Sensor Sweep: Ballantine Adult Fantasy, Stilettos, Military Horror, Gene Wolfe
Monday , 3, May 2021 Sensor Sweep Leave a commentFirearms (Field & Stream): So revered was the 1911 that it remained the
issue sidearm of America’s armed forces for 74 years. In fact, even today, elite American combat operatives rely on 1911s. Designed by firearms genius John Browning, the Colt 1911 was chambered for the .45 ACP—a cartridge that’s now as esteemed as the pistol it was created for. To meet military demand during the first World War, 1911s would be built by many different manufacturers.
Games (Wert Zone): Is there much more we can ask from video games than
the ability to jump in a giant robot and use the giant robot to destroy other giant robots and occasionally just smash up a city for the sheer hell of it? It could be argued not, and, since 1989, the MechWarrior series of video games has satisfied that urge in a very enjoyable manner.
Cosmic horror is one of the forms of horror fiction. It is also often cliched and hackneyed. The Brain Leakage blog alerted me back in January to Matthew Pungitore’s The Report of Mr. Charles Aalmers and Other Stories. I am usually up for good cosmic horror and ordered this book when available upon publication.
The collection contains twelve stories within 174 pages. In the preface, Pungitore writes these stories were originally written for magazines, presses, and “people looking for stories.” They failed to find a home, so he did some rewriting to make them flow together better as a coherent collection. This is the result.
The titular story, “The Report of Mr. Charles Aalmers,” is a tale of a lost medieval romance investigated by a team of medievalists. The center portion of the story is the medieval story itself with some connection to the Arthurian cycle. During the investigation of the medieval crypt, there are intrusions from the outside. The story climax is on the Arctic island of Svalbard. I think this is the first story I have ever seen set on Svalbard. The post-script is very unsettling in Charles Aalmer’s report. Read More
On April 28th, Arktoons, the newest venture from Castalia House and Arkhaven Comics, opened to the public. A webcomics site in the style of the popular Webtoons, Arktoons currently hosts 32 original comics from Arkhaven Comics, Dark Legion Comics, Rislandia, and Superprumo. Much like Webtoons, Arktoons will also allow independent creators to present their own comics without publishing through Arkhaven or one of its partners.
Every day, at least four comics will present new weekly episodes on Arktoons. Arktoons will be free to view, but will also feature a subscription model. Subscription options range from $5 to $50 per month. Let’s take a look at some of the upcoming offerings.
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 01 May, 2021
Saturday , 1, May 2021 Uncategorized Leave a commentAlien energy mines, discarded museum ships, and vengeful sellswords lie in waiting in this week’s new releases.
Band of Broken Gods (Saga of the Broken Gods #1) – Ryan Kirk
His sword for his friends. His life for his family.
After a lifetime of battle and exploration, Hakon’s sword now lies hidden beneath the floor of his home. He seeks a quiet life, content to let the world pass him by.
Until he receives word that his daughter has gone missing without a trace.
Now he must pick up his sword once again, to fight the demons from his past one last time. Allies and enemies from a time of legend are converging for one final war, with Hakon and his family trapped in the eye of the storm. He must summon a band of heroes, long separated, if he hopes to survive.
Against a hostile world and their most dangerous enemy ever, a band of broken gods gathers one last time.
For friendship. For family. For humanity.
A City in Ruin (The Dark Sorcerer #2) – D. K. Holmberg
Strange fires threaten to destroy the city of Nelar that Jayna alone can’t stop.
After stopping a powerful dark sorcerer, Jayna finds herself a target. Not only does the Sorcerers’ Society think she uses dark magic, the Celebrants of Asymorn want vengeance for her interference. She’d leave the city, Ceran has shown her that something worse is still to come.
When it does, she’s still unprepared.
Ne
arly killed by a strange fire even her dark magic could not extinguish, she needs to find those responsible before the city is destroyed—or worse, plunged into war.
