WELCOME BACK, IMARO

Imaro: The Naama War is the ‘book that was, then wasn’t, now is again’. The checkered history of the Imaro books is semi-legendary – first published by DAW in the 1980’s then by Nightshade Books a little more recently, Imaro faltered not once but twice, leaving both the character and fans of the series in limbo.

Until now.

Thanks to Sword and Soul Media, Imaro: The Naama War has finally been unleashed and it has has been well worth the wait.

For those who don’t know, Imaro is an Ilyassai warrior in Nyumbani (a brilliantly imagined and realized alternative Africa) who moves from outcast to bandit leader and, ultimately, to holding the fate of the entire continent in his hands. Comparisons with Howard and Conan are both inevitable and somewhat misleading since Imaro is much, much more than an African Conan - although fans of Howard will find much to enjoy here – and is very much his own man and, equally, so is Charles R. Saunders. A writer who is capable of both great subtlety and great action in his stories, Saunders’ muscular prose blends with very human (and in some cases inhuman) characters to create a world that is far beyond the usual cod Medieval Europe that predominates much of sword and sorcery.

Following on directly from The Trail of Bohu, The Naama War racks up the odds, pitting nation against nation, gods against gods, and, ultimately, Imaro against his nemesis/ doppelganger, Bohu. Battles, both epic and personal, are fought, a harrowing quest is undertaken, the fate of Nyumbani hangs in the balance and, in some cases, the characters find that the true cost of war is not always paid in blood.

One of Saunders’ great strengths is – like Howard and David Gemmell - his ability to create a world that is simultaneously familiar and totally different to our own. There are parallels with both Zulu and Maasai culture in the Ilyassai and Abamba nations and echoes of pre-apartheid South Africa in Naama (although Saunders’ is too subtle a writer to ever indulge in simple parallels or fictional recriminations) and the continent of Nyumbani is vividly realized and evoked.

While this isn’t the best place for new readers to start with Imaro, for fans of the series The Naama War is a delight from start to finish, answering questions that have hung in the air for nearly a quarter of a century (depending on when you first started reading Imaro, although I must confess that I am a recent convert) and delivering the sort of all-out action and utterly believable characters which have become a hallmark of both Imaro and his creator.

Where the earlier Imaro novels, in particular Imaro and Imaro 2: The Quest For Cush, were somewhat episodic in their structure (reflecting their origins in Saunders’ short fiction), The Naama War is very much a novel: epic in scope but more importantly, deeply human at its core. Saunders makes you care about his characters, both major and minor, and the plot springs from the characters never the other way round.

The Naama War is difficult to review without giving too much away – for fans of the series it is a welcome return to Nyumbani and provides an extremely satisfying end to the current saga of Imaro while laying the groundwork for a continuation of the series (and if there is any justice in the universe then we will see more Imaro stories and novels)

If you care about sword and sorcery (or just good fiction in general) the Imaro books are a must have – a unique and brilliant creation.

Welcome back, Imaro.

For more information on Imaro and his creator:

http://www.charlessaunderswriter.com/

THE PHANTOM QUEEN AWAKES

Just got word from the lovely people at Morrigan Books that their new anthology The Phantom Queen Awakes is available for pre-order. It features new fiction from Katharine Kerr, Elaine Cunningham, Anya Bast, C.E Murphy and, well, me!

Love, death and war…

The Morrigan goddess represented all three to the ancient Celts. Journey with our authors as they tell stories of love, war, hatred, revenge and mortality - each featuring the Morrigan in her many guises.

Re-visit the world of Deverry, and of Nevyn, with a previously unpublished tale by Katharine Kerr, watch the Norse gods meet their Celtic counterparts with Elaine Cunningham, meet a druid who dances for the dead with C.E. Murphy and follow the path of a Roman centurion with Anya Bast.

These are but a few offerings from the stories collection in The Phantom Queen Awakes. If you are searching for a rich blend of dark fantasy, then this is a collection perfect for you.

