Author Archives: Keith West

Happy Birthday, J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien was born this day in 1892. He needs no introduction to the readers of this blog. As Charles Rutledge says in his tribute, the world of fantasy today would be a smaller and poorer place with him and his works. He’s correct.

I read somewhere years ago that most, if not all, fantasy written after the 1960s (I’m paraphrasing quite a bit here since I don’t recall the source) was either an imitation of or a reaction against The Lord of the Rings. While that the extent to which that statement is true might be arguable, what can’t be argued is that Tolkien’s shadow still looms large over the field today, and not just fantasy but literature in general.

I saw The Desolation of Smaug over the Christmas holidays. I”ll save my comments on the film for another time, save for this. Watching the movie reminded me why I began to read fantasy in earnest. I’d been reading science fiction for a few years when I read The Lord of the Rings in high school. My mind was blown, and I haven’t been the same since.

I last read Tolkien when the LotR films came out. It’s time to plan a rereading sometime this year. My life has been richer because of Professor Tolkien’s works. It’s time revisit them.

Here’s a little something from last year honoring Tolkien I couldn’t resist adding:

Reading Plans for 2014

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This post is a continuation of the thoughts expressed in the previous one. If you haven’t read it yet, you might want to just to understand the context. Here I’m going to discuss my reading plans for the year. They’re going to be a bit different than they’ve been.

I don’t make resolutions, but I do believe in setting goals, whether I reach any of them or not. I know from experience if I don’t set some sort of a goal, then I won’t get anything accomplished. Think of this post as a series of goals, goals that are flexible and highly subject to change. Continue reading →

Plans for 2014

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Happy New Year!

Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize some of you were still hung over. Is this better?

No, now those of you in the cheap seats in the back can’t hear. Geez, there’s just no pleasing some people.

(I was going to write the preceding in different font sizes, but it seems I can only do that if I edit the HTML code. More of a learning curve than I’m interested in today. So much for being creative and clever.)

Anyway, Happy New Year. And to everyone who sent me a tweet thanking me for including them in my list of the best books of 2013, you’re quite welcome.

In this post, I thought I’d outline some goals for the coming year. Continue reading →

2013: An Assessment – Individual Authors and Titles

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This is the second part of my assessment of 2013. The first looked at publishers. Here I’ll feature some authors and/or individual titles that I thought were standouts. Links for books will be to my reviews (the reviews will have links to buy if you’re interested.) Since I’ve been doing a weekly post at Amazing Stories, with only one week missed, I’ll be including some of the titles I reviewed there in this list.

As with the publishers, these are in alphabetical order. I’m probably overlooking someone or a particular book. I apologize in advance. This list consists of titles and authors I read in 2013 and isn’t intended to be inclusive. Feel free to share your suggestions in the comments. Again, I’m including mystery, crime, and science fiction as well as fantasy. Continue reading →

2013: An Assessment – Publishers

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As I promised in yesterday’s State of the Blogs post, here’s my summary of what I read this past year. I’m going to include both publishers and individual works that I thought were standouts, but due to length, I’m going to break the post in two. The list of year’s best authors and titles is here. Many of them are published by the publishers listed below.

I’m going to restrict this list to imprints that have distribution in the major chains. That means no small presses. Small presses tend to focus on reprints or collectible editions that are often priced for the collectors market.

Also, I’m going to list some science fiction and crime/noir titles and publishers as well. I’ve not read enough in those fields this past year to justify a separate post on Futures or Gumshoes. I plan for 2014 to be different on that point. Details in tomorrow’s post.

We’ll start with publishers, in alphabetical order (For publishers with more than one imprint, the imprint I read the most will be listed first.): Continue reading →

State of the Blogs, 2013

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I’ll post a recap of the year’s best reads tomorrow, followed by a look ahead on New Year’s Day. But because there have been some big changes in my small corner of the blogosphere, I thought I’d give a short recap.

You’ll notice that I’ve used the plural form of the word “blog” in the title of this post. That’s because I’ve got four of them. (Yes, I’m nuts.)

