Monthly Archives: July 2011

Amazon Overcharging for Ebooks

David Gaughran has posted a disturbing essay on why ebooks cost more through Amazon than in the US and a select few other countries. You should read David’s post, especially if you live outside the US, UK, Germany, Canada, Ireland, and a few other countries. In most of the world, including France, Spain, Israel, South Africa, India, and Brazil just to name a few off the top of my head, there’s a $2 surcharge added in addition to any sales tax or VAT. This surcharge goes directly to Amazon, not to a government, and certainly not to the author. While most of my readers are American, I know there are a few in countries in which Amazon slaps this surcharge. David is encouraging his readers to buy through Smashwords or iTunes, because there surcharge isn’t added there and the author gets more money.

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve recently become an Amazon Associate. You may be wondering: Will Amazon be displeased with this post, will they revoke my Associate status, and will I lose a revenue stream in they do? The answers to those questions are: Almost certainly, maybe, and not at all. If Amazon were to even notice this small blog, they would almost certainly be displeased and could very well revoke my Associate status. But at the present time, I wouldn’t lose a dime. Because so far I haven’t made any money by being an Associate. (Considering a recent post which stated that Locus Online, which probably gets more hits in a month than both my blogs combined have ever gotten total, only generated a few hundred dollars a month from links to Amazon, I’m not exactly planning my retire on my earnings.)

I’m less concerned about ad revenue than I am fair trade practices. What Amazon is doing is hurting authors in the long run, as David so eloquently explained. Since I hope to begin doing some indie publishing myself within the next year, I’m taking the long term approach rather than the short term by not offending Amazon. Plus it’s just the right thing to do.

Another Salvo in the Battle of the Sexes…

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…as it pertains to fantasy and science fiction, of course. Over at the Black Gate site, regular contributor Theo posted an essay today explaining why it’s okay for readers to like different types of writing and for writers to write different things. I tried to say something similar a few months ago in a post entitled “In Defense of Traditional Gender Roles in Fantasy“. The post, while not completely sinking like a stone, didn’t get much response. Theo, on the other hand, has summarized much of my argument in a more concise and eloquent manner. This particular flare up of controversy (everything I’ve seen so far is too civil to be called hostilities) was started when the Guardian over in the UK did a completely unscientific survey of it readers, asking them to name the best works in the SF genre. When the results came back skewed heavily towards male authors, the label of Sexist began to be leveled at science fiction, and by extension fantasy. I’d like to respond at length, but to some extent I already did. I’ve got some deadlines breathing down my neck (which is why I’ve not been posting as much lately), so I’ll just encourage you to go read what Theo has written. If I can find the time, I’ll throw my two cents in.

Blogging Kull and Bran Mak Morn: Kings of the Night

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Kull: Exile of Atlantis
or Bran Mak Morn: The Last King
Robert E. Howard
Del Rey

This is the next to last post about Kull and the first about Bran Mak Morn. They’re together because they appear in the same story. This is essentially a Bran Mak Morn story in which Kull has a supporting role, although many elements of the Kull series can be seen. Let’s take a quick look at it.

Howard uses the trick of telling his tale from the point of view of a supporting character, albeit a crucial one. This is a device he’s used before, especially in some of the Conan stories. The advantage to this approach is that we get to see how other characters view the hero. This allows the reader to gain a fresh perspective of the hero and is particularly useful with a series character whose identity has been well established. The viewpoint character here is Cormac na Connacht, “a prince of the isle of Erin.”

The story is divided into three parts. In the first, the Picts and their allies are awaiting a battle with an invading Roman legion the following morning. With the Celts and Picts are a group of Northmen. The northmen were defeated by Bran when they tried to invade. Their king swore and oath that he would aid Bran against the Romans in one battle, and in return Bran would build him ships for the survivors to get home. The problem is that the king was killed in a skirmish with Roman scouts, and his remaining men say his death released them from the oath. Unless Bran finds them a king to fight under, “a king neither Pict, Gael, or Briton”, they will desert to the Romans.