The Phantom Queen Awakes stories:
Rising Tide: Ruth Shelton

Kiss of the Morrigan: Anya Bast

I Guard Your Death: Lynne Lumsden

GreenGifts of the Morrigan: Donald Jacob Uitvlugt

Cairn Dancer: C. E. Murphy

Washerwoman: Jennifer Lawrence

The Raven’s Curse: Sharon Kae Reamer

Ravens: Mari Ness

The Lass from Far Away: Katharine Kerr

The Trinket: Peter Bell

The Dying Gaul: Michael Bailey

The Children of Badb Catha: James Lecky

The Plain of Pillars: L. J. Hayward

The Silver Branch: Linda Donahue

The Good and Faithful Servant: Martyn Taylor

The White Heifer of Fearchair: T. A. Moore

She Who is Becoming: Elaine Cunningham

http://www.morriganbooks.com/?p=188

PREDITORS AND EDITORS POLL

The 2010 Preditors and Editors Poll is open from now until 14 January.

It's a chance to vote for your favourite magazines and stories of 2009.

http://www.critters.org/predpoll/

Not wishing to try and sway anyone, but I'd recommend a few excellent magazines that you might like to consider: Heroic Quarterly Fantasy, Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Sorcerous Signals.

Happy voting.

http://www.critters.org/predpoll/tally.ht

SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN

Dir Gordon Hessler. Starring Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Alfred Marks.

There was a period in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s when British horror films took a serious and extended trip into the weird side of things. The gothic feel of Hammer was starting to become passé and the old monsters (particularly Frankenstein and Dracula) were showing a little wear around the cinematic edges (although, ironically, some of the finest Hammer films such as Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, The Devil Rides Out and Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter were made around this time) even the Amicus portmanteau movies had begun to look a little moribund (although again, films like Asylum and Beyond the Grave have a lasting appeal for certain aficionados.).

As a result, the British horror film diversified in an attempt to broaden its appeal and as a result threw up quite a few oddities.

One of the strangest of them all was 1969’s Scream and Scream Again – based upon the novel The Disorientated Man by Peter Saxon - a film for which the words ‘confusing’ and ‘compelling’ hardly do justice to the wild mix of science fiction, serial killer and police procedural contained within its hour and a half of strange doings, multiple plot strands and funky fashions.

Any kind of précis would be difficult to write in a few words, but here goes:

An athlete collapses in the street during the opening credits. He awakes to find himself in a hospital bed and to discover that his limbs are being removed one by one. A blood drinking serial killer is at large, targeting young women and dispatching them in various brutal ways. Simultaneously, strange experiments are being carried out in an unnamed European country (ostensibly East Germany but closer in appearance to a black-clad fascist state) while Dr Browning (Vincent Price) is also carrying out experiments of his own in his stately mansion cum laboratory. As the police begin to realise that their killer is more than human (difficult to stop, capable of tearing his own hand off in order to escape from handcuffs) the trail finally leads to Price and his convenient tub of acid into which the killer plunges himself rather than face capture.

The plot strands finally come together to reveal that Dr Price – aided and abetted by the homicidal Konrad (Marshall Jones) - has been creating a race of superhumans of which Lugosi’s Dr Vornoff from Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster would be justifiably proud.

The whole thing ends in a welter of acid as Price decides to destroy his creations rather than allow them to be used for evil and the viewer is left with the nagging feeling that he has just seen something so ludicrous that it is either the work of a genius or a madman.

Actually, Scream and Scream Again is a decent enough (if often confusing) potboiler and if one doesn’t think too hard about the various glaring plot holes that abound left, right and centre, it passes a decent enough ninety odd minutes. It has a mad charm all of its own and with the behind the scenes involvement of Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky is basically an Amicus movie masquerading under a different banner (much like Horror Hotel or the two Dr Who movies in which Cushing played the Doctor).