Even stopping the fires might not be enough. The dark sorcerers have begun to move, and Jayna might need to surrender to her magic in order to stop them.
The Ghost Mine (Tech Ghost #1) – Ben Wolf
Fatal glitches. A corporate cover-up. And something haunting the depths…
People are dying and no one knows why.
But the company is covering it up anyway.
Justin is excited to start his new job at an energy mine on a distant planet—until things begin to go wrong.
Small things.
Annoying glitches in the mining complex’s tech.
Enough to aggravate him. Enough to notice a connection.
When the first miner dies from a tech-related accident, Justin can no longer turn a blind eye. But the mine’s brass don’t want him digging for answers…
…even though something from the mine’s past is lurking beneath the surface…
…and it wants blood.
Heaven Fall – Leonard Petracci
Draysky was born to die in the mines.
Like his father before him, his fate was to harvest treasures until the dust claimed his lungs. He’d die the lowest of society, a Knotted, buried with their thin cord still around his neck. He would never advance as a mage, never to learn of the forbidden runes of the kingdom magicians. But when he looks away from the northern mountains, he allows himself to dream that one day, he’d buy his freedom and escape the mines forever.
But the mines don’t relinquish claimed lives so easily. They draw him in deeper, pulling him into their depths, and when Draysky discovers the source of their treasures, he’s left with a choice.
Return to his labor, and be grateful for the years he has left, or risk his life by seizing the mines’ power. Read More
Comic Books (Arkhaven Comics): This is the biggest moment in comics for decades. It changes how you, the reader, in a word, reads the comic book. Anybody who has tried to use a system like Comixology’s knows how bad it is. It loads the full page and then it TRIES to zoom in on the right panels in sequence, it rarely gets it right. Especially when you are using a smart phone, which is the system it’s supposed to be designed for. Once you are done with that page you “flip” to the next, (assuming you didn’t already do so accidentally while you were frantically tapping at your phone), and the process starts all over.
Comic Books (Bleeding Fool): One of the Big Two publishers, DC Comics, is bumping the price up on some of its monthly titles to $5.99 for a 40-page issue. In its solicitations for June releases, several ongoing series, The Joker #4, Superman Red & Blue #3, Wonder Woman: Black White and Gold #1, and one of the company’s flagship books, Batman #109, are all listed with $5.99 cover prices. Think about that for a moment. If someone wanted to read all four of those titles, it would cost about $24 (before tax) to do so. Four comics, $24. That’s a big financial hit.
Games (Kairos): Caesar and the Amazon: separated at birth? The evidence speaks for itself. AAA game studios no longer put serving their customers first. They haven’t for a long time. Instead, they serve the precepts of an inhuman cult that hates beauty – especially feminine beauty. Playing Diablo II: Resurrected is tantamount to participating in a humiliation ritual. Don’t give Blizzard the satisfaction.
Lovecraft: The Great Tales/ John D. Haefele (Cimmerian Press, 2021): John D. Haefele’s The Derleth Mythos was a book that made me do if not a 180, a 135 degree turn on my view of August Derleth.
The Great Tales has 746 pages of text. John Haefele goes through Lovecraft’s evolution as a writer. Each chapter generally discusses influences as Lovecraft would discover another writer. Poe, Lord Dunsany, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Robert W. Chambers, William Hope Hodgson are given prominence. I did not realize that Lovecraft discovered Chambers and especially Hodgson so late. Space is given to his circle: Frank Belknap Long, Clark Ashton Smith, Donald Wandrei, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch with mention of Moore, Kuttner, and Leiber. Read More
“Because I believe in calling things what they are…And you should make a habit of it too. A group of people who can’t choose an insignia when they have a whole day to decide, who can’t even toss a coin to choose, are a spineless herd…
“And a herd like that is perfect cannon fodder.”
