The CBS Radio Mystery Theater Available Online for Free

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When I was growing up, we lived in several towns, and one of those was Wichita Falls. There was a small radio station there that used to air The CBS Radio Mystery Theater after the 10:00 p.m. news.  I would lie awake for the next hour listening to it when I was supposed to be sleeping.  Some nights I would continue to lie awake long after the show ended if it was a scary episode (there were plenty of those).  The show had a consistently high quality and was produced by producer of the old Inner Sanctum show from a few decades earlier.  It even had the same creaking door.  Henry Slesar and Alfred Bester both wrote scripts, although Bester only wrote for a year.  He had gone on to other things by the time I started listening.

Other than some really low quality cassettes I used to record a few episodes of the show, I haven’t heard The CBS Radio Mystery Theater since 1980, when we moved to another part of the state.

Now all 1399 episodes are available online for free.  I’ve already identified several favorites I want to hear again, and I’m trying to figure out the titles for several more.  While I don’t recall any sword and sorcery, there were enough horror, suspense, and noir stories that I think some of you might be interested in listening.  You can find them here. And thanks to James Reasoner for posting a notice about this on his blog.

Entering the Dark Realm of the Fey

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Feyland:  The Dark Realm
Anthea Sharp
Various ebook formats, $3.99 (B&N, Amazon)

It’s been a while since I read a YA novel.  Not quite as long as it’s been since I was YA myself, but close.  (Don’t even think about asking how long that is; I’ll only plead the fifth.)  But there’s been some exciting writing going on in the YA world for some time now, and much of it is either science fiction or fantasy.  Since my son will soon be moving into that age bracket, I’m going to be familiarizing myself with what’s out there and passing on some of my recommendations to you.

The first of these recommendations is Feyland:  The Dark Realm by Anthea Sharp.  Before I discuss the book’s plot or its themes, I want to say something up front.  I have no sisters, my wife has no sisters,  we have no teenage daughters, nor have I ever been a teenage girl.  Teenage girls are some of the hardest characters in fiction for me to relate to.  I can usually relate to children or women, but teenage girls don’t think like I do.  At all.  I taught high school for a couple of years, so I have spent time around them.  They just weren’t on the same planet I was much of the time.  (You could argue I’m not on the same planet as most people most of the time, but that’s the subject of another post.)

Why do I bring this up?  Ms. Sharp has created two distinct characters, one male and one female, and not only made me care about them but made me see the world through their very different eyes.  I had some reservations when I first agreed to review this book because I wasn’t sure I would be able to relate to the teenage female character.  I’m very glad to say those reservations turned out to be completely unfounded. Continue reading →

Happy Birthday, Robert E. Howard

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Today is the 106th year since the birth of Robert E. Howard.  (Yeah, I know the local time is still January 21, but by the time most of you read this, it will be the 22nd.  Besides, it’s the 22nd east of here.)  I’m not sure what I could say that would do the man justice that others haven’t already said and said better.  After last summer’s disastrous Conan movie, those of us who champion Howard’s work as literature probably have a harder row to hoe overcoming the (at best) misguided notion that his writing is hackwork.  If you are only familiar with Conan through the movie(s), pastiches, or comics, read some of the real thing.  And then read some of Howard’s other writings:  Kull, the horror stories, the historicals, the westerns, the boxing stories, the poetry.  And raise a glass in his honor.  Me, I’m going to celebrate by reading some of the spicy stories. 

Status Update: Back to the Salt Mines

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I’ve been something of a slacker lately, reading some stuff outside the bounds of this blog, traveling before classes start, beginning an exercise program (boy am I out of shape).

Anyway, classes start Thursday, and since I’m in charge of all the undergraduate labs now, I’ve got to herd cats supervise all the teaching assistants, somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-45, starting this afternoon.  I plan to get back to posting on a regular (or at least semi-regular) basis within the next couple of days.  In the meantime, thank you to everyone who has visited in the last few weeks, both here and at Futures Past and Present.  Traffic has been at record levels, and I really appreciate the interest and support, as well as all the comments.

I need to double check my deadlines on some items I’ve committed to review, but I’ve got several indie published books coming up in the next 4-6 weeks that look promising as well as titles by more traditional publishers.  It’s gonna be fun.

