the digital edition. The great cover was designed by Julia Lloyd.

Birthday Reviews: Nnedi Okorafor’s “Bakasi Man”

Sunday, April 8, 2018 Steven H Silver Comments 1 comment

Nnedi Okorafor was born on April 8, 1974.

Okorafor won her first Carl Brandon Award for the novel The Shadow Speaker and she won the Carl Brandon Award and the World Fantasy Award for her novel Who Fears Death, which was also nominated for the Nebula Award. She won the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award for her novella Binti in 2016. Her fiction has also been nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Andre Norton Award. Okorafor has collaborated with Alan Dean Foster and Wanuri Kahiu on short diction. She co-edited the anthology Without a Map with Mary Anne Mohanraj.

“Bakasi Man” was originally published in Okorafor’s collection Kabu-Kabu and it has not been reprinted.

Throughout history, many cultures have believed that hunchbacks are magical or a sign of the gods’ favor. Okorafor used this belief to create the story of Bakasi, a hunchback in an unnamed African country who uses his associated good fortune to achieve success, both in school and eventually in politics. Unfortunately, Bakasi is also a demagogue. As he rose to power, he decided that blaming the Agwe minority in the state of Ndi would help him build a political base.

The Agwe have followed his career, and they aren’t willing to let themselves be victimized by his need for scapegoats. A group of five Agwe, led by Rosemary, decides that Bakasi needs to be assassinated. Okorafor doesn’t explore the group’s planning or their expectations, merely showing their actions leading up to the assassination and its aftermath.

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In 500 Words or Less: Soledad by D.L. Young

Saturday, April 7, 2018 Brandon Crilly Comments 0 Comment

Soledad (Dark Republic #1)
By D.L. Young
Concordia (244 pages, $12.99 paperback, April 2016)

Planning on throwing yourself into the community of science fiction and fantasy writers? In North America, at least, be prepared to start humming, “It’s a Small World, After All” every time you go to a conference or festival.

When I was first breaking into the short fiction market, two of my stories appeared in Tides of Possibility, an anthology published through the Houston Writers Guild. It was in that anthology that I first came across a story by D.L. Young, “The Reader,” which among a solid collection really jumped out at me.

That was 2014. I went about my business, occasionally seeing tweets and posts by Young and other Tides contributors until they stopped showing up as often in my feeds, courtesy of analytics. Then this past fall at World Fantasy in San Antonio, I walked past a dealer’s room booth with D.L. YOUNG displayed on a big poster, and realized, “Holy @#$%, I know that guy!”

Which is the long version of how, after catching up with Dave about writing and whatnot, I ended up with a copy of Soledad, the first novel in his Dark Republic series. It’s a blend of near-future post apocalypse with what could be considered fantasy, focused on a young woman surviving in a blighted version of Texas, surrounded by people who want to use her ability to “read” people and determine their lies. Through a desperate quest for answers, we see a potential future where natural gas is gold, the United States wants nothing to do with Texas, and a sharp dichotomy between rich and poor is shown via Dallas, the last bastion of high-tech civilization in the region.

This is the point when I will honestly admit that it’s rare for a self-published book to really blow me away. There are a lot of reasons for that (which might be good material for another post) but for anyone who might be leery of self-pub in today’s oversaturated market: Soledad is an awesome novel. It’s got complex characters that blur the line between hero and villain and maintains a quick and effective pace with twists that I genuinely didn’t see coming.

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By Crom: Arthurian Elements in the Conan Canon

Saturday, April 7, 2018 Bob Byrne Comments 10 comments

John Teehan, in The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy: Volume One, challenges the reader to think of their favorite contemporary fantasy novels. And we’re talking Tolkien-onwards here, not just the past few years. Then he gives a list and says it would be difficult to think of a book that didn’t have any of the five themes on the list. He is making the point that the Arthurian legend, largely brought to popular culture by Thomas Malory, was an interweaving of those five themes. High fantasy epics like David Eddings’ Belgariad still follow this path.

I immediately thought about Robert E. Howard’s Conan tales and how they didn’t really emulate this pattern. Or so it seemed to me. My friend Deuce Richardson immediately pointed out two stories that did significantly incorporate these elements. So, I decided to go back to the very beginning and take a good look at “The Phoenix on the Sword”: then, do a less detailed survey of the following stories.

So, here we go!

Characteristic One – Commoner who is Really a King

Well…we’re definitely 0 for 1 right out of the gate. I think of Shea Ohmsford, who is a descendant of Jerle Shannara (Terry Brook’s Sword of Shannara) or Belgarion in Eddings’ previously mentioned Belgariad). They have the lineage of kings (or great sorcerers) in their blood. And they rise up to perform great deeds or rule kingdoms.

