(To see the Robert E. Howard themed art I wanted to use, click here.)
Well, for Christmas, I thought I’d do the same thing. This time I’ll look at another anthology from Prime, plus one from Baen. With one exception, which I’ll save for last, the contents of the two books have no overlap. I’ve selected two tales from each one. Sort of literary stocking stuffers. I based my selections on the authors, choosing those I especially liked.
Season of Wonder
Paula Guran, ed.
Prime Books
trade paperback, 384 p., $15.95
Kindle, Nook $6.99 (available directly from Prime)
Of the two anthologies, I liked the cover art on this one better. The stories here are more recent, as is typical of the anthologies from this publisher. With the exception of the story by Sarban, which was published in 1951, all of them were published in the last 23 years. I’d not previously read either of the stories I selected for review.
The first story I read was “Christmas at Hostage Canyon” by James Stoddard. Stoddard is the author of The High House and The False House, novels inspired in part by Lin Carter’s Adult Fantasy series published by Ballantine in the late 60s and early 70s. This story is set firmly in the present day and concerns a young boy’s encounter with an evil elf and a sword swinging Santa, which is my kind of Santa. I liked this one a lot and thought Stoddard captured the viewpoint of a young boy perfectly. Stoddard’s novels are out of print, but if you haven’t read them, they’re worth tracking down.
The second story I selected is “Loop” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Rusch has written a number of Christmas related stories in her career, many of which are available on her website if you want to read them. Christmas isn’t central to this story in the sense that the Christmas aspect could be taken out without making major changes to the storyline. However, this one probably works best as a Christmas story because it can be read as a riff on the Ghost of Christmas yet to come from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Unlike Dickens’ work, which is fantasy, this one is solidly science fiction, although the actual science content is mostly of the handwaving variety. (At least it is to this scientist.) That doesn’t take away the impact of the story, which I found to be a moving mediation on regret and choices not made.
Of the two volumes considered here, this one has the most variety in terms of publication date. The oldest story is Seabury Quinn’s “Roads” (which I profiled exactly two years ago) from 1938. The most recent is the only original tale in the book, “Angel in Flight” by Sarah A. Hoyt. For the purposes of this review, I chose two of the older stories by two of my favorite authors, both sadly long deceased. I’d read both stories years ago (as well as the story common to both volumes). Both of these stories are parts of larger series, and while they aren’t major works as far as their respective series are concerned, they are both strong Christmas stories, the first in terms of theme and the second in terms of Christmas being central to the story.
“Over the Hills and Everywhere” is one of Manly Wade Wellman’s John the Balladeer stories. In this one, though, John is only the narrator, telling a Christmas story to the children of a family with whom he’s spending the holiday. As such, he only appears in the bits of framing sequence. The story he tells is one of feuding neighbors and a wandering stranger who brings peace to their mountain. Wellman was a deeply religious man, and it shows here in this tale.
Poul Anderson is represented by “The Season of Forgiveness”, from his Technic Civilization series, one of my favorite future histories. This particular piece was written for Boys’ Life, the publication of the Boy Scouts of America. It’s the story of a 16 year old graduate from the Academy who is assigned to his first post on an isolated trading station. His desire to have a Christmas celebration for the children of an incoming group of settlers turns out to have long reaching implications for the relations between the humans and the indigenous population.
Christmas stories are hard to pull off without coming across as trite, overly-sentimental, or preachy. The Anderson tale succeeds better than the Wellman at this.
Of course the one author who has built a reputation for extremely well executed Christmas stories is Connie Willis. These have mostly been science fiction, with only one or two pure fantasy, and they’re well worth seeking out. Some of the early one have been collected in Miracle and Other Christmas Stories. That book was published over a decade ago (has it really been that long?), and she continues to write them. Hopefully there’ be a new collection soon. I always look forward to Connie’s Christmas stories, which almost always are published in Asimov’s. She doesn’t publish one every year, and when she doesn’t, I’m always disappointed. (It’s been a couple of years since the last one appeared.)
The story that’s common to both anthologies is “Newsletter”, which I find interesting since there are so many of her stories to choose from. This is an excellent choice, as it has all the elements that make a Connie Willis Christmas story so much fun to read. Think a romantic comedy written by P. G. Wodehouse that takes place at Christmas with some type of fantastic angle, and you might have a glimmer of what you’re getting.
In this one, written as though it were a Christmas newsletter, we get Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters crossed with a Cary Grant screwball romantic comedy. I’m a hard sell for humor, but this one made me laugh out loud. I dare you not to see one of your family members somewhere in the cast. If you’ve not read any of Willis’ Christmas stories, you’ve been missing out. They’re an excellent example of an author taking diverse influences and melding them to produce something totally original. There’s nothing like them anywhere that I’ve found. The only thing that comes close is some of the humor in Kage Baker’s work.
