I’ve posted a review of Roil by Trent Jamieson at Futures Past and Present. Some of you might be interested in this one. It’s one of those far future settings that reads like fantasy. It’s closer to science fiction than fantasy in my mind, so I decided to post it there but wanted to make you aware of it in case you like this sort of book. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
As soon as I get this review done (which I will probably post at Futures Past and Present since it’s more science fiction than fantasy but will include a link here), I’ll look at a couple of items of short fiction. In the meantime, check out what Werner has to say.
I had the honor and privilege of baptizing my son this morning. Given what baptism symbolizes, I couldn’t think of a better day of the year on which to do it. Others have written more eloquently about today’s anniversary than I ever could. Read Sarah Hoyt’s post for well said words. Instead of writing something, I decided to post some photos of the flag tribute here in town.
That should probably be “deaconess” in the title of this post, but since both male and female holders of that office go by the title of “deacon” in Geist, I’ll stick with Ms. Ballantine’s convention. Regardless of details of semantics, this was a thoroughly enjoyable novel. It’s not the author’s first, but it was the first one of hers I’ve read. It won’t be the last.
The geists of the title are beings from the Otherside, sort a spirit world, and “geist” is something of a catchall term that could encompass a number of different entities. They are usually pretty destructive. They can be a form of ghost or some other malignant being.
The novel probably wouldn’t be considered heroic fantasy in the strictest sense, but there were plenty of heroics. The setup is this, at least as I understand it. I may have a couple of the details wrong. There were no major infodumps; background was filled in as you went along, often from context. It takes place on continent that had been settled some generations before, although how long ago was a little unclear. The Deacons long ago cast off all their religious beliefs and are quiet secular in their behavior, as much as they may still function as a religious order at times. The book opens with Sorcha putting out her cigar on the side of a building. Anyway, the Deacons are the ones who protect the citizenry against possessions and other attacks from the Otherside.
The current Emperor, or at least his line, hasn’t held the throne long. Raed Rossin, the son of the former Emperor, is still around and is known by the title of The Young Pretender. He still has some support, but it’s fading. When the book opens, he’s surviving as a pirate and is a bit down on his luck. He also suffers from a curse. If he spends much time on dry land, he transforms into a Rossin, which is a pretty nasty geist.
The gorgeous woman on the cover is Deacon Sorcha Faris. Deacons fall into one of two categories, Actives and Sensitives. Sorcha is an Active, which means she does the fighting. Sensitives can see Otherside activity as well as know what living creatures are in a given area. Sensitives and Actives in the field are always paired. Sorcha is somewhere in her thirties, the most powerful (and feared and beautiful) of the Actives, and has had more partners than most Deacons. She’s married to her current partner, and the marriage is in trouble.
When her husband is seriously wounded in an attack in the first chapter, she’s given a new partner, Merrick Chambers. Sorcha isn’t happy about this. Merrick has just passed his final test and been made a Deacon. Although she doesn’t realize it, Merrick has met her before. When he was a child, he watched Sorcha kill his father.
The pair are given an assignment to investigate trouble at an isolated Priory. That’s when things really begin to go to the Otherside in a handbasket. Along the way, they have to be rescued by Raed. Plenty of sparks ensue, some from conflicting loyalties, some romantic.
There’s plenty of combat and fighting, and while most of it is magical in nature, there’s still a good deal of sword play. The viewpoints alternate between Sorcha, Merrick, and Raed. I found this to be very effective, in that when the viewpoint characters had conflicts among themselves, the reader gets to see both sides in detail. The book is told from their perspectives, and since very little is as it appears to them, there are a good number of surprises.
There are also some unanswered questions that I expect will be resolved in the following books. The author’s website says there will be at least four. The second, Spectyr (A Book of the Order)
This was an entertaining fantasy adventure/romance. I’ve not been impressed with this type of blend much in the past. The ones I’ve read have tended to interject the romance pretty early in the story, and the characters started acting in ways that should have gotten them killed. That wasn’t the case in this book. The threat and the conspiracy were well established before the romance really ramped up. Ms. Ballantine managed to balance the adventure and the romance well. While I thought the ending wrapped some things up a little too neatly, there are more books in which to address some of the loose ends.
