A Tremendously Disappointing Re-Read: The Soaked-in Misogyny of Piers Anthony’s Xanth

A Tremendously Disappointing Re-Read: The Soaked-in Misogyny of Piers Anthony’s Xanth

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When my life is super-busy, I tend to reread books that won’t invite my brain to start analyzing to see what I could learn. I reread Edgar Rice Burroughs’ biography, and recently, I thought I’d reread Piers Anthony’s Xanth series.

I first read the first novel, A Spell for Chameleon, in grade six and reread it maybe later in my teens. I remember it being charming and punny, but my memories were pretty dim. I was also wondering if I could recommend it to my 11-year old son after he finished with the Percy Jackson opus.

A Spell for Chameleon is about Bink, a person who lives in the North Village of the land of Xanth, where every plant and animal is magical and every person has a single magical talent, everyone except for Bink. If he doesn’t find out his magical talent, he’ll get kicked out of Xanth upon turning 25.

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New Treasures: Almost Insentient, Almost Divine by D P Watt

New Treasures: Almost Insentient, Almost Divine by D P Watt

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Michael Kelly and his team at Undertow Publications have been getting some long overdue attention recently. Two of their books, V.H. Leslie’s collection Skein and Bone, and Simon Strantzas’s anthology Aickman’s Heir’s, were nominated for the World Fantasy Award this year, and their exemplary anthologies Year’s Best Weird Fantasy, Volumes One and Two, have been heaped with praise.

They continue to produce beautiful and intriguing books. One of their latest is D P Watt’s collection Almost Insentient, Almost Divine. Watt’s previous collections include An Emporium of Automata (2013) and The Phantasmagorical Imperative: and Other Fabrications (2015). I’m not familiar with Watt, but that’s what Undertow is great at — introducing me to overlooked horror and dark fantasy writers who deserve my attention.

The stunning new collection of weird fiction from visionary writer D.P. Watt. The foolish wisdom of forlorn puppets. A diabolical chorus in many voices. Shadowy shapes emerging from the strange blueness. Dreamers of other truths. The delicate craft of filial love. You – and some other you. Creatures in the hedgerows. Cold rime creeping across darkened windows. The numinous night pool. A hive of pain. These and other nightmares await. “DP Watt has real talent. It touches on and reflects the world we know, but as in a glass darkly.” – Reggie Oliver

Almost Insentient, Almost Divine was published by Undertow Publications on May 17, 2016. It is 244 pages, priced at $17.99 in trade paperback and $5.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Tran Nguyen.

Galaxy Science Fiction, June 1953: A Retro-Review

Galaxy Science Fiction, June 1953: A Retro-Review

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Galaxy June 1953-smallThe June, 1953 issue of Galaxy didn’t include any serial fiction. If you’re looking for a good issue to read just to get a flavor of Galaxy without any commitment, I’d suggest this one.

“Tangle Hold” by F. L. Wallace — Jadiver’s autobath malfunctions, burning him with steam to the point that he nearly dies. A doctor replaces his skin with a synthetic version, and he’s eventually released from care to continue with his life.

Jadiver used to be a robot designer on Earth, but Earth was too crowded. He moved to Venus two years ago, but his skills aren’t as useful to society — except criminal society. He can design body costumes to change people’s appearances to help them go wherever they want without restriction.

When Jadiver becomes aware that his entire body has been redesigned as a type of surveillance unit for the police, he tries to understand its limitations and how he might be able to escape from the planet.

Wallace’s story has great pacing. There are enough questions to keep readers interested and engaged, and the answers come at the right moments, without being obvious.

“The Water Eater” by Win Marks — The narrator fixes his oil stove and dumps the excess oil into a roaster. To clean the roaster, he combines multiple cleaners together with hot water.

After dinner, he finds that the combination of oil and cleaners has become gelatinous. And it expands when water is added. Not only does it expand, but it tries to reach out toward the source of water to consume more.

The narration of the story works really well. He had a strong voice.

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Future Treasures: The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee

Future Treasures: The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee

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We did a cover reveal for Brian Lee Durfee’s upcoming epic fantasy back in December. But now that the book is on the verge of being published, I wanted to take another peek.

The Forgetting Moon is a debut novel, part of the stellar line from Saga Press, and the opening book in The Five Warrior Angels series. Brian shared his thoughts on the cover with us back in December; click the image above left to check it out. And read the book description by clicking on the image at right.

