Fantastic, January 1962: A Retro-Review

Fantastic, January 1962: A Retro-Review

Fantastic Stories January 1962-smallA Goldsmith era Fantastic, again, also from the stash I picked up at Sasquan. This one has a cover by Lloyd Birmingham, illustrating, rather faithfully, Randall Garrett’s “Hepcats of Venus” (a story probably published at about the last time one could have published it). The cover also advertises an Erle Stanley Gardner (of Perry Mason fame) SF story, “The Human Zero.” Interior illustrations are by Virgil Finlay, Leo Summers, and one Kilpatrick. I don’t recognize the last one, by name or style, and the ISFDB shows only 5 appearances by him or her, all in Amazing or Fantastic in 1961/1962.

The features are as usual for Fantastic on the scant side – Norman Lobsenz’ editorial and the letter column, According to You. The latter features a long letter by Mrs. Alvin A. Stewart on the subject of her dislike for David Bunch, in the process rehashing an ongoing debate. There are letters praising two serials in previous issues, James White’s Second Ending (which is excellent) and Manly Banister’s Magnanthropus, which I haven’t read, though I found the sequel (Seed of Eloraspon) to be fitfully enjoyable but far from a masterwork, and on the whole kind of preposterous. Paul Zimmer (presumably Marion Zimmer Bradley’s brother, and an author in his own right, Paul Edwin Zimmer) thought Magnanthropus the best serial Fantastic ever published. (Zimmer also takes a swipe at Bunch.) On the other hand, Fred Patten (a name to conjure with in fandom!) thought Magnanthropus a tremendous letdown after Second Ending.

I have to say I somewhat miss lettercols with that sort of spirited discussion of the stories in previous issues.

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Fantasy Scroll Magazine 9 Now Available

Fantasy Scroll Magazine 9 Now Available

Fantasy Scroll Magazine Issue 9-smallThe ninth issue of the online-only Fantasy Scroll Magazine, cover dated October 2015, is now available.

The first order of business in Iulian Ionescu’s editorial is an update on their upcoming Year One anthology, Dragons, Droids and Doom, which contains every story from their first year, including tales by Ken Liu, Piers Anthony, Rachel Pollack, Hank Quense, William Meikle, Cat Rambo, and Mike Resnick. It will be available in both print and as an ebook, and will be officially launched at PhilCon on November 22.

Iulian also provides his usual sneak peek of the contents of issue #9 in his editorial. Here’s a snippet:

We begin with “Thomas Lynne,” a fantasy short story by Jordan Taylor. The author transports us in a southern-US setting filled with fantasy elements that weave naturally with the character’s story. Next is “When Angels Wear Butterfly Wings,” a bone-chilling flash story by Stone Showers, followed by the equally bone-chilling “Sea Found” by L R Hieber. You can learn more about L R Hieber in the interview section.

“Fountain” is next, a science fiction story by Lynda Clark, describing a post-apocalyptic, dog eat dog world where everyone is struggling to survive. Next is “Beneath the Raven’s Wing” by Rebecca Birch, a story that follows a young, female protagonist as she is faced with powers beyond her understanding. Shane Halbach’s “Exit Strategy” follows, a story filled with humor, thievery, and dragons.

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Support the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game Kickstarter

Support the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game Kickstarter

Dungeon Crawl Classic Fourth Printing-smallThe Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG is one of the most successful OSR (“Old School Renaissance”) games on the market, with a well-designed, modern rules system grounded in the origins of sword & sorcery. Now publisher Goodman Games is going back to press with a fourth printing, and to fund it they’ve announced a Kickstarter. Here’s the basic spiel.

Return to the glory days of fantasy with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Adventure as 1974 intended you to, with modern rules grounded in the origins of sword & sorcery. Fast play, cryptic secrets, and a mysterious past await you: turn the page…

What if Gygax and Arneson were able to build upon thirty years of game design when they created D&D? What if they were freed to focus on their stated inspirations — rather than creating the RPG building blocks from scratch? What if someone were to attempt just that: to immerse himself in the game’s inspirations and re-envision the output using modern game design principles?

That, in short, is the goal of DCC RPG: to create a modern RPG that reflects D&D’s origin-point concepts with decades-later rules editions. From the company that was publishing old-school modules before the OSR ever existed, DCC RPG is not an old-school clone, but a re-imagining of what D&D could have been, utilizing the game’s primary sources of inspiration.