Give this one a try.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who follows my posts, whether formally, with your picture there in the sidebar, or informally, checking in when you have a free moment. While I haven’t met most of you in the flesh, I still consider those of you who have commented, and at times corrected my errors, friends. If we find ourselves at a convention or Howard Days or some other venue together, let’s make sure we make time for a drink or two.
I’ve got some things planned for this next year in addition to the ongoing series such as the posts about Conan, to give one example.
At the moment, I’ve got six novels I’m committed to review, including the sequel to Wolfsangel. That one will be posted in late September/early October to coincide with the release of the book. It’s number three on the reading list. I’m hoping to add a Twitter feed within the next month. That is if family obligations and dayjobbery will let me find the time.
This calendar year also marked several anniversaries I want to acknowledge before December 31st if possible. One is the five year anniversary of Cross Plains Universe. This was the anthology released at the World Fantasy Convention in 2006 as part of the Howard Centennial. Another is the tenth anniversary of the US publication of the Australian anthology Dreaming Down Under.
I started a comprehensive post on some of the collections of Henry Kuttner’s short fiction, both solo and in collaboration with his wife C. L. Moore, that have been published in the last year or two. I’m still reading through the collections. Hopefully that post will appear sometime during the holidays.
I’ve also got some English translations of Kazakh historical novels I’ve been wanting to read. The typesetting is different than that used in US and British books, so I want to make sure I’ve got the time to read them without distractions.
Once again, I want to thank all of you who are regular, semi-regular, or occasional readers of Adventures Fantastic. If there’s anything you would like to see more (or less) of, please let me know.
The storyline goes something like this. There’s this young boy in a tribal village and these raiders swoop down and kill everyone, except this boy, who is the only one to survive. He watches his friends and family killed. The leader of the raiders takes a sword that the boy’s father has made.
After he grows up, the boy, now a mighty fighter, goes looking for the man who killed his family. To pass the time until he finds him, he has a hobby of freeing slaves. Eventually he finds the man who killed his family. This man now has a grotesque mask and he’s seeking a particular young woman who is descended from a line of kings. He needs her blood perform this ritual in which he raises this dark sorceress or goddess or something. The barbarian is protecting her, but she gets kidnapped by the villain. There’s a final fight in a citadel and the villain has the princess chained in a spread eagle position to perform the ritual, and there’s this fight on this bridge over a chasm, and…
…and the name of this barbarian…just in case you were wondering,…it isn’t “Conan”.
The name of the movie isn’t Conan the Barbarian, either. The movie I’m talking about is Wolfhound, and in spite of the way I used the common plot elements to make it sound like the recent Conan movie, there’s not much similarity between the two. Wolfhound is a far superior film. Not perfect by any means, but far superior.
It’s a Russian film, and stars Aleksandr Bukharov in the title role. It also stars Oksana Akinshina as Princess Knesinka Helen. I didn’t catch all the names of the characters, and the credits aren’t in English on my copy, so I’ll not try to list the entire cast. They’re listed here and here if you’re interested.
And before we go any further, let me state that I am not, repeat, NOT saying that anyone associated with Conan the Barbarian (2011) plagiarized Wolfhound in any way, nor do I mean to imply such.
Rather, my point is what two different production companies can do with similar source material. I took the common plot elements from the two movies to use in the lead-in for this post. There are some major differences that bear mentioning. Wolfhound’s companions actually do something useful. (His name, which is the only one he has, comes from the fact that the man he’s hunting has a wolf’s head tattooed on the back of his hand.) The magic is often understated and subtle, and in contrast to the magic in Conan, used for healing. There are gods and godesses (as near as I could figure out) directly helping Wolfhound, with the primary goddess encouraging him in a path of love and forgiveness at one point. At least I think so. Not something you would see in a Conan story.
The movie, the version I have at any rate, had English dialogue overdubbed. It was perfectly understandable most of the time. Unfortunately, the sound track overpowered the dialogue in a few places. Since everyone else in the house was trying to sleep, there was a limit to how loud I could turn the sound up, and as a result I missed a few bits of dialogue here and there. I’m not sure who the woman (goddess perhaps?) who appears more than once to give Wolfhound aid and advice actually is. But like I said, this is a Russian movie, and her identity might have been obvious to the original audience. It wasn’t hard to figure out her part in the story, though.