The year started out good. Blog traffic continued to climb. By July traffic was setting records. Nearly every post had comments, and the number of followers was slowly growing. I found all of this very satisfying, especially the comments, since a community of regulars had formed. There were some great discussions. Blurbs from Adventures Fantastic were starting to show up on the covers of books by major publishers. I was having a lot of fun, which was a large part of why I do this.

Then Google decreed that Adventures Fantastic was a spam site. I’m not quite sure how they figured that since I went over their guidelines with a fine toothed comb. And while I did include a number of links to other sites, Google was very clear that sites which include links in reviews weren’t spam. The automatic response to the appeal I lodged with Google said it would be several weeks before they even looked at it. Continue reading →

Merry Christmas

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Barbarian_santa_by_NuMioH

Merry Christmas! Santa the Barbarian will cleave from pate to navel anyone not being festive today. If you like the image, go to the Diablo Fan Art page. There are a lot of cool images similar to this one.

So raise a flagon of mead, join a dancing girl in a spin about the room, and pardon your enemies. You can crush them and see them driven before you tomorrow.

And have a Merry Christmas.

Different Christmas posts are up at Dispatches From the Lone Star Front, Futures Past and Present, and Gumshoes, Gats, and Gams.

Christmas Ghosts

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Christmas Ghosts
Krisitne Grayson, ed.
WMG Publishing
trade paper $15.99
electronic $6.99

It’s good to read outside your comfort zone from time to time. I’m not really the target audience for this anthology. But I found it a nice, enjoyable collection of ghost stories that are a perfect fit for the season. I meant to have this posted a little earlier, but things have been hectic enough that I didn’t finish the book until last night.

The stories here cross a variety of genres, but at heart they’re all romances. Now there are certain conventions of the romance genre that can’t be violated if the story is to be considered of that genre. Editor Grayson (the romance author persona of Kristine Kathryn Rusch) explains this in her introduction.

The main thing is that the two lovers have to end up with each other. While I like an upbeat ending, I prefer a little more suspense in the outcome of the relationship. I guess you could say I’m not that much of happily ever after kind of guy. I find unrequited love more interesting thematically.

Of course, knowing things won’t work out every time is just as unsatisfying.

Anyway, you aren’t here to read about me. You want to know about the stories. They’re all worth reading. They span a variety of time periods and encompass a number of other genres. All of them involve ghosts in some form, although the ghost isn’t as central to the story in some of the tales as in others. Continue reading →

New Post on Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series: The Blue Star by Fletcher Pratt

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Hey, just a quick note to let you know my latest post on the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series is up at Black Gate. I’m looking at the first volume in the series proper, The Blue Star by Fletcher Pratt.

Dayjobbery got in the way of finishing this one, or it would have gone up a couple of weeks ago.

A Request for Assistance

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Strange New Worlds
Ari Marmell
Paperback $8.99
ebook $4.99 Kindle Nook Smashwords DriveThruFiction

I’m a huge fan of Ari Marmell’s Widdershins series, the most recent of which hit the shelves days ago, as well as his other work. I’ve got several other novels by him on the shelves that I haven’t gotten to, as well. He’s become one of my favorite writers.

Ari is having a bit of a tough go of it at the moment, through no fault of his own. I’ll let him explain the details. Bottom line, he’s strapped for cash and needs our help. Because royalties are paid only once or twice a year, it will probably be at least six months before he sees any cash from Lost Covenant, the latest Widdershins novel. That’s assuming the book earns out its advance.

What he will see money from in a reasonably timely manner is the short story collection Strange New Worlds which he recently crowdfunded on Kickstarter. I missed the Kickstarter on this one, or you would have already heard about it from me.

Anyway, if you want to help him out, buy the book. All of the royalties after Amazon or B&N take their cut go to Ari. I had bought a copy the night before he announced his need for support. I’ve moved the book to the top of the TBR list. I’m going to post the review at Amazing Stories, where it should get more pageviews than it will here. Because of my schedule there, it will probably be next week before the post goes live, although I’m going to try to get it in before this weekend’s deadline.

As Tom Doolan mentioned earlier on his blog, we are a community. It falls to us to help each other out.