Enter the Octopus

I forgot to mention it yesterday, but head on over to Amazon.com’s Omnivoracious blog to read Jeff VanderMeer’s interview with Charlaine Harris, best known as author of the “Southern Vampire” book series, upon which HBO’s new series “True Blood” is based.

Fans of pulp fantasy from the like of Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock and Otis Adelbert Kline should turn their attention to the great “Planet Stories” series from Paizo Publications, publishers of the “Pathfinder” roleplaying game and lots more.

An ongoing line reprinting planetary romance and swords & sorcery from classic authors alongside similarly adventurous works from contemporary authors, the Planet Stories series is a dream come true for those of us who are used to hunting far and wide for dusty old paperbacks in second-hand bookstores to find our pulp fix.

Check out a few of the most recent editions to the “Planet Stories” line:

“Almuric” by Robert E. Howard. The creator of Conan looks to the stars in one of fantasy’s most enduring science fantasy classics! Robert E. Howard’s Almuric is a savage planet of crumbling stone ruins and debased, near-human inhabitants. Into this world comes Esau Cairn, Earthman, swordsman, murderer. Only he can overthrow the terrible devils that enslave Almuric, but to do so he must first defeat the inner demons that forced him to abandon Earth. Filled with vile beasts and thrilling adventure in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Almuric is one of Howard’s few novels, and an excellent yarn from one of America’s most distinct literary voices.

“Northwest of Earth” by C. L. Moore. From the crumbling temples of forgotten gods on Venus to the seedy pleasure halls of old Mars, Northwest Smith blazes a trail through the underbelly of the solar system in 13 action-packed stories you won’t soon forget. Among the best-written and most emotionally complex stories of the Pulp Era, the tales of intergalactic smuggler Northwest Smith still resonate strongly 75 years after their first publication. A staple of Weird Tales in its Golden Age, C.L. Moore’s stories appeared alongside work by H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith, forming the backbone of the “unique magazine’s” approach to science fiction and planetary adventure.For the first time ever, all of Northwest Smith’s adventures have been collected in a single volume, including “Quest of the Starstone,” which pairs Smith with Moore’s other famous creation, the fierce swordswoman Jirel of Joiry!

“Worlds of Their Own” edited by James Lowder. Many of today’s best (and best-selling) fantasists got their start writing shared-world fiction supporting roleplaying games. This massive anthology collects more than a dozen thrilling tales from R.A. Salvatore, Michael A. Stackpole, Monte Cook, Ed Greenwood, Elaine Cunningham, and more, providing an exciting overview of the original worlds and characters of authors who achieved their greatest fame writing stories they do not own. Edited by James Lowder (The Book of All Flesh, Prince of Lies), Worlds of Their Own presents an unprecedented sampler of fantasy and science-fiction adventure tales from some of the best-loved and best-known authors in the genre.

“The Ginger Star” by Leigh Brackett. Eric John Stark, Outlaw of Mars, travels beyond the solar system for exciting science fantasy adventures on the planet of Skaith, a lawless sphere at the edge of the known universe. Raised as a savage on the hostile planet of Mercury and honed into a fearless warrior in the low canals of the Red Planet, Stark is one of science fiction’s greatest adventurers and is Leigh Brackett’s most famous character. The first in a trilogy of stories set on Skaith, The Ginger Star is a pivotal work of science fantasy from the famous screenwriter of The Empire Strikes Back and The Big Sleep.

“Infernal Sorceress” by Gary Gygax. The legendary “lost” novel from the late Gary Gygax blazes into print for the first time ever, offering a new glimpse at a master fantasist at the peak of his game. Gary Gygax, co-creator of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game and patron saint to a generation of fantasy game enthusiasts, is best known in fiction for the wily protagonist Gord the Rogue and the cunning detective-sorcerer Setne Inhetep. The long-awaited Infernal Sorceress debuts two new Gygax characters: the handsome swordsman Raker and his cunning daggerman Ferret, a duo of rough-and-tumble rogues ready for the intrigues and adventures of a hostile world. Swashbuckling swordplay, hideous monsters, and puzzling mysteries abound in this never-before-published tale from a master of sword and sorcery.Infernal Sorceress takes place on Aerth, a fantastic planet informed by Earth in the Dark Ages and medieval period. It’s also the setting for Gygax’s novels The Anubis Murders and The Samarkand Solution, also available from Planet Stories.

Dennis Covington’s father dies, leaving him two-and-a-half acres of land in rural Polk County, Florida. Bought as part of a huge land scam that left its victims with worthless plots of land in a suburb that solely existed on paper called “River Ranch”, this meager acreage is a father’s last gift to his son – a birthright that Covington is determined to claim.

