Monthly Archives: December 2012

Happy Birthday, Conan.

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.

Happy Birthday, Michael Moorcock

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Today is Michael Moorcock’s 73rd birthday. All of us here at Adventures Fantastic want to wish him a very happy.

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.

One Day in the Arabian Nights…

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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.

So How’s Your Week Been?

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This post has nothing to do with sword and sorcery, fantasy, historical adventure, publishing, books, or anything else commonly covered here. I’m going to kvetch because Murphy has been with me. It’s more legally and morally acceptable than going postal. So if you want to skip this one, I’m fine with that. You won’t be missing much. Really.

So over Friday I take the car into the shop for some major repairs that I expect to set me back to the tune of four figures (that I don’t exactly have but still cheaper than another car). I take my wife back to work and return to the office. I’d finished checking the lab grades for one of the courses, compiled them based on lecture section rather than lab section, and was about to send the grades to the lecture instructors when a small mob of students showed up with grievances about about one of the TAs. They were a polite mob, having left their torches and pitchforks at home, opting for dialogue. Long story short, after the Grievance Committee left, I notified the lecture instructors that I would be adjusting the grades for one TA and grades would be delivered later. This headache has continued all week, isn’t over, and shows signs of expanding. All I can say about this matter is that a few graduate students will be getting detailed memos explaining that they will be working more closely with me next semester than they’re going to enjoy, following the list of detailed job duties to the letter, and sign here please to indicate that you acknowledge the consequences of departing these guidelines.

My car was ready to be picked up Tuesday, and at considerably less than I thought it would cost me. I paid for the repairs and left the car there to be picked up later. In spite of having numerous super powers, driving two cars at the same time isn’t one of them. The problem? One of the elders at my church had passed away unexpectedly over the weekend. I was supposed to take a meal to the family at 5:00 so they could get to the visitation on time, and they live in a small town about 20 miles away. I’d arranged to drop my son off from school at my wife’s work, and the two of them would walk to a sandwich shop nearby and eat. I should get back about the time they finished eating, would pick them up, and go collect my car. Everything went according to plan until I pulled up to the family’s house to drop off the food. I heard a loud hissing as I stepped out of the car. I fervently hoped I had parked on top of a large snake that wasn’t averse to cold weather. No such luck. I’d hit something (could even see the puncture). By the time I’d taken the food into the house, the tire was flat. While I was changing the tire, people started showing up from the community to pay their respects to the family. Awkward. Needless to say, once I found a place to air up the doughnut to full pressure, I was a little late picking up my wife. I’d called her, and she was very understanding.

Our church has a number of small groups that meet throughout the week, and we host one. Last night was supposed to be our Christmas party, which I had been looking forward to. We’ve been having some trouble with the heater not coming on when it’s supposed to. When I came home at noon to change clothes for the funeral, the temperature was in the low 60s in the house. I called my HVAC guy, who is in the process of moving to a city a couple of hours away. (Long story.) He was in town, and agreed to come over later when he finished some stuff. The repairs took longer than anticipated, spilling into the party time. He was almost done when a delicate part broke, and no one in town had a replacement. I spent the rest of the evening helping him try to find someone with the part so we could have heat last night. (We didn’t, but we will tonight.) From the laughter coming from the next room, I assume everyone else at the party was having a good time. I certainly wasn’t.

Let’s not even get into my misreading the science fair timeline, telling my son a major component he hadn’t started on wasn’t due yet, and discovering just before the party it was due this morning.

Between everything happening that was unanticipated, I haven’t gotten much accomplished this week. I’ve not even started on the edits for the lab manual, never mind getting enough reading done to do any blogging. And it will be the weekend at the earliest before I can work on finishing that story I have to submit this month. Work on the Sooper Seekrit Project (number 1, that is) has ground to a halt.