The ancient Druid priest Gonar promises help. Preceded by a lengthy speech about time being an illusion, he brings Kull forward in time to help with the battle, with Kull appearing to walk out of the rising sun. At first Kull thinks Bran is his friend Brule. Bran is descended from Brule and resembles him strongly. He also wears a gem in his crown that was given to Brule by Kull in a ring, and from Kull’s perspective, that happened the previous night. Kull thinks the whole things is a detailed dream. Always eager for a good fight, he agrees to lead the Northmen.

First he has to defeat the new leader of the Northmen, Wulfhere, who is resistant to Kull taking charge. An extended scene of single combat takes up the rest of the second part. It’s pure Howard. The prose is lean, exciting, and pulls you in. Of course Kull is victorious, but he’s not unscathed. This helps convince the Northmen he’s not a ghost.

The third part of the story is the battle. Bran puts Kull, who still thinks he’s dreaming, at the head of the Norsemen at the end of a gorge. They are the bait in a trap. None of the rest of Bran’s army is disciplined enough to stand and wait for the Romans to enter the gorge. Once they do, the Gaelic cavalry and the chariots of the Britons, accompanied by the Picts, will sweep in from the sides trapping them.

It’s an effective and bloody plan. Most of the Northmen die, as do most of the Romans, their camp followers, and many Picts, Gaels, and Britons. Cormac sees Kull standing on the ridge, outnumbered, the sole survivor of the bait. Just as one of the Romans is about to deliver a killing blow, the sun begins to set, and Kull is transported back to Valusia.

Appalled at the carnage, Cormac threatens to kill Bran in retribution for not springing the trap sooner. Bran replies ” ‘Strike if you will. I am sick of slaughter. It is a cold mead, this kinging it…A king belongs to his people, and can not let either his own feelings or the lives of men influence him. Now my peole are saved; but my heart is cold in my breast.”

Heavy stuff. Even in victory there is bleakness. This is one of Howard’s best. A lesser writer would have taken the easy way out at the end of the story and had the victors celebrate. Instead they mourn the loss of their friends and allies, including the Northmen, and prepare for the next battle with the Romans who will follow after those who have fallen.

This could have been a simple adventure story. Instead, Howard infused it with some of his favorite themes. There’s much discussion about the nature of time and reality. Is Kull dreaming being with Bran, or was his former life a dream from which he had just awakened. Then there’s the weight of the crown and responsibility, often fulfilled in blood, of those who wear it. Finally, throughout the story, Howard makes references to the rise and fall of the Picts in particular and how much science has been lost since Kull’s time. Kull’s armor and weapons are superior to any other in the battle, on either side.

The strands of melancholy and philosophy make this one of Howard’s better tales. It’s one I’ll return to again in the future, for it’s well worth multiple readings.

The Kull series of posts is about at an end. The only one remaining is for “By This Axe I Rule!” which was rewritten into “The Phoenix on the Sword”, the first of the Conan tales. I’ll be comparing the two in the final Kull post. That post will launch a series of posts looking at selected Conan stories. This post launches a series of posts about Bran Mak Morn. Bran, Kull, and Conan are Howard’s three warrior kings, and Kull is the common link between them. I’ll have more to say about that as we look at Bran and Conan over the next few months.

Of Blood and Crown and Conquest

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The Crown of the Blood
Gav Thorpe
Angry Robot Books
464 p., $7.99 paper, $5.99 ebook

You know any book that is dedicated to Phillip, Alexander, and Julius is going to be battle-centric. Or perhaps I should say campaign-centric, because battles are only a small part of a campaign. The Crown of the Blood doesn’t disappoint, although towards the end I felt the campaign was a little rushed.

