Sensor Sweep: Sky Masters, Hugh Cave, H. Rider Haggard
Monday , 22, March 2021 Sensor Sweep 2 CommentsWeapons & Science Fiction (Dirk Bruere): We have all seen it — soldiers in the scifi future carrying their phasers, lasers, disruptors, blasters and so on, yet failing to hit their targets as the hero does cartwheels and back-flips to dodge the fire. The stormtroopers in Star Wars are notoriously bad shots, for example. In many ways scifi hand weapons are already outdated by the latest in contemporary guns, and the reasons why are quite simple.
Fiction (Beyond the Star Reefs): The abiding pity is that two such sterling
and scintillating characters could not be found a place in one of Rider Haggard’s better books. First published in 1910 by the firm of Eveleigh Nash [significantly not one of Haggard’s usual publishers] QUEEN SHEBA’S RING dates to the middle years of Rider Haggard’s career which few would advocate as being his best. The masterpieces he had regularly produced during the 1880s and 90s were long behind him, whilst the remorseless exploitation of Allan Quatermain, which would commence with the publication of MARIE in 1912, was still to come.
Genre (Dark Worlds Quarterly): The history of Belmont and Tower Books
(and later Belmont Tower Books) is convoluted. Belmont Books was created by the same company that owned Archie Comics. The firm had published Pulps like Science Fiction, Future Fiction, Science Fiction Quarterly, and Dynamic Science Fiction back in the 1950s. With the Pulps dead, the company planned to publish Westerns, SF, Horror and Romance in paperback form in 1962. (Rumor has it the Belmont name came from the horse racing track.) Their SF anthologies would reprint materials from their dead Pulp titles.
We now come to the last four stories in The Philip K. Dick Reader. These are also stories all made into movies.
“We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (F&SF April 1966): The story that became the movie Total Recall. Douglas Quail is an office worker with an obsession of going to Mars. The wife is not enthused. He decides to have the memories of fake vacation implanted by a company called Rekal. Things go wrong during the procedure where Quail recovers his memory that he is a secret agent who has returned from Mars. Sent home, he is not sure what is going on. The wife leaves him and then two uniformed men enter with guns drawn. His memories return that he assassinated a political agitator on Mars. There is a thought transmitter inside Quail’s brain that allows his former commander to contact him. Quail gives up and accedes to psychiatric evaluation. There is another ripple as a childhood fantasy that he prevented an alien invasion is true. Wheels within wheels. Total Recall deviates using the first part of the story as a futuristic action spectacle for Arnold Schwarzenegger.
After a hundred years as a mercenary and bounty hunter, dwarf Jari Rockjaw has his eye on a quiet life of retirement on a homestead far away. But before he can buy the farm, he needs one last bounty: the head of the most infamous dwarven reiver in Labrys. But to cut through his target’s armies, Jari needs a company of fighters, not just the help of a few battle-weary friends. As the number of vengeance seekers, rogues, and castaways grow around him, Jari’s vision of retirement soon gives way to the demands of leadership. Can this reluctant mercenary captain lead his troop of Loners to riches, revenge, and retirement?
Loners, by D. B. Bray and Wahida Clark, may be touted as “a humorous action adventure”, but, make no mistake, the humor comes straight from the gallows. Jari’s tale swings far away from the humor of a Discworld, choosing instead the grim of a grim dark fantasy. But Loners is grim-dark with heart, focusing on the nobility of comradeship as the bonds between Jari and his mercenaries are tested and grow stronger. Hard fighting and harder perils are punctuated by soldiery banter, and the revolving door of hirings and deaths never reduces the characters to faceless names. Bray and Clark might be too fond of the rogue and hidden prince trope, but the main weakness is that Jari and the Loners are swept along by the tide of subquests from set piece to set piece, instead of active participants in their story. But the grim adventures with gold under the grime do not fall into excess, and provide a satisfying tour of an embattled yet hopeful perseverance.
E-rank hunter Jinwoo Sung may be the unluckiest hunter in all of Korea. Certainly, he is the weakest and most pitied. But when a group hunt through a rare and lethal dungeon leaves Jinwoo bleeding out, a strange voice gives him a choice and a second chance. Jinwoo now finds himself revived, with a host of new and daily quests, a stat sheet, and a sudden boost of power as he gains levels. But what will this once weak hunter do with his new-found strength? Find riches? Settle scores? Get the girl? And what new rivals might emerge from the shadows?