The goal was a modest $15,000; as of this writing the campaign has surpassed $91,000 in pledges, with 18 days left and absolutely no signs of slowing down. The publishers have added an extravagant number of stretch goals — and the ones that have already cleared include sewn-in satin ribbon bookmarks, a full color dust jacket, two built-in 4-panel judge’s reference panels, reprints of five out-of-print modules, and gilded page edges. It’s not too late to jump on board and get all the stretch goals — and the 480-page hardcover rule book — for just a $40 pledge.

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Review: Steampunk History – Osprey’s Confederate Cavalryman versus Union Cavalryman

Review: Steampunk History – Osprey’s Confederate Cavalryman versus Union Cavalryman

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…breathtaking moments where the very centuries seem to clash

Leather duster, shotgun… sword and lance. That’s pretty much an iconic Steampunk image, but it’s also a Confederate Cavalryman, which is why I asked Osprey to send me a review copy of their Confederate Cavalryman vs Union Cavalryman – Eastern Theater 1861-65 (Combat) – I am these days at least a 50% Steampunk author, after all.

I was expecting insights into what happens when “modern” Victorian cavalry armies clash. I got that, but also a sense of what cavalry warfare feels like in any era where cold steel and raw courage grant victory as much as good tactics and drill.

To an outsider, the American Civil War looks like oddly like a backwards version of World War One. Both were continental scale wars between belligerents who shared a civilisation. Both resulted from convoluted strings of decisions made with more enthusiasm for honour and principle than for preserving the lives of young men. However, during the course of the fighting, the Civil War gained moral purpose — became about slavery– whereas the Great War lost it — became about… well mostly mud, with the real crusades being internal, classically the development of tanks by both sides.

What’s interesting — to the same outsider — is that the American Civil War, unlike World War One, routinely had massed cavalry battles.

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New Treasures: The Builders by Daniel Polansky

New Treasures: The Builders by Daniel Polansky

The Builders Daniel Polansky-small The Builders Daniel Polansky-back-small

Click on the images for bigger versions.

Daniel Polansky has had an enviable career. His first novel, Low Town, was one of the most talked-about fantasy debuts of the year, and he’s already produced two sequels: Tomorrow the Killing (2012) and She Who Waits (2013). His new novel Those Above, the opening entry in The Empty Throne, was called “Machiavellian clockwork glory” by Mark Lawrence.

His latest, The Builders, the newest entry in Tor.com‘s novella series, is a dark anthropomorphic fantasy featuring a company of warriors keeping a low profile after being on the losing end of a grueling war. John Hornor Jacbos calls it “Funny, exciting, and extremely original. The Wild Bunch meets Watership Down.” I’ve been intrigued by all the titles in Tor.com‘s new publishing venture, but The Builders cranks my interest up to 11. And at 224 pages, it’s closer to a full-fledged novel than a novella.

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Dungeons & Dragons Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide

Dungeons & Dragons Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide

Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide-smallBy the time Forgotten Realms hit bookstore shelves in 1987 I was off to college and long absent from Dungeons & Dragons. I never played 2nd Edition, nor leafed through Unearthed Arcana, and while I saw the books and occasionally glimpsed a Forgotten Realms novel, I never read one. It wasn’t that I thought myself too good for gaming, it was just that I’d moved on to other systems.

It was years before I returned to appreciate the simpler, archetypal approach to character creation and streamlined combat as presented in Castles & Crusades and in true retro-clones like Swords & Wizardry and Labyrinth Lord. The idea behind them was that the 3.0 and after D&D engine had become encumbered with all sorts of add-ons that bogged down character creation, combat, and play. Having tried to run some of the newer iterations of the game I found myself in sympathy with that philosophy, because for me the story creation got lost in all the rules.

5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons took a lot of what had come before and re-presented it, with innovation and re-organization and a lot of care. It made all those cumbersome feats and skills and fiddly combat bits optional or streamlined (or jettisoned them), which impressed me. I’m still using other systems, but I like what I’ve seen enough that I’ll probably try running it some time.

All that pre-amble is to say I may be the perfect audience for this new Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, because I’m familiar with Dungeons & Dragons and partial to the new game but know almost nothing about the Forgotten Realms or the Sword Coast that’s one of its regions.

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Vintage Treasures: John the Balladeer by Manly Wade Wellman

Vintage Treasures: John the Balladeer by Manly Wade Wellman

John the Balladeer-small John the Balladeer-back-small

Manly Wade Wellman, whom Karl Edward Wagner called “the dean of fantasy writers,” was one of the great 20th Century fantasists, particularly in the field of the “occult detective.” He created several memorable occult investigators, including Judge Pursuivant and John Thunstone. But his most enduring creation is surely Silver John, also known as John the Balladeer.