Is this book worth reading? If you like military oriented fantasy without a lot of sorcery in the middle of the battle, then you should enjoy this one. There is some sorcery, but the battles are fought between legions and bandits, legions and those-soon-to-be-conquered, and legions and legions. Unlike Glen Cook’s Black Company novels (which I love), sorcery has little to do with the combat. It’s done the old fashioned way: looking your opponent in the eye when you try to kill him, just like he’s doing to you.

The plot concerns one Ulsaard, a general in the Askhan army who has managed to work his way up the ranks and is as close to nobility as he can ever be in this society. He’s more comfortable with his legions than he is with the intrigues of court, and this causes him to be manipulated into taking sides in a disagreement over the succession.

The Empire was founded by Askhos, and he set some pretty strict rules about how things were to be done after he was gone. By this time Askhos is considered something of a deity. For one thing, only those of the Blood, Askhos’ descendants, can rule. All bastards are killed by the Brotherhood, an organization responsible for things like rule of law and collecting taxes, but which also seems to serve a religious function by stamping out any beliefs in conflict with Askhos’ teachings. The Empire must expand by conquest until it controls the entire continent; Ulsaard thinks this one has been neglected of late. And the succession must pass to the oldest living son, no exceptions.

What starts things off is that the heir, Kalmud, has fallen ill with some sort of lung disease that is keeping him bedridden but so far hasn’t been fatal. His younger brother, Aalun, and also Ulsaard’s patron, finds this all very inconvenient. Ulsaard is chomping at the bit to invade the neighboring kingdom of Salphoria. Aalun uses this to put Ulsaard in the position of appearing to be in rebellion when he presses to be named successor. Of course, what starts out as appearance soon turns to fact, especially after Aalun dies unexpectedly. Ulsaard decides to continue the campaign.

Civil war follows. One interesting thing is that Thorpe doesn’t hesitate to introduce semi-major characters and then kill them off. This adds to the suspense as some key players don’t last as long as you expect, making you wonder who is next.

Another thing I found interesting was that apparently when a man marries a woman, he also marries her sisters. Depending on the sisters, this could be a sweet deal. Or not. In Ulsaard’s case it’s something of a mixed bag. He loves the older sister, uses the younger sister mainly as a sex object, and barely tolerates the middle sister, who is a scheming social climber and quite adulterous.

There are different cultures shown in the book, with viewpoint characters from some of those cultures, but the main one is the (not surprisingly) Askhan culture, especially the culture of the legions. Much of the world remains unexplored, in terms of the reader’s knowledge, although to an extent that’s true of the characters as well. I suspect from some loose ends that we’ll be getting a closer look at some of them in later books.

This was a good book that moved well, had depth of character, and still had some surprises as it went along. I only had two complaints with the structure of the story. First, as I mentioned earlier, the end of the campaign seemed somewhat rushed, with several key battles skipped over. I suspect for reasons of length. The other was the one situation in which sorcery was used. It was during winter, when Ulsaard’s legions are encamped, that they began to experience a series of increasingly damaging attacks, things like people getting literally deathly ill with no notice, while hearing chanting voices. That seemed to be dropped after the most vicious attack fails. Thorpe skips ahead to spring in the next chapter.

Those weren’t enough to spoil the book for me, though. I’ve downloaded the sequel, The Crown of the Conqueror, and should be posting a review of it in a few weeks. One word of warning to some of you. The violence, sex, and language in this novel are quite graphic at times, more so than in many novels published these days, at least in the States. Or perhaps I should say at least among the authors I’ve read over the last few years. If you are squeamish or offended by that sort of thing, you might want to give this one a pass. Otherwise, enjoy it. It’s an exciting story that drags you in.

A Review of Dreams in the Fire

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Dreams in the Fire: Stories and Poetry Inspired by Robert E. Howard
Mark Finn and Chris Gruber, ed.
cover art by Jim and Ruth Keegan
Monkeyhaus Publishing
available from Lulu (use above link), $20, 278 p.