Now this sounds like a lot of bitching and moaning, and it is. Everything could have been a lot worse. I’m not out nearly as much money as I thought I would be, nights don’t get that cold here, and I was able to throw a party for my friends that they enjoyed and ~~see~~ hear them have a great time. I have family, friends, a roof over my head, food on the table, stable employment, plenty of reading material, and a great online community. Not a lot to complain about when I really think of it and compare myself to most people, certainly most people in other countries. This week has been a pimple of life. Pimples seem bigger than they are, but once they’re gone, you hardly know they were there. That’s this week. So up yours, Murphy.

If you’ve actually read this far, thanks for letting me vent. Now i need to get back to work, which in this case is waiting for the repairman.

Status Report

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I’m almost done with my grading, which should be finished with all grades turned in tomorrow, assuming the university server comes back up. (It should.) I’m also in charge of the labs, which means I check the TA grading and make sure everything is consistent (it wasn’t, but I can’t talk about that) and pass lab and recitation grades on to the faculty. Except for one course where there were some problems, that’s done. Then to jump on the edits of the lab manual.

I’m about one third of the way through Howard Andrew Jones’ The Desert of Souls. I’d hoped to have the review posted by tomorrow, when the sequel, Bones of the Old Ones, is released. Sadly, that’s not going to happen. My apologies, Howard. I’m thoroughly enjoying the novel and will be ordering BotOO later today.

I should be back up to speed later this week. Next week, I’m off but my son isn’t. I should be able to get some stuff done.

Bradley P. Beaulieu Short Story Collection Kickstarter

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Just a quick note. I don’t ordinarily promote a lot of projects from Kickstarter here on the blog, although I do review some (such as here, here, and here). However, to every rule there are usually exceptions. This is going to be one of them. Bradley P. Beaulieu is one of my favorite writers to have appeared in recent years. Look here, here, and here for details about why I think that. But for this post, let me just say the man can write character and plot and sense of wonder and make it look easy.

I got an email from him a few hours ago announcing a Kickstarter campaign to collect all of his short fiction, with stretch goals to include new stories set in the world of The Winds of Khalakovo. If it were a manly thing, I would swoon or squee or something. Instead, consider a loud roar of triumph to have been roared.

If you’ve read Beaulieu’s stuff, you’ll want this collection. The nice thing about this one is that the rewards listed have reasonable pledge amounts, unlike some projects. So if you think you might be interested, head over here and check it out. I’d really like to read those Khalakovo stories.

December’s Agenda

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Finals start this week, so things will probably be hectic until around the 14th. My only final is Friday morning, but I’ve got a new lab manual to edit and send to the publisher by then. All of which means that posting here is going to be sporadic. I may post for two or three days straight, then not have anything new for a week or more. ‘Tis the season.

Here’s what I’ve got lined up as far as novels go. The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones is first up, followed by The Dead of Winter by Lee Collins. After that, it will be two science fiction novels, The Creative Fire by Brenda Cooper and Apollo’s Outcasts by Allen Steele. I’ll post those reviews over at Futures Past and Present. There are a couple of forthcoming novels I’ve committed to review, plus 3 from Angry Robot that I had intended to review in August before moving threw my schedule into chaos. Those will probably wait until January since none of the forthcoming titles have release dates before then.

I want to spend the rest of December getting caught up on stuff I’ve had on the shelf for a while that I haven’t been able to get to: some sword and sorcery, a few historical novels and collections, a lot of space opera, and some Henry Kuttner I’ve been wanting to either read or reread. Plus some noir, and The Bones of the Old Ones, the sequel to The Desert of Souls. I doubt I’ll be able to read all of that in the few weeks I’ll have, but I’m going to try. Of course, I’ll review some short fiction, too.

I’m not going to accept requests for reviews, nor will I be asking for many review copies over the next couple of months. I’ve mentioned a Sooper Seekrit Project a couple of times before. There are actually two now. I should be able to make one public by the end of the month; the other, I’m not sure when I can announce. In both cases, these are things I’ve been invited to participate in, and I’m really excited about them. There will be some changes here and at Futures Past and Present because of these projects, but I’ll wait until I can announce the projects before I discuss how my personal blogs will change.