The Forgetting Moon will be published by Saga Press on August 30, 2016. It is 576 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $7.99 for the digital edition.

See Saga Press’ complete catalog here, and our coverage of all the best in upcoming fantasy here.

Time to Railroad: Still On The Train

Time to Railroad: Still On The Train

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VU1Last time I was talking about the idea of there being a time to railroad. In other words, that there’s a time when the supporting technology, or maybe just the zeitgeist, allows for a concept or invention to finally flourish. The railroad itself is the ultimate example of this idea technologically, and you can look at my last post for examples of TV or movie concepts whose time to railroad popped up in the last ten years or so.

But I also wanted to take a look at a couple of TV shows that got derailed because – maybe – they were ahead of their time.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least touch on two related works, The Princess Bride, and Firefly, both of which “failed” at the time of their production, and both of which have become cult classics since. To be honest, I don’t think either of these was before their time. Above, around, beyond, maybe, but not before. Princess Bride was marketed badly – like trying to find only one shelf for a cross-genre book. The studio just didn’t know what to do with it. Firefly suffered more, I think, from lack of backbone – I mean to say, patience – on the part of its network. Either that or the audience which seems so huge to us in the Fantasy and SF community is actually quite small when compared to the population at large. Maybe Firefly would have flourished if it had been on another network, where the numbers would have looked better.

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Goth Chick News: So There Really Was Something In The Woods…?

Goth Chick News: So There Really Was Something In The Woods…?

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The Woods movie banner

In spite of the fact John O will not allow us to borrow the Black Gate dirigible for a road trip (air trip?) out to the San Diego ComicCon, we followed all the many developments of last week from afar, with maniacal interest. After all, this is where we see what we have to look forward to on the entertainment front as we slog through another Midwest winter.

From world-class cosplay to the many celebrity appearances it was difficult to decide where to look first – unless of course you’re obsessed with a good horror movie, in which case the place to look was the many trailers which made their debut during the week.

We had glimpses of Justice League, Kong: Skull Island, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman and a television-series version of The Exorcist starring Gina Davis, which actually looks pretty interesting if you don’t mind priests fighting demons with guns instead of holy water.

But an unexpected treat came in the form of the screening of an upcoming found-footage horror film called The Woods.

From what we are told, during the screening the posters for The Woods in the theater lobby were swapped out for ones simply titled Blair Witch, and audiences were informed that they were about to watch a direct sequel to the 1999 horror blockbuster that started the craze: The Blair Witch Project.

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Jerry Springer through the Time Portal! Tom Holland’s Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar

Jerry Springer through the Time Portal! Tom Holland’s Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar

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Tom Holland Dynasty
The heir to Harold Lamb?

The wildest period of Roman political history — from the rise of Augustus, through Tiberius, Caligula and C… C… Claudius, to the demise of Nero — is also the hardest to follow.

There are just too many unfamiliar names and too many repeated names — thanks to Roman naming conventions, there are, e.g., more Julias than you can shake a stick at. Worse, people don’t just marry for politics, they divorce for it, and even adopt for it.

Thus you have Emperor Tiberius, son of Emperor Augustus’ second wife Livia by her first husband but adopted by Augustus (originally called Octavian, by the way) adopting his nephew Germanicus who then marries Agrippina (the first: there are two Agrippinas ) daughter of Julia by her first marriage with Marcus Agrippa.  Julia, of course, was the daughter of Augustus by his first wife Scribonia, and not to be confused with Julia’s grandmother, daughter or granddaughter of the same name.

I hope you’re following that?

But really, you’re probably having difficulty hearing me over the sound of a million Ancient Romans chanting, “Jerry! Jerry!”

Because it is like a Jerry Springer show, except with more exiles, more murder, and more death by starvation or ritual suicide.

Despite, or because of this, the period is a favorite fictional setting. Robert Graves’ I, Claudius is the classic, but Simon Scarrow’s excellent Eagle series romps through the military thread. And of course we have the screen adaption Graves’ book plus the more recent BBC Rome.

Personally I have difficulty following even fictionalised renditions of this mayhem! For this reason I was intrigued to get a review copy Tom Holland’s Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar.