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Too Wide Sargasso Sea: Hammer’s The Lost Continent (1968)

Saturday, April 7, 2018 Ryan Harvey Comments 6 comments

Hammer Film Productions’ fantasy-adventure The Lost Continent is an adaptation of the works of William Hope Hodgson. Or it is to me, anyway. The credits say it’s based on the 1938 novel Uncharted Seas by Dennis Wheatley, but my eyes don’t lie: what Hammer put on screen is the nearest any movie has come to capturing the aura of Hodgson’s weird tales of the slimy terrors of the deep and the unknown horrors lurking in the Sargasso Sea.*

The Lost Continent arrived during the final phase of Hammer’s golden age. The company had moved out of its original studio at Bray and was now shooting at Pinewood and Elstree Studios. The feel of a unified family was starting to fray, and Hammer’s best in-house producers would soon depart. But producer Michael Carreras, son of studio head James Carreras, was still around and pushing Hammer to make larger-scale adventure films. Although Carreras was one of Hammer’s most prolific producers of horror movies — he produced Terence Fisher-directed classics like The Mummy, Dracula, and The Curse of the Werewolf — he never had any personal fondness for the Gothics. He saw lavish adventure and fantasy films like She (1965) and One Million Years B.C. (1966) as Hammer’s future. The Lost Continent was meant as an extension of the success of those movies, although it sometimes veered into horror.

Carreras was also an occasional director, and when The Lost Continent’s original director Leslie Norman (X the Unknown) fell sick early in production, Carreras stepped into the director’s chair. Carreras also wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym Michael Nash, the name of his gardener.

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Birthday Reviews: Henry Kuttner’s “Ghost”

Saturday, April 7, 2018 Steven H Silver Comments 1 comment

Henry Kuttner was born on April 7, 1914 and died on February 4, 1958. From 1940 until his death in 1958, he was married to science fiction author C.L. Moore. The two had their own careers and also collaborated, although they claimed that they each worked on all of the other one’s stories, sitting down and continuing whatever was in the typewriter at the time. Kuttner (or Moore/Kuttner) also used the pseudonyms Lawrence O’Donnell, C.H. Liddell, and Lewis Padgett.

In 1956, their collaboration “Home There’s No Returning” was nominated for the Hugo for Best Novelette and Kuttner was nominated for two Retro Hugos in 2014 for his novelette “Hollywood on the Moon” and the novella “The Time Trap.” In 2004, he and Moore were named the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award recipients.

“Ghost” was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in May 1943, edited by John W. Campbell, Jr. and credited only to Kuttner. Kuttner reprinted it a decade later in his collection Ahead of Time. In 2005, it appeared in the Centipede Press collection Two-Handed Engine. The story has been translated into French, where it was credited to Kuttner and Moore, as well as Italian, where it was only credited to Kuttner.

In “Ghost,” Kuttner attempts to do quite a bit, which means that he only succeeds at some of it. The story is about a modern ghost, perhaps the first real ghost in history, haunting a research facility in Antarctica. Elton Ford has been sent down to investigate what is causing the men assigned to the base to go insane. Ford arrives to find the base’s sole caretaker Larry Crockett. The main lesson of the story, given the set up, is that perhaps having a single man in an isolated research base might not be the best idea, although we see it even in the present day in films such as Moon. That, however, is not where Kuttner takes his story.

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New Treasures: The Hollow Tree by James Brogden

Friday, April 6, 2018 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

James Brogden’s Hekla’s Children was one of the breakout horror novels of 2017. Tim Lebbon called it “Brilliant… full of great twists, beautifully drawn characters, exceptional writing, and some really startling ideas,” and Steven Savile said “There’s some dark, sinister magic going on in these pages. Brogdan’s… one of the most compelling new voices out there.” Here’s Mark Morris:

Hekla’s Children marks the emergence on to a vibrant horror scene of an exciting new talent. James Brogden offers us a compulsive and unpredictable page-turner in which the ancient and modern world clash with devastating effect. Engaging characters, mind-bending concepts and enthralling set pieces propel the reader through a story in which the stakes are high and nothing can be taken for granted. Terrific stuff!

His new novel The Hollow Tree is something very different, the tale of a woman pulled into our world from…. somewhere else.

After her hand is amputated following a tragic accident, Rachel Cooper suffers vivid nightmares of a woman imprisoned in the trunk of a hollow tree, screaming for help. When she begins to experience phantom sensations of leaves and earth with her missing limb, Rachel is terrified she is going mad… but then another hand takes hers, and the trapped woman is pulled into our world.

This woman has no idea who she is, but Rachel can’t help but think of the mystery of Oak Mary, a female corpse found in a hollow tree, and who was never identified. Three urban legends have grown up around the case; was Mary a Nazi spy, a prostitute or a gypsy witch? Rachel is desperate to learn the truth, but darker forces are at work. For a rule has been broken, and Mary is in a world where she doesn’t belong…

The Hollow Tree was published by Titan Books on March 13, 2018. It is 483 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback and $8.99 for the digital edition. Read an excerpt at Dread Central.