Black Gate – Page 647 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

New Treasures: The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan

Wednesday, May 11, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

I was tremendously impressed to see best-selling author Rick Riordan matching $10,000 in donations made to Rosarium Publishing’s recent (and very successful) Indiegogo campaign. You don’t often see that level of small press love from someone who makes millions through a Manhattan publisher.

Rick Riordan seems like a solid all around guy, and I’m not just saying that because he said great things about my man Carlos Hernandez’s first collection, The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria. Riordan is the author of the international bestselling Percy Jackson series, as well as the Kane Chronicles, and the Heroes of Olympus. His latest series for young readers, The Trials of Apollo, kicks off with The Hidden Oracle, now on sale from Disney-Hyperion.

How do you punish an immortal?

By making him human.

After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disoriented, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus’s favor.

But Apollo has many enemies-gods, monsters, and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go… an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.

The Trials of Apollo, Book One: The Hidden Oracle was published by Disney-Hyperion on May 3, 2016. It is 384 pages, priced at $19.99 in hardcover and $14.99 for the digital edition.

The Granddaughter of Fu Manchu

Wednesday, May 11, 2016 William Patrick Maynard Comments 1 comment

Mike Shayne, the redheaded tough guy private eye, was introduced in the decidedly more lighthearted detective novel, Dividend on Death penned by the pseudonymous Brett Halliday in 1939. The character was an instant success and Michael Shayne (as he was initially known) quickly became a cottage industry leading to another 77 (mostly hardboiled) detective novels through the mid-1970s, over 300 short stories through the mid-1980s, 11 B-movies in the 1940s, a radio drama series that lasted nearly a decade, an early 1960s television series that made it for a full season, a TV tie-in Dell comic book that lasted three issues, and his own magazine digest that ran for nearly 30 years. The character may seem like just another clichéd private eye today, but over the years a number of very talented authors hid behind the fedora and turned-up collar of “Brett Halliday” – Bill Pronzini, Dennis Lynds, James Reasoner, Frank Belknap Long, and the ubiquitous Michael Avallone among them.

The reason we have turned our attention to this particular ginger with the mean disposition is a trilogy of stories that appeared in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine in 1981 and 1982 featuring a character known as the Black Lotus. As the storyline developed “Brett Halliday,” in this instance James Reasoner, strongly suggested the Black Lotus was the granddaughter of Fu Manchu. Mr. Reasoner was cautious and did not name names, of course, but elements of the three stories read like a Sax Rohmer tribute – including the Black Lotus’ real identity, Leiko Smith sharing the surname of the protagonist of the Fu Manchu stories, Nayland Smith. The character’s first name (which is Japanese, rather than Chinese) was likely borrowed from Leiko Wu, the love interest from Marvel Comics’ contemporaneous Master of Kung Fu series (1973-1983) which licensed the Fu Manchu characters from Rohmer’s literary estate. I first learned of the Black Lotus storyline from Win Scott Eckert’s very useful Fu Manchu chronology. My friend, Don O’Malley was kind enough to send me scanned copies of the three issues in question in order that I finally have a chance to read them.

…

Read More Read More

Thieves Can: A review of the A Tale of the Kin series

Tuesday, May 10, 2016 Andrew Zimmerman Jones Comments 1 comment

Fantasy has a wide range of heroic archetypes, from the classic sword-wielding warrior to the wand-waving wizard, but I’ve always been fond of the characters that have at least a touch of the rogue in them. I’m pretty sure that over my decades of roleplaying, the number of characters I’ve played who could pick a lock probably outweighed those who could kick down the door by a factor of about two. From Aladdin to Bilbo, heroes that rely on skill, cleverness, and deftness over brute force have always appealed to me.

Despite that, though, I’ve rarely been drawn to stories explicitly about the criminal underworld, whether it be in fantasy or real-world fiction like The Godfather or The Sopranos. Fights over which particular thief or murderer can get the upper hand over his rival thieves and murderers have never captivated me that strongly.

