Black Gate – Page 528 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

Vintage Treasures: The Pulp Fantasies of E. Hoffmann Price

Thursday, June 1, 2017 John ONeill Comments 7 comments

E. Hoffmann Price is one of the grand old men of the pulps. He published no less than 28 stories in Weird Tales between 1925 and 1950, including a collaboration with H.P. Lovecraft, “Through the Gates of the Silver Key.” He continued writing right up until his death in 1988, at the age of 89. He published four SF novels in his Operation series (Operation Misfit, Operation Longlife, etc) with Del Rey in his 80s, producing the last one in 1987.

But he’s perhaps best remembered by modern readers for his pair of Chinese fantasies, The Devil Lives of Li Fong (1979) and The Jade Enchantress (1982), also published by Del Rey, with gorgeous covers by Rowena Morrill and Laurence Schwinger. These books were ubiquitous among adventure fantasy fans in the early 80s, passed around and shared like the tales of Elric and Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser.

The Devil Wives of Li Fong (217 pages, $1.95 in paperback, December 1979) — cover by Rowena Morrill
The Jade Enchantress (297 pages, $2.75 in paperback, June 1982) — cover by Laurence Schwinger

Originally from California, Price began his professional career as a soldier, graduating from West Point and serving in World War I. In his autobiography, Jack Williamson called him a “real live soldier of fortune.” Here’s his colorful bio from the back of these Del Rey paperbacks.

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Rebellion Worlds, Rocklike Aliens, and Cubes from Space: Rich Horton on The Rebellious Stars by Isaac Asimov & An Earth Gone Mad by Roger Dee

Thursday, June 1, 2017 John ONeill Comments 6 comments

Rich Horton continues his tireless exploration of the Ace Doubles, this time looking at a 1954 pairing of Isaac Asimov’s second novel The Stars, Like Stars (re-titled here The Rebellious Stars), and the only SF novel by Roger Dee, An Earth Gone Mad. Here’s Rich.

The Rebellious Stars is better known as Tyrann, under which title it appeared as a Galaxy serial in 1951. (OK, it’s even BETTER known as The Stars, Like Dust…) In this edition it is about 67,000 words long, and the book is labeled “Complete and Unabridged,” so as far as I know it’s the same as the standard edition….

I was perhaps only 12 when I read The Stars, Like Dust. I’ve always remembered it, if only dimly, with pleasure… The story opens as Biron Farrill, the heir of the Rancher of Widemos on the planet Nephelos, is about to graduate from his university studies on Earth. He is wakened one night by a ticking which he soon determines is a bomb — an assassination attempt. Soon Sander Jonti, a friend of his from the university reveals that his father has been arrested by the Tyranni, the harsh ruling class that controls some 50 planets near the Horsehead Nebula, including Nephelos. It seems Biron’s father was involved in a resistance movement, and Jonti is as well. Jonti convinces Biron that his life is in immediate danger… The plot takes several twists from that point — it is all rather intricately designed — before reaching a somewhat surprising (though dare I say rather guessable) conclusion… while the plot is perhaps overcomplicated, and depends quite a lot on people acting in extremely convoluted ways, it is worked out somewhat satisfactorily in the puzzle-unraveling sense.

Matthew Wuertz reviewed the novel for us in its original Galaxy incarnation from 1951, and noted the similarities to a certain multi-billion dollar SF property.

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Future Treasures: Our Dark Duet, Book 2 of Monsters of Verity by Victoria Schwab

Thursday, June 1, 2017 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Under her secret identity of V.E. Schwab, Victoria Schwab is the bestselling author of the Shades of Magic trilogy and the superhero/dark fantasy tale Vicious (which Matthew David Surridge called “A fine story… it’s fascinating to see the gothic emerging from under the skin of the super-hero genre,” in his 2014 review). Under the name Victoria Schwab she’s published a number of YA fantasies, including The Near Witch and the two volumes in the Archived series.

Her Monsters of Verity series began with This Savage Song, set in a divided city overrun with monsters. It became a #1 New York Times bestseller and an Amazon Best Book of the Year. The concluding volume, Our Dark Duet, arrives this month from Greenwillow Books.

This Savage Song (464 pages, $17.99 hardcover/$9.99 paperback/$1.99 digital, July 5, 2016)
Our Dark Duet (528 pages, $17.99 hardcover/$9.99 digital, June 13, 2017)

Here’s the description for both books.