“We have changed our minds,” the watcher spoke directly to me. He didn’t look as repulsive and alien as they usually did–he looked normal, even kind. “Yes. We have changed our minds. We like you now..”
LitRPG fantasies, as a genre, tend to be romanticize the gamer as either a normal person with a hobby or an aloof outsider waiting for the right moment to shine. But what about the obsessive gamer, the type who eats and sleeps with their headsets on, who uses gaming to detach themselves from a reality too painful to bear? In Small Unit Tactics, these lost souls are so far removed from reality that another picks them up. Now, in an alien world one realm away from Hell, these gamers must fight for the gods in a crude parody of a PvP battleground. Alexander Romanov takes an unflinching examination of the types of people who become obsessive gamers, and finds them wanting.
Except in determination.
If that sounds nothing like the elaborate Diablo II and World of Warcraft litRPG clones with their magic, combat skills, and stat sheets, it is but the first of many departures from the established formulas. First of all, and most important to many readers, Romanov avoids stat sheets by avoiding stats altogether. A character’s strength is determined solely by their muscles. Hope you’ve been lifting, because swords and armor are heavy. Any character growth, as a gamer would recognize it, is conveyed purely through words. Read More
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 24 April, 2021
Saturday , 24, April 2021 Uncategorized Leave a commentAppalachian witches, deep space races, and arcane noir detectives fill this week’s new releases.
Blood Creek Devil (Blood Creek Saga #4) – Jay Barnson
A centuries-old plan. A final battle. The fate of the Crossroads will be decided.
Jenny, Jack, Sean, and Jessabelle have battled for too long on both sides of the Crossroads. Their seemingly invincible enemy, The Man in the White Suit, will stop at nothing until he dominates both Earth and Around the Bend. But when Jenny and her companions delve into ancient mysteries, they discover secrets lost to the Wardens. If they are to defeat the dangerous Coven, they’ll have to travel to the brutal void between worlds.
But the void demands unimaginable sacrifices.
Bloodline (Cradle #9) – Will Wight
It’s time to go back home.
In the years since Lindon left Sacred Valley, he has attained power beyond anything his family thought possible. Now he’ll have to put those powers to the test, because a Dreadgod is on its way.
Lindon and his allies set out to evacuate the valley before the arrival of the Wandering Titan, but their sacred arts are weakened by an ancient curse. They’ll have to persuade the squabbling inhabitants of Sacred Valley to leave behind their home and set off into the outside world.
But it has been a long time since Lindon left, and more has changed than he realized.
He has always sought power to save his family…but now he might be too late.
Capital Murder (Arcane Casebook #7) – Dan Willis
When the FBI wants to sweep the murder of a US Senator under the rug, Alex Lockerby must navigate the halls of political power and corruption in order to catch a professional killer and uncover dark conspiracy that threatens the very foundations of government.
Hired by the widow of a murdered US Senator, Alex Lockerby is shocked to find out that she’s the only one who seems to want the crime solved. Between the local police and the FBI, everyone wants this case over and done with, even if they have to sweep it under the rug just to make it go away.
Not satisfied with the answers he’s getting, Alex dives into the world of high stakes power politics and the inherent corruption that goes with it. Quickly he finds himself with more motives and suspects than he can manage, all while being pursued by a professional killer, a murderous thief, and a powerful crime lord from his past.
With time running out to find the true motive for the Senator’s murder, Alex must find the link between a bizarre theft, a missing alchemist, and legislation the murdered Senator was working on. If he succeeds, Alex might just have a chance to uncover a dark conspiracy that threatens the government itself, unless they get him first. Read More
Sensor Sweep: The Searchers, Disney Failures, Henchmen
Monday , 19, April 2021 Sensor Sweep 4 CommentsVideo Games (Wasteland & Sky): Both the ’00s and the ’10s are two of the
most creatively stagnant decades, and it says a lot that there has never been a nostalgia movement for them when the current wave for the ’80s and ’90s has never really stopped since the latter decade ended. Be all accounts we should have had ’00s decade back in the ’10s . . . but that never happened. It never will.