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July 2016 Lightspeed Magazine Now Available

July 2016 Lightspeed Magazine Now Available

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Lightspeed July 2016-smallThe complete July issue of Lightspeed is now yours to enjoy free online. This month brings new fantasy by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz and Kenneth Schneyer, and fantasy reprints by A. Merc Rustad and Spencer Ellsworth, plus original science fiction by Ted Kosmatka and Jilly Dreadful, along with SF reprints by Genevieve Valentine and Seth Fried.

In his editorial, editor John Joseph Adams shares some award good news, plus intriguing news about his new book line with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt:

We’re thrilled to report that Alyssa Wong’s story, “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,” from the Queers Destroy Horror! special issue of Nightmare (Oct. 2015), won the Nebula Award for best short story! Congrats to Alyssa and to all of the other winners. You can find a full list of the winners at SFWA.org/nebula-awards…

John Joseph Adams Books News

In my role as editor of John Joseph Adams Books for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, I just acquired two books in a new series by Molly Tanzer (author of Vermilion).

The first book is Creatures of Will and Temper, a Victorian-era urban fantasy inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which epee-fencing enthusiast Evadne Gray and her younger sister are drawn into a secret and dangerous London underworld of pleasure-seeking demons and bloodthirsty diabolists, with only Evadne’s skill with a blade standing between them and certain death.

Publication of book one will likely happen in late 2017. Can’t wait for you all to read it!

I’m especially intrigued by the Book News. We covered Molly Tanzer’s Vermilion here, and I’m very interested in seeing her latest. John has proved to be an editor with a very keen eye… What other wonders will he offer us through John Joseph Adams Books? I’m looking forward to finding out.

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Adventure in The Old Kingdom: The Minikins of Yam by Thomas Burnett Swann

Adventure in The Old Kingdom: The Minikins of Yam by Thomas Burnett Swann

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DAW edition

I am on holiday and, while taking a break from work, am also taking a short break from my ongoing retro review of Jane Gaskell’s Atlan Saga. My growing Books to Read shelf produced two volumes that spoke to me: The Minikins of Yam by Thomas Burnett Swann, and Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber. The latter has been well reviewed and discussed on the Black Gate blog, but Swann has received a lot less attention.

Thomas Burnett Swann (1928 to 1976) wrote a number of books, essays and short stories during his career, but seems to have been most prolific during his later years. He is an author I have never read before, and I picked up the DAW copy of The Minikins of Yam at a second hand book shop for the huge sum of ZAR12 (about 80 cents).

The cover and age intrigued me and when I glanced at the first three lines: “Egypt. Chemmis. The palace of Pharaoh,” I was hooked. I have always been fascinated with ancient Egypt, and this book spoke to me. While Mr Swann was not familiar to me, he has appeared before in Black Gate, in blog posts about his novels The Weirwoods and Wolfwinter by John O’Neill.

The volume I read is a slim 156 pages and was published by DAW books in 1976, so it may be one of the last books the author saw published in his lifetime. The only later edition appears to have been from Wildside Press in 2013. The DAW edition includes a few internal illustrations by the prolific George Barr, who also did the cover, featuring a near-naked satyr like creature (a minikin) riding an ostrich.

The story commences with the juvenile Pharaoh, Pepy II, in Old Kingdom Egypt, where the lonely young Pharaoh sneaks out each night in disguise to help the poor. Next wee meet the Pharaoh’s father-like friend Harkhuf, an accomplished soldier and adventurer, who has traveled beyond Nubia into the land of Yam in search of a black dwarf, whom the Pharaoh would be pleased to see dance in his court.

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The Pirates of the Canary Islands

The Pirates of the Canary Islands

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El Castillo de Santa Barbara, built in the 15th century to protect
the port of Teguise from pirate attacks. It was extensively rebuilt in the 16th century and
now houses a piracy museum. Photo courtesy Almudena Alonso-Herrero

When I told Black Gate‘s editor, high guru, and overall generalissimo John O’Neill that I was headed to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands and would visit a castle that had a piracy museum, he was over the Moon. What fantasy blog wouldn’t want an article on that?

Unfortunately for him, I spent my week eating, swimming, and learning to play Grand Theft Auto 5 with my son and nephew. When I finally got around to driving out to the castle, it was closed. Yeah, I failed in my job as a travel writer because I enjoyed my vacation too much.

But the island itself is worth a look, and its history is fascinating. Lanzarote lies in the Canary Island chain just off the coast of Western Sahara. It’s volcanic in origin, with a dramatic coastline ringing an interior that looks like something from a post-apocalyptic movie.

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