When released in English, Chugong’s Solo Leveling arrived with fanfare in light novel circles. Honestly, it’s hard to see why. Solo Leveling is an average litRPG in an oversaturated light novel and litRPG market. And average just is not good enough. Solo Leveling does balance the interruptions caused by stat sheets quite well, as, unlike most litRPG heroes, Jinwoo is more concerned with what power can get him instead of exploring the intricacies of the ruleset thrust upon him. As such, Solo Leveling serves as an illustration of the difference between power fantasies and progression fantasies. In some ways, the use of power for an end instead of as a means humanizes Jinwoo more than his Western counterparts, who are caught up in munchkinning their way through their stories. But the naked thirst for power and what it can seize can be cause for a shower, even if Jinwoo does not take his pursuit into the hedonistic excess so common in power fantasy.
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 20 March, 2021
Saturday , 20, March 2021 Uncategorized Leave a commentDragon songs, alien artifacts, and intergalactic secret societies are hidden in this week’s new releases.
Alien Artifacts (Cade Korbin Chronicles #2) – Jasper T. Scott
On his last job, Cade Korbin lost his ship, lost his credits, and barely escaped with his life, but it’s not over. His enemy is still out there, nursing a decades-old vendetta, and now his guild is coming after him for breaking their rules.
Cade desperately needs credits and somewhere to lie low for a while. To that end, he takes a job on an uncharted world, code-named Nexus, to rescue a team of missing researchers and to recover the alien artifacts that they went searching for.
Yet unknown to Cade, there is a danger on Nexus that goes far beyond the alien monsters which prowl its surface: a terrifying menace has been waiting for untold eons to emerge.
And Cade Korbin is just about to wake it up.
Blood Song (Godchosen #4) – T. S. Snow
LIFE IS GOOD FOR A MIDDLE-AGED COUNTRY NOBLE…
At least Riven kan Ingan thinks so. A few things could be better, of course, such as his volatile relationship with eldest son, Val, but his estate is prospering, his other children are still obedient, and his beloved Barbara is as feisty as ever.
Even the barbaric Ghermians have settled peacefully within Francovia’s borders.
Too soon, the bubble of contentment bursts.
When a new margrave comes to power, civil war looms, turning native Francovians against its foreign-born citizens. Morling Ledeval demands an oath of loyalty from his subjects, and Riven is forced to make a choice.
Will he risk home and family to follow a madman or become a traitor to the country he loves?
Hard Luck Hank: Garm – Steven Campbell
Garm trained her whole life as a member of the secretive Quadrad organization. Her planet is famous for its assassins and governmental manipulators. It’s whispered that behind every mysterious death lurks a Quadrad.
But when Garm enters the wide galaxy, she finds her prestigious training entirely insufficient. Most Quadrad are abysmal failures, unable to cope in an advanced technological empire. The Quadrad are nothing but a very clever marketing campaign that has been going on for 20,000 years.
But Garm is different. She is determined to be the most successful, most lethal, and richest “agent of change” in history.
To that end she assembles the best spaceship crew she can afford. Unfortunately, she is extremely poor. Her ship is a former pleasure cruise vessel, the Summer Dream Adventure. And her crew is made up of ancient relics, war criminals, incomprehensible aliens, nymphomaniacs, and creatures so dangerous just being near them can prove fatal.
To make matters worse, Garm is personally being hunted by the government, which seeks to forcibly put an end to the Quadrad myth forever.
Hostile Spike (Battlegroup Z #2) – Daniel Gibbs
Protracted war is inevitable.
Six weeks ago, Lieutenant Justin Spencer was just another reservist in the Coalition Defense Force. Becoming a lifer wasn’t in the cards—until the League of Sol brutally attacked the Terran Coalition. With several pivotal battles now under his belt, friends and strangers alike call Justin a hero. But he finds the accolades difficult to swallow when the night only intensifies images from his first taste of combat.
Then he’s faced with an active duty extension.