The comparisons to Conan are pretty depressing. There is more action, more (and better) fighting, more philosophy, more romance, and more story in Wolfhound than in Conan. In fact, the only thing Conan had more of was bare breasts.
As I said, Wolfhound is not without a few flaws. Several of the fight scenes were choppy and poorly edited. Wolfhound has a pet bat which gets directly involved in the fighting at the end, something I found to be ridiculous. There’s scene when the princess’s party rescues a woman accused of witchcraft or something along those lines which was a bit over the top. The movie is based on a Russian novel, and from what little I’ve been able to discover, the film and the book don’t have a lot in common. Some things seem to be universal in the film world.
But even with the flaws, it’s a much better film than Conan. The special effects are good; not great, but good. The story hangs together better. The characters don’t, for the most part, act in illogical or inconsistent ways. They grow and change, but their motivations are understandable.
And it’s definitely a Russian movie. Sacrifice and fate are concepts that are addressed more than once. The outlook is bleaker and more fatalistic in places than even the darkest US film. For instance, the city of Galirad, home of Princess Knesinka Helen, lies under a curse and breaking the curse comes to play a large role in the story. The city is cold and overcast, even though it’s summer. As the Princess leaves for her wedding to a nobleman, the contrast between the city the meadow outside the walls is striking. It makes the motivation for what some of the characters do later understandable.
Wolfhound gives us a glimpse of what Conan could have been, what it should have been. Sadly, I doubt anyone in Hollywood is paying attention.
I’ve included a trailer from YouTube. There are several of them, and this was the best I could find.
I was out of town on Monday for a job interview. Since I had some time between the interview and having to return to the very small airport I was flying out of, I decided to visit some of the local bookstores. Without adult supervision, of course. (My suitcase was noticeably heavier on the return flight.) One of the things I picked up was a copy of the August issue of Realms of Fantasy, which wasn’t yet on the stands where I live.
I read part of it on the plane, and then finished it after I got home. I was rather disappointed. Approximately half of the magazine was devoted to fiction. No huge surprise there. RoF is a publication dedicated to all aspects of the genre, so the columns and reviews don’t bother me. Not all of them interest me, but I don’t begrudge others the chance to read them. And the art feature is usually worth a look and frequently a second look. But these things alone are not why I pick up the magazine. I buy it for the fiction.
There were five stories. I have to admit by and large they were a let down. Only one of them completely worked for me, and it was really more science fiction than fantasy. (Any story that opens by trashing It’s a Wonderful Life is one I’m going to be predisposed to like.) W. R. Thompson, whose work I’ve enjoyed in Analog for years, had a deal-with-the-devil story that started out promising, with wit and humor, but ultimately left me unsatisfied. I found the mechanism by which the narrator got out of the deal to be a cop-out. The story following it, a retelling of the Biblical story of Lot, with Lilith thrown in for good measure, contained many of the ideas and themes the Thompson story did. Since these two pieces together constituted almost half the fiction, I thought this was a bit too much of the same thing, a feeling not dissimilar to the one I’ve gotten at the movies after I’ve gone back for the free refill on the large buttered popcorn. I should’ve stopped after the first.
So rather than give a breakdown of the contents and what I thought of each individual story, what worked and what didn’t, like in my two previous reviews, I’ll just pass this time. None the stories were poorly written. In fact, the way the words were put together in this issue constituted some of the best writing I’ve seen in the magazine, from a technical perspective. For the most part, there was better emphasis on characters and story rather than pretty words than in the previous issue. It’s just that most of the stories really weren’t the type of thing I’m interested in reading. Only the riff on Lot could really be considered adventure fantasy, and I didn’t care that much for some of the themes, in part because they were so similar to the previous story. And while I like other kinds of fantasy besides sword and sorcery and adventure fantasy, most of the selections in this issue really didn’t work for me. Well written pieces, but not my cup of tea. Which is why I decided not to review the issue. I don’t see any point in doing what would essentially be trashing the magazine because the stories weren’t to my taste. If they had been poorly written or had protagonists who weren’t believable as characters, I would have a different attitude.