Although Price, Lee and Cushing are the ostensive stars of the movie, their various contributions amount to little more than extended cameos (Cushing in particular appears for just long enough to be dispatched by Konrad with a sort of Vulcan nerve pinch, while Lee’s appearance is not dissimilar to the part he would play in Death Line, as a sort of catch-all ‘Man from the Ministry’ character).

The real star of the movie is Alfred Marks, whose irascible Inspector Bellaver is one of that small but honourable group of irascible policemen who’s ranks include Donald Pleasance in Death Line and Robert Hardy in the similarly bonkers Psychomania (Marks’ brief soliloquy on the nature of a Police issue sandwich is particular fine: “Smells like cheese. Looks like ham. Oh, no problem, it’s chicken”) and there are enough familiar faces in the supporting cast to make it a fun evening of ‘what else was that guy in?’ for anyone who enjoys identifying British actors slumming it for the pay cheque.

Strange, confusing and wonderful in parts – Price in particular appears to relish his mad scientist role (although both Cushing and Lee, Lee in particular, appear to be slightly unsure as to what they are actually doing here) – Scream and Scream Again is something of a mixed bag. Not a classic by any means, but passable enough and any film that features Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in its line-up automatically becomes a must see for anyone who has an interest in British horror cinema.

And it all makes sense in the end. Sort of.

IMARO: THE NAAMA WAR

For aficionados of sword and sorcery, Charles R. Saunders is one of its great, unsung, heroes. His Imaro novels are wonderfully written, action packed fantasies set in a mythical Africa.

The long-awaited fourth Imaro novel Imaro: The Naama War is currently available from Saunders’ own Sword and Soul Media.

"Warfare on a cataclysmic scale is convulsing the continent of Nyumbani from north to south. Soldiers fall. Cities burn. Blood reddens the sea. Sorcery sears the land. Deities gather in opposite dimensions, poised to unleash unimaginable cosmic power on a land already battered by the conflict between the Cushites of the north and the Naamans of the south.In the midst of this massive struggle, Imaro, warrior of the Ilyassai, wages a personal war against his nemesis, the sorcerer Bohu of Naama. This individual vendetta mirrors the larger clash between the forces of good and evil – a confrontation that threatens to tear Nyumbani apart. The destiny for which Imaro has been honed like a living weapon now lies directly before him. Imaro vs. Bohu. Cush vs. Naama. War. Magic. Blood. Fire. The losers in this wide-ranging battle for the fate of a continent face oblivion. But the winners will not emerge unscathed."

If it’s anything like the other novels in the series, it should be brilliant.

You can order it here: http://www.lulu.com/product/101/imaro-the-naama-war/6196467

INFECTED AT GOLDEN VISIONS

Another bit of New Year Cheer. My short story Infected is currently up and available to read at Golden Visions (about half way down the page):

http://www.goldenvisionsmagazine.biz/January-2010-Flashes.html

THE TOWER OF DREAMS AT ABANDONED TOWERS

“If there is one thing I learn from a life of magic it is never trust a hobgoblin.”

Just got word from Abandoned Towers that my short story The Tower of Dreams has been accepted for publication later this year (a decent enough start to 2010, says I).

I’m rather pleased about this for a number of reasons. Firstly, because Abandoned Towers is an excellent market and, secondly, because the story marks something of a departure for me in fictional terms.

I’ve long been a fan of the brilliant Damon Runyon and his stories of the colourful denizens of Broadway and equally I’ve always been a fan of Robert Bloch, who produced some of the finest genre fiction of the twentieth century. Bloch and Runyon had something of a collision in Bloch’s Lefty Feep stories, written when Bloch was suffering from a minor creative drought. Doggedly told in the first person present tense, the Left Feep stories are a hoot from start to finish and pay an affectionate homage to Runyon and his work.