Ever since I interviewed Mark Finn back in February (posted here and here) and he told me about this book, I’ve had high expectations for it. It did not meet my expectations.

This book exceeded my expectations, and in spades.

All the contributors are either current or former member of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association. The anthology is a fund raiser, and I’ll talk more about that at the end of the review.

The book contains stories and fiction, along with an introduction by Rusty Burke. Several professional writers are included, but not all of the names will be familiar. My understanding is that some of the contents are the first published fiction of some of the contributors. I can only ask: What took you people so long? There’s not a dog in the book, and the quality of many of the stories surpasses a lot of what’s in professional short fiction markets these days. Howard wrote in a variety of genres, so not all of the entries are fantasy, although most are.

I’ll not discuss the poetry, since some of the pieces are only a few lines. I don’t want my commentary to be longer than what I’m commenting on. I restrict myself to saying the following people have one or more poems in the book: Barbara Barrett (3), Frank Coffman (2), Danny Street, Amy Kerr, and Don Herron.

The backbone of the anthology is the fiction, and that’s what I want to discuss here.

Charles Gromlich opens the book with a deadly tale of family and gender politics in “A Gathering of Ravens”; this one annoyed me because I wanted to know more about the relationship between Trajan Vittus and Jedess than Gromlich chose to show. That’s a sign of good writing. Veteran professional James Reasoner examines the relationship between the pen and the sword in “The Rhymester of Ulm”, while “The Word”, by Rob Roehm, is the only western tale. Robert Weinberg lightens the mood with “CSI: Kimmeria”. Christopher Fulbright gives us a pirate yarn set on the “Bloody Isle of the Kiyah-rahi”, and Jimmy Cheung’s “Avatar” is a twisty tale of betrayal.

The second longest story and one of my favorites, “Now With Serpents He Wars” by Patrick R. Burger, ventures into territory not much explored by Howard, the Arthurian legends. I found this one to be fresh and original, with compelling writing and believable characters. I’m hoping this one will be on one or more award ballots next year. Oh, and if you don’t like snakes, this one will probably get under your skin.

Angeline Hawkes’ series character, the Barbarian Kabar of El-Hazzar, puts in an appearance in “Two Dragons Blazing”. Co-editor Mark Finn gives us a something of a boxing tale with “Sailor Tom Sharkey and the Phantom of the Gentleman Farmer’s Commune.” David A. Hardy descends into madness with his “I am a Martian Galley Slave”; or does he? Co-editor Chris Gruber, with the longest of the selections and another personal favorite, tells the story of an Indian massacre and its aftermath on the Illinois frontier during the War of 1812, with a dash of horror thrown in for good measure in “Dead River Revenge”. Gary Romeo tells of a swordsman who has “No Other Gods”, and Morgan Holmes rounds out the volume with “A Meeting in the Bush”, a vignette in which several familiar characters meet up for a brief encounter.

Some of the contributors are shown in the picture below at the signing for the book held at Howard Days last month. I’ve tried to identify everyone I can in the picture. If I’ve left anyone out, I apologize.

Signing at Howard Days 2011 – (l. to r.) Amy Kerr, Mark Finn, Angeline Hawkes, Chris Fulbright, Gary Romeo (purple shirt), and Rob Roehm (black shirt, far right)

I expected to the stories to be well written. Amateur press associations tend to attract intelligent, articulate people. What I didn’t expect was the level of professionalism and craftsmanship in the writing. Like I said earlier, some of these stories are better than most of what you find in professional anthologies and periodicals, and none of them fall below that standard. Not quite what I would have expected for a group of writers who, to a large extent, are not pros and/or write mostly nonfiction. This was the second original anthology without a bunch of A-list names I’ve read in the last month that has surprised me with the high quality of the stories. (Here’s my review of the other one.) If other small press anthologies of this type are this good, I’m going to need to read a lot more of them (and so should you).

