What the Family Plots

Leave a reply

The Family Plot
Cherie Priest
ebook $2.99
paperback $15.99

Here’s a little something seasonal.   And by little, I mean the length of the review, not the length of the book.

Cherie Priest is someone whose work I’ve reviewed here before, namely the Borden Dispatches, Maplecroft and Chapelwood.  Before I started this blog, I’d read Four and Twenty Blackbirds and Wings to the Kingdom.  So I knew Ms. Priest could write ghost stories and do them right.

The Family Plot is a stand-alone novel, but it’s one I could see becoming a series, depending on what happens after the final sentence…

Chuck Dutton owns Music City Salvage, and times are lean.  He needs a big score.  So when the elderly Augusta Winthrop walks in and makes him an offer that sounds too good to be true, Chuck doesn’t question things as much as he should. Continue reading →

A Monster-God for Edmond Hamilton’s Birthday

2 Replies

“The Monster-God of Mamurth”
The Edmond Hamilton Megapack
Wildside Press
ebook $0.55

On this date, October 20, Edmond Hamilton was born in the year 1904.  While he isn’t the only writer of the fantastic with a birthday today, I think he’s the most important.

Hamilton is best known today as a writer of space opera (and husband of one of our favorite writers, Leigh Brackett), so it might seem that this tribute would be more appropriate over at Futures Past and Present.

What isn’t as well known is that, in addition to publishing muc of his early science fiction in Weird Tales, Hamilton also wrote some weird fantasy adventures stories.  In fact, his first published story, “The Monster-God of Mamurth” is just such a tale. Continue reading →

The Office Ghost Has Been Active

3 Replies

Something seasonal to share with you.

If I’m the first one at work, and lately I have been, I’ll make the first pot of coffee for the department.  The coffee pot is in the work room between the departmental office and the conference room.  Because I don’t have a key to the departmental office (only the department chair and the staff who have offices in that suite have keys), I come in through the conference room.

Twice last week I unlocked the door to the conference room and walked in.  I didn’t turn on the light because there was enough light from the windows opposite the entrance for me to see.  So everything was in some degree of shadow.  The door to the workroom was in the middle of the wall to the left and was closed or nearly so.

The door swung open as I approached.  When it was about halfway open, it began creaking.

There was no one else there.

The joke has been that there was a ghost, and it was opening the door for me.  This wasn’t the first time that has happened to me.  Do I think there’s really a ghost?  Probably not.  Every time this has happened, at least to me, the door has not been completely closed.  I think it’s just the vibration of my walking across the room the makes it move.  As for the creaking, that’s nothing that a little WD-40 can’t fix.

On the other hand, my building does have a reputation for being haunted.  After all, three murders have occurred in it, including a decapitation…

Happy Birthday, Tanith Lee

3 Replies

One of the most acclaimed writers of fantasy was born on this date, September 19, in 1947.  I’m talking about Tanith Lee, of course.  While there are other acclaimed writers with birthdays today, none of them are as important and significant as Tanith Lee was to the field of fantasy, nor ever likely to be.  (Yes, that was a swipe at someone with a birthday today, in case you’re wondering.  No, I’m not going to tell you who.)  Tanith Lee died in 2015.

I’ve only read a little bit of her work, but what I’ve read, I’ve really enjoyed.  I’m not sure I’ll have time today to read any of her fiction; the day’s pretty full.  But if not today, then sometime in the next week.  I’ll have some time to kill on Saturday when I’ll need something to read.  Fortunately I recently purchased a couple of collections of her short fiction.   Among them are The Weird Tales of Tanith Lee (stories published in Weird Tales) and Venus Burning:  Realms (stories from Realms of Fantasy).

If you haven’t read her work, check her out.

A Look at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly 37

7 Replies

It’s been out for a while, but some of you may have missed it.  The latest issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly has a solid lineup of great fiction.

Before we get to that, though. allow me remind you that HFQ has a Patreon page where you can support the publication.  If you enjoy what you find there, show them a little tangible appreciation.

Now on to the fiction.

The first story is “Paladin of Golata” by P. Djeli Clark.  Teffe is an orphan who survives by scavenging the dead on battlefields.  One day he chances upon a dying paladin who has one final battle to fight.  Teffe becomes a reluctant recruit and discovers there’s a life possible for him beyond his wildest dreams.

Christopher Chupik is a writer to watch.  His story here, “The Forest of Bones“, concerns a wandering knight who has to face a giant protected by sorcery who is preying on the nearby countryside.  Solid adventure fantasy about a hero who isn’t afraid to put himself at risk to protect others.

In “The Blitz of Din Barham“, Cameron Johnston gives us dragons.  Not just one or two, but a whole family of them intent on devastating a city.  When the all the practitioners of magic fail to come up with a successful strategy, it falls to the apprentice of one to think outside the box.

Adrian Simmons gives us “What Clev Yun Would Want to Tell”.  This is a little different than what we usually see in HFQ, but it packs a powerful punch about people who aren’t willing to change in order to survive.

There are also poems by Adele Gardner, David Barber, and Ngo Binh Anh Khoa.

All in all, a solid issue of fantasy entertainment.

Sail Before The Devil’s Wind

1 Reply

The Devil’s Wind
Steve Goble
Seventh Street Books
print $15.99
ebook $9.99

I’d like to thank Seventh Street Books for sending me the review copy of this novel.

About this time last year, Steve Goble’s first novel, The Bloody Black Flag, hit shelves.  I loved it.  Spider John is back, and if anything, The Devil’s Wind is better than The Bloody Black Flag.

Here’s the setup.  Spider John and the few surviving members of the crew we met in The Bloody Flag are trying to escape Jamaica. Spider John just wants to return to Nantuckett and his wife and son, whom he hasn’t seen in about eight years.  (I have to wonder what he will find if/when he manages to make it back.  Will she have been faithfully waiting for him to return, or will she have assumed he either died at sea or abandoned them and consequently remarried?  We’ll have to wait and see.)

Spider John and his friends sign on to a merchant ship heading where they want to go.  He thinks he’s through with life on the account.  Sadly, life on the account isn’t through with him.  It isn’t long before trouble rears its head. Continue reading →

A Plethora of Birthdays

Leave a reply

This will be a short post, as I am visiting family. They are between internet providers and won’t get the bew service until Tuesday. I’m typing this on my phone, which is a bit slow. I’ll add more photos and illustrations and maybe a liyttle more biographical detail when I return from my wanderings in the cyber wilderness. I’d also like to thank Deuce Richardson for the heads-up on the birthdays, as I have been distracted with travel today.

A number of my favorite writers were born today, September 1.

First, one of the greatest, Edgar Rice Burroughs. Born in 1875, Burroughs created some of the most iconic characters in modern literature, including Tarzan and John Carter. Continue reading →