The League is hitting supply convoys on their long journeys between the mining colonies. Without the rare minerals, Coalition shipyards can’t produce the needed firepower to fight off losses sustained from the enemy’s overwhelming forces.
An enemy that appears to anticipate the CDF’s every play.
When the CSV Zvika Greengold is tapped for a black ops action, Justin volunteers to pilot a captured enemy aircraft on what he discovers too late is a suicide mission. For any chance of survival, he’ll need to rely on more than sheer skill and dumb luck.
He’ll need a miracle. Read More
Sensor Sweep: Lord Dunsany, Irish Horror, Steve Fabian
Monday , 15, March 2021 Sensor Sweep 3 CommentsFiction (Classic Horror): For centuries Ireland has fostered a culture swarming in mystery, magic, and the macabre: it gave us Samhain and jack-o-lanterns, Dracula and Carmilla, headless horsemen and banshees, and a rambling host of masterful literary minds whose supernatural fiction is still celebrated for being wildly imaginative and unsettling. Ireland has arguably contributed more to the Gothic sensibility than almost any other culture.
Weapons (Pekiti): Here is an article I wrote for the July 1999 issue of Inside Kung Fu magazine on the subject of knives for self defense use. I was specifically writing about a pet peeve of mine in the 1990s. Some instructors back then were teaching techniques developed in the Philippines and designed for use with a large blade, but were teaching the same techniques to their students in the West, who are carrying much smaller knives. My problem with this was expecting the small knife to be able to do the work of a much larger blade. Like much else in life: SIZE DOES MATTER (and I explain why in this article).
This is the fourth installment in a series wherein I examine a batch of stories from The Philip K. Dick Reader. So far, the stories show the Cold War with the potential for WWIII weighed heavily on Philip K. Dick’s mind. Robots were also a favorite topic.
“Upon the Dull Earth” (Beyond Fantasy Fiction #9, 1954): There is what I call the Curse of Unknown. Periodically you have some critic turned editor who decides to publish a magazine in imitation of the magazine Unknown. The problem is a few critics may have liked Unknown, not enough readers did. Unknown fiction was generally a smart-ass modernist fantasy. Think of the T.V. show Bewitched. Beyond was a short-lived fantasy companion to Galaxy in the early 1950s with predictable results. The magazine did not last long, just like all the other attempts to do an Unknown type magazine. Dick’s “Upon the Dull Earth” is not smart-ass fantasy but something good. Silvia attracts a flock of winged supernatural entities with offerings of livestock blood. Silvia thinks one transitions at death and she can’t wait. Things go wrong when she summons them one too many times and gets burned to a crisp. Her fiancée, Rick attempts to first communicate with her and then bring her back. That is easier said than done. I am surprised that story has not been anthologized more. This is very out of character from what little 1950s fantasy fiction was published. This story has a darkness to it without any fake gothic trappings. It has shown up a fair amount of times in PKD collections. Read More
March’s quick reviews cast a critical eye on Dungeon Duel, by eden Hudson and James Hunter, and Conquest: Icelandia, by Jean-Luc Isitin and Zivorad Radivojevic.
Roark van Graf’s struggles have taken him from a deposed noble fighting against a tyrant to the basest cannon-fodder in an MMO to lord of a mighty alliance of dungeons. But the tyrant’s forces have followed him through the portal into the game world. As players and NPCs line up on either side of Graf’s rebellion, the struggle spills out into our world. The tyrant has found a way to coerce the developers into nerfing Roark and his allies. Now Roark must move to save his followers across three worlds, before the tyrant–and the developers–end them all.
eden Hudson and James Hunter continue their genre-blending Rogue Dungeon series in Dungeon Duel. Here, they combine isekai portal fantasy, litRPG progression fantasy, dungeon maker fantasy, and a heavy dollop of epic fantasy into a whirlwind of trolls and angels fighting across fantastical, virtual, and present-day worlds. In that, Hudson and Hunter have solved the problem facing most dungeon makers: what to do when the hero conquers everything around him. The clever melding of the three worlds gives MMO gamers the ultimate fantasy: the ability to access their characters’ skills in real life. But even that fantasy has a price. With the stakes ramping up, the series’ goofy humor takes a back seat, and what first appeared to be the final volume spills out into more lands, pages, and books to come. As the final clash between Roark and the tyrant approaches, there are hopes that the Rogue Dungeon series can do what few have done–deliver a satisfying ending.