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In Defense of an Abominable Personage: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

Wednesday, May 31, 2017 Damien Moore Comments 3 comments

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Constantin Film, 2006)

When someone tells you to pick a favorite book, and you’re the type of person who reads with a gnawing ache for a good story, selecting just one can prove daunting. Not so for yours truly.

One day my mom, out of the profound goodness of her heart, surprised me with a spontaneous visit to Half Price Books. There she gave me the gift of Perfume: the Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind. I fell in love with it the way you fall for the love of your life; a part of me that had hitherto hidden from my reach sewed itself into the fabric of my heart.

I wasn’t accustomed to reading books in which the implied Devil’s spawn lures you through the pages. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, the anchor of the novel, has the misfortune of assuming this role due to his absence of a human scent. He thus embarks on a treacherously erotic quest for the perfect odor that can disguise him as an ordinary person.

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Coptic Heritage in Cairo

Wednesday, May 31, 2017 Sean McLachlan Comments 1 comment

20170223_112010

A stained glass window using small bits of colored glass in a plaster
framework. Mosques and private houses also use this style of
decoration, although the mosques don’t include crosses, of course

While Egypt’s ancient civilization is the main draw for visiting the country, I find its medieval and modern history equally fascinating. Cairo is full of historic monuments. Minarets built a thousand years ago rise above the honking traffic, old houses from the Ottoman period are nestled in quiet back alleys, and a medieval citadel looks out over the city.

Many of Cairo’s most interesting historic sites are Christian. Early in Christian history, Egypt started a distinct tradition of worship that developed into what is now known as Coptic Christianity. The Coptic church traces its origins back to 50 AD, when Saint Mark visited the country and established the Church of Alexandria. The word “Copt” comes from the ancient Greek word for Egypt, “Aigyptos.”

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It’s Not Too Late to Catch Up on Your May Reading (But You’re Cutting it Close)

Wednesday, May 31, 2017 John ONeill Comments 6 comments

Well here we are, the last day of May. And you know what that means: the usual recriminations and blame for not getting all my reading done. Might as well get this over with.

If you’re like me, you made a good run at it this month, but were defeated by the sheer volume of top-notch fiction in May. How do we know about all the good stuff we missed? Because we have the tireless John DeNardo, the most connected man in the industry, to keep us fully briefed. John excels at his self-appointed task… which is chiefly to make me look bad, but it at least has the added benefit of cataloging the best new fiction every month. This month John highlights new books by Robin Hobb, Gregory Benford, Robert Jackson Bennett, Mike Carey, Jason M. Hough, Faith Hunter, Gini Koch, Foz Meadows, Chelsea Mueller and many others.

Here’s the complete list of the Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror Reads in May, according to John DeNardo.

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New Treasures: Pawn: A Chronicle of the Sibyl’s War by Timothy Zahn

Tuesday, May 30, 2017 John ONeill Comments 3 comments

One of the many things I love about Tor.com is their editorial independence. Tor Books just published Timothy’s Zahn’s new novel Pawn, the opening volume in a brand new space opera series, while over at Tor.com, Liz Bourke’s review calls it “a rather bland and textureless experience. While there are hints of a thriller-plot and a deeper mystery within the text, and while Zahn puts together a perfectly acceptable string of adventure-story set-pieces, there’s very little depth.” You gotta love an editorial team willing to damn the torpedoes and diss their own books.

Anyway, Timothy Zahn is a superstar, and one lukewarm review is not going to dissuade his legion of fans. It certainly didn’t dissuade me — I read and enjoyed Zahn’s 1983 novel Blackcollar, and that (plus my fondness for his short stories) was enough to convince me to pick up a copy. Zahn, the author of the bestselling Star Wars novel Heir to the Empire and its sequels, knows his way around space opera.

Nicole Lee’s life is going nowhere. No family, no money, and stuck in a relationship with a thug named Bungie. But, after one of Bungie’s “deals” goes south, he and Nicole are whisked away by a mysterious moth-like humanoid to a strange ship called the Fyrantha.

Once aboard, life on the ship seems too good to be true. All she has to do is work on one of the ship’s many maintenance crews. However, she learned long ago that nothing comes without a catch. When she’s told to keep quiet and stop asking questions, she knows she is on to something.

Nicole soon discovers that many different factions are vying for control of the Fyrantha, and she and her friends are merely pawns in a game beyond their control. But, she is tired of being used, and now Nicole is going to fight.

Pawn: A Chronicle of the Sibyl’s War was published by Tor Books on May 2, 2017. It is 347 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital version. The cover is by Stephen Youll. Read an excerpt at Tor.com.