If I have any complaint at all, and that’s stretching the definition of the world “complaint” almost to the breaking point, it would be that only one story is a nonfantasy. That being Rob Roehm’s, which is a grim western. (Chris Gruber’s comes close to being a straight historical, but does contain a fantastic climax. Mark Finn’s is a definite fantasy, even though it’s about a boxer.) Now I discovered Howard through his fantasy work, primarily Conan, so I’m not really trying to cast stones here. My point is Howard wrote a great deal more than just fantasy. There were the westerns, both humorous and serious, the boxing stories, and the historical adventures. I was expecting more entries in those veins, seeing how the focus was about Howard’s inspiration of these writers. Maybe in the next volume guys?

Finally, one last thing. This book costs $20. You might be thinking that’s high for a trade paperback, and under other circumstances I would be inclined to agree. But this is a fund raiser for Project Pride, the community organization that maintains the Howard House, puts on Howard Days, and has done work above and beyond the call of duty to maintain Robert E. Howard’s legacy. If you’ve been to Howard Days, you understand what that means first hand. If you haven’t, Project Pride maintains the House and grounds. Provides meals for Howard Days attendees for free (although registration and a donation are requested to defray the cost of the evening meals and to get an accurate count, I don’t think anyone has ever been turned away). Maintains copies of a number of original manuscripts. And makes Howard fans not only feel welcome but like part of the family. When you buy this book (and you should), your money will be going to a good cause.

Amazon Piracy: A Disturbing Case of a Writer Being Ripped-Off

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Passive Guy over at the Passive Voice posted this disturbing news story a little while ago. It seems author Ruth Ann Nordin is having a problem getting a pirated copy of one of her books removed from Amazon. They seem to be dragging their feet about removing the stolen book and giving her the runaround. In an act of solidarity with Ms. Nordin, I’m passing this information along in hopes that enough people will raise enough of a stink that Amazon will respond quickly and do the right thing. They did for her other two books that were stolen. Good luck, Ms. Nordin. As an aspiring author, you have my full support.

Why You Soon Won’t be Able to Find a Good Book in a Store

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I was reading one of Kris Rusch’s columns over at The Business Rusch the other day, the topic being shelf space disappearing in book stores. At that reminded me of an unpleasant experience I had the other day in Wal-Mart, one that is now repeated every time I walk into the store (which isn’t nearly as often as it was a few weeks ago). If you haven’t read Kris’s column, please go read it now. I’ll wait.

There, that didn’t take too long, did it? Ms. Rusch brings up some very disturbing points, and while some of them are negative, others are mixed. For what it’s worth, here’s my take on things, including why I’m not going to be shopping at Wal-Mart as much in the future.
For starters, I understand the point Kris makes about Barnes and Noble trying to drive customers online. It helps their bottom line for two reasons. First, in the short term, it provides an incentive for Nook purchases. Eventually that market will saturate, either because everyone will have one and the technology will mature to the point that repeatedly releasing an updated version will no longer be cost effective, or more likely that a new technology will come along and make the Nook obsolete. The second reason, and the one that bothers me, is that it will allow B&N to either close more stores to get out of expensive leases or devote more shelf space to non-book items such as toys, games, stationary, and greeting cards. Along with more floor space to sell the Nook.

Borders, even before it declared bankruptcy, was undergoing this at a disturbing rate. When I started graduate school at UT Dallas back in the early 90s, the Borders at the intersection of Royal and Preston was one of the two go-to bookstores in the Dallas area, the other being the Taylor’s near Prestonwood Mall, although living at what was then the northern edge of the suburban sprawl, i.e, in the other direction, I tended to frequent the Bookstop in Plano near Collin Creek Mall rather than drive an extra hour. All three had excellent selections of science fiction and fantasy, mystery, and scientific and technical books, and all were willing to order titles not in stock (although Taylor’s charged to do so).