There are a lot more selections in these anthologies. I’m going to save them for next year. If you’re in the mood for a holiday injection into your reading, either of these anthologies should fit the bill.
The Dead of Winter
Lee Collins
Angry Robot Books
UK Print ISBN: 9780857662712
Format: Medium Paperback R.R.P.: £8.99
US/CAN Print ISBN: 9780857662729
Format: Large Paperback R.R.P.: US$14.99 CAN$16.99
Ebook ISBN: 9780857662736
Format: Epub & Mobi R.R.P.: £5.49 / US$6.99
UK Print & Ebook
Amazon.co.uk | Book Depository | Waterstones
US Print & Ebook
Amazon.com | BarnesandNoble.com | IndieBound.org
DRM-Free Epub Ebook
Robot Trading Company
“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”
John Wayne
The above quote from John Wayne, which I lifted from The Dead of Winter, is a perfect fit for this book. This is one of the best novels I’ve read all year, and I’ve been fortunate to have read more good ones than bad ones. This novel is an excellent example of authorial misdirection that really works.
This book takes place in a slightly altered version of the Wild West, where supernatural creatures exist. They’re not widespread, meaning you don’t trip over them every time you turn around like in some fantasies, but they are out there. Cora Oglesby and her husband Ben are bounty hunters, and very selective bounty huners at that. They specialize in supernatural creatures such as werewolves, hellhounds, vampires, and those sorts of things.
They’ve come to the town of Leadville, Colorado, at the request of the marshall. Something vicious has killed two people, and he fears there will be more deaths. He’s right about there being more deaths, and not all of them will come from the creature that’s made its first kill.
I’m hesitant to give too many details, because there’s a twist towards the end, and it’s a biggie. Many of the things you take for granted aren’t as they appear. The thing that annoys me is that all the signs were there, and I picked up on most of them. I just didn’t connect the dots. Collins did an effective job of distracting me, just like a stage magician when he doesn’t want your attention on certain things. (I’m annoyed at myself, BTW, not at Lee Collins. Him I’m impressed with.)
The characters talk like you would imagine characters in a Western would talk. I’m sure Collins had to turn off his grammer checker. For the most part, this helped pull me into the story. A few times it was slightly annoying, but for the most part, I didn’t find it overdone.
What I did find annoying was how the viewpoint would sometimes shift between characters in the same scene. I don’t mind multiple viewpoints in a novel, but I prefer the same viewpoint character in a chapter. But that’s just me. Your mileage may vary.
These are minor quibbles. Overall, I found this a compelling story that didn’t go in the directions I expected it would. Collins’ prose pulled me in and helped me to inhabit the story. This is a fantastic blend of western and horror, a fine addition to the subgenre of weird western. If your tastes run to weird westerns, monster hunting, or some combination of the two, then you’ll want to pick this one up.
There’s a sequel, She Returns From War, that’s due out on January 29 in the States and Canada and a few days later in the UK. I’m looking forward to it.
One bit of editorializing, if I may. Angry Robot normally only accepts agented manuscripts, but once a year for the last couple of years, they’ve had a brief window in which they allow submission of unagented manuscripts. The Dead of Winter is one of those books. I’ve heard enough stories about how hard it is to get representation these days to know that many fine books never get past an agent, never mind an editor. Makes you wonder what we’ve missed because of the gatekeepers.
Each individual will bring something to Amazing Stories(TM), and I really hope you’ll check out some of the links provided in the first press release. I’m sure there will be plenty of things you’ll find of interest.
Now, how all this applies to me:
My posts there will focus on indie and small press publications. It will be a weekly column. I’m not sure which day of the week it will run at this point. I’ll give you a heads-up before it does. The first two columns will set the tone and parameters of what I will and won’t look at and define what I mean when I use certain terms (which may vary from what others mean). After that I’ll be reviewing indie and small press publications. Once a week is a pretty fast schedule, especially since I’m not giving up either this blog or Futures Past and Present. I’ll look more at short novels, novellas, and collections than long epic works. I’ll also interview authors and publishers, presenting as great a variety of individuals as possible. And from time to time I’ll share my ever humble opinions.
I’ve emphasized indie published works here for the last year or so. That will continue but not to the extent it has. I’m going to broaden the emphasis of Adventures Fantastic. Rather than focusing on sword and sorcery and historical adventure (something that’s arguable if look at some of the topics I’ve blogged about), I’m going to expand what I cover to include pulp in general. That means in addition to fantasy and historical adventure, I’ll include noir, detective fiction, superheroes, and things related to classic pulp. About the only thing I won’t cover here will be science fiction. That will stay at Futures Past and Present.
