Author Archives: Keith West

More Bookstore Closing Acquisitions

I posted recently about one of the local used bookstores (currently there are 4: 2 good, 1 decent, 1 not worth bothering with) closing and some of the titles I picked up.

You know I went back.  The store will be open for a little while yet.  Here’s what I picked up this time.

More AcquisitionsI couldn’t resist the cover of the Howard pastiche by Offutt, even though I doubt I’ll read it.  The People of the Mist is an upgrade of my existing copy.  The Starfollowers of Coramonde is a later edition, but the Darrell K. Sweet cover matches the one on the first novel in the series.

I loved Sean Stewart’s Galveston some years back, but I haven’t read any of his other books.  The Tanith Lee speaks for itself.  The third row contains the first 3 of 4 in Lawrence Watt-Evans Lords of Dus series.

The last row is a reading copy of one of Evangeline Walton’s books that was part of the BAF series.  The Zahn is part of a series that looks like a lot of fun.  And the Paul Preuss because I wanted some solid science fiction in the old style.

But the gem of this little collection is the volume in the upper left of the picture.  It’s Whispers, edited by Stuart David Schiff.  It’s a collection of stories published in his groundbreaking small press magazine of the same title.  I’ve got a copy of this already, but I couldn’t pass this one up.  The contents include “Sticks” by Karl Edward Wagner, “The Barrow Troll” by David Drake, “The Dakwa” by Manly Wade Wellman, plus stories by Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, William F. Nolan, Hugh B. Cave, Dennis Etchison, Joseph Payne Brennan, Ramsey Campbell, Richard Christian Matheson, Brian Lumley, and many others.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go reread “Sticks”.

Two (Count ’em, Two) New BAF Posts at Black Gate

I’ve not posted here much in the last few weeks, but I’ve still been busy.  I’ve had two Ballantine Adult Fantasy posts over at Black Gate.  The first, which went live a few weeks ago, was over Hannes Bok’s The Sorcerer’s Ship.  The one that went live today was over Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz.Deryni Rising

I’ve also posted some reviews at Amazing Stories.  This week it was the poetry collection They Say the Sirens Left the Seas by James Hutchings.  Before that it was Lee Martindale’s collected fiction, Bard’s Road.  And at the beginning of July, I reviewed the final volume in Joshua P. Simon’s Blood and Tears Trilogy.

I’ll be posting more here and at my other blogs over the next few weeks.  Stay tuned.

Introducing Andrasta and Rondel

Cult of SutekThe Cult of Sutek: The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel vol.1
Joshua P. Simon
ebook $2.99 (free on Smashwords as of this writing)
paper $11.99

Joshua P. Simon has proven himself to be a consistent writer of solid, character driven fantasy adventure. His Blood and Tears Trilogy (reviewed here, here, here, and here, interviewed here) was one of my favorite epic fantasy series of the last few years.

Now he’s turned his hand to a story that’s smaller in scope and more personal in nature, the sword and sorcery series he’s calling The Epic of Adnrasta and Rondel.

Andrasta is a woman from a distant country, a warrior who is out to steal a jewel in the Tower of Bashan. Rondel is a minstrel who got caught in the wrong bedroom. They meet in a dungeon when Andrasta is thrown in Rondel’s cell. Of course they escape, and shortly thereafter rescue a young woman named Dendera who turns out to be the daughter of a king. Since Rondel knew the king from his minstrel days, they return her home, hoping for a reward to finance their jewel heist.

Unfortunately, the Cult of Sutek is staging a comeback. They believe in human sacrifice and practice cannibalism. Not the sort of folks you want moving in down the block. Continue reading →

Being Nibbled to Death by Ducks

It’s been one of those weeks.  You know the kind.  Nothing really bad happens, but some many little things pop up that by the end of the day on Saturday you’re wondering why you didn’t accomplish what you thought you had sufficient time to complete.  It’s kind of like being nibbled to death by ducks.

WD-40Most of my disruptions were either work related or involved my son.  (I thought I had made it clear there was to be nothing further involving fire while I was at work.)  A wire in his braces popped loose, and instead of simply fixing it, the orthodontist went ahead and tightened everything.  This will save time later this month, but it cost most of an afternoon.  I finally figured out why one of the dogs was suddenly traumatized to the point of refusing to go outside. (Experiments to determine the flammability of WD-40 are expressly forbidden.  Which should have been obvious.)

Anyway, work was supposed to be quite slow this week.  As result I had intended to finish and post reviews of the latest issue of Weird Tales and the first installment of a new series by Joshua P. Simon, as well as finish a detective novel on my phone, Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz for for Black Gate, and a review for Amazing Stories.  Plus I had planned on commenting on Amazon’s announcement about pricing the other day.

The piece for Amazing Stories is done, uploaded, and should go live tomorrow.  I”ll start the BAF post for Black Gate either tonight or (more likely) tomorrow along with the review of the detective novel.  I’ll also try to the Simon novel and WT finished in the next couple of days.