The Tower of Dreams is my own homage to both Damon Runyan and Robert Bloch, working on the principle that if doing something very, very different could help to lift the great Robert Bloch out of a creative dip, then it might just do the very same for me.

The vast majority of my fictional output is somewhat gloomy, to say the least (strangely, since I am an optimistic and fairly upbeat person generally speaking) so the chance to do something a little lighter and (hopefully) funny, was a welcome change of pace.

I enjoyed writing it and, with a little luck, people may enjoy reading it, too.

Here’s to a creative and prosperous New Year to one and all.

http://cyberwizardproductions.com/AbandonedTowers/

WHISPERTHIEF (REDUX)

My short story Whisperthief, currently available online at the excellent Sorcerous Signals (http://www.sorceroussignals.com/) can now also be found in print in the magazine Mystic Signals, which you can find here - https://www.createspace.com/3419320

Other news that fit to print: the anthology Arcane Whispers 2, which features my short story What Dread Words (which is set in the same world as Whisperthief and a bunch of my other short fiction - collectively known as the Shining Cities Sequence) is currently available and can be found here: http://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/Arcane2.html

FREE REALMS OF FANTASY PDF

The recently relaunched Realms of Fantasy is currently offering their new issue as a free PDF download.

The February 2010 issue features fiction from Harlan Ellison, Charles Vess, Euan Harvey, Anne Leckie, Leah Bobet & Aliette de Bodard.

Worth your while, I reckon.

http://www.rofmag.com/

STORY ACCEPTANCE AT JUPITER SF

Just got word from Ian Redman who edits the rather wonderful magazine Jupiter that he has accepted my short story The Earth Beneath My Feet for an upcoming issue.


I am rather pleased wi' meself as a result.



http://www.jupitersf.co.uk/

THREE WHEELS ON MY (BAND) WAGON

I don’t want to come across of any more of a curmudgeon than I already am and certainly don’t want to rain on the parades of other writers but…

Is it just me or does anyone else think that the current fad for mixing classic English literature with horror is starting to wear a bit thin? Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was a bit of fun with a killer opening line (“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains") and if the trend had begun and ended there it would have been fine.

But recently everyone seems to be hopping upon this particular bandwagon with authors from Wells to Austen and a whole gaggle of monsters including sea serpents, vampires, werewolves and the previously mentioned zombies being co-opted to rampage across their texts. Basically it seems that if you can get the text on Project Gutenberg all you have to do is download it and add the monster of your choice (this may be a somewhat simplified version of the truth since I have only read P&P&Z and, to be honest, have no real intention of going anywhere near the various clones that have emerged like pod-people from the classic Jack Finney novel).

There is, of course, a great tradition of cross fertilization in fiction (both speculative and non-speculative) – Sherlock Holmes has met Dracula, Jack the Ripper and Sir Harry Flashman V.C, sequels by other hands have been written to The Time Machine and The Island of Dr Moreau, The War Of the Worlds has proven a fertile ground for SF writers time and time again, Tarzan and Doc Savage have met (albeit under different names in Philip Jose Farmer's magnificently twisted novel A Feast Unknown) even Elric and Kane have crossed paths (as have Elric and Conan in comic book form) but this current classics-n’-horror trend seems somewhat faddish and lazy to me (there, I said it).

At a time when publishers in general are becoming more and more conservative, books such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies are a soft option (or rather the pod-people-books are, since it’s doubtful that anyone could have predicted the huge success of P&P&Z) but I think that they are harmful both to writers and their audiences since they stifle the imaginations of both.

If you really want Regency or Victorian or Edwardian horror, there are many, many fine writers who were working at the time and will deliver more genuine scares (and occasional chuckles) than a whole plethora of delve and pillage authors. (I notice, with great relief, that no one has yet been tempted to ‘improve’ The Turn of the Screw or The Castle of Otranto or, god forbid, Frankenstein).

Fortunately, trends such as classics-n’-horror tend to be short lived. Let’s hope someone knocks the wheels of this particular bandwagon very, very soon.