After a cataclysm has reduced humanity to five resettlement fleets, the first fleet comes across the habitable planet of Icelandia. After thawing to a disturbing number of new medical treatments, Oberleutnant Kirsten Konig leads the first contact expedition to the native tribes. But strange visions plague her, visions Konig believes are tied to the planet. As the resettlement plans fall victim to strange sabotages and alien raids, Konig finds herself in the middle of the winds of conspiracy, winds that tie the fate of the first fleet to fate of Konig’s daughter.
Written by Jean-Luc Isitin and drawn by Zivorad Radivojevic, Conquest: Icelandia is the first tale of the doomed resettlement fleets. It opens with an intriguing take on suspended animation and the recovery from it before diving into conspiracies and secret histories that show that humanity has yet to leave its destructive tendencies behind. Konig might be a glamorous fanservice fatale of a strong female character, but she avoids the waifish schoolgirl clichés. Her motivation is grounded in the most understandable and dangerous of desires, one noticeably absent from most practitioners of pixie-fu: the protection of her child. Radivojevic’s depiction of the resettlement fleet might be grounded in the same influence as Avatar, filled with powerful and boxy machine suits instead of sleek mecha. And Konig’s troop are drawn in a muscular, larger-than-life fashion. But the overall tone is melancholy, and the sequels defeatist and punishing. At least Icelandia has the brief glimpse of hope amidst its setbacks, which elevates its moody warnings beyond crushing defeat.
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases; 13 March, 2021
Saturday , 13, March 2021 Uncategorized Leave a commentChain breakers, peacemakers, and emberfolk warriors stalk across this week’s new releases.
The Age of Men (The Nightfall Wars #6) – Jacob Peppers
Darkness reaches forth its taloned hands, and the shadows dance and caper in anticipation of the long night to come. A night that, should it have its way, will destroy the light and those who serve it, will leave nothing but the cold, empty darkness in which the nightlings roam and feast.
It is close now, that night, that darkness. It creeps over the horizon toward the city of Valeria. Toward the world. It is carried in the claws of the nightlings who serve it, in the blades and the hearts of those men and women who, twisted by grief or pain, have come to call it master. They bear that darkness, these mortals, these creatures of the night, toward the city of Valeria and its people, a cruel message borne by cruel couriers and one that can mean only one thing: death.
But Alesh and his companions, all those brave defenders of Valeria, will not stand by and allow the world to slip into the shadows without a fight. They will stand against the nightlings, against the Darkness, against even the gods themselves.
For what comes, should Alesh and the others be victorious, is not an age of darkness or shadows or even gods.
What comes, then, is the Age of Men.
The Black Fleet (The Crimson Deathbringer #3) – Sean Robins
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any deadlier, a massive fleet arrives from the future!
Thanks to Jim and his allies’ efforts, there’s finally peace in the galaxy … but all good things must come to an end.
The Black Fleet, hellbent on revenge, will indiscriminately ravage every planet on its way to Earth. This is the very definition of an extinction-level event, and nobody seems to able to stop the enemy ships in their tracks. To make matters worse, the Akakies are willing to sacrifice Earth to save their own species.
Having defied the odds a few times already, it again falls onto Jim and his friends to save the day, but can he counter such a universe-ending threat? And if he does, at what cost?
Cry Victory (Starcaster #6) – J. N. Chaney and Terry Maggert
Thorn Stellers and his daughter are a problem, and not just for the Nyctus. With their power taking shape in directions like no one has ever seen, the Orbital Navy is faced with an unwelcome reality—
The Starcasters are beyond control.
Kira and Damien are assigned diplomatic roles in the growing sphere of galactic relations, leading them to a stunning discovery—humans are not alone in their fight against the Nyctus. Worlds are being destroyed by an unseen foe, with no defense against their attacks. Reaching out to new allies, the Orbital Navy finds a vast network of trading partners who lend technology that makes the navy into a fierce new weapon, but with this change comes a critical question.
Can the Nyctus be allowed to live?