Then Taylor’s closed, Barnes and Noble bought the Bookstop chain and closed the one in Plano to open a B&N on the opposite side of the mall, and suddenly Borders was the only good place to get almost anything in print.

That didn’t last long. I’ve only been in that Borders a few times in the last five years, and usually it was to find a magazine I couldn’t get at the big B&N on Northwest Highway. I don’t know if that particular store is still open. I’ve bought very few books there in the last half decade or so. Each time I went in, it seemed the fantastic literature had been moved to a different area and had less shelf space. Along with all the other books. And there more titles turned face out, which is one of the points Ms. Rusch made in her essay. Books facing out take up more space, meaning the shelves hold fewer books. The last time I was there, it wasn’t worth the gas to drive over.

So how does Wal-Mart figure into this? It’s simple. They’re committing the same type of stupidity as the major chains, but they don’t have the excuse of an ereader to fall back on. I live a little over two blocks from K-Mart, four or five blocks from Target, and about a mile and a half from the nearest Wal-Mart (there are four in town). I’ve been going to this Wal-Mart for one reason. They ~~have~~ had a section of their book department devoted to science fiction, meaning that the section was labeled as such. Now the selection was at least 50% fantasy, but I’m not complaining. I read considerable amounts of both. I’ve seen Wal-Marts that devote some shelf space to a few sf/f titles before, but this is the only one with entire section devoted to the stuff. A number of them have sections for westerns, which I’m not knocking, except I don’t think westerns sell as well as sf & f. Maybe Wallyworld is different, because the westerns section in my local Wal-Mart is still intact. And none of the employees, excuse me, associates, I talked to could tell me who made the decision to remove the fantasy and science fiction.

What did they put in its place? They moved the romance section over and put “Books” where the romance previously was. They’re still putting the display together (they’re anything but quick here), but it appears to be mostly children’s books and cook books. All face out. I guess they think fewer titles with more visibility will sell more books.

So now I have one less venue I can walk into, pick up any one of several books, and browse through them. As far as I’m concerned, electronic browsing isn’t worth the time it takes. I like to flip through the book. I’ve bought plenty of books at that Wal-Mart, some of which I’ve reviewed at Adventures Fantastic. And I like a good selection, which, given its size, this one had. But it’s no longer worth the time and gas to drive over and put up with the crowd for the books they have now.

My local B&N has a decent selection, meaning I can find something that interests me. But I can’t find everything, including much of the stuff I want. Kris Rusch wrote about not being able to find her latest science fiction novel, City of Ruins, in a B&N but being told it was in the warehouse and she could order it. The local one here didn’t stock it either. Nor did they stock Howard Andrew Jones’ The Desert of Souls or Scott Oden’s The Lion of Cairo. They had a novel by Paul Finch which I wanted to review, only they sold it before I could buy it and didn’t order a replacement copy. It was a zombie novel; the replacement would have sold. I’m going to have to order all of these books. And that’s a hassle. I ordered the Oden, but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. The other three will probably get ordered sometime before the end of the summer. I want to review and discuss all four of them, but I’ll probably review other things I have at hand first. It’s easier and faster that way.

I could go on. There’s a locally based chain with a number of stores in Texas called Hastings I could write an entire post about, but this is negative enough as it is. The more I write, the grumpier and more depressed I’m getting. If you’re like me and like to spending time in book stores just browsing to see what treasures you can find, I don’t hold out a lot of hope of being able to do that much longer.

This essay has been cross-posted at Futures Past and Present.

Independence Day Greetings

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I’m traveling this weekend and will have limited computer access, so most of the work I’m doing on the blog will be to get caught up on some reading. I’ll be posting a couple of reviews this next week, one an anthology and the other a novel. Since I had a few minutes where I could log on, I wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy Independence Day. And if you are a citizen of a country that doesn’t celebrate American independence, please accept my wishes for a good weekend.