KINGS OF THE NIGHT

Following the news that Flashing Swords is no more, where can discerning readers go for quality Sword and Sorcery fiction?

Well, one answer might be GW Thomas' excellent ezine Kings of the Night, which is one of the few publications (either online or in print) dedicated to the S&S genre.

The current issue contains:

THWACK! The Last Arrow's Tale

by Peter J Welmerink

Brock Strangebeard and the Towers of Matterkill

by Robert E. Keller

The Crypt of the Cobra

by C.L Werner

The Fount

by G.W Thomas

The Huntsman's Pack

by David A. Hardy

The Mark of Gennesh

by Jack Mackenzie

The Obsidian City

by James Lecky

There's also some rather spiffy links to the online back issues of the late lamented Flashing Swords as well as excellent articles on the history of Sword and Sorcery and (and, for me, this is particular treasure trove) links to the wonderful Tumithak stories of Charles R. Tanner - if you've never read them, now is the time).

If you care at all about the future of sword and sorcery, this is the place to be.

http://www.gwthomas.org/kingsofthenight.htm

GOODBYE TO FLASHING SWORDS

It's always sad when a fiction market bites the dust, particularly when the said market is one of the very few left publishing Sword and Sorcery.

It was announced today that Flashing Swords is going on indefinite suspension or, in other words, is closing down, probably forever.

In many ways, it was the magazine that lead the revival of sword and sorcery and a lot of fine writers including TW Williams, Steve Goble, SC Bryce, Natan Meyer and many others saw publication there.

The magazine had been undergoing difficulties for quite some time, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before its closure was announced.

Pity though.

NOTHING IS EVER WASTED

I am, and always have been, something of a hoarder, particularly when it comes to stories. I have notebooks and folders and flash drives filled with vague scribblings and half-finished tales: some of the stories even less finished than that, comprising of little more than a couple of pages of frantic typing and less-than-sparkling prose.

Now and again, particularly when I find myself and the muse at loggerheads, I’ll go back to these unfinished tales and try to pick up the threads in an attempt to kick start my own imagination. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t (which leads me to believe that some of these stories simply don’t deserve to see the light of day).

The strangest thing though, is that they are, in some way, a chronicle of my current writing. The earliest of these scraps dates from about three years ago when I started, rather tentatively, to write again and it’s a sometimes fascinating – more often excruciating – thing to look through old stories and try to chart the path that lead from there to here (where ever here is, exactly).

Jane Yolen once spoke of the ‘writing muscle’ and how it needs to be exercised every day in order to stave off atrophy. Not every race needs to be a marathon, however, or every athletic pursuit lead to a gold medal – sometimes even the smallest piece of writing can help to stimulate the creative impulse and, of course, just because a character, concept, description or line of dialogue doesn’t work in one story does not mean that it cannot work in another. Robert E. Howard famously rewrote one of his unpublished King Kull tales (By This Axe I Rule) into the story that became The Phoenix On The Sword, the first Conan tale, for instance.

I suppose the whole point of this is that nothing is ever wasted or wasteful when it comes to the process of writing and that regular exercise of that mythical writing muscle can only make it stronger. Writing is a solitary pursuit, but one of the advantages of this is that no line, story or novel need necessarily see the light of day before its time.

Ah, so all those wasted hours weren't wasted after all.

EDWARD WOODWARD PASSES AWAY

The UK's Telegraph newpaper today reported the death of British actor Edward Woodward, aged 79.

Probably best known to horror/genre fans for the 1973 film The Wicker Man - widely regarded as one of the finest British horror movies ever made - also starring Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland.

His other well-known credits included the anti-Bond spy series Callan, the silly-but-fun 80's show The Equalizer and in the title role in Bruce Beresford's magnificent film Breaker Morant.

A full obiturary can be found here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/6581645/Edward-Woodward.html