I write these reviews in part to recommend things I think my readers will like. That’s tough to do when I didn’t care for most of the stories solely on the grounds of personal taste.
On the positive side, the price has come down without any decrease in production values, a move that is appreciated. I suspect this is a move to increase sales. I hope it works. Now if I could just get an electronic version in epub format. There was an ad saying it was available, but the website only shows pdf versions of the current issues.
The Winds of Khalakovo
Bradley P. Beaulieu
Nightshade Books
If there is any justice in this world whatsoever, this book will be short-listed on next year’s Hugo ballot.
This one has it all: flying ships, magic, mystery, dark secrets, buckets of intrigue (both familial and political), honor, revenge, sea serpents, selfless sacrifice, a wedding dance that’s just short of combat, assassinations, ship eating squids, and after a fashion, unrequited love. Lifelong friends will become bitter enemies; bitter enemies will become staunch allies. And for all involved, everything will change.
So what’s the book really about, you say? I’m glad you asked that.
Here’s the situation and the principle players:
Dark times have fallen on the Grand Duchy of Anuskaya. The blight is moving through the Duchy, resulting in fewer catches, blighted crops, a disease called the wasting, and death. The duchies are scattered on archipelagos. Sea travel is rather dangerous due to the aforementioned sea serpents and squid. Travel of any distance is conducted by air.
And that’s where the magic system comes in. There are five types of spirits which can be controlled: earth, fire, air, water, and the spirit of life. This is done through different stones. Controlling spirits of air is essentially how the ships fly, although it’s a little more complicated than that. Also, the women of the duchies, some of them at least, can travel through a type of astral projection. They are losing this ability because of the blight.
There are two main cultures in conflict here. First the Landed, clearly patterned after Imperial Russia. The others are the Arahman, essentially gypsies, who are somewhat oppressed by the Landed. A subgroup of the Arahman are the Maharraht, who feel they’re really oppressed by the Landed and have taken up arms against them. Essentially, they’re terrorists.
The key players in this drama are Prince Nikandr, the youngest son of the Duke and Duchess of Khalakovo. He’s betrothed to be wed to Princess Atiana, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Vostroma. There are two problems with this. First, he and Atiana have known each from childhood, when she and her sisters played tricks on him and their brother. His memories do not reassure him when he thinks of his future. Second, he’s in love with an Arahman woman named Rehada. The course of true love never did run smooth.
Atiana isn’t any more thrilled with the marriage than Nikandr is. It’s a marriage of political convenience, to seal an agreement between the duchies of Khalakovo and Vostroma. Yet Atiana wants more than the marriages she sees her mother and sisters having. She wants to stand with Nikandr, and it doesn’t take long before she begins to genuinely love him. The course of true love, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Then there’s Rehada, who is secretly Maharraht. Her mission is to get close to the Landed, particularly Prince Nikandr, and gain information that will be useful in the coming uprising. Only she never planned on falling in love with Nikandr. The course of true love…you know the rest.
Add to this mix Ashan, an Aramahn who is one of the rare masters of all magical disciplines and a young boy named Nasim who is much more than he seems, along with the leader of the Maharraht and father of Rehada’s deceased daughter, Soroush, and you have an explosive mix.
And explode it does. Literally in places. The book moves at a breakneck pace, even when Beaulieu is setting up things to come. He made a dance at one of the wedding events seem suspenseful, which is a real trick since that type of thing tends to be what I skip over. The characters are multi-layered and deep. They change and grow, not always for the better, but no one is the same person at the end of the book as they were at the beginning. I’m speaking of those who survive, of course. Not everyone will, which makes the suspense more real.
Lest you think I’m in the employ of Mr. Beaulieu, there are a few places where the first novel aspect of this book shows. Only one was of major consequence. Early in the story, after Nikandr and Atiana have danced, they go for a moonlit ride away from the castle, where he tells her he has the wasting. Offended that he had kept such an important thing secret, she returns to the castle in a huff. He tethers his horse to a tree (he’s on foot at this point), walks a short distance away, and then dismounts. Without ever getting back on his horse. A minor thing, but it threw me completely out of the story. Fortunately, what happened next pulled me right back in. Read it for yourself cause I’m not gonna tell ya.