Silver John, a Korean War vet who becomes a wandering singer in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina, appeared in around 20 stories published between 1951 and 1987, chiefly in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and later in anthologies like Shadows and Whispers. The stories were gathered in several volumes over the years, and these books are highly collectible today. In 1988 Baen Books released a complete collection of the Silver John stories in paperback, John the Balladeer, with a captivating painting by Steve Hickman.

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Goth Chick News: Why the Yeti Needs a Good PR Firm

Goth Chick News: Why the Yeti Needs a Good PR Firm

Where are the Yetis-smallAs a former Londoner of the ex-pat variety, I still regularly peruse the BBC web site for the morning news. Normally this consists of a rather broader version of world events than can be had from CNN, but rarely anything earth-shatteringly different.

Until this week when I came across an entirely legitimate article entitled:

Why Don’t People See the Yeti Anymore? by Candida Beveridge

Alright… Now I’m wondering too.

Before I relay Ms. Beveridge’s hypothesis, I need to explain that a yeti and Bigfoot are not the same thing. For this I turn to Quora, a less foot-noted more emo version of Wikipedia:

The difference between the yeti and Bigfoot is regional. The mythology surrounding the yeti comes from the Himalayas near Tibet. Bigfoot is primarily based on North American native folklore.

More importantly, where Bigfoot currently has his own reality show on Animal Planet as well as his own Facebook page, and therefore presumably has a more of-the-moment public relations team, the yeti, who technically doesn’t even qualify to have his name capitalized, has largely dropped into the realm of fireside stories told to frighten the grandkids.

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Discovering Robert E Howard: Morten Braten on The Road To Xoth: World-building in the Footsteps of Robert E. Howard

Discovering Robert E Howard: Morten Braten on The Road To Xoth: World-building in the Footsteps of Robert E. Howard

The Spider-God’s Bride and Other Tales of Sword and Sorcery-small Song of the Beast Gods-small Citadel Beyond the North Wind-small

XothMapBGDue mostly to time constraints, I don’t play RPGs these days, but I still read RPG books pretty regularly – primarily Pathfinder and 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons. The pulpiest, most Robert E. Howard-ish stuff I have found is Morten Braten’s World of Xoth. Morten, who wrote the quasi-historical Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia for Necromancer Games, clearly draws heavily on Robert E. Howard in his RPG design. If you haven’t discovered Xoth, you should give it a look. You can start by downloading the new, free, Player’s Guide! Here’s Morten…


I was around 14 or 15 years old when I discovered the Hyborian Age. Hanging out at a friend’s house, waiting for my turn to play some late 80s computer game, I noticed some black and white Conan comics on a bookshelf. The inside cover of each comic had a map of Conan’s world, apparently our own earth as it looked 10,000 years ago.

Even before I had read a single Conan story, the evocative names on that map filled my mind with colorful visions of long-lost lands: Hyperborea, Stygia and Zembabwei; and mysterious places such as Shadizar, Kutchemes, Kheshatta and Xuchotl.

I immediately knew that I wanted to run a role-playing game set in that world. Just around the same time, I had been introduced to Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D 2nd Edition, to be more specific), but at the time I was just learning the system as a player and was not yet ready to take on game mastering duties. In fact, my Hyborian Age campaign did not become a reality until a decade later. By then I had been game mastering several traditional fantasy campaigns, and I had learned a lot about world building from the Greyhawk boxed set.

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Future Treasures: The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts

Future Treasures: The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts

The Thing Itself Adam Roberts-smallAdam Roberts is a prolific British science fiction writer. His novels include Swiftly, Stone, and The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo. Three of his novels, Salt, Gradisil and Yellow Blue Tibia, were nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award; and By Light Alone was nominated for the 2012 British Science Fiction Association Award.

Sadly, not many of his books have made it across the pond. But next month his publisher Gollancz will release the digital version of his latest novel, The Thing Itself, simultaneously in the US and the UK. The Thing Itself is a very intriguing riff on one of my favorite horror films, the classic SF/horror tale The Thing. Sounds like a great time for American readers to try Roberts.

Adam Roberts turns his attention to answering the Fermi Paradox with a taut and claustrophobic tale that echoes John Carpenters’ The Thing.

Two men while away the days in an Antarctic research station. Tensions between them build as they argue over a love-letter one of them has received. One is practical and open. The other surly, superior and obsessed with reading one book — by the philosopher Kant.

As a storm brews and they lose contact with the outside world they debate Kant, reality and the emptiness of the universe. They come to hate each other, and they learn that they are not alone.

The Thing Itself will be published by Gollancz/Hachette Book Group on December 17, 2015. It is 352 pages, priced at $10.99 in digital format. If you prefer the print edition, you can order that from Gollancz in the UK for £8.99.