Author Archives: Keith West

More Great Fantasy from Down Under

The Last Quarrel, Episode One
Duncan Lay
Momentum Books
ebook $1.00 Amazon B&N Kobo ibooks AmazonUK

I’ve been saying for a while now that some of the best and most exciting fantasy isn’t coming from the Northern Hemisphere. Some of the freshest stories I’ve read over the last few years have come from Australia and New Zealand.

Case in point, The Last Quarrel. I’d like to thank MIchelle Cameron of Momentum Books for providing me with a review copy. I’d also like to apologize for letting it slip through the cracks and not getting to it sooner. (Although it’s been one of those semesters. I finished the book nearly two weeks ago, and this is the first chance I’ve had to sit down and write the review.)

The Last Quarrel has been published in serial format. The combined edition will be available on the 23rd. I’ve pre-ordered it. Yes, I liked it that much. I said it’s been almost two weeks since I finished it, yet the scenes and characters from The Last Quarrel have stuck in my mind. I often don’t remember much about what I read three days ago, so this one had some things that really stood out. Continue reading →

Henry Kuttner at 100

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One of my all-time favorite writers was born 100 years ago on this date. Henry Kuttner was a prolific author who wrote in multiple genres. Kuttner started out writing Lovecraft pastiche for Weird Tales.

Kuttner mentored Ray Bradbury and wrote the ending to Bradbury’s “The Candle” when Bradbury got stuck. In the introduction to the Ballatine/Del Rey edition of The Best of Henry Kuttner (there was a 2 volume British edition by the same name with more and different stories), Bradbury says in reference to “The Graveyard Rats” that Kuttner didn’t want to be remembered as a minor league Lovecraft. That’s a paraphrase, as I don’t have the book here with me. I looked at “The Graveyard Rats” on Kuttner’s birthday last year. Continue reading →

Reading Other People’s Mail

A Review of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly 23

Too Many Irons in the Fire

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Just a quick update. This past week has been Spring Break, and I’m still waiting for the break part to begin. This week has involved several days of unexpected travel. (No, I didn’t go to the beach. Or the mountains, either.)

I’m less than 75 pages from finishing several books, including the next title in the BAF series I’m doing for Black Gate. I’m about halfway through Neil Gaiman’s Trigger Warning, and I’m making progress on a book for a major post that I’m not ready to talk about.

So, no, I haven’t dropped off the face of the Earth. I’ve just got too many things going on.

A Review of The Last Great Hero: The Age of Heroes

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The Last Great Hero: The Age of Heroes
Scott J. Robinson
ebook, 184 pages, $2.99 Amazon Smashwords

I’d like to start this review by thanking Scott Robinson for the review copy of The Age of Heroes. This novel was different from your typical fantasy, and that’s a good thing. I have to wonder if the fact that the author is from Australia has something to do with that. The Australian authors I’ve read in the last year or so have been doing some things that I find refreshing and different from what I’ve seen from American and British authors.

Rawk is a hero, the greatest. He’s 55 years old, and he’s about to find out that it’s time to grow up. Over the course of a little more than a week, Rawk discovers that maybe being the greatest living hero isn’t such a good thing, especially if he wants to continue the living part. Continue reading →

A Saint Patrick’s Day Observance, Robert E. Howard Style

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Swords of the North
Robert E. Howard
The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press
$50 nonmember, $45 members

Robert E. Howard was enamored of the Celts, so I thought I would look at a pair of stories featuring his Irish pirate, Cormac Mac Art. Cormac is an Irishman who has been banished from the Emerald Isle. He’s thrown his lot in with a group of Vikings led by Wulfhere, a giant of a man. Cormac resembles a Conan prototype in the way he is described. He’s got the haircut, and whereas the rest of the Norsemen are bearded, or at least mustached, Cormac is clean shaven.

These two stories are straight historical fiction without any fantastic elements. They’re still solid pieces of writing, full of battle and carnage, with a few twists thrown in. Continue reading →

RIP Sir Terry Pratchett (1948-2015)

Weirdbook Press Release and Cover Reveal

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Weirdbook editor Douglas Draa has kindly sent me the press release announcing the revival of Weirdbook along with a copy the cover of the next issue, the first under his editorship. He was fortunate enough to acquire an unpublished piece of art by Stephen Fabian. That’s it on the right.

The press release is below. Some of you will be glad to know the magazine is open to submissions.

Weirdbook Press Release

After a more than 17 year hiatus, Weirdbook is returning!

David A. Riley and Douglas Draa are, under Paul Ganley’s stewardship, reviving the legendary magazine.

Their intention is to offer the finest in Weird, Horror, Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Sword Sorcery, and even odd fiction.

The debut issue #31 will appear in August 2015.

In keeping with Weirdbook’s long tradition, the first revival issue will present a never before published cover by none other than Mr. Stephen Fabian himself.

Submissions are now open!

http://weirdbook-magazine.com/submissions/

http://weirdbookmagazine.blogspot.de/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Weirdbook-Magazine/1404780626497530

David A. Riley: Publisher and Senior Editor
Douglas Draa: Managing and Fiction Editor
Paul Ganley: Editor emeritus
David A. Riley is a Horror author and publisher and Douglas Draa is an author and former on-line editor for Weird Tales Magazine.

Weirdbook is Back!

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Douglas Draa (formerly of Weird Tales) announced yesterday that Weirdbook is returning. Weirdbook was an annual publication which ran from 1968 to 1997. The artists and writers who appeared there reads like a who’s who of fantasy and horror writers and artists of the late 20th century.

Draa will be the fiction and managing editor and David A. Riley will be the senior editor and publisher. Draa and Riley have gotten the blessing Weirdbook founder Paul Ganley for the relaunch.

Here’s what Draa had to say about the editorial policy:

As far as content goes, we plan on offering the best genre fiction available. This includes weird, horror, weird SF, dark fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, and everything in between.

Our goal is to ENTERTAIN and not to impress the critics.

Now a magazine with an editorial policy like that is one I can get behind.

Weirdbook‘s blog is here and Facebook page is here. I don’t know when Weirdbook will be open to submissions, but I’ll post an announcement when it is.

The first post on the blog is entitled “The Start of Something Beautiful: Weirdbook is back.”

I couldn’t agree more.

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