Driving to Florida to visit his land, Covington finds that it, along with the rest of River Ranch, has been taken over by a group of lawless redneck squatters that call themselves “the Hunt Club.” They’ve set up a gate and charge visitors to their own land, refusing outright any claims to ownership that can’t be backed up with a deed and a signed proof of payment for land tax. Inside the gates, chaos reigns: shooting, drinking and whoring, the whole arrangement supported by local politicians and law enforcement – themselves members of the Hunt Club. Now willing to abandon his father’s last stake on the good life, Covington buys a membership in the Hunt Club and sets up camp, only to be threatened, cursed and shot at, his property vandalized and his vehicle destroyed.

Covington’s clash with the Hunt Club is only a small part of the book, with the rest devoted to largely enjoyable digressions into Covington’s relationship with his father and both men’s efforts to define and achieve “the good life.”

Although it’s a pretty good book, “Redneck Riviera” frustrated me at times. I initially found myself extremely sympathetic toward Covington’s situation. As a guy who has lived in the Deep South all of his life, I know exactly what it’s like to learn that there’s a difference between the law as it’s written and the law as it will be enforced by a bunch of good ol’ boys. Just reading about this bunch of guys trying to run Covington off his land left me angry. But watching the author eventually go from a victim to a wannabe real estate maven searching for other imaginary suburbs for potential investment did a lot to erode that sympathy. At least Covington is fairly straight-forward about his faults and where they eventually took him, which helped to keep me interested in his story.

It’s 1991, and the Los Angeles Police Department is recovering from its tarnished public image in the aftermath of Rodney King and O.J. Simpson. Gang violence and racial strife are tearing up the streets and when several money men for the Mexican Mafia turn up murdered it’s up to Ben Halloran, a rookie cop who isn’t entirely what he seems,and his training officer, Miguel Marquez, a hard-ass veteran patrolman, to solve the case. Complicating things are an East Coast/West Coast rap rivalry turned shooting war, a race-baiting preacher with an eye for free publicity and a mixed bag of bloodthirsty plaintiff’s attorneys, crooked politicians, dirty cops and rival gangmembers, all of which have something to gain from the way things go down.

Biell – a real-life LAPD detective himself – invests much of the novel in establishing his character’s backstories and interconnectiveness. By the time I was done with the novel I was really attached to some of them: even the most brutal characters were sympathetic in their own way. I got the impression that almost all of them were running from their past, and this was what was driving them toward ultimate ruin or redemption as the story unfolded.

My only problem with the book is that sometimes the action just seemed over the top, and this derailed what is otherwise a really meaty, well-written crime novel. Story elements like a couple of rogue cops shooting up the city with black market rockets seemed to work against the complex drama at the heart of “L.A. Rex” and push it toward something resembling Sylvester Stallone’s “C.O.B.R.A.”instead. As long as you’re willing to just overlook this and just go with the momentum of the story “L.A. Rex” is a book well worth reading.

HAS U HERD TEH GUD NEWS? JEBUS DID 4 UR SINS! READ TEH TRUTH IN DA LOLCAT BIBLE!

LINK GOES HERE!

Oh hai! U is truthly too? Yay! Ceiling Cat is can be happies now.Prettees kitteh, where is teh luvs? Ceiling Cat is has can tellings we’s to lovez!Teh meanies nots liking Jebus is everywheres! Dey is being not goodz. Beware dems so you is can keeps yur cheezeburgers and gets mores! Lotz of kittehs being mizzing outs. Dey is comings and tryyings to steals yours cheezeburgers! No lets dems in! If yous is letting tehm ins, u’s is noes goods eitehr. Dere is too much to sayz and hoomans is not havings enuf paperz. Can us be is seeings each otehr soonz? kthx bai.

oh… sister’z kittehs sayz hai.

“All the Windwracked Stars” by Elizabeth Bear (TOR). It all began with Ragnarok, with the Children of the Light and the Tarnished ones battling to the death in the ice and the dark. At the end of the long battle, one Valkyrie survived, wounded, and one valraven – the steeds of the valkyrie. Because they lived, Valdyrgard was not wholly destroyed. Because the valraven was transformed in the last miracle offered to a Child of the Light, Valdyrgard was changed to a world where magic and technology worked hand in hand. 2500 years later, Muire is in the last city on the dying planet, where the Technomancer rules what’s left of humanity. She’s caught sight of someone she has not seen since the Last Battle:  Mingan the Wolf is hunting in her city.