Does that mean I won’t be reading much sword and sorcery? Not at all. This brings us to Sooper Seekrit Project #2…I can’t talk about Sooper Seekrit Project #2 yet. I can’t even say for sure it will happen. But if it does, it will involve sword and sorcery. And it will be glorious. Trust me.
All of this is part of my master plan. I also write fiction. Well, I try to. I’m still trying to master that time management thing. I intend to do better this year. Now that we’ve moved and I’m almost settled into my new office, I should get some more fiction finished. I started this blog for two purposes. The first was to have fun, and I am having a blast with it. The second was to create a platform that would give me a way to publicize my own fiction when I started publishing. I’ve got a couple of stories that have been accepted, although I don’t know when they’ll be available. I intend to pursue both traditional and indie publication for my short fiction, which is what I’m mostly writing these days.
Part of my motivation in blogging for Amazing Stories (TM) is to increase traffic here and to build my potential audience. Hence the title of this post. In other words, it’s all part of my plan for world domination. You may begin referring to me as Future Potentate of the Solar System.
Enough soliloquizing. I’m starting to sound like a supervillain. I’m also blogging for Amazing Stories (TM) because it’s going to be a heck of a lot of fun.
Which brings us back to the reviews. I’ve agreed to review some indie published books that I haven’t gotten to yet. My intention is to review some or most of those at Amazing Stories (TM). The traffic there will be much greater than here, I’m sure, and thus these works will have greater exposure to potential readers. With only one post a week, it may take some time to get to all of them. If we’ve corresponded about a review, and you have a preference where the review should appear, please let me know. If you don’t care, or if I don’t hear from you, I’ll probably post the review there.
Finally, I’ve got enough of a backlog at the moment that I’m not going to be accepting any more books for review. I’ll announce here as well as at Amazing Stories (TM) and Futures Past and Present when I open up for requests again. I need to think through some guidelines about how to do that on a larger scale. In the past, I’ve simply said Yes or No to the requests I’ve gotten. With the broader exposure, I want to have a little more structure so as not to cause any offense.
And that’s the story behind my new blogging gig.
Catherine Coker, Johne Cook, Paul Cook, Gary Dalkin, Jane Frank,
I’m almost done with The Dead of Winter by Lee Collins, which will be the next novel I review. This is one of the best novels I’ve read all year. If you’re a fan of westerns, especially weird westerns, this is one you’ll want to read. (I’m looking at you, David and Charles.) The book is an excellent example of misdirection. When I hit the big twist, I had to admit that all the clues were there, I’d picked up on them, and still didn’t put things together. That review probably won’t go live until Saturday.
And speaking of Christmas, I’ll be writing about some seasonal short stories. That should be up by the end of the weekend.
After that, it’ll probably be short fiction reviews and commentary on this site for next week, with at least one novel review over at Futures Past and Present.
I’m a little late getting this post up, but this month marks the 80th anniversary of the first appearance of Conan, the man from Cimmeria. Conan first appeared in “The Phoenix on the Sword”, a rewrite of an unsold Kull story, “By This Axe I Rule!” I blogged about both pieces here. That’s the cover of the issue, December 1932, there on the right. And, no, Conan wasn’t featured on the cover. But he soon would be.
It’s been a while since I last wrote a piece dedicated solely to Conan. No, don’t go looking it up; all you’ll do is embarrass people, namely me. I’m going to look at three more Conan stories, maybe more. The stories I’ll definitely look at are “Rogues in the House”, “Queen of the Black Coast”, and “Red Nails.” There are a few other Conan tales I will try to get to, but those three are, in my mind at least, major stories that every Howard fan should read.
Howard wrote that Conan seemed to spring into his mind as a fully fleshed character. There’s good evidence that wasn’t literally the case. Still, Conan is arguably the most fully fleshed out character Howard put to paper. The world he inhabits is by far the most complex and detailed of any Howard created. Mark Finn argues in his biography, Blood and Thunder (reviewed here), that Conan was the most commercial of Howard’s Weird Tales creations. He makes a good case. Whether or not Finn is correct, it was Conan and the classic tales in which he appeared that gave us those gorgeous Margaret Brundage covers.
Conan was the first Howard I read. As a result, he holds a special place in my heart. I was a freshman in college when I started reading Conan, in the Ace reprints of the de Camp and Carter edited Lancers. I soaked it all in. When I think of sword and sorcery, Conan is usually what comes to mind. A loner who lives by his own code in an exotic world filled with danger, monsters, and magic. Along with a few scantily clad females.
A lot of the appeal for me of the Conan stories are the fact that they are stand-alones. Yes, there are some that obviously take place later in Conan’s life, but for the most part they can be read in any order. Whether you read a whole volume at once or only a single tale, these stories still take me to a land of adventure.