Curse Breaker: Hidden – Melissa Kucsera
To defeat the ancient monster destroying his home, Sarn must regain the rest of his magic. But unlocking that power won’t be easy with a concussion and an evil entity on the prowl. The Devil wants his soul, and he’ll cheat to get it.
Even if Sarn beats the devil and gets his earth magic back, the rocks in the monster’s lair could kill him and his son unless he stops them from stealing their life force. He’s never needed allies this badly or a healer.
But his friends are fighting their own battles. Help might not arrive in time to make a difference. All their efforts won’t matter if a priestess destroys their queen and the enchanted forest that protects their home.
A country can’t stand without its queen. Can it survive if its last mage falls? Read More
Fiction (Rough Edges): Years ago, I read several novels in the long-running BattleTech science fiction series, tales about a galaxy-spanning conflict between rival clans, fought mostly by giant robots piloted by humans who controlled them from a cockpit within the robot’s body. Kind of like giant tanks that could run around and punch each other in addition to firing all sorts of futuristic weaponry.
Culture Wars (Kairos): Conservatives catch a lot of flak for their failure to conserve pretty much anything. Now we can add Dr. Seuss books to the rapidly lengthening list. Predictably, the mainstream media are rushing to the book burning with jugs of kerosene and bags of marshmallows. Just as typically, their Conservative media camp followers are ineffectually wringing their hands.
Fiction (Jeffro’s Space Gaming Blog): The Appendix N list is the compelling
time capsule that it is precisely because of its idiosyncrasies. There are no valid grounds for embellishing it– unless the book isn’t really about Appendix N as it is, but rather Appendix N as someone would like it to be. Appropriating the title and subtitle of my PHENOMENALLY SUCCESSFUL book would seem to argue for the former, but the sleight of hand here of casually introducing new literary landmarks as if they had always been present is another thing entirely. Bebergal wants it both ways. I doubt he bothered to read my book before co-opting its title to his purpose.
This is the third batch of stories examined from The Philip K. Dick Reader.
“To Serve the Master” (Imagination, February 1956): Applequist is outside and finds a half-buried robot in a ravine. The robot is dead but not damaged. They were all thought destroyed years ago. Applequist lives in one of the underground cities run by North American Companies. It is a corporate dystopia authoritarian in nature. He rebuilds the robot who gives a story that men did no work a hundred years before. At the end, Applequist finds the truth that the robots revolted and the one he helped has gotten away. One of the better stories in this collection.
“Exhibit Piece” (If, August 1954): George Miller works in the History Agency in a 20th Century exhibit. He dresses and acts the part of a 20th Century man. Dick is known for stories on “What is reality?” This one of them as Miller is living in a 20th Century simulation and he is not able to tell reality psychosis. Read More
“Behold…the engines of death ride the sky. Every day they grow more numerous. Unless our nation bands together and ceases this endless wandering…we will disappear forever from the planet Elekton.” – Trigo the Mighty
In the 1930s, an alien spacecraft crashed into the Florida swamps, the crew frozen at their posts. After many years of physical examination, little was known of these men or the empire they represented. But one lone eccentric devoted his life to deciphering the texts recovered aboard the craft, until, almost in retirement, he discovers the insight needed for translation. Thus the recorded history of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire was finally revealed to all.
From 1965 to 1982, eighty-eight complete stories of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire graced the pages of British magazines Ranger and Look and Learn. While many writers and artists worked on the comic strip, writer Mike Butterworth and artist Don Lawrence combined their efforts on fifty. These fifty stories, doled out one full-color comic strip a week, inspired many in the British comics scene, including Neil Gaiman and Dave Gibbons. Once locked behind expensive premium collections, these tales of raygun Romans have now been rereleased in to the mass-market in three paperback and ebook volumes.
Before there can be a rise of an empire, there first must be a founding. And the nomadic Vorg were the last race anyone on the planet Elekton would foresee to rise as an interstellar empire. Mindful of the constant attacks by airfleets from the empire of Loka, Trigo has a dream of a city of culture and power from which his people can resist Loka and flourish in peace. His first attempts to build it crumble along with the city walls. But when Loka attacks the city of the Tharvs, the refugees streaming into the Vorg lands bring the knowledge needed to build Trigo’s city. From the marriage of Vorg vigor and Tharv knowledge, a new people were formed–the Trigan Empire. But Loka would not allow Trigo and his new people to live in peace, so Trigo and his brother Brag attempt to steal Loka’s airfleet and turn those terror weapons against their makers–even if it means crossing their resentful brother Klud in the process.