What I Liked About Hercules

HerculesHercules
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, John Hurt, Rufus Sewell, Ingrid Bolso Berdal
Screenplay by Ryan Condol and Evan Spiliotopoulos

I went into this movie with low expectations.  The movie industry’s track record for sword and sorcery movies (at least ones I’ve seen) hasn’t been too great the last couple of years.  And Hercules isn’t always a character they get right.

I was impressed.  While not a perfect movie, I thought it got a lot more right than it did wrong.

In this story, Hercules had completed 11 of his 12 labors and was living in Athens when his family was brutally murdered while he was in the house.  He remembered nothing about the murders.  Rumors began to spread that he had killed them, and Hercules was forced to flee Athens.

Now he makes his living as the commander of a small group of mercenaries.  They need one more good contract to call it quits and settle down.  That’s when the daughter of the king of Thrace shows up.  The kingdom is being menaced by a warlord.  She offers Hercules his weight in gold if he and his companions will help them.

Of course things are not quite what they seem… Continue reading →

Over Half of SF/F Ebooks Sold on Amazon are Indie Published

Hugh Howey and someone known as Data Guy have been using Amazon rankings to get a glimpse of how indie published books and authors are doing compared to the Big [insert decreasing number here].

Their latest report came out today.  I’m not going to parse the whole thing.  You can read it for yourself here.  It contains some very interesting information on the effect DRM has on sales.  (Spoiler: it can really hurt sales.  Check the graph.)

What I am going to do is point out something that might be of interest to readers of this blog, and that’s the percentage of sf/f ebooks sold on Amazon that are indie published.  Continue reading →

Transiting to Scorpio

Transit to ScorpioTransit to Scorpio
Dray Prescott #1
Alan Burt Akers (Kenneth Bulmer)
ebook $2.99 Kindle $0.00 (free as of this writing) Nook

Sword and Planet is one of the more neglected subgenres of science fiction.  Or fantasy if you prefer.  It tends to be a blend of both, with examples that tend more towards one or the other.

The Dray Prescott series is one of the longest running, with a total of 53.  Of these, DAW books published the first 37.  The remaining titles were published in German, although a few more have been released electronically in English.   According to the Dray Prescott site, all of the remaining volumes are being reprinted in English this year.

The stories concern an English sailor, the titular Dray Prescott, who through means that are not well explained, is transported instantaneously to the planet Kregen.  Kregen orbits the star Antares in the constellations Scorpio. Continue reading →

2014 World Fantasy Award Nominees Announced

wfclogoThe nominees for the 2014 World Fantasy Award were announced yesterday.  The complete list of the nominees is below.  Other than the Life Achievement Winners, who are announced in advance (probably to make sure they show up in case they weren’t planning on being there,) all other winners will be announced at the convention.  This year’s World Fantasy Convention will be held Nov. 6-9 in Washington, D. C..

Members of the current year’s convention plus the two previous conventions may submit two nominations in each category.  Winners are determined by a panel of judges.  This year’s judges are Andy Duncan, Kij Johnson, Oliver Johnson, John Klima, and Liz Williams.  In essence, the WFC Awards are a combination of popular and juried award.

Congratulations to all the nominees.  The nominees for 2014 are: Continue reading →

Why I Will Not Vote “No Award” for the Hugos

There’s been a great deal of noise about this year’s Hugo nominees.  Larry Correia suggested a slate of candidates, writers who were conservative, and all of them made the ballot.  The howls of outrage reached nigh unto Heaven.  The howls coming, of course, from those who are anything but conservative.

Both sides have been talking about voting for their preferred candidates and then “No Award” ahead of the other side’s nominees.

SIX_TWC_TheButcherofKhardov_CoverIn order to vote, one must buy a membership to the World Science Fiction Convention, either attending or supporting.  This year’s convention is in London, with the cost of a supporting membership being about $42, give or take a little depending on the exchange rate.

For the last several year’s I’ve bought a supporting membership.  Well, last year I didn’t because Worldcon was (barely) within driving distance, so I actually attended.  (Con report here and here.)  In the last few years, part of what you get for your membership is copies of the written nominees, plus samples of the editorial nominees’ work, and at least some of the graphic nominees.  This year Orbit refused to release the full text of three of the novels, providing only excerpts.

Looking at the slate of this year’s nominees, here’s what I see.  Continue reading →

Recent Acquisitions

There are a few used book stores here in town.  Two are pretty good, one is so-so, and I’m not sure the fourth isn’t a front for something else.

Anyway, the one I consider the best is closing.  The owner doesn’t have a lease but owns the storefront.  As a result, he’s not in any hurry to shut his doors.  This is good, because he’s got a pretty thorough inventory.  It’s one of the great second hand stores where there are stacks of books in all the aisles, and a few minutes to see if a particular title is to be had turns into the better part of an afternoon.

Acquisitions 1I passed through the other day and picked up a few things.  At the moment everything is half off.  That percentage will increase as times goes on and the day the store shuts its doors for good draws nigh.  You know I’ll be going back. Continue reading →