The Shadows Darken

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Shadow’s Lure
Jon Sprunk
Pyr, $16.00, 391 p.

I want a glowing green girlfriend that nobody else can see or hear who can walk through walls.

Don’t tell my wife I said that.  She would probably entertain objections to the idea.

But it would be convenient to have one.  For instance, she could tell me when danger was around the corner.  Like Kit does in the Shadow series.

Jon Sprunk’s Shadow’s Son was one of the first books I reviewed after starting this blog, and it was good to revisit the world and characters. The publisher’s web site says this title was published last June, but I didn’t see a copy on the shelves of a bookstore until October, which until I started writing this post is when I assumed it was published.  If I’d known it came out last summer, this review would have been written months ago.  Just so you know, there are some mild spoilers for Shadow’s Son in the following paragraphs.   Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Continue reading →

A Quick Question

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I’ve been thinking about something for the last few days, and I’ve reached the point where I would like some feedback.

At the end of last year, I posted two essays.  The first was an explanation of my growing frustration with ebooks from major publishers, in  regards to both quality and pricing, concluding with the statement that I would be reading many more indie published books in 2012. The second contained my recommendations for which publishers had the lines I thought would be the most interesting in 2012 based on my reading in 2011. In both posts I put lists of what I intended to read over the next few months.  In the post on publishers I listed titles, although not all the titles I have on hand from every publisher.  The other list only contained authors, in part because in some cases I hadn’t decided which books from particular authors I would read first.

Since then, something interesting has occurred.

Since those posts, I’ve gotten several requests to review indie published books, all of which I’ve agreed to.  In one case, I already had that book on my list.  Another of these books is a YA novel.  Now I’ve never reviewed any novels marketed as YA here.  Not because I’m not interested in what’s being published in the YA market, but because there were so many other things I wanted to read first.

But I’ve got a son who will be reading in middle grade and YA soon, and I want to encourage him to read.  At the moment he doesn’t share his father’s interest in reading, in part because of the way reading was taught in the town where we lived before moving to where we are now.  I need to know what’s out there that he might be interested in so I can direct him to those books.

Here’s where my question, or questions rather, enter the picture.

First, how much YA would you being interested in seeing me review?  I’m going to be reading some, but I’d like to kill two birds with one stone and review some of it here.  How many of you would be open to that?  How many opposed?

Second, I’ve been thinking about how to handle reviewing requests by indie authors.  One of the requests I’ve gotten for a review is a little outside the scope of the blog but not so much that it would be totally out of place.  How far afield would you those of you who read this blog tolerate my reviews going?  I’m not going to review urban fantasy much, and while I have no objection to romance being a major part of the story, I’m not interested in reading anything where that’s the entire story.  I’ve been wanting to increase the amount of historical adventure I include here.  A lot of the indie published stuff I’ve seen has been historical, but mostly historical romance rather than adventure.  On the other hand, some of it has been historical mystery, and it’s been hard to tell just how much adventure as opposed to classical deduction the story contains.

I’ll review indie science fiction over at Futures Past and Present.  What about the occasional detective or noir novel?  Any objections there?

So, to recap:  How much YA should I review?  How wide a range of indie novels should I consider for review?  What genres or subgenres are you (not) interested in seeing reviewed?

Yes, I know this is my blog and I’m free to review whatever I feel like.  But on the other hand, I’m trying to develop a community and a brand.  I want people who visit for the first or second time to have a good idea of what they’re going to find.  And I don’t want to alienate anyone who’s a regular or even an occasional reader. So I would really appreciate some feedback.

Thank you. 

Across the Rooftops with Kron Darkbow in the City of Rogues

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City of Rogues
Ty Johnston
various ebook formats, 0.99 (Kindle, I think this is a temporary price; Ty, correct me if I’m wrong on this) – $2.99 (Nook)

This book was a lot of fun. It was a good, old fashioned fantasy adventure novel, the first of a trilogy.  I enjoyed it immensely.

Johnston does an outstanding job of juggling a fairly large cast of characters for such a short book, imbuing each of them with their own personality and characteristics.  They include Kron, a young boy he befriends, his friend the city guard sergeant, a healer and his wizard mentor, the crime lord Belgar the Liar and four of his henchmen, and two swords for hire.  That he is able to develop the characters to the depth that he does while maintaining the relentless pace speaks well of his ability as a writer.  Along the way he drops tidbits about the greater world, its history and geography.  And he does it all without harming any swans.