“The Stormcaller” by Tom Lloyd (PYR). In a land ruled by prophecy and the whims of gods, a young man finds himself at the heart of a war he barely understands, wielding powers he may never be able to control. Isak is a white-eye, born bigger, more charismatic, and more powerful than normal men. But with that power comes an unpredictable temper and an inner rage he cannot always hide. Brought up as a wagon-brat, feared and despised by those around him, he dreams of a place in the army and a chance to live his own life. But when the call comes, it isn’t to be a soldier, for the gods have other plans for the intemperate teenager: Isak has been chosen as heir-elect to the brooding Lord Bahl, the white-eye Lord of the Farlan. The white-eyes were created by the gods to bring order out of chaos, for their magnetic charm and formidable strength makes them natural leaders of men. Lord Bahl is typical of the breed: he inspires and oppresses those around him in equal measure. He can be brusque and impatient, a difficult mentor for a boy every bit as volatile as he is. But now is the time for the forging of empires. With mounting envy and malice, the men who would themselves be kings watch Isak, chosen by gods as flawed as the humans who serve them, as he is shaped and molded to fulfill the prophecies that circle him like scavenger birds. Divine fury and mortal strife is about to spill over and paint the world with blood. The Stormcaller is the first book in a powerful new series that combines inspired world-building, epoch-shattering battles, and high emotion to dazzling effect.

“…And Their Memory Was a Bitter Tree: Queen of the Black Coast & Others” by Robert E. Howard (BlackBart). This beautifully designed collection contains nine essential Conan stories along with a full-length Conan novel by the “Father of Sword & Sorcery,” Robert E. Howard. Also included is The Hyborian Age, Howard’s fascinating history of the raw, blood-drenched fantasy world Conan inhabited. Featuring an Afterword by American horror writer and cult figure H.P. Lovecraft, written in Howard’s memory after his untimely death at age thirty, …And Their Memory Was a Bitter Tree includes a new color map of Howard’s fictional Hyborian realm and a cover and interior painting by Brom (Darkwerks), along with a series of Frank Frazetta’s seminal Conan paintings.

Thanks to our pals at Orbit Books, I’ve got one copy of “The Way of Shadows,” the first volume of Brent Weeks’ new “Night Angel Trilogy”, and I’d like to give it to you!

Just send me an email between now and Tuesday, November 4, with your name and address to mattormeg@gmail.com. Use the subject line “The Way of Shadows.” One lucky reader will win the book.

For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city’s most accomplished artist.

But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins’ world of dangerous politics and strange magics – and cultivate a flair for death.

If you don’t want to take your chances on winning a copy of the book, you can find this, plus the other two books in the series – “Shadow’s Edge” and “Beyond the Shadows” online or at your local bookstore right now.

If you’ve got even a passing interest in fairy tales and folklore, you’re going to want to venture into the children’s section of your nearest bookstore for “The Secret History of Giants” by Ari Berk.

“The Secret History of Giants” reveals giants at home, work and play, offering a charming mix of unusual “facts” (“giants prefer to eat al fresco…”), folklore and legends in a distinctly whimsical fashion that will amuse both children and adults. The book is beautifully illustrated and sure to appeal to fans of Brian Froud’s “Fairies” series.

Many of the pages fold out to reveal all manner of ephemera related to giants, like excerpts from their cookbooks and translation of their glyphs. It’s impossible to catch all of the little flaps and expanding pages on a single visit through the book. There’s a lot to look at here, and at only $16.99 it’s a great bargain.

Whether you call them tie-ins, spin-offs or franchise fiction, novels inspired by or based on pre-existing intellectual properties have come a long way. No longer a working writer’s dirty little secret, franchise novels have come into their own, attracting some very big names in the world of speculative fiction.

Recent years have seen writers like John Shirley, Joe R. Lansdale, Paul Di Filippo, Paul Witcover and Tom Piccirilli leave their marks on popular properties like Batman, the Universal Monsters and Hellboy, and more recently, both Brian Evenson and Jeff VanderMeer have joined them with novels set in the “Aliens” and “Predator” universe, respectively. These are just a few of the big name writers who are finding that working with franchise properties doesn’t carry the stigma it did only a few short decades ago, when authors  like Thomas M. Disch quietly published them under assumed names.

Publisher Dark Horse has been one of the most consistent sources of franchise fiction from writers that you might not normally expect, but others like HarperCollins and Black Flame have also made quality offerings.

While it’s ultimately anybody’s guess why more respected writers are forgoing the pen-names when working in franchise fiction, the end result is that new readers are getting exposed to some of the best names in speculative fiction, which can only be good for the field as a whole.

I don’t care who you support in the presidential election, this is funny as hell.