This is the mental template I have for a sword and sorcery character or series. Self contained adventures full of the exotic and wonderful with a dash of horror, where the swords are fast, the magic is dark, and the heroes are both larger than life and flawed. And anything is possible.
These are the qualities I look for in sword and sorcery. Fortunately those qualities are still around. So happy 80th, Conan. Here’s wishing you many more.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Moorcock on a couple of occasions, World Fantasy 2000 in Corpus Christi and the Nebula Awards in Austin in 2008. What I haven’t had the pleasure of doing is reading much of his work. (After he signed those books, they’ve tended to stay on the shelf, something that happens to most of my signed editions.) I’ve read some of his work and enjoyed it, don’t misunderstand me. I’ve just not found the time to dive deeply into his oeuvre. I’m hoping to read the Elric stories this year as well as some of his shorter series. Or start them, at least. I may not be able to finish everything this year.
Anyway, Happy Birthday, Mr. Moorcock. And many happy returns.
The Desert of Souls
Howard Andrew Jones
Thomas Dunne Books
tpb $14.95
ebook $9.99 Kindle Epub
So there’s this guy, Howard Andrew Jones, see? He’s done a lot of things in the field. He’s held some editorial positions, most recently with Black Gate. In addition to publishing some well received S&S short fiction (often in the aforementioned BG), he’s the author of a novel in the Pathfinder Tales. Mr. Jones has also edited an 8 volume series collecting much of the short fiction of Harold Lamb. These are accomplishments which should make any man proud.
But Nooo. This isn’t enough. The guy has to go an be an overachiever. What do I mean by that?
Allow me to enter into evidence as exhibit A the novel The Desert of Souls.
This is a novel that gathered a great deal of attention when it was published last year. If you’ve read it, you know why. If you haven’t, get thee hence and obtain a copy. (Use the handy link at the top of the page if you like.)
To set the tale, Asim is the captain of the guard for Jaffar, a high ranking official in the Caliphate of Baghdad. (He’s also a real historical personage, as is the caliph.) In order to take Jaffar’s mind off the death of his favorite parrot, Asim and his friend, the scholar Dabir, accompany Jaffar on an anonymous outing into the city. Or to put it another way, they go slumming. Jaffar decides to visit a fortune teller, but the fortune the old woman tells isn’t one he wants to hear. As they leave her house, a man fleeing a group of thugs collides with them. Asim and Dabir fight off the thugs, and discover he’s carrying an unusual door pull.
It’s not just any door pull. Between the fortunes given to them by the old woman and the number of people seeking this door pull, Asim and Dabir will find themselves on a dangerous quest across more than one world. This was grand adventure in the old style. Lots of action, chases, thrills, humor, and excitement. In short, it was a heck of a lot of fun.
I’ve already mentioned that Howard Andrew Jones edited a set of Harold Lamb books. If you’re familiar with Lamb, you’ll know what I mean when I say this book is very much in that vein. If you’re not (and why not?), then get thee hence and obtain copies. Lamb was one of the greatest adventure writers of the 20th century. He was also a major influence on a guy from Cross Plains who was also named Howard. I haven’t read all of the Lamb volumes yet, but I saw echoes of them here. I mean that as high praise, not to imply that The Desert of Souls is in any way derivative. It’s not.
There are other influences here as well. The Arabian Nights, obviously. There’s also a strong element of Sherlock Holmes running through the book. Dabir is the Holmes figure, observing and using reason, whereas Asim plays the role of Watson. The book is narrated by Asim many years after the events he transcribes.
Jones takes these influences, and others I probably missed, and combines them into something that’s greater than the sum of its parts. I know that phrase has been overused to the point of cliche, but in this case I think it applies. This is a rich novel, full of wit and heart, that treats its source material with respect. It carries on the tradition of fantasy adventure and takes that tradition into new territory. Jones writes like an old pro, not a relatively new author. You care what happens to the characters; you hurt with them when they hurt; and you want to know more about what comes after you close the last page. Jones gives enough hints that you now there are other stories yet to be told.
The sequel, The Bones of the Old Ones, came out this past Tuesday (December 11). My copy is on order. Look for a review soon. There are also some short stories starring Dabir and Asim collected in the ebook The Waters of Eternity. My original intention was to review Desert a couple of months ago, Waters last month, and Bones sometime this month. I was foolish enough to mention this plan in an email to Howard, and I apologize for not keeping with my schedule.
So I rest my case. The evidence shows that Howard Andrew Jones is an overachiever. Pretty shameless one, at that. And that’s fine by me.
The Desert of Souls and The Bones of the Old Ones are featured books at Adventures Fantastic Books.