Fiction (Goodman Games): Growing up I lacked access to sword-and-sorcery fiction. Stories of muscled barbarians and curvaceous women
clinging to mighty thews were available only in drugstore wire-spinners or in the adult section of the local public library. Both were sadly out of reach of my meager allowance and the limited access afforded by my juvenile library card. If it didn’t exist in the elementary school library, or on my parents’ modest bookshelves, I wasn’t reading it.
Cinema (Unz.com): Who is Ethan Edwards? He is a warrior and a wanderer in wild spaces: the space between warring civilizations and the space between civilization and savagery. He lives in the state of nature, not civil society. In the state of nature, there is no overarching power to enforce the peace, so a man needs to know how to protect himself. Thus Ethan knows how to thread his way between hostile peoples, negotiate treaties with enemies, strike bargains with crooks, and deploy both trickery and violence in a fight.
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) had one of the highest public profiles for a science fiction writer. He used to be on The Tonight Show now and then and had his own T.V. show (Ray Bradbury Theater). When the space shuttle blew up in 1986, I saw him on Nightline. I read The Martian Chronicles in 11th grade of high school as part of English class. Fahrenheit 451 was another favorite English class reading title.
My favorite Bradbury are his stories until around 1950 when he started appearing in mainstream magazines such as Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post. He then went full pathological ice cream nostalgia.
Damon Knight wrote:
“Childhood is Bradbury’s one subject, but you will not find real childhood here, Bradbury’s least of all. What he has had to say about it has been expressed obliquely, in symbol and allusion, and always with the tension of the outsider– the ex-child, the lonely one. In giving up this tension, in diving with arms spread into the glutinous pool of sentimentality that has always been waiting for him, Bradbury has renounced the one thing that made him worth reading.”
Before sentiment overwhelmed Ray Bradbury, he wrote some rather nasty stories. My favorite by him were in Weird Tales. Some can be found in The October Country and those were also rewritten. I found a used paperback around 35 years ago, Bloch and Bradbury. I was eager to read those early Robert Bloch stories in H. P. Lovecraft mode. What I was not expecting is how much I liked the Bradbury stories, “The Handler,” “The Dead Man,” “Fever Dream,” and “The Watchers.” Read More
Cirsova Publishing is proud to announce that it has partnered with Michael Tierney and Robert Allen Lupton to restore and reprint Julian Hawthorne’s The Cosmic Courtship
, a never-before-collected pulp Planetary Romance by the son of famed American author Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Mary Faust, a brilliant scientist, has developed a machine that can allow the conscious human soul to explore the cosmos! Her promising young assistant Miriam Mayne has accidentally transferred her consciousness to Saturn, where she falls under the enchantment of an evil sorcerer! Jack Paladin, her love, sets out after her on a thrilling celestial journey to the ringed planet! Swashbuckling adventure and high romance await in Julian Hawthorne’s The Cosmic Courtship!
While most are at least somewhat familiar with Nathaniel Hawthorne as one of the great American authors, less well known is that his son Julian was an incredibly prolific writer in his own right. Julian wrote on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from literary analysis of his father’s works to poetry to period romances and adventures. Late in his career, Julian even dabbled in the emerging genre of Science Fiction.
The Cosmic Courtship was serialized in Frank A. Munsey’s All-Story Weekly across four issues, beginning with the November 24, 1917 issue and running through the December 15, 1917 issue. While this story has been in the public domain for some time, it has never been collected or published elsewhere until now.
With only a couple weeks remaining, the crowdfunding campaign for The Cosmic Courtship has smashed through its stretch goals, to include poems by Julian Hawthorne, a select bibliography of his works, a biography of Fred A. Small, the illustrator for The Cosmic Courtship, and a donation of the electronic text to Project Gutenberg. Perhaps the most exciting is the announcement of Cirsova Classics, a new imprint devoted to reprinting long out-of-print pulp stories. Julian Hawthorne’s work will feature prominently in the beginning, with Sara was Judith and A Goth from Boston being among the next offerings. Both are previously uncollected works.