That’s part of the reason why I was so surprised with how much I loved Among Thieves (Amazon), the first book in the A Tale of the Kin series of fantasy by Douglas Hulick.

“The Kin” from the series title is the underground criminal society of Hulick’s world, and it’s this rich and vibrant society that he has built that drew me in as much as anything else about the story. This isn’t a story about just some criminals having adventures, but about a people who, as a society, are as thoroughly developed as most cultures that an author has developed for their fantasy series. And, of course, as a criminal underworld, there’s also a larger society in which they exist and operate, and that society is itself fully realized.

…

Read More Read More

Future Treasures: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten, edited by Jonathan Strahan

Tuesday, May 10, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Holy cats… Jonathan Strahan’s up to Volume Ten already? My oh my, how times flies.

Well, you know what the imminent arrival of the newest volume of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year means. That’s right — the Best of the Year season is upon us. Strahan kicks it off, as usual, but in the next 3-4 months we’ll see a dozen more from Gardner Dozois, Rich Horton, Paula Guran (two volumes!), Ellen Datlow, Neil Clarke, John Joseph Adams, and many others. (Have a look at the 17 volumes we covered last year here and here.)

You don’t need that many Best of the Year anthologies. But you definitely need Jonathan’s — his taste is impeccable, and this volume is one of the very best of the lot. Here’s a peek at the table of contents… 27 short stories from Kai Ashante Wilson, Vonda McIntyre, Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Kim Stanley Robinson, Genevieve Valentine, Kelly Link, Anne Leckie, Jeffrey Ford, and many others. Here’s the complete TOC.

1. “City of Ash,” Paolo Bacigalupi
2. “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson,” Elizabeth Bear
3. “The Machine Starts,” Greg Bear
4. “The Winter Wraith,” Jeffrey Ford
5. “Black Dog,” Neil Gaiman
6. “Jamaica Ginger,” Nalo Hopkinson & Nisi Shawl
7. “Drones,” Simon Ings
8. “Emergence,” Gwyneth Jones

…

Read More Read More

More Metal on Metal: Swords of Steel II edited by D.M. Ritzlin

Tuesday, May 10, 2016 Fletcher Vredenburgh Comments 18 comments

From its emergence out of the hard rock genre, heavy metal has drawn from the inspiration of swords & sorcery. “The Wizard” is the second track on what is considered the first metal album, the eponymous Black Sabbath. Uriah Heep upped the ante with its albums Demons and Wizards and The Magician’s Birthday. Manowar’s epic song “Battle Hymns,” from the album of the same name, channeled all the blood and thunder of heroic fantasy into 6 minutes and 55 seconds. Behold:

Gone are the days, when freedom shone – now blood and steel meet bone
In the light of the battle’s way, the sands of time will shake
How proud our soldiers stand, with mace and chain in hand
Sound of charge into glory ride, over the top of their vanquished pride

Other bands have gone as far as spinning songs directly from actual stories and novels. The Sword, for example, has Game of Thrones-inspired “To Take the Black,” and Manilla Road drafted both the plot and title of of a Robert E. Howard story for their “Queen of the Black Coast.”

The point is, metal and S&S have been fist in glove for many a year now. They have the same penchant for extremes — the big gestures not the subtle, small ones. The idea that heavy metal musicians could turn their love for S&S into prose makes perfect sense.

And that’s exactly what D. M. Ritzlin has encouraged, starting with last year’s Swords of Steel, an anthology of heroic fantasy written by members of heavy metal bands. While I gave it a mixed review, I was utterly sold on the idea. The authors’ ardor was undeniable, even overwhelming weaknesses in some of the stories. Each story was illustrated with a work of hand-drawn lo-fi art that harks back to sketches on the backs of D&D character sheets and murals painted on the sides of vans. Flaws be damned, I enjoyed the book and was happy to learn that a second volume was being planned.