If I had to pick a theme for the novel, I’d say it’s the damage that pride causes. There’s a scene where Nikandr, Ashan, and Nasim are exploring a city on an island that was destroyed centuries before. When Kikandr asks Ashan what caused the destruction, he replies: “Hubris”. That’s the driving force in almost all the conflict right there. Most of the dukes and their offspring have hubris to spare. In buckets.
And not just the men. The women are just as guilty. This society is somewhat matriarchal in that only the women can do the astral projection thing. They can communicate with each other and see what’s happening great distances away. They don’t always have the same goals as the men, and even when they do, their methods are often quite different. Only Nikandr’s sister-in-law Yvanna shows any sign of being a weeping wallflower, and even that’s only partial. All the rest of the women are tough, smart, strong, and not to be trifled with.
This was a fantastic book. I’ve been fortunate so far in that most of the books I’ve selected to review here have been good. There have been a few that I’ve not really liked, but over all, the past year I’ve been blogging has been one of the best for reading I’ve had in a long time. The Winds of Khalakovo has been one of the top two or three. Read it for yourself and you’ll understand what I mean.
This is the first of an occasional series, in which I’ll look back at an issue of a magazine from some years ago. I’m not sure how far back these looks will extend. I’d like to restrict myself to things that most of you can find without too much difficulty or expense. For that reason, I don’t know if I’ll include pulps. What I won’t focus on in this series is anything that is currently available for free online. While Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Heroic Fantasy Quarterly are venues I enjoy and will from time to time take a look at, they won’t be part of this series.
I decided to start this series with Black Gate 3, Winter 2002 because I like this publication. It’s published some great fiction over the years by people who have gone on to have successful careers. I can’t think of a single issue that hasn’t been a winner. By the third issue, BG was beginning to hit its stride and had developed a clear editorial style.
Let’s take a look at what this issue holds.
First of all, there isn’t as much fiction as in recent issues, because at this time BG was on a more frequent publication schedule. It was only after the magazine went to annual issues that the page count increased. BG 3 clocks in at 224 pages, with approximately 150 pages of fiction and accompanying illustrations, the rest being devoted reviews and articles, the ToC, an ad for subscriptions, and an editorial. There are eleven stories, and ten of the worked for me. That’s a pretty good ratio.
The lead piece of fiction is “Iron Joan” by ElizaBeth Gilligan. This is a story about a woman whose inner strength is more than a match for several men who attempt to treat her badly. In the process she wins the respect of the town where she’s come to live.
Elaine Cunningham tells of the first meeting of Oberon and Lancelot in “The Knight of the Lake” and shows that you’re never to old to learn something new. The Faery Court and Camelot have been somewhat overdone through the years, but this is a fresh and entertaining take on some familiar characters.
with “The Chinese Sandman”. In this one, Mallory has to retrieve an artifact from his old nemesis, the Grundy, in order to meet the Sandman’s price for returning a dream to his partner.
) tells the story of a young girl and a very special ice cream shop. This one was highly reminiscent of Ray Bradbury’s Green Town stories, and it took me back to the summers of my childhood, depsite the fact they weren’t much like the one in the story. Of all the stories in the issue, this one moved me the most.Completely opposite was Gail Sproule’s “For Love of Katie”, which rounded out the issue. This one is told from the point of view of a small dragon-like creature produced in a genetics lab. Telling a story from an animal’s point of view is a hard trick to pull off and few authors can, which is why I generally don’t care for that type of story. Unfortunately, the author didn’t quite succeed, at least to my satisfaction. This one was a little too cute and predictable for my taste. Still it was well written and I’m sure there are plenty of people who would enjoy it.
All in all, BG 3 is a solid issue, with a great deal of exciting fiction to recommend it. There’s something here for everyone. From sword and sorcery to near contemporary to futuristic, from quiet and thoughtful to humorous to horrifying. You can’t go wrong. And although they may disagree with me, it’s fun to see some of the early efforts of some of the rising stars of the genres
This issue of Black Gate is still available. If you don’t have a copy and would like to pick one up, you can order here. It’s one of the first, so I don’t know how many are left. There’s a back-issue sale going on, so you can probably score some good deals. If you don’t wait too long.