So, what can you expect from Julian Hawthorne? Cirsova editor P. Alexander explains:
Hawthorne was fascinated by the concepts of astral travel, out of body and out of time experiences, hypnotism, and clairvoyance. These play a central role in several of the short stories of his that I have read and is the means by which the heroes travel to Saturn in The Cosmic Courtship. While I have not yet had a chance to read Sara Was Judith, it’s not hard to guess from the pitch that it will be about some form of clairvoyant astral discorporation.
While Steeger and other imprints are doing great work bringing the adventure stories of the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s back in print, it is exhilarating to see Cirsova pick up some of the more neglected gems in All-Story. I am currently working on a review of The Cosmic Courtship, so expect to see more about it soon.
(Much of this article excerpts material from the Cirsova press release for The Cosmic Courtship.)
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 17 April, 2021
Saturday , 17, April 2021 Uncategorized Leave a commentSteampunk mages, galactic mercenaries, and The Ferryman fill this week’s new releases.
Accepted (The Balance of Kerr #2) – Kevin Steverson and Tyler Ackerman
The balance shifts. But in what direction…
Kryder and Tog make their way north to warn of the impending invasion by the King of Gar-Noth and his growing forces. One step ahead of those who would make them pay for their attack on the Halls Of Magic, the Human shaman and his Half-Orc cousin carry with them dangerous information. Worse, should they actually make it to Minth, the second leg of their journey is even more perilous—a trip into the Great Northern Desert to look for the lost Mage’s Library.
On the other side of Kerr, Lucas and Johan make their way north on their journey to warn the Lead Hunter of Tarlok and Baron Arnwald of the Baronies West. Like the cousins’ journey, it is a trip fraught with danger, especially since Lucas has decided to take the message to the Orc lands as well.
These people—and many more—are actively making decisions which will either right the Creator’s balance…or upset it even further. Will Kryder and Tog be able to spread the word and make a difference? Will their friends on the other side of Kerr convince those who need convincing?
The Ferryman (Hit World #3) – John E. Siers
In Hit World, you can hire LifeEnders, Inc. to kill just about anyone—except yourself.
LEI will not let you take out a “First Party Contract,” no matter how badly you want to end it all. That’s unfortunate, because the government made suicide illegal, and the penalty for killing yourself is the forfeiture of your entire estate.
Enter Charon’s Ferry, a company run by Mark Marshall and Lisa Woods, that offers what LEI will not: assisted suicide. And it’s legal because you’re not really committing suicide. You’re hiring The Ferry to murder you—in whatever creative manner you like—provided, of course, you’re willing to pay the Ferryman. A ride on the Ferry isn’t cheap, though…and you have to pay the Ferryman on this side of the river.
But Mark and Lisa are not what they appear. For the moment, they are blissfully unaware of their own true nature, but sooner or later something will happen…and the dragons will be loose in Hit World.
Mercenary Galaxy – Miles Rozak and Ethan Bristol
Chandler Vail is a cybernetically enhanced operator.
He hunts down high-value targets in the dangerous parts of the galaxy.
Vail promised his wife a quiet vacation at the end of this tour. But when a covert op takes him to a mega-yacht for wealthy Terrans and aliens—what he finds on that vast starship is nothing short of terrifying.
Passengers and crew alike show up dead in gruesome, unexplained ways. Contact with the flight deck’s been lost. His team’s getting picked off one-by-one, when he discovers an enemy onboard with shocking control of the system.
Now, Vail will stop at nothing to prevent a second galactic invasion. Even if that pits him against a dark Imperial fleet.
Even if it makes him the flash point of a galactic war. Read More