…

Read More Read More

Ancient Planets and Treachery at Every Turn: Rich Horton on The Ginger Star by Leigh Brackett

Monday, May 9, 2016 John ONeill Comments 6 comments

Over at his personal blog Strange at Ecbatan, Rich Horton reviews one of the great classics of science fantasy, Leigh Brackett’s The Ginger Star, the opening novel in the three-volume Book of Skaith.

I adore the great Brackett stories of the late ’40s and early ‘50s, particularly The Sword of Rhiannon, one of the great pure planetary romances; and other stories in the same loosely developed future (though The Sword of Rhiannon is really set in the past): “The Halfling,” “The Dancing Girl of Ganymede,” “Mars Minus Bisha,” “Shannach – the Last,” for example. Other SF was also very fine, most notably The Long Tomorrow, a post-Apocalyptic novel; but also The Big Jump and The Starmen of Llyrdis. Her slightly later story from Venture, “The Queer Ones” (aka “The Other People”) is excellent, and not terribly well known. The Eric John Stark stories fit into her Mars/Venus/etc. future – and they are quite enjoyable as well. Stark is portrayed as a nearly savage man, raised as an orphan on Mercury, and rampaging through Venus and Mars in the most prominent pieces.

The Skaith novels feature Stark as the protagonist, but they are set on a planet in another Solar System, Skaith. I had assumed that she set them there because the Mars and Venus of the earlier stories was no longer astronomically plausible, and perhaps that is the case, but it should be noted that in these books she does still portray Stark as a native of Mercury – also a highly implausible thing.

…

Read More Read More

Fantasy Scroll Magazine 12 Now Available

Monday, May 9, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

The 12th issue of the online-only Fantasy Scroll Magazine, cover dated April 2016, is now available. In his editorial Iulian Ionescu gives us a sneak peek of the contents. Here’s a snippet:

The fiction section opens with “Mother Salt and her Sisters” by James Troughton, a story that brings a fresh new look to the myth of the mermaid, and adds a darker than usual twist. Next is “Apprentice” by James Van Pelt, a story about the relationship between the mentor and mentee, filled with magical mystery that will keep you guessing through the end. Jason Hine’s “Prosperity’s Shadow” follows, set in a medieval-type of fantasy world where magic is used to control the masses, and we observe the struggle of the enforcer who has to deal with the weight that his job puts on his conscience. “The Memory of Huckleberries” by Rebecca Birch is sure to bring a tear to your eye. It’s a heartwarming story of love, sacrifice, and loss…

“Boo Daddy’s” by Anna Yeatts follows, a tale set in the Wild West, with a little twisted twist that will definitely creep under your skin. Intrigued? We end the fiction section of the issue with “Skies of Sand and Stee”l by Jeremy Szal, a science fiction story that follows the protagonist in his quest to stop mass exploitation in a world where entire cities float above ground.

Issue 12 continues the epic adventures of Shamrock in a new installment titled “Shadows,” written by Josh Brown with art by Alberto Hernandez. The non-fiction section includes interviews with authors Angela Slatter and Brian Staveley, a book review for God of Clay by Ryan Campbell and a movie review for 10 Cloverfield Lane, directed by Dan Trachtenberg.

…

Read More Read More

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Austin’s Jack the Ripper

Monday, May 9, 2016 Bob Byrne Comments 3 comments

This morning’s post would have been about Houdini and Doyle, the new TV series airing Monday nights on Fox. Except I missed the pilot: and contrary to much public opinion, I only write posts on subjects I know something about. Maybe not much, but… From what I can tell, it’s a buddy cop show in which the pair, one a believer in supernatural phenomena (Doyle), the other a skeptic (Houdini), investigates crimes. Brings to mind a poor man’s Mulder and Scully, but I’ll give it a chance.

And I’m about the last Black Gater you’re going to see a post from regarding the mess that is the Hugo Awards, so that’s not happening here. New fictional TV show aside, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was quite interested, and occasionally involved with, real-life crimes.