Such a bloodless summary for a high adventure tale filled with daring acts of heroism, stunning reversals of fortune, and crushing betrayals. But it would be the first of many in the rise of the Trigan Empire from a single city to a world government, all under the watchful eye and quick fists of Trigo the Mighty, his brother, Brag, and their advisor, Peric.
Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 6 March, 2021
Saturday , 6, March 2021 Uncategorized Leave a commentArmy Rangers ambush orcs, judges enlist prisoners, and renegade swords clash in this week’s new releases.
Beggar’s Rebellion (Empire of Resonance #1) – L. W. Jacobs
The Councilate controls everything except the truth. With it, he shall destroy an empire.
Tai Kulga lost the rebellion and his best friend on the same day, stripping him of everything even as a strange power flooded his bones. When the friend returns as a spirit guide, it feels like a second chance—but his friend is not who he was, and the Councilate is not done oppressing his people. Trouble with lawkeepers lands Tai’s surviving friends in a prison camp, and he goes underground seeking the last of the rebels, to convince them to break his friends free.
Along the way he meets Ellumia Aygla, runaway Councilate daughter posing as an accountant to escape her family and the avarice of the capital. Curious about the link between spirit guides and magic, her insights earn her a place among the rebels, and along with Tai’s new power help turn the tide against the colonialists.
But as the rebels begin to repeat the Councilate’s mistakes, Tai and Ellumia must confront their own pasts and prejudices, before the brewing war turns them into the monsters they fight.
Beginner Quest (Towers & Rifts #1) – Nephilim Night
Given a second chance at life, now he must play for his life.
Betrayed by those closest to him, Viktor’s soul couldn’t move on for decades. Pitied by one of the Gods, he was given the chance to participate in the next round of bets between the gods. It was an eternally violent game known as Towers and Rifts.
The world he found himself in was nothing like the one he’d spent centuries cultivating and becoming stronger. He was right back at the bottom along with everyone else but for the knowledge he retained.
The day the tower spawned, everyone was given access to a strange and game-like system he only knew about from memories of the body he inherited. The first order of the day: to heal from the horrible wounds that came along with the new body and to tackle the ‘Beginner’s Quest’ everyone was given.
Viktor was at the top before he died the first time so he knew what it was like to be powerful, in control, and a warrior without an equal. Nothing would stop him from getting to the top using this second chance he’d been given.
Forgotten Ruin – Jason Anspach and Nick Cole
Orcs. Trolls. Wraith riders. Dark wizards. Together, they form an unstoppable force. Or so they thought.
Dark Army… meet the U.S. Army Rangers.
When a Joint Task Force of elite Rangers are transported to a strange and fantastic future where science and evolution have incarnated the evils of myth and legend, they find themselves surrounded, pinned down, and in a desperate fight for their very survival—against nightmares of flesh and blood made real. Which means only one thing.
It’s time to Ranger Up and stack bodies.
The forces of evil have no idea how dangerous a Ranger has been trained to be, and once the action starts, it won’t let up in this no-holds-barred, full-auto, epic battle for survival in the Forgotten Ruin.
Malware (Bastion Academy #2) – J. D. Astra
There are no shortcuts on the path to enlightenment, but some will try.
The summer was prosperous for Jiyong, giving him the funds he needed to attend another year at Bastion Academy. The new first-year students are just as bright-eyed and rowdy as he remembers being, but there’s something more sinister to blame for their aggressive behavior: designer drugs.
The ability for any student to temporarily unlock the full potential of their magic with a single potion threatens to upend the school’s ranking system. Worse, something dark lurks in the shadows of these performance enhancers: a signal sending personal data to a location within the kingdom, and Jiyong’s mother’s illness is responding to the same signal.
When the drug problem at the school turns deadly, Jiyong will have to hunt down the source to discover the cure before his friends and half the school’s cores are eaten from the inside out. Can he save not only the school, but his mother, too? Read More