May 2017 Apex Magazine Now Available

Tuesday, May 30, 2017 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Rocket Stack Rank gives Evan Dicken’s “How Lovely Is the Silence of Growing Things” three stars, saying:

The world is ending, but Kate and her daughter Mel survive by hiding in the basement during the day eating peanut-butter-and-spider sandwiches… Plenty of action. Plenty of tension.

Intriguing, although it’s not much of a story description. I prefer Jason McGregor’s review at Tangent Online, which has a more off-the-wall summary:

I could describe a lot of the surrealistic details about the sun turning green and poets hanging around like bats and centipedes fighting at Ohio Stadium but, basically, this is about a kid and one of her two mothers running around in a sort of nightmare…

Read Jason’s complete review here.

The May issue of Apex contains new fiction from Evan Dicken, E. Catherine Tobler, and Karen Lord, as well as a reprint by John Chu, a podcast, an editorial by Jason Sizemore, short fiction reviews by A.C. Wise, an article on writing by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem, plus interviews with Evan Dicken, Stephen Korshak, Robert J. Sawyer, and cover artist Marcela Bolívar.

Here’s the complete TOC, with links to all the free content.

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Stories from a S&S Griot: Nyumbani Tales by Charles R. Saunders

Tuesday, May 30, 2017 Fletcher Vredenburgh Comments 7 comments

“I am going to tell a story,” the griot says.
“Ya-ngani!” the crowd responds, meaning “Right!”
“It may be a lie.”
“Ya-ngani.”
“But not everything in it is false.”
“Ya-ngani.”
The griot begins his tale.

from “Amma” by Charles R. Saunders

For those unfortunates unacquainted with Charles R. Saunders and the tales he’s woven, you can read plenty about them here at Black Gate. Suffice it to say he is called the father of sword & soul. Starting in the 1970s, he took the elements of swords & sorcery — mighty heroes, beautiful women, monsters, deadly magic, and more monsters — and turned them to his own purpose.

A fan of sci fi and fantasy growing up in the 1950s and 60s, by the time he graduated college in 1968, he was frustrated with a lot of what he was reading. As he recounted in an interview with Amy Harlib in The Zone:

I began to realise that in the SF and fantasy genre, blacks were, with only few exceptions, either left out or depicted in racist and stereotypic ways. I had a choice: I could either stop reading SF and fantasy, or try to do something about my dissatisfaction with it by writing my own stories and trying to get them published. I chose the latter course.

It was to the great benefit of heroic fantasy that Saunders made the choice he did. In addition to helping expand the horizons of the genre beyond the European settings that dominated it back then, he also created two monumental characters.

Imaro is the outcast warrior who eventually finds his destiny as champion against the forces of evil. Dossouye is an exiled warrior-woman from the kingdom of Abomey. The stories and novels featuring Imaro and Dossouye belong on the shelves of any S&S fan. If you haven’t read them yet, I suggest you snag copies of Imaro: Book I and Dossouye, clear off whatever else you’re reading, and get started.

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The Return of a Classic Fantasy Hero: A Review of T.C. Rypel’s Dark Ventures

Monday, May 29, 2017 Joe Bonadonna Comments 2 comments

Dark Ventures by T.C. Rypel
Wildside Press (212 pages, $14.99 in paperback/$4,99 digital, March 16, 2017)
Original cover painting by film director Larry Blamire (The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra)

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, many authors were churning out their own versions of big, iron-muscled barbarian heroes like Conan of Cimmeria. There were exceptions, of course, like Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, and Jack Vance, to name three authors I’ve always favored. But then along came T.C. Rypel, who hit the ground running with something different, something uniquely his own… his character of Sabatake Gonji-no-Sadowara, the half Scandinavian and half Japanese samurai.

Gonji was truly a breath of fresh air in the genre of Sword and Sorcery, although I think Rypel’s novel are much more epic and actually closer to Heroic Fantasy in scope and theme. His setting wasn’t some imaginary world filled with ancient gods, powerful warlocks and fanciful kingdoms, but was instead deeply rooted in and around Romania and the Carpathian Mountains of the 16th century. Perhaps a parallel world, but close enough to the Europe of that era to lend it a flavor of historical reality. Besides the non-barbaric character of Gonji, who was introspective, poetic, and humble, as well as a total bad ass with a sly sense of humor, what also set Rypel’s novels apart from so many others was the fact that he worked gunpowder and firearms into his stories, right along with the sorcery and creatures and other elements of the fantastic. And like Robert E Howard’s Solomon Kane before him, Rypel made it all work, too.

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