I wrote about the George Edalji case here (and even put the world’s first private consulting detective into the crime in Volume III of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories). I talked about his involvement with The Crimes Club in this post. And when time permits, I’m going to refresh my knowledge regarding the Oscar Slater case and write about that.

But my interest in Holmes and other Victorian mystery fiction, as well as hard-boiled mysteries, has resulted in reading about true crimes from those eras. Of course, there’s Jack the Ripper, various ‘trunks on trains’ murders, a plethora of poisonings (Florence Bravo is a particular interest area of mine) and more to delve into.

I lived in Austin, TX for a few years in the early 2000’s. While there, I read Steven Saylor’s A Twist at the End, and was fortunate enough to attend a lecture he gave on the killings. What killings, you say? Read on.

…

Read More Read More

Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: Going to the Nebulas

Sunday, May 8, 2016 Tina Jens Comments 1 comment

So I’ve been falling down on my blogging duties the last few weeks, but as the title of my blog maybe tells you, I’m a teacher before I’m a blogger. It’s the end of the semester and I’ve been teaching two classes, a directed studies (think independent study but with weekly meetings), and advising Myth-Ink, the Columbia College – Chicago student science fiction, fantasy, and horror writing club.

I require the students in the more advanced course, the Fantasy Writing Workshop, to complete at least one story and submit it to a semi-pro or pro market. But the course aimed at writing majors and non-writing majors alike, Exploring Fantasy Genre Writing, has more than half the students ready to submit a poem or short story for publication, as well. There’s always a few, each semester, but more this semester, I think.

So we’ve been doing a lot of copy-editing and proofing exercises, reviewing manuscript submission format, learning how to find appropriate markets, reviewing market guidelines, learning what and what not to put into a cover letter, walking them through writing their first author bio, and talking about what scares them about submitting. I’ve gotten the feeling that the last one is maybe the most important one of all. I’m going to have to think on that.

As part of the last week of classes, for both my courses, I’m having a representative from our department’s Publishing Lab (run by students, for students, to help them submit their poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction) come in. They help read proposed cover letters, find markets, and provide emotional support. The drill is this, with their laptops open and everyone tapped in to the school wi-fi, when a student author says they’re ready to submit, their finger hovering over the send button, the group does a mission-control countdown from five.

…

Read More Read More

Self-Published Book Review: Bitterwood by James Maxey

Sunday, May 8, 2016 Donald Crankshaw Comments 1 comment

If you have a book you’d like me to review, please see this post for instructions to submit. I’ve received very few submissions recently, and I’d like to get more.

This month’s self-published book review is of Bitterwood by James Maxey. I’m stretching the definition of self-published in this instance, as Bitterwood was initially published by Solaris in 2007. But the version I’ve been reading is in Bitterwood: The Complete Collection, which appears to have been published by the author, and includes new material. The reason that I’m stretching definitions here is that I’ve received very few submissions recently. So if you’re interested in seeing your novel reviewed, please submit it to me.

Bitterwood is the story of a world ruled by dragons. These are not your standard fantasy dragons, though. They are four limbed — two hind claws, and two wings with foreclaws that allow manipulation — and they do not breathe fire. They’re also considerably smaller than fantasy dragons, the smaller ones being not much larger than a man, but they are considerably more civilized. They have a well-developed culture, and a hierarchy ruled by the large sun-dragons, served by the deft and scholarly sky-dragons, and the worker, earthbound earth-dragons. And beneath them all are the humans who work the fields and pay tribute. The dragon king, Albekizan, owns the entire known world, and everyone lives on it at his sufferance. The humans are considered little better than parasites, held in contempt and hunted for sport.

Except for Bant Bitterwood. Converted at a young age to a harsh form of Christianity by the wandering prophet Hezekiah, Bant was force to abandon his family by the prophet, and subsequently lost them to the dragons. Bitterwood abandoned his faith and swore vengeance, and has been hunting dragons ever since. Every dragon knows his name, and fears him as The Ghost Who Kills — a man who should be dead, who comes and goes like a ghost, and kills without mercy.

…

Read More Read More