Here’s the basic setup:

The main character is one Lucius Tallerus, who is better known as Kron Darkbow.  Tallerus has returned to the city of Bond, where he lived until his parents were killed.  After their murders, he was taken in by his uncle, recently deceased, and trained as a warden for the Prisonlands.  Now that his uncle is dead, Tallerus has returned to seek revenge on the person responsible for murdering his parents.  He adopts the identity of Kron Darkbow and seeks his revenge.  He dresses in black, prowls rooftops, has a grappling hook and an assortment of tools he carries on his person.  In short, he bears a strong resemblance to a certain Caped Crusader.  But whereas Batman, at least the one I grew up reading (I haven’t followed the title for a few years now) didn’t kill under any circumstances, Kron has no scruples against taking the life of someone he feels deserves to die.

He’s not a superhero by any means.  He makes mistakes, costly ones at times, and he is capable of being injured.  More than once, Kron is almost killed.  He’s much more realistic and fleshed out as a character than many superheroes.

The other intriguing character was Belgad the Liar.  At one point Johnston states that Belgad doesn’t like to lie; it seems the nickname has followed him around for years.  He probably picked it up in junior high, where the names given to you stick with you for life.  He’s a barbarian from the north who has risen to a knighthood and place of prestige in the city, although not exactly ethically.  Like a better known barbarian who became king of Aquilonia, Belgad has grown beyond his origins to become an able administrator and businessman. 

I found him to be the most interesting character in the book, and certainly the most sympathetic and likeable viallain, if you can call him that, I’ve encountered in years.  He doesn’t like killing or stealing; they’re bad for business.  When he came to power, he dissolved the thieves guild and the assassins guild for those reasons.  He still practices extortion and doesn’t hesitate to use strong arm tactics, but despite his fearsome reputation, he didn’t seem to me to be that bloodthirsty.  Nor were his inner circle of henchmen.  I got the impression at times that Belgad would have preferred to run his empire without violence at all, but that it was a necessity in his line of work.  He certainly wasn’t the psychotic megalomaniac many crime lords are portrayed as being. 

Johnston took two characters whom he could have portrayed as coming directly from central casting, fitting their stereotypes, yet he chose to make them human, and in doing so, he transcended the typical generic revenge fantasy.  There’s a reason some many heroes in fiction come back to seek vengeance for deaths, especially the deaths of parents.  Those type of stories speak to us on a primal level.  Many us of would like to do the same if we were to find ourselves in such situations.  I think that’s why these types of plots remain popular.  To use this plot is not a lack of originality on the part of an author.  The lack of originality comes with the author fails to do something new with it, and in this Johnston has succeeded admirably.  I found this to be a fresh take on familiar tropes, something hard to pull off.

Don’t think this novel is merely some postmodern slice of life character study, either.  It’s full of action, intrigue, and swashbuckling.  It would make a good movie.  Unfortunately , Hollywood would probably screw it up.

There are other characters with their own stories in the book, and they all intertwine with Kron and Belgad’s story.  Until the final chapters, there’s no dark lord with a demon horde.  That will change in the rest of the trilogy, but this first book and its introduction of the characters is a story of conflict on a deeply personal level.  I’m looking forward to what happens in the rest of the trilogy, so much so that when I finished Citiy of Rogues, I went and bought the rest of the trilogy and the sequel and prequel.  I’ll report on them in the coming months.  Until then, I recommend this one.

Fireside Magazine Funded

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I don’t know how many of you are aware of Fireside magazine.  It’s a new startup fiction magazine that will launch in March if all goes according to schedule.  It will be available in pdf and ebook formats.  Print copies are reserved for contributors to the Kickstarter fundraising, and depending on the level of contribution will be signed by one or more authors.  (You get to choose whose signature you receive.)  The magazine has reached its funding goal, so it’s a go.  The first issue will have contributions from Tobias S. Buckell, D. J. Turnbuckle, Adam P. Knave, Ken Liu, Chuck Wendig, and Christie Yant, with illustrations by Amy Houser.  There’s about 36 left on the fundraising, and any money not used in production will either go to the authors or be used as seed money for future issues.  To learn more or to contribute, go to the Fireside page.